MLR

Easy 17km with Darren (4:47's).  Tired after last night's efforts but the pace was easy.

Arrived home to find Maggot and Claudie fully decked out in running kit ready for their session.  Their enthusiasm can be explained by the fact I said we'd be doing hills, and that each time they beat the time I set for them, they would get a lolly (had to run by Woolies on my earlier run to pick up the favoured Starburst).

So Mags and I jogged to the BP Garage while Claudie rode her bike, then Maggie did 8 X 80m hills while Claudie managed 4.  Mags got 5 lollies and Claudie got 4. Plainly I need to be stricter on Claudia's target times (17s for Mags, 25s for Claudia). Then a jog back.  Mags looking good. Aiming for a sub 25min Parkrun on Sat.

Bit of Track

AM:  8km with the Cap'n in 4:56's.  Had to avoid the Shelley path of destruction.

PM:  ES Marks - 4 x 1km hard, 300m jog, 300m hard.  All off a rolling 8mins.

Kanser and Biggsy were there but doing 800's off 4mins.  Just Matt Hudson and Keith McPherson doing my set so I was bringing up the rear.  Did all the kms in 2:57 and all the 300's in 53 with a 52 to end.  So nice and consistent.  

13km all up.

Run home

Exactly that, very easy - 4:40's (70mins exactly via Boy Charlton) with some strides at the end.  Felt better (particularly achilles) at end than start.

Mental as Anything

SO Kirst and I were all fancy at a black tie charity event last night (check out the photo below) which turned out to have a FREE BAR so the chances of me making a 6.15am start were lower than nought.  Having said that, I woke at 5.50am feeling OK and temporarily thought of it before I heard the wind and rain and turned over under the duvet.

Got out at 2.30pm when the water was at it's highest point (coming around the front of the house) and I was a bit nervous it would be deluged by the time I returned.  Met Erika at Queenscliff where the wind was so strong I was blasted by sand.  We headed up to North Head picking up Q and Robbie along the way.  Watch in awe at the surf conditions between the Heads and along Manly Beach.  Quite simply the biggest I've ever seen in 16 years in Australia.

Got back after 27km to find the water levels having receded a bit.  Having said that, typing this at 9.15pm, it's back to the back gate.  Could be a long night as the police have already been around once and said next time they come it will be a mandatory evacuation.

Pace easy at 4:43's (2:07:24).

2pm, back to this level at 9pm:

Striders North Head - 3rd in 33:52

When I was 11 I won my first "big" road race.  It was the Chester-le-Street Minor Colts Road Race - 2 miles against all the kids from the running clubs in the North East.  I remember turning the final corner with about 400m to go, amazed that I was still in the running and thinking I might as well go for this just to prove to Dad I gave it my best shot.  I just sprinted for the line and ended up winning by about 5 seconds.  What it proved to me was that race wins (in competitive races) are never handed to you on a plate, you have to do something about it.

Today, I forgot all that.

Turned up this morning knowing it would be a competitive race with Quentin, Scotty and Robin all showing up, despite the forecast showing horrendous conditions.  Did a 3km warm up and said hello to Alex Rogers - another to throw into the mix.  Conditions seemed OK at that stage - damp but not too windy.  Set off and it was the usual suspects at the front plus one other chap that people on the sidelines were cheering on as "Rory". Turned out it was Ruiradh McDonald - super talented young fella.

I pushed the pace with Q in the first few km going through in 3:15, 3:16 and 3:12 and then the race turned ugly.  Just as we climbed the hill by the cafe a storm cell came through and turning on to the long straight we had a gale force headwind and torrential rain.  My lenses got soggy and I could barely see.  Poor Alex was in the lead and giving the rest of us a bit of a wind break. But the pace slowed dramatically such that we were all treading on each other's heels.

Through 5km in 16:42 (urgh) and we're all together but Robin puts a surge in and it looks as though we're breaking up a bit.  This was the theme for the next 3km - Robin would put a surge in, Ruiradh would immediately follow him, Scotty would go next and I would spend 200m bridging the gap, knowing I had to be in a group when we hit the wind at 8km or I was toast.

Get to the headwind at 8km and it's just me, Robin and Ruiradh.  Robin steps aside and waves his arm for us to take the lead.  I chuckle to myself and just tuck in behind him again.  Pace gradually picks up and I'm just biding my time without doing anything positive.  Then with 600m to go Robin jumps ahead with Ruiradh tracking him, they have the gap and I'm gone.  Trudge back up the hill for 3rd in 33:52.

Great running by Robin and unlucky to be pipped on the line but that kid has talent.  Everyone else was just happy to finish I think. Timmy was probably pick of the bunch only 80s behind Macca with a 38:05 performing pretty well in tough conditions.

