Doubling up

Lunch: Out with MC, Kanser, Wildman, Durante, LF Charlie, the Chairman, Ray and English Andy for the usual Monday route. Very easy today - 14.86km (slight detour due to erecting the outdoor cinema at Farm Cove) in 1:07:30 (4:30 p/km). Hot at around 30C although about 5C cooler than out West due to the sea breezes.

Evening: Run home. More like a slog. Very tired. 60:19. Would have been a lot slower but picked it up over the final 2km. One hour will be the benchmark for Monday nights over the coming months.

Plan is to try to double up one day a week in Jan, 2 in Feb and 3 in March in lead up to Six Foot. Will sort out the marathon schedule after that (14 weeks) as I should have a decent base by then.

Dee Why Dash

Sometimes everything just works perfectly. Headed over to Dee Why for the Striders STaR and caught up with Dicky H. The others in the 6.20am group included Peter and Jenny Truscott, John Binfield and Dennis Wylie. Very easy pace to start with but there are some monster hills to clim to get up to Belrose so was happy with the slow pace. Started to speed up a bit on the way back down and put in 5km in about 20 mins heading around Queenscliff. Was just Richard and I left at this stage and we struggled up the Griffin Road hills to round out the 29.40km in 2:13:48 (4:33 pace). Not bad considering the early pace and the size of those hills. Made me realise how much tougher it is to do the long runs with hills though as I was struggling towards the end.

Beautiful day with a gentle cooling breeze made for perfect conditions to jump into the surf at Dee Why afterwards. Headed over to Queenscliff for Nippers afterwards to see Bec win the Flags and the surf paddle. Just got to get her out on the bike more - she'll be a champion triathlete.

More easy stuff

Back to the old 10km route. Cool again but a little tired after yesterday's efforts. 42:25.

Big congratulations to Kanser for a great 10km last night. Going under 33 mins I think makes him a "very good runner" according to the official Sergio classification.

10km tempo

Caught up with Tim and ran a 10km tempo - 4 loops of a near exact 2.5km circuit not more than 200m from my house. Tim had it at 10.04km on his Garmin which is exactly what G-Maps has it at....http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2463994

He set off pretty quick going through the first km in just over 3:20. I then pushed on towards the end of the first lap, built a little gap on the second and gradually pulled ahead for the reminaining laps. Lap times went as follows:

8:28; 8:38; 8:34; 8:18.

Total time of 33:58. Tim came in at 35:11. Felt relaxed all the way through but it's never really comfortable at that pace. Very pleased with the final lap as I could see that a sub-34 was on the cards so put the effort in to get it.

Much better conditions than recently. Cool at about 23C with a bit of a breeze.

Getting bored

..of doing the same route, so did it in reverse. Went out at 2pm and it was a scorcher (the temperature, not my run) - about 32C. 40:35. Not too bad considering the conditions but didn't feel as though I was taking it easy. Seems to be the problem with running the same route everyday - you find it hard to take it easy. I can see how Dave Sweeney gets fit on his daily dose of "Roo and Lake".

24 little hours

It all got better today. Plan was to start easy and increase the pace (I was feeling better) but I was up on yesterday even without trying. 20:22 at South Steyne (5:38 for the Manly Mile) and 36:53 all up. Would have been pleased with that on the flat 10km route let alone the hilly version. Wearing the Adizero's was obviously the difference - christened them at JPMorgan and don't think I've run a bad session in them since.

Good to have Hamburglar's company for 200m around Queenscliff. Good luck for tomorrow mate.

Farewell '08. Hope you all have a great 2009.

Dodge City

Is where my stomach is at. That's the problem with kids. I don't think I had one stomach complaint between the ages of 11 and 28.

Same route as yesterday but thought I'd push it today. Managed that though feeling uncomfortable until South Steyne (21:26) but the lethargy had begun to set in which slowed me down to a jog. That quickly converted to a crawl. Had a pit stop outside Manly Waterworks and dragged myself home. Still managed 43:10 which just showed how much quicker I was over the first half than yesterday.

Not happy.

Same again

Didn't feel much better, maybe due to lack of a proper meal in the past 48 hours. Down to 62.4kg this morning - I think the hangover was also a bug as Maggie's been throwing up loads. 43:02 so a little quicker.

Hungover

Hardest 10km of the year. Reminded me of what it's like to run when you're not fit. Ran the hillier version. 44:50.

Boxing Day stuff

Headed out over lunch down to Queenscliff, around to Shelley, up to North Head to see the Sydney/Hobart start (avoided Fairfax Track as it would have been packed), back down via Little Manly beach and around to Forty Baskets where we'd left the car yesterday after drinking too much champagne. 15.99km in 1:08:37 (about 4:15s). Generally a nice run but it got hot and was crowded up on North Head.

