Clayton's marathon training

Clayton's-the drink you have when you're not having a drink-is sort of the perfect analogy for where I'm at with my running at present. I'm studying, preparing, and learning about how to build a base for a race that I am not yet running!
So what is base building, anyway? To my understanding, it's building a strong body and strong legs with a good amount of miles in them that are ready to undertake the challenges of a heavier training program.
I have more reading to do, but I think I've figured out some basic goals to work on while I work towards choosing the right race, with the right plan.
At present, my weeks are topping out at around 25k. I plan to increase this to 30k (slowly, always slowly) by adding extra distance to each run. So for example, last week I ran 7ks on Tuesday, 5.6ks on Thursday, 3ks on Friday, and 10ks on Sunday, for a total of 25 and some change. If I were to slowly increase this to 8ks Tuesday, 6.5ks Thursday, 4-5ks on Friday, and 10-12 ks on Sunday, then I can move gently through from a range of 28.5ks per week up to 31.5, and possibly even expand on that some more.
I've moved into a quite structured basic training model of weekly hillwork, a gentle speed workout, a long run, and an easy run. Sometimes the easy run is short, sometimes it's longer, I tend to swap the speed work and easy from week to week as my schedule allows.
So, for the time being, there's the plan! I figure I'll work at this level for a month or two before instituting another gradual increase. Time to raise a glass of Clayton's and drink to a stronger, faster, fitter me :)

Turtle news

Soo, rest day today, but lots of things have been happening here in turtleland.
Last week I put in my first week of good training since the half marathon, even though I was unwell in the middle of the week. The upshot of this, aside from feeling good, strong and fit, is that all of a sudden, I am getting faster! I am currently running 7:30-8:00ks rather than 8:30ks which are more the norm for me, so I'm pretty stoked! I think it's actually the racing that is making me faster, or that perhaps cracking times I thought impossible has given me the mental strength to push harder. Either way, it's something that I'm very much capitalising on and worker harder on.
I've signed up for my next race, and boy is it a goodie! I had no plans to do any mroe racing this year, instead wanting to work on speed and base building, but when I heard about this race I had to sign up.
Melbourne is getting it's very own version of Sydney's C2S! It's to be run on November 13th, and it's a 14k race from the CBD to St Kilda. I feel that it really synchronises with the kind of training I am doing just now, and is a good, fun goal.
Mmm, what else....Saunconys are going well so far, though I did get one pair rather muddy playing trail runner on Sunday :P
Also bought myself a lovely new pair of capris (fancy Nike ones, ooh la la) in a size Medium, eekkk! I would have test driven them this morning, had I managed to get out of bed, but hopefully tomorrow will be the day. I'm going to try and go to bed early so I can get a good night's sleep and knock out a 7k tempo run :)

August Challenge

I don't usually set myself challenges each month, or if I did they were very wishy-washy ones, like, 'run more' or 'run faster' or 'eat less'. Meh.
But this month I hit on the bright idea of setting myself a daily goal for the entire month, and it's a goodie!
Sooo, I'm going to burn 500 calories through exercise a day, every day, for the month of August. 500 calories works out to about eight kilometres on my feet.
To make it workable, I need to burn the bulk of those calories during my morning workout, then maybe an extra kilometre before work, and a brisk walk at lunchtime. If I have not walked far enough by the time I arrive home from work, I'll try to make up the balance on the exercise bike, or carry the unburnt over to the next day.

Rules/Exceptions
Unburnt calories can only be carried over one day, ie, if on Tuesday I only burnt 400 cals, I can burn 600 on Wednesday, but cannot make up for them on Thursday. This is to stop me getting confused about totals for the day, or cheating too much.
Walks/runs and calories are to be measured with my runmeter GPS, I know it's not totally accurate, but I also know that 500 calories is more than it normally tells me I've burnt, so it's a start!
The exception to the rule-the days before/after long run days. I tend to burn stupid amounts of calories on a long run, so will instead try to burn 250 calories on those days. I only go on long runs every two to three weeks, so I'm hoping that this won't make a big difference.

