The Weakness In Me

My recovery from Six Foot has been faster than last year, perhaps because I walked so much of the 19k journey from Pluvi to Caves House. The slow death march did reveal a weakness in my running — poor endurance. I suspect the recent track season and associated lactic-acid-intense running has eroded my aerobic ability. Average heart-rates on the various courses I run are higher than they were when I was following Hadd.

Perversely, the speedwork and racing I did over summer actually made me slower. I'm one of those runners who don't respond well to fewer weekly miles. Especially when an ever increasing percentage of those miles are run anaerobically. My fastest 1500m race last year (5:38) came after 4 weeks of around 95 kilometres (59 miles) per week of mostly aerobic running. The day before that race I ran an easy 17.6k at 5:52 per km for an average heart-rate of 123. If I were to run the same course now at the same pace, my average heart-rate would be a solid grey 129.

Can I run faster for 3000 and 5000 metres? I hope so! My aerobic condition is less than it could be, which means my speed at 5k racing heart-rate (92-93% of max) is too slow. That's one obvious weakness. Another weakness is my lack of speed. I'm naturally slow and always have been — my 20-something PB for 200 metres is a modest 28.7 seconds. If I were to race 200 metres now I'd be around 5 seconds slower. But how much basic speed do I need? Which of my weaknesses should I work on? My 11:39 goal for 3000 metres only requires a pace of 46.6 seconds per 200 metres. Will improving my 200 speed by 3 seconds, say from 34 to 31, make me faster at three and five kilometres, or am I better off going back to a more Hadd-based aerobic programme? I think the latter. So, I'm modifying the programme I outlined in 'The 11:39 Plan'. I'll replace the 1000m intervals with another aerobic run, finishing with some short sprints. Sprints of less than 10 seconds use the alactic system so don't produce lactic acid, which makes them ideal for building strength and speed without damaging aerobic condition. I'll also try and run 100 kilometres per week — perhaps more if possible. If I get bored I'll listen to the Tower Of Robert Song album or tunes like this on my miniature portable music player.

It must be the Bellbirds

Saturday, 2:20 pm. At this time a week ago I was commencing the final two kilometre treacherous descent to the most welcoming finish line of any race in Australia. Well, the word race is a misnomer, as Six Foot is an event with no peer. It's an event where a sold-out field of 849 runners tested their endurance against 45 kilometres of the toughest terrain in the Blue Mountains.

Last year I finished with an unexpected PB. This year my 'Plan-A' was to run a similar sort of race, while 'Plan-B' was to make it safely to Caves House inside the 7-hour time limit, thus securing the mysterious and coveted belt buckle for six finishes. I was eight minutes behind PB schedule at the Pluviometer — 26 kilometres down and all the big climbs were over. Just 19 kilometres remained. Once the track along the Black Range became runable I broke into a Cliffy shuffle but as soon as I hit the next small rise I reverted to walking. I was gone. Time for 'Plan-B'. Lots of walking, slow running on the downhills and an eternity of time for thinking...

I wondered about what it is that draws me back to this event. It can't be the satisfaction of putting in a maximal all-the-way effort, for I don't have the endurance and hill running ability to do that. Maybe it's both the familiar and the different things you notice each year — like the soothing cool waters of the three streams after the Alum Creek aid station. Or the distant view of a line of people walking up to Pinnacle Hill. Or chatting to fellow runners before the start and on the dark, cool, damp steps of Nellie's Glen. This year there was enthusiastic ear-piercing screaming from a small cheer-squad on the Deviation which lifted me into a run until I was safely out of sight.

I just love the first 16 kilometres of Six Foot. It has such a variety of running and I like it all. It's an adventure! My favourite part is the final five kilometres down to the Cox's River — a narrow single-track of twists, turns, steps and rocks — running in a line of people all enjoying the same thing. There are many reasons why I keep coming back, but if pushed for a single one I'll just say "It must be the Bellbirds". For they have a song which is surely made in heaven — tinkling and shrill. I hear it from what must be hundreds of birds and I look high into the tree-tops for the source of such delightful sound. No wonder they inspired Henry Kendall to write his most loved poem.

Splits 2009: Nellie's (1.7k) 21:45, Megalong Valley Rd (8.1k) 53:36, Pinnacle Hill (10k) 1:04:37, Cox's River (15.5k) 1:42:22, Mini-Mini summit (20k) 2:30:33, Pluviometer (26k) 3:30:50, Caves Rd (37.9k) 5:18:20, Finish (45k) 6:23:23.

