Marathon Training: Week Five

Less Work, More Running

Monday 8th, the first day of my week five schedule, was the final day of work before the Spring Festival holiday. The holiday didn’t officially start until two days later, but my company forced everyone to take two days off beforehand using their annual leave. (Force is a bit of a strong word; most people would probably choose to do so if given the option themselves.)

That means two weeks with no work where I can really get down to accumulating some of those long slow miles that my training thus far has been missing. I’ll be cramming in lots of long, slow runs and recovery runs over the next two weeks before cutting back on my mileage when we all return to work.

The holiday is also allowing me to run outside a lot more, rather than wearing down the treadmills at the office. Throw in the combination of added recovery runs (at a slow pace) and being at home all day, and it’s opening up the opportunity to get out and run with Nhung more often than in the past, which is nice.

Speed Work (Monday) — 10 x 400m at 15km/h:

The last day of work and my last day of access to the gym for two weeks. I’ve got used to doing these speed sessions on a treadmill, where I can control the pace perfectly in a way that would be impossible to moderate on the roads. I’m not sure I could home in on 15km/h very easily on my own, and certainly not quickly enough to make it work with 400m repeats.

Because of this, I rearranged my running schedule so that I could cram in my speed work on the last day before, and the first day after, the holiday, leaving me with nothing but long runs and tempo runs to pace myself with on the roads.

This particular speed work session didn’t pose any major problems. Despite involving two more repeats than the 400m session from week one, it wasn’t enough of an increase to cause me trouble and I coped with it just as well as similar speed sessions from previous weeks.

Long Slow Run (Tuesday) — 17km at 7km/h:

Day one of the holiday and I kicked things off with a long, slow, easy run after breakfast. This holiday is a good opportunity for me to add in some more aerobic base work and so both this week and next are likely to be full of these lighter, easier runs.

Tempo Run (Wednesday) — 8.5km at 12.7km/h:

My first tempo run outside and the first genuinely enjoyable tempo run of the program, this run was all about the Velociti 2s. I hadn’t felt overly enamoured with these shoes up until this point; I hadn’t disliked them as such, they just didn’t pop out at me as particularly comfortable or fast-feeling.

Now I’m wondering if that might have something to do with me using them exclusively on the treadmill, because when I laced them up and got going outside they felt light and effortlessly fast. The miles seemed to fly by with an ease that I haven’t felt in any tempo run so far.

I can honestly say that I enjoyed every second of this run, even taking the whole thing at above target speed. I’m looking forward to next week’s run to see if this was a one off or if these shoes really do come into their own out on the road. If they do, then it’s just a shame I’ll be back to the treadmill once the holiday ends.

Recovery Run (Thursday) — 6km at 6.8km/h and 4km at 7.7km/h:

Why two runs, you ask? Well, because I went for a short, easy recovery run in the morning just to get me nice and ready for the day ahead, and then Nhung decided that she’d like to give this newfangled exercise thing a go too and so we headed out for a super-easy jog along the riverside in the evening.

Long Run (Friday) — 23km at 11.3km/h:

My long run the week before had been surprisingly hard, and so I was feeling a little nervous about this one. However, I really needn’t have, as in the end it was fairly routine. I was still a little behind the top end of my target pace, but it certainly felt a lot more comfortable than the previous iteration.

Recovery Run (Saturday) — 4.5km at 8km/h:

There was no run in the morning after a solid effort the day before, but we took another husband and wife trot out and back along Suzhou Creek after dusk. Nhung made it an extra 500m compared to last time before throwing in the towel, which is pretty decent progress for someone who’s very much starting out.

Long Slow Run (Sunday) — 14km at 7.1km/h:

Sunday was all about taking it easy and aerobic base building with a very slow saunter out and back along the Greenway before lunch. I was lucky enough to get pretty good weather for the whole of the holiday and even managed to get a run or two in without my hat and scarf.

Here’s hoping spring is just around the corner, although you never can tell in China, where temperatures tend to be highly capricious.