Yes I have been slack in blogging! Quite strange I seem to have drifted into a mental "blahness" since 6ft, sort of like how I felt after Canberra last year. Maybe subconsciously I am still beating myself up....
Anyway not that much to report so here goes
Wed 16th - Summer Series @ Lane Cove
Not going to do the usual detailed thing here. The map is a good one with challenging climbs on the way home and lots of undualtions and some nice bush sections. Headed out and the legs seemed to turnover ok, however the brain took about 3-4 controls before I was back in the groove navigating. Ended up coming back late, and it was getting dark and cool now as well. Overall a nice fast hit out but as I cooled down the upper quads were getting tight.
Had Thursday and then Friday off which meant after the big night on the beer for Cool Running drinks no running on Saturday either.
Sun 20th - STaR, North Ryde Rambler
Another night out on Saturday night (not big time drinking this time) and a need to be home by 9am so we could take the kids to the show saw me stumble out of bed and get to the STaR to run in the dark with the MTG who were doing a little extra distance. So a nice 5km in just over 30 minutes took me back to the start to head out with the 6:10am group. Just the four of us with Kev, Horrie and Spud and we cruised having a good chat about all sorts of stuff. The 6:20 group screamed past us after only about 5km but I could not be bothered trying to hang on so early. As we headed back towards the start (this star is like a figure 8) I was starting to feel the effects of 6ft but opted to continue into the bush for a little while where I knew there was a logical turn point. As we dropped down I noticed my rh ankle was starting to get sore (just to accompany the already complaining lh calf and groin). Turned around and ran back to the start and I quickly headed off to get ready for the show.
By the time I got home and had cooled down the niggles were all a good deal sorer and in particular the front of the rh ankle (near the tendon) was not good. Washed up and changed and headed to the show and proceeded to limp around for about 5 hours on a painful ankle. That night my wife was laughing.shaking her head as I rotated ice packs between the ankle, calf and groin. I think all three are tendonitis type problems and the ice was working (along with the naprosen).
No way I was running Monday and today I used discretion as well (I am now officially tapering!) but everything was certainly feeling better. The plan for the rest of the week is as follows :
Wed - Last summer series event at Macquarie Uni. I'm defending 4th overall by only 2 points now and due to the way the best 12 runs are calculated actually need to beat the guy in 5th by about 6 points due to the next worst run that we both drop! Needless to say I'll be having a go.
Thursday - recovery of around 10km but will include some MP fartlek pieces in as well.
Friday - rest
Saturday - CR 5km challenge
Sunday - a good paced 25km at the STaR on a nice flat course out at Homebush.
Hopefully this will shake out the "blues" as I get back on track with not that many days before Canberra, I need to get focussed and motivated.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Six foot Garmin 301 data
Forgot to include the HR/Elevation from the Garmin 301.
Pretty interesting, maybe I did go out a tad too hard looking at the HR.....
Pretty interesting, maybe I did go out a tad too hard looking at the HR.....
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Race Report 6 foot track
I've expanded upon my CR post re 6ft, read on for a more detailed version!
Wow, what an experience!
Running 6ft was the end of an 18 month goal, set when I started running seriously. A slight change in priorities saw a fast run in Canberra take precedence over a fast first 6ft. So the end goal was to do the run at a more leisurely pace and soak up the atmosphere. After a lot of reading and researching I determined that between 5:30-6:00 would be a realistic target given the above goal. In the end I worked out some splits which would keep me on track for a 5:45 finish. Some heavy milage in the weeks before and pretty much no taper were also the lead in for the run.
I had found some great accommodation in the Megalong Valley just off Nellies Glen Road and as we got there the eveing before scanned up the escarpement trying to work out the path of the track. Early morning rise and my brother in law dropped me off. Caught up with a few familiar faces and then boarded the shuttle bus to the start.
At the start the atmosphere was amazing as there was this real feeling of tension in the air as all the runners wanted to get going! Seeded in wave 2 I was a couple of rows back from the front and we were off!
Now I run trails (and downhill ones especially) fairly well and so was already zipping past people in the wide beginning section. Finally get to the "real" descent and form an orderly supermarket queue. Everyone was well behaved but still there were people slipping on the more difficult pieces. Gaps started to form and when we got to a slightly more level area I started going past slower runners when the track allowed. By the time we got to Nellies Glen Road it was pretty open running and I caught up to Spud and Jan. Was feeling great and well within myself so kept going and along the road could see other runners such as coaster and RMC just ahead.
At the first fence crossing (and aid station) my family were there cheering. As it happened it was also my birthday and they had some signs made up. A runner behind me joked as we went over the stile about a wierd way to celebrate a birthday. Along the section to Megalong Road caught up to Mr G and went past him as he stopped at the aid station to refill. Still felt great and ran just behind some Striders (Barry, Stephen, James and Tim) through this section. As we descended from pinnacle towards Cox's on singletrack sections I left them behind as my track running shone through. Caught up to a couple of conga lines and slowly moved my way through when opportunity allowed.
As we approached Cox's I was in the clear by myself for about a km or so and thus was not real sure about the crossing but picked my way over the stones on the right. At this point the time was 1:22 and so I was way ahead of the 1:35 that I had calculated. Knowing the hardest bit was just about to start I felt very comfortable and was planning to walk most of the climbs, only running on any flatter or downhill sections. Had my first gu here.
I could see a Strider in the distance but we seemed to be climbing around the same rate. Not too soon and coaster, Spud and Jan went past. Just as we approached the cattle yards you could see quite a bit ahead as the trail twisted, saw Mohammed (easy with the red cap) and maybe Blue Dog there. I then caught up to the Strider who I had been following and was surprised to see it was MPHaz, had a quick chat at the aid station and then kept going, his calf was not good but there was no way he was not finishing!
Soon after Mr G loomed up next to me and we had a quick talk, during which he commented he thought I was limping! As he moved forward up the climb, I thought bollocks, but then all of a sudden my left calf started to grab. Through here the group of Striders I went past earlier also went past but I was just managing my pace and adjusting my style so the calf did not complain.
A bit disappointed at the top of Mini Mini (no big sign saying you have climbed Mini Mini etc!) and started downhill. Was a little surprised at how much harder it was to stretch out after the walk/climb. Went through the aid station at Alum Creek (2nd gu) and splashed straight through the different crossings.As the pluvio climb progressed the calf complained more and more but I just slowed my walking to alleviate the pain. At that point I was pretty convinced I had pulled the muscle now based upon my previous calf strain last year. MPHaz went back past here, bloody tough bugger. Some of the other muscles in the left leg were now complaining as I am sure I had subconsciously adjusted my gait.Many people walking but I was slower than most. Very happy to get to the top in 3:08, losing a bit of time gained to Cox's but still ahead of original schedule.
The horror that I know now as Black Range immediately commenced. As I tried to shift back into running the legs refused to co-operate and now I was getting intermittent lock up of a muscle I had never even heard of before (which I now know was the Sartorius) crossing from inside the knee to the hip flexor, very hard to move your leg when this locks up!Black Range was much more about walking than running and I contemplated on a number of occasions quitting at the next aid station. Grabbed a banana and it seemed to make a difference so on I went breaking down the remainder of the race into chunks. Around here another Strider Dave King caught up to me and we swapped places about 20 times before the finish, both struggling badly.
I thought after Deviation (final gu) it would improve, and it did until I turned the corner to see the "short steep" section Mr G had written about. Somewhere along here Sarge and Horrie went past. Finally made it to Caves Rd and knew I'd get home, to be honest the downhill was not that bad for me, but I could not stretch out. The progression of runners going past continued and Amjan went past, running really well at this point.Finally made it down and as I turned the last corner both calves locked up as I tried to run to the line so it was more a limp across the line.Many, many lessons learned, ended up close to my original target but not in the style or manner planned. In the end it seems the calf/achilles was just a cramp as the legs have recovered pretty well, which is a relief!
A great day and all of the volunteers were magnificent in encouragement. I certainly appreciated the novelty of seeing the course first up on race day, adding to the whole experience.Some great runs and very definitely some gutsy runs from people I know (or know of). I perhaps treated 6ft with not enough respect first up and it certainly sorted me out. I'm already thinking about next year! Onwards to Canberra....
Stats 5:53:22
Wow, what an experience!
Running 6ft was the end of an 18 month goal, set when I started running seriously. A slight change in priorities saw a fast run in Canberra take precedence over a fast first 6ft. So the end goal was to do the run at a more leisurely pace and soak up the atmosphere. After a lot of reading and researching I determined that between 5:30-6:00 would be a realistic target given the above goal. In the end I worked out some splits which would keep me on track for a 5:45 finish. Some heavy milage in the weeks before and pretty much no taper were also the lead in for the run.
I had found some great accommodation in the Megalong Valley just off Nellies Glen Road and as we got there the eveing before scanned up the escarpement trying to work out the path of the track. Early morning rise and my brother in law dropped me off. Caught up with a few familiar faces and then boarded the shuttle bus to the start.
At the start the atmosphere was amazing as there was this real feeling of tension in the air as all the runners wanted to get going! Seeded in wave 2 I was a couple of rows back from the front and we were off!
Now I run trails (and downhill ones especially) fairly well and so was already zipping past people in the wide beginning section. Finally get to the "real" descent and form an orderly supermarket queue. Everyone was well behaved but still there were people slipping on the more difficult pieces. Gaps started to form and when we got to a slightly more level area I started going past slower runners when the track allowed. By the time we got to Nellies Glen Road it was pretty open running and I caught up to Spud and Jan. Was feeling great and well within myself so kept going and along the road could see other runners such as coaster and RMC just ahead.
At the first fence crossing (and aid station) my family were there cheering. As it happened it was also my birthday and they had some signs made up. A runner behind me joked as we went over the stile about a wierd way to celebrate a birthday. Along the section to Megalong Road caught up to Mr G and went past him as he stopped at the aid station to refill. Still felt great and ran just behind some Striders (Barry, Stephen, James and Tim) through this section. As we descended from pinnacle towards Cox's on singletrack sections I left them behind as my track running shone through. Caught up to a couple of conga lines and slowly moved my way through when opportunity allowed.
As we approached Cox's I was in the clear by myself for about a km or so and thus was not real sure about the crossing but picked my way over the stones on the right. At this point the time was 1:22 and so I was way ahead of the 1:35 that I had calculated. Knowing the hardest bit was just about to start I felt very comfortable and was planning to walk most of the climbs, only running on any flatter or downhill sections. Had my first gu here.
I could see a Strider in the distance but we seemed to be climbing around the same rate. Not too soon and coaster, Spud and Jan went past. Just as we approached the cattle yards you could see quite a bit ahead as the trail twisted, saw Mohammed (easy with the red cap) and maybe Blue Dog there. I then caught up to the Strider who I had been following and was surprised to see it was MPHaz, had a quick chat at the aid station and then kept going, his calf was not good but there was no way he was not finishing!
Soon after Mr G loomed up next to me and we had a quick talk, during which he commented he thought I was limping! As he moved forward up the climb, I thought bollocks, but then all of a sudden my left calf started to grab. Through here the group of Striders I went past earlier also went past but I was just managing my pace and adjusting my style so the calf did not complain.
A bit disappointed at the top of Mini Mini (no big sign saying you have climbed Mini Mini etc!) and started downhill. Was a little surprised at how much harder it was to stretch out after the walk/climb. Went through the aid station at Alum Creek (2nd gu) and splashed straight through the different crossings.As the pluvio climb progressed the calf complained more and more but I just slowed my walking to alleviate the pain. At that point I was pretty convinced I had pulled the muscle now based upon my previous calf strain last year. MPHaz went back past here, bloody tough bugger. Some of the other muscles in the left leg were now complaining as I am sure I had subconsciously adjusted my gait.Many people walking but I was slower than most. Very happy to get to the top in 3:08, losing a bit of time gained to Cox's but still ahead of original schedule.
The horror that I know now as Black Range immediately commenced. As I tried to shift back into running the legs refused to co-operate and now I was getting intermittent lock up of a muscle I had never even heard of before (which I now know was the Sartorius) crossing from inside the knee to the hip flexor, very hard to move your leg when this locks up!Black Range was much more about walking than running and I contemplated on a number of occasions quitting at the next aid station. Grabbed a banana and it seemed to make a difference so on I went breaking down the remainder of the race into chunks. Around here another Strider Dave King caught up to me and we swapped places about 20 times before the finish, both struggling badly.
I thought after Deviation (final gu) it would improve, and it did until I turned the corner to see the "short steep" section Mr G had written about. Somewhere along here Sarge and Horrie went past. Finally made it to Caves Rd and knew I'd get home, to be honest the downhill was not that bad for me, but I could not stretch out. The progression of runners going past continued and Amjan went past, running really well at this point.Finally made it down and as I turned the last corner both calves locked up as I tried to run to the line so it was more a limp across the line.Many, many lessons learned, ended up close to my original target but not in the style or manner planned. In the end it seems the calf/achilles was just a cramp as the legs have recovered pretty well, which is a relief!
A great day and all of the volunteers were magnificent in encouragement. I certainly appreciated the novelty of seeing the course first up on race day, adding to the whole experience.Some great runs and very definitely some gutsy runs from people I know (or know of). I perhaps treated 6ft with not enough respect first up and it certainly sorted me out. I'm already thinking about next year! Onwards to Canberra....
Stats 5:53:22
Summer Series (with a twist!)
Catch up time, craziness at work along with 6 foot have combined to delay my blogging considerably.
First up lets deal with Wednesday, travelled to Melbourne for work meetings and decided to head out to Mullum Mullum (near Ringwood) for a spot of Street Orienteering Melbourne style. Mentioned to fellow CR and chatter Louise that I might do this and she came up and introduced herself at the start.
The style of event is a little different compared to Sydney. The maps are black and white and are "melways" style. There are 20 controls put out and these are 2 x orienteering punches chained and locked to the base of trees, power poles etc. It is a mass start and you nominate a grade, I went for A grade which meant I had to get any 17 of the 20 controls. Ended up 9th in A grade and there were some pretty prominent elite orienteers there!
The distance was 9.1km in 40:57 (avg pace 4:30 and avg hr of 171)
A nice fast hit out and felt good at the end. Missed catching up with Louise afterwards.
First up lets deal with Wednesday, travelled to Melbourne for work meetings and decided to head out to Mullum Mullum (near Ringwood) for a spot of Street Orienteering Melbourne style. Mentioned to fellow CR and chatter Louise that I might do this and she came up and introduced herself at the start.
The style of event is a little different compared to Sydney. The maps are black and white and are "melways" style. There are 20 controls put out and these are 2 x orienteering punches chained and locked to the base of trees, power poles etc. It is a mass start and you nominate a grade, I went for A grade which meant I had to get any 17 of the 20 controls. Ended up 9th in A grade and there were some pretty prominent elite orienteers there!
The distance was 9.1km in 40:57 (avg pace 4:30 and avg hr of 171)
A nice fast hit out and felt good at the end. Missed catching up with Louise afterwards.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Recovery run to weir
A lighter mid week this week to do a "mini taper" for 6foot.
Headed out for the usual weir run in LCNP, a little cooler and less humid this morning. I do like running this time of year.
Nothing extraordinary, 11km in 52:18 (4:47 min/km and avg hr of 154).
Yesterday I went for a massage to iron out the little kinks from the last couple of weeks. I asked the masseur to be pretty firm especially on my calves and lhs ITB. In the end I reckon she was sorer than I was as she went at the legs hammer and tongs with deep elbows etc but could not get me to say that it was a little too much pressure :).
Melbourne bound for the remainder of the week, may try and do a evening orienteering event on Wednesday and then a light run on Friday.
Headed out for the usual weir run in LCNP, a little cooler and less humid this morning. I do like running this time of year.
Nothing extraordinary, 11km in 52:18 (4:47 min/km and avg hr of 154).
Yesterday I went for a massage to iron out the little kinks from the last couple of weeks. I asked the masseur to be pretty firm especially on my calves and lhs ITB. In the end I reckon she was sorer than I was as she went at the legs hammer and tongs with deep elbows etc but could not get me to say that it was a little too much pressure :).
Melbourne bound for the remainder of the week, may try and do a evening orienteering event on Wednesday and then a light run on Friday.
Sunday, March 06, 2005
STaR - Western Wanderer
Have been looking forward to this STaR, a little flatter than most and one I have not done for the longer distances before. As usual a big 6am pack went out, it was actually quite cool standing around in running kit. Decided to run the 6:20 group, given the target pace of around 5 min/km.
Off we went and it was a pretty good sized group. A nice easy first km and then the hammer went down as they churned out a string of 4:30 min/kms. After about 8km I eased off the back with Action and a few others so I could actually make 20km! The speedsters kept on going but we regrouped to around 10. At one point we split as some wanted 20km and some 30km, I of course wanted about 25km so went my own way as well.
It was a bit of a push by myself but regrouped and upped the pace for the last couple of km back to around 4:30 (which is a planned Marathon Pace).
Ended up with 25km in 1:57:50 (avg pace of 4:43) and avg Hr of 156.
Slightly easier week this week as I mini taper for 6ft. The niggles continue and I want to settle them down a little.
Off we went and it was a pretty good sized group. A nice easy first km and then the hammer went down as they churned out a string of 4:30 min/kms. After about 8km I eased off the back with Action and a few others so I could actually make 20km! The speedsters kept on going but we regrouped to around 10. At one point we split as some wanted 20km and some 30km, I of course wanted about 25km so went my own way as well.
It was a bit of a push by myself but regrouped and upped the pace for the last couple of km back to around 4:30 (which is a planned Marathon Pace).
Ended up with 25km in 1:57:50 (avg pace of 4:43) and avg Hr of 156.
Slightly easier week this week as I mini taper for 6ft. The niggles continue and I want to settle them down a little.
Saturday, March 05, 2005
Race Report, Striders 10km @ Homebush
Time for some speed and back to Homebush the site of my current 10k distance PB. A fairly flat course in a figure 8 type shape based on the Homebush Olympic games site. A small loop (around 800m) then a large loop (around 4km), repeat and then another small loop to finish.
Got there around 6am to help set up (doing backup learning on the new electronic timing system). The mozzies made an appearance at around 6:30 and another large crowd, around 250+ runners faced the gun @ 7am. Someone tripped over a couple of metres into the race and there was a bit of congestion but after the first km it was pretty open running. The plan was for even pacing throughout and the first 3km were just that. After that however I started drifting a little and while the lungs felt ok the legs could not go faster. Finished up with 41:43 6 seconds slower than last month at Lane Cove and 20 seconds off my PB, however it was 1:40 faster than the race at Homebush at the same time last year leading into Canberra.
Probably a bit ambitious to expect a PB based upon what distance I have been running and also since I have not been as diligent on my speed sessions in the last couple of weeks. Plenty of time for speed after I knock over the next couple of longer races!
