Month: February 2018

Monday

AM: I woke up early and could feel yesterday in my legs. I jogged an easy 5km into work but my legs still felt pretty crappy. I right glutes still hurts. If and when I sit on my massage ball in the right spot, it is agony!

PM: Still feeling flat, I ran 6.5km home and was done for the day. The homemade popcorn from last night wasn’t agreeing with me and my legs were tired.

Tuesday

I think I am a bit ill. I have been very hungry recently, which is ok, but I now have a bit of a head ache and a sore throat. Ain’t nobody got no time for dat!  I planned on doing an easy single run, but ended up sleeping instead, so today was a rest day.

Wednesday

I felt a bit better so after work I set off to Willy Wacker to do my intervals. I wanted to do a 1-2-3-2-1 pyramid, with the 1ks at 5k race pace, the 2ks at 10k race pace and the 3k at 15k race pace.  I ran the first k slightly slow in 3:28 instead of 3:27, but damn was it tough! I was gasping for air and my heart rate was 170 already.  I knew it wasn’t going to happen, but I set off for the 2km, but was feeling dead.  After 700m I picked up my jacket and set off on an easy loop instead.  My guts were dreadful too, all in, it was a bad run. I am definitely a bit ill.

Thursday

I woke up feeling pretty under the weather, even though I slept for 9h again. I decided quite early on that it would be another rest day for me. I don’t think I’ll be ill for long, so I am not too worried.

Friday

I was feeling a bit better, though my guts were still fairly bad. I ran an easy 12.2km loop, it was nice weather, except for against the wind!  There is a cold front at the moment and it is below freezing all the time. Running into the easterly wind is painful, but fortunately doesn’t last too long!

Saturday

I was up early and ran another easy 12.2km. It was very similar to yesterday, though it was the squatch loop this time. In the sun and with the wind on my back, it felt warm, against the wind it was bitter cold!

I went swimming later for the first time in a while. I felt quite good surprisingly. I did my tautness kicking and alignment stuff, followed by some fast 50s and a little cool down. As I only had 45 minutes, it was a good short workout before the TCEC JHV.

Sunday

I ran the TCE 10km in Langen. See the race report here.

Overview

Well it wasn’t a good week was it!  I ran just about 56km with no workout, but I did have the 10k race. I am a bit disappointed with my time, but the ice wind must have cost a few seconds.

I’m feeling good now anyway, I have 4 big weeks of training left, then a taper. It is finally getting to the endspurt!  Next week I want to run 125km with a quality long run and a longer midweek run with some M pace work in there. The weather won’t be helpful, so I will have to do my man suit up tight!  I also want to cut back on my eating, I ate a lot in the last 9 days, that needs to stop so I can drop 1-2kg before Paris.

I have no photo for the snippet – so here is me in my new cycle kit that arrived this week – 31€ for bibshorts, top and a bidon!

The half way week, now I can start counting down instead of counting up!

Monday

Rosenmontag – rest day as my feet and right glute were a bit sore. I over ate but didn’t drink too much, could have been better, could have been worse!

Tuesday

As I am off work until Thursday, I won’t be doubling. So I ran for just about 90 minutes nice and easy for 18.6km. It was a nice run, though my right foot is still slightly sore from running in the Zoom Flys on Saturday!

Wednesday

It was my birthday, so I ate a LOT of pancakes for breakfast!  After a nap, I ran 17km in another longer single. The weather was lovely, chilly but sunny.

Thursday

AM: I had left my bike in town on Saturday after the race, I wanted to finally pick it up today, so I ran into town before work.  It was 5.6km at about 4:58/km and a nearly dead 118bpm heart rate. It started snowing as I was running and when I cycled back to work it started getting heavier.  I had planned a workout this evening, I’ll have to see if that is still possible.

