Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Marathon Update

Yesterday marked the 3rd race of the Vancouver Cycle Series (VCC, don't ask why its VCC instead of VCS, no one knows). The race was a 10.4km Individual Time Trial from Jericho down to Marine drive just before 41st. Mostly flat other than the ~2km hill up to UBC.

I started somewhere midpack with Barry 30 seconds behind. As my friend counted me down 4.3.2.1.GO I jumped into my pedals and powered away. Thinking I was going strong, Barry had caught me by the bottom of the hill. Was simply amazing! He ended up winning the time trial by nearly 30 seconds and me by over 2 minutes. He's clearly in great shape.

The reason I bring up this race was because for the third time now, my leg has been fine to race high intensity, however, as soon as the rush ends and I begin to slow down, the pain becomes excruciating. Finishing the race, I returned to UBC to get my stuff and ended up leaving my bike there to bus home. I'm really glad biking season for the most part (Still VCC races) is over. 

On the fortunate side, my leg doesn't bother me at all when I run. Since my previous training update I've had a few descent runs. The most prominent being a 13k hard run last week. running it in roughly 55-56 minutes. I felt great the whole time, never out of my comfort zone. Now the question is can I do this for another 2+ hours. My heart rate was averaged 170 for the hour, a few beats higher than I would like, but not out of control. 

I also did a nice speed workout last week which was 4 X 1km, and I managed to hold 3:30 with 90 seconds break. All in all a good practice.

This weekend I will have my longest run yet at 32km. This will be my final long run before the marathon and I start to taper.

You may have noticed that I have yet to mention my target time, that doesn't mean I don't have one, I just don't want to have it in writing just yet because I may re-evaluate.

On the marathon front. I've already mentioned that my cousin Sean is running it, however, a new twist is that my brother Luke is coming out to visit the week of the marathon and has decided to race it as well. We will see how that goes, he has given himself 26 days to go from scratch to 42.2k, including taper. I'm excited to see how it goes. He said he ran 18k this past weekend and felt good, so I'm going to keep cheering him on.

Other than training, but in triathlon related news, I've begun coaching the run practices for the UBC tri club. Which means every wednesday I lead out the run. Whats nice about this, other than being involved is that it forces me to go out for runs every Wednesday, and days like today for example, this was a struggle because it was poring rain. The responsibility to attend is a great motivator though, and once I got out I was happy to be there. The only downside to todays run was that I tripped over the root and performed a SPECTACULAR roll as I fell down the hill. Net result, I have scrapes down my side and am now getting polysporin all over everything, but the cuts aren't bad, the only thing I hurt was my pride.

Stay tuned! Next week I think I'm coaching a 5km Time Trial, I could have a new marker for my fitness.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Feed the warrior!