So, some stuff has happened - most notably, IW came back for another visit, and that meant enormous amounts of running, food and sleep have been passing through the system. Amazing how having another "athlete" (parenthesis used against myself, mind) in the house focuses all the mundane activities on getting training, recovery and the mundane stuff done! It also helps if the interloper is inordinately well-organised.
Speedwork has re-started after just under 9 years' absence. Ouch. I have also made the startling discovery of how bloody far a mile is. A kilometer is manageable. A mile is just too darn far. Every other week has mile intervals in the program and they really, really hurt. They're not meant to, but they do.
Lots.
And the "getting serious" part? Berlin. Marathon. September 25th. It's scenic, it's flat and it's fast. I have a place to stay with IW (not far from the start / finish), I have travel insurance in case I can't walk onto the airplane to get home, and I have speedwork, bulk miles and 12 weeks to get me there.
Thus, riding has dropped away in favor of a good program with weekly speed, hills and an increasingly long run. The long runs peak at 48km, which will satisfy the "double step up" philosophy. Already I am feeling the legspeed benefits of the intervals and hills, so Berlin should be a bunch of fun. I don't want to put an expectation on the race - there's too many people and too much to see to be focused on performance. This one is an opportunity to really get fired up for some smaller events with space to line up on the front row......
The return to intervals is giving me a shocking reality-check of pacing. I recall being young and bulletproof and peeling off 3:20min/km's in halfs still with a hint of a smile. Just getting there for one interval now is truly terrifying.
I am now faced with a new quandary - my little toe, in particular, gets bashed up wearing the Fingens at speed, and the increased mileage is leaving my bare feet feeling generally thumped. I'm now the proud owner of a pair of Saucony Kinvara2's - a shoe that is clearly faster than me, and while they do trick me back into old habits on my heels when I get tired, I get through with no surface damage. Clearly, I'm not ready for a barefoot mary, but I wonder if I can make it minimal? I need to make a firm decision soon, so I can stick to the program and not flip-flop with technique as I seem to do. A couple of weeks to decide...
The other learning experience will be related to nutrition - this will take up a lot of blog space in the coming weeks, no doubt.
Today's run was a new route, following an old railway reserve out of Perth up toward the hills. Being a railway, the trail is wide, open, smooth and almost imperceptibly but inexorably uphill all the way out of town. It's only a couple of percent grade, so gentle that it's really not a problem until the return leg. I discovered today that 15km steadily downhill becomes first fast, then really really hard, mostly on the lower back. Happily, midfoot technique stuck the whole way, so there was little impact and no sore quads, but the position of my water vest and the core-clenching made the last few km's pretty tough. 31km in about 2:20. (About, because the bloody Garmin battery crapped out partway and I really wanted to see the return leg speed!).
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| There's tunnels at Swanview, which'll be fun! |
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| And this was at the start! Note stolen IM hat - what a tosser! |
Travelling this week back to my hometown of Brisbane - a few gentle runs will be a lot of fun back in the old haunts, in amongst a mountain of work.
