Annus Terrificus

2008 report: Total mileage 3500km - average weekly 67km, highest 100km. This has been a terrific year for me - a lot of goals achieved and PB's aplenty. I must make an effort to remember and enjoy this period - it may never get better than this. Going sub-3 at Perth was the standout highlight, but the raft of PB's in the latter half of the year, particularly the 36:33 10K time and the 9:58 for the 3000m at Perry Lakes were other definite highlights. Just being up there and competitive in WAMC races with people I was admiring from a distance only a year ago has been a real thrill.

The year did not start well - I picked up an injury on the 2007 Christmas run and ran with some sort of leg pain, varying from niggly to nasty for the first six months of the year. The addition of a 6mm heel lift (plus a couple of ATM cards)  in the right shoe seems to have sorted out the niggles and I have been pretty much pain-free for the latter 6 months of the year. Seems it took the Perth marathon to sort everything out.

At the start of the year my average running economy was about 705 beats per km for most training runs. Over the course of the year this has improved dramatically to around 660 beats/km. At the end of 2006 I was at about 745 beats/km. Long may this trend continue!

I don't any specific goals for the year ahead - I'd like to shave a bit of time from the PBs, and would love to go sub-3 at Boston, but mostly I'm determined to enjoy the experience of Boston, and simply enjoy my running.... 

Let hope 2009 is a great year for everyone, full of PBs and no injuries!

Week of 22/12; Parlouf

Easy week. Going to try really hard to run easy all week to start the marathon training in the new year with some freshness in the legs. Made the executive decision yesterday to cancel the tempo runs for the next two weeks.

Monday: 9.9km easy 4:52 pace HR 135 Ca 83. Kings Park to Mounts Bay and back up the perimeter path. Beautiful morning, lovely run w/Sandgroper & Sas. Really enjoyed this one.

Tuesday am: 11.2km easy 4:38 pace HR143 Ca 85. Mends St along Mounts Bay Rd, up Kings Park Rd, Lovekin Dr, along Fraser, Down Malcolm, back to Mends St. Cycled to Mends St from home (~8k) and ran off the bike. Consequently legs felt a little heavy at first but the feeling faded fast and ended up feeling really good. Another lovely morning (17°) with light winds( S 20/26) . Started a little later and felt the increased hit from the sun. Had a coffee from Atomic and then cycled back. Had my first stack on (off) the bike! Got off the side of the path and cycled along a bit to find a good spot to get back on, and then the front wheel sank into the sand and stopped (however I was still moving!). No injury to report happily ('tis but a scratch..)

Tuesday pm: 2x1k ; 2:30 rec; 2x800 ; 2min rec ; 2x400 ; 90sec. 9km all up. Fairly strong and gusty winds up the home straight made this a really tough session. I was going to take it easy tonight but then 'arch-nemesis' Tony Stahl pitched up so I couldn't really - you know, inner wanker and all that... it was a good session though. Had to take a toilet break between the two 800's which probably accounts for the slightly slower second 8. Times were 3:21, 3:18, 2:35, 2:40, 71, 69. Ready to spew after the last!

Wednesday: 16k of reeeally relaxed cycling in the morning just to tick the legs over (and to meet some fellow runners for coffee) ; did a relatively hard, short ride (my 8k river loop in 17 mins) in the afternoon to get the blood going and (hopefully) to beef up the quads.

Thursday: 14.55km MP 4:14 pace HR 158 Ca 87. Run from City Beach to Trigg and back. A bit of a slog coming back into a fairly strong S20/30 wind. All in all a good run, got a bit tougher on the way home. Only had green tea before the run and held up pretty well. Went in the ocean afterwards to cool the legs - didn't stay to long as it was fairly cold in the wind.

Friday: Parlouf relay. This is a fun event around the lake in Hyde Park. The lap is 880m. Faster runners are paired with slower runners and you do a straight relay and the winner is the team that has run the furthest by the time the gun goes at 30 minutes. I was teamed with Kim who ran really hard - we managed just shy of 9 laps which was a good effort. My splits were 2:43 (3:05 pace), 2:46 (3:08), 2:53 (3:16), 2:53 (3:16), 2:46 (3:24 - just shy of a lap). Probably went out a little fast (with the rabbits), although pleased with the times. Ran conservatively on the last lap because I thought I'd be running more than a lap (if you're running at 29 minutes you don't hand over) - I obviously mis-read the time and should have been going all-out. Ah well, live and learn.

