Marathon training - Week 2 and Moneghetti Training Camp

Just under 125km for the week with a couple of extra runs (doubles on Friday and Saturday due to the camp).

I got in a couple of medium long runs earlier in the week with 21km on Tuesday and 19km on Thursday.  Early in the week I did some strides (10 x 100m) after an easy Bridges loop and felt like I had plenty of bounce in my legs and got a bit of pace up.  I will try to keep these going and also do a couple of big sessions over the next few weeks.

The Moneghetti Training Camp was held down in Dwellingup again this year.  Main differences from last year were the increased number of participants and the heat.  It was sweltering which made it pretty hard to relax between runs and also to get to sleep.  The river/waterhole got a good workout after each run and was a real life saver getting temperatures back down again.

The format was the same as last year with a recovery run on the Friday evening, fartlek session on Saturday morning, recovery run on Saturday evening and long run Sunday morning.  Interspersed were sessions on nutrition, pilates, physio and training philosophy.

I wore Saucony Kinvaras for all the runs except I changed into Fastwitchs for the fartlek session.  Based on the number of Fastwitchs I saw, they are the most popular racing flat at the moment. I've noticed on the US Saucony website that the Fastwitch 5 is now out.  It looks quite similar to the 4 but there seems to be a white version which is nice and also a dark green for those who don't like the louder colours.

The Kinvaras were great on the trails, only downside was how dirty they got.  I have transitioned into these shoes fully now and will be doing more long runs in them.  I may even race the Darlington Half in them.
With the fartlek session, we didn't start until 9am due to some participants ariving from Perth that morning so it was already hot by the time we started, I'd say between 31-33C.

No idea of the overall time and pace of this but I'm estimating a total of 12km based on Clown’s Garmin. Short warm up of about 2km only due to the heat and then Mona Fartlek around the Dwellingup Oval.


2 × 90 secs

4 × 60 secs

4 × 30 secs

4 × 15 secs with equal recovery after each rep.

Total of workout = 20mins during which I covered about 5.35km (about 3:45/km pace)

I started off well at what felt like the right pace, steady pace with surging on the reps but blew up after about 14 mins and my reps and recoveries slowed accordingly.

Encouragingly, I recovered well though after a drink and then by 4-5mins into the recovery run I felt fine especially aerobically which I think is a good sign for where I should be at this stage of my marathon prep.

On Sunday morning's long run, we got going just after 7am.  It had been slightly cooler overnight and conditions were good when we set off.

Same as last year, the long run was into Dwellingup along the Bibbulmun Track but the pace was bit quicker than last year due mainly to the quality of the runners in the front pack. Clown and I ran with Lochy and Allen after we got dropped by the guys at the front on the way into town. We met up with the guys out the back of Dwellingup and ran with them for a bit before they wound the pace back up again.

I ended up between the two groups and ran back by myself at what felt like a pretty solid pace for me but what turned out to be 5 minutes behind the front guys. I got back to the bridge in 97 mins so ran into the pine forest for about 25 mins to get me up over the 2 hours. 26km is an estimate but a pretty fair one I think.

Happy with this run – and with approx 52km over 4 runs in 2 days. The camp has come at just the right time in my program with a timely reminder of what is needed and some motivation.

Having said that, I was pretty tired yesterday afternoon and again on this morning's run - an easy Bridges loop in just under an hour.  Hopefully a good night's sleep will get me up for a 21-23km medium long run tomorrow, but if not I'll just cut it a bit short.

Also here is the link for the live streaming coverage of the Melbourne, Sydney and Perth Australian Athletics tour meets: http://wcsn.com.au/index.php/videos/athleticstv/2011-aust-athletics-tour.html?pid=100

The Melbourne meet is on this Thursday and features what is probably one of the best 5000m fields ever in Australia outside of a major championship.  It is on at 9.09pm Eastern so 6.09pm WA time.

Here is the 5000m field:

1 Liam Adams VIC

2 Brandon Bethke USA

3 Collis Birmingham VIS

4 Andrew Bumbalough USA

5 Alan Craigie ACT

6 Russell Dessaix-Chn NSW

7 Bernard Lagat USA

8 David McNeill VIC

9 Craig Miller USA

10 Craig Mottram VIS

11 Tim Nelson USA

12 James Nipperess NSWIS

13 Jeremy Roff NSWIS

14 Philo Saunders ACT

15 Chris Solinsky USA

16 Isaac Songok KEN

17 Ben St Lawrence NSWIS

18 Matt Tegenkamp USA

The Men's 800m field (5.24pm Perth time) contains World Record holder David Rudisha.  The 1500m (5.32pm Perth time) has Asbel Kiprop, Nick Willis and Alan Webb and Rudisha is also listed to run the 400m at 5.44pm Perth time with Ben Offereins, Sean Wroe and John Steffenson also in the field.

I won't be working late on Thursday ...