Week 3 Base Training - Reality Check

Felt much better this week - the calf strain has virtually gone away enabling me to run pain-free. Did two quality sessions, CV intervals on Tuesday and Tinman Tempo run on Thursday, followed by my longest run in the last three months at (please guess)......a mere 24 km !! Yes, the stats pretty much showed my endurance shape which has spiralled into pariah status. A 2-2.5 hours long runs were my weekly diet back in Oz. But since I am here, long runs always proved to be the most difficult session, underpinned by the harsh weather and lack of motivation.

I began to use HRM in some of the key workouts this week. Basically I need to accept that my running pace in Singapore has slowed by 10-20 secs/km compared to Oz. Back then, I considered 5:20 min/km plus as a jogging pace, but now 5:30 is definitely not a recovery pace and is actually more like an easy pace. My long run pace has also slowed down from about 5:00 to 5:15-5:20 min/km. Another example was Thursday's Tinman tempo run - 6k @ 4:15 pace at av HR of 177 bpm or 90% Max HR. In early 2007, I had a LT test in the lab and my pace at 90% MaxHR corresponded to my LT and this was at 4:00 min/km. Hence, this is another example of 15 secs/km slow down.

Next week will be a busy week in terms of work so I don't know how much I can afford to run. Next Saturday, I will be doing a relay run (three man) organized by the local running messageboard. This is a social event, so I plan to run the relay leg at tempo training effort.

My training this week was as follows:

Monday
20:00 easy + 7:00 @ 5% grade (av 5:20 min/km - treadmill)

Tuesday
Morning (grass field) -
Intervals @ 10k pace: 4 x 1000m (3:51, 3:59, 3:53, 3:54, av. 3:55), 2:00 jog
Strides: 2 x 00:40, 4 x 00:15
Total Workout: 55:00 incl. warm up & cool down

Afternoon - 20:00 jogging (av 5:47 - treadmill)

Wednesday
Morning - 1 hour Yoga
Afternoon - 40:00 slow (av 5:34 - treadmill)

Thursday
Steady Tempo: 6k in 25:33 (av 4:16/177 bpm)
Hill Reps: 4 x 100m
Total workout: 50:00 (av 4:42)

Friday
20:00 gym work + 45:00 slow (av 5:32 - treadmill)

Saturday
2:05:00 Long Run (av 5:13)

Sunday - 42:00 easy (av 5:14 - treadmill)

Total 78.0 km for the week
Total Time 6h:46m
Av pace 5:12 min/km
Year-to-date mileage 186.0 km (av 62.0 km per week)
Year-to-date av pace 5:11 min/km