Is Fred dead?

As predicted, whilst being the start of the taper, this last week was still "heavy" in my books. Total of 58.6ks.

After intervals at the start of the week, I even managed to do two MP sessions totalling 20ks on Thursday.

I then followed that up with a 25k tempo run (ie. 4:56/k) yesterday morning. The intention was to sharpen up the tempo to just under MP and I well and truly managed that. So, guess what, I'm really happy.

Well, if it wasn't for Fred, the Forerunner. Charged him full on Friday, but come Saturday am, he was not even blinking. Put him on the charger and after a while he woke up to say battery empty! Fortunately, I still have the old Fred 101 and he was ready to go with enough battery power (particularly as it was 4:45am and if I had to look for batteries, I would have woken up just about everyone in the house and not been very popular for the rest of the day).

So whilst I could not download the results and clearly the 101 is not as accurate as the 305, he did the trick.

Now the strange thing is that after charging the 305 all day and taking him off last night, he is fully charged today.

Beats me what happened. Maybe Fred just did not want to be woken up that early, was sick of my enthusiasm or whatever. But I will definitely take both with me to Canberra, just in case.

I also tried out the drinks and decided that I will go with that fashion statement of a FuelBelt (NOT!) after all.
I thought I could plonk a 330ml bottle into one of the pockets in a tri top (the idea being that Anna would hand me replacement bottles on the course), but it bounces around like bunny chased by a fox. I managed to stick it into one of the side pockets, which was not too great as imbalanced, but it got even worse as after 10ks I noticed that it had started to chafe my back.
I will see whether I can get better bottles for the belt as the ones that come with the FuelBelt are useless. At least I don't manage to drink out of them without looking like a three month old slobbering all over my front.
I also went to buy a couple of sachets of High 5 and whilst there is nothing disagreeable about it, I haven't quite figured out whether they will be serving the isotonic or the energy drink at Canberra.
In either case, my Endura/HJ mix covers me for both with the addition of a few gels. So I'll stick with that.

This week a few quick runs to keep the speed up and an easy 15 or 16k run on Saturday and that will be about it.

I won't do much week after next except for the 5k run on Saturday in which I'll just plod alongside Anna - she's not a speedster, so that will just loosen me up for the next morning.

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Yoho, here we go!

I am in a good mood, quite obviously!
Three weeks to Canberra and things seem to be clicking into place.
Looking at my mileage (what mileage?) I will be underdone, but at this stage I prefer that to having done too much and having risked burnout or worse, injury.
The last couple of weeks I average a mere 50ks a week and I know that is not much, but after battling with my head so often, I have now got over that hump and am very positive about it.

My base is solid (8 runs >30ks since the beginning of the year, peaking at 38ks) and the right knee is occasionally niggly, but no more than that on the run itself. A bit stiff during the day after a heavy run, but that is about it.

Yes, you guys will be specks in the distance (assuming I wear glasses), but that's ok. I am currently not setting the bar very high. If I manage to better my PB (3:38 - not much to work off, he, he), I'll be happy. If not, at least I will have a good base to work off for Perth.
And if I don't manage to break 3:30 there, I still have more than two months until Berlin.

I had a great 33.5k run on Saturday morning. I spent a little while on Friday working out the nutrition and it all worked out nicely on the run. All I need to do is transfer it onto the Canberra plan. I am fairly confident I can do a 5:10 average which should bring me home exactly on time.

I have spent more time on the Adistars and they are just wonderful. I have already ordered a second pair and will consign my other runners to gardening duties. Since I am a lousy gardener, I now have enough shoes to last me a lifetime.

So, now onto tapering.

I think I am going to give myself a comparatively heavy week this week, focussing on intervals and tempo with a short 20-25k run on Saturday.

Next week I plan on doing short but quick bursts and throw in some riding and possibly some swimming. An easy long run of less than 20k on the Saturday should then round it all off, apart from some Fartlek runs in the week before the marathon.
I think that should do it.

Lots of sleep, too.

Workwise, it also seems to fall into place. One trial next week and otherwise just small stuff.

Onya guys, we'll have a blast!

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Oh, boy!

What a weird two weeks it has been.
I felt so deflated last weekend I did not even feel like blogging.
Whilst I managed something like 68ks for the week, a record for quite some time, I had real trouble keeping it all together.
To make matters worse, this week the right knee played up so I just let everything go until Friday. By then I had got to the point where the head was ticking right again and I dashed up the DNA tower a few times just to get the week out of the system.
Yesterday I took stock and figured that maybe, despite the fact that I have about as many runners as Imelda had shoes, all of them were worn out - except for the Trance that keep giving me little blisters whenever I go beyond 30k.
So, I reviewed what the podiatrist said and went over to Bob and Jan and pulled apart their shelves. I tried about six pair in different combinations and Phil started to shake his head.
Anyway, I came away with a new pair of Adistar Control and they are just fantastic. Softest but most stable ride ever!
So I went for run with junior, in preparation for the Canberra Kids Marathon and started to feel together again.
Today, I got up early and went round Kings Park, a good 13ks aerobic run. The knee is "still there", but tonight it feels much better, ie. not the twinges I've been having all week.

On a positive note, I went skydiving on Wednesday and managed to have good control in freefall, plus had a super sweet landing, tippy-toe and all, without any guidance at all. Wow! That felt good. Unfortunately however, I am so busy at work now that I won't be able to go back up to York for a couple of weeks.

I have found the entry forms and faxed them off today.
I see that there are currently a mere 7 entries in the marathon from WA, including Epi and Clown. Funny then that the three of us should decide to run it quite independently of each other.

Ok, back to work and let's see what the next week brings.
It'll be stressful all week, but I do hope that we'll finish before the five days the matter is listed for.

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