The Top Ten of 2010 Part 2

Continuing where I left off last time, here is part 2 of my Top Ten of 2009. Without further ado, I'll continue the countdown, starting at number 5.

5: Shaun visiting the UK

To have my good mate Shaun visit the UK on business for at least 2 months was a bit like Christmas come early in February. It also coincided with my return from Spain when I wasn't really in a positive frame of mind. So having him in region for a time provided a lot of normality.

The Top Ten of 2010 Part 1

I've been really slow in coming up with a post to describe my 2010 year in review, much like my final posts for 2009. I am currently holidaying in my home country, which is currently taking up all my time. I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks now, but it's only now that I can put aside some time to write something for this blog.

In reflecting on 2010, it has been a rather unsettled year for me. For most of the year I've been on the move, living out of my suitcase and generally not knowing where I'm staying most of the time. This kind of experience can be quite daunting and it has affected my personal life somewhat as I've had to live away from most of my friends in the UK.

Resurrecting the Dream

If there is anyone who takes the marathon recovery phase very seriously, I would be near the top of the list.

Normally for us marathon runners, we'd give our bodies around a week or so to get back into any sort of slow running before we undertake another serious marathon training programme.

For me, as I said in my race report, I was going to take an extended break from running. Literally. Not even a 20 minute jog around the park. The days of 7-8 training runs a week, 6 days a week were over. The tweets on running had dried up, the blog updates were no more.

Until now.

Berlin Marathon 2010 - Race Report and Conclusion

Hi,

So, going into the Berlin Marathon, I'm going to be trying something I've never done before, trying to run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, and hopefully break 3 hours in the process.

The good news is that I did run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, setting a new personal best of 3:21:25. The bad news is that personal best was obviously not under 3 hours.

The Plan to Attack Breaking Three Hours

Hi,

So, going into the Berlin Marathon, I'm going to be trying something I've never done before, trying to run faster than I've ever run before in a marathon, and hopefully break 3 hours in the process.

And almost every race I've completed, it's always been my aim to try and set a new personal best. When I reach the start line, I cannot help getting pumped up and thinking that this is the race that I go out and hit a six (for those cricket fans) or a home run (for those baseball fans).

But what if I don't hit a big one on the big day? It may happen that even though I'm fully psyched up, I just couldn't deliver the goods that I thought I could.

Training Week 42 Recap

Hi folks,

There's only 1 more week to go, and this is the stage where nothing more can be done, where I need to let the body recover in order to be strong on race day. This is the stage where I need to believe in my fitness and the training I have done over the past few months, and beyond that! It is finally coming to an end and right now I should be excited, organised and looking forward to race day. Here's how the week went.

Training Week 41 Recap

Hey there,

The long hard road is finally coming to an end! Tapering has started right now, and it's been great to reduce the mileage and looking forward to even more decreases! In terms of keeping myself healthy during this phase, I definitely haven't been doing this well at all, with too many late nights for my liking and getting not enough sleep. With only two weeks left to go to the marathon this has got to change right now!

I also finally managed to get myself a long overdue sports massage in Oslo and I'm really happy with how it went and what the masseuse had to say about the state of my body. I will definitely book another appointment to see her. You can check out Aina Jensen, my masseuse, on YouTube.

Here's how the week went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 35 mins 32 secs, 5.5 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins, 4.7 km.

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 62 mins, 11.2 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 5 mins at threshold pace (1.2 km), with 60 secs recovery. Did 5 x 1 mins at 5k pace, with 60 secs recovery (approx 260m). Did this set twice. Cool down for approx 15 mins (2.4 km).

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 41 mins 24 secs, 6.8 km.

Thursday

Type: Progression

Time and Distance: 31 mins 25 secs, 6.04 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 11 mins (1.6 km). Did 10 mins at steady pace (2 km), then 10 mins at threshold pace (approx 2.45 km).

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 35 mins 29 secs, 5.6 km.

Sunday

Type: 10 km time trial

Time and Distance: 43 mins 40 secs, 10 km.

