My 6 weeks marathon plan

I would like to share with you my 6 weeks marathon plan. I know that 6 weeks is very short, but I had first of all to recover during September from a knee injury that happened late August at a 100km race. And I had been sick for 6 days during week 3. So it was not the ideal training, but I feel strong and confident. The hard part will be the weather, here is the forecast: 60% precipitation chance, 23km/h winds and 12°C. Not too bad :-D

This plan was designed by Philippe CALVARIN (France Elite Duathlon champion in 1993 and many other titles).

	TRAINING PLAN	STATUS
WEEK 1	50' jogging	Compex
	30' jog + 2 x (10 x 30''/30''), rest=4' jog + 10' jog	OK
	REST	OK
	50' jog (empty stomach)	OK
	REST	OK
	1:20 jog (last 20' @12km/h)	OK
	40' jog + 8km (marathon pace) + 3km (half marathon pace) + 2km (10km pace) + 10' jog	OK
WEEK 2	REST	OK
	20' jog + 15 x 400m @15.6km/h, rest 200m jog + 10' jog	OK
	REST	OK
	1:30 jog (last 30' @12km/h)	OK
	40' jog + 12 x 1000m @12km/h, rest 200m jog + 10' jog	OK
	REST or 50' jog	OK
	Bike 2h + 1h jog	1h30+30'
WEEK 3	1:15 jog (last 15' @12km/h)	Compex
	20' jog + 20 x 500m @14km/h, rest 200m jog + 10' jog	OK
	REST	OK
	1:30 jog (last 30' @12km/h)	1h05
	30' jog + 4 x 3000m @13km/h, rest 3' jog + 10' jog	SICK
	REST or 50' jog	SICK
	Bike 2h + 1h jog	SICK
WEEK 4	1:15 jog (last 15' @12km/h)	SICK
	20' jog + 20 x 400m @17.6km/h, rest 100m jog + 10' jog	SICK
	REST	SICK
	1:30 jog (last 30' @12km/h)	Try the 20 x 400m training => too hard
	50' jog	OK
	REST	OK
	30' jog + 30' @ 12km/h + 10km (marathon pace) + 5km (half marathon pace) + 1km (10km pace) + 5' jog	OK
WEEK 5	REST	OK
	1h jog	OK
	REST	OK
	20' jog + 3km @ 13km/h + 3' jog + 2km @ 13km/h + 10' jog	OK
	40' jog	TIRED + RAIN SHOWERS
	REST	RAIN SHOWERS
	1:15 jog	RAIN SHOWERS
WEEK 6	REST	RAIN SHOWERS
	30' jog + 3km @ 13km/h	TIRED + RAIN SHOWERS
	30' jog	TIRED + RAIN SHOWERS
	REST	1h10
	30' jog +5 straight lines	OK
	REST	OK
	Orléans MARATHON in 3:15	MARATHON

Disk crash on Ubuntu: the rescue guide

Here is a geek post that will not deal with running.
My personal laptop is running on Ubuntu. I always used to be a Linux geek and I made the complete switch to gnu/Linux after trying to use Windows Vista on my brand new laptop: a nightmare. Nothing available by default to burn an ISO CD, to watch a DVD, etc. The transition had not been painful, Ubuntu is very impressive and can run all my hardware.

The hard part came when my hard drive began to get bad sectors a few weeks ago. I was not able to compact my Thunderbird Inbox, and neither to backup it to a usb drive. I was really upset. How will I fix my drive? Nothing seemed available in the system. So I decided to run it "old school" way, using the shell with the command line fsck.

This post is a comprehensive guide that aims to help people who are using Ubuntu and who do not have a deep knowledge of Linux.

Step 1: download a Ubuntu Live CD image, go to: http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download
Step 2: burn it using Brasero Disc Burner.
Step 3: reboot from the live CD.
Step 4: open the disk utility (Sytem / Administration / Disk Utility)
Step 5: find the path to your partition (e.g. /dev/sda3), do not mount it.
Step 6: open a shell (applications / accessories / terminal)
Step 7: get the root grant
type: sudo su -
Step 8: check & repair the partition
type: fsck -cf /dev/sda3
-c is looking for the bad blocks and add them to the bas blocks inode.
-f force the search & repair.
Step 9: answer yes to all the questions (by typing "y")
Step 10: reboot
Step 11: backup immediately your data (it was not possible before, due to the bad blocks)
Step 12: enjoy a safe computer.

Quick update: marathon in 4 days

Hi everybody, my last boy is born 5 months ago. He is an amazing little boy full of energy and a great joy for his parents. This left me no time for posting on this blog. Training is getting hard, with an hectic schedule, short nights, and my job. Hopefully, I was able to run some pretty nice races but was really tired on the start line:
- end of June: Le Raid du Morbihan (178km), I gave up at km 144, I was able to finish the race, be without any pleasure, tiredness was TOO painful
- end August : 100km des étangs de Sologne. A great race but my bike injury on the left knee (accident happened in April) came back after 35km. At km 45, I had to slow down, then I switched running & walking. I finished with a strong mental in 13h50, my initial goal was 10h! One month of rest was required to be able to start running again.

Then, I decided that I need to change dramatically the way I train. Speed was currently an option in my ultra running races. Back to the basics! My next race will be a marathon. I asked to my friend Philippe to design a 6 weeks marathon training plan for a 3:15 goal. The D day is approaching, it will be Sunday the 14th of November in Orléans (France) : http://www.orleansmarathon.fr/
Orléans is closed to my home, about 1h by car, it is convenient. 259 registered runners so far. The weather forecast is terrible, cold and rain shower. Should be fun.