Back from Flusville

Monday morning I was greeted with early signs of another lurgi. Tuesday I thought it was possibly the flu. Wednesday - there was no doubt it was the flu. I took the sensible approach and stayed at home and did absolutely nothing from Tues - Thurs. That approach paid off and I was back at work by Friday feeling mostly back to normal. Hence, it was a quiet week on the running front. I've been understandably sluggish for my last few runs. I ran the ACTVAC handicap at Blewitts today. It has a nice downhill start and so I flew out of the blocks only to fade from the 3K point onwards (about the time it started its way back up hill :-) ). Splits were 3:56, 4:31, 4:57, 5:24, 5:19, 5:22, 6:40!! (ugghh) and a bit more to the finish. Last year when I had more severe fatigue issues, I walked part of the hill at the end. At least I didn't do that today :-). Hence, I ran 1:30 quicker this year. It's one of the KOM/QOM courses, so a bit tough.

A mountain goat I was NOT today :-)

Latest Training:
Mon - Thurs - OFF with the flu
Fri - 7.5K easy run around central basin of LBG. 5:46 min/K, HRav 133 bpm. Calves sore (still!) from S2S. Rate 2/3
Sat - 10.5K undulating. 6:18 min/K, HRav 128bpm. Rate 1.5/3.
Sun - 1K warm up, 7.2K Handicap. 5:20/K, HRav 153bpm. Rate 1/3.

Fun run #4 Sutherland2Surf

Heids and I ventured into the 'Shire' to participate in the Sutherland2Surf. For me it was all about having some 'fun' in a 'fun run'. Particularly given my ongoing muscle training intolerance issues. The easy week of low HR running allowed me to recover reasonably well (except for a horrid run on Saturday) and I felt okay doing this run despite the rain. Yep we got soaked to the skin! The course was much more undulating than the website course profile lead you to believe. The first 5K made for great 5K times if you weren't caught up in the crowd.

Heids ran really well (42ish for the 10K) but developed a leg problem and slowed right down for the last 1K. Me, I just wanted those last little rises in the course to go away! :-) My K splits were: 5:17 (people traffic!), 4:37, 4:29, 4:23, 4:47, 4:38, 4:43, 4:51, 4:55, 4:48, 5:07. This is good lead in event for City2Surf. I hope I am well recovered by August 12th!

Course profile, my HR data and pace

Latest Training:
Tuesday - Gym session, evening 5K jog @ 6:24min/K HRav 130bpm Rate 2.5/3
Wednesday - 11.2K @ 6:09min/K HRav 132bpm Rate 2.5/3
Thursday - gym session
Friday - DOMS from lunges, 9.3K @ 6min/K HRav 132bpm. Rate 3/3 - a glorious day for a run :-)
Saturday - 7K HRav 132bpm, Rate 1/3.
Sunday - 4K uphill jog warm up to the start (we were further from the start than we thought!). 11.2K 53:20 HRav 155bpm, 4:47min/K average pace. Rate 2/3
Total for week: 60K
 

What aerobic base?

Wow, what a shock today. I went out with my HR monitor alarm set to go off whenever my HR got out of the predominantly 'aerobic zone'. I chose a relatively flat loop as I knew there would be no way I could keep my HR around 130bpm on the hills around Black Mountain. Alas any incline at all resulted in a HR out of the zone. I suspect this is a carry over from overdoing it the week before last, but wow the numbers today were seriously depressing! Average pace was 6:36 min/K, average HR was 128bpm. It is extremely hard and terrible for running form trying to stick with that pace! However, persist I must to see if I can recover and develop some sort of aerobic base before attempting any hard sessions (except for Sutherland2Surf this weekend). A good thing Sutherland2Surf has a course profile like this:

A downhill run to the beach :-)

Latest Training:
Friday - gym session, no running
Saturday - Slow 11.2K run at Bruce Ridge, ~6:20min/K, HRav 135bpm. Rate 1.5/3 
Sunday - gym session, no running
Total for the week - 32K
Monday - 11.3K Central basin/Telopea School circuit, 6:36min/K, HRav 128 bpm. Rate 2/3 

Oops I did it again .....

