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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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 ;-)

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 ;)

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!).

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.

Another gasp for air....

Thanks for the reminder Jen ;)

Another tale of woe this week....

More work, more hassles, less running, but hey I am still breathing so things aren't that bad!

No running at all since the 10 Bridges Star, I was aiming for the Short Course XC race at Bankstown on Saturday for a run. Pressed a little for time I opted to get to the event via the freeway route, ie Gore Hill, Harbour Tunnel, East Dist, M5 East and then M5. Of course everything came unstuck due to the semi that decided to break down in the M5 east and after 30 minutes examining the inticate detail of the M5 east tunnel construction I arrived about 2 minutes after the start. Decided to hang around and cheer people on but this turn of events just made a pretty crap week very complete.

Until Sunday that is....

Now I was going to run KOM as per previous post but given everything it was much more judicious to just pop around the corner for the star.

A good pep talk to the masses at 6am and then 6:10am about running together and we charged off into the mist. The words seemed to have an effect as everyone was very well behaved, oh the power :).

At about 15km all the groups seemed to catch each other at the same time and ours got a little disjointed which saw half of us chasing the other half. During the loop around Concord Golf Club I started to feel the pinch and I bade my CR running buddies, sfGnome, Johnny Dark and Professor a slow good bye as I then ground it out back home. In reality the run was not too bad but my lack of training, plus the late tdf nights plus, plus, plus took their toll.

Very heavy rain this morning was enough to ignore the alarm and tomorrow I'm on a day trip to Melbourne so more rest.

The challenge is to break this downward spiral which is becoming increasingly demotivating and not too much time to crack that given the looming runs coming up.

Sorry folks, nothing too exciting here and pretty small fry to what some other bloggers and CR's seem to be going through, I'll try and give myself a few uppercuts which might make a difference.

Up periscope

Yes blog readers, the absolute deluge of work has seen me well below the surface and unable to come up for oxygen or a blog :(

Some catching up to do after the shambles....

Saturday 10km at Homebush, was in 2 minds to run or not with spasms still going on in my lower back/glute area after W2G. In the end I did run and headed out ok but could not stretch out fully. Was actually reasonably happy with my time after sitting about 30m behind Professor and Superflake for pretty much the whole race. Posted a time of 41:23.

Sunday I got up at 5am for the STaR but felt like rubbish and let the doona demon trap me. From there last week was a blur, a quick jaunt across to NZ for work and then a whole heap of deadlines meaning late nights (at least I could also watch the cycling!). Then on Friday part of the work stuff finished as we completed the merger/acquisition of a significant sized competitor! Through all of this no running, the spasms getting worse, despite a visit to the witch doctor.

By Saturday I was jack of it so I headed over to the West Met run at Rydalmere to have a break from the computer, get some fresh air and stretch the legs. A funny course with 3 hairpin turns on the 2km loop made it difficult to get into a rhythm. I ran ok for the first 4km but then faded quite badly, avg HR of 185 so I was working hard!!!

Sunday was the 10 bridges STaR, I resolved to get out and ignore the spasms in the hope that a long hard run might realign things. A good group but once again some likely suspects went crazy pace wise and I ended up doing some fartlek type sections chasing the front runners down to try and keep people together, something I am starting to get pissed off about (sorry Mum if you are reading!). Anyway just started to fade across Iron Cove bridge but kept grinding away home to post about 27km in a round 5:25 min/km avg pace. The good news is that the run did just as intended and the spasms are gone, happy days!!!!

Also of interest was the results of the CT scan which showed that my legs are of equal length so now we know once and for all that everything is around my hip/pelvis alignment and that means it can be focussed on without worrying about inserts etc.

Will probably run the Shoalhaven KOM on Sunday as a longer tempo style run to get some sort of base in for Sydney.

Heres hoping that I can resurface shortly.

Shambles!!!

Warning, this is not a post about running..... (mostly a vent today, click on if you want running!)

Thursday morning after my run I dropped my car off at the dealership to get serviced. At the last service they said I had about 5000km left on my brake pads and so being the good camper that I am as the 5000 (well actually 6000!) clocked over I booked in. While there they suggested they also do the 40,000km service as it was about the right timing as well. Thinking this was a good idea I agreed.

Much later that afternoon the dealership rang with the usual, well we think you need to replace blah and blah and blah etc. I asked them what they did and quizzed them when there was no mention of the brake pads, "oh no, plenty of wear left on them, probably another 10,000km"!!! After a terse discussion about why the car was there I got back to work and then bussed it up to pick the car up.

I again expressed my disappointment that the only reason the car was booked in was to replace the pads, as they had told me it would need, felt and indicated that I had been had a little. Anyway not much joy to be had and so I hopped in the car to head home. Their service centre has a pretty tight car park and so I was carefully looking over my shoulder to keep an eye on the cars behind, of course if was actually looking in the rear view mirror I would have seen the bloody big pole that I backed straight into :( :(

After much muttering to myself and checking the damage, yep nice ding in the plastic bumper, I drove home muttering all the way.

Now to this morning, it has been 2 years (maybe more) since I had a general check up with the doctor and so about time for another. He was actually pretty impressed, I have lost 11kg since the last check up and had much better blood pressure and resting HR. Anticipating his need for me to have blood test for cholesterol etc I fasted and so trooped upstairs to the pathology unit. The guy here seemed a little cautious and after checking my right arm felt that my veins were a little hard to locate so got me some water to drink (dehydrated?) and checked my left arm. He still seemed a little worried but felt he would get a good enough feed. In goes the needle and on goes the first vial, now I don't get blood taken that often, but he seemed to be stuffing around a lot. Normally I also tend not to watch but felt compelled to see what he was doing. The vial seemed to be filling very slowly and he was wiggling the needle around a bit. By the third vial all the wiggling of the needle he was doing was starting to hurt quite a bit. He asked me if I was ok and/or getting dizzy and I mentioned that all the wiggling of the needle was hurting and yes I was getting dizzy.

Next thing I know it felt like I was dreaming and all I could hear was "sorry, sorry" I had passed out! Now of course there was plenty of blood, mostly all over my arm and shirt sleeve. After a few minutes the diziness and sweating stopped, thank goodness I think he got enough in each vial. Thats enough to make me want to avoid blood tests etc for a while. Told the wife about it, blood tests are a snack for her as she has to get one every couple of weeks and so she thought it hilarious that I had passed out from a blood test.....

Anyway also managed to get into a radiology for a CT scan to once and for all determine if I have equal leg length. That way we can adjust my new inserts if there is a difference and work on the core/pelvis area independently.

Lastly work has been flat out as well and while no Doocing is allowed lets just say there have been a few challenges this week...

10km tomorrow, a fresh six months to obsess about and only 11 weeks until the marathon, there you go, eventually back to running.

Trash!

Yep, despite Monday and Tuesday off and a gentle run yesterday the glutes are still tender today. I opted for the stock standard weir run today and see how things went.

As the title says the legs still felt trashy, could not really stretch out. Regardless and despite the cooler conditions I feel better for the run now, especially after a good stretching session when I got home. No doubt about it, not a lot of people down in Lane Cove National Park in the middle of winter and early in the morning!

Stats
Distance 11km
Time 57 mimutes
Avg pace 5:12 (oh so slow compared to my tempo runs through here)
Avg HR 153 (yep pretty much legs holding up the pace)

Not sure how this forbodes for the 10km at Homebush, will see how the recovery tomorrow feels.

Recovery?

Not a lot done since Sunday, Monday was toast and then I Socceroo'd on Monday night and Tuesday Morning which left me in no mood to get up early to go for a run.

However up this morning and out, I shuffled the schedule around a little believing that the body would not be up for a good hill rep set yet I opted to use today as my recovery and try and get things moving again in prep for Saturday.

In the tradition of vat man I then ran around the oval just opposite my place for just over 30 minutes. The decision not to do hills was wise as the hammies/glutes/lower back are still sorting themselves out after Sunday.

Stats
Distance 5.5km
Time 33:17
Avg pace 5:59
Avg HR 140 (yes it was the legs!)

Feeling better for it now amd will aim for a longer run but not high intensity tomorrow with another recovery on Friday before hopefully a fast 10km on Saturday.

