What a wonderful weekend but hectic to say the least.
I was in Brisbane teaching Family Law all day and arrived back in Sydney about 8.30pm having left on the 7.00 am flight. I was tired and the day was not good for eating hydrating or resting. It was a full on day on my feet teaching and I was exhausted by the time I arrived home about 9.30. I really did not feel like getting up early and driving to Canberra.
Bush Capital Marathon : 3.38
However I was out of the house at 4.30am and just settled into a steady drive with some of my favourite 60's music blaring out. Probably good I was alone. Arrived in Canberra in time to do all the prerace things calmly and I suppose by that time I felt ready to run ... just.
I ran this 2 years ago in 4.02 and struggled over the last 15ks. Its a course with very changing terrain and so it is almost impossible to get into rhythm. So I just pushed firm but steady and was very conscious of my breathing as a guide to the effort.
As I said before I would have been happy with just under 4 hours.
Finished in 3.38 - with 1.51/1.47 splits. However it is not exactly out and back. It just seemed that I was able to maintain a steady pace all the way. As is usal lately no special drinks and just one GU.
Cities Marathon : 3.25.46 (103.25/102.19)
After a marathon on Saturday and much faster that I planned or expected I thought I would wake up on Sunday still and sore but I wasn't.
All I wanted to do was run steady and even and with that in mind I started off planning to run the first 5k how I felt and take it from there. I went through that in 24.18 and it felt just a little to fast and so I eased off a touch. Just kept rolling along with the 5k splits just under 25 minutes.
Reached halfway in 103.25 and thought I might hold on for 3.35/3.45 with a slow down in the second half. Again the 5k slits just kept rolling along and the splits con tined just under 25 minutes but it was getting more difficult to maintain the pace. Got home on 3.25.46 for a second half negative at 102.19. Was surprised and pleased.
I was in Brisbane teaching Family Law all day and arrived back in Sydney about 8.30pm having left on the 7.00 am flight. I was tired and the day was not good for eating hydrating or resting. It was a full on day on my feet teaching and I was exhausted by the time I arrived home about 9.30. I really did not feel like getting up early and driving to Canberra.
Bush Capital Marathon : 3.38
However I was out of the house at 4.30am and just settled into a steady drive with some of my favourite 60's music blaring out. Probably good I was alone. Arrived in Canberra in time to do all the prerace things calmly and I suppose by that time I felt ready to run ... just.
I ran this 2 years ago in 4.02 and struggled over the last 15ks. Its a course with very changing terrain and so it is almost impossible to get into rhythm. So I just pushed firm but steady and was very conscious of my breathing as a guide to the effort.
As I said before I would have been happy with just under 4 hours.
Finished in 3.38 - with 1.51/1.47 splits. However it is not exactly out and back. It just seemed that I was able to maintain a steady pace all the way. As is usal lately no special drinks and just one GU.
Cities Marathon : 3.25.46 (103.25/102.19)
After a marathon on Saturday and much faster that I planned or expected I thought I would wake up on Sunday still and sore but I wasn't.
All I wanted to do was run steady and even and with that in mind I started off planning to run the first 5k how I felt and take it from there. I went through that in 24.18 and it felt just a little to fast and so I eased off a touch. Just kept rolling along with the 5k splits just under 25 minutes.
Reached halfway in 103.25 and thought I might hold on for 3.35/3.45 with a slow down in the second half. Again the 5k slits just kept rolling along and the splits con tined just under 25 minutes but it was getting more difficult to maintain the pace. Got home on 3.25.46 for a second half negative at 102.19. Was surprised and pleased.
Again no special drinks and no GU's at all - no jelly beans or snakes - I did not want any sugar in my system as an experiment and I found that my energy level was not problem. All comes back to that book SLOW BURN and I am convinced if you adapt your body for week or so before the race you can run very well on little fuel on the day. An long ultra you would need more fuel but not a much as some runners seem to assume they need.
The plan for the weekend was easily achieved and that should give me a good platform for some solid training for Glasshouse 100 miler in September - oh with the Mudgee marathon late in August.
The plan for the weekend was easily achieved and that should give me a good platform for some solid training for Glasshouse 100 miler in September - oh with the Mudgee marathon late in August.
So a few days to recover fully and then back into the Lydiard base building of some large weeks at 4.30/5.00 pace. I have talked to a lot of runners about the Glasshouse course and understand that the last 60k is 'runnable' so I want to get to 100k very comfortable and then have enough endurance to be able to run steady and even pace to the end. What that translates into time I have no idea but that is the race plan at the moment.
10 comments:
A great weekend of running Ray.
Great effort to back up on the Sunday after the hilly race on Saturday.
You're running like a man possessed Ray, nothing seems beyond you capabilities at present.
JD
A great weekend of running Ray. You are really in the zone at the moment. It is all looking great for a smashing run at Glasshouse. I am looking forward to seeing what you will do there.
You truly are incredible Ray. I just can not comprehend how you do it. Awesome!
Terrific post and effort again Eagle. Interesting info on your experiement with using less fuel on your runs. There is a fellow blogger "Matty" who can't seem to run without fueling up to the max. He'd benefit from knowing this, I'll point him in this direction.
Ray,
Where can we find the book "Slow Burn".
Your running is inspirational to many
What great results with your weekend adventures. I'm really looking forward to your GH debut and I am sure I know what else is on the cards.
Congrats on a great weekend of running Ray. You must be feeling unstoppable right now.
Pity we didn't get to catch up Friday, though as it turned out I was flat out at work.
Anyway, I'll you soon, maybe on a lap of the bay :-)
Good to see you ever so briefly at Cities Eagle. when we crossed near the turnaround you loked great. Must be satisfying to do a negative split at the end of a long weekend.
Keep going mate!
I'm amazed you can be so understated about that double Ray. After those hills on Saturday, a very solid negative split marathon. Glasshouse should be special.
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