Schedule
- Goal Race: 3:30-4:00 Berlin
- Plan: Pfitz 18/63 by thebottlefarm (Unofficial)
| Date | Day | Workout | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-07-21 | Monday | Rest or cross-training | Yoga and mobility drills Core workouts |
| 2025-07-22 | Tuesday | General aerobic 12.9 km | 13.07 @ 6:50/km |
| 2025-07-23 | Wednesday | VO2Max 12.9 km w/ 6 x 800 m @ 5K race pace; jog 50 to 90 % interval time between | AM: 13.07 km @ 5:47/km PM: Core and strength workouts |
| 2025-07-24 | Thursday | Recovery 8.0 km | 10.08 km @ 6:57/km Yoga and mobility drills |
| 2025-07-25 | Friday | General aerobic 9.7 km | 11.06 km @ 7:00/km |
| 2025-07-26 | Saturday | General aerobic + speed 12.9 km w/ 8 x 100 m strides | 15.02 km @ 6:33/km Core workouts |
| 2025-07-27 | Sunday | Medium-long run 24.1 km | AM: 24.16 km @ 5:56/km PM: Core and strength workouts |
- Totals:
- Expected: 80.47 km
- Actual: 86.46 km
Thoughts
As expected, I woke up with some muscle pain on the upper body but not that much because I just used my body weight. My left shin discomfort has gone away but both ankles were still sore. Regardless, it was easy to get up and prepare for the day.
Monday
This morning, as decided, I added the “Basic Core Strength Session” from Pfitz together with my usual Vlad Ixel yoga and mobility drills.
My flexibility was not good during the stretching parts which means that I have to increase this per week. I struggled a bit to perform the positions with less reach that I was able to before.
Afterwards I did one set of the core workouts. I have to learn how to engage my core and keep it longer than five seconds because I always forget and had to redo it again during execution phase. This is just day two and I hope to get better as I do it more often.
Tuesday
As expected, my DOMS were prominent when I woke up this morning. My upper body and legs have the familiar muscle pain which means that my body weight strength workout last Sunday were effective (I hope so). Of course this didn’t affect my motivation but I took a paracetamol tablet just in case.
The run was fine, especially with the Saucony Triumph 22s. They were a tiny bit softer now on the forefoot and mid-foot sections which I like and for the first time, I didn’t have any annoyances in my left pinky toe during the start which is a first. I believe that at 80 km, I have broken-in this pair (no including the original insole unfortunately).
Since it was a general aerobic run, I only kept everything under the lower half of Zone 2 and I felt that I was going faster than expected (average of 6:30/km) but when I checked the results, it was actually 6:50/km which is understandable because my thighs and buttocks were still sore. Nevertheless I felt great throughout the run while holding back to prepare for the two quality runs this week.
Unfortunately at around the 11th or 12th kilometer, the left pinky toe’s old issue of being unrestricted on the toe box occurred again. I just adjusted the rest of my left foot to the extra space on the shoe’s right side to give it more room. Another note is that the foam I mentioned from before that prevented this wasn’t felt anytime during this run which is expected because the foam had time to rest over the weekend. Regardless, I will try to run more on these shoes because this sensation goes away after a few hundred meters or so.
My left ankle and side arch are now aching but not to the point of walking was painful. I believe these are just leftover fatigue from last Sunday’s run and I hope they’ll recover soon because we have a crazy workout tomorrow!
Wednesday
Before the run
It was rainy today and of course that will not stop me from running! I wore the Puma Deviate NITRO Elite 3s over the planned Asics Magic Speed 3s because I wanted extra assurance from slippages on the concrete track. The latter I believe is good enough but I didn’t want to risk it especially while I hammer at 5 km pace.
I also decided to put on my waterproof jacket that I usually wear as winter outerwear for extra protection in case the rain worsens based on the weather prediction.
During the run
The 3.2 km warm-up was good enough to prepare me for the laps but as expected, the jacket started to heat me up especially when there was around 500 m left before the first interval lap. I was already sweating a bit while raining though it wasn’t annoying or uncomfortable. I just wish I took it off as I started to approach the laps.
I went too fast for all of them based on my target pace of 3:58/km. It was because I felt like I was running too slow physically due to the jacket. What worsen it was that my heart felt heavy and I had to work harder because of it which was a bit worrying. It wasn’t one of my best speed days to be honest.
