Weekly update

As foreseen in my last post this week (just past) was going to be hectic. Not much running here I'm afraid!

Had a presentation to do in Christchurch New Zealand and in the end did an all nighter for final prep on Tuesday night. Finally finished at 5:30am, just in time to shower/shave etc and catch a cab to the airport. The followed 3 days of mayhem,

Wednesday saw me flying to NZ, arriving at 2:30 local time and then going to the customer office to finalise details for the session the following morning. The pre-requisite dinner with grog then also followed. The weather outside was terrible a freezing howling gale.

Thursday, I did wake early (6am NZ time) but in a very sleep deprived state (well it was 3am Aust time) opted for an extra hours sleep, encouraged by the still raging wind. Did the 3 hour presentation which went well, back to the hotel onto the airport for the flight to Melbourne, via Sydney no less! At least I got a free upgrade which made life more comfortable as I did the final prep on my next presentation. Got into Melbourne at around 7:30 and then met up with a few colleagues for dinner and you guessed it with accompanying alcohol.

Friday was busy all day, with internal meetings and my presentation to some of the key management out from the US. Ended up in heading out to dinner, of course with some wine to match. So back to Sydney on Saturday morning to see the family again but also very tired. Tried to cath up on CR and blogs and was disappointed to realise that I had missed my opportunity to pass on my thoughts to those that were marathoning this weekend :(. Worked on final details and handicaps for the Striders half marathon for Sunday and then crashed.

Now for some running!

Up very early and down to Lane Cove to setup for the handicap half. Everything went very smoothly and eventually it was my turn to start. My target time was 93 minutes and only had one other runner show up at this mark so off we went. I planned to run @ 4:25 min/km pace and see what happened in the back half of the race. This was going very nicely and in fact taking advantage of the downhill from the gate to the start/finish I did the first 10km in 43:46 and was gaining very well in the field with no one catching me either.

On the way back out Scribbly's was a bit harder and I was starting to struggle on the flat but was keeping the pace going. One or 2 went past me here but when we got to the major climb the second time I blew up. Still keeping some pace I rolled back down the hill but it soon became apparent that I had spent all my money and the events of the past week were now coming home to roost. Kept on grinding but with about 3km to go the various niggles started to flare up and I eased up not wanting to doing any damage. (knowing that next weekend I am doing a 24hour event)

Stats/splits
5km 22:06 22:06
10km 21:40 43:46
15km 23:22 67:08 (tougher second time out!)
20km 29:06 96:14 (not pretty Jan!)
Finish time 104:07, avg HR of 175.

All things taken into account I am actually happy with the run. At the 15km mark I was still roughly on pace but died second time up that hill. The body actually felt more bashed up after the run than post marathon. So a week of getting back into it hopefully (although another Melbourne trip looms) and then out the back of the Blue Mountains for the 24 hour Rogaine next weekend!