Recovery Week

I pulled up with extremely sore quads after the Melbourne Marathon. It wasn't until yesterday that I could walk or run without pain. Monday and Tuesday the pain was quite excruciating and I took the opportunity to have 2 complete rest days. Training for the rest of the week as follows:

Wednesday - 3 km's approx barefoot on grass. Didn't bother with the GPS. Just slowly rolled the legs over. Whilst the quads hurt, I actually enjoyed the freedom of a slow jog on grass without shoes etc.

Thursday - 45 mins in the altitude chamber. 30 mins jogging then 10 mins on the cross trainer with 5 x 20 second surges. Finished off with 5 mins back on the treadmill jogging. Stretched and did core work in the chamber afterwards making up 90 mins in there.

Friday - Rest

Saturday
AM - 6 km's progressive paced tempo. Splits: 3:38 / 3:35 / 3:32 / 3:30 / 3:26 / 3:22. Ran on grass in vibrams. Stiff at first but settled in progressively. 14 km's all up.

PM - 6 km's jogging on grass

Sunday - 23.5 's on grass. Slow jogging at first and progressively picked up the pace to low 4's and finished with a couple km's just under. Took the shoes off afterwards and jogged 500 metres to round off.

I'll avoid the roads again next week but plan to do the Run 4 Fun 10 km road race at Homebush next Sunday.

Lastly I decided today to enter the London Marathon next year. I'm able to get a start as a UK Championship competitor, which requires a sub 2:45 in the past 2 years. Initially I was going to do Rotterdam, but having already done it twice it is too hard to pass up the opportunity to run my 4th major.

Melbourne Marathon

I decided yesterday to switch my entry from the half marathon to the full. Glad I did. Whilst I didn't run a PB or even a sub 2:40, I ran a satisfying 2:41:04. The conditions were generally not too bad. Temperature increased from 12.5 degrees to 13.9 degrees, but there was a bit of wind about and the humidity was high.

For me, the most pleasing thing was running a well controlled race with fairly even splits. The first half I covered in 80:30 and the second 80:34. The conditions were certainly tougher heading back with more running into the wind and a couple of smallish climbs that felt very tough at the time. 

I'm already looking forward to my next marathon and am keen to see if I can maintain the consistency or possibly even improve. My past 4 marathons have been within 84 seconds of each other. I still feel like I'm improving and am certainly learning more about myself along the way. Bringing the altitude chamber into my programme and experimenting with beetroot juice seems to have been a winner. I also feel the Carnova Special Blocks have been very worthwhile. 

Getting crook a few weeks back was far from ideal and it certainly meant I needed to adjust the programme on the fly and shorten the taper period to only 6 days. So whilst I felt strong enough today, I lacked freshness and ran on very heavy legs. Flying down the day before is a mistake I wouldn't repeat. Far too much walking around when I should've been laying on the bed reading or watching movies. 

So that's Melbourne Marathon #2 and #14 overall done and dusted. My enthusiasm is as strong as it was when I first started nearly 7 years ago and most importantly I'm still having fun. The friendships and experiences along the way have truly been wonderful. I wouldn't swap this sport for any other. I just love it!

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.

Slowly getting over the flu.

Despite not feeling too well, I persevered with the training last week. I finished off last week with the following runs:

Wednesday - 18 km's in the altitude chamber. 

Thursday - 5 km's jogging

Friday - 1/4's x 8 (200 jog recovery). Ran at the gym, but had to wait till nearly closing time for a turn on the treadmill in the chamber. Ended up cycling for a bit whilst waiting. Got bored with the cycling so ended up and running on the treadmill outside. Only managed to get the final 4 reps in whilst in the chamber. 

Saturday - 6000 tempo - 20:56 on grass. Nothing flash but held my pace and picked up a little after 3000. Felt flat, probably back to around 80% health.

Sunday - 30 km's in 2:09, included 3 x 2000 (500 jog recovery) after 20 km's. Went a little too hard on that first interval. Dropped off the pace on the 3rd interval. (7:00 / 6:58 / 7:16).

Only 80 km's and 6 runs for the week.

Zzzzzz'z

Any thoughts of running a marathon in Melbourne in 4 weeks time have firmly been put to rest. Illness has gotten the better of me and I've hardly trained for the past week and a bit. I did manage to get the one run in in the altitude chamber last Wednesday but that was the end of me. No doubt I pushed myself when I should've rested. Following that I spent the next 4 & 1/2 days in bed. I did surface today to go to work, but felt pretty ordinary all day. I attempted a jog tonight but after 30 mins I'd had enough.

As to where to from here, I have no idea. First step is to get over this flu or whatever it is and then consider my options. 

Flights booked, but what to do?

I finally got around to booking my flights for Melbourne marathon weekend. As yet though I'm still undecided whether to do the half or full. My training has been geared around doing the full, but at this stage I'm entered for the half. A last minute switch though is the likely scenario if the weather forecast is looking good a few days out. 

