Project Good For Age Week 10 of 30
Goal : Automatic Entry Into the London Marathon
How? : Run a 3:15 Mara @ Manchester Mara in April (Current PB 4:45)
First Step : Run a 45 Minute 10k @ Windmill 10k race on 12th November (achieved) (10k time at start of project : 58 mins) www.fyldecoastrunners.com/uploads/5/2/4/9/52490083/w10k3_overallresults_classic.pdf
Next Stop : Blackpool half mara in Feb – Target 1:37 (Current PB 1:58)
OMG.
After 8 weeks of intense training and living like a saint, I took an entire week off last week to ‘celebrate’
I treated myself to a whole 7 days of ‘rest” but stupidly, I also drank lots of Guinness, smoked cigarettes pretty much every day (i’d stayed off em for 8 weeks prior) and ate literally whatever I fancied whenever I fancied it.
Seriously guys.
Don’t do this.
Rest up by all means, but don’t do the other stuff.
Maintain the health kick.
I gets on the treadmill Monday and boy did I pay the price.
Here is what happened….
Monday – 5k ‘Speed’ Run on the mill.
So by race week I had built myself up to a situation where I could knock out 5k ‘on the mill’ in 21:30 (speed setting 14).
It took me 8 weeks of dedication in order to be able to do that.
8 weeks.
This weeks challenge was obvious.
Can I still knock out a 21:30 5k despite last weeks debaunchery?
More importantly, how would I feel whilst I was attempting to do it?
Very quickly, I got my answer.
I didn’t even get to the end of the first kilometre before instantly regretting last weeks schinanigans.
Whereas a couple of weeks ago it only began to get ‘challenging’ towards the end of the session, this time it felt ‘rock solid’ from the outset.
In race week I described this session as ‘tough but enjoyable’ however this time it was just plain tough and anything but enjoyable.
It felt like I was ‘forcing it’ from the beginning and throughout.
I shouldn’t have done it to be honest, I should have dropped down a few notches and worked back up.
Also, you know when you are in a gym environment and you sometimes feel like everyone is looking at you?.
Well, normally I would smile at them, give them a wave or a cheeky wink – it wouldn’t phase me at all.
That’s the kind of thing you do when you are feeling strong.
However, I’m sad to report that this week, I scowled at them with a ‘what the hell are you looking at?’ glare.
That’s the kind of thing you do when you are struggling.
And boy did I struggle.
I’m not surprised people were looking, even at 3k I was bright red and sweating buckets, My only surprise was that the guys who work at the gym didn’t come over and switch off the treadmill on ‘health and safety’ grounds (don’t worry I was wearing a HR monitor and was safe (ish)but you get my point)
Multiple times I wanted to stop. (and I haven’t felt like that before)
But I didn’t ‘stop’.
I kept going.
It was only due to the accountability of this blog and a brute force ‘iron will’ that I managed to hold on.
21:30 for the 5k once again, despite the debaunchery.
I had got away with it by the skin of my teeth however one thing was crystal from this session.
For the next 20 weeks I aint touching Guinness or any other alcohol for that matter.
I don’t care that’s its Christmas.
You can stick it.
As for fags.
Are you mad?
Diet?
From now on i’m following the diet of a Buddhist monk.
Just on the diet, on Friday I weighed 13/7 with 24% fat – only a pound higher than race week – I appear to have got away with that one too (although in fairness I have been watching my diet this week like a hawk)
Wednesday
Same again, 5k on the mill at speed setting 14 (21:30)
This time the first 2.5km felt a bit easier, but as I got past half way, I began to struggle once more.
3-4 were extremely tough,
4-5 I was holding on again.
The other thing that really unnerved me today was that my heart rate was way higher than it has ever been before.
You have got to remember that I am used to approaching training with a totally different mentality, indeed prior to this project, keeping my HR low whilst I trained has been one of the keys to my success.
Now I find myself doing the total opposite, pushing the HR in speed sessions and its all new to me.
Got to be honest, my HR during todays session ‘spooked’ me…
It spooked me enough to ‘google it’
This opened another can of worms….
Have you ever taken to google with the million dollar question about Heart rate training?
My head exploded.
It made me feel even more uncomfortable than what I already was.
One million different opinions, one million conflicting answers.
But who is right?
This has been stressing me out all week.
I have been doing loads of ‘digging’ about it and on Friday evening I finally got my answer.
All I would say on the matter is this…
One of the biggest things that I have learnt on my journey is to be very careful who’s opinion I listen to and the thing with the internet is, the entire world has an opinion.
But ask yourself the following question…..
Have any of them actually ever done what it is that you are trying to do?
I doubt it…
Let me ask you something…
What did we do before we had the internet?
Many moons ago if you wanted to ‘become enlightened’ you made a pilgrimage to the top of a mountain to seek the wisdom of a wise old man who lived in a cave, a fountain of all knowledge who would share with you his ‘great truths’.
Now that we find ourselves In the information age, those wise old men (who have already done what it is that you want to do) have long since been forgotten by many and replaced by ‘google’.
But Iron Rookie hasn’t forgotten about those legends that live at the top of the mountain.
And I know exactly where to find them.
So I made a pilgrimage….
What the ‘wise old man’ told me set my mind at ease on this subject once and for all….
Friday’s Session – exactly as above, 5k @ speed setting 14.
Fitness absolutely fascinates me.
All of a sudden, out of no-where, my strength appears to have returned.
In my 2 previous attempts at this earlier in the week, the ‘mill’ owned me.
Today, I owned the mill.
More importantly, My Heart rate stayed ‘in check’ throughout.
I don’t get it.
How can Fridays session be so different to the others?
It was almost as if the earlier 2 were some sort of ‘test’
But i’ll take it.
I’ll take it all day long.
Sitting here, sipping on a beetroot smoothie, happily typing away in the gym cafe straight after my sesh, I’m absolutely buzzing right now….
Rookie is back….
Sunday – 11k Run @ Target Race Pace www.strava.com/activities/1291677245
The big question today was this…
Do I go out into the freezing cold and the pissing rain and beat myself up attempting to hit my target race pace of 4:40 kilometres (which is something that I have never been able to do in any of my Sunday sessions so far except race day)
Or do I treat myself to the luxury of attempting to do it on ‘the mill?’
For me it was a very easy decision.
I went the gym, set the machine, and away we go.
The first few kilometres were easy peasy.
4-7 were somewhat challenging, but once I got into the final few, I felt stronger than ever.
I was totally happy with my HR and by the end of the run, I wasn’t even out of breath.
I feel certain that if I had gone out into the freezing cold and the pissing rain, I would have had a very different result, but today’s ‘mill’ session was precisely the tonic I needed.
I cant begin to tell you the psychological boost it has given me.
Yes, it was ‘only on a treadmill’.
And, as the world will tell you, being able to hit your target race pace for 11k on a treadmill is one thing, but being able to do it ‘in real life’ is something else…
You only need to ‘take to google’ to discover millions of people saying that….
Next update: 3/12/17 – December already?
To your amazing journey!
By the way, I have written a book, it’s all about how I went from zero fitness to completing an Ironman triathlon, it’s only just come out but it has got some fantastic reviews already!- you can check them out here: (also available on Amazon in the US but please read the UK reviews first!)
