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!