To start April is a tough month for training this year. It involved taper for Canberra, the race itself and post race recovery. To add to the mix I spent a week and a bit travelling overseas which also reduced the number of runs.
So summary is 127km for April which interestingly enough was pretty much identical to last year (128km).
Highlight - well I did do a 10km PB at the domain!
Lowlight - Canberra run, enough already said.
The challenge is now to get back on track for May, which I could not do last year with only 114km, be interesting to see what happens and how I do at SMH, hoping for a sub 90 half PB.
Saturday, April 30, 2005
CR 5km Challenge
Actually felt pretty good as I arrived for the monthly CR 5km challenge, this will be a benchmark run for the next few months. The soreness has gone completely from the percieved injury but I was still unsure as to how I would go. Despite posting a 19:15 last month I opted to stay with the 20 minute group believing I would probably be a bit slower.
Only 4 runs in total since Canberra and pretty much all of them involved some sort of pain from various niggles etc so expected the fitness to have dropped slightly as well. Stand in starter Fats did a fine job in sending off a good sized group and we quickly settled into a good pace. Redback darted out about 5-10m off the front but we all ran quite a bit on the road in the first km or so as there were a lot of people out enjoying the excellent weather.
First km split was 3:50 bang on the money, I hung back near the front of the pack, still a few metres behind Redback. Missed the 2km mark and as we neared the 3km mark Redback had come back to the pack and I was tucked just in behind Mike F and 2 other Striders, one being Tim who I have seen around before. The 3km mark was a 7:44 for 2km which averages out at 3:52/km just a tad slower.
Just after the 3km mark you do a sharp left turn and it was here where I slipped off the back of the three in front running the 4th km pretty much by myself, catching a few earlier runners in the last 400m. The 4th km always seems to be the hardest and I went through in 3:56. Just after MPHaz cruised up and encouraged me to run with hime but I struggled a little with the twisty last km and could not keep up. Still passed a few more and came in just ahead of a heap of runners with a 3:56 final km to give me 19:28 all up just over 10 sec slower than last month.
Have to say I was actually pleased with this given the circumstances and enjoyed the recovery run back having a good chat with various people including Miss Skarmel who smashed another PB!! Great dining at the Blue Dog cafe serving up blueberry pancakes.
Also pleasing that this was the first post Canberra run that something was not hurting and this was at a serious pace as well! Tonight the legs are a little tight, to be expected I suppose. Something different tomorrow where I'll be foregoing the STaR and going Orienteering in the first Metro League round at Pennant Hills, should be great fun!!
Only 4 runs in total since Canberra and pretty much all of them involved some sort of pain from various niggles etc so expected the fitness to have dropped slightly as well. Stand in starter Fats did a fine job in sending off a good sized group and we quickly settled into a good pace. Redback darted out about 5-10m off the front but we all ran quite a bit on the road in the first km or so as there were a lot of people out enjoying the excellent weather.
First km split was 3:50 bang on the money, I hung back near the front of the pack, still a few metres behind Redback. Missed the 2km mark and as we neared the 3km mark Redback had come back to the pack and I was tucked just in behind Mike F and 2 other Striders, one being Tim who I have seen around before. The 3km mark was a 7:44 for 2km which averages out at 3:52/km just a tad slower.
Just after the 3km mark you do a sharp left turn and it was here where I slipped off the back of the three in front running the 4th km pretty much by myself, catching a few earlier runners in the last 400m. The 4th km always seems to be the hardest and I went through in 3:56. Just after MPHaz cruised up and encouraged me to run with hime but I struggled a little with the twisty last km and could not keep up. Still passed a few more and came in just ahead of a heap of runners with a 3:56 final km to give me 19:28 all up just over 10 sec slower than last month.
Have to say I was actually pleased with this given the circumstances and enjoyed the recovery run back having a good chat with various people including Miss Skarmel who smashed another PB!! Great dining at the Blue Dog cafe serving up blueberry pancakes.
Also pleasing that this was the first post Canberra run that something was not hurting and this was at a serious pace as well! Tonight the legs are a little tight, to be expected I suppose. Something different tomorrow where I'll be foregoing the STaR and going Orienteering in the first Metro League round at Pennant Hills, should be great fun!!
Friday, April 29, 2005
A couple of no's
No run but also no injury it seems???
After blogging yesterday and feeling very sore the day progressed well, some ice last night and it seems as good as gold this morning. Not wanting to chance anything, especially given I am running the 5km on Saturday I awarded myself a rest day. April is gone in terms of any decent milage but thems the breaks!
