Annual Event

This morning was the 3Km TT, I was so nervous. On my way home from work on Monday night I was trying to work out what I wanted to do. I thought sub 13 ie: 12.59 was going to be good, with the hope of scoring a pb on my next one just prior to GCM. I decided to try and back off a bit with the pressure, so promised myself not to look at the splits other than the 1.5km turnaround which I wanted to get to in under 6.30 to make the 13mins achievable.

I ran down to Westend with Mark, it was his first Pat session and it was nice for once for a new face to not be new to me. I swear the group doubles in size fortnightly and we will need name tags soon. Anyway, the strides were feeling good and I was feeling pretty confident that I was going to get the 13, but you just never know until you get out there and actually start running.
The TT started. For once I felt like I wasnt being swallowed up by the group, so either I had started right at the back or I was actually running a bit faster than usual. Some of the usual suspects started to break away from the pack, the gap was stretching out there but I didnt feel like I was falling back too much like usual. At 500meters there is a slight hill, all good so far, the windchill kicked in at 1km and I was thinking about that and how cold my hands were and then there was the 1.5turnaround. Watch check... 6.18. Cool, 12seconds under target but with two small hills on the way back I figured the extra seconds were going to come in handy to keep it to 13mins.

Just as I was starting to tire on the last hill good ol' Matty stopped and waited for me and then proceeded to run the last 300meters in with me. I could have quite happily sat down before I got to the finish, I wasnt hurting so much as just had nothing left to give. I could hear Pat calling out 12.37, 36, 38 as I entered the chute. My pb of 12.49 was within in reach..... 12.44 I crossed the line and then promptly found a curb to hold on to.

I'm so excited a new pb, one year after my previous one of 12.49.

So on that basis this time next year I'll have another new pb.... hopefully they'll be a couple in between as well! :)

3 hours long run

A fairly uneventful run but very enjoyable non-the-less. MJ and I headed down to Newstead park, dodging people thru the New Farm markets and at the same trying not to take in the yummy smells coming from some of the stalls! 1.30 exactly we turned around, 2.59 we arrived back at the Regatta. Perfect!

We then had an enjoyable and well deserved breaky, found out a bit more about Toastie before heading to Intraining to get (another) pair of Brooks Adrenalines, this time they're pink though... very girlie!!

No aches or pains all day yesterday, and even after spending the morning jetskiing and out on Bribie, still feeling as fresh as a daisy!


Five weeks and counting...

Week after Warwick

Its hard to know what to post when the previous post was about Warwick, its like I'm making it a distant memory, and it was such good fun... anyway nostalgia over and on to the past few days...


Monday: definite rest day. No soreness though which was a (nice) surprise

Tuesday: Opted out of Pats this morning, glad too, although not sore, during the 30min run I did do my legs were heavy and tired still.
On Tuesday afternoon I went for a massage, I was surprised by how tight my left leg was, not to mention how much all her stretching hurt it. I think I must be nursing my right leg still a little, though I dont think there is too much need now so need to focus on being more 'balanced'.

Wednesday: My God, can it get any colder. In a description a co-worker of my running gear this morning (gloves, skins, long top, hat) he said he thought I would look like "the hooded one from South Park", thats probably pretty much how I felt too. I left home at 5am and was back before 6am and it was fully light. I wasnt going fast, but I was moving, didnt seem to get me any warmer though!

Thursday: Back at Pats this morning for the usually hard session before a TT. 2/1/500m/1km with 1min SR. For someone who has an injury Tess was on fire this morning and I was only just keeping up with her to begin with. My legs felt really fresh today, probably due to the massage, but just as well as the plan for the weekend is 3 hours and I can guarantee they'll be tired enough after that without them needing to be tired before it.

wwww.Wicked Warwick Weekend.com

What a fantastic weekend, no wonder there is excitement about this event weeks before it and talk of it weeks afterwards too. I dont know of another event on the calendar when you get to run with such a great bunch of people, not just once, but 5 times in a weekend and squeeze a couple dinners, road trips and a few chats around a protein bar or two (I am officially off protein bars for at least a week now... never would be too soon to see another one currently :) )


The weekend started with number collection and quickly headed off to the H&J for dinner. As the night went on more and more familar and soon-to-be familiar faces wandered in, providing a great opportunity to catch up. At 9pm Lis and I headed back to our palace for an early night ahead of the next days events.


