HuRTS 2 x 20mins

Got a rotten cold now. Took it easy today running with Hamish Mountford, Pete W and Smolly. 3:52's on the way out and 3:45's on the return.

13km all up after a warmdown with Barts.

Monday recovery

Very easy 11km with a big crowd at lunch. Getting a sore throat. Knew the weekend would catch up with me in some way. Hammie feels great though.

Photo below is from Saturday night - me with the two youngsters (Bryce Coles-Sinclair and Jordan Gusman). The latter won the NSW U20 800m last week in 1:51. The former was 3rd in the 1500m in 3:59. Both less than half my age. Bryce went on to gap me by 10s by the end with Jordan dropping off badly.

Super long Sunday

A few hours sleep then out this morning with Fats, Macca and Ray for what we thought would be 36km. Pace was fairly solid from the start and I felt surprisingly OK.

Then at Cromer Golf Course, after jumping the fence, some grumpy golfers turned us back telling us there was no through path, so we had to retrace our steps to Narrabeen. Pace picked up to sub4's from there but to be honest I was holding on the whole way. Eventually at Campbell Pde (36km) I persuaded Fats and Macca I needed water and would only jog home. Thankfully, they agreed.

All up 38.5km in 2:45:42 (4:19's). Absolutely shafted now.

State 5000m

Great crowd of HuRT Squad runners with Barts, Andy, Kanser, Ray and Laura all running. Watched a really good tussle between Andy, Kanser and Ray in the C race as Barts and I warmed up. Got dead nervous then we were off.

Hammie had been feeling fine courtesy of some Voltaren (I think the issue is some deep tissue swelling in the glute) and was feeling very bouncy after plenty of rest so decided to commit early on. Followed Cale Bowd and Bryce Courtenay Pierce Brosnan Coles Sinclair for a couple of laps before they eased ahead when a couple of other chaps came past, so tagged onto them. Went through 1km in about 3:01, 2km in 6:06 and 3km in 9:15 so knew a good time was on but that the pace was generally slowing. My brain is a bit mushy as to what happened after that but I figured I needed a strong last lap and was lucky enough to have Jim Perrett just in front of me with a lap to go. Went past him on the back straight and had a really good tussle the whole way home with him edging ahead on the line.

Very happy with the time. Always good to get a PB after many years of racing and a nice touch to have my Dad lap counting for me on a night when I equalled (but did not beat) his PB. I ended up with 15:36:57. Unfortunately they only had hand-timing back in them days and Dad doesn't remember the decimal (I'm guessing because it was .9) so we have to call it a draw for now.

Laura looked very strong on the women's A race in setting a 20s PB and great to watch the men's A race with my pick (Dave Byrne) being edged on the line by James Connor.

Now 6hours sleep after a party before the long run with the boys.

Friday ramble

11km around the city with Ben O'B, John Bowe and a couple of other tri blokes. Dead easy. Hammie fine but I'd taken Voltaren.

Oscar Pistorius

Easy 7km jog to the Toyota Garage before getting a cab the rest of the way home. Super sensitive as to the hammie so couldn't really tell whether all good or not. Still planning on racing tomorrow night.

Tell Charles I'm on my way

Joined Macca, Barts, Fats and CT for the 6.30am group for the Mosman Reversed STaR but from the start my hammy was restricted and got tighter along the hilly route. I was also struggling to stay with the boys so pulled the pin at 13km and got a taxi home.

Then slept for another 3 hours this morning and an hour this afternoon. I think my body is telling me something. Gonna take it easy to sort out the hammy before it deteriorates.

Hungover Saturday

Too many beers last night to do anything more than a gentle 10km this arvo in 44:03.

Not too bad

Gentle run to work. Actually felt OK. Left hammy sore though and restricted full range of movement.

116km for the week but some good quality stuff in there.

Forgot to mention about my warmdown with Barts last night. A couple months ago we were doing a long run through Castlecrag when Barts casually mutters "snake" while pointing to this long-toothed yellow thing curled in the middle of the road that I was about to step on. Well, last night we did a loop of the horse-track at Homebush when this rat runs out in front of us. Well, I've never heard Barts squeal so high-pitched or leap about so madly. It was like jogging with a 3yr old girl. Wish I'd had my camera.

