Marathon training - Week 5

Week 5 already and still the main emphasis is on speed while the mileage on individual runs is relatively low.

Last Saturday I managed to bag a 5K PB at my local parkrun which I was really chuffed with and finished 24th overall out of 169 runners, 3rd in my age group. So there may be some life left in this old dog after all! But let me tell you, it hurt, real bad, I'd rather be at Mile 22 in a marathon! 

22 minutes running at full capacity is a killer but when the pains gone and the results are in, it's very rewarding.

With exception to two of the runs above, all the rest of my running has been faster than marathon pace which I'm finding to be beneficial on the longer slower runs. On the 11 miles last Sunday, I ran the first 3 miles slower than marathon pace, the next 5 I tried to keep at marathon pace to learn how this feels and the final 3, faster than marathon pace to push myself when I'm feeling tired at the end of the run. Hopefully I can continue to do my long runs like this for a while but will probably struggle when I start hitting the big 18 -20 mile runs later in the schedule.

My Achilles are still causing some problems but I'm managing the injury well enough to being able to keep running. A combination of orthotics, eccentric heel stretches and ice cold soft drink cans are doing the trick! It's a little trick of mine I use at work where I keep two cans of drink in the fridge. After my runs I stuff them into the back of my socks where they ice my Achilles (Genius!) As long as I keep all this up (which I forget to do a lot of the time) then I seem to be keeping the injury at a manageable level.

My Orthotics to support my low arches and achilles support

Stretching everyday keeps the Physio away!

My 10.36 mile Sunday run was my first hilly run. I've not really been concentrating on hills this time round as my race in September is a nice flat one. Although I will add some hill training into the schedule for variety my main concentration at the moment is building fitness. But it was nice to get back on the trails for this run and run one of my favourite local routes, and despite not running this hilly route recently I found I coped quite well with some of the tough hills.

So it's so far so good, I'm really happy with how the training is going and despite the Achilles niggles it's onwards and upwards!