2 bits of news.

I haven't been allowed to run (seeing Dr Pain tomorrow) but have done some walking, gyming, swimming and cycling to make up for it over the last 2 weeks. I did a swim session in PT the other day. Tim knew I was very nervous about it but he eased my nerves and helped me smoothe out the stroke. Good stuff. I'm still tiring easily but last night got an explanation for it. Apart from picking up the tummy bug in Cambodia it looks like I also developed shingles there. I just thought the severe pain and the rash on my back was part of the virus. Seems so obvious when I look back and explains the pain, itchiness and fatigue I've still got.

The others news is I passed my PT course. My assignments and exams came back last week and I got my practical results yesterday. I received some very favourable comments and am feeling quite chuffed today. Now I just need to hear " you may go for a little run...".

TA

10 weeks to go

Saturday was the CR5k at the bay. Did a k or so warm up with Kit and Captain Chunderbolt. I went off 21 minutes as I have for the last few months - I wasn't expecting any PBs, but I figured that I should be thereabouts. I was aiming to run 4:10s (ie 20:50 total) and see if I could drag in any extra in the last lap. As it was, I headed out too fast, doing 4:05s for the first 2ks, slowing in the 3rd and dropping to 4:30 in the 4th (really starting to struggle by then - the headwind didn't help, but that's no excuse). Got it back to 4:10 for the last k, but the damage had been done by then. Final result was 20:59.88. I guess I really should call that 21:00 :-)

It'd be interesting to know how it would have panned out if I'd gone that bit slower in the first 2 ks. Ah, well. Live and learn. Having said that, I'm more than satisfied with the result, because it means that I've maintained consistency over the last 4 months while I have been concentrating purely on endurance. Let's see what effect the next 4 weeks of stamina work has on next month's race...

As has fast become a tradition, the morning's exertions have become an excuse to stuff our faces afterwards at a local eatery. Honoured guest this month was Tesso, down from Brizzie. As always, the food was as good as the conversation (ie very).

Today's long run comprised 2 x a local 14k loop plus a bit to make up 29k. First time that I've used Gu on a run. That, combined with plenty to drink in the fuel belt, meant that I never got that starving feeling I normally get towards the end, so that's a good step forward. I'm aiming to get a variety of brands of gel and see if I have any preference or problems. The High-5 one that I used today was fine. I understand that PB are providing the sports drink for Canberra, so I'd better get some and make sure that it's OK. We normally use High-5 for that too.

10 weeks to go. Like I said to Kit yesterday, I try not to think about it, because every time I do, I get terrified :-) I mean, I know that I'll be OK, but I've never put this amount of effort and planning and time into anything in my life before (rather sad admission I know!). I think the thing that I fear most is that in spite of the effort, it (or I) will just turn out to be really ordinary :-(

Anyhow, that's enough navel gazing for now. Tomorrow's a rest day, Tues - tempo, Wed - 12k easy, Thur - Run club.

Total for week - 68k

sfG

tiger angel's well-earned break

Tiger angel's indefinite running moratorium continues. At this stage, Dr Pain is not even commenting on when a return may be on the cards, so she's been faithfully doing her stretching exercises and not running, and we'll see what the good Dr has to say next week.

Given TA's action-packed last quarter of the year followed by the trip to Cambodia and her return with whatever lurgies she managed to pick up, it was clear that she needed a holiday more than anything else - a good, sleep in, lie around and do nothing type of break. Unfortunately, we could only manage 3 days, but 3 days is better than nothing and I'm pretty sure that it helped. With a bit of luck, she'll continue taking it easy for a little while, even though life resumes exactly where it left off...

Tuesday - I couldn't get leave, so I commuted to work on Tuesday & Wednesday from where we were staying at Terrigal. Hence, my runs this week were all in new territory. I was only intending to do about 5k or so in deference to my Sunday morning niggles, but after finding that I couldn't get from Terrigal to Avoca around the rocks because it was high tide (and thus having to clamber all the way back), and then getting lost and ending up stumbling through mud flats around the back of the lagoon, I ended up doing 9.6k. Niggles no problem.

