Week of 5/1

Back to intervals this week, and time to get serious. Brooking Road this weekend - should be a doddle after the JF trails run we did last week...

Monday: 10k easy 4:48 pace HR 139 Ca 83. Nice easy recovery run with Sandgroper & Sas. Hip was good this morning, but the quads (as expected) felt a little stiff. They eased off and felt OK after a couple of k's, and felt pretty good going up the KP perimeter path at the end. It felt pretty warm esp. as the sun came over the hills.

Tuesday am: 11.1k easy 4:35 pace HR 145 Ca 85. Easy run off the bike (~8K in 18 mins) from Mends St along Mounts Bay Rd, up thru the park on Forrest Dr and back down Malcolm (map). Legs didn't feel as fatigued as yesterday (apart from the 'brick' feeling for the first few hundred metres) and really enjoyed it. First time I've tried running in the new tri-shorts and they felt good - I was concerned that they would cut off the circulation a bit, but they were great! Cycled home after coffee with the girls at the Dome.

Tuesday pm: WAMC Intervals. Today was a whistle session - 5x3 minutes with ~2 minutes recovery. Pretty warm  at around 30 degrees and gusty winds (SW30/50) made this an interesting session. Distance run was about 860, 880, 890, 890, 910m on the last one, maxxing out at an HR of 187. Almost a repeat of the Parlouf race at a slightly lower intensity. Felt a little fatigued and unenthusiastic in the warmup but once I got going I felt pretty comfortable. Cadence during the intervals was probably a little slow at around 88. Total including warmup, drills and cooldown was around 9k, avg HR 145.

Wednesday: Short cycle today, up to King's Park and return for about 26k, average HR 95. Nice leg loosener, feeling a little leg-tired so decided against the extra hilly loop. Also time-contrained as Sas got a puncture.... 

Thursday am: 13.28Km easy 4:25 pace HR 146 Ca 85. Loop from Mends St along Mounts Bay, up the King's Park western perimeter path down Malcolm (map). Actually had a great run, but felt a little fatigued from lack of sleep. The air quality wasn't great by the river, but improved in the park. This is the first step up of the mid-week long run. Next week we'll go to around 16km and make it about 20K thereafter, using a loop back through the park to get the extra. Training for Boston, we need to keep it hilly.

Thursday pm: 10.52Km MP 4:04 pace Hr 167 Ca 85. Loop from home with Canning/MT Henry Loop plus a slightly different loop from last week thru Brentwood. Felt substantially hotter and more humid than last week even though BOM for Perth says it was 2 degrees cooler (32.1). Wind was about the same (SSW28/35). Felt pretty good and went a bit fast again, almost tempo effort. Legs felt good and I enjoyed the challenge. I had a Gu 10 minutes before setting out ; I thought it would be helpful; besides, its the only chocolate I ever eat!

Friday: 10Km recovery 4:55 pace HR 133 Ca 81. Nice easy run with Sandgroper from Zamia down the 'sneaky path' thru UWA to Matilda Bay and back. No soreness or stiffness to report which is a little surprising - the old body seems to be holding up well ; all being well this will be the first 100k week ( and 2nd all-time) since the first week of June in Perth 2008 marathon training. A beautiful morning for running.

Saturday: 28.38km long run 4:34 pace HR 152 Ca 83 Cal 1799. Brooking Road loop (map). Ran with a good quick group - Sandgroper, Sas and Simon (the S team I guess). Brooking Road actually didn't feel too bad ; a definite improvement on last time I did it. I think last week's killer effort on the JF trails have worked wonders. This too fast for a long run though. The last 7.5km down the trail averaged 4:12 pace! That definitely wasn't me! That said, I felt pretty good especially going up the hill from Midland to the top of Brooking ; got into a nice groove and found it easy to keep going. Legs felt a little sore coming down again and I found it difficult to get a nice rythm - strange, normally I can handle the downhill pretty well. Have to get that right for Boston! Did the run on green tea and a banana beforehand ; only took water on the run - really had to load up afterwards but never felt particularly depleted on the trails.

Sunday: 8.4k recovery @ 5:00 pace HR 132 Ca 83. Nice amble around the river loop oin a beautiful morning. Time to reflect on a good week and hope that the rest of the marathon training goes like this. This is fun! Did 100k this week with a good amount of quality and feeling good.