100.5 km in the week of June 28 to July 4th

One of the goals that I set out to do this year was to increase my weekly mileage to reach 100km+, I achieved that goal last week. I did 100.55 km in 8:20:51 @4:59/km and I burned a total of 8568 calories! It feels great to have achieved one more milestone in my running activity. I also did a Yasso 800 during the week and here is the details of the track work.


when I compare this to my first Yasso 800, I see some improvements, on an average I have improved about 8 seconds on the 800 and I was able to do 5 laps out of the door now compared to only 3 last year. In addition, my Max heart rate did not cross 175 where are last year it was 177 so 2 heart beats slower and 8 seconds faster.

Based on the above, my average speed split pace for 1 km is 3 min 51 seconds, which extrapolates to 2 hours 42 min 31 seconds... for a marathon. Of course we cannot do a linear projection. But I am sticking to this projection as my best effort time.

Powerade - Midnight Run: 44:17 PB

Ran the Reykjavik Powerade Midnight run 10k race in 44 min 17 sec... here is the official result. This was my personal best and I improved from 46:03 last year so it is almost 2 minutes improvement. Based on this run, my projected time for the Reykjavik Marathon is 3:23:12 still 9 minutes slower than what I need for Boston. The good thing is I know what I need to do to push myself for the next 2 months. It is going to really hard work! Hey, no-one told me that it was going to be easy

Reykjavik Marathon 2010 Training Plan - Goal 3:15:00 - Destination Boston

click to enlarge

Well, here is my training plan for the next 10 weeks before the Reykjavik Marathon. The goal is to qualify for Boston Marathon with a time of 3:15:00, many that I have mentioned this to have looked at me like I was stating something like I am flying to the Moon in the next 10 weeks! Well, criticism and nay sayers aside... I shall focus and build on the base that I have started my training on. I feel good and I can see that my endurance and speed are increasing and I know that there is no substitute for hard work and perseverance. 'noph said

Running Stats so far - first 5km race on first day of Summer

Image by Nwardez via Flickr

I have been keeping with the running regime but have not been blogging... shame on me! anyways, here is the summary of my running in 2010 and it has not been bad.


I have registered to run a 5km race on the first day of summer (today!) and the goal is to run as hard as I can and set my first 5km PB. The race starts at 12:00 noon in downtown Reykjavik... I have run this race route before and it is pretty flat except for a small hill stretching about 300m.

Goal for the rest of the year:
1. 100km a week and push it to 150km
2. Start swimming to train for Iron Man in 2012.
3. Run Reykjavik Marathon
4. Qualify for Boston Marathon

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Gave up after 35 km...

I was very disappointed after a horrible run last sunday. I managed to run 35 km in 3:06:54 @5:19/km... I think I have to blame myself for the dismal performance. The weather was horrible, it was windy, rainy and down right depressing when I looked out the window when I woke up around 7am. I was quite surprised with the games my mind was playing I have never been intimated by the weather before and I have run in much harsher weather so I don´t know what the issue was. I guess mentally I am getting tired of training, I need to start running with a group to keep up the training regime.

To get down to the specifics, almost 8 km I was running against the wind, which felt horrible and I just could not push myself to keep up a good pace. It felt like the wind was 10 to 15 m/sec, of course it feels horrible when your mind tells  you all that is wrong with the run. I am more motivated than I have ever been to get back into doing more speed work and tempo runs to improve my speed.

Core Workout

I found these exercises to be very useful... they basically work your abdomen and back, I have started doing Rope Yoga which is excellent for the core as well.

Core Exercise 1
Core Exercise 2
Core Exercise 3

Running update before Reykjavik Half Marathon 2009

Reykjavik Marathon 2009 is next week and I plan to run a half marathon with a time goal of 1:45:00. I have posted an update until end of July and my training plan, the running stats in August so far stands at:

Distance (km): 130.05
Time: 10:56:06
Avg. Pace (min/km): 5:03
Avg. Speed (km/hr): 11.9
Calories: 11,416
Avg kms per day: 8.1


Image by skipio in Flickr

Summary of training 2008 & 2009

Here is a summary of my training in 2008 & 2009:

11 week - Runners World Training Schedule

Here's your individualized training program:

Your current race time is: 0:46:03  for a 10 K Your distance training goal is: Marathon You currently train: 41 - 48 km/week How hard you want to train: Hard Your long-run day: Sunday Your training program Starts: Monday, 7/20/2009 Ends: Sunday, 10/4/2009 Length of your training schedule: 11 weeks

