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Monday 25th April 2022 - Come closer and see, see into the trees
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Morning all, bit late starting today??
Lyric - Come closer and see, see into the trees
What - Southern Vets league match 1, 2k walk and possibly the 1500
Why - old people fun night
last rest - 02/04
last hard - Friday
How's the legs Chick??
Lyric - Come closer and see, see into the trees
What - Southern Vets league match 1, 2k walk and possibly the 1500
Why - old people fun night
last rest - 02/04
last hard - Friday
How's the legs Chick??
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Comments
Thanks for the lyrics, Dustin...not that I know them! And "enjoy" tonight!
Yesterday's were Creedance Clearwater Revival with Proud Mary, although really the title should have been Proud Chick!
What: 57 minutes with M77
Why: Monday
4 degrees, felt like 2, when we started; around 8 when we finished. Still a bitter wind.
Chick hope legs are OK
Dustin good luck tonight.
Hazel hope you find it. I'll keep a lookout 👀
Ale hope run went OK
What 2¼ miles
Why because
Last hard that a little but not bad
Lyrics no
Back to work tonight so run today as I hope I'll be sleeping tomorrow. As working tomorrow night as well
Was OK walking less and knee less grumbly
I probably have the CHF 17.55 in the small change drawer, can't help with the other 300!!
I can sort of race walk, seem to get better at it each year - usually plays havoc with my shins though - muscles I didn't know I had...see how they are after the walk as to whether to run the 1500 or not. One or two race walkers do it but I think it's a rare breed, most just walk round quickly for the points.
Pammie - good stuff, rather you than me with the nights...
Hope you found the missing CHF
Enjoy tonight, Dustin. I never tried race walking. I can imagine it must be quite difficult.
Hope your nightshift goes OK, Pammie.
That's very cold, Ale!! Writing this from sunny Austria and 18 degrees
Took a while but here's my - admittedly long-winded race report.
24 April 2022 – Vienna City Marathon
My first marathon since 2019 and after almost 2 years of no running due to two foot ops (toe fusion surgery). While my doctor was confident I could run marathons again I wasn't so sure. The recovery process was long and I was super apprehensive things may not heal that well or for my running to set things off again. After all I have metal plates and 5 screws in each big toe!
So if all
stars align on race day, I may be able to bag another 3:3X run.
Fast forward to July 2021 when I took my first, tentative baby running steps. No more than 5k every other day and there was walking involved too. I built up gradually from 50 miles for the month of July to about 170 by November. Then I had my 3rd Covid jab and things took a turn for the worse. I was struggling for about a week until I felt strong enough to lace up those running shoes again but my pace was miles off. So much worse than it should have been after a week's layoff. It was frustrating but I just stuck with it and plodded away at a pace that was almost back to where I started when I resumed running in July. Come January things slowly began to feel normal again. HR was still a bit too high for most runs but there was definitely progress. Some time in January I received an e-mail that the Vienna Marathon was on again as a work event. It had been a regular fixture before Corona hit and I did it before as part of a relay team and I also ran the half. I spoke to our events coordinator and said I'd love to run the full but since I had no idea whether or not my feet would hold up I'd love a back door. So she put me down for the long leg of the relay (the first bit is about 10 miles) which can be run as part of the half or the full. That gave me enough confidence to dig out my trusted old P&D bible for a 12-week plan. I usually like a longer build-up but since I had no goal in mind and just wanted to get round somehow I figured 12 weeks would be good enough.
Whilest I normally like to do at around 8 20+ milers with about half of them being 22s I only did 3 this cycle. I pretty much ran the whole plan as it was written in the book (which is a tad low on long runs). The first MP run gave me the confidence that sub 4 was on. Later in the training plan sub 3:45 seemed possible. I nailed what I call the three killer sessions: The long MP run, the dreadful 7 mile LT run and the mile reps.
I did a few runs at marathon HR and that pace always came out as 5:11 per k (8:20 ish per mile). Being German I like my splits in ks
We drove to Vienna on the Friday before the race. It's a 600 mile trip but we like travelling by car and wanted to travel around Austria for a bit afterwards. I did the Donaupark parkrun on Saturday in a casual 26:32 and my legs felt really good. Of course I walked around too much for the rest of the day. I hooked up with my work team in the afternoon for a sightseeing tour in a historic tram, then went back to the hotel and later joined the team again for dinner. My plan was to just grab my kit and stay for an hour but of course you get caught up meeting old acquaintances and new (like my girl team for race day). I was finally in bed by 10:30pm and my Garmin showed I'd walked 22k steps. Oops. Slept lousy but I always do before a marathon. Of course I wasn't sure if my feet would hold up. And the weather forecast was for 20 degrees, sun and strong winds. My least favourite conditions, especially coming off a winter training block with single digit temps. These prospects added to my worries. I did eventually fall asleep and woke up around 6am, eager to rock on. Our hotel was close to the start – just 2 stops on the U-Bahn. Too bad that the trains where choccer and we couldn't get on. Not a chance. It's only a mile to walk so that's what I did in the end. It was pretty cool to walk towards the start and see the elite Kenyans do their warm up drills. My goodness, these guys and gals can fly. So beautiful to see them run. The start was mayhem. Loo queues werre unbelievable. In the end I never managed my usual pre-race wee. And forgot all about it once were off. I guess race-day rituals are overrated. Mercifully the sky was grey and overcast and the wind hadn't materialised. Yet.
