SMH Half pre-view

Met up with Mohammed near the corner of Hickson Road and Napoleon Streets this morning just before 6:30am. We both had 90 minutes on our programs this morning, so it was an ideal opportunity to run a preview of the SMH Course, which we did, minus the last kilometre, in about 97:25.

Just an easy cruise this morning. Had a couple of people get in my ear about taking an easy week last night at GNScon/FPT's 30th last night - curse their relentless logic!

Nice cool, clear morning, felt fine but can't say we ever pushed hard, just had a little push on the last downhill on York Street and down Napoleon Street. We weren't exactly alone out there, either.

Batlling at Scarborough Park

Ended up missing out on my easy half hour on Friday. We had a fair well at work late in the afternoon, and the small piece of cake I had wasn't sitting well.

Saturday - pretty quiet day before heading over to Scarborough Park for the novice 10k. Good turn out of Striders for the event.

The course was two 3k loops, and then 2 2k loops (basically the 3k loop with the first k out of it). I felt okay through the warm up, just not particularly motivated. Gun went off, and I deliberately took the first couple of km easy. I felt a little tight in the chest, though, as if my heart rate seemed elevated. I was close to Don Juan, sitting about 10 seconds or so adrift of Mohammed, about where I wanted to be. Don Juan pushed up at about 4km or so, and I just wasn't able to go with him. As mentioned, the heart rate felt elevated, and I felt particularly ordinary over the last half of the race. Ended up getting home in around 39:31 for 56th place.

Feel a bit down about the result. There was definitely a physical issue there - either the Coke Zero I had with lunch really affected the heart rate, or I've got some bug in the system. I've been sleeping okay, that's usually the first thing that's disrupted. Odd.

Tried out the Brooks T4 and they were fine. Felt pretty good, actually.

Intervals going in the right direction

First opportunity to try SW's advice of taking the first few reps easy, and saving it up for the last two.

Fresh night at Kensington, with a bit of a breeze. SW had gone to some lengths to ensure the track was closer to true length, which seemed to see some of the markers moved out quite some distance.

Oh well, training is training. Down to business. Reps went 86, 86, 83, 84, 81, 80, 76, 73. Felt very strong on the last two with good strong sprint on the back straight for the last one. Pleasing, felt I got quite a bit out of the session. SW mentioned afterwards I'd looked strong on the last rep.

Felt I was loafing a little on the first couple - it was a big group tonight, and the juniors do seem to bolt at the start.

Saturday will be interesting. I'll try to focus on not smashing myself in the first 5k and bringing it home hard over the last five. We'll see how it goes.

A gentle midweek cruise

I have a standing arrangement with my subconscious - it can do what it likes when I'm asleep, but it's not to interfere with my waking state unless it's critical.

So, in the context of all this discussion of taking training a little easier, today I forgot my watch. I don't wear one normally, just neglected to pack it.

Oh well, life goes on. Took the shorter route home, basically the same as previous Wednesdays but cutting out the Bay Run, just heading directly west along Victoria Road. Not sure when I left the office, suspect the run was around an hour twenty or so, probably around 16k, felt like 5 min k pace. Just nice and easy on a cool, breezy night.

Apologies

Sorry for anyone who saw multiple posts from Monday. Blogger was having a bit of a tizzy fit on Monday night and numerous attempts to post that evening failed, only to reappear this morning. May explain the maintenance period this morning.

Anzac Day

Attempt 1: Alarm went off at 5:15. Reset alarm to 5:30. Back to sleep.

Attempt 2: Alarm went off at 5:30. Mentally debate not going to session, realise I've made other commitments that revolve around attending the session, plus I'd have to go out and do the session later anyway. Manage to lever myself despite gravity having apparently doubled in strength overnight. Staggering around reveals legs are pretty tight from last night's efforts.

Thus begins Anzac Day 2006.

Got down to Mackay Oval and shuffled through a pretty grindy warm up. With the morning crew the session had a bit more of a relaxed feel about it. Caught up with a few CRs like Fats, Amjan, Don Juan, Bernie G, Wild Thing, KT and others I probably forgot. Sorry, I was pre-coffee. It was cool and still, with the ground fairly damp below foot.

