It's been well over a month since I last updated the BLOG. I returned from Europe just over a week back and immediately headed down south to Narooma over Easter and spent time with the family. As such, I'll give a day by day run down on what I've been up to and a little commentary on the Rotterdam Marathon afterwards.
4 weeks to go
14/3 - Left heel sore.
- Did 20 mins swimming (30x25 plus warm-up & warm down)
- 40 mins deepwater pool running (hard/easy)
15/3 - Left heel still sore
AM - 45 mins deepwater running (30 secs on/off hard/easy)
PM - 8 x 300 (1) - 53/50/51/52/53/51/53/52 (grass) followed by 4 km tempo (dirt) - 14:07 (consistent 3:31/3:32's). Solid session - All up 15.2 km's including warm-up & warm-down.
16/3 - Left heel still sore, plus calf.
PM - 25 km's - 1:53:44
17/3 - Left heel & calf still sore.
AM - 45 mins deepwater running (hard/easy) followed by 5.5 km's light jogging - 27:30
PM - 6 km's (700 hard/300 float) - 20:13. Solid session. Finished strongly, but with sore heel & calf. All up, 14.2 km's including warm-up & warm-down.
18/3 - Heel & calf still sore.
AM - 1:00 deepwater running (hard/easy)
PM - 10 km's - 50:03
19/3
PM - 34 km's - 2:26:35 (included 16 km's of marathon paced intervals). Felt sick & struggled with the trots.
20/3 - Still suffering niggles
50 mins deepwater running.
All up - 103 km's of actual running, plus 4 hours pool running & swimming - 11:47 hrs (excluding swimming)
3 weeks to go
21/3 - Left hammy sore again but higher up.
AM - 25 km's - 1:53:02 - included 5 x 1000 @ 3:18 pace.
PM - 12 km's - 1:01
22/3 - Left hammy still sore
AM - 6 km's - 31:23
PM - 11.5 km's - 55:00 (finished with 5 x 100 metre strides)
23/3
AM - 15 km's - 59:06 (progression run)
- 3 km's easy (4:15/4:10's), 5 km's steady (4:00's), 2 km's marathon pace effort, 1 km 1/2 marathon pace effort, 1 km 10k effort, then eased back final 3 km's to marathon paced effort. Felt very solid and at no stage overdoing it. Didn't consciously pick up the pace, it just felt easy. Slowed deliberately though when I looked at the watch and saw a 3:29 1 km split. Pulled up fine.
24/3
AM - 10.5 km's - 52:30 - included 5 x 30 second strides.
25/3
AM - 9 km's - 40 mins
- 6.5 km's to 7 km's at roughly 4:00 km pace then slow recovery jog. Felt fine.
PM - 4 km's - 22:00
26/3
PM - State 10,000 (Track) 34:48
- Solid race. Felt relaxed and didn't really push hard. Soles of feet sore due to spikes. Sore after 2 km's and got progressively worse. Finished strongly despite intense pain in feet. Ran solo the whole way. A little windy but reasonably cool. Confident that with a little support and without the intense pain (led to blisters), I could get close to PB or possibly improve on it. Overall, hapy with run considering I didn't taper and am in a marathon training block.
All up 16 km's including warm-up & warm-down.
27/3
AM - 27 km's - 1:59:52
- Jogged 9 km's then picked up the pace to easy / steady. Soles of feet extremley sore due to blisters sustained after last night's race. ot enough sleep. 26 hour flight to London that afternoon. Feet "blew up" (swelling) due to flight and blisters (both feel on outside and toes) got much worse, eventually bursting.
All up 136 km's - 10:18 hrs for the week.
2 weeks to go
28/3 (London time)
PM - 10 km's - 51:16 (London - Picadilly Circus / St.James Park / Hyde Park / Picadilly Circus)
- Very tired & stiff after flight. Sore blistered & swollen feet.
29/3
AM - 15.5 km's - 1:10:10 (London - Regent Street / Hyde Park / Soho)
- Included 8 x 100 steady strides on dirt @ Hyde Park. Felt okay byt feet still sore.
30/3
AM - 10.0 km's - 47:15 (London - Soho / Hyde Park / Westminster Abbey / Trafalgar Squae)
- A little tired.
31/3
AM - 21.8 km's - 1:32:22 (London - Soho / Hyde Park).
- Included 2 x 6 km's at marathon paced effort (1 km easy recovery).
- A little sluggish. Took a little while to get into some rythym. Averaged 3:49's for first interval & 3:45's for 2nd.
1/4
PM - 9.6 km's - 48:20 (London - Soho / Hyde Park)
2/4
AM - 3 x 1600 (Edinburgh - Pilrig Park)
- Ran barefoot and struggled with both the soft grass & freezing & windy conditions. All-up 12.2 km's - 54:43 mins. Didn't worry about split times, irrelevant in the conditions. Gave 95% effort.
3/4
AM - 14 km's - 59:45 (Edinburgh - Leith / Holrood Palace)
All up - 93.1 km's - 7:03 hrs
Marathon week
4/4
AM - 4.2 km's - 20:42 (Perth, Scotland)
Great to be in the home town of my Scottish ancestors from Mum's side of the family.
5/4
PM - 12.3 km's - 53:39 (Malswick / Newent in Gloucestshire England)
Progressive run. 4 km's jogging, 4 km's easy, 4 km's at marathon pace effort. A little hilly and windy. Felt a bit sluggish and stiff. NB: Had spent 6 hours driving prior to run. Overall okay with effort. Didn't push hard.
Really beautiful countryside.
6/4
PM - 8 km's - 39:57 (Reading, England)
Jogged then finished with 5 x 100 metres off 1 minute jog recovery.
7/4
PM - 8.6 km's - 41:05 (London - Soho / Hyde Park)
Included 6 x 30 seconds
8/4
PM - 2 km's - 10:00 (Rotterdam)
Did a lot of walking and was feeling a bit tired after flight over from London.
9/4
PM - 4.1 km's - 20:02
10/4 - ROTTERDAM MARATHON - 2:42:37
13-17 degrees / 50% humidity / 13-17 km/h easterly winds / clear skies (11 am start)
Got sunburnt during race. Was hoping for better conditions but not to be.
Found the going tough over the last 10 km's. Slowed to 4 min pace at 38 km's but was putting in 100% effort. Took gels and water at 1 hours / 2 hours / 2:20 hours. Possibly a little depleted and dehydrated. Very salty & sunburnt at the finish.
Net split times as follows:
5 Kilometer 18:51 (18:51)
10 Kilometer 37:40 (18:49)
15 Kilometer 56:39 (18:59)
20 Kilometer 1:15:23 (18:44)
Half marathon 1:19:42
25 Kilometer 1:34:36 (19:13)
30 Kilometer 1:54:01 (19:25)
35 Kilometer 2:13:37 (19:36)
40 Kilometer 2:33:36 (19:59)
Overall, despite missing a sub 2:40 & PB, I was pleased with my race & effort given the restricted preparation due to injury. No complaints though. I started the race feeling great, but was no doubt a little under-prepared. 2nd best marathon time. 9th age / 111th overall from 7500 odd finishers.
The big downside was the severe pain in my lower back after the race. Suffered excrutiating pain for the next 4 days and couldn't run at all for the following 3 days.
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