Down South

Spent three days in Margaret River and 5 in Denmark, and got in some good running. Really tied it on too, managed to finish two whole bottles of wine... first time the demon drink has passed my lips since the new year... had a great time, hanging out at Blue Ginger cafe, and Wild Thyme (mmmm... blueberry pancakes) in MR and Bibbulmun cafe in Demark.

Monday: 50 minutes of tempo from redgate to Harrison and back (map) on a really cold blustery morning. Not a hilly course, but not flat either and the weather definitely made it interesting. Averaged 3:55 pace HR171 Ca87. Started to run out of steam towards the end but felt really strong in the middle pushing into the howling wind. Longest tempo run for a very long time so very happy. All up 15.56km

Tuesday: After a 20 minute warmup did 3 sets of 4x400m on 2:00 with a 2 minute break inbetween sets. Did this up and down Redgate road where a 400m marker had been placed. It was certainly different doing it on a 400m straight - I think it was a little long but did a good consistent session. 83, 80, 76, 76 76, 77, 77, 77 77, 76, 78, 76

Wednesday: After a lengthy but beautiful drive from MR to Denmark thru the Karri forests of the southwest I felt alittle itchy so went for a nice easy run done the Nornalup-Denmark heritage trail. Beautiful evening for running - 12.08km @ 4:27 HR 147 Ca 81.

Thursday: Ran with Kim while she toughed out a 3km time trial up along the Denmark inlet ; on the return I did some fartlek intervals, mostly short sprints but a couple of longer ones. All up about 7km.

Saturday: Ran a tough long run from the chalet into Denmark then back out on Ocean Beach Rd and returning on Lights Rd around Monkey Rock up a killer hill and back to the chalet (map). A good rolling course with 250m of ascent and some tough winds to deal with. Ran 24.9km in 1:56 @ 4:40 HR 152 Ca84 ; didn't stop or take any gels and felt spent by the end (and only had a cup of green tea before), but it was a great run and felt very strong for most of it.

Sunday: Because of time constraints I had to do my tempo run on Sunday evening rather than Monday morning. Ran the Denmark inlet trail to Crusoe beach road and back for a total of 13.2 km (map). Didn't feel too great for the first 20 minutes because it was too close to a delicious but quite heavy lunch (!) but felt pretty good thereafter. Ran pretty well on the damp trail where the footing was a bit muddy in parts but mostly good. Tempo part was 10.8km at 3:48 pace (40.48) HR171 Ca88.

Going to try to take it easy this week to get a good result at the 5k at Coker on Thursday.

Congratulations to Biscuitman and Sandgroper for their respective runs at the Run4Gold. Sorry I missed the race...

Edit: Alberto Contador needs to shut the hell up. About one of the greatest athletes who has ever lived, how could he say 'I have never had admiration for him and I never will'. Alberto, you are no doubt a pretty decent athlete yourself (if a complete show pony), but you should try to show a little humility... small wonder so many people wanted your wheels to fall off. Roll on Team Radio Shack (sorry B-man) 2010!