Mon: 55min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides Complete. 12.06km. https://www.strava.com/activities/9644214494
Tue: 20 min warm up, 10 x 1k (first 5 @ 3:40 & second 5 @ 3:35) (60), 20 min cooldown. Complete. 3:35, 3:36, 3:35, 3;35, 3:35, 3:31, 3:30, 3:32, 3:25 and 3:23. 18.09km total. https://www.strava.com/activities/9650297218
Wed: 60min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides Complete. 12.73km. https://www.strava.com/activities/9657905623
Thur: 80 min easy Complete. 16.65km. https://www.strava.com/activities/9664681317
Fri: 20 min warm up, 5 x 2 k @ 3:50 km pace (60) 20 min cooldown Complete. 7:27, 7:26, 7:23, 7:21 (pitstop after 4) and 7:18. https://www.strava.com/activities/9670888876 and https://www.strava.com/activities/9670888810
Sat: 95 – 105 mins Complete. 21.26km. https://www.strava.com/activities/9676774578
Sun: Off
The trip back from Port Albon to Saint Ursanne, via a really weird vegan restaurant in the city of Biel, was uneventful and I caught up on some good rest on Sunday night. I ran easy on Monday morning and also got a good lie in. Starting out at 10:30, the heat was already in the 30’s. As draining as I am finding the heat, I’m happy for the exposure to it as that will likely be one of the limiting factors of a strong performance in Berlin. However, I don’t want too much exposure! I got out earlier on Tuesday for the track session of 10 x 1km in Alle, starting the session at 9am. The km repeats went very well. Again, they were faster than prescribed in the plan but always kept them comfortable. The last two were 3:25 and 3:23 and I still felt as good as the first two – definite progress there. It’s the good part of doing the same session two weeks in a row as you can directly measure your performance week on week. I didn’t eat much before this – one coffee, a slice of toast with peanut butter and a shedload of water – so it was basically fasted as well. I made sure to stock up good afterwards and ate my eight in barbeque goodness in the afternoon. I had intentions of doubling and getting out for a jog in the evening but instead opted for swimming in the river and relaxing. Stoked.
Wednesday was very similar to Monday and I started at 10:30 again, however, the heat was excruciating today. I brought water with me and had the 500ml drank after 30 mins in. The terrain I’m doing the easy runs on is rolling undulations the whole time so it’s easy to slip into a harder effort without noticing immediately, only to find yourself gassed after a minute or so. I’ve become much more weary of this happening and managed the effort well enough on this run. I was tired on Thursday morning so the 80 minutes where very chilled. I threw in a couple of strides (2 x 20 secs) at the end as my glutes and hips where feeling pretty tight. I didn’t feel them loosening up immediately but did a decent stretch and foam roll afterwards.
I had planned to run the session on Friday on a 4km stretch of road close to Saint Ursanne but this road was closed off due to a rally in the town and the mountains this weekend. The river isn’t suitable for sessions so I hopped in the car and headed for the track at Alle. In keeping with what is now tradition, I ran a little quicker than prescribed for the reps but, again, within the realm of comfort. It’s a little tougher on the brain doing the longer repeats on the track but I also enjoy switching off from the watch and just counting the laps as they go. The heat was grand at the beginning but it hotted up pretty violently towards the end (34 degrees by 10am, absolutely scandalous carry on) so thankfully I missed the worst of that. I did have to take a toilet break after the fourth rep but all good finishing out the session.
I depart Switzerland on Sunday so I moved my long run to Saturday. Again the route was disrupted due to the rally but not as much of an issue than it would be with a session. The reduced minutes on feet for this run is part of a mini taper for next weeks Clonmel Half. I rain 95 minutes out along a couple different routes on the river, with the rolling hills, and just rain to effort without checking the watch. I wore the New Balance Fuel Cell (non carbon) which are at the end of their life span now – I really felt my feet pounding off the ground. The run was nice though and great to get one last outing in Saint Ursanne after what has been a pretty successful trip – last Friday’s workout notwithstanding. Investing the time to travel for training and doing my best to put myself in tough situations, with the heat, altitude and new routes, has been a great experience. I’ll definitely be incorporating it into future marathon build ups and can hopefully wrangle some folk to join me for the training and the craic. À bientôt, Switzerland.
Buckets of Rain 