homo currens

Coming Out

2010-10-03T16:27:00.003+08:00

The title has a number of connotations:

- coming out of the fondue (see last post over a year ago);
- coming out of the house;
- coming out with one or more secrets I have kept in an imaginary closet.

Status:

Weight: 92.8kg
Bodyfat Pctge: 28.5%
HR: yes, it still beats
Last run: sometime in August '09 (I think)
Pace: you've got to be joking!

Even though it reads in the heading "Henry runs", none of that has been happening in the last twelve months.

I have done all sorts of things during that year apart from killing myself (although even that had been on my mind).

The Queen coined the phrase annus horribilis and that's what it has been for me. Am I over it? I really don't know, but when you're down the only way you can go is up.

I wandered on my very own event horizon and fortunately with the help of my family, my GP, my psychiatrist and last but not least, the pharmaceutical industry, I have been able to drag myself away from it so that, at least now, there seems to be little threat of being sucked into that black hole.

There are a number of reasons for that downfall, all too complex and in part too personal to mention, but one of them certainly was my obsessive nature and wanting to achieve all kinds of things in all sorts of areas, including running.

So whilst physical activity can provide release from stress, increase endorphin levels and so on, it can also cause illness.

I hope that this frightening experience has made me a better person. I don't think I am completely over it, nor do I think I can ever expect to be.

But according to my shrink I should get off the pills by 31 December, which is one sign of improvement.

Anti-depressants, happy pills, synaptic-tacs or whatever they are called have certainly helped, but overall for me they were rather mood-levellers, which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on which side of the happiness scale one sits on.

I definitely want to get off them.

And I want to get out and breathe in some fresh air and feel alive.

Fondue

2009-08-09T19:24:00.002+08:00

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

2009-08-06T19:44:00.002+08:00

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

2009-07-13T18:42:00.002+08:00

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

2009-07-05T14:27:00.003+08:00

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

2009-06-28T17:07:00.002+08:00

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

2009-06-21T13:11:00.003+08:00

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

2009-06-14T19:34:00.002+08:00

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?

Ave Moi and Happy Birthday to me

2009-05-31T12:48:00.002+08:00

Few weeks back we went to see Asterix at the Olympic Games and Alain Delon played Julius Caesar. He kept hitting his chest with his right fist and declared: "Ave moi!"
That's sums it up for me today. Total for the week: 91.08ks - new record.

At least today, as yesterday I was a bit in the doldrums. Whilst I did close to 35ks, I was really struggling for the first 28k - courtesy of having slept in on Thursday and not having time to do intervals until Friday. They really took it out of me and I was not happy yesterday morning.

Today's my birthday and I "celebrated" by doing a dash around Kings Park - 12ks in under an hour at level 2, no wonder I'm happy.

Monday: Hills (Mount St x 8) 13.42ks - mentally quite tough after about the sixth time staring at that hill;
Tuesday: Medium long run 18.64ks, of which 8ks <5min/ks quite comfortably - which is a possible MP. Quite a good effort considering I donated blood (platelets) in the morning;
Wednesday: Rest;
Thursday: Woke up to the alarm and promptly fell asleep again - busy at work and had my mind on other things anyway;
Friday: Intervals, ladder as last week 12.04ks;
Saturday: Long run 34.82ks;
Sunday: Felt like an easy run 12.15ks.

Next week will be easy. Wednesday to Friday I will be on camp with junior and I won't bother taking any running gear with me. I'm planning on doing close to 70ks and then another hard week before starting the taper.

I'm not committing to a goal time for the marathon just yet, but given that I still lack speed, I doubt I'll go for anything faster than 3:30. Let's see how I go in the half and then I'll assess it again.

Wet 'n' Wild

2009-05-24T19:19:00.002+08:00

Mmmmh, just typed up the blog and then it disappeared and even with auto-save I can't find it.

Will keep it short - same kind of program as last week, just with additional reps on Mount Street and Reabold Hill, extended the intervals to 400-800-1,200-1,600-1,200-800-400 and a longer long run.

Wussed out on Thursday, had to do the intervals on Friday and paid for it on Saturday's long run with very tired legs.

Total 81.18 ks for the week, the longest since August last year.

All systems go.

Nice going

2009-05-17T12:49:00.004+08:00

Couldn't think of another title, but it sums up the week.

I am now well underway to make a start at Perth in 7 weeks' time. I still don't trust my knees not to have a lend of me, but we'll just have to see.

The satisfying part of the week was that work was full-on (including a post-midnight stint) but I still got the planned training done:

Monday: Hills (Mount St x6) 11.35k
Tuesday: Medium long run incl. Reabold Hill x2 14.24k
Wednesday: Rest (I think I deserved that after getting to be at 1:30)
Thursday: Intervals as last week 10k
Friday: Tempo run 6.5k
Saturday: Long run 30.34k at 5.23/k ave HR 139

Felt comfortable on every run except warm ups when the joints are just a bit creaky (this is old age, Sling!) and the last 5ks on the long run.

Pity about daylight saving not being introduced, I'll have to get used to running in daylight in the morning...

Star Trek is better than surgery

2009-05-10T12:14:00.003+08:00

Way better. Go. See it. Awesome!

My fortunate 12 year old not only came to see it with me and his older brother on Thursday, he also got to see it again yesterday courtesy of one of his mates' birthday party. Boy, were we jealous.

Now to more prosaic things:

Week four in a four-weekly cycle means and reduced the mileage slightly, in effect by leaving out the tempo run on Friday. No riding this week either, although I had originally planned it. So that gave me another rest day on Wednesday. Total for the week 58.55k.
Monday: Hills (Mount Street x5) 10.75k
Tuesday: Medium longish at level 2 12k
Thursday: Intervals 400, 600, 800, 1200, 800, 600, 400, total 10k
Saturday: Long run 25.9k at 5:17 pace HR ave. 135 (previous week same course 5:21 pace HR ave 139).
And a brief session with weights in the gym after each run.
I am still shockingly slow but there is some improvement in the interval sessions.

The plan is pretty simple Monday hills, Tuesday medium long run, Wednesday ride or rest, Thursday intervals, Friday short tempo and Saturday long run. Sunday is always rest.

I'm not sure whether the sequence is right in the second part of the week, but I think if I don't overdo it with the tempo run I should be ok.

I won't do any races until the Perth Half and even then I'm more than likely going to do it at MP.

Live long and prosper!

Canned!

2009-05-02T21:38:00.003+08:00

The surgery that is.
Despite increasing the load this week yet again, I am having hardly any trouble with the knees and as a result cancelled the surgery.

Time will tell how long it is going to take until I need to schedule it again, but for now I am planning to build up to firstly do the Perth Half and then possibly the Perth Marathon as well.

This week I put together a total of 65k running, but no riding. This included intervals, hills, medium-long run, MP run and a long run of 26ks.

With a three week taper for the marathon I should be able to put in four runs at 30k plus.

The half is two weeks before the marathon and more than likely I will not race it but rather use it as a MP run.

So much for a plan - now I just wish Mr Murphy will leave me alone.

Stumped!

2009-04-27T19:53:00.002+08:00

After a slow start to the week (sore throat, runny nose), I was able to build up to a total of 60ks running and 30ks on the bike.

Trouble is though that both knees are travelling very nicely, in fact completely trouble-free.

Which then begs the question? What's the point of having surgery.

I'm just puzzled how bad it felt a month ago and yet I increased the mileage and it got better.

I'll give the orthopod a call tomorrow and then we'll see, but it looks as if I'm going to see Star Trek on the 7th, not the 8th!

Suggestions, ideas?

Slow blow-up

2009-04-19T11:25:00.002+08:00

Despite a significant increase in mileage, the troublesome knee is holding up quite well. It's slowly, but only slowly accumulating fluid.
I guess that means I will need the surgery, but it's really rather preventative and all things being equal, I might manage to keep the interruption to the training to a minimum.
Perth Marathon won't be possible, though.
This week's figures:
Running 57.46k at 5:14m/k and HR 140 (4 days)
Cycling 59.04k at 29.25k/h and HR 127 (2 days)
Weights on 4 days
Today is rest day.

Now just waiting to get Epi's result from Canberra.

Status Report

2009-04-13T14:10:00.002+08:00

To make it very clear, training-wise I have currently no idea what I am doing. I just go out there and enjoy myself.
A few weeks back I was in Albany for work and ran and rode a bit down there - very pleasant except that the wind seems to be coming from everywhere - usually the front.
Otherwise I have kept things quite easy and in return I am not having any knee trouble at the moment. With the surgery booked for 7 May (slight change in date - 27 April is public holiday), I feel like an absolute fraud.

Progress has been like this:
Week 23 March: Run 18.75k, Ride 45.33k;
Week 30 March: Run 32.36k, Ride 18.10k;
Week 6 April: Run 52.48k, Ride 15.7k.

Not sure where I'm going from here. Did an early morning run of 13.5k this morning and the knee is doing fine. A bit swollen, but not too bad. Nowhere near as bad as when I had it checked out.
I'm not even sure whether I want/need the op, but what I am certain is that if I cancel it, the knee will blow up within 5 seconds, Murphy's law.

Err, well, it was a week

2009-03-15T17:16:00.002+09:00

Not quite sure how I can follow "Challenging Week" and "Massive Week", so I'll just leave it at that.

Saw the orthopod on Tuesday and to my surprise he suggested we leave the MRI be and go in straightaway to fix it. Fine by me. Know what's wrong with it anyway.
Trouble is of course he is a busy boy, so to tie it in with my commitments, I am now booked for 27 April.

