Valencia Marathon Week 5/12

Thankfully I appear to be feeling much better this week and happy to get another 50 mile plus week (85K) in the bag.

Monday - 8 miles easy (13k) autumn again playing the most confusing game of hide and seek, a warm one 19 C.

Tuesday - 9.5 miles easy (15k) with 4x20 second strides at the end, just stretching the legs out and using it as a primer for tomorrow's session. Legs beginning to feel alive again, maybe 7/10.

Wednesday - 10 miles (16k) with 6 miles (10k) of those at 155 to 160 heart rate (HR). No fade in power or effort pace. The faster miles were on a favourable course, practicing turnover and stride length. The picture below gives you an idea of parallel lines when you compare effort pace and power with heart rate, although it did take me some time to get heart rate up and into correct range. Needed this one to boost the confidence.

Thursday - 5.5 miles easy (8.5k). The run included 4(600 meters) + 1x400 meters at my running partner's 5k pace, off a 60 second standing recovery. Really enjoyed this, more bounce in the legs and the pace was close to my goal marathon pace.

Friday Morning - 6.66 miles (10k) at recovery effort. The devil's numbers on Friday 13th. Heart rate was nice and low, assisted by cooler temps 10 C, and the early start combined with lashing rain meant I had Marlay park mostly to myself.

Evening - 7 miles (11k) on the treadmill conducting a lactate test. Pleased with the numbers. The test confirms I'm a little ahead of last year's Valencia Marathon fitness, 3:18. I still have a lot of miles to cover if a sub 3:10 is going to be a realistic dream come true.

The test was performed in the Mizuno Rebellion Pro, a fine shoe but when I compare them to the Adidas Adizero Pro 2, which I wore the last time in identical testing conditions, I seem to get a little more power out of the latter. So that's my shoes decided upon for next week's half marathon.

Saturday - 5 miles (8k). The most enjoyable run of the week as I got to run Parkrun with my daughter, we shared an earpod each and listened to The Greatest Showman soundtrack, not my idea but lovely all the same. She ran a personal best, so the music clearly helped!

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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

Valencia Marathon Week 3/12

Plan for this week is to increase my mileage from 50 miles (80k) to 54 miles (86k). I'll do this by reducing the weekly intensity, dropping Friday's session in favour of 100 meter strides sprinkled throughout. Monday 9 miles (14.5K) easy, glorious weather to start the week. Tuesday 9 miles (14.5k) easy, listening to the Inside Running Podcast, highly recommend. Three Australian marathon runners of sub 2:20 standard, they discuss their training, running news, answer some listeners questions and plenty more. Wednesday 7 miles (11k), back to Marlay Park for my 5 miles (8k) at 160 heart rate. No such issues getting my heart rate into the correct zone. Only my third week doing this session and it felt very controlled and comfortable, covering the route in 36:17. I've mentioned previously that the goal of this workout is parallel lines between heart rate and power/pace. I use power rather than pace due to the undulating nature of the course. Looking at the picture below and you c

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

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