10 km QRWC Club Championships Open/Masters

Usually this race is run in a very different fashion.....up until today it has had the following rule :- Trophies will be awarded to the first three placings in each age group (male & female) and medals in the Masters age group. For Masters athletes please note that the first three finishers in Open races will be the Open placegetters and the next three Masters Age competitors to finish after that will be eligible for Masters medals.

So the Masters Womens Record was always going to be out of my reach.  I had made it a secret goal of mine to try hard to gain a club or state record for masters in this winter season.  So today when we arrived to race and discovered that it was only Denise and myself racing in the Masters and were also the only ones that could also enter the Open ... I decided to question the above rule as it just made no sense to me.  To my surprise they decided that we could choose which grade we wanted at the end of the race.

We all lined up and the race got underway.  By the 2km mark my right piroformus was causing me alot of pain.  I had sadly pulled this again last week due to poor form during the last race and still being sick this week I have had little training.  I kept at it and had already decided that if it was hurting too much by 5km that I would pull out.  I noticed that my times were remaining steady...and my glute was not getting worse.

I hit the 5km mark in 28:32 ... so I knew if I could keep going at this pace I was on for a good time....perhaps a sub 58:00  

My breathing got a little messed up today and I found I was shallow breathing....while I was keeping my shoulders low and my stride nice and long, my breathing was holding me back.  One of the older walkers John mentioned this me as I passed him and he reminded me to slow and control my breathing...get some deep breaths in.  This helped immensely, and I did concentrate on this for the last 3 km.  I did how ever get myself in a mental state by miscalculating my laps.  I set up my watch quickly today and decided to use the Lap Time, Lap Pace and Lap Distance....but I didnt realise that I should have had total laps in their too.... for some reason at 7km I thought I only had 2 laps to go and so decided to try and push then....so got all in a fuddle when I was told I had two more to go when I thought I only had one.  Such a simple thing...but it can really throw you.

I crossed the finish line in 57:22 ( meaning my second 5km was 28:50 so not that much slower than my first 5km) 

Once Denise had crossed the line....they asked us to have a think about what grade we wanted.  Well that was a pretty quick and simple desion................Give the Open QLD Champ trophy to Denise and I will take the Masters 10km medal and the Masters record which was 59:55 ... so a win win all round. 

10km club champs Kallinga Park

Qld Masters 10km Championship Race - Murarrie Course

Waking up at 4.30am is not my idea of a fun Sunday.  I drove into Murarrie today and picked up Kay and Denise on the way.  I have been unwell for the last 3 days.  My stomach has been playing up and I have been suffering diarrhea and bad stomach cramps, so I was in two minds to flag this race.  I tried to walk to warm up and I had sharp pains in my lower stomach.  It did come right so I figured I can start the race and pull out if it got too bad.  In this warm up I also noticed my 2nd problem.  I had grabbed the wrong socks...my left foot sock had slipped down into the shoe and I knew it was going to rub.

I am also testing out my 2nd Garmin....so far its just not working for me.   Gun goes off and we are away.  Pete and Dean were doing the 20km while the rest of us were walking the 10km.  My first km and the garmin watch chirps 25m before the start/finish line....GREAT!!! so now all my pacing on the watch is going to be out.  I also made the mistake of pressing the stop and not the pause....I discovered this about 2mins later.  So I lost 400m in my distance.

By 4km I was having lots of problems.......I could feel my foot rubbing against my shoe and new I had a beauty blister forming.  I was also getting sharp stomach cramps every 5 or so minutes and was struggling to remain upright as they cramped.  But instead of stopping I kept at it and just kept walking.

Each of my km splits were around the 5:50 - 5:52 and seemed consistent - which surprised me for how I was feeling.  I was even more surprised to finish the race in 58:17

Garmin Data here - note....while the data says 10km my time is only 56:00 so my garmin is measuring everything long.
10 km data

Cairns - Great Barrier Reef Masters Games

It was not a great start to the day.  My boarding pass was misprinted and I ended up missing my flight, cost me $100 to change my flight to the later night flight.  Arriving into Cairns at 8pm - Robyn and I rented a car and headed off to find our accommodation.

Our first race was at 9am on Saturday - 5000m.  It was so humid and this was going to make it a challenging walk.  There was only two women and 5 men.  We all lined up and headed out.  It took me a couple of laps to get into the swing of it but I kept my pace steady for the whole 5000m to finish in 28:04  After we had finished the CH9 news guy arrived and we joked with him that he had missed the best race.....so he got me out on the track and filmed me walking and then interviewed me.  It was to play on the local TV this week so I wont get to see it.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the track and then we headed out for dinner that night.  We were all tired so didnt stay out late, just headed back home.

Sunday was a morning at the track for Robyn and I went and hung out at the car show in the grounds next to us.  We then spent an hour walking around the markets around the lagoon.  It is really pretty there.  We headed back to the track for our last race which was at 3pm and was the 3000m.  I was feeling fantastic for this race.  We all lined up and I set off at a great pace and kept it up the whole 7.5 laps.  Finishing in 16:26 which is my best Australian time for 3000m.

While my trip didnt pan out the way I had hoped, I have come away a stronger person.  I have closed the door to a part of my life that needed to be closed.

5km recovery walk

I wanted to test out the gps again.  So I decided to record my 5km in two parts.

1st x 2.5km was done with the GPS setting - SMART recording on.  I walked along the walkway and out onto Hedges Ave until I got to 2.5km.  I wish I could remember where my other watch measured it to.  But I do think it was the corner I got to.

