Berry Mountain

Out early for a run to the top of Berry Mountain and back. To be honest, it was a real struggle - heading out 12 hours after a hard 10km and
facing 5kms of solid up hill from 9km until the turning point. 66:49 on the way out and 60:22 on the way back for 28kms in 2:07:11 (4:32s). Just pleased to have done it. Bit slower than last time though.

Hard 10km

Felt very average over the past 24 hours (sore throat and joint aches) and was in two minds whether to do today's session but told myself just to give the first few kms a go and see how I felt. This is my 4th hard 10km on a Saturday in a row and feel as though I'm starting to feel some benefit. Finished in 35:04 after turning in 17:42. Felt great between 6 and 8km but struggled up the hill in the 9th km. Splits:

3:37, 3:33, 3:26, 3:35, 3:29, 3:34, 3:22, 3:32, 3:35, 3:19.

Easy 15km

Took my usual Upper River Road route but continued on for another 2.5kms before turning. Stunning scenery getting up towards the head of the valley especially as I was out at 8.30am before the sun had burnt off all the morning mist. This is getting quite poetic. Back to the stats. Turned at 32.32 and back in 63.07 (4.12's). Felt great which I didn't expect to after yesterday's session.

83km for the week.

Kangaroo Valley 400's

Kicked off my marathon training yesterday with a rest day. Didn't intend it that way, but after a day at Jambaroo Water Slide park (my second most favorite amusement park) arrived home in the dark which put paid to any run given the lack of street lighting.

Punished myself with 400's today, needing them with the JPMorgan race in a week. Jogged 3km to a straight flat section of road, marked out 400m on the Garmin (straight line so i think it was accurate) then did the usual session off a rolling 2 minutes. Reps went as follows:

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

Felt stronger in the second half than last week and form felt better, although that could be from running on road rather than grass. 3km jog back for 11kn all up.

Marathon Man

Kanser upped the bet to $200 so I'm in. Also had an email from Sam at GS saying he was in, Quentin said he was in so I'll have some local training partners for the long Sunday runs. Others confirmed are Enda and the Tiger. Just need to hold the body together for 11 weeks.

Today was the same 10km as yesterday at the same effort but 2mins quicker - 39:14 after 20:24 at half way. Shows the impact of running the day after a long run. Then timed the kids for a "round the farm" X-Country route. They kept on knocking fractions off their times with Bec running her fastest of 43.28s and Billy 43.30. Amazing how close they are, but they refuse to race one another, ala Coe and Ovett. I did a lap full bore and managed 36.20s so it shows how much quicker they are getting. Got a sore back now after trying a bit too hard.

Holiday day 1

10km in Kangaroo Valley in 41:12. Beautiful day and the best place for a run.

Great run by Uncle Dave in the Paris marathon - 2:21 to finish well up in 23rd place. Speaking of which, Kanser is trying to goad me into running Gold Coast marathon, first by betting $100 I won't break 2:40 then telling me I'm running scared of the Tiger. I'll spend the holiday considering my options...

Longish Sunday

Did 5km at 6.30am then caught up with Quentin and a Kiwi chap called Clive (he knew Clyde, but in my experience anyone who can run and hails from NZ knows Clyde) to run along Manly to Spit, then up to Seaforth Oval before heading back to Manly via Campbell Parade. All up 25.5km in 2:01 - slow pace but lots of bush. We finished pretty quick. Tired again from yesterday but on holidays now so all good.

Saturday tempo

Ok, so 2 weeks ago it was a hard run, rather than a tempo. Having been stuffed at work and with only 4.5 hours sleep last night and thirty minutes on the sofa over lunch with 4 kids jumping on me, the last thing I wanted to do was push hard today. Decided to take it out feeling comfortable then see if I could push on later. That's just how it went. Felt great running down Manly beach until I turned at Shelly and realized I'd had a following wind. Pushed hard into the wind on the way back up the beach and was rewarded at Queenscliff with a couple of quick kms out of the wind.

Total time was 36:12. Pleased as it felt OK other than having to work hard into the wind. Kms as follows:

3:45, 3:38, 3:38, 3:39, 3:43, 3:41, 3:31, 3:31, 3:35, 3:28

11.5km all up.

Couple of recent photos to keep my brother Alec happy.....

Friday meander

Caught up with MC, LF Charlie, Todd, Marc and Ray for a wander around Balls Head. Felt pretty tired despite the easy pace, probably the result of the first speed session in my legs from the day before. 13.3km in 66 mins.

97km for the week.

HuRTS 10 x 400m

Small turnout becuase we were doing some speed work. Honestly, the HuRT Squad don't live up to their name. Bunch of pussies. They're all more interested in Ultra Marathons and Triathlons. 10 x 400m is painful, both mentally and physically, if you do it properly. It's much easier to run 150km a week than do 2 VO2 Max sessions a week.

