Time flies. It seemed like really long time till the North Shore marathon when I signed up. Now there are only 11 weeks left. My training goes well and I’m fitter than ever. I’ll be ready. I believe that I have enough endurance now to complete marathon and most of my focus is on strength and speed. It doesn’t come easy though.
Week after week, I’m increasing my running distance by around 10% and I haven’t got any problems with that so far. My longest run was 14 km though, so we will have to see how it’s going to play in couple of weeks. I’m able to run 5:30 pace with average HR around 140 - 145 BPM. Now that is a big improvement. I managed to eliminate cardiac drift from longer trainings as well. I still need to drop 10 seconds per km if I want to achieve my goal of 3h45m on North Shore Marathon. That’s the task for speed play and interval runs.
For the next 10 weeks I’m doing short sprints faster than marathon pace (around 28 - 30 sec) followed by 100m of recovery jog. For now it’s only one series of 8 reps, but I want to build up to 2 series of 10 reps. That’s 4km of sprints with recovery - enough to program higher pace (at least I think it is).
I will continue with around threshold intervals (160 - 170 BPM) of 3 min work and 3 min recovery for 3 weeks, then I will switch those into race pace short runs, up to 10 km. Majority of the distance will still be made over weekend long run (longest one will be 28km 3 weeks before the race).
Why that plan? The whole idea is to tap into different aerobic system (zone 2 and sub threshold). So on a race day I can run ⅔ of the distance in zone 2 (thus saving a lot of energy for later) and then have enough in my legs for threshold pace at final ⅓rd. In order to be able to do that, I need to run faster at my current average HR, which I’m actually quite proud of. My resting heart rate is constantly below 50 BPM, with lowest registered at 41 BPM. My maximum HR peaked at 190 BPM last week. That is quite nice range to work with. Just need little more strength in my legs.
I’ve been also doing a full body workout gym routine that involves 15 reps of 12 different exercises. My numbers are definitely not impressive, but I can hit those consistently, for next 4 to 6 weeks I want to increase my load to two series of 15 reps. Then, for the final preparation I will reduce repetitions and increase weights. The exercises and numbers (in lbs, not kg!) as of today are
| pull-downs | 15*85 |
| leg extensions | 15*70 |
| leg curls | 15*80 |
| dips | 15*me ;) |
| squats | 15*135 |
| dumbbell raise | 15*35 |
| calf raises | 15*70 |
| dumbbell pullover | 15*30 |
| curls | 15*50 |
| leg press | 15*135 |
| Deadlifts | 15*185 |
| Bench | 15*90 |
I know, the numbers are low. But for a guy who never lifted anything really heavy (and is not willing to gain weight now) - I’m happy with that. After all most of my training is endurance based.
On a private note, I’ve been in the middle of moving houses for the last two weeks and it should be all ready and done by the end of this weekend. I actually couldn’t wait to live more than 10 km away from work. Bike commuting, here I come again!
On my list there is cycling 1000 km in a month (and next step as well - 1000 km in a week). It’s been a while since the last list update. Soon!