Week 5 of 12

Week 5 of 12, 55-70 miles modified program

Pfitz program: 11, 24, 8, 16 (4miles tempo), 11, 27 = 97 km
Actual: 0, 24, 9, 18, 10, 30 = 91 km

A recovery week according to Pfitz, but his schedules still calls for 97 km (or 60 miles) this week ! Missed one session of easy run due to travelling, so I am quite pleased with doing 90k.

Modified a couple of workouts: on Tuesday I incorporated the tempo session into the medium long run and ran slighly more tempo work (2 x 5k as compared to 4 miles secheduled); and on Saturday, did a few kms at MP at the end of my long run. Weather has been great this week, windy which made conditions a bit cooler.

Last 5 weeks mileage have been 89, 88, 98, 105, and 91 for an average of 94 km. Missed a couple of runs (and cut short a few kms in some runs) here and there, but nailed most of the key workouts. The next 4 weeks will be challenging with about 110-115 km (70 miles) scheduled in every single week ! (gulp). Hopefully I can survive this heavy training block for the next one month and still alive to do taper.

Mon 23-01-12
OFF, travelling

Tue 24-01-12
24 km medium long run with tempo in 113mins (av 4.43)
The schedule calls for 24km medium long run today and a tempo session on Thursday. After two rest days and eating a lot due to the lunar new year, legs were fresher and body felt full of pent-up energy (lots of crap !!). Decided to improvise by embedding the tempo within the medium long run. Adopted one of Daniels' workout, namely 30mins E, 20mins T, 30mins E, 20mins T. Splits were 30mins @ 5.11, 20mins @ 4.07, 30mins @ 4.58, 20mins @ 4.05, then finishing with couple of km easy. The tempo pace were a tad slower than I wanted to be, but it felt good to to complete the workout. Av HR for the tempo pieces were 164 bpm and 166 bpm respectively - which seemed low.

Wed 25-01-12
9 km recovery run in 50mins (av 5.32)
Easy run around home and the river.

Thu 26-01-12
18 km medium long run in 90mins with strides (av 5.00)
Short on sleep, so I was feeling zombie-esque. Ran the first 65mins averaging 5.10 min/km including 8 strides. Then ran the last 25mins at 4.30 min/km so that the run would be completed in 90mins.

Fri 27-01-12
10 km easy in 52mins (av 5.10)
Easy run along the river. Loved a windy day.

Sat 28-01-12
30 km in 147mins (av 4.54)
Long run done in progression style. Ran 5k segments at 5.30, 5.10, 4.55, 4.45 min/km then 6km at 4.15 pace. Finished with 3k+ cool down. Decided to test the water by doing some MP running after 20km. It was a grind, but I reckoned I could run a couple more ks, but decided not to dig too deep.

Total 91k in 7h31m (av 4.58)