Of Cheering and Statistical Anomalies

Last week was my biggest week since January (56k), though only by a statistical anomaly because I did the previous week's Sunday long run (17k) on Monday. Made the week before look a little weak :-)

All up, I had some really nice runs. On Wednesday morning I ran down to the local oval to do an interval session with tiger angel (who had driven there). 8x400 with 200 walk recoveries. TA set the pace, and how's this for evenness. 2:05, 1:57, 1:56, 1:57, 1:56, 1:56, 1:57, 1:58. She really had to hang on for those last two! Ran home afterwards. Thursday night's rain caused Run Club cancellation, so Julia, Pete and I went for a bay lap. Pete really can't run that slowly (he does a 70-something half marathon), so he made his apologies after about a k and left us to our own devices. I don't know what it is about running in the rain, but we just chatted and ran and finished with a sub-5 minute average pace. Beaut!

Friday & Saturday were a lather of stress and self-doubt in the lead up to the Blackmores half. I do enjoy pacing races like this when I'm not up to putting in a good run myself, but I always worry about whether I'm going to lead people astray or leave them stranded if something goes wrong. Anyhow, it all turned out fine and I finished 3 seconds ahead of the nominated time with some satisfied customers, so it's all good!

After the run I made my way back down to the CR Cheer Squad in front of the MCA building to watch the marathoners come in. The marathoners were inspiring as always, but the Cheer Squad was fantastic; really going off. The longer the day wore on and the slower the runners got, the louder the Cheer Squad got, and I was really impressed that they didn't reserve their cheers just for Cool Runners, but cheered any and everyone. There was a loot of comment on the CR forums about how uplifting they were, but I noticed many times comments like "the cheer squad were fantastic. They really gave me a lift when I needed it. I wasn't wearing any CR gear...". Girls and fellas, take a bow! :-)


There they are in a slightly lower-energy moment... (thanks to CR springer for the photo).

TA and I were both really tired so we took our leave early from lunch at the pub, went home and crawled into bed and slept for 3 hours. Nice end to a great day :-)

Gnome

(Oh, incidentally, the 21st birthdays in last week's blog were for 'Angel', our daughter, not tiger angel. Sorry for any confusion. Maybe we need to invent a new nom-de-plume for her)

21 today, 21 today...

Well, actually it will be 21 tomorrow, but tonight we had the second of Angel's three parties (three parties?? Yep. Saturday night for 35 of my close rels - I come from a large and relatively fecund family - tonight with tiger angel's parents, and one some time in the future for all Angel's friends. This is what we run for; to build the stamina to cope with situations like this :-) ).

The major effect - exercise wise - of all that partying (and related preparations) was that
a) neither of us had time to exercise, and
b) we both needed to! (Chocolate... Yum... :-) )

Hence, Saturday's run never eventuated, and I did my Sunday long run on Monday morning - 1 hour 45 min for about 17.5k. Pretty slow, but some of it was in the bush which always slows things up. That's my excuse anyhow.

Tiger Angel has copped the full force of spring, so the hay fever is making her pretty tired. Consequently, she skipped Monday's session (it's called 'listening to your body, right??!), but tomorrow morning we'll go and do a track session together. Love it :-)

Off to bed before it really is 21 today...

Gnome

...improbability level 2,568,381 to 1 and falling...

...normality will be reached just as soon as we work out just what is normal anyhow...**
I realised tonight that I could do a plain and simple training update, and the last time I blogged like that was at the beginning of July. Wow. Yep, normality does appear to be poking its head up over the parapet, so here goes.

Over the last two weeks, I've managed to do up over 40k. The last time I managed that was one week in June, then one in January, and I have to go back to November last year when I was working to the Central Coast Half (my best run ever) before I can find consistent training. Wow again. So, last week;

• Monday - Hills session with tiger angel. 200m hill, 7 reps with walk recovery, times ranged from 1:24 to 1:16. The aim of these is not so much for strength as a normal hills session would be, but to get some work into her body without long aerobic sessions. In other word, a hard-case walk/run.
• Tuesday - rest
  