Session was 4 x 1600. Went 5:36, 5:37, 5:41 and 5:47. Last night's run was apparent through the session, and I felt I was battling in the second half, with both Ewen and Don Juan steaming through strongly in the last two reps. Don't really have a lot to compare the session to, but I guess it was pretty slow compared to what I would have run in the evening.

Oh well, it's done, and there was a pleasant breakfast in a nearby cafe afterwards which brightened the morning considerably.

Dabbling in other brands, and a fresh Monday night

As part of my extending grizzling about Sunday's SMC event, my poor Magic Racers copped a share of the blame (it's like golf - it's never the golfer, always the club), so with work being quiet I had a bit of a ring around to see if anyone had the Brooks Burn that a few people, MPH and Fats amongst them, had recommended.

My endeavours pinpointed Paul's Warehouse in town and I scooted down there in my lunch break.

Perusing the shoes on offer there, I was surprised at the weight of the Burn, figuring them to be more like the DS Trainer than a true racing shoe. They seemed okay, and the price was pretty decent, so I thought I'd try a pair on. Then I saw the Brooks T4 Racer - bit hard not too, they're fairly eye-catching...
...very light, too, at just over 200 grams a shoe (I weighed them when I got on). Tried them on too - both felt pretty decent in short strides through the store, a lot softer than the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 5 I ran in a few years ago that gave me fearful shin splints. Again, prices were very reasonable, so I headed back to St Leonards with two pairs of new shoes.

Feel a little guilty, but the whole fleet's been renewed now so I'll be right now until the new year when the post-Xmas sales should see shoes cheap.

Anyway, back to the running thing. EliseS decided to do Run Club tonight, so the routine was much like last week. I have to train with SW's morning group tomorrow, so thought it best just to run with a good rhythm and not belt the bejesus out of myself like I did last week.

So, after a brief chat with Tim and 26miles, with new Brooks Burn 2 (to give them their correct name) on the hooves, I set off, completing a lap of the Dog Run and a lap of the Bay Run for 16.34km in 1:13:18. Had the iPod on, with the quite isolating headphones and a good series of songs, and just had a nice, solid comfortable rhythm going.

Quite fresh out there, I was comfortable in a long sleeve top and shorts, and quite a solid breeze out of the south east. The shoes were surprisingly soft for a DS Trainer equivalent, but certainly had very good control in the sole - it seemed that the insole is fairly soft, giving good cushioning within the shoe without sacrificing the control of the shoe. Quite impressed. Good to add a bit of brand variety to the shoe rotation.

SMC 5k - "Training Speed? Please report to the startline..."

Pretty damned cold this morning.

Tried something a little different today, up at 5am for a very strong cup of coffee with a spoonful of honey to make it palatable. Yeah, that strong - I normally have it straight black. Spoon was just about standing up in it.

Bit of a rude shock to see 9 on the car thermometer, and on arrival at Smithfield with JD the number flipped to a fairly intimidating 6.

Caught up with the crowd, got through a reasonable warm up, did some drills, and got over to the start. Headed off from the start, with Uncle Dave (doing the 10k) and 2b (who won the last two 35+ age 5ks but won't have done the required 6 races) leading us out. I figured out at about the 1k mark that I wasn't going to able to go with them so just ran on perceived effort.

From then on, it was a pretty lonely run. I tried to avoid looking at the watch, except at the turnaround (9 minutes dead, where I had a quick glance at the field coming up to the cone and figured second outright was pretty safe) and a quick glance on approaching the cones on the final curve right).

Picture courtesy of Johnny Dark and Coolrunning

18:00, 1 second better than February. Effort felt pretty even throughout, with what I felt was a pretty reasonable last kilometre to make up for the climb just before it. Just felt a bit 'speed restricted' through the run - possibly some residual fatigue from a hard week, or the cold, hard to tell.

As I said to a few people, I'm getting a wee bit frustrated that I'm not converting good training into results at the moment. I managed 17:40 here back in January. I realise I need to be patient, keep doing the work and stay focussed on the longer term goal of Gold Coast, but it'd been nice to turn in some nice numbers along the way.

