For me, JFK summed it up best in 1962 when talking about another extraordinarily ambitious, unlikely, quest …
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.
For someone with my pedigree, achieving a BQ will definitely not be easy. In fact, it’s going to be hard - ridiculously hard.
And it’s going to hurt. I fully expect there’s going to be more suffering involved here than I’ve ever previously come close to enduring.
But we only go around once, and it’s staring down truly monumental challenges like this that can really define who we are and what we're capable of.
Like Kennedy's challenge, it's one I intend to win.
Let’s see how we go.
Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Sunday, 17 May 2015
Race Report: Sydney Half Marathon - Sunday 17 May 2015
That’s one down and 13 to go! In a time of 2:00:26.
But I have to say I’m a little disappointed. My main goal was a 1:57-ish finish, and my second was a sub 2-hour run. Not to even break that barrier, and to finish even slower than my last half marathon (albeit by just 5 seconds), is very frustrating.
Overall, it was a great day for a run on a quite challenging, hilly, course around the Sydney CBD. I felt my overall preparation in the months leading up to it had been good - I’d give it a solid 90%+ mark - but my failure to make any real dent in my weight, my inability to find the 2-hour pacers at the start-line or during the race, and the unexpected difficulty of the course, all contributed to an outcome that was below expectations.
The key points:
Pre-race plan: As advertised, the plan was to stick with the 2-hour pacers until at least 15K, and depending on how I felt at the time, either leave and go for a 1:57 or so, or hang on for the best sub-2 hour time I could get. Of course, this all fell apart when I couldn’t find the pacers, so it was a case of just muddling through and making my own pace with absolutely no clue of how I was tracking. I didn’t wear a watch, but even if I had, there were no distance markers on the course. I had a rough idea of where half-way was, and a couple of other landmarks, but really no idea about my pace.
Weather: The forecast for race-day was for light winds, a 30% chance of a shower, and a maximum of 20 degrees with a minimum of 15. As it turned out, light rain was falling when I left home just after 5:00am, but it was dry, albeit a little overcast, when the race started. All in all, very good running weather. Certainly no excuses on that front.
Course: It was quite a different circuit from the Sydney half marathons I’d run in past years. All those had consisted of two loops of the northern part of the city with the start/finish area down on the harbour near what is now Barangaroo. This one-loop course started and finished at Hyde Park, and went out to Pyrmont before coming back to the city, and finishing off with the tricky run down and back to Mrs Macquarie’s chair. As I was to discover, the course contained quite a few reasonably short, but challenging, hills punctuated with longer flat stretches. A couple of days prior, I’d wandered down to the 15-16K mark in Kent Street, leading onto the Harbour Bridge ramp, and picked out the spiral loop down onto the Cahill Expressway, just after a longish incline, as probably the place to break from the 2-hour pace group. If I was up to it, of course.
Nutrition strategy: It had been a reasonably clean couple of weeks leading into the race, while in the couple of hours before the start on race morning I’d had a banana, bottle of Gatorade, and a gel. I also took a gel at the start line and decided against carrying one with me through the race. In terms of weight, my initial hopes of a sub-90 kilogram race weight proved forlorn when I weighed in at a tick over 94 kilograms early on race morning. Very disappointing and obviously something I need to keep working on.
Clothing: I decided to buy a new specialist running t-shirt a few days before the event. It’s a fairly garish lime and grey number but fits reasonably well. I would have liked to have reprised the old faithful shirt that I wore in each of my marathons, but it was looking a little worse for wear, and I thought maybe it’s just time to start a new tradition. I also wore compression pants (to the knees) for the first time in a race. I’d finally bought some a few weeks previously after thinking about doing so for some time, and they seemed to work well in the longer training runs. No complaints in the run itself either, although it meant an extra few seconds in the portaloo just before the start untying and tying them back up.
Pacers: Truth be told, after some great experiences with pace runners in many of my past races, I was a little apprehensive about them this time around. At the 2014 Gold Coast half marathon, I lined up where the 2-hour pacers were advertised as being, and by the time the gun went off, they were nowhere in sight. I ended up seeing them at the turn-around points way ahead, so obviously I hadn’t lined up far enough in front.
