My DOMS has DOMS

Finally, a full week of training to report on, the rest has come to an end, time to strap on the sneakers and get back into it.

Notice how I said “rest” has come to an end, recovery is still happening.

Last week started off with a bit of a limp with my left ITB giving me some grief on Monday and Tuesday. It is always the left that plays up and always after a big race; it’s never been a problem for more than about half a week so I don’t get into a flap about it.

Monday I parked at Tooronga station and caught the freebie train to work, getting up at 5am after almost two and a half weeks at work, yeahhhhh that was fun. The run back to the station from my office is about 10.7km, I took it easy and then the ITB seized up at about 10km so I just walked out the rest.

On Tuesday I erred on the side of caution and went back to Tooronga instead of East Malvern (15.5km), experience told me not to trust the ITB quite yet. As it happened it went on me only about 2km in. A few choices, go straight to Richmond station and catch the train to my car, see how it goes to Burnley Station (about 5km) or push to Kooyong (8.5km) or just pull the pin and walk to Tooronga because it’s still exercise. Ughh, didn’t want to walk that far, I love a walk but the sky was foreboding and I was dressed to run, not walk. I forged on and it didn’t get any worse so I bargained with it, “OK ITB, get me to Kooyong and I’ll call it quits, deal?”

Deal!

Although it was pretty annoying spending more time waiting for a train than it would’ve taken me to run the final 2km. Obsessive? Moi?

Wednesday is now back as a rest day in my new schedule and off for a wee bit of a hurty massage.

Hurty it may have been but I got through Thursday’s run with nary a niggle of protest from the left leg.

It was a session built to test it too; Carol and I decided it’s time to get some hills back in the legs so we headed to Airlie Street. This is a gutbusting leg burning 200 metres of relentless hill at a grade of about 10% (although according to mapmyrun it gets to 20% over the last bit). You stand at the bottom and look up and it just looms ominously above you, bastard!!! There is a fantastic view back down Punt Road from the top though.

It’s been a loooong while since I’d done any hill reps there, years. The last time I did 10 reps and averaged about 79 seconds.

We decided on 3 to 4, may as well ease back into it eh. We ended up doing 6 and I averaged about 83 seconds per rep, nice to see I haven’t slipped too much (although I did need a little breather at the top before heading back down again for the recovery).

Funnily enough I felt fantastic it the end, better than I have after a session in good long while, there was something immensely satisfying about finishing something I find very difficult and not particularly enjoyable knowing that it was doing me good.

Although you won’t see me eating a plate of Brussels Sprouts in a big hurry in an attempt to recreate the rush.
Friday was the city to Tooronga station run again, nice and easy.

Saturday was a rest day, after 2 weeks of almost nothing it seemed foolish to jump back into 6 days a week.

Sunday I decided to head to them thar hills and have a run around Ferny Creek, with the You Yangs 30km not that far away some hilly trails are required. I set out prepared to do the 16km loop but hate to admit that by about 11km I was feeling very tired and ordinary so I took a short cut up Clematis Track and only did 13km. I did have a funny encounter though, at one stage I was sharing the trail with a pretty good local runner (not naming names) who appeared to be having a very lively conversation with herself, either that or she thought I was closer behind her and she was talking to me, although I am pretty sure she was talking to herself. Hmmmm, do I really want to be alone in the bush with someone who A) is talking to herself and B) can run faster than me?

When we moved off a downhill section on the road and back on to the trail she slowed right down as she wasn’t at all confident heading downhill on a rough trail. I on the other hand have scant regard for my well being and am happy to pelt down, after running on her heels for a bit and feeling pretty self conscious I just over took with a laugh and said I’d meet her again on the up as I am not a good climber.

Sure enough she owned me pretty quickly when we headed up.

I am sick of being crap at running up hill, I am going to damn well keep dragging myself up them until I get better, what doesn’t kill me and all that……….I was starting to make some good progress last year but then slacked right off while training for a flat marathon.

The price to pay for two hill session in one week, DOMS baby, DOMS

At least it makes you feel alive.

I am going to go back to speedwork tonight, although I think it will be more work and less speed.

Onwards and Upwards

Giddy up, I am back in the saddle, cold is gone and I am running again! What a relief, sitting around on my ever expanding arse was getting tedious. My left ITB is still giving my a bit of bother but not enough to stop me, yes yes yes, I am being cautious.

Oh, lots of good comments on the last post, I was going to start adding replies but I’ll put it all in here instead.

