Media Maraton de Aspe - Job Done

After missing my PB last month in Elda by just 3 seconds I was extremely relieved to get the job done today, knocking 22 seconds off my best according to my official time, 46 seconds by my start to finish line time.

After every run, PB or not, there is always a slight feeling of, maybe I could have gone quicker. At the start of the year I had a 90 minute half marathon as a target and I didn't manage to make it, but I'm really pleased with today's result. On a freezing cold day (it was actually freezing, it was the first time I've seen a frozen puddle here in 16 months), and after a less than ideal build-up I managed to run my best ever half. If I compare my situation to this time last year I can look forward with real optimism. After a very bad day in Elda in November last year I picked up my training, when January came things had improved and I ran a 1:34:40 half and was very pleased with that at the time. I'll finish 2009 with a much better level of fitness than I started, so touch wood, it will lead to a more successful year ahead with all my targets achieved.

The race was fairly well organized, it wasn't the most interesting of circuits but it was in a small town in the middle of nowhere, its difficult to make it exciting. But the thing they do well is to provide a great bag of goodies at the end. I came home with a technical t-shirt, a towel, a loaf of bizcocho and a big box of grapes. The t-shirt and towel are both red, and since I never wear red I'll probably never use them but hopefully i'll find a home for them.

The next half is in Santa Pola, its basically up and down the beach so almost completely flat and it should be a good deal warmer than in Aspe. So fingers crossed I can make another step forward there.

This week's training (Dec 12th - Dec 18th)

Normally in a week before a race I would ease down on the training, but given that I'd had too fairly light weeks I felt I should get back to a pre-exam workload, plus I thought it would be wise to do a proper long run before doing a half-marathon in Aspe. Went to the physio on Monday, it was pretty productive, I got an exercise I should do to prevent injury along with a nice bright pink stripe to wear down my leg, you can see below how cool it is!

Saturday 12th December - Rest Day

Sunday 13th December - Run 21.08km
Did a half-marathon for a training run, I think I've only ever run quicker in races. I still had energy at the end, but I did feel at one stage that the tendonitis might be returning, so the following days physio session was well timed.
21.08km 4:30min/km 1:34:52

Monday 14th December - Swim 1km
A good swim, not very quick but given the long run the day before it wouldn't have been a good idea to push things.
1000m 27:00

Tuesday 15th December - Run 10km
I changed from my normal 10k lap to avoid running in the dark and upsetting drivers, was a boring route but at a steady quick pace.
10km 4:10min/km 42:00

Wednesday 16th December - Rest Day

Thursday 17th December - 5km Track Session
This was the night before my last exam, I wanted to get out for the run to get rid of some of my nervous energy, it didn't work! It was fun though, and I had some followers for part of it as some kids, they must have been about 7 or 8, wanted to see if they could keep up with me, they did for about have a lap.
5km 4:11min/km 20:52

Friday 18th December - Rest Day
Was a rest day from training, but not really a rest. Had my last exam in the morning, it went ok I think, hopefully I won't have to wait too long for the result. Present shopping in the afternoon, then a low-key end of exams celebration.

This week's training (Dec 5th - Dec 11th)

Another week where I did less training than I'd like. I had to do a presentation on Monday, which I spent all weekend and right up until the last moment preparing, I think it went ok but we'll see when I get my grade. After I got that out of the way I had two days to prepare for an exam, half of which went well, the other half was a bit of a disaster but hopefully I got enough out of it to get a half-decent grade. Just need to put the finishing touches to an essay and do one more exam next Friday and its happy holidays.

Saturday 5th December - Rest Day

Sunday 6th December - Rest Day

Monday 7th December - Run 13.33km
After doing nothing over the weekend, was eager to get out and do something, although I didn't get home until gone 8pm so I didn't leave myself much time. I ran on about the same pace as I did in the half-marathon in Elda, although it was split in two, quick at the start with the wind behind with the payback on the way back. Overall I was happy with it.
13.33km 4:23min/km 58:23

Tuesday 8th December - Rest Day

Wednesday 9th December - Run 10.6km
Back out running again doing my regular lap, left it fairly late in the evening, which reminds me I need to sort myself with some lights to attach to my t-shirt, I wasn't making myself popular with car drivers and took precautionary evasive action jumping into the long grass a couple of times. Apart from those episodes it was a good run, not my quickest but good nonetheless. I'd ideally like to run a half marathon going at the same pace, which would see me going under 90 minutes but I think next week's half in Aspe will be too early to go for that target.
10.6km 4:14min/km 44:54

Thursday 10th December - Bike 21.7km
After the "fun" of a Macroeconomics exam in the mornings, went out and had myself some real fun on the bike in the afternoon to forget about it. Was a good bit of training together with an hour to unwind after the morning's stresses.
21.7km 2:51min/km 1:02:08

Friday 11th December - Swim 1km
Another exciting Friday night down at the pool, just me and another two happy go lucky guys making waves. Its not exactly part of a rock'n'roll lifestyle, but I enjoy it anyway. I threw in a few fast laps to make it more interesting, I'll look to try to speed up my swimming in the new year with a view to eventually having a go at triathlon.
1000m 27:00

This week's training (Nov 28th - Dec 4th)

Not much to say this week. Training took a back seat this week, had lots of work to get finished, but hopefully I'm passed the worst. I'm hoping to get in to see the physio this week, i haven't felt quite right since the half-marathon in Elda, so I just want to get checked over before I end up injuring myself and missing weeks of training like last year.

Saturday 28th November - Rest Day

Sunday 29th November - Rest Day

Monday 30th November - 17km Run
Was a nice run, I only didn't go on longer because I had come home and get showered before class. Was a very windy day, which I didn't really notice until I'd run 8km's and had to turn back into it, needless to say my pace slowed a bit from then on but it was still a good training pace.
16.99km 4:29min/km 1:16:06

Tuesday 1st December - Football
Lost the game, but I thought I played ok, got up and down the wing alot.

Wednesday 2nd December - Rest Day

Thursday 3rd December - 10.6km run
Was a quick 10km on my regular, a little bit off my best, but I was pleased with it. It shows I'm in pretty good form and should get a good long run in beforehand I'll go in to the Aspe half marathon fairly confident that I can get a PB this time.

Friday 4th December - 1.25km Swim
Was a very good swim, only 3 people in the pool and I managed to get my goggles sorted in minute one rather than stopping repeatedly to do it like in the last few weeks.
1250m 26:56min/km 33:40