HuRTS Mona Fartlek

Smallish crowd today but with Wildman, Tucks and Bartles fronting up it was never going to be easy. Some familiar faces showing up as well with Luke, Geoff, Sam, Dickyboy and Ray all there.

Had decided I wanted to push today's session from the start in order to make the Stone Gates. Given how many times we've done this session, it gives a pretty accurate guide as to where you're at with training. Set off hard with the boys behind and kept the floats honest such that we cruised the first gate to gate in 2:53 (ie. 3:10 pace including half of that as float). The hills were tough and we had a bit of a headwind but managed to get into the virtuous circle of running the hills on the floats. Stevie helped out heading into the 60s efforts and we reached the Stone Gates with 20s to spare. This equals our fastest ever from June 19 2008. Struggled a bit on 3rd and 4th 60s when Stevie gapped us but recovered again on the 30's. Ran with Tucks all the way back with Bartles just a bit behind. It's a solid session. Hurts like hell when running it but feel fine shortly after. Pleased to have the confidence back to go out hard though, i'm going to try the same on Saturday morning.

Jog down after for 11km all up.

Marathon pace Wednesday

Usual Centennial route with Andy and Rich with the usual marathon pace stretches. Overall time was 1:19:50 which was slightly down on last week despite being quicker (22:45) to the top of Ocean Street. I think the quick sections were quicker but the runs in between were slightly slower. Richie kept the quick pace very honest. Felt very fresh after yesterday's rest day (enforced through work which is hell at the moment).

Australian 10,000m Record!

Go Benny Saint! Fantastic result in Stanford last night with Ben running 27:24 to beat the Aussie record by 5 seconds. What a champ!

Easy run home tonight, but tired to start with. Felt better as the run went on in perfect cool conditions to finish up with 56:40. Feel as though I'm turning a corner...

Long run with the Bloggers

Tiger arrived at 6am limping so we hobbled 5.5km together before joining up with Dicky Green, Young Timmy, the Burglar, Sam, Quentin and Jamie at North Steyne. Dicky had a fairly flat route planned going up Pittwater Road, via Narrabeen Lake, back to Dee Why Beach and home. Because it was fairly flat, the boys seemed to think it would be a good idea to run at about 4:10 to 4:15 pace. Felt pretty good today though even with the quicker pace which is good after yesterday's race.

Timmy and the Tiger came around for bacon and egg rolls and a few cups of tea after which was good on the first sunny Sydney day in weeks. Tiger even showed us his trampolining skills. I gave it a go after and only managed to split Billy's lip and make him cry.

All up 30:02km in 2:13:08 (4:26 pace - the average slowed by a couple of very slow kms over the cliff at Queenscliff at the end and a slow start). Took a gel (Hi5 Isogel) at 15km which worked well but I reckon I needed another one just before 26km so perhaps every 45mins? I'll try that next week.

Revelation of the day was Hamburglar's fitness - he'll smash 3 hours at Gold Coast at this rate.

Novice 10km X-Country

10th in 34:53.

It was either a mud bath or a swimming pool. A few clear sections to add some pace but otherwise a slog. Treated it as another hard tempo and didn't get too excited beforehand (also a bugger of a day yesterday with meetings all day down in Melbourne). Having said that, at 3km with David Tonge and Thamal pulling ahead and a bloke from behind catching me, I decided it was time to either give up or make something of the race. Had a good second half after that, closing on David and Thamal (and thinking I was going to get David) before they lifted their game in the final km. Thamal finished in 34:34 and David 34:39.

Massive downpour half way through and got home feeling fluey. Hope to be ok for the morning to host the boys on a long run.

One Rep Wonder

Wowsers. Rocked up to one of the biggest HuRTS turnouts ever, at least for a Thursday, for the Gate to Gates off 5 mins. We were graced with the presence of CT, and with Bartles, Clyde, Fast Charlie, Dicky H, JF, Andy, Young Timmy, Ray and others backing up, there were plenty in support. Nick from Singapore showed up as well as Manly runners Dicky G and Sam.

With the race on Saturday, a bad head cold and 3 days of decent runs behind me, I didn't want to push hard today. So I sat in the middle of the pack staring at Young Timmy's unfortunately bare back and knocked out each rep between 2:55 and 2:57 (3:13 to 3:15 pace) feeling pretty comfortable. Got a bit excited on the final rep and tried to keep CT honest only to have Ray come flying by me and steal my thunder. Legs started to buckle a bit in the middle but managed to hold it together to finish the rep in 2:35 (2:51 pace).

