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!

Calling out to the weather gods!

I'll be heading across the ditch with my mate "Oldman" for a second crack at the Christchurch Marathon on Sunday where I hope to improve upon my PW of 2:55 there back in 2008. Regardless of how the race goes it will be interesting to see how the city has been rebuilt since it was devastated by the earthquake in 2011.

Unfortunately we're only heading over on Friday and back after the race on Sunday, so won't get a chance to see much. A quick look at the city on Friday afternoon and a short day trip to Akaroa on Saturday is about all we will manage. Looking forward to it all the same.

I picked this race because the course is flat and I prefer cold climate racing (10 degrees or less is ideal for me). As luck would have it, unfortunately the weather forecast at this stage is for wind, rain and around 14 degree temperatures. I haven't had perfect marathon conditions since Melbourne way back in 2009, so it is a little frustrating, but heck what can you do. As always you just have to focus on dealing with whatever conditions are presented in a sensible manner and with a positive mindset. I had to laugh a little today though. Oldman is a lot more regular than I am in paying respects to our creator, so I cheekily asked him if he could put in a good word for me. Not long afterwards I get a text reply saying he did his best but the lord said my name wasn't on file. A fitting reminder for me to show my face at church more often. Apparently my blue sky cathedral isn't deemed acceptable.

Whilst I'm no doubt unworthy, I'm still putting in a special plea to the weather gods to embarrass the weatherman. Please, just this once! :)

And of course to Oldman and those racing, I hope you enjoy the event, run fast and smash your goals for the race.

SMH Half Marathon

Solid hit out today at SMH 1/2. 76:32. 2nd M40-49. Despite living in Sydney, I've always preferred the Canberra 1/2 to this one and have never done it before. Glad I finally had a crack, but still prefer the Canberra event. 

Tough undulating course with very little opportunity to get into a groove. Still a sound run off marathon training leading into Christchurch Marathon in 2 weeks.

It's great to be back racing again now that the weather has cooled down. Other than the Tokyo Marathon in Feb (PB 2:39:40), I've only raced twice since November last year. Today and the Mothers Day Classic last Sunday (4 km's in 12:51) at Parramatta Park.

Definitely not my usual marathon preparation leading up to ChCh, having raced a 1/2 two weeks out and running the distance 3 weeks out (42.2 last Sat in 3:04 hours) in training. A couple of light weeks now and will be lining up for marathon #15.

Taper Time

In just over a week, I'll be back racing for my first outing in 3 months. I'll be heading over to Tokyo to run the new 6th Major . I've never tried a marathon this early in the year before and I must say that it hasn't been easy preparing in the warmer months. The preparation has been uninterrupted, which  is nice, but certainly hasn't been easy. I've had some great sessions and some crap ones. Typically once the temp gets above the mid 20's and / or the humidity is high, I pretty much know in advance that its going to be a slog. I just don't handle these conditions well at all. Recognising my weakness, I've just run these sessions to heart rate and don't even look at the pace on my garmin. 

Leading up to this race I've loosely followed an old school Lydiard periodisation approach, with an emphasis on quality longer runs in particular. There's been very little in the way of VO2 interval sessions, but plenty of hills early on, a weekly strides session and weekly tempo session or marathon paced session up to 25 km's. All in all, I'm pleased with how I've prepared and am now just excited to get out and race again. It's always great fun to combine my love of travel and running. I haven't been to Tokyo before so am excited to see a new place. It's even more exciting to be bringing my girlfriend Samantha along. For me there's nothing more motivating than having her there holding onto my grandfathers old stetson hat at the race start / finish. 

Berlin Marathon - 30 Sept 2012

Blogging isn't exactly my favourite thing to do, so I'll let the pictures desribe my latest marathon, the 2012 Berlin Marathon. My preparation was excellent. There were no injuries, no missed training sessions and plenty of good training runs. Conditions on the day were pretty good so all was set for me to go out for another crack at that elusive sub 2:40!

 



 

Unlike most marathons, this one never felt easy at any stage. It's possible that I was feeling either the effects of a little too much site seeing in the week leading up to the race or perhaps I'm simply slowing down due to age (nearly 45).

Pretty much from the get go I knew that I would have to dig deep in this race. The km splits were slower than I'd hoped for, the heart rate was higher and I was simply working harder than I had planned. In saying that, I'd come along way and I wasn't about to go home without having a red hot go at my sub 2:40 goal. It simply came down to trying to relax early on and concentrating on my form, hoping that a second wind would set in after 10 miles or so as it often does.

Still concentrating hard here. It was feeling much tougher than my face suggests.

Starting to breath deeply far too early! Went through 1/2 way in 80:02.

Followng the adidas line and chasing the orange man! Perfect tangent running here. Right on that middle stripe. Gotta be happy with that!

No more help from my orange friend!

Still following the adidas triple lines!

This must be the longest most painful straight! The Brandenburg Gates are behind me but the finish line just never seemed to arrive.

Running Ugly! - Not much more to say!

Slowing in the last 2.2 km's (could only average 4:03 pace).

It really hurt - my face ain't lying!

It's finally over! 2:41 exactly. Gave my all, left nothing on the course. My second fastest marathon ever after 2:40:43 in April.

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Splits:

0-5 km's - 18:49
5-10 km's - 18:56
10-15 km's - 19:07
15-20 km's - 19:00
20-25 km's - 19:05
25-30 km's - 19:07
30-35 km's - 18:53
35-40 km's - 19:11
40-42.2 km's - 8:52

Smiling now!

 

 

Still smiling!

 

 

 



 

 Craig Lambert, Chris Dwyer, Mo Alkhub, Stephen Bodnar, Myself

 

 

Enjoying lagers @ Tiergarten - The Rewards!