Hi running friends, did you already have your run today? I try to have it almost every day. Sometimes it works sometimes not, sometimes it's just a lack of organization and discipline and sometimes it really can't work out ;-(
If you are interested in my training, my races, my thoughts about running, or just interested in how a middle-aged family man from Germany gets along his "running life" you are heartly welcome to have a look and, off course, I appreciate any feedback.
I had a busy business week in Barcelona from where I just returned. After feeling a bit "strange" at the end of last week it might be a positive coincidence being not able to run a lot. Besides Modnays run I had two workouts on the treadmill on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's workout was pretty cool, I started with 5k in a very slow 10km/h pace before I accelerated each km up to a 14km/h pace. Thursday's workout in the morning was just a short 40min run of about 6km.
Yesterday it rained and during the night it snowed, so you can imagine how the roads were today ;-( During my lunch break I chose to avoid the icy roads as much as possible so selected the little forest nearby where I "looped" a bit. Actually it was great, I though of running 30mins or so after the pain I experienced yesterday in my left leg but when I had the first 30mins over I just did another loop, and then another loop and, finally, I was more than 90mins on the course and didn't feel any pain. Actually, this will be a week of lower mileage anyway as I have to fly tomorrow to Barcelona for a Business trip and return not before Sunday, i.e. there will only be some exercises on the treadmill...
Stats:
Distance: 17k (10.5mi)
Time: 1:31:00
Pace (Avg.): 5:21/km (8:37/mi)
3rd training week completed. In total I got a mileage of 96k (60miles) which is, again, a bit below planned mileage. From a quality point of I could manage one intervall training unit and one tempo run/race unit.
Besides, after three weeks of pretty "heavy" training the first little aches and pains are coming up. Since Friday my right heel is hurting a bit, not during running but afterwards. It feels not like a real pain it's more like some pressure on it. Today I felt stronger pain starting on the inner side of my left calf up to the inner knee. That wasn't nice at all. Around one hour after running it disappeared. Let's see tomorrow how it feels... Question for me is, are these the usual "adaption" aches and therefore just go on with the plan or should I reduce a bit? That's always hard to answer...
Stats:
23-Jan: 21/70 - 16k Easy Run
Distance: 16k (10 mi)
Time: 1:30:00
22-Jan: 20/70 - 21.1k Race + 6k Warm Up/Cool Down
Here is a race report (in German).
Distance: 21.1k (13.1 mi)
Time: 1:24:10
Ranking (Overall): 13/229
21-Jan: 19/70 - Rest Day
20-Jan: 18/70 - 13k Easy Run
Distance: 13k (8 mi)
Time: 1:09:30
Lunch break provided perfect weather conditions (at least perfect for mid January): It was NOT raining. So, my plan said "Do some intervalls", okay, can do BUT in fact after running the first meters I couldn't think about doing a hard intervalls workout. I really had pretty heavy legs, especially my calves. Anyway, don't stop and run! After the first twenty minutes I had some flat meters before me, so I started with my first intervall: Goal was 10 times 2 minutes fast with 1 minutes recovery (slow running) in between. The good thing with intervalls is that, once you have started, distances passes pretty fast and you don't think too much about running, stopping, pain or so. You just listen to your watch when the fast pices is over and you can relax and then, it starts again ;-)
At the end I was pretty tired, the intervalls were completed after around 11k and I still had 4k to run back to the office, puh.
Stats:
Distance: 15k (9.3mi)
Time: 1:13:30
Pace (Avg.): 4:54/km (7:53/mi)
Did a 60min workout on the treadmill, speed increased from 10km/h to 12.5km/h and back to 10km/h.
Stats:
Distance: 11k (6.8mi)
Time: 1:00:00
Pace (Avg.): 5:27/km (8:47/mi)
Pretty slippery today. I was lucky afterwards that I did not fall ;-)
Stats:
Distance: 14k (8.7mi)
Time: 1:14:30
Pace (Avg.): 5:19/km (8:34/mi)
So, this was the 2nd week of training according to the plan. From a quantity point of view I could not meet the mileage goal which was 120k (74.5mi), my mileage was 96k (59.6mi). Especially I missed the long run of around 20k. My longest run had about 20k. Squeezing in a long run causes always some trouble for me, anyway, it did work better than expected after the marathon last Sunday. From a quality point of view I think I did very well, made my intervalls and my tempo according to plan.
I am still feeling pretty well (except for a slight cold), no weakness or pain in my legs at all. Another negative point is that I still didn't start with some gymnastics exercises for my body, what a shame! So, let's get it on for week 3.
