After being out of action for most of last week with a cold it was good to get back on track this week. We had our last Athletics Victoria race for the winter season with Princes Park relays and our last BIG training run.
Princes Park Relays
On Saturday we had the final race of the XCR’17 cross country and road racing series. We finish off with a short fast one with each team runner completing a single 3.2km lap of the park. Princes Park is one of my go to running spots so I knew exactly what I was in for and felt like I was capable of a good run.
My plan was simple.. go out hard and hold on best as possible. Once our second runner Glenn came in I tagged in and shot off at a hard effort into the rain and wind clocking through the first kilometer in 4:06. I knew that the bend tends to be a little slow (it’s slightly up hill) but once around the corner is the fastest section of the course down Princes Park drive. I kept running at a hard effort and managed a second 4:06/km split.
The final kilometer I knew was the hardest, the slight up hill section of the park, which you definitely notice when running at your limits. I dropped a little through this section but pretty happy to manage a 4:16/km split. The final 200m (or 160m on the watch) is pretty flat and time to give whatever you have left which for me was 3:56/km at 181bpm.
It was a nice finish to the season being able to put in a decent run. It was also the first time in 10 weeks that I’ve run in lighter shoes. I had been playing it safe since I had the foot soreness a while back, but foot has been feeling good. Felt confident to race in adidas adizero Tempo 9 and it was all good!
This Week
On Monday I decided to do some strength training. You might think Ben why are you adding strength training in when you’re 5 weeks out from the marathon. And my answer is I’m mainly doing it for the upper body mobility, strength, posture. I’m definitely not going to do much or anything heavy at this point, but think it’s useful as I hold tension through my upper body.. neck, shoulders, chest, back, etc. and I actually stiffened up a lot towards the end of my first marathon.
Tuesday we had our Altona hill circuit reps. I met Sharon there and we had to scope out the course as a lot of the area was fenced off while work was being done. So we ended up doing a slightly altered route but still down and up the same hill. I did a solid first rep which must have worn me out as I dropped off a bit in the next 3 reps.. but the effort was there!
On Wednesday I had to do an 8km steady run with target of 4:50/km. I decided to run from work to Princes Park and return. This was actually pretty tough in sections there are some reasonable hills between work and the park. I ended up averaging 4:51/km, not too bad but I felt like I dropped off a bit towards the end.
Thursday I had the same run 8km steady 4:50/km target, so I repeated Wednesday’s route. My legs felt better today, maybe I was a bit tired from the hill reps on Wednesday? Foam rolling Wednesday may have also helped. This time I averaged 4:46/km and finished up feeling quite good.
On Friday just some mobility work, this is sort of my go to the day before a race now to just try and make sure everything is moving as well as it can. Then Saturday the Princes Park relays. After the race it was basically preparation for the Sunday long run – so eating plenty of carbohydrates, some stretching, resting, and preparing what i needed for the run (clothes, shoes, gels, recovery drink, food, scales).
Sunday our last really long 3:30 training run. We had a good group starting at 7:30am with Chelsea and Mechelle joining us for the first 90 minutes. Brigitte ran with us a little longer, about 105 minutes. Then it was just Sharon and myself for the remainder. Our run did a few different loops around the flatter parts of the You Yangs, coming back past the car park for water stops.
I have to say I didn’t find the run that hard. I think it felt better than the first 3:30 run we did. My legs were tired by the end but I don’t think I felt as stuffed as I did the first time, so that’s a good sign. I covered 37.3km at an average of 5:38/km and lost 1.6kg during the run!
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 2km warm up 4 x altona hill reps (1.23km) w/ equal rest (4:53/167bpm, 5:04/165bpm, 5:18/162bpm, 5:14/159bpm) 2km cool down |
| Wed | 8km steady 4:50/km target (4:51/km) |
| Thu | 8km steady 4:50/km target (4:46/km 166bpm) |
| Fri | Rest |
| Sat | 2km warm up XCR'17 Round 10 Princes Park Relays 3.2km (4:09/km, 172bpm) Result 13:04. 2.5km cool down |
| Sun | You yangs 3:30 time on feet run with Sharon. 5:38/km, 149bpm, 37.3km. |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Strength - Mobility warm up, chin ups, barbell overhead press, squats. Weight kept very light. (30 mins) |
| Tue | |
| Wed | Foot/calf exercises and foam rolling (45 mins) |
| Thu | |
| Fri | Mobility routine for runners (18 mins) |
| Sat | Stretching (25 mins) |
| Sun |
Coming up
Counting down the days and runs now with four weeks to go until Melbourne Marathon.
- 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 |
Great training week Ben especially after feeling unwell last week 🙂
My how time flies when you are having fun – 3.30hours – only felt like 3.29!
Stay healthy – home stretch now
3.29 haha. I felt like it went by pretty quickly really, maybe I was zoned out half the run. Probably why I run into sticks 🙂
Great work Ben. You definitely picked up the pace after I left. Way to much hard work to lose 1.6kg.
Did the last 30 mins close to race pace.. I say close to since I wasn’t going marathon pace up the hills lol. I wouldn’t recommend it as a good weight loss technique since I spent the rest of the day eating and hydrating!