Time - 15:07

2.5km smart recording

I then turned and headed back along the walkway.  I had changed the settings on the GPs to record every second.   Every now and then I would check my pace and it seemed to be recording ok......I had the odd strange reading.... but nothing to odd.  I felt a little faster on the return and turns out I was 15 secs quicker.

 Time - 14:43

2.5km with record every second

I felt really good on this walk.  Legs were not sore or heavy.  Total time for the 5km was 29:50  avg heartrate was 144 which shows I was nice and relaxed.

5000m club race at St Lucia

It was another early start.  We all met up at Movie World carpark and carpooled with Paul into Brisbane.  It was going to be a gorgeous day.  I was excited to start this race.  I wanted to see how I was getting along with my training and my B complex shots.  Plus I get to test out my new watch.

I went out and did the 800m the watch needs to calibrate the foot pod...but in hindesite - maybe I should have turned off the gps ??  it seems to have screwed with it.

Race starts and the young ones took off as to be expected.  Paul shot past me and I thought...YEAH...we are going to have a great race today....but about 800m I past him and quickly settled into my pace.  I felt comfortable the whole way.  I was annoyed when my watch chimed the first 1km mark......about 100m away from the 1 km mark.  But I had turned off auto lap and so I pressed the lap button...only I didnt press hard enough.  My first km was 5:35.......the watch then chimed for the next 1km mark only this time it was 200m early......oh man...even my other watch was not that badly out on the track.  I made a mistake on the laps and pressed lap 200m early...but that was easily fixed.

I was thrilled to finish the race in 27:55 - this is my fastest 5000m since moving here.  the annoying thing is my watch tells me that I walked 5.76km so all my avg pace is out.  My lap splits are there BUT if I go into the player......it reverts back to the gps measures.  .....  I still need to look into the settings I think.

SIDE NOTE:  I turned off GPS and set it to read off my foot pod and walked the 2km broadwalk course...the gps measures it short by at least 10m per km....the foot pod measures it LONG...so the first km the watch said it was 995m.

5000 m race

10 km along a new pathway

Day Two - post Bcomplex injection and I have to say WOW!  I had a crappy nights sleep but I woke up feeling awake but most interesting was my legs felt fresh - not zonked after the fast 8km.

I had decided to drive up to Main Beach and head along the walkway there out to the Spit.  This would give me the first 2 km on paved pathway and approx 3km out to the spit on the packed gravel/sand bike ways.  Turns out right at the spit I had to detour at 4.3km to the road as there was a movie being shot with army and police shooting each other....I didnt feel like getting shot today.

I started out and slotted into a nice easy steady pace.  I took no notice of my watch as today was to be a nice recovery walk so minimal effort.  So I was rather surprised to be feeling fantastic and to see my first km at 6:08 .... hmmm coolies.  I kinda figured I would fatigue fast as this is the normal .. especially at the 4km mark but NOT today.  Today I remained feeling fresh and strong the whole walk.  Infact when I had to detour on to the road and it was smooth tarseal.....I found I was really zipping along and was shocked to see my 5 and 6th kms both recording 5:35 and 5:47 - for little effort!!!!!

I loved this walk....it is by far my most enjoyable scenery wise todate!!  the mountain bike section while yes was packed dirt and gravel was still easy to walk on and much nicer than concrete.  I had birds and butterflys flitting around me and the sea to watch as well.  Yes it had rises all along but they were not too hard to go up and over.....it just made the whole walk so much more fun and one that I will do more often now.

So now I am home after my walk and I still feel energetic ... I dont feel like I need to nap or my eyes are out on stalks.  Ok so its only 10am but this is not what I normal feel like...right now I feel GREAT and its really making me see how crappy I was feeling.  Man why did I not ever get this checked in the past....why do Dr's just assume its iron and only test for that????  I cant wait for my second shot next week.  If I feel this good already and its only day 2....I am going to be AWESOME in two weeks!!!!

Total time for 10km is 1:00:27
Avg pace = 6:03
Avg Hr = 151
Avg SPM = 86

10km data

a fast 8km first thing in the morning

I had my first B Complex injection last night and will be getting another next week...then a fortnight after that.  The dr said I should notice a big difference in a few days.   Yay cant wait as I am over feeling so fatigued all the time and I just put it down to stress and not sleeping properly.  He recons I have been low in B12 for at least two or three years.   wow.

With my new job comes new hours.  I will be working 9am to 5:30pm so that puts training at night out completely....so its morning training for me.  Eeekkkkk as I am NOT a morning person.  While I am training I am doing 10 to 4 so I thought I would start today and easy my body into earlier and earlier.

so at 7.30am I headed out to do 8km.  I started out at 85% and felt good.  It felt easy but my legs felt pretty heavy and empty.  Still they were turning over and thats the main thing.  I also decided to walk to the km splits going by my GPS today rather than the marks on the walk way.  I will calibrate my foot pod on Sunday and I am interested to see how it measures then.

At 4km I turned to do the next 2km back along the path way and I was feeling tired but noticed that I was doing just under 6min pace.....hmmm ok.... maybe the kms are a bit short???? so I thought I would push hard for my last 2km and see how my body responds.  I was pretty amazed that it responded well and my legs didnt feel so dead anymore.  I was starting to breath harder ... Not gasping ... just working it.  For my last km I was giving it 100% effort.  Now to see how I go during the day and how I feel tonight.

Total time for 8km was 47:01
AVG pace = 5:52
AVG HR = 153 (max was 174)
AVG cadence = 88 steps per min
Training effort = 5 (definitely agree with that!!!) lol

8km data