Marathon training week 11

After a solid weeks training I am feeling good about my progress towards this marathon, now with only four weeks to go. My keys runs were all executed as planned this week, Tuesday hills was a strong day where I added an extra repeat on the 1.9km  hill section, intervals went to plan with 8 x 4 min efforts that met my goal pace. My long run earlier today went as planned 3 hours in duration an 36km completed over an undulating course. I tested my fitness with a 5km park run yesterday and managed a 17:51 over the course. This represents 1 min 30 sec quicker than a fortnight earlier. Overall I completed 73km this week and happy with my progress.

All my runs were in my Gladsoles trail sandals this week. With winter ending very soon it was even time to run without socks during parkrun. I’m fully committed to running this marathon in these sandals and very confident that they are the best footwear choice.

This week sees a similar training volume. I aim to increase my long run 3 hour 30 min, this will be my last standard long run before the marathon with my 3 x 14km effort at goal pace in the following week rounding out my long training. Intervals will again be 4 min efforts with 60 sec recovery, this 4:1 effort to rest ratio is tough in the latter efforts but really good at building speed during a fatigued state. Hills will again be run on Tuesday and over the usual hill area I run.

Monday – Rest

Tuesday – Hill repeats

Wednesday – Aerobic 40 min

Thursday – Rest

Friday – Long run (3 hour 30 min)

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Intervals (10 x 4 min 60 sec recovery)

Some tough runs planned during this week, but this is the stage of the training program that I need to be running my best and making sure I can handle what the marathon throws at me in four weeks time. Looking forward to the challenge of pushing hard over the next couple of weeks.