Just A Minute

Tuesday: 9k
Week Total: 9k
Month Total: 380k
Year Total: 756k


Didn't feel quite right this morning - not really what you'd call a bit fluey, but just not 100%. I don't think sitting under a vent at work for 12 hours yesterday helped, its so bad stuff blows across my desk .... hmmm, wonder why no work gets done ;-) So went along to Pat's and figured if I wasn't up to it I'd just take it easy, or even call it quits if need be.

It was off to The Gardens where we had a combo of 2 and 1 minute efforts, though there were only 2 x 1 minutes, I lost count of the 2 minute ones, and the final 2 minutes was more like 4 minutes .... hang on a minute, have I got that right :-) Dunno, I just did as I was told.

On the warm down it was great to run into Rach, out on a walk, and Min, who is finally back running, though only 40 minutes today.

Anyway, I think the run helped clear my head a little. I certainly felt better after it than before. Finished off the morning talking Canberra Marathon over brekky at Poppy's with Pat and Clairie. It might be marathon number 16 for me but I sure learnt lots just from the chat.

Hopefully I'll get a chance to hit Rebel Sport later - there's a 25% off everything sale. But its only from 5pm to 9pm. And its only open to RACQ members. And its only at three locations. And, as I told Clairie, its only for people whose first name starts with the letter 'T' ;-)

The Best Laid Plans

This morning's longer race at BRRC was a 20k. I thought I'd incorporate that into my long run and came up with a master plan. I'd do a warm-up of 5k or more at around 5:30 pace, then run the 4 x 5k loops of the race at 5:20s, then 5:10s, 5:00s and finally 4:50s. At the end of the race I'd zip over and hand my place card in and then continue on at that 4:50 pace until I'd racked up at least 30k, preferably 35k. The idea was to have no breaks, and to practice marathon day fuelling. Clairie was gonna be in on it.

We took off on our warm up, and Karisma joined us for a couple of kms. We were under 5 minute pace and kept saying to eachother we should slow down. But we didn't. After 5k we were back at the start/finish, Clairie stopped for a loo break and I continued on. Ended up at the line with about 30 seconds before race start and had done 7k, all under 5 minute pace.

I guess I got in the zone, and just continued running sub 5s. Clairie revved it up and I let her go - ha ha, as if I could keep up! At about the 3k mark of the race Scott B pulled up beside me, he too was using the event as part of a long run. He's training for the upcoming Ironman Oz. We ran the rest of the race together. It was so interesting talking to him, hearing about his training etc. Checking my splits we were doing 4:50s to 4:55s.

Before I knew it we were on the home stretch of the last lap, and for a minute there I thought we'd done one less lap than we had - the conversation must've been good! Couldn't resist speeding up a little in the last km to pass a girl. Scott invited me to run a fifth lap with him but I declined.

Here's where the master plan really fell apart. I handed my place card in and rather than hit the road straight away from some more kms Clairie and I chatted to all and sundry for about 20 minutes or more. Talked to my two nephews (aged 11 and 13) who had both run the 5k under 25 mintues, just seconds seperating them. Apparently there was a little argy bargy going on :-)

By the time we started again running was the last thing either of us wanted to do. Claire G joined us for some of it, she'd just done the 10k race in an amazing 36.21 or thereabouts. We were gasping for breath and she was talking away on her mobile! We ended up averaging 5:15s for that last 5k.

Even though I didn't follow my plan I'm not too unhappy with the way things panned out - 27k in 2h12m and then 5k in 26m15s ... 32k in just over 2h38m. And those first 27k I was backing off a little and not going 100%. I had some Usana drink for brekky before the run and at about 17k had a gel. It didn't go down too well :-(

I wasn't pleased that I only got to 32k though. It gave me 94k for the week. So of course all I could think about the rest of the day was should I hit the road for 6k just to make the 100k.

At about 5.15pm I gave in and 'just did it' :-)


Sunday: 32k + 6k
Week Total: 100k
Month Total: 371k
Year Total: 747k

A Tale Of Two Tenners

Friday: 10k
Saturday: 10k
Week Total: 62k
Month Total: 333k
Year Total: 709k

FRIDAY
Thursday was one of those days when my stomach felt like a bottomless pit, I had a bad case of the munchies. To make it worse we had a pizza night at work to celebrate a birthday, and I couldn't convince anyone that thin and crispy cheeseless pizzas do taste okay. So Friday morning the last thing I felt like doing was any sort of run, by the afternoon was able to force myself out the door.

