42km Darlington loop run in 4 hours 52

Saturday 12th May 2007 Ran 42km in 4 hours 52 minutes and 26 seconds Heart rate at end was 144. (Average speed 6min 57 per km (despite lots! of 5-10minute drink stops, still averaged under 7 minutes per km which is very pleasing! and equates to a 3hrs 42 minute 32km, so take out the stops and I went a bit quicker this time, in a run 10km further than the 32km I ran last month in 3 hrs 41. ))

Ran on Darlington loop course with Hills Training Group C-Team (mostly Comrades entrants aka local WA legends) The course follows the Railway Heritage gravel trail; Darlington -> Midland -> Pechey Rd -> Helena Valley -> Darlington. Along the way we took lots of 5 minute drink stops and visited a general store to fuel up on coca cola for the last 12-14km or so. These stops means it probably equates to about a 4.30 marathon...I'm ecstatic about this one. Very happy to get this done, as it give me at least one good May long run, and I am now starting to approach potential PB form (for the Marathon in July) if I can get my reps done, and get a few more long runs banked.

It was always a pretty ambitious ask to run 42km after only two long runs this year. (a 32km (April) and a 22km (March))...However I was confident I could go for more than 35km, and that the C-Team pace would be challenging but very achievable for me, after comparing my 3.41 with the 3.30's they did for the first 20 miles of the 40 miler. Then it would come down to guts in the the last 5-10km to see if I could hold onto, them to the end, as they clearly have a much superior endurance base to me with their weekly Comrades training (e.g. 49km last week they did). Although I do have my meter reading work, which just about equalises things, and may even give me an advantage even though its mostly brisk walking not running.
Which is why I needed this long run a lot to keep my running muscles strong and build on what I did in March and April.

Right now I am in a world of pain to a small extent and its probably going to get worse before it gets better for a day or two. If I can get in a recovery ride/run tomorrow or even tonight that will reduce the pain a bit, and speed up recovery, from what will probably be my toughest long run pre-Perth Marathon 2007.

Managed to get to sleep last night at midnight, set alarm for 0430, sorted out cats, stuffed 3 powerades and 2 GU's (think Carboshotz) into my hydration pack, and filled up the bladder with 2 litres of H2O shaved around nipples put bandaids on to stop chafe cuts there, toilet number twos twice, checked the radaron the net to see how the rain was going, wrote a note for my long-suffering wife who was still asleep of course, and drove off into the darkness; Destination Darlington. Soon as I hit Reid Highway cranked up a bit of my Bond CD. Yes I know they are a bit risque with their album covers, but the music is awesome instrumental music.
At Darlington I was pleasantly greeted by the sight of dozens of equally slightly insane running maniacs, stretching and chatting about the 89km Comrades race which most of them are training for.
This race is in South Africa and has thousands of runners, and hundreds of thousands of spectators. It is on in 35 days from today, and these hardy souls have been preparing for it since January 2007 (I did a 22km with them in March), so they are getting excited, as its very close now, just over a month away.

Met a bloke who has moved to WA from Sydney a few months ago, and has done about 5 Six Foot races there (45km through the Blue Mountains near Sydney.) It was raining lightly as we ran downhill towards Midland in a massive bunch a few people with headlamps, but most of us just felt our way through the darkness. There was the A-team, the grumpy old men group, and a few smaller groups of runners all doing different distances. The B-team had headed in a different direction towards Mundaring for an easy ("safe" and sensible) 19km.
But the rest of us ran together for awhile. The A-team disappeared quickly at a fast pace, they like to run well under 5 minutes a km, heading towards an appointment with the zig-zag and some serious climbing of tough hills for about 34km or so?, (or more). Then there was a small group doing about 28km or so or similiar distances, and I ran with them for awile as they kind of merged with the C-team for about 2 hours. As usual it felt slow and easy to start with, and I had to keep slowing down reminding myself that I would pay for it later otherwise.

By the time we had made it to Pechey Rd for our first major drinks break after 53? minutes of running. Some of the 28km runners had gone, on way to their turn off through Mahogany Creek. I downed my first powerade, and decided to drop back with the C-team as we went past the Railway tunnel in John Forrest National Park, (where my wife and I used to walk and run together when we first met) enjoying more beautiful scenic views of the city, kangaroos etc. Felt good at this stage.

Another break (toilet break)at the big bridge before Hovea Falls, and then it was onto Helena Valley which was our next major drinks stop at 26km. During this time,as my stopwatch went well past 2 hours, I started to find the going hard, and staying with the C-team was becoming more of a challenge. I still had more than 3kg of drinks in my hydration pack and probably the weight in that was affecting me a bit, plus lower glycogen levels.Dropped back with one of the runners to chat for a bit while they made use of a drinks fountain and got caught well behind the main group, had to work hard for awhile to get back to them. By Helena Valley 26km turnoff, I was pretty tired and a little stiff and sore as the stopwatch made it to 2 hrs 54 minutes, still well under 7 minutes per km which was what I wanted. Had my lemon-lime GU, and it gave me a boost of much needed energy. More powerade too.
Hydration pack a bit lighter as I was sipping water about every 20-50 minutes at least.

