Since I missed out on my recovery session yesterday I opted to do my 15km Tour de Ryde run again to beef up the week/month/year final totals.
Headed out a little later, still some early morning US work stuff that had to be sorted. It did seem quite warm/humid but the legs were pretty fresh after a full day of recovery after my back to back hill rep sessions.
I consciously tried to run it just a little faster, the course is pretty tough with some good undulations to make you work for your pace.
Finished off with a time of 1.12.5 (over a minute faster than on Monday) avg pace of 4.53 min/km and avg hr of 168.
So the end of another week, quite disjointed with all the xmas/holiday/work stuff going on and ended up with 48km for the week. The Parrot predictor has me at a 3.28.40 marathon time. Day off tomorrow and then the Cherrybrook STaR on Sunday, aiming for full 30+ with the 6:10am group.
I'll write up my end of month/year analysis in a separate post.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Thursday, December 30, 2004
MTG Bay run
Wednesday and Summer Series is in mid-summer hibernation.
I think the excesses of Christmas caught up with me overnight, felt pretty crappy Wed morning (literally, sorry for the detail!) and did not feel like running at all. As the day progressed things improved and decided to head out to the bay to run with the MTG.
Pretty cruisy start but then discovered they were running hill reps up (the infamous) Lilyfield Rd, ouch I did hill reps on Tuesday. Went out way too hot on the first rep (77 sec), levelled out for the next four at around 88 and then died badly with the last 2 at 98. Was supposed to do 8 but pulled the pin at 7 as things were done and I was feeling a little shaky (think it was low blood sugar after my gut problems from the morning and the limited diet through the day as a result).
Paced back to the start ok and felt a lot better after downing a pepsi on the way home.
The blister on my right heel is now really S****ing me and is painful to walk on, let alone run. Decided to cut it and drain it to try and let it dry out, did the same for the LHS and it has healed up nicely.
So with gut and heel problems tied in with a critical day at work and it was pretty easy to opt out of the scheduled recovery run today.
Feel a lot better tonight, finished off the EOY work stuff (YIPPEE!) but the heel is still a problem after being cooped up in business shoes all day.
Will try for a longer (15-20km) run tomorrow to round out the week/month/year. Scheduled rest day on Saturday, not going up for FAT ASS, then the STaR on Sunday at Cherrybrook, which from memory has some nasty hills in it!
A recap of the running year in tomorrows blog, something to look forward to....
I think the excesses of Christmas caught up with me overnight, felt pretty crappy Wed morning (literally, sorry for the detail!) and did not feel like running at all. As the day progressed things improved and decided to head out to the bay to run with the MTG.
Pretty cruisy start but then discovered they were running hill reps up (the infamous) Lilyfield Rd, ouch I did hill reps on Tuesday. Went out way too hot on the first rep (77 sec), levelled out for the next four at around 88 and then died badly with the last 2 at 98. Was supposed to do 8 but pulled the pin at 7 as things were done and I was feeling a little shaky (think it was low blood sugar after my gut problems from the morning and the limited diet through the day as a result).
Paced back to the start ok and felt a lot better after downing a pepsi on the way home.
The blister on my right heel is now really S****ing me and is painful to walk on, let alone run. Decided to cut it and drain it to try and let it dry out, did the same for the LHS and it has healed up nicely.
So with gut and heel problems tied in with a critical day at work and it was pretty easy to opt out of the scheduled recovery run today.
Feel a lot better tonight, finished off the EOY work stuff (YIPPEE!) but the heel is still a problem after being cooped up in business shoes all day.
Will try for a longer (15-20km) run tomorrow to round out the week/month/year. Scheduled rest day on Saturday, not going up for FAT ASS, then the STaR on Sunday at Cherrybrook, which from memory has some nasty hills in it!
A recap of the running year in tomorrows blog, something to look forward to....
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Back on track
Christmas time is always going to drawn out for our family.
Christmas day at Justine's mums with her family, boxing day with my family and now we have Isaac's birthday on the 27th! I'm pretty much partied/eaten /drunk out! The kids had a great time and Isaac soon worked out what the deal was (he is 2) and was an expert at pressie unwrapping by the end of yesterday.
Anyway back to the running, I was hoping to get out on boxing day but it was just going to be to hard to do, I could stil have done it, but the wrath of the wife would not have been worth it as she would then have had to prep for my family lunch by herself.
So I had 2 days off but snuck out yesterday mid morning for my 15km Tour de Ryde! A nice undulating course to keep you honest and it was quite a warm/humid day as well.
For some reason the Timex watch had a problem with avg pace tracking today after I stopped/started early in the run so I switched to just monitoring my splits. Felt pretty cruisy pacing along at just under 5 min/km pace.
The stats
14.9 km in 1.13.11 (avg pace of 4.54 min/km) and avg hr of 164.
A sleep in this morning and tidying up/shopping to replenish the shelves etc cut out a morning run. Late in the afternoon the opportunity came up to head out, opted for the gym for a 1km interval session on the treadmill but the gym was closing up when I got there. Ran back home (the gym is only about 500m away!) and dropped off the towel etc and headed around the corner for hill reps. The problem in this was I forgot what I was doing for recovery times after the reps but opted to have 2 min jog down/backs.
Knocked out 8 reps @ avg of 85.8 secs which was pretty much the same as I did 2 weeks ago. However I found out when I got home that last time I actually had an extra 30 secs recovery on the way back down, so certainly a harder session today with similar times a nice improve on the benchmark.
Back to work tomorrow and no Summer Series so yet to work out what I'll do yet.
Christmas day at Justine's mums with her family, boxing day with my family and now we have Isaac's birthday on the 27th! I'm pretty much partied/eaten /drunk out! The kids had a great time and Isaac soon worked out what the deal was (he is 2) and was an expert at pressie unwrapping by the end of yesterday.
Anyway back to the running, I was hoping to get out on boxing day but it was just going to be to hard to do, I could stil have done it, but the wrath of the wife would not have been worth it as she would then have had to prep for my family lunch by herself.
So I had 2 days off but snuck out yesterday mid morning for my 15km Tour de Ryde! A nice undulating course to keep you honest and it was quite a warm/humid day as well.
