Track Time

Overtraining part II

2011-11-07T11:04:00.002+08:00

Looking for answers (is this normal? have I blown something?) I went to see Carmel Goodman at her rooms at Challenge. I got the best answer I could have expected, yes it is normal, and no you haven't. My bloodwork results were very good. This is straight overtraining. I will get back to where I was, I just have to be patient and be very conservative in what I'm doing.

I need to write this down, so when, in 6 months time I'm tempted to take on a whole season of racing HM's and 10k's, someone can say "go read that, and don't be so bloody stupid".

Right now, running is something I dread. Went out this morning, attempting to keep the effort as low as possible. HR 148. Pace 4:47. Felt really hard and at times like I was barely even moving forward. I feel like a novice. I can no longer run with the guys I used to run with. I used to run my easy Wednesdays with someone who was doing their tempo run. Don't think I could keep up now. 4 months ago I raced Gold Coast HM in 1:14:03. Now I can barely run 10k at any pace. This is worse than post-NY.

Yes I'm feeling sorry for myself. Break out the violins. What was my passion and joy is now strangling me. Wow, the turnaround is staggering...

On the plus side, I'm starting to really enjoy my cycling. There's no pressure, I don't really have any benchmarks as I have never cycled competitively, so I can go out and enjoy the freedom that gives me. Maybe I need to apply this to my running. No watch, no measurement, no pressure. I will still be struggling, but I don't have the stats slapping me in the face for the rest of the day.

Overtraining - a cautionary tale.

2011-09-27T11:07:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since my last post, although the Strands site contains training diary these days.

It's been an interesting winter season with some big highs and a few lows. Highs were the win at the Elleker HM and the 1:14:03 Half Marathon at Gold Coast a few days after my 47th birthday.

The lows have come in the last few weeks, where my attempts to recapture that GC form have resulted in the biggest phase of overtraining sydnrome I have experienced in my relatively short running life. In retrospect, racing 4 HMs, and key 10k and 12k races in 4 months have been a bit much for me to handle.

The signs were there, I just didn't recognise them. The big clue was the 3x3km workout I did at McGillivray on September 6. If I look at the HR plot it's plain to see. In that session, the second and particularly the 3rd felt like hell on earth, but according to the HR (above), I was barely doing tempo effort. Compare this to the plot below for the 3x3 I did on 14 June (9:58/9:57/9:55) the difference is plain to see.

I'd done a lot of fast k's in training in the leadup to that session and had, quite simply, fallen over the edge. Sore legs, lack of desire, etc. all the classic symptoms. The result at the Sydney HM on Sept 18 was an abysmal run where the last 5km felt like I was finishing a marathon. In my regular training I could roll out a 1:19 HM on a weekly basis without feeling it at all. I had a bacterial infection in my finger which didn't help, but the root cause is the overtraining. Since Sydney I've barely felt like running, and am just starting to get the urge back.

Deep down I knew this was happening, I didn't have the self discipline to pull back. I will listen to my body next time....

ASICS Bridges 8th in 34:12

2011-04-10T21:20:00.001+08:00

This was a big weekend - helped out all Saturday with loading the truck at the club, setup of the start/finish area, and filling all the water bins for delivery to the course on Sunday morning. I was a little worried Saturday because my legs felt really trashed when I got home. We also had to get to the start at 5:45 because Kim was the RD. Fortunately I felt OK in the warmup once I'd been going a little bit.

I warmed up early using advice from Simon Coates ; about 4.4km with some longish run-thru’s to hit that 10km intensity to get the body ready and then rest for the 20 minutes before the race. It really seemed to work. Usually I only start to warm up 20 minutes before, and much shorter. This gave me time to change into the flats, take a gel and relax a bit before the gun.

Felt really comfortable for the first couple of k’s running with the lead group. The wind really kicked up close the causeway, but that was just for a bit and then it was over and then a tailwind for the next 5 k or so. The lead group then picked it up, but I just kept my pace. Mr Stockwell overtook after about 4 km, but we were still doing 3:20’s, so he must have surged. I wasn’t going to just let him go, so picked up the effort to keep him in range ; I’ve raced him enough times to know that if I let him go it was all over.

Sure enough I started to reel him in and overtook again at about the 7.5k mark. I knew the bit from the narrows to the finish was going to be tough, and it was; my legs paid the price for Saturday’s setup when going up they just died. I knew Stephen was behind to really tried to suck it up, but could still only manage a 3:40 for that k. Martin Feichtinger was starting to struggle up ahead so I focussed on him, took a bit of shelter going through the last tunnel into the wall of wind and just went for it, managing to hang on for 8th place.

Splits 3:19 / 13:29 / 16:50 / 20:09 / 23:32 / 27:00 / 30:40 / 34:11

Ran with the Saucony Grid A4’s which were fantastic. Really stoked, last week’s relay leg really helped me tough this out mentally. Congrats to Biscuitman, on a huge PB, as well as PBs for Liam F, Mark L, David P, Jon P and BK ( big PB after 40 miler last week!)

4km PB, 5km PB (by 1 second) and 8k PB along the way.

Attached HR plot is one I’ll be proud of for a while. A triumph of mind over body!

Mt Helena 40 Miler Relay

2011-04-04T10:34:00.001+08:00

Although very secondary to the main event, the relay at the Mount Helena 40 miler is always fun. I managed to assemble a 'dream team' of pretty strong runners with the goal of breaking the 4 hour barrier for the 40 mile course. It was going to be a tough ask because conditions were not favourable for this fairly hilly course.

We were led off by Mark Lee who ran a cracking 50:33 for 13.9km and blistering 18.3km second leg run by Liam in 1:07:50. I took the soggy sweatband baton (eeeuuuw!) and headed of down the hill. I knew coming back up was going to be tough so I tried to put a bit of time in the bank. It was really starting to warm up (high 20's in the shade) by 9:30 on the dry dusty and exposed trail, and the easterly was starting to bear it’s teeth. Hit the turnaround in 23:28 (3:27 pace) and then headed back up the hill. My quads started protesting quite early in the piece – it’s a real slog back up the hill into the wind and I really had to suck it up for the team, average HR 182 for the second half. Fortunately I had some solo runners to pick off to provide me with some distraction. Handed off to Scott at 49:16, who then ran a great final leg in merciless conditions (low 30's) to stop the clock in what I believe is a course record…

A special mention has to be made of Chris O'Neill who won the solo run in a remarkable 4:36 odd, smashing the course record by over 10 minutes. Averaging 4:17 pace for that course in those conditions over 40 miles is an astonishing run. Geoff Reynolds also pulled one out of the bag to complete the course in under 5 hours, another remarkable effort. Eulalia van Blommestein was the first woman home. The conditions took it's toll on the field and there was some attrition, the greatest courage on the day shown by Jane Elton who had been battling a virus all week gutsed it out for over 7 hours to claim her finishers medal.

Denmark Long Run

2011-03-29T12:15:00.001+08:00

The weather down here's been great and I've felt so good in my running that it's been hard to hold back. Last week I did a bunch of runs out and back on the inlet trail, all leading to the 29km long run on the weekend which is one of the most enjoyable and epic runs I've ever done.

The route went from town up Mt Shadforth - a 200m hill in the first 20 minutes - then followed a rollercoaster along the spine of Mt Shadforth. The weather was glorious - 15 degrees and sunny. To my left I could see Wilson's inlet and the Southern ocean past the misty valleys around Mt Hallowell and to my right were the farmlands, vineyards and forests out to Mt Lindsay in the distance.

After a while there came a sharp descent to Mcleod Rd, the western segment of one of Denmark's 'tourist drives'. From there, a sharp 140m climb over 2 km to Osborne Rd where I had a water bottle. I had cycled this before, and it's a tough climb. After some water and a Gu I headed east again back to town on the farm roads ; saw a few farmers out tending their lands, but no traffic at all. It was starting to warm up but I was still feeling good through the peaks and troughs of the road, and soon enough I came to the last sharp ascent (70m over 800m) back up to Mt Shadforth before the descent, Darlington HM style, back into town. My legs definitely knew they'd been for a run - over 600m of ascent - but it was fantastic.

Strands Entry

WAMC Neil Hawkins 10k ; 3rd in 34:39; 100km week

2011-03-20T19:20:00.001+08:00

Great run. Didn't feel overly good in the warmup, and was going to tempo it today, but found I was keeping with Liam and Dean Menzies so went with it to see how it went. Mark Lee had scooted off at the start. 17:13 for 5km and 3:27's for the next two, I though a sub-35 might be on here. The last 3 has significant hill in it, and the next was 3:37, so I knuckled down and managed a 3:24 and then a 3:27 to finish. Those last two were tough through the bushland. Liam put in a bit of a gap at the start of the hill, but I then managed to hold it, and he finished maybe 8 seconds ahead; not surprisingly though he said he had been feeling a bit flat. Thrilled with this after a hilly 27km yesterday, but I felt pretty good yesterday too ; this has without doubt been one of my best weeks in a very long time. I also did 4:33 for the 1500 at the masters on Wednesday, a nice VO2Max hitout!

They had my time as 34:33 which would be a PB, but I got 39 on my watch, so I don't think I can claim it. It does throw up a moral dilemma though. I often get 'charged' extra seconds in races, does this make up for those ? I don't think so.

Consensus amongst Garmin users seemed to be that the course was 120m long, but it always seems to be - the consensus that is...

Bumped into Simon Elliot beforehand - hope he had a good one, the first race for quite a while, one to set the baseline; sort of where I was a few weeks ago.

Edit: Just realised that last week was the first 100km week since mid October....

Darlington HM - 1:18:19

2011-03-13T12:28:00.003+08:00

It was lovely and cool this morning, although we could have done without the easterly pushing up that hill.

I felt great at the start and held with the pack easily up the hill, but the push around the school in the new loop sorted me out. And the front boys pulled ahead a bit. I then caught up with Mr Stockwell and I was feeling pretty comfortable so kept with him for a while up the hill. At about 9km he went up a gear and that was that. I was trying to run on effort, and maybe backed off a bit too much, but I suspect it was just lack of stamina.

Time Split Time Split Pace
5k 18:57 18:57 3:47
10k 38:26 19:29 3:53
11k 42:06 3:40 3:40
18k 1:07:24 25:18 3:36
HM 1:18:19 10:56 3:31

I really felt my lack of tempo conditioning, and didn't feel comfortable after that point. It was a struggle to maintain the effort. It's not a whinge, it's actually good to know that those tempo runs are good for something :-)

Props to Gerry Hill for winning, Liam (PB), Scott (PB), Stephen (for crushing me once again), Ryan(PB), Kev (PB), Biscuitman (PB), Epi (PB) and Makkas for some great running today. PB central....

3000m Coker Park - 9:44

2011-03-11T06:29:00.001+08:00

After re-naming this blog 'Track Time' about 2 months ago, I finally actually got to a track race....

After a reasonable warmup and a bit of standing around, I toed the line again in a 3000m at the Masters Thursday night track met at Coker Park. Very nervy, it's a little scary, knowing what you're in for.

Very happy with the way it went, I managed consistent splits in the cool windy conditions (standard for Coker in March) and came out 9 seconds adrift of my PB.

Splits: 3:16.1 / 3:15.8 / 3:12.7

Definitely something to work with and I'm really happy with that result, and particularly the way I ran it. No competition at all - unfortunately the Masters events are usually Time Trials rather than races...

Back in the game

2011-03-07T20:24:00.003+08:00

It's been a while ; 4 months!! Last night I finally felt ready to step out in a race again to test the water. My recovery feels like it has taken for ever, and Perth's hottest summer (both in terms of daytime and overnight temperatures) on record certainly hasn't helped.

I have a few new training buddies who have helped tremendously with confidence and helping me get through tough runs. So thanks to Steve, Mark, Simon, David and Liam. Thanks also to those who have had to put up with my bleating..

Last weekends Monaghetti camp was fantastic and another thing that has given me a good kick in the backside.

I ran the Swan 5km Twilight run expecting nothing but hoping to get under 17:30. I've been going to intervals for about 5 weeks now and feel like I have started to lose the rust and my legs are going well again. I lost the front pack within 800m and was running solo for the rest - they never really got out of sight though, and I could hardly believe it when I crossed the line with the clock on 17:03. A big confidence boost...

Onwards... a 3000m TT at Coker Park this Thursday will give me a second look at my physical state, and I won't have done a very hilly 27km the day before this one.

Darlington HM on Sunday, not expecting anything, but secretly ( oops ) hoping around 1:20. Lots of hills on a very challenging course.. most of my training buddies are doing it so I'll go along and see what happens.

NYC Marathon Gallery

2010-12-07T14:32:00.000+08:00

Some of these really capture the enormous scale of this marathon :

Four weeks on...

2010-12-06T14:09:00.000+08:00

.. and I'm still struggling. I'm not doing any intervals or hard running and am still waiting for my body to give me the green light. I'm taking a day off every 2 or three days in the hopes that my endocrine system will repair itself enough to enjoy my running again. All of my runs are aerobic (although some are not as aerobic as I'd like them to be!) between 4:25 and 4:50 pace, but the HR is still very high. I have had one good one where I felt almost normal but that has slipped again.

I guess other people get hammered in other ways, I seem to get nailed in the endocrine department. My legs feel great - since the DOMS subsided 3 or 4 days after the marathon I haven't had any leg pain whatsoever - this is part of the problem. They want to go, but my body doesn't.

Anyhow, I ordered my photos last week so in the next week or so I should be able to put up a gallery of the best ones, including some fantastic shots of the marathon and NYC sights.

Paying the piper

2010-11-23T10:15:00.001+08:00

Since New York I've run four times, each run getting progressively worse... two runs in Virginia and two since getting back in Perth on Sunday. I suspect the absolute awfulness of the two in Perth are mainly due to a head full of allergies and an upswing of abient temperature of about 20 degrees. Hopefully things will improve soon.

Post analysis of my training for NYC reveals a few things:

1. my longest long runs weren't long enough. If I'm training for a 2:45 marathon, I need to make sure at least some long runs are that long. Maybe I need to alternate the MP finish with pure LSD runs. My problem in the marathon came from a simple lack of endurance and leg muscle toughness.

