Week 6

Well another week down. This week I started with a great 5k run, taking another minute off my best time, set 2 days ago, and getting below 6min / km for the first time in this training so far. That was followed by a not so fast 8, and 5 k on the next 2 days. The good thing about those runs is that I felt terrible, slow, heavy legs etc. But still ran times that a few weeks ago I would have though were good. So I am starting to get better.

University and work commitments combined to stop me doing a the long run on the weekend, but I did manage a 8k. Again, didn't feel good, but still came home faster than the previous 8k from the same course. So all in all a positive week.

For next week things are stepping up. Not in terms of running, in terms of weight. Its back to the South Beach Diet for a while, until I get my weight down to where it needs to be for a marathon. Hopefully it all goes well.

Week 5

Well, I'm a bit late posting my week 5 summary, but it would have to be the best week of training so far. All 4 runs got done, 2x5km, 1x8km and 1x10km, and they all got done in good times. The 10km run was done at 6min 35 sec / km, which is about 10sec/km faster than any of my earlier long (or medium length for that matter) runs. I also felt nice and comfortable doing it, and would have been happy to carry on at the same pace for longer. I followed that up with a 5km the next day, that knocked a minute off my previous best time for that track.

So all in all, a satisfying week. I'm starting to feel as if I'm making progress, the fitness levels are going up, and the long races I have planned for the next few months are starting to look more achievable.

Month of July Log

This is what I ran in July

Week 4

Week 4 done, that means 1 month down, 3 to go... 1/4 through the training program.

This week was good, without being great. I seem to finally be over my blister problems, so I actually feel I can run now. But I am feeling very up and down about my runs. Some days I go out and feel fantastic, some days I feel terrible. I need to figure out what it is that makes the difference, be it diet, rest, the time of day, what ever... Or else things are going to start getting difficult.

This week I managed to do all 4 runs, but couldn't manage the long weekend run. I just felt terrible after a few hundred meters, so called it a day after 5 of 15km. Still I ended up with 23km this week which isn't too bad.

Week 3

Well another week of training done. This time I didn't stick to the schedule, mainly due to the big nasty blister on my foot from last week. I only managed 3 5.2km runs, so 1 long run down on what I was meant to do. Instead of the long run, I did 20km on the bike, so not ideal, but not the worst that could happen.

I still have to get some new shoes, and I still have the remains of a blister on my foot. That said, I don't want to fall to far behind, so I'll be trying to stick to the schedule again next week.

Week 2

Week 2 done, and mostly all going well so far. All scheduled runs got done. We're still not going fast yet, running around 6min 50sec per km on the long runs at the moment. Going a bit faster on the shorter runs now however.

The bad news is that I've got quite a nasty blister on my left foot, under the arch. So I'm going to be buying myself a nice new pair of running shoes, which will hopefully fix the problem. But until then, and until the blistering goes down I'm going to have to take things easy. Better to miss a few days, than damage myself badly and miss weeks latter.

So, until then, cross training is the way forward.

Week 1

Well, week 1 (week 2 from the program) of our marathon training is now complete. Which means so far things are going well. Week 1 was 3 5km runs, all done in 32-34 minutes and a 10km run, which took 68 minutes. So we're going slowly, but that's OK at this point, I think...

This week's schedule goes 5km, 6.5km, 5km and 8km. Which looks to be no harder than last week. So hopefully the weather behaves, and we are able to keep our 100% strike rate going.