A mixed month!
No running at all for the first 5 days, then the run at Airport Adventure where I vowed to become more consistent. From there I ran for 22 days straight, by far my longest consecutive sequence of days running. The races at City to Surf and Willy to Billy are somewhat in alignment as to my current fitness level. The current cold thingy is a mere hiccup as I'm keen to continue the approach for the next couple of months. I do have somewhat of a schedule of races etc in mind but we will see how things roll along, next step however, as stated below is to run the Sydney Marathon and I have 2.5 weeks to prepare, not aiming for much of a taper as there is not a massive base to exploit.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Lurgified
The sore throat is now accompanied by congestion but for a while there yesterday I thought I was over the worst of it. However more symptons and so the legs and achilles in particular are getting a good recovery after Willy to Billy.
On other fronts I have decided to go long at Sydney. For a change I will not try and go out at PB pace, this is more for the experience. Also Striders are organising the pacing groups and so I might even be involved in one of these :) The much vaunted half PB will certainly be tested before the end of the year though!
On other fronts I have decided to go long at Sydney. For a change I will not try and go out at PB pace, this is more for the experience. Also Striders are organising the pacing groups and so I might even be involved in one of these :) The much vaunted half PB will certainly be tested before the end of the year though!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
End of run
Yep the days of consecutive runs has ended :(
I did my recovery run over the road around the oval on Sunday which while difficult did get the blood flowing again!
Monday saw me back down to Melbourne on the plane planning to run that night. But through the day I started to experience a sore throat which became worse. By the time work finished I felt pretty crappy and the throat plus DOMS was too much of a reason not to run. An early start today, plus still feeling pretty crappy saw another enforced rest day.
Thanks to all for the thoughts/feedback no decision yet on full vs half. Some wise words slightly leaning towards long, just with the rest of the year in mind and Go Girl yes, no tell on the ? :)
I did my recovery run over the road around the oval on Sunday which while difficult did get the blood flowing again!
Monday saw me back down to Melbourne on the plane planning to run that night. But through the day I started to experience a sore throat which became worse. By the time work finished I felt pretty crappy and the throat plus DOMS was too much of a reason not to run. An early start today, plus still feeling pretty crappy saw another enforced rest day.
Thanks to all for the thoughts/feedback no decision yet on full vs half. Some wise words slightly leaning towards long, just with the rest of the year in mind and Go Girl yes, no tell on the ? :)
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Weekly update
So a week with tough bookends with Trotters on Sunday and Willy to Billy on Saturday.
Total distance : 87km (note this is actually my biggest weekly milage since July 2005, which really speaks for itself!)
As posted below I'll digest things and decide on which distance I'll run at Sydney in 3 weeks.
Total distance : 87km (note this is actually my biggest weekly milage since July 2005, which really speaks for itself!)
As posted below I'll digest things and decide on which distance I'll run at Sydney in 3 weeks.
Willy to Billy race report
Day 21....
Up early to await my ride up to the mountains with Langswm. Accompaying him were Grandpa and a visitor from Germany and friend of Bandana, Thomas. The drive went pretty quickly and soon we were unloading and headed to the bus. I reckon 2/3 of the bus were Striders and/or Cool Runners, way too many to mention :)
Finally arrived at Mt Wilson after the bus driver tried to drive us up to Mt Irvine for a pre-race course inspection! Once the necessary ablutions and registration was over it was a case of standing around for a chin wag as each bus dropped off another load. Got to catch up with Will, Go Girl, Sarge, piriformis, Highway Man and, and....
Finally we got a very abbreviated start from a representative of Macquarie Bank. As I mentioned to my fellow car travellers the first 10km of this race can really test you out with numerous undulations. I worked on trying to minimise the effort on the numerous steep pinches, while as usual screaming past a whole heap of people on the technical downhills :) Through here I traded places with numerous people, finally after the last steep climb it was time to open the legs. Running near Sarge, Will, Shell and Barry R through here.
As we lapped around Mt Irvine I again focussed on trying to conserve energy and maintain form but slid back a couple of places. About now the troublesome achilles finally started to complain, I had wondered where it went!
Finally got to the 21km mark, which is the start of the long downhill, I held my position pretty well through here but the Garmin had an absolute hissy fit about 1km down. This descent seems to go on for ever and it is a little disconcerting looking across the valley to the other side and seeing people already climbing back up the long climb. Eventually reached the bridge in around 2:15 but the legs were actually still pretty lively and so I started climbing. After about 2km Robert W (Wazza?) caught me and asked if I was ok, at that point I was feeling pretty good and replied, you should see me when I am feeling bad.
I was very happy with the way I ran the climb, the last 2 times I have had to walk quite a deal. But finally, just as I rounded the last corner to head away from the valley (and the garmin came back to life!) I started to struggle. About a km later, despite grinding along the lack of real distance in my legs finally caught up and all of a sudden the grand piano dropped. I did my best to persevere but a few people went past here, including Horrie who looked like he was only just started running the way he went past.
At last I reached Bells Line Rd and a quick drink followed by a glance over the shoulder seeing Paul Bullas about 100m back. This section along the road always seems to get erased from the memory bank but I tell you it is a killer. With a couple of 100m to go I checked on my progress ahead of Paul and being safe cruised to the line.
Despite the optimisitic comments of good wishes I knew in my heart that today would be tough, this is my longest run since Canberra and also the first time I have breached 30km for quite a while as well and it showed!
The ending time was 3:08:48 about 6 minutes slower than last year which stacks up against the C2S time this year vs last. To be honest I was totally drained and it took quite a while to perk up, not even the offer of a special rehydrating brew from Blue Dog was appealing. After a bit of stuffing around I finally got changed, putting the skins on and working on knocking back an Endura opti.
