My first meaningful interaction with another human for 2013 came not at some NYE celebration, but at around 5:30 this morning during an early run along the Pacific Highway when a complete stranger gave me a high five, smiling broadly and saying “Way to go, bro ... Happy New Year!” He didn’t even seem particularly drunk. Given that I had slept through all the fireworks and midnight celebrations, this wasn’t too shabby a way to kick the year off. Erm, well OK so maybe it doesn’t quite rate compared to being beside your beloved as you gaze in awe at the fireworks by Sydney Harbour ... in fact, nah, it doesn’t rate at all, does it? But at the time it seemed cool.
Not so cool was the weather – warm and muggy, which is why I was up well before dawn to run before it was too hot. As runs go it was OK. A little slow perhaps, and my legs were still a little sore from last Sunday’s tough 18km, which made the hills tricky. Form, I discovered, is a fickle friend. Happy to be there when things are going well, but quickly vanishing when you need it most.
Not to worry, I returned home in 58:14 for the 10km – my slowest time on this course for many months, but feeling good even so. Time is not so critical right now, as much as building regular good mileage. And it's the only chance you get all year to run on New Year's Day.
And so Happy New Year everyone – time to reset the counters to zero and start over. Hmm, that reminds me of a song...
Two more runs in the log book this week and it's beginning to feel a lot more like a training campaign. Still no great shakes in terms of pace - all these runs have been fairly pedestrian but it's kilometres banked and I'm feeling stronger and fitter.
An 11km hilly street run two days ago went quite well, and then this mornings run was a beauty... on the road by 5:30 am to beat the heat, and headed out to the Lane Cove National Park run for an 18km jaunt which has become something of a regular in recent weeks. Very few people about today, so I had the park pretty much to myself and it was a magical run, with a caucophany of birds greeting the dawn as the sun broke in mottled fashion through the canopy of temperate rain forest. Peaceful and wonderful.
I continued my experimentation with Gu gels, today's menu featuring the "Lemon Sublime" concoction which tasted OK-ish and certainly (I'm sure, this time) did its job. Even the scariest hills were tackled with a legs-of-steel confidence, and two in particular which had reduced me to a "never again" quivering, heaving mess in the past today gave me no grief at all. How much I can attribute to the gel and how much is just down to plain hard training I can't say, but I like the feeling!
"contains minimum 1% juice" ...i reckon you'd get more juice than that in a wine gum!
Just to register my congratulations and admiration for your approach to running over the 12 months. I've enjoyed reading about it. I especially enjoyed the bit where the treadmill died. Ugly bastard mechanical fing. Keep posting in 2013, more thoughts and observations and more strange furry Aussies beasties seen on the roadside... much better than Haruki Murakami.
My ever pending mission is to get those pre-dawn runs in in order to up my mileage a bit. In nearly 20 years of regular running I´ve never really managed to get my lazy arse out of bed on a regular basis and i'm sure i'd be better off if i did... maybe this year.
Nice work, fella. Off the road for a day or two thanks to a virus but I'll be back soon enough. Loving the hill work - I firmly believe that makes such a difference. Once you start murdering hills for fun you are really hitting some form. On, on!
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Today was a wonderful day, with Joseph and his mighty team of angelic miracle-workers at "The Firm" finally successfully resurrecting Infiniti MA200 (my beloved treadmill) - truly, it was a mighty deed and I shed a quiet tear or two when it coughed into life, wheezed its way into a walk, then a jog, then finally, brim-full of life-giving goodness it winked at me and said "OK, well, let's go - what's keeping you?"
I celebrated the miracle with a fabbo interval session - perhaps the treadies greatest attribute - and it was a good one (of course)... 800m intervals completed in teary gratitude to the treadmill Gods. I have to say, when I finally stumbled upon "The Firm", a small business specialising in treadmill repair, I felt good about them. Not cheap, to be sure, but they did the job where no-one else would dare to go. It was like the vet who lovingly nurses a sick but long-cherished pet back to good health. Worth every cent.