Did not get a chance to talk to too many runners afterwards as I found the guy that fell over and made sure the St Johns people patched him up and then went through the steps in finalising the electronic finish results with Action (we'll be flying solo in 2 races time as he goes on holidays!). Ended up a beautiful morning, although again quite humid.
Weekly Summary
Total distance 92km and Parrot Predictor says 3:28:08 for a marathon time. This coming week is another tough one with probably 30km tomorrow in the Striders STaR, some shorter hit outs mid week and a mini taper for the big one, Six Foot Track. This time next week I expect to have done my first 6 ft and will no doubt be hooking into a few refreshing ales!
Got there around 6am to help set up (doing backup learning on the new electronic timing system). The mozzies made an appearance at around 6:30 and another large crowd, around 250+ runners faced the gun @ 7am. Someone tripped over a couple of metres into the race and there was a bit of congestion but after the first km it was pretty open running. The plan was for even pacing throughout and the first 3km were just that. After that however I started drifting a little and while the lungs felt ok the legs could not go faster. Finished up with 41:43 6 seconds slower than last month at Lane Cove and 20 seconds off my PB, however it was 1:40 faster than the race at Homebush at the same time last year leading into Canberra.
Probably a bit ambitious to expect a PB based upon what distance I have been running and also since I have not been as diligent on my speed sessions in the last couple of weeks. Plenty of time for speed after I knock over the next couple of longer races!
Did not get a chance to talk to too many runners afterwards as I found the guy that fell over and made sure the St Johns people patched him up and then went through the steps in finalising the electronic finish results with Action (we'll be flying solo in 2 races time as he goes on holidays!). Ended up a beautiful morning, although again quite humid.
| Distance | Lap Time | Split |
|---|---|---|
| 1km | 4:01 | 4:01 |
| 2km | 3:58 | 7:59 |
| 3km | 4:02 | 12:01 |
| 4km | 4:12 | 16:13 |
| 5km | 4:05 | 20:19 |
| 6km | 4:15 | 24:34 |
| 7km | 4:17 | 28:51 |
| 8km | 4:27 | 33:18 |
| 9km | 4:21 | 37:39 |
| 10km | 4:04 | 41:43 |
Weekly Summary
Total distance 92km and Parrot Predictor says 3:28:08 for a marathon time. This coming week is another tough one with probably 30km tomorrow in the Striders STaR, some shorter hit outs mid week and a mini taper for the big one, Six Foot Track. This time next week I expect to have done my first 6 ft and will no doubt be hooking into a few refreshing ales!
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Recovery & physio
Again a steady run down to the weir at LCNP and back, done the 11km in 52:28 (about 2 minutes faster than Tuesday) so an avg pace of 4:51 and avg hr of 155. Certainly felt the efforts of the night before and again noticed little niggles where I have had problems in the past.
Given what has happened to MPHaz in regards to an injury sneaking up on you, and also being slightly paranoid I made a booking with my physio as a precautionary measure. I really wanted him to have a look at my previous core muscle issues and stance etc to catch anything that may have been happening since I saw him last (late last year).
The good news is no obvious problems looming but I still have a dodgy stance, tending to tuck my hips/pelvis too far forward and this reducing the impact of my gluts and hamstrings while also causing adductor problems. He gave me a series of different exercises/activities to focus on. My physio know heaps about running and orienteering (he was in a team that finished ahead of us in the Metrogaine and has also run 6ft) it was well worth the effort to check in with him as I can now focus on some areas as a preventative approach to injury.
Rest day scheduled for Friday and then Striders 10km @ Homebush Saturday morning. This is where my current 10km PB was set and I am quietly confident about breaking that and perhaps also getting very close to 40 minutes. If I can do that now on a pretty heavy training load I will be very happy!
Given what has happened to MPHaz in regards to an injury sneaking up on you, and also being slightly paranoid I made a booking with my physio as a precautionary measure. I really wanted him to have a look at my previous core muscle issues and stance etc to catch anything that may have been happening since I saw him last (late last year).
The good news is no obvious problems looming but I still have a dodgy stance, tending to tuck my hips/pelvis too far forward and this reducing the impact of my gluts and hamstrings while also causing adductor problems. He gave me a series of different exercises/activities to focus on. My physio know heaps about running and orienteering (he was in a team that finished ahead of us in the Metrogaine and has also run 6ft) it was well worth the effort to check in with him as I can now focus on some areas as a preventative approach to injury.
Rest day scheduled for Friday and then Striders 10km @ Homebush Saturday morning. This is where my current 10km PB was set and I am quietly confident about breaking that and perhaps also getting very close to 40 minutes. If I can do that now on a pretty heavy training load I will be very happy!
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Summer Series Slip Up
After tossing it up this afternoon, taking the cooler weather into account, wanting to defend my position on the points table etc etc I decided to run Summer Series again. This week a little further afield at West Carlingford. The map centred around a creek running through the suburb and some nice bush and corresponding tracks for some different types of running. Before I left I noticed the points leader had already finished and got all the controls in 39 minutes and so I resolved to go for the lot as well.
A fast start through to 9, 11 then a quick in/out along a trail to 7. Pretty easy to locate 10 under a power line tower and then some trail running for 24 and 4. (massive mistake here but more on that later). Further along the track to 19 then some faster street running with 25, 15, 30 and 20 in quick succession. A nice downhill stretch back to the bush and 18 then 22. Decided to duck in for 27. Excellent time to this point and I was feeling pretty good.
Up to 5 and then 8 with a bush bash to cut back to the higher track and pick up 12. More street running again and 6, 29, 13 were all pretty easy. Still looking good on time but in going so fast I had now reached the point where I had stopped planning ahead while running. A little of a muddle both in and out of 23 and it took a little while to regain map contact. Slowed down to ensure I got 14 right but had a poor route to then get to 17 which was also a little more difficult to find.
All of a sudden time which had seemed plentiful was running out! Street running again now and back up a hill to get to 28 and then 16 and headed back to the school grounds. As I entered and got 3 time had pretty much run out but I decided to get 2, 26 and 1 to complete the card. As I was running from 26 to 1, much to my horror I noticed there were 2 empty controls, number 21 was missing!! Too hard to work out why while also running late and I got 1 and then ran it home.
Here is the map and my route
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Hunts%20Creek.jpg
Ended up back in a time of 50:11 which means a 60 point penalty so 2,26 and 1 balanced out. I now got a chance to work out where 21 was and it was back up between 20 and 4. (Grrrrr). Anyway that leaves me with 510 points, normally a good score but not tonight with a number of people getting the lot in early time. Still holding onto 4th overall as 5th did not run again tonight and I did at least increase my best 12 runs points tally by 2 points! However another person has now leapfrogged into 5th place and is only 22 points behind me. Will be very interesting to see how the final 3 events turnout and how these affect each of our 12 best events points. No Summer Series for me next week as I am in Melbourne for work and miss out on a new map based around Milsons Point and Kiribilli.
Distance covered was 9km and so an average pace of 5:36 and avg hr of 169. Some good lessons to be learned but the good thing was the legs felt fine after the 50km epic on Sunday.
A fast start through to 9, 11 then a quick in/out along a trail to 7. Pretty easy to locate 10 under a power line tower and then some trail running for 24 and 4. (massive mistake here but more on that later). Further along the track to 19 then some faster street running with 25, 15, 30 and 20 in quick succession. A nice downhill stretch back to the bush and 18 then 22. Decided to duck in for 27. Excellent time to this point and I was feeling pretty good.
Up to 5 and then 8 with a bush bash to cut back to the higher track and pick up 12. More street running again and 6, 29, 13 were all pretty easy. Still looking good on time but in going so fast I had now reached the point where I had stopped planning ahead while running. A little of a muddle both in and out of 23 and it took a little while to regain map contact. Slowed down to ensure I got 14 right but had a poor route to then get to 17 which was also a little more difficult to find.
All of a sudden time which had seemed plentiful was running out! Street running again now and back up a hill to get to 28 and then 16 and headed back to the school grounds. As I entered and got 3 time had pretty much run out but I decided to get 2, 26 and 1 to complete the card. As I was running from 26 to 1, much to my horror I noticed there were 2 empty controls, number 21 was missing!! Too hard to work out why while also running late and I got 1 and then ran it home.
Here is the map and my route
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Hunts%20Creek.jpg
Ended up back in a time of 50:11 which means a 60 point penalty so 2,26 and 1 balanced out. I now got a chance to work out where 21 was and it was back up between 20 and 4. (Grrrrr). Anyway that leaves me with 510 points, normally a good score but not tonight with a number of people getting the lot in early time. Still holding onto 4th overall as 5th did not run again tonight and I did at least increase my best 12 runs points tally by 2 points! However another person has now leapfrogged into 5th place and is only 22 points behind me. Will be very interesting to see how the final 3 events turnout and how these affect each of our 12 best events points. No Summer Series for me next week as I am in Melbourne for work and miss out on a new map based around Milsons Point and Kiribilli.
Distance covered was 9km and so an average pace of 5:36 and avg hr of 169. Some good lessons to be learned but the good thing was the legs felt fine after the 50km epic on Sunday.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Recovery and test drive of 301
Monday off and the body needed it, surprisingly the sorest part is still the shoulders and upper back from the camelbak.
Wanted to get out and see what the body said to more running. In general it was a pretty good shakeout. First use of my "Birthday Pressie" a Garmin 301, needed to do a few test runs before my actual birthday (6 foot). Used one of my more usual runs, straight to the Lane Cove weir and back. Got down there pretty bang on what I did last time I ran. The legs felt fairly good but I did notice the odd twinges appearing from the sites of my more significant injuries (ie RH Soleus and LH ITB).
Ended up running the 11km in 54:19 (slowed down a little on the way back) for an average of 4:55 min/km and avg HR of 163. Some good stretching for the aforementioned twinges worked a treat on the ITB (also did the roller tonight). Backed up with ice on the RHS calf. Again the LHS calf with the problem last week was fine.
The 301 was absolutely brilliant! Now way I can go back to the bodylink now. Easier to use, less bits and much, much better software!
Undecided as to what to do tomorrow, leaning towards not doing Summer Series and just some straight line running.
Wanted to get out and see what the body said to more running. In general it was a pretty good shakeout. First use of my "Birthday Pressie" a Garmin 301, needed to do a few test runs before my actual birthday (6 foot). Used one of my more usual runs, straight to the Lane Cove weir and back. Got down there pretty bang on what I did last time I ran. The legs felt fairly good but I did notice the odd twinges appearing from the sites of my more significant injuries (ie RH Soleus and LH ITB).
Ended up running the 11km in 54:19 (slowed down a little on the way back) for an average of 4:55 min/km and avg HR of 163. Some good stretching for the aforementioned twinges worked a treat on the ITB (also did the roller tonight). Backed up with ice on the RHS calf. Again the LHS calf with the problem last week was fine.
The 301 was absolutely brilliant! Now way I can go back to the bodylink now. Easier to use, less bits and much, much better software!
Undecided as to what to do tomorrow, leaning towards not doing Summer Series and just some straight line running.
Monday, February 28, 2005
February recap
A pretty good month of running, only disrupted right at the end by a niggle in the calf which caused me to miss the monthly target (was on track at last Thursday).
Highlight - A great run at the Metrogaine
Lowlight - Tough going at SMC and thus probably revising Canberra target
Total distance was 282km at an average pace of 5:25 min/km, blown out a little though by the 7:11 min/km 50km from the Metrogaine.
Compared to last year where I did 302km at an average pace of 5:33 min/km (and no Rogaine).
March is a big month with 6 foot and I am training through as well with really no taper. Targetting around 315km. Also should be interesting as to how I go at the Striders 10km next Saturday on what is my current PB course.
Highlight - A great run at the Metrogaine
Lowlight - Tough going at SMC and thus probably revising Canberra target
Total distance was 282km at an average pace of 5:25 min/km, blown out a little though by the 7:11 min/km 50km from the Metrogaine.
Compared to last year where I did 302km at an average pace of 5:33 min/km (and no Rogaine).
March is a big month with 6 foot and I am training through as well with really no taper. Targetting around 315km. Also should be interesting as to how I go at the Striders 10km next Saturday on what is my current PB course.
Race Report 6 hours Metrogaine
Following the format of the Arizona Half, I'll offer an executive summary here for those that don't want to read through a blow by blow recount.
A score type event where the goal is to get as many points as possible in 6 hours. Each control point has a certain value. You choose which controls you want to visit and thus your own route. Each minute back late after 6 hours has 10 points deducted. For this event the controls were a series of questions about different landmarks/houses etc around the map.
A minimum 2 person team event and Horrie agreed to run with me as a 6ft distance experiment.
We finished up with 1980 points but were back 8 minutes late so ended up with 1900 points. This gave us 5th overall, 4th just ahead on 1910 and first had around 2160 from memory. Distance covered was around 51km with an average pace of 7:11 min/km, average HR was 151.
Still prepared to read my ramblings then lets go!
Start was at Como Primary school, on the southern shores of the Georges River. Some detailed analysis of the map and Horrie and I opted to head East, picking up all the controls on offer, cut North across Tom Ugly's Bridge, return West again picking up all controls, back across the river at Como and see if there was any time to pick up some extra controls on the west. The map wheel said that it would be around 50km back to Como Bridge.
Loaded up with camelbaks and power bars/gus etc, caught up with a few other people and then the siren sounded.
First target was 64 so across a walkway and along a trail which turned into a paved driveway access. Up and down a tight pinch and out to the point, looking for the first object "What are the initials on east side of forked eucalypt?". The tree was easy to spot and we jotted down DEE and were away. Thought we were by ourselves but then as we were returning up the hill there were a heap of teams headed down. From there around through Oyster Bay to 54 & 43. Cutting back to get 53, 41 and then a nice long downhill run to 42. Along the creek and then up two really steep sets of stairs for 76, around to 11 and then onto 77. At 77 we learnt our first lesson in making sure you read the clues carefully "On commemerative plaque, how many years anniversary?", when we got there another couple of teams were examining 2 signs near the entrance and so we joined them. Nothing definitive that seemed to match the question and then I noticed a plaque on a rock about 50m away which the clue refered to. Down from here towards teh main road but we were blocked by a fence, eventually found a way through it (read later on that it was impassable!) and up past Kareela golf course to the Princes Highway.
Number 44 was in a nature strip and then along the water to 65 (this was part of the Striders Airport Adventure STaR). Up to 34 which in hindsight was a long run for 30 points, picked up 25 and then down through Sylvania for 75 ( a tricky clue regarding some grafitti) and 24. Through Sylvania Waters for 82 and then 72 and 16 for the last controls at Tom Ugly's. At this point a few other teams that I knew were fast were coming the other way, obviously having gone North first. Around the back of Blakehurst for 12, 81, 92 and 35. It looked like we could get through to 57 via a reserve, as we were picking our way along the nature strip a resident grilled us about what/why we were doing and pointed out that we were headed through private property and could not get out at the bottom as there was a large locked gate. Not wanting to argue we retraced our steps, but then found a path that was not marked on the map which was just as good anyway.
Pretty smooth sailing with 57, up to 45, just after that saw Bandanna and then down to 47. We had a great deal of trouble here with "What must be erected?" and were just about to give up when I noticed a metal plate on top of what was some pumping station which said Barricades needed to be erected before any work could commence. Uphill again and another little shortcut (this one successful) to 56 then along a nice firetrail to 68, where there was a photographer. Across to 36 and then cut through another reserve and out the other side to get to 22. Now we were in Oatley and went under the railway line for 23 and up to 83. Here we had a quick break and refilled the camelbaks for the last section through Oatley Park and back to Como.
Down along another nice firetrail to 66 and then 67, opting to leave the climb to 15 (only 10 points) and so straight to 21 and 74. Back over the railway line (and also past the 42km mark in just over 5 hours) to 37 and 73. A good save by Horrie here as the clue was "What occupation at street number 15?" Well there was a big sign up for a builder who built decks which I wrote down, just as we leaving Horrie pointed out the 15 was actually an architect and the builders sign was #17! Along the point to 91 with a bit of bush bashing and then back up to 55. At this point we had 25 minutes to get back.
Crossed over Como bridge for 31, we still had 15 minutes and decided to go under the railway line for 62 and 10 and try and not get back too late. In the end the extra 70 points were offset by the 80 point late arrival penalty which also cost us equal 4th! However it did mean we ran over 50km which was also a goal.
Here is the course map and our route, scanned in 2 halves
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Metrogaine1.jpg
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Metrogaine2.jpg
Many thanks to Horrie for agreeing to run with me, at times I think I had him a little bewildered with the navigation choices but he was picking the map reading on the run up nicely and asking very good questions as to why/where we were going. We had a good routine worked out for navigating and preparing for each control and I reckon did very well. In fact if I was 2 years older we would have won the Veteran division! Certainly also very happy with really no navigational errors and pretty optimum route selection (we'll see what others did later on)
Things are looking good for 6ft, a little tired today but that will pass. In fact the sorest muscles I have are across the shoulder from running with the camelbak. Of and almost forgot, not a peep out of the sore calf muscle from late last week and the groin while not healed is also behaving.
A score type event where the goal is to get as many points as possible in 6 hours. Each control point has a certain value. You choose which controls you want to visit and thus your own route. Each minute back late after 6 hours has 10 points deducted. For this event the controls were a series of questions about different landmarks/houses etc around the map.
A minimum 2 person team event and Horrie agreed to run with me as a 6ft distance experiment.
We finished up with 1980 points but were back 8 minutes late so ended up with 1900 points. This gave us 5th overall, 4th just ahead on 1910 and first had around 2160 from memory. Distance covered was around 51km with an average pace of 7:11 min/km, average HR was 151.
Still prepared to read my ramblings then lets go!
Start was at Como Primary school, on the southern shores of the Georges River. Some detailed analysis of the map and Horrie and I opted to head East, picking up all the controls on offer, cut North across Tom Ugly's Bridge, return West again picking up all controls, back across the river at Como and see if there was any time to pick up some extra controls on the west. The map wheel said that it would be around 50km back to Como Bridge.
Loaded up with camelbaks and power bars/gus etc, caught up with a few other people and then the siren sounded.
First target was 64 so across a walkway and along a trail which turned into a paved driveway access. Up and down a tight pinch and out to the point, looking for the first object "What are the initials on east side of forked eucalypt?". The tree was easy to spot and we jotted down DEE and were away. Thought we were by ourselves but then as we were returning up the hill there were a heap of teams headed down. From there around through Oyster Bay to 54 & 43. Cutting back to get 53, 41 and then a nice long downhill run to 42. Along the creek and then up two really steep sets of stairs for 76, around to 11 and then onto 77. At 77 we learnt our first lesson in making sure you read the clues carefully "On commemerative plaque, how many years anniversary?", when we got there another couple of teams were examining 2 signs near the entrance and so we joined them. Nothing definitive that seemed to match the question and then I noticed a plaque on a rock about 50m away which the clue refered to. Down from here towards teh main road but we were blocked by a fence, eventually found a way through it (read later on that it was impassable!) and up past Kareela golf course to the Princes Highway.
