1600's and 12k in 57.07 with 7 days to go

Nice to see Lleyton Hewitt into the 4th round ***UPDATE; Quarter Finals V Roddick...*** at Wimbledon...C'MON!!!!!

Well another solid but average week. All week I though about doing a 20k + time trial or a 35k+ long run. In the end I was too preoccupied with other stuff, and decided I'd probably be better off tapering a bit now...

Resting heart rates hit a 45 and a 47 this week, so seems my fitness is coming good at the right time...

My last 5 training weeks have been; 369min/146min/136min/276min/ and now 181min. So 5 solid weeks in a row, although I'd prefer to be in the 400-600min or more area...Plus my monthly longer runs/rides (2-4 hours) throughout 2009 should help me a lot, although I'd have to say I will be tested a lot in the last 12km on July 5th. But weight still hovering around the 81-83kg mark, which means I'll probably be carrying many more kg's (about 5-10kg) more on July 5th 2009, than I was in 2008.
Because my meter reading hours have been way down so far this year, (adjusting to house, move, and body getting tired and worn out (lack of paid holidays in the last 3 years partly, plus adjusting to the 2 jobs setup this year),... The weight has stacked on.
Hoping (clutching at straws maybe) a fair amount of it is muscle as my training in the last 5 weeks although still a long way shy of ideal, has been a little better than last years in the last 5 weeks.

Have I done enough to survive the whole way. Yes I think so. Will I suffer and slow in the second half, yes I will, so it will come down to sheer guts at the end if I am to run well and finish well...

Getting nervous, but thats good cos it means I am psyched for this one...
Will the 12km help or hinder me..I don't know...
Going to try and take it easy with hopefully only 1 intense session in the final week...

Sunday 28th June A.D.;
Session 2 Late PM;;
Cycled for 15minutes on exercisae bike, allegedly covering 9.5km. HR 108. Good cadence, but pretty cruisy.

Session 1 early PM;
Ran 12km in 57min 07 HR 177. (4min 45 per km?)
Gee I hope this course is close to accurate. (15 laps of 800m course on oval)
Good solid time-trialish hitout which I hope will set me up nicely for the marathon in a weeks time, and hopefully the 7 days is enough to recover from this short long run, and the Half marathon last weekend... Worked pretty hard, alternated the direction a few times, and had a few minor skirmishes with dog walkers letting their dogs off the lead as per usual...
Went through 10km in 47min 31 (quickest 10k this year if course is vaguely accurate), and hit 4km splits of 17.42/19.56/19.29... Very pleased with this run. Not much rain, but running into howling gusty headwinds,crosswinds a lot of the way, which made it hard going although I also got to enjoy some howling gusty tailwinds a few times too...
Some 800m splits;
3.06/3.35/3.35/3.41/3.45
4.09/3.53/3.58/4.05/3.51
3.57/4.01/3.55/3.54/3.42

Saturday 27th June A.D.;
Session 2;
Cycled 30 minutes on exercise bike. HR 102.

Session 1;
Ran a nocturnal 4km in 18min 49, HR 165, into some gusty winds, in almost total darkness on the oval, couldnt see the ground much...

Thursday 25th June A.D.;
Ran 1600m (approx. 1 mile) in 6min 33.10. Heart rate only 168.
Very time poor but jammed this one in before I went to work and had me feeling a whole lot better when I eventually got to work as a result. Short but sweet enough.

Wednesday 24th June A.D.;
Ran 5x 1600m reps in 32min 54.07, HR's 174-183. Average mile time 6.34.81
Fastest mile 6.12.62. Average speed 4min.06 per km.
Rep times; 6.12/6.31/6.44/6.44/6.40

Pretty wet conditions, was very saturated by the end, and trying to avoid running in the big puddles on the oval. Although the rain got a bit annoying by about the 3rd rep, it was pretty good weather conditions for reps, until the the last 2 reps when I was carrying too much excess water in my shirt and squelchy shoes. Overall a very successful reps session, which I think is worth a lot in my quest to try and go sub 4 hours again in the 2009 Perth Marathon on July 5th...
Also very pleasing that the Heart rate stayed in the low 180's and 170's and didn't get to 186 or higher. Means we probably could have pushed a bit harder, maybe was a bit slack...

