Tuesday, July 24, 2012

ItsNotOk Fun Run and traing this week

The FunRun was supposed to be 10km, measured on my watch it was more like 10.78 or so. Does not matter it was in fact fun..

I managed average 4:18min/km this time, about 2 seconds per 1km faster than the Jetty to Jetty a week before. I felt much better throughout the run than the last couple of races I have done, and I paced much more sensibly all the way. Considering I was quite fatigued from the work load in the week leading up I think it is a great result.

Even more surprising, I placed 3rd. First time I have placed  in a race since I was 15 years old I think. The two blokes that finished in front of me - combined age - was less than mine :)  Also amusing was the reaction of the track 'marshals'  along the way and at the finish, all quite surprised to see me finishing where I did.

I have a loose plan to come back next year and see if I can do better!!

A plan for this weeks running:

- Monday - One of my favourites, a 2km @3:55, 1km @3:40, 800@3:30, 400@3:20, 300@fast, 200@whateverIcando  all with 2min rest - it was really  hard and in fact I had to stop in the 1km and 800metre reps as I'd gassed it. But still a good hard work out.
- Tuesday -10km - This was a good one, managed 10.5km at 4:47 average.
- Wednesday - Mid week log of 13km ( have been slowly building this one)  wednesday, with 20min easy fatlek in the middle - should be brisk not hard
- Thursday a 3x2km   at slightly faster than 4min/km with 3 min recovery - Should be reasonably easy to hold the pace IF 4min/km is a realistic goal pace for the race.
- Friday rest or super easy 6-8km depends on how I am holding up
- Saturday, 12 x 400 - I like these
- Sunday long run easy 12-15km


I have the August 5 Brisbane Marathon 10km race coming up. The week leading up to the race  I plan to do three or four 10-13km runs, all not fast not easy runs, to keep me ticking over. I did this in lead up to the fun run I did on the weekend just gone, and it seemed to leave me in a good frame of mind and good legs. I was carrying a little fatigue but it felt fine.


I want to do sub 40 for the race but it currently feels unrealistic. SInce the GC mara 10km I have done the following:


10km race GC at 4:27 average
10km race J2J at 4:20 average
10km race FUnRun at 4:18


9 seconds improvement over three weeks. I think its realistic to go for another 9 seconds at the race on August 5. Three weeks to do it.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Its Friday, end of week, rest day before another 10km race on the weekend

We spotted a 10km 'Fun Run' that is on in our local area on Saturday 21st July 2012, the 'Its Not OK'  run. It seems it is a fund raising and awareness event organised by the CityPoint Church on Child Trafficking.

We decided to enter it, it is rare to be able to jog from home to the start of a race so we are in, my third 10km race in less than 2 months :)

This week was reasonably hard - I did the Jetty to Jetty 10km race Sunday, and ran four days in a row after that, 10, 12, 10, and 6km. All runs were sub 5min/km, and I was carrying a bit of fatigue and muscle soreness all week. The 6km run I did yesterday I also ran up and down the GoodWill foot bridge several times. Last night I felt really tired and ill, so I took it easy, bed early. And no running today.

I have had a little bit of a revelation, a methodology that may be of use. What I realised is that you can easily find out what muscles are worked hardest at speed by simply doing a multi rep 400 metre session. Do say a 10x400 or 12 x400 session running _fast_  but not completely flat out. Take note of the muscles that fatigue the most and are sore in the next 24 to 48 hours. Keep those muscles in mind. When recovered, take a long slow run, and take note of the muscles that are fatigued. For me I notice that the particular muscles affected by 10x400 repetitions at speed are NOT particularly affected by my long slow running form and posture.

This comes back to my thoughts on how to run fast and efficient, and the full body aerobic capacity. IF all your long runs are done so slowly as to avoid affecting the muscles that are typically worked hard at SPEED, how could you possibly optimise your fast aerobic running pace? So I have begun running in such a way as to make sure I use the form as closely as possible to how I run at speed in my slow runs. It seems pretty simple and bleeding obvious. This ends up in my hitting 4:50-4:55min/km pace  consistently.

I anticipate that one day my easy pace for long runs will be about 4:50 pace when I swing back to proper marathon training.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

2012 Jetty to Jetty 10km race at Redcliff

I did the 10km race today, felt much better than two weeks ago, and managed about 43:40 or so, around 1 minute quicker than two weeks ago, and 1 minute slower than my best 2 years ago. I also have had a medical issue that has been restricting my training efforts a little, and it just makes it difficult to really work hard. That plus I fall at 4.7km in, meant I did not go as fast as I should.

I maybe lost about 1 minute in the fall and the subsequent limping I did trying to get my left knee working ok again.

