2013 - Week 26

2013 seems to be flying by. It's certainly hardly to believe that we are about to enter the 2nd half of the year. This past week has been all about rain management and trying to stay dry in order to ensure that I don't cop another flu like I did this time last year, which resulted in me not being able to complete the Gold Coast Marathon. Whilst I'm only doing the 1/2 marathon this year I am keen to get there in good health, even if I am a little underdone training wise.

It's been a bit of a mixed bag this past week. A summary of training is as follows:

Monday - 8 km's jogging.

Tuesday - 

Midday - Mona Fartlek - 5.7 km's. It didn't quite go to plan. Whilst I held 3:20 or quicker pace for the reps, I couldn't hold marathon pace (3:45's) for the final few floats (slowed to low 4's). All up 16.9 km's including 10.2 km warm-up & 1 km warm-down.

PM - 5 km's slow jogging

Wednesday - 20.3 km's easy

Thursday - Decreasing intervals - 4.5 km's (5 mins jog recovery) / 3 km's  (3 mins) / 1500 (2 mins) / 1000 (1:40 mins) / 600 (1 min) / 300 (30 secs) / 150. All up 13.5 km's in 50 min's, plus 2 km's warm-up & 1 km warm-down. Very happy with this session. Held 3:20 pace or slightly quicker for each interval.

Friday - 8.5 km's slow jogging

Saturday - 3000 - (1000 recovery) / 2000 (500) / 3 x 1000 (200) / 6 x 30 seconds uphill (90 seconds) - Not a great session. Felt very flat. 3000 - 10:15 / 2000 - 7:00 / 1000's - 3:32/3:36/3:32 / 30 second uphill reps around 3:20-3:30 pace.

Sunday - 21 km's very easy - a little sluggish but relaxed running.

1 week to go now until Gold Coast 1/2 marathon. I've decided to do the exact sessions next week as I did before my 2010 1/2 marathon PB of 75:04. Check the diary earlier and it looks like I'll be doing 4 x 1600 on Tuesday & 3 x 800 on Thursday. Might do 3 light 30 second strides on Saturday as well. 

"Special Block" weekend wrap

Leading up to the Tokyo Marathon in Feb, I trialled some of Renato Carnova's theories. One of his ideas includes a "special block" of back to back hard runs. He prescribes that it should be undertaken on the same day AM & PM. Carnova's approach is also very much event specific. Marathoners will do intervals up to 24 km's in total, 1/2 marathon runners 12-15 km's & 10,000 runners 10-12 km's. These sessions are tough, but the pacing is undertaken at around goal race pace, so despite the longer accumulation of intervals, the sessions are very manageable. The "special block" session is done a few weeks out from race day. The next few days afterwards are very easy.  An example of the marathon  "special block" prescribed for his Kenyan elites is as follows:

AM - 10 km's at 90% of race pace, followed by 20 km's at race pace.

PM - 10 km's at 90% of race pace, followed by 10 x 1000 at race pace (floating 1000 recovery at 90% of race pace).

At the time I decided the above is a big ask for a modest 2:40 marathoner, so I abbreviated the first run to just 15 km's at marathon intensity, but I did do the full second one. It was certainly a character building exercise. I actually felt better during the second hard run. Whilst I wouldn't attribute this one session in isolation to me finally cracking 2:39, I will say that I gained a lot of confidence from it. 

I would say if anybody is interested in Carnova's methods, you need to really understand the complete plan.. In any program, no session alone is important, the combination of many sessions is the key. Carnova is all about building the athlete for the whole event. So marathoners will do a lot of long intervals, but every other week or thereabouts will do solid paced long runs up to 45 km's. might sound hard, but rejuvenation days are plentiful to compliment the full plan.

Anyway, I've digressed. This weekend for me has been about a 1/2 marathon specific modified "special block". Yesterday (3 pm) I did State XC at Willandra (12 km's over challenging sharp undulating terrain). Today (7:30 AM) I did the SMC 10 km race.

Both races went okay. Time  and pacing wasn't really a key for me. I felt a little underdone at Willandra and managed a time of 44:53, for 36th overall and 2nd M45. The downhill as always was my big weakness. Today was a solo effort for an unflattering time of 35:53. Closer to 35 would've been nice, but coming off a hard XC and only 5 hours sleep was less than ideal. The SMC course is on a bike path and includes 1 fairly big hill where I could only manage a 3:43 km, but the rest of the race went okay. Importantly I was running on at the end with a couple of 3:28 closing km's. I don't get many wins, so it was nice to get one today.

The next 3 days will be very easy for me. Will do another run this afternoon and will do my long run probably on Tuesday. Come Thursday, hopefully I'll be refreshed and pumped for some hard shorter reps.

2 weeks now until the Gold Coast 1/2. 

Glow Worm Tunnel Half Marathon

Short Blog.