In addition, for this race, I was allocated in the green start group, which is described as “the first open group with no qualifying time required. Participants wishing to run the length of the course but have no prior race time are encouraged to enter into this group. This group is for those wishing to complete the course sub 140mins”. Next up the grid was the red group, which is described as being “for athletes who will complete the course in a qualifying time of sub 120mins”. Unfortunately, I didn’t meet the quite challenging qualifying criteria to get into that one, but I imagined there was a risk the sub-2 hour pacers would place themselves there and I would need to catch up to run with them.
Of course, in the half hour or so before the start, I learned for the first time that the different coloured groups would actually be starting at different times, with a few minutes separating each one, presumably to reduce congestion in some of the narrower sections of the course. Which started me worrying that if the pacers were in the red group, I’d never catch them. As it turned out, they must have been in the red group, because search as I might, I didn’t see any sign of them in the green starting pack - or anywhere else for that matter!
I thought I’d also share some interesting stats about my last two half marathons:
Sydney (May 2015)
• Race weight: 94kg
• 30-week running base: 995K (avge 33K/week)
• 60-week running base: 1,682K (avge 28K/week)
• Time: 2:00:26
Gold Coast (July 2014)
• Race weight: 93kg
• 30 week running base: 514K (avge 17K/week)
• 60 week running base: 574K (avge 10K/week)
• Time: 2:00:21
I'm not sure if it means anything much, but I'll keep track of this sort of information going forward and see where it leads.
Lessons learned?
Got to lose weight. Got to lose weight. Got to lose weight! Enough said.
Avoid putting all one’s eggs into one basket. The absence of the pacers threw me completely. I had no real idea how to pace the run and just settled for following some runners who were travelling at what I thought was a good pace for me, especially up the hills. But just thinking about, and guessing, how fast I was going was a major distraction. I need to get better at asking some ‘What if?’ questions.
The process works. It’s not really a lesson learned, rather one reinforced. I was able to sustain the effort when I needed to and recover after ascending a couple of very testy hills. So I’ll stick with it for a while yet.
And, finally, a big shout-out to my student colleagues and first time half marathon runners - the amazing Steph and Julie. Great job, both of you.
Onward and upward!
But I have to say I’m a little disappointed. My main goal was a 1:57-ish finish, and my second was a sub 2-hour run. Not to even break that barrier, and to finish even slower than my last half marathon (albeit by just 5 seconds), is very frustrating.
Overall, it was a great day for a run on a quite challenging, hilly, course around the Sydney CBD. I felt my overall preparation in the months leading up to it had been good - I’d give it a solid 90%+ mark - but my failure to make any real dent in my weight, my inability to find the 2-hour pacers at the start-line or during the race, and the unexpected difficulty of the course, all contributed to an outcome that was below expectations.
The key points:
Pre-race plan: As advertised, the plan was to stick with the 2-hour pacers until at least 15K, and depending on how I felt at the time, either leave and go for a 1:57 or so, or hang on for the best sub-2 hour time I could get. Of course, this all fell apart when I couldn’t find the pacers, so it was a case of just muddling through and making my own pace with absolutely no clue of how I was tracking. I didn’t wear a watch, but even if I had, there were no distance markers on the course. I had a rough idea of where half-way was, and a couple of other landmarks, but really no idea about my pace.
Weather: The forecast for race-day was for light winds, a 30% chance of a shower, and a maximum of 20 degrees with a minimum of 15. As it turned out, light rain was falling when I left home just after 5:00am, but it was dry, albeit a little overcast, when the race started. All in all, very good running weather. Certainly no excuses on that front.
Course: It was quite a different circuit from the Sydney half marathons I’d run in past years. All those had consisted of two loops of the northern part of the city with the start/finish area down on the harbour near what is now Barangaroo. This one-loop course started and finished at Hyde Park, and went out to Pyrmont before coming back to the city, and finishing off with the tricky run down and back to Mrs Macquarie’s chair. As I was to discover, the course contained quite a few reasonably short, but challenging, hills punctuated with longer flat stretches. A couple of days prior, I’d wandered down to the 15-16K mark in Kent Street, leading onto the Harbour Bridge ramp, and picked out the spiral loop down onto the Cahill Expressway, just after a longish incline, as probably the place to break from the 2-hour pace group. If I was up to it, of course.
Nutrition strategy: It had been a reasonably clean couple of weeks leading into the race, while in the couple of hours before the start on race morning I’d had a banana, bottle of Gatorade, and a gel. I also took a gel at the start line and decided against carrying one with me through the race. In terms of weight, my initial hopes of a sub-90 kilogram race weight proved forlorn when I weighed in at a tick over 94 kilograms early on race morning. Very disappointing and obviously something I need to keep working on.
