Idlemind - nickcoster.com
Future gazing from a quiet corner of cyberspace.

I ran the Sydney City to Surf On Sunday. It is a 14km event and in the lead up to the marathon in just over a month I consider it to be a fun training day. Last year I ran back to the city, without really planning so this year I had it in mind from before the start.

I pushed myself throughout the fun run and finished at just over 66minutes which was a personal best for that run for me, so I was pretty happy. My heart rate was steady at around 178-183bpm which is higher that I would be running a longer distance, but because I knew that the course was well within my distance range I just set my upper limit at 185 and went for it.

On the way back though I took it a bit easier, but still wanted to keep the pressure on, so that I ran at around 10 bpm slower. Still, I think that the return path is about 10km and I ran back in 47minutes. Not bad I thought. Of course if the distance is only 8.5 km then I am just kidding myself. Oh well the self confdence will have to do me for now.

Good night

Although I had a great run today it was the first one in too long. The weather in the last two weekends has been pretty average so I haven’t been out. I have to really step up the training from here on in.

Yesterday I ran my local 11 km loop, but it was pretty slow. If i want to hit my 3:50 time then I need to be averaging 4min 45 secs. My pace yesterday was just over 5min per km. I can probably blame some of that on traffic lights but still a long way short of my target time.

So today I did my long run and it felt good. I did feel the change over in my body as my physical energy level started to fade. I think that was at around the 20km mark. After that it was a real struggle, not the least because the last 4km are all uphill.

It told me that I need to eat more before a run and carry the carb gels with me to get me home. Thankfully this afternoon we feasted on curries and carbs. Yum. Tomorrow have a day off so I have another run planned for the morning.

Distance: 25km
Time: 2hrs 23min
Course: Home to the city ‘to Centenial Park and around the 5km lap and then back home.
Target Heart rate: 165-175bpm
Average heart rate: #bpm
Weekly total Km’s: 36km

Next Sunday is the City to Surf so that is the run I am going for this week. I think my last years time was around 68 minutes. Maybe I can beat that this year.

This was a pretty rushed training session. It was just a quick treadmill run between work commitments.

Distance: 7km
Time: 33min 10sec (609.3cal)
Course: 7km Treadmill tempo run @ 4.41 min/km, with an incline of 2
Target Heart rate: N/A
Average heart rate: Not sure, however my max was 181bpm
Weekly total Km’s: 7km
Notes: This was a pretty hard run, but I could have kept going if I had to. I just wish that I had an opportunity to stretch. Unfortunately I had to run back to a customer focus group.

Today was my long run day. This takes me from North Sydney to the city, through to Centennial Park. Another beautiful (unseasonaly) warm winters day.

Distance: ~24km
Time: 2hrs 22min 7sec
Course: Home to Centennial Park (follows 2000 marathon blue line course) and then one standard lap of the park. Then back home.
Target Heart rate: 165-170bpm
Average heart rate: 167bpm
Weekly total Km’s: 34km
Notes: It was a good run at a reasonable pace. The course gets really hard when I hit the Cahill Expressway on the return path. It is basically all up hill from there, and back up the Pacific Hwy to home. Ouch!!
This was my longest run so far for the year. I think that I will keep the distance next week and try to improve the time.

This week I have not been able to train, due to work extending in to the evenings as well as during the day. However I did manage to get out for a run today.

Distance: 10km
Time: 50min 22sec
Course: 1 lap of Sydney half marathon course
Target Heart rate: 175-180bpm
Average heart rate: 178bpm
Weekly total Km’s: 10km
Notes: It was a nice comfortable run. On a beautiful Sydney day. The only sad thing was running past the Domain and seeing the wreckage of the beautiful Morton Bay Fig’s that are being chainsawed down this week.

I am planning to get out and do a 20-25km fun from home to centenial park tomorrow.