Weekly Summary 21/02/11 - 27/02/11

This week i decided rather early on that it would be more of a 'down' week to let my body recover. As such, I had no intention of getting up for my early morning runs. This was a nice change to the week.
My goal of hitting 600km for the month is still doable but its not going to happen for me. I'm not going to kill/injure myself to get there besides the whole reason of having the target is to get me running more consistently - which is happening.

Monday was my first day back to NRG. We did 7 sprints up stairs on a fairly easy loop. Im finding my fitness has been given a massive boost recently and these sessions are becoming easier and easier.
(PM) 10.97km 54.21min 4.56min/km  (run to NRG)
(PM) 9.97km  55.20min 5.33min/km

Tuesday was an easy run home then a couple of hill laps. Nothing exciting to report.
(PM) 15.75km  1hr 10 40sec 4.29min/km (500ml water)


Wednesday I decided towards the end of the day (after stuffing my face with doughnuts) that I would have a crack at beating my record time home.
This went extremely well and I hit a tonne of sub 4 kms in the process.
(PM) 11km 43.26min  3.56min/km (500ml water)

Thursday was a very gentle run home, again I ran this without feedback from my garmin, just by feel. Surprising how much faster I run that way.
(PM) 11km  50.05min  4.34min/km  (500ml water)

Friday I decided to do my morning run. Just 16km and I started off slow and built up to a decent clip. Felt great afterwards and wished I had been doing that all week.
Then in the evening just a recovery run home.

(AM) 16.07km  1hr 9min 17sec   4.18min/km (500ml water)
(PM) 11km  50.26min  4.34min/km (500ml water)

Saturday i woke up at 5am to run a 50km loop i had planned out. Up the pacific highway, up bobbin head and kuring gai chase road. Nice elevation change in the national park but overall not a great deal of vertical.
I paced myself pretty decently, running quicker on the way back. PLenty of energy in me. 1 toilet stop and 1 stop to get some drinks but that was it.
Went through the marathon mark in 3hrs 25 which was good as I felt like I was plodding along.
Recovered well the next day, no pain whatsover in my legs. Fantastic.

50km - 4hr 2min  4.50min/km (2 bagels, 2 bananas, 2 powerades, 1.5litres of water with nuun tablets)


Sunday - Just a gentle 5km on the treadmill in my 5 fingers. Legs felt fantastic but using this day as a rest day. No great intention to run today although the legs have plenty of energy. SHould be another good week ahead.

5km - 25 min 5min/km


Total Summary:

140.79km - 10hrs 59mins 49 secs

Happy with the week. Lowest mileage of the month but I also recorded my longest run. Need to do more of those and will look to do another long run next weekend.

Record Breaking Run Home!!

Wll its been since October when i last tried to run home as fast as possible (45.03). The old post is lying around somewhere.

The fairly uphill 11km took me 43.26 this time round. Kilometer splits below. The best thing was I did this without looking at my watch. I turned it upside down so I was running home by feel without any intention of breaking my record.


1 04:19

2  03:51

3  04:00

4 04:11

5 03:30

6 04:33

7  03:54

8  04:13

9  03:41

10  03:39

11  03:29

Summary  11.00km  03:56min/km


Pretty chuffed with how that turned out. Was hard going but certainly not killer. The longer stuff seems to be paying off. Really pleased with the last km. Dont see any reason why I wouldnt be able to hit a 35 minute 10km with a bit of fine tuning.... and on a flat course

The North Face 100 - Early Plans

So, The North Face 100 kicks off in May and my training is well and truly under way.

My plan, unlike last year, is to hit as close to 600km per month for Feb, March and April in the lead up.

Last year my splits for the 3 month lead up were:

Feb: 198km
March: 290km
April: 226km

I still came away with a silver buckle for my 13.28 finish but i was pretty trashed after. The low level of mileage meant my body wasnt really ready and my ITB went off after 70km forcing me to hobble in.

This year will be a lot different....touch wood.

I hope to break 13hrs this year which given my increased level of fitness I think is doable. The stretch goal is to break 12 hours and ive listed some splits below.

