Monday recovery

Achilles very sore after the SMH Half in flats.  Calves are like rocks.  Took Voltaren Sunday night and Monday morning and felt better after getting out for a trot (11km) with the crew on Monday.  Obviously all the talk was about the race.  Lot of chat on how to run it, a 60-90s fade or even splits. 

 

LJ didn't do too badly on her predicted times - results in brackets

 

Tom:  72:11  (72:21) - 10s.

CT:  72:37  (73:14) - 37s

Fats:  74:44  (74:22) - 22s

Enda:  75:14  (75:36) - 24s

Dicky P:  76:10  (78:37) - 147s

Phil Dove:  77:20  (79:01) - 101s

Macca:  78:22  (76:53) - 89s

Big Kev:  79:59  (80:19) - 20s

LJ herself:  cagey, but I reckon she's thinking 80:00  (82:29) - 149s

Timmy:  81:52  (82:58) - 66s

Jeet:  82:15  (83:16) - 61s

Erika:  83:55  (84:04) - 9s

Kilted one:  84:25  (86:00) - 95s

MC:  84:44  (84:04) - 40s

Anton:  85:00  (84:56) - 4s

Elle:  86:37  (89:22) - 105s

Renee:  87:44  (89:40) - 116s

Jacqui:  89:17  (Can't find)

 

So she got 6 within 25s and was furthest out with her own time!

SMH Half - 12th in 72:21

Was pretty psyched for this one.  Prepared very well and no excuses this time around.  Up at 5am and into the City to meet the squad for a warm up at 6.25am.  Loads of the squad there.  I love this race.  We always get a big turnout, it's a true runners race (and always has been), minimal fuss and excellent organisation.  Did a few run throughs and lined up next to Chadi and behind a stellar field at the pointy end - Marty Dent, Ben Moreau, Michael Shelley, Liam Adams, Jeff Hunt, Tom do Canto among others.  

Off we went and for the first km I felt fantastic.  Coming down Macquarie St I was running with Dave Criniti and Sean Bowes just behind the leaders but barely breathing.  Told myself to ease off as I would undoubtedly pay for this and then settled into a nice group with CT and a few others - but couldn't make out who they were as CT and I were sharing all the pacing duties at the front.  Here we are under the Harbour Bridge and then this was the group at the end of Hickson Rd about to turn on to the Darling Harbout flyover:

 

Notice in the 2nd photo how Nikki Chapple hasn't joined our group yet?  When we hit Pyrmont CT put in a burst and gapped us a bit.  I figured though that, as none of the rest of the group had gone with him, it was him speeding up as opposed to me slowing down so didn't get too concerned about the form.  However, I was a bit worried that he'd be able to latch on to Sean Bowes and the chap he was running with in front, so on the new loop around Fairfax wharf I put in an effort to catch him.  Noticed Enda and Fats going in as we came out.  Suddenly, we were right on Sean Bowes and went straight past him on the little hills around Pyrmont - with his running partner (a bloke called Klarie McIntyre) latching on to us.  This is one of the best bits of the course.  You suddenly come back against the tide of runners going in the opposite direction and get huge numbers of shouts and encouragement from your fellow runners.  Mikey had a huge group around him and gave a big cheer, but Timmy, Muz and Dicky were also very vocal.  Coming back past Star City I start to hear a motorbike behind us and realise Nikki Chapple has caught us.  And then gone straight past us.  Klarie latches on to her, as do I and Matthew Fenech.  I ask the latter our split at 10km and he says 33:30.  We then go through the half way point in 35:28 and technically we're on for a 70:xx, but I knew there's a minute drift there at least so a sub72 is the aim, as it was from the beginning.

After the half way mark there's a sharp little hill and this is where Nikkie and Klarie gap me and Matthew.  However, we get back on the flyover and Matthew bridges the gap.  I try to but give up.  This was the big mistake I made in the race.  If I'd planned to be aggressive, this was the chance to be so.  I'd end up beating Klarie and Matthew, but by running conservatively and not aggressively.

