Fondue

Fondue Rule #3: When you lose your piece of bread in the cheese you either have to wash up or have a lump of concrete attached to your right leg and are thrown into Lake Geneva.
Either way, you still have to retrieve all bits of your piece of bread and until you do, everyone can poke fun at you.
Why?
Because it's not the fault of the piece of bread and it is a miserable existence to be sunk in the cheese.
Although I am much better now, I still feel like a piece of bread that's been cast adrift in a fondue. I am only just being retrieved bit by bit.

Went for a total of four runs this week for a total of 46.6ks and a ride of 23k.

Not too bad in terms of going out there, but I have definitely lost the mojo.

Probably sunk somewhere in the cheese with me.

Gotta go find it.

Going to Sydney tomorrow for two days which will interfere with things, but that's life.

I'm quite happy to do the HM, but am not expecting much. Rotto will be more important.

Crook no more

Just checking in briefly.

Have been crook and not up to much in the last two weeks.

Started up with a bit of running and riding over the last few days, but really not much to write home about.

I was hoping that the stiff right lower leg would resolve, but it's now flared up again.

Clown - if you're still up to doing the HM, we might walk it together....

Almost back in Business

Flew to Sydney today for a week's R&R. It's good to get away and lower leg permitting, I want to do some runs around the Botanical Gardens, Opera House, Harbour Bridge and so on. We're staying at Hyde Park like last year and that's really neat for some nice runs.

Had an easy week just to get things moving again:

Monday: Ride 23ks
Wednesday: Run 11.3ks at 4:49min/k
Friday: Run 12.5ks at 5min/k, level 2, av cad 87
Sunday: Ride 28ks

Running times were much better than expected. I felt really good, even going over hilly terrain in Kings Park.

Left lower still troubles me at times, usually just when I start off and then after the run again, but not during once I have warmed up. At times it's quite tender to touch over the bone on the inside and likewise the calf seizes up. I'm a bit stumped what it might be.

Riding is however no problem and seems to help, the pounding of the running makes it flare up.

I have signed up for the C2S Half-Marathon, already one might say, but knowing myself, I thought it was good to commit, otherwise I might get this crazy idea of doing the full.

This week I'll take it pretty easy and next week I'll sort out the program in more detail.

A bit like Berlin

Yesterday I decided I would try to crack 3:20 knowing full well that I was probably going to find it difficult. Although the preparation had not been bad, I had not had done enough long runs to feel confident I would last the distance.

But then I thought, the heck, I'll do half in 1:40 and then just go for broke.

And I did, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

The conditions were perfect this morning. About 8 degrees at the start, a bit of breeze on the South Perth foreshore and along the freeway, in both directions, but otherwise they could not be faulted.

Got there early enough for an easy warm-up. The right ankle and lower leg felt like a brick and I thought this would hold me back. But in reality they behaved quite well in the run and I had very little joint issues, the odd niggle, but nothing I could not cope with.

The 3:30 bus powered away in front of me and I thought that was a bit silly as I had planned to sit in front of them and then latch on if I had to. The third k they did in 4:15 min/k!

Anyway, I did as I had planned but definitely went too fast in the first 5 ks.

At 14ks I felt my thighs going tired and I knew I was going to be in trouble later on. At that point I was averaging 4:40 min/k for a 3:25 finish (1:10 elapsed time). No bother, I otherwise felt good, slowed a bit and went through half at 1:39:17.

By 30ks I had slowed just a bit and was still spot on for a 3:20 finish (2:22 elapsed time). And then the stomach cramps started as in Berlin, but just a few ks later. And the odd stitch as well. At various times I had to walk and with the by then pretty heavy legs I found it very difficult to get into a rhythm again.

During one of those breaks the 3:30 bus powered past me and I just could not hang on.

The 405 was doing funny things today - HR at 171 at times (??) and on the way out at least, it was way short. In the end the discrepancy was only .5%, but on the way I was not sure whether I could rely on it. The 15 and 30k readings above were real time.

In the end I came in at 3:31:18, not fantastic, but ok in the circumstances. As earlier in the year I doubted I might run one ever again, I have no reason to complain.

I'm not sure what to do about the stomach cramps. In Berlin I had had some stomach issues before independently of the running, but not since. So I think it must be running related. In Berlin I thought I might have overdone it with the nutrition and I took only a couple of gels with me today on purpose so I would not "over-feed".

Really takes the fun out of doing a marathon.

Right now I don't think I'll do the C2S marathon, but rather the half and see whether I can improve the time I set last year - maybe sub-1:30? Eight weeks is just a bit short to prepare for it, especially as Rottnest is another eight weeks later. That is booked and not to be missed (I would have been really sore had my knee turned out bad and I could not run it - but now I am confident of having another fun run there).

Otherwise, legs are a bit sore, stood in the freezing pool for five minutes and had a snooze for an hour, but feel just fine.

Wonder what tomorrow's like ;-))

Taper Doldrums

Pretty much how the week felt until today.

Ended up with shin splints in the right leg after the HM, so wasn't game to do too much (which in one sense is not bad), but then of course I wanted them to just go away.
Probably did too much fast stuff in the last couple of weeks and I am just glad there's only one week to go:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 12ks with 6k at MP
Wednesday: what happened on Wednesday, no idea, the day started, I went to work and then it ended and I didn't even have time to think about running;
Thursday: Same thing as Wednesday...
Friday: Intervals 9ks;
Saturday: Set up the road bike on the Computrainer and did about 25ks on that;
Sunday: 16ks with Clown and Epi - easy run for them, below MP for me.

