GC Half Lead Up.

In the three weeks since the Doomben Half training has been mostly going well.

I am now doing two higher effort runs each week. A 10k at around 4:15 pace and a 13k at 4:30 pace. My long runs are now 32k at around 4:55 pace.

So I hope to see a little improvement in my Half time on Sunday.

Although I am a bit worried about the logistics of getting to the start line as I am not staying down the Coast as in previous years. The race starts at 6:20 am , so I am calculating that in order to get there with plenty of time to prepare I will have to wake up just after I've gone to sleep. I will have to try getting to bed earlier this week.

I seem to be managing to dodge the cold/flu bugs that are flying around. All the kids have had it over the last month and some are still coughing but I wonder how much longer that I can last. And on the weekend, we learnt that one of the families that we share dance driving roster with has two confirmed cases of swine flu in their family. Yikes !!

Just under 8 weeks now till the Brisbane marathon and still no published course ???

Over 50 PB for Half M

Yesterday was the Qld Half Marathon at Doomben and after the close call at the Twilight Half in April, I can now claim a new Over 50 PB with my time of 1:29.34.

I started out a little quickly with 4:04 and a 4:05 for the first two Ks but after that settled down into target pace of 4:15. Slowed a little in the 19th and 20th K to 4:20 but managed to pick it up and come home strongly for a 4:11 last K.

Even for a Brisbane winter's day it was very mild conditions and the humidity at 97% made conditions a little uncomfortable in the later stages of the race.

It was good to catch up with everyone including Rob who I hadn't seen for ages.

Training over the last months has mostly been positive. The biggest problem was the big rain we had a few weeks ago which again flooded under our house. And it was only a month since the new carpet was laid from the last flooding. So that day we spent a long time soaking up the excess water by stomping on towels. For some reason which I still can't fathom this left me with really really sore upper legs. It was as if I had run two marathons. I could hardly walk the next day and it was another three days before I thought it was wise to go for a run. Apart from that I am managing 90 -100 k a week including one tempo run.

Have entered for the Half at Gold Coast but now the Brisbane Marathon on August 23rd is my main race goal. 11 weeks to go!