The Bull & Bear

OK, so last night was a bit random.  What was supposed to be a couple of farewell drinks at our local boozer before it shuts down tomorrow turned into one of the biggest nights of the year.  The bar staff were bringing us free jugs of beer all night long as their loyal customers.  Pippa (the 2nd highest paid barmaid in Sydney apparently - probably the reason the place has gone bust) joined us later on as the photos attest.  So today was not a day to run a 60min tempo in the heat.  Instead, I turned up at HuRTS and ran Timmy's set of 20mins of hills followed by 5km tempo.  Actually felt quite bouncy but I think I was still drunk.  Nick R was smashing it out but I ran with Jerome on the hills then Timmy for the tempo.

The pictures:

Early on with the Bull & Bear regulars plus token female:

Pippa joins us for a beer:

Contemplating the flavour:

It's a thumbs up:

Birchy grabs himself a souvenir:

Wednesday commute

Got a lunch on today so ran in after walking to school and dropping the kids at Manly West (final day of the year).  Charlie and Maggie are still willing to hug me at the gates but Billy wouldn't be seen dead within 20 yards of me so I proceeded to run after him with my arms out wide shouting "give me a hug!" for maximum embarrassment effect.  It succeeded.  I was very embarrassed at the yummy mummy's looking at me strangely.

Felt very tired on the run in after the last few days training so took it very easy and un-timed.  But the body is holding together OK.  13km.  Can I count the 2km walk beforehand and pretend it was a trail 'run'?

Tuesday double

AM:  8.5km around and about and to the wharf.

PM:  Hurt Squad 14 x 3mins with a 60s rest.  Averaged about 3:18's (exactly gate to gates).  Felt tired running them but in the comfort zone.  Nice crowd (it's been a while since I've done a Tuesday set) but perhaps not as big as usual?  But the class was there with LJ in particular back in the fold and Hoey, Barts, Tongey, Nick R, JFen and a rapidly improving Jerome all pushing the pace upfront.

Jumped in the harbour with Barts, Charlie, Hoey and JFen afterwards.  Then a 3.5km cool down with Barts for 18+km total, 26+km for the day and 42+km within 20hours.  Except it wasn't a cool down as I proceeded to sweat like a pig post shower and freak out all my workmates.  It was very humid but plainly my body was struggling with the workload.

Monday solo

Too busy again at work so only managed to get out at 6pm.  Did the wharves run plus 4x80m Domain hills.  Nice to run in the cool of the evening.  16km total.

Bec did the Bold and the Beautiful this morning in 37mins.  I might try it soon.

Sunday same old

Out with Barts, Craig, Ben and the Cap'n for the usual 29km.  Picked the pace up as usual towards the end to average 4:23's.

Bumped into Macca at the end and we tried a new breakfast joint post our dip in the ocean.  This is fairly momentous for us but the stale brioche rolls at Emporio have let us down one time too many (i.e. twice).  So Salt at North Steyne was chosen and the b&e roll was top notch and the belaroma coffee pretty good too.  A few too many cyclists for my liking but you can't have everything.

Sat - Curl Curl Parkrun

Saturday morning was a 2.5km jog to Parkrun with Timmy and Jimmy with the intention of pacing the former to sub18.  But with Ben Streck in the start line my job was done as he's been hovering around that mark for the past few weeks.

Scotty O was there and disappeared off like a rocket.  Ben went off quite quick while I followed Timmy through the first km in 3:24.  Pushed ahead to try to drag him back to Ben through kms 2 and 3 but he would only sit 5 yards off my shoulder content to smile at the cameras.  Drifted up towards Ben on the uphill between 3 and 4km so encouraged him home to a 17:54 with Ben strong over the final km.

Timmy just failed in his sub18 attempt and Jimmy ran well in his first race back to run a 19:12.

4.5km jog home with the boys and Julia Degan for 12km all up.

Redleaf

Another big night on Thursday for our client Christmas Party so a jog to Redleaf with Jimmy, Smolly and Liam, a dip in the pool and a jog back was perfect.

Melbourne

Caught up with Melbourne clients last night.  If my liver survives intact until Christmas I deserve HuRTS PoTY.

