12 Weeks to Toral de los Vados 2005

[Riazor Blue]

Here we go then. Twelve weeks of hard training for this year’s marathon. Last year I seem to remember writing something about not running at this distance this year. I’ve written some rubbish over the last year and a half. I have, however, been asking myself why I want to put myself through this training. Why I intend to devote so much time to ‘training’. Since Toral de los Vados last year my ‘training’ has involved running because I enjoy it and maybe sticking in a faster session here and there in preparation for whatever race was coming up. Readers may also recall various training plans have come and gone, usually discarded after a week or two because I cannot be ‘arsed’ to follow them. The one thing that has stuck, and I do find really useful is the HRM.
For this marathon I was looking for a plan that was firstly, not too long and secondly didn’t mean running huge distances every week. I also wanted a plan that incorporated the use of my monitor. I looked at a few plans, but most seemed to be between sixteen and twenty-four weeks long. Far too long to be ‘forced’ to go running. This one I found is twelve weeks, with two speed sessions and one long run per week. There are of course other runs included, but the ‘quality’ is based on these sessions. I’m hill free in this plan aswell, as Toral is flat, it should not matter. The plan is not based on heart rate, but on 5km, 10km and marathon pace. Handily, I’ve worked out my corresponding heart rates for these distances, so I have made the conversions myself. Distances each week range from 64km to 96km.
My Intention is to post my schedule for the week every Monday, and we’ll see how I get on.

And to this week then: this is what I hope to do:

Monday: 6km @ 150 bpm
Tuesday: 8km @ 150 bpm
Wednesday: 3km warm up, 5 x 800m @ 185 bpm with 400m jog recoveries, 3km cool down.
Thursday: 8km @ 150 bpm
Friday: 3km warm up, 5km @ 180 bpm, 3km cool down.
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Vig-Bay ½ Marathon @ 170 bpm (marathon pace).

Sunday’s session is different as I’m in a race, but as I ran hard in Porriño, I’ll be taking it a bit easier than normal. I saw on some converter site that I should be able to run a marathon at 170 beats per minute, so I’ll see what sort of time that would give me in a half marathon. I have a couple more halves between now and Toral, so hopefully, I will be able to see some improvement.

Tuesday: As you can see, I failed miserably at the first hurdle - posting on Monday. Still, I've got two days done and dusted. A couple of pleasent trots along the Paseo Maritimo in the sunshine. Only 92 more days to go....

[Riazor Blue]

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself this evening. The 800 series went well this lunchtime. I had worked out that 10k pace is 24 seconds per 100 metres for me. After a gentle warm up running from the shop to the harbour wall I knocked off 5 x 800 metres in 3'09" , 3'09" , 3'10" , 3'07" and 3'09". My heart rate reached 185 BPM during the last repetition, but during the others, peaked at 181.

I was pleased with the session because it felt comfortable. I know that it's the first week, and in the first week everything should seem fairly easy, but confidence is confidence. The important thing is to stick to the plan. Like most runners I've a tendency for blind optimism and exaggerated belief in my abilities. I'll have to resist adding an extra kilometer here and there, or pushing that little bit harder in the speed sessions.

The first review will come on 8th May in Ferreirua, a half marathon I ran two years ago. That'll be a month from now, and I should see some improvement (fingers crossed).

8km on the Paseo Maritimo tomorrow, let's hope it's a sunny day.

[Bierzo Baggie]

This is our London Marathon RB!

OK, it’s a bit smaller (count on 400 or so running this year) but where else can you pluck cherries from the trees as you count off the kilometres?

And the free wine, cheese and chorizo party afterwards for all runners AND back-up teams is almost too good to be true.

At 8 o’clock on June 26th it’ll be the fifth time I enter the marathon of Toral de los Vados (and the fourth time I finish if I’m still there at 26 miles)....and in the meantime I’ll try and help you build up a bit of atmosphere....BOING-BOING BAGGIES BAGGIES BOING-BOING BAGGIES BAGGIES......

[Riazor Blue]

Hang on a mo... Monserrat Caballe hasn't even reached for the gargle solution yet. We've got another 18 points to win.

Ok, it's looking grim in South London and not so dark in the Black Country. time will tell.

[Riazor Blue]

After my tempo run on Friday, I awoke on Saturday with an aching right calf. Not too much of a problem except that Sunday was the Vig-Bay half marathon. I took a couple of ibuprofen first thing and took a tub of ‘hot rub’ to the shop with me. I spent the morning massaging the calf with the hot rub every two hours and by closing time, and after a couple more ibuprofens I could not feel the calf. Well, you know what I mean, I hope, it wasn’t hurting.

The race itself was fine. I had deciced to try out a pair of ‘Paula’ style long compression socks. ‘reduces uscle fatigue’ and ‘minimizes impact on achilles tendon’ said the blurb. I was curious to see how they would perform. The day was great for running, not too hot, sunny and with a breeze, my only complaint about the socks before the race started was that my calves would remain milky white like the the zone above the hem line of my short tights. I was imagining how silly I would look on the beach this year with an eight inch band of tan, from just below the knee to to half way up the thigh.

The race follows the coast road from Samil beach in Vigo to Baiona, making a short detour in Nigran to take in America Beach. The first eight or nine kilometers go uphill, then it’s flat or downhill for the rest. Given the conditions, and more importantly, how I felt, I decided to forget about the HRM and just run. I passed 5km in around 22 minutes, 10km in 43 minutes and 15 in around 1hour four minutes. We had water at 5km then cans of isotonic drink at 10, 15 & 20km. It’s good that race organizers are providing isotonic drinks these days, but water would have been nice aswell. The cans were awkward to drink from on the run and I had a very sticky hand and arm for the 2.5km between the drinks and the sponges.

As we came into Baiona at around 20km, Sampedro breezed passed (as he does… ) we had wished eachother luck at the start, but I had left him to do his own thing as this was his last biggie before Madrid. I didn’t have time to chat with him afterwards as I was on publicity duties (handing out fliers), so I do not know if he was happy with his run or not. Given his lack of training in Dublin, it wasn’t bad in my opinion. I chugged on to the finish in 1 hour 29 and 40 seconds on the official clock (1:29:07 on mine).

On the whole, this race gets better every year. The organization is spot on. Fruit, drinks, ‘roscon’ at the finish, the baggage is there waiting, and so are busses to the showers. The course is interesting, there’s a chance to run a good time etc, etc. I have read on some of the forums here that some people do not want to pay 6 pounds just to run. In my opinion, it’s they who are missing out on a great little race. Here’s looking forward to next year.

Two other details, one sad, one happy.

A Lugo runner, Alejandro López collapsed just after the start of the race. After receiving heart massage and mouth-to-mouth he was transferred to hospital where at the time of writing he remains in a coma. There but for the grace of god go all of us. I’m sure that all runners’ thoughts are with him and his family.

Good news now. Regular readers may remember that I have a photo of the finish of San Sebastian in 2003 by the side of my computer. I’m in frame, being beaten by a lady runner who happenes to be from Galicia. She’s beaten me in Vig-Bay last year, where she had to batle through some unsporting gents who wouldn’t let a female runner pass them, beat me in Ordes, and in a few other races aswell – but I beat her in Ferrol last December. I’ve mentioned her in various posts. Anyway, Isabel Sixto is her name and she’s obviously been training well as this year she finished in 1 hour 27 minutes, but more importantly, third lady overall. A huge, huge well done to her, and I’ll resign myself to eating her dust again in Arteixo in May.

By the way, the Paula socks actually work. I didn't even have a twinge in the calves after the race, nor Monday or Tuesday.