Vat_Man Tries the Marathon 2 - The Canberra Experience

[vat_man]

Well, as detailed in my other thread here, I completed my goal to run my first marathon, the http://www.sydneymarathon.org, which I ran in 3h38m58s. A little off the 3h30m I was hoping for, but still, pleasing to finish.

In the week leading up to the marathon (Sept last year), I got a great tip at a 'summer' running club I joined to take the five weeks after the marathon very easy, and if I managed my recovery well I should see some big improvements. And so it has proven. In the four months since,
- my 5km PB time has dropped to 18m36s (today, 31/1/04)
- my 8km PB time has dropped to 31m26s (earlier this month)
- my 10k PB time has dropped to 40m36s (Nov 03)
- my half marathon (21.1km) has dropped to 90:46 (earlier this month)

My weight's dropped to about 169 pounds (around 76 kg), and my fitness is the best it's ever been. I have a 10k race with my 'winter' club (the Sydney Striders) Saturday next week where I plan to smash 40 minutes - in fact, I should realistically come in under 39 minutes.

My next marathon is the
Canberra Marathon. It's a much flatter course than Sydney, and it's a lot cooler there too. The event is April 18, so it's 11 weeks from now. The running routine at the moment is
Monday - 5-6km recovery run
Tuesday - has been a gentle 10-15km run, but in the next fortnight will convert to morning hill repeats of 300 metres in the morning, with a gentle 10-15km jog in the evening
Wed - currently a slightly faster 10-15km run, but will become a 3x5km repeat 'tempo' session which will start at my intended marathon pace of around 4m16-20s/kms and get faster as the weeks go by
Thurs - morning 1km repeat intervals, and I'll start to introduce an easy 5-10km run in the evenings
Fri- rest day
Sat - 10-15km run
Sun - long steady run day, currently at 25-30km at 4m55s/km pace, looking to reduce steadily (and increase mileage) as we continue on

I'm currently comfortably managing around 55-60km a week, with some good intensity work to come, and this will increase as the weeks go by.

I'm planning to do 3 marathons this year, Canberra, Gold Coast, the Jindabyne Marathon (in Australia's high country), and a 35km trail run, the Mt Wilson to Bilpin bush run. Obviously, there'll be a host of club and community events this year as well, making scheduling training interesting!

So, I'll keep you posted with how it goes. I'll definitely be under 3h20, realistically aim for 3h10m, and if training brings me up to scratch I'm half a chance for 3 hours.

Oh yeah, behold the current shoe fleet!

From nearest camera to furthest:
- Asics Series 9 (second half of year) Kayanos. I did the Sydney Marathon in these guys. They've got about 460km on the clock and are very close to being retired from active duty (don't like to run more than 500km in training shoes). I've never really been happy with these guys - they've always felt too soft to me, and I've had blister issues on the outside of my big toes with them
- Asics 2080 (first half of 2003). Been pretty happy with these guys. They've got around 250km on the clock, and I've always felt fast in them. Only issue's been the lower inside edge of my forefoot's always felt hot (as in friction) in them - bit of Bodyglide's helped. Must be a seam or something there.
- Asics 2080 (second half of 2003). Colouring aside, these are exactly the same as the other 2080s - picked them up cheap with the model change just before Xmas. Same comments as for the other 2080s. They've only got about 50-60km on the clock
- Mizuno Wave Creation (current model). My new shoes (bought today!). I went to a really good running shop (Sydney Running Centre, Edgecliffe) and got some good advice. Apparently I have high arches, so the Kayanos aren't ideal for me - they suggested either the Asics 2090 or the Mizunos, which felt fantastic, so I've betrayed my Asics history.

 

[vat_man]

...oh yeah, and here's a treat - me finishing the Sydney Marathon. I was pretty pleased.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Great job!

 

[vat_man]

Well, a week since the first post. I ended up doing a PB 5k last Saturday (18:36) with a 5k recover, and then 32k on Sunday, in warm conditions through hilly terrain. I pulled up quite sore from this, and only ran 6-7k on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

I had a 10k race with my 'winter' racing club today, and turned in a PB of 39:42, my first time under 40 minutes! I've got 30km tomorrow around Sydney's eastern suburbs with the same running club's training group.

