Run, Koper, run

Wow, a 100K week -- awesome! :D 30 25 Jul - 31 Jul This week's totals: 6x, 10:39, 101km [15:19] Next week's plan: 6x, 10:25, 105km 1:33 ① 1:13 ② 1:27 ① 1:10 ② 1:09 4:05 15.4 km ① 12.6 km ② 13.5 km ① 11.7 km ② 11 km 37.1 km jog 15km [SW] ① ST 12x400m/120'' ② ER 12km ① ER 11km ② RS 60' [TM] RT 36km 126 hrm ① 162 hrm ② 129 hrm ① 136 hrm ② 144 hrm 138 hrm 5:33 min/km ① 3:56 min/km ② 5:56 min/km ① 5:36 min/km ② #10 5:56 min/km core (0:20) gym (1:00) yoga (1:00) core (0:20) yoga (1:00) gym (1:00) What a great week! But first things first... Given that I'm considering (more and more seriously) running in Assen , I decided it's time to pump up the weekly training volume. Jan advised me to: increase the volume of trainings and possibly even run twice a day sometimes but leave time for recovery, so NOT to run every day. Based on this advice I came up with the following schedule: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday ...

Not so running-intense week, but saved on Sunday ;) 28 18 Jul - 24 Jul This week's totals: 5x, 5:49, 61km [11:34] Next week's plan: 5x, 9:08, 95km 1:07 1:48 1:04 ① 0:48 ② 1:01 11.4 km 19.9 km 10.5 km ① 10.4 km ② 9.0 km RS 14x400m/100'' SR 10km [SW] ER 10km ① S! 10km (track&field) ② ER 8km [TM] 163 hrm 158 hrm 136 hrm ① 178 hrm ② 132 hrm 3:58 min/km 4:42 min/km 5:36 min/km ① 4:10 min/km ② 6:00 min/km gym (1h) modern dance (1h30m) body pump (1h) p. yoga (1h) core (15m) gym (1h) It started good -- with a day off on Monday :). Then intensive interval training on Tuesday (though following Jan's suggestion to increase the recovery time from 1:20 to 1:40 had a very good effect). Then on Wednesday training with SportsWorld which was supposed to be an easy run... but I didn't realize that I'll end up speeding with Ruben, making a total of 20km, 10 of which we did at a 4:40 min/km pace. So that was a tough training. On Friday I resis...

24/07/2011 10 km (AV'23 track&field) Amsterdam, The Netherlands 41:35 4:10 min/km 178 hrm I wanted to run 10K one of those weeks. So did Michal, who will be running a marathon in San Francisco next Sunday. Since it's summer & not many races around, Jan came up with the idea to organize a race on track&field of his sport's club, AV'23 (thx Jan, we owe you!). So that's what we did :) The weather was not very cooperative. It was raining, but that's not so bad. But it was also windy and that does not help. That was my first race on track&field; feels quite different without the crowd of people and going around in circles. We were lucky to have two great pace-makers so those were perfect conditions for setting one's PB. We started tad too fast, but quickly corrected the pace and since then were going like clockwork. The pace seemed tough to me and I feared that I won't make it at that speed till the end. Indeed around...

Steady week, only 4 trainings, but 70K covered. 28 11 Jul - 17 Jul This week's totals: 4x, 7:02, 71km [11:17] Next week's plan: 5x, 6:55, 73km 1:16 1:46 1:38 2:20 11 km 19.4 km 16 km 22.7 km RS 60' [TM] SR 9km SR 16km RT 22km 141 hrm 157 hrm 135 hrm #10 4:44 min/km 5:59 min/km gym (1:00) squash (0:45) modern dance (1:30) body pump (1:00) Running strength on Tuesday, steady run with SportWorld on Wednesday (10 km at 4:44min/km) and another one, unplanned, with Jan & Michal on Friday (not sure about the figures because I went without my watch but it was a fast 16K). Not a single easy run. And I felt it. On Sunday we did a 22K running trip with Thyra & Michal, at a leisurely pace and yet I felt completely drained from energy. I'm glad that on Saturday it was raining cats & dogs all day long, so that in the end I didn't do anything... only to realize later that it was my first day in more than two weeks with no sport activity w...

