Last long run and proper training phase now complete. It’s a good feeling knowing the hard training is done and the next couple weeks lighten off to prepare for marathon day!
This week
Monday was appointment day. Hair cut at lunch time (an important factor for the marathon lol) and remedial massage in the afternoon (nice after the Sunday long run). As usual my left side was worse than my right, mainly left ITB tightness and left calf felt worse, but that’s normal.
On Tuesday I had the Princes Park session. I know it was only 6 days ago but I can barely remember the conditions.. I think it was nice. My legs felt a bit tired but that’s ok coming off the 30km run. Hit the target paces for each 5km.
Wednesday a 10km run, easy effort by feel. I was lucky to be joined by Brigitte on my lunch run and I took her for a tour along the Yarra River, across bridges, up and down stairs, around the MCG, through tunnels, cross country, up Fitzroy gardens hill and dodging CBD pedestrians.. good fun!
Not much to report Thursday.. with the shorter work week and more meetings than usual I stayed back to finish a few things off and didn’t get around to doing anything. Although I did randomly end up whisky and beer tasting at lunch and came back with a bottle of whisky.. oops.
With the Grand Final public holiday Friday I decided to mix things up and headed to the You Yangs for my threshold run. 2km warm up along great circle drive (counter clockwise), then 4km threshold doing 2km out, 2km back. This section of Great Circle is reasonably flat.. but I sure noticed the last 150m up hill! Very slow cool down back since it’s a gradual up hill and legs were feeling it after that finish to the threshold! Quite happy with the run, consistent pace with splits of 4:35, 4:38, 4:35, 4:34.
Saturday was a day off running. Apart from watching the AFL I got some gardening done which I’ve abandoned all winter. And I repeated the glute activation work I did last week to get them firing for Sunday long run.
Sunday 28km at 5:20 target pace. Same route as last week running from home. I was happier to have better conditions this time. It was actually still fairly windy in some sections (mainly Harpley estate seems to be a wind tunnel and some parts of Manor Lakes) but not as bad as last week. Compared to last week my pace was better, heart rate better, and I felt better. I know it’s 2km shorter but a good way to finish my last real long run pre marathon.
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 5km @ 5:15 (5:13/km 149bpm), 3 min jog, 5km @ 5:10 (5:07/km 153bpm), 3 min jog, 5km @ 5:05 (5:02/km 153pm) |
| Wed | 10km easy run by feel (5:27/km, 153bpm) |
| Thu | Rest |
| Fri | You yangs 2km warm up 4km threshold @ 4:40 (4:35/km, 171bpm) 2km cool down |
| Sat | Rest |
| Sun | Werribee 28km 5:20/km target (5:16/km, 155bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Remedial massage (60 mins) |
| Tue | |
| Wed | |
| Thu | |
| Fri | Foot/calf exercises and foam rolling (50 mins) |
| Sat | Glute activation/strength (22 mins) |
| Sun | Stretching (35 mins) |
Coming up
Officially now in taper. This next week is about two thirds of normal mileage. It should feel pretty cruisey and get the legs feeling good.
Relevant image shared by Crosbie Crew today, a good reminder.
Writing this today (Monday), I can now say that I’m running a marathon NEXT WEEK. Thinking about it I’m pretty excited for the big day and eagerly checking weather forecasts each day.. haha.
Everything is done now really, just counting down the sessions and the days, ready 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 |
Go Ben. I am so excited for you and Sharon. I have felt exhuasted just seeing you train and reading your posts. You have done the hard work and now it is almost here. I will be there cheering you on.
All the hard work is done Ben – great job, 34 weeks of training, all that is left is the main dance now.
I kept checking the weather as well – yesterday it said 18 and rain, today it says 20 and sun – haha we will know next week what to expect. Enjoy the taper, its well earnt.