Melbourne Marathon entry done.

Well I have done the deed I have entered the 2009 Melbourne Marathon...
Now given my racing and training history this year is that a bit of a leap of faith or what?
Thats the relatively easy part out of the way, finding the $110 earlybird entry fee...
Now the hard stuff starts....(a) the training and lifestyle improvement attempts...
(b)finding accomodation and airfare costs...
(c) getting it right on the day so it can be even more special than the 4.10 in 2007 I enjoyed...

I have some unfinished business there after my ankle "explosion" last year, and figure its another opportunity to chase the PB...

feels like a massive risk, but you dont gain anything sitting on the couch wondering what you could have done...got to have a go mate as Jimeon says, or who dares wins as Mike whitney says on his show of the same name...

worst case scenario its a disaster like last year, maybe that will put me back in my box for awhile...but I am determined to have a good shot at it again....so here goes...

Here is the Melbourne Marathon coolrunning thread post I just made;


hello all,
silly me entered yesterday, just couldnt resist the challenge of soaking up that finish on the G again...and trying for a PB, the pacing groups...having a warm up on the Tan etc etc...its an awesome run, looks like a good number from western australia coming over for it again this year even some of my blogging mates maybe... should be fun...
After my breakthrough 4.10 in 2007, and my ankle blowup forcing me out at 23km last year I am hoping this year will be memorable for a big PB not just the incredibly memorable special experience that is Melbourne Marathon. Hoping my wife can come over try the 5k again too...

I like my race number 2589, if only my race time was 2.58 or 2.59 hahahaha seriously I'd be extremely ecstatic with anything under 3.40,...and beating my 3.55 PB (2004 and 2008 Perth Marathons) is a must do mission for this year...

I like the Rob deCastella event ambassador sound file on the website very cool.. and the whole website is excellent actually...I heard that Beijing Olympics 50km walk silver medallist and Ballarat man Jared Tallent maybe racewalking it again...looking forward to revisiting the Tan and having my 3rd shot at this one...

TRAINING this week;

Oh yeah training this week;
Not much really, but some good short sharp sessions jammed in between work the 12min 45 secs 2miler PB on Thursday was very pleasing in particular;

Saturday;
4km run 16min 11 secs PB HR 192! (4min 02 per K)
800m splits; 2.57/3.21/3.17/3.28/3.13
Nocturnal (I always think of this Mortification (MELBOURNE metal mission masters) song off the classic 1992 Scrolls of the Megilloth album when I use this word Its the opening song on this awesome album, and starts with frog,cricket, and fox? sounds, before kicking straight into full-bore thrash/speed metal brutal assault, with Jayson sherlock drumming at his awesome best) at 7pm under floodlights agin...

Felt not as good as previous nights, but worked hard and brought it home with the 3.13 final 800m, which was extremely hard hence the extremely high finish heart rate of 192.
A big step forward this week, just gotta keep things heading in that direction, do some reps, and get the long stuff going again...Second run in my new shoes, which feel awesome, and might be giving me a few extra seconds...Nice to improve the PB for this 5 lapper course again beats the 16.31 I did on June 18th 2009.

Thursday;
2mile run on oval again; 12min 45 secs PB!!! HR 183. (3min 59 secs per Km average)
800m splits 2.55/3.12/3.24/3.14

Again after work in new shoes. Then off to night job.

Figured left heel soreness the previous day was either due to problem in my worn shoes (Melbourne Marathon 23k last year, 6 inch 7hr race, Perth Marathon this year, and lots of other runs) or maybe I hurt it meter reading, figured I would lash out and spend a largew chunk of my pay on new shoes so headed for Jim Kidds and grabbed a pair of Reebok Premier roadplus VI for $119. Used the $20 credit I had left from my birthday vouchers earlier this year...Thanks to my wife Kathryn and Mother in law... These shoes are basically a newer version of my old shoes...

Wednesday;
2mile run 13min 15 HR 174
After a solid 6-7 hours meter reading so a bit leg weary and left heel soreness in first 2 laps...
3.15/3.21/3.29/3.10 800m splits...very good...nocturnal under soccer players floodlights at 7pm
Tuesday;
2x1600m with 3min rest;
6min 08 and 6min 25. Heart rates at end; 183, 180. The 6.08 is a 1mile PB.
800m splits...
3.07/3.01 and 3.14/ 3.11...
Nice to negative split both reps...Nocturnal under soccer players floodlights at 7pm...

