Hold

Gold Coast Marathon - 4 Weeks to Go

With less than a month to go till race day this is my last "big" week. And after last Sunday's strong run - but disastrous popliteus outcome - I am again treading the fine line between fantastic fitness and injury/illness. So the mantra this week is 'Hold' as that is what I need to do right now. My fitness right now is good enough to run a great marathon. I just need to hold it for one big week and then a taper.

Tuesday 10 Jun

Since Sunday I have been trying a few different things to get my right popliteus back in order. In the absence of being able to get into a physio I found some self-massage techniques on YouTube ... what could possibly go wrong! The one which seems to have had some good success is getting my thumb in behind the knee just above the calf on the medial side where the popliteus joins. Today it felt ok when walking though did not enjoy it when I sat for any period of time.

As of this morning my run plan for the week was another day of rest today then do my first session tomorrow at lunchtime with the Nike Run Club tomorrow night. But with it feeling ok I decided to go out this evening and see how it felt. Typically it feels ok or dodgy within the first km so I tend to know straight away. This time it felt ok so I continued on to do my session.

The plan was 10x 400m with 400m recovery so I went around the corner to a nearby street where I have previously scared the neighbours by running up and down like a crazy-man to do it all again. I took the 'soft' option and ran the 'downhill' stretch (about 1% fall) but it is 10m or so long so I guess that evens out! My plan was to take it easy and get progressively faster if possible - all reps to be under 1.30.

The first rep, especially, I just wanted to test out the 'pop' and see if it would be ok. It was and I ran 1.30. The next couple were 1.29 and 1.29 so pretty even. I picked it up for the next few, running 1.27, 1.28, 1.27 and 1.27. Feeling good! I finished the last three really strong in 1.25, 1.25 and 1.24. I am pretty stoked. Great times and all sensations were good.

Just 'hold' it together now!

Wednesday 11 Jun

Wednesday night is Nike Run Club night and tonight was an absolute cracker, weather wise, especially compared to last week which rained heavily and kind-of sucked. Today i was leading the 5k group at 5.30 pace with Hannah on our lap of the Tan. You can see from the pic above that we had our normal fun time! The only thing of note was about a third of the Tan track was completely unlit, ie - pitch black. I could see nothing at all! Thankfully our group made it back safely and exactly on 5.30 pace. Yee hah!

Friday 13 Jun

Another day, another run. This one was a marathon paced 13k which I got to do along the Yarra River at lunchtime. It is a beautiful place to run - mostly bike path, partly pontoon floating on the river. Today was sunny but a little windy, though I couldn't figure out from which direction as it seemed to swirl all over the place.

On my now daily game of 'injury roulette' I spun a lucky number. The right knee was ok and the left one about 95% so no real issues there. Legs don't feel very supple, so maybe I need a proper massage to loosen them up a bit.

The run itself was good. I tried to keep an even pace around 4.40m/k which I did, making the turn at half way at 4.39avg. I dropped in one slightly quicker km on the return home (4.25) as I chased a runner up the path ... didn't get him! All good and cruised up the Exhibition St hill to finish 13.1k @4.36m/k. Very happy with that!

Sunday 15 Jun

In the "olden days" of marathon running the programs I followed - ok, the ones I saw and should have followed - all built up to a single, almighty 20 mile run. (32k for us Aussies, but they were all written for the US market.) This was three weeks out from the race and today was that day. But times have changed - not only am I actually training for races, but the programs have adapted too, and this was my fifth run over 30k.

But it is still a pinnacle run, and the pace of these long runs has been getting steadily faster with this one at only 9 sec/km slower than target race pace. I got up early and was on the road by around 7.20am, trying to mimic to some extent what race day will be like. Except on race day I will be in a motel, not have my normal breakfast, will have a long bus ride to the start and the weather will be much warmer. So not really anything at all like race day but what's a few minor details between friends.

Unlike 2009 and my last significant marathon, this time round I am intent on running as even a pace as possible and not "banking" any time for a late race slow-down. I have tried to adopt this a bit in training too, with some success. It is a big deal for me mentally as I've had to convince myself that I will not slow down and can run faster if I manage the early pace a bit better. My training in 2009 was at a target marathon pace of 4.38m/k (race time 3:16) but I ran too hard at the start and finished at 4.42m/k (3:18). This time round my training is at 4.40m/k which is slower but I am absolutely planning to run a successful race at 3:17. So even though I am training a bit slower I am planning to race faster. As I said, my head has had to get around this bit!