The first km was a struggle, I almost pulled up stumps there and then, but told myself to do at least 5k. I've been downloading a bit of new music lately, and a few blasts from the past, but hadn't listened to most of it so loaded it on the iPod. After 2 1/2k I was about to turn for home when Joe Walsh's "Rocky Mountain Way" came on ... gees, we thought we were sooooo cool listening to that back in the 70s :-) Anyway, that put me in a good mood and I kept on running up to the 5k mark and turned for home then.

All up a slow 10k. How slow? Dunno, didn't time it properly, but it was probably around 57 minutes.




******

SATURDAY
It was the usual 6am start at The Regatta this morning and, still feeling like a slug, I wondered just how far I'd run. With the long one planned for Sunday this weekend it was going to be short. In fact at one stage I thought I might just go join the others for brekky. Most were going around 17k, some a little more, some less. Clairie is doing her long run with me tomorrow so we figured we'd stick together and just do an easy 10k.

We were at the back of the main pack and going about 5:15 pace, but got a little faster. At the 5k turnaround it was around 25:50. I was trying not to worry too much about the time, but Clairie was measuring each km - of course I couldn't resist asking her how we were doing! We were coming home stronger, and with about 500 meters to go I realised I could crack 50 mins so put the foot down and finished in 49:55.

Thinking about it I felt almost exactly the same at the start of each run, yet I was able to go that much faster today. And really, it didn't seem a great deal harder. Gotta stop being so lazy when I run on my own ;-)

Chasing and Chatting

Thursday: 10k
Week Total: 42k
Month Total: 313k
Year Total: 689k


The legs were a bit weary and a little niggly from Wednesday's Mt Coot-tha run, so I wasn't really looking forward to Pat's. Following the warm-up over the Goodwill and around The Gardens they did feel slightly better. On the pgm were 4 and 2 minute efforts. Once again we ran up through the less busy back paths of The Gardens, which meant some little hills. The 'square' we ran on Tuesday was incorporated, though going in the opposite direction which made it seem totally different.

At one stage I caught up to Ally, who was having a great session, and I suggested we mow down the fellow in the blue t-shirt in front of us. We tried hard but couldn't even get close. I was so happy when I eventually got him, an effort or two later, until I realised it was a different person in the same coloured shirt - doh!

I was near Edward St for the start of the second 2 minute one, and Pat called out to us 'all the way to the end'. What! 'The end' was about 1km away, so of course that was more like 4 minutes. Coming down the final hill there was another chase, as the guy beside me and I tried to run Jan down. But she heard me say to him "let's get Jan" and so put the foot down. I've gotta learn sign language! To finish off we ran out for 90 secs and back again and then whipped around to go up the grassy slope at the River Stage. Karen M and I raced up this - her weekly Mt Coot-tha runs are making her so strong, I had trouble keeping up with her!

So even though the legs were a little weary from Wednesday's mountain run it was a great session, so much fun. And more fun was to follow with our "Lulu does Brissie" brekky in Racecourse Rd with Clairie, Cirque, Hannah and of course the lovely Lulu who was visiting from Sydney. Though we didn't have nearly enough time to catch up on all the goss so she'll just have to come back :-)

Magic Mountain

Wednesday: 15k
Week Total: 32k
Month Total: 303k
Year Total: 679k


Clairie missed out on the Regatta-Mt Coot-tha loop last Wednesday as she was away on her secret training camp. So to make up for it we organised to do it again this week. Tara had the day off work and so wasn't promising to be there at 5.30am, for some strange reason she thought sleeping sounded like a better idea. A few other runners were there, but they were all doing a flat run, so just the two of us set off up Sylvan Rd toward the mountain.

The traffic seemed to be bad, even at that hour, and getting across the big roundabout wasn't easy. Made me wonder what it was gonna be like an hour later. Just after that is a long slow rise heading up to JC Slaughter Falls carpark. I still can't work out why its always such a struggle, its nowhere near as steep or as long as what's to come.

Towards the end of the big climb there was a young fit looking chap not too far in front and we were reeling him in. Tee hee, this could be fun! As we got within a meter or two we picked the pace up a bit, ran right past him as if we were doing it easy, and even gave him a friendly greeting :-) Got to the top just past the gates of the ABC and there was a small group of cyclists gathered, though that didn't stop us from letting out the obligatory 'woohoo'.

Then it was onwards over the few kms of undulations and down the big hill (wheeeeeee) and back to the world's busiest roundabout for a little bit of sprint work. I think that must've got our legs moving as we seemed to be moving pretty fast on the run back down Sylvan Rd to the Regatta.