For some reason the Timex watch had a problem with avg pace tracking today after I stopped/started early in the run so I switched to just monitoring my splits. Felt pretty cruisy pacing along at just under 5 min/km pace.
The stats
14.9 km in 1.13.11 (avg pace of 4.54 min/km) and avg hr of 164.
A sleep in this morning and tidying up/shopping to replenish the shelves etc cut out a morning run. Late in the afternoon the opportunity came up to head out, opted for the gym for a 1km interval session on the treadmill but the gym was closing up when I got there. Ran back home (the gym is only about 500m away!) and dropped off the towel etc and headed around the corner for hill reps. The problem in this was I forgot what I was doing for recovery times after the reps but opted to have 2 min jog down/backs.
Knocked out 8 reps @ avg of 85.8 secs which was pretty much the same as I did 2 weeks ago. However I found out when I got home that last time I actually had an extra 30 secs recovery on the way back down, so certainly a harder session today with similar times a nice improve on the benchmark.
Back to work tomorrow and no Summer Series so yet to work out what I'll do yet.
Friday, December 24, 2004
Xmas eve lunch time run
A late night last night with work committments and also heading down to the fish market to pick up tomorrow's lunch saw me finally get to bed at around 1:30am. At around 2:30 the wife poked me in the ribs as my mobile was ringing, ah the joys of working for a US based company....
Hit the snooze button and finally got up when yet another US based call came through, too late to go for a run now so I decided to try at lunch time.
The great thing about working in North Sydney is the accessibility to the scenic harbour so I ran across the bridge, onto the Cahill, down to the Opera House and then arounf Lady Macquaries chair up to St Mary's and then everything in reverse. Felt really good on the way out and then (yet) again started to develop a blister on my right heel. This is really starting to irk me, I'm headed back to the podiatrist as this has only started since the new orthotics.
Anyway it was quite warm and humid but I pushed it out coming bakc up and did just under 15km in 1:11:39 (4:50 pace) which considering the struggle yesterday is a good turnaround.
End of the training week for me, tomorrow is a designated rest day!
59km for the week, and the "Parrot predictor" says a 3:19:54 marathon time!
It will be a struggle to do a quality week next week but we'll wait and see.
Merry Christmas to all who actually devote themselves enough to read my ramblings and get to the end of this post :)
Hit the snooze button and finally got up when yet another US based call came through, too late to go for a run now so I decided to try at lunch time.
The great thing about working in North Sydney is the accessibility to the scenic harbour so I ran across the bridge, onto the Cahill, down to the Opera House and then arounf Lady Macquaries chair up to St Mary's and then everything in reverse. Felt really good on the way out and then (yet) again started to develop a blister on my right heel. This is really starting to irk me, I'm headed back to the podiatrist as this has only started since the new orthotics.
Anyway it was quite warm and humid but I pushed it out coming bakc up and did just under 15km in 1:11:39 (4:50 pace) which considering the struggle yesterday is a good turnaround.
End of the training week for me, tomorrow is a designated rest day!
59km for the week, and the "Parrot predictor" says a 3:19:54 marathon time!
It will be a struggle to do a quality week next week but we'll wait and see.
Merry Christmas to all who actually devote themselves enough to read my ramblings and get to the end of this post :)
Thursday, December 23, 2004
What a difference a couple of days make!
Recovery run time this morning and headed out on my normal loop.
Straight away I could tell that last night took it's toll on me as I struggled to run at the normal pace. At one stage thought about short cutting but decided to push on, fatigued legs are something I need to get used to.
As a nice diversion it started chucking it down with rain during the LCNP portion of the run. I really did slow down and just focussed on form as I struggled home.
Finished off with 56.25, as compared to Monday's time of 50.48 for the same course. Of interest though was my average HR for both runs was the same, 157. So it was certainly the legs.
Aiming for a longer run tomorrow of around 15km, given no STaR for me this Sunday due to festive celebrations!
Straight away I could tell that last night took it's toll on me as I struggled to run at the normal pace. At one stage thought about short cutting but decided to push on, fatigued legs are something I need to get used to.
As a nice diversion it started chucking it down with rain during the LCNP portion of the run. I really did slow down and just focussed on form as I struggled home.
Finished off with 56.25, as compared to Monday's time of 50.48 for the same course. Of interest though was my average HR for both runs was the same, 157. So it was certainly the legs.
Aiming for a longer run tomorrow of around 15km, given no STaR for me this Sunday due to festive celebrations!
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
The Slopes of Balmoral
The final Summer Series hit out at Balmoral, this course was tough last year with quite a bit of shuffling up and down the different streets and paths on the Balmoral Slopes. Last year I climbed early, went too far north and thus ran out of time badly so this time I decided to do the flat stuff out first and then come back, thus having a down hill run to the finish, but also a whole heap of shorter routes back to the finish if I was running late. Here is a copy of the map with my route
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/balmoral.jpg
Very happy with the run and on a much more demanding course than last week, only real choice was when I got to 11 and still had 4 minutes up my sleeve so opted to pick up 15, otherwise I would have been back around 2 minutes early!
Ended up 1:45 late, losing 20 points, so 15 did not make a difference. Overall scored 520 less the 20 late penalty gives 500. Again keeping the leaders in sight with one score at 580 and then a 530, 520 and 510. Gives me 86 points in the yearly point score.
To contrast against last year I did pretty much the same route in reverse and finished with 350 points as I was back so late. I'll attribute most of the improvement to my fitness but I am also getting better at route selection and "spiking" the controls.
Running stats
7.6km in 46.46 gives an average pace of 6.11 min/km.
Pretty knackered at the end of it, those hills were tough!
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/balmoral.jpg
Very happy with the run and on a much more demanding course than last week, only real choice was when I got to 11 and still had 4 minutes up my sleeve so opted to pick up 15, otherwise I would have been back around 2 minutes early!
Ended up 1:45 late, losing 20 points, so 15 did not make a difference. Overall scored 520 less the 20 late penalty gives 500. Again keeping the leaders in sight with one score at 580 and then a 530, 520 and 510. Gives me 86 points in the yearly point score.
To contrast against last year I did pretty much the same route in reverse and finished with 350 points as I was back so late. I'll attribute most of the improvement to my fitness but I am also getting better at route selection and "spiking" the controls.
