Lot of eating and drinking and several late nights , due to the visits of R and U and celebrations galore, derailed my marathon training quite a bit last month. While the weekly mileage was more or less ok, there was hardly any week in which all 3 training runs(interval, tempo and long run) went to plan. Switching from a goal of 4:10 to a more aggressive sub 4 , periodic GI issues and the couple of added kilos also contributed to this. The long runs went as per plan but the intervals and tempos were below par. Have always found intervals to be tough but the tempo runs have usually not been a problem. My legs were just not moving fast enough resulting in mental weakness as well at times. Planning to make a couple of changes for the next few weeks:
- take two days off between the run workouts - this may require converting some of the long runs to shorter easy runs
- do the intervals in the Ramohalli layout or the tracks in Bangalore university
The other option I considered is to do one of either intervals or tempo runs in a week, that is , alternate between these two. However, the long runs being fairly on track with focus being to improve pace decided on the above approach. If the above changes do not help then I may consider doing fartleks instead of intervals . These and the tempo run all are supposed to help with speed and endurance.
Though training with the 4 hr plan for the York Marathon in York, PA on 15th May would be happy if I can finish in 4:10 or even 4:15.
Meanwhile the Delhi marathon that was postponed from 27th February is now scheduled for 27th March. As it is supposed to be a flat, fast course where I am hoping to do a sub 4 in Feb 2023 I am tempted to run this year to get familiar with the route. Will need to decide in the next couple of weeks.
