Phase 2 · Base + Speed

Week 7

19 Oct – 25 Oct

A+104%

Distance45.8 / 44 km

Long run18 / 18 km

Runs7 / 4

Decision gate

5 km time trial

Target ≤ 31:00

Sub-5:00 still live. Slower than 32:30 and we recalibrate to 5:15.

Raise the target≤ 29:00

Under 29:00 and 4:45 becomes a real conversation.

How to pace it

≤ 31:00

Segment	Pace	Clock	What it should feel like
km 1	6:20	6:20	Eight seconds slower than target, on purpose. This is the kilometre everyone ruins.
km 2	6:14	12:34	Settle onto target. Breathing should be hard but rhythmic.
km 3	6:12	18:46	The hard one. Hold form, keep the cadence up.
km 4	6:12	24:58	Hold. If you are going to lose it, it happens here.
km 5	6:02	31:00	Everything left. Finish unable to speak.

Run this before 7am. A Bangkok evening is around 32°C and will cost you 20–30 seconds a kilometre against the same effort at dawn, which makes the result meaningless as a test. Flat route, no traffic lights, and do not chase the first kilometre.

How the week was run

Every session scored against what the plan asked for, weighted by its distance

100%

Sessions scored

At 90%+

Missed

Strength

1/1

45.8 of 44 km, 7 of 4 runs, longest 18 of 18 km.
Execution 100% across 4 sessions, 4 of them at 90% or better.
Strength 1 of 1. Done, which is the non-negotiable part.
Nothing to fix. Repeat this week as many times as the block asks for it.

Coach

Week 6 lost two sessions — Friday's 8.5 km and the 18 km long run — so the repeat rule applies: this week runs week 6's 44 km and 18 km long run again instead of stepping to 51 and 20. The gate stays on Friday. Thursday is now rest, so the time trial is run on rested legs, and the gate counts only the 5 km itself — the warm-up is your own — so Tuesday and Wednesday carry the rest of the week. First checkpoint. Thirty-one minutes keeps sub-5:00 alive. This is data, not a judgement — whatever the number, it makes the rest of the plan honest. Gate result, Friday 23 Oct: 31:07 for 5 km, Strava's fastest 5 km inside a 5.05 km run that took 31:24 in all. That is seven seconds outside the 31:00 bar and well inside the 32:30 line that would have moved the goal to 5:15, so sub-5:00 stays the A goal and nothing moves up or down. It is also a 5 km best by almost four minutes; the old 35:00 was set inside the 2024 DNF. Splits went 6:15, 6:25, 6:15, 6:14, 6:01 against a plan of 6:20, 6:14, 6:12, 6:12, 6:02. The first kilometre was held back as asked, the second is where most of the gap opened, eleven seconds slower than plan, and the last three were on target. The number worth looking at is heart rate: 132 through the first kilometre, 146 on average, 157 in the last and 162 at the line. Threshold starts at 161, so this was run mostly at tempo effort, not at 5 km race effort; a flat-out 5 km sits in the 160s from the second kilometre on. That reads two ways. The gate asked for 31:00 and got 31:07. And it got 31:07 without emptying you, so there is more in the engine than the clock shows. Neither is a reason to raise the target, because the engine was never the question. Form from Apple Health: 163 spm and 251 ms ground contact against 158 spm and 308 ms on Wednesday's easy 11 km, most of which is the quicker pace. The ground-contact bars stay level all the way through rather than stepping up the way they did at 14 km in week 4. Riegel turns 31:07 into about 4:58 for the marathon, right on the line, and Riegel assumes legs that last 42 km, which is the one thing that failed at Kyoto and at Osaka. So sub-5:00 is alive, not proven. The 10 km in week 13 (65:00 or better) is the next read; weeks 15 and 19 are the ones that decide it. The long run moved up to Saturday, the day after the gate, and Sunday became the rest day. Result: 18.01 km in 2:22:35 moving, 7:55/km, on the fast edge of the 7:55–8:25 band, the longest run since Osaka and the 18 km week 6 lost. That closes the week at 44.1 km against 44, every session on the board — gym, both midweek runs, the gate and the long run — so the repeat week did its job and week 8 progresses as planned. Heart rate averaged 132 and peaked at 145, the day after a hard effort, with about six minutes above 140, all of it in the first kilometre and the last two. The one thing to fix is the start. The note asked for slow first kilometres and they were the quickest of the run: 7:47 for the first 6 km including stops, then 8:17 for each of the other two thirds. That is the wrong way round for a long run, and on a 32 km day it is the Osaka fade in miniature. Form from Apple Health: 271 ms ground contact and 8.7 cm vertical oscillation. Cadence reads 159 spm in Apple's summary, but that is total steps over the whole 2:26 including about three and a half minutes of stops; 81 of the 90 chart bars are steady running and they average 165.6 spm, so while you were running the cadence was about 166. Against week 5's 16 km (160 spm, 284 ms) that is two kilometres more for less ground contact, which is real progress. But read the bars, not the average: ground contact climbs steadily, about 241 ms in the first third, 265 in the second and 287 in the last, while running cadence eases from 169 to 165. Some of that is the slower pace later on; the rest is the legs tiring, the same signature as week 4 at 14 km, now arriving later and more gradually. Strava logs 523 m of climbing for a flat park loop, which is altimeter noise — the altitude stream never leaves 1–8 m. Next: week 8 is 43 km with a 20 km long run whose last 5 km are steady. Start it at 8:15 or slower, so the steady finish is the only quick running of the day.

