Thursday, June 28, 2007

D-Day looms as the carbo load begins

Wed - 50 mins, 10k's @ 4:57 mins/km
Thurs - 30 sec efforts with JR, 3k WU, 3k CD

An easy run yesterday went well.

A good turnout at PCRG this morning for our final session before the Coast - I did most of the 30 second efforts at about 60-80% intensity with two efforts at 100% intensity. Its a funny session and its hard to have a clear purpose for the session when you are doing little more than holding your fitness.

Had a nice breakfast of fruit and pancakes at the Ship Inn afterwards - the first time I've made this breakfast as I normally train on Friday instead. Because Clairie was taking the piss out of me pretending to have an infectious disease, I think its only fair that I reveal that whilst I had two pancakes and Big Dan had three pancakes, Clairie had four pancakes :)

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Race pace trial

4k's in 16:58 - 4:19, 4:15, 4:12, 4:11, 3k WU, 3k CD

Went to the Broncos last night taking great care to keep out of the breathing range of everyone on the train and at the game - most enjoyable game too belting the Tigers 48-18 and giving big Petero a standing ovation after he was dispatched to the sin bin for being third man into a biff - love it!!

4k's at race pace this morning which I did with Damian, David and Coach Pat with all the splits being around the 4:13 pace i'm aiming for on Sunday. Felt tired, lethargic and sluggish - a normal taper run. Hardly felt the adductor at all though - a big positive!!

Woke up with a bit of a sore back - probably slept on the wrong side last night but saw Shane Lemcke today for my final physio maintenance and he did some work on the back - not too much to worry about there. Shane pronounced the adductor nearly healed.

I've picked up a minor niggle in the left ankle that I'm paying attention too- typical taper week!!

Monday, June 25, 2007

A relaxed run

90 mins, 18k's @ 5:00 mins/km

Was at Orleigh Park, West End at 6am to help out the Running for Research race with some volunteering. After assisting the set up, my biggest task then was to fix the portaloos after it was discovered that both the portaloos sent out by City Hire were not flushing!! It was discovered that there was no water in the portaloos so I used a 10L bottle of drinking water to fill up the water tank so the toilets would flush and then refilled the bottle with water from the Brisbane River - gees, where's Kenny when you need him!!!

Started my 90 min run from Orleigh Park just before 9am and it was over in the blink of eye! Its amazing how short the run felt after several runs of just under three hours recently. I was relaxed and comfortable throughout again taking care not to go too fast.

Friday, June 22, 2007

The taper continues

Thurs - 50 mins, 10k's @ 5:05 mins/km
Fri - 6x2min with 30 sec JR

It was only last week that I was boasting to my brothers Benno and Adam that our winter weather was t-shirts, stubbies and thongs weather and far better than their UK working holiday weather!! Naturally, we are now in the grip of a helluva cold snap. I have since discovered that the windchill factor for my Wednesday run was a temp of 0 deg!!

Thankfully a tready run was scheduled yesterday and I had an easy session at 5:05 pace.

This morning, it was 2 min efforts in the Gardens and Pat asked me to ease off the accelerator from 3:20-3:25 pace to 3:25-3:30 pace which i did. A few of the Friday regulars must have trained yesterday and Glenda has sadly succumbed to a stressie of the posterior tibia so I ended up running by myself this morning. It was a solid session and I pulled up ok after being late to bed last night - it was Langy's 40th at Earth n Sea at Bulimba with a bunch of the PCRG guys. Naturally, I washed down my pasta and pizza with water!! Nearly froze my legs off in the South Bank pool for this mornings wading recovery with the water easily the coldest I can remember it being. My feet were in real pain until they got used to the temp and strangely enough my thighs felt like they were on fire by the time my 10 minutes was up. Still, I swear by it, no matter how uncomfortable it is!!

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Thar she blows!

60 mins, 12k's @ 5:05 mins/km

Gees, it was tough out there this morning! During my Kedron Brook run, I endured gale force winds in temps of around 8-9 degrees that cut through my shirt like Petero Civonicieva through the NSW defence. Once the adductor warmed up after a shuffling start, the body felt good.

Heaps of people sick in the office - I've washed my hands twenty times already today and am keeping them away from my face whilst becoming quite an unsociable loner! The life of a tapering marathon runner!!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

PCRG - 3KTT - First win

3KTT - 10:04 - 3:22, 3:30, 3:12

Woke up feeling like crap on Monday morning with some cold symptoms also. Took the day of work and spent most of it in bed, eating fruit and vege, popping Vitamin C and guzzling water. The effort was not wasted when I bounced back this morning to win my first ever 3kTT after almost three years of trying.