Running stats
7.6km in 46.46 gives an average pace of 6.11 min/km.
Pretty knackered at the end of it, those hills were tough!
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
30/30's
Another new session and time for a another new benchmark with the 30'30 session.
The concept is to run pretty much flat out for 30 sec, a recovery jog for 30 sec and then repeat until you are knackered.
One thing about this is it is pretty hard to "measure" the session but I tried anyway :)
Managed 15 reps and a rough distance according to the gps was averages of 136m fast and 77m jog. This came out to around 3:40 pace which would not be too far from the truth.
Rotary park seems to be open again, or at least I did not see any signs to the contrary. However the after effects of the maintenance work are still there with quite a bit of dirt on the track. About halfway through my session Spud showed up and started on 400m reps.
The calves/shins felt a little tight on the warmdown run back home but hey, I've run 7 out of the last 8 days and have not done that for a while. Finally also seemed to have my blister problem on both heels sorted out, the left being much better after I drained the fairly large blister last night.
So I've done my first 30/30 not sure if it will be a favourite but will mix it in for variety. Now for the last Summer Series of this year at Balmoral and trying to plan a route on the slopes without too much up being repeated. Found out yesterday that I finished 3rd at Ermington, only 30 points behind one of the "guns" so I'm back and on the improve!
The concept is to run pretty much flat out for 30 sec, a recovery jog for 30 sec and then repeat until you are knackered.
One thing about this is it is pretty hard to "measure" the session but I tried anyway :)
Managed 15 reps and a rough distance according to the gps was averages of 136m fast and 77m jog. This came out to around 3:40 pace which would not be too far from the truth.
Rotary park seems to be open again, or at least I did not see any signs to the contrary. However the after effects of the maintenance work are still there with quite a bit of dirt on the track. About halfway through my session Spud showed up and started on 400m reps.
The calves/shins felt a little tight on the warmdown run back home but hey, I've run 7 out of the last 8 days and have not done that for a while. Finally also seemed to have my blister problem on both heels sorted out, the left being much better after I drained the fairly large blister last night.
So I've done my first 30/30 not sure if it will be a favourite but will mix it in for variety. Now for the last Summer Series of this year at Balmoral and trying to plan a route on the slopes without too much up being repeated. Found out yesterday that I finished 3rd at Ermington, only 30 points behind one of the "guns" so I'm back and on the improve!
Monday, December 20, 2004
Recovery run
Back out today for a recovery run over my normal loop out through Nth Ryde and back through Lane Cove National Park.
Felt pretty good on the way out and consciously slowed myself as I was starting to average close to 4:30 pace (it is supposed to be a recovery after all!).
Finished up with 10.5km @ 4:48 min/km and avg HR of 158. For interest this time last year I was running 10km training runs at around 5:40 pace and I actually ran Canberra @ 4:47 pace. Also goes to show that for whatever reason I did not run well at yesterdays 10km race.
Speed session tomorrow, not sure what style yet but there's still plenty of time for that.
Felt pretty good on the way out and consciously slowed myself as I was starting to average close to 4:30 pace (it is supposed to be a recovery after all!).
Finished up with 10.5km @ 4:48 min/km and avg HR of 158. For interest this time last year I was running 10km training runs at around 5:40 pace and I actually ran Canberra @ 4:47 pace. Also goes to show that for whatever reason I did not run well at yesterdays 10km race.
Speed session tomorrow, not sure what style yet but there's still plenty of time for that.
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Last race of the year
Back to Smithfield to exorcise some demons from my last DNF but running the 10km today in a somewhat vain attempt to knock off the 40min 10km goal.
Quite a field and everyone was pretty scattered from the start. I was a little slow off the line, which is a change for me, but settled into a fairly good rhythm about 5-10 m behind Horrie who was a similar distance behind MPHaz, Lone Wolf and Superflake. Started to drift going up the hill and could not reinstate the pace going down the other side. A pretty similar story on the way back, keeping Horrie in sight but seemingly unable to pick up the pace. Finished with 43:30 and was just in front in the end of Mr G with an awesome performance to back up after the Ultra last weekend.
The funny thing is, I actually could have kept on running at that pace for a while, so speed and hills will still need the focus. While it was slower (much) than hoped for looking at it optimisticly I seem to have recovered from the groin problem and I also did the race off the back of my first serious training week for quite a while
Splits were
1 4:09 4:09
2 3:56 8:05
3 4:07 12:12
4 4:14 16:26
5 4:39 21:05
6 4:39 25:44
7 4:39 30:23
8 4:18 34:41
9 4:28 39:09
10 4:21 43:30
Good time at the end spent chatting with various Cool Runners and Striders, in particular introduced myself to Ray and had a good talk about training and prep for Canberra.
I'll save my 2004 review and 2005 preview for later this week the goal is another consistent week of running, starting with a recovery 10km tomorrow morning!
Quite a field and everyone was pretty scattered from the start. I was a little slow off the line, which is a change for me, but settled into a fairly good rhythm about 5-10 m behind Horrie who was a similar distance behind MPHaz, Lone Wolf and Superflake. Started to drift going up the hill and could not reinstate the pace going down the other side. A pretty similar story on the way back, keeping Horrie in sight but seemingly unable to pick up the pace. Finished with 43:30 and was just in front in the end of Mr G with an awesome performance to back up after the Ultra last weekend.
The funny thing is, I actually could have kept on running at that pace for a while, so speed and hills will still need the focus. While it was slower (much) than hoped for looking at it optimisticly I seem to have recovered from the groin problem and I also did the race off the back of my first serious training week for quite a while
Splits were
1 4:09 4:09
2 3:56 8:05
3 4:07 12:12
4 4:14 16:26
5 4:39 21:05
6 4:39 25:44
7 4:39 30:23
8 4:18 34:41
9 4:28 39:09
10 4:21 43:30
Good time at the end spent chatting with various Cool Runners and Striders, in particular introduced myself to Ray and had a good talk about training and prep for Canberra.
I'll save my 2004 review and 2005 preview for later this week the goal is another consistent week of running, starting with a recovery 10km tomorrow morning!
