Getting nervous

A very easy 8km today with a few strides. Big crowd and plenty of chat and trash talking about tomorrow's race. Tucks disclosed his game plan "there's not much magic to it Tom, I just put a bit of effort in at 4km" and Kanser was coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why he couldn't run (and risk MC claiming a rare scalp). I fear Young Timmy is in the same boat.

I'm pretty psyched for this one and will just give it a good crack. Should be a great night.

Biding time

Just an easy 10km today with MC, Big Sam, Indrajeet, KiltedScot, J-Fen, Rob, JW and others. Don't like these pre-race runs, just feel nervously lethargic.

Bec and Kirst are sick so I may be sleeping in the basement tonight and tomorrow.

Weekend at Coledale

Sat morning was 12km at 6am just rolling the legs over. Glutes working well though as I was pretty bouncy.

Then headed off to Coledale Beach for camping. Sunday was a glorious day and headed out at 7am after 9 hours solid sleep down the coast trying to find the bike path on LF Charlie's recommendation. Found it and it was running Mecca, just hugging the coast and cliff tops. 20.35km in 1:30:28 (4:27 average). Again very bouncy and glutes were sore by the end.

Easy Friday

Felt a bit tired after yesterday's session but much better after a very easy 13km. Would have done the 16km as I was enjoying the run but had to get back to work which has been a bit frantic recently.

Crowd was Ray, MC, Kanser, Emma, Big Sam, Todd and Russ. Very warm, but came out of the changing rooms and it was as if night had fallen, with a massive storm rolling through, hail stones and all. Standard Sydney Spring.

3 good sessions and 98km for the week but no long run. I rely on my long run. But feeling good nonetheless.

HuRTS 400's

Whoa! A mighty crowd for the 400's today, bigger than I've ever seen for that session with all the squad regulars present other than Timmy and Enda. Also there were my two gun females for next Wednesday, both doing a great job competing 8 reps with the squad. Alex is coming on in leaps and bounds and looks a completely natural runner, she could do great things.

I wanted to give it a go today. Did all the reps (off a rolling 2:10 given we were doing 440's) between 75 and 77s. Tucks went off hard on 3 of them with Dom and Clarky in tow and J-Fen gradually increased his pace to run alongside on the last two otherwise I was upfront with Clarky on my shoulder. Bloody hot out there and had to work hard but pleased with the final speed session and feeling more confident for next Wednesday night.

Did an extra 4km warm down with Andy and JB for 11km all up.

Sydney to Hobart

Up at 5.30am. Taxi to airport. Flew to Hobart. All day meetings. Flew back to Sydney. Back to office. Sent a couple of emails. Changed and ran home. 57:30 feeling nice and easy. Dinner in front of TV watching episode 3 of Homeland. I'm hooked. I'm knackered. Bed.

Melbourne Cup

Bloody hot and humid today but showed up with a select crowd of J-Fen, Richie, Andy, MC, John from AMP, Laura, Angus et al for 4 x 10mins. Wasn't in the mood and feeling tired from too much boozing (today won't have helped) but set off on the first rep with Richie and MC with Richie running strong to finish with me by Robbie Burns stone statue. Holy cow J-Fen was flying to get to the stone gates in 9:42. I don't think anyone has run quicker. He is certainly firming as favourite for JPMorgan.

Ran back in 9:29 then third rep a bit further running with J-Fen taking it easy (last lamppost) then ran back in 9:35.

Was cooked to finish so jumped in the harbour with Laura, Angus and J-Fen for a much needed cool-down.

Then started on the Coopers Pale Ale.

Left Verandah Bar 20mins ago with my poor secretary (Kellie) in the hands of Wildman and Durante. She's a feisty girl so hoping she's OK.

Lazy arse

Planned on doing a long run today by adding 10km to the usual Monday run but I was energy depleted at the end and craving sugar so cut short at 16km. Beat myself up about being a lazy arse but in truth it was the vodka and tequila on Sat night that was to blame. One day I'll take this running malarkey seriously. More drinks with ANZ tonight. Melbourne Cup tomorrow. The silly season has arrived too early.

