- Okay, so day one of tay week, ugh.
(static)
Hi I'm Andy, from the running channel,
and a few weeks ago, the rest of the team
set me the first part of a 10 week challenge,
which was to find out exactly what shape I was in,
over 5k.
So I headed out, I ran 1606 which I was pretty pleased with,
and then we handed over to you guys,
the running channel viewers,
to set me the 10 week challenge.
So let's find out what that is.
There are a whole range of challenges you guys suggested,
right from the way from a marathon,
and I think I have dodged the bullet
on that one a little bit, all the way down
to the challenge that the team have selected for me,
which is to try and ? 15 minutes for 5k,
ten weeks to do it, 4 training sessions,
pretty terrifying.
15 minutes is tough and I'm genuinely
pretty scared about whether I'm going to be able to
achieve it.
But the point of this video series,
is for me to give you an insight into the highs
and lows of my training.
But more importantly, to help talk you through
the exact training I'm doing, make it relatable
and convertible to any individual targets
that you might have,
in terms of paces and distance and so on.
And help you to maximize training 4 days a week.
The best person to help me out,
is my coach throughout my professional career,
Andy Hobdell, he's coached athletes the last 3
Olympic games from 1500 meters to marathon,
but he also coaches beginner runners,
so he understands all about motivation,
helping get the most of yourself,
and he's the perfect person for me to ask
whether or not I can do it.
I have 10 weeks to break 15 minutes for 5k.
- Erm, 15 minutes to 5k, you are aware,
that if you break 15 minutes for the 5k
you will be one of the fastest park runners
in the country on that day.
And you've been retired for how many years?
(laughs)
- This is the pep talk I was looking for.
I've been retired since the end of 2016,
stopped running for a year, as you well know
and you've been begging me to get back into it,
and challenging me every time I do
a park run, to go a little bit quicker,
so now you've got your chance.
- 10 weeks isn't a lot of time, but, you know,
if we can keep you fit and healthy
for the first few weeks, get you into running,
get you flowing nicely, get you back into the mindset of
running that type of, amount of training each week.
You know, you saying you've only been doing once a week,
then, you know, as we've always said,
anything is possible.
Yeah, to me, it sounds like a really good challenge,
as long as you're up for it.
Are you up for it?
- Yeah, I'm definitely up for it,
I'm more motivated than I've been in,
you know, 2 or 3 years really, since
my career kinda pleated out.
I'm keen to get back into it.
- You know the score right?
We always work, you know, training isn't set in stone,
it's an organic process, week to week,
and we're really gonna have to tune this into you
and how you recover, how you progress,
and we're really gonna have to max that each week,
just so that we are sensible, we are careful,
and really work with how you're progressing,
if that makes sense.
- Yeah great, and is it gonna be like
just like the old times,
where I get a text message on a Sunday night,
training this week.
- To me, is there any other way that that
Sunday night challenge that comes through
for the training for the week, I think
we're gonna have to do that, most definitely.
(notification)
- Okay, so I'm heading out for my first run
of the 10 week challenge, my coach
has now set me a 30 minute run,
but I have to go 5 miles in that 30 minutes,
so it's not an easy one to go straight off,
so first run out, 5 miles in 30 minutes,
followed by some easy strides.
So, finally made my way down to the embankment,
I can pick up some pace a little bit,
not really used to documenting my runs this way,
so I set off in the running headphones,
and I've abandoned them pretty swiftly
because obviously, makes it pretty difficult
to talk to the camera.
Also, helps with being able to hear traffic.
So it just seemed a bit more straightforward.
I always forget how lucky I am
to be able to just head out and see London landmarks
at lunchtime.
Probably don't do it enough, gonna have to do a bit more
if I'm gonna squeeze in these 4 training sessions a week.
It's worth saying that on paper this one
is pretty tough,
and actually I'm slowing down on the pace,
but it's definitely not a temper run,
it's an introduction to a faster,
more sustained pace, over a 5 mile period,
which I think is a really good way of
getting my body used to the training that's to come.
So, that was a total reality check,
training 1, Andy 0, the location I chose,
the planning, my fitness made that session
almost impossible,
so just trying to run 6 minute ?,
on the route that I'd chosen and how I feel currently.
Turned out to be impossible and it turned out to be
kind of impromptu, fart-like, where my pace
was really irregular, and I was really working,
really hard, which I suppose is the point.
So I ran for 30 minutes, and I have
had a hard workout.
But it's a reminder to me of how much
thought and effort went into my training back in the day,
and probably how much more respect I need to give to it now,
which probably I was a litte bit too ?.
So this is day 2 of week one,
this is actually a couple of days after the day 1,
but I'm doing 4 days a week, so I'm happy calling those
day 1, 2, 3 and 4.
This is my second run of week one,
I'm hoping this one goes better then my first run.
So I'm sort of, slightly, masochistically,
looking forward to this, but,
first interval session in a long, long time.
I'll take this chance to take you through my warmup,
I'm just gonna do an easy 1 and a half, 2 mile
warm up this morning.
So today's session is a really good, sort of,
introductory interval session.
I'm obviously familiar with doing lots of
different types of interval sessions,
in my professional career.
But when I was talking to Andy about my motivation,
and getting out on my own.
You know, previously I had a nice training group
that I'd always be meeting up with
and Andy to oversee my training.
