Relays are fun!

Apart from the bloody awful humidity that were having to deal with it's been a pretty good week.

Intervals on Tuesday was 10x400 with 75 sec SR and then 5x80m sprints (24° 73%RH). Did a good warmup and hit the session with the fast guys - interesting how the person at the front became the person at the back and vice versa as the endurance of the various runners was shown up. My pace dropped off a little but did all of them in the 71-74 second range. 74.5/ 71.1 / 71.7 / 72.4 / 73.0 / 73.9 / 73.9 / 73.0 / 74.0 / 72.7.

Wednesday did 10.5km  in East Perth @4:49 HR 142. Nice easy run although I was feeling pretty tired from the intervals.

Thursday morning 9.6km around the Perth Bridges @ 4:41 HR144 ; like running in a steam room ; 19° 91%RH. Pretty mean conditions, did not feel refreshed and invigorated after this.

Thursday evening I went to Coker for the 4x800m relay. I had my eye on the pretty soft M45 state record of 10:48 but unfortunately we couldn't get a team of M45's together, so I ran with one guy who had an ongoing Achilles problem, one who was feeling crook after the 400m (but was roped in) and one who seemed to tear a calf when he set of so almost ran it on one leg (poor bugger - we told him to stop but he didn't). I was anchoring and picked up the baton as early as allowed to ran 810m and was happy with the 2:18 which is quicker than my 2:16.4 PB pace. What helped was having Scott Tamblin join me as I was rounding the bend with 170m to go doing his cooldown - I had to try to stay ahead! I think he picked up what I was doing so he started going a bit quicker too - had a good run though.

It was a very exciting night with the M80 relay squad smashing the world record by 1:20 and a few Australian records were broken too.

Before the relay I decided at the last minute to do the 3000m  because I didn't think the relay was going to happen - I hadn't warmed up at all so just set off easy and turned it into a tempo run. Paced Pete Sullivan to run 10:26 - I felt fantastic, almost the best I've felt on the track for a while, even though it was very warm - 29° 46%RH.

Friday morning did a nice recovery mystery meander in King's Park; 5.74km @ 4:42. Looking forward to the long run on Saturday.

Running and race directing

The relay on Thursday was great fun, although our team never stood a chance! The ante had obviously been upped for this year with recruiters out in force resulting in a relatively star studded field. I run the first lap and ended up in third about 100m (~4:50 for 1600m) behind Roberto Busi and another who finished a bit ahead of him. We ended up coming fifth I think, the winners being anchored by courtney carter who blew away the guy who started just behind him (Sam McEntee ?) by over 100m! Got a couple of bottles of wine for my troubles.

Friday just did a 6k recovery ; Saturday we started at 6:30 and ran in lovely conditions up in Darlington. We did 27.84km @4:46 HR144 and I had a great time, felt like the long runs of old. I haven't run that far or long since Boston last year and it felt great ; looks like I might be getting the track running out of my system! I don't know what was different this time but Sas had a good run as well ....

That afternoon Kim & I (& Bob F) loaded up and collected the race trailer for the Pt Walter race on Sunday for which Kim & I were co-race directors - later that day we met up with Original Simon to go over the course to check the k markers on the course and to make sure we knew where the water tables would be & how people would get to them. Also checked out the start/finishers area to make sure there was room enough for the racers and that the turnaround worked. It would have been nice to be able to put the k-markers out then and there but apparently they usually get nicked or end up in the river if we do that.....

On Sunday we got to the race at 5:15 to start setting up ; because we couldn't really do anything the night before it makes for a high-pressure period to set things up before the race start @ 7. Fortunately we had a great bunch of quality helpers in Original Simon (who essentially co-directed as well, huge thanks!), Epi, Jo, Sas, Damien, Trish etc. so all things went smoothly.

The racing was good with some high-quality runners in both races, the winning time for the 5 (Ian Thomson being chased home by Mark Lee again) being 16:13 and the 16 was 57:37. Sandgroper had a good run to finish 6th in and excellent 17:57 (and left nothing on the course, embracing the inner wombat, as Ray Boyd would put it!) and Biscuitman and Clown both clocked big PB's but looked like they had a bit up their sleeves too.

Much help with the cleanup as well so we had the trailer back at the club by 10:30 and the results off to the West Australian by 11. Much earlier than expected. Had a long nap in the afternoon !

Monday did a nice 10k in KP @ 4:40 HR140 ; very warm along Mounts Bay road, but the air quality improved and the temperature dropped up the western perimeter path which made things much more pleasant.

Pea Soup anyone ?

The last few sessions have been in pretty disgusting conditions ; very high relative humidity and not too much oxygen to be had.

Tuesday intervals was a tough session ; 4x600m ; 90sec SR ; 4x400m 90sec SR; 4x200m 30sec SR ; 5x80m 90sec WR. I felt better tonight than I have for a while. Hung with the fast boys until they decided to take 60sec breaks between the 400s....