Good times

Out at our 3rd consecutive weekend 40th birthday party last night which involved rollerblade disco girls, shots of tequila and vodka from an ice sculpture and 2am in the New Brighton Hotel, so an early morning run was not on the cards today. Eventually dragged myself out this afternoon for 11.81km in 50 something (4:18's).

Child of the 70's:



My beautiful wife:

Lane Cove 10km - 2nd in 34:05

The return of the old timers. Truscott first, me second and Jeremey Horne third. All three of us 39 years old.

Warmed up with CT, Eoin, Richie H and Andy. Planned to take it steady to start and then ease my way into the run. The Horne went off quick and CT and I followed behind. CT then put in a burst to catch him and then pushed on ahead. That's how it stayed until the top of the hill past the 5km turn. CT ahead by 20 odd seconds with me running with the Horne. I sensed he was struggling on the hills a bit though and when we turned I suddenly found myself running alone pushing downhill. Had a bit of a scare at 7km when my left hammy felt it was tightening but it eased and I just cruised home.

Nice to get a few good prizes for 2nd - some great Mizuno gear. Certainly beats the cap and pair of socks from 2 years ago. Andy had a good run almost catching the Horne for 4th place. Gary looked comfortable just ahead of Macca still recovering from Melbourne. Dicky H is on the comeback trail and a few will be looking for a rare scalp against him at JPMorgan.

Easy Friday

10km from work very easy solo.

83km for the week but some good sessions.

Manly 400's

Playing golf from lunchtime so jogged down to the oval next to the Boy Charlton pool and ran loops of the white line marked around the oval. Turned out to be about 440m (are all ovals 440m in circumference?). Legs weren't up for a full bore session so kept the rests short running off every 2mins to try to get the feeling of running 3min kms relatively comfortably.

Reps were all 80 or 81s with the last two at 79. Was bloody hot (over 30C) and I sweated buckets.

Golf was good. Need a new set of clubs for Christmas, if Santa is reading.

Wednesday MLR

Late out so cut short through Woolloomooloo and ran quickly trying to catch the squad. Eventually did at the entrance to Centennial where I could start to take it easy. Just MC, Clyde, JW and Anna today. Legs were weary but not sore. Twas hot but felt OK. About 17.5km I reckon, maybe a bit over.

Tiger Time Trial

Out to Homebush for a 2000m time trial. I was pretty nervous about this, mainly because I've been foxing around for the past 3 months not doing sessions at full bore or racing properly so had no idea where my form was really at. I did this TT with the Tiger and Tom Hurley in 2010 in 5:51, shortly before running JPMorgan in 17:52 and State 3000m (while slightly under the weather) in 8:59.

Gary reckons its a great session that yields most benefit 2 weeks later, so the timing was ideal and the plan was just to nail myself. He wasn't feeling 100% so agreed to pace me at 70s laps for 3 laps. There was a nasty headwind down the back straight so I was secretly hoping it would be 3.5 laps, and fair play to him, he came good. Laps went as follows:

68, 2:18, 3:39, 4:40, 5:51.2

Very happy with that. Had to dig deep on the final lap so hopefully will do some good. I'm almost keen to try it again next week...

Many thanks to the Tiger who looked super smooth and provided perfect pacing.

5km warm up/down for 7km (!) all up.

Run home

Very easy run home spent trying to work out how to run a 2000m time trial tomorrow. After an hour I settled on trying to run 70s laps for as long as possible.

Long Saturday

Another 40th Birthday Party tonight so headed over to join MC's merry crew in Centennial at 7am. Felt very average early on having enjoyed a few Bavarian Biers off the ferry last night with Macca and Charlie D.

Really good crowd with Dave Clark, Killa, Enda, Russell, Paul B, Mr Ace, Jonathan W and client Ben O'B joining MC and myself. 3 laps of the 10km circuit, but cut off the final 2km for 28km in 2:02. Final 6km were all under 4mins per km (the last 3 well under) and have to say that MC is travelling very well.

