Very short Sunday

Came back from Nippers knackered and very lethargic - had to sleep and in no mood for a run. Think I was low on carbs. Felt better after lunch but didn't want to go long so just did the not quite 8km Manly route. Felt crap to start with but then picked up throughout. 31:00.

Steady Sat

Manly 10.2km route, testing out my new Brooks T-6 racing flats. They weigh next to nothing but you can feel every stone through the forefoot so I'll be saving them for races only. Started very slowly but picked up the pace all the way through finishing in 42:44.

Very easy Friday

A few too many Mojitos at The Ivy last night so went out for a very easy run at lunch with Ray, Laura and thingy from Ord over the usual route but cutting back through the City from Circular Quay to sweat it out. Served the purpose but have just wanted to sleep all afternoon. About 12km in 53:56.

HuRTS 10 x 400m - the Return of Wildman and the Stallion!

Over to Rushcutters. Smaller crowd including Timmy, Kanser, Ray, JB, LF Charlie, Andy, Luke and Geoffrey. "Inside Lane" Kane marked out the 400m and off we went and, fair play to the big fella, he was banging them out in 70 looking fairly comfortable. Looks like weeks of running 23km on a Sunday in 2:45 may finally be paying off. My reps went as follows:

69, 69, 69, 69, 69, 68, 69, 67, 69, 64

Turned around after rep 5 and, after doing a double take and wiping the sweat from my eyes, who should appear but Durante and Thurston! It was like old times. After big group hugs and everyone getting a little misty eyed, we set off on rep 6 with the two stars of the Sydney running scene circa '08 helping out up front and, what do you know, I start running a bit quicker. The boys had to have a bit of a sit down on rep 7 but popped up on rep 8 and, whoa!, it happens again. Rep 10 was all in with Young Timmy showing everyone that he can run a mean 350m before the boys helped pull me over the line.

Beautiful day and the oval was in top condition.

Steady run home

Start out, legs feel like deadweights, struggle up the stairs at the Rocks, think what the hell's going, I thought running was supposed to make you fit, bump into Eoin at start of harbour bridge and have a quick chat, start to feel a bit better and feel like I'm running more freely, 16:00 at bottom of Ben Boyd, think that's not too shabby, push the hill, feeling good now, running well along Military Road, Toyota Garage in 29:24, that's not too bad, starting to motor now, push the Spit Hill, hit Balgowlah Boys school in 47:21, can I get under 7 mins for the final 2km?, will give it a shot, 6:45, pleased with that, 54:06, who'd have believed it 50mins ago?

HuRTS 45mins Fartlek

MC was absent so Fast Charlie changed the session to 45mins Fartlek. I'd raced to get there on time after a conference call, wasn't really in the mood, knackered after a bad night's sleep last night and generally tired from training. Legs felt like wood but the breathing was fine. I was in a group with Fast Charlie, JF and Dicky H. Kept on trying to up the pace to drop them all, kept on looking over my shoulder to see them all just sat there for almost the entire session.

Turned at the second speed bumps so not very fast but it was also warm today. Got back on 45:13 so a pretty honest session not dropping too much on the hills towards the end. I felt better nearer the end when the legs felt tired like they should in any case. Dicky H dropped off around the Opera House and we finally shook JF on the hill up to the ABC Pool. He's looking strong. Tiger - want to take a head to head on him at the Run for Fun weekend?

Pleased to have finished the session holding on to Fast Charlie but I need some rest to let the recent heavy training load sink in.

Run home

Busy at lunch so an easy run home. 57:54 after 30:57 at Toyota Garage.

Huge congratulations to my big brother, Jamie, who smashed his marathon PB yesterday in running 2:53. Next stop sub 4min kms! Full report here.

Manly Loops Sunday

Recovered well overnight and knew before I set off that it would feel comfortable today. Got into a nice stride early on and it was just enjoyable - certainly for the first 22km. Completely different to 2 weeks ago. The 10km loops went:

42:58
42:09
40:48

So 2:05:55 (4:11's). Weather broke last night and it was cold and wet. Quite a strong southerly which made it a struggle heading down Manly beach but a dream on the way back. 31km all up.