Right knee soreness seems to be going away as this week goes on...hopefully stays away...
Its not sore when I am running just at night...

Kathryn and I's son Jacobs 2nd Birthday celebration sunday, and all the best to Dave K. in the Caboolture 24hr race on Sunday...be interesting to see how he goes, and if he can beat Nathan Fawkes (did Coburg 24hr earlier this year) effort last year after his excellent 2nd place in the Kep Ultra 100km this year and a 3.05 ? Perth Marathon a few weeks back...
official AURA page @ HERE
WA marathon club message board comments are HERE
So although these three sessions were a bit shorter than I wanted the intensity was top notch, so good to get something going during my busy week...Finances starting to come good, although its still a struggle to pay the bills each fortnight...
Need to make a total quantum leap in training if Melbourne Marathon is to be a big success this year...

35min 29secs 8km PB keeps things ticking along

Wednesday 22nd July 2009 AD;
Ran approx. 5 miles (8km) in 35minutes 29 seconds HR 186 at end. Time-trial.

My only run this week.
Did a 10 lapper at the oval. Its a real blessing having this good oval about 100m from our rental house...Have done a lot of running on this flat grass 800m course this year...
Kicked it off with a pretty fast first 800m lap in 2min 49 (my quickest 800m split on this course so far this year and at 3.31 per K pace or 5.38 mile pace felt like I was pushing the limits a bit, which is good...) before settling into 4.35 per K stuff, which I maintained through to the end, with a solid but not all out faster last 800m (reckon I could have found another 5 seconds if I had sprint finished to the line, but held back a little, although did finish strongly)to knock off my PB on this course by 48 seconds improving on the 36.17 I did on 6th May 2009.

Pretty happy with this excellent time-trial. Had plans for a long run on the weekend and/or a run in the Run for Gold 10km (see the thread I started on Cool Running...nice to see Radar won the 10km in 31.05, (his older brother Ryan also nailed a 39min PB in the same race) before he ((another Canning Districts Athletics Club legends blog, in this case its Radar...) heads back to Europe/USA for his tilt at a World Dualathlon title, good PB's too for other Perth Bloggers like Biscuitman (37min zone) and 20thcentury boy (46min zone)...
But I digress...I also planned some shorter sessions during the week, but got too tied up with important work and family stuff, plus the struggle to pay the bills as per usual. Logged my second 50 hrs a week work effort in a row, including about 30 hours worth Thursday to Saturday, had towork most of saturday so had to enjoy hearing the last quarter of the 5th consecutive Fremantle Dockers demolition of the hapless Eagles in the derby on the radio on the way to my night job, where I enjoyed annoying the eagles fans at work by wearing my Freo scarf and beanie all night, along with at least three other purple army supporters there. The four of us in Docker purple heaven in a good mood, which was good cos it was a full-on night with 60-80 calls waiting most of the night...
Wasnt the best game by the sounds of things but the young guns like Deboer,Van Berlo,Ballantyne,Clarke,Pearce,Suban and Ruffles, plus the old hands like Big Pav and 211 did enough to worry the eagles into an 8 goals 18 points! muck up...plus bag 10 majors to seal the 5th consecutive derby win! If you count pre-season games and the London game where Worsfold rudely entered the Fremantle coaches box, we have smashed ém at least 7 times in a row, maybe more...Read all about it and weep or punch the air in delight, (or go back to sleep) as the case may be on that wonderful website Dockerland!

Of course my eagles fanatic wife wasn't too keen on talking footy on Sunday, (although we did watch the ex-eagle bennys Tiggers beat the Bombers on tv) and as i hadn't seem much of her and adorable almost 2years old Jacob Thursday to saturday except to wave goodbye in the mornings (but at least I dont work in the mines up north or live in another country feel sorry for those blokes), which was special especially as young jacob not only waves goodbye now but has added "See ya" to his fledgling vocabulary...so cute seeing him say see ya see ya see ya when I leave for work..Thanks God for the good moments of being a dad...although he did drop and break a plate this week while trying to "help" me wash the dishes...hahaha be many more I am sure...oh well all part of family life...Anyways I felt compelled to make the most of our time together Sunday, and had to go get some more petrol money from my parents (Drove about 500km this week as usual and about 800km-1000km the week before) but hoping the money situation will be a bit better as my metering money starts to kick in and we catch up on the bills that have been building up. Gotta get my tax refund...Hopefully our home loan application will come through approved soon too...had plans to explore a new long run course but just didn't get out the door...so maybe next week...Found a good clip of industrial alternative group Mortal (Enfleshed) this week live at Cornerstone...