Tucks tracked down the photo below from Fitzroy Falls. Closet trail runner. I've been outed.

Easy Friday

Very easy 9km in 43mins bumping into Enda, Clyde and Ray. Tried to count how many times Clyde could swear in one minute but lost track.

107km for the week and now averaged over 100km for 5 weeks straight. Will drop down the mileage a bit next week and do some more speed work, starting with a 2000m time trial with the Tiger on Tuesday. Papping myself about that already.

More 400's

Down to Rushcutters again with a decent crowd this time following MC's decision to change the official session. I tracked Tucks for all the reps, finishing about a second behind him each time. Timmy, Ray, MC and Andy followed with Mr Ace, Mat Kaley, AMP chap and a host of others in attendance. Good to see Alex from work making the last 4 reps as she's getting fitter and fitter for JPM.

We ran whole loops - between 440m and 450m - off a rolling 130 seconds. Felt the extra distance towards the end. Also switched direction after 5 reps which made the second 5 much harder (strangely). I ran:

78.1, 77.6, 76.8, 76.1, 75.9, 77.4, 76.8, dunno, 76.8, 75.9

Longer jog around Mrs Macs with Andy on return for 11km all up.

John Binfield

Usual Wednesday run with MC, JW, Mr Ace and Shane. New Garmin had 18.47km (ouch) in 1:24 something for 4:37's. Nice and easy which was what I needed as legs were sore from yesterday. Followed up by a Tiger massage. I nearly died on the way there - certainly lost one of my 9 lives- as I was side-swiped by a car when I stepped onto a road without looking (I was stupidly talking on the phone). Bit of a wake up call.

JB is a real talent. Has a similar background to me in running well as a kid (I think he did 800m at English Schools - I did 1500m) and his PB's are now pretty similar to mine. He started out quietly with the squad and then really improved in 2009 when I was off injured, so much so that when I came back he was smashing me. He takes his running (and Ironman's - currently training for Busso) very seriously. If I'm being brutally honest, at times I think he can overtrain. I don't think it's a coincidence that his two outstanding PB's (71 for a Half (Gold Coast, so full length) and 46:xx for City to Surf) came mid-way through preparation for a scheduled marathon. He's certainly capable of a 2:32 marathon and his 10km PB should be in the mid 32's. Having said that, I remember him running a 33:23 at North Head (again, pre-marathon) on a ridiculously blustery day which was worth at least a minute. But what do I know. Has a lovely wife (Sally - another runner) and enviable lifestyle. An all round good bloke.

Charlie Dalziell

Big crowd with all the favourites at HuRTS today for the 45min fartlek session. Hammies have been feeling solid so I decided to push it today and see how I held up. Set off with Tucks, J-Fen, Fats and Ray and we stayed that way until J-Fen pushed ahead around the Opera House. Turned halfway through the courtyard of Lend Lease along Hickson Rd - as far as I've reached in years. Ran with Tucks on the way back until he pulled ahead around Farm Cove. J-Fen caught me half way around and then promptly stopped. Finished in 45:10 (albeit pushing the final 30s jog) for 12.93kms all up (3:30's) and a 10:15 final Gate to Gate. Very happy.

I think the Garmin FR10 is the most accurate of the 3 I've had. I love it. 12.93km measures short compared to the 405 and 610, but is exactly the same as Gmaps measures it. It doesn't throw out the wild readings you sometimes get going under Circular Quay. Splits today were all within 3 seconds either side of 3:30's, other than a 3:40 coming up the hills and a slightly quicker finish.

LF Charlie has been running for a continuous period for longer than all of us. If you go onto Coolrunning (which I don't anymore on principle) he's one of the original subscribers. He's flirted with the offroad stuff and some "adventure" races, but I'll forgive him that as we all need a change once in a while and he's been at it for long enough. Has an encyclopaedic knowledge of races and people's PBs. The mild mannered man of the HuRT Squad, until Timmy starts buzzing in his ear. Enjoys a beer, but stops at 4, so sensible too. An all round good bloke.