TV time and 4.42 PW. in 2009 City to Surf marathon

UPDATE*** I ran 4hrs 42 min for the inaugural City to Surf marathon, with is the 9th road marathon I have completed. (6 Perths, 1 Rottnest, 1 Melbourne the others), A new PW (personal worst) by 1 minute!
I'm keen to see what time my wonderful wife Kathryn walked the 4km in with young Jacob in the pram as sounds like she went a bit faster this year in their 2nd City to Surf experience...
Big thanks to my Uncle and Aunty for their hospitality afterwards too...

Also managed to get on TV at the start for about 2 secs as I moved into about 10th spot behind 8 Kenyans/Ethiopians and Todd Ingraham by doing a half-hearted PRE...(here is PRE getting 4th in 1972 Olympic 5000m after leading much of the way) for 1-2 minutes...was fun to get up the front and watch the big guns in action first hand for a minute or two...
Thanks to BIGKEV for the idea, looks like he was going well too...

UPDATE; EPI nailed a 2.57!! so Massive, massive congratulations to him on finally achieving the holy grail a sub 3 hr marathon..and on an extremely tough course at that too... Massive congratulations to MACCA who I saw afterwards and apparently smashed his PB with a 3.18...Nice to see Mjail PB too even though I know she was disappointed...
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Speaking of on TV, and inspiration for Melbourne in October, some of the efforts of Jared Tallent (silver medal at Beijing Olympics 50km walk) and Nathan Deakes (50km world record and world championship win)in the last two years to beat the Russian Special Forces (Russian equivalent of the SAS or the American Marines) racewalkers in the 20km walk (about 1hr 17min) and 50km walk (3hrs 30 zone) in Beijing and Osaka, show just how tough these blokes are...I can only think of two marathoners I know that are on par with their toughness, and neither of them blog...Jared thrashed me by about an hour while racewalking the 2007 Melbourne Marathon in about 3.15???, but reckon he might go sub 3 hours now racewalking the marathon...
Here is Jared after the 20km in Berlin the other weekend...PREview of Australian racewalkers before Beijing is good to watch, recognise Tim E. interviewing...Makes me want to get out there and race them again, but I cant cos of my injured knees...brings back memories of the rather slow 50km I racewalked in 5hrs 38min back in 1998 does this...
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But enough remembering good times and dreams in the past, back to the sad reality (although its heaps better than nothing at all to work towards) of what I am stuck with now...the C2S...the cretins/imbeciles, no pace markers, my unfit, overweight, injured, poor self...etc etc...although some good signs I am progressing again lately...
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Anyhow my plans to try and catch a train in proved to be ill-founded so had to go to plan B and drive like a maniac into City madly looking for parking and run hard for 15 minutes to the start...arrived at st georges tce and noone was there then some volunteer told me I needed to go to a special secret assembly area, and another bloke also lost followed me there too...
2 minutes to go I just had time to find the clothing truck, but no time to get bits of grass out of my shoes or dirt from between my toes, but at least I was there and ready to start the race...Decided to run with hydration pak as not too sure what the drinks setup would be like, and also was worried I wouldnt find clothing trucks in time at start, plus easier to carry my phone, so I could find my wife at the finish..Having those extra drinks was nice, but the weight of carrying this heavyish pak through Kings park hills I think slowed me up a bit...

Almost no markers on course, only splits I could get was 9km 51.14, 12km 70min 54, and 16km 92min...So was sitting well under 6 min per K for the first 2 hrs, despite a toilet break about 45min in. But the first 16-20k was pretty good, flat and fastish... At 2 hrs I stopped to get some long grass bits out of my shoe which I had not had time to remove before the start...
...Saw heaps of people out there who said hello...very nice felt like a school reunion or something...walked some of Malcolm street and Kings park which seemed to go on forever...Hills group people...C-team Running Messiah was out there and as usual had some words of wisdom...so nice to see some hills group people out there...When we finally got out of Kings Park I stopped walking, and abandoned my thoughts of walking to the finish in about 6 hrs, and got into a good sub 6 min per k rhythm, did the last 11km in less than 70 minutes I estimate, and started passing people in quick succession... though hard to tell as no KM markers.....walked a little in a couple of spots, but mostly didnt do any walking after Kings Park...

the new athletics track and basketball stadium east of challenge stadium looks stunning cant wait to try out the track...