Today's run was an "old favourite" course down South Rd to the beach then along the foreshore path to Middle Park and return. In practical terms this means downhill-undulating for 8.5k to Brighton Baths then flat for 15k before the inverse uphill-undulating to finish. It is normally windy, and was today with a stiff southerly blowing.

The other big bogey for me today would be my knees; or more specifically my popliteus muscles. The right one had flared up again big time last Sunday and the left has been niggling away for the last month. I could not afford for them to be a factor. On my shorter runs this week they'd been ok and, within 500m, I could sense that they would be ok for me today. Yippee!

After an easy first km in around 5 min I used the gradual downhill to slowly ramp up the average pace. By the time the course flattened at Brighton Baths I was right on 4.48m/k average and there it stayed all the way to 25k.  Along the beach I had run about 4.45m/k with the wind and 4.50m/k into it - though my HR jumped from mid-140's to high 140's in order to do so.

I turned into South Rd and knew the business end of the run was about to start. This is where it traditionally gets hard and many a day I have fallen apart on this section. The last time I ran this course was for a 24k run back in late May and on that day I ran quite strongly, covering the last 6k in 29.17min. Today I pushed (HR up to mid-150's) to maintain my 4.49 target pace and, strangely enough, covered the final 6k in 29.17! Total run of 32.04km in 2:34.24 hrs at 4.49 m/k. Perfect!

More pleasing is that the final 6k today was about half a minute faster than I did for the same run back in 2009. Coupled with my Fast Finish 24 last Sunday I can confidently say that I am running as well as ever and, more importantly, am finishing the long runs with something left in the tank. This is really encouraging and gives me huge confidence going into the race.

Three weeks to go :-)


Training Program:
Full session details for my whole training plan are here.

Strava links for the week:
Tuesday - Street Speed 5 10.7k @5.11; 10x 400m with 400m recovery
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 5.3k @5.30; beautiful evening for a run
Friday - Marathon 13 13.1k @4.36; lunch time marathon pace
Sunday - Long Run (the last) 32k @4.49; perfectly paced long run

Weekly Summary:
Week 11 (this week): 4 runs, 61.2 km, 4 hrs 59 mins
Week 10: 4 runs, 55.8 km, 4 hrs 28 mins
Week 9: 4 runs, 66.4 km, 5 hrs 39 mins
Week 8: 4 runs, 57.7 km, 4 hrs 37 mins
Week 7: 4 runs, 60 km, 5 hrs 10 mins
Week 6: 4 runs, 54 km, 4 hrs 36 mins
Week 5: 4 runs, 46.3 km, 3 hrs 57 mins
Week 4: 5 runs, 71.7 km, 6 hrs 24 mins   (biggest week ever!)
Week 3: 4 runs, 57.7 km, 5 hrs 9 mins
Week 2: 5 runs, 48.6 km, 3 hrs 51 mins
Week 1: 4 runs, 41 km, 3 hrs 28 mins
Total: 46 runs, 620.4 km, 52 hrs 18 mins

Recovery

Gold Coast Marathon - 10 Weeks to Go

The theme for this week is recovery. After a massive (well, for me anyway) week of over 70k last week I need to get some freshness back into my legs. The program is almost one-third through and I have survived the "shock tactics" of the big ramp up in distance and intensity without getting sick (touch wood) and with only the hint of an injury. So with a suitable recovery this week I will be well placed to push on through the next big phase of training.

Tuesday 29 April

Today's weather was only going to get worse so I decided to bring my running gear to work and try to get out at lunch time to do my track session. Unfortunately by that time it was already raining, but what the heck, at least it was daylight :-)

At the site of the old Olympic Park, now Collingwood's training venue the Westpac Centre, is a footy ground with a 3-lane track around the outside. The track itself is really nice and since it's close to work I decided to go down and run there.

Westpac Centre Athletics Track - Source: PILA Group

As best I can estimate - without a trundle wheel or a quality satellite map - the track is probably 500m in length. There are various markings on the track, but none that I could see which definitively tell me how long it is. And given that Garmin watches are ok in straight lines but not so good at measuring circles I think this is probably about right.

