Slow Progress

The holiday weight is slowly starting to fall off. Down from 86kg to 82.2kgs in just a few weeks. Havent changed a great deal in my diet, just exercising which seems to help. Obviously drinking less booze now ive returned which is probably a major factor although i have no intention of cutting it out completely. Not when the weather is like this!

Slowly easing back into my running. Conscious not to do too much too soon to irritate my ITB. All feeling well so far.

First runs back were pretty demoralising. Heart rate has been massively elevated. Im talking easy runs leaving me with an average HR in the 170's. Fortunately, things are beginning to turn normal again as my speed is coming back and my HR is falling.

Was in the Blue Mountains last weekend and planned to run to the top of Pluvi and back for 52km. Set out far to hard really for my fitness. Hit coxes river in 1hr 20 and then slowly began to lose the plot. Turned into a scorching day and i turned around after the 17km point. Glad i did as the return leg was a nightmare. Nellies Glen totally ruined me and I pretty much walked back most of the way. 34km in 3hrs 59. The 1500metres of climbing certainly played their part as im still feeling it even today. However, I think that run did me the world of good as it got my blood pumping.

I returned back to the house adamant that i would not be running the Fitzroy Falls Marathon nor GNW100. Funny what a days rest can do though as come Monday I was again super pumped for the next two races.

I dont think i am going to do myself justice and my chances of being close to a 3hr finish at Fitzroy are rather slim. But it will be a fun morning nonetheless. Im not in racing condition so I need to reset my goals. If I finish under last years time of 3.09 i'll be happy.

GNW100 is a different beast altogether. I have to say that im pretty intimidated by the monster. Again, im in no shape to hang with the big boys and i'll do well to finish. I have to stick with my game plan of going sub 30 whilst not allowing myself to get caught up in the excitement at the start of the race - as this will inevitably come back to haunt me. Its going to be a learning experience and im really excited.

I havent hit a 100km week for over 2 months now so thats my focus for the next month. This week should see me eclipse that then i need to concentrate on maintaining some consistency.

Definitely need to get myself out with the Ultra168 boys on the GNW100 course soon as the training will be invaluable. Life has just been getting in the way as it tends to do but i should be good for a couple of hit outs before the big day.

Weekly Summary 06/06/11 - 12/06/11

Had an ok week of running. I was interstate for work the first couple of days of the week so didnt really do too much. A couple of quick runs here and there topped off with a great recce of the Great North Walk 100 course with a few ultra legends of the sport.

Some slight knee/ITB niggles which are irritating me - if this continues i'll have to look to get down to the acupuncturist to fix me up.

Monday - 5.56km - 21min 48 secs - 3.55min/km
Quick run whilst in Melbourne around a local park. Felt relatively easy and would have happily knocked off 10km at that pace if i had the time.

Wendesday - 22km - 1hr 34min 43sec - 4.18min/km
Run from work to Frenchs Forest. Felt pretty strong the whole way. Happy with the run.

Thursday - 13.62km - 54min 23sec - 3.59min/km
Another boring road run. Went out a bit too quick and felt like packing it in after 6km then came good again a few km's later.

Saturday - 41.32km - 4hrs 11mins - 6.04min/km
Awesome time running with Andrew Vize and Darrel Robins of 'Ultra168' and Beth and Brian Cardelli. We ran part of the Great North Walk course from Checkpoint 4 - 6. Will be a super tough run in November with the heat but I cant wait. Andrew has written a more eloquent write up here.

Sunday - 10.20km - 52min 41sec - 5.09min/km
Recovery run around the Cascades. Keeping my heart rate low (142 bpm) - something I havent done in a long time. Due to the excessive rain the creeks were overflowing which was good fun. Felt easy but my right knee was playing up. Need to get rolling.

Total - 92.67km - 7hrs 55mins

I finally feel like i'm getting back into the swing off things after TNF100. Body certainly not 100% but I dont think it ever has been. Will be looking to work on speed in the upcoming weeks which means mileage will suffer but thats cool. Its great to change it up and i'll have plenty of opportunities for big mileage running in the lead up to GNW later this year.

Weekly Summary 07/03/11 - 13/03/11

Well no real excuses this week - just did not have any motivation whatsoever to get up and do my morning runs. Body feeling great, not feeling tired - i just lacked all motivation to put my kit on and head out the door into the darkness. 2 complete days of rest have made for this to be a pretty easy week.

600 km for the month is looking like a distant target but if I can find my rhythm and ramp it back up i'll be close.

Monday was the usual run to the gym then interval training with NRG. Really enjoyed the session. 5 x 1ishkm hill sprints. Found myself pulling away easily on the hills and recovering quickly. Good fun.
Weighed myself at the gym and found that i have dropped under the 80kg mark for the first time ever. I came in at 79.9kg. So my Phill has spent the week feeding me. I must have eaten an average of 5000 calories a day so it will be interesting to weigh myself again tomorrow.
(PM) 10.33km - 48min 49sec - 4.43min/km (500ml water)
(PM) 11.71km - 56min 17sec - 4.48min/km

Tuesday - No morning run and the evening was spent indulging in cheese and wine. Lovely!

