25/9/09: 3M Speed Session

1M warm up @ 10 min / mile ave
400M fast, walking recovery for ~ 1 min - twice
300M fast, walking recovery for ~ 1 min - twice
3/4M steady / cool down @ 10 min / mile ave

Total = 3 miles in 28m50s

Re-read speed training tips in my running book recently and realised I'd been overdoing it in my speed sessions over last month or two. Normally I 'recover' by jogging, but that inevitably means I get slower and slower with every fast bit. Basically I haven't been letting my body recover enough. So today I walked between sprints and it made a big difference - I felt I was just as strong by the end as at the beginning, and felt like I was building speed instead of just draining myself.

Went after work (Friday) which meant I felt nice and virtuous in the pub later!

24/9/09: 3.2 M @ 9m45s (31 mins)

Easyish run, still a little bit stiff after weekend's race. Over bridge and back. Couldn't really be bothered and almost talked myself out of going, but glad to have done it (as always!)

Stretched a bit after my shower, but really, really need to start doing longer sessions

22/09/09: 2.4M @ 10 min (24 mins)

Although my legs were still pretty stiff today, I thought I'd try a gentle run. Took it very easy and only did a few miles, but good to get the legs moving again and although a bit sore to begin with, once I was warmed up, I felt fine.

Was p'ing with rain for the whole time, but after a hot day today, it was lovely to run in that.

Must stretch more...

21/09/09: Swim

30 lengths x 17m (510m) swim today. Took it quite easy.

Good to get muscles into water after half marathon - very sore and tight today but swim helped to ease off a bit

14/9/09 - 20/9/09: Weekly Summary

3.3 M plus Half Marathon (16.4 total)
Plus 1 swim

Shoes - 178 miles

20/9/09: Sydney Half Marathon, 1h49m22s

Up at 6am (yuck) for half marathon, thankfully the start line is only 5 mins from the flat! Didn't get as much sleep last night as I'd have liked (less than 6 hours) and only managed to grab a slice of melon & some water for breakfast, so not as well fuelled as I'd normally like to be before running 13 miles!

Still, the pale early morning sun gave the harbour a beautiful calm and pearly sheen and as I had Muse's new album on my iPod ready for a first listen, I was quite looking forward to the race.

Started ok as we headed over the harbour bridge and into the city. Felt I was going a little too quickly so tried to pull back a bit as the km's passed by. Despite the early start, it was still a warm morning and so I took advantage of every water station, taking on lots of water, sports drink when it was offered and a few cups of water over my head to keep me cool. Got to the 1/3 stage at 7km quite comfortably but the middle stretch was a bit less enjoyable. Started to feel hungry and slightly weak and my old left pelvis-hip injury started to twinge a bit at around 11km, which had me feeling like it was going to be a long run-in.

Thankfully the second half of the course is more downhill than up - not that there were any horror hills anywhere, but still, every little helps. Got to the 2/3 mark at 14km feeling like I was through the hardest bit, the pain in my left leg had eased off a little and I was just about managing to stay on track for my target time of 1h50m.

By the time the last 3 or 4kms came round, I was feeling pretty good and as the course reached its final few kms weaving round the harbour foreshore, I started to put my foot down a little bit, getting to the finish line in 1.49.22 - very pleased with that, especially as at 11km I'd pretty much told myself to forget my time goal!

A special thanks to the Muse boys for both the new album (first two listens = thumbs up) but also for old classic Plug In Baby which gave me a real energy boost at the end!

All in all, not the most comfortable race I've ever done and I think a few more long runs in training and more strength / core training sessions would have helped, especially with the pelvic injury - my whole left leg is hurting quite badly now! But still, not bad to come in 429th of 2811 female racers!

Splits:

1km: 5m46
2km: 4m58
3km: 4m43
4km: 5m09
5km: 5m19
6km: 5m00
7km: 5m24
8km: 5m16
9km: 6m13
10km: 4m59
11km: 5m06
12km: 6m09
13km: 5m00
14km: 5m20
15km: 5m02
16km: 5m03
17km: 5m17
18km: 5m00
19km: 4m48
20km: 4m27
21km: 4m57
0.1km: 0m19s

Average pace per km: 5m12s (= 8m25s per mile)

18/09/09: Swim

45 lengths @ 18m lengths

Enjoyable Friday afternoon swim after busy week at work and before heading to the pub for cocktails!