Confusion on the Track

I made the decision this week to step up my training by adding in strength. Hoo boy! Shocking how fast I’ve lost all the strength I gained in pre-season training. I strength trained yesterday then hopped on my bike to ride to work. No problem! Only this morning, I couldn’t quite get out of bed. You see, the one thing I am very naughty about cutting out is stretching. My hamstrings were not pleased with me.

I debated whether to go, then decided I’d go and just jog lightly if I had to. Hah!

I was so tight and sore that I struggled through the warm-up. When it got to the reps, our coach decided a little mental math was in order to wake everyone up. So, you have 4 cones set up as follows:

**                                           *                                              *                              ***

The double star  = start, triple star = turn around.

The reps were: 

400m rep / 400m recovery

800m rep / 400m recovery

1200m rep / 400m recovery

1600m rep / 400 m recovery

1200m rep / 400m recovery

800m rep / 400m recovery

400m rep / 400m recovery (I think only a few people actually made it the full way through within the time frame!)

Now, it all may seem pretty simple to those of you visually staring at the little stars and plotting out your course.

Now imagine it is 5.30am. It’s dark, you’re exhausted, and with every step your hamstrings are screaming at you in anger at not being granted a rest day. To try and do mental math on top of that just doesn’t work.

The 400m rep was fine.

The 800m rep was fine.

But then at the 1200m rep, brains stopped functioning. Confusion ensued as some people recovered 400m early, calling out to those on the rep that they’ve miscounted and are doing 400m extra. I mean, it’s one thing to run this all in a straight line and do mental calculations but add a turn-around in the middle of the rep and runners are stumped.

Looking at the diagram I am pretty sure that – despite the odds – I was actually one of the people who ran the 1200m as a 1200m (as opposed to an 800m or a 1600m).

I got up to the 1600m before time forced me to draw it to a close. I managed one more 800m rep and then it was all over. Thank goodness!

Unfortunately, this brain overload of so many lap variations meant I had no brain power left to remember to split time my watch for the rep/recoveries. So it defaulted to doing km count-outs instead.

Total Time: 53.51

Total Km: 8.75

Average Pace: 6.09

Total Elevation: 18m

Split paces

Warm up:  6.19

Reps by km markers (inc recoveries): 6.13 / 5.40 / 5.54 / 6.33 / 5.45 / 6.45 / 6.18

Cool down: 5.51 (ironically faster!)

Blitzing, friendship, and some more than minor but less than major embarrassment

What a great morning! Beautiful weather, no wind, and a fantastic run. I was nervous about doing my first 16k in 6 months. The group kept together for the first 5k at a nice, easy pace. But something unfortunate happened that has only happened to me once before...I needed to use the loo! Perhaps had I just been doing 12k I could have managed, but by the 4k mark it became clear I wasn’t going to make it through the next 12k without a pit stop. So I cleverly ran ahead when everyone else stopped for a group drink stop. I cut into what I thought was the ladies’ loo...
Until I saw the urinal. One stall, one urinal. But it was too late at that time. I figured, since it was only just on 6am there would be no one else around. Seems logical, right? Except I forgot about the other runners. I heard the group thundering past on the boardwalk soon after and then to my great dread, I heard the door opening. Ulp!
After a minute of silence, I cautiously opened up the stall door and peered out. To my great relief, no one was there. Safe! So I quickly washed my hands and bolted to the door...only to find my coach standing outside! Busted!!! Not the most embarrassing thing I’ve done – if you can believe it – but embarrassing enough. He had seen someone inside and decided to wait outside. I am just super grateful he decided to wait outside and not inside, or we might have had a Mexican stand-off in the men’s toilets. Eeesh!
I kept up a good pace and was feeling strong at the 8k turn-around. There was a group of 6 of us doing 16k and on the way back I reached a new dilemma. The guy I was running beside was running his heart out at a 6.50-7.10 pace. I had been cruising on a solid 6min pace, which is what the others were also doing. Did I join them and keep up my awesome pace while I was feeling so strong and fit, or fall back with the slower runner and encourage him along the way, foregoing an awesome training run in the vital lead-up to the Gold Coast?
The decision was simple: I have been that slow runner – I still am that slow runner. And what makes a running group a running group is that you do not leave a runner behind. I admit that the selfish part of me was disappointed, as I’d been having such a kick-ass run. But I waved off any protests from the other runner that I carry on ahead without him. That is simply not how things are done. Hasn’t there always – or often – been someone pulling along beside me, encouraging me and keeping me going just that little bit more as I struggled through a pace they found a breeze?
I did leave my friend, in the end. With about 500m to go he decided to walk the rest of the way and insisted I carried on. This time, I did. I ran to the end...and then kept going. I had, after all, taken the short cut with my fellow runner and only done 13.8km (not counting the walking breaks we took). I couldn’t call a 13.8k a 16k run no matter how I stretched the numbers, so I kept going until I had done a solid 16k. And you know what? I felt awesome. Here’s hoping the rest of my long runs are that much fun and energizing! I could have gone another 4k no problem.