On another topic with the Tour de France looming (starts this saturday night!) I am again organising a dream team competition, might be of interest to any bloggers reading this (does anyone?) who don't read Cool Running regularly. All the details are on my "other" site here.

Woodford to Glenbrook Race Report

Up to the mountains to Glenbrook to meet up with fellow car shufflers Jen and Wazza. The length of the drive is a little scary given we would be running back! Parked the car in a location I was a little worried about and so then found a better park near the station so went back and moved it closer. Then we went up to the start area and hitched a lift on a RFS troop carrier to get our number and tag. Amazingly no safety pins left and the people doing the rego were pretty blase about it, "well too many people took 4 pins and now there are none left"! It was not as if I was registering late and if you give people a number bib with 4 holes how many pins will they take!

Anyway back to the start again with the firies and then loitering around chatting with all and sundry waiting for the bikes to all clear out. Finally they called us up to the line and after a bit of waiting we were off!

The first 4km was mostly downhill and also being a bit technical trail running I was doing quite nicely (4km in 16:33). I was swapping places with Kanagra through here, going past him on the downhill and he likewise on the ups!

The next 8km or so were tougher with a lot more ups and downs into the mix and a few Striders drifted past, including Suzanne K, but I was holding my own in general, about 20-30m behind Blue Dog.

As we approached the downhill I caught up to the Dog at a drinks station and we had a quick chat, I then eased away from him as the downhill picked up. About 500m later he drew back up to me and then easily accelerated away! I was struggling a little with leg speed but tried to focus on form and the people in front of me. Just near the turn off to the smaller track Charles Coville and Barry Rutter caught me. This is now standard practice with Barry hauling me in in pretty much every major race in the last year or so, sigh....

Somehow I kept them in sight and was starting to make some progress on Stephen Kibble, another Strider who went past me on the last uphill and who I had been about 50m behind for about 10km. At about the 2km mark I got to within 5m of him but then slipped away again. Just near the 1km mark I saw colin who had come up to watch the finish, at about the same time Spud drew up to me and despite my efforts slowly drew away, damn good running after running 96km last Saturday and finishing 2nd in PMC!!!

Finally the line arrived and just in time!

Stats
Distance 25km
Time 1:52:40
Avg Pace 4:30
Avg HR 171

Very pleased with this as it is 5 minutes better than last year, so a good indicator as to my improved fitness, despite inconsistent training! I'm sure with a slightly better base, but more importantly better leg speed I could knock a few more off next year.

Loitered around to watch the presentations, quite a few Striders won places and then to cap things off Barry won the major lucky draw prize a Trek Mountain Bike! Then we went in search of the supposed shuttles back to the railway station with no success. Luckily Jen's family helped out to get us back up to the car park. Thanks to Jen for then carting 4 semlly guys back up to Woodford to pick up our respective cars!!

Back to hills and speedwork in search of this elusive leg speeed!

CR 5km & house hunting

I decided to rock up to the CR 5km challenge today but not bust a boiler running it. Firstly dropped off the Striders timing system at Action's for a bit of fine tuning before the next 10km race. Cam rocked up just as we finished unloading as Action was going to run with the pram while Cam attempted a fast run.

A smaller crowd than normal with Woodford to Glenbrook on tomorrow and also people tapering for Gold Coast next week. I decided to start with the 22 minute group and joined Johnny Dark, Gnome, Professor and Blue Dog. Close to the 2km mark Blue Dog and Professor had pulled away a little but I was content to cruise with JD, Gnome and now Action with the pram. Just after the 3km mark I opted to up the pace a little and kick the legs over and caught up to Prof at the 4km mark. With about 500m to go MPH cruised by and I decided to see if I could hang on to him until the finish, which I pretty much did.

Ended up with 21 minutes even for the 5km, a quick chat and then now wanting to cool down too much headed back with Cam, the pram and Boof.

The total time for the 10km was 45 minutes, legs felt ok, ran in the Nike Air Zoom Elites again and I think they are starting to wear in. No niggles from any of the usual suspects.

Spent most of the rest of the day at housing estates looking at ideas as we are thinking about bulldozing and rebuilding rather than renovating the house. Actually pretty tiring stuff, keeping an eye on 3 kids who became progressively more bored at the same time looking for stuff you like/hate in designs and trying to note it all down....

Rat race

Travelling again and time meant I opted to try the treadmill at the hotel for a session of 500m reps. First problem was in trying to program the bloody things as it was only showing miles and I could not work out how to move it to km. So a few minutes of mental arthimetic to determine a km to m pace for my reps and I was off.

Warmed up first for a mile (of course!) and then into the 500's. I set the pace at 5.36 min/m which equates to 3:30 min/km and then ran for 1:45 with then 1 minute standing rest. At rep 6 I upped the pace to 5.25 min/m (approx 3:20 min/km) but kept the time sequencing the same. I suspect that the treadmill may have been a little out in calibration (or am I just running faster better?) but regardless it was a good session, finished off with a mile cool down.

More hills

In a good sign of consistency (or is that insanity?) back to Cox's road for another hill rep session. Straight up it was obvious the legs had not fully recovered from the weekend but I persisted with the 10 reps regardless.

10 reps @ 1:35.5 (LW 1:31.6)
Recovery @ 1:50.7 (pretty much same as last week)

Good news is that neither achilles not ITB nor hammie played up, just general leg deadness.

Backed up from this with a session with Easy Tiger to iron out any kinks which he found heaps. The good news is the extensive work he did on my calves certainly seemed to further ease the tension in the achilles. Pretty obvious however that I desperately need to start stretching my hammies more and he felt that the ITB like tension I was experiencing may have been more associated with my ongoing tight LH hammie!

Clovelly Canter

A fairly large pack at 6:10 and they took off while I was still chatting and had not even taken my pullover off! Anyway as usual the leaders were directionally challenged in the dark and it was not long before I hauled them in. We had a little break at Centennial Park Kiosk for those needing to heed the call of nature as the facilities at the start were locked. From here we wound a path towards the sea but as usual finding every single hill along the way to Tamarama! Then it was pretty easy navigation, keep the water on the left! But still quite a few twists and turns and lots of bloddy stairs. At one section one of the guys in the bunch tripped and came a cropper but he popped up ok. The sea breeze through here made for very cool running conditions, but I am sure they were tropical compared to the conditions Canberra and Melbourne readers are subject to.

As we neared Maroubra yesterday's race started to tell in the legs. At a drink stop I somehow eased off the back of the group and then as we split 3 ways I was running by myself. I opted for the "B" shortcut which would provide about 23km but I forgot that this was much hillier than the "A" route of 26km. All the way back I sat about 20-30m behind the a group but could not reel them in, instead letting them go in the wrong direction, they couldn't hear me yelling, honest!

A real grind getting back to Queens Park but again in a good sign despite the obviously fatigued legs my pace was not slipping as it usually does. A good crowd at the finish and good to catch up with a whole heap of Striders/CR's.

Stats
Distance 24km
Time 2:08:31
Avg Pace 5:22
Avg HR 161

The legs are pretty shattered as I sit here in my skins and the achilles also seems a little inflamed so I'll break out the ice and anti-inflam. Hoping that this week is again more consistent as we lead into Woodford to Glenbrook on Sunday. Last year I knocked out a 1:57:52 certainly hoping to be a bit quicker than that this time.

NSW State XC Championships

A fairly late decision to drag the whole family down to Nowra withe the incentive for the kids that we would test drive a new dual screen DVD player, the 2 screens hang behind the headrests of the front seats. Quite a classic driving along the freeway with the soundtrack from Madagascar proving amusement, but the kids were quiet! A slight hiccup as I followed the signs through Kangaroo Valley, all the twisty stuff meant a nice case of road sickness for Ruby. Shouted the kids the obligitory junk food and then a quick call in to say hello to my auntie who lives in Nowra. Finally got away and arrived with not a lot of time to stuff around. Got changed, saw the Mad Guz for my number, a quick warm up and then they were calling us to the start.

