Berlin jet lagged rust buster

After a 29 hour journey due to delayed flights, I finally arrived in Berlin.  Definitely still grittier than the rest of Germany that I've seen but more interesting as a result.

Had a meeting straightaway then headed out to stretch the legs.  The hotel is right next to the Tiergartens so I just ran around them, getting lost every now and then.  Planned on an hour but let's just say that running is the best cure for jet-lag constipation.  10km all up in 4:34's with the legs feeling like cactus.

Tuesday Half HuRTS

Couldn't get out in the am, found a gap at lunch before my flight so went down to HuRTS where the session was 4 x 10mins.  Certainly wasn't going to do that so settled on half the session.  After much toing and froing on the route we settled on the original and were off.  With me only doing half the session I was out ahead solo.  Reached the gates in 9:40.  On the return I was soon running with Andy who pushed the pace on.  I then had the whole squad to overtake and hey all seemed to appear on the hills.  Ended up with 9:36 - a PB for me over that much run segment.  But who the hell is Michael Bath?

Short jog after and that was me done.

Monday morning

10.3km very easy with Lewis at 6am.  Much cooler this morning - Autumn has arrived.  But stunning along the beachfront.  4:37's.  Amazed by a woman doing a complex yoga position on the beach.  It was quite something.

Last long(ish) Sunday

Out with Barts, Lewis and Ben at 6.15am (no early morning extras today thank God) but picking up Emma, Tim and Toby along the way.  Just the standard route and cutting across the Narrabeen Caravan Park which made it mentally much easier at 27.5km than the recent 38km monsters.  But it's still 2 hours of running.  

Beautiful morning chatting the whole way and Barts and I shook each other's hand at the end remarking that our work was done.  Obviously forgetting Tuesday's double session and sprints on Thursday. 

Then cycled to Queensie for a dip before retiring to Emporio to pore over the results from Canberra.  A brilliant run from Hoey to take 2nd just behind Rowan Walker in 2:29:15.  He really has a knack for the marathon.  Other great runs included Jeet's PB in high 78 in the half - he's running PBs every race at the moment.  CT battled for the lead inthe half before having to settle for 3rd.  Craig sounded a bit disappointed with his 5th place in the 50km.  I think he suits (and copes very well with) a higher mileage than he's been doing of late.  Looked like a great weekend and I'll try to get down there next year.

Broken 5km plus Fartlek

Was supposed to be done at Parkrun but with 5 kids sports commitments starting at 7.30am that was never feasible.

Session was 2km hard, 1km easy, 2km hard.  Then a brief recovery before 10 x 1min on, 1min off.

Did a 2km jog to the golf course loop then started running clockwise (interestingly, nearly all Strava records are measured anti-clockwise) for the first 2km hard.  Times went 3:10 then 3:11.  Jog was a 4:05 before doing 3:06 and 3;09 for the second 2km.  Stoked with the times as I was expecting the 2nd 2km to be slower given I didn't feel brilliant to start with.

Then an 800m jog before starting the Fartlek. Wanted to run these controlled and did so but was stoked to see I was doing kms in 3:38's including the easy sections. 

Probably my most encouraging session of the year so confidence is high.  One more session on Tuesday before I fly out.

15km all up averaging 3:51's.  

Best of luck to Hoey and Vonky in the marathon in Canberra tomorrow.  Would love to see Hoey take out some big names.  And especially to Craig in the 50km'er.  He knows what he needs to do.

60min tempo

Bumped into Kanser as I was about to start warming up so we jogged together talking about his sickness but how he'll still smash Timmy in the Canberra Half on Sunday. Then straight into the tempo.  

Not much to report.  Started at 3:25's but settled into 3:29/3:30's for the first half.  Had a couple of aberrations around the wharves on the return where the Garmin reckoned I was Jesus and spat out a 3:43 and a 3:40 but then back to 3:32's.  Pushed the hills on the way back as I felt full of running today.  All up 17.1km in the hour (3:31's) despite the errant middle couple of kms.  All set.