As for training this week, it's been one of those weeks where every run just felt hard.

Monday - 3.2 km's slow jogging. Felt crap so went home.

Tuesday - 2000 / 1600 / 1200 / 800 / 400 / 5 x 200. Probably the only run this week where I felt good. Hit the goal 3:20 pace for every rep. Did the last 5 x 200 slightly uphill. 400 recovery jogs except 200 in between the 200's. 15 km's continuous running all up in 66 mins.

Wednesday - Altitude Chamber. It was an absolute sweat pit in the chamber. The A/C was off and it was apparently 28 degrees in there. I've never sweated so much in my life. Did a bit of a fartlek session in there. 15 mins warm-up then 20 x 1 min on / 1 min off. 16.5 km/h hard and 10.0 km/h recovery. I'm guessing that equates to around 3:15's & 5:00's at sea level. It was hard work but my form held together. Followed with a short recovery jog and then finished out to 90 mins with 30 second surges followed by 90 sec recovery jogs. All up 18 km's in 90 mins. Sounds ridiculously slow doesn't it but my average HR was 147 and I reckon I lost 2-3 kg's in there. Running in the altitude chamber certainly doesn't make the diary look pretty. Luckily I couldn't care less. I'm really enjoying the variety and its food for me to toughen up a little by running in warmer conditions. I know I'm notorious for being someone who seeks out cold races and cool training conditions.

Thursday - Easy 17 km's - Felt flat.

Friday - 1 hour marathon effort tempo. 16.4 km's in the hour. Ran it purely to heart rate following my marathon heart rate formula, which is to keep my HR below 150 after 3 km's and allow a 1 BPM drift every 3 km's thereafter. I know this formula works well for me so I like to practise it in training rather than running to time splits. All up 20 km's of continuous running in 77:11. To be honest, my heart rate defied how I felt. Heavy hips and just felt flat. Not surprising though, having raced the previous Sunday, hard sessions Tue & Wed and not enough sleep due to being busy at work.

Saturday - 13 progressive easy in 59:16. Finished at low 4:00's pace. Ave HR 122

Sunday - 37 km's in 2:30:22. Average HR 143. No problems with the ticker but my legs and hips felt flat. 

123.3 km's for the week. Average pace 4:26

SIDS Stampede

Solid week of training this week topped off with a win today at a small Fun Run in Windsor supporting SIDS. A lovely way to see in "Fathers Day" , which certainly made up for the early rise at 5:15 am.

A brief rundown of training. 130 km's for the week, made up of:

Monday:  10 km's easy

Tuesday: 17 km's progression run in 75 mins finishing at 3:30 pace.

Wednesday: 3 x 30 mins "Carnova Run" at marathon intensity in the "Gas Chamber". 25 km's all up, which included 2 km's warm-up, 7 km's @ 14 km/h, 1 km easy, 7 km's @ 14.1 km/h, I
1 km easy,  7 km's @ 14.2 to 14.5 km/h. I'm yet to get an accurate read on the pace differential when running at simulated 3200 above sea level but intuitively I'm guessing somewhere around 2-3 km/h. I keep forgetting to take my heart rate monitor to try and sort of work it out with a little scientific data to back it up. What I can say is that running at 14 to 14.5 km/h usually feels pretty easy even for a long run but it feels like bloody hard work for me in the chamber. I'm scheduled for another session next Wednesday in the chamber, so I'll do my best to remember to take my HRM along.

Thursday - Leg Buster session. Started with an hour of leg weights including, lunges, single leg lunges, squats, single leg squats, curls, extensions, incline press, medicine ball squats and throws, lunges with kettle bells, dead lifts, high leg step ups, box jumps and whatever felt good at the time. Followed it with a 9 km run, which included 15 mins of progressive incline running (0-15 degrees) starting at 14 km/h and progressively slowing as the incline increased. Short recovery and then 8 x 4% incline surges off 1 min easy recovery.

Friday - Slow 10 km's

Saturday - 35 km's averaging 4:23's, relaxed

Sunday - SIDS Stampede Fun Run - 10.2 km in 36.07 plus warm up and warm down. Nice to get a rare win even if only in a small event. Managed to run an extra 200 metres because I found myself in the unaccustomed position of leading and running straight through the turn point. I had no idea it was a 2 lapper. Nothing flash about the time, but it was irrelevant today. I only decided to do it last night instead of doing a solo tempo. Turns out I ended up doing a solo tempo anyway. No point in going overboard so I just treated it as a comfortably hard training session. There was a massive downhill at the start, which inevitably means a massive uphill finish to both laps. Felt strong though running uphill. The rest of the course was very flat. Lovely brisk and windless conditions otherwise and a great morning to be out racing. I wish every race had weather conditions like this morning.

Ran with my mate "Oldman" in the arvo for a nice recovery jog. Luckily for me he ran a hard 35 km run in the morning so we managed to run at slightly above walking pace. 7 km's in 41 min's plus around Parra Park.