Long March Rocket

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The call of the wild marathon.

I had a most interesting run this morning. Despite the effusive optimism of my previous diary entry, my focus today definitely wasn't on athletics, with much to do and places to be. My run was scheduled of course and so I got into it, but without any plan other than to cover the requisite 12km, slowly if need be, but with no other strategy in mind at all. Not feeling too bad once under way though I had a mind to turn it into a bit of a tempo run, building the pace slowly and ultimately covering the 12km in good time and feeling absolutely fantastic, with the last kilometre being covered in something akin to half mara PB pace.

Now that last statement really got me thinking. Half mara PB pace ought not be that difficult on a 12km training run, but of course training pace is a very different animal to race pace, so this for me was a great effort, certainly at this stage of my training. Extrapolating it further, I realised that aiming for a marathon PB later in the year isn't really out of reach. My half marathon PB of 1h54m suggests I should be able to run a full marathon distance in something closer to 4 hours, rather than the 4h41m which is my current PB. Now I'm nowhere near ready to run another 1h54m half marathon, but even if I could run say, 2h08m, I should have a reasonable chance of lowering my mara PB to under 4h30m, which is a more realistic goal for a marathon in the second half of this year.

Of course, that pre-supposes that everything goes well and that I complete a sufficient number of 30+ kilometre long runs and actually stick with the schedule. And as I know only too well, there are countless speed bumps and curve balls that get in the way of even the best-intentioned training plan. But it's a good starting point on which to base a serious marathon assault.

Let's run with that then. Yeah.

[Sweder]

The whole 'extrapolating times over distances' thing leaves my head spinning and a thin line of drool falling silently from my burbling lips. Given all the race-day factors; side of bed you get out of, weather, hydration/ food intake, running surface, biorhythms, number of cute lycra-clad backsides, etc etc, I've often wondered about the accuracy of this stuff.

For me it doesn't extrapolate too well. I've one unofficial 1:39 and one official 1:40 HM, suggesting a possible marathon time of anywhere between 3:25 to 3:40. Yet my PB (twice, 5 years apart) remains 3:52. And there it shall sit.

That said, if you're hitting PB race pace in training, you are nailing it.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

The whole 'extrapolating times over distances' thing leaves my head spinning and a thin line of drool falling silently from my burbling lips. Given all the race-day factors; side of bed you get out of, weather, hydration/ food intake, running surface, biorhythms, number of cute lycra-clad backsides, etc etc, I've often wondered about the accuracy of this stuff.

For me it doesn't extrapolate too well. I've one unofficial 1:39 and one official 1:40 HM, suggesting a possible marathon time of anywhere between 3:25 to 3:40. Yet my PB (twice, 5 years apart) remains 3:52. And there it shall sit.

That said, if you're hitting PB race pace in training, you are nailing it.

Quite agree, except that for me it has worked well at all distances except, of course, the marathon. But then, I've only run two of the things, so it's still possible it may prove correct. If I do get there however, it will be by degrees. I ain't trying to kill myself out there.

As far as nailing the training goes, well I've been here plenty of times before, and there's usually something to pull the rug from under me, so the champagne is not on ice yet. Not by a long way.

But fear not, I am not exactly on the wagon. In fact the wagon sped off without me ages ago. I have curtailed consumption just slightly however.

I think I'm going to cry now...

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

March too much.

The last day of March saw me complete another steady 15km easy run. Gad I love being able to say that ... imagine, an easy 15km run! This is progress indeed, and saw my total distance for the month reach 152 kilometres, which for me is quite a respectable return after a period of ... slovenliness.

I had plenty of time during this run to consider in more detail my plans for the rest of the year. There are eight or nine races marked on my calendar, requiring a considerable contortion of training scheduling more resembling a four-dimensional matrix beast from some 1930s sci-fi flick rather than anything remotely scientific. It will, in any case, be fully flexible/dynamic as work and other outside factors will largely determine which races I can or can't enter.

So instead I created in my head a bit of a running bucket list and had a poke around inside it and my own head to see if any of it could be fitted into my crazy schedule this year. Well, erm, no, not really, as I have pretty much lost control of my own schedule. Hence the need to remain at least half-marathon ready in order to be able to ramp up to full race mode given the few short weeks I would normally have to prepare for a major race once I actually know that I can safely enter. But, for what it's worth, my bucket list currently consists of:

• bringing my marathon PB to under 4h30m
  
• bringing my Point To Pinnacle PB down to 2h30m
  
• running the Moyleman... sometime. Somehow.
  

But this is all getting way too far ahead of myself. First, there's the small matter of the local 10km fun run next Sunday. I now have two full rest days before that event, which will be nice (the rest days, not the race which is a brute), and then a week later it's the Canberra half marathon. After that I will be better positioned to work out what I do for the remainder of the year.

In the meantime, I just keep on running, trying to keep the runs as long as possible without pushing myself too hard (and thus getting injured), whilst mixing up long easy outings, tempo runs and hill reps to keep me in some sort of decent shape.

Ciao!

Track du Jour: Urthboy "We Get Around"

This is a beauty ... if like me, you have a grudging respect for hip hop, it'll be because local hip hop hits you in a way that foreign hip hop doesn't .. er, I mean for example, I like Australian hip hop but not so much American hip hop for reasons I can't really explain other than that the local content resonates with me ... like folk music, maybe perhaps. Anyway, I love this song, and not least of because it's a local band and even the film clip (shot in the streets near where I work) is brilliant.

I guess this means it won't actually mean that much to any of you. What the hell, give it a shot. I love it! And it's a great track to run to ... and it shows the area where I work. It even has a cameo from a jogger or two. Cool stuff!

[Sweder]

Nice ACDC reference in the title

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Nice ACDC reference in the title

Well spotted Sweder. It was, I have to admit, accidental, except perhaps at a subliminal level.

Here then, is TdJ #2...