Out and back before the sun

A number of elements combined over the last week or so to force me to reschedule my 1h45m run (or 24km) run to this morning. With the added bonus of not being able to run to work, this meant an very early start, one that in the context of sitting here at 7am typing up this entry you probably cobble together a credible argument was so early as to technically be yesterday. Well, it felt that way.

I detest backing up the morning after a SW speed session, because it's tough to get out of bed, and the quality's just not there. It's fine for a Friday morning 30 minute shuffle, but for today's tempo run, I knew hitting the targetted 24km in the time alloted, particularly out and back over the Gladesville Bridge and through Drummoyne, was going to be hard. Sadly, not an excuse to dribble along at 5 min/km pace.

So, out the door at about 4:55am. Yes, you read that correctly.

West from home along Victoria Road, two laps of the Bay Run (one anti-clockwise including a full lap of Timbrell Park, one clockwise) and then back home for what GMaps Pedometer suggested was around 24km. Ran it in 1:50:26 for 4:36 pace, although I suspect I probably lost a lot of that in the climb up the Gladesville Bridge. Had to keep pushing myself along - it would have been very easy to drift off into a jog.

Saw Fats, Aunty Karin and the Striders' Wednesday group, which provided some highlights.

Still, it's done. And if one of the elements that forced this unholy effort pipes up about how inconvenient the late meeting is, I will break open her chest, tear out her heart and devour it as she watches,

3,2,1....uh, again

Speed work tonight was the 3km, 2km, 1km session, with a 5 min break betwen the 3 and the 2, and a 3 minute break between the 2 and 1.

Had a massage with Easy Tiger in the morning which showed up a couple of little issues in the lower legs, particularly where the achilles plug into the calves, and around the front of the shin where the muscles attach to the bone. I'll go to him weekly until Gold Coast to ensure I'm on top of these things and ensure the legs are as good as they can be.

Fairly tired through the day and was a bit heavy in the legs through the warm up. It was cold and damp at Kensington. The rain had stopped, but it was wet underfoot.

Went through the 3,2,1 in 10:50, 7:12 and 3:22. Pretty comparable to last time we did this session four week ago where I went 10:49, 7:15 and 3:29 but with some handy improvements over the shorter distances, particularly the 1k, and it's worth taking the 1km into consideration. Hard to believe that was the Tuesday after the disastrous Scarborough Park 10k - ironic that I front up there again on Saturday in the 4km relays.

Solid, if somewhat unspectacular session, but good to see some strength in the last two reps.

Let the beatings commence...

No rest for the wicked indeed...

Pretty tired after yesterday - 2k warm up +5k race + 3k cool down +27k long run = 37k for the day, so probably to be expected. Still, pretty important two weeks coming up, so it's important to stay focussed.

An hour ten for 16km on the schedule tonight. I'm pretty keen to get after these midweek tempo runs, I think they were the key sessions behind the SMH Half success and I'm confident they'll provide a strong base for GC in just over a month's time.

EliseS had Run Club this evening so I tagged along to do my session while she trained. It's a good arrangement, encourages her to get along to a second intensive training session, and I get a good uninterrupted session on quiet, if somewhat dark, paths.

Ran the Dog Run plus the Bay, then down to the old Powerhouse in front of Balmain Shores and back to where Run Club were finishing off their 1k repeats. Looked to be around 16.9k in around 1 hour 11 (I forgot my watch, and went with the iPod stopwatch, so figuring in a bit of handling time, seems about right), so around 4:12 pace for the session. Felt pretty consistent through the run. Put on a bit of a grandstand finish as EliseS and Wildthing finished their repeats - they both looked quite smooth at the finish.

Legs felt pretty good and I seemed to have a good, consistent economical flow going, with enough for a push to finish. Must admit I'm starting to enjoy being able to do these sessions at 4:10-4:20 pace, seems a good pace to run at, covering lots of ground. Fun, almost.

Sunday PM: No rest for the wicked

Had to double up this afternoon for my sins. The joys of shoe-horning a 5k series into the last weeks of a marathon program.

I was originally scheduled a 2 1/2 hour run today, but after discussion with SW this got busted up into the 5k race this morning (plus the 'warm' up and cool down), and two hours this afternoon.

I didn't want anything imaginative, just put the iPod and plod around. Schedule said 27k, so three laps of the Dog Run (Bay Run + Hawthorne Canal) it was, and I got down there at about 2:20pm. Far too fast through the first lap and managed to hold it together through the second, managing two laps in around 1:17:30 or so for around 4:18 or so. Last lap was a shocker in around 41, still 27k in 1:58:33 was fine at around 4:23 pace.

Pretty stuffed now, though. Legs are not too bad - Skins again.

