Mini-Mos Marathon - 7th in 34:53

Got the time I wanted it's a bloody hard race. There are short sharp hills throughout but they leave the best until the final 1.5km.

Turned up to see Marty Dent, Harry Summers, Jason Harrison, Vlad and Thamal on the start line so they had sorted out the money prizes between them leaving me out yet again. What I hadn't counted on was how strong the first female (Emily Brichacek) would be. Set off feeling great. First km in 3:14, 2km reached in 6:30 running with Emily at this stage. She gapped me around 3km after the steep hill up to Middle Head Road and maintained the same gap for the rest of the race. 5km in 17:04 feeling as though the hills were punishing me. I definitely prefer the flat. Ignored the km markers from then on just trying to concentrate on catching Emily. Did catch 9km in 31:24 trying to work out how fast I'd have to run the final km to get under 35. The final 1.5km are a killer. A solid 700m of uphill until you crest the top of the Allan Border Oval. Nice finish with a good finishing chute and crowd.

Good chat with Thamal, Vlad, Flakey and others afterwards. It's a really great event. Bec and Billy went well in the 2km and had a fantastic time. Bec was 12th in her age group in 8:45 and Billy 14th in his in 9:10.

Easy Sat

Just an easy 9km today doing 2.5km loops as a warm up before tomorrow's race in the Mini-Mos. Still felt tired in the legs for the first 15 minutes but eased up after that. Not sure whether I've overdone it this week before tomorrow's race. I reckon Mini-Mos is about 90 seconds slower than Gold Coast so if I get under 35mins I'll be going very well. I ran 34:37 two years ago when I was in peak form.

Took Billy and Bec (also both running tomorrow) out to the bike loop for some laps. Bec got down to 44.36 and Billy 44.26 so they then raced together where Billy won with a finishing dip (43.25). I reckon Bec will last 2kms better tomorrow though.

Missing HuRTS

Too busy at work to get out for Mona Fartlek so a run home instead. It was a good thing. I thought about doing a tempo run home or maybe some fast sections but within the first 20 steps I knew my legs were shot and was really struggling from the efforts of the past 2 days. So just jogged home instead. 31:45 at Toyota Garage and 59:40 all up. Feeling better for it.

Long Wednesday

Set off early due to work constraints. Did an easy 10km with JB (passing Tucks on a comeback run) then joined the rest of the squad for the usual Wednesday route. Very easy pace. Pushed a bit up Heartbreak Hill as my achilles was a bit sore from jogging. Started to feel pretty exhausted over the final 5km when I became a bit glucose depleted. All up 29km in 2:10:54 (4:31's).


Great to see my favourite runner back to winning ways at the weekend - Tirunesh Dibaba taking out the 5000m in the Diamond League in New York in 15:11. A final km in 2:46 suggests she hasn't lost any of her devastating pace.

HuRTS 14 x 3mins

Nice and cool today, no wind, not a big crowd, MC couldn't make it so I took the session. Me and JB upfront with Derek running well again. Good also to see Kanser running a few and LF Charlie backing up from Sunday's strange cult Half Marathon.

Felt nice and comfortable for the first few all the time trying to relax. The reps started to take a familiar pattern - JB would go off quick, I'd gradually catch and overtake for the final 300m. The fatigue started to show at rep 8 and there was no great pick up in pace for the final 4 today. They averaged 3:20 per km a rep, with the final 4 probably in the 3:17 range. No doubt made easier by the lack of a long run over the weekend.

Short again

Just the Manly route again today, but feeling sprightly after a rest yesterday. Will go long on Wednesday. 28:15 today. Km times were as follows:

4:28, 3:54, 4:01, 3:46, 3:30, 3:27, 3:33, 4:35 (for the 400m up the hill).

Manly Saturday

Just the Manly route, easy to start with but then started to pick up the pace from South Steyne. Really picked it up in the frinal 2km to run 29:56. Felt great today and achilles is much better.

Then Billy wanted to go for a run so we jogged to the playpark and he ran two loops of the bike track - first in 48:60 and second in 48:74. He's consistent.

Friday early

Run in to work. 27:21 at Spit Junction and 58:31 all up. Felt quite good to start with but then tired more and more as the run went on. Mixing it up yesterday obviously had an effect.

Saw 'Animal Kingdom" last night, brilliant fim, one of the best I've seen in ages. The tension was maintained the whole way through and I came out with indigestion having eaten a bag of Maltesers.

