Seal Rocks

Monday - rest

Tuesday - 14km steady, pushing the hills.

Wednesday - 13km steady, pushing the hills.

Thursday - 15km steady, pushing the hills.

Friday - 14km bit quicker than steady, pushing the hills.

(96km for week)

Saturday - 10km easy.

Saturday night - 45 beers and a tequila shot at Sammy's 40th.  I was going fine until the tequila shot. 

Long fast finish

Barts, Quentin, Ray and Dicky came over this morning for the Narrabeen route with a fast finish.  Did a loop of the Golf Course at the end for 32.5km all up.

Nice and easy to start then we pushed the pace from Cromer onwards.  And push we did, may have started easier than pre-Berlin last year but we finished quicker.  The final 12km was a little over 3:30 pace.  

Felt great this morning - beautiful day for it.  Richie was first to drop off having done Parkrun yesterday.  Ray was very strong but eventually dropped off near my new house.  Quentin fell off with about 2km to go leaving Barts and I pushing towards the end.

All up 2:13 something (4:07's) and a real confidence booster.

Sack Pardew

6km super easy with Maggsy on her bike.  Done later on when the hangover had subsided.

Go Fat and Go Early

Now you might have imagined that this was my race plan for Sydney10 but that I'd mis-spelled "fast".  But no.  This, apparently, is Birchy's pick-up technique for the ladies.  "Avoid the rush later on" he explains, with a straight face.

Found this out on Friday night, over a few impromptu beers with Sam, Charlie and out better halves, plus Timmy, Q, 'Lil Jimmy Matthews and Birchy plus Sam's sister and mate from London.  Turned into a big night but a great laugh. 

This was after 14km very easy to Shelley Beach and back avoiding the royal watchers.

110km for the week.

HuRTS 800s and tempo

Put on the Musha's and over to Rushcutters (despite Reg Bartley being out of action) for the Highnam 5 x 800m set followed by a 3km tempo.  Judging by the crowd, they're a sucker for punishment as it was plenty healthy with Timmy, Tucks, TKS, Jeet, JW, LK, Erikakaka, Renee and Birchy all in attendance plus a host of others.

Led out the 800's with Tucks just behind.  The course was long (for once) as I averaged 2:40-2:42.  Then had a bit of a confused barny with Timmy as I thought he was cutting short for the tempo when in truth the poor fella was just changing the course but couldn't explain himself very well.  Anyway, it was actually a good 3km course (if a bit short) which I ran with Tucks in 9:40.

The usual crawl back to the office after this double session.  

A few beers and wines this evening. But I did resist Easter eggs.

Not MLR

Ran home.  Was going to tag on an extra 8km around Manly but got hungry so just went straight home.  Nice and easy.

HuRTS 45min tempo

Strength with DC in the morning (final session of the block of 6) had the legs a wobbling again.  But seem to be recovering better now.  Still not enough to do anything about Barts and Clarkey sailing off into the distance on the tempo at lunch.  But behind we managed to form a nice little group of me, Fats, Q and New Tom.  We turned about 10s beyond the first speed bump on Hickson so better than a month ago then picke the pace up a bit.  Ran with Q the whole way back finishing in 44:39.  Solid and felt good, even if the achilles is still troubling me.

Long warmdown with Barts, Clarkey, Andy and Q for 18km all up.

Pit pat Monday

15km with a big group including MC, Tucks, LJ, Erikakaka, Renee and others.  Cadence was high which means I'm tired.

Sore Sunday

Dicky High came over and joined up with Quentin, Justin, Banksy and myself for my old North Head/Tania Park route.  Legs were fine by achilles pretty sore the whole way.  Need to get a tennis ball into my ass as I could feel my glutes tightening when climbing the steps.  

About 2:10 for the 28kms.

Then out in the evening to watch the London Marathon and then Liverpool v Man City.  Great night and a huge crowd.

What we learned:

1.  Mo's a 1500m runner.

2.  Kipsang is World #1.

3.  Dibaba is a champ and has some balls.

4.  Kane's a Dane.

5.  There'll always be an England.

Ooh, and before I forget, some bets were laid.

1. Head to head with CT - Sydney10.  A beer.

2.  25s from Barts - Sydney10.  A beer.

Saturday cop out

Planned on a 16.5km tempo but was too tired so just did an easy 10km instead.   Told myself I was "listening to my body".  But why do I feel so guilty?

Stopped a couple of times to chat to Quentin and Thamal along the way, just to make me feel really bad.

Friday flunk

Centennial Park route solo.  As usual, sore for first 5km then ok.

120km for the week. Very solid with some good sessions.

HuRTS Hickson Road

The original and still the best, as Clarkey said after rep 3.  And he's not wrong.  This session always hurts, and I never race well on the weekend if I do this on a Thursday.  You start to go lactic towards the end of each rep so mentally it's tough too.  Ran well today though, holding good form throughout and running between 3:37 and 3:40 on the new course (other than the first in 3:45).  Was just in front of Clarkey for each with new bloke Tom, Anthony, BOB and another soon following behind.  There's some good runners coming through the ranks. Long warmdown with MC, Clarkey, Ray and Enda for about 14km all up.

Some strange banter this afternoon regarding Dicky's exploits in Rotterdam.  What emerged is that Quentin aspires to have a photo of me tattooed onto his right pec, and Banksy doesn't know where his pecs are:

Finally, it appears that Alberto Salazar has been reading my blog (thanks to Springer for this one):  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/10756131/Mo-Farah-to-run-in-slower-group-in-London-Marathon.html

Billy no mates

21km solo around the wharves.  About 1:37 I think, but stopped and had a chat to Charlie and for some water.  That was about it.

