Watson - Once again, nice job! Make sure to celebrate the new PR, they don’t come easy!

James - you’re averaging 45 miles per week now, that’s great news.

me - A nice week with a good long run 22km today.

Weekly for period: From: 14/09/2020 To 20/09/2020

Total distance: 73.12km

Steve - Nice, looks like a decent easy week has reset things nicely for you.  To be honest I'm looking forward to doing the same, a bit over marathon training grind at the moment especially with a couple of niggles floating around.

Re Queenstown, I actually just checked, and they state the course has been measured in accordance with AIMS standards.  I can see how GPS could get thrown off on the more tree-covered trail sections there.

Flavio - good week and good long run there too.

Comments:

James D: I find swimming can definitely seep my energy when I'm building volume. It's often more anaerobic than running.

Piwi - it's really funny how different Garmins can have different measuring personalities. My new one seems to consistently read a bit short as well (though I'm also out of shape). I'm actually experimenting with shifting to my footpod for outside distances to see if that is better. I don't care THAT much but I do care some.

Marky_mark - sometimes the universe just laughs at us. I hope you get to race a marathon, and hit the start line healthy. I approve of your back-up plans.

Chris - belated congratulations on the sub-40, and also on finding the cat.

Flavio - solid week!

Steve - I agree with the safe approach after a race. I think it's also better for fitness - a bit extra rest lets you absorb the stress from the race.

My week:

59 miles, 1000 yards of swimming, and 3:50 hours of pool-running
M: 70 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
T: 12 miles, including a track workout of 2x(1600, 800, 400) in 6:44, 3:15, 94, 6:32, 3:12, 94. Recoveries were way too long (longer than the interval duration). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards swimming, and streaming yoga.
W: 9 miles (9:51) with drills and 6 hill strides, followed by 30 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.
Th: Upper body weights/core and 70 minutes pool-running in the morning, followed by streaming yoga.
F: 11 miles, including a tempo workout of 4x1 mile at tempo effort with 30 second jogs (6:55, 7:02, 7:12, 7:06), then full recovery before 4x200 with 80 second jogs (47, 43, 45, 44). Followed with leg strengthwork and 500 yards swimming
Sa: 11 miles very easy (9:30) plus drill and 6 steep hill sprints, followed by streaming yoga.
Su: 15 miles progressive, split as first 5 averaging 9:29, next 5 averaging 8:24, next 5 averaging 7:34, plus mile cooldown. Followed with streaming yoga, leg strengthwork, and 60 minutes pool-running.

Happy to put together a complete week, though still trying to figure out exactly what is going on with all my repeated muscle tweaks etc.  Confirmed that the instability in my right ankle is NOT due to loose ligaments, so I got MRIs of both my right ankle and lumbar region on Saturday.  I have the discs, but of course I can barely read them, other than being able to distinguish between the back and the ankle.  So I'll find out what they say this week.

My fitness is in a weird place.  Aerobically, I actually feel pretty fit, and now that I've been on the folate supplements for a few weeks, my energy levels are much better.  I could have added 4 miles onto today's run without duress.  But...it's like my body has forgotten the mechanics of how to run fast, and doesn't have the bounce it used to.  I think a lot of this is due to not having done any true speed work in several weeks.  Hopefully my mechanics will come back if I can string together some consistent workouts.

Darkwave - nice week, glad you're feeling better.

Mark - Martinborough is really nice. Your wife will like it.  Good thing you're not doing Whanganui!

Matt Moloney is running, he did 2:35 in Dunedin last year. So is Geoff Ferry who is in good form at the moment. I’m really not fazed about placing - having a good group to work with far out weighs that.

Geoff's looking do around 2:45.

Wellington Road Champs 10k Race Report

39:59

75^th out 121 (across both races)

https://www.strava.com/activities/4080159921/overview

Video (just finish line)

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=324621825459654&ref=watch_permalink

This was an event which was lucky to be on.  Due to Covid-19 mass gathering limits, the format was different to previous years:

• The 10km road race, for seniors, masters men up to 59, and masters woman up to 49, was split into a morning and a afternoon race.  The guide was morning for 40+ min runners, and the afternoon sub 40 min runners.
• The men 60+, women 50+, under 20, under 18 and under 16 raced together over 5km.
• Under 14, under 12 and under 10 raced together over 2.5km
• Only spectators and marshals were allowed into the course.
• Races were split over time, so each race area only had one set of race people there at a time

My race was at 2:45pm, but my 9 year older daughter was racing the 2.5km at 1:45pm.  My wife came too to look after the daughter whilst I raced.

We got there about 1:15pm and registered my daughter.  She did here very informal, excited mucking around warm up that lots of the kids do.  She then left.  A little later she came back, she ran 11:51 which was mid pack for the under 10 girls.

