Week of 23/3 ; 4 weeks to go

Last big week before the taper. Getting there...

Monday: 14.65km Easy @4:35 HR 144 Ca87 15°C 87% NE7/11. Did the normal tempo route up and over Kings Park down to the end of the Law Walk and back to the Aberdare path but at an easy pace. Felt pretty easy going up the hills but started to get a little tired and sore after about 10k after the return up Forrest Drive - it came and went though and I guess had a lot to do with the fact that I only had green tea this morning and was staring to run out of fuel. I ran long because I want to keep the mileage up for this last week before hitting the taper. Feeling tired but happy....

Tuesday am: 9.59km Recovery @ 4:48 HR 138 Ca 87 14°C 94% NE10/15. Needed a nice gentle recovery run this morning, and once again took a couple of k's for the legs to get with the program. Felt Ok on this, but not quite as easy as it perhaps should have been. Hopefully (as in the past) this will get the blood going and into recovery mode. Stupidly I didn't put my skins on until mid-morning yesterday and I think I'm paying for it. Not looking forward to intervals, hopefully it won't be as bad as last week! On a plus, my leg is feeling a little better - a friend suggested that instead of the heel lift I wear two insoles in the right shoe. I had a theory that because my existing heel lift is a wedge the slightly downhill slope of the foot is extending the tibialis anterior and perhaps is being overloaded with the bigger mileage. I'll try this for a week and see what happens ; if I feel even the slightest tweak anywhere the old lift goes back though... but that's two runs and so far, so good.

Tuesday pm: WAMC Intervals ; (400;200JR;400;200JR;200)x4. Was a little nervous about this session because I found last week's so tough, but actually went a lot better than I expected. I felt like I was actually moving pretty well even though there was a bit of congestion and a lot of the session was in lanes 2 to 3, which explains the fairly average times.

78, 79, 39

79, 80, 38

77, 77, 37

79, 78, 37

All up 10.5km.

Wednesday: 12.02km Recovery @ 4:47 HR 137 Ca 87 16°C 97% SSE7/13. Ran the standard Maylands loop with Sas on a very nice morning. Felt fatigued but OK. Slow start but we ended up clipping along quite nicely for the last 8k. It really was lovely out there. Finished it off with a bit of a stretch and a four-shot macchiato.

Thursday am: 19.5km Easy @ 4:22 HR 149 Ca 87 18°C 63% E17/24. Ran with Sas from the Swan Bells to UWA up and around the Park then back to the bells. Nice morning, a little muggy at the start but it was nice in the park. Felt pretty good today after a few k's and was running pretty easy. HR a couple of beats higher than last week but it was also 7 degrees warmer. Leg was better, and I didn't feel it at all except for the start, and even then it wasn't so bad. I went back to the wedge heel lift because my left glutes were a bit antsy yesterday after a day at the office desk. Encouraging signs that with a bit of rest in the taper the leg will by 100% by race day.

Thursday pm: 10k @ 3:55 HR 166 Ca89 30°C 38% SW19/22. Went a lot better this week although the footpod said I was going slower than I was, so ended up again going a bit fast. I find this one hard to judge because of the residual fatigue from the morning. It was substantially hotter this week (felt the same really!) so I'm happy with the workout. It's a hilly course especially in the last 4k and I really feel hammered by the time I have a k to go, but then it's downhill/flat and I recovered pretty well. Ran a cooldn to the dog park where a sad farewell was bid to one of Zoe's best friends. All up 11.3km.

Friday: 7.92km Recovery @ 4:50 HR 134 Ca87 15°C 96% SE10/15. Dragged myself out the door on a lovely morning and soon started enjoying it. The Canning/Mt Henry river loop is finally open again.. its a good distance for recovery runs. Legs felt tired beforehand and definitely rejuvented by the effort.

Saturday am: 33.72km @ 4:43 HR 147 Ca 87 14°C 82% SW15/22. Ran the pipeline with Sas and Biscuitman without the fast finish this time. We were about a minute ahead of last time up to Mundaring, so got to Jacoby Park in 1:25 and then 31 minutes up the hill to Mundaring. I felt pretty good up to that point - only took a gel at Jacoby and had a green tea and an 'up and go' beforehand. Felt a little fatigued and sore (all over, so in a good way!) on the way down the hill at the end. We were a few minutes slower there - intentionally ; it was nice just to enjoy it. I also think we were all starting to feel the effects of a fairly gruelling program so we took it easy. It's good to have the last long run done - no more runs over 2 hours!

Saturday pm: 7.92km @ 4:34 HR 146 Ca 87 27°C 52% SSW41/50. Ran the river loop from home. Interesting run ; felt a bit fatigued at first and my leg was a bit sore which was surprising because I didn't feel it this morning (but maybe not surprising because of the history).  It was windy and quite hot so the first bit was tough,  but once I got to the Mt Henry bridge and had a bit of a tailwind and shade I felt great, so picked up the pace to almost MP by the time I was finished, even managing to  power into the wind a bit on the final k.

Sunday: 10.9km easy @ 4:43 HR140 19°C 58% ESE28/37. Ran a slightly different loop from East Perth to Maylands and back. Went really slow at first but again ended up going along quite nicely and had to reign myself in to preserve myself for the last nasty tempo tomorrow. It was warmer than I expected but I had a decent run.

Fairly massive week (138km) and the 7-day total peaked at 148km on Saturday - 30 day total is 558km. Feeling good but a little tired (!).