Friday, December 17, 2004
Rest of the week
Thursday was my first "recovery" run rather than opting for a complete rest. Decided to head down to LCNP to suss out a possible 3km TT course for tomorrow. A cruisy 2.5 km run down through Scribbly and then out along the Striders 10km course looking for the 7km marker. The aim was to run the last 3 km in reverse and avoid including Scribbly Gums. Found what seemed to be the 7km mark but was a little vague as to the 8/9km marks. Funny how you run past these all the time in a race but have no idea as to where they are when you're actually looking for them. Finished up with close to 11km at 5min/km pace.
Swapped some emails with Action re the marker placement and upon his recommednadtion decided to actually run the last 3km of the 10km course. Could be a fairly fast 3km as perception is it is all downhill....
So Friday rolls on and a warmup of 2.5 km down to the designated start. I noticed I was sweating considerably, given it was a warm up (about 6 min/km pace!). Did a quick stretch and tied up the laces again. Time to go so reset the watch and off I go. Splits were
1km 3:54 3:54
2km 4:02 7:55
3km 3:51 11:46
Seemed to struggle to get on pace and forgot all about that "hill" after the Scribbly turn off in km 2. I think I also hit the watch a little late at the end of km 2, which means it was actually pretty even splits.
Sad to say, but a little disappointing for me, hoping more for a 11:15 to 11:30 type time. Looks unlikely for a PB on Sunday but we'll wait and see. At least I have yet another benchmark to measure against.
Work has been pretty crazy as we head towards end of year and today had Stella's school xmas concert with a small gap and then the work xmas lunch. Shuffled off after lunch which was at Hunters Hill to the triple H (Hunters Hill Hotel!). Much to my surprise I found a large group of people that I know from my previous job at Clarence St/Trek. A lot of these guys are/were runners and triathletes and my customers. It was good to catch up with people I hadn't seen for over 10 years (they were having a 20 year training group reunion). Quite a few people who were Striders in the early days and some who still are, allbeit inactive.
A few too many wines/beers etc today so a rest tomorrow for sure and I'll contemplate what distance I race on Sunday, although leaning towards the 10km to try and at least post a 40:xx if not a dream of 39:59!
A look at the training log says this week (60km) is the most km since the week of Willy to Billy in mid Aug and then all the way back to April before Canberra taper for a higher week. So maybe that can be my excuse for the below planned 3km time....
Swapped some emails with Action re the marker placement and upon his recommednadtion decided to actually run the last 3km of the 10km course. Could be a fairly fast 3km as perception is it is all downhill....
So Friday rolls on and a warmup of 2.5 km down to the designated start. I noticed I was sweating considerably, given it was a warm up (about 6 min/km pace!). Did a quick stretch and tied up the laces again. Time to go so reset the watch and off I go. Splits were
1km 3:54 3:54
2km 4:02 7:55
3km 3:51 11:46
Seemed to struggle to get on pace and forgot all about that "hill" after the Scribbly turn off in km 2. I think I also hit the watch a little late at the end of km 2, which means it was actually pretty even splits.
Sad to say, but a little disappointing for me, hoping more for a 11:15 to 11:30 type time. Looks unlikely for a PB on Sunday but we'll wait and see. At least I have yet another benchmark to measure against.
Work has been pretty crazy as we head towards end of year and today had Stella's school xmas concert with a small gap and then the work xmas lunch. Shuffled off after lunch which was at Hunters Hill to the triple H (Hunters Hill Hotel!). Much to my surprise I found a large group of people that I know from my previous job at Clarence St/Trek. A lot of these guys are/were runners and triathletes and my customers. It was good to catch up with people I hadn't seen for over 10 years (they were having a 20 year training group reunion). Quite a few people who were Striders in the early days and some who still are, allbeit inactive.
A few too many wines/beers etc today so a rest tomorrow for sure and I'll contemplate what distance I race on Sunday, although leaning towards the 10km to try and at least post a 40:xx if not a dream of 39:59!
A look at the training log says this week (60km) is the most km since the week of Willy to Billy in mid Aug and then all the way back to April before Canberra taper for a higher week. So maybe that can be my excuse for the below planned 3km time....
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Super Summer Series @ Ermington
Summer Series this evening at Ermington, an area previously only known to me due to "The Ermo" aka Ermington Pub a favourite of the guys that worked at the warehouse we ran in my old job.
No quiet ales today, although the weather was actually reasonable for a change. A quick scan of the map and it looked like a lot of running with some hills near Marsden Rd if you headed east.
Sorted out my "optimum" route which had a few short cut options on the way back if time got too much. To pick up good points you really needed to venture to the other side of Silverwater Rd and crossing points were highlighted on the map. I was still running away from the start/finish at the half way point but had a much straighter run back, with those planned shortcuts.
45 minutes clicked over about 750 metres out with 2 controls worth 50 points still to be found on the way home. For the last third of the run I kept on crossing paths with one of the better vets but after we sorted the last point I really opened up to try and minimise any further point loss. Ended up finishing with 49:53 and I think he just squeezed in 5 secs later! Felt quite good really striding out, sort of like the 400's I did last week.
Anyway the stats were 9.7km in 49:53 which has an avg pace of 5:09, my fastest SS pace! My score was 450 less the 50 points for being late which gave me 400. When I left I was on top of the leaderboard with the next best score of 380 and then a few 340-320's. This was indeed a first but there were still a few fast guns out running.
Recovery day tomorrow, I'll do a reccie for the 3km I'm planning for Friday.
Also got my follow up with the Sports Specialist Dr but am more confident by the day that even if there is a slight problem it seems to be improving and I'm stepping up the training.
No quiet ales today, although the weather was actually reasonable for a change. A quick scan of the map and it looked like a lot of running with some hills near Marsden Rd if you headed east.
Sorted out my "optimum" route which had a few short cut options on the way back if time got too much. To pick up good points you really needed to venture to the other side of Silverwater Rd and crossing points were highlighted on the map. I was still running away from the start/finish at the half way point but had a much straighter run back, with those planned shortcuts.
45 minutes clicked over about 750 metres out with 2 controls worth 50 points still to be found on the way home. For the last third of the run I kept on crossing paths with one of the better vets but after we sorted the last point I really opened up to try and minimise any further point loss. Ended up finishing with 49:53 and I think he just squeezed in 5 secs later! Felt quite good really striding out, sort of like the 400's I did last week.
