Schedule
- Goal Race: 3:30-4:00 Berlin
- Plan: Pfitz 18/63 by thebottlefarm (Unofficial)
| Date | Day | Workout | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-06-30 | Monday | Rest or cross-training | Yoga and mobility drills |
| 2025-07-01 | Tuesday | Recovery + speed 12.9 km w/ 6 X 100 m strides | 11.98 km @ 6:23/km |
| 2025-07-02 | Wednesday | Medium-long run 19.3 km | 20.15 km @ 6:12/km |
| 2025-07-03 | Thursday | Recovery 8.0 km | 12.23 @ 6:37/km |
| 2025-07-04 | Friday | Lactate threshold 16.1 km w 9.7 km @ 15K to half marathon race pace (4:16-4:22/km) | 9.7 km LT @ 4:18/km Total: 16.17 km @ 5:15/km |
| 2025-07-05 | Saturday | Recovery 8.0 km | 11.11 km @ 6:55/km |
| 2025-07-06 | Sunday | Long run 32.2 km | 32.2 km @ 6:04/km |
- Totals:
- Expected: 96.96 km
- Actual: 103.74 km
Thoughts
Thoughts
I was worried after Sunday’s long run that I will feel some uncomfortable amount of residual fatigue by the next two mornings based from my previous experience. Fortunately by Monday morning, my lower body felt normal with no specific pain on my left shin and both ankles. All the soreness were gone and I was able to do my yoga and mobility drills.
Tuesday
Tuesday’s workout wasn’t executed well because of many reasons. I woke up at around 5:40 and my watch said that I only had six hours of sleep. I decided to sleep for another hour after walking a bit to drink water and felt that I was actually still sleepy. It is better to listen to your body during times like this. I felt better and more active after waking up from that extra nap and wore the Mizuno Neo Vistas for a second run.
It still didn’t conform well to my feet especially the left with the tightness around the little toes. I actually checked if I can do a runner’s knot to force my foot to go backwards but there was no extra pair of holes for the laces. I just made sure to not force friction around that area and keep my form and strikes from being affected by the adjustment. On the other hand, my right heel is still sore but not painful that I had to stop running. It was there and I solved it by keeping my usual form and to not land and push using the shins because I found that to help lessen the heel pain but I don’t want to repeat what happened two weeks ago!
Finally I had a lingering stomachache but my route didn’t have any open public toilets so I had to suck it up. I also had to do six 100m strides but I skipped because of both the stomach pain and the Neo Vistas being unstable for strides. It wasn’t a big deal after and I hope my stomach doesn’t do it in the three quality days coming later.
Wednesday
Today’s long run focused on continuing the cadence practice. I started with 176 steps per minute (spm) and gradually settled to a guided 182 spm on the main block (10% less than my target marathon pace). It was quite challenging to keep up compared to the 180 spm last Sunday because I know each foot strike followed a tick of the metronome but there were moments where I thought I got the hang of it and suddenly I was all over the place!
Nevertheless there were a lot of positive results today: 182 spm was actually doable and I cruised for a bulk of the 14.12 km main block. I didn’t go over my current Zone 2 and even though there were times that I had to forcefully quicken my steps, I never felt that I was exerting sprint effort to catch up. All was calm and collected which I was happy to settle in.
On the other hand, my Asics Superblast 2, my dedicated long run shoes, reached 275km after today’s workout. I still feel that the fore and mid-foot foam needs more cushioning and response for a super-trainer. I didn’t feel any discomfort because of that and will continue to use it regardless. I hope to find a similar shoe but with more meat on the front-side.
Thursday
I woke up with upper body pain around the shoulders and lower back so I took a paracetamol. I had dinner with friends the night before and I believe that if I stayed home this would be less intense but no regrets since we have to build our social life. Regardless I was considering to just take the day off running and do the usual yoga and mobility instead but those two didn’t seem palatable to me so I chose the first.
Of course I made sure to not overdo the recovery run and to actually go back to my lower 7:00/km pace before I practiced increasing my cadence to 180 spm last week. The first two kilometers weren’t tough as I predicted but the heaviness of the legs and lack of “will” to go fast we there which was fine. After around five kilometers I felt good and still maintained the Zone 1 target with my form.
Overall it was one of the good recovery runs in a while because the 6:37/km pace and 170 spm cadence is usually the default for my general aerobic days. I like to think that this was a sign of my gradual progress to better running fitness despite being a slow day. I can’t wait for the future!
Friday
I do not hate the LT runs but I do not like the anxiety I get one or two days before executing them. I know it is all in my head and I have done four of them already but I can’t help being intimidated especially with the increasing set distance each week.
I had to sleep for at least eight hours the night before and luckily I woke up at 5:00 AM and my watch stated that I was gone for seven hours and 53 minutes which is ideal. I brought one 250ml gel flask and as planned, I wore my pair of Puma Deviate NITRO Elite 3s to test how they perform for LT paces and lower.
