A day off, then touring Brisbane River

Woke on Saturday, and felt pretty well stuffed, so went back to sleep for a while. I think my body was trying to tell me something, after the long drive on Thursday and two sessions on Friday. Fine - I can take a hint. So I took the day off. We had a bit to do anyway, and I ended up eating too much.

Sunday - cool and clear morning, and hit the road at about 7:15am. Headed from St Lucia down to Indooroopilly, crossed the pedestrian bridge over the river there, and proceeded to work my way up the east bank of the Brisbane River, finding my way to West End and then up into the city, hooking into the riverside walkway, and following that down through Milton and back to St Lucia. Ended up with around 26k or so in 2:05 - 2:10. Iliacus was a bit grindy at times. Finished before it started to heat up - the sun up here is pretty strong, I can certainly see why people prefer to train in the morning.

Off to Coffs in the morning.

An easy half hour completes the day

After a nap this afternoon managed to talk myself into heading out into mild, but humid conditions for a relaxed half hour for a bit over 6km. Felt pretty decent, with the kink in the right hip better than it was this morning. Same deal, down the sandy gravel path between UQ and the Brisbane River.

Friday Windsprints

Managed to head out just before 7, thanks to no daylight savings in Queensland. Did a 19 minute warm up of just under 4km, and found the UQ track pretty well deserted save a couple of maintenance workers. Couldn't find the Honour Box for my $3, so slipped it under the roller door of the upstairs office, thereby maintaining the karmic balance.

Had a stretch and worked through my drills and sprints. Still had a few kinks in the legs (particularly the right hip), and the legs felt pretty dead, so I knew the session wasn't going to be anything special. The track surface was slippery, if good and even - wish I'd brought my spikes, rather than debuting my new DS Magic Racers.

Session was 4.8k (12 laps) of windsprints - belt the straights, float the corners. Probably took the first two or three laps too hard and paid for it through the session, eventually grinding out a 18:27 for the distance, probably 40-50 seconds slower than I would do with the group. I'd forgotten how hard speed work is when you're by yourself. 18:30 jog home for a bit over 3.5k to round out the session.

Still tossing up whether to do half an hour tonight just to 'absorb' this morning's session ahead of a hard 6km tomorrow morning.

A big drive, and a fiddle with the program

Ah, holidays!

Our first proper break for a while (I don't count the Melbourne break from last month as a proper break - far too intensive timewise, with little time to relax). Loaded up the bus last night, and hit the road north to Brisbane early this morning.

I decided to do the drive in my Skins, which probably freaked out a few Northern Rivers service station attendants out. I think it was worth it - legs didn't seem quite as battered as they were on the Melbourne drive, and we were in the car for longer this time.

Rolled into Brissy a bit before 3pm local time (none of this Daylight Savings nonsense in Queensland - upsets the cows or somesuch). I decided to have a bit of a doze on arrival and make the decision on what to do running-wise later. Woke a bit before 5, and decided to swap tomorrow's easy half hour for tonight's 4.8km windsprint, and cruised the gravel path alongside the river next to UQ in St Lucia. For the reference of Brisbane people - the surface is nearly identical to that of the 'Tan in Melbourne. Rolled out about 6k in half an hour.

Checked the nice athletics track at UQ and will try to get over there and do my windsprints tomorrow morning, and probably back up with an easy half hour late in the afternoon as penance.

While you were sleeping...

Up at 5am to get today's 75 minute effort in (got a few things to do tonight) - wasn't planning anything special, given last night's little effort and backing up the morning after.

Got out the door at about 5:15, headed east along Victoria Road and plugged into the Bay Run at the Drummoyne Rowers. Bumped into Luke Skyrunner just after UTS Rowers, and we ran together until the west end of the Iron Cove Bridge where he turned around to do a 20 minute tempo session. Coasted home to do just over 15km in just over 75 minutes, at around 5 minuter per km pace, which was fine. Iliacus was quite troublesome through the run, although it settled a bit towards the end of the run.

Cool and drizzly, although the humidity seemed to build through the run.

Much as I detest the very early start runs, it's good to get it done.

Square up

Yeah, okay, so I probably am carrying a bit of condition from the weekend...

8 x 600. Felt okay aerobically but just couldn't generate any speed. Gah...

