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London Marathon Training – Week 16

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And now, the end is near………

I’m writing this after completing my final London Marathon training run. 945 miles of running so far this year (I’m sure that is more than I have driven), injuries, lack of confidence and now feeling stuffed with all of the carbohydrates I’m consuming; why do we do it to ourselves?

Because we love running and want to push ourselves that little bit further? Or are we just fools as my wife likes to put it?

 

On Monday I ran 6 miles, including 3 miles at my marathon pace heart rate. The MP miles averaged 6.30 pace and my legs felt spritely after less running recently. It was a good run.

 

Tuesday was similar, with a 5 mile run with 3 miles at marathon pace heart rate. This time the MP miles averaged 6.28 pace. Now these two runs suddenly get you thinking that is this pace sustainable for the whole marathon as my HR was actually lower than usual for marathons. My answer is a cautious ‘no’. With my missed runs and leg issues I think it would be dangerous for me to start out at anything quicker than 6.40 pace. If I still feel good at 18-20 miles then it gives me something to push on from, but starting quicker than 6.30 pace leaves me open to a whole world of pain in the latter miles.

 

Wednesday was a single Running Buddy session of 5.01 miles at an easy effort around Knighton Park, further helping my legs taper. It was my client’s furthest run for over 3 years so a successful session for both of us.

 

Thursday was a planned rest day. I was finding the hardest part of my taper was consuming the necessary carbohydrates. I work on a basis of 10g of carbs per kg of bodyweight. Most people would think that this is bliss, being able to eat loads of extra carbs, but as a 70kg male, it is really hard to consume 700grms of carbs each day. I have to make up my carbs with fruit juice and sports drink. By the end of the day I was stuffed and uncomfortable.

 

Friday has been a double day, as I ran a 5 mile Running Buddy session first thing followed later in the morning by my final training run. I ran for 5.30 minutes at a steady pace before running 1 mile at my marathon pace heart rate. This came out at 6.10 pace (totally unrealistic for 26.2 miles). I finished with 5.20 minutes of easy running. Once again my legs felt spritely, even though I felt sluggish due to too much food (I stop carb loading at Saturday lunchtime so that I have digested everything by the start of the race).

 

And that is it. My next run will be around the Good For Age start on Blackheath Common on Sunday morning. I am not sure if I would class myself as ready, but there is nothing more I can do physically or mentally to make any difference now. I have had the most disjointed build up to any of my previous 10 marathons, which has messed around with my confidence as I don’t know how my leg is going to react to the distance and I don’t know what pace is sensible.

 

But, I have no choice now but to get on with it, and as my main target now is to run under 3-hours again (personal pride only) I will set off at about 6.45 pace and then revaluate at around 16-18 miles (unless that feels unsustainable). I want to enjoy it, but as my leg still isn’t 100% and I have a few twinges every now and then, I have resigned myself to a potentially sore run, but I cannot honestly defer my place as it is not that bad.

 

‘Que sera’ as they say!

 

Week 16 Totals: 23.7 miles covered over 5 runs, loads of stretching, rolling and sitting on hockey balls.

 

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London Marathon Training – Week 14

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Madness, madness, they call it madness!

It’s taper time for most people doing London Marathon. However, as I’ve not ran much recently week 14 was all about trying to restore a bit of my fragile running confidence after 5 days of not running and cycling instead.

 

Monday morning started with a 2 mile run/walk session with my wife and then a 4 mile easy effort run and my left leg felt ok. It still didn’t feel 100% but it wasn’t sore. I had a further physio session at Function Jigsaw, a bit more manipulation of my foot and shin and given a few more exercises to do. I then walked another 2 miles with my wife in the evening.

 

Tuesday was a double day with the first run a 5.7 mile Running Buddy session around Knighton Park. Things were looking up as my leg still felt ok. Could this period of cycling have been the corner turned?

The second run of the day was the Wigston Phoenix evening club run. The answer to my previous question was ‘no’! Within the first 100 metres my left leg had gone back to feeling how it had done the previous few weeks. It felt sore to land, with soreness in my foot, shin and calf areas. The only time it felt ok was, once again, running at a faster pace than usual when we did hill reps. The evening run was 10.7 miles giving a daily total of 16.4 miles.

 

Wednesday began with a Running Buddy session of 3.7 miles. My left leg (sorry to keep going on about it) felt better than on the club run, but still not right.

The evening was another Running Buddy session with a new client who wanted some pushing doing his speed training. We ran a total of 3 miles, including 20 x 30 secs of fast paced efforts, and as these came out faster than my normal running pace, my leg felt quite comfortable.

 

Thursday was a 2 mile run/walk with my wife followed by the club speed/hills session at Victoria Park in the evening.

