Sore Sunday

So the 27km plus swim at Queensie and bacon & egg roll to follow is becoming a bit of a ritual.  Just me, Barts, Macca and Justin this morning.  Beaut of a day once the sun came out but the run was a real struggle despite taking yesterday off.  Sore and tired the whole way.  Fortunately everyone felt the same so the pace never dipped below 4:30's.

Friday's Super Series lunch was great but a big day.  Headed to The Bucket List with the beautiful cool people post lunch.  As you can see, we fitted right in.

Cashing in

10km early doors around Manly.  Very easy.  Good to see Jenny Whickham out running again.

Lunch today courtesy of CT and Barts at Sean's Panorama off of my Super Series win.  Oh happy days!  Afternoon off work, recognising that I always struggle to concentrate after lobster and champagne.

Redback HuRTS

Putting the paper bin out this morning and had to move a few large bits of soggy cardboard and, in doing so, I came face to face with the biggest redback I've ever seen.  Seriously, it was the size of a 50 cent piece and was 10 inches from my face.  I bricked myself. 

But on to today's session.  1km reps around Rushcutters in the rain.  Very low turnout with only Q, Barts, Jeet, Big Kev, TKS, JW, Renee and a couple of dudes I didn't know showing up.  6 x 1km off a rolling 5mins.  Q, Barts and I took it in turns to lead out each rep.  They went:

3:04, 3:03, 3:02, 3:01, 3:04, 2:56

Took my shoes off at halfway and felt magic running on the soggy wet grass in the second half.  If I could run barefoot without my achilles blowing up my life would be complete.  Darling Point cool down with Barts, Q and Jeet for 12km all up.

Picture of me and my new chick from one of my many recent boozy dinners:

Run swim Wed

A run out to Redleaf pool the long way with Mikey, JW and A.N. Other, quick swim then a run back to the office.

14.75km at a very easy pace.

HuRTS 2 x 20mins

The mojo has gone.  I've fallen off the wagon.  Was a struggle just to show up today.  But then all the big boys arrived so had to join in.  CT was off like a shot leaving Quentin, Barts, Dick Mullaney and myself chasing.  We were going too quick around Farm Cove so I backed off, thinking Dick was on my tail but it turned out to be Fats.  Reached exactly 6km at 20mins (the big corner on Hickson Rd) about 20s behind Quentin and Barts.  They came to join me for the return.  I did all the work on the way back and pushed ahead up the final hills to get back in 19:49 (9:55 for the final gate to gate).  So in the end a solid session in the heat and humidity.  Body feels it now.

5km warm down for 18km all up.

Now out for another boozy dinner.

Ooh, but check this out.  Enda has designed, commissioned and purchased a T-Shirt to celebrate his sporadically successful season.  Macca is not amused:

"You don't get this in Centennial"

Sunday morning.  That was the phrase Barts must have said two dozen times.  27km up the beaches and back via the lake and Cromer with Barts, Quentin, Macca, Craig, Justin and J-Fen.  Finished with a dip in the ocean and a bacon & egg roll and coffee at Emporio.  Perfect start to the day.  You don't get that at Centennial.

HuRTS Beer Mile

I The The heavens opened.  Lightning struck all around.  But nothing was going to stop the inaugural Beer Mile.  After an eternity in the bottle shop at Potts Point trying to decide on a beer (Budweiser won - correct size and vol and not a beer I would ever want to drink again), we arrived to find a decent crowd.  Jono, Fast Charlie, LF Charlie, Quentin, CT, Macca, Muz, Renaud, Adrian, Alex Abell, Sonya, Zoe Williams, Jackie O and Greg.

I had one aim.  Not to get chicked.  I can't drink quickly for the life of me.  So settled on a tactic of many swills, many burps, then run as hard as I could once the burps were done.  The gun goes, everyone knocks their beers back and it's me, Sonya and Muz still trying to finish ours.  Check out the video.  Last beer took an eternity but in the end I quite enjoyed the whole experience.  Wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, and the delayed impact of the alcohol means you're quite euphoric afterwards.  So we had some more beers at the Cross.

This will become a regular event.  For the record, Jono beat Charlie in a great sprint finish, Jackie O can down her beers better than anyone and I avoided getting chicked.

http://youtu.be/2X3TvKNFVL4

Some photos - the finish:

No one wants to be chicked:

Zatopek B Race - 2nd in 32:28

Flew down to Melbourne at lunchtime and had a few client meetings in the afternoon - wandering around the city concerning myself with how warm it was.  Made my way out to Moonee Ponds at 6pm and caught up with Gill, Sophie and Jack, registered then did a warm up.  It was cooling a bit but I was still sweating on my 2km warm up.  Sun hid behind a cloud just as we lined up to start which was a relief.  Then we were off.