Well OK, let's not get carried away. But it WAS fantastic to be able to do a tightly-controlled interval session again. I even celebrated by adding an eleventh 800m repeat. And did it feel good? You bet it did - I celebrated the event after with a cool, magnificent Coopers Pale Ale, served al fresco under a setting sun with the sound of cicadas and currawongs chorusing the end of a fabulous, miraculous day. And well, ahem, yes there was also a bottle of fine New Zealand pinot noir somewhere in there too... (apologies to those of you currently on the wagon).
Track du Jour must be honouring the fine people who brought Infinti back to life ... aficionados of Cockney culture will doubtless remember and smile at this one...
16.35km 1h39m (11x800m repeats @ 5:00/km pace + warm up & cool down)
Heatwave conditions over much of Australia continue to create havoc with hundreds of bushfires raging across several states. Fortunately the fire authorities are well prepared these days and the rate of destruction and loss of property is miraculously low.
Today's forecast maximum for Sydney is 39C, so I was up early to try and beat the heat for my long run. I'd planned my usual 18km run through Lane Cove National Park and hoped to tack on a few extra kilometres at the end, as I'd missed a mid-week run and so am a few clicks short of what I hoped. However as it was 26C when I headed out shortly after 5 a.m. I decided to just see how things went and keep my options open.
Given the warm conditions I took it nice and slow - had no choice really. There wasn't a breath of wind and I was drenched with sweat well inside the first kilometre. However, on I plodded and the run to the half-way point at the far end of the park was really quite pleasant. But then, that's the downhill leg. Coming back from the 9km point was a different matter. At 12km the sun was well and truly poking its nose into affairs, and as I choked down a Gu gel (Strawberry/Banana flavour this time ... not bad) I was beginning to think this might be a rather difficult run to finish.
Actually the uphill run to exit the park wasn't too bad, but the last 4km along a busy highway with a monster hill at the end put paid to any ideas of tacking on an extra few kilometres.
Never mind, it was another 18km banked. Rather slow, but given the conditions not too bad. Now for a tough week ahead - lots of work to do and several 'no excuses' runs required early in the morning with more hot weather forecast.
You know, sometimes I just have to wonder why we do this.
Oh, now I remember... it's the incredible feeling of wellness and achievement that comes after a tough run like todays.
Um, I seem to have mislaid mine for the moment, but I'm sure I'll find it again.
Track du Jour: This was stuck in my head for the first several kilometres, so i guess it has to be the TdJ. Lucky it's a great song...
Nice run. Managed a couple of outings, no long 'uns but one rather special one in EG's back yard. What a lovely track! Will write it up later, get some photos added.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
(15-01-2013, 07:14 PM)Sweder Wrote: Nice run. Managed a couple of outings, no long 'uns but one rather special one in EG's back yard. What a lovely track! Will write it up later, get some photos added.
Excellent! It will be good to hear some news of the Big Cheese. Rather quiet of late...
It's 3:45 a.m., and as I creep out the back door the yard sensor light flicks on. I immediately spare a thought for my son and his wife next door, into whose bedroom the light now shines. They've assured me many times that with the curtains closed they never notice it, but I always wonder. And if the light doesn't wake them I know the creak of the side gate as I head out for my run definitely does. No amount of grease or oil silences the hinges, and I'm resigned to one day pulling the gate down and either completely re-building it or buying a whole new one. One day...
Of more immediate concern is the weather - a drizzling misty rain that despite my cap immediately renders my glasses nearly opaque. Of equal concern is my lack of sleep - I managed only about two hours, and have been wide awake since a little after one a.m., and have now finally given up and headed out for my scheduled 10k highway run. I briefly consider extending it by a few kilometres, but my level of exhaustion and the weather quickly puts paid to such madness.