Christmas Eve wanderings

4 hours sleep. Had to move downstairs at 1.30am - was keeping Kirst awake. Got up early. Missed Jet Cat. Caught Cab. Got to office. Dumped bag. Ran to meet Kanser. Ran together to Centennial. Ran numerous loops of Mackay Oval waiting for everyone. Nice easy run with the Tiger, Nick Cope, Caleb, Jane, Durante, the Wildman and Kanser. Ran back to Kanser's. Ran back to office. 23-24kms averaging about 4:40s. Bought prawns and sausages from David Jones. It's a madhouse in there. Back in office. Merry Christmas.

HuRTS Mona Fartlek

Felt very average this morning. Up half the night coughing and really wasn't in the mood for a session. Rocked up to a small group including Kanser, Phil W, English Andy, Pete W, John B and a couple of the new blokes. No-one was keen to take it on so ran by myself the whole way. Barely reached the statue on the way out but felt better on the way back reaching the end of the Opera House. Jogged the long way back with Kanser and English Andy, moaning to one-another about our aches and ills. Sometimes wonder why I bother.

Easy(ish) Monday and Year in Review

Out at lunch feeling pretty good which was surprising given yesterday's run. Caught up with English Andy, the Saint, MC and Kanser and ran the usual route. Out in 4:30s and back picking it up all the way so the last 3km was run in 12:00. Finished the 14.71km in 1:03:00 (4:17s). Another beautiful day but pretty breezy. The Saint was saying that Shelley and potentially Dent and Youcef will be running the State 5km in Jan which should make it a cracker of a race. Hope they have seeded races otherwise I'll be trying to avoid being lapped twice.

Year in Review:

Started with the achilles injury which was probably a blessing in disguise. Really concentrated on getting fit for the State 10km. This season I seemed to peak for races very well but run the ones in-between pretty averagely - unlike last season where I was very consistent all the way through but without any stand-out runs.

Best 3 races:

1. JPMorgan (Sydney) - probably my best race since the Northern X-Country Championships in 1989.
2. City to Surf - if only for getting the monkey off my back and being able to run well on a hilly course. I'm usually crap on hills.
3. State 10km - finally cracking 33 mins and by a fair margin.

Difficult to exclude State 3km from the top 3 given the sudden turn-around in form and the good PB, but in the end the others were more important. Also seemed to run well at each of the ANSW events. Not sure whether this is due to the atmosphere, the fact that the competition is generally stronger or that they aren't run at some ungodly hour in the morning.

Worst 3 races:

1. Minimosmarathon. Slowest 10km in 2 years. Bloody awful course (see above re: hills). And the fact that you have to run around Mosman. Still don't forget heading the wrong way at one point because the marshall was collecting her morning latte. I'd rather run the Minirootyhillmarathon.
2. Gold Coast Half. Really thought I was on for a big PB in this one. I blamed it on the wind but that didn't seem to affect Dave Sweeney.
3. Coolrunning 5km end of October (if it counts as a race), if not Lane Cove 10km a week later. Smashed by Muz on both occasions. Really need to do something about my 5km PB.

The Year ahead:

Will be dominated by the marathon in July. Everything will be viewed as a build up to that. The thing this year has taught me is to view races in the scheme of current training and stop trying to run a PB every time. Also very much looking forward to Six Foot Track. Don't want to miss the NSW Long Course and Short Course X-Country Champs this year either. Despite the hills.

My votes for HuRTS performances of the year:

1. Best performance: Tucks and his NSW Long Course X-Country race. I don't know about the marathon yet so can't assess how good his 2:29 in Canberra was. In absolute terms, Steve's 14:33 over 5km would win but you have to take into account relative ability.
2. Improver of the Year: Steve. Who else. It's enjoyable to look back over the blog and see how he used to struggle back in June.
3. Sergio award. Serg. It's no done thing for next year though. Having said that, when it comes to one-on-one competition, you wouldn't bet against him. His comeback in the North Head 10km was great as was his run in the X-Country relays.

Ones to watch for next year:

1. Muz - now he's discovered that you can run on the weekend, and that you can run for 2 hours, he's going to be dangerous. Time for the rest of us to step up training.
2. Dicky H - he improves so quickly off short blocks of high intensity training so it'll be interesting to see how far he can get off a sustained programme which he should have up to Six Foot Track.
3. Kanser - so long as he stays injury free (a big ask given his current regime) I have a feeling he'll finally crack the marathon in July if he runs it. No more running obscure marathons in far flung places, he'll be against a large number of his training partners in the event he loves most with no excuses.

