Training was going pretty well. 12 weeks out from the marathon, I had a few months down with a calf strain. With some pretty aggressive physio I was back on my feet after a few weeks. Building volume back up went fairly will, but losing momentum 3 months out lead me to drop back to the half. I still felt pretty confident of a good time, and as I stood at the start line I felt that a 1:40 half was a realistic goal.
I rose very early on race day, and drove down to the Gold Coast, taking the tram from Helensvale. This part of the trip ran seamlessly, there was parking, the tram was great, went straight to Southport to the race precinct. I dropped my gear off at the bag tent, chilled out for a bit, soaked up some atmosphere, and finally joined the starting pack.
I set myself up at the front of start group B, we're talking 1:40 or so. I ran into a good acquaintance, and celebrated reaching the start line of the Gold Coast for another year.
The atmosphere at the start line was pretty electric, I was pumped. An hour-forty half marathon was in my grasp. Somewhere up the front the gun went off, and the crowd slowly started to move.
The start of an event like this is pretty crowded - there's not much room and it stays that way until the crowd thins out. There's usually a bit of jostling, but people are normally pretty polite.
As I ran across the start line, the crowd was quite a bit thicker than I expected, and wasn't as quick as I was expecting; I was coming up against people and finding it difficult to get around them without pushing. No one want to be that guy, and I was trying not to be a dick.
The right hand barricade was set up on the median strip and there was room to run, so I stepped up onto the median strip and made my way past a few slower runners. About 600m into the race, as I placed my right foot onto the ground, another runner jumped up into the median strip and knocked me off balance, my ankle gave an audible crack.
I stopped, aware instantly that the race was done, and also that getting home was going to be a bit of a mission.
This blog has gone one long enough. I saw a nice sunrise, and it was a mission getting home.
6 months of training, done. If that other runner had been a single second ahead or behind, it would have been a different outcome, but here we are.
Talking to the physio a few weeks later, it was a grade 2 ankle sprain. I'm finally back running 6 weeks later, but man, motivation is eluding me. I was pretty heartbroken at the time. Also the finisher's shirt was really good this year.
I'm not sure what this means for the future. I';m going to continue, I still want that BQ, but I feel like I'm back at the start.
Friday, August 24, 2018
Thursday, March 08, 2018
Training begins
I've kicked off my 2018 campaign the right way I reckon. I'm 5 (6?) weeks into a training program from Pat Carrol, and it's going ok. The volume has been building up, and there's a couple of interval sessions thrown in during the week to add some variety and (hopefully) speed improvements.
The training program has seen my volume slowly step up to about 35-40km a week at the moment. That's going to start increasing as the long runs (currently at 1:50) will start to ramp up in the coming weeks. They top out at 3:20, which sounds quite outlandish. I've done it before, but the memory fades, leaving only a vague disbelief that that sort of effort is possible.
My planned run of events has been going pretty well. The Ipswich Trail Run Series runs were a bit of a mixed bag - the long courses were lap based and very heavily focused on single track.
I don't really enjoy either that much; laps feel like a wasted opportunity, and at the start of a race, single track is as frustrating as holiday traffic on the Bruce Highway with all the overtaking lanes removed. Also the tshirt this year turned out to be a singlet, which my least favourite form of torso covering.
Even so, really enjoyable runs, they make a great series of runs to ease into the year, and I'll probably be back next year.
ITRS #1 was a new course at White Rock. It was good to get some variety, and the terrain was mountain goat worthy in parts. Some great fun descents.
Hidden Valley hosted ITRS #2, and this is where I really noticed the downside of both the laps and the single track. The single 11km loop of the previous years was a really diverse and challenging run, and while this one was challenging, I felt the diversity lacked a bit. Doing two loops does mean that you can use the first lap as a sighting run, and it makes it easier to estimate when it's safe to start stepping up the effort for a strong finish, but at the expense of new scenery.
The three ITRS runs were about three weeks apart, so in between here I headed up to Stanthorpe to take part in That Dam Ride, a 125km ride that starts and finishes just out of town at Storm King Dam. I haven't been doing as much cycling this year, what with the training program and a tyre blowout, so I lined up at the start with a fair bit of trepidation. It's pretty hilly country up that way, and it did not disappoint in that regard - 1600m of climbing over the 125km. I rode with a mate from school, Mark, and we ended up in a well matched group of about 8 riders, which made a big difference to the last 25km or so.
The ride and the training load had taken it out of me, so the week leading up to ITRS #3 was very light on activity. Probably was the right call as the third race was by far the toughest - 4 steep, long grinding climbs followed by swift, sharp descents on some narrow, rocky and technical single track.