Clothing: I decided to buy a new specialist running t-shirt a few days before the event. It’s a fairly garish lime and grey number but fits reasonably well. I would have liked to have reprised the old faithful shirt that I wore in each of my marathons, but it was looking a little worse for wear, and I thought maybe it’s just time to start a new tradition. I also wore compression pants (to the knees) for the first time in a race. I’d finally bought some a few weeks previously after thinking about doing so for some time, and they seemed to work well in the longer training runs. No complaints in the run itself either, although it meant an extra few seconds in the portaloo just before the start untying and tying them back up.
Pacers: Truth be told, after some great experiences with pace runners in many of my past races, I was a little apprehensive about them this time around. At the 2014 Gold Coast half marathon, I lined up where the 2-hour pacers were advertised as being, and by the time the gun went off, they were nowhere in sight. I ended up seeing them at the turn-around points way ahead, so obviously I hadn’t lined up far enough in front.
In addition, for this race, I was allocated in the green start group, which is described as “the first open group with no qualifying time required. Participants wishing to run the length of the course but have no prior race time are encouraged to enter into this group. This group is for those wishing to complete the course sub 140mins”. Next up the grid was the red group, which is described as being “for athletes who will complete the course in a qualifying time of sub 120mins”. Unfortunately, I didn’t meet the quite challenging qualifying criteria to get into that one, but I imagined there was a risk the sub-2 hour pacers would place themselves there and I would need to catch up to run with them.
Of course, in the half hour or so before the start, I learned for the first time that the different coloured groups would actually be starting at different times, with a few minutes separating each one, presumably to reduce congestion in some of the narrower sections of the course. Which started me worrying that if the pacers were in the red group, I’d never catch them. As it turned out, they must have been in the red group, because search as I might, I didn’t see any sign of them in the green starting pack - or anywhere else for that matter!
I thought I’d also share some interesting stats about my last two half marathons:
Sydney (May 2015)
• Race weight: 94kg
• 30-week running base: 995K (avge 33K/week)
• 60-week running base: 1,682K (avge 28K/week)
• Time: 2:00:26
Gold Coast (July 2014)
• Race weight: 93kg
• 30 week running base: 514K (avge 17K/week)
• 60 week running base: 574K (avge 10K/week)
• Time: 2:00:21
I'm not sure if it means anything much, but I'll keep track of this sort of information going forward and see where it leads.
Lessons learned?
Got to lose weight. Got to lose weight. Got to lose weight! Enough said.
Avoid putting all one’s eggs into one basket. The absence of the pacers threw me completely. I had no real idea how to pace the run and just settled for following some runners who were travelling at what I thought was a good pace for me, especially up the hills. But just thinking about, and guessing, how fast I was going was a major distraction. I need to get better at asking some ‘What if?’ questions.
The process works. It’s not really a lesson learned, rather one reinforced. I was able to sustain the effort when I needed to and recover after ascending a couple of very testy hills. So I’ll stick with it for a while yet.
And, finally, a big shout-out to my student colleagues and first time half marathon runners - the amazing Steph and Julie. Great job, both of you.
Onward and upward!
Tuesday, 5 May 2015
The Plan
On my current trajectory, I think my first realistic shot at getting a BQ will come at the Gold Coast marathon (in Queensland, Australia) in July 2019.
There’s a few reasons for this.
First, I’m in no real hurry. I’m in this for the long haul, and my only interest is getting it right. I realise, of course, that this extended time exacerbates the risk of another slide into inactivity as soon as the next significant life changing event pops up. And as it happens, I’m probably due for at least one over the next 12 months or so. I know I can never really inoculate myself against the impact that might have. But I’m going to have to try and deal with it. I expect that my accounting to you, ladies and gentlemen, through this blog will play a critical part in that.
Second, from my initial dalliance with marathon running almost a decade ago, it’s simply not feasible for me to expect to be able to run a reasonable time while carting around a whole lot of excess weight. For the marathons I did run, I usually weighed in at around 86-89 kilograms. For a normal BMI, I should weigh about 70, and it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve been in that sort of territory. But I need to get there - and I need to maintain it. I don’t want to run another marathon until I’m around the 70-75 mark. With my current weight hovering around 92-95 kilograms (albeit starting to trend down), that’s going to take time.
