choosing my shoe

now it is 8 weeks to go to my marathon and I must pick up the shoe for the race.
Unfortunately my beloved NewBalance RC600 are too worn-out and totally our of stock in HK, otherwise I would not have doubts...

I happens that I have won 4 wonderful looking shoes at local races that could be suitable for the job (running 42km for a 70kg heel-striker...).
They are all brand new from the box and I do not want to go into testing each of them...
The drawback is that 3 of them are all models for Asian and Japanese market, so it is impossible to find a review for these models on our usual sources...
"Asian fit" models have usually a wider forefoot to accommodate the shape of Asian feet, and it is not a bad feeling also for my "caucasian foot" because gives some extra space when the foot is swollen...
said this, let's see the contestant

A) MIZUNO WAVE SPACER R3

gorgeous looking black/yellow. 205 grams/7.2oz . I believe it is more suited for neutral runners, but the wave plate is quite solid. Sold only in Japan (Hong Kong is a bit particular market, where East meets West).















B) NIKE KATANA RACER STAR
shining orange, 215gr/7.6oz. Sold also in USA, but I could not find a decent review on whether they are suitable for a marathon, even if they have a "air" unit also in foresole. Also it seems classified for neutral gait runner (and actually I can not see any specific anti pronation device)



C) NEW BALANCE RC902MR
pleasant red color, 220gr/7.8oz. They seems also the less "aggressive" of the bunch with a design very similar to the NB RC600. Listed as suitable for pronators (with medial post and stability web). This is also a Japan only model.


D) MIZUNO WAVE REVOLVER
classic blue/white color. 220gr/7.8oz . They are also listed as marathon shoes for pronators, but a review on runningtimes.com discourages the use for longer race over 15k. I need more double check on them. They also seems more common for US market (while absent from Mizuno European website...)










Like in any beauty contest, the line-up of the finalists (Mizuno Wave Revolver was unfortunately stored elsewhere)













Needless to say, they are all "made in China" and most likely made here in Dongguan (Adidas, Asics, Mizuno has their subcontractors in Dongguan, I can not swear for NewBalance, Nike are made most likely in factories in Guangzhou (50km away)). So I support the local economy...

still hot and humid

From Mara Yamauchi's blog (overall very boring... not worthy to read), a good sentence about the toughness of the Asian summer

.....
Autumn in Tokyo
....
The summer here is so hot and sticky, that the Japanese have a whole set of special words, food, clothes etc for it.
“Natsu-bate” means endless fatigue brought on by hot, humid days, poor sleep, dehydration and other heat-induced menaces
....

Autumn is here too on the calendar, but is still so hot and humid...

Yesterday, 12 hours meeting at work, followed by a business dinner... a poor sleep because the air was so sticky and heavy in the bedroom (even with air-con...).
As soon as I hit the road this morning, I felt that it was not the best day ... much more humid than the past days and the air was so hazy that looked liked British fog (but 30C warmer).

I really struggled to make a decent 17km at easy pace, the last 20 minutes were endless...

good feel

this morning I had my best workout in months...
- 27C(78F)/80% rh
- Shoes Mizuno Elixir 3 (a great model, good for both longhish runs and fast pace)
- slept too little, but felt ok anyway.
The program was to run 24km in progression at 8k steps: 8k at 70-75% HRmax, 8k at 78%-60% and the final 8k at MP pace/effort (target is 3'40"/km and 85/86%HRmax).

It was really magic night (still) , the moon was perfectly round and shining on the west, while the sun was ready to rise from the East...
I hit these paces:
- 8k at about 4'10"/km . I felt incredibly easy and the HR was really low, even lower than 140...
- 8k at 3'50"/km pace: it felt amazingly easy. The HR was steady at 155-156 (78%/79% of HRmax) and I could have gone on forever... I was guessing that I could be capable to run a marathon in 2h45' as "easy" effort...
-last 8k at 3'40"/km: I hit the pace perfectly and the HR was in target until the last 2km. I guess the HR drift was due to the sun already shining on my already half tired legs, but overall the pace felt quite comfortable. Never felt the "2h35m marathon" as likely as today. I have it in my legs, I need to tune up the feeling at 3'40" speed in order to find the best stride (today I made some experiments with faster stride versus lower cadence but longer stride...)

Wk 36 Summary

- 110km in 7 workouts (well, in 6 days)

- main workouts:

Thursday: after a fairly trouble night because of my daughter, I got up too late with little time to spare for a workout. So I felt like doing a time trial to see what is my effective fitness after 2 weeks so so: on 6km I hit 20'19" (3'23"/km pace). The effort was pretty hard, similar to a 10k/15k race. Temperature was an awful 27C/78F. I take it as a decent indication that my 10k shape is around 33'40/33'50", not bad considering the temperature.
Sunday: I got up at 4.30am (!!) and checked the current temperature from HKO: I was shocked to see that we were already at 29C/82F, with 60%Rh (low for the region..). My planned long run was going to be a survival affair.
Kayano shoes because I wanted to save the feet from additional beating (left still painful)
Easy pace for 15k, than it was time for a 4x3k @MP.
11'00"
11'00"
11'08"(hot front wind)
11'02" (hot tail wind)
in the last 2 I was way out outside my target HR pace (173 average, while I was supposed to stay under 170), but I do not know how much was also due to the temperature.
To survive, I pick up a shaded strecht and placed water at the 2 ends: my mantra during the 3k interval was thinking about "only xxx meters to the water".
In total 33km, not bad

Overall comment: I started the week pretty easy, feeling still tired and with foot pain. Missed a day on purpose. I guess that it did paid off because I rebounded by the weekend and Sunday's workout was by long the best long run I have had this cycle.