Day 1-8.93ks burning 518 cals.
Day 2-8.42ks burning 621 cals.
Day 3-8.76ks burning 550 cals.
Day 4-7.92ks burning 532 cals.
Day 5-7.38ks burning 509 cals.
Day 6-4.84ks burning 278 cals.
Day 7-Day off...unwell :(
Day 8-8.86ks burning 554 cals.
Day 9-7.08ks burning 507 cals.
Day 10-0 cals..sick again! :(
Day 11-9.81ks burning 681 cals...but I am doubting the GPS on this one.
Day 12-5.56ks burning 357 cals.
Day 13-Nada.
Day 14-10.10ks burning 755 cals.
Day 15-9.01ks burning 520 cals.
Day 16-Nada again.
Day 17-7.08ks burning 479 cals.
Day 18-9.86ks burning 556 cals.
Day 19-2.43ks burning 150 cals.
Day 20-3.27ks burning 180 cals.
Day 21-Nada.
Day 22-7.27ks burning 449 cals. So close!
Day 23-7.60ks burning 528 cals.
Day 24-8.37ks burning 484 cals.
Day 25-7.38ks burning 517 cals.
Day 26-5.83ks burning 426 cals.
Day 27-2.40ks burning 126 cals.
Day 28-12.29ks burning 850 cals.
Day 29-6.21ks burning 336 cals.
Day 30-8.32ks burning 617 cals.
Day 31-Nada.

Sri Chinmoy 10k

On Sunday morning I was up bright and early for an event that was organised through work- a nice Sunday race organised through the rather cool Sri Chinmoy Marathon team.
I'd been thinking about attending one of their events for awhile, as they cost far less than big races, are renowned for the friendly atmosphere, not to mention the famous post-race pancake breakfast!
It was a bright, cold morning, and I arrived early feeling pleased to be out and running on such a pretty day. I met up with some pals from work, dropped my bag off, re-pinned my number three times until it was straight enough (this was the first race I've attended where the timing chip was on the bib instead of the shoe) before hopping into the world's longest port-a-potty line.
This was my longest run since the HM, and I had still been easing back into my training. While I certainly raced this run, I didn't race hard. I felt sluggish and slow, and I want to get back to training so I didn't want to be sore. The course was a five k loop completed twice and had some challenging hilly sections.
I came in at 1:14:34, which is a nice time over that distance for me.
Sadly when thinking about pancakes, which rank among my top ten favourite things in the universe, I had forgotten that I don't really feel like eating after a run. I still had one though!
Overall it was a nice lead in to some more serious miles, and it broke the ice towards long runs post-HM. Very pleased :)

Vale, Kayanos :(

So there's good news and bad news.
The good news, is that I headed out this morning and ran four k's pain free, which makes me feel pretty damn amazing.

The bad news is that my beloved Kayanos have, at six months and five hundred kilometres, given up the ghost. While I don't believe they caused my calf problem, I think that their worn outedness may have contributed. I knew they were on their last legs, which is why I bought two new pairs of shoes, but I can't help feeling a little sad that they've become worn out.

I guess the other good news is that now I get to devote myself to road testing two new pairs of shoes! I have a pair of Saucony Hurricane 12's that I've now run in twice for a total of about eight k's, and a pair of Saucony ProGrid Guide 4's, as yet unused. Having two pairs of shoes is very luxurious for me, and I'm really hoping the Sauconys work out because I can have two pairs for less than the price of one pair of Asics, and I can't really afford $250+ every six months.

I'll likely run through a lot of pairs of shoes as I run down the road of life. Here's to the new!

:(

I finally went out to test drive those legs....and they're not great :/
I headed out this morning, tirrredddd...but determined to put in a few kilometres just to see how it would go. I knew I had a few sore areas but to be honest I expected it to all be okay, but it wasn't.
My right calf/ankle started to feel sore after a few hundred metres, and while I was able to continue for about three k's, it became progressively more sore. That was this morning, and it has continued to be sore, to the point of being very uncomfortable, all day.
I think I have strained the muscles around my achilles and in the back of my calf. Descending stairs, rotating on the right foot, and moving my foot from side to side are unpleasant :(
Soooo, more walkies for me. And some anti-inflammatories to minimise the damage I did this morning, maybe some compression socks too. I did some reading and 7-10 days is about the timeline for healing a mild claf strain, so I'll just have to wait and see. Am sort of kicking myself for going running this morning, instead of heading out on Sunday. Maybe it would have been better.

Recover-arggggggghhhh

So I've taken almost this whole week off from running, as I recover from my half.
The soreness was worst on Monday and Tuesday, and is gradually getting better each day, with only the odd tweaky weird pain.
There were a lot of things I could have done immediately following the race to ease discomfort, but didn't. I could have stretched more, taken an ice bath, had a massage, etc etc. But I'd just had a triumphant experience, and I really, really hate ice baths! Plus I knew I'd be taking a few days or most of the week off, so I figured I'd worry about that later!
It's Thursday now, and the last of the pain is almost gone. My hips or knees occasionally feel clunky, but overall muscle soreness has gone, so tomorrow I am going out for a very short, gentle run to test drive my legs.
I can hardly wait!