A decent group of Striders at the line with 8 of us in the open division and 5 in the 45+. Only the best 6 and 4 respectively would count to the teams titles though. I had never run here before but had heard quite a bit about the hills, one in particular. Anyway the gun is fired and we are all off! I deliberately tried to take it easy to begin and after about a km assumed my usual position in respect to others who I run against in the West Met races. This was handy and I used them as a general pace guide throughout the run.

Well no one was joking about the hill, looking at the GPS info the 2nd km was pretty much all up hill with a vertical climb of about 60 metres! This was then compensated by the third km which then dropped back down by about the same amount through a series of switchbacks.

After the first lap I pretty much had my place in the field locked, a few going past me but I also went past a few as well.

Stats
Distance 12km (Garmin 305 said 12.23)
Time 54:56
Avg pace 4:29 (based upon Garmin)
Avg HR 177

My 3 lap splits were
Lap 1 17:31
Lap 2 18:39 36:10
Lap 3 18:46 54:56

Pretty happy that I held the 3rd lap close to the same pace as lap 2. Actually pretty happy with the run in general, no niggles and my customary fade at the end of races is well, fading!

A pretty good day for Striders with I understand a 2nd and 4th in the Womens and then the Mad Guz getting second in the mens, I reckon then mens 45+ team might figure in the placings as well. Alas the only downer on the day was that apparently the kids were absolute ratbags while I was out racing and so it seems going forward my race outings will not be a family affair :(

Recovery

Gee it was bloody cold this morning, a quick look at the kids thermometer on the window showed 4 degrees!!

The glutes and lower back were a little tight after the hill reps yesterday and I decided for a recovery run rather than my planned 1km reps, especially with the 12km XC race looming on Saturday.

So a nice jaunt around North Ryde for 5km, with gloves and beanie on but still just a running t shirt and shorts.

Stats
Distance 4.9km
Time 27:13
Avg pace : 5:33
Avg HR : 145

Then popped over to see Martin Horne again to continue the good progress being made on the achilles, a few needles there and on the ITB alng with another injection of the homeopathic anti inflam and things are looking up!

To answer Brendan's question the impact on the fitness of racing on Saturday followed by the long run on Sunday is certainly having a positive impact on the fitness and something I will look to continue. Up to now I really have not run on Saturdays as a way of being fresh for the long runs on Sunday but in shuffling the program and workouts around a bit I think this will make a good difference down the line!

For sure another easy/recovery run tomorrow followed by an absolute thrashing Saturday afternoon at the State XC champs, which I hear has an impressive hill included in the 4km loop that we run 3 times !

Hill reps

Quite a deal cooler this morning as I headed out in the dark for a warm up before attacking Coxs Rd hill again.

Hill reps are not a very exciting blog posting but it sort of went up/down repeat ten times. Always get a good burn on the legs from this session but was pretty happy that the various niggles remained for most part pretty quiet.

End result
10 reps @ avg of 1:31.6, slightly faster than the last session (1:32.2)

The average rest however was quite a deal less at 1:50.6 vs previously 1:54

I think this session will pay dividends, just need to be consistent about doing it more regularly.....

Not going to taper much for the State XC champs which are on Sunday (hey there is nothing much to taper!). I do however think that racing Saturday followed by a long run Sunday is certainly having an effect on my fitness.

On a totally different subject, while everyone is going feral about the soccer world cup, my mind is already starting to think about the TDF and I am planning on running my dream team comp again!

Holiday - rest

A nice long weekend sleep in and then not a lot through the day, was tempted to head out for a short run but let the thought pass. The legs have pulled up pretty well after the weekend, no doubt helped by wearing skins most of yesterday.

For Tesso, the ITB is in the background slightly if I manipulate the knee the right (wrong) way and seems better once warmed up and stretched. I have the roller out tonight and will give it a bashing while watching the soccer (sorry Omni!).

Horrie, I hear you on the pacing! A couple of times I made my thoughts pretty clear out on the road to those doing the damage and I did go back with both Blue Dog and Gnome making sure they were ok or running with someone else before chasing the group back down (which was an effort in itself!). Homebush is always seemingly going to be a bit faster and last week I did get a pretty good workover from the 6:20 group....

Homebush Hustle

Woke up at 5am to the sound of torrential rain. After vascilating for 5 minutes got up and prepped to go. Amazingly the rain pretty much cleared as we headed off. Straight away the ITB started complaining but I ignored it hoping that after a km or 2 I would be warmed up. As usual the 6:10 group was a little too agressive on pace but I hung back with Blue Dog for a chat before chasing them down as we entered Olympic Park. By then everything was warmed up and I felt pretty good. Tried to calm down the speedsters which worked for a little while but as we ran towards Parramatta River we were still cracking along. Now I dropped back with Gnome who was finding the pace a little hot. We ran together for a while and I managed to make a small navigation error which put us a little bit further back. I left Gnome when we caught one of the 6am groups and again set off after the 6:10 bunch, just catching them as we got to Silverwater prison and the water stop.

Over the other side of the river and along the bike path and I felt pretty good and moved to the front. Some of the runners who were hammering along earlier were just starting to struggle a little and so I upped the ante :) Through the back of the Ermington industrial area with a few ups and downs we really got going as langswd and I pushed things along. In keeping with my immediate plans for Sunday I took the shortcut that would give me 25km as everyone else went long. Ran it out hard home and I think the distance was just right as I just started to feel the pinch in the last km or so.

Stats
Distance 26.4km
Time 2:06:54
Avg pace 4:48
Avg HR 165 (quite pleasing)

Looking back through the log I ran the same option as my last longish hit out before Canberra 2005 and ran 2:04 so am happy with todays run.

Aiming to get a little more consistent this week and work on loosening up the ITB while still watching the achilles which is fine after 2 hard days running :)

Trials and tribulations

Started off the week with focus on trying to reduce the inflammation in the achilles.

Wednesday
Headed down to the weir and back on a tempo style run. Noticed that at points the LH ITB complained and still a little noise from the RH achilles as well. Made a booking for Friday morning with the witch doctor to look at the wheel alignment. In the interim I did some self diagnosis, last week I put in a heel lift on the rh shoe to try and shorten the stretch on the rh achilles which I believe then lengthened the stretch on the lh ITB. Anyway, the lift is back out!

Stats
Distance 10.85km
Time 50:02
Avg pace 4:36
Avg HR 172

Thursday
An early start and then hectic day at work but I took my gear in to attempt a session. As it happened the opportunity presented itself between work and the Striders committee meeting and I popped down to the gym with plans for a hard 500m interval rep session on the treadmill. As soon as I started striding out the ITB twinged badly. I tried to persevere but it was not improving so I hit the stop button and trudged back to get changed :(

Friday
An early morning session with the witch doctor, after I explained my woes he went to work with the needles and left me to "relax" as they did their job. After that he suggested injecting a natural anti-inflam solution (Traumeel) as the sheath around the tendon was inflamed (but not the tendon itself!). The heel felt a little wierd through the rest of the day.

Saturday
The rain cleared at the right time as I headed to Smiffo for the West Met XC race. The course was 2 laps (4km each) with a couple of loops around the ovals/parks and bike tracks near where SMC is based. Was concerned with the warmup as the ITB again niggled but opted to race and see what happened. As usual out a little too fast with 3:50 firstkm but then tucked in about 20m behind Graham S where I stayed for most of the race, just drifting in the last km or so. A couple of Hills Aths guys picked me off in the last km but I managed to hold them within reach to the finish. Afterwards one of them mentioned to me that I run with quite a high elbow action on the rhs which was interesting! ITB was fine during the run but tightened up a little as I cooled down

Stats
Distance 8.07km (which I reckon is about right)
Time 33:54
Avg pace 4:11
Avg HR 180

Catch up

As I mentioned in my last post from Adelaide it seemed as if things would be hectic and I was not wrong

Tuesday
Up early but had to do final prep for my business meeting, then on a plane back to Sydney to connect to another plane to get to Wellington NZ.

Wednesday
I managed to wake up at 5am NZ time (3am Sydney) but it was pitch black outside and very windy. Running in teh dark in a strange city in a cold wind was enough demotivation to stay in bed :(

Thursday
Back home late last night and wanted to spend some time with the family so running missed out. Did go and visit Therese for some accupuncture on the achilles. She also detected the early stages of a cold and so added a few extra needles to sort that out. She put some wierd smelling herbal patch over the achilles to help reduce the inflammation and told me not to run for at least a day.

