Running in "The Big Easy"

Some more flights, with a quick stop over in Dallas/Fort Worth and I lobbed into New Orleans. Headed out for a cobweb clearing run and to check out some sights. A pretty cruisy recovery style run with just over 8km in 45 minutes

Sunday - before the work kicks back in I aimed to go out for a longer run. It was quite a deal cooler than yesterday afternoon and a cold wind blowing. Some research online had turned up a potential run route so off I went. After a few minutes running through downtown from the hotel I got to my first destination which is a tramway (now not used) that runs down the middle of a major road, but in a separate traffic island. The best thing is that the surface was pretty even, no gutters to traverse and it was all grass/dirt so low impact. This went for around 7km to reach a park which then went all the way down to the river and is New Orleans version of Hyde/Central Park. One lap of the park, stopping for a quick drink and then back along the tramway, consciously upping the pace to around 4:50 min/km all the way home.

Very pleased to knock out just under 20km in 1:40:33 for an average pace of 5:07 and average HR of 155. Here is a map of the route.

Where's Dave (Wally)

As forecast a frantic week since my long run on Sunday. I have mostly seen the interior of either hotel rooms or aircraft cabins, but have had some success in trying to keep running!

A brief sojourn back to Seoul but I had a little free time and so headed to the hotel gym for some treadmill therapy. The gym is a room in the middle of the hotel, no windows to the outside and as I found out quickly not a lot of ventilation or air conditioning. After determining the set up of the treadmill and the fact that they were reading in km and not miles I set the dial for 4 min/km with the aim to replicate my LCNP session with 2 min standing rest. After about my third rep the little Korean gym attendant came and had a look and immediately dashed away to get extra towels as the sweat was certainly starting to flow.

Ended up with 7 reps, but was pretty taxed at the end. Then went out with one of our business partners and proceeded to drink my body weight in beer and whisky (again), bloody hell these Koreans drink! This of course left me in no state to do my planned session the following morning....

More long flights and now I am in Los Angeles on my way to New Orleans. Desperate to stretch the legs after the long flights I headed out with the goal of hitting the Pacific on the Eastern edge. As you will see from the image below I got close but the whole area between the airport and sea is blocked off for obvious security reasons. A good stretch out with 16.7km done in 1:22 for avg pace of 4:56.



Am desperately not happy about missing Canberra and catching up with people and teh malaise of time zone changes, flying and meetings has meant not a lot of chance to wish all those running the best, so now I have at least done it, even though no one will probably read this until after their race.

Wet Weekend Wanderings

Saturday - up at sparrows to head into The Domain to set up for the 10km. As per previous post I was unsure whether I'd run the 10km, West Met or both but after setting up and giving Bernie G, Kit and Razor a briefing on the timing system and associated programs I did a quick warmup and headed down to the start line.

This course is trying, jammed pack running for the first 2km, uphill no less and dodging puddles then a downill back to the point of Lady Macquaries chair before doing it again another 2 times!

I felt a little tight all over but just kept on trying to stay smooth and economical, also missed a few km markers. The last km is a bit of a lung buster with a downhill kick to get the legs cycling over and then about 400m to try and hold (or increase) that pace.

Actually quite happy with the end result posting 43:30 a 47 second improvement over Homebush with not a lot done in between.

After I finished teh slight drizzle that had been threatening evolved into a torrential downpour so no chance to catch up an talk with anyone as they were already all up at presentations and then naturally scarpered while I sorted out packing up the timing gear.

Sunday - Given the STaR today was a DIY rocket around the bay area I opted for something a little different that I had been planning to do for a while. There was a family do at my mother-in-law's place at Hornsby and so I decided to run up the GNW to Hornsby to get some time on the legs over trails and also to give the new camelbak another trial.

Got up to Browns Waterhole in about an hour and then it was into unknown territory as I followed the GNW up to Thornleigh. There was considerable groundwater on the trail and also some good stream crossings. The run down the other side of Thornleigh was really nice and then the trail turned a little more technical as it followed Berowra Creek (?) up to the back of Hornsby. Just as I finally popped out of the bush it started raining (again) and I got soaked as I climbed up quite a steep section on Pretoria Parade to Hornsby.

Stats - 26.75km in 3:17:00 which included 500m of climb for a net climb of about 150m. The legs while tired were not smashed and this is exactly what I was looking for.

Last week - Pretty pleased with the start of April with 71km under the belt and a couple of good runs. The next 2 weeks will be challenging to say the least to try and keep things going under what I know will be difficult conditions with a long work trip.

Circlework 101

A great way to start the day, a sleep in followed by a controlled 30 minute recovery run under a certain HR. This was made even more enjoyable by the cooler weather, my shuffle going in the background and the personal trainer looking after her student on one corner of the oval :)

It has been ages since I actually did a recovery run, having opted mostly for rest days. felt fairly good but lower legs, especially shins are still coming to grips with what I have been doing to them.