Was hurting a lot towards the end, but ran all of Rochdale RD and passed a lot of people through that section who were walking, and managed to mow down some bloke with a sydney striders top on at the finish...although wasn't far off blacking out to do so...Medical people twice tried to get me looked at at the finish but I waved them away...very happy to go well under 5 hours and be only 1 minute slower than the Perth Marathon, on a heaps! tougher course, with hydration pak on and rush to the start...I am clearly much fitter than I was beginning of July...So making progress, just need to keep at it, and a PB in Melbourne will be poissible...

Epi looked like he was in top 20-50 early on and at about 12km...so interested to see how he went...UPDATE; EPI nailed it with a 2.57!! so Massive, massive congratulations to him on finally achieving the holy grail a sub 3 hr marathon..and on an extremely tough course at that too... Massive congratulations to MACCA who I saw afterwards and apparently smashed his PB with a 3.18... good runs from the Cool Runners too...nice to See Mjail PB despite cramping problems well done to her on persisting despite everything...Nice to see meter reading Matt out there too, and Swiss Silvio...Ole and Ole...massive! swiss flags on Narrows bridge...

Very good to run with some of the Cool runners for a bit, like Turtle Runner and Mjail...
A lot of cool runners out there...

Kathryn and Jacob went a bit faster in the 4km I think this year so a very successful day...

have to wait for official times a and photos to come out now...
Joel Kembo of Kenya won marathon in 2.17. and Magda won the womens marathon.
Nice to see Raf 2nd in 12km, and Sarah Jamieson 3rd? in 12km, and also Tina Major and Steven Stingemore place in top 5 for the Half Marathon...
Ray Boyd 10th in the 12km, Chris deboer near the front as was Nathan Doig in the 12km...

Skins Recovery tent was pretty cool! debriefed at my Aunty and Uncles afterwards and got a shower...was very nice to spend some time with them!!! ...

left hammy twinge at one point, and calf soreness on cambered roads, didnt like some of the hard roads and camber in kings park and on st georges tce about 2hrs 10min in...ran on grass when I could... and some chafing but no major injury issues really...
Very tough course...probably tougher than Rottnest...

A wonderful day!!!

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Pre-race/training run thoughts;
Well it took some financial acrobatics, but managed to avoid taking out any more loans, and I am race number 760 for the Marathon, plus my wife Kathryn and 2 year old Jacob will be there for their second consecutive City to Surf walk...

If I go under 5 hours I will be happy with a good solid training run/walk...Be nice to try for a sub 4 but doubt thats going to be possible with the hilly course and my sporadic training, plus the fact I am carrying my hydration pak...all good fun just to be a part of the thrill of the event though...will post my story/result later, but with less than 2 hours to start time I'd better go get somewhat chaotically organised... hahaha

All the best to everyone out there, and hope to ssay hello to a few people..

WEEK 4 (of 10) (24/08/09-30/08/09);
Volume;348min. Sessions; 2 Best RHR; 42!!
Sleep;39.5 (5.64 per night) *13 MR-16hrs

OD/LSD sessions;City 2 Surf Marathon 4hr 42 (15min hard warmup too)
Short/Medium runs;
-Ran 4km 17min 20 (Tuesday)
Reps sessions;
-800m (2.40!!),2x 1600m (10min after 4km on Tuesday)
Comments;
Negatives this week; pretty low on sleep, had a 3hr night and a stack of 5 hour nights, and only did 2 sessions...I really enjoy spending time with our 2 year old, but I also need to sleep and work (in both jobs), the balance wasn't right in that department this week, so need to work on that...
Positives; Extremely pleased with both the Tuesday night reps especially the totally PRE-ish 800m in 2.40, and the 1600's in 6.22 and 6.26, AND my 2009 City to Surf marathon experience in 4.42. Both high quality running efforts, which keep things on track for Melbourne.

Resting heart rates of 42!!! (equal with my best resting heart rate of all time, since I started recording them in 1995) on two days early in the week are evidence that I am on track for getting into the best fitness level I have been at in this decade, although I need to maintain the lifestyle improvements, and perhaps improve further, plus drop a bit more of my fatness get well into the 70kg zone...I think I have dropped 1-2 kg in the last few weeks, but a long way to go yet...

