Catching up

 It seems that I am posting once a week at least. To be honest  I dont like posting every two weeks, but I dont use the laptop everyday and lazyness as well. Having said that, its much better to post once a day.

Sunday October 4th -  That day we ran early at 7 something I went out so that we could watch the London marathon. I went to the Cabecera park, did one lap there and after that I started my progression, where I ran those 5k in 25:20s confortable. I finished the run in 1:37:49, what I suspect was 17k or something like that. The weather has improved so much, that you are not that thirsty at the end of the run. Pace before the progression was around 6:10 per km or something like that.

Monday October 5th - After work at 7:20 p.m. I did 8 laps in the blasco park watchless very easy to recover from the weekend. Felt good, but my left glute was bothering me. It started bothering me in the fast part of my long run on Sunday.

Tuesday October 6th - After work again, I ran watchless and did 8 laps incorporating 6 strides from laps 6 to 8 laps.  In the first stride the glute was bothering me, but in the second onwards it was fine. Felt good during the run. The weather is getting cooler and its getting dark way earlier.

Wednesday October 7th - Today I had to run my interval workout alone, because my brother wanted to go to the track to watch Cheptegei smash the 10k world record, I said that I was going to watch by TV, I suspected that given these Virus times, it would be difficult to watch it live, so I planned my workout normally. I went out before 7 pm. to the Turia park and warmed up 15:30 incorporating 5  x 50m strides to loosen up. The plan today was to run 1 x 1600m, 2 x 1000m, 1 x 400m, 2 x 200m. All with half distance recovery, except the 200s where I recovered 200m. Splits were 6:52, 4:16,4:14, 1:35, 43, 41. In the mile I felt solid and strong, but after that I felt my legs too heavy and when I finished the 1k repeats, my breathing was very heavy. I had to stop for a bit for my last 200s where I could catch my breath again and finish hard. Its rare that I am that out of breath given the paces, but that was the case today. I liked that 1600m split though. Maybe I should have gone out slower, but you have to go for it. I never looked at the watch during that 1600m, I just ran by effort and pressed the split button in the 1k mark, which was 4:17. 16 mins cool down home. My left glute was bothering me in the first stride in my warm up, it felt fine after that though.

Thursday October 08th -  I left work too late, and on Friday it was holiday, so I could run in the morning, and thats what I did. I skip the run on Thursday. 

Friday October 09th -  That day I am officially off until October 28th off work. On Friday I ran at 9 something am. I ran watchless in the blasco park, did 4 laps easy, but then I had to come home because I had stomach problems, did my thing, then went back again to the blasco park and did another 4 laps, for 8 laps total, but adding the extra distance or coming home and going back to the park and then coming back again, so maybe did 7.8k total. I felt way better in the second 4 laps than I did in the first 4 laps. Much looser. 

Saturday October 10th - On Saturday my brother and I had planned to run 10k in under 50 mins, I was targeting 49:59. I warmed up 15 mins incorporating 5 x 50m fast strides before starting. I knew that it was going to be hard, but I thought that I could run 49 mins " easily". The weather was fine, but the himidity was high as I was soaking wet when I stopped the watch at 8k. Yes I bagged the tempo at 8k. If I finished the 10k, I would probably have forced more than neccesary. Or maybe it was weakness, I kind of regretted afterward, but my breathing was very forced at that point and the pace was slipping. Thats why I dont wear a watch in races, because if you are very tired and the splits are not helping, personally, that plays with my mind. I would rather run by fee. I honestly was running the tempo by splits, and was ignoring effort level. You live and learn. At least I did the 8k at the prescribed pace and did negative split. The splits per km were 5:00,5:02,4:57, 4:59 ( this is the km of rolling terrain and those hills hurt at fast paces),  5:00, crossed the 5k at 25:00 exactly, I thought that I could run a huge negative split, because I was feeling good at that point, I tried to accelerate and did the next two in 4:54 (29:55  for 6k), and 4:55 (34:50 for 7k), at that point my breathing was very labored and when I crossed the 8th km in 5:02 (39:52 for the 8k), it was a 1 second decesion. I decided to stop and started walking waiting for my brother, but my brother lasted a while to comeby, because he had aborted in the 6th km. We were running together up until the 3rd, then I started to put a gap, but in the 5k he crossed it at 5:12 and the next one he crossed it in 5:27 (30:39 for 6k). At that point I had 44 seconds on him. Anyway, we were both dissapointed with our performances, then I did 20-25 mins cool down to home. Next time I will look at the watch in the first km, and then dont look at it, and listen to the body instead of the splits. Thats what I did in the next day`s progression. Around 12k for the day or something like that.

Sunday October 11th - Yesterday at 6 p.m. I drank 3 beers, but those did not set me too well, but in the moment they were great and those does not affect my run, because the last 2 times that i have drank beer the day before my progression, the progression has been great. The plan today was to do the progression based on how I felt, I felt a bit sore from the tempo the day before, so I wore my watch in case I felt good and that was the case. I even started the progression in the cabecera park with hills and rollin terrain. But as opposed to what I do most weeks, I only looked at the watch in the first km marked in the turia park, then did not look at the watch until I finished the run.The pace was happy from the get go, since I got to the Turia park in 13:35, which is fast ( easy effort of course), we always got there in 14:00-14:20, then the next km marked was 5:54, so right there I knew that it was going to be a good day, still was not sure if I was going to do the progression or not, I did not want to over do it.My brother was right there with me, but when we enter the cabecera park I was feeling good, I did not start the formal progression right there, but the pace was faster than last weeks, then I almost take the wrong turn and lost around 10 seconds or so, but then I knew the route and started to increase pace to my progression pace and kept at that pace for the next 30 mins. I took the splits, but did not look at the watch. Lap in the cabecera park was 11:56. Then did 5k in 5:13,5:07,5:07,5:06, 5:05. To be honest those paces felt relaxed and I was feeling pretty strong, did not have the pressure of time, since I did not look at the watch and was running enteraly on feel. My brother also did a progression and He ran faster than me in the last 5k. Then we ran easy to home and  I finished the same run as last week in 1:33:35. So 4:14 faster than last week. That was because the pace was faster from the get go and we started the progression way earlier today. I could say that I did 6+ kms at marathon effort today. You have to teach your body to run faster when tired. The weather was much better than Saturday and we both felt very strong. Very happy with how I am running my long runs. A 90 min run is not so mentally taxing as before and now I kind of look forward to my long runs.

Monday October 12 ( yesterday) - Public holiday in Spain, but today I ran solo at 6:40 p.m., no morning run today. I was feeling sore and my left was bothering, all muscular of course. Ironically, After the first lap I started to feel pretty good and finished the 8 laps feeling great. Ran watchless and the weather was fantastic. The pace was easy, but not a stroll as I thought it would be given the hard weekend of training. 7.2k total watchless.