Shin is sort of ok. It really improved after the bike session and I'll throw in a couple of those sessions in this week just looking for a nice turnover.

Went to Runners World this pm to get some High 5 gels, but they had run out of them. I still need to plan what I'm going to do nutritionwise. Probably go for the minimum so I don't end up with cramps as at Berlin.

All things being equal, I'll try for a 4:50 pace or thereabouts. I'll probably hang on to the 3:30 bus and decide at half way whether I stick with them.

Age is spelled A for Again, G for Gravity and E for Experience

First week of taper, always a challenge not to ease off too much when you're supposed to take the foot off the pedal.

I think at least this week I sort of had it under control:
Monday: Rest;
Tuesday: Intervals 400 to 1,600m pyramid, total 12.14ks;
Wednesday: Medium Long Run, 14.74ks at ave HR 140;
Thursday: Fartlek around Kings Park which included a few hills, 12.92ks, ave HR 138, max 161;
Friday/Saturday: Rest, mini-taper for HM;
Sunday: Perth HM, 21.1ks
Total for the week: 60.81ks.

The various bruises from last week's fall healed quite ok, although I hit my left thigh much harder than I had thought. I had also hit my left upper arm and shoulder and was a bit sore for a couple of days. The thigh was worse off and it was really only in the last couple of days that it cleared up.
Also have a bit of trouble in the right ankle, inner lower shins, somehow freezes when I don't move for a while.
Anyway, all good really, but gravity definitely has it in for me. Slipped on the wet pavement before the race today and hit the ground hard with the right upper thigh, but did not really notice until about halfway into the race. I blame it on old age...
By this morning the plan was to use it as a tempo run until the half way point at just under 4:30 and then see how I felt and take it from there. Apart from the stiff breeze from the Narrows onwards to UWA all was fine, so I just kept going. Took me 48 minutes for the first half and 46m 27secs for the second, so I even managed to turn up the tempo on the second half for a new pb of 1:34:27 (by 7 secs... and I set my pb at the C2S course last year which was more difficult and I was in better shape).
There were a lot of entrants, I am pretty sure must have been a record turn-out. The start was quite slow and painful and the puddles on and alongside the footpath were a bit of a pain. Lots of hooking left and right necessary. Took a little while to get across the start line and I lost about 45 secs on the first k just because of the crowd.
Tina Major won the women's race and she made a very important comment about her training, since she has just had another baby. Everything has to be well planned and she can't afford to just go out for a bit of a run as each and everyone counts. No junk miles (she didn't use the j word, but clearly that is what she had in mind). Goes for old fellas, too.
So for the next two weeks I hope that the ankle clears up and I'll give myself rest with one other good interval session and otherwise short tempo runs and strides.
I'm not sure I have the base to do 3:20, but I'll look at beating the Berlin time of 3:26. Need to work on the nutrition plan, too.

Humpty Dumpty becomes a Centurion

Well, what a couple of weeks it has been.

Last week was nothing to write home about. The first couple of days I was very busy at work due to taking off three days on camp in the second part. Felt a bit fluey and having a young boy who does sports and gets in contact with those western suburb bubble kids I thought I'd hold back.

Anyway, got one run in all week and after we got back from Waroona (boy, it gets cold there - the windchill is off the scale) it took me two days to warm up.

But I was rested and was looking forward to a good week before going into taper:
Monday - Tempo 21.93 at 3:20 MP HR 153
Tuesday Recovery/Medium Long 15:41 HR 137 - managed to stop Epi as he was flying past me - boy, is he fast!
Wednesday - Rest for the old bones;
Thursday - Intervals 400 to 1600 pyramid, decent improvement over the last lot two weeks ago, but the quads were sore afterwards;
Friday - Rest for the old muscles;
Saturday - Long run 35.22k HR 136 - quads were still sore but otherwise was feeling very good. Tripped at Lovers' Lane in Peppy Grove at 12ks and got pretty smashed up, right knee and hands all bloody, bruised left thigh, arm and shoulder but wasn't going to let that stop me.
All I thought was how much I hate hitting the ground and if it wasn't going to kill me it would make me strong. Going home was going to be 12ks anyway, so I might as well do the further 23k I had intended. I did get some odd looks running up Cottesloe with the right leg and hands all bloody... Forerunner looks like the dog had chewed on it, but seems to be working alright.
Mentally I was feeling much better than two weeks ago and apart from the pain of the fall itself, I felt comfortable and quite strong to the end.
Sunday: Had to work and was quite sore all over (quite apart from the supporating sores). I thought I would just go out for an easy run to see which bits were about to fall apart. But nothing did!
By the time I was at UWA I felt like giving it a push and went below MP to the Bells and back. Easy cool down home again and presto: 100.28k for the week.
Right knee needs a bit of attention and left thigh and shoulder are also still sore, but otherwise everything is working quite nicely.

Now to the hard part: taper. Will do the HM on Sunday and at least one heavy interval session, otherwise just put in a couple of runs looking for a good turnover.

Who's in for carbo loading on Independence Day?