Week 12 (ATM Half Marathon)

Finish about 2:44:54, with a second half about 2 minutes quicker than the first. Run it at dawn if the start allows; in an afternoon or evening start, 28–32°C will cost you 20–30 seconds a kilometre, so take every segment 15 seconds slower and cancel the push. If the first 5 km clock faster than 39:30, you are going too fast: slow down. The 10 km gate is twelve days later, so a result nobody would have called a race is the right result.

• Mon23 NovStrength

  Gym — legs

  Leg press, seated leg curl, seated leg extension, hip abduction, hip adduction, calf raise on the leg press and plank. About 55 minutes. No run today.

  ▸Show Gym: legs

  Gym — legs

  7 exercises · 55 min

  Monday, on its own, with no run before or after it. At Osaka your heart rate averaged 144 against a zone 2 ceiling of 146, and you still lost 32 minutes in the second half. The engine was never the problem. The legs stopped absorbing landings, and no amount of extra running fixes that. This is the session that does.

  1. 1

     Leg press

     3 × 82 min rest

     Feet hip width in the middle of the platform. Lower until your knees reach about 90°, keeping your lower back pressed into the pad — if it peels off, you have gone too deep. Three seconds down, push up through the whole foot, and stop just short of locking the knees.

     Quads and glutes under real load — the muscles that absorb every landing, and the ones that gave out after 30 km twice.

  2. 2

     Seated leg curl

     3 × 1090s rest

     Sit back against the pad and bring the lap pad down snug on top of your thighs. Set the roller just above your heels, behind the lower leg. Pull your heels down and back under the seat as far as they go, pause for one second, then let them back up over three seconds. Keep your back on the pad — if your hips slide forward, the weight is too heavy.

     Hamstrings, which pull the leg through every stride and are what cramps when the quads hand over the work late in a race.

  3. 3

     Seated leg extension

     3 × 1090s rest

     Sit back with your knees in line with the machine's pivot and the pad on the front of your ankles, just above the feet. Straighten both legs until they are level with the seat and squeeze for one second, then lower over three seconds. Hold the handles and keep your hips down — no swinging, and if you need momentum, drop the weight.

     The front of the thigh, and the tendon below the kneecap that takes a pounding on every downhill — Kyoto has them.

  4. 4

     Hip abduction

     3 × 1560s rest

     Pads on the outside of the knees. Sit tall, push the knees apart as far as they go, hold for one second, and let them come back over two. Do not let the weight stack slam between reps.

     The side of the hip — the muscle that stops your pelvis dropping on each stride, which by 30 km is what turns into the shuffle.

  5. 5

     Hip adduction

     3 × 1560s rest

     Pads on the inside of the knees, starting at a stretch that feels comfortable, not extreme. Squeeze the knees together, hold for one second, open back out over two. Sit tall throughout.

     The inner thigh, which balances the abductors and keeps the knee tracking straight when you are tired.

  6. 6

     Calf raise on the leg press

     3 × 1260s rest

     Same machine as the leg press, with a lighter weight. Put the balls of your feet on the lower edge of the platform, knees almost straight and never locked. Press up over one second, hold at the top, then lower over three until you feel the stretch below the calf. Your knees do not move — only your ankles.

     Calves and achilles — your push-off, and the first thing to cramp at 35 km.

  7. 7

     Plank

     3 × 45 seconds45s rest

     Elbows directly under your shoulders, hips level with your shoulders, ribs pulled down, glutes squeezed. The moment your hips sag or your lower back arches, the set is over.

     A trunk that does not collapse late in a race, which is when your form goes.

  • Warm up for 5–10 minutes on a bike or a brisk incline walk. Not a run — the whole point of Monday is that there is no run.
  • Weeks 3 and 4: learn the machines. Use a weight you could lift 15 times and do the listed reps. Soreness from new movements is real, and Tuesday is still a run.
  • From week 5: pick a weight where the last rep of each set is hard but clean, with about two more left in you. When all three sets feel that way, go up one step on the stack next week.
  • Three seconds on the way down, every rep. The lowering is where the strength comes from.
  • If your legs are still sore on Wednesday, you went too heavy for Wednesday's session. Drop a step, not the day.
  • Tuesday's easy run will feel heavy the day after. That is expected, and why Tuesday is easy.
• Tue24 NovEasy

  Easy run

  7.5 km planned· ≈ 1:01–1:06👟 1080v15

  Easy 7.5 km. Legs will feel yesterday's gym — keep it genuinely easy.

