Well, that last post pretty much speaks for itself, doesn’t it? Here are the official numbers…

Week 9 distance: 21.65mi (34.7km)
Week 10 distance: 11mi (18km)
Week 11 distance: 26mi (42km)

So I had about a 20% increase from my last long-distance week, which is exactly what I was supposed to have. I feel surprisingly good today. My legs are a little sore, but it’s nowhere near as bad as I expected. I’m really impressed with how quickly my body is able to recover from these stresses. (But don’t worry; I’m still going to take it easy this week.) I’m also happy to report that I’ve lost six pounds since my return from the US! Granted, most of that was weight that I put on while I was there, but it’s nice to see things moving in the right direction again. I’d really love to lose some more before the race next month.

She’s going the distance…
According to my training schedule, I’m meant to do a 15-mile run today. That’s 24km. That’s two miles farther than the actual half-marathon. I was debating pushing it back a week just to give my quad injury a little extra time to heal… but it’s been feeling good, and I plan on taking a lot of walk-breaks. I’ll take some cash and my bus pass in case of emergency. I plotted a route and, man, I’m going to be covering a lot of ground. I bought a hydration belt yesterday so I can easily carry water and energy gel with me. I’m kinda looking forward to this!

3.5 hours later: Holy crap. I did it. That’s the longest run I’ve EVER done. I accidentally stopped the iPod workout twice, so it got recorded in three segments. All up, the total was 24.87km (15.45mi). It took me 186.5 minutes, which is just over three hours. My new hydration belt was BRILLIANT and I’m so glad I had it. I had prepared over the previous 24 hours by loading up on water with Endura, and I filled my four little bottles with it as well. I had a Gu “Vanilla Bean” pack 15 minutes before I started, and I took three more at the 45, 100, and 145 minute marks. (The packs fit so nice in the little pouch on my belt!)

Okay, so the run itself…The first 5K felt way too easy. I was having one of those magical times when you’re able to maintain pace with what feels like no effort at all. I had to restrain myself from going faster, knowing that though my right quad was fine at the moment, I didn’t want to have to quit after an hour. I found myself at the start of the Bay Run run and joined loads of people making their way by foot and bicycle around Iron Cove. It was a beautiful spring day. I was doing four minutes of running with one minute of walking, and making sure to take a sip from my bottles on the walk breaks. I knew there was a water fountain halfway around where I could refill… but to my dismay, the stupid thing only dispensed the water STRAIGHT UP. For the life of me, I just couldn’t get any of it into the bottles. (It only occurred to me later that I maybe could have put my finger over the nozzle to redirect it.) Luckily, I found another fountain near the kids’ soccer park back around by the bridge, and as this was a side-shooter, I refilled all my bottles. Then it was back up Victoria Road and over the Anzac Bridge. Yeah, that was a hard climb. My left quad was actually starting to hurt at this point, and the anti-inflammatory was wearing off on my right one. I just tried to concentrate hard on keeping good form and using my core to hold myself upright as best I could. That seemed to help. I crossed the bridge at Darling Harbour and decided to make another pit stop. I used the toilet there and refilled my bottles from the sink. I also had the brilliant inspiration to soak my baseball cap. That made things a lot more pleasant. I climbed up into the CBD and crossed into the park. There were so many people out enjoying the day, tourists and locals alike. I ran down Art Gallery Road and spotted another water fountain where I did my third and final refill. At this point I had less than 5K to go, and I knew I was crossing the threshold into uncharted territory. This is when I started to HURT. I started to feel like I was falling apart in a way I haven’t felt since my first City2Surf. With every step the pain was exploding in my legs: my feet, my shins, my knees, my hamstrings, my quads, my hips. I had to fight the urge to hunch over and shuffle. I finished the loop and headed back into the city, knowing now that it was just a straight shot past the park, down the hill to Central, and then up Broadway to home. That last mile was so hard. It got harder and harder to start up after each walk break. I could feel myself involuntarily grimacing and pulling faces as I lurched back into a run. I made it as far as the brewery, and I knew I had done enough. I walked the rest of the way, wincing with every step. I came in the door and had a very quick shower – so much salt all over me! – and then headed to the tub for an ice bath. It was heaven and hell at the same time. I lasted about fifteen minutes in there before I had to get out.