Even if I were to keep building up the ks now, I would not be ready for the Perth Marathon, so I'll leave that one out yet again.

But C2S is definitely on the cards as is Rotto.

The week was quite easy. As by Tuesday the left knee had blown up like a balloon I opted for rest during the remainder of the week and that was the right thing to do. It's now just marginally bigger than the right one.

In the weeks going up to the op I'll focus on just a bit of running, a fair amount of riding and will spend more time in the gym to build up the muscles supporting the knee. And yes, losing a bit of weight would be a great idea. Last time it worked wonders for my recovery, so I'll stick to that.

I had planned to watch the triathlon OD championship today but because it was my mum's last day here and I wanted to spend a bit more time with her (who knows whether the 80 year old girl will make the travel down here again), I only caught a few glimpses of the race.

Anyway, plans have to be made to improve in the swimming department and not being able to run in May will be just the ticket to get some proper coaching. Clown - are you in? Let me know.

Plodding along

2009-03-08T23:33:00.003+09:00

Yes, exactly that. Just keeping things ticking over to make sure I don't do too much damage for now.
Tuesday Run 11.27k @ 5:13 HR 144
Thursday Ride 17:08k @2:04 HR 120
Friday Run 15:34k @5:23 HR 142
Sunday Brick Ride 22:55 @2:05 HR 121, Run 6.6k @5:13 HR 134
On Thursday I also suffered my very first puncture, but I did not realise that until I pulled the bike out this morning at 5:30am. I suppose that's all part of the experience.
Knee is surprisingly good, if swollen, but of course I haven't really done anything serious.

More after Tuesday

Oh, just bugger it! aka every problem is an opportunity

2009-03-02T13:51:00.004+09:00

Eventually old age was going to catch up with me, again, or so I thought with my right knee going. But as it happens that one is fine but the left one now giving me grief.

After bumbling about for six weeks I dragged myself off on Tuesdday to the GP who just confirmed that the meniscus in that one looks pretty shot.

So off to the orthopod on 10/3 and presumably he'll want to see an MRI and will tell me that as long as I am not bothered, there is no need to go into it. Predictably, I will be bothered and will want to have it fixed.

That's the bad part, the good part is that having my fears confirmed, I thought to myself, well, bugger it, thinking that before the last surgery I did the Perth HM and the C2S on virtually no training and quite enjoyed it.

So I put a bit of mileage in this week:
Tuesday Run 13k @ 5:11 HR 144
Thursday Run 13k @ 5:18 HR 145
Friday Ride 22k @ 2:06 HR 125
Sunday Run 15.3k @ 5:25 HR 148
Today Ride 70k @ 2:17 HR 121

The heart rate for the runs is a bit high, more in endurance territory than base as it should be now, but I felt comfortable and just going out was more important than watching the heart rate all the time. As I ran in the evening, the humidity and heat did not really help either.

On Sunday I happened to run for a while with John Annear who is training for Ironman China and gave me a couple of useful tips re swimming traing (Clown, you will hear more about this). I have now been told he is a famous former West Coast Eagle and physio so I suspect he knows his stuff.

This morning's ride was a shocker - at least on the way down from Scarborough to South Fremantle - the wind was strong and blustery and a couple of times I feared I was going to be blown off the bike - that obviously did not help with the speed.

So, how's the knee: pretty good actually, well apart from being swollen and painful, but since it is a dull pain. As long as I don't extend or flex it and turn on it, it's quite bearable.

For now, I intend to keep up a decent run every second day with a ride thrown in here and there. Until I know exactly what is going to happen, I think I'll leave out anything heavy such as speed work and intervals.

In Brief

2009-01-11T20:10:00.001+09:00

In brief, the last two weeks have been utter nonsense.

Although I was taking time off from work, I was busy will all sorts of other stuff around the house (the renovating of the kids' rooms and frequent trips to Bunnings and Ikea being part of it), that I couldn't get my act together.

I won't even trouble myself adding up what I've done other than to note that the first four-week block of base training has passed.

Now that I am about to go back to work and have to adopt a more regular routine, I expect things to return to some state of normality. I've had to start working over the past few days and I've seen an improvement already with more regular runs and rides.

I haven't quite settled my plans for the year yet, although I know that the Australia Day Triathlon looks iffy.

On the other hand, Clown and Epi both are mumbling about Busselton IM in December and that is definitely something to work towards.

On a very bright note, Lucius is due back tomorrow night!

Taking a Break

2008-12-21T15:46:00.002+09:00

And I did.
I needed some rest after the effort in September and October and although I kept active a bit, there was no structure or plan behind it.
The niggles I was suffering from for a number of weeks have disappeared and as of last Monday, I am back in training.
The focus this year will be on triathlons with the first one being the Australia Day Triathlon at Point Walter on, well, Australia Day. From there on we'll see.
Much will depend on whether I finally manage to learn to swim comfortably, something which looks like an impossibility at present.
I am aiming at going for a swim three times a week, not for very long, but just to get used to it. Eventually I will probably need to get some coaching.
The riding is coming along quite nicely, I really enjoy that. It's also a lot easier as I can ride into work virtually any day I like - if I feel like it and am properly organised.
So this week looked as follows (all pretty much base training, except for swimming which included drills):
Monday: Run 33', Weights 15';
Tuesday: Run 60', Swim 40', Weights 15';
Wednesday: Ride 51';
Thursday: Swim 31';
Friday: Run 45', Weights 10';
Saturday: Run 60', Swim 40', Weights 5';
Sunday: Ride 106', Weights 10'.

Yes, I know, forgot the rest day....

Totals:
Swim: 91' 3.2ks
Ride: 157' 71.9ks
Run: 198' 37.2ks
Weights: 60'

Spirit of the Marathon

2008-11-02T14:49:00.003+09:00

Two posts today - I finally managed to upload the pix taken during the holidays, they are in the post below.

I'm not sure whether I should adopt a similar approach as Epi in naming my posts after movies, but today's definitely is (I'll mention Ironman later, but I have promised jnr to watch the DVD with him today - the one with Robert Downey Jr, that is).

We went to see Spirit of the Marathon today, a documentary about six people participating in the Chicago Marathon in 2005, two athletes, two marathon veterans and two newbies.

There is a bit of hype associated with the movie and I can't say it is inspirational. What it does, and does well, is to show that running a marathon has a lot to do with how one chooses to live life and what comes with it. It's about the journey, not just the finish.

There are a number of good moments, like the 70 year old who started running at 65 and has done a couple of marathons: "why do I run marathons? Cos of the T-Shirt, of course!" or the motivational speaker (whose name I forget) to the newbies on the morning of race day: "Don't rush it, remember, the longer you take, the more you get out of the money you spend on entering the race."

Some of the historical information is very interesting - especially how the first woman got to run the Boston Marathon - won't spoil it for anyone who wants to see the movie.

I think that someone who has run a marathon can easily identify with a lot of things that come up, but someone who has not, will not be inspired to do it, unless that thought has been lurking anyway.

My better half thought it was ok: she still does not understand why I do what I do and it did not make her get itchy to put her shoes on.

There are more inspirational films out there, the show on a number of people training for the Boston Marathon on ABC recently was similar and in parts better.

The non-plus-ultra remains "Running on the Sun" about Badwater. That is a captivating movie that makes you want to go out there and push yourself.

Now, about that.

I have not been pushing myself at all the last two weeks, just taking the time not do anything sports-related. I went for a ride a couple of days after the marathon, but that was it.

At Epi's suggestion I joined him and Clown for part of their long run today and that was good to get the system turning over again.

Still have to teach Clown the meaning of the word "slow" - a short, but very important word...

I hope I did not hold you guys up too much, no doubt you could indulge in some more speedy work on the remaining 20ks.

Thanks for dragging me along.

For my part, I must have overdone it a bit as on the way back my lower left leg started to cramp up and I had to walk for a fair bit. Not sure whether I'll join you next Sunday (you might be doing the Founder's 10 miler anyway).

At least I found the way out of Bold Park! That's a start, I suppose.

Over the next few days I will work out what I want to do the next season and how I am going to go about it. What I do know is that Six Inch is definitely out of the question.

Even without this morning stop and go incident, I was wondering all the way how I had managed to do a marathon only a couple of weeks ago.

Clown - thanks for letting me know about Sling Runner's Seoul effort - I am waiting to read his blog. A good effort given the limited preparation he had!

People, Castles and Lawnmowers

2008-10-20T15:11:00.022+08:00

As promised, here a few pictures:

The Holocaust Memorial in Berlin - no picture can describe the intense sadness and horror expressed

A look across

Inside

Race Day - The Swiss Embassy is right next to the Start Area!

What are these people doing heading into the woods?

Mmmmh... must be gathering to line up at the start.

Here's my start block - now how am I going to get over this fence??

I can see the start from 'ere!

The gun went off a few minutes ago, but we are still walking.

After about 5ks - still masses of people.

Finally, the running crowd is clearing - but wait, we're 400m from the finish. This is the picture I had been dreaming about, running through the Brandenburger Tor - awesome!

The following day still in Berlin, whilst passing through Unter den Linden (again, but at a leisurely pace) at the VW/Bugatti showroom - a real life Veyron (with a fan in front).

DDR - Museum - now that is a lawnmower!

Dresden - Altstadt and Neustadt with the Elbe upstream

Dresden - Elbe downstream - this guy is following me, I think!

Prague - the castle on the hill at night. Looks steep and made for hill training.

And during the day - still very steep.

The palace again, from the old town across the Vltava.

Charles Bridge - look, no tourists.

Castle Square - still no tourists (ok, it was 6am).

Nuremberg - another castle, another hill.