Total distance: 16.22km
Total time: 1.45.39
Total elevation: mostly flat. Two bridges and a hill at the halfway mark
Avg pace: 6.30km/hr

1km: 6.30
2km: 6.17
3km: 6.22
4km: 6.18
5km: 6.20
6km: 5.58
7km: 5.40
8km: 6.46
9km: 6.48
10km: 6.50
11km: 7.02
12km: 6.35
13km: 6.48
14km: 6.17
15km: 6.51
16km: 6.47

ps – I walked to the shops later on this morning, planning to cycle to a barbeque for lunch about 6k away. As I walked back from said shops, my feet started to drag, my legs started to ache, and I realized I couldn’t possibly cycle 12k today when I have already a planned 10k cycle tomorrow.
And on a final after thought, isn’t it sad that I can run further than I can cycle? That I’d much rather do a 16k run than a 16k ride, because I think it will be easier? Food for thought. Time for a second post-run snack. Running certainly makes me hungry!

Running for Cupcakes

Oh, wow! This week has flown by. I realize I last left everyone hanging with my injury. But then I got a life outside of running (I know, shocker!) and my week has been run, work, go out, sleep. I have barely had a chance to keep up with emails, let alone write on my blog. Apologies!
So, what has happened since that fateful Thursday? I took Friday and Saturday off. I was half talked into going for a walk/run on Saturday with the team, but I worried because I was still limping Friday night…and Saturday, even without the running! On Sunday my limp went away but my ankle was still tender and I stayed off it as much as possible. Monday it was finally on the mend and so I went to Tuesday sprints.

Tuesday: the warm up was a bit tough, as my ankle was a bit tight as it readjusted to running. Chris (our coach) placed me in the “watchlist” group. This is the group of people tapering for or recovering from a marathon or half marathon, and those recently returned from injury/illness. So, instead of doing 2k reps with a 2min recovery, I did 1k reps with a 1k recovery. I have so much to catch up on I won’t get into lap times, but I’m happy to say that once the reps started my ankle had loosened off and I felt cautiously great the rest of the session. I probably could have done the 2k reps, but no need to tell Chris that, right?

Thursday: hills! After my performance on Tuesday I was off the watchlist. We did one of my favourite hill sessions. It is two hills you randomly alter running between. One is long and steep, the other shorter and steeper. I think I like the reps because it’s not as obvious if I fall behind the group – it’s not like anyone has to wait for me! It was exhausting, but I can honestly say I worked as hard as I could, which was awesome.

Friday: today marked the re-launch of the Friday women’s beginner group. It was the same as any other session, but cupcakes were on hand. Yum! We have a professional baker in our running group who doesn’t so much as sell her creations as give them to fellow runners. Thanks, Charmaine*!!! Even when you couldn’t come, you still sent cupcakes for the group! We did an 8k circuit around the river running reps of about 1k long. From the start, everyone was salivating over the thought of cupcakes and I think it was the motivation that kept us all going. Never get between a woman and her cupcake. I think we should rename Friday’s group to cupcake Friday and have a delicious treat waiting at the end of every run.

The picture of the cupcake you see was not taken by me - I devoured my cupcakes (yes, more than one) with only a flickering thought of snapping a photo of their yumminess. One of my teammates had more self control and kindly sought to make the rest of the facebook world a jealous place.

