2022 Gold Coast Marathon build - Week Four, April 18 - 24
MONDAY, 18TH APRIL
Following a busy Saturday and Sunday between work and running, it was a slow start to the week.
Shaking off some of the DOMS from my long run, the conditions, with intermittent light downpour, were enjoyable.
Some strides towards the end of the run injected life into the legs, with 13.01 km @ 4:25.
TUESDAY, 19TH APRIL
My best attempt at replicating the Vigor Princes Park session ‘Middle Earth’ reps, amounted to an amusing duplication, at least partially, of Thursday’s track workout.
With my legs feeling sharp enough following 6 x 10 second strides, I tentatively committed to 4 x 1 km, whilst settling on roughly 330 metres of active recovery between each set to encompass 5 km altogether.
I felt as though the first rep had potentially overcooked it when I landed a 3:05.
The 80 or so seconds of jogging didn’t feel adequate enough once I commenced the second, so 3:09 was a good result, not that I was confident of sustaining that for the balance of the workout!
Turning around ahead of the final two reps, the SSE immediately made itself known, and it didn’t take long after rolling into the third rep that the lactic burn began to toll.
Somehow, I held it together for another 3:09, but the float couldn’t have arrived soon enough.
It was evident that the final rep would be into pure headwind, so I was braced for a huge drop in pace.
I wasn’t wrong, as the southerly resistance ate into the fatigue, and the final 400 m after passing the BP on the intersection of Dickens St in Elwood were painful, willing the finish to occur. 3:10 was a surprising result considering how little I had in reserve.
15.01 km @ 4:05 was another tally which masked the effort involved.
WEDNESDAY, 20TH APRIL
18.10 km @ 4:28, concluding with strides to be sharp for Thursday evening’s Vigor training was an uneventful, if slightly faster midweek outing.
THURSDAY, 21ST APRIL
Feeling a little tight through my back prior to training, I wasn’t sure what to expect once we ramped things up.
Thankfully, a leisurely warm up loosened it up and following some strides, there was some more enthusiasm for the task.
4 x 1 km into 3 x 400 meant we had our work cut out for us, though another solid turnout meant the load could be distributed.
It was also nice to have Xavier Meade back on deck, if only temporarily ahead of his impending departure to Germany…
We enjoyed a relatively comfortable 3:09 first rep with Mitch Wilson keeping us in check, followed by a minor pace increase next time through for 3:06.
Things really stepped up for the third, and perhaps with the benefit of having done a very similar session just two days earlier, I found it easy enough to kick down the pace.
72 and 73 seconds apiece through 400 and 800 metres were several seconds faster than the previous reps, whilst holding the foot down in the final 200 m, 35 seconds, landed a 3:00 flat rep.
Despite maintaining a similar pace throughout the final 1 km, some of the others had the legs to charge home into a sub three rep, as I brought it home in 3:02.
With a transition into some sharper reps still ahead after a false start moving out of the gate following a recovery lap, the speed demons of the group took their opportunity to put everyone through their paces!
Hamish McClean, who defied all expectations to be present from the outset of the session rather than at the commencement of the final rep, and Amy Robinson, returning to training after her National Championships 800 final appearance, promptly placed us all to the sword…
Mitch Wilson & Andrew McIntosh had the right idea by taking their cue to call their sessions at this point, as much as I was hoping for their guidance with the real fast stuff!
I was personally happy to register 65 seconds trying to hold on to Hamish and Amy first time through on the heels of the 1 km portion, yet the returns felt rapidly diminishing at this point!
This was evident with a slower second rep in 68 seconds, feeling the lactic burn consuming my legs, and the 60 second recovery feeling grossly inadequate!
Trying to keep up appearances, the third rep, was more on point with another 65 second haul.
Absolutely gassed by now and on my haunches, in the confusion of the moment, I was mentally preparing for what I believed was the fourth and final rep, having confused the numbers with the 4 x 1 km.