Sunday 10km loops

Dicky H came over on a beautiful still morning (about 15C) and we churned out the Manly 10km loops. Started quicker than usual but didn't stop us picking up the pace on the final loop. Kms went as follows:

4:44; 4:10; 4:05; 4:02; 4:03; 4:03; 4:00; 4:07; 4:10; 4:11; 4:08; 4:04; 4:05; 4:01; 4:03; 4:03; 3:59; 4:02; 4:01; 4:07; 3:54; 3:45; 3:48; 3:44; 3:52; 3:47; 3:44; 3:44; 3:43; 3:44.

All up 30km in 1:59:55 (aimed for sub 2 when we saw the clock at 26km) which is 3:59s. Final 10km in 37:45. Definitely feeling stronger over these long runs. Dicky H was pushing all the way and is getting very strong off only 5 consecutive weeks over 2 hour Sunday runs. I reckon he should run for Mayor of Manly. He mush have high-fived every second person we ran past.

Quickish run home

Quickish run home after a day off yesterday. Pushed it from Spit Junction onwards. 27:47 at the Toyota Garage and 51:24 all up.

MLR Wednesday

18.37km Centennial route in 1:22:25 (4:29s). Ran with MC, the Saint and LF Charlie. Beautiful day but a bit warm. Nice chat, felt good until the final 2km when a bit of fatigue set in. Heel very sore this morning but eased up by a Tiger massage this afternoon. He killed my bloody shins though. I think he was just angry about a growing realisation he's going to owe me $200 in the near future...

HuRTS 14 x 3mins

The King tide was in, we spent the first 8 reps running off road to avoid it. Gradually subsided to allow for some more even paced running. Reps went as follows:

902m (3:20 per/km); 906m (3:20s); 925m (3:15s); 900m (3:21s); 911m (3:19s); 905m (3:21s); 903m (3:21s); 900m (3:21s); 933m (3:14s); 911m (3:20s); 937m (3:14s); 924m (3:15s); 978m (3:05s); 968m (3:06s)

All off 60 seconds rest.

Ran variously with Durante, Dicky H, Kanser, the Chairman, English Andy and Muz. Turned to Kanser after rep 11 and asked how many he was doing in the hope he was going to say 12 so that I could gratefully stop then too. He looked all keen and said the full 14, at which point my heart sank. I was struggling from rep 7 onwards but pleased to be able to pluck a couple of quick ones out of nowhere at the end - assisted by Muz, the Chairman and Kanser.

Buggered now.

Progressive tempo

Was supposed to be a recovery run but somehow it didn't turn out that way, and we didn't even have the Saint with us. Serg, Kanser, Wildman, Durante, the Chairman and Dicky H showed up on a lovely clear day. Legs felt pretty sluggish to start with but on the way back Durante and the Chairman had pushed on ahead so Kanser and I picked up the pace slowly, and in particular from the Park Hyatt onwards, having started to feel a little better. Km times were as follows:

4:26; 4:12; 4:11; 4:14; 3:57; 4:16; 4:10; 3:56; 4:05; 3:49; 3:41; 3:36; 3:47; 3:39

So all up 14.56km in 58:03 (3:59 p/km). Dicky H is looking stronger every week. No idea how Kanser coped with that after his weekend's efforts.

PM: Jog home but stopping at Toyota Garage. Felt good and was tempted to carry on but don't want to push the doubling up too much too soon. 31:03.

More Manly 10kms

Caught up with Tim this morning for the usual 3 x 10km loops. Very easy jog down the hill just before 6am before Tim set off like a rocket. Settled in OK and the km splits were pretty regular before picking it up over the final 10km:

4:49; 4:16; 4:10; 4:10; 4:06; 4:08; 4:04; 4:08; 4:16; 4:14; 4:12; 4:11; 4:10; 4:04; 4:06; 4:07; 4:02; 4:09; 4:12; 4:13; 4:02; 3:58; 3:57; 3:55; 3:59; 3:55; 3:53; 4:02; 4:04; 3:57

All up, 30.58km in 2:06:23 (4:08's) with final 10km in 39:42. Good to run the whole thing with Tim who was noticeably stronger than 2 weeks ago. Beautiful morning - clear as a bell and coolish. Bumped into Darren Quarrel (who was flying) and Pete Walker.

Quick run to work

Felt good this morning so pushed it a bit on the run in. 25:49 at Spit Junction (4:27 pace all the way up Parriwi Rd) and 52:52 all up.

Cool and drizzling rain so perfect conditions, although some b**tard in the T3 lane drove through the biggest puddle when I was running right beside it just after Spit Bridge and completely drenched me (to the extent I swallowed dirty puddle water). Made worse by the fact that there were hundreds of other cars queueing around at the time who must have seen it and had a good giggle.