My leg felt good running at pace so I pushed hard, trying to get some form of training effect for myself. As it felt worse when walking or doing slow recoveries I took less rest on some of the reps than others and also ran some extra reps if I had the chance. The session, for me, totalled 6 miles.

 

Friday was made up of just one run. This was the monthly We Run LE1 run around Victoria Park and into the city centre before looping back to the park. I really enjoy these as they are good social runs for people that want to run 5 miles but aren’t bothered about it not being a timed event. I paced the 10.00m/m group (rather badly as we ran at an average of 9.30 pace – although everyone was happy at that pace and we were nowhere near the actual 9.30 pace group). My leg could only be described as ‘inconsistent’. It would be fine for 10 minutes or so, then the soreness would arrive for a bit, then it would disappear again. Frustrating!

 

Saturday was a make or break day for my confidence. I was toying with the idea of either a 20 mile run with 10 miles at potential marathon pace or 16 miles with the first 14 miles at marathon pace. Both challenging runs that would give confidence if they went well, but had the chance to destroy my mind if they went badly. I set off and in the first mile I was running at 7.00 pace and my leg felt ok. This made my mind up to run the 16 mile version of my run as running at around marathon pace actually feels better than my easy pace.

I pushed on after the first mile and although the marathon pace miles were not easy, they were sustainable. The first 14 miles were run at an average pace of 6.44m/m while my HR was about 5BPM lower than my last few marathons. I also hadn’t eaten since I ran on Friday night and didn’t use any fuel during the run.

This was the confidence booster that I needed. My legs felt fine towards the end of the run and there was no soreness for the rest of the day. I don’t understand what is going on with my leg and why it isn’t consistent. However, if it feels good running at marathon pace then I will take that.

 

Sunday was a very energetic day. I did another run/walk session with my wife, immediately followed by tail-running (walking) at Aylestone Junior parkrun.

As soon as this was over it was out to cycle with a few people from Wigston Phoenix running club. We heading out the long way to Café Ventoux, enjoyed a nice coffee and food (two cakes in my case) and then headed back. As this is the end of my last hard week, I pushed hard on the uphills and in some cases, went back down halfway to do them twice! It was a gloriously sunny day and showed the beauty of the Leicestershire countryside. The ride was about 39 miles in total.

Once home it was no let up. I was straight into the garden to mow the lawn before continuing to build some raised beds out of railway sleepers. This entailed digging out half of the existing beds, lifting 4 x 55kg sleepers into place and then replacing the soil. I finished with helping to pot some new plants, before deciding, at 5pm, that I needed to stop and rest.

 

Week 14 has, once again, been a roller-coaster of a week. Continued soreness but a confidence boosting run that makes me think that the final two weeks of tapering are not going to be particularly pleasant. I do believe though, that sub-3 hours is still achievable at London and hopefully a bit quicker if all feels ok on the day. Then it will be a bit of rest to finally try to sort out the problem.

 

Week 14 Totals: 60.4 miles covered over 11 runs, 39.1 miles of cycling, 2 miles of walking, plus 1 strength session and loads of stretching, rolling and sitting on hockey balls.

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London Marathon Training – Week 12

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Week 12 began in a buoyant mood after my confidence-boosting run at the Ashby 20, but the week itself was full of ups and downs!

 

Monday morning started with a 3.3 mile Running Buddy session with a Personal Training client. This was his third run with me and he managed to knock 30 seconds off his previous best. I decided that an easy day was in order after Ashby 20 and while my muscles felt absolutely fine, my left leg was still being a bit weird with the nerve issue I am suffering.

 

Tuesday was a testing triple-run day. First of all, I ran 4 easy effort miles to see how my left leg was feeling. As it has been recently, running at an easy pace made it feel sore. Next, I ran a Running Buddy session with a Personal Training client. She wanted a hilly run to build leg strength and give her confidence for upcoming league races. Weirdly, my leg felt fine with the 5 miles of hills that we ran!

My evening run was with Wigston Phoenix, running their Victoria Park route. I ran a mile to the club and then set off into Oadby and down London Road. At this point I ran with Colin at a faster pace and my left leg niggles eased as the next 5 miles were at an average of 6.40 pace. Once slowing down towards the end and then running home, my niggles returned and mentally it was tough. The club run totalled 10 miles, making 19 miles for the day.

 

Wednesday was a planned rest day and so I spent an hour doing weights and core work, plus loads of rolling and stretching.

 

Thursday was a sensible day of just one run. I decided to go for quality and not quantity so ditched my easy morning run for another leg strengthening and core session and decided my only run of the day would be the club speed/hills session. I drove down to Victoria Park early and started on the Peace Walk hill reps. I totalled 23 uphill reps before starting on the rest of the speedwork with the club. My session totalled 9.7 miles and once again, at the faster end, my leg felt fine and strong.