As I type this tonight while still tight and sore I am walking ok but the achilles is tender and swollen (more ice!). I'll digest all the information and see how the recovery run tomorrow goes before I decide between the half or full for Sydney.
Special thanks to Langswm for the lift up an back!!
Up early to await my ride up to the mountains with Langswm. Accompaying him were Grandpa and a visitor from Germany and friend of Bandana, Thomas. The drive went pretty quickly and soon we were unloading and headed to the bus. I reckon 2/3 of the bus were Striders and/or Cool Runners, way too many to mention :)
Finally arrived at Mt Wilson after the bus driver tried to drive us up to Mt Irvine for a pre-race course inspection! Once the necessary ablutions and registration was over it was a case of standing around for a chin wag as each bus dropped off another load. Got to catch up with Will, Go Girl, Sarge, piriformis, Highway Man and, and....
Finally we got a very abbreviated start from a representative of Macquarie Bank. As I mentioned to my fellow car travellers the first 10km of this race can really test you out with numerous undulations. I worked on trying to minimise the effort on the numerous steep pinches, while as usual screaming past a whole heap of people on the technical downhills :) Through here I traded places with numerous people, finally after the last steep climb it was time to open the legs. Running near Sarge, Will, Shell and Barry R through here.
As we lapped around Mt Irvine I again focussed on trying to conserve energy and maintain form but slid back a couple of places. About now the troublesome achilles finally started to complain, I had wondered where it went!
Finally got to the 21km mark, which is the start of the long downhill, I held my position pretty well through here but the Garmin had an absolute hissy fit about 1km down. This descent seems to go on for ever and it is a little disconcerting looking across the valley to the other side and seeing people already climbing back up the long climb. Eventually reached the bridge in around 2:15 but the legs were actually still pretty lively and so I started climbing. After about 2km Robert W (Wazza?) caught me and asked if I was ok, at that point I was feeling pretty good and replied, you should see me when I am feeling bad.
I was very happy with the way I ran the climb, the last 2 times I have had to walk quite a deal. But finally, just as I rounded the last corner to head away from the valley (and the garmin came back to life!) I started to struggle. About a km later, despite grinding along the lack of real distance in my legs finally caught up and all of a sudden the grand piano dropped. I did my best to persevere but a few people went past here, including Horrie who looked like he was only just started running the way he went past.
At last I reached Bells Line Rd and a quick drink followed by a glance over the shoulder seeing Paul Bullas about 100m back. This section along the road always seems to get erased from the memory bank but I tell you it is a killer. With a couple of 100m to go I checked on my progress ahead of Paul and being safe cruised to the line.
Despite the optimisitic comments of good wishes I knew in my heart that today would be tough, this is my longest run since Canberra and also the first time I have breached 30km for quite a while as well and it showed!
The ending time was 3:08:48 about 6 minutes slower than last year which stacks up against the C2S time this year vs last. To be honest I was totally drained and it took quite a while to perk up, not even the offer of a special rehydrating brew from Blue Dog was appealing. After a bit of stuffing around I finally got changed, putting the skins on and working on knocking back an Endura opti.
As I type this tonight while still tight and sore I am walking ok but the achilles is tender and swollen (more ice!). I'll digest all the information and see how the recovery run tomorrow goes before I decide between the half or full for Sydney.
Special thanks to Langswm for the lift up an back!!
Friday, August 25, 2006
Ho hum
Day 20
Across the road for the jaunt around the park as my one day taper for Willy to Billy. Alas the shuffle had run out of battery and so I had nothing to keep me company doing the laps. This was soon rectified with the arrival of a galah who proceeded to search for worms as I continued lapping. He had no issue with watching me run past as he found brekkie.
The actual run was not too bad, a little tight in the adductors after yesterday but that ironed out after about 10 minutes. Achilles is still inflamed but certainly seems manageable.
So to Willy to Billy.....
The idea is to use it as a long tempo run rather than a pure race. Last year I did it in about 3:02 but faded in the last 10km. This year, I'll try and take it out a little slower and see how much is left in the tank when I hit the long down and up at the end.
Across the road for the jaunt around the park as my one day taper for Willy to Billy. Alas the shuffle had run out of battery and so I had nothing to keep me company doing the laps. This was soon rectified with the arrival of a galah who proceeded to search for worms as I continued lapping. He had no issue with watching me run past as he found brekkie.
The actual run was not too bad, a little tight in the adductors after yesterday but that ironed out after about 10 minutes. Achilles is still inflamed but certainly seems manageable.
So to Willy to Billy.....
The idea is to use it as a long tempo run rather than a pure race. Last year I did it in about 3:02 but faded in the last 10km. This year, I'll try and take it out a little slower and see how much is left in the tank when I hit the long down and up at the end.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Circle work #2
Day 19
Back to beautiful Sydney last night and up this morning for my "hard" day. Decided to head down to Rotary Park for some fast running on grass, with Saturday looming in the background, to minimise impact on the legs. Just to make life more interesting a light drizzle of rain accompanied the run today!
So this dose of circles was 400m reps with 90 sec standing recovery, again in an effort to work the cardio a little more while also getting the legs used to going a "bit" faster :)
8 reps seemed enough as the form on the last couple was becoming particularly ragged...
1:26
1:25
1:25
1:24
1:27
1:27
1:28
1:29
That gives an average of just over 1:26, which for interest sake translates to 3:36 min/km pace.
