Great match reports everyone - looks like a really sucessfull set of runs for everyone - I liked how dfferent they all sounded too longer/shorter courses, fast courses, and trail runs.
My match report: After learning my hydration lesson on Tuesday, I spent Sat evening necking water, then got up at 5am and made sure I got just over a ltr down me, making sure I had time to re-hyrdate from the night and get it through my system before the run... Day was nice, heat had come right off and was fairly breezy ? I think the run was probably just under 20degrees all the way. I was wondering what the set-up would be, like, and it was very welcoming, the deal with the club members is they ruin virtually for free - $3 each, but have to volunteer to marshal a few race each year, so the marshalls knew all the members, and shouted encouragement/abuse at them all as they went passed, which gave a great atmosphere.
Run was twice around a 7.5km course all along the swan river (up to one bridge, over the bridge, back up the other side and over a second bridge, so very pretty, but little shade, so glad weather was cooler, and you could chose your length right up to the last second when the 7.5km competitors peeled off into the chute to finish. I actually found that quite difficult as I?d been running in a pack of people at about the same pace, and at the 6.5km point they all sped up, and it was quite hard not to get dragged into their sprint finish.
Secided if I wanted sub-80min, I just needed to keep myself between 5:00 and 5:10 for the run right from the off, and pretty much stuck to that.
Felt very strong on both loops, my normal training run has been 11km for several months now, though I did a couple of 15kms to prep for this, and I did notice at about 12km I felt tired, fortunately that was around when I returned back to the first river bank so I felt like I was on the home straight and pushed through. Really felt recent abs worked helped, as I held a good posture throughout, and wasn?t slumping at the end. DH had made chocolate muffins with the girls and then driven down to meet me, so finished with them cheering me then had coffee and muffins in the park.
Reading about everyones HM plans. I just don?t see how I can get more then 2x runs per week in, so I think mine is going to be
a) Stay with my 8km run to work once a week, and focus on getting that as fast as poss.
b) Now I can do 15km, keep my weekend run at 15km(dec) for a month, then move it to 18km for Jan. In Feb I'll prob will pretty much have to drop running, as will just be too hot, will swim to keep fit and keep on with weights etc to keep core body strength. March ? restart at 15km longer run, ramping back up to 18 as soon as I?m comfortable. April ? make my weekend run 20km for a race in early may.
Prob against all training advice, but I think I?m better off doing something suboptimal I know I can keep to. Am hopeful that I can get sub 2hr on this.