So a successful week, and some good signs I am making good progress, but need to stay focused and keep going, not let things spiral out of control too much..i.e. get back on track with number of sessions and more sleep this week...Need to recover from the Marathon and keep the pedal to the metal for the next 3-4 weeks, to make sure of a good Melbourne time, if I can do that, maybe for once I will have earnt myself a 2 week taper...so the next 3-4 weeks are crucial...its do or die time...but getting the Marathon mdone and the good session on Tuesday night is a good weeks effort that keeps my deep into 3 hr territory plans on track...

Ran approx. 800m in 2min 40 plus RHR 42

I dont normally post midweek, but took 12 seconds off my "800m" time tonight on the oval course with a 2.40 which is the quickest I have done since my track running days in 2003 when I did a 2.23 at Perry Lakes Stadium in a track race.Although I am still not sure how accurate the course is...

That combined with a resting heart rate (RHR) reading of 42 on Monday (my best this year and possibly equal with my best of all time since I started recording them in 1995?) has got me a little excited about this weeks training, so felt like posting today, and also figured maybe I should have a separate post for the C2S Marathon (if I make it to the start line)...on Sunday to my training during the week...

Tuesday 25th August 2009 A.D. PM;
4km 17min 20 HR-165 cruisy taking it easy...
10 minute rest
800m 2min 40secs HR 183 total PREish/went for broke early...(1.18/1.22 400m splits)
3 minute rest
1600m 6min 22 HR 189 (3.02/3.20 800m splits)
5 minute rest
1600m 6min 26 HR 192 (3.11/3.15 800m splits)

Total = 8km in 32min 50 (4min 06 per K average) plus 18minutes in rest times...(easy jogging/walking and writing down times)

Last 4km of 800m/2x1 mile reps is 15min 30 @ 3min 53 per K pace...

Did this sessions after a few hours of meter reading work so legs pretty weary...and the mile reps were pretty hard to get myself up for...bit of a grind planetariumish (or grindplanetarium LIVE)effort they were...legs were just not interested in running fast, had had enough...too much lactic and wearyiness from the day...
Left ankle twinge at beginning of 4km...tighter shoes seemed to fix that...left hammy soreness at start of 800m rep when I was sprinting off...seemed to settle ok though...so a few minor twinges, but all seems to be ok...maybe just overstriding a bit trying to start at warp 9 captain/pedal to the metal...
Nocturnal. timing for the reps with the soccer players, hurray for their floodlights...also noticed that the local school has marked what looks to be a 200m track on the oval this week, so might be able to get some more exact distances to play with in September which would be nice...
So some encouraging signs there and a massive improvement on where I was at a few months ago...
So "I"m Back from Mars" maybe just a little....

Nice 4k, RHR's but didn't find a long run

Tuesday 18th August;
Ran 4km in 16min 41 HR 177
800m splits; 2.52! doing a PRE)/ 3.16 / 3.35 /3.40 /3.18
Went for broke early in true PRE style, then struggled to hold it together after that.
Still managed to split the first 800m in 2.52 which is my fastest by 2 seconds so far on this flat grassy oval course...The second lap in 3.16 was still good, so hit the first mile in 6.08 which is equal with my fastest mile on this course so far...The next two laps I was struggling to keep something going, but as slow laps go a 3.35 and a 3.40 is not too bad...brought it home in 3.18 which was pleasing to get under the 3.20, but my last 200m was very ordinary, and basically I was grinding to a halt in the last mile or so...16.41 is my 3rd best time for the 4km on this course, so still a pretty good time, 10 seconds off my second best, and 30 seconds off my PB which is the 16.11 I did on 1st August...Feeling a bit weary after meter reading and my start was a bit too fast...but a very useful run to get done...Heart rate at the end was a bit lower than normal for this type of run, which makes sense in keeping with the lower resting heart rates I have been getting lately, but also means I can work much harder...