Wednesday - The intent here was to do around 12k easy; go exploring again, but not quite so adventurously this time :-). Mission accomplished with 12.3k at 5:30 pace. However, although I did intend easy, I couldn't resist a run up "The Skillion", which for those of you who don't know Terrigal, is a ridiculously steep headland. I had to run around the lookout at the top once just to get my breath back sufficiently to start back down again!

Thursday - As of this week, I'm moving from pure endurance running to adding more emphasis on stamina, and hence today was to be a Mona Fartlek. By this stage, I'd sussed out a reasonably flat distance to run it. The basic idea of the Mona Fartlek is to run ever shorter intervals with similarly shorter rolling recoveries over a period of 20 minutes (not including warmup and cool down). I loved this run! I did the intervals at 4:00 pace, and the rolling recoveries at around 5:00, covering about 4.4km in the 20 minutes. I'm glad that I had the trusty Garmin doing all the timing for me, because I could have sworn that he threw in an extra 90 second interval at the beginning - heaven knows what combination I would have ended up running if I was trying to keep track of it myself :-)

Rest day today, CR 5k tomorrow morning (looking forward to it, though I'm expecting something a little behind the pb) and then 29k on Sunday - haven't started thinking about where I'll run that yet.

sfG

Ramping Up

Saturday - Felt quite unmotivated again, but dragged myself out at about 10 to 8am for 10.5k. The highlight was wandering off down a street I'd never been down before, and ending up in the bush for about 4k. Much nicer (though much slower) than plonking around the local roads. I love the freedom that the Garmin affords me - I can run wherever I feel like, and I don't have to worry about where I'm up to. I just keep an eye on it and turn for home when the distance is starting to get towards the desired total.

Sunday - We were out last night till after midnight, so I had three choices - sleep in and run in the evening, get up early and run before church, or get up even earlier and join the striders' Starr run at Lane Cove. The first didn't appeal because I'd be running both in the heat of the afternoon and the dark of night (2.5 hours planned), so the choice was between some company or some sleep. Given the way I've been feeling, the company won out.

I only arrived with a minute to spare, and discovered that a) I couldn't read the map because I don't wear glasses when running, and b) everyone was setting off at a relatively hot pace. The girl I was running with at the back of the pack assured me that it would settle down when the testosterone started to wear off (which it did after about 5ks).

I was aiming for a 25k run, and as one of the options was 26.0k, I took that. I felt fine during the run, although I had a tinsey bit of a niggle in my left calf, and later in my right shin. I'll not run till Tuesday night to give them a bit of a rest, and then I might stick to running on sand for a couple of days. I've been ramping up steadily for the last month or two, so it's possible that it's all starting to catch up with me. I want to be up to 32k long runs in 3 weeks' time so that I have the opportunity to do at least 3 x 32k runs (with shorter weeks interspersed) before starting taper. That's all fine and dandy, but not if I have to start running short weeks to nurse my legs through. At the same time, there's no way that I'm risking wasting all the training I've been doing since November just for the sake of sticking to some arbitrary schedule!

Anyhow, today was my longest run ever (soon to be eclipsed :-)), and also the first time I've got the weekly mileage up over 60k (in fact, 64k for the week). Time to drag the old body off to bed [Yawn]...

From lethargy to sprints

Tuesday - Much discussion the night before with Angela as to whether we'd run or not due to the weather (well, I was running regardless, so the discussion was all about her. To quote her text message, "I'm not the one running a marathon. If it rains, I'm staying in bed"). Well, it was raining, and in bed she stayed. Did 10.5k at 5:30 pace. Comfortable, if a little wet.

Wednesday - This was a real struggle. It's the most unmotivated I've been since I can't remember. I got up and dressed, and then sat in the bedroom chair talking to TA for as long as I could. I just really didn't want to go out by myself again. OK when I got going, but I felt pretty heavy for the first few k's. Did 13.5k at 5:40 pace (see, told you I was lethargic - first 2 k's were 6:20 and 6:00 pace, but settled into 5:30s after that).

Thursday - Cycled to work for the first time in a month, so I was a fraction slower than normal, but nothing significant. Developed a really sore back at work, and spent most of the day trying to stretch it out. I'm guessing that it was related to the bike, because it was very uncomfortable when I got on the bike this evening to go to Run Club.

