What a week that was...

It's been a while since my last confession... busy busy busy!

Started off the weekend with a gorgeous 28km with Sas from Darlington up the heritage trail to Old Sawyers Rd (map); like the week before I felt good and with the lovely cool weather we had a great run. Just one stop at Mundaring on the way back down for a drink and a gel. Two minutes faster than the week before, average pace 4:42 HR 147 -1:07:38 (4:52 pace) out, 1:03:09 (4:31 pace) return. Felt tired but good afterwards...

On Sunday I've started to reintroduce some short tempo work because I think that's been missing from my training. Just ran the Canning Bridges loop from home and managed 6.5km of tempo at an average of 3:52 pace - slower into the string wind at first but felt great on the home stretch.

Monday we did the usual easy from King's Park down Malcolm to Mounts Bay, along to UWA and then up the Western perimeter path to the start. Felt great at 4:41, HR 138 ; nice and cool again.

On Tuesday I travelled down to Denmark with my parents who have been visiting ; uneventful drive, the car handling a trailer full of IKEA furniture and an extra two adults pretty well. I have to admit I was a bit concerned that we may not make it over the Armadale hill but it was no problem in the end... after an afternoons of furniture construction I did some intervals on the sand/ironstone surface of the Inlet trail. Not as nice as Alderbury (or Coker) park, but a bit of hardship just make the training better, right ? I did  a 2km warmup from the house to the rivermouth, 5 x 1140m reps with 2:30 SR, the first being 3:27 pace and the rest being 3:17 pace, and then 3km cooldown to run back home. Felt pretty shagged by the end of it.

Wednesday morning I cycled down to the rivermouth and then ran an 11km out and back along the inlet trail at 4:29 pace,  HR 149; very warm morning, and as I got into it I lost the stiffness in the legs from the previous evening's efforts. I turned it into a progression run of  sorts just to keep things interesting, as Kim rode on her bike to keep me company. When I was finished, I hopped on my bike and rode up the Bibbulmun cafe for a jumbo coffee which I humbly suggest is the best coffee in the Great Southern !

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday but at a slower and more equal pace 10.36km at 4:35 HR 145.

I took a day off Friday, partly because we were heading back to Perth and partly because my glutes were a little sore, from the running I guess, but also from the furniture construction and all the standing in odd positions (not because I hold the screwdriver with different muscles to the rest of you...)

Saturday, another 6am start in Darlington. Ran the same run with Sas up to Old Sawyers 27.84km @ 4:41 pace HR148 (1:07:34 out, 1:02:49 return). Saw Craig D out there briefly before he ducked thru the bush to head home. I didn't feel quite as fresh today, I guess it was a bit warmer and followed a tough week physically. Loved the run though - next week we may do something a bit different, maybe revisit Phil's hill or the pipeline.

Sunday I bumped up the tempo a bit ; ran from E.Perth through Maylands up to the Police Academy and back. Nearly 9km of tempo at 3:51 pace - it was warm and windy and my legs definitely got tired at the end. Definitely making progress I think ; I haven't done too much tempo running of late and I felt great for the first 5 before the fatigue (and nausea from the Sustagen Sport too close to the run) started to wear me down. Saw Simon E out there, looked like he was flying as usual.

Monday morning did another warm and windy 10.5km from Trigg to Hillary's and back ; very nice to dip the legs in the water afterwards and the coffee and muffins at Yelo are outstanding!