Longrun Lessons Learned ...

My long run today was rather more tiring than I expected it to be, and a bit of a struggle to finish - not because I had any particular pain but because I could barely bear to pic my feet up by the end.  It wasn't as tough a run as the last long one - but can't say it was one of my favourite long runs ever!

Stats from GRG (as missed a bit of actual run distance off the Garmin version), although I think the last two miles went a bit weird - probably do an average over the last two rather than take the numbers too seriously!

Having thought about it I think there were probably two main reasons for this:

Pace

I think my biggest mistake lay in my pace: the RW plan I'm following suggested I should be aiming at 1:45 which equates to 10.30 min/mile pace. Now if I'd stuck at that I might have been fine.  However, instead I bombed off a wee touch faster, and had a sub-10 mile in there too. I know I'm gradually getting faster, but that's still 5k pace (or possibly 10k) ... not 10 miler.  It was only when I started getting to the 5th or 6th mile and my legs were distinctly tired that I realised I had probably pushed myself too hard!

No	miles	Time	Pace	AHR
1	0.999	10:13	10:14	153
2	1.034	10:12	9:52	176
3	1.009	10:00	9:55	177
4	0.989	09:53	10:00	180
5	1.006	09:38	9:35	181
6	1.015	10:59	10:49	181

Pace for the first 6 miles ... I should note that mile three was slightly cheaty in two ways: 1) I had to cross a busy road junction and had to keep stopping, and 2) I had a sneaky water break (which mean pausing to retrieve said water from my backpack and taking the opportunity to dry my glasses off while I was at it).

After mile 6, I took shelter in a bus stop to take my gel thing and a bit more water, but it was a bit of a struggle to get going again after and although my actual running pace looks fine from the stats, after the 7.5 mile mark I was taking far too many breaks.  I did get to 10 miles in the allotted time but this was set for people aiming for sub-4.30 and so I should have perhaps given myself a bit more lee-way, or tried to stick to the 10.30 pace that would have given me even splits.

Fuelling

Although I'm trying to be careful to make up for long runs with calories, I tend to do it on the day rather than fuelling up the night before.  This might be ok if I did my long runs in the evenings, but this morning I had a lovely but not hugely calorific breakfast of an egg on toast - which of course I ran off before I was even a quarter of the way in, and even taking on fuel didn't seem to help that much (although I might well have given up without it).

I thought back to my Cumbrae run, which although very painful I didn't have the same issues (and in fact wasn't particularly famished after either, which is unusual). But of course the night before, I'd been cooked a lovely three course meal  - of which I had small portions - but it was good food and not trash.  I guess I need to do some proper carb loading the night before now my runs are getting longer and longer and not leave everything to the day.  It's not like I don't have a good idea of how much I'll burn off per mile!

Hopefully lessons learned for next week!

Stopped off at the cafe in Cramond for Cullen Skink served with a wholemeal savoury scone (which was a nice idea, but they need some practise at making scones!), and a slice of Ecclefechan tart for pudding. I have to admit that once I'd cracked into the soup - which was rather potato and leek heavy and relatively low on the fish - I could have easily done without the pudding (or gone for something like a biscuit instead) but as I'd ordered it I thought I might as well crack on!

Did a bit of a long walk back to the further bus stop - not intentionally to burn more calories or as an additional cool down - but more because the nearer one had a 20 min wait and at least I kept a bit warmer by walking! Bus driver was very chatty (it's the end of the line so they hang around for 10-15 mins sometimes until they move off again), but it was nice to be in the warm and not having to run back!

Some stats ...

I decided to try and work out how many hours training I've done so far for this whole marathon business: partly so that when I go 'live' with the fundraising site for my church, I can encourage sponsors with how dedicated I've already been! Particularly impressed with January, given that I had a week off. 

Marathon training statistics so far ...

I was also quite pleased that my 'easy 5 mile run' from the RW training plan ended up being at the pace it suggests for my 10 miler on Saturday (which I'm planning to do to a favourite cafe - and more importantly a bus stop).  I'm not sure if it was the fartlek on Monday that helped me pick up my pace, or the fact I switched to Schubert Winterreise for my playlist - which is one of my favourite pieces of music ever (despite being rather later than I usually go for).

Stats from GRG as I had to guess the time for last half mile. VLM = 74 days to go!

Fartlek fun

Managed to squeeze my run into one of the few periods today when there wasn't a hail blizzard; in fact the weather could almost be classed as rather nice! My planned run, nicked from the RW sub-4.30 plan (more anon) was a 4 mile Fartlek divided into 1M jog, 2M Fartlek, 1M jog.  The first mile was fine, and I rather enjoyed the fartlek bit even if I did kinda over-do it a few times and have to have recovery walks rather than jogs.  The only real reason I cut off the last 1M jog in the end was that I had reached Morrisons and wanted to pick up a few items that I forgot on my shop on Friday. 