WEEK 3 (of 10) (17/08/09-23/08/09);
Volume;17min. Sessions; 1 Best RHR; 43!!
Sleep;47.25 (6.75 per night) *12 MR-17hrs

OD/LSD sessions;NIL...failed again! :-(!!
Short/Medium runs;
-Ran 4km 16min 41 (first 800m 2.52) (Tuesday)
Reps sessions;
-NIL failed...
Comments;
Been trying to make some major lifestyle improvements in recent weeks, with more sleep (heaps more sleep than normal in the last 2 weeks, this week the most for the year with an average of 6.75 hrs per night) especially in that midnight to 2am important zone, better diet, and a few other big improvements. Its clearly paying off so far, with me hitting a "seasons best" Resting Heart Rate of 43 on Wednesday, which is my best reading so far in 2009. Probably the 4km the night before helped a fair bit too...The plan is to try and keep heading in that direction, although the stresses of being a Dad, Husband, trying to make ends meet in our precarious financial flying machine (i.e. think tiger moth or sopwith camel), and get the first home owners grant before the end of the year are tough ones to balance...

The rest of the week well that was very ordinary, with me getting tied down with work and family/friends commitments again, and failing to find that couple of hours I need to get away for a long run...

Next weekend is the City to Surf Marathon.
Some Kenyans and Ethiopians going after the $30,000 first prize, and a $5,000 bonus for a sub 2.15 by the Men, (or sub 2.25 by Women), If they go under 2.15 it could be the fastest Marathon ever run in Perth? I found a link to some info about some of the Kenyans and Ethiopians in it on Biscuitmans blog...the info is @
HERE...

I still hope to do this (C2S Marathon) but raising the money for the entry fee is going to be tough...worst case scenario I walk the 4km with my wife and 2 year old, but hoping to enjoy the inaugural marathon as a good training run/walk for my Melbourne plans...If I am going well enough at 21km or so, who knows might even have a shot at the PB, but I'm thinking thats unlikely at this stage...If I don't do the marathon then I need to go put 4-5 hours in on the trails...
At the end of the day not too fussed, but I seriously need to get the long runs happening, and plan to run some trails with Dave on the 4th Sept...

So all in all some positives to work with still, but pretty disappointed that apart from one day I failed to get anything happening...

3.50 1k and 51.33 in Lake Joondalup 10k

Sunday;
10km race 51.33 HR 180
1k splits; 4.22,5.26,5.20,5.02,5.32,5.22,5.28,5.36,4.55,4.30
5k splits 25.42/25.51...
I Lead the field from about 30 secs to 1min 12 at the start, to prove a point to motormouth hahaha all good fun...Then settled into a sustainable pace, maybe slowed up mtoo much...Ran about 5k or so with new runner Yvonne, which was good cos it stopped me blowing out beyond 5.30's land...Enjoyed the run...well worth the long drive for it...Fast course...
Brought it hom,e well in the last 2k. Have a problem with new shoes I think its friction from them sliding too much when I am going fast, (half a size too long maybe or just cos they are new) when I finished felt like a cat on hot tin roof...Other than that a good comeback race after Perth Marathon although the time was a lot slower than I'd hoped...paid for my insanity at the start a bit I guess...but well worth it...awesome feeling being in front making the whole field hunt you down, gave them some momentary angst...hahaha

The Kenyans went 1-2. Winning time 30min 48,
and Courtney Carter the first West Australian in 2rd spot...

Tuesday;
1km time trial 3.50.59 HR 186
200m splits; 37,46,50,54,43


WEEK 2 (of 10) (10/08/09-16/08/09);
Volume;56min. Sessions; 2 Best RHR; 44!
Sleep;44.25 (6.32 per night) *23 MR-15hrs

OD/LSD sessions;NIL...failed!
Short/Medium runs;
-Ran 10km Race 51min 33 (sunday)
Reps sessions;
-1km time-trial; 3min 50 (tuesday)
Comments; After the solid week last week, and good 1k timetrial on Tuesday night, (but should have done more) I logged resting heart rates of 44 on Monday and Wednesday, which is my equal best this year so a good sign thing are on the improve...Also a 46 on Sunday before my 10k race...Not really a very a good 10k race that one, but I had fun with it, and will be better off for it...Failure to get long run done, and not getting reps or shorter runs done during a chaotic week (financially and workwise, plus big sleepin saturday with bad headaches that arvo)= a bad week trainingwise, but as long as I turnaround things the following week bigtime I shouldnt lose too much...Nice to shave a few seoconds off the previous weeks 1k of 3.52, and really enjoyed getting out and racing again. Lake Joondalup was a lot of fun, and reinvigorated me mentally a lot...Well done to Vonny, and everyone there and hopefully can get some serious long runs done next weekend!...maybe join BigKevs group next week...

