GNW full report

Warning, slightly longer post than normal, might be a good cure for insomnia!

Last minute build up
A hectic couple of days with work requiring me in Melbourne Thursday night so I packed most of the gear ahead of time and got an early flight back to Sydney on Friday morning, more work stuff and finally snuck out at around 1:30 to finish packing. Had arranged to meet Ron Schwebel and my dad at Yarramalong (the finish) for a car drop off and then we drove up to Lake Macquarie, dropping Ron off at the caravan park around the corner from the start.

Dinner saw a good turn out but everyone was a little edgy, back to the motel to complete gear preparation etc. Not a great night sleep, further compromised by the very loud snorer in the room next door. Up early for some toast, managing to set off the smoke alarm, hopefully it woke up the snorer!

The Start
Got to the start around 5am and a hive of activity with registration, people sorting out drop bags and also catching up. Quickly caught up with a few Trotters that I know that were also helping run the event. Very quickly the briefing started and for me it was a bit of a scramble to get myself fully organised as 6am was rapidly approaching. Fronted up on the line, with the Garmin only just having enough time to get a satellite lock and we were off! A sensible pace off the line, once we crossed the railway line we hit the first hill and I immediately went into walk mode while some others including Dave Waugh and Kanangra just kept going. By the top of this “little” hill I was back in around 5th place and running just ahead of Joel and Jonathon with Blue Dog about 50m up the road in 4th.

Just before the end of the tar was another incline and again I eased up and decided to do my first mobile blog :
35 min 6 km just about to hit bush Kanangra and 2 others in front with blue dog 4th I am a few more back just behindf joel and Jonathon

A few more went past me as I walked and typed, once on the track it was back to running as the trail gently undulated until we went under the freeway. A more serious climb here and I again eased up and kept another runner who was wearing a white shirt about 100m in front in sight. This just kept climbing and ended up being about a 300m climb. I felt very relaxed and on the downhill opened the legs up a bit and caught and went past the white shirt runner who had stopped for a drink.

The fun descent finally ended and I reached the road from Freemans Waterhole running inside the guard rail to the Ampol garage where there was a little crowd, knowing I had heaps of fluid I decided just to keep going, sent my support crew a SMS letting them know my progress and crossed the road to start the climb up to Heaton Gap.

Heaton Gap
As I walked up the climb I downed a power bar and also opted to ease up a little further as it was quite steep and the HR was a little high. At one point I could see 3 runners way up ahead (and up high!), this was a very steep climb with lots of stairs/steps etc, just near the top white shirt caught up to me and I found out he was IDW (Ian Wright) we had a quick chat and then I again eased up to do another blog while he continued

Just got to comm tower first major climb done!
Running with IDW
Feel pretty good it is warm but a nice breeze blowing
Leaders were 10 min in front of me at base of climb

Running along the ridge was pretty comfortable and I must have gone past IDW somewhere through here, probably at the toilets. Then it was a right turn and off the firetrail and back onto singletrack. Immediately the running was a lot more technical as we descended into a creek bed with rainforest type environment, very slippery footing and the track was less than clear in many points. About 10 minutes into here a long haired runner with a beard blasted past me and quickly vanished from view. I was actually not expecting the technical nature of this section and found it a little taxing.

After what seemed forever finally I reached a long very steep climb which led to the “hugging post” named after photos from last year. I pretty much caught up to the long haired guy who I found out was Thrax and about the same time IDW caught us as well. Some more mixed running with combinations of firetrail and singletrack and again some indistinct trail marking but finally we popped out on the firetrail leading to CP1. IDW had cleared out and Thrax and I were caught by 2 others. The four of us rolled along and then Miss Gazelle cruised past leaving us in a could of dust. Just as we approached the checkpoint another runner caught us, I think it might have been Lawrence Mead?

CP#1
A good crowd at the check point and Kevin clocked us in and I walked over to the back of Louise’s (my sister in law and crew) car where they had everything laid out for me. I downed a couple of cups of coke, ate some pineapple, changed socks, shirt and cap while they refilled the camelback back up to 3 litres and also had plugged the garmin in for a recharge of the batteries. The change of clothes felt good and I followed 3 runners out with the intent of looking after the legs through this section as per this blog

In and out just over 4 hours in an a 10 minute break
Some very techical terrain from 20 km made slow going. Plan to look after the legs on this section

The firetrail seemed to go on forever here and I found it quite hard to focus, I caught up to Thrax again after about 5km and we walked together as the climb increased, he was feeling the heat a bit and was also worried about his water supply. Shortly after Eagle caught up to us and was looking very efficient and determined. I was starting to really feel the heat along here as well, going up another climb I did another blog (that did not go through)

Approaching Barraba camp betwween cp1 and 2
Bloody hot and wind is hard to catch
Just about to descend to Congwei and walking with cr thrax in about 15th
Eagle just went past looking good

Pretty much straight after this Thrax decided he was going to have a break in the shade and so I continued by myself. Heading down the single track was fun and I again opened up the legs. However I lost a bit of focus and must have missed a marked turn as the track I was on was getting more indistinct. A quick breather and close analysis of the map revealed I was probably on another marked track that followed the spur rather than looping across the gully and so I did a quick bearing and bush bashed down and along the spur. In hindsight this certainly soaked up some time (as evidenced shortly) but even more importantly my fluid supply which was getting low. Much relief when I successfully met the proper marked trail and finished off the descent to Congewai Road

Congewai Road
As I approached the road I saw another runner ahead of me in a blue shirt probably about 200m ahead. However whenever I tried jogging the calves cramped up so I opted to walk at pace. About 1km of this and my camelback was empty and I still had about 5km to go. The sun was blazing (it was about 1pm) and there was minimal shade. A few km of this and I was just holding the same distance to the blue shirt in the distance who was obviously also feeling the conditions. As I approached the trailhead for the walk I saw Eagle coming back the other way headed to CP#3 and gave him a yell of good wishes, although by that point my morale was pretty shot. I was incredibly dry in the mouth and had stopped sweating some time ago. Just as I finally approached the school I saw Spud, Whipper and Tim coming back out. I think we were both a little shocked to see each other, obviously they had gone past during my sojourn in the bush on the descent.

I sat down and started on some cold fluids to try and rehydrate, at the same time soaking my feet in some cold water as they had also started cramping. By then I was wondering if I would continue and while sitting there actually started feeling worse rather than better. My stomach did not like the idea of trying to digest the fluids or food and while I was trying to sort myself out it seemed a few others had the same problem. After about half an hour where I did not improve I made the decision to withdraw. I had got up and walked around a little, the legs weren’t too bad, but as soon as I stepped out from the shade the sun felt like an over and I just knew that I would probably get into trouble over the next much longer stage after having run it a couple of weeks ago.

Thoughts
On the drive back I beat myself up mentally a bit about withdrawing and really questioned my ability given this and my experience at Six Foot. However when we got back to my sister in laws place (Kulnura, not far from CP3 and CP4) I was actually more off colour and spent most of the afternoon lying on the lounge not doing anything. At about 6:30 I got a lift down to Yarramalong to pick up my car and I hung around down there to hopefully watch the leaders come through. Down there I caught up with Hermie who also withdrew at CP#2 and was also, like myself, feeling nausea etc. A little while later Jonathon showed up having withdrawn at CP#3 also suffering similar conditions. Dave Waugh came through looking very composed and together and just after he left Joel came in. I left him alone for a while and then had a chat, seems he had had enough and was calling it quits at 100km. I decided to head back to the farm and on the way back finally started to feel hungry and was very pleased to be able to finally eat dinner and drink some fluids without feeling like crap.

To be honest after seeing what happened to much more experienced and better runners than myself on the same day in those conditions I am a little more satisfied with both my decision to withdraw but also my effort on the day. In my mind the pivotal moment was the nav mistake on the descent to Congewai, just enough lost time and extra consumption of fluid to make a difference on the road itself. The legs don’t feel too badly beat up, although 2 days later now and I am still 2kg lighter than I was on Friday! I would certainly contemplate having another crack at this event, or another long ultra. (of course 6 foot is a given….)