Friday
Rest as per instructions

Saturday
I dressed up prepared to run the 10km but also wanted to see what my team mates for the relays in the afternoon were doing. As vat and superflake were also saving themselves I opted to do the right thing and not smash my legs up. I did load my 305 to Cam as he forgot his watch. The trace below is more evidence of the much better tracking the 305 offers, the 301 always struggled at Lane Cove. My watch now has a new 10km PB of 35:06, no way it will ever get close to that while on my wrist!



Headed to Ramsgate in the afternoon for the State XC relays and I was the anchor mane for the Striders 35+ team. The course was 2 laps of a 2km loop, which had a little out and back loop added to make up the distance. Apparently the start was a shambles with mixed up officials seeing some doing the out and back while others being told to miss it on the first lap!

Eventually it was my time to get tagged and off I went, sprinting out way too fast. I slotted in just behind Darren Benson who was on his second lap and actually held him at about 20m for the first km. Then the body started to winge a little and I eased up to ensure I could finish the 4km running.

The soft ground underfoot and a howling wind into your face along the back section made for tough running, I eventually finished with only 2-3 teams going past me, what a lung burner! After fumbling with the watch at the start and finish had no real idea as to my time, but saw the results today and I ran 15:54 and our team finished 5th in our category.

Actually felt ok after the race, commenting to Horrie that the achilles felt ok and also no niggles recently for the LH hammie/glute.

Sunday - Pymble STaR
Up early to drive over to Pymble, one STaR that I have not done yet somehow! In keeping with my new approach I hung around waiting for the 6:20 group and off we went. Had not realised the extent of the hills on this course, that coupled with a twinge in the LH hammie and I was starting to struggle a little before dropping off just before the short cut turn off. After here I also noticed the achilles was starting to complain and so I also took the 2nd shortcut which was still going to see me do about 24km. Caught up to a slower group near Turramurra shops and a few of them joined me on the downhill run back down to Lane Cove River for some biush running before climbing back up to Pymble.

Stats
Distance 24.3 km
Time 2:11
Avg Pace 5:23
Avg HR 162

The achilles has pulled up quite tender (again) and I am getting a little frustrated with the scenario.

Recovery run - Adelaide

Yes, in my never ending quest to identify a good recovery run route I ventured to Adelaide for a gentle run along the Torrens.

A great venue for running, minimal cycle traffic along the shared path and a variety of different route options. The legs felt pretty good but the achilles is again tender, so much so that I abandoned my planned run this morning and have now booked to see master needlesmith Teresa Lee on Thursday when back in Sydney.

Stats
Distance 11.13km
Time 57:45
Avg pace 5:11
Avg HR 154

Stay tuned, to see where I pop up next :)

SMC 10km - Race

Out to Smiffo and it was quite cool, a quick catch up with the 25km runners and a good chat with Horrie and vat before opting to try a warm up. Certainly the bashing I gave the legs yesterday was evident and it took a little while to get going, threw in a few stretches as well which seemed to help.

Over for the start of the combined 5km and 10km and a decent crowd. I had already decided today was not a PB tilt option but more aiming for a steady consistent pace, trying not to fade too much which is my usual form.

Kept it fairly steady and soon was running pretty much by myself when the 5km runners turned. I was about 30-50m behind the guy that I have labelled "budgie smugler" as that is all he runs in (plus shoes), a bit cool for that today I thought!

Hit the turnaround in about 21:26 and while it was a press to hold the pace I was not struggling, in fact managed to pick the pace back up before the long climb. Near the 2km mark Ron and Barry were coming back towards me, on their second lap of the 25km course. Ron told me to make sure I beat "budgie" and in fact now I was only about 20m behind him.

At the 1km mark I caught the very relaxed 25km bus with Plu and Bernie sitting in the drivers seat and I set out to try and drag in the 20m to budgie. I was gaining but slowly and as we hit the grass he was still 10m in front, here I decided to engage my withering finishing burst and to my amazement it worked and I went straight past him :). Crossed the line in 42:06 which means a back 5km split of 20:40 giving a negative split of 26 seconds!!

Usually in 10km races my last km is my slowest but today I posted about a 3:50 which was actually the fastest km for the whole race.

Stats
Distance 10km (9.96 by garmin)
Time 42:06
Avg Pace 4:12
Avg HR 175

Splits
1km 4:11 4:11
2km 4:08 8:19
3km 4:19 12:38
4km 4:24 17:02
5km 4:26 21:28
6km 4:09 25:37
7km 4:21 29:58
8km 4:12 34:10
9km 4:12 38:22
Fin 3:44 42:06

Quite pleased overall, certainly the legs had been blunted by the XC yesterday afternoon so to post a 42 was about right. Will be interesting to see how fresher legs perform at Lane Cove next Saturday.

A very hectic week looming workwise but I'll be hard at it to fit in some running.

West Met XC - North Ryde Common

This week's West Met was just around the corner at North Ryde Common, the site of many of my recovery runs. For a change the whole family walked up and we met up with another one of the families from school there. Stella had opted out of having a run but Ruby (6yo) was keen and so we lined up together at the back of the 2km pack, Alex from the other family joined us. The course was actually quite tough, starting straight into a climb up to Wicks Rd, then along Wicks, zig zagging back down past the start area for a loop to return, making up 2km. She struggled just near the top of the hill, walking a bit but went well around the course and was stoked to finish with everyone cheering her on! That gave me a nice easy warm up covering the 2km course in 15 minutes.

So the 8km race was 4 laps of the same course, first time up the hill was ok but was not looking forward to another 3 climbs! A real tough course with the undulating terrain, a number of tight turns to break your momentum and all on grass, good for impact reduction but harder to get traction.

Stats
Distance 8km (garmin said 8.15)
Time 35:36
Avg pace 4:25
Avg HR 178

Legs felt it a little but more a lung burner, achilles was a little tender during the 2km warm up but no problems in the actual race. Tomorrow out to Smiffo (Smithfield) for the last SMC race, I'll opt out of the 25km, preferring to have a crack at the 10km.

Rest & revamp

I decided to ease off the training this week, to freshen the mind up a little, let the achilles recover and contemplate what next.

As you can see I have done a mini revamp of the blog. It became obvious as I started planning the next couple of months that orienteering and rogaining were not really going to fit too much into the equation and so I opted for a new banner, which I really like the symbolism of, "the open road ahead"!

In looking at the upcoming months it started to crystallise for me that I really desire to run Sydney Marathon again (properly) and despite it's relative toughness as a course in the back half, have a really good crack at lowering my PB. As it happens Sydney is 16 weeks away from this Sunday!! From there it was pretty easy to start filling in the weeks with various races that I am planning on doing. The immediate focus is still on leg speed and I think that the schedule I have put up, along with a greater focus on speed in training should see some PB's and goals being achieved along the way. There are a few others that I am also interested in not on the list, eg Shoalhaven KOM, will just have to see how things unfold.

The other big goal is to reduce weight, I am back at around 78kg, having floated around 73kg in peak 6 ft training back in January. This will mean adjustment in diet, especially what I am drinking. Quite a significant reduction on both alcohol (not elimination though!) and soft drinks (I do like my cola and do not like the taste of diet/zero/max) so a lot more water and low joule cordial. Ideally I think below 72kg by September is realistic and reasonable, along the way this should help my PB quest!

I can use the letters PB in a title :)

A hectic few days with Friday afternoon evening being the Striders Awards night. Seemed to go down ok, for sure Scott Westcott was a great find as a guest speaker.

Saturday saw myself and my boy head into the city to pick up my race kit, after that he enjoyed a chocolate paddle pop while I knocked back a coffee and muffin. The rest of Saturday involved what can only be described as a form of S&M, buying and then attempting to assemble various cardboard boxes imported from Scandinavia with wierd names (ie IKEA) in an attempt to freshen up the kids bedrooms.

Up at 5am on Sunday, made some toast, managing to set off the newly installed smoke alarm, but somehow not waking anyone! Sorted out the kit bag and then into the city, grabbing a park near The Palisades pub (the reason will be obvious later). Then into the Rocks to the house of the Strider members who provide a base for us each year.