2. Easy runs a fraction too quick.

3. Some MP runs too long. Maybe limiting to 21.1km would have been a good idea.

4. Tempo runs were mostly good, but I should have kept to the McMillan paces. I need to get over the temptation to beat the workout, especially when I'm feeling good. I think my training plateued a bit - the performance in Freo HM is an indicator of that.

5. Overall I think I got the volume right ; at no point did I feel absolute fatigue and the step ups were handled quite easily. The balance in different workouts was good as well. Recovery runs worked well too, instead of taking days off.

New York Marathon 360th in 2:50:13 (23rd M45-49)

2010-11-08T22:20:00.003+08:00

What a day. I missed my target by a minute and a half, but I'm still thrilled with the result - a 9 minute PB. This is a very well organised race, given the logistical challenge of getting 45,000 people to the start on Staten Island. The start is in 3 waves waves, sub-divided into three separate starts, blue, green and orange.

Woke at 4:30 and forced down a large bowl of porridge and honey. Got the bag together and headed from our 71st Street apartment at 5:30am we took the the 1 subway to 14th, then the 2 to Chambers St, transferred via shuttle (weekend railworks!) to the Staten Island Ferry, got the ferry to Staten Island and then bus transfer to the start; arriving at 7:45. Kim & co. with Travelling fit got a luxury coach to the start. Hmmmpph!

Lessons learned from Boston were applied here. Do not get cold! Took many layers and changed into my race shoes just before handing my bag to the UPS trucks. Went to get a coffee, munched on a bagel and headed into the corral when they opened at 8:20. There was a line of loos in the corral, so it was good to hang out there and relax. No loo stress here...

Corrals closed at 8:55 and after a 20 minute wait we headed down to the start. Getting excited now! The elites were introduced - Haile getting the biggest cheer. Everyone started hurling their discardable gear off to the side, but disappointingly some dropped their gear at their feet including water bottles, which was a bit of a hazard.

At 9:40 the start cannon went, and we started to shuffle towards the line. Starting at a jog as we crossed the start slowly we headed up the bridge. A lot of weaving here I slowly managed to get up to pace. The first mile was 7:08 accompanied by a bit of mild panic as I realised I was 2 seconds/mile off where I needed to be already. Happily the field thinned out and I speed up a bit down the lee side of the bridge, the second mile being 5:58. Whoops. Settled down and tried to relax into a comfortable rhythm. The crowds, I have to say, were amazing. I put 'David' and 'Australia' on my shirt (not 'Sugar', another lesson learned from Boston).

This is not a flat course. Most of it is either long slight climbs or descents, and four of the five bridges present a significant challenge. There were bands everywhere and the crowd noise in sections was fantastic. All the time 'Go David!' or 'Go Aussie'. I felt really good. And inspired. My favourite was 'Yo David, you in Harlem now...' and 'Oh yeah, big David's got it going on...' :-) I was trying to go on heart rate, but that was pretty high, so went to just going on feel and breathing. I think the HR was elevated just because of adrenaline...

Hit a first patch of suffering at the halfway. I was steeling myself for the Queensboro bridge, but before you get there there's another (think Narrows x 2) - the Pulaski. Up and over and then down around and up the Queensboro. That's a bastard of a bridge (Narrows x 5). The worst thing about these is that there's no crowd support - it's quiet and all you have is the sound of your own suffering. I was buoyed by the fact that I was still steadily overtaking people, as I did the whole way. Actually the worst part was the steep descent off the bridge - which is where Haile's knee blew, I can understand why. My left ankle had started feeling sore at 10 miles and turning corners was painful, so the steep decent and sharp left hurt a lot. However, we were now in Manhattan and the crowd noise went to a new level.

Then was the 4 mile haul up 1st avenue. Again loooong ups and downs. Now I was starting to have to dig. I was still picking up places and hanging onto others who were doing the same. My feet were starting to get sore, but happily the left ankle had settled down. I was having good spots and bad spots, but the encouraging thing was I was still having good spots ! By now I was doing gatorade and water when I could.The climb over the bridge into the Bronx was hard but psychologically once you're in the Bronx your're about to turn south for home. It was fairly quiet in the Bronx and after a few twists and turns you're on the bridge back to Manhattan and crowds. I had a good patch again for a couple of miles here, and really started to reel in places. At 35km I was still on track for my 4:00 pace target but then came the long climb to Central park and my legs just lost their bounce. Pushed and dug up the hill, and then we were into the Park. 2 miles to go. I can do this. Really tried to push down the hill and then we turned into Central Park south. 1 Mile to go. Come on!

As you turn in Columbus circle seems a loong way away. The crowd is screeaming - almost as load as your body..... turn north 800m to go, 400 - 1 lap come on, 300, 200 ... finish!

Elation, emotion, mind snap, body snap, recover , medal photo....

Next was the stagger up to pick up the bag. Trucks started at 70,000, my number was 4693! My calves were seizing I was shivering and shaking. I thought, I don't know if I can make it ; slowly we all staggered up, consuming the contents of the excellent food bag given at the finish ; gatorade, apple (what else in NYC ), protein bar, pretzels etc. Finally got there (what's one more mile when you've run 26.2 ?!) and was able to change into dry clothes and started to feel more human - bag pickup was quick because I was only the third person from my corral to finish. Than came the walk back to the apartment - including a nice chat with a cop about the race as I waited for a pedestrian light. New Yorkers love their event and really take an interest. What a treat...

Very happy with how it went. 3 min positive split, the legs just didn't have it when push came to shove. The time for analysis is later, the time to reflect on my most enjoyable marathon experience to date is now.

Splits:

5 km

10 km

15 km

20 km

13.1 mi

25 km

30 km

35 km

40 km

0:20:02

00:39:32

00:59:16

01:19:05

01:23:30

01:39:27

01:59:16

02:20:01

02:41:00

Philadelphia ; 3 days to go

2010-11-03T22:15:00.003+08:00

Well, it's getting close now. We arrived in the State last Wednesday to work for a week before heading up to NYC. Flew into JFK after an 8 hour layover in Tokyo. A good way to go - 10hrs to Narita, 8 hour layover, 13 hour to JFK. Legs felt OK at the end helped by the layover and wearing skins. Couldn't help the cankles though, but they disappeared after a day or so.

Did 15 minutes on the sweatbox of a gym at the Hilton JFK on Wednesday evening just to get some blood flowing again. Followed that up with another 30 minutes the next morning. I was wringing out the shorts after that one! We got a cab to Penn Station, NY to get the Amtrak down to Philadelphia where we're working for a week. Had a nice brekky at Zaro's - a large coffee, 2 cinn/raisin bagels and a cranberry muffin, with another two bagels to go. Got down to Philly and into the Sheraton Center City hotel room by 11am.

Spent the afternoon in the office and then hit Kelly Drive for my evening MP hour (map). It was very warm and I felt great with no significant after-effect from the plane trip. Melbourne has the Tan, Perth has the Bridges, Philly has Kelly Drive. The place was swarming with runners of all shapes paces and sizes. Great to see!

Some kind soul has marked the path at quarter mile intervals as well, a handy pace guide. Over here, one has to think of pace per mile, not per k. No-one understands '4-minute k's, I guess just as we don't understand '6:20 miles'. Adding to the oddness, most marathons (including NYC) put timing mats every 5 kms, but have mile markers...

Friday I did a 30 min recovery up to the Schuykill row houses and back.

On Saturday Kim and I had a date with the local running group the Philly runners, meeting at the Rocky statue at the base of the Art Museum steps. Unfortunately I couldn't get anyone at my pace, so it was another solo run ; out in ~4:10's and back at MP. 20k for the last 'long' run and I felt great! Conditions had turned though, it was only 9 degrees. We also had to dodge regatta watchers as we ran past the Schukill row houses, including a classic 'guy carrying oars turning around' incident. I went up the river to Wissahickon reserve and up in that park for a bit before turning back. The leaves are turning here and it was gorgeous. Afterwards we headed for the coffee shop for refreshments... route here.

I woke really early Sunday so just did my 30min recovery on the treadmill - a much better gym than the Hilton at JFK. Sunrise is at 7:30 am here and it was pretty cold to I plumped for the easy option. Monday half hour easy (4:07) at 6:30am, Tuesday 25 min recovery at 6:30am again and Tuesday evening 45 minutes at MP after work - the last significant run before Sunday. Another 30 minutes Wednesday morning @ 4:05. Kelley Dr is a very scenic place to run, but it's a PITA to get to with all the road crossings in the first mile. Probably do another recovery Thursday am, nothing Friday, and a 20 minute loosener on Saturday (or not!).

Feeling great - no aches and pains, low HRs, the best I've felt in a taper, hopefully a good sign for the weekend.

Forecast is looking good, if a bit windy, for Sunday - it's going to be sunny 8° with a min of 2° with 16/32kph NNW winds. Forecast - Course

Rottnest 10km : 3rd in 35:13

2010-10-25T11:43:00.001+08:00

Cracking run in the Rotto 10km funrun. Pretty warm by the 10:30 start but the 32/38kp/h wind kept things cool. Busi as usual lead from start to finish. Simon Coates surged at 1.5km to catch the lead 5km group, but I maintained the gap from that point.

The wind never quite went away and was fairly extreme on the hill leading out of Geordie bay. Tough finish up the hill into the settlement, and squeezing down the path past the 5k runners and then trying not to go A over T on the sharp right hander onto the gravel through the finish...

.I felt very good after the 27km run the day before, but needed a reasonable warmup to help my legs feel less like two sacks of potatoes from standing around and supporting the marathing for the preceding 4 hours.

Splits: 3:22/3:27/3:39/3:27/3:31/3:36/3:24/3:41/3:37/3:26

A few recovery runs now and then we fly to the US. Long Range forecast for the marathon is perfect. Not a good sign :-)

Mostly Sunny

Hi 57° RealFeel® 53° Day

S at 7 mph

Gusts: 23 mph

NYC number #4694 Blue Wave 1 Corral #4 start 9:40am

2010-10-18T18:03:00.001+08:00

Got my rego information today along with the race handbook. No going back now...

I'm in the last big week before taper starts which I'm quite looking forward to. 25km on Saturday and I'll race the 10k at Rotto as well. Next week I'll take 25% of the normal runs, and start to hone everything except recoveries around MP. We fly to the US on Tuesday 26th.

On reflection my training has gone very well, perhaps running some of the easy runs a bit hard. Time will tell if doing the long runs at similar to easy pace was wise ; most of them have started slow and finished around MP. The weekly mileage build and race mix has been gradual, where now I feel if I'm not clocking 120km I'm being slack.

One thing the recent warm weather has taught me - my last few Thursday evening runs in direct sun, temperature in the mid 20s, strong easterly wind and RH 10-20% I have experienced what I now recognise as quite severe symptoms of dehydration and lost 2.5-3.5 kg (starting @ around 70kg) of fluid. I'm starting to suspect a large part of my Boston disaster was severe dehydration (coupled with injury and a bad carbo-load) . I’ve never drunk much on my training runs (mostly because I don’t like stopping) , but as a result I am drinking a lot more and will pay attention to this on marathon day.

Only one scare with a soleus tweak which forced me to take a day off and miss an intervals session and a recovery run, but it resolved the problem.

Fremantle HM 8th in 1:17:15

2010-10-05T11:04:00.001+08:00

Not a bad result. Weather conditions were perfect today. Inside the body, not so much. I had nagging nausea the whole run ; I made the best of it and tried to keep to my tempo pace, but I had to run solo from about 2.5k ; Stephen Stockwell was ahead, the guy behind me way behind. There were moments when I felt OK and pushed the pace up a bit, but then it got nasty so I dropped off again. Running solo I had nothing to take my mind of things ; the crowd support was great though and I enjoyed coming through the finish area to go around again. Benefits of having a big field – big crowd! All things considered I was pretty happy to run 8th behind Busi, Mackay, Dymnicki, Hill, Stockwell, Johnson and Courtney. The women’s field was disappointing ; no big guns - winner was about 1:27, 5th was 1:37!

In a weak moment I thought about petitioning the WAMC to allow me to compete in the M40-44 age group instead ; as long as Steve Stockwell is running this well, I'm no chance! First M40 was 1:24:00 ... :-)

The bonus of being limited through reasons other than cardio/leg tiredness has been that I've been pretty fresh for the last two easy runs so I can hit my intervals hard tonight and do a decent session Thursday as well. It would be nice to shake this nausea bug that's been kicking around for a bit too long now...

Monster Month

2010-09-30T19:06:00.000+08:00

September: 612km @4:10 pace Avg HR 151 beats/km 629.

Big month. I feel like I have recovered well from the big weeks132/134/143/155km - this last week has been a cut-back of sorts (110km scheduled) knocking 12 minutes off my hour runs, taking intensity off Tuesday intervals, and a bit off the Thursday evening run. No long run this week, racing Fremantle Half on Sunday. It will be a good test of where I'm at.

38 days to go...

Fremantle 10k 7th in 35:07

2010-09-12T13:52:00.002+08:00

Fremantle ‘Fun’ run on a very breezy day ; I had a good race, not maximal effort but not a lot off. I felt better as it went on ; to be honest I found the wind worse last year, it was more of a cross-wind on the groin and you only really felt it in the kilometre down to the railway crossing, but then you get a tailwind home.

Course map here.

Pre-race meal of soaked-overnight oats and honey was a big improvement, and I didn’t have the coffee either, just green tea; I felt a lot better at the start. Also did a Gu rather than the Torq Gel/Powerbar. Average HR was 176 – two beats lower than C2S but 5 sec/k quicker; it is a flat course though. Pretty happy with the way I’m feeling and the way it went. Stockwell again was 30-40 metres in front pretty much from the start, but I couldn’t close. Good turnout – Busi, Bailie, Ingraham, Hill etc.

Splits: 3:29/3:31/3:31/3:36/3:29/3:28/3:33/3:33/3:37/3:19 = 35:07 (too bad about #4 and #9 !)

Interestingly, kms 4 and 9 were the ones where the wind was most into us ; looks like a mental lapse though - I slowed down, but the heart rate dropped as well, so the slowing wasn't because of external factors, it was mental. Tut tut!