Then a quick visit to the witch doctor for some preventative needling on the lh calf and achilles. Tomorrow is recovery and my 1 day taper for Willy to Billy :)
Back to beautiful Sydney last night and up this morning for my "hard" day. Decided to head down to Rotary Park for some fast running on grass, with Saturday looming in the background, to minimise impact on the legs. Just to make life more interesting a light drizzle of rain accompanied the run today!
So this dose of circles was 400m reps with 90 sec standing recovery, again in an effort to work the cardio a little more while also getting the legs used to going a "bit" faster :)
8 reps seemed enough as the form on the last couple was becoming particularly ragged...
1:26
1:25
1:25
1:24
1:27
1:27
1:28
1:29
That gives an average of just over 1:26, which for interest sake translates to 3:36 min/km pace.
Then a quick visit to the witch doctor for some preventative needling on the lh calf and achilles. Tomorrow is recovery and my 1 day taper for Willy to Billy :)
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Circle work in the city
Day 18
No I am not doing donuts in the rental car on Swanston St :)
Out to a nice little park in the city on the Yarra, just across from the casino for the exciting 30 minutes of recovery on grass. For a change there was some excitement as a helicopter came in and landed on the helipad float on the river next to the park. Some high flyer stepped out and into the waiting limo, no idea as to who it was though....
Certainly felt last night in the legs but still I suppose that is the point of these sessions.
No I am not doing donuts in the rental car on Swanston St :)
Out to a nice little park in the city on the Yarra, just across from the casino for the exciting 30 minutes of recovery on grass. For a change there was some excitement as a helicopter came in and landed on the helipad float on the river next to the park. Some high flyer stepped out and into the waiting limo, no idea as to who it was though....
Certainly felt last night in the legs but still I suppose that is the point of these sessions.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Black and White
A tale of 2 days....
Day 16
Back up to the oval for the 30 minute recovery consisting of laps around listening to the iPod shuffle. Things seemed to pull up ok except for the usual dodgy lh achilles. Down to Melbourne again and while working in the hotel room and watching tv I worked quite a bit on self massage on the achilles, also put in a heel lift to try and reduce the stretch factor.
Day 17
I decided that I was going to run with the Gunn Runners tonight after the aborted attempt 2 weeks ago. A great idea with a 5km time trial for $6 which then includes a fresh amber ale for recovery :). The run is an out an back around Albert Park lake and I have always struggled to post anywhere near my CR5km times. I suppose it is due to the soft crushed rock surface, a turnaround plus running on a slightly uneven surface in the dark...
Anyway, I had resolved to hang on to the leaders for as long as possible, the first km split flashed up with a 3:40 and at about the same time I let them slowly stretch away with 4 in front. the next garmin split was a 4:10 but the others were still well and truly in sight. Coming back after the turnaround I could see I was slowly hauling in one guy and after another 2 4:10 km splits went past him with a km to go. However I could sense him pick up the pace and loiter a couple of metres back. As we rounded the bend with about 200m to go he came at me and it was an absolute ball busting sprint to the line, even my patented "kick of death" did not seem to sort him out but somehow I still edged him at the line :)
Well and truly stuffed after that and took quite a while to suck the oxygen back and also feel that lunch might not reappear! Ending time was 20:30 but as stated above this always seems to be a slow course (garmin said 5.07 km).
The best part of the whole exercise is the fact that there was absolutely no whinging from the troublesome achilles whatsoever so maybe the self massage really worked!
Day 16
Back up to the oval for the 30 minute recovery consisting of laps around listening to the iPod shuffle. Things seemed to pull up ok except for the usual dodgy lh achilles. Down to Melbourne again and while working in the hotel room and watching tv I worked quite a bit on self massage on the achilles, also put in a heel lift to try and reduce the stretch factor.
Day 17
I decided that I was going to run with the Gunn Runners tonight after the aborted attempt 2 weeks ago. A great idea with a 5km time trial for $6 which then includes a fresh amber ale for recovery :). The run is an out an back around Albert Park lake and I have always struggled to post anywhere near my CR5km times. I suppose it is due to the soft crushed rock surface, a turnaround plus running on a slightly uneven surface in the dark...
Anyway, I had resolved to hang on to the leaders for as long as possible, the first km split flashed up with a 3:40 and at about the same time I let them slowly stretch away with 4 in front. the next garmin split was a 4:10 but the others were still well and truly in sight. Coming back after the turnaround I could see I was slowly hauling in one guy and after another 2 4:10 km splits went past him with a km to go. However I could sense him pick up the pace and loiter a couple of metres back. As we rounded the bend with about 200m to go he came at me and it was an absolute ball busting sprint to the line, even my patented "kick of death" did not seem to sort him out but somehow I still edged him at the line :)
Well and truly stuffed after that and took quite a while to suck the oxygen back and also feel that lunch might not reappear! Ending time was 20:30 but as stated above this always seems to be a slow course (garmin said 5.07 km).
The best part of the whole exercise is the fact that there was absolutely no whinging from the troublesome achilles whatsoever so maybe the self massage really worked!
Sunday, August 20, 2006
De Agony of De Feet!
