Melbourne marathon training: Weeks 12 and 13 then a bit of a setback

Week 12 - As planned, I followed up from the low volume week leading into the City to Surf with a big week. 

157km.  Four double days with significant runs being 24km on Tuesday morning, 22km on Thursday morning, both of which included running the last 5km a bit quicker at around 4.10-4.11/km.

On the Friday, I did my first interval session for quite a while 5 x 800m with a 90 sec jog recovery.  I think this workout confirmed that I approached the City to Surf in exactly the right way.  I seem to have no specific endurance at anything much quicker than 3:30/km so it was sensible to race that course at that effort and just maintain effort on the hills rather than blow up.

800m splits were 2:38; 2:37; 2:40; 2:41; 2:43.

Last couple of reps were into the wind so I probably didn't drop off as much as it appears but 5 reps was definitely enough that morning.

On the Saturday morning I did a 35km progression run. Sub 4:30 to sub 4:20 to sub 4:05 to sub 4:00.  Was supposed to get some of the last few kilometres in around 3:50/km but  I hit a nasty headwind on the city side of the river that literally took the wind out of my sails.

Was able to pick it up a bit for the last 4km down to sub 4:00 again and then a 2km jog home.  This run included 15km at sub 4:00.

This was hard work but I recovered really well from it.

Week 13 - 124km all in singles. No doubles this week because early in the week it was very windy and stormy and I didn't figure the afternoon runs would actually involve much recovery in those conditions.  Later in the week, I was saving myself for my hard effort on Saturday morning and from Wednesday onwards I wasn't feeling that flash as I was suffering from a bit of what started as a head cold.

Similar to the previous week, main runs were 24.4km on Tuesday and 22km on Thursday.  As I wasn't going to do a quicker session on the Friday before my Saturday long run, on the Wednesday I did a Bridges run with some pickups.  Canova calls these pickups "variations", but it is really just an unstructured fartlek.  I did about 8 of them for 30-45 secs at around 3:25/km pace First couple felt a bit rough but found a rhythm towards the end.

On Saturday, I did a 32.4km long run which included 4 x 6km at marathon pace with a km at approx 4:15 between each rep.  There was a strong easterly blowing and in hindsight I probably should have done a 16km run out to Ascot and then run the 16km back at MP instead of laps of the Bridges.

This run got really hard on the third rep of which pretty much all 6km were into the wind and then the last 2.5km of the last rep.  Blew up on the last 2km and almost bailed but pushed through at the best effort I could muster before a 1km jog home.

Absolutely shattered afterwards.  Haven't felt like that since the first couple of 20 mile runs I did when training for my first marathon back in 2008.

Average paces for each 6km rep were 3:49 / 3:46 / 3:52 / 3:58/km so overall MP average was 3:51/km.

Recovery run Sunday and an easy Bridges loop to start this week.  Picked it up a bit over the last 8km.  The "head cold" was still hanging around and was into my throat so was definitely affecting my running.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up with a cracking head ache, lots of phlegm and generally feeling really rough so no run that morning and I made a doctors appointment as it seemed to be getting worse rather than better.  Turns out that I have bronchitis, so I am now on some really strong antibiotics which seem to be successfully knocking it on the head.  No run again today which is Wednesday but I will see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow and may go for an easy run if all is good.  If I can back to running easy before the end of the week, I shouldn't have missed too much and the "hay should be in the barn" by now anyway.

I was planning on running Fremantle 10km on Sunday but I won't decide on that until Friday as entries close that night.