Still undecided about what to do in Melbourne.

Training update for the past fortnight is as follows:

Monday 23/9 - 12 km's easy

Tuesday 24/9 - 8 km's jogging

Wednesday 25/9 - "Special Block"

AM - 21 km's - 9 easy followed by 11 tempo  & 1 warm-down. Tempo in 41:25 - All up continuous running - 87:03

PM - 26 km's (Altitude Chamber) - 40 mins easy then 11 x 1000 off 500 m float recovery. Ran to HR - 150's (marathon effort) for intervals / 140's for float. 

Thursday - 4 km's - Slow jogging and drills + light strides

Friday - 22.2 km's - 92:50 

Saturday - 3 x 2000 followed by 1 x 1000. Heavy legs took a while to get going. 6:59 / 6:53 / 6:33 / 3:13 splits. Approx 16 km's including warm up and warm down.

Sunday - 33.3 Easy

All up - 141.5 km's for the week (10:47 hours)

This Week

Monday 30/9 (Altitude Chamber) - Progress paced fartlek with decreasing interval times.  1 min jog recovery in between reps / sets. 1 x 5 mins (14.5 km/h) / 2 x 4 mins (15.0 / 15.1 km/h) / 3 x 3 mins (15.2 / 15.3 / 15.4 km/h) / 4 x 2 mins ( 15.5 / 15.6 / 15.7 / 15.8 km/h) / 5 x 1 mins (15.9 / 16.0 / 16.1 / 16.2 / 16.3 km/h) - 6 x 30 sec's (16.4 / 16.5 / 16.6 / 16.7 / 16.8 / 16.9 km/h). Finisheding with 1 x 1 km in 3:30. Felt strong. Probably best result yet in the chamber.

Tuesday - 22.0 easy - 1:40 hr's

Wednesday - 7.6 km's (progressive easy)

Thursday - (Altitude Chamber) - 25 mins tempo.  10 mins warm up, 15 mins at 15.0 km/h followed by 10 mins with pace increasing from 15 km/h to 16.5 km/h. Short warm down.

Friday - 5 km's on grass in vibrams with 5 x 100 m strides

Saturday - 27 km's. fairly relaxed 1:59 hrs

Sunday - 13 slow jogging. Followed with 5 x 100 metres strides barefoot on grass.

All up 101.8 km's for the week in 7:56 hrs.

I have 1 week now to decide whether to do the 1/2 marathon in Melbourne or switch up to the full marathon. Weather forecast looks good (9 degrees increasing to 15 degrees in the morning). Whilst I'm entered for the half, it would be pretty hard to pass up on doing the full in those conditions especially if there is little or no wind. Will probably make up my mind on the Saturday when I get down there.