Perth Half Tempo builds momentum slowly

Sunday 21st June AD;
Ran Perth Half Marathon in 2hrs 00min 35 seconds...(5min 42 per km average) Ran it tempo run style, (thanks Slingrunner for the advice on that one although I didn't decide on running tempo style until sunday) as felt too trashy to race it after tough night at work (finished 0210, slept 0315 to 0615, raced 0800)) where we had 70+ calls waiting for most of the night, and not until 1am did the 20 of us get it down to 0 calls waiting...Forgot to take HR. Splits from my wristwatch and th K markers on the course;
10.55km splits; 58.09/62.26
First 21km; 7km splits; 38.19/40.30/41.09
Other key times; 1st 1k a cruisy 4.36.
10k 55.19. 20k 1.53.53...

Heaps of fun catching up with various people including the "Simon Says Sub 4" girls, Hills group people, CoolRunners mjail, turtle-runner and others, and Silvio with his swiss bells gave me a lot of encouragement in the last 6-7km.

Saw Clown training (not racing)out there going on about the latest wet toast player Nick Nanatuni (very good recruit I must admit, saw him playing for Swan Districts last year actually with some mates of mine at Bassendean Oval...Jeff Farmer (ex Fremantle and Melbourne AFL football legend, "The Wizard" and that he is!!! should be playing AFL this year but Fremantles overly aggressive "youth policy"...look what its done for Melbourne...relegated him and Peter Bell back to South Fremantle to kick bags of goals for them every week, and Peter Bell captained the WA state side... ) was playing for South Fremantle that day too...weaving his magic...Nick has an incredible leap, and I have read meters on his home street, and it was very low socio-economic area, Nick Yarran (Carlton) and a couple of other AFL players all lived on that trashy street in downtown Midvale/Midland...Fijian born dreadlocks Nick will I am sure thrill my Wet Toast fanatical wife for years to come...and give John Worsfold some hope again...wonder if John will run the Perth Marathon again this year???

Had a fun time...enjoyed the run immensely after I started to feel better from 5km onwards...

Overall not what I'd planned but headache and lack of sleep, lack of motivation to run fast = totally uninterested mentally in racing hard today...so a fast tempo run instead...not what I planned but I think I made some more big gains today.

This means this week is a good momentum builder for the Perth Marathon in 2 weeks, probably will try to go harder this week at the training. Next week (June 29th onwards) I will drop the volume, and avoid long intense runs in the last 3-7 days before the Perth Marathon on July 5...so I have some sort of taper...Have arranged for time off work on the saturday before the marathon so I will be ready to race...Hopefully I can at least beat the "Simon says Sub 4" girls I saw out on the course today...cool idea that one hahaha...If I can finally beat that 2004 PB of 3.55.02 I will be a happy man......Hopefully the injuries will stay away in the second half of the year, and I can get the weight down, and hit Melbourne with everything Ive got in October...

Friday 19th June AD;
AM; While my wife Kathryn was busy doing Jacobs swimming lesson, I snuck away and jammed in a 500m swim session in 17min 23, (HR 138) my first swim session for a very long time...Pretty slow time, but felt good to do something different and get the day off to a better start...

PM; Ran 4km 5-lapper course on oval in 17min 30, HR -165. Solid but nothing incredible. Although I did hit the first 800m in 2.56 only my second time under 3 minutes on this course...Sweated out the chlorine from the mornings swim, and hit the showers feeling really good and ready for the back-to-back horror Friday/Saturday night 1800-0200 shifts in the callcentre...

Thursday 18th June AD;
16km reps session (long reps) 71min 24secs Heart rates 165-192 at the end of each rep...

Average speed for reps session was 4min 27 per km, and the 16.31 4km is 4min 07 per km...
So if my course is not too short (it is very flat of course being an oval), thats some pretty good paces...I.E...about 40-45min pace for 10k...so hopefully if I can build on this I can see some sub 45min 10k race action later in the year, and prove a few people wrong on that score...

Hit the first 800m of the 16.31 4km in 2min 54, which is my quickest on that 800m lap course...

Was extremely shattered after the the rep with the 192 Heart rate, had to back off a bit after that one...First rep was 4km in 16min 31 secs and that was a PB for that course by 20 seconds, so was ecstatic with that rep, and surprisingly HR was only 165, but after the next rep the heart rate at end was 192, so the accumulated lactic acid started to bite in the second rep???...

