One week to go !!!
In previous years, I always felt that I wasn't training enough and still doing workouts close to the race in order to capture that last-minute fitness gain. But this time around, I felt that I have done enough !
For this cycle, my mileage is higher - last 10 weeks were 89, 88, 98, 105, 91,100, 109, 108, 84, 98 = avg 97 km. In previous training cycles, my average mileage is probably 10% lower but I did more intense speed and tempo sessions. This time I loosely followed the Pfitz program, which focused more on endurance, ie 1 long run, 2 medium long runs, and 1 workout; as compared to my normal structure of 1 long run, 1 medium long run, and 2 workouts. We'll find out whether this one works.
We will fly to Seoul on a red-eye flight Wednesday midnight, arriving in Seoul on Thursday morning. This leaves me a good 2.5 days to catch up on some sleep and acclimatize to the weather. Today's weather in Seoul is bloody COLD at between -5c and 2c with a windchill of -6c and windgust of 35 km/h. !!! Accordding to weather.com, this feels like -9c. The long-range forecast suggests it will be around -1c and 10c but with 60% chance of rain !!!!
Makes me think that maybe I should do marathons more frequently such as 3-4x a year. Waiting for that 'one fine day' with perfect conditions is like winning a lottery !
Mon 05-03-12
36mins easy run (av 5.20)
Easy run at Padang grass field.
Tue 06-03-12
10.5 km in 50mins, including Deek Quarters session
The program calls for 3*1600 at 5k pace, but I decided to do a Deek Quarter session instead. Rationale is that the program includes 2 tune-up races, but I didn't do any due to races inavailability and I thought a continuous session like this will bring a bit of pain Splits for 400m fast/200m floats: 86, 48, 86, 55, 85, 52, 88, 54, 88, 54, 87, 55, 90, 54, 89, 53, 43 = total 5k in 19:25. Paid the price for doing the first few 400s at 85s, resulting in a surival mode in the second half (slowed to just under 90 per 400). Anyway, it was a good practice since I haven't raced for 4 months. HR wasn't high at 171 with a high of 182 bpm (my Max is still in 190s, I think)
Wed 07-03-12
8+ km recovery run in 45mins (av 5.25)
Easy run around the river. Went for massage in the afternoon.
Thu 08-03-12
15 km in 69mins (av 4.36), including 2*3 miles tempo
This is outside the program, but just something that I normally did before some of my better marathons, a good MP-HMP tempo about 10 days before the race. In the past, I used to be too aggressive by doing 10-13km continuous tempo, but this time I decided for something more moderate. Did the first 3miles in 20.21 (av 4.14/km), 3.30 recovery, then the second in 19.19 (av 4.01 min/km, last 1k faster at 3.50s). All up, 9.6km worth of work in 39:40 (av 4.08). Felt quite OK throughout, helped by the decent weather right after the rain.
Fri 09-03-12
9+ km recovery in 52mins (av 5.30)
Easy run around the river.
Sat 10-03-12
20 km medium long run in 98mins (av 4.55)
Surprisingly legs aren't still that snappy even with taper. Maybe because I did 2 workouts this week, instead of 1 as envisaged in the program. Started with couple of slow ks (5.30-6.00 min/km), the moved to 5.00s for most of the run and finally picked up the pace to around 4.40 in the last 30mins
Total 70k in 5h49m (av 5.00)
2 comments:
Great stuff Widi- all the best for Seoul and looks like you're in good shape. Go for gold and looking forward to hearing how you go
I think you'll run well providing the weather isn't atrocious.
The fewer 'workouts' of the Pfitz plan is advantageous for marathon racing. Traditional track-type workouts just teach the body to burn carbs, not fat. You want fat burning (a smooth transition to it) for a good marathon. Take it easy this week and load up on the carbs the last day.
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