2.49 for 30k at city to surf and regaining momentum

In the last few weeks I spent a week or two having the annual head cold virus, and have struggled to get back the momentum I had in training prior to that. In the last week or so I have trained well but its been mostly "weekend warrior" stuff. Have not been back to BTRC, but hoping to get back for a visit soon. I think I am still hitting the key sessions in the last week or so, so my Melbourne plans are still very much on track, just lacking in the mileage department a bit (still only have a few 200-300min/50km weeks on the board and I want to do a bit more than that if possible.), and my intervals work only just getting above ground zero, but plenty of time for that in the next few weeks.

In addition I am having a bunch of monetary related hassles as per usual, and getting the trip to Melbourne paid for is as usual almost mission impossible at this stage, although I have finally found a way to book a flight over there, so we push on. My calf and hammy have been a bit niggly, and I have had a lot of knee soreness of late, so trying to keep that stuff under control too.

I still have no internet on PC at this stage, (none since March this year), and I am finding that I can only do strands updates at some libraries in Perth so far, as the public internet at a lot of libraries refuses to load strands for some reason.

Was not going to run city to surf, but at the last minute (about 1pm on the Saturday before) ended up changing my mind and I did the first 30km of the marathon in 2hrs 49min (half split 1.52, 10k split 50.54), before DNFing to go find my wife and our two toddlers at the end of the 4k. A wonderful! special! fun!!! day for all 4 of us, especially for 1 year old Jordan in the pram as it was her first experience of the city to surf, and its the first time 4 year old Jacob has walked the whole 4k at the City to Surf, although he did walk the entire 5k in Melbourne 2009 onto the MCG as a 2 year old. I did some good racing/training, and enjoyed seeing Jhandi get a big PB, and V, the woman I did a few 3 hour long runs with at BTRC, went sub 4 hours in her first marathon, what a fantastic effort by her! So overall although even though its a disaster by my SB or PB standards (although I think I was not far off the zone for both those two measures, given my 30km split is 3.57 pace and I think I would most likely have beaten my 4.12 SB if I had gone all the way ),and only my second DNF in 16 road marathons started, (the other was the ankle injury at Melbourne 2008), I was extremely happy just to be there. Had a fantastic 3minutes 18 seconds of bliss at the start in the lead group again too, so a wonderful day for me.

I tossed up on race day whether to go the entire 42.2km or stop at 21.1km, and in the end decided to have a bet each way and do 30km. Pretty happy as the day before (at that stage I was not planning to run city to surf at all) I ran a flat out local hilly 20km in 1hr 41min 03 secs which is a course PB for me by 50 seconds, and I was leg weary from that.

Since then I have done a 7km trails recovery run in the NB minimus shoes in 51minutes on Tuesday August 30th, and a 10km intervals session this morning (September 3rd) (again in the NB minimus on a grass oval track) in a very pleasing/promising 43minutes 29 seconds. This particular session I first did in the early 1990's as a racewalker, and I think it was a major factor in me breaking my own state 10km walk junior record several times from about 53minutes down to 48minutes. My PB for this session is 39min 58 secs, but that was many years ago probably when I was running 41 to 42 minutes for a 10k, something I have not done since about 2005. Based on the session this morning I think I am ready to try and dip under 45 minutes for a 10km again. I will get a chance to try and do that soon. Would be nice to start running at B-grade standard again soon, and maybe, just maybe, start making a charge towards my 1998 PB of 41minutes.

After all the hassles that I have experienced in recent years, and continue to struggle with, I am not holding my breath, but I know that my racing desire will always be strong, so God willing, maybe some more SB's and maybe even a PB on the way soon...