Catching Up

Lots of stuff since my last entry! And the Rotto Marathon has come and gone.

Ten days ago, I started with an entry like this:

"A couple of times I nearly dropped the bundle as there were days when I just couldn't get the motivation together to tie the shoes and head off.
The long runs were not such a problem, plenty of motivation to get up early and get out there for a number of hours.

The best one was the round the bridges run. I thought it would be just marathon distance, but it turned out to be 48ks. All went well apart from the rain on the way back and the resulting wet shoes that just went squish, squish.

I even had enough energy left to do a burst up Mount Street.

The distance is no problem, but the speed might be. I'm not going to set myself a target of 3:30, rather something around 3:45. I will need to make the assessment once I see what the weather is like and I really should take a ride around the big lap to assess the hills.
At this point the forecast is fine and humid between 15 and 25C. That might just be a bit warm....
I left out some of the speed sessions, but I figure that they are less of a priority than the long runs. The hill training suffered a bit, too, but still feel I am reasonably prepared.

Last weekend I did a run of 24ks and that was crap. The main problem was however that I just could not focus."

So, ten days later and I am feeling much better about myself.

Apart from leaving all the printed out pace charts at home (d'oh), the preparation was excellent. I had figured out where I wanted my drinks and set myself a target of 3:45 or a 5:20k/min average.

Trouble is of course that with all the hills and the wind at Rotto, you just can't run on a kilometre average alone.

I tried nonetheless and found that in the first ks I was going too fast, so had to concentrate to go slower. I managed that somehow, but I still went through the half some six minutes faster than I wanted, ie. 1:48 instead of 1:54. Now that split presupposed that I would manage a negative split, but you can forget about that one. However, the second half I did in 1:52, so that is not too far off and certainly not as bad as the Perth Marathon where I did a 1:45/2:14 split. So this time I did it in 3:40 and boy, was I chuffed. Next one 3:30! That is however probably going to be the Perth Marathon, so that should be quite flat and fast.
I now know that I stuffed up badly at Perth with taking far too little carbs on the way through. This time I took Hornet Juice in Gatorade as recommended, before and placed them at stations 5, 1 and 2 and also took a GU at 16k, 26, and 36k. That worked really well. GU tastes like cr.p like all the other stuff, but at least they're very small sachets, so you can gulp them down quickly. Then a gulp of water at the stations, a bit into the hat and off we went. 

The weather was quite good, mid-tens, overcast, a bit humid, but otherwise very pleasant. I really liked Rotto and so did the others. They did the 5k and we have already booked for next year. Then they'll do the 10k so they can take in the scenery of the entire lap.

Recovery has been good, too. Put the skins on after the race and did not really take them off until yesterday evening, except for a couple of hours on Monday, when I went on a 24k bike ride to loosen up the muscles. That really worked. 

The next project is the 6-inch on 17 December between North Dandalup and Dwellingup. As I am going camping this weekend at Lane Pool, I'll check out the Munda Biddi track, certainly south of Dwellingup. I'll also look at the intersections of the track with Del Park Road, to see where support could be located.

C2S, Perth HM and new ventures

The last few weeks have been pretty good. 

First, I slowly recovered from the anterior tibial tendonitis. Could not really force it but with time and lots of patience it sorted itself out. A niggle stayed for a while but in the last two weeks, it has been perfect.

Then, the City to Surf was excellent. I was in the B Group pretty much at the front. Whilst the hill up to Kings Park was crowded (and the HRM strap decided to come loose and I nearly lost it), the rest was quite cruisy. I thought it was all painless until we got to City Beach oval and there is this small dip into the oval - had it all figured out in my head and went according to plan, but forgot about that one. Didn't have a problem with the burning sausages greeting the sweaty runners. But somehow the stretch around the stalls to the finish line was longer than last year.
Gun time 52:50, net time 52:30, who's complaining. Certainly not me.

