viernes, 15 de octubre de 2021

Catching up

 Wednesday 06/10 - After work I went to the turia park and was feeling very good from the race, the soreness has almost gone. The plan for that day was a 5k fartlek, so 5k with 1 min fast and 1 min slow. I warmed up 15 mins easy ( no strides) and then after a couple of mins I started the fartlek, fist km in 4:53, halfway in 12.34, then negative split to finish the 5k fartlek in 24:51 feeling pretty good. Then 15 mins cool down to home. Weather is improving nicely in fact the last time that was hot was on race day.

Thursday - After work ran easy in the blasco park and did 8 laps in 45:53 incorporating 6 strides to loosen up from Wednesday´s workout. Felt good.

Friday - I ran in the morning at 6 a.m. and I ran alone, lately I am running alone. Did the maximo gomez route feeling pretty good. Finished the 8.3k in 52:12.

Saturday - That morning at 7:30 a.m. I did a 6k tempo run in the harbor, I was supposed to do it with my brother, but He bailed so I had to do it alone again. I warmed up easy 17:16 to the harbor , again no strides. I just started my workout after a couple of mins walking. I only checked the first km in 4:50, huffing and puffing a bit, but I felt that I could sustain the pace, as opposed as my last tempo on the Turia park. Then did not look at the watch again, but pressed the split button in the halfway. Turned around feeling good but breathing hard, but did not felt like dying. Hang in there and finished the 6k in 29:36 with the half in 14:39. So 18 seconds positive split, but finally I could break 30 mins with a lot of margin. Next step is sub 29 mins though. 16:57 cool down to home.

Sunday - At 7:30 a.m. very dark, I went out to do my long run alone again at the port. Felt pretty good and the sun never hit hard. The weather was pretty good. I think that I averaged sub 6 mins per km, Did 2 mins negative split. 90 mins total feeling strong.

6 runs for the week and 2 workouts, though that I was going to be tired from the race, but felt pretty good.

Monday 11/10 - Planned rest

Tuesday - Tuesday was a public holiday so I ran in the morning at 08:30 a.m. when it was clear. i was going to do an interval workout, but my brother was doing a 11k run at marathon pace which on paper is 5:30 per km. I did not feel like running intervals alone, so I decided to do 10k at his pace to work on aerobic threshold. I warmed up for 18:30 to the Turia park, no strides, no nothing, only 18 mins of easy running and the goal was 10k at 54:59. First km was in 5:33 feeling easy, second was 5:35, we were slower than the goal, so I started to speed up a bit to make up the lost time, but my brother did not respond, so from then on, I ran alone until the end. 3rd km came in 5:23 (16:31), 4th km came in 5:27 (21:58), I was feeling pretty good at that point, but did not want to run alone. Halfway came in 27:23, so 5:25 for that km, then I turned around and encouraged my brother, but after the halfway I just started running less than 5:20 per km without even trying, 6th came in 32:40 (5:17), 7th came in 38:01 (5:21), felt pretty good although started to feel thirsthy, but my effort was very controlled like an almost an easy run. 8k  came in 43:18, and that point I knew that I could run sub 54 mins if I just kept that pace. 9th km came in 48:36, then just tried to keep the same effort until the end, but was very thirsty. Finished the 10k in 53:51 feeling very strong and good. The weather was ok. In the second half it heated up some. My brother passed the 10k in 54:58 so he did negative split, then did another km. He is training for the Sevilla marathon, but He confesed that right now he could not sustain that pace for a marathon. 18 mins for cool down to home, I was feeling thirsty, so I wanted to get home asap. Around 15.6-15.7k for the day. Felt solid. And the workouts in the past two weeks show that I did a bad race in the ibercaja 10k, I know I can run sub 50 mins. I already sign up for the 10k Ibercaja 2022 on January, but times cannot be comparable, because you cannot compare the weather on January and on October.

Wednesday - Ran at 06:00 a.m. with my brother, did the maximo gomez route in 54:50. Was just rolling pretty easy to recover from the workout the day before. It was not too taxing, but it was not an easy runs by anymeans. 8.3k.

Thursday - Ran at 06:00 a.m. with my brother, but this time we changed routes, I went to his house and did 4 laps to the 1.6k block that they have. Total time was 51:39, so I guess it was just over 8k. Felt pretty good.