I was tempted to pull the pin before Run Club even started, but decided to see how it went. As it was, it didn't really bother me during the evening, though it's still pretty sore now despite some of the pharmacist's finest (I didn't take anything for it during the day, because I didn't want to run without being able to feel whether I was doing further damage). Anyhow, rest day tomorrow, so that'll give it time to clear up (he says hopefully :-)).

Anyhow, back to Run Club. Tim is away this week, so Steve (26 miles) ran the session, with TA doing the stretches and strength work. After a 3 lap warm up and stretches, we did 4 or 5 (lost count) 60m run throughs, accelerating up to half way, and holding the speed for the second 30m. Each run through was faster than the previous, with the final one at full sprint.

We then went into 10 minutes of sprint the straights (100m), jog (walk) the bends, 3 minutes standing recovery, then repeat the 10 minutes. I think that the second 10 minutes was actually less, but I don't think that anyone was complaining about it being cut short :-)

The splits were reasonably consistent, give or take a second depending on whether we were going into or with the wind. I concentrated on sprint form - particularly high claw back - in the second period, and my average split in that period was more than a second faster than in the first. Also pleasing was that I didn't slow at all as the period wore on. However, I wonder whether it may have been better to go a few seconds slower, and jog the recoveries. McMillan suggests 19-21sec 100 intervals for me, and I was doing 17-18 in the second half. Who knows? :-)

Rest of week and beyond - Rest day tomorrow, 9-10k on Saturday, and 24k on Sunday. Next week sees the start of the stamina phase, so we'll be starting to see more tempo, fartlek and rolling hills starting to come into the picture.

Tomorrow morning is Daz's funeral. I only knew him from the first few months of Run Club before work kept him away, but he was always so encouraging and engaging. I am really struggling with the idea that someone so fit can have a massive heart attack. Accidents take fit people, not heart attacks! God, bless Daz's fiance and family. Hold them close and give them strength.

sfG

Improving

I think I'm improving at last :-). I'm eating normally, only making toilet dashes 3 times a day and today for the first time in 5 days I thought about exercising. For the last few days I've dragged myself around tired and aching but today I decided to do a Body balance class. However the gym had the wrong time on the web and I was too late for it so did an easy weights session instead. I was uncharacteristically sensible and listened to the fatigue and went easy and I even feel ok this arvo. I guess I'm scared of getting Chronic fatigue Syndrome (like my mum who has had it for 20 years).

I, also, went and saw Dr Ludka on Tuesday (like Owl and Lulu). I went to see her because I have problems with extremely heavy periods and was not happy with the drugs given to me to fix it. I took my comprehensive test results that my kidney and gp Drs. order every November and although they were happy with them she immediately said my ferriten, oestrogen and thyroid levels were all far too low. She said a good way to check if the thyroid is underactive is to measure body temp. Normal is 36.7 and mine was 35.4. This indicates it is to low. So I have to get a pelvic ultrasound and then we will determine how to tackle all the problems.

TA

Is it TA or Spiderwoman?

TA is back home safe. Cambodia was a terrific experience. I spent one day as a tourist and the other 5 were spent visiting provincial churches handing out christmas boxes and running a youth camp for 100 Cambodians aged 15-25. I had been told I was not going to be able to exercise as it was too dangerous to run alone so the best I managed was leading 2x30min aerobic classes at the camp. Not many people can claim having 110 people in their class. Cambodians don't really like exercise so day 1 was 30mins of chaotic fun. Day 2 they had a bit more of an idea. I'm still trying to work out why they scream at the top of their lungs when running :-)

My ankle was still sore before I left for Cambodia so I'd booked a session with Dr Pain for last Friday - the day I got home. He found a lump in my Achilles and said it has resulted from my tight calf which is the result of a bad tear I'd done earlier last year. If I was an inactive person this would never happen. So no running but all the other stuff is ok. He neglected to say for how long which usually means a long time. At one stage I was trying to crawl off the bed to get away from him breaking down the scar tissue. He just laughed and kept going...

