Breaking Three Hours

Retiring the Breaking Three Hours Blog

2011-01-03T10:54:00.005Z

Hi all,

A happy new year to you all. I know I haven't been blogging here lately. The reason is that I have decided to retire this blog. This means that no further entries will be posted here, and no further comments can be made by readers.

However, this blog will remain on Blogger so that readers can be directed to my personal blog, which I have recently revamped to include my running as well. Throughout the 2010 year, I've been maintaining two blogs, and felt that one blog is definitely enough.

Throughout the revamping process, my blog has a new URL, a fresh new look, and all the previous posts and comments from Breaking Three Hours have been imported into this blog. You can access it via http://runningwithaaron.blogspot.com/

It doesn't mean that the dream of Breaking Three Hours is dead, it just means that the dream of Breaking Three Hours can be shown from my other blog.

This is an exciting time, and I can't wait to continue posting about things related to running on my other blog!

Signing out from this blog,

Aaron

Resurrecting the Dream

2010-11-04T22:59:00.003Z

If there is anyone who takes the marathon recovery phase very seriously, I would be near the top of the list.

Normally for us marathon runners, we'd give our bodies around a week or so to get back into any sort of slow running before we undertake another serious marathon training programme.

For me, as I said in my race report, I was going to take an extended break from running. Literally. Not even a 20 minute jog around the park. The days of 7-8 training runs a week, 6 days a week were over. The tweets on running had dried up, the blog updates were no more.

Until now.

It's been 5 weeks since my assault on Berlin, and during that time I did what any other young guy would do. I went travelling. I played video games. I stayed up far too late, ate loads of fatty foods and drank too much alcohol for my liking.

But in that time of "reflection" I also came up with new dreams, new goals and new plans, and also a renewed vigour to get back into running again. After all 5 weeks is a long time, and as I recently learned it's more than enough time to eat away your fitness levels.

The overriding dream hasn't changed - after all the blog title says it all. However, when training as hard and as smart as any marathon runner could do I still came up short. Afterwards I learned how far off I was, and how much I had to go to realise that dream.

I've looked at my past races (both halves and marathons) and it's obvious that my running profile fits that of an Endurance Monster instead of a Speed Demon. So I created a new dream and that is to get faster - to become a Speed Demon. Simple as that. Running a 1:34 half marathon isn't going to lead to a sub-3 hour marathon. However, by getting faster at shorter distances I will be many steps closer to chasing that sub-3 hour marathon dream.

At the moment I don't have a goal marathon race lined up. I think it will be a while before I decide on a marathon to race. But I do have a goal half marathon race and that is the Reading Half Marathon, which I will run for the 3rd time in a row. For me it's an event I hold very dearly, being the first half marathon that I ran in the UK, setting personal bests at Reading, and even appearing in the local newspaper in the days precluding the race! These lasting impressions have always made me come back for more.

In the last Reading Half Marathon, I failed to reach my goal of a sub-1:30 time by 4 minutes. It was a bitter pill to swallow, having strongly believed that I could achieve that target. This time I have another chance to set the record straight and if I can do this and a little more, then I know that I am well on my way to breaking 3 hours.

And then there's the plan to ensure success. It starts with putting together a training schedule that includes all the components needed to run a fast half marathon, and then joining these components together and figuring out how deep I can go without getting burnt out or injured along the way.

There are under 20 weeks to go to the Reading Half Marathon. To get myself ready to go for my best half marathon time I will need to increase leg turnover and overall speed. The plan is to split up half marathon training into 3 different phases. Phase 1 will focus on getting to my best 5k/10k fitness. This will bring in shorter intervals with plenty of recovery in between. The volume will be low, but the intensity will be high. Phase 2 will then take that speed and start to add in some longer training. There will be plenty of fast intervals but now they will be longer and with less rest.

Finally in Phase 3, over the last 8 weeks I will get into the specific work necessary for the half marathon, where I will bring my best track running speed to the roads of Reading. At Reading I will look to run at an average speed of 4:15 per kilometre. By doing plenty of speed workouts early on, running in the 4:15 mins/km range won't feel so demanding. The intention is to make half marathon pace feel like running in 3rd or 4th gear. If I can do this, then it will be a big step in getting closer to that sub-3 hour marathon dream.

It starts with a dream, then a goal, and finally a plan. And it all starts right now!

Berlin Marathon 2010 - Race Report and Conclusion

2010-10-02T17:41:00.004+01:00

Hi,

So, going into the Berlin Marathon, I'm going to be trying something I've never done before, trying to run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, and hopefully break 3 hours in the process.

The good news is that I did run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, setting a new personal best of 3:21:25. The bad news is that personal best was obviously not under 3 hours.

My main aim was for my running this year was to qualify for Boston 2011 (run 3:10:59 or under in the under M35 age group). Then for some reason I upped the stakes a lot higher by setting a goal to break 3 hours in a marathon.

I admit, I did feel a little bummed when I fell so far short of this target. Actually, the writing was on the wall when I couldn't hit my target times consistently in training and in racing. But since I went into the race without putting any pressure or expectation to run as fast as I could, I was able to produce my best performance on that day, running a personal best. 80 seconds is a modest improvement from 3:22:45 from last year's Berlin Marathon, but put simply, if I had put pressure on myself to run faster than I've ever run before, there was no way that I would've set that PB on race day. So, from that perspective, I think there's hardly any reason to be disappointed. Looking back, my target was so optimistic, but as they say, if you shoot for the moon and miss, at least you'll land among the stars.

It's not my turn yet to break 3 hours, but I will get there even if it takes one minute at a time.

On to the race itself. Unlike last year, the conditions were much cooler, but there was heavy rain beforehand which caused a few large puddles on the course. Waiting in the starting pen in Tiergarten on Straße des 17. Juni with nearly 48000+ runners while it rained wasn't a nice experience, but at least it wasn't 20 something degrees like last year. The music, This is The Moment, from the musical, Jekyll & Hyde, was playing from the loudspeakers, coupled with the release of hundreds of green balloons slowly rising high in the air. When you're out there on the biggest stage trying to prove something and reaching an unlikely target, it felt like The Moment before I even took my first stride! But I reined in the emotions and tried not to go out on the course in a blaze of glory.

And when I got out there in the wet, I was running somewhere around 4.7 min/km pace in the early kms, much slower than the required 4.25 min/km pace to break 3 hours. There were crowds of runners all around me to contend with early on, but I don't think I made an effort to avoid them. For some reason I didn't want to speed up in the first 20 kms; all I kept telling myself was to relax and enjoy The Moment. The Boston qualifying time was probably still realistic, but I had to make something happen in the second half of the course to do this. With the cooler temperatures this year, I had a decent chance.

I hit the half way point half a minute slower than last year, but still felt quite strong and was hoping that I could just cruise to the 20 mile mark and make it happen in the last 6 miles. Unfortunately I couldn't stay strong throughout. At 23 km, I developed some discomfort in my right hamstring, and stopped briefly to stretch it. I did try to take my mind off the pain, and it did go away. However the pain continued to return, subside, and return again as the race progressed further, and I ended up slowing down to around 4.8 mins/km pace by the 30 km mark.

Of course I got even more tired and my pace between 30 - 40 km went from 4.8 min/km pace to a shade over 5 min/km pace. Knowing that getting into Boston was going to be unrealistic, I said to myself that there's no way I'm leaving Berlin without a new PB, especially with all the hard work I've put into training. Then I thought about that video, about the guy who broke 3 hours in his 11th Boston Marathon and how he must've worked and how he was feeling in those final miles. If he could finish with a new personal best, then I can too!

So around 38 km, and the stage where the runners enter Potsdamer Platz, I made up my mind to go faster. I kept surging, surging on Potsdamer Straße, Leipziger Straße, Jerusalemer Straße, Charlottenstraße, and finally Unter den Linden, wanting that PB, bleeding, clawing and scraping for it to happen. Every time I surged I had to slow down, but once I recovered I surged again, and again, and again. I kept doing this, visualising that I was breaking down a brick wall with a mighty sledgehammer (not that I was really hitting the dreaded wall myself!). It was a battle, not only with my legs but with my mind, a battle I can safely say I won.

When I got to the Brandenburg Gate, just shy of the 42 km mark, I knew that I had a personal best in the bag. Like last year, I consciously ran through the middle column of the structure, experiencing the same thrill when I first ran Berlin. So it was there that I poured it out on the final stretch until I crossed the finish line feeling like I had nothing left in the tank.

I was shattered both physically and emotionally. I honestly gave it my best that day. Trying my best to ignore the pain that was starting to kick in from sudden inactivity, I reflected on the entire journey leading up to Berlin. It has been such a long season by non-elite athlete standards, I felt like I've been running forever and needed a well-deserved break from it all!

A few days after the race, I've had a chance to reflect on my performance, my year of running and my goals. I can honestly say that I ran my best race, but thinking that I could do it in 3 hours or less was very optimistic of me. I've learned the hard way that it takes a lot of time and effort and, for me, much more than a year's worth of running to reach it. Having said that there's absolutely nothing wrong with setting lofty goals, so if you don't meet your goal in the first place, don't let that discourage you from trying again. Failure is not falling down but refusing to give up. There will always be other marathons, and other fast courses for me to go out and break 3 hours. Now is not the time.

With regards to my training, I think that by joining the FP Run Club I was able to get some new and fresh ideas for training for a marathon. The sub-3 hour programme was tough but I managed to stick to it, even though I wasn't on track for a sub-3 hour performance. Being asked to run a sub 1:30 half marathon by week 6 of the programme was not realistic for me, so that was when I knew it was going to be an improbability to meet my target. The good thing is that the training programme can be reapplied for future marathons.

Looking to the future, I'm still intent on breaking 3 hours, but to have a decent chance of meeting my target, I will need to switch focus from being a marathon runner to running shorter distances. Don't get me wrong - long distance running is still my focus and my passion, but if I want to get faster in a marathon I need to learn how to run faster over these shorter distances, e.g. mile, 3k, 5k distances. My times over these distances aren't that fast, I think my best 5k time is a shade under 21 mins, which isn't too shabby but could do with lots of improvement. Once I learn how to run faster over these distances, then this will go a long way to running a marathon at the pace required to break 3 hours.

So what's next for me? Well, I registered for the Athens Marathon, but at the moment I haven't recovered fully from Berlin and it will take some time to do so. My right hamstring hasn't really responded well to rest, and I managed to catch a nasty cold a couple of days after the race, so regrettably I am going to withdraw from Athens and take a break from running for an extended period of time. The break will allow me to reassess my running goals both over shorter distances and marathon distance. For shorter distances, I would really like to run a sub-19 min 5k, a sub-40 min 10k, and also have another shot at a sub-1:30 at the Reading Half Marathon, which I've entered for the 3rd time! A chance for me to really get faster and have a much more realistic chance of breaking 3 hours next year! But for now, rest, recovery and doing the things I couldn't do so easily while I was in training. There are a lot!

There have been a fair amount of people that have been instrumental thus far who deserve special mention. In no particular order:

The Oslo project team, or Team Oslo, or Team Åwesome, for always keeping me in check with my training, especially Andrew and Mohannad for giving up some of their time to help me in training
My various Twitter and blog followers, and also like-minded marathon runners in joining me for the ride and providing their support. Special thanks to AndrewENZ, shafk, si_brim and others for sharing their experiences and feedback along the way. Much appreciated!
George Anderson and the FP Run Club for giving me a new approach to training, and something for me to build on in the future.
My Oslo masseuse, Aina, for working her magic and being generous with her rates, time and knowledge.
My good friends and the two S's - Shaun and Shanta. Shaun, for helping me in training with his sometimes tortoise-like pacing, and being a good sport and great company while I was training in the UK despite a couple of horror stories which will make great roasting material about him! Shanta, for imparting her infinite wisdom on things not related to running, but relevant to life itself. Because there is more to life than just running, even though it never felt like that over the past year!
The rest of the gang, too numerous to mention by name, back in UK, NZ and, last but not least, Palma for their humour, support and other contributions to keep me entertained and motivated.
And my family for being supportive of my running, even though I don't come from a family of runners. This will definitely change from now on.

