World Harmony Run

Not a lot of running action in that first week after Canberra.

Sat 19/4 - 10k easy

Sun 20/4 - cheering at Brissie Marathon Festival. Walked in to South Bank from home and left a number of motivational signs on the bikeway for the runners including this one just opposite the Regatta Hotel for Radar.



Total for week 10k



Did a bit more the following week, most of it at a pretty relaxed pace though.

Mon 21/4 - 10k easy

Tue 22/4 - PCRG. Rather than a speed session took the option to do a recovery run with those who'd raced in the Brissie half on the Sunday.

Wed 23/4 - rest

Thu 24/4 - PCRG. 1 x 2k, 4 x 500m (with 45sec SR). Times weren't too shabby - 8:18, 1:58, 2:01, 2:03, 1:56.

Fri 25/4 - traditional Anzac Day run from St Lucia Golf Club to Lone Pine. A nice but hilly 15k.

Sat 26/4 - 15k flat averaging about 5:30 pace.

Sun 27/4 - ran from home to Gardens to join in the start of the
World Harmony Run. What a great morning. After running a lap of the Gardens with them (where I had the privelege of being the torch bearer for a while) I stuck with them until Stones Corner before peeling off and heading home. We were getting lots of waves and beeps and shouts of encouragement, I'm sure some people thought it was the Olympic Torch Relay :-) Did about 18k all up.

Total for week 78k



Getting (almost) back to normal this week.

Mon 28/4 - rest (well, an hour long hilly walk to retrieve my car which had a sleepover after a barby at Red Hill)

Tue 29/4 - PCRG 3k TT. Still not wanting to push myself too much I scouted around at the start line looking for someone to pace and found a willing victim in Andrew. His PB was 13:11 and he said he just wanted to break 13. We didn't have a lot in the bank at halfway (6:28 I think it was), I got a little worried. Now there was no way I could let him ease off, and found him a couple of targets to chase. With 1k to go I think he must have got sick of my nagging and he really put the foot down and with a fantastic sprint finish crossed the line in a very impressive 12:40!

2008 Canberra Marathon

Arrived safely in Canberra mid morning Saturday, alas my suitcase did not. Along with about a dozen others including Rob the Runner my bag was missing in action. I wasn't too concerned, I had my running clothes in my carry on bag and was wearing running shoes (albeit an old worn pair). I only started panicking Saturday evening when I thought about having no Blistershield or anti-chafing stuff.

Mat had two pairs of socks already filled with Blistershield so gave me one pair to shake the stuff out of into mine - that's a true running buddy! And I went to the 'adulty' part of Coles and got some lube ... in a tube that glows in the dark :-)

Qantas said they would call about delivering the bags (when they located them) but by 8pm we hadn't heard from them, so it was a relief to get home from dinner and find them in our rooms. Whew!


Now, on to the race ....

Hoping for a 3:25 I took off and wanted to stick around 4:55 pace for the first 8k or so before ramping things up a little. Some kms were a bit faster, some a bit slower. It seemed pretty easy though. That is, on the breathing. For some reason my quads were heavy from the word go.

The rain (which continued for a couple of hours) started maybe 20mins in to the race, didn't really bother me though. I had my iPod in a plactic bag :)

Got to halfway in just under 1:44, a tad behind schedule (I was planning on 1:42). I doubted I could do a negative split though thought I may be able to salvage a sub 3:30. But the quads were still bothering me, and from about 32k onwards were threatening to cramp. I refused to let them!

My pace slowed somewhat, and then a blister I could feel forming started to hurt a little. It felt like a doozey, and it was ... about the size of a 20c piece. Anyway, the way my legs and the blister felt there was no way I was going on to complete the 50k.

Turning that final bend and approaching the the finish line I could see 3:33.xx on the clock and put the foot down, I wanted a 3:33, its such an easy time to remember. And I got one, gun time of 3:33.59 (net 3:33.48).

Oh well, not quite the 3:25 I hoped for. Perhaps if I started out more conservatively I could have done a 3:29. I'd rather my 'gave it a red hot go' 3:33 thank you.

Thanks so much to all out there who gave me encouragement and advice via my blog. Keep it coming though, I will need it for the Gold Coast :-)

The Body Works Better With Bergen

Well, the bags are packed and weigh a ton. So do I after eating more than my usual amount of carbs today. And I didn't enjoy switching from my favourite rye bread to the stodgey white stuff.