The first was too fast and it carried over to the rest of the laps but I am proud to know that I am actually capable of such speed even in a controlled workout.
| Lap | Distance | Pace |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 800 m | 3:51/km |
| 2 | 800 m | 3:52/km |
| 3 | 800 m | 3:52/km |
| 4 | 800 m | 3:45/km |
| 5 | 800 m | 3:49/km |
| 6 | 800 m | 3:44/km |
The DNE3s were phenomenal and the Puma Grip on the wet puddles on concrete was top notch. I was able to not think much about where my feet hit and to just focus on nailing the fast feet turnovers. I was able to appreciate the wide forefoot area more as it supported my ideal form when running at around 4:30/km or better. It was very bouncy and everything I wanted for today’s crazy workout.
On the other hand I was gasping for air at the end of each lap and I remember that Garmin gives you five signals in both sound and vibrations on the watch before a lap ends. It was so hard that I immediately slow down at the third beep to go straight to recovery. Based on the results it didn’t matter because I gave each my “controlled” hard word and still was too fast!
I believe that it would have been more comfortable if I took off the jacket and just embraced the rain. I felt restricted the most in the chest area but not to the point that I needed to recover more after each generous two minutes and 55 seconds (calculated based from the 90% of expect time to complete each lap).
The difference today compared to the tempo days is that I am not used to quick bursts of speed. I have done this before in previous training plans but after nine weeks of no similar workouts (strides do not count for me), I consider today a surprise for my body. This is another part that I had a hard time to adjust causing me to overcompensate physically.
Nevertheless I learned a lot today and I have more coming in the future to do better in intervals.
After the run
My ankles, especially on the left were fine. In the past quality days of tempo runs, my left shin and both ankles would be a bit sore immediately after and would hurt during the cool down but today, none were felt even now after 90 minutes of rest.
Even though I struggled a lot during today’s laps, I feel less exhausted and damaged compared to the tempo days. I am looking forward to the varying distance targets in the next weeks so I hope to have better experience in the future.
Evening workout
I did the same core and strength workouts from last Sunday. I am still learning how to get used to engaging my core in most of the exercises as stated in the book but I’m glad to have a bit of progress today by being more aware compared from before. I also chose to added more repetitions to some of the workouts that felt easy to me such as the planks, calf raises, bench dips and squats over using my dumbbells over body weight. I will do that in four weeks to let my body plateau first in this setting.
Thursday
I am happy that I wasn’t as thrashed as the previous days-after the tempo runs earlier in the training plan. I didn’t feel any fatigue or lingering soreness aside from my left ankle (that went away after warming up for a few kilometers) during my run.
Unfortunately the Mizuno Neo Vistas were really not effective today. My left pinky toe started rubbing against the upper material by the fifth kilometer and continued to be uncomfortable until the end. I can’t do anything about it aside from curling my toes which is not ideal even for a slow recovery run. Because of this, I have to accept that it is not for me.
Afterwards, I did my yoga and mobility drills. Today was easier to stretch especially the main block in a prolonged lunge position and that is definitely because all my joints and muscles have loosened up after the run.
Friday
Today was another relaxed run which was slower compared to yesterday’s recovery run even though today’s a general aerobic.
I wasn’t under any soreness or discomfort before, during and after run. It was gloomy early in the morning and I decided to enjoy the pouring rain and to forget about my pace (aside from keeping it all within my Zone 2).
Saturday
It was really fun this morning! It was clunky during the first four kilometers because I felt hungry and uninspired but after that, everything went lively including my cadence and motivation.
As always, I was considered skipping the strides because it just rained and my route will be muddy but after one loop I determined the paths I can do them safely. The Triumph 22s were reliable on the wet concrete especially during the strides. My feet felt secure and I didn’t have any worries. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to recreate the relief I had last week with a foam protrusion on the left shoe that made my left pinky toe comfortable.
I did two sets of the Pfitz core workout after my cool down stretches and I hope it will have some form of help to maintain my core while running in the coming weeks.
Sunday
It was a nice morning run and I am glad there was no rain to make it challenging in both the routes and the effort needed like the previous week.
Before the run
Same as last week, I ate an oatmeal bar and a banana 15 minutes before leaving. I also took a loperamide tablet to prevent any unnecessary toilet trips during the run.
I applied the new 5:20/km marathon pace target to today’s session as follows:
- 1.6 km warm-up @ Zone 1
- 5.6 km @ 6:08-6:24/km (20% less than my target MP)
- 16.9 km @ 5:52-6:08/km (10% less than my target MP)
To be honest I had no worries before the session compared to last week when I was computing these new values. I believe that I just forgot about the gravity of the changes even though I have noted beforehand that I have new paces to follow. Regardless it made the run much fun without such doubts before the run.