So the hardy bunch were myself, Wildman, Bartles, Young Timmy, JC, chap called Tim and Anton from UBS. Marked out the 400m (always slightly dodgy when going around an Oval) and set off. Reps went as follows:

66, 68, 66, 67, 67, 68, 68, 69, 68, 70

I normally finish the second half stronger than the first, but not today as the reps were solid from the word go chasing Wildman and trying to stay in front of Bartles. I reckon the lap was about 2s short despite what the Garmin says. I came last on the final rep, when the legs were just goooone. Wildman was about 2-3 seconds ahead on each, looking very strong, but blasted out a 61 on the final rep. Pleased to have stayed in the front of Bartles, the 800m specialist, on each rep other than the last, despite him taking "the Kanser line". Young Timmy will know what I mean. Speaking of which, Young Timmy was like a Kenyan today, popping up with the odd 67 interspersed with a couple of 82s.....

10km all up. Nice to do some speed.

Arse

4km jog to Spit for strength with Carl. Quite intense leg strengthening stuff today and a load of bloody skipping which I hate.

Had planned on running home but too much work has put paid to that. It never rains but it pours.

Hexham vs Morpeth

Session today was the Progressive Tempo and there was a cast of thousands already assembled by the time I showed up (late). All the familiar faces were there - Wildman, Young Timmy, hot to trot Durante, Enda, Quentin, Bartles, JF, Dicky H, Pete W, Jason, JC, Rob, Sam, etc. Tucks was there but only to show us he could do the same session by himself and didn't need us. Timmy rocks up with a girl with a familiar accent who happens to be from Morpeth. Now, those not familiar with the English county of Northumberland will not realise that there there are only two towns of any note in it - Hexham (from where I came) and Morpeth (from where Sian, Timmy's friend came). The rivalry between them was similar to that between Sydney and Melbourne. I Googled a couple of pictures of the towns so that you can see which is Sydney and which is Melbourne:


Hexham



Morpeth


Anyway, a lovely girl nonetheless.

Perfect conditions today. Great session to do as you can chat for the first half before things get serious in the second. Judging by the km splits, it was a perfectly judged progressive tempo:

4:03, 4:01, 3:57, 3:51, 3:48, 3:43, 3:37, 3:25, 3:23, 3:21, 3:32, 3:28

The last 2kms blow out a bit coming up the hills.

Ran with a big group up front including Wildman, Bartles, JF, Jason, Dicky H and Quentin. After the turn (just past 6km under the first bridge on Hickson Rd), the pace stepped up again and from there it just wound up trying to drop people from the front group. Stevie really increased the pace around Farm Cove and dropped the rest of us. I tried to push on up the hills and thought I'd dropped the rest before Quentin reappeared with a sprint so I finished with him.

Nice session. Got back in 44:19 so well under, with the final Gate to Gate in under 10mins. 12.02km averaging 3:41's.

1km jog there and 2km warmdown for 15km all up.

Home run

Ran home. Saw Fats. Felt tired. I trust that at some point all this training will come together.

Lap of the Lake STaR

Took advantage of the end of Nipper season and the clocks going back to turn up to Dee Why for the new Lap of the Lake STaR. Flakey, Steve Hume, Georgie, new chap called Richard Banks, Mark F, Jo C etc were there for the 6.20am group. Very easy pace and enjoyable run as a result. Ran short of time towards the end in order to get Bec to soccer so cut short and sped up a bit. Total of 29.05km in 2:17:14 (4:43's).

Interesting looking at my post on April 7th 2007 - the last time I ran Six Foot then followed up with the April Striders 10km. Almost exactly the same time and same sentiments as yesterday. Just hope I can improve this month the same way I did back then.

Striders Lane Cove - 9th in 34:14

Felt pretty good about this race. Got up early, did a 3km jog, a few run throughs, had a chat and was off.

Here's a start line photo standing next to Young Timmy, Tucks, Dave Criniti and Pete Walker:



Didn't want to go too quickly off the line so held back a bit then pushed on after 500m to catch Tucks. Went through 1km in 3:19 and 2km in 6:41. Then ran up the hill to Scribbly Gums where it all started to go wrong. Tucks pulled ahead on the way back down and Brendan Davies and Jonathan Bleasel caught me between 3 and 4km. Stayed with them up the hills until the turn where we were closing on Tucks slightly. Felt OK on the way back down but then had a shocker between 6km and 8km where I just let them get away without really putting any effort in, as if I just wanted an easy ride. Chap behind (Craig) caught me at 8km which spurred me into action. Finished with a 3:12 final km to hold him off (photo conveniently taken when running relatively quickly).



Pretty disappointed with the run. Finished the race without feeling spent. I think I just need to race more and get used to the feeling of being under pressure etc. Plenty of races coming up.

Easy peasy

5km after work very slow around and about. Looking forward to the race tomorrow.

Big brother Alec is visiting but too lazy to come and watch me race. Tells me he was chatting to a bloke at work today whose son was apparently a handy runner. I asked what his name was and he said dunno, but his Dad's surname is Gregson.

92kms for the week.

Panadol and whisky

Defeat. Humiliation. Embarassment. Last of the HuRTS Boys. Chicked. Beaten by Young Timmy. Where to from here? Well, as Yazz famously said, the only way is up.

