A bit of orienteering and a lot of Track

Last weekend saw Christine and I meet up in Lucerne (I was in London that week and only came back Saturday morning) and head off for the local orienteering. It had been a rest week, but sleep had been hard to come by and getting up at 4 am to catch the 6 am flight didn't help matters. I had only run once that week and so I was hoping to be quite rested.

We were there well on time and I even decided to do a full tape. I've been concentrating a lot on getting some experience back, because running in Switzerland is a lot different to running in Austria. Doing some map analysis after each race has certainly helped, and I'm feeling confident once again in the forest. Additionally it was going to be a more or less flat run :)

I pushed from the go and maintained a high speed throughout the race. Not many errors, just one or two small route choices. I was getting closer to my OL running speed goal of 6 min per KM as well. Having said that I was way off the best time (a young man running in the HAM cat), but ended up as second in my class (so a good result). I was more than happy. It was good to get out there and feel good at an orienteering race again. I've entered for a few National events early October, so then I will be able to see where I really am. I will be hoping to land in the top 25 % of the results.

This week saw the start of the last push towards the marathon at the end of October. It's down to faster and harder sessions now. Monday saw 8 x 1000m and on Thursday I did a small but intensive pyramid.

The pyramid session is meant to harden you up, physically and mentally. Unfortunately it has been so long since I have run a 400m, I had just forgotten how to do it and ended up running the first 400m in 88 s, which was way too slow. The rest of the session went off OK but the last 400m was 76 s, which just shows me how slow I actually started.

As the marathon draws closer, I realise how little long jogs I have been doing and that I certainly don't have the distance in my legs anymore. I've only managed to get over 30km once this year so tomorrow I'll be attempting to do it a second time. Next weekend I'll try again, so maybe I'll be able to squeeze in 2 more before the marathon. As I don't want to waste all this training, I've started looking around for a spring marathon where I'm hoping I can build on this base.

If anybody has any suggestions, please let me have them :)

I'll be running the Willisauerlauf today, wish me luck. Maybe I'll write a race report ala Dion later tonight :)

Swiss Marathon Light

Last week, after some entry fee troubles, I started the Swiss Marathon Light. This is a half marathon run around Sarnen in Nidwalden, very close to where I live. It's a great event, on what I wouldn't call a flat or easy course. In particular, the bit at the end can get a bit hard if you have overdone it up to about KM 15.

In light of all my calf issues, and the fact that the Physio said I shouldn't push it, I decided to start conservatively. As usual I was not at the front at the start, but rather settled in nicely to (what I thought) would be a sub 90 min pace. This all went fine to about the 3rd KM when the guy driving the 90 minute bus passed me. Duh. So, what the hell I thought, I would just hang on and see where it went.

Luckily for me, my maths brain hasn't been lost over the years and I was fairly certain by the 5th KM that Mr. Bus Driver was going a little toooo fast. So I settled in and waited. Sure enough, after about 8 km of running, the bus started to slow ever so slightly. I, on the other hand, just kept the pace up and slowly started to inch away from the bus. 10 km came and went in 41:40 (about 4 min 10 km) so I was happy. This was a good pace.

However, after the 2 next KM's, we started on the hills (well more like bumps to be honest) but I wanted to keep pushing myself so I started increasing my pace on the tar. Once I got to a speed I knew I could hold, I just kept it there and every hill I pushed a little harder and faster and inched my way towards a 4 min 07 pace.

15 km came and went and then we started on the last hill. At this point I stuck it in overdrive and pushed up hard. Obviously the pace didn't change much, however as I was not slowing people started to come back to me. I lost count after 20 runners as I realised that my slowish start was helping me on to a strong finish. I keep my foot on the gas using the fading runners as target practice.

Once over the top at about 19 km, my calves did start to hurt a little, but I didn't want to drop pace so I was concentrating like mad on keeping my running style neutral to the foot and adjusting my running position so as to reduce as much strain as possible on the legs. Although quite uncomfortable I was able to hold this to the end, even picking up some super KM's at the end.

My final time of 1 hr 26 min 12 quite surprised me and the fact that I was able to finish so strong was really a great feeling. My km time of 4 min 05 seconds was almost astonishing - who would have predicted such a speed (certainly not me, I had been hoping to get as close to 90 as possible).  It's always nice to be chuffed after a race.