Unfortunately I came home from Cambodia with extreme body aches and pains as well as diarrhoea. I was desparate to do something Saturday so did some weights but was really crook and exhausted by the end. After a break I felt better and enjoyed the afternoon walking and doing sessions with a couple of clients. I was extremely tired that night and actually got sicker overnight and dragged myself around Sunday and half of today. At least tonight I'm starting to think that I might even feel like doing some exercise in the next couple of days. I also ate my first full meal in 5 days tonight and 2.5 hours later haven't had to make a bathroom trip. So I'm on the improve and that's the best kind of PB for me lately.

TA

Ps Spiderwoman refers to my eating a spider in Cambodia. It looked just like a female funnel web and on further questioning it appears they are related. Gross I hear you say but I'd eat it again- quite tasty and the legs were crunchy and besides it felt a bit like revenge.

A pretty good few days (for sfG, not TA)

TA is back (great rejoicing in the TA/Gnome household :-) ). When I picked her up off the plane on Friday morning she looked like death (slightly) warmed up, but she appeared to improve through the day. Unfortunately, things are two steps forward, once step back at the moment, but hopefully those two-steps will become three, four and five before long. I'll leave it to her to report on what it's like from inside the death mask, and also on why the physio has just put her on an indefinite running moratorium {muted sounds of extreme frustration from the background}.

Run Club on Thursday was a pyramid track session, with 10 minutes of 1m on, 1m off at the peak. I didn't push it, but it felt OK. However, my abs reminded me that they haven't done any abs-specific work for a month, and they felt it.

I had a rest on Friday, then, as this is a 'down' week, took it easy with a 5.5k on Saturday morning. Ended up doing it at 5:13, which was faster than it felt (nice when that happens).

This morning was the rematch with the SMC 1/2M course at Smithfield. This time I had some significant advantages - a) it was cool and still, b) I know the course now, and c) I've had 4 weeks to obsess about what happened last time :-). My major priorities were to cope with the hill in the middle of the course more effectively, and keep my concentration together through the whole race. By running a steadier, more controlled race, the hill was no problem (in fact, I overtook a couple of people up it) and I had plenty in the bank to raise the pace in the last 3 ks and do a fair sprint towards the end. Result was a 2 minute pb (98:45).

I learned two lessons today.
#1 is to be careful with the water sachets. The first two times I took sachets, I got a large squirt of water down my wind pipe, resulting in a coughing fit (not much good when you're trying to breathe, and also a fair bit of swallowed air. I was feeling a bit sick in the stomach around 10k which I ascribed to having taken too much water, but when I let loose a few enormous burps I immediately felt much better, and was able to take on a decent drink at the last two stations, which helped the run home.
#2 was that I didn't use every ounce of run today, so independent of improvements through training, it is still open to me to make some (albeit minor) improvements through just pushing a little harder consistently right through the whole race. I'm sure that my body can cope with it, but I don't know whether my head could. Having said that, next month at SMC is 25k, so I won't be trying to push obscenely hard anyway.

Total for week - 55k
Next week - long run will be 24 or 25k, total in low 60's.

sfG

Answers to questions

GoGirl,

I'm heading for Canberra. Accommodation is booked, but I haven't entered the race yet (on the basis that the hotel can be cancelled, but the race is no-refund - I'm totally committed, but there's always the chance that I could get injured).

Wobbly,

Putting aside all the "I just want to finish..." stuff, I had set my goals as;

• 4 hours is acceptable
• 3:45-3:50 is really happy
• 3:30 is ecstatic zone :-)

On the basis of my 1/2M time, McMillian predicts 3:32, but of course that assumes best possible training & experience at the distance, etc. Hence the 3:45-3:50 as a realistic goal. However, I found out recently that a runner whom I really respect (and who's faster then me over all distances at least up to the half) has only once got below 4 hours, so I'm starting to think that "just finishing" is now my "acceptable" goal...