Today ( Friday) - I went out at 5:53 a.m. I did not want to run easy as the last 2 days had been pretty easy, so I went to the turia park and did 4 x 1000m instead. The weather was pretty good. Warmed up easy 15:40 to the Turia, then stopped for about 5 mins and then the 4  x 1000m with 400m jog recovery started. I felt pretty good on those, I am sure the weather helped. On the first 2 I think there was a head wind and in the last 2 a bit of a tailwing, but all in all felt good. Splits were 4:28,4:26,4:16,4:16. I d love that at least some of them would be sub 4 mins, but thats all I can give at the moment. Then did 15:04 to cool down to home. Total was around 6 miles for the day.I  got home even before 7 a.m.. Nice workout and very happy with effort and execution, but not necessarily for the times.

Tomorrow I ll rest, because it will by a travel day. I am vising my father and family to Dominican Republic , I have not been there in 4 years, so its time to get back, We will be there for 2 weeks, so it should be fun, also its going to be nice to run again in the parque iberoamerica and parque mirador, both mentioned a lot of times on this blog. 

We will see how it goes. Also I had been running 6 times per week since I beated Covid and I could run again on August 1, so for the last 10-11 weeks I had been running 6 times without fail. I love being consistent.

Have a great week!

martes, 5 de octubre de 2021

Catching up and Ibercaja 10k 2021

Wednesday 29/09 - After work at 07:00 p.m.  I did an interval workout. The plan was to run controlled and thats what I did. Warmed up 15:30 including 5 x 50m strides and then did 5 x 800s with 400m jog rest in between. 15 mins cool down to home. Splits were 3:40, 3:37, 3:30, 3:24, 3:19. Started controlled and worked in crescendo. Felt pretty good and strong. 

Thursday 30/09 -  After work ran in the blasco park 8 laps, did 48:01. Was tired from intervals the day before so I took it easy. Pace felt faster though.  Got dark very early in the run.

Friday - 01/10 - Up early, went out at 06 a.m. to do a short run. Did a shorter version of the Blasco Maximo Gomez route. Completed 40 mins easy.

Saturday - 02/10 -  This is the run that nobody wants to do, the run before a race. I went out at 8:45 a.m. to the blasco park and did 6 laps in 33:13 and completed 45 mins. In the last 2 laps did 6 strides and the last 2 laps were done in 5:04 and 5:05 ( the lap).

Sunday  - 03/10 -  This was the Ibercaja 10k -  This is the race that I have been training for basically for the last 2 months. I was dissapointed with the result, but its what it is. Did 50:45 and I was shooting for sub 50 mins. I race without a watch, and if I would have worn a watch the result would have been much worse and I would have been frustrated by halfway. After the race I saw that I crossed the halfway in 25:01 and the second half was done in 25:44,but in the 3rd km I knew that I did not have it. My brother ran the race, and he passed me in the first 1.2k, then built a gap of 50m or so for the rest of the race till the 9.1-9.2k, where I finally caught him and gave him encouragment, but I really finished hard, He also finished hard as he finished just only 4 seconds behind. I did not want to sprint with him, thats why I built a gap as soon as I passed him. Overall felt strong and finished feeling pretty good, the thing is that I can talk normally during the race, but the legs wont move any faster, contrary to a lot of people that they are breathing hard like they are dying, but passed me. It was a fun race, the course was ok, although I liked more the 10k sanitas course and the 15k nocturna course. In the first km I had a lot of problems, I had to dodge a lot of people and sometimes had to slow down to a jog, that really affected me, but no excuses. I wanted sub 50 mins and I missed the goal and I really had to finished really hard and that saved me to go over 51 mins. You win or learn. The good news is that I am not so sore and tomorrow ( I write this on Tuesday 05/10) I will do a workout, a bit sore, but feeling ok.

Monday - Planned rest day

Tuesday -  Today I woke up early and was out with my brother to run at 06:00a .m., We did the Maximo Gomez route which I finished the 8.3k in 53:31. I want to get back to my morning runs, it seems that I was running better running in the morning. Also have the evening to do other things. Anyway, the important thing is the end is the consistency. Sooner or later I will be back to sub 50 mins the 10k. I only had 2 months of preparation for this race when I was cured from COVID so I am glad that I can train normally. A lot people could not see the next day.

Have a great night!