The first column are times from previous runners which I would like to emulate. The numbers in red are my times from 2010 for each leg. The numbers in black are the differences in time between my old times and my target times.

The numbers in blue are my back up times, or my plan B.

So im going to set off with the aim of doing 11.35 and if the wheels fall off i hope to achieve 12.32. Will be interesting to see how close to these numbers i actually get.

I can see from last year that I really started to struggle towards the end and that was down to my itb and being barely able to run. Without those issues I should be ok. I just have to remember not to charge down the hills so soon into the race.

My race plan is to go out harder than last year and avoid the majority of the congestion on the single track. I'll keep pushing the pace to a safe limit whilst keeping my fingers crossed that my itb issues dont return.

Nutrition wise i plan to eat what evers on offer at the aid stations and I will be definitely getting a pizza again at CP3. That was heaven last year. This year i will have my girlfriend on hand and she'll be able to order the pizza well in advance so i wont need to hang around. Should save me a few minutes.

Seriously thinking about running with a handheld as well as my 2 litres of water in the camelbak. I'll use the handheld for my nunn tablets and electrolyte intake. See how I go nearer the time, might decide to just stick with the camelbak.

Cant wait!

Weekly Summary 14/02/11 - 20/02/11

Good week overall. I was worried at the start as I didnt make it out on Monday at all. Had planned my usual run home and was going to skip NRG interval training because of Valentines day but I had to work late so took the train straight home. Had a lovely dinner to make up for it. Some times an enforced rest day is good anyway.

rest

Tuesday I hauled myself out of bed for a decent morning session. However im getting a little bored of the roads where i live. I wish there was more bush to crash around in before work. Of course there is, I would just need to get up earlier than i already do to take advantage of it. Dark at 5.30am on the rare occasions I do my morning run and ive noticed it doesnt start getting light until at least 6.30am now.
Tuesday evening I was feeling ok and decided to do my usual lap of centennial and queens park before running home. Nice run to do now and again.

(AM)18km - 1hr 17min - 4.18min/km  (600ml water)
(PM)25km - 1hr 52min - 4.29min/km (1litre water +1 trail bar)

Wednesday was a standard boring run home. Some days it feels fun to run home and some days it feels like a bit of a chore and hard work. Wednesday was a chore. Beats sitting on a bus for almost an hour anyway..

(PM)11.03km - 50min 45sec - 4.36min/km (500ml water)

Thursday I battled with myself to get up at 5.30 for a morning run. Changed it up slightly and did 8 x 2kmish loops close to where i live. There is a nice big incline, not a long incline but very steep which i thought would be fun to attack. I said to myself i would only do 5 loops as the thought of doing anymore at 5.30am was unappealing. Silly mind games i have to play with myself now and again. At the end of the 5th loop I told myself to just do another one and that would be it. At the end of that loop I decided to do a warm down loop and after that I thought I might as well do another. Then it was time for breaky!
Thursday evening was my usual run home. Felt much better than Wednesday.

(AM)16.45km - 1hr 19min - 4.47min/km (500ml water)
(PM)11.02km - 48min - 4.22min/km (500ml water)

Friday morning my alarm went off and I turned it off immediately. Rest day then - as i never do anything on Friday afternoon as thats my social time. However this Friday I finished work a little earlier than usual so decided i would do a nice slow run on the trails at Lane Cove National Park. Really good fun and I found some tracks I hadnt been on before. Got a bit lost so ended up running further than I had planned.

(PM)26.26km - 2hr 19min - 5.17min/km (1litre water)

Saturday my motivation to go for a long run was rather low, besides it was hot outside. I couldnt be bothered doing to much so I did the run up the road and back. Felt pretty average but a decent time in the end. Kilometer split average of 4.24 was the same at the halfway mark.

(AM)20km - 1hr 28 - 4.24min/km (600ml water)

Sunday morning was another hot one. Didnt leave the house until 10am which was a slight mistake. Decided to run up to St Ives then through the bush to Frenchs Forest to Phills's parents place. Went purposely slow as it was scorching. A good hilly route - very undulating. Ran out of water about 8km in and there were no petrol stations around. Luckily after 12km i found a church with a tap outside and i doused myself under that and filled up my water bottle. Once i hit the trails i was feeling good then i felt something up my nose so i had a scratch and initated a massive nose bleed. I must have looked like a real state. 2 mountain bikers gave me a funny look - a runner pouring sweat happily jogging along with blood all over his face. Good fun.

