...and finally, the weekend

Pleased to report substantial improvement on the sinus front. Felt pretty good through the day, pressure is much reduced. Still probably going to be a bit of a *ahem* snot fest on Sunday, so if you plan to run near me, bring a coat.

Day 2 of carb loading wasn't as uncomfortable as yesterday - guessing the stomach had made some adaptation.

Dropped the car off at the ferry stop for EliseS to pick up as I went for my easy half hour. I'd taken about three steps before I got beeped by an elderly woman in a white Mazda. I had to wait around twenty seconds before I saw this, because she was all of 70 metres away. Judging by her glasses, there probably was a genuine chance of collision, so I guess I should be grateful for the warning.

Made my way over to Bedlam Bay Oval for the usual circle work. Felt a little heavy legged, but from what I recall this is a pretty normal thing for a carb load. Even so, Gaf said I got through 6.35km in the half hour. I took splits of each lap, and 9 in a row were 1:58 or 1:59, with a solitary 2 minute lap, so I'd say I had a steady rhythm going.

So, off north tomorrow morning. We're in Brisbane Saturday night, and will head to the Gold Coast on Sunday morning. I'm not sure of internet access up in Brisbane tomorrow or Sunday, so if I don't post again before the big show, I'd just like to say thank you all for your comments, interest and support over this campaign, it means a lot to me and reinforces the quality of the CR/Strider network. The work's done, the numbers are in, it's just a matter of getting out there and doing the deed.

Let's get this thing done.

Loading, last reps, sinus, and a tag

Still dealing with this sinus thing. Headache went away today. It's a bit confusing - nose seems to sound restricted, but is fine to breath through. No other symptoms. Heart rate is fine. Keeping up with the vitamin intake.

Saw Martin Horne this morning. Got some acupuncture around the right hip to help with the stiffness I felt there, plus some immunology points on the outside of both knees. He suggested dosing right up on Vitamin C, as that's the tactic he uses to help ward off the inevitable exposure to ill patients.

Started carb loading today, as per the AIS Fact Sheet - so much food! I didn't realise how little I actually ate! Thought I was going to burst after lunch!

So, down to training. Tried the 1 second plotting feature on the Garmin, but it really didn't like that in the warm and I couldn't get a plot.

Got into what was a pretty short session, just 4 x 400, which went 83, 80, 77, 78. Really wasn't pushing, which inclines me to think the sinus thing is just an antibody thing. Felt fine.

And, it would seem I have been tagged by Matty! So...

4 jobs I have had:
- Service station attendant. As in, actual driveway service, where I pumped the petrol.
- Workcover Claims officer. How I hated that job.
- Financial Researcher (read Operations Manager slave - actually, it was good fun).
- Credit Manager

4 movies I could watch over and over:
- Dead Man
- Blade Runner
- Fargo
- Heat

4 places I have lived:
- Newcastle (for about four weeks after I was born!)
- Suburban Melbourne
- Inner City Melbourne
- Sydney

4 TV shows I love to watch:
- The Simpsons
- Futurama
- Battlestar Galactica (the new series)
- Invader Zim

4 places I have been on vacation:
- Merimbula
- Noosa
- Mooloolaba
- Coffs Harbour

4 websites I visit each day:
- coolrunning.com.au
- fark.com
- bloglines.com
- google.com

4 favorite foods:
- EliseS's brownies
- EliseS's white chocolate cheesecake
- Jester's chicken and mushroom pie
- pretty much anything else that doesn't involve eyes, tongues, brains or feet

4 places I would rather be right now (actually, at home in front of the PC is one of my favourite places to be!):
- on the couch watching F1
- Sunshine Beach, on the Sunshine Coast
- on nice beach with a good clean surf somewhere warm
- since it's after 10 and I have a marathon in a couple of days, in bed asleep

4 favorite bands/singers:
- Radiohead
- Eels
- Midnight Oil
- Snow Patrol (obligatory current hot band)

4 Bloggers I am tagging:
- Xposay, 26 miles, silverfox, Don Juan

Heh. Snap!

Still fighting, a timely reality check and a new toy

Woke up pretty scratchy this morning, with sinus pressure. Looks like I've got another dose of the anti-bodies acting up. Bit headachey, but nothing serious, threatened briefly to present in the throat but that has receded. I suspect it's just a reaction rather than an actual bug, so am not overly concerned just at the moment, but have upped the vitamins and echinacea/zinc just in case.

During the day I popped an e-mail to SW seeking advice on a race plan . He came back with a surprisingly conservative response and suggestion, which caused an initial frown. A couple of minutes later the rational side of the brain kicked in and I did some sums, realised he was most likely right, and that I needed to think about the whole reason I'm running on Sunday - to run under 4 minute per km pace. So I redid some sums, had a bit of a think, and had a bit of a better idea of where I should be when.

EliseS was home for a little while during the afternoon and just happened to be there when my new toy arrived. Yes, I weakened last week and bought a Garmin 205. I have named him Gaf (Garmin Forerunner), after Edward James Olmos' character in Blade Runner, in a neat coincidence of haphazard acronyms and science fiction. EliseS was kind enough to put him on the charger so he could get three hours of USB power before I got out for my easy run.

Not my Gaf

So, after setting him and letting him get a fix, I got out at about 6:30 for my usual pounding around Bedlam Bay Oval. Felt fine - breathing is not restricted at all - and cruised around very comfortably for 6.22km (6.18km in Sport Tracks) in 30:04 (including 2 seconds standing there when I forgot which button reset the run) for 4:51 pace.

Now, if you want to see the difference in the plotting quality of the 205 versus the 301, have a look at this. 205 on the left, 301 on the right.


I'll now quote numbers directly from Gaf - the plot quality is pretty impressive.

So, just got to get on top of this sinus thing AGAIN, but otherwise, all is fine. Seeing the Horned one tomorrow morning for a final bit of work and a gentle 4 x 400 in the evening and we're nearly there.

