Aaron Scott Training - 22nd March to 18th April

A slightly more condensed version of the training diary for three out of the last four weeks. The plan was to do four solid weeks of training with a few specific 1500/3000m sessions before an early season 1500m at a local track meet.

22nd March to 28th March - Weekly Total 90.31 Miles
With my shins being sore did no sessions in the week just good solid miles. Bought Nike Structure Triax for all my steady runs and they seem to be working wonders for my shins.

29th March to 4th April - Weekly Total 85.39 Miles
Managed to get a cold on Friday evening which stopped me running for some of the weekend. Still got some good sessions out though, 2 sets of 10 x 300m (46.7, 46.8, 46.4, 46.8, 47.9, 47.2, 47.5, 46.5, 47.9, 47.0 and 48.0, 46.7, 47.3, 47.2, 47.8, 47.8, 47.7, 47.4, 47.4, 46.6) and 2 x 10 mins tempo with 5 min jog recovery (1.94mi and 2.00mi). The track session times were not spectacular by any means, but its a good start to the summer speed work.

5th April to 11th April - Weekly Total 61.75 Miles
Cold continued through to Thursday and had Tuesday and Wednesday completley off after coughing and spluttering on my Monday runs. Got a decent session in on Thursday of 4 sets of 2 x 500 (200 jog, 6 mins between sets), (1:18.3, 1:20.6, 1:19.2, 1:20.0, 1:19.0, 1:20.9, 1:18.4, 1:20.0). Averaged just under 1:20s which is 4-minute 1500m pace so pleased with how it went, was good to have a group of four of us pushing the pace.

Monday 12th April
7:30AM - 31:23 (5.0mi, 6:17/mi)
17:58PM - 50:32 (8.19mi, 6:10/mi)
Good evening run with Tom, ran a bit off road on the Heron route, as Chris Fullerton calls it (that boy loves his birds). Decent pace throughout but felt nice and controlled, did some hill sprints on the side of the common afterwards.

Tuesday 13th April
10:34AM - 31:11 (5.0mi, 6:15/mi)
18:21PM - 19:48 w/u (2.57mi, 7:43/mi)
18:53PM - 3 sets of 3,2,1 mins on grass (75sec jog, 3 mins between sets)(5.2mi total). 3:02 (0.59mi, 5:07/mi), 2:01 (0.42mi, 4:51/mi), 1:00 (0.22mi, 4:38/mi). 3:02 (0.63mi, 4:51/mi), 2:00 (0.41mi, 4:53/mi), 1:00 (0.21mi, 4:48/mi). 3:00 (0.63mi, 4:46/mi), 2:00 (0.42mi, 4:44/mi), 1:00 (0.22mi, 4:38/mi).
19:34PM - 18:29 c/d (2.23mi, 8:19/mi)
Solid enough session did most of the running with Matt Blunden, extremley windy on one of the sides of the football pitches.

Wednesday 14th April
9:23AM - 63:20 (10.0mi, 6:20/mi)
Perfect pacing for once, felt nice and controlled. Ran out and back on the river bank so managed to get a few miles done on the grass again.

Thursday 15th April
18:19PM - 19:38 w/u (2.55mi, 7:43/mi)
19:00PM - 2 sets of 6 x 400 (200 jog, 5 mins between sets) (4.91mi total). Reps 64.4, 65.2, 65.4, 65.2, 64.7, 64.6 and 65.5, 65.5, 65.4, 65.3, 64.2, 63.8.
19:40PM - 21:33 c/d (2.54mi, 8:29/mi)
Good solid session in the wind. Ran them all on my own as Sam was ill and others doing different sessions. Looking at the times they are very consistant and hopefully can run that sort of pace on Sunday to get close to breaking 4 mins. Missed the morning run as had a late night.

Friday 16th April
7:37AM - 31:28 (5.0mi, 6:18/mi)
17:54PM - 54:37 (8.0mi, 6:50/mi)
Steady run in the evening with Matt and Tom off-road on the Heron route. Bit slow but not a bad thing to do some easier running before the 1500m on Sunday.

Saturday 17th April
7:04AM - 35:17 (5.0mi, 7:04/mi)
17:17PM - 35:00 (5.0mi, 7:00/mi)
Two easy five milers before the race on Sunday. Did the first one on my own around South Witham before work, and the other with Tom around the common and golf course. Nice to have some warm weather again!

Sunday 18th April
11:16AM - 20:00 w/u (2.5mi, 8:00/mi)
12:18PM - 4:03.5, 1500m race Lincs League 2. (0.95mi, 4:17mi)
12:34PM - 9:55 c/d (1.17mi, 8:27/mi)
16:11PM - 90:10 (14.2mi, 6:21/mi)
The race almost went to plan, however the first two laps were ran in 66s instead of the intended 64s. I led for 1k and the Tom pushed past and I didn't have the speed to go with him. The timers actually got me at 4:04 dead and Tom at 4:02.1 when everyone else got him at 4:01 and me at 4:03, I have no idea where they make their times up from. So, all in all a decent start to the season would like to have been closer to going under 4 minutes but I think a faster first lap would have done that. I can see myself running around 3:55-3:57 this season and I think Tom will go close to the 3:50 mark if he gets some decent training done this summer. Decided to do 90 mins in the evening because the weather was too nice not to. I was only going to do an hour but ended up doing the usual Sunday run near my girlfriend's house.

Total Weekly Mileage - 90 miles - Good week, even with a couple of easy runs still managed a couple of good sessions and a decent blow out at 1500m. I think I will try and do three more weeks of 90 before I run the 5000 at the county champs. Then look to cut the mileage to 70-75 after Woodbridge 10k, my hometown race, on 16th May.

Aaron (The pictures on this post are from the Turkey Trot in December 09)

Sorry for the absence, but the track season begins!

Apologies for not posting in such a long time. I have encountered a number of problems in the last few weeks getting access to a computer. But, I will post my training for the last few weeks over the next few days.

The Spring is finally here and it is such a good feeling to wake up and get that early morning run done when the sun is shining. It is also much easier to do an evening run after work while it is still light, I think its plain to see that I enjoy the sunshine and hate the cold. Training has been going pretty well (apart from the cold I had last week) and the first race of the track season is coming up on Sunday. I actually can't wait to get some races in, as I have been starved of competition in recent weeks. Hopefully, I can start the season on a good note and run as close to 4 minutes as possible for 1500. In order to do this I have persuaded my training partner Tom Straw to also get his spikes on. Tom is a talented lad and probably has more speed than me and will no doubt run quicker than myself over 1500m this summer. However, its early doors and we both feel that with his raw speed and my endurance we can push each other to a decent time.

To be honest the race on Sunday isn't about winning, but to add a bit of 'banter' to the occasion we have hyped up the occasion. This has caused many people in the local running community to compare our rivalry to that of Coe and Ovett, however in truth the rivalry is much more intense. We both work together in the Lincolnshire Runner on Saturday's and I will definitely be making the young lad do as much work as possible, there will be none of his usual slacking. There are even rumours of a 5pm pre-race press conference being held in the shop and who knows we might even have a few video phones down at the track on Sunday to film the event!

Right, all of this is a bit of a joke but it does add that little spark to the race and makes it a bit more entertaining. Check in on Sunday to see how it goes.

Aaron