This week wraps up the speed phase of training and incorporated 8kms of hilly cross country racing at Wandin Park.
Wandin Park Cross Country
I had bad memories of absolutely struggling through this course last season. Thankfully this year it felt much, much better. I’m putting that down to a variety of factors including cooler weather, slight course tweaks and probably just being fitter than I was than this time last year.
After the race I had to compare this years results to last years. Turns out I was over 3 minutes quicker. This year I focused on running relaxed and felt quite strong up the hills which is where I was tending to pass people and then recovered on the down hills.
- Time: 43:37
- Distance: 8.19km
- Pace: 5:20
- HR: 172
- Splits: 4:47, 4:45, 5:24, 5:41, 5:11, 5:14, 5:44, 5:55 (last 190m 4:57 pace)
- Time: 40:12 (40:15 official)
- Distance: 8.26km
- Pace: 4:52
- HR: 169
- Splits: 4:44, 4:35, 5:02, 5:12, 4:48, 4:45, 4:58, 5:06 (last 260m 3:59 pace)
Here is a 3D profile of the course which we did two laps of. The hardest sections are the hills in the back half, especially the second time around! And the rough uneven terrain (from the horses) also makes it difficult.
This week
Final week of speed phase. I did my last speed focused session on Tuesday which was the 10x1min faster than 5km race pace with 1 min jog recoveries. Ended up doing this around Fitzroy Gardens which is beautiful to run around but it is a bit up and down. So some efforts were harder than others depending on whether I was going up hill or down hill. Overall a solid session.
Wednesday easy run from work to Princes park and return. With my lunch time runs I always make sure I check UV levels on SunSmart App. Usually training early morning or late afternoon it’s fine, but middle of the day pretty much guaranteed to be running in higher UV so it’s best to slop some sunscreen on 🙂
Thursday was my half marathon session which is getting longer! A non-stop 12km run with first 5km at 4:50 pace into 7km @ 4:38 pace. Ended up starting this run quite late.. 6:10pm after work running from home. I did the run along Werribee river path and it was pretty eerie with no one around and dark and misty through some parts.
After the cross country race Saturday we were back at the You Yangs on Sunday for the usual long run. 2 hour run incorporating Great Circle drive for some hills but kept the effort pretty easy.
Overall this week felt quite good in training and very happy with the cross country result. Also weekly mileage is at a good level for me and seem to be coping well so all going well I think!
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 2km warm up Drills and strides 10x1min at faster than 5km pace with 1min jog recoveries (session avg 4:43 pace/170bpm) 2km cool down |
| Wed | 10km easy (5:18 pace/154bpm) |
| Thu | 5km @ 4.50 (4:48 avg pace/ 160bpm), 7km @ 4.38 (4:37 avg pace/168bpm) |
| Fri | Rest |
| Sat | 2km warm up XCR'17 Rd 2 Wandin Park 8km Cross Country (4:52 avg pace/169bpm) 2km cool down |
| Sun | Long run 2 hours (You Yangs great circle 5:40 avg pace/ 144bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | |
| Tue | Stretching (30 mins) |
| Wed | Foot/calf exercises and foam rolling (55 mins) |
| Thu | Stretching (5 mins) |
| Fri | Hip routine for runners (25 mins) |
| Sat | Foam rolling (30 mins) |
| Sun | Cold bath (15 mins) Stretching (30 mins) |
Coming up
Next week marathon specific sets commence, basically the faster speed focused 1min on/off and step down reps session drop out and get replaced with longer reps. On Tuesday I’ll be doing 4 x 2km reps back at the track!
