Portugal Training Camp
After 7 weeks of dropping down from 60-70 to just 20 miles a week due to nasty heel pain it was time to get back into the grind. My heel pain had been solved with Enertor Performance Insoles.. Yippee I can run properly again. It had been 7 weeks since my last proper speed session and the AB Training Group's warm weather training camp in Portugal was going to be the place to start training hard!
We arrived in the evening on Saturday 13th May after some of the guys in the group ran in the Sussex Championships 5000m at the K2 in Crawley just hours before the flight.
Results from the AB Training Group in the 5000m Sussex Champs:
1st Howard Bristow 15.03.01
2nd Kevin Moore 15.22.50
3rd James Westlake 15.23.28
4th Jamie Knapp 15.31.41
9th James Turner 15.56.82
11th William Cork 16.09.76
12th Graham Godden 16.21.75
14th Richard Clayton 16.21.59
16th Thomas Niner 16.41.40
17th Alex Begley 17.01.12
18th Phillip Stevenson 17.32.80
Sunday 14th May:
So the first run of the training camp was actually the Sunday long run! I hadn't run for 90 minutes for 9 weeks so I knew it was going to be a bit of a struggle especially in the heat but I took it easy and even though it felt like a whole day, I got it done (with a little help from Rosie Neill and Phill Stevenson - cheers guys :-)
Early evening we went to the track and did some drills and strides. We filmed each other striding out and gave each other feedback on areas to work on.
Monday 15th May:
We went to the Açoteias Cross Country running course which was only 0.5 mile away from the hotel we were staying at and did a long reps session first thing in the morning. I found it really tough but I managed to get 4 x 1 mile session in the bag. Later on that day most of us went out for a second run and I did 5 miles easy pace.
Tuesday 16th May:
Me, Phill and Rosie tried to map out a loop which was sort of successful with a few stops to check the map on route. 7.3 miles for me easy pace - very tired from yesterday session! No second run for me today.
Wednesday 17th May:
Track session time! Most of the group had 4 sets of 400m + 800m (with 90 seconds recovery between), thankfully my coach Allison Benton gave me 3 sets to do which was still tough. It was really hot today so I only managed 3 miles easy for my second run.
Thursday 18th May:
Easy run in the morning and then we went back to the track early evening again to do some strides and drills.
Friday 19th May:
Some of the guys had a track session first thing, but I wanted to give parkrun a go on the Saturday so I went out for a steady run and did 7 miles @ 6:50 minute mile pace then we left for the airport early evening.
I ran 18:42 at Hove Prom Parkrun on the Saturday which I was really pleased with considering I didn't get to bed until 1:30am from the airport so not a full nights sleep and I wouldn't normally run on a friday (especially not steady pace) but I was on a training camp so I thought why not! I'm looking forward to working hard over the summer and getting that 5k time back down! Goal number 1 is a sub 17:30 5k... then more goals to tick off.
Had a great trip with AB Training Group and feel more motivated to work hard. Would really recommend the Alfa Mar Hotel in Portugal for a running training camp, lots of great facilities nearby and run routes.
