NYC Marathon Gallery

Some of these really capture the enormous scale of this marathon :

Four weeks on...

.. and I'm still struggling. I'm not doing any intervals or hard running and am still waiting for my body to give me the green light. I'm taking a day off every 2 or three days in the hopes that my endocrine system will repair itself enough to enjoy my running again. All  of my runs are aerobic (although some are not as aerobic as I'd like them to be!) between 4:25 and 4:50 pace, but the HR is still very high. I have had one good one where I felt almost normal but that has slipped again.

I guess other people get hammered in other ways, I seem to get nailed in the endocrine department. My legs feel great - since the DOMS subsided 3 or 4 days after the marathon I haven't had any leg pain whatsoever - this is part of the problem. They want to go, but my body doesn't.

Anyhow, I ordered my photos last week so in the next week or so I should be able to put up a gallery of the best ones, including some fantastic shots of the marathon and NYC sights.

Paying the piper

Since New York I've run four times, each run getting progressively worse... two runs in Virginia and two since getting back in Perth on Sunday. I suspect the absolute awfulness of the two in Perth are mainly due to a head full of allergies and an upswing of abient temperature of about 20 degrees. Hopefully things will improve soon.

Post analysis of my training for NYC reveals a few things:

1. my longest long runs weren't long enough. If I'm training for a 2:45 marathon, I need to make sure at least some long runs are that long. Maybe I need to alternate the MP finish with pure LSD runs. My problem in the marathon came from a simple lack of endurance and leg muscle toughness.

2. Easy runs a fraction too quick.

3. Some MP runs too long. Maybe limiting to 21.1km would have been a good idea.

4. Tempo runs were mostly good, but I should have kept to the McMillan paces. I need to get over the temptation to beat the workout, especially when I'm feeling good. I think my training plateued a bit - the performance in Freo HM is an indicator of that.

5. Overall I think I got the volume right ; at no point did I feel absolute fatigue and the step ups were handled quite easily. The balance in different workouts was good as well. Recovery runs worked well too, instead of taking days off.

New York Marathon 360th in 2:50:13 (23rd M45-49)

What a day. I missed my target by a minute and a half, but I'm still thrilled with the result - a 9 minute PB. This is a very well organised race, given the logistical challenge of getting 45,000 people to the start on Staten Island. The start is in 3 waves waves, sub-divided into three separate starts, blue, green and orange.

Woke at 4:30 and forced down a large bowl of porridge and honey. Got the bag together and headed from our 71st Street apartment at 5:30am we took the the 1 subway to 14th, then the 2 to Chambers St, transferred via shuttle (weekend railworks!) to the Staten Island Ferry, got the ferry to Staten Island and then bus transfer to the start; arriving at 7:45. Kim & co. with Travelling fit got a luxury coach to the start. Hmmmpph!

Lessons learned from Boston were applied here. Do not get cold! Took many layers and changed into my race shoes just before handing my bag to the UPS trucks. Went to get a coffee, munched on a bagel and headed into the corral when they opened at 8:20. There was a line of loos in the corral, so it was good to hang out there and relax. No loo stress here...

Corrals closed at 8:55 and after a 20 minute wait we headed down to the start. Getting excited now! The elites were introduced - Haile getting the biggest cheer. Everyone started hurling their discardable gear off to the side, but disappointingly some dropped their gear at their feet including water bottles, which was a bit of a hazard.

At 9:40 the start cannon went, and we started to shuffle towards the line. Starting at a jog as we crossed the start slowly we headed up the bridge. A lot of weaving here I slowly managed to get up to pace. The first mile was 7:08 accompanied by a bit of mild panic as I realised I was 2 seconds/mile off where I needed to be already. Happily the field thinned out and I speed up a bit down the lee side of the bridge, the second mile being 5:58. Whoops. Settled down and tried to relax into a comfortable rhythm. The crowds, I have to say, were amazing. I put 'David' and 'Australia' on my shirt (not 'Sugar', another lesson learned from Boston).

This is not a flat course. Most of it is either long slight climbs or descents, and four of the five bridges present a significant challenge. There were bands everywhere and the crowd noise in sections was fantastic. All the time 'Go David!' or 'Go Aussie'. I felt really good. And inspired. My favourite was 'Yo David, you in Harlem now...' and 'Oh yeah, big David's got it going on...' :-) I was trying to go on heart rate, but that was pretty high, so went to just going on feel and breathing. I think the HR was elevated just because of adrenaline...

Hit a first patch of suffering at the halfway. I was steeling myself for the Queensboro bridge, but before you get there there's another (think Narrows x 2) - the Pulaski. Up and over and then down around and up the Queensboro. That's a bastard of a bridge (Narrows x 5). The worst thing about these is that there's no crowd support - it's quiet and all you have is the sound of your own suffering. I was buoyed by the fact that I was still steadily overtaking people, as I did the whole way. Actually the worst part was the steep descent off the bridge - which is where Haile's knee blew, I can understand why. My left ankle had started feeling sore at 10 miles and turning corners was painful, so the steep decent and sharp left hurt a lot. However, we were now in Manhattan and the crowd noise went to a new level.

Then was the 4 mile haul up 1st avenue. Again loooong ups and downs. Now I was starting to have to dig. I was still picking up places and hanging onto others who were doing the same. My feet were starting to get sore, but happily the left ankle had settled down. I was having good spots and bad spots, but the encouraging thing was I was still having good spots ! By now I was doing gatorade and water when I could.The climb over the bridge into the Bronx was hard but psychologically once you're in the Bronx your're about to turn south for home. It was fairly quiet in the Bronx and after a few twists and turns you're on the bridge back to Manhattan and crowds. I had a good patch again for a couple of miles here, and really started to reel in places. At 35km I was still on track for my 4:00 pace target but then came the long climb to Central park and my legs just lost their bounce. Pushed and dug up the hill, and then we were into the Park. 2 miles to go. I can do this. Really tried to push down the hill and then we turned into Central Park south. 1 Mile to go. Come on!

As you turn in Columbus circle seems a loong way away. The crowd is screeaming - almost as load as your  body..... turn north 800m to go, 400 - 1 lap come on, 300, 200 ... finish!

Elation, emotion, mind snap, body snap, recover , medal photo....

Next was the stagger up to pick up the bag. Trucks started at 70,000, my number was 4693! My calves were seizing I was shivering and shaking. I thought, I don't know if I can make it ; slowly we all staggered up, consuming the contents of the excellent food bag given at the finish ; gatorade, apple (what else in NYC ), protein bar, pretzels etc. Finally got there (what's one more mile when you've run 26.2 ?!) and was able to change into dry clothes and started to feel more human - bag pickup was quick because I was only the third person from my corral to finish. Than came the walk back to the apartment - including a nice chat with a cop about the race as I waited for a pedestrian light. New Yorkers love their event and really take an interest. What a treat...

Very happy with how it went. 3 min positive split, the legs just didn't have it when push came to shove. The time for analysis is later, the time to reflect on my most enjoyable marathon experience to date is now.

