"It's a treat being a runner, out in the world by yourself with not a soul to make you bad-tempered or tell you what to do." - Allan Sillitoe


Friday, November 30, 2012

Three races - three headwind finishes

Don't want to seem like a whinger but ...

I feel like I am in close to PB shape over the shorter distances but haven't been able to put it together on race day.

Thursday, November 15 - PwC Coolnight Classic 5km:
(9th in 17:58)

Very unusual start which involved running over the mat and then making an immediate 90 degree left turn.



Went out pretty hard with a 3:16 first km assisted by a tailwind.  Dean Menzies and Gerry Hill took off in front.  Dean Menzies was first in 15:44 and Gerry ran 16:01.

I settled into a hard constant effort but did suffer from the hard first km and then the last 2km into a strong headwind.

Ran as hard as I could and pleased that I ran just under 18 mins.  Felt a bit nauseous towards the end which wasn't assisted by a big steaming cloud of cooking sausages over the last 100m or so.
Congratulations to Jodie Oborne who was first female in 20:07.

Splits:
3:16
3:32
3:39
3:44
3:43

Sunday, November 18 - Peninsula Run 5km
(2nd in 17:43)

Not a very deep field for this race.  Martin Feichtinger took it out at the front and beat me by about a minute.  One other guy and the first female went out hard but I passed them before the Windan bridge and then it was pretty much a time trial from there.

Hard work into the wind over the last 1.5km and missed my 5km PB by 2 secs.  Legs felt OK and I think if I had pushed a bit harder or had someone pushing me I could have run a PB.

Splits:
3:20
3:30
3:33
3:37
3:34

Better run than Thursday with a more even effort (although the headwind was nowhere near as strong).

Sunday, November 25 - Deepwater Point 7.5km
(3rd in 26:54)

I set out in the hope of running a similar pace to last week's 5km but extend it out over the 7.5km.
Managed to hold it for 5km but came unstuck at Canning Bridge up the steep little zig zag path and then the run home into the wind.

Felt like I pushed pretty hard but could have gone harder if I wasn't a bit soft. 

Liam Fuery 1st, Mark Lee 2nd, me 3rd with big gaps between all of us so again a bit of a time trial.

Splits:
3:28
3:33
3:35
3:31
3:34
3:42
3:43
1:49 (0.5km @ 3:39/km pace)

Pretty satisfied with this as it is partial redemption for my effort here over 7.5km in 2010 when I went into the race feeling good but ran like complete dog in about 28:15.  This year, based on my Garmin splits I went through the 5km in 17:41 which is equal to my 5km PB and have gone under 27mins for the 7.5km.

Training:

I have been getting in one or two quicker sessions a week lately.  The sessions I have done include a modified Mona Fartlek (2 x 90secs; 4 x 60secs; 8 x 30secs with equal time float/recovery after each); 10 or 12 x 1min on / 1min off and also a Ladder Down workout which consists of a warm up then 6min, 5min, 4min, 3min, 2min, 1min, 30secs with half duration jog recovery between before a cool down.

I have had a tight left hamstring which seems to be referring from my adductor or glute.  A couple of massages from Nathan have improved things considerably.  I can't feel it when I am running quicker but it seems to be most noticeable before I have warmed up and when running more slowly, especially if I have to step up a kerb or similar.  Nothing major and easily manageable at the moment.

Next race - City Beach on 16 December


Thursday, November 29, 2012

Jack Daniels' Running Calculator

Like many others, I have been a long time user and advocate of the McMillan Running Calculator.  However, Jack Daniels has just put out his own online running calculator which builds on and is based on the formulas, theories and approach in his highly regarded book Daniels Running Formula.

Similar to McMillan, it allows you to quickly calculate the appropriate training paces for various workouts necessary to help you reach your goals. The calculator also provides equivalent race performances. One big difference is that you can use it to calculate how much conditions like wind, temperature or altitude had on your performance or will have on an upcoming workout or future race and can also be used if you’ve run a race and want to find out what effect wind, temperature or altitude had on your performance.

Another big advantage is that you can enter custom distances to calculate from instead of just the standard distances. For example 7.5km or any distance that you may have run in training/time trial.

Interestingly it calculates that my 26:54 over 7.5km @ Deepwater Point eqautes to a 17:33 5km time which would be a 8 sec PB.

