End of camp and Freo Half Marathon

Woke up Wednesday to calm conditions, which was appreciated as the legs felt very average and 150k on the bike was planned. The ride out of town confirmed that I didn’t have much in the legs, but replayed my current mantra “Good day Bad day, it doesn’t matter you’re here to work”. By the time I arrived at Port Gregory road the wind was up and straight into my face. It was going to be a long day.



The undulating and exposed Port Gregory Road



Had a few weak moments on the way out to the turnaround point and had to be disciplined not to turn earlier. The thought of stopping and lying in the grass to escape the wind were regular. I was beginning to hate this road.

150K done and most of the next 18hours were spent in bed. Did get out of bed for dinner, which had a bit of local flavor. Roast pork (wild boar shot by my cousin) was the main and entrée whatever these are…

Thursday was the last day of training up here and the dead roads, hills and constant wind had taken its toll on me. I had hoped to get another long ride in, but really dreaded the idea of heading out into the wind with nothing in the legs. I headed out for a 7.5k run to try and loosen up the legs. Pace was ok, but still felt like crap. Back to bed for an hour…

My dad was heading into Geraldton in the afternoon, so I had a chance to get to the pool. That left me with three and a half hours to kill. Can of Coke down the hatch and onto the bike. Actually started to feel ok after 10-15k and got a solid 80ks in before heading to the pool.

Heading for home, the focus shifted to recovery. Well more so…. The 10hours of sleep I was getting a night was good recovery. I had the Fremantle Half Marathon on Sunday and it would be a tough ask to recover in time. An ice cold open water swim at North Cott on Saturday helped, but I think wetsuits would have been a good idea ;)

I went into the race with a similar mentality as I have for my recent races, hang on for as long as possible. The pace off the line wasn’t stupid fast and I settled in around 8^th before gradually moving up to 5^th by the 2^nd kilometer. I moved into 4^th and was just back from 3^rd as we went through 5k in 17minutes. I knew it was fast, but I was quite comfortable below my threshold.

I went through 10k in 34.34 which is the fastest I’ve run in a long, long time. I was thinking before the race that I am a month away from running fast; I’m looking forward to next month now! Compared to the first 10k of the City to surf, it’s a 2 minute + improvement.

On the second lap I was able to stay in touch (50m) with 3^rd, but inevitably fatigue set in. My legs just couldn’t respond as the 5^th place competitor flew by. My pace didn’t drop off much until the last few KM’s and I finished in 5^th in 1.17 and change.

As half marathons go, it was two and a half minutes off my PB, but the quality is starting to come back. The hard work is paying off, but THERE IS A HELL OF A LOT MORE TO BE DONE.

G-train