Week 11, 2012

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 out before the race but to be honest I did not see any information about that. Anyway, I could forgive them those two but it gets worse. Three: the route was not well marked. Twice we took a wrong route and had to turn around. In both cases I only lost few seconds (together with patience for the organization). And if anyone feels funny and wants to make jokes about my orientation skills, let me just say that both times I was following a group in front of me (and they lost more time). Finally the cherry on top of the cake: the route was too short! Both my Polar (recently calibrated) & my GPS registered ~20.3km. When I checked on the map I noticed that we (all) missed a loop of approximately 500m. Finally the organizers announced afterwards that the route was 1K too short. I don't know which of those is true but I'm not going to consider it a race and include it in my race stats... which pisses me off quite a bit, I have to admit.

Concerning my performance; well hard to say. I crossed the finish line at 1:29:32. If I trust my Polar then my expected finish time would be 1:32:57 -- not great. But if the 500m loop is all that we missed, then it'd be closer to 1:31:44 -- within plans. Basically, hard to say. My 5K split times were: 21:29, 21:59, 22:04, 22:32; again, not terribly impressive but I did run plenty of races where I'd loose more by the end. Bottom line: breaking my PB in Paris is not looking great, but should not be impossible either. We'll see...

Comments

jean said…
Adam, dont bother to much about it. You had a very good moment when you skipped a training because you felled tired. And maybe take in account the energy sucking dinner on saturday evening in Diemen. Keep up the good work and Paris will be fine!
March 22, 2012 at 3:21 AM
Thyra said…
Fully agree with Jan (I know: rare!). What happened to your cross trainings though? They're getting fewer and fewer: this week even none at all!
March 22, 2012 at 3:54 AM
Strzelo said…
Hi Koper, I love your new technology tables but they are obviously to high-tech. I can not see them on both my work and home computers (both new ones with a lot of software installed).
March 23, 2012 at 7:18 AM
Adam Koprowski said…
If you mean that annoying message at the top -- that's new and I'll get rid of it soon. If you cannot see them AT ALL; are you by any chance reading my blog on Google Reader? If so, the stats tables are not and will never be visible there -- sorry.
March 23, 2012 at 7:21 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Budapest, marathon

Image
2/10/2011 marathon Budapest, Hungary 3:25:51 4:53 min/km 165 hrm 256/2990 (8.6%) That was supposed to be my 10th marathon. And my hopes (as usually) were high :). I wouldn't settle for anything less than a new PB... It didn't start so well. I arrived to Budapest on Friday and it was really hot. I mean, like summer hot. And when I arrived to the hotel it only got worse -- the room was sooo bloody hot; it was like an oven! Now that I think about it I should have tried to change rooms. I didn't. And I payed for it dearly as I hardly got any sleep that night. Next day -- business as usual, picking up the starting number, working out the logistics, stuffing oneself with pasta... and trying to go to bed early. Thankfully it kinda worked and I even managed to get a decent night of sleep. The race was starting at 10 so I woke up, ate breakfast and got myself to the starting line without too much hurry. The starting sections were for the grabs, that is one ...
Read more

Week 19 & 20, 2012

No activity week, followed by the best week ever Cannot display training data. If you're viewing it in an RSS feeder (such as Google Reader) you'll need to open the original post to see it. This was a crappy week; I was in Portugal and didn't feel much like running. I only went for one run on Friday. If you look at my speed during this training you may think I was out for a walk. Not so. I don't know good places for running around Braga, so usually I end up going up the Bom Jesus hill ; and that's a hell of a hill to climb. During this session I did a total ascent of 560m; and such an ascent can do that to your pace! Cannot display training data. If you're viewing it in an RSS feeder (such as Google Reader) you'll need to open the original post to see it. The following week I decided to step up my game. On Monday I again attacked Bom Jesus, but this time with a twist. I would go 4 minutes uphill and then back up and go down for 1 minute. That means that ...
Read more

My goals for... the lifetime.

Image
The other day I was thinking about my running goals for the next year (completing a milestone event such as the Lakeland 50 often does that to me ;) and then I though that it would actually be nice to put it in the perspective and first come up with goals for the lifetime. Things I would like to achieve sport-wise before my expiration date. Quite a biggie. So without further ado, let me outline them and then I'll talk a bit more about each one of them. Qualify for and run in the Boston marathon . Complete in a good time a demanding trail ultramarathon. Complete an Ironman Triathlon (for those in the dark: 3.86km swim + 180km bike ride + 42.2km run) I have no illusion, those are all grand goals and each one of them would require total dedication and a lot of training (possibly over some years) to complete; and even then there is no guarantee of success. But, hey, as they say: Better shoot for the sky... . Anyway. Let me elaborate on those goals. Qualify for and run in the ...
Read more