JH – I am not entirely sure running the length of the DCT appeals to me, I’ve seen so much of the mid section over the years and I don’t think the Carrum end is going to win a battle against a spin around the Dandenong Ranges.

Beki and Andy R – Damn, the Willy2Billy looks like one mighty fine run and I was poised to enter, then I thought I better check my diary! Seems that is the weekend to be running as I’ve got an Aths Victoria relay on the 27th and a Trail Race on the 28th. I’ll take a rain check and add it to the “gotta do that one” list.

Katie – You made me laugh, I read your first post and thought, “Oh, some lovely kind stranger is offering me accommodation, I can’t see how that could possibly be a problem, I don’t think we’ve had any female serial killers in the country”

Hang on, F&T, Aha, suddenly I feel a lot safer.

6 Foot Track is on the “gotta do that one” list too so I may hit you up one day, don’t go moving

New Andy – I was pretty happy with the amount of faster sessions Advanced Marathoning prescribed, especially the tempo runs and fast finish long runs. Problem is I did almost none of them. It would be unfair on myself to say I just got plain lazy, running 90-100km a week isn’t lazy, however I did get a bit complacent and dare I say it, a bit tired, so it was easy just to slip into easy run pace. Next time around I will apply a little more discipline.

As someone who has had the odd bout with ITBS I can assure you that Arthur’s Seat would not have been good to you, not so much the going up but the running down the other side, sharp downhills can be pretty bad if your ITB is not at it’s best.

You should definitely consider Two Bays as a stepping stone to TNF; it’s a beautiful and challenging run.

Mick – You are more than welcome to join me in the Dandenongs, although there will be a fair bit of “ok, you just head up that way, wait for me at the top” I’ll bring Carol along to keep you company on the drag to the top, she’s a great hill runner. I’ll let you know next time we are heading up there.

New Digs
I posted late last year that I had the chance to spend a couple of days working out of our back up site. This is essentially a big deserted two storey building in an industrial park full of work stations; it is required in the event that our CBD office or any of the hubs can’t be occupied. Well, it is finally finished, complete with a little self contained office on the mezzanine for me, it even has a daggy piece of pastel art on the wall that I am pretty sure has probably been hanging about in the building since it was built sometime in the 70s. Fortunately the climate control, desk, computer and kitchen are all brand spanking new. After years of dwelling in a cubicle it was certainly a new experience to have an office, although a little odd when I am the only one there. I’ll have to break the silence by screaming “Jones! My office, NOW!” at random intervals.

A colleague from Sydney was in town yesterday so I had a tour and was shown how to operate the alarm, I was also warned that the store room out the back is a bit creepy and may or may not contain Zombies, I guess that explains the cricket bat under the desk.

The best news is, a new Ikea is opening on Princes Highway just down the road, salmon and boiled potatoes in the café for lunch, yum

And it’s a 12km (ish) run from home; you don’t think I hadn’t checked that already.

I won’t be there everyday, I’ll be dividing my time between there and the city office for when the Zombies get too much.

23.2

That’s how many kilometers I’ve run since the marathon, 12 days ago.

The first weeks slackness was entirely by design, to give myself a mental and physical break.

This last week has been taken out of my hands as I started to feel sick on Tuesday evening and have been laid low ever since. I managed a comfortable and entirely pain free 10.4km on Tuesday afternoon but since then all I have been able to manage has been sporadic bouts of housework or walks to the shops followed by a cup of tea and a long sit down to recover.

I’ve had a rotten sore throat, a stuffed up head and general listlessness, although mercifully no sinus infection this time. Codrals have been consumed en masse however it has been more drop out than soldier on.

I suppose after the marathon I was vulnerable to anything that was going around, I’ll bet I picked something up on the flight on the way home from Brisbane.

So while it has been a major pain in the behind I’ve just given in to it and am resting up until I feel better, I felt so lucky to have come through the marathon with no major niggles and motivation well and truly intact but I didn’t factor in a lurgey. It seems to be on the wane today and I am hoping I can get out for a little trot tomorrow.

In the meantime I’ve been trawling for events to enter and dreaming up wicked training runs through the Dandenongs, I’ve got a couple of really nasty 20-30km loops mapped out in my head, if I wasn’t typing I’d be stroking a white cat and cackling maniacally. I’ll need it though, I’ve entered the 30km You Yangs run which is only 5 weeks away, after training for a flat marathon these legs need some hills!