Day 15
Up to my old stamping grounds at the Central Coast to spend some time with my parents and so in advance I contacted the
Terrigal Trotters, thus the "borrowing" of their motto. I actually ran a little with the Trotters many. many years ago when I lived at Gosford. They usually run every Saturday morning but I was hoping there might be some sort of organised run on the Sunday. As it turned out I was in luck, a much smaller turnout at 6am than I am used to as I met up with just 2 Trotters. We headed off towards Wamberal doing the introductions etc and talked up the Trotters vs Striders rivalry. They were initially planning on doing around 15km but were more than happy to extend when I mentioned I had been thinking more 20-25km :)
At around this point I noticed the pace was pretty strong and as we started talking about the City to Surf I realised why, both Wayne and Lyndon had posted 54:xx C2S times, yikes!! Anyway I hung with them as we ran out the back of Wamberal through the hills in the semi farming area near Tumbi Umbi and onto Mingara. At about 18km I was starting to feel the pinch and hoping they might stop for some water. But no we kept grinding on eventually popping out on the Entrance Rd near Bateau Bay. As we approached Wamberal I now was starting to struggle to keep pace and so I told them not to worry about waiting as I knew my way back from there.
Got back to the Terrigal car park and the legs were very toasted but that is to be expected when you are running with what would be a 6:20 Striders STaR group. Thanked Wayne and Lyndon for the run and extended an invite if they were ever down our way to join us (maybe the 6:30 group hehehehe).
Stats
Distance : 24.2km
Time : 1:56:47 (and no water stops today folks!)
Avg Pace : 4:49 min/km
Avg HR : 161
Have to say I am pretty chuffed with this run, there were a number of hills along the route and I just hung in there. Comparing this to the Airport Adventure, only 2 weeks ago which was a flatter course and I struggled big time near the end to average just over 5:30 min/km. Still very early days but I believe the consistent training is already showing some results, need to nursemaid the achilles still and it will be interesting to see how I go next Saturday at Willy to Billy as adaption should start to take hold by then.
Up to my old stamping grounds at the Central Coast to spend some time with my parents and so in advance I contacted the
Terrigal Trotters, thus the "borrowing" of their motto. I actually ran a little with the Trotters many. many years ago when I lived at Gosford. They usually run every Saturday morning but I was hoping there might be some sort of organised run on the Sunday. As it turned out I was in luck, a much smaller turnout at 6am than I am used to as I met up with just 2 Trotters. We headed off towards Wamberal doing the introductions etc and talked up the Trotters vs Striders rivalry. They were initially planning on doing around 15km but were more than happy to extend when I mentioned I had been thinking more 20-25km :)
At around this point I noticed the pace was pretty strong and as we started talking about the City to Surf I realised why, both Wayne and Lyndon had posted 54:xx C2S times, yikes!! Anyway I hung with them as we ran out the back of Wamberal through the hills in the semi farming area near Tumbi Umbi and onto Mingara. At about 18km I was starting to feel the pinch and hoping they might stop for some water. But no we kept grinding on eventually popping out on the Entrance Rd near Bateau Bay. As we approached Wamberal I now was starting to struggle to keep pace and so I told them not to worry about waiting as I knew my way back from there.
Got back to the Terrigal car park and the legs were very toasted but that is to be expected when you are running with what would be a 6:20 Striders STaR group. Thanked Wayne and Lyndon for the run and extended an invite if they were ever down our way to join us (maybe the 6:30 group hehehehe).
Stats
Distance : 24.2km
Time : 1:56:47 (and no water stops today folks!)
Avg Pace : 4:49 min/km
Avg HR : 161
Have to say I am pretty chuffed with this run, there were a number of hills along the route and I just hung in there. Comparing this to the Airport Adventure, only 2 weeks ago which was a flatter course and I struggled big time near the end to average just over 5:30 min/km. Still very early days but I believe the consistent training is already showing some results, need to nursemaid the achilles still and it will be interesting to see how I go next Saturday at Willy to Billy as adaption should start to take hold by then.
More laps! and Week 2 summary
Day 14
Back across the road for the recovery session, this morning I was joined by #1 on her bike. For the first 15 minutes she sped around the oval, then reality set in and she parked the bike for a rest and ran 1 lap, whinged for a couple of minutes and then followed me around as I completed the 30 minutes.
Very interesting, I am running these 30 minute sessions based upon HR (under 150) and without increasing the HR I am running further each time!
Avg HR today was 144
Week 2 Wrap up
Pretty happy with the way things are going, another week of running every day with a number of hard sessions supported by the recovery runs. The main concern is the ongoing tenderness of the achilles but it is not directly affecting my running.
Weekly Summary
72.8km (around the same as last week)
Average pace for the week 4:57
Back across the road for the recovery session, this morning I was joined by #1 on her bike. For the first 15 minutes she sped around the oval, then reality set in and she parked the bike for a rest and ran 1 lap, whinged for a couple of minutes and then followed me around as I completed the 30 minutes.
Very interesting, I am running these 30 minute sessions based upon HR (under 150) and without increasing the HR I am running further each time!
Avg HR today was 144
Week 2 Wrap up
Pretty happy with the way things are going, another week of running every day with a number of hard sessions supported by the recovery runs. The main concern is the ongoing tenderness of the achilles but it is not directly affecting my running.
Weekly Summary
72.8km (around the same as last week)
Average pace for the week 4:57
Friday, August 18, 2006
Lunch hour rush
Day 13
A terrible night last night with #2 and the wife at RNSH until 2 in the morning with a temperature (#2) that would not come down, but all seems ok now. So a bit of a sleep in this morning. Determined not to scrap a day of running I packed the kit with the goal of getting out during the day at work.
Close to 1pm I slipped out, the Garmin struggled big time to get a good lock and so was all over the place as I could not be bothered loitering around waiting for it to get it's act together. Headed across teh Harbour Bridge and then down by the Opera House to Lady Macquaries chair and up to the Art Gallery. Certainly Clairie winter is gone and I was sweating like, well a runner in a ninja suit :)
A hard push back up to the bridge dodging the tourists and then arriving back in North Sydney. Thankfully a bit of playing around in SportsTracks enabled me to get a decent gps track. I deliberately ran this in a tempo style and was really starting to feel it climbing back up the bridge and into North Sydney.