General nervous chit chat, getting ready and comparing notes with the Langsworths on Garmin 305 options and settings. Found out that Joel was the unofficial 90 minute pacer and that Danielle was also aiming for 90 so determined to keep an eye out for them. A quick warm up run down to the start and slid into a position about 5 back from the front and right next to Joel and Danielle amongst many other Striders and Cool Runners. Quite a few were having problems getting signal lock on their GPS units.

Watched with envy as the preferred runners did their later warmup and eventually filed in just in front of us. A bit of a wait and than all of a sudden the gun sounded, pretty much without warning. A quick shuffle through the timing gate and then we were off with pretty much free running within 100m. Danielle was having major Garmin problems with it continually sounding an alarm as a distance alert. By about 2km it was obvious her Garmin was struggling and I tried to diagnose on the fly, but when she said it was not measuring distance I suggested that she might need to reset as it seemed not to have a signal lock and the chances of getting one at race pace through the city canyons was remote....

At each of the climbs I drifted off a little but managed to pick them back up with a bit more effort on the flat or downhill. Through this I could see that Professor was around 100m up the road. At the St Marys Cathedral u turn he saw me and I gave a yell and said I was coming. Sure enough at about the 10km mark we caught him and I urged him to join us, even though my elastic band struggle was starting to take effect. The 10km split was 42:16 so just ahead of pace.

Sure enough as we climbed Pitt St to Hunter I drifted off again, this time for good. Now it was the challenge of trying to keep things together for as long as possible. It felt like a swarm of runners were overtaking but in general I was only slightly slipping. Just near the St Mary's hairpin Kanagra steamed past and I got a chance to check who else might be looming. No surprise that Barry was only about 20m back and Professor not much further and certainly in reach.

Really focussed on speed on the downhill back to Circular Quay and mentally prepared for the Argyle cut climb. I think the hill reps paid off here as I again held my own through here and then kept on grinding away. At about 200m out Tim (Redback and I think Katie/Kit) yelled out to me and then in quick succession I also heard them encourage Professor who was obviously very close!! I just opened up with everything that was left. Actually picked off a few people in this dash and crossed the line absolutely spent. Seems Professor came through about 5 sec's later!

Ended up with a hand time from the Garmin of 91:08 which, while not an overall PB, was a course PB of a nice round 5 minutes :). Had a quick chat with Professor and then caught up with many others, including seagull which confirmed I had the honours (this time) in our 2 way challege. Back to the Striders base catching up with many and freshening up before headed back to the Palisades, just in time to refresh my parking and share more war stories with many assorted Cool Runners.

Heaps and heaps of great runs from many that I spoke to today, The Mad Guz collecting 3rd outright, truly mad.... Pretty much every 2nd person I spoke to had carbed some time of some sort of PB. It does not get much better than that!!

The RH achilles had been complaining since my run on Thursday and is tender tonight, ice and rest tomorrow, probably even accupuncture this week.

Stats
Distance 21.1km - derrr
Time 91:08
Avg Pace 4:19
Avg HR 176

Splits (summary)
5km 20:54
10km 21:22
15km 21:55

Spilts detail
1km 4:06 4:06
2km 4:10 8:16
3km 4:14 12:30
4km 4:21 16:51 (Hunter Street)
5km 4:03 20:54 (down to Lady Mac Chair)
6km 4:14 25:08
7km 4:28 29:36
8km 4:04 33:40
9km 4:28 38:08 (Argyle cut)
10km 4:08 42:16
11km 4:12 46:28
12km 4:23 50:51
13km 4:30 55:21 (struggling!)
14km 4:31 59:52 (Hunter St again)
15km 4:17 64:09
16km 4:22 68:31
17km 4:42 73:13 (out of Lady Mac Chair)
18km 4:13 77:26
19km 4:46 82:12
21.1km 8:56 91:08 (missed 20km marker!)

True Weir Run

Opted against heading to Timbrell this morning for 1km reps given Sunday's race and so decided to do the staple Weir Run with the intent of a couple of km at around Half Marathon Pace. Again a little cooler but still singlet weather at the moment. Trying to hold 4:15 pace back out of the weir without really extending myself was tough.

Stats
Distance 10.84
Time 50:19
Avg Pace 4:38
Avg HR 162

Was very interested to see how the 305 went in territory that the 301 always struggled. The results were amazing, the 305 tracked perfectly and so I am much more inclined to believe it's distance reading.

Thanks for all the comments and support for the half plan, now I just need to run it!

Misty Morning

Out for a gentle recovery session with the plan being 2 laps of Ryde Common. A bit of a mist around and certainly noticeable in the hollow along Badajoz Rd, decidely cooler there as well. A few other people out shuffling, but not as stylish as my shuffle!

Legs felt pretty good in general but still raised a bit of a sweat, despite the temperature and easier pace.

Stats
Distance 7.7km
Time 43:52
Avg Pace 5:41
Avg HR 150

So, the SMH Half.....
My previous 2 attempts have been half baked, still in the middle of post Canberra demotivation. I am much happier about my attitude this year.
2004 time was 1:38:15 with only 67km run between Canberra and SMH
2005 time was 1:36:08 with 118km between Canberra and SMH
This year I will have done about 230km post Canberra and I believe am much better recovered, both physically and mentally.

So still mulling over an actual goal but I would say I'll be gunning for that half PB set back in Arizona and if that is the case may as well aim for 89:59. A subset goal will be to get to the line in front of both seagull and professor in our own little battle that has been progressing this season so far.

The key to doing this will be running at a consistent pace, ie not out too hard! That in itself will prove a challenge......

Hills

With my amazingly varied schedule Tuesday means hill reps!

A nice warm up first and nearly run straight into cool runner Kanagra as I stumble out the door and start running up the street as he was heading in the other direction with a very cool bandana type looking head covering (these triathletes are so stylish!).

Not a lot you can write about hill reps, up/down/up/down repeat several times. They seem to be working, the legs burning quite nicely in the quads today, sparing the lungs a little. Took a little while to get used to the 305 workout features but anyway.....

A nice picture to illustrate my 10 reps.



Stats
10 reps @ 1:32 with average 1:54 rest
Seems in alignment with 2 weeks ago, 2 seconds faster on average for the up but 2 seconds slower on the recovery.

Thoughts are slowly drifting to Sunday and SMH, but quite busy at work in catch up mode and also helping finalise the Striders Presentation evening on Friday night.

Sunday = Long Run

Part of the new regime is the fast Saturday followed by the longer Sunday run and thus heading out to Dee Why for the appropriately named Dash. Got to the start and the 6am group had already headed out but that was ok as I was planning to run with 6:20 anyway. A decent group of about 8 and we worked on the gradual climb from Dee Why inland. I peeled off from the group and took the short cut, only aiming to do about 22km and also avoiding the decent to Oxford Falls and subsequent climb to Belrose.

Kept a good tempo going as the uphill keep gradually going until I hit Forest Way. I really like this run due to the next section, a long gradual downhill through Allambie to Pittwater Road. Upped the tempo somewhat here with the goal of then trying to maintain it heading home. From Queenscliffe some more climbing up to Harbord and then along the coast with another long gradual climb before descending to Dee Why. I picked up a few earlier starters along here, especially increasing the pace on the last downhill through Dee Why.

Stats
Distance 22.2km
Time 1:48:35
Avg Pace 4:53
Avg HR 166

Very happy with this run a good steady pace despite the climbs and finished strongly. Again strangely nothing at all from the achilles but it is still a little inflamed. The quads are a little beat up, combined from yesterday's pace and today's hills but that will subside. A great confidence builder hit out for next Sunday.

New PB!

Down to Meadowbank this afternoon for my first West Met Cross Country race. A pretty low key event with the 2km and 4km events finishing while I arrived and a decent group formed up for the 8km race which consisted of 2 extended laps around Meadowbank, including a nasty pinch at around 3km.

With the smaller group (compared to a Striders race) it was very soon open running and I settled in behind Graham and Geoff Sheargold with seagull also lurking nearby. First km was 3:50 and the Sheargolds and I edged away from seagull, posting another 3:50 for km 2. We continued but the hill took a little out of me as the Sheargold team slowly pulled away as we headed back to the start, posting a 15:36 for the 4km mark. Started to flag a little here but kept rolling through as much as possible.