Great photo I was sent yesterday. Love the look of the old school cyclists. Not sure about the chap on the corner getting a bit too excited.

2km Time Trial

Out for the haul over to Homebush in rush hour with Barts. Traffic meant we were half an hour late but Tiger was being generous and allowed us a good warm up. Did about 3km including a few strides then we were into it. Megsy was to take us through 800m in 2:20 and Gary to carry on at the same pace after for as long as he could be arsed.

It was pretty windy down the back straight and on he second lap I felt it was getting too comfortable so pushed ahead with Gary coming past in the home straight and Barts just behind. Gary then gapped me a bit and I struggled through the next 600m (with the lap splits showing). He stepped off the track at 1400m and Barts was about 2s back at this stage so I was solo for the final 600m. Had a good last lap though (67.x) to bring a bit of respectability to the time. Finished in 5:53.1. Was secretly hoping for 5:48 but I didn't have the confidence to go with Gary at 800m. Barts also had a good last lap to finish in 5:57.

Lap splits went:

1:10, 2:20, 3:33, 4:45, 5:53.

Still think the fitness is there as it's been a very big week.

7km warmdown with Barts for 12km all up. Thanks to Barts (who was even more nervous than me beforehand), Gary and Megsy for joining in. Megsy looks a class act running at pace.

Dropping like flies

Top of left hammy was stiff for the last 3 reps yesterday. Got worse in the evening and was very sore this morning. Did strength with Carl this morning but all upper body and core to avoid any pressure on the hammy. Just did a 7km plod at lunchtime to avoid having to buy CT a bottle of Moet and hammy a bit better after. Then saw the Tiger who abused me with needles like a voodoo doll and have to say it's feeling a lot better now. So the 2km TT tomorrow is still on.

Timmy threatening to drop out of Six Foot. We're dropping like flies.

HuRTS 14 x 3 mins

EaMo will have to start watching his back. Sounds like Timmy is going to do a Richard 3rd on him after the latest attempt of the Irish to steal back the Churchill/Sands trophy. Poor Sammy ended up in Manly hospital today after 2 reps (photo below). Good luck on the recovery mate.

Big crowd, C.T. showing us how it's done. Ran with Barts most of the way. Felt heavy-legged to start with but rolled through fine by the end basically averaging gate to gates (910m) for the 3mins. Great to see Durante out there. Also very impressed by Bart's (the apostrophe is key) final rep where we ran toe to toe at 3:10 pace. This from a guy who claims he couldn't run quicker than 5min kms 12 months ago. Could be an early call for HuRTS Improver of the Year.

Maggsie's Monday

Usual route with a big crowd. 16km untimed. Stiff and sore from the weekend.

Maggie's first day at school today. 4 down, one to go. She was pumped.

Centennial Sunday

Drove Macca over to Kanser's and we started the run from there. Met Timmy, Ray, Laura, Enda, C.T. and Fats at the kiosk before doing a couple of loops of the park, then headed down to Coogee and did a great run along the coast to Bronte before climbing back to Queens Park. purple of loops of the park bumping into Ray and J-Fen (who upped the pace) then back to Dave's for some top bacon & egg sarnies, tea, melon, fizzy lime juice, the works.

32.6km all up. Quick final few kms. 4:30 average all up.

Strider 10km Homebush - 5th in 33:52

Got up early to pick Dicky up as we planned on doing a longer warm up (5km). It was pissing with rain and had been for 24 hours but very cool temps for February. The course was sodden with huge puddles around the horse track which meant diverting onto the soft gravel or wading through the ankle deep water. Really appreciated the warm up though as I'd ironed out all the aches and stiffness before the start.

Good crowd with Dave Criniti, Robin Whitelely, CT, Fats, Craig Mc, Sam Walker, the Horne and Brendan Davies all in attendance. Had a good chat with the lads (Timmy looking very nervous) and off we went. Funny start as everyone stormed off and I was we'll back but then picked up a lot of places in the second km to be running alongside Robin and Sam. I think the long warm up avoided the excitable start with inevitable 2km slowdown.