And the same at night - from our hotel room btw.

Rotto 2008 - just got my drink at k19, only 23 to go.

Rotto 2008 & a bit of other stuff

2008-10-19T14:58:00.005+08:00

I am sitting outside our villa on Thompson Bay looking over Gage Roads to the mainland, it's sunny, warm and the water displays all kinds of hues of blue. Pity these yachts are polluting the view...

I am still a bit overheated from this morning's effort, but all things considered, very happy.
3:32, down from 3:38 two years ago and with that, the fifth PB for the year. I think I deserve a break.
Yes, it was probably mad to do yet another marathon three weeks from the last one, but since I had no aspirations, all I wanted to do is finish without doing any damage.
The left thigh had given me a bit of a funny muscular pain over the past three weeks, so I was guarded about that. Otherwise I told myself to go out there and just push myself as much as I felt comfortable at the time.
Predictably, I set myself up not to be able to do an even or let alone a negative split.
Despite the hills I did the first half in 1:42 and then the second in 1:50. Not really impressive, but quite ok in the circumstances.
Taking just six minutes longer than in Berlin is actually not bad considering the hills here and also the fact that in the three weeks since Berlin I managed to put on 3kgs weight (not pretty, I know).
Which brings me to the next topic: what happened since Berlin.
Before I go there, I will put on a post about Berlin separately with the pictures. They are at home at present.
This is going to turn into a bit of a travel blog with the odd run thrown in. I should add that we generally don't go for fancy accommodation and have in the past backpacked through Europe with the kids staying at youth hostels and deliberately not in the "better" areas, using only public transport and cooking our own meals as much as possible. Also, the kids have had only so much of the required attention span to survive museums, so the usual "things to look at" have never been high on our list. This has allowed us to see more of how people live or have lived in the places we have visited.
So, a couple of days after the Berlin Marathon we took the train to the famed Dresden.
It's pretty alright, but considering that apart from a few rocks and the fortress everything was either bombed to bits in WWII or worse, removed during the cold war and replaced with usually asbestos-infested atrocities, the beautiful old buildings are actually brand-spanking new (ok, the opera is 20 years old).
And with the money the poor people in the West are required to pour into the East, they are building even more old buildings.
What is obvious is that during the generation that part of Germany lived the "real-existing socialism" (euphemism for those in power getting in all and the rest of the population being treated like mushrooms), the people lost all relationship to that part of their history and they are having trouble identifying with it at the same time as having to deal with the ogling tourists.
I somehow got the impression that the socialist experience made many people into zombies and the twenty years since the "Wende" have not (yet, hopefully) removed the scars.
Maybe I am a bit harsh and I am aware that the tourist guides claim that the Saxons are a bit reserved. That may be so if they have to speak English, but not the impression I got when speaking German.
Anyway, the point is: we won't go back to Dresden to see Dresden again. It's like Legoland for adults.
I must say though that I went for a couple of runs whilst we were there up and down the edge of the Elbe and through the old parts of town and that was very enjoyable.
Especially since the only persons out and about were locals going about their daily chores.
Likewise, the surrounding countryside is awesome and there is plenty of decent hiking to be done.
We went to look at the fortress which is great example of the development of fortifications over the centuries. Because of the city's location they just missed out on the further improvements developed by the French in the 18th century (if anyone is interested, go to Solothurn in Switzerland, where part of the Vauban-designed fortifications are still in existence).
We also visited the DDR-Museum in a suburb of Dresden. Generally I should say that the suburbs are reasonably well in order and apart from factories, resemble West-German towns pretty much.
Anyway, the DDR-Museum: spread over four floors (soon five) there are various facets of life in the GDR. Having grown up in the sixties and seventies in Switzerland, both Anna and I found that a lot of things were pretty much the same as we knew them (furniture, electrical goods etc - with the exception of cars and other powered equipment such as motorbikes and lawnmowers, much of which was out of reach of ordinary persons, so they built them themselves - I have a good example in a picture) - the trouble being of course that in the GDR the things shown were standard at the time the wall fell, ie some twenty years after we had grown up with them.
There were also plenty of explanations on how certain things were run in everyday life, how the people were controlled and so on. Well worth a visit.

Next on the itinerary was Prague: compared to Dresden these guys are just so lucky that they were outside the range of the American bombers. Yes, apparently the communists let pretty much everything fall into disrepair, but now there is hardly a building that has not been restored to its former glory.
And, boy, are these guys proud of who they are and what they are. Having said that, some people still seem to find the concept of tourists coming and invading their city a bit strange and overwhelming, but generally they take those hordes in their stride and milk them for what it's worth. A bit like Venice, both in terms of tourist numbers and locals' attitude to them, just with a bit less water surrounding them.
Because Prague was more of an afterthought in our travel plans, although we had been talking about going there for the last twenty years, we only had two nights there.
That meant we only got a bit of a taste of what there is to experience.
We did not spend enough time in the Castle, but spent considerable time around the Jewish quarter. Inasmuch as it has not been left in its original state (synagogues and the cemetery) it was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century and resembles Zurich pretty much. No surprises given that many of the ostentatious buildings in Zurich (eg Bahnhofstrasse) were built at around the same time.
Unfortunately, we did not go into the Jewish quarter on the day we arrived, but went the next, which was a Saturday, so the synagogues and the cemetery were obviously closed. I'm still kicking myself for not working this out earlier.
We were staying at a hotel next to the Wallenstein Palace at the bottom of the castle (if anyone wants to know, Hotel Waldstein, can be recommended, we won't hesitate to go back there next time), a bit away from the main tourist drags, but close to the castle and still no more than ten minutes into the old town across Charles Bridge.
As during the day the bridge is crowded, I headed off for a run on our last day early in the morning, hoping for a picture without any tourists. A couple of tired cops walking the beat, two or three couples walking home or kissing each other good-bye at the tram stop and the compulsory couple of blokes dragging themselves home was all I encountered. So I got my picture although it was still dark and hence, you won't be able to see much.
Still, happy with that I ran up to the castle once, twice (there were the dozing cops again) and a third time for a decent hill work-out (obviously planning ahead for Rottnest).
We will be back and I will do more hill training. It's steep but can be recommended, just be careful on the way down, cobblestones can be tricky.

Then it was off to Nuremberg. We had been here during our last backpacking adventure five years ago when we stayed at the youth hostel in the former imperial stables of the castle. This time we opted for a hotel in the middle of the old town, not sure why, probably because Anna did not fancy the climb up to the castle again.
It's a great, warm city. Yes, except for the castle itself the old town was pretty much flattened by the Yanks (who had (had?) a reputation for not being very selective in their targeting and flattening anything that moved or did not move - quite different from the British who had this thing called aiming device in their planes). But, rather than wiping everything connected with pre-1945 from the earth, the West-Germans have had this need to on one hand appreciate their past and on the other understand what went wrong after WWI. Which is quite different to the East, where everything not destroyed in WWII was flattened with the Soviet equivalent of a D9 and anything to do with the past was evil anyway.
Sometimes the Germans are a bit tedious with their "Vergangenheitsbewältigung" (getting over the past), but on the other hand, they are committed to not letting "it" happen again. No wonder Bush gets such a bad rap there.
Nuremberg in fact is a good example of how to go about it. Apart from rebuilding the old town in part as it was prior to the bombings, the city had to contend with Hitler's megalomanic idea of creating the world's biggest stadium (for 400,000 people, yes, 400,000!), convention stadium, rally complex (as in people rallies), all known as the Reichsparteigelände. Only a small part had been completed, but what is left is enough to get an idea of how the individuals were made into just little specks of dust.
I went for a run early one morning (it was still dark) towards the Reichsparteigelände and suddenly the sky in front of me turned pitch-black. It took me a moment to realise that I had reached the Convention Centre in the darkness. I was quite taken aback as the building is huge as it is, some 30m or so high, but when finished should have been double that height.
This is in fact the only building that was half-way finished and now houses the Dokuzentrum Reichsparteigelände, which I suppose is a better name than museum. An absolute must-see in terms of understanding what went on and making the threat of totalitarianism. Which could bring us back to Bush (but then I'd have to go into Naomi Wolf's book Letter to a Patriot).
On the way back I did some more hill work, predictably up to the imperial castle.
Then it was off to our last stop Zurich, where we stayed at Anna's parents' place. They live just underneath the peak of the "house-mountain" of Zurich, the Uetliberg. From their place it's about 300m as the crow flies to the top and almost exactly 350m vertically.
Whenever I'm there, I just have to run up there and did so twice, obviously taking a longer way, at least going up. It's about 5.5ks which I managed to do in 35 minutes (10m altitude per minute, not bad for an old codger). The way down was about 1k and took me only 10 minutes, but was very steep and quite slippery, so I fell and strained a muscle in my arm.
So, that's that.
I am pleased to say that it is now just past 4:30 and apart from two yachts, all the other ones have left, giving me an almost uninterrupted view. Excellent! We're not going back till tomorrow morning.
More when I have the pictures at my fingertips (if you have actually managed to read to this point....).