Its time to start cranking up the training for hopefully the City 2 Surf Inaugural Marathon on August 30 and Melbourne Marathon attempt number 3 in October if my tax refund is good enough...Right knee has been sorer than usual this week, to the point where I couldnt get up off the couch without icepacking it or using my other torn ACL left knee...
Anyhow have to get some more sleep before another 14+ hour day at working my 2 jobs as it is now 3.30am (although I have grabbed 4 hours sleep already tonight) and my average for this week slipped into the redline territory of 5hours a night, so need to get it back over the 42hours for the coming week. Be interesting to see how Le Tour Le France finishes, with Contador leading Andy Schleck by a lot and the evergreen Lance in 3rd...the last i saw...Hopefully the Australians will work out how to play Freddie Flintoff and get it together to wrest back the ascendancy in The Ashes... Interesting quote on this series HERE, it goes like this;
Greg writes: See, this is the difference between England & Australia. If we (England) were given 522 to chase, we'd do the decent thing and get bowled out in a day for 175, leaving everybody with a nice day off and the Sports columnists could turn their attention to which mercenary is going to turn up at Manchester City next. Not you lot though, no you have to go and chase them down. Whatever happens, a magnificent effort, fair play boys.

duathlonish effort to try and restart

Sunday 19th July;
60minute ride on exercise bike HR 96; Slept in after a late finish at work 2 nights in a row, and then spent time playing with my almost 2 year old son. While my wife was watching her beloved Eagles have another defeat, I set up the exercise bike in a playpen so Jacob wouldnt get in the way (although he did throw a lot of toys into the pen and tried to climb in..., and put a lazy 60 minutes on the board. Felt better from that.

72min run hr 144; Then about 20minutes after the ride, while my wife and 2 year old son were having a shower before we went to a family get-together I snuck out and ran 11.5km in 72min 28 HR 144...Hilly seaward course mostly on bitumen, although I discovered some limestone/sand trails I didn't know existed until today near a goods train line, and enjoyed running on the softer surface for about 20 minutes...
In the last 10 minutes or so the rain started to kick in, but I didn't get that wet, and enjoyed running down one of the steep hills in our suburb, with two massive rainbows at the bottom of the hill to run under/into...which of course reminds me that God keeps his promises...See Genesis 9:12-17

Mostly took it easy, but tried to step up the intensity a bit in places, but just felt good to get the sweat flowing with a solid but easy run again...

Saturday 18th July.
Token two-miler 14min 16 HR 171
4 lapper at the oval. 3.15 for the first 800m, then 3.30-3.50's...
Heavy rain for the last 3 laps. Totally saturated by the end.
Good solid effort, and combined with a RHR of 45 on Wednesday, confirms I have beaten the flu I think...Could have gone faster if not for the rain, want to improve a lot on that, but its a good starting point for my reload for hopefully Melbourne Marathon in October my main goal race for 2009, and hopefully can deliver a big PB. The next 12 weeks or so will show whether or not thats possible.

Been flat out with work in my two jobs, and trying to pick up the hours with my meter reading, a lot of driving 150km+ some days, and a night shift on Monday night, this week, and trying to recover fully from last weekends sickness, so have not had much running opportunities. Worked more than 50 hours this week, so my first really big week after the time off from metering in June. Hopefully next week I can crank it up to 60hrs+ and still find some good running options as well. I feel well rested sleepwise in the last 2 weeks, (averaged better than 6 hours a night for both the last 2 weeks) so hopefully those two weeks should have allowed me to recover well from the Perth marathon, and I am ready to go hard again from here on.

painful recovery followed by sickness biscuitlinks

Saturday 11th July Ran 2 miles in 15min 49 HR 165. Mostly to try and help me feel better after getting very sick with the flu in the last three days. Nose is like a dripping tap today.

