Maaaaarvellous March.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Well then.

Life, in all its glorious obfuscatory forms descended like a wailing banshee in the latter half of February, wiping out the MLCM training schedule as easily as a spoiled two year-old brat throws a tantrum.

Net result? No running for seventeen days.

However.

Not all is lost. Far from it. Two days ago, in the chaotic wake of fast and furious February, I stepped aboard the treadmill, cranked it into groaning, wheezing life and gasped out an equally groaning, wheezy and appallingly slow but entirely necessary short run of just 6 kilometres.

It was enough. Some running synapses snapped back into place and enough of my brain registered that I was still a runner to return today for a far, far better feel-good run of 12 well-paced kilometres.

There is still time. Maybe only just, and life still has a few googlies and bouncers to bowl at me yet, but we'll get there.

Six weeks and counting.

6.0km 39min
12.0km 73min

YTD: 292.0km

Track du Jour:

[Sweder]

I feel your pain old friend. I've not lost anywhere near that amount of sessions but am facing a real crisis this weekend. No run since Thursday and a scheduled weekend twenty whipped away by a combination of family need and work demand. I guess it's at times like these we refer to that fabled tome for guidance:

   

[Bierzo Baggie]

Come on MLCM ...get that show back on the road!

[marathondan]

I think we've all had a spanner in the works at what might seem like the worst possible point. But the remains goal remains simple: to get from now to the start line in the best shape possible. You'll probably be able to cut your taper a bit. Let the ramp-up commence!

[glaconman]

I reckon there's too much experience in the tank for this to phase you mate. A quick recalibration maybe.

[Antonio247]

You've got plenty of time to catch up the lost runs, MLCMM. Sometimes, we need a physical and psycological rest to start again with more motivation. It has probably been good for your muscles and mind.

Best of luck!

[El Gordo]

Man, I should read this website more often. This nearly passed me by. Great to see you running for JDRF too. Just left a donation, as I'm sure everyone else will

Go for it, MLCMM. No marathon training regime ever passed without a spot of will-he-won't-he drama.

What's the latest?

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Yes indeed, it's crunch time, folks. Life continues pounding along in full tsunami mode here at Chez MLCMM, and while I'm squeezing some runs in here and there, I'm still desperately short of the all-important long runs. My last run - a planned 32km outing ended 5km short, which leaves me with only a couple of weeks in which to complete two 30km+ runs if I'm to finish the mara in any sort of decent form.

Sigh.

Well, let me look at the positives. Although short at just 27km that last long run was a very hilly 27km, so not a total disaster. And on the injury front I have nothing to report at all (yay). At the end of next week I go away on holiday for a week, so with a long run before then and one on our return, I should have just enough runs in the bank; and with a two-week taper I could still be in reasonable form for race day. It won't be scintillating form, that's for sure, but with fair winds and a conducive tide I could still be in line for a PB on the day.

Phew.

There's just that last little detail of those two long runs - I'm thinking 32km next week and 36km the week after, which will be 15 days before race day. Does that sound reasonable?

13.0km 1h31m
16.65km 1h39m
27.16km 3h05m

Track du Jour: a plea to the running Gods...

[El Gordo]

There's just that last little detail of those two long runs - I'm thinking 32km next week and 36km the week after, which will be 15 days before race day. Does that sound reasonable?

Sound like 20 and 22 miles in old money?

Yep, that should do the trick.

Good man.

[Sweder]

She'll be right, mate. As someone who has had variable luck squeezing running into an impossible schedule I will say if you keep slotting those long sessions in and nothing else you'll be fine. The devil on my left shoulder tells me that shelving midweek speed/ hill sessions is mini-tapering to make the Sunday runs feel easier, but I'm not listening to her.