 

Friday was an easier day for me as my only run was part of a coaching session, running to a flat stretch of road and then running some 20 second sprints to develop her leg speed. After running back home again I’d totalled 2.5 miles, which felt plenty after last night’s faster stuff.

 

Saturday was to be my ‘time on feet’ long slow run. I always hate this run as I get bored doing a long run all at an easy pace and I was dreading this one as running at an easy pace hasn’t been good for my leg. However, it had to be attempted so I set out at 6.30am with the intention of aiming for about 23 miles or a maximum of 3 hours. This run is designed to give you the confidence that you can run for your target time, but not for the full 26.2 miles as you are running at an easier effort. For the first 8-10 miles my left leg was sore and I felt as though I was not running fluently. Then the issues seemed to disappear. Either they miraculously had, or mentally I had got used to them and my mind had blocked it out. Either way, I ran for 22 miles in 2:42 before finishing. I decided that I didn’t need the extra mile to give myself the confidence of completing London Marathon as I am now resigned to running for ‘fun’ and I’m confident that I can run under 3 hours with the training I have done so far.

 

Sunday was a planned non-running day. My wife and I decided to cycle down to our marshalling duties at Aylestone Junior parkrun. I was on my road bike and she was on her mountain bike. We were a bit early so we decided to add on an extra mile along Welford Road. However, as soon as we got by the turning to the parkrun, I punctured on a really poor stretch of road surface. To ensure we got to parkrun on time I walked my bike the rest of the way there, found the holes in the tube and prepared to fix them. The only problem was that, while I carry a repair kit even on these shorter rides, the glue had run out! After volunteering, I dashed back home on my wife’s bike to get the car to drive back to collect my bike. It was a bit of extra exercise!

 

Well I’m not sure how to describe this week. Slowly stuff aggravates my left leg. Faster stuff feels fine, but I can’t run that fast for the whole marathon (or at least I don’t think I can). So I am still in a place where my left leg is not right but it is not stopping me from running. I now feel resigned that I am going to be in discomfort for the last 4 weeks of training and then rest afterwards.

 

Week 12 Totals: 57 miles covered over 7 runs, 7 miles of cycling, plus 2 strength sessions and loads of stretching, rolling and sitting on hockey balls.

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Martin Hulbert – Personal Trainer Leicester & Online Personal Trainer

 

 

London Marathon Training – Week 11

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Week 11 was the week I made a decision to be sensible, don’t chase mileage and try to do the important sessions (clients, speed, long run) and ditch some of the recovery miles. I need to get to London Marathon fit and able to run for 26.2 miles so I need to prioritise that for the short term. Thoughts of Equinox can wait until May.

 

Monday morning started with a 3 .3 mile Running Buddy session with a Personal Training client, the furthest he had ran in a year, which was pleasing for us both. I then had a Coaching client at lunchtime, a mixture of observing her running style, discussing changes and then practising. Luckily, with my left leg still sore, I didn’t have to run more than 400metres!

Next was to Function Jigsaw and back into their ‘electric bath’. Unlike last week, when the electric stimulus was getting blocked in my hip, I could finally feel a bit of a tingling in my left foot. It still isn’t as strong as my right leg, but definitely an improvement, meaning that the time spent with the roller, hockey ball and TENS machine was starting to work. I was then back at Function Jigsaw in the evening for a back strengthening class, in the hope that could help my left leg.

 

Tuesday was a short double day. I wanted to try a run on my own before running with the club in the evening so I did an easy effort 4 miles in the morning. My left leg felt no better than it had the week before which was a bit demoralising.

Tuesday evening was definitely a run of two halves! It was the Wigston Phoenix Linear Run, where we run out fast for 20 minutes, turn and run back in 25 minutes. Due to Leicester City playing at home we changed the route and headed along the ring road to London Road and towards Victoria Park. I ran hard from the start and was ahead as we turned onto the ring road. I know the pattern of the traffic lights so managed to get straight across and that was the last time I saw anyone. I pushed hard down London Road, managing not to get caught at any junctions and managed to get to Victoria Park Road as the clock hit 20 minutes (3.41 miles at average 5.53 pace). I was surprised that nobody had caught me, but also pleased. Usually when we do this run I start to pick people up about a mile into the back leg. However, I saw nobody, apart from other runners not connected to our club. My left leg started to get sore as I slowed the pace a bit, this in turn started to affect my mentality and by the time I was a mile from the finish and still hadn’t seen anyone I was grumpy and convinced I must have gone the wrong way!

 

Wednesday was a planned rest day and instead of doing the usual recovery run I spent the time doing leg and back strengthening exercises coupled with time on the TENS machine and hockey ball.

 

Thursday was a short double day. I ran an easy 4 miles and my left leg felt ‘freer’ than it had done recently, although my calf began to get sore again after about 2 miles. I was starting to get worried that I’m not going to get over this in time for Ashby 20 on Sunday or even London!

