Marathon training - week 4 inc PB @ Darlington Half Marathon

108.67 kms this week - that gives me 4 weeks in a row over 100km and 6 of the last 7 weeks.

No real speedwork this week - just some strides (10 x 100m on Monday and 4 x 100m on Saturday).

A couple of medium long runs 23k and 19k with the 23k one @ 4:22/km pace.

Surprised myself with a PB at the Darlington Half Marathon.  Having trained through this one with 82km during the week before the race, I had no great expectations – especially after feeling pretty average in the warm up.

Went out pretty conservatively because I knew what was coming at around 3km.  The hill was as bad as I remembered but I took it pretty easy so that I could run on over the top.

Just before we turned to head up the road and up the long hill, I was about 20-30m behind a group of five that included Epi and Big Kev.  I had about 500m to get onto that group before the hill started or I knew I would be running uphill and into the wind by myself.  I have done that a couple of times before in this race and it is not much fun.

Managed to get onto the group and sat in the pack until just after the drink station at around half way.  Unfortunately I got dropped before we got to the turnaround (which was past 11km due to the extra loop).  The continual uphill finally got to me and I think the group picked up the pace a bit too.

Just before the turnaround - with Epi running away into the distance

My legs are pretty trashed and I've been wearing Skins all day - just generally tired all over and I certainly know that I raced a half marathon today.

Great runs by Epi, sugar and Liam (2nd) and also Scott Thomson (3rd).  Good conditions at Boston should see Epi run a brilliant time – maybe even give Clown a run for his money ;-)

Pretty big week planned this week at around 127km including a 30 x 100m session on Friday.  

Marathon training - week 3

Another solid week in the bank with a total of 108.5km.  Two very good runs on Thursday (8km tempo) and Saturday (26.5km long run @ 4:18/km pace) as well as a decent 23km medium long run on Tuesday.


This was interspersed with some very easy/recovery running with the end result being that at the end of the week and after a recovery run today, I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's run.  All three weeks so far have been over 100km and my legs feel pretty good.


For Thursday's tempo I met Rob for the regular/semi-regular tempo run on the usual course.

4.1km warmup in 19 mins then a few dynamic stretches

8km tempo in 30:40 (3:50/km pace) – my intention was to run this at around 3:55/km and I think we went out at around that.  Rob picked up the pace at about the 2km mark and then again at 4km and I dropped off a bit as I wanted to stay under my threshold.  As a result, I think I ran closer to my threshold than last time but still just under which was the aim of the session.

4.1km cool down in 18mins

Even though there was a bit of wind about it was still much nicer running in the these cooler conditions and much easier to gauge effort.Rob cruised this tempo and is in very good nick aerobically  – just need his legs to hold up and he will have a great Boston Marathon.


On Saturday's long run the plan was to run around 4:25-4:30/km pace but we went out a bit quicker eg around 4:15/km pace.  Although we slowed a little in a couple of spots I don’t think either of us wanted to throw in the towel and back off too much after a decent start so we pushed on and I think Simon said we ran the 25th or 26th km @4:12.

Pretty knackered at the end, it was humid this morning even though it wasn’t too hot.

Good to crank out a long run at a consistent pace and effort which started moderate but became increasingly harder to maintain as fatigue set in.  This was the type of run that is much better to do with someone else rather than on your own. 
I am thinking though that I may not run the Darlington Half Marathon next Sunday.  The course map is up on the WAMC website http://www.wamc.org.au/content/Darlington2011course.pdf and it seems that the course is the same as last year with the loop around the Primary School and the steep downhill an uphill at around 3km.  I'm not a big fan of this course change and think that it detracts from the overall nature of race which was previously a true out and back.  It has made the course slower and less enjoyable.  I guess I am feeling a bit negative about it and I'm not sure I'll run well when I am feeling negative.


Pfitzinger and Douglas' program has a 35km long run for next week so I am thinking that may be a substitute. The structure of this week means that I don't really have to decide until Saturday whether I am going to race or not as there is no speed session later in the week and I was going to train through this race in any case.

Men's 5000m - Melbourne Track Classic (St.Lawrence 13:10!)

The picture freezes occasionally unfortunately but this is still much better quality than the live streaming feed was.

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Amateur runner runs 2:08 at Tokyo Marathon and makes Japanese World Champs team

Watch from about 6 mins in and make sure you watch him cross the line