Splits 2008: Nellie's (1.7k) 19:25, Megalong Valley Rd (8.1k) 52:14, Pinnacle Hill (10k) 1:03:07, Cox's River (15.5k) 1:39:40, Mini-Mini summit (20k) 2:25:24, Pluviometer (26k) 3:22:28, Caves Rd (37.9k) 4:49:42, Finish (45k) 5:41:07.

It's not easy to walk, but easy to smile on the day after Six Foot

It took six years and 270 kilometres for the buckle

1964

I'm touched with nostalgia after stumbling across a fascinating documentary film from 1964. A year from my childhood. I was seven years old and remember all too distinctly the houses, the cars, the simple life, and Mum's cooking. I wasn't a runner, but did lots of running — playing games of hide and seek; chasing; British bulldog; cowboys and indians; backyard cricket and soccer. Like all children, we ran and walked to get places.

The film is about Peter Snell, "a tennis player who tried his luck at running". It's in two parts, and can be seen here. It shows Snell running in the Waiatarua hills, over farmland, up steep bush tracks and through suburban streets. You also get to see some of the races he ran on the grass and cinder tracks of the day. There's footage of some world records, including the 3:54.4 mile he ran on a grass track in Wanganui. In one particular race he finishes a distant third and says "I made up my mind after this disappointment I was going to get right into a build-up of 100 miles a week as soon as possible".

Most runners would know that Snell was a pupil of the legendary New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard. Although Snell was a middle distance runner, with the one mile his longest race, Lydiard convinced him to follow training methods which included a base-building stage of many weeks of running 100 miles per week. In the documentary it's revealed that the 100 miles per week in seven sessions was supplemented by morning runs of five miles.

My training diary shows I've only missed a little running with my dodgy back. The stretching and strengthening exercises seem to be doing the trick. I'm yet to attempt any hard workouts or races. The ACT Masters' 5000m Championship race is on this coming Thursday. I may not run though, as I'm doing a long run and walk through the Blue Mountains on Saturday morning.

Mum's kitchen looks just like this one from New Zealand!

Buckled Wheels

Have I told you lately how much I love running? In the 1980s I ran with a group in Lane Cove National Park. When we talked about runners who were injured, we'd refer to their wheels — as in "Hippie Steve's wheels have fallen off." We'd say the same thing if a runner failed to finish a race — "Jenny's wheels must have fallen off." Yes, we were indestructible heartless bastards!

Well, since Saturday afternoon my wheels have been off and on like those of a Formula One car. When on, they've been buckled. I've done two short runs — both Cliffy shuffles that had me feeling like Walt Kowalski chasing the neighbours from his front lawn. I did something to my back. I'm pretty sure it's a pinched sciatic nerve.

Today, standing up and walking is less painful, so I'll try another easy run this evening. This minor drama makes me think about how much I'd miss running if I were unable to do it. I'd miss it a lot. I first had this realisation after my second marathon in 1981 — a knee injury made me a spectator for five months. Since that time, I've always trained conservatively, hoping that keeping something in reserve will extend my time as a runner. I'd like to run until I'm old enough to say to the Walt Kowalskis of my neighbourhood "Hey young fella — back in my day we used to chase kangaroos to exhaustion around the grass track at Stromlo!"

Bad, mad, glad

I've been glutinous this week, finishing three races — all were ACT Masters Championship events. On Thursday evening, in astonishingly cool conditions after last week's heat-wave, I raced the 1500 metres. The 50-59 males were grouped together and I finished 6th (last) in a confusingly slow 6:03.49. I was hoping to run around 5:45. An hour later, still mad about my poor result, I competed in the 5000 metre race-walk. With no expectations, I was more than happy to place 2nd M50 in 29:49.61.

Yesterday morning, Canberra's soothingly cool weather was just about perfect for distance running (except for a persistent breeze which was a home-straight head-wind). I decided to race the 3000, rather than run for a time, having thought about Canute's comments in my last post: "maybe you are paying a bit too much attention to the stop-watch at the moment. Your ‘epic’ battle with Lily in the 800m last year demonstrates that it can be fun to set a different sort of race target from time to time". Fortuitously there were a number of runners with similar form to myself, which made for good racing.

Kilometre 1: I took up a position on the outside of the curved start-line, next to Speedygeoff. At the gun, I moved towards lane two, slotting in behind Gary and Nadine, with Carol and Amanda just behind. Gary was following Geoff, and set a perfect pace for the first kilometre, which we passed in 4:05.