One thing I'm finding, with Sydney's late summer heat, is that I'm having to get up much earlier on Sundays to get my long runs in before the heat hits. 5am is getting pretty common now.

I'll try to get my midweek training back on track this week, and will start hill repeats on Tuesday morning, and hopefully a good solid tempo 10-15k on Wed and the usual 1k repeats on Thursday.

Oh yeah - picked up a new toy just before Xmas which is helping training enormously. I have posted this elsewhere, but this thing is fantastic.

You get a watch with a 100 lap memory, and a GPS unit that you can wear on your belt or strap to your upper arm. I prefer the upper arm as the reception's better - the unit's very light so you're not aware it's there.

The system won't give your location, but what it will do is give live pace, distance, km/mile splits as you run. In training I'm working hard on pacing (very important for a marathon) and this thing has been fantastic. If you run reasonably long distances as part of your training, I can definitely recommend this.

 

[gt4]

hmmmmm how much would one of those cost? i currently run about 5 miles a day right now mostly to stay in shape but i think one of those could be useful.

 

[vat_man]

Haven't updated for a while. It's four weeks to go, and two weeks to the wonderful 'taper'. Ran a 30km race today in 2h09m01s, which was brilliant - I was aiming at 2h10. Held pretty well to 4m19s per km all the way, so my pace is very even, and finished with a bit of a sprint - I'd passed a guy a couple of km before the finish I was keen to beat, so was looking to put in a big finish.

It's a been a great preparation - I've had a couple of little niggles here and there but nothing's that stopped me from running. Target for the Canberra Marathon will be around 3h05m - 3h10m, so there'll be a huge improvement on Sydney last year. It would be nice to be more than half an hour quicker.

 

[Acidman]

Wow, vat_man! Great job!

It seems as though your in much better shape than I am at the age of 17...

 

[vat_man]

Heh - I'm in much better shape than I was when I was 17.

Oh yeah - and the 10k PB's dropped to 39m10s.

 

[Sage]

Crap, that's fast! Guess it's safe to say that you're in better shape than I am at 16.

 

[vat_man]

Getting there - should go under 39 minutes weekend under next.

Hill repeats and 1km intervals really help.

I'm going to try and go sub 3 hours at Canberra. Stuff it - if I blow up, I blow up.

 

[vat_man]

Oh yeah - course map for anyone familiar with Canberra.

Something I forgot to mention earlier was that this is the first of three marathons (and a 35km trail run) I'm planning to do this year.

After Canberra on April 18, I'e only got 11 weeks to recover and train for the Gold Coast Marathon on July 4 (the weekend after the mother-out-law gets remarried), then 7 weeks until the Mt Wilson to Bilpin 35km trail run in Sydney's Blue Mountains, and then 14 weeks until the Jindabyne Marathon, Australia's highest, in NSW's southern highlands.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

That is a great picture. You can see how genuinely happy you are. Great job. 👍

 

[vat_man]

Thanks, Rumple - I had a cramp about 30 seconds after that photo that was so painful I almost cried.

 

[vat_man]

Well, half through my last full weekend before the two week taper before the Canberra Marathon. I'm on the cusp of a three hour marathon, but I don't think I'm quite there, just haven't quite done the miles. I'd be disappointed, until I realised I started out in January thinking sub 3:20. I should definitely run sub 3:!0, and will probably be a bit disappointed with anything over 3:05.

This weekend's ended up quite a hard one - 10k with my city running club today, and then a half marathon tomorrow with my summer running club tomorrow.

The 10k went very well, with a new personal best for the distance of 38m54s, so one of my big running goals for year has been met.

How quickly I go tomorrow depends a lot on how I pull up from today. I should recover okay - I'm fine now, and it was a good constant effort, so we'll see. I'd like to run at 3 hour marathon pace, which is 4,16s per km, to see how I hold up. This would give me a half marathon PB - purely because I haven't done a serious half for a while, rather than due to any amazing pace. We'll see.

