Monday January 12th to Sunday January 18th
After Two Bays Heather and I headed into the city for a bit of a break. We had a great afternoon which ended with a movie and a meal at the Crown Gold Class cinemas. We stayed at Travelodge in Southbank. I woke up with very stiff quads and a sore big toe nail, but otherwise no injuries. Monday was a rest day.
I got up, stretched and ran slowly on Tuesday morning. I set off on my 13 km course (which has an option to shorten to 10km). The quads were stiff but I was jogging comfortably at a touch over 5 minute pace. I pushed to get up the hill on Lower Powlett road and put in a 4:55 for my 6th kilometre before dropping back to 5 minute plus pace. I held it there until the 10 km mark, running 10 km in 51:10, and then relaxed the pace for a bit. I picked it up again for the final 2 km and finished with a 4:48 13th kilometre. In all it was a good run to work through all of the sore spots. It will set me up for a good week.
Wednesdays follow up run was a 12.3 km run around the town. I spend most of the run either side of 4:50 pace and finished with a couple of kilometres near 4:40 pace. My quads were still a bit stiff but now I have run most of the stiffness out of them. I covered the distance in 59:12.
With a need to get some speed back - after doing a lot of distance work at a slower pace recently - I went out on an interval run. After a 9 minute warm up I went for 1 minute hard and then 4 minutes easy. I ran my 10 km course but threw in some laps of both the secondary college aths track and the recreation reserve main oval. I completed 10 intervals and tended to get faster in each one. I hit sub 3:30 pace in the tenth. In all I ran 12.7 km averaging 4:37 pace.
Looking for some variety Heather and I drove out to Eagles Nest on Friday morning. Heather walked the beach to recover from her gym session. I ran, into the wind, into Cape Paterson, looped the surf beach track and then came back. I put in a few efforts on the way back and found some good sustained pace. I covered 14.2 km at an average of 4:38 pace.
Again, in the search to get back some speed, I was looking for a fast time at parkrun and the fast runners turned up this week. I got caught out at the start getting my watch to go and when I got going Shannon, Ryan and a new bloke were about 30 metres ahead. I put my head down and got past the other fast starters and set off on the chase. Ryan was third but looking pretty good so I decided that it would be the new guy I'd have to get to get in the top 3. Halfway through Ryan took the lead and nobody went with him. Shannon then dropped off the pace and I was able to pick him off. About half way into the 4th kilometer I ran into second place but Ryan was just too far ahead to catch. My time was 18:42 - my fastest time this year. Ryan ran in 18:20 - 2 seconds slower than my PB. After scanning my barcode I ran back over the track to pick up Heather and then ran back again after she finished to get in 2.6 km of cool down.
I set myself to get in a 20 km run on Sunday morning. My plan was to run 2 laps of my 9.6 km course but, given I was solo I changed my mind and ran 11 km to the Rail Bridge and back around the mine road first with the view to setting up my 30 km course. I ran the first 10 km at just under 5 minute pace and then decided to put my foot down and see how I went. The second time on the rail trail I got out to the cattle crossing and it was being used so my plans changed again. I u-turned and ran back to the start of the trail and then turned up South Dudley road. At this stage I was running at 4:30 pace but when I hit solid ground I increased my pace again. I hit 4:16 pace up towards the school and maintained that around past the golf course entrance. The 20th kilometre was 4:13 and I finished off pushing hard into the wind to put in a 4:11 for the 21st. In all I ran 21.3 km in 1:39:31 (4:40 average). I was pretty happy to be able to finish with a 4:11 kilometre at the end of a half marathon training run.
Monday January 19th & Tuesday January 20th
With a view to getting some pace back I went out to run a Mona fartlek on Monday morning. It is more of an interval run than a fartlek, with 2x 90 seconds of effort, 4x 60 seconds, 4x 30 seconds and 4x 15 seconds, with rest intervals of the same duration in between. I jogged 3.5 km (5 min pace) out to the aths track at the school and then got right into the fartlek. With the rests so limited I found that it was quite demanding. With the exception of the last three 15 second efforts I got down to the low 3:20s for each effort but my recoveries were a bit slow. The jog home was quite challenging. In all I ran for just over an hour and covered 12.8 km.
On Tuesday morning I got up and just felt flat. I set out for a 10 km run and, with the exception of one effort in the middle, ran pretty slowly. It took me 47 and a half minutes to cover the 10 km.
23rd Annual Lindsay Thomas Memorial Run
The Springvale-Noble Park club of the VMA have run the Lindsay Thomas Memorial Run each year since 1992 at Braeside park. There is a 5 km walk, a 5 km run and, the main evet, a 10 km run.
This is the place where I first broke the 40 minute mark last year and I was hoping to break the 39 minutes this time. I woke feeling low on energy again and took some chia seeds at lunchtime to try and help. The other problem was the 33 degree temperature facing the runners. I was very well hydrated and had a very easy warm up for this run. Given the heat I had decided to run the race and not worry about times.
All of the runners went off at once so it was hard to tell who was running 5 km and who was running 10. The pace at the start wasn't that great so I just decided to go with the leaders. A group of 5 run the first kilometre together in 3:47. Two dropped off in the second and third kilometres and the pace dropped back to 3:55 and then my pace dropped to 3:59 in the third. I was starting to lose track of the two leaders, one of whom I was certain was doing the 5. I pushed in the fourth and ran a 3:56 to get back with them but I lost them again in the fifth as they pushed for the finish - both were 5 km runners. I slowed to 4:07 for the fifth and completed the first lap in 19:47.
At that point I found myself out on my own. I could not see the next runner behind me and the motivation to run fast disappeared. The ability to run fast was also disappearing as I was struggling in the heat. I ran the sixth kilometre in 4:12 and the seventh in 4:16. The eighth kilometre was a REAL STRUGGLE. I kept looking at the watch and the distance covered was progressing so slowly. I ran the eighth in 4:31 and then held that pace for the ninth (4:29) and tenth (4:30) to struggle across the finish line. My official time was 42:30. My garmin measured the course at 10.2 km and my 10 km time as 41:47.
At the finish line I took forever to recover. After getting back from the toilet I had a dizzy spell for quite some time and it didn't pass until I sat on the ground, propped against a sign. I was awarded the trophy for first place and my name now goes on the shield. It was great to win the race but I did so with mixed feelings. I was really disappointed with my time - my slowest competitive 10 km in over 12 months - and the way my body struggled to handle the heat.
Matt had come to watch the run and after the presentations we went into Mordialloc and had a late tea on the foreshore.
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