No idea what the problem was but it has gone away completely, I am now thinking it was some sort of muscle spasm....
CR 5km challenge tomorrow, no idea what sort of time I'll run but at least I am very fresh!!
After blogging yesterday and feeling very sore the day progressed well, some ice last night and it seems as good as gold this morning. Not wanting to chance anything, especially given I am running the 5km on Saturday I awarded myself a rest day. April is gone in terms of any decent milage but thems the breaks!
No idea what the problem was but it has gone away completely, I am now thinking it was some sort of muscle spasm....
CR 5km challenge tomorrow, no idea what sort of time I'll run but at least I am very fresh!!
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Back to reality!
Yes I am still alive folks. A combination of the post Canberra blahs along with a full on overseas business trip saw me take the easy way out and have a break.
I did some running while away, managing 3 x 10km hit outs in the morning while jet lag had me waking up early and I did not have too late a night the evening before. One of the guys from our office in France is also a runner and did New York last year in 3:15. So we hooked up and went out a couple of times around Disney World near our hotel. There was a pretty safe loop of just over a km around a lake/bay that we ran laps of. Certainly still banged up from Canberra as both the groin/adductor and interestingly enough my rhs ITB were not happy about this running caper again.
Back in Oz now and eventually motivated myself to get out this morning and have a good hit out and try out my new Shuffle. Felt real good on the run down to the LCNP weir and so much so opted to extend the run back through Ryde rather than heading straight home. Not a good move it seems, as I was climbing up to the gates and then along Lane Cove Rd my niggle in the groin area really started complaining. In the end it got so sore I walked the last km and a half. Did a heap of stretches once I got home and I'm pretty sure my hips might be out of alignment as the lower back/hips area "cracked" a couple of times as I really stretched this area out. Still very stiff/sore now, have popped a Naprosen and hopefully will go and see my osteo to check my alignment. This puts some risk into my planned run at the CR 5km challenge on Saturday.
Ignoring present issues from above I have been doing quite a deal of thinking about goals for the rest of the year to strive for. These fall into 2 categories, general and specific.
For the general side I am aiming to train through winter properly this time and will also run as much of the Striders 10km and Super Series events possible as well as others that make sense. Where I have done a particular race before then I will be aiming for a new PB. Through this program I aim to break 40min for 10km and depending upon how I am feeling try to break my PB and 90 @ SMH.
On the specific side I have decided I will run the Sydney Marathon and will go through a structured 12 week program for preparation. In these 12 weeks there will be quite a few races as well such as C2S and W2B for instance and I'll be using these as form guides for the Sydney run. Initial goal is to run a PB and I think 3:10 should be within reach if I train/prepare properly and race with a brain on the day. While it will be very tempting to aim for faster I now need some confidence over the longer races and 3:10 will do me for this year.
I did some running while away, managing 3 x 10km hit outs in the morning while jet lag had me waking up early and I did not have too late a night the evening before. One of the guys from our office in France is also a runner and did New York last year in 3:15. So we hooked up and went out a couple of times around Disney World near our hotel. There was a pretty safe loop of just over a km around a lake/bay that we ran laps of. Certainly still banged up from Canberra as both the groin/adductor and interestingly enough my rhs ITB were not happy about this running caper again.
Back in Oz now and eventually motivated myself to get out this morning and have a good hit out and try out my new Shuffle. Felt real good on the run down to the LCNP weir and so much so opted to extend the run back through Ryde rather than heading straight home. Not a good move it seems, as I was climbing up to the gates and then along Lane Cove Rd my niggle in the groin area really started complaining. In the end it got so sore I walked the last km and a half. Did a heap of stretches once I got home and I'm pretty sure my hips might be out of alignment as the lower back/hips area "cracked" a couple of times as I really stretched this area out. Still very stiff/sore now, have popped a Naprosen and hopefully will go and see my osteo to check my alignment. This puts some risk into my planned run at the CR 5km challenge on Saturday.
Ignoring present issues from above I have been doing quite a deal of thinking about goals for the rest of the year to strive for. These fall into 2 categories, general and specific.
For the general side I am aiming to train through winter properly this time and will also run as much of the Striders 10km and Super Series events possible as well as others that make sense. Where I have done a particular race before then I will be aiming for a new PB. Through this program I aim to break 40min for 10km and depending upon how I am feeling try to break my PB and 90 @ SMH.
