Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb...

...dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, stupid (geddit?).

On the way back from the 5k challenge yesterday, I remarked to Ben (CR Chunderbolt) that as long as I got through Sunday's long run OK, then I would have managed to get to a goal race uninjured for the first time in ever(?). As usual, I spoke too soon. I noticed this morning as I was getting out of bed that my right quad twinged. I don't remember straining it yesterday, but I was doing lots of squatting while working on the house, so that may have strained something. Anyhow, I though no more about it until I was stretching a bit before the Striders Star and felt the twinge again. I went for a bit of a jog and it felt OK, so I decided to continue. Like I said above, dumb, dumb, dumb!

Tim (CR Redback) and I started with the 6:10am group again, and again they shot off like they had something to prove. We had already decided to do a shortened run (23k) so we figured that we'd try to hang on until the first short cut at about 12k. At about the 10k point, the group was very strung out, and I arrived at the back just in time to hear the tail end of someone giving the group a good dressing down and telling all those who wanted to run faster to run ahead, because from now on the group was going to do the 'right' speed. The usual suspects ran off, and at least for the next couple of k until we turned off, the pace seemed a bit more sensible. Much thanks to whoever it was :-)

During the course of the run, my leg was starting to get a little tight, but I kept going (why, oh why?). It still felt ok(ish) when I finished, but as I cooled down it started to hurt. A fair bit of self massage plus an ice pack (took it to church with me and left it on during the sermon) plus lots more squatting during the rest of the day has it no longer bothering me, but it's still sore to touch. Looks like this week's taper with lots of short, sharp work has just become a taper with not much of anything. Ah well, it wouldn't be a goal race if I didn't carry some kind of injury into it :-(

As for the rest of the week, I did another 5 reps of 5 min @145bpm, 1 min recovery on the bike on Tuesday morning. The idea is to raise the lactic threshold without thrashing my legs. Wednesday morning I covered 15k at 5:20 pace overall, though that included 3k in the bush which slowed things down rather. Thursday at Run Club we did 3 x 2k reps. I was really pleased with the evenness. The 500m splits were
1:54, 1:54, 1:53, 1:49 - 7:30 total
1:56, 1:52, 1:54, 1:49 - 7:31 total
1:57, 1:55, 1:54, 1:51 - 7:37 total
I had ideas of pushing the last 500m, but there was nothing at all left. That's the way reps should be, so no complaints there.

Finally, Saturday morning was the CR5k. Not a bad turnout, considering that CR drinks were not too many hours earlier. I ran with Wayne (CR Johnny Dark) off 21, with the bold goal of him breaking 21 for the first time. Alas, we fell tantalisingly short, but it was still his best time for a number of years.

With a bit of luck (and a whole lot of hard work), our next post next week will record a new pb of 95:xx, and a great set of times from the 95 train (currently at least JD, Redback, Rags and myself). Unfortunately, Evie has been called away at the last minute for work and won't be able to be there, so the bus is going to be minus one piston :-(

Gnome

Oooo, I ache all over...

Starting at (almost) the end, I spent most of yesterday (Sat) on the end of a concrete grinder turning parts of my family room floor into dust. By the end of the day I could hardly move, and went to bed at 9:30pm to sleep the sleep ofthe truly weary. I still prepared for SMC, on the basis that a run might free up all those locked up muscles, and if I felt too under the weather then I could drop back to the 10 or 5k. As it was, I was able to move reasonably freely this morning (Sun), so stuck with the half as planned.

I went out with the intention of keeping Johnny Dark in sight, and if I could keep to 4:30's then all the better. He shot off in the first few k, and then settled down to a reasonable pace about 500m ahead. From there on, there he stayed. I slowed up a little on the hill, but looking at the splits later, I realised that I never really sped up again afterwards. The split for the first 10k was 44:04, and for the second was 47:58 (eurg!). Even allowing an over-generous 1 minute for the hill (which falls into the second 10k), that's still a positive split of 3 minutes.

I knew that I was slowing down alot and I was beating myself up a bit about it, but then I realised that a) I'd just done a PB (by 30 sec), and b) I had worked myself into a state of exhaustion the evening before. I'll tell you what though; I've never felt so sore at the end of any race before. So, Central Coast still looks hopeful (provided I taper and eat OK, and don't beat myself up working on the house the day before :-) )

So what else happened this week? Tuesday, I had access to my car, so I headed to the pool. unfortunately I forgot my towel (Doh!), so I headed home again and did an AT session on the bike (5 x 5min @ 145bpm and 1 min recovery between). Wednesday was one of those lovely runs - it felt light and easy. 15k at 4:54 pace. I wish they were all like that. Run Club on Thursday night was 6 laps of the hospital hill loop, with a hills ladder in the middle. Despite the wind (awful!), I kept things pretty even - 3:32, 3:37, 3:35, 3:35, 3:38, 3:34. Then on Saturday, I managed to get to the 6ft training group run on time, and we did 13k from Roseville Bridge up to Lindfield and back again. Nice run. I wish 6ft would be that nice :-)

Finally, in answer to some questions - 2P, the 6ft announcement was carefully hidden away in this post :-), and Tesso, Windsprints are just any series of sprints followed by a short rolling recovery. Two common ways to do them are to run 30 sec hard and 30 sec easy for 10 minutes, or to run the long side or diagonal of a soccer field hard, the end easy, and then repeat.

Gnome

Easy week (??)

As noted in the last update, the scheduled easy week started early last weekend, courtsey of the miserable weather and a severe case of Sudden Onset Shopaholics Disease (SOSD).