 

[Pako]

vat_man,

That's great and thanks for the pic! When I see the picture, it reminds me of those inspiration images used in a business setting to inspire young executives to great things, all of which you have accomplished! Good luck tomorrow!

 

[vat_man]

Originally posted by vat_man
How quickly I go tomorrow depends a lot on how I pull up from today. I should recover okay - I'm fine now, and it was a good constant effort, so we'll see. I'd like to run at 3 hour marathon pace, which is 4,16s per km, to see how I hold up. This would give me a half marathon PB - purely because I haven't done a serious half for a while, rather than due to any amazing pace. We'll see.

Hoo haa! 1 hour, 28 minutes 24 seconds. New PB, and abuot 2 seconds per kilometre quicker than I'm planning the marathon. Good, sensible, steady solid run. Very pleased with it - never felt particularly good at any point (and in fact was quite sore through the first 5-6km) but was able to hold a constant pace. Also managed to repass and hold out a guy who passed me at the 10k mark - that was really satisfying.

And now, beings the taper.....ahhh....

 

[Sage]

Originally posted by Pako
When I see the picture, it reminds me of those inspiration images [...]

Meanwhile, Pako's avatar inspires... erm... well, let's just say it's not very inspiring.



Many congrats, vat_man! BTW, when did you get serious about running? Just asking, because I don't recall you ever talking about it back when I first joined the forums.

 

[vat_man]

January 2002.

It kinda goes back to the end of 1999. In the lead-up to turning 30 in August '00, I had a bit of a personal crisis. I was 94-95kg, wildly unfit, and realised I needed to change my life - I had previously been reasonably fit.

I hit the gym, fixed my diet up, and over the following two years, lost about 10kg. I'd been cautiously avoiding running, but towards the end of 2001 was starting to jog on the treadmill at the gym.

This progressed, and as part of my New Year's resolutions for 2002, I promised myself I'd run the Sydney City to Surf, Australia's largest fun run (around 14km), which has about 60,000 entrants, in August of that year.

My fitness came up pretty quickly, and I ran the SMH Half Marathon in May in about an hour 55. I got a bit complacent and was undertrained for the City to Surf.

I did the Bridge run 10k in September '02 (which runs on the same day, and over part of the same course, as the Sydney marathon), saw a marathoner, and promised myself I'd do that in 2003, which I did.

In the run up to the 2003 SMH Half Marathon, I discovered an Australian running website, joined the Sydney Striders in July, and it's all rolled along from there!

 

[Sage]

Very cool. Someday I think I gotta get into marathon shape... that can wait until after college though.

 

[vat_man]

Well, 5 days to go - and I'm a bit toey.

I had my first dream about the marathon on the weekend - it was a surprisingly calm dream, with myself and a couple of other people making our way to the start of the race, chatting amiably. It was pretty relaxed, we had plenty of time, and the mood was good. I choose to take this as a good sign.

The previous weekend (April 3 and 4) was a good one. I mentioned that on the Saturday I managed to slip under 39 minutes for 10km for the first time.

Well, the following day, in spite of some stiffness, I lined up for the half marathon at my other running club. I wanted to head out at my planned marathon pace (4:16 per km) and basically just cruise at that through the distance.

I should note I was also a bit hungover from the previous evening, but that's another story.

I got dragged out by a mate of mine who's a lot faster than I am, but after 2km settled on 4:14 pace. My lower legs were sore, but this cleared up after about 5 to 6km as the blood started flowing through and clearing the lactic acid left over from the previous day.

I raced a couple of guys, managing to repass one guy who passed me at the 10km mark, and catching another in the last kilometre. I got home in 88 minutes 25 seconds, a new PB for the half marathon - but as mentioned above, my old PB was pretty soft, as I've not done a full strength half in a while.

..and so began the taper. I've pretty well only been doing short tempo work, 5 to 10k, at or under my proposed marathon pace. I managed 2x5km at 4:08 on Sunday pretty comfortably, so I'm a good chance to slip under 3 hours.