What a wonderful way to start a Wednesday :-)

Long Short Session

Tuesday: 17k
Week Total: 17k
Month Total: 288k
Year Total: 664k


I've had to shuffle my work hours a little to fit in with a couple of colleagues' child care arrangements, that means the end of my usual morning off on this shift rotation. Though as part of the deal I was able to negotiate a 7.30am start rather than 7am so I could do a complete Pat session.

A spanner in the works today was giving up my carpark. So I took all my gear to work last night and ran the 5k or so to The Ship Inn for the start of the session. I used the Camelbak, minus the bladder, to carry a few odds and ends such as keys and mobile. It worked a treat!

In my usual style I took way to long to get ready and so it was a bit of a mad dash to get there, I made it with about a minute to spare before the warm-up, which Pat told us was over the Goodwill up to Edward St then a lap of The Gardens. I was already warm! Keith, Tori, Jan and I were leading the way and we thought a lap meant all the way to the bridge and back and couldn't work out why if we were in front coming up the straight we could see everybody else had finished - we were meant to cut across through the middle of The Gardens. So I'd now done 8 1/2k already - even warmer now!

The session was '15 minutes' of sprints, that's 15 Pat minutes though :-) We go around a big square running fast, then slow, then fast, then slow. Knowing I'm still lacking in the 'fast' department I made the slows not so slow. I tried to keep Clairie in my sights but just as I'd start reeling her in on the recovery bits, she'd zoom off on the sprints. I starting to think she wasn't in WA last week at all, rather at some secret training camp :-)

After the warm down I hung around just long enough to get my fill of cold watermelon and pineapple before running the 2k or so to work. So more kms than a usual Tuesday, but it wasn't too painful, so I might do it more often. Come to think of it I mightn't have much choice!

Q and A

Wob asked if I was training for 6ft or Canberra. Being an anti-trailie its Canberra and not 6ft!

Re my long Saturday run Steve said "Good run but I'm curious why your intent was 'no fuel' before-hand and no gel (or something) at the 2hr mark. Please tell me you ate heaps the night before."
Its one of the types of long runs on the McMillan pgm - "We want to deny the body carbohydrates in these runs so that the muscles will become better at sparing the carbohydrate stores, more efficient at burning fat and used to running with lowered blood glucose levels."
I ate normally the night before which is heaps :-)
I tried some similar runs before the GC Marathon last year (where I ran a PB) and managed to avoid 'the wall' until around 37k, I usually encounter it sooner.
He also asked if I had a yearly km goal. I hadn't really thought about it, though 3650km sounds cool as it means an average of 10k a day.

And for Go Girl, I don't think my old model Garmin talks to Google Earth, if it does I have no idea how to do it. I've just downloaded some images and used MS Paint to map out roughly where we've run. I use an abacus to add up my weekly kms ;-)

In answer to lots of questions about Mt Coot-tha. Its a 9.6km circuit and from what I can work out from Google Earth its 270m at its highest point. When we just run a loop we start from JC Slaughter Falls carpark which is around 80m. I think the 'big climb' to that highest point is about 2.3kms of continual uphill :-) I've raced it once (annual King/Queen of the Mountain) in 45m28s, have done hard training runs in 47 to 50 mins, though mostly do 51 to 55 mins depending how I'm feeling or who I'm running with.


How lucky are we to have this just 5k or so from the city!


Yellow spot is the car park. We run anti-clockwise. Blue spot is the highest point.

*****

Sunday: 14k
Week Total: 94k
Month Total: 271k
Year Total: 647k

I think I've started to obsess way to much about pace and time and so have made the decision to try to do at least one run a week without a watch and just run as far and as fast, or slow, as I feel like. And enjoy it! Yesterday was one of those days.

I set out around 6:30am (I didn't want to see the exact time!) and headed up to Sir Fred Schonell Dve then turned and along the bikepath to the end of The Gardens and back to the Uni bustop and then home. Being a non BRRC race day there were a few familiar faces out and about. In the Gardens I was almost windburnt by Jonesy and other fasties from Pat's zipping by in the opposite direction. Also was almost mowed down by Eddie who was definitely doing over the speed limit with less than 2k to go in his 34k run.

All up 14k. Dunno how long it took, don't care :-)

Long Run - River Loop

Saturday: 35k
Week Total: 80k
Month Total: 257k
Year Total: 633k

About 10 of us met up at The Ship Inn at 5am Saturday. A few of the group were doing a shorter run, and six of us (Karen, Mark aka iliketoast, Tara, Ciaran, Geoff and I) planned to do a 'river loop'. This can be anywhere from 20k to 42k depending on short cuts etc, I was hoping to do at least 30k.