Saturday: 24 km 4:45 pace HR 141 Ca 83 Cal 1413 Time 1:54. Beautiful run on a beautiful morning with Sandgroper and Sas. Ran from Darlington down to Midland, up the trail to John Forrest Nat. Park and ran Park Rd thru the park to Bilgoman Pool and down to Darlington (map). Never run this way before, it was brilliant. Quite hilly, but not too bad. Legs were feeling a bit from yesterday but held up pretty well. No gel, just green tea and a banana before and a few swigs of powerade at Pechey road and at the top of Park Rd. Very encouraging, didn't feel all that fatigued at the end. 

Sunday: A couple of hours of cycling (and a couple of coffees) including some Kings Park hills. A good way to loosen the legs up and to set me up for a nap in front of the cricket this afternoon....

Week of 15/12 ; 3000m time trial

Monday: 10.12km easy ; 4:42 pace, HR 142 Ca 83. Nice easy run from Kings Park with Sangroper73 and Sas. Down Malcom St, along Mounts Bay Rd, and back up to the park. Warm (20°) and humid (90%), lovely conditions for an easy run. Legs felt great, wouldn't have thought I'd raced yesterday - probably a bad sign for the 3kTT at Perry Lakes tomorrow ;-)  As expected after washing, the HR belt really played up (HR is a guess) - that's why I never wash the thing. It was becoming a bit of a biohazard though.

Tuesday: 3000m in 9:58.4 ; HR 182 Ca 91. Perry Lakes Stadium. Very happy with the run. Conditions were warm and quite windy up the home straight. Speed graph looks a bit like a yo-yo! Ran most of the race in the 2nd lane outside Gina Grayson-Cassey with Tony Stahl sitting in the 'hole' behind us. Coach John Kappler was setting the pace in our little group until he pulled away with a couple to go. At this point Gina fell back a little and Tony pulled ahead - I tried to stay with him but the legs had been sucked dry by the wind. Must learn to draft! I looked at the clock coming round the last bend and it said 9:40, and I really had to dig to scrape under the 10 minute target. Winning time as ~9:40 with JK 10 seconds ahead of me & Tony about 5 ; Gina may have just made the sub-10, I'm not sure... Epi did very well (10:35)  as did training partner Sas who ran 11:15. My splits were 38, 77, 79, 80, 81, 84, 82, 77. Fantastic experience and keen to do some more track stuff!

Wednesday: 30km bike ride. No idea on the HR because it was all over the place. Eventful ride. First two adult black swans looked like they were trying to cross the freeway on-ramp under the Narrows - black birds crossing a major road in shadows ? Not a good idea. Herded them back up the path so they would use the underpass.... then just before the UWA boat shed on the Mounts Bay Rd bike path, some idiot on a bike coming towards me took a swing at me because I dared stray  5 cm over the centre line. It's a little narrow on the UWA-bound side, and quite wide on the other. I daresay a rebuke was probably in order, but I obviously ruined this guy's day, and he deemed it necessary to take stern action. Not sure how his day would have been improved if he'd connected....

Wednesday pm: Cycled (uneventfully) to the club (12.68km) in 24 minutes with a fresh SW wind at my back. Cycled back in 29 minutes with a fresh SW wind in my face. My hope that the wind would die down for the return was ill-founded.... tough ride.

Thursday am: 9.85km easy ; 4:29 pace, Ca85. Frantic morning so left HR belt at home. Legs felt a little heavy (esp. the quads) at the start due to the tough bike ride about 9 hours previous, and matters weren't helped byu the fresh easterly as we headed towards the Causeway. Loosened up as we got going, and felt a lot better coming back. Speed steadily increased as the circuit went on.Could almost call it a progression run - first 4k avg 4:35; last 5.8 km avg 4:25. May give the legs a rest this afternoon...

Thursday pm: 12.15km MP ; 4:15 pace HR 159 Ca 84. Couldn't resist taking the new Mizuno Wave Inspires out for a spin - and they felt pretty good. Hot (29°) and windy (SSW26/32), ran the usual course down to Attadale past the kite surfers and back. Actually felt better running into the wind, it got very hot when I turned around and lost the a/c. Last couple of k's the HR started to shoot up as it got a little tough. Skulled a litre of Gatorade with extra salt (mmmm...) when I got back. Think I may have got a little dehydrated...