The final parts of the 2nd lap were a little painful and I could see seagull looming in the background gainig fast, however I held on enough to edge him by a few seconds at the finish

Stats
Distance 8km ? (Garmin says 7.82)
Time 32:34
Avg Pace 4:04
Avg HR 181

So a new PB, given I have not raced an 8km race before :)

Out too hard but felt pretty smooth for the first 5km or so before things became a little jagged. Actually felt pretty good considering it was less than 24 hours after about 16 hours travel. Amazingly the funky achilles has remarkably repaired itself somehow with not even a peep out of it?????

Back home!

As usual the User Conference got pretty hectic and that combined with dining and drinking and then trying to catch up on email at around midnight (or later!) meant sleep was lookin good! However I managed to slip in another quick trip to a different set of shops and was rewarded with a good bargain on a set of Nike Frees, as well as a set of sunglasses with interchangable lens for running. Getting back my final new toy arrived which I had pre-ordered for delivery, a noice 305 :)

I caught up with one of my collegues who is the VP for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Afica) and a very good runner (he was the one who headed off to Death Valley last weekend). Arnaud ran 3:04 in New York last year. He still wanted to go for a run so we headed off Wednesday morning, me fully kitted out with the new 305 and Nike Air Elites.

Straight up the strip, Arnaud couldn't be bothered with the pedestrian bridges and so we charged across some intersections of traffic, bloody mad! Turned at Mandalay Bay to do a loop near the airport and then head parallel with the Strip meeting it near the Stardust. Arnaud really clapped on the pace here in bursts, it seems he neglected to tell me he was going to do some 1km reps at Half Marathon Pace (ie 4 min/km). Not being mentally ready for this and with the achilles seemingly complaining I drifted off him a little. A good run back along the Strip past the new Wynn hotel/casino and the Treasure Island, The Venetian and The Mirage.



Stats
Distance 11.6km
Time 55:00
Avg Pace 4:44 min/km
Avg HR 165

Very impressed with the 305, it picked up signal very quickly where the 301 struggled for a while 2 days previously. Will take a little while to learn all the new stuff and get used to the new button placement. The shoes also felt very comfortable however the achilles pulled up pretty sore and is certainly inflammed, more ice and gel!

Finally back after the long haul, not helped by plane mechanical problems out of Las Vegas. I wore my skins from Los Angeles to Sydney and stayed awake to try and restore the body clock. Everything seemed to work as I feel quite normal this morning, the ankle is pain free again now but still a little swollen, it looked very swollen last night but I think that was due to the long flight than anything else.

Will give things a sorting out this afternoon at my first West Met race, should be interesting! One week to go for the SMH and I won't taper really, not enough distance being done to worry about a taper.

Airport Adventure?

In the tradition of Sunday morning STaR's I arose early and prepared, I was aiming to run with the Las Vegas Running Team but was confronted with a taxi rank line of 10-15 people when I walked out the front door of the casino at 5:30am! So I promptly turned around back to my room to reorganise my gear and go running by myself.

I had read of a good run with circumnavigated the Las Vegas Airport, thus the adaption of the Airport Adventure title. Started out with the slow pieces of pedestrian bridges and stairs etc to cross the major intersections but pretty soon got into the groove as I headed along Tropicana towards the airport entrance. Turned right into Eastern and popped into a 7-11 for a Gatorade, belive it or not there were around 10 poker machines in the 7-11 and 2 people playing them at around 7am!!!!

Out underneath the final approach path with jets wizzing overhead and then along the Southern Perimeter (Sunset). Started to flag a little here, I think running with a bottle in my hand unsettled me a little. Finally turned North again along the Strip and back battling the increasing pedestrian traffic.

Here is the run route.



Stats
Distance 19.6km
Time 1:37:34
Avg Pace 4:58 min/km
Avg HR 168

The funky rh achilles/heel pulled up badly initially but at some point through the day I managed to "crack" some joints in the foot which relieved thingd considerably.

Shopping update - been a busy boy sussing out the factory outlets for bargains. One I could not go past was a pair of current (for Australia) Air Zoom Elite II @ USD 50 + tax which worked out to around AUD 70(seemingly current AUD RRP of around 200)!!! A good light weight trainer, similar to the Asics DS Trainer and a a planned purchase for my scheduled speed sessions.



Sorry to all requesting snapshots :
a) I sweat so much I would never try to run with a camera
b) I did not bring a camera

Rest day tomorrow, ice for funky foot is on the plan.

Viva!

A travelling post from the sunny climes of Las Vegas! Annual work committments meant I missed both the Striders 10km and ANSW 10km :( so this morning (Saturday) I headed out for a head clearing and leg stretching run. The Garmin took a while to sort out the other side of the world and was not happy about all the tall buildings and glass but eventually got going. I am staying at Caesars Palace but warmed up down to outside Bellagio before getting a signal lock and starting. Here is a Google Earth snapshot with buildings, pretty cool!



So past the Bellagio Lake with Paris and Aladdin on the other side, then up to Monte Carlo and New York New York, MGM across the street. Over a walkway to Excalibur and then Luxor and Mandalay Bay, that was the last of the hotels and all of a sudden pretty much open road. A few km later and Garmin said it was time to turn around and came the same way back. I started at 8:30 local time and it was around 18 degrees C but quite a deal warmer when I got back.

I turned down an offer from one of the guys I work with, they were going to drive out to Death Valley for a run!!

Stats
Distance 10.9km
Time 52:12
Avg Pace 4:47
Avg HR 171

Speed - where art thou?

Another step in the quest for the sub 40 10km is the return of the 1km reps. I delayed this last week due to my Melbourne trip, but no excuses today!

Drove down to Brett Park to link up with a group that leaves at around 6am, but got there early, just as Action and Luke Skyrunner cruised past and so I opted to warm up with them.

First 2 reps were ok, the other 2 cleared away from me pretty quickly, as I was catching up for the 3rd rep the others showed up and took off so I had a shorter recovery, which hurt! The 4th rep was not real good but I lined up with the group again and tried holding on for as long as possible.

A quick recovery break and then off around the rest of the bay run, just started to flag from the efforts in the last km.

Stats
5 x 1km reps at average of 3:54 and average recovery of 2:05
Total distance run 13.8km
Time 1:02:37

Splits were pretty consistent other than the 4th
3:52
3:51
3:55
4:00
3:52

Funky (thanks Jen!) Heel still complaining but not affecting running, I feel it more walking. Another step on the road to the goal.....

More hills

Another crack at Cox's hill!

This time I squeezed out 10 reps, slightly slower than last week but also a slightly shorter recovery phase.

10 repeats @ 1:34 with 1:52 recovery (LW 9 @ 1:30 with 1:57)

Still something "funky" going on with the rh ankle so more ice tonight. It does not seem to be affecting my form but I believe it is the foot still adapting to the new inserts and activating more big toe work. Also first outing for the new Kayano XII as the Trance's are getting a bit long in the tooth.

Rest!!

Monday is still slated as a rest day (but not for long!) but I decided to head on in to Easy Tiger for a massage. Some residual tightness in the quads but niggly heel seemed pretty good after ice last night. Gary determined that in his words "your calf muscles are bloody tight". Those who attend future sessions will notice indentations under the massage table where my fingers were gripping as he sorted out that tightness!

Also a pretty good picture from Saturday is below, it looks like that pesky seagull is just about to swoop, hovering over my left shoulder. Regulars will also notice I have sprouted facial hair, a leftover from the holidays, going for the bandito look :)

River Run STaR

Since this is one of the STaRs I actually also use for training and enjoy I wanted to run with the club and see how I pulled up after yesterday afternoons efforts plus also get a better feeling for how the body is recovering from Canberra.

A decent sized group for 6:10, but as usual a few charge off the front only to run for the next 10-15km about 50-100m in front of us.....