During the run
The first two blocks went well and I immediately got the hang of the new pace in the second block. It was a slight jump from the Zone 1 pace I settled in but thanks to the change in cadence that I set my mind into, I was able to reach it effortlessly in a few hundred meters.
Again I applied my cadence training because I found that it helped a lot in keeping my discipline to not go lower than my target ranges. I was extra ambitious today because I started the second block at 178 spm and halfway through I bumped it to 180 spm.
| Distance from start | Cadence |
|---|---|
| 1.6 km | 178 spm |
| 4.4 km | 180 spm |
| 9 km (15 km left) | 182 spm |
| 14 km (10 km left) | 184 spm |
| 19 km (5 km left) | 186 spm |
I explored a new place in my route at the beginning of the main block because I plan to join some park run events there in the coming weekends. It was a nice 5 km loop inside a forested part although there was a big dip at around the 2 km mark in the path which made me slow down because it was at a high gradient level. I have to get used to crossing that dip if ever I want to do some personal bests because right now it looked dangerous to me in terms of balancing my body towards the drop.
At around the 16 km mark, I felt my knees started to tighten up as I lifted each leg. There was no pain but only mild discomfort. This happened last week and all I can think of is that it could have been from the high cadence because I was already doing 182 spm by this point. Same as before, it went away after a few meters and never came back.
By the last seven or eight kilometers, I sensed that my legs were going tired and felt heavy. But I remember that nothing was painful and I just needed more nutrition so I did two big sips from my flask. Later I increased the cadence to 186 spm to let me carry to the finish line which was effective.
At some points in the latter part of the entire run, I made sure to engage my core a lot of times because of the legs getting tired. I thought that by squeezing my stomach, I will distribute the effort that my ankles were doing to the thigh and buttock muscles. I actually felt the change and the relief from the ankles but I’m still not consistent with the engagement. I always falter after a few minutes and have to remind myself constantly to do it. I have to practice and practice it regularly even during recovery runs because I think this will help a lot during the first 32 km of the marathon to keep my legs fresh so I can bring myself to the last 10 km using my leg power.
Overall I still find that my Superblast 2s are less cushioned (not flat; there’s still some foam that I can feel during each foot strike) after the half-marathon distance or approximately two hours of running. I don’t know if it is because I gained 5 kg over the last ten weeks (to support the demanding runs) that made the shoes flatter compared to last September or I just received an outlier pair that’s not as effective as I remember. I am leaning towards the first reason because I enjoyed the pair I had last year because it was bouncy and protective to the point that I gradually had to check myself if I was running too quickly due to the enjoyment. Today, I don’t feel that sensation anymore with my pair unfortunately.
Throughout the run, my stomach never hurt and I am happy that the loperamide did its job. I will continue taking it for long runs and eventually the actual race because of its helpfulness in prevent any additional discomfort that I don’t want to focus on while running!
After the run
The last 300 meters ended uphill, my favourite, and I still felt unspent and not thrashed as stated in the book to be an ideal case. This is compared to the last one spent 90% under pouring rain that I had to sit down on a bench after with paces still set to my previous 5:30/km! I guess this is another improvement of my capabilities after ten weeks of crazy mileage and I am thankful for that.
After almost two hours, my legs are not tired, my ankles are not sore, and my lower back is not hurting compared to the first three weeks’ long runs where I had to take a rest immediately after each.
I am looking forward to the next eight weeks and what other surprises they will bring me!
Evening workout
Since today is a hard day, I had to do the basic core and strength sessions from Advanced Marathoning same as last week. I still incorporated my current body weight for the strength part but added five to ten more repetitions for almost everything because I felt they were too easy.
I did two sets of each and I definitely struggled with the push-ups and bench dips the most. As always my arms and overall upper body is weak but I hope to see more improvement because these will be regular occurrences for the rest of the training plan.
I will monitor when I can switch to the advanced core session and add more weights to the strength session without prolonging my recovery too much.
Overall
I claimed that last week was the taper week for this second cycle but I realised on Monday that last week’s expected totals were 93.34 km and this week was 80.47 km. That was a nice mistake because my mindset was focused on the absence of any speed workout last week compared to this week.
Nevertheless I appreciate the less work load on the tenth week and I was able to not worry too much about the dreaded tempo run. It will come next week though followed by another 32 km long run. I will survive both!