Strength + 41km Cycle

Workout B:
(weight x sets x reps)

Squat: 55x3x5
Press: 30x3x5
Power Clean: 35x3x5
Sit ups: 2x25

Like the absolute old school simplicity of Rippetoe's Starting Strength - not going to be specific to running, but squats are the backbone and probably the best exercise for running strength. Am still working on getting the neuro connections back for the cleans. Have always been weak with the press.

about one hour after;

41km Cycle
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/216652917

Distance:	41.31 km
Time:	1:21:52
Avg Speed:	30.3 km/h
Elevation Gain:	230 m

Rode over to Penrith to pick up a car and then drove back. Held a decent speed as its a pretty flat ride.

Went to a local osteopath who did some adjustments on my foot/ankle. Hopefully will reduce some pain. Seeing him again on Monday. Don't really want to have to pay $300 for an MRI.

32km Tempo Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215852847

Distance:	32.06 km
Time:	1:03:29
Avg Speed:	30.3 km/h
Elevation Gain:	123 m

Made a concerted effort to try and hold a decent speed. Had a bit of a stop after 10km to get rid of the jacket and adjust the seat angle. Three loop course, flat and most of the road is very good quality. A touch sore after yesterdays less than stellar effort with the weights.

Strength + 16km Cycle

AM:

First go at the home gym.

Bench Press: 3x10: 40 45 45
Squat: 3x10: 40 40 40
Row: 3x10: 40 40 40
OH Press: 3x10: 20 20 20
Sit ups: 2x20

Have to go back and get the body used to pushing weights around again. I think third attempt at starting a strength routine. Have decided to just do a 'Starting Strength' linear progression. So just Squat, Bench, Deadlift, Core + Squat, Press, Power Clean, Core - Alternate days and just keep adding weight until I have a decent level of strength.

Bench time

PM:
16km Cycle
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215551584

Distance:	16.72 km
Time:	35:31
Avg Speed:	28.2 km/h
Elevation Gain:	172 m

Easy, quick one to get the blood flowing.

Rode the old mountain bike to warm up for weights and it felt like riding a giant cushion.

56km Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214896598

Distance:	56.16 km
Time:	2:07:26
Avg Speed:	26.4 km/h
Elevation Gain:	594 m

Longest ride I've done. About 10 minutes of stoppage time to re-adjust seat height and pee.

Picked up 200kg's of weights on Saturday so now have now excuse not to do regular strength work.

Weekly Totals:

Cycling: 195.67km (7:25:50)

Around 2000m of elevation gain, so a few hills. Sucks to be off running, but I'm still kind of hopeful that I'll be healed in time to take part, although there is still recognisable discomfort in the foot. My plan is another 10 days off and then, if no pain from activity, try it out. That's pretty much 3 weeks off from the day I experienced massive problems.

48km Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214495611

Distance:	48.24 km
Time:	1:40:13
Avg Speed:	28.9 km/h
Elevation Gain:	434 m

Avg HR:	148 (79%)
Max HR:	171 (91%)

Exactly the same route and Thursdays disaster ride, but quicker by about 15mins. Beautiful sunny morning, a bit of breeze.

If I can keep a reasonable aerobic effort (avg 79% max HR) on most rides I should be ok in terms of my basic fitness.

9km Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214193978

Distance:	9.44 km
Time:	25:36
Avg Speed:	22.1 km/h
Elevation Gain:	190 m

Short uphill blast after dropping the car off to get new tyres.

46km Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/213901161

Distance:	46.62 km
Time:	1:56:52
Avg Speed:	23.9 km/h
Elevation Gain:	448 m

God damn that was a difficult, and overall awful, ride. Lost the chain about three minutes in. Punctured at 12k - don't know how to fix a puncture so had my parents (who happened to be coming past) pick me up and take me to the bike shop. I am officially an embarrassment to being an adult.

Continued on after about an hour, then the winds started - hard, hard winds. From about 20k onwards I faced strong 30-40+km/hr winds, apparently gusting up to about 80km/hr according to the BOM.

So hard. Had to sleep this afternoon.

35km Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/213470209

Distance:	35.21 km
Time:	1:15:44
Avg Speed:	27.9 km/h
Elevation Gain:	389 m

Trying to put a bit more effort into the rides to maintain fitness. This one has a killer 2km climb about half way through which is unpleasant. The rest I could maintain a reasonable pace. Hopefully as I ride more my back and quads will start to adapt some more.

Stress reaction

Messed up my training and ended up with what the physio believes to be a stress reaction in my foot. 

I can see exactly what I did that caused it too. 

In 'Advanced Marathoning', Pfitzinger talks about being flexible in training, and basically I wasn't. Too caught up in chasing the mileage. Had the opportunity to run City 2 Surf here in Sydney, and in doing that moved my longest run (34km) to a few days before that (friday), problem being that I'd run a 30k at MP just 5 days earlier. So ended up in that 7 day period doing 107km - whereas my previous 7 days was around 84 - so while it wasn't "per week" exactly - it was obviously too much. Was feeling real good too.