The lack of any great expectations due to my ailment yesterday enabled me to take a calm approach to the event and I set myself to replicate the successful tactics of the last time trial by taking it easy with a controlled start. We headed off straight into one of the strongest headwinds I've felt at West End and I settled into 7th place early, moving into 5th at the 500m mark, not allowing the pack of four leaders to put more than 15m on me. I started to pick up the speed then and went through 1k in about 3:22 - unbelieveably, I forgot to take my split! Continuing to bridge the gap to the Damian, Pete, Mike and another bloke, I surged at the 1100m mark and took the lead, telling myself 'ok - you've had the edge on these fellas at training the last few weeks and you'd be soft to let them beat you!

In hindsight, I should have drafted the pack to the 1500m turnaround to save some energy before gunning it home because when the path took us next to the river with no tree cover, the headwind picked up considerably! I literally had to put my head down and plough into the wind. I slowed down so much I thought 'Gees, the boys will be overtaking me any moment' but a quick glance over the shoulder confirmed that they, too, were struggling. Marshal Gaz cheered me around the turn and with the wind now at my back, I catapulted forward as if fired out of a slingshot.

It felt like I was flying as I zoomed back down the path at breakneck pace and again forgot to take my split at the 2k but shortly after the 2k I did notice 6:56 on my watch and knew that the headwind had probably cost me a sub 10 run. Marshal Clairie was the next to fire me up as I raced down the hill next to the boatshed telling myself I wasn't going to let anyone past me in a million years. Despite noticeably increasing my speed on at least three ocassions in the last 800m I was never able to shake Pete who hounded me relentlessly all the way home, never being more than 5-7m behind me with Damian only a little further behind. I was exultant as I crossed the line with my fastest 1k split ever albeit with a massively illegal tailwind :) Talk about a nice little late confidence booster prior to the Marathon. Now, I've just got train even harder and actually beat Gaz, Andy and Jason who were all absent today :)

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Getting it done

120 mins, 24k's @ 5:00 mins/km

Gees, I struggled to get going this morning - feeling tired and lethargic. Met up with Mike R at the Regatta at 6 and set off on an anti-clockwise Green Bridge loop. The first 20 mins were quite sluggish but after than I improved every minute. We took it pretty easy rarely reaching anything faster than 4:50 pace. After 70 mins, we parted company and I finished off with a Story Bridge and Kanga Pt loop.

After several runs in excess of 2.5 hours the last few months, the two hours just seemed to fly by today!! Felt good at the finish with little tiredness or fatigue and I think the run was exactly what I needed at this stage of my taper.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Long intervals

2 x 1500m, 2k - 5:15, 5:07, 7:00 with 60 SR

There was a rare albeit slight early morning headwind to contend with this morning on the first 1500m rep at West End. I made a relaxed start, settling in 4th place to the 500m before accelerating away to the lead. Maybe I was too relaxed at the start as the first split was only solid. The second split saw Pete and I clear out from the rest of the field and I recorded a better split, this time in 5:07. There had been some residual fatigue in the legs in the first two splits and this continued in the final 2k interval, but the lungs felt a million dollars as I concentrated on my form and running economy. After turning around in 3:33, I found some extra juice in the legs and kicked powerfully in the home stretch but just failed to dip under seven minutes, finishing with seven minutes flat. I didn't have much in the tank then and sank to the ground in exhaustion whilst Pete recovered quickly enough to go back and run some more of the Group in!

Am feeling a million dollars right now and am looking forward to a relaxing and easy two hour run on Sunday followed by a 3K TT on Tuesday.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Taper begins

Tues - 1k/500/1k/500/1k/1k - 3:26, 94, 3:19, 93, 3:24, 3:23
Wed - 90 mins, 18k's @ about 5:00 mins/km
Thurs - 50 mins, 10k's @ about 5:00 mins/km

I had a very strong speedwork session on Tuesday despite a touch of fatigue still left in the legs from Sunday's run. The lungs felt clear and strong as I spend the session chasing Jason whilst trying to keep a respectable distance in front of Pete and Glenda. Could have posted some scary splits had the legs been fresher!

Wednesday saw me running alone along the river on a cold but beautiful morning. I was a little tired and the adductor was taking longer to warm up than normal so I didn't need to apply the brakes that I thought I may have to use to ensure that I didn't run too fast for the first easy run of my taper.

Today - an easy 5o mins on the tready to start the day. I couldn't get the metric function working on the tready so ended up running about eight miles an hour pace.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Fantastic long run - close to peaking!

