Goal: First Marathon (Sundown Singapore 25 March 2017)
My Dad's in town for Chinese New Year, so that only means one thing, LOTS of eating! Living in Melbourne he misses the local Singaporean / Malaysian delights, so every meal is an opportunity to catch up for lost time (and calories). Also a great opportunity for me to test my self control. Well, sort of.
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| Couldn't be happier with their mango and durian dessert |
Nothing really to report from the long easy run. We clocked 18.7kms in 1:53hrs, averaging 6:04min/km pace. Run felt comfortable until I stopped at the end to pick up drinks in preparation for the Marathon Pace portion. I felt both my legs tighten up in the transition period but nothing to be concerned about. To change things up a bit, we decided to run the MP portion on the treadmill. We spent a few minutes on the treadmill to get the legs turning over, but during the restart, I felt my left hamstring pull hard enough that I had to get off to try and stretch it out. This was my first injury scare of this training plan, and at this point, was worried if I would be able to make it through the session.
After a few minutes stretching, I decided to jump back on the treadmill and see how far I could progress. After setting the treadmill to 14.5km/hr at 1% grade, it took about 30 seconds before I was hitting full strides at marathon goal race pace. Immediately I could feel my running form feel very different (more laboured) to when I'm running on the road. My Garmin watch wasn't able to pick up the speed correctly, jumping around throughout the 40mins, so I'm not convinced the other recorded data is correct either (as I was looking through cadence, and stride length data to see if I could find what made my running feel different, but couldn't find anything obvious). But from a perceived exertion perspective, running on a treadmill at marathon pace is hard, and can easily say this was my toughest session to date. I managed to finish the 40mins at MP, but it took everything mentally and physically (especially the tight hamstring) to get the job done. But, this made the tick in this session's box so much more rewarding.
During the 9.6km run:
Average Heart Rate: 158bpm
During the 9.6km run:
Average Heart Rate: 158bpm
Max Heart Rate: 172bpm
Cadence: 186
Cadence: 186
Session Analysis / Review:
The bad news is that this session was really hard on the legs. The extra 10mins in the easy long jog and the extra mile at MP really hurt my legs. During the MP set, it was tough to get them going initially, and to finish strong with them. The good news is that the average and max heart rate data are identical to last week's session even though the session is a mile longer. So the message from this session is that whilst I'm coping cardio wise, there's still more work required to improve the muscular endurance in my legs. In terms of using the treadmill, the results can vary. My training partner was flying on the treadmill, talking, drinking and feeling bored. Myself, on the other hand, had to summon every positive cell in my body to get through this. However, the positive take away for anyone attempting to use a treadmill for these sets is that its weather independent (no excuses) and everything is on hand when needed, so it removes the hassle and logistics around nutrition and drinking.
Success Criteria Checkpoints: 18 / 42 sessions completed ( 43% )
1. Did I hold the pace over the prescribed distance: Yes for the MP portion, and also I'm glad the MP distance doesn't increase anymore, as it plateaus at 9.6km after the long run for another 7 sessions.
2. Did my heart rate stay in Zone 3: No, and this week showed 3mins in Zone 5 which is not good news. Luckily I'm not racing on the treadmill, as I think this is the reason for the slight increase into HR Zone 5 this week.
3. How well am I recovering: Very sore in the glutes, and hamstrings. Luckily the next run session is not until Sunday so that's 3 days of rest.
Success Criteria Checkpoints: 18 / 42 sessions completed ( 43% )
1. Did I hold the pace over the prescribed distance: Yes for the MP portion, and also I'm glad the MP distance doesn't increase anymore, as it plateaus at 9.6km after the long run for another 7 sessions.
2. Did my heart rate stay in Zone 3: No, and this week showed 3mins in Zone 5 which is not good news. Luckily I'm not racing on the treadmill, as I think this is the reason for the slight increase into HR Zone 5 this week.
3. How well am I recovering: Very sore in the glutes, and hamstrings. Luckily the next run session is not until Sunday so that's 3 days of rest.
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