I can say that today’s LT run was the least uncomfortable I’ve ever done this year including the ones from my 5km block this spring. I believe that the shoes contributed a lot to the easier switch to my LT pace and maintaining it throughout the run. Usually when I start panting and having difficulty reaching a pace I need, it discourages me and can lead to slowing down and eventually I have to struggle to keep up with the pace. All of those did not happen today even with a long 9.7 km target! I was still exerting the needed effort to go fast but overall calm and had no distractions (aside from the playlist I was listening to for additional motivation).
Each step I felt the shoes both caught me with of adequate cushioning and spring each foot with responsiveness and bounciness I liked to go forward. It was a different experience from the Asics Magic Speed 3s that I delegate for track workouts because these shoes can do it but I have to exert extra effort to reach the same paces with less of that cushioning from the Elites.
I took one gulp of my gel every two kilometers to make sure I have ample nutrition to keep going which I also used to divide the entire thing into the same 2 km laps in my head to make it less intimidating. The first two laps weren’t good because I went over the limit with paces of 4:28 and 4:23 so I had to compensate by going much faster for the rest of the run. Honestly I wasn’t burdened by this thought because as I’ve mentioned already, I didn’t have trouble maintaining whatever pace I achieved by lap three to the end. Actually by the fourth and sixth kilometers I was doing well and not feeling any form of discomfort in my legs and feet. Of course I was still working hard to be within the 4:16 to 4:22/km pace but there was nothing that distracted me from going for more. I want to highlight that even though I was running faster than the upper limit of 4:16/km for half of the workout, there was nothing different from the feeling of running within the range. By the eight lap I did a body check and was on the fence if I can maintain this up to 16 km or even a half-marathon because technically 4:22/km is my predicted HM pace but it was too much. I started the day with only finishing 9.7 km nothing more and nothing less.
| Lap | Distance | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1.0 km | 4:27.9 |
| 2 | 1.0 km | 4:23.3 |
| 3 | 1.0 km | 4:15.3 |
| 4 | 1.0 km | 4:17.3 |
| 5 | 1.0 km | 4:15.4 |
| 6 | 1.0 km | 4:12.4 |
| 7 | 1.0 km | 4:15.6 |
| 8 | 1.0 km | 4:18.1 |
| 9 | 1.0 km | 4:14.6 |
| 10 | 0.66 km | 2:48.3 |
The last two laps went by like a breeze where I didn’t come to that place in my head of struggling and wanting the entire thing to end both physically with burning legs and feet and mentally. I am proud of what I have achieved today with the average of 4:18/km for a 9.7 km block. I wish that I thought of rounding it up to 10 km when programming the workout because it would have been an automatic new personal record (current is 42:54) but that’s fine!
I now need to focus on recovery to prepare for Sunday’s massive 32.2 km target and I am excited to do it all over again like last week’s.
Saturday
I can’t believe I’m writing a long post for this random recovery run but a lot of things happened!
I woke up still sleepy and with minor pain on my left leg which I attribute to yesterday’s workout. I decided to sleep in for a bit since it was a weekend. It was raining and I debated if I will run outside or just do my usual yoga and mobility drills.
I was supposed to use my disgraced Saucony Triumph 22s today to give them another chance after I saw a Reddit post claiming that it became tolerable after changing the insoles. I do not have access an eTPU insole right now so I just swapped with my old retired Asics Novablast 3’s which has a significant mold of my feet. If it goes well then I might either keep the swap or purchase the recommended insole. In the end I didn’t use them because it was raining all morning and I believe that it wasn’t the right conditions for a test run.
Same as before, I decided to run instead of a 30 minute yoga session and I put on my SB2s to be safe and as my current ultimate recovery choice. The first half wasn’t good - my left ankle was slightly painful and I was considering to stop but continued because along the way. I also got distracted by my laces unraveling and tied my left shoe tighter. I also had a bit of discomfort on the back of my (you guessed it) left heel because of yesterday’s friction with the DNE3s. I made a note to put on a patch on that part for tomorrow’s run because I will probably use the same shoes.
By the second half, I didn’t feel any pain anymore and I was comparing the sensation to my right and I wasn’t imagining it! It was really surprising and I have no recollection if I did something deliberately to stopping the pain. It could be that it was just niggles and part of the warm-up part, could be from the paracetamol I took earlier, I don’t know. But I’m pleased that it didn’t go the other extreme of getting worse because I definitely don’t want to skip tomorrow’s big run.
I kept my regular slow-slow pace of 7:00 per kilometer because by the end, the forest trail was muddy and I didn’t want to sprain or brake any ankles from stepping incorrectly. The SB2s were not the best choice for this path so I had to compensate by skipping and sometimes walking around puddles. Regardless it was fun though! The rain was pouring and I felt like I was just playing around.
I will spend the rest of the day to eat properly and rest a lot so that I can finish tomorrow’s long run (in the rain) without any problems.
Sunday
It was another rainy morning but I didn’t have a choice because I only like running early in the morning. Anything later than 7:00 for a long run, regardless if the rain stops, decreases my motivation. I was still cautious of the residual fatigue from last Friday but I felt ready and there’s no way I will miss this important workout.