Had a song called Jet Blue from Swedish soft metal legends JET CIRCUS appear in my mind for no particular reason while running today. Interesting since the last time I heard that song was either about 6 months-several years ago! Anyhow the lyric that kept playing in my head was;
jet, jet blue, we're a fighter and you can be too, jet , jet blue...Not sure if all the words are correct as the swedish influenced english not always easy to understand...

Anyway here is a link to an mp3 audio file sample HERE, I found on the Jet Circus myspace page, although most of my readers probably don't care in the slightest... I still have my 1991? ***cassette tape*** of their album STEP ON IT, with the blue cover, pretty much a collectors item now...Have to get the new album Hypersonic some time, maybe do a Colin Francis (see WA Marathon club current newsletter) go run the Stockholm Marathon and get some Jet Circus music while there, nahhh, when will I have money for that sort of stuff, easier to get it through Soundmass...
Anyhow here is the most well known song (very popular on Sonshines solid rock program on the radio in the early 1990's, used to get requested by a lot of people) for Jet Circus (but its a bit different to the rest of the songs) called Victory Dance which shows their quirky cut sick soft metal attitude...And just learnt something new they were also endorsed by Harley Davidson motorcycles too wow didnt know that, do now...A bit like Tourniquet having a deal with Quiksilver at one stage...

First few days this week I was in a lot of pain with very sore quads, struggled to get down the stairs at work Monday night, and still was painful sitting down and getting up on Tuesday...
Monday I was a cripple, so probably about the sorest ever I have been after a marathon...The concrete paths in Applecross and a few other parts of the course, and mostly my lack of training made sure I paid for it. Knees also very sore this week. Running not an option on Monday, and Tuesday not very attractive either. Wednesday I was too busy with work and trying to finalise home loan application related stuff (thats probably going to be a familiar theme in the coming weeks,months, years ???) etc etc. and starting to feel sick. By Thursday I was having dizzy spells and took the day off meter reading. By Friday I felt pretty bad, and by Saturday (today) It was time to make the tissue box my constant companion.

Trying to eat lots and get plenty of fruit and veges, honey etc. Vitamin C of course is the way to go...Found some honey at the shop that has lemon in it, so been going after that...
Needless to say intervals are not an option, and not very motivated to do much else but felt slightly better after the 2 mile run on the oval this morning... Plus it keeps my streak of weeks with some training done going since November 2008. Sure I still am having a lot of run-less days, but at least in the yearly plan there are no NIL training weeks so far in 2009, and I am up to week 28 this week. So why is it that I am doing worse than last year when I have trained slightly more this year. Well its basically due to
1. stress and loss of conditioning related to our house move this year and trying to juggle both my jobs and family, plus trying to get the home loan on the board this year...
2. My weight ballooning from about 75kg to the 82kg mark mostly due to reduction in meter reading hours, and over-eating perhaps, and very messy eating and sleeping routines...
3. The hammy/hip area going bad on me, the precious time and money spent on getting Chiropractic treatment, The lack of consistent long runs for too longs as a result.
4. Too much stress and hassles, lack of sleep etc to deal with in the last few days before races...

That happens when you work a day job, then go to night job until 1am or later (5am a few times too), then try to repeat the process, and throw in a 2 year old who wakes up at 6.30 am, plus races/training groups that start at 6-8am etc, and finding a good routine of eating, sleeping and showering becomes a challenge some days, butt hey its all for the greater good I keep telling myself, even if paying rent seems to be getting harder.

So whats the solution in the short term; I think its try and shift my night job finish times to be midnight some nights (especially friday, so there is more chance of me making it to the hills group on saturdays), and do a lot more meter reading work, plus train a whole lot more.
Ive also got Tuesdays off from the night job, so plan on trying to make it to the Perry lakes intervals again some time, if things settle for us financially a bit...Its a long 2 hour drive return trip (even longer than going to Hills group), but its a chance to spice up the training with some variety, and run with some of the best runners in Perth at a lovely location with an excellent leader in JK. Won't be going there weekly as its such a massive exercise to get there and back, and I prefer to do most of my intervals stuff alone...So heres hoping things progress rather than slide downwards, as my racing times have in the last few weeks...Pretty disappointed with my Perth Half and marathon times, but just nice to get through them and lap up the atmosphere of racing with some wonderful people...

