Marathon training - week 13

120km this week.  A good solid week where I hit the two main sessions I had planned perfectly.

Monday (18.6km) and Tuesday (23km) I got some easy mileage in although Tuesday was bit quicker than planned, especially for a couple of kms. Started off pretty easy but as I got towards Maylands things got interesting.


A guy who I often see running in the opposite direction but who never nods or anything, was running towards me but turned around about 30-40m in front of me. He seemed to pick things up a bit but we were going at a similar pace but after about 800m I caught up to him. As I ran alongside, I turned and said g’day but he just turned and then ignored me. Oh well, I thought, stuff you – so I picked it up a bit further. He did too but I put about 20-30m on over the next couple of kms which I reckon were at about 3.50/km pace. He made a real effort and got up just behind me before he turned off, probably to head home whereas I still had about 13km to go.

Once you have picked it up, it is a bit harder to slow back down again and the second half of the run was slightly quicker than the first. Hit the turn around at around 50 mins and that had included the quicker couple of kms whereas the return was in 49mins.  All up 23km @4.17/km pace.

Don’t feel like the “race” did me any harm and probably good to practice surging/recovering.

On Thursday, I joined in with the BT RunClub interval session.  6 x 1km was the same session as last week although this week the easterly was a lot stronger plus I decided to jog the 2 min recoveries so it made for a harder session. The difference in the conditions with the wind makes it hard to compare this session to last week.

I think taking account for the wind, the times are comparable but the fact that the recoveries were jogged rather than walked makes this an improvement on last week.

Jog from home – 500-600m approx

Warm-up 3.6km + 2 short strides

6×1000m with a slow 2 minute jog recovery (walked 30 secs/jogged 1.30 after the 5th rep).

1000m – 3’26

1000m – 3’16

1000m - 3’31(did this one on my own as Simon went for a toliet break – it’s much harder on your own)

1000m – 3’11

1000m – 3’27 (felt like I was wading through concrete when the wind blew up)

1000m – 3’13

Warm-down 3 km

On Saturday morning, Simon Elliott lent me his Garmin for this run which was much appreciated and made for a much better session than I would have been able to do on a measured course and just a watch. Did this solo around the Ascot/Garrett Road/Maylands loop from home.

This was a pretty important marathon specific workout for me. After recent workouts and the 32km race, I am confident about my fitness but the next few weeks are going to be very much focused on preparing my body to burn glycogen efficiently at marathon pace. This was also quite a hard workout mentally as I was doing it solo and most of my harder workouts in recent weeks/months have been with company.

I was a bit worried about my ability to finish this workout as planned early on as it wasn’t as comfortable as I thought the first few km should be but on reflection I think that was more a factor of the first 7km stretch being into the wind and over the rolling hills at the back of Rivervale/Ascot.

I felt really good over the last 7km apart from the uphill at the East Perth inlet and pushed on for the last couple of km with the last one in 3:46.

Looking forward to getting a Garmin of my own now.

4km warm up – 4:29/4:28/4:24/4:27

7km @ MP – 4:00/3:59/3:59/4:03/4:00/3:56/3:57

1km @ 4:15 – 4:11

7km @ MP – 4:01/3:56/3:57/3:57/3:57/3:58/3:54

1km @ 4:15 – 4:19 (included a stop at a drink fountain to wash down a gel)

7km @ MP – 3:57/4:00/3:56/3:57/3:57/3:54/3:46

2.66km cool down – 5:02/4:37/3:07 ( .66km @ 4:44/km pace)

All up 29.71km in 2:02:49 (4:08/km pace)
This week I will do my medium long run on Monday so I can get some 400s in on Tuesday morning as a sharpening session for next Sunday's Run for a Reason 14km race.  No Sunday weather forecast yet but if it may be windy along the Graham Farmer Freeway I suspect.  I'm hoping to run under 52mins.

Picking up the race packet/number this week - I am race number 4.

..