With the intent to keep the week short and sharp rather than short and slow, Tuesday was a windsprint session (1k warm up, 10 x 110m with 80m float recovery, and 1k cool down). Splits were 22, 24, 24, 22, 22, 23, 22, 22, 22, which'll do me :-). Started to feel the hip flexor (or adductor or something in that area) that always has a quiet whinge when woken up to do sprints, so happy to stop at 10.

Wednesday was to be a threshold run, aiming for 5k on a hilly course at 1/2M goal pace (4:30). Did exactly that (though the middle k was a bit sluggish). Generally happy.

Thursday night at run club was the first track session for the season (because we finally have enough light thanks to daylight saving) and guess what Tim has planned? Yep, windsprints! Aaarrrgggghhh! We started with 2 x 800 (400 splits were 1:36, 1:43, then 1:33, 1:38) followed by 10 minutes of windsprints. Finished with 3 x 400 and 2 x 200, but as my groin was complaining about 2 sets of sprints in the one week, I backed off and ran with Micro for most of them, and then called it a night with one to go. Discretion being the better part of valor and all that... :-)

My training diary note for Thursday was "Not one of those great nights. I feel like I'm slowing down, not speeding up. Losing confidence about Central Coast". I don't remember writing that, so I guess that's what diaries are for.

On Saturday, Mr WT and I were supposed to meet up with the Striders 6ft training group for the first run of the season. Because of trafic delays on his part and consumate stupidity on mine, we missed the start, so we drove up the the turnaround point and joined them there. It was a really nice run through the bush from Thornleigh to North Ryde and back, with the exception that the climb up to Thornleigh oval at the end was a killer. I know that 6ft will be immesurably worse, but it was the first session...

Thus endeth the 'down' week, so this morning was back to normal. I didn't want to travel to the Star, so I just did a local 23k on my own. Felt particularly ugly (the run, not me), a fact borne out by the first 3 ks (6:20, 6:10 & 6:10), but I picked it up a bit after that to end up averaging 5:25, which is in the middle of my long run pace range, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Still, it was just one of those get-it-done, not-particularly-enjoyable slogs.

Rest day tomorrow, so I guess I'll just have to slog my way through that too :-) :-)

Gnome

p.s. Tiger angel has been getting up to all sorts of good stuff, but I'll leave her to tell you about it (and leave you to pester her if she doesn't... :-))

The dragons are sleeping, and so is the mind…

The good news is that it looks like the dragons are sleeping again. There’s been no niggles since Wednesday. The bad news is that it appears to be affecting my brain!

On Saturday morning after the Striders 10k, I was confidently proclaiming a good pb on the hardest course of them all. It was a good race, well run with a 3:50 last k, so I was pretty happy. Unfortunately, when I got home to check the details, I found that my pb was actually a minute faster than I had remembered, and so my 30sec pb was actually 30 sec over! Duh! Funny how you can go from feeling so good about a run to so ordinary, when nothing about the run actually changed??

We had TA's dad's 79th birthday at our place on Saturday night, so when I crawled into bed at midnight, I decided that a 5am start in the cold and rain was not necessary and declined to set the alarm. Of course, I had plans to do 20-30k in the middle of the day. Alas, the best laid plans, etc etc. TA and I went shopping after church and got all excited about new kitchen stuff (doesn't take much to excite us these days... :-) ), and that run never did eventuate. Ah well, this coming week is a scheduled down week, so I guess I just started it a day early!

Gnome

p.s. congrats to lean, mean running machines Owlly and Johnny Dark for inflicing severe damage on long-standing pbs. Just great stuff! :-)

Bit of a scare

I got new shoes on Saturday (that's not the scary bit), but I didn't wear them on Sunday's long outing. Hence, first wear was Tuesday morning (yep, no car again, so no water running. It appears that that particular plank in the don't-get-injured policy is out of the picture for now. Anyhow, I digress...).

I went to a different local oval and did 5 x 1k reps (actually 960m, but I won't tell if you don't). This oval has some raised section around it for the viewing public, so it added some nice little undulations into the picture. The biggest is a 2m rise in 2m travel, so it's a nice little punch when you're feeling tired. Anyhow, at the end of the last one, I realised that my old nemesis shin niggle was having a nice nibble at my leg. Not at all happy. Was it the new shoes, or the sharp rises at speed, or something else? Ice & massage & stretching when I got home (not in that order though).

I decided to test out the hypothesis that it was the shoes by wearing them again on Wednesday's long run, but keep the early stages of that run near home in case of blow-ups. Sure 'nuff, after about 4k, the dragons started nibbling again, so I headed home before too much damage was done. Ice, etc again.

Thinking about it, I realised that my old shoes were all worn on the outer edge of the heel, so my new ones were pushing my feet to a new angle, almost the same as if I'd put orthotics in. The different angle fitted with the position of the strain too. TA talked to Dr Pain at her appointment and he agreed that I just needed to settle in to them.

Consequently, I wore them to work on Thursday (and got a few comments - they're fairly bright for an office :-) ) and then on to Run Club in the evening. We did a 3k TT on a bathtub course - it's a 500m length with significant little rises at each end - and I was very pleased (and surprised) to do 11:27. However, when I got home and measured it on Google Earth, it's only about 2.8km, so that's still only a 4:oo pace. However, on the bright side, it is a 4:00 pace on hills, so that's got to count for something.

Anyhow, the really bright spot of the evening was that the dragons had gone back to sleep, so it looks like I'm getting used to the new platform OK. I'll wear them at the Striders 10k on Saturday, and then drop back to the old ones for the long run on Sunday. Wish me luck as you wave me goodbye... (and best of everything to those going to the Port HIM this weekend - wish we were there).

Gnome