Hi all,
This is the week, the final week of hard stuff before the mandatory two-week taper period before the Reading Half Marathon. Mileage, pace and even exertion have been pushed to newer limits. I don't think I've worked this hard since Berlin last year, or maybe even ever before! Let's see how this week unfolded.
Monday
Type: Easy with strides
Time and Distance: 30 mins, 5.65 km.
Detail: 20 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 10 x 100m strides at 16 km/h pace. Last stride at 18 km/h pace.
Tuesday
Type: Intervals
Time and Distance: 95 mins, 20.3 km.
Detail: 15 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 4 x 3200m at 13.6 - 14.0 km/h pace, with 90 secs recovery at 8 km/h pace after intervals. 2 x 1600m at 14.5 km/h pace and 15.5 km/h pace, with 90 secs recovery at 8 km/h pace.
Wednesday
Type: Easy with strides
Time and Distance: 30 mins, 5.72 km.
Detail: 15 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 10 x 100m strides at 17 km/h pace.
Thursday
Type: Progressive tempo
Time and Distance: 40 mins, 8.4 km.
Detail: 15 mins at 10.5 km/h pace. 10 mins at 13.5 - 14.0 km/h pace. 10 mins at 14.0 - 15.0 km/h pace. Recover for 2 mins at 8.0 km/h, followed by 90 secs at 15.1 km/h pace.
Saturday
Type: Long
Time and Distance: 164 mins 31 secs, 33.3 km.
Detail: First half (14.6 km) at 76 mins 50 secs. Second half (18.7 km) at 88 mins 41 secs.
Sunday
Type: Easy
Time and Distance: 44 mins 6 secs, 8 km.
Detail: Recovery run after Saturday's long run.
Total Weekly Distance: 81.37 km.
Comments: My biggest week in terms of mileage and effort, especially the Tuesday run. I don't think I've covered 20 km worth of intervals before! The Thursday tempo run was intended to be a longer session, but unfortunately I had a training mishap so I had to cut it short. The Saturday run was intended to be just slightly longer than half marathon distance at a faster pace, but since I've done two days of hard running this week, I decided to do a slower, longer run. Actually the pace of my long run was a shade below 5 min/km, which, for me, is quite fast for a long run, so hopefully this will benefit both my half marathon training and marathon training at the same time. For all my easy runs, I've been adding 100m strides in the run, just to mix things up and add a bit of zip to the legs. I'm going to include this in all my easy runs from now on.
Improvements: There will be no more weeks of harder running in the two weeks preceding the Reading Half Marathon. This two week period is the taper period, which will allow me to be at, or near, 100% on race day. I would need to be peaking at that time since I'd like to run the Reading Half Marathon in less than 1:30:00. The taper period involves reduced volume and intensity, so it's goodbye long runs, tempo runs and fast mile repeats for now.
Well I managed to put in a mega week of training. It's nowhere near the mileage and intensity that the elites put in, but I'm happy with this hard effort. I'm still injury free at this stage, though I sometimes feel the odd niggle which hopefully will not lead on to anything more serious. Let's hope I can get a new PB, and break 1:30:00, in two weeks time!
Putting my feet up (for now),
Aaron
