Here we go, here we go, Melbourne is go???!!!!

Found the list of Cool Running posters doing the Melbourne Marathon it is HERE

My post on WAMC messageboard tells the story;
I am 95% sure I will be running the Melbourne Marathon, have now booked flights and accomodation, and got the ok from my wonderful wife (I think)....
had some minor shin-splints this week, so icepacking that and will probably go into enforced taper this weekend as far as long runs go (as I think my 33k and 27k (brooking rd hill) in the last 2 weeks at the hills group, plus my daily meter reading work, Perth half,city to surf Half, and 27k the week b4 that (plus residual strength built up b4 and during Perth Marathon 07) should be enough to see me handle the 42K's no worries...), main focus for me now shifts to rest and finetuning speed and fitness in hopes of a PB...I may still rock up to the hills group this weekend to run say an easy 22k, but pretty unlikely..see how I feel this saturday.

All the best to those running waterous 50 miles/100miles, big !sorry!!! but looks like I won't be there this time in person, but in spirit I will be cheering you on, and praying...

all the best to all doing Melbourne!!!
(I know of at least 4 people who are doing it, and apperently a large number from the WAMC northern suburbs group) Hope you have an injury free and enjoyable run onto the MCG on the 30th anniversary of one of the top 3 major marathons of australia (along with gold coast and sydney) and to a lesser extent the world....be interesting to hear about who is running and how they go...
http://www.melbournemarathon.com.au/

TSTF, email me directly on jontheroadrunner@rocketmail.com and maybe we can catch up in melbourne perhaps a short warm down on the sunday afternoon on the Tan or something...(and anyone else who wants to run with fellow perth-ites)...

wuhoo! I'm excited...
just over a week to go until the big day!

Brooking Rd 27km in 3hrs 06

Saturday 22nd September 2007; Ran about 27km in 3hours 6min 32 secs. HR 159 (6min 54 per km) Finished off strongly in the last 1km or so, and between that and some tough hills on Brooking Rd and other spots, these things resulted in an elevated heart rate.

Different course this time. Went Darlington towards Midland then up the northern trail past Pechey Rd, saw lots of Kangaroos on the section from the Railway tunnel past the waterfalls. Ran with two comrades legends (and Melbourne Marathon entrants) who Ive run with a few times now, and another John, who is a regular with the Hills group. Sonshine Fm (really should sign up as a one for one pledge partner one day) gets a bit of a listen in our family on the car radio, especially as my wife just isn't that into my death and thrash metal (usually Deliverance,Mortification,

>demon Hunter, Grave Forsaken (perth), Scourged Flesh (perth), Tourniquet etc which I often have in the CD player in my car) interests, enough to let me play that stuff on the radio all the time, and one catchy song we've heard a few times by The Lads (can buy here) which is maybe/maybe not a cover based on Dave Berg (tennessee/keith urban land), is called Coffee with Jesus, and somehow or another got talking about this song a bit with the other 3 runners as we went past the railway tunnel towards the first waterfall on the Railway heritage trail...Pretty relaxed pace which was good as I wasn't feeling full of beans today even though I am over the flu now, and resting heart rate was 52 this morning which is ok.

Kept getting those annoying gravel pebbles in my shoe and had to keep stopping to get those out and then catch up with the other 3 runners.
I think its cos my shoes are a tiny bit (about half a size) too long, which I tolerate because it give me better width around the forefoot, but I have to be extra careful as a result that little pebbles don't get into my clogs I mean shoes *LOL*...
In the last few days I have been getting some slight medial soreness just above my ankle on my left foot when at work walking briskly around the streets, this flared up again a little, but mostly didn't cause me any concern, but i might need to keep an eye on it/icepack it to make sure it doesn't become any worse.

Then I got my first chance to run the infamous Brooking Rd hill which I had heard lots about on Garys (WAMC club president) emails. It was a fairly steep and long hill and by the top of the hill I was pretty had it! Then there was a few more hills. Finally we hit the Southern Railway heritage trail which I've run on many times, and the sign said only 6km to go. Some excellent discussions out there, and between the beautiful scenery, excellent conversation, and a decent long run to consolidate last weeks run, kangaroos, frogs, creeks, I was thinking does it get better than this on a training run?!! Not much...so a wonderful long run very satisfying! and enjoyable! with great company.

