Managed to squeeze in today’s run before the rain started. Ok it started when I walked out the door, but then the weather was like “oh you’re running here. No worries, we’re cool, I’ll just hold off an hour for you mmkay?”

As I type this it’s hard to hear myself think with the din of the rain on a tin roof (I’m in a newer part of the house). I’d be a drowned rat if I were out there now. I probably would’ve also packed it in at 6km rather than doing the 8km in 52:42 @ 6:35 mins/km that I did today.

My wife Cat is tossing up whether to join me in the City2Surf Marathon in August, so if you feel like putting some peer pressure on her, fire away 🙂 She’s trying to run about whatever I’m doing every day, so she’s on track.

Have a great day and if it’s raining where you are, stay safe & dry (unless you’re running, in which case just stay safe lol)

Today was a tough one. 6km in 36:53 @ 6:09 mins/km doesn’t sound like much, but kms 2 and 3 were 5:50s, so when I hit the hills in the last 2 km… yeah… burn baby burn.

Sometimes the goal of training is to rack up the kms. Other times you go out knowing it’s going to hurt. Today was one of the latter.

On the flip side, tough runs help you feel really good about your running. With the Run For A Reason just 20 days away, a run like today’s makes me confident of achieving my race target on the day. I’m aiming for around 75 minutes for the 12km race.

Yesterday I was a marshal for the Perth 32km Race put on by the WA Marathon Club. I rocked up at 6am as instructed, for a 7am race start. There were quite a few volunteers and they finally gave me my assignment at 6:30. As I was half expecting, my station wasn’t close.

I was around the 8km / 28km mark of the out & back race. That meant a 5km run with a pack in time to setup before the front-runners got there. Front-runners whom I know run around 3:10 pace the whole way (they did).

I stupidly had decided not to pack shorts “just in case”, but I had everything else for running, so I stripped to skins/tights/whatever, tshirt & running shoes. First time I’ve ever broken my rule to never wear skins with no shorts over, but it was dark and it was an emergency.

Got to my station in time, marshalled for 4 hours, noticed a lot about different form, got abused by selfish walkers who wouldn’t move out of the way of the runners, had a good day.

Almost at the end of Week 2 of this marathon training program.

Just ran 7.5 km in 48:26 @ 6:27 mins/km pace across both road and trails (and a fair bit of grass).

Feeling really good about where I’m at with my running at this stage of the training cycle. I’ve got the HBF Run For A Reason coming up later this month. I won’t train specifically for that, but I will do around 170km before I get there which should put me in good stead. Just going to focus on pushing to the higher part of my allowed base pace of 6:20 mins/km from now on.

I ran 10km yesterday around Herdsman Lake. I’ve done 35.5km so far this week and I’ll finish off with probably a 5km tomorrow.

It’s strange to think that less than a month ago I was really injured, missed a race I was looking forward to and generally feeling glum about my chances of running a marathon this year.

Today’s 6km in 38:36 was a great run. Felt comfortable at my base pace of 6:30 min/km, which I’ve been missing.

The whole idea of base pace is it’s meant to be easy. You just go out and run it, come back and you’re still feeling fresh. It’s been a couple of months since base pace has felt this good.

For my goal of a marathon in 4 hours, base pace is between 6:20 and 6:45, according to Hansons. But I try to hit 6:30 for every split in the early part of my program, then slowly move up to 6:20 by the time later sessions come along.

Worst case scenario, if I can only manage 6:30 average in the marathon, I’ll still be ok because that’s just over 4:30. I’m ok with that this year.

Bit of a tough start to the week, with GI giving me some issues throughout and my body not liking the colder weather.

Main thing is I kept going, sucked it up and got it done.

6km in 39:23 today.