week ending 29/4

First up thanks for the kind words and messages I have received over the last couple of days, it is such a brilliant community of people we are part of. In the scheme of things my effort really doesnt register on the richter scale but people are genuinely interested in other peoples journeys, however humble and the support and encouragement is certainly appreciated here.

Martin/Horrie to be honest I am throwing a fair bit of energy towards running in Kempsey in June, I am trying to keep it low key, to be honest I dont want the circus that seems to go along with the big races like Gold Coast.

I have pulled up a little crook in my heel since sunday. It appears to be a direct link to running hard sans orthotics in some pretty tired racing shoes. I wont make that mistake again. I have reverted back to taping my foot as a precaution and will endeavour to do 50% of my running on grass. To be honest I would be pretty shattered to work so hard to get badly injured again, it has been a real slog just to get back into shape.

My main concern is the first thing in the morning thing where every day starts with the hobble until the foot warms up. Anyway I will monitor over the next week or so before I make any decisons.

This week is as follows:

Mon 23/4 - 8.5km 38 minutes. Marrickville Park 20 laps in the wind rain and dark. My Mp3 ran out of batteries, this was a pretty lonely old run but necessary in the recvoery stakes.

Tue 24/4 - 15km - 1.04 Norton St Balmain Rd Victoria Rd Bay return. Normally try and run this a little harder but didnt want to do anything too silly tonight, just allow my legs to get sunday out of them. Good even pace but pretty relaxed. Conditions very miserable again tonight. Counted 2 walkers 2 cyclists and 1 runner(yours truelly!) around the bay. Will endeavour to get up early to run my mid week long in Centennial. If ever there was a kiss of death there it is!

Wed 25/4 - 20km mid week long - Centennial Park 2 outside and 2 inside loops. Who needs a crystal ball? I couldnt manage to drag myself out of bed at 5.30, mainly because I was up late catching up on other peoples blogs which I dont get to do as much as I would like. I jad to work this morning so headed out a bit later when the kids had a sleep and did the planned run in a smidge under 90 minutes for a smidge over 20kms. I felt pretty shabby actually but nutted it out. Tommorow I may rethink the repeats, will see how I feel but at this stage I cant see them getting done. May swap thur and friday.

Thu 26/4 - 10.5 kms around the uni 46 minutes. As predicted there was snowflakes chance of me running intervals today so I swapped for fridays run. I felt bloody awful but plodded around and eventually started coming good on the second loop.

Fri 27/4 - 4 * 1 mile repeats. I was still feeling a little leg weary, however I managed to do a reasonable job on these with minimal recovery between reps. As I keep banging on about - for me repeats in marathon training are just as much about recovery as they are about running fast (if not more). I managed 5.38, 5.29, 5.36 and 5.38 with 2 minutes recovery. Really pleased with the effort today.

Sat 28/4 - 14km. I woke at 5.30 with the sound of steady rain and I expected a fairly brisk start to the day and decided to dress appropriately. I couldnt have been more off the mark if I was a registered weatherman! It was fairly mild and as a result pretty humid. I picked Steve up with view to starting at 6 and finished by 7 as I had to be at Earlwood at 8.00 to meet my plumber mate. The program had 2 laps at race pace. The first 2 kms were pretty stiff but from there I was hanging on with all I had to Steve who worked into a good rythym. First lap was 29.15 second 27.25 and it was hard work in particular from about 6kms on. Almost pulled a heartstring at about 8kms but gritted the teeth and attempted not to let Steves finely shaped derrier get too far away. If I was on my pat this morning I would not have run as hard and another solid run is another deposit in the Bank Of Marathon. I think I owe 26 for dragging an extra 15 seconds per km out of me this morning.

Sun 29/4 - 32kms 2h22. Got out to Cent Park and the plan was 3 long and 4 short loops however I ran out of time (and petrol) and ran 3 long, 3 short then finished with a 1.5kmout and back to make up what felt like 32kms. I was completely f*#ked after the end of this run. I read with interest on CR how some runners actually put in race pace efforts for a period of there long run. I just dont have that in my legs. Today was a struggle from about 2kms to the finish and showed that my legs dont like a sudden increase in kms. However the end result was pleasing given how I felt and the pacing was pretty even.

Total kms for the week 108. After such a confidence boost last week the efforts from this week were a small reality check. Today in particular reminded me that there are no short cuts and running a fast 10km or half doesnt mean a pinch of shit when the going gets tough at the pointy end of a marathon.

Having said all that, I know that running on tired legs is part and parcel of preparing for a long race. To be honest I am not the worlds most confident person and I always feel like I need to be giving a little more.

Anyway another tough week ahead. North Head 10km on saturday dangles a fast 10km carrot but eyes are on the prize at this stage. Will have an increase in mileage but try and squeeze a mini taper in so I can give saturday as much as I have.