Taper One

Gold Coast Marathon - 3 Weeks to Go

With the hardest part of the marathon program behind me now, it is time to recover and get strong before race day. It is 'taper time' and I am looking forward to really hitting all my session times for the next three weeks. The goal now is to keep my high level of fitness, shake the niggling injury/illness concerns and be ready for a huge race day. Three weeks to go!

Tuesday 17 Jun

Runner's World Magazine's Chief Running Officer, Bart Yasso is well known in running circles for many things, but perhaps most of all for his observation that for many runners the time they can complete a set of 800m efforts in roughly approximates their projected marathon time. So, 800's in 3m10s equates to about a 3hr10m marathon. His workout, the Yasso 800's, is described here and the run I did today is a very close approximation to this.

Today I was back at the Westpac Centre in conditions similar to the last time I ran 800's there back in April - a bit rainy and a bit windy. Last time it was 6 reps and I averaged about 3.11 for each. Today was 8 reps and the plan was a 3.06 average pace.

On my warm-up the "popliteus roulette" game was played once again and this time came up with "minor right knee problem" which meant I click-clacked my way down the hill to the track. Whilst waiting to cross at the traffic lights I massaged and stretched a bit more which made enough of an immediate improvement that it didn't really bother me thereafter (amazing)!

Onto the track and I set out with the intent of building through the session rather than going out at full-tilt and hanging on. When I completed the first rep in 3.04 I thought I may have stuffed up my pacing (!) but it felt ok and I did the next three in 3.03/05/06 so was very happy at half way done. By now there were some folks kicking a footy around and even a few other runners so it didn't feel so lonely, not that it spurred me on or anything. With some good focus I ran the final four reps in 3.04/03/04/04 which was just fantastic. Everything within a 3-second spread, no drop off in speed at the end, and an average of 3.04 for the entire set. Yippee!!!

Wednesday 18 Jun

An easy run tonight at Nike Run Club, leading the 5k beginner group. We had about a dozen at the start, but before we got to Anderson St the group had exploded into mini-groups spread far and wide. I finished the run - right on the designated 7m/k pace - with one runner, Jane, for company. She is planning to do a half marathon at Run Melbourne then her first marathon in October. Very exciting to hear her story! My achilles were both a little tender tonight, but no big deal.

Friday 20 Jun

The last working day of the week and a chance to try out some new runners (and my potential race kicks) for an 8k burst along the Yarra. I saw Rob the Physio for a tune up last night and some final advice for race day. He suggests if I am still feeling good at 32k to go for it, rather than waiting till the last 5k. Popliteus both feeling fine today - no problems - but my left calf/achilles has been a bit sore all week and still is.

Today's run was planed as 8k @4.22m/k so i ran an out-and-back course along the Yarra River. It is pretty flat, but today was a little windy - mostly tailwind out and mostly headwind back so I knew it would be easier/faster at first. All good, no problems with that. The run itself was good. Apart from the calf/achilles I felt controlled and relaxed. Most k's were in the 4.12-16 range with a couple slower and a couple faster. In the end, a good run, if maybe a little quick, with 8k done at 4.15 pace.

I'll need to stretch and massage my calf prior to Sunday's 21k run at Albert Park Lake.

Sunday 22 Jun

Today is the longest race-pace run on the whole program, a 21k effort at 4.40m/k. Three months ago this would have seemed a vey long stretch, but now it feels like quite a comfortable run - not easy, but comfortable! I took the opportunity to do this as part of an organised event, the Sri Chinmoy Half Marathon at Albert Park Lake. So whilst I would not be racing, at least I would have some company plus drinks etc. My mate David Weeks, who is just beginning on his program for his first marathon in October, came along for the run too.

Weather was pretty much perfect today. Dry, sunny, cool and only a light breeze. The course was four laps of the lake with appropriate "extensions" to make up the distance to 21.1km. My plan was simple - go out at 4.40 pace and keep it there with no variation.

And that is pretty much exactly what we did. The 5k segments were covered in: 23.21, 23.10, 23.03 & 23.18 with a slightly quicker 4.27 m/k last one to finish us off just under 1:38 hrs at 4.38 m/k. It is great to do a half marathon feeling like you could have run a lot faster!