Splits:

5 km

10 km

15 km

20 km

13.1 mi

25 km

30 km

35 km

40 km

0:20:02

00:39:32

00:59:16

01:19:05

01:23:30

01:39:27

01:59:16

02:20:01

02:41:00

Philadelphia ; 3 days to go

Well, it's getting close now. We arrived in the State last Wednesday to work for a week before heading up to NYC. Flew into JFK after an 8 hour layover in Tokyo. A good way to go - 10hrs to Narita, 8 hour layover, 13 hour to JFK. Legs felt OK at the end helped by the layover and wearing skins. Couldn't help the cankles though, but they disappeared after a day or so.

Did 15 minutes on the sweatbox of a gym at the Hilton JFK on Wednesday evening just to get some blood flowing again. Followed that up with another 30 minutes the next morning. I was wringing out the shorts after that one! We got a cab to Penn Station, NY to get the Amtrak down to Philadelphia where we're working for a week. Had a nice brekky at Zaro's - a large coffee, 2 cinn/raisin bagels and a cranberry muffin, with another two bagels to go. Got down to Philly and into the Sheraton Center City hotel room by 11am.

Spent the afternoon in the office and then hit Kelly Drive for my evening MP hour (map). It was very warm and I felt great with no significant after-effect from the plane trip. Melbourne has the Tan, Perth has the Bridges, Philly has Kelly Drive. The place was swarming with runners of all shapes paces and sizes. Great to see!

Some kind soul has marked the path at quarter mile intervals as well, a handy pace guide. Over here, one has to think of pace per mile, not per k. No-one understands '4-minute k's, I guess just as we don't understand '6:20 miles'. Adding to the oddness, most marathons (including NYC) put timing mats every 5 kms, but have mile markers...

Friday I did a 30 min recovery up to the Schuykill row houses and back.

On Saturday Kim and I had a date with the local running group the Philly runners, meeting at the Rocky statue at the base of the Art Museum steps. Unfortunately I couldn't get anyone at my pace, so it was another solo run ; out in ~4:10's and back at MP. 20k for the last 'long' run and I felt great! Conditions had turned though, it was only 9 degrees. We also had to dodge regatta watchers as we ran past the Schukill row houses, including a classic 'guy carrying oars turning around' incident. I went up the river to Wissahickon reserve and up in that park for a bit before turning back. The leaves are turning here and it was gorgeous. Afterwards we headed for the coffee shop for refreshments... route here.

I woke really early Sunday so just did my 30min recovery on the treadmill - a much better gym than the Hilton at JFK. Sunrise is at 7:30 am here and it was pretty cold to I plumped for the easy option.  Monday half hour easy (4:07) at 6:30am, Tuesday 25 min recovery at 6:30am again and Tuesday evening 45 minutes at MP after work - the last significant run before Sunday. Another 30 minutes Wednesday morning @ 4:05. Kelley Dr is a very scenic place to run, but it's a PITA to get to with all the road crossings in the first mile. Probably do another recovery Thursday am, nothing Friday, and a 20 minute loosener on Saturday (or not!).

 Feeling great - no aches and pains, low HRs, the best I've felt in a taper, hopefully a good sign for the weekend.

Forecast is looking good, if a bit windy, for Sunday - it's going to be sunny 8° with a min of 2° with 16/32kph NNW winds. Forecast - Course

Rottnest 10km : 3rd in 35:13

Cracking run in the Rotto 10km funrun. Pretty warm by the 10:30 start but the 32/38kp/h wind kept things cool. Busi as usual lead from start to finish. Simon Coates surged at 1.5km to catch the lead 5km group, but I maintained the gap from that point.

The wind never quite went away and was fairly extreme on the hill leading out of Geordie bay. Tough finish up the hill into the settlement, and squeezing down the path past the 5k runners and then trying not to go A over T on the sharp right hander onto the gravel through the finish...

.I felt very good after the 27km run the day before, but needed a reasonable warmup to help my legs feel less like two sacks of potatoes from standing around and supporting the marathing for the preceding 4 hours.

Splits: 3:22/3:27/3:39/3:27/3:31/3:36/3:24/3:41/3:37/3:26

A few recovery runs now and then we fly to the US. Long Range forecast for the marathon is perfect. Not a good sign :-)

Mostly Sunny


Hi 57° RealFeel® 53° Day

S at 7 mph

Gusts: 23 mph

NYC number #4694 Blue Wave 1 Corral #4 start 9:40am

Got my rego information today along with the race handbook. No going back now...

I'm in the last big week before taper starts which I'm quite looking forward to. 25km on Saturday and I'll race the 10k at Rotto as well. Next week I'll take 25% of the normal runs, and start to hone everything except recoveries around MP. We fly to the US on Tuesday 26th.

On reflection my training has gone very well, perhaps running some of the easy runs a bit hard. Time will tell if doing the long runs at similar to easy pace was wise ; most of them have started slow and finished around MP. The weekly mileage build and race mix has been gradual, where now I feel if I'm not clocking 120km I'm being slack.

One thing the recent warm weather has taught me - my last few Thursday evening runs in direct sun, temperature in the mid 20s, strong easterly wind and RH 10-20% I have experienced what I now recognise as quite severe symptoms of dehydration and lost 2.5-3.5 kg (starting @ around 70kg) of fluid. I'm starting to suspect a large part of my Boston disaster was severe dehydration (coupled with injury and a bad carbo-load) . I’ve never drunk much on my training runs (mostly because I don’t like stopping) , but as a result I am drinking a lot more and will pay attention to this on marathon day.

Only one scare with a soleus tweak which forced me to take a day off and miss an intervals session and a recovery run, but it resolved the problem.

Fremantle HM 8th in 1:17:15

Not a bad result. Weather conditions were perfect today. Inside the body, not so much. I had nagging nausea the whole run ; I made the best of it and tried to keep to my tempo pace, but I had to run solo from about 2.5k ; Stephen Stockwell was ahead, the guy behind me way behind. There were moments when I felt OK and pushed the pace up a bit, but then it got nasty so I dropped off again. Running solo I had nothing to take my mind of things ; the crowd support was great though and I enjoyed coming through the finish area to go around again. Benefits of having a big field – big crowd! All things considered I was pretty happy to run 8th behind Busi, Mackay, Dymnicki, Hill, Stockwell, Johnson and Courtney. The women’s field was disappointing ; no big guns - winner was about 1:27, 5th was 1:37!

In a weak moment I thought about petitioning the WAMC to allow me to compete in the M40-44 age group instead ; as long as Steve Stockwell is running this well, I'm no chance! First M40 was 1:24:00 ... :-)

The bonus of being limited through reasons other than cardio/leg tiredness has been that I've been pretty fresh for the last two easy runs so I can hit my intervals hard tonight and do a decent session Thursday as well. It would be nice to shake this nausea bug that's been kicking around for a bit too long now...

Monster Month

September: 612km @4:10 pace Avg HR 151 beats/km 629.

Big month. I feel like I have recovered well from the big weeks132/134/143/155km - this last week has been a cut-back of sorts (110km scheduled) knocking 12 minutes off my hour runs, taking intensity off Tuesday intervals, and a bit off the Thursday evening run. No long run this week, racing Fremantle Half on Sunday. It will be a good test of where I'm at.

38 days to go...