I guess my concern at this point is I don't think I've done enough 30-32k stuff. I have done a 39km in training, and held up okay, but I'm a bit worried about what may happen after 35-36km. The marathon really does start to get serious after 32km - many runners say the physical halfway point is really there, as you start to run out of glycogens and the body starts to burn fat, slowing you down - until you run out of the chemical the body uses to burn fat, and then you start to burn muscle (also known as 'the wall'). It shouldn't get that bad - but I really don't want to have to bang out two sub 4 minute kilometres to get in under 3 hours if I can avoid it...

This sounds a bit negative, and probably isn't representative of my mood right now. I'm pretty positive, and am looking forward to getting out there.

Oh yeah - and there's been a last minute change of shoe! I bought a pair of Reebok Premier Road Lites a week or so ago, and love them! I'm currently getting enough k's on them so they're run in for Sunday, but they're more comfortable than the Mizuno Wave Creation 5's I was going to run in.

Nothing like a bright shoe...

 

[vat_man]

Mmmm...

In two days time, I'll be sitting in the bar at the Rydges Hotel in Canberra, drinking a beer and exchanging stories with fellow marathoners...

Getting very toey. I just want work to be done for the day so I can get home and pack my kit - heck, who am I kidding, I've been clock-watching all week. I'm feeling a strange combination of nerves, confidence and anxious anticipation.

I'm definitely a lot more nervous than I was before the Sydney Marathon last year.

 

[Omnis]

you ever think your shoe quest will end? lol.

i know mine hasnt <_<

 

[Vasco]

Hope you did well vat, you're probably in better shape than most of us here!

 

[2ez2KiLL]

Originally posted by DODGE the VIPER
Hope you did well vat, you're probably in better shape than most of us here!

I know thats true, Im so out of shape i can barely walk uphill 2 blocks from school to my house

 

[vat_man]

...and the time is....

2h 59m 10s

Yup, broke three hours. Can't quite believe it yet. Just got home Canberra now. I'll give a full account of the run later, but there it is. I'm a sub three hour marathon runner now.

 

[Omnis]

congrats.

 

[Sage]

Jeebus christ! Many, many sincere congrats from me, vat_man... I couldn't possibly run a marathon in that time, and I'm in pretty good shape, so you must be in absolutely stellar shape to have pulled such a feat off.

So, just to keep you movin', what your next goal?

 

[vat_man]

Cheers, gents. More complete report follows:
--------------------------------------------------------
Well, I’ve had a little time to go through what happened yesterday and compose some thoughts, which will probably be a bit more concise than I was intending.

Caught up with quite a few people at the start – conditions were ideal if somewhat cool, although I would probably have preferred a bit less sun. Given the lack of the southerly that was giving concern earlier in the week, I really wasn’t in a position to complain.

I made a controversial call the day before and went with a pair of the Reebok Road-Lites rather than the Mizuno Wave Creation 5’s I’d intended to start with – the Reebs only had 40km on them, but just felt better and more natural to run in than the Mizunos.

We set off after some kafuffle at the start that I later learnt was due to the errant shoelaces of one of the preferred starters. I dream of holding up the start of a major event for something like this – if it had happened to me yesterday I’d probably be filing this report from a hospital dealing with crush injuries…

The plan was to run as many 4:15 kms in a row as I could. The major part of plan, the ol’ Time & Distance GPS watch, took an early hit as a combination of the crowd and the tall trees conspired to confuse the signal, and my watch went off well before the relevant km markings all the way through the distance. This left me to try and work out 4:14 km and 4:15 km splits mentally – providing no end of distracting fun at any distance not a multiple of 5…

Never mind. The opening 10km proved much simpler – as we worked through the opening 1km, I quickly picked up Ray James and kept him in sight, as I knew Ray was also thinking sub 3 hours as well, and I figured that with this being his 55th marathon start he probably knew what he was doing. He got away a bit up to Parliament House, but I picked him up heading back down to Old Parliament House (~7km) and held pace for a while – I think I eased away before 10km, which we saw at around 41:30-40.