Berlin Marathon

2008-09-30T17:32:00.003+08:00

Just sitting at the Berlin Main Train Station waiting for the train to Dresden to depart and taking the opportunity of an update. Here what I emailed to Epi and Clown after the marathon on Sunday:
Guys - thanks for you texts, not quite what I had aspired to (despite the senility bonus), but still a PB and under 3:30, so I'm happy. Right now I am back in our apartment after a shower and with my feet up and am giving you the heads up on the next blog which I will get to when I get to an internet cafe.
Anyway, as you could tell from the sms I was spot on track for 3:20 at the HM mark, but then it all fell apart a bit.
From about 24k I was starting to get stomach cramps and felt like throwing up a couple of times. That lasted for pretty much the rest of the race, except for when I had what felt like a stitch but further up right underneath the right ribcage. Anna thinks it's a gallbladder problem, and I have experienced a few times before over the last month, so will need to have it checked out. Also, I think I was a bit underdone in the long runs and generally the last month was a bit of a disaster trainingwise.
Anyway, I don't think I went in too hard in the first half as I did not blow up. I set the 405 to keep me on track at 4:42/k which is 1% off, but proved to be correct overall. Now I just have to figure out (yes, at my age and a degree notwithstanding) how to press the bl...dy button properly at the finish.
Having said that, although the organisation left a few things to be desired (racenumber collection and crowd management today), within minutes of finishing you could get an interim certificate with the splits:
5k: 23:58 - 4:48/k average
10k: 47:43 - 4:45/k ave from prev split
15k: 1:11:15 - 4:42/k
20k: 1:35:00 - 4:45/k
25k: 1:58:55 - 4:48/k
30k: 2:23:20 - 4:54/k
35k: 2:48:51 - 5:06/k
40k: 3:15:07 - 5:15/k
42.195: 3:26:12 - 5:04/k
I liked the sms system, not that it made any difference to me but Anna and the kids were following me by U-& S-Bahn and found the going tough. At least this way they knew I was still in it: did you notice the note at the bottom of the HM notice: laeuft noch: still running - very funny indeed.
Pretty much congested with everyone else having this great idea. Anna is now an expert on the Berlin Public Transport system!
Now, this morning it was REALLY crowded. I waa about 200m from the start line and it took me exactly 4 minutes to cross it.
As promised I have taken some pictures which I will put up on my blog eventually. It's not that easy taking pictures when running, a couple of odd angles and the shakes, but it was well worth having the camera with me.
On a very positive note, although both knee and heel are sore now, neither gave me any trouble today. I was getting a bit of a sore knee in the last few weeks so I was a bit worried about it.
Ok, that's it for now. On Tuesday we are off to Dresden, then Prague, Nuernberg & lastly Zuerich. Unfortunately the Dalai Lama had to cancel the teachings in Switzerland for which we had tickets, but Anna and I will find something to do (a run in the mountains? Haha!)
PS: Sorry about any typos, the keyboard on my phone was designed by someone whose hands were the size of a mouse's.
Two days on and whilst I feel I should have been able to push more, I realise I am only saying that as the cramps have long gone. Anyway, I should also mention that I have hardly been sore and we were trapsing around Berlin yesterday as if nothing special had been done on Sunday. Both knees were a bit unstable on Sunday and occasionally yesterday (strangely the left one more so than the right), but otherwise, I felt worse after the C2S HM four weeks ago. How about that?!
Ok, I will now take it very easy and not do much until we're back. Rottnest is still on but I just plan to cruise there if I feel like doing it. Doing 3:30 again would just be nice.

Easy does it, too

2008-09-24T20:46:00.002+08:00

Just a short update, given that I did not get to put up any lines just prior to leaving:
The last week was a real horror as I was really busy at work and did not find the time to go out for any taper-specific runs.
Finally on Thursday we settled the last trial before the holidays and I went straight home and hammered a good 7ks at 4:30 - probably too fast, but mentally I just needed it.
I worked till midnight and in return did not have to go back to work on Friday and could sattle the bike for a brick session, first an easy 30k in an hour on the bike and then another 14ks in about 1:15 (haven't even worked out what average that makes).
Packing, off to the airport for the usual pleasure of cattle class. Arrived in Dusseldorf on Saturday afternoon and had a great dinner with fresh wild boar (felt like Obelix - which will become a recurring theme these holidays).
Sunday morning a good 13ks along the Rhine in very pleasant running weather. The conditions here are just phantastic, runners have it good.
Monday we were off to Hamburg and for the next 1.5 days we were exploring the sights, so had enough time on my feet.
This morning, another 12ks at marathon pace around the Aeussere Alster, a real runners' mekka, quite a few people out there at 6:30. Again, very good conditions, a bit windy.
We are off to Berlin tomorrow and that means an easy run, maybe even down to the Brandenburger Tor and back from where we are staying, that should be about 8ks.
Weather forecast is good, no rain, not too warm.
The only issue I have is that I have been eating all sorts of great food, starting with the wild boar and I can see that I'll soon be rolling around instead of running.
Ok, over and out, I'm going to enjoy myself. Assuming the limbs hold up, a good time will be possible. I am thinking though of taking the camera with me and take the occasional snap, just for the heck of it, I may not get the opportunity again, so it would be well worth taking a couple of pictures.

Recovery, too

2008-09-14T19:02:00.002+08:00

Couldn't help myself with the title.

Being sick and having to deal with a more than usually stressful trial really put me back and I have to look at it as an enforced taper.
On Wednesday we finally finished in Court and I was aching to get out on the road. I had one more 30-35k long run planned but on Wednesday I only had time for 13ks at just under MP pace. Managed to do an average of 4:40m/k at level 3 around the hills in Kings Park.

Thursday lunch time I knocked off and wanted to run to Bold Park and down the coast, but was struggling pretty soon. The day before had taken it out of me completely. So I had to be content with 26ks at level 2 and just under 5:30 pace.

In return dinner with Epi, Tiff and Clown was good fun. I really enjoyed that.

With the plane leaving on Friday and being unsuccessful in roping someone else in to do another trial on Thursday and Friday (talk about cutting it fine), I had to work all weekend but took some time off in the afternoon to go along the river etc for 14ks. I felt fantastic with good turnover, level 3 at 4:33 pace. Not bad for an old man....
This week I'll just do two or three runs mainly an interval session and a longish run (15ks) with some fartlek and maybe some peaking sprints. That way the legs won't get too lazy without getting too tired.
The following week I really don't know. I'm sure I'll go out on Sunday morning, maybe on Tuesday or Wednesday in Hamburg and once more once we have arrive in Berlin on Thursday.

I doubt I'll have time to blog again before we take off (and possibly not for a while after).
Berlin, here we come, it's going to be fun.

PS. I have signed Epi and Clown up on the SMS notification at the half and the finish mark. If anyone else wants to get the result straight away, let me have your mobile number.

Sick, too

2008-09-07T17:08:00.002+08:00

This will be a very short blog.

One run on Monday (Mount Street x8), then I woke up with a sore throat on Tuesday evening and from there on it went down hill.
Struggled with doing a trial all week and on Friday I was pretty much stuffed.
By now (Sunday pm) I'm on the mend again and hope that tomorrow I'll be ready for a run again.
Three weeks to Berlin and although I should go into taper, I will do the last long run this week and then scale down.

Another weird week

2008-08-31T11:14:00.003+08:00

Four weeks to go to Berlin and this week was supposed to be another heavy intensity week.

With only three runs on the books however, it did not quite turn out that way, at least I feel I left one planned interval session out. Whilst I hate doing intervals (because they are hard and unpleasant and I'm a softie), I feel they have been crucial in the improvements I have been able to make over the past eight months.

Today was the C2S Halfmarathon. I had planned to make it a marathon pace run, but then decided I would go for it and just do my best which I thought would be 1:35 or a 4:30 pace. And I did. New PB at 1:34:43, nearly two minutes better than my last PB.

I ran into town to be there within 10 minutes of the start, so that gave me a warmup of just under 5ks. Very pleasant, a little easterly, overcast, ideal running weather.
There were not too many people doing the half, or at least I did not notice as coming from the Kings Park end I crammed into the bunch at the front.
I felt quite sluggish running in and had it not been for the downhill part into the city, I don't think I would have managed to get the legs to turn over at all.
I set the 405 (aka bumblebee) to a 4:30 pace and off we went.
The first hill was not as bad as I thought it would be and I was able to keep the pace nice and steady. By the time I got out of Kings Park again, I was spot on pace even though the hill back out again lowered the pace to just over 5mins/k.
At that stage I had got chatting with a lady who was aiming for 1:40 but was happy to try 1:35. We had been running alongside each other for a while and kept pushing and pulling each other (figuratively speaking) which at the back of Kings Park I really needed as my legs were not quite awake yet. So, Kristie, thanks for helping me out.
That was all ok until we got into Subi and she suggested I head off as she was struggling. I stayed with her for a while, but was feeling excellent and just wanted to have a go. I figured that at the pace we were doing then, if she could maintain it, we would get in at between 1:38 and 1:39 and that did not sound very exciting to me.
So we agreed to meet up at the finish and I took off pushing myself not too hard but just hard enough.
So, according to bumblebee the distance was 21.2, not too different (also pretty much spot on with the k markers on the course) and the time 1:34:43. I got really annoyed with the fact that the organiser had not even managed to put up a clock and did not hit the stop button right, so had to reconstruct my time after putting it through GTC, but it should be pretty ok.
Although I did not take a split at half course I worked out that I did a negative split, which does not surprise me given how I felt after about 10ks. The first 11ks I did 49:24 (1-11) and the last 11ks (11-21 - leaving out the last few hundred meters where bumblebee added a hundred)in 48:23. I do think that I could have done a bit better by pushing myself more in the first 10ks.
But I am very happy as it is. Using Kaufmann's calculator, I will be able to do 3:25, but I think I can do 3:20. Knees, heels and all sort of other bits permitting, that is what I'll be aiming for.
Who knows, I might even qualify for Boston!? (Ha,ha, just joking guys)
I did not stick around at City Beach, but met up very briefly with Kristie (who came in at 1:38 and a bit) and then headed home, cooldown for another just under 8ks at level 2.

