Wednesday - 8.4km recovery run. After reviewing my optimal training paces using the McMillan Running Calendar, I decided to slightly increase the pace of my recovery runs. I have at time run as slow as 5.30/km on recovery runs but McMillan indicates that the slow end of my recovery run range is 5.17. This run was 43mins @ approx 5.07/km. As a result my average HR was up from the high 120s to 137.
Thursday - Ran scheduled LT workout with Simon. Have to say that when I woke up I was dreading this session. I knew it would be hard and for some reason, just couldn't get excited about it.
Lactate threshold run (5km easy, 15mins @marathon pace + 1 min easy, 15mins @ half marathon pace + 1 min easy, 15 mins @ half marathon/10km pace, 5km easy -21km total).
The 3 x 15 minute segments for me were paced as follows: 3.53-3.55/km (a bit quicker than marathon pace); 3.45 (a bit quicker than half marathon pace ie was about 10km pace); 3.50-3.52/km (half marathon pace). So I ran the first two a bit quicker than I should have which resulted in me running the last one at the slower end of the range.
Simon dropped me on the second rep by about 10 secs and by about 25 secs on the third rep. I was having to work pretty hard to maintain my pace after the first rep and was a bit annoyed with myself. Then I remembered a table from Pfitzinger and Douglas which provides the number of days after a particular workout before you are recovered enough to race or do a similar workout. For a threshold workout, the period is 5 days. If I count Sunday's race as a threshold workout, then today was only 4 days after. Once I realised that, I relaxed a bit and decided to run as hard as I needed to effort wise but not lose the plot if I couldn't hit the pace. Simon probably lifted the bar a bit higher than I'm up for at this stage in any case.
All up, I have this run as 21.8km in 1 hour 27 mins (3.59-4.00/km pace) so a really solid workout whatever way you look at it. Although I didn't hit the paces exactly as dictated/intended for the session, I was still in the right ranges and certainly felt like I had done the work required.
In other news, Ben had his school sports day today. Unfortunately, I was on a course at work so couldn't attend. Ben had a 75m sprint in B division and won!! He came third in B division last year after being in C division in previous years so that's a huge improvement. We keep telling him he is fast, maybe now he will believe us. I'm really disappointed that I missed it, not only because he won but because I know he tried his hardest. Apparently he got a bad start but not only caught up but when he was passed, dug deep and passed back just before the finish. Awesome!
Recovery run tomorrow.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
My City to Surf result
Here is my official result from the website:
--------------------------------------------------------------
Your Net time: 00:45:26
Your Gun time: 00:45:29
Stats:
Channel Nine 12km Run
event place 51 of 12,374 finishers
You placed ahead of 99.60% of finishers in this event
M40-49
category place 6 of 1,409 finishers
You placed ahead of 99.65% of finishers in this category
M
gender place 47 of 7,380 finishers
You placed ahead of 99.38% of finishers in this gender for the event
--------------------------------------------------------------
I usually put all my goals on this blog but I did have two "secret" goals as well - place in first 50 overall and top 5 in my age category, so I just missed out there too.
This morning (Tuesday) I ran 21.5k @4.16/km pace. No rain and little wind, pretty much perfect conditions. It felt much easier than I would have expected 4.16/km pace to feel which is re-assuring given my decision to lift the intensity of my training a little.
Recovery run (8.4km) tomorrow before Thursday's workout as follows:
Lactate threshold run (5km easy, 15mins @marathon pace + 1 min easy, 15mins @ half marathon pace + 1 min easy, 15 mins @ half marathon/10km pace, 5km easy -21km total).
I think the warmdown will end up being more than 5km for a run that is closer to 22km than 21km.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to run the Fremantle Fun Run 10km on 4 October which is two weeks before the Rottnest Marathon. (I can't run the Fremantle Half Marathon on 20 September as it clashes with the last game of the junior soccer season. Would have been perfect in relation to Rottnest as well)
I did the Bridges 10km two weeks before Boston and felt great after it. Still need to get a long run in around then though. Last time I ran 25km on the Monday after and did the second half at marathon pace. Not sure about the marathon pace bit this time around. Still some more thought to go into this, so any suggestions and advice would be most welcome.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Your Net time: 00:45:26
Your Gun time: 00:45:29
Stats:
Channel Nine 12km Run
event place 51 of 12,374 finishers
You placed ahead of 99.60% of finishers in this event
M40-49
category place 6 of 1,409 finishers
You placed ahead of 99.65% of finishers in this category
M
gender place 47 of 7,380 finishers
You placed ahead of 99.38% of finishers in this gender for the event
--------------------------------------------------------------
I usually put all my goals on this blog but I did have two "secret" goals as well - place in first 50 overall and top 5 in my age category, so I just missed out there too.