Fremantle 10k 7th in 35:07

Fremantle ‘Fun’ run on a very breezy day ; I had a good race, not maximal effort but not a lot off. I felt better as it went on ; to be honest I found the wind worse last year, it was more of a cross-wind on the groin and you  only really felt it in the kilometre down to the railway crossing, but then you get a tailwind home.

Course map here.

Pre-race meal of soaked-overnight oats and honey was a big improvement, and I didn’t have the coffee either, just green tea; I felt a lot better at the start. Also did a Gu rather than the Torq Gel/Powerbar. Average HR was 176 – two beats lower than C2S but 5 sec/k quicker; it is a flat course though. Pretty happy with the way I’m feeling and the way it went. Stockwell again was 30-40 metres in front pretty much from the start, but I couldn’t close. Good turnout – Busi, Bailie, Ingraham, Hill etc.

Splits: 3:29/3:31/3:31/3:36/3:29/3:28/3:33/3:33/3:37/3:19 = 35:07 (too bad about #4 and #9 !)

Interestingly, kms 4 and 9 were the ones where the wind was most into us ; looks like a mental lapse though - I slowed down, but the heart rate dropped as well, so the slowing wasn't because of external factors, it was mental. Tut tut!

On the back of two 135km  weeks I'm happy with the way things are going. I'll add a second run (recovery)after the long run to my week, and try to peak out at about 150km before the taper. Freo HM in three weeks so I'll rejig a bit for that, but overall I feel in great shape, its a matter of tuning for the best performance on Nov 7. I'll organise an iron test for next week to keep an eye  on it. I was feeling very fatigued on some runs last week, but feel pretty good now.

City to Surf 12k in 43:06 27th overall, 1st in 40-49 Age Group

Funny how life catches up with you. I just had no zip in my legs at all today, it was just plain unpleasant hard work today. At no point did I feel good. My HR hit 185 just before the top of Malcolm St hill and I wanted to stop from that point onward. Average HR was about 180 – hard to tell it dropped out a bit, but I was in the red zone for all but the first 2 minutes. I may have gone too hard at first, and after 7k all I wanted to do was give it away.

4k 13:35 (3:24)

7k 24:31 (3:38)

9k 31:37 (3:33)

10k 35:45 (4:08)

11k 39:44 (4:01)

12k 43:08 (3:23)

Some k markers were dubious so the above splits are not really worth much.I can’t complain, I’ve had a lot of good races this year, I’m bound to have a bad one sooner or later. It’s still 26 seconds faster than last year…. and another thing I can say is that I wasn’t overtaken by anyone except Mark Lee who pipped me on the line. Turns out I won my age group too :-)

A highlight for me, I did enjoy being amongst the leading women ; Melinda Vernon (winner of 2009 Sydney C2S) was just ahead and I had Tara Palm breathing down my neck at the bottom of Oceanic. I was alongside Lisa Weightman up Malcolm St hill, clearly she was just taking it easy. Then she put the hammer down and disappeared from view. Amazing athlete.

Perth HM ; 8th in 1:15:37

Thrilled with the time, sustained my pace well today. I liked the new course – there were quite a few challenging little hills and turns, but they keep you honest, and certainly present a good test esp. in the latter stages.

I ran the first 7k or so side by side with Scott Thomson (who also took nearly two minutes of his PB ; scary what he'll be doing in a year's time), until he dropped back going back over the Narrows after the turnaround. I was by myself from there on which is my one disappointment with the day. Stephen Stockwell ran really well today – I was ten metres back until about 8k when I think he spotted Sam May ahead and cranked it up a notch – he ended up fifth in 1:14:35.

Felt pretty strong, and of course had to dig deeper and deeper to keep the pace going. The carrot of having Sam May about 40m ahead ( I felt he was fading) was good, it kept me focussed. Going past the club and hearing my name called out and a bit of support was great, it gave me a lift, but it wasn’t too long before I was past the club and on the lonely path out to East Perth. The bridge is always a bit of a test with it’s twists and turns, then around Claisebrook and up that little bastard of a hill to start the run for home.

I was closing on Sam (and his second, feeding him from the bike) on the Causeway now only 15m ahead. As I came off, to go down and under and up to the finish I saw Kim and Trish (her pacer) and they gave me a big cheer which really helped. Surged past Sam about a k to go, and then just tried to hang on.

5k: 17:43
10k: 35:45
15k: 53:48
20k: 1:11:55
HM: 1:15:37

Ecstatic with the result, sub-76 and top 10 was unthinkable a year ago.

WAMC Lake Joondalup 10k : 34:33 ; 54 sec PB

Perfect conditions for racing ; woke at 6 today but still felt like I hadn’t woken up when I got to the course. I’d had green tea and a Sustagen Sport, then a long black. Picked up when I got to the race venue and the adrenaline started to kick in. Had a Torq gel 20 minutes before and then did a few k’s to warmup, so by the time I was on the start line I felt ready to go.

It’s a rolling hills course (map here) with a hairpin at the turnaround and a steep climb up to the 3k/8k mark to not the fastest course but not too bad either. Went out fastish but tried to hold my 2-2 breathing as I think that’s ~my 10k pace effort. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a group to run with so ran most on my own. Funny, some folks who I thought would do the 10 did the 5 and vice versa  – Emily Loughnan Steven Courtney (?!), and MArc See and Scott from Mona’s camp did the 10.

Scott was running close to another guy and I tried to keep them in sight ; went through 5k in 17:10, so game on. K’s 7 and 8 I let slip to 3:36, but they are the k’s with the biggest hills, so that’s OK. Picked up from 8k when I felt I was reeling Scott & co in and really pushed. I put in a surge to go past them and about 10 second later I though I was about to spew! Slowed down a bit then … problem with this course is that you can’t see the finish until about 200m away. Ran as fast as my little legs would carry me down the slight incline to the finish, and almost got squeezed out of the finish by a 5k finisher.

Stoked with the run, pacing was good, picked up a few places in the second half and a great result. Can’t criticise myself for lack of effort or anything so very pleased. I think the two 3:35’s were paying the piper, which had to be done at some point I suppose.

Splits: 3:19 / 3:29 / 3:32 / 3:22 / 3:28 / 3:29 / 3:36 / 3:36 / 3:24 / 3:19

Race was won by Roberto Busi in 30:50, first time he's broken 31. Second was Ethan Heywood and 3rd Raf Baugh, both a bit over 31. Kenji  Nener, Gerard Hill, Marc See were well placed in the 10 as well.

Biscuitman has also put up some photos from the race here.

Wally Cairns XC 15km 4th in 58:48

Since KOTM on the 27th, I've got another year older and put in another couple of 110km weeks. Definite training highlight was the 14km tempo run at 3:36min/km and last Thursday and the 30.6km (@4:22) run on the pipeline in the hills to my birthday breakfast at Glen Forrest. Have felt a little tired in the days since July 1 - mostly because I've done a few races in June, and also because of the basket of choccies and other bad stuff that I've consumed.

After a good 26km (@ 4:20 HR150 ) in the hills ( Mundaring-MtHelena Chidlow  and return) Saturday morning I turned out for the Wally Cairns Cross Country in King's Park on a cool and wet Sunday morning. It's a good strength run – it isn’t fast because it’s on the soft sand trails of KP. Bucketed with rain as well which turned the sand to marshmallow. Probably 300m of grass, 300m of paving and the rest on sand. Glutes and quads know they’ve been thru the grinder thats for sure…

Map here

Nice thing about this one is that you go past the finish on each 5k lap so you can decide when you've had enough. Foolishly, I did all 3. Finished 4th behind perpetual winner Scott Tamblin and Todd Ingraham.