On the specific side I have decided I will run the Sydney Marathon and will go through a structured 12 week program for preparation. In these 12 weeks there will be quite a few races as well such as C2S and W2B for instance and I'll be using these as form guides for the Sydney run. Initial goal is to run a PB and I think 3:10 should be within reach if I train/prepare properly and race with a brain on the day. While it will be very tempting to aim for faster I now need some confidence over the longer races and 3:10 will do me for this year.
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Race Report Canberra Marathon 2005
All the prep was done, just the actual race now.
Pre Race - Headed down to Canberra on Saturday morning to catch up with a cousin for lunch who I have only met a couple of times. From there it was across to the motel to register, meet and greet and then cheer on the runners in the 5/10km.
Had great fun watching the races as there were a number of laps so we got a good chance to cheer a lot of people. In particular Clairie with her pace escorts Mr G and Spud, but also Aki, Luke Skyrunner and a heap of Striders. Also good to see a couple of supported Cool Runners do real well!
Dinner was a good pasta load at a Italian restaurant in Kingston, I was slightly late as I needed to pick up last minute supplies.
Race Day - Slightly disturbed sleep but up at around 5am ready for action. The great thing about where I was staying was it was a walk out the door to the start! Popped over early to put my drinks in for the drink stops. Finally headed back over around 6:15, trying not to get too tense etc. There was certainly a mood of tension in the air.
Soon enough and we were off. I had decided to run by myself and keep a steady pace. If someone that I knew was around then great! Nice even splits early, ran with sportsman for about a km but he was going a little more conservatively so I pushed on. Back to the Bowen Cres turnaround and 10km just before it in 44:09, bang on my plans. A great lift from the crowd as we went through. From there it was just stay as smooth as possible, not far ahead was Philip B, another strider, and he was running probably only a second slower than me so it took until the tunnel until I caught him, we had a quick chat and I kept the momentum going. Back up the hill and through the tunnel and hit the 20km mark in 1:28:09 so a 2nd 10km of 44:00. This put me through the half way point in about 1:33. About here Philip B caught back up to me and we had another quick chat but he moved away from me pretty quickly mainly due to the fact that my pace was slowing.
Made concerted efforts to step it up again but to no avail so I decided to stay running comfortably and see what happened. As we got closer to the Bowen turnaround I could feel myself struggling more. Steve B, caught me at about the same time as I caught Mohammed just at the turn. Again the crowd was great but I was starting to hurt, the stomach in particular was beginning to spasm. Everytime I had a drink it gotr worse so I (maybe unwisely) started to limited fluid intake. Coming out of the turn Amjan gave me a big cheer and I think I said to her things were starting to hurt. Back out along the bridge and just at the drink station after the bridge things got worse. At the same time Superflake, vat_man and Blue Dog caught up to me. We had a quick chat but there was not a chance I could hold on to them.
Now I'm of the opinion that a blog must be honest and so this next bit is difficult...
About a km after the water station I really started to get bad stomach cramps and felt like chucking. I eased up further and around the same time the legs etc also started cramping, calves first probably due to the reduced fluid and also the increasing heat. The 30km time was 2:17:14 so a 49 minute 10km split. By the time I got to where the runners were coming the other way and turning on the bridge I was down to around 7 min/km pace and in semi tears from the pain/frustration. Really contemplated pulling out right there but did not want a dnf. I kept on going in this manner and now people were starting to stream past me. Finally got to the turnaround and shuffled back up the hill. By then I knew I would finish but it would be ugly.
Finally got back across the lake and not many people moving much faster than I was now, the 40km time was 3:24:36 so a 1:07 10km split. The stomach had eased up a bit by now but the damage was done and no way I could get the legs to turnover faster.
Finish time of 3:40:24. Not aware at the time but Miss Skarmel did a cartwheel about 20 metres behind me, and redback was also not too far back. I caught up with a few people right after the finish, including Tesso who had passed me during my worst section but had also slowed. Rather than sit around feeling sorry fro myself I dragged myself to the Striders tent had a couple of drinks and then went back to the finish line to cheer home the others. What an emotional experience cheering on the runners still finishing. Probably brought more of a tear to the eye yelling for people like Psychoma and Bernie G as they finished their first marathon than my own experience. Eventually I had to sit down as I was starting to feel woozy.