Third, the Gold Coast marathon is probably Australia’s fastest marathon course, and I ran my fastest half marathon there in 2006 (1:50:07). It really is a great atmosphere, but it does have a tendency to get uncomfortably warm later in the event and I much prefer running in the cold than the heat. Chicago in 2006 (4:04) was never above 5 degrees, while London in 2007 (4:32) was probably 20 degrees hotter, even costing one poor chap his life.
Fourth, from 2019, my BQ time is 3 hours, 40 minutes. Before that, it’s 3 hours 30 minutes.
So, to get to July 2019, I’ve decided to focus on running mostly half marathons - around 3 to 4 annually. I figure this will provide me with consistent, stretch goals against which I can measure myself and use as the basis for improvement. For example, if I can routinely finish half marathons in around 1:40 or 1:45, I know I can be confident of having a good shot at 3:40 for a full. It should also build a solid base from which to launch into full-blown marathon training when the time comes. And, apart from simply just enjoying the distance, it gives me the opportunity to do a few runs that have been on the wish-list for a bit.
With all that, and in the interests of full disclosure, here’s the schedule:
1. Sydney - May 2015
2. Gold Coast - July 2015
3. Melbourne - October 2015
4. New York (USA) - March 2016
5. Gold Coast - July 2016
6. Auckland (New Zealand) - October 2016
7. Hobart - January 2017
8. Sydney - May 2017
9. Gold Coast - July 2017
10. Great North Run (England) - September 2017
11. Hobart - January 2018
12. Gold Coast Marathon - July 2018
13. Melbourne Marathon - November 2018
14. Gold Coast Marathon (BQ attempt) - July 2019
First stop on the BQ train is my home town half on Sunday 17 May, in a little under two weeks. It will be my sixth Sydney half, with the previous races in 1996 (2:04), 1997 (2:28), 1998 (2:19), 2005 (2:05), and 2006 (1:54).
I’ve been specifically training for it since October 2014 using a succession of Hal Higdon running plans. I’ve been a fan of Hal’s since my marathon days and I like his style. So I’ve decided that, unless I find myself getting stuck in some sort of rut with my training or not making progress, I’m going to stick with him for the duration.
For Sydney, training started with the first four weeks of his intermediate 5k program (resulting in a 24:28 time trial). That was immediately followed by his 8-week advanced 5K program (resulting in a 22:55 time trial), and then the 8-week intermediate 10K program (with a 53:02 final 10K result).
The 12-week advanced half marathon program kicked off straight after that - towards the end of February 2015. That incorporated one 5K and two 10K time trials, where I recorded times of 23:52, 52:12 and 51:30 respectively.
Overall, the training has been going well. I’ve been largely injury-free (a nagging left Achilles, which is on the mend, hasn’t caused any real problems) and about 90-95% compliant with the overall programs (having missed very few days and stuffing up only a handful of sessions). Nonetheless, I’d prefer to be at least a couple of kilograms lighter, and a sub-90 weight come race day is still possible.
My average training kilometres per week for the first 20 weeks ended up being just over 31K. For the final 12-week half marathon program, average weekly distance will have probably exceeded 37K by the eve of the race.
I’ve decided that my strategy for the race is going to be to follow the two-hour pacers until at least the 15K mark, and then either take off (and aim to finish in 1:57 or so), or hang on to them for the best sub-2 hour finish I can manage.
With the work I’ve done since the 2:00:21 Gold Coast finish in July 2014, I think I’ll be very unlucky not to break two hours this time around. But if I’m feeling good during the run, I also need to be careful that I don’t lose discipline and go too early. This race is essentially a stepping stone and I need to be able to work to a plan and see what I’m comfortable with.
Either way, I fully intend collapsing over the finish line after a sprint finish having left nothing out on the course.
I’ll let you know how it goes!
There’s a few reasons for this.
First, I’m in no real hurry. I’m in this for the long haul, and my only interest is getting it right. I realise, of course, that this extended time exacerbates the risk of another slide into inactivity as soon as the next significant life changing event pops up. And as it happens, I’m probably due for at least one over the next 12 months or so. I know I can never really inoculate myself against the impact that might have. But I’m going to have to try and deal with it. I expect that my accounting to you, ladies and gentlemen, through this blog will play a critical part in that.