Now I just hope the temperature begins to cool down a bit, as to make at least some decent MP run nailing both the pace and HR before marathon day.
The problem in training with 28C/80F for a marathon held at 10C/50F is that until race day you can not test the real conditions in terms of temperature and feelings... let's see

Wk 35 Summary

- 8 runs for 110km (one double because one evening, I watched a movie while jogging on treadmill)

- 1 5km race: 2nd OE and 32 seconds faster then 1 year ago on the same course. Must be something beyond my comprehension because I felt sick after 3k, stopped and walked for a while...

- Workouts: very poor outcome. I felt pretty much tired all week long and all the workouts were either aborted or shortened.
-- Interval training @HMpace: cut short after 4km because I felt a crap
-- Long run: dragged the feet for 26km and cut short because I also felt pain in my right foot (I need some cushioning..)

Comment: I shall consider it a "recovery" week for the total absence of a good single workout and lower overall mileage. The race itself was amazing, I got a good lesson and in a more relaxed perspective, It shows that my form is better then expected.

Italian sweep

Saturday was the first round of the local 5K races series.
Being organized by my club, I could not miss it, even if I hate running in the afternoon:
I always have digestive issues and it is pretty "painful" to wait all day, juggling among family pleasures and the thought of the race...
Anyway, the field was pretty much loaded, with many of the best local runners lining up for suffering on a scenic, hilly, tough course, mixed road and trail (slippery).

Few posts ago (see below) I praised my fellow italian Stefano for having the best potential and attidute among us.
Well, at no surprise, he charged the hill very hard from the start, but with much surprise, I was capable to follow him a few steps back...
After 1km I stopped hearing any breath behind me but we were entering into the single track, so not a moment to lift off the pedal. On the trail, I did not want to force too much because there were more hills waiting, so I lost a good 10" to Stefano, but still no one coming from behind.
By the 3rd km I begun to feel very hard breathing and difficult to push even at "relaxed" pace, the ventilation was stuck becuase of stiches coming from the belly...
I was not really dead becuase of pushing too hard, but I could not breath... And another hill was coming..
Well.... I stopped, then walk for some meters hoping that someone could catch me asap and avoid me to push my body further in such torture...
I guess it was a complete shutdown of the central governor...
I turned back and still nobody in sight!!!
So I forced myself to run somehow up the last hill and cruise down for the last km to the finish line...
Needless to say, I almost collapsed after the line and 5 minutes later I was throwing up lunch, breakfast and maybe also some remaining from friday...

In all that, I still arrived 2nd overall and 1st "senior", improving last year time by 16 seconds ... (AMENDMENT, I CHECKED LAST YEAR RESULT AND I AM DOWN BY 32 SECONDS !!!!! AMAZING!!)

Stefano was far ahead but I am pleasantly surprised for my overall performance despite all...
So it was for sure the first italian one-two in the modest history of road running in Hong Kong...
very singular event being our national community here not very large
P.S.: for the next afternoon race, complete fast for 8 hours before the race....

Wk 34 Summary

- 127km in 7 workout. The maximum up to now for this training cycle

- 3 workouts:

Wednesday: 25km with 6x2km @ MP, short recovery. This time I nailed the target of 7'20" each, but I was a bit over the target of my HR in the last 2 (reminder: my marathon HR should be around 168-170)

Friday: 20km with fast farltek, many short intervals 1on-1off, good leg cadence, 92/94.

Sunday: 33k. I got up at 4.30am, slept very poorly only maybe 3 hours, back pain. Outside was already 28C/85%rh ... in practice, I felt like S... and was very close to call off for the day... but I could not miss my long run !! Legs felt ok for 20k+ with 2 climbs,than I run out of steam. I felt the back tightening and low overall energy. The last 5km were really long.
It is the second long run in a row that I screw up... definetely I need to make my hard workout on Thursday and have some extra-recovery before the long run.

***TEST***
Saturday I jog around the track and also found time for a Conconi Test (400m protocol). Actually I read many articles about the low reliability of the test in picking up the actual AT level, but I want to use it mainly to monitor the change of the HR profile over time, as sign of good/poor training.
Good: from my first test, right after start of the training, I definitely improved a lot. The curved moved to the right in a dramatic fashion, almost 2.5 kmh faster at the same HR
Bad: I was for sure tired while doing the test, the HR did not climb over 175 even if I felt pushing fast in the last laps. Only 181 bpm as max HR during the test. I must take care of recovery and doing easy runs, very easy