Sunday, September 26, 2010

Fantsatic weather

What a great time of the year to be in Perth, the weather has been fantastic. Spent part of the day today down the beach with the dogs in Mandurah.

Week in Summary 90.71k@4:27

Pretty good week of running with energy levels increasing and so a better week of running all round. Adductor, Quad attachment and Hips are all a bit sore but nothing I haven't encountered before, so with a couple of easier weeks leading up to Melb, hopefully will freshen up nicely for the race.

Blood test came back with most things pretty good, although ferritin levels of 38 are quite low. Will look at addressing this after Melbourne.

Mon 8.22k@4:22

Tues 10k@4:36

Wed 9.1k@4:23

Thurs 16.72k@4:09 Run with Biscuitman on the normal Pen course incl 8k@4:00 for faster than MP effort.

Fri 10k@4:41 Incl some hills. Also had a good massage by physio.

Sat 26.67k@4:30 Easy long run with Biscuitman practicing some race day routines. Hip and Quad attachment sore from 14.5 km which made the going a little tough but good practice just in case it happens on Marathon day, was similar to what occurred at Boston.

Sun 10k@4:31 incl last km at quicker than MP.

Next week will aim to run around 65km and have a physio session and a massage booked. Key sessions include 1600m efforts on Thurs and Long run of around half Marathon on weekend at approx 4:30-4:40 pace.

It's a shame to see Sling not doing the marathon, however think he's made the right decision to go down to the half. Hopefully Epi is still running and I believe TB is on track.


Great grand final yesterday, now looking forward to the replay.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Taper time

Struggled a bit this week on occasions with a dodgy stomach, headaches and feeling nauseous. As a result, most of the running was easy and I went to the doctor on Thurs. Off to provide stool sample tomorrow as well as having a blood test for fbc,iron,b12,folate.lipids and hdl.



Week in Summary Running 80.22k@4:35 Cycling 63.5k

Mon 5k@4:43

Tues 9k@4:26

Wed 10.61k@4:15
6.68k@4:30

Thurs 12.16k@4:56

Fri 13.57k@4:34

Sat 15.2k@4:36

Sun 8k@4:39 Bike 63.5k. Wanted to run for between 90 minutes and 2 hours, however had to rush home to go to the loo. Ended up doing just over 2 hours on the exercise bike with a couple of quick loo stops.

Hopefully stomach is on the improve and I can have a couple of quality sessions next week incl a reasonably easy paced long run.


Saw a great WAFL Grand final on the tv, hopefully the AFL gf is a good one, although it looks like the black and whites will win that one as well.

Hope Sling, Epi and TB are all overcoming their different obstacles at present and that they'll we'll all finish on the G in 3 weeks time.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

In for the long run

Thanks guys for the advice re my question last week and after much deliberation, I ended up deciding to do a long run with faster finish, as opposed to doing a 10k race this weekend.


Had some good sessions including some intervals, tempo and long run with faster finish.


Week in Summary 112k@4:25

Mon 8.5k@4:42 40 minute easy run

Tues 17k@4:26 Main part of run was 5* 3 min at approx 5km pace with 2 min recoveries.

25 minute warmup 5.36k@4:40
5*3min with 2 min recoveries. Averaged 3:35 pace for the 3minutes(835m), averaged 4:47(417m) pace for the recoveries. Ran on the grass on the oval and conditions were quite windy and struggled to get into a proper rhythm as a result. The into the breeze was quite tough and nearly lost my hat on more than one occasion.
5.38km@4:45 cooldown.


Wed 10.55k@4:16

Thurs 18.35k@4:08 incl Tempo of 10.45k@3:55.Warmup of 20 minutes- 3.3k@4:33 including catching up with Biscuitman who was running 1k intervals.

Tempo of 41 minutes along the Penninsula course 10.45k@3:55 Struggled in the first 5k and averaged 3:58, incl a 4:04 second km. Turned things around in the 2nd 5k averaging 3:52, just started feeling better the longer the run went and this may have been in part to concentrating on 1 km at a time.
Cooldown of 20 minutes 4.55k@4:24


Fri 13.1k@4:40

Sat 31.5k@4:19 incl 12k@ 3:59 from 17k to 29k, last 4k at 3:55 and then 2.5k cooldown.

Long run with biscuitman that included running through Burswood, Ascot, Maylands, East Perth and South Perth.
The aim of this run was to finish strongly and also practice some race day things. Got up at 3.30 and had some bread and jam, as well as half a powerade. I then got up at 6.25 and had the rest of the powerade, a berocca and then met up with Simon for the run. Had a couple of very brief toilet stops at the 6k and 17k mark, prob drunk too much just before the run and used some gel bursts again and powerade, both worked well. Also ran in my ds racers again, my marathon shoe and these felt great.

At the 17k mark, it was time to do a fast finish 12k and we set off at a bit quicker than MP. We ran together for approx 7k and I was feeling pretty strong, whilst Simon was struggling a bit with his foot, so I pushed the pace a little harder just to see how I would go and managed to do the 12k in just under 48 minutes, last 4km were at 3:55 pace.

Pretty happy with finish, a good 2.5km cooldown topped off a good morning.

Sun 13k@4:40


4 weeks to go to Melbourne, I'm hoping for another 100k + week next week and then I'll start my taper.

Hope Sling and TB'S injuries are on the improve.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Another week gone

Another solid week of training with legs holding up pretty well, other than the odd twinge in the adductor, itb and calf.

Was able to get some quicker stuff in, tempo, medium long run and long run. I also passed 500kms for the month of August which is the first time I've ever exceeded 500kms in a calendar month-ended up doing 518.5kms.

Week in Summary 131.66k@4:27

Mon 19.03k@4:44 Two recovery runs, am 11.4k pm 7.03k.

Tues 14.5k@4:10 incl 8*250 pickups @3:36 and 4.5k@4:06 approx MP to finish run.

Wed 13k@4:14 incl Mona Fartlek of 5.27k @3:47.

Thurs 25k@4:25 Medium long run with Biscuitman around Burswood, Maylands and South Perth. We just cruised along with plenty of chat along the way, was suprises how quick we went.

Fri 8.62k@4:38

Sat 14.43k@4:09 incl 8k tempo @3:50

Sun 37.08k@4:35 2hr 50 min long run. Woke up with the tummy feeling very unsettled, had a couple of green teas to try and settle the tummy a bit, it helped a bit.

Long run included a number of toilet stops including stopping at home for a few minutes at the 16k mark. Tummy settled properly at about the 25km of the run and the last few kms were a lot more pleasant. Tried to simulate the Melbourne Marathon as much as possible by including some hills from the 32km mark and ran in my first pair of DS Racers.

Good to get another long run in. Wasn’t the perfect long run due to the stops and the tummy,as I would also have liked to have done a faster finish today, however considering everything, I’m more than happy with the run.



I am 5 weeks out from Melb Marathon and haven’t done a fast finish long run, which I think I should do at some stage. I’ve done 4 30k + runs in this programme with a couple more 25k+ runs. I still have 2 or 3 30k+ runs still planned depending on the following.


I’d be interested in people thoughts on the following for next weekend and what I should do.

The options are
a) Do a 10k race and do faster finish 30k + run, the following weekend ie 3 weeks out.
b) Do a 10k race and don’t worry about a fast finish long run.
c) Don’t do the 10k race and do a fast finish long run 4 weeks out.

Thanks guys


At present I’m leaning towards option A.