Saturday Training (Hill Reps - Watling St x 4)

Still feeling buoyed from Friday's Gym session, Saturday was here.  Most importantly, the main attraction for me was Izzy o'clock having not seen her for a day short of two weeks.   Had two other things to get done before my Princess arrived: get the hair chopped and get a run of some kind in.

The plan was to head to my parents, drop into Harry's Barbers on the way, then go for a quick run before lunch and before Izzy arrived.

The visit to Harry's was brief.  3 on top, 2 round the back and sides please chief.  Job done.  

Back to the parents.  A quick change into the running kit and then back out on the road.  The plan was to run a local loop, 4 times up Watling St.  Its not a significant steep hill but its a drag.

Here's the profile from Strava...

As you can see, its not a particularly big hill but its got a kick up in the middle and by the top, the legs are really feeling it...

Here's the Garmin report...

It was a good run and I was really feeling the hill on the third and fourth reps. The pace wasnt particularly quick but it was around my half marathon pace (and just a little quicker than the 9 min/mile pace I'll be looking to match for a sub 4:00 marathon).

I dump the Garmin data on to Strava when cycling but its ideal for when running specific segments on the road as you get to see the individual times for each repetition.

As you can see, the rep times were pretty consistent so am well pleased with my efforts.  The HR looks higher on the first two reps and then drops but I dont really see that as an issue as I was still working in the same HR zone for the duration.

Again, more progress.  Its great to see I'm still finding gains in performance.

Roll on the arrival of Princess Izzy.  Looking forward to spending some time with her and once she's tucked up in bed tonight, its all about Froch v Groves.  Hopefully Groves will teach the arrogant Froch a lesson in the ring.

Hill Reps (Shooters x 12)

After a very flat L2A2B, thought it was about time I started to up the climbing. Was very short of time tonight so thought what better way to kill two birds with one stone by doing some hill reps. The one advantage I've got is that Shooters Hill is literally on my doorstep. So after a very short and quick warm up down Welling Way and back (because I forgot to put on my HR monitor), I done 12 reps of Shooters Hill without stopping. 6 London-bound and 6 returning Welling-bound. Was an excellent work out. Its all about keeping some energy in the tanks and not going out too fast. If I was only going over the hill once, I would have given it some more beans but no need for this exercise.

2,250ft in 16 miles. Not quite replicating a mountain climb because you've got the 2 min descent either side of the hill before you come back up again but it'll do nicely for a Monday evening.

Interesting to compare my average HR of this session against a similar session last year...

HR significantly lower this year compared to last, especially given the data from last year would have been lower due to the cool down included at the end of the ride out to Blackfen and back. Clearly the hard work over the last 6-9 months is paying off handsomely now.