Skip to main content

Valencia Marathon Week 4/12


This week didn't go particularly well, my first speed bump in the road. Some of it was from being a little tired but most of it due to humidity, I struggle a lot in these conditions. As delightful a prolonged summer is, I'm craving cooler temperatures. 

This will be a shorter recap than previous weeks as I don't wish to linger for too long in the negativity.


Monday
8 miles (13k) easy, a lovely day for a recovery run.

Tuesday
9 miles (15k) easy, into Herbert Park and back along the canal.


Wednesday
8 miles (13k) with 6 miles (10k) at 160 heart rate. An extra mile added to the tempo portion. This should have felt like progress but the fade was obvious, power dropping for the same effort. Just happy to get this one done.

Thursday
5.5 miles (9k) with the RCSI gang. Loved this run, felt bouncy and smooth. Definitely the outlier of the week.

Friday
5 miles (8k) easy, quite the contrast to the day before, every step was a chore. However, I did finally start some strength and conditioning, only about twenty minutes in duration and very light loads.

Saturday
15 miles (24k) with 4x2 miles at planned marathon effort. However I was foreswunk (thank you Suzie Dent - word of the day). Had no real excitement for this run and it went exactly how I expected, terrible! The session was modified midway and no relevant information was gained. Next time I feel like this I'll just run easy, my confidence definitely took a hit.

Marathon training won't always be plain sailing, ups and downs are part of the process and when you get through a week like this, you can expect to have acquired some additional resilience. Hopefully next week will be better, but if not, I now know I'll still get the work done.

Our club motto - It's what you do next that counts!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Valencia Marathon - 12 Weeks to go!

Last year's Valencia Marathon resulted in a small personal best. I ran 3 hours 18 minutes and 31 seconds, it was my first time to ever run a negative split (second half faster than the first half) and my eleventh attempt at the distance. I'm definitely a slow learner! It was very satisfying and not once did I experience any weak spots throughout the 42k. Needless to say, I was thrilled, however I left this wonderful city thinking, what if.... What if this wasn't my third marathon in eight weeks, what if I concentrated on a good diet (eat more), what if I did some strength/core work? So here we are, twelve weeks out and my motivation is sky high. I want to run another personal best, feel strong and have a smile crossing the finish line, it doesn't sound like much, but to an experienced runner, we know what's involved! Time, commitment, patience, effort, recovery, support, to name a few. I've made some rough sketches that are starting to form a plan. Some of which...

Dublin City Marathon 2019 - Loreto's Journey

DCM Marathon Report 2019 I signed up to do the 2019 Dublin City Marathon in November 2018 after only starting to learn how to run mid January 2018. I know - just a bit mad!  It was suggested by a few friends that it would be a great thing to do especially after seeing how some other DBR members enjoyed their first one! I did put it to the back of my mind for many months and continued on as normal running/ training 3 /4 times a week and doing a few races in between!  Suddenly May was upon us and reality struck as the marathon training was to start! I had decided at this stage that I was going to give it the best shot I could and train as well as possible. I was still not convinced that I would actually be able to do it! One of my main concerns was how the summer would pan out.  The summer training was a bit tricky some weeks as children were off but I found ways around it when they were in one or two camps, babysitter occasionally and Andrew around ...

Valencia Marathon Week 8/12

October 30th - November 5th Monday - 5 miles ez (8k) back up to Bohernabreena reservoir for some more peace and quiet. Tuesday - 9 miles ez (15k) I enjoyed the run but was made aware of a slight niggle to my right calf. This was most likely caused by wearing my vaporfly shoes for last week's long run. For me it confirms these are only to be used for 5 and 10k races going forward. This run brought October to a close and although I've felt pretty meh throughout, the volume of work is there, 224 miles (360k) the total. Wednesday - 10 miles (16k) with 5*1 mile (1.6k) at half marathon effort off a 2 minute jog recovery. First session since Valencia half marathon, ten days ago. There was a little bit of dread leading up to this, my confidence needed a strong session. Wore the Mizuno rebellion pro to help with my calf niggle and they did the job just fine. They've now covered 300 miles (500k) and they still feel nice and bouncy, however they do stink and are becoming quite squeaky...