Training Log Archive: fletch

Warm up mainly to get a feel for a 4 min km. Good thing too as I slotted neatly into about 3:40 pace when I first tried to hit it.

Despite my unusual preparation, I decided to stick with the death or glory approach and stick on 4min/km for as long as possible. I had thought that when I started to fade, it would at least be a gradual process and I would still be able to jog through to the end and get a respectable time. Nope.

Felt great at the start and was feeling super comfortable at 10km when I had a little chat with Craig. After about 18km though, I could feel my lateral quads starting to get a little sore and thought I might be in a spot of bother. Had debated with myself last night whether to get on the foam roller as I could feel they were a little tight after 2 weeks off, but I was worried about overdoing it and starting feeling sore and bruised, so I left them alone. In hindsight not the right choice.

The hill under heathcote was not appreciated, but it was a doddle compared to the course change up fraser due to pathworks on the boardwalk. They were both OKish on the way out, but totally killed me on hte way back.

Held the pace OK through to the turn at 24km, but it was starting to feel harder and the pace started to drift out. It was really starting to go when the lead female and her entourage came through at about 26km and it went rapidly downhill from there. I had been feeling my legs getting sorer and my stride shorter for a bit, but was still surprised by how fast it fell apart.

The sad thing is that I was running in the top 20, and other than the lead girls' group, there was a massive gap before people started to pass me. (they can pretty thick and fast towards the end though).

By 35km I was cramping badly. At one point I had to stop and stretch my hamstring repeatedly, only for it to grab again as soon as I tried to stand up straight. Got moving again eventually, but it was switching between walking and a slow, painful hobble the rest of the way. Every time I tried to start shuffling after a walk it was slower and more painful than the time before.

Disappointing, not entirely unexpected. Probably a few long runs short of what I needed in training, plus being sick, plus not eating lunch yesterday due to stupid early afternoon orienteering races.

Would be interesting to know what would have happened if I had just cruised along early with the 3:00 bus, but where's the fun in that??

C • Fun 9

Event: Shenton College NavDash
 

Only ran this as a steady run to prove to myself I couldn't run in the marathon tomorrow.
Probably as a result of slowing down a bit (I hate admitting that) i had a clean run and for the first time in ages had a win.
Then went and picked up race bib for marathon. Will find out the effectiveness of my non-traditional race preparation.

C • admission 4

Long - Splits

Trying to convince myself that I'm nearly healthy again, but then I have to run for 50-100m for some reason (a constant peril in my line of work...)and it becomes very obvious that I'm not. Poo.

Chest won't clear. Have finally booked in to see a doctor this afternoon. My money is on instant prescription of antibiotics