Sri Chinmoy races are famous for the post-race pancakes so we made sure to get a couple of these and at the presentations Dave was good enough to have finished third in his age category (imagine if he was trained and had tried harder)!

My left calf/achilles was not too bad today (probably 80%) and my right popliteus was a minor annoyance only for the first km or so before settling down. Otherwise, most of the "sensations" were good for this race.

Two weeks to go!


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

Strava links for the week:
Tuesday - Westpac 800's Redux 11.2k @4.45; 8x 800m with 200m walk recovery
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 5.7k @6.56; easy lap of Tan
Friday - Yarra Scoot 8k @4.15; brisk run along the river
Sunday - Sri Chinmoy 21.1k @4.38; comfortable half marathon run

Weekly Summary:
Week 12 (this week): 4 runs, 46.0 km, 3 hrs 45 mins
Week 11: 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: 50 runs, 666.4 km, 56 hrs 03 mins

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

Extend

Gold Coast Marathon - 5 Weeks to Go

Time is flying by with just five weeks to go till race day and only the final couple of weeks of big sessions ahead before taper. My theme for this week is 'Extend' as that is what I really must start to do if I am going to meet my marathon race target. This week I really want to run a fast speed session; a solid marathon paced 16k (feeling better than two-weeks ago) and conclude the week with a fast-finishing 24k.

Tuesday 3 June

Today's session was one of the "easier" sprint sessions on the program which is good as my legs are still pretty sore/tired after Sunday's long run. I headed out at lunch time and the rain was coming down though it was not too cold. Only the hardy runners were out today ... and ex-Olympians. Whilst waiting to cross the road at Flinders St a fellow walked up beside me, smiled, and said "the training has gotta go on" - making reference to running in the less than stellar weather conditions. I recognised the fellow as six-time Olympic rower and three-time gold medallist James Tomkins. I replied to him that "you would know more than most!" He laughed and advised me "not to go too hard." So with that advice in my head I set off for my run!

I ran a simple course along the Yarra today. Each of three reps were 1600m hard with a 400m recovery interval. The two reps heading south-ish had a slight tail breeze; but not too much. The bigger problem was being able to see through the raindrops on my glasses.

In short, I was happy with each of my reps; running 6.19, 6.24 and 6.23 for the miles. So an average of 6.22min against a target time of 6.33min. Significantly faster than target which I think is good (???) as last time round my paces for these intervals were a bit slower than this. If I can translate this short distance speed into good pace for the long runs I will be very happy indeed!

Thursday 5 June

Last night was my weekly Nike Run Club session; as always, probably my favourite run of the week. And even a winter downpour could not dampen the spirits of my co-run-leaders and all the runners who came along to complete their run. Together with Leigh and Natalie I led a 5k run around the Tan at 5.30 pace. We got drenched, we got dirty, we had lots of laughs and a great time. What more could you want!

Tonight I tried the foam roller on my legs. Nothing more to say. Move along.

Friday 6 June

Not sure I am friends with the foam roller. My legs really hurt today. Not running-sore; but massage-sore. Add into the mix that my left popliteus (?) is now not very happy and I have a brewing revolt going on with the lower half of my body. Against that backdrop tonight I had another 16k marathon pace workout on the plan. I last did this two weeks ago and it felt hard-ish, so with my legs as they were I was not sure how I would go at all. Thankfully it was not raining and the temperature was good - cool with little breeze.

Decided to wear my Run Club issue Nike Lunar Glide 5's and I have to say I just love these runners! For me they offer a great blend of light-enough weight with good cushioning. I have a neutral stride so do not need any fancy motion control stuff and these shoes fit the bill magnificently. This was only my second run in them at any reasonable pace and they were wonderful.

Which I guess sums up the run in general. I really loved it! Target pace was 4.40m/k and the plan was to stick as close to this as possible on the (very) slightly undulating two-lap course. As always, try to run the last lap a bit faster than the first. All of which is exactly what I did. My km splits were very even, each 8k lap was almost identical (36.57/37.00), HR in the range of 143-148 for all except the last uphill km where I pushed a little. Overall, it was 8 sec faster than last time - let's say identical - but with an average HR of 146 vs 150 a fortnight ago. I am very pleased!

