Good luck to everyone racing today!
The Stone Cutter: I think it's positive that you're getting used to different weather, as you might not know what will happen on race day. I suffered from the heat I wasn't used to during my last marathon.
Allen1959:Nice week! Did the workout go ok with no pain on the achilles or knee?
Tall dark roast: Congrats on the silver!
RRR: Nice mileage for the year! Should pay off on your races.
r4f: Nice repeats, seems like you should be able to hit your goal for the half.
Gordon: I'm sorry about the foot. Be careful and smart about it.
hantph96: Strong long on friday!
above_average_joe: Congrats on the PR and 6th place!
jewbacca: Strong run on saturday. If you can stay healthy it seems like you should run a great marathon.
consistency: solid week! keep it up!
24 male, 1:15:5x HM PR, 2:50:2x full
No goals right now besides running a fast marathon in the future
My week:
M - off (day after the Paris marathon)
T - 10k @ 4:50/km
W - 3k very very slow with a friend and his gf
T - off
F - off
S - off
S - 75k progressive on the track for 2nd in an "endurance race". 5:30/km avg pace
The story of the 75k on the track:
I run with the adidas runners group in Paris. In fact, they have 9 groups here and the groups compete against each other in a league. This Sunday we had a race and I was asked to represent my team.
Most of the races in the league are normal races, but every once in a while there's one with a different format. This one was called "Run until you drop". Each team selected 4 men and 4 women to run behind a bicycle starting at 10km/h which sped up by 1km/h every hour or two, and we got a 5 min break every two hours to use the restroom. Runners who can't keep up with the bicycle are eliminated. If a team has less than 2 runners remaining (the men and women race were separate, so 2 men or 2 women), that team is eliminated.
The first 40km or so were the worst for me. We were running between 6:00/km and 5:20/km, which is not a pace I'm used to, and running in circles for hours at that pace made my knees really hurt and I almost dropped out. After that we sped up to 5:00/km and I was able to elongate my stride more, so my knees stopped hurting.
After that, I started to get a sense that I wouldn't be able to run for that much longer anymore at around 68km, when the 4th team as eliminated, so there were only 3 team with two runners each left, and they increased the pace to 4:15/km or so. At around 72 or 73km one of the teams dropped out so now we were just two. Just after 75km my teammate let me know he was dropping out, which eliminated our team in second. If he hadn't I probably would've in the next 2km, and the other guys, who are ultra trail runners, didn't seem like they were ready to drop out yet, so even if my teammate had kept going I don't think I could've hung on enough to beat the other team.
It was a very fun experience, specially after my knee stopped hurting.