Couldn't Help Myself

I just couldn't help myself. I just had to give myself a test. After my long slow run on Sunday and my interupted training I thought I would put some effort into my 12K circuit this morning as a bit of a test run. I have been pleased to read how well others Canberra Marathoners have been running recently, but after my bout of sickness, was feeling a bit edgyabout my own fitness. However, this morning I was able to complete the undulating 12K in 54 mins at an average pace of 4:30. Now I am feeling less edgy.

A bit of trivia....how is this for coincidence. In the 2005 Canberra Marathon my bib number was 187 and I finished in 187th place. This year my bib number is again 187.

Last Long Run

After a week of ups and downs, 33K will have to do for my last long run before Canberra. I t was supposed to be 34 with the last 30 minutes at a steady pace. I had a relapse of the virus I have been battling for a couple of weeks so what was to be the toughest week of the training program with a 100 top quality K's ended up 77 not quite top quality K's. I have still put in more work for this marathon than any other and am hoping the three week tapering program will serve to hone what work I have done to date.

Though I wasn't able to, or I thought it unwise to, stick to Susan's prescribed run this morning, I did enjoy the run and the very comfortable pace we ran. We averaged 5:20 per k to bring us home in 2:54. The humidity was pretty high and lots of water had to be consumed.

I am looking forward to the taper program over the next three weeks and am getting excited about running my 8th marathon, my 3rd in Canberra. Now comes the time when I start visualising my run, especially the part where I cross the line for a PB.

Midweek 20K

Oh boy, I think my run on Sunday finally caught up with me. Yesterday I was supposed to do 5 x 4Min tempo runs but just couldn't get my legs to respond. I opted to just rum my 12K undulating circuit and allow my pace to improve as I warmed up. I ws surprised to finish with an average pace of 4:44.

Today I set out at 4:10 AM to run 20K and was rather dismayed to find that I was feeling well below parr. I just couldn't get going. I even got lost this morning. I headed into new territory, in the dark, and some thoughtful individual had changed a street sign and I end up in the the back streets somewhere. I eventually wound my way to familiar territory. I still couldn't get moving though. I did make 20K but at an average pace of 5:18.

A Boost

This morning's run was really good. 30K in 2:23, average pace 4:46. The humidity was much less than last week and running was much less exhausting. I had a 4:09 for the 27th K and then 4:13, 4:14 and 4:23 to finish to finish off.

The run was a real boost after my enforced easy week. Hopefully I can stick with the program this week and make it to the total of 100K which includes a 34K next Sunday. The last big effort before the Marathon.

Feeling Desperate

I have hardly run at all this last week. 12K on Monday and 12K on Thursday. I ended up taking Friday off work..a very rare thing for me...to see if I could hit this bug for six. I am feeling much better today. I am getting desperate to get out and feeling anxious about the setback to my training program.

I had a call from my running buddy, Tegwen, this morning to find out wheter I wanted to start earlier than the planned 5:00AM for the 30K tomorrow. Due to the forecast high temperatures we decided a 4:45 AM would be good. We are just doing 15 out and back along the river. That should take us from Park Road to about 1K along Kingsford Smith Drive past the Breakfast Creek bridge. This is all flat, something we opted for after last week's 24 hills.

A Set Back

I have caught a cold and am feeling a bit miserable. I haven't run for 2 days :-( . Never mind, the rest has done my right knee a world of good. I will probably go out for an easy run tomorrow.

I have started using Google Reader to keep up with my blog reading. It is a really great system. It indicates who has new posts, then I just click on the post Title and it takes me to the Blog so I can leave a comment. I guess this is old news to you guys but I think it is terrific. I tried Bloglines but never had much success...not that I really persevered. Now I have no trouble keeping up with the Blogs. Thank you Mr. Google.

