A slightly lower volume week for some programmed recovery. Most of my mileage went into the Sunday long run which is the key run my training will be focused around.

This week

Monday and Tuesday were rest days this week which was nice. I did get some strength/stability work in on Tuesday and had a follow up appointment with the podiatrist which was positive.

Wednesday was a 12km easy run which I did during lunch along the Yarra trail and return. This was done completely by feel as an easy effort with no looking at the watch at all. I was just listening to the lap beeps to know how far I had run. I think I preferred doing an easy run this way rather than running to a specific pace.

Thursday 5 x 800m reps at the track. Fairly miserable weather training in the rain! But I had a good session with all my reps pretty consistent. Target 3:25, completed reps in 3:21, 3:24, 3:23, 3:23, 3:24.

Saturday I did my 4km threshold down at Wyndham Vale parkrun with a few other Western Athletics runners in attendance (Aimee, Cookie, Steven!). I did the first 4km at threshold pace then jogged the last 1km. Which I think made a couple other runners happy as they passed me in the last km 🙂

Sunday the big run of the week. 25km run around the You Yangs at goal marathon pace (excluding Great Circle drive hills.. ugh!). This week started testing out marathon nutrition using SiS Gels at the 1 hour mark and 1:45 mark. This is the timing I think I’ll use in the marathon, first gel 1 hour in and then every 45 minutes after that.

Running

1%-ers

Endurance nutrition

I wrote a little about nutrition last week but going to write more just because it’s a big focus at the moment. I think it’s really important especially fueling properly for long endurance runs.

Here’s a summary of my calories and macro-nutrients for the week:

• Monday (rest day, low carb requirements) – 1874 cal, 254g carbs, 54g fat, 87g protein
• Tuesday (rest day, low carb requirements) – 1867 cal, 217g carbs, 70g fat, 95g protein
• Wednesday (easy run, low carb requirements) – 2174 cal, 302g carbs, 62g fat, 104g protein
• Thursday (high intensity, high carb requirements) – 2439 cal, 357g carbs, 54g fat, 133g protein
• Friday (rest day, low carb requirements but increase carbs in evening for saturday morning threshold) – 2314 cal, 276g carbs, 69g fat, 117g protein
• Saturday (high intensity, high carb requirements + long endurance next day means even more carbs required) – 2724 cal, 385g carbs, 74g fat, 130g protein
• Sunday (long endurance, very high carb requirements) – 2964 cal, 427g carbs, 70g fat, 149g protein

A summary of the logic is higher intensity and long endurance runs require higher amount of carbohydrates. Carbohydrate amounts are the main focus as it’s the main source of energy for running and it’s easy to get more than enough protein. Fat especially saturated fat should be kept to fairly low amounts. Around 1g per kg of body weight of mostly healthy fats is recommended.

Also when talking about carbohydrates it’s mainly low GI sources such as wholegrain breads and pasta, legumes, low-fat dairy, fruit and vegetables. High fat carbohydrates should be limited.. i.e. pastries, cakes, chips, chocolate. Nutrient poor high GI carbohydrates should also be limited i.e. sugar, soft drinks, white bread.. but they do have a use specifically for during training for quick absorption, for example energy gels and recovery/hydration drinks.

Coming up

• 12 August – Anglesea Surf Coast Ekiden Relay
• 10 September – Burnley Half Marathon
• 16 September – Princes Park Relays
• 15 October – Melbourne Marathon

Summary