AM: (10 miles, 1:30:44). Fartlek workout at Buffalo Park -- very cool 2 mile loop course with mile markers every 1/4 mile, basically flat with one 250 m very steep hill. Ran approximately 2.5 miles wu and then ran 5 x 5` w/3` recovery and then 2.5 miles cd. Was surprised to see my splits actually. The first couple miles were 9:00-9:15, I hit the dreaded hill in both my 2nd and 4th fast segments (it really hurt the 4th time). I expected my spits to be about 15-30 secs/mile slower since it is at 8,000 ft (so I was expecting about 8:00/pace). I ran 7:50, 8:03, 7:51, 7:50 (ouch - uphill), and 7:44. Not bad, much more controlled than the last time I did this workout. It took a lot out of me to hit the hill though - I felt much worse on the recovery portion on the 4th one than on the 2nd one!
PM: (4 miles). Easy run on what will now be known as "forest road #1".
More on the Japanese (women's) marathon training. They run about 150 mpw. They work through a cycle (7 days), 40K run in the AM (sort of a progression run, finishing the last 10K @ MP - for most of them 5:20 pace or so, they are 2:19/2:20 marathoners) and then a 60` run in the PM. The next 3 days they run easy, 2 hours in the AM and 1 hour in the PM. Then they will run some sort of "interval type" workout, but rarely faster than 10K - 1/2 marathon pace (20 x 400 or 10 x 1k). Then they will do the next 3 days easy again (2 hours AM/1 hour PM). Their easy runs are generally pretty easy, some of them at 9-10 min pace. Greg says there is a lot of culture stuff incorporated into this type of training - it is difficult to specify this exactly, but what is likely true is even if we trained just like them we would be missing some crucial components that the culture brings to the table. | 