A few different options tomorrow with Striders 10km at The Domain in the morning and West Met XC in the afternoon at Concord, or both.....

Momentum

is a wonderful thing!

Wednesday - Autumn night series at Ermington, I have had reasonable success on this map during the daytime. Certainly a little more difficult than last week with a lot more running not on roads and thus also much less available street lights.

I reckon if the people in the suburbs are a little intrigued by summer series then the night running stuff must really grab their attention as various bodies charge in and out of the dark with head lamps and torches clutching a map, running like a mad man!

Was pretty happy with the course selection and my run, some others commented that they struggle running at pace over uneven terrain in the dark but I don't find it too bad. Might have something to do with my headlamp :)

Stats - 9km in just under 50 minutes for avg pace of 5:33, not bad for night running and navigating (well I think so)

Thursday - Tempo run, the staple down to the weir and back to see what is left in the legs after the last 2 days and having not done much for a while before that. Again pretty pleased but also was stuffed when I finished.

Stats - just under 11km in 51:10 so avg pace of 4:42, not my best but far from my worst...

So three hard days in a row, that means recovery/rest tomorrow!

Do not fall off the chair!

Yes two blog posts in 2 days, which obviously means I did get out for another run.

Nothing like serving some penance for the sins of no running so off down to LCNP for some 1km reps. Legs certainly felt clunky on the way down and some residual tightness in the lower legs from the weekend. Anyway I hit out with 6 1km reps with standing 2 min rest. Saw Spud cruise by twice so my sekrit training cover has already been blown!

Pretty ugly reps and time, have had for a while what I believe deferred sciatia/piriformis pain for a while in the top of my LH hammie and this was again noticeable when I tried to stretch out.

Reps were 4:04, 4:00, 4:04, 4:01, 4:00 and 3:58

Always interesting running home after a rep session, subconsciously the pace feels slow but I actually ran quite a bit faster than my warm up on the way down....

Back home for some stretching and I was sweating buckets. A good thing happend while stretching my SI joint cracked twice and the deferred hammie tightness seems to have decreased significantly! Lower legs are tender, which in some ways is good, I have my shin high skins on today under the work clobber.

Oh and for Gnome's benefit I am still on CR, now known simply as Dave, to coincide with my 1000th post :) and I can only dream of being as fast as some of the vets around the place.....

Helllllllloooooooooooooooo

Yep, that sounds like an echo, understandable given my recent blogging slackness!

So not a heap of anything going on unfortunately, I have done a "little" running. Mostly some more orienteering which in itself is funny given I just gave up the O Runner tag on Cool Running.

Socially life has been a bit hectic, as some may be aware I turned 40 a few weeks ago and given circumstances the celebrations drifted on for a while, culminating in a large BBQ party.

The first quarter is gone and according to my trusty SportTracks I have clocked up 345km in 3 months...

Some of the recent runs,
Last summer series event at Hunters Hill, a pretty good route selection saw me pretty ragged at the end. A decent score lifted me up the ladder, thankfully next season I am in the vet category, no more racing against speedsters like Andrew Hill!!

First autumn night series, last Wed night, same as summer series but now with headlamps and night navigation to make it interesting. Went a bit too far down and out from North Sydney oval to Neutral Bay which proved my downfall on the way home. Another hard run though!

Saturday - first of the West Met series at Haberfield, which I hope to have as a regular staple through winter. Aimed to hold onto a couple of benchmark runners I had from last year, which I did for around 4km and then had a good duel with a Hills runner, shedding him with about a km to go, only to have another Hills runner try and put a burst on me with 500 to go, I held him until about 200m but faded. He told me after the finish that he was just about to clag out as well when I dropped off :( A decent benchmark hitout with around 7.7km in 32:39

Sunday - Again something different, running from home to test out my new camelbak octane I did a loop through Putney, Gladesville and Hunters Hill before arriving at Boronia Park for (believe it or not) another orienteering event. Pretty much baked myself before running home, very trashed at the end....

Also for Ewen/Wombatface the gaiters I wore at Six Foot were Dirty Girl gaiters. I found them through a few Ultra heads and ordered some for myself. The great thing is that the lady who makes them turns all the profits back into trail maintenance and she is also an Ultra runner!

Anyway enough dribble for an infrequent post, aiming for more running related stuff, hoping I can translate the motivation from watching the Iron Man live web feed last night into geting up when the alarm goes off!

Post Six Foot

Legs pulled up pretty well from Saturday, once again a noticeable case of doms in lower outside hammies which I always seem to get on longer runs involve walking.