I haven't played with or tested the wind, temperature, altitude aspect of it yet.  My own personal observation in the past has been that Americans in particular, seem to over estimate the impact of warmer temperatures on performance, whereas it is something we are just used to.

Anyway, here is the link which can also be found in the sidebar of this blog.

http://runsmartproject.com/calculator/

(It works fine on Google Chrome and also Safari on my iPhone but having a bit of difficulty on Internet Explorer at the moment).



Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Hitler's running injury

I know there has been hundreds of these Downfall spoofs but after finding this on Youtube the other day I had to share.

It's hilarious but of course it comes with a language warning.



Sunday, November 11, 2012

Freo Fun Run - 4km with Sammie


Great run by Sammie as she took 3 minutes off of her 4km PB running 24:44.  Had a difficult patch between 2km and 2.7km when she was expecting the drink station to be at 2km.  It was also a bit windy along the wharf.

She finished really strongly and once again beat her Dad ...

Splits were 5:40; 6:05; 6:47 (inc walk thru the drink station); 5:52; 4:15 (last 55m).

This was a pretty good event for a fun run but wouldn't have been too great for the quicker 4km runners who ran into the back of and had to finish with the slower 10km runners down a pretty narrow chute.

As the 4km started 45mins after the 10km we were able to see the finish of the 10km.  Dean Menzies, Cody Angell and Todd Ingraham were top 3.  Dave Bryant looked like he had a good run finishing about 7th.

Rox took quite a few good photos.


Start of the 10km


Start of 10km


Sammie with Aaron Sandilands - he is a big unit!!


Dean Menzies winner of the 10km

Cody Angell - 2nd in the 10km

Todd Ingraham - 3rd in the 10km

Dave Bryant
With Sammie before the start of our 4km

Start of the 4km

Start of the 4km

Sammie all smiles at the start of the race

Sammie exhausted after a 3 minute PB - 24:44

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Post Melbourne

This finally turned up in the mail

I have definitely been easing back into things since Melbourne.  I didn't run at all for the first week after the marathon apart from some long strides on grass down at little athletics training.  Because we went through a few groups and were running 200m-400m reps, I reckon I probably got in about 3km all up but with lots of breaks between.

Since then I ran every second day in the second week, with a couple of bike rides on non running days and a rest day on Saturday.  About 45km of running made of three loops of the bridges and one run to the Narrows and back.  The Friday bridges loop of 12.5km was at a moderate effort of 4:10/km average.

The following week I ran 5 days with Wednesday (very early breakfast function) and Saturday off.  Thursday's Bridges loop was at around 4:05/km average pace and then on Friday I ran a 6km recovery run in the morning and in the evening went down to the John Gilmour 10,000m at Coker Park to pace Craig through the first 6km of the race.  With a warm up and a cool down it made for a 16km+ day.

Felt good on the track and definitely could have run the full 10km but wouldn't have got near a 10k PB and probably would have compromised my training for at least the first half of this week, so I did the sensible thing and pulled out at the 6k mark.

Craig wanted to run around 36:30 so the plan was to knock out 88sec laps.


Here are the splits from my Garmin:

1 1:21.2


2 1:23.4

3 1:25.4

4 1:26.0

5 1:25.9

6 1:24.8

7 1:26.4

8 1:27.4

9 1:27.3

10 1:27.3

11 1:27.9

12 1:28.9

13 1:28.4

14 1:28.7

15 1:29.3

So basically I got in 20 mins of quality work at quicker than tempo pace.

Craig ran 36:20 so a good night all round.

This week I have run each day with Tuesday being a quality day where I did a modified Mona fartlek of 2 x 90secs; 4 x 60secs; 8 x 30secs with equal recovery after each rep.  This was a pretty good workout as even though I felt like I was running more slowly than I should be on the float/recovery parts, I still ran as far as I did last time I ran this workout which was in the last week of marathon training before I started my taper (21 September), so on that basis, I haven't lost too much fitness over the past three weeks.  

My left hammie is a little tight so I shall have to monitor that. 

Plan is for more easy running Thursday morning and then some hill reps on Friday morning but that will be dependent on the hammie.  

Rest day Saturday as I am on starting duty at little aths and have to be there at 7:15am and then on Sunday, Sammie and I are running the 4km Freo Fun Run so hopefully that goes well.  Next Thursday I am running the 5km PwC Coolnight Classic in the evening after work and then will decide whether or not to run the WAMC Peninsula Run and if so, what distance (5km or 10km).