Sub-45 Here I come.

[bmclough]

I must admit I was a bit disappointed as I was thinking how am I going to maintain a faster pace for 10k. Yesterday though as I bounced around on the easy run and realised my legs were not overly tired and recovered well I cheered up and thought "I am just starting the second cycle now too so I know that it could be another 3-6 weeks of hard labour before things start getting easier".

On to Cycle 2

This cycle is going to have a few kinks in it unfortunately due to race dates and a weekend away. Not sure how to schedule things but I will give you the details.

I can train up to the 2nd rest day (11) as normal.
Day 12,13 I am on hols.
Day 16 I have a XC 5k with friends I need to do (this could be the paced run as it is 6 days before the 10k).

and then my 10k is on March 17th which is the Tuesday after the end of cycle.

Hope this makes sense?

[TheEd]

bm .. the most important training sessions you will get in and that takes place from the 2000's and including the 1000's

once you get that in you are on the right platform and then we can juggle things around

The XC 5k can be done as you feel

and then towards the race .. the idea here is to simply look after yourself in this week

if you want you can do a 3 x 1k paced with 3 min easy in-between on the Thursday before racing on the Tuesday

the 1k paced is at 5 to 10 seconds faster than the pace you would want to race at the 10k

balance yourself and roll into the Tuesday by doing the sessions from the schedule in reverse from the Tuesday .. so Rest on Monday before event and fartlek on the Sunday .. 6 x 1 min at 10k pace with 1 minute easy .. don't run too fast here .. with experience you will better understand this session

Hope this makes sense?

TheEd

[bmclough]

I think I have you :whistle:

I will of course probably need confirmation on a few of the days as things get closer to the race.

2k's this week (last time around was 4:45 pace so I will try and dip to the sub 4:40's this time out and see what happens).

[bmclough]

Week went grand up to the 2k session here is that session details. I had no HR monitor which means the data is not as useful.

Rests were 2 mins.

The rep times were 9:20, 9:18, 9:18, 9:17

This is my best 2k rep performance to date and the consistency was there.
The 3rd one was tougher than the 4th one for some reason :confused:

[TheEd]

you getting there and I believe if you stick to things and go through the various cycles you should certainly move to a new level

Keep up the good work

TheEd

:mrburns:

[bmclough]

Thanks enjoying my rest day today although the legs are not bad at all and I remember last year before my lay-off. The 2k session used to blow me apart and I was not even averaging 9:30's.

Anyhow I had a look at my schedule and with personal commitments etc. I have had to make some changes.

My first 10k will now be on April 6th which allows me this cycle plus one more to get there which fingers crossed should set me up for a PB. I then have a few more 10k options in April and May. The second half of this 10k has some hills though.

Between now and April 6th I will run 2 XC races

5k on March 11th and 4 mile on 21st March and I will try and fit these into the program.

[TheEd]

good stuff B .. ask questions about adapting for fitting races in as the program shouldn't be changed between the 2k's and until and including the 1000's

this is the most important period of the program ... training wise

Thanks

TheEd

[bmclough]

Beginning to understand that now.

For Saturdays long run how easy should I go? I sometimes get a bit concerned about the pace of this run as I would love to be knocking of 10+ miles in this session but if I go really easy then it will be less.
Some of my mates who train and race with me who are about the same stage as me would run these harder than I have done to date.

Should I keep HR below 150. How important is it to go easy here?

[TheEd]

B .. as you develop you can focus on running the long run quicker

once you get through a cycle of where you cope with both the 2000's and the 1000's you can then focus on the pace of the long run

and once you adapt to that you can focus on the next set of runs

so for now, don't worry about the long run however in the next cycle you can look towards increasing the pace of the long run so you can start getting the confidence gained from a long run

I hope this helps

TheEd

[bmclough]

Thanks TheEd,

Long run was 10 miles in 1:35 followed by 5k recovery run in 31 mins to follow. Similar run to this again this evening and then the 1k's