Icing the achilles tonight as it was not as happy about things as it was yesterday, ho hum!
Stats
Distance : 14.1km
Time 1:06:04
Avg Pace : 4:42
Avg HR 171
A terrible night last night with #2 and the wife at RNSH until 2 in the morning with a temperature (#2) that would not come down, but all seems ok now. So a bit of a sleep in this morning. Determined not to scrap a day of running I packed the kit with the goal of getting out during the day at work.
Close to 1pm I slipped out, the Garmin struggled big time to get a good lock and so was all over the place as I could not be bothered loitering around waiting for it to get it's act together. Headed across teh Harbour Bridge and then down by the Opera House to Lady Macquaries chair and up to the Art Gallery. Certainly Clairie winter is gone and I was sweating like, well a runner in a ninja suit :)
A hard push back up to the bridge dodging the tourists and then arriving back in North Sydney. Thankfully a bit of playing around in SportsTracks enabled me to get a decent gps track. I deliberately ran this in a tempo style and was really starting to feel it climbing back up the bridge and into North Sydney.
Icing the achilles tonight as it was not as happy about things as it was yesterday, ho hum!
Stats
Distance : 14.1km
Time 1:06:04
Avg Pace : 4:42
Avg HR 171
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Sekrit training
Day 12
Back into the ninja suit today for my secret 1km workout.
Noticed that the achilles was not as obvious up front this morning so hopefully a good sign that things are on the improve! Once I got down to the 8km mark on the Lane Cove 10km course I took off the polypro gloves as it seemed quite temperate, winter is slowly going!!
So the goal today was to step up to 6 1km efforts with the same 2 min walking recovery. Last week I achieved 4 reps at an average of 3:55.
3:57 Up
3:54 Down
3:56 Up
3:52 Down
3:53 Up
3:52 Down
Which gives 6 reps at an average of 3:54, quite chuffed with that! Trying to do reps like this by yourself I reckon is much harder than chasing people in a group so I'd still like to mix in some attendances at Timbrell when I can. Maybe a few more weeks......
The good thing is at the end I still have to run 3km back home for a nice warm down, it is funny how the warm down feels very slow but I looked at my average pace home and it was just over 5min/km!
As I got to the corner of Delhi and Plessey Rd my ninja cover was blown as MPH cruised by on his bike.
Back into the ninja suit today for my secret 1km workout.
Noticed that the achilles was not as obvious up front this morning so hopefully a good sign that things are on the improve! Once I got down to the 8km mark on the Lane Cove 10km course I took off the polypro gloves as it seemed quite temperate, winter is slowly going!!
So the goal today was to step up to 6 1km efforts with the same 2 min walking recovery. Last week I achieved 4 reps at an average of 3:55.
3:57 Up
3:54 Down
3:56 Up
3:52 Down
3:53 Up
3:52 Down
Which gives 6 reps at an average of 3:54, quite chuffed with that! Trying to do reps like this by yourself I reckon is much harder than chasing people in a group so I'd still like to mix in some attendances at Timbrell when I can. Maybe a few more weeks......
The good thing is at the end I still have to run 3km back home for a nice warm down, it is funny how the warm down feels very slow but I looked at my average pace home and it was just over 5min/km!
As I got to the corner of Delhi and Plessey Rd my ninja cover was blown as MPH cruised by on his bike.
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Cruising
Day 11
Snuck into a convenient last minute cancellation for a session with Easy Tiger. He loosened up the achilles and associated calf quite a deal which is great!
This morning everything felt pretty good, I am running these recovery sessions by heart rate and certainly today everything seemed a bit smoother, the achilles was a lot better but still quite tender and will need a bit more focus before I am out of the woods.
Snuck into a convenient last minute cancellation for a session with Easy Tiger. He loosened up the achilles and associated calf quite a deal which is great!
This morning everything felt pretty good, I am running these recovery sessions by heart rate and certainly today everything seemed a bit smoother, the achilles was a lot better but still quite tender and will need a bit more focus before I am out of the woods.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Longer
Day 10
Up earlier (in the dark even!) with the aim of a longer session. Down through LCNP to the weir but then all the way to the top gate (Striders 10km turnaround) and then bacl through North Ryde. I was tempted to extend and go past Macquarie centre and the back along Quarry Rd but the legs felt a little toastish on the climb to the rangers hut. Added in the descent down to Pittwater Rd which gave a nice (read nasty) little climb to get home.
Body status check, lh achilles still complaining, legs in general a little fatigued and I've made a real mess of my rh little toe which seems to have a blood blister on top of a blood blister and looks very manky. But I'll adopt the mentality of the knight from Monty Python's Holy Grail.
Good pick up Jen, it was just over half an hour, not an hour of the vat run :)
Stats
Distance 15.1km
Time 1:16:14
Avg Pace 5:02
Avg HR 157
Up earlier (in the dark even!) with the aim of a longer session. Down through LCNP to the weir but then all the way to the top gate (Striders 10km turnaround) and then bacl through North Ryde. I was tempted to extend and go past Macquarie centre and the back along Quarry Rd but the legs felt a little toastish on the climb to the rangers hut. Added in the descent down to Pittwater Rd which gave a nice (read nasty) little climb to get home.
Body status check, lh achilles still complaining, legs in general a little fatigued and I've made a real mess of my rh little toe which seems to have a blood blister on top of a blood blister and looks very manky. But I'll adopt the mentality of the knight from Monty Python's Holy Grail.