Had a pleasant cool down along the back loop of the long run course, with a bit of a chat with Bernie G and Psychoma.

Good to catch up with the crowd afterwards. The two Garmin 305 debutants ran PBs - I can't reveal one of them, but Aunty Karin ran an impressive 10k only two weeks after the Canberra 50k and a tough 'brick' tri session on the bike and in the pool yesterday. Horrie put up an impressive return to form, too.

Damn fresh though - thank goodness for the hot showers...

Like last night, except two hours earlier

As the title says, half hour round Bedlam Bay Oval, two hours earlier than Friday.

Got some good Koss headphones that have this spongey earpiece things that work a treat - stay plugged right in the ear, and block out a LOT of ambient noise, so you don't need the volume up to hear the music properly. Good soundscape, only thing is they're very bassey.

Will have to be supercareful running with them in out in the real world, though - which I am anyway.

Felt pretty solid tonight - roll on tomorrow morning.

Friday's cool half hour

30 minute cruise around in circles at Bedlam Bay Oval after getting home from work. Felt fine, just happy to get it done. Fairly cool breeze across the river from the south, though.

Had a massage from Easy Tiger this morning at Sparrow Farm A.M. which went fine - some residual calf soreness, plus a couple of points behind the knees, but nothing terminal.

A dozen 400s, thanks, and I'll only have a short break between those

400s again. Gah.

Early start to see the Horned One for a dose of acupuncture and manipulation. Worked pretty well - sitting here, 'Illie" and the right hoof feel pretty good, and were fine through the session.

Probably picked a bad couple of days to try to cut down caffeine. I was caffeine free until about 9:30, where it became apparent the choice was either a long black, or a broken nose from falling asleep at my desk...

Down to Kensington Park for 12 x 400. I missed the bit about the very short break between reps - it was 45s in the program, which it probably would have been if you were doing your reps in 50 flat!

Felt pretty flat through the warm up, and worse after drills. Then, I never feel good through drills.

400s went 78, 75, 76, 76, 76, 76, 76, 76, 76, 77, 78, 75. Thought I was going out the door backwards on reps 10 and 11, but dug deep for the last one. Big group tonight made negotiating traffic difficult. Utterly wrecked after the last one - took some time to get the breath back.

Very pleasing to keep the reps below 80. Average looks to be about the best I've managed in a 400 session, although it was 'only' 12 reps. Good to follow through with a strong session despite feeling tired, and some shorter events coming up.

Re comments on the last post: yeah, there's probably a good argument for taking Wednesday night reasonable easy. Given where we are timewise from Gold Coast I think I need to belt the Sunday/Monday combination to give that 'speed endurance' that's so important for the longer road races such as the half marathon and marathon. If it means a bit of a 'time on feet' cruise on Wednesday, so be it.

And, yes, HK, still off the turps. The hardest thing has been the social side, CR drinks at Customs House last week being a prime example. Do I feel better for it? Well, 5kg pretty well just fell off me in a month, so there was an immediate improvement right there. I haven't been sick in the near 12 weeks since I last had a drink, and was averaging an illness every 5 to 6 weeks - so, yeah, I feel a lot better for it. Just hate it, that's all.

Two easy days now before the second last SMC 5k of the current series. Could be interesting.

Wednesday night wobbles

Guess the last few days caught up with me tonight - felt tired and not particularly interested in running home, and the iliacus and right foot were pretty grumbly. Some work for the Horned one in the morning, methinks.

Bit of a variation on the usual route of St Leonards to the city, across the Anzac Bridge and down Lilyfield Road to hook into the Bay Run near UTS Rowers, around to the Rowers Club at the Iron Cove Bridge and along Victoria Road. The right leg was giving me a bit of grief here, plus I wasn't feeling great, so I jumped on a bus to the Hunter's Hill shops (near the Triple H) and ran the last kilometre home, for about 19.3km in around an hour and a half.

Pretty warm night, too.

Windy windsprints

12 windsprint laps of SW's Kensington Park 400 metre course - in other words, float the bends, belt the straights. I'm convinced a lot of the squad just race this run rather than go for a marked difference between the straights and bends - I seem to reel a lot of people in on the straights, and then lose touch with them on the bends.