This morning (Tuesday) I ran 21.5k @4.16/km pace. No rain and little wind, pretty much perfect conditions. It felt much easier than I would have expected 4.16/km pace to feel which is re-assuring given my decision to lift the intensity of my training a little.
Recovery run (8.4km) tomorrow before Thursday's workout as follows:
Lactate threshold run (5km easy, 15mins @marathon pace + 1 min easy, 15mins @ half marathon pace + 1 min easy, 15 mins @ half marathon/10km pace, 5km easy -21km total).
I think the warmdown will end up being more than 5km for a run that is closer to 22km than 21km.
I'm trying to decide whether or not to run the Fremantle Fun Run 10km on 4 October which is two weeks before the Rottnest Marathon. (I can't run the Fremantle Half Marathon on 20 September as it clashes with the last game of the junior soccer season. Would have been perfect in relation to Rottnest as well)
I did the Bridges 10km two weeks before Boston and felt great after it. Still need to get a long run in around then though. Last time I ran 25km on the Monday after and did the second half at marathon pace. Not sure about the marathon pace bit this time around. Still some more thought to go into this, so any suggestions and advice would be most welcome.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Perspective
Anthony Famiglietti is one of my favourite runners (even if he did run like a tool at the USA Track and Field Champs this year). This is a recent post from his blog which I am taking a lot from:
The life of a runner requires traveling to many races nationally and internationally throughout the year. We spend a lot of time flying around the country and it can get to be tiresome. I've learned to take the extra time when flying to reflect. I reflect on past races and examine races that I'm traveling to or the training I've done. Sometimes I look at my life and the bigger picture focusing on where I've been and where I'm really going.
I was admiring the landscape below as I flew home from a race recently and had a realization. It's interesting how my concept of things can change when I look at the world from a new perspective. If you've travelled on an airline and looked out the window you may have noticed the many rivers cutting through the rugged terrain below. You'll notice the river bending left and right sometimes with long sweeping curves as it travels the country side. It's an image I've seen many times when flying, but this particular trip it struck me in a unique way. I asked myself, "Does the lay of the land direct the flow of the river and determine it's direction or does the force of the river push through the landscape and ultimately determine its own direction?" After a moment I realized both are true. The lay of the land initially pushes the river in a particular direction twisting and turning it as it passes high and low points mountains and plains. But over time the force of the water will carve through the mountains and valleys and determine its own direction to a great degree.
The same is true for life. The landscape of your life is the environment you were born into and the immediate circumstances of your situation. You may be rich or poor, physically or intellectually talented or challenged in some way. You may have people supporting and encouraging you or you may be on your own. You may have doors opened for you and opportunities in front of you or you may have to create your own opportunities and open your own doors through hard work. Whatever the situation or landscape the important thing to know is that your drive, passion, will, discipline and focus can push you through any situation and help you carve your own way.
The people who are successful in life realize this early. The earlier you embrace this the more time you have to work towards your biggest goals and dreams. Time and patience are important factors in pushing to your goals. The Grand Canyon, one of the worlds greatest wonders, was carved by a river, but you should keep in mind it took millions of years to happen.
There is good news though. Whatever your goals in life and whatever landscape you may find yourself in, there is nothing you can't carve your way out of in just a few years. If you have dreams of finishing a marathon, setting a big PR, becoming the best runner on your team, or winning a championship race and the terrain looks daunting, just remember the river. Step back for a moment, take a deep breath and change your perspective. Look at the bigger picture, see things for what they truly are and realize you can push through anything.
This morning I had scheduled an 8.4km recovery run but decided to run a 12.8km general aerobic run instead. Ran easy/moderate for the most part but picked it up a bit for the last 3kms. All up 53mins (4.08/km pace).