The whole race can be best summarised by the 2 half splits, 1:33 and 2:07 for 21 km. I feel somewhat guilty about being down on my time when many, many other people toughed it out for much longer than me. But I expected a whole lot better and am really at a loss as to what happened. Maybe I just went out too hard and did not factor in the warmer weather, it seems I was not alone as many people I know struggled today and missed what they were aiming for. Given my fluid/stomach problems I only used 1 of the 3 gu's I was carrying as well.
Well done to those that posted PB's on a tough day. I did some quick analysis and for those runners that ran in 2004 and 2005 as a group we were 3.1% slower this year.
Two days later now and while the upper quads and lh adductor are still a little sore I have pulled up pretty well. I'm going to go introspective for another day or so before I decide on the program forward. I do have a few ideas in mind and have already entered the SMH half so will be there for that.
Thanks to all those who posted here on my blog and also who were out on the course, both runners and spectators for the encouragement. I had a great weekend of meeting and socialising with Striders and Cool Runners, it is just that hour and a half or so mid Sunday morning that was certainly not enjoyable.
For posterity 5km splits were
5km 22:12 22:12
10km 21:57 44:09
15km 21:54 1:06:03
20km 22:06 1:28:09
25km 23:10 1:51:19
30km 25:55 2:17:14
35km 34:38 2:51:52
40km 34:44 3:24:36
End 3:40:24
Pre Race - Headed down to Canberra on Saturday morning to catch up with a cousin for lunch who I have only met a couple of times. From there it was across to the motel to register, meet and greet and then cheer on the runners in the 5/10km.
Had great fun watching the races as there were a number of laps so we got a good chance to cheer a lot of people. In particular Clairie with her pace escorts Mr G and Spud, but also Aki, Luke Skyrunner and a heap of Striders. Also good to see a couple of supported Cool Runners do real well!
Dinner was a good pasta load at a Italian restaurant in Kingston, I was slightly late as I needed to pick up last minute supplies.
Race Day - Slightly disturbed sleep but up at around 5am ready for action. The great thing about where I was staying was it was a walk out the door to the start! Popped over early to put my drinks in for the drink stops. Finally headed back over around 6:15, trying not to get too tense etc. There was certainly a mood of tension in the air.
Soon enough and we were off. I had decided to run by myself and keep a steady pace. If someone that I knew was around then great! Nice even splits early, ran with sportsman for about a km but he was going a little more conservatively so I pushed on. Back to the Bowen Cres turnaround and 10km just before it in 44:09, bang on my plans. A great lift from the crowd as we went through. From there it was just stay as smooth as possible, not far ahead was Philip B, another strider, and he was running probably only a second slower than me so it took until the tunnel until I caught him, we had a quick chat and I kept the momentum going. Back up the hill and through the tunnel and hit the 20km mark in 1:28:09 so a 2nd 10km of 44:00. This put me through the half way point in about 1:33. About here Philip B caught back up to me and we had another quick chat but he moved away from me pretty quickly mainly due to the fact that my pace was slowing.
Made concerted efforts to step it up again but to no avail so I decided to stay running comfortably and see what happened. As we got closer to the Bowen turnaround I could feel myself struggling more. Steve B, caught me at about the same time as I caught Mohammed just at the turn. Again the crowd was great but I was starting to hurt, the stomach in particular was beginning to spasm. Everytime I had a drink it gotr worse so I (maybe unwisely) started to limited fluid intake. Coming out of the turn Amjan gave me a big cheer and I think I said to her things were starting to hurt. Back out along the bridge and just at the drink station after the bridge things got worse. At the same time Superflake, vat_man and Blue Dog caught up to me. We had a quick chat but there was not a chance I could hold on to them.
Now I'm of the opinion that a blog must be honest and so this next bit is difficult...
About a km after the water station I really started to get bad stomach cramps and felt like chucking. I eased up further and around the same time the legs etc also started cramping, calves first probably due to the reduced fluid and also the increasing heat. The 30km time was 2:17:14 so a 49 minute 10km split. By the time I got to where the runners were coming the other way and turning on the bridge I was down to around 7 min/km pace and in semi tears from the pain/frustration. Really contemplated pulling out right there but did not want a dnf. I kept on going in this manner and now people were starting to stream past me. Finally got to the turnaround and shuffled back up the hill. By then I knew I would finish but it would be ugly.
Finally got back across the lake and not many people moving much faster than I was now, the 40km time was 3:24:36 so a 1:07 10km split. The stomach had eased up a bit by now but the damage was done and no way I could get the legs to turnover faster.
