20 April 2008

Chickened out of the marathon

First off, congrats to my running buddies in Perth, Rob & Craig who both went sub 3:15 in Canberra marathon.

Since I decided to ‘kill’ my marathon dream (Gold Coast in early July) and to focus on short distance (5k-10k), things have got a bit easier - at least in mental sense. There is no more pressure to do 2-3 hours long run in the weekend, no more pressure to do a 90 minute run in mid-week etc. When I am tired and or in no mood for running, I could just do a 30 minute run without feeling guilty. My mind feels more refreshed and relaxed, knowing that I am free from the burden associated with high-mileage, marathon training.

Yes, you can call me a chicken…

But I am really struggling to train for marathon in Singapore despte having been here for 6 months...at least, at this point in time. However, I wouldn’t discount the possibility of training for one in the second half of the year.

Due to the shift in focus, my racing plans for the next few months are:

23 Apr: JP Morgan Corporate Challenge 5.6k (confirmed)
18 May: SAA All Newcomers Meet 5000m track (considering)
8 Jun: Saucony Passion Run 10k (registered)
15 Jun: Mt Faber Run – uphill (considering)
22 Jun: Punggol Central 5k (registered)
6 Jul: Milk Run 8.4k (considering)

Below is my training for the week:

Monday (concrete):
35mins recovery (av pace 5:31, av HR 145) - humid

Tuesday (track):
15mins warm up incl 2 strides
3 x 1000m at 10k pace with 200m jog + drink stop (av pace 3:53, av HR 172, Max 182)
Splits per 400m: 1:33, 1:34, 0:46 = 3:53, 1:33, 1:34, 00:46 = 3:53, 1:32, 1:34, 00:47 = 3:53
8 x 200m with 200m walk/jog recovery. Splits: 41, 42, 41, 42, 41, 41, 41, 39 secs
6mins cool down

The plan was to do 4-5 x 1k but felt stuffed after the 3rd interval. Decided to do 200s in order to salvage something from the session.

Wednesday (treadmill):
25mins recovery (av 5:38) in Mulia Hotel, Jakarta

Thursday (treadmill/road):
AM: 30mins easy (av 5:15) in Jakarta
PM: 20mins easy (av 5:11) in Singapore

Friday (track/hills):
10mins warm up
2.4k tempo in 9:49 (av 4:05, HR 171) – aborted due to heat/humidity
4 x 13om hills in 27, 25, 26, 26 secs

The plan was to do 5-6k at Stamina Pace (~4:10 pace) but the heat/humidity (9:30am) took a lot out of me and I decided to quit the tempo. Was too wasted even to do cool down.

Saturday (road):
26k Long Run in 2:10 (av 5:00) incl. 8k tempo @ 4:23 pace (av HR 171, Max 185)

Sunday (concrete):
AM: 30mins easy (av 5:23, av HR 138)
PM: 42mins easy (av 5:25, av HR 150) - humid

Total 75.1 k for the week, Year to date mileage 1042.6k (av 65k per week)

3 comments:

speedygeoff said...

Mate I TOTALLY sympathise. I ended up RUNNING Canberra (marathon) despite being totally freaked, and just starting to really enjoy the 3k/5k races which finished for summer all too soon. And it was "jolly" hard work. I really don't think I can go through all that again, the 3s and 5s (& even the 10s) are so much easier on the nerves.

I find 3 x 1ks are sufficient (at this age) for serious hard training 'cause I like to live to train another day.

Oh, and good on 'yer once again for training so well in that hot foreign 'clime.

Clown said...

Widi, some good sessions there.

Think its a good idea to do some of the shorter stuff for a while and then over time you may acclimatise and then get on to the longer stuff again.

Hope the hips and shins are on the improve

trailblazer777 said...

Agreed sometimes its good to take the foot off the training and racing accelerator pedal for a few weeks,months,even years...although that is still a very solid training week there!, wouldnt be hard to ramp up again if you change your mind.
The tuesday track session is pretty cool.

That 5000m track race sounds like an interesting one...