If you don't manage those long runs I would like a presentation on why they didn't get done and a three-point plan on what you intend to do about it. Otherwise, well, it's the naughty step for you ; )

The last two tests on the sub-continent will tell us something about the wisdom or otherwise of King Arthur. Rekindling the hard-nosed Aussie approach or taking the Mickey? Whatever man, at least your lot are getting battered by a decent test nation. We're getting a lesson from the bloody Kiwis

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Thank you gents, both for your comments and generous donations to JDRF Oz.

I am indeed fully intending to complete both the long runs and 'other' tempo runs. In looking back to my preparation for the Sydney mara last year, I'm in a similar position, so remain optimistic. We should be OK 'on the day'.

As for Half-A-Mickey, I'm not entirely sure. Doubtless our boys needed a kick up the arse, but was this the right way to do it? Not that it matters - we have no free-to-air coverage of the matches here anyway - not even on radio. The interest lies mainly in who will snot Mickey Arthur on the nose first, and who'll get busted for gambling on the outcome (of the games, not Mickey's nose).

Anyway, back to the running.

Erm, yes. Well, I'd better get on with it then...

[glaconman]

I think you'll be good with your plan MLCMM. Just try not to fall-short on the long 'uns. And nice timing on the holiday which should act as good recovery between the two. Depending on what kind of holiday it is.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Something quite astonishing happened on my 15km run yesterday - I was off-road at the time and running quite well up a slight incline. In good stride, breathing quite hard but running well. It was warm and I was sipping regularly from my Camelbak when I suddenly realised to my astonishment that I was sort-of reverse circular breathing, i.e. I was breathing normally through my nose whilst sipping and swallowing through my mouth!

Of course, once I realised what I was doing and tried to do it consciously, I couldn't, and resorted to the half-choking while I stop- breathing-so-I-can-swallow routine.

Later, when I was enthusiastically telling the family about this, #1 son Googled it and said that it made sense, as the instructions he found online for learning circular breathing fell closely in line with the cheeks-puffed, sucking-through-a-tube action of Camelbak hydration.

I tell you what though, it makes quite an incredible difference when you're running hard. To be able to breath normally through the nose instead of having to stop breathing altogether in order to swallow makes one heck of a difference when you're really pushing it.

I'll have to practise the technique and report back.

Anyhow, 15km on-and-off road yesterday with a good mix of brutish hills and nice, fast, flat stuff as well. A good outing, even if my quads are now sore, and a good weekly total of 53km to be nicely back on target. The legs now have two days to recover before my penultimate long run of the training schedule - 32km on Wednesday, or if need be, Thursday.

Can't wait.

15km 1h36m

YTD: 374.8km

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Here we are then. The pointy end of the schedule. Today's scheduled long run - the penultimate one before race day - had to be a good 'un. No shirking, no ifs, no buts. Just toughen up and get the flock out there.

Yes, well. Hmm. Someone forgot to tell my body. 6 a.m. I reluctantly get out of bed to find my knee hurts, my quads ache, my stomach is queasy and my head full of ... snot.

So what do I do? I could in theory postpone the run 24 hours - I do have that leeway built into the spreadsheet, but it's not a great option... today is definitely the better day to run (logistically).

I give my body 15 minutes grace by cooking a slice of toast, giving it a thin smear of Vegemite and devouring it, meditatively. My body stiill whines and moans and carries on. Suddenly I get jack of it and throw on the running gear and head out the door anyway. I start the old Garmin and head up Werona Avenue. Amazingly, the knee stops hurting, the quads feel fine and the stomach is no longer queasy! The head though? Still snotty. There won't be any circular breathing on today's run.

I head along the roaring, smelly loathesome Lane Cove Road - it's called a road but really it's a 6 lane highway, usually full of trucks but at this hour full of trucks and a squillion weary, frustrated and often angry commuters. A vile place to run, but it leads to a small piece of heaven, so I persevere for the 4km it takes to get to my main destination, the Lane Cove National Park.

For once I'm doing as the books and the schedules say, and running this slowly - slower than race pace (or should I say intended race pace) at any rate and it feels ... good. Comfortable, anyhow.

