Right. Draw a line under the last two weeks and begin again. :mad:
Not a run - not even a light jog - for 15 days now (although there has been a skerrick of cross training, but no running). This has got to stop. Or rather, start.
The good news is that I have the greater part of the next two weeks off work, so plenty of catch up time. And there's a lot of catching up to do. We'll get there. One way or another. The other good news is that my beloved treadmill arrives from storage interstate sometime today or tomorrow. Hurray! I miss the old beast.
Glad to hear it, MLCM. If anyone needs a 2 week break, it's you. It's not too late to get into your marathon training, though (at the risk of sounding pesto ) watch out for that insatiable overtraining monster. Don't go crazy trying to make up for lost time. It jus' don't work like that. I suspect those first few efforts will be tough but it's amazing how quickly you'll get back into it.
As you might have noticed, I've been using the treadmill more than previously. I still haven't fallen in love with endless trundling, but intervals seem to work well, and I aim to continue using it for that bit of the schedule.
Good luck -- you'll feel great once you've got through that initial painful bit.
El Gordo
Great things are done when men and mountains meet.
Thanks for the comments - still stymied here unfortunately, this time by the weather. Another 41 degree day here (105F), following yesterday's 38. Too much heat and no sleep doesn't help.
Sometimes the cold weather seems attractive. At least you can run in it I guess.
At least tomorrow's forecast looks better. Fingers crossed, eh.
Hurrah! Finally got out for a run this evening, but it was a close thing:
I woke up feeling particularly lethargic and unmotivated, so a morning run was not going to happen. I slobbed around til lunch-time but then slapped myself out of my complacency and... went for a paddle in the kayak . Well in fact it had been my intention to do both some cross training and a run, so this wasn't really a problem.
Actually, the paddle nearly didn't happen either. Today being Australia Day, everyone descended on my preferred place of paddling for a family BBQ/picnic and the place was a log-jam of happy families. It looked like I wouldn't be able to park anywhere near the boat ramp where I launch the kayak, but luckily someone left just as I was seriously contemplating abandoning the idea. Then there were a crowd of other boats at the launch ramp, and a crowd of onlookers - as always happens when there's a crowd I managed to fall out of the blasted kayak as soon as I hopped in, but pretty soon I and my damaged pride were in, the Garmin GPS fired up and I was off. It was a very pleasant, but hard and fast (for me) 10km paddle and I was pleased with my improvement, despite the last two weeks sans exercise.
I was all set for a cold beer in front of the telly watching a bit of the Australia -v- South Africa one day cricket, and had stopped off at the bottle shop (liquor store/wine merchant/whatever you call it in your part of the planet) when my phone rang. It was the furniture removalists: they had been supposed to deliver a truck load of stuff Friday or Saturday, but hadn't turned up. There's no way I expected them to deliver on a public holiday, but here they were, waiting outside my new residence (not yet moved in).... so, quick trip home, pop the beer in fridge, grab the keys to the new place and rush down there, still salt and sweat-drenched from the kayaking. Two hours later, with aching back and whingeing knees (this was a budget mob where you have to help with the loading/unloading!) I finally got to drive home again for that beer. At least I have the tready back again! Ah, bliss!
It was whilst unloading said removalists truck that the rain set in. By the evening it was a steady soaking rain. My aching back, the soaking rain, blisters between my toes (oddly enough from the kayaking), and a festering cut on the sole of my foot (at exactly the point the orthotics rub slightly), plus a couple of Australia Day beers in my belly weren't conducive to getting me off the couch and out there for my run.
But... I did it anyway . I wore my new sleeveless running rain jacket that I bought months ago and haven't used yet (which worked a treat) and headed out into the night. I cut the run short - I had planned 8km but just did 5km, but I did it comfortably and reasonably quickly (for me, again at least), so I'm well pleased.
It was important to get this run done. After a two week lay-off my training campaign has been cut dangerously short and I needed a good run to get my confidence back. It was only a shorty, but to see that I haven't lost too much fitness was important. The cross-training has definitely been paying dividends.
Still a lot of road to cover over the next few weeks however. Gulp.
Two pics - one of my new cross-training toy, and me post-run a short while ago.
Bierzo Baggie Wrote:Keep up these kayak reports MLCM. Where do you paddle? Is it a river, a reservoir, the sea..?
A river, BB, the Cowan River to be precise, a major tributary of the Hawkesbury River, north of Sydney. It's really an estuary, tidal and brackish, with loads of fish and birdlife and a great place to paddle.
Not so great was my run this morning. It was simply ... awful. It began as a planned 10km, but as I headed out the door I mentally cut that back to 8km. After 1 km however I felt so buggered I nearly abandoned, but battled on until a tad over 6km when I threw in the towel on what was probably the slowest run I've ever undertaken. Not sure what was wrong: I didn't feel great, but then I didn't feel awful either: I just had nothing in the tank.