Good pick up Jen, it was just over half an hour, not an hour of the vat run :)
Stats
Distance 15.1km
Time 1:16:14
Avg Pace 5:02
Avg HR 157
Monday, August 14, 2006
Recovery and reflection
Day 9
Spent [edit] half an hour circling the park opposite home listening to the iPod on shuffle. A little shuffling first up but after about 10 minutes the form opened up a little. The legs felt quite fresh with the only issue being the recalcitrant achilles.
So I'm inclined to agree with a couple of comments, imagine what I could do if I was a little consistent..... I'll certainly be striving to see for myself as I head through the next 7 months (six foot 2007!) but will have a series of checkpoints along the way for reassurance and realisation. Again I'm refraining from publicly stating immediate goals other than to get consistent, I've done too much tilting at windmills underdone.
Spent [edit] half an hour circling the park opposite home listening to the iPod on shuffle. A little shuffling first up but after about 10 minutes the form opened up a little. The legs felt quite fresh with the only issue being the recalcitrant achilles.
So I'm inclined to agree with a couple of comments, imagine what I could do if I was a little consistent..... I'll certainly be striving to see for myself as I head through the next 7 months (six foot 2007!) but will have a series of checkpoints along the way for reassurance and realisation. Again I'm refraining from publicly stating immediate goals other than to get consistent, I've done too much tilting at windmills underdone.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
City to Surf
Day 8...
Got into the city around 7:30, dropped the bag off and headed to the line, finding a good group of Striders and Cool Runners already there. A good deal of chatter etc, especially with Blue Dog after knocking off 12ft track yesterday. With about an hour to go Minersrun and I opted to go and use the facilities. The lines were long and indeterminable and while persisting for a while I realised that the rate that the line was moving meant I would not get back to the start so I dashed off and joined a MUCH shorter line for the facilities in Muesem station. Got back to the line just in time, phew!
The start was pretty non eventful and I was in clear running by the tunnel. I then proceeded to stalk a few fellow Striders, including FPT, Langswd, Suzanne K and Running Wolf aka Spiderman. I was pretty happy with my pace and slipped past FPT at the Rose Bay drink station. Headed up HBH I also eclipsed Spiderman and near the top Overthehill went past with some encouragement. I kept him and Langswd in sight for about 4km where Hamburgler caught me and asked if I thought we could still make 60 min. I said that we'd need to run 3 sub 4min/km in a row to do so and was probably beyond me but I told him to go for it, in the end he missed by a handful of seconds.
As we ran down the hill to Campbell Parade, past the cheer squad sans pom poms, I was valiently trying to catch Ingrid G who had also floated about 10 metres in front of me for the last couple of km, but alas the legs would just not move any faster.
At the finish I kept sprinting past the line through to an empty line and got a timing card of 60:44, my hand timed time was 60:55. Either way I am pretty happy given the recent training regime (or lack of)!
The achilles was in the background the whole run and the associated calf muscle was doing some nice spasms at various points which I hoped would not ensue in anything more and which didn't thankfully.
I then joined a heap of Striders and Cool Runners on the grassy knoll watching others finish and comparing war stories, after a while we then adjourned to the pub for some more serious rehyrdation to cap off a great day.
Got into the city around 7:30, dropped the bag off and headed to the line, finding a good group of Striders and Cool Runners already there. A good deal of chatter etc, especially with Blue Dog after knocking off 12ft track yesterday. With about an hour to go Minersrun and I opted to go and use the facilities. The lines were long and indeterminable and while persisting for a while I realised that the rate that the line was moving meant I would not get back to the start so I dashed off and joined a MUCH shorter line for the facilities in Muesem station. Got back to the line just in time, phew!
The start was pretty non eventful and I was in clear running by the tunnel. I then proceeded to stalk a few fellow Striders, including FPT, Langswd, Suzanne K and Running Wolf aka Spiderman. I was pretty happy with my pace and slipped past FPT at the Rose Bay drink station. Headed up HBH I also eclipsed Spiderman and near the top Overthehill went past with some encouragement. I kept him and Langswd in sight for about 4km where Hamburgler caught me and asked if I thought we could still make 60 min. I said that we'd need to run 3 sub 4min/km in a row to do so and was probably beyond me but I told him to go for it, in the end he missed by a handful of seconds.
As we ran down the hill to Campbell Parade, past the cheer squad sans pom poms, I was valiently trying to catch Ingrid G who had also floated about 10 metres in front of me for the last couple of km, but alas the legs would just not move any faster.
At the finish I kept sprinting past the line through to an empty line and got a timing card of 60:44, my hand timed time was 60:55. Either way I am pretty happy given the recent training regime (or lack of)!
The achilles was in the background the whole run and the associated calf muscle was doing some nice spasms at various points which I hoped would not ensue in anything more and which didn't thankfully.
I then joined a heap of Striders and Cool Runners on the grassy knoll watching others finish and comparing war stories, after a while we then adjourned to the pub for some more serious rehyrdation to cap off a great day.
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Recovery - Day 7 - Week 1 wrap up
Another gentle amble on the grass just to turn the legs over. As there was junior soccer on at my usual oval I ran down to Magdala Park which sits on the GNW. Given my later departure it was a little warmer. Certainly prefer the usual oval as it was an uphill run back home which raised the HR a little and slowed the pace. Just over 30 minutes with an average HR of 151.
Week 1 wrap up
Ran every day of the week, unusual for me in past training. In just doing this without excessive distances I clocked up around 72km, which is the longest week I have done since late January!! So folks the 10% rule has more than gone out the window, kids this man is a trained professional (idiot!) do not attempt this at home.....