Detail: Started too fast, and faded in the middle. Km splits were 4:04, 4:02, 4:14, 4:20, 4:24, 4:25, 4:32, 4:33, 4:34, 4:27. Really tired in the end, but also definitely not at my very best for this run.

Total Weekly Distance: 49.84 km

Comments: A lot more shorter stuff, but keeping the intensity at around the same level as the previous weeks. I'm a bit disappointed with the time trial. I was expecting to come in under 42 mins, which would keep me at around my goal marathon pace, but since I started too fast I kind of blew up in the middle stages. It was also a really sunny day in Oslo so I also wilted in the heat. Bislett Stadion only opens from 12 - 6 p.m. on Sundays so I really had to do my time trial in not-so-ideal conditions. Unfortunately these things are outside of my control, so let's hope for the best ideal running conditions in two weeks!

Improvements: Still continuing on the taper theme. There will be two threshold runs coming up, mixed in with some easier running. It doesn't look like the mileage is going to decrease in the coming week as the intensity provided by the threshold runs coupled with the easier runs will result in some significant mileage (hopefully nothing more than 50 km like this week).

The taper period is progressing nicely, but there are a few things I really need to address to ensure that I get the most out of this crucial stage. Proper rest and recovery, adequate sleep, good nutrition and stretching are just a few of the things I need to pay attention to. Unfortunately the Men's Singles final of the US Open is on tonight, and play is scheduled to start at 10:30 p.m CEST. If it wasn't Rafael Nadal playing tonight's final, I would give it a miss, but he's on the verge of completing a career grand slam in tennis, with only 6 other men achieving this. It looks like I won't be getting much sleep tonight, so I'm hoping Nadal will make it a quick final tonight. Vamos! After that, I will promise myself to get an extra hour of sleep every day!

Talking about career grand slams, I'm hoping that I could complete my own career grand slam of marathons, the top 5 being Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London and New York. So far I've only done Berlin, and if I do very well in two weeks time I could be in the running for a place in Boston, London or New York in 2011. But first, let's just concentrate on Berlin in two weeks time!

Nearly there,

Aaron

Training Week 40 Recap

Hi guys,

At long last the taper session has come! This week was supposed to be one of my hardest weeks, but with work commitments coming up I had to skip a couple of runs. Fortunately they were easy recovery runs, so I treated myself to a couple of days of complete running abstinence. While this week didn't get up to the high mileages of previous weeks the intensity was always there, so here's how it went.

Wednesday

Type: Steady

Time and Distance: 60 mins 49 secs, 12.5 km.

Thursday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 68 mins, 13.6 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 20 mins (3.2 km). Did 10 mins at threshold pace (2.4 km), with 90 secs recovery. Did 6 x 3 mins at 5k pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 800m). Cool down for approx 20 mins (3.2 km).

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 48 mins, 6.9 km.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 52 mins 29 secs, 8.1 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run + marathon pace

Time and Distance: 120 mins, 25.5 km.

Detail: First 75 mins at steady pace (approx 15.3 km), followed by the 45 mins at marathon pace (approx 10.2 km).

Total Weekly Distance: 66.6 km

Comments: A solid week despite the missed runs. The 5k intervals were very hard, and I was struggling to hold the effort for 3 mins at a time, scraping nearly 800m for each effort. This is also known as Yasso 800s, which is a predictor of marathon performance where the runner can predict their marathon time by running 800m intervals, e.g. 800m in 3 minutes roughly equates to a 3 hour marathon time. Whether this is accurate remains to be seen.

Improvements: Not really an improvement, but the taper period is finally here. Mileage will be reduced next week, the intensity will also be reduced but not too much, in order to keep the legs fresh and energetic. I may do a time-trial over 10,000 metres in the next week, so it will be interesting to see if I can set a huge PB there.

Well the taper period is finally here, and the days of doing long runs, continuous hills and threshold runs have finally come to an end. The hard work is finally over! While there's still 3 weeks to go to Berlin, there will be plenty of running ahead, but not of the type that was done in the previous weeks.

