Week 12 of 18

This week saw the end of February arrive, during which I covered 208km. Not bad for me over a short month!


Monday 6km Run – 4 x 3 minute Intervals
Short run around the Waniora area incorporating a few intervals with 1 minute jog recoveries.


Tuesday 14km Aerobic Run
An easy paced run through the Dahlsford and Greenmeadows Estates, in to Gordon Street and back home via Pacific Drive.


Thursday 11km - 10 minute effort + 5 x 2 minute Hill Reps
After a foggy drive to Sydney in the morning I had to do this session in the evening.
After a warm up through Oatley I put in a 10 minute effort through Mortdale that took me to the bottom of the hill starting in Grove Ave and going around the corner into Princes St at Penshurst. It was the only suitable hill I could think of in the area that could sustain 2 minute reps, and turned out to be an interesting one as it started off moderately, eased slightly through the mid section before rising more sharply for the last hundred metres or so.
The first 3 reps were pretty solid, and I was pushing hard mostly at the top. For the last 2 reps I started pushing harder from the beginning, and ended up around 15 metres further up the hill for these than I did on the earlier reps. They were hard work though and at the end of the final rep I was really struggling. Somehow I made the 1km cool down in about 6 minutes despite feeling like I was doing a tough 9 minute/km shuffle.


Saturday 36km Long Run
In looking for somewhere reasonably flat and not involving too much traffic in Sydney I decided to borrow from the Sydney Striders Airport Adventure route. I did the 19km option plus the 12km option plus an extra 5km along the foreshore. I did them in the reverse direction and starting from near the corner of Bestic St and The Grand Parade so that I’d deal with the road sections early in the run and not have to worry about crossing roads later on when I started to get tired. There was a decent mix of terrain involved, covering cycle/walk ways, road and grass at various stages. It also got me back to the car after 19km so I could refill the bottles with cold drinks out of the esky and pick up a hat and sunnies which were not required in the darkness at the start of the run!

In the darkness of the early stages I became what we used to refer to back in my flying days as “temporarily uncertain of position” at a couple of the off the beaten track turning points, but managed to stay on course by stopping and checking the map. There were some hills and stairs to climb during the road sections, but once on the Botany Bay cycleway it was pretty much flat cycle paths. I had started off conservatively so I made it back to the car in good shape and only a few minutes behind schedule. It was getting close to 8am at this stage and the day was warming up considerably already.

The second lap was a similar route, with the mid section cut out, and once I got back to the foreshore I headed away from the start/finish along the cycle path to add in the extra 5km.

At close to 3 hours I felt a bit of a cramp behind the 2nd/3rd toes of my left foot, but changing their position and flexing the toes dealt with that and it didn’t trouble me again. What did trouble me was the fatigue over the last half hour. It was getting hot, and it turns out to be true what they say about beyond the 32km point being a challenge all of its own. My focus was really narrowing and I could see the Novotel in the distance, but it looked so far away and I was parked another kilometre past it!! At 3 hr 20 min I succumbed, and had to walk for a few minutes. My legs didn’t want to start running again, but I forced myself to pick a point to get going again. After that the last 2 or 3 kilometres were easier because of the short break and I knew the end was so close. I finally got back to the car in 3 hours 40 minutes, which was 10 minutes over what I planned. I was pretty happy with that because it was hot and humid, and I knew my legs were still tired from one of my toughest hill sessions to date on just a day and a half recovery (rather than the usual 2 full days).

During the run I had my 4 bottle fuel belt plus 2 x 250ml handheld bottles to be used first and binned.
The bottles were filled with 50 / 50 water and PB electrolyte plus a couple of serves of Endura electrolyte and I used 3 Endura gels. I had a banana, piece of toast and a Sustagen, a serve of Endura electrolyte and plenty of water before leaving home.

I didn’t have any troubles with any of the nutritional/hydration arrangements, and didn’t need a pit stop until after the run - no doubt due to the amount I was sweating out.

I used my new Asics GT 2120’s for the 2nd time today. I wasn’t sure about using them for a long run so soon, so I took another pair just in case I wanted to change at half way. That wasn’t required though and they felt great through the entire run. This is the pair I’ll use at Canberra, and they’ll see a few more long runs in the meantime.

I had some food while I walked to a shady section to stretch for half an hour before heading to Taren Point to pick up some more Bodyglide. I then ducked over to Cronulla for a swim to find that the NSW surf titles were being held along the entire length of the beach. The place was packed so I faced the long walk to the beach and had a nice soak in the ocean despite the beach being closed due to “dangerous surf conditions”. Yeah, right. My legs felt so much better after that.
I had an afternoon nap before making my legs endure several hours standing up at a BBQ/party before they got some real rest.

Sunday was a big sleep in, before loosening the legs up in the pool for about 40 minutes. There are a couple of spots with some minor aches and a bit of tightness, but nothing some stretching won’t fix. Overall I’ve come through better than I could expect for the day after.