Focus On The Devil

I've been reasonably comfortable with my training leading in. However, I know I can get more out of myself. The idea of three weeks of focussed training with a short taper/peak period leading into a race is different to what I have usually done in the past. I am curious to see how much improvement I can get out off myself in what is a relatively short period (30 days).

The Plan:

Focus 3 x 8 day weeks

Taper 6 days

Race: Devilbend Half Marathon 21.1km (on dirt roads)

Each Focus Week will include:
• Long Run- 2 hours at a steady state effort with some harder running on the uphills in the last 3rd if feeling good.
• Focus Run- 15km tempo. Week 1 @ 153-158bpm, Week 2 @ 158-163, Week 3 @ 163-168. Based on threshold HR 163 taken last half marathon.
• VO2- Intervals 6-8x4-5min, 2-3min rec. hopefully with plenty of uphill work. Inensity about 5km race pace.
• Speed- Week 1 5x200m, 200m rec. Run fast aiming for some lactate tolerance. Weeks 2-3 fast repeats of 60-80m, walk back recovery.

On top of the key runs above I'll get in a long ride of 3 hours and a decent swim of at least 2000m. Plenty of strength work thrown in, but this is likely to be achieve in numerous small chunks rather than two longer sessions.

The program is ambitious. I except plenty of fatigue and pain. Maybe some sessions will totally kick my arse. Maybe I'll absolutely hammer them. Whatever the short journey involves I am sure I should get at least a descent improvement in the end. The taper period should allow not only some recovery, but hopefully will bring some supercompensation.