Poured with rain quite heavily in second half of the session when I was weary enough to consider giving it away, but I stuck at it, the rain cleared up and then I had trouble towards the end with a council truck driving all over the oval throwing out clouds of fertiliser into my face, and I was already digging deep, but stack at it finished the session, took the trucks number plate, and beat my last effort at this session in June 2005 by 3 seconds, although that was on a much hillier (therefore heaps tougher) Arena Joondalup course...

Extremely happy with this session one of the best ones I've done this year...Maybe the best this year in many ways...When I did it in June 2005, a few weeks later I ran 4.02 in my second Perth Marathon. My USA based brother and wife helped me with drinks on that one...
Made up some significant conditioning and fitness ground with this session...

Tuesday 16th June AD;
Ran 4km in 18min 35...(oval 5 lapper) Nocturnal nine pm run in the dark, thought floodlights would be on, but they were not, but I was keen to run, so did, didn't matter too much that I couldn't see the ground...

solid 20k run, but thats all folks

Sunday 14th June 2009 A.D.;
Ran 4km in 20min 26 HR 162.
5 laps of oval, relaxed easy recovery run, to try and get myself into a more positive frame of mind after a tough night at work last night. (1800-0230)...

Saturday 13th June 2009 A.D.
Did 150 ab crunches.

Wednesday 10th June 2009 AD;
Ran hilly 20km in 1 hr 56min 02, HR 186. (5min 48 per km)
Splits; 56.16/59.46
which is significantly higher in intensity to what I did 2 weeks ago (26th May) , when I ran 2hrs 7min with splits of 64min/62min, Heart rate 153 at end...

I was pretty tired by the end, and a heart rate of 186 is racing intensity, although the steep hill at the finish probably raised it a lot above what I was running at during most of the run...

I think about 6-8km of this course is pretty hilly (at the start and the finish), while the rest is pretty flat and fast, especially on the cyclepath alongside the Freeway. Was very happy with this run, as i achieved my main target of going under 2 hours. For awhile I thought sub 1.50 (5min 30) might be possible but I tired a lot on the last couple of km of hills...

Very tempting to just give the Perth Half and Perth Marathon a miss, and wait until my training is better (if it ever is...!), but that might throw away windows of opportunity, or the spark I need to get things to a better level. Some worrying hip soreness in the last day or so...

1. mini-disaster one; Was planning a 35k+ long run on saturday morning but Jacob (our wonderful 2 year old) woke up before 6am, and after that I couldn't get out of the house......Was stuck there doing family stuff all, day, which I don't mind, but it was very frustrating not to get out to planned long run...but thats part of being a parent and a husband sometimes you dont get to do what you plan on doing...

hoping to get the big long one (at slow/low intensity!) done some time in the next week or so, reading about David Crinitis 2x35km runs 5 days before winning the Canberra marathon in R4YL magazine reminds me that a 2 week taper is not needed in some cases, especially when your training is allover the place like mine...Nice to see the photos of Dave, Nathan, (both groomsmen at my wedding back in 2006) Jane, Kate, (hills group, and Comrades people) and other West Aussies in the Mag, glad I bought it. Also some interesting reads about lotsa stuff, like Mezan the Ethiopian runner who suicided, after dropping out of the AIS..., Sarah Jamiesons latest training partner, David Crinitis lead in to the Canberra marathon, and heaps of other stuff...

2. mini-disaster 2; too sick/unwell this week to do reps I desperately need to do, to up the intensity...

Compared to last years prep I am again ahead on training time with 136minutes compared to 115minutes training time in the same week last year, but I feel unwell (resting heart rates have been over 56-73 in the last 8 days), I'm still 83kg, (although it dropped to 81kg after the 20k run), and generally I feel like i am not ready to race well, but then again if I shake this flu or whatever it is and nail some reps, the injuries don't misbehave too much, the resting heart rates should dip down under 50 again and maybe I can get the weight down under 80kg in time for the marathon...not feeling very positive at the moment but still have something to build on...

Trying to "turn up the power"........despite all the usual work,house,job,family etc etc issues to deal with...

