Mark Threlfall: Three weeks ago, I presented Dan Lloyd from GCN with a training plan as he
prepares to take on his first half-marathon. You can join along with Dan as well. You can
find that training plan that I have designed myself for Dan in the description below this
video. It does have a slight warning because I have designed this training plan for someone
with a bit of running experience. Dan, after all, is rather ambitiously
and quite impressively going after the sub-90 half-marathon. Yes, it's about time,
when it caught over him, we're three weeks on into this training program now. I'm eager to find out
how he's finding it, if he's got any questions. I also want to give him a few tips as well.
I'm actually going to go and join him for a run session to see just how he's getting on.
[music] Dan Lloyd: It
is 10 past seven in the evening. I've been at the office all day,
home now, and I've got company. Male Speaker 3: Hello.
Dan: We're wrapped up because it is blimming freezing day. There you go, it says
-1, feels like -6, so gloves are on. Gloves will be off in nine weeks' time, though.
Is that better? Probably not, probably look scary. You know when I said it feels like -6 outside,
they weren't wrong. That's the great thing about running, isn't it? You soon warm up,
even when it's bitterly cold outside with not that much on, I'm in shorts actually,
showing off my skinny, white legs. Six kilometers done, just over six and a
half actually and all the healing is done as well go on. Start as you mean to go on, eight weeks,
six days to go. We're due to come up with 2Ks now, I've got 8Ks easy to do because his football club
have given him challenges and the rest of the kids there. Their fastest 1K,
their fastest 2K and their fastest 5Ks. We're going to start today with the fastest 2,
then he's going to come back and play Fortnite.
Male Speaker 3: Yes. Dan:
He's halfway through, he's doing well. Like I said, it's very nice to be out when
it's light. I've done a lot of running in the dark over the last few months,
and it's also very nice to have a coach, Mark, tell you to go easy, or it is for me. I tend
to just go out and then push myself and see how fast I feel comfortable doing that day.
When somebody's just told you, "Take it easy," it's what you do, obey. I got a bit over-exuberant
on camera. 445Ks, I'm pretty comfortable, I'm finding it reasonably easy at the moment.
440, surviving okay. I don't feel like I'm breathing too hard.
Hopefully, things will improve from here even more. Otherwise, I won't break my goal.
The ducks coming out on the GoPro. Picturesque, not with my face in it.
I brought day three forward because I'm supposed to have a rest day today, but
I rather stacked with work and other things tomorrow. In consultation with coach Mark,
day three a day early, rest day then tomorrow, so all good. 8K is easy, again. It's cold again,
but pretty enjoyable when it's like this with the sun out. I've got a smile on my face.
I'm just within work hours, so keep it quiet again, okay, cheers.
Mark: We're about to start a run session. Joining Dan for his Tuesday interval workout.
We've got one, two, three, two, one, two, three minutes of equal recovery. It's all 5K pace, so
pretty feisty one today. How're you feeling? Dan: I'm all right at the moment. We haven't
started yet. In 70 meters, we will.
Mark: You call that in. First rep down, going for 3,40 pace.
Is that right? Dan: Yes,
roughly, I think. Mark: Go.
Short recovery now into the final two-minute and three-minute effort.
This is where it'll really bite. Dan: I don't want to
comment, which is good for you.
Obviously means I've been pushing hard enough. Mark: We're going in 15 seconds.
Five, two, one. How was that then, mate? Dan: That was definitely the hardest session
so far. My aim throughout was to really pick it up in the last minute of the last interval.
I'll pace it up a bit in the last 30 seconds. Mark: That's good, you're fine.
Dan: I didn't have much left, which is obviously the aim of actual 5K,
whether that's the aim on this session. Mark: I expected you'd be pretty fatigued
by the end of this and almost pushing it to finish that final rep. I'd say job well done.
Nice one, brilliant run, mate. Dan: Another one ticked off. I'm happy.
Mark: I've got to say, I'm super impressed with how you're doing. What I can see so far, you've
hit every session, right? Dan: I have, but this is what I
said to you at the very beginning that I knew I was going to enjoy was just the fact that I had
a training plan to be able to take stuff. I found it so much easy getting out of the door and just
looking at the start of the week, knowing what I've got to do every single day, knowing what I've
got to do now seven weeks in advance. That I find much easier than what I have been doing, which was
contemplating during my day whether I was going to go for a run. Then if I did get myself out,
contemplating how far I was going to go and how fast. I've really enjoyed it, yes.
Mark: Like I said, I was super impressed and brilliant run session just now. Have you got any
questions for me or perhaps any issues? Dan: Yes, two. First one is,
on Strava, I've been having a few comments saying that my easy parts of my run are perhaps a little
bit too hard. I've been getting like 4:40 to 5 minutes for my easy bits. I did a test of just
breathing through my nose when I was running and I can go quite a long way at that pace, breathing
through my nose. I figured that I can't be going that hard. I always feel I can go way faster than
that. Should I be going slower than that or not? Mark: To be honest, I've had a look and I was
going to say, I was going to congratulate you on going as easy as you have been,
because a lot of people end up gong a lot faster than they should. Going by your
with what I can semi-predict is your threshold pace, you're kind of in the right ballpark.
