Marathon training - Week 16 (2 weeks to go) and more advice from Jack Daniels (video)

A bit late with this post of last week's training. 114.86 km last week so it was really only a semi taper with a minor reduction in mileage. Main runs last week were a 23km medium long run on Tuesday morning and 19.5km on Thursday morning which included 8km @ tempo pace.

I think my Garmin measures overly long/slow on the first km of each run. For Thursday's workout it had me running at 4.15/km pace for a considerable part of my first tempo km and total time for the km 3:59 when I was definitely running in the mid 3:40s. Clown’s first km was 3:50 something and he was a bit behind me.

Although I turned right on 4km the map shows slightly different start finish points although in actuality I started and finished in pretty much the same spot.

Doesn’t really matter for this run as I was running on effort and not pace. Nice controlled tempo run where I was careful to stay below my lactate threshold at all times. Very much following the “train, don’t strain” philosophy at the moment.

Wind was bit odd, felt like a slight headwind both ways.

Nice to do a tempo run in a differnent spot. This is a good flat path/course although the noise and headlights on Mounts Bay Road are a bit of a drag.

Splits from my Garmin were:

03:59
03:44
03:42
03:51
03:47
03:51
03:42
03:50

Total 8km @ 3:48 average.

On Saturday morning I did a 27km long run with Simon Elliott. Just a touch over 27km @ 4.21 average pace although there were a few km in the 4.10-4.15 range.

It was a nice change to have a long run where I wasn’t going to have to push the pace for at least some of it.

I met Simon down by the river and we headed out to Garrett Road and then return via Maylands and East Perth.

When I got back to South Perth, there were some dolphins in the river right up close so when I got home, Sammie and I drove straight back down but unfortunately we missed them by about 1 minute.

This was a very enjoyable run. I had an ice bath afterwards which has freshened up my legs nicely at the time although I have been feeling a bit sluggish so far this week.