Sunday AM: SMC 5k - 1 sec PB

Last SMC event of the 05/06 series saw a bright, clear and cold morning. The thermometer said 9, 3 more than last month. Thermometers lie. I did 4 laps of the running track at the back of the pavilion in a singlet, long sleeve running top, t-shirt, windcheater and light running jacket, plus thigh length Skins, running tights and lined track pants, AND a beanie, and didn't break a sweat.

A Nike rep named Chris was showing off Nike's Bowerman range. I tried some Zoom Air Elites. Interesting shoe - I could see myself running in them, but they seemed very 'prescriptive', the shoe seemingly dictacting how the foot presented to the road and how the foot worked through putting power to the road. They were also very 'loud', as in foot strikes were very audible. They seemed to ride okay, though, and I guess they kind of suited my running.

There's really not a lot to say about the race. We set off, two of the older blokes (including a notorious fast starter) blocked the narrow cone-lined section, forcing 2b and myself to go around them. I hung off 2b through the first km, sitting about 10m back, getting a little closer down the hill after the right bend of the 1km marker (where I was 3:27 or so, felt harder), but between the left hander and the busway he seemed to free up and eased away.

From there, it was fairly lonely. It was a fair way back to third, and only the possibility of a PB and keeping 2b honest were providing motivation. Was around 8:42 or so through the halfway, and felt very consistent through to 4km where I was 14 dead. Tried to drive hard from there, but another 3:27 gave 17:27, giving a 1 second PB over the State 5000m B race from late January. 33 second improvement over last month, 13 second course PB.

No complaints, good solid even effort. Would have been nice to have found another 5 or 6 seconds over the last kilometre - guess if I'd been racing someone I might have. Oh well.

Back to work tomorrow

With the final SMC 05/06 5k tomorrow, just an easy half hour tomorrow. The cricketers were down at Bedlam Bay oval, so around Gladesville Reserve it was. Felt fine.

Just having a flick back through my records, it's pretty much been just 8 weeks straight of good quality training, broken only by the week at Coffs/Brisbane. Funny, it was about 8 weeks when I started my good month last year. Must be something to it. If I can push through to Gold Coast, it'll be a strong 13-14 week lead up off a reasonable base. Sounds good. I got my program yesterday, two 2:45/36km runs in there next week and the Sunday following to round out the long stuff.

30 min easy

Droned around Bedlam Bay Oval for half an hour at about 6pm. Forgot to put the iPod on - seemed to take forever. Felt a little achey. Decided I don't like the pair of shoes I'd been running in all week in the hope of breaking them in and they have been reassigned to EliseS (thank goodness we have the same sized foot). Not much else to report. Did some gutbusters when I got home

4 x 800

Well, it was 3 x 800 in the book, but SW asked how I felt (good!) and if I was up to four reps (which I was!).

Bit of a transport kerfuffle saw an abbreviated warm up but felt pretty good through it, and the drills. Little bit of an annoyance with Illie but nothing serious.

The idea tonight was to alternate hard reps. I wanted to have a real crack at the third one. Times went 2:45 (solid, not pushing hard), 2:56 (coast), 2:31 (pushed hard), 2:46 (solid first lap, strong second).

Felt pretty strong and might have even found a couple of seconds on the third one. Pleasing. Looking forward to Sunday.

Rinse, then repeat. Always repeat...

After last night's windblown drenching, it was with some trepidation I headed out at about 6pm with light rain falling. Nothing came of it - in fact, the sky cleared as I cruised around Bedlam Bay Oval for another 35 minute recovery. My gentle path has become a full blown groove around the perimeter of the oval - doubtless the groundstaff there are cursing this 'runner in the night'.

Illie is a bit vocal tonight. Who knows why these things are the way they are?

A night to remember

You might recall this post from the lead up to the Striders 10k of July 2005, one of those diabolical nights where you pretty much just train to ensure you don't feel guilty for missing it.

Well, my feeling wasn't that bad - I actually wanted to get out and run - but during the 35 minutes of circle work from around 6pm this evening at Bedlam Bay it did occur to me that this would be a good session to remember on the start line at Gold Coast in case I was wondering about my commitment.

Legs felt pretty good. I'm sure I was rolling around at around 4:30 pace at what was supposed to be a recovery run, but in my little world that was defined by headphones and rain spattered yellow tinted glasses I really couldn't be bothered thinking about it, and just let the legs roll.

70th of 4428

Don't generally focus on overall placings in events as I can't control what other runners do, but I was secretly hoping I'd done enough for a top 100 finish at the SMH Half - 80 flat will usually land you a spot in the high 90s, so it seemed pretty safe.

So, I was pretty surprised to see yesterday's effort was enough for 70th outright on Sunday. Certainly makes finding your name easier!

