Run, Koper, run

Good week with a 41K long run at the end. On Tuesday I was still tired after the half-marathon so instead of doing intervals I just went to the gym. On Wednesday I started off with easy 13K and then another 17K in the evening. On Friday I still felt too tired to do speed work and ended up again doing two easy runs of 12K & 18K. So a fairly boring week... except for the Sunday long run. I decided to do a last really long run before the marathon -- 40K. The plan was to start with easy 23K and then follow up with fast 15K at the marathon pace and finish off with 2K of easy jogging. I started according to the plan. I went to Baarn and planned a route from there that went though something that looked green on the map :). This something turned out to be a forest that was really great for running. It reminded me of Stratumse Heide in Eindhoven where I did so many runs. It also reminded me of why I love running. With this weather it was pure bliss. I took the first part real easy wit...

Very decent week with a half-marathon at the end. Fairly decent week. On Tuesday easy run in the morning and track training in the evening, with intervals. This time for all marathoners (that includes me) Jan served 4 long intervals: 2K each! I did manage to keep an average pace of 4:01 min/km on them and was rather pleased with that. On Thursday I realized I was too tired to do two trainings, especially in the face of the upcoming half-marathon, so instead only did one progressive run: 10K with an average pace of 4:52 min/km and the last 2K at a marathon pace of 4:37 min/km. Then just a very easy jog on Saturday and half-marathon on Sunday... Concerning the half-marathon let me say this: organization-wise this was the worst race I ever participated in. I mean it. One: it was raining and windy (ok, hard to blame organization for that). Two: there were no km mark, nor water stations (except for 1 at 17K or so, but by that time I decided whatever) -- probably I could have figured that...

Perfect week; injury gone! That was a really good week. The injury that was bothering me for so long finally went away for good. Although now that I think about it maybe it's not surprising it took its time -- I ran 320 km in February, making it my 3rd best month ever(!). And February is not famous for it's extensive length ;). In other words: after the injury I was getting up to speed with my running rather fast ;) But as I said finally all the pain went away and on Tuesday for the first time in a long time I was able to do intervals with AV'23 without holding back -- felt great. We did 12 intervals alternating between 400m and 800m with ~70sec of break in between. I averaged 3:55 min/km over all intervals which I'm rather happy with. In general this week I did a pattern that I'll try to reproduce from now on, whenever possible: 3 days of trainings (Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday) but every day two trainings. Tuesday: easy run in the morning, intervals in the evening. ...

Recovery week As I wrote last week this was supposed to be a recovery week. However, it started with the AV'23 track training and I certainly didn't want to miss that one. I was still extremely tired -- not very surprising given that I ended the previous week with a 35K long run followed immediately with an 8K cross race. So my legs felt very heavy on Tuesday. I tried to go easy during the drills and then for the interval part we were doing 5 laps of 400m with 200m recovery jog, then 4 laps faster and all the way down to 1. Funnily my legs would complain a lot if I was going too fast but if only I slowed down a bit things seemed to be ok. I started 5 laps with 4:22 min/km, only managed to keep the same pace for the following 4, but then managed to speed up a bit clocking 4:17, then 4:06 and finally 3:40. I ended up being exhausted but managed to stay clear from injuring myself and was rather pleased with that. The following day I had to pay the price however -- I simply wasn...