The slightly dodgy heel immediately started to live up to it's new nickname but was nowhere near enough to cease running. We stayed together until the bush at Boronia PArk and then fragmented as we caught up and passed earlier starters. A slight regroup at the top of Field of Mars and then we split into 2 as the "long" runners turned off and a smaller group of us short cutted. As we headed through Denistone silverfox and Paul B told myself and another runner (Wylie) to go ahead as we seemed a little stronger, I like the last few km of this run along the river and we kept the pace rolling along here to finish strongly.

Stats
Distance 23.85km
Time 2:06:19
Avg Pace 5:17
Avg HR 158

Much better longer run than last Sunday so recovery is progressing well. Dodgy heel is tender but will sort that out through the day. Managed to aggravate the blisters on the arches of my feet, bugger, might have to see podrunner to get the new inserts adjusted a little.

Novice XC 10km Race

Another step in my plan to get faster this week with my First Athletics NSW event, the appropriately named Novice Cross Country 10km race at Ramsgate. I opted not to do the light run planned on Friday as the previously mentioned niggle in the rhs heel/achilles was still evident, the extra day did make a difference!

Got down to Ramsgate at about 2pm to sort out entry and race numbers and then watch the other races on the program catching up with fellow striders at the same time. The time came for us to head off and a decent field lined up. The course was around parklands with 2 x large loops (around 3km) and then 2 x smaller loops (around 2km).

Probably out a bit hot (as usual) with Garmin saying I hit 5km in 19:54, around here Blue Dog surged past but I was holding my pace and place pretty well. With around 3km to go seagull caught me and enthused to keep up with him, pretty hard when I had been running as hard as I could to stay in front of him!

Ended up with a time of 42:15 which is about right. The running surface was certainly soft underfoot and very sandy in some places. Others who had run here before said it is probably a course that would be a minute slower than a road 10km time.

Stats
Distance 10km (although Garmin said 10.09
Time 42:15
Average Pace 4:13
Avg HR 181 (my highest for sometime!)

The niggly heel went ok, quite pleased with the hit out and good upside for improvement, especially given this is still only 3 weeks recovery from Canberra.

Tempo - allegro

I originally had today scheduled for a recovery run after the hill reps yesterday but with a late night for work stuff slept in so decided I was going to run in the evening. As it happens through the day at work it became obvious that I would wipe out all of tomorrow with a same day work trip to Melbourne and so decided to adjust the plan.

So the new run planned was now a "tempo" run to the weir and back. Given it was dark already I geared up, finally being able to use my christmas nike arm band light and given the park would be pretty quiet decided to wheel out the shuffle as well.

A very good pace on the way down but the Garmin had coniptions, reeling off a batch of auto km all of a sudden in 100m! That really screwed up my pace monitoring so I just focussed on form and climbing hard back up scribbly.

Back home in what was a new fastest time for the route

Stats
Distance 11.1km
Time 50:45
Avg Pace 4:34
Avg HR 174

Started to struggle just near the end but pretty happy with the run, a slight niggle on the rh heel/lower achilles so have iced and used nurofen gel.

An enforced rest day tomorrow with a easy run on Friday as I prepare to start my first Athletics NSW race on Saturday in the Novice 10km cross country. Yikes!

Back to it

An unusual wake up call this morning, stirring to the sound of first bagpipes and then a brass band. Today is Anzac day and given our proximity to the fairly large RSL club there is a local parade which goes past our front door!

Waited a while trying avoid the showers drifting through before heading out and via a warm up run around the corner to my hill rep course. The goal is to increase the intensity of these reps from what I was doing earlier (17 reps @ 1:39) and try to get to around 10 reps.

The session went pretty well but I was well and truly knackered at the end of rep 9. Actually quite pleased with the way I went with the reps averaging 1:30 and the same recovery rep time as my longer sessions. Quite consistent as well with the reps varying between 1:28 to 1:32. A little amazed in looking at my log that my last session on this hill was wayyyy back on the 10th of January, a story there in itself!

Holiday fun

As alluded to in the last post had some time out with the family and we headed up to Hawks Nest, a nice little sleepy village that sits nicely between Port Stephens and the Pacific Ocean.

Thursday - Sorted out last minute work stuff and then packed the family in for the drive. By the time we got there and had unpacked and done grocery shopping etc etc left no time for a run

Friday - First run since Canberra with a nice out and back style run past the golf course along the road between the lake and the sea. A few little niggles but a good hit out at a decent pace
Distance 8.1km
Time 39:19
Avg pace 4:51 min/km
Avg HR 169

Saturday - A more composed "recovery" run which I really enjoyed. My eldest daughter decided to ride her bike with me while I ran and we meandered around the various streets and tracks of Hawks Nest. She was a little slow and cautious to begin but as we headed for home she really picked up the pace which stretched me out a little. A great way to spend some time with her!

Distance 6.26km
Time 38:00
Avg Pace 6:04

Sunday - The other adults in our group had been walking every morning while I looked after the kids and walked up to the top of Yaccaba Headland, a decent sized hill which is the northern gateway to Port Stephens and offers magnificent views. This afternoon I decided to do a hard run to the top and back. This involved running to the beach and then about a km and half of beach running, switching to about a km of trail before a real steep climb to the top. I thought I could do it in about 50 minutes and was close but missed a trail on the way back and so ran a little extra. Interesting the uneven surface running created some hot spots on the arches of my feet and the rhs developed a blister :(

Distance 8.1km
Time 52:20
Avg Pace 6:27
Avg HR 167
Climb 200m

Monday - Over dinner on Sunday night it was resolved to convene the inaugural Yaccaba challenge. Based upon times it had taken various people to get up and back handicaps were drawn up (I know, I just can't help myself :) ). We would start on the beach and I would give the out marker 40 min head start! Tough going trying to run faster on the sand but good pace all the way to the steep bit, seeing the others coming back down at various points. A quick stop at the top to collect the initialed shells placed at the top as evidence of making it to the top and then back down. In trying to push faster I aggravated the blister and created a matching one on the LHS as well! About halfway back along the beech I caught one of the others but the leaders were too far away. Finished off with a refreshing sip in the ocean with a good sized surf.

Distance 5.65km
Time 41:39
Avg Pace 7:22 (no flat road running to boost the average!)

Here is a Google earth shot of the route

and here is an actual photo of the headland from the other side


From there the rest of the week went downhill training wise, the blisters were actually pretty severe and so I decided to do a ride or 2 but the weather (and laziness) conspired against me so instead I sat around sleeping, eating and drinking (including developing a taste for Dark and Stormies, a mixture of Bundy rum and Ginger beer!). Eventually all good things end and time to come home :(

Sunday - North Head Star
While a number of people headed to scenic Smithfield I opted for the North Head STaR since I have not run it before. A smaller group for 6:10 and a nasty hill right up out of Clontarf to keep you honest. The pace was on but I could not be bothered to try and drag them back, preferring to run at a more sensible pace with Amjan. The run is quite scenic, incorporating parts of the Spit to Manly walk and then out to the end of North Head. It was quite busy out there with some sort of duathlon/triathlon on and so there were striders, cyclists and runners spread out along the road. Back down through Fairy Bower to Manly and along the beach to Queenscliff. This was about 15km and I started to feel the efforts from Canberra 2 weeks ago as the legs started to deaden. Luckily Amanda turned off soon after for the 30km option while I struggled back along the short cut, stopping off at a service station for a *ahem* urgent pit stop. By the end I had really had enough and the body was complaining, at least I have a good idea as to how much I have recovered so far....

Distance 23km
Time 1:59:25
Avg Pace 5:11
Avg HR 162

Monday - a day of rest/recovery and trying to catch up on a quieter day at work on the large swathe of emails awaiting me!

A good indication as to my pre and post Canberra running efforts is tipping the scales this morning at 76.9 a few kg back on from where I was end of January!

End of Canberra stuff

Thanks to Tiger Angel for a great picture at pretty much the 40km mark. Certainly looking better than I was feeling :)

Final thoughts....

Positives
Given the prep in last 2 months a decent time
Another marathon under the belt
Somewhat of a redemption run after 6ft and Canberra last year
Lots of upside if I ever get my act together
Seemingly emerged injury free

Negatives
Slack training February and March
My first marathon is still my fastest

No more introspection, a bit of a break with the family which will include a few rides and also recovery runs so I am ready and fresh to work on speed.

