I've only just twigged to the fact that it's May already, and I've already left a few May posts on the April thread, but what the heck.
A summary then for the month thus far: Six runs already, for a total of 45 kilometres with a long run of 24km and a couple of slightly-tough hill climbs thrown in for good measure. Pace is good, I'm injury-free and feeling great. My weight is under control, my stretching regime is on song and my mental health is, well, healthy.
My short run today squeezed in before rushing off to work was a modest 3km over 20 minutes but it felt so damn good it was almost dream-like, with my legs turning over with no difficulty at all and heart and lungs barely registering a blip on the effort scale. It was the kind of run I've been working toward, where the ease of it had me feeling very smug indeed. Wonderful! Being in the middle of a couple of weeks of night shifts made it all the more sweet, as working nights usually leaves me fatigued to the core, so this was a rare and precious running high indeed. In fact it completes a triple-treat for me: the comfortable 24km long run last Tuesday, the fast 10km hilly run on Thursday and now a running-on-clouds shortie today. That, RC-people, makes it a pretty damn fine week in my running books with more than a few of those mocking demons of middle-age-dom vanquished for a while, at least.
This, I am sure is why I run - to feel this damn good. No races or PBs - just a blissful week or so of great running!
OK, I'm off to float on my cloud for a while longer. Ciao!
(07-05-2011, 10:01 AM)Mid Life Crisis Man Wrote: OK, I'm off to float on my cloud for a while longer. Ciao!
A fine uplifting post on, for me, a very sad day.
I am of course mourning the loss to the world of Severianno Ballesteros; Seve to his many thousands of friends.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
An enforced taper this week due to over-work, over-tiredness and a head cold. Should however be fine for Sunday's race. Here's hoping.
There was a fascinating article in the local rag this week about the Kiwi ultra-runner Lisa Tamati, who was in town for the running of a local 100 km race (an event she said was way too short). Tamati is capable of running for several days non-stop, and I've often wondered how much of the ultra-running is actual mental, rather than physical fitness. Fortunately the journalist interviewing wondered the same thing. Here's what Tamati said:
Ms Tamati is used to explaining to incredulous non-runners how it is possible to cover such vast distances, often with no, or only minimal, sleep: it is all in the mind.
"Basically, you're buggered after 50 kilometres. After that point it's all about hanging on; it becomes a mind game. Can you overcome that little devil on your shoulder saying, 'You can't do this, you've got to quit'? You've got this battle going on pretty much the whole time."
All I can say is, "amazing"! This sport never ceases to astonish me.
I can only agree. My own experience in Ireland last year was very much a case of mind over matter. I don't mind and the pain don't matter. Fitness had nothing whatsoever to do with it.
The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
My alarm woke me at 4:45 a.m. I had been asleep for maybe a tad over three hours. Not, I thought, ideal for running a half marathon, but there we were. At least I felt better than yesterday when I thought it possible I might not even start.
As I stumbled to the kitchen for some toast and honey and a piece of fruit I was pleased to be feeling ... OK. Not great, and certainly having no thoughts of trying to set a fast time today, but confident of a reasonable showing. And I had two good reasons to run today - this weekend would have been my late father's 90th birthday, so I wanted to run in his memory, and also because Mrs MLCM and I had a double goal - if I ran the half marathon, and she reached her goals set at her gym by her personal trainer (which she did easily) we would celebrate with boullibaisse on the night of the race. We arranged to meet at the Sydney fish markets at 10:30 and would spend a happy hour or so choosing our seafood and then spend the afternoon preparing it and selecting the wines to have with it. A great goal, and a great reason to run the bloody race. So not much was really going to stop me.
At 5:15 my next door neighbour Andy (why is every second runner on the planet named Andy?) knocked on the door - he was also running today and we headed down to my brother-in-law's house, as he and his wife had also entered the race and he has a car park in the city, and so drove the four of us in. It was bitterly cold, being only 6 degrees, and we luxuriated in the warmth of his office foyer out of the wind and spent some time admiring their collection of Olympic torches (they have a complete set from 1896 to 2000, only one of them being a replica) to the bemused attention of the security guard who must have thought we were totally mad. He, it seemed, was not a runner.
Soon though it was time to walk to the start line and join the nearly 11,000 other shivering runners waiting there. This was the 20th running of this event, but the first time on a new course, widely anticipated by serious runners in the online running forums as being "quite tough". There were a few hills - nothing too onerous - but it's a tight and twisty course, possibly too tight for a reasonably large crowd like this.
I waited for 20 minutes before the gun went, then another 4 minutes to actually cross the start line. The congestion was pretty awful, and the first two kilometres were spent mainly avoiding collisions and figuring out how to run with constant jostling, but somehow we were moving and at a reasonable pace. Unfortunately the bridges, tunnels and general city scape played havoc with the old Garmin Forerunner which was rendered useless other than as a stopwatch, but that was enough to figure out I was travelling OK.
At the 4km mark I fell into conversation with a 70-year-old who was running bang-on 2 hour pace, and as I was travelling fairly comfortably at this stage I thought "you bewdy" and ran alongside him for a few kms - quite an inspiring guy and he made me realise I still have a few years of happy running ahead of me yet. We ran through the 10 km point in 59 minutes though, so the pace needed to be picked up a bit if two hours was actually going to be possible.
The race was supposed to highlight Sydney's beauty and ran through some of its best parts, but to be honest the crowds on the tight twisting street circuit made it pretty much impossible to enjoy any scenery.
However the race doubled back on itself twice during the race - always a fascinating aspect of any distance event. The first time caught me by surprise - I saw and heard a police motorbike screaming towards us, lights and siren blazing and wondered what the hell had happened. Then I saw he was escorting the race leader, Martin Dent who was just absolutely flying (and went on to win in 65 minutes).