Sunday 8 June

This marathon training block has been an absolute rollercoaster. When things have looked grim, they got better. And when they've looked great, they go to crap. After Friday's wonderful run I was really looking forward to this 24k long run today. I decided to run the same course near home which is about 8k per lap with the intent of going out slower than target pace then ramping it up every 8k.

Unfortunately, for the second time in eight days I have stuffed up my target pace and got it wrong. Though, unlike last week where 8k @4.22 became 8k @4.12 in my head (and run @4.09); this week the pace should have been 4.46m/k but I thought it was 4.49. Aargh! No big deal in the scheme of things but something small which I should be getting right. That stuff up aside, I planned to run the first lap (8k) @4.55-57, the second lap @4.49 and the third lap @4.41-43. So faster each lap and finishing at just over target marathon pace. Sounds easy!

The rollercoaster continued today when I started running. Almost straight away my right popliteus, which has been fine this last fortnight, was giving me bad pain. Most recently the left one has been niggly, but now the right is stuffed again! And I was wearing the same shoes (Lunar Glides) as Friday when all was good. I am so confused. I tried as best I could to ignore this and just ran. It hurt!

Pain and target pace aside, the actual run was really good and went according to plan. I ran the first lap at 4.57 pace (HR Avg 135), the second lap right on 4.49 (HR 140) and finished the third lap at 4.42m/k (HR 147). The whole run was 24.2k @4.49 so it came out perfectly, despite my popliteus being in a bad way.

If I can run this well when things are sh*t then it gives me lots of confidence about how I will run when things are good. Bring on next week!


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

Strava links for the week:
Tuesday - Three Miles 10.0k @4.47; 3x 1600m with 400m recovery
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 5.5k @5.28; rainy lap of Tan
Friday - Bentleigh 16 16.1k @4.38; marathon pace effort ... niice!
Sunday - Fast Finish 24 24.2k @4.49; faster, faster, faster

Weekly Summary:
Week 10 (this week): 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: 42 runs, 559.2 km, 47 hrs 19 mins

Feel Strong

Gold Coast Marathon - 8 Weeks to Go

My motto for this week is 'Feel Strong' which is something I have not done in a while. I was asked by a friend and would-be first time marathoner if feeling run down and sore was considered normal for marathon training. I surmised this was often the case, but should not be. So this week I wish to get that strength back and feel good about my running.

Wednesday 14 May

After an average long run on Sunday on what I consider to have been a difficult week (ie, not running the best) I was keen to have a good week. As much for the mental side as the training side. And not wanting to repeat the double-shot Wednesday of last week I made sure I got out on Tuesday to do my first session for this week.

One of the things I've been happy to do - and actually enjoyed doing - this time round, is my 'Street Speed' sessions which would otherwise have been track repeats. Not that I've avoided the track but I am just as happy doing them on a road or a path; even if it is uneven, or has an uphill/downhill. Who cares! At the end of the day, the fundamentals of the session remain and I get to avoid some of the monotony of running around in circles all the time. It also means I've been able to run in the daytime at work whereas I'd otherwise have to run at night :-(

Yesterday was Street Speed #3 and I chose to run it on one of my favourite loops along the Yarra River. This is quite varied terrain - mostly flat with some ups and downs, twists and turns. The main set consisted of four intervals: 1600m (400m rest), 3200m (800m rest), 800m (400m rest), 800m. I know I have target times for each interval but given the terrain I was less worried about this and tried to run each one as hard as possible whilst maintaining something for the next one.

I did the first 1600m in 6.23min which was pretty fast (and quicker than I'd expected to run). My legs were still a bit sore from Sunday, but strangely felt better when I ran! I followed this up with a 3200m rep in 13.36min. This only became hard in the last 500m which is where the track is being worked on and you zig-zag along gravel, uneven surfaces and onto the road. So again, pretty happy with this - but quite tired! I ran each of the two 800m reps in 3.11min so an ok pace to finish with. Overall I was very pleased with this session and glad to have it done on Tuesday.

Tonight was Nike Run Club and I was leading the 5k beginner group, so a very easy lap of the Tan Track at 7.21m/k pace. A genuine recovery run. I am looking forward to the rest of this week!

