Started with about a 1km warm-up then 4 x 1.5km at 4:40/km pace with 2 minute recovery jogs in between.
Very cold this morning - apparently about 8 deg C! Should have worn an extra layer up top and gloves!!
The overall route is generally downhill, so I thought I'd double back on the 3rd rep to get a bit of uphill. That was tough! I got to about 1km then turned round and headed back downhill to finish the 1.5km split.
I suppose that kind of workout should be performed on a fairly flat route, but it did feel like a good hard session anyway.
I'm considering doing the Sutherland to Surf in July. Hopefully that'll indicate how I'm going on the path to City to Surf and Sydney Half Marathon!
Total 0f 109km for May. Must try harder!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
7.65km Easy...
9 days have passed since SMH Half Marathon - adequate time by anyones standards to recover.
Unfortunately, the weather's getting much colder in the mornings. I really don't want any excuses to miss out on some decent training between now and City to Surf / Sydney Half Marathon. I'm determined to step up a level over the next few weeks... I'm even thinking whether it's possible to beat my all-time C2S record of 1:11:48 in 1991.
So, this morning had me completing 7.65km in 39:53 at 5:12/km pace. That is quicker than my prescribed Easy pace but I still found it an Easy run... it was mainly a gradual downhill route. After such a long rest - I did feel really strong during the run.
Next session due on Thursday.
Unfortunately, the weather's getting much colder in the mornings. I really don't want any excuses to miss out on some decent training between now and City to Surf / Sydney Half Marathon. I'm determined to step up a level over the next few weeks... I'm even thinking whether it's possible to beat my all-time C2S record of 1:11:48 in 1991.
So, this morning had me completing 7.65km in 39:53 at 5:12/km pace. That is quicker than my prescribed Easy pace but I still found it an Easy run... it was mainly a gradual downhill route. After such a long rest - I did feel really strong during the run.
Next session due on Thursday.
Monday, May 21, 2007
21.1km Easy...
I was hoping that would have been a slightly more positive title.
A bit of a disappointing day yesterday, at the end of a disappointing week.
I came down with a bit of a cold last weekend, which forced a much longer taper than was necessary. Then, on Friday I started feeling a bit dodgy at work. I ended up leaving the office a bit early with a pounding headache. I went straight to bed, got up to eat some dinner - but that didn't go down to well. Woke up Saturday morning feeling even worse, but tried to get some brekky down... which didn't stay down too long. The alarm bells started to ring and I was considering binning the Half Marathon. I spent most of the day in bed, still the headache wouldn't shift. I did manage to keep some food down later in the day. I spoke to my running buddy and decided to give it a go at an easy pace.
So I woke up on Sunday, feeling remarkably fine - if a bit dull. Met up with my mate in the City and made our way down to the start.
I was still secretly hoping for a sub 2 hour time, but it was my mate's first Half Marathon, and I didn't know how I'd feel, so we would have been heading into the unknown.
So we just kept a nice Easy pace - probably around 6:00/km (my Imaginary Friend had an off day with all the tall buildings etc). I think we passed 10km in just under an hour and still felt pretty good. Although we were quite apprehensive about the hills on the second lap.
We just stuck to the steady pace up the Hunter Street hill then along to Mrs Macquaries Chair and back up the hill to Hyde Park. As we came back to Hunter Street downhill, we were 'flying'... probably a bit too quick because my buddy just about emptied his tank by the turn into Pitt Street. So I just hung back with him trying to encourage him up Argyle Street and back to the finish.
Official time was 2:07:04.
I don't feel too bad today and I'm just taking the positive of a good long training run for City to Surf and the next Half Marathon - probably in September.
A bit of a disappointing day yesterday, at the end of a disappointing week.
I came down with a bit of a cold last weekend, which forced a much longer taper than was necessary. Then, on Friday I started feeling a bit dodgy at work. I ended up leaving the office a bit early with a pounding headache. I went straight to bed, got up to eat some dinner - but that didn't go down to well. Woke up Saturday morning feeling even worse, but tried to get some brekky down... which didn't stay down too long. The alarm bells started to ring and I was considering binning the Half Marathon. I spent most of the day in bed, still the headache wouldn't shift. I did manage to keep some food down later in the day. I spoke to my running buddy and decided to give it a go at an easy pace.