Luckily the following week has turned out to be a recovery week. Woohoo!
A big trail run coming up in a few weeks (Up The Buff 25km), so I'll be doing a few long runs with my camelbak to iron out any issues there. My body is holding up ok, tightness is starting to creep in around my hips and ITB, but managing to stay on top of it with pilates, massage, chiro and lots of foam roller.
Oh yeah, signed up for the 110km Great Brisbane Bike Ride as well. Should be good.
Only 16 more weeks to go.
The training program has seen my volume slowly step up to about 35-40km a week at the moment. That's going to start increasing as the long runs (currently at 1:50) will start to ramp up in the coming weeks. They top out at 3:20, which sounds quite outlandish. I've done it before, but the memory fades, leaving only a vague disbelief that that sort of effort is possible.
My planned run of events has been going pretty well. The Ipswich Trail Run Series runs were a bit of a mixed bag - the long courses were lap based and very heavily focused on single track.
I don't really enjoy either that much; laps feel like a wasted opportunity, and at the start of a race, single track is as frustrating as holiday traffic on the Bruce Highway with all the overtaking lanes removed. Also the tshirt this year turned out to be a singlet, which my least favourite form of torso covering.
Even so, really enjoyable runs, they make a great series of runs to ease into the year, and I'll probably be back next year.
ITRS #1 was a new course at White Rock. It was good to get some variety, and the terrain was mountain goat worthy in parts. Some great fun descents.
Hidden Valley hosted ITRS #2, and this is where I really noticed the downside of both the laps and the single track. The single 11km loop of the previous years was a really diverse and challenging run, and while this one was challenging, I felt the diversity lacked a bit. Doing two loops does mean that you can use the first lap as a sighting run, and it makes it easier to estimate when it's safe to start stepping up the effort for a strong finish, but at the expense of new scenery.
The three ITRS runs were about three weeks apart, so in between here I headed up to Stanthorpe to take part in That Dam Ride, a 125km ride that starts and finishes just out of town at Storm King Dam. I haven't been doing as much cycling this year, what with the training program and a tyre blowout, so I lined up at the start with a fair bit of trepidation. It's pretty hilly country up that way, and it did not disappoint in that regard - 1600m of climbing over the 125km. I rode with a mate from school, Mark, and we ended up in a well matched group of about 8 riders, which made a big difference to the last 25km or so.
The ride and the training load had taken it out of me, so the week leading up to ITRS #3 was very light on activity. Probably was the right call as the third race was by far the toughest - 4 steep, long grinding climbs followed by swift, sharp descents on some narrow, rocky and technical single track.
Luckily the following week has turned out to be a recovery week. Woohoo!
A big trail run coming up in a few weeks (Up The Buff 25km), so I'll be doing a few long runs with my camelbak to iron out any issues there. My body is holding up ok, tightness is starting to creep in around my hips and ITB, but managing to stay on top of it with pilates, massage, chiro and lots of foam roller.
Oh yeah, signed up for the 110km Great Brisbane Bike Ride as well. Should be good.
Only 16 more weeks to go.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Taking Steps
Right, so the planning phase is 90% done with, tonight I've gone an formally organised for online coaching for the Gold Coast Marathon with Pat Carroll. I used the training programs Pat provided for the Gold Coast Marathons in 2010 and 2011, and found that they were easy to understand and to follow.
I'm really feel that with a solid and achievable program behind me I should be able to set myself up for a really good run at the goal for 2019.
I'm also hoping that another 10kg comes off and that a sub-20 minute 5km comes out of it as well...
I did the Lismore Parkrun this weekend (my 80th), and I'm very happy with my time of 22:12. It's a very tough course, with lots of 180 degree turns (9 of them!) and a couple of sharp hairpins. It's also sharply undulating. Not really right to call it hilly, but the changes in elevation are short and sharp so they hurt. It's not a run where you can easily fall into a comfortable rhythm.
You can kind of see from the heart rate and cadence data, but I don't think I trust the wrist heart rate monitor - there's no way my heart rate maxed out at 145bpm, I felt like I was at redline the whole way. The slightly cooler weather really made a huge difference to my time I think.
I'm really feel that with a solid and achievable program behind me I should be able to set myself up for a really good run at the goal for 2019.
I'm also hoping that another 10kg comes off and that a sub-20 minute 5km comes out of it as well...
I did the Lismore Parkrun this weekend (my 80th), and I'm very happy with my time of 22:12. It's a very tough course, with lots of 180 degree turns (9 of them!) and a couple of sharp hairpins. It's also sharply undulating. Not really right to call it hilly, but the changes in elevation are short and sharp so they hurt. It's not a run where you can easily fall into a comfortable rhythm.