This blog is a journey and so far it's still an ongoing one. In the meantime, I'm going to take a break from running so that I can reassess my goals and set new ones along the way. This means I won't be updating my blog for a while. I have to say that training and maintaining a blog at the same time is very hard work (believe me, there have been times where I don't want to do either!). Hopefully I won't be out of action for too long and hopefully you'll be around when I resume the journey of breaking 3 hours!

Signing off for now,

Aaron

P.S. Me with Berlino the Bear at the Berlin Marathon expo. Yeah, me and Berlino are good mates! After the race we exchanged phone numbers.

The Plan to Attack Breaking Three Hours

2010-09-24T10:03:00.006+01:00

Hi,

And almost every race I've completed, it's always been my aim to try and set a new personal best. When I reach the start line, I cannot help getting pumped up and thinking that this is the race that I go out and hit a six (for those cricket fans) or a home run (for those baseball fans).

But what if I don't hit a big one on the big day? It may happen that even though I'm fully psyched up, I just couldn't deliver the goods that I thought I could.

Over the past few days I've reflected on those races where I did well, and those not so well, and tried to figure out the different mental approaches going into each race. After all, running the marathon is all about being mentally strong as well as getting your body physically strong and healthy when you approach the start line.

There seems to be a trend in my relatively short racing career that the second time doesn't seem to go as well as the first. I can only say that in the second time I develop a natural expectation to do A LOT better than the previous time. So I work myself up, knowing that I can do a lot better, only to not meet expectations in the first place. There may be progress, but perhaps not in the grand quantities that I perceived earlier.

When I raced Reading earlier in the year, I was aiming to go under 1:30 and knock over 6 minutes off my personal best. Because I was trying to break 3 hours in a marathon I put huge pressure and expectation on myself to perform that day, and even though I set a new PB in the half marathon the mentality of I'm going to run harder than I've ever run before that I carried into that race made me force the pace and effort very early in the run, which meant I blew up far too early and didn't have enough in the back half to sustain that pace.

On the opposite end, I ran Copenhagen for the first time and I wasn't feeling mentally pumped up going into the race. I had a pretty bad travel experience getting into Copenhagen that I just didn't feel like showing up at all. I didn't have any expectation other than to have some fun and enjoyment in Copenhagen and finish in 4 hours. I finished in 3:43, including a negative split. It certainly wasn't a PB, but it felt like one. I ran faster than I thought I would do on that given day.

So what does that tell me about how I will race at Berlin on Sunday? I think it tells me that I need to take the pressure off by going into Berlin with an open mind. The weather will play a big part and I could hit the halfway point slower than anticipated. Rather than go into Berlin with the mentality of I'm going to run harder than I've ever run before, I'm going to approach it like I did when I ran Copenhagen. This means I'm going to relax and let the effort flow more naturally out of me. I'm not expecting it to be easy, it's certainly going to be a battle that I will enjoy fighting. But above all I'm going to have fun in Berlin and if I approach it with that fun and relaxed mentality then the body will perform better compared to when it's tensed up.

To summarise, going into Berlin on Sunday, which also is my second time, I won't make the same mistake that I did at Reading. I won't be thinking that this is my one shot to hit the big one and that I will be going harder than I've ever run before.

Instead I'm going into Berlin thinking that this is going to be fun and it's going to be a big challenge for me. It certainly won't be easy, but I've prepared for this for many months and know that I'm at the top of my game. So rather than force the pace on race day, I'm just going to let the effort flow naturally as the race goes on, especially in the first few miles where it's so easy for me to go too fast. Above all, it all boils down to having fun and enjoyment on the day.

So, going into Berlin on Sunday, I'm going to let the race flow out of me, and I hope to reach the finish line feeling very proud of my performance.

Aaron

Training Week 42 Recap

2010-09-19T11:24:00.006+01:00

Hi folks,

There's only 1 more week to go, and this is the stage where nothing more can be done, where I need to let the body recover in order to be strong on race day. This is the stage where I need to believe in my fitness and the training I have done over the past few months, and beyond that! It is finally coming to an end and right now I should be excited, organised and looking forward to race day. Here's how the week went.

Monday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 40 mins 19 secs, 5.8 km.

Tuesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 35 mins 52 secs, 5.3 km.

Wednesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 45 mins 49 secs, 7.7 km.

Thursday

Type: Mixed pace
Time and Distance: 91 mins, 18 km.
Detail: Warm up for 15 mins (approx 2.4 km), then 10 x 3 mins at threshold pace (approx 700m) then 10 mins at steady pace (approx 600m). Cool down for 16 mins (approx 2.6 km).

Saturday

Type: Intervals
Time and Distance: 39 mins 38 secs, 7.5 km.
Detail: Warm up for 5 mins (approx 750m), then 5 x 5 mins at threshold pace (approx 1200m) with 60 secs recovery. Cool down for 5 mins (approx 750 km).

Sunday

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 44 mins 47 secs, 7 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 51.3 km

Comments: Another relatively easy week. No long runs, which is great! The final key session on Thursday I managed to get through totally unscathed, and it amounted to 13 km in 60 minutes. This did bump up the mileage slightly from last week, but nothing to worry about.

Improvements: It's marathon week! The final week is going to focus less on running, and more on recovery and staying strong. Being in Oslo on secondment means that I'm eating out a lot for free, but this time I need to be really selective on the food I eat this week, so I'm going to be cooking a lot of carb-rich meals in the apartment. I'm getting a bit more sleep nowadays, but it is difficult getting to sleep on time especially with so much other things going on as well. Finally, I'm a notoriously bad stretcher, so I'll have to maintain the flexibility without tearing a muscle. Now that would really suck!

This week is also going to be an exercise in juggling marathon prep, work deadlines and other obligations and if it wasn't for work deadlines looming I think I would be in a better position. There is a significant work deadline coming up at the end of the week I return from Berlin, and a lot of my tasks are still pending, which means I may have to put in a couple of extra hours in the 3 working days I have this coming week. I leave for Berlin on Thursday afternoon where I'll spend a couple of days relaxing in this great city, before finally letting it out on the course on Sunday. I return back to Oslo on Monday afternoon, and if it wasn't for this significant work deadline in that week I would gladly spend a lot longer in Germany. Work deadlines have to be met of course, but that shouldn't go as far as compromising my preparations for this important race. After all, this race came up first.

I will also need to believe in my fitness and training, and surround myself with positive people. I found a moving video on YouTube featuring American 50k record holder Josh Cox and the magic of the marathon. It featured a runner called Jeff trying to break 3 hours at Boston this year, with Josh acting as his pacesetter and providing encouragement to him along the way. Indeed he broke 3 hours in the end, and I hope that I, too, can replicate that special marathon magic that got Jeff home in under 3 hours. We will see next week!

Starting to believe,

Aaron

Training Week 41 Recap

2010-09-12T10:25:00.008+01:00

Hey there,

The long hard road is finally coming to an end! Tapering has started right now, and it's been great to reduce the mileage and looking forward to even more decreases! In terms of keeping myself healthy during this phase, I definitely haven't been doing this well at all, with too many late nights for my liking and getting not enough sleep. With only two weeks left to go to the marathon this has got to change right now!

I also finally managed to get myself a long overdue sports massage in Oslo and I'm really happy with how it went and what the masseuse had to say about the state of my body. I will definitely book another appointment to see her. You can check out Aina Jensen, my masseuse, on YouTube.

Here's how the week went.

Monday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 35 mins 32 secs, 5.5 km.

Tuesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 30 mins, 4.7 km.

Type: Mixed pace
Time and Distance: 62 mins, 11.2 km.
Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 5 mins at threshold pace (1.2 km), with 60 secs recovery. Did 5 x 1 mins at 5k pace, with 60 secs recovery (approx 260m). Did this set twice. Cool down for approx 15 mins (2.4 km).

Wednesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 41 mins 24 secs, 6.8 km.

Thursday

Type: Progression
Time and Distance: 31 mins 25 secs, 6.04 km.
Detail: Warmed up for 11 mins (1.6 km). Did 10 mins at steady pace (2 km), then 10 mins at threshold pace (approx 2.45 km).

Saturday

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 35 mins 29 secs, 5.6 km.

Sunday

Type: 10 km time trial
Time and Distance: 43 mins 40 secs, 10 km.
Detail: Started too fast, and faded in the middle. Km splits were 4:04, 4:02, 4:14, 4:20, 4:24, 4:25, 4:32, 4:33, 4:34, 4:27. Really tired in the end, but also definitely not at my very best for this run.

Total Weekly Distance: 49.84 km

Comments: A lot more shorter stuff, but keeping the intensity at around the same level as the previous weeks. I'm a bit disappointed with the time trial. I was expecting to come in under 42 mins, which would keep me at around my goal marathon pace, but since I started too fast I kind of blew up in the middle stages. It was also a really sunny day in Oslo so I also wilted in the heat. Bislett Stadion only opens from 12 - 6 p.m. on Sundays so I really had to do my time trial in not-so-ideal conditions. Unfortunately these things are outside of my control, so let's hope for the best ideal running conditions in two weeks!

Improvements: Still continuing on the taper theme. There will be two threshold runs coming up, mixed in with some easier running. It doesn't look like the mileage is going to decrease in the coming week as the intensity provided by the threshold runs coupled with the easier runs will result in some significant mileage (hopefully nothing more than 50 km like this week).

The taper period is progressing nicely, but there are a few things I really need to address to ensure that I get the most out of this crucial stage. Proper rest and recovery, adequate sleep, good nutrition and stretching are just a few of the things I need to pay attention to. Unfortunately the Men's Singles final of the US Open is on tonight, and play is scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m CEST. If it wasn't Rafael Nadal playing tonight's final, I would give it a miss, but he's on the verge of completing a career grand slam in tennis, with only 6 other men achieving this. It looks like I won't be getting much sleep tonight, so I'm hoping Nadal will make it a quick final tonight. Vamos! After that, I will promise myself to get an extra hour of sleep every day!

Talking about career grand slams, I'm hoping that I could complete my own career grand slam of marathons, the top 5 being Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and New York. So far I've only done Berlin, and if I do very well in two weeks time I could be in the running for a place in Boston, London or New York in 2011. But first, let's just concentrate on Berlin in two weeks time!

Nearly there,

Aaron

Training Week 40 Recap

2010-09-05T15:21:00.004+01:00

Hi guys,

At long last the taper session has come! This week was supposed to be one of my hardest weeks, but with work commitments coming up I had to skip a couple of runs. Fortunately they were easy recovery runs, so I treated myself to a couple of days of complete running abstinence. While this week didn't get up to the high mileages of previous weeks the intensity was always there, so here's how it went.

Wednesday
Type: Steady
Time and Distance: 60 mins 49 secs, 12.5 km.

Thursday

Type: Mixed pace
Time and Distance: 68 mins, 13.6 km.
Detail: Warmed up for 20 mins (3.2 km). Did 10 mins at threshold pace (2.4 km), with 90 secs recovery. Did 6 x 3 mins at 5k pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 800m). Cool down for approx 20 mins (3.2 km).

Saturday

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 48 mins, 6.9 km.

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 52 mins 29 secs, 8.1 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run + marathon pace
Time and Distance: 120 mins, 25.5 km.
Detail: First 75 mins at steady pace (approx 15.3 km), followed by the 45 mins at marathon pace (approx 10.2 km).

Total Weekly Distance: 66.6 km

Comments: A solid week despite the missed runs. The 5k intervals were very hard, and I was struggling to hold the effort for 3 mins at a time, scraping nearly 800m for each effort. This is also known as Yasso 800s, which is a predictor of marathon performance where the runner can predict their marathon time by running 800m intervals, e.g. 800m in 3 minutes roughly equates to a 3 hour marathon time. Whether this is accurate remains to be seen.

