Hills and decreasing hard tempos

Just Emma C and me for the session this morning.  First up 6 x 30s hills beside Mackellar Girls, then 10, 5, 3, 2, 1 mins off a 2min jog.

Felt strong today and able to hold form.  10, 5 and 3 were all at 3:18-3:20 pace then 3:09 and 3:00 pace for the 2 and 1. Although feeling good while running I started to feel really tired on the long warmdown and the glutes in particular were aching.  Only issue was hammy was a bit sore at the end.  Tough session to test it out though.  Was pretty blustery out there so at times had to work very hard to maintain pace.

Emma got stronger on each hill but was complaining of lack of speed on the reps. Great to hear she's entered for JPMorgan though - another girl to add to the mix.

15.5km all up.

Monday morning

Out early for a very easy 4km with Bec (couple of faster loops of Passmore for her) then carried on for another 11km for me.  Ran past Lewis and his unmistakeable bouncing stride along Manly Beach.  Pretty tired towards the end.  These early mornings kill me.  Another tomorrow.  But also affected by an hour of yoga last night.  Yes, you read that correctly.

15km averaging 4:49's.

Sunday shock!

Poor Ben was beside himself.  It had taken him 48hours to adjust to the idea that we wouldn't be running Narrabeen Lake back via Cromer, only for Macca to head up Pittwater Rd on the usual route. Dicky was quietly seething that his planned route to Tania Park had been usurped.  The rest of us (Quentin, Rich Mullaney, Erika and myself) were just enduring the pain of low 4min kms while Macca and Dicky fought for who would be leading and therefore determining which way to go.  The problem, you see, is that Macca can't face hills, at least for the first 15km of a run.  On the other hand, Dicky doesn't like the flat.  It's all too stressful.  We'll be reverting to the usual route next week.

Another cracker of a morning.  I was a bit stiff after too many red wines last night meant I neglected the stretching.  With the hilly route on top of that I was feeling the hammy a bit towards the end.  All up 28.5km averaging 4:36's.

Cop a load of that Hoey.  Emporio's Big Breakfast.  Macca and I are in food heaven.  10/10.

Saturday fitting it in

All day outside first at cricket then at the Manly West Carnival bumping into half of the HuRT Squad including Jimmy, Darren, Erikakaka, Dicky et al.  Managed to offload Claudia onto Bec for an hour to sneak home and fit in the scheduled 40min run.  Felt good today so just got quicker throughout - as the splits show.

10km.

Friday rest day

So I did 8km very easy to Shelley and back instead.  Bit of a hangover after a full house at the Bull & Bear and an ISDA members dinner.  37:36 (4:34's).  

106km for the week.

HuRTS 8 x 800m

Small but loyal crowd.  Each one will PB at JPMorgan. The rest of youse are gooone. 

Ran with Tongey on the first then alone but with JFen dipping in and out and Timmy doing 400's so helping me on the first lap of each alternate rep.

2:30 to start with and 2:20 to end off the rolling 4 mins.  Average was 2:26.50.  2-3s per rep slower than earlier this season but very happy with that as a first speed session in 3 months.  Took the shoes off after 5 reps and made a big difference.  Take away is to buy lighter racing flats for the race.

Told JFen (who was flying on the few 800's he did after his solo 10x400m set) that my sole aim was to beat him at JPMorgan so the cat is out of the bag.

14km all up.

Wednesday MLR

Caught up with Iain early doors for the North Head loop.  Bumped into Quentin on the way to Shelley who then joined in. Beautiful morning for it.  Can't beat Manly.  Legs fairly cactus again but slow sign of improvement towards the end when I picked up the pace a bit.

16.5km in 74:36 (4:30's).  

I'm hoping at some stage things are going to click.  But it ain't happening yet.

HuRTS - Progressive Hurt

Got a chance to pop out at lunchtime for the progressive 45min tempo in the heat.  Wasn't what was scheduled but given the chance to run hard with a crowd I took that over running by myself.

Set off with World Silver Medallist Crossy, Hamish and Clydesdale Jono.  CT and Barts went off ahead.  That said, when we picked up the pace every 10 mins we started to catch them as they dawdled around, such that on the turn at 23:15 at the entrance to Barangaroo we were right behind them.

Crossy pulled out at CQ and the others had dropped off by then.  CT and Barts had gone past me even before the Harbour Bridge so it was a lonely struggle back home.  But managed it with 2 seconds spare in 44:58.  LJ should take some pacing lessons from me.

Thighs were wrecked the whole way around and my legs just felt lethargic and tired throughout.  Some nasty virus toxins still in there I reckon.  But the breathing was fine and I haven't passed out at my desk this arvo which is a plus.

4km warmdown with Charlie and Barts for 16km all up.

Run home

Ran home.  Felt shocking.  Still feel as though I've got the virus in my legs.  The Ebola virus.  Maybe due to the Tiger massage this am stirring things up.

68:49 via Burnt Bridge Creek.

Solid run by the Cap'n in Amsterdam running 2:46.  Sensational run by Milly Clark in 2:29.  She could be on the way to Rio with that.  The Cap'n went through the Half in 1:19:06 feeling great, so what is it about our marathon prep?  Too few kms?

Sunday with the boys

27km with Macca, Ben, Craig and Rich Mullaney.  We extended the latter an invite to the exclusive Northern Beaches long run/breakfast club on the basis he's English, lives NOTB and has some talent. Few have the trifecta. 

Slow (4:38's) but I was still struggling my way through it still suffering a bit from last week.

Forgot to mention that we saw the who's who of the Northern Beaches on this morning's run.  First up was Elle enjoying breakie in the cafe at North Narrabeen.  Then another talented female athlete in Melinda Gainsford-Taylor jogging around Narrabeen Lake.  All the stars are NOTB. 

