Belated update

Over 2 months since my last entry. Where has the time gone ????

Despite my lack of posts I have continued to run almost daily over the period. Since the Hobart marathon I have not run any events and just trained building base. I don't feel I have progressed far but that is the usual feeling when you are in solid training and it is difficult to run fresh and test where you are really at. However I will have an opportunity to do some testing in May with a marathon on the first weekend and another on the last weekend with the North Face 100k in the middle.

Am I fitter and faster than when I ran the Hobart marathon. I would hope so. Training since then has be consistent and injury free except for the continued issues with both Achilles. The Achilles have each improved but are still present to the degree that I still cannot stretch out fully and so I have not even thought about any short speed training.

March was 452k of really quality base training.

Just a snap shot of some training times to see where I am at (really for me to prove that that work is paying off). I have 3 courses I run regularly - 12k around the Bay (A lap) and 8.5k also around the Bay (B lap) and a 26k loop around many of the bridges over the Harbour. In the last week I have run PB's over each.

I will list the time for the first I ran them after the Hobart marathon and the present time:

Lap A: 74.26 now 59.43

Lap B: 57.18 now 44.32

Lap A & B : 2.11.42 now 1.46.28

Bridges: 2.50 now 2.32

None of the times are below 5 min pace but I have chosen courses with as many hills as I can find close to the Bay run. If you search there are enough to make 5 min pace difficult.

I have continued with running with Johnny Dark each Wednesday with a couple of laps of the Bay. When we started I was happy with 37 and JD was very patient in slowing down for me. Last week it was about a draw with a nice slick 31.37.

So I guess when I look back (which I have not done before this post) there has been significant improvement. I hope that the races in May will reflect the training. However they are not focus marathons. McLeay River in June and Gold Coast in July are the real focus marathons for this year. Any others that I run will not be as focused and will really be points on a road to the big ultras at the end of the year.

Being timed out at GNW was not good and I intend to be back again this year and not have the cut off times to be an issue. However whilst that thought is high in my mind I will enjoy the journey to it over the next 7/8 months.