BAY 2 CITY RACE REPORT - MARCH 19 2016

Bay 2 City is the sister reverse race of the City 2 Bay here in Adelaide.
The City 2 Bay is one of my favourite races, run over a 12km course from town down to Glenelg.
Bay 2 City in 2015 was in April the weather was perfect.
This year, the race for no particular reason that I can find out was a month earlier. March is always hot here in Adelaide. It as forecast to be about 28C which for me is a hot run.

The race started at 8 am, I'd honestly be happy for it to start earlier. The appeal of this race is it is so much smaller than the City 2 Bay. This race attracts no more than 4000, the Cit 2 Bay- 40,000.

I met with my friend Julia (Rubenesque Runner) who was in the final stages of training for London Marathon. She was race fit and went off like a rocket (we are usually similar pace). I had bought my bib from her as fund raising for the Heart Foundation for her marathon campaign.

It's a great course, presumed uphill (as in City 2 Bay you feel you are going downhill) but is flat bar a couple of short inclines, one up a bridge at the end. The race starts at Colley Reserve at Glenelg, travels up Jetty Road, left on to Brighton Road and then it's straight up Anzac Highway to the city.
This year rather than going down Currie St from West Terrace and on to Morphett Street bridge, it turned from West Terrace on to Franklin St and then through Light Square on to the bridge and then right towards the finish.

I wasn't race fit for this race, after just training to 5 km for the Friendship run in Tokyo. However, after coming back from Tokyo I did a 7, 10 and then a 12 on the treddy so I knew that I would be able to cover the distance. I didn't rule out a PB (1:28) but knew it was only a very slim possibility.

It got quite warm by about 8km. At 10.5km, due to the heat, I began to get my calf cramps (magnesium- need to start back on that!!!), but knew with not far to to go it wouldn't be like Melbourne where for 5 kms, I ran in pain but still got a PB.

Finished officially in 1:32:06 which I was totally happy with as not really race fit. So I did well.
I did experience post race cramp like I never had when I flexed my calf. IT went on for about 5 minutes. I had Julia and her friend massaging my legs. It finally went away but was a note to self to reintroduce the magnesium and increase dosage towards race day.

I hope they put this race back to April for 2017- the chance of cooler temps makes it so much more attractive.

Ubiquitous Garmin Shot

Me, Julia and her friend

#garmin
#Garminaustralia
#asics
#dasherlife
#dashernation

BRIONY'S STILL RUNNING!

Well- its been months, but I've been racing and training.

City to Bay in mid September went well- got a bit warm so a little over PB time.
The Melbourne Half went really well in the end. I got sub 2:40 which was 3 minutes faster than NYC- so pleased.

Then I got sick.

A trip to South Africa in November was fabulous, but I got worse until I was sent to hospital in the 3rd week of November with suspected pneumonia. Thankfully it was not but my asthma was so bad it was replicating pneumonia. Was better by December, and then I had my Gran's 100th in early January.

January 11th I began again, birthday's over, sickness gone. 78 days later, I am still going. Inspired by a friend in the US who is currently on Streak Day #120 something. So the Streak began.... and hasn't stopped. Minimum of 7 sessions of exercise (or min 1km) across 7 days. If a day is missed because of work it is made up as soon as possible in that week. So far a success and nearly 300 kms achieved.

There has been a trip to the Tokyo Marathon with my dear friend Anthea to cheer some friends around the course, including our favourite Belgian who completed her 6th marathon major.

Last week was round 2 of Bay to City- no position to run as up until end of February my longest run had been 5km- in preparation for the Friendship Run in Tokyo. No PB but a time of 1:32 I was pleased with the result.

Next race is a 10k up in Salisbury and also on the local calendar, a 10k at Semaphore.

The big race for the year will be the Philadelphia Half in November with a warm up at the Rocky Run in Philly the week before.

Watch this space for some posts from Tokyo and Bay to City.

Thanks for following :)

MELBOURNE HALF MARATHON TRAINING: WEEK 10 DAY 3

All I can say is #dontbeafraid
OMG this is my fastest ever 10 in history. Faster than the last treddy effort on the Saturday night.
Run intervals at 10/10.5 and pushing it up to 11.0km/hr.
Run intervals really 300-500 at that speed. Walk intervals 200 at the start but reduced to 100 when doing only 300 running.
OMG. So chuffed. Next goal is under 65 but that is going to take some work.
Just got to get this kind of speed up to 15km distance.
Still got 6 weeks. Hoping for some #racedaymagic.
Finally can do this without running out of air.