The Half was starting before I knew it, MJ and I got to 2km in 10minutes and quickly put on the brakes. I soon found myself running solo, quite happy too listening to my ipod and taking in the fantastic country around us. Perfect morning and perfect company too, the little chats I had with the guys (Davo, Glenno, Jo, Schultzy) as we headed towards the hills helped the finish seem nearer than it was. 1.53 finish for me, which is only 6 mins off my pb, so fairly happy with that. A couple of moments around 16-18km where 'how will I back this up' came in to my head, but on the whole a very enjoyable run.

Back to the room, quick shower and change, some needed water and carbs, next thing I knew it we were having our CR photo taken at the x-country. Out of everything this weekend, the x-country hurt the most and accordingly felt the longest / further /steepest event of all, even though the opposite couldnt be more true. 4.53 for the first k quickly slowed to 5.10 / 5.20 /5.30 for the following ones. I wanted to run, but my legs did not agree with what my head was telling them to do. I got to the end in 24.11 and have never been so happy to finish a run!

Another quick shower and change and back out to the 5000m road race start at the Big W warehouse. This was a much better run, the couple of long down hills helped me to get in to a good rhythm and I managed to finish feeling fairly fresh in 24.41.

A fantastic night of food, trivia and prizes ensued. I even managed to start my own BLING collection with a Gold for the Half and Bronze for the other two events that day. Okay, so I have a small category, but it feels good to receive the placing all the same :)


Sunday morning I woke up expecting to be in real pain and suprised myself to find that other than a slight bit of soreness all was well. I'd been very careful to stay hydrated fuelled and stretched between and after the races, so perhaps that had helped.

At 7am we left for Kilarney, as we drove there and Kilarney appeared out the mist I got that ominous feeling, reminding me of being back at school before we were allowed in to the exam room. While I had really enjoyed the 10km ascent last year, I had done it on fresh legs and having just completed the longest run in any one day (30.7km) previously, I knew to make it up without stopping was going to be a challenge in itself!
This has to be my favourite run of the weekend, its just such a huge challenge to get up there, the feeling when you do reach the top is one of tremendous achievement. The first 2km were a struggle, then we hit a small downhill and I was able to get in a rhythm. Geoff ran passed me and warned me Schultzy was close on my tail (we had been playing cat n mouse in every race). He caught me and we joked about whose turn it was to win this one, the hill almost won though but I managed to dig deep and push on. I caught up with fatbloke and his wheeled support crew at about 7km, the real 'nasty' bit of the climb, he was struggling a bit and on a walk break (not that you could blame him with 40kilos of extra weight to push), we had a bit of a chat and I headed upwards. At 9km he got me again, at this point though I felt like I was almost sprinting, I knew it was only a little bit longer before the downhill and breakfast. 58.4x finish, I was more than happy with that. It was so great that Cirque, Clairie and Ciaran were there just to edge me over the line that little bit easier too :)

1500meters, not a favourite, you spend longer preparing for it than you do running it. My legs were like lead by this point, a pretty uneventful out and back resulting in a 6.41 finish, which I guess is still 4.27/k but gee it felt harder!


Lunch must have been the best value of the year at $1, I bought some Guide biscuits but didnt actually take the biscuits, I must have felt like I should have been paying more for lunch :)
I was really pleased to find out that I'd managed to get first place for the 10km in my category and third for the 1500meters... sure its not all about the winning, but its kinda nice at the same time.


Made it home at about 5pm last night after dropping people off along the way, I wasnt as tired as I thought I'd be and I am only slightly sore this morning (perhaps I just have really bad case of DOMS to come!). My total time for the weekend was 3.46, I'm not sure how indicative this is for a full marathon, but my goal time is sub-4hours and at least I now feel like it should be achievable.


