Hitting the wall.A tough day at the office.

It's been 4 days since the 35+km (Gps measurement) Escarpment Classic.The run was advertised as 32km but it seems Stalky (the organiser) has distance problems ;).
Um where do i start?The race was on the Sunday.Well i had the 3 days before the run off as a sort of taper and the Wednesday i ran an hour as a final run.

I learn some good stuff but overall the race still feels a little neutral to me.Straight after the race i felt really flat...Yes i had just busted through and added an extra 9km to my longest ever run so that was good but the final 9km were terrible.I was so tired.The final 9km should have been my fastest as it was down the mountain pass some small undulations and the flat on the coastal bikepath to the finish.As it was the last 9km took me almost 70mins!

Ok before i get anymore off track i will write the race description.

Map Of Run

Started the race feeling ok but got to Hobart Street entrance to the bush about 3km into the race and already i wasn't feeling like racing.I took to a bit of walking,an ominous sign.Everyone else had gone ahead by about 150m and i lost them.I tried to get going again and after about 2km i caught one again.Had a Gel at this point just in case i was low in energy.For breaky i had a small bowl of Sultana Bran.
Sophie came back to see if i was ok,she was feeling Very Good on the day.Glenn Guzzo who started 10mins after us caught up soon after about 1km from Rixons pass.We had a quick chat before he was off again.
Let Sophie go again it was too good an opportunity to let pass as good as she was feeling.Got to the top of the pass in 55:40.

Splits
55:40 Top of Rixons Pass
01:55 Quick stop and swig of water
17:04 Brokers Nose Trig Point
11:45 Down to Mt Ousley Rd entrance
01:32 Quick stop and 600ml bottle of sports drink
15:38 Back to Brokers Trig
41:43 Woonona Mt (running with Greg Peoples from here)
02:40 Stop + Drink(600ml sports drink) + Gel (forgot the gels that Amjan had in her pocket and went back to get them,lost Greg then)
25:34 Back to Rixons Pass
02:23 Rest/Gel/100ml water
68:47 Pass to Finish (9km)

Ok now it's almost 2 weeks after the race and i feel a lot better with that one in the bank!!
Ran the next day for 16mins at a very slow pace covering 2.5km....thought i was actually running at 5:00/km pace huh!

Felt quite flat for a few days came to understand what hitting the wall was all about! Sophie also hit the wall but didnt fair so badly and carried on to the end for a sensational 3:17hr finish (bear in mind she came back to check i was ok twice!)
I finished in 4:04hr but actually felt better than after my only half marathon attempt (SMH May 2005) which i completed in 104:57 where my goal was 105mins.

Back to the present almost...this last 11 days (oh my that seems so long ago!) well after recovering we did a long run the following sunday over most of the same course covering the mountain passes.I committed to running all the hills the night before after recalling with frustration the escarpment classic where i only ran about 30% of the hills.

When i got to the hills this time i started up and quickly flipped to a 1min on 10sec walk strategy for the hills,quickly i realised that 10sec wasn't enough recovery time and increased this to 20sec.After a few minutes i reached the mobile phone tower puffing and panting.At about that point Sophie had come back and seemed pleased that i had made it up so quick.Over the next few km of undulations (oh by the way this is where Kerryn McCann trains) we talked about hill running and Sophie gave me some great pointers.In a nutshell when i "hit" a hill i really grind into it and get tired quick.I need to just run easier and slow down to maintain the same intensity.It was much more than just that and i put it into practise over the hardest part of the of the run up Rixons Pass and ran all the way! But just to teach me a little more of the lesson as i reached the crest and was ready to stop dead in my tracks as my momentum dropped off i realised the hill isn't over until your on the otherside!

We finished that run of 25km in about 2:10 and did it so much easier!
Anyway on to this week and i ran...
Monday an easy 5km in 22:48
Tuesday 6.5km of 2mins @subjective 3km race pace then 90 secs walk/jog repeated 8 times for a total of 10km
Wednesday 35mins easy 7km
Thursday 3km easy then 5km tempo at 4:08/km then 5km easy

Not sure if i will run on Friday
Saturday i plan to do a slow 12 or so Km with friends
Sunday a long run around Mt Kembla including part of the NSW mountain running champs course for at least 20km

This will give me 72km for the week Sunday to Saturday (oh my god that is huge!)
Bought 3 new pairs of Asics this week as my old shoes (3 of) are 18months old they cost me a small fortune but 2 kayanos @ 89USD each and a 2210 at 150 AUD was a bit of a bargain and have been put under the Xmas tree!

Anyway that was a quick catchup.Still haven't put together a training plan and we are just winging it at the moment.
It's nice to get back to the computer for a a short while to write this up as i've been juggling family and running fairly well of late but Blogging/Reading has been the loser!

Time to get back to the wife.

Cheers R2B

Ps this is the training that Mars2 from CR is doing for 6 foot,now that is massive!!

Sunday 2-3 hours easy
Monday 60 minutes Medium
Tuesday 90 minutes easy
Wednesday 80 minutes fartlek
Thursday 105 minutes easy
Friday 30 mins easy
Saturday 60 mins Hard