Number 44 was in a nature strip and then along the water to 65 (this was part of the Striders Airport Adventure STaR). Up to 34 which in hindsight was a long run for 30 points, picked up 25 and then down through Sylvania for 75 ( a tricky clue regarding some grafitti) and 24. Through Sylvania Waters for 82 and then 72 and 16 for the last controls at Tom Ugly's. At this point a few other teams that I knew were fast were coming the other way, obviously having gone North first. Around the back of Blakehurst for 12, 81, 92 and 35. It looked like we could get through to 57 via a reserve, as we were picking our way along the nature strip a resident grilled us about what/why we were doing and pointed out that we were headed through private property and could not get out at the bottom as there was a large locked gate. Not wanting to argue we retraced our steps, but then found a path that was not marked on the map which was just as good anyway.
Pretty smooth sailing with 57, up to 45, just after that saw Bandanna and then down to 47. We had a great deal of trouble here with "What must be erected?" and were just about to give up when I noticed a metal plate on top of what was some pumping station which said Barricades needed to be erected before any work could commence. Uphill again and another little shortcut (this one successful) to 56 then along a nice firetrail to 68, where there was a photographer. Across to 36 and then cut through another reserve and out the other side to get to 22. Now we were in Oatley and went under the railway line for 23 and up to 83. Here we had a quick break and refilled the camelbaks for the last section through Oatley Park and back to Como.
Down along another nice firetrail to 66 and then 67, opting to leave the climb to 15 (only 10 points) and so straight to 21 and 74. Back over the railway line (and also past the 42km mark in just over 5 hours) to 37 and 73. A good save by Horrie here as the clue was "What occupation at street number 15?" Well there was a big sign up for a builder who built decks which I wrote down, just as we leaving Horrie pointed out the 15 was actually an architect and the builders sign was #17! Along the point to 91 with a bit of bush bashing and then back up to 55. At this point we had 25 minutes to get back.
Crossed over Como bridge for 31, we still had 15 minutes and decided to go under the railway line for 62 and 10 and try and not get back too late. In the end the extra 70 points were offset by the 80 point late arrival penalty which also cost us equal 4th! However it did mean we ran over 50km which was also a goal.
Here is the course map and our route, scanned in 2 halves
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Metrogaine1.jpg
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Metrogaine2.jpg
Many thanks to Horrie for agreeing to run with me, at times I think I had him a little bewildered with the navigation choices but he was picking the map reading on the run up nicely and asking very good questions as to why/where we were going. We had a good routine worked out for navigating and preparing for each control and I reckon did very well. In fact if I was 2 years older we would have won the Veteran division! Certainly also very happy with really no navigational errors and pretty optimum route selection (we'll see what others did later on)
Things are looking good for 6ft, a little tired today but that will pass. In fact the sorest muscles I have are across the shoulder from running with the camelbak. Of and almost forgot, not a peep out of the sore calf muscle from late last week and the groin while not healed is also behaving.
Saturday, February 26, 2005
End of Week
Not a good end to the week. My LHS calf developed a nasty "twinge" Thursday evening which I traced back to earlier in the day. After running in the morning I popped into the city at lunchtime to pick up my CR gear order from Kevin. The bus I was on was running a little late so when I got off I jogged a couple of blocks in my work shoes so I did not keep him waiting. Seemed to be the only thing I can think of that caused it. Ice and Voltaren applied and opted not to run on Friday (was going to do 10km). Had a massage on Friday from one of the new masseurs in the gym below my office and she was great, actually knew about running and did some excellent trigger point manipulation of the calf and also (as a bonus) found a "knot" in my RHS gluts/piris which she worked away. Well worth the visit and I'll be looking for her again in the future.
Despite making progress on the calf decided I did not want to blow it out on a speed session 5km on Saturday morning and so wrapped the week. Ended up with 57km, when it should/would have been around 70km. Parrot predictor says a marathon time of 3:11:36
Despite making progress on the calf decided I did not want to blow it out on a speed session 5km on Saturday morning and so wrapped the week. Ended up with 57km, when it should/would have been around 70km. Parrot predictor says a marathon time of 3:11:36
Thursday, February 24, 2005
More Summer Series and other stuff
The program rolls on and after a 5km recovery run on Wed morning (23:11) I headed across Lane Cove River to Blackman Park in Lane Cove West for Summer Series. A large sporting ground area built within a natural amphitheatre with hills on all sides and the river to the west.
I have run many of the trails through here a number of times and instantly dismissed the controls way south, knowing the slow running that it would take to get there. Mapped out a course which seemed realistic and headed off once I had paid my money. Again over 200 runners and had to line up for around 15 minutes just to enter!
The plan was to to a big loop and then cherry pick any of the 10 pointers in the sportground area as time permitted.
Up hill through the bush first and into the back of the industrial estate for 19, 9 near the substation and then 12 which was at the top of a trail. Back down to the water and along the walking track to get near the power line tower for 11. Surprised to see a pretty good track coming down from the service rd which was a good exit point but if I had known that I would have run the service rd/firetrail rather than the walkway. Anyway up the hill a little for 26 and then down to the bridge for 28. Slower going from this point with overgrown singletrack running as I picked up 10 and then after running below the Shell servo 29 & 18. Back on some tarmac for 7,24,6 then a short cut through a track to get 12.
More suburbia now as I zig zag for 22,20,16 & 4. Scrubbed heading to 15 due to time, wanted those 30 pointers further south. 23 was easy but 14 took a little more time as there were a number of rocks and rock faces. Up the hill a bit more for 30 and in and out for 25.
Big mistake time. Running short on time but wanted the 40 points on offer from 5 & 21. Ran down but could not find the marked path heading to 5. Determined later on it was probably the driveway. So did a bit of bush bashing but soon realised I was killing time. About 20 spiders webs later I got back on a track and picked up 2 on the way to only finish with 1 minute late so - 10 points. What I SHOULD have done after 25 was straight through the bush to get 13 and 3 on the way to 2. That way I would have finished on time and picked up another 30 points. Hindsight such a wonderful thing.
Slower going tonight with all the singletrack running and then straight out bush bashing so teh distance was 7.2km in 45:47 and a pretty sucky average pace. The good news is the guy just behind me in the points had a worse run than I did and so I will increase my lead!!
Here's the map and route traced out.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Blackman%20Park.jpg
Onto today (Thursday) and a recovery run down throough Lane Cove National Park to the weir and back. Legs felt a little tired but a resonable run 10.7km in 52:53 (avg pace 4:55, avg hr 158).
So 4 runs in three days and not doing too badly, however I have lost 2.5kg since Tuesday morning and I'm betting a bit of that is fluid so the water is going down big time today).
Probably a lighter hit out again tomorrow with the 5km on Saturday and then the Metrogaine on Sunday looming.
I have run many of the trails through here a number of times and instantly dismissed the controls way south, knowing the slow running that it would take to get there. Mapped out a course which seemed realistic and headed off once I had paid my money. Again over 200 runners and had to line up for around 15 minutes just to enter!
The plan was to to a big loop and then cherry pick any of the 10 pointers in the sportground area as time permitted.
Up hill through the bush first and into the back of the industrial estate for 19, 9 near the substation and then 12 which was at the top of a trail. Back down to the water and along the walking track to get near the power line tower for 11. Surprised to see a pretty good track coming down from the service rd which was a good exit point but if I had known that I would have run the service rd/firetrail rather than the walkway. Anyway up the hill a little for 26 and then down to the bridge for 28. Slower going from this point with overgrown singletrack running as I picked up 10 and then after running below the Shell servo 29 & 18. Back on some tarmac for 7,24,6 then a short cut through a track to get 12.
More suburbia now as I zig zag for 22,20,16 & 4. Scrubbed heading to 15 due to time, wanted those 30 pointers further south. 23 was easy but 14 took a little more time as there were a number of rocks and rock faces. Up the hill a bit more for 30 and in and out for 25.
Big mistake time. Running short on time but wanted the 40 points on offer from 5 & 21. Ran down but could not find the marked path heading to 5. Determined later on it was probably the driveway. So did a bit of bush bashing but soon realised I was killing time. About 20 spiders webs later I got back on a track and picked up 2 on the way to only finish with 1 minute late so - 10 points. What I SHOULD have done after 25 was straight through the bush to get 13 and 3 on the way to 2. That way I would have finished on time and picked up another 30 points. Hindsight such a wonderful thing.
Slower going tonight with all the singletrack running and then straight out bush bashing so teh distance was 7.2km in 45:47 and a pretty sucky average pace. The good news is the guy just behind me in the points had a worse run than I did and so I will increase my lead!!
Here's the map and route traced out.
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Blackman%20Park.jpg
Onto today (Thursday) and a recovery run down throough Lane Cove National Park to the weir and back. Legs felt a little tired but a resonable run 10.7km in 52:53 (avg pace 4:55, avg hr 158).
So 4 runs in three days and not doing too badly, however I have lost 2.5kg since Tuesday morning and I'm betting a bit of that is fluid so the water is going down big time today).
Probably a lighter hit out again tomorrow with the 5km on Saturday and then the Metrogaine on Sunday looming.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Back into it
After the rest yesterday time to turn the legs over. Woke up with the alarm @ 6am this morning and felt like crap, probably a combination of too much chat and wine last night which saw me late to bed. Opted to roll over instead of heading out. Packed the running gear to take to work so if I perked up I could hit the gym.
As it happens I did perk up and wandered over to the gym. On the way my errr "running injury" felt a little tight but once I got cracking on the treadmill everything fell into place. The gym was pretty packed but was thinning out. After warming up cranked the machine up to 3:55 pace and then proceeded to work my way through the reps.
Got to end of rep 7 and was starting to feel a little woozy (did not have lunch before the session and it was 1:30!) and I also had some work committments that I needed to be back for so did the warm down and called it a day. Thus the session was 7 x 1Km @ 3:55 with 1:52 standing recovery. Pretty happy with the way the body was feeling after Sunday's effort. Tomorrow I'll do a 10km recovery run in the morning and then stretch out for Summer Series which is at Blackman Park, Lane Cove West, some bush for sure and hills, but not as bad as last week.
Thanks for the comments and support, I really wasn't beating myself up too much. Just more a good reality check on what I was capable of at Canberra so I did not blow up halfway through the race.
As it happens I did perk up and wandered over to the gym. On the way my errr "running injury" felt a little tight but once I got cracking on the treadmill everything fell into place. The gym was pretty packed but was thinning out. After warming up cranked the machine up to 3:55 pace and then proceeded to work my way through the reps.
Got to end of rep 7 and was starting to feel a little woozy (did not have lunch before the session and it was 1:30!) and I also had some work committments that I needed to be back for so did the warm down and called it a day. Thus the session was 7 x 1Km @ 3:55 with 1:52 standing recovery. Pretty happy with the way the body was feeling after Sunday's effort. Tomorrow I'll do a 10km recovery run in the morning and then stretch out for Summer Series which is at Blackman Park, Lane Cove West, some bush for sure and hills, but not as bad as last week.
Thanks for the comments and support, I really wasn't beating myself up too much. Just more a good reality check on what I was capable of at Canberra so I did not blow up halfway through the race.
Monday, February 21, 2005
SMC reality check
25km at Smithfield on Sunday morning and this was always going to be a benchmark test to narrow down my target pace for Canberra (hoping for 2:59:59 or under).
A heap of Striders and CR at the start and I had the GPS riding shotgun today to manage my pace. Off we went and there were quite a few that had the same idea as me but I just hung about 5m off the back of the "bus" as we went through the first km in 4:22. At this point I was running with my old school buddy Silver Fox and a young guy from Woodstock. Next km was a tad faster with a 4:06. I was determined to stay on 4:15 and not go too hard so headed up the hill for the first time after the 2.5km drink stop I let a gap develop as they went a little faster. Through to the 5km mark and bang on pace, but there is a short up/down/up section out the back for the longer SMC runs which dented the avg pace. Coming back past the 5km drink stop and Blue Dog caught up and I slipped in behind him. As we went around the corner it seemed that he did a serious lift in pace (which I confirmed later on) and I could/would not match it. However kept him in the same range for quite a while after that. I started to feel pretty good through this section and was steadily running 4:22 pace. However back out to the up/down/up bit and it really hurt this time. Only 6km to go so just ran it home the best I could. At around the 5km mark the GPS battery died (did not seem long ago that I changed it...) but it made no difference. Was a pretty ugly last couple of km as run42k went past with another, they ran a well paced race.
Finish time was 1:54:24 which is avg pace of 4:35 and avg HR of 171.
A wild set of emotions re this performance, certainly not delighted but not distraught either. It was a very humid day and the hills at SMC seem to get bigger every race! Many others also struggled but Silver Fox ran very well! Not forgetting that I also did no taper and the 25km meant 80km in the last 7 days.
Anyway regardless of the above rationalisation/justifications I am really thinking that breaking 3 hours at Canberra might be a step too far. Too many benchmark runners posted times that I should have achieved and we were all in the same boat.
Some more thinking to do, but I don't want to embark on a race at Canberra at a pace that will break me at some point over the 42.2km. A PB clearly beckons and I need to focus on running that the best I can. At the moment I'm shifting a likely target to around 3:10 - 3:05 and more importantly run a pace that I should be able to negative split and come home faster if the body allows. I've only been running seriously for 18 months and have made tremendous gains over that time, this year I'm planning 3 marathons vs just one last year. Need to focus on continuing the building process and having goals that stretch me but are not out of reach.
Anyway, everything might change if I carve up my 10km PB at Homebush but that is the thinking at this point in time.
The good news is I pulled up real well after the race, I am sure the Endura Optimiser is improving my revovery abilities. Regardless a rest day today before a pretty big week, culminating on the weekend with the CR 5km challenge on Saturday and the the 6hour Metrogaine with Horrie on the Sunday. The plan is to train all the way to Six foot with no pronounced taper, just a couple of lower intensity runs before hand as the Canberra preparation continues.
A heap of Striders and CR at the start and I had the GPS riding shotgun today to manage my pace. Off we went and there were quite a few that had the same idea as me but I just hung about 5m off the back of the "bus" as we went through the first km in 4:22. At this point I was running with my old school buddy Silver Fox and a young guy from Woodstock. Next km was a tad faster with a 4:06. I was determined to stay on 4:15 and not go too hard so headed up the hill for the first time after the 2.5km drink stop I let a gap develop as they went a little faster. Through to the 5km mark and bang on pace, but there is a short up/down/up section out the back for the longer SMC runs which dented the avg pace. Coming back past the 5km drink stop and Blue Dog caught up and I slipped in behind him. As we went around the corner it seemed that he did a serious lift in pace (which I confirmed later on) and I could/would not match it. However kept him in the same range for quite a while after that. I started to feel pretty good through this section and was steadily running 4:22 pace. However back out to the up/down/up bit and it really hurt this time. Only 6km to go so just ran it home the best I could. At around the 5km mark the GPS battery died (did not seem long ago that I changed it...) but it made no difference. Was a pretty ugly last couple of km as run42k went past with another, they ran a well paced race.
Finish time was 1:54:24 which is avg pace of 4:35 and avg HR of 171.
A wild set of emotions re this performance, certainly not delighted but not distraught either. It was a very humid day and the hills at SMC seem to get bigger every race! Many others also struggled but Silver Fox ran very well! Not forgetting that I also did no taper and the 25km meant 80km in the last 7 days.
Anyway regardless of the above rationalisation/justifications I am really thinking that breaking 3 hours at Canberra might be a step too far. Too many benchmark runners posted times that I should have achieved and we were all in the same boat.
Some more thinking to do, but I don't want to embark on a race at Canberra at a pace that will break me at some point over the 42.2km. A PB clearly beckons and I need to focus on running that the best I can. At the moment I'm shifting a likely target to around 3:10 - 3:05 and more importantly run a pace that I should be able to negative split and come home faster if the body allows. I've only been running seriously for 18 months and have made tremendous gains over that time, this year I'm planning 3 marathons vs just one last year. Need to focus on continuing the building process and having goals that stretch me but are not out of reach.
Anyway, everything might change if I carve up my 10km PB at Homebush but that is the thinking at this point in time.
The good news is I pulled up real well after the race, I am sure the Endura Optimiser is improving my revovery abilities. Regardless a rest day today before a pretty big week, culminating on the weekend with the CR 5km challenge on Saturday and the the 6hour Metrogaine with Horrie on the Sunday. The plan is to train all the way to Six foot with no pronounced taper, just a couple of lower intensity runs before hand as the Canberra preparation continues.
Friday, February 18, 2005
Too much speed is barely enough
Back to the gym to redeem myself after last Friday's aborted interval session.
This time the flavour is 500m and to spice it up a little we're upping the pace from the 3:30 min/km last time to 3:25 min/km. Goal is 10 and around 1:40 standing rest.
I get to knock out 8 this week which in hindsight is pretty good, given my 10 from the last session of 500's was a little slower.
Add a few warmup/down km and that finishes the week. Total distance this week was 68 and that is without a 30km STaR on Sunday. Parrot predictor thinks 3:18:12 for a marathon.
Rest tomorrow to get fresh for 25km at SMC on Sunday. I'll be aiming to run at optimum target pace for Canberra (ie 4:15 min/km pace) and see what happens. If I can't do this then target time at Canberra will be revised accordingly.
This time the flavour is 500m and to spice it up a little we're upping the pace from the 3:30 min/km last time to 3:25 min/km. Goal is 10 and around 1:40 standing rest.
I get to knock out 8 this week which in hindsight is pretty good, given my 10 from the last session of 500's was a little slower.
Add a few warmup/down km and that finishes the week. Total distance this week was 68 and that is without a 30km STaR on Sunday. Parrot predictor thinks 3:18:12 for a marathon.
Rest tomorrow to get fresh for 25km at SMC on Sunday. I'll be aiming to run at optimum target pace for Canberra (ie 4:15 min/km pace) and see what happens. If I can't do this then target time at Canberra will be revised accordingly.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Summer Series @ West Denistone & recovery
Wednesday rolls around and the Summer Series caravan moves to Denistone West in an area wedged between the main north railway, Marsden Road, Victoria Rd and Eastwood shopping centre. Quite a decent climb/descent at the northern end of the map. I had to pass on my recovery run this morning with some urgent business meetings taking priority.
At least the afternoon was a little cooler than last time we ran here, and a new start spot which makes things a little more interesting. The goal in plotting a course here is to minimise the climbs, ie only one major climb, so you have to look at the contours.