Reaching the Park, I turn off the highway and immediately head downhill and away from the traffic, the roar of which very quickly disappears and is replaced by the soothing sound of the Park, which at this hour is birds, and birds alone. It's wonderful, and with the road along which I run closed to general traffic until 9 a.m., blissfully quiet, with only cyclists and the occasional runner or walker to break the peace. From one end of the park to the other is 4.5km, so 9km return, running alongside the Lane Cove River in an oasis of calm amidst an otherwise typical weekday big city commuter rush.

Although the outward leg is net downhill, I maintain my slow pace and am feeling great. When I reach the end and turn for the return leg however, something of a rush overtakes me and I speed up, floating along as easy as you please, even now that it's uphill. My pace alarms me somewhat, and I know I will pay for it later, but it's one of those rare treats; when the running is effortless yet quick, and I felt as if I could run like that all day. Of course I knew I couldn't, and wouldn't, but I still couldn't bring myself to force the pace down to something reasonable.

I returned to Lane Cove Road in good time, and the killer hill that brought me back to the noise and traffic was completed with relative ease. Now to return home along the chaos and stink of the now grid-locked highway. The run home however would only give me a total of 18km, so I had planned to run the other 14km on the treadmill. I figured 18km of hills was quite enough and some slow, even pace on a flat treadie a reasonable compromise.

One last killer hill climbed, I headed home, jumped on the treadmill and pressed "play" on the DVD I had ready to go. For inspiration I watched "Distance of Truth", the movie-length doco about Ferg Hawke and his running of the 135m/217km Badwater Ultramarathon through Death Valley. Inspiring, but scary stuff. I really do think I'll stick to marathon distance or less, thank you.

As I feared, the fast return leg through the National Park came at a price, and the 14km on the treadie was tough and slow, but it was done, and ultimately the whole 32km was done at a reasonable rate - it was never meant to be fast, but it was still at PB pace for the mara, although yes, yes I know the last 10km is the tough part. But hey, I'm pretty happy even so.

Just a few more 10km jogs now before the 36km last long run on Easter Saturday - not sure how I'm going to fit that in, but it has to be done, so it will be done.

No music today, but this appropriate track did spring to mind ... enjoy this musical comic duo from New Zealand!

Track du Jour: Business Time, Flight of the Conchords




32.11km, 3h43m

YTD: 406.9km


Lane Cove National Park

[marathondan]

Well done MLCM, that's another big tick in the checklist of getting to the start line in great shape. An interesting multi-centre run, too - urban highway, national park, living room. I can imagine that the DVD would have been an inspiring backdrop to grinding out those last few K. Bring on the last big one! (After a few days' rest.)

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Just a quick one - am on holiday in Busselton, Western Australia, around 3,500km from home and about as far away as I can get and still be in Australia.

Am still running even though this is supposed to be a relaxing holiday - including an interesting run 2km straight out to sea which I'll write about on my return! Three 10 - 12km runs completed at a good clip, so am feeling fine and in good shape.

We return home on Good Friday, and I have my last long run of the training schedule set for Saturday: 36km to run in the afternoon before going in to work for a dreaded night shift ... could be interesting trying to stay focussed on the job.

Will write more on our return!

MLCMM

[marathondan]

including an interesting run 2km straight out to sea which I'll write about on my return!

He even walks on water!

Enjoy the rest of the week and good luck for the long one.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Four good runs to report, including the all-important last long run of the campaign.

First though, three tempo runs in the previous week whilst on holiday in Western Australia, at Busselton in the south-west corner, to be precise. Busselton is a very flat town. So flat, in fact, that the jetty they built there to facilitate the shipping out of the region's produce is the longest such wooden structure in the southern hemisphere. At 1.8 kilometres long, it is an impressive structure, and quite good fun to run along, especially early in the morning with the sun coming up.