Be nice if we make some big progress on the whole first home buyers thing though... So God willing the second half of 2009 will be better, and I can race some much better times, and hopefully the knees, ankle and hammy behave themselves.

Some of the excellent links on
http://biscuitmanruns.blogspot.com/
include;

http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm


http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/4/4_1/96.shtml

and

http://running.top21sites.com/index.php?method=pv&cat=&start=1

yay (i think) a 4.41 personal worst marathon

Ran my 6th Perth Marathon in 4hrs 41min 43 secs, 368th of 430 finishers...
Full (fool? hahaha) results here (thankyou WAMC!)...

Half splits 2.05.15/2.36.30.
1k-3.44 5k 25.45 10k 54.46 15k 1.28 20k 1.58 25k 2.33 30k 3.08 32k 3.23 35k 3.43 40k 4.27
Lead the entire field for a minute or so at the start, before easing off for a 3.44 first 1km, which is pretty quick for me this year. My recent reps work must have sharpened my speed, cos I felt like my top speed was very good...However by the time I had taken 6.02 to get to 2km, or even before that (on the Windan Bridge when the 3.30 bus caught me, I knew my conditioning was nowhere near good enough to sustain a good run, and I was already thinking that 3.50 - 4.20 would be tough...

Very appreciative of the encouragement I got from people like Silvio, Bernadette?, cool runners (e.g. at Raffles) and other runners, and especially my Dad again...Also a message came in from my wife saying "hang in there", which was about the 23k mark just as I was starting to struggle, which gave me some much needed inspiration in the second half...
Nice to see David Kennedy, Colin Francis, Epi, Clown, motor mouth matthews, Matt F., others Gary & Geraldine all going well. The simon says sub 4 people, the sub 3.30 bus, and the Navy people from USS George Washington (american aircraft carrier in Freo Port right now) added more excitement to the day.

Very happy with my start and finish. First Half, or at least the first 10k was ok, but after that my under training (not enough hay in the barn), and a tough 4 days b4 the marathon (2 nights in a row of 4 hrs sleep the 2 days before the race even though I didnt work saturday night and 5 hrs sleep every other night this week) (making what little hay I had in the barn mouldy), plus my overweight status (5kg heavier this year at 82kg) gave me a reaility check, and despite my attitude of denial proved to be too much for me, and it was a tough road home in the last 18k (battled with Pelagie all the way in the last 18k)...
Nice to see cool runners Mjail (first marathon), Pelagie, 20thcentury boy and stella bella all finish...

Extremely disappointedf with the time, even slower than my previous worst (the 4.33 in Rottnest 2004 on a tougher course), but I finished, and fought it out in the last 2 hrs when it got tough...Hip/hammy was mostly good and not a factor...Twisted my bad ankle a bit at 36.5k, but it seems to have come through unscathed so no injury problems really, just not enough strength in the second half which I hoped wouldnt be the case but suspected it might, and bitterly disappointed that after a good last weeks training where the rhr was 45 and I trained well, the wheels fell off badly in the final week. But rent and work has to take precedence...

Got stuck on toilet this morning for half an hour trying to do no 2's and had to drive like a total maniac to make the start line with 5 minutes to spare, but got an excellent starting pozzie which ensured I had a dream start in the first 1km...Excellent weather.

Nice to go up and get drinks in with my wife Kathryn and almost 2 year Jacob the night before, without that I probably wouldn't have started today, and last night I had thoughts on not running, and also of DNFing from about 12k onwards today, although I pushed them aside, and glad I did...So a mission (impossible...music was playing over the speakers at the finish line which was cool ...like that theme...) accomplished just, even with the pathetic personal worst time...Enjoyed mowing down one poor bloke at the finish line with a rocket booster finishing sprint, felt so good to be running hard for the last 200m especially the last 30m as I dug deep...

Monday 29th June token 2 miler in 15min 31 on the local oval...

Glad I finished, and erased the memory of the DNF in Melbourne, and the horrendous 6 inch ankle debacle last year a little more, and some good running at times, so certainly something to work with. But I have a long way to go to get things where I want them. Enjoyed the day in many ways and drinks worked ok...

where to from here...I dont know...nowhere unless our work/rent/house setup improves lots...
If it does then maybe have another crack at Melbourne in October, or maybe wait for a better year...either way I plan to try and keep some sort of aerobic base in place...