Last night Summer Series was literally just around the corner so I did a cobweb clearing blast and was pretty happy with the result. As usual I ran "long" and was back a bit late but happy with the run and mostly the route. Certainly a lot better score than my last couple of outings.

Time to think about what next, main goal is to try and do a sub 40 while 40 (recent birthday, thanks Tesso!) But bottom line is that I (still/again) need to be more consistent with training and somehow blend real life against that requirement better! Not much point in setting lofty goals if I never do enough groundwork to succeed....

Six Foot 2007

As posted on CR, more (maybe) to come....

After an encouraging start to my 6 ft program real life stepped in and a while ago it became apparent that any serious assault on my dodgy PB and last year's DNF would be underdone. In the end I offered my services as a 7 hour sweep for wave 3, given the extra wave and potential for the back markers in this wave to potentially struggle to hit the 7 hour cutoff.

So a somewhat very relaxed pre-race prep saw me at the start line with broom in hand, but the pre-race nerves were still somewhat lurking....

The start was not the usual anxious affair, much more casual as I strolled down to the stairs behind the blue wave. I was surprised at the actual good progress we made down before the first wave 4 runner came through. Also surprising was the gap from him to the next wave 4 runner..... At the road proper I focussed on the planned splits and let everyone head off down the road. Every so often I blew my whistle, usually in recognition of being passed by a Strider or CR from wave 4 more than anything else.

About halfway from Megalong to Cox's I came up to my first wave 3 tail ender, who I shall call the NRG runner. She was moving ok and given by my reckoning we were ahead of 7hr schedule I held back to leave her to her own devices while a number of wave 4 runners went through. After the river crossing as we climbed Mini Mini I stayed intouch with her, along with Koala 1 who had caught us. After the cattle yard aid station I moved ahead of the NRG runner but I also stopped to pause at the aid station between Mini Mini and Pluviometer for a "nature" stop where she caught up. Unbenown to me Go Girl was also at this aid station being treated .

On Pluviometer I had to keep a pretty good pace going to keep in step with the schedule and I was actually repassing a number of wave 4 runners who had passed me earlier! Right at the top of Pluviometer I caught Wombatface and was pretty much bang on pace at 4 hours.... Ewen immediately cruised ahead as I got out the shepheards crook for Black Range. There were a number of runners that I continually swapped positions with as I adjusted my pace based upon splits and the km markers that I was searching for. This continued along deviation, especially on the short "unexpected" climbs before the road crossing. At this point I was at the end of a stream of around 20 runners from both wave 3 & 4.

I paused at the crossing for a quick chat with the spectators and firies before heading off. Along here Martin Dugdale and I ran in the same pace while most of the others cruised ahead. For me this was the most difficult (mentally) section of the run, most of the people I had been with since Pluviometer cruised ahead and only the occasional runner catching me while I was holding the prescribed pace.

Finally we hit the downhill and this (for me) was the most gratifying piece of the whole race. Firstly I caught up to an early wave starter who I now believe to be David Newborn, we had a good chat about how he was going and I did my "on the run" diagnosis of a case of ITB It was only about 1.5km to go and the downhill was on, I was continually looking over my shoulder in the hope that a blue wave runner would be catching back up to me. To my absolute surprise the NRG runner that I had very reluctantly run away from re-appeared out of the blue, running strongly! I let her past and while she was obviously on her last legs it seemed she was on to break the 7 hours! While I had snakes, power bars and gu's she needed water So we cruised on with only about a km to go. From here it was a done deal, confirmed by seeing Don Juan at the start of the paved section. I let the NRG runner go ahead and slowed in the hope that maybe someone else might be trying to catch me. Alas, that was it, although Koala 1 (wave 4) did also go past while I was lurking near the finish!

So ended my most recent Six Foot experience. Post finish I got a chance to digest some of the extraordinary performances that various fellow runners and friends achieved, which was a humbling experience. After the horrors of last year this was somewhat of a redemptive/soul cleansing experience.

Way too much to try and include in this post, apologies for the rambling....

To all the runners who aimed and strived to run 6 ft, well done!

THANK YOU!
To Kevin Tiller and the assorted people who are the backbone of this event
To the firies and others on the day out there to enable this race to continue
To the runners out there on the track that I had the opportuntity of sharing the experience.

I am humbled by those who I spent quite a deal of time with out on the day. I was pacing/running within my limits while you were going 100%. To those who fell short of their own expectationsor DNF'd I commiserate, can't say much more, but I know you are disappointed and have been there.

Highlights of the day
- having the NRG runner catch me at the death
- seeing Jen crack 7 hrs
- Fats' win and race record, a superb result for such an unassuming guy
- Max's 24 runs, absolutely mind boggling, a great way of recognising an extradorinary achievement.

To the others that are too many to mention, but ring in my mind
- Kit, dividends reaped
- MPH, sensible training
- Amjan, yet another PB at 6 ft!
- Superflake, solid effort.