That'll do for commentary on Sunday - fantastic result though it was, the main objective sits but 40 days away and it is important to regain focus, work through the recovery, and make the most of the time remaining before the taper. Speed is fine, just need to finish off the endurance work.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Elected to sleep in rather than get up and do strength. I had intentions of doing strength tonight, but eh, Tuesday and Thursday is good.

Sunday afternoon was interesting. We went out and did some shopping, and the legs got sorer and sorer, with Illie particularly vocal, to the point that I ducked down to Ryde pool at about 4pm and did some swimming, water running and floating to see if that would help. Which it did, a little, but even so it was a fairly uncomfortable night.

On getting up, found the legs were fine. Bizarre.

Anyway, down to Bedlam Bay Oval a bit after 6pm for 35 (not 30, not 45) minutes of iPod driven circle work. From about the 10 minute mark onwards, the flashes of lightning over the lower North Shore drew closer, which made me a little apprehensive. I don't do lightning. When I was in my late teens I was standing about 30 metres from a tree that got hit and have had a 'thing' about it ever since.

Problem is, increasing your pace does not help a time based session go more quickly. Plus, it was supposed to be a recovery session. So, plodding around, keeping an eye to the north east, I ran the clock down. Legs were a little weary, but otherwise fine.

Thanks for the positive comments. It was certainly a relief to deliver on what has been a pretty consistent training effort for some time.

My pick of the runs from Sunday that I saw included Royworlds' relentless effort, Uncle Dave coming up with what might be a PB despite a week and a half off, Tux's strong last 5km, Action underlining his return to form after what has seemed an eternity after Trailwalker last year, and The Mad Guz's well deserved podium finish. Unheralded Sydney club runner my backside.

Vision of the morning, though, was Luckylegs' determination approaching Napoleon Street the final time. I was doing a cool down with 26 miles, and we both waved and cheered, to no response. LL looked totally focussed. We both commented that you've got to respect that level of concentration, and moved on. A 4 minute PB for her seemed just reward.

Back in business

79:16

Faaaarrrrk.

Got into town very early (5:30) and got a really good park. I'm not sharing where. It was a bit of a punt, technically the car probably wasn't fully in the space, but it was either that or metered space.

Went for a walk and had a solid stretch in the park next to the Palisades Hotel. Pottered back to the car around 6 to get my back, and overheard a quite entertaining argument between two guys about a parking ticket and the definition of parking "all night". I'm sure the nearby residents were loving it. There was something about dogs mating.

Over to the Strider safe house in The Rocks, and I was first there. Again. Oh well. Others started to roll in pretty well right after me. After a bit of chatting, caught up with Mohammed, and we did a bit of a warm up, probably 10 or 15 minutes, before pushing our way to the front of the line just before 7. Well, really, there weren't many people waiting, they were busy checking in bags and going to toilet. Started to collect a bit of a CR crowd around us.

I got progressively more nervous as the start time approached and frankly it was a relief when the gun suddenly went off. Worked my way down Hickson Road, just focussing on getting a comfortable rhythm going and not running into anyone. Field was pretty well behaved - don't recall any major dodges.

Missed each of the km markers up to the 5km mark, but was basically running with Jenny Truscott and sitting just off a group that included Peter Truscott, Action, Andrew T and Springer. Tried to maintain a 'constant effort' philosophy where I felt like I wasn't offering resistance to the uphills, but making sure I made solid work of the downhills.

Hit 5km at 18:48, which was a bit of a surprise - it certainly hadn't felt like that, and the 19:20 plan had pretty well gone out the window. Had a quick think about it, and remembered back to 2004 where I'd made a horrible mess of the opening 5km and gone through far too hard. Nope, didn't feel at all distressed. In fact, I felt like a million bucks. Plan of action - maintain current speed.

I'm a little vague on the next 5km. I recall the Domain section seeming a lot shorter than previous years, and being a bit disappointed that the road from the Art Gallery to the cathedral was in fact slightly uphill. Plenty of CR and Strider support out there, too. The Argyle Cut went pretty well, I didn't push hard up there, and I picked up Easy Tiger just as the Kent Street descent steepens to Napoleon Street. We made a quick inquiry of each other's progress, and I continued on. Through 10 (I assume that was the distance of the big clock on the right) in 37:48 (from memory - it might have been 37:40). Jenny had pushed ahead to Action's group, from which Peter started to drop, and I picked him up at the first bridge over Hickson Road. We had a brief exchange about his brother thinking that just because he'd won the Brisbane Half Marathon it was okay to go to the Barossa Valley with his wife instead of run the SMH Half.