Improvements: Not really an improvement, but the taper period is finally here. Mileage will be reduced next week, the intensity will also be reduced but not too much, in order to keep the legs fresh and energetic. I may do a time-trial over 10,000 metres in the next week, so it will be interesting to see if I can set a huge PB there.

Well the taper period is finally here, and the days of doing long runs, continuous hills and threshold runs have finally come to an end. The hard work is finally over! While there's still 3 weeks to go to Berlin, there will be plenty of running ahead, but not of the type that was done in the previous weeks.

I think it's now time to pat myself on the back for all the hard work that I've done, not just over the last 13 weeks when I officially started FP Run Club's sub-3 hour training programme, but from the very start in January when I came up with the dream of running a marathon in under 3 hours. Sticking to it from the very start is something that I can be very proud of as it's pretty easy to lose focus and quit altogether. While I did lose my focus on some occasions I certainly didn't quit! There have been highs and many many lows along the way, but I think these things have made me a stronger and smarter runner along the way. I guess that's something I can be pretty proud of.

Putting the feet up,

Aaron

Training Week 39 Recap

2010-08-29T21:36:00.002+01:00

A very late evening to all,

The business end of my training is upon me. Having produced a productive week last week, it was imperative to continue the good work and really make every run count this week. I just got back from my 3 hour long run and it was surprisingly good, although obviously I am pretty tired now! Maybe the rain made things easier with the cooler temperatures as well. Here's how it went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 31 mins 19 secs, 5 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 47 mins 10 secs, 7.5 km.

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 29 mins 7 secs, 4.4 km.

Wednesday
Type: Mixed pace
Time and Distance: 85 mins 11 secs, 17.75 km.
Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 20 mins at marathon pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 4.56 km). Did 5 x 3 mins at 10k pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 760m). Did 20 mins at marathon pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 4.55 km). Cool down for approx 15 mins (2.4 km).

Thursday

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 46 mins, 7.5 km.

Saturday

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 32 mins, 4.9 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run + marathon pace
Time and Distance: 176 mins 25 secs, 33.5 km.
Detail: First two hours at relaxed steady pace, followed by the final hour at marathon pace.

Total Weekly Distance: 80.55 km

Comments: A great week. The mileage is a little lower than last week, but last week I put in a huge interval session which blew out the weekly mileage. The long run was surprisingly good, the first two hours were going at a steady pace, and I didn't really feel fatigued. It was only in the final hour where I had to accelerate to marathon pace when things got a little tough. I didn't really get it taken out of me at that stage, but I was made to work, even in a semi-fatigued state. Let's see how I'll end up tomorrow!

Improvements: The final key week next week, and while the longest run is now behind me(!), there will be quicker sessions from here till race day, to give the legs a lot of energy.

Only 4 more weeks to Berlin. 1 more week of quality training, and then the mandatory taper period begins.

Counting the days,

Aaron

Training Week 38 Recap

2010-08-22T13:54:00.005+01:00

Afternoon all,

After last week's relative inactivity, this week really picked up the mileage. Good thing that I'm doing absolutely nothing today, apart from my laundry (and even that is proving a challenge!). Today's long run really took it out of me. It was supposed to be a 2 hour 45 minute effort, and I thought I could do around 31 km comfortably. Instead I was a lot slower, though the hills of Oslo would have contributed to that, as well as the heat, which led to some dehydration.

Monday

Type: Mile intervals

Time and Distance: 116 mins 26 secs, 21.6 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 10 mile repeats with 60 secs recovery for the first 4, 180 secs recovery after the 4th, 60 secs recovery for the next 5, 180 secs recovery after the 9th, 60 secs recovery after the last. Times were 6:30, 6:30, 6:30, 6:31, 7:00, 6:59, 6:57, 6:57, 6:57, 6:35. Cool down for 20 mins (3.2 km). Average pace per interval was 6:44.6

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins 10 secs, 4.2 km.

Wednesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 45 mins 42 secs, 7 km.

Thursday

Type: Progression
Time and Distance: 45 mins, 9.4 km.
Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 15 mins at marathon pace (3.4 km). Did 15 mins at threshold pace (3.6 km).

Saturday

Type: Intervals
Time and Distance: 63 mins, 12.72 km.
Detail: Warmed up for 13 mins (2.1 km). Did 5 mins at 10k pace, with 60 secs recovery (approx 1.22 km per interval). Did this 6 times. Cool down for approx 20 mins (3.3 km).

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 32 mins 14 secs, 5.3 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run
Time and Distance: 165 mins 30 secs, 28.4 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 88.62 km

Comments: A much better week, and very hard as well. The mile intervals set the tone and the long slow run was the icing on the cake. Because of last week's disappointing Sunday run, I decided to put in some decent mile intervals, which is my number 1 training exercise for my running. And they were hard! Luckily I managed to recover from these and put in other decent efforts as well throughout the week. For the long run, and not being too familiar with Oslo, I mapped out a route on Google Maps beforehand so that I wouldn't get lost. It just so happened that the route was very hilly! Definitely doing a different route in future! 88.62 km is the highest mileage I've done in this round of training, would've been nice to break 90 km. Those damn hills!

Improvements: Another key week next week, and it will be another step up as I enter the final phase of preparation. The long run will now include marathon pace efforts. I really need to find a different, less hilly route for this run. I'm already getting tired just thinking of it.

Well I did manage to regather the momentum this week, and hopefully it will carry over to next week. There are 5 weeks to Berlin, but there will be 2 weeks of key training before the taper period begins. Hopefully I can survive by then.

Counting down,

Aaron

Training Week 37 Recap

2010-08-15T20:36:00.003+01:00

Evening guys,

This has been a rather lazy week for me. With week after week of hard training, I felt like I needed a break from it all, so to speak, and ended up doing very little mileage this week. I was supposed to run a half marathon today at marathon pace or faster, but "chickened" out in the morning, and ended up doing an easy run instead. I knew I didn't have it in me to do this run, and if I attempted it I would probably be wasting much needed energy for future training runs. Put simply, I felt burnt out this week! Hopefully I can regather the momentum next week.....

Tuesday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 57 mins, 12.05 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.2 km). Did 3 mins at threshold, with 75 secs recovery (approx 700m). Did 3 mins at 10k pace, with 75 secs recovery (approx 750m). Did this 3 more times. Cool down for approx 18 mins (3.3 km).

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 44 mins 47 secs, 6.4 km.

Thursday

Type: Progression
Time and Distance: 30 mins 35 secs, 6.4 km.
Detail: Warmed up for 10 mins (1.6 km). Did 10 mins at marathon pace (approx 2.25 km). Did 10 mins 35 secs at threshold pace (2.55 km).

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 25 mins 6 secs, 3.9 km.

Sunday

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 44 mins 53 secs, 6.8 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 35.55 km

Comments: Another not-so-great week. It was supposed to be an easier week, but I was gutted not to get that half marathon in. Partly because I felt burnt out, partly because of concerns with my left leg (which is getting better I think), I decided to just take it easy this week!

Improvements: Next week is going to be key. I haven't done a long run for a while, so that will be a challenge. There's only six weeks to race day, and the first three weeks will be CRUCIAL. I have to put in the effort, even if I don't feel like it!

I feel like I've done hardly anything this week. Tomorrow, I am hoping to gather some much-needed drive very quickly and put in some quality mileage. My mind may think that I'm feeling burnt out, but somehow my legs are feeling rather strong and fresh, maybe there's still life in this old dog after all.

The time is now,

Aaron

Training Week 36 Recap

2010-08-08T11:54:00.005+01:00

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

Training Week 35 Recap

2010-08-01T09:30:00.006+01:00

Afternoon runners,

This week marks the half-way mark in the FP Run Club's 16-week sub-3 hour training programme. So the remaining 8 weeks are key! After conceding that last week didn't go as well as I would've liked (and I only have to blame myself for choosing to visit Stockholm), I resolved to put in a huge week of high quality, high volume running. Let's see how I went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 33 mins, 5.3 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins 48 secs, 4.9 km.

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 44 mins 52 secs, 6.9 km.

Wednesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 27 mins 43 secs, 4.3 km.

Thursday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 54 mins 52 secs, 11.85 km.

Detail: Warm up for 11 mins (1.6 km). 4 mins at threshold with 75 secs recovery (approx 950m). 4 mins at 10k pace with 75 secs recovery (approx 1km). Repeat the set 4 more times. Cool down for approx 4 mins (500m).

Saturday

Type: Continuous hills

Time and Distance: 85 mins, 17.1 km.

Detail: Warm up for 20 mins (3.2 km). 4 sets of 10 mins at threshold with 90 secs recovery. Cool down for approx 25 mins (4.3 km). Each rep was 200m, each set was 2400m.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 32 mins 21 secs, 5.3 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run

Time and Distance: 149 mins 58 secs, 29 km.

Detail: Started easy, and got faster as the run went on. Sustained 5 min/km pace for the majority of the run.

Total Weekly Distance: 84.65 km

Comments: What a turnaround! A much better week overall. Just short of 90 km in total mileage, but I managed to bank every run this week. I actually struggled in my long run for some reason, and I guess it was due to the fact that I missed my long run last week, and that my last long run was 3 weeks ago! Whilst I managed to scrape 29 km, I was feeling quite flat at the end of the run and I probably would've slowed down if it was a marathon setting. Not very encouraging to think, but it's only one long run and I won't get drawn into any conclusions at this stage.

Improvements: Week 9 is going to be an easier week for me, thank goodness! The volume will be less, i.e. the long run will only be 90 minutes, but the effort and intensity will be much higher in this run and other faster running sessions. Bring it on!

Well, I've reached the half-way stage and now there's only 8 more weeks to go. In reality, there's only 5 more weeks of quality training as the last 3 weeks will be tapering for the big race in Berlin, to ensure that I arrive at the start line healthy and strong. These coming weeks have to really count, so I'm afraid I'll have to limit certain "pleasures" from now on and just stay true to the task. No more late nights, weekend travel excursions, bad food, alcohol..... :-(

Gathering momentum,

Aaron

Training Week 34 Recap

2010-07-25T20:20:00.004+01:00

Hej!

I've just returned from a weekend trip in Stockholm. I was thinking whether it was better to stay in Oslo and concentrate on training, because the weather in Stockholm was so horrible! But actually it's not any better here in Oslo as well. No doubt the trip to Stockholm curtailed my mileage seriously this week, but as soon as I got back to a rainy Oslo I managed to get in some much needed mileage, and I even upped the intensity to make up for the lack of running this weekend. You just have to do what you gotta do, and if the rain gods come out to play then so be it!

Despite the crap weather, Stockholm was a great place and I highly recommend it. I didn't see any of the folks from ABBA, unfortunately. But enough about that, let's see how I did this week.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 34 mins 26 secs, 5.3 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 33 mins 1 secs, 5.1 km.

Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 38 mins 15 secs, 5.7 km.

Wednesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 33 mins 34 secs, 5.3 km.

Thursday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 75 mins, 13.32 km.

Detail: Warm up for 16 mins (2.4 km). 10 mins of threshold with 90 secs recovery (2.4 km). 5 x 3 mins at 10k pace with 90 secs recovery (740m - 750m). 10 mins of threshold with 90 secs recovery (2.4 km). Cool down for approx 15 mins (2.4 km).

Sunday

Type: Continuous hills

Time and Distance: 100 mins, 18.4 km.

Detail: Warm up for 11 mins. 10 sets of 5 mins at threshold with 60 secs recovery. Cool down for approx 30 mins.

Total Weekly Distance: 53.12 km

Comments: Another sub-standard week. Because I decided to holiday in Stockholm this weekend, it affected my weekend runs - specifically the long run session, the continuous hills session and a recovery session. After returning from Stockholm there was only time for one session, and it was a no-brainer which one I decided to do. Instead of doing 6 sets of continuous hills as prescribed, I decided to do 10! And it really felt great! Because I had to forego the long run, I decided to incorporate my warm-ups and cool-downs at my typical long run pace, whilst also dragging out the cool-down phase to 30 mins, and I didn't really feel that tired afterwards as well, so I guess that's a positive!