The following Sunday the Perth Half Marathon was on the menu. Again, gorgeous weather. Tons of participants, I found out later that the participation was a record since 1991 (which was apparently the height of the running boom in WA). I planned on trying to keep a 4:30 pace and that was quite fine until the turning point at UWA. Then I fell into a hole and felt like treading water until the Brewery. From there on I was fine, but nevertheless not as quick as I should have been. I was sure I was not going to make the 1:35, but was still surprised when I missed my goal by more than a minute. 
Still a PB, so once again, who's complaining.

In the past few weeks I had started riding my bike to work and got back into the swing of things, a bit like 25 years' worth of time travel.
But the old bike just isn't up to decent biking which means that a new one has to be found:
I am now the proud owner of a Giant TCR C1 that rides and handles like a dream.
Only got it yesterday and have taken a half an hour ride in Kings Park, but I'm hooked. 
So, what's next, maybe triathlon, we'll see. For now I'll just get used to the clipless pedals and do the Rotto Marathon.
The training is coming along nicely with hill training at Reabold Hill earlier in the week and 33k long and slow (average HR 133 = 65%) today.
Hopefully the weather is nice tomorrow so I can go for a spin on the bike.

Upnupnup

Another week laid up with the right foot pain turning out to be anterior tibial tendonitis. Lots of massage and by yesterday I went on an easy run into Kings Park with Anna and Flo again as supporting cyclist.

No problem at all and since I'll have to go to Bunbury early tomorrow, I went off again this afternoon. With Rotto having quite a few hills, I did an easy warm-up to Mount Street and a number of repetitions up and down with a quick detour over Jacob's ladder.

Feeling quite good about the effort with no niggles at all, I'm now looking forward to finish the Bunbury job hopefully by Tuesday and then get into a normal regime again.

All bad things come in threes or fours or whatever

Last week was a complete write-off, as I could not get out for a run until today because of this bug I picked up.
By this morning I thought I would be ok and set off for 25k to the river and the beach at 5am.
So the lack of training was problem no.1.
Problem no. 2 was the fact that the Polar's battery gave up and therefore I had to make it ready to send it away to replace the battery. What a cumbersome system to have to send it to SA to have a battery changed. Not very consumerfriendly!
The third problem came with the top of the right foot starting to hurt like hell within 15 minutes of setting off. 
Numerous breaks to change the lacing did not make much of a difference.
The whole run was very painful and in any event after 20k I was pretty much shot. Haven't felt like that for a long time, excluding the marathon.
Oh yes, the fourth thing: tinea cruris, or jock itch. How painful is that and certainly not a good idea when running distances.
After trundling home for breakfast (after nearly three hours!), I had a short sleep and then Anna wanted to run around Lake Monger with Flo doing the support on his bike. 
Despite the pain in the right foot, I donned the new Frees and went along with them. Quite slowly, but relaxing and in the end I felt there was still some running in me left.
A rest day tomorrow and then intervals on Tuesday.

Run for Gold

The plan with taking some time off did not work out at all. I had to front up and do odd little bits here and there breaking up my week. I then wanted to take tomorrow off as well, but hey, something else came up.

I really need to go out of the country to get away from it all...

On the bright side, I did the 10k Run for Gold and Anna came along and did her first race, the 5k. She got through in just over 35 mins which is excellent.

I managed 45 mins and I am quite happy with it, especially since I had not trained for it at all and looked at it as a tempo run more than anything else.

Had a slow start and latched on to this old guy in the green T-shirt. By the Claisebrook bridge he folded and I went off on my own, keeping a steady pace.

I managed to get a copy of SERIOUS training for the endurance athlete earlier in the week and have been putting a more scientific touch on my training plan.

The swimming has already improved and helped my core stability. Right now it's all coming together nicely.

Good, good, as Simon would say.

