Catch up from a busy weekend

Well, it was a very busy, and thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Finally, a chance to post my running activities

Friday

I was flat out with filling Six Foot entries, so didn't get a chance to run in the morning. Finally hit the road at Jenolan Caves at about 5:40pm. I'd been planning to run with Aunty Karin and Eagle, but she took longer than she expected to ride Caves Road, and after Eagle arrived and advised she was running late, I headed out along Caves Road and just did a 6.3k out and back in a bit over half an hour. Pleasant run.

Saturday

Too busy with Six Foot Track activities, so missed out.

Sunday

Elected not to run until our return to town. Got out at around 4:30pm and decided to combine my relaxed 90 minutes with the hill run I was supposed to do yesterday, so ran from home to Crows Nest return via Burns Bay Road and River Road. Good hard hit out, although I had to urgently find a public toilet in Crows Nest as a certain 'coleslaw' took its near deadly effect. I would recommend staying clear of the Crows Nest Civic Centre restroom until at least Wednesday. The parties concerned know who they are. Ended up just short of 19km in a little under 90 minutes

Monday

Since Mondays and Wednesdays are supposed to be tempo runs, and thus pretty key to a successful marathon, I decided to drag out and dust off an old session that was very helpful for the last decent long race I had. The session came from none other than Eagle, and it's basically a 5k repeat session. Since I had a 1 hour run scheduled, this was a 3 x 5km session, with pretty short active recoveries between the 5ks. The idea is to run each rep progressively faster, working it so that the first 5k is done at your goal marathon pace, and then 2 - 3s faster per km for each subsequent 5km. I know I felt after a couple of runs of this session that the pace of the first rep eventually started to feel very easy, which is exactly what you want for a marathon.

It was a very warm and muggy evening at the Bay Run (nearly 30 at 6:15pm). I went 20:27, 20:14, 20:24 over the CR5k course, with a 54s recovery between reps 1 and 2, and just over 4 minutes between reps 2 and 3 as an issue similar to yesterday felt like it was going to arise. Pace went 4:05, 4:03, 4:05, so a little work to do there, but we're still a little way out from the GCM and I was fairly pleased to be reasonably close. I'd like to keep this session going, but it's a little awkward organisation-wise. Think it'll be worth it, though - the pushing for pace on tired legs in the third rep is excellent simulation. If I can get this session down to a 3:55, 3:53, 3:51 set of paces for the three 5ks, I'll be feeling a lot more comfortable, especially for the SMH Half.