Am hoping it will only be a relatively short lay off (3 weeks) - but lesson learnt. Only three and a half weeks to Sydney now so pretty devastated to see an entire years training lead to nothing (goal wise). Maybe, maybe can run at Sydney - if not the marathon, then the half. It's a pretty huge maybe though.

Otherwise the plan is to hopefully maintain fitness, get better and smash a solid sub 40min 10k race at Penrith. Then I think plan will be to build a massive base, work on some consistent strength training over summer and race a few times on the track if I can. Will then aim at a sub 3hr marathon at either Canberra or Gold Coast. If I can get my 5km time down to around 17mins over the next few months I might try and get a spot at the Uni games next year - undecided on that.

The rollercoaster ride that is running.

8km Recovery + Injury

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/212782816

Distance:	8.00 km
Time:	41:05
Avg Pace:	5:08 min/km
Elevation Gain:	108 m

Remarked to someone after last weekends City 2 Surf that I was feeling really good and on track to hit 3:10 at Sydney as "long as the wheels don't fall off". Famous last words. Foot pain after last Thursday ended up pretty bad, had a quick acupuncture session at uni on Friday morning, continued icing etc, went to run Saturday and 500m in had to stop. Ran Sunday morning and was able to sustain 8km but it wasn't particularly enjoyable.

Still aching a little in the morning - probably shouldn't have run Sunday. Put the foot into the cold salt water up at Port Stephens over the weekend a few times. Seeing Damien tomorrow - need the calves smashed and some more needles stuck in.

Thought I was going pretty well, good volume, good intensity. Felt like it was the shoes doing the damage, but not so sure now.

If I can some how get away with just missing the Time Trial and Long run from one week I'll be massively relieved. Could be that I miss the marathon entirely, start from scratch and aim for Canberra or Gold Coast next year. I think I'll still be at Sydney but am braced for the worst.

20km Medium Long

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/211062999

Distance:	20.02 km
Time:	1:32:16
Avg Pace:	4:37 min/km
Elevation Gain:	96 m

Reasonably solid effort, neither easy nor hard. Dropped the pace at the back end - I think because I had no water and it was a touch warmer than I expected. Shoe/foot issues continue. Have a new pair of NB 1400's that are too tight because of the bruised toenails, and my old pair is loose and I slide around a lot, banging that same toenail into the front of the shoe. Left foot got sore on the top - not sure if its from the shoe or a musculo-skeletal problem - probably the shoes.

No HR monitor today, just running on effort. Would have been a good idea to be able to quantify what effort I was at. Wasn't going to hold that pace for 42km today that's for sure.

Got an insulin syringe from uni that I poked under my nail to release some of the fluid. Nice and sharp and easy - thought I might of sucked some of the fluid out but just pierced the surface and heaps came out.

16km Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/210737479

Distance:	16.06 km
Time:	38:09
Avg Speed:	25.3 km/h
Elevation Gain:	187 m

5x600m w/1:30 recovery

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/210310794

5x600m w/1:30 recovery

Splits:

2:00.4 (3:21min/km)
2:01.7 (3:23min/km)
2:03.6 (3:26min/km)
2:04.7 (3:28min/km)
2:05.2 (3:29min/km)

Started to come down with a cold on Saturday night, which developed after C2S and yesterday was just a bit shit. Mega dosed multivitamin tablets and tried to actually eat half decent nutritious food and felt a tonne better today. Was excited to see my official time in the City to Surf was about 2 seconds quicker than what I'd timed. 59:56

Tired now.

City 2 Surf 2012

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/209404014

Distance:	14.00 km
Time:	59:56
Avg Pace:	4:17 min/km
Elevation Gain:	210 m

Well, the iconic fun run - City 2 Surf eh? Had to shuffle around the training this week to accomodate this one. So this was my tempo/LT run and worked out well at the back end of my biggest volume week for the year.

I actually have no idea how to race. I'm still not experienced enough to know what pace my body can hold on to. By the end of the first hill I was worried I was going too hard, but the downhills make up for it and was fairly relaxed. Seemed to be passing people continuously dodging in and out and felt like I took on Heartbreak Hill well, passing another few hundred people.

Managed the last 2k in 3:44/45 pace knowing I just might be able to squeeze under the 60min mark. Official time of 59:56 - Garmin had 59:57.7. Nice run, weather a bit shit, finished 3rd out of the 300+ UTS runners. No elite bag for me :(

Have the thoughts in my head that wonder what I could have done if I tapered and didn't run 34km two days ago etc etc. But I'm pleased to know I got this done in the time I've done.

Weekly Totals:

Running: 91.79km

Time: 7:34:55

No cross training this week so the total time is down. Biggest running week for the year by about 2km. 5 weeks until the Marathon.

10km Recovery Pace Run

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/208933972

Distance:	10.01 km
Time:	56:05
Avg Pace:	5:36 min/km
Elevation Gain:	143 m

Easy shuffle, trying to loosen up for city 2 surf tomorrow. It is a touch cyclonic out there. Foot and toes are sore. Tighten the laces - get pain on top of the foot - loosen them - foot slides around all over the place. Lose/lose.