Easy speed - 3km, 1km

Had a massage with Easy Tiger first thing this morning. Just some residual stiffness in the calves around the achilles, most likely from Saturday, nothing serious.

Things are pretty busy at work - end of financial year and all - and I was damned glad to get out of the office and go to training. Had the car this evening and took the opportunity to get there a little early and grab a quick nap.

Session was in the book as 3k and 1k, with a 5 minute recovery. Checked with SW, do it comfortably and relaxed. So I did, towing Mohammed along. Ran 11:24 for the 3km, 3:47 for the 1km. The 3km was very comfortable, felt like I could have run it at that speed all night.

Legs were fine. Little kink in the right upper leg after the work this morning but with some work through it and a bit of a stretch it's fine right now.

Tapering away

Pottered down to Bedlam Bay Oval a bit after 6pm. Very fresh evening, ran in a long sleeve top and shorts, and was right on the cusp of comfort.

Felt like a million bucks. Absolutely no resistance in the legs, and ticked over through the half hour with good form and no pain or stiffness. If I can keep this feeling for Sunday we could be on for something quite special. Was in a pretty good mood, too, singing along to the iPod and visualising success on Sunday. Not deliberately, just came into mind. Seem to be getting into a good place mentally and physically.

Did some gentle drills afterwards, which showed a little stiffness around the right hip, but no pain. Massage with Easy Tiger tomorrow, plus a short, comfortable speed session in the evening.

Easy like Sunday morning

Up fairly early to head down for the squad long run at Centennial Park. I got there just before 7 and there was no-one from the squad there - had a bit of a chat to Luke Skyrunner, and saw Aunty Karin and Truckie circulating on their bikes. Caught the end of the soccer while waiting until 7:30, when everyone turned up. Nice clear, fresh morning of around 8-9 degrees.

Ended up doing about 1 hour 8 minutes or so - couldn't find my watch this morning, so was reliant on Mohammed. Felt fine, perhaps a little heavy, and caught up with Cindy who'd just returne from Canada, Sparkie, Don Juan and other members of the squad. Guessing it was around 14km or so.

East Met - Mutch Park 6k

Out to the eastern suburbs on a fine Sydney Saturday afternoon for my final race before the GCM next week.

This is a tough little course held in the park next to Bonnie Doon Golf Club in Eastgardens. The course starts on the side of a hill near the carpark, turns immediately left through 180 degrees before a long drag up a hill that includes a 90 degree turn, then plunge back down to below the start level through soft ground and work your way through a twisty, well treed section before coming back through the middle of the park, another tight section and a short, nasty little climb before a short, sharp downhill to the start/finish line for 2km. Today was 6km, so three laps.

My time from July last year was 22:39, post CR drinks (and not Mexican as I reported this afternoon) and slightly worse for wear. My only target was to go under 22, and keep it reasonably even. Had a chat to James Hurley before the event, and we formulated a plan to run together, at least early on. Caught with Mister G, who made an appearance. Felt pretty decent - had been a little 'coldy' on arising, but a couple of cups of coffee and I was fine.

Reasonable sized field lined up, and we were away. The field gradually worked itself out, with James and I slotting about 20-30 metres behind Mikey and Jen. I was keeping an eye on those two, as I train with Mikey and Jen was the lead female that I recognised from a few of the ANSW events.

Got through the first lap at 7:10 and did wonder if we might have gone out a little hard. Hurley fell off early on up the hill, and I figured I should work to get the two in front if I was going to push for a time. I got on to them coming back out of the twisty section at the back of the tennis courts, and Mikey dropped off. Got through the second lap in 7:14 for 14:24.

Started to push Jen a little bit. She worked hard on the hill, but I just managed to ease past her right at the top as it started to level out, and pushed really hard on the steep downhill that followed. I could hear her breathing behind me, so there was no opportunity to ease up and fully recover from the climb - it just a case of suck it up and keep pushing. I got a quick opportunity to see where she was at one very tight behind, and it was no more than 6 metres.

This continued through the lap - I could still hear her breathing, and I didn't to ruin my focus or give her a sign that I was battling by looking around. We got to the final climb, and I figured that if it was me chasing, I'd put in a last gasp effort up the hill, so why not trump that by doing it myself. Lungs were screaming at the top of the hill - I could no longer hear the breathing, but belted it home to finish in 21:32, a 7:08 final lap and 7th place outright. Found 1:07 on last year. Illie and psoas were fine, perhaps a little tight in the cool down.

Very pleased with the run, especially digging so deep on the last half of the third lap to hold my place. SW was very pleased with the run, and immediately told me I was to do a very easy hour tomorrow morning with him at the back of the pack so he could keep an eye on me and ensure I didn't do anything silly.

So, an excellent sharpener, and it's all systems go. Massage Tuesday, visit to the Horned one on Thursday, some gentle speed sessions and lots of 30 minute jogs on grass, and we're there.

30 mins

Bailed from the office early - everyone else had been at the pub for a couple of hours over lunch, the prospect of which wasn't overly enticing - so got out to Bedlam Bay just after 4:30pm for my half hour. Felt particularly flat and leaden, but I did last week as well, so no need for concern. Nice to get it done in daylight, seem to have turned into a weekly running vampire, never going out in the light.

6 x 800

Day didn't get off to the best of starts - the alarm went at 6:20, and I felt like utter rubbish. I lay there for 10 minutes, and decided that there was no way I was going to work. So, I didn't. I dropped Elise at the ferry, and went back to sleep for 3 hours. Suspect the run last night on the back of the cold kicked the hell out of me.

That must have been all I needed, as after something to eat and a cup of coffee, I came to the realisation that I felt pretty decent. Headache was gone, I was breathing okay. Good news. I took myself out shopping, bought some stuff (including a $100 pair of Nike Frees at the Nike Shop in Auburn) and came home.

