back in the saddle

I’ve spent that past few days letting the body heal and refresh itself. There’s been no running, just some brisk walks and a brief jog to catch the train.

I think that’s enough though. The legs feel fine, the back also and the old bod in general is simply itching to get back in the saddle, so to speak.

The plan is for a nice easy 8-10km run, not forcing the pace and watching out for any niggles. In the first few weeks I’ll probably only run 30k per week and then think about whether I wanted to do a half at Melbourne in October.

Marathon news
The results from last weekend’s marathon are now online. I came 7th, which is pretty amazing, until you realise there were less than 60 finishers. Still, I’m pretty happy about it. I’m 100% certain it’s the first and last time I’ll come in the top ten of a marathon.

fatherhood is bad for athletes

You know you’re running a little short of ideas when you start writing blogs about MX magazine, but I’ve never been one to be proud.

Last night they ran a double-page spread on Lleyton Hewitt, suggesting his little girl Mia is responsible for his recent form slump. To which the obvious response is “who cares?” After all, the longer his slump goes on, the more likely he’ll retire and slip into obscurity forever. Have another baby Lleyton. In fact, have you considered quads?

But I was interested in this idea that fatherhood reduces your ability to be an athlete.

Now, to the extent that I take part in athletic events, I’ve found the opposite. A baby crying just makes me want to get out there and train, train train. Here’s the evidence: pre baby marathon pb – 3hrs 43. Post baby marathon pb 3hrs 12.

Sri Chinmoys
The results from the weekend’s race aren’t really online yet. They’ve published a PDF with only the top 3 place-getters in each event. All I want to do is find out what position I came. At the time, the lady at the finish line flatly refused to tell me where I came. I’m not sure why.

Also there are 256 photos online, none of which includes me. Why is that? Am I so unattractive? Why take photos of all marathon finishers except me?

I’m starting to feel hurt.

And it’s not the first time. I ran a 10k in Princess Park in February last year, and they didn’t even record my time.

new pb

There it is, on the right and down a bit, in ordinary, unpreposessing little white numbers: a new marathon pb. Three little numbers that are the results of 18 weeks solid training and 12 months build-up work.

Is it worth it?

I’m not sure I can say yet. I haven’t really fully taken it all in. I expect over the next days and weeks I’ll reasess where I am with running, and what I want to achieve from now on.

The old body
At around 48 hours post-race the old bod is feeling pretty good. Each individual body-part south of the hips seems to have taken its turn to remind me how aggrieved they are at me for putting them through such an ordeal.

The hips complained immediately, the feet as soon as the shoes came off. My ankles have been a bit iffy this morning and the thighs have been content with a sort of low-level ache that I would characterise as a moan.

As of right now, lunch-time Tuesday, I honestly feel there’s no reason I shouldn’t go running tonight.

No reason except for experience that is. Last time I was in this position (2005) I went out and ran a 10k fairly hard a week after a marathon and injured my hip, knocking myself out of training for 4 weeks.

I’ll probably hold off until next week, much as it galls me.

Race reflections
While I’m happy with my performance and with the day as a whole, and while I’m a big fan of Sri Chinmoys; the chances are I won’t be doing the marathon at Williamstown again.

It’s very flat, so should be fast, but if it’s windy it’s very difficult.

The loops at the end, while I didn’t mind them too much, do tend to take away something from the sense of an event.

The finish line makes this impression even stronger. By the time you get back to the finish there’s next to no-one there. I approached this years event purely as a chance for a PB, but even then it’s nice to feel like it’s a bit special.

Technology
I have some video of me crossing the finishing line. I’m just in the process of figuring out how to put it in this blog. We’ll see shortly.

Goals
I want to keep running. That’s the first thing. I just need to feel like I have something to aim for.
Another marathon is probably not on the cards at the moment, as I don’t think I can justify the time involved to train. I do have other things happening in my life, strange as that may seem.

My initial approach was to look at my pbs and see whether any needs work. So, to throw it open to you readers, what do you think?

5k – unknown
10k – 39.04
half – 85.55
marathon – 3.12

Race report

As you may have guess, I don’t at present have internet connection at home, hence the slow race report. Even now, I’m having to post in-between meetings at work. So here is a race report, similar to the one on Ausrun. I will post more detailed stuff tomorrow.