Then there is the 2 Bays “I don’t need no damn bus” 56km adventure in January 2012, my first solo ultra, where I swing between excitement and sheer terror, but to be honest mostly excitement, this is going to need some serious training if I am to enjoy the event. At the moment I am thinking of mixing up long runs on the road and heading to Lysterfield for the mid week long run to get some hills in, I’ll start training in October so I can take advantage of daylight savings. I’ll also include a long trail run of around 45-50km, I can do an out and back along some of the hiller sections of the Trailwalker course, Lysterfield through to Silvan and back should do the trick. I’ll do some back to backs too, probably a long run home from work on a Friday and then a 20km trail run on Saturday morning.

And I plan on running the 30km at Maroondah Dam too, I need to avenge that DNF.

Of course there will be another marathon on the cards too, just not sure when/where at this stage.

So, what will I change when I train for my next marathon? Mostly I will include more faster running, there needed to be more tempo runs, more fast finish long runs and I shouldn’t have shied away from interval training, I don’t think a regular session of long reps (1km/2km) would have hurt. Essentially training was tiring and I fell into the trap of just doing a heap of long slow stuff which surprise surprise resulted in a slow marathon, as I predicted in a post shortly before the marathon my long run pace of around 5:40 per km ended up being my marathon pace.

Ahh, 3pm, cup of tea and a Codral time.

So, when can I do this again?

The Post Mortem or A Tale of Two Halves

Before I go any further I have to say that I have no regrets about choosing the Christchurch Marathon as my first marathon. It was superbly well organised, the course was pancake flat and in great condition and for an event that was run on country roads the crowd support was fantastic, not to mention the support from the wonderful and hardy volunteers. Special mention must go to how they handled the special drinks we put out, there was a spotter about 10 metres ahead of the table yelling out a race number, by the time you got to the table someone was handing you your drink, brilliant! I spent most of the second lap thanking the volunteers.

Race HQ was in a big sports hall, it was so nice to sit around in a warm building waiting before the short walk to the start line. We were there pretty early so Carol and I dropped off our special drinks and retreated the car for half an hour or so before heading back to the sports hall.

Being that the course was on long flat country roads, there was a potential for lonely and isolated running. Not so, the organisers had obviously thought about this and each 5km drink station was accompanied by entertainment, bands, singers and even a bag piper to serenade us around the course. Locals were encouraged out with coffee and food fans dotted around the course as well. Quite a few had set themselves up at the end of their long driveways, in spite of the weather, to cheer on the runners, they were still out there when us 4 hour runners where coming through. The highlight was the young guys, getting increasingly drunker, at the 15/25km ish mark, they had a megaphone and were providing a running commentary and high fives all around, it gave me a boost, not to mention a giggle, although I declined the offer of a beer.

The race start was delayed by 15 minutes as people were still arriving, aghhh, come on, let’s go!!!

The weather in Christchurch had been warmer than what I had left in Melbourne, I’d gone for a couple of runs before the big day and was perfectly comfortable in shorts and a T-Shirt. Standing on the start line conditions were perfect! There was scattered cloud cover, not a breath of wind and although I don’t know what the temperature was but I have stood on far colder start lines waiting for AV events to start. Optimism was high and I wasn’t too nervous.

I had worked out 5km splits for a 3:40 finish as I felt confident I could do 3:40-3:45, however I opted not to write the splits on my arm. On the morning I decided to run on feel, enjoy the day and learn from the experience, rather than getting stressed out if the splits started to slip.

Well, a marathon is a marathon, you don’t need a km by km break down….

0 – 10km
51:52 – average pace 5:12

Rookie mistake, started waaay too fast with the first 5km in 25:13. It felt comfortable but after passing the 5km drink station I made a conscious effort to pull it back a bit, it was about this point that the previously clear sky had darkened and the rain that was to persist for most of the rest of the race started up. At this point it was hitting us from behind and I thought “Ace, a tailwind!”

Then we took a left hand turn and the headwind hit

11-20km
53:58 – average pace 5:24

Settling in now and finding a more manageable pace, pushed into a headwind the entire time, it was pretty inconsistent, coming in quite hard, easing up for a mercifully short time and then picking up again. I tried to put it out of my mind and maintain a good pace, no point getting stressed out as there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. Gels and water were going down well and to plan and my stomach wasn’t protesting at all.

Halfway!
1:52:09 (gun time) – average pace 5:18

I was a little wobbly coming into halfway, physically feeling OK, I think it was more nerves than anything else knowing that I had another 21.1km ahead of me, not to mention the psychological blow of having so many people who had been running with me peel off to finish their half marathons. The support here was great though with heaps of people cheering the runners on. I thought at this point that all I had to do was a run a 2 hour second half and I’d still have a time I’d be happy with, easier said than done.

