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.