Saturday 6 August 2011

the end of an easy week

Yesterday was the final day in an easy week's training.  Every four weeks I do about a third less training than usual.  This provides a welcome break for me both physically and mentally.

This week's training was:

day 1:  16 hill reps using Newall Carr Bank to the north of Otley.  Plus cycling, stretching and strength work
day 2:  nothing
day 3:  33 miles plus cycling and stretching
day 4:  cycling, stretching and strength work
day 5:  nothing
day 6:  speedwork (8 x 100m) plus stretching and strength work
day 7:  9 miles tempo run plus stretching and strength work

The speedwork on day 6 was my first such session in the lead up to next month's race.  Over the next few weeks I'll increase the number of repetitions from 8 to 20 or more.

The tempo run was particularly pleasing for me as the 9 mile route was basically the course of the Otley 10 (which is notably hilly - and breezy yesterday too).  Over the past few months I've gradually increased the distance of this training session and in the last three weeks I've been able to complete 9 hilly miles well under 7 minutes per mile ...

22 July ... 1h 02:34
28 July ... 1h 01:57
5 August ... 1h 00:34

This has been the final easy week, after three more weeks of normal training there'll be a week of crash training.  Basically this involves doubling everything for one week only.  That's hard but it's strategically placed  immediately before a three week taper leading up to the big race.

More news about crash training later but you can read about my previous periods of crash training by using the labels.

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