Like many others here, I had some bizarre niggles early on – particularly a right hamstring and buttock that has never been an issue previously. I had some lower leg impact soreness that went away after 5-6km – but this is a familiar ‘friend’ from the Sydney Marathon Clinic events, so that wasn’t too much of a concern.

Looking at the splits, from 9km the pace was between 4:05 to 4:16km until the 33km mark (although I must confess to 3:56km at the 27th km – I remember coming off the bridge to turn into Parkes Ave just after that, praying that my partner and our friends were there to cheer me on, because I really needed the lift!), where it all got a bit serious. I think I ran out of glycogen at around the 33-34km mark – the skin temperature of my legs went up, and I had to revert to short stride/high turnover to maintain pace, I simply couldn’t stride out fully, and it was starting to HURT.

The turn off Parkes Avenue up the short on ramp to Commonwealth Avenue really stung, and I was almost in tears after completing the climb. In the face of the gentle downslope, and a quick look at the watch that suggested that 4:30s were probably going to be enough to get me sub-3 hours, it was pretty well in the bag, barring sudden cramp or injury. The logical left side of the brain took over and said, ‘well, we haven’t run this far this quickly to just miss it – get on with it’. I took the caffeine gel at the water/sponge stop at the off-ramp and just pounded it out. Relative to the ‘crisis’ kilometres I had from 35km onwards (where I started running 4:24’s) I ran quicker from 40km onwards, and finished with a flourish – and a smile for the cameras. Sub 3 hours when you though 3:05 would have been a good result will do that. I did a V for Victory sign for the post finish photo – dunno if that’s for the second marathon, or two for ‘two hours something’, or ‘cos it just seemed cool.

Looking back on it, I don’t think I got passed from the 30km point onwards, and I got past quite a few – which sadly included a Strider who grabbed a hamstring with what I think was a cramp near Questacon in the very late stages.

Countless highlights include:
- Action at the on-ramp on to Kings Avenue (every time I went past there I was trailing a group…) with Tigermeg giving calm support from the sensible location of a folding chair.
- ‘Cowbell Corner’ at the 10km and again at 28. That section was just awesome.
- Being able to give support to fellow Striders and Coolrunners out on the course. It gave me as much of a lift as it did for you!
- Seeing my partner and our friends out on the course three times, particularly at the 30km mark. That last one helped a lot!
- General support along the course, from both the public and the volunteers. Much better than Sydney, where runners seems to be a source of antagonism.

I actually enjoyed the course. I don’t know Canberra particularly well, and I can say I’ve got a pretty solid on the layout of the Parliamentary area now. The double loop isn’t ideal for those who are out there for a long time, I suspect, but for people between 2:45 and 3:40 who are part of a club there’s a great chance to see fellow club runners out there – and thinking on it, Canberra is a great club event. Our friends that came down (he was going to run, but DNS’d due to a badly timed case of the flu) were amazed at the quality of the field compared to what they’d seen at Sydney and Gold Coast, and I think that will be borne out by the finishing rate, which given the high number of first timers would be pretty high, I’d think – and I think that comes from the support of things like the Sydney Marathon Clinic, and the Striders MTG group.

So, looks like I’ve pulled up better than I did from Sydney. I got out for a gentle grass 5km this evening which went okay – took much of the acid out of the quads and hammies – but the lower legs and feet are in a bit of a mess, impact wise. I think the call on the shoes was the right one. The Mizunos were giving me blisters, which I still copped with the Reebs, but probably not as bad.

So, sub three hours is done. It changes a few things – I need to get off my backside and do a decent 10km time, that sort of thing. Looking forward, I think I definitely need to learn to run faster – well, obviously, but I may need to look at shorter intervals at higher speed.

Next goal – earn that preferred start at C2S…

 

[vat_man]

Oh yeah, Sage - next goal? Mmm...I've got another marathon in July, up on Queensland's Gold Coast. The pressure's off for that event, since I wasn't planning on hitting sub 3 this year, and it's not a club event.