Fartlek and what a session!

• Warmup while increasing pace for 800 m
• Hard uphill with 20m of positive ascent for 330 m. Jog.
• 1 km hard in 3:51
• 230m jog
• 2 km hard in 8:00 (unfortunately this was 4:06 and 3:53)
• jog
• 100m in 15 seconds
• 100m jog
• 200m in 36 seconds (unfortunately this was 20 and 16 secs)
• break
• 400m in 1:17 (definitely the hardest rep)
• walk then jog
• 800m up hill in 142+147, the consistency of which I was much happier with.

After this I started jogging home, but noticed that my endorphins were pumping, even though the 400m had been a total killer - my desperation for my Garmin had become so intense that I had actually stopped and the beep happened as I stopped if you know what I mean. The step up from 200m is just hideous! If it weren't for a prior commitment, this session could in fact have been longer, and as I picked up pace to return back home over the last km I was just overloaded with confidence as I finished with a sprint to my front door! And all that from someone who claims not to like the shorter stuff!

I think what I just love about the fartlek is the way in which it is just so specific to the runner's individual feel on that day. What I found worked so well for me on this session was that the first hard lap happened up a hill, which breaks in the cardiovascular intensity early on without the impact on the still-warming muscles. Then were the two longer stints 1 km quickly followed by 2 km, after which my body is more ready for the power of the 100m to 200m to 400m to 800m progression.

This works so much better for me than a more classic session such as: warmup followed by 8 x 400. On more than one occasion on this marathon build-up I had to abort the session due to twinges on an ankle provoked almost certainly by such sudden load. I believe that there is no progression in this kind of warm-up up to the desired intensity.

More sluggish than slug

Yesterday:

400ml Old Speckled Hen.
Very little sleep for several days.
11 km (half off-road, all at night)

Today:

23 km in 2:17.
One positive to be taken out of today's longer run (the 23 was "supposed" to be 25, but I am trying to take things a bit more by feel, and inspired as well by Ryan Hall's approach through prayer), was that although I felt really sluggish at the start and there was rarely that much drive, and there was mysterious cramping and tightness in my calves for most of the time, that things really started clearing up after the 20km mark. I actually felt almost brighter and stronger then than at the beginning. Wow!

The important thing to note is that the combined effects of sleep deprivation and the beer had a definite effect on my energy levels, both in terms of getting out the door and just how hard it felt even to run 5:30/km. The beer is easy to sort out: don't drink it, not until after the marathon that is! The sleep needs a bit more focus. Also, I do wonder if I may have peaked a little early with going for that 36 km run the weekend before. I was on such a high after and felt so ready, but perhaps actually there was something of a longer-term recovery needed beyond the initial day or two of more tangible recovery, and ever since I nailed that consistent hill run, I've just felt really tired and unmotivated.

I have, however, been focussing of late on the notion of "how we fall", which is linked to something I am taking my PE class kids through at the moment in their current creativity module. We need to learn to be neutral. We don't need to be on strong emotional pushes the entire time. What this means for me as my motivation begins to fall, as it invariable does and will, and I feel less desire and passion for running, that I revert to a more neutral, going-about-my-business approach, neither excited nor nor deflated, until the next push. True closeness to the date will no doubt bring this anyway.

Hill sprints, finally some much-craved consistency

8 hill reps: 56, 56, 56, 55, 57, 59, 57, 57 (seconds).
I have been despairing recently about my apparent lack of consistency over the repetition training sessions, I invariably fade at the end, and go out too hard at the start. But isn't the point going out hard in a repetition? I'll come back to that question at the end of this post.

So today I felt I needed more hills work, and so off I went to my local "killer" minute hill for 8 reps. Sounds easy, but once I had done 3 I really did wonder how I'd keep the quality going. As it was, I never dipped over a minute, which was really great. I kept saying to myself that the 7th rep would be the hardest, as the last one you know you can throw everything into it. I don't feel fully consistent yet, as the second set of four were clearly struggling and secondly, what I didn't do consistently was maintain the rest time, which invariably grew toward around the 2 min 10 sec mark (1:45, 1:52, 1:56, 2:08, 2:00, 2:17, 2:14)

My only thought on those early reps is simply to say to myself: I have to be able to do 7 more like this. That alone probably just released a little self-restraint while still keeping it a true rep.

Just so grateful to be healthy, ache-free and even the stomach hasn't been this receptive in a while, and is accepting gluten and chocolate again! Woohoo, thank you! And even more amazingly, and it is so important in running I think to maintain some sort of healthy perspsective, I am going to be a Dad again. This is more amazing than all the rest! I am a grateful man.