With the Kalahari Augrabies
Extreme Marathon only 85 days away, I sat down to review my last 7 days of
training. During the past week I was able to clock 120km’s at an average pace
of 9,8km/h. The training terrain is off-road, with both rocks and sand ensuring
a really intense workout. My aim during the past week was to work on endurance;
the following is my training log:
Day 1: 27km’s in 02:47 (9,8km/h)
Day 2: 16km’s in 01:40 (9,4km/h)
Day 3: Rest Day
Day 4: 21km’s in 02:01 (10.5km/h)
Day 5: 20km’s in 02:06 (10km/h)
Day 6: 21km’s in 02:15 (9.33km/h)
Day 7: 21km’s in 01:26 (10km/h)
Total ascent over the 120km’s was
2,740m and I was able maintain an overall average speed of 9,8km/h. On day 5, I
swam 1km’s in 41min which drained my energy reserves, this cost me on day 6. At
present I am 5 weeks ahead with my training schedule which means that I will be
able to throw in more endurance training weeks.
What did I learn from this week’s
performance?
(1)
My muscle and cardio fitness is where I would
like it to be. I am able to run a constant pace exerting a constant effort,
(2)
My muscle recovery from day to day takes around
10 to 14 hours which means that even under race conditions I should be able to
recover during the night,
(3)
I am able to run an average of 20km’s per day
with a consistent day to day pace,
(4)
Marathon time prediction under these conditions
places me at around 04:43:24 (Jack Daniels Prediction Tables). This point was
important as it is used by me to set a realistic race goal.4
Kalahari Augrabies Race Goal:
With a predicted marathon time of
04:43:24 and the general rule of thumb that I will lose 25 minutes per kilogram
of race pack weight over 4 kg’s, I am able to set a realistic race target,
given my present fitness, endurance and recovery levels. My race pack is
anticipated to weigh around 12kg’s so my anticipated race speed is reduced to
around 5.1km/h which translates into a total race run time of 49 hours. This
would place me somewhere in the middle of the field which aligns to my initial
race goals.
Now there are three rest days
before I start on Monday with some weight based endurance training. Next week I
will reduce my total distance for the week to 80km’s but will run with 10kg’s
in my race pack.
Thanks for visiting my blog,
Genis
