Winter is certainly upon us: Fog shrouded mornings. Numb morning fingers. Trouble drying the laundry. And why does the heating in the car take so long to warm up?! I've had a hectic June. July promises to continue the hecticity.
In spite of that, I've generally been able to find the time and energy to sustain and increase my mileage. June was a record month: 376 kilometres run, each week over 80km. (For reference, my highest previous week was 296km, and I'd only done 2 weeks over 80km last year.) This is all going to plan. And most importantly, I'm noticing the fitness effect of the high mileage. Last weekend I smashed my favourite half marathon route, TwinPeaks, shaving two and a half minutes off my previous best time, which was in turn recorded at my fittest, fastest period last year. At the Shoe Science group run I sliced one a half minutes off my 10km time for the my route record made just 6 weeks earlier. Almost unbelievably, the last few splits for that run were under 4:00/km. In every area I'm stronger than my peak period last year, except perhaps in my confidence to run beyond 32km.
And probably even more importantly than the fitness effect, I'm not experiencing the niggles to the degree I had last year, where I felt my momentum was always thwarted, and early this year when I felt I might not be able to run again at all. Fortunately ever time I've had those dire thoughts I've proven to be wrong.
Next week I have my next "moment of truth": A 10km race at Western Springs. It's a flat route and probably my best chance to record my best time for a 10km run, which in turn will be a measuring stick for what paces I might be able to do in the coming half and full marathons. My happy range of results would be anywhere between 42:00 to 43:00, with anything below 42:00 being a reason to celebrate. I've recorded two 10km times between 43:20-43:30 on hillier, more challenging courses, with slightly less fitness in the last two months. After this will be a half marathon 3 weeks before the marathon, which will be a perfect chance to sort out my marathon pace; and then the marathon itself on 2 September.
My general strategy will be to continue sustaining the mileage, up to 100km/week by the end of July and then taper from mid-August. I've done two runs over 30km so far and aim to do another 3-4 in this coming period.
1 comment:
"Moment of Truth" has come and gone: What truth did it deliver? I appear to be much faster on the flat than I had extrapolated. I completed the 10km in about 41:00 (unofficial time from Strava; the timing company are taking forever with the official timings and I have time now to blog, so I'll take my own measurement as the real one for now; for an update go to: http://results.racetiming.co.nz/competitions/1622).
41:00 is a minute faster than my target of 42:00. Of course if it was really my target, I have terrible aim. I'm highly influenced by those I run with and most of the race was choosing a "mark" (some called Mark), tailing them till they tire and passing in the hunt. I set out unrealistically fast, possibly running my fastest 5km, in the first 5km of a 10km race. But fortunately, the mileage I've been running has given me sufficient aerobic base not to "blow up" (running terminology for get slower suddenly due to fatigue). I was aware that I was faster than planned but felt I was breathing comfortably enough and could sustain it. 41:00 means that with further training and improvement, I might be able to get my time down to 40:00 this year, which I thought would be beyond me.
Importantly, the body feels fine post-race. Pre-race was a little nerve-wracking though: We had a Friday night work function where I drank a bit and danced bollywood style for a fair while. My glutes, if you don't mind the TMI, were a pain all Saturday, and a run and a sleep on Sunday wasn't enought to recover fully. Clearly that didn't impede my effort though!
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