106min run n 1 other=easy/pathetic week

Hit 1 of 3 key sessions for this week (the 15km), so 1 is better than none, but hoping for much better efforts in the next 2-3 weeks, befoe the final taper week starts. Need to recover properly from the flu (funnily enough I had the flu this exact same week last year, which stopped me from running Lake Monger 10k race last year too...), and get my hammy exercises done more often. 4 weeks to glory or more mediocrity, whats it going to be? I ask myself...2009 has not yet been able to "turn up the power" much yet (as I was hoping on January 31st)......Although 1. being in good relationship with God, 2. caring for Kathryn and Jacob, 3. paying the bills, working etc, has to take higher precedence over training, I think there is room for all 4 to go well...

Sunday 7th June 2009 A.D. Ran 15km in 1hr 46min HR 129...
To Freeway and along freeway a bit and then back.
Sick with Flu or something, was very messed up after work last night. RHR was 73! this morning about 20 beats higher than normal after 51's earlier in the week.
Blowing nose on the hour so I am certainly not well. But felt better after the run.
Still sick, and hammy a bit touchy early on, but at least I got a half decent run on the board.
A few big breaks along the way, like the 6 minute one at halfway (left watch running)...

Saturday 6th June 2009 A.D. Ran 6km in 38min 33.
Just taking it easy trying to recover from work the night before.

Just couldnt get out there early in the week which was enormously frustrating...The night shifts at work (40 hours in callcentre for the week, even after going home early and sick on one night), made sleep rather tricky...just didnt get into a good routine...

Starting to think maybe Perth Marathon not a goer for me, but see what happens in the next 3 weeks. 4 weeks to go. Perth Half in 2 weeks... But then again looking back at last years training diary I am actually going marginally better trainingwise, so maybe I should be a bit more optimistic.

2008 Training data (607 minutes for first 6 weeks)


week 1; 93 minutes,2 sessions, best RHR; 48, sleep 46.5 hrs, 36 hrs Meter Reading, *35
wk 2 15min, 1, 49, 44hrs, 44hrsMR, *47


wk 3 230min, 4, 47, 46hrs, 30hrsMR, *28

wk 4 180min, 2, 49, 40hrs, 39hrsMR, *35

wk 5 70min, 1, 46, 42.75hrs, 32hrsMR, *29

wk 6 19min, 1, 51, 41.25hrs, 26hrsMR, *45 and sick (flu)
 

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2009 Training data (797 min for first 6 weeks)


week 1; 95 minutes, 1 session, best RHR; 53, sleep 39.25hrs, 20 hrs Meter Reading, *31
wk 2 61min, 2, 50, 44hrs, 12hrsMR, *17


wk 3 61min, 2, 50, 40.75hrs, 15hrsMR, *42

wk 4 65min, 2, 49, 40hrs, 16hrsMR, *37

wk 5 369min, 3, 50, 40.5hrs, nil hrsMR, *27

wk 6 146min, 2, 51, 45.75hrs, nil hrsMR, *44 and sick (flu)
 


So...2009 data is 797min v 607min in 2008, which is 190min ahead in 2009. Also..., a lot more meter reading in 2008, better RHR's in 2008, slightly more sleep in 2008...

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2008 Training data (350min total including marathon.)


week 7; 115 minutes,1 sessions, best RHR; 49, sleep 46.5 hrs, 32 hrs Meter Reading, *49
wk 8 nil min, 0, 49, 42.75hrs, 28hrsMR, *58


wk 9 nil min, 0, 52, 42hrs, 35hrsMR, *58

wk 10 3 hrs 55min Perth Mara, 49, 40hrs, 29hrsMR, *44


 

Problem is I am about 10kg heavier (83.0kg tonight) than last year I think due to my callcentre job dominating my time, and reducing how much meter reading I do, plus the fact that with water meters I stop-start a lot, so don't maintain as high an intensity physically for as long, so reckon those factors have something to do with me being overweight, although some of it may be more muscle mass, so that could help me, but more likely to be higher fat % especially the spare tyre...Increasing the income has been very important though, and its been a much better mix this year financially, which it needed to be given our move. The callcentre so far, despite the challening mix, has been a good option for us moneywise, and the work itself, I feel confident and good about. Just finding the right balance of enough work but not too much is hard, and my extreme need of holidays cant be ignored for many more months, although the physical break from the meter reading has been a nice positive in December and now June.