Wandered over to training a bit after 5 and got through a fairly flat warm up and drills. I confirmed I was to take it pretty easy tonight, so the session went:
2:52
2:51
2:50
2:47
2:46
2:38

I got bored about halfway through the session and made my mind up to have a bit of a dip at the last one. Felt I could probably have put another one out at that speed, too. Felt better again for having run, so now, some residual tiredness aside, feel pretty good. No real symptoms of the cold present at all.

The end of the road

Quick look at the program marks tonight as the last of my road runs - it's all grass running from here, with lots of easy 30 minute sessions. I'll do Sunday at Centennial Park, that's only 1 hour 15 minutes @ 5 min km pace.

Rolled out of work a bit after five to a quite a number of cow-orkers suggesting I was insane. Geez, if they haven't worked that out already...

Truth be told, rain aside it wasn't actually that bad. The humidity meant that it was relatively mild, so although quickly wet I wasn't too cold. The rain was that saturating type, not heavy, but quite dense. The footpaths were drenched, with quite a lot of standing water about the place.

As mentioned yesterday, the schedule was 1 hour 15 minutes for 17km. I'd had a bit of a fiddle with one of the routes home via the city in GMaps Pedometer, coming up with a route that went down the Pacific Highway from St Leonards to the Harbour Bridge, right under the bridge to Observatory Park and down to Argyle Street, down the little spiral near the Pallisades Hotel to Hickon Road up to the Pyrmont Bridge, through there to the Anzac Bridge, and along Victoria Road and over the Gladesville Bridge, hook right under the bridge to the stairs into Huntley's Point, past the ferry stop and the school to the pedestrian bridge, and then west along Victoria Road to the Punt Road intersection.

Felt fine through the run, just couldn't really push too hard as it was particularly slippery under foot and there was standing water everywhere - anyone noticed that the water flows down the ramp at the Pyrmont end of the Anzac Bridge? Traction was compromised in a few places - decorative pavers might look good but they're hell to run on. Also, refer to previous comments about metal surfaces on footpaths in Sydney.

Got to the nominated 17km point in 1 hour 15 minutes and 13 seconds. Eh, close enough. Blame the stairs. Rain had eased off at the end of the run, and only copped one drenching from passing cars. Made a point of getting straight into a hot shower, though, and a nice cup of tea warmed me from within, although as mentioned it wasn't that cold.

Cold has definitely receded and is probably just a little pressure in the sinuses. My nose isn't blocked at all and my headache's pretty well gone. Wondering if it simply wasn't an anti-body reaction to something.

4 x 1600

Well, looks like I've picked up some sort of mild cold-type thing. Nothing serious, it's just like a really mild version of what I was getting last year, bit of a headache and some sinus pressure. If truth be told, it feels like it improved slightly on yesterday anyway, so it's cool. Seems like the classic taper thing. Bit tired, though.

Started the day with an Easy Tiger massage. Calves and achilles were a bit chunky, probably from the extra articulation required over the weekend, but things were otherwise pretty good.

Felt pretty tired throught the afternoon, and grabbed a quick 20 minute nap in the car before training. Joined the squad and everyone was whinging about how beaten up they felt after Nowra - probably not ideal before a 4 x 1600, but life goes on. SW wasn't giving much sympathy - he was comprehensively smashed up!

So, after a crummy warm up, session went:
5:41
5:46
5:39
5:40

A little slower across the session compared to Anzac Day, but I suspect the 400 metre track was a good deal shorter then than tonight. Happy with the consistency - got a pretty crappy start on the second one and found it a bit hard to get a rhythm.

Head and cold felt better after the session. SW advised that tonight was the last session he wanted to see me do hard, and that all the work was done now and I was to take it easy from now on until GCM. Uh, he did kinda schedule 17km in 1:15 tomorrow, but I guess I can handle that. Eh, I'll get out there and roll along.

35m 'relaxed'

Woke up feeling a bit scratchy. Would normally think I was fighting a cold off, but I suspect a bit of an overload on brownies last night was paying a dividend of a headache and a little bit of congestion. Didn't feel fantastic through the day, either, but given a hard 12k race, five hours in the car and no sleep in on Sunday I was probably always going to be tired.

SW had helpfully put 35m relaxed 15km on the program - that didn't sound relaxed to me. That sounded more like world record pace to me. I had a fiddle in Excel based on last week's 50m relaxed run, came up with something in the mid to high 7s, and rounded it up to 8.

Got home just before 6 and could have quite easily given it a miss. Half the battle is making it a habit, though, and I think I was kind of kitted up in my running gear before the conscious side of the brain had a chance to contribute. Of course, once you're dressed, you're obliged to run, so out the door it was.

Was a bit of a grindy effort. I followed last Monday's route through to the park next to Hunter's Hill Hospital and back. Felt a bit better on the way back, but where I would normally pound out the last kilometre I just seemed to lope along. Still, it was 8km in 36:36 for 4:34 pace, so I shouldn't complain, I guess. Actually do feel a bit better for heading out, seems to have cleared the head a bit.

The joy of perspective

Not too often you can look at the program, see "2 hours relaxed 26km" and think "woo hoo, bludge Sunday!". After the bashings of the last couple of weeks, it sure seemed that way.

During the week I'd had vague aspirations of making the squad run at Centennial Park, reasoning that it'd be good from a race morning perspective to get a couple of early starts on a Sunday in, and that trying to keep to soft surfaces over the last two week before Gold Coast was probably sensible. I locked it in with Mohammed as we left Nowra yesterday, committing to be there at 7am.

