Week 37, 2012

Another good week.

I was worried about this week, as on Friday I was going for holidays to California and was seriously doubting whether I'll manage to do any running there. So the plan was to try to at least plan 4 workouts before leaving; no time to waste.

On Monday I joined a Sportsworld run. The pace was super relaxed and my heart rate was in the jogging range, so I was happy to see at the end that the average pace was 5:39min/km; sure, not fast, but not sluggishly slow either.

Then on Tuesday intervals on the track: 4 times 2K with a short break in between. My plan was to do it at 4:00min/km. There was a big group with this exact target so I was happy to join them for the ride. We took off and I immediately knew that the pace was far too fast: we did the first 400m in 3:45min/km and I jkeust knew that I won't be able to keep up with that pace. Gladly we slowed after this first lap but we still did the first rep in 3:51min/km and I was wasted by the end of it. The second one was considerably slower, 3:57min/km but I was even more tired at the end of it and struggled to keep up with the group. The 3rd interval was a struggle from the beginning and around the middle of it I stayed behind trailing around 30m behind the group at the end, but I still did 3:56min/km on it. The final one was the coffin to my nail: I lost more than 100m on the group, did 4:04min/km and felt like a failure ;).

When it was time to evaluate the day I had mixed feelings. On one hand I did not manage to keep up with the group, so that sucked big time. I was even thinking that maybe this is why I'm struggling to get good results lately; that maybe it's the inner game that I'm lacking and not the training...

On the other hand it was just one week since I recovered from the injury so maybe I deserved a break. Moreover, I did end up with the average pace of 3:58min/km, so I did meet my target. Oh well.

On Wednesday I did an 18K run. I was planning to make it an easy run and it started as such but on the second half of the run I decided to push it a bit and was doing around 5:00min/km, with the training average of 5:17min/km.

On Thursday, just one day before going to California, I was planning to do my long run. For various reasons I ended up not running at all that day and I was pretty frustrated about that.

Gladly, I did manage to do two trainings while in San Francisco. 17K on Saturday, along the waterfront, with the first half slower (5:06min/km) and the second faster (4:52min/km). And 18K on Sunday: this time I planned to push harder for the whole run, but after a short while I was in a pretty bad shape with chest pains giving me trouble so I had to slow down (my body not used to morning runs? ;) and again I sped up only for the second half of the training but this time I managed to do it at a respectable pace of 4:36min/km.

Funny thing is that on Sunday, while I was running, I saw preparations for a half-marathon race. If only I checked that beforehand then maybe I could get my chance of running a half-marathon before Berlin. Still, it was nice to see all this running-related buzz around.

So, even though I didn't do my long run this week, I did manage to do my 5 planned runs and ended up with 85K total; not bad. Now I only wish that I'll be able to continue in that fashion the following week (doubtful) and then one week of tapering and Berlin! Exciting :)

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

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

Marathon, Paris, 2012

15/04/2012 marathon Paris, France 3:17:55 4:41 min/km 171 hrm So. Paris. Would I finally break my PB? I certainly hoped so as I was sick of not being able to do that for such a long time. I certainly worked hard for that. Since the beginning of 2011 not only did I run a lot, but, perhaps more importantly, I run as systematically as never before. That surely had to count for something, right? RIGHT? I thought my preparations were fairly decent. I may have overdid it a bit with the 40K run just 3 weeks before the marathon. I may... They were decent all right. The week leading to the marathon I decided to take it very easy. On Tuesday I did easy 6K followed by strides (10x100m). And then I did a sport massage. With a follow-up on Wednesday. That was another first. The masseuse claimed that this should make a huge difference. I wasn't so sure but it certainly wouldn't hurt. Then on Thursday I did 5 1K intervals. While doing them I was thinking. Talking about t
Read more