A really special weekend, with a lot of fanastic people who cheer and cheer for you regardless of whether you are first, last or somewhere in the middle of the field.. Who could ask for a better (running) weekend away.

Keeping what I've got...

I spoke to Stevie this morning to clear up the whole 'what time did I run' thing. He confirmed his 'official' time made him about two minutes slower and he came in, in 36.XX so, happy little runner that I am, I'm taking the 35.40 as my new 2 minutes faster pb. Yaay!


Pats session this morning was 15, okay 18mins of sprints. Great session, all is well in the land of running for me at the moment :)

13 + 8 = one weekends running

I decided to run in the MDC 8km on Sunday, mainly because it would be my first short race in 8 months and I felt I needed the practise and a gauge on how I was doing. I didnt want to miss out on a long run altogether though. This week was meant to be my recovery week, so I decided on a 15km run Saturday morning, then the 8km on Sunday.

On the Saturday morning I left home at about 6am, it was cold, I felt cold, I felt horrible. The whole first 5km up to the hornibrook bridge I was struggling to hold sub 6 min pace, if it wasnt for the fact I am far to competitive (with myself) I would have turned around. Maybe after a longrun last week backed up by a TT I just was tired, I wasnt sure. I struggled, and I do mean struggled on though and ended up back home after just over 13km. Even after the run, before I really stopped I was still feeling cold, definitely wasn't 100% today.

I spent all afernoon Saturday at the local footy club and then headed home after the awards to watch the Lions play. I think I saw a total of about 30mins of the game, I just kept falling asleep! Still, I was wide awake and feeling much better come 5.30am this morning and happily got ready to go on down to Southbank.

Clairie was there, and Jodie, preparing for another ridiculously fast race. A few other CR's and PCRG's, but on the whole a lot of people just there for the fun of it, which gave a real nice relaxed atmosphere. Idiot that I am, packed a fully charged i-pod and an uncharged garmin, so although the music was great out on the course, I had no idea of my time. I feel though that 1-2km's were fairly steady, 2-6 were quick and then 6-8 were steady, certainly I only had one person pass me in the final K, so I dont think I was slowing much. No stopwatch means relying purely on clock time, ha ha, unfortunately the finish clock was on the opposite side of the finish to where we came in on, when I looked up it said 46.40, no, I hadnt walked in the middle of the run that was the 4km time, which had left ten minutes earlier. 36.40 I was pretty happy with, then I saw Stevie come through just after me and his own watch read 36.02, so does this mean the clock was actually 11 mins out and I really did 35.40?! I am still in doubt, serious doubt and will not be celebrating until the results are published. I thought my pb, which was from the last years MDC was 36.47 and I believed the time to be credible based on that, then when I came home and read back on my blog my pb was actually 37.47... I dont think I'm 2 mins quicker..... gee its hard when you dont have a watch or a gun-clock to fall back on!


[edit]

The unofficial, official results are out. I am very confused, although still a 30 second pb for which I am happy, the recored time is about 90 seconds slower than a 35.40. Will have to check with Stevie tomorrow that I wasnt dreaming when he said 36.02, maybe he said 37.02 I am blonde afterall. If that was his time though I am keeping my 35.40 as he would have been about 20 seconds behind me.. If not I will have to go with the clock time, win/win I guess either way, just one more was slightly more exciting!

mini mid-week run

Quick 7km this morning, well actually it was very slow. Felt okay, knee was a bit niggly which just reminded me that I need to stretch religiously still!

mini mid-week run

Quick 7km this morning, well actually it was very slow. Felt okay, knee was a bit niggly which just reminded me that I need to stretch religiously still!

3km TT - take two

Well, second time trial this year this morning and a slight change to the course. Rather than 3 x 1km, we had an out and back 1.5km, I much prefered this, I find something psychologically positive about running in the direction of home!