*Note - I tried to set up a cool hyperlink with Charmaine's blog, but the cool hyperlink button isn't working. For those curious, http://char-mylifesamarathon.blogspot.com.au/

My Luck Runs Out

Today, in what felt like the dead of the night, we did hills in the cemetery. I wanted to stop for a rest, but it wasn’t our final destination. Chris kept us from any dead ends, even if some of his jokes would have made people roll over in their graves.
Heh heh heh.
Yes, I was happily grinding through the hills of the cemetery making up puns in my mind, when something happened that nearly scared me to death. Did I spot a ghost? Run into a gravestone? No, sadly my problem was much more grave. Quite simply put:
My luck ran out.
One minute, I was a happy-go-lucky slow runner turned witty punster. The next...BOOM!
All this time of luck sans injury, and then I roll an ankle off the edge of the trail and that’s it. My run is over. The End. A fitting place for it. So here I sit, giving my ankle some TLC and some RICE. Curses!
As always, the team rallied around the fallen runner – not to scavenge but to support. Chris recommended a fellow runner walk the 2k back with me to the cars while he finished the session. The other runner made it very clear it was his delight to walk back with me – not his obligation. Awwww.
In the end, my stats were as follows:

Total time: 32.05
Total distance: 4.79
Elevation: not recorded
Avg pace: 6.41

Slightly Depressing Time Trials

Today we had the dreaded ‘time trials’. I’m not sure if you are supposed to run time trials at a specific pace. I decided to run my heart out and see what said pace was, rather than trying to pre-determine it. The trials went 3k run, 500m recovery, 2k run, 500m recovery, 1k run, 500m recovery. Actually, the final 1k run was only for those fast people. I only had to do a time trial of 3k + 2k, which was nice. With a 1k warm up and a 1k cool down run, this added on some much needed distance to the morning.

Total distance: 8.27km
Total time: 49.43min
Elevation: 23m
Avg pace: 6.01min/km (including warm up, cool down, and recoveries)

My average pace was as follows:
1k: 5.34
2k: 5.10
3k: 5.33
500m recovery
1k: 5.42
2k: 5.26
500m recovery

Kinda depressing, actually. A 5.30 pace would be a dream half-marathon pace for me. And yet right now that is more of my 5k pace! Siiiiiigh.
On the plus side, when I rode to work this morning – and on the way home – I passed every single runner on the track. Mwa hahahaha!!!

Easter "Rest"

I’m under orders to take a rest weekend along with all the squad. Right. I decided to do exactly as told.
Except...the rest would really make more sense for those who had been training the past few months rather than the past few weeks. For those (such as me) who have only just kicked back into training, taking 3 days off when I need all the help I can get seems a little counterintuitive. Of course, I wouldn’t want to go against the coaches directions, who would know more than me.
This Easter Sunday, I got up to watch the sunrise on Mt Coot-tha with some friends. It included live music in the form of a church service – cool! I decided that since I was up and out at Mt Coot-tha at that time of day, it was the perfect chance to put on my “resting” clothes. So after the sunrise and the photos, I left my friends to go for a short “rest”. Not that I ran, of course. But if I had run, I imagine my stats would have resembled the following...

Distance: 5k
Time: 36.17min
Elevation: 180m
Avg pace: 7.15min/km

My split times might have looked as follows – had I run instead of resting as I had been told to do.

Downhill: 5.53 / 5.48 / 6.03 (final 500m)
Uphill: 8.33 / 7.52 / 8.41 (final 500m)

It was such a beautiful morning for a “rest” and a beautiful time of day to be out! (The picture you see is of the sunrise at Mt Coot-tha before I went for my rest.) How could I resist the opportunity? Besides – a brekkie of hot cross buns was on the menu and I needed to work up an appetite. Yum!

Ambling Along

I’m ambling along in training, slowly building back up the fitness I left behind at the end of last season. This week we ran our long run on Good Friday. It was a rather uneventful 12k – peaceful, easy. As always, lovely to catch up with fellow runners! The best part of 12k is returning home and realizing you still have the whole morning stretching before you!
Distance: 11.82
Time: 1.13.34
Elevation: 103m
Average pace: 6.16min/km
It’s funny – I can’t believe I am calling a 12k run relaxing and pleasant, but it was! I look forward to the day when I can call a 20k+ run relaxing and pleasant. Despite my belief that the pace sped up towards the last few kms, I realize we kept a pretty consistent pace throughout the session. The km splits had the following paces:
6.27 / 6.22 / 6.35 / 6.11 / 6.10 / 6.28 / 6.08 / 5.57 / 6.16 / 6.28 / 6.01 / 6.05
Next week I begin moving up to the 16k runs. Eek! Time goes too quickly! 16k will be tough. And I’ll miss the days of 12k runs.