What a difference a week makes, last week there were 12 of us in total at the STaR at Mona Vale, this week the number was close to 100!
A huge 6:00 headed off, just as I arrived at the start and the 6:10 group would have been around 15 as well. Great to see quite a few fellow Cool Runners stepping up into the 6:10 group with a roll call of FakePlasticTrees, Johnny Dark, Professor, Seagull, Gefjam and Action lurking in the pack. A pretty steady pace until Lavender Bay where we caught the MTG, that always seems to spur our pack on a little and after a quick drink at the steps up to teh harbour bridge things went silly for a little while. At the next drink stop Rob (FPT) had a bit of a dig and then things got a little more civilised. After the Anzac Bridge most of the "faster" guys peeled off on the shortcut and things settled down a little as we cruised through the back of Glebe.
Climbing up the back of Leichhardt the 6:20 group caught us and Rob disappeared to get a drink at a shop, the pace was now a bit quicker again as we kept the 6:20'ers in sight for a while. After Iron Cove Bridge the group splintered a little and once we were over the Gladesville bridge climb there were 5 of us left. Taking the little diversion through Hunters Hill and I was now consciously having to increase my effort to stay with the others. The back end of this run is pretty punishing and as usual the steep climb near Riverview was a good test. From there downhill back to the water and some nice bushtrack running before another nasty little hill right at the end.
I stuffed up the Garmin on this, forgetting to restart after waiting at a traffic light but after looking back through my notes from previous runs on this route I think I ran more consistently today without having a massive fade at the end. Last time was back in July where I struggled home, short cutting Hunters Hill and in much cooler weather for 27.3km @ 5:24 pace. This time it was around 29.1km (after fiddling with the Garmin for a while) in about 2:35 which equates to about 5:20 pace. Also pleasing not to have the fade despite not having a gu, following the philosophy a few others have been adopting to run the energy stores completely dry and get the body used to doing this so when a race comes along the boost from a gu is more pronounced.
Seems like things are on track but the next 6 weeks should be pretty brutal as they will be key to getting to the start line at Six Foot in the right shape.
Oh and to answer Tesso's question, my "extra exercises" are a set that I have put together of core muscle stretching and strengthening exercises and seem to be making a big difference to my previous problems in this area.
3 comments:
Good run Dave; sounds like a really tough course.
I was at the Nth Sydney Olympic Pool yesterday, though long after you guys would have flown past it!
Hey Dave,
It was good to see you guys at the bridge and then right at the end. Tough run... but you have to admit it is a great run :-)
That STaR sounded more like a race than a training run! I recognise some of the places you mention and can imagine its not an easy course by any stretch.
Thanks for letting us in on what your 'extra exercises' are. When you didn't say what they were last time I thought they might be something a little more, er, interesting ;-)
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