Ah! That's Better

After my shocker long run last week...31K in 2:48... I am pleased to report that today I felt much better and manged 34K in 2:50. That's an average of 5 Min K's. It was hard work. My running buddy, Tegwen, and I left Park Road at 4:45AM and heade along the river to the Goodwill Bridge. As Susan Hobson's program asks for the long runs to include some hills we decided that to go out and back along the river would not meet that requirement. We therefore decided to cross the bridge and head for Dutton Park, Fairfield, Yeronga, Tennyson, Chelmer, Indooroopilly, then to the University where we did a loop to ensure we would make up the 34K's. We then headed over the new bridge to Dutton Park and back to Southbank, over the Goodwill Bridge again and along the river to Park Road. There are a few hills in that little lot I can tell you.

It was a good feeling to have completed the run and put in the effort to tackle the hills. So that is 86K's for the week and another week that I have stuck to Susan's program.

My Marathon PB is 3:18:40..Sydney 2004. If I can better that in Canberra I willbe happy.

Glad I am not Fast

After 10K steady followed by 6 x 100m strides on Tuesday, 18K on Wednesday - I think my longest ever midweek run - the program today called for 10K including 10 x 1 min hills with jog down recovery. Why am I am glad I am not fast? If I was I would have to run further than the 220m I managed in 1 minute. I stuck with the 220m but by the 10th it was taking a tad longer than 1 minute. After the warm up and the hills I had done just over 6K's. My last 4K's were not exactly fast.

Have a great Australia Day holiday. A rest day for me. Saturday will be 8k and the big one on Sunday..34K.

Doing it Tough

Once again I stuck to the Susan Hobson training program and finished the week with a total of 83K's. the tough part was my long run yesterday morning (Sunday). Right from the start I felt like I was really working and couldn't help wondering how I was going to feel at the end of the 30K's. It humidity was very high and I am afraid that is not, for me, conducive to any sort of reasonable performance. I never doubted for a moment that I would complete the run. Once you are out there you really don't have a lot of choice.

The run ended up being 31K and took me 2Hrs 48mins. So after my previous Sunday's pace being 4:56 for 26K it was a bit disappointing to have to work hard for a pace of 5:25 for 31K.

My 8k recovery run this morning was painfully slow and I couldn't help wondering how my 10K at "steady" pace will be tomorrow. Hopefully I can complete it in a faster time than the 46 min it took me for the 8 this morning.

A Change of Category

Today is my last day in the 50-54 Age Category. Tomorrow I turn 55 and still have no prospect of winning my age category races. From what I have seen the competition intensifies as you get older.

Never-the-less I still, after having been running for only a little over 5 years, harbour a belief that there lurks within me the ability to pull another PB out of the hat. I will be extatic if I can do that in Canberra.

For the first time, while training on my own, I actually managed to stick at, and complete a set of fartleks. (2 x 60 sec, 4 x 30 sec, 2 x 60 sec, 4 x 30 sec, 2 x 60sec while doing a 10K ru over rolling hillls) .

Pleased with Myself

Well I have managed to stick with the marathon training program for one whole week. Amazing! I have run every one of the 76K's in the prescribed manner. Today's long run was 26K's. I started out nice and easy..15 minutes at 5:30 pace, then uped the pace to 5:00 per K, and finished the last 15minutes at 4:30 pace. There were a few variations throughout but overall I managed an average pace of 4:56 per K. The humidity was extremely high but there was cloud cover, so conditions weren't too bad.

My total K's for the previous week was 60 and the most I had done for some time. To jump up 16K in a week I thought might be a big ask, but I am glad to have achieved it and still feel pretty good. The week's training has given me a much needed mental boost.

This week will see a total of 82K, including a 30K run next Sunday. It is a long time since I put in that sort of effort and am looking forward to the challenge.

Susan Hobson

I have decided that my trainng fo Canberra needs to be more structured tahn my training for previous marathons so i took a look at the programs avilable on at: http://www.canberramarathon.com.au/index.php?pageid=123. I have opted for the Susan Hobson Sub 3:30 Program. Susan explains the progam well and it looks like one I should be able to adhere to.

This morning I did a 10K steady run followed by 6x100m strides. "Steady" means: runnning just within your comfort zone but running the first 15 minutes at easy pace to warm up. I amanaged an average of 4:40 per for the run.

I wasn't sure how I would go with the strides after running 10k. After measuring out 100 metres I thought well here goes. I was amazed! I felt so light and fast. It was an incredible sensation. I really enjoyed the remaining five sets. It was good to feel so good, mentally at least, after a training session. It seems a while since I felt like that.

Nice quiet Saturday

I am enjoying a nice quiet Saturday at home and looking forward, as always, to my Sunday run. Though there is a 10K run at West End with the Brisbane Road Runners, I am opting out and heading to Park Road for a longer run with some running buddies. The long runs are crucial training for the Canberra Marathon in April.

I haven't been running a lot at West End because I am having real trouble running the 5K loop. It never used to bother me but since the club has reversed the direction of the run I just don't seem to like it. I guess that sounds crazy. Also, Sunday is the only day I can do my long runs and need to stick to my program. This doesn't always fit in with the Road Runners program.

I still love to go to West End to catch up with the wonderful people there and will try to take advantage of suitable races there because of the great benefit derived from running in races.

Time has flown

Gosh where has the time gone. Christmas and New Year seem a distant memory. I hope everyone had a great time and that the New Year has lots of exciting things in store for you.

I have been doing some running and had the pleasure of having a run with Tuggeranong Don last week. Don was up from Canberra visiting family for Christmas. After he well and truly trounced me in the 10K race at West End on Christmas Eve we decided to meet up for a run on Wednesday morning.

We met at Park Road and headed for the Uni of Qld so that we could run over the new bridge accross the Brisbane River. It's good to have an alternative crossing to add some variety to our runs. It was a trip down memory lane for Don as he studied at UQ and, as a child, used to live at Highgate Hill, one of the areas we ran through as we headed for South Bank on our way back to Park Road.

It was terrific to catch up with Don again and look forward to seeing him in Canberra again in April.

Yesterday I had the rare pleasure of running in the rain. We need the rain so much.