A sensible easing back into the routine after the marathon last Sunday.
Started off the week with a recovery run doing laps at the oval near the kids school as they did some running training with one of our friends who is also at Little A's.
Tuesday and Thursday I dedicated to some exploration of the local firetrails and single track with the goal of finding a back way through to St Ives in prep for my upcoming diet of more trail running, mission accomplished! The goal is to map out a route that loops around Garigal NP with a minimum of road running and also if possible no out and back stretches and I am now pretty close to this!
Friday back to my tempo run circuit to see how the body has pulled up, it was a little bit of a slog but still managed 4:43 pace for just over 10km.
Sunday saw me up to Cherrybrook for Striders, the plan was to just run at a steady pace and see how things went, plenty of short cut option on this map if needed. A very small turnout mainly due to the marathon being on the week before I think, anyway only 4 of us started off as the "6:10" group,including a visitor from the US called Tom who had run a whole heap of ultras.
At around halfway we caught the leaders of the 6am group but they seemed keen to stay with us as their group was small as well and so we remained together for the rest of the run. The Cherrybrook course is quite hilly but I felt comfortable at the pace we were running and so opted for the full distance. Very pleased with the run, just over 31km at 5:14 pace which seems to indicate the recovery is going quite well! A little more serious this week as I am now roughly halfway in the GNW program. Currently sitting at 440km with 30 days of running from 46 in total.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Sydney Marathon
In reflecting/analysing post race I discovered this was my first road marathon in 3 years, the last being Sydney in 2006! Going into the race I was quietly confident of a good performance, my long distance runs had been strong and at a good pace and my tempo runs just kept on getting faster and faster over the same distance.
Not ideal final week preparation as I found myself in Mumbai, but a few Marathon Pace runs, before I left and then there on the treadmill left me feeling good.
Sunday morning and I was a little worried to hear the weather, 17 degrees but 90% humidity, not a good sign for when the sun really came out as no clouds in sight.
The family were doing the 4km fun run and so we all lobbed into the start, I went off for final preps and caught up with a few people and then very quickly we were lining up.
I wont go into a km by km, blow by blow account, the summary is that I was running at a good, but comfortable pace and hit the western distributor ahead of goal time and feeling good. Within 5km nearing Norton St I was starting to falter, a combination of the hills and heat, the evil twins.
A pitstop in the loos at 35km did nothing to help and from there it was a real grind to get to the opera house, anyway I finished and am upbeat about the overall run, despite the last 7 odd km. Anyway, this was mostly a stepping stone towards GNW so onwards we go!!
The 5km splits will speak for themselves....
Dist 5km Overall
5km 0:22:21 0:22:21
10km 0:23:24 0:45:45
15km 0:23:33 1:09:18
20km 0:23:04 1:32:32
25km 0:23:35 1:55:57
30km 0:24:54 2:20:51
35km 0:30:50 2:50:56
40km 0:38:10 3:29:06
Finish 3:42:09
Not ideal final week preparation as I found myself in Mumbai, but a few Marathon Pace runs, before I left and then there on the treadmill left me feeling good.
Sunday morning and I was a little worried to hear the weather, 17 degrees but 90% humidity, not a good sign for when the sun really came out as no clouds in sight.
The family were doing the 4km fun run and so we all lobbed into the start, I went off for final preps and caught up with a few people and then very quickly we were lining up.
I wont go into a km by km, blow by blow account, the summary is that I was running at a good, but comfortable pace and hit the western distributor ahead of goal time and feeling good. Within 5km nearing Norton St I was starting to falter, a combination of the hills and heat, the evil twins.
A pitstop in the loos at 35km did nothing to help and from there it was a real grind to get to the opera house, anyway I finished and am upbeat about the overall run, despite the last 7 odd km. Anyway, this was mostly a stepping stone towards GNW so onwards we go!!
The 5km splits will speak for themselves....
Dist 5km Overall
5km 0:22:21 0:22:21
10km 0:23:24 0:45:45
15km 0:23:33 1:09:18
20km 0:23:04 1:32:32
25km 0:23:35 1:55:57
30km 0:24:54 2:20:51
35km 0:30:50 2:50:56
40km 0:38:10 3:29:06
Finish 3:42:09
Monday, September 07, 2009
Two weeks til Sydney
A so-so week last week after the last blog post. Ran the moonlight orienteering course set at Glebe, a good hit out on street/park orienteering to prep for summer series but with the extra challenge of running at night. Was fairly happy with my route selection, could have fine tuned a little, the main challenge was trying to maintain a smooth navigation, rather than stop/start running.
Thursday was scheduled as a recovery/rest day but then Friday morning, when I was planning a tempo run got hijacked by tradesmen at the new house, dropping kids off at school and a day trip to Brisbane.
So as penance I went out Saturday afternoon for the tempo run on the usual just over 10km route, with fresher legs as a result I again posted a PB for this course, knocking close to a minute off the recent PB, now dragging my pace down for this to 4:25. Important to note that this is still not racing it, as the average HR for all my tempo runs on this route are within a few bpm of each other (169 on Saturday) where as my avg HR for is usually about 10bpm more...
