Week 15 of 18

Monday 7km Recovery Run
Made my way along Pacific Drive to Flynns Beach then home via some of the back streets.


Tuesday 13.5km Tempo Run
Followed the same route last last week. This time I did 3 x 12 minute efforts with 4 minute recoveries. They were a bit quicker than last week, which is encouraging, but was consequently a bit tougher. Made it home around dawn, had a bite to eat and a shower before ducking into town to catch up with Miners for a coffee before work…was good to have a chat – last chance before Ironman weekend.

I was a little sore at the base of my left hamstring, and had a dull ache in the left heel signalling some Achilles tightness. I’ve been stretching fairly well, but gave the trouble spots 2 solid days of rest, ice and elevation before my Thursday run.


Thursday 10km VO2 Intervals
Back down to Wayne Richards Park for some more intervals. This time it was to be 4 x 1km with 2 minute jog recoveries.
Given that I could still feel the hamstring and Achilles when I got up I was prepared to pull the plug on this session at any stage rather than risk aggravating anything. Both spots were a bit tender at the start, but I warmed up really slowly, had a stretch when I got to the park and got stuck into the intervals.
The first 1km interval was just over 5 minutes, as I wanted to test things out and didn’t want to go too hard from the start. With everything working fine I then did 4:20 to 4:30 for the next couple, and the final km was just over 4 minutes.
There was some very minor pain by the time I cooled down, but much better than after Tuesday’s run, so I’ll just keep up the treatment and hope to keep them under control.


Saturday 36km Long Run
I wanted a mostly flat run today so I drove in and parked by the Fish Co-op and planned 3 out and back loops from the car.
The first 13km loop was over to Windmill Hill, Town Beach then out to Settlement Point and back. There was a big tent city set up by Bicycle NSW at Oxley Oval.
The second loop was out to the Airport. Saw a RAAF jet takeoff as I went past, almost copping its jet wash as I ran behind it just before take off. Nice rate of climb.
The final loop was around Gordon Street, Westport High and a final run out to Settlement Point and back.
I finished in 3:35 which is a bit quicker than my previous 36km run, but also using one less gel and feeling better at the end. I did have a couple of minor concerns with my hamstring and hip. The hip was sore after my last 36km run but responded well to massage and hadn’t troubled me again until this run. I noticed that it only really got sore when running when the road was sloping to the right so I spent as much time as possible on the left side of the road.
I was struggling at a couple of stages over the last 10km so it was a good chance to practice some mental toughness, assisted by remembering some encouraging comments from the blog that helped push me along. I also focussed on keeping my head up and looking around, as opposed to last time where my head went down and my focus shifted inwards. I think by looking around it helped take my mind off the effort. I did succumb to a moment of weakness when I walked for a hundred metres or so, but I got over that and for good measure threw in a sub 5:30 minute kilometre to finish up.
I wandered to the Town Green to stretch by the river in the shade before heading over to Flynns Beach for a brisk ocean swim to sooth the legs.




For some reason I felt a bit lethargic last Monday after the run…tired and lacking motivation. It was mildly better by Tuesday, although the onset of the couple of leg pains made me a little concerned through Wednesday. By the end of the run on Thursday I was feeling good again, confident that I could manage the legs and looking forward to the long run on the weekend.
The last couple of days since the long run were a bit sore in the hip, hamstring and just a very mild ache in the heel on getting up in the morning. I had a massage tonight (Monday) focussing on those spots and I hope it improves the situation. I think the hamstring is my main concern as it’s a new occurance, although it’s only sore when I’ve been sitting or lying down, and the pain goes away after moving around for a few minutes. I’m sure the reduced distances during the taper will help them heal up.

After the “Volume Overload” of last week described above, this week is supposed to be “Intensity Focussed” with a couple of quick, longish type interval sessions. I’m modifying things slightly so I have some more recovery time, and reducing my planned 28km run on the coming weekend down closer to the 20km mark as the last thing I want to do now is aggravate anything in the last 3 weeks. From what I’ve read 28km with 2 weeks to go might be a little bit of overkill anyway.

It’s funny that Don was asking about my carbo load/nutrition/hydration plans as I was in the process of finalising them at the time, and will put them in writing next week.

I actually did a mini carbo load in the lead up to the long run. By mini I mean I didn’t eat quite as much as I expect to for the marathon, and only did it from lunchtime Wednesday to mid afternoon Friday. So a bit shorter and a bit less just to see how it goes. I think it worked fairly well and I’m comfortable with increasing the load for the real thing.