On the back of two 135km weeks I'm happy with the way things are going. I'll add a second run (recovery)after the long run to my week, and try to peak out at about 150km before the taper. Freo HM in three weeks so I'll rejig a bit for that, but overall I feel in great shape, its a matter of tuning for the best performance on Nov 7. I'll organise an iron test for next week to keep an eye on it. I was feeling very fatigued on some runs last week, but feel pretty good now.

City to Surf 12k in 43:06 27th overall, 1st in 40-49 Age Group

2010-08-31T13:29:00.003+08:00

Funny how life catches up with you. I just had no zip in my legs at all today, it was just plain unpleasant hard work today. At no point did I feel good. My HR hit 185 just before the top of Malcolm St hill and I wanted to stop from that point onward. Average HR was about 180 – hard to tell it dropped out a bit, but I was in the red zone for all but the first 2 minutes. I may have gone too hard at first, and after 7k all I wanted to do was give it away.

4k 13:35 (3:24)

7k 24:31 (3:38)

9k 31:37 (3:33)

10k 35:45 (4:08)

11k 39:44 (4:01)

12k 43:08 (3:23)

Some k markers were dubious so the above splits are not really worth much.I can’t complain, I’ve had a lot of good races this year, I’m bound to have a bad one sooner or later. It’s still 26 seconds faster than last year…. and another thing I can say is that I wasn’t overtaken by anyone except Mark Lee who pipped me on the line. Turns out I won my age group too :-)

A highlight for me, I did enjoy being amongst the leading women ; Melinda Vernon (winner of 2009 Sydney C2S) was just ahead and I had Tara Palm breathing down my neck at the bottom of Oceanic. I was alongside Lisa Weightman up Malcolm St hill, clearly she was just taking it easy. Then she put the hammer down and disappeared from view. Amazing athlete.

Perth HM ; 8th in 1:15:37

2010-08-08T18:24:00.006+08:00

Thrilled with the time, sustained my pace well today. I liked the new course – there were quite a few challenging little hills and turns, but they keep you honest, and certainly present a good test esp. in the latter stages.

I ran the first 7k or so side by side with Scott Thomson (who also took nearly two minutes of his PB ; scary what he'll be doing in a year's time), until he dropped back going back over the Narrows after the turnaround. I was by myself from there on which is my one disappointment with the day. Stephen Stockwell ran really well today – I was ten metres back until about 8k when I think he spotted Sam May ahead and cranked it up a notch – he ended up fifth in 1:14:35.

Felt pretty strong, and of course had to dig deeper and deeper to keep the pace going. The carrot of having Sam May about 40m ahead ( I felt he was fading) was good, it kept me focussed. Going past the club and hearing my name called out and a bit of support was great, it gave me a lift, but it wasn’t too long before I was past the club and on the lonely path out to East Perth. The bridge is always a bit of a test with it’s twists and turns, then around Claisebrook and up that little bastard of a hill to start the run for home.

I was closing on Sam (and his second, feeding him from the bike) on the Causeway now only 15m ahead. As I came off, to go down and under and up to the finish I saw Kim and Trish (her pacer) and they gave me a big cheer which really helped. Surged past Sam about a k to go, and then just tried to hang on.

5k: 17:43
10k: 35:45
15k: 53:48
20k: 1:11:55
HM: 1:15:37

Ecstatic with the result, sub-76 and top 10 was unthinkable a year ago.

WAMC Lake Joondalup 10k : 34:33 ; 54 sec PB

2010-07-18T12:21:00.004+08:00

Perfect conditions for racing ; woke at 6 today but still felt like I hadn’t woken up when I got to the course. I’d had green tea and a Sustagen Sport, then a long black. Picked up when I got to the race venue and the adrenaline started to kick in. Had a Torq gel 20 minutes before and then did a few k’s to warmup, so by the time I was on the start line I felt ready to go.

It’s a rolling hills course (map here) with a hairpin at the turnaround and a steep climb up to the 3k/8k mark to not the fastest course but not too bad either. Went out fastish but tried to hold my 2-2 breathing as I think that’s ~my 10k pace effort. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a group to run with so ran most on my own. Funny, some folks who I thought would do the 10 did the 5 and vice versa – Emily Loughnan Steven Courtney (?!), and MArc See and Scott from Mona’s camp did the 10.

Scott was running close to another guy and I tried to keep them in sight ; went through 5k in 17:10, so game on. K’s 7 and 8 I let slip to 3:36, but they are the k’s with the biggest hills, so that’s OK. Picked up from 8k when I felt I was reeling Scott & co in and really pushed. I put in a surge to go past them and about 10 second later I though I was about to spew! Slowed down a bit then … problem with this course is that you can’t see the finish until about 200m away. Ran as fast as my little legs would carry me down the slight incline to the finish, and almost got squeezed out of the finish by a 5k finisher.

Stoked with the run, pacing was good, picked up a few places in the second half and a great result. Can’t criticise myself for lack of effort or anything so very pleased. I think the two 3:35’s were paying the piper, which had to be done at some point I suppose.

Splits: 3:19 / 3:29 / 3:32 / 3:22 / 3:28 / 3:29 / 3:36 / 3:36 / 3:24 / 3:19

Race was won by Roberto Busi in 30:50, first time he's broken 31. Second was Ethan Heywood and 3rd Raf Baugh, both a bit over 31. Kenji Nener, Gerard Hill, Marc See were well placed in the 10 as well.

Biscuitman has also put up some photos from the race here.

Wally Cairns XC 15km 4th in 58:48

2010-07-14T08:05:00.000+08:00

Since KOTM on the 27th, I've got another year older and put in another couple of 110km weeks. Definite training highlight was the 14km tempo run at 3:36min/km and last Thursday and the 30.6km (@4:22) run on the pipeline in the hills to my birthday breakfast at Glen Forrest. Have felt a little tired in the days since July 1 - mostly because I've done a few races in June, and also because of the basket of choccies and other bad stuff that I've consumed.

After a good 26km (@ 4:20 HR150 ) in the hills ( Mundaring-MtHelena Chidlow and return) Saturday morning I turned out for the Wally Cairns Cross Country in King's Park on a cool and wet Sunday morning. It's a good strength run – it isn’t fast because it’s on the soft sand trails of KP. Bucketed with rain as well which turned the sand to marshmallow. Probably 300m of grass, 300m of paving and the rest on sand. Glutes and quads know they’ve been thru the grinder thats for sure…

Map here

Nice thing about this one is that you go past the finish on each 5k lap so you can decide when you've had enough. Foolishly, I did all 3. Finished 4th behind perpetual winner Scott Tamblin and Todd Ingraham.

Easy week now to prep for Lake Joondalup 10k.

King of the Mountain 16km ; 5th in 1:02:55

2010-06-27T13:10:00.002+08:00

Really, really cold. The car said -2 degrees at Mundaring Weir. There was a bit of a breeze too to add some zing. Standing on the start in my Strands singlet waiting for the off I thought my nuts were going to fall off – I was starting to feel hungry as well – whoops! I also had a scratchy throat from being out the night before in a really load pub to celebrate a few folk’s recent races and a commencement of their time off. Didn’t really have an opportunity to do much of a warm-up, so a little after my Torq+Guarana Gel we were off.

Felt OK at first but soon the cold was starting to hurt my lungs – I was hoping it would pass and it did, but only after about 10k. Again I started to feel a bit stronger as it went on. A good turnout for the race ; Ingraham, Busi(!), Lee, Stockwell, Fuery etc.

The first creek was much lower than in previous years, so I only really got one foot wet ; the other a bit damp... was confused by the marshall direction here so lost about 10 seconds going the wrong way, so unfortunately lost touch with Liam. I'm easily confused when it's 2 degrees and I'm running hard.

I was overtaken by a couple of guys mid-way through, but I never let them get too far ahead ; It was weird, there was a string of 5 of us – the gaps lengthened down the hills, but compressed up the hills. About 5k from the finish I could tell that Stockwell and a couple of others were starting to struggle up the hills, and the line started to break up a bit.

I managed to pick off the first two to move into 6th,and then just before the big hill to the finish I overtook Stephen. I fully expected him and the stronger of the other two to flash past at any point. They never did ; the guy behind was struggling as much as I was and I managed to hold him off, and Stephen ended up being 15 seconds back.

Thrilled with the run in the end, I didn’t feel too flash but stuck it out and got a result. 11 minutes quicker than my effort in 2007 – admittedly that was 3 weeks after my first marathon.

Its a great event, with a good atmosphere and a nice breakfast supplied at the finish. It’s a tough run – the elevation profile doesn’t do it justice – its pretty bumpy with a lot of steep ups and downs. The Choo-Choo was ideal preparation though, I reckon it helped me outlast runners who would normally beat me.

Perth Relay Marathon - a win!

2010-06-23T06:52:00.004+08:00

Fantastic run today. Felt really good right from the start. Simon Elliot gave our team a great lead-off, and Biscuitman backed up with an excellent second leg – I reckon he had the worst of the conditions. I was a 3:47 minutes adrift of first place and 7 seconds off second when I set off for my two legs - from Troy Park back to the finish, but figured all I could do was hit my pace, not burn out, and see what happened.see what happened.

Went into second place after about a k and just kept hitting my kms at a good pace - they didn't vary too much. Had a few problems getting past the 3:30 bus ; I had to wait behind runners for oncoming relay and marathoner, so the run was a little fartlekky for the first 8k or so until I got clear. Hit the changeover in 34 minutes (making the last leg ~32:45), and saw Jim Langford anxiously looking for his runner - the guy who *was* in second. At this point I was just over 2 minutes behind. Jim's guy was still 5 minutes away...

Just about had a heart attack when I saw the leading runner about 200m ahead with about 3.5 km to go. I could see that I was reeling him in quickly, so I relaxed, tried to go really really quietly and then went past him. I knew who it was and that all I had to do was maintain my 3:37’s and it was all over ; we won in the end by over a minute and a half.

Splits:
4:19(to 24k mark)/3:32/3:34/3:41/3:36/3:41/7:24(2k)/
3:38/3:35/3:39/3:40/3:37/3:37/3:35/3:35/0:41(195m)

18.6km in 1:06:45 (3:35 min/km)
9.4km Leg 3: 34:00 (3:37)
9.2km Leg 4: 32:45 (3:34)

Great team effort, and we ran the time I thought we would – 2:35:02. Didn’t beat the leading solo marathoner, but it was close. Roberto Busi had a great run and won it in 2:32. That’s next year’s target…..

Iron man

2010-06-14T14:27:00.000+08:00

Just got the result from the blood test done Wednesday last week ; Ferritin up from 37μg/l to 101μg/l. I'll probably have another test in a few weeks to see how well I'm holding on to it, but that's the highest Fe level I've had since my 55μg/l from 3 years ago - I hadn't had it tested before that...

Choo Choo run

2010-06-14T07:11:00.009+08:00

Fantastic day for it - thanks to Sandgroper for the organisation and the transport. This run is really tough but is definitely one you remember for a while ... Biscuitman covered it in some detail so I won't just repeat that. Suffice to say, this is a run where you park a car at North Dandelup train station, run 35km up the Darling scarp along some very technical and rolling trail and then down to Serpentine where you catch the Bunbury train from back to N Dandelup and the car.

Credit has to go to both those guys who (on paper anyway) were underprepared for it in different ways, but both handled it really well. SG has only one long run under his belt for the last year, and Biscuitman has done no hill or trail running for a looong time. Both are obviously really fit and mentally tough though - you have to be to get through this run - and came through with flying colours. Biscuitman and I averaged around 4 min/k for the last 9k and SG was only just behind, and had enough to do a little extra at the finish! I could feel my quads disintegrating on the last downhill, but there was little I could do about it!

Biscuitman is looking really good for the GCM in three weeks, looking forward to seeing how he goes then, and, more importantly, in the Marathon Relay next Sunday ;-) Sandgroper has the Warsaw marathon in September and is already in great shape - he should have a cracker.

Quote of the day:

Sugar: "This is where we saw the carpet python last year, wasn't it?"
SG: "Yeah, this really is snake country. After you...."

Course map is here, and elevation profile on my Polar below. Close to 700m of climbing.

Distance Duration Pace Speed
5 week avg.* 102.78 km 07:14:08 04:13 min/km 14.21 km/h
Last week 118.34 km 08:23:56 04:15 min/km 14.09 km/h
Change +15.13% +16.08% -0.82% -0.82%

Elleker HM : 2nd in 1:17:20

2010-06-09T20:17:00.000+08:00

It's been a while. Most of my training's on Strands these days. A brief recap ; 6x1000m with 3 min jog recoveries on Tuesday after, then aother 12km tempo run on Thursday. That should have got my threshold running up to date ! A 26k long run in Denmark on road and trail @ 4:18 pace, a tough Mona session on the inlet trail on Tuesday arvo, a 12km easy run on Wednesday, the crappest recovery run ever on Thursday morning, followed by an 8km tempo run on Thursday on the inlet, and two much better recoveries friday and saturday before the race on Sunday. In retrospect, the thursday tempo was too long by a couple of ks, but the recovery in the morning was such a disaster, i needed a confidence boost. How fragile is the mind...

The weather Sunday was perfect. I was hoping to run 1:16:xx, but it didn't quite work out. Darren Jenkins took off at the start, too fast for me and he quickly established a 20m lead. He settled after that and a stuck to him, albeit about 10 seconds back, that's pretty much how it was the whole race. I found it hard to find my rythm early, but ground it out trying to hold my pace and concentrating on my 3-2 breathing so as not to go too hard. This is a nice course of two laps with gentle ups and downs with a short sharp hill about 6km into the lap. Course map here.

By half way I managed to find some rythm, but that was quickly blown by the water bottle retrieval at the drinks table. I left a special drink so i could take a gel, but had to pretty much stop at the table and go back around the water helpers to get back on the course. Struggled to get the gel and water in while retaining pace so lost a at leat 10-15 sec on this split. Soon found rythm again and started to feel stronger as the final lap progressed. I felt I was catching the leader, albeit slowly. Last 5k was tough, and the hill took a bit out of my legs, but out of Darren's too.Charged in, and ended up only 9 seconds adrift in 1:17:20.

Splits: 10.55/10.55 : 38:40 / 38:40
5k : 18:00 / 18:31 / 18:31 / 18:26 / 3:49 (1.1km)
10k : 36:31 / 36:57 / 3:49 (1.1km)

Run for a Reason Slideshow

2010-05-27T09:09:00.000+08:00

This is what 50 bucks buys you...