You could probably do it keeping around the five minute per K pace, but you are a fit chap.
You're doing very well, so five minute per K, that should be fine for you, and as you say,
you can breath through your nose, you're feeling relaxed. The main thing you've got to factor in
is, are you feeling in good shape and recovered for those hard intervals and hard workout,
which I'm getting the impression you are. Dan: I never go out and feel too sluggish. I
think there might have been last weekend, the end of the first week when I did the 12K. I think the
first three or four, I felt a bit sluggish, but then I got better towards the end, anyway, but the
other thing that found is that most of my runs, historically, have been quite short, under 10Ks.
Every single run I've done so far that had been over 10Ks, I think, there have been three at this
point, I've had to stop to go for number two. Mark: Hopefully, discreetly.
Dan: Despite that fact that I'd already been for number two just before I went out each and every
time because I was worried about that. I'm really starting to fear the fact that I've ridden 21Ks
at some point, and I don't really want to stop because I've got a timeline, to start with,
but also I don't want anyone to see me. Mark: You will probably be pleased to hear,
you're certainly not alone. There are a lot of pros out there that still struggle with this on
a daily basis, and myself included. Now obviously, the first protocol,
we mentioned this in the last video, is your nutrition and making sure that you are
having a big or heavier meal at least two to three hours before you head out, which I think you are.
Dan: I have, kind of, I haven't, some days, even just the run we just did then,
I had lunch about an hour before we went. Mark: Then it's also just looking, if you're
struggling to pinpoint it, it's then maybe doing a week-long nutrition diary and just tracking
everything you're eating, whether that's maybe a coffee, maybe that might be the trigger,
just the hour or so before, dairy, the timing of your food. Being able to then
notice those, I guess, those frequencies or rhythms and what you're eating when you're
training, that's probably the next port of call. Dan: I'm starting to understand what Tom Dumoulin
felt like at the Giro. For those of you who don't watch cycling, he was a rider leading
the Giro d'Italia, one of the biggest races in the world, and he had to stop before one of the
key mountains on a key stage. I just [unintelligible 00:10:03] to think it,
"Why don't you just hold it in? It can't be that hard." [laughs] It got to the point
where I can't either. Mark: My final point really--
I'm not someone that prescribes drugs or telling you to pop pills, but a lot of pros do actually
use Imodium, which is basically used to help prevent the effects of diarrhea.
Dan: I want to try it before one of the long runs in training
before I get to the actual half-marathon. Mark: Yes, it's not something I'd say go and
do in all your running sessions because you definitely don't want to be taking Imodium on
every run. You've got serious issues then. Every once in a while. Maybe, yes, try it out in one of
your long training runs, and then perhaps if it works you can use it in the race.
Dan: If I used it before every run, there might be a massive explosion come the race day.
[laughter] Mark: I want to move on now
to talk about the plan again. We're obviously three weeks in, you're doing a fantastic job.
I have actually put-- This is for the viewers as well. On the fourth week,
there is an option of an easy week. Do you feel like you need that?
Dan: No, honestly. Apart from that one run I talked about just now where I felt a little
but sluggish at the start, there's been no day where I felt really tired or really fatigued.
If I don't need to take it then I feel like I need it in myself at the moment.
Mark: Yes, that's what I probably suspected. The option is there. Ordinarily, in training programs,
I would say, every three to four weeks take a recovery week. It allows you to adapt and absorb
all that hard work. Because we're doing doing quite a condensed program here-- It's nine weeks.
Theoretically, you shouldn't really need to, we should be able to plow on through and make the
most of every week. I think we'll do that. If you are struggling, there's no shame in
taking an easier week now to adapt and recover. Dan: One last thing before we finish is that I've
found that the days that do feel worst are after a rest day. That was something that I had was a
cyclist as well. The day before a big race, I'd always do something quite hard actually
and have a rest day before that. I noticed we have got that in the plan the day before the
half-marathon distance. I'm definitely going to have a few openers that day.
Mark: Yes, that's a really good point actually. What a lot of people find is,
when they take a recovery week or an easy day, it's almost like their body catches up with them.
I often liken this to when you're at school and you're doing exams and then you finish
exams and then you get ill. There's no science here. Your body almost just gives in and goes,
"Oh, thank God you've let off." Dan: Yes. It goes into repair
mode, I think, doesn't it? Mark: Yes, and you quite often feel
quite lethargic. That's totally fine, it's quite common. The day before the half-marathon, you may
want to just do some little intervals, very short just to open up the legs and keep you fired up.
Going back to the pace, et cetera. Now, as we go into this next block the next three weeks,
you're actually going to go to your peak volume in the program and, also, covering your longest run
prior to the half-marathon, which is nearing on a half-marathon itself. It is really important you
do stick to that easy pace and making sure that you're not detracting from those harder sessions.
Make sure you stay on that because that's key. Dan: Will do.
Mark: [laughs] Brilliant work. Do keep it up. Thanks so much to everyone for tuning in. Please
do follow the plan if you'd like to. You can find that in the description just down below.
If you enjoyed this video, give it a Like and don't forget to give us a Follow over on social
media, or subscribe just down below. [00:13:23] [END OF AUDIO]