Anyway the stats were 9.7km in 49:53 which has an avg pace of 5:09, my fastest SS pace! My score was 450 less the 50 points for being late which gave me 400. When I left I was on top of the leaderboard with the next best score of 380 and then a few 340-320's. This was indeed a first but there were still a few fast guns out running.
Recovery day tomorrow, I'll do a reccie for the 3km I'm planning for Friday.
Also got my follow up with the Sports Specialist Dr but am more confident by the day that even if there is a slight problem it seems to be improving and I'm stepping up the training.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Hill reps
After the suffering on the hills in the last couple of runs I thought it was best to add a hill rep session into the mix. As tempting as it is to drive over to Leichhardt I actually have a Lilyfield Rd style hill just around the corner and that makes things a little easier when trying to get through the morning and out the door with the rest of the family.
By my "expert" measurements the hill is around 300m long and pretty consistent in regards to slope, some traffic but not too much, minimal on street parking and footpaths on both sides.
My last session on the hill was at the start of September 2 days before I damaged my calf at North Head and I did 10 reps at an average of 85 sec with an average 2:40 jog back/rest. This time I decided to shorten the recovery piece down to 2:30.
The reps were
1 86
2 83
3 86
4 84
5 84
6 87
7 87
8 88
So average of 86 sec for 8 but also cut out 70 seconds recovery which seemed to make a difference. The last couple were real tough and you could really feel the lactic starting to burn. Another km or so warm down via a little loop back home.
Here's the bodylink HR data, you can see my time at the top increased as the reps went on and I tried to get my breathe back to be able to jog back down.
It also was certainly a lot warmer than when I did these last in September, even at 6:30 in the morning and it took quite a few minutes under a cool shower to reduce the copious sweat output.
Pretty happy with the session and not too far from my "peak" performance in Sept, another good benchmark for the months ahead.
I've decided to mix up 5-6 different sessions to rotate through on my "hard effort" days of Tuesday and Friday, these will be
1km intervals (treadmill) - building up to 6 of these (@3:40) and then decreasing recovery to 1 min, then increasing pace
800m intervals (track) - aiming to get to 10 @ 3:00 with same recovery (aka Yasso 800's), this is a supposed benchmark for a marathon time
400m intervals (track) - build up to 8 (@80 sec) with 90 sec recovery
30/30's aka Pat special - hey everyone else seems to be doing them...
Hills - just get up to as many as possible around 85 sec per rep up to an hour long session for some real consistency
2nd long run - 15-20km @ 5min/km over good undulating ground
So there you go, Summer Series tomorrow night at Ermington/Rydalmere, not a lot of bush to be seen, or even hills for that matter, should be a fast/longish course.
Edit... Belay that fast/longish thoughts it seems the course will be set in the area between Marsden/Victoria and Silverwater Roads, I know for a fact there are some good hills there!
By my "expert" measurements the hill is around 300m long and pretty consistent in regards to slope, some traffic but not too much, minimal on street parking and footpaths on both sides.
My last session on the hill was at the start of September 2 days before I damaged my calf at North Head and I did 10 reps at an average of 85 sec with an average 2:40 jog back/rest. This time I decided to shorten the recovery piece down to 2:30.
The reps were
1 86
2 83
3 86
4 84
5 84
6 87
7 87
8 88
So average of 86 sec for 8 but also cut out 70 seconds recovery which seemed to make a difference. The last couple were real tough and you could really feel the lactic starting to burn. Another km or so warm down via a little loop back home.
Here's the bodylink HR data, you can see my time at the top increased as the reps went on and I tried to get my breathe back to be able to jog back down.
It also was certainly a lot warmer than when I did these last in September, even at 6:30 in the morning and it took quite a few minutes under a cool shower to reduce the copious sweat output.
Pretty happy with the session and not too far from my "peak" performance in Sept, another good benchmark for the months ahead.
I've decided to mix up 5-6 different sessions to rotate through on my "hard effort" days of Tuesday and Friday, these will be
1km intervals (treadmill) - building up to 6 of these (@3:40) and then decreasing recovery to 1 min, then increasing pace
800m intervals (track) - aiming to get to 10 @ 3:00 with same recovery (aka Yasso 800's), this is a supposed benchmark for a marathon time
400m intervals (track) - build up to 8 (@80 sec) with 90 sec recovery
30/30's aka Pat special - hey everyone else seems to be doing them...
Hills - just get up to as many as possible around 85 sec per rep up to an hour long session for some real consistency
2nd long run - 15-20km @ 5min/km over good undulating ground
So there you go, Summer Series tomorrow night at Ermington/Rydalmere, not a lot of bush to be seen, or even hills for that matter, should be a fast/longish course.
Edit... Belay that fast/longish thoughts it seems the course will be set in the area between Marsden/Victoria and Silverwater Roads, I know for a fact there are some good hills there!
Monday, December 13, 2004
Catch up time
A busy end of the week, with a visit to Melbourne, and then the usual crazy weekends around Christmas see a bit of a backlog on my reports so here's the abbreviated catch up.
Sunday
Today's STaR is the Xmas Brunch run which starts from The Spit and winds around the harbour to Shelley Beach through Manly. This is about 21km and given I was not going to do the "long cut" I thought I'd step up and run with the 6:20 gang. All was pretty good, although it was very humid, until we got to Clontarf. Then quite a few people wanted to divert off the course and run the bush. Well there would have been close to 20 people in the group, might have been a record for 6:20. But running through the bush that early over quite undulating tracks saw everyone string out. Sure enough large gaps appeared and a subset of us regrouped and moved back to the regular course near the large park. A more even pace all the way to Shelley Beach, where a few people continued to take the long course while the rest of us turned back. There were Striders all over the place as different groups took different options but in the end got back for just over 20km in 1:55, avg pace of 5:32. That surprised me but we really ran slower over the up and down bush track, even though it was harder. The main thing to take home from this run was I really need to improve my hill climbing, really struggled on those up hills.
A great morning then for the Striders presentation morning then a dash home for a BBQ at our place with a couple of families from Stella's primary school. Much eating and drinking and eventually everyone left at around 6pm, I was knackered!