Easy week now to prep for Lake Joondalup 10k.

King of the Mountain 16km ; 5th in 1:02:55

Really, really cold. The car said -2 degrees at Mundaring Weir. There was a bit of a breeze too to add some zing. Standing on the start in my Strands singlet waiting for the off I thought my nuts were going to fall off – I was starting to feel hungry as well – whoops! I also had a scratchy throat from being out the night before in a really load pub to celebrate a few folk’s recent races and a commencement of their time off. Didn’t really have an opportunity to do much of a warm-up, so a little after my Torq+Guarana Gel we were off.

Felt OK at first but soon the cold was starting to hurt my lungs – I was hoping it would pass and it did, but only after about 10k. Again I started to feel a bit stronger as it went on. A good turnout for the race ; Ingraham, Busi(!), Lee, Stockwell, Fuery etc.

The first creek was much lower than in previous years, so I only really got one foot wet ; the other a bit damp... was confused by the marshall direction here so lost about 10 seconds going the wrong way, so unfortunately lost touch with Liam. I'm easily confused when it's 2 degrees and I'm running hard.

I was overtaken by a couple of guys mid-way through, but I never let them get too far ahead ; It was weird, there was a string of 5 of us – the gaps lengthened down the hills, but compressed up the hills. About 5k from the finish I could tell that Stockwell and a couple of others were starting to struggle up the hills, and the line started to break up a bit.

I managed to pick off the first two to move into 6th,and then just before the big hill to the finish I overtook Stephen. I fully expected him and the stronger of the other two to flash past at any point. They never did ; the guy behind was struggling as much as I was and I managed to hold him off, and Stephen ended up being 15 seconds back.

Thrilled with the run in the end, I didn’t feel too flash but stuck it out and got a result. 11 minutes quicker than my effort in 2007 – admittedly that was 3 weeks after my first marathon.

Its a great event, with a good atmosphere and a nice breakfast supplied at the finish. It’s a tough run – the elevation profile doesn’t do it justice – its pretty bumpy with a lot of steep ups and downs. The Choo-Choo was ideal preparation though, I reckon it helped me outlast runners who would normally beat me.

Perth Relay Marathon - a win!

Fantastic run today. Felt really good right from the start. Simon Elliot gave our team a great lead-off, and Biscuitman backed up with an excellent second leg – I reckon he had the worst of the conditions. I was a 3:47 minutes adrift of first place and 7 seconds off second when I set off for my two legs - from Troy Park back to the finish, but figured all I could do was hit my pace, not burn out, and see what happened.see what happened.

Went into second place after about a k and just kept hitting my kms at a good pace - they didn't vary too much. Had a few problems getting past the 3:30 bus ; I had to wait behind runners for oncoming relay and marathoner, so the run was a little fartlekky for the first 8k or so until I got clear. Hit the changeover in 34 minutes (making the last leg ~32:45), and saw Jim Langford anxiously looking for his runner - the guy who *was* in second. At this point I was just over 2 minutes behind. Jim's guy was still 5 minutes away...

Just about had a heart attack when I saw the leading runner about 200m ahead with about 3.5 km to go. I could see that I was reeling him in quickly, so I relaxed, tried to go really really quietly and then went past him. I knew who it was and that all I had to do was maintain my 3:37’s and it was all over ; we won in the end by over a minute and a half.

Splits:
4:19(to 24k mark)/3:32/3:34/3:41/3:36/3:41/7:24(2k)/
3:38/3:35/3:39/3:40/3:37/3:37/3:35/3:35/0:41(195m)

18.6km in 1:06:45 (3:35 min/km)
9.4km Leg 3: 34:00 (3:37)
9.2km Leg 4: 32:45 (3:34)

Great team effort, and we ran the time I thought we would – 2:35:02. Didn’t beat the leading solo marathoner, but it was close. Roberto Busi had a great run and won it in 2:32. That’s next year’s target…..

Iron man

Just got the result from the blood test done Wednesday last week ; Ferritin up from 37μg/l to 101μg/l. I'll probably have another test in a few weeks to see how well I'm holding on to it, but that's the highest Fe level I've had since my 55μg/l from 3 years ago - I hadn't had it tested before that...

Choo Choo run

Fantastic day for it - thanks to Sandgroper for the organisation and the transport. This run is really tough but is definitely one you remember for a while ... Biscuitman covered it in some detail so I won't just repeat that. Suffice to say, this is a run where you park a car at North Dandelup train station, run 35km up the Darling scarp along some very technical and rolling trail and then down to Serpentine where you catch the Bunbury train from back to N Dandelup and the car.

 Credit has to go to both those guys who (on paper anyway) were underprepared for it in different ways, but both handled it  really well. SG has only one long run under his belt  for the last year, and Biscuitman has done no hill or trail running for a looong time. Both are obviously really fit and mentally tough though - you have to be to get through this run - and came through with flying colours. Biscuitman and I averaged around 4 min/k for the last 9k and SG was only just behind, and had enough to do a little extra at the finish! I could feel my quads disintegrating on the last downhill, but there was little I could do about it!

Biscuitman is looking really good for the GCM in three weeks, looking forward to seeing how he goes then, and, more importantly, in the Marathon Relay next Sunday ;-) Sandgroper has the Warsaw marathon in September and is already in great shape - he should have a cracker.

Quote of the day:

Sugar: "This is where we saw the carpet python last year, wasn't it?"
SG: "Yeah, this really is snake country. After you...."

Course map is here, and elevation profile on my Polar below. Close to 700m of climbing.

                      Distance         Duration        Pace              Speed
5 week avg.* 102.78 km    07:14:08      04:13 min/km   14.21 km/h
Last week        118.34 km    08:23:56      04:15 min/km   14.09 km/h
Change           +15.13%       +16.08%    -0.82%             -0.82%

Elleker HM : 2nd in 1:17:20

It's been a while. Most of my training's on Strands these days. A brief recap ; 6x1000m with 3 min jog recoveries on Tuesday after, then aother 12km tempo run on Thursday. That should have got my threshold running up to date ! A 26k long run in Denmark on road and trail @ 4:18 pace, a tough Mona session on the inlet trail on Tuesday arvo, a 12km easy run on Wednesday, the crappest recovery run ever on Thursday morning, followed by an 8km tempo run on Thursday on the inlet, and two much better recoveries friday and saturday before the race on Sunday. In retrospect, the thursday tempo was too long by a couple of ks, but the recovery in the morning was such a disaster, i needed a confidence boost. How fragile is the mind...

The weather Sunday was perfect. I was hoping to run 1:16:xx, but it didn't quite work out. Darren Jenkins took off at the start, too fast for me and he quickly established a 20m lead. He settled after that and a stuck to him, albeit about 10 seconds back, that's pretty much how it was the whole race. I found it hard to find my rythm early, but ground it out trying to hold my pace and concentrating on my 3-2 breathing so as not to go too hard. This is a nice course of two laps with gentle ups and downs with a short sharp hill about 6km into the lap. Course map here.