And in a totally unrelated matter some of the wise men in the East have been talking about Steve PREfontaine...
Also while I'm getting all Nostalgic in an effort to try and fire me up to do some training next week, that Lake Joondalup has some special memories for me including long runs for my first marathon (and dodging tiger snakes), and getting 4th in an u/18 Australian championship race along Scenic drive (which part of the Lake Joondalup race is run on) in 1989 see 3rd photo from left HERE...which also shows some of the state championships I won, the state records I set and the nationals I competed in...when I was good...right now it feels like I'll never even go close to getting anywhere near that level again, and I am running races slower than my racewalking PB's!, but I'm not done racing and training just yet, regardless of the results...

Wk 1 MM Coker Park and 3hr run/walk/hike

This is week 1 of my Melbourne Marathon 2009 campaign AttacK!
The 3 target sessions for this week were a 32k long run, a 16k tempo, and 10k reps session.
I didn't follow the masterplan to the letter as per usual.
In search of motivational tools I have resurrected the weekly stats setup I was using in 2004 for this 10 week 2009 Melbourne Marathon (October 11th) campaign;

WEEK 1 (of 10) (03/08/09-09/08/09);
Volume;382min. Sessions; 4 Best RHR; 47
Sleep;42.75 (6.1 per night) *18

OD/LSD sessions;Ran/walked 22.5km (Saturday)
Short/Medium runs;
-Ran approx. 8km 36min 52. (Wednesday)
-Ran approx. 16km about 127min fartlek style (Sunday)
Reps sessions;
-1km/500m/1km/1km/500m (Tuesday)4min 05 per km.
Comments; A solid week that is a reasonable start to things....
Nothing stupendously amazing, no PB's, but some reasonably good sessions and stats, so a good starting week, but want to do a whole lot more!


Sunday 9th August 2009 AD;
A 3 stage fartlekish style session of about 127 minutes;
Stage 1;
Ran a low intensity 4.5km (32min including toilet break) on hilly course to Santich Park.
Stage 2;
Did about 60 minutes at Santich Park coaching JD (bloke I went to school with havent seen for almost 2 decades, is a novice runner but is considering the City to Surf, and looks to have a good body shape for running IMO)...After warm up jog, started with 4x 150m (approx.) goal to goal reps; 23,27,27,27 seconds...4 minute active recovery jogging rests between each rep....For me I was close to flat out (maybe 90% of max speed) in the first rep, and the rest were at about 75% or less for me, so still high intensity but I was fi8nding it pretty easy, not really tested in the last 3 reps, but the session was about pushing JD not me...The rest of the session was mostly low intensity jogging and walk breaks with a 20 minute run/walk section which was about 11 minutes of running, and then a short warm down.
Stage 3;
Mostly uphill 4.5km run back home in 35minutes (including a 6 minute break to get glass out of my shoe), felt a little leg weary and thirsty by the end.
Overall (apart from the reps which will help me a little even though they were mostly at 75% or lower intensity and the rest times at 4 minutes were way too long for me) despite this being a very low intensity session for me, this pretty much makes up for me not doing the 16km tempo run, and on the back of the 3 hour effort yesterday will help my Melbourne plans a bit...
Good fun doing some coaching again too, and hopefully it will help JD on to a better path for the future. Always good to catch up with some old classmates.

