Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Mar 14, 2015:
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| « | » |
| » now | ||||
| |||||||
| Sa |
Saturday Mar 14, 2015 #
Event: Sixfoot track marathon
7 AM
Run race 4:57:08 [3] 45.0 km (6:36 / km) +1600m 5:36 / km
Made it this year! This wasn't always the most comfortable of experiences and I paid somewhat for being underdone in the long runs department, but the principal mission was accomplished.
Started similar to last year (though in wave 2 rather than wave 3) - first kilometre split was slower but I think that was the GPS dropping out in the valley. Settled down fairly well with a few mid-4s kilometres on the downhill fire trail, although even this early I was a little concerned about quads not quite feeling right. Got past the improved-on-last-year point at Megalong Road, which then took me onto the parts of the course I hadn't seen before.
I'd heard good things about the descent to the Cox's River and they were right - about 5km of single track, rarely excessively steep. Going along fairly smoothly there and on a pace fairly close to expected. The river crossing wasn't too bad this year - somewhere between knee and waist deep.
That leads you into the big hills. I had been wondering beforehand how well I would run them, and for the most part the answer was that I didn't, once I'd seen early on the Mini-Mini that someone who was attempting to run continuously was only going very slightly faster than me on the steeper parts - one factor here was knowing that getting to the top of the Pluvio in reasonable shape is well-known to be a big bonus for later. Probably ran 1/3 of the Mini-Mini and very little of the Pluvio. In between there is a kilometre or so of steep descent, and I could feel my quads starting to go on that.
I'd hoped the Black Range was where I would open out but it wasn't to be. By this stage I was getting close to 3 hours and was struggling, whereupon my strategy became to walk hills and run the rest, knowing that there weren't that many remaining hills and if I could keep from falling apart altogether I should still be able to post a decent time. This succeeded, more or less, although the Black Range was still very hard work. The last 10km was largely about holding on. I knew I wouldn't be able to run the three major hills (but no-one else did either), but was concerned about cramp once we hit a few lots of stairs - almost but not quite. Held the final descent together reasonably well but was glad to see the finish.
I'd somewhat ambitiously hoped for 4.30, thinking that that was what about a normal long-run pace would give me. Reaching the top of the Pluvio in 2.52 I knew that wasn't on but that 4.40 was still a chance with a good Black Range. That didn't happen either and my focus was then on my 'pass mark' target of 5 hours, which was achieved - just. Glad to tick this off my list but probably won't target this one again, at least for a while.
Took my camelback but didn't need it (either the water or the gels) - the aid stations had more than enough (four gels and three half-bananas was my tally).
Quads were predictably trashed, although probably not quite as awful as they were after my last marathon (as Jase, who had an excellent run, can testify). For less obvious reasons my right shoulder is also sore. Got a text reminder after finishing that I have a massage appointment due on Monday, and was tempted to reply 'you're really going to earn your money this week'.
Started similar to last year (though in wave 2 rather than wave 3) - first kilometre split was slower but I think that was the GPS dropping out in the valley. Settled down fairly well with a few mid-4s kilometres on the downhill fire trail, although even this early I was a little concerned about quads not quite feeling right. Got past the improved-on-last-year point at Megalong Road, which then took me onto the parts of the course I hadn't seen before.
I'd heard good things about the descent to the Cox's River and they were right - about 5km of single track, rarely excessively steep. Going along fairly smoothly there and on a pace fairly close to expected. The river crossing wasn't too bad this year - somewhere between knee and waist deep.
That leads you into the big hills. I had been wondering beforehand how well I would run them, and for the most part the answer was that I didn't, once I'd seen early on the Mini-Mini that someone who was attempting to run continuously was only going very slightly faster than me on the steeper parts - one factor here was knowing that getting to the top of the Pluvio in reasonable shape is well-known to be a big bonus for later. Probably ran 1/3 of the Mini-Mini and very little of the Pluvio. In between there is a kilometre or so of steep descent, and I could feel my quads starting to go on that.
I'd hoped the Black Range was where I would open out but it wasn't to be. By this stage I was getting close to 3 hours and was struggling, whereupon my strategy became to walk hills and run the rest, knowing that there weren't that many remaining hills and if I could keep from falling apart altogether I should still be able to post a decent time. This succeeded, more or less, although the Black Range was still very hard work. The last 10km was largely about holding on. I knew I wouldn't be able to run the three major hills (but no-one else did either), but was concerned about cramp once we hit a few lots of stairs - almost but not quite. Held the final descent together reasonably well but was glad to see the finish.
I'd somewhat ambitiously hoped for 4.30, thinking that that was what about a normal long-run pace would give me. Reaching the top of the Pluvio in 2.52 I knew that wasn't on but that 4.40 was still a chance with a good Black Range. That didn't happen either and my focus was then on my 'pass mark' target of 5 hours, which was achieved - just. Glad to tick this off my list but probably won't target this one again, at least for a while.
Took my camelback but didn't need it (either the water or the gels) - the aid stations had more than enough (four gels and three half-bananas was my tally).
Quads were predictably trashed, although probably not quite as awful as they were after my last marathon (as Jase, who had an excellent run, can testify). For less obvious reasons my right shoulder is also sore. Got a text reminder after finishing that I have a massage appointment due on Monday, and was tempted to reply 'you're really going to earn your money this week'.