Training since Tuesday -

Wed 9/4 - 6k easy.

Thu 10/4 - PCRG. While everyone else was busting a gut Mat, Glenda & I did our own thing (ie 4k at race pace). Hooked up with them all after we finished and watched them on their final rep going flat out up a hill.

Margy going flat out


Fri 11/4 - rest.


Sunday's race plan (subject to change) is to run the first 10k at 5min pace and then if I feel good speed up to 4:50s. That would give me a finish time for the mara of just under 3:25. Even if I lose a minute or so I might still snare a PB.

If the 4:50s seem to fast I'll try to keep the 5:00s going for as long as possible.
Whether I go on to 50 will be decided on the day though I have an inkling I will bail at the marathon mark.

Gulp!

Man Of The Match ....

... that's what Helen was calling us after Pat published his April TT report :-) Pretty cool, eh!

Since then the training has gone like this -

Wed 2/4 - 7.5k easyish

Thu 3/4 - rest

Fri 4/4 - PCRG. 2 x 4mins, 2 x 1mins, 2 x 1m20s (all with short recoveries). For some reason the session seemed really hard.

Sat 5/4 - 12k incl 6k av 4:51 pace. The way it felt I don't think I could keep that pace up for 42k.

Sun 6/4 - 12k incl 10k av just under 5:00s. Felt way more comfy than the day before.

Total for week 50k.


Mon 7/4 - rest

Tue 8/4 - PCRG. Mix of 1min, 30sec, 15sec efforts, plus 1 GC hill. Didn't want to break anything so held back a bit going about 80 to 90%.



Sam & I doing a Matty (Matty reckons the last attempt at this wasn't good enough because we weren't flashing the pearly whites)


So, five more sleeps. I'm still not 100% sure whether to go for a PB in the marathon, which would be such a challenge, or just pace myself to a 50k PB, which is doable.

Current best is 3:26:46 for the marathon. My 3k TT leading up to it was 12:10. Last week I did 11:50. Using those race pace calculators that converts to a 3h21m marathon. To do 3h25m I'd have to run 4:52 pace. Not sure if I can do that.

My second biggest worry is falling in a heap at 35k. Been there, done that, its not much fun.

My biggest worry? Freezing to death at the start line.

April 3k TT

Tapering is good. Should be more of it :-)

Mon 24/3 - Easy 6k.

Tue 25/3 - PCRG. Mostly 30 sec efforts with some surprise longer ones thrown in. And of course the 'no immunity' zone where no matter what you have to run hard.

Wed 26/3 - 1k warmup, 10k at 4:47 pace, 1k warmdown.

Thu 27/3 - PCRG. 1k, 500m, 1k, 500m, 1k. 30sec SR. Didn't want to go flat out so aimed to run 4:20 pace and was just a second or so under each time.

Fri 28/3 - PCRG. 1k, 500m, 1k, 500m, 1k. 45sec SR. Times - 3:59, 1:59, 34:00, 1:55, 4:13 (only had 16sec SR before the last one). With the time trail just days away I was really hoping to do a bit better than that.

Sat 29/3 - 20.5k av 4:50s and then slow 20mins.

Sun 30/3 - BRRC 5k. Had no intention of racing, just wanted to treat it as a recovery run though couldn't help pushing in the last km (a 4:15). Time - 24:37.


Tuesday's signs (for some sessions Pat puts little motivational messages out there on the course for us).

Total for week 79k



Mon 31/3 - No run, just a gym session. Did a 'plank' PB of 3 1/2 mins :-)

Tue 1/4 - 3k TT at PCRG. In Feb I ran 12:16 and March was 12:05. I at least wanted to do somewhere in between the two of those. Sub 12 was a dream as was a PB (11:53 in Feb 2005).
Hit the 1k mark in 3:53 (6 seconds faster than last time) and the 1500m in about 5:52. I can't recall my 2k time, I just remember thinking if I do a sub 4 I can crack 12 minutes so it was a matter of hanging on and not letting the people in front get away from me.
Pushed it all the way to the end and crossed the line in a PB of 11:50!!!!!


Needless to say I'm one happy camper right now :-)