21.5km medium long run tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it already.
The life of a runner requires traveling to many races nationally and internationally throughout the year. We spend a lot of time flying around the country and it can get to be tiresome. I've learned to take the extra time when flying to reflect. I reflect on past races and examine races that I'm traveling to or the training I've done. Sometimes I look at my life and the bigger picture focusing on where I've been and where I'm really going.
I was admiring the landscape below as I flew home from a race recently and had a realization. It's interesting how my concept of things can change when I look at the world from a new perspective. If you've travelled on an airline and looked out the window you may have noticed the many rivers cutting through the rugged terrain below. You'll notice the river bending left and right sometimes with long sweeping curves as it travels the country side. It's an image I've seen many times when flying, but this particular trip it struck me in a unique way. I asked myself, "Does the lay of the land direct the flow of the river and determine it's direction or does the force of the river push through the landscape and ultimately determine its own direction?" After a moment I realized both are true. The lay of the land initially pushes the river in a particular direction twisting and turning it as it passes high and low points mountains and plains. But over time the force of the water will carve through the mountains and valleys and determine its own direction to a great degree.
The same is true for life. The landscape of your life is the environment you were born into and the immediate circumstances of your situation. You may be rich or poor, physically or intellectually talented or challenged in some way. You may have people supporting and encouraging you or you may be on your own. You may have doors opened for you and opportunities in front of you or you may have to create your own opportunities and open your own doors through hard work. Whatever the situation or landscape the important thing to know is that your drive, passion, will, discipline and focus can push you through any situation and help you carve your own way.
The people who are successful in life realize this early. The earlier you embrace this the more time you have to work towards your biggest goals and dreams. Time and patience are important factors in pushing to your goals. The Grand Canyon, one of the worlds greatest wonders, was carved by a river, but you should keep in mind it took millions of years to happen.
There is good news though. Whatever your goals in life and whatever landscape you may find yourself in, there is nothing you can't carve your way out of in just a few years. If you have dreams of finishing a marathon, setting a big PR, becoming the best runner on your team, or winning a championship race and the terrain looks daunting, just remember the river. Step back for a moment, take a deep breath and change your perspective. Look at the bigger picture, see things for what they truly are and realize you can push through anything.
This morning I had scheduled an 8.4km recovery run but decided to run a 12.8km general aerobic run instead. Ran easy/moderate for the most part but picked it up a bit for the last 3kms. All up 53mins (4.08/km pace).
21.5km medium long run tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it already.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Disappointing ...
I guess that's the best way to sum up how I felt about today's City to Surf 12km. A bit disappointed in my own performance and the organisation of the event (which I think to some extent affected my performance without wanting to make any excuses).
I ran 45.29 by my watch, having set myself a goal of running under 45 minutes. Although I knew I was lacking speed, I was confident I had the strength to hit a sensible pace and maintain it through, hopefully picking it up over the last 3km.
Rode the scooter in and got a great park on Hay Street. Cold riding in though and took me a while to re-warm up. I arrived at the assembly area around 7.45am and had enough time to go to the loo, listen to the most recent Morrissey album on my iPod and then watch the first few runners in the marathon come past before heading over to the bag drop off area.
The map of the starting precinct indicated that there would be a bag drop off for each category behind the marshalling pen for that category. Today, though the trucks were backed up within 20 metres of each other with the result that once the queue for each got longer than 10m they were all mixed together in a disorganised mess. The tags that were part of our numbers had to be sticky taped to the bags as they were not adhesive. Took me 20-25 minutes to drop my bag off and I got to the marshalling pen at 8.52am (8 minutes before the start). My warmup therefore consisted of me jogging up and down the pen a few times and then jogging to the start once we were "released" to go to the start.
Despite the intentions of the organisers to better separate the runners, the self selection system still resulted in a lot of people who IMO should not have been in the A category (including the bloke who was standing next to me at the start and started whooping and carrying on at the announcement there was 90 seconds to go until the start - ponytail and board shorts - enough said ...). Lots of kids - I think the kids under 16 at least should have to show some capacity to run sub 48 to get in that category.