In any case, I started at the big light tower (right of photo above) where there's a 200m marker and ran till I got to another marker (goals at the far end) after about 3.08min which I estimated would be 800m based on my normal pace. A bit agricultural but probably close to the mark.

The plan was for a 1.30min rest interval but this was replaced by a ~200m walk back to the start point before beginning the next rep. Though my legs didn't feel too bad I think they are actually a little 'soft' after my big week last week. The 800's were done in 3.08/07/13/10/13/14 so a little slower than planned but still ok. As always, great to get the session done!

Friday 2 May

End of the working week and another two runs completed.

On Wednesday night was the weekly Nike Run Club. Once again I was leading the 10k @7m/k group, this time down the back and had ace fun chatting away for the whole run. It is great getting to hear the stories of some of the run clubbers!

Last night I met up with my physio Rob O'Donnell at Southern Suburbs to get this troublesome popliteus looked at. He did his usual selection of treatments including some ultrasound and gave me a few stretches to do - including a wacky cramp-inducing hamstring stretch. Fun :-(

Whilst there he had a look through my run plan for the remaining 10 weeks and promptly determined that I should increase the duration of some of my long runs. I think i agree with him on this one - so I will be running some of them for time (rather than distance) and will run up to 3.5 hours if all goes well. If nothing else it should make a big psychological difference come race day.

Today I had one of my longer tempo runs to fit in and managed to get out at lunch time - again in the rain - to get it done. This was a 13k run with 10k of Tempo pace in the middle. It's a good track along the Yarra, mostly flat with some small "undulates" and today it was largely empty. My plan was to run the outbound 5k at just on/over target pace of 4.42m/k and the return leg a bit quicker. I did this pretty well spot on - running out to Richmond at 4.44m/k pace; returning to the city in 4.35m/k pace. Overall, finished the tempo section in a 4.39m/k average. So very happy with that!

Just the weekend ahead!

Sunday 4 May

Today was one of my all-time favourite events - the Puffing Billy Great Train Race. Now in its 33rd year, this race from Belgrave to Lakeside at Emerald pits man against machine in a race to the finish. Each year the big unknown is just how fast the train will go, with anything from 51-mins through to 61-mins a possibility.

I've raced this event at least 15 times and beat the train on at least 4 of those occasions prior to today. In the last two years I was once again back to running "under the hour" and with all the marathon training now I was going to go fast ... or be very tired.

Conditions were perfect for running, about 9-10 degrees with a couple of minor showers before the start. National anthem sung from the back of a fire truck by Mike Brady (some traditions live on here) and we were off. I was a bit nervous about how my popliteus would hold out on the first downhill but it was ok and I got off to a good start.

The first 5km is just an hors-d'oeuvres of what is to come with a sharp fall, bigger climb then another fall to warm you up. Gradients here range from -8% to 7% so you are working right from the gun. Past the Trestle Bridge and first crossing ahead of the train so looking good so far. I went through 5k in 20.59 feeling ok.

Then the hill begins! The next 1.9k rises at at average of 5% with solid sections at 9%. I realised that I was not actually feeling so fresh during this section but was determined to make it through the second train crossing ahead of the train whose whistle was a constant reminder of how close he was. I crested Menzies Creek ahead of Puffing Billy but now behind David Weeks who had blasted by me on the hill and left me feeling very slow!

After a super-steep downhill it is time for the long climb up to the fourth and final crossing at Emerald. I was running every tangent on the road to save precious seconds and still the whistle blew. I was convinced that at any time the train would roll on by but never once did I see him. Through Emerald township and up the nasty rise out of town (not steep but at full tilt and late in the race it punches above its weight).

Then the long descent to Lakeside and the finish. Due to rains the course had been changed (ie, lengthened) by about 500m so what would previously have been a comfortable run to beat the train became a nervous dash. On the last steep downhill pinch the guy in front of me took a tumble - crashing down to the ground before rolling and rising straight back to his feet - barely losing a second in the whole manoeuvre. Up to the finish and the clock read 59.08mins which I was very happy with. On the "old" course this would have been closer to 56.53 and - in any event - it was faster than the train. Victory was mine! This never gets old :-)

This year I made sure to get a quick massage before taking the warm option of the bus back to belgrave. Another beautiful morning and a great fast race hit-out. A great end to the week.

