Melbourne Marathon 2015 - Week 11 of 16
My theme for this week is 'Big' as this will be the biggest week of this campaign and I expect to cover around 70-75k, culminating in a 36-38k run on Sunday. I'm looking forward to this week. It is a lot of fun and if I can get safely through this then race day is almost in sight!Tuesday 8 September
The run itself felt very controlled. I was never running flat out and measured my effort through each rep. None of them were particularly fast and all were slightly slower than the target pace range of 3.46-55 for the 1k and 7.49-8.00 for the 2k. I'm pretty much used to this and it doesn't worry me much any more. I just do them as fast as I can and have some confidence that I am able to run the endurance runs at the required level. So my times today were 3.58/8.02/3.59/4.01. The one that surprises me is actually the 2k time as it really is at the same pace as the shorter efforts. I'm not sure if this means I am 'sandbagging' the short runs??
I did this same session last year and my times today were similar for the 1k reps, solidly faster for the 2k rep and the recoveries were all faster. Overall this continues to add up to me being fitter than at the same time last year and is just the reinforcement I need!
Wednesday 9 September
It was a case of switch then switch again for my Nike Run Club group today. I was rostered for the 10k 6 min group, then changed to the 7 min group and finally, as we were leaving to start our run, moved once again to the 6.30 group. No problemo for me, just means I have to think twice about what pace I am running before we set off. Thankfully, with Nicx at the front it was easy going as we began on a beautiful, crisp Spring evening.
Our group was reasonably compact and stayed together for the most part which was great. A few hundred metres in I even had Danielle run up behind me and join the team so it was a very cruisy 10k chatting away and having fun.
By the way, as of today I have run 1462km which is more than the 1458km I ran for the whole of last year (which in itself was my best year). Very happy, and another reason why I should be confident that I will run a faster marathon next month!
Thursday 10 September
I was surprised at the planned tempo run for today. According to the Furman app I have it was a reasonably easy 8k at marathon pace with warm up and cool down. Considering last week the tempo session was a straight 16k at marathon pace this would be a doddle. I ran my normal Yarra loop, cutting the warm up to 1km and was right into the groove.My splits were pretty even in 4.29/32/29/28/30/32/24/31 - the 'faster' one being when my Garmin got confused and didn't seem to know what was going on. In any case, all very even, no problems. It was a beautiful Spring afternoon and life was good. Until I returned to the office and went to record my training session in my worksheet and found - to my horror - that perhaps it should have been run at mid-tempo pace of 4.14-4.20. Aaargh!!!!
So, really, I'm not sure what is going on. I'm chalking this up as a successful session, even if I'm not sure I did the "right" one. I know this is not really a big deal in the scheme of things, but is annoying all the same!
Friday 11 September
An unplanned run today. It was a beautiful day - save for a strong wind - and I took the time for a short and easy lap of the Tan at lunch time. Great to be out running without worrying about time or distance or pace.
I have to mention the inside of my right shin has hurt a bit over the last few weeks and still did today. There's one tender spot to touch. Hmm, not sure what this is.
Saturday 12 September
Today there was an all-day session at Nike for all the Run Club "pacers" as we are now called - "run leader" is so last season! It was a pretty cool session where we learned all about the evolution of NRC on a global basis, and we are about to see a whole bunch of new runs introduced into our program. It is very exciting and we were asked to bring our running gear for a couple of sessions.
I kind of thought we may actually be running but, as it turned out and for good reason, there was little actual running and most of time was spent learning the drills and extra stuff that goes into the sessions. On the plus side, this is just fantastic as it is all about turning runners into athletes which, of course, will make them better runners. It is very cool. On the down side, I am (currently) very much a runner, and not much of an athlete, so the drills, jumping squats, one legged work etc just made me very sore.
Aaargh! So the day before the longest run of my program I did new stuff that has left me sore and less able to run. Hmm, maybe not the smartest thing I've ever done.