Mentall the race started to change here. I was feeling very good, so the focus shifted from keeping an eye on 5km splits to people who were in front. Jenny, Action and Andrew T were attractive lure, and I jokingly 'shhhhed' CRs and Striders who were cheering in case Action realised I was there (I later found out he was having the same problem with Cam). I picked up their group at the start of Pitt Street, and Action, Andrew T and myself had a good stoush through to the drink station at Mrs Macquarie's Chair. At 15k I realised I was in a very good position to go sub 80, and was trying to fire myself up - should never be afraid of the self-motivating shout, even if others think you're strange(r).

I knew Action was getting a drink at Mrs Macquarie's Chair, and I wasn't, so I continued on my way. Up ahead were Tux and Cam. Got out of the Domain in reasonable shape, but was greatful for the short downhill along College Street to the turnaround, before the quick uphill back to Macquarie Street. I was just focussed on getting to Macquarie Street here, and settling things down before the second last big push for the event, down Hunter Street to Circular Quay.

Eased past Cam along Hunter, and tried to fire myself up. Argyle wasn't too bad the second time, and the short downhill afterwards to the left turn at Kent Street was another opportunity to again get settled for the final push home. And push we did.

I couldn't stay with Tux but was more than happy with my own run home, which did seem to go on forever - it's bordering on cruel to have it right up near the Harbour. It was sweet relief to cross the line and get the job done, but I knew from hitting Hickson Road off Napoleon Street the sub 80 was a done deal, the only question was by how much. 44 seconds was how much - 79:16. Preferred for '07, something that seemed well out of reach a couple of weeks ago.

Great to catch up with everyone afterwards, both at the Strider safe house and at the Palisade, where there was a good crowd. I gave it away a bit before 12, and headed home, very pleased with a job well done. Icing on the cake - no parking ticket.

So, the Gold Coast campaign is back on track. I need to realign my shorter goals (McMillans is not kind on that front!) but there's plenty of time for that in the second half of the year. They're not priorities. It's nice to get the reward for the hard work - I can deal with the well documented 10k struggles of recent times. My preferred at City 2 Surf is definitely safe now, so while I was probably going to get a second chance anyway, that's one less worry.

For the record, splits were 37:48 through 10k (3:47 pace), 41:28 for the back 11.1 (3:44 pace), for 79:16 and 3:45 pace overall.

And, as it was my fifth SMH Half (it was my first ever race back in 2002), let's look at the times over the years:
- 2002 1:54:52
- 2003 1:39:47 (-15:05)
- 2004 1:29:16 (-10:31)
- 2005 1:23:27 (-5:49)
- 2006 1:19:16 (-4:11)

...and people wonder why I love this event.

Race Day

Not a huge fan of posting right before heading off to a race, but I was up pretty damn early and thought it might be a good insight.

Got most of my stuff organised last night:
- clothes in the second bedroom room so I can dress without turning the light on in the bedroom. Check.
- wallet, keys, racechip on dining room table so I don't forget them. Check.
- race number pinned on singlet. Check.
- faithful Casio digital watch, since Garmin 301 is useless around town. Uh, no, but a quick search this morning has located the little fella. My old surf watch.

I was up at four. Stomach was quite sore for some reason - has settled after a strong cup of coffee and two pieces of toast with honey. Had the first of what will doubtless be several trips to the can. Cats campaigning to be fed, but it's far too early, they'll get theirs as I leave.

Feeling pretty toey. A PB's pretty much in the bag (as much as it can be in this game, I guess), but I still harbour ambitions of a sub 80. The '19:20' through 5k plan was formulated specifically to be solid through 5 while still leaving me enough room to try it if I'm feeling strong enough. I think it's just beyond me, but I'm due a breakthrough run - it was my real 'return with a vengeance' event last year. To rank potential outcomes:
- sub 83. Good, honest result, in line with expectations.
- sub 82. Very pleased, would be a strong result.
- sub 81. Would be rapt, as a sub 2:50 marathon on the flat at Gold Coast is in play.
- sub 80. Over the moon.

Okay, one more trip to the can, feed the beasties, and it's off to find somewhere to put the bus, since I'll be at the pub, but not drinking...

Another easy half hour

Another gentle half hour in the lead up to the SMH Half. Headed down to Bedlam Bay oval, but some people were inconsiderately playing cricket there, and being a former cricket myself I know how distracting a jogger droning around the outside of the field would have been to the batsmen.

So, I cruised over to Gladesville Reserve (the soccer field next to the road that leads to the Gladesville ferry stop) and cruised around there instead. The centre of the pitch is very sand, with virtually no grass - looks like the ground's actually closed while they try to restore it. I'd hate to play there after a solid week's rain.


