Weekend update
Saturday
Race out at Sydney Park, 7.5k XC. Couse is notably short of the advertised distance but has three pretty solid hills. Bit of a change for this year with the course now deviating into a newly opened area, and the pleasant sweep around the lake now out of action, having been fenced off.
I pretty well stuffed my race on the first half of the first lap. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, I was sub 9 minutes through the first lap. Got passed by Joe from squad partway through the second lap, made a half hearted attempt to hang on to him, but blew up comprehensively on the big hill on the third lap and thought "eh, I got 2 1/2 hours tomorrow and the SMH Half next week". Fifth place was a long way behind, so I cruised it for fourth and 28:13.
Today's lesson: don't go out so bloody hard. You'd have thought I'd have learnt that by now.
Sunday
I've been making a point of making sure I get enough sleep of late. I had the alarm set for 6:30am, but it just wasn't going to happen. I decided to get out after we went shopping, getting out at about 1.
Temperature was allegedly around 19-20 (bah!). I decided to try a little experiment, wearing the Skins to see how they were with it being a bit warmer, and how they were on a longer run.
So, east from home, along Victoria Road and plug into the Bay Run. Two loops of the 9k Dog Run, a loop of the 7k Bay Run, and return home. A little surgery with Sport Tracks gives 33.43km in 2 hours 30 minutes, for pace of around 4:28. I felt really solid until around 24km, and it was periodic crises for the rest of the way, with the grind through Drummoyne and the Gladesville Bridge particularly taxing as usual. I fantasised about stopping a couple of times over the last half hour, especially since I knew the climb of the Gladesville Bridge was coming, but was pleased to guts it out and end up with a reasonable overall pace. Endurance doesn't seem too bad at the moment (as for outright pace...).
Skins worked quite well - legs don't feel quite as bad as they usually do after 20 odd miles on hard surface, and they were fine during the warmer part of the run before the cool wind came up. Didn't take any gu's or the like during the run.
Pretty easy week coming up in the lead up to the Half on Sunday.
3 Comments:
Brownie I saw you on both your laps. I cant believe you raced yesterday - you looked very smooth and fast. I thought you were either deaf or in MP3 land on the first lap as I yelled out to you several times(we were in the park having a picnic with Nikkis mum). Either way things are looking good for next week mate, run smart, run strong and above all run well. I predict sub 80 with the planets alligning.
I went a bit on Saturday as well. Doing 10:30 and then two 11:30's. Shocker. Hope you get the pacing right for SMH on Sunday mate.
Yeah, the Koss headphones are pretty effective at blocking out ambient noise. Prof was just about hanging out of the small truck he was piloting waving until I woke up someone was waving at me. I had no idea you'd seen me on the first lap.
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