Kilometre 2: This is the part of a 3k where I usually lose time. I was determined not to let any gaps open to my pace-makers ahead. Gary's pace slowed slightly running up the back straight, so Nadine went past, with myself and Carol following. Carol then overtook me, so I sat behind for half a lap before resuming a spot behind Nadine, who was running with great strength. I would have loved to have shared some of the pace-making with her, but I was at my limit and barely hanging on. 4:09 for the second kilometre.

Kilometre 3: Nadine drew inexorably ahead, stretching the elastic band until it snapped with the finality of Sylvester Stallone dropping Michelle Joyner in Cliffhanger. I was all alone for the last two laps, running with urgency, hearing frequent encouragement from spectators for my pursuer Gary. I looked around briefly with 300 metres to run and could see that he was gaining. I ran down the back straight as hard as my lactic-filled legs would allow, before going into full sprint mode for the last 100 metres. I could hear Gary raising a similar effort, and I didn't feel 'safe' until 20 metres before the finish-line. 4:12 for the last kilometre for a pleasing 12:26.26. It had been a fun race! Interestingly, the sprint-finish off a fast pace produced the highest maximum heart-rate I've recorded in recent years (167) — I had thought my maximum was around 164 to 165.

Afterwards I was presented with a silver medal for placing 2nd in the M50s — a great memento for what had been a memorable race!

ACT Masters Athletics present lovely medals to almost anybody!

A hot 3000

I ran in my first 3000 metre race for the year on Thursday evening. It was a Dog Day Evening — 33°C (91.4°F for Imperial readers). I'd spent the day working in higher temperatures, so was suffering an alleged "attitude problem" before the race even started.

I ran with restraint in the early stages, zeroing in on "slow Stromlo km repeat pace" — 4:10 for the first kilometre. Inexorably I drifted further behind the Katie/Geoff group, running a second kilometre that was more like 10k race-pace (4:28). With just over a lap to go, Bronwyn came flying past (on her way to a 15 second PB), so I chased with all my legs had (not much), finishing with a time of 13:00.05.

I'm fairly philosophical about the result. My hot weather racing has never been pretty. The effort was there, but the speed was absent. I should have a better idea of how I'm going when this heat-wave subsides. This morning I ran 5k at tempo effort on the lovely manicured grass at Stromlo which compared favourably to a similar session this time last year. Before the run I watched Australia's best distance runners racing for a place on the team for the World Cross Country Championships. Local runners Marty Dent and Emily Brichacek were inspirational, winning the senior men's and junior women's races.

Stromlo's dam was more inviting than it's manicured grass this morning

Collis Bermingham and Lee Troop lead after 2k with Marty Dent in 8th place

Dog Day Afternoons

This heat is starting to get to me. Canberra summers are supposed to be mild. If I wanted heat I'd move to Queensland! For the last few weeks, maximum temperatures have hovered in the mid-30s Celsius (95°F). Attempting to do quality training in those temperatures is no fun at all. As for racing any distance longer than 400 metres — forget it!

I must be going mad, as I find myself pining for a location-swap with up-over runners like Julie and Mike, who in a bleak northern winter are battling through snowy blizzards and slipping on icy footpaths.

The 11:39 plan is stumbling along, although my intervals at Stromlo are yet to produce the desired 3k race-pace speed. As the mercury rises, my times are becoming hysterically slower. On January 10 — 3 x 1000 metres in 3:53, 3:54 and 3:58. On January 17 — 3:58, 3:59, 4:05. On January 24 — 4:04, 4:00, 4:03. Yesterday — Speedygeoff decided to do something different — 1000, 2000 and 1000 metres. My times were 4:10, 9:23 and 4:13.

Thanks all for your thoughts about my training plan. Bob from Tokyo suggested taking scheduled rest days (one per week) as a way to ward off injury. Now Bob's a very fast runner (1:23 for the half marathon at 60), who's also training for a sub-3 hour marathon. In the 80s I used to always take the Friday off before the weekly Saturday cross country club race. However when I started running 7 days per week, my times improved. Now as a 51-year-old runner, I try to listen to my body, and do take a day off if I feel I need it. I am inclined though to perhaps schedule Friday for very easy running of 4 to 6 kilometres, instead of the 12 to 14 I've been doing.

I hope everyone has a great week. Stay cool!

In Death Valley it's 46 Celsius in the shade. In Canberra it's 10 degrees cooler!

The 11:39 Plan

Thanks all for your suggestions, encouragement, and stirring (Scott and wannabecoach), over the ruminations in my last post. It's time to type up my training plan for racing 3000 metres in 11:39.

Being a creature of habit — work, play, running with people, solitary runs in the bush — I've decided to go with a weekly plan. One of my sisters (the good-looking one with the American accent) gave me some books for Christmas. The one that I'm reading now is "Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach" by Brad Hudson. I'm not sure that I'll exactly follow one of Hudson's Adaptive Running plans, but there are some good ideas in the book that I hope to use, such as short hill sprints and peaking by increasing the amount of running at or near race-pace.