Otherwise, here's the week:
Monday: Mount Street x 7 - no PBs today;
Tuesday: planned a brick session with a bit of speed work, but had too much to do at work and it was non-essential so dropped it;
Wednesday: which is when the interval session was due, but again, had too much on at work;
Thursday: LSD with some longer fartleks in between, total 22ks;
Friday: Rest - well it was planned, but I was too busy at work anyway;
Saturday: Rest - see Friday;
Sunday: total 33.81ks as above.

Now I'm just waiting for the Berlin documents to arrive. They are due any day. And on 19 September I'm off.

5 weeks to Berlin

2008-08-24T18:14:00.003+08:00

A bit of a weird week with less mileage than I had intended.

A number of factors intervened, including work, meetings and a certain reluctance to get up early in the morning.

As to the latter though, I have noticed that I have less joint pain when I do not jump out of bed (to the extent that I can do that) in the morning and go off on a run. Doing it later in the day clearly allows them to warm up and I think that is a significant factor in everything holding up so well.
Whether I can still do that in the middle of summer is another question, but, eh, we'll look at that then.

Monday: Rest;
Tuesday: Mount Street x6 with a PB of 1:19, hills and overdistance 12.85k;
Wednesday (I really went stupid then): Brick session - 50.38ks on the bike at 30kmh pace then 53' run at 4:39/k for 11.44k (a bit quicker than marathon pace), but held up nicely although the first 2ks were a bit wobbly off the bike;
Thursday: bike 2x 10k;
Friday: Rest (not really intended, but all sorts of things got in the way);
Saturday: LSD level 2/3 30.16k, but was quite sore after that;
Sunday: Intervals 10.33k.

Total: 64.78k run and 70k bike.

Both knees and hamstrings were a bit sore today still after the long run yesterday, but with a decent warmup it all felt good.

This week I should get up close to 80ks again.

Sunday is the C2S HM and I'll do that at marathon pace (maybe a bit quicker) with a run from home into the city and then from City Beach home again, making it a total of around 33ks.

Then, another heavy week and a decent taper. It's coming together I think.

It wasn't me - it was Epi!

2008-08-17T14:42:00.002+08:00

And many thanks to him for setting the mark high by suggesting I do 41:30 at Lake Joondalup today.

I did not think it was doable, but by the same token I wanted to improve on the 43:15 PB of three weeks ago. So I plugged in 4:09 per k into the 405. So far the 405 has given longer readings on the races so I figured I would have to go a tad faster to make the 41:30.
That's what I did, but clearly I wasn't going to be able to hold the 3:47 I did for the first k, but tried to stay around the 4 minute mark, waiting patiently until I would spontaneously combust.

It didn't happen and I couldn't believe it when the timing box still had a 40 at the front as I approached it. 41:05! Me very happy!

If I did not have other things on my mind, I would try to get this time below 40 even this season. This way, I'll see what I can do next year - given what is on the horizon otherwise.

Now, this was an easy week and I am sure that the taper helped (which I did not have at the Run for Gold).
Monday: Rest;
Tuesday: Mount Street x5 (new PB: 1:21) - 11.48k max Level 4;
Wednesday: LSD Level 2 27k;
Thursday: Rest;
Friday: Intervals with a bit of Level 3 Endurance - 10.2k;
Saturday: Rest;
Sunday: 10k Race, about 4ks warmup and cooldown. Afternoon 41k ride on the beast at 30kmh pace.
Total for the week: 62.8k run, 41k ride.

Next three weeks are going to be heavy workwise as well. In two weeks the C2S Halfmarathon which I plan to run as a marathonpace effort though.

Pentecost minus one

2008-08-10T16:36:00.005+08:00

Nooooo, I'm not religious, but with having enjoyed a classical education any period of seven weeks works out to fifty minus one.

Which means in a round about way that the countdown to Berlin is on.
One week of easy work, three intensive and then three weeks of taper.

Again, I've had an excellent week.
Monday - Hills and Overdistance: 14.61
Tuesday - Donated Blood - hence no training (even though I only did platelet apheresis)
Wednesday - Intervals: 10.71
Thursday - Racepace: 12.07
Friday - Endurance and Peaking Sprints: 7.31
Saturday - Long and Slow: 34
Today - Brick Session 30 on the bike and another 8.11 at Level 2/3 (just to muck around a bit)
Total for the week: 86.81 plus 30 on the bike.

Knees and heel are holding up. I got a bit of a shin splint on Thursday but with a bit of Voltaren Cream and two tablets it just went away.

The hardest part was the long run on Saturday morning. It was very windy and cold and it took about 16ks until I started to warm up properly.

As I mentioned above, this coming week is an easy one. I'll probably come up to just under 60k. That will include the Lake Joondalup 10k on Sunday. If I manage to do the long run on Friday I should be rested enough to attack the recent PB.

Otherwise we have just booked the remainder of the accommodation, train tickets and hire car for the first few days.

Now I'll have to find some places to do easy runs in the week prior to the marathon. I'm really looking forward to it.
Until then though, there is a lot of work to be done until we board the plane.

S.x on a stick

2008-08-03T18:38:00.002+08:00

Ok, I'm in trouble.

No doubt the PC police is onto me for using a three-letter word starting with s and ending with x. I may burn in cyber hell for eternity, but so be it. Until they catch me I'll just enjoy it.

Reason for the exhilaration? Well, on Friday I got my new Cervelo P2C DA! For a number of reasons I could not try it out until today. This afternoon, glorious as it was out there, I finally got to ride it and ended up doing a brick session with 20ks on the bike and a 13k marathon pace run (assuming I in fact manage to do 4:45 for the whole distance...)

Before I get distracted by running, let me sing the praises of this technological marvel. I have had a lot of bikes over the years, but this is the most comfortable I have ever ridden. Sure, you sit on it as if you're a duck looking for food underwater, but riding seems so easy. I did a quick run to the office (10ks and back) along Mounts Bay Road, ie. with some tailwind and headwind when going back and easily managed to do 35kmh in both directions.

Not having aerobars before (well, at least not on a performance bike), it took me a few minutes to get used to the idea of not being able to steer. It's terrifying at first, but then I got used to just lying into it and shifting weight more than on the road bike to steer and just keeping a good lookout to change over to the bars since the aero bars have no brakes. No bell on it, either, but even that can be managed with a bit of yahooing.

I can't wait until I get to do a decent ride again.

So back to the focus: 8 weeks to Berlin. Son #1 has just spent the last two weeks in Berlin and has reccied the travel options from the accommodation to the start. Tick that.

Runningwise the week was a bit up and down.
Monday hill session 6x Mt Street, including what I think is a new PB at 1:26.
Tuesday brick session 30' bike and 13ks Level 2.
By Wednesday I had become really tired from last week and the start to this one and took the day off. For one reason or another, ie. work, I couldn't do a run on Thursday. Saturday was my better half's birthday, so no long run then as I was responsible for breakfast with croissants.

Fortunately, I only had a meeting on Friday in the afternoon, so did the 28ks in the morning.
Then Saturday was out as well, but today I put in two sessions, intervals at McGillvray oval in the early morning (freezing it was, I was even wearing gloves!) and then the brick session in the afternoon.

Total for the week 78ks. A bit less than last week, but that's ok since last week I was not on the bike at all, whereas this week I did just over an hour.

Next week will be similar. I'll be doing the first 30k+ level 2 run and otherwise look at hills, intervals and speed.

At this point I feel pretty confident that a race pace of 4:50 is doable, but I'll see whether I can push it to 4:45.

Running for Gold

2008-07-27T14:43:00.003+08:00

Maybe staking it a bit high, but I did get up today despite the rain even though I had not even signed up yet.

Run for Gold 2008 - I did not win the race or the Gold - the chances of the latter happening being much greater than the former.

For me though the race was "Gold" with a new PB at 43:13, a pace of 4:19.

I've been so busy the last few weeks that I need to catch up on reporting.

The week before last was a recovery period and I clocked up a total of 45ks doing a few intervals, and two long runs.

The last week was very busy at work and consisted of work (lots of it), eating (just a little), watching TdF and consequently little sleep and a awful lot of running.

I managed to top the 80k mark with the race and a decent cooldown afterwards. Haven't done that for a long time. I think it just about matches my best week before Rottnest two years ago.

My heel is feeling good, at least when I run. It sometimes does play up when I have to walk a distance. The knee is as if it's not there at all.

Nine weeks to Berlin and things are really starting to fall into place.

I have now also signed up for the C2S Half. Four weeks out from the Marathon, that should give me a good indication of where I am. I am kind of hoping to manage 1:35, but it is a bit hilly, so that might be a struggle.

I also intend to do Lake Joondalup in three weeks.

Oh, and on another front, I have splurged out (what's the point of working hard if you can't get some bling....) on a Cervelo P2C. Should arrive next week - I am really looking forward to it!!!

Perfect

2008-07-13T20:59:00.002+08:00

Or at least as close as.

I managed to get the running training done just I had planned it and by Saturday I was looking forward to sleeping in this morning.

Monday: Interval training 400m, 600m, 800m, 1200m, 800m, 600m, 400m with rest to <110bpm, level 4;
Tuesday: donated Blood;
Wednesday: Long run 17.5k level 2;
Thursday: Hill 5x Mount Street level 4-5;
Friday: Brick Session 50 mins bike, 50 mins run (bike included the first 22k of Kona) level 3;
Saturday: Long run 18.7k (very slow given the heavy session the day before) level 2.
Sunday: nothing!
Total week: 69ks - more than for a long time.

Knee is perfectly fine. Heel still plays up but I can now go longer before it becomes bothersome.

