Stuck at 100
With two weeks to go till Paris, effectively only one week of training and one of rest, I remain stuck at running 100 minutes max. That will not be enough for the half marathon, so I'll give it two more tries this week (Monday and Saturday, I guess), and then just hope that the last 20 minutes will be inspired by the no doubt great atmosphere between Bastille and the finish in the Bois de Vincennes.
I had been hoping for some serious altitude training over the past week in Kenya. But the roads and paths were steep, full of boulders and slippery from the nightly rains. And our mountain overlooking the Rift Valley was so high that I ran already out of breath just climbing the twenty steps to the road. I managed to squeeze in three times 35 minutes of fartlek, but nothing more demanding than that. Still, maybe that bit of oxygen-poor training will have a positive effect.
I'll see tomorrow. First, this afternoon, I have a football match in nearby Leefdaal.
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Good one
Last night I had an excellent training run. My legs just wanted to go faster all the time, my breathing was easy and I never really tired. Did my hilly 11k tour in 62 minutes - 8 minutes faster than last time I ran this route - at the speed I would need for finishing the half marathon in under two hours. That is promising. I now need to focus on endurance and put in a first attempt at running for the full 120 minutes (at a lower pace) on Saturday.
After that, there will be a week of altitude training in rural Kenya.
Several factors may help explain the ease of running yesterday:
1. I did not run for two weeks, so my body was eager
2. I played a fair bit of football recently, so my body is fitter
3. The weather was gorgeous, almost early Spring like, and I did not need to wear a jacket and long pants
4. My iPod shuffled good songs
5. I had pasta for lunch
Which was the most beneficial factor? Instinctively, I rank them like this in descending order: 3 - 2 - 4 - 1 - 5.
Paris is coming close.
Last night I had an excellent training run. My legs just wanted to go faster all the time, my breathing was easy and I never really tired. Did my hilly 11k tour in 62 minutes - 8 minutes faster than last time I ran this route - at the speed I would need for finishing the half marathon in under two hours. That is promising. I now need to focus on endurance and put in a first attempt at running for the full 120 minutes (at a lower pace) on Saturday.
After that, there will be a week of altitude training in rural Kenya.
Several factors may help explain the ease of running yesterday:
1. I did not run for two weeks, so my body was eager
2. I played a fair bit of football recently, so my body is fitter
3. The weather was gorgeous, almost early Spring like, and I did not need to wear a jacket and long pants
4. My iPod shuffled good songs
5. I had pasta for lunch
Which was the most beneficial factor? Instinctively, I rank them like this in descending order: 3 - 2 - 4 - 1 - 5.
Paris is coming close.
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Soring success
These are the intense training weeks. I'm trying to break through the 80 or 90 minutes barrier as well as lose some kilos.
On Saturday, I ran 80 minutes. It was hard, and I wanted to stop after 42, 50, 64, 68 and 72 minutes, but I didn't and not stopping did not require superhuman determination. So that's good. On Sunday, I did 40 minutes. And then, on Monday night, a full two-hour football training.
So now my body is in a state of shock and sore, especially my left buttock. But when I went for a walk to the hairdresser at lunch time, I had the strange sensation that my legs wanted to just go and go, as if there was excess energy stored in them. Quite pleasant, I tell you.
This weekend I'll have a stab at 90 minutes.
These are the intense training weeks. I'm trying to break through the 80 or 90 minutes barrier as well as lose some kilos.
On Saturday, I ran 80 minutes. It was hard, and I wanted to stop after 42, 50, 64, 68 and 72 minutes, but I didn't and not stopping did not require superhuman determination. So that's good. On Sunday, I did 40 minutes. And then, on Monday night, a full two-hour football training.
So now my body is in a state of shock and sore, especially my left buttock. But when I went for a walk to the hairdresser at lunch time, I had the strange sensation that my legs wanted to just go and go, as if there was excess energy stored in them. Quite pleasant, I tell you.
This weekend I'll have a stab at 90 minutes.
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Wednesday, 29 December 2010
Inspiration
Just back from visiting Luc, who has set his sight on running his first ever marathon, in April in Antwerp. Luc runs easily (I'm sure he disagrees but I know the vast difference between us). He does not really have a training plan for the big 42.195 and was wondering if he should be doing any real long trainings, like over two hours. Thing is, it does not matter that much in his case probably; he'll just get going and not stop until he finishes.
Luc is one of those runners that fill me with envy.
My running got a little bit easier in the meantime. I asked my osteopath on Monday night to look at my left ankle which has seriously restricted movement since I had a skiing accident three years ago in the Jura. My nice path stretched, bent, cracked, massaged the ankle and did other mysterious things. When I left his practice, I almost fell over as I was not used to a semi-normal range of movement any more. And today, doing my regular 8.1k run, I finished 3.5 minutes faster than the previous two times. So I'm trying to schedule two more sessions before the Paris half marathon in early April.
Just back from visiting Luc, who has set his sight on running his first ever marathon, in April in Antwerp. Luc runs easily (I'm sure he disagrees but I know the vast difference between us). He does not really have a training plan for the big 42.195 and was wondering if he should be doing any real long trainings, like over two hours. Thing is, it does not matter that much in his case probably; he'll just get going and not stop until he finishes.
Luc is one of those runners that fill me with envy.
My running got a little bit easier in the meantime. I asked my osteopath on Monday night to look at my left ankle which has seriously restricted movement since I had a skiing accident three years ago in the Jura. My nice path stretched, bent, cracked, massaged the ankle and did other mysterious things. When I left his practice, I almost fell over as I was not used to a semi-normal range of movement any more. And today, doing my regular 8.1k run, I finished 3.5 minutes faster than the previous two times. So I'm trying to schedule two more sessions before the Paris half marathon in early April.
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