Hey all,
Unfortunately I've not had a great week. My left leg started playing up and I'm not sure what happened. I suppose the increased mileage from last week really started to bite me in the butt and I'm paying for it right now. So I took 2 days off running to get the leg back into shape. It's still uncomfortable, but not serious enough to stop me running completely (well, I hope!). And also, we're reaching the most critical stage of the schedule and getting injured is the very last thing I want happening! Here's the lowdown for this week.
Monday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 27 mins 25 secs, 3.7 km.
Tuesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 45 mins, 6.7 km.
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 54 mins 48 secs, 8 km.
Wednesday
Type: Mixed pace
Time and Distance: 71 mins 45 secs, 15.06 km.
Detail: Warm up for 15 mins (2.4 km). 12 mins at threshold with 120 secs recovery (approx 2900m). 6 x 3 mins at 10k pace with 90 secs recovery (approx 760m). 12 mins at threshold (approx 2750m). Cool down for approx 15 mins (2.4 km).
Saturday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 47 mins 30 secs, 7.5 km.
Sunday
Type: Progressive
Time and Distance: 85 mins, 16.4 km.
Detail: Warm up for 30 mins at recovery pace, 30 mins at marathon goal pace, and 30 mins at threshold pace. In reality, had to cut the run 5 mins short, and the pace today was slower than my intended marathon goal pace. Kilometre splits were: 4:28, 4:31, 4:39, 4:41, 4:41, 4:43, 4:42, 4:53, 4:51, 4:49, 4:54.....
Total Weekly Distance: 57.36 km
Comments: Not a great week. Discomfort in my left leg is giving me some concerns and I'm pretty disappointed with Sunday's run, although I'm not going to blame the left leg. I thought about taking the first part of the run slowly, but pretty soon I was running out of gas and got slower and slower. When it came time to run at threshold I just couldn't go any faster.
Improvements: More speed work to keep the legs turning over. Another comparatively low volume week lies ahead, so hopefully I can put in an excellent week left leg permitting!
Let's be completely honest here - there's only 7 weeks to go and I'm still coming up short hitting those target times. If Sunday's run is anything to go by, I have to be realistic and say that I'm very unlikely to break 3 hours this time around. I'm considering revising my target time for Berlin, perhaps I can shoot for 3:10:00 and qualify for Boston next year - now that would also be nice to have! It's a bit disappointing to realise at this stage that I won't meet my main goal, but there are always other races to train for and run... as long as my body is able!
Not yet derailed,
Aaron
