36km Epic Eagle View and JF run

Sunday 14th September 2008 AD;
AM;
RAN APPROX. 36km* in 4hours 15min 46secs Heart rate 138 at end.

*distance may have been more like 38km or more since Hovea distance sign at Pechey Rd reads 5.9km and I thought it was 5km, so may have done 38km rather than 36km.

(7min 06 per km but slowed down by continual uphill and downhil most of first 18km, breaks totalling about 30minutes in the first 18km, some walking of steeper downhill bits...+ a 5min break at end of 18km, first 18km a fast LSD (long slow distance HR's 120-155) style run verging on LFD (hr'S OVER 160 FOR lONG FAST DISTANCE) at times climbing some of the hills strongly, last 18km under 7min per km a lot of the way but a lot more ODish (overdistance,low intensity HR's 140 or less) in style)

Some splits;
approximately 18km 2hr 2minutes.
approximately 28km 3hrs 15minutes.

I eneded up feeling I needed to sleepin on Saturday morning so was banking on running with Dave near Waroona at the end of his 100miler in the bush there from 7pm, imagine my dismay when I get a phonecall saying his ITB is playing up and he has decided to call it quits for the day...so that left the Godsend of an option on Sunday, which I wasn't feeling too keen about after watching the Wallabies lose to the allblacks and going into blogging world and updating my websites for a few hours, it was 4am, winds were gusting to about 50km/h it looked like rain, and I had only slept 4 hours on the couch, so I decided not to go to bed, but to just go straight out there...

The first 18km was mostly on hilly Eagle View Trail, but started from corner of Pechey Rd and Morrison Rd with Chris and Alli, plus some of their Northern Suburbs Training Group people, and this exciting run began with a run through the railway tunnel, in near pitch darkness, followed by a turn off the John Forrest National Park railway heritage trail at the National Park waterFalls (where Kathryn and I did many walks back in 2005...), onto the Eagle View Trail, which quickly became single file stuff with large bushes either side of trail. Not the easiest place to run and the first of some little inclines appeared...

Then it was up the hill at the big bridge, back onto the Railway Heritage trail until just before Hovea Falls, where we rejoined the Eagle View Trail, and started the first of many climbs up a pretty long hill. At times the trail was a 4wd track with plenty of room, but a lot of the time it was a steep downhill or uphill "kangaroo track with a lot of ankle hazards which made high concentration levels a must to keep running safely. One steep downhill bit, I lost my footing after tripping on a rock, got airborne in a big way and "practiced my freestyle strokes" while enjoying the airtime, but managed to have a pretty stable landing on both feet praise God.... Soon after there was a little creek/brook at the bottom of the steep hill which I was able to do some "long jump" practice to leap over the brook without getting my feet wet, although they were already wet from the puddles in the very long railway tunnel early in the run...

Awesome views and truly running through the forest, in fact the trail was so narrow in places you felt like you were part of the bush. Kookaburras and other birds.
We started with 11 of us, but I ended up running with the back group of 5 or so mostly, and was working pretty hard to stay with their pace. Reckon I was hitting heart rates of 150-170's maybe even higher on some of the climbs. We exited the trail onto Pechey Rd at the same place where my wife Kathryn and I had a few years ago when we got lost hiking in the rain for 3 hours a few years ago. Climbing up the steep hills of Pechey Rd we saw two kangaroos bound across the road, one of which was very large, looked about 6 foot 5 tall at least I reckon.

At the carpark I decided to add an extra 10km by running (at a lower intensity) along the nice easy railway heritage trail out to Hovea Falls and back while the others went home. Was feeling ok, when I got back in 3hrs 15 so decided to go again out to the Bridge to add an extra 8km to give me my longest run since the Perth Marathon in JUly!!!

Ecstatic to get this run done, very important session done for my Melbourne plans in 4 weeks. "Mission accomplished" as far as long runs go for this weekend.

Saturday 13th September Cycled 30min on exercise bike. According to dodgy speedo I did 18.5km and burned 310 calories. HR about 110.

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 8 (08/09/08-14/09/08);

Volume; 285min + 23hrs MR work Sessions;2
Best RHR; 53bpm Sleep; 37.5hrs (5.35hrs per night) *36

OD/LSD; YES!!!!!!!
Races/Time trials/LFD; sorta. some parts of the first 18km,
of my long run were a bit LFD'ish...reckon HR was in 180s-190's
at the top of one hill....
Reps sessions;No... duh

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-Yes!!!!!!!
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-No...
3-Abs done?-
4-cycling done-Yes.
5-swim done?-Nope...
Comments; Extremely happy with my long run! Keeps things on track in that department, and with 4 weeks to go I have done enough to last the distance well, with maybe 1-3 more shorter long runs all that will help my time from here.
The big area to work on now in the next 3-4 weeks is my general fitness which means at least 1 more half marathon race, and some reps, high intensity short running sessions from here what is needed to put me in position to smash my 2004 PB on October 12th...I am starting to look better prepared than last year now after that 36km run... Just have to find the way to get that done...Also need to get more sleep!!! and to keep work,bills family life all ticking along nicely, which is not often easy...