• Wednesday - 11k at 5:30 pace around local streets.
• Thursday - Cycled to work (25k) but Run Club rained out in the evening.
• Friday - 1.4km swim with TA
• Saturday - Hmmm. My diary for Saturday just says "Wanted 10k; did 10k; got bored". (5:35 pace). I was thinking during the run how much I didn't want to do 20k on my own on Sunday when it occurred to me that Sunday was SMC's first race of the season, and there'd be sure to be someone there doing the half at a pace that I could fit in with. So, on...
• Sunday, I fronted up at Smiffo, and had absolutely the best run with Johnny Dark and Seagull. 1:44:19 for the half. Just sub 5 min pace, chatting but keeping each other honest speed-wise at the same time and spurring each other to achieve more than we thought possible. Running at its best!

So much for last week. This week (so far)...

• Monday - we repeated the hills session, but this time did 8 reps at 1:11, 1:11, 1:11, 1:11, 1:14, 1:12, 1:13, 1:12. Much faster and much more even. TA was very happy with that lot (and quite happy that they were finished too, I might add :-) ). She says "next week, NO HILLS!".
• Tuesday - rest
• Wednesday (today) - 10.5k at 5:40 pace - rolling (& large) hills.

Plans for the remainder are cycling, Run Club, swimming, another 10k and 20k on the weekend and then start the taper off for the Sydney half.

Speaking of the half, I offered (somewhat late) to assist with pacing the 120 minute group if needed, and this week Katie asked if I could take the 110 minute group. Prior to last Sunday's run I would have said no way, but it gave me the confidence to (take a deep breath and) accept. Hence, on Blackmore's morning you'll find me with a red flag on my back, shepherding a group around the new course. I have to admit to still being a bit scared...

Enough about me! What about tiger angel? Well, apart from Monday's hills and Friday's swimming, she's been doing 90 min walks every few days interspersed with weights & bike sessions at the gym. She still gets pretty tired, but that's expected to improve a fair bit over the next month or two. Dr Pain (the magical medicine man) is really pleased with how her hip is working, and today's good news is that she has regained a little movement in her wrist, courtesy of some massage & manipulation (and sudden cracking noises) by the aforementioned Dr P...

Gnome

**with apologies to Douglas Adams

That's it! I'm screwed...

...not so much metaphorically, but physically. Tiger angel went back to the surgeon this week and got some new X-rays in the process. The verdict is that her wrist is getting better slowly, but unfortunately 'slowly' is the operative word. She's back driving as of this visit, so that's made her life a whole lot easier too.

Anyhow, I thought you might like to see this...




Gnome

Striders 10k - Training diary, week zero

We tried a very advanced scientific experiment last week. When it comes to experiments, the only failure is a failure to obtain a clear cut result, so I'd say that the experiment was a resounding success!

Hypothesis. Our hypothesis was - "Great results can be obtained in a 10k race by spending the better part of the preceding week lying around in spas and eating (not necessarily at the same time, although that was open to experiment too)".

Method. Given our dedication to practicing the scientific method, we took ourselves off to a wonderful little place called Kims (a place known primarily for its seclusion and its food - how many other places post sample menus on their web site??) and devoted ourselves to fully testing our hypothesis. Regardless of our commitment to scientific endeavour, I do have to admit that we had a wonderfully relaxing time, which is something we haven't had a lot of lately.

Results. So much for the experiment; what about the results? Well, if you'll pardon the culinary metaphor, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. On Saturday morning I lined up for the 10k with the 45 minute pacer (CR Over The Hill), started a little faster than necessary and then just got slower and slower and slower... Apart from a few people in the first 500m, I did no overtaking but instead got continually overtaken for the entire rest of the race (I have to admit to speeding up to overtake one poor suffering soul in the last few hundred just so I could claim a meagre triumph. Pathetic, isn't it :-) ).

Conclusion. I think that it is reasonable to draw a preliminary conclusion that the hypothesis is flawed, and lazing and lots of fine food is not necessarily the best preparation for a race. However, it should be noted that a test of one instance is statistically insufficient to draw firm conclusions, and hence it is recommended that the test be repeated a number of times. For further variation, it maybe could be repeated before different length races such as marathons, halves and 3 & 5k to ascertain their effect. There is definitely much to be explored...

(still short, but now slightly fatter) Gnome