(AM)21.8km - 1hr 53min - 5.09min/km (1litre water)

Happy with the week. The high mileage training seems to be paying off. Feeling more efficient and able to recover reasonably quickly. Think im pretty much at my max training limit. I dont feel tired or run down at all but I dont have the motivation to run further. I think im at my sweet spot.

Total - 149.68km - 11hr 48mins



More of the same next week. I need to run another 179km by the end of the month to reach my monthly target of 600km. Thats an average of just over 22kms for the next 8 days. Cant wait!

Weekly Summary - 7/02/11 - 13/02/11

After last weeks Megalong Mega my legs felt pretty smashed up until about Wednesday. Guess im not used to hammering down the hills so much.

I skipped the monday interval training with NRG as my legs had zero pep and opted for a recovery session instead.
24.37km - 2hrs - 4.59min/km

Tuesday was a good run home and a gym session.
10.11km - 46min - 4.31min/km

Wednesday i managed to haul myself out of bed for a morning session and ran home in the evening.
20km - 1hr 31 - 4.33min/km   (5 minute negative split ) AM
11km - 52min 30sec - 4.46min/km

Thursday was a standard boring run home.
11.11 - 52min 25 sec - 4.42min/km

Friday my alarm didnt go off so no morning run. Out with Phill in the evening so no run their either. So enjoyed my rest day.
Rest

Saturday was a highlight. Not a scenic run by any means as it was just up and down the Pacific Highway but i wanted to inject some speed into it. Felt super super strong the whole way. Got quicker and quicker the further i went. 7 minute negative split
36km - 2hr 36min 25sec - 4.20min/km (7 minute negative split)



Sunday i woke up feeling fresh so decided to run down to The Spit and run to Manly. I didnt want to run further than 30km so ended up only doing a fraction of that track but I hit some decent hills there and back. Legs full of fight, I was expecting them to feel heavy from Saturday. But they didnt. And I didnt do a single stretch or cooldown. Amazing..
31km - 2hr 22min 18sec - 4.35min/km

All up, a decent week. I thought I was going to struggle to get in the 140's after taking a day off and skipping my morning runs but a solid weekend of running put me back in the running to hit target.

The next couple of weeks im really going to have to be strict about getting my morning runs in to give me a chance of getting 600kms for the month. Not out of reach yet and after 2 weeks im feeling fresh and faster than ever.

A solid week!

I've had a good start to this month, managing to wake up early enough to hit my morning runs. Helped by the fact its been stinking hot in the evening this hasnt been too much of a struggle and got easier as the week went by.

Without going in to too much detail the months stats are:

149.38km
12hrs 50 minutes
10 runs
3654 metres of elevation gain

So, best week of running to date. Pretty much to schedule and i felt stronger as the week went on.

Finished off with todays Fatass Event - Megalong Mega. 36km along the hilly parts of the 6ft track. Great fun. Had about 8 litres of fluid in my back pack. Overkill but I heard it can get quite nasty. As  it turns out the heat wasnt too much of a factor. Good training lugging all that weight around though.

Hit the halfway mark in 1hr 59 and then finished up in 3hrs 44 minutes. No idea how this compares to everyone else but i felt strong and didnt push myself particularly.

I hope next week im able to maintain this.

Quick January Summary

After a slow start January turned into my second highest month of mileage ever.

Still only 356km but im heading in the right direction.

Feeling good and injury free and I can feel my fitness returning. The heat is making quality workouts difficult but im enjoying my running.

Moving forward I've set myself an ambitious goal of hitting 600 kms per month for the next 3 months in the lead up to The North Face 100. Works out to be an average of just over 20km per day so will be a serious challenge for me.

Obviously i'll listen to my body and not over do it. Any niggles or pains I'll have to address and take the necessary action.

Feels great to have a goal and this will finally give me the motivation to get out of bed in the morning!