I have to say I'm impressed with the service!

HBF Run for a Reason : 14.5km - 52:03

2010-05-23T11:38:00.007+08:00

I had a great run today. 14.5km @3:35 HR 175. I've been feeling a bit flat all week, but I felt really good and didn’t die at the end, as I usually do. I’ve learnt some pacing lessons. Had some sweet revenge on Martin Feichtinger who drafted me for 7k in the 10k race a couple of weeks ago – slowly reeled him in and overtook him on the causeway. I wasn’t overtaken by anyone and picked up at least 5 places in the last 3 ks.

Map of the 14.5km course

Met up with Biscuitman before the start, but we didn’t have a chance to do a warmup after dropping off my bag and making our way to the start. Too many people, just too complicated. We has a great start, pretty much on the front line.

The k markers were a little off, and no 10k that I saw which was a shame. My pace was pretty constant, I enjoyed the ups and downs on this course which added a bit of variety for the legs. Struggled a bit into the strong SW30/45 winds under the Windan down past the club, but for the rest the conditions were pretty good.

My footpod got this run about spot on, these are the splits:

Dist Elapsed Avg pace Split

1000 0:03:40.0 03:40.0 03:40.0

2000 0:07:16.0 03:38.0 03:36.0

3000 0:10:53.0 03:37.7 03:37.0

4000 0:14:31.0 03:37.7 03:38.0

5000 0:18:01.0 03:36.2 03:30.0

6000 0:21:31.0 03:35.2 03:30.0

7000 0:25:06.0 03:35.1 03:35.0

8000 0:28:28.0 03:33.5 03:22.0

9000 0:32:09.0 03:34.3 03:41.0

10000 0:35:47.0 03:34.7 03:38.0

11000 0:39:31.0 03:35.5 03:44.0

12000 0:43:08.0 03:35.7 03:37.0

13000 0:46:43.0 03:35.6 03:35.0

14000 0:50:05.0 03:34.6 03:22.0

14570 0:52:03.0 03:34.8 03:27.0

I had a bit of drama just as I went past the marathon club, to my horror the shoelace on my right foot had worked it's way loose. The Mizuno revolver laces don't grip well, and even though I had double tied, it still happened. I guess I need to tuck the ends in as well. I didn't stop and the show stayed on so all's well that ends well! I did have a bit of a debate, but I was really starting to surge ( last 3k in 10:20 ) and was pulling in places so I really didn't want to stop.

Thrilled to bits. Not a key race but a great confidence builder.

Story of the week

2010-05-21T17:17:00.001+08:00

Good Mona session yesterday, covering 5.71km in the 20 minutes (avg. pace 3:30) in less than favourable conditions, total of 12.5km including warmup & cooldown. 6k recovery at Cott this morning (@ 4:45 HR 133) and another one tomorrow.

Story of the week - as an IT professional, I couldn't help but be amused by this one :

IBM distributes virus-laden USB keys at security conference

Read story here : IBM boo-boo.

Semi-Taper

2010-05-19T10:37:00.000+08:00

Since my last post, the highlight was definitely the long run on Saturday. 33km @ 4:13 HR 151. Run at 3hr marathon pace for first 26km and kicked it up to 3:58 for the last 7.5km ; I felt stronger as the run went on. 2 Gus, one at 15 the next at 26, beautiful wind-free conditions.

Sunday went to the Million Paws walk and did a recovery afterwards ; 8km of walking is not fun on my joints, I needed the recovery to loosen up - 6km @4:36 HR 135. Monday was the standard 11km from King's Park down to Mounts Bay Rd and back up the western side. Bloody cold. 11km @4:11 HR 152.

Tuesday did a 6x1km session on the freeway bike path, averaging 3:13 for the reps, with an equal jog recovery - with a 3km warmup and cooldown I get about 15.5km in just over an hour. Good session, but tough.

Wednesday I cut my usual mid-week longer run down to 10km in preparation for the Run for a Reason on Sunday. Mona session tomorrow, and then two recoveries Fri/Sat with some run thrus. My weekly kms have been high, so this is a good opportunity to cut back, strengthen and hopefully have a good race. Pacing will be everything, and is usually my downfall. First few kms I'll be treating as a tempo run and will take it from there.

PS. The blog has become a little secondary, as I post my training on Strands, and is much more detailed, so the updates aren't as frequent here.

Lots of running - and a change of plans

2010-05-14T15:45:00.001+08:00

What else ? Been down south in Denmark for a while, but still getting the quality in. Lots of hills down there, so this varies my training nicely.

The week to 8/5 was 145 km (avg pace 4:21, avg econ 636bpk ), but that included two long runs, so the average for the previous 2 weeks was ~121km. Highlights were a 15km session including 6x1km reps at 3:11 pace on Tuesday evening and a 12km tempo run @ 3:38pace on Thursday evening, plus a lovely 33km long run in Denmark from the house down to Ocean Beach and back, and then up the Inlet and back for 13km with Sas.

This week the highlights have been a good 20minute Mona session (5.6km) along the Wilson Inlet in Denmark, and an improvement on last weeks tempo, this time averaging 3:37 for the 12km and feeling much stronger at the end. Looking at 120km this week too with a 32km long run tomorrow - (avg pace week to date 4:14, econ 622bpk ).

Racing plans have changed a bit - I'm no longer doing Challenge because I'm going to be away, so the sub-35 will have to wait. So, I'll race Run for a Reason if I can get a decent start, and the next race will be Elleker HM. I've hooked up with Biscuitman and SimonE to run the Perth Marathon Relay - shelving plans to do it as a long run - I'll be doing the first two legs which is about 23.4km. So next target 10k will either be Run for Gold or the State 10k.

Relay 4 Life

2010-05-02T23:01:00.001+08:00

Big weekend! Went down to Busso to spectate at the half ironman with Kim, Sas & Jo ; managed to squeeze a 10k run in (4:40pace HR 133). Wow, Busselton is flat! The only slight rises on this were going over a bridge! Beautiful conditions.

Enjoyed the day watching the competitors and was inspired to maybe giving this a go next year as a good changeup after the New York marathon in November. Watch this space...

I took some photos, mostly of the top women and Brad Hosking (who did the run in fireman's breathing apparatus ( swim and bike as normal ) as part of fundraising drive in aid of PMH,) because that's what was happening in the finish area when we got there... gallery is here.

On Sunday we went to join the Comrades runners in the Relay for Life at the WA Athletics stadium. Wonderful event being a fundraiser for the Cancer Council. I ran the first hour at the stadium as part of a team in the ‘Relay for Life’. Golden Barbie was the baton. Started out easy and slowly picked it from 4:15 k’s finishing with a few 3:40s to get 15.2k done in the hour. Then I handed to Kim, sucked down a Roctane Gu, and nipped off to do a loop in Bold Park ; took a very scenic and hilly detour off the Zamia trail to where I thought was a shortcut to the road, but, not so much, I ended up back where I started. Continued on Zamia and took the turn I knew (!) down past Camel Lakes (never seen a lake there…) and back to the stadium. Had about 30 seconds to grab a quick drink and then set off for another 12 laps (averaging 4:10 pace) 5k of loops in the relay. Had a bit of a rest then jogged a further 4 laps with kim - see photo(!), bringing my total to just over 32km.

More photos of the event here ; including some of SuperKate who did the 10pm to 4am shift, and who turns out is a fine Barbie seamstress. Most of the team are off to do Comrades, and had run 48km on Saturday morning! Nutters...

I felt a bit average for the first 10 minutes but got into a groove on the track and really started to enjoy it – the hour went very quickly. I felt good on the climbs of rebold hill too – didn’t have that feeling of all the strength in my quads wilting at the sign of a hill – which I can get when tired. A good run today but HR was high – pretty warm at the track out of the wind. I think I need to go slightly easier this week – my 7 day total including today is 124km. I must be careful not to get carried away.

Running economy

2010-04-30T14:18:00.000+08:00

As anyone who has read any of my entries will know, I make a big deal about my running economy as a measure of my current condition, that is the number of heartbeats per kilometer; on any given run this is worked out by multiplying my average HR by the number of minutes per kilometer.

Looking back over the years, my average has dropped from 731 for the first six months of 2007, to 706 for the first 6 months of 2008 (both years training for Perth Mara), to 673 for the first 4 months of 2009, when I considered I was in excellent shape for Boston Marathon. From there it's been in a holding pattern - average 672 until the end of March this year.

Since my iron shot course began in the first week of April, my weekly averages have been 651, 651, 637, 629. I know its early days, but that's a precipitous drop. My average for April is 642, almost a 5% improvement.

Today I ran 10.5km @ 4:40pace at 607 beats per kilometre, a little more than 12 hours after a 11.5km tempo run (in a 16.5km total workout in a little over an hour) which I did at the same pace as I raced the City to Surf last year.

I've said it before, I don't know what's happening, but I'm going to ride this horse 'till it drops!

!#@#@!#! motorised push-bikes

2010-04-28T11:53:00.001+08:00

I was having a lovely run this morning in beautiful conditions, when one of these abominations came whizzing down the bike path through narrows tunnel #2 and choked up the air for all and sundry with that acrid 2-stroke engine smoke. WTF! The guy on it looked fit enough, so what the hell is he doing on this thing, and how are they allowed on the bike paths. I've seen a few more of these of late and I'm afraid they go on the same #1 anti-social activity list as smokers and drunks (and a few other things).

Oh, ran 17.79km @ 4:16 HR 151. Lovely run - the above notwithstanding.

Big weekend

2010-04-27T11:25:00.000+08:00

Saturday went up to Mundaring again to do the 26km up to Chidlow (4:25 HR 144). I set out early on a clear and cold morning. The stretch from Mt Helena to Chidlow was a bit weird because it was very cold (I was getting pins & needles in my arms) and the sun was just above the horizon straight up the trail, so I couldn’t see a thing the whole way! Got to the turn, I sucked down a gel, had a bit of water and headed back - it really was beautiful on the way back, lovely blue sky and not much wind at all. I felt pretty good, a big difference from last week was that I was powering up the hill, not surviving. Great run.

Sunday morning I did a 6km recovery - 4:42 HR 130). I felt a little stiff from my efforts of the last few days, but rolled through easily enough. The aim was to keep the pace really slow and effort absolute minimum, with an eye to the 10k race on Monday.

Monday morning I did the 10km race at the Perth 32. I had a reasonable run ; perfect conditions – 12 degrees, light wind. Wanted to pace it right so in that respect a success, my pace was pretty consistent. I didn’t feel overly zippy today, maybe because I helped lug stuff around and set up the finish chute before the race, also I just wasn't feeling quite 100%. The km markers all over the place so pacing was difficult ; I was drafted for 8km ( fancy drafting someone 20 years your senior – I don’t know, these kids…) and then the guy went and I couldn’t quite keep in touch - 4th was what I deserved, the other 2 dug deeper. We were catching the guy in 2nd, but I think he always had it under control. Mentally I wasn't quite there today either (I just didn't feel like scraping the barrel), but a good solid hitout. Course was long as start was in wrong place, so equates to about a 35:30 10km, so happy with that. I know I need to work on that stamina though…

I clearly didn’t push myself hard enough yesterday, as I felt great this morning - 10.34km @ 4:12 HR 148. Actually I felt much better today than I did yesterday, must have been the 48 hour hangover from Saturday’s long run. Clearly I didn’t feel the need for a ‘recovery’ run so went a bit further and faster – the perfect conditions may have had something to do with it!

While I was out I started toying with the idea of doing the Perth Marathon as a long run – the way I’m going ( running economies are almost crazy good - 625beats/km today ) I feel I could almost do 3 hrs as a long run, especially if I have a good day ; the McMillan pace calculator certainly thinks so. I’ll reassess after Elleker Half.

Coker Park 5000m - 16:37

2010-04-23T10:20:00.007+08:00

PB! Felt good working at even pacing for this run. Wasn’t sure how the race was going to play out, but I hit 3k in 10 minutes flat feeling good, and just kept ticking the laps off. Initially my right glute was acting up, I think because of the Fe injection on Wednesday. The stronger than expected wind was disappointing (SSW24/35kph) esp. given how calm it was all day, and it really kicked up in the closing stages. Perfect conditons will happen one day....

Timing: 3:19.6 (3:19.6) / 6:40.5 (3:20.9) / 10:00.7 (3:20.1) / 13:21.2 (3:20.4) /16:37.8 (3:16.6)

Very happy to pull off a PB in these conditions in a solo run, and am hopeful that this is the start of a new era in my racing. I definitely feel a different person to the one that was racing over the summer.

Leadup:

Sun am: 7 @4:44 HR 136 Windy&warm, good to get it done.
Mon am: 10.96 @4:20 HR 150 A little tired, but good run.
Tue am: 5.95 @4:45 HR 132 Nice & easy.
Tue pm: 9 Intervals: 200;400;800;1200;800;400;200 with SR. Felt good & fast today. Short session though.
Wed am: 14.83 @4:17 HR 154 Tough run, backing up from intervals.
Thu am: 9.92 @4:52 HR 129 Wow, low HR. Great conditions.

Story of the week:

Olympic 400 metres champ LaShawn Merritt of the United States has been suspended after testing positive for an anabolic steroid contained in an over-the-counter penis enlargement product. The 23-year-old American, who faces a two-year ban, said: "To know that I've tested positive as a result of a product that I used for personal reasons is extremely difficult to wrap my hands around."

Full story here. Gotta feel a bit sorry for the guy ....

Comm. Games Trials

2010-04-19T11:50:00.002+08:00

Very exciting weekend for spectating as we had the Commonwealth Games selection trials at the new stadium over the last three days. Unfortunately I was unable to get to Saturday night to see locals Carter and Busi have a crack at those eastern staters. I hear it was a cracking race though ( the eastern staters remaining intact ...)

Sunday afternoon was fun, especially the 1500m with a packed field. It turned out to be very tactical with local Marc See making the 'no guts, no glory' move (see photo) which didn't work out, but I suspect that the top three ( Gregson, Risely, Roff) were always going to be there whatever happened.