Friday 16 May

Last night I went ten-pin bowling with my team for a social function. Today my glutes were sore from the repeated lunges :-(  Aargh!! Nothing really bad but not ideal on a week where 'feeling strong' is the mantra. Oh well. At least the sun shone and it was another beautiful, if a little windy, day for Friday Tempo Time.

The program today was something which on paper looked pretty easy, being 'only' a 7k @4.32m/k tempo run with warm-up and cool-down. Running along my now favourite Yarra Trail I knew exactly where I'd be going and when it would be hard or easy. My real objective today was to try to run as evenly as possible. Applied practically it means running an even heart rate as the splits will naturally vary a little with the terrain.

I mostly achieved my goal today. Excluding a faster first km (often happens until you dial into the pace) and a slower third km (which takes in the main ups-and-downs) it was pretty even, with the remaining five km within a range of 4.26-4.34. The last part was hard into a headwind along the river, but not too bad. All in all a good session.

Now if I could just get rid of these cold symptoms which are developing I'd be a happy man.

Sunday 18 May

'Feel Strong' is what I wanted for today's long run and, by and large, that is what I had. Sometimes you can tell from the first 100m whether you'll have a good day or bad and today the sensations were all good right from the start. The core program had 32k @5.09 on the menu with Rob O'Donnell's variation being to extend that out to 3 hours with no set pace. I designed a big lap of 33.7km heading into the city, along the Yarra and back down to home and figured this would probably take me three hours to complete.

My aspirational objective was for two things: (a) after an easy run to the Yarra pick up the pace for 5-10k to something near ~4.50m/k; and (b) complete the first 32k @5.09 so I could feel like I completed the original session as designed.

Conditions today were nice and sunny, but with a reasonably strong north wind, which meant a headwind for the first 15k, cross-tail wind for 12k then tailwind home. Probably ideal to be honest. The course took in roads and paths I am very familiar with from running and riding to work so that was good too.

The first 15k was pretty comfortable, averaging 5.05m/k and a gentle HR average of 138. If every 15k was this easy then running would be a breeze! Through the next 12k along the bike path I picked up the pace to 4.55m/k (HRAvg 149). I was really happy with this, not quite 4.50 pace, but a noticeable difference and held for the whole stretch. By the time I turned off the path I'd done 27k @5.03 and it was time to 'kick in the clutch' and cruise home.

I went through 32k @5.08 pace so goal accomplished there and after completing the last 6.7k @5.38m/k (HRAvg 146) I reached home in just over 2:54 hrs, so close enough to goal (b) being achieved. More importantly, I felt tired, but not trashed which is a big improvement.

Nutrition wise, I tried a couple of different things today. As I did not start till 1pm and I had not eaten lunch I had one gel just before I began. About an hour before this I'd eaten some beetroots too (don't want to miss out on any benefits from the latest sports nutrition fad!). During the run I had two gels at 1 hour and just over 2 hours. All seemed ok.

So very happy with this run and with the week just completed.

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

Strava links for the week:
Tuesday - Street Speed 3 10.3k @4.34; Yarra River intervals
Wednesday - Nike Run Club 5.4k @7.21; very easy lap of the Tan
Friday - Tempo Time 10.5k @4.39; 7k @4.30 on a windy day
Sunday - Big Lap 33.7k @5.10; long run with fast bit in the middle

Weekly Summary:
Week 7 (this week): 4 runs, 60km, 5 hrs 10 mins
Week 6: 4 runs, 54km, 4 hrs 36 mins
Week 5: 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: 30 runs, 379.3 km, 32 hrs 35 mins

The Middle Ages

Gold Coast Marathon - 9 Weeks to Go

Thursday 8 May

I've now entered "The Middle Ages" for my marathon program. These weeks are when you transition from ramping up the program to the long, hard sessions that set you up for race day success. It is during this period that you truly find out whether your dreams are likely to become reality ... or if they'll crumble and need to be replaced by more modest ones. Avoiding injury, staying healthy, maintaining motivation - these are the day to day challenges.

After completing the Great Train Race last weekend my legs were pretty tired so instead of running on Tuesday I reverted to doing my first training session on Wednesday. Which, of course, presented its own issues as I do Nike Run Club Run Leader on Wednesday nights. What to do, what to do, what to do ...