Time	Distance	Pace
00:01:58	600	03:17
00:01:56	600	03:13
00:01:57	600	03:15
00:02:02	600	03:23
00:02:00	600	03:20
00:02:00	600	03:20
00:02:00	600	03:20
00:01:59	600	03:18

Oh well. Give it a week or two.

I Could Drive Forever

One of those golden runs that come along now and again.

Felt fairly sore through the day, particularly in the feet. Tired, too. Wasn't really looking forward to the run home, but it was going to be a relaxed hour - more so than usual, since I'd neglected to pack my watch. Oh well.

Once I hit the pavement, though, I felt pretty damned good. Time to admit it - I love running in the Frees. They seem to have a lovely, natural feel to them that, whilst not quite like running in bare feet, is certainly agreeable to my footstrike. I seemed to have a great flow going, and my mood lifted accordingly. Hills seemingly offered no resistance to my progress.

The iPod seemed to sense the mood and dug up some of my favourite songs - I was singing to The Eels Somebody Loves You. Love that song - it reminds me of a dear friend of mine and always brings a smile to my face.

Followed the Pacific Highway from St Leonards down to Lane Cove, down Epping Road to Centennial Avenue to Gladesville, working the loop through Huntley's Point to come up to Victoria Road and home. Probably around 12km in 55 mins or so - bah, who cares how long and how far when it feels good like that?

Funny, even with the iPod in the ears, I was singing another song I had in mind. I know the song's about doing the right thing and walking out on someone before you completely screw them up, but I preferred my intepretation.

Smog's I Could Drive Forever...

"With every mile
Another piece of me peels of
And whips down the road
All down the road

I should’ve left a long time ago
The best idea I’ve ever had

I feel light and strong
I could drive forever..."

A tough weekend

Off to Stockton for the weekend for SW's squad camp.

Bailed from work at about 4:30pm on Friday, and packed up the car at home, waiting for Jim and Mohammed. They fronted at about 5:40, and we got going, arriving at Stockton just after 8pm to unload and grab dinner at the glamourous Stockton RSL. I went the Hokkien Noodles, which were actually pretty decent.

The accomodation was pretty decent (backpacker's hostel in the heart of Stockton, opposite the IGA) if somewhat bizarre. The place looked like what was originally a cinema that had then been squash courts, then converted into accomodation. Highlights included the cabin within a room that was once the central squash court, and the confusing layout of stairs - it was like living in an MS Escher drawing.

Saturday

7:30am - first session, sand hill repeats. Through a mix-up, the main squad left without a group of about five of us. We couldn't work out where they'd parked, but had a rough idea of where they'd gone. After some fruitless searching, we parked near the beach at the north end of Stockton and run along the beach for 3.1km in 18:37. It wasn't exactly ideal for running, with the tide up and only soft sand to run up. We found a huge area of sand dunes and were setting up to do the session on our own, when we spotted what looked to be the main group about 1-2km to the north. A lone figure made its way from the group, and it was fairly apparent it was SW (he does cut a distinctive figure). We headed up and joined the main group for 45 minutes of sand hill repeats. It was pretty hard, but I've had worse sessions at Wanda Hills. Either that or I'm fitter. Nah, that can't be it. To finish the session, we ran 2.2km in around 13 minutes over very sandy trail back to the cars, and got a lift back to my car.

At around 11:30am, we set up at the back of the Stockton pool for the weekend's strength session. After a little jog (2 minutes) this included a lot of abdominal and core work with medicine balls, various bridging poses, crunches, sit-ups and the dreaded gutbusters. As always, that session burned. We finished with another shorter jog.

The evening session was an 'easy out/hard back' session on the beach, from Stockton heading north. Being one of the long distance runners, I had 8k out, 8k back. Funny how perspective changes - I didn't bat an eyelid at this, I imagine it would have been a bit different a few years ago! We got out at about 5pm. The squad was split into 16k, 8k and 4k groups. The 16k group was five guys, and I was comfortably the slowest. The beach was good for running for the first 3km, and then was variable at best, and we had to dodge a few fishermen's lines. The warm up, 8k on sand in a little under 43 minutes, felt pretty hard to me, and I knew it was going to hard going getting back. We set off and I found it very difficult to get a rhythm going, periodically finding a good 10m to run on, only to have the water wash up and ruin up, or worse, wash on to me and drench my flats and socks. I ground out the distance to the 5km mark where the running improved markedly, and then tried to bash out the last 3k, and looking at the Garmin data I was hovering at or under 4 min/km pace here. Finished last for 36:58 - friggin' hard effort though.