Melbourne Marathon is a goer for me in terms of long runs. I have now done enough long runs to be well positioned for an ok marathon. The only question marks now are can I get some reps done and finetune the fitness to be fast enough and fit enough to be able to go well under 4 hours. The other question marks is have I got enough money for the flights, I think so, but I need to get as much done as possible at work in the next few days so I can ensure all costs are covered. Doing overtime later today at work for example. The final question is how Kathryn feels about it, as the logistics of taking a baby to Melbourne are not easy, and neither are the logistics of leaving her at home with the baby, so thats something we have to reach agreement on there, and it may be that for those reasons I do not go. We shall see, hopefully exciting times ahead. Six Inch is only 11 weeks away, so its good to start building my bank of long runs for that too. Think its unlikely I will do Rottnest Marathon but I may duck over for the 10k or something. Freo 10k/5k tomorrow probably won't show up although it might be nice to work on getting faster (similiar to reps) by running that tomorrow...Hopefully onwards and upwards!

3hrs 47 for messy 33km Darlington to Mt Helena loop

Saturday 15th September Ran 33km (Darlington to Mt Helena and back) in 3hrs 47min 20 secs, HR-147. Splits 1hr 50/1hr 57. (6.53 per km)
This run is 21 minutes quicker than what I did for this course on 25th November 2006. See here for link to old post of that run...

As per usual slept in and got to hills training group in Darlington,
late at 0630. Still have the flu so stuffed a handful of tissues into
my hydration pack along with a cola carboshotz and 2 powerades. The tissues were a very good move and without them I would not have got through 33km. My resting heart rates the last two days were 48 and 55 compared to high 50's an 60's before that when I was sicker, so even though I am still blowing my nose every hour or so, I felt I was ready to do a low intensity type session like a long run, although I knew it would be a bit of a struggle.

Important not to let my specific running endurance strength slip as its now 4 weeks since I ran the 27km up here in the hills, although I have done two half marathon races in recent weeks. Plus I am having mad thoughts of maybe trying to get over for a race in the Melbourne Marathon in a few weeks in search of that elusive PB. Although if I do that I won't be able to help support Dave and Nathans 100mile run, so its a tough dilemma
On the one hand I'd love to help them out and it wouldn't cost me anywhere near as much money to go to Dwellingup and run 30k in the bush with them, but I have helped them out many times, and the excitement of running onto the MCG and maybe getting that PB to make up for my disappointing Perth Marathon is hard to resist. The logistics of both Melbourne and Dave and Nathans Waterous 100mile run are both difficult for me to juggle with Kathryn and Jacob, and all the work and baby demands, so maybe I'll just do neither, but I would like to help Dave and Nathan in their quest, and the lure of the excitement of running the Melbourne Marathon is a massive one, could be the only year that it finishes on the MCG so if I don't go this year I may never get to finish a marathon on the MCG. Plus a lot of people from perth are going including several from the Hills Training Group, and blogger TS&TS, so what to do...In the end, Kathryn and I have to make a mutual decision together, so I guess her input will help US decide, but I think I am leaning strongly towards running the Melbourne Marathon if possible, providing I train well enough in the next 2 weeks or so, if I don't there is no way I am going over there to run 4.20 or slower, I want to be confident of going sub 4 hours and giving the 3.55 PB a very good shake! Decisions decisions, the paralysis of choice...

In that case I can hopefully do some reps in the week or so before to try and improve fitness enough to snare that PB, but my long run stuff must be done today and next week to give me time to recover for the race. So rather than wait another week (cos little chance of me getting away from home to do a long run any other time other than weekend, and the hills group is such a motivating place to run for me, I enjoy seeing other runners out there doing similiar and having a bit of a chat with a few of them) until I was fully over the flu (which was a very attractive soft option), I decided I would have to try and get out there today.
My biggest worry was not getting too close to anyone as I did not want to share my flu with other runners. Ended up running mostly on my own cos I was late, except for a few recognisable faces running back along the trail, and a brief chat with Phil B. who was doing a 40km in prep for Melbourne Marathon...

