26 April 2009

Week 2 of 12

Did 90k av 5:00 during Week 2 of 12.

Singapore weather has been really hot and humid this week (perhaps end of moonson??). Although, I’ve been whining about this a lot of times, but lately it has been really horrendous. As a result, both of my workouts this week: intervals & long run with tempo - were negatively affected. I had to take lots of lengthy standing breaks in order to complete the sessions and the effort were harder that they were supposed to be (note that the rest times were not reflected in my running times).

My trusty 3-year old Garmin 305 died on Thursday. Have been waiting to get the new waterproof Garmin 310xt, but it will only come out mid-year. In light of this, I’ve ordered a new unit of Garmin 305 from Amazon as temporary measure. The watch will only arrive early next week.

Two weeks have elapsed and I must conclude that my training has been very mediocre. The aerobic fillers (40mins daily runs) are still too short for marathon training. In addition, I still need lots of breaks/stoppages in order to complete the long workouts such as interval/tempo and long runs. Only 10 weeks left to go now and I really have to up the ante. One positive is that I am now back to 90kmpw zone again (actually touched 100k on rolling 7 days basis). One negative is that I am still troubled by the conditions. I just don’t know how to train my brain and body to handle the conditions. Perhaps I should do more doubles !!

Mon (Easy):
45mins Easy Run (5:00)
Ran a new route with a few gentle hills for variation. Did 5 x 12secs hill sprints.

Tue (Intervals):
AM:
3.8k warm up
3.2k at MP effort (4:21)
1600, 1600, 4 x 400, 1600
6.6k cool down incl 8 x 100 strides
Total workout 20k in 91mins (av 4:35)

It was cloudy, thundery and was about to rain when I did the track session, so the humidity was really high (28c, 90%).The plan was to do 4 x 1600 at 10k pace. Did the first two in 6:14 and 6:16 (av 3:55 pace) with 2mins recovery and was completely stuffed. Decided to salvage the session by replacing it with 4 x 400m averaging 1:25 (3:32) with 1mins rest. This seemed to put some snaps into the legs and I did another 1600m again in 6:11 (3:52). Did the cool down in the rain.

PM:
27mins Recovery Run (5:30) on treadmill

Wed (Easy):
AM: 48mins Easy on treadmill (5:20)
PM: Pilates (one hour)

Thu (Easy):
40mins Easy on treadmill (5:23)
GPS died today, replaced the outdoor session with a treadmill run (can’t run without it). Planned to do a second run in the evening but other commitments got in the way.

Fri (Easy)
60mins Easy on treadmill (5:08)
Another run on treadmill. Gradually progressing from 5:40 min/km to around MP.

Sat (Long with tempo):
27-28k Long Run in 135mins (~5:00)


No GPS so ran an approximated distance with some track work included. Conditions were very tough again, 28c and 90% humidity when I left the house at 6am. An easy 40mins run to the SMU track, followed by 5mins rest, 2 x 15mins Tempo (av 4:09 pace) at the track with 5mins rest. Was cooked after the tempo and rested for another 10mins. Met a friend (Yuji) who was doing 800 intervals and joined for 2 with split of 3:05, 3:15. Decided to stop after the slow split and took another lengthy rest before running 11k back home. The running time excluded around 30mins of rest time, recovering from the extreme humidity.

Sun (rest):
OFF.

Total 90k for the week

5 comments:

nws-tbz said...

Wow,you met realrunner when you were doing your run?I guess he was yasso 800,looking at your description.

Yes,it is extremely humid & hot weather here.Quite de-motivated to run actually :P

trailblazer777 said...

well done on keeping things ticking over despite the obstacles...dreadmill to the rescue hey...the tuesday intervals and the 27-28k long run imo should keep your improvement curve progressing...all the best with the GPS hassles, you could always do what I do, run with a $10 stopwatch, and measure the course on the street directory or with car odemeter or bike computer...all the best with the marathon charge as the final 10 weeks marks the get serious times for both of us...bring on July! Hope Baby sling and Mrs sling going ok too...

Ewen said...

I've been using the measure function on Google Earth since my Garmin died. It's amazingly accurate.

Doubles might be the way to go in those conditions. That way you get the weekly volume in, which does help with marathons. Can't see any way of avoiding the long run though.

Epi said...

Just keep getting out there and doing the mileage, no matter how slow or how many breaks you need to take.

I love the look of the 310xt - kinda hoping my garmin dies in a couple of months so I have an excuse to get one - looks better thean the 405 for my needs.

by7 said...

do not worry about the weather...
I read that hot weather influence the body in the same way as altitude training.
So just resign your self to be slower. Once you can run in cooler temp in Oz, you will feel like flying.
Maybe for the beginning you should stick to short intervals, so the body can cool down a bit and you can keep a good quality.
For short intervals I mean those workouts like 30/30or 60/60 where the load comes actually from the number of intervals rather than the speed itself