City to Surf prep

Ran the City to Surf route at lunch with Serg, Mike, Anthony, Chris E and Andy. 15km all up in 62:33 and about 59 minutes for the C2S route.

Main aim was to work out exactly what happens after Heartbreak Hill. There always seems to be one extra turn that I forget year on year that saps the mental spirit when racing. Conclusion after running the course was that:

1. Other than Rose Bay, there are virtually no flat bits.
2. Heartbreak Hill isn't half as bad as it's made out.
3. The hills in Vaucluse following the turn off onto Military Road are the worst section.

So plan has to be to attack the course from the top of HH (8km) until the end of Military Road (11km).

Can't wait.

Pain

6km Pain plus 6km warmdown.

No time for a warm up today. Pain felt a bit easier as a result. Pushed all the reps and made a special effort on the hills. 1:58 for the long rep holding off Andrew W which was not bad as we were running on the grass and all over the place to start with to avoid the crowds.

Another big crowd. Getting excited about the City to Surf now - all the Pain/Thursday crowd are doing it so there should be a big group of us fighting it out towards the end - Tucks, Ray, Andrew W, Tim C, Richard H, Anthony and Durante to name a few.

Easy Monday

Easy 14km around Balls Head loop with Ray. 1:06:13 (started timing straightaway rather than from the "official" start). Nice run. Cool conditions. Bumped into Phil Woods on the way back and I think MPH on the Harbour Bridge - would that be right?

Had a sore throat for the last 2 days and worried it's developing into a full on cold. Legs were a bit weak but could just be pyschosomatic.

Medium-Long Sunday

Used to be long Sunday, but upping the kms recently means my long Sunday run of 22km is no longer. Kept it shorter today easing down for City to Surf and also because I woke up with a sore throat and don't want it to develop into a full blown cold.

Beautiful day for running, cool and a bit breezy but clear as a bell. Ran the old long Sunday route around North Head and Balgowlah Heights but had to add a section in BH becuase of repair work being done on the footbridge before 40 Baskets beach. 1:41:03. Felt great - no niggles for once and easy pace all the way.

Saturday tempo

Woke up too tired to do the CR Bay run so ran a tempo 8km over lunchtime instead. 2km warmup + 7.5km tempo + 1km warm down. Felt tired all the way but new course record in 26:39. Route is here...http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1177656 Works out at 3.33 per km.

Thursday Fartlek

Mona Fartlek with the Thursday crowd. Too many turned up to name here, but included Ray, Tucks, Chris's G and E, Anthony, Mike, Darren, Simon, Durante, Andrew W, Tim, English Andy and even Charlie Low returning from injury.

Tucks and I ran at the front with Anthony just behind. Reached the half way mark in about the same place we did last time out - maybe a touch further. Finished in exactly the same spot - ie finishing the final fast rep on the start line and the final float half way down the Opera House.

Tucks was pushing the longer reps in the first half and I was struggling to hold on. Felt stronger on the way home.

3km warm up and 4km warmdown for 13km all up.

Wednesday filler

14km run into work with the usual 3 marathon pace stretches. Felt lethargic on the slow bits but good on the fast bits - no hanging on for the final 200m which probably which I wasn't pushing as hard.

27:10 at Spit but 56:30 all up so quick in the second half. Beautiful clear day with no wind.

Pain in the Domain

4km warm up + 6km Pain + 3km warm down. 13km all up.

Nice session today feeling surprisingly good after the recent mileage. Good crowd with Serg, Durante, Ray, Chris G, Chris E, Mike and Dylan. Usual story for me, pushing ahead on the flat bits and struggling up the hills. I'm starting to get a complex about running hills. 1:58 for the long rep (felt faster) with Serg and Durante toying around, chatting and making it look easy. Good for the motivation.

24:42 all up so pretty quick.

Starting to feel tired

14km loop around Balls Head with Durante over lunchtime. Felt pretty tired - especially on the hills but recovered again towards the end (I think you always do when you're running tired - it's normally when you reach the stage that you're running on auto-pilot). Felt as though I was slowing Durante down on all the hills. Just over 60 minutes.

Long and slow

30km on the Bantry Bay Ballbreaker STaR. About 2:50 - very slow and disrupted to start with and lots of bush combined to make it a long time on my feet. Cut it short at the end as we were running out of time and energy.