I have a large whiteboard next to my PC. Across the top are the numbers 18 down to zero, below that are the dates of the end of each of those weeks (zero = 9th Apr), below that are the distances for each week, below that are various races (SMC, CR5k, etc) to help with my planning, and below that is a line I stole from 2P's website - When you have exhausted all you can do, all that is left to do is NOT QUIT.

sfG

How to misread a Garmin

On Tuesday morning, I had arranged to run with Angela at 6am. You may will think that this is a dumb time to get up when you're on holidays, but it fits with Angela's work, and it was only 24 degrees and 10,003% humidity at that time. Dread to think of what it got to later. The unfortunate part was that my last thought before I went to sleep was "I must get up in time for Angela". As many of you would know, this is commonly known as A Bad Thing.

I woke at 1am thinking "time to get up. Hmm. Why is it so dark...". I woke at 1:30am, thinking... you get the drift. Eventually I got up at 5am and read untill 6. All this was made even worse by the fact that I had only gone to bed at 12:30! I'm pretty sure that I had a nana-nap on Tuesday afternoon :-) For all that, it was a very pleasant run up around Thornleigh; 10.4k at 6:10 pace.

I was unable to run this morning because of a doctor's appointment, so I planned to do it in the (hopefully) cool of the evening tonight. Watching the ABC weather at 7:30 and they noted that there was a big storm front coming across the Blue Mountains. I had a look at the weather radar (very useful site), and they weren't kidding. On the basis that a) I needed the k's, and b) it's easier to start in the dry than in the wet, I grabbed my things and got out there, intending to do 12k easy pace.

I've said before that I like running in the rain, and tonight only reinforced it. Once you're wet, you can't get any wetter, and as long as you have a hat on, the drips don't run in your eyes. I did, however, discover a major problem... My eyes are not world class at the best of times, but at night in the rain, I've zilch chance of reading the smaller fonts on the Garmin. Now for some reason, I don't have distance as one of the big font readouts (must fix that), but I could see just enough to work out that the first digit in the distance cell was a zero. In other words, I hadn't done 10k yet. Seemed odd. I thought that I was going faster than that, but with waterlogged shoes, etc, I guess.... Instead of heading home, I added an extra block to at least get it up over the 11k, but noticed further on that the leading digit was still stubbornly zero.

I'm sure that you're all way ahead of me by now. When I got home and got into some decent light, I realised that I'd been looking at pace, not distance! Glad that didn't get up over 10 :-) It turned out that I'd actually done almost 14K at 5:40 pace. Important job before Sunday - set up Distance in the big font on one of the display pages.

I finally received an email from tigerangel tonight (she's been out of contact since Sunday night). She's had an "awesome" time with the kids on the camp. About half the Oz team (including the leader) were very ill (might have been from eating spiders) which just meant that everyone else had to step up and do stuff that they wouldn't have thought possible in their own strength. Unfortunately, TA has since fallen prey to the same lurgy, so she's not expecting a particularly comfortable flight home. I think that she'll have some great stories to tell just as soon as she can get her head up off the pillow to tell them.

sfG

p.s. I should add - thanks for all your supportive comments. I appreciate them. 100% of the time when I'm not running, I know for certain that I'll be able to finish the marathon. The thing that I have to get sorted is that I tend to lose concentration during races, and that's when my mind starts playing tricks on me. It happened again at SMC last month. It'll be interesting to see whether I can deal with it better this week. Evonne Goolagong's coach used to say that she had a bad habit of "going walkabout" half way through matches. It's probably the only thing that she and I have in common :-))

Oh my aching nipples...

I'm just in from my Sunday long run, and I had to divert half way through to my Sister-in-law's place to get some tape for my nipples. Why is it that after 3 years of running, they've all of a sudden started hurting?? Anyhow, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Saturday was a 9.2k loop around the local area at 5:20 pace. Nothing startling. This morning I set the alarm for 6am so that I could get a 20k run in before church. However, I awoke to the unmistakable sounds of solid, set-in rain. Now, I have mentioned a number of times in the past that I like running in the rain but this morning, in the absence of anyone to run with, I curled up and went back to sleep. Forgive me father, for I have slacked off... :-)

Anyhow, I got away at about 5:30 this evening and ended up doing 21.7k in 2:02 on a pretty hilly course (are there any other kind around here?). I have to admit that in the 3rd quarter, I started to doubt my ability to handle the marathon (again!), but I picked up again after that and came home strongly. Some how, I have to get a grip on my thoughts while I'm running (or have a partner to run with).