The sprints seemed to sting a bit tonight and the 'floats' got progressively softer through the session. Ended up at 17:27 for the 4.8km, about 15s off the last time I did this session at Mackay Oval in early March. Conditions weren't ideal tonight, with the ground softer and quite a stiff breeze on the home straight, but I'd still prefer to be a bit closer.

Finished well puffed, which I guess is the point. Oh well, it's done.

Easter draws to a close

With EliseS deciding to take advantage of the public holiday and going to Run Club, I took the opportunity to tag along and do my scheduled 70 minutes while she did her thing. After a quick chat with freespiritfitness and 26miles, I headed off into the darkness.

Decided to push hard again tonight, completing a lap of the Dog Run, the Bay Run and then up to the old structure in front of Balmain Shores for 17.00km in a few seconds over 70 minutes. Good to push all the way, especially backing up after yesterday's hard 2 hour effort.

Caught up with Luke Skyrunner and Action the second time through the CR 5k course (had seen them earlier in the last kilometre of the CR 5k course) and had a bit of a chat - they're both recovering well from their adventures at Canberra 8 days ago.

Fairly mild night down next to the water - not too many of those left, I suspect.

XML Feed

Just a quick note to those who use RSS feeds or XML fed news aggregators, I've set up an XML feed at http://vatmans.blogspot.com/atom.xml so you can get my mental meanderings without having to come to the Blogspot itself.

Easter Weekend catch-up

Saturday

2:30pm 7km race at Sir Joseph Banks Park in Botany with the RBH. Always a bit awkward, this mid-afternoon races, in terms of eating and working out what time I should leave to get over there, although the combination of quiet roads and the half toll for the Cross City tunnel made it pretty easy.

I didn't have an overly clear idea of what I was hoping to acheive at this event, thinking pretty much at the start that 25:12 (3:36 pace) would be nice.

Very small field headed west from Fremlin Street through Sir Joseph Banks Park, along the bike track. I headed out initially with Easy Tiger and Mohammed, Mohammed gradually dropping off after 1k or so. After emerging from the park and running through around a kilometre of industrial area, hit the turnaround at 12:36, pretty well bang on target. Easy Tiger and I were joined by Don Juan just after half way.

From there, Don Juan, Easy Tiger and I battled it out. Easy Tiger fell off about 500 metres after we re-entered the park, and DJ and I continued to battle until around 1.5km to go, where my troublesome stomach hinted it might play up, and I simply couldn't hold the pace, Don Juan hitting home in 25:27 in 5th, and me following home in six for 25:40, 3:40 pace, just beating a fast finishing East Tiger who managed 25:42.

Could have been faster, but I guess I'm just not there yet. Still, good hit out. I think these shorter XC events are great for your speed, as they're short enough that you have to get out and just flog it, but long enough for it to hurt. You'll always do a race harder than a training session!

Sunday

The race seemed to take a bit out of me and I simply couldn't get out of bed to do my long run in the morning. We had plans to head up to the Blue Mountains later that morning, so I had to run in the late afternoon (a rut I seem to be stuck in at the moment!).

We didn't end up getting back until around 5:30, so it was going to be a late one!

Got out the door at about 5:50pm or so and headed east. Ran from Gladesville to the Bay Run, did a 9k Dog Run loop, then back to the start of the 5k challenge course and followed that to the Lilyfield Road bridge, crossed over, looped around back under the bridge and ran through the unleashed dog area (much nicer in the dark with no dogs!) , hooked into the back of the 5k challenge course and followed that back to the Rowers, back up on to Victoria Road and back home. Worked very hard on maintaining pace, covering 28.90km in 2:07:08. Felt pretty strong through the run, actually, just working to maintain momentum.

Pretty lonely out there - thank goodness for the iPod. Two hours circulating the Bay Run in the dark with no-one around would have driven me mad(der).

Quick catch up

Thursday - woke up with stomach cramps (hadn't felt great in the guts on Wednesday afternoon or on the run home that evening), so with those and a strained cbf muscle (thanks Amjan - it's just next to your heart) gave work a miss. Still felt pretty ordinary so elected to play it safe and give training a miss. Put in an alcohol free appearance at the CR drinks at Customs House - I think FPT and MPH made up for me.