So, after getting up at 6, downing a strong cup of coffee, and having a bit of a surf of the net, I managed to front on a bright, clear 6 degree morning. The run was fine, I was a bit stiff in the upper legs, probably a combination of yesterday and having not run on the soft, sandy surface at Centennial for a while. The two hours passed pretty quickly, with various chats with Fleur from RBH, Mohammed, Royworlds, Don Juan and Easy Tiger, Lucy and then Royworlds solo filling in the time quite ably. No-one was pushing too hard, and SW himself was looking particularly ploddy after yesterday's efforts - I call it the 'pile of coathangers' look, in that if he fell over, you'd never get him untangled. No idea of the distance, and not overly fussed - it was better than 5 minute per km pace.

Legs feel great and the lack of impact is much appreciated.

Bonus is the run's done, and I've got the rest of the day free! Woo hoo!

Aths NSW Long Course XC - Nowra

Off to Nowra mid-morning to face the great cross country course at Willandra, just west of Nowra. Must admit I was really looking forward to this one, as was Elise, as it was a great day out last year, plus it was nice to get out of town on a cool but beautiful day. With work, running and study taking up a fair chunk of our time lately, it was good to spend a couple of uninterrupted hours in the car catching up.

Got down there a bit before the women's open event. Fellow Striders had already established base camp next to Randwick Botany (suspect it was the boys who'd gotten the bus down) so we deposited our stuff, and after some catching up and getting changed, we got out for a warm up whilst the women's race went on. We had some additional faces from the list Guz put together during the week, so in addition to myself, Fats, Guz, Roy Worlds, Craig D, Richard and Superflake, plus Blue Dog, Sportsman, Don Juan and Dennis, we also saw O Runner and Easy Tiger front up, which made making the teams up a bit easier. No Brightshoes, alas, who had copped the flu late in the week.

Mohammed, myself, Don Juan, Fats and Royworlds during the warm up
Photo courtesy of Ray and KIT

Got through the warm up and felt pretty decent, to be honest. Didn't have a spectacular target for today - I ran 48:22 after cooking myself a bit on the first lap last year, but recalling I ran 36:28 two weeks after that thought anything sub 48 would be a decent result. The course was in perfect condition - a touch softer than last year, meaning that there was still excellent grip, but some of the impact of the steep downhills was reduced.

We lined up just on 3pm, and the gun went. Pack gradually settled down, and I found myself sitting about 10 seconds down on a bit of a Strider pack of Craig D, Royworlds and Richard, with Easy Tiger probably another 60 to 80 metres up the road. I didn't push the first lap, preferring to just work comfortably. Through the first lap in around 15:27, comfortably sub 4 pace. Pushed a little bit to come up on Richard as the course made its way down to the creek and the river crossing, and eased up to Royworlds and Craig D up Heartbreak, working with Royworlds down the hill where he just eased back a bit after a bit of a chat (well, mostly me). Wondered if Easy Tiger was a chance, it was hard to pick the actual gap with the course pitching and rolling and only limited straight line views. Through the second lap in 31:20, a lap that I have just now worked out to be 15:53, which is curious as it felt faster than that.

Photo courtesy of Ray and KIT

Photo courtesy of Nowra Athletics Club

Got a little lonely through the first half of the last lap, but I got into a good little battle with a fellow from from Nowra. My right shoelace had also come undone, providing some entertaintment, but I'm a bit lucky with the fit of my spikes (which were a perfect shoes choice) in that they're such a good fit that it's not a bit deal if a lace does come undone - didn't cost me any time.

I finally managed to ease away from him on the last steep uphill, putting in an effort on the top third of the hill and the downhill to gap him. I thought I had the place secure until Royworlds flew past me on the uphill where the entrance to the carpark is, and I went with him for about 30 metres or so, but I was done - it was a well placed sprint. I had been trying to get a look as to where he was for much of the lap, but the course never seems to offer an opportunity to get a look behind you without it being obvious to the person following.

Though the gate for 47:10, a 15:50 final lap and a 1:12 improvement on the previous year. Think the place was 36th, right behind Easy Tiger and Royworlds. As it turned out, I was able to snag the sixth best Strider placing, and we were able to slot into second placed Open team to Randwick Botany, which was a great result, especially when combined with the win in the 45+ men's as well.

The team result was announced very quickly this year (a relief after last year, where we pretty well left in the dark), so it was nice to head out before five with the medal in hand. It was funny - I was fully loaded up with kit, heading back to the car, when the announcement came, so I was able to take my place with the team on the podium.

So, good result for me, good result for the team, and a great day. The club aspect's really enjoyable - it's good to cheer on other club members. For mine, it's been great to see Kit and Bernie G out there in the emerald and white, I think they've been really enjoying running for the club, and their enthusiasm, particularly Kit's, is infectious.

We had a really good drive home, Elise had a great day catching up with friends, and we rounded the evening off watching a Clint Eastwood western while eating fish and chips. Seemed a good way to round out the day.

Legs of lead

Wednesday and Thursday's adventures caught up with me a bit today, with the legs quite stiff throughout the day. Left the car at the ferry stop just after 5:30pm, and jogged with heavy legs over to Bedlam Bay Oval for half an hour. Legs felt better after cruising around in clockwise circles for half an hour. Tired though - must get a good night's sleep tonight.

6 x 400

An interesting if long day today.

Started with a 7am massage with Easy Tiger that took an hour and a half. I didn't need to be in Petersham until 9am, and his next appointment wasn't for a while, so we took the opportunity to 'get ahead' of a few things. Apparently that involved a lot of pain. The drama with the right foot's gone now - there was some residual stiffness there that came straight out.

I spent the day over at Petersham TAFE doing a practical class for an electrical course I'm doing. Just putting a few things in place for the future. It was good fun being pushed way out of my comfort zone and being the dorky new guy. Did some soldering, crimping and various other things that have nothing to do with my job in finance. Only thing was my usual eating patterns were disrupted, and I spent most of the day on my feet.

Back into town and off to Kensington for reps with SW. Session was shorter tonight with the ANSW XC Long Course event on down at Nowra on Saturday, with 6 x 400, but with very short recovery of 30 seconds or less (usually less). Good chance to punch out some fast ones. Felt pretty good through the warm up and the strides (bit unusual, I know).

