I was looking forward to running yesterday's event today, even though it did feel quite warm - I left home at around 3.15 pm and the temperature was about 15 with a tail wind for my outward leg. I picked up on an idea that brother-in-law Bruce mentioned in one of his emails about writing his splits on his arm in texta. As I wear my old glasses when I run, I jotted down each 1k split from an earlier run, as well as the progressive times, so I would have an indication of how I was going.
I had four bottles of Gatorade on my Fuel Belt and planned to drink one at the end of each 5k. Only this time, unlike previous occasions, I drank while running. I do find this hard because of my difficulty in breathing when running - I'm like a puffing billy!
I started off quite slowly - though the Garmin GPS had trouble getting its bearings so that could have influenced my slower time a bit. As it was, I was 44 secs slower today for the first kilometre than the splits to which I was comparing today's run. However, after the initial 1k split, each kilometre was faster than the comparison figure. Even though it was that much faster I felt surprisingly good during the whole run.
I must admit, though, that at about the 15k I did start to notice that I had been running much faster than initially planned. What was amazing was that I was able to keep running up the final hill, whereas I normally have to walk the steepest section on my longer runs.
In a sense today's run was a bit of a race as I was running against my previous best time (since resuming jogging in March) of 2hr 24min 12.81sec and today came in at 2hr 18min 45.25sec, meaning that I took a whopping 5m 27secs off that time.
A comparsion of my splits can be found at:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/comparison?activityId=369222844&activityId2=315406776
If you decide to look at this comparison chart it will have reverted to miles (an American programme) but it will still give some idea.
Monday, September 2, 2013
Friday, August 9, 2013
"City2Surf" 2013
When the real race is run tomorrow morning I will be in the pulpit of the Devonport Presbyterian Church preaching from 1 Timothy 1:13-18 about the most priceless of all treasures and how we have the responsibility to guard it no matter the cost.
So this afternoon I did a mock City2Surf from home and along the local bike track. OK, it was an easier course than the real one as my hill at both the start and finish was not equal to what the competitors will face in that run, but it is the best that I can do around here.
When I set off the humidity was hovering around 80% after weeks of rain that has left the ground saturated. But today was also windy with gusts up to 50 kph, neither of which made for pleasant running.
I hoped to be able to run it in about 90 mins and ran at what I thought would be a steadyish pace to accomplish that, but my times, though feeling comfortable in the early stages, were faster than I had envisaged. At the quarter way mark I realised that that pace would have me at the halfway point at 44 minutes, but this was wind assisted so I wasn't too concerned about that. For the last 1.5ks of the outward leg I was buffeted by a side wind but, amazingly, that didn't slow me down. It was a different story on the return leg, but I still felt surprisingly well and tried to maintain the pace at which I had commenced.
By the 10k mark the humidity was starting to get to me but, knowing that there were only another 4ks to run I tried to maintain my pace. By the end of 11ks I was starting to feel tired, but I knew that I could not give in and take it easy, even if I was slowing down.
And then, after 12ks, I hit the incline and noticed it - but that wasn't anywhere near as bad as the final hill and I had to walk up the steepest part of it.
I was pleasantly surprised to come in at 1.28.51, which was slightly faster than my first effort in this mock event three years ago. On the other hand, it was about 7 mins slower than what I did two years ago - but that was before I took 18 months off to recover from some hamstring soreness (from which I never have properly recovered). However, when I ran this course in a training run six weeks ago I was 6 minutes slower than what I did today.
I'm pleased with the run as I'm looking at it as part of building my endurance for far longer runs, which includes two mock half marathons in the next six weeks. Then I have to set my sights on the marathon distance.
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/356200012
So this afternoon I did a mock City2Surf from home and along the local bike track. OK, it was an easier course than the real one as my hill at both the start and finish was not equal to what the competitors will face in that run, but it is the best that I can do around here.
When I set off the humidity was hovering around 80% after weeks of rain that has left the ground saturated. But today was also windy with gusts up to 50 kph, neither of which made for pleasant running.