After some stretching it was off to the salubrious Stockton Bowling Club for your stock standard sports club style Chinese meal. I went the chicken & cashew - it seemed the least offensive, although it did contain a lot of onion...

Sunday

The long run (well, only 2 hours today) took us along the waterline from the Stockton Pool, around the mouth of the river and up the river to the hospital, and then cut into the trail which lead up to the back of the new housing estate at the back of Newcastle Golf Club. The run to the trail was fine, but the trail itself was very sandy in a lot of places, and pitched and rolled, again making a good rhythm unacheivable. We were all grateful to turn around, but once I got through the hospital I was really struggling, and just ground the run out for about 23.5k in just under 2 hours. Jim and I took a quick dip, but I realised that the easterly had brought bluebottles which were sharing the water with us, so opted for a quick exit, despite the water being great on tired legs.

After watching Kerryn McCanns gutsy win in the Commonwealth Games' women's marathon (all the better with SW knowing Kerryn quite well) we wandered down to Stockton Pool for a 'recovery' session. This involved a 100 metre swim, 15 minutes of deep water swimming in the deep end, and alternating holding on the side of the pool and either kicking our legs or lifting our knees with underwater, 'no breath' swims across the width of the pool. We finished with a 100 metre race. I would have finished last, but finishers always beat DNFs.

Some of the squad went home after that, but seven remained for the final session of the camp, which was a nice easy 6k recovery jog in just under 31 minutes along the waterfront park at Stockton, before a quick shower and the run back to Sydney. Expecting the usual catastrophic traffic at the Gosford exit the F3 was instead quiet, quick and well behaved, with not a policeman in sight. We got home less than two hours after we left.

Things to take away:
- I had a pretty decent Saturday, but it took a bit away from Sunday and I really felt I battled at the end of the long run
- I need to do my strength work. Simple as that
- I'm a dud swimmer. I'll get there in the end, just don't be in a hurry if you're waiting for me
- the Skins do really help with recovery
- I like having a nap after a hard morning session with my iPod. I seriously doubt work will allow me to do this, but I do plan to explore this further when on holiday

Moon River

Full moon over the Parramatta River, clear, dark sky, nice leafy setting - it'd be romantic if it wasn't 5:50am and some bloke plodding around an oval for half an hour, 'cos that's all it was.

Felt a little beaten up, and didn't have the best night's sleep - had that breathing thing I get occasionally after working really hard at training. Iliacus was a little angry, but a little session with that exercise Action showed me after the run settled it down. Calf is 100% (it copped some acupuncture at the Horned one's yesterday morning), foot seems improved.

Short and fast

Nasty little session tonight, the dreaded two sets of 600-400-300-200 with 1 minute between the reps, 5 minutes between the sets. Nowhere to hide on these, it's just shut up and get on with it.

Set myself some fairly ambitious targets that I got pretty close to. We did this session exactly a month ago - I was initially disappointed with the session but on comparing the times was pretty pleased with the improvement. It's worth noting the grass was quite wet and I was conscious of slipping on the bends.

Comparative times were as follows:

Thu, 16/02/06			Thu, 16/03/06
Time	Distance	Pace	Time	Distance	Pace
00:01:57	600	03:15	00:01:52	600	03:07
00:01:12	400	03:00	00:01:10	400	02:55
00:00:52	300	02:53	00:00:50	300	02:47
00:00:33	200	02:45	00:00:30	200	02:30
00:01:59	600	03:18	00:01:52	600	03:07
00:01:16	400	03:10	00:01:11	400	02:58
00:00:52	300	02:53	00:00:51	300	02:50
00:00:31	200	02:35	00:00:31	200	02:35
00:09:12	3000	03:04	00:08:47	3000	02:56

Nice to find 25 seconds across the session. I was hoping to sneak under 1:50 for the 600, 70 for the 400, 50 for the 300 and 30 for the 200, but it wasn't to be, but the improvement is great. Outright speed isn't improved, but 'speed endurance' is better, as shown with the big improvements in the 600 metre times, and that I was able to back up so convincingly.

On the way, bought myself a pair of long Skins, in black. Wearing them now, in fact. Very comfortable. Hopefully they'll help with recovery.

Off to another running camp tomorrow. With a bit of luck I'll get a big boost from that like I did last time. That should set me up nicely for a breakthrough 10k at Canberra on April 8.

