Entered

Received an email from the JoongAng Seoul Marathon organizer:

Dear Sir,
I confirm that your registration and payment has been completed. We'll keep you updated about this marathon by email.
Best regards
JoongAng Seoul Marathon

So, the entry form is in. I have also successfully persuaded my wife to move forward the holiday date. We are now going end-August and coming back early September, giving me 7.5 weeks of training block (including taper) after the holiday.

The tough task is now how to properly train for the marathon. The good thing is that I am training for the Army Half Marathon on 24 Aug, so hopefully there is a natural training progression. Really gotta start ramping up those long runs !!

Anyway, training was good this week. Unlike other weeks, where I had to cancel or shorten my sessions due to weather/work/family etc, I was able to do all my targeted workouts. I've also shifted the time for quality workouts (interval, tempo) to the late afternoon after work (5pm). The weather is still hot but the humidity is lesser.

My next races are:
Mizuno Wave Run 10k next Sunday
Charity Run (tentative). Clown will be in town, looking forward to run with him again
Pearl Izumi 20k on 10 Aug (my plan is to run it at marathon pace)
Army Half Marathon on 24 Aug

Mon (treadmill):
40 mins Recovery Run (av 5:39 min/km)
15mins weights

Tue (pavement):
1.6k warm up
12k Tempo Run @ 4:20 min/km (av HR 166, 85% Max)
1.4k cool down (total 15k)

Cloudy and windy, which was a nice change. HR was steady between 160-170bpm throughout the run and was only in the 170s after 10k. Av HR for the 12k was 166, which is lower than 170 during a 8k run at the same pace 2 months ago. Interestingly, the HR was similar to the tempo runs in Australia where it was only 15c! But wait a minute, Singapore weather is never cooler than 25c. So either I have made improvement (despite no PB to show) or the HR monitor was wrong !!

Wed (treadmill):
45mins Recovery Run (av 5:32)
Abs crunches

Thu (track):
10mins warm up incl strides
6 x 800m intervals @ 5k pace with ~2:30 jog (400m)
89, 90 = 2:59
89, 89 = 2:58
89, 89 = 2:58
89, 89 = 2:58
89, 89 = 2:58
88, 86 = 2:54
Average: 3:42 min/km, av HR 171, high 185
3 laps of sprint straights, jog curves, then 6mins cool down

Was targetting 2:56 (3:40 min/km) but legs were a bit tired. Anyway, was happy to complete all six under 3:00. Recovery time between the intervals was right for me, I think.

Friday (treadmill):
36mins Recovery Run (av 5:38)
10 mins weights

Saturday (road/pavement):
2h:05m Long Run (av 5:07)

At last, a long run !! Longest run in 3 months - which showed how pathetic I am. The time did not include 4 drink stops and traffic lights.

Sunday:
36mins Easy Run (av 5:20)

Total 80k for the week, 1916k for the year