I love blue skies and a nice view. Not as clear as yesterday, but still good conditions for my run today.
a Record breaking week
a Motto I'm trying to live by, especially now I'm training for a marathon
Last week was good, I had no idea that this week was going to be even better. I feel like I shouldn't waste too much time telling about the week in general and let the days speak for them, but I will give a quick resumé.
This marathon training is very intensive, the regular runs day after day and then the 2 day break, but so far I feel that I'm handling it the right way. When I finished my record run at 18:30PM on Sunday last week, my watch told me that I needed 68 hours to recover. When I did my next run on Wednesday at 12:00PM I had 66,5 hours break, so just under the required amount, but I didn't feel like that when we set off.
All the runs during the week were during my lunch break with relatively good weather, but also quite windy. On Wednesday my colleague felt we were pushing it, but we kept it up and in the end we had a fantastic run. On Thursday we took it more lightly, but on Friday I felt so good that I really pushed myself. Then today I set off with both my neighboors for my long run of the week, the first neighboor left us after 5 kilometres as she had to head home and my other neighboor had been sick, so again I adjusted my pace to them which served me well on the long run (no pun intended 😉).
Here are my runs since my last running post last Sunday:
Wednesday 11.4.
- Weather: Pleasant but windy, I can stop donning my winter-gear
- Distance: 5,27 km
- Time: 25:32 mins
- Pace: 4:51 min/km
- Training Effect: 3,7
- Goal: Getting used to running on tired legs
Recap
Today I ran again with my colleague during lunch time. I set off very quick and my colleague picked up the pace. Astonishingly we kept the pace all the way and we came close to breaking my personal record on the 5 Km with a time of 24:11, 5 seconds slower as my record to date! We passed the same group of pensioners 3 times, I think if we hadn't had them blocking our way we would've actually beaten the record.
Thursday 12.4.
- Weather: Warm but windy
- Distance: 6,26 km
- Time: 34:04 mins
- Pace: 5:26 min/km
- Training Effect: 3,5
- Goal: Getting used to distances
Recap
We had fantastic weather today, but we decided to take it easy after our efforts from the day before. On the first leg we had the wind in our faces, which also hindered slightly as the wind was quite strong. We also had another colleague join us today for the first time, he accompanied us for the first leg, but then continued to do 8 Km, where we stuck to our schedule. It was a good run on sore legs, but I'm getting used to it and it's not hindering me at all anymore.
Friday 13.4.
- Weather: Sunny/grey and windy
- Distance: 5,01 km
- Time: 23:40 mins
- Pace: 4:44 min/km
- Training Effect: 3,5
- Goal: Getting used to running on tired legs by running short distances several days after one another
Recap
My colleague couldn't join today as he had a meeting, but just before I set off he told me he estimated that I'd do the 5 Km in 25:40. I think I had that in my head when I set off as I really pushed myself, on the other hand I also stopped a few times to take pictures under way, all that combined helped me beat my own personal record on the 5 Km by 30 seconds! I'm really happy with this feat, especially if you consider that this is the third run in as many days, so I'm running on 'tired' legs.
Sunday 15.4.
- Weather: Still early morning, so cold and also windy when out in the open, but plenty of warm rays
- Distance: 15,1 km
- Time: 5 mins
- Pace: min/km
- Training Effect:
- Goal: the long Sunday run, preparing for the distance
Recap
Today it was the 3 of us again, despite the cold and early time we were back together again for the first time in a long time. We started off really well and we had a nice pace. Unfortunately my upstairs neighboor had plans, so she had to leave us after 5 Km, this is where my other neighboor started struggling, just as we had about 2 Km of ascent to get into. So I adjusted my pace and we took it easy the rest of the way. In the end we still finished in a decent time of 82,5 minutes.
After I had a little drink of Vitargo (recommended by @toofasteddie) I set off for the rest of my target, which was initially 14 Km. However as I felt good underway I decided to stick to the Garmin motto and 'Beat yesterday', instead of beating yesterday, I had to beat a weak earlier. Which I did, I added another 800 meters to my previous course and set a new distance record of 15,1 Km.
Here are my last 4, midweek runs in comparison with one another:
Here are my last 4, Sunday runs in comparison with one another:
Conclusion
One thing I neglected to mention, as I don't classify it as a run is that I also walked to my hairdresser yesterday, who lives 2 villages further. So I 'hiked' another 8,5 Km yesterday. I have also been trying to do 10.000 steps each day since last Sunday. My Garmin Connect didn't sync Wednesday properly, but currently I'm on an 8 day streak where I've managed to do at least 10.000 steps each day. That puts my total step count for this week at more than 80.000. As I'm going on holiday on Friday I don't think I'll be able to reach my previous record of 25 days in a row, but I will start a new attempt when I'm back.
All this makes last week a fantastic week, I broke 2 records and I feel really good. I've realised that holding back really helps preserve energy on the long runs, so the fact that I run with weakened people really helps me to add kilometers to my legs. I'll have quite a feat to attempt to keep up over the next 2 weeks until I'm back from holiday, but the marathon is booked and I'm full of motivation and energy.
a Selfie before I set off for my run today
Are you a runner?
The running community is for me one of the nicest and closest communities I've ever been part of and they've been really supportive and helpful. There are people with varying levels of experiences from beginners to coaches. If you're a runner or want to start running after my posts and want to connect with other runners to share experiences, ask for tips and/or advice, join us on our discord chat by following this link.
For those of you that still haven't heard of the @runningproject or its bot @isotonic, if you're a runner and want to be rewarded, join our community. It's easy and quick and the 1 SBD or Steem is earned back in no time as you get an upvote on EACH post, not just the ones about running.
Another way to get rewarded is by joining the #runforsteem challenge from @jumowa.
I look forward to hearing your advice, responses, encouragements, feedback and comments.
Keep running and stay fit!
Doron
!steemitworldmap 47.334180 lat 8.386726 long Oberwil-Lieli, Aargau D3SCR