Finish time of 3:40:24. Not aware at the time but Miss Skarmel did a cartwheel about 20 metres behind me, and redback was also not too far back. I caught up with a few people right after the finish, including Tesso who had passed me during my worst section but had also slowed. Rather than sit around feeling sorry fro myself I dragged myself to the Striders tent had a couple of drinks and then went back to the finish line to cheer home the others. What an emotional experience cheering on the runners still finishing. Probably brought more of a tear to the eye yelling for people like Psychoma and Bernie G as they finished their first marathon than my own experience. Eventually I had to sit down as I was starting to feel woozy.
The whole race can be best summarised by the 2 half splits, 1:33 and 2:07 for 21 km. I feel somewhat guilty about being down on my time when many, many other people toughed it out for much longer than me. But I expected a whole lot better and am really at a loss as to what happened. Maybe I just went out too hard and did not factor in the warmer weather, it seems I was not alone as many people I know struggled today and missed what they were aiming for. Given my fluid/stomach problems I only used 1 of the 3 gu's I was carrying as well.
Well done to those that posted PB's on a tough day. I did some quick analysis and for those runners that ran in 2004 and 2005 as a group we were 3.1% slower this year.
Two days later now and while the upper quads and lh adductor are still a little sore I have pulled up pretty well. I'm going to go introspective for another day or so before I decide on the program forward. I do have a few ideas in mind and have already entered the SMH half so will be there for that.
Thanks to all those who posted here on my blog and also who were out on the course, both runners and spectators for the encouragement. I had a great weekend of meeting and socialising with Striders and Cool Runners, it is just that hour and a half or so mid Sunday morning that was certainly not enjoyable.
For posterity 5km splits were
5km 22:12 22:12
10km 21:57 44:09
15km 21:54 1:06:03
20km 22:06 1:28:09
25km 23:10 1:51:19
30km 25:55 2:17:14
35km 34:38 2:51:52
40km 34:44 3:24:36
End 3:40:24
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Last serious hit out
Getting down to the line now....
Was going to head to the Bay for this session but instead opted for my local run down to the weir and back. A nice 4km warmup and then 3km @ just below target Marathon Pace, a little harder given the undulations and turns @ Lane Cove. Then a warm down on the way home. Felt a little awkward and was a little inconsistent at pacing but in all not too bad.
Just after I finished the MP section I saw Mr G headed down towards the weir.
A minor concern on adductor, a little tender still from Saturday, will focus on ice and NSAID for the next day or so.
That is pretty much it, maybe a 5km lite stretch out on Fri/Sat. Getting ready for loading up on carbos and reducing alcohol intake for the next couple of days.
Was going to head to the Bay for this session but instead opted for my local run down to the weir and back. A nice 4km warmup and then 3km @ just below target Marathon Pace, a little harder given the undulations and turns @ Lane Cove. Then a warm down on the way home. Felt a little awkward and was a little inconsistent at pacing but in all not too bad.
Just after I finished the MP section I saw Mr G headed down towards the weir.
A minor concern on adductor, a little tender still from Saturday, will focus on ice and NSAID for the next day or so.
That is pretty much it, maybe a 5km lite stretch out on Fri/Sat. Getting ready for loading up on carbos and reducing alcohol intake for the next couple of days.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Tapering time
Sunday
The Striders STaR was based at Balmoral this week and has a number of hills and singletrack over the long distance. In the end I decided to show up at 7am and run the shorter option at a gentle pace. Quite a group as the MTG planned to do the same thing and I ran along with Redback and Mohammed near the front most of the time, pausing at water stops to regroup. As we came into Mosman the longer runners were coming the other way and I did a fartlek type run up the long hill from the Mosman Ferry wharf to tag onto the back of the 6:20 group. Left them there though and continued up the hill. As I waited for the group to catch up Luke Skyrunner came through, cutting short his long run and I joined in with him to run back to the start. Probably around 12-13km all up at around 6 min/km pace. Very easy!
Canberra prep
A few things on the checklist this week and the short "racing " hair cut has happened, the legs are waxed and I've booked a massage for towards the end of the week. Missed the run this morning so will pop out this afternoon for a nice "recovery" run.
Am still tossing up my pacing strategy but am leaning towards (in 10km increments)
45/44/44/43/9 which will give 3:05 (some rounding in there). The fall back is to run @ 4:30 pace the whole way which will give around a 3:10. Ultimately at the 30km mark I will be running as hard/fast as I and anything could happen....