Originally I planned to get out and run in the early morning, but with work requirements (ok, and me not wanting to run at 6am) this was sidelined. Plan B - run at lunchtime. Hmm, that too was kiboshed with some last minute meetings scheduled. Plan C - do Nike Run Club and then do my speed session afterwards. Not my favourite plan ever - but this would have to do.

Thankfully I was set down for only 5k at Run Club this week which acted as a good warm up. Unfortunately, by the time I arrived back home it was very cold and a bit windy. So, at 8.30pm, a very hungry me left home to go out for some 'Street Speed.'

The intervals this week were two sets of 6x400m with 1.30 RI between reps and 2.30 RI between sets. I decided to run these along Purtell Street just near home. It is well lit, has no side streets and a good road surface. Of course, it also has cars going up and down - thought at this time of night thankfully not many. As I subsequently found out, my 400m stretch of roadway was actually ~410m and has a 1% rise (or fall) from one end to the other. As luck would have it, the rise was into the prevailing wind last night and the fall with the tailwind.

All of this made for uneven times, and obviously not very comparable to a lap of the aths track, but that is the essence of 'Street Speed' - it should be more organic than the strictly controlled environs of a track.

The first set of six had 'up' times of 1.31, 1.29 and 1.30; and 'down' times of 1.22, 1.23 and 1.22. After the long break between sets it was 'up' times of 1.29, 1.31 and 1.30; and 'down' times of 1.23, 1.24 and 1.24. I was very pleased with these times and how even they were with only a 2-sec spread from best to worst in each direction. Suffice to say I was exhausted after completing my second session for the night and have felt pretty sore today, especially in my left calf/achilles.

Friday 9 May

After Wednesday night's dual run sessions my legs have been absolutely thrashed. Two days on and my left achilles has been a bit sore, calves are both sore and even quads are feeling the pinch. I've had only modest recovery from those runs and today was a real stretch.

This was a repeat of a session I did three weeks ago so I was keen to see how I'd progressed. The first 4k of the tempo set also covers a Strava segment I was keen to achieve the 'CR' on so I had a little extra motivation.

During the warm up I wasn't actually sure if I'd be able to pick up the pace at all for the main tempo run; but, at the appointed time, I ramped it up and began to run a bit faster. It was quite windy today so I was pleased that my km times were quite even, being 4.18/19/18/16/23. Perhaps I was too keen to get my 'CR' (which I did) and hence the last km was a bit slow. Actually, given the target pace was 4.23m/k maybe the first 4k were too fast??

Anyway, goals for the session essentially achieved, but legs really sore, and I wonder at what cost. Sunday's long run will tell!

Sunday 11 May

The note above was right - today's run did tell just how much a toll this last week had taken. I didn't ride yesterday - the rain was pouring down and I needed all the rest I could get. Even today my legs were still sore before I started.

It was a beautiful morning when I headed out, nice sunshine and no wind. Unfortunately, within 500m my right popliteus was giving lots of grief. The last time it was really bad was when I did my 28k run a few weeks back wearing the same Pegasus runners. After a couple of km it had not settled down so I looped back home and changed into my trusty NB 880's. Almost immediately it got much better.

I have resolved not to run in these shoes again. I'm a believer in the adage there's no bad shoes, just shoes that are bad for an individual. These Pegasus kicks are very highly rated - but for some reason my popliteus is extremely unhappy with them. So with less than 10hrs wear they will be retired.

Back out onto the road and though my popliteus was a lot better it was not perfect. My feet were slapping the ground, I had little rhythm and just did not feel good. My mojo was gone. Which is not ideal when you have 30k or so in front of you.

Following my physio's modified plan today would be a 2:40 run for time (not the 29k @5.09 pace per the original plan). I think this worked well for me today as it meant I was not too fussed that my pace was a bit slower than I'd have liked. It would have been very hard to meet the original objective so the new one was good to have.

