Marathons
In August this year I ran my 8th Perth City to Surf marathon. After my 2:47 at Perth earlier in the year I put in a massive training block of about 8 weeks to get ready for this one, including a record 620k cumulative month. It all came together on the day with a 1:19 half and a finish time of 2:41:41, just 30 seconds outside my PB. Maybe the sub 2:40 dream is back on at 50 years old; 50 is the new 20 apparently.
On the back of this I have changed my training to extra distance and more double-up days. Still some speed work but more 80% -20% between distance and speed. Lots of racing in-between marathons has also helped.
This was my 12th Perth Marathon and I was coming into some form so was hoping for 2:45 – 2:50 and went through halfway dead on target. Last year I was injured before Perth , after some quality training, and this had played on my mind and I blew up to a 2:49. At halfway I was even contemplating dropping out as it’s an out and back twice course so you have the option to step of the course at halfway and just go home! I’ve never not finished a race and that kept me going, anyway that was last year.
This year at halfway I feel great and this spurred me on to a good second half and a 2:47 and change finish. 6th place, just outside the prizes for top5 (for the second year ) Managed to grab an age group win so all-in-all a good day and a springboard for the City to Surf marathon in August.
First post on the World Masters in Perth October/November 2016. I’ve entered for the 5000m and the Marathon (you’d be mad not to really!) . I ran the Perth City to Surf marathon end of August so have 6 weeks of solid 150k a week training ahead of me. Ran a 100k recovery week last week and on for 160k this week so so far all going to plan.
The 5000m is a bit of fun really as it’s on the track and I only run track normally once a year max. The marathon is a different matter and I’m determined to try and place in my age group. This is made all the more difficult by being 49 and 10 months in a 45-50 age group ! If only they held it next February my task would have been so much easier. No worries, if you haven’t got to work for it, it ain’t worth working for.
I’ll use this category to track progress towards October 29th for the 5k and November 6th for the marathon.