YEAH!!!
I thought the worst conditions were behind me and that I could really focus on having some nice runs in good or at least normal and warm conditions ... wow was I wrong. Running in the winter was hard, especially with the snow, running in Dubai and the Maldives was a matter of getting used to getting used to different surroundings and running on a treadmill.
Last week has been nice and warm over here, but I forgot that it also takes a bit of time to acclimatise to those conditions. So when I had to adapt my running schedule on Thursday I had some trouble adjusting to the warmer weather. Friday was even worse, although I set off at a normal time, the conditions were hard and I struggled slightly.
The running week finished on a high with a new personal distance record, beating my old record by 3 kilometers. This whilst I had ‘tired’ legs as I even did a ’hike’ of 8,5 kilometers on Saturday morning.
I am feeling that my body is getting ready for the challenge I set myself and I am on a huge high at the moment.
Here is a little run-down of each of my runs since my last running post:
Nice run, a typical first run of the week one, tick the box, nothing special, but as we were alright I finished with a 'sprint' in the end, focussing on my cadence and even pushed it to a high of 225 spm and with that I finished my last kilometer below 5 minutes for the 1 kilometer. In terms of pace, this is one of the fastest ones yet and I think the little sprint in the end also helped me as I felt really energised afterwards.
Alright, I admit it, it is stupid to focus on uphill cadence when you first have to get used to the warm weather, I underestimated that! The first run in the warmth is always a challenge and I had to run at a different time as well due to a busy schedule during the day.
I figured to take it easy and only try to focus on steps when running uphill, however that set the pace for the rest of the course as my route always begins with a huge uphill climb. I was quite fast up the hill, but in the heat it was difficult to maintain that pace. Then my path was blocked by a forester who was teaching a class of children about the woods. As I approached them, the kids encouraged me to jump over the log, which I did! The huge cheer they gave me also gave me more adrenaline ... another mistake.
At the 5km mark I was already tired and I was glad when I had to take a break as there was a tractor making manouvers on my path. At the 6km mark I took another longer break, so that I could finish the rest in one go, which I did.
It wasn't my best time, but I am happy as the circumstances were hard and I made it even harder on myself. I had a good cadence with a max of 237 spm, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
Despite running earlier than the day before, it was even hotter and no chance for a shade today. I decided to take it really easy, especially after the previous day and just focus on running without stopping. My colleague couldn't join me, so I could really focus on myself.
It was really hot and I decided to try and find a different path as I don't like having to 'overtake' slower walkers. My course is very typical for someone not knowing his way around with a few turns having to retrace my own steps, but I am happy with the stats that I produced and I never stopped running. My max cadence was 179 spm, so overall not a bad run, very efficient I'd say.
I am so proud of this run. Not just because of the distance and a new record, but also because of the way I did it. I am going to log it below as I will want to read back about it and hopefully use as a blueprint for the way I will run the marathon in October.
I started the weekend by checking which of my neighboors was around to run with me as I knew it would be much easier to do this distance with someone than without someone, especially after my experience on the 12th kilometer last week. When one of them replied that he was coming with me and that he wanted to start early as it was going to be a hot day, I knew this would be a good omen.
On the morning, in contrast to every other run I have done previously on Sunday morning, I had a light breakfast of All-Brans Fruit n Fibre. I am not sure whether that was right or wrong as I did regurgitate almost, but I also coughed a lot in the first 3/4 kilometers, so it could be because of that as well. I also drank more than 500 ml of an electrolyte drink and 750ml of water, so maybe it was just the huge volume I'd already taken in before I set off that made me have that reaction.
As we always run 11 kilometers together, I decided to leave 50 minutes earlier, to run 8 kilometers alone and then do the last (harder) 11 kilometers with him. This was an excellent decision as I did that first 8 kilometers in a good time, despite having to cough a few times. Although I wasn't focussing on my time at all now, I am really please when I saw that I did those first 8 kilometers in 43:40. I started off much slower and this payed off as well as I could build it up during the run and I had a good pace from the 2km mark until the end.
Whilst I waited for my neighboor to join me I had an electrolyte gel and some more water to drink. Again I was much slower with him, but this really helped me throughout as I never felt drained or exhausted and the conversation kept my mind from realising just what a fantastic performance I was delivering or playing tricks on me like the week before. In the end he told me that we ran the 11 kilometers in 1:03:02 which is much slower than what we're used to, but for me those were kilometers 9-19 and I knew I could have easily increased the pace at any time. Another impressive stat is that altogether I climbed 253 meters and my training effect was 3,9 which to me also means that I didn't push myself to the brink and now I only need 40 hours recovery until my next run, which is really what you want if you're in such a rigid training regime. My max cadence during this run was 233 spm.
The best thing was, I felt good afterwards without feeling drained or exhausted, despite the temperatures already being over 20 degrees by the time I returned.
Here are my 4 longest runs in comparison with one another:
Conclusion
I am absolutely thrilled with my performances last week, I feel that I have a very solid foundation which will be put to the test over the coming months. I will increase the distances for the runs during the week and the weather will get warmer and to top it all off, there will be circumstances that are going to mess up with the regularity of my training routine. I'm going to need your support more than ever over the coming months.
Below is the schedule that I'm aiming to stick to:
Thanks for your support!
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