I hoped to be able to run it in about 90 mins and ran at what I thought would be a steadyish pace to accomplish that, but my times, though feeling comfortable in the early stages, were faster than I had envisaged. At the quarter way mark I realised that that pace would have me at the halfway point at 44 minutes, but this was wind assisted so I wasn't too concerned about that. For the last 1.5ks of the outward leg I was buffeted by a side wind but, amazingly, that didn't slow me down. It was a different story on the return leg, but I still felt surprisingly well and tried to maintain the pace at which I had commenced.
By the 10k mark the humidity was starting to get to me but, knowing that there were only another 4ks to run I tried to maintain my pace. By the end of 11ks I was starting to feel tired, but I knew that I could not give in and take it easy, even if I was slowing down.
And then, after 12ks, I hit the incline and noticed it - but that wasn't anywhere near as bad as the final hill and I had to walk up the steepest part of it.
I was pleasantly surprised to come in at 1.28.51, which was slightly faster than my first effort in this mock event three years ago. On the other hand, it was about 7 mins slower than what I did two years ago - but that was before I took 18 months off to recover from some hamstring soreness (from which I never have properly recovered). However, when I ran this course in a training run six weeks ago I was 6 minutes slower than what I did today.
I'm pleased with the run as I'm looking at it as part of building my endurance for far longer runs, which includes two mock half marathons in the next six weeks. Then I have to set my sights on the marathon distance.
http://connect.garmin.com/splits/356200012
Monday, July 8, 2013
"Gold Coast ½ Marathon" 2013
I took last week easy in anticipation of today's mock run so was anticipating that I would be able to cover the distance comfortably. But it didn't pan out that way. So what went wrong?
I thought that I had started off at a comfortable pace but, looking at my splits, it is obvious that I was running way too fast for the first half of the course from home and along the bike track. It didn't help that at around the 10k I started getting stomach cramps and began to blow a lot of wind - and the nearest toilet was another 5k away. During those 5k there were times when I had to stop running and just walk, holding my stomach as the pains gripped me. After a 2½ min stop I was then able to run on but I began to slow down, eventually finishing in a time of 2.27.04.
I've begun to wonder if I ham starting to become gluten intolerant. To test this out I will use up all my gluten products and then go gluten free to see if this helps or not.
The other issue is my right hamstring soreness. It is unusual in that the soreness moves around from spot to spot. When I am not running it is normally perfectly all right, though after sitting for long periods of time on my office chair or while driving the soreness will reappear. I think that I need to do a lot more stretching exercises.
I arrived home to a hot bath, a plate with nuts, biscuits, dried apricots and a muesli bar with a cup of hot tea to follow. In the bath I had a couple of small cramps.
Is it worth it? Well, it has definitely helped my lungs. One specialist told me that about 30% of my lungs were dead so I will continue with jogging to help them as much as I can. I would still like to run a marathon by the end of this year or early next year and then go on to run the Six Foot marathon track and then compete in the Bruny Island Ultra Marathon (64k).
Time will tell.
I thought that I had started off at a comfortable pace but, looking at my splits, it is obvious that I was running way too fast for the first half of the course from home and along the bike track. It didn't help that at around the 10k I started getting stomach cramps and began to blow a lot of wind - and the nearest toilet was another 5k away. During those 5k there were times when I had to stop running and just walk, holding my stomach as the pains gripped me. After a 2½ min stop I was then able to run on but I began to slow down, eventually finishing in a time of 2.27.04.
I've begun to wonder if I ham starting to become gluten intolerant. To test this out I will use up all my gluten products and then go gluten free to see if this helps or not.
The other issue is my right hamstring soreness. It is unusual in that the soreness moves around from spot to spot. When I am not running it is normally perfectly all right, though after sitting for long periods of time on my office chair or while driving the soreness will reappear. I think that I need to do a lot more stretching exercises.
I arrived home to a hot bath, a plate with nuts, biscuits, dried apricots and a muesli bar with a cup of hot tea to follow. In the bath I had a couple of small cramps.