My aim was for 75/76 laps to get to 5000m in 15:45.  Went into the lead at 200m and first lap was 75, then 2:31 at 800m and 3:08 at 1km.  There was a bit of wind down the home straight so the first 200m of each lap was always a bit quicker than the 2nd.  At 1km I started to pull ahead of the field.  2km in 6:21.  3km in 9:32.  Then I started to struggle.  I was dropping to 79s laps and with no-one to run with was just feeling jaded in the conditions with no zip.  Then at 5km I can hear a chap catching me up.  WTF?  Where did he come from?  Sure enough he comes past at 6km, I stick with him for 600m before he sails ahead (he ended up negative splitting - 16:10 then 15:57).  Now, when I was a kid my brothers and I watched my Dad run one of his few track 10kms where he had a large lead for the entire race before he was hunted down and outsprinted in the home straight.  So with Alec, my elder brother, watching on tonight, the only thing I was thinking when this chap came last was thank God it was at 6km and not the final lap.  I would never have lived it down.  "You're just like Dad!" and how he would have laughed.

So then I plodded on, albeit slightly spurred on by having someone to chase.  But 10,000m on the track just grinds on and on - far less comfortable this time around than when racing Barts back in March at Homebush.  How I wished he was here now.  He would have hated these conditions more than me.  At one point I ran past a few girls who were sat lounging around on the high jump mat just inside the track and heard one of them say; "this thing goes on forever!". I almost said out loud; "you're not wrong pet, and you don't have to run it".  But eventually I get to 8km (26:01) - two sub 3's and I could still do this I chuckled to myself.  29:18 at 9km (the announcer had a loudspeaker calling out lap times but given everyone was so strung out it was a constant talking clock) and a token pick up of pace at the end to finish it off.

Massive thanks to my nephew (and Blog writer) Jack for calling all my lap times and general encouragement.  I could hear the disapproval in his voice when a couple of 80's crept in.  

Would I do it all again?  You betcha.

Proud Dad as Billy made School Prefect today:

Easy strides

Joined the HuRTS for their 3min reps session and jogged around at the back for 8 of them with a few strides thrown in.  10km all up.

More 400's

Tiger massage in the am and then down to Rushcutters with Timmy for 400's off a rolling 2 mins on the Oval.  Almost a full loop which the Suunto measured at 440m but I think was probably about 4 seconds over.  Times went:

74.9, 73.4, 74.3, 74.1, 74.1, 74.3, 74.5, 72.9, 73.8, 71.9

Felt OK.  10km all up.

Squeezing in

Just a steady 10km squeezed in between Nippers and Kirst's surprise birthday party.  Felt pretty good and a great day.

Perfect start long run

29km up the beaches and back via e lake with Quentin, Barts, Macca and Erika.  4:30 pace.  Legs still tired towards the end mind.  Plenty of chat to keep us all entertained, with Erika getting very excited about finding a spot of trail around Narrabeen lagoon.  We passed the greasy spoon near Brookie Oval which turned the conversation to bacon & egg rolls.  So after a dip in the ocean at Queenscliff we rounded the tun out with a large coffee and b&e roll at Emporio, bumping into Charlie D too.  Perfect start to the weekend.

Nolans 1km reps

Up at sparrows fart again for 6 x 1km reps off a 2min rest at Nolans.  Planned to meet the boys at 5:45am.  I was 2 mins late and no one was there.  But before I could mentally finish the phrase "you beauty, I'm going back to bed" up pops Dicky, then Quentin and then Macca.  Bit of a warm up then into the session.

The first rep is always a bit of a heart starter at 6am having been awake for half an hour.  Saw the time and thought this is going to be tough.  Then put the same effort into the next rep and it's almost 10s quicker.  Amazing what a bit of blood flow can do.

First 3 reps had a long section into the wind so we reversed direction for the next 3 and the times quickened.  They were (per km):

3:17, 3:08, 3:09, 3:02, 3:01, 3:05

Ran them all with Quentin.  Very tired at end.  Tough on that surface.

6km warmdown with Macca and Q for 13km all up.

Run swim run swim run swim run

Out at 5.30am to meet Macca, Erika, Quentin and Jake Stollery (serious triathlete) for the session mentioned in the header.  Ran to North Curly pool then swam 4 lengths freestyle.  Then Erika got some minor crustacean in her foot and Q and Jake (with the longest fingernails - Macca and I are obviously much more nervous, and less feminine, chaps) tried unsuccessfully to extract it.  So she was to hobble home.

