My Oxford Half Marathon Training Diary - Week 1

Posted on: 12 August 2024

I’m starting off a somewhat niche series of posts over the next 10 week charting my progress and experience training for the Oxford Half Marathon on 13th October. My current PB set last September is 1:32:00 and I am hoping to run 1:27:00 or faster in Oxford.

This series of posts will go over my metrics and how my training has gone for the past week. I plan to include the following metrics each week to chart my progress:

Total volume

Fairly self-explanatory. I’m looking to maintain or increase this week-on-week, with a de-load week (backing off the volume) every 4 weeks to recover. For a more complete picture of effort, I include my football sessions in this total too.

Longest run

As with total volume, I’m looking to build this distance up over time, aiming to run more than the 21. 1k target distance in the peak of my training. Some weeks this will be a consistent easy effort. Others will include blocks at target race pace.

Average resting & max HR

I’m using Garmin data for this, which gives me a low and high reading each day. I then average these out over the week to give an indication of how well rested I am, and conversely how hard I’ve pushed myself.

Average bedtime

I log this as part of my daily journalling to keep myself accountable. Rest is very important for recovery when activity is high, so keeping this average in check and consistent will be key to remaining healthy throughout the training block.

Easy/hard split

An 80/20 easy/hard split is generally the accepted ratio of easy to hard volume in a given period. For every 4km run at an easy pace, 1km should be run “hard” (I define this as marathon pace or faster). During a marathon training block (as opposed to half marathon or shorter), this may be closer to 70/30 due to the slower average pace of “hard” efforts (closer to marathon pace).

Tanda marathon race predictor (https://crplot.com)

I’m not running a marathon, so this figure is somewhat useless to me right now, however I’ve been using this as a general metric for fitness and will continue to track changes to it over this training block. This is based on a paper written by Giovanni Tanda and aims to predict your marathon time based on your weekly volume and average pace. Its accuracy and effectiveness is debated, but regardless, it’s a useful metric to track over time in determining fitness. My Tanda marathon prediction is 3:17:10 going into this training block.

Training VDOT (https://vdoto2.com/calculator)

VDOT is another predictor metric, created by Jack Daniels. It not only predicts your equivalent finishing times based on a recent race time, but also the training paces you should be running at. E.g. my 5k race time of 19:00 (52.9 VDOT score) is equivalent to a half marathon time of 1:27:14. Whilst I will be including this figure each week, note it will only concretely change following a race or time trial.

Week 1 — 5th - 11th August

• Total volume: 73.5km (4.3km football)
• Longest run: 17.6km
• Average resting & max HR: 38 / 153
• Average bed time: 23:04
• Easy / hard split: 80/20
• Tanda marathon race predictor: 3:16:36 (🔽 00:00:34)
• Training VDOT: 53.9

Started well on the Monday with an extra 1km than planned on my pre-football run. Was warm but not too hot, and I tried to stick to the trails. 8km at 4:58/km pace total and feeling good. Included 5 x 20s strides.

Football was a big session. Very warm still at 9pm and I ran a lot. Clocked 4.3km total (0.4km more than the week before) and averaged 153 HR, which is very high for me.

Surprisingly felt fresh enough for a steady effort on the Tuesday, hitting the 9km volume planned. Slightly cooler than the day before. Was happy to push the pace a bit as I had a lighter speed session than usual planned for Wednesday. I ended up averaging 4:46/km pace.

Wednesday was a cruise interval workout, so not too taxing. I chose threshold pace (4:04/km) over interval pace (3:45/km) as I had a all-out 5k effort planned for Saturday. The workout was 4x 1 mile @ threshold pace (4:04), with 90s floats (jog rests). Since this workout, my VDOT has increased and my subsequent threshold pace is now 4:00/km. Yikes. Felt good, felt strong. 14.5km total volume, 6.4k at threshold pace. Warm up and cool downs were almost at a steady pace so I probably didn’t push myself as much as I could've done.

Thursday was another trail-heavy run, so not too focussed on pace. Also added 5 x 20s strides at the end too, to keep the top end speed in the legs. I also bouldered Thursday evening for 90 minutes, which involved a good amount of walking to and from.

Friday was a standard rest day. I got in a strength session in the morning - squat, RDL, deadlift & overhead press in my garage gym. Not very running focussed, but keeping my discipline of doing some heavy lifting once a week and building overall back and leg strength.

Saturday was Parkrun day. 5km at a hard effort. Hadn’t made my mind up where I was going to run until the day before. Decided it was a good time to do a benchmark 5k time trial on one of the quickest courses - Hove Prom. Glad I did! Conditions were great, and I was feeling strong after a rest day. Ended up running an 18 second PB and finally smashing a sub-19 5k.

I hadn’t really planned to, but since the end of May I’ve broken my 5k PB 3 times. So really positive signs my fitness is on an upwards trajectory. It also rounds off a nice period of 5k efforts as I now switch my attention towards longer distances. I managed a decent warm up and cool down for 10k total volume on the Saturday. I had hoped to get a cycle ride in in the evening but I was knackered by the end of a hot day so decided to rest instead. This new PB raised my VDOT a whole point, from 52.9 to 53.9.

Sunday was a busy day and another scorcher. No chance of getting out during the day (and surviving), so I ended up doing my planned long run in the evening, bookended by a 10k cycle. Wasn’t really feeling up for it, but it turned into a solid run. It got too dark in the second half which I hadn’t prepared well for, which wasn’t conducive to a good run. But I maintained pace and finished off at 17.6km in the end. I had planned to end the week with a 20km long run, but due to higher volume earlier in the week, I was happy to cap where I did.

A really good week, higher than planned volume and a 5k PB. A decent football session, 10km of cycling, a bouldering session and a strength workout. The only thing it lacked was some mobility work.