Dolls Point Marathon: thoughts

This is on next Sunday. A very low key event put on by the Australian 100 Marathon Club for the visiting President of the Austrian 100 Marathon Club. It is on the course we used last year for a special one off marathon and is the course that will be used by Sri Chimnoy later in the year for their half marathon and marathon.

Many years ago Sri Chimnoy held a marathon on October along essentially the same course. I am pleased to see that they are holding it again.

After the effort last week that was near maximum then I will ease off, have a chat with other runners and try to be just under 4 hours. However if the chatting is interesting then i might stay with the group that expects  a 4.30 finish. At the moment I think I will run in my own head space and do it alone.Not sociable I know but just at the moment some 'alone' time might be what I need and what I would like. 

However that all might change on the day. 

Orange Marathon: 3.34.56

Well well. What about that!! The hoped for time with a mate who I was loosely planning to run with was 3.35 but really deep down I thought it was a long shot and that i would fade in the last 12k or so if I started off at 3.35 pace.

The weather was just perfect for the start at 6.30 am. Someone said about 11 degrees, no wind but no clouds so it was going to be sunny and would get warm quickly. That is exactly what happened weather wise.

Decided to lay it on the line and start off at 3.35 pace and see what i could do. That might have been brave as I had not seen the course but based on what information i had it was some rolling inclines and no real hill. That also turned out be be the case. In fact it was a good course that while having some inclines they were not too long or too steep and so you could maintain a reasonable momentum up them. It was a mixture of bitumen and maybe 10k of dirt road. For me that surface interrupts the rhythm a bit. Trying to pick a rock free course along the tyre tracks, not running on the camber and avoiding a nasty fall on the uneven surface all add to the challenge on the dirt. However it is the same for all. 

So the even paced 5k splits for 3.35 are 25.30 and a little hard to maintain and a course you don't know and with some 5ks having more inclines than other. Notwithstanding those issues that was the plan.  

Splits: 

25.30

25.50

25.18

25.30

24.51

25.10

25.20

25.41

Pleased with that and holding the pace at the end. 

Orange marathon: more thoughts

This afternoon is the second week of radiotherapy. The only side effect I seem to have is that after I am tired and if I can get a short lay down and despite my usual length of sleep I am finding it more difficult to get up in the morning for my run. But I am not sure that is from the treatment or just from the cumulative effect of some intense training that has me at 100k + a week for the last 6 weeks.

That has happened no matter if it was the week before or after a marathon - still out there with that weekly total.

This week will still be100+ but a couple of runs have been slow and more for pleasure that training. However it have run this week a 6 month or so PB for my usual 13k loop, a lap of the bay of just under 7k @ 4.30 pace and then 5k this morning @ 4.19 pace - both the quickest I have been for about      6 months again. Now if that could just translate into some stamina for a good marathon on Sunday.

I believe in the circumstances I could not over the last 6/8 weeks could have trained longer or quicker. So I am where I am at and just hope it is good enough to get me under a 3.40 finish. I am sure as the treatment continues that I will not be able to maintain the training and my times will slow until the side affects recede during May/June. Maybe I will have minimal side affects. Take it as it comes.

Whatever the result on Sunday sitting here thinking about the start of my 173rd marathon and I still get butterflies thinking about the challenge ahead and excited about running and at the moment being thankful that I able to run.

Thoughts: Orange Marathon

Next Sunday is the Orange Marathon and I am looking forward to it. I have not run it before so the course will be new and I am not sure what to expect. Whatever it is I will tae what come. I am ready to run a marathon whatever the course profile etc that others are sometime so concerned about.

 

Second week of radiotherapy. Nothing to report about any side effects so far. It maybe a very different story in a few weeks time.

 

I am fit and healthy and training well. I feel very mentally strong and positive. I want to harness all of that into a good run on the day. Is my fitness back to a 3.3x marathon ? I am really not sure but I suspect it is not far off 3.45. I will be looking back over my training diary to see what i was doing last year when I ran well. I will use that information to set a race pace although on a course that you do not know maintaining that might be difficult but surley that i one of the challenges of the marathon.

 

I run a 13k loop on many days that has quite a few tough hills and particularly in the second half. After a rest yesterday I decided it was a day to push and hopefully run a PB that would confirm my fitness is how I feel. Thankfully it was a PB by about 30 seconds. Couldn't ask for more.

 

A 5k TT tomorrow morning hopefully will be under 22. Not fast but fast for me at the moment when no speed work has been done.

Caboolture marathon : 4.30.22

It would have be closer to 4.10. There was 15 minutes lost because of a fall and the need to have it attended to by the medics and then an issue with my timing chip at the end that required about 3/5 minutes at the end to have it record.

However things happen. I was still pleased with the time as I ran steady the whole race laping the 0.5k track on or about 3 minutes per lap. That would have given me about 4.12 and that would have been my time but for the 2 issues.

I am happy with the way I ran and stayed my set pace. I felt good the whole way. The weather was very kind with the humidity lower than expected and a mild night as regards the temp. I have recovered well and looking forward to Orange marathon in a week or so. 

Caboolture marathon: thoughts

On Saturday at 5.00 pm I line up for the start of this marathon. 84 laps around a dirt track surrounded by old buildings where most have been placed here to preserve them in this historical village. Nice surrounding and very pleasant but a bitch of a marathon.

The start time and endless laps does my head in big time. The marathon is almost the sprint option with 6 & 12 races being run at the same time. The track gets a bit congested but that is part of the race and no complaints from me due to that.

It is not a marathon for a 'time' that can left to another event. I have trained hard this week and when I run the marathon I will have run over 100k's since Monday. I have definitely 'trained through' this one. Time is not relevant although it would be good to sneak under 5 hours like last year. That is the plan this year.

Then 2 weeks to the Orange marathon which is a focus marathon. Although I start radiotherapy for 6 weeks on Monday for cancer and so I am not sure how that will affect my training and the marathons I have planned for the next 3 months.