Baby steps

Been hammered on a deal recently and haven't seen the light of day for a week, which made me more ill, so no running.

Deal closed today and was spurred back into running action by meeting Holt Hardy in a meeting on a new deal this morning. Holt is a former 1:47/3:38 guy and a great bloke and asked how my running was going. So I wandered out for 10km this evening in beautiful conditions and it was great just to be out there.

More of the same Thursday

Run to work again feeling marginally better but only just - 59:24. Sick to death of this illness. Have canned the idea of racing Sat night given how I feel plus will be working all weekend. Have also canned Six Foot based on my hammie post Equaliser. All in all not happy at the moment. So busy at work today I eventually changed out of my running kit after running in at 4:15pm.

Sick boy

Can't shake this cold/flu thing. In retrospect I shouldn't have pushed the weekend so hard.

Rested yesterday. Ran to work this morning feeling dreadful. Not helped by work being manic at the moment. Haven't done a 14 hour day in a while.

Monday recovery

Usual 16km route feeling tired with Barts, MC, Andy, Ray, Elvis etc. can't shake the cold, seems to have come back when I thought I'd shaken it.

This is interesting. Plotted my 5km time into MacMillan and it predicts a 10km time bang on my PB. I said to myself in January that to run sub 2:30 I'd need to run a sub 32 10km and a low 1:11 Half. MacMillan agrees entirely:

Equaliser - 2nd in 58:09

Drove up with Dicky and we did a 4.5km warm up with Ben and Justin - Dicky intent on getting our feet drenched and sandy before the race started. A few quick hellos - great to see Richie H show up looking lean and fit.

Set off pretty quick with Fats and I was feeling great. Ran the first 3 km following Fats closely and even entertained thoughts of tracking him all the way with a sprint to glory, but that was until the first hill appeared. This was after the creek crossing which I managed to aquaplane across on my chest. Jonny B was just behind at this stage and kept me honest up the hills. I pulled ahead of JB on the roads of St Ives (Fats being a good 200m ahead at this stage) but when we were back in the bush I came out onto one fire trail without a clue which way to go. Waited for JB who suggested right was the best option (which it was). Then pulled ahead a bit before losing my footing coming down a steep hill. Thought I'd caught my fall with 3 wild strides before hitting the deck. At this point, I decided to run with JB instead of attempting to push the pace with the aim of putting an effort in over the final km.

Felt OK on the final big hill so worked that pretty well to build up a gap. Then cruised home. Surprised to see the next guy behind me wasn't JB so he must have struggled up the final hill. Time was 58:09 or thereabouts. Good hard hit out and it was warm and humid today. In fact, we did a 10km warmdown and I was struggling for fluids at the end.

29km all up and tired.

Getting better

20km this morning over the hilly Tania Park route. 1:23:40 (4:11's). Wet and windy but warm so quite nice to run in. Lungs still full of crap but haven't felt that good doing a run in ages.

Variety

11km late afternoon. Lungs full of crap about 50% capacity but legs felt great.

95km for week.

HuRTS Pyramid

Man Flu.

Tis all I'll say.

Jogged over and ran at the back with a couple of nice girls which was very pleasant.

Timmy AWOL yet again. News around the traps is that Franky Dearn is enquiring about odds.

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.