Improvements: Week 8 marks the halfway point of my marathon preparation. The long run is now reaching 2.5 hours, and there will be more interval work at Bislett Stadion for me, so I'm really looking forward to that! There will be no holiday for me this weekend, so let's see if I can break 90 km in mileage this week!

Well, this week wasn't a total loss. Remember, success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out. Even though I didn't get in all my runs this week, as long as I stay consistent from here on in (and also plan my weekend holidays more judiciously), then I will definitely get better (fingers crossed!).

Time to sleep now - a hard run, digesting a big dinner, and writing all my thoughts down (as well as walking around like a tourist in Stockholm) has drained my batteries!

The hard work starts now!

Aaron

Training Week 33 Recap

2010-07-18T16:51:00.007+01:00

Hi all,

This has been a slightly easier week for me in the sense that I didn't do any high mileage or many hard sessions. Just as so because I have just relocated to Oslo, and it takes time to get into things in a new city even though your training still goes at a fast pace. This week was all about testing my progress, so let's see how it went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 29 mins, 4 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 28 mins 51 secs, 4.4 km.

Thursday

Type: Marathon pace

Time and Distance: 57 mins 38 secs, 11.7 km.

Detail: Started easy for 26 mins, then increased the pace to goal marathon pace for the next 31 mins. Covered approx 7.5 km in the marathon pace session.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 32 mins 6 secs, 5.3 km.

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 51 mins 50 secs, 7.6 km.

Sunday

Type: Marathon pace

Time and Distance: 141 mins 1 sec, 27.9 km.

Detail: Easy for 15 mins, then a half marathon at goal marathon pace, then easy for 30 mins.

Total Weekly Distance: 61 km

Comments: Not a great week. This week was all about testing my progress and the results have been mixed. The acid test was the half marathon at goal marathon pace, and by that I should have done this in 1:30 and still feel in control. Instead I was 6 minutes off the pace. If I were to point the finger (and it's really easy to do this when things don't go your way), I would have to blame the heat, as I did this run at 2 pm in the afternoon while the sun was high in the sky with no cloud cover. Was feeling good at the 4 km mark, but things got harder and I got slower. Overall, it's not encouraging.

Improvements: Week 7 is back to the grind with more mixed pace running and continuous hills. I will have to see how I can get the most out of every session from now on.

If there's one thing to look forward to, it is the amount of quality running I can do in the future. I live very very close to Bislett Stadion, the most well-known sports arena internationally, the venue of the IAAF sanctioned Bislett Games, and the place where many athletic legends have broken world records. Here are some pictures.

The entrance to Bislett Stadion

At the entrance of Bislet Stadion are two statues of Norwegian sporting legends, once of which is former Norwegian marathon runner Grete Waitz. The other is speed skater, Hjalmar Andersen.

The interior of Bislett Stadion. Something tells me I'll be spending quite a lot of time here. And the best thing, even for such a prestigious sporting venue: it is free and open to the public!

Time to grab something to eat, and maybe reflect on my less-than-stellar run this afternoon. I wonder what would have been if the weather wasn't so hot.

Cheers!

Aaron

Training Week 32 Recap

2010-07-11T16:35:00.002+01:00

Hey guys,

Another very hard week for me, with increased training demands and juggling relocation as well. Thankfully I've managed to bank all my runs this week and the mileage has increased from last week by a little. Here's how this week went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 29 mins 6 secs, 4.2 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 27 mins 18 secs, 4 km.

Type: Threshold

Time and Distance: 58 mins 34 secs, 11.6 km.

Detail: Warm up for 15 mins. 30 mins at threshold pace.

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 58 mins 54 secs, 8.4 km.

Thursday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 70 mins 33 secs, 13.5 km.

Detail: Warm up for 15 mins. 10 mins of threshold with 90 secs recovery. 4 x 3 mins at 10k pace with 90 secs recovery. 10 mins of threshold with 90 secs recovery. Cool down for 15 mins.

Saturday

Type: Continuous hills

Time and Distance: 63 mins, 11.42 km.

Detail: 15 mins warmup. 3 sets of 12 mins at threshold with 90 seconds recovery. 15 mins cooldown.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 29 mins 24 secs, 4.4 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run

Time and Distance: 120 mins, 21.6 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 79.12 km

Comments: More huge mileage this week, but only slightly higher than last week. Last week had 2 longish runs, while this week focused on faster running. On the day of Sunday's long run, I actually felt like skipping it as I didn't get that much sleep the night before. But I still did it anyway, albeit at a reduced pace than my other long runs. I'm glad to have banked more miles that morning, otherwise I wouldn't have made 60 km this week!

Improvements: Week 6 is going to test the progress I have made since I first started. There will be two runs at my goal marathon pace, including a half marathon distance done at goal race pace. That means I have to run this in 1:30 or under!!!!! I've never done this before in a training or a race setting before. It will be interesting to see how that goes!

Tomorrow I will be relocating to Oslo, Norway, for around 3 or so months, to experience a new culture and working environment (still working with the same company). Relocation is always crazy, but I've managed to plan this one out well, and still do my 8 runs a week, so I guess I'll pat myself on the back for that. Hopefully running in Oslo will be a good experience, i.e. not crazy hot like in the UK of late, good surfaces, a few hills, or even a flat stretch of road to do some speedwork. I hope for a smooth transition tomorrow, and hopefully it won't disrupt the coming week's training as well.

Now, it's time to grab something to eat and find a place to watch the World Cup Final! Since Germany got knocked out (and came 3rd in last night's match), I'm going to support the Dutch tonight. Hopefully it will be a cracker of a final. GO ORANGE!

Cheers!

Aaron

Training Week 31 Recap

2010-07-04T10:15:00.004+01:00

Hey guys,

This has been a very hard week for me, with work commitments suddenly increasing and also a "relocation" tossed in for good measure (more on that later)! The good thing is that I've managed to bank all my runs this week and the mileage has really started to go up into new heights. Here's how this week went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 28 mins 36 secs, 4.1 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 28 mins 29 secs, 4.2 km.

Type: Threshold

Time and Distance: 70 mins 43secs, 13.3 km.

Detail: Warm up for 15 mins. 3 x 12 mins at threshold pace. Each 12 mins covered around 2800-2900m.

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 44 mins 12 secs, 6.7 km.

Thursday

Type: Easy long run

Time and Distance: 75 mins, 14.9 km.

Saturday

Type: Continuous hills

Time and Distance: 63 mins 18 secs, 10.8 km.

Detail: 15 mins warmup. 3 sets of 10 mins at threshold with 90 seconds recovery. 15 mins cooldown.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins, 4.42 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run

Time and Distance: 105 mins, 20.4 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 78.82 km

Comments: Huge mileage this week, and even more remarkable was that I did this in a crazy week. The long runs are getting longer, and the threshold runs are building up in frequency. It's hard to put in 8 runs a week consistently, especially when work decides to start ruling your life, so I am hoping that I keep banking those miles again and again.

Improvements: Week 5 of the sub-3 hours training programme is starting to become very serious. The long run is now 2 hours, the hill sessions are harder, and the threshold runs are now starting to be mixed up with real pace work, i.e. running at speeds close to my 10K pace. 10K pace is going to be faster than my threshold pace, so expect high mileage this week!

I mentioned the dreaded word "relocation" earlier, and I've decided to relocate to Oslo, Norway, in mid-July for around 3 or so months, to experience a new culture and working environment (still working with the same company). While relocation is never a good thing to go through (all that packing and moving and the stress of it all), hopefully the cooler Oslo climate will help with my running. It's crazy hot here in the UK and the heat is making the running a little uncomfortable. I've had to rearrange my running schedule to only run when it's cool, but the sun is already out and blazing at 7:30 a.m. in the morning, and I'm not really a morning person as well.

Now, off to do some packing, and also to catch the Wimbledon final on TV!

Cheers!

Aaron

Training Week 30 Recap

2010-06-27T21:32:00.003+01:00

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

Training Week 29 Recap

2010-06-20T20:21:00.006+01:00

Hi runners, football fans and everyone else,

How about that for a result - a 1:1 draw against the mighty Azzuri! They weren't expecting that, and with all that pre-match talk about the Italians saying "we should win this game", they were definitely humbled that day. And I saw all 90 minutes of it. The All Whites achieved what no one thought was possible. Hopefully I can take something away from this!

Well, on to something not as exciting - my training recap for this week. Another 8 runs this week, and as a matter of fact I think I am starting to adapt to this harsh regime. Here it is again.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins 25 secs, 4.7 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 28 mins 37 secs, 4.1 km.

Type: Threshold

Time and Distance: 52 mins 15 secs, 10.2 km.

Detail: Warm up for 15 mins. 4 x 6 mins at threshold pace. Each 6 mins covered around 1300-1400m.

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 42 mins 20 secs, 6.1 km.

Thursday

Type: Progression tempo

Time and Distance: 45 mins, 8.9 km.

Detail: First 15 mins at recovery pace (2.3 km), second 15 mins at steady pace (3.0 km), last 15 minutes at threshold pace (3.6 km).

Saturday

Type: Continuous hills

Time and Distance: 45 mins 58 secs, 7.6 km.

Detail: 12 mins warmup. 5 sets of 5 mins at threshold with 90 seconds recovery.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 27 mins 43 secs, 4 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run

Time and Distance: 86 mins 57 secs, 16.8 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 62.4 km

Comments: Another 62.4 km this week - the only difference is the extra threshold run. I think I have a better understanding of my threshold pace and will want to target this pace in future training. It's like running hard, but also knowing that your legs aren't going to fill up with lactic acid that quickly. If your legs are starting to burn quickly, then you're running faster than your threshold pace, which is something you don't want to be doing at this stage.

Improvements: I've had a look at week 3 of the sub-3 hours training programme, and there is a lot of emphasis on threshold running, with the times spent running at threshold getting gradually longer. I think I know what the effort should be like, so hopefully I can really aim in on that zone to get the maximum training benefit. It's easy to slip into the faster-is-better approach, but wasting yourself unnecessarily is not the best thing to do at this stage.

There's less than 100 days to Berlin, and when I started this blog I had over 250 days on the clock. So much time has passed and I'm keen to know how far I've come as a runner. I believe that I'm faster than when I first started, though I really need to run a shorter race again to really know this. I've been challenged a lot, and had to change some of my previous thinking about my training and running. Overall, I think I've learned a lot about my running in that time.

Now, fast forward to race day. I hope that I can do something similar to what the All Whites just did against the might of Italy!

Cheers,

Aaron

Training Week 28 Recap

2010-06-13T18:27:00.004+01:00

Hey guys,

Well, I survived, for now. The first week of training under the FP Run Club was no walk in the park and it will only get harder as the weeks go by. 8 runs in 6 days! Yes it's true, here's each of them in turn:

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins 3 secs, 4.7 km.

Tuesday

Type: Easy

Time and Distance: 29 mins 42 secs, 5.6 km.

Type: Progession tempo

Time and Distance: 46 mins 8 secs, 9.7 km.

Detail: First 15 mins at easy. Second 15 mins at steady. Last 15 mins at threshold.

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 42 mins 7 secs, 6.2 km.

Thursday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 44 mins 21 secs, 6.7 km.

Saturday

Type: Continuous hills

Time and Distance: 42 mins 36 secs, 7.4 km.

Detail: 10 mins warmup. 4 sets of 5 mins at threshold with 90 seconds recovery.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 28 mins 15 secs, 4.7 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run

Time and Distance: 90 mins, 17.4 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 62.4 km

Comments: 8 runs in 6 days and 62.4 km in the first week! That's pretty much unheard of in the first week of a marathon training programme. Two double days of running (one in the morning, one in the evening), three days of recovery/easy running and a day for the obligatory long run, with only one day of complete rest. So far I've felt like I've worked hard, but not to the point of being exhausted.

