Week 23, 2012

My slowest half-marathon ever :)

A well balanced week, with two "floating on water" sessions. Easy running on Monday, then very intense intervals on Tuesday, I pushed myself to to at 3:49min/km on 800m intervals; still slightly faster than on 600m ones last week. Then a hill session on Thursday (now full 15sec/km faster than two weeks ago) and rest until Sunday.

10/06/2012
half-marathon
Amersfoort, The Netherlands
1:37:32
4:39 min/km
170 hrm

And on Sunday, the half-marathon of Amersfoort. I was quite positive about it, I woke up on time, made it to the train on time, didn't drink too much beer the previous night, while watching EC with friends. All looked good. Until I started running. With Thyra, Michal and Radek we started way in the back of the pack, so the first 3K involved heavy elbowing through the crowd, which, with its constant slowing down and speeding up, was quite tiring... and yet, as it turned out later, those were my faster kilometers. Afterwards the road got wider, so no more pushing through the crowd but the "natural" difficulties of the track kicked in. Ascents, descends, dirt roads... we had it all. It was a really difficult course, I think. I finished in 1:37:32, which makes it my slowest half-marathon ever. I'd be quite depressed about that, but the results of others indicate that it was not only me and that the course was really a tough one. Oh well.

I hope to chalk up a nice long run next week and I need to think when to squeeze in a 10K race. Stay tuned. Oh, and you can notice a new icon next to the Sunday race :) (I'll still work on its content, though).

Comments

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