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.