Felt a touch stiff in the legs at the start, but as the blood worked its way through them they felt pretty good, and I had a little push on the way home to see how they were. They seem to be good - another 18 hours and they should be fine. I'll do some gentle stretches tonight.

Last night was the Sydney Striders' presentation night. Great to catch up with the usual crew. Guest speaker was Australian Commonwealth Games' marathoner Scott Westcott, who proved to be a charming, entertaining and self-effacing speaker. I was fortunate enough to have a quick chat with him later in the evening - he's based in Newcastle now, so we found some common ground chatting about SW's running camp in Stockton. Nice guy.

Accursed early runs

With the Strider presentation night tonight, no time for an evening run, so it was up at 20 to Sparrow Fart a.m. for a pretty shuffly half hour in quite cool, misty conditions. Mate I hate running really early, especially right after a speed session. I can confirm that my New Balance tights have nowhere near the support of the Skins.

Did some very quick and fairly gentle abs and lower back work just to round the week off in that department.

A short session of intervals

Up early for a 7 am massage with Easy Tiger. Went pretty well, couple of little niggly spots but nothing serious or too painful.

With the SMH Half on Sunday, SW had shortened the session for those racing to 6 x 400. Wanted to go solidly but comfortably early, and push the speed in the later reps. Seemed to be a big group tonight, which made negotiating traffic early in the rep difficult. Times went 81, 79, 78 ,77, 81 (traffic), 75. Good strong last rep, and felt like I could have put out another one if I'd had to.

Still thinking about the approach for Sunday - might try and aim for around 19:20 or so through the first 5km and see how it goes from there. The 5k from Hickon Road to the Domain is the hard 5k of the course, so if it's a little hard I can still recover at reasonable speed on the 5k back to the 10k mark, and if I'm feeling strong there's a good stretch from Macquarie Street to Argyle Street, and from the turn off Argyle Street to under the Harbour Bridge to make relatively easy speed.

An easy hour

Managed to get up for another session on the Bosu board this morning, after a pretty ordinary night's sleep. Got to sleep okay initially, but woke at about 12:40 and battled to get back to sleep. Stupid job.

With the theme being an easy week in the lead up to the SMH Half, tonight was just an easy hour. So, with Frees on the feet, and my Sydney Olympics bum bag that I can't get tight around my waist anymore, I cruised home from St Leonards, along the Pacific Highway to Lane Cove, down Epping Road to Centennial Road, turned left down to Huntley's Point, where I did a little loop under the Gladesville Bridge, up Victoria Road, did a little loop around home to make it up to 12km (premeasured the course via GMaps Pedometer - very handy little tool that gives km markers - just switch it to satellite view and move it to Sydney) in probably a touch under an hour.

Nice night for a run - not too cool, and the gentle breeze cleared much of the morning smog away.

10 laps of windsprints

4km windsprint session tonight. Still some stiffness in the legs, even through the warm up and the drills, and a little bit of stiffness in the shoulders from the Bosu workout (mental note - try to do something like that more often than once a month...). Total dose of the 'tom tits' after a particularly ordinary day at work that saw my boss finish up and many of the tasks I'd carefully upward delegated to him over the last twelve months find their way back to me, with which I proceeded to bend poor Mohammed's ear during the warm up. No wonder he hid in the toilet during the cool down...

Made a point of starting out easily through the session. First lap was a little harder than I was looking for, but was soon in a good rhythm, gradually increasing the intensity. Started to pass people from lap six, which always provides good incentive to push harder, and ran the last 600 at good speed, managing 14:27 for the session. 3:37 pace.

Given the softer ground and the course being longer, this seems to stand up okay with previous efforts. Thought I ran it out pretty well.

Felt much looser through the cool down. Positive session.

...and so begins the easy week...

How else, but with a day off.

I was supposed to have a TAFE prac today, but something fell through with the arrangments, so I called it a slack day.

Finally got to grips with my BOSU (BOth Sides Up) board this morning. I have some basic stuff I do on it, pretty much just push-ups and squats (and those irregularly) but had a quick look through the DVD that came with it a couple of weeks ago and had been meaning to do the routine on there, as it had looked quite promising. Was a pretty intensive 35 minute session, and one that I'll try to get through more regularly. Some of the stretching was appreciated after yesterday.

For those unfamiliar with it, a BOSU board looks like this:

Note feet pictured are NOT those of your correspondent

Pottered into town to get my SMH Half stuff.

Got out at about 2:30 or so for a brainless half hour shuffle around Bedlam Bay with the iPod. Legs felt a little heavy but better after the run, with some feedback up the inside right thigh from the everpresent Illie. Have a massage with Easy Tiger on Thursday morning which should hopefully free this up for Sunday.