City to Surf tomorrow is just going to be a hard hit out, whatever time pops out so be it. The real goal is to keep consistent in my running and then we will see what happens.
Week 1 wrap up
Ran every day of the week, unusual for me in past training. In just doing this without excessive distances I clocked up around 72km, which is the longest week I have done since late January!! So folks the 10% rule has more than gone out the window, kids this man is a trained professional (idiot!) do not attempt this at home.....
City to Surf tomorrow is just going to be a hard hit out, whatever time pops out so be it. The real goal is to keep consistent in my running and then we will see what happens.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Day 6 - Long?
Noticeably cooler this morning and I headed down for the stock standard Lane Cove Weir Run. Usually this is a tempo style run but given what I have done this week I treated this as a long run. The legs just started to fade a little on the way home. The park was pretty empty on the way in but coming back there were quite a few runners around including CR Barney!
A recovery run is on the schedule for tomorrow which we shall call my official taper for the City to Surf.
Stats
Distance 10.85km
Time 55:11
Avg pace 5:05
Avg HR 162
A recovery run is on the schedule for tomorrow which we shall call my official taper for the City to Surf.
Stats
Distance 10.85km
Time 55:11
Avg pace 5:05
Avg HR 162
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Day 5 - 1km reps
Lobbed back into beautiful Sydney last night after a long day of meetings and presentations. Accordingly I opted not to head to Timbrell with the masses at 6am but instead cruised down to Lane Cove National Park to do my own sekrit training.
A good 3km warmup on the way and the plan was for 4 x 1km reps between the 8km and 7km markers for the Striders 10km course, this being the "flatest" 1km section by my reckoning.
Banged out the reps as follows
3:58 (slight uphill from 8 to 7)
3:50 (yep felt like a bit more down)
3:58
3:54
Pretty happy that I could knock out 4 sub 4 min km right now, these were done with 2 min walking recovery.
Cruised back home, with Ellie's mention of menacing kookaburra's reminding me that it must be very close to magpie season and there is one particularly tenacious bugger that I sometimes encouter on this run.
Thanks for the tip on Easy Tiger Lulu, he was in fact my secret weapon to try and sort out the tender achilles but it seems the whole world has discovered him now and you need to plan your injuries in advance to see him :). So I adopted plan B which was the witch doctor and he diagnosed some very tight spots in the LH calf. Half a dozen needles later, plus an injection, hopefully some of Floyds unused testosterone he reckons I'm back on track!
A good 3km warmup on the way and the plan was for 4 x 1km reps between the 8km and 7km markers for the Striders 10km course, this being the "flatest" 1km section by my reckoning.
Banged out the reps as follows
3:58 (slight uphill from 8 to 7)
3:50 (yep felt like a bit more down)
3:58
3:54
Pretty happy that I could knock out 4 sub 4 min km right now, these were done with 2 min walking recovery.
Cruised back home, with Ellie's mention of menacing kookaburra's reminding me that it must be very close to magpie season and there is one particularly tenacious bugger that I sometimes encouter on this run.
Thanks for the tip on Easy Tiger Lulu, he was in fact my secret weapon to try and sort out the tender achilles but it seems the whole world has discovered him now and you need to plan your injuries in advance to see him :). So I adopted plan B which was the witch doctor and he diagnosed some very tight spots in the LH calf. Half a dozen needles later, plus an injection, hopefully some of Floyds unused testosterone he reckons I'm back on track!
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Day 4
Back to the recovery regime and a run along the Yarra to the flat bit of The Tan. Running on the grass as much as possible and at one point I was headed towards 2 ducks. Normally in Lane Cove the ducks, err duck for cover as I get nearer but these 2 held their ground and one actually took the agressive position and so I put in a small detour.
Liking Don Juan's idea of extra testosterone, in the style of Floyd, I was on the lookout for any Balco reps on my run but alas not today. I'll just have to hope the slabs of hot pepperoni on my pizza provide a similar lift.
Stats
Time spent 30 minutes, average HR at 149, just below my self imposed recovery limit!
And as we know distance and pace do not count here!
Liking Don Juan's idea of extra testosterone, in the style of Floyd, I was on the lookout for any Balco reps on my run but alas not today. I'll just have to hope the slabs of hot pepperoni on my pizza provide a similar lift.
Stats
Time spent 30 minutes, average HR at 149, just below my self imposed recovery limit!
And as we know distance and pace do not count here!
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Day 3 - Tan Tempo
An early appointment with the flying kangaroo to shuttle to mexico so no running in the morning. I was aiming to go and have a hit out with the Gunn Runners but my last meeting dragged on and then the freeway was chocka so I opted to head out for a couple of laps around The Tan at "tempo"! The LH achilles is certainly a little unhappy but I can fix that when I get back to Sydney.
Pretty happy with the way the legs and lungs handled it.
Stats
Distance 9.4km
Time 43:36
Avg pace 4:39
Avg HR 174
Lurking Professor asked about my goals for the Sydney Running Festival, well it will depend upon the next 3 weeks, rest assured unless I have badly broken myself by then I'll be running the half at a minimum ;-)
Pretty happy with the way the legs and lungs handled it.
Stats
Distance 9.4km
Time 43:36
Avg pace 4:39
Avg HR 174
Lurking Professor asked about my goals for the Sydney Running Festival, well it will depend upon the next 3 weeks, rest assured unless I have badly broken myself by then I'll be running the half at a minimum ;-)
Monday, August 07, 2006
Day 2...