We ran to South Curly pool for another 4 lengths freestyle (at least that's what I did - I think Jake did 8 in the same time).  Then we ran to Freshie and rather than go in the pool we swam out about 75m then did a length of the beach.  Decent swell here so I reverted to breaststroke managing to hold on to Macca's ankles.  Jake at this stage was approaching New Zealand.

Finished off with a run home for 13km all up.  Got home to find Kirst heading out to Splat with the kids for brekkie so joined them to top off a fab morning.

Claudia and Kirst after Claudie's nativity play this morning.

HuRTS 4 x 10mins

Or, actually, Gate to Gates.  Off 2 mins rest.

Fair crowd but good group upfront with Tucks, Jono, Q, Crossy and Barts all in.  Jono took it out aggressively and I imagine Barts and Macca are feeling a little less comfortable about their $1000 bet that Jono won't run sub32 for 10km by July next year after today's session.

I just stuck in the group but was running the hills well and came back in front on reps 2 and 4.  Times were:

9:30, 9:45, 9:30, 9:47

That's quick for a humid and slightly windy day.

I've hit a bit of form at exactly the wrong time of year but discovered the Zatopek 10,000m B race is on next Thursday in Melbourne.  As there are effectively only two 10,000m track races a year in Aus, this is too good an opportunity to turn down and try to run a sub32.  Alec (LTOB) has already volunteered Jack to be my lap counter.  Just got to run it by Kirst...

Long warmdown with MC, Barts, Kanser and recently returned Aussie rep English Andy for 17km all up.

Run bike home

Too busy at work to run at lunch so in the evening while dodging lightning I ran to Manly then biked home.  14km untimed.

You can never predict it

Hugely hot and humid today but felt magic on my 10km run.  Wore the Wave Rider 18's with no heel raises and was bouncing along on my toes.  42:00.

Long run and a Parkrun

Out at 5.45am with Macca and Ben.  It was a steamy night and I'd had a few beers after the ferry with Charlie D and some more at home watching Pride & Prejudice so wasn't feeling the sharpest first thing.  We wandered around and about down to Shelly and up to Curl Curl.  Thought I may be able to cruise around for the win but saw Sam Walker on the start line so knew that wouldn't happen.

Ran first km with Sam but he then started to pull ahead and I wasn't mentally ready for a hard run so ran it as a tempo in 17:07.  Macca, Ben and I had a bit of a chat with the Parkrunners after, trying to extricate ourselves from a bloke running 21mins for 5km telling us we should be running in minimal heel drop On shoes.  Also had a chat to the lovely Carla (Quentin's other half) who expressed surprise that Quentin should be awarded Male Performance of the Year without consulting her.  She has a sense of humour that girl.

Did a few more km afterwards to bring it up to 26km for the morning in 1:56:17 (4:28's).  Ended perfectly by jumping into the ocean at Queenscliff with Macca to ease the legs.

8 x 800m plus HuRT Squad Awards

Well, the first session of the day was in the heat over at Rushcutters at lunchtime.  8 x 800m off a rolling 4mins.  First group was Tucks, Crossy, me, Timmy, Jono O'Loughlin and another chap.  Ran them all pretty consistently feeling OK.  Tucks helped push the pace on the last one which, for someone with OCD like me, spoiled the statistics a bit, as the times were:

2:26, 2:26, 2:26, 2:26, 2:26, 2:26, 2:26, 2:23.

Jog there and back for 11km all up and 93km for the week.

Then it was on to the HuRT Squad Awards.  Great night chatting about running and not much else.  Charlie started the evening with a heartfelt speech.  Elle scared us all by fainting.  Mikey scared us all by buying a drink at the bar.  Timmy scared us all with his shirt.

The winners were:

Male Performance of the Year:  Quentin
Female Performance of the Year:  Erikakaka
Ultra Performance of the Year:  Tucks
Most Improved:  Renee
Spirit:  Timmy
Serg Award:  Mikey
Triathlete:  Pete W

Notice how the top gongs go to the Northern Beaches chapter of the HuRT Squad.  Hardcore.

 

LJ, Wildman, 'Lil Jimmy and Benny Saint 

 

 

Timmy telling LJ off for losing her trophy.  LJ not looking too fussed.

 

 

Sonya, Mikey, Erikakaka and Elle, all laughing at one of my great gags.

 

Adrian, Gretski, LJ (is that the world's longest necklace?), Erika, Birchy and Barts.

 

And later in the evening when we should all be in bed, Kanser, Fats, Timmy and Barts.

Wednesday MLR

Up at dawn for 16.5km around North Head with Macca and Justin.  Beaut of a morning.  77mins (4:40's).