We ran out along Coro Dve first and around UQ (nice hills), then over the Indooroopilly Bridge, through Chelmer etc, took the 'scenic' route through Yeronga, up past the cemetary (not nice hills!). When we got to Highgate Hill it was 28.2k on Mark's trusty Garmin so Karen and I ran back to South Bank a sort of longish way to make it a little over 30k. Once back at The Ship Inn I figured I'd try for another half hour and ran out West End way and back. Guess that added at least 5k. Ran into newest dark side recruit Liz-N along the way, she's recovered really well from her 57k at Caboolture and can't wait to do it all again!

All up it was a little over 35k and time taken was 3h20m so mission accomplished. I wanted to do a long slow run on no fuel and I managed it. No brekky, and just a weak electrolyte mix in the Camelbak (which I'm happy to say didn't chafe at all). After about 2 hours of running I was feeling like I needed a gel or something .... something like a big juicey hamburger really :-) But within 10 minutes or so felt okay again.

Guess the weather wasn't really on our side, it was hot and soooooo humid. Then again, its almost worth putting up with that to be able to jump in the pool at South Bank at the end .... well, almost.



The yellow spot is The Ship Inn. The red line is a (very) rough idea of the 35k river loop, and the blue line makes cuts it down to 30k.

Harum Scarum

Friday: 10k
Week Total: 45k
Month Total: 222k
Year Total: 598k

Some of the gang from Pat's have been running Mt Coot-tha every Friday at 5:30am and I couldn't resist the opportunity to join them this morning before work, it just sounded so much more appealing than the usual flat bikepath run. There were seven of us all up, Robbie and six girls - Tori, Tammy, Sarah, Karen, Speedy Suze and me.

Once up the big climb and on to the undulations I was running beside Tori and talking about all sorts of things. We headed up yet another incline and the chat stopped briefly but soon started again. I was so focussed on the hill that after about 30 seconds of conversation I looked beside and it was Suze I was now talking to not Tori :-)

Suze and I finished off the run together. I went around in just over 51 minutes. The other girls were only a few minutes behind, finishing in 54 minutes. That was a 2 minute Mt Coot-tha PB for Sarah and a whopping 6 minutes for Karen. Exciting stuff!

Back at the carpark were a group of Hash House Harrier's who run around the mountain every Friday at 5.15am, even in winter. Funny, looked like there was just one guy in their group as well, quite a few girls though.

Drowned Rats

Thursday: 10k
Week Total: 35k
Month Total: 212k
Year Total: 588k

Cirque asked what was the verdict on the songs you chose for Caboolture? How did the 'request' section go?
All the music was great, what a way to spend 12 hours! I actually had too much music and ran out of time to listen to everything I wanted to. I really liked the request section, with everything from Mozart to Ramstein, it was never monotonous. I could remember who requested most of them too .... including ZZ Top ;-)

*****

This morning Pat sent us off on an extra long warm-up, via the Vic Bridge up to the end of The Gardens and then back down to the Goodwill Bridge where we'd be starting our 5 minute efforts. For once I was a the front of the first pack warming up, running with Tori and Jan. Phil soon caught up and either the other girls slowed a little or we picked up the pace. Then we were joined by Mark 3, this time the pace did pick up, even the guys were complaining!

For our 5 minute efforts instead of the usual main path through The Gardens Pat got us to run up the back path. This was great, there was very little pedestrian traffic. And not a snappy cyclist in sight ;-) Though it did mean a few little uphills on the way out, which equated to nice little downhills on the way back :-)

Coming down the hill at the end of the second effort I wondered what Pat would have in store for us next, I was guessing maybe a minute out and a minute back. I'd totally forgotten he'd said we were doing Goodwill Bridge reps at the end! And so to the bridge it was, for a good 12 minutes or more.

As always it was a tough session, and though it wasn't too hot it was sooooooo humid this morning. Afterwards everybody was just drenched, you couldn't tell the difference between those who'd jumped in the pool at South Bank during the warmdown and those who hadn't.



The Goodwill Bridge is the grey one in the front.

A Camel On My Back

Wednesday: 15k
Week Total: 25k
Month Total: 202k
Year Total: 578k

Tara and I decided over a glass of wine on Sunday arvo that running over Mt Coot-tha was a good idea for a Wednesday run. But not just doing a lap (9.6km), we thought we'd start at The Regatta to make it a 15k round trip. I'm glad we stopped at one drink! I sent out an email asking the rest of our group to join us. Clairie, who is in Perth this week, was the only one who replied. She said "noooooooooooo" :-) So it was just the two of us.

