Wednesday, April 29, 2009

First Run Back post Canberra Marathon

Distance: 11km
Time: 1hr
Effort: easy
Detail: Midweek run around the city/river. Good crowd turned out this morning and it was great to see everyone again. Not running is such a damper to my social life!!! I think 80% of my friends are runners!!!!!

Pats doing me a program for Sydney Marathon and I have a time goal to aim for...more on that later.
In the meantime I have another two weeks of recovery runs in both speed and distance before getting stuck into the training for Gold Coast (though I won't be racing there).

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

New Goal

My training is going to be summarised here for reflective and productive purposes.

If anyone has any suggestions on style of what I should be keeping track of let me know. Does anyone think HR is a good indicator? How is this best utilised if so???

21weeks to my next marathon. So Training officially starts in 3 weeks!

Format:

Distance: xxkm
Time: xx:xx
Effort: hard/easy/tempo
Detail: PCRG speed / Long run / Midweek long / Hills

CANBERRA MARATHON 2009

Its over for another year and I can't believe it.

During the race I thought I would be lucky to finish...lucky to not hobble over the line or collapse at the 40km mark. As it turns out...a few days later i am wondering why I did not run harder or look at my time so I could go faster??

I am determined to run hard in my next marathon and give it some guts.

Canberra was always going to be a training event, not necessarily just a training run because I was keen to do as best as i could...but I knew I did not have the legs or fitness to run a hard sub 3:30 as I wish to do this year.

The 42.2km didn't get me. I finished in 3:37:19 and with a strong finish. But I hurt...I hurt alot and for a long time from 20km onwards. I have been thinking of why and how and what for...so here are some thoughts I have come up with as well as a quick summary of my training in the week prior.


On my last 30km training run I developed a sore foot. A very very sore foot. I ended up going to a podiatrist and then for an MRI. I had my shoes altered and after 10 days of no running and lots of mental stress about what to do I was happy to come away with a diagnosis of blunt force trauma (from shoe).

Hence the taper was really that - a no running taper. I didn't get to race my half marathon or my 3k time trial so mentally I had no good indication of what I could achieve in speed under pressure. Though I was happy to not have the stress of racing on me!!!

The week before Canberra I did a speed session at Pats and some light runs over the Easter weekend with no more than 12km each time and at an easy pace finishing at race pace.


THE MARATHON

The night before was a shocker - I had 2 hours sleep thanks to screaming babies and a head cold that came out of nowhere. Flu tablets had zonked me out but my heart rate was going so fast I could not relax even when the babies were quiet.

Race day dawned however and I was feeling relaxed enough. None of the expectations of performing were on me and I had slept well the night before (Friday) so I was in good spirits.

bang the guns went off and Tesso and I were giggling and on our way again!

Okay I admit - I went out too fast. The 3:30 pacer was way ahead of me and I just wanted to keep him in sight. The balloon was out of sight by 6km and I had just ran in under 29mins...so he OBVIOUSLY was way ahead of his 5min/km pace!!!!

Everyone around me was telling me to forget him but I couldn't. My goal hadn't been to watch the clock..I was not prepared to calculate splits or pace..I had just wanted to run with the pacer in sight and see what I could do. So mentally I was at a loss and just kept running as best I could. Unfortunately going out to fast I hurt when I finally caught up to the pacer at 16km as he had started to ease up by now. I got in front but was hurting so just sat with him. At halfway mark we were at 1:43:00. I sat with him till perhaps the 30km mark and then sagged behind. My foot was really hurting and I had to stop and adjust my shoe. I think it was an excuse to stop running.

I loved my gus at 12k and 25k and the V i had at the 35km mark. Not sure if I should have taken anything else but my stomach was great and no upsets at all which suprised me! The V was a bit hard to swallow but it switched on the strong finish I badly needed.

Somewhere in the last 7km I did a 6min km - Not sure if this is where I adjusted my shoe or not but the garmin tells a shocking story. The last few km after I saw my family and then Katie I got really revved up and ran home in reasonable form. I even managed a strong run in the last 1km to finish strongly.

I was very dizzy afterwards and really sleepy...finally the flu tablets were closing my eyes and I excused myself from the celebrations and went home to sleep the sleep of the dead.
Thankfully I was back a few hours later to get some drinks into me and see everyone else and hear their stories.

Canberra is such a wonderful event and it is more about your own personal race...it is the race of so many others out there that affect you too. I recall two other runners on the course that made my day - a girl who was in front of me the whole way and stopped with just 4km to go (sore leg). I made her run again and she took off which gave me something to follow..also a guy who was really struggling and I held his arm and pulled him along. I am sure he was swearing at me..but he continued on to and I have some hope that I was able to get them through their thoughts of their own pain to continue on to finish.

Then there are all the wonderful, exciting stories....Luckylegs looking so strong...Uncle Dave finishing FIRST in a time of 2:26..Tesso trying to sneak up on me....Eddie trying to sneak up on Glenno (and succeeding!!!) Bad Andys first marathon, Wattos fastest marathon, Glennos PB for ages, Robbies support and 10km race, Katie...well what can I say about her - BEST DAMN SUPPORTER YOU EVER DID SEE. (trust me - if you saw her on the day you will know what I am talking about!!!!!)