Small adjustments within taper week
Next week will be my race week, with the coast marathon on the 7th of February. Which means the last few days before the race I am focussing on staying fresh and rest + recovery. While my hamstring forced me to make some adjustments in my taper plan, I am not worried for next week as I feel everything is still under control!
This weeks taper plan:
What happened this week;
- Monday 8km with 12x 30 sec strides (at 70-75% effort).
I felt I needed to make an adjustment over 4 strong strides, while that was a smart call - decreasing the effort during the strides, it turned out to be an overcompensation to both increase the number of strides (+8) as well as the duration of each strides (+10 sec)
Tuesday 5 km recovery run
I started the planned run on Tuesday, but noticed that it would be risky to do the 2x 8 min on marathon pace. My hamstring was tensed so I needed to make an adjustment. The strides on Monday proved to be to taxing while my hamstring was still recoveringWednesday: 12.5 km recovery
I considered swapping the Tuesday training to Wednesday but opted against it in terms of the MP being too taxing atm. I settled for 12.5km at zone 1, low zone 2. Which felt fine!Thursday - complete rest
Todays run - 5.5 km recovery with progression in first km.
I wanted to test my hamstring today, without forcing it too much. Strong strides would feel too risky - whereas low effort strides would not really give the result I was looking for. I decided to go for a recovery run - but progressively speed up during the first kilometer - that way I could test it, but also dail back directly if it would become uncomfortable. It stayed fresh the whole progression (while noticeable 3/10) after the kilometer it got back quickly to 1/10. Successfull test!
That's a good plan, don't push too much as you need to be on good shape for the marathon!
Stay fresh and good luck with the final countdown!
How is your protein intake? I wonder if the body needs more when trying to recovery from a strain or overuse. I get the feeling I did not get enough protein on big training weeks in the past for optimal performance.
I didn’t really focus on eating anything different sofar, next week I will start carbo loading in a lesser extend.
On protein, I mainly use it as a recovery tool for long runs, other than that not that much protein (I suspect my ratio is less than optimal) but my main gains in dieet sofar come from eating cleaner (no alcohol this entire camp).
On the road to sub 3, I will try to focus on protein aswell! But for next week, just a little right after the race (2 snickers + 1l chocolatmilk)