Finally thanks to Action and Luke SR for the sweeper/pacing stuff and Action and Megan for the lift up/back.

Will I be back next year, you bet!!!!!!!

EDIT- 2 fav photos from yesterday.

tick tock....

More disrupted running plans, last week saw me in Seoul for most of the week for work. This also seemed to entail drinking my body weight in beer and whisky as part of "bonding" with my potential new business partners and their customers.....

However, I did manage to pull on the racing shoes for Saturday morning at Homebush and went out at a semi-sensible pace that I managed to hold for a while before fading a little. In the last km I did try and up the tempo with success hauling in a few people on the surge to the line which was somewhat pleasing as usually I am the haulee. Ended up with 44:17 a little higher than expected but pleasing anyway.

Sunday saw the Balmain Bungle STaR and with the legs a little done from the 10km I opted to run with the 6am group, first time in ages and a bit of an eye opener. The front pace was floating around 5:30 or below and got involved in quite a heated "discussion" with the ring leader who insisted on walking on ahead after he had first use of the tap at water stations and not waiting for others to have their drink. Did the 25km short cut which turned out to be about 23km but I actually walked in the last 2km or so with another Strider who had a knee injury.

As some will have seen my plans for Six Foot are falling into place with me acting as one of the 7 hour pacer/sweepers. My job is to run at 7 hour pace which is the cutoff for people to qualify for a medal and being officially recorded as having finished. Some mechanics still to work out but at this point it seems likely I will be at the back of wave 3.

Jump the shark!

Summer Series tonight and I decided to include a "hero" route selection which could pay off or backfire badly. (a short cut through some bush)

No guesses required as to which way things went......

Any way despite my mishap it was a good workout which is the main goal. Lower legs are a little tender but things do seem to be progressing a little!

Taper, what taper???

Yes, while others start to taper and sharpen I'm out just trying to get the legs turning over....

Sunday was an interesting run, a new route based out of the back of Hornsby which covered a fair bit of the GNW. A good sized 6:10 group and I only just made it (incorrect alarm setting!), so much so that the garmin did not get a lock. Finally at our first water stop before hitting the bush it locked but then it kept complaining that the split memory was full....

At one point the "leaders" made a wrong turn so I headed off with hefty/dash and Kevin T along the single track. I love this sort of running and soon the bunch was way in the distance! I took the opportunity at the Quarry Rd bridge to completely clear the memory as only clearing a month did not seem to have any effect (has anyone else had this problem??).

At the top of the hill I let the group go through and waited for Kevin and we had a good chat headed down towards Galton Gorge Rd. Quite a bit of scrambling and I did a bit of counselling on another runner who had already twisted her ankle and was very tenative on the technical stuff. At the water drop another runner had knocked his head on a rock and was going to short cut it out so they left together and Kev, hefty/dash and myself regrouped to head on towards crosslands.

This section took quite a while but again good single track running and we actually caught back up to the tail end of the bunch. Along here I did manage to bash my right leg just above the knee as I zig zagged through some rock formations. Just before crosslands the 6:20 guys came through and I did a hygiene/hydration/gu stop at crosslands leaving Kev to go on.

I regrouped with some 6am runners on the climb back out and ended up running with Jim and Alison as we headed back to the start. Alison opted for the full course while Jim and I had had enough! The knee pulled up a little sore with some grazing and bruising but nothing structural!

This morning dragged myself out for a tempo jaunt down to the weir and back, did not feel overly smooth but averaged 4:50 so not too bad, tossed in some 100m strides at the oval opposite home before winding down and that was a bit painful!!

Entry for Six foot is in, opted for wave 3 and will be focussed on getting to the top of pluvi in one piece and see what happens after that!

Bottom of the hill

Back to basics in an effort to get rolling again and so I thought why not go deep end straight up!

Down to LCNP and the Striders 8km marker to flog myself a few times over a km and see what happens. Even on the run down it was noticeably humid and I felt far from being smooth etc etc.

Knocked out the first rep in 4:02 and as I am standing there gasping trying to re-oxygenate the mad guz looms into view. A quick nod as he notices my breathing and confirms I am doing a "session" as he gracefully floats by. Fifteen seconds later and my rest is up and I charge off in pursuit, the sad thing is his float is faster than my rep (3:57) as I make no inroads in catching him, sort of puts things into perspective!

The next up rep makes it a CR spotting exercise as Rock Doctor goes past in the other direction and I complete a 4:04. Last ditch stand on the way back and I use the downhill to get a 3:55. This just sneaks me under the average of 4 min/km but quite a bit off from the 6 @ around 3:50 from late last year. A struggle to get home and I'm absolutely lathered but a good session to use as a new benchmark!

