PCRG - 3k TT

My 3k TTs of late have been like a game of Snakes and Ladders and this month I went along knowing I'd land on a snake. After running 12:16 two months ago I figured with my lack of speed work since I was in about 12:30 shape.

I hit the 1k mark in about 4:02, a bit too fast. And it showed in the next km (4:16). At the 2k mark I knew I had to really hit the straps. Thankfully Clairie was marshalling just past that spot and gave me just the encouragement I needed. I crossed the line in 12:28.

Pretty happy with that. Isn't it amazing how you get to know what you are capable of on any given day.

Oh, and not much hammy pain.

Big congrats to my regular Wednesday and Saturday running buddies Toasty, Andrew and (little) Tara on achieving PBs - great stuff. Though now Andrew is now within a smidgen my PB. Bugger! I've gotta stop telling him he's soft ;-)


*****


Met up with Wednesday regulars Brett and Andrew at The Regatta this morn. It was a pleasant surprise it was to have PCRG-er Sal join us.

We rolled along at a cruisey pace for the first 2ks and then kicked it in the guts all the way to the end of The Gardens, running around 4:35s. The three of them then turned for home as I continued on ... and slowed it down to probably just under 5s.

There were heaps of PCRG-ers out there, including Celeste who was doing reps of Gold Coast Hill as punishment for sleeping through the alarm and missing the TT yesterday :)

All up 15k in just under 1hr 12 mins. Hammy was feeling a bit tight towards the end but not enough to make me want to stop running.

Monday Music - 28th May 2007

Bonde Do Role - Solta O Frango

Probably not the best thing to come out of Brazil but its so catchy. And a good running song. Apologies to anyone who gets the song stuck in their head (like I did). You've gotta love the film clip though.

I have no idea what its all supposed to mean but one web site translates "solta o frango" as "it loosens the chicken" :-)

Don't Just Sit There

After recovering so well from Warwick and a great week of running I was looking forward to my 15k on Saturday. But from the first step, in fact even before the first step, the hammy/glute pain was apparent.

I ran with the pack out to NF Park and then turned and ran back from there with Mat & Josef. They were after a shorter run and peeled off over the Goodwill while I threw in extra - I was determined to run the maximum allowed by the physio!

I wanted to see how it all felt running faster, and with the increase in pace there was a slight decrease in pain.

I'd had a rest day Friday and spent 12 hours sitting at work followed by another couple of hours sitting at the desk at home trying to resolve a problem with my internet access. Funny that it flares up after that but two days of running at Warwick seemed to improve it.


*****


Sunday was the 7k Champs at BRRC, a race I really didn't want to miss. Still, after the previous day's experience I was prepared to not run if the pain was as bad. The goal was 31m30s ie av 4:30s ... and to get as many championship points as I could :-)

Did a 3k warmup and all was better than Saturday so figured I'd line up and race. There wasn't a big crowd as there were a couple of other running events on elsewhere. Two of my usual 'rivals', Karen and Linda, were at BRRC but on duty. That was disappointing in a way, we often work off eachother in races.

We were off and I was cruising along nicely, all my splits bar one under the 4:30 mark. After the first four km it was tempting to take the foot off the gas as there was just one girl a fair way in front of me, I had no chance of catching her, and the next ones were at least 30 seconds behind. But I hung in there, and in fact the last km at 4:21 was my fastest. Crossed the line in 31:16.

Sweet - 99 points :-) But even sweeter, not much pain :-)

PCRG - 1k reps

First up a big HELLO to Emil who has abandoned us to return home to Seth Afrika. Well, I guess he was just here on hols after all, but he sure felt like a permanent fixture.

Emil with Pat (and the rest of the gang)

Anyway, he reckons he reads my blog so that means he'll know what sort of session he needs to do next :-) And yesterday it was 4 x 1k reps (60 sec SR), plus a 2 minute effort.

Considering the lack of real speed training for the last month or so I was expecting to average around 4:10s to 4:15s so was happy to record 4:03, 4:04, 4:09 & 4:04.

Back at the Ship Inn a few of us hit the deck for 21 pushups - the standard 20 plus 1 for Pat :-)

The King And I

On Monday arvo the physio gave me the go-ahead to resume normal training ... except for one thing, my 'long' runs are still capped at 15k until I see him again (end of next week). Oh well, at least the improvement is continuing and the hammies are getting stronger. In fact I reckon if it wasn't for all the strengthening stuff I've been doing over the past five weeks I doubt if I would have gotten through the Warwick weekend in one piece. So I am determined to continue it and make it part of my daily routine. Just wish it all didn't take so long!


*****


Tuesday morning at PCRG was 6 x 500m reps, 1 x 2 min effort, and 2 x Gold Coast Hill. With recovery from Warwick in mind I ran conservatively with the rep times ranging from 2:03 to 2:13, and rather than 45 sec standing recs I cut them down to 20 to 30 secs.


