multicolored mayhem.

This last fortnight has been characterised by mucus, in many delightful shades.

I simply haven't been able to shake this cold, as it has travelled through my nose, head and lingered in my chest. I've gotten through the hard runs, though many of the recoveries have fallen off., thanks not only to the cold, but to a dramatic inability to get a good night's sleep and the need to get paid work in any form. In short, it's been a pretty hectic and messy time.

The runs that have gone through have, however, been good ones. Here's hoping that these big runs in the bush are making me strong - maybe it's working, because a normal 20km run now disappears without much notice. Speedwork is now pretty routine and the fast sessions are being absorbed without pain or soreness.
Excellent.

There's been two solid speedwork sessions since my last post - 8x1500m and 8x800m, both on the Burswood mile loop. These are now becoming entirely bearable sessions with a sound technique holding throughout all reps, at 5:40 and 2:40 respectively. Interestingly, these sessions, including the long warm up and return out to Burswood, become 23km and 17km in total. Running a 1:35 half-marathon as part of a speed session is quite pleasing.


The big Bibbulmun run for the week was 38km - this takes me beyond the Mundaring Wier, out to a nice little camping spot complete with parrots and the smell of BBQ sausages (extremely dangerous at the 20km mark!). This was in fact a great run, showing a whole new series of faces of the track, due to controlled burns and a period of rain.

Large areas of the start of the track have been burned.

The rain and storms have felled many big trees across the track.

Unfortunately for the Bibbulmun, the hardest section is the very first (and hence the very last) 5km of very rough, hilly country. At the end of a long run, this is really, really tough.
Learning from past mistakes , I took plenty of food and settled into a routine that seems to suit my stomach - water + whole food block (this lot were honey and nut) + clif shot block every 5km. At the 20km mark and 30km mark, I sucked down an espresso gel - I dearly love these little critters, but I suspect each time they give me a bit of a crampy tum for a period afterward - perhaps a bit too strong.
I have a batch of peanut butter, nuts and maple syrup run balls in the fridge now, so I'll see which ones fare best in the next few weeks of long runs.

To help with the food when I'm not wearing my trail vest (this one, from Nathan, which I love!),

I just jumped online and bought a SPIbelt (I was going to make my own in the office, but since I seem to have insufficient time to feed myself, I figure buying one was a smarter option.) This should carry a marathon's worth of food and taxi fare home from the 30km mark.

All this long stuff is giving me plenty of time to think about form and, dare I say it, shoes. I ran the track in my old Nikes, being broad, stable and well-loved. I've been wearing the Kinvaras for all the other stuff, and they are great, though I've been struggling for a few weeks with a "slappy" left foot - I can hear that my landings are uneven, and I get some shin soreness in my left leg, indicating that I am heelstriking excessively and slapping my toes down.
I began to suspect that the Kinvaras are half a size too big, letting me flop about too much, so I tried them with two pairs of thin socks - better! The lovely IW was good enough to rustle up another pair of Kinvaras for me, this time half a size down. I blooded these only today, and they are fitting the bill immediately as the "racing" shoe, needing only a very thin sock. I will get myself down to a running store (rather than the supermarket this time) and get myself a pair of proper cushiony socks to keep the older pair at peak comfort for all the ploddy stuff.

Racers.

6 weeks now till Berlin and 8 weeks till race day. Time with IW in her city will be a fabulous change of scenery, with plenty of rides and runs in the lead-up weeks. Can't wait.

9 weeks

This week marks 9 weeks till race day. All is going well thus far, with speed sessions becoming more routine and the focus now turning to major mileage. Each fortnight now sees the total increase by 4km, peaking at 48km in about a month.
Prior to this is the WA half marathon championships - should be a fun (and fast) day out.

Last night took me out for a cruisy city loop - I had to keep easing back, as the simple act of leaning forward starting bring up a smooth, hard pace which would've been a blast, but not productive at this time. Today was track day - quite a hot day, as opposed to wearing three shirts and a warm hat last night!
10 x 400m reps disappeared mercifully quickly, though they probably weren't all that fast.