Oh well, I've learned (after many crap runs!) to be philosophical about them: I've yet to experience two lousy runs in succession, so the next run should be a relative beauty, so I'm already looking forward to it.
Given today's bad 'un, I think I'll do 2 or 3 more 5km runs before upping the stakes. I figure once I'm again comfortably handling 5km runs, then 10km is just a step up. A few 10kms and then 20km is again perfectly feasible. Three or so 20km runs and I should be able to squeeze in a couple of 30km+ runs before the marathon in just - gulp - 12 weeks time. It seems impossible given my condition today and my inability to stick to the schedule thus far, but there's no point giving up. Three months is still a fair whack of training, so here's hoping. :o
I ran first thing this morning (rather than my usual evening run) as I have two night shifts beginning tonight (6:30pm to 7am). Which is even more disruption than usual (there is no such thing as routine in the MLCM household), and then on Friday morning I head back to Adelaide for a week. That will be interesting: 43 degrees C there yesterday and a top forecast of 44 today. If that weather continues, the only hope for any training is to jump back on the plane and fly the heck out of there. When it's that hot it generally doesn't get below 30 even at night, so tricky conditions for training.
We'll see how the next few weeks pan out, but in the Chinese calendar this is now the year of the ox, which is my year, so I'm expecting big things in 2009.
Actually, now that I look at the Garmin data I see where I went wrong: having decided to tough it out after the first kilometre, I did the second, gritted teeth kilometre waaaaay too fast. Then I hit a long hill and that is probably what finished me off. Next time I'll pay attention to the device (and my body) and slow it down.
For some reason I find it very difficult to run slowly in daylight - I always seem to go too fast. Maybe you seem to be running faster in the dark and I can therefore run at a more sensible pace, I don't know. Anyone else find this?
Here's the forecast covering my week in Adelaide....
Friday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 30 Max 41 Saturday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 25 Max 40 Sunday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 23 Max 40 Monday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 39 Tuesday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 38 Wednesday Dry. Mostly sunny. Min 22 Max 38
How much training am I going to get done, do you think?
marathondan Wrote:What sort of temperatures will you be expecting by race day? How much cooler than the current climate?
Heat on race day itself won't be a problem. Canberra is well inland and quite elevated, so by April it will be quite cold. According to the race website:
Canberra's average temperature at 7am during April is 8° rising to 14° at 10 am.
Perfect! Well, that's got to be a positive, hasn't it? It doesn't help you get through the hot weather training, but at least things will be easier by race day.
I guess for now, all you can do it take it slow and drink lots.
I mean water!
For long runs, I run loops of between 3 and 5 miles, and leave a stash of water and snacks on the front drive, to be picked up as I pass.
marathondan Wrote:Perfect! Well, that's got to be a positive, hasn't it?
You are right of course Dan - much better to have a cold race rather than a hot race.
Unfortunately you simply cannot run in 40 degree heat - it's way too dangerous no matter how fit you feel. Hard to appreciate perhaps until you've tried it, but people do die running in that kind of heat, and it happens very quickly before you're even aware of a problem.
No, I'll simply have to leave my runs until the middle of the night, which I used to do frequently when I lived there. After a 40 degree day 28-30 degrees at 1 in the morning is positively blissful, and if you can't sleep because of the heat, you may as well go for a run is what I always reckoned.
Yeah, I was thinking of the night-time runs. I haven't ever tried running in 40C but I agree that it wouldn't be wise.
1am? Wow, you make my 10pm runs sound postively luxurious! I'm finding that running just before bedtime makes for a fantastic recovery - 6 hours continuous elevation.
Here we go again.
![[Image: chiropodist.jpg]](http://www.sandarac.com.au/misc/chiropodist.jpg)
) watch out for that insatiable overtraining monster. Don't go crazy trying to make up for lost time. It jus' don't work like that. I suspect those first few efforts will be tough but it's amazing how quickly you'll get back into it.![[Image: dry%20lake.jpg]](http://www.sandarac.com.au/misc/dry%20lake.jpg)
. Well in fact it had been my intention to do both some cross training and a run, so this wasn't really a problem. 
. I wore my new sleeveless running rain jacket that I bought months ago and haven't used yet (which worked a treat) and headed out into the night. I cut the run short - I had planned 8km but just did 5km, but I did it comfortably and reasonably quickly (for me, again at least), so I'm well pleased.
It began as a planned 10km, but as I headed out the door I mentally cut that back to 8km. After 1 km however I felt so buggered I nearly abandoned, but battled on until a tad over 6km when I threw in the towel on what was probably the slowest run I've ever undertaken. Not sure what was wrong: I didn't feel great, but then I didn't feel awful either: I just had nothing in the tank.