My last TT was 13.57 (I think) and my aim today was to go as close to 13.30 as possible. I worked out I would need 4.30's for this. I reached the first K in 4.20, the second K in 8.42 and finished at 13.07. A very pleasing 50 seconds faster than last months, and only 18 seconds off my all time pb. Happy little bunny I am for sure :)

Longest run ever (again)

I think the best thing about training for a new event, is every weekend brings on a new 'pb'. This weekend was no exception. I had a planned 2.5hours on the diary, I'd no idea how this would go though, being 20mins longer than any previous run and as I was planning on running with at least one other person, probably quicker than my solo attempt too!

We set off from the Regatta at 6am and ran the first 3km's at about 5min/k pace. I felt good and there was joking and talking to keep us distracted but by the time we got to the gardens MJ and I had eased off the pace slightly, a lot of the faster guys were running planning on 12km and we would have been stupid to try and keep up with them. By the time we exited the gardens, MJ and I were by ourselves, this suited me fine, I knew MJ didnt want to go out too fast and that was probably a wise move. We headed down to New Farm park, from the Regatta I have never run further than this, so at any point was excepting to feel the pace slow a bit. It didnt. We continued down towards Teneriffe and out heading towards Breaky Creek Hotel. Every couple of K I was sure that at any minute I would slow down, or my legs would start to feel it, or something. It never happened. At our turnaround at 1.19mins I was sure I would start to tire shortly, but no, my legs felt fresh pretty much all the way back to the William Jolly Bridge, they did start to tire here, but by that point I was already on 'longer run ever' and would have crawled if need be... there was no need though and when I finished our run at 2.39hours I felt as though going further would have been just fine.

I was slightly worried that my legs would be unbearable sore on the Sunday, especially given the pull-up from the Brissie Marathon. Despite my long run and a night of dancing I felt just fine on the Sunday morning.


[edit]

I should elaborate a bit - the dancing thing has nothing to do with running at all, the relevance to it was that I thought after a night on the tiles my legs were really going to hurt. A friend & I planned a surprise Hen Night for another friend...

Monday - Friday

I cant remember the last time my legs have hurt so baddly after a run as they did after the Brissie Marathon. I have no idea why either, but I do know I need to find a better way of reducing DOMS because it was just not funny!

On the Monday I walked to the local Gloria Jeans to meet a couple of friends with the intention of getting my legs moving a bit. In the afternoon I decided to take my puppy down to the local park, I thought a gentle run would be good, I thought wrong. I literally cried out loud when I took my first few running steps, not aided by the fact my dog was pulling me faster than I wanted to go. I did 4km, and although it got easier after the first one it was slow and sore to be sure.

Tuesday was Pats, again the first km was sore by then I started to warm up. I ran with Sarah who was also suffering a bit from the weekend and we just did an easy 50mins.

Wednesday was 7km's with the puppy, slow but feeling better.

Thursdays was Pats and I think I had the best session ever. It was 2.5mins out and back x2, then hill reps, then over the bridge and up to the lamppost at the top by the Ship Inn. Even after the session I felt like I could keep going, and it wasnt that I hadnt pushed myself, I had, harder than normal in fact, it was just that I was having one of those days when you feel invicible almost and like you could run forever.

Friday is rest day as MJ and I are planning on doing a decent 2.5hours tomorrow morning.....

Brissie Marathon Part 2... The Race

A nice early start this morning at 4.20am, although I was already fairly awake having woken up several times during the night dreaming about my stopwatch not working properly. I forced down a muffin and jam and headed out in to the dark to Southbank via MJ's.

When we got there just after 5.30am Tess was already in control of the pacing situation and the flags and bottle holders were being handed out. A quick wave off of the marathoners and a couple of run-throughs testing out the pacing flags and before we knew it we were about to start. The pacing nerves had all gone and I was really keen just to start by this time, I had planned to start my watch when the gun went off, but unfortunately they didnt seem to announce this point, or at least if they didnt you couldnt hear it a couple hundred people back from the start and there was more than a bit of confusion of 'has it started yet?' when people begun moving ahead of it. I started the stopwatch before the line still though and we were off.