Friday - felt better, but took it easy in the morning and took advantage of the beautiful to head over to Bedlam Bay Oval with the iPod and cruise around in circles for half an hour. Right foot was a little tight, but hip/iliacus were good. Steady as she goes.

RBH 7k XC at Botany tomorrow afternoon. Will be interesting.

Mid week 90 minutes

Remembered my watch this time.

Work's got me mightily ticked off at the moment. One of the great things about running is being able to mentally deal with things on the longer runs, and it's out of mind when I get home.

Otherwise, it was pretty grindy tonight. Easy Tiger had another go at the legs and lower back today, and they were much improved on last week, thank goodness. Dunno if I could have taken another hour of that or so. Right hip/iliacus is much improved, and right foot is coming along.

Wasn't in the right frame of mind when I got out the door at 5:30pm and wasn't feeling too flash, either. Followed exactly the same route as Wednesday last week and rolled home in around 1h35 or so for around 20km. Pretty unremarkable, although pedestrians on the Harbour Bridge seemed to really have the wanders tonight. Hate that.

Running around in the wind and the dark

Tuesday night and more laps at Kensington under lights. The new system of catching the train to Redfern and meeting Mohammed to get a lift to the training venue is working a treat.

Good long warm up, and down to business. In quite a strong breeze, which we were straight into on the back straight, the session went:
3000m - 10:45
2000m - 7:10
1000m - 3:30

So, 3:35 pace for the 2 and the 3. Just couldn't ramp it up for the last kilometre. Felt a little frustrated, but given the wind and the heavier ground I guess it's a little hard to make comparisions. Last time I did this specific session it was 11:18, 7:26 and 3:19 so I guess it was a case of working harder in the longer reps, and tonight's session was completed 38 seconds quicker, but then I see the 3k 1k 1k session of a month ago that went 10:02, 3:17, 3:19 and scratch my head a little bit.

Oh well, just keep doing the work, I guess.

Another week begins

Finally got out the door at about 5:15. Had an hour and ten minutes tonight, so down the Pacific Highway from St Leonards to the city, through Pyrmont and up on to the Anzac Bridge, plugging into Victoria Road and homeward bound to the wilds of salubrious Gladesville. Didn't have a watch, but got in at about 6:30 after stopping at the Iron Cove Bridge to send an SMS to Mister G who had called to say he was in the area at about the time I was coming through - I was running a little later than advertised so sent him a message telling him I'd catch him later.

So, at a guess, probably around 15.5km (according to Google Earth) in around 1:10. Felt pretty good - aware of the right hip/iliacus and to a lesser degree my right foot, but another session with Easy Tiger should help further with that.

Cool, fairly breezy night for running, and felt pleased with a consistent effort. DS Trainers seem to be agreeing with me.

ANOTHER weekend away...

The last weekend away for a while, thank goodness. It’ll be nice to get some time at home!

Got away for Canberra around 11 or so. Drive was pretty easy, once we actually got on to the freeway.

Pottered down to the start area a bit before half past (once my bike had been dropped off) and caught up with the CR/Strider crowd, got a bit of a warm up in and managed some abbreviated drills. Got to the start-line feeling pretty reasonable. Conditions weren’t ideal, with the wind quite strong, although it was cool and clear.

The course is a bit convoluted, with two laps of the road around the school, then three loops down to Wentworth Avenue. Got through the first two km, basically the two loops of the school, in 7:05, and felt good, if a little ‘on the edge’ speedwise. Basically spent the first 5km chasing Jenny Truscott, who I edged past just after 5km (where I was 18:21). She got back past me at around 8km, I got past her again just before 9km, and she sprinted over the top of me with about 100 metres to go to beat me by about 2-3 seconds - a well timed sprint and testimony to how well she’s training at the moment. Managed 37:23 in difficult conditions – the back 5km were definitely slower, with the long haul from Wentworth Avenue to the Finish Line (2km or so) uphill and into the wind seemingly taking ages, plus the added bonus of ducking and weaving the slower competitors as we lapped them. Made a point of passing on encouraging words to the CRs that I passed – hopefully I didn’t frighten Wildthing too much, I tapped her on the shoulder as I went past and realised she had her iPod on and probably hadn’t heard me approach!