This morning was a run to the Tan, couple of laps, then back to the hotel for a lovely breakie.  Perfect morning in Melbourne - blue skies and cooler and less humid than Sydney.  

Wednesday short

Too busy at work then went to the STC production of King Lear starring Geoffrey Rush last night with Bec.  So missed my PM run and was too knackered to join Justin when my alarm sounded at 5.30am.  Got out at 7am for a very easy run to Shelley and back in 35:50 (4:28's).  

Usual crowd out there including Amelia (the future Mrs Cap'n) and Lewis who I high-fived in exuberant fashion.

Double trouble

AM:

6km tempo along the beachfront.  Erika, Jamie, Quentin and myself fronted up.  I told Quentin we needed to be sub20 and he duly obliged.  Km splits went:

3:13, 3:17, 3:18, 3:23 (turning at Shelley), 3:19 and 3:09.  So through 5km in 16:30 and 19:40 all up.  Mission accomplished.

Hard work that, but great to have Q there pushing the pace with me occasionally doing my share if he slacked a bit.

Saw the Cap'n pretending to smile on a see-saw.

3km warm up and 5.5km warmdown.

Sunday Special

The usual route with a returning Barts, Macca, Ben and Justin.  Stunning morning and we ran nice and easy but stretched our legs over the final few km.  29km in 4:31's.  Then a dip in the ocean (cold but perfect for the legs) and bacon & eggs at Emporio.  I challenge anyone to top that for a Sunday morning.  Saw Anna Fitz running around Narrabeen Lake.

Put up a new bed, chucked one out, lay down on the sofa to watch some David Attenbrough then wandered along to the Riverview Pde Christmas Street Party.  Lasted 30mins, just enough time to remind myself why I appreciate living at the povo end of the street.

Maggsie all dressed up for next week's ballet performance:

Saturday cop out

Another missed session.  This time courtesy of the Annual Super Series lunch at North Bondi Fish.  But a top afternoon celebrating with CT, Q and Barts - us all buying the latter his lunch as a result of winning with 2015 season.

Managed to get out in the late arvo for 10km around Nolan's running with the kids.  Charlie did 5km in 28:47.  I did about 45mins.

4 x broken 6:30's

Different session today.  4 x (2:30, 1:30, 30) with 1min easy between each rep and 3mins jog between each set.  So it works out as a continuous 35mins.

Just Quentin, Macc and me this morning.  Wasn't looking forward to it as I was tired all of yesterday and convinced myself I'd take it easy behind Q.  We did ease into the first set (just 3:20 average for the first 2:30) but you'll see those times started coming down for each new set.  Nice session in the end - mentally easier as once you've done the first 2:30 then 1:30 and 30 reps can be blasted out.

9.3km in total for the 35mins (3:45 pace including 9mins of slow jog).

2.5km warm up and 3.5km warm down for 15km all up.

Wednesday MLR

Same as last week with Emma - elongated it to 17km this time but with the same 4 x 80m hills which I'm finding really beneficial.

Emma's getting stronger.

12 x 500m

AM:

It's now become my most dreaded session.  Hurts like hell and is hardly over and done with quickly either.

Big group out on Nolan's this morning with Macca, Jamie, Emma, Erika and the Cap'n all showing up.  Beautiful morning with mist over the fields but which meant they were pretty damp.  The shoes were heavy after the warm up.  Marked out 500m on the grass to keep the boss happy.

Reps went 1:33, 1:33, 1:34, 1:34, 1:34, 1:34, 1:33, 1:33, 1:33, 1:32, 1:30, 1:28

Took my shoes off for the final 3 which made a big difference as ever.  3-4s a rep slower than on the paths but made a difference when Jamie or Justin was on my shoulder.

3km warm up and 4km warmdown for 14km all up.

PM:

11km running at the back of the HuRT Squad 45min progressive tempo.  Canny warm like.

Monday get together

Strangely Monday is almost the most popular running day of the HuRTs week.  Big crowd today including MC, Charlie, Erika, Renee, Sonya, Enda, Birchy, Jacquie et al.  Achilles a bit sore again - need to stretch and get the magnesium in.  Too much beer and too much heat makes the body very stiff.  Out to Barangaroo and back around the wharves.  Finished up with 4 x 80m hills with Erika for 17km all up.  Legs and achilles felt much better after the 4th hill rep than before, as ever.

