Mark - Nice down week.  July ended up at 431km for me which I'd say is my biggest ever month, albeit aided by 5 weekends.

Good week for me, kept everything easy as I try to get over this cold.  Legs feel great but running with a sore throat, painful sinuses and lightheadedness isn't fun.  But while I had energy I decided to keep at it.  The cold is definitely improving and hopefully when I'm back to 100%, this experience will remind me how much fun running can be.  Yesterday after my long run in the freezing cold, my legs didn't feel like they usually do after a long run, really fresh and not too tired.  Definitely helped by not doing a workout but still a good sign.

Weekly for period: From: 25/07/2022 To 31/07/2022

Total distance: 100.86km (62.69mi)

Marky_Mark - glad you were able to squeeze in the track session on a good day.

Steve- perhaps I'm mistaken, but seems you've been fighting this cold for a while - I hope it clears soon.

Ian - I'm guessing you mean 3 weeks of training plus taper, right?  Not 3 weeks until the race.

***

56 miles running, 27 "miles" pool-running, and ~1000 yards swimming.
M: 6 miles, including six 200s in around 50 seconds each, working on relaxed form, followed by 6 "miles" pool-running
T: 3.5 miles easy (9:22), 6.5 miles (9:39) plus drills/strides and then upper body weights/core.
W: 12.5 miles, including 2 sets of (2K, 1200, 1600) and then 2x200 in 8:48, 5:17, 6:59; 8:44, 5:14, 6:54; and 48 and 47. Recoveries were about 3 minutes within the set and 6 minute between sets; full recovery for the 200s. Followed with leg strengthwork, and 500 meters recovery swimming.
Th: 12 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.
F: 3 miles (9:41), 7.5 miles (9:37) plus drills, and then upper body weights/core
Sa: 17 miles including a marathon effort workout of 4 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles, 1 mile at marathon effort (average paces were 7:45, 7:46, 7:56, and 7:49 - 1 mile at easy jog plus water breaks in between). Followed with injury prevention work and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Su: 9 "miles" pool-running and streaming yoga.

One good day, and one not so good day. I was decently happy with Wednesday's tempo interval workouts - that was a workout I couldn't have done a few weeks ago.

Saturday I was banking on a drop in humidity and temperatures for my marathon pace workout, so that I could get a sense of my fitness. Unfortunately, that didn't happen until later in the day.  I did the workout anyway, trying to focus on effort regardless of how slow it was, but I had to really back off and add in multiple water breaks, and the workout was a slog anyway. I debated whether to bail on the workout, but decided that I was better off finishing it at whatever pace I could hold to at least get the effort into the body.  So yeah, still on the fence about the marathon - I'll give it another week or two.

 

Saturday I was banking on a drop in humidity and temperatures for my marathon pace workout, so that I could get a sense of my fitness. Unfortunately, that didn't happen until later in the day.  I did the workout anyway, trying to focus on effort regardless of how slow it was, but I had to really back off and add in multiple water breaks, and the workout was a slog anyway. I debated whether to bail on the workout, but decided that I was better off finishing it at whatever pace I could hold to at least get the effort into the body. 

Good job toughing it out. Even when you know the effort is the important thing, when the paces aren’t there you think “why bother?” and mentally it’s a real battle.

Mark - Thanks for keeping the weather complaining streak alive! You’re definitely bound for a break through provided no sickness on the next race.

Steve - you've shown quite some strength this past week

DW - I know it’s cliché but you should only improve from now on. 6-8 weeks is quite some time to improve cardio capacity especially since you're roughly getting back in the direction you were. I don't think you lost any muscular endurance.

me - A nice week. The weather was not the best but I did well to run at 6am so it wasn't such a factor, except for Monday when I was feeling very heavy legged as the air was thick. Traveling was more of a weight on my legs, road trips are pretty tiring even when you're not driving.

All in all we got to know some very beautiful places.

I was happy to get back at strength training and now the coach has me doing squats as well. I'm terrible at them so doing them with just 2 10kg dumbbells at the moment.

I hope to see some speed gains when I start lifting close to what the average Joe does.

Weekly for period: From: 25/07/2022 To 31/07/2022

Total distance: 72.25km 44.89 of that other thing

Quick post - I'm not gone, I've just been on vacation without a computer (and I don't do forums on my phone).

Running has taken a hit with the vacation, but I've been "staying in touch" with fitness as much as possible.

Crazy busy now at work after the long vacation, so I'll probably still be sporadic, but plan on hopping back when time allows.

JMac - Yep, I did several out and backs so I could pick up drinks from home and with a view to shortening it if I needed to.  My partner told me I was insane and would give myself pneumonia but I think I kept it sensible with the slow pace and constantly reassessing.  I felt fine until the end in terms of energy and legs, although my head/sinus/throat was not very comfortable.  I'm pretty happy with how comfortable it felt, especially now the head cold is improving rapidly.  Even though I didn't do the planned workouts on my last 2 long runs, I'm really happy with how they went at easy pace with electrolyte drinks and water only.

I've tried to move over to this thread because I'm too lazy to post twice.  The racing scene has been relatively quiet in all parts of the world represented here so it will be interesting to see the thread evolve when we get into Spring/Autumn/Fall.

Flavio - Yeah, even though it hasn't been the most fun week of running, it will help me in the next few weeks as the legs start to get heavy to remember that I battled through with a cold in atrocious weather.  Nice week and good to hear you're resuming the role as King of Strength training.

Dave - Nice week to follow up the race, and I think a very sensible approach.

I had a good chat with my coach last week about the course and what to expect in Melbourne.  I've done the half 3 times but obviously never the full and was particularly interested in how bad it gets when the half and full meet up with about 10km to go.  His answer - expect it to be bad and prepare yourself not to waste energy getting angry.  I was interested that piwi said he had no issues, but the coach pointed out that if you're running 3 hours or faster, when you meet the half runners you'll be running with 1:30 or faster runners.  When I can expect to meet them, assuming I am 3:15-20 (which I am), I'll be stuck with people running a minute per km slower.  Sounds like there's plenty of room for a few km but then it merges into one lane and half runners block the whole lane.  At least I'll know it's coming.

Also interested to hear stories about the magic of the taper.  I've experienced it doing the half but I expect it's more pronounced with the full.  Do you get to 30-35km and feel like it's really comfortable (assuming it's a good day)?

cinnamon - That's an impressive week, you must be in great shape so ripping the band aid off should be fine.

Christchurch is pancake flat - when I need to do hills I have to drive up into the hills about 25 mins away and they are serious hills so it's all or nothing.  There are some motorway bridges I can do repeats on too.