We get back to the Slip Inn and I'm starting to struggle but if there's anything to jolt you back into action it's Barts and Sammy on the sidelines screaming at me.  "GET ON THE BACK OF THAT GROUP TOMMMMMYYYYY!!!".  Get back into a good rhythm along Hickson Road (which we know so well) and start to think about attacking the hills.  Turn at the squashed car, have a quick look around to see if I can see CT (thank God no) and immediately start to gain on Matthew Fenech.  Pick him up on the hill to the corkscrew and again gauge the distance to CT on the hairpin at the top.  It's about the same as the gap to me and Nikki - he hasn't fallen off by much, he never does.  Cahill Expressway is fine but I hit the bottom of Macquarie St and feel as though I'm jogging.  Klarie is about 50m in front but I'm not gaining much.  Then again at the top the booming voices of Barts and Sam come out and spirits lift again.  Back on home territory now.  And here's J-Fen with more encouragement in the park.  We do reps of MMC all the time so know the road like the back of my hand.  I start to catch him coming back past the ABC Pool, but hell, these final hills are starting to hurt now.  This is what it looks like:

But then we're back to St Mary's and Barts again screams "GET HIM TOMMMMYYYY!!!".  So I do what I'm told and put some real effort in going down the outside of the road so that he doesn't latch on.  Fortunately, he's more buggered than me and I can enjoy the run into the line:

And then to watch the others arrive to see how the English have done.  Fats runs a stormer and raises his game significantly from the past couple of races to run a low 74 - you can always count on him when it matters.  Enda is next with a mid 75 PB.  And he's farked.  Check out Fats and I peeling him off the pathway:

For how well Fats runs for the English, Macca matches for the Irish.  This guy struggles to an 18:00 for Parkrun last week, but pulls a 76 out of the bag, doing it tough the whole way.  I don't think anything can sum it up better than this photo:

Other great performances followed, Timmy on the comeback (and cleaning up bets) with an 82:xx, but none more so than Erikakakaka's 8min PB running 84:04 (ably paced by HuRTS CEO Mikey "Hold the line" Conway).

The Churchill/Sands Cup was officially won by England in a very close contest (36s in it).  But Timmy and I had had enough of Enda's whining so gave it to the Irish by way of a 2 minute start.  But at the end of the day, healthy competition was the winner:

HuRTS 3 x 2km

Smallest crowd in memory today with everyone resting for Sunday.  Just me, MC, LJ, Crossy, Kaley, Gus Mac, Adam, Craig P, Ray, Adam and the 2 Gregs.

I ran with MC and LJ at 3:50 pace with a few sprints thrown in.  LJ was providing sparkling conversation and entertained us throughout.  She then gave her list of predicted times for Sunday which surprised me, but this is what I can remember:

Tom:  72:11

CT:  72:37

Fats:  74:44

Enda:  75:14

Dicky P:  76:10

Phil Dove:  77:20

Macca:  78:22

Big Kev:  79:59

LJ herself:  cagey, but I reckon she's thinking 80:00

Timmy:  81:52

Jeet:  82:15

Erika:  83:55

Kilted one:  84:25

MC:  84:44

Anton:  85:00

Elle:  86:37

Renee:  87:44

Jacqui:  89:17

So she fancies the Irishmen but we shall see.  I think she was just being diplomatic  giving me the nod over CT.

C'mon England!!!

Lucky 13

Very easy 13km Centennial route with LJ, Big Kev and Greg.  Tired after yesterday.

HuRTS 2 x 20mins

Low turn out today, not sure why.  We normally get a pretty good showing the week before a big race.  Muz, Fats and Gus Mac were upfront with me and CT.  CT said something about only doing 5 mins of the second rep and promptly put his foot on the gas going around Farm Cove leaving me running solo.  Managed to get to the corner of Hickson Rd with CT about 50m in front.  He said he averaged 3:19's so I must have done about 3:21's.  Ran together until CQ on the way back when he pulled aside and bid me on my way so I had to work hard solo to catch anyone.  Finally did so going by the ABC Pool to finish in 20:10 (3:23's).  

Pretty rooted after that.  Going well though.

Nice warm down around MMC with MC and TB (can I include any more acronyms?) for 16km all up.  TB has given out some free samples of his Race Names (c) for the SMH Half on Sunday. They look good.

I liked this:  http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisstokelwalker/the-north-east-responded-in-the-best-way-possible-88k0

Particularly no.40.  I've been calling Kirst "pet" since I met her and wondered why she was so confused.

Moody Monday

Knackered after yesterday.  Was in a massively grumpy mood this morning and felt so lethargic walking to the ferry wharf.  I put it down to a tougher run than expected yesterday and, more importantly, not getting any nutrition in me until 2 hours after I'd finished.

