25k in 2h 40min (avg pace 6:25/km) with avg HR 139. This is about the longest training run I will do in preparation for a marathon - I think. Some training programs advocate increasing the long-run distance up to 30k and above, but many others claim the risk of injury or overtraining increases dramatically when doing 3+ hour training runs and thus they are not worth the risk.
Long slow distance at 6:40/km
19k long slow run around lauttasaari on Saturday. Since the shoreline of an island is supposed to have a fractal dimension greater than one, it's possible to lengthen the run by following the shoreline more closely. Here the lap around the island is about 16-3 = 13km.
Between 6-7km and slightly after 7km it's probably possible to run on the cliffs and in the woods to get a bit more distance. I'm not sure about the area around 10km, seems private with no path around the shoreline. At 12km and slightly after 14km I don't think there's a shoreline-path either.
Rounded off a busy week with an organized 40k walk: kesäyön marssi. Walking is obviously not as stressful on the legs and fitness as running, but the script on a 40k walk is pretty much the same: if you are reasonably prepared you will make it until around 25k or 32k without much trouble, and after that it requires some work and determination to finish those last kilometers.
So as not to make it all too easy I cycled 7.3k to work, then 15.5k to the start of the march, and finally 25.9k (at 3am in the morning!) home from the event for a total of ~48k on the bike 🙂
Long, slow, and easy.
LSD - long slow distance. It's good for you.
A nice way to get some variation into the long runs is to take the bus/metro somewhere far and run back home. Google says it's only about 13 km by car to Vuosaari, but if you follow the coast closely it's much longer.
km 2-4: Lots and lots of new houses in Aurinkolahti (Helsinki's own Santa Cruz) before a dive into a green area at km 5-6 (roughly resembling Helsinki central park). Over the vuosaari bridge at 7-8, and into Marjaniemi, an older housing-area around km 8-10. At km 12 you can look at the rich people who are envious of the even richer people, because they have a nicer RIB at the pier just down from their (multi?)million-euro villa. More lots and lots of new houses at "Eastend", a newly built area at km 14-15. The houses are built to look like (large) cottages in the archipelago with a grey weather-beaten-wood look to the outside. However closer inspection reveals it's not wood, just a paneled grey-painted wall. I wonder if admiral Cronstedt would approve? The Iraqi embassy at the 90-degree bend between km 16 and 17 looks as if nothing ever happened, with a well groomed lawn and flowers at the front. Gloves on for the windy kulosaari-bridge at km 18 which offers a nice view into the city center - you can easily count 5-6 churches another half dozen landmarks from here. The view would be even nicer without the architectural concrete-wonders of merihaka at km 20. Just after km 21 the restaurant on tervasaarihas put up a cheesy advert featuring santa-claus and santas-little-helpers. Since the pace was a slow 6:30/km-ish, I decided to quit at 2 hours 20 minutes, or 22 km.
The plan was to run slower and longer, but all those hills in the first (and last) 7k which cause the HR-curve to jump up and down made me turn around at 10k.
