Training on the Emu and Kiwi weekend

ANZAC Day this Friday. ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps of course, and I heard John Williamson singing a song on TV on Anzac Day about a Kiwi and an Emu, and "if you pick on one, you pick on two"...which was a reference to the Anzacs, and Australians and New Zealanders fighting together...Thats where I "plagiarised" the idea for my blog post title from this time...

Sunday 27th April 2008 A.D.;PM; Did 200 Ab crunches. Kathryn did 4x50 (4 different varieties)

Cycled for 33min on exercise bike to the lovely intense sounds of my cassette tape of Tourniquets 1990? Stop the bleeding album, songs like Tears of Korah, and You get what you pray for, and finishing with Somnambulism. Forgot to take heart rate but estimate around high 140's, low 150's...
Also went on a brisk walk with Kathryn and Jacob to shops and back, Kathryn jogged the last few minutes pushing the pram. Left forefoot still a little tender after long run yesterday, and some tightness in left hammy tonight...

Saturday 26th April 2008 A.D.;
AM; Ran 33km in 3 hours 43 minutes 54 seconds. (6min 47 per Km)
Heart rate 132 at end, probably higher earlier on...
Splits; 1hr 42/2hrs 01 minute.
Is a PB for this Darlington to Mt Helena course by about 4 minutes,
although not really going allout, and carrying a 4kg Hydration pak (2L water+ 2 gatorades) as per usual.

A little cold and windy at the start, but perfect conditions really.
Probably drank too much fluids, and only used one of the Gatorades.
As per usual I woke up after about 4 hours sleep thinking "you must be crazy Jon" to myself, and I even had the Crazy Johns tune in my head from hearing it on TV :-) *LOL* hahaha. But I brushed aside such thoughts sorted out the cats and headed for Darlington.

Arrived just in time to run at the back of the A-team but they were going in another direction to where I wanted to go. So I ran with an injured athlete for a few km, had a good chat then pulled away, (had the first of several No1's toilet breaks, and started to feel good, ready to push the pace a bit. When I made it to Mundaring (9.5km) in 59.05 (and saw Tim Bradley heading back) I knew I was set for a good day and my initial thoughts of just doing 22km today evapourated. Great Eastern Hwy (11km) soon loomed up and the new $10 watch I got from Kmart on Thursday said 69min 40. I knew that I had to go for my preferred target of 27km...Still felt a million dollars at 13.5km (83min), and decided to take the plunge and go all the way to Mt Helena, since I figured (a) I might not get the chance to come to the Hills next week (I expect I will have very limited petrol money for one thing),(b) I felt really good, (c) I am keen to start getting the 33km+ long run stuff on the board regularly with the Perth Marathon only 10 weeks away now...Had Deliverance instruMetal song "Thistles" still playing in my head from listening to it on the way to Darlington a lot in the first 90minutes especially.

When I arrived at Mt Helena in 1 hour 42minutes I knew I was a chance to beat my best time for this course (although I couldn't remember what it was, as beforehand I had only checked my times for 22km and 27km on the Darlington Railway Heritage Trail course. Decided to scull my first Gatorade at this point. The very cool conditions meant that fluids were not a high priority, plus I was pretty relaxed. Figured I was an outside chance to finish the run in the 3 hour 30's at this point...Started to get some of Grave Forsakens "horror and sadness" song in my head a little at this time...

When I saw the sign by the trail saying 10.1km to Darlington, my watch said
2hrs 24min.58. So I knew that 6.30 per km would get me to the finish in 3hours 30.
At that point I figured I was a chance. Then I started to get minor twinges in my left hip, and decided to take it easy as I don't want any knew injuries to manage, and got to Mundaring in 2hours 32min with 9.5km to go. My time of solitude which continued for most of the run, was up to 90min now, and in a lot of ways I was enjoying it a lot. Prayed a little.

Saw dozens of those black "rainbird" cockatoos at one point, and they were throwing lots of branches and green honky nuts on the trail...Was a surreal experience running along the trail surrounded by a massive bunch of them on both sides of the trail an in the trees above for a few minutes.