You can kind of see from the heart rate and cadence data, but I don't think I trust the wrist heart rate monitor - there's no way my heart rate maxed out at 145bpm, I felt like I was at redline the whole way. The slightly cooler weather really made a huge difference to my time I think.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Stocktake
Well, those interim goals have appeared, that's for sure. I'm turning 40 tomorrow, and while that seems to have spurred a bit of irritating introspection, it's also got me off my arse and entering some races. I've taken it easy over the last few weeks, I've honestly found the build up to my birthday a bit stressful this year. It's a milestone number, and my birthday is at an awkward time for celebrations, so it's easy to fall into the trap of not building it up so that I don't get disappointed when people can't make events. It leaves me a bit m'eh about everything. I had a good night out with a couple of mates, so there's nothing real to complain about. I have it pretty good.
So running and cycling has been a bit off recently. I did get to go for a really nice run through North Head National Park in Sydney a few weeks back. It was hot, but considering how much I'd had to drink the night before, it felt surprisingly good.
I still cracked on and do a 23:15 parkrun last week, in brutal conditions (287 degrees and 60% humidity). Allegedly, that's gonna add about 4.5% to times, and as a run it sure felt much like a 22:15 did 6 months ago, though with more dry heaving.
I've also written down some goals. Sure, they're attached to some bottles of beer, but it is very, *very* nice beer.
So, where was I...
In the next few months, I've lined myself up for:
21/01/18 - Ipswich Trail Run Series #1 - White Rock
11/02/18 - Ipswich Trail Run Series #2 - Hidden Valley
04/03/18 - Ipswich Trail Run Series #3 - Castle Hill
25/03/18 - Up the Buff 25km
15/04/18 - Gold Run 5km
01/07/18 - Gold Coast Marathon
I plan to have a good crack at a sub-20 5km at the Gold Run, and in my head those trail runs should encourage a reasonably consistent preparation. A good crack at the Gold Run will then set up nicely for a solid build up to the Gold Coast. This year's goal should only be 3:45ish, maybe 3:30 depending, but the marathon is a harsh beast so plans are best written in the wind.
With a few weeks off work over Christmas, I should be able to work out a training plan and sort out some level of support. I bristle a bit at the though of paying to go for a run, but I think some sort of coaching could be valuable.
So running and cycling has been a bit off recently. I did get to go for a really nice run through North Head National Park in Sydney a few weeks back. It was hot, but considering how much I'd had to drink the night before, it felt surprisingly good.
I still cracked on and do a 23:15 parkrun last week, in brutal conditions (287 degrees and 60% humidity). Allegedly, that's gonna add about 4.5% to times, and as a run it sure felt much like a 22:15 did 6 months ago, though with more dry heaving.I've also written down some goals. Sure, they're attached to some bottles of beer, but it is very, *very* nice beer.
So, where was I...
In the next few months, I've lined myself up for:
21/01/18 - Ipswich Trail Run Series #1 - White Rock
11/02/18 - Ipswich Trail Run Series #2 - Hidden Valley
04/03/18 - Ipswich Trail Run Series #3 - Castle Hill
25/03/18 - Up the Buff 25km
15/04/18 - Gold Run 5km
01/07/18 - Gold Coast Marathon
I plan to have a good crack at a sub-20 5km at the Gold Run, and in my head those trail runs should encourage a reasonably consistent preparation. A good crack at the Gold Run will then set up nicely for a solid build up to the Gold Coast. This year's goal should only be 3:45ish, maybe 3:30 depending, but the marathon is a harsh beast so plans are best written in the wind.
With a few weeks off work over Christmas, I should be able to work out a training plan and sort out some level of support. I bristle a bit at the though of paying to go for a run, but I think some sort of coaching could be valuable.
Monday, October 30, 2017
Coasting
It has been a while, but this blog isn't going to be a consistently frequent thing, and things feel right for a quick stock-take.
Since the couple of surprising PB's I achieved in August, my focus has shifted a bit, become a bit broader, but hopefully not to the point of losing focus on my goal. Writing this post up is partly me trying to restate that goal to myself. So that's the goal - 3:10:00 at the Gold Coast 2019. 614 days to go.
I've been doing PT sessions at a local gym for over a year now, and it's been great to have some external support for stating and achieving goals. The gym runs occasional 10 week challenges, with a body composition scan at the start and finish, and ongoing encouragement to use a food diary. The food diary has been my main motivator for joining in, as my past experience tells me that bad habits slip back in very easily, and it's very easy to just not notice.