I think I will keep the mid-week long run at the current level and build up on the weekend run.

Next week is week four in the periodisation, so lighter work load on the running side. I'll focus a bit more on riding, swimming and strength.

Surprises

2008-07-07T13:02:00.002+08:00

The start to the week was quite slow, thanks to the bug that decided to like me very much. I was still popping pills on Monday and Tuesday and generally did not feel up to it.
Overall I thought that I would not be able to keep up with the planned schedule and whilst to some extent that was true, it only really affect the bike and swim workouts.
Swim - 0, Bike - 50 minutes instead of 80, no strength training, but a bit more than planned on running.
I hesitated doing heavy work early in the week and also decided to split the long run into two 90 minute sessions. Whilst that is not perfect, it is way better than getting injured or otherwise kicking the system around too much.
So on Tuesday I put in an level 3 session for 35 mins, on Wednesday 63 mins hills (including a few runs up Mount Street with a best at 1:30), Thursday long run 92 mins, Saturday long run 90 mins and on Sunday a brick session 50mins on the bike and 45 mins run, both at level 2/3.
Total running mileage: a surprising 57ks!
I do think I have deteriorated quite significantly aerobically, but even though the heel still hurts occasionally (going downhill) I am at the mileage just prior to the taper for Canberra.
12 weeks to Berlin, that is a time frame I should be able to focus on.
Other than that, I will do more swimming and riding, but they are not the priorities, just yet.
I was watching the best part of IM Europe yesterday afternoon. What these guys do is just awesome. Swimming close to Hackett's time, riding at 42km/h like the pros and to top it off doing a marathon in under 3h. Chapeau!
I think if I manage below 13h, I'll be extremely happy!
But that's a long shot, I'll have just over 12 months to train for that. Whether I'll manage to keep it up, is an entirely different question.

Baseline

2008-06-29T20:22:00.002+08:00

Several weeks between posts and only 13 weeks to Berlin. Don't worry guys, I still exist.

Last week I planned to start with SERIOUS training for Berlin, but was struck with some ugly disease - flu, cold - that kind of thing. So, no training all week for the sake of recovering properly.

Before that I played around with running, swimming, riding in all forms with a variety of easy and hard sessions, just having a lot of fun. I set myself up with a CompuTrainer (had to buy a Windows laptop for that though, eerrrrgh) with a training video of Kona included.

I'll have to improve a lot to make the distance end of next year. In swimming I can already see some improvement, but let's be honest, I'm still no good. My golf score for 50m is 110 (50 strokes plus 60 seconds).

Having to take last week off certainly hasn't helped, but panicking won't either.

The bonus is that my heel feels pretty good, I can even stand on it when I get up in the morning, yeah!

Ok, so the plan is all laid out working up to a peak of about 80ks in the first week of September. I'll include a number of races, if they fit from week to week. This includes the City to Surf, but at this point I am not sure whether to do the 12k or the HM. Whilst I'd like to do the 12k for sentimental reasons - because I'd like to beat my PB, doing the HM would probably fit in better into the training plan.

Maybe I'll also do Lake Gwelup 10k - just two weeks out. But we'll see.

All the best to Epi, Clown & TB & anyone else who is a starter at the Perth Marathon. I'll be there to support jnr in the Kids' Marathon.

Feel the Heel Part 3 or: 20/20 for Dummies

2008-05-25T18:56:00.000+08:00

Healing the heel (ha, ha, guys, at least you're getting a bit of joy out of this ...) has proven not to be as easy as I thought. I shouldn't have jumped out that plane, you say. How true, how true.... but not half as exciting.

We live and learn and ..... forget!

Three weeks out from the tumble and the heel still has not cleared up completely. Having said that, the heel itself is no longer the real problem. At present the fascia is much more painful when I run and particularly first thing in the morning. I wonder whether I might have picked up an injury there as well, which has so far simply been masked by the pain in the heel.
Also, after longer runs I end up with sore calves.

That on the other hand is not necessarily a bad thing (so maybe having this injury was a blessing in disguise (now for a pun in French: le talon blessé!)), as for a long time I have tried to improve my stride by striking mid-foot rather than with the heel. The injury has forced me to do that (painfully) and I may get that wish granted after all. It does put a bigger strain on the calves though.

Compared with what I felt last week (after 15ks), today was not too bad after yesterday's 17ks.

This week I managed to do 30ks and have also gone back to the pool. I certainly have suffered a set-back and in reality I will have to leave the Perth Marathon aside. Again, that may not be so bad. After all, Berlin is much more important to me than Perth.
It's now 6 weeks to Perth and 18 weeks to Berlin.
In reality am not going to get ready for Perth and if I tried, there would be a good chance of either pulling another injury or not resolving the current problem.
Therefore preparing for Berlin is now a much bigger priority. Sorry, guys, I'll watch you from the sidelines.
I suppose if someone wanted to do the relay, that would be an option. I'd be fine doing half of it in any combination.

I still plan to do the Perth HM, if only to see where I stand. That is now three weeks out, so hopefully I will have the foot under control.
Fortunately I have little Court commitments in the next few weeks (except for the next few days), so that will allow me to get into a routine with more time on the bike and in the pool.
Oh, yes, and did I mention that my daughter has convinced me to do an Ironman? Busselton December 2009, she will crew me. I suspect though that she will be busy at leavers and in any event only wants to me to shave my legs so she can make fun of me....

Hmmmm, daughters.......

Feel the Heel Part 2

2008-05-18T17:12:00.000+08:00

A tad optimistic I was last week as running "freely" is still not happening.

I did a short tempo run mid-week and a longish run of 15ks yesterday and ended up with a very sore calf today, courtesy of not guarding the right foot and not using a normal gait. Running downhills is a particular challenge.

I will just have to take it easy with shorter but more frequent runs. It's happening, but it's just taking an awful long time!

Feel the Heel

2008-05-11T19:16:00.001+08:00

or: Pain is nature's way of telling you you're alive.

I went for a short run today, just around the park, but otherwise I have found moving around quite a challenge this week.

The heel is still quite bruised, although much better than a week ago.

On a brighter note, the knee is completely pain-free.

I think it'll probably take another week until I can run freely again and in the meantime, I'll stick to the bike and might as well go to the pool and work on my stroke!

Crashing down to Earth

2008-05-04T17:26:00.001+08:00

Having got quite some heat at the homefront, I thought I would get an A skydiving licence and then be content with the occasional jump.
This weekend was supposed to get me much closer to that point.
Without going into too many details, I have now decided to postpone the plan for a while, a considerable while I think.
It's just too hard to travel up to York, taking time out and having my head properly sorted out to concentrate. I think I need my head too much during the week and don't need the additional challenge.
The first (and only) jump on Friday was quite symptomatic. My first solo and I was really looking forward to it.
Jumping headfirst out of the plane was good fun, I recovered quite ok but manoeuvring was not so good. The landing would have been excellent if it had flared for long enough during the final few seconds.
This way I jarred my right heel (and bumped the right knee for good measure) and now, two days later, I still cannot stand on the heel. But it is improving.
Quite a pity though as things were clicking into place nicely even though it had looked for a while after Canberra as if I had overdone it completely and any further marathons would be out of the question.
I spent some time in the gym today obviously not doing anything involving the use of my right heel, but riding should be ok, so I might jump on the bike this week.
Worst case scenario is that I might have to give the Perth Marathon a miss, but we'll see.

Fred is well and truly dead

2008-04-20T20:40:00.001+08:00

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!

Operator Error & other unexpected stuff

2008-04-13T14:22:00.001+08:00

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.

Ready, Set, ...

2008-04-06T15:14:00.001+08:00

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?!!

Is Fred dead?

2008-03-30T12:31:00.001+08:00

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.

Yoho, here we go!

2008-03-24T18:30:00.001+09:00

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!

Oh, boy!

2008-03-09T17:39:00.001+09:00

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.

Mental as Anything

2008-02-24T16:53:00.001+09:00

Similar to last week, the training this week had more to do with keeping my mind in check.
The start to the week was sluggish, ie I had so much going on in my head workwise that running was simply not a priority.
By Wednesday, this excruciating trial was over and with that the stress levels had dropped. From there on I managed to get some decent endurance/hill training done and intervals the next day.
Then a day's worth of rest and a whole blood donation.
On Friday I was really looking forward to a long run but it was really tough. What I forgot as I was slugging it out on Saturday morning was that I was missing a pint of blood, so no wonder I had to pump that little bit more. Anyway, I am now taking a break from apheresis and whole blood donations and will go back to that no later than after the Perth Marathon.
I did 38k at a pace of 5:43 with the heart rate just nudging level 2. That is actually considerably better than the figures for the 32k run four weeks ago.

I suppose I should be happy. And in reality I am. Although I will never be fast, the consistent tempo and interval training is now paying off. Whilst I may not crack 3:30 at Canberra, for Perth it should be possible.

Apart from a tweak now and then, the knee is as new.

Total distance this week was 67.5. Earlier in the year I thought I would get up to about 80ks a week, but I think I'll give this a miss and rather add a bit of time on the bike so as to take the strain off the joints.

Now, where did I leave these entry forms for Canberra?

Going topsy-turvy

2008-02-17T20:01:00.001+09:00

I went skydiving today and managed to nearly spin out when the JM let go. And in many other respects the week was topsy-turvy, too.
Had a strong start to the week with hill repeats on Reabold Hill on Monday, did some gymwork on Tuesday and got caught up with work too much to get out on Wednesday. Intervals on Thursday which were a bit all over the place as I had programmed the Forerunner incorrectly, d'oh.
Saturday long run turned out quite ok. 35k at 5:22/k. After 7ks I thought about giving it all away, my legs just wanted to curl up and go to sleep in a ditch. Good thing the brain told them to keep running.
The knees are doing just fine, the left one is perfect and the right one just gives me the occasional niggle.

