Week 38, 2011

Good week! And a last one before the marathon, too.

38
19 Sep - 25 Sep		 This week's totals:5x, 8:06, 85km [12:36]
1:001:231:371:402:24
10.0 km15.0 km17.0 km18.4 km24.3 km
ER 10kmSR 13kmER 16kmST 10x1km/4'RT 24km
144 hrm135 hrm163 hrm134 hrm
5:00 min/km5:18 min/km4:08 min/km5:39 min/km
modern dance (1:30)body pump (1:00)
power yoga (1:00)		gym (1:00)

Ok, I have to say the Dam to Dam really left me tired. In fact my legs felt heavy already before the run and afterwards... well, suffice to say things didn't get any better ;). So Monday was a day off and Tuesday a very light recovery jog.

On Wednesday things didn't look any better so I essentially had a choice: either start the pre-marathon rest already now or disregard the pain and go for it. I decided for the latter -- make it or break it, right? So on Wednesday I went for a late run and it was going ok so I decided to turn it into a faster training -- in the end I did 13K at an average pace of 5:00 min/km; not too bad. Thursday a recovery run and on Friday I did 10 intervals of 1K with 4 minute breaks in between. I was planning to do the intervals at around 4:20 min/km but ended up with 4:08 min/km, again, not bad. I finished off with a running trip on Saturday covering 24K.

By that time I was completely exhausted but the plan was that that's it for running and now it was time for a week of recovery. In fact by that point I did 85K that week so it was quite difficult to resist the temptation of going for another easy 15K run on Sunday and again hitting the 100K mark ;). But I decided to be responsible and instead only went to the gym :).

So the plan for next week is only two runs: Monday & Wednesday, both easy, both max. 15K. From Friday onward I'm in Budapest and the only activity I plan to embark on is lying in a bath with a book in my hand ;). I hope one week will be enough to sufficiently recover, although Jan will probably don't miss out this opportunity to point me out that I'm wrong ;)

Plans for the race? Basic plan: to improve my PB (<3:15:17). Super ambitious plan: to pull out a Boston qualifier (<=3:10:59). Quite frankly I'm not sure I can do it. McMillan, based on my 10 miles performance, gives me 3:15:35. Even that, pace only 20 seconds slower than in those 10 miles, seems pretty challenging to me. We will see. I'll probably start at a pace for ~3:12:00 and then see how it goes. My two friends did a marathon this weekend and they did a great job! I hope they'll be able to say the same about me next Sunday ;)...

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