CT and Dave jumped ahead at the start and Sam and Robin had closed the gap by 2km and pulled ahead of me by 30m in the process. I think Brendan was right behind at this stage but I was basically running solo from here on. At 5km on the switchbacks I could see that Brendan and Fats were about 60m behind and was worried as I knew those 2 would be competitive and push each other along - so I made a concerted effort to go hard until the top of the hill. From here I was just concentrating on getting under 34mins and knew it would be close. Used CT up ahead as someone to chase and pleased to come in with a few seconds to spare. Felt great in the second half. Splits went: 3:12, 3:19, 3:19, 3:25, 3:29, 3:18, 3:26, 3:21, 3:23, 3:23 (18s - measured 10.1km).

Some great battles out there. Timmy did enough to hold off Laura and Elvis but obviously made a real effort in doing so but fair play to him. Kanser missed the start by 20s (surprise surprise). Macca ran as solid as ever and has been given some impetus for Six Foot by an ill conceived goading from Elvis, who seems to be specialising in this.

A good morning was topped off by winning the spot prize which I swapped with Timmy for my $20 bet.

5km warm up and down 20km all up.

Plod

7.5km plod around Manly early doors with a few strides once I'd got out of shuffle mode.

Bloody humid. If it's like this tomorrow the rust buster at Homebush will be brutal.

65.0kg after brekkie this morning.

Ahh, just reliving one of the happiest days of my life...

HuRTS 10 x 400m

Or, the Return of Inside Lane Kane.

But to be fair to the big fella, he was flying today and seems to have hit a rich seam of form.

Big turnout on a lovely day, if a bit humid. But for this sort of session and bit of heat and humidity is actually beneficial as it loosens the legs. Vlad, Barts, Kanser, J-Fen, Big Blue John, MC, Enda, Timmy, Killa (last session before emigration) and Dicky G all in attendance. I led the first two, tucked in behind Vlad and Barts on the third (when I thought - here we go again) but they quickened the pace a bit and it was much easier following. I should do it more. We took turns like this for the rest of the session with Kanser and Big Blue John also sharing the pace. Times were:

69, 68, 67, 68, 67, 68, 67, 67, 66, 66.

All off a rolling 2 minutes. MC told everyone off for running too fast after the second rep, which gave us all a good giggle. It's not like anyone (including himself) slowed down.

Long warmdown to Darling Point and back with Barts after. Planning a 2km time trial for next week.

Also 4km with Billy very easy this morning for 15km all up today.

Ran in my new Elixir 8's which I'm disappointed with. Aggravated my left achilles. Over the past 12 months I've gone from Elixir 6's, through 7's to 8's. why do they mess around with a good formula?

Wednesday MLR

Strength with Carl early doors this morning. Legs a'wobbly again.

18.6km usual Wednesday route nice and easy with MC, JW, French Ben, Jeet, Glenn and Elvis. Had some pest loitering around us when circling Centennial and I was ready to call the cops but MC said not to bother as he reckoned we'd all easily outrun him if things got dicey.

Bianca massage late arvo. Forgotten how good she is. Brought tears to the eyes.

Now working late to catch up...

HuRTS 4 x 10mins

Typical Sydney turn-out in a damp day. Irony was most of those missing were English or Irish.

Didn't want to go full-bore on a Tuesday again and Fats, Macca and Barts obviously had the same plan. Ran with James E on rep 1 to the footpath short of Rabbie (3:38's). Back in 9:25 (3:29's). Bit further going past Rabbie with Barts on rep 3 (3:33's) and back in 9:52 (3:30's).

3km warm down for 15km all up.

And the heavens opened

Pissed down in the Blue Mountains so we came back early. Headed out for a large loop around Manly before picking up chocolate, milk and bread in the Fairlight shops (we feed our kids well). Quietest I've ever seen Manly seafront on a public holiday. But although teeming with rain, it was quite warm and pleasant enough to run in. Felt great today. 13km in 54:50 (4:13's). Finished by running up Sydney Road.

Fascinating fact #1, I've never run up Sydney Rd from Manly until today.

More exciting news tomorrow.