Something fairly basic

My main running goal for the remainder of 2006 is to run 5000 metres in under 20 minutes. There will be other goals along the way such as running the SMH Half Marathon and keeping Tesso in sight during the City to Surf but the sub-20 5k is the main one.

As a 45-49 aged runner my best 5000m time has been 20:25.0 in 2002. In recent years sub-21 minutes has been difficult, so how can I manage to turn things around? I plan to do something fairly basic... train for the event.

Running diaries are useful tools but they can sometimes be deceiving. Last year after looking at old diaries I said in a club magazine editorial that I "run poorly off low weekly mileage". I should have said "I sometimes I run better off higher mileage". With my best 3000 metre times, some were run off a preparation of 50-70 kilometres per week and others off 90-100.

So... what is low mileage? For me, it is 50-70 kilometres per week. Any mileage where you're not really bothered about adding it up. For an elite runner, low mileage might be 120-140 kilometres per week. Kathy from Calwell has shown me some interesting articles on mileage and training research which are worth reading.

During winter I plan to train 'around' the 5000 metre event. I will do speedwork where I run faster than 4 minutes per kilometre pace, 2k or 3k time trials at goal pace and steady but not slow 'other' runs for up to 50 minutes. There will also be short cross country races. The 'Sunday long run' is missing but every second or third week I might do a 60-75 minute run just because I like long runs!

In future posts I'll outline my planned training in more detail. It will be a modification of Frank Horwill's schedules. I want to have this plan accommodate Geoff's Parliament House sessions and the Calwell group's winter training.

On Any Sunday

Something happened yesterday which is more important to write about than my new training plan. It was the day of the Canberra Marathon and 50k Ultra. You couldn't have wished for a more spectacular and sparkling day to be enjoying the autumn sunshine.

I wasn't running the marathon. This year I was happy to finish my long training with the Six Foot Track trail run. Norma was racing the 50k so I decided to run around to various parts of the course, taking photographs and offering encouragement.

Horrie was running with her. His main job was to control the autograph hunters, CoolRunning cheer-squads and paparazzi. He was also timing the running and walking parts of Norma's race. The basic plan was to alternate running for 22 to 23 minutes with walking for 3:40 to 4 minutes.

It's fine to have a plan but the success of any plan is in the hands of the athlete. Norma, with the guidance of Horrie, executed the plan to perfection. The plan said the finish would be reached in 6 hours 35 minutes. Norma ran 6:32:28 to set an Australian W75 record for 50 kilometres. It was also a PB by over 20 minutes.

It could have been just another run on any Sunday past the familiar cow paddocks east of Mittagong instead of the last chance to set this record. She'd completed another long run. It was a good one.

[My other photographs from the weekend are on CoolRunning]

I slept in

It's a beautiful cool and sunny morning. I was going to ride into town and watch the Women and Girls' Fun Run but I slept in. Is this a sign that I'm not getting enough sleep?

Today there's a race in Port Macquarie which I'll follow on the internet. It's an Ironman race and these things take as long as a working day plus overtime. There's also the World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka to chase results for... Go Benita, go Craig and go Marty!

This week I indulged in a little retail therapy by purchasing some new shoes from Brian's shop – The Mizuno Wave® Rider™ 9. Okay, so they're not made of satin and don't give the high of chocolate but they're very comfortable. Not quite as slipper-like as the Frees but for a substantial trainer they're good.

I was in need of retail therapy because I'm still wallowing in that lull between finishing a big event and starting a program for the next one. There are a number of opportunities to achieve my next goal which is to run 5000 metres in under 20 minutes. Track racing doesn't commence again until October so I'll be running some short cross country races and fun runs before then.

I'll outline the program I plan to use to achieve this goal in my next post.

Too emotional

I cried. Twice. Watching Kerryn McCann winning the Commonwealth Games Marathon yesterday had me with tears running down my cheeks. Her battle with the young Kenyan runner Hellen Koskei over the final 4 kilometres was brilliantly captured by the television cameras.

The second occasion was that afternoon when Steve Moneghetti presented Kerryn with her gold medal and they hugged for a long time.

I remember reading about Kerryn in Fun Runner magazine in the early 1980s. She was yet another promising junior runner. In September 1986 I ran with her for many kilometres in the Mercury Tooheys Wollongong Half Marathon. At the age of 18 she won the race in 82:54. Twenty years later, she has won a race that will be remembered for a very long time. A race that will define her career and also define the essence of what it means to win on guts and emotion.

