These Auckland Covid-19 community cases keep happening.  I'm not confident about Rotorua at all now.  We really need to be seeing consecutive days of zero community transmission, for any chance of getting to Level 1 by 26 September.

They're all already in isolation or quarantine, though, as they're all connected to the current cluster.  The Minister is on record saying that we don't necessarily need to be at zero cases to go to Level 1.  The thing that would hold us up would be if another case came up that hadn't been isolated as a close contact of the existing cluster.  I'm still optimistic.

James - When I wrote chilly for 10C 50F I meant it was a cooler day. My best race was run at 0C 32F.

I guess it depends where in Spain you guys lived. If you lived in Barcelona near the Main Street I’d guess you’d meet tons of drunks at that time heh.

Watson - great race, you are improving well the last few months.

Me - My week below, a very light week tapering for the 5k race. I know some of you will find that tapering extreme, but it seemed to have worked out very well.

Weekly for period: From: 31/08/2020 To 06/09/2020

TL;DR; new 5K pr 18:02

I woke up at 5:45 and did my usual pre-running routine, foam rolling. I also had my usual pre-race breakfast which is absolutely nothing but water.

I also figured out that Darkwave would never EVER run a race in Bologna due to the notorious lack of Chipotle restaurants.

I also thought about copy-pasting a block from either of Mark's last race reports where he lists all the athletes in his town by order of pedigree, and switching the names to Italian guys, like Natano Giovanni or something, but I figured it was a bit too over the top.

I also thought about all the guys who recommended I was cautious with the pace over the first km (Steve, Piwi, Watson) and how I'd, unfortunately, most likely not need their advice, just my nature I guess haha.

Also, shout out to Kimba if she's still reading this, like her I always think I'm an Olympian during the first 500m of a race and go out in PR pace. Today was the day where my fitness finally matched my confidence.

I didn’t sync the watch with the phone, so I expected the GPS signal to take a bit of time to lock.

Since I would do a 1.8km warm up to the time trial location, I didn’t wait for the gps to fully lock up and got going.

Annoyingly the GPS watch never locked the signal on the way. 

Arriving there, I stopped the watch and did my mobility routine (calf rotation, wrist rotation, shoulder rotation, hip rotation, butt kicks, etc).

I was waiting for the GPS signal to lock but it was never locking. I figured I had to wait until a good signal otherwise the pacing would be all over the place.

A couple minutes later it clicked and off I went.

Anybody who's not a runner would find the situation quite funny, a middle aged dude huffing and puffing outside their window.

I've tried to focus on having the right pace from the get go as it's easier to maintain once the pace is locked.

The first lap was around 660m so I knew every 1.5 laps would be 1km. That was somehow reassuring.

Km 1 in 3:29. 

A bit quick at 3:29, but way better than the 3:20 I ran on my last PR. By the end of this K theaverage pace was drifting to 3:35 so it was alright. 

Km 2 in 3:34, 7:03 so far so good.

Km 3 in 3:36, 10:39, still feeling good.

At this point I just focused on keeping the pace and then really concentrating on the block from 3km to 4km which is where I usually lose it. Since somehow my brain is wired as such that when I want to speed up I increase cadence and vice versa, I focused on keeping the same cadence throughout the km. It would be impossible to run slower at that cadence.. I figured once I've gotten past 4km I'd "see" the finish line and I'd be able to sprint to it.

Km 4 in 3:34, 14:13. GOD DAMMIT. I might just have it. Some quick mental math and I figured I had to run a 3:52 for the final km + 50m to get the PR. It'd be so CLOSE. Just…….keep…….pushing.

Despite my best efforts I did slow down a bit.

Km 5 in 3:39 + 10s over the last 50m.

This bit was a bit funny. I crossed the 5km mark and the watch started showing the lap. I needed to run an extra 50m but I couldn't see the distance because the watch was still showing the lap result haha.

So I've waited a couple of seconds and hit stop. The watch said 5.060m so it was all good. Then the time: 18:02 FUCK YEAH. I've got it. I've kicked this monkey off my shoulders.

Not bad for an old man. I've raised my arms to celebrate while gasping for air. I then walked past a homeless man sleeping on a bench. I'm glad he was sleeping cause this would be a weird encounter haha.

The funny weirdo gasping for air with the arms in the air in celebration for apparently nothing.

I should hopefully be able to run it again October 2nd in a proper race and if all goes well I should hopefully finally go under the 18 minute barrier.

Nice job on your race, Watson! (and I've watched some Seth DeMoor videos also - he can be surprisingly entertaining)

Steve: the secret is NOT to not have bad days, but to not have them on race day. So well done!

James D - FWIW, 2x3 miles at HMP seems like a very very hard workout to me. I checked out the cache of the website you mentioned - and it does look very cool. I hope it comes back up soon.

