Less but more w.e 19/10/2014

Upping the pace feels like it’s leading somewhere positive.

I’ve dialled back the miles for a few weeks now since the Ladybower 35 and with the White Rose Ultra a couple of weeks away it’s been nice to just enjoy running to feel rather than monitoring the watch.

The long runs I was putting in before the Ladybower felt like they were working but left me short of recovery time and I seem to be incapable of going much above 60 miles a week without starting to feel like I’m breaking down so I’m just trying a few weeks of just enjoying running and I’m lucky to live here where the landscape is wonderful and it’s easy to get on the trails just running to work.

My approach for these last few weeks has been to work on shorter but significantly faster runs in the 6-9 mile range but at 7-7:30/mile pace mostly because I know in the White Rose the profile of the course consists of some serious climbing up the sides of the local valleys but offers some good opportunity to crank out some fast road and trail miles on the flat and downhill sections so I want to be more efficient in those sections running well under 8:00/mile pace during the ultra then recovering in the uphills.

I must say that friday’s 7.4 mile tempo run at 6:51/mile really pushed me but it’s nice to know that in my legs at least the speed running downhill in the low 5:00/mile pace range is easy and comfortable so I hope I last the 30 miles of the White Rose with no long runs since Ladybower but the plan is very much to make the most of flat and downhill speed.

Apart from that, I know the route has changed a little this year so I went as far as booking a day off to run the full route and recce the couple of changes but in the end my navigation on the Ambit wasn’t working right, then my strava signal went so I couldn’t track pace properly and I binned the run and went elsewhere although reccying the main part on the way to work the other day was good enough as I know the rest of the route.

Footwear wise, I keep pondering road shoes for the White Rose because there are large stretches of tarmac but I think the reality is that it’s probably not going to be dry or frozen enough to avoid mud on the route so looks like trail shoes will be the order of the day.

  • Monday – 13.5 miles
  • Tuesday – 5.5 miles
  • Wednesday – 10.2 miles
  • Thursday – 7.4 miles (Tempo)
  • Friday – Rest
  • Saturday – Rest
  • Sunday – 1.3 miles

Total: 37.9 miles, 3,159ft elevation.