By half way I managed to find some rythm, but that was quickly blown by the water bottle retrieval at the drinks table. I left a special drink so i could take a gel, but had to pretty much stop at the table and go back around the water helpers to get back on the course. Struggled to get the gel and water in while retaining pace so lost a at leat 10-15 sec on this split. Soon found rythm again and started to feel stronger as the final lap progressed. I felt I was catching the leader, albeit slowly. Last 5k was tough, and the hill took a bit out of my legs, but out of Darren's too.Charged in, and ended up only 9 seconds adrift in 1:17:20.

Splits: 10.55/10.55 : 38:40 / 38:40
                         5k : 18:00 / 18:31 / 18:31 / 18:26 / 3:49 (1.1km)
                       10k : 36:31 / 36:57 / 3:49 (1.1km)

Run for a Reason Slideshow

This is what 50 bucks buys you...

I have to say I'm impressed with the service!

HBF Run for a Reason : 14.5km - 52:03

I had a great run today. 14.5km @3:35 HR 175. I've been feeling a bit flat all week, but I felt really good and didn’t die at the end, as I usually do. I’ve learnt some pacing lessons. Had some sweet revenge on Martin Feichtinger who drafted me for 7k in the 10k race a couple of weeks ago – slowly reeled him in and overtook him on the causeway. I wasn’t overtaken by anyone and picked up at least 5 places in the last 3 ks.

Map of the 14.5km course

Met up with Biscuitman before the start, but we didn’t have a chance to do a warmup after dropping off my bag and making our way to the start. Too many people, just too complicated. We has a great start, pretty much on the front line.

The k markers were a little off, and no 10k that I saw which was a shame. My pace was pretty constant, I enjoyed the ups and downs on this course which added a bit of variety for the legs. Struggled a bit into the strong SW30/45 winds under the Windan down past the club, but for the rest the conditions were pretty good.

My footpod got this run about spot on, these are the splits:

Dist   Elapsed   Avg pace  Split

1000  0:03:40.0  03:40.0  03:40.0

2000  0:07:16.0  03:38.0  03:36.0

3000  0:10:53.0  03:37.7  03:37.0

4000  0:14:31.0  03:37.7  03:38.0

5000  0:18:01.0  03:36.2  03:30.0

6000  0:21:31.0  03:35.2  03:30.0

7000  0:25:06.0  03:35.1  03:35.0

8000  0:28:28.0  03:33.5  03:22.0

9000  0:32:09.0  03:34.3  03:41.0

10000 0:35:47.0  03:34.7  03:38.0

11000 0:39:31.0  03:35.5  03:44.0

12000 0:43:08.0  03:35.7  03:37.0

13000 0:46:43.0  03:35.6  03:35.0

14000 0:50:05.0  03:34.6  03:22.0

14570 0:52:03.0  03:34.8  03:27.0

I had a bit of drama just as I went past the marathon club, to my horror the shoelace on my right foot had worked it's way loose. The Mizuno revolver laces don't grip well, and even though I had double tied, it still happened. I guess I need to tuck the ends in as well. I didn't stop and the show stayed on so all's well that ends well! I did have a bit of a debate, but I was really starting to surge ( last 3k in 10:20 ) and was pulling in places so I really didn't want to stop.

Thrilled to bits. Not a key race but a great confidence builder.

Story of the week

Good Mona session yesterday, covering 5.71km in the 20 minutes (avg. pace 3:30) in less than favourable conditions, total of 12.5km including warmup & cooldown. 6k recovery at Cott this morning (@ 4:45 HR 133) and another one tomorrow.

Story of the week - as an IT professional, I couldn't help but be amused by this one :

IBM distributes virus-laden USB keys at security conference

Read story here : IBM boo-boo.

Semi-Taper

Since my last post, the highlight was definitely the long run on Saturday.  33km @ 4:13 HR 151. Run at 3hr marathon pace for first 26km and kicked it up to 3:58 for the last 7.5km ; I felt stronger as the run went on. 2 Gus, one at 15 the next at 26, beautiful wind-free conditions.

Sunday went to the Million Paws walk and did a recovery afterwards ; 8km of walking is not fun on my joints, I needed the recovery to loosen up - 6km @4:36 HR 135. Monday was the standard 11km from King's Park down to Mounts Bay Rd and back up the western side. Bloody cold. 11km @4:11 HR 152.

Tuesday did a 6x1km session on the freeway bike path, averaging 3:13 for the reps, with an equal jog recovery - with a 3km warmup and cooldown I get about 15.5km in just over an hour. Good session, but tough.

Wednesday I cut my usual mid-week longer run down to 10km in preparation for the Run for a Reason on Sunday. Mona session tomorrow, and then two recoveries Fri/Sat with some run thrus. My weekly kms have been high, so this is a good opportunity to cut back, strengthen and hopefully have a good race. Pacing will be everything, and is usually my downfall. First few kms I'll be treating as a tempo run and will take it from there.

PS. The blog has become a little secondary, as I post my training on Strands, and is much more detailed, so the updates aren't as frequent here.

Lots of running - and a change of plans

What else ? Been down south in Denmark for a while, but still getting the quality in. Lots of hills down there, so this varies my training nicely.

The week to 8/5 was 145 km (avg pace 4:21, avg econ 636bpk ), but that included two long runs, so the average for the previous 2 weeks was ~121km. Highlights were a 15km session including 6x1km reps at 3:11 pace on Tuesday evening and a 12km tempo run @ 3:38pace on Thursday evening, plus a lovely 33km long run in Denmark from the house down to Ocean Beach and back, and then up the Inlet and back for 13km with Sas.

This week the highlights have been a good 20minute Mona session (5.6km) along the Wilson Inlet in Denmark, and an improvement on last weeks tempo, this time averaging 3:37 for the 12km and feeling much stronger at the end. Looking at 120km this week too with a 32km long run tomorrow - (avg pace week to date 4:14, econ 622bpk ).

Racing plans have changed a bit  - I'm no longer doing Challenge because I'm going to be away, so the sub-35 will have to wait. So, I'll race Run for a Reason if I can get a decent start, and the next race will be Elleker HM. I've hooked up with Biscuitman and SimonE to run the Perth Marathon Relay - shelving plans to do it as a long run - I'll be doing the first two legs which is about 23.4km. So next target 10k will either be Run for Gold or the State 10k.

Relay 4 Life

Big weekend! Went down to Busso to spectate at the half ironman with Kim, Sas & Jo ; managed to squeeze a 10k run in (4:40pace HR 133). Wow, Busselton is flat! The only slight rises on this were going over a bridge! Beautiful conditions.

Enjoyed the day watching the competitors and was inspired to maybe giving this a go next year as a good changeup after the New York marathon in November. Watch this space...

I took some photos, mostly of the top women and Brad Hosking (who did the run in fireman's breathing apparatus ( swim and bike as normal ) as part of fundraising drive in aid of PMH,) because that's what was happening in the finish area when we got there... gallery is here.