*****


It was the usual Wednesday Regatta run this morning. I started out with Andrew, Brett and Geoff and we took it easy on the first couple of kms. Then we picked up the pace ... and at Hale St we picked up Rent Boy too :-)

Andrew and Brett were too good for me today, I was running 4:45s but they just surged ahead. Both are looking good for huge runs at the GC Half. They turned back at the end of The Gardens and I continued on to do a cut down Storey Bridge loop sticking around 4:45s to 4:50s. For the final km I allowed myself to slow down a little.

15k all up.


*****


Its kickoff time.

A special pic for this special night ...

Queenslander!!!!

Warwick Pentath-Run 2007

Race reports follow. Will post again with more happy snaps and non race stories. Then again, what happens on the trip ..... ;-)


Race 1 - Half Marathon (Sat 7am)
This has to be my all time favourite half marathon course. Its point to point, Warwick to Yangan along a quiet country road. It gets hilly around 16 to 17k though the last km is downhill, and makes for a flying finish. With so little mileage in the legs of late I struggled from about 16k onwards, and the hammy problem started to make itself known.
Time - 1:42.35
Cat place - 2nd


Race 2 - 4.6k Cross Country (Sat 12pm)
This is held at the local equestrian park. The only two things I like about it are the way horses lead the pack at the start and the finish line. It was dusty, and sandy and rocky. And we had five horse jumps to tackle this year. My right leg was hurting, and not just the hammy :( I didn't enjoy it one little bit.
Time - 21:14
Cat place - 2nd


Race 3 - 5k Road Run (Sat 3pm)
Starting and finishing at the Woolies warehouse this is a two looper. Its an easy course but my leg was still hurting. I just couldn't get moving too fast. I got through by telling myself at least it wasn't the stooooopid cross country.
Time - 23:35
Cat place - 3rd


Race 4 - Killarney Ascent 10k (Sun 8am)
I love this run, its my favourite of the five. The legs felt surprisingly good too, maybe I was more worried about the cold (3 degrees) than anything else. The road is a mix of flat and slightly uphill for the first 5k then the climb starts. I wasn't travelling too badly and figured I was on target to just squeeze under the 1hr. But at about 7k I thought of our PCRG hill sessions and imagined Pat running beside me encouraging me to run harder. I got stronger and even passed a couple of people. Lizzle was a few hundred metres in front so I used her as a target, I wanted to gain as much ground on her as possible before we hit the flat and the downhill as I knew she'd sprint away from me there (which she did) and got within about 20 metres.
Time - 56:40
Cat place - 2nd


Race 5 - 1500m Sprint (Sun 11:30am)
This is an out and back up the main drag in Warwick. I worked out I was going to miss my rather ambitious goal of sub 3:30 for the five races and decided I'd gotten to this point in one piece and so there was no point busting a gut and risking injuring myself. That was until I passed the bell wearing ironwoman who'd won the half and the hill in our category .... well, maybe I'll speed up just a little. Then with 500m to go I fell in behind pink top who'd won the x-c and the 5k in our category. I sat there for a few seconds contemplating when to make my move. I ran past her. Then she ran past me. Bugger! And I could hear the bell approaching.
As I was wearing a PCRG top (wore a different one each race) I thought it was time to show them what we PCRG-ers can do so put shoulders back and went for it. I passed pink top again and just hammered it. Neither of them got me - pink top was 1 sec behind, and ironwoman 3 secs. Whew!
Time - 6:27
Cat place - 1st :-)


Of the five run I am by far happiest with the 10k. I've run hills maybe three times since February and really thought it was going to be my downfall, but in fact it was the best I felt all weekend. The absolute highlight though had to be getting past my category rivals in the 1500m.

Overall total was 3:30.xx by my watch - missed it by that much. It was my second best Warwick time, so I'm not complaining. Well, not yet. I'm off to the physio shortly.

This was the fifth staging of the Warwick Pentath-Run. There are only 5 of us who have done all 5 races at all 5 Pentath-Runs. As Glenno pointed out that's 25 races in 10 days :-) At the post run presentations we were given special shirts.

The Famous Five - Peter, Tesso, Fat Bloke, Glenno, Ross

Wonder what we'll get for our ten years ....


Edit: the back of the shirt

You mightn't think so but I know, you're so strong

I've been following the physio's advice (no running on consecutive days) and so that meant only two runs this week prior to hitting the straps at Warwick on the weekend. Once again quality won out over quantity and I went to PCRG on Tuesday and today.

Both sessions were in the Gardens and both were longer reps, which meant I didn't have to hold back too much. This morning's ended with hill reps so I darted out to the main walkway and did some more long efforts on the flat. Gotta say I'm pretty happy with both days, I seemed to be amongst the usual mob and so can't have lost any speed. Then again, they are all smack in the middle of marathon and half marathon training. I have the advantage of running on fresh legs :)

I saw the physio Tuesday arvo and he is very pleased with my progress and says the hamstrings are much stronger. They'd want to be, I've been very good and doing my exercises every day. And as a reward he added a few mor to the list.

