A mini-challenge to round off 2012

I need a little something to finish off the year. There's a small marathon held annually in Richmond Park towards the end of November. I was asked if I wanted to run it, and I thought why the hell not. I've never run a marathon - I don't include the two Ironman shuffle-a-thons, they were all about getting to the end and not really worrying about how long it took. I haven't taken on a stand-alone marathon as a "runner". I should have a good base of fitness from this year's adventures, I'll be carrying some fatigue but I don't intend to thrash myself training, and there's still six and a half weeks until race day.

I looked up a 6-week marathon plan and adapted it to suit my needs. I've never prioritised running in my training before, so this is new. I've planned to increase duration consistently over the next few weeks, peaking with the longest run a fortnight ahead of race day. I'll aim to get my long runs done round Richmond Park to get used to the circuit again.

I'm estimating 25 minutes for parkruns. I can run them faster but I'm not sure I want to thrash myself every Saturday morning. So, the next seven weeks (I count a week as Monday to Sunday) look like this:

Week 1 (this week): 3 sessions, 2:55
Wed: 30m easy recovery run
Sat: parkrun
Sun: 2:00 Z1 Run

(Z1 = heart rate Zone 1, for me that's 151 BPM or lower, comfortable for a long run is under 145BPM)

Week 2: 4 sessions, 4:45
Wed: Run home from work (90m)
Fri: 30m easy run
Sat: parkrun
Sun: 2:20 Z1 Run

Week 3: 4 sessions, 5:35
Wed: Run home from work (90m)
Fri: 1:00 Z1 run
Sat: parkrun
Sun: 2:40 Z1 Run

Week 4: 5 sessions, 6:25
Tue: 30m easy run
Wed: Run home from work (90m)
Fri: 1:00 Z1 run
Sat: parkrun
Sun: 3:00 Z1 Run

Week 5: 5 sessions, 6:55
Tue: 1:00 easy run
Wed: Run home from work (90m)
Fri: 1:00 easy run
Sat: parkrun
Sun: 3:00 Z1 run

Week 6: 4 sessions, 4:25
Wed: Run home from work (90m)
Fri: 30m Z1 easy run
Sat: parkrun
Sun: 2:00 Z1 Run

Week 7: 5 sessions, 2:25 plus race
Tue: 30m easy run
Wed: 60m easy run
Thu: 30m easy run
Sat: parkrun (very easy, jog round, minimum of cycling)
Sun: RACE DAY!

In around this lot is some swimming, 4 mornings per week, and a little bit of cycling, but not a great deal. The focus is on good run sessions and effective recovery. According to a timing calculator I found online, given my half marathon time last weekend I should be able to hit a few seconds under 3:30 - this sounds like a seriously fast time and I'm not comfortable right now having something so aggressive as my target. I know I want to go under 4 hours, that's my minimum target, I'll wait until closer to the time to decide what my pacing is going to be. Let's see how it goes.

Aerobic capacity benchmark

Coach said a good way of tracking aerobic capacity during a training run was to warm up for a few km, pick a start and end point a good distance apart, and then run it whilst adjusting effort to remain within 5 bpm of the top of HR Zone 1. See how long it takes, and try exactly the same run in 6 weeks, and then again in another 6 weeks. If my aerobic capacity is improving (i.e. I'm getting more efficient) then I should find that despite keeping within the same HR boundaries, I should get quicker. 

Sounds like a blast, let's try it.

Every Sunday I've been running round Richmond Park (this morning by some mad coincidence I ran past Mr & Mrs PSH who I'd only met properly for the first time yesterday! See previous post for who they are). It's mainly flat(ish) with one minor uphill and a corresponding downhill a couple of km later. I decided to set off and do about 2/3 of a lap as warmup (HR well within Zone 1) then at the bottom of the hill step it up a bit, and run to the bottom of the uphill on the next lap. This should give a test period of about 45 minutes. I then have a further 2/3 or so to finish off well within Zone 1 again. That should be long enough to notice a change even if I only get slightly faster, but short enough that I can manage my heart rate carefully during the period.

With only a slight adjustment to starting point due to pressing all the buttons on my watch apart from the correct one, this is what happened:

Objective, adjust effort to maintain HR from 146 bpm to 151 bpm

It's surprisingly hard to manage your HR within such a tight boundary. I found that when it crept up, reducing it was easy (slow down a bit), but the tough bit was getting it to stay high enough on descents. I pretty much sprinted down one or two small hills - and then have to decelerate rapidly at the bottom or it keeps on rising. No chance to relax! Keep checking the watch!

"Lap 2" is the experimental period

So, despite the very (very) slow ascents, and near sprinted descents, I think this counts as a success - I was only out of the target range for a short time, and I adjusted pretty quickly every time.

So, 0:46:47.57 is the first data point. I've made a note in my diary to try this again in 6 weeks, and in fact another 6 times throughout the year at roughly 6 week intervals depending what else is scheduled.