The first couple of K's I was happy chatting away to people, most people were hoping to go sub-2 for the first time and I was hoping to be the person to get them there. Once we got over the Goodwill bridge and down by the river it got quite congested, especially when the super quick marathoners started coming back in the opposite direction! Out on the walkway though I got in to my pace and as promised to those at the start of the race, by 3km I was running at sub 2 time, by 5km I was at 1:59:30 time and promised those around me that this was now 'race pace'. The course narrowed again which made for a couple of slow K's, quickly followed by a slightly faster (5.20/k) one to get back on track. At the turnaround I still had the same group of people with me and I was feeling fantastic at about 8km, bang on track too for my pace group. I got chatting to a couple of guys who were familar, though I cannot remember their names heading back towards the gardens and before I knew we were at 10km, still on perfect time.
The water stop and then hill into the Botanics knocked a few people off pace and while at 11km I was still sub 2, it was probably more like 1.59.50 and my legs were feeling a bit fatigued, to the point it even crossed my mind whether I had anyone around me who would be able to carry the flag for the second half.... The best thing about running over the Goodwill Bridge once or twice a week however is that it is no shock or monumentous challenge to be running over it, even as part of a Half Marathon in particularly warm and humid conditions. The ease at which I went over the bridge gave me a much needed boost, even to the point where I managed to get half a dozen of us or so to wave maddly and smile for the photographer on the bridge! This was further boosted by friendly faces down at Southbank as we trooped through towards Westend, and as if that wasnt enough even more friendly faces in the form of the CR squad just around the next corner!

I was starting to feel like I was on the finishing straight as we headed down to Westend, but I could feel that people around me were struggling with the heat, the distance and the 'unknown' of what was still to come. I got chatting to one couple who had been playing cat n mouse with me for a while now and it was their first attempt at a half, we joked for a bit and they forged on. Then another lady who was dragging her feet asked when the next water stop was, I told her about 500meters to go and she should run with me and we'd get there together, she did as well. The same lady then asked me to keep her with me (talk about pressure), so I just randomly started talking at her and broke the remainder of the course down in to something like 'one small hill, a turnaround, a waterstop, a tiny hill and then home to the finish', another guy heard me talking to this lady and pulled up beside us and said 'awesome motivation, I'm sticking with you' (gee, more pressure). Then there was another guy, and another one, all knowing they were on the home straight, all struggling with actually getting there. I urged one guy to pick someone ahead (the girl in the yellow tshirt) and catch her, and when he got there, pick another one and then catch her too.... off he went!

I had quite a little group now, either just in front of me or just behind... most requesting I take them with me. I told the group ahead they should stay ahead of me, the guys beside me I wanted my finishing line photo with them and they better keep next of me and the guys just behind me, that I was going a little fast and if they could keep going it was going to be a fantastic pb by them.

We went through the final water stop and rounded up towards the slight incline, a couple of complaints when I said it was just a 'small hill', so I told the group 'its only ten steps, ten big steps, run it with me'..... and off we all went. That was it for a lot of them, it was all down to the finish and they knew it and as often happens something kicked it. I told them we were on for a 1.59.40 finish so to really kick in. As I came through tunnel I realised the last couple of k's I must have gotten quite a bit faster, my watch was reading 1.58.xx, so I ran backwards through the tunnel for a bit and tried to encourage those within earshot to bring it home.

The couple who I'd spoken to earlier were shuffling towards the finishing chute so I ran beside them and told them we'd really go for the last 100meters. I was a bit confused at the finish as to where I stood regarding precise gun time, I think the main clock said 2:31:xx, which I thought meant I was over the 2hours, but I later found out it didnt start at 30mins as I'd assumed. I let through a couple of fast finishers while taking my flag off (it didnt fit under the finish sign!) and when I walked through and stopped my watch it said 1:59:47. Fingers crossed the guys I let through who were running with me got sub-2 gun time as I heard there was a problem with the starting chip... I'm gonna feel very bad if they didnt, so might not read any race reports just in case :)

The usual post-race chats afterwards. It was great to catch up with all regular Brissie CRs, plus visiting, in particular Miners who I think I have missed at the last couple of events. Oh, and of course a big thank-you to the ever wonderful Tess who as well as donating her time to help out as pacers, also donated her garmin to help keep me on track (though I am now an addict and want one for sure :) )