American vacation

Reduced mileage this fortnight thanks to a flying visit to the US for my brother's 40th and a once-in-a-lifetime wine tasting. Only managed 4x1-12k treadmill runs in my 8days away.

Week 1

Mon am 12.25k @ 4:40 recovery

Mon pm 6.6k@4:51 treadmill recovery

Tues am 16.16k including Mona 5.3k in 20 min, overall @4:23

Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sunday - treadmill runs mainly at easy pace with a bit of MP thrown in

Week 2

Wed pm 18.57k@4:34 - jetlagged recovery medium long run

Thurs am 11.26k@4:35 recovery

Fri am 12.16@4:27 - last 3k MP

Sat am 14.17k@4:26 including 10x100m strides

Sun am 30k with last 10k@ MP (4:00) riverside run with Clown - struggled to hold form in last 3k of the MP section

I know it's only mental, but i feel i've lost some momentum with the trip - need to get back to the plan this coming week

Bought 4 pairs of shoes in the US - 2x Kinvara2, 1x Mizuno Elixir, and a pain of Brooks Pure Flow. The Brooks Pure series is their Kinvara equivalent with very little heel-toe drop but still more cushioning than a true minimalist shoe. I quite like the stability but there is too much of a 'platform' feel to the shoe and a loss of feedback from the ground to foot - Kinvara are far superior for me and I'll keep these for easy and recovery days.

Week 1 Training - Reaching new heights

A very satisfactory start to my formal Perth marathon Program this week - I ticked all the boxes and the body held up well

Monday 12k recovery @ 4:39

Tuesday am 16k with 8k tempo @ 3:49min/k - ran around Herdsman and felt like the correct tempo effort

Tuesday pm 8.3k recovery@ 4:36

Wed am 19k@4:34 medium long run. This was definitely the hardest run of the week - all mental. The whole way I ran an inner discussion about needing to finish early to get to work, and took it pretty much a km at a time to push it out to the planned distance. This was where having a program helped as it was the potential shame of not sticking to the very first week of the plan which kept me out there

Wed pm 7.4k@4:44 - on the treadmill to slow my recovery down a bit (this second run wasn't on the program but i couldn't fit in the pm Thursday planned run)

Thurs am 12k@4:47 recovery - this one felt like a true recovery run

Fri am 20k@4:33 - pleased with this effort around lakes monger and herdsman

Sat am 13.3k @4:36 - did 10x100m strides towards the end of the run. Am I supposed to stop and do strides/walk back or should they just be incorporated as very short fartleks in the run? ( I did it the latter way).

Sun 30k@4:37 - Cott run with DB, Braddles and Chris Letts. felt a bit fatigued and the knee was hurting early on but gradually loosened up and DB&I pushed the pace in the last 5k 4:22/4:16/4:11/4:07/4:04.

Ended up with 138k for the week - my longest week ever. I did the sessions as per the program (planned 126k) with just a few extra km here and there to make that bigger distance.

I know it's probably flirting with danger a bit to increase the mileage that much, but I'm flying to the US early Wed am for a quick one week trip, so I'll have an enforced lower km week to recover.

Increasing the mileage was less of a big change in my week than I'd envisaged, and I'm far more confident than a week ago that i can 'go the distance' with the training plan

Ready to Roll

Last week before the proper training program starts

106k run

Mon 10k @ 4:38 recovery

Tues am 16.4k @ 4:37 - trying to introduce some medium long

Tues pm 8k @ 4:45 treadmill

Wed pm 14.3k@4:09

tried a variation on the marius bakken treadmill workout moving around different paces. I did 1k intervals, no rest - 3:50/4:10/3:40/4:10/4:00/4:10/3:50/4:10/3:40/4:00/4:00 - finishing a continuous 11k in 43:30, warmup and cooldown either side of this without a rest. Session felt pretty comfortable

Thurs am 9k@4:44 recovery

Friday - no run. Indulged in a last round of morning golf before hitting full training

Sat am 18k@ 4:16.

Had intended this just to be a medium long run but one km in I was passed by DB finishing his progression tempo session (10min each 4:00/3:50/3:40 continuous), so I ran 6min at 3:40 pace with him, then slowed again. I was feeling so fresh after a day off that I increased up to MP soon thereafter, and decided to do some more faster stuff - next 4k@3:36 (approx 10k pace), then went back to normal pace to round out 18k

Sun am 30k@4:35

out with JKs Cott group, was run at a very easy pace for much of the run, but DB and Chris letts picked it up a bit from 20-26k gradually from 4:15s-4:05. I kept on for another 4k alone to round out 30k.

I didnt work Saturday this week so I jumped on the treadmill and used the Ipad to video my running. As i have noted before, I stopped wearing orthotics in April last year after having worn them ( and heavy shoes) religiously for the previous 7 years.

The outcome was that I pronate significantly in all shoes, but not that much less in DS trainers and orthotics than in Kinvaras. Some of the others aren't great

LunaRacers - not pretty

Kinvara - better


Hattori
DS Trainer with orthotics
au naturale
DS Racer

think I'll stop doing my treadmill runs in the LunaRacers.

next weekend I'll try from a different angle - perhaps see if the pelvic tilt that the physio berated me about a couple of years ago is any better.

The Invisible Man

I seem to have become the Invisible man of the WAMC. After not appearing on the results sheet for the marathon last year, once again my name wasn't on the sheet for point Walter last week.

