Looking Ahead - Oxford Half Marathon Training Diary - Week 9

Posted on: 9 October 2024

This post is part of a 10-part series charting my training block for the Oxford Half Marathon 2024.

30th September - 6th October

  • Total volume: 62.8km
  • Longest run: 18km
  • Average resting & max HR: 40 / 149
  • Average bed time: 23:04
  • Easy / hard split: 83/17
  • Tanda marathon race predictor: 3:10:33 (🔽 00:00:25)
  • Training VDOT: 53.9

Oxford week 9 plan

Monday

Took Monday completely off. No run, no football, no strength training. A couple of walks to keep the blood moving. Mental health took a bit of a knock but I was fully focussed on recovering from this back pain and being ready to line up on the start line for Oxford.

Tuesday

Very relieved to get a test run with no pain in on Tuesday. It was 8km easy at a tentative 5:03/km pace. It was nice to be back running again, but I was definitely in my head about every little movement. But I got away with it unscathed.

Wednesday

What a difference a week makes. Last Wednesday I was in A&E wondering what on earth might be wrong with me. This week I was able to run a pain-free steady 10km. The legs were fresh and I averaged 4:40/km pace and it felt good.

I decided not to wear my chest strap, as it sits right around the place on my back I felt the twinge. So whether or not it contributed to it, I felt more comfortable without it. I averaged 150bpm from my watch, with a relative effort (RE) of 72. I felt back on track, but wanted to keep the pace easy-steady for now.

Thursday

Thursday was a bit of a blip. Had intended to do 12km easy, but I had stomach issues from before halfway and only just made it to 10km before walking back. This has become more common than I’d like during this training block so I need to get to the bottom of it. More consistent nutrition is key, knowing what foods work and when to have them.

A good, slightly faster paced easy run though, averaging 4:52/km and 140bpm HR.

Friday

I considered a rest day on Friday, as has been typical for me in this block, but I felt I wanted to push the pace a bit so decided on a low volume progression run. This went great. 1.5km warm up, then increased the pace each KM for 4km of volume. Ended with a 1.5km cooldown back home for 7km total.

My target paces were 4:30, 4:20, 4:10 & 4:00/km, with my target Half Marathon pace landing around the middle of those. But I ended up running the 1km splits in 4:22, 4:12, 4:04 and 3:54. I was really pleased with how it felt, and with no back pain to speak of.

Saturday

Saturday was another easy run with some strides on my plan. This turned out to be a great run. The pace felt effortless and easy pace was creeping down towards 4:45/km but still feeling easy. The total volume was 9.8km which included 5x 20s strides. The strides were the fastest I’ve run for a couple of weeks, and the final test for the back injury. I had no pain and felt strong.

Average pace was 4:46/km for the run, HR 143 and a relative effort of 52. The week building back from injury was building nicely and I was starting to look positively towards next weekend again.

Sunday

My final long run of the block. I had 17km easy on the plan, but having done very little speed work this week, I decided I wanted some concerted effort at goal pace thrown in. The New Balance Rebels were a good choice for this, a shoe I’ve grown to really like over the last few months. It excels at that tempo pace, below threshold, and has managed multiple long runs over the half marathon distance I’ve thrown at it.

I decided on 2 x 3km blocks at goal pace. The 5km warm up was quick (averaging 4:40/km). I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy pace run at this point. The first 3km block was challenging, but doable, and the route was undulating. I popped a SIS BETA Nootropics gel 6km in; a new gel I was trying out for the race. I was intrigued by the mental benefits it claims to provide.

After a brief 1km float at 4:35/km, I began the second block of 3km at goal pace. The gel had kicked in by now and I really felt locked in to that pace. I felt almost disconnected from what my legs were doing and was happy cruising at that goal pace around 4:07/km. With a bit of favourable downhill in the final km, I pushed the pace and finished with a 4:03/km feeling really strong.

I ended up doing an extra 1km for a total volume of 18km. I averaged 4:34/km in the 6km cooldown. My average pace for the run was 4:26/km and an average HR of 154. RE was 147 so a solid aerobic effort. Exactly the final long run I wanted and needed for confidence going into the race.

Overall

A more positive week, ending with a strong goal pace workout. 62.8km of volume was only 8km less than I had originally planned at the start of the block. I had planned to get more hard effort in, but I will definitely take 17% of effort given how last week went.

I felt strong in the majority of runs this week, benefiting from fresher legs after such a low volume previous week.

I shaved 25s off my Tanda marathon race prediction, and my average pace is now at 4:45/km, a massive bump from 4:56 at the start of the block.

I didn’t play football, nor boulder, nor do any strength work this week, to be on the safe side. I just got one short core mobility workout in.

Resting heart rate seems to be creeping up again, but only marginally. Over the blcok it's fluctuated between 38 and 40.

Next week: the taper.

My target for the race

After last year’s Barns Green Half Marathon race time of 1:32:00, my target for my next Half was to go sub-90. Due to injury, I wasn’t in good enough shape going into Brighton Half earlier this year, running a 1:34:33. A couple of months later, I ran a hilly 10 mile race, finishing in 1:07:53, at an average pace of 4:13/km (if the course distance is to be trusted). The 10 miler gave me confidence that a sub-90 was on the cards for my next Half Marathon.

Fast forward to July, and I'd put together some really consistent training and ran a couple of PBs in the 5k and 10k. With a sub-19 5k and a sub-40 10k, I felt I was in a really good place to attack the Half Marathon distance. I reckon I was probably in sub-88 shape going into the 10-week training block for Oxford Half. So I set my goal at 87 minutes, 4:07/km pace.

This is the pace I’ve targeted for all my goal pace workouts throughout the block. But can I go faster?

I’ve typically always had quite conservative goals going into races, protecting myself from failure. But I want to really challenge myself in this race. I feel confident in hitting 87 minutes, but how far below?

Using my VDOT (53.9) based on an a fairly recent 5k time, my equivalent half marathon time is 1:25:50, or 4:04/km pace. Ideally I would've done another 5k time trial before the race, to analyse any improvement to my VDOT. In perfect conditions, 1:25:50 feels achievable as a stretch goal. The key will be pacing it right and not getting over-excited early on.

I will be giving it a full-send next weekend and hoping everything comes together on the day. Let’s see what I’ve got.

Tags: running