Week 16, 2011

That was supposed to be the heaviest week of preparation, starting off with a 30K run, but I missed one training so I ended up with an average weekly total.

16
18 Apr - 24 Apr		 This week's totals: 4x, 7:18, 76km [7:18]
Next week's plans: 4x, 7:15, 82km
2:581:121:261:42
30.2 km13.0 km16.1 km16.6 km
'30': ER 18km+SR 10kmER 12kmSR 16kmER 16km
146 hrm143 hrm148 hrm133 hrm
5:46 min/km5:18 min/km5:05 min/km6:00 min/km

I started this week with the last long & tough training before the marathon: '30'. The idea was to do 18 easy kilometers, followed by 10 fast ones (pace around 4:40 min/km) and finish with 2 kilometers of jogging, for the total of 30K. I did this training in New York and although I sticked to the general structure, the pace I was going at was MUCH lowered than planned: average 5:46 min/km for the whole training and 5:33 min/km for the fast 10K. At first I was devastated with that, thinking it's a clear sign I'm not ready for the marathon; at least not with the result that I had in mind. But then I quickly started coming up with excuses. It was quite hilly. It was pretty wind. The first part was nice, on a path along the river but in the second part, including the fast 10K, I was essentially running through the city and was often slowed down by traffic lights... the list goes on and on and the real question is are those just excuses? I'll find out soon enough.

On Tuesday I was tired and did a short recovery run through Central Park; but actually I ended up with a pretty decent average pace. Wednesday off and then Thursday and Friday I did two 16K trainings in the hilly Ithaca, one fast, one slow. Unfortunately I missed the Sunday run which would allow me to reach 90K in a week, for the first time this year. Oh well.

The following week is the marathon week! I'll try to do 2-3 very easy trainings plus a one serious one on Monday (10x fast 1km intervals).

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