Trying out the DS's

Bolted on the new DS Trainers (XI's as it turns out) and pottered about the office for half an hour to get a feel for them. Fit was pretty good, but they felt as stiff as a board with little give (did the DS IX's feel like this new?), an ominous sign. Attractive shoe, though, love the metallic red trim.

I was set to leave at 5, but got pinged after getting changed by my role as one of the First Aid officers. It wasn't a big deal - girl suffering severe dizziness and vertigo. Wasn't a lot I could do, and her medication was back in Dulwich Hill. We elected to call an ambulance, which, since we're about 500 metres from RNS, turned up very quickly.

Finally got on the road at about 5:30 and pushed pretty hard. On the road, the shoes felt pretty damn good - firm, but very well controlled. The uppers will take a little time to break in, but they were fine - no blisters, just a little bit of heat in the soles.

Had 1h 15m in the schedule which just about fits the run home from St Leonards via the city. Pushed pretty hard tonight. The Garmin didn't have a good night, losing signal pretty regularly, but it eventually showed 1:12:56 for 15.39km. I'm confident it was a fair bit more - Sportstracks suggested 15.63km, which I think might be a bit closer to the mark. Actually went past the front door in 1:08:57, which would be a record, and did a lap around the block to get a bit closer to the alloted time.

Felt it a bit after crossing the Gladesville Bridge, but overall, a strong, confidence building hit-out. Things are coming along nicely.

A mauling by Easy Tiger

Forgot to mention my shoes from http://www.footrx.com turned up yesterday morning, a pair of Asics DS Trainers (white with very cool metallic red trim) and Magic Racers (sadly, no longer flourescent yellow). 13 days turnaround from ordering, including a two day delay as they didn't have Magic Racers in my size. Impressive, especially for the price I paid ($234.70) .

Fronted up at Easy Tigers for another massage, and took a fairly solid beating for an hour and a half this morning. Main issues at the moment:
- the iliacus tendon, which comes into play over hills. Seems to have angered by Sunday's River Road run
- inside of the arch right foot. Seem to have an imbalance here and have been told to massage the inside of the foot and lower leg to get the muscles to release, plus some one legged squats to rebalance the muscle strength
- a tightness on the outside of the left calf, doubtless a compensatory thing stemming from the iliacus issue. This is pretty sore pottering around the office this morning.

There was some tightness in the lower hamstrings where they plug in at the back of the knee.

On the plus side, the hips were pretty decent.

Dwindling daylight savings

It's getting dark earlier as we progress towards the end of daylight savings, and the overcast day in Sydney today didn't help.

Got through a 4k warm up in my Frees (which feel a bit more like bare feet on grass), and felt a little stiff from yesterday. The session was 3k, an 8 minute break, then 2 x 1km with a 1 minute break.

Then I found out why the weekend was compartively easy training-wise. SW announced he wanted us to race the 3k, with a reward to the person most under their PB. He didn't care about the 1k times.

So, set out without much of an idea of what to do, and soon enough saw Jenny and Greta up ahead, and decided to chase them. Felt pretty solid through to the 2k point, and pushed harder to run a 10:02 - would have been nice to slip under 10, but hey, a 5 second PB is a 5 second PB.

Felt a bit weary for the 1ks, but managed a 3:17 and 3:19 to round out a very solid session. Faded a bit in the last kilometre, but good overall speed. Very pleasing session. Think I'm starting to come back into some form.

Catch up from a busy weekend

Well, it was a very busy, and thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Finally, a chance to post my running activities

Friday

I was flat out with filling Six Foot entries, so didn't get a chance to run in the morning. Finally hit the road at Jenolan Caves at about 5:40pm. I'd been planning to run with Aunty Karin and Eagle, but she took longer than she expected to ride Caves Road, and after Eagle arrived and advised she was running late, I headed out along Caves Road and just did a 6.3k out and back in a bit over half an hour. Pleasant run.

Saturday

Too busy with Six Foot Track activities, so missed out.

