What a great few days it has been up at the Gold Coast. Sadly I didn’t perform as well I would have liked in the half marathon, but despite that I still had a great time in good weather, with good people, eating good food and celebrating some big successes!
Gold Coast Half Marathon
Race breakdown
Someone asked me for a km by km breakdown of the race. So here’s how it went:
- KM 1 TO 2: A slow start dodging through the crowd. Even though Sharon and I were in the “A” starting area we had people in front of us jogging very slow and even someone walking within the first two kms.
- KM 3 TO 7: Hit and maintained 4:38 goal race pace.
- KM 8 TO 11: I drop off the pace a bit, the effort at 4:38 was feeling too hard. At this point I’m still optimistic, if i can hold 4:45-4:50 I’m on track to PB at least.
- KM 12 TO 13: Signs of trouble, my legs are really hurting but maybe I can work through it and come good.
- KM 14 TO 17: My legs are dead and hurting a lot, even though I’m basically just jogging now slowing over 5:00 pace.
- KM 18 to 20: Really dead. I have now dropped to 5:20 pace and really hurting to the point that I’m tempted to pull out of the race it’s that bad, but I know that’s stupid and have to keep going. It’s also mentally hard as I’m getting passed by a lot of people and they don’t look like they’re going fast.
- KM 21: The end is near, just finish. Chelsea even said I looked completely stuffed finishing.
I crossed the line in 1:44:38. Around 5 minutes slower than my goal, and 3 minutes off my best half marathon result. It’s disappointing but I won’t be dwelling on it too much.
Shift your focus from the goal itself to the process that gives you the best chance of achieving it; and to judge yourself based on how well you execute that process.
Great results
It was impossible to be too worried about my own run with so many other great results. Sharon absolutely killed it with a 1:36:01 half marathon, super impressive run. Followed by Dave Dodemaide putting in one of the most inspirational marathon efforts I’ve seen. He pushed himself to the limits with the Western Athletics support crew to finish in 4:02:45.
It was also great to jog alongside a bit with my mate Zac who finished his first marathon in 3:52:27 and good to see instagram bud Tash finish her first marathon in 4:25:02. Both awesome results.
And on the Saturday the Shanahan boys with Cody taking out the win and Kirk also running impressively. Chelsea ran a very impressive 5.7km in 23:32 finishing first in her age category. Julie White also ripped out an age category win! It was also good to run into the Sneyders who ran for Brigitte’s dad.
This week
Training during the week was low volume taper and race specific. Starting with Tuesday which was 2 x 2km at race pace with a short 1km warm up and cool down. I noted that my breathing didn’t seem the best and that I seemed to have a cold.
Thursday I trained in the afternoon up at the Gold Coast running 8km along the beach path with two 5 min efforts at race pace. Felt ok although again my breathing and heart rate seemed higher than usual.
Saturday day before the race. A short jog down to the race precinct (3.3km) followed by 6 strides.
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 1km warm up 2 x 2km @ 4:38 pace with 400 jog recovery (4:36/160bpm, 4:35/173bpm) 1km cool down |
| Wed | Rest |
| Thu | 8km with 2 x 5 min efforts @ 4:38 pace (5:04/km, 160bpm) |
| Fri | Rest |
| Sat | 3.3km easy jog to race precinct (5:14/km, 147bpm) + 6 strides |
| Sun | 1.8km warm up Gold Coast Half Marathon (Result 1:44:38, 4:55/km, 162bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | |
| Tue | |
| Wed | Podiatrist follow up appointment |
| Thu | Foam roll (15 mins) |
| Fri | Pool and spa |
| Sat | |
| Sun | Water recovery |
Post race analysis
This is currently a work in progress but a few things to note.
I ran into training fatigue from Week 18 and despite recovery and taper don’t seem to have fully come back. The hard effort of a half marathon race was too much.
I wasn’t 100%. Just noting how I’ve been feeling with my breathing and heart rate during the last few training runs. I also take resting heart rate in the morning and that was higher than usual during the week.
My foot is still an issue. It’s still been sore and felt sorer after the half marathon. I think that may be effecting things too.
Moving forward I’m having a bit of recovery this week with a few easy runs. Chelsea has been considering pretty much everything and asking lots of questions. One thing she is doing is rejigging my training program so there’s more recovery, something like a 10 day cycle instead of a weekly cycle. And also adjusting training paces.
