Nearly ready to get serious again!

3 weeks have passed since the Rotterdam Marathon and I'm now physically and mentally ready to get serious again! Time to start eating healthy again and give away the beers for a while.

I've got a few races planned over the next 2 months, before getting marathon specific for October's Chicago Marathon:

17/5 - Victorian Masters 10,000 metre track race.
4/6 - NSW State 10,000 Road Championships
3/7 - Gold Coast 1/2 Marathon

I picked up the mileage a bit last week and entered a low key 1/2 marathon on the spur of the moment.

Summary of training last week is as follows:

Monday 25/4 -

12.8 km's - 57:28 - Pleasant run in the rain. Light progressive paced, started at a jog, into easy and finishing steady.

Tuesday 26/4 - 5 km light windsprints session (30 seconds hard / 30 seconds jog recovery)

15.9 km's - 1:10:58 - A little sluggish. Ran the windsprints based on right foot landstrikes. 45 on 45 off. Windsprints mainly over a hilly trail. Didn't focus on times, in fact didn't even time the splits. Effort about 85-90%. Average H/R 142.

Wednesday 27/4

23.7 km's - 1:52:30 - Hilly trail run. Sluggish. Tired legs and stiff in the lower back. Found the downhill over the last 7 km's tough. Average H/R 138.

Thursday 28/4

Rest

Friday 29/4

15.9 km's - 1:14:31 - Easy effort. 1/2 road & 1/2 grass.

Saturday 30/4

Rest

Sunday 1/5

1.6k warm up & 8 km warm down.

Got what I hoped for out of the race. 77:55 - Reasonable time, despite being nearly 3 mins below PB (75:04) set at Gold Coast last year. Felt a little sluggish & lacked speed, however strength was fine. Held a reasonable pace throughout and finished solidly. Expected this considering that I'm still in marathon recovery mode, low mileage, 3 hilly runs over past week, weight gain (3 kgs),  and focus on aerobic running instead of speedwork.

All up 99 km's for the week - 7:26:23 (Average Pace - 4:31)