The evening brought the club speed/hills session around Victoria Park. I get there a bit early to do 5 reps of the Peace Walk hill before running back to meet the others. I then did another 6 with them as well as various other short sprints. Weirdly, (although it is becoming the norm) my left leg was fine while running at pace and then sore when recovering and walking. It is very frustrating as when my leg feels ok I am running at a pace that is not sustainable over any great distance.

 

Friday was a double day with clients. I ran 3.3 miles in the morning with a client, before taking another for a short sprints and hill session, racking up another 2.27 miles in the process. As on both of these runs I was slower than my usual pace, my left leg was sore!

 

Saturday was to be a rest day ahead of tomorrow’s Ashby 20, but I agreed to go to a session for visually impaired people who want to get into running. I was paired with the super-speedy Haseeb Ahmad and despite my nervousness of not wanting to injure him by saying the wrong thing (or worse, nothing at all) we managed to run for 1.5 miles around Brocks Hill Country Park without any mishaps.

 

Sunday was a big day for me. I’ve had disrupted training for the best part of the last month and as the Ashby 20 dawned I was unusually nervous for what I treat as a training run. I was concerned as 20 miles is a long way and it was 27th February when I last ran such a distance. There are also hills to contend with, plus it was a windy day. I knew that if my leg struggled I could stop at mile 10 and walk back, but I didn’t want to entertain that thought.   I started off further back than usual, to ensure that my plan to start off easy and get faster as the race progressed was not hindered by going off too fast. I had a loose plan in my mind, but as my left leg was a bit sore after 3 miles (better than usual but still not right) I decided not to increase the pace at 5 miles as I have done before.   I stuck at a fairly even pace for the first 10 miles (average 7.05 pace) before deciding that I wanted to push on and test my legs a bit further. By this time, my left leg had settled down as I couldn’t feel it much (not sure if that is a good thing to take from this)!

I upped the pace and immediately started to overtake everyone that was running an even paced race, or had started to slow down as fatigue set in. As the second lap progressed I continued to overtake people, running straight by them and onwards to the finish. It is this type of pacing in a training race that gives me great confidence as there is no better feeling than feeling fresh and passing people. At this point my left leg felt great and I felt fluid, even with the undulating countryside and the strong winds. The second 10 miles averaged 6.20 pace, with the last mile, which is mainly uphill, at 6.06 pace. In the last 10 miles not one person came passed me and I finished with an 8 minute negative split in 2:14.30. Afterwards, strangely, my leg felt ok. Probably better than while I was running the first half. I was very pleased with the way it held up over the distance and that my overall average pace of 6.44 a mile would give me a comfortable sub-3hr finish at London on a far easier course.

 

For now, my confidence has returned somewhat. I have two weeks left with long runs (23 & 20 respectively) before I start to taper and the overall mileage comes down. For now, it is a case of getting my left leg better day by day so that on 23rd April I am ready to go. It may not be a PB year, but another ‘fun’ sub-3hr marathon is back within reach!

 

Week 11 Totals: 53.2 miles covered over 10 runs, plus 2 strength sessions and loads of stretching, rolling and sitting on hockey balls.

Want to know more about running, personal training or nutrition?

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Martin Hulbert – Personal Trainer Leicester & Online Personal Trainer

 

 

London Marathon Training – Week 8

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Week 8 was mainly front-loaded and managing my niggling calf that started better than last week but still not right.

 

Monday started really well with a 10 mile fartlek run. This included the first 4 miles being run progressively, followed by 3 x short steep hill sprints and a fast mile before a couple more hill sprints on the way home.

 

Tuesday was another long double day, comprising of an easy 10 miler in the morning and then an 11.6 mile run, mainly with Wigston Phoenix and with a few faster miles in the middle. My calf held up well although I had a few weird twinges at the start of the evening run.

 

Wednesday was just an easy effort 4 mile recovery run with my calf feeling a little better than last night.

 

Thursday morning was an 8.2 mile easy effort run. Now, when I say easy effort, what I mean is that it would have been easy had Storm Doris not decided to get involved. As well as the strong winds, which never actually seemed to be behind me, there was the driving rain and dodging twigs and flying debris. Thursday evenings run was a speed/hills session with Wigston Phoenix. I completed 15 reps of various hills at about 75% effort due to my calf still not being quite right.

 

Friday was my last run of the week due to a coaching course I was attending on Saturday and Sunday. I set off with two runs in mind. It was either going to be a 16 mile run with 6-8 miles at marathon pace or, if my calf didn’t feel right, a 4 mile recovery run. I knew from the start that the 16 miler probably wasn’t my wisest of ideas. I got to a mile away from home and decided to be sensible. There was no point in running for 4 miles and potentially making it worse so I ran home to limit it to 2 miles, knowing I had 2 days rest to come.