OK, a few predictions:

1.  Mo will DNF in London.  His ego will make him run with the pace (Geb) and the real marathon runners, then he'll fall apart at about 29km.

2.  CT to run 1:13:31 in Canberra.

3.  Enda to run 1:15:50 in Canberra.

4.  Andy to run 3:19:00 (50km) in Canberra.

HuRTS 12 x 3mins

First, in the am was a DCRun session.  Pretty hard work this morning with some hills and dumb bell lunges hurting me most.

Then joined the squad with MC, CT, Big Dave Clarke, LF Charlie, Kanser et al all there.  Couldn't push the pace because of the effects of the morning but was working the hills around Mrs Macs Chair pretty well until about rep 10 when it suddenly hit my glutes.  Just logged the last 2 before upping stumps.  Solid day.  About 14km including this morning.

Was chatting to one of the blokes in the squad (Anthony) who's been turning up more regularly recently - running very well just behind CT and Clarkey.  Turns out he lives just around the corner in Fairlight.  Another Fairlight runner to add to the mix!

Melisandre Monday

Ran home.  Legs felt sore.  Involuntarily farted next to a bloke in Neutral Bay.

Sunday all around

Dropped Bec off at soccer and just ran from there.  A bit stop start as I had to pick her up after the game but in total I was running for about 2:10 so I'm guessing about 28km.  Felt great today bouncing along.  Even the achilles was ok.

After a good chat with Matty Palmer yesterday the only person I should bump into today was his younger bro, Jamie Palmer, my AVCAL nemesis.  It was pissing with rain today.  Manly beach has rarely been so quiet.

Striders 10km Lane Cove - 4th in 34:31

Well, after a big Thursday night, a boozy Friday lunch and another couple of beers in the evening, this morning was always going to be tough.  Did a 4km warm up in the dark solo to warm up the achilles then said the usual hellos to Timmy, Paulie B, Neil P, Quentin, Dicky H et al on the start line.  Plan today was to start easy and work my way into it.  Felt good to start.  Dave Criniti had raced off with Neil following him.  Quentin and I were running side by side (again) in 3rd and 4th.  Struggled up Scribbly Gums and was overtaken by another 2 young blokes I didn't recognise.  At the bottom, one pushed on while the other dropped back.  Quentin was forcing the pace a bit so just stuck to him.

Stayed this way until 6km when I felt Quentin wasn't pushing the pace as much.  Started to think, hell, this could be my day, maybe my head to heads are too aspirational after all.  I started working the hills but he'd always reattach himself on the flats.  Really worked the hill with 2km to go but again he reattached.  We were quickening the pace the whole time as the 3rd placed bloke was coming back towards us having been a long way ahead at the 5km turn, and even Neil P was in sight. With 1km to go I really upped the pace but Q was still holding on.  At the turn at the toilets (500m to go) he says something like "that's it, I'm done", I think, you beauty, but then he starts sprinting again the sly old fox.  So what ensued was an unattractive Highnam desperate sprint to the line just holding him off and just missing out on 3rd place in the process.

3km warm down for a good morning's efforts.  I used to run 33:30's on this course regularly.  But then I used to take these races much more seriously.  Feel like I'm in OK shape.  Not many great runs out there.  Uncle Dave ran a stormer in 32:13, Ben S is on the comeback with a 38:30 and Justin seemed happy with his scalps but Dicky G, 'Lil Jimmy M and Timmy all struggled.

And now for something completely different

So with Mikey off injured, I felt I had the discretion to set a different session.  Copied something equivalent to what Sean Williams does - short reps followed by a medium tempo.  So decided on 8 x 400m followed by a 3km tempo.  The idea is the tempo simulates race conditions so you try to hold form over the relatively short distance on tired legs.

It was a beautiful day and Rushcutters was in tip top condition.  What's more the local council had spray painted a start line and 400m line and Timmy had laid out cones for the 1km, 2km and 3km  points of the tempo.  How spoiled were we?!  In short though, I think we were a bit short today due to taking inside lines around the oval.  I'm guessing 2s for the 400s and 25s for the 3km.

Ran with Clarkey for all the 400s.  Darien was looking super smooth about 2s quicker per rep.  Adrian popped in and out.  Clarkey and I did 67s and 68s for all keeping them consistent.

On the 3km Clarkey went off quite quick while I just ran steady 85s per lap (having felt the lactic towards the end of the 400s).  New boy Tom was the only other in our group with Darien pussying out to run in Timmy's group.  Reeled in Clarkey with 2 laps to go to finish in 9:35.

Knackered afterwards but a great session.

Wednesday in the sun

Usual route to Bondi and back catching a few waves in the surf on a cracker of a day.  Only downside was having to endure Timmy's drivel the whole way while the rest of the boys opted for an easy run around the foreshore.  He mentioned Bondi Rescue at the start of the run so I figured it would feature in his blog post for the day.

Lovely easy run which I appreciated as I was farked after yesterday's double efforts.

HuRTS Tempo time

Morning strength session with DCRun which had my legs a wobblin' again.  Then did the tempo at lunch feeling as though it was a struggle the whole way.  Fats and Barts were a bit in front so I was running solo.  Turned just passed the second bridge on Hickson Rd but must have picked up the pace a bit on the return as I was back in 44:39.  Felt better by the end.  Short jog warmdown with Barts and Charlie for 15km for the day.