Did 88k in just over 7 hours (av 5:00) during Week 7 of 12
A recovery week. Only had one workout but a decent one.
Felt jaded early in the week due to fatigue. Wanted to do a 10k MP run on Wednesday but could last a measly 5k since the effort felt like a race. I got very frustrated with the frequent inability to complete workouts.
Flew to Melbourne to see my 2-month old son (he is very, very cute). Since this week is a recovery week, I decided to take a couple of days off to freshen up. My objective is to practice a race week routine by having a taper, carbo loading, before doing a 26.2k ‘marathon simulation’ run on Saturday.
Came Saturday, the temperature was windy, but cool at 13-14c with 70% humidity. I wore a 220gram racing shoes and started my run. The course was from home to Collingwood and back on the Koonung and Yarra trails. The route had a combination of flats, undulations and a couple ks of dirt road.
Started with 5k warm up at 4:44 pace and it felt so easy (in Singapore, my aerobic runs are about 30-60secs slower than this and I had to work my butt off!). I completed the 26.2k simulation run in 1h:56m, averaging 4:26 min/km. Felt strong the whole way and still had a lot left in the tank with only a minor tightness in the legs near the end. Rest time were very brief (total stopagges were less than 10mins, excluded from running time) compared to Singapore, where I virtually had to rest 5mins after running every 30mins in order to re-hydrate (I am a heavy sweater, hence lose lots of body fluid). Quads were beat up from the undulations afterwards. All up, with warm up and cool down, the total run was 35k in 2:40 (av 4:35 min/km). Thank God for the Aussie weather!
Overall, I am pretty happy with the simulation run (~2 hours of MP running), although the pace is a bit slower than anticipated (was hoping for low 4:20s). Average HR was 160s or 82% Max. Hopefully the next 3 weeks of training will help me to increase the ability to hold MP from 26.2k to 26.2 miles !
Mon: 100mins Easy (av 5:17)
Tue: 40mins Recovery (av 5:28)
Wed: 95mins Easy (av 5:08), aborted MP run
Thu: off
Fri: off
Sat: 160mins Long Run (av 4:35), with 26.2k @ MP
Sun: 43mins Recovery on grass/trail (av 5:28)
Total 88k for the week
7 comments:
One man's heavy week is another's easy week.
Seems to me you have built up quite some form in the Singapore conditions.
Nice effort re MP run and should be a nice confidence booster for you, well done. Perth's weather is even better.
Great to hear that you are spending some time with the family
Good recovery week - glad you're enjoying the Aussie weather. It strikes me that training in Singapore is like training at altitude!
You did well with what is a pretty long marathon simulation. Is 82% your marathon race-pace effort? Maybe it might average a little higher in an actual race?
Ewen - I am still unsure about my goal MP. Yesterday's route was mildly undulanting (lots of short hills) hence it's quite hard to keep an even pace. I think Hadd mentions that marathon HR is Max - 20 for a well trained runner. Hence, it seems theoretically I could run a bit faster, but don't know whether I could sustain it all the way.
Nice simulation run - looking forward to seeing you in Perth!
Looks like your singapore secret weapon is working for you. Great long "simulation" run!!! Good move to go see the little one...
Remember the heart rate will drift up as you get dehydrated, so either you run at the same pace and the heart rate goes up! or you keep the same pulse rate and slow down!
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