Thanks to all that checked in on my blog during the day and also to those brave souls that actually have read my rambling in this post to this point!

GNW - I am still alive!

Sorry for the massive delay folks.

I did do a few more blackberry blog posts but blogger refused to let them through.

I'll post a much more comprehensive report, including the missing posts.

Summary
Halfway through stage 2 I was feeling the pinch a little, especially the heat. I made a slight nav error shortly after that which cost me some time. Upon reaching Congewai Rd the sun was merciless, I had been rationing myself water but had stopped sweating about 1 km along the road I completely emptied the camelbak, 3 litres in just over 3 hours!

By the time I got to CP2 I knew I was severly dehydrated and overheated. After a effort to try and rehydrate and cool down I realised it would take sometime to get myself to a state where it would be sensible to continue and decided to withdraw.

A few others were there in a similar state, including Hermie.

A wise decision I reckon as I was still crook 6 hours later, the gut unable to accept any attempt I made to try and rehydrate and/or eat something.

Edit - A massive thanks to all who read my remote posts and commented and may have been concerned, thank you!!!!

Also a little more heartened after reading the CR GNW thread, people much better than I will ever be also struggled/withdrew

CP 1

In and out just over 4 hours in an a 10 minute break

Some very techical terrain from 20 km made slow going. Plan to look after the legs on this section

We are off

35 min 6 km just about to hit bush

Kanangra and 2 others in front with blue dog 4th I am a few more back just behindf joel and jonathon

GNW eve

All the prep is done. Lots of food and drink options and the crew is briefed for checkpoints.

A good dinner tonight but everyone was a little edgy, want to get things going!

Game on...

Do not add water!

After the semi success of the 10km at Saturday I have slothed around the house watching/listening to the rain tumble down outside. My blouse like excuse was with seemingly the cold that I had dissipating the last thing I needed to do was go out running in the rain for a couple of hours!

This morning, no such excuse so I headed up to the oval for a recovery style run just to tick the legs over for a while. Probably tomorrow night I will still do summer series but then that will be about it.

Planning for Saturday is pretty much complete, I've briefed my support crew and collated most of the provisions that I can think I would need, probably too much actually, or enough to actually do the 100 mile but we won't go there!

In looking through the split times last year and also reading the various race reports I can honestly say I have no idea as to what split times I will do. It is going to be a case of lets just see what the day brings!

A scare at the 10km!

Well a scare for my PB :)

After rain on Friday and lower temperatures forecast for Saturday the Striders 10km circus returned to Lane Cove for the last race of the season. Going "Actionless" on both timing and course layout but all went well in set up with the new tent being erected over the top of computer and timing gear in case of the inclement weather returning.

Not much time to chat or warm up as the crowd descended across the weir for the start. A few words of advice from Joe and we were off!

Pretty clear running from the get go and I was in just behind Blue Dog who was operating the targetting radar on Superflake. At about a km Coaster slowly drifted past and I was also running near Sawdust so I decided to see how long I could follow them. At the top of Scribblys I was surprised to see that I was a little closer to the leaders than usual and Sportsman gave me a cheer as he saw me not too far behind him. Actually went past both Coaster and Sawdust on the descent and then they slowly went past as we ran along the flat section where I do my 1km reps.

I knew I had some time in the bank and so opted to try and not bust myself up the hill but held my position fairly well. Caught back up to coaster at the drinks station and tried to attack the downhill. The slight climb before 7km hurt a little and I felt like I was struggling a little along that flat section, reinforced by the others pulling away. The climb just after 8km seemed a little better but I still could not hold the gap on the others. Just after here Will edged past and I gritted the teeth, knowing I was still a chance to PB, but not break 40.

In the last km there were quite a few footsteps behind me and I held them off pretty well with only 1 or 2 slipping past. Still had enough for a raised effort across the weir but Paul S just got me before the line!

End up with 40:38, only 10 seconds off my PB and am, I suppose ok with that, certainly better than Homebush. If I had held on to Coaster and Sawdust for sure I would have cracked my PB as they posted 39:59 andd 40:06 respectively. So only really the last 2.5km that got me and the splits show this

Stats
Distance 10km (duh!)
Time 40:38
Avg pace 4:05
Avg HR 179

Splits
1km 3:53 3:53
2km 3:53 7:46
3km 3:58 11:44 (Scribblys)
4km 4:01 15:45
5km 4:23 20:08 (Rangers hut)
6km 4:05 24:13 (Up to the gate and back down the hill)
7km 4:01 28:14 (on pace and 40 still within reach)
8km 4:12 32:26 (not a good km, especially since it is flattish)
9km 4:15 36:41 (that hill after 8km mark!)
10km 3:57 40:38

Certainly gave it crack and I reckon with a bit more hill work and speed reps things will tumble. Obviously more than half human with the lurgy on the decline. A cruisy 20 odd km planned tomorrow for the STaR and then just some work through the week to keep the legs kicking over.

A quiet running week

A quick minute to duck out from the bubble to report on not a lot. I did run Summer Series on Wednesday night and seemed to stride out nicely although the brain must be affected as I had terrible route choice!

The sore throat has eveolved to runny nose, stuffed head/sinuses etc but I still feel semi-human.

No doubt I'll still run tomorrow morning and at least the legs will be very fresh with the enforced taper, not much that can be done now for the 10km or more importantly the 100km other than get to the line in one piece as healthy as possible and with all the right plans for checkpoints/drinks/nutrition etc etc.

October & cotton wool

So October is done, or at least I won't be doing anymore runs so time for a recap.

But first I've laid low the last 2 days, Sunday night I developed a scratchy throat which has extended itself somewhat so I have canned both Monday and Tuesday's sessions. Feeling somewhat ok at the moment but with less than 2 weeks to go the cotton wool is out and I am contemplating buying a big plastic bubble to live in for the next 10 days, certainly do not want to have another episode like I did at 6 foot so heaps of Garlic and vitamin C etc etc etc.

In non running related news I also spent last night at the Opera House watching our eldest participate in a schools extravaganza, great stuff and the talent of some of the kids on the night was mind boggling.

Summary for October
Distance 321km
Avg Pace 5:39
Total climb 2,700m
Only missed 7 days of running (2 of those being the last 2 of the month!) so certainly getting more consistent. The avg pace is skewed somewhat by Saturday's effort. Interestingly enough these stats are almost identical to January when I was prepping for 6 foot but only climbed 2000m

November will be a big one for obvious reasons but I'll also have (yet) another crack at the 10km PB on Saturday if the lurgy continues to fade away.

Intensity = right up there :)

With designated tasks this morning to optimise the DTI I had to bypass the flatish STaR but with daylight saving now in effect I slipped out this afternoon for a run to determine how much was really left in the legs after my bush sojourn yesterday.

So the course was my tempo route which I think I'll rename the "C2S prep" course given it's 14km distance and inclusion of some nice inclines. The legs in general felt quite good, with a bit of DOMs in areas not normally felt but also seemingly not normally used in "regular" running.

A little bit slower than my recent best effort over this route on fresh legs but right up there with other runs.

Distance 14.25
Time 1:06:25
Avg Pace 4:39
Avg HR 161

So I'll ease back a little this week with the 10km at Lane Cove and starting a taper for GNW. Speaking of which I did not do any practice mobile blogging but at different points there was enough of a signal so I'll be looking to pound out a few choice thoights as I do some of the climbs and when the signal is strong enough they will hopefully float through to the blog.

A walk with the dog

No sekrit about this training run as I was joined by Blue Dog for a recon run of part of the Great North Walk course, opting to tackle the section between CP#2 and CP#4. Last year this was the area where most people became navigationally challenged and also I will be doing at least part of this in fading light or complete darkness.

Thanks to my brother in law who dropped us off at Congewai so we could avoid prolonged car shuffling after the run. Straight away we were into it with a significant climb out of the valley up to the ridgeline, just under a 400m ascent!