Improvements: One thing that is challenging me in my programme is the understanding of effort and pace. I've been taking HR readings throughout my runs, and was shocked to learn that my HR for recovery/easy runs are far too high as recommended by this training programme or any other training programme for that matter. The heart doesn't lie with respect to how hard I should be working. This led me to ask: how fast should I be doing my easy/recovery runs? How fast should I be running at threshold? These are questions that I really need to answer next week. I'm seriously considering buying a heart rate monitor to help me know on demand what HR zones I should be training in. Suggestions are most welcome.

I've studied week 2 of the sub-3 hours training programme, and it is definitely a step above. There is an extra threshold run, which is the key to running faster. However, getting the pace right for this threshold run is even more important, and it seems that all my runs have been done too hard and too fast. Hence why I'm thinking of buying a HR monitor. At the moment I'm feeling a little sore in the legs, which is only natural with the amount of running being done day after day. Hopefully it won't get too bad in the coming week.

Best,

Aaron

Official Statement - Withdrawal From Helsinki Marathon

2010-06-12T12:34:00.011+01:00

Hi all,

After much consideration, and with equally the same amount of reluctance, I have decided to withdraw from the Helsinki marathon in mid-August. The event is six weeks out from my target event and to run Helsinki, even at a very leisurely pace, would put me at risk of not being at my very best for Berlin and reaching the Breaking Three Hours goal.

When I started to map the road to Breaking Three Hours, I initially thought that I would be okay to run Helsinki and be fully fit for Berlin, despite having some minor concerns that Helsinki and Berlin were six weeks apart. So, needing to get in early, I registered for both events.

However, after running two marathons this year, listening to feedback, and having just started the 16 week programme designed by the FP Run Club, these concerns have escalated recently and I was forced to rethink my training strategy for the next 3 months.

Initially I intended these lead-up marathons to be like"glorified long runs", in that I do my weekend long run at marathon distance and in a marathon setting. It sounded like a good idea at the time. However, doing these regularly does put a lot of stress on you physically and mentally, and it does take some time to recover from these efforts.

Case in point, after Rotterdam and Copenhagen I didn't run for a week. After a typical long run, I'd normally take one or two days off and get back into training. Even though I felt like I was able to run and having little soreness in my legs, I was still pretty tired and it took some time for me to get back into quality training. I never struggled at any point in these lead-up marathons and kept them as easy as possible, but the amount of time spent on my feet started to become a game of diminishing returns, which led to a case of a long and slow recovery period. Erring on the side of caution, I tend to recover slower than I would like.

I've also started the 16-week, sub-3 hour training programme designed by the FP Run Club. When I studied the first week of the programme to see what I was getting myself into I got a really big shock. 8 training runs in 6 days! I've never done anything like this before. While the majority of runs have been easy and the hard days prescribed were manageable, the amount of running needed and the tough demands of the programme will only get higher as the weeks progress.

Having not seen the entire programme, I imagine that weeks 9-13, which also coincides with the Helsinki marathon, is the time where the demands placed on me to produce quality mileage and speed will be at the highest. Running the Helsinki marathon, regardless of completing it in under 4:00 or over 5:00, would be highly detrimental and would affect my output in that critical period. Moreover, the subsequent couple of weeks after Helsinki would most likely be spent on the long and slow recovery process, effectively stalling any progress I could make towards Berlin.

Last year, when training for the Berlin marathon, I did my final long run 2 weeks prior to the event. From a naive view, it was a great run - 37 km in 2:57:41. In hindsight I probably made a big mistake. On race day, I finished in 3:22:45, which meant that my marathon pace was just slightly faster than my long run pace. But I felt the difference should've been greater. Two possible reasons were:

My long run was way too fast.
Doing the long run two weeks out didn't allow enough time to recover and be at 100% on race day.

This year, I've gained a bit more experience and I believe that withdrawing from Helsinki would give me a much better shot at a faster time at Berlin. Ultimately in order to run a sub-3 hour time, it comes down to being physically and mentally prepared (as well as having many things go your way on the day!). Having Helsinki thrown in the mix isn't really going to help my preparation and may even go as far as hurting it.

The goal of running a sub-3 hour marathon is really important to me, and I've learned that in order to achieve an objective that you've firmly set your sights on for nearly half a year, you must be willing to make a few tough choices along the way. Withdrawing from Helsinki was a tough decision since I was intent on running it, but pulling out of Helsinki is going to allow me to focus on the real goal - to break three hours.

Having already registered, this is my first event where I will get a DNS, a Did Not Start in running parlance. It's a shame that there isn't a shorter alternative race at Helsinki on that day, such as a half marathon or even a 10K, otherwise I'd probably still participate knowing that the demands of running a reasonably fast 10K or a half marathon doesn't really compare to running a marathon, regardless of your time. It does hurt not to have a time next to your name in a race that you have registered and prepared for (a black mark in a runner's long distance career), but in the bigger picture it will pay dividends when it matters the most. For now, rather than viewing the DNS as Did Not Start, I'll look at it as Did Nothing Stupid.

Cheers!

Aaron

It's All About Technique!

2010-06-06T19:10:00.005+01:00

Hey all,

At long last my long-awaited post on technique is here! It's been quite a challenge to get here because I've been busy and lazy (mostly lazy!), but also because I wanted this post to be absolutely perfect, especially with regards to how it has changed the way I've run. Technique has really been hammered into me for the past month, so much so that every run I've been doing has been a master-class in concentration and engaging my mind as much as engaging my legs.

I always thought that I was a technically sound runner. I've been running for 6 years. I've read the books and the articles on how I should run, and I always thought quickly to myself "yes I'm currently doing that right now". I think it was easy to not pay attention to technique because when we start running we just put one foot in front of the other really fast - how hard could it be? It's such an instinctive thing to do, right? We've been doing it since we were kids. Then those training programmes that you follow to get you into running in the first place emphasise what you should be running, but they don't go into any detail on how you should be running.

When I watched the London Marathon last year, I was amazed at the effortless movement of the elites, even at mile 15 where I was standing in the crowd at a time when the strain of it all would start to show in their running action. They were fluid in their strides, didn't seem to be working hard and just appeared like they were still in 3rd gear. One lady in the crowd said it best - they look like they are floating on the ground.

A short while later, the mid-pack runners arrived, and while they were no doubt fast runners, they made running look like it was painful. Their bodies were tight, their legs looked stodgy and they had pained expressions on their faces. This made me wonder, what really separates the elites from the mid-pack runners? A couple of things spring to mind. The elites put in more mileage, and they have a bit more natural ability. But the elites also devote time into running better, which seems to be the most neglected aspect when it comes to training.

Over a month ago I saw a video on YouTube presented by George Anderson on running technique. And that was the first time that technique really started to play a more important part in my training. When I look back at my past recent training programmes, I have to admit that I work hard, and have put in a fair amount of gut-busting runs in that quest to go that much faster. After missing out at my sub-1:30 target time by 4 minutes at the Reading Half Marathon last March, I started to wonder why the results didn't come after all that effort. It took a while to figure out and I came up with a few reasonable explanations. But it was definitely revealed to me when I saw George's video. No matter how much hard and fast running you do in training, if you don't learn to run better then that will really limit your performances.

So over the past few weeks, I started to examine my running with regards to technique, and I was amazed that there were still a few aspects that I needed to address and learn to incorporate in my running. Since watching the video, I've incorporated them in my runs, and it hasn't been easy because it's like learning how to run all over again. You have to gradually undo how you run (and having run for 6 years it's a hard thing to do), and then start to incorporate newer techniques. The ones that have been most pertinent to me are below.

Breathing

Before, I never thought about the way I breathe doing a run. Often I go off in my own world, then realise that I haven't really taken any breaths for the last 30 seconds or so! It's because breathing is a sub-conscious activity. My breathing also tended to be random without any set pattern.

Recently I've learned to breathe according to my footstrike, with a big breath in every two steps and a big breath out every two steps. It hasn't been easy to do this, and I've had to slow down in order to get this right. But when I did get this right, running become so much easier! I think it's a combination of the psychological (focusing on breathing instead of other things) and the physiological (getting more oxygen into your system).

In the Copenhagen marathon a couple of Sundays ago, I vowed to concentrate on my breathing for the entire 42.195 km. I did miss some breaths and/or breathed on the wrong footstrike, but for the whole race I was very conscious of my breathing. And it felt like I was running on oxygen alone! Running a sub-4 hour marathon never felt so easy, and it honestly felt like that at Copenhagen!

Forward lean

Stand tall and still. Obviously you won't be moving. Now lean forward at your ankles, not at your waist. You'll find that you instinctively put one foot forward to stop you falling flat on your face. In running, by leaning forward you utilise gravity to help you move forward. Leaning forward also encourages your feet to land below your centre of gravity which lets you run more efficiently and with less effort. If your feet land in front of your centre of gravity, your legs have to work harder to get you moving forward. Imagine doing this for 42.195 km - your legs would be screaming!

Whenever I run past a series of tall shop windows, I always look at the way I run through the reflection in the window. This is not because I'm vain and love to check myself out in the mirror. This is a chance to see whether I'm putting enough forward lean in my running, and also checking out where my foot is landing in relation to my body, whether it's directly below my core or in front. So whenever you're running past a series of windows, try looking at the way you run and see if you have a forward lean in your posture. Just be careful not to hit the lamppost head on whilst doing this!

Running with your hips and core

For me, probably the most valuable technique to focus on. As with the forward lean with utilising gravity to run more efficiently, you also need to utilise the appropriate muscles in your body to run more efficiently, in particular your hips and core. They are your bigger and stronger muscles, they generate more power and they can work under load for a longer time, so it makes perfect sense to use these muscles as much as possible, as well as building them up using some sort of body conditioning programme.

Don't think of the core muscles as just your abs and that you can only strengthen them with sit-ups and crunches. Don't even think for a second that you need a six-pack to be a better runner! Your core includes your abs, hips, glutes, lower back and the entire pelvic region. Try putting all the effort on your calves and even your quads and hamstrings and you'll find that they will eventually fatigue and cramp up. In conjunction with the forward lean, focus on generating your forward momentum from your core. For me, if I can feel my hip flexors and glutes working then I know that I'm engaging the right set of muscles, and taking the effort away from my legs. In fact, your legs are just there to stop you from falling over... and that's it!

By engaging my core, I found that a combination of my stride cadence and stride length had increased, which meant that I was on my way to becoming a faster runner - without significantly changing what I did with my legs.

Arm drive

Look at a sprinter, for example. It's no secret that their speed is generated from the arms and upper body. This is applicable for all runners, even down to the slowest marathon runners. You might think that a lot of marathon runners don't use their arms a lot, but imagine how much faster they'd run if they did engage their arms?

A lot of marathoners do move the arms in various ways, but there's only one correct way to do this and that is using the forward-back motion, where driving the arms straight back will allow us to generate more forward momentum. Too often I see runners moving their arms side to side across their bodies with their elbows sticking out their sides. This is the wrong kind of arm drive as it doesn't contribute to any forward momentum whatsoever.

At the moment I'm still working on this, as too often I start out with the correct arm drive then fall back to incorrect movements. It takes me a while to realise that I've sunk into my old habits. Just like learning to breathe properly, learning to move the arms in the proper direction will also make running that much easier.

Conclusion

So there you have it! These are the techniques that I've had to consolidate in my running. They aren't major improvements, but slight tweaks in my existing technique which will go a long way in making me a better runner. My usual easy runs have felt a lot easier when keeping these techniques in mind, and pushing the pace of my easy runs hasn't been difficult at all - recently my easy runs were just a shade under 5 mins/km. If you told me 6 months ago that I would be running my easy runs at that pace comfortably, then I'd probably laugh at you. Copenhagen felt easy too - at 3:43:17, that's an average pace of 5:18/km sustained over a marathon. It's been a while since I did a continuous hill session or threshold run so I'd like to see how I fare whilst keeping technique in mind.