Dilemma is; is it too late too lose the 5-10kg I need to lose with 4 weeks to go, if not, how can I best to this. Maybe by ensuring I do at least 60min per day running/cycling. Or by improving in some other way to compensate for the extra weight I may have to lug around.

At the moment I'd be expecting about 3hrs 45min to 4 hrs 5 minutes if all goes well on July 5th. So still a shot at the P.B. but a long way from where I'd like to be. So I should stick with it, as the PB might still be attainable on July 5th.

3hrs 44min and No News aint Good News

Finally a good week where I hit 2 out of 3 of my key sessions to cover 57km in 369min, and put in place the first major bit of base I need for the Perth Marathon in 5 weeks time. Pretty much a case of now or never...if I want a good 6th consecutive Perth Marathon I must hit at least some of my key target sessions in the next 3-4 weeks. Not the perfect week by a long way ( I only ran thrice for the whole week for the 369 minutes I clocked up), but certainly a breakout from the "No news aint Good news" theme of recent weeks, I think the 33km run in particular is worth a lot to me, given my last run over 3 hrs was on 13th April! So hopefully my refusal to throw in the towel as yet, when many would have, will pay off, but lots of work to do in the next few weeks to make sure of it. Lots to do, but thats a decent start. Injury issues under control for now although hip/hammy, ankle and knees are all suspect still, they survived ok this week.

Saturday 30th May 2009 A.D.;
Ran about 33km in 3hrs 44min 21 secs (HR 156...splits 1.47.40/1.1.56.41) to Mt Helena and back on gravel trails, mostly uphill on the way there, mostly downhill on return)...(6min 47 per km)
Left hip soreness again about 3hrs 30min, took one 2min toilet break at 2.7k, which caused me to lose contact with 7 hills group running legends), and used 5 min walk breaks 3 times I think at appropriate times..., also another 2 min break to get gravel out of my shoes...felt pretty extremely sore towards end and after, drew a bit of "claret" (blood) from a chafing cut, but moved quite well throughout, especially happy i didnt succumb to, fall into "grind planetarium" shuffle in the last 10k...but kept at it. Looks like I havent lost too much since my last decent long run the 32km in the 40miler race. Probably the 20km earlier in the week and the shorter runs I have been doing helped, maybe the meter reading too. Missed my PB for this course by 27 seconds so disappointing on that score as I was pushing to beat it towards the end, but the gravel in the shoe to be removed with about 5k to go, probably cost me that...Still a very pleasing run, which puts my Perth Marathon numero VI plans back on track, with 5 weeks to go...


Finished work at 0200 slept for 100min at home, then drove to the hills for this one, so was a grind planetarium effort just to be there for the 0630 start with the small but legendary bunch of hills group people there (many were either doing Kep ultra, Albany Half, Mob run, or recovering from Comrades last week...)...


Had some of the new Grave Forsaken legendary tunes in my head all morning like "Mother of Harlots" (what a cut sick bit of thrash metal that one is, awesome!!! stuff from these Perth legends), but especially "No News Aint Good News", which pretty much sums up the story of my running and blogging in recent weeks, and is also a cranking speed-metalish (ala total legends Deliverance) tune with good momentum, incredible lyrics, just what I need to inspire me to run well...so Praise God for Grave Forsaken!!!


Tuesday 26th May 2009 A.D.
Ran approx. 20km in 2hrs 7min.00 HR 153 (splits 64min/62min) to Gibbs rd and back, on bitumen hilly course...worked hard alongside Freeway. (6min 21 per km average speed for this hilly course)...Met bloke called Adam out there doing a run in his lunch break from work, think he said he is training for Ironman...


Monday 25th May 2009 A.D.;
Ran 4km in 18min 09 HR 162...just a token run, 5 laps of oval, nothing incredible but a good way to kick off the week...


***Newsflash 31st May***;

The first ever Kep Ultra 103km and 75km (Mundaring to Northam on gravel trails mostly) has been run and won on Sunday 31st May, with Alec Stewart the winner by about 20minutes? from Dave Kennedy whose second place in 10hrs 3 minutes rounds out two stunning times from the top 2. "Young Phil" Baker finished around about 12 hours or just under. Fee finished the 75km (possibly the only female entrant), official results and photos should surface soon at the Kep Ultra site...