From here it was some quite level running along the ridge, although a potentially
serious problem was averted when my camelbak sprouted a leak. Remembering what happened in January at the Black Stump I very quickly pulled the back pack off and held it upside down while extracting the bladder. Sure enough the hose had come undone, after a quick reattachment and the loss of thankfully only about half a litre all was fixed and we were off again. (note to self, secure hose with cable tie)

Eventually we got back to some singletrack for the winding descent down to Watagan Creek and said hello to a few cows as we crossed the creek and farmlands before tackling the climb back out of the valley. This one was more technical with very steep bits and serious ruts. As we contoured around the mountain we hit some more singletrack which was very scenic. Through here we saw our first goanna, eventually seeing seven, but thankfully none of their reptilian cousins that slither :)

One feature I noticed along a lot of these tracks was how soft underfoot they were, with a lot of leaf litter and sandy soil the impact on the legs was certainly diminished. The descent down towards the basin was certainly a bit trickier and the trail was hard to identify in places, certainly I would want to be through here before the light got too bad. Also identified the track intersection that a lot of people had problems with last year and you could see why, another great reason for the recon.

A joint decision between Blue Dog and myself to not do the in and out section to The Basin and so we started the climb out, again the trail was hard to follow in places. A short refueling stop at the top at the road junction before running along another ridgeline and then descending into Yarramalong Valley. This was more technical than I expected and than the map showed. Our final goanna spotting also through here and finally we popped out at the trail head with the cars waiting for us.

Stats
Distance 32.5km
Time 5:34
Total Climb 1300m

For interest here is the google earth view of the run



And here is the elevation profile



Thoughts
Very pleased to have done this run, it was a great way to get a good feel for the type of terrain that we will be racing across as well as the nature of at least 3 of the major climbs, which had a bit of mystique associated with them after last year. Also mentally tucked away a few areas for focus required in navigation. The legs have pulled up quite well which is pleasing since I really only did about a third of the course, however I calculate that around another 30 odd km will be run on flatter dirt roads etc, the unknown is the steeper stuff in the first 2 stages.....

Weekly Summary
Distance 95km
Time 10:33
Avg Pace 6:40 (was 4:48 before today!)

Triple treat!

So after the hill session on Tuesday a recovery run around the oval Wednesday morning. Some work related delays saw me arrive at the Summer Series venue quite late and it was literally pay your money and start so no detailed course planning etc.

From the look of the map (once running) the lot did seem gettable but main concern was darkness rapidly descending. Accordingly I opted to drop the 2 outermost controls (near Timbrell) even though I was probably able to pick them up within 2-3 minutes. A couple of little oops' as I hurried along but was keeping a good pace and seemingly had some time up my sleeve. Thankfully I did as the last 10 minutes of running were pretty much dark and I spent a bit of time at a couple of controls that would have been very visible in daylight but more of a challenge in lower light levels.

Finally screamed back down the hill to the start with 570 points but my time up the sleeve had evaporated due to the light and I ended up being late by 15 seconds so ended up with 560 points. Alas the faster young guys were there tonight and Andrew Hill did collect the lot in just over 40 minutes which will drag down my actual points earned a little more :(

Stats
Distance 9.3km
Time 45:15
Avg Pace 4:52
Avg HR 169

Thursday morning
The legs felt a bit beat up but I headed down to the weir to see how fast I could knock out the 11km anyway. Once I was moving along it was not too bad but still a tad slowish. Saw Spud out on his bike again and caught up with him where he had parked near the caravan park on the way home where we had a bit of a chat re GNW strategy etc.

Stats
Distance 10.9 km
Time 51:26
Avg Pace 4:44
Avg HR 157

So thus ends three hard days in a row with the tempoish run today certainly a challenge on legs that I thrashed less than 12 hours earlier! A nice recovery run tomorrow and then a longer slower effort on Saturday with a recon run/walk over a good section of the GNW course that I will be probably covering in the afternoon/night during the actual race itself.

Internal Half and more

A very early start for Sunday due to a few things I had to do as part of organising the race. Gloomy skies, on and off drizzle and cooler temperatures were the go, an amazing difference from the furnace like conditions a week ago at Fitzroy Falls.

This Striders only race is a Half Marathon but with a handicap start with the goal (for me as handicaper) to have everyone finish at exactly the same time. But there are always people either faster or slower than documented form.

I had a handicap of 94, mainly based upon my SMH time with a difficulty scaling factor for the "tougher" Lane Cove course. As it turned out my only start line companion was Silver Fox but he was running with the pram. My initial goal was to go out fairly hard and see how long I could hold the tempo. I started hauling in the 95 group and had caught them all by halfway up the rangers hut hill the first time.

5km split of 22:03 (4:25 min/km)

Anthony W stayed with me up the hill but then I kept the pressure going on the downhill and he drifted back a little. The run back to the start area was pretty fast and I picked up quite a few more runners along here.

10km time of 43:24 which gives a 5km split of 21:21 (4:16 min/km)

Back up the course and Scribbly's felt a little harder the second time, caught quite a few people on the climb up to the rangers hut again but the legs were certainly hurting a bit now and still had Anthony W lurking back about 20-30m

15km time of 1:04:45 which gives a 5km split of 21:21 again (very consistent!)

Now the downhill run home and I just focussed on form and trying to hold off anyone who might be catching me. Hauled in Johnny Dark and a strong Redback along here.

20km time of 1:26:47 which gives 5km split of 22:02 (4:24 min/km)

As you can see the legs started to fade and Anthony and another runner I passed at about 19km hauled me in at 1km to go. I tried to hang on to them but just could not hold the pace.

Finish time was 91:31 which gives an average pace of 4:20 with an average HR of 174.

Very happy to post this time, just outside my SMH run, but I did not run a marathon the week before SMH! The legs pulled up pretty well Sunday afternoon and I was contemplating heading out for another run but stayed on the lounge until the thought passed!

Tuesday
Probably 2-3 too many glasses of red last night celebrating my sister in law's birthday and so I felt a bit ordinary in mind, spirit and even the legs were not that keen to get going this morning. So in my wisdom I trotted around to my hill rep route, surprisingly it has been about a month since my last hill rep session.

The first rep was maybe just a tad too fast but I ground out the 10 reps and was also pleasantly surprised once I downloaded the splits to see today's average was actually marginally quicker than my last session as I felt pretty rough through the run, not helped but what seemed a warmer day as well! Also sliced quite a bit (ie 5 seconds on average) off my recovery run back down the hill between reps!

Stats
10 reps, average 1:28.9 with average recovery of 1:44

Summer Series tomorrow night at Drummoyne so should be a pretty fast course, but I'll also slip in a recovery run tomorrow morning. In aother news my GNW 100k entry has been accepted so no backing out now, in fact will do a recon session on Saturday over part of the course.

Friday Free for All

A different run today, wanted to knock out some intervals but also wanted a little bit of distance. So I opted to do a longish warm up (lets call it 8km!) through LCNP to Rotary Park and then some short sharp quick stuff.

By the time I got to Rotary it was quite warm but a breeze was blowing, only problem was that it seemed to be blowing straight into my face along the back straight!

In deference to the half marathon on Sunday I decided to do only 6 400m reps and after a slowish first rep got into the swing of things.

6 x 400m reps in average of 1:24.5 with 1:30 standing recovery.

Home up the hill which is always a bit of a challenge on somewhat lactic legs.....

Somewhat surprising today to see that I seem to have lost another kg. Gee a chunk of flesh out of the forehead seems to be a bit extreme for weight loss but somewhat effective :)

So now to the questions/comments

DTI - this anacronym is very important to many runners. The better the DTI the easier it is to stick with a training and race schedule. If the DTI starts to fall then things are seriously in trouble and it needs some focus otherwise your running can suffer some serious setbacks when least expected. So what is the DTI and why have you not heard of it before?

The Domestic Tranquility Index is directly proportional to your significant other's tolerance level of any planned running committment. While runnning with an injury is risky, continuing to maintain training/racing levels with a low DTI can be VERY detrimental to your health :)

I devoted an entire day today to ensure my DTI is in tip top shape with the planned demand for GNW looming!