I must admit, I always like to see other runners on the street and analysing how they run, whether they are landing properly, using the arms, incorporating a forward lean, etc. It makes me mindful of the proper running techniques and it's a great way to see whether you can incorporate what they're doing in your own running. After all, better technique was first introduced to me from watching the elites, so I can also learn from the old man or the young girl and seeing how they run.

If you're a runner who might need a helping hand with technique, consider those points above, watch George's video, and go on a few training runs with proper technique firmly placed in the forefront of your mind. You'd be really amazed at how high you can raise the ceiling of your own performance just by being mindful of how you run as opposed to what you run.

All the best,

Aaron

Training Week 27 Recap

2010-06-06T13:22:00.002+01:00

Hey all,

This week has been another quiet week, as I try to take it easy and prepare for the coming 16 weeks ahead. There are 16 weeks to my target event, so from now on it's pretty much full steam ahead for Berlin. Here's how this week went.

Monday

Type: Recovery with hills

Time and Distance: 49 mins 15 secs, 7.4 km.

Detail: First half at 25:15. Second half at 24:00.

Tuesday

Type: Easy with hills

Time and Distance: 35 mins 54 secs, 7.4 km.

Detail: First half at 19:10. Second half at 16:44. Same route as Monday, but as a time trial at easy pace.

Wednesday

Type: Easy with hills

Time and Distance: 36 mins 9 secs, 7.4 km.

Detail: First half at 19:19. Second half at 16:50. Same route as Tuesday, same time trial at easy pace.

Total Weekly Distance: 22.2 km

Comments: Another easy week, just to stay fresh and relaxed for the hard work ahead.

Improvements: The hard work starts now! There are now 16 weeks to Berlin, the event I am targeting for sub-3 hours. I haven't yet received my training email from the FP Run Club yet, which will outline how I should train this coming week. Regardless of whether I receive the week's training programme in time, I'm going to pick up the effort from tomorrow with threshold running and continuous hills, whilst keeping up the easy aerobic running.

I feel embarrassed to keep saying that my post on form and technique is still not here. This will be here very shortly. And I hope that it will be helpful as it has to me.

Still busy!

Aaron

Training Week 25 + 26 Recap

2010-05-30T16:08:00.005+01:00

Hi all,

The past couple of weeks have been pretty scant on recaps, due to business, Copenhagen marathon and a brief Danish holiday, so I'm putting Weeks 25 and 26 in this post. Here's how the last two weeks panned out.

Wednesday

Type: Easy with hills

Time and Distance: 34 mins 37 secs, 7.4 km.

Detail: First half at 17:57. Second half at 16:40.

Sunday

Type: Marathon

Time and Distance: 223 mins 17 secs, 42.195 km.

Detail: Kept the pace and intensity easy the whole way. Legs started getting tired around the 25-30 km mark. Still managed to go faster as the race went on.

Splits: 1st half 1:54:19. 2nd half 1:48:58

Average pace between splits: 1st half: 5:25 mins/km (11.07 km/h). 2nd half: 5:10 mins/km (11.62 km/h).

Total Weekly Distance: 49.595 km.

Saturday

Type: Recovery with hills

Time and Distance: 44 mins 37 secs, 7.4 km.

Detail: First half at 23:12. Second half at 21:25. Not a great run actually, felt very flat throughout.

Sunday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 53 mins 48 secs, 9.5 km.

Detail: Kept it slow, had a few walking breaks.

Total Weekly Distance: 16.9 km.

Comments: A pretty easy couple of weeks, just to stay fresh for Copenhagen and to recover from that effort. I actually felt pretty good in the first few days after Copenhagen, without too many sore muscles or walking difficulties. However when I went for my first run yesterday, I was feeling very flat, which might be a consequence of running the Copenhagen marathon last Sunday. Hopefully I won't be low on energy for too long.

Improvements: The business end is upon me! There are 17 weeks to Berlin, which is the event I'm targeting to hopefully break 3 hours. I'm intending to take next week easy, but the next 16 weeks will be the key. The FP Run Club will give me a 16-week sub-3 hour training programme, which I will follow as closely as possible. If the 1st week is going to start out tough, then I need to be properly rested to start with. So I'll take it easy this week, and see what's in store for me after that.

I'm currently drafting up an entry on running form and technique, and how addressing these points in my running has helped me so far. It will be here very soon!

Best,

Aaron

Copenhagen Marathon 2010 - Race Report

2010-05-23T18:56:00.008+01:00

Hi guys,

I'm finally back from Copenhagen and have some time to write a race report. In summary I kept it pretty easy, paid very close attention to form and technique, and wanted to see if I could go under 4 hours. I'm happy to say I managed to do this, and even managed to speed up as the race went on.

The days leading up to Copenhagen weren't that great as I had to travel to Spain on business, and there were some travel nightmares on the way to Copenhagen. So by the time I arrived in Copenhagen very late on Friday night I was thoroughly exhausted after a 15 hour travel experience.

The next day, I simply picked up my race number from the marathon expo and had two portions of pasta (although it did cost me 80 Danish kroner). That's around $20 in New Zealand, or £9. I was still feeling pretty tired that day and all I really wanted to do was just turn up and run in Copenhagen. After the strain of the previous few days, the mentality I was carrying was "let's get it over and done with".

Race day came, and the conditions were pretty much perfect, if a little windy. At times I encountered a few strong headwinds along the Copenhagen waterfront. It was a 9:30 start time, the sun was already high in the sky, but the clouds were also out and so it was quite cool and pleasant to run in. Around 15000 runners congregated on Islands Brygge, where the start and finish line was, and it was announced that the number of foreign runners taking part this year has also grown, which is great for the event.

Eventually I was under way, and if you're going to take a marathon slowly, the first few hundred metres are always going to feel like a walk in the park. Initially, I wanted to just go under 4 hours. However when I passed the first km marker at 5:40, which is pretty much the pace required to go under 4 hours, I thought maybe I could shoot for 3:50 instead. I tend to speed up as the race goes on, so a faster time per km will get me safely under 4 hours.

The halfway point comes up and I registered 1:54:19. Still feeling good and on track for 3:50:00. How about I push the pace a little, but not too much so as to completely wreck myself? Of course the run did get harder on the legs as the distance went on (my hamstrings are usually the first to complain), but at no point did I fatigue heavily, hit the wall, or cramp up in the latter stages of the run. The second half was 1:48:58, which gave me a finish time of 3:43:17. A new season best for the year!

Expecting to finish in just under 4 hours, I didn't expect to run this time coming into the race. However, I also didn't feel any sense of delight when I knew that I was on course for this kind of time. I just felt indifference when I crossed the finish line. I guess it was due to it being just another training run, and that I know I can go faster... so I guess the real question now is how much faster can I really go? Not wanting to sound arrogant, but I didn't even feel that tired at the end!

Afterwards, I had a quick massage and managed to walk back to the hotel. The hotel was around 2-3 km from the finish line, yet I didn't have any difficulty walking back. I would've thought I was going to limp the whole way, but I just managed to walk normally without any pain or difficulty. Instead of crashing to sleep, I actually stayed awake for most of the day and treated myself to a huge pizza.

After a bit of reflection, I have to say that the extra attention to technique has really helped carry me over 42.195 km. One focus point is my breathing, and when I really concentrate on breathing and getting sufficient oxygen into my system I just find that running becomes that much easier. Maybe it's a combination of the psychological (getting the mind off the pain in your legs) versus the physiological (oxygen for energy). Another area is the use of my hips when running. I found that my quads and calves weren't as fatigued because I engaged my hips a lot more, especially in the final 10 km of the marathon. Of course they became sore the morning after, but during the run I never felt any cramp, fatigue or extreme tightness and I was still able to keep pace and even speed up when I needed to.

I also have to credit the hill work I've done over the past month and a half, which in conjunction to better technique, helped me through the tough parts and made me a stronger runner. Copenhagen is a predominately flat course with a few hills included for good measure, so the hill work I've put in has certainly paid dividends.

I really shouldn't feel indifference now towards that race time. I broke 4 hours without much effort, and that run bodes well for the future especially if I increase my training intensity in the coming weeks. With only 120 days left to Berlin, I'm really entering the business end of my training and am excited at what I can achieve at Berlin in September. The dream of running a sub 3-hour time is still alive!

To summarise, here are some of my personal highlights, and lowlights, of this year's Copenhagen Marathon.

Highlights

Free t-shirt with your race pack. Always a nice thing to have.
Plenty of lovely looking Scandinavian lady runners taking part. That's always a good thing! ;-)
Decent crowd support along the way. Not as great as Rotterdam, but still decent.
You get to run through/past some of Copenhagen's major landmarks such as Christiansborg Palace, Gammel Strand, and The Little Mermaid (currently in Shanghai).
Free massage at the end! Unfortunately, since it's free, demand is quite high, but I only waited for 10 minutes.

Lowlights

Running on Copenhagen's cobbled streets can be uncomfortable.
Course was largely a 2 lap repeat, so it can be a bit boring and discouraging at the same time.
Live bands not that inspiring. Mostly just played classical/big band music, which doesn't really suit what a runner wants to hear when they run.

2 down, 3 to go. Helsinki is next, but I'm currently debating on whether I should really take part in this event. Berlin is 6 weeks later and I'm considering whether I'll be in proper shape come race day at Berlin. More on this later.

Another solid time in Copenhagen. However, the most important thing was that I focused on the key objectives, in particular keeping attention to form and technique, and keeping the effort easy as well. I think I was successful in meeting these objectives. The sub 3:45 time was just the icing on the cake.

Best,

Aaron

P.S. Here's a picture of me with my medal, just after I crossed the finish line. Even though I mentioned that I felt indifferent when I finished, I seem to look pretty pleased in this picture. Maybe I'm thrilled that I can definitely do better at Berlin, another 17 weeks away!

Off to Copenhagen

2010-05-20T21:21:00.003+01:00

Hey all,

Just a quick note that I'm running the Copenhagen Marathon this Sunday. This is the 2nd marathon of the year, and I'm already heading into new territory with the amount of marathon running done this year. I've only done a maximum of two marathons a year (back in 2007), so with a few more planned this year I'm already raising the number to crazy heights!

I don't know much about the Copenhagen Marathon, or the city as well, so it should be an interesting experience, which could turn out to be "love it or hate it". If their website is accurate, the number of runners is around 12000+ and they're still accepting registrations! The course profile indicates a undulating race from start to finish so I don't think it will be a fast race.

As intended, the goal is to keep this as easy as possible, so if I can do another sub 4-hour time, I'd be extremely happy. Over the past few weeks technique has really been hammered into me. So the things to focus on are: correct running form, proper breathing, and keeping the effort to around a 6/10. If I feel like I'm running on oxygen alone (figuratively speaking of course) then I've done my job! Let's see if I can concentrate for 42.2 km!

See ya

Aaron

Training Week 24 Recap

2010-05-15T12:18:00.003+01:00

Hi all,

This is going to be a short recap for the week. Tomorrow (the usual day of writing these recaps) I fly to Palma on business so I'm going to write this now.

Tuesday

Type: Continuous Hills

Time and Distance: 49 mins 33 secs, 11.8 km.

Detail: 1.1 km warm up. 3 sets of 4 hill reps (400m up, 400m down) with 2 mins recovery. First set was 12:35, second set was 13:00, third set was 12:58. 1.1 km cool down.

Thursday

Type: Intervals

Time and Distance: 45 mins, 8.55 km.

Detail: 15 mins warm up at 10.5 km/h pace. 4 x 800m at 15.7, 16.0, 16.3, 16.5 km/h pace with 3 mins recovery at 8.0 km/h pace. 6 mins cool down at 10.5 km/h pace.

Total Weekly Distance: 20.35 km.

Comments: A poor week in terms of quantity, but hopefully not in terms of quality. Continuous hill session and intervals have been upped or modified a notch but I had to cut the long run out as I'm going to be flat out this weekend, plus the Copenhagen marathon is next weekend, so I'm intending to enter this event as fresh as possible. Like Rotterdam, I'm going to take the event easy, and hopefully recover as quickly as possible.