The town is served handsomely by a well-constructed and generally dead flat cycle/run/walk path which snakes along the foreshore for far more kilometres than I was able to work out, so well-suited to running. We stayed in a villa just a couple of hundred metres from the beach, so it was a short jog to the running path each morning for a memorable run along some glorious coastline. Very popular the track proved, too, with a great many locals and holiday-makers using the path each morning, and in general, all of them in a good mood and more than happy to exchange greetings.

I did each of these three holiday runs at a good clip, treating them as mid-length tempo runs, and feeling frankly pretty damn good about them. On our return it was time to confront the last long run of the campaign – the 36km monster. There’s no real way of skirting around these buggers – they command a full day’s attention or more, by the time you take into account preparation, running the damn thing and then recovery.

Accordingly, I ensured I had a decent night’s kip, ate some appropriate breakfast and then cleared away a few household tasks before changing into the running gear at about 11:30. As I had a night shift at work to attend to after the run, there was no real option but to run in the afternoon – not ideal, but there was no real alternative.

The benefit of having had a fairly busy morning meant that I didn’t really have time to think about the run, and approached it in a business-like manner as something that just had to be done. And so I quite suddenly found myself off and running, only instead of a casual jog round the block this was a 36km behemoth. I had at least planned this one in some detail. I had decided I would run in my old shoes – I have been breaking in new ones for race day, but for this longie I thought it prudent to stick with the older Adrenalines. I was also going to stick with water only (no isotonics) as that’s all that is provided on race day and I’d decided to run without my camelback this time round. I also thought three gels might be about right for the run, but on opening the box found I only had two left, so two it was. Pace-wise I had only two thoughts – to take it steady and as evenly as possible, and if possible do it in negative splits.

And so I was off before I knew it, feeling good and moving evenly. Sticking to about 6:30 – 6:40 per kilometre pace I was running comfortably and generally enjoying things. Nothing of note happened in the first 15km, at which point I remembered to take a gel and very gently upped the pace a little. Things continued on this way until the 28km point when I took my second gel and upped the pace ever so slightly more. To be honest I was surprised how quickly the first three hours passed. I had kind of zoned out and was just running well within myself and not being particularly challenged. The last 7 – 8km were memorable only for me becoming bored with it all and wanting it to be over, but also excited in knowing I was running comfortably and well within myself.

And that was all there was to it, to be honest. It was quite simply the least challenging, or should I say, best executed long run I’ve undertaken thus far. I finished in 3h54m and in negative splits (1h58m for the first 18km, 1h56m for the second), and felt great at the end.

So now for the two-week taper. I’m feeling confident after that long ‘un, and whilst 4h30m might be a slightly optimistic target for race day (but perfectly possible) I’ll be happy with what should be a good PB, which is all I’m really gunning for.

I do have – believe it or not – one more race before the marathon. Seven days before the Canberra marathon is my local 10km fun run ... and I’ve entered! It’s quite a hilly race – in fact it’s a bit of a brute, and I’m thinking it will be a good little final toning run before the big race.

12.5km 1h11m
10.3km 0h57m
10.0km 0h56m
36.1km 3h54m

YTD: 475.8km

Here’s a few holiday photos to finish with:


AC/DC's Bon Scott and me, in his home town of Fremantle (this one's particularly for Sweder!)


The 1.8km long Busselton jetty, along which I happily ran.


Boobook Owl, at a rescued wildlife centre, giving me the "what are you looking at?" look.


Me making friends (sort of) with a (wild) Black Kite at the same centre.


Some insanely cute Barn Owls, again at the same centre.


Stingrays and pelicans at Blackwood Inlet, in the far south-western corner of Western Australia.

[Sweder]

Much appreciated! I miss him still, such a raw talent.
And well done, you've pitched up at the key moment in great shape.
Get ready to rip it up!

[marathondan]

Good stuff, MCLMM. It's a great feeling when a 20+ mile run is just another errand to complete. I hope you enjoy the 10K with an inner glow that bigger and better is to come. Enjoy the taper