Week 8 of 13 Marathon Training

Monday:
5k up including drills + strides
3 x 3k Intervals, alternating between HMP and MP
per k splits:
1st: 4.03, 4.12, 4.05 = 12.20, 3mins rec
2nd: 4.03, 4.11, 4.04 = 12.18, 3mins rec
3rd: 4.05, 4.11, 3.59 = 12.15 (stopped 30secs between each k as HR was too high for this effort)
Total 9k in 36.53, av pace 4.06
2k down (10.50)
Total 16k in 73mins

Suffered from food poisoning and gastric. Did a couple of intervals to toilet during the night and lack of sleep caused me to feel lethargic today. No sun, but the morning was very humid and super stuffy. Did the first couple sets at comfortably hard effort but struggled in the last set due to rising temperature and tiredness. HR spiked from av 170 (88% Max) in the first set, to 178 (93%) in the second set, to 180s (93%+ ) in the 3rd - which is way too high for a threshold session. Decided to stop for 30secs after every k in the last set to bring HR down a bit, but still reached 96% Max at the end.

Felt very shagged afterwards and even for the whole day. It's just so depressing that I ran at about HM pace but my HR was close to the Max. Resting HR continued to be 15bpm higher for the rest of the day.

Tuesday:
8k recovery in 45 (5:37), treadmill.

Wednesday:
AM: 19k medium long run in 94 (4.57)

Hot and stuffy weather. First hour at 80% MP, next 30mins at 90% MP. Still suffering from gastric issues.

PM: 5k recovery in 29 (5.47), treadmill

Thursday:
15mins warm up with strides
Fartlek
4 x 2.5 mins at 10k effort with 1.15 rec
10mins at HM effort
4 x 1min at 5k effort with 1min rec
2.5mins jog between sets
2k cool down
Total 13k in 61 (4.42)

Took easier recovery between reps in order not to over-stress the abdomen since I am still suffering from gastric issues. Averaged 3.50 pace flat for all of the 2.5mins reps and 4.04 pace for the 10mins sustained run. The 1min paces were slightly all over the place due to GPS hiccups (3.39, 3.35, 3.50, 3.43). There was a boat show at Keppel Marina meaning some sections were closed, so I ran the reps back and forth on a 700m long road.

Friday:
7k recovery in 40 (5.40), treadmill

Saturday:
35k long run in 3hrs (5.10) - 2x Botanic + Dempsey loop
5k splits:
27.20 (5.28 min/km), 26.43 (5.21), 25.48 (5.10), 25.14 (5.03), 24.13 (4.51), 23.24 (4.41), 25.20 (5.04)

Since I always struggle with long runs, I decided to run much easily today in order to make the distance. Started at 70% MP (5.30 pace) for the first 5k, then upping the pace every 5k blocks until 90% MP (4.40 pace). Finished the last 5k with a bunch of 30secs strides and easy cool down. Weather wasn't too bad this morning with little sun. Happy to complete 35k LSD albeit with some stoppages and very slow pace. I plan a max of 3 hours to be my longest training run in this cycle, so I might as well get it out of the way.

Sunday
Off. Core session

Total 103k for the week

Week in Summary:

Good news is that Sling Jr has recovered from his sickness and should be back at his pre-school next week.. However, I came down with gastric irritation this week. It was particularly painful on Monday during my tempo session as the combination of hard breathing and stress on abdomen increases the acid reflux.

Local weather continues to be unforgiving with record temperatures recorded. Mornings were always hot, stuffy and humid. The difficulty with training for a Western summer (Aussie winter) marathons is that May-Aug are typically the hottest times of the year. It's also the forest fire season, so the air will be choc-a-block with haze.

Overall, pretty happy with the training week. 1 tempo, 1 medium long run, 1 fartlek, one long run, and first time running over 100k per week this year. Next Saturday I have a 25k race - which I am hoping to run at MP pace as race simulation. However, the race will be held at 4pm in the afternoon so it might be too warm for my liking. Judging from the snaking queues during the race pack collection, the race looks like will be a super duper crowded one. Furthermore, the route will be on narrow bike paths at East Coast Park.
If my meetings are confirmed, I might be in Hong Kong this Thu-Fri. Mulling over whether I should just do my race simulation there (6 x Bowen Road). Temperature will be around 25c versus Singapore afternoon's 's 33c (feels like 39c), so the conditions will be slightly better.

Oh ya, we have booked our tickets to Perth. Less than 5 weeks to go now...