Today I went for a long run – now there are 10 weeks until the marathon and I really have to push myself during these weeks in order to have a small chance for a new marathon best time. I wanted to run a normal long run with a little quicker finish than normally, hoping it would provide some benefit during the final kilometres of a marathon and enable getting a fast finish.
I headed to Bremen Klinikum Ost, as there’s a great Finnenbahn out there. I ran about 12 rounds on the track, as I really like the feeling it provides to my legs. Obviously the training is a bit harder than on a normal asphalt road, but on the other hand the legs get nice attenuation and don’t take as much hit as during a normal run.
Once again I was carrying Zoi with me. This time I was especially interested in how the training affects my running style. At the beginning I was able to keep the strides at the target zone, but after about 12 km it became harder and harder and there was a drop of about 10 – 20 steps per minute. When I picked up the pace a bit during the final kilometres, I noticed that also the number of strides was again in the desired zone. In other words I really have to think about my running technique, when running slowly or exhausted.