On Sunday we went to join the Comrades runners in the Relay for Life at the WA Athletics stadium. Wonderful event being a fundraiser for the Cancer Council. I ran the first hour at the stadium as part of a team in the ‘Relay for Life’. Golden Barbie was the baton. Started out easy and slowly picked it from 4:15 k’s finishing with a few 3:40s to get 15.2k done in the hour. Then I handed to Kim, sucked down a Roctane Gu, and nipped off to do a loop in Bold Park ; took a very scenic and hilly detour off the Zamia trail to where I thought was a shortcut to the road, but, not so much, I ended up back where I started. Continued on Zamia and took the turn I knew (!) down past Camel Lakes (never seen a lake there…) and back to the stadium. Had about 30 seconds to grab a quick drink and then set off for another 12 laps (averaging 4:10 pace) 5k of loops in the relay. Had a bit of a rest then jogged a further 4 laps with kim - see photo(!), bringing my total to just over 32km.

More photos of the event here ; including some of SuperKate who did the 10pm to 4am shift, and who turns out is a fine Barbie seamstress. Most of the team are off to do Comrades, and had run 48km on Saturday morning! Nutters...

I felt a bit average for the first 10 minutes but got into a groove on the track and really started to enjoy it – the hour went very quickly. I felt good on the climbs of rebold hill too – didn’t have that feeling of all the strength in my quads wilting at the sign of a hill – which I can get when tired. A good run today but HR was high – pretty warm at the track out of the wind. I think I need to go slightly easier this week – my 7 day total including today is 124km. I must be careful not to get carried away.

Running economy

As anyone who has read any of my entries will know, I make a big deal about my running economy as a measure of my current condition, that is the number of heartbeats per kilometer; on any given run this is worked out by multiplying my average HR by the number of minutes per kilometer.

Looking back over the years, my average has dropped from 731 for the first six months of 2007, to 706 for the first 6 months of 2008 (both years training for Perth Mara), to 673 for the first 4 months of 2009, when I considered I was in excellent shape for Boston Marathon. From there it's been in a holding pattern - average 672 until the end of March this year.

Since my iron shot course began in the first week of April, my weekly averages have been 651, 651, 637, 629. I know its early days, but that's a precipitous drop. My average for April is 642, almost a 5% improvement.

Today I ran 10.5km @ 4:40pace at 607 beats per kilometre, a little more than 12 hours after a 11.5km tempo run (in a 16.5km total workout in a little over an hour) which I did at the same pace as I raced the City to Surf last year.

I've said it before, I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to ride this horse 'till it drops!

!#@#@!#! motorised push-bikes

I was having a lovely run this morning in beautiful conditions, when one of these abominations came whizzing down the bike path through narrows tunnel #2 and choked up the air for all and sundry with that acrid 2-stroke engine smoke. WTF! The guy on it looked fit enough, so what the hell is he doing on this thing, and how are they allowed on the bike paths. I've seen a few more of these of late and I'm afraid they go on the same #1 anti-social activity list as smokers and drunks (and a few other things).

Oh, ran 17.79km @ 4:16 HR 151. Lovely run - the above notwithstanding.

Big weekend

Saturday went up to Mundaring again to do the 26km up to Chidlow (4:25 HR 144). I set out early on a clear and cold morning. The stretch from Mt Helena to Chidlow was a bit weird because it was very cold (I was getting pins & needles in my arms) and the sun was just above the horizon straight up the trail, so I couldn’t see a thing the whole way! Got to the turn, I sucked down a gel, had a bit of water and headed back - it really was beautiful on the way back, lovely blue sky and not much wind at all. I felt pretty good, a big difference from last week was that I was powering up the hill, not surviving. Great run.

Sunday morning I did a 6km recovery - 4:42 HR 130). I felt a little stiff from my efforts of the last few days, but rolled through easily enough. The aim was to keep the pace really slow and effort absolute minimum, with an eye to the 10k race on Monday.

Monday morning I did the 10km race at the Perth 32. I had a reasonable run ; perfect conditions – 12 degrees, light wind. Wanted to pace it right so in that respect a success, my pace was pretty consistent. I didn’t feel overly zippy today, maybe because I helped lug stuff around and set up the finish chute before the race, also I just wasn't feeling quite 100%. The km markers all over the place so pacing was difficult ; I was drafted for 8km ( fancy drafting someone 20 years your senior – I don’t know, these kids…) and then the guy went and I couldn’t quite keep in touch - 4th was what I deserved, the other 2 dug deeper. We were catching the guy in 2nd, but I think he always had it under control. Mentally I wasn't quite there today either (I just didn't feel like scraping the barrel), but a good solid hitout. Course was long as start was in wrong place, so equates to about a 35:30 10km, so happy with that. I know I need to work on that stamina though…

I clearly didn’t push myself hard enough yesterday, as I felt great this morning - 10.34km @ 4:12 HR 148. Actually I felt much better today than I did yesterday, must have been the 48 hour hangover from Saturday’s long run. Clearly I didn’t feel the need for a ‘recovery’ run so went a bit further and faster – the perfect conditions may have had something to do with it!

While I was out I started toying with the idea of doing the Perth Marathon as a long run – the way I’m going ( running economies are almost crazy good - 625beats/km today ) I feel I could almost do 3 hrs as a long run, especially if I have a good day ; the McMillan pace calculator certainly thinks so. I’ll reassess after Elleker Half.

Coker Park 5000m - 16:37

PB! Felt good working at even pacing for this run. Wasn’t sure how the race was going to play out, but I hit 3k in 10 minutes flat feeling good, and just kept ticking the laps off. Initially my right glute was acting up, I think because of the Fe injection on Wednesday. The stronger than expected wind was disappointing (SSW24/35kph) esp. given how calm it was all day, and it really kicked up in the closing stages. Perfect conditons will happen one day....

Timing: 3:19.6 (3:19.6) / 6:40.5 (3:20.9) / 10:00.7 (3:20.1) / 13:21.2 (3:20.4) /16:37.8 (3:16.6)

Very happy to pull off a PB in these conditions in a solo run, and am hopeful that this is the start of a new era in my racing. I definitely feel a different person to the one that was racing over the summer.

Leadup:

Sun am: 7 @4:44 HR 136 Windy&warm, good to get it done.
Mon am: 10.96 @4:20 HR 150 A little tired, but good run.
Tue am: 5.95 @4:45 HR 132 Nice & easy.
Tue pm: 9 Intervals: 200;400;800;1200;800;400;200 with SR. Felt good & fast today. Short session though.
Wed am: 14.83 @4:17 HR 154 Tough run, backing up from intervals.
Thu am: 9.92 @4:52 HR 129 Wow, low HR. Great conditions.

Story of the week:

Olympic 400 metres champ LaShawn Merritt of the United States has been suspended after testing positive for an anabolic steroid contained in an over-the-counter penis enlargement product. The 23-year-old American, who faces a two-year ban, said: "To know that I've tested positive as a result of a product that I used for personal reasons is extremely difficult to wrap my hands around."

Full story here. Gotta feel a bit sorry for the guy ....

Comm. Games Trials

Very exciting weekend for spectating as we had the Commonwealth Games selection trials at the new stadium over the last three days. Unfortunately I was unable to get to Saturday night to see locals Carter and Busi have a crack at those eastern staters. I hear it was a cracking race though  ( the eastern staters remaining intact ...)