Reps went 77, 76, 75, 74, 73 and 76. Had a feeling on the third rep I might have pushed a lap early. Didn't get a good start on the sixth rep and couldn't get into rhythm, flailing home for 76.

Still, a LOT faster than the same session from a month ago, the average being over 3 seconds quicker. Felt a fair bit freer and was moving pretty well, although the 24km from last night was felt in the last couple of reps.

Looking forward to Saturday. Helps knowing the course, so I can plan a bit of a strategy, but I'd like to find a lot of time over last year's time.

The last long Wednesday night (for a while)

Saw the Horned one this morning at some ridiculous hour (6am, I think) for some maintenance. I was well timed, with my mysterious spot on the bottom of my right leg appearing yesterday. After some prodding, we found a spot about 6cm up the leg, just to the right of the centre of the shin.

Why is it my various niggles seem to involve acupuncture in places where there's no flesh? Soles of feet, shins, hips etc...

As is often the case with Martin's remedies, I could feel the affected area free up during the day to the point that when I got out the door to run home at about 5:20pm, it was pretty good. He never ceases to amaze me. To be honest, the right leg was probably the best it's been in, well, months, if I'm honest. Just a couple of little grumbles when kerb hopping, that was about it.

So, out into the cool night. I ended up following the same Wednesday night route I did last week. It seemed a bit cooler than last Wednesday, suspect the humidity was down. Would love to give you a time, but I forgot my watch. I think I was about 1 hour 45 minutes spot on, less a couple of minutes stoppage time for lights and traffic. Felt I struggled a bit on the climb to Gordon and Lane Cove Road and was probably slower through to the turn south there. Seemed to come good on the descent down to De Burgh's Bridge over Lane Cove River (where it was freakin' cold!) and through to Quarry Road, before having a bit of a battle on the grass climb to Blaxland Road. Came home pretty strongly along Victoria Road, including one funny moment where I came across a large fellow probably of about my vintage who was doing up his shoes. He saw me coming as he finished and decided to run and try to keep with me, which he failed at after about 30 metres - I didn't have the heart to tell him I'd probably just gone through a 91 minute half marathon and still around 3km to go, feeling pretty good.

So, good note to finish these mid-week runs. Funny how the perspective changes - it's not a big deal to pound out a solid 24km midweek now.

Oh yeah - nomination for song of the year: Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars. It has nothing to do with chasing cars. I had a particular train of thought going that the song just plugged into. Eagle's right - I do wear my emotions on my sleeve, particularly when I run, and it can be a surprising source of strength. I kinda just lost myself there for a couple of minutes down Lane Cove Road and was flying - I was a bit surprised at the pace when I came out of the moment, but it felt pretty damned good.

12 laps of windsprints

Woke this morning with a curious pain where the right foot connects with the right leg (as opposed to my left leg, I guess), right on top. Feels like it might be toe flexors, although it's probably a bit high for that. Odd. It didn't come up yesterday after my run, maybe I slept with it at a weird angle. I'm seeing the Horned one tomorrow morning, and Easy Tiger on Thursday, so I'm sure it'll be fine.

So, it was with a little trepidation I got down to Kensington for tonight's session, 4.8km of windsprints. Tend to dread the session a bit, although thinking on it afterwards I don't know why, it's actually fairly short, and working strategies through the laps to round people up is good fun.

Felt a bit dead legged in the warm up, and the right leg gave me a bit of grief in run throughs. Got to the line, and SW said he wanted to see something a little different tonight, with a 100 metre float, and 300 metres of effort. I sometimes wonder why he bothers, most of the kids seem to treat it as a 12 lap race.

Had done some number crunching through the day, and just wanted the session done in under 17:30, so laps would have to be 87 to 88 seconds each. Figured the current strategy of using the first third of the session to get established, the middle third to consolidate to increase intensity, and then to smash it home in the last third would do fine.

And that's pretty well how it played out. Picked up one of the faster guys who's on the comeback about two laps in, and we worked together to catch one girl, and were working on another when he fell back. I was concerned he might have 'cooked' me but working hard a bit early, but I was able to maintain momentum after going through halfway in 8:40, to do the session in 17:14. SW maintains that the time for this session's a good pointer for a 5k road time, and since the last time I did the session I ran 17:27 and that's my road 5k PB, I'm hardly going to argue.

Foot wasn't a problem through the session proper. It's a bit tight now I'm sitting at the PC, but liveable. I'll probably wake up and there'll be no sign of it.

Got a bit of a shock this morning updating my Excel based race calendar to find that the marathon's less than 20 days away. Starting to get a little toey - as I mentioned at CR, there is a lot of time and effort invested in this event. It's a good, normal nervousness. I almost wish it was this Sunday - I'm actually keen to get up there and get the damn thing done.

Through the streets of your town...well, my town

My schedule called for a 'relaxed' 50 minutes today, for 11km.

The run was scheduled for the afternoon/evening, so after an indulgent public holiday lie-in (good on ya, Lizzie!) we went shopping, and spent the day pottering around at home. I decided to dig up an old route I hadn't run in a while, basically from home, east along Victoria Road, through Huntley's Point and up into Hunter's Hill, and along the ridge there for a while before turning around and heading home, except plotted with GPS Maps-Pedometer and with an extra kilometre stuck in it.

I hit the road a bit before 4pm, and ran out into a beautiful, fresh, still and clear winter's day. I was surprised at how fresh it was - my CR T-Shirt was perfect, I'd have probably been too cool in a singlet. Ran in the Frees for the first time in a while, took the feet a little while adapt, but they were fine after 3km. Fair bit of initial soreness in the gentle uphill 400 metres or so from home but that was pretty well fine after 10 minutes.