Rocked up to register and was given number 13. I had an inkling at that stage that things may not fare well for me. Met up with Wildman, Durante, Young Timmy and Enda with everyone looking a bit nervous, not least because we'd all taken our tops off. I started trying to make Stevie nervous by telling him that the double knots in his laces would cost him 2 seconds in transition and that he should go to a single bow like me. Enda told us we were both amateurs and that we should have elastic laces like him. We told him he was gay.

So we set off and I hang back a bit trying not to go lactic up the hill then push ahead to the front next to Stevie feeling good and, what do you know, my lace comes undone. Stop at Mrs Macs Chair to do it up and everyone comes streaming past. Do it up then start trying to chase people, overtaking a heavily gasping Timmy first of all. Run past Kanser and Tucks spectating who abuse me for letting a half fit Durante and Enda be in front. Catch Durante and Enda by the hill before the Freeway bridge and, what do you know, the lace comes undone again. So stop and do it up at the turn, giving them another 10 seconds. Still feeling good so start chasing them again. Run past Kanser and Tucks at the point where I happen to be the same distance behind Enda and Durante as I was first time I passed them. Then my other shoelace comes undone. I think, f**k this, the thing can come off for all I care now. Running angry I catch Durante and Enda just before the end to get to the pool in second place, with Stevie now about 40s in front. Despite only have one shoelace to undo, I still manage to transition slower than Enda and Durante, probably because I stood on the edge of the pool thinking how the hell am I going to manage this. Managed about 30m of freestyle before reverting the breaststroke. Blokes are flying past me at this stage, but not Timmy yet. Reach the final length and see Timmy 10m behind me. Make a half arsed attempt at freestyle to hold him off but in truth it was about 3 strokes, then give up. Then Greta comes past on the inside with 5m to go. I pull myself out of the pool a shattered man and just stand there waiting for the ribbing to begin.

Lovely few beers in the Wolloommoolloo Bay Hotel after, telling stories and cracking jokes. I thought Wildman was coming out to play for a moment when Stevie made an inappropriate remark about the organiser having sex with an old lady just as the room fell silent, but he soon disappeared after getting a phone call from the wife. Timmy was beaming like a Cheshire cat all night. Tucks had one for the road 5 times. Kanser's changed. Talking about bikes and stuff. Not cool. Enda told us he could have been a contender if Ireland had swimming pools. Durante told us Tiger was a pretender and that he could beat him over every distance from 800m to the marathon. Greta was lovely, couldn't have been beaten by a nicer lady.

Check out Timmy's blog for the photos. Might have to start calling him Tummy.

Results:

Stevie/Wildman: 18:08 (2nd)
Enda: 18:20 (4th)
Durante: 18:28 (5th)
Young Timmy: 19:43 (7th)
Greta: 19:47 (8th)
Me: 19:48 (9th)

Sore

Woke up and did a 4km Cliff Young special to Carl's. Told him I was too tired and sore for plyometrics so did lower body stretching and upper body strength. Achilles sore afterwards. At lunch did 6km very easy with Jules from work. Then Tiger for a massage (check out the new blog link and marvel at the mileage) then a few beers.

Not confident about the biathlon tomorrow. Body feels pretty knackered.

HuRTS 14 x 3mins

The boys are getting fit. That's all I can say.

Found a new venue to do one of the toughest sessions on the calendar trying to avoid the crowds of Farm Cove. The venue was our spiritual home (Hickson Road) but veering off into Paul Keating's spiritual home (Barangaroo) for the second half. Rocked up to find JF half way through the session. With him warmed up, it meant the first rep was run at a pretty quick clip - I had it at 3:18 (JF had it a bit quicker on his Garmin). We basically then ran all of the reps at a consistent pace - reaching the same point (the big blue sign on Barangaroo) and getting back every rep. So about 3:18 to 3:19 pace. The final two reps were quicker at about 3:10 pace.

What was surprising was how many of the lads were up there at that pace. Wildman was leading but JF and Enda were up with him, Tucks and Rich too, Ray on every other rep, Clyde for the first 8-10, even Smolly on some. My legs felt like they'd been injected with lead - I was really struggling. Not sure whether it is a Six Foot hangover or just because I've had quite a strenuous previous 5 days. The lads would get away from me in the first half of each rep and I'd spend the second half trying to reel them in. Only came good on rep 10 (and I'd nearly pulled out before that) when you're pretty much running on reserves in any case.

2km jog there and back for 18km all up, a big session.

Funday Monday

Usual route. MC, Indrajeet, a large crowd of others from UBS, Craig, new chap Glen from Minters but then Richie H, Durante, Rob C and Big Mikey H join in after the start for good measure. The usual drop off after CQ with only Rob and Glen finishing with me. 35:20 on the way out (4:29's) and 33:58 for the way back (4:18's) for 1:09:08 for the 15.76km (4:23's). Felt tired again for first 4km then got into it.

Apparently poor Young Timmy has rolled one of his feminine ankles and is crying out of Thursday's gargantuan challenge. The news was received very poorly on today's run. Thursday night is shaping up for one of the highlight races of the year.