Training Log : Week Commencing 3rd March

Sunday 9th March
Strava

Noosa National Park

No chance for a long run on Saturday this week as I was on my to Noosa on the not so Sunshine Coast. Add to that my little girl feeling rather sick with a double spew before we even got on the plane and making it a Sunday run was obvious. 

We are staying about 3k away from the main hub of Hastings Street and it's another k to the National Park. So I headed out at about 7 to try and beat the heat and humidity.  The 4k to the National Park is dead flat and I was feeling great.  A quick stop at the information centre where they have a clearly marked map, then it was up Tanglewood Track. This really took me by surprise. It's not that it was overly steep, just a constant up hill on a wet track with more than its fair share of running up hill on sand. I wasn't expecting that! 

Dodgy Selfie @ Hells Gate

It wasn't long, about 7k until I hit Hells Gate with spectacular views along the Sunshine Coast! A few photos later and off along the Coastal Track. It's considerably easier, but with it came the crowds.  It was very hard to find any rhythm but the views made going slow more than bearable. Although nearly getting speared by about a million surfboards isn't great.




The national park is absolutely brilliant.  All the major tracks are clearly sign posted.  I am completely hopeless when it comes to directions and even I didn't get lost!

Back to our resort for a 15k round trip. The humidity didn't effect me that much but I was more than ready for a swim.

Looking south from Hells Gate

I also tried doing this run on no breakfast, simply a banana and a glass of water.  My energy was definitely waning after almost 1.5 hours but I think the desired outcome of being fat adapted is worth some extra fatigue. 

East across the ocean from Hells Gate - great views!

The run was 14.8km @ a rather pedestrian 5:30 pace

Month to Date: 70.1km
Year to Date: 405.6km

Thursday 6th March
 Strava

This was supposed to be an up-tempo 6k run, but it quickly turned into a slow 6k slog!

I think the hard workout yesterday plus a light strength session in the evening had a much greater effect than I thought.  I felt every metre of this one, and it wasn't pretty!  Luckily I didn't see another soul out and about at 5:45am so I was left to suffer in isolation!

The run ended up being 6.1km @ 5:18/km pace.

Month to Date: 55.5km
Year to Date: 390.8km


 
Wednesday 5th March
 Strava

Geez do the weeks just roll around.  Already back to interval/pace/pain day!

I had no idea what sort of run I was going to do today, just that I was heading out into the gloom at lunch.  I wanted a shorter pace session, and without giving it much thought settled on 3 x 10min @ 5-10k pace + 3min slow job rest in between.

Well, that didn't work out as planned.  It ended up being 10k @ 4:45 pace all up.  Quite a workout!  I was consciously working on increased stride rate and a smaller stride length in an attempt to ensure I was striking as close to my centre of gravity as I could.  It seemed to work quite well as I felt much more fluid, akin to pedaling in circles in cycling parlance.

So the intervals worked out to be done at 4:29, 4:37 and 4:36 pace.  Not bad.  Again the first one done too quickly - seems to be a habit of mine.

Month to Date: 49.4km
Year to Date: 384.7km

Tuesday 4th March
 Strava

After taking a break from gym strength work yesterday and just doing a very light maintenance routine yesterday evening, it was back to running this morning.

I really do enjoy my run commute.  It's only short, 7km plus whatever extra I feel like doing on any given day.  The route up Anderson St, around The Tan then along the Yarra into Docklands is a joy to run.  Anderson St is a bit of a grind, but it's over before you know it, then it's downhill/flat all the way.  When the weather in Melbourne is like it was this morning, it's a fantastic way to start the day.

The run itself was a bit of a tired one.  The legs certainly knew they had 32km in them from the weekend.  This seems to be fairly typical for my Tuesday run.  Despite this I was able to push fairly hard around the Tan, but slowed considerably towards work.

I finished with 7.1km @ 5:02/km pace.  I don't think I did myself any favours with this pace and I'm going to work on slowing my Tuesday runs right down.  This isn't supposed to be an effort/tempo run, it's designed to be an easy run.  If I keep pushing the pace as I seem to be sub-consciously doing I run the risk of injury again.  I have to remember I have Wednesday's for pace work (normally) and Thursday's for a more up up-tempo sustained effort.  Patience!

Month to Date: 39.5km
Year to Date: 374.8km