Now I’m going to have some food and a much needed rest. I’m really proud that I did this. My body has earned a much-needed break. In two weeks will be the Sydney Running Festival, where I’ll be doing the 9K Bridge Run. (Ha! 9K will feel like a TREAT after this!) The week after that will be my last long run, the Everest of this training season: 17 miles (27.5km). Then I’ve got a two-week taper til Melbourne.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Week 8 distance: 12.25mi (19.6km)
Week 9 distance: 21.65mi (34.7km)
Week 10 distance: 11mi (18km)

After really pushing it last week, I had a planned cut-back week to recover. My lower back pain has returned a little bit, which is probably due to me NOT doing the stretches and exercises the physio gave me. (Yes, I suck, and I’m going to start again.) I may go see him again if I can’t resolve it on my own. Other than that, I’ve got the usual litany of minor running ailments: a couple niggling pains in my shins and knees, and a slightly tender hamstring. More worrisome is the sudden pain I felt at the top of my right quad as I was finishing my 45-minute run this morning. I put anti-inflammatory gel on it, and I’ll be doing some icing tonight. It hasn’t bothered me at all while walking, so I don’t think I’ve hurt it too badly. I just have to hang in there for five more weeks…

Now we’re talkin’! I feel like I’ve got my running mojo back a little bit. I wanted to add in a fourth day of running per week, but I didn’t want to kill myself with the distance. So I cut back the length of my 2nd run and added in a short 3rd run as well. Now I’ll be able to slowly increase the length of those two. As for my LSR (Long Slow Run) on the weekend – I was dreading it. The plan called for 12.5 miles, which is 20km. That’s fully 50% longer than the City 2 Surf I did two weeks ago. (Of course, for the C2S I also counted the long hike we did from Bondi to Bondi Junction, which made it a fair bit longer.) The distance was surprisingly easy though, and it definitely gave my weekly mileage a nice boost.

Week 7 distance: 17mi (27.2km)
Week 8 distance: 12.25mi (19.6km)
Week 9 distance: 21.65mi (34.7km)That’s a 27% increase on two weeks ago. Which sounds bad, but going by the “increase no more than 10% per week” rule, I only overshot by a mile. (And that’s probably because of the extra short run I did during the week.) I feel pretty good. I’ve got some “delayed onset muscle soreness” from the long run yesterday, but that’s to be expected. I did a 4:1 run-walk ratio throughout the whole thing. I ran from my house to Centennial Park and then did three loops around the walking track (which is just over two miles per loop). It was a warm day, so I made sure to hit the water fountains at every opportunity. I also tried out some new energy gels at the one-hour and two-hour marks. I was still a couple km’s short when I got back to the house, so I ran around the block until I hit 19.5kms. Then I walked the rest of the way home to cool-down. I was really surprised to note that, even with the walk breaks, I was on track to finish the half-marathon only a minute or two slower than I did in the actual race last May. Maybe I should seriously consider using the walk/run method in the Melbourne half…

Really, this is all to say that I’ve had a bit of a realization about my training. I think I was sort of assuming that by doing all this running, I’d naturally get faster. But I’m not, really. My pace has been hovering around the same mark for some time now. What I am noticing is how much farther I can go before I start to feel really horrible, and how quickly I’m able to recover afterwards. The last time I did a really long training run, I was battling a stitch in my side and an acid stomach the whole way. Not this time. (In fact, running actually got rid of the headache I’d gotten that morning!) I was tired at the end of it, but in a normal post-workout sort of way. I haven’t injured myself, and I don’t think I’ll have any trouble doing my normal weekly run on Tuesday. So while I’m not breaking any land speed records, I’m really happy with how my running has progressed over these eight months. I don’t know why it took me so many years to realize that slow and steady really is the way to go.

Marathon Thoughts
Did anyone else watch the Olympic women’s marathon yesterday? It was fantastic. I thought it would be boring to watch people run for 2.5 hours, but I was pretty much mesmerised by the strategy and form of the runners. Some of them ran the way I dream of running: relaxed, springy, with a rock steady upper body and a confident expression. But there were also several who run the way I fear I run: tense, shuffling, with arms, shoulders, and neck heaving all over the place. Like the commentators, I spent the first half of the race focussed on Paula Radcliffe, who was coming back from a recent stress fracture. (I hear her voice on the Nike+ quite a bit, so somehow I felt like I should barrack for her.) It became pretty obvious though that Paula wasn’t going to be a medal contender in this one. Then out of nowhere, some random 38-year-old took off from the pack in a sprint. The commentators – and myself – scoffed at her strategy and started predicting how long it would be before they caught her. BUT THEY NEVER DID. It was awesome. I couldn’t believe it as Constantina Tomescu extended her lead out to a minute-and-a-half. She ran the entire second half of that race by herself. How did she do it? I find it difficult to push myself on a solo training run; I can’t imagine the mental effort in sustaining her speed up there alone. And hello? SHE’S 38. It was inspiring to think that maybe my own best running years are still ahead of me.