Saturday 8th August 2009 AD;
Ran/walked/hiked approx. 21.5km in 3hrs 10min HR 126...
Along goods train line trail mostly, doing some recon/exploring to see how good the trail was to the south. Turned out a large part especially early on was very sandy (like beach sand almost and not very runnable) so I walked a lot, and passed through at least two toxic industrial wasteland areas, which I hope I never visit again, the air there was terrible, should have had a gas mask...Some of the trail was very good though, nice firm limestone, so maybe if you run on road to avoid the sandy sections, and bypass the toxic industrial wasteland it can be used...Originally my plan was to go for 90 minutes then come back, but after an hour or so of this challenging terrain I decided instead to try and find my way to my parents place instead and get a lift home, rather than go through the same stuff twice...not an inviting prospect. Passed one dangerous goods pipeline (caustic soda), and saw two goods trains and lots of interesting sights and sounds which kept me motivated on a day I wasn't really feeling like a long run...Saw a "Matty" cross on the gas pipeline which looked like it may have marked the death of of trailbike rider maybe...Then diverted to get to my parents place, walked for a few km as I didnt want to run the concrete path, passed the medina motorcycle area which had wonderful local government signs there like "Serious injury occurs here" hahahaha, saw a lot of trailbikes doing their thing there, reminded me of one of my old schoolmates (Watto) crusty demons videos...Plus ran down the street where some blocks of land which got released this week... The newly released blocks are going for $141,000, but are a bit small at 287m square...In the last few km when I got some running going again, started to feel it in the legs a bit, so I think a worthwhile easing into it long but very low intensity OverDistance ish type session, that will help prepare for my run/walk plans in the City to Surf marathon, and hopefully some more intense long runs in the coming weeks as I gear up for Melbourne...

Still managed to sleep in a bit on Saturday after Friday night work (despite a shift swap to finish at 8pm, which I might try again in future weeks as it did have me feeling a lot fresher and at least I got going earlyish), and decided to abort my plans to head for
Darlington
in favour of exploring the trails alongside the railway line instead, and aim for 3 hours of low intensity run/walk stuff which I did. So that 3 hrs pretty much compensates for me not doing the 32km. during the week I was either too tired/weary from work or didn't have a long enough block of time to do the other sessions, maybe if I got out my LED torch and did more Nocturnal stuff.

Wednesday 5th August 2009 AD;
Ran 8km in 36min 52 HR 162
10 laps of my allegedly "800m" course at the wonderful oval 100m from our rental house.
Felt pretty tired from a long day of metering, but made use of the Soccer players floodlights again, looked like a fullscale game this time, a lot of spectators...about 7pm before going home from work. Started off with the plan to do 3-4km and maybe push on for longer. Then the goal was 4 miles, then 8k, then started thinking about 12k, but when my 3.30-3.50 "800m" splits slipped out to a 4min at 8km and I felt very weary, I figured that was enough for the night. HR of 162 is a bit lowish really...Slept pretty well that night...


As the story grows look into my side;
Tuesday 4th August 2009 AD;
4km reps; 1km-3min 52 HR 186 /500m-1min 57 HR 168
/1km-4min 22 HR 180 /1km-4min 18 HR 189 /500m-1min 53 HR 201
Used 3 min rests. Average speed 4min 05 per km. Felt weary and not too good tired from work...
Found this session harder than expected, maybe my local oval "800m" course is a bit short...
Was absolutely spent after the last rep, almost throwing up as shown by the extremely high Heart rate of 201, which I have only hit a handful of times before over the years. Just stood there leaning against the fence absolutely gone after the last 500m rep, but satisfied I had had a go!, even if the times are a bit pathetic, a good session...

As i had just done some metering work in St James for the day, had to take the opportunity of heading to a good track in the vicinity, given how close the proximity of Coker Park and Belmont is to this area. I tried Gerry Archer in Belmont first but the lanes on this grass track were too faded, so have to wait for the little athletics and/or school sports to kick in so the powers that be will mark the thing again!...So off to Coker Park instead one of only two synthetic tracks in Perth at this stage, and of course home to many memories to me like competing for Canning Districts Athletics Club about 1989-1990...and Southern Districts Little Athletics club (getting my first state championships silver medal in the 1500m walk (7.58) as an U/13 in 1987!), and dozens of epic races for me on this track...As I expected the place was locked up, I'll have to talk to the council to see if I can get easy access...Otherwise you have to wait for a club/group to come along and open up the place, which one did this time...

Still have Sunday to work in some stuff, and I did manage a Nocturnal 8km run in 36min 52 on Wednesday night plus a 4km reps session at Coker park Tuesday night.