Slow Monday

Very easy run home. Was even slower than it felt. 59:21. Very tired, may listen to the body and take a couple of days rest. Will see in the morning.

Long Sunday

Thanks for all the comments for yesterday. Brought back down to earth today with a very tired and sore long run. Dropped Bec off at a party at Queenscliff so set off from there for a loop around Narrabeen Lake via Cromer each way, but up Pittwater Road and back via the beaches. 29.01km in 2:06:10 (4:20's). Left PF very sore all the way.

Go Mo!

Striders North Head - 1st in 32:24

Didn't think I'd ever be writing that title for a post. Woke up feeling pretty good for once. Took my new pre-race concoction of Endura Optimizer and drove up to North Head, bumping into Kanser and Timmy in the car park. Timmy was his usual self and Kanser had more excuses than you could even contemplate. Saw Truscott, the Horne and Thamal warming up, then was greeted by Robbie Neill at registration so there was a decent crowd. Bleasel and Hew were also on the start line so I knew it'd be a decent race. My plan from the start was just to stick to CT for as long as possible.

CT went straight to the front for those 2 annoying little loops of the car park then heading out on the first big lap it was a group of CT, Robbie and myself in front with Thamal just behind. Then at 2km Robbie suddenly puts in this burst of speed, CT goes with him and they gap me by about 10m. I'm thinking, WTF, is this what proper racing is all about? Then on the slight rise after the roundabout I start to catch them again. We're altogether coming back to the roundabout so put some pressure on up the hill and Robbie dropped off. It's now just a race between me and CT. Basically, CT puts in a series of surges which I gradually claw back, usually on a hill. Coming up to 9km I'm waiting for him to go again and thinking that I can't let him gap me this time. Sure enough, he does and I go with him then pass him and suddenly I've got a gap. Can't believe my luck. I was dreading the dogfight of a final sprint. Just keep the speed up for the final loop and turn the corner to the finish to see 32:18 or thereabouts on the clock and I'm ecstatic. First win since pre-injury at the age of 16 and a decent PB to boot over the distance I run most often.

No idea about the splits. I ran without a watch again because I wanted to race it. Robbie said he went through 5km in about 16:05 and we were about 10s in front.

Some great runs out there today, none more so than Timmy who clocked another big PB in running 34:27 and almost beating Richie again. Richie overtook him with 20m to go! Sounds like those 2 had a good tussle with Paul McClarnon the whole way. Eoin had a good run in the low 35's and Kanser is getting back with a 36:40 (before running another 21km back home). JC ran an inaugural 10km in 36:36. The one down point of the day was seeing Anna looking as though she suffered another attack at the 3km mark, hope she's OK.

Friday meander

Very easy 8km around and about. Bumped into MC and Mrs Tucks (not together).

100km for the week.

HuRTS Pyramid session

Lovely day. Good crowd. Over to Rushcutters. We despatched Jason to negotiate with the groundsmen who had stuck up a "Ground closed" sign, but alas to no avail. So across to the rugby field to mark out a 400m track. That basically consisted of running around the edge of the field and adding a bit on at the end. Wasn't quite a full loop so two laps was longer than 2 x 1 laps, if you know what I mean.

Bartles, Tucks, Jason, Richie H, TB, Luke, Ben, Pete W, LF Charlie all there, with a number of others, including the return of J-Fen! Turns out he's back off running for 2 weeks looking after his back. Even Big Mikey H showed up but disappeared after a couple of reps. Plainly UBS are working him too hard. He needs to move to MC's team.

Reps went as follows:

1 lap (383m): 67s
2 laps (802m): 2:21
3 laps (1.18km): 3:34
4 laps (1.57km): 4:49
3 laps: 3:33
2 laps: 2:16
1 lap: 58s

Rest was half the time of the previous rep. Richie was doing the timing. However, for the last rep I told him to cut short the rest time to blunt the impact of the burglars who save themselves for the final rep. My cunning plan worked a treat. Ran just in front of Bartles (going very well) for all reps with Tucks taking it easy following his win at W2B. Jason and TB were looking very good too.

Got a call from Bec (my eldest) this afternoon very excited about her District athletics meet up at Narrabeen track today. She came 3rd in her 800m heat running 3:03 so is through to the final tomorrow. A good placing there will see her through to Zone for the first time. We'll be talking tactics tonight.

Slow Wed

Had a massage booked with the Tiger at 9.10am so just ran to Lime Street from home. Very tired from yesterday's efforts. Set my Garmin at the start of the run and it still had yesterday's session showing. I didn't stop the watch yesterday for each rep so it just showed the total - 13.09km in 50:30 for an average pace of 3:52 p/km but that includes 10.5 minutes of rest (walking, chatting), so no wonder I was still buggered.

Just put one foot in front of the other for the first 3km. Felt a bit better from then on but more than happy to stop at Gary's. He sorted out the achilles and PF nicely.

13.29km in 57:55 (4:21's).

HuRTS 8 x 5mins

My secretary saw me about to write my blog and sent an email suggesting the following:

"Well guys, I was on fire today! My secretary would have been very proud of me running faster than Forrest Gump (my all time idol).

