A season's best

I've just woken from a nap, after running the Cotter 18-mile. It was a spectacular morning. The sky was bluer than blue. At the top of Yellow Rabbit Road, the air had such clarity that the distant silhouette of Black Mountain Tower was etched sharply on the skyline.

Running with friends makes such mornings special. It was a select group – Steve (who happily jogs at whatever speed is going), CJ (who runs up hills like they're smooth concrete footpaths), Strewth (who waits patiently until a lazy wombat catches up), Chris (who makes sure nobody gets lost) and Jill (who never complains when we say "the hills are over, now it's flat").

I also had a friend who selflessly volunteered to pace me on Thursday night. This was the last track night of the season, the main event being the ACT Veteran's 5000 metre Championships. It was also my last track race as an M45. Next season I'll be joining the ranks of the really crusty and ancient M50s!

I was very keen to run faster than the 'Free Beer 5000', and set a goal of sub-22 minutes. Katie, a member of the Speedygeese, offered to pace me at laps of 1:45. She did a beautiful job – I didn't know she was capable of such precision. The 3000m split was 13:02.4, five seconds ahead of schedule. I slowed slightly in the fourth kilometre, but just concentrated on sticking with Katie. I managed to raise a modest sprint in the last lap to finish in 21:45.27, a season's best. Very happy with that! It had been a great night to end the season – thanks Katie, and thanks Geoff for encouraging the Speedygeese!

There was another runner who had a good race on Thursday night. I run with her on the grass track at Calwell – well, I do the warm-ups and warm-downs with her! Kathy is really old. She's been a W50 for ages. On Thursday, she demolished the ACT W50 record (held by none other than Rosemary Longstaff), by 1 minute 27 seconds, running 18:27.97. This was also 12 seconds under her ACT W45 record, and according to Robert Song's calculator, is equivalent to 16:02 for a 30-year-old. Well done Kathy!

Farewell to the Mountains and Valleys

After Six Foot I took six days off running – there's something nice and symmetrical about that. The quads were sore until last Thursday. On Saturday I ran with the group from Molonglo – just a 'lap' of Mount Ainslie – 16.3km. Strewth made us run up the hills. How mean! She was also first back to the cars, and ran a further 18k around the lake! Steve seemed fairly happy to have run his fastest Six Foot for 3 years (4:50:00), and was looking forward to the Glasshouse 80k in May.

It's with some sadness that I bid farewell to the mountains and valleys. My next big thing will be May's SMH Half Marathon, in the city and alleys. I'll decide on a goal time closer to the event, but under 100 minutes would be a good step towards my stated Gold Coast goal of 95:29. Both these times seem bloody fast right now. Speaking of half marathons, there's a great video from Flotrack of Ryan Hall running 59:43 in the Houston Half. That's fast!

When I'm out doing the long runs for Sydney, I'll recite in my mind the words from Henry Kendall's poem, thus reminding myself of the uplifting challenge enticing me back to the mountains next year...

By the channels of coolness the echoes are calling,
And down the dim gorges I hear the creek falling;
It lives in the mountain where moss and the sedges
Touch with their beauty the banks and the ledges.
Through breaks of the cedar and sycamore bowers
Struggles the light that is love to the flowers;
And, softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing,
The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.

6.30am Saturday 'Before'




Saturday night at the RSL club. Me (6:24:55), Carol (5:37:50), John (5:30:18), Bobby (Carol's better half), Anita (5:00:53), Roger (5:17:52), Elsa (Mike's better half), Mike (6:09:54)

The 2P Crown Affair

Sipping on a hard earned cold Crown Lager at Jenolan Caves, the thought of blaming 2P for my current state of exhaustion briefly crossed my mind. His enthusiasm for this race is contagious – he often says he only runs to support his Six Foot habit. Being a rather curious wombat, I'm susceptible to catching the odd bug that's floating around the farmyard. I think I've caught Six Foot Fever.

My race went quite well for a very long time. Five hours is a very long time. Somewhere out on the Black Range I had a vision of Forrest Gump when he stopped running in Monument Valley, Utah and said: "I'm pretty tired... I think I'll go home now". To make it home, I still had to negotiate the Deviation, followed by the single track to the Binda Cabins.

