I guess I may have to go in this one then 😃

Flavio - Glad you’re feeling a bit better.  I have short periods of lightheadedness a couple of times a month, but it’s not serious & usually just means I stood up too quickly after being horizontal and/or need something with sugar.

Piwi - I suppose you signed away the rights to your picture when you registered for that race, but you should at least see if you can get a poster from the organizers. 

Olympic women’s marathon - Delighted to see Seidel get a bronze to reward her gutsy run.  Before our trials, she was probably considered somewhere between 10th & 20th most likely to make our team, as she had never even run a full and was off the radar because of injuries.  Having attended our trials races last year made this year’s marathons much more interesting for me.

Me - Took another step up in my cautious speedwork, doing 3x1200 after 3x800 last week.  Pace was slightly less slow as well, though my glutes were hurting some.  Temperatures were a lot lower this week, which may be why my tempo run was a little faster than last week, but still not where I’d like it to be.

Sun - off

Mon - 6.6 miles including 3x1200 @ 4:37 w/2:50 rest, TDP 149

Tues - 8.5 miles very slow (1:39) on treadmill

Weds - 7.3 in park @ 8:35, TDP 146

Thurs - off

Fri - 7.2 in park including 3 @ 6:57, TDP 146

Sat - 8.5 very slow (1:39) on treadmill

Total - 38.2 miles

YTD average - 46.9 mpw

Piwi - awesome shot, promo boy!

James - I didn't see the Olympic women's marathon as it coincided with my race, sounds like a great effort by Seidel though.

Me - trail half yesterday was good fun.  I came 2nd overall, guy who was first looked to be a pretty experienced trail runner.  I stuck with him for the first 3km or so but then dialled back a bit as the pace was a bit hot.  The trails were mostly in very good nick, although there were a couple of km where it was a bit muddy and greasy, and some long climbs in there too.  The thing about climbs on trails is that, just when you think the hill ends at that corner you can see coming up... it doesn't.  I realised with a couple of km to go I was catching up on first place, he had around 30 seconds on me and I caught him looking over his shoulder a couple times, but I left myself too much work to do and didn't have enough runway to catch him.

Anyway, I got what I wanted out of it, really had to dig it in at points on the longer climbs, and had to work to find a rhythm on the twisty and undulating sections too.  I was getting a stitch around the 6-7km mark that I managed to successfully battle through, and also had to battle that sort of fatigue in the legs that you don't get wearing Vaporflies on the road.  So hopefully that sets me up well for road races coming up.

Weekly for period: From: 02/08/2021 To 08/08/2021

Total distance: 55.75km

Piwi - yeah I had a look too and I just came to the conclusion that he doesn’t log all his runs on Strava obsessively like normal runners. Anyways good week, looking forward to the marathon, great to see two Kiwis there, I struggle to remember the last time we had one!

There's a video here of the event yesterday which includes some footage of the trails (mostly the easier bits).  I popped up in a couple of places, look for the blue and yellow Takapuna singlet with black gloves.

Mark and Piwi - looking good guys! Mark was the trail technical at all? That looked beautiful. Glad the race went well.

I had a solid week with no cross-training. I'll add a little bit back in next week, still trying to find the balance where I'm it's benefitting the running and not detracting.

M - easy 50 min

T - easy 40 min + strides

W - 800m race, 4x400m race + WU/CD

Th - 12.5 mi super easy

F - off

S- easy hour + strides (return of the dreaded humidity)

S - 6x4min progression around threshold, 2 min rec.

46.2 miles

I loved watching Cheruiyot (1500) and Gidey (10,000) push from the front. A real shame neither won a gold but they were great races.

I forgot to mention, but the Brazilian media was going bonkers with the possibility of breaking the medal record and taking over 12th position from New Zealand. It's also funny to think by losing to the US in Women's Volleyball, Brazil helped the US finally take the 1st spot at the medal standings from China.

James - are the glutes pain? Or is it that good sign of productive soreness? I've always thought that if both glutes are hurting you're doing something right....

Marky_Mark - thanks for the video. That was fun to watch also just to get a sense of what it's like to run a race in New Zealand.

Piwi - really solid week for you. And is that August 5 run your normal easy run HR? Love the picture!

Zebano - I am curious to see what you can run for an 800 with another try (and spikes).

Flavio - crazy week for you.  I am so glad that your health is overall OK, but I hope things improve.

Steve - I can't believe that donating blood wouldn't affect your running.  Even relatively mild blood loss from a PRP draw (about a 1/3rd of what you donate) sets me back for a week+.

Kipchoge's race was unearthly.  I don't think I've ever seen anything so transcendant - not even Wanjiru in Beijing.

My week:

60 miles running, 3 hours pool-running, and 1000 yards swimming.
M: 5 miles very easy on treadmill (9:51), 1 hour pool-running, and upper body weights/core.
T: 12 miles, including a track workout of 2x1600, 2x800, 2x400, Splits were 6:38, 6:29, 3:04, 3:03, 88, and 86. 5:00 recoveries after the 1600s, 3:00 recovery in between the 800s; full recovery for 400s. Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
W: 10 miles easy on treadmill (9:53) followed by streaming yoga.
Th: 2 hours pool-running and upper body weights/core.
Fr: 12.5 miles including a tempo workout of 4 miles, 3 miles in 29:08 (7:19 pace) and 21:58 (7:19 pace) with 1 mile easy and a water break in between. Then did leg strengthwork and 500 yards recovery swimming.
Sa: 10 miles easy on treadmill (9:46) followed by streaming yoga.
Su: 10.5 miles, including 7 miles very easy (9:23) and then four 60-70 second hills with full recovery, plus drills, two strides, and injury prevention work.

I was watching Olympic showjumping this week live - hence the treadmill runs.

If you're wondering about Friday's workout, a friend had a workout of 4-3-2-1 miles at her goal marathon pace on tap.  So I ran the 4 and the 3 with her.  The paces ended up being faster than my current marathon fitness in the weather we had that day, but since I was just doing the 4 and the 3, I didn't care too much - I just considered it an extended slightly slower tempo workout.

I also started a new med for my Ulcerative Colitis on Wednesday that should reduce inflammation in my large intestine (which should hopefully improve fatigue and help my body absorb nutrients).  The medication is actually a slightly different version of a medication that I tried earlier - I had some mild weakness/fatigue issues with that first medication.  However - that side effect seemed to last only about 18 hours or so, and I had to take that medication at bed time.  This one I can take in the morning, so I'm taking it right after I finish running each morning, in hopes that the side effects will not affect the next morning's run.

So far, I feel pretty good on it, and even slightly better than before.  So maybe this will work out.