Summer Series tonight and I decided to include a "hero" route selection which could pay off or backfire badly. (a short cut through some bush)
No guesses required as to which way things went......
Any way despite my mishap it was a good workout which is the main goal. Lower legs are a little tender but things do seem to be progressing a little!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Taper, what taper???
Yes, while others start to taper and sharpen I'm out just trying to get the legs turning over....
Sunday was an interesting run, a new route based out of the back of Hornsby which covered a fair bit of the GNW. A good sized 6:10 group and I only just made it (incorrect alarm setting!), so much so that the garmin did not get a lock. Finally at our first water stop before hitting the bush it locked but then it kept complaining that the split memory was full....
At one point the "leaders" made a wrong turn so I headed off with hefty/dash and Kevin T along the single track. I love this sort of running and soon the bunch was way in the distance! I took the opportunity at the Quarry Rd bridge to completely clear the memory as only clearing a month did not seem to have any effect (has anyone else had this problem??).
At the top of the hill I let the group go through and waited for Kevin and we had a good chat headed down towards Galton Gorge Rd. Quite a bit of scrambling and I did a bit of counselling on another runner who had already twisted her ankle and was very tenative on the technical stuff. At the water drop another runner had knocked his head on a rock and was going to short cut it out so they left together and Kev, hefty/dash and myself regrouped to head on towards crosslands.
This section took quite a while but again good single track running and we actually caught back up to the tail end of the bunch. Along here I did manage to bash my right leg just above the knee as I zig zagged through some rock formations. Just before crosslands the 6:20 guys came through and I did a hygiene/hydration/gu stop at crosslands leaving Kev to go on.
I regrouped with some 6am runners on the climb back out and ended up running with Jim and Alison as we headed back to the start. Alison opted for the full course while Jim and I had had enough! The knee pulled up a little sore with some grazing and bruising but nothing structural!
This morning dragged myself out for a tempo jaunt down to the weir and back, did not feel overly smooth but averaged 4:50 so not too bad, tossed in some 100m strides at the oval opposite home before winding down and that was a bit painful!!
Entry for Six foot is in, opted for wave 3 and will be focussed on getting to the top of pluvi in one piece and see what happens after that!
Sunday was an interesting run, a new route based out of the back of Hornsby which covered a fair bit of the GNW. A good sized 6:10 group and I only just made it (incorrect alarm setting!), so much so that the garmin did not get a lock. Finally at our first water stop before hitting the bush it locked but then it kept complaining that the split memory was full....
At one point the "leaders" made a wrong turn so I headed off with hefty/dash and Kevin T along the single track. I love this sort of running and soon the bunch was way in the distance! I took the opportunity at the Quarry Rd bridge to completely clear the memory as only clearing a month did not seem to have any effect (has anyone else had this problem??).
At the top of the hill I let the group go through and waited for Kevin and we had a good chat headed down towards Galton Gorge Rd. Quite a bit of scrambling and I did a bit of counselling on another runner who had already twisted her ankle and was very tenative on the technical stuff. At the water drop another runner had knocked his head on a rock and was going to short cut it out so they left together and Kev, hefty/dash and myself regrouped to head on towards crosslands.
This section took quite a while but again good single track running and we actually caught back up to the tail end of the bunch. Along here I did manage to bash my right leg just above the knee as I zig zagged through some rock formations. Just before crosslands the 6:20 guys came through and I did a hygiene/hydration/gu stop at crosslands leaving Kev to go on.
I regrouped with some 6am runners on the climb back out and ended up running with Jim and Alison as we headed back to the start. Alison opted for the full course while Jim and I had had enough! The knee pulled up a little sore with some grazing and bruising but nothing structural!
This morning dragged myself out for a tempo jaunt down to the weir and back, did not feel overly smooth but averaged 4:50 so not too bad, tossed in some 100m strides at the oval opposite home before winding down and that was a bit painful!!
Entry for Six foot is in, opted for wave 3 and will be focussed on getting to the top of pluvi in one piece and see what happens after that!
Friday, February 16, 2007
Bottom of the hill
Back to basics in an effort to get rolling again and so I thought why not go deep end straight up!
Down to LCNP and the Striders 8km marker to flog myself a few times over a km and see what happens. Even on the run down it was noticeably humid and I felt far from being smooth etc etc.
Knocked out the first rep in 4:02 and as I am standing there gasping trying to re-oxygenate the mad guz looms into view. A quick nod as he notices my breathing and confirms I am doing a "session" as he gracefully floats by. Fifteen seconds later and my rest is up and I charge off in pursuit, the sad thing is his float is faster than my rep (3:57) as I make no inroads in catching him, sort of puts things into perspective!
The next up rep makes it a CR spotting exercise as Rock Doctor goes past in the other direction and I complete a 4:04. Last ditch stand on the way back and I use the downhill to get a 3:55. This just sneaks me under the average of 4 min/km but quite a bit off from the 6 @ around 3:50 from late last year. A struggle to get home and I'm absolutely lathered but a good session to use as a new benchmark!
Thanks for the thoughts on 6 ft, the battle may be lost but the war is far from over :)
Down to LCNP and the Striders 8km marker to flog myself a few times over a km and see what happens. Even on the run down it was noticeably humid and I felt far from being smooth etc etc.
Knocked out the first rep in 4:02 and as I am standing there gasping trying to re-oxygenate the mad guz looms into view. A quick nod as he notices my breathing and confirms I am doing a "session" as he gracefully floats by. Fifteen seconds later and my rest is up and I charge off in pursuit, the sad thing is his float is faster than my rep (3:57) as I make no inroads in catching him, sort of puts things into perspective!
The next up rep makes it a CR spotting exercise as Rock Doctor goes past in the other direction and I complete a 4:04. Last ditch stand on the way back and I use the downhill to get a 3:55. This just sneaks me under the average of 4 min/km but quite a bit off from the 6 @ around 3:50 from late last year. A struggle to get home and I'm absolutely lathered but a good session to use as a new benchmark!
Thanks for the thoughts on 6 ft, the battle may be lost but the war is far from over :)
Thursday, February 15, 2007
A battle lost....
It is now very clear that there is no way I will (or should) approach Six Foot with the intent of a significant time improvement, ie a redemption run.
Training has been at best very intermittent with many distractions (excuses). In looking at the time between now and March 10 it is obvious with some more distractions that a change in approach is needed.
There is the possibility that I will still run six foot but with a lot more conservative outlook on what may be possible in a time dimension.
I have been putting together a revised outlook for the next few months based upon this and also the probability that I will be also unable to run Canberra. (more later!)
On the good news front I ran Summer Series last night for the first time in a while and had pretty much a perfect run, getting back 18 seconds early and reaching all of the controls I planned. A warm afternoon and some good serious climbs just added to the mix to give me around 8km in just under 45 minutes and a net point score of 440, tempered by the fact that top gun Andrew Hill got 530!
Training has been at best very intermittent with many distractions (excuses). In looking at the time between now and March 10 it is obvious with some more distractions that a change in approach is needed.
There is the possibility that I will still run six foot but with a lot more conservative outlook on what may be possible in a time dimension.
I have been putting together a revised outlook for the next few months based upon this and also the probability that I will be also unable to run Canberra. (more later!)
On the good news front I ran Summer Series last night for the first time in a while and had pretty much a perfect run, getting back 18 seconds early and reaching all of the controls I planned. A warm afternoon and some good serious climbs just added to the mix to give me around 8km in just under 45 minutes and a net point score of 440, tempered by the fact that top gun Andrew Hill got 530!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)