Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Comfort Zone

stepping out of my comfort zone this weekend.
haven't done a mara for almost 10 years and will make my return at the gold coast.
the first one was (as is often the case) a bit of a disaster and walked the last 12kms :)
it sucked.
that was 2001.
have only run ultras since.
almost all off road.

i havent tapered.
i have done only one long run >25km on road in the last few months.
and that ended with some tendon issues and an unplanned day off.
still have not recovered 100% from the arse/sciatic nerve thingy.
and basically i have no idea what i am doing :)

in my favour (with 2 ultras in the upcoming 5 weeks) i am just planning to trot.
and i am pretty fit at the moment.
hoping for a 3.50 or thereabouts and if the butt stays good should be no problem.
if not the car will be parked at the 32km mark!

friday: 33km flat road 3hrs
saturday: off
sunday : 7km race 9th/56 lake manchester and easy 10km 52.00 afternoon
monday: off
tuesday: 13.7km 69.00
wednesday: 13.7km 71ish
thursday: off
friday: 23km 2.05 easy
weekend off
easy week this week.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Mellum up

with andy and spud heading to hardrock in a week or two it was time for one last mellum hitout.
a bit of discussion about where they wanted to go an in the end spud chose his favourite pre-OS jaunt training run : 12 foot.
andy was a tad too busy to come unfortunately.
tim and sonia did the first half (starting a little after spud) whilst i drove tim's car to the caves and ran back with spud.

the 'reverse 6 foot' makes so much sense.
for starters there is more up than down which suits me.
also the downs are much more runable in the reverse direction.
running across meg valley heading towards the escarpment at dusk is just fantastic.
and you get to finish with hauling your butt up those stairs in the dark in 4 degrees! :)

overall a really nice training run for me.
even ran in my new glasshouse 1000km shirt (thanks to mr g).
to be honest was a little worried about my arse muscle and had mentioned to the other half (and tim) about a possible meg rd bailout if things werent going well but spud looked after me well.
also brought a bit more gear than usual - enough to keep me happy in near freezing.
spud got down to the turnaround in 5hrs on the dot and it took us 6.23 to get back.
a good 12ft training run time for spud and a run for me that always felt reasonably comfy.
well until spud disappeared up those stairs at the end anyway ;)
had this funny sensation in my body half way up nellies which was my heart pounding at 200/min.
havent felt that for a while!!
as it happened ran in tshirt and shorts (plus beanie/gloves) almost all day until about 10mins from the stairs when i put a thermal on.
then sweated profusely in it.
gee it was cold at the finish: 3mins after stopping i popped 2 thermals and a downjacket on and was still cold.

the only bad part of the day was the hot food only being available from 11.30 onwards so missed out on my planned fish and chips :(
niggles have all pulled up well and did about 3hrs of walking with TOH the following day before a day off monday and the usual 13.5-14km today.

GCM in 3 weeks: have had varying thoughts about what to do there. last week was keen to do the mara (havent done one for nearly 10 years!). yesterday i didnt feel like doing anything and today was thinking of the 10km (race)/HM (training run) double.
so who knows?!?
glasshoue 50km 3 weeks after that.

good luck at hardrock boys.

Monday, June 07, 2010

WTF?

wtf is wrong with people these days?
hello i have just run 5km for the first time.
can i run a marathon in 2 months?
or can i run a 2 hour marathon in a couple of years.
what the fuck?
its hard to know what are the pisstake threads and which ones are real.
please please tell me some of them are pisstakes.
can someone please remind me never to read beginner threads on CR ever again.
i just keep getting older and crankier every day :)
end of rant.

oh and while i remember probably a poor choice of words last post... i meant long time friends :)

butt ache is settling.
got some needles last week (ouch) and saw the physio who agreed that its not a piri syndrome per se.
just a narky glute med mainly and inflammed ?sacrospinous ligament.
it didnt like a MGTT last monday so have stuck to the flat/road this week and run alternate days.
btw my usual 14km running route has been changed because of cycling path works so now run through the gardens and its probably knocked a bit off.
i will henceforth refer to it as 13.5kms :)

monday: MGTT 2.18
tuesday: 13.5km flat 1.09ish and butt needles
wednesday: off
thursdau: 13.5km flat and physio
friday: off
saturday: 13.5km flat 1.09ish
sunday: off, gentle walk/run with the husky
monday: 23-24km flat just over 5's