I did pretty well with the 10 week challenge this run through (I did it at the start of the year as well), losing about 4.5kg, and dropping by body fat from 15.8kg to 12.6kg. My body fat percentage is just over 15%, so that's heading in the right direction.
I have also managed, for the first time in my adult life, to be neither overweight nor obese.
One funny thing I've found is the feeling of being a bit fat, of taking up just a bit too much space, hasn't really gone away yet. I still don't immediately recognise myself in the mirror.
It's nice to have met a goal, but things have gone a bit off track since the challenge finished, with the inevitable "off-the-leash" weekend, some widespread rain keeping me off the bike and a few worrying niggles resurfacing.
Still haven't committed to another interim goal yet, and I need to, or things will start to drift again.
I've found myself heading along to group bike rides more often, as the social aspect of cycling is far more rewarding than running the same old routes by myself. The lack of a social running group in my area has been a bit of a barrier, so I will be trying to seek that out in the future.
So I guess that's the interim goal - find a goal that gets me part of the way there. That's good enough for now.
Since the couple of surprising PB's I achieved in August, my focus has shifted a bit, become a bit broader, but hopefully not to the point of losing focus on my goal. Writing this post up is partly me trying to restate that goal to myself. So that's the goal - 3:10:00 at the Gold Coast 2019. 614 days to go.
I've been doing PT sessions at a local gym for over a year now, and it's been great to have some external support for stating and achieving goals. The gym runs occasional 10 week challenges, with a body composition scan at the start and finish, and ongoing encouragement to use a food diary. The food diary has been my main motivator for joining in, as my past experience tells me that bad habits slip back in very easily, and it's very easy to just not notice.
I did pretty well with the 10 week challenge this run through (I did it at the start of the year as well), losing about 4.5kg, and dropping by body fat from 15.8kg to 12.6kg. My body fat percentage is just over 15%, so that's heading in the right direction.
I have also managed, for the first time in my adult life, to be neither overweight nor obese.
One funny thing I've found is the feeling of being a bit fat, of taking up just a bit too much space, hasn't really gone away yet. I still don't immediately recognise myself in the mirror.
It's nice to have met a goal, but things have gone a bit off track since the challenge finished, with the inevitable "off-the-leash" weekend, some widespread rain keeping me off the bike and a few worrying niggles resurfacing.
Still haven't committed to another interim goal yet, and I need to, or things will start to drift again.
I've found myself heading along to group bike rides more often, as the social aspect of cycling is far more rewarding than running the same old routes by myself. The lack of a social running group in my area has been a bit of a barrier, so I will be trying to seek that out in the future.
So I guess that's the interim goal - find a goal that gets me part of the way there. That's good enough for now.
Monday, August 07, 2017
Personal bests
I absolutely smashed my 5km pb two weeks back, taking it from 22:43 down to 21:10.5. While it wasn't the sub-20 I was challenged to do, it shows a couple of things :-
BRRC 5km
I did not recover very well from this run. My legs were sacks of wet sand for about a week, and I've been struggling with niggles and losing consistency since. I really felt fatigued afterward, which I guess shows how much I pushed myself. Nevertheless, I'm happy with the result, and look forward to bettering (but maybe not for a few months). I'll be resetting my usual 5k expectations to sub 23:00 though. That seems reasonable now.
Anyway, after a few weeks of struggling to get out and do as much stuff as I've wanted, and an extremely hectic working environment, I lined up at the Brisbane Marathon 10km yesterday morning. I hadn't really been looking forward to the run, but luckily my sister-in-law was running as well, and her enthusiasm got me to the race precinct, where the atmosphere of the start line got me pretty pumped.
I'd started to settle back into an sub 50:00 run in my head, and lined up with the 50 minute pacer... who I stuck with for the first km, and then left behind. The Brisbane Marathon 10km course is a winding, twisty affair, with a couple of short but rather steep climbs. There are a few hills through the city that are allegedly quite high, but must be relatively gradual as they are *relatively* manageable.
It's the climb up from the river to the Storey Bridge that's the killer. It's not long but it hurts. Then there's a long long long down hill section from the bridge back to the other side of the river. It's a tough course. Looking at the Strava activity, the elevation data is all sorts of messed up.
Brisbane Marathon Festival 10km
I had another great run, a 15 second PB. But the difference in the courses was enormous - I have no idea if this is a valid comparison, but using the "Grade Adjusted Pace" times from Strava would make it a 44:35 run, which would have been a huge PB, of over 2 minutes.
