A work in progress

I have pretty much stuck to what I said I was going to do over the past week.  Intervals last Tuesday (and again this morning); 16km on Thursday (no tempo); short run 6km with strides on Saturday and then Matilda Bay on Sunday.

Last week's interval session was a solid without being spectacular effort.  I didn't feel the improvement I had the previous week but equally didn't go backwards either.  Saw Sandgroper twice on this run, once while warming up and then again when heading back on my last repeat.  It was very warm that morning and I was certainly sweating it out.

After a recovery run on Wednesday, I ran down to Burswood and met up with Clown on Thursday morning as we headed out on the Peninsula/NYE 8km WAMC course.  This run gives me 16-16.2km which we did at a nice easy conversational pace, probably around 4:35/km pace or thereabouts.  Great conditions fro running, especially compared to the previous two days and very pleasant all round.

Recovery run Friday and then a short 5.8km run on Saturday morning incorporating some 10km race pace strides and 1km @ 10km race pace effort which I timed at 3.53.

Sunday morning was warm.  I think it must have been close to 30 degrees when we started at 7am.  Not sure the km markers were in the correct spots.  I think an average of my first 2kms is probably closer to what I was actually running.

Managed to achieve my C goal (A – under 39 mins; B – faster than last year’s 39:12; C – under 40 mins) and actually felt like I ran better this year than last year. Last year I really struggled over last 3km whereas this year I think I ran a lot more even race. Passed someone in last 500m which was satisfying.  Still, it is very frustrating to be running 2 and half minutes outside my 10km PB.

Saw Simon there.  He is deep into his Boston training now so said that he felt he was lacking speed although running strong.  I think he said he ran 37:40 something (I could see him off ahead in the distance).

Also saw Epi out on the course a couple of times and he called out some welcome words of encouragement - thanks!!

Splits were as follows:

1km - 3:36
2km - 3:51
3-4km - 7:27 (3:44/km avg)
5km - 4:24 (19:19 @ halfway)
6-8km - 12:05 (4:02/km avg)
9km - 4:16
10km - 3:59 (39:41 / 20:22 second half)

On Monday I ran a 12.8km bridges loop at an easy pace and then in the afternoon, I went for an easy bike ride 29km out to Lake Monger and back.  Plans to ride with my mate Neil fell through but I thought I would take the opportunity to suss out the route to his place along the bike path as it is a bit tricky though Northbridge.  Hopefully we will get a chance to go out next weekend.

This morning I did the 4 x 4min interval session that I have been doing for the past few Tuesdays.  Again, another solid but unspectacular effort.  I was going to add on 2-3 280m hill repeats at the end but a combination of residual fatigue, a warm morning and a late night the night before meant that I was too knackered after the intervals to feel like I would be able to do them with any real quality.

So, I think this leaves me in a situation where I am waiting for a break through race or workout so that I can feel like I am really back on track.  Very encouragingly, I have had no knee issues or twinges and didn't even think of my knee once during Sunday's race.

My long run simply isn't long enough at the moment.  This doesn't mean that I am going to go out and run 27km this Saturday but I want to have at least a couple of runs of that distance under my belt by the end of February.  I feel like I need to have a moderate effort run as well which will mostly be my Monday morning loop (12.8km at the moment but I would like to get this out to 18.4km once my long run is longer) except when I have raced on the weekend.

In other news, Reading have knocked another Premier League team (Burnley) out of the FA Cup and are through to the last 16.  West Bromwich Albion next which is a good draw so quarter finals are a distinct possibility.