Monday meander

10km very easy catching up with Enda and Hoey.  46mins.

Sunday struggle

Had too much wine while entertaining yesterday so eventually got out in the afternoon when I felt less shabby.  17.5km around North Head including the Fairfax track.  Easy pace just under 4:30's.

Saturday Parkrun - 2nd in 16:12

5km warm up, quick chat to Jamie, Darrell, Jake, Mrs Heyden and Sonia from Liverpool - an old friend of mine from Uni days who is over in Oz for a few weeks.  Jake asked what my plans and we agreed to share the pace.

Went off hard along with Jake.  Watch beeped at 1km and it was 3:09 and my heart sank a bit - it felt closer to 3:00!  So put more effort in as the plan was to get to 2km in 6:20.  Got to 2km in 6:20.  Then a 3:21 across the fiddly grass bit and Jake and I are still together going up the hill on Harbord Rd.  But he starts to pull ahead towards the top and eases ahead from there.  I finished with a 3:13 and a 3:08 (+10s for the extra 60m as the COURSE IS LONG).  Hardly shabby but Jake managed to put 22s into me over the final 1.8km - he must have run sub 3's to finish.

Turned around to see a big smile on Jamie's face as he finally went under 17mins in running 16:52.  Well done mate.  Also had a chat with Andrew McFarlane who I haven't seen in ages.  Then jogged back around the course with Jake to find Sonia (who's local Parkrun is the same as Big Sam's in Bromley) who ran 30mins.

3km warm down for 13km all up.  Good rust buster.  Now need to freshen up for the big dance next Sunday so that the first km doesn't feel so tough.

Thursday

AM:  6km dead easy.

Lunch:  8 x 800m off a rolling 4mins.

2:28, 2:26, 2:25, 2:24, 2:25, 2:23, 2:24, 2:23

Legs felt dead.  Struggled today.  13km all up.

Wednesday MLR

Out for the usual Wednesday route but missed Dicky and the Cap'n due to my

newly discovered slow running pace.  Bumped into the Cap'n near North Head and ran back with him, on the receiving end of one of his legendary sprays.

Saw Lewis along Manly beach as usual and told him to slow down.

15.2km in 1:14 something (just under 5mim kms).

Latest bets for C2S, I must be mad:

1.  Barts $100 head to head.  I've already provisioned for that.  Made a while back when drunk.  What a goose.

2.  $25 with Timmy on LJ to beat him head to head.  She just has to show up uninjured and healthy I reckon.  One of my more sensible bets.

3.  $20 with Timmy with me giving him a 7 minute headstart.  This should be close.  Always a fair spread agreed on for our head to heads.

4.  $10 with Danielle (Kirsten's close friend) with me giving her a 24 minute headstart.

5.  $20 with Enda with me giving him a 2:30 headstart.  I've been rorted here.  But that's almost the definition of any bet with Enda.

Very disappointed in CT refusing to accept a head to head (which he should romp away with given his current training form).

Back into it Tuesday

AM:  8km very easy to Shelley and back.  Bumped into the Cap'n and chatted to him a bit.  Otherwise just a thoroughly enjoyable plod on a cold but beautiful morning.

Lunch:  45mins progressive tempo for the Squad but Tiger changed this for me to 20mins solid, 5 mins easy, 10mins hard, 5 mins easy, 5mins kamikaze.  Went very well, feeling up for each fast section by the end of each easy section.  Felt comfortable on the solid section (averaging 3:30's), pushed the hard session (averaging 3:20's) and then 3:30's on the final 5mins but given it's pretty much all uphill the effort was there.  Turned on 22.5mins at the main entrance to Barangaroo and finished on 44:58 which was good.  Had Tucks to chase on the final section after Barts and CT had gone past previously running very quickly.

12.75km total (3:31 average) followed by 4.5km warmdown with Barts and Jeet.

Easy peasy Monday

Very gentle 14+km run with Mikey, Timmy, Nathan and James at 5min km pace.  We were even joined by Hoey fresh from his 2:33:12 at M7 yesterday which picked him up a tidy $2.5k.  Although did he offer to buy us one of his fancy brunches?  Did he hell.

Right hip flexor a bit sore.

Sunday long

First long run in 5 weeks (ignoring the marathon). Caught up with Jamie, Erika and Ben for the usual route.  Tired after yesterday's session and just pulled myself through.  Poor young Erika was struggling with recent volume too but will go well if she avoids injury.  Spent the whole run bitching about our coach.

30km in 2:20 (4:40's).

Saturday speedwork

Session was 3 x (1km hard, 1 min rest, 500m hard) with 5 mins jog between each set.  Marked out the 500m and 1km on the path through Nolans so flat and straight.  And I could pretend I was babysitting too.  Times went:

2:59.7
1:29.6
2:59.7
1:29.1
2:58.8
1:29.1

How about that for consistency!  Felt great today - bouncy and full of running.  First time since GCM.

Long warm up and down for 14km all up.

Friday

Very easy 10km with Kanser - back finally from the emerald isle.

HuRTs Hills

Out with the HuRTS Squad at lunch for Argyle Hill reps running solidly back down so no real rest.  More like a hilly tempo. 

Good turnout with Tucks, Tongey, CT, Barts, Crossy, JFen, Andy, Timmy, Boydy, Jeet, Erika, Rich M, TKS and even Wildman putting in an appearance.  AND JAMIE WAS THERE.  Didn't know what to expect for my first Tuesday HuRTS appearance in a long time.  What I was dished out with was a taste of reality.

