Slightly better

11km run at lunch with Enda, Timmy C and Geoff Cooper. Feeling slightly better again but still not right. Averaged just under 4:30's.

Big one tomorrow. Hoping Timmy L can come through and nip past MC in the final km to win me $50. Timmy L is a fighter so I have every confidence.

Still not right

Easy jog home in 59:18. Still feel like I'm sucking through a straw when I'm running and coughed so hard I nearly vomitted when I got home. Other than that, it was fine.

Sort of getting back

Cor Blimey. Nasty bloody bug. Was feeling slightly better by last Wednesday so boarded the plane to San Francisco for the conference I was supposed to be attending. The 14 hour flight did nothing for my wellbeing. Spent 3 days at the conference trying to hold it together. Flew back. Sunday was the first day I got through without having to take Nurofen and Panadol every 4 hours. Bad chesty cough since then. Tentatively ventured out today hoping for the best. Ran 8.5km (10km route continuing around the Opera House and back but cutting home opposite Art Gallery) with my chest feeling very tight. Then proceeded to cough up a lung for the rest of the afternoon.

Nice to be running again though, especially on a beautiful day. Good thing was that the rest meant I had no aches and pains at all (other than the chest). Won't run Saturday but will concentrate on getting things back together for the SMH Half. Plenty of races to test myself in the upcoming months.

Sick as a Dog

Have been sick as a dog since Friday - high fever and bed ridden. Still no improvement today.

Fantastic result by Ben to win the Australian 5000m champs on Saturday night and book his ticket to Dehli. Tiger said he ran the final 2000m in 5:03, i.e. just over 60s a lap. To put it in context, that pace would almost have won him the 1500m title.

Finally downloaded some photos from our camping trip...

Been checking out some You Tube footage of Olympic track races today and came across the Munich 800m final. This is how to run an 800M... Munich 1972. Interesting to compare it to 1988. Can't believe how Paul Ereng managed to recover from his crazy first 200m.

HuRTS 4 x 2km

Had a pretty big night with the HuRT Squad last night at Hurricane's in Bondi as a farewell to Serg. Plenty of trash talk going on. I bet MC $50 that Timmy L would beat him in the State 10km and he leaped up to shake my hand on it. I have full confidence in young Timmy though. No-one rises to a challenge like him and you know you'll always get 100%. Ate a full rack of Pork Ribs and fries topped off with a sticky date pudding and plenty of beer. I could barely move this morning and didn't fancy today's session. But, as Woody Allen said, 80% of success is just showing up so that's what I did.

Times went as follows:

6:35
6:35
6:32
6:33

So nice and consistent. Strict 2 minute rest (Sean's gave us 3mins). Ran the first with Fats with Tucks about 12s in front. Fats dropped off during the second so I was chasing Tucks and Binfield (who decided to join us upfront), a little closer to Tucks this time. Third was same as the second, again getting closer. Final rep I felt lactic after 500m but just concentrated on Binfield's back and then (after overtaking JB) Tucks'. Must remember that tactic. If just just concentrate on someon's back, it seems to get closer to you and gives you something to divert your mind from how crap you feel.

Knackered at the end but a good session.

Timmy - MC ran 7:03; 6:59; 7:03; 7:03 but looked well spent. Doesn't compare to your hilly 7:06's run yesterday.

Wednesday MLR

Another perfect running day. Termperatures now down in the low 20's but clear skies and no humidity makes for a huge relief from the past few months. Especially when you're coming from a zero fitness base.

Today was the old Centennial Park route with Louis and KPMG Rob. Very easy pace although it picked up a bit towards the end. Achilles a bit stiff after strength training this morning with Carl. 18.57km in 1:27:55 (4:44's).

Hurts Progressive tempo

Big crowd today including Tucks, Clyde, Binfield, MC, English Andy, Fast Charlie, LF Charlie, Indrajeet, Dom etc. Set off conservatively with Tucks with just Fast Charlie a few steps behind. Stayed this way all the way until the hills after Mrs Macs Chair on the return when Tucks pulled ahead. He ended up back at the start on 44:47, me on 45:03. Fast Charlie pulled out opposite the ABC Pool. I pushed the pace down beneath 3:30's as soon as we turned knowing that that is the only way to get back in 45 mins when you turn on 23.5. A 2 minute negative split is a lot. Km splits went as follows:

3:55, 4:03, 3:51, 3:49, 3:53, 3:45, 3:28, 3:38, 3:22, 3:26, 3:30, 3:45, 3:14 (for 206m).

