Neglected running blogs are depressing so sorry to anyone who has been checking in here lately.
Normal service will be resumed over the next few days as I am now underway with my "formal" 18 week schedule in preparation for the Melbourne Marathon on 14 October. The date has unfortunately been pushed back a week from the originally announced 7 October, which has interfered with our travel plans a bit so there is a bit of re-organising to do.
I had an ok run at the HBF Run for a Reason, not fantastic but not a disaster either.
Probably went out a bit hard but I had decided that was going to run high 3:30s from the start and try to hold on. Had a bit of rough spot up along the Freeway near Parliament House before we headed down into the tunnel where I had a bit of soreness in my left shin but it didn't last long. Craig passed me in this stretch and opened up a gap which he maintained until the end. Jordan and Ben picked me up in the tunnel and I tried to hang on with them and the small group they had going. I was able to do this which was a benefit for pace and it also helped running into the slight headwind along the Graham Farmer Freeway.
The stretch through Burswood was pretty hard going and I was passed by a couple of guys who must have started back in the main pack but were running 3:20-3:30 pace. Was holding my spot amongst those around me but got passed by Lauren Shelley just before we got to the Causeway. Ben passed me on the Causeway but I managed to get back onto his shoulder as we came off the Causeway near the Police HQ and pushed on as hard as I could to finish, passing one guy in the final 100m on the WACA but Lauren was about 5-6 secs in front of me. Craig was about 30 secs in front of her
Finished in 51:35 so although I was a minute slower than last year, I am reasonably happy with this run. Last year I was deep into marathon training and I always seem to run better over shorter distances in the last few weeks before a marathon.
Funnily enough I also felt about a year older than I did last year ...
Well done to Simon E who went sub 50, Craig who ran very strongly and evenly and thanks to Jordan and Ben for the pack running which really helped.
Since then I have put in a couple of solid weeks of 103km and 106km and have picked things up over the last 10 days. My last two Saturday long runs have both been 28km in around 2 hours with some quicker kms thrown in. The first one was with Rob and Craig and was a bit random but generally progressive and the second was solo with kms 1-22 @ 4:24/km and then the 5km from 22-27 @ 3:47/km which is a little bit quicker than I think my goal marathon pace will be but hopefully the adaptations will come.
Today was a shocking day weather wise but I stuck with the plan of doing 16km with 8km tempo but ended up doing 9km tempo instead. Was more tempo effort than tempo pace due to the conditions with a couple of kms being particularly hard going straight into the storm. Last few kms were right on though with the last being 3:43.
21km medium long run tomorrow but I'll be running somewhere new as I think the riverside is to be avoided.
I'll post up a bit about the plan I have developed in the next few days.