Friday
A big presentation first thing Friday morning in Melbourne for work so headed down on Thursday to finish prep and do some general admin. Up at sparrows however and down to the closest Fitness First for another 1km interval session. Felt pretty good for the first couple, again at 3:40 pace but really started to stuggle on rep 5, only making it to 700m before pulling the pin. Was not real happy at the time as I thought this was one less than I did last week but as it turns out I did exactly the same. Next time I'll have a real crack at hanging on to finish rep 5 and I reckon that given the standing recovery I'd make it most of the way through rep 6. So 4.7 reps of 1km @ 3:40 with 1:50 standing recovery. When I get to 6 reps I'll drop away my recovery time to 90 secs.
Wednesday
Summer Series around North Ryde. Nice and close to home so I jogged down to the start. After reviewing the map for a while I realised this was going to be tough as Mike had set a real good course. This becomes apparent as there is no clear optimium route that stands out, even after looking for 30 mins. Anyway picked a route for outbound and inbound and the rest would fall into place based upon how I was going. In the end went a little too far out into a little too much bush and was pressed for time coming home, finishing 8 minutes late (ie -80 points). Quite a few had the same problem though and I'll wait for the scores to see what panned out.
9km in 52:39, again over quite a bit of singletrack bush and then some very nice hills!
This week the program looks like
Mon Rest
Tues Hill reps @ Cox's Rd
Wed Summer Series at Ermington (should be a faster course!)
Thurs Recovery run
Fri Thinking of maybe a 3km time trial...
Sat Rest
Sunday
Today's STaR is the Xmas Brunch run which starts from The Spit and winds around the harbour to Shelley Beach through Manly. This is about 21km and given I was not going to do the "long cut" I thought I'd step up and run with the 6:20 gang. All was pretty good, although it was very humid, until we got to Clontarf. Then quite a few people wanted to divert off the course and run the bush. Well there would have been close to 20 people in the group, might have been a record for 6:20. But running through the bush that early over quite undulating tracks saw everyone string out. Sure enough large gaps appeared and a subset of us regrouped and moved back to the regular course near the large park. A more even pace all the way to Shelley Beach, where a few people continued to take the long course while the rest of us turned back. There were Striders all over the place as different groups took different options but in the end got back for just over 20km in 1:55, avg pace of 5:32. That surprised me but we really ran slower over the up and down bush track, even though it was harder. The main thing to take home from this run was I really need to improve my hill climbing, really struggled on those up hills.
A great morning then for the Striders presentation morning then a dash home for a BBQ at our place with a couple of families from Stella's primary school. Much eating and drinking and eventually everyone left at around 6pm, I was knackered!
Friday
A big presentation first thing Friday morning in Melbourne for work so headed down on Thursday to finish prep and do some general admin. Up at sparrows however and down to the closest Fitness First for another 1km interval session. Felt pretty good for the first couple, again at 3:40 pace but really started to stuggle on rep 5, only making it to 700m before pulling the pin. Was not real happy at the time as I thought this was one less than I did last week but as it turns out I did exactly the same. Next time I'll have a real crack at hanging on to finish rep 5 and I reckon that given the standing recovery I'd make it most of the way through rep 6. So 4.7 reps of 1km @ 3:40 with 1:50 standing recovery. When I get to 6 reps I'll drop away my recovery time to 90 secs.
Wednesday
Summer Series around North Ryde. Nice and close to home so I jogged down to the start. After reviewing the map for a while I realised this was going to be tough as Mike had set a real good course. This becomes apparent as there is no clear optimium route that stands out, even after looking for 30 mins. Anyway picked a route for outbound and inbound and the rest would fall into place based upon how I was going. In the end went a little too far out into a little too much bush and was pressed for time coming home, finishing 8 minutes late (ie -80 points). Quite a few had the same problem though and I'll wait for the scores to see what panned out.
9km in 52:39, again over quite a bit of singletrack bush and then some very nice hills!
This week the program looks like
Mon Rest
Tues Hill reps @ Cox's Rd
Wed Summer Series at Ermington (should be a faster course!)
Thurs Recovery run
Fri Thinking of maybe a 3km time trial...
Sat Rest
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Rotary Park
Time to get serious here and so up at 6 to do a quick warmup jog down to Rotary Park. As I leave it is slightly drizzling. When I get to the park I do a few stretches etc and then notice how much I am sweating after a 1km warm up, man it was humid!
The plan today is my maiden set of 400's and so headed off. The times were
82.44
83.21
80.82
81.31
82.33
84.22
After the last set I was pretty much a basket case and about the same time Spud and his mate from work Padraig (?) showed up for km reps. At that point I could not even remember how many reps I had done so that was enough and I did a couple of warm down laps and headed home.
Pretty happy for that to be my line in the sand starting point 6 x 400m @ 82.39 avg with approx 82sec standing recovery.
Update on the injury saga, had ultrasounds and xrays yesterday. The guy that did it is supposed to be the 'guru' on groins and was very meticulous. From what he told me there is nothing massively obvious that is causing my problems but there is a "slight" bulge near my pain spot when I load my abs. I'm beginning to think that it's something that I'll live with while I continue to rehab/strengthen etc but have to wait for next week to confirm with the sports doctor. The delays in getting appointments is quite frustrating and I'm learning a few tricks for next time (hopefully neve!).
I think the acid test will be a hard race pace hit out over say a half, so SMC will probably be my litmus test. I've managed 5km races, hilly 30km training runs, 8-9km tempo/fartleks and now 400m intervals not much left to do under injury....
Summer series tomorrow night and it's pretty much in my backyard!
The plan today is my maiden set of 400's and so headed off. The times were
82.44
83.21
80.82
81.31
82.33
84.22
After the last set I was pretty much a basket case and about the same time Spud and his mate from work Padraig (?) showed up for km reps. At that point I could not even remember how many reps I had done so that was enough and I did a couple of warm down laps and headed home.
Pretty happy for that to be my line in the sand starting point 6 x 400m @ 82.39 avg with approx 82sec standing recovery.
Update on the injury saga, had ultrasounds and xrays yesterday. The guy that did it is supposed to be the 'guru' on groins and was very meticulous. From what he told me there is nothing massively obvious that is causing my problems but there is a "slight" bulge near my pain spot when I load my abs. I'm beginning to think that it's something that I'll live with while I continue to rehab/strengthen etc but have to wait for next week to confirm with the sports doctor. The delays in getting appointments is quite frustrating and I'm learning a few tricks for next time (hopefully neve!).