Back in the office I worked on churning my stomach up by mixing juice, yoghurt and chocolate - I'll keep you posted on that experiment!

I'm about to go and get coffee and forget to buy lollies for the bowl - lately I've had dementia and forgot my secretary's coffee yesterday - I felt so horrible.

Talk to y'all tomorrow,

Forrest Gump"

Wasn't quite like that. Big crowd today despite the temperature dipping back to Winter climes again, but with a few of the big guns (Tucks, new boy Stuart, J-Fen and, err, Young Timmy) missing. I tucked in behind the flying Bartles with Fast Charlie on my shoulder and Dicky H just behind. Ran the first 6 at 3:15 to 3:16 pace. Then at the end of rep 5 Rich says, "what's the further we've ever got, it's to that big rock isn't it?". Bartles indicated it was within reach and, running back on rep 6 I pass a flying Keith Bateman going the other way. That was enough to stoke my fragile ego, so set off quicker on rep 7 and pushed all the way, finishing past the big rock and at the start of the fence at the bottom of the ABC hill. Averaged 3:09 pace. Bartles was about 15 yards back. Was feeling good at this stage (apart from a dodgy stomach - cue secretary email above - which I've had for 24 hours) so ran the final rep with Bartles pushing ahead of him towards the end averaging 3:06.

Great session. Felt comfortable at 3:15's but had to push hard to go any quicker. Rodgered now.

Good to see a few familiar faces returning to sessions, MC, LF Charlie and Anna in particular.

Oh no, Mo!

Screamed at the telly last night during the 10,000m World Champs final. First due to the atrocious coverage from the Koreans (let's hope there's a Korean running the 5000m) and then the agonising final lap for anyone who follows British sport.

Set about training with renewed vigour today inspired by Mo's words in the post race press conference. Safe to say I don't think last night will dampen his enthusiasm. Having missed a long run yesterday, I went early today planning on catching up with Kanser along Barangaroo and the rest of the squad for the second half. Kanser was nowhere to be seen, bumped into Clyde instead at CQ and ran with him. Really didn't want to be running when by myself but time flew when I had someone to run with. Caught up with the rest of the squad (and Kanser) at Farm Cove and turned with them. To complete the string of accidental acquaintances, bumped into the Tiger near the Hyatt on the way back and ran with him for a bit.

Pace slowed a lot when I joined the group. PF was sore by the end, it doesn't like it when I run long and slow. More worryingly, my right knee was (and still is) sore, just on the knuckle on the inside and particularly when I lift my leg. I've been switching the ice from left foot to right knee all afternoon.

All up 28.12km in 2:02:59 (4:22's).

Not the Pub to Pub

Woke up with a red wine head and sore body. Hauled my ass back to Luna Park to pick up the car and that was my run for the day. PF pretty sore after yesterday's efforts. Having said all that, the pace wasn't too bad after putting some effort in up Parriwi Rd. I've become obsessed about working my glutes on hills. 10.78km in 45:32 (4:13's). Will go long tomorrow.

Good job I didn't bother fronting up to Pub to Pub. Vlad won it ahead of the Horne and Truscott, so even getting on the podium would have been unlikely. Ominous that the Horne was ahead of Truscott. Sounds like he's almost back. So no more easy Fun Run wins available.

Tempo Saturday

Had to decide between a 14km tempo and hills, so took the easy option. Good running conditions, cool but little wind. Fairly non-descript run. Said hello to Tony Wong en route and that was about it. 13.92km (measured short this time) in 49:48 (3:34's). Turned in 24:59 so 10 seconds quicker on the way back. Ran through 10km in 35:52.

Going to a charidee ball tonight so decided against Pub to Pub in the morning.

Just heard a rumour that Tucks won Willy to Billy today. Fantastic result if correct, well done mate.

Easy Friday

Back to back interviews, calls and meetings today so ran in. Felt very average for the first 2km (yesterday's hangover diet of Hungry Jacks and lollies didn't help) then got into it. 26:03 (chasing two cyclists up Parriwi Rd) at Spit Junction and 55:12 all up. Beautiful day. Dare I say it, Spring is here.

96km for the week.

Easy Wed

Interviewing at lunch so headed out just after 1pm for a shortened one lap of Centennial with Dicky H and Andy. Legs very tired, but a nice easy run on a beautiful day chatting to the boys, mainly taking the piss out of Timmy.

View from office window this arvo below:

HuRTS Progressive tempo

We had it all today. Big crowd, popular session. Started out at 4 mins per km in a group with Tucks, new boy Stuart from Deutsche Bank, Jason, Dicky H and JB. We were pretty strict about dropping the pace to 3:50's after 10mins, then 30:40's after 20mins but after the turn (at 23.5mins), suddenly we seemed to throw in a 3:20. Then under the Harbour Bridge I could see a big crowd of the squad standing around someone and feared something bad was up. Anna had had an epileptic fit (discovered after she'd actually had 2). Someone said an ambulance had been called and rather than more people crowding her, we set off again.

