Feeling like I’m back on track with my best training week in a while. The weekend consisted of a good run in the 5.2km leg of the Anglesea relays followed by a 30km long run.
This week
Tuesday hit the track for 4 x 1600m reps in 7:00 w/ 2 min rest. I was feeling a little tired and dropped off towards the end but wasn’t too bad – 6:58, 6:58, 7:01, 7:05.
It was good to see Tom have a very good session he seems to be coming into some form. I also fit in some mobility work which is important for me to keep up.
Wednesday no training today but I got an hour long massage from the Chinese massage place near work.
Thursday night back at my new favourite running loop Princes park for the following session: 5km at 5.20, 3 min jog recovery, 5km at 5.15, 3 min jog recovery, 5km at 5.10. It was a good enjoyable run.
Friday I think it’s best not to do too much stretching, strength or foam rolling the day before the race but I like to do a few light exercises. I did my foot exercises (minus calf raises), one set of bodyweight single leg squats focusing on glute activation, some light foam rolling of calves, quads and back, and finally just a couple stretches for quads, hip flexors and side stretch (tend to be my worst areas).
Saturday we had the XCR’17 Round 8 Anglesea Surf Coast Ekiden relays. I had the fourth leg which was 5.2km (actually 5.5km with erosion diversion). It’s a tough course with the majority of the run out up hill but at least has the benefit of a faster run back.
I was happy with my run. Pacing is pretty useless for this run so I just ran best I could up the hills and hard on the way back. I finished in 25:22 which was a 4:35/km average.
We had a solid team result with our division 6 team finishing third! Tom started us off with a great run followed by the two Steves and I finished off the last leg. Great improvement over Sandown relays where our same team came in last.
Sunday I joined the Melbourne Marathon ASICS training series group for the 30km long run. I think it’s a good idea to do some long runs away from the You Yangs to get some practice dialing in marathon pace running (on a flat course) and running on asphalt/concrete surface.
I ran with the 5:00 – 5:30 pace group and I was worried I was going to end up running solo. The group took off and I was the slowest in the group and I was going around 5:10 pace. Thankfully a few others realised they were going too fast and decided to drop back so I wasn’t alone. We formed a little group of 4 that sat on around 5:20-25 pace for the rest of the run which was good.
The run started near Fawkner park and headed down St Kilda beach towards Brighton and return. Pretty good practice for the marathon which heads down this way.
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 2km warm up 4 x 1600 in 7:00 w/ 2 min rest (6:58, 6:58, 7:01, 7:05) 2km cool down |
| Wed | Rest |
| Thu | 5km at 5.20 (5:19, 153bpm), 3 min jog recovery, 5km at 5.15 (5:12, 157bpm), 3 min jog recovery, 5km at 5.10 (5:08, 154bpm) |
| Fri | Rest |
| Sat | 2km warm up XCR'17 Rd 8 Anglesea Surf Coast Ekiden relay 5.2km (25:22, 4:35/km, 168bpm) 2km cool down |
| Sun | Melb Mara ASICS training series 30km run (2:40:27, 5:19/km, 152bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | |
| Tue | Matt Fitzgerald mobility routine for runners (26 mins) |
| Wed | Massage (60 mins) |
| Thu | |
| Fri | A few exercises, rolling, stretching (25 mins) |
| Sat | |
| Sun | Post run stretching (10 mins) Afternoon walk.. active recovery (40 mins) |
Energy gel testing
There are lots of little things to consider with marathon running. One thing is fueling during the marathon (and long training runs). There are a number of options from high carb drinks, energy gels, jelly beans, energy chews, etc. I have gone with the common option of energy gels but even then there are a heap of options to choose from and they’re all different.
Here’s my summary but different things work for different people:
- GU Energy Gel – tried in the past but I found these too concentrated/intense.
- Endura Energy Gel (vanilla) – I think these are a reasonable option although I’m not a big fan of gels that contain caffeine for the marathon.
- SiS Isotonic Energy Gel (lemon & lime) – my current favourite, good taste and very liquidy makes them easy to consume, no water required.
- Hammer Gel (raspberry) – not bad, I like that they use all natural ingredients, they’re in concentrated form so again a little intense flavour wise and need water to wash down.
- high5 Energy Gel – ordered and will be trying these next. They have both standard concentrated gels and isotonic gels. Very well priced from wiggle and I’ve heard good things about them.
Coming up
A traditional “time on your feet” run this weekend. 3 hours 20 minutes, pace doesn’t matter, just about getting used to be out running for a long period of time.
- 10 September – Burnley Half Marathon
- 16 September – Princes Park Relays
- 15 October – Melbourne Marathon
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 |