Total for week was 58k. I'll back off a little next week before stepping it up again.

TA is loving her trip so far. Here's some quotes from her emails...

While eating lunch, Bora was amazed to hear that we had caught motos (motorbike taxis) down to the local markets by ourselves yesterday arvo and then eaten spider. He said we were very brave so tonight he was taking us to a restaurant to eat ducks eggs which still have the formed duck in them.

and

We were visiting 3 villages to ... see the wells that Graeme has been instrumental in organising. These wells give the people fresh drinking water whereas they used to use water we wouldn't even want to wash our feet in.

I get this mind picture as I read her emails that she's just soaking in the whole experience, but if I know TA, she'll be giving much more than she's getting :-)

sfG

A little hole in my heart :-(

This week has gone pretty much according to plan. Tuesday was 9.6k @ 5:27 pace (though I never really felt like I was in it - all a bit heavy going). Wednesday was a lot better. I concentrated on form and efficient running, with the result that for no increase in heart rate (150-160), I covered 12.4k @ 5:15. Finally, today, in deference to Run Club (currently in recess), I did a 5.5km rough-and-ready fartlek session (2k warm up, 2k fartlek & 1.5k warm down) at an overall pace of 4:50. Rest tomorrow, then 10k on Saturday & 19-20k on Sunday.

Also according to plan, I took tiger angel out to the airport this morning to catch her plane. Even the sky was crying... (all together now - Awwwwww).

sfG

Just another week...

... in my dreams :-)

I'm on holidays at the moment, and purposely taking things very easily. If I feel like reading the paper all morning, then the paper gets read. I've had a pile of jobs that would normally get done in a day, but they've taken all week so far, with a fair few still to be crossed off. Poor old TA had to work all week (her busiest time of year), so no rest for her.

However, you'll be pleased to know that the preparation for Canberra (me) and for getting uninjured (TA) has not abated. Total for the week for me was 54k, and for TA was zero. Well, zero running, anyhow. She's done a couple of 30~40k rides, swum, walked and weights (I don't think that going stir-crazy counts as exercise :-). Apart from my Monday run with Mr WT, I did an 8k loop on Tuesday (5:25 av), 12k with Angela on Thursday (6:05 av), 9k on Friday (5:50 av, but 1/3 was on narrow bush tracks) and 17k on Sunday (more of that later).

I've pretty much settled on a pattern of maintaining 32k during the week (four sessions, two rest days), and building up to 32k LSD runs by early March. This may get messed up a bit when I move from endurance to the strength and stamina phases, but I'll worry about that when it happens.

Despite attending (and photographing) my Nephew's wedding on New Year's eve, and expecting to still be up at 1pm (expectation fulfilled), we planned on getting up at 6am and heading out into the hills around Cooma, me running and TA riding (and carrying water for me). The getting up at 6 turned out to be suprisingly easy, but we didn't actually get out until about 6:30 which turned out to be one of two mistakes for the morning. The other was heading south-east instead of north west...

The outward run was absolutely beautiful. It was calm and cool, and of course there was no one around. (I hate running along noisy main roads, so to run alongside the paddocks with no-one else around was bliss). Once we cleared the town, TA would ride off for a few k's, return to give me a drink, and ride off again. Keeping in mind both the time that we needed to be back and not wanting to push the weekly total too far, we decided to turn after 50 minutes. At this point, TA was some number of k's further out (and down hill) from me, and also at this point, that hot nor'westerly that was to leave everyone sweltering at 40+ degrees decided to roar into life. If I found it hard going into the wind, then TA found the combination of the wind and the up hill almost impossible. We finally met up again just on the edge of town, and rarely have I seen a sweeter sight than TA and her water bottles. The most pleasing aspect of the run for me was that I did both halves in even time, hot headwind notwithstanding. I think that TA was just pleased to be finished!

Today is rest (3pm and I'm still in my pj's!), so I'd better go and attack some of those things on my list :-)

sfG