The last 16km was mostly a gentle downhill, although I knew the last 10km would be the major challenge for me. The bandaids on my nipples, plus the bodyglide on upperthighs and under arms was giving me chafe free run, and the light rain had disappeared after the first hour. Finding it hard to hold onto the C-team, and the tight bunch was now a more chaotic changing of places and people spurting to front and mini-leads (think breakaway) for awhile, just like the peloton in a tour de france cycling race. It was starting to get tough for me, but the C-team were pulling me along, and I was determined to try and stay with them as long as possible. Set mini goals like "just make it to 4 hours" "or the next drinks stop", or "to the top of these little rises" and stuff like that. Basically just hung in there and enjoyed the good chats with the runners along the way. At this stage breathing not an issue, just very sore legs. Then we diverted a little to a general store on Great Eastern Highway and shared a couple of cans of coca cola, which tasted like heaven!, after well over 3 hours of running. Our group was now down to only "5 survivors", a Comrades legend (He has done more than 10 of those 89km races), the only female remaining (who is doing her second Comrades this year), an Ironman triathlete, who has done Busselton and Port Macquarie Ironman triathlons (3.8km swim/180km cycle/42km run), a senior citizen who has done a few Comrades, (he is from the "old-school" of running, where he is not that keen on drinking water, and wont touch energy gels or sportdrinks.), and me (done two 45km six inches, 4 marathons, and 50km walk at Australian Championships).

As we headed towards Mundaring I felt very good for about 30 minutes and then started to enter "race zone" ("in the zone"), a bit. Realised then the only way I was going to stay with these guys for the last 10km or so, was to amp up the heart rate a bit and run in front of them a bit, cos if I stayed behind them, I would lose focus and eventually drop away from the rather spread out bunch of 4 runners.
So I lengthened my stride on the small downhills, clenched my fists and fought my way up the small inclines with small steps, put on my ryder glasses and focused on the gravel track ahead. No more admiring scenery, kangaroos, or chatting, it was time to go into semi-race mode if I was going to get to the finish in under 5 hours, without losing touch with the group. Heart rate by now was a bit high to chat so probably getting into the 150's-170's I suspect. Unfortunately I dont have a spare $300 to buy a Garmin GPS (global positioning system) unit, and my old Polar heart rate monitor seems to have died (too uncomfortable to wear I reckon anyway), so dont know what my heart rates were exactly, but I think my guesses are on the money. So it was head down and bum up from there onwards. Grabbed my last chocolate outrage GU at Mundaring with about 9.6km to go. This gave me another much needed burst of energy and enabled me to churn out two sub 6minute km's, before it started to get a little hard again, rallied and fought the pain for a few more km, and surged every time I heard the voices of the back two runners (who were still chatting, and presumably doing it a lot easier than me). With about 300m to go I let them past and settled down a bit to get a heart rate a little more commensurate with what I would have run at for the majority of this rather hybrid (had a bit of evry sort of pace) LSD/LFD/OD (long slow/fast distance/Over Distance) training run.

An awesome run with some awesome people. had a bit of a chat and a feed at the local cafe afterwards, while we waited for a multiple ironman woman from our group to finish, she unfortunately got dropped from the main group just before 26km.

Very happy to get a solid 42km on the board, which keeps my monthly long run pattern going and gives me a long run at race distance, something I have never done before in my prep for 4 other marathon races. A very satisfying and enjoyable morning!!! Huge thanks to the hills training group for another great training run, and in particular the C-team for helping me achieve my goal of a solid well paced 42km training run. Thanks God!

90 min helping KL with penny miller this week. 29.5 hrs meter reading work.

WEEK 8 (07/05/07-13/05/07);

Volume; 382min + 29.5hrs MR. Sessions; 2 +MR Best RHR;47 bpm Sleep; 42.5hrs *43


OD/LSD/LFD sessions;Ran 42km in 4hr 52

Races/Time trials;NIL

Reps sessions; NIL

Comments; My longest ever long run in training. A great session. Keeps me on track in a big way for long runs, even though Ive only done 3 this year, plus some long rides and my meter reading. Reps still urgently needs to be done, but window of opportunity still very much open for me to work towards a big PB (beating my 3.55 in 2004) in perth Marathon on July 7th if I can get the right sessions done consolidate long runs, and fine tune speed and fitness get Resting heart rate under 45 in the coming weeks. 8 weeks is the halfway point in my 16 week plan so entering the critical phase now. the foundation is there, despite my sparse and sporadic training, (although my meter reading does give me a weekly leg-up as well.), just need to step things up in a big way in the second 8 weeks of my training, especially the next 6 weeks or so will determine how well I go... onward!