Quite a few runners out and about. Felt I had a good comfortable flow going and came home faster than I set out. Got through around 11.1km in 48:52, which surprised me a bit, I was feeling pretty relaxed out there, just ticking over.

So back home, run's done, most of my chores are done - lovely...

The last big one before GCM

The last run of the last two big weeks before GCM, and not surprisingly it was 36km. I ended up hitting the Bay Run a bit after 12pm, and found it to be pretty damn windy. Oh, if I only I'd known...

Did four laps of the Bay Run + Dog Extension, the first clockwise, second and third anti-clockwise, and the fourth clockwise. The wind, predominantly from the south-west, was very strong, worth 10-30 seconds a minute in pace any time you were heading anywhere near south. It's very tiring to run in, and after sailing through 18km in just under 80 minutes, I gradually ground slower and slower as the wind got stronger and stronger, ended up going through the 36km in 2:44:03. Slower than I was ideally looking for, but probably the really good, hard slog three weeks out that I needed.

The week ahead's not exactly easy, but Monday becomes 50 mins relaxed for 11km, and Sunday is 2 hours relaxed for 26km. I still cop a belting on Wednesday for 24km in 1 hour 45 minutes, plus Nowra on Saturday. No 36km slog, though.

East Met Sydney Park 7.5km

People who know me know I'm a bit of a stickler on the time front - to the point that I tend to be chronically early for appointments. Today showed why that is.

After a pretty relaxed morning playing Civilization IV and doing household chores, I left home at about 1:45pm for what I thought was a 3:00pm race. On arrival at Sydney Park at about 2:15pm, I see a large crowd, and quite a number of people I know in what looks to be the final stages of their warm ups. Park, grab my bag, enter, and find the race starts at 2:30pm.

Oops.

Got through a fairly abbreviated warm up. I'd been tossing up whether to wear spikes or my unloved Asics Magic Racers (the boring white pair), and this question was answered earlier when it became apparent that one of the pairs of spikes SW was referring to in his e-mail as being in his car was in fact mine.

Oops. Again. It was that kind of week.

Oh well. Felt okay on the line, usual banter with a lot of the CR crew around. Field set off and I worked hard to remember my mantra, "nothing stupid on the first lap". After initially sitting in just behind Mohammed and Don Juan, I passed them on the way down after the first climb, declaring them wimps for their less than breakneck approach to the descent.

From there, I worked in with a couple of the junior girls who were doing the 5k. I could see Vespa and Craig Dunn up ahead, and worked to keep them in sight while continuing to keep things controlled. Course was quite saturated in a couple of spots between the first and second hills, and it was quite slippery on the descent from the second climb.

Got through the first lap in 9:05, which was pleasing - I was targetting 27:30, so 9:10 had been the number. Continued to chip away at Vespa through the second lap, and was about 18:25 through the second lap. Picked her up on the first climb, and eased away on the way to the second hill, thinking I might be able to get on to Craig Dunn. He put a kick on from the second hill, so from there it was a case of pushing to keep Vespa at bay. Through the line 27:36 for twelfth, managing to find 37 seconds on last month, and it was much tougher underfoot today, with the course very in places and quite a bit of standing water. It was also 7 seconds better than my best from June last year, which again was in better conditions, so bodes well for Nowra next week.

Good to catch up with the crew afterwards, which included Amjan, Fats, Blue Dog, Bernie G, Mister G and Skizzik down from the mountains, Mohammed, Silverfox (good to see you out), Royworlds, Superflake, Brightshoes, Planetsumo, Kit and Don Juan (apologies to anyone I missed). Got a handshake from SW afterwards, he was pleased with my result, as I was, so a good afternoon despite the rushed start.

One run left of the two weeks of PAIN!

30m easy

Couldn't manage the early start, so after dropping the car off at the ferry stop cruised over to Bedlam Bay oval and wobbled around for half an hour. Bit stiff and sore to start but felt better through the half hour, which I guess is the point.

Three day weekend! Woo hoo!

7 x 800

Bit tired after last night's effort, and pretty well fell asleep on the train from work to Redfern. Wasn't one of those refreshing naps, either.

Arrived at Kensington Oval to find a minor miracle had occured and the ground had come up pretty well from the swampy marsh it was on Tuesday night, and the markers were back in place for the 400m track. Seriously, you wouldn't have known the east half had been under water...well, apart from where some runners had apparently been a couple of nights ago....ahem...

Legs felt dead through the warm up, and Illie had moved around to the inside of the leg - chatting to Easy Tiger during stretching he wondered if it might be a neglected adductor. Just taking a quick look here, the location seems about right. Drills were pretty scratchy, and I decided to leave it at three accelerations, as they seemed to aggravate the inner leg.

So, down to business. SW advised against bashing the first couple, given the short recoveries and that it was a fairly lengthy session. Heck, even I'd already figured that out.

Reps went:
2:49 - constant tempo, without pushing
2:47 - tidy form up a bit, concentrate on remaining focussed through the second lap
2:44 - work a bit harder at the start. Was looking for 2:45 here
2:44 - try for 2:43, similar tactic to above, seemed to get in a little hole around 450m
2:43 - tidier rep, more like what I was aiming for on rep 5
2:44 - probably started a bit hard and got in a bit of a hole from 300 - 450
2:40 - much stronger effort, although had a flat spot from 500 - 600

Pleased to finish on quicker one, would have been nice to slip under 2:40 but not to be. Solid session, good little lead in to Saturday's Sydney Park 7.5km cross country, where hopefully I won't go and do something stupid on the first lap like last time. That'd be good.

Adductor was fine through the session but gave me some trouble through the cool down, which was curious.

The long way home...

Schedule called for 24km in 1:45 tonight. I dusted off the 23.1km St Leonards-Gordon-Top Ryde-Home route from around this time last month, added on a loop around the block and voila! A 24km route. One with a nasty steep little hill that would doubtless bite me on the arse at 23.5km, but such is life. I wonder what happened to the first bloke who said that. I bet he's just hanging around somewhere.