On the plus side, Stephen Jones in the M50 category (who happens to have a very similar number to mine), is likely to be very pleased with his run of the same time as mine, after it appears not running for some years.

This week saw the second prep week before starting my full training in earnest.

Monday am 13k @ 4:31

Tuesday am 10k@ 4:38

Tuesday pm 13k incl 10k@4:00 - overcooked this one in the heat, around Herdsman and walked home

Wednesday pm 10k@ 4:45 treadmill - ensuring recovery after Tues pm

Thursday am 13k@4:37

Friday am 11k@4:35

Saturday am 11k@4:35

Sunday am 30k@4:43 - long run, solo initially but came across Laurie & Paul and ran with them from 7-20k, then back home Hale Rd hill alone

111k for the week, all going well. As I hit 24k this morning it hit me that this would be the distance for one of my midweek medium runs pretty soon.

I enjoyed watching B'Man's race videos this week, and then the Sydney Track Classic. I haven't been a great fan of Collis Birmingham in the past - he doesn't seem to have the X Factor that guys like Mottram and Gregson have - but he does look in incredible shape at the moment. Meanwhile John Steffensen - you need to be running a lot faster than 45:61 to get away with talking such crap after the race.

Target: Perth Marathon 2012

This week marked the first 'pre-training week' for Perth 2012

With a goal of sub 2:50, I realised I needed to change something after 2 years of stagnation in marathon progress despite shorter race times improving.

To that end I decided to get some help, and enlisted the assistance of a runner who's training approach and results I admire greatly. For the sake of anonymity we'll call him CookieGuy.

I have 3 weeks before the program begins in earnest - time to get the body accustomed to running 100km a week.

This week was not quite that far - 96k. A fairly insipid Mona on tues pm in 30+ degrees was about the only quality.

Sunday morning I ran the point Walter 16k with Clown in 4:13s. We eased into it then gradually wound up the pace - his hammy seemed to cope pretty well with some time out. i realised this was about as far as I want to run in the Saucony A4s. (4k splits - 17:14/17:03/16:37/16:09)

Hopefully I'll post weekly over the next 4 months.

Monday 10.06k 0:45:21 4:30 Bold Park

Tuesday 20.19k 1:28:42 4:24

5:35 PM Evening 2.58 0:11:53 4:37

5:11 PM Afternoon 5.26 0:20:01 3:48 Mona fartlek

5:00 PM Afternoon 2.26 0:10:23 4:35

6:18 AM Morning 10.08 0:46:25 4:36 Bold Park

Wednesday 11.20 0:50:00 4:28 treadmill

Thursday 10.91 0:50:03 4:35 Bold park

Friday 13.12 0:59:30 4:32 Bold Park

Saturday 11.35 0:51:20 4:31 Incl 6k barefoot

Sunday 20.00 1:27:40 4:23

8:14 AM Morning 3.98 0:20:14 5:05

7:00 AM Morning 16.02 1:07:26 4:13 'race'

This Week 96.83 7:12:36 4:28

Matilda Bay 10k 2012

It's been 'lite-n-easy' for me since 6 inch - first couple of weeks planned recovery and third week thanks to stepping on a bee.

2 weeks back of 70k each, and on to Matilda bay this morning.
I found the weather fairly oppressive - 25 and humid, even wearing my lightest mesh type singlet there was no evaporation.

Started out fairly fast - sitting 20m behind DB - 3:26/3:36/3:37. Things were quite congested, but the 4k runners turned off and it spread out.

At this point I started to feel the heat, and slowed down 3:46/3:50/3:51, gradually slipping further back from DB. Was passed and held onto the guy for a little while but started to blow up a bit with 3:56/3:53. During this section I was passed by another runner.

Turned at 8.4k and saw I had about 150m on the next guy behind me, and had a bit of a second wind finishing with 3:47/3:40.

Crossed in 37:30 (18:13/19:17) in about 10th spot.

I'm happy enough with this. it's interesting looking at pace adjustment charts for heat/humidity - most made by people in the US not too accustomed to heat, they tend to allow too much - one giving me a minute per mile for this temp!. I suspect I could have run between 5 and 10 sec/k faster today in perfect conditions, which fits with where I feel I should be.

DB ended up about 45 sec ahead of me, Roberto won, Gerry Hill second. I did beat big Kev, but i see on Coolrunning he ran a long run yesterday so I wont take much away from that.

Good to see the medical community running - Paul, Laurie and Tim all putting in solid performances.

2011 in Review

Another interesting running year. My overall impression is of disappointment, but by the numbers it was another breakthrough year with PB in pretty much every event other than the marathon

Highlights:

March - Half marathon PB 1:22:03 Darlington
May - HBF Run 4 a Reason 13.9k 51:20, 43rd place, 3:41 min/k average (thru 10k @36:40)
June - First Place Lake Gwelup fun-run 6k - my first every fun-run win
August - Perth City to Surf 12k 44:26 PB
November - John Gilmour track 10k, 36:36 PB
November - Penninsula 5k, 17:29 - 2nd place
December - Six Inch Trail Ultramarathon 3hr45, 2nd place

Less successful outings:

Boston Marathon - I think a misguided attempt to protect my knee by training mainly on the flat and grass backfired, as the quads exploded in the last 10k

Perth Marathon - just missed sub 3hr

Run For Gold 10k (July) - 38:20


Some great progress in running this year esp from Clown and Biscuitman, as well as TB
All the best to B'man for a great marathon in Houston