Tried to make sure that I didn't start too quick with the plan being that I would check my pace at the first km marker and then work into it from there - run 3.40-3.45/km to 9km and try to crank it from there. Unfortunately, and this is my biggest gripe - there were no km markers anywhere on the course which made it impossible to pace yourself accurately.
Saw Simon at the top of King Park Road when he gave me a shout. Surprised to see him spectating rather than running. Hope there is no injury reason.
Just before the turn into Hay Street, I was passed by dual Olympian and 2006 Commonwealth Game silver medalist Sarah Jamieson but pretty soon I was running next to her and we had a quick chat. She asked what pace I thought we running at and I said hopefully 3.40-3.45 but really no idea. If someone of her quality and experience can't estimate pace without km markers, what hope do the rest of us have.
On the positive side though, lots and lots of enthusiastic volunteers on the drink stations (Hi Darcy - thanks for the cheer!!)
Sarah ran on ahead of me hoping to be first female home. We could see 2 in front of us and she passed them both but finished 2nd. Not surprised we couldn't see the winner - not only did she run around 41 I believe so way in front, but she was tiny.
I felt like I was maintaining a good pace without feeling comfortable enough to pick it up yet. Also getting a bit frustrated at the lack of km markers. If I was thinking clearly, I would have remembered that the 4km starts at Perry Lakes so I could have worked something out then. (Only just thought of that now ... ).
Got through Perry Lakes onto Oceanic Drive and thought 3kms to go, I can still do this. I ran strong for this last 3km or so and still thought I was on track when when we turned off Oceanic onto West Coast Highway as I assumed it would be about the same distance to the finish as it used to be when it finished on the oval. It wasn't.
About 400m to the finish during which time I was passed by two guys with about 200m to go. I let them go but then decided to show a bit of self respect and had a go to get back past them. Got past one but the other was gone. Unfortunately, the guy I passed went past me again with about 50m to go and that was that. 45.29 by my watch. Thanks for the shout out in that final stretch Sandgroper!!
Quite a long walk through to the bag pick up area where the truck had not yet turned up. Did some stretching and got talking to a couple of guys, one of whom was David Mulvee who won the 12km. He is English but living in Sydney. Ran 37 something (he didn't have a watch on)and starts his marathon specific training tomorrow for Fukuoka in December. He's trying to run sub 2.18 to qualify for European Championships. David thought the course was a bit long and Sugar tells me that he has "Map My Run" plotted it at 12.09km so an extra 90m (probably 17-20secs worth). I'd like to think that a proper length course and some km markers would have got me under 45mins but at the moment, I'm just p!ssed off with myself for a missed opportunity.
I felt like I was in so much better shape than 45.29
Bag pick up was a debacle as well. Trucks turned up at least an hour after the finish and there were no announcements, signage etc. By then there were literally thousands of runners trying to find their bags. There was a pile of yellow A category bags and as I was standing looking for my bag, a volunteer noticed my bib number and handed me my bag, so thanks very much to that thoughtful person!!
I know it a big event but the course length, marking and bag drop off and pickup have to be among the most important parts of any race (along with drink stations) so I'd have to give the organisers a fail on that basis. Not hard to fix though so hopefully they will take feedback on board and get it right in future. I'll certainly be sending them an email this week.
This week is 115km week for me with a medium long run on Tuesday, a lactate threshold run (45mins of quality running - its the workout I cocked up when Simon and I ran it a few weeks back) on Thursday and 35kms on Saturday. If I needed some motivation to lift my game a bit, I got it today.
If (like me), you need a laugh, check out this ad. It's my absolute favourite at the moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUxi_Eo6fU&feature=related
Congratulations to Epi and Sugar on their runs today. Epi ran a huge sub 3 hour PB in the marathon (2.57) and Sugar ran 43.36 in the 12km which was not only a big PB but should have got him right up there in the overall and age category placings. I know a lot of hard work has gone in to both of those performances so the results are very well deserved. Well done guys!!
