Thursday, October 02, 2008

Melbourne Marathon Taper - Week 1 - Sept 22-29

Well here we are - a solid training block has been completed since the Gold Coast Half, the highlights of course being the 78:47 at Noosa and a sharp effort at the Sherwood Forest 5.9k. Feeling strong and fit after five 170min Sunday long runs in the last seven weeks. The week went like this:

Tues - First session back at PCRG after last week's cold and after a sluggish start, ran strongly at the back end of the session. A relief to get the speed back quickly.

Wed - An easy 90 minutes with the Wednesday crew - I was content to sit back and cruise along in comfort as they edged ahead of me.

Thurs - DISASTER!!! Turned up at the Kedron Brook for an easy 50 minutes and pulled the pin after less than 400m with an extremely tight right ITB. Was unsure if I would aggravate the condition further by running so did a rather stiff 40 minute walk. Despite this, I was not too concerned as the main area of tightness was clearly in the middle of the ITB and not closer to the knee which spells real trouble. Got home and texted Bruno asking for a slot today if one of his clients cancelled. I really wanted to get on top of the problem straight away so I could run fast at speedwork the next morning, rather than miss speedwork and get it fixed up at my scheduled rub on Friday afternoon. Fortunately, my luck was in and Bruno got a cancellation. Predictably, he bashed and cupped the hell out of the ITB and I was hurting like I haven't done so in a while. Mindful that I had to get back on track as quickly as possible, even at the height of the pain, I was egging Bruno on through gritted teeth - "Don't go soft on me!!". Fortunately, much of the tightness dissipated immediately upon completion of the rub. On Bruno's instructions, I had an Epsom salts bath that evening and went to bed pretty confident I'd be right for the next day.

Fri - 3 x 1k, 45 SR - 3:12, 3:18, 3:16

Got up and did some strides barefoot on the road out the front of my place and the ITB could hardly be felt so I got dressed for PCRG - wearing the long Skins. There was a little bit of niggle during the warm up but none whatsoever when I did strides at speed. Ended up having a great little session working with Stef throughout. Whilst the others did 4 reps and a short out and back, I followed Bruno's suggestion to pull the plug after three reps rather than risk trying to run fast on the fourth rep when the fatigue really starts to kick in.

Sun AM - 120 mins, 23k's at about 5:10's
Sun PM - 30 mins, 6k's at about 5:10's

Felt ok on Sunday.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hey Matty, smart moves with the ITB; after all your hard work it would be horrid to fall prey to the dreaded taper niggles!

I'm going to be offline for the next couple of weeks, so good luck in Melbourne. I've no doubt that if you run your race you'll kick it in!

Anonymous said...

Good work Matty, Blog up and running again :). Enjoy the last week of the taper coming up. Some good form around from some PCRGers i reckon at moment so Melb should be a goodin. Stef

Superflake said...

Good luck with Melbourne Matt. Hope you have a good race.

Anonymous said...

Hi !.
might , probably very interested to know how one can manage to receive high yields .
There is no initial capital needed You may start earning with as small sum of money as 20-100 dollars.

AimTrust is what you haven`t ever dreamt of such a chance to become rich
The company incorporates an offshore structure with advanced asset management technologies in production and delivery of pipes for oil and gas.

It is based in Panama with affiliates everywhere: In USA, Canada, Cyprus.
Do you want to become an affluent person?
That`s your chance That`s what you desire!

I`m happy and lucky, I began to get income with the help of this company,
and I invite you to do the same. It`s all about how to choose a proper companion utilizes your savings in a right way - that`s it!.
I take now up to 2G every day, and my first investment was 500 dollars only!
It`s easy to start , just click this link http://epobemotob.freecities.com/xuwypyw.html
and go! Let`s take our chance together to feel the smell of real money