Sunday 13 September
Today was all about going long. This is my "Rod O'Donnell Session" named after my physio who suggested that I need to do at least one very long easy run in the program. Last year, for Gold Coast Marathon, I really felt like this session helped me know that I could run out the full distance and I was keen to do about 3h15m or somewhere between 36-38k.
The weather this weekend has been warm and today the warmest. It was also windy with a strong northerly blowing (of course). So by the time I left home it was already 20 degrees and it would reach 24 by the time I had finished. And the wind blew at 20-30kph so it was less than perfect for running. Though of course it was a wonderful day to be out and about so every man, woman and child was down at the beach or so it seemed - making the path a crowded affair.
I set my early pace at 5.15-5.20 and wanted to pretty much maintain it somewhere in that range. When I turned onto the beach I really noticed the wind. Not being too fussed about my precise speed I let the pace drop a little over the Brighton 'bumps' then it sat pretty much right on target all the way to Port Melbourne. I turned at the Centenary Bridge pylon with 18.79km done at an average of 5.19 m/k. This was at the slow end of my plan but the heat and wind was noticeable - and I wasn't in a hurry so who cares! I was more focussed on trying to keep everything easy as I knew it would soon get hard!
With the wind at my back I found I didn't really get any quicker and the next 6-7k passed at pretty much the same pace as the previous 6-7. Now that I look at my stats I can see that at around 26k as I passed through Point Ormond near Elwood my pace noticeably slowed. The next 4k were all 5.23-26 but the real damage was yet to come and they would be my fastest k's from that point on.
I was now at Brighton Baths and stopped for a long drink. I had the last of three gels and with just over 8k to go - much of it uphill - I settled in for the big push. I ran the next two in 5.33/35 and then turned up South Road. My plan before the run was to go harder up here, lifting my average pace and finishing strong. But now that had been jettisoned and I just wanted to get home.
Five minute km's became six minute km's and threatened to get even slower. I've had worse runs along here, but not many! About all I could focus on was trying not to let my average pace fall below 5.30, a feat I managed to do, finishing the 37.1km in 3:23 at 5.29 min/km. That was hard! Certainly not the same "sensations" I had a year ago on the equivalent run. On the positive side, the conditions were hard and it always takes a few runs to acclimatise to warm weather so better that I start to do that now!
And so Big was certainly achieved for this week. Six days of running (ok, maybe five if I exclude yesterday) and 76k's covered which is my biggest week ever.
Training Program:
Full session details for my whole training plan here.
Strava links for the week:
Tuesday - 2 and 1's 10.4k @4.33; 1k/2k/1k/1k
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 10k @6.24; very easy run
Thursday - Spring Returns 10.4k @4.36; tempo 8k @4.30
Friday - Cruisy Tan 6.4k @5.14; easy lap of the Tan
Saturday - NRC Pacer Drills 1.6k @13.22; drills and stuff
Sunday - Easy Gets Hard 37.1k @5.29; longest run, windy and warm
Summary:
Week 11 of 16 (this week): 6 runs, 76.1 km, 6:58 hrs
Week 10 of 16: 4 runs, 48.8 km, 3:57 hrs
Week 9 of 16: 5 runs, 65.2 km, 5:30 hrs
Week 8 of 16: 4 runs, 59.0 km, 4:57 hrs
Week 7 of 16: 5 runs, 55.9 km, 4:35 hrs
Week 6 of 16: 4 runs, 44.1 km, 3:31 hrs
Week 5 of 16: 4 runs, 53.3 km, 4:21 hrs
Week 4 of 16: 5 runs, 65.8 km, 5:38 hrs
Week 3 of 16: 4 runs, 58.3 km, 4:46 hrs
Week 2 of 16: 4 runs, 52.4 km, 4:30 hrs
Week 1 of 16: 4 runs, 50.1 km, 4:11 hrs
Total: 49 runs, 628.7 km, 52:59 hrs
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