Photo courtesy of sfgnome, Tiger Angel, and Coolrunning

I know I was dreaming of a faster time, but pushing and ending up so close to Jenny, who I know is in a definite improvement phase and beat me but around 20 seconds at Homebush, is encouraging. Looking at the times, people seemed to be around 30-60 seconds slower than you’d expect, so at a guess I’d say the run was probably worth a mid to high 36 in ideal conditions. I felt pretty happy with the level of effort, certainly didn’t feel like I slacked off any point. I had a little down spot probably at around 7km or so.

Did a quick little cool down and on to the evening. Had a very pleasant evening with the Queensland crew, plus Mohammed, and had a big plate of spaghetti marina to fuel up for Sunday.

Up at 6am on Sunday, and kitted up for the cold (around 3 degrees for the start). For the record:
- legs: Full length skins, New Balance tights, thigh length cycling shorts.
- torso: Kathmandu long sleeve cycling top, Striders tri-top
- others – cold weather cycling gloves, beanie under bike helmet

Photo courtesy of Jim Moody and Coolrunning

I was just okay, as long as I kept moving and made sure I stopped in the sun.

Watched the start and headed over to the Parliamentary square. Tiger Angel, who was also bike bound, tagged along as she wasn’t sure where she was going. My bike then proceeded to break down, as the right pedal stripped out of the crank. Dial A Bike, to their (well, his) credit, was there in 10 minutes with a replacement bike – he was in the area tending to his balloon, which was the big Prime TV blue and yellow one. I got myself down to where the runners come up to Kings Avenue, near the National Gallery. Watched the leaders come through, and stood amazed (as did a few others) as two kangaroos appeared from next to the National Gallery, bounded across the field between some runners and turned left towards Kings Avenue, where they nearly got cleaned up by a Camry and a Prado. Bush capital indeed!

From there, wandered down to Parkes Way and kept an eye on the field through here, wandering down to Commonwealth Avenue, and then cruised back up to Cow Bell Corner (which seemed quieter than previous years) and chatted to the CR support crew, watching the runners come through.

Headed back over to Parkes Way, and went up into central Canberra to get something to eat, coming back via Australian National University, following Parkes Way back to Commonwealth Avenue, through the Parliamentary area to the finish area. Dropped the bike back to the hotel and checked out, getting back to the finishing area around 11, covering around 45km for the morning.

There were so many great stories from the morning. Clairie’s stunning debut (was wandering around the finish area and hear ‘Vat!’ and suddenly Clarie was hugging me, with a huge grin on her face), Johnny Dark’s great PB, Aunty Karin’s marathon PB and strong 50km, Luke Skyrunner’s big sub 2:45 PB, Craig Dunn’s sub 4 min per km effort, Damo’s strong debut, chatting to Emma Murray about her 2:45, Uncle Dave smoothly proving he’s well and truly back in business, Tesso’s brave 25km, Mohammed’s 30km training run that saw him cheering people on with a finisher’s medal around his neck, sfgnome’s elation at having ‘done the deed’, kanser capitalising on his strong summer of work, Kelvin and his new moustache going sub 3 again, Action’s 50k, Papa Luigi proving that a fair chunk of Uncle’s success is genetic, Eagle running his prediction, Blue Dog wobbling around on a sore heel and his extended chat break at the first 50km aid station, repeatedly bumping into Dan Green as he ran his training run near the course, O Runner finishing despite obvious discomfort, plu doing his compulsory annual marathon, bandanna’s eternal enthusiasm. I’ve doubtless missed a few (and didn’t get a chance to catch up with Luckylegs, and missed Siri completely), it was all very overwhelming, but underlines why I was so keen to get to Canberra for what was ostensibly just a 10k race – the CR/Strider communities are so strong, felt like I needed to get down there.

