Closing in on Canberra

Training over the last two weeks.

Mon 24/3 6.5k 35:19 (5:26 HR 130) Recovery Run
Tue 25/3 15.3k 1:21:07 (5:18 HR 140
Wed 26/3 11.0k 56:11 (5:06 141)
Thu 27/3 15.3k 1:17:45 (5:04 HR 149)
Fri 28/3 Rest
Sat 29/3 36k 3:28:49 (5:48 R 135)
Sun Rest

Week 84.1k


Mon 31/3 11.0k 54:32 (4:57 HR 143)
Tue 01/4 15.3k 1:20:55 (5:17 HR 140)
Wed 02/4 11.0k 52:41 (4:47 HR 148)
Thu 03/4 15.3k 1:16:17 (4:59 HR 155)
Fri 04/4 11.0k 60:53 (5:32 HR 133) Very easy
Sat 05/4 Rest
Sun 06/4 36.0k 3:17:19 (5:29 HR 141)

Week 99.6k

At last I seem to be getting back to the times I was doing just over three weeks ago. My long run today (36k) was pleasing and over 11 minutes quicker than last week. It had been concerning me that my training was somewhat stalled and not showing progress. So one thing I have done this week is resume my dietary supplements which I stopped in January. This means a daily dose of a Multi-vitamin , Evening Primrose Oil, Omega-3, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C and Iron Tablets.

The last two Thursday's I have run in the late afternoon and I must say it confirms that I am not a morning runner. It is such a relief not to get up in the morning. On both theses runs I passed Ultra CoolRunner Rob Ware near the Ashgrove Golf course. Bay talked about an experience he had recently of being competitive with another runner whilst training. On the first Thursday, I saw him about 500m in front of me and I slowly caught up to him over a couple of Ks. As I got closer to him, I saw he had a CoolRunner cap on so I was eager to catch up to him and say hello. When I caught him, I introduced myself and asked the obvious question "How far you going?". He said two and a half and it took me a few seconds to realise he meant 2 and a half hours. He then added he liked to do that on Tuesday and Thursdays! I felt rather inadequate when I could only reply was that I was just doing 15k.

I am not planning any sort of taper for Canberra. My only decision at this point is whether to do the 42k in around 3:50 to 4 hours which would be a nice long training run, or go for a debut 50k at a slightly slower pace. I know doing the 42k and making a decision at the finish line whether to continue on for the 50k won't work, so need to make a commitment one way or the other before the start. One incentive to do the 50k is that if I complete all my planned training runs this week and do the 50k it will result in 109k which would be my biggest week ever. Still my focus is Gold Coast and I don't want to over do it just for the sake of weekly PB.