Waking up to petrichord

2008-02-10T21:32:00.001+09:00

Isn't it just great, this smell of summer rain on the warm ground?

Just too sweet to get up and do a heavy interval session. Ok, I'm a wuss and reading Clown's blog I can say at least I'm not alone.

I had planned to have an easy week and it turned out to be even easier than anticipated. I needed a bit of a break both mentally and physically, so only a level 2 run with 2x Reabold Hill on Monday and a MP run of 22.54k yesterday morning, a total, wait for it: 35.55k. Now that's slack.

Having said that, I felt sluggish after the last three weeks but by yesterday I was very happy with the MP run yesterday at just over 5m/k. Nowhere near the young guns, but for now clearly a good point to be.

Although I did not run much, I did three sessions in the gym concentrating on core strength and just a bit of stability exercises for the knees.

I now have to work out next week's program which is going to be tough especially since I'm going to be in Court all week and have my head full of jet engines, boat hull designs, fishtails, spins and emergency stops. And plenty of cavitation - in my head as well.
Taking a positive angle to it a bit of running won't go astray it seems.

Not sure whether I'll do Matilda Bay - just does not fit my program - unless the case finishes before Friday and I can do the long run on Friday and then... I think I'm getting ahead of myself.

First, I'll have a good night's sleep.

I need an easy week

2008-02-02T18:33:00.001+09:00

The last three weeks have been busy and interesting.

Running wise I managed to do three weeks of intensity training - just!
Today's long run was tough as my legs were dead. Didn't even feel my knees on the whole 33ks which I suppose is a good thing.
The truth is that yesterday's speed session together with a short night just did not allow me to recover. By now I should know that I need a day's rest before and after a long run.

As a result, this run was all about toughening it out mentally. The head was there, the heart was pumping but the legs went awol. So I found myself pushing myself with the heart rate being just barely going to 60%max, really strange. I think I hit 70% three times during the entire run.

Even if from the physical perspective that run was not quite right, certainly mentally the run was beneficial.
But I am really looking forward to an easy week.

I did have a bit of a rough spot (mentally) in the middle week, which explains a slightly lower mileage:
Week of 14 January: 65.28k - 6 hrs 22 mins
Week of 21 January: 56.88k - 5 hrs 46 mins
Week of 28 January: 65.05k - 6 hrs 41 mins

Pretty sad figures compared with the impressive stats of the young guns, Epi and Clown, but I am just happy that my knees are still attached.

Oh, did I mention that I have been distracted by yet another project (that's the Gemini in me) - getting my skydiving A licence. That means that I spend a fair amount of time out at York, predominantly sitting and waiting for the wind to die down... not very attractive running country out there :-((!

Knees holding up

2008-01-13T20:49:00.001+09:00

All in all a satisfying week, even though the left knee is still not quite ok.
I was glad that is was a recovery week as I don't think that any more than the 50ks I managed would have been any good.
I also managed to get rid of the excess Xmas weight and by the end of this week I expect, I'll be in normal range again.
So, three runs in total, three times at the gym, apheresis on Friday and to top it off 20th wedding anniversary on Tuesday with a most excellent present: aerobatic flight in an Extra 300L, the type of plane they fly at the Red Bull Airrace. That was awesome.
Back on earth, I'm now into the intensity stage of the training with four hard sessions which will no doubt be hard on the knees to start with.
Let's see!

All set for Canberra

2008-01-06T19:36:00.001+09:00

We finally got around to book the flights to Canberra and also the accommodation. We'll be staying at the Medina Apartments, a stone's throw away from the start. Since we're over there, we'll fly on to Sydney for a few days, being school holidays and all.
On the sporting front this has been a very difficult week. The left knee is still pretty buggered, although it's more the knock on it, rather than something structural inside. But to make matters worse the right one has started to play up as well.
I suppose the 4kgs I gained over Xmas have not helped, but the long run today was quite a challenge, especially towards the end. I played it safe by sticking to going round and round and round Kings Park, but I didn't take anything with me and hit the wall at 26ks.

Not to be discouraged, we looked at getting to and staying in Berlin at the end of September.

This week I'll just push it as far as the knees allow me and build up from there - and try to eat properly to lose some of the Xmas excess.

Crashing into 2008

2008-01-01T19:13:00.001+09:00

Being the Christmas week and away with the in-laws for the whole week I did not really expect to be able to stick to my program. Nevertheless, on Christmas Eve morning I set out from Eagle Bay to Bunker Bay up to the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. Partly on tracks, partly over rocks, lots of beachsand and then back on the road. That was quite disappointing and rather long. Instead of just doing 45' I ended up doing just over double that. I didn't mind as I had thought about cutting the weekend long run into two in any event. On Wednesday I found myself a nice long hill and did that 6 times, annoying a couple of dogs (and presumably their owners as well) in the process.
For Friday I planned on driving up to the lighthouse and taking the Cape to Cape track to Yallingup and back, a total of 28ks.
That worked out nicely, notwithstanding the track changing considerably already in the first five ks, I found a nice rhythm. I remember thinking about doing the whole thing and getting some others to join me (yes, you guys!) - a total of 135ks, maybe broken up into 2 or 3 days to start with. Approaching five ks I saw this limestone outcrop and ledge and thought to myself to keep to the left as it looked as if it could break off and - WHACK, BANG, I tripped and crashed headfirst into various limestone rock ending up with hitting my nose. Boy, it hurt! Blood was everywhere, dripping down my nose, on my hands, running down the shins from both knees, not a pretty sight. I think I would have been a good black knight impersonation, limping backwards and forwards trying to figure out what to do next. After a while I gathered all my bits, cap, glasses, bag etc and although the last thing I felt like running, thought it was best to just keep moving. I wasn't going to let this hold me up and pushed further South, although very slowly.
At the Three Bear beach I came across a few surfers and they gave me a odd looks, I must have looked pretty bad. Anyway, by then my left knee had swollen up and was quite painful, so I decided not to push it and turned back.
Back at our place I spent a good hour cleaning myself up. Apart from the bruising, scratches all over, the left knee was worst off as by then it was so swollen I couldn't bend it. Also, there was a cut in it that wouldn't stop bleeding. (Oh, yes, and my nose looked as if I had been in a decent bar fight!) Good grief I thought, Canberra over and out.
Well, I haven't been on a run yet, except for a few minutes on the treadmill today, but all is not lost. Still a bit swollen, but by tomorrow morning, I'll be hitting the road again.
This is the second last week of base training and next week is an easy week in the period, so I'll push the hard stuff towards the end of this week to give the knee some time to recover, without losing the benefit of the easy training next week.
Then it's into intensity.
Apart from the lead up, 2008 promises to be the most interesting year yet. Canberra in April (although the bookings are not done yet and accommodation for five people comes at a premium!), the Perth in July and Rottnest in October.
In addition though, we are looking at visiting son #1 in Germany in the second part of his exchange year, so around September, which would tie in nicely with school holidays and the Berlin Marathon! Possibly a bit close to Rotto, but who says that I have to set PBs anywhere. Berlin is a gorgeous city, I certainly wouldn't mind going back there, so for now that is something I am seriously looking at.
The aim is to go below 3:30, either in Canberra or Perth and the rest is just for fun.
In between, a few club races (as Epi says, have to be careful not to mess up the training regime with them, but then again, who says they have to be all out efforts) and the C2S where I'd like to go below 52:30.

Am I getting old?

2007-12-22T19:59:00.001+09:00

So I was all ready to launch into the next phase of base training and first I twisted my back and also ended up with some weird muscle spasm in my right leg. That put an end to running on Monday and Tuesday.
And my favourite knee started to play up on Wednesday as well, but by that stage I had enough.

Since then I have been back into it although at bit sluggis at times. At least the Mount Street intervals did not go as well as the week before.

At least today I managed a good 28k long run. Got a bit tough on the last 4ks, but otherwise I managed a nice pace at below 70% at all times.
Tomorrow it's off to the south for a few days - I'm sure I'll find a few nice places to run (if I'm up to it between the bottles of wines...)

First proper long run

2007-12-16T21:47:00.001+09:00

It was indeed a rest week, as I'm now busting to get properly back into it again. That is what periodisation is all about. Another four weeks of base training and then intensity.
This week I managed to split up the runs easily over three days with a 25k long run yesterday. My better half crewed me on the bike, which is always very nice as it gives us some "us" time (away from the nagging kids....). We were very tempted to sit down at Choux in Swanbourne for a coffee and a nice little pastry but we were "good" and just got croissants for breakfast after.
Fortunately I had a trial vacated this week which means that the Xmas lead up will be much easier and I'll be able to take the time for training without too much rushing and I won't have to think about work constantly when on the runs.
Knee is still holding up marvelously, even after 25k. Worst thing were a couple of blisters, but that's the Brooks Trance, they are just not a perfect fit over distances 20k+. I'll have to remember that.