Well, it's been a big few weeks of resetting expectations for me. I am pretty certain I will attempt the 2018 Canberra Marathon, so it's back to building a base up until Christmas, when the training will start in earnest.
- that goal is within reach
- I'm probably capable of more than I allow myself to believe
BRRC 5km
I did not recover very well from this run. My legs were sacks of wet sand for about a week, and I've been struggling with niggles and losing consistency since. I really felt fatigued afterward, which I guess shows how much I pushed myself. Nevertheless, I'm happy with the result, and look forward to bettering (but maybe not for a few months). I'll be resetting my usual 5k expectations to sub 23:00 though. That seems reasonable now.
Anyway, after a few weeks of struggling to get out and do as much stuff as I've wanted, and an extremely hectic working environment, I lined up at the Brisbane Marathon 10km yesterday morning. I hadn't really been looking forward to the run, but luckily my sister-in-law was running as well, and her enthusiasm got me to the race precinct, where the atmosphere of the start line got me pretty pumped.
I'd started to settle back into an sub 50:00 run in my head, and lined up with the 50 minute pacer... who I stuck with for the first km, and then left behind. The Brisbane Marathon 10km course is a winding, twisty affair, with a couple of short but rather steep climbs. There are a few hills through the city that are allegedly quite high, but must be relatively gradual as they are *relatively* manageable.
It's the climb up from the river to the Storey Bridge that's the killer. It's not long but it hurts. Then there's a long long long down hill section from the bridge back to the other side of the river. It's a tough course. Looking at the Strava activity, the elevation data is all sorts of messed up.
Brisbane Marathon Festival 10km
I had another great run, a 15 second PB. But the difference in the courses was enormous - I have no idea if this is a valid comparison, but using the "Grade Adjusted Pace" times from Strava would make it a 44:35 run, which would have been a huge PB, of over 2 minutes.
Well, it's been a big few weeks of resetting expectations for me. I am pretty certain I will attempt the 2018 Canberra Marathon, so it's back to building a base up until Christmas, when the training will start in earnest.
Saturday, July 22, 2017
The Plan, or at least, the planning for the Plan
There's just under 24 months until the Gold Coast Marathon 2019, so that's just under 23 months to get my marathon time down to 3:10.
That's equivalent to the half marathon in 1:30, 10km in 40 minutes and a 0:19:31 5km
So, 24 months to get my 16 minutes off my half marathon PB, 6 minutes off my 10km PB and a pretty huge 3 minutes off my 5km PB.
My 5km PB is almost 3 and half years old though, and my 10km PB is even older, so I'll be having a crack at both over the next few weeks.
Tomorrow I'll have a crack at a quick 5km. I've been challenged to attempt a 20 minute, but I'm not sure that's possible or smart, so I'll probably aim for 22 minutes and see how I go.
I've entered a 10km in a few weeks, so it'd be good to get under 45 minutes for that.
Anyway, the schedule for the next few years looks a bit like:
April 2018 - Canberra Marathon
May 2018 - City 2 South
July 2018 - Gold Coast Half
August 2018 - City 2 Surf (?)
October 2018 - Melbourne Marathon
March 2019 - Twilight Half
July 2019 - Gold Coast Marathon
Parkruns will be scattered in there, and I'm aiming to spend from now until Christmas 2017 building a bit of a base. Consistently getting in 20km a week of running and around 80km of cycling would be good.
But hey, best laid plans and all that.
That's equivalent to the half marathon in 1:30, 10km in 40 minutes and a 0:19:31 5km
So, 24 months to get my 16 minutes off my half marathon PB, 6 minutes off my 10km PB and a pretty huge 3 minutes off my 5km PB.
My 5km PB is almost 3 and half years old though, and my 10km PB is even older, so I'll be having a crack at both over the next few weeks.
Tomorrow I'll have a crack at a quick 5km. I've been challenged to attempt a 20 minute, but I'm not sure that's possible or smart, so I'll probably aim for 22 minutes and see how I go.
I've entered a 10km in a few weeks, so it'd be good to get under 45 minutes for that.
Anyway, the schedule for the next few years looks a bit like:
April 2018 - Canberra Marathon
May 2018 - City 2 South
July 2018 - Gold Coast Half
August 2018 - City 2 Surf (?)
October 2018 - Melbourne Marathon
March 2019 - Twilight Half
July 2019 - Gold Coast Marathon
Parkruns will be scattered in there, and I'm aiming to spend from now until Christmas 2017 building a bit of a base. Consistently getting in 20km a week of running and around 80km of cycling would be good.
But hey, best laid plans and all that.