A big non running related event this week – I graduated from university! In running related news Sharon and I had a new session this week involving hills!
This week
So yes I kicked off the week with graduating from Swinburne University with a Bachelor of Technology (Information Systems). It’s been a long journey (7 years!) of studying part time and online through Open Universities while working a full time career. Very hard at times but also very rewarding 🙂
Tuesday introduced a new session of hill reps. We start at the top of Altona Hill at the beacon, run around the top path, down to run along the inner path past the shelter, then straight back up the hill. The reps were to be done HARD 10/10 effort and worked out to be around 1.28km long. Rest was equal to the time taken to do the rep, so a good recovery between each rep.
I was pretty happy with how I went. Reps completed in roughly 4:00-4:06/km pace. Breathing/working very hard over the last section up the hill! Notably I ran my 3rd faster 1km for the year, let’s just ignore the fact that it was mostly down hill. Recovery was a chicken parma and beer with Burkie, Chris and Aimee!
On Wednesday back to Princes Park for what I think might be my favourite session at the moment. 5km at 5:15, 3 min jog, 5km at 5:10, 3 min jog, 5km at 5:05. The run went well and nice to actually have light when I started! Spring is coming.
Thursday a planned rest day. Instead of running I visited the Hodgart’s and playing Tony Hawk’s Underground on PlayStation 2 like it was 2003.
On Friday the plan was to do the threshold session but woke up with a pretty bad cold which I felt coming on the day before. So it was a day off running (and work) and a visit to the doctor who confirmed my throat was red and prescribed cold & flu tablets.
Saturday I wasn’t feeling too bad so I made my way to the Western Athletics pack run at Princes Park. 4km threshold went pretty well really except my heart rate seemed slightly elevated.
For the 30km long run I was originally planning on doing the ASICS melbourne marathon series training run. But Sunday morning I woke up feeling fairly crappy and wasn’t completely sure if I should run. Decided to run from home so I could just see how it felt and end the run early if needed.
I didn’t feel amazing but not that bad either so off I went on my 30km run. Compared to last weeks run it felt like a bit more effort to maintain the same pace which I think was my cold effecting me. It ended up getting very tough towards the end but got it done.
Afterwards I saw my average heart rate was much higher than usual. 160bpm compared to 154 last week, so I’d say definitely being unwell made it harder work. Also interesting to note on Sharon’s suggestion I weighed myself before and after the run… lost 1.6kg during the run!!
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 2km warm up 4 x 1.28km altona hill reps (5:14 164bpm, 5:13 163bpm, 5:09 161bpm, 5:13 159bpm) 2km cool down |
| Wed | 5km at 5.15 (5:10, 150bpm), 3 min jog recovery, 5km at 5.10 (5:08, 151bpm), 3 min jog recovery, 5km at 5.05 (5:01, 151bpm) |
| Thu | Rest |
| Fri | Rest - meant to do threshold but unwell |
| Sat | 2km warm up 4km threshold @ 4:40 (4:32/km, 174bpm) 2km cool down |
| Sun | Werribee paths/roads 30km @ 5:20 pace (5:22/km, 160bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | |
| Tue | Foot/calf exercises and foam rolling (30 mins) |
| Wed | |
| Thu | |
| Fri | Lower back/hip stability routine (30 mins) |
| Sat | |
| Sun |
Coming up
- 10 September – Burnley Half Marathon
- 16 September – Princes Park Relays
- 15 October – Melbourne Marathon
- 2019 – Game of Thrones Season 8
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 |
Good job on the runs. Most importantly big congratulations on graduating University….
Ben!!!!!! You never mentioned you become a Uni graduate during the week – what a great week 🙂 Congratulations – does this mean you have lots of free time now?……………………or is Game of Thrones going to take over? 🙂
I actually finished studying months ago and I think all my extra time has gone into game of thrones and AFL supercoach haha 🙂 Thanks!