Off and around the edge of the park to get 17 then some fairly flat running for 23 & 8. A little climb up to 14 then down again to collect 3 on the way to 27. A little in and out for 10 and then the big climb (counted 10 contours = 40m climb) to 12. Up a little further to locate the bush track that leds down to 7 and then back out for the three controls (16,28,1) around the sports fields. First little oops on the way from 1 to 22, three options low track, high track or even higher road. Of course I chose the worst option the high track which was more overgrown than I know the low track was and certainly not as fast as the parallel road. Anyway after 22 some nice fast trail running downhill to 11 & 21 and then the second climbing portion up to 25 (30 vertical metres). Very tempting to cut across to 20 but from previous experience that green band was thick lantana so up to 9 and then in and out for 20 with fairly flat (and fast) running. A drop down for 30 and then decision time, keep going east for more points or drop back down and risk being early...
Of course I went east and picked up 29 with a real quick downhill to 15, tempted to run along the park for 24 & 2 but time was ticking so ran as direct a path as possible back getting as many controls as possible with 13, 26, 6 & 19 all in quick succession. As I was leaving 19 the 45 minutes ticked over and so now it was a sprint back to the finish as quickly as possible. I really turned the legs over and got just on 48 minutes so lose 30 points (another second and it would have been 40!).
Overall score ended up @ 490 with 9.3km in 48 minutes (5:09 pace) and am pretty happy with that over a pretty hilly course.
Here's my route
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Brush%20Farm.jpg
During my recovery run this morning (10.4km in 50:25 4:51min/km avg HR 160) I was thinking (as you do!) more about the Wednesday night runs. I record them in my diary as a Tempo run but they are usually an average pace slower than my recovery or longer runs so what benefit then?
The thing is I have never taken into account the time spent at each control as I run the course. In looking at it you slow down a little if you can clearly see the object/control more if you can't. Pretty much stop to identify the actual control code, write it down on your card and then accelerate away again. Now I plan my exit point before I get to the control so get away fairly fast but would say that this whole process takes between 5-10 seconds out of running at normal pace (and that is I don't have problems finding the control). Now if you look at last night I visited 25 controls, if you work that time out it comes out to between 2 - 4 minutes extra time not really running. So if you deduct that sort of time all of a sudden I'm running at around 4:30 pace and on quite a hilly course, so I guess it is really a tempo run after all!
Enough analysis paralysis, for tomorrow I have a sharpener session scheduled of 500m reps to get the legs kicking over before resting on Saturday for the 25km @ SMC.
At least the afternoon was a little cooler than last time we ran here, and a new start spot which makes things a little more interesting. The goal in plotting a course here is to minimise the climbs, ie only one major climb, so you have to look at the contours.
Off and around the edge of the park to get 17 then some fairly flat running for 23 & 8. A little climb up to 14 then down again to collect 3 on the way to 27. A little in and out for 10 and then the big climb (counted 10 contours = 40m climb) to 12. Up a little further to locate the bush track that leds down to 7 and then back out for the three controls (16,28,1) around the sports fields. First little oops on the way from 1 to 22, three options low track, high track or even higher road. Of course I chose the worst option the high track which was more overgrown than I know the low track was and certainly not as fast as the parallel road. Anyway after 22 some nice fast trail running downhill to 11 & 21 and then the second climbing portion up to 25 (30 vertical metres). Very tempting to cut across to 20 but from previous experience that green band was thick lantana so up to 9 and then in and out for 20 with fairly flat (and fast) running. A drop down for 30 and then decision time, keep going east for more points or drop back down and risk being early...
Of course I went east and picked up 29 with a real quick downhill to 15, tempted to run along the park for 24 & 2 but time was ticking so ran as direct a path as possible back getting as many controls as possible with 13, 26, 6 & 19 all in quick succession. As I was leaving 19 the 45 minutes ticked over and so now it was a sprint back to the finish as quickly as possible. I really turned the legs over and got just on 48 minutes so lose 30 points (another second and it would have been 40!).
Overall score ended up @ 490 with 9.3km in 48 minutes (5:09 pace) and am pretty happy with that over a pretty hilly course.
Here's my route
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Brush%20Farm.jpg
During my recovery run this morning (10.4km in 50:25 4:51min/km avg HR 160) I was thinking (as you do!) more about the Wednesday night runs. I record them in my diary as a Tempo run but they are usually an average pace slower than my recovery or longer runs so what benefit then?
The thing is I have never taken into account the time spent at each control as I run the course. In looking at it you slow down a little if you can clearly see the object/control more if you can't. Pretty much stop to identify the actual control code, write it down on your card and then accelerate away again. Now I plan my exit point before I get to the control so get away fairly fast but would say that this whole process takes between 5-10 seconds out of running at normal pace (and that is I don't have problems finding the control). Now if you look at last night I visited 25 controls, if you work that time out it comes out to between 2 - 4 minutes extra time not really running. So if you deduct that sort of time all of a sudden I'm running at around 4:30 pace and on quite a hilly course, so I guess it is really a tempo run after all!
Enough analysis paralysis, for tomorrow I have a sharpener session scheduled of 500m reps to get the legs kicking over before resting on Saturday for the 25km @ SMC.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Longer(ish) run
After much analysis and discussion in the CR chatroom I opted to forego the usual rep session for a slightly longer run. Main reason being the tightness I was still feeling in my upper quads, did not want to blow out another "hard" session.
Thus headed out early for at least 15km. Felt pretty good after a couple of km so decided to up the ante and include some fartlek pieces, running harder up each (of the many) hills on this run.
The end result was the 15km done in 1:11:15 (4:45 pace) and avg HR of 161. This was a time over 1 minute quicker than what I have sone previously on the same course so the extra focus on hill exertions showed without blowing out my avg HR.
Plan for tomorrow is a gentle 5km to blow the cobwebs out and then a real hard tempo style session with Summer Series @ Dennistone East (nice and hilly and mostly street based)
Thus headed out early for at least 15km. Felt pretty good after a couple of km so decided to up the ante and include some fartlek pieces, running harder up each (of the many) hills on this run.
The end result was the 15km done in 1:11:15 (4:45 pace) and avg HR of 161. This was a time over 1 minute quicker than what I have sone previously on the same course so the extra focus on hill exertions showed without blowing out my avg HR.
Plan for tomorrow is a gentle 5km to blow the cobwebs out and then a real hard tempo style session with Summer Series @ Dennistone East (nice and hilly and mostly street based)
Monday, February 14, 2005
Equaliser & recovery
Sunday was the day for the Equaliser a fairly brutal cross country race from Belrose to St Ives and back. Only thing is the great big valley in between that you need to traverse twice!
Last year we held this in the middle of winter on a wet, cold & windy day. Yesterday was much nicer, a little cooler than this time of year and very occasionaly a slight drizzle of rain. Not sure what the humidity reading was though.
The first km is a slight downhill along a street which then turns into a dirt road which winds amongst the electrical substations. Then it is pretty much down to the bottom of the valley. I went out at 10km pace and then really turned it on going down the descent. Doing so meant I passed a number of people who are normally a bit further up the field than me. Of course all was rectified once we started climbing (my running weakness at the moment) and quite a few people went past as I laboured up the first climb. This included Redback my old sparring partner who looks like he is over his injury problems. As we hit the tarmac for a quick break (about 1km) from the bush I noticed Spud and Mr G were looming from behind as I tried to recover and make up some ground on Redback.
By the time we got to the re-entry into the bush however Redback had maintained his lead and now I had Spud and Mr G on my shoulder. A km or so of fairly level bush track and then another descent back down to the creek. I really opened up here and we went past a number of runners here including Redback on a real fast downhill run. I also dropped of Spud and Mr G to give myself some breathing room on the inevitable climb to the finish.
Did a combination of run/walk on the steeper bits and once again some of the people I passed on the downhill cruised past and I KNEW Mr G was only about 10 secs behind and trying to catch me. Redback, Springer and Spud left me in their wake and just near the top of the climb a couple more runners loomed from behind. However now we were back to somewhat level running and I just tried to press it to the line, even if I did feel like I was jogging on the spot!
Just in the last couple of hundred metres as we returned to the street Rooster went by and I increased my effort (also not daring to look behind to see where Mr G was). Holding but not gaining on Rooster in the last 100m another Strider sprinted past, he must have held back some good reserves!
Over the line in 1:08:52 which was 2 minutes faster than my run last June. Average HR was 174 with a max of 184. For certain it was the legs and not the lungs/heart that limited me today, all the more reason to keep on at those hill intervals.
Splits were
1km 4:01 4:01
2km 3:41 7:42
3km 4:06 11:48
4km 5:11 16:59
5km 5:14 22:13
6km 6:08 28:21
7km 4:14 32:34
8km 4:35 37:09
9km 5:11 42:20
10km 4:53 47:12
11km 4:31 41:44
12km 5:53 57:37
13km 6:43 1:04:21
14km 4:31 1:08:52
Monday - recovery
A late lunch with a few too many red wines ensured no "top up" run on Sunday so headed out this morning for a 10km recovery (and to keep up the distance). Intersted to note the upper quads and adductors were quite tight. (in fact last night I did some icing in that area out of concern that the run might have had on my groin problem). A nice cooler morning for running, I do like this time of year. 11km in 56:20 for an average pace of 5:10
Last year we held this in the middle of winter on a wet, cold & windy day. Yesterday was much nicer, a little cooler than this time of year and very occasionaly a slight drizzle of rain. Not sure what the humidity reading was though.
The first km is a slight downhill along a street which then turns into a dirt road which winds amongst the electrical substations. Then it is pretty much down to the bottom of the valley. I went out at 10km pace and then really turned it on going down the descent. Doing so meant I passed a number of people who are normally a bit further up the field than me. Of course all was rectified once we started climbing (my running weakness at the moment) and quite a few people went past as I laboured up the first climb. This included Redback my old sparring partner who looks like he is over his injury problems. As we hit the tarmac for a quick break (about 1km) from the bush I noticed Spud and Mr G were looming from behind as I tried to recover and make up some ground on Redback.
By the time we got to the re-entry into the bush however Redback had maintained his lead and now I had Spud and Mr G on my shoulder. A km or so of fairly level bush track and then another descent back down to the creek. I really opened up here and we went past a number of runners here including Redback on a real fast downhill run. I also dropped of Spud and Mr G to give myself some breathing room on the inevitable climb to the finish.
Did a combination of run/walk on the steeper bits and once again some of the people I passed on the downhill cruised past and I KNEW Mr G was only about 10 secs behind and trying to catch me. Redback, Springer and Spud left me in their wake and just near the top of the climb a couple more runners loomed from behind. However now we were back to somewhat level running and I just tried to press it to the line, even if I did feel like I was jogging on the spot!
Just in the last couple of hundred metres as we returned to the street Rooster went by and I increased my effort (also not daring to look behind to see where Mr G was). Holding but not gaining on Rooster in the last 100m another Strider sprinted past, he must have held back some good reserves!
Over the line in 1:08:52 which was 2 minutes faster than my run last June. Average HR was 174 with a max of 184. For certain it was the legs and not the lungs/heart that limited me today, all the more reason to keep on at those hill intervals.
Splits were
1km 4:01 4:01
2km 3:41 7:42
3km 4:06 11:48
4km 5:11 16:59
5km 5:14 22:13
6km 6:08 28:21
7km 4:14 32:34
8km 4:35 37:09
9km 5:11 42:20
10km 4:53 47:12
11km 4:31 41:44
12km 5:53 57:37
13km 6:43 1:04:21
14km 4:31 1:08:52
Monday - recovery
A late lunch with a few too many red wines ensured no "top up" run on Sunday so headed out this morning for a 10km recovery (and to keep up the distance). Intersted to note the upper quads and adductors were quite tight. (in fact last night I did some icing in that area out of concern that the run might have had on my groin problem). A nice cooler morning for running, I do like this time of year. 11km in 56:20 for an average pace of 5:10
Friday, February 11, 2005
The Good, Bad and Ugly
Keeping a blog is all about the title.
It is great to write up on the good days, like my run at Arizona.
You need to record the bad things, like my injury.
Well today was just ugly....
Firstly did a "recovery" run yesterday afternoon, down to the weir at Lane Cove National Park and back. Close to 12km in 57:16 (4:52 min/km) and avg HR of 160.
This morning a longer distance interval session was scheduled, aiming for 1km reps @ 3:55 like 2 weeks ago. I felt a little tight from the week's efforts during the warm up run to the gym. The first 2 reps were ok, but I could sense it was a little struggle. I decided to shift to 500m reps and did a couple more but really felt drained so aborted the session and did a good warm down.
A tough week and given the hard/hilly Equaliser cross country race on Sunday I am also going for a full recovery/rest day for tomorrow.
Weekly distance 70km and Parrot says a slower 3:34 this week.
It is great to write up on the good days, like my run at Arizona.
You need to record the bad things, like my injury.
Well today was just ugly....
Firstly did a "recovery" run yesterday afternoon, down to the weir at Lane Cove National Park and back. Close to 12km in 57:16 (4:52 min/km) and avg HR of 160.
This morning a longer distance interval session was scheduled, aiming for 1km reps @ 3:55 like 2 weeks ago. I felt a little tight from the week's efforts during the warm up run to the gym. The first 2 reps were ok, but I could sense it was a little struggle. I decided to shift to 500m reps and did a couple more but really felt drained so aborted the session and did a good warm down.
A tough week and given the hard/hilly Equaliser cross country race on Sunday I am also going for a full recovery/rest day for tomorrow.
Weekly distance 70km and Parrot says a slower 3:34 this week.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Summer Series @ Gladesville + more!
Another Wednesday rolls around and this time it is a little different.
Firstly I introduced a recovery run this morning, nothing major just around 5km @ 5 min/km pace to shake the legs out from yesterday. But another step up in overall weekly distance and also introduces a little fatigue for tonights run.
This map is a good challenge, especially for first timers as they have to deal with the old Gladesville Mental Hospital grounds and the large (ie unclimbable) walls that surround it as the course weaves in and out. A slight advantage for me this week as I set a course using part of the map back in October so I walked over most of the map.
Opted to head west first and get the points which were more road based before dealing with the hospital grounds. So a bit of bush first with 4 & 13, uphill to 24, back down to 12 and then more bush with 23 and then along the water to 11. Now some good open ground running with 1, 21 22, 2 and 3 in quick succession. A nice break with an unmapped lane shortcut to 15 and downhill to the hospital. At this point I had just hit 22 minutes (or half way).
Tricky stuff in the grounds, lots of buildings but also dead ends etc. 6 is easy, around a few buildings to 14. First route selection mistake as I head downhill to 26 (should have picked it up on the way back). Then back uphill (see what I mean) to 16, around to 6 and then over the fence and along Victoria Rd to 27. Route choice here and I head to 10 for 10 points (in hindsight probably a mistake for the distance). Down and across for 29 and then homeward bound with a run around the wall for 28, a difficult route to 8 and down to 17. A short diversion in the bush to 7 and then sprint home via 25 to finish. Here is the route:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Bedlam%20Point.jpg
The tally 500 points less 40 for my usual lateness = 460. Best score when I left was 530 so a pretty good result, about 4th overall. Looks like I also keep my overall 4th place in Open Men as I narrowly beat the 5th guy again. It will be down to the wire as only 3 points separate us. He is so much a faster runner than me (did 36:xx in the 10km on Saturday vs my 41:38) so it's only my navigation and route selection skills keeping me in front.
Total distance 9.2km in 48:55 (avg pace 5:18 min/km).
Recovery run tomorrow.
Firstly I introduced a recovery run this morning, nothing major just around 5km @ 5 min/km pace to shake the legs out from yesterday. But another step up in overall weekly distance and also introduces a little fatigue for tonights run.
This map is a good challenge, especially for first timers as they have to deal with the old Gladesville Mental Hospital grounds and the large (ie unclimbable) walls that surround it as the course weaves in and out. A slight advantage for me this week as I set a course using part of the map back in October so I walked over most of the map.
Opted to head west first and get the points which were more road based before dealing with the hospital grounds. So a bit of bush first with 4 & 13, uphill to 24, back down to 12 and then more bush with 23 and then along the water to 11. Now some good open ground running with 1, 21 22, 2 and 3 in quick succession. A nice break with an unmapped lane shortcut to 15 and downhill to the hospital. At this point I had just hit 22 minutes (or half way).
Tricky stuff in the grounds, lots of buildings but also dead ends etc. 6 is easy, around a few buildings to 14. First route selection mistake as I head downhill to 26 (should have picked it up on the way back). Then back uphill (see what I mean) to 16, around to 6 and then over the fence and along Victoria Rd to 27. Route choice here and I head to 10 for 10 points (in hindsight probably a mistake for the distance). Down and across for 29 and then homeward bound with a run around the wall for 28, a difficult route to 8 and down to 17. A short diversion in the bush to 7 and then sprint home via 25 to finish. Here is the route:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/Bedlam%20Point.jpg
The tally 500 points less 40 for my usual lateness = 460. Best score when I left was 530 so a pretty good result, about 4th overall. Looks like I also keep my overall 4th place in Open Men as I narrowly beat the 5th guy again. It will be down to the wire as only 3 points separate us. He is so much a faster runner than me (did 36:xx in the 10km on Saturday vs my 41:38) so it's only my navigation and route selection skills keeping me in front.
Total distance 9.2km in 48:55 (avg pace 5:18 min/km).
Recovery run tomorrow.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
The Hills are alive.....
I wonder how many Hills songs/phrases I can use for my hill rep sessions.
In alignment with my review of other interval work today I approached the hill reps slightly differently. Firstly, finally managed to get out in the morning for a change, although it was made easier by my wife giving me a big nudge. She has had enough of the alarm going off, waking her and me not getting up.
Extending the concept of what I did with the 1km and 500m reps I deliberately went a little slower today. In thinking back my hill rep sessions have blown out because of the cardiovascular overload first rather than the legs. Today I wanted to hurt the legs before the lungs gave out.
As a result I did 11 reps today, and man the last 2 or 3 the lactic was really kicking in, which then worked the lungs more as well.
So 11 reps @ average of 1:33 with average 1:52 jog back down/recovery.
Last week the session was 7 @ 1:29 and 1:59 recovery, so I think the change had the desired effect. Legs also seemed to be carrying a bit from the Saturday/Sunday efforts. Hopefully this change will improve my hill running, a bit too early to assess at the Equaliser but by next Lane Cove 10km I want to be able to maintain the pace more on the hills without sufferering from the effort towards the end.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with my progress, February/March were always going to be harder as I picked up the efforts and I still need to remind myself that I am really only 2 months into proper training from a low base towards the end of last year. It seems no one is interested in doing the Metrogaine with me which is a pity, I would have enjoyed the 6 hours down near the Georges River.