A Wee bit Hot

I thought I was going to die yesterday. We set out from Park Road at 4:50 AM and 15 minutes into the run I was dripping sweat. What shocker. I think it was the hottest and most humid morning of the entire summer. Had we known it was going to be so awful I don't think we would have chosen to go the Western Freeway - Oxley - StLucia route. We counted 24 hills. Though I was supposed to do 34K we arrived back in 32 and there was no way I was going to keep on going for another 2K. I was totally stuffed. My Garmin said I averaged 5:09. I was having real trouble trying to imagine doing 42.2 @ 4:40 pace. It seems totally inconceivable.

The 12k recovery this morning was run at 5:40 pace. I coped with that OK.

Confused

I am confused about how all the training works and what improvement I should be expecting to see. I have been sticking to Susan Hobson's program like chewing gum under a shoe. I am pleased with how I feel and with my recovery after long sessions....but my times don't differ much from similar distances for the same period last year. I have to admit that, even though I work hard, I am not absolutely busting my gut. Though I must say that after hitting the final second in a hill session I can barley take another step. I guess that is almost gut busting.

I have a 34K'er again tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how I go.

Now the Easy Week is Over

During the easy week I felt terrible and didn't feel like I was recovering at all. It hasn't helped that the high humidity has returned with a vengence. My 20K on Sunday ended up being 22K because of some scare in the City Botanical Gardens. It was a very slow run and I felt disappointed because before the run I had visions of doing some spectacular time.

Yesterday my 12K easy was again slow....1:03:57. That's OK, it was ment to be slow. Last week I was dreading getting back into the intensive training again. So this morning I was really surprised to have felt so good after my run. Today's program called for 12K including 4 x 4 min at Anaerobic Threshold with a 2 min slow jog between. My 4 x4's averaged about 4:15 and I finished the 12K in 57:45. Maybe I recovered better than I thought.

I couldn't get up in the morning

I allowed myself some flexibility this week, since it is an easy week. I haven't been sleeping too well and this morning wasn't feeling the best when the alarm woke me so I thought I would swap tomorrow's rest day with today's 10K with fartleks. I was glad I thought of it really. I want to make the most of this week as the next three will be very intensive.

Hey! the marathon is next month. Yahoo!

A Ton of Fun

I don't recall having hit the Ton in a week before. Actually I got to 108K due to the back to front week end. Yesterday running buddy, Tegwen, and I set out from her place at Chelmer and followed exactly the same route as last Saturday. I was hoping for an improvement in time but only managed to cut 4 minutes which brought us home in 2:50. A 5:00 min per K average. I was well and truly spent and took a few hours to feel sort of normal again.

This morning I went along to Park Road at 5:30 to meet the usual crowd that run from there. The program only called for 8K (what should have been Saturday's run) but I ended up doing 16K at a nice recovery pace. Hence the 108K for the week.

This week Susan's program has scheduled an easy week, so back down to about 60K for the week. Then over the next three we build to a 100K in the third and the following three weeks we taper to the big race.

Stuffed

I have to say that this morning was a bit of a struggle. After doing 20K yesterday in1:40 this morning's 13K including 4 x 1 min and 2 x 2 min hill reps was not easy. Anyone seeing me doing my 2 min hills would not think that I was digging deep. I think I was on the verge of rolling back down the hill on the last one.

Another back to front weekend this weekend. My running buddy, Tegwen, has committments on Sunday so again we will be doing the long run on Saturday. The program says 34 and we know a route that will give us exactly that thanks to my miscalcualtion last Saturday. Then a nice short run on Sunday and I will hit the 100K for the week.

75Ks to go & 36Years to celebrate

Well that is 25K completed out of the scheduled 100 for the week. Yesterday was 12K easy. I love that run. Today was 13K including 3 x 7 min Tempo with 3 min jog between. I managed to average 4:17 per K for the Tempo runs. I found the 3rd set very tough. The undulations don't help. After the last set I was struggling to jog. I averaged 4:58 for the full 13K.

Tomorrow is 20K. I'll have to get an early night tonight and set the alarm for an earlier start.

Today is Robyn and my wedding aniversary. We were marrried in 1971. So that is 36 years. Robyn said to me this morning "How about another 36?". She didn't have to ask.

