27 June 2010

Dog Day

Week 3 of 18 to Melbourne

Monday (intervals):
4k warm up to F1 track
5 x 1k at 5k pace, 2mins recovery
Splits: 3:38, 3:39, 3:40, 3:39, 3:39
4k cool down
Total session (w/u + c/d) 14k in 66.20 (av 4:45 min/k)

Woke up late and instead of doing the session at CCAB track which takes 5k going there and then return, I decided to go to the F1 track which is only 3k away. Unfortunately, the beer tent from last weekend's Singapore Beer Festival was still there and it chopped the 1k traffic-free road stretch by half ! Consequently, I had to do the intervals out and back on a 500m route. My plan was to do the 1ks at 3:40 pace and managed to do all of them spot-on although, the u-turns might over-state the distance a bit. Irregardless of the GPS accurancy, I felt that it was certainly a 5k-paced effort since my HR hit 186 in the last rep (my max probably 190??). Did a slow 5k in the arvo.

Tuesday (easy):
45mins easy (av 5:18 min/km)
10mins upper body weights

Wednesday (aborted session):
12k easy-moderate (av 4:40 min/km)

The plan was to do 10k MP (4:15 min/km), but had stomach issues and quit after 5k+. Honestly, I don't think 23mins worth of MP running (at 3-hour pace) has any fitness benefits at all. It was really a washed-out session.

Thursday (long):
24k long run in 2hours (av 5:00)

It just showed how disruptive a race can be to the training plan. Due to weekend's race, I have to do a longer run on a working day, which of course, comes with time constraints, resulting in shorter distance covered.

Friday (fartlek):
3k ez, 3k fartlek, 4k ez
Total 10k in 49:40 (av 4:58)

A light turnover session, 3 sets of 300m, 200j, 200m, 100j, 100m, 100j.

Saturday (rest):
Off. Core exercises

Sunday (race):
4.5k warm up
4.4k Cross Country Race in 17:28 (av 3:58min/km)
5.8k cool down

If it wasn't for a good cause to the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, I wouldn't bother to muck up my training plan and do this run. Didn't sleep well and woke up feeling lethargic. My HR went to the roof during the warm up and I was actually expecting a dog day. The race itself was a social fun run, involving mostly weekend warriors and families. After 100m, it was obvious that I had a good chance for placing. There were three of us in the front pack as we entered the forest. I happily sat back in 3rd place, running at 4:10 pace (just above my marathon pace) for the first 2.5k of forest trails. After that, we switched into the pavements and I made a move by passing the two. They never responded and I continued running the last 2k of mild undulating route at around 3.45-3:50 pace to finish first. At the end, I was 30secs ahead of the 2nd placed runner and still felt relatively fresh.

Won a Hewlett-Packard top-of-the-range laptop ($3k ??), David Gan salon voucher, NTUC grocery vouchers, and a 1-night stay at The Fairmont. Really didn't deserve this. Thank you.

Summary:
88k for the week, with one good workout (interval) and a less than 100% effort race. This week certainly doesn't look like a marathon training at all. Other than Monday's intervals, everything else was too moderate (5k MP run, 3k of fartlek, 4k of XC race at tempo pace). Basically I mucked up my marathon training and gave up a planned 30k+ weekend long run in return of  5 minutes of fame. Considering that I have been doing 9-10k tempo run at 4:00 pace in recent weeks, the pace at today's race was pretty lame. I entered the race with the intent to support the animals but was fortunate that there was no competition. I would probably be ranked in the top 20 in most 'serious' races locally, but today, I broke the tape first in a non-competitive race.
Does this make me a fun run whore?


7 comments:

Clown said...

Sling, I think you're being a bit hard on yourself.

Well done on your win and some great prizes, excellent.


You've done 88k in the week early in your plan with intervals, some fartlek,medium long run and a race. The 5k MP is also good as you're running at the pace you wish to become very comfortable with.

A very solid week, well done.

Epi said...

Congrats Sling

Take the race wins where you can get them! I think the challngs/tactics of being in contention to win a race are something a lot of mid pack runners like ourselves sadly miss out on, as we focus on time goals.

trailblazer777 said...

Congratulations on the win! A laptop...pretty awesome prize! Good racing practice...The 1k intervals are very good, some progression there. The 2hr long run especially and the aborted session, will keep things on track...
An easy week for you, but thats good because the body needs some easy weeks, mind you for someone currently at a lower level like me, I'd be extremely happy with a week like that...Hopefully you hit things a bit harder in the weeks ahead, but still a very effective weeks training, and a good short racing hit out, which is a good tune-up for the serious stuff later...
Congratulations!

Anonymous said...

Hey Sling,
We saw you make your move after you came out of the forest. I was with my dog and my daugther. I kinda knew it was you and told my daugther 'thats sling runner" Good on ya mate! Congrats!

Sling Runner said...

Anonymous,

I think I saw you too. Are from Sgrunners.com? What's your nick? :)

Ewen said...

No, not at all. You can only race those who turn up. Like the time I tied with my mate to become ACT 10,000m champions because we were the only two in the race! At least you had competition! Nice prizes - don't forget to declare them on your tax return ;)

Anonymous said...

my nick is alexruns. wish i had a running blog to give ya but i don't so i hope u dont mind me commenting once in a while.