It was very overcast as we set off at 5.30am, though the full moon was still clear in the sky. The Spike Tri squad were out in force doing hill reps on their bikes on the long steady climb just before JC Slaughter Falls carpark, so we got some cheeky encouragement form Tori, Jan and Liz as they zipped by in the opposite direction.

It was quite misty up the top, absolutely beautiful. Or, as we said, it would be beautiful if we could see anything :-) Coming back down the hill we copped about five or ten minutes of rain. Noice.

I wore my Camelbak for the first time, I wanted to test it before wearing it for my long run Saturday. It was pretty comfy, and although I'd Bodyglided up I got one small spot of chafing on my back. I make take it on a few more shorter test drives before taking it on a long haul.

Had a massage in the afternoon. My regular guy, Mark, is sick and so his nephew Craig, who was trained by Mark, took over. I thought I might get let off lightly. I was wrong.

There's A Tear In My Beer

Tuesday: 10k
Week Total: 10k
Month Total: 187k
Year Total: 563k


I talked to super duper ultra runner CR Fat Bloke at BRRC on Sunday about recovering properly from ultras. I took his advice (nothing too hard for a few weeks, just 'social' jogs) and went for an easy run rather than join Pat's. And I thought it was a good opportunity to listen to some of the stuff I didn't get around to playing at Caboolture, including songs about drinking.

Setting out from work at around 5.30am the plan was to run Edward St to the Gardens then out to New Farm Park and back via The Valley. Not that I felt guilty for missing the session but it didn't feel right to be out there but not at Pat's so I figured that way I wouldn't see them, but I did pass both Barry and Justin as they were running to join the group.

Took it easy all the way to New Farm Park, ran a lap of it and then headed up Brunswick St. I increased the pace all the way up the hill there though as there were Boot Campers out training - a couple of them were running behind me carrying a metal pipe and others were in front carrying weights. I HAD to pass them! Once I did I kept the momentum going all the to Dooleys, where the vomit smell knocked me for six.

Aside from that it was quite a pleasant run.

BRRC 10 Mile Champs

Sunday: 16k
This Week Total: 50k
Month Total: 177k
Year Total: 553k

*****

First up a couple of replies ....

RunDave asked "Where do you get Usana, and how much does it cost? What flavours are there?"
I organised it through my massage guy, he set me up an account with Usana. Its from the USA and not available over the counter here as far as I know. The Nutrimeal is $35 I think and it comes in vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.

R2B said "Hiya Tesso i imagine that if you are comfortable enough to run at 5:15 pace all the time then your 3km time trial best would be around 11:30?(just a bit of guess work to start the week!)"
I wish! My best time (Feb 2005) is 11:53, though since then most have been over the 12 minute mark.

*****

It was pouring rain when I arrived at West End Sunday at around 5:35am but at least it wasn't hot ... or cold! Clairie and I had planned a 2k warmup but after standing around talking etc only managed a 2 minute one.

My goal for the 10 miles was 1hr20m, though after last weekend's effort I figured anything under 1h25m would be okay. I knew a couple of the faster girls weren't running so with championship points on the line I was hoping to be in the top 5.

I settled into a steady pace just under 5min kms. After about 10 mins I realised there were just four girls in front so concentrated on maintaining that pace. Then I got overtaken by another girl, but didn't want to push it so was happy to be 6th. But she stopped to do up a shoelace and she never came back at me.

Around halfway, I put in a bit of extra effort to catch up to the girl in front of me - I think 'Ice Ice Baby' on the iPod got me revved up :-) I checked her hands (where they write your category) but they weren't marked. So she was a non-member and if she did finish in front of me it wouldn't matter. But I had her now so didn't want to give up too easily. We played a bit of cat and mouse before I finally got away.

From that point onwards I was running just under 4:50s and wasn't overtaken by anyone, in fact I passed at least five or six guys. It wasn't quite life in the fast lane, but maybe life in transit lane :-) The last three kms were progressively faster and the final one 4:28. My splits were all sub 5mins except for one where I had to tie my shoelace, it was a 5:02. Total time - 1h18m37s :-)

Once again young Claire G had a blinder, finishing first in 1:01.??, quite possibly a course record. Not bad for somebody who's only been running seriously for a year! Luckily the girl who came second wasn't a member so our Clairie picked up 99 points and I got 98.

Oh, and I think all we CRs that were there came home with medals :-)

Regatta Runs

Friday: 10k
Saturday: 14k
This Week Total: 34k
Month Total: 161k
Year Total: 537k

Friday morning was the usual Regatta run. Well, almost. What they do on Friday's is an 8k differential - the first 4k at a steady pace and the second 4k at a faster pace. I was just there for a run.