My weekly plan is also inspired by Constantina Tomescu-Dita's one-week plan which she repeats year-round with, according to Running Times, only slight variations for the season and distance from a goal race. As Canute and Mike have pointed out, consistency is one of my strong points, so I hope to retain that consistency and gradually tweak some of the training sessions. Following is a draft of my training plan, and I'm open to suggestions, even if you say "throw it in the bin and take up lawn bowls".

Monday - 16k with the Speedygeese (optional 4k at tempo or upper aerobic pace) - aerobic support
Tuesday - 10-12k from Calwell including steep hill sprints, and/or 'sprints' on the track (optional short easy run in the morning)
Wednesday - 14-16k flat, easy - aerobic support
Thursday - Short race (400, 800, 1500 or 3000), OR 10-12k at Calwell including drills
Friday - 12-16k easy (perhaps in two runs) - aerobic support
Saturday - Intervals at 3k race-pace (such as 3 x 1000 metres)
Sunday - 14-20k easy (perhaps in two runs) - aerobic support

Goal Setting for Runners

I've procrastinated too long. I need to set some race goals for 2009, and they're in this post. Does anyone else have the same trouble with setting goals? Last year I decided on the singular goal of running 11:07 for 3000 metres. At the time of my aberrant goal-setting, I really thought I had a chance of running such a time. It didn't happen.

I've got to say it was much easier setting goals when I was new to running. 25 years ago the PBs came my way with relative ease. I'd just select a goal that was faster than my current PB and aim for that. The toughest challenge I set myself was to break 10 minutes for 3000 metres. At the beginning of 1987 my PB was 10:24. I wanted to run "9-something" for 3k. As luck would have it, I had the opportunity to race weekly on the track throughout the year. My sequence of times were: 10:27 (March 19), 10:18 (April 2), 10:16 (April 16), 10:09 (May 14), 10:15 (June 3 on grass) and 9:56.5 (June 11). Finally, after 5 months of hard training and racing, sub-10! That time remains my lifetime PB for 3000 metres.

I like racing the 3000. This year I've lowered my expectations, which goes against my nature to aim high — "It's better to shoot for the stars and miss, than aim at the gutter and hit". Bill commented last post that I should stop being so hard on myself. Thanks Bill — training and racing with a more relaxed attitude sounds like the way to go. This year I'm aiming at the moon — still high, but I believe the 2009 version of myself has more than half a chance of landing on the moon.

Here are my racing goals for 2009:
3000 metres in 11:39 (main goal), 400 in 71, 800 in 2:42, 1500 in 5:34 and 5000 metres in 20:40.

20 seconds

I raced the 1500 metres at the combined ACT Masters/Interclub meeting last night. The only redeeming feature of my race was the absence of a sagging third leg, which no doubt will humour Steve in snowy Tokyo, as he savours yet another schooner of Belgian Tripel beer. My salchows for the 4 laps — 93, 96, 96 (sag-free), 70 (last 300 metres). Charlie Eppes will tell you that adds up to 5:55.56. Just over 6:21 per mile pace for a measly 1500 metres.

There were three heats, and Gerard Ryan, the ACT M35 record-holder with 3:55.43, was his usual cheery self as he marshalled the competitors. "You can all run C-grade!" he enthused, counting the remaining 18 runners after A and B-grades had been allocated. I positioned myself towards the outside of the starting line, next to Spody. His acceleration was characteristically slow, and I thought the pace was about right as I followed Spody to the first bend. As we ran into the home straight, he overtook a couple of runners while I sat behind them into the brisk head-wind. I pretty much followed Geoff S for the rest of the race, before he blitzed the last lap with natural 400 metre speed.

I was disappointed with my time. I ran off into the bushland behind the stadium for a solitary warm-down. I was mad about the difference 20 seconds can make. That much faster and I'd have been glowing for days, pleased to begin a new year with an M50 PB. Instead, I was gloomier than John Howard on election night. When I finally returned I was lucky to see a number of geese running brilliant 400 metre races. It looked fun! I've decided to race at least one 400 before the track season is over. If I can get to within 15 seconds of Susan's sub-60 PB I'll be extremely happy! I still haven't formulated any goals for 2009. I have decided to give the 10,000 metre race next Thursday a miss, and run the 3000 instead. Until then, I'll whistle a happy tune while training, as I dream about finding my own style, and running fast races. I hope everyone has a great weekend!