34km Long Run

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/208655229

Distance:	34.01 km
Time:	2:48:08
Avg Pace:	4:57 min/km
Elevation Gain:	422 m

Avg HR:	151 (81%)
Max HR:	168 (90%)

Had to move the long run to today because of City2Surf on Sunday. Pretty difficult run, haven't given myself the opportunity to recovery properly. Legs felt fairly tired from the start. Had to wear some pointy leather shoes yesterday which formed a blister on my left little toe and tore causing a bit of discomfort. had to stop and band-aid it up at about 7k, otherwise it was just going be terrible.

Just struggled through really, banged up my right big toenail. Felt fatigued and sore and really dropped pace at about 28km. Really windy out there and did the hilly course. Gusting up to about 50+km/h according to BOM.

Wore the Wright socks which helped with blister issues, but I feel like there's too much room up the front meaning I'm sliding around a fair bit. Gotta get these foot issues sorted. Think the new shoes are a bit more snug. Is it possible that shoes would stretch?

Anyway - another long run in the bank. Longest one of the program done now. Just four more long runs to go.

5km Recovery Pace Run

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/208260799

Distance:	5.54 km
Time:	29:43
Avg Pace:	5:22 min/km
Elevation Gain:	61 m

Easy run.

8km Recovery Pace Run

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/208001510

Distance:	8.07 km
Time:	43:16
Avg Pace:	5:22 min/km
Elevation Gain:	217 m

Stupidly headed down into the bush and went down into the valley, which is fine, except for the steep 2km climb back out. Supposed to be an easy run but ended up working pretty hard to get out at 6min k pace.

Was really hoping Nick Willis would get up in the 1500m but instead the Algerian who comes across as a bit of a dick won. Looking forward to the 5000m heats - hope Mottram gets up, but it seems unlikely, and also Birmingham.

20km Medium Long Run

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/207561688

Distance:	20.00 km
Time:	1:37:44
Avg Pace:	4:53 min/km
Elevation Gain:	267 m

Easy (ish) pace medium long run. Backing up from sunday and from a relatively heavy massage yesterday meant my legs were pretty heavy, coupled with the last few early Olympic mornings and it was just a bit of a struggle. However, it was bloody beautiful down in the bush and will have to get down there more once the the marathon is over. Didn't tape the knee and it felt fine. Didn't tape over the blister and it was ok as well. Wore the injinji socks.

New pair of New Balance MR1400's arrived today along with some socks, gels and electrolytes.

30km @ Marathon Pace

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/206664243

Distance:	30.01 km
Time:	2:15:14
Avg Pace:	4:30 min/km
Elevation Gain:	158 m

Avg HR:	159 (85%)
Max HR:	174 (93%)

Woke up at 6 to watch the mens 10000m and it didn't disappoint. Had hoped Ben St Lawrence would be up there a bit more, but was treated to an incredible run by Mo Farah and Galen Rupp, knocking off the strangle hold that the east africans have had on the event. Incredible run with a 53 second closing lap.

Was programmed a 29km w/19k @ MP but ended up averaging 4:30's across the entire run. 21km at 4:30 or less. Felt good for the most part and just started to fade towards the end. Would be hard pressed at this stage to maintain 4:30's for the last 12km. Especially knowing that at 30k I'll be hitting the western distributor which is where I lost a lot of time last year. Taped the feet and still ended up re aggravating the spot I blistered last week. Felt it at 10k and was able to run through it. Ice bath and double espresso milk for recovery. Two powerbar gels - 9k and 20k. 700ml of water. Post run weight 68kg.

Six weeks out. Holding 4:30 pace for 30km - can't be too concerned.. yet.

Weekly Totals:

Running: 84.11km (6:41:45)
Cycling: 35.47km (1:28:28)

Total Time: 8:10:14

10km Recovery Pace Run

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/206243688

Distance:	10.01 km
Time:	50:35
Avg Pace:	5:03 min/km
Elevation Gain:	114 m

Avg HR:	144 (77%)
Max HR:	163 (87%)

Nice and easy. Was thinking how easy 5min k's are feeling now. Great morning of athletics, including an incredible womens 10000m where the final km was 2:44min!

13km Cycle

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/206013282

Distance:	13.01 km
Time:	32:21
Avg Speed:	24.1 km/h
Elevation Gain:	153 m

Pretty easy cycle just to get some blood flowing and oxygen in the lungs. Been feeling really flat since yesterday's run. A sure sign I went too hard. Foam rolled after.

21km Medium Long

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205597936

Distance:	21.01 km
Time:	1:38:06
Avg Pace:	4:40 min/km
Elevation Gain:	114 m

Ran this a touch harder than I should have. Feeling a bit beaten up, probably more to do with the intervals though. Another blister problem emerging. Waiting for an arrival of Wrightsocks which if they don't fix my problems, it's the shoes and then I'll probably be scouring ebay for a pair of knock off Adios. Starting to get some niggles behind the knees.

8km Recovery Pace Run

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/205189783

Distance:	8.08 km
Time:	44:03
Avg Pace:	5:27 min/km
Elevation Gain:	127 m

About 1 degree out there at 5:45am I reckon. Ran with the torch. A bit tight in some areas but mostly pretty good after yesterday.