October 7, 2016
So far so good. Having a lie in this morning helped and no running gear made the lunch time run difficult. I did run the lunchtime 10k in a pair of speedos once but that’s another story and was the result of a stupid comment alone the lines of ‘if Iceland beat England at football I’ll run in a pair of budgie smugglers !’ . There is evidence of said smugglers but I want to keep some resemblance of followers.
So not run today, (I am assuming I don’t break tonight and sneak out for a slow 10k?) which just leaves tomorrow pre-race. I’ve planned an early morning brekkie with my Wife, read the papers and spend some time on the internet researching blogs and ‘stuff’. Maybe even check out a few sites on the best way to run a half marathon. All the good advice normally goes out the window when the guns goes off. The first 1-2k’s is nearly always run way to fast and before you know it you’re in Threshold and VO2 territory. This is a place you cannot stay for too long, if you try tit will end in tears.
A half is a good distance as you have got time to work your way into it, and finish strong, without the need to redline it straight away; unlike a 5k or a 10k when really it’s on from the gun. That being said you’ll always have your runners who you aspire to match or beat and when they go you normally follow. On Sunday I’ll be setting the pace around the 77-79 minute finish time; around the 3:40min/k pace. Depending on who turns up that may be enough for a top 5 finish. This will go out the window of course if any ‘real runners’ decided to pop along for a tempo run. If that happens it’ll be all about going under 1:17 and an age group win.
In any race you need a goal and a few alternatives if the first goal all of a sudden evaporates. For me on Sunday it’s a top 5 finish first (this could be a stretch goal!); then a sub 1:17, then an age group win and finally a sub 1:20. The last two years I achieved none of these with a 6th and 7th and both times running 1hour 20minutes and change. I may have won my age group last year but it was still a disappointing run. You can normally predict your half time if you have done enough of them and your training has been respectable. A marathon is a different animal and can always throw up the odd curve ball to totally destroy your pre-race predictions.
Sunday will also be race two in my five race, 6 weekends series. Next weekend I have a week off before another half on Rottnest Island ( http://www.rottnestisland.com , a magical place and I’ll be spending a week there after the half with the family. This is a ‘Matthews’ tradition as I have done the Rottnest full 10 times and each time me and the tribe stay on the Island for a week afterwards) . After my week break on Rottnest I return for the World Masters 5k on the 29th October and finally the reason for this training block the World Masters on November 6th ( http://www.perth2016.com )
There is the opportunity to race the Rottnest half starting at 7:30am and then the 10k starting at 10:30am, but that would be silly, wouldn’t it….?
Looking at my training diary over the last 8 years I always take 48 hours off pre-racing (bar last week of course when Mark texted me and we ran a relaxed 10k the day before?) I have decided to go back to this strategy which has worked so well in the past. I must admit to being a tad concerned that last year I ran a good 10k pre-Fremantle but paid the price on race day, I certainly ran 1-2 minutes slower than planned. It will be interesting to see if the increased workload of the last few months has allowed me to race, train and recover quicker than previous years.
Good start to my 48 hours of no running, pre Fremantle half. Managed to not put my running gear in my work backpack and not go for an early morning run. So worst case scenario I can only run once today, after work. Small steps, or in this instance no steps !
I’m not sure how I got to this state of affairs as in previous years I always looked forward to a few days off pre-racing. When I first started racing marathons I would always give myself 3 weeks off, much to my friend Jon’s disgust. In the last few years this has dropped to a 2 week taper using the 80% and then 20% rule. I.e. 80% of normal training load two weeks out and then 20% on the week of the marathon. I would always keep up the intensity for the 2 week pre-marathon workouts but in the week of the marathon it was (and still is) only 2 * 10k at a very relaxed pace, no intensity. Taper time is to be embraced in my view. The last week there is nothing you can possibly do to improve your marathon time by running, nothing. The best you can do is maintain your fitness and, with the right carbo-loading strategy , knock off a minute or two. I’ll discuss proper tapering when I have to do it for real in a few weeks for the Perth Masters Marathon ( www.perth2016.com )
I go by the 1k-1day (estimate) recovery time from racing. So for a 10k I reckon you need a good 10 days to recover, similarly for a marathon it takes me about a month. I have friends who recover quicker but also ones who take longer. I’m sure if I was in my twenties the recovery time would be shorter but for me personally the 1k-1day is pretty close. I have run a marathon twice after a 10k the previous weekend and both times I faded so this is something I no longer do. I will consider a 5k a week pre-marathon and have booked myself in to the Perth Masters 5k track race on the 29th October, a week pre-World Masters marathon. As I have mentioned before I am a big believer in racing and its benefits. So far this year I have raced 21 times and have another 7 planned, love racing.
Right so far so good. All this talk of taping has made me hungry, can I carbo-load for a half. Probably not a good idea but it’ll do more good than going for a run, have I mentioned Yelo before. ( http://www.yelocornerstore.com.au/ )