Sunday, November 20, 2011

Marathon plans

Got my marathon mojo back and signed up for Berlin next year- so pumped for that already, Oktoberfest is on at the same time and we'll pop up to Munich straight after the run. Canberra has been pencilled in for April so my running focus is on at that present.

On the running front, I've been having issues with my hammie and butt which is referred pain from the back. As a result all speedwork, tempo runs and MP are off the agenda for the time being and the focus is on building the km's. Doing lots of stretching, using foam roller and going to physio so hopefully will be on top of it soon.

Last 3 weeks have been 107, 127 and 143 averaging between mid 4.30's and low 4.40's for the week and am feeling nice and fit but not fast. I'm enjoying the mid week runs of around 25k and the Sunday runs which are back up to 32k and these are my main runs in this phase of the program.

Great to see Epi do a 5k pb and Bman is going from strength to strength in his training for Houston

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Cruising along

It's been awhile since my last post so decided it's about time to post again.

Running has been going well and clocking up reasonable km's- the last two weeks have seen a bit of a spike again with both around the 145km mark all of which has been at an easy pace. It seems that this is when I run my best with lots of quantity.

On the race front, I've done a couple of pb's on weeks with good mileage with 5km at Lake Gwelup in 17:47 on a 130km plus week including an interval session and Freo Half of 1:20:08 was done on a 90km week which also included a Mona Fartlek record and a tempo run.

There has been quite a bit of work done on the glute activation front and the physio is very happy with progress in this area. The next step is to work on some glute mass, especially on the left side which hopefully in turn will assist with the left hammie and give me some speed in some of the shorter distances.

Its really good to see a number of the guys having recently done Marathons with Sling and TB doing Melb and Simon E doing Berlin. Also great to see Biscuitman clocking up some decent km's and going great guns in his quest for Houston in Jan.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Boston Marathon 2011

2:48:04 5 minute pb

First Half 1:22:32 Second Half 1:25:32.


First of all, it was a privilege to be involved in the fastest ever marathon to date, those guys are just absolutely incredible.


Well I'm very happy with my run, I was hoping to go sub 2:50, top 500 and had my eyes on the 2:48:47, the magical 4 minute pace for us mere mortals and all were achieved. Pretty well everything went to plan, only thing I may have been able to do better on the day is the hydration side but I'm not well known for being good at that.


Craig and i caught the yellow buses down to Hopkington on a cold morning, we arrived and quickly found a place on the grass near the toliets and took turns going and having a bit of a chat as the time passed quickly. Took my tablets, applied cream to the legs and then made our way to drop of our bags and begin the walk down to the start line. We parted ways and wished each other the best of luck.


Being in corral 2 was pretty awesome as I had an uninterrupted view of the elites making their way down the path to the starting line with Ryan Hall high fiving a whole lot of people and generous clapping and shouting out being a part of it.


We started and I was wearing my beanie and gloves as it was still cold at this point, my shins ached for the first 3km downhill but managed to get a reasonable start and noticed after running for about 5km I was feeling warm and sweating a bit so discarded both beanie and gloves. I had a drink at about the 5 mile mark and concentrated on doing around the 3:55 mark as I wanted to get a little time in the bank for later on which I was able to do. The left hammy which is always a bit dodgey was sore around this time but luckily stayed the same for the rest of the race.


Just continued churning out the kms as planned and before I knew it we were at the college with the screaming and kissing girls, I got to see this a bit closer this year as last year I had a wee on the other side of the road and couldn't be bothered crossing the road. Managed to go through the half in a small hm pb and happy that I was on track for what I was after.


The hills of Newton came along and I had another drink and a couple of snakes. The plan was to keep an even effort and make sure that I didn't lose too much of the time banked away which I was able to do. I was passing quite a few people and the odd one was passing me. I did some quick calcs in my head at the 30k mark and figured if I could do 4:06 for the rest of the race, then a high 2:48 would be achieved.


There wasn't so much fanfare at the top of Heatbreak hill but I'd figured we'd reached the top based on the km on the garmin and the fact that we'd started going downhill. I can't remember exactly but I think not long after that some of the Boston Celtics cheerleaders were there- now these should be the kissing girls :).


Had a couple more snakes and drinks- not too successful with the drinks, more ended on my face than in my mouth and then concentrated on keeping the kms fairly even with the odd one going just over the 4:00 mark.


Calves started getting sore around the 36 km mark but I kept telling myself that it wasn't far to go and I was on track and it did the trick as the pace stayed steady and kept passing people and a couple passed me.


Turned the corner and the little uphill bit before turning into Boylston and then made my way to the finish and was very happy to have my name called out, raised the fist and yelled as I passed the line, just a shame I couldn't go 5 seconds faster as I would have had a 2:47.


Got quite a few photos taken after the finish line as I was pretty pumped and happy to be hamming it up for the camera, hopefully at least a couple of these may turn out.


Unfortunately Craig had his quads cramping badly so it didn't go to plan for him but I'm sure his next marathon will be a pearler. It was nice catching up with family and Craig's family for dinner that night.

Congrats to david bryant for doing sub 3 in his first attempt, awesome.


Still a bit sore in the legs and will do some cross training and walking for a few days before starting running probably when we get to LA.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a happy new year and I hope you all have a great 2011.

Not much to report on the running front other than clocking up a few km's. The last 3weeks have been 114,113 and 140 this week with me introducing doubles, most of the running has been in the 4:30-4:50 min/km range with an interval session thrown in each week at around 5k pace.Today Biscuitman and I did a 30k run at 4:36 pace early to avoid the heat.

Looking forward to going over to Singas and catching up with Sling and we'll get in a couple of runs whilst over there.