Weekend at Warwick

Week - 11.5k
Month - 91.5k
YTD - 390.5k

I have set foot in my door and decided to give hopefully a quick wrap up of the weekends festivities.

Arrived Friday lunchtime and just chilled out for the day at the hotel. Had a awesome dinner at the hotel and spotted everyone else that was doing Warwick having dinner aswell.

The following day, Day 1 of the event I was pretty relaxed. Not sure if my fairly consistent training runs of around 12k was going to work for me or be disastrous.

Anyway

Warwick to Yangan 1/2 Marathon start time 7 am

In the 3 years I have been at this event this year was the warmest by far. It is usually absolutely freezing so I was very grateful. The race started just after 7am and I took off at a faster than normal pace, I wanted to get a clear position rather than pass people on the first section of bike paths before it opens up. This seemed to work for me and I quickly got into a nice pace. I felt really good for the first half of the run, I was by no means pushing it but still maintaining good splits passing 10k in 43.55. At the 12k mark I had Cass stop in the car and she gave me a gel and some powerade. At about the 16k mark I lifted the tempo a bit I felt ordinary up the climbs but the flat I felt strong for the whole run. I ended up crossing the line in 1.32.44 and actually achieved a negative split even with the tougher second half. Now I just had to recover for the next race

Morgan Park 4.6k Cross Country Start time 12pm

I find this race the most difficult, not sure why maybe the combination of the dust and not being used to doing that much off road running. I pulled up pretty well after the 1/2 and had a plan to do 19 mins for this race. The course changes every time I have done this so you don't really know what to expect. This year I liked the course there were a few obstacles such as jumps etc to contend with and some hilly sections that made it pretty tough. I crossed the line in 17.19 which I was pretty happy about.

5k road run Start time 3pm

I was still feeling pretty good but I was glad that this is the last race of the day. I completed a short warm up just conserve what ever energy I had left. I had arrived pretty close to start time so not long after the warm up we where asked to move around to the start area. I good 5 min walk in itself. Got to the start area and conducted a few stretches and telling myself that I will be happy with something around 4min k pace (20mins). The first km was a bit weird I had a niggle in the outside of my left knee which I have had before. An overuse injury ITB friction syndrome, it hurt a little but settled down for the remainder of the run. The last 2k I began to hurt and eased up on the 4k before going a little harder for the finish. Finished in a time of 19.39.

End of day one saw me clock 3 times below my goals by a long way aswell as running PB's for each of the races although race 2 was different.

After the race I noticed that my knee was sore and also the outside section of my right foot just below and a little forward of the ankle. This concerned me a bit because I experienced the same problem last year with my foot after the exact race.

Day 2

Killarney to Queen Mary Falls 10k start time 8am

Woke up with my foot and knee pretty sore. Fairly pissed off to say the least I didn't know how the day was going to pan out. I tried warming up but it was hurting quite alot and felt uncomfortable so I stopped. Not willing to pull out I lined up for the race. Last year with my foot issues this run took me 59.xx. Before I realised I was injured I wanted to achieve what I did in 05 which was 53.xx. The race started and it hurt however after 2k of putting up with it the pain subsided where it was comfortable not perfect but I could maintain a reasonable pace. The first 3k is pretty flat and I passed this mark in 13 mins the next 2.5k is undulating and by the 6k mark the big hill begins. I reached the 6k mark in 27.32. My foot felt good running up the hill however my lungs didn't react the same way. I struggled until it flattened out around the 9k mark, crossing the line in 50.55. I was chuffed to say the least but also pretty sore as soon as I stopped.

I had worked out my times along the way and realised that my goal of sub 3.20 was easily beat. I therefore dropped it to 3.10 during the first day, and knew what I had to run today to get under it.

1500m road run, Warick main St start time 11.30am

Didn't do any warm up for this run, and just practice a running style that sort of felt alright. A bit disappointed that I couldn't go flat out for this run as I wanted to beat my course PB of 4.55 set i 05. I decided running on my toes was the way to go. The gun fired and I set off, felt the knee complain for the first 400m but it then settled. The foot was still groaning until the turn around I then upped the pace and tried running normal it felt alright and I could stride out a little more. I think at the turnaround I was 2.52 (750) I ended up crossing in 5.26 (2.34 for the second half). Again pretty happy with the outcome and really even if I was not injured I don't think I would have anymore than a minute or so faster over the two events today.

Overall my unofficial time was 3.06.03 for 42.2km. I am very very happy with that, it is actually over 8 mins faster than my previous time of 3.14.xx set in 05.