With a triathlon coming up on Sunday Fiona wasn't in for a fast one so I stuck with her until the 4k mark where she turned and headed back. I felt okay and had my iPod for company so continued on for another km before returning. Kept the same speed up most of the way, probably between 5:15 and 5:30 pace I guess.

*****

A bit of rain Saturday morning seemed to keep a few of the regulars away. I started out running with Clairie and Phil, both were after an easy run with the BRRC 10 mile Champs the next day. I wanted to be in once piece for it, not that I was planning to 'race', but I wanted to make it to the start line feeling fresh. We weren't too far off the main pack and checking our splits were doing 5:15s. I told them I'd stick with them until they caught up to the others but once we got a little closer let them go.

I ran with Chelle for a little while after that but from about 4k onwards was on my own. But didn't mind. After seeing Walk The Line on Friday arvo I'd loaded my iPod with a compilation CD by the man in black :-)

I didn't take too much notice of my watch, well, I tried not to ;-) All up 14k in around 1hr 14m.

On The Road Again

Last Week Total: 137k <== a new record :-)

Today: 10k
This Week Total: 10k
Month Total: 137k
Year Total: 513k


First up a little on comments and questions raised ....

From Cirque - When do we get to hear the rest of the story about this 'boring' race?
So much has been said in the CR message, though I still haven't really added my comments. What can I say? I ran in circles for 12 hours :-) I had my music to keep me entertained. I'd put a lot of effort into it, so much so that I had stuff left unplayed towards the end and I was almost wishing I had more time so I could get through it all ... almost ;-) At least I got through all the requests! That aside there's no way in the world I could have done it if I didn't have people like the lovely Cirque smiling and waving and cheering as I ran by each time.

Ally asked whats happening with the Shuffle?
I charged if for several hours, the little green light was on. But I guess being brand new I should've left it charging for 12 hours or more.

R2B said your pacing was so even 17-18 laps/hour, how did you keep track off it and did you speed up or slow at any time because of it?
I used the counter on my Nike watch to count laps and every now and then checked with Fran my lapscorer just to make sure we matched. Horrie had told me to never let my breathing get laboured, once or twice I realised it did so slowed down immediately. The only time I forced myself to run faster was at around 4.30am when I realised I could actually crack the 100k in under 11hrs. The rest of the time the pacing just seemed to come naturally.

Several wondered how I kept going on so little food.
I can only put it down to the Usana Nutrimeal I was drinking in those first few hours. It really is very filling and full of all sorts of good stuff. Its 12% protein and low GI. My massage guy who does super-duper endurance events (eg multi day adventure racing where they are on the go for maybe 20 hours a day) gets if for me. He swears by the stuff.

And Miners, I promise to test drive the donuts for you before your IM ;-)


****


As a reward for the group's constant hard work at Pat's this morning it was just a 50 minute comfortable run followed by the monthly 'no watch' 1k. Perfect timing for my return!

The legs felt pretty good for their first run since Saturday. Clairie and I stuck together for the 50 minute run. Seeing though I've been out of action all week we had lots to catch up on :-)

We regathered at the top of the Gardens for the 1k. I'd forgotten to write down my guess though would've put something like 5m30s. As we took off poor Keith had an terrible run in with a pole, that was unfortunately just the right, well wrong, height to do some damage. Clairie and I stopped to make sure he alright. He wasn't really but he convinced us he'd be okay, he just needed to walk, and urged us to continue on.

The pace we were doing seemed like close to 5m30s, but when we hit the end Pat called out 5:08. Considering we'd stopped to check on Keith it was probably a sub 5 minute km. It didn't feel like it, so that's a good sign.

We wound up at the pool at South Bank, rather than The Ship Inn, where brekky was waiting for us with some extra special treats. Mmmmm, mango :-)

So everything seems to be in working order. Still, I'll be taking it easy for another couple of weeks because, as Pat has warned me in the past, one must be careful when they feel too good after a big event.

A Little More On Caboolture ... by a little moron :-)

Its been over 48 hours since I stopped running, and not surprisingly I don't plan to start again for a day or two. DOMS has set in, though its not nearly as bad as I expected and its definitely been way worse after most of my marathons. I've been wearing my long Skins a fair bit.

I was really tired all day at work yesterday but then was wide awake last night, my stomach was playing up a little. Luckily a bad Ashton Kutcher movie (are there any good ones?) on Fox put me to sleep about 1am.

So now I'm trying to eat lots of healthy stuff and rest up. I'd like to be back on the road Thursday morning for an easy jog. We'll see.