Sunday afternoon was fun, especially the 1500m with a packed field. It turned out to be very tactical with local Marc See making the 'no guts, no glory' move (see photo) which didn't work out, but I suspect that the top three ( Gregson, Risely, Roff) were always going to be there whatever happened.

Full Gallery from day 3 here:

Commonwealth Games Selection Trials 2010 Day 3

For myself, recovery run (7km @ 4.44 HR 136) in the morning, followed by a nice brekky at Cobalt with the gang, and Monday morning easy (11km @ 4:20 HR 150) in lovely conditions - quite warm on Mounts Bay road, and then through the King's Park 'fridge' up the western path back to Next G.

Long run

Solo run from Mundaring to Chidlow and back, 26.02km @ 4:29 pace, HR 146. Beautiful conditions with a nice cool breeze and sun behind thin high clouds for 75% of the run; it did get warm when the cloud cover disappeared. I felt good today and fatigue only really started to hit in the climb from Mt Helena back to Mundaring. Took an Orange Roctane Gu during my brief pause at Chidlow - I seem to have found another flavour that I like! It obviously agreed with me because I covered the lap back to Mt Helena almost 5 minutes quicker than the way out! Not sure that the Elixirs are good for long runs, I started to feel pebbles through the sole as the run went on. Good run today though, very happy with how I felt during and afterwards. Really didn't feel like I'd run for two hours once I'd driven back down to the Darlington bakery to meet up with everyone else, and apparently I didn't look like it either.

Tempos and Recoveries

First up, I hope Simon E, Tony S, Clown and Epi have a great time running Boston on Monday. Weather looks good, and this year you get a tailwind, lucky buggers!

On Tuesday afternoon the weather was getting worse as time went on, so I decided to go out early before the heavy stuff hit. I was planning to go to JK’s intervals session but the weather was predicted to be bad, so I thought I'd do a Mona Fartlek session on the Canning Bridges course. My feet felt zippy from the start, as they usually do when I put on the Revolvers.

The 3.5km warmup up the freeway path into a good NW wind was at 4:17 pace ; I turned and went pretty much straight away. I was running south down the freeway path toward the Mt Henry bridge with a NW 28kph wind on my tail, because I figure doing a session like this into a strong headwind is a bit soul destroying, even though it’s a relatively sheltered path.

I covered a bit more than last week, even though that had an extra minute last because the Mona session was done manually. No such glitches this time, 20:00 on the nose for 5:67km. Felt fast today. As with last week I continued a semi-tempo session doing the 3.3km home into the rain and wind at a healthy 4:02 pace, never really feeling pushed, and I actually enjoyed the rain.

Great session! ( might have had something to do with the double espresso at 2 o’clock…. )

Wednesday morning, I decided to head up the freeway path and then over/under/over/under the Narrows and back - 14.88km @ 4:22 HR 154. The first half was into a fairly strong northerly wind (33/38kph) ; it wasn’t that much fun but I think the cyclists had it worse. These Wednesday ‘easy’ runs are always a bit tough, I guess I need to suck it up as long as my week is structured the way it is. I may consider moving this to the evening to get more recovery from the Tuesday evening intervals. The wind seemed to drop a bit as the run went on, so I didn’t really get the blow home I was looking for. Enjoyed my breakfast!

Thursday morning recovery - 9.92km @ 4:48 HR 137Nice morning to be out, felt a little tired after a bad nights sleep, but OK. Once I got over the Causeway and got the slight tailwind I felt more relaxed. Another iron shot in the butt yesterday left things a tad tender.

Thursday evening I chose a steady state tempo run with long warmup and cooldown. I’m loving these late afternoon runs. There was a bit of wind around this afternoon which made it tough in places. I think this is a good length tempo run for me ( ~ 15km ; two loops of the Canning Bridges), but I may increase the length of the tempo section and reduce the warmup/cooldown a bit. It was a long way home! Felt good though – the warmup especially I was averaging good pace without feeling puffed at all; the tempo was good but I got tired towards the end, so probably should have reduced pace a bit to keep the HR down ; next time just a bit slower I think – the HR was a bit high by the end, but I was in a 3-2 breathing pattern so that’s OK – but 3-3 is better ; average HR 174. Not a bad effort for the first steady state run I've done in a long time.

Friday morning was beautiful - still and sunny ; good recovery run 6km @ 4:48 HR 138, not feeling too fatigued considering yesterday’s efforts. The sun got warm after a while though. Nice long slow run tomorrow in the hills ; looking forward to it, as well as checking out the national trials at the stadium this weekend – it’s going to be a bit different from the Masters Nationals two weeks ago…. very exciting!

Gallipoli Race 8k King's Park

I had a good run in this race. Thought I’d give the slower start a go to see how I felt - the course starts with a monster hill up the Synergy Parkland and left up Lovekin Dr before the turnaround at about 1.5k, then down Lovekin for a k and a bit then turn around again, back to the parkland and down the hill. Repeat.

I think I ended up with a slowish time, but definitely felt better and managed an even split over the two 4k loops - I didn't want to go lactic right from the start and succeeded in that. I just wasn’t invested in this race though, didn’t have the adrenaline on the start line and approached it really as a harder than tempo kind of hitout. Very pleased to reel Clemens Schmidt in up the hill on the second lap, I thought he was away from me - I felt really strong going up the hill a second time. I ended up 9th but very happy with how I felt today.

Great too to run in the Legacy colours with Biscuitman and a host of others – it’s a good fit for the ‘Lest we forget’ race as they are an organisation that looks after families of veterans killed in action or who died later in civilian life… it will have a big presence again next year I’m sure after the success of this one. Nice work E! I live in fear of the photos he took though - a couple at the finish then when I was walking off to get some recovery drink, he asked me to turn for another one. I thought he wanted to capture my good side, but no, he wanted the stream of dribble off my chin glinting in the sunlight. Nice.... I'll post a link to the gallery of (edited) photos from the race when I have them.

Monday morning 11km @4:25 pace HR 147from NextG along Mounts Bay then up the western side of the park back to Next G. For the first time in ages, there was a fairly stiff westerly, which wasn't much fun, but apart from that conditions were good, and I didn't feel yesterday's race in the legs at all.

Tuesday morning 6k @ 4:41 HR 137 recovery, wet cold and windy, not very pleasant. A bit too fast, I guess I wanted to get it done. A North easterly headwind on the way out which was fine, I like a tailwind on the way home .... funny old weather though, it feels like we went from summer to winter overnight.

Mona Fartlek and Phil's Hill

Thursday morning was stunning, we finished just as the sun poked its nose over the hills. No wind, the city really was a picture today reflected in the glassy Perth water. The route is slightly longer at the moment because of the Red Bull Air Race and construction works. I was a little concerned about how yesterdays flu shot and iron injection would affect me, but they didn’t in the end. I have felt a little odd since yesterday evening and slept poorly, but I felt fantastic this morning. Coffee at Atomic afterwards, yum. I’ve now had two runs this week where the economy has been around 635 beats per km, which is very low for me. Long may it continue!