Friday - 8.4km recovery run
Saturday - 5.64km easy run with 4 x 100 12km race pace strides
Sunday - 12.09km (grrrr) City to Surf 45.29
Edit - Rox thinks I am being a bit hard on myself. It was actually 7 min PB (although that was from 2007 in shocking conditions after I had been training for all of 4 months so a bit of soft PB)
MAJOR RESULTS
MARATHON – MALE
1ST - Joel Kemboi 2:17:56 ($25,000 prize money)
2ND - Philip Muia 2:18:41 ($8000)
3RD - Gemechu Woyecha 2:19:07 ($5000)
MARATHON - FEMALE
1ST - Madga Karimali-Poulos 2:43:17 ($25,000)
2ND - Genet Kahsay 2:45:52 ($8000)
3RD - Helen Stanton 2:46:17 ($5000)
HALF MARATHON - MALE
1ST - Shane Nankervis 1:05:51 ($3000)
2ND - Erwin McRae 1:06:36 ($1200
3RD - Josphat Mwangi 1:08:37 ($750)
HALF MARATHON - FEMALE
1ST - Cassie Fien 1:15:59 ($3000)
2ND - Firehiwot Gebreyesus 1:21:27 ($1200)
3RD - Alison O'Toole 1:22:32 ($750)
12KM RUN – FEMALE
1ST - Hollie Emery 0:41:54 ($2500)
2ND - Sarah Jamieson 0:43:06 ($1000)
3RD - Emily Loughnan 0:44:48 ($500)
12KM RUN - MALE
1ST - David Mulvee 0:37:44 ($2500)
2ND - Rafael Baugh 0:37:56 ($1000)
3RD - Scott Tamblin $500 0:39:11 ($500)
I ran 45.29 by my watch, having set myself a goal of running under 45 minutes. Although I knew I was lacking speed, I was confident I had the strength to hit a sensible pace and maintain it through, hopefully picking it up over the last 3km.
Rode the scooter in and got a great park on Hay Street. Cold riding in though and took me a while to re-warm up. I arrived at the assembly area around 7.45am and had enough time to go to the loo, listen to the most recent Morrissey album on my iPod and then watch the first few runners in the marathon come past before heading over to the bag drop off area.
The map of the starting precinct indicated that there would be a bag drop off for each category behind the marshalling pen for that category. Today, though the trucks were backed up within 20 metres of each other with the result that once the queue for each got longer than 10m they were all mixed together in a disorganised mess. The tags that were part of our numbers had to be sticky taped to the bags as they were not adhesive. Took me 20-25 minutes to drop my bag off and I got to the marshalling pen at 8.52am (8 minutes before the start). My warmup therefore consisted of me jogging up and down the pen a few times and then jogging to the start once we were "released" to go to the start.
Despite the intentions of the organisers to better separate the runners, the self selection system still resulted in a lot of people who IMO should not have been in the A category (including the bloke who was standing next to me at the start and started whooping and carrying on at the announcement there was 90 seconds to go until the start - ponytail and board shorts - enough said ...). Lots of kids - I think the kids under 16 at least should have to show some capacity to run sub 48 to get in that category.
Tried to make sure that I didn't start too quick with the plan being that I would check my pace at the first km marker and then work into it from there - run 3.40-3.45/km to 9km and try to crank it from there. Unfortunately, and this is my biggest gripe - there were no km markers anywhere on the course which made it impossible to pace yourself accurately.
Saw Simon at the top of King Park Road when he gave me a shout. Surprised to see him spectating rather than running. Hope there is no injury reason.
Just before the turn into Hay Street, I was passed by dual Olympian and 2006 Commonwealth Game silver medalist Sarah Jamieson but pretty soon I was running next to her and we had a quick chat. She asked what pace I thought we running at and I said hopefully 3.40-3.45 but really no idea. If someone of her quality and experience can't estimate pace without km markers, what hope do the rest of us have.
On the positive side though, lots and lots of enthusiastic volunteers on the drink stations (Hi Darcy - thanks for the cheer!!)
Sarah ran on ahead of me hoping to be first female home. We could see 2 in front of us and she passed them both but finished 2nd. Not surprised we couldn't see the winner - not only did she run around 41 I believe so way in front, but she was tiny.
I felt like I was maintaining a good pace without feeling comfortable enough to pick it up yet. Also getting a bit frustrated at the lack of km markers. If I was thinking clearly, I would have remembered that the 4km starts at Perry Lakes so I could have worked something out then. (Only just thought of that now ... ).