Once past the cabins, my limited mathematical ability permitted me to calculate a possible sub-6:30 finish time... if I started running. I managed to do this, and surprisingly, didn't feel too bad. On the final downhill, a pale-faced Don Juan said my calves were looking good, so I took off and passed a dozen or so runners before the finish. 45 kilometres in 6 hours, 24 minutes and 55 seconds for 618th place! So, a comfortable finisher's medal, but the sub-6 hour goal survives for 2008.

One of the other highlights of Six Foot is meeting so many CoolRunners. I enjoyed long chats with Kevin Tiller, Fryer, CJ, IDW and Plu at the Edge Theatre. Then, on race day, there were far too many names for a poor wombat brain to remember... Horrie, Gnomey, Tiger Angel, Cirque, Kit, Owly, Don Juan, Wildthing, ORunner and Jen_runs. Thanks Jen for an enjoyable walk down Nellies! After the finish, so many more... R2B (great debut Adrian), Go Girl (next year), 2P (the best beer I've ever tasted mate), CJ (you looked too fresh), Spud, Lulu, Tim, Will, Colin, Awiseman and Superflake (bring on Canberra). Then, of course, a few of the members of my 2nd-placed team – "KoolACTrunners (Gramp's Army)"... Trev (legend), Velcro, Aunty, Stu, Scotty, DaveO, Hugh, Mario, Nick, Carol, Steve, Mike, John and Anita.

This was my 100th post. I made it to the other side of the river. I didn't fall, or do anything foolish (although I had two classic 'mid-air running' stumbles). My silly human pride survives intact. Bring on the 8th of March, 2008!

[Splits: Nellies - 29:43, Megalong Valley Rd - 1:06:20, Cox's - 1:57:01, Pluvio - 3:47:08, Deviation - 4:57:18, Finish - 6:24:55]

Stand tall, don't you fall

Providing I don't "do a CJ" or "do a Tuggeranong Don" between now and March 10, this will be my last post before the Six Foot Track.

David Kilby played a song on the radio this afternoon. Some of the lyrics describe my state of mind a week out from what promises to be an exciting, arduous and very long day... "Stand tall, don't you fall - For God's sake don't go and do something foolish - All you're feeling right now is silly human pride".



This is not the original artist, but I think it suits my purpose better. 'Steve' used to be a half decent runner, just like a mate of mine. He mightn't have a recording contract, but he's out there doing something he loves. [If you have a slower connection, let it play, then click 'watch again' to hear Steve in all his glory] *

In a comment on my last post one of the Queensland contingent asked if I was going to do a 30+km run the Saturday before Six Foot. I was tempted to reply with "Folks are dumb where Clairie comes from", but I won't, as I don't want to be on the receiving end of a punch in the guts. My final long run was last Saturday (24 February), a successful 3 hours 37 minutes for 34.3 kilometres.

Tesso wondered if I'd fired up the Cow-culator yet to work out my race pace. The kids at Calwell are often told that a race will be 'successful' if it's executed well, or run according to plan. If this is done, the finishing time, or PB, will take care of itself.

My plan is to start near the back and run as easily as possible to the Cox's River in 1 hour 55 minutes (7:25/km pace). I want to arrive at the summit of the last big hill, the Pluviometer in 3 hours 51 minutes (11:00/km for 10.5k of hills). After that, I'm at the mercy of the course. If I'm able to run at more than a cow-amble along the Black Range, a time of around 6 hours is possible. If not, I'll be hanging out for Plu and the sub-7 hour finisher's medal.

Thanks everyone for your encouragement! See you on the other side of the river. :-)

* Sadly, the original youtube video has disappeared, so I've replaced it with a 2011 performance from Burton.

Strewth, Six Foot is almost here!

I did an udder long run on Saturday. By the way, that is Strewth's pun, so don't blame me! It was a beautiful run, helped in part by 'cool' weather and low humidity. Anything under 20C seems cool these days. A hot-air balloon floated high above the lake and the surrounding landscape was mirrored in the still water.