Canberra Marathon Race Report

Pre Race
Drove down on Saturday morning with Colin and Gasher, after checking in wandered over to the start/rego had a quick look and caught up with Uncle Dave and Papa Luigi who then joined us for a loading lunch at Manuka. Back to the start area and cheered on various runners in the 5km/10km while catching up with all sorts of people at the same time. Then headed into the city for dinner with the Striders MTG.

Race Day
Quite cool, but not uncomfortable as we headed out. In the masses Action and Graham S moved out about 15-20m in front as I settled in runnign with Graham Wye (who I ran part of PMC with) and the 3:15 pace bunch about another 20m behind. Up and around the top of Parliament House and I moved away Graham and caught Action, 5km split was 23:09. Back down to the turn around for the first time, missing the 10km split but roughly 46:22 (23:13) so a little slower than planned but on target. At the turnaround the 3:15 group caught us with Colin carrying the flag while the official pacer made a pit stop. From here the running was good as our tight group rolled along, also a few more Striders in there for company including Barry.

Accordingly the next 5km was a little quicker as we ran along Parkes Way, posting a 22:47 on the way down to the turnaround. Coming back up to 20km another 22:47 and I was just starting to feel the pinch a little. The half marathon split helped make my mind up as we went through in 96, a bit ahead of schedule and so I opted to ease off. Action caught me having also made a quick pitstop and we had a quick chat before he moved ahead after crossing back over the lake.

By the time I got to the turnaround again I was struggling a little with a 23:36 5km split. A few people who saw me at the turn commented to me afterwards that I looked like I was struggling....

Knowing I did not have a heap of miles in the legs from the last couple of months I focussed on just keeping running and avoiding the looming cramps as people started overtaking. While it was a struggle I did not experience anything like what happened at Six Foot or at Canberra last year. At the turnaround I had a massive lock up in my RH hammie but managed to ease it and start the climb back up the hill. Near the tunnel Claire and Shelley caught me and I gave Clairie a good cheer/pep as they went through. By now I knew I'd make it and just wanted to finish under 3:30.

Finally onto the bridge and through the parliament house area and managed to pick up the pace a little again in the last km or so. As I got to the last corner and the crowd another guy had appeared at my shoulder and as we hit the straight I was determined not to let him past so wound up and ran as fast as the legs would allow and he cramped up letting me past as we finished. A finish time of 3:28:49 officially.

Post Mortem
As alluded, given the lack of recent good distance in the legs I am actually pleased to post a sub 3:30 time. The legs have pulled up pretty well but I did smash the feet a little with blisters and blood blisters. A great weekend catching up with a whole heap of runners, some great performances and PB's/debuts. Now to focus on getting some leg speed going over winter. Probable next marathon is Sydney and I'd ideally like to approach this race, not only with a lot more distance in training but also with a close to 39 minute 10km time and sub 19 5km time so that is the focus.

Thanks to all who regularly read/comment, I'll finally update some of the tables to the right to show my recent training efforts.

Canberra blogflash

A quick post from the pub rehydrating with Colin, plu and Gasher!

Just saw lucky legs finish the 50km amazing.

I am happy with my run a tale of 2 halves. Ran with the 3:15 group until the 21km mark when I realised it was a but fast so eased up a little and then the lack of recent training showed as I ground out the second half.

Ended up with a shade under 3:29 and consider that acceptable given the circumstances!

More detail later...
Sent from my Blackberry 

"The Plan"

Deep breath!

After some sekrit panel beating sessions with some experts I think I have my legs/glute/back in as good a shape as possible. For sure I am going in a little underdone after a dodgy February and then the traumas of March. However I think the work done in Dec/Jan is still valuable.

I know a few people who are targetting a 3:15 line time for Canberra (a couple are aiming to keep going and knock off 50km in 4 hours!). So I will go out at that pace with a few good men (don't know of any females planning on joining us). That translates to a 4:37 min/km, will probably take it out at 4:35 target pace and see how things shape up.

To Compare, plan vs LY
5km 22:55 22:14
10km 45:50 44:13
15km 1:08:45 1:06:10
Half 1:36:42 1:34:00
Finish 3:15:00 3:40:24 (allowing for slight slow down)

This is as much to convince myself that if I head out slower then I have a better chance to achieve what I am aiming for.....

Driving down Saturday morning with a couple of other runners and then doing a carbo load lunch, looking at a more "normal" dinner given the early start and my tummy problems from last year. Weather gods seem to be happier this year with all the Brisvegans shaking in their ugh boots about the cold temperature, as MPH said, for a sweathog like me cold is so much better :)

Wow, I forgot that I still managed to do a 3:40 last year, it seemed so much slower/disappointing at the time!

Good running to all readers who are also running, I can't agree more with the words vat published about marathon running being one of the few sports that luck is a minimal factor on the day.

Slack blogging

Seems like an eternity since I last posted (well just under a week) so here's what has been doing.

Wednesday - Summer Series
The last event around Tarban Creek. Immediate reaction after reviewing the map was that the lot would be hard but I'd go close. Headed of in a anti- clockwise direction and in general things went pretty well. A bit of time lost in the green stuff along Tarban Creek after picking up the control at the end of a stone wall (23?) and ran past the 10 pointer at the other end of the bridge (9? I don't have the map handy).

Blasted back along Ryde Road and picked up the 20 pointer out on its own despite time being tight. Finished up with 570 points but back 2:25 late meant a net score of 530. This was looking good for a while, especially since Seagull posted something like 480. But then the "fast" guys started trickling in with 600 points and sub 45 minute times which scaled back my potential points...

Stats
Distance 8.3km
Time 47:25
Avg Pace 5:42
Avg HR 175.

Hammie still twinging but did not affect actual running seemingly.

So that's it for another Summer Series, I scored 40 points more this year than last year in the pointscore but finished 8th so certainly a more competitive field. Looks like 1 more year in the open before I get to pick on the 40-49 age group :(

Saturday
Striders 10km at The Domain - I decided to sit this one out, just a little too close to Canberra and also wanted to monitor how the race went to see if The Domain may be used again. In all things went well so hopefully (pending the authorities) we'll be back next year.

Sunday
Willoughby STaR - A really cold morning out of the blue, with the car temp sensor showing 8 degrees! A good sized 6am group headed off and then 6:10 with only Suzanne and myself seemingly for 6:20. A quick deliberation and we dashed off after the 6:10'ers catching them about 2km up the road. I like this run as you skirt around Middle Harbour on some scenic tracks, but it makes for slower running. As we cruised through one section Arthur H was in front of me (he is a tall bugger) and he fair dinkum clocked a massive branch with his forehead. I reckon he was lucky not to get knocked out or concussed, but he dusted himself off, tried to straighten his glasses and was off again! Finally we got to some street running and the bunch spread out as we hit a few short/sharp hills. I managed to get into the mix of a bit of competitiveness as Suzanne and a couple of the other faster girls started to push each other pretty fiercely. I played along for a little while but then let them slide away as I planned short cut options to give me a 20km run. Stopped for a quick SI joint stretch which was successful and ran home hard at just under PMP (planned marathon pace).

Stats
Distance 19.7km
Time 1:44
Avg Pace 5:16
Avg HR 159

Pretty happy with this run, the pace a little slower but that is attributal to the much slower trail running in sections. Despite some ongoing concern about the niggles, as I stretch and fix one area it seems to "pop" up somewhere else with the adductor now tender, sigh!

Tuesday
The wife kindly shoved me out of bed and so I headed on my favorite jaunt down to the weir and back. A great morning, just the right temperature and I was quickly into the groove. Got back home and did some stretching with a significant pop of the SI again relieving some muscle spasms. LH soleus a little tight and so I popped in to see the witch doctor who stuck a heap of needles in me which has made a massive difference. One in particular on the LH hammie triggered a massive spasm, so well warranted!

Stats
Distance 11.1km
Time 51:09
Avg Pace 4:36
Avg HR 166

A good confidence builder as this is a undulating course and this is my 2nd fastest time and I certainly was not racing it!

One or 2 easier runs in the next few days as Canberra looms. More on my thoughts and plans for Canberra next blog, which I promise will be before the race!