Full Gallery from day 3 here:

Commonwealth Games Selection Trials 2010 Day 3

For myself, recovery run (7km @ 4.44 HR 136) in the morning, followed by a nice brekky at Cobalt with the gang, and Monday morning easy (11km @ 4:20 HR 150) in lovely conditions - quite warm on Mounts Bay road, and then through the King's Park 'fridge' up the western path back to Next G.

Long run

2010-04-17T18:06:00.001+08:00

Solo run from Mundaring to Chidlow and back, 26.02km @ 4:29 pace, HR 146. Beautiful conditions with a nice cool breeze and sun behind thin high clouds for 75% of the run; it did get warm when the cloud cover disappeared. I felt good today and fatigue only really started to hit in the climb from Mt Helena back to Mundaring. Took an Orange Roctane Gu during my brief pause at Chidlow - I seem to have found another flavour that I like! It obviously agreed with me because I covered the lap back to Mt Helena almost 5 minutes quicker than the way out! Not sure that the Elixirs are good for long runs, I started to feel pebbles through the sole as the run went on. Good run today though, very happy with how I felt during and afterwards. Really didn't feel like I'd run for two hours once I'd driven back down to the Darlington bakery to meet up with everyone else, and apparently I didn't look like it either.

Tempos and Recoveries

2010-04-16T15:46:00.001+08:00

First up, I hope Simon E, Tony S, Clown and Epi have a great time running Boston on Monday. Weather looks good, and this year you get a tailwind, lucky buggers!

On Tuesday afternoon the weather was getting worse as time went on, so I decided to go out early before the heavy stuff hit. I was planning to go to JK’s intervals session but the weather was predicted to be bad, so I thought I'd do a Mona Fartlek session on the Canning Bridges course. My feet felt zippy from the start, as they usually do when I put on the Revolvers.

The 3.5km warmup up the freeway path into a good NW wind was at 4:17 pace ; I turned and went pretty much straight away. I was running south down the freeway path toward the Mt Henry bridge with a NW 28kph wind on my tail, because I figure doing a session like this into a strong headwind is a bit soul destroying, even though it’s a relatively sheltered path.

I covered a bit more than last week, even though that had an extra minute last because the Mona session was done manually. No such glitches this time, 20:00 on the nose for 5:67km. Felt fast today. As with last week I continued a semi-tempo session doing the 3.3km home into the rain and wind at a healthy 4:02 pace, never really feeling pushed, and I actually enjoyed the rain.

Great session! ( might have had something to do with the double espresso at 2 o’clock…. )

Wednesday morning, I decided to head up the freeway path and then over/under/over/under the Narrows and back - 14.88km @ 4:22 HR 154. The first half was into a fairly strong northerly wind (33/38kph) ; it wasn’t that much fun but I think the cyclists had it worse. These Wednesday ‘easy’ runs are always a bit tough, I guess I need to suck it up as long as my week is structured the way it is. I may consider moving this to the evening to get more recovery from the Tuesday evening intervals. The wind seemed to drop a bit as the run went on, so I didn’t really get the blow home I was looking for. Enjoyed my breakfast!

Thursday morning recovery - 9.92km @ 4:48 HR 137Nice morning to be out, felt a little tired after a bad nights sleep, but OK. Once I got over the Causeway and got the slight tailwind I felt more relaxed. Another iron shot in the butt yesterday left things a tad tender.

Thursday evening I chose a steady state tempo run with long warmup and cooldown. I’m loving these late afternoon runs. There was a bit of wind around this afternoon which made it tough in places. I think this is a good length tempo run for me ( ~ 15km ; two loops of the Canning Bridges), but I may increase the length of the tempo section and reduce the warmup/cooldown a bit. It was a long way home! Felt good though – the warmup especially I was averaging good pace without feeling puffed at all; the tempo was good but I got tired towards the end, so probably should have reduced pace a bit to keep the HR down ; next time just a bit slower I think – the HR was a bit high by the end, but I was in a 3-2 breathing pattern so that’s OK – but 3-3 is better ; average HR 174. Not a bad effort for the first steady state run I've done in a long time.

Friday morning was beautiful - still and sunny ; good recovery run 6km @ 4:48 HR 138, not feeling too fatigued considering yesterday’s efforts. The sun got warm after a while though. Nice long slow run tomorrow in the hills ; looking forward to it, as well as checking out the national trials at the stadium this weekend – it’s going to be a bit different from the Masters Nationals two weeks ago…. very exciting!

Gallipoli Race 8k King's Park

2010-04-13T10:36:00.003+08:00

I had a good run in this race. Thought I’d give the slower start a go to see how I felt - the course starts with a monster hill up the Synergy Parkland and left up Lovekin Dr before the turnaround at about 1.5k, then down Lovekin for a k and a bit then turn around again, back to the parkland and down the hill. Repeat.

I think I ended up with a slowish time, but definitely felt better and managed an even split over the two 4k loops - I didn't want to go lactic right from the start and succeeded in that. I just wasn’t invested in this race though, didn’t have the adrenaline on the start line and approached it really as a harder than tempo kind of hitout. Very pleased to reel Clemens Schmidt in up the hill on the second lap, I thought he was away from me - I felt really strong going up the hill a second time. I ended up 9th but very happy with how I felt today.

Great too to run in the Legacy colours with Biscuitman and a host of others – it’s a good fit for the ‘Lest we forget’ race as they are an organisation that looks after families of veterans killed in action or who died later in civilian life… it will have a big presence again next year I’m sure after the success of this one. Nice work E! I live in fear of the photos he took though - a couple at the finish then when I was walking off to get some recovery drink, he asked me to turn for another one. I thought he wanted to capture my good side, but no, he wanted the stream of dribble off my chin glinting in the sunlight. Nice.... I'll post a link to the gallery of (edited) photos from the race when I have them.

Monday morning 11km @4:25 pace HR 147from NextG along Mounts Bay then up the western side of the park back to Next G. For the first time in ages, there was a fairly stiff westerly, which wasn't much fun, but apart from that conditions were good, and I didn't feel yesterday's race in the legs at all.

Tuesday morning 6k @ 4:41 HR 137 recovery, wet cold and windy, not very pleasant. A bit too fast, I guess I wanted to get it done. A North easterly headwind on the way out which was fine, I like a tailwind on the way home .... funny old weather though, it feels like we went from summer to winter overnight.

Mona Fartlek and Phil's Hill

2010-04-10T14:01:00.002+08:00

Thursday morning was stunning, we finished just as the sun poked its nose over the hills. No wind, the city really was a picture today reflected in the glassy Perth water. The route is slightly longer at the moment because of the Red Bull Air Race and construction works. I was a little concerned about how yesterdays flu shot and iron injection would affect me, but they didn’t in the end. I have felt a little odd since yesterday evening and slept poorly, but I felt fantastic this morning. Coffee at Atomic afterwards, yum. I’ve now had two runs this week where the economy has been around 635 beats per km, which is very low for me. Long may it continue!

Thursday evening did a Mona Fartlek session in fairly cool and windy conditions. I was just going to do it fairly easy, but ended up doing a decent effort. This could have had something to do with the fact that I did my warmup into the wind down to the Mt Henry Bridge and did the session up the freeway side with the wind at my back. Still, it was a good session and did a nice hard return home into the wind as I was feeling strong (and wanted to get home!) – ended up with a good 35 minutes of hard running. I stuffed up the Mona session on the watch which meant I had to do it manually, so ended up doing an extra minute in total, for about 5.55km. 637bpk.

Friday morning recovery run, the usual route. Very low HR. Legs felt better for doing it after a good workout yesterday. I did this mid-morning – it was still fairly cool with a stiff breeze on the way back. 622bpk!

Saturday morning, I did a nice easy run in the hills ; in cool conditions (13° at the start) ran the notorious Phil's Hill aka O’Connor Road. This is a tough old bastard of a hill – 3ks straight up a gravel trail. I felt good on the climb once I’d done the first steep bit which lasts 700m or so. Completed the climb in 16 minutes which sets a benchmark for next time. I held back a little knowing I’m doing the ANZAC race tomorrow. I felt good today, although I felt hungry for most of it – I didn’t stop at all which got me back to the bakery a bit quicker. Total ascent today about 420m. I must admit I don’t really like stopping on runs of this length - once an hour is my max, and even then for only a minute or two.

Favourite story of the week:

A Scottish animal rescue centre forced a dozen hedgehogs to go on a diet because they had grown too fat to roll into a ball to protect themselves.

a sign of the times......

Buns of Steel

2010-04-07T14:58:00.001+08:00

Well, I finally had it done. After a few blood tests and a trial of taking iron tablets with these not making much of a difference (ferritin went up from 35 to 37), I have embarked on a 5 week course of iron injections into my posterior. I have really struggled with the heat this summer, and the theory is that low iron is why. As soon as the temperature drops my energy levels soar. With any luck improved iron levels will help my performance as well. I'm not really expecting it to, but it would be pretty cool if this happened!

Yesterday I did a couple of 6 km recovery runs, one in the morning and one in the evening, HR 137 and 132 respectively, the second run 2 sec/k faster. Felt fatigued but not too bad. This double recovery run worked well for me after the Mona weekend so I used it again.

This morning I ran from the house along the river to Rossmoyne and back, for 13.44km @4:27 pace, HR151. My breathing felt a little tight today and I had a bit of all-over fatigue but I wanted to run for about an hour because it’s a while since I’ve done that! I felt better as the run progressed – I came back about 2 minutes quicker than I went out. It was a nice cool morning for it, it’s a shame my weekend caught up with me on this one, but it was going to happen sooner or later !

In some good news, Team Strands consisting of Simons Ward and Elliot and myself, won the open team award for the 10km Bridges run with an aggregate time of 1:38:32 – which makes Simon Ward and myself back-to-back winners of this award. A tradition we should try to continue !

40 Miler - Mt Helena

2010-04-06T15:06:00.006+08:00

I was torn between doing the cross country at the nationals and the 40 Miler relay on Monday ; Kim asked me to run the relay a while back, and I figured I wouldn't be in great shape to run an 8k cross country after the events of the day before, so I plumped for the relay. It was also a great opportunity to support some people who'd come out to support me at the nationals over the weekend.

I ran the last leg of relay (team 'It's a Farr-Cane long way') with Jo, Trish, Rod, Kim, Jodie, Richard and myself. I had a fantastic run - you know, the type that happens once every six months, where you just eat up the ground and it seems effortless - the weather was cool with a light headwind, enough for your a/c but not like the wall of pain from the track yesterday. I pulled back three teams who had had a significant headstart, and apparantly was breathing down the neck of second. I really felt like I was flying along the trail (is this the runner's high?) – it has a few significant rises, but you get the nice long downhills as well – 9.4km in just over 34 minutes @ 3:39 pace. The Elixirs were perfect for a trail race.

It was also wonderful to see all the solo 40 milers out there toughing it out - huge congrats to Claire, Kate, Jane etc. for finishing it for the first time, and Mona camper Rob for toughing it out. Unbridled joy, tears of emotion (even from some of the boys), finishing these things is such a major achievement!

I took some photos in between ferrying relay members to their various start points and back to base, so I missed a few people, but there are some nice ones in here.

2010 40 Miler Photos

A great day, everyone seemed to hit their goals - Mt Helena Tavern is not a bad place to finish a race either! Looking at the results from the cross country, I reckon I could have quite comfortably challenged for silver in my age group, never mind, I think had much more fun up in the hills. And that's why we do this running thing - for fun.

AMA Nationals

2010-04-04T14:50:00.006+08:00

I've had a great few days, and have thoroughly enjoyed the experience ; the times weren't stellar, but the conditions were awful, esp. for the 5000m. Highlights were the tactical elements to the 1500m which I haven't had a lot of experience with but enjoyed immensley, and out-grinding Ray Boyd and Ross Henderson in the 5k. Admittedly Ray Boyd was only running on one leg and hasn't run for two and a half weeks, but he wasn't out for a jog. Ross was the other M40 age grouper to beat me handsomely in the City to Surf 12k and ran a healthy 16:48 to take 2nd in the Bridges 5km last week.

800m: Windy conditions (SW26/35), not ideal. Too much of a gap going into the back straight into the headwind after overtaking to move into 4th. Tactically didn't work out, this left me battling into the gusty wind just when I needed a bit more. Finished in 2:15:52 which is a PB, but I know I can crack 2:10, today wasn't the day. 63 seconds for 400m, real fadeout. Got a bronze medal for 3rd Australian, and a gold for being state M45 champion.

1500m: Windy again today (SW28/37), nobody went out fast. First 400 in 80sec, all bunched together. I was running easy for the first 2 and a bit, then some guy from NSW cut me off and shoved me back ; just afterwards the jump went with 600 to go and I was caught inside. I went around the offender by which time the 3 leaders had opened a 20m gap which I couldn't reel in, esp with the wind in the back straight. Finished in 4:36 which means we really motored the last 600 in 1:36! My disappointement is that I read the break, I was just in the wrong position to respond. I have also realised I just don't have the guns that these guys do when it comes to a kick. If I want to be more competitive, I need to race more at the WAAS track Fridays to get used to tactics, and really work on the speed. Thursdays at Coker are really just training sessions, with no real tactics involved, because it's all just front running. Still, happy with 4th (and a results stuff-up saw me on the podium getting bronze despite my protests - sorted out later thankfully), and a gold for the state M45 title.

5000m: Appalling conditions winds up the back straight of 33kph gusting to 48km/h. Sat behind RossH for the first km and then took a turn at the front - I never saw him again. I was leading a pack with him, Ray Boyd and Brett Roach. Brett overtook with 5 laps to go and I didn't have it to stay with him. The others dropped back, so it was just me, the clock and the wind duking it out. Didn't drop off too much and was happy with 17:11 in the conditions. It felt good to be a real medal winner in a tough age group - and not too many times will I go head-to-head with Ray Boyd ( I know he was injured, great commitment to finish- hope the race didn't do too much damage)) and Ross Henderson and come out ahead... the day ended a lot better than it started when I realised I had left my racing shoes at home and had to run in a pair of training shoes I retired about 6 months ago. I won't do that again!

Many thanks to Kim, Sas, Eldon & Charlotte, Jane, Kate, Biscuitman and family ( I could hear little Sammie's cheers thoughout!), and all the others for the support out there. I felt like I had my own private cheer squad.! I had a great time...