Total of 12.21km in 45:03 (3:42 per/km). 10:18 for the final gate to gate.

Felt good today. Nice and cool but quite a bit of a breeze. Saw a load of people out there including Kanser, the Chairman and Hamburglar.

Easy Monday

Very easy 13.5km in 1:01:10 (4:32's). Nobody waiting so went off by myself. Bumped into Kanser and Eamo half way around so ran with them for the rest of the way. Also saw Binfield and the Chairman (in a rare outing). Beautiful day today, clear as a bell but much cooler than yesterday.

Seal Rocks and Narrabeen Sunday

Returned from a great camping trip at Seal Rocks last night. Missed a run on the Friday on the way up. The rest of the week went as follows:

Sat: 12km easy
Sunday: 23km picking up the pace all the way averaging 4:24's by the end.
Monday: 10km starting easy (5km in 21:30) but picking up the pace to finish in 40:19
Tuesday: Rest. Achilles sore due to lack of stretching and exercises.
Wed: 13km very easy.
Thurs: 13km easy.
Friday: 10km tempo in 37:33. Aimed to pick up the pace the whole way. Worked other than my usual soft cock 6th km. Splits went 3:58, 3:53, 3:49; 3:46; 3:46; 3:49; 3:43; 3:43; 3:33; 3:32
Sat: 13km easy.

All run over an undulating unsealed road from Seal Rocks to Yagon campsite plus some beach on the longer runs.

Today was my route up to Narrabeen and back but ran along Dee Why beach this time as the tide was out. Felt great on the way out running sub-4:20's with ease but struggled back up to Long Reef and until Curl Curl against the wind. Can't seem to do this run without hitting a wall at around Dee Why. Recovered again towards the end. Turned at 13.5km averaging 4:30's and finished the 27km in 2:02:26 (4:32's). Not helped by running at Noon on a pretty warm day - 29C.

Not quite HuRTS Time Trial

MC is scared of doing the time trial so he set it up for today knowing that he wasn't running due to Saturday's race. So I front up despite having drunk a truckload of beer last night. It was good that I did - I sweated out a bit of the hangover and it's such a fantastic day out there today, much cooler at about 23C but clear as a bell.

4 others showed up, and one of those (Chris Graham) was late. The others were Mat Kaley, Dom and strange accent Will. I just wanted to cruise around so set off with SA Will. Actually felt OK when I was running apart from a period of about 5 minutes around Farm Cove when I thought my internal organs were going to pack up. Ran 26:19 (4:03's). Other results were:

Mat: 24:35
Chris G: 25:18
Dom: 25:18
SA Will: 26:53

Off camping to Seal Rocks tomorrow so this will be the last post for a while.

Wednesday MLR

Same as last week but just with Luke. Being Luke, the last few km were pretty quick all averaging around the 4:05 per/km pace. Achilles is pretty sore. Need a rest and to work on it.

HuRTS 45mins Fartlek

Cooler (24C) and wet today which meant a low turnout. These are Sydneysiders we are dealing with. Just Tucks, Clyde, Fats, TimC, Pete W, the King, Phil Woods, Clement and a couple of others. Set off in the front group with Tucks, Clyde and Fats fully expecting them to pull ahead around Farm Cove. Felt good today though so just kept on pushing the fast stretches and keeping pace. Fats was complaining of wind and pulled off at Circular Quay for a pit stop. We reached the first speed hump on Hickson Rd at the half way mark - 6.25km which was way further than I've done recently. The pace then picked up on the way back with the km splits hitting around 3:32 (which included the floats). Went through 10km in 35:46 and just got back to the gates in 44:53 with Tucks having pulled ahead on the penultimate rep and Clyde slightly dropping off.

Really pleased with the session - 12.48km all up averaging 3:35s. More pleased with the fact I made it back to the gates for once so have a bit more strength in the legs.

Ran past Sparkie (who I haven't seen in a long while) and Action along the way.