Sunday

Elected not to run until our return to town. Got out at around 4:30pm and decided to combine my relaxed 90 minutes with the hill run I was supposed to do yesterday, so ran from home to Crows Nest return via Burns Bay Road and River Road. Good hard hit out, although I had to urgently find a public toilet in Crows Nest as a certain 'coleslaw' took its near deadly effect. I would recommend staying clear of the Crows Nest Civic Centre restroom until at least Wednesday. The parties concerned know who they are. Ended up just short of 19km in a little under 90 minutes

Monday

Since Mondays and Wednesdays are supposed to be tempo runs, and thus pretty key to a successful marathon, I decided to drag out and dust off an old session that was very helpful for the last decent long race I had. The session came from none other than Eagle, and it's basically a 5k repeat session. Since I had a 1 hour run scheduled, this was a 3 x 5km session, with pretty short active recoveries between the 5ks. The idea is to run each rep progressively faster, working it so that the first 5k is done at your goal marathon pace, and then 2 - 3s faster per km for each subsequent 5km. I know I felt after a couple of runs of this session that the pace of the first rep eventually started to feel very easy, which is exactly what you want for a marathon.

It was a very warm and muggy evening at the Bay Run (nearly 30 at 6:15pm). I went 20:27, 20:14, 20:24 over the CR5k course, with a 54s recovery between reps 1 and 2, and just over 4 minutes between reps 2 and 3 as an issue similar to yesterday felt like it was going to arise. Pace went 4:05, 4:03, 4:05, so a little work to do there, but we're still a little way out from the GCM and I was fairly pleased to be reasonably close. I'd like to keep this session going, but it's a little awkward organisation-wise. Think it'll be worth it, though - the pushing for pace on tired legs in the third rep is excellent simulation. If I can get this session down to a 3:55, 3:53, 3:51 set of paces for the three 5ks, I'll be feeling a lot more comfortable, especially for the SMH Half.

Contractural obligations

Set out from the office a bit after 5pm with not much enthusiasm. Really wasn't interested in pushing hard. Ran from St Leonards into town, out to Rozelle via the Anzac Bridge, around the Bay Run to about the 1.6km mark where I cut left up to Lyons Road which I followed to Victoria Road, turned left and head for home. A little under 21km in 1:45 or so. Felt slow and ugly. Thank goodness for the iPod, or I'd have considered jumping off the high point of the Gladesville Bridge just to get it over.

Guess it's the hard few days plus the massage coming through, plus I'm tired. Will probably get an enthusiasm injection on the weekend up at Six Foot Track, then the squad camp the weekend after.

Disappearing

Well, if you're having trouble losing weight, give up booze. Weekly weight check this morning saw a 74.0kg on the scale, meaning I've lost about 4.5kg since the start of the year (it was tending to go up and down between 76 and 78.5kg between cycles of illness). Diet could still do with a little fine-tuning, but the weight's certainly coming off at the moment! SW suggested a target weight of 68kg last year, which is starting to look like it might be acheivable for Gold Coast.

It's also been just over 7 weeks since I last had a bout of illness, so that side of things is progressing well too.

All I need to do now is find some speed!

Deceptively flat

Bit tired this morning, but felt okay for the rep session this evening. Bit breezy at Centennial Park, but a pleasant enough evening.

Session was 2 x 2k, 1 x 1k, with two bonus 150 metre sprints. Went 6:56, felt pretty comfortable, 7:12 after getting blocked on the first lap and never being able to establish a rhythm, and a flat final 1km of 3:31. Didn't feel 'plugged in' for the last two, suspect the combination of the fairly hard weekend, the massage and last night's run combined to give a flat performance. The 150s went okay, though - don't mind the flat out, ears back blats.

Oh well, decent night's sleep and I'll be good to go again tomorrow.

So begins another week.

Pretty warm and bright conditions for the run home - and dumb-dumb here didn't bring sunglasses. Ugh.

Home via the city. Garmin gave 14.81km in 1:05, but I forgot to restart the Garmin after getting stopped in town at a set of lights just under the Western Distributor overpass at Sussex Street, losing 9 minutes of running on fairly heavily infested footpaths. I didn't realise until I came to the intersection near the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel. Maybe 1.5km.

Pushed pretty hard into town and was rolling okay through Pyrmont, but the climb up on to the Anzac Bridge deck took a lot out of me, and the climb from Roberts Road to Darling Street kicked me in the guts once again. It was pretty much holding on from there home. Overall pace was fine, just the slump over the last 5km or so. Saw Tim from Free Spirit in his bus turning out of Evans Street, and crossed paths with Macca and Guz on the Iron Cove Bridge.

No issues with the legs post massage. The iliacus was present, but quiet, during the downhills.

Felt a bit knocked around at home and a little unsettled in the stomach. Seem to be okay now, but dinner wasn't overly appealing.

