SCSM - 7 days to go

After going through my blog on the 14 weeks schedule of trainings, which by the way was side tracked a couple of weeks by a pulled hamstring and hip adductor, I seem to have done pretty well on some points but not others;
Good points;
1. LSDs were completed as planned.
2. Most week day runs and LSDs were on target pace.
3. After implementing key points of 'chi' running, running form and speed has improved significantly, as well as issues with the ankle and hamstring.
4. Mileage was pretty good.

Not so good points;
1. Total mileage was much lower than planned. I was hoping to hit 825km in the last 12 weeks, but it looks like I'll be hitting slightly more than 600k by end of next week's race.
2. 2 weeks considered gone, due to the hamstring/hip adductor problem. Has gone away for the last month or so, and didn't act up during the last 3 LSDs, though.
3. Not enough speed training, no hill training, and a tad too much tempo.
4. 10k pace will not be hitting close to 13kph by end of the year, more likely 12.5kph. Anyway there is always next year.
5. Got the flu the last few days, maybe due to running in the rain for most of my runs for the last 3 weeks, and also going into the taper period. I ran only 31k this week compared to 66k. Suppossedly, I was supposed to cut last week's to something like 45k (just had to squeeze in that last LSD!), so the drop off may have triggered the 'lower immunity syndrome' due to tapering.

Hopefully, I will be able to recover by mid week, and I will be running very minimal mileage this week, mostly due to travel. By Saturday, I should have done only 20k max, with 5k on Monday, 30min Tuesday and Wed, none on Thur, maybe 20min on Sat morning. Hopefully, all this will be done on a interval of 12-13kph for at least half the time.

Keeping my fingers crossed, I hope I will at least get a 4:15 for this run. Until then....

On the Mend, with not much time left

Week 5/14 held a bit more promise in my recovery, but I eased off quite significantly. I ran 6k on Monday at a reasonable 11k/hr pace, but took Tuesday and Wednesday off. On Thursday morning, I averaged about 10.7k/hr for 6k as well.

Today, I only mustered 7.5k at about 10k/hr with 2 walk breaks. Running in the later morning didn't help with temperatures climbing.

The hip adductor and hamstring twinges had reduced over the week, but I could feel it at the beginning of the runs and there would be "gentle" reminders that the 2 areas were still under some stress.

With the 3k Ekiden relay tomorrow, I didn't want to push myself too much today. If all things went well, I should be shadowing my friend in his ironman race later tomorrow for the 21k running leg.

It should be interesting, since I've never run a 21k after 11am...

Injury setback......

I've been really trying to push up my weekly mileage since early Sept in order to get on schedule.

I managed to get to 51km for the week 1 and 55km for week 2 of my 14 week marathon program.

However, I managed to ignore the tingling in my hamstring and inner thigh.

Week 3 started off a bit rough, after that things started to go downhill. The pain in the hamstring and inner thigh got to the point where I was practically limping when I started my run on Friday.

After the first km, I wised up and did an about turn.

For the last 4 days, I tried to cycle and swim and limit my runs to very short distances.

The situation has improved some what, but I will need to monitor the pain levels closely as further deterioration may setback the whole schedule by a month and not 2 weeks.

Oh well....