Walked a few times to sort out the sore left hip, and had to take a couple more no 1's toilet breaks, and was now forced to take it easy due to the sore hip, so now more trying to push the pace under 6min per km. In the last 6km (27km mark) I started to stiffen up, and started to feel a bit of "grind planetarium" mode sort of mode, where my breathing was very easy, but the legs were getting very heavy.
From there it was slow progress as I could only manage well over 7min per km, but was pretty happy with the whole run.

Friday 25th April 2008 A.D.(ANZAC DAY);

PM; Ran 2km in 8min 45.25 (4.22 per K). Heart Rate 168 at end.
Hull Park course PB for me, beating the 9min 07 I did on 6th January this year.
The speed per K is pretty slow really, but the distance is approximate and involves a lot of road crossings and terrain changes, although its mostly dead flat. Probably should be able to go well under 8 minutes, but its more a loosener/recovery run type course for me. Was inspired by the Dockers winning the first half against Geelong Cats, so decided to get in a quick run at halftime. Felt solid but pretty relaxed for a run that short. This is reflected in the heart rate which is high intensity, but not really in maximal zone (that would be 170's/180's). Nice little gallop to make today an easy double session day.

AM; Cycled 40 minutes on exercise bike. Heart rate 156 at end.

Had some Tourniquet songs from Vanishing Lessons and the Test for leprosy (Stop the Bleeding) playing on cassette tape while Jacob played in the high chair.
Fired up,cranked up the intensity a bit to get the higher heart rate with some vintage thrash metal riffs, and Ted Kirkpatricks usual maniacal but intricate double bass and cymbals attack drumming, with stuff like, K517,Drowning Machine,Acid head,Pecking order,Bearing gruesome cargo, and finally Test for Leprosy,Ready or not, and Ark of Suffering. I just love Tourniquet. Afterwards I stretched and felt a whole lot more happier about the world in general...
Also got Kathryn my wife to do 16 minutes on the exercise bike too.

WEEK 6 (21/04/08-27/04/08);

Volume; 306min + 19hrs MR work. Sessions; 4 +MR

Best RHR; 52 bpm Sleep; 44.5hrs (6.36hrs per night) *48


OD/LSD; 33km 3hr 43.

Races/Time trials/LFD; NIL

Reps sessions;NIL

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-yes 33km 3hr 43
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-no failed.
3-Abs done?-yes 200x1.
4-cycling done-yes 40minute high intensity ride, and 33min ride.
5-swim done?-no failed

Comments;...
Need "more reps" (just for my fans), long run was a nice one to get done and the 40min ride,33min ride and to a lesser extent the 2km run were great sessions to get done this week. Really enjoyed my long run this week. Acutely aware of the need to avoid new injuries.
Maybe good to get some more shoes in May or June, or I can race and train in the same pair for a couple of months as per usual (probably what will happen)...
I feel I am on the cusp of something good if I can just breakthrough the other issues in my life during May somehow (with God's help), or if not, well so be it.
I think this could well be my last Perth Marathon for awhile if I don't break through to another level (sub 3.30 at least) this year, I am not going to grind it out doing 4hour marathons year after year, I'd rather do something different. If however we can get a bit closer to my ultimate goal of a sub 3 hour marathon, then I will persist, otherwise I might just become
a feral trails runner/mountainbiker/hiker/mountainclimber or something, and focus more on maintaining fitness for good quality health, and recreational family reasons, which at some point I think I will do anyway. Don't know if I want to race competively every year for the rest of my life...

So a good platform to go into May with now with my longer efforts this year so far being;
January; 26/1 27km 3 hour run.

February; 2/2 33km 4 hour run

March; 1/3 37km 5 hour run, 24/3 46km 5 hour race run.

April; 5/4 2 hours on exercise bike, 13/4 21km 2 hour race run,

26/4 33km 4 hour run.
Significant shorter stuff has been; 5km race, 2x10km races, 5.25km trails time trial, Major trackwork; 10k reps session,5km ladder,5x300m,5x200m.

Overall nowhere near what I want in 4 months (or 6 weeks of trying to get something going towards the Perth Marathon), but enough high quality stuff, to be building some much better momentum than last year. Hopefully can put together several good training weeks in May and June so that my 5th Perth Marathon is a good chance at a big P.B. I wont get very far in these dreams unless a lot of my life takes some major turns for the better I think...But hey some positives there to hopefully build on.