I really like this schedule of having a hard week followed by a recovery week. It was good to back off a bit after pushing through the jet lag and the City 2 Surf. It felt great to get back out on my usual neighborhood routes. I realise now that all the aches and pains and struggles I had in LA were purely due to running on a treadmill. I hate treadmills! Out on the road I can do 45 minutes without feeling bored at all.

Week 6 distance: 11.5mi (18.43km)
Week 7 distance: 17mi (27.2km)
Week 8 distance: 12.25mi (19.6km)

This week was a step-down of nearly 30% from last week, but it was still a slight increase from my last recovery week. Yesterday’s workout was meant to be speed-intervals… but man, I suck at them. I just don’t think I’m meant to run fast. I was doing laps around Victoria Park with intervals of 90 seconds at my goal pace of 6:00/km. The problem was that I’d take off much faster than that, usually somewhere between 5:00-5:30/km. Then I’d try to slow down a bit only to realise that I still had 45 seconds to go, and I’d struggle just to finish out the interval without stopping. Then I’d walk for a few minutes and berate myself for being a big lumbering slow-poke. Repeat ad infinitum. Also, I have very little willpower and I find it difficult to push myself beyond my comfort zone. Running a bit farther isn’t hard, but running faster involves getting into that anaerobic zone where it’s hard to breathe. Maybe I need to actually get a coach for these sessions, someone who can motivate me to push a bit harder…

Official City2Surf Results and Photos
The official race results and pictures are now up, though the site’s been getting hammered all day: me, Rodd. If you watch the videos, we come running up pretty much in the middle. (I’m wearing a navy blue baseball cap, if that helps.) Our time was 105:46, which meant we placed 27,294th out of more than 50,000 finishers. They got LOADS of photos of us this year, and thankfully I don’t look too stupid in any of them. I’ve archived them here if you want to have a look.

It was a week of ups and downs. I had a couple horrible runs on the treadmill in LA, but the City2Surf turned out way better than I expected.

Week 5 distance: 16.45mi (26.3km)
Week 6 distance: 11.5mi (18.43km)
Week 7 distance: 17mi (27.2km)

It was only a tiny increase from Week 5 (less than 5%), but least I’m going in the right direction again. I had a GREAT four-miler this morning so I have a feeling I’m going to get back on track quickly. The Snook and I are officially signed up for the 9K Bridge Run next month, which will be our third consecutive year running it. I’m also making my diet and nutrition a focus right now. I’d like to drop some weight before the half-marathon in October, so I’m using Calorie King to keep a food/exercise diary. I’ll let you know how I go!

City2Surf 2008
Well, we made it! I didn’t quite meet my goal of 100 minutes – we finished in about 105 – but that’s still an improvement of about 15 minutes on last year’s time. And what’s more, I felt really great during this year’s run. As I said to my Mom in an email afterwards: “The legs are sore from the hills, but other than that, I’m all good. I guess that’s what my training has gotten me so far. Yes, I’m a little bit faster, but more importantly I didn’t hurt myself and I’ll be able to run again in a day or two.” (That hit home even more this morning when I learned that a 26-year-old guy collapsed at the finish line and died about ten minutes before we came through.)