Another hardcore Saturday

Not enough sleep to join the Tiger early this morning so headed out at lunch for the Chloe Tighe session of 2weeks ago. 2km warmup, 5km fast, 8 x Suwarrow hills then 5km fast. 2.5km warmdown. 4mins rest between each.

Times went as follows:

17:22 (8:42 then 8:40)

66, 66, 65, 63, 66, 65, 63, 61

17:24 (8:47 then 8:37)

It's a monster session. Absolutely rodgered now. Really pleased with the time improvement from 2 weeks ago though. 18km all up.

Easy run in

Beautiful Sydney morning (20C, no wind) so ran to work. Nice and easy although legs a bit tired. 27:05 at Spit Junction and 57:32 all up. Bumped into Pete W at Kirribilli and had a quick chat about race plans.

Hickson Road

5 x 1.2km reps. Got a bit nervous beforehand, especially when Ray reminded me of the "Highnometer" predictor of adding up the total time of the 5 Hickson Road reps to work out your JPMorgan CC time.

Good crowd today with Tucks and me upfront, JF and Jason Ibrahim behind, JB still struggling post marathon blues and "One Rep" Kanser making a late showing. Times went as follows:

3:38 3:33 3:34 3:31 3:35

I was hoping to keep them all under 3:35. I ran the first from the front and it felt comfortable which always means it's not quick enough. You have to be in constant pain to make this session solid. I was just in front of Tucks for the first 4 but couldn't hold on to him on the last when Kanser pushed him through to a 3:32. We were also cut up by a car on the final rep which must have cost at least a second or two. Quite a bit of wind on the return reps.

So not quite the pace I was looking for (Tucks said the same thing) but not too far off.

11km all up.

Core and jog

Jogged to Spit Bridge for strength session with Carl at 6am (4km in 19:40), did session then did 13km very easy afterwards nearly all on grass around Campbell Parade. Very slow today, barely got below 4:40's but strength training sapped the life out of my legs. Nice to finish a fairly long run feeling fresh though. Now just need some sleep.

Manly 10.2km Loop

Very easy run around the Manly 10.2km loop. Tired to begin with after yesterday's session but started to feel better after stopping to chat to Thamal when I bumped into him on Manly beach. 44:34.

Very broken night's sleep last night - no more than 2 hours at any stretch.

400s

Had to pick Maggie up from Narrabeen so decided to combine it with a 10 x 400m session on Narrabeen track. Was really nervous about this all day, partly because I was a bit tired from yesterday's run and partly because I'd be running on the track where the distances would be spot on and there'd be no hiding from the times.

Reps went as follows:

68, 70, 70, 69, 69, 68, 69 69, 67, 67

Straight into a 200m jog between each rep.

So 5 seconds overall slower than the session I did with Wildman, Durante and Serg almost exactly 2 years ago. But given I ran these by myself it's not too bad. Mentally it's bloody tough. After 2 reps, I was thinking I'll stop at 5. Then at 5 it was just, "one more, try and keep it consistent".

Bit of wind down the home straight. I was thinking of Keith struggling in the 3000m on the same track at the weekend. Had an email from Sean saying that Keith ran 25:10 for 8km in Moore Park a couple of weeks ago. If that's an accurate 8km (and if it's the 2km loops it is) he's a bit out of my league at the moment.

2km warm up and down for 10k all up.

Long Manly Sunday

The usual Seaforth, Queenscliff, Shelley Beach, North Head, Balgowlah Heights route. Ran into LF Charlie along Manly Beach and stopped for a quick chat. 10km in 43:00, Stone Arch in 1:11:18 and 1:59:44 all up. Quickest time for this route and first time under 2 hours. Had to run the final km in 3:30 to achieve it though.

Beautiful day and warm but lovely cool breeze off the sea when you could see the water (quite frequently on this route).

Top of back/glutes a bit sore after some beach sprinting at Nippers this morning. They had a parents race and I couldn't resist the challenge.