Enjoyable outing today at Newnes. Hats off to the specialist trail runners. Far too good for me on the technical terrain. If I ever want to get any good at this sport, it is certainly something I am going to need to practice.

Got what I wanted out of the session. Solid run of around 23 km's at a little quicker than marathon intensity. I'd best describe the run for me as a long fartlek session. The first 5 km's was a fairly nice gentle incline. Got technical in places after that. Compulsory walk through the tunnel. A rugged section, and back. Stretched out over the last 5 km's (sub 18). Good to stretch out in places and should be a nice preparation run for the Gold Coast 1/2 in 3 weeks.

Ran to heart rate, keeping it below 160 going up and low to mid 150's coming back. All good fun!

Praise goes out to the organisers. Very well organised and run event. Beautiful location. Great cool conditions and a good turnout.

To sort of quote Alan Jackson's song, I can see why so many road runners have "Gone Country". Well at least hit the bush anyway.

Nasty Nitrates

When it comes to trying a new session I nearly always embrace it with anticipation and enthusiasm. However when it comes to nutrition, I am far more sceptical and am nearly always unwilling to embrace change. Aside from being the world's fussiest eater, I need convincing that something is actually good for me. So that means reading lab testing, reviews etc etc. But even if it is good for me, I've always refused to try anything that looks, smells or even just sounds disgusting. One such food is beetroot. For 45 years the sight and smell of it has just turned my stomach. I've been crook these past 2 days and have been stuck home in bed. In between dosing in and out of sleep I've been reading about the benefits of beetroot juice. There seems to be plenty of credence behind it improving endurance and oxygen uptake and even the AIS website had positive things to say about it. So here's the dilemma, I like the sound of the benefits but the idea of drinking beetroot juice turns me right off. I looked into supplement alternatives but it seems that the real thing is best. Beet It branded shots of just 70 mls, which pack 300 mg's of nitrates sounded tolerable. I figure I could hold my nose, close my eyes, throw it down and wash it away with water immediately. Only problem, I can only get them online and wanted to try a loading phase for an upcoming race on Sunday. Once I make up my mind, I hate to wait, so I decided to go down to the health food store and buy some beetroot juice. Here's the even bigger problem. To get the same desired 300 mg's of nitrates, I have to consume 250 mls of the concentrated stuff I bought, plus 5-6 parts water. I don't know the maths, but that's shitloads of the most disgusting vile looking stuff I ever saw. And the smell, jeez I wanted to puke just mixing it. So as a compromise, I decided to settle on 1/2 now, 1/2 in the morning. Putting the cup to my mouth was far more intimidating than any session or race I've ever done before. I had to remind myself with every mouthful that I'm doing this to hopefully race faster. Well the final verdict. What my eyes and nose have been telling me for 45 years has officially been backed up by my taste buds.

Like any stubborn runner, I won't be defeated. I'll back up in the morning for the next serve of red pee fuel. And again in the evening and right up until Sunday morning when I do a low key trail 1/2 at Newnes. If this stuff adds even a 1% benefit, I'll buy the Beet It branded 70 ml shots and use them for pre race nitrate loading for goal races.

I'm looking forward to hitting the trails on Sunday and testing myself against a few trail specialists. No doubt I'll be left behind on the technical stuff and also the downhill sections but hopefully I can keep a few runners honest on the flat and uphill.

Felt flat all week

I put in some ridiculous hours at work this week and as a result my sleep and in turn running suffered. Every run this week has been a battle and to be honest I'm just glad to have got through it. Key runs included:

Tuesday - 10 x 100 metre strides (200 metre recovery) / 10 x 50 metres strides (250 metre recovery). Fairly relaxed & as always I didn't bother to record the splits for the strides. Ran on grass.

Thursday - 6000 / 5000 / 3000 (2:00 min recovery) - Struggled. Averaged 3:35's for first interval (track), 3:40's for the 2nd (2000 track / 3000 grass), 3:45's for the 3rd (grass). 20 km's all-up

Saturday - 4 km's marathon tempo pace (grass) followed by 4 x 2 km's (grass) with 2 mins jog recovery. Splits: 6:45/6:37/6:40/6:39. 20 km's all up.

Sunday - 29 km's - 2:02:09 (Road)

Total km's for week - 112.8 (8:17 hours) - Ave pace 4:24

4 weeks now until Gold Coast 1/2 Marathon. Aiming for a few more km's this week and hopefully a decent session or 2.

Choosing your battles!

Despite my pleas to the weather gods unfortunately the weatherman was spot on. Windy and warmer conditions were presented on the day. With GC 1/2 being only 5 weeks away and a PB attempt at the marathon not being realistic in ChCh, I decided to do a lap of the airport perimeter and save myself for the GC half and hopefully be fitter and fresher as a result.

NZ certainly has been a bogey ground for me. 3 runs on Christchurch and filfthy weather every time. I'll be back though. Redemption awaits!