Training Week 42 Recap

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

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

200 Days To Berlin

¡Hola a todos!

As you might gather from the greeting, I'm now in Spain for the week. Not a bad place to be in the first week of the taper period leading up to the Reading Half Marathon. Unfortunately, it's not all fun and games as I'm here on business, plus the fact that I've fallen sick right after my hardest training period. At this stage it's best that I stop running and try to recover as quickly as possible, before I start to do any running this week. Hopefully this won't put me off the roads for long! Here's a picture of Castell de Bellver in Palma, which is where I did quite a lot of my running when I was in Spain before.

I had a look at the timer on my blog, and noted that there are 200 days left until the Berlin Marathon, which is the marathon I'm focusing on to break three hours in. It does sound like a lot of time, but if you factor in the off-days, e.g. taper days, easy days, missed training days and sick days (like now!), then these things can eat a huge chunk of time out of your available training days. In an earlier blog post I mentioned that I had 259 days left, so up to now, over 8 weeks (a fifth of my training period) have passed. I always provide training recaps every week, but it's also good to recap over several weeks as I'm interested to know how much I have progressed since then.

Of course, the only real way to know that I have made improvements is by racing (assuming nothing goes wrong during the race), so by peaking for the Reading Half Marathon I'll have a general indication of how well I'd perform in a marathon. According to the McMillan Running Calculator a 1:30:00 half marathon time would equate to roughly a sub 3:10:00 marathon time. It's not sub 3-hours, but it's a step in the right direction. The calculator isn't going to be accurate for everyone's performance, but for me it seems to be giving close enough times.

Looking at the training schedules, I'd say that I'm running as hard, if not harder, than I was when I did Berlin last year. At this stage, I've already put in more miles in training than last year's preparation for the Reading Half Marathon. I'm feeling confident that I can set a new PB in the half marathon, but I won't dare to be bold in saying that I'd go under 1:30:00 on race day. But let's hope that I do, so that it gives me the reassurance that I'm heading in the right direction, and that I can finally update my personal bests section on this blog!

Hasta pronto (see you soon in Spanish),

Aaron