Thanks for the thoughts on 6 ft, the battle may be lost but the war is far from over :)

A battle lost....

It is now very clear that there is no way I will (or should) approach Six Foot with the intent of a significant time improvement, ie a redemption run.

Training has been at best very intermittent with many distractions (excuses). In looking at the time between now and March 10 it is obvious with some more distractions that a change in approach is needed.

There is the possibility that I will still run six foot but with a lot more conservative outlook on what may be possible in a time dimension.

I have been putting together a revised outlook for the next few months based upon this and also the probability that I will be also unable to run Canberra. (more later!)

On the good news front I ran Summer Series last night for the first time in a while and had pretty much a perfect run, getting back 18 seconds early and reaching all of the controls I planned. A warm afternoon and some good serious climbs just added to the mix to give me around 8km in just under 45 minutes and a net point score of 440, tempered by the fact that top gun Andrew Hill got 530!

Tough times......

Made my first foray back into training on Sunday at the Middle Harbour Picnic STaR. It started out good, seemingly cruising with the 6:10 group, got bad around Balmoral as I started to struggle and then plain bloody ugly as I very nearly did not even finish the run. My legs were extremely painful which for a while I was perplexed, surely I could not loose that much condition over a couple of weeks. Afterwards I realised that since my six foot hit out I have been wearing my Nike free's and am thinking that I actually "conditoned" my legs/feet somewhat out of my orthotics??? Seriously I don't think I have ever felt as bad in the legs during a run, even at the end of various marathons.....

Feel much better physically today but have had a major distraction with Striders, one of our members getting in a very bad situation out on six foot and I have found it very taxing trying to work through things with all concerned.

Hoping for a better remainder of the week, Summer Series to hopefully blow the cobwebs out and get some confidence back in my condition and legs :(

We apologise for this break in transmission.....

A bit of time between posts but all for a good reason!

Just flew back into Sydney yesterday after a family holiday to the US. Obviously I did not blog about this ahead of time as it is not a wise idea to put out in the public domain that the house will be unoccupied for a couple of weeks.

We had an absolute blast, with the focus being on Disneyland (for 3 days!), San Diego (what a great zoo), Las Vegas (Disney for adults!) and the Grand Canyon.

Only downer was record low temperatures during our visit, that combined with a pretty hectic schedule (we drove everywhere) saw absolutely no running, even though I took my gear. So now time is short for Six Foot prep and I have not ventured near the scales yet to see the damage american food has done. Regardless the absolute great time in experiencing everything with my wife and kids more than outweighs any potential performance impact at six foot, some things in life are much more important!

Back to the mountain

Since Black Stump I have again been busy with a Summer Series jaunt around Lindfield, lots more climbing and I absolutely ran myself into the ground.

Again some slackness drifts in but the buck stops on Sunday with a return to Six Foot today. An early start to get up to Megalong Rd to start at 7am with a group of around 10. A conga line down to Cox's River at a pretty good clip, although the group fragmented a little. The water was pretty low but we rock hopped across. I had a need to make a pitstop while the others kept going.

About half way up Mini Mini another runner caught me who I found out was Vurt, the rest were off in the distance. Cruised back past Vurt on the descent down to Allum and then he went past again as we ascended Pluvi. I paused for a second at teh site of my misfortune in last year's race. Right near the top the main group went past headed back down. A quick gu at the top and time to smash the quads....

Back up to Mini Mini before headed all the way to the river. Here vurt, superflake and aimhigh were waiting. I did not realise how tough the climb back up to Megalong was, I was pretty much done (read stuffed) with more walking than running in the final pieces of the climb before thankfully seeing the car.

Stats
Distance 35.4km
Time 4:31:11
Avg Pace 7:39
Avg HR 155
Total climb 1385m (yowsa!)

I'd say this route actually has more climb than the race due to the climb back out from Cox's which is a lot more than Black Range. Legs are not too bad tonight, assisted by the cold dip in the creek, putting on the skins and also some Endura opti.

Black Stump Bush Run

Up early after seeing in the New Year with caution on the drinks front. A good thing as I got stopped at Roseville for a random breath test!

An amazing turnout of runners, especially if you compare to last year where there might have been 20 of us. This year around 120!!!

Started out cautiously and ran with Spud and Tom for a way until we hit the uphills where I eased back a little, content to save myself a little, especially if I needed to sprint for the ferry. As it happened I got to the water and the ferry was chugging back so I popped a gu and drank some water. The departure was a little delayed as a couple of groups of runners showed up.

Off the other side and it was a scramble of a large group up the hill. I ran with Blue Dog for a little while and loitered just behind Spud, just losing him at the top. I really enjoyed the run down to the castle and Ron Schwebel caught up to me just after the turn. I was still struggling a little up the hills and just at the top of teh long descent back to the ferry sfGnome ran past. I was content to keep him in sight and again see what happened with the ferry. This time we just missed it so a good regroup again, topping up the camebak and around 6 of us ran off the other side.