Wk Dat Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri Sat Sun Total 1 7/20 7/26 Rest/XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:41 Rest/XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest/XT Long Run Dist: 16 km @5:41 42 km 2 7/27 8/2 Rest/XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:41 Rest/XT Speedwork Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 2x1600 in 7:14 w/800 jogs; Cool Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest/XT Long Run Dist: 19 km @5:41 45 km 3 8/3 8/9 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 22 km @5:41 46 km 4 8/10 8/16 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:41 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 10 km, inc Warm; 6 km @ 4:48; Cool Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:41 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 26 km @5:41 50 km 5 8/17 8/23 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 40 km 6 8/24 8/30 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:37 Rest / XT Speedwork Dist: 11 km, inc Warm; 3x1600 in 7:09 w/800 jogs; Cool Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:37 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 29 km @5:37 51 km 7 8/31 9/6 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:37 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 10 km, inc Warm; 6 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:37 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 32 km @5:37 54 km 8 9/7 9/13 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 11 km, inc Warm; 8 km @ 4:48; Cool Easy Run Dist: 10 km @5:37 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 26 km @5:37 57 km 9 9/14 9/20 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 8 km @5:34 Rest / XT Speedwork Dist: 13 km, inc Warm; 4x1600 in 7:05 w/800 jogs; Cool Easy Run Dist: 6 km @5:34 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 32 km @5:34 59 km 10 9/21 9/27 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:34 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:40; Cool Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:34 Rest / XT Long Run Dist: 13 km @5:34 31 km 11 9/28 10/4 Rest / XT Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:41 Rest / XT Tempo Run Dist: 8 km, inc Warm; 5 km @ 4:45; Cool Easy Run Dist: 5 km @5:41 Rest / XT Marathon Race Day 26.2 miles @5:04 Time: 3:34:26 60 km

Legend Example What it Means Easy Run Dist: 3km @8:00 Run a total distance of 3 kilometers at a pace of 8 minutes per kilometer. Speedwork Dist: 8km, inc Warm; 3x800 in 4:00 w/400 jogs; Cool Run a total distance of 8 kilometers. Your run should include: - a warmup of about 1.5km - 3 repeats of 800 meters each; each repeat should take 4 minutes - a 400-meter recovery jog after each repeat - a cooldown of about 1.5 km Note: Warmups and cooldowns are generally 1.5 km each. But on some days, you'll need to make them longer to reach the total distance for your run. Rest /XT Take a rest day, or do moderate cross-training activity. Race Day Dist: 5K @5:00  Time: 20:00 On a race day, run your 5K at a 5-minute per kilometer pace. Your time will be 25:00.

Wonderful weather - a Motivator to run

We have been very lucky with the weather is Iceland so far and that has inspired and motivated me to run more this week although my mileage does not show that :) I have done about 55 kms so far this month. The reason for the slack in the mileage is the fact that I have not done any really long runs that I was doing last month. The longest that I did was 37km, the plan was to do a 40km the following weekend but it never happened as I went on vacation to the summer house and then I decided to do a 18km with a buddy of mine so net net it has not contributed to my mileage.

No worries, I did 15km yesterday and will be doing 10 to 15 km today and that should add to my miles this month.

11.45km run after a break

I wanted to work on a Yasso 800 speed workout on the track but met with some of my friends and ended up running 11.45km in 1:04 hours at an average pace of 5:39/km. It was an ok run given my Heart Rate was around 150 BPM and I was running quite easily the pace. Finished the run with some weight training and some core workout. So net net a good start after the one week break. The goal for this month is 180 km and I plan to do 40km this weekend. Here is the run details:

Cough and wife... stopping me from my 40k

Image via Wikipedia

Ok, thats a lousy excuse... but I have been coughing and not feeling 100% to go out for a 40k run. My wife has been threatening me with a divorse if I went out and did the run anyway! I figured it is better for me to take a short break and maybe do it next weekend. I wanted to do some research on distance that can be run as part of the training for the marathon:

1. Here is what Patric McCrann, author of the Irondistance Run Training eBook and a seven-time Ironman finisher and avid endurance runner had to say: 3 hour is the limit if you run for more than 3 hours then you are doing more damage to your body than train it.

2. Marathon Training says DO NOT run the whole marathon distance! I wonder why... the longest they recommend is 23 miles!