Very tired running today.  Cut short at 11km.  Need to freshen up for Sunday.  Big crowds as we get into the heart of the Winter racing season - MC, TKS, Charlie, Enda, Crossy, LJ, Renee, Jacki O, Erikakaka and Elle.  New Churchill/Sands recruit Phil was looking super smooth running the opposite direction.  Irish vice-captain Kanser less so.

Mothers Day

Gave Kirst the honours this morning so headed out from The Spit after dropping Billy off at MHYC for sailing.  I had 2 hours and 15 mins so basically ran a slightly shortened version of the Middle Harbour Picnic (missing some of those nasty bits in Balmoral).  Came back on 2 hours 18 mins.  Forgot how hilly the bloody route is.  Felt pretty good though.

Curl Curl Parkrun - 1st in 16:44

Jogged over with Macca.  Plenty of hellos then into it.  Went off fairly quickly but just can't push myself when I'm going solo.  Slowed quite a bit in 3rd km.  Beautiful morning with mist rising from the fields as we arrived.  Jogged back with Macca and Jamie for 15km all up.

Where was Renaud?

Friday frolics

11km very easy with Enda, Ray, Birchy, Damon and Paul H. 

111km for a good, solid week.

Enda has agreed to a 2:34 headstart for SMH Half - $20. 

HuRTS Pyramid

Had a few jars last night at trivia night at The Australian in The Rocks.  Sample questions:

1.  Name 3 countries which start with a letter of the alphabet that no other country starts with that same letter.

2.  Which 5 vegetables make up a chiko roll?

3.  Who was the oldest Formula 1 World Champ?

Ended up feeling a bit dusty this morning, so treated myself to a bacon and egg roll at 11am.  That was a mistake.  But other than feeling as though I wanted to barf, today was one of those sessions where you feel full of running and everything is easy.  Had my Tudor on so no accurate times but I think one of the 3 lappers was 4:04 and the 4 lapper was 5:28.  Darien was gliding around like a superstar when he felt like putting some effort in.  CT was struggling with his legs today.  Tucks is coming back into form but training performances of the day went to Young Timmy who stuck with Group 1 with some good consistent times and Young Erikakaka who was smashing it out at the front of Group 2 on the final couple of reps with MC and LJ.  In fact, with the more attractive Truscott putting in an appearance today we had a phalanx of Sydney female running talent at the head of Group 2 in LJ, Gretstar and Erika with Elle, Renee and Jacki close behind.  The girls are showing us how it's done.

Wednesday and pumped

Finally feeling a bit better!

Nice 13km loop around Centennial with Enda, Crossy, TKS, Liam and Elan.  Then did an extra 3km MMC loop with Crossy. All very easy pace.

I received an email from media for SMH Half for the elite entrants asking to fill in a biography.  I think they may be confusing Seeded entrants with Elites, but I asked my secretary to have a go at filling it out in any case.  This was her attempt:

HuRTS 4 x 10mins

A few of the big boys missing today but HuRTS #1 Tucks and HuRTS wannabe #3 CT more than made up in quality what we lacked in quantity.  MC had his usual posse, Dad to be Phil Dove was looking like Adonis and Charlie had shed his traffic lights so all was well with the world.

I planned to cruise the reps and push the hills trying to engage the glutes.  Fine on first rep (2.8km - about 3.30s).  Much quicker on rep 2 with CT taking off (about 3:22's).  I pushed rep 3 feeling great in about 3:20's then decided to ease off on rep 4 as I knew I was tiring from the weekends efforts - about 3:38s.

Good banter, nice session.  3km warm down for 15km all up.

Moon Boy Monday

Just the usual 15km today with a cast of thousands but spent most time chatting to MC, Tucks and Crossy.  Took Voltaren last night (first in 3 weeks) and as a result felt magic.  

The cold still lingers, but none of you miserable buggers give a rats arse about that.

Centennial Sunday

Over to Centennial this morning for 28km around and about the park.  Big crowd including Barts, Timmy, Kanser, Enda, CT, LJ, Renee, Birchy, TB, Jeet, Renaud, Big Kev and Elle.

Plenty of banter with Renaud taking a bit of stick for his pyrrhic Curl Curl Parkrun win and no-one having a bar of my manflu excuses. They'll see, just you wait.

Achilles was very sore the whole way.  Took some Voltaren after a heart-stopper of a greasy spoon breakfast and will hammer the eccentric loading over the next few days.