For R2B, no results back yet from the biopsy and yes I am deadly serious about a weekly 30km run. Luckily with Striders we have a 30km on offer every Sunday and it is a very important factor in many people's Six Foot Prep!

Welcome back legs!

To paraphrase from that TV ad welcome back legs!

After yesterday's schmozzle I was very keen to get out for a real thrashing today and so opted for a tempo run over my 14km course. I popped a cap over the bandage so I did not look too wierd!

The legs felt very fresh as I headed off and as such the pace was pretty good. On the way down to the weir I thought I saw Spud on his bike and sure enough as I started running up along the 10km course he came back and said he'd catch up to me. He only just made it as I was at the gates at the top of the hill. We both briefly stopped and chatted about C2K and also maintaining our respective DTI's, good to see you mate!

The legs did feel a little heavy on the rises but the speed was still pretty good. By the time I got to Cox's Rd and the downhill I was still running well so I kept the momentum going all the way home.

Stats
Distance 14.2km
Time 1:02:58
Avg Pace 4:25
Avg HR 168

Very pleased with this run, again on a rolling course. This is another 2.5 minutes off the recent fastest time. This is getting close to 26miles guideline of 14km tempo in an hour, which I reckon I could certainly do on a flatter route right now!

Body wise, the legs now seem to have recovered fully from FFFTM and no niggles seemingly. The head was throbbing a little but the bandage is gone and I'm feeling a little more normal again!

Thanks for the comments and feedback on both my little misadventure yesterday as well as my decision to take a walk on the dark side!

Code Blue - Sith Apprentice down!

A day to forget.....

With Summer Series on this afternoon I skipped the morning run. However I had a follow appointment with the skin specialist. I had some spots frozen off a couple of weeks ago and he was worried about one so took a small biopsy. I assumed that given the routine nature of their follow up request that all was ok and he was now going to freeze the offending mark off as well.

However I was mistaken, he informed me it was actually a BCC and was going to remove it now, with a knife no less. No trauma I thought, it's only the size of a match head so shouldn't be too bad. After some local he went to work but seemed to take forever to stitch up what I assumed was a small wound. When finished I asked him how many stitches and it was 14 stitches and I had a quick look at the sample bottle and in it was a chunk from my forehead the size of freakin Tasmania!!!

So not too bad, but $470 bucks later my hip pocket was hurting more than the head. Anyway quite handily next door to the clinic is a Medicare so I wandered in with this huge bandage around my head to get partially reimbursed. While the clerk was sorting out the paperwork I went from feeling jim dandy to lying on the ground with some very concerned medicare staff peering down at me..... As Effie says, how embarassment! Seems I fainted in a repeat of my experience in having blood samples taken a little while ago. I might need to start borrowing Miners' blouse collection.

About 10 minutes later after sitting down and assuring them I was now ok I scuttled out the door as quickly as possible, making a mental note to avoid that branch in the future.

Of course the first thing I asked the doc after he sliced me up was could I run this afternoon, he of course said no and I promptly decided to ignore his advice :) However as the afternoon wore on I developed a nice throbbing headache, accompanied by very sore elbows (seemed I landed on them as I fell on the tiled floor, managing to miss the carpet naturally!). So that and terse instructions from the wife now see me at home indulging in medicinal wine consumption rather than attempting another Summer Series win :(

Anyway, I'll head out tomorrow for a stretcher session to make up.

Now to the GNW, thanks for all the comments!!!

I am "only" going to the 100km, more than enough to chew upon in my first dark side outing. If you have been paying attention I have been trying to build up and the FF run was designated as a good prep run. No doubt it will be the toughest run I have ever done. But on the postitive side I:
- have done a few rogaines, including about 16 hours in Wollomi National Park last years, a few 6 hour events, including one 6 hour in the Watagans so I have some idea on terrain
- have decent navigation skills, both in daylight and night time
- am somewhat used to sleep deprivation

Prep is pretty advanced with a support team already organised, some kit already organised (including some dirty girl gaiters) and also a trial run (that was going to be sekrit) next weekend.

One goal I will also try to do is actually blog via the blackberry as my mood, phone signal and the run permits.

So should be heaps of fun :)

Back at it tomorrow!

Decision

Inverse run

The goal was a tempo run today to see what happened. Adopted the weir run and headed out in slight drizzle.

It certainly was an effort to get the pace going, the legs do not feel too badly chopped up, just slow!

Stats
Distance 11km
Time 55:38
Avg pace 5:07
Avg HR 150

Very interesting the avg HR shows the cardio was certainly fine, just teh legs would not go any faster. As the title says I'll call this an inverse run, the opposite of my long fast run last week, a shorter slower run!

Another recovery session tomorrow.

Stop the press!

Just got the Summer Series results from Wednesday night.

An absolute first I was equal top score (over all entrants). A good thing my navigation skills have not diminished as the equal winner was Gary MacGregor (six foot track winner) and a slew of faster runners behind me.

And there I was after the run a bit bummed out about my stuff up around 30 and taking a walk break up a couple of the steeper pinches...

Certainly a good course to know when to turn for home rather than chase more points!

This will have to go down in the history books, a good thing a few more of the faster runners did not show up :)

Edit : for interest here is my route on google earth

Fitzroy Falls Fire Trail Marathon

First the rest of the week. Wednesday saw the first event in Summer Series and I did a warmup run down to Lavender Bay where the start was. Great to see all the familiar faces, not so great to see the map, no matter what way I looked at it there was going to be some short sharp hills!

Have not seen the results yet, I posted 420 but messed up around control 30 losing a couple of minutes.

Work then went feral and so I did a mini taper with Thursday and Friday off!

The Race
An early start to cruise over to Langswm's place and then pick up Fats and Amjan for the drive down the M5. Got there with plenty of time to register and sort out all the kit etc. Not a lot of an idea as to the course, just knowing it was pretty much all fire trail with some hills and also the very important extra factor, it was bloody hot!

The first few km were all pretty much downhill (not a good sign on an out and back!) I tucked in just behind Blue Dog for a while. Just after the 4km marker, my first and only snake spotting with a red bellied black scuttling off away from the road as Blue Dog went past him (Bluey did not even see it!)

The 5km split looked a little fast so I eased back a little and then the same for 10km. At the 20km mark the mercury was really rising and I spent a minute or 2 at the aid station loading up on water and tipping a few cups over the head. At the 25km station a similar story also popping a gu and grabbing a few jelly beans.

From here it was an out and back section so you get a chance to see how everyone is going. This had a nasty little climb in it as well! Back to the 25km station which is now the 30km station for more hydration.

The next section was the hardest, seemingly contstantly climbing, it reminded me quite a bit of Black Range Rd at 6 foot. Looking at the GPS track it is certainly the case. I was certainly quite toasty now, incorporating walk/run on the steeper sections and suffered on the last steep section quite badly.

Finally to the finish and the CR cheer squad as vocal as usual!

Stats
Distance 42.195
Time 4:11:15
Avg Pace 5:57
Avg HR 163
Total climb 540 metres

A great race on a tough course made tougher by the temperature on the day, anyway that's my 3rd marathon this year from 4 starts with 1 dnf @ 6 foot.

Weekly stats
Total distance 78.5km
Still consistent, although a marathon always helps top up the distance! Back to some speed work this coming week and next Sunday the Striders Handicap Half Marathon. A decision looming shortly on my next major endeavour as well.......

Is it tempo or is it long?

After slacking off yesterday the alarm was set for an earlier start this morning with a longer run planned.

Another variant of my weir run, but then all the way up to Macquarie Centre, across along along the bike path to Quarry Road then downhill to Pittwater Road for a nasty climb back home.

Was determined to make this a hard session, which with all the hills in the route and trying to run sub 5 min/km it was!

The last climb up Pittwater Road to home is a bugger but a good exercise on legs that have already done about 20km.