3. Greg McMillan has a very interesting strategy about long runs, he splits the goal of the long run into two

a) Long, Slow Distance Long run with the following objectives

1. Burn fat
2. Strengthen legs
3. Deal with mental and physical fatigue

b) Fast finish, Long run

1. Practise marathon goal pace
2. Practise equipment, nutrition, pre-race routine
3. Learn to run fast when tired

I like the second set of goals and here are the guidelines

1. Start easy but finish with last 30-90 minutes averaging marathon goal pace
2. Run last 1 to 3 miles as fast as you can
3. Complete 3 to 5 times before the actual race

11km slow run this morning

It was a nice slow run this morning for about 11 km, did a couple of hill workout during the run. Here is the split of the run by km:

The average pace was 5:26/km, which is the pace in which I ran my longest training run yet...

Longest training run yet: 36.07 km in 3hr 16min

Started running at 7:22 am on Sunday, the goal was to run 36 km but I did not have time goal... coming to think of it I should have. I ran the first 15km at an average pace of 4 min 54 sec, which I presumed was good enough to keep my overall average around 5:15 but I ended up doing 11 seconds slower. The average pace was 5 min 26 sec not terrible but still slower than I thought I would do.

Another thing I noticed was that I was much more tired during the run than I was in my previous long runs, I think the reason is due to lack of proper sleep. We just got a 8 week old black labradore puppy and she has been keeping us up in the night.

New running strategy

I had a great run this sunday, I started at 7:30 in the morning and did 32 km at an average pace of 5 min 13 seconds. But I found a very interesting thing about myself and my running strategy... I ran almost 20 km at an average pace of less than 5 min and I was not that tired even after doing that and the rest of the 12 km I was all over the place on pace depending on the terrain, if it was hilly I slowed down and if it was down hill I sped up net-net I only lost 13 seconds in my overall pace... what was even more interesting is that my average pace was 5:08 until the 29 km, I lost another 5 seconds per km in the last 3 kms.

New Strategy

Well, I think if I run as hard as I can in the first leg of the race and cover as much distance as I can then I can actually afford to slow down in the latter half and it does not affect my overall time that much. I am going to work on my speed and improve my fast pace say to around 4 min a km, I have a way to measure this during the Yasso Speed work, I am doing about 3:15 for 800m... I need to pick that up to 3:00

My first Yasso 800 track work

I followed up on the plan and did my first Yasso 800 speed work this afternoon and here is the result:

As can be seen I did 800 meters in

3 min 15 sec

3 min 12 sec

3 min 18 sec

which tells me if I can continue on this form and run the 800 meters in similar time when I repeat the Yasso runs with 5 laps and 10 laps, I should look for a finish time of 3 hours and 15 min for the marathon!

If I can accomplish that I can qualify for the Boston Marathon! Lets see how my training progresses... lots of "Ifs" :)

Running Goals

I have set some personal goals related to my running:

1. Register and run Chicago Marathon and New York Marathon

2. Qualify for Boston Marathon

3. Compete in Iron Man in 2012

I think all the goals are acheivable, if I am going to put in the work.

So, what are the challenges?

I need to improve my Marathon time by over 45 minutes to qualify for Boston

I need to learn swimming as I can barely survive in the water

Plans

I am running Chicago Marathon this october, and my goal there is to see how far I can push myself towards qualifying for Boston. In order to increase my time I am planning to do a lot more track runs. The plan is to start to do some track work today, I am going to run 3x800 at a pace of about 3 min 20 sec as recommended by Yasso below.

Chicago Marathon 2009 - October 11

I have registered to run the Chicago Marathon on October 11, 2009... I will be using this blog instead of my other blog to chronicle my preparation

Copenhagen Marathon 2008

I decided a couple of days ago to run the Copenhagen Marathon 2008. Here is the training schedule so far, I have to admit have not been running as regularly as I wanted to and that is one of the reason that I am signing up to run the Marathon. It forces me to work on a goal. Anyway, will be posting my training update on a regular basis. The weather in Iceland has been quite cold, it has been snowing more than ever.

Here is the training worksheet so far... I have had more practice runs than this but I did not capture it as it was on a treadmill.

Training Log Updated

I lost most of my training data just before the Reykjavik Marathon. But I have updated my training log with whatever I could salvage. I have to admit that it looks rather bleek with me just having run 152 kms so far, but I know that I had about 350 km or something like that before I ran the Reykjavik Marathon so I am feeling ok. I missed running a long run this weekend because I went to the sports massage and I was hurting after that... just wanted to heal before I took a long run.

I have been focusing on building up speed by doing more tempo and speed workouts. I have to admit I am not feeling very confident with my performance so far... lets see what the next couple of weeks transpires into.