Weekend update

Saturday

Race out at Sydney Park, 7.5k XC. Couse is notably short of the advertised distance but has three pretty solid hills. Bit of a change for this year with the course now deviating into a newly opened area, and the pleasant sweep around the lake now out of action, having been fenced off.

I pretty well stuffed my race on the first half of the first lap. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, I was sub 9 minutes through the first lap. Got passed by Joe from squad partway through the second lap, made a half hearted attempt to hang on to him, but blew up comprehensively on the big hill on the third lap and thought "eh, I got 2 1/2 hours tomorrow and the SMH Half next week". Fifth place was a long way behind, so I cruised it for fourth and 28:13.

Today's lesson: don't go out so bloody hard. You'd have thought I'd have learnt that by now.

Sunday

I've been making a point of making sure I get enough sleep of late. I had the alarm set for 6:30am, but it just wasn't going to happen. I decided to get out after we went shopping, getting out at about 1.

Temperature was allegedly around 19-20 (bah!). I decided to try a little experiment, wearing the Skins to see how they were with it being a bit warmer, and how they were on a longer run.

So, east from home, along Victoria Road and plug into the Bay Run. Two loops of the 9k Dog Run, a loop of the 7k Bay Run, and return home. A little surgery with Sport Tracks gives 33.43km in 2 hours 30 minutes, for pace of around 4:28. I felt really solid until around 24km, and it was periodic crises for the rest of the way, with the grind through Drummoyne and the Gladesville Bridge particularly taxing as usual. I fantasised about stopping a couple of times over the last half hour, especially since I knew the climb of the Gladesville Bridge was coming, but was pleased to guts it out and end up with a reasonable overall pace. Endurance doesn't seem too bad at the moment (as for outright pace...).

Skins worked quite well - legs don't feel quite as bad as they usually do after 20 odd miles on hard surface, and they were fine during the warmer part of the run before the cool wind came up. Didn't take any gu's or the like during the run.

Pretty easy week coming up in the lead up to the Half on Sunday.

Recovery

Just the usual Friday night rolling around in circles around Bedlam Bay Oval. Quite a fresh night, but little wind. Legs were pretty heavy.

5 x 800, short recovery

Fairly short session tonight, with the squad facing either a camp, or as in my case, the Sydney Park 7.5km XC race. 5 x 800 with 1 minute recoveries.

My main focus was to try and keep the first one under 2:48, and try to improve each rep from there. Legs felt flat and dead in the warm up and drills, though, with a bit of a kink in the right hip that came reasonably good through the warm up - I guess a 90 minute half over rolling terrain the previous evening will do that...

Times went 2:46, 2:45, 2:44, 2:43 and 2:41. Odd, felt faster on the last one, but life goes on. SW again commented I'd looked strong on the last one, and I seemed to be in front of a few people I'd been with or trailing over the last two reps.

Actually felt okay once I had my breath back. Easy 30 minutes tomorrow, aforementioned race Saturday afternoon, and what, in the context of Gold Coast, is probably a pretty key 2 1/2 hours on Sunday.

NNW, SSW, SE

Schedule was for 1 hour 45 minutes, and 23km. A quick walk at lunch revealed some stiffness, particularly in the right hip, from Tuesday night.

Did some plotting in the morning and decided to take the plunge and try out a new midweek route - the well worn route into town and back home via the Bay Run just didn't appeal this morning. From St Leonards, follow the Pacific Highway to Gordon, down Lane Cove Road to Top Ryde's Blaxland Road, left at Victoria Road, and follow that home. Quick plot via Google Earth gave it 23.15km.

Maybe I was just sick of the uphill last kilometre home into the wind...

Felt pretty good once I hit the road, and worked hard up the Pacific Highway. Getting to Lane Cove Road seemed to take forever - funny how it doesn't seem so long on the map, and the continuing uphill to Gordon did drain the enthusiasm a bit. Seemed to fly through the section to the Lane Cove River and worked solidly to Top Ryde. Ran the Victoria Road section pretty well, and hit home at around 1 hour 38 minutes. I say around, as I forgot to restart my watch for one brief section along Lane Cove Road for maybe 3 or 4 minutes.

Either way, was pretty surprised at how solid I felt. I've had a couple of concerns about my endurance leading up to the SMH Sunday week, but given the hit outs from Monday and tonight, I seem to rolling along pretty solidly in this regard.

...and the footpath on the east side of Lane Cove Road near the Pacific Highway is pretty spooky in the dark. Poorly lit, dark, downhill and reasonably quick - bit scary.

A promising session

Usual Tuesday night session at Kensington - bit of an unusual one, with 2400m, 1200m and 1200m, with reasonable recoveries of 2m and 1m20.

