Two Fruits

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Coburg 24 hour

Saturday:
Where: Coburg, northern suburb of Melbourne, Vic.
Purpose:  Ultra Run
Distance:  143.612 kms
Time:  1440 minutes
Rate:  10' 02" per km
Weather:  cloudy all day, temp range about top 22 degrees, night low about 14 degrees, humidity mid/high during day, wind calm at night, NW about 15 kmph during day

Week:   160.55 km,  April:  236.1 km
Year:  1607.4 kms in 15 weeks at ave 107.16 km pw

I'm not trying to justify my performance at Coburg either good or bad, but it was the next & last lead up event to the main focus run of my running career.
When I decided almost 2 years ago to run the length of the Birdsville track, this was part of the plan of lead up events.
Not the best result I had hoped for on Saturday, but not that bad when looking back.
The first 12 hours went very well, as they should have. From memory, I don't have the hourly splits yet, I went through 100 kms in a minute over 13 hours. That was good. For much of that that time, I was running a lap in around 2' 30" with planned walk breaks after 30-40 minutes.
The weather conditions were near perfect, cloudy, cool and a light breeze.
Then, after midnight, my right foot/ankle started to swell indicating a repetitive/overuse problem from running on a hard surface. Walking was Ok, but I started to have the fatigue wobbles in the early hours before daylight and moving sideways across the lane. Time for more short breaks as achieving a result was not that important.
Lesson 1.
A short 15 minute stop only gets you 15 minutes of extra time on the track before repeating the process, not enough.
Lesson 2.
Use this event as a indication of how to approach 520 kms of outback dirt road, day after day. I will be good for 80 kms a day, at least early on, with good sleep at night.
Lesson 3.
Eating often is the best way to go, keep food intake regular, and what works today may not work tomorrow.
Time go let the swelling on my right foot go down, plenty of sleep for the next week, a slow return to running until the end of April, then follow a solid, steady training plan for the next 3 months.
Sounds easy, just do it.






























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