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.

400s

Busy today so arranged to meet up with Kanser early doors for some 400s around Rushcutters Oval. Beautiful day, about 19C but crystal clear with a slight breeze. We ran full loops of the Oval (448m) rather than trying to work out where 400m was, did a 1 minute jog between each one and started the next loop whereever we were at the end of the minute.

Reps went as follows:

81, 82, 81, 81, 82, 81, 80, 80, 80, 79.

So between 70-73s for 400m. Didn't kill myself doing them so I think there's more to come. Listened to Dave Sweeney's advice and tried to relax while runing them.

Really nice session. Warm up and down for 10km all up.

Easy Wed

Slightly longer this week just running the Monday route by myself. Bumped into Dicky H, Sam and Andy along the way. 33:45 at the turn and 66:45 all up for the 15.8km.

HuRTS 14 x 3mins

26C today and sunny, conditions we haven't had in months. As a result, I started this toughest of sessions pretty conservatively so as not to kill myself later on. The last time I did this session was when I had a cold post City2Surf which put me out of action for 3-4 weeks. Ran with Tucks, JF and Dicky H. Smallish crowd behind us including MC (getting pretty fit), Kanser, Timmy L, LF Charlie, RMR and others.

We averaged about 3:22's (900m). Picked up on reps 11 and 12 (after Tucks and Dicky H pulled out) but had to run the last 2 by myself which went back to 3:22's. Not too shattered at the end so OK with that.

Great views around Farm Cove today. Gotta love this Summer weather. Timmy was walking with a limp at the end of the session but I don't think it had anything to do with his stress fracture.

Easy Monday

Very easy Monday route with MC, Brendan, Kanser, Timmy C, LF Charlie, Warrior Luke and others. Picked the pace up with Brendan from the Opera House home. 15.8km in 1:10:08.

Blue Mountains

Saturday was another 10km tempo. Ran from the rental house to Evans Lookout and back. Felt great on the way out. Realised why on the way back where hill upon hill appeared. Gmapped at 10.4km. 39:17 (but 18:54 at half way). Stopped at Evans Lookout just at sunset and it was magic.

Theme of hills continued today when I was out at 6am for a 2 hour run. Ran from the house straight down into Megalong Valley, turned around after 59mins then ran home. Megalong Valley is 400m closer to sea level than Blackheath, and the final 6km was straight uphill with no respite. So it took a bit longer to get back. All up 26.4km in 2:03:20.

Megalong Valley is a beautiful spot so went back afterwards for a walk along Six Foot Track, hence the picture...

Easyish Friday

Just a jog to work. Beautiful warm morning which made it a pleasure. Not such a pleasure for the residents of Balgowlah, Mosman, Neutral Bay and Kirribilli who had to face my pasty white skin for the first time in months. Highlight of the run was almost stepping on a 1.5ft long Eastern Water Dragon in Clontarf.

Tired today. 106km for the week has caught up with me. 27:10 at Spit Junction and 57:38 all up.

Not quite 400s

Took a 5km detour to jog over to Rushcutters, found the Oval closed so marked out what I thought was roughly a 400m track around the fields next door. I think it was closer to 315m-320m, but after the first rep I wasn't going to change it so decided to run 13 of them instead of 10 to keep the overall distance about the same. Reps went:

56, 57, 57, 57, 56, 56, 56, 56, 56, 56, 56, 56, 55

Strict 45s rest between each one.

Good to keep them consistent but wasn't lactic or dizzy at the end as I would be if I was pushing myself against others.

Jogged back the long way for about 13km all up.

Easy Wednesday

Tried and failed to get out at lunch so ran home. Was going to extend it to 19km but was feeling tired so decided not to push it on the first proper week back. 30:10 at Toyota Garage, 48:48 with 2km to go but then caught Lucy Chapman so jogged back with her chatting all the way. 57:56 in the end. Didn't realise she lives in the street next to ours. Will try and catch up with her and Dickyboy for some Saturday sessions.

HuRTS 45mins Fartlek

It did HuRT today. Beautiful Spring day but a small crowd due to the running festival over the weekend. Young Timmy rocked up but is becoming Kanser-like in his injury woes. MC was there with Todd, JF, Marty, King James, LF Charlie, Pete W and others but only Tucks and the Judge seemed to be taking it seriously. I tried to hang on to them but they had gapped me by Mrs Macquarie's Chair. From then on I was on my own. Turned half way down Hickson Road (between the 2nd and 3rd speed bumps) so a fair effort but struggled to get back. Tucks roared past around Circular Quay as I limped back home, only managing to reach the Art Gallery on 45mins. But to put it in context, Tucks went through 10km in 34:00 and I guess I was about a minute behind. Another session in the bag and it's been a while so I just need to harden the legs up.