Training Program:
Full session details for my whole training plan are here.

Strava links for the week:
Tuesday - Westpac Centre 800's 9.6k @5.00; wet 800's on the odd distance track
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 10k @6.39; cruisy night run
Friday - Tempo 10 13.3k @4.47; another wet day along the Yarra
Sunday - Puffing Billy Great Train Race 13.4k @4.25; fast race!!

Weekly Summary:
Week 5 (this week): 4 runs, 46.3km, 3 hrs 57 mins
Week 4: 5 runs, 71.7km, 6 hrs 24 mins   (biggest week ever!)
Week 3: 4 runs, 57.7km, 5 hrs 9 mins
Week 2: 5 runs, 48.6km, 3 hrs 51 mins
Week 1: 4 runs, 41km, 3 hrs 28 mins
Total: 22 runs, 265.3 km, 22 hrs 49 mins

Consolidation

Gold Coast Marathon - 11 Weeks to Go

Tuesday 22 April

I've decided that this week is all about consolidation. After a month of really solid - if not a little quick - build up; it is important that this week I can consolidate those gains without getting sick or injured. Last week my body was beginning to feel the accumulated strain and it threatens revolt on me. Better take care!

Which brings me to my first run of the week, a Track Session comprising 2x1200m efforts and 4x800m efforts, all with 2 min rest in between. As I am on a short break between Easter and Anzac Day I had the chance to run in daylight once again - yippee! Unfortunately, since my run on Sunday, the pain behind my right knee has been bad. It is exactly as I've had on my left side from time to time, and manifests as a "flicking" pain low down on the medial side at the back of the knee. After a run it will feel swollen for some days. Despite my best Google-medico skills I am not sure what this injury is.

Today it bothered me the whole 2k of my warm up and several times my knee almost buckled under a sharp pain. When I arrived at the track I thought I'd give the first rep a go and perhaps it would be better at a faster pace. Within 50m it had gone again and by 100m I was stopped and almost in tears. This is so frustrating!!! I jogged slowly around the track intending to exit and go home (probably see a physio too). With about 50m remaining I once again picked up the pace (not sure why) but I could feel that the knee had responded well and was feeling ok. I have absolutely no idea what is going on or how this can be, but in the space of 100m I had gone from zero to hero and was running again!!!

I clicked the lap timer on my watch as I passed the finish line and off I went on my first of two 1200m intervals. After all that had preceded it, the intervals seemed almost anti-climactic. Target pace for the 1200m was 4.47min and I did both of these in 4.43min. During the rest periods I was too afraid to stretch or otherwise do anything involving my right leg lest it stuff itself up once again. The second set was 4x800m in 3.08min and I did these right on pace in 3.08/07/09/08. So the pace was great and I cannot say I felt any ill-effects from the long run on Sunday.

A cool down to home and I sit here not really sure what to do about this knee problem. Most importantly, I have some important confidence that even if it is giving me grief it can come good at no notice - so keep plugging away!

Fun at the New Runner Desk with Vanessa and Will

Thursday 24 April

Last night was my weekly Nike+ Run Club training session. I was assigned to lead the 10k group at 6m/k pace with Will. We had a good group over a different (safer) course to last week. The pace was even through to 8k (averaging 5.55 m/k to that point); then we let go of the reigns and brought the team home with a couple of faster k's (5.20 pace); finishing with 10.2k @ 5.46m/k. Another good run and the knee gave me no problem.

My original plan had substituted the tempo run this week for a Puffing Billy course recce with my friends. As I have the week off from work and am feeling pretty good I decided to put the tempo run back on the agenda and so headed out today, in the beautiful midday sun, to complete what should have been 8k at mid-tempo pace (4.31).