HuRTS 10 x 400m

Took yesterday off as my achilles was sore after Tuesday and the recent increase in weekly kms. Felt much better this morning and was keen to do this session. Beautiful day, clear as a bell but cool, though warm in the sun.

Fairly small crowd of me, Thurston (again!), Kaley, Dom, JF, Ray (just jogging), Todd, James, Derek, Racey Mike and others. Surprise of the day was Dom who was with me on the first 3 reps and a couple of seconds behind for the rest other than the final one when he blew. Thurston was just behind for the first 5 then dropped out having done enough for the week. Reps went as follows:

66, 67, 66, 69, 69, 68, 68, 68, 68, 63. Run off a rolling 2mins. I reckon they were 390m even though Kaley measured 400m on his Garmin, so you can add 1.5 - 2 secs for each rep. Still quite pleased for the first session this year. Derek was the burglar on the final rep.

HuRTS 45mins Fartlek

Lower crowd than usual for this popular session despite fantastic weather, cold but clear with no breeze. Set off with Wildman (that's right) hoping to take it easy so that I could get back in the 45mins - was joined by Fats at Lady Macs Chair. Wildman dropped off panting like a dog just before the Opera House and Fats and I continued on together. We turned half way down Hickson Road just before the traffic calming bumps (way beyond what I've done recently) and tried to get back. Fats dropped off at Circular Quay as he had Corp Cup tomorrow so was on my own from then. Got back in 45:09, just short. NEED MORE SPEED. Endurance is fine. Going to start myself some 400s and 800s soon.

Got a call from Kirst to say that Bec had finished 12th in her District X-Country this morning (i.e. against most of the Northern Beaches schools). She was in 8th coming into the home straight so clearly has my finishing kick. Great result for her as she was about 40th last year. She obviously paid heed to my wise advice this morning ("Just sprint at the start and don't walk the hills").

Monday meandering

Very easy 15.8km route in about 74:10 (4:41 pace). Good crowd though - Nick F, Dougall and I were the only ones to do the whole thing (take note Charlie) but MC, Kanser, Dom, James etc. variously joined us for part of the way.

Homebush Hustle

Headed out to the STaR at Homebush. Big crowd in the 6.20am group including CT, PT, JB, Timmy, Chris Dwyer, Dennis, Damo Tancred etc. Started at a very easy pace which I appreciated given yesterday's race and the early hour. Pace picked up from about 14km onwards though. 5 of us did the whole thing - me, Timmy, Damo, CT and JB. I pushed on with the latter two over the final 3km when we were running 3:40's. All up 30.08km in 2:12:08 (4:24 pace) although that included a number of toilet stops. Probably 4:22 pace for when I was actually running.

Bloody cold but clear.

Striders North Head - 6th in 34:13

Cool this morning but thank God the rain stopped. Wasn't windy outside the house but North Head is pretty exposed so there was a bit of a breeze along the long straight sections. Caught up with Tucks, MC and the rest of the HuRT Squad then did a warm up with Timmy. He was looking pretty confident about staying within 80 seconds and taking $50 from me and I was feeling pretty lethargic. Plenty there this morning, with CT, Thamal and Cale Dowd up front.

Set off pretty conservatively allowing the front group to run off and found myself running with Andrew Wilson for the first couple of km. Fats suddenly caught us at the turn near the hospital and we ran together until about 6km. I was trying to put in efforts to break them but with no luck, however, it kept the pace honest. On the hill at around 6km they suddenly seemed to drop off so I put in more of an effort to try and create a decent gap. Turned at the hospital for the 2nd time and saw that there was a group of 4 still within 30m of me so once again put an effort in up the long drag. Saw my split at 9km and decided to try and get under 34:20 with a fast finish. Good to finish strong.

Splits were as follows:

2km: 6:48
4km: 13:37
5km: 17:05
7km: 23:57
9km: 30:57

You'll notice that there are no 1km or 3km splits. You can thank Hamburglar for that! Pleased to pretty much even split it. Backs up my theory of having the endurance but not the speed at the moment.

Some great runs out there. Richard P ran 35:01 which is an amazing effort given his injury problems. Timmy L ran 35:34 (81 seconds back! - but we'll wait on the official results), the Tiger was 35:4X, MC pulled up with an injury but good to see Kanser back out there with a 38:40.