Splits were reasonably good to 15k just past Black Rock (averaging 5.13m/k to here). The next 12k, including the 'lumpy bit' around Beaumaris slowed noticeably, averaging 5.36m/k for this stretch. The last 3.1k were a crawl at only 6.03m/k. Not ideal, and not nearly as good as I felt for the last part of my 31k run a couple of weeks ago, but not to worry. An overall average pace of 5.28m/k so still in the right ballpark and for a run where I just didn't have it not too shabby! (Two gels today, at 1hr and 2hrs in to the run.)

The week ahead will be interesting. The distances ramp up again and I need to start feeling better about them. Let's see!

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

Strava links for the week:
Wednesday #1 - Nike Run Club 5.7k @5.07; cruisy lap of the Tan
Wednesday #2 - Street Speed 2 7.7k @4.25; 12x 400m
Friday - Tempo 5k 10.4k @4.41; Yarra River, hard 5k
Sunday - Run Done Hard 30.2k @5.27; Mentone

Weekly Summary:
Week 6 (this week): 4 runs, 54km, 4 hrs 36 mins
Week 5: 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: 26 runs, 319.3 km, 27 hrs 25 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

Running into Easter

Gold Coast Marathon - 12 Weeks to Go

Tuesday 15 April

My first run for the week and my first time back at the aths track in five years. To be honest, I had not missed it one bit in that time, but I was itching to get down there early this morning for some mile repeats. So at the ungodly hour of 6.20am I headed out the door.

The weather was good - cool and dry with a bit of fog around. At the track it was me with one other guy walking laps with huge headphones on and flapping his arms about, and a woman who seemed determined to stay on the opposite side of the track to arm-flapping man!

My legs were still feeling quite heavy from Sunday's race, but the plan only called for 3x 1600m efforts in 6.40 (4.10m/k pace) with a 1 min rest between. Easy ... or so I thought.

The first rep I kind of cruised around for the first half, not wanting to go out too hard. I'm not exactly sure that I actually went any faster when I picked it up; crossing the line in 6.50. Hmm, a bit slow. Not sure if that's tiredness or laziness. Anyway - two more to go.

These were much better and I got my act together for two nice reps, both on the target time of 6.40. So happy to get that one done and dusted.

Thursday 17 April

Second run of the week was last night with my favourite Nike+ Run Club, only this time was my very first as a run leader! It was so different being on the 'other' side and was so much fun. For this week I had been assigned to lead a 10k run at ~7.00m/k pace - the designated beginner group. We had heaps of fun as we ran through the dark streets and parks of Melbourne with the group staying together beautifully through 7k. At that point, with the end coming up and a co-leader keeping pace at the back I led about two thirds of our crew as we picked up the pace a little. We finished the run at 6.45m/k overall and the smiles on their faces told the story! To finish I took the crew through a stretching routine - those of you who know me will see the irony in this!

Nike really look after their run leaders and have outfitted us all with some beautiful gear. A pair of Lunarglide+ 5 shoes, a Dri-FIT running hoodie (this is nice!), a Dri-FIT knit running shirt (even more comfortable than my regular Dri-FIT shirts) and cool Phenom 2 in 1 running shorts (I am hooked on these). Of course, now all my other Nike gear takes a back seat to this new stuff. It's fantastic!

Today, during a beautiful sunny lunch break at work, I headed out for my third run, a 10k tempo session. I have a path that takes me out along the Yarra River which is just really beautiful to run beside. After a 3k warm-up the main set was 5k @4.23 pace, followed by a 2k cool-down.

I did the main 5k right on 4.23 pace (4.23/21/20/32/17) though my heart rate was up in the mid-160's which is a bit higher than I'd expect when going this fast. It felt harder than I would have expected, but I was very pleased to nail the pace and complete the set.

I am finding that my legs are almost constantly sore at the moment and recovery between days is hard to achieve. Tomorrow is a bike ride up in the Dandenongs - we do 'The Crucifix' which is aptly named for our Good Friday ride. Long run on Sunday - a bit nervous ahead of a 29k journey.

Friday 18 April

This morning it was up early to head into the Dandenongs for our traditional (can two years be a tradition?) Good Friday ride on a course aptly named The Crucifix.

