Half Sub 1hr 35, 10k sub 38, 5k sub 18

Mon: 23.5k LSR (8:28min/mile)

This felt pretty tough today, have no idea why I was looking forward to it! My legs still aren´t strong enough for this distance but gradually getting there I guess. I was in a bit of pain towards the end but the speed felt grand and I barely even sweated throughout it all and the breathing was fine as well. Definitely, at my limit in terms of distance for my legs and hips. First time over 2hrs in one run so I´m happy with that.

Next two days will be 7k per day, tomorrow easy and the day after a bit harder, then back to something a bit faster...

Wed: 7.7k (7:38min/mile) Finished up with 3 * 150m (22.14s, 21.94s, 20.25s)

Thurs: 12k (7:22min/mile)

Wednesdays run was tough but felt great to do a few sprints afterwards. Todays run was good pushed it pretty fast in the middle and it felt comfortable enough in the end.

Mon: 11.5k (8:10min/mile)

Nice run to get me ready for the week ahead. Was a bit worried about my knee because I hit it against a wall while climbing on saturday, strangely enough it was sore at the start and then it got better after a bit and now it feels fine! Stretched and did some strenghtening excercises (squats, lower back flexs, and a few others) to finish up.

LSR tomorrow.

Wed: 6.5km (9:19min/mile)

Thurs: 11km Tempo/Interval

Not really sure what you´d call this run. I did:

2.2k to warm up, 3.3k at 5:57min/mile pace, 1.1k easy, 3.3k at 5:51min/mile pace, and 1.1k to warm down.

Pace was pretty fast but not unbearable, in fact it felt very nice to be going at a decent speed for a change (I´ve been getting the mileage in but not the speed). First paced run was tough going and I almost thought about leaving it at that, then convinced myself on the easy lap to go again and it felt fine, infact easier than the first one despite going faster. I was wrecked at the end although

Fri: 11.5k (untimed)

Weekly Total: 60.5km/37.6miles

Very relaxing run today. I´m going to "forget" my watch more often on these easy runs.

Rest day tomorrow. On Sunday I´m going to run the half-marathon route as my LSR and see how it feels. Should be able to get a good feel for what sort of time I can aim for.

Tue: 8k (8:31min/mile)

Wed: 8k (7:51min/mile)

The knees aren´t good and all these runs are becoming more and more difficult. I may take a few days off to make sure I´m good for next weeks training and the half-marathon.

Tue: 7.7k (7:53min/mile)

Nice run. No pains whatsoever so hopefully it´s all good for next week.

tisnotover wrote: »

Heya,

How do you think your fixed for the half this time?

I really don´t know actually. I´d like to beat my PB but I´ll have to see how I feel on the day. I´m a bit worried about having missed the last week or so and my fitness is definitely down a good bit. But I´ll proabably go for that sort of time anyway. My main thing is not to go out too fast, but the first half is downhill and the second half is uphill so I guess I will end up doing a quicker first half, hopefully that doesn´t kill me! I hated the second half of the last race I did, 10k of agony!

How about yourself? Sub 1hr30mins is definitely on the cards based on your training and recent times.

tisnotover wrote: »

That course sounds the inverse of the one we're doing on Sunday, maybe you will have to go out fast enough to get some time in bank before hills :eek:
Have in my head a target time of 87/88mins, but it won't come easy, haven't raced > 5miles since May.
Worry is the tempo work,last few weeks hasn't been great, short tempo runs of 20mins duration were fine, but the longer tempo runs upto 6miles were not great sessions, def something to work on next time round!

You could be surprised. A lot depends on how you are on the day and the adrenaline will get you through a lot but you´ve defo got the training in. I´ve learnt a lot as well during this round of training. I´ll be radically changing my training after this race to less mileage of probably 3 days a week (I also want to concentrate a bit more on my climbing training so this is another reason for the change) but each session will be of about 2 hours, not all running but core strenght/stretching/drills, and atleast one good quality speed session per week. It´ll hopefully get me a lot stronger and faster for next year, hopefully

Sat: 5km Easy

Sun: 14.3km LSR (7:42min/mile)

Took it nice and easy today. A bit of a short LSR but wanted to take it easy for the race next week.