Giddy Up, Happy Running.

MELBOURNE HALF MARATHON TRAINING: WEEK 10 DAY 2

So back on the treddy. It was my first mid week day off in weeks. I had the alarm set for 5:30 am t go out for 14 kms. It went off and I reset for 8:30. Just needed a sleep in. It has been a long 3 weeks since I got back from leave.

I'm definitely #racefit for City2Bay. no doubt about it. The fast 10 km on the treddy a couple of weeks back showed me that.

See what tomorrow brings. Long runs are necessary but so are some quality short ones.

MELBOURNE HALF MARATHON TRAINING: WEEK 7 DAY 6

So solo Saturday turns into a PB Party.
Was sitting at homing pining for NYC. I had 10 km planned for tomorrow as my first long run for this half (leaving it rather late as we all know!). Was so bored I got dressed and headed to the gym just after 9:00 pm to do tomorrow's 10 today.
On the treddy by 9:20. Finished by 10:30. Ran on 0 incline (because I didn't realise I had forgotten to put it up until about km #5!!!
Fastest ever everything!!!

4k @28:49
5k @35:40
6k@43:10
8k @57:00
10k @71:10

Just goes to show when you think you can't, you can.
I ran this session on intervals again with the walks at about 6.3km/hr (0.3km/hr faster than last 2 sessions) and the runs at 9.5-10km/hr.
Walks were all 200m. Run intervals varied from 500-800m and I did run a 1km interval towards the start at 9.5km/hr.
Bear in mind, I have hardly run for 2 months and just ran a PB over every distance.
This is my 5th run this week. Definitely rest day tomorrow now.
Totally smashed it out of the ball park.
So all those time trials I talked about yesterday? #doneanddusted !!!!!

Happy running, enjoy your Sunday!



#dasherlife
#racefit

MELBOURNE HALF MARATHON TRAINING: WEEK 7 DAY 3

So 3 days in a row. I wasn't quite fast enough on the run intervals so missed my sub 40.
Ran on a mini pyramid.
200/200/200/400/200/600/200/800/200/600/200/500/200/300/200
2.0 incline. Used 5.8-6.0 for walk intervals and runs varied from 7.5-9.5
Its the best way to push up the speed and test fitness. I used to run on zero incline but now find I can do a slight incline with no trouble.

Had a rest day on Thursday.
Happy Running

MARATHON RUNNING: TRAINING FOR NEW YORK 2013

If you are thinking of doing a marathon or want to know what it is like to train for one, please head over to my blog : http://brionybullardmarathonfit.blogspot.com.au/
This tells the tale of what training I did, some of the food I used in training and of course the all important race report. It is a blog covering 9 months of training for the New York Marathon, which I ran as a 40th birthday present to myself. Plenty of ubiquitous Garmin photos with distances and times. The race was the inspiration for the forming my group the Dungog Dashers who even 2 years on are still meeting up at races, going to surprise birthday parties and catching up all over the world.
This race and the lead up to it truly changed my life for the better. The people I met through this race have enriched my life more than I could ever have imagined.
You can also read about my latest gathering with them in New York, during March by clicking the links below.

RACE EXPO
RACE DAY
MILE 10 CHEER SQUAD
POST RACE DRINKS

Thank you for reading :)

PRODUCT REVIEW: GYM BOSS miniMAX INTERVAL BEEPER

This girl is big on interval running. I never used to be. I used to think you had to run all the way to get faster times. I have had 4 PB's this year using Jeff Galloway's method of run/walk intervals. I got the gym boss to help me in the NYC Marathon in 2013 and have used it ever since. I love it.
If you have a basic Garmin or watch for running this will be the perfect accompaniment to your either of those. Available in an array of colours, the Gymboss Mini Max runs off 1 x AAA battery. You can adjust your intervals to anything you like. Maximum of 99 rounds of the 2 intervals. Beeps go off for 1, 2 or 5 seconds and the beep can be quite loud (for a race like NYC Marathon, this is essential. I had to wear it on the neck hole of my top the crowd was that loud. It's so easy to use this product, I am a big fan and recommend it to anyone who needs something to time their intervals. It means you aren't always looking at your watch.
So if you want to get the perfect interval timer click below!




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