I think it's now time to pat myself on the back for all the hard work that I've done, not just over the last 13 weeks when I officially started FP Run Club's sub-3 hour training programme, but from the very start in January when I came up with the dream of running a marathon in under 3 hours. Sticking to it from the very start is something that I can be very proud of as it's pretty easy to lose focus and quit altogether. While I did lose my focus on some occasions I certainly didn't quit! There have been highs and many many lows along the way, but I think these things have made me a stronger and smarter runner along the way. I guess that's something I can be pretty proud of.

Putting the feet up,

Aaron

Training Week 39 Recap

A very late evening to all,

The business end of my training is upon me. Having produced a productive week last week, it was imperative to continue the good work and really make every run count this week. I just got back from my 3 hour long run and it was surprisingly good, although obviously I am pretty tired now! Maybe the rain made things easier with the cooler temperatures as well. Here's how it went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 31 mins 19 secs, 5 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 47 mins 10 secs, 7.5 km.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 29 mins 7 secs, 4.4 km.

Wednesday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 85 mins 11 secs, 17.75 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 20 mins at marathon pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 4.56 km). Did 5 x 3 mins at 10k pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 760m). Did 20 mins at marathon pace, with 90 secs recovery (approx 4.55 km). Cool down for approx 15 mins (2.4 km).

Thursday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 46 mins, 7.5 km.

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 32 mins, 4.9 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run + marathon pace

Time and Distance: 176 mins 25 secs, 33.5 km.

Detail: First two hours at relaxed steady pace, followed by the final hour at marathon pace.

Total Weekly Distance: 80.55 km

Comments: A great week. The mileage is a little lower than last week, but last week I put in a huge interval session which blew out the weekly mileage. The long run was surprisingly good, the first two hours were going at a steady pace, and I didn't really feel fatigued. It was only in the final hour where I had to accelerate to marathon pace when things got a little tough. I didn't really get it taken out of me at that stage, but I was made to work, even in a semi-fatigued state. Let's see how I'll end up tomorrow!

Improvements: The final key week next week, and while the longest run is now behind me(!), there will be quicker sessions from here till race day, to give the legs a lot of energy.

Only 4 more weeks to Berlin. 1 more week of quality training, and then the mandatory taper period begins.

Counting the days,

Aaron

Take that, spammers!

Recently, my blog has been inundated with comments from Chinese spammers, which contain links to phishing or porn sites. As of now, I've been forced to moderate all comments before they are made public on my blog. This is a step to keeping those damn Chinese spammers from polluting my blog. I will keep a watch on all comments to ensure that the good ones go through and the bad ones stay out.

That is all.....

Training Week 38 Recap

Afternoon all,

After last week's relative inactivity, this week really picked up the mileage. Good thing that I'm doing absolutely nothing today, apart from my laundry (and even that is proving a challenge!). Today's long run really took it out of me. It was supposed to be a 2 hour 45 minute effort, and I thought I could do around 31 km comfortably. Instead I was a lot slower, though the hills of Oslo would have contributed to that, as well as the heat, which led to some dehydration.

Monday

Type: Mile intervals

Time and Distance: 116 mins 26 secs, 21.6 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 10 mile repeats with 60 secs recovery for the first 4, 180 secs recovery after the 4th, 60 secs recovery for the next 5, 180 secs recovery after the 9th, 60 secs recovery after the last. Times were 6:30, 6:30, 6:30, 6:31, 7:00, 6:59, 6:57, 6:57, 6:57, 6:35. Cool down for 20 mins (3.2 km). Average pace per interval was 6:44.6

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins 10 secs, 4.2 km.

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 45 mins 42 secs, 7 km.

Thursday

Type: Progression

Time and Distance: 45 mins, 9.4 km.

Detail:

Warmed up for 15 mins (2.4 km). Did 15 mins at marathon pace (3.4 km). Did 15 mins at threshold pace (3.6 km).

Saturday

Type: Intervals

Time and Distance: 63 mins, 12.72 km.

Detail:

Warmed up for 13 mins (2.1 km). Did 5 mins at 10k pace, with 60 secs recovery (approx 1.22 km per interval). Did this 6 times. Cool down for approx 20 mins (3.3 km).