So I woke up on Sunday, feeling remarkably fine - if a bit dull. Met up with my mate in the City and made our way down to the start.
I was still secretly hoping for a sub 2 hour time, but it was my mate's first Half Marathon, and I didn't know how I'd feel, so we would have been heading into the unknown.
So we just kept a nice Easy pace - probably around 6:00/km (my Imaginary Friend had an off day with all the tall buildings etc). I think we passed 10km in just under an hour and still felt pretty good. Although we were quite apprehensive about the hills on the second lap.
We just stuck to the steady pace up the Hunter Street hill then along to Mrs Macquaries Chair and back up the hill to Hyde Park. As we came back to Hunter Street downhill, we were 'flying'... probably a bit too quick because my buddy just about emptied his tank by the turn into Pitt Street. So I just hung back with him trying to encourage him up Argyle Street and back to the finish.
Official time was 2:07:04.
I don't feel too bad today and I'm just taking the positive of a good long training run for City to Surf and the next Half Marathon - probably in September.
Monday, May 14, 2007
8.24km Easy...
I thought the running gods were trying to give me a message yesterday.
I felt absolutely knackered for most of the day, so I put off the run until late in the afternoon. I was supposed to be out for 1:20 but I really couldn't see me achieving that, so I cut my losses and aimed for about 45 minutes.
So down to the river and back for what I now know was 8.24km in 47:58 at 5:49/km pace. And that's only thanks to www.mapmyrun.com, because my Imaginary Friend appears to be experiencing it's mid life crisis!
First, I couldn't turn it on. I was sure the battery had 3 or 4 hours left in it last time I used it. Anyway, I stuck it on charge and managed to get enough juice in to turn it on and last the run.
Then, when I started recording, I noticed that the time and pace were being displayed but distance wasn't increasing. I carried on regardless.
When I got home and plugged it into the computer to load up the route, the PC wouldn't recognise the device. I've experienced this before and that time I solved it by changing COM ports. All I could do was switch it back to the original port and try again. No luck! I tried rebooting everything, but still no success. I tried it on my laptop at work this morning - with some small success... the device was recognised, the session information was transferred to the laptop, but there was a problem sending it to Motionbased - I guess that's due to a Firewall. I tried the transfer again to see if the device was still recognised and now that fails too.
I did actually drop the device last week, but there didn't seem to be any damage to the case, so I didn't think anything of it. But perhaps there's some component inside that's busted. Bugger!
I don't know anyone else with a Forerunner that I could try and I'm not quite geeky enough to be able to test the serial cable or port... so, what to do?
Hopefully that doesn't disrupt my plans for the Half Marathon next week.
I felt absolutely knackered for most of the day, so I put off the run until late in the afternoon. I was supposed to be out for 1:20 but I really couldn't see me achieving that, so I cut my losses and aimed for about 45 minutes.
So down to the river and back for what I now know was 8.24km in 47:58 at 5:49/km pace. And that's only thanks to www.mapmyrun.com, because my Imaginary Friend appears to be experiencing it's mid life crisis!
First, I couldn't turn it on. I was sure the battery had 3 or 4 hours left in it last time I used it. Anyway, I stuck it on charge and managed to get enough juice in to turn it on and last the run.
Then, when I started recording, I noticed that the time and pace were being displayed but distance wasn't increasing. I carried on regardless.
When I got home and plugged it into the computer to load up the route, the PC wouldn't recognise the device. I've experienced this before and that time I solved it by changing COM ports. All I could do was switch it back to the original port and try again. No luck! I tried rebooting everything, but still no success. I tried it on my laptop at work this morning - with some small success... the device was recognised, the session information was transferred to the laptop, but there was a problem sending it to Motionbased - I guess that's due to a Firewall. I tried the transfer again to see if the device was still recognised and now that fails too.