I sketched together a rough idea of what I wanted from the session timewise, thinking around 3:40 pace, 3:36 pace and 3:30 pace would be nice numbers. Had a bit of a plan to break each interval into three - first third get settled and establish rhythm, middle third consolidate and build a platform to bash it home in the last third.

Felt pretty good through the warm-up, and ran the reps out at 8:28, 4:08 and 4:05, quicker than I expected and feeling pretty strong through the last 400 of the rep. Pace was 3:32, 3:27 and 3:24. SW commented afterwards that I looked strong in the last one, which was pleasing.

After getting back on track on Saturday, a good tempo hitout last night and a strong session tonight, feeling a bit more confident.

Monday night tempo

Another of our increasingly routine Monday nights, where EliseS goes and does Run Club while I pound around the Bay Run.

I'd actually gotten up early and had a 6am session with the Horned one, an opportune visit with angry hammies, both of which got their fair share of acupuncture needles.

A cool and breezy night out there which saw the Skins make their debut run. Set off just after 6:40 and worked through the 9k Dog Run just worked on solid form and turnover, and then pushed harder for the 7k of the Bay Run. Bit of a headwind from 1k through to 3k of the CR 5k course, but not so bad.

Garmin read 16.29km, and after some surgery in Sport Tracks, I came up with 16.14, with a few areas it could be improved with better Google Earth imagery. Bah, too hard. Let's call it 16.2 in 1:07:32. Pleasing hit out, felt strong. Hamstrings were a non-factor. Skins felt great, basically forgot I was wearing them, which is exactly what you want. Might have to invest in a second pair - they're definitely a step up from regular running tights.

The weekend

Catch up of activities this weekend.

Saturday

NSW Road Racing Champs at Holsworthy. Course is two loops of a 4.8k loop (or so), with around a 400 metre overlap from the start and finish. The course has some deceptive rises and falls in it, starting with a solid 1km drag uphill, a basically flat 2k or so, then a 1.5km drag back up the hill past the entrance to the finishing area, basically a 500 metre flattish stretch. Conditions were fairly warm, and quite smokey with some burning off in the area.


I made a call to run the event purely on feel and ran without a watch. Gun went and the big field gradually sorted itself out over the first kilometre. I eased past Mohammed and ran with Jenny T and Don Juan through the first four kilometres, picking up and pulling away from Sparkie from around 3 through to 4km. DJ and Jenny eased away from me up the hill back to the start area, but I was comfortable with that, deciding the downhill around the back of the loop would be a smarter place to get back on board. I was about 10s down on DJ through 5.4km.

Worked on keeping the gap consistent. Came across Phil S at about 7km who was a bit chatty, and I must confess it broke my concentration a bit - DJ had eased out another 20 metres or so while I was distracted. I was pushing pretty hard through the last of the downhill, and once the climb back to the finish started, the wheels fell off. It was a very ugly climb to the end, and I lost a couple of places through the last 1.5km.

Time was 37:27, which is a bit more like it. Some redemption for last week's disaster.

Two little niggles:
- it took forever to get my details taken down after finishing, well over 5 minutes. Some guys who ran 41 minutes+ got their details taken down before I did. This stuff of taking the finisher details in lots of 10 (i.e. 1 to 10, 11 to 20 and so on) just doesn't seem to work. I got burned on this last week as well, and after finishing yesterday cramped up in my left hamstring whilst standing in line. Still feeling it today - nothing serious, but surely it's asking a bit much of 10k runners to hang around for 6 minutes waiting to get their details
- the delay in presentation of results for the 10k, particularly the team results, is pretty ordinary. It took forever at Nowra, and it took forever yesterday. How can you not have the team results 2 hours after the finish of the event? After the brutual efficiency of the registration and results processes at the track events of Homebush, it astounds me that no-one at Aths NSW can find a laptop with registered athlete details and do a simple sort in Excel.

Oh well, feel like I'm back on track. To put things into perspective, I ran 38:40 this time last year on a perfect morning at North Head (which I would probably rate faster than Holsworthy) and was rapt with it, rather than grumbling about a 37:27 in warm conditions. Times change.

Sunday

Slept in again. I had some hopes of making the squad run at Centennial Park, but I'm just not willing to compromise on the sleep front at the moment, and an inital walk around revealed quite tight hammies, particularly the aforementioned left one, and it was my preference to get some walking on them to at least get some blood through them before attempting to run on them.

We were slated to go to lunch with friends at 1pm, but had to duck out and do a quick shop. We were back at about 10:45, so I decided to slip out and run for at least 90 minutes (program said 2 hours, which just didn't seem feasible, plus I was concerned about my hammies) rather than take my chances of getting out late in the day. Ran from home, quick loop through Huntley's Point, up Victoria Road to the Bay Run, out and back along the CR 5k Challenge course, and then home. I took about 1km out of the run home - I was getting a bit tight for time and the westerly almost brought me to a standstill climbing the Gladesville Bridge and again through Huntley's Point, with protesting hammies.

