14week Marathon Plan: Week 2, Session 1: MP Run

Fourth session: Week 2 Marathon Pace (MP) Set: 6.4km
Goal: First Marathon (Sundown Singapore 25 March 2017)

Merry Christmas! I've had a rough couple of days prior to Christmas due to my daughter having a high fever. Unfortunately had to cancel on a group bike ride as I was in hospital with the little one trying to manage her fever, but that's life, and a "recovery" day in disguise. The little one is as tough as nails, and still manages to look like a princess for her uncle's wedding today. But having missed a good triathlon bike workout yesterday, I was looking forward to smashing today's set. My training buddy and I agreed to find a time between our Christmas lunches and dinners to get through our training set today. We aren't really doing ourselves any favours by training during the heat of the day, but there's just not enough spare time around the holidays.

Kids getting ready for a wedding

Main Set: 6.4kms in 26:40mins (pace constant at 4:09 min/km)

Based on the learnings from last week (a course that was undulating, and had a few slow corners), we wanted a route that would allow us to "learn" the 4:09 min/km pace. So we decided it doesn't get more consistent than a 400m athletics track. It would be a boring set (16 laps at 1:40mins for each 400m to achieve to our target distance and time), but whilst the distance is still "short" it's good for the body and legs to feel the pace. Since I had issues with pacing last week, my training buddy took the honour out front whilst I sat on his heels, drafting. With a time check every 200m (every 50secs), and at the major checkpoints, (200m, 400m ,1km, 1 mile, 2km, 3km, 2 mile, 4km, 3 mile, 5km, 6km, 4mile), we were hitting our time targets spot on. Yes, 16 laps is boring, so we did multiple time and distance calculations during the run to pass time. We completed the 6.4km in 26:36mins and that means another tick in the box for us.

During the 6.4km run:
Average Heart Rate: 151bpm
Max Heart Rate: 166bpm
Average Cadence: 184

Session Analysis / Review:

A quick look at the heart rate data shows that my average and max heart rate (compared to the same type of session in Week 1) is lower, which is good news. Let's hope this downward trend continues as I progress week by week, and end up working no higher than Zone 3. Both of us did feel that our breathing was a little more laboured today, but we chalked it up to the heat and humidity. The biggest win today was the ability to hold a consistent pace for this set, which definitely helped me to understand the pace (speed), breathing and cadence much better. Could I have done another mile at this pace? Most likely. Will I be able do it next week? Definitely, but there's some partying life to be had (and managed) before the New Year comes around.