I hung in with the group for most of the first climb but really struggled towards the top letting them drift away. It was very pleasing to see the drink drop at the top of the second climb and now I knew it was just good steady running all the way back. Despite feeling tired I kept the legs turning over all the way back and finished in 3:51:35, slight improvement over last year. Got changed and hung around to see most of the others come in, certainly it was a little warmer than the run last year (not the furnace option). Have done some comparision splits for those interested....

TY LY
Berowra to ferry 0:53:10 0:52:30
Ferry over 0:11:22 0:08:00
Ferry to Castle 0:50:41 0:49:27
Castle to Ferry 0:50:00 0:47:18 (really ran hard downhill)
Ferry Back 0:10:00 0:04:45
Ferry to Finish 0:59:34 1:07:45

Act. running time 3:33:35 3:37:00

A decent benchmark, certainly I did a lot better in the last steep section back up the hill this year. Also encouraging that the legs feel not too bad today, despite being pretty much toast when I finished. A good sign that while I did not race the run it was a good solid hit out.

2006 recap

A quick review of 2006 for posterity....

January - Somewhat steady training for Six Foot but a little inconsistent - 323km

February - Started pretty well with a couple of decent runs in the 10km and Equaliser but training slipped pretty dramatically in the middle - 175km

March - Started with a bout of the flu from which in hindisght I did not recover fully. Six Foot was a shambles and I withdrew halfway up Pluviometer. Did get to watch the Commonwealth Games 5000m race live, which was an absolute belter. Overall a very slack month - 126km

April - Somewhat pleasing to just squeeze in under 3:30 for Canberra given the poor preparation, mentally came out of my hole a little - 177km

May - A little more consistent, including running during my US trip, but still down on distance. Highlight was the SMH Half going within a whisker of my half PB in a pretty well paced race - 171km

June - A fairly quiet month but I did race the NSW XC championships and also lowered my PB at Woodford to Glenbrook - 192km

July - A shambles of a month, only 2 blog posts and minimal running - 96km

August - Finally got myself a little motivated, especially after a horrendous Airport Adventure STaR. A lot more consistent training saw decent times for both City to Surf and Willy to Billy, promising given the lack of real distance in the legs - 239km

September - Again some consistency without really digging in. Ran Sydney Marathon as a pacer with SilverFox and faded in the last 10km. Some decent speedwork was seeing my rep times dropping - 234km

October - A pleasing month with some good running. First race at Fitzroy Falls in the marathon and also a first in equal highest points for a Summer Series event. A very strong run in the internal half capped off with a good jaunt along part of the GNW course with Blue Dog - 321km

November - Started by just about breaking my 10km PB, getting within 10 seconds at Lane Cove. The rest of the month centered around the GNW, I had a great time, but sadly was probably a little underdone and that was not helped by the heat. A reluctant but wise decision to withdraw at the 52km mark. After that pretty much a break to recover mentally and physically - 107km

December - The start of the Six Foot Campaign, funnily enough, not a single race in December, unusual for me (other than Summer Series!). Some good longer runs but the usual work and family stuff this time of the year reduced my ability to run every day - 255km

Summary - In hindsight a lot of expectations but not enough preparation to try and achieve stated goals. Probably the best yardstick is my stated goal in January to run 3000km for the year, in fact the actual yearly total just snuck over 2400. Some encouraging signs at various points through the year.

My PB table is starting to look somewhat dusty. 2007 should hopefully be a watershed year in my running, more consistent training will help. As I turn 40 in March the major focus will be to go sub 40 when 40 :)

Seeing out 2006

Last runs for 2006

Thursday - Out for a tempo run around my 14km circuit, went out in the late afternoon but still quite warm and I was pretty lathered by the time I got home.

Distance 14.3km
Time 1:05:38
Avg Pace 4:35
Avg HR 167

Saturday - This time I opted for my "Half Marathon" route with some good decent hills including a nasty long 1km haul up Pittwater Road to get home. Again I was pretty spent when I had finished.

Distance 20.84km
Time 1:41:43
Avg Pace 4:52
Avg HR 163

So that ends December and 2006 (I'll do a separate 2006 summary blog)

Six Foot Campaign Summary
Day 29 of 96
Days run 15
Total distance 255
Total climb 2142

Still somewhat inconsistent but the days I have dropped/not run I have used as recovery runs and shuffled my more intense sessions around and kept them.

Merry Christmas!!!

First of all Merry Christmas to all readers and fellow bloggers, a little belated but then that's life I suppose when you have 3 kids over Christmas, plus one of them having a birthday 2 days later.....