I think the acid test will be a hard race pace hit out over say a half, so SMC will probably be my litmus test. I've managed 5km races, hilly 30km training runs, 8-9km tempo/fartleks and now 400m intervals not much left to do under injury....
Summer series tomorrow night and it's pretty much in my backyard!
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Barrenjoey Bashed
The title of today's STaR is the Barrenjoey Bash and it goes from Mona Vale up to Palm Beach and of course back again. For the uninitiated this area can be quite hilly!
I was interested in how the different groups would form up, given the Striders email discussions during the week. An amazing group for 6am, I reckon close to 50 with the MTG shifting to 6am now. Most of the faster runners from last week migrated to 6:20 and so we had a nice compact group of 7. Was pretty sure I was going to do the 30 today but waited to see how the run unfolded before the turnoff point. It always amazes me how a lot of STaRS have a bugger of a hill right near the start!. Once we got over that it was down to Newport and we had pretty much already caught the 6am group and should have kept running as they had just finished their water stop at the surf club. But we stopped as well and then did catch the end of the conga line just as we reached the narrow bush track section around the headland between Newport and Bilgola. We didn't get clear as a bunch until Bilgola but from there it was pretty smooth sailing, just a tad under 5:30 min/km pace.
At Whale Beach it was decision time and 4 turned off, just leaving Phil (Spud), Adrian and myself. We kept rolling along pretty well but I really struggled up the first major hill climbing out of Palm Beach and the others slowly ran away from me. I kept them in sight and as the 6:30 & faster 6:20 guys came through on a nice long downhill I tagged back on but knew it was a matter of time. Had a big fuel stop at Careel Bay, downing a gel and then managed to take a slight short cut by accident, which in the end was handy. The Gel kicked in around Avalon and then the rest of the 6:20 caught up. Then there was an absolute mother of a hill coming out of Avalon around the back of Bilgola where I really blew up. From there it was a case of just bringing it home.
The stats :
30.5 km in 2:51, avg pace of 5:36 min/km.
All in all, quite happy, my longest run for quite a while and after a very refreshing swim and an Endura Optimiser on the way home the legs actually feel quite ok!
Tomorrow is the ultrasound and xray time to determine if I have anything serious to worry about before I start to pick up the distance.
I was interested in how the different groups would form up, given the Striders email discussions during the week. An amazing group for 6am, I reckon close to 50 with the MTG shifting to 6am now. Most of the faster runners from last week migrated to 6:20 and so we had a nice compact group of 7. Was pretty sure I was going to do the 30 today but waited to see how the run unfolded before the turnoff point. It always amazes me how a lot of STaRS have a bugger of a hill right near the start!. Once we got over that it was down to Newport and we had pretty much already caught the 6am group and should have kept running as they had just finished their water stop at the surf club. But we stopped as well and then did catch the end of the conga line just as we reached the narrow bush track section around the headland between Newport and Bilgola. We didn't get clear as a bunch until Bilgola but from there it was pretty smooth sailing, just a tad under 5:30 min/km pace.
At Whale Beach it was decision time and 4 turned off, just leaving Phil (Spud), Adrian and myself. We kept rolling along pretty well but I really struggled up the first major hill climbing out of Palm Beach and the others slowly ran away from me. I kept them in sight and as the 6:30 & faster 6:20 guys came through on a nice long downhill I tagged back on but knew it was a matter of time. Had a big fuel stop at Careel Bay, downing a gel and then managed to take a slight short cut by accident, which in the end was handy. The Gel kicked in around Avalon and then the rest of the 6:20 caught up. Then there was an absolute mother of a hill coming out of Avalon around the back of Bilgola where I really blew up. From there it was a case of just bringing it home.
The stats :
30.5 km in 2:51, avg pace of 5:36 min/km.
All in all, quite happy, my longest run for quite a while and after a very refreshing swim and an Endura Optimiser on the way home the legs actually feel quite ok!
Tomorrow is the ultrasound and xray time to determine if I have anything serious to worry about before I start to pick up the distance.
Friday, December 03, 2004
Returning to the Dark Side!
Yes folks after an offer from Spud to go for a ride, I went to the garage and dusted of the trusty road bike. It hasn't seen the pavement in around 4 years but the tyres/tubes were still ok and after a quick spit & polish it looked brand new (which it pretty well is anyway!).
The plan was to meet up at the Delhi Rd on ramp but I waited near the middle and Spud and his workmate cycled by below as they came up from Lane Cove. Sort of realised this a little late so headed off by myself. The first couple of km was really wierd, been a long time since I have been on a true road bike but, hey you never forget how to ride a bike.
Rode up to Windsor Rd and return, quite a bit faster on the way back it seemed and finished off with 33km and avg speed of 31.2km/hr. Decided to focus on technique rather than speed and as such sat in the lower gears with a cadence of around 100rpm. Pretty happy with the ride and I'm sure I'll do more, purely for cross training purposes off course :)
Was so excited by the ride that I decided to do my intervals today as well, knowing it would be very unlikely to do any running tomorrow after drinks tonight.
Over to the gym at lunch for the regular 1km intervals with half the time standing rest. I decided to up the ante to try and get more leg speed so went from 3:50 min/km last time to 3:40 min/km today. Very happy with the results, did the same distance as my last 3:50 set which was around 4.7km, I do have a problem hanging on when things are really grim. But another positive is again the injury was not very noticable. The standing rest was 1:50.
Still doing the ultrasound on Monday just to eliminate any possible major problems lurking in the background.
Next run is the STaR up the beaches, not sure whether I'll wimp out at 25km or push on for the 30km, will depend on the pace that the 6:10 sets out at I suppose.
The plan was to meet up at the Delhi Rd on ramp but I waited near the middle and Spud and his workmate cycled by below as they came up from Lane Cove. Sort of realised this a little late so headed off by myself. The first couple of km was really wierd, been a long time since I have been on a true road bike but, hey you never forget how to ride a bike.