CT and Barts quickly imposed themselves on the session with me a distant 3rd.  Was aware of someone behind me and thought it was Tucks but found Tongey coming past me on the 4th rep.  You can see from the times below I slowed on the 3rd, made an attempt to stick to Tongey on the 4th then gave up on the 5th and 6th.  To be honest, I was a bit of a soft cock on those reps.  However, I saw Tongey was not gapping me further so made an attempt to catch him on the final 2 reps.  Came past him on the final downhill.

Barts was a good 50s ahead at the end and is in fine form.  Here's his C2S cash.

I ended up with 35:24 for 9.86km (3:35's) but there's a lot of switchbacks so it will measure long.  One positive was finishing  relatively strongly.

Uphills: 2:15, 2:13, 2:18, 2:15, 2:19, 2:18, 2:15, 2:15

Downhills:  2:03 (shorter route), 2:09, 2:11, 2:12, 2:12, 2:11, 2:08, 2:01

5km warm down with a gradually thinning crowd for 16km all up.

MLR Wed

Very easy 17km this morning back up around North Head with Justin and Erika.  Plenty of chat with the conversation including everything from vomiting to testicles to how hot Sara Hall is.  I think sometimes I forget Erika is a lady.

4:41's.  Luminous orange snot diminishing.

Easy morning

12km along the beach.  Easy pace with the sinusitis still hanging around.  Bumped into Justin and ran with him for a bit - interestingly he's had exactly the same symptoms as me.

6C this morning but at least the sun was shining.  I'm sick of winter.  I didn't travel half way across the world for this.

In other news, I watched the final of House Rules last night to discover Steve and Tiana won and had their mortgage paid off.  This made me feel a little jealous.  That result needs some serious auditing.  First, the judges (whose scores amount to 50% of the result) award them 19 points versus Ben and Danielle's 17 points.  The remaining 50% of the result is made up by the audience voting either "NSW" or "QLD" via text.  So how do they calibrate that over 17 and 19 points?  We are not told.  We just have Johanna Griggs (whose chest seems to grow by the week) read out the winners.  Secondly, my guess is that Steve in his 50's has a considerably smaller mortgage than first house buyers Ben & Danielle.  My guess is that the opacity in the voting allowed Channel 7 to save themselves a couple of hundred $.  This upset me with my strong lawyerly sense of fairness.

Back to basics

Sunday felt crook again so no running.

Read an article recently that Benny St did for a magazine where he said that when he doesn't feel great, he applies a 10min rule.  Which means he gets out to run for 10mins then reassesses whether to carry on or give up.  I did that today.  Got to 10mins, felt pretty good so carried on.  Did 22km in the end around the wharves. 

Going to stop chasing the fitness, get myself 100% healthwise and just enjoy running in the meantime.  I'll hand Barts his $100 for C2S at some stage this week.  At least I'll get 25% of it back from Timmy.  Caught up with the squad for a few km on my run and was chatting to LJ who ran high 38 at the Sutho to Surf yesterday.  She tells me Timmy is trying to back out of the bet.  Which means he's mentally shot.  Which means we're 80% there...

Saturday

Friday was a rest that I needed.  Saturday still felt under the weather but got out in the later arvo for 10km.  Felt surprisingly good when I was actually running so did some fast patches - 2 to 3km (3:20 into the wind down Manly beach), 5 to 6km (3:14 in opposite direction) and 3:15 for final km along Pittwater Rd.  Ended up with 40:40 for the 10km which is quick for me.

Farked

AM:  8km (Shelley) very easy bumping into form man Lewis half way around and finishing with him.  38:16.

PM:  HuRTs 4 x 2km.  I think we turned early in the first rep so more consistent than it looks.  Barts was flying upfront running his final rep in 6:03.  I've got a lot of work to do until I smash him at C2S. I ran with (variously) J-Fen (in good form off this showing), Andy, Colin and Tongey.  Times were:

6:20

6:25

6:23

6:22

4.25km warm down with Barts and Timmy for 13.5km all up.

Got back to the office shaking due to low blood sugar, ate some lunch then promptly fell asleep at my desk.

Wednesday MLR

Out with Timmy, Crossy, Jerome, Worswick, Hoey and Gleeso for 8.5km up the C2S course then a return.  Very easy pace which was tickety boo.

Brass monkeys.  

Got a bet out of Timmy for $25 him head to head with LJ at C2S.  Go you good girl.

First tester

AM: Very easy 8km to Shelley Beach and back in 38:15.

PM:  Jogged to ES Marks (6km).  Then 3 x 1200m off a rolling 6:30 followed by 6 x 400m off a rolling 2:30.  Wasn't expecting much post marathon but held on better than I thought.

1200's went 3:40, 3:38 and 3:38 (71, 75 then 74/72 for each).

400's went 71, 69, 70, 68, 68, 68.

Chasing Alex on all reps with Benny St shouting the lap times.  Alex running freakishly well - 4s ahead on some of the 400m reps running in lane 4 on the last.  Davina would keep me company for the first lap of the 1200's and the first half of the 400's, which was pleasant.  Good to see Anna back out running well.

2km warmdown.

New blog linked with Big Sam posting thoughts from London.  Worth a read if only for the anti-Stoke humour!

Back home

Easy 11.2km around Manly feeling almost back to normal.  Still a bit of a shuffle but a faster shuffle now.  Averaged 4:16's this morning (47:59).  Still glad I wasn't racing this morning and bet Barts was too, suffering after last week's Half.  Lewis fared a bit better but neither can expect to back up after big Half PB's on an unrelenting course the week before.

Scott's Head

30mins very easy in the morning from the AirBnB place we stayed in at Scott's Head.  Great spot - log house built by the owner and fully sustainable with views of the ocean.  Felt better than yesterday and a few hills thrown in today.