Couple of photos from our recent holiday. Don't ask why Kirst bought that balloon for Charlie's birthday.

Around Manly

17km around Manly - Campbell Parade with 2 loops, Manly Beach, Shelly Beach, North Head (excluding Fairfax WT) and straight home. 1:11:22. 3 marathon pace sections - 2 loops of Campbell Parade (4:15), Manly Beach (5:15) and the final 2kms of Striders North Head (3:22 and 3:05). Following wind up on North Head which is why that section was quick. Eased my way into this run, felt a little tired to begin with but improved throughout feeling quite chipper by the end. Had a chat with Dave Robinson up on North Head - he's returning from injury hoping to be fit for the Sydney and Melbourne marathons.

Brings up 100km for the week.

Long recovery

Run to work including a loop around Manly (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1153880). Just over 18km in 1:23:12. Very easy run but feeling the effects of the last two days.

Hickson Road

5 x 1.2km with 2 minute rests. Big crowd again (the group just keeps on growing) with Ray, Serg, Tucks, Durante, Mike, Chris, Anthony, Peter, Darren, new bloke Andy and even Fats before he pulled up injured. Times went:

3:34, 3:26; 3:35; 3:27; 3:44

So a lot quicker than the last time I ran these seriously (which is quite a while back). Ran the first three with Serg and Tucks, just managed to hold on to Tucks for the 4th (Serg had pulled away) but the elastic broke on the final rep when yesterday's session hit the legs. The is the fiest session in a long while that I've really felt knackered after so it'll be interesting to see how quickly I recover. I sometimes wonder whether I run these too fast (it's difficult not to when you get competitive with a big crowd) - the first 4 reps are averaging 3:00 mins per km which is a lot quicker than even my 5km race pace. Having said that, I'm sure I'd have held on for the final rep had I not done the long session last night.

12km all up.

Back to work

Not much fun after nearly 4 weeks off. Ran home this evening adding a loop around the city to start with. 3 marathon pace sections - one elongated version of the Hickson Road rep, one across the Harbour Bridge and one along Military Road. 1:16:46 for what I guess was about 17km (Just GMapped it at exactly 18km - http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1148749 so chuffed with that). Very cool conditions and quite a bit of wind but most of it seemed to be following. Felt very comfortable when not having to run fast.

Fitting it in

Originally planned 18km with marathon pace stretches but that went down the gurgler when I took Bec to school only to discover school doesn't start until tomorrow. Then planned a track session at Narrabeen so Bec could play in the in-field but arrived to find a school carnival taking place. Almost gave up at this point, but had the idea of going to Campbell Parade and doing reps around the path while she played in the playpark. She made a friend as usual so it worked beautifully. Ran 2 x 5 x 700m (approx) around the circular path. Bit short, so kept the rest short (1 minute strict) with a 4 minute loop of the path between each set of 5. Conditions were perfect - cool with little wind. Times went:

2:07; 2:07; 2:07; 2:05; 2:05; 2:07; 2:04; 2:05; 2:04; 2:03

Felt stronger as I went through. Really, they should all have been at the pace of the last one. (Just GMapped it - comes out shorter than I expected at 652m - so average pace was 3:11 per km for a 2:05).

2km warm up and 1.5km warm down for 11km all up.

Long Sunday after bad day

26km (maybe a bit more to-ing and fro-ing) over new route trying to avoid too many hills. 1:58:30 which is just over 4:30 per km. Route is GMapped here...http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=1138525. Felt great all the way around - much stronger towards the end than I've been recently on long runs so hopefully the stamina is there. The intention is to put some consecutive 100km weeks in leading up to City to Surf. It's a tough course and I always seem to fade towards the end so I'd like some more steel in the legs.

Yesterday was a shocker. I was really looking forward to the Short Course X-Country but got lost on the way after not reading the maps properly and refusing to accept my ignorance by not checking them when I was in doubt. Eventually arrived to hear the start gun go. Hadn't found Tucks' parents so couldn't even just drop the kids off and start 60 seconds after everyone else. I was in a stinking mood for the rest of the day and the poor kids bore the brunt of it. My voice is still hoarse this morning.

