Week 1 - Key Run Workout #2

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Another below par workout tonight. The FIRST Marathon Training Plan called for a 10-20 minute warm up - no problems here, followed by 3 x 1600m @ 5:33 pace with 60 seconds recovery between each repeat, followed by a 10 minute cool down. When I looked at the plan this morning I shuddered a bit at the 5:33 miles, especially when I reflected on Tuesday’s workout. It turned out my fears were justified…

As stated above, the warm up was fine. Temperatures were up in the mid to high 80’s but I was well hydrated and felt ok. I put in 3 or 4 80m strides to get my legs and lungs ready for the 1600m repeats and still felt fairly good.

The problems started about halfway through the first repeat. My heart rate climbed quite quickly and with the intense heat it felt like I was running inside an oven. After 4 laps on the track I was surprised to see a time of 5:28 (5 seconds too fast) and a heart rate of 178 beats per minute (far too high considering the 2 repeats still to come). No matter, after just over a minute’s recovery (plenty of water and a quick calf stretch), I set off again, but this time after just 400m I was struggling - very high heart rate and no way to keep my body temperature down. Rightly or wrongly I decided to finish the workout by running 400m repeats instead. There was no way I was going to be able to run the 1600’s at the pace required and I feared running myself into the ground.

Looking back, I made the right decision. I was able to maintain a fairly consistent pace for the 8 x 400m (between 1:26 and 1:29 per lap) which is one of the main principles of the FIRST Program. The repeats weren’t as fast as they should have been, but I have to take the heat into account and try to remain positive about the workout. It’s still early days in the 16 week plan and there’s plenty of time to settle in and set some standards.

All in all, not what I hoped for, but not a total disastor either. Oh for the cooler temperatures of Wales