Stats
Distance 20.8
Time 1:36:44
Avg pace 4:39
Avg HR 162

Certainly a little faster than my last journey on this route back in Six Foot training in January (about 1:44)

I think I'll call it a fast long run :)

Homebush and beyond!

Despite all the prophecies the much awaited sub 40 did not eventuate. In my usual manner I certainly would not die wondering heading out right on pace, but by around 4km the legs felt very heavy and then indeed I did feel like I was dieing on the second lap. The legs felt like I was running through treacle but the HR was right up there. Seems I probably went lactic as I lapped Wentworth Common the first time trying to stay on pace.

Any way while I was always going to have a crack I knew that my prep would not help and as previously stated sub 40 this week is not a "target". After reviewing the results it seems quite a few people also struggled against what I would suggest normal form/times so well done to anyone who PB'd (especially Belinda!)

This ended the week which totalled 80km (avg pace 5:04, including recovery runs). So am building up quite nicely.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday were spent catching up with my cycling buddies from the past down in the Southern Highlands as part of a christening. We only get to catch up once a year or so but always great fun, especially going through all teh old cycling war stories and funny happenings on the many road trips we went on. This meant no running on Sunday, but I'll top that up tomorrow morning.

So no wrist slashing here folks about Saturday, I gave it a go but the situation was not right, I am encouraged by my training times and will keep the focus going, next step Fitzroy Falls next weekend.

Sharpening up!

Wednesday

A gentle recovery run around the oval in the evening with the girls keeping me company via lap counting and or pacing on the bike. A little windy which was interesting as the HR crept up each time I turned into the wind and maintained the effort.

Thursday
With an eye to Saturday I scheduled some shorter faster reps on grass today and so down the hill and across Epping Road to Rotary field. Wanted to run 400m reps to get higher leg speed but not completely smash things up for the 10km.

Stats
9 reps @ average of 1:22.3 with standing recovery of 1:30

This stacks up very well against the last 400m session (the Thursday before Willy to Billy). Then I did 8 reps averaging 1:26.4, all the reps today were under that time and the second one I went a little crazy with a 1:18!! I also did the 9th by mistake (lost count) and it was a 1:25 which blew the average out a little.

So another great indicator that the training is paying off with an average 4 secs coming off 400m. Given my obsessive nature re stats this also equates to going from 3:36 min/km pace to 3:26 min/km for these reps!!

Then a quick visit to the witch doctor to have a squiz at my complaining shins with the diagnosis being that with the increase in training/speed and the recovery of my achilles/calves the tib ants are now playing catch up. As usual after the needle session everything feels a little tighter but that seems to fade by the end of the day with positive results.

Recovery day tomorrow and then we'll see what transpires at the 10km!

Tougher session

Another tempo session this morning (just to mix things up!) but the weather was certainly different with seemingly high humidity and drizzling rain greeting me as I walked out the front door. I decided to experiment with the course feature on the Garmin. This is where you can download an actual run back to the watch and then compete against your previous run. In theory this is good as it actually adjusts your relative position against the actual terrain/distance so if you run the same route you will always slow down at the same hill.

In practice however there was enough variance between the GPS readings through Lane Cove park for it to go a little out. So the unit claimed I beat my run from last Friday (using time over distance), however, it also measured shorter than last week and so I actually ended up a bit slower.

Certainly tougher going today with a bit of Sunday's effort still in the legs and I also did not feel as smooth while I was running. The lower legs are a bit chopped up now but anyway still a good session.

Stats
Distance 14.24
Time 1:06:55
Avgt Pace 4:41
Avg HR 162

Thanks for the comments re Sunday's run however it seems I am painting a bleak picture for those thinking about running a STaR. It is not all crawling under barbed wire with machine guns firing over your head! Ellie, there is a much more comfortable group that heads out earlier and we always include shortcut options on the course maps. Certainly though Cherrybrook does rank up there as one of the harder runs that Striders do, mainly due to the consistent ups and downs, out of interest according to the garmin we climbed approx 330 metres over the course on Sunday.

The Long and Short

Sunday

An early start to drive up to Cherrybrook for "The Circuit". This route is a tough one, rated a H4 there is very little "flat" running, but lots of up and downs!

A great crowd for the 6:10 group with a who's who of Cool Running with a special guest appearance from Tesso. Also great to see Redback out and about with Spud, Amjan, sawdust SFGnome and Johnny Dark, along with Warwick (who I ran the socialgaine last year) and Tom.

Straight off we head downhill to the bottom of Cumberland forest for the first of many climbs for the day. As usual EJ was burning things up on the front, but he had a few new "victims" who got sucked in by his tendancy to run off the front. Despite the pace the group did stay together, regrouping at the top before doing what I suppose is a mini circuit within the overall run with a big loop. Had to try and calm things down on the front a few times through here but again we regrouped at the entry to the bush and I sat on the front through the single track to try and modulate the pace a little. The second major climb up to the Pony Club was as brutal as usual but the track seemed a lot looser underfoot than usual.

Another regroup before crossing another creek valley (and another climb) to take us to Westleigh, as the 6:20 group cruised past. Here was the first major short cut opportunity and the group split in 2. Pretty much straight away the "long" group upped the pace which saw EJ immediately depart from the back, if only he'd run a little easier through the first half of these runs he'd have a chance to stay with the group the whole way. After a few more undulating km around Westleigh at a pretty steady pace I was starting to feel the pinch and loitered at the back of the group with Spud. We regrouped a few times with either water stops or navigation mistakes by the leaders helping.

By the time we did yet another downhill to Comenarra Parkway and the resultant climb back out the legs were feeling a little toasty. Another regroup for water at the railway station and then it was every runner for themselves all the way home. Spud came good and also darted off while I tagged just behind Tom Silk all the way to the finish.

Stats
Distance 31km
Time 2:43
Avg Pace 5:14
Avg HR 159

Monday
Out in the afternoon for a change for more laps around the oval. Had my own lap counter accompany me and she even ran a couple of laps with me :) The legs felt pretty good after the bashing I gave them yesterday.

A pretty busy schedule planned for the week as I try to consolidate on some of the recent good training.

Month end!

Firstly a fairly uneventful recovery run around the oval this morning. Was very trmpted to go and test the leg speed at the CR 5km challenge but the girls have little A's on Saturday mornings and I'm required to look after #3 so that the DTI stays in balance. The Garmin was playing silly buggers again this morning, saying it's lap memory was full and trying to clear some memory while running was unsuccessful so I had to listen to the bugger beeping every 5 seconds, good thing I had the iPod on, just notched the volume up a little :)

In another good sign, my recovery runs, when not affected by a massive run on the day before, are also getting faster, this is while I am adjusting effort by the heart rate reading, the aim to stay below 150 bpm. The legs aren't travelling too bad, still a little sus below the knee on the shin area especially the RH. In better news it seems (touch wood) that the achilles niggles are gone!

So September was interesting, more consistency with 18 days of running from 30, but only 3 days missed since the Sydney Marathon.

Stats for September
Distance : 234km
Avg pace : 5:08

Plans for October....
This has the making of a big month. First up is the 10km at Homebush, my first 10km race since July, also at Homebush where I posted a 41:23. One of the "question marks" appears with my first crack at Fitzroy Falls bush marathon. Then it's time for the Striders internal half marathon at Lane Cove, always lots of fun with the seeded handicap start. Just to make life even more interesting Summer Series Orienteering starts on Wednesday evenings which will provide a different fartlek style 45 minute workout mid week for me!

Oh and for the above 3 races in particular, they are a step along the road and so no extended taper etc, 26 miles must be reading my mind :)

Other goals for October, include continuing my healthier lunch time eating and increasing my count of alcohol/coffee/cola free days, I need to drop a few more kg but am already about 3kg lighter compared to the start of August!

Tempo time

A slightly longer run today, replicating the course I took last Friday but with the intent of headed towards a faster pace, much like what 26miles recommended in his comment.