Saturday: 25Km Long run ~1:56 ; 4:39 pace HR 145 Ca 82. Pretty warm and humid(16/91%) and had a short sharp shower - nice and sweaty by the end! Up to ZigZag carpark from Darlington via the creek crossing near the Lower Helena Dam (and return) (map). Cracking run. Sandgroper came out early and left some drinks at the turnaround - fantastic! Got to the turnaround in about an hour and came back in about 56 minutes. Great hills on this run in both directions, mostly the gradient is pretty kind. Had some green tea and a banana before the start, and a Powerade at the turnaround. Resisted the tempation to use a gel and felt pretty good considering. Pretty spent by the end though as Sandgroper pushed the pace and the HR hit the mid 170's on the climb back to Darlington.

Sunday: 30km bike ride, HR 100. Nice relaxing ride to see Kim et al. at the Masters' Xmas run. They'd just started when I got there, so cycled back to Atomic for a takeaway. After the festivities cycled back. Did some harder along with the cruising to get the HR up, esp with and into the wind on the way up/down the f/way.

In summary, 72km this week incl two races - ave pace 4:24 (dropped the stupid 'easy otherwise' from the title of this weeks saga). Next week will try to ease off - short tempo, no second run on Thursday. Will do the Parlouf on the 26th though.

Week of 8/12 ; City Beach 8k

Our lives are all the poorer for the loss of Kerryn McCann to breast cancer on Monday. A truly great Australian marathon runner and an inspiration to many. A sad day. So spend a little less on useless crap this Christmas and make a donation to the MCGrath Foundation or the Breast Cancer Network Australia.

Monday: 2k warmup, 8k (steady state) tempo 3:57 pace, HR 173 Ca 86, on the Attadale foreshore. Headwind on the way out. It was a tough effort to get moving today - the legs felt really heavy, probably from the big endurance weekend. Slightly sore left hamstring, feels like a bit of tendonitis around the big tendon at the back of the knee on the left. I've had this before, don't think it's running related. May have been the 'frolicking' in the surf yesterday with Zoe the puppy, or the bike ride. Will take it easy at intervals tomorrow if not feeling 100%. Went for an 9k loop around the river this afternoon on the bike to get some blood thru the legs.

Tuesday am: 10.53km easy, 4:34 pace HR 146 Ca83. Glorious conditions this morning (until the easterly kicked in just as we headed back!). Took a while for the legs (esp. the hamstring) to warm up, but started feeling looser towards the end. Encouraging signs for this evening.

Tuesday pm: 4x300m; 60sec recovery; 4x500; 90sec; 4x300; 2k warmup, 1.5k cooldown. Felt tired and not really mentally up for it - didn't really fancy flogging myself as I do usually! Also had bad stomach 'issues' - I think I salvaged something from the session, but it wasn't ideal - ended up doing the second half by myself. 58, 56, 55, 54, 96, 99, 96, 97, 56, 55, 55, 53.

Wednesday: 30km bike ride in 80 minutes, HR 93. Does that count as exercise? Pleasant, restful way to spend an hour or so!

Thursday am: 9.85km easy, 4:28 pace HR 147 Ca 85. Lovely morning, felt pretty good today. Had a bit of a tailwind along Riverside Dr. for a change. Hamstring felt good (didn't feel it at all actually). Finally lost the fatigued feeling that's been haunting me all week. May actually go out this afternoon for another dose...

Thursday pm: 12.15km "easy" 4:17 pace HR 158. Very windy (SSW39/50) and warm (23°) like last week but a good effort in McMillan's 'easy' range. Felt fairly strong and comfortable except for the couple of k's down to Attadale amongst the kite surfers, when I felt I was being blown backwards going out, and lifted off my feet coming back!

Saturday: 20.7km long run/easy 4:38 pace HR 148 King's Park down Matilda Bay and back around the perimeter path past the DNA tower back to Zamia (map). Really enjoyed this run ; conditions were fantastic and the company was excellent. Probably a little quick for a 'long' run but I suppose it was relatively short and the brain got into 'easy run' mode rather than 'long run' mode. It was also a good test of the running on empty theory ; only had half a cup of green tea before setting out and no gels during the run. Felt much better than expected. Any longer though and I think I would have crashed.... now looking forward to the 8k at City Beach. Hope conditions are like they were this morning....