In alignment with my review of other interval work today I approached the hill reps slightly differently. Firstly, finally managed to get out in the morning for a change, although it was made easier by my wife giving me a big nudge. She has had enough of the alarm going off, waking her and me not getting up.
Extending the concept of what I did with the 1km and 500m reps I deliberately went a little slower today. In thinking back my hill rep sessions have blown out because of the cardiovascular overload first rather than the legs. Today I wanted to hurt the legs before the lungs gave out.
As a result I did 11 reps today, and man the last 2 or 3 the lactic was really kicking in, which then worked the lungs more as well.
So 11 reps @ average of 1:33 with average 1:52 jog back down/recovery.
Last week the session was 7 @ 1:29 and 1:59 recovery, so I think the change had the desired effect. Legs also seemed to be carrying a bit from the Saturday/Sunday efforts. Hopefully this change will improve my hill running, a bit too early to assess at the Equaliser but by next Lane Cove 10km I want to be able to maintain the pace more on the hills without sufferering from the effort towards the end.
All in all, I'm pretty happy with my progress, February/March were always going to be harder as I picked up the efforts and I still need to remind myself that I am really only 2 months into proper training from a low base towards the end of last year. It seems no one is interested in doing the Metrogaine with me which is a pity, I would have enjoyed the 6 hours down near the Georges River.
Monday, February 07, 2005
Berowra Big Dipper STaR
A nice drive up to Berowra for Kevin's Big Dipper. A slightly smaller turnout, but still a lot of runners. Opted for the 6:10 group and we set off. A few familiar faces missing with Horrie in hospital and Superflake Melbourne bound. However still a number of the usuals with CR's MrG, Blue Dog and Spud, Striders Barry and Peter. Also some new faces with Kev's wife Dawn, Warwick Selby, Jonathon Worswick (I think) and a few others so the pack had a real 6 foot flavour. Right from the start it was take no prisoners and everyone seemed pretty determined to hold a very good pace. I could really feel the effects of yesterdays 10km and to be honest was not feeling real flash. So after around 9km @ 4:53 pace I just slid off the back, I wanted to run 30km and there was no way I could do that the way I was feeling.
At around the same time we entered the bush and so the pack quickly was out of sight and I was by myself. Still not feeling real good I just focussed on where my feet weer going (it was quite rocky underfoot).Caught up to the walkers and then Elf who was having some problems with her feet (PF I found out later). Also around here my GPS packed it in, forgot to change the batteries. A little further on the track turned into singletrail and was a little more uneven with lots of little ups and downs. Went past Amjan and Psychoma here and shortly after on the descent to Berowra Waters Ferry the guns, of Guzzo, Uncle Dave and a Truscott (??) went past.
It seems I was not that far behind the 6:10 group as Warwick Selby was running up the hill as I came out of the bush and I could hear the others above him. Anyway did a quick drink stop and tightened the shoes (drenched with sweat yet again) and took off up the hill. I have fond memories of the climb out of Berowra Waters as I rode through there many times when I was cycling. To my surprise I felt really good on the climb, the slope seemed to suit me and I was going at a decent pace. There were lots of runners ahead and I picked them off one by one with only Highway Man going past me.
Another quick water stop and also had a Gu at the top before doing some in and out (and also up and down) bush sections to the North of Berowra. Again solo running, passing different runners every so often and only had a couple more catch up to me at around 27km as wecame to the last bush section. Ran this bit with sawdust and Jaap before they left me on the hill, a steady climb up to the finish and done. Really surprised the bulk of the 6:20 group did not catch me.
The stats 30km (by the map) in 2:56:32 for an average pace of 5:53. Avg HR was 155. In comparing times at the end I was pretty happy with my effort, especially running solo most of the way. A real good workout built upon some fatigue from the 10km race.
Got home, had a shower and then popped up to the hospital to see Horrie. We had a great chat about a lot of different running stuff, I think he was please to have some company, his room did not even have a tv or radio.
At around the same time we entered the bush and so the pack quickly was out of sight and I was by myself. Still not feeling real good I just focussed on where my feet weer going (it was quite rocky underfoot).Caught up to the walkers and then Elf who was having some problems with her feet (PF I found out later). Also around here my GPS packed it in, forgot to change the batteries. A little further on the track turned into singletrail and was a little more uneven with lots of little ups and downs. Went past Amjan and Psychoma here and shortly after on the descent to Berowra Waters Ferry the guns, of Guzzo, Uncle Dave and a Truscott (??) went past.
It seems I was not that far behind the 6:10 group as Warwick Selby was running up the hill as I came out of the bush and I could hear the others above him. Anyway did a quick drink stop and tightened the shoes (drenched with sweat yet again) and took off up the hill. I have fond memories of the climb out of Berowra Waters as I rode through there many times when I was cycling. To my surprise I felt really good on the climb, the slope seemed to suit me and I was going at a decent pace. There were lots of runners ahead and I picked them off one by one with only Highway Man going past me.
Another quick water stop and also had a Gu at the top before doing some in and out (and also up and down) bush sections to the North of Berowra. Again solo running, passing different runners every so often and only had a couple more catch up to me at around 27km as wecame to the last bush section. Ran this bit with sawdust and Jaap before they left me on the hill, a steady climb up to the finish and done. Really surprised the bulk of the 6:20 group did not catch me.
The stats 30km (by the map) in 2:56:32 for an average pace of 5:53. Avg HR was 155. In comparing times at the end I was pretty happy with my effort, especially running solo most of the way. A real good workout built upon some fatigue from the 10km race.
Got home, had a shower and then popped up to the hospital to see Horrie. We had a great chat about a lot of different running stuff, I think he was please to have some company, his room did not even have a tv or radio.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Striders 10km @ Lane Cove
Time to return to the 10km series for another year and first up we have Lane Cove. I will not lie, my true hope was to lower my PB down around 40 minutes. To do this I needed to not go out too hard and try and run an even pace, with something hopefully left to kick home with.
A massive crowd which I thought was going to be around 300, it as it turns out was just over.
Things were looking good with fractionaly under 4 min splits for km 1&2. At around the 2km mark Superflake went by, looking very relaxed. Luke Skyrunner and pram were lurking just behind me as well. The 3rd km includes the climb and descent of Scribbly Gums hill, but my split was ok, keeping me just ahead of even pace. At around the 4km mark there is a little rise before dropping down to the creek and then the climb up to Ryde Road, still well on target here but the pram cruised past.
As I started up the climb Horrie went by and while it was tempting to try and keep up I decided to keep some in the bank for the run home. The 5km split was a 4:30 and so now it was at 20:30, with a some climbing still to do and then the run back. Picked up the pace down the hill which limited my hill climb losses with a 4:10 but now I needed to post 3:50 pace for the last 4km. Another 4:15 split and now 40 was just a dream again as I slogged home. The last hill at around 2.5km to go slowed me a little further but in general I was running 4:15's the rest of the way. I could see I was gaining on Horrie and with around 500m to go went past, asked him if he was ok ( he was looking a little erratic) and he said yes.
Finished with 41:38 (unofficial) which it turns out was a 19 second PB for the course, so something positive. Splits were :
1 3:57 3:57
2 3:58 7:55
3 4:01 11:56
4 4:04 16:01
5 4:30 20:31
6 4:11 24:42
7 4:15 28:57
8 4:15 33:11
9 4:22 37:33
10 4:05 41:38
Average HR of 174
I am now seriously rethinking my planned tilt at 3 hours for Canberra, in my mind if I can't run 10km in 40 then 42.2 in 3 hours is maybe not achieveable. Final decision will be based upon performance at SMC 25km coming up.
After finishing I turned around to check on Horrie and he had not come in, someone had already gone back to find him and was helping him along, as they got close to the line it was obvious he was not very healthy. I'll leave it to him to post the details, if he remembers, but for a little while there his condition was a little concerning.
Anyway, end of the week and I logged 67km and the "Famous" Parrot Predictor says 3:18 for a marathon.
Hydrating and resting up now for Kevin's Berowra Big Dipper which looks like a very trying 30km.
A massive crowd which I thought was going to be around 300, it as it turns out was just over.
Things were looking good with fractionaly under 4 min splits for km 1&2. At around the 2km mark Superflake went by, looking very relaxed. Luke Skyrunner and pram were lurking just behind me as well. The 3rd km includes the climb and descent of Scribbly Gums hill, but my split was ok, keeping me just ahead of even pace. At around the 4km mark there is a little rise before dropping down to the creek and then the climb up to Ryde Road, still well on target here but the pram cruised past.
As I started up the climb Horrie went by and while it was tempting to try and keep up I decided to keep some in the bank for the run home. The 5km split was a 4:30 and so now it was at 20:30, with a some climbing still to do and then the run back. Picked up the pace down the hill which limited my hill climb losses with a 4:10 but now I needed to post 3:50 pace for the last 4km. Another 4:15 split and now 40 was just a dream again as I slogged home. The last hill at around 2.5km to go slowed me a little further but in general I was running 4:15's the rest of the way. I could see I was gaining on Horrie and with around 500m to go went past, asked him if he was ok ( he was looking a little erratic) and he said yes.
Finished with 41:38 (unofficial) which it turns out was a 19 second PB for the course, so something positive. Splits were :
1 3:57 3:57
2 3:58 7:55
3 4:01 11:56
4 4:04 16:01
5 4:30 20:31
6 4:11 24:42
7 4:15 28:57
8 4:15 33:11
9 4:22 37:33
10 4:05 41:38
Average HR of 174
I am now seriously rethinking my planned tilt at 3 hours for Canberra, in my mind if I can't run 10km in 40 then 42.2 in 3 hours is maybe not achieveable. Final decision will be based upon performance at SMC 25km coming up.
After finishing I turned around to check on Horrie and he had not come in, someone had already gone back to find him and was helping him along, as they got close to the line it was obvious he was not very healthy. I'll leave it to him to post the details, if he remembers, but for a little while there his condition was a little concerning.
Anyway, end of the week and I logged 67km and the "Famous" Parrot Predictor says 3:18 for a marathon.
Hydrating and resting up now for Kevin's Berowra Big Dipper which looks like a very trying 30km.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
I feel the need for speed
After further introspection and obsessive analysis I determined that not only was I running my long interval sessions incorrectly, the same could be said for the shorter & faster sessions.
So today I decided to hop back on the treadmill.
10 x 500m @ 1:45 (3:30 pace) with same time standing recovery. This felt like a good speed form session and for the last one I even upped the speed to 3:25 pace. The goal of the session is to get the legs used to moving faster but to also push the cardiovascular system towards the later reps at keeping those fast legs moving.
The closest I have come to a session like this was back in early December with 6 x 400 @ 1:22 (3:26 pace), so longer and more reps at a slightly slower pace.
Pretty happy with that, next time I'll drop them down to 3:25 pace.
Recovery/easy run tomorrow in prep for the Striders 10km on Saturday am.
So today I decided to hop back on the treadmill.
10 x 500m @ 1:45 (3:30 pace) with same time standing recovery. This felt like a good speed form session and for the last one I even upped the speed to 3:25 pace. The goal of the session is to get the legs used to moving faster but to also push the cardiovascular system towards the later reps at keeping those fast legs moving.
The closest I have come to a session like this was back in early December with 6 x 400 @ 1:22 (3:26 pace), so longer and more reps at a slightly slower pace.
Pretty happy with that, next time I'll drop them down to 3:25 pace.
Recovery/easy run tomorrow in prep for the Striders 10km on Saturday am.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Wet Summer Series @ W Lindfield
Things were looking grim this afternoon as massive thunderstorms ripped their way across the Sydney suburbs. At work it got progressively darker outside from 3:30 and by 4:30 it was absolutely bucketing down. I left just after 5 with not much hope of having a run as it was still raining very heavily and there was thunder/lightning still going off! But by the time I got home there were patches of blue sky visible to I headed off to West Lindfield.
Todays map was based near the CSIRO Measurement Centre and took in West Lindfield and also the eastern side of Lane Cove National Park. Some nice suburban street running mixed in with more technical bush sections. I opted to head north first taking in the streets to hopefully let a little more water drain off before hitting the bush.
Pretty simple up front then with 5,13,12,2 and 11. While it was tempting to head down in the bush here I know from previous runs along the GNW at this section it would not be fast going. So instead kept up high and polished off 3,24,14,23 and 15. Making very good time with only around 15 minutes elapsed so far. In the rush to get out of the house I left behind the GPS receiver and HR so all I had was the timer.
Into the bush now crossing to 25, and then down to 16. First mistake here, I should have bush bashed down to the track coming out near 26 but instead ran away and down to 7 leaving an in and out track run to 26. Fairly smooth running although now a little slower to 28 and then onto 9. Here I decided to short cut as time was ticking down so across to 19. Back on the streets and up to 18 followed by 8. Into the nature strip behind the houses for 29 and then missed the straight trail leading to the exit for 27, running the slower fenceline route. Uphill finish after 27 with 6 on the way home.
Ended up back around 4 minutes late and missed around 160 points at either end of the map. Net score then was 400 which I was fairly happy with. In reviewing my route here :
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/West%20Lindfield.jpg
perhaps the only better thing I could have done would have been to not go to 2&11 (30 points) and have used that running time to get 30,20 & 10 (60 points).
Anyway the top guys only got 460 so I get a nice 87 points, although I do lose 2nd overall spot now in the season pointscore.
Back home the map wheel said around 8.5km in 48:41, avg pace 5:44.
Todays map was based near the CSIRO Measurement Centre and took in West Lindfield and also the eastern side of Lane Cove National Park. Some nice suburban street running mixed in with more technical bush sections. I opted to head north first taking in the streets to hopefully let a little more water drain off before hitting the bush.
Pretty simple up front then with 5,13,12,2 and 11. While it was tempting to head down in the bush here I know from previous runs along the GNW at this section it would not be fast going. So instead kept up high and polished off 3,24,14,23 and 15. Making very good time with only around 15 minutes elapsed so far. In the rush to get out of the house I left behind the GPS receiver and HR so all I had was the timer.
Into the bush now crossing to 25, and then down to 16. First mistake here, I should have bush bashed down to the track coming out near 26 but instead ran away and down to 7 leaving an in and out track run to 26. Fairly smooth running although now a little slower to 28 and then onto 9. Here I decided to short cut as time was ticking down so across to 19. Back on the streets and up to 18 followed by 8. Into the nature strip behind the houses for 29 and then missed the straight trail leading to the exit for 27, running the slower fenceline route. Uphill finish after 27 with 6 on the way home.
Ended up back around 4 minutes late and missed around 160 points at either end of the map. Net score then was 400 which I was fairly happy with. In reviewing my route here :
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/West%20Lindfield.jpg
perhaps the only better thing I could have done would have been to not go to 2&11 (30 points) and have used that running time to get 30,20 & 10 (60 points).
Anyway the top guys only got 460 so I get a nice 87 points, although I do lose 2nd overall spot now in the season pointscore.
Back home the map wheel said around 8.5km in 48:41, avg pace 5:44.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
Run to the hills
Another bad night/morning and it was my 4yo daughters first day at kinder today so a great deal of excitement and just difficult to get out for a run in the morning.
So in the heat of the afternoon got home and ran around the corner for some nice hill reps! It was sure a good deal warmer than the usual morning time but off I went.
Sporadic pacing seemed the order of the day.
First six were done at an average of 88 secs, was very average after the 6th (just about chucked!) but jogged back down for #7. Total blowout with a 97 second and thus called it a day.
Glad I got out, not glad about running hills in the heat, spent about 10 minutes under a cold shower.
So in the heat of the afternoon got home and ran around the corner for some nice hill reps! It was sure a good deal warmer than the usual morning time but off I went.
Sporadic pacing seemed the order of the day.
First six were done at an average of 88 secs, was very average after the 6th (just about chucked!) but jogged back down for #7. Total blowout with a 97 second and thus called it a day.
Glad I got out, not glad about running hills in the heat, spent about 10 minutes under a cold shower.
Monday, January 31, 2005
January recap
No run this morning so January is finished!
Highlight - my race at Arizona for the half, a very positive experience
Lowlight - missing training after Arizona and stuffing up pacing at 5km challenge
Total distance for the month was 225km a little below plan.
In doing some number crunching, this January I ran 225km at an average pace of 4:59 min/km, last January I ran 227km at an average pace of 5:40 min/km!
Onto February, planned distance 300km! Runs of note include Striders 10km, Equaliser, SMC 25km and probably a 6hour Rogaine (if I can find a suitable partner!) in the build up for 6 foot!
Highlight - my race at Arizona for the half, a very positive experience
Lowlight - missing training after Arizona and stuffing up pacing at 5km challenge
Total distance for the month was 225km a little below plan.
In doing some number crunching, this January I ran 225km at an average pace of 4:59 min/km, last January I ran 227km at an average pace of 5:40 min/km!
Onto February, planned distance 300km! Runs of note include Striders 10km, Equaliser, SMC 25km and probably a 6hour Rogaine (if I can find a suitable partner!) in the build up for 6 foot!
Dee Why Dash STaR
Up early for the Dee Why Dash STaR. From last year this was a pretty hard run with a great climb from Oxford Falls up to Belrose to really work the legs over.
Started with 6:10 group today and a couple of others who also ran 6:20 last week did the same. Our group was a nice size with the "regulars" of Horrie and Superflake, along with Kevin. Barry and Peter who ran 6:20 last week, another CR I had not meet before, Coaster and a couple of triathletes getting ready for Foster.
It was very humid and had been drizzling as we set out, the initial piece of this run is deceptive as you climb up the back of Dee Why. Then some great downhill running down to Oxford Falls. Once again I did a bit of leading from the front to keep us on course as different people seemed determined to add some extra distance!
As we got to the bottom of Oxford Falls we had caught up to the 6:05 group, aka 6ft virgins apparently, and went straight past them as they took a wrong turn. Over Wakehurst parkway and along some rolling roads towards the US tracking station. Just as we turned the corner to head to the climb we ran past the very large 6am group. They were spread all up the road/hill as we started the climb. I had decided (from last years experience) to pace myself on the hill and let most of the group pull away, just keeping in contact. Kevin also slowed down to make his own way up. This climb has 2 sections and there is a nice bit of downhill between them, as we hit this bit I really upped my pace to get back onto the group and ran past plu and Bernie G, plu said afterwards he was pretty shocked at how fast I was going.
Again I let the group drift away from me up the 2nd piece of the climb and we reassmbled just over the top near where the Striders Equaliser run (a couple of weeks time!) starts and finishes. Some nice steady running through the back of Belrose but our group split up a bit. Over Warringah Rd at Frenchs Forrest and then along towards Allambie Rd. Started to feel it a little here but knew there was a good downhill to stretch out on. Down Allambie Rd, across Condamine street to Pittwater Rd. I was now really feeling the pace (we were averaging just over 5 min/km) and looking forward to the water stop near Manly.