Wednesday did the E.Perth 10.4km with Sas (@ 4:47 pace, HR 143); oppressive conditions - only 21° but 89%RH so cooling down was tricky - at least we had a bit of a headwind coming back which helped. Very sweaty by the end!

Thursday we did 9.59km @ 4:43 HR 145 - conditions were a repeat of Wednesday's - 21° 87% RH with no wind so the sweat glands got a good workout ; as did the barista at Atomic afterwards. Did a slightly half-hearted version of the normal drills session to try to retain some zip for the evening's corporate relay.

Apparently the team (of three) I am running for won it last year (and we are registration #1), so no pressure..... how bad can 1600m be, right ? According to pacing charts, age grading etc. this is my best distance, so why is it my least favourite?

Results

Relays were great fun, although with a few no-shows I wasn't sure if i'd even be running. Ended up running in an M40 team, even though we only had 1 M40 runner ; we did a decent time 53.6 and I'm sure we lost a ton in baton changes ; nearly disqualified by Kim but managed to handover about 20cm from the end of the box as my runner took off too early.

I did the 1000m after that in a comfortable 3:00, holding back because of the 3000m on Friday, and helped out with the timing in the 3k and saw Kim notch an excellent 20 second PB!

Friday at WAAS was a bit better organised than the meet on the 22nd. They split the race into boys and girls heats, but we still started at the advertised 6:30pm. Marc See and Courtney Carter had a good race which Marc won in 8:18, Courtney finishing in 8:24 - I felt a bit flat but OK ; never really got into a nice comfortable stride, but still finished in 9:40. The start was crowded with 29 runners, and there was at least one guy who went down (who I narrowly avoided) - it was fast start as well.. First k in 3:08 (and I was pretty far back!), second in 3:15, and the last in 3:17. Happy to say I overtook a few folks to finish halfway up the field, and wasn't overtaken. Next (and last!) 3000m at WAAS is on march 5 which I hope to get too... hopefully then hold on to the pace a bit better.

Saturday did an easy 19.2 in Darlington @ 4:46 HR 145 ; 5:30 start was waaaay too early (alarm at 4:10!) and didn't feel remotely normal until about 7k into the run. Spent the rest of the weekend recovering from the early start ; never again!

Nothing Sunday  - except Zoe's Bernese picnic at the beach in S Freo  in the morning ; and excellent '6 characters in search of an author' production at the Octagon in  the afternoon. The kind of tight, entertaining  theatre production I haven't seen in a while.

Monday did the 10k from KP @4:32 HR 146 on Monday morning ; enjoyed the conditions this morning and actually felt quite good which is a bit of a (happy) change. I just can't pick when I'm going to have a good day - its very strange.

Relays

The running's been as usual; ; intervals on Tuesday, a good hard session with 2z400; 60sec SR ; 800 ; 2min SR ; 1200 ; 3min Sr; 800 ; 2min SR ; 2x400 w/60sec SR ; followed by 5x80m sprints. Felt like I was going well tonight, esp. given the very strong gusty winds.

Wednesday did the 10.5km loop from E.Perth @4:42 HR 139 and Thursday did the 9.59km Mends St Perth Bridges loop @ 4:38 HR 142. Felt very comfortable on both.

Thursday evening I'm doing a leg of the 4x100 at Coker Park with 'three good runners looking for a competent 4th'. Last time I did a relay I think I was 12. Don't drop the baton, don't drop the baton, don't drop the baton....

On Friday night I'm going to have a go at the 3000m at the WAAS against the guns. It's the first event, so hopefully it won't be too late starting. I'm not good at running at midnight !

Also, I was asked by Gina GC to run in the Wheeler-Freeman mile relay (in a team of 3) at the UWA Big 6 meet next Thursday. That should be fun .... and good spectating because they apparantly have the top 6 male and female athletes from the state competing in 5 events.

http://www.uwaac.com/

Boot Camp

Been out of town for a while, going easy on the running a bit. We bought a holiday rental down in denmark (photos) and spent the whole weekend assembling furniture and setting things up. A few more trips required but good progress made.

On Thursday did a loop of the Perth Bridges, 9.59km @ 4:40 HR 147 (high!) but fairly pleasant. Friday was spent driving, lugging and screwing.

Saturday did a tough loop in Denmark from the house along the inlet, up lights rd nd the big freaking hill up to Mt Hallowell, then along the Denmark-Nornalup trail back into town (map). All up ~ 26km in a tad over 2 hours (4:43 HR 146) ; it was fairly cool, which was just as well as I didn't have the good sense to take a water bottle down. I was a little tired at the end, especially as the lack of rain made the trail quite sandy in places. Rest of the day spent lugging and screwing and taking Zoe the dog to the beach.

Rest day Sunday (along with a bit more lugging and driving) and back to King's Park on Monday where we did the 9.9km down to Mounts Bay Rd to UWA and up the western side of the park. Pace was 4:40, HR 139.

Later in the day I was persuaded to sign up for the Mona's Training camp in Dwellingup with Frontrunner in March. Jo and Sas are going, and I think Epi and Clown are too. Should be fun (and a widdle bit scawy) !