Undercover Pacer

ran glasshouse 50km on the weekend.
things went pretty much to plan except some arse ache when sitting down over the following 2 days or so.
including a 0.25 for beerburrum ran a slight neg split (2nd loop 2mins quicker) and felt very comfy until the last hour or so.
finished just uner 5.50.
felt as good at the 5 hour mark of this as the 3.5hour mark of the 80km a few months back which is reassuring.
did get some needles in the butt yesterday and seeing the physio again this week.
it's ok to just stumble on i guess but if i plan to continue to build over the next month or so i don't want to come to grief.

blair had to pull out of pacing the 1.50 brissie HM bus so i will be doing my first ever pacing duties on sunday.
have always prided myself at how i can keep pace on road stuff without much effort and no gps help so we'll see what a little bit of pressure does :)
i'm not really an encouraging/cheerleader kind of personality though better bring my happy face that day!

booked flights etc... for 12 foot.

and tam we should run the 4Ts before glasshouse hey!

Adaptation

ultra running is all about adaptation.
you need to adapt to doing stuff that is completely unnatural well in the 21st century anyway.
initially its mostly physical.
the body needs to get used to the punishment.
i think a lot of what happens later is mental.
finding new challenges and how to overcome them.

you still need the physical side though.
did 120km this week.
havent done that for ages.
glute is still probably only 90% at the moment.
did 2 long runs in brissie forest park.
did a 'double loop': black soil/scrub and the centre rd/hell hole (aka whippets whinge).
did the loops last year in 2.00 and 1.40 so with 0.25 it takes to join the loops up (4.05 total) a gentle trot in 3.55 shows how much fitter i am this year.
will need to come up with a name for this run.
its a nice hard run.
i am thinking the team tam torture test (4T) maybe.
all the flat runs this week were 1.09-1.11 so 5.10s or thereabouts.

monday: 13.7km flat
tuesday: 3.55 bris forest park 4T run and massage
wednesday: pilates
thursday: 13.7km flat
friday: 3.00 bris forest park- went for a bit of an explore augies rd down towards the mermaid mt turnoff
saturday and sunday both 13.7km flat

will settle down a bit this week until GH 50km saturday anyway.
will do it slowly probably add 30-40mins to usual time.

Nowhere to hide

gold coast marathon 3.51.23

was thinking the same thing about the camelbak and gaiters jen :)

i think mr bleakman described it well.
the thing about marathons is there is nowhere to hide.
you can't just walk up the hill or hide and sit under a tree inbetween checkpoints.
'nowhere to hide' describes my first mara in 2001 perfectly.
ran the first 30km too fast and walked the last 12 along a long long very exposed busway in brisbane on a very warm day finishing in 4.16.

yestreday was much more cruisy.
kept pretty much perfectly to plan.
ran 5.20s to the turnaround (15.5km).
slowed a tad for a 1.53 halfway.
not so quick toilet stop (had to line up) and a gentle slowdown for a 3.51 finish.
dont wear an hrm but from a heart/lungs point of view it was very comfy.
the legs felt the last 6km which was just perfect.
saw a few people cramping in the last few kms and thought i was going to join them for a while.
great training run.

for the record 5km splits were 26.41, 26.35, 26.53, 27.13, 28.21 (dunny), 27.16, 27.34, 28.25, (12.22)

amazing how warm it gets on that exposed section from 30-34km.
wouldn't want to be out there on a hotter day.
the crowds pissed me off a bit especially the lady who was elbowing people 2mins after the start trying to get her ipod in order.
and those darting in/out at different stages especially at drink stations.
nice to run with a few CRs at different stages: puggie, seris.
racing a couple of HMs in the past the turnarounds have pissed me off: hard to concentrate seeing people coming the other way but was entertaining yesterday.
saw heaps of friends out there racing and pacing.
and a dude in a black sepultura tshirt just behind the 3hr group too.
now thats one hard rocker.

was thinking in the car on the way home how fast i could do one of these things.
then 0.1 seconds later was thinking about trail.
glasshouse 50km in 3 weeks.
12 foot 2 weeks after that.