Popped a gu away and topped up the water, Superflake caught up, saying Horrie was struggling and told him to go on. As we climbed out towards Harbord I let Superflake go on and was then also passed by a 6:20 group. Really struggling now and worried, as I knew there was a nasty hill at the end as well. Just focussed on smooth running but did some walking up steep pinches. About halfway up the Dee Why hill the next 6:20 group came through with vat_man and Blue Dog and I just hung on around 10m behind them to the finish, very knackered.
In this last little bit I gave myself a scare ducking under a tree and when I straightened up again I felt a big twinge right across my lower abs which have been giving me grief.
The stats : 29.9km in 2:35:15, give avg pace of 5:12 min/km so did slow down dramatically over the last 5/6km. Avg HR of 162. Looking back through my log last year I did the same run in 2:43:08 so close to 8 minutes faster this year!
Went for a swim in the surf which was great, big undertow though. Got out and Horrie, still wasn't back whish was a little worrying but he eventually rolled in with some 6:00 people.
A tough run but I am quite pleased, the Endura Carb drink seems to be making a real big difference to reducing post run muscle fatigue and the abs seem to have pulld up ok as well after some ice packs!
A tougher run next week with Berowra, and even more hills and bush trails. This will also be after the 10km race at Lane Cove on the Saturday as well....
Started with 6:10 group today and a couple of others who also ran 6:20 last week did the same. Our group was a nice size with the "regulars" of Horrie and Superflake, along with Kevin. Barry and Peter who ran 6:20 last week, another CR I had not meet before, Coaster and a couple of triathletes getting ready for Foster.
It was very humid and had been drizzling as we set out, the initial piece of this run is deceptive as you climb up the back of Dee Why. Then some great downhill running down to Oxford Falls. Once again I did a bit of leading from the front to keep us on course as different people seemed determined to add some extra distance!
As we got to the bottom of Oxford Falls we had caught up to the 6:05 group, aka 6ft virgins apparently, and went straight past them as they took a wrong turn. Over Wakehurst parkway and along some rolling roads towards the US tracking station. Just as we turned the corner to head to the climb we ran past the very large 6am group. They were spread all up the road/hill as we started the climb. I had decided (from last years experience) to pace myself on the hill and let most of the group pull away, just keeping in contact. Kevin also slowed down to make his own way up. This climb has 2 sections and there is a nice bit of downhill between them, as we hit this bit I really upped my pace to get back onto the group and ran past plu and Bernie G, plu said afterwards he was pretty shocked at how fast I was going.
Again I let the group drift away from me up the 2nd piece of the climb and we reassmbled just over the top near where the Striders Equaliser run (a couple of weeks time!) starts and finishes. Some nice steady running through the back of Belrose but our group split up a bit. Over Warringah Rd at Frenchs Forrest and then along towards Allambie Rd. Started to feel it a little here but knew there was a good downhill to stretch out on. Down Allambie Rd, across Condamine street to Pittwater Rd. I was now really feeling the pace (we were averaging just over 5 min/km) and looking forward to the water stop near Manly.
Popped a gu away and topped up the water, Superflake caught up, saying Horrie was struggling and told him to go on. As we climbed out towards Harbord I let Superflake go on and was then also passed by a 6:20 group. Really struggling now and worried, as I knew there was a nasty hill at the end as well. Just focussed on smooth running but did some walking up steep pinches. About halfway up the Dee Why hill the next 6:20 group came through with vat_man and Blue Dog and I just hung on around 10m behind them to the finish, very knackered.
In this last little bit I gave myself a scare ducking under a tree and when I straightened up again I felt a big twinge right across my lower abs which have been giving me grief.
The stats : 29.9km in 2:35:15, give avg pace of 5:12 min/km so did slow down dramatically over the last 5/6km. Avg HR of 162. Looking back through my log last year I did the same run in 2:43:08 so close to 8 minutes faster this year!
Went for a swim in the surf which was great, big undertow though. Got out and Horrie, still wasn't back whish was a little worrying but he eventually rolled in with some 6:00 people.
A tough run but I am quite pleased, the Endura Carb drink seems to be making a real big difference to reducing post run muscle fatigue and the abs seem to have pulld up ok as well after some ice packs!
A tougher run next week with Berowra, and even more hills and bush trails. This will also be after the 10km race at Lane Cove on the Saturday as well....
CR 5km Challenge & EOW
Finally my schedule falls into place to be able to run in my first Cool Running 5km challenge. Once a month it is organised and run over a flat course around the bay accurately measured by Action.
Now I know that my 5km pb is pretty soft since I broke it in the first 5km of the Arizona half with a time of 19:51. This run is a self seeding, self timing run and you put yourself in a group that you feel comfortable in, I chose 19 minutes as I was pretty confident that I'd drop my time down quite a bit. Also in my group were Cool Runners Horrie, Superflake, Blue Dog and Luke Skyrunner running with his son in the pram!
Somehow I managed to find myself at the front when we were given the word to go, pretty soon Blue Dog went past, he was on a mission to break 19 and using his garmin to pace him there. We got to the 1km mark and the split was 3:32! Yet again I'm out too fast! Try to ease up a little and run smoothly but somehow manage to miss the 2km marker. By the time we got to 3km Superflake had just gone past me and the lap for the 2km was 7:50, so still going ok. Luke and the pram went by, followed by Horrie as we ran towards km 4 and my split was 4:05. Now I felt like I was running on the spot as I paid for that fast start. Ended up with a 4:18 last km and even though the numbers above don't add up finished with 19:50, a PB by one second.
Not happy Jan, should have done much better than that but that is the problem with poor pacing. Oh well there is always next month for redemption!
That also ends the week, a so-so in terms of getting up and doing the running when I should but I covered well. 66km for the week and the Parrot Predictor is showing as a 3:11:11 marathon time.
Now I know that my 5km pb is pretty soft since I broke it in the first 5km of the Arizona half with a time of 19:51. This run is a self seeding, self timing run and you put yourself in a group that you feel comfortable in, I chose 19 minutes as I was pretty confident that I'd drop my time down quite a bit. Also in my group were Cool Runners Horrie, Superflake, Blue Dog and Luke Skyrunner running with his son in the pram!
Somehow I managed to find myself at the front when we were given the word to go, pretty soon Blue Dog went past, he was on a mission to break 19 and using his garmin to pace him there. We got to the 1km mark and the split was 3:32! Yet again I'm out too fast! Try to ease up a little and run smoothly but somehow manage to miss the 2km marker. By the time we got to 3km Superflake had just gone past me and the lap for the 2km was 7:50, so still going ok. Luke and the pram went by, followed by Horrie as we ran towards km 4 and my split was 4:05. Now I felt like I was running on the spot as I paid for that fast start. Ended up with a 4:18 last km and even though the numbers above don't add up finished with 19:50, a PB by one second.
Not happy Jan, should have done much better than that but that is the problem with poor pacing. Oh well there is always next month for redemption!
That also ends the week, a so-so in terms of getting up and doing the running when I should but I covered well. 66km for the week and the Parrot Predictor is showing as a 3:11:11 marathon time.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Easy Friday
Still struggling to get out of bed with the alarm, mainly due to the tennis and also being fully engrosed in one of my Christmas present books.
Decided to head down to run with the Lane Cove River Rats in the afternoon to make up. A pretty good pace with Striders Mohammed and Peter there along with Jim.
Running the Striders 10km course on a hot and humid afternoon and it was a pretty fast pace on the way out averaging 4:40 min/km to the bottom of the hill (that included up/down Scribbly).
Eased up a bit on the way back, taking into account the plan to run the Cool Running 5km challenge tomorrow. Also interesting, the GPS was in perfect synch with Action's certified markings today.
Stats : 10km in 48:04, avg pace 4:49 and avg hr 165.
Decided to head down to run with the Lane Cove River Rats in the afternoon to make up. A pretty good pace with Striders Mohammed and Peter there along with Jim.
Running the Striders 10km course on a hot and humid afternoon and it was a pretty fast pace on the way out averaging 4:40 min/km to the bottom of the hill (that included up/down Scribbly).
Eased up a bit on the way back, taking into account the plan to run the Cool Running 5km challenge tomorrow. Also interesting, the GPS was in perfect synch with Action's certified markings today.
Stats : 10km in 48:04, avg pace 4:49 and avg hr 165.
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Summer Series @ Dee Why
Another Wednesday and it is again Summer Series time, this week a beach side Australia Day treat as we run at Dee Why.
Quite a hot and sticky afternoon and the legs were feeling a little tight after the intervals yesterday afternoon.
A quick look at the map and 2 very obvious loops to be done, just which one first?
I opted for the North loop first and then try and squeeze in as many as possible from the South as time allowed.
Pretty simple initial route with 2, 3, 21, 13, 4, 12, 22, 5
Then running on the sand around the lagoon was a little taxing to pick up 23 & 11.
Back on normal ground and swept through 24, 1, 14, 6 and onto the coastal path. This was a lot slower than I was expecting and so after picking up 15 and 28 I opted to heap up a pretty steep gully to get to 7, rather than keep running further from the finish.
Down to 26 and then up (again) to 19 to be able to get to 18. Up again to 27 and time is tight but Murphy steps in and I take a wrong turn, start trying to work through thick bush and lose around 4 minutes in finally getting to 27. Now to compound things there was a path unmarked on the map which I took so headed towards 9 thinking I was getting 20. Sussed this out and was way out of time so collected 10 and 25 on the way back.
Ended up with 470 but all the messing around at 27 saw me back late with 80 points deducted to end up with a net of 390, not good enough! A copy of the map with my route is here
The stats 9.5km in 54 minutes gives avg pace of 5:40.
Quite a hot and sticky afternoon and the legs were feeling a little tight after the intervals yesterday afternoon.
A quick look at the map and 2 very obvious loops to be done, just which one first?
I opted for the North loop first and then try and squeeze in as many as possible from the South as time allowed.
Pretty simple initial route with 2, 3, 21, 13, 4, 12, 22, 5
Then running on the sand around the lagoon was a little taxing to pick up 23 & 11.
Back on normal ground and swept through 24, 1, 14, 6 and onto the coastal path. This was a lot slower than I was expecting and so after picking up 15 and 28 I opted to heap up a pretty steep gully to get to 7, rather than keep running further from the finish.
Down to 26 and then up (again) to 19 to be able to get to 18. Up again to 27 and time is tight but Murphy steps in and I take a wrong turn, start trying to work through thick bush and lose around 4 minutes in finally getting to 27. Now to compound things there was a path unmarked on the map which I took so headed towards 9 thinking I was getting 20. Sussed this out and was way out of time so collected 10 and 25 on the way back.
Ended up with 470 but all the messing around at 27 saw me back late with 80 points deducted to end up with a net of 390, not good enough! A copy of the map with my route is here
The stats 9.5km in 54 minutes gives avg pace of 5:40.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Now thats a set of intervals!
After the debacle from my Yasso 800's last week I've been in serious thought about my intervals sessions and why/what I'm doing.
After reading up on some of the CR threads and also what others are/have done I came to realise that I needed to structure my sessions with a little more planning. I was trying to run too fast for too long too quickly!
Stepping back I'm aiming to have 2 sessions, one of longer intervals, say 1km/800m at around 10km race pace and then the other more of a speed session, say 400's, 30/30's at 3km-5km race pace or faster.
So this afternoon back to the gym and treadmill but set it up for 3:55 min/km pace rather than the 3:40 pace I have had. The difference being that I needed to do more intervals at this slower pace! The result being that I managed 8 full reps and then another half at this pace with 1:55 standing rest. Had to pull the pin as I was sweating so much I wa starting to slip on the belt, but in reality was pretty much toast anyway.
So I think that I should be able to knock out 10 of these (which in itself is a good sign for my sub 40min 10km goal). From there increase the pace and then wait until I get 10 reps out again at the new pace.
So a lot happier after today, a good workout!
After reading up on some of the CR threads and also what others are/have done I came to realise that I needed to structure my sessions with a little more planning. I was trying to run too fast for too long too quickly!
Stepping back I'm aiming to have 2 sessions, one of longer intervals, say 1km/800m at around 10km race pace and then the other more of a speed session, say 400's, 30/30's at 3km-5km race pace or faster.
So this afternoon back to the gym and treadmill but set it up for 3:55 min/km pace rather than the 3:40 pace I have had. The difference being that I needed to do more intervals at this slower pace! The result being that I managed 8 full reps and then another half at this pace with 1:55 standing rest. Had to pull the pin as I was sweating so much I wa starting to slip on the belt, but in reality was pretty much toast anyway.
So I think that I should be able to knock out 10 of these (which in itself is a good sign for my sub 40min 10km goal). From there increase the pace and then wait until I get 10 reps out again at the new pace.
So a lot happier after today, a good workout!
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Balmain Bungle & Bucketing Down!
A new STaR course for me this week with the Balmain Bungle. During the week Horrie had asked me if I was going to run 6:10 or 6:20, I was a little hesitant on the 6:20 knowing that this, as STaRs go, was fairly flat, and that the pace could be on!
Another factor was that we had friends down from the country over for dinner on Saturday night and while I tried to take it easy, probably a few too many red's were consumed, especially given I was running 30km early the following morning.
Anyway rocked up at Iron Cove, just as a large 6:05 group? charged off. Quickly paid the money and got the map, said Hi to a multitude of Striders and CR's when the 6:10 group headed off. To my surprise Horrie and Superflake both headed out, along with Spud, Blue Dog and my old school chum Silverfox running his first STaR! I had already mentally prepared myself for 6:20 and so continued to chat with a few runners wondering if I was in need of a mental checkover.
This concern was heightened as I had a quick chat with CR's Uncle Dave, Springer and Luke Skyrunner, all who were running 6:20 and not 6:30 and thus increasing the concern as to my wisdom, not to mention a number of other "fast" Striders!
After a couple of nasty hills early in the run I was cruising along ok in the bunch of around 15 and as usual it seems now assisting in making sure we stayed on course. It was an amazing sight as we ran along Lilyfield Road, there was a chain of groups of runners spread out for as far as you could see. At around the same time it started to rain. By the time we got to Parramatta Road it was chucking it down and there was a heap of thunder and lightning to accompany. Around here we caught up to some of the 6:10 group including Horrie, Superflake and Spud, I was a little surprised given this was just over 10km and they has 10 minutes head start. I also noticed at this point the GPS had lost signal a couple of times.
As we ran along Canterbury Road it absolutely bucketed down and crossing streets meant either long jumping about 1.5 metres or running through water above your ankles! By this stage our group had splintered into 2 groups and I elected to loiter with the 2nd group with some runners I knew were a little more my capability. As we ran along Cooks river we went past Professor, also out for his first STaR, the rain dissipated and now it was more a challenge to maintain the pace which was around 4:50 as the legs started to complain.
I rode the elastic band on the back of our second group as the faster group disappeared from sight and eventually, as we were running through Leichhardt dropped off the back to grind it home. Finished off with a time of 2:24 and since the GPS had a few problems I'll claim the published 29.9km which gives an average of 4:49 min/km with an average HR of 166! to finish off spent some good time chatting and catching up with various people afterwards, even if it was still raining.
Pretty stoked with the run today, as it is not far at all away from my actual Canberra pace of 4:47 from last year. Some concern however as my groin/abdomen "issue" seemed to be lurking so I'll up the ante on my preventative routines. A tough rest of the week scheduled, hopefully the legs will take advantage of the day off tomorrow as I continue on a pretty solid program.
Another factor was that we had friends down from the country over for dinner on Saturday night and while I tried to take it easy, probably a few too many red's were consumed, especially given I was running 30km early the following morning.
Anyway rocked up at Iron Cove, just as a large 6:05 group? charged off. Quickly paid the money and got the map, said Hi to a multitude of Striders and CR's when the 6:10 group headed off. To my surprise Horrie and Superflake both headed out, along with Spud, Blue Dog and my old school chum Silverfox running his first STaR! I had already mentally prepared myself for 6:20 and so continued to chat with a few runners wondering if I was in need of a mental checkover.
This concern was heightened as I had a quick chat with CR's Uncle Dave, Springer and Luke Skyrunner, all who were running 6:20 and not 6:30 and thus increasing the concern as to my wisdom, not to mention a number of other "fast" Striders!
After a couple of nasty hills early in the run I was cruising along ok in the bunch of around 15 and as usual it seems now assisting in making sure we stayed on course. It was an amazing sight as we ran along Lilyfield Road, there was a chain of groups of runners spread out for as far as you could see. At around the same time it started to rain. By the time we got to Parramatta Road it was chucking it down and there was a heap of thunder and lightning to accompany. Around here we caught up to some of the 6:10 group including Horrie, Superflake and Spud, I was a little surprised given this was just over 10km and they has 10 minutes head start. I also noticed at this point the GPS had lost signal a couple of times.
As we ran along Canterbury Road it absolutely bucketed down and crossing streets meant either long jumping about 1.5 metres or running through water above your ankles! By this stage our group had splintered into 2 groups and I elected to loiter with the 2nd group with some runners I knew were a little more my capability. As we ran along Cooks river we went past Professor, also out for his first STaR, the rain dissipated and now it was more a challenge to maintain the pace which was around 4:50 as the legs started to complain.
I rode the elastic band on the back of our second group as the faster group disappeared from sight and eventually, as we were running through Leichhardt dropped off the back to grind it home. Finished off with a time of 2:24 and since the GPS had a few problems I'll claim the published 29.9km which gives an average of 4:49 min/km with an average HR of 166! to finish off spent some good time chatting and catching up with various people afterwards, even if it was still raining.
Pretty stoked with the run today, as it is not far at all away from my actual Canberra pace of 4:47 from last year. Some concern however as my groin/abdomen "issue" seemed to be lurking so I'll up the ante on my preventative routines. A tough rest of the week scheduled, hopefully the legs will take advantage of the day off tomorrow as I continue on a pretty solid program.
Friday, January 21, 2005
YAIBO
Yet Another Interval Blow Out!
Scheduled for a speed work out and really have not done one for 2 weeks and the last one was ablowout 1km session.
Was originally going to head down to Rotary for some Yasso 800's, have not done them in ages. Some second thoughts last night during/after the storms and this morning had started to prepare for a treadmill session at the gym. Looked outside and it was a beautiful morning so returned to plan A.
A quick jog down the hill and across the footbridge over Lane Cove River. Think I saw MPHaz driving into the gym on my way down. The concept behind Yasso 800's is they are supposed to be a benchmark/correlation for a marathon performance. If you want to run say a 3:20:00 marathon then you should be able to run 10 x 800 @ 0:03:20 with the same time for a jog recovery.
First couple were pretty much on the mark, the third drifted a little and then the fourth was a complete blowout. I could feel the form going bad and the legs felt full of lactic. No point in belting your head against a brick wall so jogged home back up the hill.
