Tag: halfmarathon

Strava20150907

Unexpected Golden Legs

After my Trail Des Fantômes I took a week off (although I’ve done some small runs that week).
After that it was a week of work and decent running (70k week) and lastly last week I took another week off without running. I got back Friday and did a 2h sloooow run on Saturday. Someone I know went on a 6h solo run and asked a bunch of people for support.

So all this writing is mainly to show that resting can help.
Yesterday I went on my scheduled run, but because there was quite some wind I decided to do a Zone2 run instead of a Zone1 run (more on my zones here…).
In my Z2 runs I normally aim at a 4:44m/km pace (~7:37min/mile) and from the start I dove under that.
Even after 5km it was still going great despite it was headwind. I knew I would have the wind in my back going my back so I was hoping for a more than decent run.

EndomondoBestTimings
The Best partial timings according to Endomondo

Going back I started with about 4:22, so 22seconds faster than aimed.
Some quick counting showed I could manage a half marathon under 95 minutes if all went well. So I decided to add about 5 minutes to my training and I got my half marathon in 1:34:21.
According to Strava this is my second best half marathon ever!

(See it on Strava or Endomondo)

Strava20150907

So do you ever run an awful lot better than you’d expect?
Has previous resting something do to with it then?

Taking What I Can…

There has been an awful lot of wind the last weeks around here.
I don’t mind pounding against nature now and then, but after a while I’ve had it none the less.

Last weeks I’m running to commute (detailed post later :-)) and one of the advantages is now that I can always take a detour home without really touching the family time.

Wednesday I had 90 minutes in Zone 2 planned, but with a wind of 12ms/s (with bursts up to 14) and feeling tired I just stayed in and called it an early night (21:15 lights out :o)

Yesterday evening the wind was a lot less and after consulting The Girlfriend I agreed to do my 90 minutes then.

It was a while since I did a Zone 2 training on asphalt, the last weeks I always went running on the beach, so I didn’t know what my pace would be.
Turns out I managed to do a 4:45min (per km mind you) pace even with my backpack.

So with the lovely weather I decided to add an extra 10 minutes and got a semi-speedy half marathon for my training.
As you can see … I’m taking what I can 🙂

 

powered by EndomondoWPlogo