The medical issue, need surgery but thankfully not a really big deal, day surgery and a few weeks recovery. Just need to figure out the timing, specialist will help me decide that too as its will be when there is an opportunity.

Given that I did my best ever 42min 10km after 6 months of pretty good consistent training, compare that to today's run, I was only about 1 min slower, but that is after about 3 months constistent training. SO there is more to come, for sure.

Sunday, July 8, 2012

What is running, what is jogging? And why are the Marathon runners so SLOW !!

I am yet to run a Mara, that is full distance running. I jogged one and I blew up in the other, walking half the distance. This leaves me with unfinished business of course.

I personally think that there is a big difference between 'Jogging'  and running. When I watched the Gold Coast Marathon and HM finishers, I was struck by the huge numbers of people finishing while walking or jogging. And at the start and mid way section where I caught site of the mid and tail enders, they were for the most part jogging and not running.

Now, I have some clear and strong thoughts about running and running WELL as well as TRAINING well. For me jogging long distances for a long time causes me pain. Its more uncomfortable in a way to running a long distance and simply exhausting myself. I think the difference in form between running and jogging is significant or me. I use different muscles. Longer stride and greater air time in running compared to jogging. Muscles stretch out more etc. I don't think I am unique in this. I think at some point, as far as training and potential improvement of pace, a jogger has to start RUNNING to get faster. That seems very obvious to me.

I have more potentially controversial and even politically incorrect things to say. By my observation of the huge numbers of relatively young, healthy and reasonably slim participants in the Gold Coast Marathon and HM, I think a great proportion of them entered the race under prepared, under trained, and ended up having an UN-necessarily painful and slow race as a result. And I suspect they experienced this simply because they jogged and did not run :)  I mean right from the beginning when they began preparing, doing lots of long slow 'runs'  that really should be called jogging. By un-necessarily painful and slow, I mean that it is without doubt much more pleasant to finish a mara in 3hr45 or less than it is to finish it in 4hrs or more. By my observation those finishing at 3hr40 or better were in fact running and not jogging. Hence if you have a simple aim of 3hrs40 and are relatively young and slim, training that incorporates really RUNNING  will get you there. I just get the impression people are settling for less and are failing to reach their obvious potential.. Some may have been misguided by the long slow distance mantra that is being spread about as a training methodology... 

I know its harder to run than to jog overall. You use less energy doing the awkward and restrictive posture and form that is a 'jog', and your heart rate and breathing does not get elevated so much as it does in running  for an untrained runner. But this is the point - Unless you actually run you won't effectively train to run.

One thing that I fell into the trap of when I trained for my first Mara and more so in my second - When it came to the long runs, I simply did not have the fitness to RUN them. SO I ended up jogging and jogging badly. I would have been better off forgetting about my Marathon goals, and sticking with shorter distances, getting faster and building up my fitness gradually so that good RUNNING marathon training was possible. My first two maras may well have been far more pleasant, but delayed one or two years. In fact I would probably be at the same point I am now, except I'd have had several years of good base building before I began massacring myself with long runs..

10km race Gold Coast 29 June 2012 and watched the Mara and HM finishers

Pretty awful weekend in general for us. We stayed at a Hotel in Surfers Paradise, no worries there, but Christine was really sick with a chest cold. The first night we were there, it got much worse, and ended up getting no sleep that night. My race was 6:30AM the next day.

I had been fighting off fluey, cold like symptoms that never seemed to catch hold. But I woke Saturday with a bad sore throat. I ran the race, trying to put in a good effort. I stopped just short of 3km because both shoes laces were undone. WHAT !!!

I got to 5km at a reasonable pace but no-where near PB target at all, and fet really sick, throw up time. Slowed a lot from there. Suddenly I found myself at the 9.1km mark, 900 to go. Tried my usual hard sprint at the end, got to 300 metres to go and actually threw up, I found out I am able to breath and spew at the same time. Announces said something about me looking 'unwell'  or something.. Hmm :)

Finished in 44mins something or other.

This week I have hit the road fairly hard after making a decent recovery. I was able to push quite hard in my speed sessions, and stacked on a bit of mileage for the week. Its Sunday and I have run 6 days in a row, total 62km's. I want to step out and run today, may only be another 10km but It will be quite satisfying to go beyond 70km for the week - I believe I have done that only once before.

I have the Jetty to Jetty 10km race next weekend, Sunday, so I will do a mini-taper for that. Nothing like a Mara taper of course, I will simply do more easy speed form workouts and easy long runs, fewer of them for the week. If I am well for the J2J race I may do well. I cannot predict it because this season of what we call a Queensland winter just about everyone is sick in one way or another