I'm into my fourth week of training for the Canberra Marathon and I'm determined to log 50km over my scheduled four runs this week. Two of them will have to be early morning efforts and I'd resolved that neither bad weather nor the lack of sleep would deter me. Well here we are, day one and I have both thrown at me already. I pull my cap down as low as it will comfortably go, shrug with resignation, start my Garmin and trudge off into the darkness.
Despite the early hour, there is a surprising amount of activity in Gordon this morning. Across the way a truck is emptying industrial waste bins - it must be an owner/driver because the serious doof doof emanating from the cab strongly suggests the installation of a subwoofer. Trucks, it seems are getting classier (or at least doofier), even rubbish trucks. Noisier still, as I cross the railway bridge and turn the corner onto the highway, is the local baker who has his music wound as high as it will go, only he's singing (badly) over the top of it and having a great old time. And just down the road the 24-hour MacDonalds is doing a roaring trade from passing truckies and taxi drivers.
All this I pass in the first kilometre, but then I'm out of Gordon and passing through quieter, residential areas and the quiet hamlet of Killara. I'm having serious trouble seeing anything much at all, but I plough on at a good clip, hoping the pavement has no unseen hazards to trip me up. I'm moving surprisingly well and think this is going to be a good run. I can't read my watch however so can't be sure just how well I'm travelling. It hardly matters - just being out here is the important thing.
The kilometres pass steadily, and I manage to stay on my feet without tripping or colliding with anything. The run feels like a good one, but in the dark they often do, so I push on steadily without wasting too much effort, the constant drizzle adding extra caution in any case.
I return home drenched but in good time and good spirits, clocking my 4th fastest time ever for this course and left wondering what time I might have run in good conditions and with a good night's sleep under my belt!
10.0km 54m50s.
Tale #2 - Beware the Bad Run!
Ironically, weather conditions for my second outing of the week were perfect. I say ironic because this was without doubt one of my worst runs ever. All I can say is that one of the problems with 4 a.m. runs is that you're up and out the door before being sufficiently awake to properly assess the body to see whether it is actually fit for running at that precise moment or not. 5km away from home is not the best time or place to discover that it isn't. I won't go into gory details; suffice to say this was an extremely unpleasant experience, and whilst I did eventually manage to cover a reasonable 9km, it was horribly slow and decidely uncomfortable. No injury or serious harm done however, which is the only positive I can take from it.
Now I have to bounce back from this. Actors talk about the one bad review in an otherwise clean sweep of positive reviews being the one they believe. The same is true for me - one bad run tends to kill my motivation and make me believe that the good runs were just a fluke. Ridiculous I know, but when the alarm rings in the middle of the night or that long run beckons on a hot, steamy day, it's hard to focus on anything other that last, awful outing.
Still, I'll give it my best shot. Just as soon as my internals settle down.
Thanks guys ... I did in fact recover pretty quickly, and just as well. Today has been a record-setting day here in Sydney, with a top temperature of 45.8C (114.4F), so a sod of a day for running... I mean what fool would run in conditions like that?
I can't take a trick this week - the return of the guts ache that ruined my Wednesday run threatened to also sabotage this morning's long run. Fortunately it was not as bad and I 'dealt' with the worst of it before heading out the door. I still ran a fair percentage of the distance feeling decidedly queezy, but managed to keep everything inside and did in fact complete the run and then some.
It was the 'usual' Lane Cove park run again today - I left at 5:30 a.m.in warm, muggy conditions, but certainly not hot like my previous run (not a single mention? Is running in 45C heat considered passé now?) In fact it cooled down somewhat over the next hour and turned into beautiful running weather for the return leg, which was most welcome. There were very few other people in the park this morning too, making it quite idyllic - it really is a fabulous place to run, despite it being where my eldest brother died, drowning in the river here some 35 years ago. Or perhaps, on peaceful mornings like this, it makes it rather significant. Having avoided the park for over three decades, it's now a very special place for me, and it's nice to think my departed brother is somehow part of my marathon training.
