Week of 2/3 ; 7 weeks to go

I was reading an article on Boston from Running Times kindly provided by Biscuitman which suggests rollercoaster tempo's and lots of fast downhill training to avoid the 'gremlins with ice picks' attacking the quads on a course that 'chews people up'. So from this week on the flat tempos are out the door, any downhills will be attacked and the long runs we'll be fast-finishing downhill ;  starting with the pipeline.

Monday: 12.86km Tempo @3.53 HR178 Ca90 19°C 69% S41/52. In keeping with the intro Sas & I did our tempo this morning in King's Park from the Aberdare Path west of Zamia up the perimeter path past Saw to Fraser Ave, up and over and down Forrest Drive to the end of the Law walk and back again (map). A bit tougher than doing it on the flat but as a plus we weren't really affected by the wind too much. Had a few problems with breathing  on some of the climbs towards the end and my 'up and go' was starting to live up to it's word when I got to the top of the hill at the end of Forrest. It seems pretty good (repeating issues aside) but I have to find another flavour - the mocha doesn't taste like chocolate or coffee! I have to say I'd rate this run as a success - I felt pretty strong on the downhills even at the end and recovered quickly afterwards. The calf was a bit niggly at first but I soon forgot about it. Only when I had finished the tempo part and did the recovery jog back to the start to I get back to my familiar 'captain peg-leg' gait. All up 15.3km. Tomorrow I will probably skip intervals again and try to move my Wed appt. to Tuesday for a bit more needling.

Tuesday: 9.59km Recovery @ 4:47 HR 146 Ca85 8°C 92% ESE9/13. Sore leg this morning took away from what should have been a lovely jog around the bridges on another perfect day. These recovery runs used to be really fun, no-pressure efforts but have become a chore because of the leg pain. Felt a little bit of residual fatigue and soreness from yesterday's tough effort but that's good. The HR is still too high but it is coming down a bit and is in a way better zone. Had a good bout of needling this morning as well which should help. Going again Friday and Monday...

Wednesday: 12k @4:55 HR 142 Ca 85 14°C 57% E 20/28. Ran Maylands loop (map) with Sas & Sandgroper on a cool and slightly windy morning. Legs still sore but not too bad, but still kinda killing the fun at the  moment ; still I'm thinking a course of anti-inflams are needed.  I suspect I may be overloading other parts  with the changed gait so taking the pills might actually be better in the long run.  Went for an hour hard bike ride from home to King's Park, around the park and back home again, avg speed 30kph, HR126. It felt good to hammer myself a bit without any pain... a bit of work for the quads won't hurt either.

Thursday am: 18.3km @ 4:24 HR 152 Ca 86 16°C 60% ENE13/17. Ran with Sas on our midweek MP effort along Mounts Bay Rd to UWA a loop of the park and down Malcolm. Felt really crappy at the start, nauseous, heavy legs but I got into it after a few K as is always the way. I took a couple of Naproxen yesterday and will keep this up for today and give it a rest tomorrow as I have physio and am not running. No real leg pain today so I was back running as normal and felt pretty comfortable in the Park - we were behind pace when we got there but were way ahead by the time we were done. It's good that we are much better runners on hills than on the flat, it means we are training well for the target race. We also hammered it a bit more than usual down the hills (as it says in the Boston manual) and felt pretty good. Sas spotted Biscuitman just at the end, which was well done because we were running into the sun - that's probably why we missed each other a few weeks ago. Very happy overall - HR seems close to normal again. 

Thursday pm: 5k Time Trial in 17:55 (30° 27% SW20/26) at Coker Park with WA Masters. Very warm and dry evening, and I was aiming around 18 minutes, so pretty happy with the result. I felt like I was running pretty strongly with consistent pace for the whole thing and was able to knock 7 seconds off the final lap to finish under 18. Haven't done intervals for a couple of weeks so I felt I needed a bit of VO2 max work. Splits were:

39, 85, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 88, 88, 88, 86, 79

About 8k all up. Horrendously sore throat afterwards, but that seems normal for track running !

Friday: Physio.

Saturday am: 33.72km @ 4:39 HR 156 Ca 87 14°C 77% E32/48. Ran the pipeline (map)with Sas and Biscuitman on a very nice morning for running, if a tad windy. At first leg felt a little sore but I got over that after a few k's but I did feel a trifle unwell from the Up and Go breakfast I had in the car on the way to Darlington. Felt a little sluggish for the first few k's, probably because the tib. ant. wasn't enjoying the downhill but got into it once we hit the pipeline. Felt pretty strong on the hills, quite a bit stronger than last time we did this run. Stopped at Fred Jacoby Park (17.55km) for a gel before heading up to Mundaring. Had another gel at Mundaring (24.1km) - I was debating having it because I wasn't feeling depleted at all, but forced it down anyway. I suppose I could have done it on the run down if needed... anyway, once we headed off the plan was to try to get down the hill (9.6k) in about 40 minutes to try and get some fast downhill pain into the quads in preparation for the big day. It's only really downhill from about 7k out but we still managed to go under the target by 10 seconds. Sas was running really strong and Biscuitman may have struggled a little at the end (probably more with the footing than anything else) but we are seasoned hands at hilly trail running and he has only done it twice - and handling it very well. The pipeline is a tough tough run, as anyone knows who has done it! Like I said to Biscuitman, "you haven't lived until you've run the pipeline...."

Saturday pm: 8.4km @ 4:55 HR 143 Ca 82 31°C 21% SSW24/26.  Felt a little fatigued and sluggish at first but got into it OK. It was very warm in the sun and I was definitely feeling the effects of the morning's effort. Felt pretty tired in the evening, which isn't really surprising.

Sunday: 10k @ 4:47 HR 149 Ca 87 17°C 56% E7/9. Ran Neil Hawkins (map) as a pacer for Trish - she ran very strongly ( esp. up the last hill) and finished with a good PB. Kim, got a big PB as well - not far to the sub-50 now... Didn't feel calf soreness at all and the last anti-inflam I took was last night - a good sign! Felt a bit leg tired when I woke up so wasn't surprised that the HR was high, although felt OK when I was running. Now I need to recover for tomorrow's tempo in King's Park. Sleep, sleep, sleep....

In summary a fairly good week at around 114k, started to feel like I was going better and that the leg was starting to come right. Felt a bit tired Saturday evening and Sunday morning but starting to perk up as I write this. Very happy with the Saturday morning effort, definitely a highlight in this program....