I've been feeling a bit flat since the Six Foot Track. You train for a big event for months and suddenly it's over. The Canberra Marathon is on in less than three weeks. Norma has been battling an injury but, thankfully, it looks like she'll make the starting line. What happens after the gun is a mystery. I hope it's a mystery with a happy ending. I think I can cope with happy emotions.

Where the bloody hell was I?

I thought about subtitling this story 'A slow and lingering death out on the Black Range'. Unfortunately the photo Plu took shows me appearing to be out for a relaxing Saturday afternoon jog. In reality, I put on an Oscar-winning performance for the short run past his lens.

This was my third 'race' of the 45km Six Foot Track. There was also the non-race 'Slow Version' last November. On Saturday morning I was feeling quite excited about the coming day. Breakfast at the Youth Hostel with the rest of Gramp's Army was a great beginning although my two muffins and honey seemed woefully inadequate after seeing race-winner Emma Murray tucking into a big bowl of muesli and bananas.

I think my day was locked into a slow spiral of death with a snap decision. This was very strange as snap decisions are not my forte. I lined up in the middle of the third wave of runners with Elizabeth and Chris. We made quite a bit of forward progress before the steps and only had to queue up for about 15 seconds before commencing the descent of Nellies Glen.

I started to get excited when we reached the fire trail in 20:19 (about 10 minutes quicker than my two previous runs). Elizabeth and Chris were running at a good pace and I made my snap decision to stay with them. It was three hours later when I realised my folly. Our sub-5 minute km pace had us passing many runners including a chap from the 'B' wave which had started 15 minutes earlier!

Our focus was such that we pursued a large group of runners 'up the garden path' into a property rather than turning right and following the 6 foot track signs. A couple of runners up ahead stopped and surveyed the scene explorer-style, both with one had pointed and the other scratching their heads. Soon, they jumped the fence and bolted across the paddock. I followed as did the rest of the sheep and soon we were back on the right track after a 300 metre detour. This got the adrenaline going and I raced the single-track down to the Cox's River with some purpose.

After wading through the cool water I very soon made a second snap decision... I'd walk the uphills. I mean, most people were using this technique. Notable exceptions were Elizabeth, and later on the Pluviometer, Mike W. My split at the river had been 1:40:42. As this was 30 minutes faster than last year I was confident about finishing in under 6 hours. My PB was (and still is) 6:18:10.

The 4km ascent of the Mini Mini hill went well at about 11 minute kilometre pace. I ran down to Alum Creek still with quite a crowd of runners in view ahead and behind. I splashed through the small creeks and began the next 4km climb to the Pluviometer. This was getting difficult! Near the top, Mike W joined me for a while before running on ahead. I crossed the Pluvi timing mats in 3:35:28, still 29 minutes quicker than last year. I still thought sub-6 was possible. That thought was soon shaken out of my blood-starved brain on the stony trail of the Black Range.

I walked much more of the Black Range than last year and soon realised even a PB was out of the question. When James M caught me at the Deviation I was calculating whether I could make it to the Jenolan Caves as an official (sub-7 hour) finisher. At this stage it was all I could do to keep walking. The few times I tried jogging were a bit wobbly so I put that thought aside. I didn't want to fall over!

I lost count of the number of runners who went past after Caves Road. One of these was Chris who was ridiculously cheerful. At long last, the trail tilted down for the final time. I managed a slow run for the last few hundred metres. It was great when the announcer, Belinda, called my name plus I heard a few other yells of "Go Ewen", "Go Wombat" and "Where the bloody hell were you?" from the crowd. My finishing time was 6hrs 56:09. I placed 675th. There were 696 sub-7 hour finishers and 718 from 757 starters who made it to From Katoomba to Jenolan Caves.

Three's a good number

I gave the track & field meeting a miss tonight. My enthusiasm for the track has been on the wane since the bad 1500 metre race a month ago. Instead I rode the mountain bike down to Calwell and just did a warm-up and warm-down run plus some drills. I'm very keen to commence a new training program after the Six Foot Track.