 

My calf may mean that I have to abandon my sub 2:45 ambitions, but I’d rather do that and be able to get to the start line than push on regardless and break myself.

 

Week 8 Totals: 52.1 miles covered over 7 runs, plus 2 strength sessions and some basic core exercises on my BOSU ball.

Want to know more about running, personal training or nutrition?

Do you want a personalised training plan?

Contact me today to ask any questions or to book your FREE consultation

Call me on 07815 044521 or email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com

Martin Hulbert – Personal Trainer Leicester & Online Personal Trainer

 

London Marathon Training – Week 7

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Week 7 was finally going to be my cutback week as my first six weeks had averaged 78.5 miles.

 

Monday started with a 3.1 mile walk with my wife, immediately followed by an 9 mile run with the first 7 miles ran progressively faster than the previous mile. I started at 7.35 pace and gradually quickened the through 7.25, 7.04, 6.49, 6.30 & 6.10 paces until mile 7 was down to 6.03 pace coming back up Welford Road towards Wigston. The final 2 miles were ran at an easy pace to aid recovery. I always find this run mentally challenging as I know going off too fast makes the last half really tough, but the last two miles are always hard as they are net uphill coming back towards Wigston. However, the recovery from this run is minimal as half is run quite easily paced.

 

Tuesday was far shorter than previous Tuesdays. I had a Running Buddy session in the morning, which was a tour of Wigston, trying to find every uphill possible for a good 5 mile hill session for my client. Tuesday evening was a shorter than normal run as I drove to the club and just did their run. This was a 6.6 mile route which ended up being faster than normal. My legs felt good as after the first 2 miles we averaged 6.41 for the next 2, then 6.12 for the last 2 miles. I would have expected this as the total of 11.6 miles is less than half of a normal Tuesday.

 

I awoke on Wednesday and walked 3.3 miles with my wife but developed a bit of a ‘pain’ in my left calf. I always suffer with tightness in my left calf and it is one of the indicators I use to know when I need to back off training. As this ‘pain’ was not muscular tightness, but more of a sore spot running down my leg between my shin and calf I thought it was best to rest and get a physio appointment. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get in to the physio until Thursday lunchtime.

 

Thursday was a second rest day as I awaited the physio appointment. It was also my wife’s birthday so today was always going to be a short easy day so missing a run wasn’t an issue. I went to Function Jigsaw and after explaining the issue, a bit of prodding, bending me around I was diagnosed with Tibialis Posterior inflammation. I was given stretches, told to roll my glutes and to use a hockey ball to get deeper in to the tissue to relieve some of the pressure (I hate sitting on hockey balls as they are more painful than the inflammation in my leg)! I was told I was ok to run on it if I could cope with the discomfort. I left Function Jigsaw much happier, knowing that it was not a game-changer in the scheme of the marathon or Equinox.

 

Friday was a 3rd non-running day in a row (I can’t remember the last time that happened). However, it was planned as my wife and I were off to London for the day. As usual, we stayed above ground and walked everywhere, managing to wander approximately 8-8.5 miles during the day. That also doesn’t include the time spent on feet wandering around the shops!

 

Saturday was back to reasonably normal. As this was a cutback week I decided to stick to my plan and ran 16 miles. This was broken down as 8 miles easy/steady, 6 miles at marathon pace and 2 miles easy to finish. My legs felt a little strange after no running for 3 days and a lot of time spent on feet in London the day before. However, as I got past the first 2 miles they started to settle down and feel normal again. The first 8 miles then flew by as I gradually got quicker from 7.15 pace for the first mile to 6.41 pace for mile 8. I then pushed on down Great Central Way, aiming for my heart rate to be around 150-155bpm as an average. The next 6 miles all averaged between 6.11 & 6.16 pace with an average HR between 151 to 154bpm. Absolutely spot on! I could feel it as I slowed down for the last 2 miles as running a 16 miler as a first run back after 3 days off was not ideal but, needs must!

 

I finished the week off on Sunday with an easy effort 4.5 miles on the way to volunteer at Aylestone Junior parkrun. As most of it was downhill, the pace was 7.00 average for the first 3 miles, even with my heart rate at under 130bpm.

 

Week 7 Totals: 41.2 miles covered over 5 runs, plus about 17 miles of walking, 2 strength sessions and some basic core exercises on my BOSU ball.

Want to know more about running, personal training or nutrition?

Do you want a personalised training plan?

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Call me on 07815 044521 or email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com

London Marathon Training – Week 5

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We are now moving in to the second quarter of London Marathon training and I had planned another high-mileage week, with two-thirds of the weekly mileage coming in two days. I’ll explain why further down!

 

Monday kicked off with a 3.3 mile walk with my wife and was immediately followed by a 6 mile easy run as I had a planned Running Buddy session late afternoon. However, he cancelled due to a niggly knee so it left me a little short of my planned mileage.