Claudia Esme Highnam

Born last night, weighing in at 3.2kg and 51cm. Loads of dark hair but otherwise (thankfully) looks like her Mum. Didn't run. In fact, spent the whole day in a comfy chair watching the Commonwealth Games - the marathon, the hockey then the netball. Shelley was inspirational in the marathon.

Today, ran from home to see Kirst and Claudia in the Mater in North Sydney (10.28km). 45:44 on the way there (4:26's). 44:01 on the way back (4:16's). Very tired for the first 6km (struggled to do the first km in 4:35) but felt much better on the way back. Feel like I'm on the verge of hitting some good form. I can tell Kanser and the Tiger are scared. Unfortunately, I don't think any good form will result in any PB's for 2010 as my final 3 races of the year are over distances for which I have my strongest PBs. It will mean 2010 will be the first year in which I haven't set a PB since I started running again properly in 2004.

Wednesday MLR

Out with Kanser and RMR to Kincoppal and back. Nice warm day. 44:59 on the way out and 42:00 on the way back but we took a wrong turn down Thornton St at Darling Point so cut about 90s off the journey. 18.5km.

127km for the week - my highest ever weekly volume.

HuRTS 5min reps

The usual 90s rest. Blustery but sunny day and a great crowd. It was like old times today, with the Judge, the Chairman, Tucks, Dicky H, Johnny Fenton and myself upfront and a good crowd further back. Legs felt heavy over the first few reps but then felt better and better as the session went on. The last 3 were at 3:17 pace, the ones before averaged 3:20 - 3:22.

The Chairman was looking strong, especially running into the wind when the rest of us started flailing. Any rumour that he banged out his 2:35 marathon at Sydney on zero training are wildly untrue though. He reckons he's just been "putting the miles in running to and from work", which works out at 140km per week. He needs to work on his speed though for JPMorganCC. No doubt coach Kanser will be having a quiet word in his protege's ear.

15km all up.

Easy Monday

Usual route with quite a big crowd. Legs felt shattered after the weekend and struggled for the first 5km but then got into it and felt much better by the end. Laura was dragging all the blokes behind her, including MC, LF Charlie, Timmy C, Kanser (getting fitter) and some of the UBS boys. All up 15.8km in 69:33 (4:24's).

Manly Loops Sunday

3 x 10km Manly loops this afternoon after a morning at Nippers. Set off and knew it was going to be a struggle from the first km but decided to hold the pace steady and just hope I started to feel better later on. That never materialized. Fortunately, I bumped into Dicky H completely randomly at 17km and ran with him for the next 7km which got me through the worst bit. Then just held on for the final 7km. Bad stomach cramps at the end which were only dealt with by a carton of strawberry flavoured Oak. I remember someone telling me that stuff is as good as any sports protein drink when I was wandering around Coles a bit later.

10km loops were run in 44:17, 44:35 and 44:22 so at least the pace was consistent. 31km all up and a big weekend.

Hardcore Saturday

Decided to try a session I read about in R4YL. Chloe Tighe wrote that one of her hard sessions was a tempo, followed by 8 hills, followed by a tempo. It's designed to replicate the feeling of running the latter part of races on tired legs. Sounded good so my version of it was 5km fast, 8 x Suwarrow hills (finishing at the large drain) followed by 5km fast. Gave myself 4 mins rest in between. About half way through I realised that this was going to be a monster session. 18km all up including warm up and warm down.

Times went as follows:

17:36 (laps of 8:49 and 8:47)

67, 67, 66, 66, 66, 64, 65, 64

17:31 (laps of 8:51 and 8:40)

Really pleased with the second 5km. I was tired after the hills and just hoping to get near 9 minutes on the first lap. When I saw the time I just pushed on.

Great session.

Easy Friday

Usual 15.8km route with Laura, Kanser and chap from Ord Minnett - 70:27 (4:27s). Very easy lemon squeezy. Beautiful day, Spring has arrived and is here to stay. Good job as Nippers starts on Sunday. Poor old Sally. C'mon Benny. Good on 'ya Rebecca A. Adios.