Anyway, after watching the morning rain gradually ease off into an afternoon notable for occasional glimpses of a fabled ball of fire in the sky, I left the office at about 5:20pm for the run home. The run didn't get off to the best of starts: it was quickly apparent the long sleeve top was just a little too warm for the conditions (although it did get cooler in the last 45 minutes of the run), and the iPod lasted about 7 minutes before the battery mentioned that I'd neglected to pause the player when I got to the office just after 8am. Valiant effort from the little fella, though, and his reward is suckling at the USB 2.0 teat for a few hours.

Illie was a little vocal through the run, but it's tough terrain, with little flat, just constant inclines and quite a few steepish declines. I was stupid early and bashed it up the rolling incline to the 11km marker just after the turn off from the Pacific Highway to Lane Cove Road in about 46 minutes, which in the context of a 1 hour 45 minute run was a bit silly. I was fine until about the Lane Cove River, after which it turned into a bit of a slog. I was able to roll along reasonably well, just not in a particularly spritely fashion. I would pick up periodically after a gentle decline, but that would last until the next incline. Got colder as I rolled along.

Still, made reasonable time, and despite nearly coming to a standstill on the steep incline in the add-on, managed the fractionally over 24km in 1:43:18, for 4:18 per km pace, which is pleasing. Strength is definitely there at the moment, and I'm sure Illie will settle with the taper and some treatment.

An interesting thing I hadn't mentioned of late - you may recall I was suffering some issues with the arch of my right foot. I've had a bit of a fiddle with the lacing of my shoes, and have them set up now with the lace missing the third eye from the top (I use all the holes). This has reduced the arch pain (which was getting quite bad when cold) to the point now that it's nothing but mild stiffness. If you get arch pain, might be worth trying out.

I pictured the Apocalypse as more of a fiery thing

6.6.06, although I took much delight in dating a number of documents 6.6.6 at work today. With the adoption of the Gregorian calendar over a 130 or so year period from 1522 I don't think anyone quite knows what the date actually is, and we're measuring from the alleged birth date of a person that whilst probable he existed, the major religions can't agree as to his role. Plus it's based around the number of times our little rock revolves around our backwater little star.

Still, I was never one to let all that get in the way of a few cheap laughs.

Had a massage with Easy Tiger this morning, no major dramas, just a couple of niggles here and there that were dealt with. Illie remains, it would seem the psoas is underdeveloped on the right side so poor Illie is doing all of the work.

It seemed to rain all day today, even during the bit we saw sunshine play across Woolwich mid-afternoon. After that, it really closed in, and the end of the world did seem a potential outcome. It wasn't like we could see any of it from St Leonards.

SW had sent an e-mail out to all of his runners telling them that training would continue regardless of ongoing rain. Now is not the time to be shirking sessions anyway, so after getting a bit of a soaking getting to the car, I drove over to Kensington. Thank goodness for AWD - our old Vectra would have flashing its traction control light incessantly.

The ground was waterlogged, particularly on the eastern side where there was a lot of standing water. SW had taken the course well out towards the fence, rendering any times meaningless. We would simply complete the laps as normal, so the scheduled 2.4k, 1.6k, 1.6k became 6 laps, 4 laps and 4 laps, the focus instead being on effort.

After drenching my elderly 2100s, I decided to do the session in bare feet. Easy Tiger later told me he had a shoe lace come undone in the last rep, and he was very conscious of the wet ground trying to 'suck' the shoe off his foot.

My reps went 8:23, 6:11 and 6:02, so there was a good progression in pace, with the average lap dropping for each rep. I was pleased with my level of effort, pushing hard all the way through the last one. Surface was pretty difficult, with feet sinking into the surface in a few places. Character building, I guess. It rained gently through the whole session, finally succumbing to temptation and pouring with about 3/4 of a lap to go through the final rep.

We got through a saturated 'cool down' and called it a night.

Good one to remember come Gold Coast, if I'm doubting my commitment.

Not as wet as suggested

After spending the working day watching varying rain clouds shroud the city, I wasn't overly looking forward to the run home - an hour ten in the schedule, which dictated a run into town from St Leonards, and home via Victoria Road.

Hit the road at about 5:15, and arrived home around 6:25 (possibly a minute or two earlier - I forgot my watch again) in a solid hitout.

Observations:
- it was nowhere near as 'rainy' as I thought it would be, more misty with sprinklings of rain drops. I wasn't particularly wet when I got home
- whoever puts metal strips, grates and grilles in paths hates runners. They seem perfectly placed for my gait, I must have hit every single one crossing the Harbour Bridge. They're so slippery in the wet - I had a nice little skate on one in Pyrmont that nearly ended in a well dressed Asian couple's arms
- umbrellas are dangerous, particularly when in the hands of deaf, blind and stupid people
- I had that same old slightly nauseous feeling I always get when I come off the Harbour Bridge southbound. What is it with that? I think it might the long downhill from St Leonards - I get it sometimes if I run home via Lane Cove, with the long downhill down Epping Road, and again down Burns Bay Road to Hunter's Hill.
- otherwise, good, strong, consistent hitout. 'Illie' was present through the run but not too bad - I think I'm maintaining an even gait despite the niggle. Felt stronger once on my way out of town, suspect it was the blood moving the junk from yesterday out of the system.

78k in three days, and don't feel too bad. Good news.

Marathon preparation continues...

Out the door a bit after midday for 36km - four laps of the Bay Run, including the Dog Run extension. I ran the first one anti-clockwise, two and three clockwise, and the last one anti-clockwise again, for a bit of variation and to ensure I encountered differing hills and wind conditions.

Wind seemed to be predominantly from the south, and was problematic heading south on both sides of the Iron Cove, particularly on the east side where it was a factor from the Leichhardt pool all the way to the bottom of the Dog Run. Would have been nice to not have it, but my reasoning is the harder it is in training, the easier it is in the race.

