Thursday, October 15, 2015

16 of 16: Now

Melbourne Marathon 2015 - Week 16 of 16

And so it is race week. My whole year has been working towards this week and the race which caps it off. I've dreamed, I've planned, I've sweated. I've given it everything. And in the last few weeks I've battled a hamstring tendon injury which has threatened to unravel all of this hard work. The time is now. All that matters is what I do now. It all comes down to now.

Tuesday 13 October

Tonight I went to see Rob for my last physio session and he taped up my hammy to try to lift the pressure off it. It felt a bit like getting a butt-lift with some tape and felt completely weird. After this, as it is daylight savings and was a lovely night, I went for a 5k run around home.

This was my best run in ages. I'm clearly not nearly 100% but I could run semi-comfortably at about 4.37 pace, including a couple of km's at 4.33. This was the fastest speed run I've done in weeks and was a bit of a confidence boost!

Thursday 15 October



This final short run has usually been a bit of a celebration, the pace and distance being neither long enough or hard enough to cause any kind of stress. Today, as with most of the last few weeks, it as been another test. A time to see how my hamstring is repairing itself and trying to work out what kind of race I can expect.

After Tuesday's reasonably good run I was optimistic here for another good one. The weather was quite warm (over 30 degrees) and it was a bit windy. My hammy had not felt great all day and I ran accordingly. It was not as fast or as comfortable as Tuesday night and I finished this 5k with a slow 5 min last kilo up the small bridge where on Sunday we will begin the race.


Training Program:

Full session details for my whole training plan here.

Strava links for the week:
Tuesday - Steady As She Goes 5k @4.37; good run after physio
Thursday - One Last Run 5k @4.46; last run - hot

Summary:
Week 16 of 16 (this week): 2 runs, 10.0 km, 0:47 hrs
Week 15 of 16: 3 runs, 27.5 km, 2:18 hrs
Week 14 of 16: 2 runs, 31.6 km, 2:47 hrs
Week 13 of 16: 5 runs, 58.9 km, 4:55 hrs
Week 12 of 16: 5 runs, 65.1 km, 5:19 hrs
Week 11 of 16: 6 runs, 76.1 km, 6:58 hrs
Week 10 of 16: 4 runs, 48.8 km, 3:57 hrs
Week 9 of 16: 5 runs, 65.2 km, 5:30 hrs
Week 8 of 16: 4 runs, 59.0 km, 4:57 hrs
Week 7 of 16: 5 runs, 55.9 km, 4:35 hrs
Week 6 of 16: 4 runs, 44.1 km, 3:31 hrs
Week 5 of 16: 4 runs, 53.3 km, 4:21 hrs
Week 4 of 16: 5 runs, 65.8 km, 5:38 hrs
Week 3 of 16: 4 runs, 58.3 km, 4:46 hrs
Week 2 of 16: 4 runs, 52.4 km, 4:30 hrs
Week 1 of 16: 4 runs, 50.1 km, 4:11 hrs
Total: 66 runs, 812.8 km, 69:07 hrs

Thursday, October 8, 2015

15 of 16: Hang On

Melbourne Marathon 2015 - Week 15 of 16

After a reasonably disastrous last ten days I am just trying to get everything together before race day. I was back at the physio on Tuesday and am on a regime of exercises and light running only. My assessment is that running long or hard causes pain and break down, so I'll keep it to 5-10k runs only at an easy 5m/k+ pace. I just need to hang on and hope that i can give it one incredible effort during the race. I'm not sure that hanging on is the same thing as 'peaking' but this campaign has been reduced to this. Que sera, sera.

Wednesday 7 October


With easy running only on the plan I gave Tuesday's session a complete miss and so started off with Nike Run Club as my first outing this week. I asked to go into a shorter and slower group so was pacing a 5k team at 5.30 pace with one of our new leaders, a young Canadian guy, Jeff. With daylight savings upon us it was fantastic as we could see our whole way around and were able to stop wherever we wanted for our team photo!

Onto more important matters, with an easy pace my hamstring had no concerns. To be honest, this was as good as it has felt on a run since the injury. That said, this was the slowest pace I've run at since then too. But I was hanging on. And it felt ok, so that's encouraging!