Some great views up at North Head. Timmy, Kanser and I were appreciating them at the refreshments area post race.

HuRTS Hickson Road

Not really. Fronted up with a large crowd (after passing Kanser heading in the opposite direction on the way down) but just strolled through them putting in a 30 second quick burst on each rep. Felt really good so quietly confident for Saturday.

Wednesday MLR

Very easy 19km run over the Wednesday route to Kincoppal and back with MC, Marty, King James, Russel, Louis and others. I think it was 1:28:45 (4:40's). Training with Carl this morning and massage with the Tiger this arvo. Achilles feeling a bit stiff after a couple of big weeks.

HuRTS 4 x 3km

Bit breezy but the rain stayed away. Ran with Dicky H and Fats with Jonathan, MC, Todd, JB and others next up. Even Kanser showed up for 3 today. Reps went as follows:

Final lamp post in 10mins (2.88km) - 3:28 per km
Back in 9:43 starting at Stone Gates - 3:19 per km
5m short of final lamp post (2.87km) - 3:29 per km
Back in 9:34 - 3:16 per km

So getting back towards the pace we used to do these in, although not the crazy pace that some of these sessions were run in. Check out June 24 2008.

I ran the first with Rich with Fats just behind - drawing level with us going past the Art Gallery. On the second rep I was chasing them both. They must have finished 7secs in front of me. On the third I was running a few yards behind them when Rich's calf went going up by the ABC Pool. Hope it's OK but judging by the swearing it didn't sound good. I closed in on Tony towards the end but he finished about 5m ahead. On the final rep I was again chasing Tony (thinking I'll struggle to get close to him on Saturday morning) when suddenly he started to fade a bit coming into the wind around Farm Cove. So I pushed on past from there and finished strongly.

Another confidence booster before North Head at the weekend but still think I'm struggling a bit for speed, although the endurance is starting to show. Fats will be a good gauge. Rich would have been - just hope his calf is OK.

HuRTS Monday

The usual (new) route via Barangaroo. Big crowd today with the inter-squad rivalries to the fore: LF Charlie and Nick F; MC and anyone who runs. Kanser joined in just before the Opera House, claiming to have missed the Striders Dinner on Friday due to illness.

Nice and easy pace the whole way, picking up a little towards the end. 15.7km in 1:08:24 (4:21's).

Going Long, Feeling Strong

Before I got flu in early April I was struggling with all my long runs. I'd reach 20km and fall apart and struggle to average under 4:35's. For the past 3 weeks since coming back from flu, it's been the complete opposite. Stride feels pretty short but the leg cadence just seems so much easier. A large part of it may be not running them after one of Sean's sessions on the Saturday which leaves the legs feeling dead.

Today was the Burnt Bridge Creek deviation, Queenscliff, North Head route but coming back down via Shelley and one lap of the 2.5km route finishing up at the Mola's for a few drinks this arvo. Felt pretty average in the first km (2 day hangover) but then just rolled out the kms with the average time coming down all the time. Ended up running 26.47km in 1:49:33 (4:08's). Splits went as follows:

4:36, 4:29, 4:13, 4:12, 4:17, 4:13, 4:10, 4:15, 4:06, 4:28 (hill at Shelley), 4:21 (hill up to North Head), 4:21, 4:04, 3:59, 4:08, 3:59, 3:56, 4:06, 4:07, 4:09, 4:03, 3:56, 3:57, 3:59, 3:53, 3:48, 3:55.

Real confidence booster before next week's 10km at North Head (where everyone looks to be turning up for). Like to feel strong on the long run.

Bumped into Hamburglar at 2km and Eoin Reville at 20km. Good to get a shout.

More easy stuff

Dicky H, Mona, Richard P, Timmy L and yours truly. Timmy and I look like extras from the Twilight movies.

Just the Manly route again today but doing anything after the wall of booze during and after last night's Striders dinner was a bonus. Not sure Wildman will remember his $50 bet on a head to head at North Head next week. Dicky H and I did our usual burn bright to start with and fade quickly on the pool table.

Squeezing it in

Got a boozy lunch on and Striders dinner tonight (tomorrow may be a struggle) so headed out early on the Manly route. Toiled to get the legs moving to start with but then was running 4:00 pace from Manly Wharf onwards. 31:10 all up (4:15 pace). How did I ever run 26 over this course?