Striders - North Head - 37:59

Fronted up late and just in time to get a spare bin before burying myself in the pack with the intent of jogging around.  Only really showed up to go out for brekkie with Big Sam and the boys at Sydney's top breakfast establishment - Bench.  Rated 10/10 by Tommy and all non-hipsters who are bemused by brioche.

Anyway, I digress.  Saw the Tiger who told me not to do anything more than a jog.  Set off and ran with Hamish who was on 40min pacing duties but it felt like a jog so decided to catch up to Sammy for a chat.  Hovered behind Tiger for a while not wanting to get told off, then saw Erika up ahead looking strong so decided to run with her knowing she was on for a PB.  Gave her a bit of encouragement for the rest of the way but she is in great form and needed nothing from me to get her first sub38 and PB by definition. 

Hammy was pretty tight on the warm down.  Resolved to see Lewis over brekkie to get to the heart of the problem.

Saw him on Sunday (with large hangover having been on a curry and beers night with Big Sam and the crew) and he reckons it's an excessively tight piriformis which he worked on with me in tears.

Had a great Fathers Day with more soccer in the field in the arvo with all the local Dads and their kids.  I struck a beaut of a volley which had the local Mums aghast in admiration.

Thursday

Jogged down to HuRTS at Rushcutters and did a few 400m jogs and a 1km slightly faster jog before jogging back to the office.

Getting bored of this jogging malarkey.

Wednesday

Up early and ran 8km to Shelley and back, initially with Erika but she pulled out  after 2km with a sore ankle.  Hope she's OK.

Hammy got progressively tighter at the top and bottom.  Had a massage at lunch and the Tiger worked on it solidly saying 'twas feeling much better than last week.

Tuesday

Rode into, and home from, work.  Love my bike.  My problem with riding is that I treat it like a tempo run the whole way and can't let myself just spin.  Too many bloody competitive commuter cyclists.

Monday

Very easy 7km with the HuRT Squad.  Hammy a bit tight at top near flute insertion.

Sunday continuers

8km this time getting to Shelley and back.  Been hammering the rolling out and have loosened up a lot.   I can now put my pants on without having to sit down.  High fived Paul and Chris at the lagoon.  Hammy better today with most of the pain in the tendon behind the knee.  34 mins odd.

Will be out early tomorrow training Bec and Kirst.  Bizarrely Bec wants me to train her again - 3 years after swearing she never wanted to run ever again in her life.  Has the aim of running under 25mins for Parkrun.  Which is about my standard atm.

Saturday starter

Tried 6km down the beach.  Conscious of the hammy for most of the way but determined now to hammer the rehab - particular getting the cricket ball on to my ass.

Spent the evening with the Manly runners curry club - Macca, Craig, Charlie, Quentin, Banksy, Skins, Jamie, Paul S, Benny and the Taffy lad.  The Steyne followed by Ashiana's followed by the Steyne watching the Toon go to the cauldron of Old Trafford and hold on for a creditable draw.  Who said our defence was shite?

City to Surf

Washout.

Did 6km on Saturday with a few strides.  Could feel my hammy a bit but took more Voltaren and thought it might survive.

Sunday - travelled across with the Manly crew.  Great start as ever chatting to the masses but they get stricter every year on the start procedure.  Survived running with Barts, Neil and CT until KX tunnel then on the downhill afterwards my hammy grabbed and I was hobbling.  Jogged to Rose Bay then took the shortcut to Bondi where I could scream at the squad over the final km.  Standout performances from Barts, CT, Big Kev, Angus, Timmy and Erika.  Shouted myself hoarse then drank for England in the Allens tent with the crowd.  Magic day despite my disappointment.

2 weeks off now to regroup and rebuild.

Have to live vicariously through my kids.  This is Claudia today at her Sports Day:

Ice Ice Baby

Went down to ES Marks in the evening for the RunCrew session.  No Alex this week but Sam Strutt and Tiger's ever increasing crew of attractive female runners was there to chase.  Session was 2 x 6 x 400m.  400's were rolling off 2:10's and we had a 5min rest between sets.

First set of 6 were a bit laborious trying to settle in.  Reps went 70, 69, 68, 68, 69, 68.  Was about 2 or 3 seconds behind Sam on each.  Then the second set started and suddenly I feel great.  68, 67, 67, 67 then, fucky wank shite, my hamstring tightens up down the back straight while overtaking Sam so I pull up at 200m.  Try and stretch, try and do a jog but it's pretty tender and tight.  Get home and stick it on ice.  I blame the lack of beers in my diet over the past few days.  Plainly not getting enough salt.  Should never rattle the cage and do things different.

Now to rest and hope it comes good by Sunday.  If it does, it could be just the enforced rest I need.

(Haha, just checked the blog for C2S last year as I seemed to remember I strained my hammy in the week before then too.  And it looks like I had an identical blog post heading on this day last year.  Maybe Timmy is on to something!)

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.