Sunday 11 December - 20 km Training Walk
Philip got me to drop him at the track at 8:30 am where he was officiating at the national Secondary School champs so I got an early start to my walk today. I parked near the French cafe at the bottom of the Ngaio Gorge thed walked out to the Ngauranga Gorge before turning to walk into town and around the bays. This out and back route would allow me to do 20 km with only a couple of road crossings. It was a perfect day for walking - overcast and calm. I wore a camelback today which is easier to walk with than my backpack and easier to drink from than grabbing the drink bottle. I got back to my starting point after 4.5 km and mentally calculated that with 15.5 km left to go, I should turn around after 12.75 km. That was wrong. Considering I have a honours degree in maths, my mental arithmetic should be better! I should have turned around at 12.25 so I ended up walking 21 km this morning. It wasn't as hard out there today as it was last Sunday but I was still feeling pretty fatigued for the last few km. I was pleased to average 7:28/km for the 21 km - that's much better than last week but still way below my capability. I have managed this pace for a whole marathon a number of times but that was before I got my glutes doing any of the work!
21km training walk
Saturday 10 December - 3 x 2 km with 3 min rest
My daughter had asked me to take her shopping this morning but I ended up buying more than she did. The one-hour of shopping extended to around 3 hours so it was 2 pm when I got home. I hadn't eaten since breakfast since I don't like to sprint on a full stomach so I was hoping that my late morning latte would be enough to keep me going. I didn't want to drive to a flat spot so I decided to do some laps outside a large resthome complex not too far from home. This is relatively flat and does not involve crossing roads. I was pleased to discover that it was around 600 m in length. It was very hot and sunny and I had decided not to carry water with me. I expected this workout to be difficult but wanted to give it a good go. I was pleased to see that I managed 12:22 for the first 2 km and even more pleased to manage 12:09 for the second 2 km. I was pretty drained after the second sprint so managed only 13:12 for the third 2 km. This made a total of 58 km for the past week - not a bad effort!
3 x 2 km with 30 sec rests
Friday 9 December - 12 km with 2 x 5 min @ 10 km pace
I had put in a good effort for the 15 km on Thursday and wasn't sure if I could manage the 12 km today. 2 km sprints didn't seem that much easier and I felt I would manage Sunday's 20 km better if I did only 6 km on Saturday rather than 12 km. The weather was good and I managed a better pace a the start than I had done the previous day. I decided to do my fast efforts early on - at the start of 3 km and 5 km, aiming for 6 min/km pace over these. I was pleased to maintain a pace of 6:40 over the first 10 km and delighted to average 6:45 for the full 12 km.
12 km with 2 x 5 min @ 10 km pace
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