Friday 9 October


Another cracking day in Melbourne and a perfect afternoon for running. Today, as with all my runs at the moment, I am not following my original plan and am instead running pretty easy, just trying to keep the legs ticking over without causing undue stress on my hamstring. I did a 7k run which took in just over 5k of the marathon course - the bit around the Tan deep into the race where it starts to get really tough.

The first kilometre was uncomfortable as my body sorted itself out. The little niggles took a bit to settle down, but I was into a rhythm after a mile or so. After this I turned left onto Alexandra Avenue and onto the marathon course.

I felt ok - not bad, not brilliant. The hamstring was noticeable, but not very bad. Of course, I wasn't stretching it out at all so I expected good-ness! I made the decision to test it out just a little on the run down Domain Road and for a kilometre I upped the pace from 5.10's to 4.40. Thankfully everything felt good, but after less than five minutes I reverted to my slower pace to see out the run back around onto Flinders Street.

So a good run done, with a little mini-test, and I passed. Of course, this is a long way from running 42 km's at a pace faster than this little test but it's a start!

Sunday 11 October

Today was my last chance to get in a decent long run prior to the marathon next weekend. It's a distance and pace (16k @4.30) that I have run many times during this preparation, but obviously with my hamstring still misbehaving, today I had quite different aspirations. All I hoped for was a run relatively free of pain, at a sub-5 min pace with hopefully a few kilometres in there at close to race pace.

I set off in the afternoon from Elwood at the bottom end of the marathon course. It was sunny and a south-west wind greeted me, meaning mostly tailwind. The first four km's were quite fast (relatively) with 4.36, 37, 40 & 40. The fifth km along Fitzroy St up the small incline was only slightly slower (4.44), so I went through 5k with an average pace of just under 4.40. This is not fast by any stretch but it is better than I have run in the last couple of weeks and I was pretty pleased.

After a pair of 4.41's a combination of not wanting to push it too much as well as some general hamstring tiredness caused me to slow up and I completed the back 8k of this run at only 4.59 pace. This included the harder section around the Shrine and some slower parts through Southbank and to Port Melbourne with a headwind. I finished the 15.6k at a 4.50 average pace which is my fastest in some weeks.

That I am writing about split times at all says that this was a good run. I was conscious that after about 1h15m my hamstring has become quite fatigued the last couple of weeks so I wanted to keep to no longer than this time. I got to test out a little pace and it wasn't too bad. This is not the run I would have expected a month ago, but it is a run that I am now happy with.

I am keeping optimistic that with another week of rehab and easy running, on race day it will be even better!


Training Program:

Full session details for my whole training plan here.

Strava links for the week:
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 4.9k @5.29; easy run
Friday - Mara-Easy 7k @5.10; easy run with one faster km
Sunday - Last Chance Saloon 15.6k @4.50; ok run over part of marathon course

Summary:
Week 15 of 16 (this week): 3 runs, 27.5 km, 2:18 hrs
Week 14 of 16: 2 runs, 31.6 km, 2:47 hrs
Week 13 of 16: 5 runs, 58.9 km, 4:55 hrs
Week 12 of 16: 5 runs, 65.1 km, 5:19 hrs
Week 11 of 16: 6 runs, 76.1 km, 6:58 hrs
Week 10 of 16: 4 runs, 48.8 km, 3:57 hrs
Week 9 of 16: 5 runs, 65.2 km, 5:30 hrs
Week 8 of 16: 4 runs, 59.0 km, 4:57 hrs
Week 7 of 16: 5 runs, 55.9 km, 4:35 hrs
Week 6 of 16: 4 runs, 44.1 km, 3:31 hrs
Week 5 of 16: 4 runs, 53.3 km, 4:21 hrs
Week 4 of 16: 5 runs, 65.8 km, 5:38 hrs
Week 3 of 16: 4 runs, 58.3 km, 4:46 hrs
Week 2 of 16: 4 runs, 52.4 km, 4:30 hrs
Week 1 of 16: 4 runs, 50.1 km, 4:11 hrs
Total: 64 runs, 811.8 km, 68:19 hrs

  © Blogger template 'Morning Drink' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP