Speed and reflections

Where has the week gone? Behind me, that's where! And so I'm a little bit behind on my blogging. I'll sum up the week for you as best I can.

Tuesday - speed session. A magical session, truly! This was the first time since I returned (somewhat reluctantly) to running in June that I felt AWESOME! Imagine that - after 4 weeks holidaying (and 1 week pretending I was still holidaying) it took me 5 weeks of training to feel like I was back on track with my running. Previously my speed sessions have consisted of me fading halfway through despite my best efforts.
But not on this day! On this particular Tuesday I was feeling bang on the money. It helped that we had only 500m reps with a 500m recovery. I love short reps! But my worry lay in the sheer number of reps I'd have to do (8) at a pace pre-set by my coach (2.19min).
Yet I hit through all of them with two awesome gals and not one of them was at 2.19. Yep, they were all under! My times varied between 2.12 to 2.18 which is a bit of a large variance but I was happy that they did not get consistently worse. If memory serves me correct, my split times for each rep was as follows:
2.17 / 2.18 / 2.12 / 2.17 / 2.18 / 2.15 / 2.13 / 2.15
So if anything I was holding back the first couple of reps. The wise Coach Linda gave me that advice after looking at my other speed session rep times. She said it would be better for me to hold back a bit at the beginning and get negative splits on my reps. For a person with very little self-control, this was quite the challenge! But she was right - it was definitely worth it.

Thursday - endurance session. Once again, I joined the pace group of those gals preparing for the Brisbane Marathon on August 4th. Their plan was 6min/km for the +7k out-and-back we were running, which fit in perfectly with my endurance run scheduled. I say +7k because that doesn't factor in the warm-up/cool down part of the run.
There were seven of us running together this morning. Sometimes it's nicer to have an even number to pair off better for chatting (er, running) buddies. Fellow runners make great sounding boards for all of life's hiccups and triumphs and questions. But I don't mind an uneven number because sometimes when running I just enjoy the peace of having a quiet mind. Sometimes the best answers to life's questions lie in the silence of the morning.

Sunrise at Doomben Half Marathon 2010 - my first half

Jetty2Jetty 5k

Jetty2Jetty! The last time I ran this race was with my parents who were both entered in their first ever fun-run.

Flashback: Jetty2Jetty 2012 with Mom and Dad

This year Chris came along to run the 3k, with David being our wonderful support crew & official race photographer (as usual). Unfortunately, Chris came up injured right before the race and had to struggle with the dilemma of to enter or not to enter. A true blue runner, she ran it anyway!

Me at the start line, doing the "Finger Dance", in honour of my mom who invented this during last year's J2J race. (She mistook my "take a picture" gesture to my friends on the sidelines as finger dancing to the music playing on the speakers...and the Finger Dance was born!)

The weather was simply gorgeous. Sunny and warm (but not hot). The gun went off and within the first 5m I had my first bit of excitement when a young boy tripped and fell almost right in front of me. He was quick to pick himself back up, with pride being his main injury. We caught this special moment on camera!

 Runner down, runner down! Fortunately he seemed unhurt and un-stepped on.

Up the hill we chugged along. I let the adrenaline carry me way too quickly for the first couple hundred metres but quickly settled into pace. My coach had set my goal pace at 5.06min/km which would be a challenge on the hills - but one I was up for! This pace was not meant to set me at a personal best but rather to prepare me for a future 5k race in August where I hope to hit out another sub-25min race. So really, goal here was to use today as a training run more than a race.

David captured this special ending on a cool rapid-fire camera. Almost as good as a video! I was allowing the momentum of the downhill to help me fly around the final corner.

 Oops! Is that a heel strike I see?

I finished in a net time of 26.25min (about 55sec slower than my set time was). But despite this, I achieved my best finisher placement yet!
I was 6th out of 111 women aged 18-29 (95 percentile). Having a top-10 finish for me is huuuuge! Who woulda thought I'd ever get there? It may not have been a pb finishing time, but it's still a "win" in my books! And what a gorgeous day for a great run.

 J2J finishers!

 A race isn't nearly as much fun without friends to share in the experience.

Return to Thursday morning

Today I went to my second - count it! - second Thursday morning session. Thursday mornings with my new running group are just a little bit earlier (5.15am) and a little bit farther. I can faithfully set my alarm for 4.55am, but there is something about 4.30am that seems infinitely earlier in the morning.
Last night I desperately tried to think of an excuse to not set my alarm for 4.30am. But I had a 10k long run on my program for this week, and darned if I was going to let laziness get in the way of my training!
I went through a quick check in my mind: Could I run later on Thursday? Nope. Friday morning? Nope. Friday afternoon? Yep. (But would I run 10k Friday afternoon? Nope). Saturday anytime? Nope.
So it came down to Thursday morning. But on the bright side, I'd actually do my long run, and I'd get to run with others!
I met the group and we set off in the dark. There were lots of marathoners recovering or tapering and everyone had a different goal set out by our lovely coach. As we started off, my coach offered me words of encouragement. She had read my blog about Tuesday's session and offered me some fabulous advice and support. Always appreciated!
I joined up with two other gals who were planning to run at the same pace as my "long run" was meant to be. We had a great time chatting away.  It was a small struggle after the first couple of k's, but never to the point where I had to stop talking - thank goodness! - or lag behind the others. We kept a steady 6min pace for the duration, which totalled around 13k. I'm not sure exactly, as I didn't have my fancy watch on.
I felt pretty great. The day was cool and the company delightful. Suddenly, setting my alarm at 4.30am on a Thursday doesn't feel so bad any more...but I'll reserve judgement until next Thursday rolls around!

Pyramids (but not Egypt)

Pyramids. Gorgeous in Egypt, tough on a speed session! Yesterday's pyramids involved one set of 500m/1k/2k/1k/500m with a negative split, and recovery jogs of half the distance we'd just run. Oof!
My times were set as follows:
500m - 2.24min / 1k - 4.48min / 2k - 9.36min / 1k - 4.46min / 500m - 2.22min

The first rep was easy. I love 500m! What a short sprint! Anything under 1k feels fantastic and short. I breezed through in 2.25min.
The next rep wasn't too bad either. I was running with a good friend who is around my speed - some days faster, some days slower - and it's great to be constantly challenged. We finished up in a time of 4.50min. Not the best, but it's well within my "5 second" buffer time I allow myself, so I was happy.
Onto the dreaded 2k rep! Just as any reps under 1k feel short and breezy, anything over 1k feels like a painful, never ending slog. This was arranged that we'd go out in one direction 500m then return to the start and continue in the other direction another 500m to make a round trip of 2k. At the 1k mark I was a couple of seconds off the mark, sitting at about 4.53min. I don't know what happened. My mind said yes, my body said I'm trying and my final time said nope. I crossed the line at 9.55min. That's 19sec slower than my goal time! In the second km I had dropped significantly slower.
It was disappointing. I just couldn't cut it physically. I don't know what feels worse - knowing I'm capable of running faster but not mentally pushing myself hard enough, or mentally pushing myself but not being physically able to increase my speed.
Fortunately, my slightly faster running friend was able to keep me feeling positive and keep me feeling motivated to keep up with her! The next 1k rep I finished in a familiar time of 4.50min. I think of my 1k personal best of 4.36min and wonder how I ever got down there!
The final 500m my friend all but flew, while I struggled to close the gap. She breezed through the final 250m as if it was her first interval of the morning and I staggered in behind her with a respectable time of 2.16.

Good Enough

Trail run day! Last time on the trails (in MAY!) I took a tumble. Today, with wet ground, two sore Achilles, and questionable fitness levels I was a tad nervous.
 There is one thing to be said for rejoining the trail runners on Sunday morning: if I was getting a big ego about my quickening speed, this deflated it as effectively as a nail on a tire. Yep, my head which had been swelling with pride became as de-swollen as a bee sting after Benadryl.

Run, rabbit, run!

There is something very humbling about going your hardest, doing your best...and being dead last. If you have never experienced that in your life, you are rare! I wouldn't say "lucky" - just "rare".
But the day was cool with a beautiful mist winding throughout the forest, and to my great fortune, some steep hills and rocky trails were just what the doctor ordered for my poor Achilles. In no time at all I was chugging along pain-free. And best of all, the trail runners were as friendly as ever. They stopped frequently to allow me to catch up & catch my breath and at no point did my best feel not good enough.
When we got back to the parking lot, I opted to go home rather than back up another hill for a 3k loop. I was happy with my 10k effort for the day. No sense pushing too hard in my first run back!

What a fantastic, colourful group! I'm in the front middle-ish in the purple shirt & red hat. (Stylin'!)

Our fearless leader of the group composed an awesome video of us running. If you can't find me, just wait until everyone (or nearly everyone!) has run by. As you can see by all the smiles and camera antics, we had a great day, whatever our speed.

Endurance Run at Park Run & Video-Strides

My first official run on my new training program! I'm super jazzed about this awesome program my coach put together for me. He not only gave me the distances, he also gave me a goal pace for every run!
Today's run: 5k endurance run (50-70sec slower than race pace). For me, that falls between 5.50-6.20min/km.
So off I went to Park Run, bringing along my friend Chris. Sadly, she wasn't able to run at this pace today, so I was on my own. I was actually very curious to see how I'd go holding a steady pace at this speed. Steady pace has not been my strong suit these past few weeks! I've mostly been dying off within a couple of k's from the start.
Off we went and I had the strange luxury of having to slow myself down constantly. Every time another runner passed me I couldn't help but thinking, I can beat this person and would inevitably find myself speeding up. A quick glance at my watch (thank you, Garmin!) would pull me up quickly.
I have never been a "negative split" runner. I've always liked the idea of negative splits (i.e. running the second part of the race faster than the first), but in reality I'm a little bit too optimistic about what my race goal will be. I just feel so bouncy and energetic the first few k's and I think, surely I can go faster. THIS race I won't burn out!
And I do...burn out, I mean.
So I kept it steady and pulled in to the finish just over 30min. Excellent! Right on target!

Showing off my new running technique...just kidding! I was actually going for a fantastic finish-line-leap, but the camera missed the jumping action.

When I got home, Chris kindly stood out in the cold weather to film me doing a super-short stride attempting my new running technique. She took about 14 videos, and I've posted one of them below. Perfect form? Nope. Improved? I hope so! I wanted to get some footage of what I actually look like when I run now, so I can hopefully spot the errors of my ways and fix them. I'm glad that I don't look like the hopping kangaroo I had imagined. 

I'm not opposed to hearing any suggestions on ways to improve. :) And just for the record, these video-strides felt a lot faster than they look!

Gold Coast Cheering

Gold Coast Marathon was yesterday. Traditionally I have entered the half marathon, but this year I entered nothing.
Yep, nada. Although not injured, I sat on the sidelines and cheered my fellow runners on. I revelled in their personal bests (there were many!) and sympathized with those who were disappointed. This is the first race that I've just watched. And it was actually sort of fun. After so many years of so much support from my friends & family, it was nice to offer some of that support to others.

 Watching the marathoners push through on the final stretch (the far side of the road is around the 30k marker.)

There were lots of emotions rolling through Gold Coast, and it was strange to be a side-liner to it all.
Still, at least I don't look like this today...

That's not to say I haven't looked like this before, or won't look like this today. But on this particular Monday, I'm walking just fine, thanks.