Another Week, another Gadget

I have been thinking of getting a Forerunner 305 to replace my trusty 101 and the Polar F11 HRM, but now as Garmin are sooo slow with getting their Mac software out, I will hold back.
Instead I am getting a new MacBook tomorrow and have invested in this new software to keep myself better organised. 

I can even post a blog straight out of it.

So here we go.

This week, I'll spend only a few hours working and otherwise, I'll relax, read, spend time with the kids, run and swim.

More later.....

Easy does it

Knowing a few other runners is making a difference, if only because of the encouragement I'm getting. So thanks TB & Epi for your comments.
Last week I laid off entirely, but by Saturday I couldn't sit still. So I went out for an easy 15ks on Saturday only to come back with an unknown pulling pain on the outside of my right hip. That stayed until late Sunday and started to worry me.
Nevertheless, I started drawing up a plan to prepare for Rottnest along the FIRST program, bearing in mind that at my age (come on guys, I was the oldest at the table!) injuries come by much quicker. The only thing that's not quick is me.
Anyway, I've got only three fixed running days, one for intervals, one tempo and one long run and the others I'll use for rest or cross-training (although I suspect I might pop in the odd run).
Tuesday's interval was good, with just a bit of pulling in the hip. I was of course mindful not to overdo it and the times were not flash.
I also assume that running a marathon does turn your muscles into mush as they still do not feel as strong and responsive as they did before the marathon.
Yesterday, I went to Bold Park at 6am (freezing) and did an easy 1.5ks. I still marvel how fast these other guys can go.
And today was the tempo run through Kings Park, which I made a bit more interesting by including five runs up Mount Street to have some hill training included.
The hip is fine.
So tomorrow I plan to hit the water again for 1.6ks and I want to build that up over the next couple of weeks to 2 - 2.5ks.
Next week, I'll take a few days off and will have a bit more time to enjoy the running, rather than to have to rush it in the morning as I do now.
Being school holidays no-one in my household gets up before 7 anyway, so I'm the lone ranger anyway - well, apart from the dog and the cat, but they're no use as far as running goes.

One down and hopefully many to go

My legs are still terribly sore, but my spirits are up after finishing my first marathon yesterday - Perth 2006.
I set myself the priorities of starting, finishing, 4 hours, 3:45 and 3:30 (given my performance at the Freo Half three weeks ago).
Coming in at 3:58 I managed three out of five, which is not all too bad.
I set my trusty Fred to 3:30 always intending to fall behind in the first ks to make sure I did not go out too fast.
In the end I probably did anyway as by 32k my thighs just seized up. So the last ks were slow and hard going and many people passed me (not just those fresh guys running the relay!).
Up until then, I was going really well at 5m/k and just on target, but then it fell apart. I thought I had taken enough glucose, but obviously not so.
Epi's graph on his blog looked like mine, just a bit faster, but then he also had a very tough lead up to the race. Here's my comment to his blog.

"Epi -

I didn't realise until today what sort of a horrible lead-up you've had. That makes your effort even greater. Well done!
Pity you couldn't hang on to the cracking pace you set at the beginning.
I think our stories are pretty similar, certainly the graphs look alike with the only difference that my pace was always between 30 & 45 secs slower.
Since yesterday I have been trying to figure out what happened and it may just have been a case of hypoglycaemia. In hindsight I probably did take too little glucose on the way, respectively when it was already too late.
My reading of Noakes last night certainly seems to support that.
Although I certainly wasn't thinking this way after 32k, the experience has made me more determined to prepare better for the Rotto Marathon. Lots of hill work, too!
All the best, Henry"

I'm just waiting for the soreness to go away and then I'll be off and running again.

Rottnest, here I come.

Getting there

Here we are. The entry form for the marathon is filled in and almost ready to be sent off.

I had a truly great 36.5k long run on Saturday morning, paced myself well and felt good including towards the end.
I wore the skins and put them on again for a few hours afterwards. They seemed to work quite well. After the HM it took a couple of days to get rid of the soreness, but with the skins I was ok on Saturday evening. Admitted, not quite the same intensity, but if it works why not.
Next question is, should I wear the skins for the marathon as well?

