training
Training
A running log kept for the long view. A week of running says almost nothing on its own, so this is the same record at three lengths: the week in full, then the weeks around it, then the year they sit in. It moves once a week.
- goal race
- Sydney Marathon
- date
- 30 aug 2026
- out
- 34 days · 4 wks
- target
- 2:40 to 2:45
The week
week ending 26 jul 2026On track for 2:42-2:44 with 2:40 upside indicated but unconfirmed. The limiter is specificity, not fitness: zero marathon-pace exposure this week.
- runs
- 7
- distance
- 105.7 km
- time
- 8h 21m
- elevation
- 774 m
| day | session | km | time | pace | hr | load |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| mon 20 jul | Jog | 8.8 | 43:42 | 4:59 | 132 | 130 |
| tue 21 jul | 200's + 1k's + 400's | 13.1 | 1:01:33 | 4:42 | 156 | 224 |
| wed 22 jul | Herdsman | 21.3 | 1:48:50 | 5:07 | 140 | 317 |
| wed 22 jul | 4x2k threshold | 12.3 | 52:16 | 4:16 | 159 | 221 |
| fri 24 jul | Upper Zone 2 | 10.3 | 53:16 | 5:11 | 131 | 175 |
| sun 26 jul | Long run | 39.1 | 2:56:38 | 4:31 | 158 | 663 |
| sun 26 jul | Run home from the station | 0.8 | 4:20 | 5:14 | 161 | 12 |
good
- 4x2k threshold averaged 3:37/km (3:40 / 3:33 / 3:38 / 3:37) off 60s recoveries, run as the second session of a double after 21.3 km easy that morning. HR climbed 169 to 175 and topped out at 183. Eight kilometres at 6s/km faster than goal pace, on tired legs, with heart rate still inside the calibrated marathon band.
- 39.1 km long run, the longest of the block, in 2:56:38 (4:31/km) with 356 m of climb. First 16.4 km at 4:23/km for an average HR of 159.6; final 22.7 km at 4:36/km for 157.4 with 289 m of the vert. Heart rate fell as the run went on. Essentially no aerobic decoupling over three hours.
- Interval session held its shape end to end: 4x200m at 2:55-3:00/km, 3x1k at 3:24 / 3:25 / 3:26 (HR 176-178, max 188), 3x400m at 3:25 / 3:15 / 3:15. Every rep completed, no fade across the 1k set.
note
- Distribution: roughly 51% of weekly volume easy or recovery, 37% the long run sitting in Z3, 12% at threshold or faster. Every standalone easy run landed at the recovery end (4:59, 5:07, 5:10/km) rather than in the easy band, so the aerobic base work this week was genuinely easy.
- No run this week fell in either marathon-relevant pace band. Nothing at goal pace (3:43-3:50) and nothing at steady (3:55-4:08). Quality was threshold and VO2 only; the long run was unstructured endurance. Marathon-pace-specific work was absent for the first time in the block.
- Load sequencing: the two push-off-heavy sessions landed on consecutive days. Tuesday's reps (200s, 1ks, 400s) then Wednesday's double, 21.3 km easy in the morning and the threshold set at lunch, making Wednesday a 33.5 km day. Both FHL tendinopathy and the left hamstring are provoked by the speed end, so consecutive placement concentrates the shared risk. Thursday and Saturday were full rest days.
watch
- The 2:40 marker is still not demonstrated. It requires a fast-end goal-pace effort on rested legs at HR at or below 176 with no FHL or hamstring response, and that specific data point has now been absent for two straight weeks. Wednesday's threshold is supportive but is not the same thing: faster than goal pace, intermittent, and run on fatigued legs. Aerobic proxies are strong; the specific confirmation is missing.
- Long-run specificity did not advance. Two weeks ago the long run carried 3x4k at marathon effort; this week's 39 km was continuous endurance with no discrete goal-pace blocks. Worth tracking whether goal pace returns to the long run and whether it lands later and more continuously.
- No symptoms reported from either standing niggle. Nothing was cut short: all interval reps completed, threshold 4/4, and the 39 km finished clean. Tolerance is inferred from completion rather than directly reported, so treat it as awareness-or-below rather than confirmed silent.
- Volume ran 105.7 km across 7 runs on 5 run-days, the second consecutive week below the typical 116 km / 8 runs, but concentrated into larger single days (33.5 km Wednesday, 40.0 km Sunday). Worth noting next week whether frequency rebuilds or this concentration is the shape of the peak phase.
5 weeks
22 jun 2026 to 26 jul 2026 · 35 days- runs
- 30
- distance
- 438.3 km
- time
- 33h 42m
- per week
- 87.7 km
| week ending | km | Δ km | runs | time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 jun | 28.9 | · | 3 | 2h 18m |
| 05 jul | 116.0 | +87.2 | 8 | 8h 51m |
| 12 jul | 84.9 | -31.2 | 6 | 6h 30m |
| 19 jul | 102.9 | +18.0 | 6 | 7h 42m |
| 26 jul | 105.7 | +2.8 | 7 | 8h 21m |
12 months
01 aug 2025 to 26 jul 2026- runs
- 271
- distance
- 4258 km
- time
- 338h 39m
- per month
- 355 km
| month | km | runs | time |
|---|---|---|---|
| aug 2025 | 313.3 | 17 | 27h 23m |
| sep 2025 | 359.3 | 24 | 28h 04m |
| oct 2025 | 325.9 | 23 | 25h 12m |
| nov 2025 | 262.3 | 23 | 19h 49m |
| dec 2025 | 324.4 | 18 | 26h 02m |
| jan 2026 | 300.8 | 19 | 23h 46m |
| feb 2026 | 351.5 | 22 | 28h 14m |
| mar 2026 | 473.1 | 28 | 37h 34m |
| apr 2026 | 465.0 | 25 | 37h 30m |
| may 2026 | 350.5 | 23 | 29h 01m |
| jun 2026 | 346.4 | 24 | 26h 32m |
| jul 2026 to 26 jul | 385.3 | 25 | 29h 32m |
- fitness
- 80
- fatigue
- 93
- form
- +8
- as of
- 26 jul 2026
- fitness, 42-day average
- fatigue, 7-day average
- the gap, fitness minus fatigue
| month end | fitness | fatigue | form |
|---|---|---|---|
| aug 2025 | 70 | 61 | +21 |
| sep 2025 | 67 | 61 | +5 |
| oct 2025 | 60 | 54 | +4 |
| nov 2025 | 53 | 46 | +1 |
| dec 2025 | 61 | 83 | -21 |
| jan 2026 | 56 | 53 | -4 |
| feb 2026 | 62 | 55 | -1 |
| mar 2026 | 76 | 82 | -8 |
| apr 2026 | 83 | 87 | -7 |
| may 2026 | 79 | 78 | +12 |
| jun 2026 | 72 | 52 | +25 |
| jul 2026 | 80 | 93 | +8 |
The curve runs on a heart-rate estimate recomputed the same way for every session, not on the stored load column. That column carries the numbers each source reported, and the two sources are on different scales, so feeding the mixture to the model would put a step at the seam between them and draw a fitness jump that never happened.