Is it worth it? Well, it has definitely helped my lungs. One specialist told me that about 30% of my lungs were dead so I will continue with jogging to help them as much as I can. I would still like to run a marathon by the end of this year or early next year and then go on to run the Six Foot marathon track and then compete in the Bruny Island Ultra Marathon (64k).
Time will tell.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
"Launceston Ten" 2013
Four days ago it was the annual running of the Launceston Ten. Not only did I have a bit of quad soreness but at the time of the running I was leading our weekly service at Devonport Presbyterian where I also preached on Jeremiah 36 and the wonderful fact that God has preserved his written word in spite of many attempts to destroy it over the years.
It's been 8 days since I've had a run of any type so considered that today lunchtime would be the day when I did my version of the Launceston Ten, but using the bike track from the swimming pool carpark. My solo course is not as flat as the Launceston course, but that doesn't worry me that much. I made it a bit easier on myself by not running from home, which would have given me a couple of steep hills to run. I hoped that a time of around 65 minutes would be good because I have only been back training for three months after well over a year off.
At one stage I wondered whether is was advisable to run today seeing that the temperature was 10, though it felt like 8 according to the weather bureau. Anyway, I opted to run regardless. I drove down to the carpark and, while my Garmin was finding the satellites, did some warm up stretches, walking and jogging. It was cold - and would feel even colder at the start because it is under the cover of the trees through the Don Reserve.
I set off at a reasonable pace but by the first half kilometre I knew that I was running faster than I had anticipated (though it is down a slope at that point). I make the decision to slow down, finishing the first kilometre in 6 minutes. By the time I turned at the halfway mark only one of the kilometres was over 6.07. The next three were between 6.12 and 6.19, which was pretty pleasing given the fact that I was tiring a bit. I lost it a bit for the 9th kilometre, blowing it out to 6.26 though the last kilometre was surprisingly fast at 6.28, but this included at incline, according to my Garmin, of 13 metres.
In spite of the cold day I was actually get quite hot on the return leg of the run - but then I do tend, even on days like today, to get hot when I run.
I was quite happy with the time of 1.02.16.43 or about 6.14 per kilometre.
In about 2 1/2 weeks I have my version of the Gold Coast Half Marathon to run, so I had put in some kilometres early next week before I begin to slow it down for my big day. I'll be more than happy to run that at around 6.45 per kilometre - but only time will tell.
It's been 8 days since I've had a run of any type so considered that today lunchtime would be the day when I did my version of the Launceston Ten, but using the bike track from the swimming pool carpark. My solo course is not as flat as the Launceston course, but that doesn't worry me that much. I made it a bit easier on myself by not running from home, which would have given me a couple of steep hills to run. I hoped that a time of around 65 minutes would be good because I have only been back training for three months after well over a year off.
At one stage I wondered whether is was advisable to run today seeing that the temperature was 10, though it felt like 8 according to the weather bureau. Anyway, I opted to run regardless. I drove down to the carpark and, while my Garmin was finding the satellites, did some warm up stretches, walking and jogging. It was cold - and would feel even colder at the start because it is under the cover of the trees through the Don Reserve.
I set off at a reasonable pace but by the first half kilometre I knew that I was running faster than I had anticipated (though it is down a slope at that point). I make the decision to slow down, finishing the first kilometre in 6 minutes. By the time I turned at the halfway mark only one of the kilometres was over 6.07. The next three were between 6.12 and 6.19, which was pretty pleasing given the fact that I was tiring a bit. I lost it a bit for the 9th kilometre, blowing it out to 6.26 though the last kilometre was surprisingly fast at 6.28, but this included at incline, according to my Garmin, of 13 metres.
In spite of the cold day I was actually get quite hot on the return leg of the run - but then I do tend, even on days like today, to get hot when I run.
I was quite happy with the time of 1.02.16.43 or about 6.14 per kilometre.
In about 2 1/2 weeks I have my version of the Gold Coast Half Marathon to run, so I had put in some kilometres early next week before I begin to slow it down for my big day. I'll be more than happy to run that at around 6.45 per kilometre - but only time will tell.
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