Week in review: A cold week of PB's! (2021 Week 6)

Welcome back to another post on my blog! This week the main theme has been the cold temperatures we’ve experienced. Thursday was the coldest day in the UK since 1995 (before I was born!) with -23ºC recorded up in Scotland. Thankfully it’s not been that cold for me, although I’ve still had consistent below-freezing conditions to deal with. Still, with a bit of flexibility I did manage to get all my runs done!

Thankfully this
melted by lunch!

Monday – 10k easy
There was a sense of déjà vu when I woke up on Monday morning. Just like 2 weeks ago there was a layer of snow that meant cycling wouldn’t be possible, and so instead I went out for my weekly 10km run. I could definitely feel the effects of last weekend’s long runs, with my right calf in particular feeling tight. This was therefore just a recovery run with the added bonus of enjoying the snow as I looped around town. Even better, I realised that although it was continuing to snow it was just warm enough that it was melting, which meant I could cycle in the afternoon. Riding my bike is a great way to recover from intense running periods, and so I was hoping that a couple of days cycling for work would have me feeling good for the bigger runs ahead.

Wednesday – 2.5 hours
As I’d hoped the cycling did the trick, and after a couple of days I was feeling back to 100%. So when some further unexpected snow came on Wednesday afternoon, I took the opportunity to go and do my longest run of the week. It’s rare that I do a long run in the afternoon as I just prefer running in the morning, but my 100 mile race will take close to 24 hours, so I need the practice of running at all times of day and night!

Because I hadn’t planned to be running, I also hadn’t yet prepared a route. Making it up as I went, I realised that with a bit of effort I could make it to the top of Beacon Hill in time to see the sunset. This was the 3rd time in 5 days I was at the top of the hill, each time in very different weather conditions! It was lovely to just spend a few minutes seeing the view across Loughborough as the sun slowly set. Several other people had the same idea, including a group of students who were socially distanced celebrating a 21st birthday. Although I’m fairly sure they’d driven to the top rather than ran!

With an hour to go it was then time to practice another area I usually ignore: night running. I did a couple of loops of some minor hills and then went into the woods, where it felt like I was the only person there. Thankfully the layer of the snow was reflecting the light from my head torch, meaning visibility was better than I expected. I expect to be running 20-30 miles in the dark during the SDW100, and have a few different lighting options to test over the next 4 months. Hopefully I can avoid tripping over any unseen obstacles, as well as the hallucinations which seem to be relatively common in ultraendurance events.

Considering how unplanned this run was, it was probably my favourite of the week! Not only was it a lot of fun, but I covered 16 miles and got to test myself in relatively unfamiliar conditions, with some great sights along the way.

Friday – interval run
Although the novelty of the snow was exciting for my long run, the icy paths are the exact opposite of what you need when doing an interval run. When running at a faster pace you’re already at greater risk of slipping due to the longer stride length, so it’s important to take extra care at this time of year and make sure your chosen route is safe. I was prepared to convert this into an easy run and not worry about the speed if necessary, but thankfully I found a route that would allow me to do ½ mile efforts.

You may have read last week that during my interval session I set a new 1km PB. At the same time I also incidentally beat my ½ mile PB, with a time of 2:46, so that was the target this time. Just like last week, I managed to destroy that at the very first attempt, with a time of 2:40. To improve by 6 seconds doesn’t happen often, so I’m very proud of this! Getting it first time did slightly lower my motivation for the rest of the session as I’d already achieved what I’d set out to do, but I still made it through all 6 reps with a good overall performance.

Last week I proposed 4 possible reasons why I’d made such an improvement: freshness, improved mental effort, caffeine, and improved physiology. The success this week essentially rules out the first 2 since I was no longer particularly fresh, and I wasn’t that mentally engaged as I just don’t like the cold! I did take another caffeine gel so that is likely still to be a factor, and hopefully I’m getting fitter as I progress through my training plan. I suppose the next step is to do a session without a caffeine gel and see if I can still improve – watch this space next week.

Sunday – 12 miles @ half-marathon tempo
Originally this year I was meant to be running a local half marathon at the end of February, with my target being to try and get under 90 minutes for the first time. I’ve therefore been doing occasional runs to practice sustaining the required pace of 6:51/mile. Unfortunately that race, like so many, has been cancelled, but I thought I’d do this last preparation run anyway.  

The plan was simple: after a 1 mile warm-up run 11 laps of my known 1 mile circuit, aiming to complete each mile in 6:45 or less. Doing laps of a road circuit isn’t the most exciting, but it’s a course I know very well. It has no major road crossings and no significant elevation, meaning it’s ideal when trying to keep a sustained pace. And because I must have done at least 200 laps of this course by now, it’s so familiar that I can just relax into a sort of trance, focussing on consistency rather than getting distracted.

Now this is the right way
to end a week!

After this run I’m even more disappointed that the race itself won’t be going ahead as I absolutely smashed it, with new personal bests over 10km, 15km and 10 miles!! After the warm-up I found a nice rhythm that meant although it was an uncomfortable pace and I could sense the exertion, I believed that I would be able to sustain it for a full half-marathon. The fact that 9 consecutive miles were between 6:40 and 6:43 shows that I wasn’t pushing myself beyond the limit, and in fact I was even able to find the energy for a true sprint finish with a 6:29 final mile! If I was to race a half-marathon I think I’d actually have a time of around 1:28, a big improvement from my 1:34 last February. But alas it’s not to be, so instead I’ll be looking for an appropriate race this autumn instead – hopefully I still have pace like I showed today!

Totals

Week – 39.7 miles
February – 89.9 miles
2021 – 278.7 miles

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear how your training was this week, and how you coped with the colder weather if you experienced it too. Next week should hopefully be a bit warmer, and see me back up to around 50 miles with another set of weekend long runs.
For more regular updates, you can follow me on Instagram @andrewsultrablog. Or to get more detail on my training, follow me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/5373701