I managed the 36km in 2:39:43 for 4:26 per km pace. I figured 40 minutes for each 9km lap was a good target, and was comfortably under it for the first two laps, held it on lap 3, and probably managed a 41 minute lap for the last lap - the long drag home into the wind over the last 2.75km proved hard, and it got pretty tough over that period, which I guess is the point of these longer training runs. You go through the phase of wondering why you do this to yourself, if it's like this now what's it going to be like faster and longer on the day, and so on.

I was planning to run out the full 2:45, but Illie was a bit of a problem over the last two laps, and I got a weird pain in one of the toes of my left foot. I've got a massage with Easy Tiger on Tuesday, and Martin Horne next week, so should hopefully be on top of these promptly.

One down, one to go.

The fun never stops

After an entertaining morning of helping out at the Lane Cove 10k (the highlight of which was seeing The Mad Guz gently encourage a duck out of the way as he cruised in for a 32 something 10k), it was down to Scarborough Park, Ramsgate for the 4 x 4km ANSW relays.

I was in the 35+ age group team, one that has been a little problematic for Striders previously, with a little bit of a hole in team members in this age group. As of midweek, we had the returning Leftie, Timinerko, O Runner and myself, and the gradually returning Superflake as the reserve. Sadly, late in the week, Leftie decided discretion was the better part of valour and decided not to chance his achilles, and the 'flake stepped forward into duties.

Got down there at 1:30 or so, fluking a golden parking spot. Had enough time to watch the women's event head out, and at that point it was apparent there was confusion on the part of the hosts as to where the course actually went. This had a bit of a sequel at the start of the men's event, which I missed as I was off galavanting around doing drills to warm up in the fresh and windy conditions, so this is based on what I heard rather than what I observed.

The course was based around 2 laps of the 'back' loop that we did in the novice 10k event last month, but with a little 50 metre out and back extension built in to make up distance. The lead runners started on the other side of the creek near a cricket (apparently a winter sport in Sydney now) ground to make up their distance.

So, when the men started, quite a significant number of them went right after the bridge up the extension, rather than left into the loop proper. I don't know who or how many were affected.

So, seeing 'flake through his halfway point, I pottered over to the amassed second runners and waited. An interesting experience this one, quite different to the track relay as you can't see the runner coming. 'flake eventually appeared after a good honest effort (I think I helped by tagging him right at the start of the change area) and I bolted - there's the big danger in this event, I think, totally bashing the first thirty seconds because of the rush of adrenaline in the change over.

I was a bit nervous about hitting the bridge, as it had a concrete surface and I'd taken a punt on wearing the spikes - I needn't have worried. Aside from a rather loud clack of the spikes on the hard surface, grip was fine. Anyone who's played golf in proper metal spikes will know the sound. I think the spikes were a good call, they felt like I had a definite traction advantage through the loose stuff on the back half of the lap, where it was particularly sandy.

The first lap was just a case of trying to get a feel for where the wind was, and trying not to cash in the bikkies bashing your way into it. It was pretty well into it all the way down to the left turn near the shops at the far point of the loop. I was passing quite a lot of people, and in fact apart from getting lapped by the first and second placed teams, I didn't get passed by anyone.

Photo courtesy of Amjan and Fats

Felt like a good even effort. I think my split was around 14:00 - 14:05, based on a rough split by my watch, difficult given the circumstances of the changeover. Tag to Timinerko went pretty smoothly.

Not sure how the team went, I really only had time for a bit of a cool down with Fats before I had to get away to an appointment back in town. Once I get results I'll post them, but I suspect we'll not be bothering anyone in our age bracket. Still, it was a good fun hit out - I'd actually been looking forward to a short blat on soft ground as a bit of a change from the tarmac events of the last couple of weeks. Don't mind the team events, they're good fun, and it's a different motivation, which can only be a good thing. I know at heart it's an individual sport, but you can only draw from the well so many times at a personal level.

Penance

Helping out at the Striders Lane Cove 10k this morning, as I'm doing the ANSW Relays later in the day.

Set the alarm a bit earlier and snuck for 23:30 around a little loop up to Huntley's Point return I've done before that from memory's around 4.6 - 4.8km or so. Legs as dead as wood, but feel better for a bit of work.

Bah

Wet, cold, windy and so many displays of driving stupidity jammed into 25 minutes I was so thoroughly jacked off with things when I got home the prospect of trudging around an oval for half an hour by myself seemed comparable with shooting myself in the head. I'll do the half hour in the morning somehow.

8 x 400

As is the tradition with SW, a shorter session before an Aths NSW event, the Saturday relays at Scarborough Park. It was 8 x 400, a fact that I eventually learned after asking Mohammed about four or five times during the lift from Redfern Station and the warm up. Recoveries were about 40 seconds.

I was a bit tired after yesterday's early start, and had one of those naps on the train to Redfern in the evening that seems to just make you more tired. I was a bit flat through the warm up.

I'd formulated a bit of a strategy - cruise the first, run the next two 'without resistance', as in almost a float, push a bit harder in the back half for the next two, same again with a stronger start in reps 6 and 7, and then bring it home with a strong one to finish off.

That's pretty much how it played out, with times going 82, 80, 80, 78, 78, 76, 76, 74. Very pleased with the session, felt I had great control over my pace and building intensity through the reps. Session average was quicker than any prior to the Anzac Day revision of the 400 metre course.

Things are going pretty well at the moment. I'm working hard on my diet - I was getting into bit of a snacking habit of an evening after dinner, and tightened up on what I eat during the day. Seems to have worked - although the weight's been stable, between 73 - 74 kg, stood on the scales at 73 kg even tonight, and am looking leaner in the mid-section. If I can get on another roll of weight loss, I might yet get to Gold Coast around 70 kg, which would be great. We'll see.