Week 5 of 12

Did 112k in over 9 hours (av 4:57) during Week 5 of 12.

Had a couple of good sessions: track workout on Tuesday and long run on Sunday. Between these two workouts, I was struggling, probably due to slower-than-expected recovery (sign of getting old!!) and soreness in the legs. Luckily, a few easy days and a deep-tissue massage brought me back to life.

I have entered a 10.4k race next Sunday (wanted to do the 15k but it was full). I just don’t understand why the organizers can’t make the turnaround a bit shorter in order to round it up to a proper 10k. No taper and will not care about the timing, other than a hard solid effort to practice ‘mental toughness’ (I think I bailed out in some workouts too easily). Might do a longish warm up and cool down to make it a medium long run.

I will make a decision re: GCM or Perth in a couple of weeks time (early June).

Mon (Easy):
AM: 40mins Easy (5:08)
PM: 30mins Easy on grass with 4 strides (5:18)
(Total 14k for the day)

Tue (Workout):
AM: 84mins (av 4:32) including Intervals (see below)
PM: 25mins Recovery on grass (5:50)
(Total 23k for the day)

27mins wu to the SMU track and did drills & strides. Then ran ‘3-by-3 intervals’ which consists of 3 x 1600 @ 10k pace + 3 x 800 @ 5k pace + 3 x 400 @ 1500-3k pace with 90secs walking between reps and 3:00 walking between sets. Splits were 6:14, 6:18, 6:17 (av 3:56 min/km), 3:02, 3:02, 3:02 (av 3:48), and 1:23, 1:26, 1:20 (av 3:28). Av HR data are worthless since walking recovery reverted HR to low numbers, which in turn lead to low av HR for the reps. Max HR were 177 for the 1600s, 182 for the 800s, and 184 for the 400s. Cool down was a 25mins slow jog. If I were to prepare for a 10k, probably the recovery has to be modified to brisk jogs.

Wed (Easy):
AM: 45mins Easy on treadmill (5:22)
PM: Indian dinner feast
(Total 8k + 2 beer for the day)

Thu (Workout):
AM: 35mins Easy on treadmill (5:12)
PM: 50mins (av 4:42) including 2 x 2-mile Tempo
(Total 18k for the day)

Inner thigh and outer fibula on the right leg were sore and slightly painful. Planned to do 3 x 2miles at around 4:10 pace, but bailed out after two. Also felt really sluggish, probably have yet to recover from Tuesday’s hard session.

Fri (Easy)
AM: 35mins Easy (5:33) - painful quads and fibula
PM: Abs

Sat (Easy):
AM: 45mins Easy with 3 strides (5:15)
PM: Massage

Sun (Long Run):
33.5k Long Run with MP (av 4:42)

I sucked at previous attempts of MP runs, hence decided to run at a different place. Took a cab to East Coast Park at 5:30am and started the run at 6am. The plan was to do time-based ladder with each one a couple of seconds faster (I am guessing my MP is around 4:20-4:30). Started with 17mins warm up, then 30mins @ 4:27 (162 bpm), refuel + 5mins jog, 25mins @ 4:24 (167), refuel + 5mins jog, 20mins @ 4:22 (171), refuel + 5mins jog, 15mins @ 4:19 (170), refuel + 5mins jog, 10mins @ 4:16 (173), refuel + 5mins jog, and finally 5mins @ 4:09 (178). Refuel stop was 2mins and recovery jog was a slow-mo at 6:00 pace. Weighted average HR is 168 (or Max – 25) for the tempo segments. Next time, I will try to shorten the re-fuel break and make the jog a bit faster.

Total 112k for the week