Lucky for me, this first week of training is during my Dashain holiday (I have 2 weeks off) which is next week. It’s been a good time to sit back, look at my plan, and research other ways of improving my running and my health.

	S	M	T	W	T	F	S	total
Plan			R:3.2km	R:3.2km	R:3.2km		R:3.2km	R:12.8km
Actual				R:5.3km	R:5.3km		R:8.0km	R:18.6km

Summary

Last week was all about the rain and the muddy roads. But it looks like the rains might stop, or at least not be so frequent and heavy, so maybe the roads will be able to dry out. It’s rough going in a few places but otherwise, it’s not a bad surface to run on.

All-in-all a good week, especially the end. The rains did stop (at least for a few days) and was able to get in a great 8km (5-mile) long run on Saturday. It is the Dashain holiday so I have two weeks off, so I’ve been able to do a lot of stretching, bodyweight exercise and even doing prep handstand work. Hopefully all the festivities will still allow me to keep running most days and working out.

I’ve gone ahead and jumped ahead in the schedule, kind of. The 5km runs have been okay, so I’m going to continue those. And since today’s long run went well, I’ll take it easy next Saturday (because in two weeks, I have a 10km). Just keep on keepin’ on!

Probably the biggest surprise of the week was that I met another runner. Krishna is a teacher at another local primary school. I saw him twice this week and finally stopped to talk with him (and get a selfie). I’m sure I’ll see him more times out on the road.

Runalyze.com

	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
km				5.3	5.3		8.0
pace				9:00	8:29		8:42
m				153	146		199
MS			17%	17%	17%	17%	18%
ATL			14%	17%	22%	20%	20%
CTL			19%	20%	22%	23%	23%
TSB			-6	-12	-21	-17	-28
bw					28:00
walk		5.5				5.2

• km = distance run (km)
• pace = minutes/km
• m = elevation gain (meters)
• MS = marathon shape
• ATL = fatigue (%)
• CTL = fitness level (%)
• TSB = stress balance (%)
• bw = bodyweight workouts (mins)
• walk = walking workouts (km)

At least right now, the most important stat I am getting from Runalyze.com is my TSB, Training Stress Balance. Ideally, during training, you want the number between -10 and -30. And then by the time you get to that last week and taper, you want the number above 0 for race day.

And I’ll be very curious how fast my MS, Marathon Shape, number goes up. 🙂

One last note, I’ve included “walks” on the Runalyze info. I walk a lot every day so this isn’t that number – these are specifically “walking workouts” whose only purpose is to get some miles in. I’ll do these on my ‘no run’ days. I’m a creature of habit and if I don’t get up every day at the same time, it just makes getting up the next day just that much harder.