Improvements: I'm going to take it easy in the coming week to be fresh for Copenhagen. I'll still do a continuous hill session and an easier run. There is my normal running route I did in Palma that incorporated an uphill climb, which is going to be great for my continuous hill session. Plus I know what sort of time I can get on this run, so if I better it this time round I know I've gotten fitter since the last time I ran it.

I've checked the running calendar and there is only 19 more weeks to the Berlin marathon, which is the event I'm targeting for sub-3 hours. Time really does move fast! There's also 3 more weeks till the start of my 16 week training programme designed by the FP Run Club, so I'm really eager to start training according to a plan designed by the experts. I'm also eager to see how difficult it can get, just to see if I'll handle the rigours of their training plan!

I had a sports massage last night, and I have to say it was okay, if a little disappointing. It didn't hurt as much as I had expected, which is good as I have no injuries or niggles to worry about. Plus it seems my legs are in great shape. However I wonder if the masseuse could have gone a little harder - obviously she doesn't want to give me huge amounts of pain brought on by her elbows and knuckles.

My separate entry on running form and technique will have to come in a later post, sorry. I've been too busy this week on other things, so I will visit this section in future. Don't miss it.

Cheers!

Aaron

Training Week 23 Recap

2010-05-09T19:12:00.003+01:00

Evening folks,

Here is my training recap for week 23. This was a great week! Let me tell you why.

Tuesday

Type: Continuous Hills

Time and Distance: 81 mins 26 secs, 17.8 km.

Detail: 5.5 km warm up. 2 sets of 7 hill reps (400m up, 400m down) with 3 mins recovery. First set was 22:53, second set was 23:18. 1.1 km cool down.

Thursday

Type: Intervals

Time and Distance: 45 mins, 8.47 km.

Detail: 15 mins warm up at 10.5 km/h pace. 4 x 800m at 15.5, 15.7, 16.0, 16.3 km/h pace with 3 mins recovery at 8.0 km/h pace. 5 mins cool down at 10.5 km/h pace.

Saturday

Type: Long

Time and Distance: 120 mins 50 secs, 24.6 km.

Detail: Kept it easy and conversational. Focused really hard on breathing and proper form.

Sunday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 30 mins, 5.23 km.
Detail: 30 mins on treadmill at 10.5 km/h pace at 1.0 incline.

Total Weekly Distance: 56.1 km.

Comments: This, I believe, has to be the best week quality wise. I was really happy with my long run yesterday. At that pace it seems to be a little on the fast side for me, almost close to my last year's marathon pace. Yet I still kept it easy and conversational, and it really did feel like that. The trick was just a slight tweak in my technique and breathing. Okay, I basically focused all my attention to these two areas, and I believe that made my long run much easier. Compare with last week's long run where I struggled through the same distance in more time, this week was pretty much a breeze. I have to owe it to my change in technique, which has really been hammered home to me recently.

Improvements: After this week's encouraging results, I'm going to pay a lot more attention to my technique on every run I go on. Continuous hills, threshold runs, intervals and long runs - you name it. Will still maintain the quality of these runs for next week.

This basically feels like a rebirth to running, having gone back to the beginning, examining the basics, looking at areas for improvement, and applying them in training. And honestly, it feels like it has paid off. I don't have much time to blog about this now, but I will definitely visit this area on technique in a separate post. This isn't something to ignore because a few tweaks in your running technique will definitely yield positive results. It worked for me this week!

Cheers!

Aaron

Training Week 22 Recap

2010-05-02T14:58:00.007+01:00

Afternoon all,

I have to apologise for the lack of material here on this blog! The past few weeks have been mainly training recaps and hardly anything else, and I feel that I've let my reading audience down here. I hate reeling off excuses; all I can say is that I've been really busy of late not just with training but with life as well. Hopefully you'll still find them useful.

Here is the recap for week 22. Another solid week, but I will need to up the ante very very soon!

Tuesday

Type: Continuous Hills

Time and Distance: 81 mins, 15.9 km.

Detail: 5.2 km warm up. 2 sets of 6 hill reps (400m up, 400m down) with 3 mins recovery. First set was 19:53, second set was 20:38. 1.1 km cool down.

Thursday

Type: Intervals

Time and Distance: 45 mins, 8.47 km.

Detail: 15 mins warm up at 10.5 km/h pace. 4 x 800m at 15.0, 15.5, 15.7, 16.0 km/h pace with 3 mins recovery at 8.0 km/h pace. 5 mins cool down at 10.5 km/h pace.

Saturday

Type: Long

Time and Distance: 135 mins 15 secs, 25.6 km.

Detail: Kept it easy and conversational. First half 69 mins, second half 66 mins 15 secs.

Total Weekly Distance: 49.97 km.

Comments: I've had a pretty hard week this week. Even though they're not meant to be easy, I'm finding the continuous hills a little more manageable now, but the intervals and long run have been rather difficult because I haven't done these for a wee while now. These have been a big shock to the system, so hopefully I can adapt and improve on this.

Improvements: Having looked at my training diary for the past few weeks, I noted that most of my weekend long runs have been less than 20 km! I think that must be why my recent long run was a little on the difficult side. Despite trying to keep it easy and conversational, the legs were starting to ache a bit. From now on, all my long runs have to be at least 25 km long (obviously I can take it easy on my easier weeks!). Apart from that, just focus on the quality of my threshold runs and continuous hills. After this week's interval session, I'm tempted to resume doing treadmill interval work. However this week was a one-off as the local athletics track was unavailable to the public so I wasn't able to do any threshold running this week. If I can help it, I'll keep the intervals on the shelf for now.

This week, I read an enlightening blog post written by George Anderson on The Secrets of Faster Running. Most of these secrets were known to me, but it's amazing how much of it I actually apply in my training. In fact, when I trained for the Berlin Marathon last year and set my personal best, I neglected all of those secrets. If I knew how to apply them better at the time, imagine how much better I would have done. Let me go into more detail.

Secret # 1: Elite athletes TRAIN SLOW

Sure, I know how to run slow, but when doing my long runs and especially closer to the marathon, I was running them just slower than race pace, instead of 1-2 minutes per mile slower than was prescribed. In fact, two weeks before Berlin, my long run of 37 km was around the same pace as my actual race pace! Imagine if I didn't go that fast in training I would have arrived at the start line probably with more energy, and finished probably with a better race time.

Secret # 2: Elite athletes run fast

Throughout my "marathon career", I've learnt to increase the pace of my runs. However, I also become obsessed with pace so much that I tended to run at a particular "fast pace", then bettering it a little in the next training session. I didn't really know that by pushing the pace so often I wasn't allowing myself to get used to the pace I was running at. To compound this further, most of my fast running was done on the treadmill, which, surprise surprise, doesn't translate to fast running on the road!

Secret # 3: Elite runners don't just run

Yeah I also knew about this, but I didn't exactly know what they did outside of running. But now I know. Drills, stretches, body conditioning, mobility, stability and strength exercises. How much of this stuff did I actually do when training for Berlin last year? Absolutely none, apart from the odd bit of stretching after a run. How much of this stuff do I do now? Well, not a lot I'm afraid. I'm hoping to address this now! As an aside, before I took up marathon running, I was into strength training heavily, and no doubt this has helped in the transition to becoming a marathon runner. However, for me, doing strength training and marathon running at the same time is almost near impossible to do, so unfortunately I've had to ditch all the heavy weights. The result: I'm thinner, lighter, a better runner no doubt, but also not as strong as before. I'm not saying you have to include a full-blown strength training routine on top of your marathon training, but doing a few simple strength exercises can go a long way.

Secret # 4: Elite runners train on hills

I know about hill work. Do I actually do it? I looked at my training schedule for Berlin last year, and was quite surprised to see that I only did ONE hill session in my 24 weeks of preparing for Berlin. That session was a hard sprint up until my muscles were about to shut down, and then a walk/jog down while trying to repay my oxygen debt. Just doing it on its own isn't going to pay big dividends to my training. Actually this wasn't the only hill I ran; I did do a variety of hilly routes in my training runs but to be frank I only did one specific hill session. So far this year, I've done four quality hill sessions - four times more than last year! And still many more to come!

Secret # 5: It's not just what you run, but how you run that really matters

I've watched a lot of marathon coverage on TV and YouTube, and even seen the very best runners run in the London Marathon. And they run so effortlessly. Technique and form have been driven home to me only recently after watching George Anderson's video on YouTube, so much so that every training run I've been doing I've been paying very close attention to my running form. It hasn't been very pretty so far, especially with regards to my breathing. At times I'm trying very hard to monitor my breathing, but then I sometimes trail off into my own little world before realising that I don't remember taking any breaths for the past five minutes or so! It's because breathing is such a sub-conscious activity. Oh well, I'll get there someday!

Train hard, but also smart!

Aaron

Training Week 21 Recap

2010-04-25T15:51:00.007+01:00

Hi all,

Here is the recap for week 21. I'm still feeling the effects of this week's training with a few sore spots in the legs. I think it's time I booked a sports massage. Trust me, they are good!

Tuesday

Type: Threshold

Time and Distance: 61 mins, 12.6 km.

Detail: 2.1 km warm up. 3 x 2800m (11:45, 11:55, 11:52) with 3 mins recovery. 2.1 km cool down with some strides near the end. Averaging around 4:10 - 4:15 min/km, but definitely getting slower as the repeats went on.

Thursday

Type: Continuous Hills

Time and Distance: 52 mins, 11.8 km.

Detail: 1.1 km warm up. 2 sets of 6 hill reps (400m) with 3 mins recovery. Each set was approximately 20 mins. 1.1 km cool down.

Saturday

Type: Easy

Time and Distance: 98 mins 9 secs, 17.6 km.

Detail: Kept it easy and conversational. Tended to go fast in places, but overall effort was easy.

Total Weekly Distance: 42 km.

Comments: 42 km this week may look like a low volume week, but it's actually been a very tough week in terms of quality. I was quite surprised at how the continuous hill session went. I'm not too sure whether the ascent was 400m (Google Maps told me this!), but 6 reps of 800m would equate to 4800m in approximately 20 minutes. I've never run a 5 km race in under 20 minutes, so to know that I can achieve this would be a great psychological boost.

Improvements: More of the same for next week. Just focus on the quality of my threshold runs and continuous hills, and I think I can't do much wrong at this stage. Continuous hills has added a new dimension to my training, so to do these is only going to make me a stronger runner.

After watching George Anderson's video on Running Technique, I've started to concentrate a lot more on my running form - in particular how to be more efficient when running. When going out for a training run, it's so easy to forget about your running technique, especially when you haven't had any exposure on what constitutes good running technique. If you watch the elites, they make running look so easy. With the right technique and the resulting economy of movement, a runner can run faster, longer and expend less energy when doing so. Check out his video, and make it a point to really concentrate on every footstep in every run.

I have my second marathon for the year lined up in Copenhagen next month. Like Rotterdam, I'm going to take it easy, and perhaps incorporate a fast finish to the race. The time isn't important, but maybe I can go better than the 3:59:22 I ran at Rotterdam with comparatively little effort.

Finally the London Marathon was on today, and the men's elite field boasted a very powerful lineup this year, including the defending champion and course record holder, current world champion, and the second fastest marathoner of all time. However, in the marathon, lofty reputations do not count and none of them managed to win this year, let alone finish the race. It was also the case for the women's race as well, with little-known, relatively inexperienced runners trumping their more experienced opponents. It's amazing to see how, on the day, a great runner with a wealth of titles and records could perform way below standard. From what I've seen I think there are two things that will carry runners through to victory. A lot of preparation, and a little race-day magic (or maybe a lot)!

Cheers!

Aaron

Training Week 20 Recap

2010-04-18T21:34:00.008+01:00

Hey guys,

This week's training recap is a little short, having only returned back from Holland mid week, so I've only gotten 2 training runs in. Here is the lowdown.