As I was winding my way back through the park near Lady Game Drive (for Ewens benefit) another Friday CoolRunner spoting with Barney and Highwayman cruising in the other direction. The traffic lights in the back part of this run were not kind today but at one point that was good as I developed a hot spot where it seems the sock had folded over or the inserts were pinching the sole of my foot.

Stats
Distance : 14.2km
Time : 1:05:34 (last week 1:09)
Avg pace : 4:36 (lw 4:48)
Avg HR : 167 (lw 162)

So certainly a harder workout. To be honest if you compare this to 26miles' advice I am heading there. The route I take is a tough course, lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, certainly not a bay run style course. So taking into account a level of difficulty on my run I am maybe not too far away. Might have to cruise down to the bay soon and see how I go over 2 laps.......

Now to the comments, must be a few lurkers out there given the absolute rash of sudden talk about sub 40!!! I am surprised seagull has not swooped to join the action. Of course I would expect Professor to already start building up the excuse bank, I reckon by next Friday he'll be in intensive care awaiting a heart/lung transplant ;)

As most readers and lurkers would know sub 40 has been my mythical windmill that I have tilted at for a while now and next Saturday will be no different, however I will not be heartbroken if I don't get there yet. It is a goal, but only one of a number and there are bigger fish to fry!!!

Speed racer!!!

After following some of the Easy Tiger remedial and preventative suggestions for the sore shin I also opted to give it a days rest to really try and reduce the inflammation.

Back on the road this morning and down to Ewen's fav spot :) aka Lane Cove National Park! Some more intense effort on the cards with the benchmark 1km reps between the 8 and 7km Striders 10km markers.

The RH lower leg felt a little "funny" during the warm up run but not in any way inhibiting.

So to the reps....
3:49 Up
3:42 Down (smokin!)
3:48 Up
3:47 Down (starting to fade)
3:52 Up
3:50 Down

The tale of the stopwatch has this as an average of 3:48 which is just under 6 seconds faster than my last session 3 weeks ago, holy crap 6 seconds!!!! (that is 34 seconds faster over the 6km total) Also stuck with the shorter recovery time of 90 seconds.

To say I am chuffed with this is an understatement, looks like recovery from the marathon has been good and the recent focus is starting to pay off. As I arrived home I was half expecting a WADA van out the front door :)

Shin status - the bone certainly is a lot less tender but the muscle actually seems a little numb. Maybe a bit too much ice etc the other night??

Hill day

Yes back to my favourite hill in North Ryde for more mayhem. Luckily today was a bit cooler than yesterday!

What can I report? The standard 10 reps with warm up/down thrown in for good measure. Certainly nothing left in the legs by the 10th rep and it was a good thing I hadn't eaten otherwise it would have been a close thing for breakkie to reappear.

The most pleasing aspect is that the more consisent sessions do seem to be paying off. This week (only 9 days after the marathon) I posted my best average time ever with a full 2 second reduction from 2 weeks ago off the same recovery time!!!

Then into the Tiger's den for some maintenance, have not blogged it but my shins have developed some tenderness in the last week. After some prodding and poking which nearly induced tears in the eyes Gary decided that Jen's tib ant issue has come to visit me :( Anyway it is not affecting my running (yet) so some good remedial and preventative work hopefully will sort it out.

Then as I was leaving who was the next vict.. er appointment other than the aforementioned Jen!

Bush bashed

Sunday
Certainly a smaller collection of Striders than usual at Kev's Berowra Big Dipper. Mainly due to being first Sunday after the Sydney Marathon and also the first race in the SMC series on out at Smiffo.

The 6:10 group was still a reasonable size but in reality a merged 6:10 and 6:20 group with Suzanne K back from her Aussie 50km rep duties in a surprise guest appearance. The first 7km or so were a tour de berowra on the tar before we hit the trails. I really love this section of running down to the ferry and we cruised along, the last few km are quite a bit more technical single track with quite a few groups of stairs both up and down.

We regrouped at the ferry and then started the climb up back to Berowra. I decided to run at an even tempo and not go silly. By the time I got to the top I was getting a little toasty in the legs and also needing some fluids. A bit of wandering around without much success and I kept going keeping an eye out for a tap close to the street. I opted to cut short a little and made up my own course, which luckily included finding a tap!! Still some more hills on the way back and I was quite pleased to lob back at the finish.

Stats
Distance 23km
Time 2:10:35
Avg pace 5:37
Avg HR 158

I believe this was about right and certainly the most that I have run ever in a week post marathon.

Monday
Out and around the oval for circles on grass, the legs pulled up pretty well for the 30 odd minutes so things are still headed in the right direction.

Questions/comments

2p - always thinking of 6 foot :)

miners - there are certainly a few ideas/goals between now and March but rather than adopting my usual gunna do this, gunna to that and fail to deliver I'm keeping my powder dry. Who knows where I'll pop up, but I can pretty much assure you that I won't be tri'ing :(

Spring has sprung!

The recovery schedule includes a slightly longer run today. I opted for the usual weir run but with a longer return leg (with of course more hills!).

As I ran down Scribbly's onto the road along the river I immediately saw Kanangra heading the other way, a quick cheerio and kept on going. About 500m later I heard some voices from behind and it seemed I had dropped in just in front of 2 other runners who turned out to be Barney and a mate. We ran together till just before the weir as they stopped for some water while I kept going. On my return leg up past the rangers hut I saw a multitude of runners, certainly seems the warmer weather and earlier sunrise is encouraging more people to get out.

The distance seemed about right as I was just starting to feel the strain, especially up the hills.

Stats
Distance 14.3km
Time 1:09:00
Avg Pace 4:48
Avg HR 162

In just going back and checking, this is actually my fastest time for this route in training, and I was not consciously racing it! So it seems adaption is progressing. I am still surprised about the quickish recovery from Sunday but am theorising that because I did not go out at race pace the legs did not get a hammering and the slow last 7km was more due to lack of distance in the legs.

Lets see how things go on Sunday at the STaR.

More recovery!

After yesterday's faster session a chance today to again let the recovery continue with being back at home and so across the oval for soft impact circle work!

For some reason the Garmin was not too keen to get a fix today, might have thought it was still in Melbourne....

Anyway the whole intent of this session is not pace/distance but HR dependent and I did the usual trick of cruising under 150 bpm. Surprisingly (again!) the legs felt quite good and if anything it seemed the cardio system is taking a little longer to recover.

To cap it off, the Garmin continued to ignore the satellites and then the shuffle died as well, probably the battery ran out.

This weekend there are 2 options looming, SMC or the Berowra STaR. Given my immediate upcoming plans I think a longer run on softer trails will be of more benefit than another faster paced hit out on the pavement. That is a pity as it seems a lot of CR's will be out at Smiffo :( I'll certainly make some appearances out there as the season unfolds!

No rest for the wicked!

Yes, already easing back into it. Down in Mexico again so I opted for the little run that Wobbly Man tipped me on a while ago which follows a tram line out to Port Melbourne where the car ferry to Tasmania docks and then down along the bay.

A decent breeze was awaiting me once I turned around, certainly would not want to be running into that all the way from Frankston (ie Melbourne Marathon)!

Most of the DOMS gone from the legs already, but still some residual stiffness. Seems the achilles pain from Sunday was just fatigue as it appears to be back to normal.

Stats
Distance 10.2km
Time 50:37
Avg pace 4:57
Avg HR 160

Recovery!

Took Monday off but up to the oval this morning for some laps on the grass. Quite warm today, warmer than Sunday!

The legs did not feel too bad circling around but are still a little tender, especially the quads.

Been doing lots of reading on other peoples experiences on Sunday, both on Cool Running and blogs. Have to say that the one that really holds for me is 26 miles. Another great example of getting out what you put in and something I'll be refering back to in maintaining my motivation towards my next tilt at the dusty marathon PB!

Sydney Marathon - Race Report

As alluded to previously as part of my task in organising pacers for the half and full marathon I also decided to "fill one of the gaps". Thankfully Silverfox put his hand up for 3:30 which was looking grim but given 3:30 is usually a bigger group I opted to still run 3:30 rather than the 3:45.