Now from what I've understood - fartlek is supposed to be 'speed play'(?); I'm sure the accumulated knowledge of the GRW will correct me if I'm wrong! What I was aiming for was briefish bursts of speed - either between two points, or sometimes when there was a string of lampposts, accelerating at every lamppost for a given number of posts.  I have no idea if this was technically the right way of going about it, but it was actually quite fun!

Knee was generally behaving: it made it's presence known a few times (mostly when flying downhill) but wasn't really painful - was also trying to keep an eye on my technique and see if I could work out what was making it say "oi" when it did - so hopefully I can keep that up on my next planned run and stay injury free.

Have tried to incorporate some of the speed work from the sub-4.30 plan into my marathon plan (although got a bit confused with my weeks when doing it).  I'm not actually planning to TRY to hit the sub-4.30 pace as I think that's rather too far ahead of where I am at the moment. However, I thought if I could take some of the speedwork/hill work exercises and maybe do walking recoveries etc on those runs if I feel too pushed, then I MIGHT break 5 hours?

Stats from Garmin site here (although I'm pretty sure I never did in fact manage 1.38 min/mile pace at any point!!!)

Fingers crossed anyway!

Patella collapso ...

As the GRW-ers know, I've had a week off from running this week for the sake of my knee (sorry Jantastic). I've been good, and trying to rest it, although I had to take the bandage off after a day or so because it was annoying me!

Buggered knee! This was the Sunday ...

My long run last weekend around the Isle of Cumbrae started well, even if I did have to head out in the dark at 7.30 to get it in before my big day of singing. Quite happily ran the first three miles, including some wee hills, and then paused briefly to remove a layer (at which point I was quite glad of the low population of the island, and the early start, because I had to strip right down to my sports-bra to get my long-sleeved top off!).  For no reason in particular that I could tell, when I started running again, my knee was niggling me a wee bit.

I should explain at this juncture that I damaged my left knee with a wonky triple-jump when I was at high school (no posh surfaces for us - rock hard field doesn't do a good job as a shock-absorber) and it's come back to haunt me every now and again ever since.  Usually when it starts niggling on a run, it does it for about half a mile, and then behaves itself again - so I really thought nothing too much of it and carried on. Paused again for a comfort break (not really needed but an excuse to stop an assess the knee) and with a bit of patella wiggling it seemed to be fine.

Alas - that wasn't the end of it - after about another 5 mins it started hurting properly! So I stopped - gave kneecap another wiggle and a bit of a massage and then plodded off again. It was going in spates of fine-painful-fine (especially painful when the camber of the road meant my left leg was lower than my right - something I have noticed to affect it before).  

When I finally got to the point of thinking I might just have to give up and hobble back,  I had a slight issue - I was halfway round. Now much as I enjoyed the views from running around a sparsely inhabited island, it did mean that there was no hope of public transport the way I had come - although a (very) slim chance of catching the ferry slip-Millport bus if I carried on my planned route.  I had my phone with me, but my host didn't have a car (and was unlikely to be awake). I'm not sure if the island has a taxi service or not, but I didn't have enough cash to pay them anyway.

I made the decision to carry on with my run-hobble-pause on the original route I had planned, and actually made decent time considering ... a couple of the middle miles are painfully slow (emphasis on the painful) and I have to say that the descent into Millport itself hurt quite a lot.  But having returned to my host's flat and climbed the 3 flights of stairs my knee felt stupidly ok. Not as it turned out completely better but more of that anon.

After this I decided to take at least a couple of days off running (even if it was going to mess up Jantastic) as I figured I'd started the marathon training so early that hopefully I wouldn't lose too much fitness and better to have my knee in good form rather than missing VLM ... especially as I've now admitted to relevant people for whom I'm planning to fund raise. A couple of days off has turned into pretty much a week - although I'm now beginning to miss it, so may run tonight or tomorrow if I can fit a short one in to test how my knee is going. It seemed fine this morning: it's been stiff or noticeably annoying the rest of the week, so fingers crossed it's back to normal for now. 

I also have to make the decision for Febulous as to how long my long-runs are going to be: I was (if you remember) planning to reconsider my training plan and maybe follow the RW one from now on ... I'll have to have a look at that and see how it fits into my planned races for the next couple of months.  Can't quite believe how far I've got with this whole training plan - even with the week of rest for my knee!

Route around Cumbrae here, with crazy stats (especially the very last 3/4 mile!). It is a beautiful island, and I would definitely recommend running around it if anyone gets the chance.

Panoramic view - must have taken it when I was de-layering at about 7.45 ...