Well, we finished it! Got up at 5:40 this morning, jumped in the car, picked Niall up on the way and parked on Bondi Junction. Got the train to North Sydney, with more and more runners joining at every stop. By the time we arrived at Milson’s Point the marathon and half-marathon had already started, so there was just the people doing the 10K milling about. That was still about 10,000 people apparently.

It was bloody cold in the shadow of the bridge, especially once we’d dropped off our gear at the trucks which would carry it to the finish for us. We stood around shivering and stretching, then Niall headed off to the front as he was going for a time. Met Billy and Lisa briefly, then the gun went. It took us about 7-8mins before we crossed the start line, but once we did all doubts and apprehensions disappeared and we plodded off along the course.

I was obviously caught up in the moment a litte, as I’d forgotten to go to the toilet before the start, and I also forgot to start my stopwatch. I only realised this about 2km into the race, so I had no idea how fast we were going. The run over the Harbour Bridge was quite nice, though there was a biting wind blowing across the course, so I was pretty happy to get onto the Cahill Expressway. Myself and Jacqui had settled into a nice relaxing pace and the kilometres seemed to pass quite easily. Next thing I knew we were heading up Macquarie St. and approaching the 5km drinks station.

They had toilets there as well, but there was a bit of a queue, and I figured I could hang on until the end, so I skipped them. Sure enough, about 1km later I started getting signals from my bladder that I had better stop soon, so I left Jacqui with instructions to keep going, and I ran ahead to find the next toilet, which turned out to be at 7.5km. Thankfully there were no queues at this one, which was a relief in more ways than one!

Jacqui had just passed the toilets as I emerged, so I caught up with her and resumed our normal pace. My left knee was starting to hurt a little, but it was little more than an annoyance at this stage so we kept going to the turn-around beside St. Mary’s Cathedral. We were now on the home stretch with a little more than 1.5km to go, the majority of which was slightly downhill. We had the last of our 5 stretching stops at the 9km mark, and it was plain sailing from there until then finish on the Opera House forecourt. We crossed the line with 1:17 showing on the clock, so allowing for the time we were waiting around at the start, I reckon our official time will turn out to be somewhere in the region of 1:08. Neither of us were remotely tired or out of breath, though my knee was starting to become more than an annoyance so I was glad to finish. Niall managed a very respectable 43:19 by his watch.

All in all, it was a lot easier than I’d expected, but I need to figure out why my knee went all weird. I’d definitely like to try another one and actually make a race of it. It feels good to be an athlete again ;-)

B: 57km – R: 16km – S: 1200m

Cycled home and went out for a run. There was a little bit of rain, which was actually nice as the temperature was down as well. I did 6K in 34:33, which includes about 3 20sec stops to do a quick stretch of my calves. Ended up with nice even splits of 16:55:30 and 16:55:34 and finished with a pulse of 144, so the run was nice and relaxed. I’m pretty happy with it as it’s the longest run I’ve done which wasn’t on a treadmill, and I now know that I’ll have no worries with the 10K on Sunday. Jacqui has also entered the 10K, so we’ll just plod along together. Should be fun.

B: 15km – R: 6km – S: 1200m

Well, not quite ;-) Got my longest run ever in last night, 7.5km. I wanted to see how ti felt and use it as an indicator as to whether I’d be able to finish the 10K next weekend. I decided to adopt the “run 6mins, walk 1min” approach popularised by Jeff Galloway since I never really got up to speed with a proper training plan. It worked pretty well last night as I managed to do the 7.5km in 47:40, which would predict a 10K time around 1:04:00. Jacqui is still keen to do the race, so I’ll just run with her if she does decide to enter.

2min @ 6kmh
7 * {
    6min @ 10kmh
    1min @ 5.5kmh
}
2min @ 6kmh
Total: 7.9km

My legs feel pretty good today, though my calves are a little sore.

R: 18km – S: 2200m – W: 2 sessions

Got another run in last night on the treadmill. Felt pretty good throughout, though my legs were starting to feel it towards the end. Aerobically I was fine and could have doubled the distance, not sure about the legs though! Having said that, they feel OK today, so I’m not going to do ay running tonight, then I’ll attempt 7.5km tomorrow evening. That will be the longest distance I’ve ever run, so if that goes OK I shouud be able to handle the 10km (just).