Yesterday I decided to try one of the sessions from this program - aerobic repetitions at 10k race pace. I remembered that Jim often used the bike path next to the floodway for fast running. I didn't want slow numbers and this would be easier than running long repeats on the grass of Calwell. The plan was to do 3 x 2000 metres with an 800 metre jog recovery. I thought three would be a good number of hard efforts to get the feel of this session as I've rarely done repeats longer than 1000 metres. I set the Forerunner GPS to measure the distances.

For the first half, the session went quite well although try as I might, I couldn't get my 'current pace' faster than 4:30/km. The first mainly downhill 2km was completed in 9:12 - not bad I thought. I jogged slowly for 800 metres then took off again turning back near Monash after about 1400 metres. The second 2km took 9:11. After another even slower 800 jog I took off near the bridge for the last repeat. I was running slightly uphill, but worse than that, I was into a bloody headwind! The third 2km seemed to take forever, and it did - 10:00.

I jogged home thinking this had been a good reaquaintance with faster running. I'd managed to cover 6km at 4:44 per kilometre. Not quite 10k race pace but at least I'd made my legs move faster than they normally would on a Wednesday run. The plan is taking shape!

The Long Runs – Goodnight

Yesterday I completed my last long run in preparation for the Six Foot Track 45k trail run. The group started from Molonglo Reach and ran around the golf course at Duntroon and up to the saddle of Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura.

It was blessedly cooler than last Saturday but again promising to be a warm morning. Everyone was still pretty much together up at the horse stile 4.5k into the run. For me this had been a bit of an effort as we'd been running at 5:35/km pace - quicker than I like on an early morning long run. Steve, Elizabeth, John, Zel, Gordon and Carol were running easily and looking strong.

Thankfully Steve had decided to do an easier run and we didn't climb to the summit of Majura, stopping at the '4-ways' to admire the fantastic views to the south-east. Once back at the base of Ainslie I let the hares run off ahead while I plodded on at a more civilised and comfortable pace. Surprisingly the stragglers were still admiring the view and drinking from the tap when I reached the summit of Ainslie. The last 8k of my 28.3k run was difficult. My running pace had slowed to 7:00/km while the kilometres I walked were around 9:00/km pace. Still, the run bore no comparison to last week's disaster.

So, for me, it's goodnight to the long runs. Next Saturday Steve has said we'll run 15k or so around the base of Ainslie then the following Saturday a leisurely 45 kilometres through the beautiful Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

In the afternoon I was still 'living' so I rode the GSX out to the track to watch the ACT T&F Championships. It was a warm and windy afternoon - less than ideal for the 1500 metre events. Some runners ran surprising PBs while others were perplexingly slow. Ben ran a brilliantly paced race to win the U20 event in 4:08 off a 3-week preparation. Many of the younger runners from Calwell ran exceedingly well in both the 1500 and 400 metre races while one of the older ones was disappointed with her 5:10. I just said "the good days will come, besides, there's always the 800 metre race tomorrow".

All still smiling

I'm still in recovery mode after yesterday's long run. It was very difficult - harder than the 40 kilometre run/walk of the previous Saturday. Steve Appleby had decided to take his 6ft group over Mount Rob Roy and beyond for 'about' 35 to 38 kilometres.

I joined them at the Calwell Shops and we ran across the oval and onto the track behind Theodore. The sun was rising to a cloudless blue-sky morning and, already at 7.20am, it was ominously warm at 20 degrees C.
We all carried extra water. I had an 800ml bottle of 'Mizone' in addition to the 700ml in my fuel belt. This would prove to be woefully inadequate.

Some sections of the tracks on the northern ascent of Rob Roy are incredibly steep. One particular rock-strewn hill reduced even Steve and Elizabeth to a walk. After 14km we re-grouped at the very ancient trig station on the summit of Rob Roy. Zel took a couple of photos with his mobile phone. At this stage we were all still smiling.

Soon we were off on a free-fall descent down the south-eastern side, dropping about 300 metres in 3 kilometres. Once through the paddocks at the bottom we turned right and commenced climbing again. I walked all these uphill bits. I could see that Catherine and Mike were using a combination of walking and jogging. Chris was jogging slowly and I presume Elizabeth, Steve, Zel and John were jogging quickly.

I wasn't having a good day and decided to take the shortest route home. I was rationing my water. There was a cool breeze blowing on the high plains which disguised the energy-sapping sun. I was walking, but quite slowly as I knew I was suffering from dehydration. I was thinking "How bad is this! I'll be glad when it's over".

