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.

"The Gas Chamber"

The words "I survived" probably best describe this past week of training. In addition to the continued emphasis on leg and core strength, I upped the ante with the hard long runs. I decided to do all of my medium long run in the altitude chamber and part of the long run in there. I'm enjoying the new challenge of running in the chamber, but I must say it is bloody sweaty hard work. I'm not sure if its the gas they pump in there to simulate 3200 metres above sea level or if its just bloody hot in there. What I can say is that every time I'm done in there I'm literally drenched. I unashamedly ditched the singlet because it was just soaked so bad it felt like I was swimming with clothes on. Even my shoes get soaked right through like I've been running through puddles. Leaving the chamber literally feels like leaving the Sahara in summer and immediately walking into the Arctic Circle. 

During the week, I haven't been able to do my runs until after 8:30 pm. So this has meant that I was forced to do 5 days straight of treadmill running. Pretty mind numbing I must say, but it beats running in the dark late at night. It felt great to finally run on a stationary surface over the weekend. 

A summary of the week that was is as follows:

Monday - 18 km's - 75 mins. Initial 12 km's progressive paced, starting slowly (6:00's) picking up to 3:45's. The ensuing 6 km's I maintained 3:40's with 8 x 30 seconds over progressively increasing inclines (1-8%) and then 2 x 60 seconds at 4%.

NB: Did 30 mins of heavy leg weights at lunch.

Tuesday - 16.4 km's - 75:15. Progressive paced finishing at around 3:55's.

Wednesday - 20 km's - 97:32. Ran in the "gas chamber". Included 6x30 seconds, 4 x 1000 off 400 recovery (3:59 / 3:58 / 3:57 / 3:56). I was pretty spent after those intervals. The effort felt like sub 3:20's. Easy running after that with 3 x 20 seconds to finish up.

Thursday - 20 mins solid then 3000 T/T

Had nothing. 5.1 km's. 5 min walk recovery then 10:11 for the TT

Friday - 9 km's - 43:49 - Easy hills finishing with 5 x 30 seconds

Saturday - 38 km's - 2:57:35

5 km's on treadmill outside, then 13 km's in the "gas chamber" (61 mins) then 5 more km's again on the treadmill outside the chamber. Continued outside on the road with 15 km's over hills. Felt depleted afterwards. My longest long run since May I think.

Sunday - Hills 

Included 1 x 2 mins, jog back then 4 sets of 60/40/20 seconds off 30 seconds with a jog back to the bottom of the hill. Very solid session after 2 hours of heavy leg weights and core work.

All up, 122.1 km's / 9:22:41 running time.

Weeks 32 & 33

Week 32

Monday - 20.0 km's - 1:40:05 (included 10 x diagonals)

Tuesday - 4 x 1500 (500) - Splits 5:11, 4:58, 4:58, 5:15. 15 km's all up in 67:41

Wednesday - 22.0 km's - 90:00. Included 15 x 1 min (1 min float)

Thursday - Saturday - 20 min jogs

Sunday - C2S - PB 49:27 (94th overall). Pleasing off minimal taper. Steady uphill, attacked downhills harder than previous years. Nice to see all the leg weights and hill reps paid off. 79th for heartbreak hill split. As always, not so great on the downhill, but an improvement so no complaints.

88.4 km's - Weekly Total - 6:39:41



Week 33

Monday - 14 km's - 68 mins.

Tuesday - 32 km's - 2:23:50, finishing with 8 x 1 min (1 min)

Wednesday
- Lunchtime - 4.2 km's
- Evening - Speed + LT

8 x 60 seconds off 30 second marathon paced float. 12 mins - 3.5 km's.

5 min walk recovery then:

4 km's - 14:26

Thursday - Leg weights plus hills. 5 km's solid uphill running on treadmill after 40 mins of leg weights.

Friday - Altitude Chamber - 35 mins bike. 68 mins running - progressive paced finishing with 8 x 30 seconds (1 min). 14 km's running in chamber.

Saturday - 10 km jog

Sunday - Carnova Special - 5 x 5000 (1 km jog recovery). Splits: 18:39 / 18:19 / 18:13 / 17:57 / 17:38. All up 32 km's - 2:03:58. Ave HR 153 (max 165). Tough work but pleasing.

Weekly km's - 125.3 - 9:24:29

Week 31

Signed up this week to use the altitude chamber at Valley Fitness at St.Marys. Dd the baseline assessment on Thursday and need to do 4 x 30 mins supervised before I can do sessions above steady state. 

Summary for the week as follows:

Monday - 19.5 km's easy over hills. Included 4 x diagonals early on and 10 x diagonals to finish off.

Tuesday - 18 km's hills fartlek in 74:11. Followed by 1 km jog warm down.

Wednesday - 28 km's solid in 2:00:45 

Thursday - 5 km's including chamber assessment session. Increasing pace and incline in the chamber up to 12% / 12 km/h.

Friday - 15 km's including 12 in the altitude chamber (12 km's progressive effort in the chamber up to 15.5 km's per hour). Tough work in the chamber. Never sweated so much. Enjoyed it. 15.5 km/h feels like 17 or more I estimate.

Saturday - 35 km's easy - 2:36:11 over undulating hills mainly on grass. Last 2 miles in just under 12 mins (marathon paced effort).

Sunday - 10 km's tempo. 15 all up including warm up and warm down. Tempo 36:39. Initial 8 km's at marathon intensity (H/R < 153  - low 3:40's), followed by 2 km's threshold (H/R peaking at 161 - 3:31's). Average H/R - 149

136.5km's for the week.