speed, speed, cepat!

First speed session this morning of the program, and I'm feeling pretty good. It took a bit to get going this morning (tying up your shoe laces with your eyes half open - always comedy gold), but once I did I felt pretty good. Pain was relocating all over my body though, moving from my chest (felt like woodpeckers were going to work on my breastplate) to my calves, to (surprise, surprise) my achilles, and even a recurrance of my old compartment syndrome symptoms. Fun and games.

I did four sets of 1500m at 80% intensity with a 500m jog in between this morning, and felt good to know at the end that I had run that intensity at above my 10km pace. I had meant to run at around the 5:10/km pace, and ended up running what looks like on average to be around low 4:50/km pace - a quicker pace than I have clocked through any of my running so far.

I was also silly enough (as you can see below) to include a slight inclining hill into my intervals, which made it tough finishing - but rewarding.

So, a day of stretching and resting, then another day off tomorrow, before my medium run 10km on Thursday. I'm travelling with work tomorrow, so I'll get to go-a-running in new surroundings on Thursday. Very exciting.

Sunday is Funday.

Sunday is long, slow run day - the best running day of the week. It's the time for breaking distance barriers, pushing myself, and, most of all, having more than a little bit of time to get into my own head and just get out there and run. Today was great.

Today was my 90 minute run according to the program I am using, and I went 16.01km at an average pace of 5:48/km, though this would have been much higher had I not run a 7:09 last kilometre. Stop lights are the bane of my running existence, and I got whacked with a particularly big one during my last kilometre. Seemingly, my iPhone application didn't pick up on me jogging back and forth and just kept the clock running. Oh well.

The most important thing I suppose to me today was that though I am aiming to run at a marathon pace of 6:00/km, I quite comfortably ran at around 5:45/km for the majority of the distance without feeling the need to lift up or slow down. It felt great. I really feel right now that a sub-4 hour marathon is within grasp, even though I know I have a long way to go (about 26 kilometres!).

Injury watch went well, with the only issue being that the calves were quite tight over the first few kilometres, but settled down after that. By the end, I was cruising, and could have gone for a fair bit more, but after my adventures during the week with running hard, I didn't want to push the risk of an injury. So, smart running will get me to the finish line at Southport - not hard running.

I also stepped up another gear in my running craziness by buying some protein powder from a health food shop to help with recovery. I'm so lucky to have such a supporting wife (who should be being supported by me, given she is doing a Master of Arts by research), who insists that I buy things like protein powder and looks after my nutrition. I'm a lucky, lucky guy.

Tried something new with the music situation today, to assist in avoiding any more white guy rap moments that may cause some further undue embarrassment. I went with a bit of movie score action for early on in the run (the first 5km), opting for 'The Gladiator Suite' by the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and then 'Duel Of The Fates' by the indefatigable (great word) John Williams. Worked well, and 'All These Things I've Done' by The Killers also went down great. I'm starting to get my music groove well and truly spot on.

I'm disappointed to say that I won't be undertaking any competition runs any time over the next three weeks or so, owing to lack of funds. I really wanted to run the Canberra Half Marathon, or perhaps even the Geelong Half Marathon - but it looks like I am going to be dirt poor over the next few weeks, so I shall behave myself instead.

Well, the next week shapes up to be rest week according to the program, so I have to resist the urge to push on, lest I hurt myself. Sunday 6th June is what it is all about in this training, I can't wait to go the 3 hours (which at my current pace will be around 32km) and be ready for this thing.

In the beginning.

If you've come this far, it means that you have most probably done one of two things:

1. Read all of the (hopefully entertaining) posts above in reverse order to find out how the story began.
2. Scrolled down to the bottom to see how the story began because of some kind of possibly perverse need to see things in order.

Either way, I have to say - thank you, but, really? It's probably not that interesting.

The title of my blog is 'From Nobby Beach to Nea Bakri', which is because I am hoping by the end of 2010, to have run two marathons. Which is two more than I have currently run. I am hoping to run the Gold Coast Airport Marathon in July (hence Nobby Beach), and then run the 2500th anniversary Athens Marathon in late October (and Nea Bakri). Neither of those places are major markers on either of the marathons, I'm just a big fan of alliteration in titles.

I hope to list my trials and tribulations here in this blog, tracking the ups and downs of the experience, so that at the end I can select all of the entries, paste them into a Word document and print them off to be placed in a box somewhere at home. Don't ask me why I don't just write into a Word document. I wanted to start a blog, ok?

I began running in earnest last week to prepare, about 16 weeks or so out from the Gold Coast. While it may seem a short preparation period, I felt I had a pretty good base, since I have just returned from time spent hiking in the Himalayas, so it's not like I've been sitting at home eating potato chips.

I ran about 15km last weekend, and I've done two 40 minute sessions over the last two days. I ran 7.8km for both runs, and felt pretty good, though not great. One involved a PB for 5km (25:20), which I was very proud of this morning. I'm hoping to crack 25 minutes for 5km, so I'm pretty close.

I also want to document an injury watch - I've had problems with possible compartment syndrome in the past, so I want to keep an eye on it. I figure this is a good way. This morning's run was pretty good (a rare occurance), although I am very tight in the hamstrings and calves, so I may head off and get a massage later this week. I also have a blood blister under my right foot, middle toe-nail, which has actually grown so big that it is peeking out of the side of my toe-nail. My wife, Ellie popped it for me last night and put some disinfectant on it. Now that, my friends, is love.

Well, I think this will suffice for the time being. I have a rest day tomorrow, then 50 minute run on Friday to round the working week out. I feel great, I'm loving the run, and feel confident that I can pull this off. For now.