Finally feeling some benefits of the training

I have been doing this running caper for a while now, struggled through a long period of injury, and experienced many ups and downs. So I know when to ride an up with cautious optimism :)

Today is one of those 'up' days as far as running is concerned. Stepped out for an easy run after a hard cruise intervals session last night. I was supposed to do a recovery run, I felt slightly tired, and yet when I started running and warmed up a little it felt really good. Managed about 5min/km for just under 10km's with one 1km lap at 4min30 pace. And that felt great  too.

Its a good sign that my running fitness is now coming back to me. All I need to do is maintain the consistency and I will make some great progress.

I am trying to run every day, but it seems at least 1 rest day a week 'happens' and I probably need it. This week will be another of around 60km total if all goes well. Hard speed session tomorrow, OR if I am feeling the effects of the exuberance  from today's fastish run I may simply do another much easier run.

If I keep doing what I have been doing, running just one extra day ( 7 days for the week )  will put my over the 65km mark for the first time since June 2010

Week ending totals again - 61km this time

Managed 61km this week, after feeling quite ill all week. The speed session I was supposed to do was weak. I should have done 4x1km but pulled up wrecked and sick at 800 metres into the first one. I tried to do some fatlek style running on the way back to the office.

On the weekend I did 12km Saturday and 17km Sunday. It was not supposed to be as long a run as that, but I headed off latish in the afternoon and wnet in the direction of the Gateway bridge. I ran across it and then just ran to see where I ended up. I managed to reach Fortitude Valley.

All in all I seem to be in good nick, shall see how I hold up with the mileage.

week ending Sunday 20 2012 - Totals

Some how I managed to do 58kms for the week from Monday 14 May to Sunday 20th. It is a surprising total, as I had done no more than about 35km for the recent weeks this year.

It is the highest total since August last year. I have run 6 days of the 7, and I guess that is all it takes to get such volume. I did it all mostly easy. Hopefully this won't be too much, I intend to repeat the 6 days of running for the week until the  race on 2 July.

I am pretty sure running most days seem to make things better with regard to my right heel. Really strange. I had Saturday as a no running day, and ran Sunday afternoon. Right heel was quite uncomfortable, but seems ok today.

Status for May

Had a trip to Tassy for work late April, had a lot of fun down there. Forced a few runs in at Frecenet National Park, but accidentally erased the Garmin Data..  Did a few runs in Hobart as well, here is one that survived my fat fingers on the Garmin watch:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/173244123

I have been running steadily all through April, and three weeks ago started an 8 week intense preparation for the GCM 10km race on 2 July 2012. I don't have a decent base to build on so I don't know what will come of it all, but it feels like it is working.

I am sort of following a PDF file that I found:
http://www.coolrunning.com.au/forums/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_id=8793

It is only accessible if you login to CoolRunning forums.

The plan pretty much advocates three key weekly runs for a 40min 10km race:

- Long aerobic   @ about 5min12 pace
- Speed VO2 session - 200 or 300 metre repeats of 3 or 4 plus a longer speed repeat of 600 to 1000 metres, 3 or 6 counts. 200's @ 35 sec, 300's @ 60 secs, and th 600/800/1000 @ 2;15/3:00/3:48
- Cruise Intervals  @ slightly lower than race pace - For me thats about 4min per 1 km or so. Periods of 6, 7 minutes repeats of 3 or 4

I have been trying to do easy recovery runs in between. And I have been running consecutive days, with full rest days on the weekend. Quite possibly not the best strategy, but it feels ok, I am not hugely fatigued at all.

In fact I feel that overall I am in better shape doing shorter runs, more frequently and less full rest days. Just this week, I had Saturday and Sunday off, no running, and have run Monday to Thursday consecutively.

I feel the workload in the legs but am not particularly exhausted. The run on Monday was supposed to be an easy long but I felt so fresh it turned into a long tempo. Ended up doing about 4:40 pace for 14km - at least that is what the horribly inaccurate RunKeeper on Android said I did. I left my Garmin at home.

Total for this week so far is already 37km's, and I have another speed session to do. So I will exceed 40km's for the week, for the first time since August last year.
Runs this week so far:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178378586

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178359277

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178682737

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/178966421





Only six weeks to go of training. Not at all sure if my goal of sub 40min for the 10km is going to happen. But I do feel improvements from a month ago. IF I can get myself cruising reasonably comfortably at 4min/km it may happen. Right now in the state of fatigue and workload I am in, I can do around 4:04 , slowing to 4:08 in the last of three. Needs to get better by far to give sub 4min for 10km a shot :)