2min @ 6kmh
3 * {
    10min @ 10kmh
    1min @ 5kmh
}
2min @ 6kmh
Total: 5.6km

Got up this morning and got a swim in too. Pretty striaghtforward. Felt shit for the first 500m and was alright, but tired, from there on once I’d warmed up a bit.

200 FS
300 FS
300 FS
200 FS
Total: 1000m

I think I’ll stick to the ladder style of session for the moment, gradually introducing longer swims until I’m up over 2km per session. Then I’ll start more traditional training.

R: 9.1km – S: 1000m – W: 1 session

Down in Canberra this week, so runs are on the treadmill. Got 20mins @ 10km/h last night. Easy enough pace, though I was really noticing the heat indoors. Did 2min walk as warm-up, then 10min run, 1min walk so I could drink some water, then another 10min run, follwed by 2min cool down. Did the usual light weights session afterwards too.

R: 3.5km – W: 1 session

Cycled home, then went for a quick run. The first half of the run felt pretty crap, but after that it was plain sailing. My knees were giving off a few twinges, probably from the different movements associated with snowboarding, but nothing serious.

B: 30km – R: 3.5km – S: 1000m – W: 1 session

Went for another run this afternoon. Same as before; 3.5km nice and easy. I’m sticking to the ball/heel/ball style which smoother than how I used to run. After the run my quads are a little sore, as are my achilles. I probably just need to do a bit more stretching on my achilles before I head out and my quads are just sore from the downhill sections, as I’m not sure how you’re supposed to run them without jarring.

R: 7km

Got home this evening and decided to go for a run on the spur of the moment. Took it really easy, keeping the heart rate around 144bpm, and just plodded along. In the end I got 3.5km in fairly easily, so I’ll see how the legs feel in the morning.

I’ve got about 6 weeks until the 10K race, and I haven’t run in about three weeks, so I’d better get my act together. Running for a time is out of the question at this stage, so my aim now is to try and run the whole thing, rather than doing a run/walk strategy. If I can run roughly every 2-3 days between now and then I should be OK, though that means going for a run after I get off the slopes in NZ. Easier said than done ;-)

R: 3.5km

Went for a run on the treadmill in the hotel last night. 2.5km @ 10kmh. I had intended going for 5km, but I still felt a bit tired after the weekend, so stopped early.

Crawled out of bed at 6:50 this morning, after staying up to watch the l’Alpe d’Huez time trial in the Tour de France. Armstsrong hammered everyone as usual, and didn’t appear to be too troubled doing it. Ullrich came second which was good to see. He’s up to 4th at the moment, so there’s still a slim chance he may pull second out of the bag by Paris.

After getting up so early (relatively anyway) I managed a 1000m swim this morning. Not particularly far, but it will have to do since I haven’t been in a pool in over a month.

R: 2.5km – S: 1000m

Did another 3.3km run this evening which went a little better than Sunday. Made a concious decision to try and slow down even more, and went through 2.3km in 11:25 (12.1kmh) which is about right. My HR was down to 144 from 160 or so, and the run felt quite good, so I think I’ll try and stick to this pace in future.

500m easy
D: 3.3km – T: 17:00 – HR: 144

B: 56.6km – R: 3.8km

Went for a slightly longer run this afternoon, trying to maintain a slower pace. Felt reasonably OK, and managed to complete 2.3km in 11mins, almost 1min slower than the last time. That still works out at 12.5kmh, which I reckon is still too fast. I think I should be training at less than 12 at least, though it starts to feel more like shuffling at that stage. I continued on for a total of approximately 3.25km, the furthest I’ve run so far. I can feel the extra distance in my calves though ;-)

500m easy
D: 3.25 – T: ? – HR: 162bpm

B: 30km – R:6.8km

I’m a bit late starting this week’s running program, but so be it. I was supposed to get a 2.8km run in this evening, but I had to give up after 2.4km. The first half felt pretty good, but I was suffering a bit on the way home. I reckon too many beers & too much good food at the weekend was taking its toll. I also think I’m running too fast (13.5kmh), for someone who’s never run anywhere, so in future I’ll have to slow down and just focus on getting the distance done.