Second, from my initial dalliance with marathon running almost a decade ago, it’s simply not feasible for me to expect to be able to run a reasonable time while carting around a whole lot of excess weight. For the marathons I did run, I usually weighed in at around 86-89 kilograms. For a normal BMI, I should weigh about 70, and it’s been a very, very long time since I’ve been in that sort of territory. But I need to get there - and I need to maintain it. I don’t want to run another marathon until I’m around the 70-75 mark. With my current weight hovering around 92-95 kilograms (albeit starting to trend down), that’s going to take time.
Third, the Gold Coast marathon is probably Australia’s fastest marathon course, and I ran my fastest half marathon there in 2006 (1:50:07). It really is a great atmosphere, but it does have a tendency to get uncomfortably warm later in the event and I much prefer running in the cold than the heat. Chicago in 2006 (4:04) was never above 5 degrees, while London in 2007 (4:32) was probably 20 degrees hotter, even costing one poor chap his life.
Fourth, from 2019, my BQ time is 3 hours, 40 minutes. Before that, it’s 3 hours 30 minutes.
So, to get to July 2019, I’ve decided to focus on running mostly half marathons - around 3 to 4 annually. I figure this will provide me with consistent, stretch goals against which I can measure myself and use as the basis for improvement. For example, if I can routinely finish half marathons in around 1:40 or 1:45, I know I can be confident of having a good shot at 3:40 for a full. It should also build a solid base from which to launch into full-blown marathon training when the time comes. And, apart from simply just enjoying the distance, it gives me the opportunity to do a few runs that have been on the wish-list for a bit.
With all that, and in the interests of full disclosure, here’s the schedule:
1. Sydney - May 2015
2. Gold Coast - July 2015
3. Melbourne - October 2015
4. New York (USA) - March 2016
5. Gold Coast - July 2016
6. Auckland (New Zealand) - October 2016
7. Hobart - January 2017
8. Sydney - May 2017
9. Gold Coast - July 2017
10. Great North Run (England) - September 2017
11. Hobart - January 2018
12. Gold Coast Marathon - July 2018
13. Melbourne Marathon - November 2018
14. Gold Coast Marathon (BQ attempt) - July 2019
First stop on the BQ train is my home town half on Sunday 17 May, in a little under two weeks. It will be my sixth Sydney half, with the previous races in 1996 (2:04), 1997 (2:28), 1998 (2:19), 2005 (2:05), and 2006 (1:54).
I’ve been specifically training for it since October 2014 using a succession of Hal Higdon running plans. I’ve been a fan of Hal’s since my marathon days and I like his style. So I’ve decided that, unless I find myself getting stuck in some sort of rut with my training or not making progress, I’m going to stick with him for the duration.
For Sydney, training started with the first four weeks of his intermediate 5k program (resulting in a 24:28 time trial). That was immediately followed by his 8-week advanced 5K program (resulting in a 22:55 time trial), and then the 8-week intermediate 10K program (with a 53:02 final 10K result).
The 12-week advanced half marathon program kicked off straight after that - towards the end of February 2015. That incorporated one 5K and two 10K time trials, where I recorded times of 23:52, 52:12 and 51:30 respectively.
Overall, the training has been going well. I’ve been largely injury-free (a nagging left Achilles, which is on the mend, hasn’t caused any real problems) and about 90-95% compliant with the overall programs (having missed very few days and stuffing up only a handful of sessions). Nonetheless, I’d prefer to be at least a couple of kilograms lighter, and a sub-90 weight come race day is still possible.
My average training kilometres per week for the first 20 weeks ended up being just over 31K. For the final 12-week half marathon program, average weekly distance will have probably exceeded 37K by the eve of the race.
I’ve decided that my strategy for the race is going to be to follow the two-hour pacers until at least the 15K mark, and then either take off (and aim to finish in 1:57 or so), or hang on to them for the best sub-2 hour finish I can manage.
With the work I’ve done since the 2:00:21 Gold Coast finish in July 2014, I think I’ll be very unlucky not to break two hours this time around. But if I’m feeling good during the run, I also need to be careful that I don’t lose discipline and go too early. This race is essentially a stepping stone and I need to be able to work to a plan and see what I’m comfortable with.
Either way, I fully intend collapsing over the finish line after a sprint finish having left nothing out on the course.
I’ll let you know how it goes!
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