Week 4 Progress

I only managed to get out 3 times last week:

Date	Miles	KM	Time	Avg Pace (Min /Mile)	Avg MPH	Elev Gain (Mtr)	Elev Loss (Mtr)	Calories	HR Zone	Avg HR
22nd Jan	Rest day
23rd Jan	13.50	21.73	02:43:10	12:05	5.0	369	348	1,539	2/3	146
24th Jan	7.00	11.27	01:21:54	11:42	5.1	183	224	688	1	131
25th Jan	Rest day
26th Jan	Rest day
27th Jan	11.00	17.70	02:06:52	11:32	5.2	254	259	1,301	2	142
28th Jan	Rest day
Week 4	31.50	50.69	06:11:56			806	831	3,528
Week 3	36.50	58.74	06:58:54			873	825	4,390
Week 2	29.70	47.82	05:37:20			629	621	3,720
Week 1	30.00	48.28	05:51:27			629	580	3,633
TOTAL	127.70	205.53	1 day 00:39:37			2,937	2,857	15,271
To go	1,122.30	1,810.47

Even though I have just passed 10% of my challenge target in the first month there is still a very long way to go and anything can happen, so I' not getting too complacent.

On Saturday I joined Mike Bonney and Adam Killip for a long walk.  We started at the Grandstand ( I walked down from Onchan) and then headed back through Onchan again, passed Whitebridge, left onto the Creg-ny-baa back road for a few miles before swinging a right down past Axnfell plantation towards Laxey main road and then back into Onchan.

One of the unfortunate downsides of Heart Rate Training is it's really difficult to do in a group, especially if you are out for a slower walk in zone 1 and 2.  I was comfortably within my Zone 2 range for the first couple of miles through Onchan, but on the climb out of Whitebridge I was quickly into zone 3 and stayed there for most of the walk, even touching into Zone 4 in a few places.

Rather than slow Mike and Adam down too much I just decided to make this a long Zone 3 session, and I certainly felt it in the legs the following day.  We alternated between pushing fast for a mile or so (usually up hill !) and then easing right back to recover, hence the overall pace of 12:05 minutes per mile.

Mike was telling me about his plans for the Continental Centurion race in Schiedam (Rotterdam) on May 14th/15th.  I did consider this a few weeks ago, but it's only 5 weeks before the Parish so not really enough time to recover if I want to hit the target Parish time I have in mind.  I have already entered the USA Centurion race in September, all travel and accommodation is booked, so the last thing I need it to burn myself out with a 100 mile race in May and 85 in June.

However... I didn't realise there were 50k, 100k, 50 mile and 100 mile options in Schiedam and, since having a go at the Continental Centurion is something I want to do in the next couple of years, then what better excuse to go over in May and recce the venue by taking part in one of the other distances!

So, I have now booked my travel and accommodation for Schiedam too!  I just need to decide if I should enter the 50k or 50 mile event now.  It's only 3 weeks after the Sara Killey 50k, so I''m really tempted to move it up a notch and go for 50 miles, but I'm also mindful it's 5 weeks before the Parish and I think 50 miles maybe a little too much.

Either way it should be a great weekend as there are quite a few Manx walkers taking part in the 100 miles so I will be there to help with support and cheer them on when I have finished my race. 

On Sunday I felt pretty good so decided to repeat the same 7 mile 'recovery' loop as the previous week (out past Groudle). 

In my last post I talked about how hard that 7 mile loop felt last week, and how I revised my heart rate zones down to reflect my walking max rather than running max.  This time it did feel more relaxed, but the interesting thing is I was only 37 seconds slower than the previous week with an average pace of 11:42 compared to 11:36 the previous week, yet a significantly lower average heart rate down to 131 from 137. 

My 11 mile loop on Wednesday was a repeat of the exact same loop from 2 weeks ago.  Again this was a zone 2 walk, so this time I used my lower Zone 2 range and was only 3 seconds slower than 2 weeks ago, with an average HR of 142 compared to 148 2 weeks ago !

So, 4 weeks into HR training and I'm definitely seeing results!  Roll on week 5!