Coming up
- 8 July – Sandown Road Relays (6.2km)
- 16 July – Game of Thrones Season 7
- 16 July – Albert Park Road Race (10km)
- 15 October – Melbourne Marathon
Summary
| Week | Phase | Runs | Km | Hrs | TSS | Fitness | Fatigue | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | MARATHON | 4 | 59.2 | 5:17 | 426 | 61 | 73 ↑ | 23 ↑ |
| 35 | Taper | 4 | 41 | 3:32 | 314 | 61 ↓ | 55 ↓ | -1 ↓ |
| 34 | Marathon | 4 | 62.1 | 5:26 | 450 | 64 | 76 ↓ | 6 ↑ |
| 33 | Marathon | 4 | 63.4 | 5:34 | 467 | 64 ↑ | 82 | 2 ↓ |
| 32 | Marathon | 5 | 70.7 | 6:23 | 502 | 63 ↑ | 82 ↑ | 7 ↓ |
| 31 | Marathon | 4 | 48.4 | 4:13 | 367 | 61 ↑ | 68 ↓ | 8 ↑ |
| 30 | Marathon | 4 | 63.9 | 5:43 | 462.1 | 62.7 ↑ | 78.3 ↑ | 4.0 ↑ |
| 29 | Marathon / recovery | 4 | 58.4 | 5:06 | 426.2 | 61.8 ↑ | 77.3 ↓ | -0.6 ↓ |
| 28 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 6:06 | 486.1 | 61.6 ↑ | 82.5 ↑ | 3.6 ↑ |
| 27 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:50 | 482.1 | 60.1 ↑ | 79 ↑ | 0.5 ↓ |
| 26 | Recovery | 4 | 54.3 | 4:54 | 386.3 | 58.1 ↓ | 69.5 ↓ | 3.5 ↑ |
| 25 | Build | 5 | 64.9 | 5:51 | 454.6 | 58.3 ↑ | 72.0 ↑ | -2.3 ↓ |
| 24 | Build | 5 | 64.5 | 5:41 | 482.6 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.6 ↑ | 3.1 ↓ |
| 23 | Build | 4 | 46.9 | 4:07 | 340.5 | 54.9 ↓ | 51.8 ↓ | 7.3 ↓ |
| 22 | Build | 4 | 43.6 | 3:55 | 307.3 | 55.9 ↓ | 52.1 ↓ | 11.1 ↓ |
| 21 | Half Marathon | 4 | 41.8 | 3:31 | 311.1 | 58.0 ↓ | 55.0 ↑ | 20.5 ↑ |
| 20 | Taper for HM | 4 | 37.5 | 3:10 | 304.9 | 60.1 ↓ | 52.4 ↓ | 14.6 ↑ |
| 19 | Recovery | 3 | 41.6 | 3:39 | 302.6 | 63.0 ↓ | 59.8 ↓ | 10.5 ↑ |
| 18 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.8 | 6:03 | 541.4 | 66.6 ↑ | 86.0 ↑ | -7.4 ↓ |
| 17 | Half / Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:47 | 490.2 | 64.3 ↑ | 79.7 ↑ | -3.2 ↑ |
| 16 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 64.4 | 5:32 | 479.2 | 62.9 ↑ | 76.0 ↓ | -7.7 ↑ |
| 15 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.4 | 6:09 | 527.1 | 61.7 ↑ | 77.8 ↑ | -7.8 ↓ |
| 14 | Speed / Half | 5 | 63.8 | 5:38 | 460.2 | 59.0 ↑ | 70.3 ↑ | -1.0 ↓ |
| 13 | Speed / Half | 5 | 59.1 | 5:20 | 419.4 | 57.5 ↑ | 60.9 ↑ | -3.7 ↓ |
| 12 | Recovery | 4 | 39.1 | 3:21 | 288.2 | 56.9 ↓ | 54.8 ↓ | 6.5 ↑ |
| 11 | Speed | 5 | 59.1 | 5:14 | 421.8 | 59.6 ↑ | 70.4 ↓ | 1.7 ↑ |
| 10 | Speed | 5 | 61.6 | 5:23 | 460.3 | 59.3 ↑ | 71.8 ↑ | -1.9 ↓ |
| 9 | Speed | 5 | 58.0 | 5:06 | 436.1 | 57.9 ↑ | 67.8 ↑ | 3.4 ↑ |
| 8 | Recovery | 5 | 49.7 | 4:18 | 395.8 | 56.8 | 61.5 ↓ | -1.3 ↓ |
| 7 | Base | 5 | 54.2 | 4:44 | 417.0 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.4 ↑ | 2.3 ↑ |
| 6 | Base | 5 | 51.3 | 4:33 | 392.3 | 56.1 ↑ | 61.0 ↓ | 1.5 ↓ |
| 5 | Base | 5 | 52.5 | 4:32 | 421.5 | 55.9 ↑ | 61.7 ↑ | 2.2 ↓ |
| 4 | Recovery | 5 | 46.5 | 4:03 | 353.7 | 55.0 ↓ | 54.5 ↓ | 4.4 ↑ |
| 3 | Base | 5 | 50.4 | 4:22 | 381.7 | 55.7 ↓ | 57.1 ↓ | 1.2 ↓ |
| 2 | Base | 5 | 50.2 | 4:23 | 381.2 | 55.9 ↓ | 57.4 ↑ | 5.9 ↓ |
| 1 | Base | 5 | 43.9 | 3:52 | 334.3 | 56.0 | 53.4 | 8.3 |
Hi Ben, Glad to hear you had a great weekend. you couldn’t ask for more than you had, good friends , good weather and good food. We love you Benny boy, Grandma & Grandad
Thanks for the support! I’m missing the gold coast!
Great read. Hang in there Ben. Racing when not 100% well takes a lot of courage and effort. Sounds like it was a lot of fun up there – and warm!!! I know you will stay focused and positive and with Chelsea at the realm she will keep you on track
I’m confident Chelsea will have me back on track. We just pushed things a bit too far I think, sometimes it takes hitting the limits to realise where the limits are.
Great analysis of week Ben. Sun, food and good friends and lots and lots of laughs. Whilst you may not have achieved what you wanted (this time) it was still a great effort. Don’t let one race define you as a runner – you know you are better than that. I appreciated watching you barrelling through the crowds on the first 2km of the half – you paved the way for me. PB’s are hard to come by – health, training, eating, toilet stops, wind, weather and mind – that’s why we celebrate when one comes our way. We will celebrate after Melbourne – eye on the prize, stay focussed 🙂
Yep it’s another step in the process, can’t perform well all the time (unfortunately!). I saw that today is 100 days until Melbourne Marathon.. that certainly brings the big goal back in focus!!