21-30km
58:37 – average pace 5:52

Oh dear, starting to go downhill here. Everything was fine up until 26km and then BANG! It started to get very hard, it was cold, wet and the fecking headwind would just not let up. I’d turn a corner and it would still be there, like some hideous dervish, if it wasn’t a headwind it was an equally debilitating cross wind but never a bloody tailwind!

The pace started to slow as the endless kms of battling the head wind and the fast start began to take a toll, at one point I rounded a corner and the cross wind nearly took my feet out from under me. This is were I was doing a heap of talking to myself, just picking landmarks ahead and working towards them with the promise of my little bottle of lemonade waiting at the 31km mark.

I am embarrassed to admit that from around 27km to the end there was walking I was very ordered about it, only 100 metres allowed at the .9km mark, for example, 28.9km would hit and I’d stride out until my Garmin beeped the next lap and I’d start up running again.

31-40km
63:23 – average pace 6:21

Feck It, I was getting pretty angry with myself but I was determined not to let the damn thing beat me, I was finishing if I had to crawl over the line with my eyelids. Another small bottle of flat lemonade was most welcome and drained gratefully at 36km. Once I passed 37km and was into unknown territory I was counting down the kms to the finish, 5 to go, 4 to go, I can to this!! A photographer caught me when I was having a walk break, bastard!!

Around 35km I couldn’t feel much on my left side from my hip to my knee, at one point I was hitting my leg with my fist to see if there was any feeling, it was a little freaky, I think it was because that was the side that was bearing the brunt of the rain and cross winds so I was just cold.

Amazingly over the last 15km I was still overtaking people as I doggedly worked my way to the finish.

41 – 42.2km
7:53 – average pace 5:38

Determined to at least look like I was finishing strong I rallied for the last 1.2km and reaped the advantage of a small field by hearing my name announced as I crossed the finish line.

I was pretty emotional, the bottom lip was wobbling as I staggered around the corner to sit down and take the timing chip off my shoe. As it happened the three or four people that finished around me were all guys so I had to suck it up, no way was I going to cry in front of them!! It was sooooo lovely to see Carol there waiting for me with a big smile and a congratulatory hug, I’d never appreciated having someone at the end of a race more than at that moment.

It was disappointed, I so wanted to see 3:4X on the clock as I finished, not 4:01:21 (gun time), my chip time was 4:00:58, so close to sub 4 hours.

The second half was run in, 2:08:48, a massive positive split, oh dear.

Now I’ve had almost a week to ruminate on the run and I’ve got a head full of ideas and a gut full of enthusiasm to give it another crack.

I was asked not long after if I was disappointed with my time after all the work I had done. At first, yes, I certainly was, angry and disappointed. Then some time away from forums and blogging while I relaxed with my family this week helped me put it in perspective.

Now I feel proud that I gave it my best, I got through the training uninjured and I pressed though a run that was at times frustrating due to the weather (can’t be helped) and the fact that I wasn’t going to run as well as I’d felt I was capable of. It is so easy to pull out if you think it isn’t going to go your way, but there was no bloody was I was DNFing my first marathon!

I’ve escaped relatively unscathed too, my left knee was sore for a couple of days but has now settled and I got a wicked blood blister on a toe on my right foot, but that is pretty normal (gross to pop though!), no post marathon blues have set in and I am already planning a second assault, though it won’t be this year as nothing suits. I have only had one run so far, not a deliberate ploy, I just wanted to enjoy my time with my family and have a mental break from running as much as a physical one. I went for an easy 5km on the treadmill next to my brother at his gym yesterday (it was 1 degree in Toowoomba on Thursday morning, we both wussed it), nothing hurt and the only issue was the boredom of being on a tready.

Now, after 4 months of marathon training I am very keen to run a heap of races now, time to have some fun and capitalise on all that hard work. I have entered a 3 race trail series, am hanging out for the entries for the You Yangs trail race to open because I want to do the 30km, I’ve entered the Devil Bend half marathon again and of course there are quite a few AV races left in the season.

Oh yeah, I am also planning on entering the 56km Two Bays race next January

Finally, a massive THANKS to all the comments and advice here over the last 4 months and all the comments on Facebook this week, I was very overwhelmed and it certainly helped mitigate some of the disappointment I was feeling.

Next post – Some more thoughts on my training and what I will change for next time as well as some pics and stuff about Christchurch.