Sunday: WAMC City Beach 8km 29:27 3rd place - HR 180 Ca 90 (Results). Temp 24° and E24/35 winds. A little disappointed with the time, although conditions were really tough (especially the wind) on a fairly exposed course (map), and I claimed some decent scalps so I guess everybody found it hard going..  I think I may have gone a little hard - hit the turnaround at about 14:15 and found the second lap really difficult, esp the outward 2k (splits 3:44 and 3:56 !) when I felt weary and was trying to recover a little for the push home. Last 2k in 7:21 which was OK. HR graph ( only started a couple of minutes into race -  'Start' didn't take at the start ) shows I was maxxing out so I can't be too unhappy - although I felt my commitment was lacking. I have done a few races in the last month or so, so perhaps getting a little race-tired.

Week of 1/12; Boston program drawn up...

Expected to feel a little fatigued this week after a decent effort in the race on Sunday. Very happy with the way things are going. Also drew up tentative training schedule for Boston :-)

As a change I've thrown in two more 'double' days on the advice of some old hands. Also, the rest day on Friday now has a short interval session. Another difference is putting in a 'long ride' in every four weeks or so. Average 106 km/week running, peaking at 115. This is a ~15% step-up from the Perth '08 program - let's see if these old legs can take it! Hopefully with another 6 months of training in the legs this should be manageable.

Monday: 9.8k easy 4:31 pace HR 149 Ca 84 ; Fraser Ave down Malcolm, along Mounts Bay to UWA, back to Fraser Ave past Sticky Beaks on the KP perimeter path. Felt surprisingly OK after Sunday's race - a little fatigued but not too bad.

Tuesday am: 11.1k easy 4:28 pace HR 153 Ca 85 ; Mends St along Mounts Bay, up Kings Park Rd, Lovekin Dr to Fraser ave, down Malcom & back to Mends. Felt a bit fatigued again, but OK.

Tuesday pm: Intervals -10x300m w/60sec rests + a few k's warmup and cooldown ; pretty hard anaerobic session - it was pretty warm as well - really felt the race and morning session in the legs and had to dig pretty deep after 180m or so. Good splits though ; 57, 53, 53, 53, 52,53,52,52,52,52.

Wednesday: Ride to KP and back with a loop of the park (1h20). Must get new bike.... although I have heard there are real benefits of riding on an the crappiest old bike you can find. A bit like training in my wellington boot-like Nirvanas and switching to the Wave Revolver for races !

Thursday am: 9.85km easy 4:29 pace HR151 Ca 85 ; Mends St long river loop. Felt pretty good and was surprised by the relatively high HR. Legs felt great. It was pretty humid which may account for a few extra bpm, but not too windy for a change. Bad sleep last night may also account for an extra beat or so, disturbed by Kim's 3am/5am interviews... and earlier by a playful kitten.

Thursday pm: 12.15km "easy" 4:20 pace HR 156 Ca 83 Home to Attadale on river cycle path and return. The sun was warm (24°) and had a decent headwind (WSW20/28) for most of the way out, although the wind kept things cool. Got warm on the way back with the loss of the a/c! Pretty good follow-up to this morning.

Friday: 2k warmup ; 5x400 w/90sec rest; 4x100 w/90 sec rest, 1.2km cooldown. Did this session midmorning at Perry Lakes Stadium, so was quite warm and there was a decent headwind down the home straight. Actually felt quite good running after a breakfast (and a large coffee). 400m times were 72.8, 71.3, 70.7, 69.8, 66.8; 100m times were 15.1, 15.1, 14.1, 14.2

Saturday: 28km 4:44 pace HR 151 Ca 82. Darlington down to Midland, up Heritage trail via John Forrest to Owen/Brooking Road, across to Heritage trail on Darlington side and back down to Darlington (map). Felt tough today - was carrying a full load of 4 water bottles on the Fuel belt plus Jellybeans to try out and a Gu. Hamstrings a little sore, perhaps from pushing the 100m sprints too hard. Must learn to back off a bit. Strong winds going up the trail to John Forrest, where we stopped and had a Gu. Brooking Road was true to form. TFLs felt a little sore coming down the hill. Tomorrow will go for a bit of a bike ride on the new road bike :-) and give the legs a bit of a rest. I'll also back off from the planned 16k tempo on Monday and do an 8-10k instead.