Here's what he's got me doing (thank goodness Fitness First has most of the gear I need, I'm certainly getting my money's worth at the moment) ....


hamstring bridge on the fitball, holding for 10 secs


squats on a Bosu


lunges on a stability disc


theraband curls


step ups (pulling up with leg on step, not pushing off foot on floor)


plus ....
hamstring lifts on fitball, one foot off floor, lower down slowly
hamstring flicks using 1k ankle weight
hamstring wobbles using 1k ankle weight
deadlift type bends with one foot off the ground

and ....

flexing foot while stretching


Its all so time consuming, not sure how I'd fit it all in if I didn't do shift work. All up with other stretching and abs/core it takes about 1 1/2 hours. If I do my weights its over 2 hours. Add in walking to the gym and back that's 2 1/2 hrs. And then there's the coffee afterwards ...

Making The Most Of It

Being limited to 15k for my long runs I decided on Saturday to make it worthwhile - a 2.5k warmup, 2 x BRRC 5k loops fastish, a 2.5k warmdown. Joseph was the only one of the usual Saturday gang I could convince to join in, the rest headed off to the green bridge and beyond.

We ran to the spot at West End where Pat gets us to start our TT and other sessions and from there ran the 5k loop 'in reverse', the first one averaging 4:47 pace. After a couple of minutes rest we headed off on the second one. About the 2k mark Jonesy called out from the river (he was rowing) and we had a race for about 500m ... I beat him :-) This forced me to pick up the pace and I kept the momentum going until the end. Second lap average was 4:37s.

Might have to try this sort of thing more often.

Enforced Taper

Saw the physio yesterday arvo and he was so happy with how things are progressing and how strong the hammy is he gave me a couple more exercises, and made changes to existing ones to make them more difficult. But he wasn't happy enough to let me go back to my normal running program though and for the next week wants me to continue with no long runs, no short fast intervals and no hills ... whoops, did some Tuesday :-)

Oh well, the aim is to get to my fifth Warwick Pentath-Run and then the Gold Coast in one piece.

This morning's PCRG session was perfect as it was longer stuff - 2 x 4 mins out, then 1 x 8 mins (or however long it takes) back with 30 sec SR between effort. Not being able to do speed work full bore for a few weeks I was feeling like I was starting to lose the edge a bit and was rapt that for first 4 mins I was only a metre or so short of 1k mark without totally busting a gut. Not sure how far I got in the next 4 as it isn't marked. Slowed up a bit on the return journey, it took 8:11.

Its just 8 days until Warwick now, a bit more mileage and a few Mt Coot-tha runs would have been useful. I've set the goal to sub 3h30m which won't be a PB (3h19m in 2005) but a 2B.

Out Of Exile

I didn't quite make it to an entire week off .... but I had no choice! The physio wanted me to have a run this morning before my next visit (tomorrow arvo). Who am I to argue :-)

Went along to PCRG where hills in The Gardens were on the pgm. The hammy was a bit tight during the warmup and I thought if it didn't loosen up I'd just do an easy run on the flat, or stop if need be. Luckily it was okay once we started doing strides so figured I should test it out on the hills. I was going about 80-90% on the ups and rather than recover on the downs kept a steady pace to compensate.

It felt good :-) I'm now pretty confident I'll be able to train through this one, though won't throw myself all out into speedwork just yet.

I was talking to a guy at BRRC on Sunday who had the same condition and he said by doing loads and loads of hamstring stretching he was actually slowing his recovery. I wondered why the physio only gave me one stretch to do. From now on I'll skip the others. Hopefully in time that combined with all the strengthening exercises will do the trick.

Self-Imposed Exile

Set out yesterday morning to do 15k averaging under 5 minute pace. Had Brett and Thomas for company and though the first couple were a bit over 5:00 after that we picked it up to around 4:55s. They turned for home after 5 1/2k and am happy to report I was able to maintain the pace and even pick it up in parts to cover the 15k in just under 1h14m.

Its perfect weather right now, half of the PCRG squad seemed to be out there somewhere, running or cycling.

I spent time doing my hammy stretches and strengthening exercises before heading off to physio later in the arvo. Probably not a good move as it was still a bit fatigued when I got there. He says it has improved a little but advised me to cut down to just three runs for the next week.

The way I look at it what I need to work on for the Gold Coast is speed, I've got a decent endurance base. And I can't really get stuck into speedwork with 100% effort until this thing gets better. So rather than three steady runs I'm taking an entire week off. Well, maybe six days ...

PCRG - 3k TT

With the physio instructing me to avoid speed work for two weeks I headed off to the monthly TT planning to help out if Pat needed me to, otherwise just to run around 5 minute pace.

There were plenty of volunteers to marshall so just before we took off on the 3k I checked around to see if anyone was after company for 15 minutes. Kerryn said she was. That was it, the poor girl got stuck with me nagging her all the way :-)

We got to the turnaround in 7:28 but the second 1500m took its toll. Still, Kerryn kicked it in the guts with a few hundred metres to go and we finished in 15:13, a massive 16 second PB for her! Anna was hot on our tails and also threw in a very fast finish to cross the line with us.

There were some great results. My usual playmates came in between 12:10 and 12:20, except for Emil who ran 11:35. I was only just seconds behind him in the 1k reps last week, obviously he was bludging ;-) Workmate Tom put in a huge effort in his first TT - goal was sub 13, he did 12:24!

Tesso, Tom, Clairie