Intervals at Farm Cove

I completed a set of 6x1 minute and 4x30sec intervals this morning down on the waterfront at Farm Cove in Sydney. It is a pretty flat curved path and not overcrowded early in the morning. I managed to break the 3mins/km barrier for just one of my 30 second efforts. Elite runners can keep this speed up for over 10km...

Garmin details >>

Training for the SMH Half Marathon 2011

I spent December & January slowly building up a base by doing 2 to 4 runs a week of usually 6km up to 10km. I started to ramp it up in February and in March I have started training in earnest for the SMH Half Marathon 2011 in May. I've created a training plan, which I had not even bothered with through last year's struggles, that includes a long run, some interval running and cross training in a fitness group.

On the injury side, things are mostly contained. I had a flair up of a sore right knee earlier this year but with some stretched I got from the physio, it appears to be under control. There are a couple of other niggles but nothing that is overly concerning.

I haven't really began to run tempo pace in training yet but with the interval training, I can feel the speed is coming back so some quicker runs will be my focus for the next month, alonside my Sunday long runs. The most I have done so far is 16km but I plan to get up to around 25km a few weeks out from the race.

My primary goal is to run the half in under 90mins with my hopeful goal being sub 85mins for a new PB.

A New Year

Been a while...

I never did write about my final race in 2010 - the Run4Fun 10km. I was aiming for sub 40mins and went through the first 5km in 20:20 but I didn't have the fitness to carry it through and it turned out to be a tough second half, finishing with 41:53.

I opted out of the King of the Mountain run in Pauanui this year so that I wouldn't start the year stiff and sore. I have been doing 2-4 runs a week for a while now, building a base. My first goal this year is to break 90 mins in the May Sydney half marathon and get as close to 80 mins as possible. 84 mins is probably my realistic stretch goal at this point.

So on to my main goal for 2011: To break 3 hours in the marathon and qualify for Boston. My stretch goal will be 2:50 because hey, you've got to make the goal hard right, or what's the point? I'll be targeting Sydney Marathon in September for this but may run another one through the year - possibly Gold Coast.

Time to leave the injury-laden 2010 behind me and break some new ground in 2011!

Adventure race!

We did the AROC adventure race in Shellharbour yesterday. Classic version, not novice. Tim sent us the wrong way for 15 mins running up a bike track, a quarter of the checkpoints had been stolen by the public, I got such bad cramp at one point that I toppled of my bike and my bike chain broke with over 10km of riding to do so we took turns at running. We were out there for 5 hours. It was awesome.

Sydney Running Festival Half Marathon 2010

I woke up at 4am to get ready for the 6.20am start of the Sydney Running Festival Half Marathon at Milson's Point. Walking to Town Hall Station, I only saw one other runner but by the time the train arrived at 5.14am, there were a large number of us on our way over the bridge to the start line in the dark. Once I got down to the start area under the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the north side, I queued briefly to get an espresso, and then go through my pre-race routine which mostly consists of hanging around listening to the Dropkick Murphys on my iPod Shuffle,  doing a little warm-up jog and doing some stretches.

As the sun came up, the weather was nice and cool with some cloud cover - perfect for running! I joined the crowd in the A group start and found the 100min pacer team nearby. Given that 100mins was my target I thought I'd run with them for most of the race. As the gun went, I completely forgot about the pacer group and pushed forward into the crowd. Once through the early squeeze, I set off at around 4:30 min/km pace and just ran alone. My lack of training over longer distances was always in the back of my mind (the most I had done was 14km) as I went through the first 10km and so I held back the pace a little but I knew the 100min bus was a resonable distance behind and the 90min bus a long way ahead so I settled into running my own race with a rather varying pace as usual. According to my Garmin 405, I went through 10km in 43:34 (full Garmin details of my race here).