I did actually drop the device last week, but there didn't seem to be any damage to the case, so I didn't think anything of it. But perhaps there's some component inside that's busted. Bugger!
I don't know anyone else with a Forerunner that I could try and I'm not quite geeky enough to be able to test the serial cable or port... so, what to do?
Hopefully that doesn't disrupt my plans for the Half Marathon next week.
Friday, May 11, 2007
8.69km Tempo...
After my 22:29 5km Time Trial on Tuesday, I took the opportunity to recalculate my Training Pace Calculator.
All my recent comments about aiming for an 'Easy' run and ending up with a 'Medium' pace can now be fixed. They were probably all within my newly revised 'Easy' run pace.
This morning will most likely be my last Hard session before the Half Marathon. So I decided on a Tempo run - 4 x 1.5km at 4:46/km pace (to be precise) with 2 minutes recovery jogs in between.
I asked my Imaginary Friend to do his thing, had a warm up then set off on the first rep. I didn't intend to look at my watch to ensure the correct pace but I was very accurate never the less. 1.5km reps were: 7:00 (4:40/km), 7:05 (4:43/km), 7:07 (4:44/km) and 7:15 (4:50/km) so an average of 4:44/km which is amazingly close to pace.
That felt like a really good work-out. And that 5km TT seems to have given me a big confidence boost.
All my recent comments about aiming for an 'Easy' run and ending up with a 'Medium' pace can now be fixed. They were probably all within my newly revised 'Easy' run pace.
This morning will most likely be my last Hard session before the Half Marathon. So I decided on a Tempo run - 4 x 1.5km at 4:46/km pace (to be precise) with 2 minutes recovery jogs in between.
I asked my Imaginary Friend to do his thing, had a warm up then set off on the first rep. I didn't intend to look at my watch to ensure the correct pace but I was very accurate never the less. 1.5km reps were: 7:00 (4:40/km), 7:05 (4:43/km), 7:07 (4:44/km) and 7:15 (4:50/km) so an average of 4:44/km which is amazingly close to pace.
That felt like a really good work-out. And that 5km TT seems to have given me a big confidence boost.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
9.70km Medium...
I'm bouncing between the 'Beginners' and 'Advanced' training programmes for the Half Marathon. This morning was from the 'Advanced' version. A 50 minute run.
Actually 9.7km in 53:09 at 5:28/km pace. I think the average pace was improved within the last 2 downhill kms.
Just over a week to go now. Starting to think about the last few training sessions, the taper and carbo loading. A bit of research required!
Actually 9.7km in 53:09 at 5:28/km pace. I think the average pace was improved within the last 2 downhill kms.
Just over a week to go now. Starting to think about the last few training sessions, the taper and carbo loading. A bit of research required!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
7.15km (WU, 5km TT, CD)...
The programme that I'm sort of following for the Half Marathon called for a 5km Time Trial today - to judge fitness and perhaps come up with a HM target time.
I picked a flat-ish route with as few road crossings as possible. I was aiming for about 23 minutes, so asked my Imaginary Friend to pace me at 4:30/km. After a bit of a warm-up I set off.
I saw that I'd set off a bit too quick as I was getting ahead of my Imaginary Friend, so slowed it down a little bit.
I could see I was maintaining the gap I'd created in that first km and was even moving slowly further ahead, so I expected the last couple of km to be hard to maintain pace. I ended up finishing in 22:29, which I'm very pleased with. Splits were:
I picked a flat-ish route with as few road crossings as possible. I was aiming for about 23 minutes, so asked my Imaginary Friend to pace me at 4:30/km. After a bit of a warm-up I set off.
I saw that I'd set off a bit too quick as I was getting ahead of my Imaginary Friend, so slowed it down a little bit.
I could see I was maintaining the gap I'd created in that first km and was even moving slowly further ahead, so I expected the last couple of km to be hard to maintain pace. I ended up finishing in 22:29, which I'm very pleased with. Splits were:
- 4:20
- 4:32 (8:52)
- 4:11 (13:03)
- 4:40 (17:43)
- 4:46 (22:29)
Monday, May 07, 2007
13.35km LSD...