A Slight Deviation

This morning I had a social outing with some friends. I did a 3 k run as part a team effort in the short Triathlon at Bribie Island. I also did a 4k easy run prior to the event to loosen up after having run 34K on Saturday.

Our team came 6th out of 8 teams in our category. However, even though I was a bit slow at 13:15 for the 3k, I was 1st in our category for the run and 3rd out of the 24 teams over all categories.

Yesterday the program called for 32K but due to a miscalculation on my part we ended up doing 34. This we did at an average pace of 5:05. The weather wasn't too bad but still quite humid. Though I kept the fluids and gels up I was still very thirsty when we finished.

I was surprised to be be able to run at all this morning. The fact that I could is, I feel sure, due to Susan's excellent training program (or I didn't work hard enough yesterday).

I finished the week, today, with a total of 95K. Next week......100K!!!!!

Life on the Run

After the long run on Sunday, I enjoyed the 12K easy on Monday. However, during the run I realised my right calf was very tight and would need some nursing. It was just at that point where you know the wrong move or sudden exertion could do some damage. On Tuesday, Susan's progam called for an Anaerobic Threshold session and I knew I would have to have a strategy to deal with this. The session called for 12k including 4 x4 min @ AT with 2 min slow jog recovery between.

I decided to take the long way down to the local sporting field and use the grass running track for the AT session then take the short way home. This worked out really well. the run down was a little over 5K. The AT session on the track wasn't really run at the required pace as I was still very conscious of the tight calf. Never-the-less after 5K on the track I ceratinly felt like I had a good workout. Then it was 2 K home.

This morning's 18K was done with the tight calf still to the forefront of my mind. I ended up averaging 5:10 K's which was exactly the same as the 18 k two weeks ago. So that wasn't too bad. I am pleased to say that after a good stretching session following this morning's run, the calf feels much better. Bring on the Tempo + Hills tomorrow........what am I saying!

A hard day at the Office

Susan's program called for 28K today so running buddy Tegwen and I decided to set out from Park Road at 5:00 AM and run a circuit we run once before in November last Year. This took us out along the hilly Western Freeway bike path (naughty us) to Seventeen Mile Rocks, out through Oxley, back along Oxley Road to Chelmer, through Indooroopilly, St Lucia to Toowong, along the river to Milton and Park Road.

Last time we did this 27.7K circuit it took us 2:25. Today we did it in 2:18. Something must be working.

That brings another solid week to a close with 85K under the belt. Tomorrow is 12K easy...I look forward to that.

Hanging in there

Well I don't know whetheror not I am doing Susan's program justice but I am sticking with it. the Easy week seems way behind me now with the K's for this week set to hit 85 after the 28 on Sunday. I found this week s Tempo run hard going and the fartleks a challenge, but always in the back of my mind I keep wondering if I am really working hard enough. At the end of the day the race result will tell. On the other hand I want to keep on enjoying running, so I don't want the training to kill that joy. I hope I have the balance right.

Ahhh! the burdens we bear.

Cranking up again

After the nice easy week it is time to crank up the training again. I clocked up 60 K's last week finishing with 21 in 1:39 on Sunday.

Up until today Susan's program has called for an easy 8 on Monday but from today that has increased to 12. Tomorrow is an 11 K including Tempo..2 x 7 min with 3 min jog between. The tempo to be run at 10 seconds less than my 10K race pace. Susan says that the tempo is to be "hard work". I hope I can do it justice. I estimate my Tempo run will have to be run at about 4:22 pace. I better set my Garmin pacer to keep me honest.

Easy Week

Susan has given us an easy week this week. Monday - rest, Tueasday - 10 klm easy - I did this in 59:19, Wednesday - 12 klm - 58:18 for me, Thursday - 10 klm including fartleks - 48:28 for me. Tomorrow is rest, Saturday - 5 klm and Sunday 20 klm. Total 57 k for the week.

The lull before the storm. Next week is 85 k, then 94 k and the week beginning 19th Feb will be 100k. Phew! I am exhausted just thinking about it.

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.