After a big weekend of racing and a 3 and a half hour long run it turns out my legs were more tired than I first thought this week. Not too surprising really; so some minor changes to the plan to get on top of it early. Only 3 weeks to go now until marathon day.
This week
Kicked off the week with 2 days off running to recover from the big 3 and a half hour run. Felt like I had pulled up pretty reasonably. On Monday similar to last week I did some light strength training. Really just getting used to the movements with bent-over rows, bench press and deadlifts using the barbell only, no added weight.
Wednesday I had my first run for the week around Princes Park. The usual 3 x 5km progressive session. Have to say my legs felt heavy and felt like it took a couple laps of the park to start feeling reasonable. But I hit the target paces and ticked the box! On a side note the weather was beautiful.
On Thursday I was at the track for the first time in 6 weeks! It was nice to head down and see the track regulars. My session was 5 x 1km in 4:10 which is a hard pace for me, 1 second off my Princes Park 3.2km race pace. I managed the first two reps on pace, but then struggled with my legs feeling tired, it was also pretty humid which didn’t help. So the last few reps were a little off in 4:17, 4:16 and 4:19.
Due to the legs being tired we decided to switch the Saturday session to get on top of things and make sure I was good to go for the most important run of the week, the Sunday long run. So goodbye altona hill reps, replaced with an easy 8km run.
Mind you it didn’t feel that easy running in the heat and wind with Brigitte. I finished dripping with sweat while Brigitte paid a visit to spewsville (glad I didn’t see that!). I’m impressed she even managed a threshold because I was struggling just running easy! It left me not feeling super confident for Sunday’s 30km.
One thing I added in Saturday afternoon was some glute activation work as I felt like I was overusing my quads and not utilising glutes properly on the Saturday run. Nothing too demanding but went through some exercises I’ve been given in the past from Pure Physio. I think it actually did help for the following day.
Sunday morning I was really in no hurry to get out of bed and run. Was not feeling motivated at all but knew I had to get out there and do it. I got out the door at 9am running from home towards Wyndham Vale and Manor Lakes. Basically my first 12km was running into a head wind and about 4 of my kms were off pace in sections where the wind was particularly strong dropping back to around 5:30/km.
It was tough going but I just had to keep in mind eventually I’ll be turning around and have the wind to my advantage coming back. Thankfully it did help as I had just as many 5:10 or under splits coming back and it felt cruisy with the wind pushing me along.
Towards the end of the run I was feeling pretty tired but quite happy to finish just under target pace with a 5:18/km average. I’d say this was my best run of the week!
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | Rest |
| Wed | 5km @ 5:15 (5:12/km 154bpm), 3 min jog, 5km @ 5:10 (5:08/km 159bpm), 3 min jog, 5km @ 5:05 (5:03/km 158pm) |
| Thu | 2km warm up 5 x 1km @ 4:10 (4:10/163bpm, 4;11/169bpm, 4:17/169bpm, 4:16/167bpm, 4:19/167bpm) 2km cool down |
| Fri | Rest |
| Sat | 8km easy run by feel (5:32/km, 155bpm) |
| Sun | Werribee 30km 5:20/km target (5:18/km, 158bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Strength - Mobility warm up, barbell rows, bench press, deadlift. Weight kept very light. (26 mins) |
| Tue | |
| Wed | Foot/calf exercises and foam rolling (50 mins) |
| Thu | Stretching (40 mins) |
| Fri | |
| Sat | Glute activation/strength (22 mins) |
| Sun |
Coming up
Next week Chelsea has made some changes to the program. Fast 1kms and Altona hill reps dropped and replaced with a threshold run and easy run. More important at this stage to get the leg’s right. The key run next week will be 28km at 5:20/km which is the last long run before the marathon.
Two important appointments today… a haircut and a massage 🙂
Three weeks to go!
- 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 |