Upcoming races:
- 27 May – Cruden Farm Cross Country (16km)
- 17 June – Bundoora Cross Country (10km)
- 2 July – Gold Coast Half Marathon
- 8 July – Sandown Road Relays (6.2km)
- 16 July – Albert Park Road Race (10km)
Summary
| Week | Phase | Runs | Km | Hrs | TSS | Fitness | Fatigue | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | MARATHON | 4 | 59.2 | 5:17 | 426 | 61 | 73 ↑ | 23 ↑ |
| 35 | Taper | 4 | 41 | 3:32 | 314 | 61 ↓ | 55 ↓ | -1 ↓ |
| 34 | Marathon | 4 | 62.1 | 5:26 | 450 | 64 | 76 ↓ | 6 ↑ |
| 33 | Marathon | 4 | 63.4 | 5:34 | 467 | 64 ↑ | 82 | 2 ↓ |
| 32 | Marathon | 5 | 70.7 | 6:23 | 502 | 63 ↑ | 82 ↑ | 7 ↓ |
| 31 | Marathon | 4 | 48.4 | 4:13 | 367 | 61 ↑ | 68 ↓ | 8 ↑ |
| 30 | Marathon | 4 | 63.9 | 5:43 | 462.1 | 62.7 ↑ | 78.3 ↑ | 4.0 ↑ |
| 29 | Marathon / recovery | 4 | 58.4 | 5:06 | 426.2 | 61.8 ↑ | 77.3 ↓ | -0.6 ↓ |
| 28 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 6:06 | 486.1 | 61.6 ↑ | 82.5 ↑ | 3.6 ↑ |
| 27 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:50 | 482.1 | 60.1 ↑ | 79 ↑ | 0.5 ↓ |
| 26 | Recovery | 4 | 54.3 | 4:54 | 386.3 | 58.1 ↓ | 69.5 ↓ | 3.5 ↑ |
| 25 | Build | 5 | 64.9 | 5:51 | 454.6 | 58.3 ↑ | 72.0 ↑ | -2.3 ↓ |
| 24 | Build | 5 | 64.5 | 5:41 | 482.6 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.6 ↑ | 3.1 ↓ |
| 23 | Build | 4 | 46.9 | 4:07 | 340.5 | 54.9 ↓ | 51.8 ↓ | 7.3 ↓ |
| 22 | Build | 4 | 43.6 | 3:55 | 307.3 | 55.9 ↓ | 52.1 ↓ | 11.1 ↓ |
| 21 | Half Marathon | 4 | 41.8 | 3:31 | 311.1 | 58.0 ↓ | 55.0 ↑ | 20.5 ↑ |
| 20 | Taper for HM | 4 | 37.5 | 3:10 | 304.9 | 60.1 ↓ | 52.4 ↓ | 14.6 ↑ |
| 19 | Recovery | 3 | 41.6 | 3:39 | 302.6 | 63.0 ↓ | 59.8 ↓ | 10.5 ↑ |
| 18 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.8 | 6:03 | 541.4 | 66.6 ↑ | 86.0 ↑ | -7.4 ↓ |
| 17 | Half / Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:47 | 490.2 | 64.3 ↑ | 79.7 ↑ | -3.2 ↑ |
| 16 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 64.4 | 5:32 | 479.2 | 62.9 ↑ | 76.0 ↓ | -7.7 ↑ |
| 15 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.4 | 6:09 | 527.1 | 61.7 ↑ | 77.8 ↑ | -7.8 ↓ |
| 14 | Speed / Half | 5 | 63.8 | 5:38 | 460.2 | 59.0 ↑ | 70.3 ↑ | -1.0 ↓ |
| 13 | Speed / Half | 5 | 59.1 | 5:20 | 419.4 | 57.5 ↑ | 60.9 ↑ | -3.7 ↓ |
| 12 | Recovery | 4 | 39.1 | 3:21 | 288.2 | 56.9 ↓ | 54.8 ↓ | 6.5 ↑ |
| 11 | Speed | 5 | 59.1 | 5:14 | 421.8 | 59.6 ↑ | 70.4 ↓ | 1.7 ↑ |
| 10 | Speed | 5 | 61.6 | 5:23 | 460.3 | 59.3 ↑ | 71.8 ↑ | -1.9 ↓ |
| 9 | Speed | 5 | 58.0 | 5:06 | 436.1 | 57.9 ↑ | 67.8 ↑ | 3.4 ↑ |
| 8 | Recovery | 5 | 49.7 | 4:18 | 395.8 | 56.8 | 61.5 ↓ | -1.3 ↓ |
| 7 | Base | 5 | 54.2 | 4:44 | 417.0 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.4 ↑ | 2.3 ↑ |
| 6 | Base | 5 | 51.3 | 4:33 | 392.3 | 56.1 ↑ | 61.0 ↓ | 1.5 ↓ |
| 5 | Base | 5 | 52.5 | 4:32 | 421.5 | 55.9 ↑ | 61.7 ↑ | 2.2 ↓ |
| 4 | Recovery | 5 | 46.5 | 4:03 | 353.7 | 55.0 ↓ | 54.5 ↓ | 4.4 ↑ |
| 3 | Base | 5 | 50.4 | 4:22 | 381.7 | 55.7 ↓ | 57.1 ↓ | 1.2 ↓ |
| 2 | Base | 5 | 50.2 | 4:23 | 381.2 | 55.9 ↓ | 57.4 ↑ | 5.9 ↓ |
| 1 | Base | 5 | 43.9 | 3:52 | 334.3 | 56.0 | 53.4 | 8.3 |
Keep up the good work Ben, it wears me out reading what you do.
Thank you! By the way I’m getting plenty of use out of the recliner 🙂
Good week this week!! Well done keep going
Thanks Coach. “Keep going” good marathon mantra!