Planned run 50 minutes

Date: 15 Feb 2009
Time: 54 minutes 44 seconds
Distance: 9.7914 km Approximately
Approx Speed: 10.73 kmh
Average Heart Rate: 153
Google Ped: route

This is the last planned run for the 9 week summer preparation program I have been following ( From Gold Caost Marathon web site ). I begin the new 20 week program that prepares for the half marathon on Tuesday 17th February 2009. The new program is quite daunting - two 40 minute runs in two days, one day rest and a speed run, one day rest and a 50 minute run on Sunday in just the first week. And just a couple of weeks into the program it has me doing over 1 hour runs. It is clear that the work load is much higher, so I have to get serious in warmups and stretching so as to avoid injury.

I was supposed to do 50 minutes for this run, but it worked out that the train station I got out at is slightly further than I estimated. I also ran a little slower than I wanted. There is a stretch of road we call the 'Mad Mile' on Wynnum Road, just after the intersection of Wynnum Road and Manly Road. This stretch is pretty bad to run on - about 100 metres of good foot path, and then crappy road shoulders with trees, tree branches across the paths, gravel, potholes and mud puddles for the rest. In some areas there are trees and bushes all the way to the road edge, forcing you to go onto the road. The road has two lanes, and a speed limit of 80km/h, and the cars don't seem to take a pedestrians into account at all. This section slowed me down as I was running at sundown, trying to avoid hurting myself. I won't take this route again, it's horrible.

The route includes a few hills too, and that tends to slow me down a little. It is a good route in that respect, as I have read that mixing medium gradient hills with flat is a good way to train, so I will probably incorporate part of the route in future runs - and simply avoid the 'Mad Mile'.

The distance from Cannon Hill train station to the intersection of Wynnum Road and Manly Road is about 4.3 km, and I did that in 23 minutes. So I was on a pace to do 5 km in 25 minutes. One of my goals is to do sub 25 minutes for 5km, and 50 minutes for 10km's. I feel that these goals are achievable, and will be a good indicator of my fitness.

It appears that I am able to run sub 1 hour for 10 km right now, based on this run, so I have a reasonable gauge of where I am at right now fitness wise. Also, my heel seems ok, so sign of the pain. I certainly felt the distance, ended up quite tired after. I also had a strange pain in my left foot in the arch, within the muscle. I iced it for about an hour. Next day it was fine, so it must have been a cramp or something.