On Wednesday I ran with JD as usual and managed 30.10 for the Bay. Not under 30 but still okay.
Late that afternoon I was off to Melbourne for work. The hotel had a great gym and I decided I was not going to miss the chance to fully use the facilities. The plan in Melbourne was to do gym work each night and run the Tan each morning and have no break before the marathon. I knew that would mean no taper and that meant the marathon could go badly but I was fine with that risk. It is not a focus marathon and I was going to run it as hard as possible but without any taper.
It worked out that way. I spent about 2 hours each night in the gym and gave myself a hammering on weights, bike and rowing machine. I was exhausted at the end of each session. Each morning I was out pounding the Tan for 60 minutes or so. Thursday and Saturday were 3 laps with each getting quicker and Friday was doing hill reps up Anderson Street hill. Each was about 16k in total running. None of that remotely looks like a taper. I must admit as I flew into Canberra late on Saturday I was wondering what the hell I had done.
I had predicted a time of between 3.35 - 3.40 with the plan to try and run 1.45 even splits and then expect a slow down late in the second half. Simple result : 1.43 + 1.42 = 3.25.xx. Very happy and somewhat pleased.
I hope there is time and room for some fine tuning and some better times in the next few.
4 comments:
Excellent result. We may have to rewrite the book on tapering.
Well, you are certainly getting stronger, setting yourself up for a good racing season.
Glad you enjoyed it Ray. Thanks for bringing the fine weather up from Melbourne ;) Great result off a non-taper! You looked good out there.
We've often spoken on just how difficult it is to 'even-split' a marathon but you nailed it perfectly at the weekend.
Once again well done my friend.
See you soon.
JD
Great run Ray. Wait till you get some taper at the GCM and the sub 3 might come again.
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