This was the opposite to my mood on Thursday night. How good had that been! Luckylegs, in her first race on the track had missed the world mile record for a 75+ female by just 7.48 seconds. This was in spite of me telling her to chase Cory who I thought was in the same age-group. I was shocked by Cory's seemingly suicidal fast start. I know she has good genes from daughters Sarah and Melanie, but... that good? Luckylegs took it all in her stride running a very even-paced race to establish an ACT record for W75s - 9:06.88. Afterwards we celebrated at Dickson with Aki and Flash Duck.

I rested in the shade of an old Eucalypt on the descent of Rob Roy and gathered myself for the final plod through the bush to Theodore. After 29km in 4 and a half hours I was home and downed two big glasses of Coke before lowering my salt-covered body into bed. It was so good to be lying down! I didn't have the energy to drive to the Murrumbidgee where the other Six Footers had planned a swim. I just slept.

Two fast ladies

This week I ran with two different women. Yes, I run around. On Wednesday I had the pleasure of introducing Luckylegs to the track at the AIS. She was very keen to try out the facilities and have a run before attempting a race on the track.

It was a perfect Canberra motorcycling day which meant it was probably a tad warm for running. LL's better half, Jim, was there to supervise and make sure we didn't run or ride out of sight. The running part of the session was to be one mile.

Before starting, I timed LL over a number of 50 metre runs so she could get a feel for the right pace. The goal mile time was to be 9 minutes which meant running these 50s in 16.77 seconds. In the first of these LL must have been out to impress Patrick Johnson and Nova Batman who were both casting an eye in our direction as she ran a blistering 13 seconds for the 50 metres.

After a while she had the pace right so we walked around to the curved line with 'MILE' written next to it. The next 4 laps of the track were very interesting. For the first two laps it was all going quite well - only 3 seconds behind schedule after one lap and about 5 seconds after two. Then, during the third lap LL's pace slowed dramatically. Thankfully she switched to 'reserve' and spluttered back to life. The rest of LL's mile was difficult but she made it to the finish in 9:30.2.

In retrospect, the goal time of 9 minutes was too quick considering her present training is aimed at completing the Canberra 50km Ultra at a much slower pace.

On Thursday I ran with another fast lady during her warm-down after a track session. We chatted about her 3000 metre track race on Tuesday. Kathy lamented not being able to break 10:40 after being 'with' Andrea (10:36) and Ruth (10:37) in the back straight with less than 300 metres to run. Kathy ran 10:45 which is still a very respectable time for a lady somewhat older than 45.

Kathy put her slow finish (42 second last 200m) down to not practising enough fast 200s in training. Most of her interval training this summer has been at 19 to 21 seconds per 100 metre pace. Her legs are very used to running this pace but they objected when asked to run faster at the end of the race.

It was a learning experience for me to hear from two fast ladies with a similar problem.

It's difficult teaching rats to run

I'm still a slow runner. I don't think I can do anything about it until after the 11th of March - the day of the Six Foot Track Marathon.

I don't want to suffer in this race so I'm still doing long slow runs in training - 29km yesterday in a bit over 3 hours. I'm finding it hard to change my form in other training sessions from the ultra runner's shuffle.

I've been thinking about the benefits of slow, or more accurately 'low heart-rate' training, since reading the article mentioned by Robert Song. One of the findings mentioned in this article was that the maximum improvement in slow twitch muscle fibres of laboratory rats occurred when they did long runs at 50-70% of VO2max (low heart-rate running).

One thing you can't do with laboratory rats is change the way they run. You can't teach them to run with the expansive stride of a Sebastian Coe. Rats only have one way of running - a shuffle. When running 'fast', it's a fast shuffle. A shuffling stride is only good if you want to be an ultra-distance runner. Yiannis Kouros would have a very high development of mitochondria but his best marathon time of 2:25 was quite modest.

Frank Horwill summed up the laboratory rat research of Gary Dudley this way: "To bring about the greatest adaptive response in mitochondria, the length of daily exercise becomes less as the intensity of the exercise is increased."

There's a great benefit to be had from learning the running form used by good middle distance athletes. By learning the shape and quickness of their stride pattern. If you can do this you'll be able to run faster over 800 and 1500 metres. Your longer races will feel easier because the speed of these is so much slower than your newly aquired middle distance speed.