Anyway, before I forget too much I thought I'd post a bit of boring info etc about the 12 hr race.


THE LEAD UP

Thursday and Friday I was rostered on night shifts. We're going through a pretty busy time at the moment and so I hoped like hell to get away a little early Friday. Around 12.30am things had settled down and so I headed home. Slept until about 6.30am, got up and had brekky and did a few things, then went back to bed for a couple of hours. So I was pretty well rested by the time I had to leave to drive up to Caboolture.


FOOD - what I took with me and what I ate ....

3 muesli bars - nil
2 Powerbars - had about half of one before the start
2 protein bars - nil
1 lge Pringles salt and vinegar chips - nil
1 lge Monsoon salt and vinegar chips - nil
1 sml Tasty Jacks salt and vinegar chips - about half the packet
2 pkts Sunburst jelly beans - had about 1/4 of one packet
1 bag of Haigh's dark choc coated coffee beans - had maybe 30 or so beans
1 english muffin with Promite and honey - ate half of this
1 english muffin with Promite - nil
4 PB gels - nil
1 vanilla creamed rice - nil
1 box of mini iced donuts - nil, tho I had one after I finished :-)


DRINKS - what I took with me and what I drank ....

2 cans normal Coke - nil
2 cans Coke Zero - nil
3 cans black V - drank about 2/3 of one of them
2 bottles of red Powerade - drank one
6 x 350ml bottles weak Endura - drank one
6 x 350ml bottles of half strength Usana Nutrimeal - drank about 1 1/2 of them
12 x 350ml bottles of water - drank them all

I'd just been eating what I normally would in the build up though did have plain pasta Friday night rather than the usual something and salad. Saturday morning I'd eaten my normal brekky of rye toast, had an apple at morning tea time, and an english muffin for lunch. I'd had a few glasses of Endura in the two days before, and tried to drink lots of water.

The first few hours during the race alternating the Usana drink and water kept me going. After that I'd had enough of the Usana and survived mainly on water and Powerade, with some jelly beans and choc coated coffee beans occasionally. When I did feel slightly hungry I'd grab a bit of an english muffin or some salt & vinegar chips. It was way less than I expected to eat, in fact if I was just sitting at home watching TV I would've had way more than that! But I can't say at any time that I ever felt lacking in energy or the need to eat more.


MY LAP COUNTS

7pm - 20
8pm - 39
9pm - 58
10pm - 78
11pm - 96
12am - 114
1am - 132
2am - 149
3am - 166
4am - 183
5am - 200
6am - 211


THE MUSIC

I had my brand new iPod Shuffle (Apple had replaced for my old one that broke down) and Clairie's hubby Al had lent me his iPod Mini. So on mine I put about 7 hours of mixed music and set it to shuffle.

The first song to come on was "Together In Electric Dreams". Its one of those corny songs I'm embarrassed to admit I really like, so that put me in a good mode. Next up was "Godhopping" by Dogs Die In Hot Cars. Not embarrassed to admit to that one :-) Around 9pm "Harlem Shuffle" came on (made me think I should've saved it for 5am) and I paused it to talk to somebody. When I went to start it again nothing happened. I tried and tried and tried but to no avail. Arrgghh!! Luckily I had backup, though ran for an hour or so without music just to take in the atmosphere.

On Al's iPod I had several playlists -
Super Requests (over 3 hrs of requests from fellow runners)
Songs For The Dumped (almost 2 hrs there!)
The Elvii (1/2 hr of mixed Elvis Presley and Elvis Costello)
Blues
Songs About Drinking
Songs With Monologues In Them
Duets
Country
Covers
The End (stuff for my last 1/2 hr)

I started with Super Requests, it gave me lots to think about trying to recall who requested what. Next up I think was Songs For The Dumped and then I'm not sure what, its all a bit of a blur now. I do know that when I was getting close to the 100k I was listening to the Elvii, and Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up" was playing as I hit the magic mark :-)

Played some Blues after that I think and then at 5.30am started my End set. First up was Jimmy Reed "The Sun Is Shining" followed on by the Rabbit cover of Daniel Johnston's "Good Morning You". And what a laugh cruising around the track with minutes to go listening to REM's "Everybody Hurts" :-)

The final song to take me to 6am was Green Day's "Good Riddence" ....

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

I did :-)

Caboolture Dusk to Dawn

This is just going to be a quick post. I'm feeling a little on the lathargic side right now, can't be bothered writing too much. Then again, how do you summarise a 12 hour race into a quick post!