Week four - still going strong

2007-12-11T19:44:00.001+09:00

Apart from the occasional niggle the knee is holding up very nicely. I actually applied to join a knee study at UWA to track the long-term development of arthritis in the knee after a meniscectomy. Although I fitted all criteria, they would not take me as I had the same op 20 years ago - bummer - would have been interesting to see how it all develops - especially with a free MRI etc thrown in every 2 years.
Well, I'm happy as it is and I'll soon enough notice if it goes downhill again.
Because of the trip to Adelaide with son #1 on the weekend, I did the long run on Wednesday morning. Then on Sunday a 60 minute run around the Torrens, very enjoyable, albeit feeling a bit sluggish. Nevertheless, at an average pace of 5:13 the heart rate was just under 60%. Not bad at all.
Total ks this week: just over 53.
On Friday I did 6 reps of Mount Street and finally managed to break that 1:30 barrier. The fact that it was lunchtime and the temperature in the high 20's made that just that little more impressive.
This week is a "rest" week, so I'll take it easy, but overall the training is working out just as planned.

Week 3 - Shins splints? What shin splints?

2007-12-02T19:01:00.001+09:00

A solid week with a tempo run on Monday, 13ks overdistance on Wednesday, gym on Tuesday and Wednesday, hills on Friday (nearly broke that elusive 1:30 mark at Mount Street, yeah!) and: ouch, what is that on Friday? Shin splints? Oh, no!
Anyway, despite having to be on my feet all day examining, with plenty of ice in the evening, a couple Voltaren and a good wrap overnight, it had all disappeared on Saturday morning.
I was not game to do the long run then though, so rest and today I went out for 100 mins, expecting that I might have to stop and waddle home.
No such thing, did the entire 100 mins at 5:17 at 66% HR, including Reabold Hill. That was very good. So I'm very happy, especially since otherwise the week quite crappy in various respects.
Next week is hopefully better with work not being as demanding.
Friday it's off to Adelaide for the weekend for #1's UMAT interview, so let's see what that city has to offer runwise.

One week down, 22 to go

2007-11-25T22:22:00.001+09:00

Busy week ahead & just a quick note here.
The first week was exactly as it was supposed to be, pretty much according to plan.
I even managed to stick to my aim of doing the Deepwater Point 15k today & just do it as a long run. I thought I should be able to stay under 70% and do 5:30 per k.
So the plan was to do it in 1:22:30 and lo & behold I got back in 1:22:10. Perfect.
40ks for the week and two solid strength sessions.
The test is going to be this week when I'll have to concentrate on the job. But going for a run will help me keeping a clear head.
Fingers crossed!

Day one, week one

2007-11-19T20:12:00.001+09:00

A few short runs in the bag, plenty of time in the pool (but still a lousy swimmer) and 23 weeks to Canberra. So now the work starts in earnest.
Doing 25ks per week is not a lot, however, the knee needed a bit of build up. The physio also prepared a new program for the gym and that has done wonders to make the knee more stable.
The next eight weeks will be base building by which time I should get to about 50 - 60ks with the longest run about 25ks.
Then eight weeks of intensity training reaching about 70ks in February with the longest run about 35ks.
All I need now is the WAMC program to figure out which races I can use as tempo runs. Certainly the Darlington Half looks like a good opportunity to test the waters.
Now I just have to keep the motivation going!
Tomorrow morning, strength training at the gym.

Lazarus rises! Oh, yeah!

2007-11-01T21:51:00.000+09:00

More than four weeks have passed since the op and I am quite happy with the progress.
The word from the orthopod was not to run for four weeks, so now I'm allowed to go out again. Not that I had been sooo good, I have gone out a couple of times after the three week mark, including the 5k fun run on Rottnest.
Except for the inordinate time to finally end up on the op table on the day and then to wait for the spinal block to go away, the experience was excellent. I watched the whole thing on the monitor and got the running commentary on what was going on and as a special bonus got to take away pictures and a videotape of the surgery.
Yes, it was a bit frustrating to see the people who had opted for a GA to walk out within a couple of hours of coming out of the OT, but getting my toes to wiggle again was an experience by itself.
After that I had some time off, but the only thing I really did not do is put my feet up. I joined a gym and worked out religiously with as little stress on the knee as possible. It has certainly been worth it.
So now I'm planning to put a program together that will see me doing the Canberra Marathon next year.
Last week I did 30ks all up. Knee was just a tad tight, but that was it.
Then 14ks on Monday and that was a bit much so since then it's just been the gym. But there is no rush.
I also want to learn swimming properly and have started with the Total Immersion program. Quite tough, but I think it'll be worth it.

Lazarus rises?

2007-09-09T19:04:00.000+08:00

Today I had a lousy run, but then, at least I had one.
In fact, I nearly went up to Kings Park for 8am to sign up for the 15k Pancake run, but then decided against it.
Instead, I left home at seven, passed by the start of the run (they were just setting up, so only a few runs) and got home having done only 6.5k.
On the other hand, at least I am running.
The orthopod did say that I could do no more damage and whether or not to have the op really was up to me entirely and how I felt about running with the knee as it is.
So, even though I was terribly underdone, I thought I might just head out for the City to Surf. I had done all of 2x 6.5k runs in the last two months, so yes, I certainly was not up to doing a quick time.
When I picked up the race number I was a bit embarrassed to say yes when the lady at the counter asked me whether I was still going to run in Group B, meaning I was aiming at doing a time of at least 58mins.
I said yes and I can say quite happily that I met the challenge. Although a few times I was very close to veering to the left and going home I just made it in 57:59! Actually I'm quite chuffed.
The following week I did a 12k run round Kings Park and then decided to do the Perth HM.
Again, completely underdone (boy, did my calves hurt afterwards) I headed out and managed to do it in 1:47.30. Admittedly, having Wife and little one cheering me on (and me scoring a kiss) at the half way mark did help.
So, overall, being 5.5 mins and 11 mins slower than last year at C2S and Perth HM respectively was not too bad.
This week, I did close to 13k on Wednesday and got on the bike into work on Friday and the knee is doing ok. Hurts, but it hasn't fallen off.
So having a bit of trouble this morning is not really a great drama.
Given how much work I've got on, I am actually looking forward to 27/9. At least I can tell everyone that I am just not going to be around.
Tomorrow I'll do the "bike thing" again and then we'll see what I feel like.
I'll also be looking to sign up for a rehab program at a gym Wifey has found so that I am adequately prepared pre-op for post-op.

The Verdict

2007-08-25T17:39:00.000+08:00

Not much point trying to rehash the year so far as it has been pretty much c..p.

By June I was was doing long runs up to 32ks, so that was not all too bad, considering that I opted out of doing the Perth Marathon as we were going to fly overseas that very day. But by then I was getting a sharp pain on the inside of the right leg, just below the knee.

I did not want to really believe it but should have known that my old army injury was having a comeback.

So after a few visits to the doctors and an MRI I got the good word from the orthopod today: gnashed medial meniscus.

Unfortunately I'm a tad busy until late September, but had planned on taking October off anyway.

So 27/9 is it & after that I hope I'll be (slowly) on my feet again.

Until then, I'll ride the bike and should do some swimming. I have done a bit of running (as in very, very little), since the orthopod thought that I did not "need" the op and it was very much a matter of choice and how much pain I felt and wanted to put up with.

So notwithstanding the fact that I have had no training of substance in the last three months, I picked up the C2S race number today and might head out tomorrow. The BoM says there will be showers and possibly a thunderstorm (& also NW winds, oh dear!) but that will not sway me.
I'll see how the knee feels in the morning and decide then.

2007 Goals

2007-01-17T05:41:00.000+09:00

Long time since the last post, I'll just briefly summarise:

The preparation for the planned 6-inch track 45k race was going ok - not perfect as I had real trouble for a while to get up early in the morning.

However, my better half started joining me on the Saturday long runs on her bike and that was good fun! Who would have thought that she would ever get up early on a day when she was not on a schedule.

The accommodation was booked and all planned when I had to go back to Switzerland at the beginning of December as my godfather was very ill. Fortunately I managed to get there just before he passed away and we were able to spend a couple of days together.

I then ran in the Silvesterlauf, a 8.6k race through the middle of Zürich, very pitturesque, if a bit crammed. How I managed to focus during that race I have no idea as otherwise the whole time over there was quite draining.

After dealing with the aftermath, I just got back for Xmas (the kids were happy), but I slept for the first three days back almost non-stop.

Apart from one run up the Üetliberg outside of Zürich I didn't run all month.

By the end of the year I had at least mentally recovered, put on about 5kgs and ready to plan. Took me another week to work it all out, but then, hey, who's rushing?!

The year started well though as I started it with a run around Kings Park at 5:30 in the morning!

So the plan this year is to do the Bunbury, Perth and Rottnest Marathons, with a focus on doing Perth in 3:30 and Rottnest just to enjoy myself. Bunbury is not a must, especially as it is a mere six weeks before Perth and I may turn it into training run only.
I will also do the Perth Half (but not Freo as we will be in Melbourne then to see the Dalai Lama), Darlington Half, City to Surf and a few club races.
The 6-inch is a definite date (unless I decide to go skiing instead).

Training started for real last week and I have been keeping up with it. I also try to ride my bike to work to get some additional overdistance work done without the strain on the joints.

Eventually, I'll start swimming again - but first I'll need to figure out how to go about learning it properly - I am just so hopeless, it's embarrassing.

Catching Up

2006-10-25T19:34:00.000+08:00

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

2006-09-09T03:43:00.000+08:00

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

2006-08-07T03:13:00.000+08:00

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

2006-07-31T04:24:00.000+08:00

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

2006-07-24T00:27:00.000+08:00

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

2006-07-17T03:34:00.000+08:00

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

2006-07-13T15:48:00.000+08:00

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

2006-07-03T19:25:00.000+08:00

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

2006-06-20T16:15:00.000+08:00

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

2006-06-15T21:50:00.000+08:00

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

2006-06-13T22:21:00.000+08:00

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:

Get to the start;
Start;
Finish;
Finish sub 4h;
Finish sub 3:45;
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.