Got through Perry Lakes onto Oceanic Drive and thought 3kms to go, I can still do this. I ran strong for this last 3km or so and still thought I was on track when when we turned off Oceanic onto West Coast Highway as I assumed it would be about the same distance to the finish as it used to be when it finished on the oval. It wasn't.
About 400m to the finish during which time I was passed by two guys with about 200m to go. I let them go but then decided to show a bit of self respect and had a go to get back past them. Got past one but the other was gone. Unfortunately, the guy I passed went past me again with about 50m to go and that was that. 45.29 by my watch. Thanks for the shout out in that final stretch Sandgroper!!
Quite a long walk through to the bag pick up area where the truck had not yet turned up. Did some stretching and got talking to a couple of guys, one of whom was David Mulvee who won the 12km. He is English but living in Sydney. Ran 37 something (he didn't have a watch on)and starts his marathon specific training tomorrow for Fukuoka in December. He's trying to run sub 2.18 to qualify for European Championships. David thought the course was a bit long and Sugar tells me that he has "Map My Run" plotted it at 12.09km so an extra 90m (probably 17-20secs worth). I'd like to think that a proper length course and some km markers would have got me under 45mins but at the moment, I'm just p!ssed off with myself for a missed opportunity.
I felt like I was in so much better shape than 45.29
Bag pick up was a debacle as well. Trucks turned up at least an hour after the finish and there were no announcements, signage etc. By then there were literally thousands of runners trying to find their bags. There was a pile of yellow A category bags and as I was standing looking for my bag, a volunteer noticed my bib number and handed me my bag, so thanks very much to that thoughtful person!!
I know it a big event but the course length, marking and bag drop off and pickup have to be among the most important parts of any race (along with drink stations) so I'd have to give the organisers a fail on that basis. Not hard to fix though so hopefully they will take feedback on board and get it right in future. I'll certainly be sending them an email this week.
This week is 115km week for me with a medium long run on Tuesday, a lactate threshold run (45mins of quality running - its the workout I cocked up when Simon and I ran it a few weeks back) on Thursday and 35kms on Saturday. If I needed some motivation to lift my game a bit, I got it today.
If (like me), you need a laugh, check out this ad. It's my absolute favourite at the moment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUxi_Eo6fU&feature=related
Congratulations to Epi and Sugar on their runs today. Epi ran a huge sub 3 hour PB in the marathon (2.57) and Sugar ran 43.36 in the 12km which was not only a big PB but should have got him right up there in the overall and age category placings. I know a lot of hard work has gone in to both of those performances so the results are very well deserved. Well done guys!!
Friday - 8.4km recovery run
Saturday - 5.64km easy run with 4 x 100 12km race pace strides
Sunday - 12.09km (grrrr) City to Surf 45.29
Edit - Rox thinks I am being a bit hard on myself. It was actually 7 min PB (although that was from 2007 in shocking conditions after I had been training for all of 4 months so a bit of soft PB)
MAJOR RESULTS
MARATHON – MALE
1ST - Joel Kemboi 2:17:56 ($25,000 prize money)
2ND - Philip Muia 2:18:41 ($8000)
3RD - Gemechu Woyecha 2:19:07 ($5000)
MARATHON - FEMALE
1ST - Madga Karimali-Poulos 2:43:17 ($25,000)
2ND - Genet Kahsay 2:45:52 ($8000)
3RD - Helen Stanton 2:46:17 ($5000)
HALF MARATHON - MALE
1ST - Shane Nankervis 1:05:51 ($3000)
2ND - Erwin McRae 1:06:36 ($1200
3RD - Josphat Mwangi 1:08:37 ($750)
HALF MARATHON - FEMALE
1ST - Cassie Fien 1:15:59 ($3000)
2ND - Firehiwot Gebreyesus 1:21:27 ($1200)
3RD - Alison O'Toole 1:22:32 ($750)
12KM RUN – FEMALE
1ST - Hollie Emery 0:41:54 ($2500)
2ND - Sarah Jamieson 0:43:06 ($1000)
3RD - Emily Loughnan 0:44:48 ($500)
12KM RUN - MALE
1ST - David Mulvee 0:37:44 ($2500)
2ND - Rafael Baugh 0:37:56 ($1000)
3RD - Scott Tamblin $500 0:39:11 ($500)
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