Despite the upset stomach I persisted with my experimentation of performance-enhancing drugs, this time taking a Tri-Berry flavour Gu gel at about the 10km point. This one was the stand-out favourite: very palatable, and I shall be buying a box of these this coming week. Oddly, the one I thought I'd like most, the Vanilla Bean Gu (me being a vanilla addict) was my least favourite, although still OK.
I'm pleased to say that although the run was a slow one, I tackled the hills well, with the two killer hills presenting no huge problem. I even tacked on an extra lap of the block when I returned home just to show 'em. Show who? I dunno, it was just my stubbornness coming through I think.
Despite the weather and an icky gut I managed to run four times for my first 50km (actually 52.6) week of the campaign. Now to try and maintain it.
I can't think of much worse than running in 45C Heat, unless it's doing so with an icky gut. In a few hours I'm heading out into day-old frozen snow. If the needle gets up to zero it'll feel quite balmy, but that's the way I like it.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
(19-01-2013, 09:51 PM)Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man Wrote: Is running in 45C heat considered passé now?
Haven't checked in for a few days, so missed that at the time. But yes, that's brutal, a temperature I'm sure I've never experienced. Please tell me it was a little cooler when you went out - you know, something comfortable like 40C.
(19-01-2013, 09:51 PM)Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man Wrote: Is running in 45C heat considered passé now?
Haven't checked in for a few days, so missed that at the time. But yes, that's brutal, a temperature I'm sure I've never experienced. Please tell me it was a little cooler when you went out - you know, something comfortable like 40C.
Well no, actually I was running right through the thick of it, although I certainly wasn't running outdoors. Instead I pushed the treadmill in front of the television and watched Sri Lanka totally demolish Australia for a paltry 75 runs... we don't have airconditioning so I placed two large fans in front of me to abate the shock somewhat. I mean, 75! And I saw every ball....
So actually it was only around high-30s in my living room, and to be honest, with the fans going it was quite comfortable, especially as I gave up on my planned intervals session and just did a fairly slow tempo run instead (is that a contradiction in terms?)
Mrs MLCM however gave me a right old bollocking when she found out what I'd done. I patiently explained my training schedule to her and even showed her the spreadsheet, at which point she rather fiercely muttered something about my "insane antics" nullifying our medical isnurance and stormed off. I think it must have been the heat that got to her.
(21-01-2013, 09:26 AM)marathondan Wrote: I like the way you treat the spreadsheet as some kind of license - "It's on the spreadsheet, I have to do it!"
Well that's pretty much it, really. The spreadsheet is my Oleg - my Siberian Gulag guard with the Kalashnikov making sure I do my penance. Otherwise it's way too easy on these hot days or the very early mornings to skip a run, and I can't afford to do that at this stage.
Speaking of which... this morning's early run was a dour effort, slow and laborious on tired legs, so I took it easy and varied the route slightly for added interest. Nothing really to write about other than the fact that I did it. And I'm still a bit crook in the guts, too. In fact yesterday we forced the guy at work who keeps re-infecting us with this gastro bug to f*ck off home and see a doctor. Which I'm pleased to say he (reluctantly) did. So hopefully now I can shake this thing and get back to normal. Hopefully.
(21-01-2013, 10:27 PM)Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man Wrote: In fact yesterday we forced the guy at work who keeps re-infecting us with this gastro bug to f*ck off home and see a doctor. Which I'm pleased to say he (reluctantly) did.
Quite right too. Unbelievably selfish to spread that amongst colleagues.
Good on you for keeping going through these tough times. The old addage says you reap what you sow. You should be in for a bumper crop this year.
On, on!
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Jumpin' Januarys ... it's 2013 already!
Erm, well OK so maybe it doesn’t quite rate compared to being beside your beloved as you gaze in awe at the fireworks by Sydney Harbour ... in fact, nah, it doesn’t rate at all, does it? But at the time it seemed cool. ![[Image: all%20juice.jpg]](http://dl.dropbox.com/u/80315908/all%20juice.jpg)