Saturday

Type: Easy

Time and Distance: 79 mins, 12.5 km.

Detail: Very easy and conversational. Probably the slowest I've run all year.

Sunday

Type: Steady

Time and Distance: 90 mins, 17.8 km.

Detail: Not my best run, started too fast, had a weak middle, and then a fast finish.

Total Weekly Distance: 30.3 km.

Comments: Just a low volume week to get the rust off.

Improvements: Next week I'm planning a few tough sessions, so hopefully I'll get those benefits I'm hoping for. Hello, threshold runs and continuous hills.

To close, I've managed to get my personal pictures from the Rotterdam Marathon, which I'll include here. Some of them aren't of me, but they're so good I had to put them in.

These two pictures are my favourites. Presumably father and son, two kids give a beer to a runner just a couple of hundred metres from the finish. Just metres back, I'm behind the runner in the green t-shirt.

Good kid. I'll drink this beer quickly and then cross the finish!

A few metres back, I'm making my move towards the finish.

Thinking of a beer right now!

Nope, a beer is a diuretic. Just ask that old man on the right.

Overtaking the guy in green and the guy with the beer, and on towards the finish! No beer for me, but I'm cool with that!

Nite!

Aaron

Rotterdam Marathon 2010 - Race Report

2010-04-16T22:56:00.015+01:00

Hi all,

Here's my race report on the Rotterdam Marathon, as it happened. In summary I kept it pretty easy, and wanted to see if I could go under 4 hours. I'm happy to say I managed to do this, and even managed to speed up as the race went on. Being the 30th Rotterdam Marathon, it was a jubilee event, so the organisers went all out this year to make it a success.

On the day before the marathon, I picked up my race number from the marathon expo. Unfortunately I didn't win the free trip to "some place warm", but the pasta party that night allowed me unlimited pasta at the top of the Euromast, the tallest building in Rotterdam. Looking at the great views of the city, I managed to help myself to three generous helpings of pasta and was thoroughly loaded!

The next day was race day. It was unusual in that it started at 11am. This meant a normal wake up time, but by then the sun would be high in the sky. Thankfully, the clouds were out and it ended up being a very very cool day for the most part. I felt that a world record might be broken in these conditions.

After a good breakfast, I made my way to the starting areas. At the last minute, I decided to take my camera and my phone with me. I wanted to take some pictures of the race in progress, which I'll include in this post.

11am ticked over, and the race formally started with a cannon blast, which I managed to hear amid the cacophony of noise on the Coolsingel. Soon, I started to run my own race. A lot of people were passing me from behind but I tried to ignore them, put my head down, and ran at the pace I wanted to sustain for the entire time. After 1 km, the watch was 6:15, after 2 km it was 12:15. Perfect - I'll try and maintain 6 mins/km throughout and see what happens.

Along the way I took quite a few pictures. It was pretty much an easy effort up to the half way mark. I got there in around 2:03. If I kept going at that pace, I would be clocking around 4:06. I wondered if I could break 4 hours by going just a little faster. Around 25 km, my legs were starting to fatigue a bit, but I still managed to hold on without slowing down. By 31 km, the time was approximately 3:00. At that point, I tweeted on the run whether I could do 11 more km in 60 minutes.

The sun was high in the sky by now, and I was getting tired by then. I wasn't feeling it in my lungs, but I was feeling it in my legs. Yet I still didn't slow down. Every km marker I passed, I kept looking at my watch, doing the maths in my head. I was still on target! But only just. As soon as I entered the Coolsingel, with around 300 metres to go, I decided to do a sprint finish and managed to cross the line in 3:59:22. A new season best for this year!

The baggage tents, where runners keep their bags, were also the changing areas for runners. The Dutch aren't afraid to strip naked and change their clothes, which is an eye-opener! Only in Holland! After I picked up my bag, knowing there weren't any massage services around, I headed to the hotel and crashed for the day. Probably not the smartest thing to do considering that my muscles were very tight after 4 hours of continuous running. The after-effects were still apparent after 3-4 days, but now my legs are fine!

To summarise, here are some of my personal highlights, and lowlights, of this year's Rotterdam Marathon.

Highlights

Unlimited pasta at the top of the Euromast.
Finishing on the Coolsingel among thousands of supporters.
Awesome crowd support along the way.
Many live music performances and bands along the way.
Free t-shirt with your race pack. That's always a nice thing to have.
Grabbing food from the locals. I was trying to grab pretzel sticks from a lady, dropped all of them once I grabbed them, and then another guy ran after me, kept pace with me and held out a bag of potato chips while I managed to grab a handful!

Lowlights

No massage facilities!!!
Relatively early cut-off target time of 5:30. For those not able to meet this finishing time, you're out of luck finishing the marathon officially.
Drinks stations quite sparse. Having drink stations every 5 km is a bit hard for us runners.

And now some photos.

A giant banner on display at the marathon expo containing supportive messages for this year's marathon runners.

Some nice person even left me a message. This person's always one step ahead of me ;-)

The Euromast, where I helped myself to unlimited pasta!

Jammed in the starting pen between the 3:30 - 4:00 marathoners.

Crossing the Erasmus Bridge, around 1 km into the marathon.

Somewhere around the 15 km mark. This was mostly residential/park area.

Crossing the Erasmus Bridge again heading back towards the city centre, around the 26 km mark.

Entering the Coolsingel, with only a few hundred metres to go. You can really feel the crowd support here.

Only a few hundred metres to go from here.

Getting closer!

And finally, it is finished! Sore legs, but not too exhausted from it all.

1 down, 4 to go. Copenhagen is next! After my run in Rotterdam, I'm confident that I can put in another solid, but unspectacular, time in Copenhagen next month. After all, it's just another training run, and an excuse to visit a city. Let's hope my trip doesn't get disrupted because of Iceland's volcanic ash!

Best,

Aaron

Training Week 19 Recap

2010-04-15T21:58:00.003+01:00

Hey all,

I'm back from Holland with only 12 or so hours to spare before those volcanic ashes really ground air travel to a complete halt in and out of the UK. Really enjoyed my time in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. More on the Rotterdam Marathon later. Firstly, the training recap from last week.

Monday

Type: Easy

Time and Distance: 46 mins, 8.2 km.

Tuesday

Type: Threshold

Time and Distance: 54 mins, 11.4 km.

Detail: Warm up for 2 km. 3 x 2400m in 10 minutes with 5 mins recovery in between.

Thursday

Type: Continuous Hills

Time and Distance: 40 mins, 8 km.

Detail: 2 sets of 6 hill reps at threshold pace. Recovery of 3 minutes between sets.

Sunday
Type: Marathon
Time and Distance: 239 mins 22 seconds, 42.195 km.
Detail: Kept the pace and intensity easy the whole way. Legs started getting tired around the 25-30 km mark. Still managed to go faster as the race went on.
Splits: 5 km: 30:00. 10 km: 59:37. 15 km: 1:28:35. 20 km: 1:57:19. Half marathon: 2:03:44. 25 km: 2:25:54. 30 km: 2:54:14. 35 km: 3:21:23. 40 km: 3:48:17.
Time between splits: 5 km: 30:00. 10 km: 29:37. 15 km: 28:58. 20 km: 28:44. 25 km: 28:35. 30 km: 28:20. 35 km: 27:09. 40 km: 26:54.
Average pace between splits: 5 km: 6:00 min/km (10.0 km/h). 10 km: 5:58 min/km (10.05 km/h). 15 km: 5:47 min/km (10.35 km/h). 20 km: 5:44 min/km (10.44 km/h). 25 km: 5:43 min/km (10.5 km/h). 30 km: 5:40 min/km (10.58 km/h). 35 km: 5:26 min/km (11.05 km/h). 40 km: 5:23 min/km (11.15 km/h). Finish: 5:02 min/km (11.88 km/h).

Total Weekly Distance: 69.795 km.

Comments: This looks to be a very hard week, with the threshold running, continuous hills and a marathon all in one week. However it actually wasn't too bad. I managed to survive the two hard sessions during the week, then had a full two days rest to get ready for Rotterdam. It's very easy to go into a marathon thinking that it's a race and that you should do well, but I had to keep reminding myself that it's only a training run (only I've never done a long run in training that happened to be as long as a marathon itself). So I forced myself to reign in the pace, and I think I've coped with this week pretty well. No injuries yet! Of course my legs were aching after the race and for a few days after (well 4 hours of continuous foot pounding is going to do that to you), but now my legs are pretty much recovered and I should be able to start running again (slowly of course). I was keen to know my split times, and was surprised that I got faster as the race went on. This indicates that I was just cruising in this marathon, and also had extra energy left in the tank. The weather conditions were ideal so that also helped.

Improvements: After 4 days off running this week (week 20), I'm going to take it slowly this week, and concentrate on the easy stuff. Next week (week 21), I'll get back into the serious running.

Well, that was that, and soon I'll post a race report of Rotterdam as well. I thoroughly enjoyed Rotterdam (and the subsequent trip to Amsterdam). Rotterdam is a must-do event, so for anyone wanting to run a marathon in Europe, Rotterdam is a top choice! Starting with the blast of cannons, running across the Erasmus bridge, live bands playing a variety of music at every corner, and finishing on the Coolsingel (the main street in Rotterdam), it has all the hallmarks of a memorable event.

Finally, out of the top 5 fastest marathon runners of all time, 4 of them got their fastest times at Rotterdam. I would have loved to have gone all out last Sunday, but that would have gotten in the way of the overall goal. So, if you're looking to smash that PB, then run in Rotterdam.

Tot ziens!

Aaron

Aaron goes to Rotterdam

2010-04-08T20:58:00.004+01:00

Hallo all,

Tomorrow, I'll be heading out to Rotterdam to run the Rotterdam Marathon! According to Runners World, Rotterdam is one of the top 10 marathons in the world, so to run this event is going to be an awesome moment.

On top of that, this year will be the 30th Rotterdam Marathon, which also coincides with my age(!), so it's basically a jubilee event. To celebrate, the organisers are giving away 2 free trips to "some place warm", provided that your race number, upon collecting it at the marathon expo, is inside a "golden envelope". Doesn't that remind you of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?! Well, hopefully I can win that awesome prize!

Rotterdam is a very pancake-flat course, which is going to produce some spectacular times. Expect a world record (or close to world record time) this year! Unfortunately, I'm not in peak condition to run a fast marathon, so I'm going to take it easy, soak up the experience and jog my way through Rotterdam. Maybe I'll take my camera along with me and take a few snaps of Rotterdam, mile by mile! I was thinking of tweeting during the race, but I think that might be taking things a little bit too far!

The aim is to keep the intensity as easy as possible, probably around a 6 - 6.5/10 on the rate of perceived exertion scale. It will be interesting to see how well I reign in the pace as it's a natural tendency for me to speed up once I've hit my stride. I'm confident that I can finish the race comfortably, but I'm interested to see how my body holds up after the race, even at such a leisurely pace!

After Rotterdam, I'll be heading to Amsterdam for a few days to check out the city and hopefully stay out of trouble! In order to keep travel costs down, I've made a reservation in a budget hotel that has shared bathroom facilities on every floor. Not normally one to bring a towel on holiday, and being a hotel with shared bathroom facilities, I enquired whether the hotel provides towels to guests. The response I got was classic!

We change towels every day. However, if it is not a big problem for you, I suggest to bring yours, this is what I do all the time when I travel, it is more convenient for me. But we wash, dry and provide new towels every day.

HILARIOUS! I'm not really interested in whether or not you bring your towel on holiday. Isn't it more convenient to not bring a towel when you travel and just use what the hotel provides? I don't know whether she was serious, or just taking the piss. Is this a Dutch thing???

Finally, this week's training recap post will be postponed until I return. That will be followed by a race report, and hopefully some awesome pictures from the Rotterdam Marathon. As usual, I'll be tweeting from the event (but not when I run!), so follow me to get all the latest action from Rotterdam as it happens!

Tot ziens!

Aaron