Wednesday was my bog standard run home. Decent clip too. I find myself getting caught up in races across the harbour bridge with other random joggers. Good fun and the surges are great for race replication.
(PM) 11km - 47min 43sec - 4.19min/km (500ml water)

Thursday was a longer than usual run home on a decent hilly route - again some good speed in there.
(PM) 20km - 1hr 27min 9sec - 4.21min/km (500ml water)

Friday - Total day off - beers in the evening.

Saturday - Only had a 20km run in mind so set off up the pacific highway with my handheld water bottle immediately after breakfast. Just a few km's in I began to feel a bit lightheaded so stopped off at the supermarket for some chocolate. Continued on my planned route and then soon realised at the 15km point that the run might be a tad longer. The day was heating up quite nicely too. Manged to maintain 3hr marathon pace the whole way - in fact speeding up the further I went. Had to stop off at a petrol station to grab a drink too as I was covered in salt crystals. Finished up in pretty good nick
(AM) 35.5km - 2hr 34min 10sec - 4.20min/km (chocolate bar, 1litre water, 500ml energy drink)

Sunday - I had no set route in mind, just decided that Id head out the door and run the local roads in my vibram 5 fingers. Haven't worn them in ages so took it really easy. Nice hot day too so I was happy to finish up after 13km. Didnt want my feet or calves to be too sore in the morning.
(AM) 13km - 1hr 4min 22sec - 4.57min/km (500ml water)

Total - 101.58km - 7hrs 38min 33 secs


Planning on running the Sri Chinmoy half marathon on the 27th March. I ran this last year as my one and only half marathon and suffered miserably. Now im fitter, wiser and training a lot more I should do better. I wont be tapering for the race but might have an easy day/day off before the race.

The last few weeks have looked a little like this:

• 121.8km
• 149.38km
• 143.71km
• 149.68km
• 140.79km
• 138.45km
• 101.58km

Looking at the above I was probably due a low mileage week so I didnt fight it and ive enjoyed my time off.

Next week is time to step it up again for a few weeks and then probably have another quiet week down the line. Sounds like a fairly sensible cycle to avoid injury.

Run of the week (Saturday's Run)  below:

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Weekly Summary 28/02/11 - 06/03/11

This week didnt go quite to plan.

I was forced to take it easy as I think i somehow strained my lower abdominal muscles last saturday.

No idea how this occurred but running hard seemed to aggravate it.

So i skipped Monday's sprint session and just ran home instead. Stopped off at the gym and did a short hill session.
(PM)11.27km  - 53.33mins  - 4.45min/km (500ml water)
(PM) 5km - 25min -  5min/km - treadmill

Tuesday was another run home. Stopped off at Mrs Macquaries Chair and did 10 stair sprints.
(PM) 12km -  1hr 1min 23secs  - 5.06min/km  (500ml water)

Wednesday was another run home.  There's a theme here. I set my alarm for a morning run once this week then sacked off the idea. I always run fast in the morning which i knew wouldn't be a good idea - so I gave myself a break from that.
(PM) 11km - 47.56min - 4.21min/km (500ml water)

Thursday was a decent run around centennial and queens park then home.
(PM) 25km - 1hr 56min - 4.38min/km (500ml water + 1 museli bar)

Friday - pub!

Saturday I jogged down to Lane Cove National Park and did a good trail run. Really slow going in alot of the places due to the terrain but that was fine with me. Had no intentions of killing myself. Ran on lots of new trails so it was nice to slow it down and take it all in. I ended up at Thornleigh Oval and then jogged home. Was cold and wet for most of the run but the time flew by.
(AM) 39.14km - 3hrs 40min 14sec - 5.37min/km (1.5litre water + 1 nuun, 2 museli bars, 1 plain bagel)

Sunday I woke up and my legs felt pretty fresh. Due to general lack of imagination I decided to run to centennial park and do my usual. I started off at a fairly pedestrian pace and then somehow got quicker and quicker. Didnt even feel Saturday's effort in my legs so I decided to just go along with it and  try to hold a decent pace. A few quick kms in there and I felt great the whole way. Even went through the half marathon mark in 1hr 33 quite comfortably and sped up from there.
Its great when a run feels super easy. A real confidence booster.
(AM) 35km - 2hrs 31min - 4.18min/km (1litre water, 1 museli bar)




Weekly Total - 138.45km - 11hr 15min 11sec

Pleased with the way the week ended. Good to get 2 fairly long back to back runs in. Really keen to keep working on my pace. Dont want to become a shuffler. Come a long way this last year with my running, some massive improvements and its motivating to see some positive results.

The body is holding up pretty well. Apart from my annoying ab strain I seem to be ok. Just need to work on hauling myself out of bed for my early runs..

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!

Rest Days

The importance of rest days is not to be underestimated. Whilst running, the body is put under severe stress and muscle fibres are broken down. Rest allows the body to repair and come back stronger.

Im a strong believer in resting the body but there are athletes out there who insist on training every day. Each to their own. I personally would lose motivation if I ran every day and I also don't think my body would appreciate it.

A strong theme among ultrarunners is do double up your long runs on the weekend. That is, to do a long run on a saturday and then another long run on a sunday to get get your body used to running when fatigued. This is something im yet to do, but in order to successfully complete The Glasshouse 100 miler I shall have to use this approach.

Last night was just an easy jog home. 6km average 5min/km. Nothing to report, things felt good.

2 days of rest coming up for me now and then some runs over the weekend.