Anyway, back to the beginning. We got to the city early to meet up with the Snook’s co-workers and drop off our stuff. (They were having a BBQ at Bondi afterwards so we were able to send over a change of clothes.) We joined the crowd in the HSBC Start group (blue bibs) and waited for the gun. The weather was PERFECT, cool and slightly overcast with a breeze. I hoped that the sun would stay away for a while longer. The preferred runners took off at 9am, and about ten minutes later our group took off. It took us another ten minutes to make it to the starting line. Fortunately this year we’d all been given timing chips, so you didn’t have to worry about losing time by starting in the back. The run down Williams Street was great as usual. It’s an amazing feeling to be carried along in a great wave of thousands of runners. Of course, there was also the usual irritation of having to zig-zag around groups of walkers, baby strollers, and idiots in costumes, all of whom should’ve been in the “Back of the Pack” starting group. In fact, as we passed one guy in a full chicken suit, I growled loudly: “CHICKENS SHOULD BE BACK OF THE PACK.” So, yeah, Grumpy Old Lady Kristy was in attendance.We ran the first few kilometers before taking a quick one-minute walk break to catch our breath. After that, we timed our walk breaks with the water stations. The 80’s hair band was rocking out on the roof of the pub before Heartbreak Hill, same as the last two years. Then we climbed. We ran the first half of the Hill (about 1km) before joining the rest of the crowd in a walk. It was just hard. I was nursing stitches in both sides. Snookums was hurting in his calves and feet. At the one hour mark, I had an energy gel and it really picked me up. The last few kilometers downhill into Bondi were great. We knew we probably weren’t going to make our goal, but we tried to maintain our pace and finish strong. (Interestingly, according to my Nike+ we did finish the 14km in 100 minutes… but the actual finish line was at 14.5km. So either Nike+ was incorrect, the course distance was incorrect, or we ran an extra half-kilometer dodging around people.) As we came up to the finish, I noticed how much better I felt than in previous years. I didn’t feel like bursting into tears, and though I was tired, I didn’t feel like I was about to physically fall apart. We collected our medals and walked down to the beach. We took off our shoes and socks and waded into the surf. The sun had come out and the sky was just the most amazing shade of blue. The water was cold and each wave came up to our calves, soothing our aching muscles. As we walked down Bondi Beach towards our friends at the barbecue, the Snook gestured to the horizon and said, “When they ask you to move to L.A., this is why you tell them you won’t go.” I really couldn’t agree more.

We stayed with the Snook’s co-workers for a while, snacking on fruit and cheese. I joined a neverending queue for the ladies’ bathroom so I could change out of my stinky clothes. By the time I emerged, the sky had darkened. “What’s happening?” I asked. “It’s the cold change coming through,” Snookums said. We said our goodbyes and headed off just as the rain began to fall. There were still thousands of people making their way down the hill to the finish line. We were trying to get to Bondi Junction (where my company was having an after-race function) but the queues for the buses were just ridiculous. We ended up walking the whole way. It was hard on the legs but it was probably good for us to keep moving. We got rained on but eventually it stopped and the sun returned. We made it to the bar and joined my friends for food and beer. A few hours later, we caught a bus back to the city and made our way home. I had a hot shower and collapsed into bed at about 6:30pm. It was a good day.

A few thank yous and shout-outs: First of all to Allan from Running With the Pack, who gave me the great advice to stay on “LA time” as long as I could. I think that definitely helped minimise the effects of jet lag on my performance. Also thank you to my Mom and step-dad Joe, who ran with me in Indiana last weekend. And lastly, big thanks to the Snook for being there every step of the way. He hadn’t done much training so he’s definitely hurting today. Without his encouragement though, I would’ve been tempted to rely on excuses and not push as hard. I love that we’ve done this race together three times now, and I hope we can do it many more times in the future. (Next year in under 100 minutes!)

It’s been pretty rough lately. I’ve just felt so sluggish and tired on my runs. Small wonder, given that I’ve been on eight airplanes in three weeks and I’ve been eating nothing but takeaways and junk food.

Week 4 distance: 9.7mi (15.6km)
Week 5 distance: 16.45mi (26.3km)
Week 6 distance: 11.5mi (18.43km)

So I dropped off again this week by about 30%. That’s okay; I was meant to be having a recovery week. I’m just disappointed that I didn’t have the energy to do my speed workout on Sunday when I was at my Mom’s. I’ve also been experiencing some lower leg pain, which may well be shin splints. (My calves have been really tight and crampy lately, which could be related.) So I think these easier days have probably been better for me in the long run.

The big question mark though is the City 2 Surf this Sunday. A month ago I was on track to beat my goal of 100 minutes. Now… I’m not even sure I’ll be able to run it. I may have to settle for walking. Even at peak performance it was always going to be a big ask to run 14km the day after flying home. I’m going to try not to feel disappointed if it doesn’t work out.