At 2:15pm they announced the 10km racers could now enter the race area.  I took my bag up, and started getting out my gear.  I couldn’t find my caffeine tablets which was annoying so I ran back to the car to check they were there, but they were not, they were left at home.

The last few months training had been reasonable, not great, but reasonable.  My first five months of the year was tiny volume, mainly recovering from my hamstring injury from January.

I ended up having two days off before, the Friday was planned, but the Thursday life got in the way (lost cat, but then found).

I ended up doing 2.5km for my warmup.

There were around 75 people in my race, many quicker than me.  Some such as Hamish Carson a 3:36 1500m runner who went to the Olympics 2016, substantially quicker.  I knew I was going to be near the back, possibly last.  I then heard a couple of masters talking who were talking about 42:30, so I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be last.

The course is slightly uphill 1.25km, then turn around and come back.  Do this four times.  The start, finish and bottom turn around are very slightly different places.   So lap 1 is slightly shorter, and lap 4 slightly longer.

Elevation is around 80 metres in total.

Conditions were pretty good.  Although there was more wind than expected.

We started off.  Over the first minute, almost all were ahead of me, except the two “42:30” guys.

The first minute uphill is one of the harder sections, as to it was into the wind.

First up hill down in 5:03.  This is faster than I planned (5:20).

Halfway on the down hill I overtake someone, apart from a DNF pull out, this was the only person I overtook in the race.

Downhill down in 4:46, so I’m 9:49 in.

Last year I ran 40:28 which a bad fad.  Last year lap 1 was 9:47, so I know I’ve started too quick, hopefully I can hold on.

Second lap felt pretty good.  Uphill in 5:10, downhill in 4:49.  So I’m 19:48 at halfway.

Third lap was pretty hard work.  This was considerably more effort than laps 1 or 2.  I managed to get up in 5:13 which I was pretty happy with.

This downhill started slowly.  My leg tiredness mean I took a while to regain speed from the turn around.  I managed to turn around at the bottom for 4:53, so 10:06 for the lap.

I was 29:56 with one lap to go (for the really observant, there’s some rounding errors happening here).

I got lapped here too at the bottom at Hamish Carson finished.  I had no idea he was coming.  On the video it looks like I graciously moved to the side to let him finish (see 6:45 on the vidoe).  I like to loop around the turn arounds wide.  So, if I’d been 0.5 seconds quicker, I think I would have crashed into him.

Ok, sub 40 is gone, I am fading.  I am a little ahead of last year.  So, if my fade is no worse, I will PR by 10s.

The last up hill was painful.  Especially early on as the wind was slowing me down.  Pace was down.  I got through the uphill in 5:16 which was better than I was thinking it would be.  So that’s 35:00.

I’m too tired for sub 40, but I should still PR.

I had myself on manual laps for this race, which given my GPS inaccuracy worked out well.  Looking afterwards my GPS was way short (9.88km and much shorter than others) and hardly ever on the road.  It also had the third and fourth up hill legs are as being shorter than the others which made my fading pace look even work.

So, noting the manual laps was right thing to do.

Anyhow, on the downhill.  The people just ahead of me have stretched their lead a little.

The downhill was ok.  I had a plan at 38:30 to kick.  I ended up kicking fractionally later as I waited for a landmark (well, cone on the road).

Soon after I could see the finish.  And the clock.  Too far to read, I will just run quick.

I now see 39:44 and realize there’s a very small chance I could sneak under 40.  I kick quicker than I ever have done in a race.  I finish and miss stopping my watch.  I think I’ve done 40:00 or 40:01, a club mate suggest I might have hit 39:59 but I dismiss that.

See 16:42 on the video for my finish.

We then head off the course area, as we must go off due to Covid-19 rules.  I then do a 5-6 minute cool down and we head home.

To my surprise, at home later I see the result at 39:59.  I find the Facebook page with the race video (it just shows the finish, so not great viewing), and do see that it’s right and I snuck in.

So a PR is rather pleasing given the first 5 months on 2020 I hardly ran due to my hamstring injury.  My take homes are:

• I need to start slower.  I think I probably left 15s on the course through poor pacing.  My aim was do lap 1 in 10:20, but I was 31s quicker than that.
• I can kick earlier.  I could have speed up with 2 minutes to go.
• My endurance is not great right now, I’ve had very, very few medium long runs this year, and zero long runs.  So doing a sub 90 half next month will really need some longer runs, and better pacing.

Watson stellar race, way to kick it home just under the 40 minute mark!

My week was something. I swam 6 days for 45-50 minutes each time and on Saturday I did a 2 mile jog to test the knee... and it hurt. So I jumped on the mountain bike to enjoy the trails because I was there ... and that hurt the kneecap too. Sunday was a return to swimming. I'm trying to stay positive about this but it just sucks. I tried water running on Wednesday and that hurt the knee too. bleh. Timelines for runners knee online regularly say 1-2 months so I guess I better settle in and enjoy the ride.