Coast to coast
It's been a busy few days and I've flown from one side of the country to the other as well! It still amazes me that you can fly for 4.5 hours and still be in the same country. It's a big old place this great Southern Land.I arrived in Perth on Friday afternoon and after catching up with my client I finally went for a run at about 4. It was relatively warm and the streets were quite busy but I pottered down to the Swan river and back up to my hotel. It was a struggle to even do 5km and I was glad to see the hotel again. Possibly I was a bit dehydrated from the flight as I didn't drink much water in the afternoon.
Fortunately, on Saturday I woke up feeling a lot better and headed back down to the Swan River. I'd decided I wanted to do this run at roughly the pace I want to run the CC half at. My target to beat is 2hrs 14 mins which I ran at the SMH half last year so in order to run under that I need to run at about 6.10-15 pace or better.
Off I set down from Northbridge through the city and then along the river. Running along the river was a perfect place to practice as I imagine it's similar to the CC half course with a bike track, and nice and flat. My splits for the first 7 kms were 6.17, 5.44 (some downhill!), 5.59, 6.12, 6.10, 6.01, 6.15 and I felt pretty comfortable. I then hit the city again and the uphill back from the river. Crossing a few roads slowed me down so the next split was 6.27. I then decided to push the pace up for the last 1.5km back to the hotel and the last splits were 5.53 , 2.57 (540m @5.30). I was pleased with the last surge as it was slightly up hill and I still felt pretty comfortable. A great confidence booster and I really enjoyed it. I found it a bit hard to lock into the right pace but think I can probably do that pace for 21kms. We'll soon find out! In total, 9.5km @6.04 pace.
I arrived back in Sydney on Saturday night and Mr lulu and I headed out at about 7.45. I went down to the park and was running on my own this morning as the local girls were otherwise engaged. I decided to keep it simple and just did two outside loops of the park, passing the SWEAT squad a couple of times as they charged around the park.
My legs were a bit tired after yesterday but apart from the hills I didn't really notice it. I decided to push myself at km 17 and see how I felt and managed to run it in 6.05 and felt pretty strong. Total of 18.5km in 2hrs 2 mins at an average pace of 6.36 which is a little bit quicker than I've been doing my long runs.
So that's the last of the long runs done before the half and I'm pretty pleased with my progress in the last few months. Now I just have to stay un-injured for a couple of weeks. I should be OK as although I'm carrying a few niggles they're minor things that ET can fix. Fingers crossed!
posted by Lulu @ 11:45 AM
6 Comments:
Good signs there Lulu, sounds as though your training has paid off and Im sure you will beat last years mark :)
Very nice work lulu - I'm thinking of doing the Otford to Bundeena/CC Half double that weekend - I might need you to pace me to a 2.14.....
:-)
i missed our long run this weekend - but sounds like yours was great. I suspect that I was feeling very sorry for myself when you were running and enjoying the beautiful day... :)
not long now till the big one!
Hi Lulu
That is a good sign lifting for the last K or two and feeling strong. I did this a couple of times in the last few weeks of my preparation before PBing.
I reckon a massage could iron out any of those niggles pre race. All the best.
You get what you focus on Lulu!
Hope CC is everything you hope for.
I still am jealous of all the travel you get to do...London Paris Moscow...lol just kidding but i would love to see Perth one day.
Best wishes R2B
You ran well on your own, just think how much better you can do with people around you at the CC Half.
Looking good :-)
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