follow me on strava

I've finally uploaded some of my recent runs off my Garmin watch (Garmin Forerunner 110, the girly version) onto Strava, which was recommended to me by a colleague of mine, who is an avid cyclist and swears by its analytics. I've imported my Run Keeper data, too, so this should reconcile all my recent outdoor runs into the one place. I'll also aim to manually upload my treadmill runs, too, so it keeps account of all my marathon training efforts.

You can find my slow times right here. One goal is to definitely get that 10km time below one hour. I know I can do it - it's just not happening at the moment.

Week 4 Summary

Of my 18 week training schedule, I am now officially one month through and I'm feeling pretty good about my distance efforts. My times - well, that's another matter, because they seem to have been a little slower this week. However, I need to tell myself that it's distance, not necessarily time, that counts at this stage. If I can get through the set kilometres each week, then any time improvements are a bonus.

Each week, I will summarise what I have achieved over the past week. Here's how my week four turned out:

Total distance: 32.92km
Cumulative distance: 111.25km

Monday: Weights session with my trainer at the gym. This was TOUGH - she increased the weights on me, and I was exhausted by the end! So much so that I came home completely ravenous and ate my way through some serious tacos that evening.

Tuesday: Enforced rest day, as I had a day trip to Brisbane that day. Five hours of flying in one day does not allow for any training at all.

Wednesday: 6.05km evening run. SB and I went out at 9:00pm for an after dinner run, and I must admit I struggled. I'm not sure if it was because I had just eaten a meal, the lateness of the run, or both, but I didn't run well at all. One upside of running after dark, however, is that we saw lots of possums in the park!

Thursday: Another heavy weights session with my trainer at lunchtime, followed by a 7.25km run after work through the Carlton Gardens. I must admit, I much prefer an early morning run to an afternoon or evening run, but the people watching is quite enjoyable in the late afternoon, particularly around the Melbourne Museum and Exhibition Building. That afternoon, there was an acting group doing some sort of improvised group activity, and a buff Mediterranean dude in a singlet and jeans having his photos taken, no doubt for a portfolio of sorts.

Friday: 5km morning run - normally these runs are good for me, but I think the effect of having done quite a bit of activity in the 24 hours prior depleted my energy somewhat. That night, I also did a Barre Body class for the first time - while I didn't realise it would be so heavily pilates and yoga focused, it was excellent for stretching out and focusing on muscles that I probably haven't paid sufficient attention to over the past few weeks.

Saturday: Rest day. Delicious brunch with SB at South of Johnston.

Sunday: Weekly long run of 14.63km. The run included a couple of good hills (twice up the Anderson St hill, but the mid section was fairly slow.

One of the best things about this week is that my knee has not been hurting nearly as much. Well, I lie - on Wednesday, after my day trip, my knee was really sore, but for some reason since Thursday it has been playing well for me. I can now climb stairs without wincing every time. Fingers crossed this is the start of something good for my knee, and the new sneakers I bought a few weeks ago (my faithful New Balance style, of which this is the third pair I've owned) are starting to take effect.

This week, my weekday runs will incorporate an 8km run alongside two 5kms, followed by 16km on the weekend. I'm off to Brisbane again this week so a humid early morning run will no doubt be scheduled in. Still going strong, which is the main thing!

intro

Hello again world of blogging, Alex here with another chapter in my occasional blog series of special interest topics. Having previously documented my love for silly pop songs and dress ups, it has come time to focus my attentions specifically on my current project - training for my first marathon.

A little bit of background on where I'm at:

1. I've signed up for a marathon, but it's not just any marathon - it's the 45km Great Ocean Road Marathon. A normal marathon is 42.195km, but because this race goes between Lorne and Apollo Bay along the beautiful Great Ocean Road, it's extended that little bit further. Race date: Sunday 19 May 2013.
   
2. Currently, I'm in my fourth week of training, and am using Hal Higdon's Novice 1 training plan as the basis for my weekly running training. So far, I've kept to the distances, and have even done a little more, based on my need to run further on the day. While I'm not 100% strict with the days, I have been doing the requisite number of runs and running the specified number of kilometres each week. This is in spite of travelling on an almost weekly basis (so far I've trained in four cities across Australia) AND having to deal with a couple of hangovers for the Sunday runs. So far, so good though!
   
3. Prior to embarking on this endeavour, the farthest I've previously run is 21.1km during the Run Melbourne half marathon in 2012. That was an enjoyable race but tough all the same!
   
4. I'm also doing strength training to support my running goals - two weights sessions per week. All up, this means I am generally training 5-6 days per week.
   
5. Aside from the training discipline, I am particularly interested in nutrition associated with this type of training and am learning as I'm going. Having been training intensively for four weeks now, I've really noticed how food makes a huge difference to my energy levels - and how much more food I seem to want to eat now!

Through this blog, I am hoping to document my training efforts over the coming weeks as I lead up to the official day. I'd also like to share some of my thoughts around nutrition, injury (I have a niggling knee problem) and all the other fun stuff associated with running, like how AWESOME you feel afterwards and when you don't run with music, the types of songs and thoughts that flow through your mind. 

Primarily, this is for my benefit but if you are reading this, I hope you too can take something from my efforts and join me on the journey. Yay!

xx Alex