Jog down after for 11kms all up.

Back to marathon pace

The usual Wednesday Centennial Route with Richard High including the 3 marathon pace stretches. Started with MC and Louis aswell but left them when we started the first marathon pace stretch at Rushcutters. Got through the run nicely and felt good around Centennial. Ran on the wide concrete path instead of the white fence due to all the recent rain.

Total of 18.69km in 1:19:34 (4:15 pace). Average pace would have been much lower but for the first few kms:

5:01, 5:14, 4:40, 4:03, 3:48, 4:13, 4:13, 4:15, 4:08, 3:31, 3:30, 3:34, 4:18, 4:31, 4:10, 4:24, 4:55, 3:35, 3:21 (4:52 pace).

Dicky went well.

15km Easy Hard

Something Tiger mentioned in his blog a couple of weeks ago resonated - trying to increase the average pace of the weekly mileage. Every time I run slow my achilles feels worse, so I'm going to try to include a bit of quality into every session I do.

Today was the 15km route running alternate kms easy and hard. Turned out to be an easyish session as you obviously spend longer running easy than hard, yet it was a good way to cover 15km relatively quickly. The easy kms end up being quicker than normal as you never fully slow down but they still feel like a recovery. Splits were as follows:

4:30, 3:39, 4:09, 3:23, 4:09, 3:30, 4:12, 3:32, 4:09, 3:48, 4:29, 3:25, 4:25, 3:34, 4:10, 1:11 (3:40 pace).

All up 15.33km in 1:00:23 (3:56 pace). The outlying 3:48 was up the hill at the back of Shelley Beach.

World's most tired man

Got back from Singas the world's most tired man.way too tired to run Saturday and intended to go out yesterday but fell asleep on the sofa instead. So was determined to fit my long run in today. Got a call from Dicky G last night suggesting a 20km fartlek session at 6.30am and that fitted the bill so set off in the pouring rain at 6.30am with him and Ben. We did 5 mins on and 5 mins off on a route up to Seaforth Oval, across to Tania Park, around there twice and then retraced our steps. For me, the fast sections got progressively quicker and the slow sections progressively slower as I'd circled back to regroup with Dicky and Ben. Still felt fresh at the end of the 20km (bottom of Suwarrow St) so just tagged on my standard flat 10km route which I knocked out in kms between 4:05 and 4:15. Felt tired at the end but a great way to get through the 30km.

All up 30.03km in 2:08:07 (4:16's).

Ran in my new Brooks Infiniti ordered over the net. Achilles feels great but plantar fascia very sore.

Couple of photos added from Singapore:

Early doors:




Blue Steel:

JPMorgan Chase Champs

21st in 18:16.

Hot, hot, hot. If we thought Sydney got hot and humid in summer, this was something else. Spent the whole day trying to hide in air conditioning but they arranged to bus us to the start area almost 3 hours before the race just to heat us up. I think I drank 5 bottles of Gatorade in the lead up. What this translated to was a scorching pace to start with but a question of holding on for afters.

Sprinted off and everyone was flying. After 500m Charlie starts pulling ahead and I couldn't go. He got into a nice bunch while as usual I found myself alone. Went through 1km in 3:02 then at 2km Travis comes alongside which spurred me into action a bit. 3km in 9:31 so still a quick pace but then the humidity started to take effect. A long drag of a hill between 3.5km and 5km and I was just concentrating on the back of the chap 20m in front and desperately looking for the km markers. 5km in 16:24 so a shocking 2km split but I was just hanging on with the longest finishing straight you've ever seen about to face us.

Jonno finished strongly and must have closed over the final 2km to record 18:26 as when I saw him at the turn he was running with Richie, Enda and Trav. Charlie had a great race to run 17:38. Many, many beers consumed after in a great night of celebrations. Will post pictures soon.

Four floors

10km on the treadmill trying to sweat out a hangover. 40:59 feeling ok in the circumstances. No doubt it will hit me tomorrow.

Recovery

Very easy 9km around the City in the evening in 42 mins, feeling relatively OK. Achilles has recoverd well after yesterday's long hilly run. Fly out to Singapore in the morning.

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.....