Valencia Marathon Week 6/12

Half Marathon week - so looking forward to seeing where the fitness is!

Monday - 10 miles ez (16k) very enjoyable run and in my strava notes I have one word "Apricity" the warmth of the sun on your face on a cold day.

Tuesday - 10 miles (16k) with 1x2 mile (3.2k) and 2x1 mile (1.6k) at 160 heart rate. I didn't want to go too crazy with a session, giving the upcoming race, so shortened the Tempo efforts. We have a bug in the house and I felt slightly off but could have been in my head. Felt a little harder than it should but paces still good.

Wednesday - Rest day and it felt strange not to run, fighting the temptation all day.

Thursday - 6 miles (10k). Wore my race day shoes, Adidas adizero pro 2. Wanted to put some snap in the legs, Fartlek to start, then a little bit of tempo before finishing with 2x25 second strides.

Friday - 5 miles (8k) at recovery effort, up early for this, travel day. Heart rate was quite low.

Saturday - 5 miles (8k) with 4x20 second strides at the end along Turia Park. What an incredible attraction. Bursting with life, runners, skateboarders, cyclists, dancers, people hanging from trees with ribbons and so much more.

On my run I came across Yomif Kejelcha and Tadesse Worku, Tadesse seems to have something in his eye. They went onto run 57'41 and 59'33 respectively for the half, just incredible.

Sunday (Race Day) - Conditions were perfect, barely a hint of a breeze, dew point of 6°C and plenty of cloud coverage. However I had a disappointing run. I just wasn't feeling it, had no change of gear and it felt like a struggle from the off. I was moody and irritated by the congested start, it took me till the 5th mile (7k) when I could find a stride and some clear road.

I raced by lap heart rate, it would be the only data field on my watch display, every mile split would be a surprise. I've done this a couple of times now with success but today my pace did not line up with my ambition. I knew there would be no personal best today but at least I could make it a solid effort and there was never any thoughts of quitting. Finishing time was 1:36:23.

The reason for running a half marathon several weeks before the marathon is mainly to try hone in on race pace for marathon day. Although I feel the race was not a true reflection of my current fitness, it has told me that breaking 3 hours 10 minutes is a little out of sight for now. For that reason I'm downgrading my marathon goal to 3 hours 15 minutes, this would still represent a 3 minute personal best if I can pull it off.

I'm most certainly an optimist but this outing has been a definite chink in my armour. It led to a lot of negative thoughts but thanks to some therapeutic runs with great company, I'm back feeling positive and onwards we march.

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Valencia Marathon Week 8/12

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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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