Sunday was the Middle Harbour Picnic STaR, quite a few more hills than the last few weeks with a very unkind start running up fromthe Roseville Bridge to Killarney Heights! To make life more interesting not only were the legs slightly feeling the tempo run from yesterday afternoon but also we went out for dinner to celebrate a friends 40th and I drank a little too much and also did not get to bed until 1:30 (getting back up at 5!) Anyway after dropping down to the Spit Bridge we started the climb up Parriwi Road to Mosman. For some reason this climb is just the right grade for me, not too steep, but long and I got into a very comfortable rythm which the others did not seem interested in matching so I decided just to keep it going all the way to the top finishing up a few 100m in front by the end. I had already decided that I was doing the 25km option and split off with a smaller group, leaving the others to drop down into Balmoral. I had not run the "short" option on this course before and there were a few nice "surprise" climbs on the short cut. I eased up a little coming back through Northbridge and Willoughby to Roseville but finished up with an avg pace of 5:12 for the 25km.
The next few weeks are going to provide some challenges in regards to training as I have a few work related travel committments looming. So this week I need to have a pretty full on week as I'll no doubt be spending time on treadmills, which if nothing else will sharpen the leg speed.
The jury is still out on goal time/pace for Sydney, given the above conditions it may mean I come into the race on a somewhat enforced taper.
GNW campaign summary 18 from 25 days of running for 280km in total and 68 days to go....
Thursday was scheduled as a recovery/rest day but then Friday morning, when I was planning a tempo run got hijacked by tradesmen at the new house, dropping kids off at school and a day trip to Brisbane.
So as penance I went out Saturday afternoon for the tempo run on the usual just over 10km route, with fresher legs as a result I again posted a PB for this course, knocking close to a minute off the recent PB, now dragging my pace down for this to 4:25. Important to note that this is still not racing it, as the average HR for all my tempo runs on this route are within a few bpm of each other (169 on Saturday) where as my avg HR for is usually about 10bpm more...
Sunday was the Middle Harbour Picnic STaR, quite a few more hills than the last few weeks with a very unkind start running up fromthe Roseville Bridge to Killarney Heights! To make life more interesting not only were the legs slightly feeling the tempo run from yesterday afternoon but also we went out for dinner to celebrate a friends 40th and I drank a little too much and also did not get to bed until 1:30 (getting back up at 5!) Anyway after dropping down to the Spit Bridge we started the climb up Parriwi Road to Mosman. For some reason this climb is just the right grade for me, not too steep, but long and I got into a very comfortable rythm which the others did not seem interested in matching so I decided just to keep it going all the way to the top finishing up a few 100m in front by the end. I had already decided that I was doing the 25km option and split off with a smaller group, leaving the others to drop down into Balmoral. I had not run the "short" option on this course before and there were a few nice "surprise" climbs on the short cut. I eased up a little coming back through Northbridge and Willoughby to Roseville but finished up with an avg pace of 5:12 for the 25km.
The next few weeks are going to provide some challenges in regards to training as I have a few work related travel committments looming. So this week I need to have a pretty full on week as I'll no doubt be spending time on treadmills, which if nothing else will sharpen the leg speed.
The jury is still out on goal time/pace for Sydney, given the above conditions it may mean I come into the race on a somewhat enforced taper.
GNW campaign summary 18 from 25 days of running for 280km in total and 68 days to go....
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
August recap
So the momentum has begun through the back of August. In the end for all of August I posted 250km which takes me to just over 1600km for the year. Some time this week I will have more in 2009 than in 2008 & 2007 combined!!!
More good vibes after my MLR this morning where I lopped 5 minutes off the times that I ran over the same course in the last couple of weeks! I am really starting to like this run, initially about 6km of trails along the 2 creek track at Lindfield/Roseville and then through the quiet streets of Castle Cove, finishing with a few lung busting climbs along Eastern Arterial back home.
For the GNW campaign update, Day 20 of the campaign with 15 days of running totalling 236km.
Also for Superflake, sorry, I was not trying to be negative on your 3hr tilt, maybe I am being a little too conservative with my own goal and so the ratios of our respective long sunday run times are a little out of whack. Still tossing up my goal pace for Sydney but will keep going for the next 2 weeks and assess the form then before deciding....
More good vibes after my MLR this morning where I lopped 5 minutes off the times that I ran over the same course in the last couple of weeks! I am really starting to like this run, initially about 6km of trails along the 2 creek track at Lindfield/Roseville and then through the quiet streets of Castle Cove, finishing with a few lung busting climbs along Eastern Arterial back home.
For the GNW campaign update, Day 20 of the campaign with 15 days of running totalling 236km.
Also for Superflake, sorry, I was not trying to be negative on your 3hr tilt, maybe I am being a little too conservative with my own goal and so the ratios of our respective long sunday run times are a little out of whack. Still tossing up my goal pace for Sydney but will keep going for the next 2 weeks and assess the form then before deciding....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)