Warmdown for 20km all up.

Wednesday SLR

60mins very easy on another beaut of a morning with Erika, Darren, Robbie and Lewis.  13km.  Seemed to spend the 2nd half of the run high-fiving people (Joel, Cap'n, Skins) - just one of those days I guess.  

Can't believe how busy Manly beach is at 6am in the morning.  People need to have more sex.

Double Tuesday

AM:  up early but not early enough as by the time I arrived at Graham's Reserve (for the 6 x 1km off a rolling 5mins) Darren, Erika, Lewis, Quentin, Jamie, Justin, Ben, Emma, Burkey and Charlie (amazing crowd!) had started their first rep.  3km warm up then joined them on their second.

Was very glad Quentin was there to keep Lewis company as I wasn't feeling up to the task.  Sure enough, each rep Q and L would dart off leaving me 5m behind.  I would sense their pace drop at the 400m mark and go past them, only for Lewis to respond and come past me with 200m to go.  Kept me honest though.  Garmin always reads funny when running in circles and sure enough the clockwise reps averaged 2:54 while the anti-clockwise reps averaged 3:05.  3:05 felt about right.

Beautiful morning and great to see everyone out.  5km warm down for 15km all up.

PM:  7km very easy with Erika around the city.

Last double day pre-London but I'm fairly accustomed them now.

Last long one

Took 3 lots of Maltodextrin yesterday then had a huge meal at Toby and Alex's last night.  Just felt so much better today. Much brighter the whole way.  

We had a huge crowd today - the Manly Sunday Hardcore really is becoming the place to be seen.  Barts, Tim P, Toby H, Macca, Craig, Erika, Darren, Lucy (Erika's mate), Lewis, Scotty and Even Benny boy.  Only Special Q and the Cap'n were missing.  Pace started pick up coming around Narrabeen Lake and the last 15km was under 4min pace.  But a nice confidence booster finishing the 38km with a 3:25 with Barts.

A few more sessions (Thursday's hour tempo is looming) but otherwise the work has been done so now time to try and get myself in the right mental state.

Saturday

17km squeezing it in mid-afternoon after driving kids all morning to various sporting commitments.  1:15 finishing at Pace Athletic to pick up some socks and gels and Billy's BMX.  Jamie wasn't impressed by it.

Friday

Had a couple of beers with Gleeso Thursday night.  After our wives failed to chase us, it turned into a few more.  And then karaoke in The Ivanhoe.  One of those random nights you can't predict, but a great laugh. 

So Friday lunch with a great crowd of Enda, Erika, Burkey, Jeet, Birchy et al I managed 5km before needing to spew.  Toughest 5km of the year.  My secretary told me I was still emitting beer sweats in the mid-afternoon.

140km for the week.

Double Thursday

AM:  9km run to the wharf, picking up my backpack after 6km.  Actually quite nice way of getting to work.  Commuter on the ferry didn't appreciate my pheromones though.

Lunch:  79 Continuous.  Tough bloody set this one.  Hard to work out the average pace but I think I was close to 3:20 for the tempo (much faster than usual) and 3:29 for the Fartlek (about usual).  Ran solo but feeling the fitness at the moment - despite starting every session tired I come alright by the end.

29+km for the day.  Monster monster.

Wednesday MLR

You know you're in marathon training when a 20km MLR feels like a recovery run.  Out in the dark once again (can't wait for daylight saving to end on Saturday night) for 20km with Erika, Darren and Lewis.  Avoided the hills.  Moaned about our coach.  4:42's.

Tuesday double

AM:  out at sparrows fart in the pitch black to meet Lewis, Erika, Darren, Jamie, Emma (she's back!) and Dicky for a short sharp session of 5mins, 4mins, 3mins, 2mins, 1min off 2 mins rest.  Given the shortness of the session and length of the breaks it was meant to be run "hard", which pretty much means all out effort.

