Marathon Post #17

Pain is just in the head

Stress, physically and mentally

• Training Week: 16
• Weeks to Go: 19
• Days to Go: 138
• KM last Week: 42,7
• KM vs LW: +1,5

The storm had to lay low for a week, I think I explained a lot already in my post last week. Last week has been manic and I barely had any time to write about anything although I have so much to write about.

Here is a little run-down of each of my runs since my last running post:

Wednesday 6.6. - Berikon 🇨🇭

• Weather: Pleasant 18 degrees
• Distance: 6,23 km
• Time: 32:53 mins
• Pace: 5:17 min/km
• Avg Cadence: 169 spm
• Training Effect: 3,5
• Company: Alone
• Goal: First day of 3 in a row to get used to running on tired legs

Recap

D-Day, a day to stand still at and also the first day I wanted to do a real spm test as my buddies @toofasteddie, @cstrimel & @run.vince.run had been advising. I wasn't aware of this 'training function' on my watch, but I found it a few days ago and decided to use it with 6x1000m and 1 min rests in between. I didn't know I also had to activate it by pressing the 'lap' button, so this first one went wrong.

Whilst I started really good and even set a new record for fastest KM (4:19) I lost my motivation due to the non-functioning of my watch and I also started too fast, so I couldn't maintain it. However it did pay off on my other runs throughout the week as they were faster despite feeling tired and even suffering with a lower-backache. My cadence was really good and my max cadence was 210 spm, so I'm proud of this first result and I have the basis to work upon. I know now that it pays off.

Thursday 7.6. - Pfäffikon 🇨🇭

• Weather: 21 degrees and it had been raining before
• Distance: 11,01 km
• Time: 1:01:34 mins
• Pace: 5:35 min/km
• Avg Cadence: 155 spm
• Training Effect: 4,4
• Company: the first 2 KM with a colleague, the rest alone
• Goal: Second day of 3 in a row and adding distance to increase the tiredness effect

Recap

It was warm and I had back pains, so I decided that I wanted to take it slow, but ensure that I'd make it to the end. Distance was all that I cared about, I tried to focus on spm, but with the backpain that wasn't easy. I did feel better when I was moving, but it was still hampering me. Besides that it was also very warm and I really didn't want to overdo it. It still was a good run under any circumstances and this is due to the fact that I kept focussing on keeping a steady spm. My max was only 170 spm, but still good enough as I was steady.

Friday 8.6. - Pfäffikon 🇨🇭

• Weather: 22 degrees and changeable
• Distance: 6,29 km
• Time: 32:14 mins
• Pace: 5:07 min/km
• Avg Cadence: 157 spm
• Training Effect: 4,2
• Company: Alone
• Goal: Third day of 3 in a row and running on tired legs

Recap

I wanted to take it easy, I still had pains, but my tired legs carried me by themselves and I think I automatically made bigger steps. I had a good constant pace and high intensity. I felt really good afterwards and my pains were barely bothering me. Again my highest spm did not go over 170

Sunday 10.6. - Oberwil 🇨🇭

• Weather: 18 degrees and already warm and sunny
• Distance: 19,14 km
• Time: 1:47:34 mins
• Pace: 5:37 min/km
• Avg Cadence: 159 spm
• Training Effect AN / AE: 5,0 / 5,0
• Company: with my neighboor for the last 11 km
• Goal: distance, distance, distance

Recap

I set off early as it was going to be a warm day. I felt really good and rested, but the backache was still with me, although it was much less than before. I started slow as I had to go uphill and then picked up the pace. This was a good strategy as I had a normal/good first 8 km in around 43 minutes. My neighboor then joined me for the 11 km run, which was at a nice average pace and I even made a bit time to drink a bit of my energy drink, to ensure that I kept my hydration levels and sodium levels up. I just learnt that I am losing a lot of salt during running and this could hamper my success on M-Day, so that's something I have to work on.

The run was good as it was really warm and we also had to do plenty of climbing. In total I climbed 252 altitude meters on the day. I had a nice cadence of 159 spm with a max of 186 (which was probably downhill) . Altogether it was a good run under hot circumstances, but the feeling of accomplishment was even better because of that.

Here are my 4 longest runs in comparison with one another:

Conclusion

A difficult week, but I kept going. I learnt that I have a pretty steady pace of around 160 spm, this is something that I'll try to improve in the future to help with endurance, but it's good to fall back on that basis as it also means an average of around 5:26 min/km. If I could maintain that for the full 42 km, I could finish the marathon under 4 hours, which will be a huge accomplishment.

As I'm writing this, my backaches have almost disappeared, so I know I did good to keep running, despite having the feeling of giving up a few times. This was not the kind of pain that could/should stop me. I feel that I have the mental discipline to finish a marathon when it comes to it on the day!

Below is the schedule that I'm aiming to stick to:

Thanks for your support!

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!steemitworldmap 47.334180 lat 8.386726 long Oberwil-Lieli, Aargau D3SCR