Hi runners and football fans,
So much sport was played today. The cricket, Wimbledon, and the World Cup. Today was England vs Germany in the round of 16 in what should've been a semi-final match-up. While my New Zealand All Whites have exited the World Cup as heroes, it's time to support the remaining teams in the competition, and my loyalties were slightly divided today. I support England because I live here and they've always been underachievers at every World Cup so far, but I also support Germany because they deserve to be there, they have played very well so far, and some of my best friends are German! :-)
Anyway, from what I saw, England played very poorly today, and no amount of excuses will cover the cracks in their performance. They were simply outplayed by a better team!
Well, on to something not as exciting - my training recap for this week. This week I only managed 5 runs. Because of business, I had to travel and wasn't able to get in the full weekly session. The good news is that I managed to get all the quality sessions in, and skipped only the recovery runs (there were 3 that week). Here is how the week unfolded.
Tuesday
Type: Threshold
Time and Distance: 49 mins 30 secs, 9.1 km.
Detail: Warm up for 15 mins. 3 x 10 mins at threshold pace with 90 secs recovery. Each 10 mins covered around 2100-2200m.
Wednesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 45 mins 12 secs, 6.5 km.
Thursday
Type: Progression tempo
Time and Distance: 60 mins 4 secs, 11.5 km.
Detail: First 20 mins at recovery pace, second 20 mins at steady pace, last 20 minutes at threshold pace.
Saturday
Type: Continuous hills
Time and Distance: 58 mins 20 secs, 10.2 km.
Detail: 12 mins warmup. 3 sets of 10 mins at threshold with 90 seconds recovery. Did 12 reps in all 3 sets, with each rep around 180m.
Sunday
Type: Long run
Time and Distance: 90 mins 6 secs, 17.5 km.
Total Weekly Distance: 54.8 km
Comments: Only 54.8 km this week. If I managed to fit in all 3 recovery runs, I would have probably added another 10-15 km to that weekly total, but I'm not complaining. The good thing is that I managed to get all the quality sessions in (threshold, continuous hills, long run). Hopefully the coming week won't be disrupted by any other travel, and that I can focus on banking another good week of running.
Improvements: Week 4 will consolidate on the work of week 3. There is extra volume placed on the runs this week, so the threshold and long runs will get slightly longer. I'm not adverse to an increase in volume, so this week should be comfortable for me, provided that I focus and just stick to the task.
Well, my target event to break three hours is the Berlin Marathon, and if Germany can go as far as winning the World Cup this year, then I hope that I can do something just as amazing in Germany. After all, the way they played today, they certainly have the firepower and capability to be winners on the big stage. All the best, Germany! You have my support from here on in.
Alles Gute!
Aaron