Now where was I? (warning longish type post to cover a week and a half)

A trip to Melbourne screwed up Mon/Tues after the STaR so I headed to Balmoral for the Summer Series event on Wednesday. Running here is always a challenge with controls usually set at the top of the ridge, halfway down and then along the waterfront with generally a good amount of climbing required to collate a decent score. I worked out a route which kept most controls open depending upon my progress. As it happens the progress was good. I know some lurkers are Summer Series runners and so below is my route, with a commentary, scroll down further for other stuff if not interested.



Initially some easy pickings with 3,12 and 4 then up the hill/path to 11, dropping back a little to then climb up further to 22. Then following the contours along to 21, dropping down to 13, missing 30 points at 2 and 14. Back up and along to 24 (droppong another 10 points with 1) then halfway down the slope to 25, climbing back up to 16. TRaversing the slope to 6 (on Awaba) up to 27 then zig zagging down to 19 and 18. Across and then up to 28 then down through Chinamans Beach for 9 and 29. Anothet climb out and along to 30 then 20, dropping back down to Balmoral for 7. Running low on time but out to the island for 26 then weaving the streets of Balmoral for 17 and 10. I was on around 43 minutes here so knew I would be late but decided to be greedy and hit 15, looping around and up for 23, with a final downhill surge to 5 and home. Six and a bit minutes late saw 70 points deducted from my gross score of 550 to give a net of 480.

Stats
Distance 9.3km
Time 51:49
Avg Pace 5:35
Avg HR 171
Climb 120m

Friday
Did the stock standard weir run but felt pretty crappy throughout seemed to be very humid. Somewhat slower than my best but anyway...

Saturday
Initially planned a Quarry Rd jaunt in place of the CR Xmas eve run but fell short so headed out in the middle of the day with the goal of a longer run, including some good bush. A short cut through to Deburghs Bridge and already the heat and humidity were evident, putting my head under the tap at the rangers hut to try and cool down. New territory on the Eastern Side of Lane Cove River along the GNW with some good undulating trail running. As I paused at one intersection another runner approached who I recognised as Tom, a fellow Strider. We continued together up to Browns Waterhole where he turned around and I crossed the river and climbed up to Vimiera Road. A long pause near Macquarie Uni where I rehydrated, popped a gu and endeavoured to try and cool down. Eventually took a short cut or 2 on the way home and was pretty wiped by the end.
Stats
Distance 19km
Time 1:42
Avg Pace 5:27
Avg HR 165
Climb 160m

Tuesday (Boxing Day)
Took advantage of the reshuffled family Xmas arrangements and cooler weather to head out for a longer run. Dropped through LCNP, seeing Tom again and then also catching up with Jim Moody near the start of the Striders 10km races. A good long climb up to West Lindfield and then hit the bush in an effort to do the Striders Chatswood Chase in reverse. I missed one turn in the bush and was momentarily dislocated but kept on running on commonsense and eventually reestablished contact with the planned run. Kept climbing up to the Mona Vale Rd/Pacific Hwy intersction and across for some climbing up to Gordon and then along the rollercoaster parallel to the railway line to Boundary St. I decided to take the "long option" and headed east towards Penshurst St all the way down to Mowbray Rd. It finally started to warm up by now but I pushed hard home, grinding out the climb up Epping Rd back to home. Overall a much better run than Saturday!
Stats
Distance 28.2km
Time 2:29:40
Avg Pace 5:18
Avg HR 152 (legs seemed to be limiting factor!)
Climb 240m

Six Foot Campaign Summary
Day 25 of 96
Days run 13
Total distance 220km
Total climb 1965

Better than nothing I suppose but more consistency required which knowing my timetable will be tough.....

Also apologies to fellow bloggers for lack of recent comments, a little bit stretched at the moment!!

Reaping what you have sown!

So over to Centennial Park for the Tourist Trot STaR. A good sized group but immediately the pace was on....

I won't rant too much about the group pace but suffice to say I eventually faded at around 18km drifting off the back. If the goal was to run on tired legs then mission accomplished! Also heartening to hear that the bulk of the 6:10 group finally realised that they really should be running 6:20 (especially since they averaged 4:59 pace....)

So to my run
Distance 28km
Time 2:26
Avg Pace 5:14
Climb - Garmin initially says 410 but I will revise that back to 330 after it plotted a 140m peak in the middle of King St.....

Campaign status
Day 16 of 96
Days run 9 (David must be more consistent....)
Total distance 153km
Total climb 1370m

U can't touch this

To borrow from my pal MC a few slack days (more travel and some Xmas carousing) so it is hammer time....

Hard tempo run down to the weir and back with the Garmin Virtual Partner for company using the course feature from a previous run. Suffice to say that I smoked his arse but was absolutely knackered at the end. Probably more than a standard tempo, slipping closer to race pace...