 

Tuesday was to be a long day with two medium-long runs and a Running Buddy session with a new client. I started with an easy 10-miler, followed two hours later by the Running Buddy session. This ended up as 3.8 miles of hill reps and flat sprints around Wigston. As with most clients, she surprised herself by how hard she can work when pushed and how much faster she can run than she thought. A very pleasing session for both of us. Tuesday finished with a 3 mile run to Wigston Phoenix Running Club, followed by their Linear Run. This consists of a half a mile warm up, then a 20 minute run down Welford Road from Wigston to the city centre, seeing how far you can get. You then have 25 minutes to get back (so at an easier pace). The theory is that everyone arrives back at the start point at the same time.

As I had already ran 17 miles by this point, my plan was to run the 20 minutes at Marathon Pace (6.15-ish pace) and then run back with others. However, as usual, everyone started tearing off down Welford Road and I was soon caught up with them. The 20 minutes averaged 5.57m/m and I managed to get to Fenwicks in the allotted time. My legs felt good all the way and I actually felt as though I still had another gear if needed. By the time I had ran home again this third run totalled 11.57 miles, giving a grand total of 25.4 miles for the day.

 

Wednesday was a very easy day, with just a 4 mile recovery run at a very easy effort.

 

Due to Friday being my long run day for the week I kept Thursday to a one-run day. Before that, I decided to get back in to my garage with a heavy weights session. I really enjoy lifting weights but often do not have enough time between working and not wanting it to conflict with my running. After an hour of lifting various weights, working my whole upper body, I realised that it had been a while and I would ache in the morning. My one run of the day was the club speed/hills session at Victoria Park. As my legs now felt fresh I pushed hard on all reps and tried to do as many as possible in the time we were there. I managed a total of 6.5 miles and my legs could feel it by the end.

 

Friday was a bit of a ‘make it up as we go’ day. First of all it was a Running Buddy session which entailed a hills/speed session around Wigston. This totalled 5.5 miles and the reps were ran at a faster than comfortable effort.

As I had a night out planned for a friends birthday and had agreed to lead the 8.30m/m pacing group at We Run LE1 I decided to aim to run 17 miles and then lead the pacing group for a further 5 miles. I parked at Victoria Park and headed down New Walk to the canal and out through Abbey Park and Watermead Park. As the light was starting to fade I turned back at 8 miles. As I did, I upped the pace to aim for a few miles at 6.45m/m pace. However, I had managed to misjudge the light as not only was it getting to dusk, but it also got cloudier at the same time. This meant that I was having to concentrate more on the muddy towpath than I would have liked, whilst still trying to keep the pace fast. After a couple of miles I started to become a little disorientated with the darkness and unlit towpath. I tried to keep to my 6.45m/m pace but it started to feel harder after each mile. I started to slow down as I began to feel a little light-headed. I put this down to just four rounds of toast and a banana being eaten for lunch. I headed around Bede Park and the bottom end of Great Central Way before cutting through town, up New Walk and around Victoria Park to my car. That was at the 16 mile mark, but as I was early I drank a 500ml bottle of home-made sports drink and then did another lap of the park before joining the We Run LE1 runners.

I have to say that at this point I didn’t feel great. I felt light-headed and as though I was running through treacle, even though my heart rate was fine. I set off at the front of the We Run LE1 crowd, sharing the pacing with the other 8.30 group pacers down New Walk, around town and back again. I was trying to talk as much as possible and concentrate on my running form, trying to keep my brain working. Once back at Victoria Park, I said my goodbyes and left the group, heading across the park back to my car as the taxi to take me back into town gave me 30 minutes to get home, showered and changed. Once home, and after consuming a bar of chocolate and a cereal in record time, I started to feel a bit more normal again. So lesson learned; even in my 11th year of marathon training you can still get your fuelling all wrong!

 

Saturday was always planned as a rest day and that is what I did. It was my first rest day of the year and my last day off was also after a night out!

 

The week was finished with an easy effort 6 miler on Sunday. Nothing special and if anything, I felt a little sluggish after my rest day. Not an issue though as it means I can run further next week!

 

Week 5 Totals: 75.6 miles covered over 9 runs, plus 6 miles of walking, one strength session and some basic core exercises on my BOSU ball.

Want to know more about running, personal training or nutrition?

Do you want a personalised training plan?

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Call me on 07815 044521 or email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com

 

 

London Marathon Training – Week 4

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This was my first planned cutback week of the year, but as my wife was away for the week on business I thought I would take the opportunity of pushing on with the miles. My legs, although a bit tired, felt ok to continue through one more week of high mileage.