This is a 70k ride which takes in four of the popular climbs; starting with the '1 in 20' from The Basin, then down to Burwood Highway for 'Devils Elbow' with Churchill Drive/One Tree Hill tacked on. The third climb is 'The Wall' from Monbulk then up to Skyhigh at the top of Mt Dandenong. The last climb is 20% nasty in parts on 'Inverness Rd' from Mt Evelyn.

There is a lot of climbing in this ride and after the last few weeks my legs were so tired that I could hardly turn them over. So it was not a fast day, but a fun one. At least until the heavy rain came and drenched us for the last 45 minutes.

Tomorrow another (easier) ride.

Sunday 20 April

After another wet bike ride yesterday and a very early rise for Easter morning egg hunts - as you do when you have two young girls - this afternoon it was off to do my very first proper long run for this marathon build. The target was 29km @5.18m/k and I decided to run down to the beach and along to St Kilda Pier.

To be honest I'm not sure I was really looking forward to this run. Maybe it was just trepidation as I hadn't run so long in quite a while and had missed the early weeks of this build up so was jumping in with quite a long effort. Or maybe it was because I'd struggled to sleep last night as my left knee was mildly throbbing (still not sure what that was). In any event, as is often the case, once you start running all of that melts away and you just enjoy the run for what it is.

Unfortunately, from early on, I suffered a pain behind my right knee (aargh!). The left one, strangely enough, was completely ok. This pain is similar to one I have had behind my left knee from time to time. It is really annoying and feels like something is 'flicking' over the back of your knee somewhere. I just ignored it as best I could and kept running.

The target pace today was "only" 5.18m/k which I expected to be pretty easy and my normal method on these runs is to have a minute or so "in the bank" for the last 6k up South Rd which undulates generally uphill and tends to slow me down a bit. By the end of the third km my pace had settled at 5.09m/k and when I turned at half way, the St Kilda Pier at 14.26km, it was still 5.10m/k for the run thus far. The even pace was helped by the fact that it was a beautiful afternoon with no wind to speak of, which is not always the case down here. I had a single gel with me which I took at about 15k.

Somehow the pace over the next 5km quickened a little - I did this in 25.32min - and I turned at South Rd with 6k to go still averaging 5.10m/k for the 22.26km covered. By now the pain behind my right knee had become really bad and even though I didn't feel super-fatigued, my pace for the last 6k dropped to 5.20-5.38m/k. I was not really too fussed about this as I have suffered some real 'blow-outs' along this stretch, so arriving home in under 2:30hrs with 28.5km @5.14m/k was very satisfying. Apart from my bad knee I felt ok, much stronger than I had anticipated, which is very encouraging!

11 weeks to go!

Strava links for the week:

Tuesday - Track 8.9k @5.00m/k; 3x 1600m repeats
Wednesday - Nike+ Run Club 9.9k @6.45m/k; Run Leader
Thursday - Tempo 10.3k @4.41m/k; main set 5k @4.23m/k
Sunday - Long Run 28.5k @5.14m/k; to St Kilda - target pace 5.18

Summary:

4 runs

57.7 km

5 hours 9 minutes

Run for the Kids

The last run of the week was one of my favourite events, the annual Run for the Kids. I've done this event every year except for one and love it. So - regardless on what the training program wanted me to do - I was going to substitute a 15k hard run. The weather was amazingly good and I lined up in brilliant sunshine alongside a few friends (Judy, Phil and Peter). My legs were feeling quite tired after a couple of big weeks (for me) and so I hoped to do around 1:07 when last year I did 1:05.

I know my achilles heel is going out too quick so focussed on running conservatively at the start. This worked (kind of). So whereas last year I blasted the first km in 4.01, this time round it was only 4.07 So far so good. Down through the tunnel and we bumped into Phil's mate who was running faster than us. So Phil ran a bit quicker. Then I ran a bit quicker. On the way out of the tunnel I let them both go. Another km or so later I caught and passed Phil (not sure what happened to him in the end - suspect the Ironman from a few weeks ago probably caught up with him)!

Through 5k in under 21 minutes (faster than last year) but HR was good at mid-160's so I just kept going. Legs weren't feeling too bad so all was ok. Down the back through Docklands to 10k and I started to feel a bit tired. Aargh! Need to tough it out for five more k.

