I had quite a bit of delayed muscle soreness which peaked on Monday. The best I felt was when I went for a recovery run in the morning so I actually went for one in the afternoon as well hoping that would have a similar effect - no such luck ...
Medium long run (23km @4:27/km pace) on Tuesday, around the Bridges with Simon on Wednesday (12.8km @ 4:31/km pace) and medium long run with Clown on Thursday (19.4km @ 4:35/km pace).
On Friday morning I did an easy run to the Narrows and back – ran some on the grass and some on the path. Grass was wet and I didn’t want my shoes to get soaked.
Plan was to try to do 30 × 100m with full ie walk back recovery as a muscular endurance workout. The most strides I have done previously is 10 so this was a bit of a jump up.
It turns out that my approx 100m is actually 120m. I was running them in between 17.4 and 18.4 secs so approx 15 secs for 100m pace. One thing I didn’t really take into account/underestimated was the amount of time this workout was going to take with the full recoveries. Even with starting each rep as soon as I got back it still took me 25 mins to do the first 15 reps.
By the time I had go to 15 reps I had decided I was going to scale this one back to 20 reps as much for the time it was taking, a bit of boredom and not wanting to overdo things.
As it turned out, on the 18th rep I felt a twinge in my left hamstring. More of a slight cramp than a pull but I decided to call the session there and slowly jogged the 1km home.
I think I got my muscles to the fatigued state which was the point of the session. I have iced my hamstring and it has seemed OK since.
On Saturday morning's long run, I started with Clown from my place and met Epi down at Burswood. We went out a bit quicker for the normal long run paced bit of 16.5km at around 4.23/km pace which felt very comfortable and conversational. We ran out through Rivervale and around Ascot Park before crossing Garrett Rd bridge and then through Bayswater and Maylands.
We started the fast finish segment near the Maylands Tennis Club and went out at a good pace. Too good in fact because after about 1.5km I said to Clown,“this feels more like tempo pace than marathon pace” and he said that we were going at 3:46/km pace. I backed off a bit pretty much straight away because I knew that I would blow up if I tried keep that pace up and a survival shuffle would be a bit of disaster I didn’t need.
Rob kept going at a solid, steady pace and although I kept it to about 20m until we got to East Perth, he put a good bit of distance on me on the run to the big flagpole just past Coode Street which is exactly 12km.
I finished 54 secs behind Rob in 47:30 which is 3:57/km. My goal marathon pace is 4:00/km so I am pretty happy with this at this stage of my program and after a hard half marathon last Sunday. Rob looked like he was jogging up in front of me as we ran through South Perth and is looking great for Boston.
We did another 4 and a bit km as a cool down – very slowly at first but then at a easy pace. I was pretty happy to finish and it was good to get up over 32km for the first time this training block. Total 32.7km @ 4:17/km pace.
I could feel the niggle in my hammy but that is all it was just a feeling, it didn’t affect my running at all but I think I will give the strides a miss for a while.
We started the fast finish segment near the Maylands Tennis Club and went out at a good pace. Too good in fact because after about 1.5km I said to Clown,“this feels more like tempo pace than marathon pace” and he said that we were going at 3:46/km pace. I backed off a bit pretty much straight away because I knew that I would blow up if I tried keep that pace up and a survival shuffle would be a bit of disaster I didn’t need.
Rob kept going at a solid, steady pace and although I kept it to about 20m until we got to East Perth, he put a good bit of distance on me on the run to the big flagpole just past Coode Street which is exactly 12km.
I finished 54 secs behind Rob in 47:30 which is 3:57/km. My goal marathon pace is 4:00/km so I am pretty happy with this at this stage of my program and after a hard half marathon last Sunday. Rob looked like he was jogging up in front of me as we ran through South Perth and is looking great for Boston.
We did another 4 and a bit km as a cool down – very slowly at first but then at a easy pace. I was pretty happy to finish and it was good to get up over 32km for the first time this training block. Total 32.7km @ 4:17/km pace.
I could feel the niggle in my hammy but that is all it was just a feeling, it didn’t affect my running at all but I think I will give the strides a miss for a while.
It was also a great weekend for following elite running as well. On Saturday afternoon/evening I watched the streaming of the Sydney Track Classic and saw David Rudisha destroy the field in the 800m and then on Sunday, I watched the streaming of the NYC Half Marathon and also followed the live results coming through from the World Cross Country Champs.
The NYC Half was a classic race with Mo Farah just getting up over Gebre Gebremariam despite Gebremariam trying to block Farah in the final sprint home. Pretty disgraceful and I am surprised more hasn't been made of it. Perhaps if he had succeeded and won as a result it may have got more notice. With less than a mile to go there three of them in a line on the straight run home. Galen Rupp finished a close third.
Here is the race video - you can skip forward quite easily. Men's finish from about 1.14 into the video (there is about 15 mins of guff pre race start).
Here is the race video - you can skip forward quite easily. Men's finish from about 1.14 into the video (there is about 15 mins of guff pre race start).
Watch live streaming video from nyrr at livestream.com
Shawn Forrest (9th - 1:01:25) and Lee Troop (20th - 1:03:13) both ran very well with Forrest in the lead pack until about 4 miles to go.
Great to see Craig Mottram have a good one at World XC - 21st and first non African (well, there was one Spaniard in front of him but he was an African Spaniard). He was actually 23rd across the line but then two disqualifications came up for the guys who finished 15th and 18th apparently for fighting!
Lots of good marathons coming up in April with Boston, London and Rotterdam.