The first 11.5k of our run was around the green oasis of the Duntroon playing fields, then up into the inviting bush of Mount Ainslie. A mob of kangaroos joined our run for a time, bounding along the fence line. The cutest joey, just out of the pouch, watched our progress, nervously waiting for his mum to return.

The speedy runners left Strewth and myself behind, so we were surprised to catch Carol (walking with a dodgy ankle) just before the Ainslie summit trail. After filling the water bottles at the War Memorial, we ran down Anzac Parade to the lake. The rest of the run out to the Yacht Club and back was very pleasant. That is, until the Wetlands when I started spluttering for fuel. We ran this evil out and back section towards Fyshwick, thus ensuring we were close to 30 kilometres before reaching the cars. Thanks Strewth. You kept me going for those last couple of kilometres.

By the time we reached the cars, we had run 29.5km. I was buggered. For once I ignored my pedantic tendencies and stopped running at 3 hours 6 minutes and 21 seconds. Strewth however, continued on, covering 30.5k for the morning! So... one more 3 hour-plus run next Saturday and then it's taper time. Woohoo!

My right foot

I'm wondering if I've developed an oversensitivity to potential injuries. The bovine kind have me especially worried – calf, hide, udder and hoof to name a few.

My right hoof was feeling strange on Thursday and Friday. I had an aching feeling on top of the foot which made me walk with a limp. I didn't run, hoping it would clear up before my long run on Saturday. The pain miraculously disappeared and it was all good.

We ran from the Molonglo River, towards Campbell Park and around the base of Mount Ainslie. From the War Memorial, I ran with Ruth down to the 'dead flat' of the lake. A very pleasant run continued around the Central Basin of LBG and 'home' via the Jerrabomberra Wetlands. I said 'arrivederci' to Ruth and ran an extra 7k around Duntroon to Campbell Park and return.

So... 30.2 kilometres in a bit under 3 hours 15 minutes. This is well short of the six to seven hours I'll need to finish the Six Foot Track. Still, the fact that I finished comfortably gives me confidence for the 45km journey on March 10. It was also my 4th run of over 3 hours since 1 January.

Afterwards, I caught up with fellow CoolRunners and bloggers Strewth, CJ and Jen_runs for lunch and a coffee at Valentino's in town. Jen is running her first Six Foot in March and has been hampered by a recent hip injury. Luckily it's not bovine in nature, so I'm sure she'll do well.

The free beer 5000

There's nothing like the incentive of a friendly wager to fire up the motivation. After my City-to-Surf induced calf injury I had a bet with 2P about who'd be first to run a sub-23 minute 5k. 2P needed to shed a bag of concrete, whilst I was out of shape and scared of farm animals.

On September 29, I raced the Customs Handicap in 27:13. In October, the calf started mooing again, but it finally settled down at the end of the month. Since then, I've been trying to get fit enough to attempt the sub-23.

On January 11 I raced the first 5k of the ACT 10,000m Championships. I tried forlornly to stay with CJ. She dropped me after 2k and went on to be first female in 45:25.08 and ACT Champion for 2007! When I stopped my watch after twelve and a half laps, it showed 23:09.3. Close, but no beer.

Last night at the ACT Vet's meeting I was quietly confident. It was unusually cool (although windy) when the 5000 metres started at 8.30pm – pretty good conditions. After the start, I fell in with a group which included Amanda (from Speedygeoff's farm). I somewhat guiltily followed Amanda as she led into the wind on each lap. She did a 'CJ' not long after 2k (8:43) and left me to my own devices. I imagined 2P was not far behind, near Allrounder (who said afterwards she enjoyed running in circles).

'Running scared' worked. I passed 3000m in 13:19 and knew I'd have to hit a 'Black Range' in the last 2k to miss the sub-23. The fourth kilometre dragged (as it does in a 5000), but I managed a bit of a gallop in the last lap to see a 'free beer' finishing time of 22:32.41. I was one very happy wombat!

Guilty of being grey

Last night I hiked up the hill behind my place and sat amongst a mob of Eastern Grey Kangaroos looking at Comet McNaught. It was so far away, yet flying brightly above the Brindabella Ranges. We live in a wonderful universe.

