Sunday, August 23, 2015

Sunday continuers

8km this time getting to Shelley and back.  Been hammering the rolling out and have loosened up a lot.   I can now put my pants on without having to sit down.  High fived Paul and Chris at the lagoon.  Hammy better today with most of the pain in the tendon behind the knee.  34 mins odd.

Will be out early tomorrow training Bec and Kirst.  Bizarrely Bec wants me to train her again - 3 years after swearing she never wanted to run ever again in her life.  Has the aim of running under 25mins for Parkrun.  Which is about my standard atm.

Saturday starter

Tried 6km down the beach.  Conscious of the hammy for most of the way but determined now to hammer the rehab - particular getting the cricket ball on to my ass.

Spent the evening with the Manly runners curry club - Macca, Craig, Charlie, Quentin, Banksy, Skins, Jamie, Paul S, Benny and the Taffy lad.  The Steyne followed by Ashiana's followed by the Steyne watching the Toon go to the cauldron of Old Trafford and hold on for a creditable draw.  Who said our defence was shite?

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

City to Surf

Washout.

Did 6km on Saturday with a few strides.  Could feel my hammy a bit but took more Voltaren and thought it might survive.

Sunday - travelled across with the Manly crew.  Great start as ever chatting to the masses but they get stricter every year on the start procedure.  Survived running with Barts, Neil and CT until KX tunnel then on the downhill afterwards my hammy grabbed and I was hobbling.  Jogged to Rose Bay then took the shortcut to Bondi where I could scream at the squad over the final km.  Standout performances from Barts, CT, Big Kev, Angus, Timmy and Erika.  Shouted myself hoarse then drank for England in the Allens tent with the crowd.  Magic day despite my disappointment.

2 weeks off now to regroup and rebuild.

Have to live vicariously through my kids.  This is Claudia today at her Sports Day:


Tuesday, August 04, 2015

Ice Ice Baby

Went down to ES Marks in the evening for the RunCrew session.  No Alex this week but Sam Strutt and Tiger's ever increasing crew of attractive female runners was there to chase.  Session was 2 x 6 x 400m.  400's were rolling off 2:10's and we had a 5min rest between sets.

First set of 6 were a bit laborious trying to settle in.  Reps went 70, 69, 68, 68, 69, 68.  Was about 2 or 3 seconds behind Sam on each.  Then the second set started and suddenly I feel great.  68, 67, 67, 67 then, fucky wank shite, my hamstring tightens up down the back straight while overtaking Sam so I pull up at 200m.  Try and stretch, try and do a jog but it's pretty tender and tight.  Get home and stick it on ice.  I blame the lack of beers in my diet over the past few days.  Plainly not getting enough salt.  Should never rattle the cage and do things different.

Now to rest and hope it comes good by Sunday.  If it does, it could be just the enforced rest I need.

(Haha, just checked the blog for C2S last year as I seemed to remember I strained my hammy in the week before then too.  And it looks like I had an identical blog post heading on this day last year.  Maybe Timmy is on to something!)

Monday, August 03, 2015

Monday meander

10km very easy catching up with Enda and Hoey.  46mins.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Sunday struggle

Had too much wine while entertaining yesterday so eventually got out in the afternoon when I felt less shabby.  17.5km around North Head including the Fairfax track.  Easy pace just under 4:30's.

Saturday Parkrun - 2nd in 16:12

5km warm up, quick chat to Jamie, Darrell, Jake, Mrs Heyden and Sonia from Liverpool - an old friend of mine from Uni days who is over in Oz for a few weeks.  Jake asked what my plans and we agreed to share the pace.

Went off hard along with Jake.  Watch beeped at 1km and it was 3:09 and my heart sank a bit - it felt closer to 3:00!  So put more effort in as the plan was to get to 2km in 6:20.  Got to 2km in 6:20.  Then a 3:21 across the fiddly grass bit and Jake and I are still together going up the hill on Harbord Rd.  But he starts to pull ahead towards the top and eases ahead from there.  I finished with a 3:13 and a 3:08 (+10s for the extra 60m as the COURSE IS LONG).  Hardly shabby but Jake managed to put 22s into me over the final 1.8km - he must have run sub 3's to finish.

Turned around to see a big smile on Jamie's face as he finally went under 17mins in running 16:52.  Well done mate.  Also had a chat with Andrew McFarlane who I haven't seen in ages.  Then jogged back around the course with Jake to find Sonia (who's local Parkrun is the same as Big Sam's in Bromley) who ran 30mins.

3km warm down for 13km all up.  Good rust buster.  Now need to freshen up for the big dance next Sunday so that the first km doesn't feel so tough.