This morning I did a 3x 1600m interval, trying to do the mile in 7 mins. 6:48, 7:11 and 7:10 was the result. Not quite what I had in mind, but very close.
The trial for next week has fallen out so I'll need to find something else to keep my mind occupied. More meditation maybe? Or I could take the bike and ride over the course. That would be an excellent idea!

New Beginnings

I just couldn't get up this morning and even an excited Bernese Mountain Dog pup (aka Madi) licking my face couldn't convince me to get up. So, there went the early morning 6k tempo run I was due to do today.
So I tried a new approach and packed a bag with gear to go for a run after a conference at Chambers - and I did.
A full trot around Kings Park, couple of ks to warm up, then 6k tempo at a good 4:30 average and a fast 4k back. Excellent.
Better even that the shower actually worked.
I am growing somewhat apprehensive about the Marathon. I have been reading too much about other people's times etc and am not sure what to expect especially as far as the time is concerned.
I suppose I should focus more on running a good race, with the head so I pace myself properly.
Saturday will be crunch time with the last long run of 32k on the menu.
I know it's rather late in the overall training regime with only two weeks of taper. But that'll have to do.
Going back to the running from the office, it just takes a bit of organising and an hour (or so) - time which I frequently just squander anyway. I might as well make something of it.

Exposure

Er, here we go.
Having read plenty of blogs, it's my turn now, without being too self-conscious about it.
If I want to reach goals, I have to be willing to set them out in front of me.
Sunday's Half Marathon was a good experience even though I have been hurting since, although I expect to be fine tomorrow.
This morning's interval session was not too punishing after all and loosened me up, but I know I definitely have to do more speedwork to avoid having to spend too much time on any distance I want to tackle.
Going back to Sunday - after last year's HM at 1:45 I was looking at bettering that time and was hoping to do 1:40. I figured I'd do the first three ks at 5:00 and then increase speed to about 4:40 to end up with an average of 4:44 to get to 1:40 spot-on.
Anyway, best laid plans and so on.
Despite knowing about the hype and not pushing, I got entangled in the maelstrom at the start and did the first k at 4:22 - I don't think I've ever run that fast in my life! Then I tried to get slower, but just couldn't manage.
Anyway, I hovered around the 4:35 mark till about k15 when I started suffering - predictable, eh?! So the last 6 ks were agony and the pace dropped to 5:00 for a couple of ks. I managed to pick myself up for the last two and ended up with 1:37:xx (can't remember the seconds and they have not been posted yet - but who cares). I was stoked!
By the same token I was really annoyed with myself for having gone out way too fast. Ah and yes, I had my GU+ in my fuelbelt, but the raspberry one tasted like crap and the orange was ok but was too gooey and I couldn't suck any out of the bottle. So no wonder I hit the wall.
Nevertheless, the experience was good in the sense that I can now plan much better for the Marathon in 2.5 weeks.
What's the saying: first third you run with your head, the second with your heart and the third with your guts.
I'll have to remember the head bit!
So the plan is to do the Marathon in 3:30:00 - sorry, I'll take back.
Again, in order of priorities:

1. Get to the start;
2. Start;
3. Finish;
4. Finish sub 4h;
5. Finish sub 3:45;
6. Finish sub 3:30.

& oh yeah, somewhere in there also: survive.
Then the next race will be the City to Surf (27/8 I think), then the Perth Half (sometime in September) and then the Veni, Vidi, Vomi Rottnest Marathon on 21/10.
Despite the memories of puking last year, I am looking forward to this one as after all, the kids are going to come along!
So, tonight, I might stay up to watch the match Switzerland v France and tomorrow morning I might go for a swim at 6am.
Then to Court for the callover and after that, well, we'll see.