Holiday - rest

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

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

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

Homebush Hustle

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

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

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

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

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

Trials and tribulations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Catch up

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

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

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

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

Friday
Rest as per instructions

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recovery run - Adelaide

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

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

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

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

SMC 10km - Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

West Met XC - North Ryde Common

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

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

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

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

Rest & revamp

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

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

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

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

I can use the letters PB in a title :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

True Weir Run

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

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

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

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

Misty Morning

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hills

With my amazingly varied schedule Tuesday means hill reps!

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

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

A nice picture to illustrate my 10 reps.



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

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

Sunday = Long Run

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

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

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

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

New PB!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back home!

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

Airport Adventure?

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

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

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

Here is the run route.



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

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

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



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

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

Viva!

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



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

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

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

Speed - where art thou?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More hills

Another crack at Cox's hill!

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

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

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

Rest!!

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

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