Saturday in Melbourne

Woke up having taken Voltaren and the body felt fine but feeling sorry for myself with a miserable cold.  Sure I've put on weight in the past 5 weeks too.  Altogether not in the right mind space for tomorrow but what the hell.  Will give it a go just to be part of the crowd.

Did 4km with a few strides this morning with Kirst (who did 6km).  Probably the first time ever she's run further than me.

Friday shocker

Drove from Goulburn to Melbourne in 7.5hours only being stopped by the police once and clocked by a speed camera once.

Arrived having developed a cold and feeling stiff and sore.  Did 4km on some fields to loosen up.

Thursday

Busy day at work especially with Kirst picking me up at 7.30pm with the kids to start our road trip to Melbourne. Overnight stop was fixed at Goulburn.  Finally got out for 5km hard followed by 4 x 30s sprints at 6.50pm and arrived back at the office to find Kirst waiting.  Oops. Quick change then we were off.

Wednesday

7km with Elle and Jac running Corporate Cup.  

Light at the end of the tunnel

AM:  30mins to South Steyne and back.  Saw Darren and told him to take it easy.  That fella is always in a hurry.  Only ran this morning because I missed yesterday due to work.

PM:  Jog to ES Marks.  Benny had 10 x 400m off 2:15 on the cards for those doing Melbourne (me, Neil and Alex - the latter two doing the full).  First in 68s then all the rest in 66s/67s.  Pretty happy as I felt strong enough to push the home straight each time.  Jog back to CQ as Jared is sick for 15km all up and 21km for the day.  Bit too much.  Will take it very easy tomorrow.

Short Sunday

Was chatting to Charlie over the back fence in the afternoon after arriving back from Seal Rocks so arranged a short run with him.  Just to Shelley Beach and back.  Charlie was doing his running impressions on the return.  He nailed Darren but I wasn't happy with his impression of me.  Basically looked like Eric Liddell from Chariots of Fire.

Seal Rocks - MLR

Shortened long run starting the taper for Melbourne next week.  Took Voltaren last night (first in 2 weeks) as my Achilles was sore after running the session yesterday in the Kinvaras.  I'm ditching them for the Fastwiches.

Felt magic today.  One of those days when everything is flowing and you feel breathless running 4min kms.

16.5km in the 70mins (4:18's).

I always go on about the wildlife up here. Dodged a snake on the run today (looked like some sort of broad headed snake).  This morning we caught a snake eating a frog outside our cabin:

Seal Rocks - 75 continuous

Drove to Seal Rocks late on Thursday night arriving close to midnight.  Up on Friday morning dossing around on the beach.  Then in the heat of the day had my glance to get out for the 75 continuous.  15min warm up, 20min Fartlek (7 x 2min on, 1min off), 5min easy, 20min hard, 15min cool down.  On the undulating trail to Yagon and back.

Tough going in the heat and dry gravel (with my feet slipping in the Kinvaras).  Fartlek was pants but pleased with the tempo averaging 3:33's in tough conditions.  3:59 average for the 19km.

Thursday

Same as Wednesday.  Sore again.

Wednesday

10km in the evening around the City.  Feeling sore.

Tuesday

4 x broken miles down at ES Marks.  Very blowy which made life tough down the home straight.  Ran them with Alex, me pushing ahead on the km rep (about 3:05 in the wind), him catching on the 300m float then him pushing ahead on the final 300m hard.  All run between 5:12 and 5:19 (first 2 slower before Benny told us to speed up the floats).  All off a rolling 7mins (shorter than previously).

Tough old session.  15km all up.

Home Alone

So Kirst and the kids headed off to Seal Rocks at lunchtime leaving me home alone (other than Ken).  So I lay on the sofa all afternoon watching multiple episodes of Narcos before heading out (after tying Ken up) on my favourite loop with some added Mackellar hills at the end.

Felt really lacking in energy to start with (wanted to sleep all day) but got into it and enjoyed the run at the end with the legs feeling quite loose.  Got back to find Ken gone.  How he unclipped himself will remain one of life's mysteries.  But shouted his name a few times and he came bounding towards me from nowhere.

15km in 4:28's.

Narcos:

Slow and long

Usual route with in-form Scotty, out-of-form Lewis, the Streck (who I went 1-0 up on spotto), Toby, the Vonk and the Cap'n.  Slow this morning but thankfully so for me after 65km in under 48 hours.

Good news is achilles feels much better after a combo of double strength magnesium (amazing muscle tightness recovery powers) and new shoes.  OP a bit sore.  

Followed up with a bush walk with the whole family and the Cogleys up at Red Hill.  Came across this amazing user-built off-road freestyle bike track and some blokes doing amazing things on it:

Now enjoying a late arvo coffee sans kids at Ruby Lane.  I'm shagged so this is bliss:

Baxter Basix

Loop of the dam via Allambie Hill.  Officially my favourite run and what I return to when needing to find my mojo.  Bumped into Hamish Bell (didn't realise he was a Beaches man?) outside Manly Vale PS but otherwise just me and my thoughts in the late arvo.