Recover time being over, that was a week with a fair amount of good running -- one of the most intense this year, in fact. 27 4 Jul - 10 Jul This week's totals: 5x, 7:44, 81km [11:29] Next week's plan: 5x, 6:57, 69km 1:10 1:43 1:21 0:27 3:02 13.3 km 17.6 km 14.2 km 5.0 km 31.0 km RS 12x400m/80'' ER 16km ER 14km S! 5km (Beach Challenge) RT 30km 167 hrm 136 hrm 135 hrm 137 hrm 139 hrm 3:49 min/km 5:10 min/km 5:15 min/km 4:48 min/km 5:36 min/km squash (0:45) gym (1:00) gym (1:00) power yoga(1:00) Good week. Five trainings, including a start on 5K -- not very fast, admittedly, but that was more due to the nature of the race than to my form :). Which seems to be ok. I do easy runs at 5:10-5:15 min/km with a very low heart rate, which is a very good sign. The highlight of the week, however, was not the 5K race on Saturday but the following day. Tired after the race I was hesitating whether I should do any running. There was a group of friends...

09/07/2011 5 km (Beach Challenge) Den Hague, The Netherlands 23:59 4:48 min/km 171 hrm Today with Marcin (running) & Michal (supporting us) we went to Den Hague for the "Beach Challange" (it was nice to have some company!). I wasn't sure whether participating was a good idea, given that I run a race last Sunday . But I thought 5K wouldn't hurt. Well. It did :). It was a bloody tough race and the Challenge in the name was, apparently, for a reason. We gathered on the beach; not too much crowd, around 200 people or so. The first 3K were in the dunes. Up and down. Up and down. I was waiting impatiently for this roller-coaster to end. Wrong. It got worse. Because then we entered the beach. First we had around 200 meters to cover in the dry sand. If you ever tried racing in the sand you would know what I'm talking about. But even upon reaching the waterline we were running exactly against the bloody wind. And, oh boy, was it strong. It was...

An unplanned recovery week, finished with an unsuccessful 10K run :) 26 27 Jun - 3 Jul This week's totals: 3x, 3:20, 37km [5:20] Next week's plan: 5x, 6:57, 69km 1:10 1:19 0:51 12.5 km 14.5 km 10.3 km ST 12x400m/80'' ER 10km+10x100m/100m S! 5km (Bosloop Leidse Hout) 158 hrm 137 hrm 176 hrm 3:56 min/km 5:02 min/km 4:11 min/km squash (0:45) gym (1:00) core (0:15) What a disaster :D. Tuesday to Thursday I was in Paris on a work trip; things got pretty funky at work and it was easily my busiest week for the last 2 years. Result: hardly any time for running. At first I thought it was a good thing because I seriously needed to get some rest and I would never do that properly if not forced by circumstances. But, since it was such an easy week, I decided to use this opportunity and run 10K on Sunday. The weird thing is that I didn't feel rested at all on Sunday. Actually my legs felt heavy as hell. Am I that over-trained? Anyhow, the race w...

03/07/2011 5 km (Bosloop Leidse Hout) Leiden, Netherlands 20:56 4:11 min/km 176 hrm Damn it! That's the best way to summarize this race. It was cursed from the very beginning ;)... Now, let me elaborate. I had a very busy week, including a work visit in Paris, so not much time for running (this week only 2 trainings before today). But to be honest I considered it to be a lucky coincidence: I seriously needed a break to recharge my batteries and probably I would never do it, if I wasn't forced to. Michal was trying to persuade me to run in the Beach challenge next week, but I thought with this low intensity week it'd be a shame not to end up on high note with this race. So far so good. The problems started on the day of the race. Being tired I had problems getting up. I was almost late for my train so had to run to the station... where I realized I just ran out of money on my checking account and hence was not able to buy the ticket to Leiden. Crap...