Wed: 30 mins Cross Trainer, 2 hour climbing session

Thurs: Rest (due to work really)

Fri: 7.7k (7:51 min/mile)

Final run in before the half marathon on Sunday. No aches or pains but the stomach was in bits after eating a new Milky Way ice-cream last night

Plan for Sunday is Sub-1hr30mins. I don´t know how I´ll react to the altitude (almost 400 metres higher up) or if I´ll struggle on the hills. Either way, I´m going to head out at the 1hr30min pace and see how it goes. Even though it´s hilly I want to stick to a steady pace throughout.

Gringo78 wrote: »

Best of luck in the HM on Sunday...do you have any plans to put all that altitude training to the test back in Ireland?

Cheers. I´ll be back next January so I´ll try and get a few races in as soon as possible when I arrive so the effects don´t ware off Looking forward to getting back apart from the weather. It´s bizarre, Colombia has 45 million people and it barely has a race a month, then Ireland with 4 million or so could have a few a week. Just not developed at all over here which can be a bit frustrating when trying to get race practice in, so that´ll be a nice change.

Pre - race:

Well, it was a very early morning, getting up for 5:15am. I slept about 6 hours and I tossed and turned for a lot of it, thinking about the race mostly! This has no effect on me really as I get up around this time most days anyway. The race was about an hour and a half trip from Bogotá in a small, very very traditional town called Guatavita, about 350 metres higher up as well. A beautiful spot that´s famous for it´s lake (people have been trying to drain the thing for hundreds of years because the spanish apparently left a whole load of gold there, no ones succeeded yet). Arrived an hour before the start, and did the usual pre-race warm up (very little really). I had porridge and a few slices of bread and Gatorade in the run up and was feeling good. Healthy food the day before. I was feeling very good.

The race:

I totally underestimated this route! I started off steady and from the first step it was steadily downhill. Fine you might think, but the problem was that it was 10.5k out and then 10.5k back on the same route, what you go down you must go up! Well, I knew after about 3 kms of going down that I was going to be screwed on the return leg. The first 10.5k were tough even in there own right, lots of inclines mixed in with the downhill. It was tough going but a mixture of running with a few others helped a lot and I arrived at halfway in 43:46, on target for sub 1hr30 and I was feeling alright. Then the hills arrived and kms dropped to almost 5 min/km. My legs were screaming out on every incline. I tried my best to gain a bit of time on any of the downhill parts but then I was dieing again on the uphill. Despite going very very slow over some killer hills over the last 5 or so kilometres only a few people passed me, so I guess everyone was suffering equally! Negative thoughts were flying all over the place at this stage, debated walking so many times. Thankfully, I didn´t and I´m delighted about that. The last 200 metres were great, I heard one or two people behind me and there was a big hill in front. Somehow, I managed to sprint it and arrived in almost dead but very happy to have finished. Time: 1hr39mins52secs (by my watch). Very happy to be honest and realistically I don´t think I could of done any better.

I found out later that this race is famous for it´s hills and people do it just because of that. I´ll definitely be back in a few years for this one. It´s a great race in some beautiful countryside and there were only about 450 people so it was very relaxed and a great atmosphere. The best long distance runner in Colombia was there as well, I must check what sort of time he got.

Shorter distances from here on in this year. Looking forward to it. I´m also getting married next Saturday so I should probably take a break from the running this week It´ll be hard!

In so much pain! I woke up on Monday morning and could barely stand up, same again today. I guess that´s what happens when you use new muscles, especially the calves and thighs, they´re in bits. Thankfully it´s just regular pain and not the "I´ve got an injury pain".

A few things I´ve been thinking about:

1. the hydration belt. I´m still not sure if it´s a good idea in a half-marathon. It was annoying me a bit, but at the same time it great to be able to get a drink in whenever I needed to. I´ll keep going with it in some of the longer training runs.

2. My resistence isn´t where I want it to be. I think that´s because I´ve been running the LSRs at too slow a pace.

3. Time to retire my running runners to walking runners. 800 miles in them at this stage. I´ll miss them!

Just a few thoughts. Other than that I´ll put down a plan for the training for the 10k tomorrow maybe and see how it looks. The Cool Runnings website has a pretty good plan but I´ll have to tweek it slightly.