Easier

Shortened route of 15km today cutting out Campbell Parade and the Fairfax walking track and finishing back along the beach to North Steyne and home via Pacific Parade. Very easy running - 1:07:37. I guessed I averaged 4:30 per km - clocked the final 2kms of the North Head route at 4:25 and 4:10. Looking forward to the race tomorrow if I can find the babysitter...

Back on-line!

The 6th technician from Telstra finally worked it out. Simple case of rebooting my cable log-in.

My first worry with Kirsten taking a week off to the UK was how I'd fit my runs in with looking after the kids. Then Sophie Allchurch popped up, but I didn't feel as though I could book her for babysitting for less than 2 hours. The result of this has been a pretty heavy week of running.

Have run 18kms on Tuesday, Wednesday and today - the short North Head Sunday route plus the loop around Campbell Parade. Each time I do some marathon pace work - the mile along Manly Beach and the final 2km of the Striders North Head course (courtesy of Action's road markings). Bizarrely, the total time on each day has been 1:20:30 or thereabouts. The fast stretches were as follows:

Tuesday - 5:28 for Manly mile and 6:38 for North Head 2km (3:28 and 3:10)
Wednesday - 5:16 and 6:40 (3:28 and 3:12)
Thursday - 5:22 and 6:35 (3:28 and 3:07)

All pretty consistent around the 10km race pace (3:18). Today and yesterday were quite windy so pleased with those times. It's interesting to look at the North Head splits - that 8-9km section is pretty tough - I really pushed it today yet could only manage 3:28 yet the final km in 3:07 came much more easily. I reckon it's almost spot on a mile from Queenscliff to Manly surf clubs - might G-Map it shortly...

I'm pretty knackered by the end but have felt fine each morning - probably a result of not having to work and getting plenty of sleep. Planning to just jog the course tomorrow and run the ANSW short course cross-country on Saturday if I can find someone to watch ove the kids (volunteers would be appreciated!).

Groin still tight but getting better each day. Knee problem seems to have disappeared.

Back in Manly

Took Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday off. Ran 30 minutes each morning on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in beautiful countryside around Byron Bay, Crowdy Head and Seal Rocks respectively.

Balmain Bungle STaR this morning. Ran the 30km with Flake, Silverfox, 26 miles and Springer (who cut it short). 2:29. Really nice run chatting to the guys all the way. Groin is still sore after doing the splits on the Flume in the Water Park at Sea World. Was very stiff at the end.

Sea World, Gold Coast

17th in the 10km in 33:02.

Plan from the start was to let Tim Ashby go (I knew he'd go off quick) and just keep him within sight until the 4km turn and then really put the effort in from 4 to 8km. Hadn't planned anything from 8km - just hold on. Also guessed that Chris Truscott would be aiming for a sub-32 so wanted to be within 20 seconds of him at the 4km turn. I'd really set my heart on a sub-33. The pace was very quick from the gun. I guess that there were about 25 people ahead of me by 2km and I was still trying to get comfortable with the pace. Tim was about 20 yards in front and Chris seemed to have disappeared off. At about 3km, I settled into a good rythmn running alongside another bloke and could see that I was closing on Tim.

Caught Tim at about 4km (I think the turn must be nearer to 5km) and really tried to pile the pressure on to drop him immediately. Chris was at least 30 seconds ahead at the turn but I figured he'd gone off quick as I knew I was travelling quite quickly. Sometimes I think not wearing a watch hampers things. From the turn things felt great. Was catching people easily and felt really strong. Hit a bit of wind between 7km and 8km (just before the bridge) which slowed things down a bit but the real struggle was the final hill at about 9km. My one mistake was not running the course beforehand to work out where the final turn came - in the end it was much closer to the final hill than I had thought and in retrospect I may have been able to push it that little more if my spirits were lifted. Having said that, I was still pretty much spent. Saw the clock in the run-in and desperately sprinted to get under 33 but it wasn't to be.

Still chuffed to bits with the time and the run. Was really encouraged to feel so good in the second half - those 90km weeks and marathon pace training are paying dividends. Being only 27 seconds behind Chris Truscott can't be bad. Tim faded badly to run 34 something. Great run by Craig Dunn to run 34:36.

Good to catch up with Kanser, Beaky and Gary beforehand. Now for an easy week before training for City to Surf starts in earnest.