Race report
The wind WAS a bit of a challenge. Us poor marathoners had to do 4, count em, 4 laps of a particularly nasty bit between the Sea Scouts building and the finish. That fourth one nearly killed me.

Apart from that, things went pretty well for me. I started a bit slow (5min ks) for the first few ks, then picked it up on the section to Altona. At 14ks I was in 14th place and on target when I felt the first bit of wind. I passed a few guys later who were lamenting their lost goal of a sub 3-hour marathon. Oh well.

I pushed on, fighting the wind, and coasting in the down-wind bits. I completely gave up checking the race-pace band I had, mainly ’cause I couldn’t read it.

As I said, I had to walk a section towards the end, because of the wind. One runner in CR gear overtook me at that point.

I got to the end, to find the family yelling and screaming, in a nice way. It turned out my PB was a bit soft (3hrs 43). I got 3hrs 12.

I think I came 10th, but I’m not sure until they publish the results.

Part of me thinks I can do it quicker if not for the wind. But the thing is, with marathons, there are so many things that can go wrong; it’s the whole glorious uncertainty of the thing that makes it a challenge.

I feel good about it today. I did the best I could in those conditions.

Today I’m a bit stiff and sore. The feet are a little tender as are the hips. However, I stood up on the train all the way in from Ringwood: no choice there I’m afraid. I also managed to walk up the escalators at Parliament station with no real problem.

pasta pasta pasta

This is the last post before the marathon on Sunday (see the Sri Chinmoy site). Think of me while you’re lounging about in bed, or whatever it is you do on Sunday mornings. I gather there are a few people coming from the Ausrun/Coolrunning forums (fora??) so I may be able to put a few faces to names and blogs.

If you’re there, say hello. I’ll be wearing the same black singlet as the picture on my profile on the right, but black shorts.

I anticipate posting a race report on Monday, here and probably on Ausrun.

Pain in the English.com
I ran into a spot of bother before working out the plural of “forum”. The plural of “medium” is “media”, so shouldn’t the plural of forum be “fora”? I thought so, but didn’t want to run the risk of appearing a complete berk, so did a quick google.

The aforementioned googling led me to this site – Pain in the English.com – who’s subtitle is “because meaning is fundamentally indeterminate”. With an introduction like that, is it any wonder the people who post are a little, er, eccentric? They had a discussion about “Fora vs Forums”, which seems to have produced a lot of debate and disagreement, but nothing concrete.

Read it if you like, but the general gist seems to be “fora” is more correct, but you’ll sound like a wanker if you use it.

Running
A very easy toodle around the streets of Mooroolbark last night was the last thing even vaguely approaching a training run before the race. It was about 6k all up, but I was really just watching the clock; keeping it to around 30 minutes.

I tacked on a few strides at the end.

Again, it all felt good and positive, aside from a slight stitch from running too soon after dinner.

Dinner
Dinner last night was pasta. Tonight will be pasta. Tomorrow night will be, wait for it, pasta. I generally quite like pasta, but you can have too much of a good thing, I’m afraid. In retrospect, eating gnocchi on Tuesday night was perhaps a bit ill-advised. I’m hanging out for a steak.

Rest
Sleep is a bit of an issue at the moment. “a bit” is something of an understatement. Try “all-encompassing obsession”.

Looking back on it, pretty much my entire training for this marathon has been affected by lack of sleep. I wonder how much of an affect this will have on the day.

I don’t anticipate getting much sleep on Saturday night due to nerves, so the pressure is on to get a good rest tonight.

Right now: cross your fingers and keep-em crossed until about noon Sunday.

the pointy end

Three sleeps to go until the big race; yes I’m getting down to the pointy end now. I’m feeling strangely calm, almost serene, about the whole thing. Yes, I know it’s a long run, but hey, that’s for Sunday morning. It’ll sort itself out then.

I’ve done all the training I can possibly do, far more than ever before and at a higher quality. According to my online training log, I’ve done 5k more than I need to.

Morale boosting
As you might expect, there’s very little running scheduled for this week. What there is seems to be of the “run to stop myself going completely spare” type; a 4k run the day before the race is hardly going to do me much good.