 

Monday became another double-run day as I had a new client who wanted me to run with him to kick-start his Half-marathon training. Therefore, I slowed down my morning run to an easy-effort 6 miles so I would be fresh for later. The Running Buddy run was far better than I expected. After Strava-stalking I thought that we would run for a maximum of 4 miles and I would throw some fartleks in to test his speed. However, while chatting along we managed 6 miles, including fartleks and finishing faster than we started. A very positive start to his training.

 

Tuesday was my long double-day, once again aiming for 20+ miles. My first run was 10.2 miles of easy effort running. My calf muscles had started to feel tired so I’d do extra rolling and stretching when I got home. I ran 4 miles, as usual, before the running club run. With my calf feeling better I decided to push the pace a little bit down Great Central Way and then back though South Wigston. My 21st mile of the day was 6.33, which I was very pleased with having followed a few miles at a similar pace earlier in the run.

 

I awoke on Wednesday with very tight calf muscles. I went out for a very easy 4 mile recovery run and whilst my legs felt better by the end of it, my calves were not quite right. Having the experience of knowing that my calves are my weak point and most likely muscle to injure, I called Function Jigsaw and was lucky enough to be seen by Lauren on Wednesday afternoon. I would like to say it was a nice massage, but being honest it was bloody sore. However, it was much needed and did loosened them off.

 

With my wife away, and her very kindly leaving her car with me as it was booked in for a service, Thursday was another day of four runs. As with last week, the garage tried to convince me that they could drop me home or lend me a courtesy car and just couldn’t understand why I would want to run home and back later on. An easy 4.5 mile run home felt very strange after my massage. My legs felt heavy and it took until halfway through the 4.2 miles back to the garage in the afternoon for them to feel almost back to normal again.

The third run of the day was the Next Running Group and the tenth and final week of their Couch to 5K plan. As they had ran 5k the previous week we embarked on another tour of Enderby. However, with my sense of navigation severely lacking and their sense of achievement growing by the minute, when we finally got back to the start point we had ran for 4 miles. Once again, massive congratulations all round as they finally realised that when I told them on week one that they would be able to run 5k by the end of week ten I wasn’t lying to them.

My final run of the day was the Wigston Phoenix speed session at Victoria Park. Running late due to the extra few minutes with Next, I was 15 minutes late by the time I caught up with everyone. I ran as hard as I could for the limited time left of the session and finished with some hard hill reps. Over the four runs of the day I had totalled 17.6 miles.

 

Friday was a definite recovery day. Just over 4 miles ran at a very easy effort and my legs started to feel normal again.

 

Saturday should have been 14 miles with 6 miles in the middle at Marathon Pace. However, waking with a thick head due to one too many beers at the running club awards presentation on Friday night, it was obvious that my run was not going to be the best. I got out and started with 4 easy miles but soon realised that my stomach was not going to play ball. Having my sensible head on and knowing that I didn’t need to chase mileage, I turned for home, changing the run into a 7 mile easy run.

 

I felt far better on Sunday morning so got up early and headed out for a 10 mile run, including the MP 6 miles I missed on Saturday. The pavements were icy but the roads were clear and I had them to myself. I ran the first 2 miles at a steady pace before pushing on aiming for a MP heart rate of around 150-155BPM. Sticking to this average, I managed the 6 miles at an average pace of 6.13. I was very pleased by this during the 2 cooldown miles to finish the run. Confidence boosted after Saturday’s aborted run.

 

Week 4 Totals: 78.2 miles covered over 12 runs, plus some basic core exercises on my BOSU ball.

 

Want to know more about running, personal training or nutrition?

Do you want a personalised training plan?

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How Easy is a ‘Sustainable’ Diet?

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Firstly, allow me to clarify the title:

Diet means the food that you consume on a daily and weekly basis. It does not mean banning or forbidding foods.

Sustainable means from now on, not just for the next 6 weeks.

 

To make your diet sustainable forever (and I do mean forever) you need to look at what you currently eat and probably (I’m sure if you are reading this you are looking for ideas) change a few things that you eat.

All ‘fad-diets’ do the same thing; they forbid certain foods or types of foods in order to reduce the amount of calories that you eat. The only (well not the only problem) is that as you are forbidding foods, you will miss them and that is not something that will be sustainable.

I believe that a reasonably easy way of looking at what you eat on a weekly basis is that I have set out below. Aim for:

70% of your weekly food consumption coming from whole/minimally processed foods (fruit, vegetables, lean meats, fish, brown rice, wholemeal pasta, etc) that you really enjoy

10% of your weekly food consumption coming from whole/minimally processed foods that you neither enjoy or dislike (neutral to taste)

10% of your weekly food consumption coming from ‘questionable/semi-junk foods’ that you like

10% of your weekly food consumption coming from anything else you love

 

It is better to be eating healthy food for 80% of the time, rather than cutting out the questionable and junk foods totally for a short time and then binging on them when you realise how much you miss them.

This allows you to factor in those meals out with family and friends, the odd packet of crisps or small bar of chocolate.