A very interesting blog post popped up on runblogger today, examining criteria for successful transition to barefoot / minimal running. This made for entertaiing reading, as I fail one of the three and I'm a bit wobbly on one other. Maybe this reverse transition I seem to be enjoying right now is based on some dodgy genes...

The time investment in this training load is taking some toll at present on work, though not directly - rather due to my habit of sitting up late and not sleeping terribly well. sigh....
To remind me, here's a pic of my office, taken at the height of mess. This uses the iphone panorama app called photosynth, but I must say the results aren't as fancy as the old samsung.

The Orifice.

The hard way home

Today was long run day, so I mapped out a straight out-and-back course through the city and out the other side through Claremont. Easy.
It started pretty cruisy, helped by a modest tailwind breeze which quickly developed into a brisk wind and then a charming antarctic gale. This led to a 12km mental battle - I was running away from home, with a massive tailwind, with plenty of options to turn off and seek protection. Neglecting good sense, at 17km from home, I turned and shazam - there it was - freezing!

Thursday's half marathon time trial was hard, but nothing like today's grind. Tonight I am feeling rather damaged.
The total was 36km in 2:48, which (since the pace was steady) would give a 3:15 marathon. Doing the real deal at the pace of Thursday suddenly seems a very long way off indeed.

$1.20 per kilometer

Today IW is riding from Berlin to Leipzig - a friendly jaunt of 170km. Not wanting to be left out, I finished work assembling a table full of eyeballs (yes I do) and packed the bike with a plan to crack my virginal imperial century.

Not to repeat the mistakes of the past, I took extra everything - battery, food, water, reflective gear, warm clothes - and set off, falling into a very comfortable rhythm as the sun went down. I decided to take the flat, smooth (and dull by daylight) freeway bike path to Rockingham then Mandurah, if all was going well. Though I didn't sleep well last night, I was feeling remarkably fresh, and figured on 6 hours for the full trip. The wind had died away by the time I left, so 28-30km/hr was achievable.

Until 38km.

Not just a puncture - a slash. My rear tyre was cut up the sidewall to almost the midline of the tread. This tyre was relatively new, and couldn't see anything sharp on the path in the twilight. So I had the option of MacGyver or a phone call - I took MacGyver and fashioned a patch out of a piece of soft bark and a folded over ziplock bag (the little zippy bits were nice and strong across the cut), put just enough air in to keep my rim off the road, and nursed it home.

While it was disappointing to only make 75km out of the century (hence the $1.20 - it was a $100 tyre - just let me be dramatic, OK?)), it was getting bitterly cold. Next time, maybe next week, I'll put on one more shirt and carry a spare tyre.
Being out in the dark, seemingly very very alone, was actually quite pleasant. Very quiet and serene, ticking over the rhythm. As Phil Liggett would say "tapping out the pace".

This sees the end of a pretty successful week. Tuesday's speedwork was a good one and Thursday saw a half-marathon time trial exactly on prediction (1:25). Things are going well, with recovery and absorption of these workouts perfect.

The sharp-eyed will notice that I removed "I plan to run the marathon barefoot" from the blog header. I did this for two reasons: I seem to run much much faster in shoes (Kinvaras) and I have been battling with an odd pain behind the toes on my left foot anytime I run in Fingens or bare, but not in shoes. Thus, if it's faster and painless, there's not much of a choice.


Todays ride was made possible by most of IW's cold weather riding clothes (yep - they mostly fit). Heading out in Perth winter is proving to be quite an adventure for a sub-tropical lad, and not all bad.

An expensive day out, but a good day nonetheless - and I still got to have my espresso gel - worth getting cold for.

Escape to the bush

Today I needed to go bush - the Bibbulmun beckoned, since it hurt me so bad last time. What a difference water makes...

It's been a solid couple of weeks with good hills and excellent recoveries. The Garmin graph from the hills last week was a cracker - I needed a "big" hill, so, naturally I chose the Kalamunda Killer. This gave 50m climb over each 500m interval, so it hurt like hell.