Sunday: Went for 40km bike ride - a good followup to the 28k long run on Saturday. Found the new bike comfortable and speedy - really starting to enjoy it.

Week of 24/11 ; DWP 15k

The weekend of the 23rd was a biggish endurance weekend - 28km run from Darlington to Brooking road (map) in 2:13 (4:45 pace - HR 148 Cadence 83) on Saturday followed by 53km Great Bike Ride (1:57) on my grotty 15 year old mountain bike. Felt that one in the quads and butt ! 

Monday: Rest day (first day for three weeks when I didn't do anything!)

Tuesday am: 8.4km Fraser Ave/LawWalk/Sticky Beaks (map) 4:27 pace HR 151

Tuesday pm: WAMC intervals (400m/85m jog/400m/85m jog; 2min rest)x2 ; 4x400; 90sec ; (400m/85m jog/400m/85m jog;2 min rest)x2 - lead guy short changed us on the rests so very tough session - would have been tough anyway given heavy legs from the weekend. 79; 80; 76; 78; 73; 73; 74; 74; 78; 80; 76; 76.

Wednesday: Home to King's Park and back bike ride (1h04)

Thursday am: 9.6km easy 4:28 pace HR 148 C 84

Thursday pm: 8.4km easy 4:21pace HR 155 C 84

Friday : Short Intervals at Perry Lakes track ; 2k warmup; 5x400 ; 4x100 77; 1.2k cooldown - 74; 72 ; 73; 68 ; 16 sec for 100m

Saturday: Taper run for DWP race from Zamia around the top of the park back to Zamia past the DNA tower -6.9km at 4:37 HR 145 C 84 - felt a little tough...

Sunday: WAMC DWP race (map) (results)- conditions were relatively cool but a fairly strong SSE wind which made running south on the mount pleasant side pretty tough. Ran the first lap with Felipe who provided good incentive to stay on pace! He fell back just after the first lap, but not too far - I could hear the footfalls behind me over the Mount Henry Bridge... Happily the others that were in front (some of whom I felt we were catching) dropped into the finish chute after 1 lap, except Sam May who I saw disappearing up Regent Way as I was coming under the bridge. Managed pretty even pacing around 3:45 hitting 10k at 37:27 and finishing 2nd (!) in 56:24 (HR 179, C 90). First WAMC silver ( have one gold after pulling a Bradbury at the '08 Christchurch 5k and a few bronze). Sas picked up first place in 1:02:18 after mis-judging the pace on the first lap in just over 30 minutes and putting a real gutsy effort to do the second in 32 minutes. Georgina McWhae was in 2nd place and was couple of minutes behind.

Km El. Time Lap Split (based on WAMC markers)

1 0:03:43 0:3:43

2 0:07:24 0:3:41

4 0:14:53 0:3:43

5 0:18:39 0:3:46

6 0:22:31 0:3:45

10 0:37:27 0:3:44

12 0:45:15 0:3:46

13 0:49:03 0:3:48

14 0:52:48 0:3:46

15 0:56:24 0:3:36

The week ahead: time to put in some solid miles ahead of the City Beach race on December 14 when I'll probably run short on the Saturday again. Brooking Road beckons.. It'll be good to get the race out of the way - I've run 4 races since the coolnight classic on 5/11! ; good results but I'm stressing about the low kms! 250 in October and 290 in November. On a positive note I'm starting to see the cadence on the easy runs come up to pre-Perth Marathon levels (at last!)

Why not ?

I thought I'd log my training progress on the may to running the Boston marathon on April 20, 2009. Why not, everyone else seems to have a blog, and I always hate to be left behind. Check back for regular updates ... 

An introduction:

My running has been going pretty well this year ; I started doing regular miles back in the middle of 2005 - back then, running three times a week was a serious program, and 10k was a looong way! These days, most weeks would trump my monthly milage back then. I ran my first marathon (Perth) in 2007 (~3:15) and ran Rottnest a few months later (~3:18). Since then I took on the advice of another well respected runner and concentrated on the short races for a while to get the leg speed up. It seemed to work because I started getting some good PBs in short races, and this seemed to be flowing on to the half marathon times. It culminated in Perth 2008 when, in near perfect conditions, and with the help of cota and his 3Hr bus, I ran 2:59:23.

Since then things have gone from strength to strength - I've been running PBs in most races and have actually astonished myself in how much time is being slashed of previous bests. Don't pinch me, I might wake up.

Onwards......