I wasn't looking forward to it.  Particularly in my marathon training state of constant fatigue.

Told Lewis I wasn't going to be keeping him company and let him go off at the start of the first rep but kept him in sight and gradually worked my way back during the course of the rep.  This is the way each of the reps went.  Average pace for each (on my watch) was:

3:06, 3:04, 3:04, 3:01, 2:53

Legs lactic at end of each rep.  Wouldn't have got within 5s of those times without Lewis to chase.

3km warm up and 5km warm down for 13km all up.

PM:  wandered out at lunchtime and ran with Kanser and Hoey alongside the HuRT Squad doing 5min reps.  9km averaging 4:30's.  Hoey sounds ambivalent about doing Canberra given a couple of issues recently.  Hope he makes the start line.  I'm relying on him!

Easy Easter Monday

Easy hour in the afternoon before watching Maggie's soccer.  Felt a gazillion times better than yesterday.  Took Voltaren last night which obviously helped.

4:21's. 

Super long

38.4km with Macca, Lewis and Hamish.  Felt sore from the off and it was a real struggle today.  I think yesterday's hard 5km slightly dehydrated was the issue.  Didn't enjoy a step of it and Achilles was very tight at the end (after 2:50+ of running).  

I wasn't much company this morning labouring under every step.  The best I felt was actually from 30km to the end when the kms finally got down to 4:10's.  

4:31 average.  Will take a bit ton recover from that.

Hungover Saturday

Had a few too many red wines at the neighbours last night so Parkrun was out of the picture.  Got out mid-afternoon and didn't have long so ran a 3.5km warm up to Manly Golf Course then two loops (5km) hard and then the same jog home.  

Wasn't feeling keen for the session (itself a shortened version of Tiger's scheduled session) and struggled throughout, it felt tough.  8:08 for the first lap and 8:09 for the second so nice and consistent,  but the Garmin was measuring short so I ran the extra 50m to hit 5km on the watch in 16:29.  Last time I did this session (30 Jan) it was 2 laps in 16:51 - so not too bad in the circumstances.  At least I did something.

Good Friday

8km very easy in the am to Shelley Beach before meeting the family for some brekkie.

123km for the week.

In!

Managed to schedule a time with Barts for today for 5km, 3km, 1km with 500m jog between (i.e. 10km all up).  Actually discovered it was supposed to be a 1km jog between the 5km and 3km which may explain how dodgy I felt all afternoon.

3km warm up then into it.  Felt OK on the 5km trying to find a rhythm (16:43) but was desperately clock-watching on the 3km (9:55).  Managed to raise a bit for the 1km in 3:10.  All up 10km in 34:13 - in the heat wearing a black T-Shirt.  

To be honest this afternoon I felt crap.  Very dodgy stomach which took a couple of Coopers Pale Ales to calm down.  Can't tell whether it's a low lying bug (which the kids have have had recently) or just overdoing it.  But Barts said he felt similarly rooted.  We ran the whole thing together.

16km all up.

Top news this evening with my London Marathon entry finally being confirmed:

Mellow Melbourne

Well, I thought Perth was good.  Melbourne was even better.  Given I had another 20km on the plan and didn't want to run laps of the Tan I just followed the Yarra Trail up the river from my hotel on Collins Street.  Got beyond Hawthorn at 10km where the tow path was incredibly picturesque (I think I would like to live in Kew/Hawthorn if I moved to Melbourne - but maybe that's like saying I would like to live in Vaucluse if I moved to Sydney).  Turned and returned.

If I thought I saw plenty of cyclists by the Swan River, I saw even more by the Yarra.  Some of them looked like Strava Psychos - gunning around corners not giving a toss about who might be coming the other direction.

Quicker again for the 20km today at 4:13's and I think the legs are returning to normal.