Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Lake Ginninderra run

Marathon training - Week 12 of 18
Easy week


Today's session - Cross country event at Lake Ginninderra

Time / weather - 6pm / sunny, 28*c, warm
Distance - 7.1km (inc warm & cooldown - 9.5km)
Time taken - 32.07
Av pace - 4.31min/km
AHR - 172; MHR - 180

I deliberately parked just over a kilometre away from the start of the race so at least I'd get a warm-up in - something I don't usually do. Felt very sluggish during the warm-up run - this didn't bode well for the actual event.

Caught up with JD who was returning after rolling his ankle 2 weeks ago, and with Strewth and Mr B just before the start of the race. Then we were away and I thought I started reasonably well - my biggest problem is going out too fast and then dying in the last few kms. Still felt very sluggish and slow on the way out to the turnaround - must be all the long running I'm doing.

Coming back from the turnaround it was interesting to see who was behind me and this spurred me on for a km or so and then tiredness set in. Crossing the bridge was hot and hard as there was no shade from the sun. It was about this stage that negative thoughts started drifting into my consciousness - I'm not a hot weather runner; this is all too hard; I went out too fast; running marathons is easier than this, etc. Once I hit the shade again I began to feel much better and managed to come home strongly. But by golly it was a hot, hard run. Mr B came in about 50 secs behind me - he had a great run. Strewth was feeling very dehydrated when she finished and gulped down the first cup of water she grabbed - which happened to belong to Mr B! Aki had a good run and JD finished the run with ankle feeling fine - which is good news.

Ran back to my car with speedygeoff for company - he was continuing around the lake. I'm glad I ran the race but wish it wasn't such hard work!

My km splits:
4.25 / 4.34 / 4.43 / 4.21 / 4.29 / 4.41 / 4.36min

*************************************
Looking back - Road to IM 2004
47 days to go


Workout 1 - Cycle - Haydon Dve loop x 2; Coulter Dve loop x 1

Time - 5am, 12*c, slight breeze
Distance - 42.9km
Duration - 1hr 45min
Av spd - 24.4kph

Rode with H - great to have company. I felt we rode a little faster but its frustrating because our average speed doesn't seem to have increased greatly.

Workout 2 - Swim - endurance, AIS 50m pool

Time - 7.20pm
Distance - 4.4km
Duration - about 1hr 45min

The swim session included:
1,000m warm up; 5 x 200m variable pace; 5 x 400m steady pace; 400m cooldown. I swam strongly even when I was feeling reeeaaalllly tired. Amanda (coach) said that I looked like I had lost weight - guess IM training can do that!

6 comments:

Ewen said...

4.4km of swimming! Were you mad?

Yes, it's all the long running you're doing. Still, a good hit-out... a bit faster than marathon pace.

speedygeoff said...

These hot days make a marathon seem soooo long, don't they?. Don't worry, April in Canberra will be cold.

Anonymous said...

You described my headset for every short race I ever do, all those negative thoughts. Those short races do hurt!

Hilda said...

Did you say that was harder than running a marathon??? wow that was tough then!
Still those numbers look very well, hope you recover well after this race so you can do your tomorrow's medium run and then the fartlek... wow! Three in a row!
I was remebering your phrase: if you indulge, you'll bulge... it happen to me even while you warned me!!! Now it is my mantra.

2P said...

Nice work in hot conditions CJ ;-)

Rae said...

Great race!! Sometimes I think marathons are easier than short races too! With the M I just run long and slow, and with the short races I get so tired of pushing, pushing, pushing!