The biggest thing that you can do is just to cut down on your portion sizes. Just eat slightly less each meal, stick to the percentages above and, combined with some enjoyable exercise (yes there is fun enjoyable exercise for everyone) you will see a sensible and sustainable weight loss that you will be able to maintain for life.

Want to know more about running, personal training or nutrition?

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Motivation – Have You Got Your PERM in Place?

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As most of you will know, my core beliefs when it comes to health, fitness, weight loss and exercising are that whatever changes you are going to make in your life, they need to be sustainable. For a change to be sustainable you must have the correct reasons and motivation for making that change.

Now you may ask ‘What is the correct motivation for making a change in your life?’. This is where you need to know your goal or target. What do you want to achieve? When you know what you want to achieve you can then begin to work out what it will take to get there. These are the changes that you need to make in order to achieve your overall goal.

Just to go slightly off on a tangent for a minute; there are two types of motivations that we need to know about. These are Intrinsic and Extrinsic.

Intrinsic motivation is the self-desire to seek out new things and new challenges, to analyze one’s capacity, to observe and to gain knowledge. It is driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself, and exists within the individual rather than relying on external pressures or a desire for consideration. People are more likely to have intrinsic motivation if they

  • are interested in mastering something new, even though there is no reward at the end of it.
  • engage in a task willingly
  • attribute their results to factors under their own control, also known as autonomy of control
  • believe they have the skills to be effective agents in reaching their desired goals, also known as self-efficacy beliefs

Extrinsic motivation refers to the performance of an activity in order to attain a desired outcome and it is the opposite of intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation comes from influences outside of the individual. Common extrinsic motivations are:

  • rewards (prizes, exam results, personal best times) for showing the desired behaviour
  • the threat of punishment following failure/non-compliance

 

Competition is an extrinsic motivator because it encourages the performer to win or to beat a personal best, not simply to enjoy the intrinsic rewards of the activity.  So in order to achieve the extrinsic goal, you need to have an interest or self-belief in the activities you need to complete to get there.

With extrinsic motivation, the harder question to answer is where do people get the motivation to carry out and continue to push with towards their target.

 

Now back to where I got distracted with explaining motivation. You need to know your ‘why?’ for your original goal/target. If it is weight loss, ‘why’ do you want to get to your goal weight? ‘Why’ did you choose that weight? Is it the weight on the scale you crave or the look you had when you weighed that weight last?

In 2011 a psychologist, Martin Seligman, published the book ‘Flourish’. This included a model with five elements that if all are in place we have a great chance of making lasting changes and experiencing well-being. This model is the PERMA Model. The five key elements are:

 

P             Positive Emotions

E              Engagement

R             Relationships

M            Meaning

A             Accomplishments

 

Let me explain each one in relation to a healthier lifestyle.

P             Positive Emotions – This is often described as sensory pleasure. This could be tasty (nutritious) food, warm baths, being in a place you love (outdoors, gym)

E              Engagement – When we’re truly engaged in something, you we experience a state of flow: time seems to stop and we concentrate intensely on the present. This could be cooking your favourite healthy meal, a gym class or a run outdoors

R             Relationships – These are often the social ties between the extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. Think of the friends you have made through exercising or the strengthening family ties that follow fun outdoor activities

M            Meaning – This comes from us thinking that we are serving a bigger purpose than ourselves. This can range from being religious, to being part of a running club, gym or even Facebook groups.

A             Accomplishments – These are usually the extrinsic motivators (certainly previous ones). If you are reading this, the chances are you will have something in the future you want to accomplish. This could be weight loss, getting new running PBs, learning a new language, etc.   As these have an outcome at the end, they are the easiest to struggle with. This is where you need your PERM to be in place (no, not the 80’s hairstyle) to ensure that you have the intrinsic (internal) motivations in place to carry you through the days or weeks where things don’t go to plan.

 

So, to bring everything back together as this has been a little disjointed (sorry), you need to find your intrinsic motivation to achieve your extrinsic goal. This means that to get to your goal weight (for example):

  • you need to know why you want to get to that weight (Accomplishment)
  • what can you do that you enjoy and gives you positive emotions that will keep you on track (Positive Emotions & Engagement)
  • do you have the relationships, social groups and belief, or can you find them, to support you towards your goals (Relationships & Meaning)

If you can get all of these in place, you have a far better chance of not only reaching your goal, but also in sustaining a healthier lifestyle than you had previously. Sustainable progress needs to be enjoyable and fit in with your lifestyle or you will just find it to hard and not enjoy your new life.

Good luck and if you need any help, please contact me.

Want to know more about running, personal training or nutrition?

Do you want a personalised online training or nutrition plan?

Contact me today to ask any questions or to book your FREE consultation

Call me on 07815 044521 or email me at martinhulbertpt@gmail.com