Training Week 33 Recap

Hi all,

This has been a slightly easier week for me in the sense that I didn't do any high mileage or many hard sessions. Just as so because I have just relocated to Oslo, and it takes time to get into things in a new city even though your training still goes at a fast pace. This week was all about testing my progress, so let's see how it went.

Monday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 29 mins, 4 km.

Tuesday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 28 mins 51 secs, 4.4 km.

Thursday

Type: Marathon pace

Time and Distance: 57 mins 38 secs, 11.7 km.

Detail: Started easy for 26 mins, then increased the pace to goal marathon pace for the next 31 mins. Covered approx 7.5 km in the marathon pace session.

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 32 mins 6 secs, 5.3 km.

Saturday

Type: Recovery

Time and Distance: 51 mins 50 secs, 7.6 km.

Sunday

Type: Marathon pace

Time and Distance: 141 mins 1 sec, 27.9 km.

Detail: Easy for 15 mins, then a half marathon at goal marathon pace, then easy for 30 mins.

Total Weekly Distance: 61 km

Comments: Not a great week. This week was all about testing my progress and the results have been mixed. The acid test was the half marathon at goal marathon pace, and by that I should have done this in 1:30 and still feel in control. Instead I was 6 minutes off the pace. If I were to point the finger (and it's really easy to do this when things don't go your way), I would have to blame the heat, as I did this run at 2 pm in the afternoon while the sun was high in the sky with no cloud cover. Was feeling good at the 4 km mark, but things got harder and I got slower. Overall, it's not encouraging.

Improvements: Week 7 is back to the grind with more mixed pace running and continuous hills. I will have to see how I can get the most out of every session from now on.

If there's one thing to look forward to, it is the amount of quality running I can do in the future. I live very very close to Bislett Stadion, the most well-known sports arena internationally, the venue of the IAAF sanctioned Bislett Games, and the place where many athletic legends have broken world records. Here are some pictures.

The entrance to Bislett Stadion

At the entrance of Bislet Stadion are two statues of Norwegian sporting legends, once of which is former Norwegian marathon runner Grete Waitz. The other is speed skater, Hjalmar Andersen.

The interior of Bislett Stadion. Something tells me I'll be spending quite a lot of time here. And the best thing, even for such a prestigious sporting venue: it is free and open to the public!

Time to grab something to eat, and maybe reflect on my less-than-stellar run this afternoon. I wonder what would have been if the weather wasn't so hot.

Cheers!

Aaron