Also didn't mention that Charlie's cricket team smashed Peninsula yesterday (4-117 versus 20-74) with Peninsula managed by none other than Michael Slater.  Here he is imparting advice to his outgoing batsman.  Made Charlie even happier with his 2 wickets off his final 2 balls:

Great runs by Barts, Q and JFen at Curl Curl yesterday.  Mixed performances at Melbourne.  Jess Trengove stunned with her 2:27 but Erika will be a little disappointed with her 2:57 after struggling from not taking enough water on.  A PB is a PB and it shows her strength of character to fight through but there's definitely a low 2:50 in her.

Saturday return

Avid readers of my blog will have noticed an absence of a few days.  They will both be wondering what had happened to the 16 day consecutive run.  Well, on Monday night I can down with gastro (which probably explains why I felt so average running on Sunday and Monday).  Tuesday I was bed-ridden - couldn't even crawl to the sofa to watch TV.  Back at work on Thursday but couldn't really stomach anything until Friday night.  Only plus is that I lost 2kg which I'll try to keep off until JPMorgan.

Did 10km on Saturday evening.  First 2km were a shocker (so lethargic probably from lack of food) but felt better as I got into it.

Monday moanings

Jeez I'm tired.  Like, marathon training tired.

Fronted up today with a big crowd in attendance including Enda, Kanser, Hoey, Worswick, BW, Renee, Jerome, Happy Hammer, TKS et al.  Plodded around feeling uncomfortable.  Felt a bit better after Enda and I stopped for water around Barangaroo and started running 4:00min kms to catch everyone.

Plenty of chat between Kanser and Enda.  I understood about 20% of it.  Enda pretty psyched up about beating JFen at JPMorgan.  It'll be pretty close between these two but I'll plump for Enda in that he always seems to perform well at this event and is looking lean after a 3 week break in China.  I'm just hoping to keep them both in sight and, who knows, if they fight each other hard enough I may be able to reel one in over that tough final 600m.

15.5km in 70:26 (4:32's).

Farked

Busy all day walking, at Nippers and lugging stuff around the garden.  Got out at 6pm for 40mins but was shagged.  Just couldn't get going.  Some days you just have to accept you haven't got it.

About 8km.

Saturday long

Out early doors with Barts, the Cap'n and Macca (the old team) for 27.5km up and down the beaches.  Finished with a dip in the ocean at Queenscliff and bacon and eggs at the Grumporio.  Absolutely magic.

4:34's so nice and easy.  Massive stretch of my quads last night and the hammy is better than ever.

Friday holy cow

So I was schedule a rest day.  But then Erika said she was running at lunch so decided to head out for an easy run and chat about her upcoming marathon.  Then she says she needs to run 6km at 4:00 pace so I think, OK that should not be too tricky.  Then we meet and she says that Gary has instructed her to run quicker.  So I think, well, I'll just run and see how it feels.  So we so 3km warm up before, BAM!, there goes her first km in 3:30 and BAM BAM!!, there's the second km in 3:24.  I kid you not, I could not hold on.  She has a 15m lead on me and I start thinking I can kill myself to bridge the gap or I keep running the same pace and surely she'll start to fade soon.  I catch her by the end of the third km (3:35 for me) and then into the wind around Barangaroo we run a 3:51, then a 3:48 and a 3:45 to run the 6km in 21:20 or thereabouts (3:38's).  Gary has got her into fantastic form for next week's marathon and I hope she smashes it.  I'm predicting a 2:53.

12 all up and 100km for the week.  Haven't had one of them since June.

Tiger Woods, eat your heart out

Out at 8am in Manly for 10 x 1min hills plus 10mins hard.  4km warm up to the hill at Shelly Beach. Didn't thrash myself on the hills but solid and was tired towards the end.  Then did the 3km back towards Queenscliff running 3:21, 3:20 and 3:14. Happy with that with the legs feeling comfortably numb at the end.

Then down to The Lakes for a day of corporate wanker golf.  Had a top day playing Ambrose.  I was the weak link as usual but got my 3 drives in early including my best drive ever on the 1st.  And we won!  Nice bottle of vintage bubbly to crack open next time we have something to celebrate.  So it will be very vintage bubbly when consumed.

MLR, kinda

Well, just coming home now at 9pm so my deal didn't quite sign at 10am but at least 'tis done.  Managed to get out at 2pm for 16km around the wharves and Barangaroo in 1:12 nice and easy.  Been taking Voltaren last 2 days for this troublesome glute insertion and feels much better.

Solid

In at 8.30am, out at 1.30am.  Massively busy day but somehow managed to get out to do 60% of a HuRTS session.  Session was the 3, 2, 1 fartlek x 5 but I just did x 3.  Very hot but surprised myself in running pretty well turning not far behind Barts.  But I couldn't have gone much further.  

Hoping this deal signs tomorrow so I can get some kip.  May come home early if it does.

Monday long run

Out for the Sunday run on Monday with Ben, Banksy and the Cap'n.  Up to Narrabeen Lake via Cromer, one loop then home the same way.  27.5km in 2:06:12 (4:35's).  Longest run I've done since the end of July and felt it at the end.  Hammy ok but the insertion to the glute was a bit sore (which I think has been the issue all along).

Then rode with Claudie, Mags and Charlie to the Grumporio for breaky with the Cap'n and his boy Toby.  Beaut of a morning.  Think I'll have a kip now.

Sunday scorcher

Scorchio today.  Early start heading down with Craig to the Wharf Bar to watch England humiliated at home by the Wallabies.  With the clocks going forward last night it was a super early start so had a bit of shut-eye watching Paw Patrol with Claudie over lunch.  Headed out in the early evening (when it was still in the high 20's) for 10km easy feeling pretty good.