Having made the decision to "go ultra", this week the training started.
I never fail to be impressed at the amazing level of support you can get from social networking. On twitter I have been able to get advice and support form lots of amazing people. Some are professional runners and athletes and others are keen amateurs, but as I've always found with runners, it's an inclusive sport.
From words of praise and support to lengthy technical advice, with the help of these great people, I have got the confidence and the plan to get ultra fit by next summer and Marathon ready in April.
I've had to reassess my goals along the way, all for the best. There is now no point in me leaving the marathon training for next year. My marathon in April means I could start to train in the new-year, but by July I need to be able to do 70 miles, so the marathon in MK has become a training run along the way. The best news is that I have the chance to run with my brother in MK now. He's a great guy who got me into the sport in the first place and for this and so many other things I will be eternally grateful.
So the goals have become:
a) Be running 40 miles p/w by January.
b) Finish MK Marathon in April in sub 4 hours.
c) Be running 50 miles per week by April.
d) Complete 70 mile ultramarathon in July (I'm not putting any time limit on that one).
So this week was a 27.5 mile week, including a 13.2 mile road run in my new Brooks Gelatine trainers, a 6 mile trail run in Trailgoves and an early morning 8.3 miler. These are all runs I have done before, but I have taken a new approach to them.
What has changed is the training methods I'm using. After listening to an interview with an amazing ultra runner called Lee McKinley, I have started using the HRM on my Garmin to set an upper limit for my heart rate. If during the run I reach that limit I slow my pace/effort to bring it down to my target. I have used the target of 75% of my max HRM which is 150bpm. Using an external measure of your effort (hrm) rather than "how you feel" means you never start too fast it push too hard, important as the distances increase. The trade off for losing a small amount of pace is a massive increase in stamina. To give an idea of the benefits of this method, I ran a half marathon yesterday in 1:49:37, only four minutes off my PB and with the strength in my legs to keep going a lot further if I had to.
As the distances increase I'll consider dropping this to 140 bpm, but as a method for increasing distance and stamina it's second to none.
Once again running has surprised me with how good it makes you feel and how you can improve with effort. And runners have impressed me with huge levels of support along the way.
I never fail to be impressed at the amazing level of support you can get from social networking. On twitter I have been able to get advice and support form lots of amazing people. Some are professional runners and athletes and others are keen amateurs, but as I've always found with runners, it's an inclusive sport.
From words of praise and support to lengthy technical advice, with the help of these great people, I have got the confidence and the plan to get ultra fit by next summer and Marathon ready in April.
I've had to reassess my goals along the way, all for the best. There is now no point in me leaving the marathon training for next year. My marathon in April means I could start to train in the new-year, but by July I need to be able to do 70 miles, so the marathon in MK has become a training run along the way. The best news is that I have the chance to run with my brother in MK now. He's a great guy who got me into the sport in the first place and for this and so many other things I will be eternally grateful.So the goals have become:
a) Be running 40 miles p/w by January.
b) Finish MK Marathon in April in sub 4 hours.
c) Be running 50 miles per week by April.
d) Complete 70 mile ultramarathon in July (I'm not putting any time limit on that one).
So this week was a 27.5 mile week, including a 13.2 mile road run in my new Brooks Gelatine trainers, a 6 mile trail run in Trailgoves and an early morning 8.3 miler. These are all runs I have done before, but I have taken a new approach to them.
What has changed is the training methods I'm using. After listening to an interview with an amazing ultra runner called Lee McKinley, I have started using the HRM on my Garmin to set an upper limit for my heart rate. If during the run I reach that limit I slow my pace/effort to bring it down to my target. I have used the target of 75% of my max HRM which is 150bpm. Using an external measure of your effort (hrm) rather than "how you feel" means you never start too fast it push too hard, important as the distances increase. The trade off for losing a small amount of pace is a massive increase in stamina. To give an idea of the benefits of this method, I ran a half marathon yesterday in 1:49:37, only four minutes off my PB and with the strength in my legs to keep going a lot further if I had to.
As the distances increase I'll consider dropping this to 140 bpm, but as a method for increasing distance and stamina it's second to none.
Once again running has surprised me with how good it makes you feel and how you can improve with effort. And runners have impressed me with huge levels of support along the way.
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