32km at MP + 28 - 4:48 pace

Short easy run on Saturday - To generate a little fatigue ahead o the long run Sunday:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102897708

The long run I did today (Sunday):

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102897722

Weekly total 59km - Highest since August 2010
Month total of 250km, highest I have ever recorded in training.

So as a simple strategy its been recommended to me that setting up a level of fatigue for the Sunday long run will help condition to be able run better in the later stages of a marathon. So I did a super slow easy run of 5km with our dog MAX on Saturday. The problem is that I felt extreemely tired all day yesterday after the easy run. Christine and I went shopping and while we were walking around the super market, I reached a stage where I'd had enough. I had to go and sit down.

When we got back, in the afternoon, I sat and rested, feet up. Fell asleep briefly. Still feeling absolutely wrecked. This morning I got up about 6AM, and managed to hit the road to begin the 32km run at 6:47AM. Legs felt slightly sore from the very beginning. Held a reasonable pace until 26km, where I began to fade. I appear to have done the same thing last week !!! I had 5km to go, and stopped to toilet and drink water. When I took off again, it was clear there was no way I was going to get another 5km done without hurting myself. I took a slight shortcut and did another 2km on the way home. Totally shagged.

I think the higher mileage for the week, the high mileage for the month, and the easy Saturday run took their tole on me today. And I have had a bit of a bad run this month with ilness - Stomach problem for July 3 GC mara, a pretty bad cold BEFORE that ( Had a cough for a month and a half), then sore thraot on the day of the Jetty to Jetty. I am looking forward to a GOOD month, no ilness. Just good training and heaps of rest when its needed..

This week I back off ever so slightly on the mileage. The Sunday long run is only 21km but is to be done at 4:39 pace, so it is not going to be easy. I hope I will be a little fresher next week. This week has been hard, and it crept up on me too.