PM: I really wanted to do a workout, so I tip toed through the snow to the track after work, but that wasn’t going to happen:

I looked around to see if the paths nearby were clear of snow, but they weren’t. There just wasn’t anywhere where I could run fast and not probably slip and fall. Feeling slightly annoyed, I jogged around a little bit, before going home. I only managed about 7.65km at 5:13/km due to the snow.

Friday

AM: The snow was largely gone, so the paths weren’t too bad, but the roads were fairly deadly on the way to work. With lentil soup from dinner working its way through the system quickly, I just ran 5.2km at a very very slow pace of 5:20/km which was good for getting my heart rate up to 115bpm! At least my clothes aren’t very sweaty today!

PM: I cycled home and headed straight out to the now snow free track. I didn’t really have a plan, I didn’t want to kill myself, but I wanted some speedwork, so 7x1km at 10k pace?  The first interval was right at 3:34, but it felt too easy, so I sped them up to 3:30/km. I was still cruising them but didn’t need to go overboard 2 days before a half marathon. All in it was 15km in 1h05.

Saturday:

I woke up at 8am, so ate some cornflakes. I decided against the TCEC run, so set off at 11am on an easy loop.  It was pretty crappy! It was like I was hungry after 3km, but I dragged myself around 14.9km in 1h14 feeling weak all the way. My right hamstring had a few wobbles that buckled my leg. It didn’t hurt or anything, but seems far from ideal.

For the rest of the day I felt starving. I ate lots but still felt hungry. I would prefer not to over-indulge before a race, but it felt like my body was telling me to eat, so I did.

Sunday:

As mentioned last week, I had a plan to run Mörfelden HM as a up-paced long run. I would do a warm up jog, 21.1km at 4mins/km, then another loop of 10.55km to round out my long run.

All went to plan more or less. I set off at 4:00/km pretty much and was with Jochen after 3km. He wasn’t having a good day (in fact his training is going very badly for some reason that is hard to explain) so I left him behind.  I ticked up the pace a little after 10km and split 41:57, a little too fast after 10.55km.

3rd place was ‘only’ 300m ahead of me, so I thought that if I sped up and he slowed down, I might catch him.  I sped up a little without going all out and passed a few people. After 16km it was clear that I wouldn’t catch a few people ahead of me, so I didn’t try to overdo it at the end and I ran in a 1:22:44 with the 2nd half being in 40:47.

I had a couple of cups of tea, then headed straight off for my 3rd loop, it was a real slow jog, which seemed to take an age, but eventually it was done and I could shower and eat cake!

I was 7th place and 2nd in my age group. It ended up being a HM at marathon pace, with the 2nd half being faster than marathon pace. I don’t know how I feel about it yet, it was certainly no nightmare, but maybe I should have taken it easier.

Overview:

It wasn’t a perfect week for training! Rosenmontag meant a rest day, on Monday, though that was due anyway. Wednesday was my birthday and it snowed on Thursday, so I think I did ok to get in my 118km, even though I wanted a bit more.  I feel like my pace is there and endurance is looking promising. If I had run the half marathon at a steady pace, I could have judged better if I was in the right zone. My 161bpm average would be about right to a little high for my marathon pace, I would definitely be worried about holding that effort for 42.2km.

Next week will be a bit lower mileage, ending with Langen 10k. I have heard that it is a flat road race, if I run like I think I can, I want to be close to 35:00.

 

Into week 6. After taking a look at my current training, I have decided to try to break down my runs slightly differently. My doubles have been 10/10km or so, but I will try to split them more 5/15 or even single a 20km more often from now on.

This week will be a bit different as I am racing a 10k in Groß-Gerau on Saturday, my first real form test of the year!

Monday

AM: I ran to work, just 4.8km. It was a clencher, but I made it in a slow as hell 5:15/km. It was cold and I was rocking the shorts 🙂

PM: I wanted to run 15km after work, but I ended up running 14km, not a big deal I guess, but I misread my watch whilst running!  My pace was better, as is normal in the afternoons. Continue reading “Mais Oui, Paris – Week 6”

Monday

AM: With a lot of k’s to cover this week, I wanted to get a flying start so I ran 10.5km at a leisurely pace of 5:08/km. It was a slightly different route than I normally run, a slight improvement too as it is less busy and avoids the school, I’ll probably run this route more often.

