10 September 2012

Stick or Twist?

Struggling to follow the Pfitz plan (which served me well last time around)

The plan requires waking up early 4 times a week to do 1 faster workout, 2 medium long runs, and 1 long run. And presently work/life commitments do not provide such luxury….

My medium long runs are around 12k-15k at the moment versus 18-24km in the program. To do the latter I need an extra hour, which essentially means getting up around 4.30am. Tried to add some doubles (short 2nd run), but pretty sure the training effects is incrementally not as good as a longer medium run in singles.

Last 2 weeks of training did not resemble the program, but more akin to an impromptu one. I’ll decide which sessions to do on the fly, depending what time I get up or how much time I have…

Have missed 3 medium long runs + 1 long MP session in last 2 weeks... Perhaps need to think about other programs which put less emphasis on mileage/medium long runs (e.g. Marius B program, Canova 101 etc)

11 weeks to go to Osaka…needs to decide soonest whether should I stick or twist?


Week of 27 Aug – 2 Sep

Monday 8km easy on treadmill (av 5.30); very hazy from forest fire in Sumatera so decided to run indoor

Tuesday AM 3km warm up with drills/strides to the Canal, 7km continuous tempo in 27.45 (av 3.58), 3k back home, total distance 13km; cool but very humid, hamstring tight and sore but quite pleased to average below 4 min/km for the tempo.

PM 7km easy around marina (av 5.26);

Wednesday 8km easy around Labrador (av 5.27), hamstring felt looser today

Thursday 12km easy on treadmill (av 5.15)

Friday 5k warm up to Gardens by The Bay, then 3*4k tempo with 7mins recovery in between – splits 16.15 (tailwind), 16.40, 16.56 (headwind, downpour), 15mins wait for the heavy rain to subside, 8k back home, total distance 27km; the slowing tempo splits were indicator that my fitness is still not there yet…

Saturday 6km very easy around the river (av 5.27); posterior tibia was sore

Sunday 19km medium long run (av 4.53), of which 12k was run circling 750m grass field, ran the last couple miles at 90% MP

Total 100km for the week


Week of 3-9 Sep

Monday 10km easy around Labrador (av 5.10), incl 6*20secs hill sprints

Tuesday 3k warm up with drills/strides to the Canal, 5*1k interval (av 3.48) with 90secs rec, 4k cool down, total distance 13km; pretty spent

Wednesday AM 15km easy (av 5.05), of which half was done on grass; couldn’t wake up early enough to do medium length run

PM 10mins weights + 25mins very easy on treadmill (5.48); tried to make up a bit of mileage

Thursday 7.5km easy on treadmill (av 5.35)

Friday 25km easy around District 9 (av 5.15); planned for 32k but too tired

Saturday & Sunday – off (travel)

Total 75km for the week