Fred is well and truly dead

Fred RIP.
Having tried all button combinations, reloaded all software and tried again, I have come to accept that Fred is dead. He does start up when plugged in on the cradle, but as soon as I take him off, he goes off.

I read up on a variety of sites, but there is no hope of it coming to life again. I suppose I could send it to Taiwan to have it checked out, but frankly, I don't think it's worth it.

He has served me well and held out to let me complete the Canberra Marathon with it. Well done, Fred!

So for now I am back to Fred Snr (the faithful one) and the Polar HRM. A bit cumbersome and not as accurate, but it will do for now.

For now is the time between now and when future "Fred" arrives. Silly as I am, I have ordered a brandspanking new Forerunner 405. It's not due out for another couple of weeks and I do hope that they have sorted out any teething problems.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a name for the new model?

Garmin is due to set up an Australian branch office in July, so that should make any warranty claims easier to deal with (boy, do I have confidence in the product...).

And otherwise in the news, I have recovered quite well from the Marathon. We spent another couple of days in Canberra and then three days in Sydney and did a fair amount of walking. That was painful at first, particularly up and down stairs and every time we started walking again after a break, but otherwise good to keep the muscles going.
The right knee was a bit painful at times, but this has settled down again.

Tomorrow I'll be starting with the road to Perth. A bit of speed work and I will also ride the bike to work.

Let's see whether I'll manage to break the 3:30 barrier in July!

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Operator Error & other unexpected stuff

The Canberra Marathon has come and gone and five hours later I have signed up for the Berlin Marathon. Before I put the knee to the test, I just was not game to sign up for the latter, even though the flights and accommodation are already booked.

I came in at 3:32 (new PB) and even though I did not break the 3:30 barrier, I am quite happy with today's result.

Just when we left the apartment, it started to drizzle and that continued for a while until about one hour into the race when it really poured down.

Soon after though, it stopped and the sun came out. I got a bit concerned that the humidity would make the race more difficult, but there was a breeze and in any event it stayed quite fresh, so the entire race was very pleasant, if not quite ideal at the beginning.

I started out probably a bit too fast, consistently just under 5m/k, except for the stretch up to Parliament House. At the back of it though I had found my stride and really enjoying it.

That was despite the fact that the bottles did not want to stay in the fuel belt, except for the one on the side, meaning that I ended up looking rather dopey with two bottles in my hands and that fashion statement of a fuel belt only holding one bottle!

I stuck to my nutritional plan, if not slavishly, at least quite close. At just under 14ks I had to rearrange my
glasses in the back pocket.

After that Fred had apparently conked out! I could still switch screens but otherwise nothing seemed to move. Oh bother! Fortunately I was running with Jonathan (#327) who was also aiming at 3:30 and he was happy to give me the splits.

It took me about 45 minutes to figure out that I must have hit the start button of Fred and whilst it was still working it was simply not recording. Serves me right for having changed the screens to only show pace and time elapsed etc. D'oh!

Not that it mattered, as I kept to a nice below 5m/k pace and was in line to end up at about 3:28.

Apart from struggling a bit with those couple of hills and ramps on the last lap - and also losing a bit of time pulling Jonathan along - after all, he had helped me out - suddenly, at 38ks, disaster: spasms in the muscles just below the right knee on the outside and I was limping. With that I lost considerable time, at least 2 minutes on those four ks.

And combined with the other time lost, this made the difference between coming in at 3:30 or not.

Nevertheless it was a good experience. The knee held up (my orthopod has now deserved a postcard) and had it not been for those spasms, it would have been ok. The only other trouble I had were stiff calves in the last ten ks which made those little hills a bit more of a challenge. But again, that's ok.

Having started just that bit fast, I was not looking for a negative split, and came it an 1:45 and 1:47 - given the above, that almost counts as an even split.

I took some time walking in the pool and later today will have a dip in the spa and a sauna.

By Tuesday I will be up and (ok, not quite) running again.

Congrats to Epi and Clown for easily doing the Boston qualifying time. Well done, guys, you put in the work and got the return.

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Ready, Set, ...

And Fred has just scared me again.

I just wanted to check on the average for one of my runs and guess what, Fred played dead again. I have managed to resurrect him again, but I'm really starting to worry.
Fortunately I have my back up plan, but I would like to use Fred as I have programmed him with the pace for each section to get there in 3:30 (3:30:05 to be exact, but that's good enough for me, too).

Otherwise, everything is looking good and the pieces are coming together.

On Monday I did a short speed session with the foot pod trying to stay within the magic 90-95. My natural pace seems to be around 83 but at 90-95 I should be able to do an average of just over 4:33/k. Is that maybe what I am or should be capable of? That would in fact be really nice. Over a marathon that would work out to a time of 3:12!

Tell him he must be dreamin' - right?! My Boston cut off is 3:20 I think.........

Anyway, that matters all very little now. Whilst I am excited about next Sunday, I won't be silly enough to throw out the plan I have concocted over a few months now. If I manage to break the 3:30, great, if not, Perth is still there, and Berlin as well.

I did another 10k tempo run on Wednesday with a comfortable 4:30 pace
and then a longish run of 16k yesterday at just under 5:30 pace. Lots
of fun despite the fact that it came pouring down just as I set out and
it took about 1k to fill my shoes with water.

So, let's go through the checklist:

Mind - check;
Pacechart - check;
Food and Drink - check;
Rest of gear - will be checked by Thursday.

Tomorrow I plan a short Conconi style speed session on the treadmill and then an easy run either Wednesday or Thursday (depending on the weather, if it's good on Wednesday, I'll go off to York to hurl myself out of a plane for kicks), travel Friday, 5k on Saturday with Anna and then.

Also, given the time difference and the fact that the race starts at 7, I will try to get up around 4:30am every morning (the emphasis at this point being on "try").

Are we gonna have fun or are we gonna have fun?!!

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