I expected to feel the fatigue in my legs at around the 15km mark but after a moment of tiredness and self-doubt at around 12km, I realised I was feeling good through the second half of the course. I was consuming energy gels every 7km and I'm sure this kept me on target for my revised on-the-run goal of 95mins. Just before we came on to Sussex St/Hickson St, at around the 17km mark, I started to push the pace a little and realised I still had plenty left in my legs. My left hammy started to ache a bit as it has been known to do but all other previous injuries were causing me no concern. Not wanting to leave anything on the race course, I kept the pace closer to 4:15min/km and got that 'in-the-zone' feeling. I got to Circular Quay and about 750m out from the Sydney Opera House finish line before my energy started to flag a little and from there it was just a case of trying to give it everything I had left.

I finished the half marathon in about 94:30, which was about 10 mins off my PB from last year but as I struggled with many injuries throughout this year, I'm rather chuffed with that time. I enjoyed the route but to be honest, I prefered the City West Link part of the course that was skipped this year as I enjoy having a long stretch of road to run straight on instead of turning so many hairpins.

I walked home from the Opera House and ate a lot of food through out the rest of the day, and drank a lot of water. I felt like I ran a good race and that I have put my injuries behind me now. I look forward to the rest of the year of maintaining my base and having a crack at my 10km PB and then onwards to the sub 3 hour marathon next year!

City2Surf and Beyond

It was before I got to the start line of the City2Surf here in Sydney that I decided not to run a marathon this year. The plethora of injuries I developed in the early part of the year have forced me to put my sub 3 hour marathon goal on hold until next year. With that in mind, I approached the City2Surf knowing I was way off my best and aimed for around 60mins. The run was much tougher than I had remembered and I struggled mightily up Heartbreak Hill, coming in with a net time of 60:30 for the 14km distance. Considering my injury-hampered training this year, I was relatively happy with that. Garmin race details >>

My next race is the Sydney Running Festival half marathon in three days time which I will be realistically aiming for 100mins as I simply have not trained for the distance so will be really slogging it out. The one PB I will have a shot at later in the year is the 10km Run4Fun race in Olympic Park. Last year I set my 10km best of 39:30 and that was with a fair amount of fatigue following the Melbourne Marathon so with a couple of months still up my sleeve and with my body no longer troubled by injury, I will be aiming to break 39mins for that.

Sutherland2Surf 2010

I love this race! This was my fourth or fifth time running it. I finished at about 45:30, which is a bit slower than my PB of under 42 mins which I did last year but given the injury layoff I had until June, it was better than I expected. It was great conditions for running: Cool, cloudy and no rain. Gives me a little more hope for a reasonable City2Surf in two weeks time where I'll be aiming for a little under 60 mins.

It's great to be running again anyway!

My official net time was 45:26 at an average of 4:07 per km. My full Garmin race details here.

Successful fourth run back from injury

Another good hit out yesterday left me feeling more confident about running a sub 3 hour marathon in Melbourne later this year. I probably won't run again until Saturday (or at least try not to) so I can give my legs a little more recovery time before adding more distance. I'll aim to do some gym work during the week instead. My short-term goal is to be at race fitness and pace for the Sutherland2Surf 11km on July 25th so no need to push the distance yet. If I can finish that race around the 45min mark I'll be very happy.

Yesterday's run was overall slightly faster than the previous one. I was on a good pace for the first three kms but slowed through the second half. Garmin details here

Nothing hurt!

Third run back from injury. Nothing hurt while running and picking up a bit more speed now too. Right knee a little stiff going up stairs an hour after run. Looking forward to my next run now :)

Run statistics and map >>

Second run and calf is good

I repeated the Domain/Kings Cross 6km route this evening, wearing my 2XU compression socks and my calf felt fine again the whole time! Very encouraging. My knee felt pretty good too but still does not feel 100%. The only issues were my left hammy and once I had finished, my right achilles was a slightly noticeable but nothing major like it was before the month off running. Overall, a good run but I may get some acupuncture on the left hamstring and do some heel drops for the achilles.

Details of run >>