The times were
3:02
3:01
3:04
3:13!
Don't know why but I am having real trouble with speed sessions in training, back to 2 interval sessions next week!
I'm going to call it a week, the legs feel tired, some concern over the continued tightness around the adductors and I really need a good 30km on Sunday. Total for the week 52km and the Parrot predictor says 3:21:46
Scheduled for a speed work out and really have not done one for 2 weeks and the last one was ablowout 1km session.
Was originally going to head down to Rotary for some Yasso 800's, have not done them in ages. Some second thoughts last night during/after the storms and this morning had started to prepare for a treadmill session at the gym. Looked outside and it was a beautiful morning so returned to plan A.
A quick jog down the hill and across the footbridge over Lane Cove River. Think I saw MPHaz driving into the gym on my way down. The concept behind Yasso 800's is they are supposed to be a benchmark/correlation for a marathon performance. If you want to run say a 3:20:00 marathon then you should be able to run 10 x 800 @ 0:03:20 with the same time for a jog recovery.
First couple were pretty much on the mark, the third drifted a little and then the fourth was a complete blowout. I could feel the form going bad and the legs felt full of lactic. No point in belting your head against a brick wall so jogged home back up the hill.
The times were
3:02
3:01
3:04
3:13!
Don't know why but I am having real trouble with speed sessions in training, back to 2 interval sessions next week!
I'm going to call it a week, the legs feel tired, some concern over the continued tightness around the adductors and I really need a good 30km on Sunday. Total for the week 52km and the Parrot predictor says 3:21:46
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Recovery
Certainly still felt a little tight in both legs around the adductor and/or upper quads, even after icing last night. I enjoyed the extra distance through LCNP the other day so decided to test out a new recovery run course by running to the weir and then back the same way.
Slightly warmer today than Tuesday but eventually got going and ended up with
11.8km in 58:10 (4:56 min/km) and avg HR of 166
Certainly felt last nights effort but a good slightly longer stretch out. Speed session tomorrow morning!
Slightly warmer today than Tuesday but eventually got going and ended up with
11.8km in 58:10 (4:56 min/km) and avg HR of 166
Certainly felt last nights effort but a good slightly longer stretch out. Speed session tomorrow morning!
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Summer Series @ St Joeys
After a week off from Summer Series during my sojourn in the USA it's back to the map and this week not too far from home and I think in vat_man's backyard! Missed out on the planned short recovery run this morning.
The start was at St Josephs Sports Ground (for those not in the know St Josephs is one of Sydney's more exclusive private schools and has a lot of boarders from the country. Luckily today there was a decent breeze blowing which kept things a little cooler. The map area is bounded by Victoria, Pittwater, Ryde and Burns Bay Roads, mostly centred around Tarban Creek back up into Gladesville.
Here's a link to a copy of the map and my route
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/villa%20maria.jpg
Started off pretty well, downhill to 13, then 3. A little wobble on 2 and then ran past the drop down to 21. Up hill to 11 and traversed across to 14 pretty happy so far! Finish the loop and cross the creek for 6, another little relocate and then ran out the wrong way (not up) to cut across to 22.
Now I really came unstuck at 24 confusing myself with stone fences and completely overshooting which means a climb back up, then manage to miss the cleared bush approach to the creek crossing at 7, prefering to bash through pretty green and thick creekside bush. That little section really soaked up some time. Back on track up to 4, across to 23, 17, 10 and 19. Still too many points further out and running low on time but continued on to 27, 29 and then up to Tarban Creek bridge to cross over for 30. Looking to run a fairly direct route back so it's 25,9,16 and then 5.
At that point time was pretty much up but I opted to pick up 15 and then run along to 1 only to realise 1 was on the other side of the fence. Another bit of time wasted before I eventually find a way under the fence, across to 12 and back to the finish.
Ended up with 53:48 and 490 points so a 90 point penalty gives a net of 400. Distance was 8.4 km at 6:22 min/km. Thats what happens when you stuff up a couple of controls!
Still not a totally bad scoae but will probably end up around 68 points, one which I'll need to drop in the overall pointscore.
Used my new Trance shoes acquired at the Brooks outlet store for a bargain and no blister problems, feeling more confident each day that I might have sorted them out! Of course now I'm icing up as both LH and RH adductors are a bit tight
The start was at St Josephs Sports Ground (for those not in the know St Josephs is one of Sydney's more exclusive private schools and has a lot of boarders from the country. Luckily today there was a decent breeze blowing which kept things a little cooler. The map area is bounded by Victoria, Pittwater, Ryde and Burns Bay Roads, mostly centred around Tarban Creek back up into Gladesville.
Here's a link to a copy of the map and my route
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/villa%20maria.jpg
Started off pretty well, downhill to 13, then 3. A little wobble on 2 and then ran past the drop down to 21. Up hill to 11 and traversed across to 14 pretty happy so far! Finish the loop and cross the creek for 6, another little relocate and then ran out the wrong way (not up) to cut across to 22.
Now I really came unstuck at 24 confusing myself with stone fences and completely overshooting which means a climb back up, then manage to miss the cleared bush approach to the creek crossing at 7, prefering to bash through pretty green and thick creekside bush. That little section really soaked up some time. Back on track up to 4, across to 23, 17, 10 and 19. Still too many points further out and running low on time but continued on to 27, 29 and then up to Tarban Creek bridge to cross over for 30. Looking to run a fairly direct route back so it's 25,9,16 and then 5.
At that point time was pretty much up but I opted to pick up 15 and then run along to 1 only to realise 1 was on the other side of the fence. Another bit of time wasted before I eventually find a way under the fence, across to 12 and back to the finish.
Ended up with 53:48 and 490 points so a 90 point penalty gives a net of 400. Distance was 8.4 km at 6:22 min/km. Thats what happens when you stuff up a couple of controls!
Still not a totally bad scoae but will probably end up around 68 points, one which I'll need to drop in the overall pointscore.
Used my new Trance shoes acquired at the Brooks outlet store for a bargain and no blister problems, feeling more confident each day that I might have sorted them out! Of course now I'm icing up as both LH and RH adductors are a bit tight
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Back in the swing
Determined to get back on track today and also to rack up a bit of distance. Rather than doing some short fast stuff I opted for a 15km run at reasonable pace.
Fiddled around for quite a while last night trying to alleviate the blistering on the heel problem and put a variety of different solutions in place. The most significant being using a heat gun on the heel of the shoe to try and mould the cup a bit to fit where I am suffering. Also tried a new lacing technique and I'm posting some stuff on cool running to ask the experts.
As I headed out the door this morning another runner was headed past, going in the opposite direction to me. I had decided to try a different option today and turn right at the bottom of Scribbly's to run down to the weir, turn and then see how the time and body were going for a 20km option. Just as I was getting to the weir I saw the same runner from earlier headed in the other direction.
Grabbed a quick drink at the bubbler and headed up the 10km course towards Ryde Road. There were a lot of people out running this morning and as I neared the 2km mark I saw I was gaining on that same runner again, slowly but gaining. Eventually caught up to him at the 4km mark and we had a quick chat as we headed up the hill. Turns out it was a fellow Strider and Cool Runner Steve (Kanangra) who also lives in the area, but we had never met before. He was a little stronger on the hill than me but then we ran pretty much all the way back to my place.
Given my extra effort to catch him and then a pretty good pace for the rest of the run it was a fairly good session over a non-flat course. The stats
14.69km in 1:08:30 (avg pace 4:39 min/km) and avg HR of 167.
A change in my schedule tomorrow with a 5km recovery run in the morning and then probably a fairly fast Summer Series around Hunters Hill/Gladesville based at St Josephs. the plan will be to extend these Wed morning recovery runs out to 10km.
Fiddled around for quite a while last night trying to alleviate the blistering on the heel problem and put a variety of different solutions in place. The most significant being using a heat gun on the heel of the shoe to try and mould the cup a bit to fit where I am suffering. Also tried a new lacing technique and I'm posting some stuff on cool running to ask the experts.
As I headed out the door this morning another runner was headed past, going in the opposite direction to me. I had decided to try a different option today and turn right at the bottom of Scribbly's to run down to the weir, turn and then see how the time and body were going for a 20km option. Just as I was getting to the weir I saw the same runner from earlier headed in the other direction.
Grabbed a quick drink at the bubbler and headed up the 10km course towards Ryde Road. There were a lot of people out running this morning and as I neared the 2km mark I saw I was gaining on that same runner again, slowly but gaining. Eventually caught up to him at the 4km mark and we had a quick chat as we headed up the hill. Turns out it was a fellow Strider and Cool Runner Steve (Kanangra) who also lives in the area, but we had never met before. He was a little stronger on the hill than me but then we ran pretty much all the way back to my place.
Given my extra effort to catch him and then a pretty good pace for the rest of the run it was a fairly good session over a non-flat course. The stats
14.69km in 1:08:30 (avg pace 4:39 min/km) and avg HR of 167.
A change in my schedule tomorrow with a 5km recovery run in the morning and then probably a fairly fast Summer Series around Hunters Hill/Gladesville based at St Josephs. the plan will be to extend these Wed morning recovery runs out to 10km.
Monday, January 17, 2005
Recap since Arizona
Not much to report actually.
Had a work retreat up at Sedona, it was cold there was snow on the surrounding mountains.
The work schedule & socialising pretty much made running impossible made an attempt to get up but it was still dark and cold and not enough time when the sun did come out as we were having breakfast sessions at 7:30.
Back to Scottsdale and my one major chance was stuffed up as I set the alarm wrong.
So after a long set of flights back home (Los Angeles to Sydney via Hong Kong) I was determined to get out on Sunday morning. Had to wait for the kids to stir so they knew I was home and eventually got out at around 9am. Man it was hot/humid. I felt really good for about the first 5km doing my 10km circuit in reverse so I could in a longer option if I felt like it. Wisely taking into account the heat I opted for the 10km and then pretty much straight away started to fade.
The run in either direction is a down and up run so you always get a nice hill headed home. This time it really hurt and I was contemplating walking it! Really struggled in the last km and was even starting to feel faint, noticed my HR was way up there for a shortish run so backed off.
A couple of cordials and then about 10 minutes under a cold shower made life feel a little better, I gues the combination of the heat and jet lag etc had more of an effect than I thought.
The stats 10.4 km in 49:30 (4:46 pace) but an average HR of 179!!
Now that I'm back in the Trances I also noticed the scar skin tissue on the heels did not like that so more remedial shoe action will be done.
Nothing this morning (Monday) as it was chucking it down with rain which killed the small amount of enthusiasm for running vs staying in bed and catching up on sleep.
Need to really sort myself out as January is over halfway and have now missed out on anumber of days.
Had a work retreat up at Sedona, it was cold there was snow on the surrounding mountains.
The work schedule & socialising pretty much made running impossible made an attempt to get up but it was still dark and cold and not enough time when the sun did come out as we were having breakfast sessions at 7:30.
Back to Scottsdale and my one major chance was stuffed up as I set the alarm wrong.
So after a long set of flights back home (Los Angeles to Sydney via Hong Kong) I was determined to get out on Sunday morning. Had to wait for the kids to stir so they knew I was home and eventually got out at around 9am. Man it was hot/humid. I felt really good for about the first 5km doing my 10km circuit in reverse so I could in a longer option if I felt like it. Wisely taking into account the heat I opted for the 10km and then pretty much straight away started to fade.
The run in either direction is a down and up run so you always get a nice hill headed home. This time it really hurt and I was contemplating walking it! Really struggled in the last km and was even starting to feel faint, noticed my HR was way up there for a shortish run so backed off.
A couple of cordials and then about 10 minutes under a cold shower made life feel a little better, I gues the combination of the heat and jet lag etc had more of an effect than I thought.
The stats 10.4 km in 49:30 (4:46 pace) but an average HR of 179!!
Now that I'm back in the Trances I also noticed the scar skin tissue on the heels did not like that so more remedial shoe action will be done.
Nothing this morning (Monday) as it was chucking it down with rain which killed the small amount of enthusiasm for running vs staying in bed and catching up on sleep.
Need to really sort myself out as January is over halfway and have now missed out on anumber of days.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Rock 'n' Roll Half Race Report
Ok second attempt at posting this, my computer ate the first version.
Warning, my first attempt was reasonably long and detailed so I have decided to introduce an:
Executive Summary
Had to go to Arizona for work, found out that The Rock n Roll half was on while I was there, travelled over, ran the race and posted 4 PB's and was very impressed with the organisation and running of the race. (thought it might make life easy for a blog review!)
Pre Race
After confirming I was required to visit Arizona for work (my company's head office is based there) I did a quick search for a Striders style running group to do a run with during my visit. Found that the second annual Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and Half were on when I was there so decided to have a crack at the half.
Departed Sydney on the Saturday, to arrive in Phoenix, via Los Angeles at about the same time on the Saturday. Given I was running the next morning I was meticulous in regards to hydrating etc and also attempted to realign my body clock on the flight to avoid jet lag. Managed about 4 hours sleep over the Pacific. After picking up the rental car and checking in at the hotel I headed off the the race registration to pick up my kit, number and chip. This was being held at an exhibition centre with an accompanying expo. Very smooth registration process and the expo was massive!
For those that have visited Sydney or Melbourne exhibition halls this filled up one complete hall. There were all sorts of stands : a massive range of event specific souvineer clothing, heaps of running gear vendors, all of the major shoe manufacturers, a lot of different sports drink/gu/bar suppliers, other US marathons promoting for entry and then some other stuff like a place that specialises in creating special stands to hold and display your different finishers medals. I picked up a few bars and gus and after a bit of a look around headed off. A major problem in getting the car out, there was a traffic jam in the parking station and it took close to an hour to get the car out!
Headed back to the hotel for dinner, the stomach was starting to complain a little about being given food when not expecting it and then not being given food when it usually was. I sorted out dinner with some chinese and keep up the rehydration regime, finally hitting the sack at around 9pm.
Up the next morning at 5am to sort myself out and drive to the finish line. Thankfully the predictions of rain did nott seem to hold up and while it was a little chilly (hey it is the middle of winter!) I'd say the temperature was around the same as at the City to Surf start. Parked the car in the parking station near the finish and then boarded one of the waiting shuttle buses to take me to the start area, all very efficient. Got to the start area and there were people everywhere! They had around 18,000 running the half and another 11,500 running in the marathon. The start area was amazing, heaps and heaps of portaloos, with the obligitary queues. But then also supplies of fresh fruit, bagels (what is it with bagels in the US?), coffee and water. I wandered around soaking up the atmosphere and headed over to look at the Marathon start. The Marathon and half had 2 separate start lines, one block apart and totally different courses all the way until the finish.
On the way I stopped off at a portaloo queue and was amazed at the casual approach that a lot of runners for the marathon had. It was 10 minutes to the start and they were still arriving and waiting in line without any stress! After watching the start I sorted out my gear to dropoff. Another great system here where your race bib had a detachable section that you cable tied to your bag, very easy to identify. The best bit then was they had around 20 UPS vans backed up, each with a section of runners allocated by surname. You just find the right van and drop off your stuff! The other great feature they had was a series of corrals, 19 for the half marathon, all based upon your approximate finishing time. As it happens I was put into corral number 1! With nothing else to do I entered the corral and lounged around. I should have made another loo stop but more of that later.
Again I was amazed at the casual approach, no big crowds, in fact with 15 minutes to go there would have only been say 20 people in my corral! I think this is because the US runners are so much more used to chip timing and base their performance on chip rather than gun time. Anyway chugged some more water and watched as a couple of running Elvis's gained a bit of attention, it seemed they were locals. I felt the need to visit the portaloos but the queues looked too long. Given the sparse crowd it would have been difficult to do a City to Surf job so I decided to hang on and hope it wouldn't get worse. With about 5 minutes to go I was expecting a whole heap of elites to be shuffled in in front of us but only a handful, so I was about 1 row back from the front, amazing! They did the national anthem thing with some Marines holding the flags and a few Arizona American Idol entrants singing and then Senator John McCain did a quick speech before firing the gun.
The actual run
Anyone still reading??
Given my prime start position there was no jostling and we went off down a long wide street. One of my identified prerace challenges was going to be pacing/splits given this would be marked in miles, so I had the trusty GPS riding shotgun to keep me honest. Was just focussing on a good efficient pace and so was surprised that the first beep from the watch indicating one kilometer showed 3:52! So I decided to ease up a little but still hit the next km with a 3:59. Despite still looking to ease up a little my third km came in at 3:48 and so I just (unofficially due to GPS measuring) broke my 3km PB with a 11:38 (the old one being 11:40 in July at Homebush for a Striders 10km).
Now I was a little worried but still felt really good, to distract myself I was also trying to do mental maths as at each mile marker they also had a timer so you could work out your splits so I was trying to determine if the GPS was maybe a bit out. At the 5km mark I found out, as they actually had a timing mat down and my official 5km time was 19:51, another PB! (previous was again the Homebush run with 19:57). Still too fast, and I still had another 16.1km to go.
On the course at around every mile they had different bands playing (thus the Rock 'n' Roll) and then each other half mile there were local cheerleading squads, I have to say you did seem to pick up the pace going past these groups, especially when they saw the Striders singlet and yelled out about Sydney! Coming up to 10km and I had slowed down a little. Another timing mat gave me an official 10km time of 41:18, thus another PB (once again bettering the Homebush run of 41:24).
I thought bugger it, just keep on going. As usual my race tactics see me in a state of never die wondering mode. The next 5km or so were all at around my original goal pace of 4:15 as I continued the mental math but also started to deal with both an urgent need to pee while also my travellers tummy was complaining. A wierd split from the GSPS at around 15km had me worried and I knew I was slowing a little. No surprise I'm sure to the experienced readers given my fast start.
The last 5-6km did see me slip in my pace a little and I felt some cramping/stitches in my gut but I had some time up my sleeve to still give 90 minutes shake. The last 2 km or so was through the Tempe (a large suburb of Phoenix where Arizona State Uni is) shopping district and there was a large crowd lining the streets. At this point I was in just get me to the line mode, not sure as to how I was going given the wierd split around 15km and unable to focus enough to convert from miles to km. Finally it seemed we were close as the Sun Devil Stadium became visible and I consciously picked up the pace. Then I could see a timer which was in the 89's and knew I must have only been a few 100 metres at the most from the finish, As I rounded the bend I could see the line but the clock had just clicked over to 90 so just ran it out to the line. Just near the line the commentator saw the Striders singlet and asked if I was from Australia and I did the thumbs up, the crowd gave a big cheer as I crossed the line with 90:25 showing, a new PB over my previous time of 93:44 set at Lane Cove in the Striders half in September.