Lots!! of frogs and winter brooks, puddles and a bit cold at times. I wasted a lot of time getting gravel stones out of my shoes, and stopping to blow my nose a few times, so a messy run with too many short breaks, but still ok. Was never going to push the pace that much being still a bit sick, but thats not important the main thing was to be out there for over 3 hours and 33km...So mission accomplished for today! Was hoping to get back earlier to my wife Kathryn and baby Jacob, but it ended up taking a fair bit longer than expected. Overall a very satifactory run. Splits included 52min for 8km, 60min for 9.5km in Mundaring, 76min for 11km at Great Eastern Hwy, 90min for 13.5km at Sawyers Rd.

My new Deliverance CD from Soundmass came yesterday its called "As above so below", and I had a lot of this progressive speed metal songs in my head while I was running today spurring me on with songs like As above so below, Screaming (no not the lead screamo in our little family Mr Jacob), My Love, and so on....

However I am not! going to try and do any more reps until I am fully good to go, which hopefully is only a few days away.

So where to from here, I am not sure just yet, but hopefully its going to be somewhere good...and todays run consolidates and extends the gains i have made in the last few weeks. A satisfying and important run to do...

In search of reps @ Arena with a mini-ladder

Wednesday 5th september 2007; Ran "mini-ladder" reps session of 400m/2km/400m @ Arena Joondalup in the late PM. 4minute rests. Times; 400m-1min 26/ 2km 9min 33/ 400m 1min 23. Heart rates were 153/165 and 171 respectively.

I was pretty tired already after about 7 hours of sweating it out at work, but since I was working so close to Arena Joondalup couldn't pass up the chance to go run at one of my favourite venues of all time, and revisit my hilly 2km course.
Plus I am a bit sick with the flu this week, so was a bit clogged up in the thoat and nose, so no way I was going to push hard, plus need to get home to wife and baby. But rather than another golden opportunity to do reps at Arena Joondalup gone begging, I decided to just go out and do a very easy relaxed session, just to remind me mentally of what I want to do, and to blow away a few cobwebs fitnesswise.

If I can get over this flu and follow up with some more sessions soon, I could reap the benefits of tonight, even though I ran at about 70% fitness at best tonight.
So once again in search of some weekly reps sessions. My first session of this kind for about 2 months...A small positive. Enjoyed the run. Saw some of the Northern Suburbs training group finishing their run.

Update; Friday 7th September I am very sick with the flu or something, and un-operational for almost everything....until further notice (i.e. until I am well again)...

Mediocre 1.53 Perth Half marathon race

Sunday 2nd September Ran Perth Half Marathon in 1hr 53min 49. HR 186 at end.
10.55km splits about 54min/59min.
Splitted 6k in 29min or so, 12k in 62min 05, and 18km in 1hr 34min, so 29min/32min/32min for the first 3 6km splits. Pretty even but not as fast as I'd hoped. The heat and headwinds on the way back to Burswood, started to take their toll on me, and mentally I was a bit pathetic between 18k to 20k, so unable to go sub 1.50 as I'd hoped. Probably a few good reps sessions away from a time in the low 1.40's. First 1k was 4.17, 2k 9.02, 3k 13.49, 5k 24.02, 10k 50.50. Started ok hitting around 5min per K, but was doing about 7min per k in the last few km. Found it hard to be motivated in the last few km and I paid for my lack of reps in the second half of the race a lot. On a much easier course than last weekend, a bit disappointing to only go 31 seconds quicker.
Official results @ HERE.
I placed 279th out of 422 runners.
Just have to regroup and get some serious reps done before I race again if I want to improve. At least it was a good way to celebrate my first Fathers day as a Father. scary but sensational stuff.

I'm thinking maybe Sydney,Rotto (or the 10k) or Melbourne Marathons might be worth a shot, plus six inch 45km and a few other races to hopefully finish the year off on a good note. As usual I am waiting for a big breakthrough race. Hopefully soon.
My last two half-marathon races on the last two weekends have been ok, on par with what I ran in Bridges and Challenge 10km races, but I won't be that happy with this years racing unless I get into some B-grade territory with my times.