What can I say, what an absolutely unbelievable night. I arrived up there just before 4.30pm to set up camp, and within half an hour the place was rockin'! There were so many CRs out there, running, lap scoring, supporting. Several times I wished we were just there for a party :-)

Taking on all the advice from fellow CRs who've done this sort of thing before, not just what to do but probably more importantly what not to do, it was hard to go wrong really. I had sooooo much food and sooooo many drinks, and back came home with soooo much food and sooooo many drinks. But I wasn't wanting for anything.

For the race my A goal was 100k, my B goal 90k. As I commented to someone I was running with, 100k is 'pie in the sky' and 90k is 'sausage roll in the sky' :-) I figured if I could get through 57k in the first six hours then 100k was possible. At six hours (midnight) I'd run exactly 57k. So now just a little more than a marathon to go. Still, you never know.

At 2am it was 74 1/2 km, and at 3am 83k. I knew then I might do it, even if I had to walk ... though it would be a fast walk! 4am was 91 1/2k. I think that's the first time I was confident. Half an hour later I realised I'd not just crack the 100k but I might be able to do it under 11hrs - it was good mentally to have a new goal. I upped the pace slightly and crossed for my 100k in 10hrs 58mins :-)

I ran the next couple of laps but then got a bit lazy and started walking. I probably could have run a few more but once I'd walked two or three I couldn't be bothered getting going again. To be honest this was the hardest hour, the time went so slow, I was tempted just to sit down. I even had a toilet break at 10 to 6 to kill time!

I must say there is no way in the world I could've done what I did without all the support. Biggest thanks must go to Clairie, dunno where she gets the energy from. She even made bit signs, one of them with a message I had received from the lovely 2P. She kept me going in those last few hours. I honestly could not have done it without her. Its hard to find the words to describe her other than to say this girl really is one in a million. And to Matty as well, with his hourly updates of placings, that really helped me stay motivated and certainly stopped my slacking off. Not just that but his enthusiasm and encouragement and help etc etc was priceless.

Then of course there's all the other CRs. I'll talk about that in my long, ok, longer post, because if I do it now I'm bound to forget somebody and they were all fantastic.

Thanks so very much to all for your good luck wishes - they worked :-)


Clairie's signs



Mmmm... donuts :-)

Dress Rehearsal

Wednesday & Thursday: 22k
Week Total: 32k
Month Total: 22k
Year Total: 398k

Though I was planning to run alone at my Caboolture pace I met up with the Regatta Runners at 6am Wednesday. Liz-N was there, so we were able to have a good chat about Caboolture plans. She's doing the 6 hours, her first ultra! A sweaty Clairie rocked up just before we took off, she'd started early and already done a steady 4k.

Ran the first 4k or so with Liz before she turned back, the pace was probably a bit faster than we both intended. But then I slowed down a little, closer to 6 minute pace, which is as fast as I want to be doing at Caboolture. Then Geoff caught up to me so running with him through the Gardens I upped it a little. I left him at the 5 1/2 km mark and headed back.

I thought at last I can concentrate on running 6 minute pace! Not for long. 500 meters down the path I passed Gary M out on a long mid weeker and he turned around and ran with me for a while. Gary ran 34:26 for 10k at the track last week, so you can imagine his idea of long slow run :-) Anyway, from the Goodwill Bridge back I was on my own.

All up 11km done faster than planned - the Garmin told me I averaged 5:17s.

Had a massage mid morning. With the big run coming up Mark took it easy on me and I only felt like vomiting a couple of times from the pain. He's so good to talk to about this endurance stuff, his big event is at the end of February - an adventure race (running, kayaking, biking) that he hopes his team will complete in 8 days! That's on the go all the time, with maybe 4 hours sleep a day. Makes my 12 hours seem like a walk in the park.

*****

Pat's today was 2k reps. They are such a good test of exactly where you are speed wise. I really would've liked to have gone but opted for another crack at running my Caboolture pace. This time to make it more authentic I even wore the running kit I plan to wear Saturday night, right down to the socks.

Set out around 6.30am and headed along the bike path into the Gardens. Passed Kumi on the way and stopped for a quick chat. She did the 12 hours a few years ago though couldn't remember too much about it other than it rained that night!

At 5 1/2 km I stopped and had a walk, just so I can get the feel what its like to start up again after a walk break. I wished I had been doing a little more of this in training as it felt a bit wierd.

All up 11k and averaged around 6 minute pace - just what I wanted! Before I set out I had a little of my Usana Nutrimeal drink, and had a bit more at halfway. Its low GI, goes down really well, and is quite filling.

So that's it now, I'm putting the feet up until Saturday evening :-)