Before the run
I did something new this time: aside from my standard small bar of oatmeal, I also ate a banana because I had a feeling it will be a tough one this morning. I wouldn’t do that before because of fear of needing the toilet along the way but I also took loperamide as extra protection. As always I brought two 250ml flasks with one of them only containing half from last Friday’s LT session. I took two sips for every two or three kilometers depending on what I felt.
Initially the plan was to use my Puma Deviate NITRO Elite 3s because they are my racing shoes plus the grip on wet surfaces will be top-notch. Unfortunately I switched to SB2s because I doubted the cushioning of the former if it can support me beyond half-marathon distance. I know that objectively the DNE3s are better but since I am not running fast (< 5:00/km) today, the latter would be more forgiving.
During the run
The workout was structured according to the book’s suggestion:
- 1.6 km warm-up
- 7.64 km @ 6:18-6:32/km (20% less than my target marathon pace of 5:30/km)
- 22.96 km @ 6:00-6:18/km (10% less than my target MP)
I incorporated higher cadence practice again in the two main blocks. I started with 176 spm during the first 8km block followed by 178 spm halfway in order to establish 180 spm for the faster and longer block. As planned, I switched to 180 spm in the first half of the 23 km block. I was only planning to stay here until the end because I thought I might get too tired if I did more but decided to continue to 182 spm halfway to the end. This can be lowered if I felt it was too difficult but I had no issues fortunately.
The right ankle, which never had a problems for the entire training so far, started feeling discomfort starting at 20 km. I truly believe I was doing something wrong but it just went away after a few kilometers and never returned.
The left ankle, fortunately did not feel painful simultaneously with the right but it did at different times throughout the run but always goes away after two or three kilometers based from my estimates. This was the most worrying today because usually the left ankle will start a bit painful in the first five kilometers and goes away for the rest of the run. But today there were moments throughout the main workout where I felt that I needed to change my foot strike between fore and mid-foot to find that balance where it will be less painful for me. It was discouraging and under the pouring rain didn’t help with the negative thoughts that started to accumulate. I remember taking a note around 16 km if it was too much to the point that I needed to stop but I just continued like always because it always goes away! I remember that today’s 32 km run was a giant exam for all the hard work I did before and I just had to suck it up and learn from all the experiences today.
Around 26 to 28 km the knees started to feel a bit strained that is similar to the sensation of not warming them up, where they felt not flexible that they were dragging the rest of the lower legs to go slow. It was concerning of course and my mind immediately went to think of ways to prevent this on the future especially during the race. Again it went away after five kilometers because during this time my focus went back to counting 1-2-3-4 to the beat of the target cadence of 182 spm.
Consecutively the wall slightly manifested here mentally. I used the word ”slightly” because I was already switching my positive reinforcements towards the thought of four kilometers left! These last four kilometers were carried by my motivation to finish the entire thing and I increased my intensity a bit due to thus stimulus. It was definitely effective and my plan to delay this from half of the main 23 km block to this last four definitely paid off.
Something strange also happened with regards to my flasks. They’re both on my thigh pockets with the full one of the left. After the half-marathon mark, I used up the lesser one and grabbed the full one. I remember feeling some form of strain on my left hip but I brushed it off as part of the accumulated fatigue. Another eight kilometers or so I switched it to my right pocket and I felt my thighs lost weight, felt better and move faster! Of course they will because the flasks were relatively heavy! It should be common sense from the start but it was the first time it was this obvious compared to last week’s 30 km where I also had two flasks on my thighs. Oh well, something to watch out for in the future!
In terms of shoes, I was able to enjoy the SB2 foam this time but I am not sure if it was because of the increased cadence again or just being wet from the rain and puddles. They were also quite stable today because I felt my entire forefoot and mid-foot supported during each strike.
Another discovery is that the wet socks and shoes didn’t cause any friction to the feet. I was afraid I might have to stop running if ever the wet skin of my feet brushes with any form of clothing to the point of bruising but nothing of sort happened.
After the run
I think during the last 10 km, as I was struggling with how to keep myself running further mentally, I was thankful that I didn’t lower my marathon pace to around 5:20/km or 5:15/km as I wanted to after last week’s confidence because I don’t think I will be able to sustain their equivalent paces for my workouts today for long distance! I don’t know actually if it was just caused by the demoralisation from the terrible weather but I am considering to put the plan into motion either of those two starting next week - the 9th week since it’s a well-deserved less intense week.
After all the crazy things that happened today, I believe that the tough conditions of winter running I did for my last base building, though many months already have passed, positively contributed to my mental strength this morning. There was a moment around 18 km where I compared the rain, my entire body and clothes wet and rising levels of tiredness to what I was doing during the snowy, slippery days with my less wiser self (in terms of running) that made me remember the challenges I was able to overcome before and that today should be another challenge that I can face on.
Overall I am proud to finish the longest run I have ever done in my life today, under unpredictable rain, and with various niggles throughout my legs and feet. I will have another shot with this distance in three weeks so I hope to do better there in clearer weather but carrying all the lessons I learned today.