Plenty of banter and stories today with Charlie cowering inside his house all last night because he's forgotten how to fight and Mikey giving us his stock picks after telling us he did 7 hours of meditative silence yesterday.  He's unique, that fella.

Sunday

Saturday was a wipeout.  Felt guilty.

Out again Saturday night to Jon and Jane's Shaggiversary in The Rocks.  Too tired Sunday morning so got out at 3pm after joining the Climate Change march.  26km around North Head and Manly.  Felt fine but Achilles was sore.  Got some abuse from Darren out of a car window up at North Head and, thankfully, bumped into Thamal at Shelley beach on the way back so ran the final 10km with him chatting the whole way.  4:29's.

HuRTS Beer Mile

So Friday evening was the scariest event on the HuRTs calendar - the beer mile.  4 beers (min 5% vol, 355ml), one at the start of each 400m lap.  Now, I'm not renowned for the swiftness of my beer drinking.  More like a chugging Diesel engine than a TGV.  So this is always a struggle for me.

Double the crowd from last year and I can see this event becoming more and more popular.  We had to split into two races due to numbers - I went in the first "fast" race only because all my betting rivals (Macca, Timmy and Birchy) were in this one.  I'd have been more comfortable in the B race (as would Birchy and Timmy as history will show - but more of that in a second). I had 3 bets on - head to heads with Timmy and Birchy and with Macca giving me a 29s head start - based off last year's result.

Timmy's done a great job in marking out the lap with his magical cones and laying out all the VB and New on the picnic table ready for us to grab each lap.  We line up, Birchy goes early opening his can before the starter gives the sign, someone cracks the obvious joke and then we're off.  At least everyone else is while I do my repeated gulps.  The leaders start the run and I'm only half way through. Everyone is now off bar Me and Nick Roberts.  Someone is as slow as me!  We eventually go, I burp for 100m then start sprinting.  Just catch Birchy by the end of lap 1 and the next beer awaits.  

Same again, everyone else slowing down now though.  Next lap I overtake Timmy and Birchy and, barring a barf, I know I've got $40 in the bag here.  Where is Macca.  Holy cow, he's challenging the leaders.

And so we get through.  Nick Roberts is with me the whole way, beer for beer and stride for stride but a barf on lap 4 consigns him to a penalty lap.  I run 7:44 (pretty much same as last year). Birchy is happy with his 8:00.  Macca takes $20 off me running an impressive 7:04 for 3rd place behind Nick Haines and Charlie Low.  Captain Grumpy was in the mix enjoying th VBs.  Funniest thing though was seeing a table of VBs lined up for race 2 with almost everyone in race 1 choosing the New.

I won't mention how Timmy went.

Then we watched race 2.  Great showdown between Durante, Darren and Greg(?) and then Jacquie, Sonya and Erika for the ladies champion.

Then we're all on a high so retire to O'Malleys in the Cross.  Never seen Macca so high.

4 x 2km

Probably my worst session of the year.  Got up at 5.30am for the 6th time in a row and it showed.  Not helped by it being 28C at 6am and blowing a hot westerly wind.

Just me and Emma today.  Used the same 1km Nolan's route as Tuesday and did 2 laps changing direction each time.  That was the first mistake.  Clockwise was considerably slower than anti-clockwise due to the wind.

Reps were ugly.  When things got really bad, I just concentrated on form.  Reps went:

6:52

6:42

6:50

6:34

Last rep was barefoot finally feeling vaguely ok.  Otherwise I was heavy legged and lacking desire.  Emma was the same.  We decided not to ever talk about that session again.

Long warm up and down for 17km

all up.

Beer Mile tomorrow.  I don't think I've ever wanted to beat anyone in a race as much as I want to beat Timmy in this one.

Wednesday MLR

16km easy with Emma, Erika and Dicky followed by 4x80m hills.  Beaut of a morning.  Then onto Claudia's Christmas concert where she was a Japanese dancer.  Not sure what it's got to do with  Christmas but she got to dance with a parasol so she was happy.