I told him he needs to be really prescriptive,
and tell me exactly what to do,
then I'd get out and do my best to do it.
So the plan this morning is to head out
for 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes,
2 minutes and 1 minute as my hard efforts,
all with 1 minutes recovery in between.
Then, I'm gonna take a slightly longer recovery,
2-3 minutes and then I got 2 1 mile efforts
at threshold, so that kinda setting out
a 10 level for me.
I know my heart rate will be 170-175.
Hopefully, around 520, 530 pace,
so more broadly, the park room pace
for my current fitness level.
So warmup done, just short of 2 miles,
not sure how ready I feel, but
I'm gonna head off for the first interval session
of my challenge.
The running channel t-shirts also getting
a debut today.
So I'm feeling very privileged to wear that,
and I'll report back in at the end of the session
and let you know how I go.
Well, session done, I ran 730,
that's gotta be a first for me,
and that was equal parts incredibly tough,
and brilliant.
I, that was everything I loved about training,
setting off for something,
not knowing exactly how you're gonna feel,
especially because in my previous run I felt awful,
and I suppose it's a lesson in both sides of the coin,
which is training well and being in good shape for race
is never contingent on your performance in one session,
either even when you do an amazing session,
that doesn't necessarily mean you've got to do
amazing sessions every single time you set on
the track, or the road, or the trail, or whatever.
And similarly on your bad session,
everyone has a bad session, benefit I always had previously
was an amazing training group,
where there was 3 or 4 us,
and there was always one of us
having a bad day.
And the others can, you know, pick me up,
or I can help pick them up, and that's the amazing thing
about club or crew running.
You're surrounded by people sharing the pain,
and sharing the pleasure and enjoyment of
achieving something.
Thing I was most pleased about today is,
the evolution within the session,
I had 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes,
2 minutes, 1 minute at park room pace,
so a tough effort followed by 2 mild intervals
at my threshold effort.
My first 5 minute effort of the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,
was actually marginally slower than my last two
mile efforts at threshold.
And that's just because the 4 minute,
3 minute, 2 minute, 1 minute gets your legs turning over,
to the point where you finish that 1 minute rest,
have a recovery and actually your threshold pace,
whilst it's aerobically difficult,
it's tough to run and you are working hard,
in terms of physically turning your legs over,
that felt much easier,
so hopefully that's something that I can
share with you and be useful in training.
Now my arm hurts.
So that's 2 runs done and my week one,
at the ten week challenge, one terrible run,
one really positive run.
And I'm heading to work now,
catch the train, check in with you again for my
next run, which after this is a nice recovery run.
So this is day 3 of week one,
or training session 3 of week one,
and thankfully it's recovery run.
So this is right in my wheelhouse at the moment,
a nice, easy 5 mile run, exactly how my body feels.
No pressure on pace, I can just run how I feel.
So that's what I'm doing this morning.
Not too shabby this morning,
it's absolutely spectacular, this is why we run.
So recovery run done, and thankfully,
it went the way it should,
which is I felt pretty ropy at the start,
but by the end a nice easy 5 miles
has made my legs feel better,
so, it's felt at this point, like genuine active recovery.
We'll see how that helps me my longer run tomorrow.
Sunday of week one, today I'm gonna be doing
my fourth run of the week,
so I've got 10 miles, which is my longer run,
and I've been asked to do the first 5 miles, easy,
so just as my easy to steady,
so just how my body feels, which I imagine today
will be somewhere around 6-7 minute miling on average,
and the seconds 10 miles of the minute run,
I'm supposed to pick it up,
so I would describe this as a progressive,
long run.
And I'm targeting around 6 minute mile average,
for those final 5 miles.
So we'll have to see how we go.
It's always probably a bit easier
to just head out for a long run without picking
about pace too much, which is what I would normally do.
Now I've got a bit more structure to my training,
I think mentally it will help me to be focusing on
splitting the run into two blocks.
First 5 miles, second 5 miles.
And we'll see how it feels,
I'll report back in afterwards.
Right, at the top of a hill after nearly 4 miles,
cruising along okay, even got friends today.
Definitely feeling my first weeks training in my legs,
it's the first time I've turned up on a Sunday
when I've not been fresh,
which I think Matt is probably grateful of.
Erm, so yeah, another mile
till we pick the pace a bit on the way home,
on this, nearly ten mile loop, see how we go.
So can't really complain about that,
ten miles done, the first five, had a steady,
easy pace, I wasn't really looking at my watch
so I'll check later to see what the pace was,
but I think it was around 6:30 - 7:00 pace.
A few hills in there as well.
And then the second 5 miles was progressive,
so we didn't launch straight into a crazy pace,
but I do think I managed to average right around
6:00 pace.
So a pace of which I can just about hold
a conversation, but not talking all the time so
say long sentences but I was definitely working really hard
by the end.
That's the end of week one of my ten week challenge.
There's been some ups and downs already.
I hope you found it interesting and useful,
I'd love to hear your own individual targets or
challenges that you're undertaking at the moment,
maybe you can give me a little bit of support
in the comments below,
also I'd love it if you subscribe to the channel,
tap the bell icon so you're notified each time
we upload videos, just like this one,
and I'll see you next time for a update
on my ten week challenge.