Week 11 of 12

Did 70k in 5 and ¾ hours (av 4:55) during Week 11 of 12

I really enjoyed my first week taper. Singapore mornings have been cool (26c & cloudy) all this week and these made running much more palatable. In addition, I felt that all the runs were relatively easy effort-wise, which could mean two things: 1) my body has adapted to training and ready to peak, or 2) I didn’t train hard enough and my training intensity during taper were too easy.

Ran 6 days a week and only had Monday off. My taper plan was to maintain running frequency (to keep weight in check) with a 20-30% reduction in mileage, for instance long run was cut from 30 to 24k, recovery runs from 40mins to 30mins, as well as shortened duration for speed session. I did 3 workouts at varying intensities this week: 10k MP run 12 days out, 2 hour easy long run 10 days out, and a controlled 5k race at 10k pace effort 7 days out.

My plan for the race week is to do a short run on Monday, 12-13k on Tuesday including 5k of moderate pace running (sub MP to MP), fly to Melbourne Tuesday night, rest on Wednesday, 8-10k run including 3k MP on Thursday, 30mins jogging Friday, and 10-15mins jog once I arrive in GC on Saturday evening. Probably 35-40k in total for Mon-Sat.

All the best to Rob, Craig, TB, and Henry who are running Perth Marathon on Sunday as well as Max, Ewen and others who are doing GC. All the best to you all!

By the way, for anyone who cares, my bib is M2521.

Training this week:

Mon (Rest):
Off.

Tue (Tempo):
14k run in 65mins (av 4:38) including 10k @ 4:18 min/km

Jogged for 2k and then ran 10k tempo in 43mins flat (av 4:18) at a few seconds faster than MP. Av HR was 164 bpm with a high of 173. Hopefully today’s tempo will make the MP feel easier at least for the first half of the marathon next week. Broke-in a new pair of shoes for the marathon.

Wed (Easy):
6k Recovery (av 5:23), 3 strides

Thu (Long):
24k run in ~120mins (av 4:55)

Last long run 10 days out and decided to make it an easy one (previous 2 long runs were moderate paced and not fat-burning mode). After a couple of ks of warm up jog, ran ~90 minutes at 4:55-5:00 pace. Then picked up the pace to MP + 5%-8% (4:30-4:40) in the last 20minutes. Tried the Endura (GCM sports drink) for the first time.

Fri (Easy):
9k Easy-Moderate (av 4:55) + 6 x 15sec hill sprints

Sat (Easy):
5k Recovery (av 5:32)

Sun (Race):
11.5k run consisting of:
- 600m warm up
- 5.24k Brooks Republic Run in 20:28 (av 3:55, 5k in 19:36)
- 5.7k cool down

My plan was to treat the race as my last speed workout and to run it at 10k pace. Didn't sleep well the night before and arrived late at the race location. Only had the time to deposit bag and go to the toilet. Did only 600m warm up to the start line and went off. Very controlled effort from the start and once I hit the target pace, I just locked it in and stayed there. In fact, my shoe lace got undone after 2k, but too lazy to stop and tie it. Just ran steady, without any huffing and puffing and no attempt to kick.Splits: 3:55, 3:54, 3:57, 3:56, 3:53 (passed 5k in 19:36), and 51secs for the last 235m. Average HR was 171 bpm with a high of 183 bpm versus my actual Max HR of 193bpm, hence it seems that I still have a lot of in the tank. In sum, I pretty much got all I wanted from the run: a good leg speed workout without having to dig deep into my energy reserves (straining) and came out without any muscle soreness. A quick look at McMillan calculator, it says that an all-out 19:36 5k is equivalent to 3:11 marathon, so hopefully my marathon shape is under that.

Todays' race was won by a Kenyan Thomas Kiprotichs and the second place was Clinton Mackevicius, a former Australia's nation 1500m runner in late 1990s (~3:45 timing)

Total 70k for the week (1060k in last 11 weeks)