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 32 mins 14 secs, 5.3 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run

Time and Distance: 165 mins 30 secs, 28.4 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 88.62 km

Comments: A much better week, and very hard as well. The mile intervals set the tone and the long slow run was the icing on the cake. Because of last week's disappointing Sunday run, I decided to put in some decent mile intervals, which is my number 1 training exercise for my running. And they were hard! Luckily I managed to recover from these and put in other decent efforts as well throughout the week. For the long run, and not being too familiar with Oslo, I mapped out a route on Google Maps beforehand so that I wouldn't get lost. It just so happened that the route was very hilly! Definitely doing a different route in future! 88.62 km is the highest mileage I've done in this round of training, would've been nice to break 90 km. Those damn hills!

Improvements: Another key week next week, and it will be another step up as I enter the final phase of preparation. The long run will now include marathon pace efforts. I really need to find a different, less hilly route for this run. I'm already getting tired just thinking of it.

Well I did manage to regather the momentum this week, and hopefully it will carry over to next week. There are 5 weeks to Berlin, but there will be 2 weeks of key training before the taper period begins. Hopefully I can survive by then.

Counting down,

Aaron

Training Week 37 Recap

Evening guys,

This has been a rather lazy week for me. With week after week of hard training, I felt like I needed a break from it all, so to speak, and ended up doing very little mileage this week. I was supposed to run a half marathon today at marathon pace or faster, but "chickened" out in the morning, and ended up doing an easy run instead. I knew I didn't have it in me to do this run, and if I attempted it I would probably be wasting much needed energy for future training runs. Put simply, I felt burnt out this week! Hopefully I can regather the momentum next week.....

Tuesday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 57 mins, 12.05 km.

Detail: Warmed up for 15 mins (2.2 km). Did 3 mins at threshold, with 75 secs recovery (approx 700m). Did 3 mins at 10k pace, with 75 secs recovery (approx 750m). Did this 3 more times. Cool down for approx 18 mins (3.3 km).

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 44 mins 47 secs, 6.4 km.

Thursday

Type: Progression

Time and Distance: 30 mins 35 secs, 6.4 km.

Detail:

Warmed up for 10 mins (1.6 km). Did 10 mins at marathon pace (approx 2.25 km). Did 10 mins 35 secs at threshold pace (2.55 km).

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 25 mins 6 secs, 3.9 km.

Sunday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 44 mins 53 secs, 6.8 km.

Total Weekly Distance: 35.55 km

Comments: Another not-so-great week. It was supposed to be an easier week, but I was gutted not to get that half marathon in. Partly because I felt burnt out, partly because of concerns with my left leg (which is getting better I think), I decided to just take it easy this week!

Improvements: Next week is going to be key. I haven't done a long run for a while, so that will be a challenge. There's only six weeks to race day, and the first three weeks will be CRUCIAL. I have to put in the effort, even if I don't feel like it!

I feel like I've done hardly anything this week. Tomorrow, I am hoping to gather some much-needed drive very quickly and put in some quality mileage. My mind may think that I'm feeling burnt out, but somehow my legs are feeling rather strong and fresh, maybe there's still life in this old dog after all.

The time is now,

Aaron

Training Week 36 Recap

Hey all,

Unfortunately I've not had a great week. My left leg started playing up and I'm not sure what happened. I suppose the increased mileage from last week really started to bite me in the butt and I'm paying for it right now. So I took 2 days off running to get the leg back into shape. It's still uncomfortable, but not serious enough to stop me running completely (well, I hope!). And also, we're reaching the most critical stage of the schedule and getting injured is the very last thing I want happening! Here's the lowdown for this week.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 27 mins 25 secs, 3.7 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 45 mins, 6.7 km.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 54 mins 48 secs, 8 km.

Wednesday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 71 mins 45 secs, 15.06 km.

Detail: Warm up for 15 mins (2.4 km). 12 mins at threshold with 120 secs recovery (approx 2900m). 6 x 3 mins at 10k pace with 90 secs recovery (approx 760m). 12 mins at threshold (approx 2750m). Cool down for approx 15 mins (2.4 km).