Liam’s insistence that we owed only the three was music to the ears, for my entire body was screaming for the end!
6.42 km @ 3:26 without much active recovery between reps was indicative of the workout’s intensity.
That concluded another high quality group session, with the depth of the crew in recent weeks really enabling everyone to extract the most out of themselves.
FRIDAY, 23RD APRIL
10.10 km @ 4:48 was a tonic, with both the quads and calves feeling quite second hand and the prospect of another Saturday long run.
SATURDAY, 24TH APRIL
Despite the underlying soreness, I pressed ahead with the long run plans.
Nevertheless, I was determined to make this one a more leisurely hitout than previous weeks, which had been some of my fastest long efforts in history!
I also came equipped with gels for the first time this campaign, having decided to experiment with Koda gels acquired from The Running Company in Clifton Hill on Thursday pre training, as an alternative to the SIS gels which have served me well in the past.
Like SIS, these ones were fructose free, so I was enthused to sample them for consideration ahead of Gold Coast.
I was again blessed with near perfect conditions for the occasion, with minimal wind despite very crisp air…
I eased into the run, heading south towards Mordialloc, for the first time in a long run for a while, at 4:30 pace, which was more or less maintained for the first 10 km.
The idea formed throughout this time to progress the pace into 4:20’s and so on for each 10 km block, for 36 km in total.
I took on the first gel, wild berry flavour, just over an hour in, and to my pleasant surprise it sat well, without the need for any water, even if it had a very sticky texture which left the wrapping stuck to my fingers!
It was nice to enjoy some gentle elevation on the way as I turned around Parkdale just after 18 km.
It was soon time to up the ante again into 4:10’s, even as the legs began to hint at wanting to ease off.
The pace picked up momentarily with the assistance of some downhill sections, and following the two hour mark, the second gel was opened, this time cola vanilla flavour. It wasn’t overly artificial or sickly sweet and provided me with the kick I needed to double down for a final pace progression.
I breached 4:00 for the first time at 33 km, for a trio of mid 3:50 kms, which felt quite comfortable even if my legs weren’t at their best.
The end soon arrived, with a haul of 36.27 km @ 4:20, just short of two hours and 37 minutes on the feet, a satisfying addition to the GC armoury.
An evening stint at work afforded me greater recovery time post long run than last week’s thirty minutes… even so, it made for a long day!
A shout out to my good friend Dion Finocchiaro, who completed an arduous 100 km ultra marathon in the morning in New South Wales.
Falling agonisingly short of the Australian record, 6:30 remained a monumental PB for Dion, who, having had a prior crack at 100 km on the track at Coburg just a fortnight earlier, hadn’t felt overly confident heading in to the race, which had been relocated from Penrith.
A more technical course and inclement conditions in the area of late made his achievement even more impressive.
With the World Championships in Berlin approaching in August, Dion is shaping up very promisingly to represent Australia on the big stage!
SUNDAY, 24TH APRIL
With a morning work shift, I needed to get my skates on and out the door in every sense.
My quads were gently protesting following yesterday’s run, though I remained keen to fulfil the criteria of 5 km at tempo-threshold pace, even if not the most practical undertaking on the back of a long effort!
5 km warming up at a steady rate got the cylinders firing, and I set about ramping up for something hopefully just under 3:30 pace.
Whilst the first three km didn’t quite hit this objective, and feeling like there wasn’t much more power in the legs, three consecutive 3:31’s were nothing if not consistent.
The turnaround and gentle northerly tail assistance provided a useful kick, with 3:27 and 3:23 to round out the 5 km. That was all I had to offer, so I was more than happy to back off from there!
A further 5 km winding down, for 15.18 km @ 3:57, was a sound conclusion to the week, which amounted to around 122 km, right in the ballpark of the previous additions to the campaign.
With that, the first four week block of training in the twelve week lead up to the final key long run and taper a fortnight out from July 3 has been squared away, a date which will feel a whole lot closer once April is behind us this time next week!