So, probably 21km or so in a bit over 97 and a half minutes. Felt okay, apart from the last section into the teeth of a quite warm and strong westerly wind.

Of course, on getting home I find the lunch date had been cancelled. Oh well, afternoon's free, I guess.

Friday follies

An interesting day.

I decided to let the body make the call on whether to run before work, putting my running kit in the bathroom in case I woke at a suitable time to head out and run. Awoke at 6:15 - guess the body decided it wanted to sleep.

There was potential for disruption at work today, with my participation in some advertising by our marketing department out at Acacia Gardens (I had to look it up) and Maryong (I also had to look it up). Choice locations.

It dragged on long enough for me to be able to talk my way into not having to come back to the office. Only drama was a a pretty crappy lunch nutritionwise (a pretty ordinary burger, some chips, various lollies) at about 3pm.

I scuttled home and dropped the car at the ferry stop so EliseS could pick it up on her way back from town. I jogged over to Bedlam Bay Oval from there and circulated for half an hour, fighting the rising presence of lunch through the run. Wasn't pleasant, but got through it. Nice to get through a run down there in the daylight.

Highlight was a woman coming down with her two Whippets to let them have a bit of a run around. Skinny Dogs! They were having a great time, but then, I haven't seen too many dogs running around a park looking clinicly depressed.

I was going to pull the pin on the Midnight Oil lyrics because I thought it was getting silly, but I stumbled across this gem from the fittingly titled Bedlam Bridge. There's no bridge at Bedlam Bay Oval (a pier, a tunnel and a little lookout, yes, but no bridge), but the lyric seemed a good one.

A body never breathless
No ambition ever hopeless

A relatively easy Thursday night

Took another beating from Easy Tiger this morning. Actually, it wasn't too bad, just a troublesome right calf and some lower back tightness. Nowhere near as bad as that massage after the Brisbane road trip.

With the NSW Aths road champs at Holsworthy on Saturday, it was a pretty easy session of 5 x 400, with SW emphasising all the way through to take it reasonably easily, keeping the race on Saturday in mind. I just worked on keeping it relaxed, didn't bang out sprints at the end, and went 81,79,80,78,78. Good comfortable session. Happy with that.

At the risk of setting a theme...

Warakurna, cars will roll
Don't drink by the water hole
Court fines on the shop front wall
Beat the grog and save your soul...

Gentle cruise home

Schedule was for an easy hour. Ran home from work, and with the downhill irritating the right foot and 'Illie" a little, decided to cut it short rather than take my little 3k loop, making it 45 minutes for a bit over 9km (didn't bother with the GPS). Other than the little niggles, felt fine, Midnight Oil flowing through the iPod...

Must be time for a second chance
I can't escape this basement flat
Got writer's cramp and claustrophobia

3,2,1...

Tuesday night long intervals - tonight, 3k, 2k, 1k. All around the increasingly longer track at Kensington, which definitely picked up some length on last week.

Had a little tightness in the chest again through the warm up, but it seemed to pass.

Tried to keep one thought in mind through the session - relax. The thing with that is you can't force yourself to relax (an oxymoron if ever there was one). I find I have to say the word in a 'relaxed' way in internal dialogue and then go mentally blank for a few seconds. It seemed to help last night.

Times were slower than previously but the track is considerably longer and the surface is getting softer. Times were 10:49, 7:15 and 3:29. Not fantastic, but getting there. I was pretty happy with the 3k, taking it out pretty easily and pushing home, managing to run over the top of quite a few people.

Monday at home

Took a day of leave to catch up on some study, which went (and indeed continues to go) quite well. I could get used to this not working thing, but it's back to the salt mines tomorrow.

Got out mid-afternoon for the scheduled half hour, which was just circles around Bedlam Bay Oval. Didn't use the iPod - figured with all the knowledge I was trying to stuff into my head the half hour would be handy in trying to process it all. Which it was.

Felt fine. Thanks for the comments on Saturday's post - Horrie, in response to your comments, it wasn't really a nerve thing. If anything, I wasn't nervous before the event, which is a little unusual, as those who know me will attest I can be particularly nerve stricken in the hour before an important run. Been that way for many years. Thinking on it today, it seemed similar to how I felt at the City 2 Surf last year, with a feeling of tightness in the chest and high heart rate. I had a feeling I might have been fighting something off in recent weeks, or had something at a sub-symptomatic level that only became apparent once I pushed.

Schedule's pretty easy this week, so I'll ease through it and see how the road event at Holsworthy goes next week.