2010 Australian Masters Championships Preview

2010-04-01T10:18:00.004+08:00

Event website hosted by Masters Athletics WA.

Come on down to the WA Athletics Stadium at Challenge this weekend to see some of the best (older) runners in the country at the moment. It's going to be exciting - not as exciting as the Open Nationals on April 16-18 I grant you, but it will be exciting, and inspiring. Don't think people lose their competitiveness as they get older, quite the opposite!

For me I'm doing the 800m on Friday scheduled start 3:30 ; probably my weakest event, I just can't sustain the pace in the second lap, but hopefully I'll be able to extract a bit extra this time. Current PB a smidge over 2:16.

1500m on Saturday, scheduled start 12:10. I enjoy this one, current PB 4:30.4.

5000m on Sunday, scheduled start 10:20am. Good strong field including the Wombat ( blog here - hopefully he'll be running, an injury kept him out of Bridges) and Ross Henderson, 2nd place in Bridges 5k, Paul Mitchell, Brett Roach, Bruce Graham etc. There are a lot of guys in this that run around 16:40 (and a few that are a lot quicker), so hopefully we can get a group going and give 16:30 a scare.

Medals, I don't care, but I'd like to just run well and hopefully score a new PB or two ; if I can't get excited about this, there's something wrong! I've been feeling pretty good in the last two weeks and have recovered well from Bridges, so fingers crossed for some good weather and good racing. Good luck to everyone who's competing, I know TB is...

Today just did the 9.6km river loop @ 4:47 HR 136 - not bad considering the wind factor.

Intervals

2010-03-31T07:55:00.000+08:00

Tuesday morning I did another recovery 6km @ 4:45 HR135 on a lovely cool morning. Gee, the conditions have been beautiful for running at the moment!

In the evening I went up to Mends Street to do a sharpening session to get myself ready for the weekend. The loop from Mends and over/under/over/under the Narrows back to Mends is exactly 4km so makes a good warmup. We measured a ~ 200m section of path ; the grass was just too busy with frolickers to use as a track. The session was to do 10 x 200's at 800m pace with a 1 minute recovery. Nothing too much. The session went well, I felt strong and was averaging just over 33 seconds for what turned out to be about 208m. Then I did the same cooldown, this time going under/over/under/over ; I felt so good on this, ended up doing a bit more than cooldown pace.

The full moon rising up over the city was a magnificent sight - it really is a beautiful place we live in...

Recovery and massage

2010-03-30T10:17:00.002+08:00

Did a couple of recovery runs on Monday with a sports massage in the afternoon. 7.92km @4:51 HR 136; nice cool conditions, felt OK but a little fatigued (naturally) but not too bad. I’ve felt worse after races…

Sports massage was just what I needed, although there were only a few sore spots and nothing too drastic. The legs seem to be in pretty good shape. In the evening I thought it might be an idea to do a shakeout effort to flush the muscles of any crap dislodged by the massage. Legs felt slightly wobbly on quite a warm evening, but it was a good thing to do. 6km @ 4:50 HR 135.

Debated back and forth this morning as to whether I was overdoing it by doing another recovery this morning, and I decided in the end I'd feel better for it, and that 30 minutes of easy running isn't much more than a warmup I'd do for an 800m race anyway. 6km @ 4:45 HR 135.

Some more photos added to Mona Camp album, courtesy of The Running Centre, who's athletes BTW had a great weekend at Bridges and the Point Walter Duathlon.

Bridges 10k : 35:28

2010-03-28T15:43:00.006+08:00

Good race. Died a litle because of lack of high end endurance - need to work on that AT ; and mental strength; on reflection, I went out too fast as well - needed to be closer to 7 minutes for 2k. Started with a pretty large lead pack, feeling pretty comfortable at the 1k (3:17) and 2k (6:38) marks. Stephen Stockwell dropped out of the pack slightly ahead and I considered this a wise move and tailed him for a bit. 3k at 10:14 and still feeling good, and nice to have a bit of a tailwind. Went past Stephen at about 4, but I could tell it wouldn’t last long, I think he was just conserving. True to this he went past me at 6.5k mark and I couldn’t stick with him (and he finished about 20 seconds ahead I guess). 5k in 17:22, 8k in 28:10. Really suffered in the last k into the headwind, but very happy to finish in 35:28, a road 10k PB by 41 seconds.

Splits :
3:17 / 6:38 / 10:14 / 13:49 / 17:22 / 20:57 / 24:33 / 28:10 / 31:49 / 35:28
3:17 / 3:21 / 3:35 / 3:35 / 3:33 / 3:35 / 3:36 / 3:36 / 3:39 / 3:39

Biscuitman was a bit disappointed with his race ; he's doing the work but not seeing the results ; one day it will click - it just sucks that it wasn't today.

On the whole a very well organised event. I don't understand why they refuse to rent a few portaloos to help people out. Farming out the results to an independent company didn't make the awards presentation any smoother. Glitches meant they only started the presentation after 10. At least get some catering and a coffee truck (e.g. Yahava ) - they're just a phone call away. This would at least help with making sure that some folks are still actually there by the time they do them. They messed up the M40 and M45 for sure ; both myself and Stephen Stockwell beat the guy that 'won' M45 by at least 3 minutes ; and they gave the M40-44 to SS, and he's 45! They also need to get onto the net times for events of this size ; people in C & D will really be penalised and (a) it's not fair and (b) it encourages people to jump their category.

Slightly disappointed, no blazing sprint by TB at the start, which has become a feature of these races ; easy to get hemmed in with 1800 runners I suppose.

Mike Mezzatesta, my nemesis from Coker Park :-) , won the 5k in a blazing 16:27. Great to see David Bryant get the 37 minute monkey off his back - 36:50, great run! And Rachael Smith, fellow Mona Camper, smashed her PB and ran 4th in a fantastic 38:30. Kim had a great run in the 5k, equalling her PB.

Yesterday just did 6.9km recovery pace with some run-throughs as a tune up.

Easy Run

2010-03-26T10:44:00.004+08:00

Kim had a physio appt at Ascend so I used the opportunity to do a slightly different recovery run around Alderbury Park and, in the spirit of the Mona Camp recovery runs, up and over Bold Park on the Zamia trail, ending up on the southern end of Perry lakes Drive and back to the stadium. Beautiful morning with a fairly fresh breeze ; felt pretty good going up those hills. Loved it....

Carboshotz Ads ; easy run ; Coker Park

2010-03-25T21:18:00.001+08:00

The subject of people who get into sports because it enables them to buy loads of new status symbol toys came up on the weekend - that brought to mind a series of ads Carboshotz did a few years ago ; hilarious to me then, and hilarious to me now. Here's the series of three.

Running-wise, today Sas & I did the 12km East Perth loop through Maylands, around Tranby and back on a cool-ish and fairly humid morning. 4:39 pace HR138 20° 83% S13/19. Felt good, surprised by the low HR. Yesterday I tried a return to the Anlene milk for my daily Sustagen Sport and felt decidedly iffy for the rest of the day. Sorry, back to full cream Pura for me. That's why I gave the Anlene up a few years ago.

Thursday evening did an interval session at Coker Park Masters meeting. Did the 300m, 600m and 2000m in fairly quick succession. 0:45 for the 300m, 1:42 for the 600m and 6:22 for the 2000m, eating Michael Mezzatesta's dust most of the evening. He's doing the 5k on Sunday, & he's going to smoke it! Felt fairly good this evening considering my 7-day total from Friday to today is 107km!

Looking forward to a lighter week next week to strengthen up for the Nationals.

Mona Fartlek (again)

2010-03-24T10:13:00.006+08:00

Inspired from the weekend, I wanted to do another Mona Fartlek instead of the usual JK interval session on Tuesday evening, as I think it's a great strength session and will help me for Bridges and the champs over the easter weekend - I also think I cocked it up on Saturday. Did a 4km warmup during which I bumped into Raf coaching his Frontunner group and had a quick chat before continuing. I started the session at the 2k point from Mends St.and continued around the Perth Bridges course ; not ideal as there were lots of people around so had to do a bit of ducking and weaving. Did it much better this time with the floats being much more consistent and not survival shuffles, and the effort was pretty consistent too. I had my footpod on so I could monitor my pacing this time. Based on this, the efforts were at around 3:22 pace and the recoveries at 4:12. I covered 5.35km in the 20 minutes which a bit less than on the weekend but I felt great, and not trashed after it (avg HR for the 20 minutes 173 vs 178 on Saturday). 3km cooldown back to Mends St for a total of 12.28km in 52:30, averaging 4:17 pace, HR 156. Warm and humid (26° 67%) and no wind.

Biscuitman brought some Strands gear for the Bridges race on Sunday ; I'm looking forward to it - I'm feeling good at the moment.

Wednesday morning ran a 9.5km recovery from the house, on a relatively cool still morning. The legs felt a little fatigued, but overall I felt pretty strong. 4:46 pace HR136.

Edit: Looks like the field for the Bridges may not be as strong as it could have been considering the following will be racing the state 5000m championship at 710pm the night before :

1 Carter, Courtn CND

2 Dale, Christop AWA

3 Patterson, Aar SSN

4 Nener, Kenji SSN

5 McQuie, Danie WTC

6 Berry, Neil UWA

7 Stevenson, Pet CUT

8 See, Marc STI

9 Gower, Ronald AWA

10 Busi, Roberto SSN

Recovery

2010-03-23T11:05:00.007+08:00

From WAToday: Bryan Ramsbottom

Wow, that storm last night was a doozy ; I hope no-one got caught in it, otherwise a fair amount of Panadol may be in order. Hail the size of golf balls ripped through our laser light sheeting over our outside areas, fortunately there was no other damage apart from some flash flooding in the garage - I'm sure there are a lot of dimpled cars around today. Panel beaters, arborists, etc. will think it's Christmas. Everyone else, not so much. I took some photos, mainly of the sunset afterwards. Mother nature is scary beautiful sometimes.

The storm made this morning's recovery run a little bit cross country as I had to skirt fallen trees and branches. It was warm, windy and a little muggy too and I could see another t-storm moving south along the hills. I felt great though, and was very happy plodding along my 6km at 4:53 pace (HR 136), probably a bit quicker than I wanted to be. I was aiming for 5 min pace. I used to run every Tuesday before intervals in the afternoon and I dropped that since Boston last year, but I think I will introduce it again, but real recovery pace this time.

Interval session this afternoon, probably another Mona session around my home Canning Bridges loop.

Moneghetti Camp in Dwellingup

2010-03-21T14:33:00.061+08:00

Awesome! Great running, great company, great scenery, great weather.

I don't get to meet too many celebrities, but a more approachable, down-to-earth and humble man I could not have expected to meet. The man does not put himself on a pedestal, and without pre-knowledge of his achievements you wouldn't know he was one of the best marathon runners we have ever seen. He also did more than his fair share of washing up, I can tell you! The camp was an exhilarating experience and one that I will never forget. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with Biscuitman, Epi, Clown and TB and others who one tend only to get fleeting contact with. Blogging is often seen as a self-indulgent ego driven kind of thing, but without it I would never have met any of these guys and probably wouldn't have ended up at this camp.

And my hat is definitely off to Raf Baugh and the Running Centre for getting this whole thing together. His enthusiasm and drive to get the running scene off it's arse in WA is inspiring. We shouldn't have to settle for second best over here, and with guys like him, hopefully that is a thing of the past. It was a major disappointment, and dare I say embarrassment that so few folks were there. Where were the young guns ? The current top athletes in WA ? Coaches ? Guys, you missed out.

More photos..

As far as the running goes, we did four sessions in 36 hours covering about 50k. A lot of running! Next time, I may taper... this took my week to 95km.

On Friday there was a 8.8km recovery run on the roads around the nanga bush camp ; probably more than intended due to the odd wrong turn, but we got back in the end (and in the dark!). Lovely conditions and a nice easy 5:20 pace.

Friday evening we had an exhilarating evangelist style talk about nutrition from Steve Skivinis - dare I say I'll never look at food the same way again. Some interesting points were made (e.g cooking in oil is not a great thing to do, and the GI of foodstuffs is something we need to think about in our eating ), but I won't be giving up my oats or full cream milk any time soon. It certainly had a lot of talking points for the group to discuss, which helped filter the information into a more reasonable approach.

Saturday morning we did a Mona Fartlek session (what else!) - 4k warmup, 20 minutes of effort, 4k cooldown. I was sorry I didn't have my track shoes for this one so had to do it in my clunkers, but I still enjoyed it. I think it's a session I will use more ; the point was made later about the intervals I have been doing with the standing recoveries - the continuous session is so much better, and actually seems to cram in more effort in a shorter time. Nearly 5.5km in the 20minutes was a good, hard effort. Mona and Raf were miles ahead of course. After the cooldown, we had 'coffee' and breakast at the nearby Millhouse cafe which was fun for the group as we started to feel relaxed with each other.

When we got back to the camp we had a short session on physio from Raf, Mona and Justin Barich which made a lot of sense ; one of the benefits of a camp like this is that you get to meet and almost get an inside track to some of the top people in their fields ; just the sort of thing runners need.

In the evening we did a 6.6km recovery run in the hilly trails around the camp ; running with a group with Mona just another one of the guys, it was like a dream. As biscuitman said elsewhere, it does not get any better than this. I know, I'm gushing. The spell was temporarily broken when the group made a sharp right turn down a steep hill cambered the wrong way, and my legs disappeared from under me on the pea-gravel. 'The legs are OK!' but the right hip and shoulder copped a good bang and I lost a good bit of skin off my left hand. I'm just thankful I didn't take anyone else out.

Sunday morning was the long run. Again the group headed out the camp up the hill to track the Munda Biddi trail though Dwellingup for about 10k and then turned back. Very steep in parts and the footing was tricky. I thought we were going to stop in Dwellingup for water, but no such luck. I was feeling a bit depleted because I hadn't been eating enough and had to dig a bit in some sections coming home. A highlight, and something I will never forget happened just a bit later. We were on a dirt road and the group made a turn that was less than obvious, so I thought I would turn back just to make sure Sas and Rachel didn't miss it. The boys group was really flying along, most suffering a bit more than usual in the longs runs I suspect, but trying not to show weakness. Mona and Raf both turned back as well, to make sure the 'girls' made the turn. Anyhow, we three then started going again and I think the pace got turned up a bit to catch the boys group again, so there I was, shooting the breeze with Raf on my left and Mona on my right and flying through the forest on the Munda Biddi trail. The going was tough, but boy, was I going to hang on to this as long as possible. I eventually used the excuse of another turn in the trail to drop back for Sas and Rachel again... in the end I did about 22km and I was pretty spent, but perked fairly quickly after rehydration and getting in some solid food.