Recovery Monday

Out with MC, LF Charlie, Clyde and Luke for the usual Monday 14.8km. Felt very easy on the way out (I think the first km was around 5:20). Bumped into Kanser along Hickson Rd and he joined us until the Opera House. We must have upped the pace all the way through as we finished in 67 mins (4:31's average). Felt much better in the second half.

Iron Cove Bolter STaR

Set off with the 6.20am group not knowing whether CT was going to show for a 6.30am start. Very easy to start with but it was just what I needed - legs were still shot from yesterday. Group included Flakey, Shaun A, Nick B, Jo Cowan etc. Fats joined us at about 3km. We continued on together until about 15km when Fats and I drifted off the front. Caught CT coming back over the Gladesville Bridge and ran with him until 3km to go. No idea of the pace as I left my Garmin at home but I'm guessing it was 5min+ kms to start with but around 4:20's from when Fats and I pushed on. Finished in about 2:18. Guide reckons it is 29.9km but I reckon whatever route we took was a bit less, probably 29km.

Left achilles is now sore (not on the insertion but further up). Was the same story last time I did yesterday's session with Sean.

Centennial 8km

Warm and humid and boggy underfoot. However, was hoping to stick to Sean today given how much better I've been feeling in running recently. However, it wasn't to be. He pulled away at the end of the first laps and put about a minute into me by the end. Laps went as follows:

6:53
7:09
7:17
7:09

28:26 all up. Only 1s quicker than last month with very similar time distribution over the 4 laps. I was hoping to get under 28mins today so was pretty disappointed. Not sure of the reason - probably just tired after the recent step up in training. However that third lap is just pathetic. Need to do some more tempo running to stop this mid-race tail off. I'm much stronger over intervals. Will do some quicker tempo 10kms when on holiday.

Followed by the usual 10 hills which I did consistently in 21s. 14km all up.

The effort of pants

Very easy 5km over lunch with Clyde, the King and a chick called Anne. Clyde reckoned 5km wasn't even worth the effort of changing pants. I've become slightly obsessed about running every day though. Don't seem to get sore when I do.

Easy Thursday

Very tired from the week's training and still can't shake a cold that I've picked up so skipped HuRTS and ran a very easy 13km instead. Crossed paths with Pete W and Clyde and caught Hamish Bell with 2km to go so ran back with him.

Wednesday MLR

Easy run at lunch with MC, Tim C, Tucks, King James V and Indrajeet. Usual route out beyond Rose Bay turning after 45mins. Managed 9.4km before we turned (just before the top of Heartbreak Hill). Quicker on the way back to finish 18.76km in 1:27:11 (4:38's). Tired by the end despite the easy pace - it's been a big 3 days (60km) and did strength with Carl this morning so the legs were weary.

Farewell Sergio

The big fella emailed yesterday to say that he'd resigned and was heading over to that popular destination for Australians of Portuguese descent - Switzerland. It will be a sad loss for the HuRT Squad and the Sydney running community. No-one will forget his 68min Half Marathon at the Gold Coast - he wouldn't let us. For the month or so per annum that Serg was actually fit, he would blitz us all. The thing was that he'd only take about 4 weeks of half arsed training to get there. We will be marking his departure in true Serg style - 2 lite beer shandies (heavy on the lemonade), a plate full of peri-peri chicken and 3 Hickson Road reps.

Today was 4 x 3km with the HuRT Squad. None of the fast guys were there though with Clyde and Tucks absent and John and Andy resting before Ironman Oz this weekend. So I was all alone by myself up front. With yesterday's session in my legs and a heavy cold, I ran comfortably but can't say it was too enjoyable. Reps averaged 3:41, 3:33, 3:41 then 3:28. Zero aches and pains though. Body feels better than it has in 2 years.

Long Monday

Heaed out early for a loop of Centennial then joined the boys (MC, Tucks, LF Charlie, Luke, Indrajeet, Rob and James V) for the usual Monday route. I'd taken Centennial very easy (4:31's) so still felt good when starting the second part. Slowed down to start with then we picked up the pace all the way through such that the final 4kms were run in 3:56, 3:49, 4:00 and 4:05. All up 27.15km in 2:00:16 (4:26 per/km). Felt great today. First long run I've done in 12 months feeling good all the way. Luke was on fire pushing the pace towards the end.