Poor show from the Manly Hardcore disappearing off home without brekky.  It was left to the HuRTS Establishment to chow down a Deluxe B&E Roll in Manly's finest breakfast establishment.  Timmy couldn't resist the coffee there ordering 3!

So form is coming back but plenty more work to do. Great just to be out there racing again though.

Brissy

10km through the Bot Gardens and along the river.  Nice and easy and included a few strides.  Legs were sore before the the shakeout did the world of good.

Perth easy score

Wide awake at 5.30am (still on Sydney time) and first meeting wasn't until 8.30am so I headed out on my usual 20km route.  Pitch black until half way and then a beautiful sunrise (deep red in the morning over here as the desert's in the East) to bring me back home.  Unfortunately I had a pretty strong tail wind on the way out (thought it felt easy) so had to put my head down on the return.

Legs a bit sore by the end and I was hunting out every bit of grass I could find.  But not surprising as it's 40km in less than 24 hours since stepping off the plane.

4:36's.

My little Maggot!

Apologies for the super proud Dad post (I had to resist posting anything on Facebook given my reaction when others do the same) but was so chuffed for Maggie finishing 3rd in the District Cross Country this morning.  On to Regionals and if she can get through that, to State.  Once again came through the field after being in about 11th or 12th at half way and beaten by 2 much bigger girls.  Kirst said she had gritted teeth in the home straight so I think she's got the attitude for this.

So I arrived in Perth to this news and set out with renewed enthusiasm.  Decided on Gary's 79 continuous - 15mins warm up, 22mins Fartlek (1min, 2min, 3min, 4min, 3min, 2min, 1min off 1 min float), 5mins jog, 22mins tempo, 15mins warm down.  Along the perfect Perth footpath past Nedlands to Dalkeith.  Session went well.  Fartlek's average 3:29 pace (but realised I had a slight tailwind when I turned) and the Tempo also averaged 3:29's, working a bit harder into the wind.  So not quite the 3:26's I got to last year but getting there and overall felt OK at the end (20.3km all up in 3:54's).

Now will slink into a bar in Perth CBD to watch the Origin.  All by myself.  But happy due to kid no.4.

Tuesday cop out

AM:  8km to Shelley and back with Ben and the Cap'n.  Nice and easy chatting about bollocks.

Lunch:  Headed out to the HuRTs session just as a torrential downpour started in the freezing temps we're suddenly suffering.  Took shelter, felt cold, legs were still sore from Sunday, had a meeting at 2pm so made the rare (if not first time ever?) decision to ditch the session and head back to the office.

Still feel guilty about it 24 hours later.  No doubt I'll punish myself tomorrow as a result.

Long sore Monday

Holy crap.  Quads smashed after that downhill running to Jenolan Caves yesterday.  

Ran to work via North Head.  No watch, about 26-27km I think.  Legs buggered.  But achilles starting to feel better after all the plantar rolling.

A few photos from Kanangra Walls yesterday.  Magic spot.

Jenolan Caves

So I left Caves House this morning thinking, there's no way I'm heading up that bloody Caves Rd hill back towards Katoomba.  I've been down it and it's a killer.  So let's head the other way towards Oberon...

I swear it's 4km straight up the steepest hill I've ever run.  Eventually turned after 8km and running past a sign saying "Great Dividing Range - 1365m above sea level".  So 615m of vertical climb.  

Came back pretty quick though.

16km in 4:53's.

Fitting it in

Another solid day at work so missed the opportunity to join the squad for MC's last session.

Only option was to run home post work.  Have been feeling great this week (other than the achilles) and full of running so decided to run home solidly at sub 4's, knowing that's tough because of all the hills.  Did a 4km warm up around Mrs Macs then did the usual route but along the Cahill Expressway to avoid the stairs in the Rocks and then around Anderson Park to make up 20km.

Basically ran the flats and downs in a comfortable rhythm but had to work the hills (of which there are plenty) to keep the pace on track.  Due to the warm up I was always well behind averaging sub4 until I got to Balgowlah and could open up a bit.  

Really is a solid run and puts a load of strength in your legs.  All up 20km in 1:19:02 (3:57's).  No chicks overtook me today.

Make hay

In Melbourne again.  Headed out around the Tan with a couple of my Melbourne partners (they're fitter than my Sydney partners given we were running 4:20's).  Then headed out along the Yarra Trail to add some kms and was feeling so good (thank you Mr Voltaren) that I just kept on running.  Ended up running 21kms at about 4:22's.

Shock of the day occurred when running along the Yarra at a decent enough clip (km split had just shown 4:17) when I hear footsteps behind me.  Sure enough, 400m later someone overtakes me.  And it's a girl!  Or I should say woman.  Running 4:00's as a training run.  She looked pretty handy.  I need to get on Strava to see who it was but unfortunately my watch battery died.

Melbourne - 80 continuous

Supposed to double today but:

(a) in Melbourne; and

(b) achilles is too sore.

