4 hour run as 6 inch reverse taper hits top gear

Saturday 13th December 2008 AD;
Ran/walked a pretty hard course of about 32km, in;
4 hours 26min 19secs. HR-129. (7min 30 per km including breaks,walks)
About 7min 30 per km today which equates to 5hrs 45min 6 inch pace.

Well its a bit like Ghostbusters, when you need a solid long run, who ya gonna call, Hills Group C-team of course! So inspired to forget about all things sleep-in by past memories of magic long runs on beautiful trails, with good conversation with some of the legendary Comrades of the Hills group, I resolved to get off my backside and head up to Darlington, despite only having slept a 2 hour nap Friday aftyernoon and 1.5 hours sleep during the night. Was pleasantly greeted by some of the reliable stalwarts of the Hills group, with people like Terry,Phil B.,Jane, John C., and others. Set off at a nice easy pace, with the usual fun conversations.

The first hour was pretty good, but then a tough section of eagle view trail, which I didn't want to do because of my ankle, started to dominate the route, and I found myself walking more often than running, and so eventually I bailed out from the group of three of us, as I had to get off the eagle view trail, just too dangerous for me, and walking on eggshells was not the sort of run I wanted to do. Frankly I think this trail is more suited to hiking than running. However I still got to see an awesome view pretty much about 270 degrees panorama down to the plains below, including city,airport and heaps of stuff, truly was an "eagle view"!

Started in Darlington about 6.20am on about 3 hours sleep, we wnt up the trail to Glen Forrest, then up Hardey Rd hill, to Park Rd, (saw one of heaps of kangaroo sightings for the morning) getting through the first 7km in about 46minutes Then onto the eagleview trail, walked a lot of this section as it was just too dangerous for me, some scary stuff alongside Jane Brook in between the rushes, then a steep red clay hill , and then the summit of the trail soon after. Then more walking down very tricky steep terrain, felt pain in lateral side of my ankle at one time during this time, (but it seemed to settle), and then when I caught up with the others I yelled to them that I was going a different way as I had had enough of walking through difficult terrain, not what I had in mind for today. I decided to leave the group at the most western point of the trail and follow a track I recognised onto Pechey Rd. Ran up the big hills of Pechey Rd saw more kangaroos, and two ladies out running.

Got to Pechey Rd carpark with my watch about 1 hr 55 minutes. By this time I had already had my Carboshotz, and drank a fiar amount of the 2l of water I had in my hydration pak.

Took a 5 minute break to get gravel pebbles out of my shoes, and reassess what I wanted to do from here. Figured a 3-4 hour run would be ideal aggressive reverse taper prep for next weeks 6 Inch as long as I kept the intensity lowish so I did not blow up today too much or wear me out too much for next weekend.
Went back to the Bridge and return which was about an 8km section (4 km each way) on nice easy flat gravel trail. Did this in a comfortable 53 minutes so a relaxed 6min 37 per km, which included some walk breaks....Then headed down the trail towards Swanview and Midland, hitting low 6min s per km. It was starting to heat up and at Midland turn I finished the last of my gatorade and was starting to run low on water. From about 3hrs onwards my legs started to seize up and started to shuffle along in "grind planetarium" mode more and more...
Saw a rabbit run across the trail.

It was getting harder to run again every time I took a walk break. The uphill trail through Koongamia I was starting to struggle and when the trail finally flattened out and eventually reached a road, my watch was almost up to 4 hours, and I was a little unsure of my location. I had a rough idea which way to go but came to a sort of fork in the trail. Went one way for a few minutes then had second thoughts so backtracked found some street signs one said the approach, walked on that for a few moments but I could see that dropped away into some big valley, so figured it had to be the pipeline trail direction so went back to my first choice up the gravel trail, so wasted a few minutes there.

Eventually started to see a few houses, and came across a little hair salon, and decided to go in and ask them for directions. The lady there was very nice and confirmed that I was on the right track and that I was just coming alongside Pine Terrace. So that was a relief as it was very hot by now, (about 25-27 degrees
Celsius by 1030am-11am ) the ankle was aching a little, and I had run out of water. Less than 10minutes later I see the tennis courts and knew I was finally back to Darlington, after a wonderful tough, run that will stand me in very good stead, with the ankle still pretty much okay. So happy with this one. Afterwards enjoying more good conversation at the Bakery with some of the running legends of the Darlington and Comrades locations, people like the "Running Messiah", and Technology Kate.

Can now go into 6 inch next week with confidence knowing that if I can protect the ankle well, and use walk breaks strategically, I should be able to finish well under 8 hours and if things go well my 6hrs 10min PB may even be beatable.

Thursday 11th December 2008 AD;
Ran 2km in 8min 50.09 HR 180 (4min 25 per K),
on Hull park course, first run since October 12th without ankle strapped.

Decided to risk it tonight without the ankle strapped since I know this course well and its only a short run. Made it through with flying colours and worked hard enough to hit a sub 9 minute 2k. One of my better times on this course for sure. Very happy with it. Ankle is not 100% but its very greatly improved, i think its the best its been since October 12th. Another week of no meter reading is helping a lot! My foot is pretty yucky (lots of dead skin) as I have had this ankle strapped pretty much for about 55 days or more. So I figured on Wednesday I just had to get the strapping off and air out the foot. Have to get it into some salt water. I was extremely cautious with my footing, but it felt better on the bitumen sections even. Pushed the pace on some of the more flat grassy sections of Hull Park, and even on the bitumen this time. Good run this one. Plan from here is to restrap ankle again for the two main trail runs I want to do in the next 9 days or so, but in between those times to take the strapping off. So proceeding with extreme caution, but maybe the watershed has finally been reached . I hope so. Scans MRI's etc will have to wait until 2009...
Feeling very happy tonight, hopefully this is truly a new beginning and not just another "false summit"...

Monday 8th December 2008;
cycled on exercise bike for 10minutes.