Getting Back Into The Groove

Since my last race in late November last year, the excitement to train has somewhat died down. I was so happy after that first duathlon that I was craaaaving for another one A-S-A-P. Unfortunately, duathlons are unlike your weekly running races so I'm stuck with waiting for the next one which could probably be in mid-March (3k-20k-3k). After that one, it'll be some time again before another duathlon crops up.

Sigh, the result of which is lackluster training. Up until 2 weeks ago, I've been lazy to do tempos, speedwork, and even long runs. It was partly due to my goal as well to improve on the bike. Thus, there were weeks when I had more bike rides compared to runs. The good part was that my knees thanked me for the respite. Plus, I loved the feel of speed as I tackle the roads with the bike.

However, I must not sway myself from my (lofty) goal: a sub5 marathon. That is still up for grabs up to this point. Fortunately last week, I found myself squeezing in a 10x400m speedwork and 5k tempo (during a bike-run brick workout). That has somehow livened me up on getting back on the (marathon training) saddle again. By coincidence, takbo.ph announced tentative dates for the Milo Marathon, my A-race. It will be held sometime in July 2013 so I've enough time to fine tune my 16-week training plan from last year's July marathon.

In that plan, I was able to tinker it up by combining the FIRST training program's weekday workouts with the Brooks-Hanson weekend runs. However, I was only able to put that combo towards the latter half of the training schedule. For July 2013's marathon, I hope to do this combo for every week of that 16 week span. Adding my cycling and strength training regimen for my easy days, I hope that'll be enough to (finally) get a sub5 finish.

Tomorrow, I plan to do a long tempo (10k). It was supposed to be a day for me to see if I can do 16k at easy pace again, but I guess with training partners to support you it'll be fun to see how I fare at a faster pace.

Yup, it's time to HTFU again.