I am noticing, however, the lack of distance and I'm aware that a marathon is an entirely other beast to be honest. But I'm upbeat and looking forward to the next 3 weeks of final training before going into my 2 week marathon rest and recovery period.

Saturday was a OL and today was track, but more about that later :)

Here you can find the website: http://www.switzerland-marathon-light.ch/

Pure Frustration

The last few months have been so frustrating for me as I've diligently prepared for my marathon in October. It all started in May, when I was in Austria doing some orienteering. As is the wont when you don't actively do a sport anymore, you tend to get lasy about it, and it was no different on this ill fated Saturday. Although I knew that I was running faster than I have for some years, I chose not to tape my ankles as I didn't think it would really matter.

How wrong can you actually get? Seriously wrong to be honest as I put my foot in a hole about 2 controls from the finish and twisted my ankle, while additionally managing to seriously rip the left calf at the same time. As an orieenteer I can deal easily with a twisted ankle (we get them all the time), but this calf was already insulted and now I had insulted it's insult.

So Monday saw me troop off to the Physio, who started treatment on the old calf muscle. Now lets get honest here, Medical care in Europe is not the same as I remember it being in South Africa. Maybe (of course) my memory is not so good, but one thing I do remember is how lucky we are in South Africa with a wealth of excellently gifted and well educated Physiotherapists. Don't ever take that for granted.

Physiotherapy care here is bordering on non-existent, mainly because the physios are seriously overworked and underpaid. Getting an appointment is impossible, and when you get one, more likely than not it will start 10 to 15 minutes late. And it was no different with me. I was lucky if I could get one 30 minute session a week and often I had to settle for a new Physio who would start from scratch again.

So the long road to recovery had started, sort off. I was given stretches and exercises to do, instructions what not to do and the promise that it would improve. I even tried a form of acupuncture which hurt so badly I couldn't walk for 24 hours. I went there at 9 pm in the evening, or on Saturday morning. Anything to get my one appointment a week in. Loads happened but 1 thing didn't happen. My calf did not get better, it got worse and the injury caused an additional injury in the other calf.

And all this time I was doing my best to get the training up there, and get ready for the marathon. But alas that still hasn't happened and I'm still battling away on a sub-optimal preparation. My hard sessions have been hampered by pain which I've mostly been able to push through, while I've really concentrated on my stepping and running style in an effort to reduce any more possible damage.

Now unfortunately it seems I may have given it the final insult as I find myself unable to run at the moment at all. The pain today on our long jog just got too much and I had to stop. I'll give it 48 hours and see what happens on Monday. And, YES, you guessed it, my one appointment is only on Tuesday....duh.

As I get more and more frustrated, the harder I am finding it to contain my anger in the lack of treatment I'm getting. However I see a way forward, as after throwing my toys out of my cot on Friday I've been given a second weekly appointment, an appointment with a specialist and a special gym training plan to strengthen the calf - Yay. Let us hope for the best. Time is getting shorter.

What I wouldn't give for a Chris, a Grant or a Jenny now! Wouldn't that be something.

Speed, is it still there?

The training for the marathon has been going well. I have been following all the right rules, and have really tried not to be lasy about getting out there and going the sessions, even when I haven't felt like it. Over summer I pushed my weekly distance up to about 90 km per week, and will keep it there for another 2 or 3 weeks, and then begins the tapper.

One of my concerns has been my lack of long run speed. Back in the day I remember that we used to push out those 30 KM LJ's in about 4:00 to 4:20 pace and that was week after week. Now I've been struggling to get it under 5:00, and mostly it's been sitting around 6:00 to be honest, so I'm realizing that my original plan of a sub- 3 hour is probably not on the cards.

But what is still there? 3:15 or even 3:30?

After hitting the track in the last few weeks I've watched the KM times (on the track) drop like a stone. The first sessions I was pushing out 4:20 pace, yesterdays pace of 3:35 was a welcome relief to me - Yes, I'm still quick (lol - not as quick as I used to be) but I going with anything under 3:45 as quite good. The question is - how am I going to convert that into long jog speed?

And the bigger question is, what am I going to be aiming for as my marathon Tempo on race day ......

So I'll leave you pondering that while I get ready for my next Long jog - 21 km today on the marathon route - should be fun fighting the tourists :)

New design

to go with a new start. Traing for the Marathon in October and so I thought I would write some of it down - just for fun :)

Enjoy,
Richard.

Swiss City Marathon