PM: After work I decided to try my luck with another route variation. I wanted to run through Weisenau, to Laubenheim, up and over the hill and down to Hechtsheim – home. The route along Wormserstr. is the worst part of the Mainz marathon route, and was crap here too. The pavement is thin and there is a lot of traffic. It pretty much stayed like that until I got to the hill (Laubenheimer Höhe) in Laubenheim. It’s a nasty climb, but I took it easy. I did 9.9km with a 4:48/km average when I arrived home, so 20.4km on the day – job done.

Tuesday

At 18:30 after briefly falling asleep on Katja on the sofa, I was off to TV Hechtsheim training. It started slow with some gentle jogging, then a few exercises and sprints before getting down to something like buisiness. We did 5x200m sprints, followed by 100m slow jog. Then there was another 3x200m, followed by 50m running backwards, 100m jog and 50m skipping. I did 4 repeats instead of waiting around.

The coach at TV Hechtsheim is fast, he kicks my ass on sprints. I did my 200m sprints in about 36 seconds, he probably does about 30 seconds. Anyway at the end of the session we got to do 3x1k with a 3 minute rest. I ran the first in 3:26 and felt good. I decided to shorten the rest to 90s and repeat. The next 2 weren’t great, but ok in 3:27 and 3:28. I don’t think I fell apart, my legs were just getting tired.  After 800m of normal tempo running, I set off home, it was 15.87km all in and a decent workout at the end.

Wednesday

AM: I ran pretty much exactly the same route to work as I did on Monday. 10.8km at 5:01/km. I was like an old man setting off, my hips are so tight and sore after doing intervals.

PM: I just ran a fairly normal route home, with a little add on to get to 9km. Pace was alright, as is often the case in my afternoon runs.

Thursday

My legs were still feeling a little stiff from Tuesday, but I wanted to get my 2nd set of intervals in for the week. I kind of fear doing a 2x5km intervals at half marathon pace, I don’t like long intervals, but I do think I need to do them.  I felt flat as hell at the start and had to make a mental effort to keep 3:45/km pace going. I decided to do 3km instead of 5km, but after 3km I persuaded myself to continue on to 5km, I could do shorter intervals after the 5km. So I did the first 5km in 18:40.

I jogged 800m then started the 2nd interval. I guess I knew I would run the full 5km, but I had mental get outs, like doing a 5-3-1 or 5-2-2. I ran exactly at 3:45/km pace, but with 2km to go I picked it up a bit so that the 2nd 5km would be faster than the first. I finished in 18:33 and felt like I could go on if needed. I was done for the day though.  I did 15.2km in 1h04 all in, another good work out in the bag.

Friday

I didn’t feel like getting up early to run to work, so I just ran 15km really easy after work at 4:51/km. It was nice to run one of my old loops, recently I have either been doing a work out, a long run or commuting.

Saturday

I woke up at 7am and ate some cornflakes and went back to bed. At 9am I was up again and set off to run to the uni at 9:25.  I met up with TCEC and we were off at 10am. It was a really relaxed pace, probably 5:10/km but we did a few sprints, which just showed how stiff my hips are at the moment! The rest of the run was more of a chat, but wasn’t bad. I ran the last 7.5km home to do 30.5km on the day. My stomach wasn’t very happy today, I might have to watch drinking beetroot juice the night before long runs!

Sunday

Went for a bit longer swim in Mombach. I did 3000m all in, a lot for me with some sprints too. I am slow, but I think I’ll get faster as soon as I really start my swim training.

Overview

I got my miles in, ran a decent long run, and a good long intervals session.  I have a little ache in my groin or adductor or something, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem. All in it was a good week of training, the next 2 weeks will be more focussed on my races, I am looking forward to some shiny new PBs!