After that, it was pack up, say our farewells and head home, exhausted, exhilarated, inspired and all that good stuff. A weekend I'll treasure for a long time to come, and one I daresay I'll never forget.

Coker 1500m

2010-03-18T20:55:00.001+08:00

Pretty good conditions at the track - 24° and a little wind, but about as good as it gets in summer. Did a decent warmup and caught up with Bjorn back from the Word Indoor Masters where he was a little disappointed, but I think his hammy was hanging on by a thread, so he did very well considering. Also caught up with Michael Mezzatesta who had a great result at Darlington pulling off a massive PB (1:18:xx) and being pipped by Liam Fuery at the end by a few seconds. Great time on a tough course!

TB was there and in true fashion took off at the start with a very impressive turn of speed ; I truly wish he would try a 100m or 200m, I'd love to see what he can do. I was going to suggest it but couldn't find him after the 1500m. I hit the 300m at 49.4 as TB graciously moved out to let me through. Disappointingly my laps slipped a bit, but still did OK - 73 / 76 / 74 to finish in 4:32.9 by my watch. 800m split was about 2:21. Happy with that as a solo training run - I think I'm starting to get back some of the form that I had October/November last year - not before time.

Back in the Big Smoke ;-)

2010-03-18T10:02:00.002+08:00

Got back to Perth yesterday (it was hard to wrench myself back from Denmark, and it's getting harder each time I go down), so this morning was a loop from Mends St, this time going to the Narrows first. Lovely conditions again today - 15° 73%RH light S15/20 winds, and the run went by in a flash - 4:37 pace HR141, I felt good. Really enjoyed having company again ; running in Denmark is fun, but it's always better when the run is shared. I think if it wasn't missing that aspect of things, I would be tempted even more to just stay down there ; I can work there, the lifestyle is so relaxed, and the place is just gorgeous... ah well, back to reality.

BTW, first run in the new Elixir 5's, love them. I loved the Elixir 3, wasn't that keen on the 4, but was encouraged to try a pair of the 5's when I saw the report in RW. I feel a lot smoother in these than the Inspires, but they might just be getting tired.

Magic

2010-03-17T09:53:00.001+08:00

Well, it's been a while but today was a perfect day for running! I started about 7:30 by which time the temperature had crept up to a miserly 7 degrees. The air was crisp and the sun was out. Not used to these conditions I was hesitant to head out the door, but once I did, it was beautiful. I was expecting to feel cold, but not a bit of it, it was magic. Nothing like running through the tree lined tracks and waterways of Denmark on a fresh and sunny autumn morning. I was running a relatively hilly route from the house along the trail by Ocean Beach Rd down to the dog exercise area where Kim was taking Zoe.

I was thinking 'easy, easy', but it was so nice out and I felt great so ended up turning it into a bit of a progression run, just enjoying the feeling of flying along (in my mind anyway!) relatively comfortably and taking it as it came. 10.86km @ 4:17 HR 151. These runs only come along once in a while, and I was making the most of it!

To cap a great morning Kim had brought along some coffee money so I stopped in at Bibulmun Cafe on the way home for my standard quad shot jumbo latte. Went home and had brekky on the sunny verandah. Mmm..... it just doesn't get any better than this.

Intervals

2010-03-16T20:49:00.000+08:00

Ran my intervals session around midday ; weather was fairly cool and sunny with a fresh southerly adding some bite to the conditions. Did a lengthly warmup along the Bibulmun trail from the house down to the rivermouth, avoiding the tigers in the undergrowth. I've seen a few down here, but mainly their rear halves disappearing into the bush. Picked up a running buddy as I went past a couple walking their dogs ; a husky decided he wanted a bit of a trot so led the way down to the rivermouth. Problem was the owners went the other way ! The dog looked a little lost so I ran back to where I saw them until he picked up the trail and found his people. Upshot was, I ended up doing a 25 minute warmup for my session!

I did 8 x 420m with 75 seconds recovery, most in a smidge under 76 seconds. By the last one I was starting to feel a bit nauseous so I decided against doing the 10 I had orginally planned. I felt like I was running well when doing the session though, and it was good to feel oxygen going into the lungs for a change.

The cooldown back up the trail was tiring, and it was good to get home, but mostly it was good to get this session done early so I'll have something for tomorrow's inlet easy run which I fully plan to love!

All up I did about 11km today.

Steamer

2010-03-15T09:16:00.001+08:00

OK, I'm never happy ; at least it's cooler now but the 99% humidity needs to go now. Did a fartlekky sort of run today down to the rivermouth into town, up the hill to Ocean Beach Rd, then down to the trail back to the rivermouth and home (map) for 9.5km (avg 3:57 pace HR 161).

Absolutely sopping by the time I was finished, but had a pretty good hitout, the massive chunk of skin missing off the back of my heel notwithstanding. Felt great flying along the trail on the one section that wasn't uphill...

Congrats to Epi (wow, a great run for someone just 'muddling along' after that injury; Boston's looking good!), Clown (hope you can get that adductor sorted, they're a real bugger) and Biscuitman for their runs on the new improved Darlington HM course, which I hear hasn't gone down too well (because it's harder I guess). The fact is that road closures and helpers for this race are getting harder to come by, and that's why it was done.

Stinker

2010-03-14T07:38:00.000+08:00

Down in Denmark putting some finishing touches on our holiday rental, I was expecting it to be a bit cooler than in Perth. Not so much... headed out just after 7am, so quite late, and the temperatre was already 27 degrees. The air was really dry and airless, so I kept thinking what a long day it was going to be. Happily the sun stayed away, oerwise it could have been brutal. I planned to run about 26km and ended up doing 25km as it turned out. Im still finding my way around the trails of Denmark, and this was a beautiful run. I went from the house down to the rivermouth, cut back towards Ocean Beach Rd on the Denmark-Nornalup trail and then ran down Ocean Beach Rd to, well, Ocean Beach (map).

The trail is still very soft and sandy, so no fun at all, but I felt better once I hit the footpath. I was carrying water today which is unusual, but it was handy to whet the whistle from time to time, to keep this from being a totally horrendous experience. The run along OB is stunning once you descend past Lights Rd to run along the inlet, and it was a surprise, albeit a pleasant one, to get to Ocean Beach and find a surf club and toilet block with running water ... beautiful beach as well. After I inhaled my Gu, I headed back and felt pretty good. Did a reasonable pace on the way back and went thru wierd phases of feeling great and my legs feeling utterly stuffed, depending on the gradient. The sandy trail was fun as well...

All in all a good run, but a rest day (and easy week) is in order I think.

Tough Day

2010-03-12T05:36:00.002+08:00

This morning did a light recovery run from home up to Mends St on a very warm and dry morning ; never quite felt comfortable on this, especially as there was an easterly so the freeway noise carried to the path, as did the fumes. Not a lot of oxygen today – least enjoyable run of the week. Did drills once we got to Mends St, and met all the ladies with their spanking new Sugoi gear from the launch at The Running Centre last night. This, along with the Atomic shots afterwards saved the day.

This evening went to Coker Park - did a short warmup and then ran the 1k in 3:24 ; paced Niamh - I overheard she was looking for 3:30 so we did fairly well. Held a watch for the intervening events before the 3000m which I intended to run hard. No help for me tonight, and compounded by the 33° and 20/30kph southerly up the home straight ; went ok in the first k, but the legs lost energy as it went on, however I did manage to maintain pace: 3:17 / 3:17 / 3:16. Felt dead at the end but recovered quite well. Tough workout but good ; I won't race at all next week to have a bit of a rest, then its the Mona's camp and Bridges a week after.

Gaga about the Lady

2010-03-10T10:09:00.002+08:00

Monday did an easy run in nice cool conditions, 18° - 4:38 pace HR 142 ; an easterly at our backs along Mount’s Bay Rd helped ease the fatigue from last night’s race. For some reason Perth council have seen the need to water the footpaths making them pretty slippery for our lycra clad friends, one of whom went a over t right in front of us as a result. The climb through the park was interesting on the legs but I felt pretty good on this one as the HR will attest.

Tuesday did a tough Intervals session on a warm evening (28°) at Alderbury Park. One of the few nights that we haven’t had a sea breeze and it was dry as. 28 degrees as well made for a warm one. The session tonight was 2 min on, 1 minute jog x 2, 1 min on, 1 min jog x 2, 30 sec on, 30 sec jog x 2. Four minute break and then repeat the set. I was covering about 3.1km per 11:30 set and felt like I was running well. Once the session was done I had another 4 minute break and then did 4 80m cross field sprints as usual, and then did a lap of cone pickup, and then a cooldown jog. Long session, good session, it’s going well.

Wednesday did a solo run from NextG down Malcolm along Mounts Bay with a stiff easterly at my back ; which (strangely) I really didn’t enjoy. It was only 22° but felt warm. These backup runs after intervals sometimes feel a bit odd at first because of fatigue I guess. When I hit the park and ran up the western perimeter path I felt a lot better (the temperature dropped a bit) and picked up the pace almost enough to call it a progression run. I felt like I was flying when I got to the top – a great feeling ; I have to admit that I wore my MP3 player and there’s a high I get when I’m moving along briskly with the right song in my head (ahem… Lada Gaga).

WAMC Swan Twilight 5k

2010-03-07T20:15:00.000+08:00

Wasn't sure what to expect today ; this morning I definitely felt a little fatigued still. This wore off as the day progressed and by race time I was feeling OK. Wore my new Adidas Rocket flats and I love them ; the Mizuno flats - Precision and Musha - just never gave me the same responsiveness as the Mizuno XC shoes I wear at the track. Did a short warmup and then stood at the start line - a good field - Busi, Lee, Hands, Stockwell, Lee, Schmidt, La Spina, etc. - no slacking for me! I started conservatively ( not so some, who went a little early - 'cheeky buggers!' was one reaction ) and felt really comfortable up to the first bridge ; the climb up was a bit tough - I thought that was it but they recovered OK and I felt good again heading over the bridge to E.Perth, running with Cyrus Hands and Matt La Spina just behind. We headed against the wind south along the river and then climbed up to Jewell Lane - again the hill sucked the strength from the legs. It obviously had the same effect on Cyrus and Matt - I never saw them again.... I saw Stephen Stockwell ( my main M45 contender - who happens to whip my arse every time) about 30m ahead ; a lead he had had pretty much from the start, but I couldn't close it. He was running with another guy and they seemed to be teaming it into the wind back to the club. I was solo at this point but not feeling too bad for that stage of a 5k, too bad I hadn't made the effort to stick with him at the start, I would have given myself a chance ; next time, Stockwell....

I was very happy and surprised to finish in around 17:12 in 6th (Kim took a nice picure that magically knocked 10 seconds off my time!). I am really starting to feel like my energy levels are getting back up to how I felt pre-summer, it's been a a rough few months but hopefully I have seen the end of that for now.

Long run

2010-03-07T09:11:00.003+08:00

Did something a bit different for this week's hill's run. Drove up to Mundaring to run with Sas up the Kep track from the Mundaring Sculpture Park out past Chidlow to Ash Rd and return (map). We weren’t intending to do 32, but it was such a beautiful morning, we kept going past Chidlow. When we started it was cool and was still pretty nice by the finish, and the air felt fresh. There was a reasonable easterly but that also kept the apparent temperature down and it was nice to have a wind at our backs on the return journey. Had a gel after about 1:30 at the Chidlow loos.

The course is relatively flat but does involve some loooong rises and falls which become more significant as the run progresses and the legs tire ; the total ascent for the run is a little over 300m. The pull from Mt Helena up to Old Sawyers Rd and back over the GE highway is a tough finish. My legs were really starting to fatigue by the end – but in a good way. When you’re used to a 7k downhill finish like most hills run, actually finishing uphill is pretty tough. Sas had a breakthrough run, after a few months of having to guts out feeling crappy on every run, she felt strong and I reckon could have kept going ; I was stuffed by the end. I loved it though, this is the running I most enjoy.

Ended up doing 32.5km @ 4:43 pace HR 148. My HR graph shows a classic case of cardiac creep ; pretty good at the start and an average of 140 to the turnaround (1:17:55) but 155 for the return (1:15:35) - footpod overmeasured considerably, so paces on the graph are overly complementary!

Windy 5k

2010-03-05T08:44:00.002+08:00

Ran the 5k at the track last night ; conditions were OK (23° 40%RH) but quite windy (SSW32/41) with there being quite a strong headwind up the home straight requiring a substantial effort to maintain pace. Plan A was to do the 3k at 3:20 pace and try to push on from there if I felt good. I quickly realised that the effort to sustain that would be unsustainable so I settled for the 'B' result which was a sub 17 run. Splits were 3:23 / 3:21 / 3:24 / 3:28 / 3:21 totaling 16:57 which represents a solid effort, which as a solo run with that wind I'm pretty happy with.

Went to Cottesloe this morning with the intention of swimming or a short recovery run. It was so damn cold that swimming was out, and I didn't feel like running, so I settled for a couple of coffees and some french toast....

What a difference a few degrees makes..

2010-03-04T11:32:00.000+08:00

Had a very good run this morning, just an easy around the Perth Bridges, but with the southerly wind I just felt there was more oxygen in the air and for once, the easy run felt easy - 4:42 pace HR 137. It was only a few degrees cooler than yesterday (18&deg ), but it felt a lot different ; maybe it was the huge red curry and entire bag of jelly snakes I ate last night!

This evening there's a 5k at Coker Park ; I'll do 3k at 5k pace (10 minutes) and if I'm feeling good I'll try to go on with it and maybe get close to a 5k PB. I'm also doing the Swan Twilight 5k on Sunday, but if I go hard tonight, I won't on Sunday... probably ;-)

Also looking forward to a slightly different run on Saturday, starting in Mundaring and heading towards Chidlow and return ; obviously a lot easier when you cut out the big climb up to Mundaring, but it is on trails and there are a few bumps along the way.

