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...

2010 Australian Masters Championships Preview

Event website  hosted by Masters Athletics WA.

Come on down to the WA Athletics Stadium at Challenge this weekend to see some of the best (older) runners in the country at the moment. It's going to be exciting - not as exciting as the Open Nationals on April 16-18 I grant you, but it will be exciting, and inspiring. Don't think people lose their competitiveness as they get older, quite the opposite!

For me I'm doing the 800m on Friday scheduled start 3:30 ; probably my weakest event, I just can't sustain the pace in the second lap, but hopefully I'll be able to extract a bit extra this time. Current PB a smidge over 2:16.

1500m on Saturday, scheduled start 12:10. I enjoy this one, current PB 4:30.4.

5000m on Sunday, scheduled start 10:20am. Good strong field including the Wombat ( blog here - hopefully he'll be running, an injury kept him out of Bridges) and Ross Henderson, 2nd place in Bridges 5k, Paul Mitchell, Brett Roach, Bruce Graham etc. There are a lot of guys in this that run around 16:40 (and a few that are a lot quicker), so hopefully we can get a group going and give 16:30 a scare.

Medals, I don't care, but I'd like to just run well and hopefully score a new PB or two ; if I can't get excited about this, there's something wrong! I've been feeling pretty good in the last two weeks and have recovered well from Bridges, so fingers crossed for some good weather and good racing. Good luck to everyone who's competing, I know TB is...


Today just did the 9.6km river loop @ 4:47 HR 136 - not bad considering the wind factor.