Thursday evening did a Mona Fartlek session in fairly cool and windy conditions. I was just going to do it fairly easy, but ended up doing a decent effort. This could have had something to do with the fact that I did my warmup into the wind down to the Mt Henry Bridge and did the session up the freeway side with the wind at my back. Still, it was a good session and did a nice hard return home into the wind as I was feeling strong (and wanted to get home!) – ended up with a good 35 minutes of hard running. I stuffed up the Mona session on the watch which meant I had to do it manually, so ended up doing an extra minute in total, for about 5.55km. 637bpk.

Friday morning recovery run, the usual route. Very low HR. Legs felt better for doing it after a good workout yesterday. I did this mid-morning – it was still fairly cool with a stiff breeze on the way back. 622bpk!

Saturday morning, I did a nice easy run in the hills ; in cool conditions (13° at the start) ran the notorious Phil's Hill aka O’Connor Road. This is a tough old bastard of a hill – 3ks straight up a gravel trail. I felt good on the climb once I’d done the first steep bit which lasts 700m or so. Completed the climb in 16 minutes which sets a benchmark for next time. I held back a little knowing I’m doing the ANZAC race tomorrow. I felt good today, although I felt hungry for most of it – I didn’t stop at all which got me back to the bakery a bit quicker. Total ascent today about 420m. I must admit I don’t really like stopping on runs of this length - once an hour is my max, and even then for only a minute or two.

Favourite story of the week:

A Scottish animal rescue centre forced a dozen hedgehogs to go on a diet because they had grown too fat to roll into a ball to protect themselves.

a sign of the times......

Buns of Steel

Well, I finally had it done. After a few blood tests and a trial of taking iron tablets with these not making much of a difference (ferritin went up from 35 to 37), I have embarked on a 5 week course of iron injections into my posterior. I have really struggled with the heat this summer, and the theory is that low iron is why. As soon as the temperature drops my energy levels soar. With any luck improved iron levels will help my performance as well. I'm not really expecting it to, but it would be pretty cool if this happened!

Yesterday I did a couple of 6 km recovery runs, one in the morning and one in the evening, HR 137 and 132 respectively, the second run 2 sec/k faster. Felt fatigued but not too bad. This double recovery run worked well for me after the Mona weekend so I used it again.

This morning I ran from the house along the river to Rossmoyne and back, for 13.44km @4:27 pace, HR151. My breathing felt a little tight today and I had a bit of all-over fatigue but I wanted to run for about an hour because it’s a while since I’ve done that! I felt better as the run progressed – I came back about 2 minutes quicker than I went out. It was a nice cool morning for it, it’s a shame my weekend caught up with me on this one, but it was going to happen sooner or later !

In some good news, Team Strands consisting of Simons Ward and Elliot and myself, won the open team award for the 10km Bridges run with an aggregate time of 1:38:32 – which makes Simon Ward and myself back-to-back winners of this award. A tradition we should try to continue !

40 Miler - Mt Helena

I was torn between doing the cross country at the nationals and the 40 Miler relay on Monday ; Kim asked me to run the relay a while back, and I figured I wouldn't be in great shape to run an 8k cross country after the events of the day before, so I plumped for the relay. It was also a great opportunity to support some people who'd come out to support me at the nationals over the weekend.

I ran the last leg of relay (team 'It's a Farr-Cane long way') with Jo, Trish, Rod, Kim, Jodie, Richard and myself. I had a fantastic run - you know, the type that happens once every six months, where you just eat up the ground and it seems effortless - the weather was cool with a light headwind, enough for your a/c but not like the wall of pain from the track yesterday. I pulled back three teams who had had a significant headstart, and apparantly was breathing down the neck of second. I really felt like I was flying along the trail (is this the runner's high?) – it has a few significant rises, but you get the nice long downhills as well – 9.4km in just over 34 minutes @ 3:39 pace. The Elixirs were perfect for a trail race.

It was also wonderful to see all the solo 40 milers out there toughing it out - huge congrats to Claire, Kate, Jane etc. for finishing it for the first time, and Mona camper Rob for toughing it out. Unbridled joy, tears of emotion (even from some of the boys), finishing these things is such a major achievement!

I took some photos in between ferrying relay members to their various start points and back to base, so I missed a few people, but there are some nice ones in here.

2010 40 Miler Photos

A great day, everyone seemed to hit their goals - Mt Helena Tavern is not a bad place to finish a race either! Looking at the results from the cross country,  I reckon I could have quite comfortably challenged for silver in my age group, never mind, I think had much more fun up in the hills. And that's why we do this running thing - for fun.

AMA Nationals

I've had a great few days, and have thoroughly enjoyed  the experience ; the times weren't stellar, but the conditions were awful, esp. for the 5000m. Highlights were the tactical elements to the 1500m which I haven't had a lot of experience with but enjoyed immensley, and out-grinding Ray Boyd and Ross Henderson in the 5k. Admittedly Ray Boyd was only running on one leg and hasn't run for two and a half weeks, but he wasn't out for a jog. Ross was the other M40 age grouper to beat me handsomely in the City to Surf 12k and ran a healthy 16:48 to take 2nd in the Bridges 5km last week.

800m: Windy conditions (SW26/35), not ideal. Too much of a gap going into the back straight into the headwind after overtaking to move into 4th. Tactically didn't work out, this left me battling into the gusty wind just when I needed a bit more. Finished in 2:15:52 which is a PB, but I know I can crack 2:10, today wasn't the day. 63 seconds for 400m, real fadeout. Got a bronze medal for 3rd Australian, and a gold for being state M45 champion.

1500m: Windy again today (SW28/37), nobody went out fast. First 400 in 80sec, all bunched together. I was running easy for the first 2 and a bit, then some guy from NSW cut me off and shoved me back ; just afterwards the jump went with 600 to go and I was caught inside. I went around the offender by which time the 3 leaders had opened a 20m gap which I couldn't reel in, esp with the wind in the back straight.  Finished in 4:36 which means we really motored the last 600 in 1:36! My disappointement is that I read the break, I was just in the wrong position to respond. I have also realised I just don't have the guns that these guys do when it comes to a kick. If I want to be more competitive, I need to race more at the WAAS track Fridays to get used to tactics, and really work on the speed. Thursdays at Coker are really just training sessions, with no real tactics involved, because it's all just front running. Still, happy with 4th (and a results stuff-up saw me on the podium getting bronze despite my protests - sorted out later thankfully), and a gold for the state M45 title.

5000m: Appalling conditions winds up the back straight of 33kph gusting to 48km/h. Sat behind RossH for the first km and then took a turn at the front - I never saw him again. I was leading a pack with him, Ray Boyd and Brett Roach. Brett overtook with 5 laps to go and I didn't have it to stay with him. The others dropped back, so it was just me, the clock and the wind duking it out. Didn't drop off too much and was happy with 17:11 in the conditions. It felt good to be a real medal winner in a tough age group - and not too many times will I go head-to-head with Ray Boyd ( I know he was injured, great commitment to finish- hope the race didn't do too much damage)) and Ross Henderson and come out ahead... the day ended a lot better than it started when I realised I had left my racing shoes at home and had to run in a pair of training shoes  I retired about 6 months ago. I won't do that again!

Many thanks to Kim, Sas, Eldon & Charlotte, Jane, Kate, Biscuitman and family ( I could hear little Sammie's cheers thoughout!), and all the others for the support out there. I felt like I had my own private cheer squad.! I had a great time...