14km in 4:23's.

Slumpity Slump

Took yesterday off so did the session today instead.  I missed last week's 79 continuous (one of the sessions I think does me the world of good) so did it today instead - from work.  Just the usual route sticking to the water's edge.  Strong winds today which made some of the fast sections really tough.

Saw Barts out there and rival Kevin Robertson - yelling out a high to both despite being in a fast section each time. A slow average on the Fartlek and tempo but still managed 20km all up (3:58's). Hopefully it does some good.

111km for the week.

Run home

After a hell of a day at work and with a sore achilles, the last thing I wanted to do was run home.  Seriously contemplated the taxi option but I'd told Maggie she had to go to run training (after a day of touch footy) so felt like a hypocrit if I pulled out.  So I plodded home.

Achilles actually felt better as the run went on and wasn't as sore as expected.  Kirst was in bed by the time I arrived (9.20pm) so this was dinner:

Struggle Double

AM:  3 loops of Nolans and Passmore.

PM:  Jogged to ES Marks.  Session was 4 laps, 3 laps then 2 laps.  Matt was doing 15 laps aiming for steady 70's.  We had to pace him around, taking a 2 lap break between each of our reps.  

I'm struggling a bit at the moment.  Before getting sick last week I was just tired but put it down to the step up to 120km weeks.  Now I feel like I'm recovering from the cold. Legs felt sluggish and I've got no bounce or enthusiasm to push each rep.

Lost touch with Matty, Keith and Jared after 1km and held on to 4:51 for the 4 lapper.  Bit better on the 3 lapper with Matt and Keith pulling ahead on the final lap.  3:36 I think.  2 lapper and held on for 500m before Alex cruised past with me finishing 2s back from the group (2:22).

Matt continues his fantastic form to run 17:39 for his 6km.  That's a 14:44 5km along the way.

Then a bit of a break before starting the 10 x 300m reps off a rolling 2mins.  I finished each rep about 10m behind the rest of the group with Jared smashing out each rep in 45s with the last in 42s. He's getting stronger by the week.  A girl from Runcrew (Abi Regan) was also putting me to shame running her reps in 47/48.  I was at least consistent with each rep at 50/51s.  Consistently mediocre.

Sat down after and my calf started cramping.  Then did a stretch and the top of my quad started cramping.  Then later did a hip flexor stretch and my abs started cramping!  So I think I need to pump in some magnesium.

Warm down for 14km all up.

Centennial wanderings

Missed the squad so headed up to Centennial solo for a loop and return.  Love heading out there as you feel as though you leave the City behind.

Bit heavy legged to start but better by end.  15km in 4:35's.

Some great results in Berlin last night.  Neil ran a fantastic 2:31 off a disrupted prep.  Craig "took it easy" (someone needs to have a word with him) for a 2:44 but run of the day was Julia Degan setting a PB in 2:42.  This from a World Champ representative who struggles to win Striders 10km.  No one transitions to the full better.

Old man trophy arrived today:

Back to Sunday usual

Smaller crowd this week with Macca, Dicky, Elle, Toby, Ben and man-of-the-moment Scotty joining me for the usual route.  Scotty has hit some great form after upping his mileage to 120kms per week post GC.  He's doing that as well as maintaining the speed sessions, and as a result ran 15:48 at Parkrun yesterday smashing my PB and doing it pretty much solo (sounds like Lewis and Matt Robbie were with him early on).  I think I'll avoid racing him for a while.

Felt fine today until about 25km when my shoulders and neck started to feel a bit achey and generally felt lethargic - just the effects of the virus flushing out I think.  This coincided with me and Scotty catching Macca and me turning to Macca and saying "I'm going to push ahead to Emporio".  About 300m later Macca runs alongside me and says "so when are you pushing ahead?".

So we got to Emporio and Macca starts explaining his decision to run the Half in Melbourne and not the full.  After about 20mins of long-winded explanations, it dawned on me that he's too worried the Cap'n would beat him if he ran the full..

Please to have got it done.  Epsom bath salts and a couple of magnesium tablets should sort out the soreness.

30km in 4:25's.

Southern Highlands

Well, the flu (bad cold really) hit and I took Wednesday off work feeling sorry for myself.  Just cold and shivery and streaming nose with a sore throat.  Started to feel better by Friday.

Down in Sutton Forest overnight Friday with Kirst.  Got up early Sat morning and ran 10km from the Peppers place in my Saucony Kinvaras.  Not sure I can use them for training (at least, my achilles would need time to adapt) but will be good for long tempos, Halfs and Marathons.  Felt good towards the end pushing the pace a bit.  4:15's.