I have a real dislike for the climb over the bridge at Collins St and no matter how I am feeling it never gets any easier. Once that is done it feels easier as you run through Spencer St then along the casino promenade.

As the picture here shows I was really feeling the pinch along here. Not sure I even knew my own name at this point. After two k's in 4.13 and 4.18 it was only the final push around the boatsheds, up the last incline to St Kilda Rd and then to the finish line. Even though I was pushing hard along here my HR never got above ~167 which is unusual - normally I'd get to 170+. Not sure what this means but I think I felt the lack of any runs over ~one hour.

Crossed the line in 1:03.55hrs (4.19m/k) so was very pleased. Just over a minute faster than last year. Obviously all the training with Nike+ Run Club #WeRunMel had paid off. A great end to the week and I'm super motivated for the week ahead!

Oops, I've Done it Again!

Gold Coast Marathon - 13 Weeks to Go

In the dark ages (aka 2009) I trained for and ran the Melbourne Marathon while keeping this blog. Since then I've just written the odd race report, but mostly it disappeared into blog-scurity. Even last year, when I completed three marathons I didn't write up anything ... though for a funny look at how I unravelled during the Great Ocean Road Marathon you can watch this little video :-)


Fast forward to 2014 and the need for me to do another marathon with "proper" training when I see that one of my friends (hi Kim!) has entered the Gold Coast Marathon in July. Boom - there it is! 2 hours later and I had entered, booked flights and somewhere to stay.

Now for the training!

So I've dusted off my old Furman "Run Less Run Faster" program and put together a 13-week plan to get me to the Gold Coast in good shape. This is week one of that plan. And, just like last time, I'm going to use this blog to record my training and other random thoughts along the way.

It's Thursday today and it is my first day of no running this week (my legs are glad of this!)

On Monday I completed an easy 9k @5.12 m/k with Nike+ Run Club as part of their Run for the Kids training sessions. I also ran with them last night, winding it back even more for an easy 5.7k @5.06 m/k in the rain. Even better, the folks from Ben and Jerry's were handing out ice-cream which I managed to grab and eat whilst running along. Mmmm.

Sandwiched between these two easier run was my first Furman session - a speed/interval set of 5x 1km efforts with a 400m float in between. Last time round I did all these sets at the local athletics track, but I'm trying new things this time and so decided to run it on the footpaths around home. BIG MISTAKE!

It was a rainy night and within ten minutes my glasses were covered in water droplets and fog from my breath. Add in a steady stream of oncoming headlights from cars and I could not see a thing. To make matters even harder, there are so many low hanging trees on this path that I was getting wacked in the head every few hundred metres and had to dodge numbers of obstacles/path closed along the way too.

Suffice to say that my five efforts were somewhat slower than planned and slower than what I think I could actually run if I wasn't worried about just staying upright. I completed these in 4.08/07/10/15/12 against a plan of ~4.00 even. I'm not really too worried about the time, it was just good to get out and run hard again.

My first video blog in this series is also up on YouTube:

Friday 11 April

On Friday I took time at lunch to head out for my tempo run. After the run in the dark and rain it was great to run in daylight when you could see where you were going. The program called for 7k @4.31 pace with warm up and cool down bringing this to about 10k. In my rush to leave home I had forgotten to pack my running socks and paid the price for this with a few blisters by the end of the run :-(

I headed out along the Yarra River and began my effort when I got to Punt Rd bridge. The path here is wonderful and twists and turns as it follows the river on one side and the freeway on the other. I was really determined to run on target pace and not get carried away. That said, the first kilo was a bit fast, but I got back on track through the second k and ran evenly thereafter. I finished off with a couple of slightly quicker k's and finished with 7k @4.31 pace. Woo! Hoo! My best run in a while, very happy!

Strava Links for the week:

Monday - Nike+ Run Club 9k @5.12; easy cruise
Tuesday - Street Speed Session 8.6k @4.55; hard and wet 5x 1k
Wednesday - Nike+ Run Club 5.7k @5.06; eating ice cream in the rain
Friday - Tempo 10.5k @4.43; minus socks plus blisters
Sunday - Run for the Kids 14.8k @4.19; hard race - great time!

Weekly Summary:

Week 1 (this week): 5 runs, 48.6 km, 3 hours 51 minutes