We got away a bit after 12, and after stopping for lunch got home just before 4. I had a pretty convenient excuse to either not run or shorten my run, but I was a good boy and got out on a coolish, breezy afternoon, heading from home to the Bay Run, doing a 9k and a 7k loop, and running back home, for around 25.5k or so (didn’t have the Garmin) in a bit under two hours. Felt pretty solid over the run, virtually no effect from the bike in the morning, although I wasn’t exactly exploring the edge of the envelope on the bike).

So, a top weekend. But I am looking forward to Easter at home.

Circles in the dark

Just a gentle half hour after work around Bedlam Bay Oval and some drills. Feeling a bit toey about the Canberra 10k tomorrow, but not half as toey as those running the big show on Sunday, I'd wager.

Confirmed accomodation and organised myself a hire bike, so we're good to go. Just need to remember the winter woolies!

Gettin' cooler

Talk about a cool wind blowing in - the temperature difference between now and a fortnight ago is unbelievable. Mentally associating the new Kensington training venue with being cold!

Session tonight was 8 x 400, with 45 seconds recovery. In practice, it was probably closer to 30. Times went 75, 74, 75, 76, 76, 79, 81, 79. Felt after the fourth rep I might have gone out a bit hard, and it showed in the last three. Wheels were off a bit on the seventh rep, but managed to dig one out for third.

Foot and hip seemed improved. Actually, the foot was fine, although a little angry in spikes, and the iliacus issue seemed more like a localised hip issue. The massage made a big difference, plus some acupuncture and manipulation from Martin Horne on Thursday morning. The manipulation helped - I felt stiff in the lower back after all the driving and it freed up a lot. As it always does.

A message to the Canberra Marathoners

Especially the first timers...

Been good to catch up on the various blogs to see how people are feeling. It's been good to see the number of people really getting 'itchy feet' during the taper - a sign of a good preparation.

About now the nerves are going to start kicking in. A couple of things to remember:
- the nerves are normal
- yes, it's going to hurt. It's a freaking marathon! You wouldn't have attempted it if it was easy!
- if you look into your heart and say "I did my training" you have nothing to fear. You just need to get out there and do it.
- the key night to get sleep is Friday night. You will be a basket case on Saturday night. Again, it's normal
- don't do anything stupid early. That stuff about the race starting at 20 miles (32km) is true. Doesn't mean you shouldn't go out looking for a great time, but it's that time to look inside and be honest with yourself.

Good luck - although it really doesn't come down to luck in running. I'd rate it as one of the least 'luck' influenced sports.

Catch up

Oops. Been a bit busy.

Didn't train as much as I should have at Coffs. Basically only ran on the Monday (a solid hour hit out around the roads and tracks at our resort) and an easy half hour on the Thursday. The Sunday long run in Brisvegas combined with the long drive to Brisbane and the drive to Coffs on the Monday seemed to take a lot out of me and didn't do my iliacus any favours. Easy Tiger did a lot of work on my hips and right lower leg (to loosen an associated lower leg problem) this morning which seems to have helped.

Back to Sydney last Saturday and elected not to run. Got out for my long on Sunday and got through a pretty solid 27k in just over two hours on a beautiful evening around the Bay Run, bumping into 26 miles who I did a lap with. Elected not to push my luck on Monday, and did a half hour tempo with the SW squad on Tuesday down at Kensington (no more Centennial Park - vale daylight savings) which actually went pretty well. Thought I'd done the first ten minutes too hard, eased off the throttle in the middle ten, and felt I belted the final 10 to bring it home.

Tonight was an hour and a half, and I knocked over around 20k in just over the time, running from St Leonards into town and to Gladesville via Lilyfield Road, the south west edge of the Bay Run and up to Lyons Road from about the 1.5km mark of the CR 5k course, following that to Victoria Road and then westward home. Pace felt pretty solid, although I wilted a bit over the last 15 minutes, but to average around 4:30 - 4:35 over the distance was pleasing.

I feel a little guilty about the very easy week at the resort up at Coffs, but looking back on it, I probably needed the refresh. Things have been pretty stressful on the home front (no fault of anyone, just one of those things that happens) in recent months, and we've both been physically pretty tired. Guess you could probably call it a taper!

Seems to be a bit of light at the end of the tunnel with the couple of little right leg issues I've been having of late, and hopefully with a bit more treament on those they can retreat off into the distance.