Post race
More great organisation with a space blanket, water and finishers medallion handed out in progress as I made my way to be dechipped. Then into a large area with sports drink, fruit, more bagels, water and even Krispy Kreme mini donuts! Sat down and had a chat with another finisher for a little while but then had to get going. Very smooth gear pick up, all of the UPS trucks had parked in a big parking lot, very efficient. I made my way past the marathon finish line and they were just getting to 2:50 when I went past. The crowd was in the middle between the half and full finish lines and there was a lot of atmosphere! Got the car and went back to the hotel for a cold bath, then a shower and prepare for the drive up to Sedona for work.
All in all a great experience, I ended up finishing 178th out of 15,848 finishers. The organisation of this event was an eye opener and while it cost me around 100 AUD it certainly was worth it and I would be sure to contemplate running in another US race if and when the opportunity arises in the future. I'm sure that if I had been a little calmer in the first phase of the race I probably would have broken 90 but am stoked to have been able to perform the way I did really on the back of one months training since resuming after the groin injury. Am now very positive about breaking my shorter distance PB's just need to work out how to push myself harder or run more efficiently when I'm trying to run fast. Somewhat on target for Canberra but need to run twice the distance at just a shade faster pace as well. Can't argue with 3 official PB's and one unofficial one however!
Oh and some photos are here http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=4353&BIB=21819
The guts took a couple of days to settle down, interestingly no issues with my problematic blisters on the heels but I do notice my adductors are still both sore, hopefully not related to my recent groin injury.
Warning, my first attempt was reasonably long and detailed so I have decided to introduce an:
Executive Summary
Had to go to Arizona for work, found out that The Rock n Roll half was on while I was there, travelled over, ran the race and posted 4 PB's and was very impressed with the organisation and running of the race. (thought it might make life easy for a blog review!)
Pre Race
After confirming I was required to visit Arizona for work (my company's head office is based there) I did a quick search for a Striders style running group to do a run with during my visit. Found that the second annual Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and Half were on when I was there so decided to have a crack at the half.
Departed Sydney on the Saturday, to arrive in Phoenix, via Los Angeles at about the same time on the Saturday. Given I was running the next morning I was meticulous in regards to hydrating etc and also attempted to realign my body clock on the flight to avoid jet lag. Managed about 4 hours sleep over the Pacific. After picking up the rental car and checking in at the hotel I headed off the the race registration to pick up my kit, number and chip. This was being held at an exhibition centre with an accompanying expo. Very smooth registration process and the expo was massive!
For those that have visited Sydney or Melbourne exhibition halls this filled up one complete hall. There were all sorts of stands : a massive range of event specific souvineer clothing, heaps of running gear vendors, all of the major shoe manufacturers, a lot of different sports drink/gu/bar suppliers, other US marathons promoting for entry and then some other stuff like a place that specialises in creating special stands to hold and display your different finishers medals. I picked up a few bars and gus and after a bit of a look around headed off. A major problem in getting the car out, there was a traffic jam in the parking station and it took close to an hour to get the car out!
Headed back to the hotel for dinner, the stomach was starting to complain a little about being given food when not expecting it and then not being given food when it usually was. I sorted out dinner with some chinese and keep up the rehydration regime, finally hitting the sack at around 9pm.
Up the next morning at 5am to sort myself out and drive to the finish line. Thankfully the predictions of rain did nott seem to hold up and while it was a little chilly (hey it is the middle of winter!) I'd say the temperature was around the same as at the City to Surf start. Parked the car in the parking station near the finish and then boarded one of the waiting shuttle buses to take me to the start area, all very efficient. Got to the start area and there were people everywhere! They had around 18,000 running the half and another 11,500 running in the marathon. The start area was amazing, heaps and heaps of portaloos, with the obligitary queues. But then also supplies of fresh fruit, bagels (what is it with bagels in the US?), coffee and water. I wandered around soaking up the atmosphere and headed over to look at the Marathon start. The Marathon and half had 2 separate start lines, one block apart and totally different courses all the way until the finish.
On the way I stopped off at a portaloo queue and was amazed at the casual approach that a lot of runners for the marathon had. It was 10 minutes to the start and they were still arriving and waiting in line without any stress! After watching the start I sorted out my gear to dropoff. Another great system here where your race bib had a detachable section that you cable tied to your bag, very easy to identify. The best bit then was they had around 20 UPS vans backed up, each with a section of runners allocated by surname. You just find the right van and drop off your stuff! The other great feature they had was a series of corrals, 19 for the half marathon, all based upon your approximate finishing time. As it happens I was put into corral number 1! With nothing else to do I entered the corral and lounged around. I should have made another loo stop but more of that later.
Again I was amazed at the casual approach, no big crowds, in fact with 15 minutes to go there would have only been say 20 people in my corral! I think this is because the US runners are so much more used to chip timing and base their performance on chip rather than gun time. Anyway chugged some more water and watched as a couple of running Elvis's gained a bit of attention, it seemed they were locals. I felt the need to visit the portaloos but the queues looked too long. Given the sparse crowd it would have been difficult to do a City to Surf job so I decided to hang on and hope it wouldn't get worse. With about 5 minutes to go I was expecting a whole heap of elites to be shuffled in in front of us but only a handful, so I was about 1 row back from the front, amazing! They did the national anthem thing with some Marines holding the flags and a few Arizona American Idol entrants singing and then Senator John McCain did a quick speech before firing the gun.
The actual run
Anyone still reading??
Given my prime start position there was no jostling and we went off down a long wide street. One of my identified prerace challenges was going to be pacing/splits given this would be marked in miles, so I had the trusty GPS riding shotgun to keep me honest. Was just focussing on a good efficient pace and so was surprised that the first beep from the watch indicating one kilometer showed 3:52! So I decided to ease up a little but still hit the next km with a 3:59. Despite still looking to ease up a little my third km came in at 3:48 and so I just (unofficially due to GPS measuring) broke my 3km PB with a 11:38 (the old one being 11:40 in July at Homebush for a Striders 10km).
Now I was a little worried but still felt really good, to distract myself I was also trying to do mental maths as at each mile marker they also had a timer so you could work out your splits so I was trying to determine if the GPS was maybe a bit out. At the 5km mark I found out, as they actually had a timing mat down and my official 5km time was 19:51, another PB! (previous was again the Homebush run with 19:57). Still too fast, and I still had another 16.1km to go.
On the course at around every mile they had different bands playing (thus the Rock 'n' Roll) and then each other half mile there were local cheerleading squads, I have to say you did seem to pick up the pace going past these groups, especially when they saw the Striders singlet and yelled out about Sydney! Coming up to 10km and I had slowed down a little. Another timing mat gave me an official 10km time of 41:18, thus another PB (once again bettering the Homebush run of 41:24).
I thought bugger it, just keep on going. As usual my race tactics see me in a state of never die wondering mode. The next 5km or so were all at around my original goal pace of 4:15 as I continued the mental math but also started to deal with both an urgent need to pee while also my travellers tummy was complaining. A wierd split from the GSPS at around 15km had me worried and I knew I was slowing a little. No surprise I'm sure to the experienced readers given my fast start.
The last 5-6km did see me slip in my pace a little and I felt some cramping/stitches in my gut but I had some time up my sleeve to still give 90 minutes shake. The last 2 km or so was through the Tempe (a large suburb of Phoenix where Arizona State Uni is) shopping district and there was a large crowd lining the streets. At this point I was in just get me to the line mode, not sure as to how I was going given the wierd split around 15km and unable to focus enough to convert from miles to km. Finally it seemed we were close as the Sun Devil Stadium became visible and I consciously picked up the pace. Then I could see a timer which was in the 89's and knew I must have only been a few 100 metres at the most from the finish, As I rounded the bend I could see the line but the clock had just clicked over to 90 so just ran it out to the line. Just near the line the commentator saw the Striders singlet and asked if I was from Australia and I did the thumbs up, the crowd gave a big cheer as I crossed the line with 90:25 showing, a new PB over my previous time of 93:44 set at Lane Cove in the Striders half in September.
Post race
More great organisation with a space blanket, water and finishers medallion handed out in progress as I made my way to be dechipped. Then into a large area with sports drink, fruit, more bagels, water and even Krispy Kreme mini donuts! Sat down and had a chat with another finisher for a little while but then had to get going. Very smooth gear pick up, all of the UPS trucks had parked in a big parking lot, very efficient. I made my way past the marathon finish line and they were just getting to 2:50 when I went past. The crowd was in the middle between the half and full finish lines and there was a lot of atmosphere! Got the car and went back to the hotel for a cold bath, then a shower and prepare for the drive up to Sedona for work.
All in all a great experience, I ended up finishing 178th out of 15,848 finishers. The organisation of this event was an eye opener and while it cost me around 100 AUD it certainly was worth it and I would be sure to contemplate running in another US race if and when the opportunity arises in the future. I'm sure that if I had been a little calmer in the first phase of the race I probably would have broken 90 but am stoked to have been able to perform the way I did really on the back of one months training since resuming after the groin injury. Am now very positive about breaking my shorter distance PB's just need to work out how to push myself harder or run more efficiently when I'm trying to run fast. Somewhat on target for Canberra but need to run twice the distance at just a shade faster pace as well. Can't argue with 3 official PB's and one unofficial one however!
Oh and some photos are here http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=4353&BIB=21819
The guts took a couple of days to settle down, interestingly no issues with my problematic blisters on the heels but I do notice my adductors are still both sore, hopefully not related to my recent groin injury.
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Newsflash
Hi team, sorry for the abbreviated blog but time has been scarce since I left the Aussie shores.
Anyway a quick update with a more detailed ramble (as per usual) to follow.
Ran the Rock n Roll Half at Arizona.
Posted 3 PB'S!!!! (the most important being the half in 90:23)
Details to follow.....
Anyway a quick update with a more detailed ramble (as per usual) to follow.
Ran the Rock n Roll Half at Arizona.
Posted 3 PB'S!!!! (the most important being the half in 90:23)
Details to follow.....
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Where was I....
Ok a little slack in updating, spent my available time doing my turn at the blog review.
Monday
Rest day but went into the podiatrist to try and sort out my blistering heels. Can't say I'm still happy after the session, they patched up the wear spots on the shoes and dropped the heels of the inserts slightly but it seems no magic bullet.
Tuesday
Was going to do intervals down at Rotary but it was raining so decided to treadmill it out at lunchtime. Not a good session, my heels were already sore after my warm up and while I started of well for 1km reps @ 3:40 pace it just was not going to happen. Knocked out just over 3 reps, had a 1km recovery jog and then tried again but only finished up with 4km. Not sure why, maybe Sunday took more out than I thought, anyway my heels were now severly sore and painful to even walk in. It seems the patches they put in were now putting more pressure on my hot spots.
Wednesday
Summer Series time again and this was another tough one, starting at Tunks Park and covering Northbridge through Naremburn and Cammeray, lots of ups and downs. For those with a copy of the map here was my route choice
First the controls on the flat at Tunks Park 12, 13, 2, 11, 3, 18
Then up the REALLY steep climb under the suspension bridge 19 and then stupidly across the bridge to 5 which did not seem to be there, back to 20, 27, 28, down to 23 (steep up again)
29, 6, 30, 9, 16, 8, 7, 17 and then already out of time and down to finish through 21.
Back, just over 4 minutes late so lost 50 points. Net score will depend on the verdict on control 5. With 5 included its 360, without control 5 it's 350. Top score was a pretty low 450 when I left so around 80 points towards the pointscore.
Boring I know but experimented with a different taping on the heels which failed miserably and thus earned a very nice/nasty blood blister on my lhs heel this time.
Thursday
Recovery run time, decided to do it at lunch time from work, running across the bridge, down the cahill, around the Opera House to Lady Mac's chair and the back. Very warm but did 10km in around 48 min, not too bad for recovery. Another new approach to taping seemed to ensure a neutral result, still sore while running and afterwards but at least no more blistering.
Where to from here??
I'm hoping on a plane to the US on Saturday morning for work stuff and when I found out that the annual "Arizona Rock N Roll" marathon and half marathon was being held in Phoenix on the Sunday I thought what a better way to break the jet lag than race the half!
I was going to do a fast short hit out tomorrow morning but may now decide to rest my feet and try to let them heal a little. In case I do week to date is 56km and Parrot predictor says 3.34.38.
Not sure how often I'll be updating while on the move but I'll certainly slip in a race report from the half where I hope to break 90 minutes. I need to do this really if I am at all going to be able to crack 3hours for the big one!
Monday
Rest day but went into the podiatrist to try and sort out my blistering heels. Can't say I'm still happy after the session, they patched up the wear spots on the shoes and dropped the heels of the inserts slightly but it seems no magic bullet.
Tuesday
Was going to do intervals down at Rotary but it was raining so decided to treadmill it out at lunchtime. Not a good session, my heels were already sore after my warm up and while I started of well for 1km reps @ 3:40 pace it just was not going to happen. Knocked out just over 3 reps, had a 1km recovery jog and then tried again but only finished up with 4km. Not sure why, maybe Sunday took more out than I thought, anyway my heels were now severly sore and painful to even walk in. It seems the patches they put in were now putting more pressure on my hot spots.
Wednesday
Summer Series time again and this was another tough one, starting at Tunks Park and covering Northbridge through Naremburn and Cammeray, lots of ups and downs. For those with a copy of the map here was my route choice
First the controls on the flat at Tunks Park 12, 13, 2, 11, 3, 18
Then up the REALLY steep climb under the suspension bridge 19 and then stupidly across the bridge to 5 which did not seem to be there, back to 20, 27, 28, down to 23 (steep up again)
29, 6, 30, 9, 16, 8, 7, 17 and then already out of time and down to finish through 21.
Back, just over 4 minutes late so lost 50 points. Net score will depend on the verdict on control 5. With 5 included its 360, without control 5 it's 350. Top score was a pretty low 450 when I left so around 80 points towards the pointscore.
Boring I know but experimented with a different taping on the heels which failed miserably and thus earned a very nice/nasty blood blister on my lhs heel this time.
Thursday
Recovery run time, decided to do it at lunch time from work, running across the bridge, down the cahill, around the Opera House to Lady Mac's chair and the back. Very warm but did 10km in around 48 min, not too bad for recovery. Another new approach to taping seemed to ensure a neutral result, still sore while running and afterwards but at least no more blistering.
Where to from here??
I'm hoping on a plane to the US on Saturday morning for work stuff and when I found out that the annual "Arizona Rock N Roll" marathon and half marathon was being held in Phoenix on the Sunday I thought what a better way to break the jet lag than race the half!
I was going to do a fast short hit out tomorrow morning but may now decide to rest my feet and try to let them heal a little. In case I do week to date is 56km and Parrot predictor says 3.34.38.
Not sure how often I'll be updating while on the move but I'll certainly slip in a race report from the half where I hope to break 90 minutes. I need to do this really if I am at all going to be able to crack 3hours for the big one!
Sunday, January 02, 2005
Cherrybrook STaR
My first STaR in around 4 weeks and so 30km was compulsory, even though I knew this was a tough course.
Opted for the 6:10 group, numbers were a little down with the Fat Asses mostly not backing up. We had a group of 5 including Horrie and Superflake from CR. Stayed ahead of pace with the reasoning that the bush and hills later on would slow us down. I was sort of surprised that we held the pace pretty well regardless and thus really started to struggle everytime we hit a hill.
Not sure why but I can run at pace on level ground but hills at the moment seem to knock me around! The guys were semi relying on me for navigation, having done it before and also doing orienteering. As we headed up the clmb to Pennant Hills Rd I again slipped off the back and couldn't get their attention that we needed to cross because of the fence in the median strip. They caught me again just after the Comenarra Parkway hill and I was pretty much into grit the teeth and grind it home mode.
My Timex calleed it 30.7km in 2.46.40 (avg 5.26 min/km and avg hr of 163). Now the benefits of being obsessional means that I have all the details from the same run which was on 1/Feb/04 where I ran the same course (that time was 2.52.00). So 5 minutes faster a month earlier than my previous Canberra prep, not too bad but need to really pick it up further.
Opted for the 6:10 group, numbers were a little down with the Fat Asses mostly not backing up. We had a group of 5 including Horrie and Superflake from CR. Stayed ahead of pace with the reasoning that the bush and hills later on would slow us down. I was sort of surprised that we held the pace pretty well regardless and thus really started to struggle everytime we hit a hill.
Not sure why but I can run at pace on level ground but hills at the moment seem to knock me around! The guys were semi relying on me for navigation, having done it before and also doing orienteering. As we headed up the clmb to Pennant Hills Rd I again slipped off the back and couldn't get their attention that we needed to cross because of the fence in the median strip. They caught me again just after the Comenarra Parkway hill and I was pretty much into grit the teeth and grind it home mode.
My Timex calleed it 30.7km in 2.46.40 (avg 5.26 min/km and avg hr of 163). Now the benefits of being obsessional means that I have all the details from the same run which was on 1/Feb/04 where I ran the same course (that time was 2.52.00). So 5 minutes faster a month earlier than my previous Canberra prep, not too bad but need to really pick it up further.
2004 in review and 2005 preview
2004 was my first "full" year of running. Monthly totals were :
Jan 227
Feb 302
Mar 294
Apr 128
May 114
Jun 143
Jul 146
Aug 237
Sep 87
Oct 139
Nov 92
Dec 231
Total 2140
PB wise I went into the year with
Half 1.51.27
10km 44.53
C2S 74.34
Came out the other end with
Marathon 3.22.01
Half 1.33.43
10km 41.24
C2S 61.30
Also ran new races such as NOSH and Willy to Billy.
Best performance - easily my debut marathon.
Most disappointing effort/s - post marathon training blues and then injuries once I did get my act back into gear.
For 2005 I have a 6 foot debut followed by a return to Canberra, various races through winter trying to peak again for the Sydney marathon.
Goals
To train 3000km over the year which should lead to....
Marathon sub 3hr(probably a stretch!)
Half - sub 90 minute
10km - sub 40 minute
C2S - sub 60 minute
Jan 227
Feb 302
Mar 294
Apr 128
May 114
Jun 143
Jul 146
Aug 237
Sep 87
Oct 139
Nov 92
Dec 231
Total 2140
PB wise I went into the year with
Half 1.51.27
10km 44.53
C2S 74.34
Came out the other end with
Marathon 3.22.01
Half 1.33.43
10km 41.24
C2S 61.30
Also ran new races such as NOSH and Willy to Billy.
Best performance - easily my debut marathon.
Most disappointing effort/s - post marathon training blues and then injuries once I did get my act back into gear.
For 2005 I have a 6 foot debut followed by a return to Canberra, various races through winter trying to peak again for the Sydney marathon.
Goals
To train 3000km over the year which should lead to....
Marathon sub 3hr(probably a stretch!)
Half - sub 90 minute
10km - sub 40 minute
C2S - sub 60 minute
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