Piwi - solid week.

Marky_Mark - fingers very crossed.

Flavio - you are right. In fact, all of Italy is off limits until Chipotle moves in.

And outstanding time trial (and a good read). The extra 50m was to make sure it was legit, right (and good for you if so). Sub-18 should be yours in a good race.

As for me:

38 miles and 6:30 hours of pool-running
M: 70 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core.
T: 7 miles, with 2 hill repeats up a 370m hill in 1:54 and 1:56. Followed with 40 minutes pool-running and streaming yoga.
W: 4 miles aerobic (9:36), 70 minutes pool-running, and streaming yoga.
Th: 70 minutes pool-running and upper body weights/core
F: 8 miles, including 6 hill repeats up a 370m hill in between 1:3x and 1:4x, with a bit over 3 minutes jogging recovery. Followed with 40 minutes pool-running and leg strengthwork.
Sa: 7 miles very easy (9:31), streaming yoga, and 50 minutes pool-running.
Su: 12 miles progressive (9:41/9:14/9:17/9:33/8:43/8:41/8:24/8:09/8:08/7:53/7:45/7:36), followed by some leg strengthwork and streaming yoga, and then 50 minutes pool-running.

Quick update: a second round of bloodwork confirmed that my serum folate (i.e. B9) is low, and low enough to need treatment.  Nearly everything else is fine and in range, with the exception of B12, which is high.  So I've started folate supplements.  And in a variety of ways am feeling some improvement already.  Could be placebo effect.  If so, I don't care - I'll take it.

Separately, I've been managing a recurrence of nerve pain in my left leg - basically it feels like the sciatic nerve in my leg leg is getting snagged on something rather than moving freely.    But that seems to be improving too - weird since nerve pain apparently goes with B12 deficiency, not Folate.  See above comment about the placebo effect.

watson - woops, so it was.  Still a great pace and time.  Good to see you back to close to your best after all that hard work rehabbing your hamstring.

Mark - very nice long run.  Looking forward to seeing how much you smash your PR by...which is looking more and more ridiculous when a 7km recovery trot at the end of a training run would beat it!

flavio - Great report and great run.  Good job ignoring all the advice - only you know your body.

James - That is quite a tough workout especially for the first one in a while, I wouldn't worry too much about not hitting the paces yet.

piwi - Nice week.  Hope you find a race soon, you seem primed for a big performance.

darkwave - Nice week and good to hear you're making progress with the health issues.  Hopefully the left leg settles down.  You are right, much prefer to have a bad day in training but it makes me nervous that it's so apparently random.  I did have quite a big few weeks so it might just have been it all catching up.

me - A lighter week as I recovered from the adventure race, apart from a solid workout on Wednesday which felt extremely comfortable, then a small workout on Saturday which was a bit of a grind.  It's race week again and I'm hoping for a stress free taper to freshen up.  I'm working from home while we stay in level 2 so that reduces the chance of catching a minor cold and withdrawing like my last attempted race.

I entered the race on Friday and asked the organisers for a map of the loop in Hagley Park which turns out to be EXACTLY the same as the loop I did for the time trial on May 31, which given the many paths and potential loops in Hagley Park is slightly spooky.  I guess I know exactly what to expect.  Last year there were about 20 men and 15 women in this race which is fine with me.  There is a 10km which starts 30 minutes after the half-marathon so it will get a little more crowded but probably no different to a standard Sunday morning in Hagley Park.

Weekly for period: From: 31/08/2020 To 06/09/2020

Total distance: 66.85km

 

 

Darkwave - glad you're on the mend.  Could you reduction in nerve pain, simply be the result of healing time combined with your volume reduction (less stree)?

Quite possible, and no way to know for sure.  OTOH, I've had a really long lasting mild nerve pain issue in my right ankle that has persisted despite taking a full week off of running earlier this spring.  And now it's gone.

But yes, all of this could be placebo, or could be reduced workload.  But it definitely feels like something has shifted (which could all be mental).

Flavio yes good job ignoring us although your splits were very even around 3.35/km after the initial faster opening km. Your overall weekly mileage always seems so low for someone who performs so well. I forget that you are beast of middle distance stuff though 

Darkwave good to hear progress is been made.

Steve good ole Hagley Park. Great place for races. My daughter felt that quake the other day. Her first one.

If we go back to level 1 I can jump into our local Parkrun.

Mark one of my Strava mates Kunaal looks like hes going to ask for a transfer from Rotorua this year to next. He would be slightly slower than you although he won Tauranga a couple of years ago with a 2.39 I think.

Watson they've changed that half course 3 times since I've been running. It's still my pr from 2014 when it was a flat out and back road course.

Mark yeah there could be something else going on there with his training.

Flavio I meant to ask did you do any 5k predictor workouts or did you just go for it on the day ?