The Striders STaR was based at Balmoral this week and has a number of hills and singletrack over the long distance. In the end I decided to show up at 7am and run the shorter option at a gentle pace. Quite a group as the MTG planned to do the same thing and I ran along with Redback and Mohammed near the front most of the time, pausing at water stops to regroup. As we came into Mosman the longer runners were coming the other way and I did a fartlek type run up the long hill from the Mosman Ferry wharf to tag onto the back of the 6:20 group. Left them there though and continued up the hill. As I waited for the group to catch up Luke Skyrunner came through, cutting short his long run and I joined in with him to run back to the start. Probably around 12-13km all up at around 6 min/km pace. Very easy!
Canberra prep
A few things on the checklist this week and the short "racing " hair cut has happened, the legs are waxed and I've booked a massage for towards the end of the week. Missed the run this morning so will pop out this afternoon for a nice "recovery" run.
Am still tossing up my pacing strategy but am leaning towards (in 10km increments)
45/44/44/43/9 which will give 3:05 (some rounding in there). The fall back is to run @ 4:30 pace the whole way which will give around a 3:10. Ultimately at the 30km mark I will be running as hard/fast as I and anything could happen....
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Race report Striders 10km @ The Domain
Not a perfectly scheduled race for a fast 10km time only one week out from Canberra and also a tight twisty udulating course, described as not a PB run!
Anyway, got there early to help setup, next month I am flying solo on the timing/results so this was a dry run while I could have some mentoring as required. I have found one of the good things about being involved in the setup is that is distracts from any pre race nerves.
Next thing you know it I'm with just over 300 runners near the point of Lady Macquarie's Chair opposite the Opera House at the start line. Course is three laps and a little bit around Lady Macquarie's chair and The Domain. Heavy congestion for the first couple of km but I am surprised with the splits I am recording as they are faster than I though I was going.
Settle in at a steady pace which felt real comfortable and it just happens to coincide to being about 15-20 metres behind vat_man. At the same time I am swapping places with a couple of other Striders who are usually a bit quicker than I am. Coming through the final lap I missed the 9km marker and decided just to run the same steady pace to the line and not go crazy, knowing I was close to a PB but not stressing about it.
Ended up across the line just behind the group I had been tailing and with a new PB of 41:14, a ten second improvement. The best thing is I ran within myself and felt relatively composed at the end.
Splits were
1km 4:14 4:14
2km 4:00 8:14
3km 3:44 11:58
4km 4:17 16:15
5km 4:13 20:28
6km 3:58 24:26
7km 4:16 28:43
8km 4:30 33:12
10km 8:02 41:14
This is yet another great positive piece of feedback for Canberra. The week summary is 53km but the real interesting thing is the Parrot Predictor says a 2:59:44!!
With 7 days to go this week is critical in the taper and will have no high intensity or long distance. For tomorrow I'm probably going to do the STaR but run the 7am group at an easy pace with a few mates for about 15km.
Anyway, got there early to help setup, next month I am flying solo on the timing/results so this was a dry run while I could have some mentoring as required. I have found one of the good things about being involved in the setup is that is distracts from any pre race nerves.
Next thing you know it I'm with just over 300 runners near the point of Lady Macquarie's Chair opposite the Opera House at the start line. Course is three laps and a little bit around Lady Macquarie's chair and The Domain. Heavy congestion for the first couple of km but I am surprised with the splits I am recording as they are faster than I though I was going.
Settle in at a steady pace which felt real comfortable and it just happens to coincide to being about 15-20 metres behind vat_man. At the same time I am swapping places with a couple of other Striders who are usually a bit quicker than I am. Coming through the final lap I missed the 9km marker and decided just to run the same steady pace to the line and not go crazy, knowing I was close to a PB but not stressing about it.
Ended up across the line just behind the group I had been tailing and with a new PB of 41:14, a ten second improvement. The best thing is I ran within myself and felt relatively composed at the end.
Splits were
1km 4:14 4:14
2km 4:00 8:14
3km 3:44 11:58
4km 4:17 16:15
5km 4:13 20:28
6km 3:58 24:26
7km 4:16 28:43
8km 4:30 33:12
10km 8:02 41:14
This is yet another great positive piece of feedback for Canberra. The week summary is 53km but the real interesting thing is the Parrot Predictor says a 2:59:44!!
With 7 days to go this week is critical in the taper and will have no high intensity or long distance. For tomorrow I'm probably going to do the STaR but run the 7am group at an easy pace with a few mates for about 15km.
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