D33 this weekend

It has been a while since I updated this blog. As this weekend is the first big run of the season (Dee33) it is a good time to reflect on the differences between what I planned to train and what I actually did train! Before Christmas I drew up a training plan to take me to the first race whilst minimising injury. It was a fairly sensible approach which I followed in January with the exception of skipping the longer runs. However, my knee was getting bad again and I was starting to doubt my ability to train for ultramarathons.

By Feburary I'd had enough of being sensible. I decided to have a "last hurrah" before throwing in the towel and increased the weekly mileage considerably (from 25 miles per week to 60). I also did a couple of 20 milers as well. Contrary to common sense, my knee slowly started to get better! On 21st Feb I switched to a Hadd training programme. Hadd is a high mileage plan goverened by very specific heart rate training. It has always appealed to me and has a dedicated following over on Fetch. This is my current weekly training (with % max heart rate):

Monday: 1hr @ 72% - recovery run
Tuesday: 1hr 15mins (1hr @ 82%)
Wednesday: 1hr @ 75%
Thursday: 1hr @ 78%
Friday: 1hr15mins (1hr @ 82%)
Saturday: 1hr (or longer) @ 72% - recovery run
Sunday:90-120 mins (or longer) @ 80%

I am now on week 4 of Hadd's plan and already feel a massive increase in fitness. I'd be confident of attempting a personal best at any level of race just now (especially marathon) and this is a good position to be in just before a major race. My only concern is that I have just ran 3x20 milers in preparation and this may be too little in terms of long endurance, however the other side of the coin is that I have been running every single day for a month so am accustomed to "tired legs". We will find out on Saturday. I hope my knee behaves!

Plus I am 14lbs lighter than my previous ultramarathon which should help a little..