150 mins, 32k's @ about 4:35 mins/km

With Pete running down the Coast, Dave sick and Langy having an easy run, it was just Glenda and I today for my last serious long run before the GC Marathon. I made sure I had a race style prep and was raring to go when the time came. In perfect running conditions, Glenda and I took full advantage with a sensational run!! Despite, Glenda's nursing a calf problem we rolled along at a brisk clip the whole way and despite ocassionally dipping below sub 4:20, I felt comfortable throughout, never breathing hard. Only the last 20 minutes involved a little extra effort and that was mainly because of some mild tightness in my left glute. Importantly, I got through the run with only about 30 seconds stoppage time for drink or toilet breaks - much better than the two or three minutes I usually need. Am very pleased with the run - easily my best of the campaign so far.

That concludes my block of hard training - now it taper time!!!! Went out for dinner at a Spanish restaurant, Casa Flamenco on Sandgate Rd, Albion, with MJ tonight to celebrate our second anniversary. I had one beer and that will be my last until after the Gold Coast.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Recovery week - no fast running

Tues - 50 mins, 10k's @ 4:59 mins/km
Wed - 90 mins, 19k's @ about 4:40 mins/km
Thurs - 50 mins, 10k's @ 5:02 mins/km
Fri - 50 mins, 10k's @ 4:53 mins/km

Tuesday saw me doing an easy recovery run - I've pulled up ok since Doomben. Also saw Shane Lemcke for preventative physio and the adductor is getting better.

Wednesday morning, I did a steady 90 mins with Glenda and Beth. It rained throughout and there were noticeably fewer runners out there. Even more noticeable was the complete lack of cyclists out there - wimps!! We know that runners are the tougher breed, don't we?

Thursday was an easy 50 mins on the tready.

This morning, I did another easy 50 mins along Kedron Brook in chilly, blustery 'Ekka' winds. Felt fit and strong.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Doomben debacle!!

Sun - 7.5k in 27:33, 2k WU, 3k WD

Off all the scenarios I imagined might unfold on this cool Sunday morning with perfect running conditions, never did I imagine the race would descend into farcial chaos!!!

I got a decent nights sleep and felt ok during the warm up with the adductor feeling the best it had all week. The usual mad dash followed at the start of the race and whilst i was careful not to floor the accelerator, Matt R clocked a surprising 3:20 split for the first k dragging me along to a 3:26 in the process. I then
eased back to 3:41 for the second k and said to myself I'm now 13 seconds under 36:40 pace. Another 3:41 followed - 'That's 12 seconds under 36:40 pace' I thought and planned to pace myself with 3:40's like this until the 8k mark. Already, I was beginning to reel in runners ahead of me, moving into about 15th place. Unfortunately at the 3.8k mark it appeared the leaders were incorrectly instructed to turn around early and naturally, myself and the rest of the field followed like Brown's Cows. A couple of hundred metres after the turnaround when no 4k marker had appeared, I had a sickening feeling that the race had gone to pot and so it was proved when a 5k marker appeared. As I bowled along at a high tempo, breathing heavily my mind was completely jumbled, depressed and confused - 'what am I racing for now, I asked myself?' In fifteenth place, facing a disqualification and with no chance of running a 10k PB it was difficult to remain focused.

Having experienced it, I can now tell you that there is nothing worse than running along at high speed knowing that your race has been relegated to a training run. It felt like I was running close to 3:40's for the 12 minutes that I was in no man's land without any kilometre markers to assess but as I became increasingly dispirited it's possible that I slowed down somewhat - we'll never know. I finished things off with a 3:35 for the last k but there was none of the sheer desperation to call upon to finish with a lung busting sub 3:30. Knowing that I needed this last hard race before the GC Marathon was the only thing that kept me going.

The majority of the field ran 8.8k's but to make matters worse, I was one of two runners not directed to take the loop next to the railway line and as such ended up covering about 7.5k's in 27:33. I was probably the first 10k runner to cross the line and felt like a fool doing so - thank God that I was a pretty obscure finisher amongst the 5k runners. It was bloody disappointing that a promising day ended in farcial circumstances for about 75% of the 10k field. I'll post some more thoughts when I've calmed down a bit more.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Race eve

Fri - 40 mins, 8k's @ 5:00mins/km

Did an easy 40 mins on the tready Friday morning with the adductor and groin feeling better than in previous runs.

Coach Pat made the good point that a lot of little niggles quickly go away nine times out of ten during the adrenalin rush of a race. Coach has set me a target of no faster than 3:35's for the first 8k in tomorrow's Doomben 10,000 and to try and keep the splits around 3:40's. All going well, I'll dip under 37 minutes and maybe go well under if everything falls into place on the day. Bring it on!!