An early rise to get to the start in time to organise the half pacers and then a quick respite before it was time to hit the road! Silverfox and I lined up in the pack and pretty soon we were off. The initial plan was for me to drive the front at a steady pace (as per plan) while Nick would sweep the back of the group. As we headed through the Domain and Lady Macquaries Chair Virtual joine dme at the front and was quite handy in surging ahead at the drink stations to pick up some extras in case any one in the group missed out.

The usual fun of running along Oxford Street with the nightclubs still going and the drinking going strong! The run through Centennial was good to offer some shade protection as the day certainly warmed up. We were still bang on schedule but teh group was starting to reduce. Just after halfway Nick came up and suggested that he take the lead group a little faster, worried about the back half. I agreed and as they moved a little up the road settled in with a few people, still holding the scheduled pace and splits as a sweeper.

Again running through the city was a good respite from the sun but no hiding as we hit the Western Distributor. Once again the climb up to Leichhardt was tough and as I upped the effort to hold the target pace the remnants of the back of the 3:30 group shattered. Was very grateful to see the turnaround finally and some cheeky comments from Action and Luke Skyrunner about me not shaving down :)

Alas the downslope did not dramatically alter the pace and so I focussed on again lifting the effort to stay on schedule. By the 35km marker the increased effort had it's effect and the piano dropped on my back. From here it was a struggle and my lack of depth on recent long runs came home to roost. Through Pyrmont I removed the pace flag so I would not confuse anyone and then ground it out all the way home. The splits (against planned) were
Dist Plan Actual
5km 25:15 0:24:36
10km 49:30 0:49:09
15km 1:14:00 1:13:40
20km 1:38:30 1:37:41
25km 2:03:00 2:02:23
30km 2:27:30 2:27:24
35km 2:52:30 2:53:18
40km 3:18:00 ???????
End 3:29:30 3:41:50

The achilles really seemed to flare up as I was slowing down but now seems to be ok, or is it the rehydration dulling the pain???

Had a good time catching up and comparing notes at the Strider Tent at the finish which went down a treat, although hiking back and forward through the village to get bags, medals, t shirts etc on dead legs was a bit taxing.

So in summary, disappointed that I was unable to hold it all together as a pacer but this course is brutal and will chew up a lot of runners, especially if under prepared....

Thanks to:
Don Juan for the catering at the tent
Fellow Striders and others for volunteering their race to pace others
The CR cheer squad on the Cahill, something to look forward to!!!

Where's that bloody ark?

Saturday Sunday and Monday were all similar, awakening to the sound of torrential rain and deciding discretion was better than valour pulled the doona back up. Given the lurgy is still lightly lurking in the background it seemed unwise to go out in the cold wet conditions. Both Saturday and Sunday were then locked out with other "stuff" happening..... Monday morning it was absolutely bucketing down, our back yard resembled a lake and I had to go searching for the pets to make sure they were ok and give them some food. I promised them if it continued I'd be back in a boat and to start pairing up.

So a nice little enforced taper/rest.

Today the sky was clear (well ok in one corner) and I headed back to the hill for some more reps as atonement for my general sloth like behaviour in previous days. The confessional advice was 10 reps with minimal recovery, maybe with a hail mary thrown in for good measure :)

Very pleased to say that I pruned 2 seconds off my recent averages for the up reps and also 2 seconds off the average downhill. So after reviewing my previous records this looks like the best session I have had on this hill, a good sign that the legs have freshened up a little but also that maybe some adaption is creeping in, especially from Willy to Billy?

Stats
10 reps at average of 1:31.1 with average 1:48.6 recovery.

The plan for the rest of the week is -
Wednesday - Weir run at marathon pace with some stride outs at the oval on the way home
Thursday - Recovery run
Friday - Another run at marathon pace with more stride outs
Saturday - Recovery or complete rest

The marathon pace sessions above is the target pace I'm running as a pacer on Sunday, not my actual "race pace" and just to try and get the body used to the more even tempo, might even do one of these sessions around the bay which is flatter and more indicative of the terrain from Sunday than the ups and downs associated with LCNP.

Storm & Tempo

No this post is not about Storm from Supernova being cut.....

Thursday my recovery session rapidly turned into a rest session as the rain bucketed down and the thunder belowed. With the lurgy still lurking in the background no need to go out and ask for trouble!

Friday I decided for a tempo run to the weir and back. This is a tough course but I ground out a sub 50 minute for the 11 odd km which is close to my best.

Work this week has been very ying and yang. That coupled with various deaths/passings around the place have been a bit of a downer :(

Anyway in my Striders prez persona been busy working on trying to align the planets for pacers next Sunday in the half and full marathons. Things seem mostly under control but a few gaps, especially around 3:30 for the full, seems I might need to don the flag. Probably a bit underdone to do this but I've cranked out three sub 3:30 mara's and each one has been led off from a too hard too early approach. At least if I have to run a bit slower early it might be a relevation????

Sharpening up

Another "intense" session today with 1km reps in Lane Cove National Park, again between the 8 and 7km markers.
The splits were
3:56 Up
3:48 Down (ooh a bit faster!)
3:52 Up
3:52 Down
3:59 Up (legs starting to fade)
3:55 Down
The form was getting a little ragged on the last 2 and still some err "congestion" in the respiratory system. This gives an average of just under 3:54, so a little bit faster than the last lot but the very heartening additional piece of information was that I cut the standing rest from 2 minutes to 90 seconds, so as fast as the last session but with less recovery, I can tell you I was pretty wiped at the end of the last rep. After a short re-oxygenating break the run home seemed very sedate but was actually at a decent clip, funny how semi tempo feels quite comfortable after you have been racing at pretty much 5km race pace!

Bad boy bubby

Some good excuses not to run on Sunday/Monday
- Fathers Day, I needed to open my loot
- Excessive consumption of fine red wine
- continued effects of lurgy
- Excessive consumption of beer and bundy & coke
- depressed due to not picking any winners at the local races
- poor motivation?

Anyway after a weekend of excess and a much heavier car coming back due to numerous cases of wine (we went to Mudgee) I'm back!

This morning back to my hill reps, a struggle for the first couple as the respiratory system cleared itself, certainly the legs felt a little heavy.

Post run analysis was more encouraging, 10 reps at an average of 1:33 with average recovery of 1:50, this is quite close to my best average, somewhat heartening.

The best news for me is that since Willy to Billy with the few days off, a visit to Easy Tiger etc the niggly LH achilles aches no more joy of joys!!!

ps Vale Steve Irwin, so sad to see such a passionate person struck down in the prime of his life with so much still to offer to the community, environment and his family :( :(

Sekrit training camp

While most others were charging around North Head I headed out for a scenic run in the country.

Some highlights include a few unexpected hills, my first magpie swoop of the season and a red bellied black snake sighting!

Just over 21km in around 1:47

 The lurgy still has somewhat of a presence and the legs still some W2B but happy to get out again!
Sent from my Blackberry 

A pinch and a punch

For the first day of the month!

Despite the lingering lurgy I ran down to the weir and back to try and clear out the pipes and get the blood pumping. Still a little residual soreness from Saturday and I did not run hard so it was midway between recovery and long run pace.

Distance 11km
Time 58:41
Avg pace 5:23
Avg HR 158

Oh for Prof's benefit Go Girl saw me in my day job clobber rather than the usual running gear, the mohair singlet however is a permanent wardrobe item for me. Hope that puts to bed the rumours about my moonlighting ;)

August

A mixed month!

No running at all for the first 5 days, then the run at Airport Adventure where I vowed to become more consistent. From there I ran for 22 days straight, by far my longest consecutive sequence of days running. The races at City to Surf and Willy to Billy are somewhat in alignment as to my current fitness level. The current cold thingy is a mere hiccup as I'm keen to continue the approach for the next couple of months. I do have somewhat of a schedule of races etc in mind but we will see how things roll along, next step however, as stated below is to run the Sydney Marathon and I have 2.5 weeks to prepare, not aiming for much of a taper as there is not a massive base to exploit.

