200min long run and 700m course PB

Sunday;
Ran 29km in 200minutes. (3hrs 20 minutes) @ 6min 53 perK...

HR 153 at end...OD/LSD

14.5km splits; 94min.04/106min 1 secs (6.29 per K /7.18 per K)


Organised to do a long run today with Aaron, who lives in a neighbouring suburb, and also completed 6 inch last year. Some good chats helped to pass the time, (and I was a whole lot more motivated than I would have been on my own, plus Aaron being significantly better than me at the moment, pushed me to run for longer, and at a higher intensity than what I would have on my own probably, especially in the last 1 hour) and ran mostly on trails which is good. Basically started on some trails near Thomsons Lake or whatever you want to call it (maybe Kogulup lake), and we headed out as far as the Canning Vale markets before coming back. Out and back 14.5km splits 94min.04/106min 1 secs.

Some cool sights and sounds including what looked like an old world war 1 style red biplane flying overhead, near Jandakot airport, which reminded me of the Red Baron... saw one rabbit, but no snakes, which is fine by me...

Surface was variable, with some soft sand, time on grassy parklands, bluemetal rocks, and bitumen, but mostly well packed limestone trail. Some small hills, some of which I really noticed on the way back. Had to climb over or get around gates about 6 or 7 times...

Temperature 16-25 degrees, so pretty nice, but once it got to 24 degrees, started to notice a difference. Humidity started off at about 80% so very,very high!, but dropped steadily to about 45% by the time we finished. Winds south/south-easterly at about 13-15 km/h, with gusts of 17-22km/h, which is the most comprehensive weather report, Ive ever done on a run I reckon...

Really enjoyed a downhill bit of trail in the last few km, which i used to pick up the momentum for a few hundred metres, but it took a lot of focus and intensity to do that, an that effort shattered me (probably got the heart rate into the 160's/170's) and I jogged the last 1km pretty much...

Heart rate 153 at the end, so a bit high for me at the end of a long run, and my legs were absolutely shot to pieces in the last 30 minutes, so some big gains from this one hopefully.
MapMyRun gave me a 29km distance....... Expected I would struggle from about 2 hours onwards, which i did...The last 30 minutes was pretty tough. Very tempting to walk, or at least throw in some walk breaks, but tried pretty much successfully to avoid that. Was starting to warm up a bit towards the end, and maybe the lack of sleep this week, (came into this run off 4 hours sleep after work finished at midnight as usual)the warm sun, and my stubborn stupidity in not filling my empty water bottle at the drink fountain near the freeway, contributed to the higher heart rate, or maybe it was more to do with it being a higher intensity run for me...not too sure...Just a bit higher heart rate, than I am used to at end of long runs, maybe Ive just got too slack intensitywise with my long runs. Don't want to run all my long runs too hard, but perhaps Ive been guilty of doing them all too slow...Need to find a happy medium in between, some slow, some faster...

Overall a fantastic long run on mostly good terrain. Big thanks to Aaron for running, and sharing some of his experiences, and hopefully next time he won't have to wait for me so many times, I need to get fitter, and improve my endurance lots, I felt pretty slow, and sluggish today at times.

Friday 19th;
Ran 18min up to summit and back with Jacob in pram. Not motivated. Very fartlekish. Had fun, but pretty pathetic effort at a run.

Tuesday 16th;
Ran 3.5km Tempo style in 17min 14 @ 4.55 per K...HR 171.
700m splits; 3.17/3.22/3.33/3.32/3.28

7 minute rest, then;

700m in 2min 34secs. HR 180.
(6 second ***course*** PB!!! @ 3.40 per K, so a mini-breakthrough that one...)

Felt really good in the 700m, really moving and breathing the best Ive felt for a long time... which I completed 30 secs before the soccer blokes turned off the floodlights at the oval.

For the 3.5km I didnt feel like attacking, and felt I needed a relaxed start after feeling a bit worn from work that day, so instead of going hard on the first 700m, I tried to be a lot more controlled, and took it out in a relaxed 3.17, and then just tried to hit a comfortable but solid pace which I did.
700m splits; 3.17/3.22/3.33/3.32/3.28

Significant improvement on the 17.32/2.41 I did for identical session on January 22nd this year. Plus my rest period was 7 minutes this time compared to 10 minutes on January 22nd...
Very pleasing, especially the 700m rep...!

The challenge is to find good slots of time (and more importantly developing the endurance/fitness sufficiently) where I can attack for 7km or more at 4.40 to 4.30 per K, or faster in a sustained manner), instead of just doing half-baked sessions like this week (with the exception of the 200minute long run, which was exactly what I am aiming to do). So I know where I want to head for short term goals in 2k to 21k, just need to make some serious progress on getting there. My raw speed if anything is getting better, and fairly happy with that side of things.

Very important to finally nail a February long run, (the Busselton Half wouldnt be enough on its own) so far in the first 2 months this year, Ive had a 2 hr run, a pretty good 3hr run in Darlington, the Busselton Half, and todays very solid 3 hr effort. Thats only 4 runs of 2hrs or more in 2 months. Its an adequate start to the year, but I will expect myself to step it up a lot from this rather pathetic start to the year, but I am trying to be patient as my main goal races are Perth in June, and Melbourne in October. The rest dont matter as much.
My Kep 75km and 40 miler chances are not looking very good at the moment, but I am not going to rule them out just yet. I think the main thing is to keep building, and maintain forward m omentum if thats possible. I guess until our Baby is born in May/June, its going to be hard to relax mentally, or commit myself too much, and I am also a little nervous about what its going to be like with 2 young children, in our difficult setup....

Then there is Nathans 12hour/6hour/3 hour race next week. Part of me says "I dont have a definite lap counter, its too big a time commitment, and I am not well trained for it, and I dont have much money for the entry fee.., and I should be trying to get a better day job, and look after my wife and kid, not doing time consuming races, that can wait for another year", but the other thought is "its an opportunity an adventure, something I'd like to explore, I can probably get a lap counter on the day, and I can at least sleep in beforehand, and maybe I can get the money together if I really, want top, and its an opportunity to put the unfair advantage I have from meter reading to use... "...so I am very much in two minds about it.

So a better week this week, but where to from here? ???????