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Yes indeed, the weekly mileage log is back.

It is not the most interesting thing to read, especially if you are not a runner, but it helps me as much as my readers to chart this stuff. This is the third week of my current 18 week training schedule all geared towards running all 4 events at the Bournemouth marathon festival.

Interestingly, I featured in an article about that challenge just recently, do have a read here: Bournemouth Runner Attempting Awesome Foursome

The schedule itself is a step-up from the first half of the year in volume of miles and is based upon a particular schedule laid out in the great book ‘Advanced Marathoning’ by Pfitzinger and Douglas. The first couple of weeks were a 55 and 58 mile week respectively. Both of those weeks also had lactate threshold sessions in, which feature again next week. They are like tempo runs where you run faster than marathon pace for sustained periods of time following a few miles already run.

As I mentioned a couple of blog entries ago, the general runs and recovery runs are run slower than I am used to. This is a very good learning for me. As I get used to additional mileage, my legs need to recover, so not going hard on those general runs is welcome for me. However, the faster sessions are harder than I am used to and so require plenty of recovery too. With the recovery runs, these are now run totally adhering to my heart rate and not to do with pace at all. I run those five mile recovery runs with a heart rate of less than 136 and the aim is to feel energised and upbeat after those runs, having plenty of oxygen in the system and mobilising plenty of that unwanted waste product from former exertions.

Here is last week’s mileage log anyway:

Mon: Rest/Cross Train
Tue: (General pace & speed intervals) 9m with 10 x 100m fast (with 100m recoveries)
Wed: (Medium run pace) 14m
Thu: (Recovery) 5m: <137 BPM
Fri: (Medium run pace) 11m
Sat: (Recovery) 5m: <137 BPM
Sun: (Long run pace) 18m: 5m warm-up, 5m @ MRP, 8m SLR pace.

You can look at my Garmin stats for that SUnday 18 miler, but every single one of runs is also public on Strava if you want to look.

It was a total of just over 64 miles last week. The biggest mileage week in a while for me and this will now gradually increase throughout the Summer except for recovery weeks when I’ll dip back down to 55-60 or so.

This particular schedule is a marathon only schedule really, but at the Bournemouth marathon festival, I am not expected to run a fast marathon, or achieve a PB following the other events I run before hand. However, when the Bournemouth challenge is over, I will be in some pretty good shape and have a running start for aiming at a Spring 2016 sub 3 hour marathon and I’ll know my way around the schedule by then too. My aim will be to take the next level up on the schedule (mileage reaching around 85 miles a week) to have one big roar at the marathon before I move on to some 50 and 100 milers in the latter half of 2016.

One thing I have noticed in the past week, is that if my runs are done any later than my usual 6am start time, it is pretty darn hot currently and I am sweating much more than usual. I swear this is how I see the local landscape currently:

Dunes of Sahara
With Wednesday’s being my second longest run, and one of the days that my wife attends her own bootcamp at a very early hour, so I have to do that longer run slightly later on in the day when the sun is up. It is great training – that is how I am framing it. But I have started craving the cool wind that I have so strongly admonished throughout Winter and Spring, I have had to start putting sun screen on and those electrolyte tablets have become essential. Plus, my t-shirt tan is getting topped up – that is, I look like a normal person until I take my t-shirt off and expose my incredibly pasty white body to the world.

My iliotibial band issues have vanished as a result of the physic’s advice: I have worked hard and continue to work hard on my core stability and a variety of glute exercises.

I am teaching in Manchester for two days now, so will be seeing some different scenery for a couple of this week’s runs. I’ll be back next week with more mileage logging and also I’ll start sharing with you some very exciting new projects here and sharing plenty new psychological applications to get your running performance advanced.

Until then, happy running.