Distance 10.92
Time 48:40 (a course PB of 35 seconds!)
Avg Pace 4:27
Avg HR of 169 so still a little in the bank

So the desired goal of heading into a 30km Star on tired legs seems to be in process.

Tis the season to be busy....

Heaps happening (whats new, I hear you say) but managing to fit running into the schedule, here is what has happened since my last post.

Friday - saw me back up at Duffy's Forest to check out and map the back half of the Striders Xmas Brunch. This session actually beat me up quite a bit with some impressive hills on the trails between Duffys Forest and Mona Vale Road.

Distance 13.1km
Climb of 225m

Saturday - lots of non running stuff and then my work Xmas party, walked the fine line of consumption/sleep/partying.

Sunday - Got the chance to test out the course I had laid out. A good sized 6:10 group and very well behaved. When we hit the decent climb the group fragmented and I ran back with various people, settling in along the final section of the perimeter trail with the faster girls. Then some great food as part of the awards brunch. Some pretty good feedback on the course and if we can add a little bit of extra distance it will be a great 6 foot preparation run!

Distance 23.6km
Climb of 305m

Tuesday - With Six foot in mind I had mapped out a new hills course which is pretty much straight out and back to Parramatta River, see below.

The goal will be to add in some reps of the section between around 3km and 7km.

Distance 9.3km
Climb of 120m

Wednesday - With extra curricular activities associated with the kids school Summer Series is out so I opted for a tempo run on my 14km standard route. Seemed quite humid and I really felt like I was struggling, especially up the hills, probably after affects from yesterdays session. Ended up with 1:04:35 which when I checked my records is the 2nd fastest time over this route, so the suffering was meaningful!

Distance 14.2
Climb of 60m

So the campaign summary looks like....
Day 11 of 96
Days run 7
Total distance 114.5km
Total climb 970m

Summer Series - Shrimpton Creek

Summer Series tonight, some sort of advantage given the map is based around the bike path that I regularly run on my longer runs. To make things more interesting I opted to run to the start from home. Not going to go into a complete analysis of the run but from a quick look at the map the lot were gettable. I charged around with only 2 small stumbles in locating the controls. Ended up getting back just over 1 minute late so got docked 20 points, however, I'm pretty sure this was the first time I got the lot, only problem was that the speedsters were also out in force and Ben Rattray scorched the lot in 39 minutes 30 seconds.....
Distance 9.6km
Avg Pace 4:51
Avg HR 181

A warm downish type run home to give me 16km all up.

Day 4 of 96
Days run 3
Total campaign distance 54km
Total climb 260m

Stealth

The campaign has started.....



A variety of factors, including DTI maintenance saw me reluctantly bypass the Central Coast Half, opting instead for my first STaR for quite a while. I had heard/read a few things about (sigh) pacing at STaR's and so was very amused when the 6:10 group started to form. One of the main fast pace culprits (lets call him tiger) noticed my presence and immediately announced his intent to run 6:20 this week. So a fairly subdued bunch headed out. Regardless it was still a good pace in cool and wet conditions around Homebush/Meadowbank. Some slight twinges in the LH hammie extended down to the calf at around 20km and I started drifting a little, opting to take the short cut.

Monday was a break and today I headed out for a reconnoitre of the Striders Xmas brunch course at Terrey Hills/Duffy's Forest. Some work to do to get the whole thing mapped out yet....

The Stealth title refers to my official kick off to the Six Foot Campaign :)

Days into campaign 3
Days run 2
Total campaign distance 38km
Total climb 195m

More details on the stealth runs when I reappear next.....

A little breather

Thanks to all for the comments re GNW.

Since GNW things have been hectic, with a week in Singapore. Upon my return I headed out to SMC to see how the legs would take to running again. I actually felt pretty fresh bust running at pace my HR went a little haywire and so I modulated my pace to the HR, which saw me alternating places with a few people over a few km. Also not helping was my digestive system "complaining" a little....

At about 13km and the drink station on the way back out the gut complained again and given I was starting to drift on pace the ole heartilidge snapped and I really could not be bothered to keep going. After some rehydration I turned around and walked back most of the way. What did hearten me was the concern from pretty much all and sundry re why I was walking, too bad it was from a "couldn't be stuffed attitude".

So from there some more time off, I have now officially designated this as a "mental health break". Tonight I braved the oppressive heat for summer series around West Lindfield and Lane Cove National Park (the eastern side). A couple of oops' but when I left I was actually top of the leader board so go figure....

It felt good to stretch the legs out but a struggle to get home, the original plan was for a PB crack at the Central Coast Half, I'll still probably have a go but now thoughts start drifting to that certain 46km distance in March where I have a LOT of unfinished business......

More soon (even regular stuff) I promise!!

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.