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 47 mins 30 secs, 7.5 km.

Sunday

Type: Progressive

Time and Distance: 85 mins, 16.4 km.

Detail: Warm up for 30 mins at recovery pace, 30 mins at marathon goal pace, and 30 mins at threshold pace. In reality, had to cut the run 5 mins short, and the pace today was slower than my intended marathon goal pace. Kilometre splits were: 4:28, 4:31, 4:39, 4:41, 4:41, 4:43, 4:42, 4:53, 4:51, 4:49, 4:54.....

Total Weekly Distance: 57.36 km

Comments: Not a great week. Discomfort in my left leg is giving me some concerns and I'm pretty disappointed with Sunday's run, although I'm not going to blame the left leg. I thought about taking the first part of the run slowly, but pretty soon I was running out of gas and got slower and slower. When it came time to run at threshold I just couldn't go any faster.

Improvements: More speed work to keep the legs turning over. Another comparatively low volume week lies ahead, so hopefully I can put in an excellent week left leg permitting!

Let's be completely honest here - there's only 7 weeks to go and I'm still coming up short hitting those target times. If Sunday's run is anything to go by, I have to be realistic and say that I'm very unlikely to break 3 hours this time around. I'm considering revising my target time for Berlin, perhaps I can shoot for 3:10:00 and qualify for Boston next year - now that would also be nice to have! It's a bit disappointing to realise at this stage that I won't meet my main goal, but there are always other races to train for and run... as long as my body is able!

Not yet derailed,

Aaron

Training Week 35 Recap

Afternoon runners,

This week marks the half-way mark in the FP Run Club's 16-week sub-3 hour training programme. So the remaining 8 weeks are key! After conceding that last week didn't go as well as I would've liked (and I only have to blame myself for choosing to visit Stockholm), I resolved to put in a huge week of high quality, high volume running. Let's see how I went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 33 mins, 5.3 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 30 mins 48 secs, 4.9 km.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 44 mins 52 secs, 6.9 km.

Wednesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 27 mins 43 secs, 4.3 km.

Thursday

Type: Mixed pace

Time and Distance: 54 mins 52 secs, 11.85 km.

Detail: Warm up for 11 mins (1.6 km). 4 mins at threshold with 75 secs recovery (approx 950m). 4 mins at 10k pace with 75 secs recovery (approx 1km). Repeat the set 4 more times. Cool down for approx 4 mins (500m).

Saturday

Type: Continuous hills

Time and Distance: 85 mins, 17.1 km.

Detail: Warm up for 20 mins (3.2 km). 4 sets of 10 mins at threshold with 90 secs recovery. Cool down for approx 25 mins (4.3 km). Each rep was 200m, each set was 2400m.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 32 mins 21 secs, 5.3 km.

Sunday

Type: Long run

Time and Distance: 149 mins 58 secs, 29 km.

Detail: Started easy, and got faster as the run went on. Sustained 5 min/km pace for the majority of the run.

Total Weekly Distance: 84.65 km

Comments: What a turnaround! A much better week overall. Just short of 90 km in total mileage, but I managed to bank every run this week. I actually struggled in my long run for some reason, and I guess it was due to the fact that I missed my long run last week, and that my last long run was 3 weeks ago! Whilst I managed to scrape 29 km, I was feeling quite flat at the end of the run and I probably would've slowed down if it was a marathon setting. Not very encouraging to think, but it's only one long run and I won't get drawn into any conclusions at this stage.

Improvements: Week 9 is going to be an easier week for me, thank goodness! The volume will be less, i.e. the long run will only be 90 minutes, but the effort and intensity will be much higher in this run and other faster running sessions. Bring it on!

Well, I've reached the half-way stage and now there's only 8 more weeks to go. In reality, there's only 5 more weeks of quality training as the last 3 weeks will be tapering for the big race in Berlin, to ensure that I arrive at the start line healthy and strong. These coming weeks have to really count, so I'm afraid I'll have to limit certain "pleasures" from now on and just stay true to the task. No more late nights, weekend travel excursions, bad food, alcohol..... :-(

Gathering momentum,

Aaron