Sydney10 - 30th in 32:37

Showed up not feeling confident at all and still feeling the effects of the cold.  But decided just to give it a go and hang on as far as I could.  Did a warm up with CT and then the usual hellos to all the HuRTS lads and lasses and we were on the line.  I was a few rows back as they were introducing all the elite (men and women).  The gun went and I found myself trying to pick my way through scores of people.  But soon enough I could see Barts and CT in front so the plan came into action.  By 2km CT and I had latched on to a group of Barts, Geoff Arnold and Robin W.  No idea as to times but I knew it was quick as Peter Costello, Dave Criniti and Vlad only appeared to be a short way up the road in front of us.  

Sure enough I was through 5km in 15:53 but CT and I had become slightly detached from the group.  I was feeling OK, certainly less desperate than I normally feel when running that quickly but was worried about how the cold was going to effect me later on.  Decided just to plough on as long as I could.  CT and I swapped positions until 8km (without him I'd have run 20s slower) when we turned for the long drag up past the ANZ Stadium.  At that point, Nick Bellemore comes past and we both trying to jump on to him, but I'm starting to give up.  They gap me a bit, then some chick (Gwen Jorgensen - 6th in the London Olympics triathlon) comes flying by me at 9km but I'm coasting.  Finally start to make an effort when I enter the stadium - ridiculously only to stay within 25s of Barts and win a beer from him as I could see him crossing the line when I enter the home straight.

Very happy with the time - if you'd offered me 32:37 on the start line I'd have grabbed it.  Disappointed I mentally gave up at the end blaming the effects of the cold when in truth I reckon it had no physical impact whatsoever.

Great run by Enda to smash his PB in 33:46.  Other massive PBs by Birchy, Renee and Erikakaka.  Timmy is finally getting back some form with a 37:02.  Tussle of the day was between Muz, Dicky H and Richie P all finishing consecutively within 3 seconds (Enda having overtaken them at half way).  Quentin will be disappointed with his 33:16 and Fats his 34:25 but both we're suffering colds and obviously worse than mine.

Quote of the day from Dave Criniti.  Was having a chat about marathons and he said he was planning on doing Gold Coast.  I said I was planning on a couple of Halfs and then the "full at Melbourne".  "There's a full at Melbourne?" he responds.

Around about 4.5km...

Results:

Told you it was hotly contested!

Friday

So, the sore throat niggle turned into a full on cold.  Wednesday working at home and Thursday feeling sorry for myself.  Finally managed a jog on Friday for 10km with a few strides to see how I felt.  Ok when running but got the chills afterwards.

HuRTS 45min Fartlek

Showed up today feeling pretty good and intending to give it a bit of a go.  Partly to sense again how it's going to feel on Saturday morning (haven't done a quick session in a while) and partly to see where I'm at.  Well, with Barts, CT, Quentin, Enda, Tucks, Fats and Muz all turning up the big boys were in force.  

Went quite hard from the beginning but there was a big crowd just behind me and everyone was chatting away so just kept on pushing on.  Just about got enough rest on each float to push the minute fast sections each time.  I think Enda must have dropped off around Circular Quay and when we hit Hickson Rd with another fast section still remaining I knew we'd gone hard and would turn further than ever before.  It was just shy of the final traffic calming device before the road where we stop the old Hickson Rd reps.

On the way back I was having to work pretty hard but sensed everyone was too.  CT said something about getting to 10km and that was my excuse to up stumps too, which we did just entering Farm Cove.  It would have been a struggle to carry on and I would have slowed so it wasn't worth it with the race on Saturday.

Pretty rooted after the jog back home for 16km all up.  Quentin sent through some Garmin stats which are hard to follow but it looks like the fast sections averaged 3:12's with the floats averaging high 3:40's.

So another good session but I'm getting a sore throat.  Echinacea and gallons of water for me.  Been peeing all evening.

Makeshift Monday

Sunday - rest.  I contemplated a run and then quickly dismissed such foolery.

Monday - 7km solo but bumped into LJ and ran with her whilst we bemoaned our respective achilles' then 15+km with the squad (Tucks, Charlie, TKS, Renee, Erika, BW, JW, James L, Adam and even Crossy for a bit) then 4+km solo for about 27km all up.  Felt dead easy and averaged about 4:25's but achilles sore running in the Wave Riders.

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.