I swore to myself to start at a sensible pace especially because you run up Reichsbrücke and the first few 100m are a slight incline. The start was as crowded as it gets in a race with 31k participants. I was in pen 2 because my company bought the fancy VIP package with a hospitality tent for the post race party. Pen 2 is also the start for the 3:00 to 3:20 marathoners. I don't quite understand this policy as it means that there are plenty of slow relay runners starting with 3 hour marathoners. Weird. I put myself at the back of the pen as a further insurancy policy against a bat-out-of-hell-start. First split 5:20. A teensy bit faster than I had planned but not too bad. Second split: 5:01. Ooops. Reign it in, silly! Switched my Garmin to HR. It showed 143 which is slightly too much. Marathon HR is 145 to 150 for me and I like to have my HR below 140 for the first couple of k. Then I settled into rather metronomic splits. Hubby was supposed to be at the 3k mark in the Prater but the sheer number of runners and spectators meant I did not see him and he did not see me. I love to run through there. It's a wide alley, lined with trees and just beautiful. It's also pretty bloody awesome to know that Kipchoge ran here and broke 2 hours in the marathon. Tons of enthusiastic supporters, DJs and samba drummers. At the 4k mark you leave the Prater but will return to it later. I spotted a 29k marker and hoped to feel as awesome then as I did now. A stretch along the Donaukanal follows as you gradually move west towards Schönbrunn Palace where the first relay handover would take place and where I was suppsed to see hubby but again we missed each other. The wind became noticeable a few times but the field was still packed and I found people to shelter behind. I spotted my running buddy Ursula straight away and we ran together for a k or so but she urged to me to crack on as she could not match my pace. I felt pretty rotten all of the sudden but then remembered from the half marathon that this was a mean false flat which completely threw me in 2019. Once that bit was done I settled into more metronomic splits, really looking forward to 19k because the next two are downhill and super fun as you head into a busy pedestrian zone with music and lots of people in cafes cheering you on. At the 20k mark the field is split into the half marathoners who turn right and the marathoners and relay runners who turn left. There's also the next relay station around that point and I spotted Katja, the 3rd girl from my team and shouted at her. Hit the halfway point in 1:49:06 but began to feel the pace a bit. Somehow missed the 23k marker and thought OMG – am I slowing that much? Quick screen switch assured me no, dumbo, you just didn't see the marker. I always use average lap time in city marathons because the GPS signal is so wonky and pace is usually off by a mile (according to my Garmin I ran 42.9k which is nonsense).
The wind is pretty nasty by now. And without the half marathoners the field has thinned noticeably. At the 25k point I finally see my hubby. What a relief. A quick high 5 and I'm off again struggling with more wind on a rather boring stretch with little support. But my splits are still perfect. A bit of self talk is required at this stage to keep that cadence up and the stride long. By 28k we're back in the Prater with a little detour to the football stadium where there is a 180 degree turn before going back onto the long Prater Hauptallee straight. This bit is great because it's two-way traffic so you see faster runners as your run to the turning point and on the return stretch you see slower runners. Someone on the opposite side suddenly shouts my name and it's my 4th relay buddy Sara. Around the 35k mark the lack of long runs is beginning to bite me but the DJs provide a burst of positive energy with some uplifting tracks. Slowly, the pace drops to 5:18 splits. I promise myself to walk through the next drinks station. Grab a cup of what I think was water to be confronted with smurf blood. A bright blue liquid is staring me in the face. Am I hallucinating? WTF is this? I chuck it away and hobble on. By this point my left hamstring refuses co-operation. I do a bit of a quick stretch being promptly punished with a 5:30 split. Shit. I've not come this far to let a pesky hamstring kill my dream. It hurts and everything in me screams STOP but I carry on with a 5:20 and a 5:24 for ks 40 and 41. Better, but not good enough. Digging deep now in my own little pain cave that I don't notice hubby and a bit later most team mates shouting at me. I spot a 500m sign and I know I have this in the bag, if only those legs will co-operate. Comedy dialogue went roughly as follows:
Me: GO legs!!!
Legs: You can't be serious
Me: I AM
Legs WTF?? She IS serious.
Me: J u s t GOOOOOO. Dammit!!
There's a bright purple stretch of carpet which made me quite dizzy. 300m, then 200. Apparently I do manage a bit of a sprint finish. The final k is 5:01 and the scraps were 4:16 pace. I stop my watch at 3:39:13 but the official results say 3:39:11 which means I lost only a minute in the second half. I've definitely done worse in marathons and I'm chuffed to bits with my result. To crown the day my girl team won the prize for fastest all female team and I came 2nd in the marathon for more bling. Also 8th in my age group and over the moon. It was hard, it hurt but the feeling when you cross that finish line is something else and makes you forget all the pain.
In terms of age grading I beat my 2013 PB of 3:24 which was 71 vs 74% for yesterday's run.
If you're still with me, kudos! Sorry for the length but it's been a while since my last race.
Now enjoy a little break!
5m afternoon run on the scapa cliffs...quite enjoyed it once I got out there after a busy work morning.
Gentle jog to Aqua walking and back followed by late afternoon swim. Sea in no hurry to warm up this year (7.5C) but calm and felt quite pleasant.
Lyrics no