How Carboman Got His Groove Back

What a week it has been. Generally filled with rotten work, unpredictable weather and the sad passing of a fellow runner.

Somehow through all that, I remained sane enough to still plan my training out. One of which is to execute a make-or-break week following last week's dismal performance. I also needed to identify the trends in my program (planned versus actual) taking into account on how I felt during the training sessions. For these, I relied on my Buckeye records and manual log going back to February. To my surprise, it's been 22 weeks since stuttering to the marathon program - no wonder I was getting tired! I also tried not to be too hard on myself when reviewing my training as it's really not easy to put together a program, juggling a growing family with limited resources. And then there's something called Work.

I noticed that I encounter a dip in either form or opportunity to have a good mileage once every 2 to 3 weeks. That can be seen in the chart above. Whether coincidental or not,I will perhaps never know but that's the way it has been. Then I looked at how many weeks left to race day and the answer came down to this final week. Everything's down to this week and therefore I need to make it count. To do that I plotted a punishing set of workouts - tackling distance, time on foot, tempo and back to back workouts. It's easy to plan but actually executing it takes some good fortune especially when things are so tightly dependent on each other. I made sure my wife who had been holding the fort knew that this is final hard week before the taper.

Tuesday

Heat training. Told my boss that I was coming in later and started my run at 7:50am and ended the 16.9K past 9:30am. This was a good workout. Felt in control of my pace.

Wednesday & Thursday

A sort of a bridging workout before Thursday but little did I know what the traffic (caused me to miss the morning run) and weather (I was so upset I shook my fists at the dark clouds!) had in store for me. In fact, I was already in my running attire underneath my workclothes but as I walked to the car, the rain came down complete with thunder and lightning.

Friday

You never know that missing a run would be a blessing. Such was the case for me. As a result of no running the day before, my legs were fresh for a 10.4K tempo. Excellent run that was, done while a few of Der_Pacemakers were waiting for the Star reporter to arrive for an interview session.

Saturday

A very difficult run. Definitely a result of insufficnt recovery from Friday's tempo. I was so glad to get it over with. I've Geraldine to thank for instigating this run as doing a 20 wasn't in my plans. But since it's time to make a final push, I just did it.

Sunday

The final long run with Geraldine. We saw more than the usual number of runners plying the Hartamas route - Adam, Richard with Cecil among others. Looks like the marathon racing season is back! Many of those were just doing 20K as their final long run for next week's Phuket Marathon. Geraldine h ad a nasty stumble near the Central Bank junction resulting is scrapes to the elbows and knee. Thankfully no twisting of the ankle. My finish was strong and I felt that I could've completed the marathon distance today.

Geraldine and I just before embarking on the final 3K

At 94K, this was the highest mileage ever recorded in any of my training. I'm so glad this week turned out well, at least where running is concerned.

My next posting should be on mental preparation - though I don't have the materials yet. Will pop off to bed now.