So I just did Thursday's session instead - 80 continuous.  Consists of 20min jog, 20min Fartlek (2min on, 1min off), 5min jog, 20min tempo then 15min warm down jog.  Quite a bit by the end (20.2km so 3:57 average) with the tempo averaging 3:27's.  Happy with that as I felt in control the whole way through.  If only my bloody achilles would improve I'd be starting to feel more confident.

Doing all the 1%'ers on the heel now in an attempt to nip this in the bud.

Monday meander

16.4km around the wharves with a decent sized crew including Eoin, Kanser,  Renee, Jerome, Hoey et al.  Achilles sore.

4:34's.

Sunday long relatively

2 weeks before London 28km felt like a day off.  Today I was just tired and sore.

Great crowd though with Barts, Lewis, Heydo, Erika, Emma, Hamish, Toby and Macca.  4:38's.  Lewis said it was his slowest ever long run.  That fella hasn't lived.

Enjoyed watching the Highgate Night of 10000m on internet (UK Olympic qualifiers).  Tom Bedford knows how to put on a track meet.  Beer tent on the back straight is ingenious.  

Another high quality 10km was on the same day - the Great Manchester Run.  Great to see my favourite ever female runner Tirunesh Dibaba taking the win in 31:16.  Good form for a final Olympic appearance to cement her reputation as the GOAT.  In the men's, Dave McNeil had a great run to get on the podium with 2 legends.  He'll no doubt cherish this photo:

Saturday Parkrun

Jogged there with 30s to spare.  Enough time to say hello to Pete W, Heydo and Marc A.  Ran off with purpose.  Quickly felt shit.  Had a kid on my shoulder for 1.5km (Bryn - last week's winner) then finally shifted him.  3:11, 3:16, 3:24, 3:24, 3:19 for 16:35 all up.  About the slowest I could have predicted so pretty disappointed given I worked pretty hard for it.

Body is just sore at the moment and everything is a struggle.  I think I'll ditch Launnie and trying to push when I'm not ready.  Instead, just build consistency and confidence.

5km warm down with the ever cheerful Heydo.

Thursday double

AM:  8km to Shelley and back on yet another picture perfect morning.  What is with the weather at the moment?  Too good to be true.

Lunch:  8x800m at Rushcutters with the old timers.  Mikey led the session and did it with aplomb, encouraging everyone over the line.  Barts, Enda, Muz, LJ, Mr Selfie and numerous other old-timers out in force.  The only man missing was Timmy, who was at home deliberating on what shirt to wear tonight.  I'll post his ill-decision later.  Good session run with Barts upfront and Nick R just behind with Hoey floating around all over the place.  Off a rolling 4mins I ran:

2:27, 2:29, 2:28, 2:28, 2:29, 2:28, 2:26, 2:19

Last one chasing Hoey home only to have my boyfriend Jerome come floating by looking like Rudisha.

5km warm down for 14km all up.

Wednesday MLR

Big crowd for a Wednesday MLR meeting Hoey, 2 Brendans, Pete W, Champ, Charlie and others AND supposedly Kanser, but after 5 minutes of waiting we were off.

Nice easy run up the old route to Centennial, then of course met Kanser at Fox Studio Gates so did another lap with him and Renee.  All up 16.8km in about 80mins.

Big news in the Highnam household today was Maggie winning her school x-country and taking down Octavia in the process.  She was in 4th after the first lap and managed to overhaul the top 3 for the win.  Very proud.  Charlie also did really well coming 8th (2nd reserve for District) running against boys a year older.

HuRTS 4x1km, 4x500m

Too many kids duties this morning so went out at lunch and managed to persuade Timmy to change the HuRTS session to my scheduled session.  Really big crowd (holding it down at Barangaroo helps) and with Crossy, Nick R and the bearded chap to chase there was plenty of support upfront.

Went out hard as I was keen to test myself for the first time since London.  Crossy did the same thing and I only inched ahead in the final 100m.  Similar story for rep 2 where I had to work bloody hard to get past him.  Rep 3 and he slowed as did my time as the legs were getting lactic.  Managed to hold it together for rep 4.  Times went:

2:56, 2:54, 3:00, 2:59.

All off a rolling 5mins.  That's very quick and I wonder about the accuracy of the distance.  But all the GPS watches had it on the km and we weren't running in circles.

Then the 500m reps off a rolling 3mins.  I struggled on the first to turn the legs over with Crossy gapping me quite a bit (having sat out of the final km rep).  Better on the second rep finishing well.  Struggled on 3rd then same again running solo on the last.  Times were:

1:30, 1:26, 1:30, 1:25

My legs are now absolutely buggered.  I gave it all today and have been pretty rooted all afternoon.

Great to see Andy back in the thick of things and there's a few fresh faces who are starting to get pretty quick.

4km warmdown with Macca for 13.5km all up.