No, I am not referring to a cheesy pop song. I have managed to over do it again and the muscles are rebelling. The warning signs were there on Sunday when during my 'long' run I was struggling to keep the HR and RPE down for the latter half of the run, despite going at a pretty slow pace. Following the run I was seriously tired and felt some fatigue carry through to Monday. Sensibly I did not run at all on Monday and only did a light weights session. Alas an attempt at an 11K run on Tuesday saw me fall into a heap about half the way into the run. It was darn cold, and that was the only reason I didn't stop and walk! It was a really, really awful run :-(. Then even with taking Wednesday off, the Thursday run wasn't much better than Tuesday :-/. Last week included 1 hard session, 1 moderate session and more mileage than I have done for a while (a mere 58K).

My feelings precisely ........

The trick now is to figure out what the right balance is. I think some super easy running with the odd hard session will be the way to go. Right now, I need to reduce the number of days I run and steer clear of any hard sessions until the muscles settle down again ....... sigh so frustrating.

I think I will take the approach described by Richard Stiller, except allow myself to try and push it in the various fun runs I have planned on the horizon.

Low HR running

Latest Training:
Monday - gentle gym session, no running
Tuesday - 11.2K LBG central basin/Telopea School circuit. 5:50min/K, HRav 142bpm. Cold drizzly conditions and a rating of 0.5/3.
Wednesday - day off, did zippo!
Thursday - a lap around Little Black Mountain - 9.2K. Rate 1/3.

3223

32:23 must be someone's awesome 10K PB. For me it is my number for City2Surf, arriving in the mail on Thursday. A great number with the whole palindrome thing going on :-).

I'm sure it will be a great weekend where a number of us will combine running C2S as well as celebrating Minnie's birthday. Maybe someone will manage a 64:46? That won't be me, I'll be there enjoying running in an event I've never run in before. 14K may have been an easy distance to race pre-fatigue. However, now I'll be happy if I can get to the finish without falling into a fatigue-heap.

The lovely nurse Minnie

Running has been mostly quite pleasant as I continue in 'take it as it comes' mode. The muscles are happier and oddly I really look forward to the short jogs I've been doing on gym days. They are short enough and slow enough to not hurt, that's really good for my head space.

Latest Training:
Wednesday - gym session, 5K jog @6:10 min/K, HRav 123bpm. Rate 2/3
Thursday - lap around Black Mountain 11.7K @6min/K, HRav 138bpm. Rate 2/3
Friday - OFF
Saturday - 5K warm up then 4 x 5 min hilly reps (run slowly HRav 142, 156, 153, 155) + 2K cool down for total of 11.2K. Rate 1.5/3
Sunday - long run with Heidi, Maria and Tori. 15.5K hilly @6min/K, HRav 152bpm, feeling very knackered post run, like I've run 30K :-/.  Rate 1.5/3
Total for week 58K

Chilly intervals

Taking it as it comes is going well at present. Essentially that means mostly slow easy runs and an attempt to focus on some long intervals at the track once a week. No pressure though, show up at track, do a warm up jog and IF that feels okay start the session and IF that feels okay finish the session. Bruce (enjoying some rather nice French sunshine at present) suggested I back off the pace a bit and that worked a treat tonight. I set the watch to beep at me every 200m. For the 2000m that was @4:30 min/K pace, the 1600m @4:25 min/K pace and the 1200m @4:20 min/K pace. I ran a little quick at the start of each interval, but then settled into the right pace and nailed each one AND felt good throughout. The HR data are good, I was at about the right intensity for this kind of session. I also enjoyed doing this session in my Inov-8 230s. Good strong runs by Heidi, Maria and Julia, who were all there a little earlier than me. We also had our Olympian training buddy showing us how it's really done running 6 x 1km intervals with Tim Rowe (all sub 3min/K pace and progressively quicker). It definitely was not shorts and singlet weather at the track!

Awesome Speedy Olympian!

Latest Training:
Saturday - hilly run, not much energy. 9.5K @6:15min/K, HRav 138bpm. Rate 1.5/3
Sunday - 13.2K run, felt okay first 5K and then had to really slow down. 6:20min/K. HRav 133bpm.
Total for week 51K
Monday - lunchtime gym session, evening jog 5K @6:10 min/K, HRav 122bpm. Rate 2/3
Tuesday - 2.3K warm up, 4 x 100m strides, Long intervals 2000m @8:54, HRav 154bpm; 1600m @7:03, HRav 154 bpm; 1200m @5:09, HRav 157 bpm. 2.2K cool down. Rate 3/3 :-)