400s

Over to Rushcutters again, this time with JB and Ray, the latter just intending on jogging around the Oval. Exactly the same session as last week. Reps went as follows:

77, 79, 79, 79, 79, 79, 78, 80, 77, 75

JB was just behind for the first 3 but was complaining of the legs just feeling dead after the marathon. He helped out on alternate reps in the second half.

Really pleased with the session (other than rep 8) as it's a big improvement on last week. Definitely helped having JB there. Was much more tired afterwards than I've been over the past two weeks when I think I was cruising.

Carl's away so did training with Russ this morning. Loads more heavy duty glute and hamstring exercises which left my legs trembling at 7am. Didn't seem to affect the 400s though.

Great to see Benny running the 5000m last night and good performance to finish 7th. Rumour has it he's also doing the 10,000m on Monday. It was a fantastic race for the win, Kipsiro and Kipchoge going toe to toe and not giving an inch over the final 400m (run in 52s - nearly as quick as my final rep today).

Run home

Started to feel confident about the way things were going over the weekend, then woke up on Monday with the flu like symptoms having come back again - headache, streaming nose, aching neck and back and dodgy stomach. Just seems to revert when I put the hammer down on the training.

Took Monday and Tuesday off but was feeling better enough to run home tonight. Was a bit tentative on the early hills worrying about triggering off the symptoms but felt more confident and strong as the run went on. Pushed it towards the end running 7:10 for the final 2km. Splits of 16:01, 29:40 and 48:28 with 55:38 all up.

Tiger massage this afternoon and, of course, another bet. He's runnning Lane Cove in November while I'll do the Run for Fun the next day. I've given him a minute headstart for $50. If I beat him by 90seconds I get $100, if it's less than 30seconds he gets $100. I'll have the advantage of knowing what I have to do with him having raced first.

Great run by Ray on the weekend to win the Penrith marathon in 2:44 (20 minutes ahead of Andy and Timmy C in 2nd and 3rd). Ray won't run 10km's because of his injury, but reckons the slower pace of the marathon is fine. He's a unique chap.

Commonwealth Games 5000m tonight. GO BENNY!!!!

$10 to anyone who can name the Sydney Olympics 5000m champion without looking it up...

Harbourside Hike STaR

Clocks went forward last night so had to get up at the equivalent of 4.40am to do this one. Unsurprisingly there was a small crowd with just JB, Pete T, Jo Cowan and Shaun A joining in the 6.20am group. Only Shaun planned to do the full distance so the others cut away after an hour. Couldn't believe how much bush running there was on a run so close to the City centre, and the severity of the hills. Made for a very slow run. Shaun cut short after 23km so did the last 7km by myself picking the pace up a bit. 30kms all up but about 2:30 on my feet.

Striders 10km Homebush 3rd in 34:28

Didn't know what to expect this morning. It was a low turnout due to the long weekend and school holidays with only Robin Whiteley of the front runners. Set off quite quickly and shortly formed a group with Tucks and another chap who seemed to be a mate of Robin's. They were pushing along so I forced myself to stick to them to get dragged through. Went through 1km in 3:13, but 2km in 6:38 so knew it wasn't going to be quick. Really don't like this course - too many twists and turns to break the rythmn and it always picks up any humidity.

Just ran with Tucks until 5km (17:03) where other chap droped out. Then Tucks started to gap me. I was a good distance ahead of 4th so just tried to keep the pace honest for the rest of the race. Funny that beforehand Kanser said on this course you can take your time at 5km, double it and add 25seconds, which is basically what happened to me. Tucks did well to negative split and run 34:00, probably closing on Robin in the process.

Another good solid run in amongst a hard block of training but truth is I have to improve by a minute in a month to be where I want to be. Most of the HuRT squad struggled today, Kanser running a high 36, MC running a high 37, Timmy struggling with injury in the 39's. Dicky H was the exception improving by a minute from last month to finish 5th in 35:21, ahead of the Tiger.

Nice to win a cap and pair of shoes. About the only Striders race in the last 5 years that 34:28 would permit that.

Easy Friday

Very easy 12km run on the usual harbourside route but cutting short at Circular Quay. Ran with Scottish chap from BT and Laura, with King James and a few others also around. Ray joined in later. 54 mins.