Running wise, I have been sticking rigidly to the 'Road to Nowhere' training plan. Doing 30 minutes jog almost every day as part of my comeback trail from injury. My legs also seem to enjoy the natural healing process and the injury began to improve gradually. It's a different feeling running without any goals/races in the foreseeable future (actually I have a HM on 5 Dec but I don't really care about the result). No pressure to run hard, I don't have to think about workouts yada yada yada. Just put on the ipod, shoes, then run and watch the world go by.
Until….
One day I was browsing the internet for running places in Madrid and accidentally found a race calendar (oops !!). There is a 10k race during that weekend called 'el derbi de las aficiones - corre por tu equipo', translated as The Derby of Affection - Run for Your Team. Madrid has two soccer teams - Real and Atletico and there is intense rivalry between them (similar to AFL's West Coast vs Freo or Adelaide vs Port Adelaide) and the race is themed around that. Participants will get a shirt upon registration, either in Real or Atletico's colors and then race with their supported team shirts. The run will start from Real's home stadium - Santiago Bernabeu and finish at Atletico's stadium - Vicente Calderon.
Temperature in late November is around 10c, the course also has a net drop in elevation….Should be a great race to attempt a PB. The problem is right now I AM NOT FIT :(
But what the heck! I've never raced in Europe before and it will be a great experience :)
Therefore, I've upped the ante this week in order to get me half-fit for the race. Not sure it is the wisest thing to do given I just came back from injury.. My sessions this week indicated I lost a lot of fitness from 2 months month layoff. On Tuesday, I ran 10mins tempo at 4:10 pace and found it freaking hard (when I was fit, I used to run 40-50mins tempo week-in week-out). While on Thursday, I did 6x1k reps with 2mins walking breaks and I was dying (usually I could do them off 60-90secs jog)
Anyways, my 2-week training to get myself half-fit for the Madrid 10k race:
Week 1 (this week)
Mon: 7k recovery (5:40)
Tue: 13k run (av 4:50), incl 2 x 10mins tempo @ 4:10 min/km + 10x 30secs on/off
Wed: 7k recovery (5:40)
Thu: 11.5k run (4:50) incl 6 x 1k @ 3:50s with 2mins walking recovery
Fri: 6.5k recovery (5:30)
Sat: 21k run (5:00), first hour easy, last 40mins moderate at 4:40s
Sun: off
Total 66k for the week
Week 2 (taper)
Mon: easy run
Tue: fartlek
Wed: easy run, fly to Madrid via London on red eye
Thu: Jetlagged
Fri: easy run
Sat: easy run
Sun: 10k race
I think I should be ok running at 800m altitude, but interestingly, the chart below shows that running performance is negated even at moderate altitude. Time to exhaustion decreases by 20% with an increase in altitude from 300m to 800. So assuming I am in low 40s shape right now and coming from 0m altitude (sea-level), then maybe I should expect a 50minute 10k LOL
4 comments:
Ha! Classic.
No point fighting your natura instincts - hope it's a great holiday.
Enjoy your holiday, I'm sure you'll have a blast.
Cool, getting to run in Europe, best of luck in the 10k.
"Accidentally found a race calendar" - good one!
Sounds like a fun race. Hop "your" team wins. Yes, bit of a shame you're not in top form - looks like a great course. Re the altitude... Canberra is at about 600m, which I read somewhere is worth 2-3 minutes extra for a 3 hour marathon. For 10k, maybe 20-30 seconds.
sounds awesome...races are just tooooo enticing...keep enjoying the running with no pressure, and hope Madrid is heaps of fun, and who knows the 10k race might go better than expected too...All the best!
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