Ran in the Frees again. Yeah, I'm a convert. Feet feel pretty good, and they are lovely to run in. Doubt their durability on footpaths and roads is much chop though.

Easy Tiger massage

I'm running this evening, but felt Gary's massage this morning deserved its own entry. Popped off the bus in Druitt Street and wandered down to Darling Park (under the PWC tower) on Sussex Street. Found the hairdresser, and met up with Gary.

Fair bit of tightness around the hips, did some work on the lower ITBs and quads (they were distinctly wobbly afterwards), so we've got a bit of work to do in the coming weeks. Calves are pretty good, which is pleasing.

Gary's got a major advantage in that I run with him a couple of times a week, so he's familiar with my running 'style' and what areas I need to work on. That aside, being a decent quality runner he knows his stuff and his knowledge is very running specific.

gary@easytigermassage.com.au, or 0408 313 512.

Sunday long run

Got over to Centennial Park and met Mohammed at 6:30. I had 2 1/2 hours, Mohammed had SW cut his run to an hour - with Six Foot Track next Saturday guess that's fair enough.

I don't much care for running at Centennial Park - it's dull, and chasing the pack can be a little dispiriting when endurance is off. It makes for a long morning, but it seemed to pass okay today. Managed to clock up just under 31km in the 150 minutes, and wasn't utterly destroyed at the end, so I'm building up. Didn't need to take fuel during the run, just a bit of toast before running.

Always good to get it done.

Striders 10k - Homebush

Bit of an odd day. Speedwork had been going well, and I was hoping for a quick one - definitely sub 37, and hopefully back in the mid 36s. In the back of the mind, though, I knew that I'd only had 5 to 6 weeks since my last illness and there'd been a little bit of disruption mid-Feb with a trip away.

Warm up went okay and the legs felt pretty good. Plan was to get through 5k in 18:10 - 18:20 and see what happened. I knew Brightshoes and Mohammed were plotting for sub 36, so they would be in the general vicinity, which might help drag me through.

Field set off and there was a fair old scramble through the twists and turns of the car park. The front half of the field missed the second right turn, thinking it was later, and things really didn't settle down until past the 1km mark.

Felt pretty solid training Brightshoes and Mohammed. I was in the midst of their group at 5k in 18:24, and thought I'd ramp it up, as I felt pretty decent. This went fine, until the monkey jumped on the back just before 7km. Funny thing was, I had Mohammed and Brightshoes behind me, and I could hear Mohammed groaning. This intensified, and I was certain he was throwing up. I didn't look back - I figured the best case scenario for me was to see him throw up, and I didn't need to see that.

I ebbed and flowed through the last three, uphills hurting pace, but seemingly able to push on the downs. I knew Mohammed and Brightshoes were still there, as I could hear Brightshoes encouraging Mohammed. I banged out the last couple of hundred metres best I could for 37:09.

Bit disappointing, but I doubt I could have gone much better on the day - a softer midway split wouldn't have made much difference. Oh well, at least it's a yardstick. I'm improving, no question, weight's coming off, fitness is coming up, endurance is coming along. Just need to keep doing the work.

Easy meanderings

Usual Friday morning routine - up at 5:40am (although I actually turned the alarm off and decided to run in the evening, before deciding to get up) for the usual wobble around Bedlam Bay oval for half an hour or so. Watch suggested I was slow, which was odd, I felt I was moving okay. Humidity was fairly high, on a mild, damp morning. Dark, too,

Damp windsprints

Nice dose of rain on arrival at Centennial Park and through the warm up and drills. Oh well.

4.8km of windsprints - belt the straights, float the bends. Managed 17:13 for the 4.8km, 3:35 pace. Felt pretty solid, working hard but not smashing myself. Laps were a little bit wide in range, but it seemed to take two laps to settle into a rhythm, and from lap 3 were pretty solid.

Don't think I worked too hard to affect Saturday. Starting to get a good feeling for that one. We'll see. Iliacus was fine, but I'll give it a little work tonight before retiring.

Breezy half hour

With the Striders 10k at Homebush on Saturday, an easy barefooted half hour in the early evening around Bedlam Bay oval. Legs felt pretty solid, started off slowly and worked into it. Ended up at around 4:52 per km pace (usual caveat with the Garmin running around in circles). Iliacus tendon was a little sore but not restricting. Pleasant, cool, if somewhat breezy afternoon.