We headed down to Stanwell Park yesterday to meet my Half Marathon running mate for a Long Steady Distance.
We didn't start until 11:40am so it was getting hot (23 deg C) and it's fairly hilly down there too. So 13.35km in 1:20:57 at 6:03/km was a fine effort.
Good too to be able to chat as we ran along - a sure way of knowing that we were running at a comfortable pace.
Some amazing views down there. The new Sea Cliff Bridge (which I indirectly helped to build) is amazing and there's generally a view out to sea all the way down.
I'm still not prepared to commit to a specific finish time for the Half Marathon. I'm happy to run all the way with my mate, so we'll just see how we go.
We didn't start until 11:40am so it was getting hot (23 deg C) and it's fairly hilly down there too. So 13.35km in 1:20:57 at 6:03/km was a fine effort.
Good too to be able to chat as we ran along - a sure way of knowing that we were running at a comfortable pace.
Some amazing views down there. The new Sea Cliff Bridge (which I indirectly helped to build) is amazing and there's generally a view out to sea all the way down.
I'm still not prepared to commit to a specific finish time for the Half Marathon. I'm happy to run all the way with my mate, so we'll just see how we go.
Friday, May 04, 2007
11.00km Easy...
I wanted to get an hours run in this morning, so I had to rise even earlier! Bit of a rush to get the train to work too!
Actually covered 11.00km in 1:02:17 at 5:39/km pace, but there's a flat spot in the distance over time graph where I had to pay a visit to the McToilet! So total time was 1:05:55.
My bib number (1469) has arrived for the Half Marathon. I have to pick up the race pack during the week before the race.
Actually covered 11.00km in 1:02:17 at 5:39/km pace, but there's a flat spot in the distance over time graph where I had to pay a visit to the McToilet! So total time was 1:05:55.
My bib number (1469) has arrived for the Half Marathon. I have to pick up the race pack during the week before the race.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
5.10km 10 x Hills...
I headed for the Hills this morning. Trying to get a bit of preparation in my legs for the dreaded hills on the SMH Half Marathon course.
The Hill I chose is actually very steep and a bit uneven too, so in the darkness of the early morning it's often difficult to see the undulations and if I'm not careful it can really affect my momentum. I have to concentrate on keeping my arms swinging to set the rhythm.
Finished off with a 2.40km Easy run home.
The Hill I chose is actually very steep and a bit uneven too, so in the darkness of the early morning it's often difficult to see the undulations and if I'm not careful it can really affect my momentum. I have to concentrate on keeping my arms swinging to set the rhythm.
Finished off with a 2.40km Easy run home.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
8.25km Medium...
So having rested my hip for a few days after my ANZAC day run, I was forced to rest even more by a busy weekend getting in the way of any other intentions.
So back to it this morning with 8.25km in 43:50 at 5:18/km pace.
I was really relaxed for the first half - felt really easy, but then it went a bit ragged for a while on the return leg. I did manage to push on for an extra km which was a good sign that I was able to get back under control.
Long tights and long sleeve top were much appreciated!
And a summary for April gives a total of 126.7km.
So back to it this morning with 8.25km in 43:50 at 5:18/km pace.
I was really relaxed for the first half - felt really easy, but then it went a bit ragged for a while on the return leg. I did manage to push on for an extra km which was a good sign that I was able to get back under control.
Long tights and long sleeve top were much appreciated!
And a summary for April gives a total of 126.7km.
7.58km Fast...
I missed posting this run after the ANZAC day holiday.
I don't remember purposefully intending a Fast paced run, but the results of 7.58km in 38:30 at 5:04/km clearly indicate that it was.
However, I do remember feeling a pain in my right hip which got me a bit worried (so long without injury... touch wood). So I intended to rest for the remainder of that week.
More in the next post...
I don't remember purposefully intending a Fast paced run, but the results of 7.58km in 38:30 at 5:04/km clearly indicate that it was.
However, I do remember feeling a pain in my right hip which got me a bit worried (so long without injury... touch wood). So I intended to rest for the remainder of that week.
More in the next post...
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