So things are going well.
Today's run showed me the different faces of the Bibbulmun - nice to look a round more this time rather than be terrified of losing the trail and wondering if I would die of dehydration.

Downhills are Uphills on the way back...

Unusual open section of the track

Mostly this - gravel trails

A 2km smooth section - great for both down and uphill.

Reward - the Mundairing Wier

The temperature drops with the sun

The only problem today was the temperature. The day started quite warm - the first without constant rain for 10 days. Running was warm, even hot, but when the sun disappeared , the temperature plummeted and my hands immediately started to freeze. When the sun finally dropped behind the hills, it got really chilly.
The Garmin let me down agan today, with the battery dying before I even got started - really wanted to see the elevation and heartrate graphs for the whole track.

Nutrition for this run was 3 x clif shot bloks, 1 x pineapple GU and one of my favourite espresso hammer - yummo!

I know I'm near the ends of the track when people appear on the track - Danish walkers in huge boots, two hats and ski poles or families with babies in backpacks. Another surprise was this apparition, about 6km from the finish - these guys looked like the best way home.

The Lanterne Rouge

I am discovering that the Kinvaras are a little too big - I'll get half a size down if I get more, since I have a bit too much lateral movement causing some rubbing under the big toe.

Hallucinating - looking down to see a runner!

The only downside of the day was a fall over an invisible log with only 500m to go - somehow I magically landed on nothing more than my right shoulder - a bit of mud and no pain!

All up - 32km (thereabouts) in 3:10, with plenty left. A grand day out.

getting serious

Forgive me blogspot, for I have sinned. It is 3 weeks since my last ramblings.....

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!).

There's tunnels at Swanview, which'll be fun!

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.

confined space

This picture summarises the condition of my brain right now...
The excuse of "being busy" doesn't really cut it for my blogging gap - I've had the time, I just haven't had enough mental energy to type a reasonable sentence.

In an effort to earn sufficient money to feed The Kid, I've taken on a bunch more work - a couple of new clients and two days a week in a workshop in the city. This is bringing in some much-needed top-up funding, but is stretching me way thin - almost transparent, in fact.

In a workshop with proper-sized machines!

You may also notice a change to the blog header - given the mess since my achilles were playing up at the start of the year and the topsy-turvy last month or so, I've admitted to myself  I'm not likely to be ready for a marathon in Perth in August, so I've re-evaluated and re-set the program. There's 20 weeks in the program, and I was looking for a suitable race. With IW in Berlin (and the Berlin marathon sold out almost immediately), I have an added incentive to make some bucks and have a go at the Cologne Marathon and get a little European holiday at the same time.

The Perth events will still get a look in for at least the half-marathons, and maybe the full if I am surviving the program that far along. I suspect it'll take me two or three marathons to find the speed I want. It'd be a hoot to run in Europe.

A bit of extra motivation has come recently from a new toy, and the return of speedwork to the program. The new toy is a Garmin 305 (borrowed from IW), which provides a good view of just how runs are going - it is great to re-educate my head and legs to recognise real race paces. An amazing little gadget - fiddling with the output graphs is good fun.

intervals graphing - pace and heartrate outputs (I chose one that looked fast!)

IW is racing IronMan Texas as I write this - live updates are streaming through and they've just come out of the water. Immediately after the race, IW jumps on a plane and drops by for recovery in Perth. Thank God she's small - post-ironman origami in an airplane seat would be agony. Can't wait to have a training partner again!

Some interesting advances with the barefooting, too. I've figured out how to make it fast, but not yet fast enough. As a get close to 4min/k's, I start to get ragged and rough up hotspots on my feet quite quickly - twisting and toeing-off on takeoff. Consequently, IW is kindly bringing me a pair of saucony Kinvaras (see runblogger's review here) - these are a minimal rop racing shoe, which should get me over that mental block of going hell for leather over any surface. The Barefoot forums continue to support the direction that I'll get as fast as I like if I persist, but I need to go a bunch faster yet (I want to get down to consistent 3:20min/km!). To do this, I can keep the midfoot float that I've grown to love, but with the great stretch that legs like mine allow.
Let the experiment continue....