There was a forum topic on CoolRunning Australia recently about altitude training. One response caught my eye. It was from V02, who attended an elite training camp at Falls Creek:

"Probably the single piece of advice that had the greatest influence over how I train was Nic's [Nic Bideau] view that most training sessions should be either 'white' (easy recovery runs) or 'black' (hard workouts designed to maximise a specific training effect). Most runners spend too much time doing 'grey' workouts, so they get sub-optimal training and sub-optimal recovery. After seeing how slowly Mottram did his easy runs, and how unbelievably hard he pushed his quality sessions, I was convinced of the wisdom of what Nic was saying and tried to apply this to my own training."

Guilty as charged! I'm a grey runner (or have been). My hard sessions have been wimpy and my recovery runs have been 'pushing it'. I'm fixing the second problem by using a heart-rate monitor. For 'white' runs, I try to keep my heart rate as low as possible – currently between 120 and 129 (73 to 78% of my 165 maximum). For me, this is a pace of around 6 minutes per kilometre – about 40% slower than my 5k race pace.

At the moment, my 'black' training consists of two types of sessions:
1) A long run of 2 hours 30 minutes or more including some hills.
2) Track sessions at Calwell or a track race. For the track sessions, I'm still following the plan I talked about in 'How to run faster'. Yesterday my 200s were under 40 seconds (39.1 average and maximum heart rate of 160). To me, this feels fast, but I'm sure I look like a Mack truck lumbering over the grass. In time I hope to look like a Falcon GT. There are plenty of quicker cars, but the GT is fast enough.

D is for Difficult

Yesterday I covered 30 kilometres around and over Canberra's northern hills. I say 'covered', instead of 'ran' because there was much walking involved. My time for the 30k was just under 3 hours 45 minutes, for a paint dryingly slow average pace of 7:27 per kilometre.

For the first 18k I had the company of Steve, CJ and John. Well, I caught them at the drink stops and used some extravagant downhill running to stay with CJ. As fate would have it, I eventually did a 'Tuggeranong Don', not on the rock-strewn descent of Trent's hill, but on the relatively smooth trail near the gun club. Embarrassingly, CJ was right behind to witness my dusty demise.

After the first lap, the others sprinted off towards the rollercoaster while I plodded up Mount Ainslie for the second time. In one way I'm glad I had to walk so much in the last hour because I'll be using that form of propulsion quite a bit at the Six Foot Track. 7:27/km (or 12 minute miles) is scary, because if I averaged that on March 10 I'd finish in 5 hours 35 minutes, a PB of 43 minutes. That is not going to happen. Six Foot will be difficult.

It was also difficult last Thursday night. Luckylegs was in town to race the 800 metres at the AIS track. At the time she ran, it was 35 degrees (95F). A gentle run in that temperature isn't easy, let alone running at maximum effort for 2 laps of the track. I'm still quite amazed that she ran a 15 second PB (4:16.54). For a 77-year-old lady to run at 5:21 per kilometre pace... Wow!

Wishing and Hoping

I've finally chosen some running goals for 2007. It wasn't easy. As I've been way short of achieving my goals for the past two years, I agonised over whether to make them moderate or challenging.

In the end, I've gone for challenging but realistic. In setting these goals, I've used the Age Equivalent Times Calculator to come up with some times comparable to those I regularly ran in my thirties. I haven't gone for PB times as I'm not as driven to achieve PBs as I was back then. I've gone for 'average good racing times'.

So... here are my goals for 2007:

1) Track times - 1500m in 5:27, 3000m in 11:40, 5000m in 20:46.
2) Road times - 10k in 43:33, Half Marathon in 95:29, City to Surf in 62 minutes.

In addition to these, I plan on running the Nail Can Hill Run and the Six Foot Track Marathon. This will be my fourth Six Foot and my plan this year is to enjoy it and finish comfortably under the 7-hour time limit. Secretly, I'd like to run under 6:30, however, I don't want to spoil my track season by doing ridiculously long, hilly runs in training. I plan on running with Steve's group on Saturdays, but doing the smallest long runs I think will get me to Jenolan Caves.

By the way, my new profile photo was taken in eastern California at the Imperial Sand Dunes. It's a self portrait as Joy and Mal didn't want to get out of the car. It was hot!