Opted for the patented vat style run around the oval. Legs felt very heavy and LH achilles is a little tender. Anyway it is done.
For the record I climbed on the scales and I've achieved 79.1kg so quite a deal of upside on that!
Stats
Time 30 minutes distance and pace are irrelevent ;)
For the record I climbed on the scales and I've achieved 79.1kg so quite a deal of upside on that!
Stats
Time 30 minutes distance and pace are irrelevent ;)
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Day 1
A wee mental battle to shrug off the doona at 5am and head out the door to head down to today's STaR, starting between Rockdale and Botany Bay. Off we trundled at 6:10am with again everyone being very well behaved pace wise. Had a good chin wag with Horrie as we cruised along, he is on fire with PB's going left right and centre in his build up for Glasshouse.
As the 6:20 group caught us through Taren Point our pace also lifted slightly and by the time we got to Port Hacking Rd I opted for shortcut "c", joining Horrie and avoiding the hills on the back section on the route.
By the time we got to Tom Ugly's bridge I was just starting to fade and at Carrs Park I popped a gel for the run home. It did not seem to make a lot of difference as the legs really started to complain. Horrie had already sensed this, picking up my breathing pattern changing. By the time we got to Ramsgate things had got ugly and it was grind time to get home. Horrie insisted on staying with even though it felt we were now moving a tad slower than your average tortise. Finally got back to the start and I had completely depleted all the legs had to offer. Spent a bit of time chatting with one and all as the various groups drifted in. Popped the skins on when I got home and slowly perked up and as I type this, while still a little tender have actually recovered quite nicely.
Thanks to Horrie for sticking with me despite his own prep for 12 foot and Glasshouse probably warranting a harder workout at the end.
Stats
Distance 25.5km
Time 2:21:30
Avg pace 5:32
Avg HR 166
So the first step to get back on track, it can't get much more painful and ugly than today (I hope!).
As the 6:20 group caught us through Taren Point our pace also lifted slightly and by the time we got to Port Hacking Rd I opted for shortcut "c", joining Horrie and avoiding the hills on the back section on the route.
By the time we got to Tom Ugly's bridge I was just starting to fade and at Carrs Park I popped a gel for the run home. It did not seem to make a lot of difference as the legs really started to complain. Horrie had already sensed this, picking up my breathing pattern changing. By the time we got to Ramsgate things had got ugly and it was grind time to get home. Horrie insisted on staying with even though it felt we were now moving a tad slower than your average tortise. Finally got back to the start and I had completely depleted all the legs had to offer. Spent a bit of time chatting with one and all as the various groups drifted in. Popped the skins on when I got home and slowly perked up and as I type this, while still a little tender have actually recovered quite nicely.
Thanks to Horrie for sticking with me despite his own prep for 12 foot and Glasshouse probably warranting a harder workout at the end.
Stats
Distance 25.5km
Time 2:21:30
Avg pace 5:32
Avg HR 166
So the first step to get back on track, it can't get much more painful and ugly than today (I hope!).
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Goodbye July - You won't be missed!
Up for a much better breather this time and yes I am still alive.
What a shocker of a month. The first couple of weeks already blogged about and I headed down to Sutherland for the mostly downhill dash to Wanda with not a lot of running in the legs. Parked the car at Miranda to ensure a bit of a warm up and ran into Nando on the way to the start. The start was quite promising belting out 3km in 11:16 and 5km in 19:47, from here however the wheels slowly fell off and the pace followed. A procession of Striders and CR then proceeded to put me to the sword as I bumbled along the rest of the way, ending up with a time of 48:56, about 4 minutes slower than last year.
As penance I still ran back but it felt very ordinary, so total time of 1:54 for 22km.
From there no running for the rest of the month with yet another work trip, this time to Malaysia and Singapore with long working hours supplemented with "team building dinner and drinks etc". So in the end July was tragic with only 5 runs for a total of 96km!!! To add to that I have not even gone near the scales as the diet has also been pretty crappy.
So the plan for Sydney has imploded, to the point that I did not even feel enthused to run the Striders 10km in the pouring rain today, prefering to volunteer on marshaling etc.
Tomorrow needs to be the start of a new leaf and what better way to do so than the great Airport Adventure STaR!!!
I'll look to revamp the tables to the right to reflect reality and sift through the ashes to develop some sort of plan of action to fixate upon.
What a shocker of a month. The first couple of weeks already blogged about and I headed down to Sutherland for the mostly downhill dash to Wanda with not a lot of running in the legs. Parked the car at Miranda to ensure a bit of a warm up and ran into Nando on the way to the start. The start was quite promising belting out 3km in 11:16 and 5km in 19:47, from here however the wheels slowly fell off and the pace followed. A procession of Striders and CR then proceeded to put me to the sword as I bumbled along the rest of the way, ending up with a time of 48:56, about 4 minutes slower than last year.
As penance I still ran back but it felt very ordinary, so total time of 1:54 for 22km.
From there no running for the rest of the month with yet another work trip, this time to Malaysia and Singapore with long working hours supplemented with "team building dinner and drinks etc". So in the end July was tragic with only 5 runs for a total of 96km!!! To add to that I have not even gone near the scales as the diet has also been pretty crappy.
So the plan for Sydney has imploded, to the point that I did not even feel enthused to run the Striders 10km in the pouring rain today, prefering to volunteer on marshaling etc.
Tomorrow needs to be the start of a new leaf and what better way to do so than the great Airport Adventure STaR!!!
I'll look to revamp the tables to the right to reflect reality and sift through the ashes to develop some sort of plan of action to fixate upon.
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