Last night was supposed to be 9k easy. It worked out slightly longer, and probably slightly faster than ideal – 10k in 45 minutes, including hills. Not to worry, the morale-boosting was worth it. A very easy, fluent run. Not at all stressed or hard work. Nice long comfortable strides and a manageable heart-rate.

On the spur of the moment, I tacked on a steep-ish hill at the end of the run, always a sign I’m feeling in good form.

Shoes
I’ve made a decision on the whole shoes dilemma I alluded to recently. The new GTS7s have got the nod: the old faithful GTS6s have been relegated to the interchange bench. This is based on a couple of positive runs in the 7s over the past few days, and the weather forecast, which is supposed to be fine.

Pacing
As mentioned a little while ago, I do have a target time in mind for the race, but as they say in James Ellroy books, I’m keeping it on the down-low. What I have done is print out a race-pace-band from Runner’s World UK.

The target time is right in the middle of where I feel I should be. In an ideal world I might go faster; if I go a little slower I won’t be too unhappy. I’m not going to get too worked up about it though – it’s mainly just to make sure I don’t start out too fast.

chasing trams

The entire Melbourne running community is working itself up about the new Melbourne Marathon course, which if you didn’t know, finishes on the MCG.

The overall tone seems pretty enthusiastic on Cool Running and Ausrun, with only some concern about the potential for a “wall of walkers” blocking the course.

Personally, I think the course looks pretty fantastic. Almost fantastic enough to tempt me into a second marathon for the year.

The only major problem I can foresee is the start time, which is before the first train makes it into town. Organisers never seem to think about this, but they should. Do they really want tens of thousands of people driving into town desperately looking for a parking spot?

Looking at that marathon course winding its way up and down St Kilda road (which still gives me nasty flashbacks to “the wall” in Marathon 2005) reminded me of my latest running mental game.

Chasing trams
There are only so many times you can run a lap of the tan, Albert Park Lake or even my beloved Princes Park before it all gets a bit Groundhog day. If you’re finding yourself going stir-crazy, try chasing trams for a change (this obviously only works in Melbourne).

Start somewhere on a tram line, my favourite is St Kilda junction as there are so many trams coming through, pick a tram and race it. Simple.

As I said, my favourite is St Kilda road, from the junction to Flinders street station, but I also like running from the top of Princes Park into Flinders Street (on the number 19 route).

Trams can obviously go a lot faster than runners, but they have to stop more often. Hence the competition.

And so the day idly passes.

tough guys don’t dance

I’m reading a book from the library at the moment called “Tough guys don’t dance” by Norman Mailer, which I chose simply because I like the title. I don’t dance; therefore I must be tough. That’s logical isn’t it?

Anyway, it’s an extremely good book; very nasty, and lots of mind altering substances. I’m up to the point where the narrator has woken up after a major, memory-warping bender, with a tattoo, the passenger seat of his Porsche covered in blood, a terrified dog, and a severed blond, female head buried near his marijuana plantation which may or may not belong to his wife. What a mess eh?

I had been feeling like a beer recently, occasionally even fantasising about foaming lager in some post-race Williamstown pub.

I’m reconsidering this.

Western suburbs and alcohol clearly don’t mix. Ask this guy, who got absolutely tanked and then drove 30km the wrong way up and down the Westgate freeway. Well done mate. If you’re going to lose your licence, you may as well do it thoroughly.

Marathon news
The race number arrived yesterday, finally. It’s all a bit low-key though. Just a normal, business sized envelope with a folded number, an A4 black-and-white course map and a couple of safety pins. Still, it’ll do the job I s’pose.

Running
An easy jaunt around the tan this lunch-time for me. I should be enjoying this relief from training, but it’s quite nerve-wracking. It just doesn’t seem logical, when you have to do a big long run in a few days, to do absolutely nothing.

Great Ocean Road Marathon
Quite a few Ausrun/Coolrunning–ers did this race on the weekend. It sounds beautiful and something I’d definitely like to do in the future, for no other reason than to say I’ve run an ultra-marathon. Tim Holding ran the thing in 4 hours something.