Day by day

4 done

Mon19 OctStrength
Gym — legs, light
Machines only, two sets each, nothing hard. No run today.
Show Gym: legs, light
Gym — legs, light
7 exercises · 35 min
On its own day, with no run. A lighter session, because what comes after it matters more. Strength fades slowly, and a heavy leg day blunts the sessions that follow for two or three days. In gate weeks and the taper, the job is to keep what you built without taking anything to the test.
1
Leg press
2 × 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
Seated leg curl
2 × 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
Seated leg extension
2 × 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
Hip abduction
2 × 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
Hip adduction
2 × 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
Calf raise on the leg press
2 × 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
Plank
2 × 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.
Same warm-up, same machines, same order.
Two sets instead of three, and a weight you could lift five more times. Nothing should feel hard.
Leave soreness out of this week entirely. If you feel it the next day, it was too much.
Tue20 OctEasy
Easy run
10 km planned· ≈ 1:22–1:28100%1080v15
Easy 10 km. The day after the gym, so the legs will feel heavy — hold the pace band and let them loosen.
Target 8:10–8:45 /km in Bangkok
Watch pace target
Kyoto W07R1
Name this on your Watch
Run — 10 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.
10.01 km8:04 /km1:20:48124 bpm avg
Afternoon Run · New Balance 1080v15
fasterran 8:04 · target 8:10–8:45
Coach
On plan.
Wed21 OctEasy
Easy run
11 km planned· ≈ 1:30–1:36100%1080v15
Easy 11 km, keep it light before Friday's test.
Target 8:10–8:45 /km in Bangkok
Watch pace target
Kyoto W07R2
Name this on your Watch
Run — 11 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.
11.01 km8:11 /km1:30:08128 bpm avg
Evening Run · New Balance 1080v15
fasterran 8:11 · target 8:10–8:45
Coach
On plan.
Thu22 OctRest
Rest
Rest before tomorrow's time trial. A gate only means something on rested legs.
Fri23 OctGate
GATE: 5 km time trial
5 km planned100%Rebel v5
GATE: 5 km time trial on Friday. Warm up on your own first — 10–15 minutes of easy jogging and a few short pickups — then 5 km hard, timed on its own. Flat route, cool part of the day.
To pass: 31:00 or better — average 6:12 /km or quicker for the 5 km
How to pace it
km 16:20 /kmclock 6:20
Eight seconds slower than target, on purpose. This is the kilometre everyone ruins.
km 26:14 /kmclock 12:34
Settle onto target. Breathing should be hard but rhythmic.
km 36:12 /kmclock 18:46
The hard one. Hold form, keep the cadence up.
km 46:12 /kmclock 24:58
Hold. If you are going to lose it, it happens here.
km 56:02 /kmclock 31:00
Everything left. Finish unable to speak.
The clock starts after the warm-up, on the first timed kilometre. Run this before 7am. A Bangkok evening is around 32°C and will cost you 20–30 seconds a kilometre against the same effort at dawn, which makes the result meaningless as a test. Flat route, no traffic lights, and do not chase the first kilometre.
5.05 km6:13 /km31:24145 bpm avg
Morning Run · New Balance Rebel v5
Coach
On plan.
Sat24 OctLong
Long run 18 km
18 km planned· ≈ 2:23–2:32100%1080v15
18 km easy at the long-run band — the long run week 6 lost. Gel at 45 and 90 minutes. Moved to Saturday, the day after the time trial, so let the first few kilometres be slow.
Target 7:55–8:25 /km in Bangkok
Watch pace target
Kyoto W07R4
Name this on your Watch
Run — 18 km @ 7:55–8:25/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.
18.01 km7:55 /km2:22:35133 bpm avg
Afternoon Run · New Balance 1080v15
fasterran 7:55 · target 7:55–8:25
Coach
On plan.
Sun25 OctRest
Rest
Rest. The long run moved to Saturday this week, so today is the day off.

Cross training

Evening Weight Training 19 Oct · 31 min

Decision gate

How to pace it

How the week was run

Day by day

Gym — legs, light

Gym — legs, light

Leg press

Seated leg curl

Seated leg extension

Hip abduction

Hip adduction

Calf raise on the leg press

Plank

Easy run

Kyoto W07R1

Easy run

Kyoto W07R2

Rest

GATE: 5 km time trial

Long run 18 km

Kyoto W07R4

Rest