500m easy
D: 2.3km – T: 10:10

B: 15km – R: 2.8km

Went for another run this evening. My calves were a tiny bit sore, but once I got going all was well. Same route, approx. 2.4km, though I’ll have to take my bike out and measure it just to be sure.

500m easy
D: 2.4km – T: 10:50 – HR: 156bpm

Got some weights in afterwards as well.

B: 45km – R: 5.8km – W: 2 sessions

Today is the day that my 10km training program starts. Cycled home from work, which served as a nice warm-up. Had a bit of a stretch at home then headed out. The program called for a 2.4km run, which is the longest run I’ve done in a while, given that I’d previously been doing 3 * 1km. I did a 500m warm-up run, then stopped for more stretching before getting started.

Surprisingly enough, the run was easy enough. Once I got into a rhythm the distance was not an issue, but that was always going to be the case. I’ll see how the legs are tomorrow. That will be the true indicator.

D: 2.3km – T: 10:45 – HR: 160bpm

B: 15km – R: 2.3km – W: 1 session

Went for my third run of the week this morning. I think that may be the first time I’ve run three times in a week. It was pretty uneventful, though my calves are feeling it now. Maybe I should have waited until this evening.

I’m off on a bike ride with Niall, Tom and Greg tomorrow. On-road this time, for 50km apparently, so that should loosen out the legs ready for some treadmill work in Canberra.

B: 52km – R: 9km – W: 2 sessions

My calves weren’t sore this morning, unlike after my run last week, so I hit the road again this evening. At the end of my cycle home I did a little measuring of the route I normally run using my bike computer, so at least I’d have some idea of how far I’m running. Turns out it’s around 3km in total.

This evening’s run felt good. Aerobically I’m fine, but my legs can’t really handle much more distance at this stage. I’ll have to ccontinue building up gradually to avoid injury. So far so good (says me after 3 runs ;-)

B: 35km – R: 6km – W: 2 sessions

The wind was howling this morning, so I never made it out of bed early enough to go for a swim. However, I did get some weights and a run done last night, and since the wind seemed to have abated after my little lie-in, I cycled into work (via the ferry), so it’s not all bad.

The run last night went well. Aerobically I’m fine, in that I could run further, but I know if I do my legs will be wiped out. They’re fine today, but will probably be pretty sore tomorrow if last week is anything to go by.

B: 5km – R: 15mins – W: 1 session

Got some good training done in the last 24hrs: cycling, swimming and running. Cycled home last night and went for a run. 15mins of total running time, with short walks interspersed. Felt pretty good, though we’ll see how my calves hod up tomorrow. Climbed out of bed at 6:45 this morning, left the house at 7:00 to get the 7:15 ferry from Rose Bay. Made it to the pool by 7:30 or so, got a 1600m swim in and was still in work by 8:30. A quick trip to Woolies to buy some fruit, and I’m now ready to fall asleep at my desk ;-)

200 FS, 100 BC, 200 FS
1000 for time as (200FS/100BC repeat) – 15:40
100 BR
Total: 1600m

B: 35km – W: 1 session – R: 15mins – S: 1600m

Just another exercise day today. I’ve just finished my run and it felt pretty good. My calves were a little sore at the start and I was tempted to stop just in case I was going to aggravate them, but I continued on. I ceased trying a Pose-type style, which is known to strain the calves initially, and reverted to a shuffle style and all went well. I’ll have to take my bike out and use the bike computer to measure out some of the run route so I’ve a rough idea how far I’m going.

B: 40km – R: 6.6km

No cycling today, mainly because it was blowing up a storm when I was supposed to leave the house and I hate cycling in big winds. Got the bus instead. Went for a run when I got home which was fun since it was still very windy. Upped the run to 5W/5R * 3 and it felt pretty good. Legs were tired by the end of it though. Now that I’ve got 3 sections to the run I’ll gradually start increasing the middle section as the weeks go by. The first can stay at 5mins and serve as a warm-up and the final 5mins can be a warm-down. Lots of stretching should mean that I’ll remain injury-free.

R: 3.3km