I lost my companion somewhere on an uphill stretch (I later discovered he finished in 2h13m), but I must have picked my pace up a bit because at the 13km mark I caught sight of the 2-hour pacers, about 200 metres up ahead. I therefore wound it up even more during the 14th kilometre and ... they were about 400 metres ahead. Bugger! How could that be? I don't know if it was the mental blow that did it, but I basically blew apart at this point and slowed down to something nearer a training pace.
After 10 km I had started to overtake all the punters who had gone out too fast, but now as we passed 15km I started being overtaken by all those who realised 2 hours was now possible for them.
I settled into a steady plod, but I was now being overtaken pretty much constantly which was a little disheartening. The worst part came at 19km which is within sight of the finish line and you see all those far faster runners completing their race while you turn away again to do the final two kilometre loop. Cruel. Also at this point I ran past a paramedic team trying to revive a guy at the side of the road - it turned out he was a guy in his late 20s who had to be resuscitated and was later taken to hospital in a critical condition.
These things played on my mind as I ran the last 2 kms. Turning around at the far end of the loop to head back to the finish line was a great moment, and while it was obvious I was not going to break 2 hours, my time was going to be pretty good for me. The crowd support for the last few hundred meters was great and that also helped. I crossed the line in 2h05:12 and was happy with that - anything under 6 min/km is excellent for me, so in all a good day out.
I collected my medal, queued for nearly half an hour to get my bag (fortunately it had warmed up a little by then, but we were still left shivering in the shade), then queued up again for drinks and eats, which were at least plentiful (just hard to get to in the crowds), did some stretching in the sun and headed towards the Sydney fish markets. There was no sign of my running companions - they were all much, much faster than me and I hadn't seen them since the start. (Andy finished in 1:35, my bro-in-law 1:38 and his wife 1:56).
I got talking to another runner who was also walking towards the fish markets about 30 minutes away and we had a great time chatting about training, race strategies and all the other things runners talk about when you discover a kindred spirit. The running community is full of great people.
The rest of the day was spent pleasantly buying seafood and preparing a great feast of boullibaisse which I am pleased to say was stunning (monkfish, scallops, prawns, calamari and crayfish/lobster) all washed down with some suitable fine Aussie wines.
That was yesterday. This morning, sore of leg and fogged of head I had an early morning appointment with the physio who pointedly remarked that my hamstrings were still "very weak" and needed a lot more work, and gave me extra exercises to do. She was however pleased (as I am) that my knees came through with barely a niggle. She also recommended I ramp up the cycling and gave me variations of the exercises to do at work ... she's a serious lady, Abby is.
Thanks g'man - it was a great day, but two days on I'm still feeling the affects. Never mind, a short but steep bushwalk and a 5km recovery jog this evening have blown out a few cobwebs. Should be back into serious training in another couple of days. A long way to go yet!
Meanwhile, an old favourite running song rocked up on the Alice Cooper show tonight and is thus my Track du Jour:
I´d also love to break the two hour barrier. Unfortunately, I couldn´t do the half marathon in Albacete on 8th May because I was injured after the 10 km race in Almería on 17th April. I went too fast in the last kilometres and my left calf was sore for a few weeks. I managed to do the race in 53 minutes.
(17-05-2011, 07:47 PM)anlu247 Wrote: Congratulations, MLCM! You look quite fit.
I´d also love to break the two hour barrier. Unfortunately, I couldn´t do the half marathon in Albacete on 8th May because I was injured after the 10 km race in Almería on 17th April. I went too fast in the last kilometres and my left calf was sore for a few weeks. I managed to do the race in 53 minutes.
Thanks Antonio! Actually I am feeling quite fit at the moment, though perhaps not running as fast as I can.
Hope your calf comes good soon and you can hit the streets again!
Well done MLCM, a great result on a crowded course and with you feeling less than 100%.
It's also a tasty negative split: taking your 10-15k pace between 10k and halfway point, you ran the first half in 65:42 and the second in 59:30. Maybe that was enforced by the slow start, but it shows that you might not have been in as bad shape as you thought towards the end.
However, I would point out that there is something wrong with the splits you posted - according to those figures, you ran the last 1.1k in 3:07!
(18-05-2011, 11:59 AM)marathondan Wrote: Well done MLCM, a great result on a crowded course and with you feeling less than 100%.
It's also a tasty negative split: taking your 10-15k pace between 10k and halfway point, you ran the first half in 65:42 and the second in 59:30. Maybe that was enforced by the slow start, but it shows that you might not have been in as bad shape as you thought towards the end.
However, I would point out that there is something wrong with the splits you posted - according to those figures, you ran the last 1.1k in 3:07!
Oops ... my mistake, I mixed up some gun time splits with the net finish. Fixed now, and no it wasn't negative splits but perhaps not so bad. Certainly I'll be gunning for a good sub-2 at the next outing.
Good running and a lot of what you say rings true.
Over 60s are the most inspiring runners you’ll ever meet.
The running community is full of some most excellent people.
And there do seem to be a suspiciously high number of runners called Andy... I’d noticed that too.
Woo hoo RCers - a week on from the half mara and things are still smoking in MLCM Town. Four runs since the race, including a ripper hilly 10km yesterday in just 58 minutes - a sensational time for a training run by my modest standards and indicative of a good shot at a sub-2hr half marathon any time soon.
May the road rise to meet your feet...
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This sport never ceases to astonish me.
We ran through the 10 km point in 59 minutes though, so the pace needed to be picked up a bit if two hours was actually going to be possible.
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