Week of 16/3 ; 5 weeks to go

This is the week of the Darlington Half which I feel is a key run for Boston because of the strong downhill finish. The program for this week is the same as usual only just a short run Saturday with the Half on Sunday except the HM being a tempo instead of the Monday effort.

Monday: 14.58km Tempo @ 3:58 HR 166 18°C 81%. Ran from Aberdare Rd on the western path of King's Park up past Stickybeaks, up Fraser, down Forrest, across Lovekin up the bike path to the Synergy Parkland and back for about 58 minutes of tough tempo running (map). Ran this one on green tea and ½ a choc UpandGo (mmm... doesn't taste too different from Mocha). Very happy with the way it went (no nausea - I think I'm past that too) and I definitely feel now that things have come good. It was warm and humid and I was sopping by the end but pretty happy - legs felt strong for most of it (and actually felt fantastic going up the steep bit of Forrest Dr!) but got a little fatigued on the way down in the final k - not terribly surprising though. All up 16.8km. Sports massage with KD at lunch time. Ouch.

Tuesday am: 9.59 recovery @ 4:48 HR 137 Ca 85 19°C 78% W 11/17. Ran with Sas on the standard Mends bridges loop on a slightly steamy morning. I have to say I'm looking forward to the cool mornings for the next few days. HR was good again - it's great to see it back in the 130's ; the effect has gone almost as instantly as it arrived ; four weeks is a long time in purgatory! The leg was good but then I'm taking two Voltaren Rapid 25's every morning - I try just to ice for the rest of the day. Not an ideal situation but it's working for now.

Tuesday pm: WAMC Intervals. This was a bit of a struggle - felt heavy legged and hard to move up a gear. The session was 5 800's with a 2 minute break, I took JK's advice not to kill myself and consequently ran a little easier.  2:52, 2:49, 2:50, 2:50 and 2:48. Not convinced I could have gone much faster... on the plus side, my new Mizuno Musha shoes arrived today ; very flash looking! Will try them on Thursday am and probably run the Darlington HM in them to see if I want to use them in the full marathon.

Wednesday: 12.15km Easy @4:31 HR 144 Ca 88 16°C 88% S19/24. Ran my standard 12k along the Applecross  riverfront. Didn't particularly decide on any pace and started out very easy but after a couple of k's I found myself clipping along around 4:25 pace. A good effort confirming the full recovery from the virus. 

Thursday am: 19.53km Easy @ 4:22 HR 147 Ca 88 11°C 91% SE13/19. Conditions were perfect as we set off at 6 this morning on the standard hilly MP run through the park. Felt a little tough getting going but that faded once we got over the Narrows and headed out along Mounts Bay Rd. We both decided to wear the racing shoes to test to see if they would be good for running the marathon. Sas in her orange Ronin 2's and me in my flourescent green Mushas. Verdict for Sas was 'yes', for me its a big 'maybe' depending on how my calf is feeling at the time. I definitely felt the impact going down the hills and think that may be hard to bear for a marathon. I'm going to try the Inspires on Sunday at Darlington because I feel that they have better cushioning and may be the right shoe (after much experimenting). The Elixir may not have enough cushioning - I'll have to try a few experiments. Enough of that, I felt pretty good today and had a decent HR - didn't feel like the run took much out of me at all. Saw Biscuitman out for an easy run just as we were finishing.

Thurday pm: 10k MP @4:08 HR 161 Ca88 23°C 48% SW26/35. Ran my 10k loop from home on another warm and windy afternoon. In contrast to the morning my legs felt a bit heavy so this run was a struggle. I also had some needling in the TA and TP late this morning - I didn't feel particularly sore before I went out, but the chickens came home to roost and bit me on this one. Not my finest hour but I guess its the first bad one I've had for a while. At least I finally got the MP right ! Rest day tomorrow I think - first non-running day for two weeks...

Friday: Half hour bike ride at the gym followed by some stretching. Leg doesn't feel too bad today and I haven't taken any anti-inflams.

Saturday: 35km @ 4:42 HR 145 Ca86 13°C 99% CALM. Ran a loop of King's Park before heading off to do a loop of Bold Park past Challenge and back to Zamia (map) with Sas on an absolutely glorious morning. Really enjoyed this run, the conditions were perfect. Took a while to get warmed up but I felt pretty good on this one - had green tea, and a small  banana beforehand and a single gel after an hour and a half. The HR started to creep up after a couple of hours but I still felt comfortable finishing down the hill at 4 minute pace. We only stopped once and were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves by the time we had finished because we both felt great (did I say that already?) - it was about a 2:45 hour run . Had a huge brekky at Zamia afterwards. Very happy, looking forward to an MP run at the Darlington half tomorrow.

Sunday: 21.0975km in 1:24:30 (4:00 pace) HR 168 Ca 90 11°C 76% S11/20. Darlington Half (map) - run in perfect conditions. Felt very comfortable going up the hill towards Mundaring, just got into a groove and kept at it. Hit the 10k at 40:40 and turnaround in 43:15 and came back down in 41:15. Ran with Epi for a while up the hill but he took off at about the 8k mark and finished strongly to post a big PB - fantastic!  Ran comfortably down the hill because the legs were feeling a little sore, and I have a history of doing stupid things, and I didn't want to add injuring myself at Darlington to the list. It was hard, as a I got taken by at least three people, and that never feels too good, even though I know I'm not racing. Turns out Biscuitman was right behind me at the finish - another huge PB, so there are a few people in good shape for their respective marathons in four weeks. Very happy with the run, a good tempo effort esp. considering the long one yesterday.

In summary, this has been a very good hard week with one crap run but pretty good for the rest.  132km all up and I'm feeling pretty good. One more big week to go and then it's taper time.