Rode up to Windsor Rd and return, quite a bit faster on the way back it seemed and finished off with 33km and avg speed of 31.2km/hr. Decided to focus on technique rather than speed and as such sat in the lower gears with a cadence of around 100rpm. Pretty happy with the ride and I'm sure I'll do more, purely for cross training purposes off course :)
Was so excited by the ride that I decided to do my intervals today as well, knowing it would be very unlikely to do any running tomorrow after drinks tonight.
Over to the gym at lunch for the regular 1km intervals with half the time standing rest. I decided to up the ante to try and get more leg speed so went from 3:50 min/km last time to 3:40 min/km today. Very happy with the results, did the same distance as my last 3:50 set which was around 4.7km, I do have a problem hanging on when things are really grim. But another positive is again the injury was not very noticable. The standing rest was 1:50.
Still doing the ultrasound on Monday just to eliminate any possible major problems lurking in the background.
Next run is the STaR up the beaches, not sure whether I'll wimp out at 25km or push on for the 30km, will depend on the pace that the 6:10 sets out at I suppose.
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Back to Summer Series
After the success on Sunday of running the STaR and a couple of cautious days of recovery I thought it was time to do some Summer Series again. This week had the added advantage of being run in the same area that we also did the STaR in.
A bloody hot day in Sydney had me concerned but as I was getting ready to leave I noticed on the harbour that the southerly had arrived and so a much cooler run than it could have been.
A quick review of the map and decided to opt out of running down to the long trail that we finished up with on Sunday and rather stick to collecting the rest of the controls that were mostly street based. Of course, in a brain spasm, just before I started I thought I saw a way of getting some of the trail based points without running the entire length.
Off to number 12 first and immediately lost a couple of minutes looking under different rock ledges which were not all marked. Down the poorly marked track and went straight past 20 without seeing it, but was not too worried about that as I knew I was coming back that way. 29 and 7 were pretty easy and 20 was easier to find going up than coming down. A nice little climb then out to the streets, once I got to some reasonable pace it was obvious that I was not going to be able to collect all of the controls I had planned for. Up to 25 and then downhill to 24 and 18. A nasty climb up 2 sets of stairs to 6 and some nice flatter running past 16 and down near where the STaR started at 13. Saw a few people coming the other way and took a little too much time looking for 21, which seemed to be mapped a little incorrectly. Opted to not do more bush and cut out 2, climbing out on the oval for 26. Some good fast running with a heap of points between 27 and 23 in not much time. Probably then went the wrong way aiming for 30 with (yet) another climb and then flat out back to the finish getting in just under 3 minutes late. In hindsight I should have left 30 and picked up 14 & 8 (and maybe even 17) with a flatter run.
Here is the map and my course
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/twocreeks.jpg
Ended up with 440 points less 30 for the late 3 minutes. Distance was 7.3km, average pace of 6:29 min/km, quite a bit of that chewed up at #12 and then some of the slower bush running and those nasty hills!
It seems a lot went the trail option and so got back badly late and for a while 410 points was top of the leader board until one of the "guns" Julian Dent somehow managed 550! He is in another league though and has placed very highly in several world championship events. When I left no one else had broken 500 and 440 seemed to be the next highest score so I think I faired pretty well.
Slight tightness around the hip/abs and so iced up when I got home, having a rest day rather than even a recovery run. Will run tomorrow though probably some sort of interval type session.
A bloody hot day in Sydney had me concerned but as I was getting ready to leave I noticed on the harbour that the southerly had arrived and so a much cooler run than it could have been.
A quick review of the map and decided to opt out of running down to the long trail that we finished up with on Sunday and rather stick to collecting the rest of the controls that were mostly street based. Of course, in a brain spasm, just before I started I thought I saw a way of getting some of the trail based points without running the entire length.
Off to number 12 first and immediately lost a couple of minutes looking under different rock ledges which were not all marked. Down the poorly marked track and went straight past 20 without seeing it, but was not too worried about that as I knew I was coming back that way. 29 and 7 were pretty easy and 20 was easier to find going up than coming down. A nice little climb then out to the streets, once I got to some reasonable pace it was obvious that I was not going to be able to collect all of the controls I had planned for. Up to 25 and then downhill to 24 and 18. A nasty climb up 2 sets of stairs to 6 and some nice flatter running past 16 and down near where the STaR started at 13. Saw a few people coming the other way and took a little too much time looking for 21, which seemed to be mapped a little incorrectly. Opted to not do more bush and cut out 2, climbing out on the oval for 26. Some good fast running with a heap of points between 27 and 23 in not much time. Probably then went the wrong way aiming for 30 with (yet) another climb and then flat out back to the finish getting in just under 3 minutes late. In hindsight I should have left 30 and picked up 14 & 8 (and maybe even 17) with a flatter run.
Here is the map and my course
http://www.users.bigpond.com/dmbray/twocreeks.jpg
Ended up with 440 points less 30 for the late 3 minutes. Distance was 7.3km, average pace of 6:29 min/km, quite a bit of that chewed up at #12 and then some of the slower bush running and those nasty hills!
It seems a lot went the trail option and so got back badly late and for a while 410 points was top of the leader board until one of the "guns" Julian Dent somehow managed 550! He is in another league though and has placed very highly in several world championship events. When I left no one else had broken 500 and 440 seemed to be the next highest score so I think I faired pretty well.
Slight tightness around the hip/abs and so iced up when I got home, having a rest day rather than even a recovery run. Will run tomorrow though probably some sort of interval type session.
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Taking it easy
Quick catch up with not much really to say.
Monday was always planned as a rest day and a good idea as the calves and hammies were complaining about having to do some work again... Got a good beat up by the physio!
Tuesday - had good intentions of heading down to Rotary for some 400m intervals but when the feet hit the floor still felt Sunday's effort and went for discretion over valour.
Good news is no ice at all last night and still no twinges from the injury area. Planning to race the Summer Series tonight which coincidently is based around where the STaR went on Sunday, just no where near as long, but it will be hot!
Monday was always planned as a rest day and a good idea as the calves and hammies were complaining about having to do some work again... Got a good beat up by the physio!
Tuesday - had good intentions of heading down to Rotary for some 400m intervals but when the feet hit the floor still felt Sunday's effort and went for discretion over valour.
Good news is no ice at all last night and still no twinges from the injury area. Planning to race the Summer Series tonight which coincidently is based around where the STaR went on Sunday, just no where near as long, but it will be hot!
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