Lurgified

The sore throat is now accompanied by congestion but for a while there yesterday I thought I was over the worst of it. However more symptons and so the legs and achilles in particular are getting a good recovery after Willy to Billy.

On other fronts I have decided to go long at Sydney. For a change I will not try and go out at PB pace, this is more for the experience. Also Striders are organising the pacing groups and so I might even be involved in one of these :) The much vaunted half PB will certainly be tested before the end of the year though!

End of run

Yep the days of consecutive runs has ended :(

I did my recovery run over the road around the oval on Sunday which while difficult did get the blood flowing again!

Monday saw me back down to Melbourne on the plane planning to run that night. But through the day I started to experience a sore throat which became worse. By the time work finished I felt pretty crappy and the throat plus DOMS was too much of a reason not to run. An early start today, plus still feeling pretty crappy saw another enforced rest day.

Thanks to all for the thoughts/feedback no decision yet on full vs half. Some wise words slightly leaning towards long, just with the rest of the year in mind and Go Girl yes, no tell on the ? :)

Weekly update

So a week with tough bookends with Trotters on Sunday and Willy to Billy on Saturday.

Total distance : 87km (note this is actually my biggest weekly milage since July 2005, which really speaks for itself!)

As posted below I'll digest things and decide on which distance I'll run at Sydney in 3 weeks.

Willy to Billy race report

Day 21....

Up early to await my ride up to the mountains with Langswm. Accompaying him were Grandpa and a visitor from Germany and friend of Bandana, Thomas. The drive went pretty quickly and soon we were unloading and headed to the bus. I reckon 2/3 of the bus were Striders and/or Cool Runners, way too many to mention :)

Finally arrived at Mt Wilson after the bus driver tried to drive us up to Mt Irvine for a pre-race course inspection! Once the necessary ablutions and registration was over it was a case of standing around for a chin wag as each bus dropped off another load. Got to catch up with Will, Go Girl, Sarge, piriformis, Highway Man and, and....

Finally we got a very abbreviated start from a representative of Macquarie Bank. As I mentioned to my fellow car travellers the first 10km of this race can really test you out with numerous undulations. I worked on trying to minimise the effort on the numerous steep pinches, while as usual screaming past a whole heap of people on the technical downhills :) Through here I traded places with numerous people, finally after the last steep climb it was time to open the legs. Running near Sarge, Will, Shell and Barry R through here.

As we lapped around Mt Irvine I again focussed on trying to conserve energy and maintain form but slid back a couple of places. About now the troublesome achilles finally started to complain, I had wondered where it went!

Finally got to the 21km mark, which is the start of the long downhill, I held my position pretty well through here but the Garmin had an absolute hissy fit about 1km down. This descent seems to go on for ever and it is a little disconcerting looking across the valley to the other side and seeing people already climbing back up the long climb. Eventually reached the bridge in around 2:15 but the legs were actually still pretty lively and so I started climbing. After about 2km Robert W (Wazza?) caught me and asked if I was ok, at that point I was feeling pretty good and replied, you should see me when I am feeling bad.

I was very happy with the way I ran the climb, the last 2 times I have had to walk quite a deal. But finally, just as I rounded the last corner to head away from the valley (and the garmin came back to life!) I started to struggle. About a km later, despite grinding along the lack of real distance in my legs finally caught up and all of a sudden the grand piano dropped. I did my best to persevere but a few people went past here, including Horrie who looked like he was only just started running the way he went past.

At last I reached Bells Line Rd and a quick drink followed by a glance over the shoulder seeing Paul Bullas about 100m back. This section along the road always seems to get erased from the memory bank but I tell you it is a killer. With a couple of 100m to go I checked on my progress ahead of Paul and being safe cruised to the line.

Despite the optimisitic comments of good wishes I knew in my heart that today would be tough, this is my longest run since Canberra and also the first time I have breached 30km for quite a while as well and it showed!

The ending time was 3:08:48 about 6 minutes slower than last year which stacks up against the C2S time this year vs last. To be honest I was totally drained and it took quite a while to perk up, not even the offer of a special rehydrating brew from Blue Dog was appealing. After a bit of stuffing around I finally got changed, putting the skins on and working on knocking back an Endura opti.

As I type this tonight while still tight and sore I am walking ok but the achilles is tender and swollen (more ice!). I'll digest all the information and see how the recovery run tomorrow goes before I decide between the half or full for Sydney.

Special thanks to Langswm for the lift up an back!!

Ho hum

Day 20

Across the road for the jaunt around the park as my one day taper for Willy to Billy. Alas the shuffle had run out of battery and so I had nothing to keep me company doing the laps. This was soon rectified with the arrival of a galah who proceeded to search for worms as I continued lapping. He had no issue with watching me run past as he found brekkie.

The actual run was not too bad, a little tight in the adductors after yesterday but that ironed out after about 10 minutes. Achilles is still inflamed but certainly seems manageable.

So to Willy to Billy.....

The idea is to use it as a long tempo run rather than a pure race. Last year I did it in about 3:02 but faded in the last 10km. This year, I'll try and take it out a little slower and see how much is left in the tank when I hit the long down and up at the end.

Circle work #2

Day 19

Back to beautiful Sydney last night and up this morning for my "hard" day. Decided to head down to Rotary Park for some fast running on grass, with Saturday looming in the background, to minimise impact on the legs. Just to make life more interesting a light drizzle of rain accompanied the run today!

So this dose of circles was 400m reps with 90 sec standing recovery, again in an effort to work the cardio a little more while also getting the legs used to going a "bit" faster :)

8 reps seemed enough as the form on the last couple was becoming particularly ragged...
1:26
1:25
1:25
1:24
1:27
1:27
1:28
1:29

That gives an average of just over 1:26, which for interest sake translates to 3:36 min/km pace.

Then a quick visit to the witch doctor for some preventative needling on the lh calf and achilles. Tomorrow is recovery and my 1 day taper for Willy to Billy :)

Circle work in the city

Day 18

No I am not doing donuts in the rental car on Swanston St :)

Out to a nice little park in the city on the Yarra, just across from the casino for the exciting 30 minutes of recovery on grass. For a change there was some excitement as a helicopter came in and landed on the helipad float on the river next to the park. Some high flyer stepped out and into the waiting limo, no idea as to who it was though....

Certainly felt last night in the legs but still I suppose that is the point of these sessions.

Black and White

A tale of 2 days....

Day 16
Back up to the oval for the 30 minute recovery consisting of laps around listening to the iPod shuffle. Things seemed to pull up ok except for the usual dodgy lh achilles. Down to Melbourne again and while working in the hotel room and watching tv I worked quite a bit on self massage on the achilles, also put in a heel lift to try and reduce the stretch factor.

Day 17
I decided that I was going to run with the Gunn Runners tonight after the aborted attempt 2 weeks ago. A great idea with a 5km time trial for $6 which then includes a fresh amber ale for recovery :). The run is an out an back around Albert Park lake and I have always struggled to post anywhere near my CR5km times. I suppose it is due to the soft crushed rock surface, a turnaround plus running on a slightly uneven surface in the dark...

Anyway, I had resolved to hang on to the leaders for as long as possible, the first km split flashed up with a 3:40 and at about the same time I let them slowly stretch away with 4 in front. the next garmin split was a 4:10 but the others were still well and truly in sight. Coming back after the turnaround I could see I was slowly hauling in one guy and after another 2 4:10 km splits went past him with a km to go. However I could sense him pick up the pace and loiter a couple of metres back. As we rounded the bend with about 200m to go he came at me and it was an absolute ball busting sprint to the line, even my patented "kick of death" did not seem to sort him out but somehow I still edged him at the line :)

Well and truly stuffed after that and took quite a while to suck the oxygen back and also feel that lunch might not reappear! Ending time was 20:30 but as stated above this always seems to be a slow course (garmin said 5.07 km).

The best part of the whole exercise is the fact that there was absolutely no whinging from the troublesome achilles whatsoever so maybe the self massage really worked!

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.