Pace dropped again after 30mins but rather than running 3:30s I clocked splits of 3:15 and 3:17. Sensed the group was splitting up and only Tucks was still there coming around Farm Cove. Pushed the hills back home (running a 3:25 split up the hills feeling really good) to finish in 44:20 (12.36km). Final Gate to Gate in 9:45.

Feeling in good form at the moment. Looking forward to a race.

Anna recovered OK. She sensed she was recovering after the second fit and cancelled the ambulance with Bartles giving her a lift home.

Sorting out stuff in storage and came across this photo. It's of me winning the Boys Northern X-Country Championships in Feb 1989. You can see why I was never any good at rugby, and notice the spazzy left hand which remains 22 years on.

Easy Monday

Got caught on a call so trotted out by myself bumping into the group along Hickson Road. Turned with them and ran back, chatting to Wildman, Dicky H, Pete W and Laura along the way. Felt great today, PF and achilles are good, I'm convinced the straight leg, grab foot while sitting down stretch is the cure to all my ills.

12.03km in 49:44 (4:09's).

Back to long Sunday

Caught up with Dickyboy and Ben at 6.30am at the ABC Pool for what I was hoping would be a nice easy run along some bush trails. They are both doing the 3 hour pacing job at the Sydney marathon so are planning on a few longer runs over the next few weeks. I'd jogged down to meet them at a very easy pace still struggling after last night's efforts, only for Dickyboy to set off like a hare at 4:10 pace. I asked what was going on, and he said they were planning on running at 3 hour pace (4:12's) but with some 5km intervals "a bit quicker". Hell, this was news to me. After struggling to keep up suddenly we were off on the first faster paced section. Started to feel OK at this stage. Took a magic gel ("Smart") at 10km and felt better again. The first faster section I was averaging 3:57's. Easy run through the bush next to Narrabeen lake and we were off on the second fast section (16km - 21km). Averaged these in the low 3:50's pulling ahead of Dicky and Ben. Fortunately, it finished just at the bottom of the nasty hill climbing out of Dee Why. Final quick section (26-31km) was basically Queenscliff to Shelley and back, but cutting back via Pacific Parade. Dicky was running really well at this stage and we did the whole section in 3:45's. Coming back from Shelley I started to get tired. Dicky mentioned that my old Geordie accent came out as I got more tired. I must have sounded like Jimmy Nail by North Steyne.

All up 31.89km in 2:12:26 (4:09's).

Great run by Wildman to finish 9th in the National XC Champs yesterday (thanks for the heads up Flakey). He's getting closer and closer to the big guns.

Old Manly route - PB!

Planned 14km tempo but ran out of time so I did my old 7.5km Manly route hard. 1.5km warm up then just attacked it. First 2km in 6:50 so knew I was on course. Couple of km splits along Manly beach of 3:21 and 3:18, was buggered running up the Suwarrow hill but finished in 25:23 (3:26's). Over a minute PB from March 2008.

Short jog after for 10km all up.

Easy Friday

Out in the cold, howling wind and heavy showers for a very easy run around Centennial with Kanser and the King. 12.47km in 55:59 (4:29's). Ran without orthotics for the first time in 3 years. Loved the feeling of going "au naturel", we'll see whether I avoid any achilles reaction.

70km for the week.

HuRTS Mona Fartlek

Peeps still taking it easy. Non J-Fen, no Y-TimTam, nobody to push for the T-Shirt. T-Ucks, B-Artles, D-High, Scott(?) and I ran together fairly easy, hitting all the hills at the bad spots and finishing about 15s short of the gates. Felt good on the way back so and ran the 30s quite well to finish well in time. Jog back around the course with T-Bell, S-Pringer, T-Ucks and E-Stank (that's right, he's back!) in the sunshine. E-Stank's talking about avoiding all racing until he can get fit enough to beat Y-TimTam - so sometime early December when he hits the summer booze then.

Fitting it in

Saw the Tiger. He sorted out my PF. Paid him $100. Wish Kanser would do the same. Busy at work. Ran home. Felt great. 54:31. More work. Pints of Kolsch at 4 Pines. All's well that end's well. Note the single spacing.

HuRTS 14 x 3mins

Beautiful day today (C2S weather) and, despite having a sore left plantar fascia, decided to head out for a chat and jog. Big crowd but with no-one putting in any effort other than good old Kanser, who moaned about the fact that we were plodding around and took off. Timmy should be scared, he's starting to look dangerous. I only did 10 along with Dicky H, J-Fen and "top 16" Laura. PF felt better after though. Ran without heel raises for the first time in 2 years as my achilles feels almost cured.

Paper results came out today. Net time was 46:49. Timmy's was 49:17 so he is claiming the $50 by 2 seconds. Flakey has rightly pointed out that no-one cares about net times, gun times are where it's at. So I'll hold my cash for the time being. Truscott ended up with 46:47, hadn't realised it was so close in my desperation to reach the line. He's angling for a head to head bet at JPMorgan. I might take him on, it's my favourite race and will get me through the bloody 400m's sessions that lie in store.

One for Alec - the mighty Manly Vale Falcons (2011)....