It is here that I will digress slightly into a discussion on training paces. According to the Furman FIRST program, which I am following there are very specific paces to reach for each training session. That includes track intervals, three different grades of tempo running, plus the long run. Last time round I found the paces for the track sessions to be a little hard (maybe I'm not suited to the short stuff), but the tempo and long runs were ok. Greg McMillan publishes a range of times for each interval and tends to be slower on the track reps but in a range mostly faster on the tempo runs. So what does this mean??? Well, I try to run tracks reps at the slower of either Furman or McMillan (fast end of range); with tempo at Furman pace (with anything in the McMillan range being acceptable after the fact). Long runs target Furman pace. I have either merged the best of both of these or created some Franken-pace that is largely irrelevant :-)

But back to the run. Regardless of what this pace 'could be' I had intended it to be 4.31m/k and so started easy with a 4.27. The next km, mostly downhill, was faster (4.13); then a slower one (4.26) to balance out. With my pacing being a bit all over the place I decided to run to feel and cruised through the next five km's in 4.22/24/20/20/23. I finished the full 8.4k trip home at 4.23 m/k so this was significantly faster than plan and was at my Furman 'short tempo' pace (but right in the middle of McMillan's equivalent 4.21-4.31). Aaargh!

Perhaps best just to say I went for an 8k run at a comfortably hard pace and leave it at that!

The final note for today is an injury update. Recent posts have commented on my right knee pain which I knew to be exactly like a problem I'd had with my left knee, only I'd forgotten what the problem was called. Duh! Today I remembered that through July last year my training diary was awash with notes about my "Bl**dy Popliteus" and I was even seeing my physio, Rob O'Donnell, about it. Though I can still feel that it is not right, at least today it did not bother me while running. I am going to ice it, see the physio and try to do some specific stretches for the thing. If that doesn't work I'll resort to praying!

Friday 25 April

Today, Anzac Day, and time for an easy run with friends up in the Dandenongs. We are all running the Puffing Billy Great Train Race next week and wanted to do some course recce before the event. So with some car shuffling we were able to run from Belgrave through to Emerald, covering all the "major obstacles" of the course over the first 10k or so. Weather was perfect for running, quite cool with no breeze and sunny skies. It quite simply does not get any better than this! Run finished, we sojourned to the Emerald Bakery and cafe for coffee and muffins before the ride home. Popliteus threatened to misbehave on the first downhill out of Belgrave, but came good thereafter.

Sunday 27 April

Today was my biggest run so far of this build up; a planned 32k at MP +28 sec (5.18m/k). I worked out a two lap course to North Rd, down to the beach and back up South Rd; passing by Dave Weeks house at about 20k before a shorter loop going as far as Hampton St and returning up South Rd again. So this would be a harder course than last week (more up and down) but at least I'd have some company for the last 12k or so.

The first (big) lap was mostly at under 5.20 pace but the beach and South Rd legs had a reasonable headwind and I just wasn't in the groove. I think mentally I found it hard since South Rd is normally the end of my runs so knowing I still had a long way to go played with my mind a bit. To be honest I even conjured scenarios where I would just do 20k and leave it at that! I completed this lap to Dave's house at an accumulated pace of 5.15m/k so right on target or thereabouts.

After a brief water stop we headed out and the company made a big difference - at least in my head, if not my legs. The pace quickly drifted out to 5.35-40 for most of the next 7k but it didn't feel so easy! Pleasingly, once back onto South Rd, the next 3k's were in 5.31-32 with a 5.25 and a 5.18 to finish. This was very good, so even though there was some slow bits in there it was not a complete blowout. Overall this run was about 5 sec/k slower than a comparable run in 2009, but that run was along the beach (flatter) for 20k and the last 6k of that was a shocker in 6m/k+ ... so some good signs that I am running well :-)

For this run I had two gels - the first at 1h10m and the second at 2h3m.

Strava links for the week:

Tuesday - Track 10.8k @5.19; 1200's and 800's
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 10.2k @5.46; cruisy Fitzroy Gardens and Tan
Thursday - Bentleigh Tempo 8.4k @4.22; comfortably fast
Friday - Puffing Billy course recce 10.6k @5.47; with Wilko,Weeks and Robert T
Sunday - Going Long 31.7k @5.22; Dave Weeks joined for last 13k

Summary:

Week 4 (this week): 5 runs, 71.7km, 6 hrs 24 mins   ... biggest week ever!
Week 3: 4 runs, 57.7km, 5 hrs 9 mins
Week 2: 5 runs, 48.6km, 3 hrs 51 mins
Week 1: 4 runs, 41km, 3 hrs 28 mins
Total: 18 runs, 219 km, 18 hrs 52 mins