  Target 8:10–8:45 /km in Bangkok

  ▸Watch pace target

  Kyoto W12R1

  Name this on your Watch

  Copy name

  Run — 7.5 km @ 8:10–8:45/km

  No reps here — set a Pace Zone alert for this band on an Outdoor Run (or a single-block Custom Workout named with this) so the Watch buzzes if you drift outside it. That is what keeps an easy day easy.

• Wed25 NovEasy

  Easy run

  7.5 km planned· ≈ 1:01–1:06👟 1080v15

  Easy 7.5 km. No quality session this week — the race is the session.

  Target 8:10–8:45 /km in Bangkok

  ▸Watch pace target

  Kyoto W12R2

  Name this on your Watch

  Copy name

  Run — 7.5 km @ 8:10–8:45/km

  No reps here — set a Pace Zone alert for this band on an Outdoor Run (or a single-block Custom Workout named with this) so the Watch buzzes if you drift outside it. That is what keeps an easy day easy.

• Thu26 NovEasy

  Easy run

  7.5 km planned· ≈ 1:01–1:06👟 1080v15

  Easy 7.5 km. Last run before race day.

  Target 8:10–8:45 /km in Bangkok

  ▸Watch pace target

  Kyoto W12R3

  Name this on your Watch

  Copy name

  Run — 7.5 km @ 8:10–8:45/km

  No reps here — set a Pace Zone alert for this band on an Outdoor Run (or a single-block Custom Workout named with this) so the Watch buzzes if you drift outside it. That is what keeps an easy day easy.

• Fri27 NovRest

  Rest

  Rest. Lay your kit out tonight and eat normally.

• Sat28 NovRace

  Half marathon

  21.1 km planned· ≈ 2:45👟 Superblast 3

  RACE: half marathon, run as a long run with a controlled finish rather than an effort. Start at the top of the Bangkok long-run band, about 7:55/km, and hold it to roughly 14 km. Then ease down toward marathon pace, 7:30–7:40/km, for the last 7 km if your heart rate allows. Aim for a faster second half than first; 2:40–2:50 depending on the heat. Not all-out — the 10 km gate is twelve days later and needs fresh legs. Take a gel every 40 minutes and practise your race-morning breakfast.

  Target 7:58 easy · 7:55 easy · 7:40 easy · 7:30 reps /km in Bangkok

  ▸Step by step

  How the session runs

  2:44:54 in total

  1. 3 km
     km 1–37:58 /km23:54

     Slower than the plan on purpose, 7:58. The crowd will go out at 7:15 and you will feel like you are jogging. Let them go; you will pass most of them after 15 km.

  2. 11 km
     km 4–147:55 /km1:27:05

     Settle at 7:55, the top of the Bangkok long-run band. Heart rate under 140. Gel at about km 5, km 10 and km 15 — roughly every 40 minutes.

  3. 4 km
     km 15–187:40 /km30:40

     Ease down to 7:40. Nothing is spent yet. If heart rate has crept past 145, hold 7:55 instead and skip the push.

  4. 3.1 km
     km 19–21.17:30 /km23:15

     Marathon pace for Bangkok, 7:30. Heart rate may reach the mid 140s. The last 100 metres are for the photograph, not for a sprint.

  Paces are the Bangkok-heat bands. The same efforts in Kyoto cool will come out 20 to 35 seconds per kilometre quicker on their own.

  Kyoto W12R4

  Name this Custom Workout on your Watch

  Copy name

  1. km 1–3 — 23:54, 7:58/km
  2. km 4–14 — 1:27:05, 7:55/km
  3. km 15–18 — 30:40, 7:40/km
  4. km 19–21.1 — 23:15, 7:30/km

  Apple Watch has no file import for custom workouts. Build it as a Custom Workout on the Watch or Fitness app — Warm-up, then a Repeat block, then Cool-down — and paste this name in as its title.

• Sun29 NovRest

  Rest

  Rest. You raced yesterday — a walk is plenty.