Boston Marathon training week 5

January 30, 2019 0 By Stuart

It’s been cold the last week so there’s a lack of photos to accompany this week’s marathon training as I didn’t fancy stopping, or taking my gloves off. 11 more weeks training until the Boston (UK) marathon and this was planned to be the first week I do more than 40 miles of running

As usual Monday was a rest day, so rested hard.

Tuesday was meant to be a tempo-ish run into work, but the icy pavements meant that got scaled back. No ‘proper’ ice, but I could feel my feet sleeping on the frost enough that I was worried about stretching something.

Weights in the gym at lunchtime. Adding a bit on each session so the numbers for this trip were:

  • Squat – 5×5 @ 35kg
  • Bench Press – 5×5 @ 25kg
  • Deadlift – 5×5 @ 45kg

Wednesday was a longer steady run home along the usual route around Wollaton Park and then through Sandy Lane Nature Reserve. Proper chilly on the way back, but a beautiful light and a lot of the mud was still frozen so nice easy going rather than sliding everywhere

trail up to the ridge in Sandy Lane Nature reserve on a frosty afternoon
Sandy Lane Nature Reserve in the frost

Thursday was another run into work at a slightly faster pace (7:15 min per mile rather than my usual 8-8:30 min per mile)

Gym again at lunchtime, this time the number were

  • Squat – 5×5 @ 40kg
  • Overhead Press – 5×5 @ 20kg
  • Barbell Row – 5×5 @ 35kg
  • Deadlift – 5×5 @ 5kg

Shoulders still the weakest link there. Legs weren’t feeling it too much, but I was squatting 40kg with kettlebells before (uncomfortable holding 2)

Saturday was a 5 mile loop to warm up for sunday. Main highlight was taking some new running shoes out of the house for the first time. Realising I might need a new pain before the marathon I wanted to start breaking them in now to make sure there aren’t any problems. I’d plumped for some Brooks Ghost 11’s, just wanting to try a different style as I’ve been in Saucony’s for the last year.

Glad to report there weren’t any problems so these will get brought in for the longer runs at some point

New running shoes, brooks ghost 11s

Sunday as normal was long run day. Pretty much following last weeks long run I headed out along the trent towards Holme Pierrepont for a run around the rowing lake. Coming back down the side of the lake I realised I was going to be a few miles short if I just head back, so came out of the HP site and did a mile up the track towards Radcliffe-On-Trent, and then back to rejoing. Worked out as I hit the 18 mile mark near enough to home to give me a decent warm down walk back.

Headwind was a real pain on this one. But overall I kept a decent pace, didn’t feel too many aches or pains. Tried a different flavour of Bloks and they seemed to work as well. Didn’t drink very much water but that didn’t seem to be an issue, my waistpack isn’t the easiest to get the bottle out of as it’s really designed for off road running so keeps it a bit too tight.

Overall a good week. Run mileage for the week was:

MonTueWedThuFriSatSunTotal
4.28.54.25.318.140.6

No really pain during the week. In fact calves seemed less tight than normal, guessing they’re getting used to things now. Fingers crossed there’s nothing hiding underneath all of that

Next week I go past 20 miles for the long run, so need to think of where to run for that!