Intervals and recovery

2010-03-03T15:34:00.000+08:00

Felt really flat most of yesterday so I wasn't looking forward to the interval session at all - the feeling continued through the warmup, but my spirits lifted when we were told what the session was - 4 x 1000m with 2:30SR. Conditions were a relatively cool 22° but humidity in excess of 80% made this a slightly sweaty session with a distinct lack of oxygen. I got boxed in on my first one, but it's usually the slowest anyway, and I felt pretty good on #2 and #3 and the legs suffered a bit in the last one, but I managed to keep the pace going : 3:20 / 3:18 / 3:17 / 3:17. After about 4 minutes I did my 5 x 80m sprints across the oval and felt pretty comfortable doing these.

Wednesday morning I did an 8k recovery around the Canning Bridges, feeling again fairly stiff and heavy but I got through it relatively easily ; 4:56 pace HR 140. It was fairly pleasant this morning at 20° 65% RH but it didn't feel as nice as I wanted it to.... also, I was doing it solo as Sas is nursing a heel injury so is missing the recoveries for a few weeks to hopefully get it to clear up. There are promising signs that this strategy is working....

What a week that was...

2010-03-01T14:44:00.004+08:00

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!

Relays are fun!

2010-02-19T13:45:00.002+08:00

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

2010-02-15T10:45:00.003+08:00

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 ?

2010-02-11T16:07:00.002+08:00

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

2010-02-08T15:44:00.001+08:00

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

2010-02-04T16:23:00.002+08:00

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

2010-02-01T20:08:00.001+08:00

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) !

Running (out of) enthusiasm

2010-01-27T16:00:00.003+08:00

The meet at WAAS was interesting. It was very busy and is obviously much better attended in the past because everything ran very late. On the one hand it's great to see so many athletes around, but on the other, racing at 9:45 isn't the best.....

I got shunted to the second heat which I wasn't thrilled at ( I suppose the Masters singlet isn't seen as the mark of quality ), but it also gave me the opportunity to watch an excellent run by Courtney Carter and the rest of the guns ; it was a star-studded affair with CC, Marc See, Steve Stingemore, Aaron Pattison, Roberto Busi, Todd Ingraham, etc. Marc See paced CC to 3k in 8:33 and then he hung on to run a 7 sec PB of 14:24.95 - fantastic running!

My legs felt really heavy in this race but somehow managed to hang on and run 16:49 for the 5, just behind Emily Loughnan who ran an excellent 16:48 (a PB). We went out too fast (3:13 for the first k) and I dropped back because I was really feeling it - went through 3k in 9:58 which was the goal, but just slipped in the last few laps, although I was gaining on Emily who had got out to 20m lead at one point. I guess if I can run like that when feeling pretty average, it's a good sign....

Ran with Sas in KP the next morning on a brisk 14.5km double loop (4:39 HR 149) ; picked up a couple of others who ran with us too. Felt a little shagged at first but improved through the run ; very tired at the end though.

Later that morning headed down south for a few days. On Sunday I didn't feel like running, so didn't and the feeling continued Monday morning. Guilt got the better of me Monday evening so I did a nice 10k from Carters Rd to Burnside Rd and back on the forest trail - a beautiful place to run off a large lunch.... No running Tuesday either, but did another 9.5km Wednesday morning @ 4:35 HR 150. It was cool but my lungs just felt tight, so this was a bit of a struggle. Probably down to the glass of wine I had the night before.

A highlight was meeting Mary Burke-Heydon who is an old friend of Jo and ran with her on Sunday morning. She is an amazing runner who I think is starting to get back into it and is possible for the nationals in April. She won the 1996 City to Surf in 45:46, but has run it in 43:xx and has a 2:45 marathon to her name. She owns Heydon Vineyard down there with a small but very high quality selection of wines.

Big Night at the WAAS

2010-01-22T11:50:00.003+08:00

Going to WAAS tonight for a track 5k at the Interclub meet. Looking forward to seeing how I go on the new track ; I'm quite excited at the prospect of testing myself against the young guns which is a good sign. I know I'm not 100% but hopefully I'll put in a good showing. It's going to be tough though ; the race starts at 8:40pm - usually at this time I'm brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed!

Thursday morning was pleasantly cool (18°) for a change, and I had the extra challenge of pushing Bailey Coates around the Mends St bridges in a running pram ; it's not a great deal of extra effort except for the uphill bits. Ran with Sas and Becks (who I think scored a new PB for the circuit) - 9.59km @4:42 HR144.

Friday morning just did a gentle 6km @4:39 HR 142 in preparation for the race at the stadium later.

Update: Just heard that Courtney Carter will be running tonight.... new goal is not to be lapped twice!

What happened to all the oxygen?

2010-01-20T10:44:00.002+08:00

Gee, I'm looking forward to another cool morning like we had a couple of weeks ago...

Monday morning we started at the usual 5:45am but it was still about 31° according to the car's thermometer. We ran down Malcolm along Mounts Bay to UWA and up the back side of the park up to the car - 9.93km @ 4:41 HR 144. Felt tough this morning, no doubt a hangover from the race the day before and also because of the oppressive conditions.

Talking of oppressive conditions, after another 41° day, at Tuesday night intervals we had 34 degrees and absolutely no wind. It was overcast too - it actually felt best when we were running and creating a bit of breeze ; once stopped, the sweat was just pouring! The session was 5x800 with 2:30 SR. I didn't go full out this evening because I'm doing a 5km track race at the new stadium on Friday and would like to go for a decent time. Splits were 2:42 / 2:37 / 2:36 / 2:37 / 2:34. Also did 5 x 80m full out sprints with Bjorn and Sas after the session ; got to keep that speed work going! All in all, a good session, and I was feeling pretty strong.

Wednesday morning, did a recovery run in East Perth out to Tranby House in Maylands ; 10.53km @ 4:44 HR 140. Felt like it should have been cooler ; it was 23° but 76% RH so the air still feels like there's no oxygen in it. Hopefully this is all just good conditioning for Friday night. Had the usual quad shot macchiato afterwards - what a great way to start the day!

To quote Cerutti, "You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone." ; I think we've all grown a bit in the last few days...

Crazy people

2010-01-18T08:48:00.003+08:00

I've been feeling a little more energised this week, although the running economies have been slipping a bit as the temperatures have been rising, but that's not really surprising. That said I feel like I may have gone back over the threshold of whatever deficiency has been holding me down for the last couple of months and now the down days are one-offs if they happen at all.

Friday was an easy 9.5km with Sas out to Pt Majestic and back @4:46 HR 144. The weeks hard efforts caught up with me so the first few k's were a struggle, but my demeanor improved as the run went on.

Saturday we headed for the hills and did the now standard run up Darlington road, through John Forrest Park, up Oxley/Hedges rds to Brooking, to the Shiraz tap and down the hill (map) for 21.55km @ 4:39 HR 142. Very strong easterlies this morning which we felt in places, but they blew us down the trail and definitely kept things surprisingly cool. I felt great today, I think because it was cooler than it has been of late, and I'm just feeling a bit better ATM. Sas is running well but still struggling to get a decent nights sleep so these are a bit of a mental battle. Time for a week at a health farm I think....

On Sunday I was at the race-director's seminar which was informative and very useful, seeing as Kim & I are the RD's for the Point Walter run on Feb 14. Any WAMC members who want to help out, I can guarantee a plum job....

After the seminar, the attendees helped to set up the Burswood Twilight race, which was fun in the 43° heat. Getting the finishing chute barriers out of the shed was fun, it must have been over 50° in there! I think doing this helped acclimatised me for the race, along with a bit of 'pre-cooling' i.e. a couple of cups of refrigerated water down the back of the neck just before the start.

Numbers were definitely down for the race, for which most people scaled back their efforts I think. it was still 41° at 6pm. I ran it fairly hard but always well within myself because a bout of heat exhaustion at this stage would be somewhat idiotic. I was pleasantly surprised at how good I felt in the conditions. I had Tina Major on my right shoulder for a lot of the run and also seemed to be running comfortably. I finished 4th in 17:50 - my target was 18:00 so I was rapt! Scored a new max HR for the season which was surprising because I never felt that bad ; the radiator boiled over a bit after I finished, but that was bound to happen.

Getting hotter...

2010-01-14T21:31:00.001+08:00

.. the weather that is. Not looking forward to the Burswood Twilight on Sunday evening when the temp is forecast to be 41°. I'll be jogging that one I think....

On Tuesday in fairly warm and windy conditions we did a nice pyramid session with relatively short breaks. I am reliably informed that the lap was 412m, and the 200m was a bit short, so the session was 190, 412, 600, 824, 824, 600, 412, 190. I did an extra couple of 190's after the (instructed) session was done and then did some 80m sprints across the oval to finish off. I think my speedwork has beenlacking, so I'm trying to make up for it. Splits were 36.1/76/1:56/2:41/2:43/1:57/74/31.6/31.8/31.9/12.2/12.3. A good session ; I felt nauseous by the end and think I might have spewed if I'd done any more. Legs felt OK though....

On Wednesday morning ran slightly longer 10.53km in East Perth @ 4:46 HR 141. It was fairly warm already but still pretty pleasant conditions for this one, and it was nice to run somewhere a little different. Finished up with a most excellent quad-shot macchiato at Cobalt....

Thursday morning, again the standard Mends St Perth Bridges loop at a fairly sedate pace ; 9.6km at 4:48 pace HR 141 ; very pleasant morning with no wind, but the sun really started to pack some punch by the end (and we finished at 6:30am!).

In the evening I went to the track at Coker, just doing the 600m and 400m races with a good warmup. Pretty happy with the results, both PBs by about a second I think - 1:38.6 for the 600m and 61.6 for the 400m. Seeing as I'm racing on Sunday I decided not to do the long one and go away happy with the evening's work....

Good weekend

2010-01-10T14:06:00.004+08:00

On Saturday ran the Darlington Half course in fairly nice conditions ; pace was 4:36 HR150, so a good strong run. Felt fairly good but pretty tired doing the drills on the cricket oval. Very pleasant run, though.

On Sunday went down to Matlida Bay to do the Christchurch 5k with the club. Conditions were a little warm in the sun with very light winds ; about as good as you get at this time of year. We had gone to Somerville open air movie the night before so hadn't had what I would call a full night's sleep so felt a little tired still. Did a fairly good warmup and had a chat with a few of the usual suspects loitering about the place, including Epi who has a few tough decisions to make regarding his knee ; hope it all works out for you. I reckon you recover well so hopefully recovery from this will be quick.

This isn't a PB course but I was happy with a decent solid pace run, finishing 3rd in 17:36. I could have run harder, but didn't feel the need as my placing was solid (the winner was ~40 sec ahead at the finish )from 2k in and no PB was in the offing - I just wanted a decent hitout today and got that, with a slightly harder than tempo effort. I think my running is delicately balanced at the moment, and I don't want to fall into a hole at this point, and happy to claim a shiny bronze medal - much shinier than last years (I guess the WAMC have a new batch in)!

Splits were 3:25/3:37/3:32/3:33/3:28 ; no finishing burst or anything - 2k split is slow because of the fairly steep climb up to Birdwood parade.

Monday morning we ran from King's Park along Mounts Bay to UWA and up the western perimeter path for a change - 9.91km @ 4:44 HR138. Absolutely beautiful conditions today - 15° 67% SSE11/17 - and the air felt really fresh - the best I've felt in a while. Hopefully a corner has been turned...

Good days and bad days..

2010-01-08T10:44:00.001+08:00

Still struggling a bit with lack of mojo, although I do have good and bad days which is an improvement from just bad ones!

On Saturday did a fairly brisk 22.22km from Darlington up to the freeway and back @4:30 pace. This was a good day although the HR 158 was a little high, I felt pretty good and the legs held together well.

Took a rest day on Sunday and went down with kim to the masters event in Ashfield from a park there down to the Garret Bridge and back. A lovely spot just to hang out under the trees and watch the rowers on the river.

Monday was the usual KP loop - 8.5km @4:30 HR 151, another good day. Fairly cool considering it was 38 degrees the day before but boy it felt warm in the sun!

Tuesday JK's intervals ; 2k ; 4min SR ; 1k 2:30 SR ; 2 x 500m with 90sec SR. Tough session because it was 31 degrees and felt nasty. Didn't felt overly sprightly but hit some decent splits - 6:50, 3:15, 1:33 and 1:34. JK seemed a little down because he seems to have reinjured himself, and he was just getting back toward some racing fitness and it all seemed to be going well. Fingers crossed this is a minor aberration, but he's been though this so many times he's not a happy bunny that it's all gone south again...

Wednesday just a 6k recovery @ 4:41 HR 145, very warm again at 26 degrees and with the previous night's session made this a real recovery - fatigues and a fairly high HR.

Thursday morning went to Mends to run the Mends loop with Sas and Becks. Ran fairly easy 4:48 and I felt OK but again a slightly higher HR than expected. Kim brought Z-bear down for a walk-run and she had a nice romp afterward with Becks' GR-Lab cross, Jack. Afterwards, coffee at Atomic - mmm...

Thursday evening went to Coker to race an 800m and do the 3k at 5k race pace. Conditions were cool 24° but a strong wind up the home straight WSW27/38. Didn't feel overly enthusiastic about running this evening.

We had a visit from one of the club's latest members, Scott Tamblin, who also happens to be the state #2 800m runner, last season doing several results around 1:51. Really brought home the difference between elite-ish runners and us try-hards. I think I'd just gone past the cut in mark on the back straight and he was already heading into the bend at the end of it. 55 second first lap, and his stride length was unbelievable. I felt like I was standing still. I was quite happy with my 65/71 ; close to a PB, but need to work on the strength to get the second lap closer to the first. So does Scott, who put in a super-weak 61 second lap 2....

A bit later I ran a reasonable 3000m in 10:10, but it was harder work than I wanted it to be. Pace was solid though, but with not much zip in the legs. Solid night I guess.

Friday morning did a recovery 6k @ 4:52 HR 140 ; quite tired in the legs but felt better by the end. Although the air was cool the sun still packs quite a punch.

2009 in review and the year to come...

2010-01-05T13:02:00.000+08:00

Summary: a year with a shaky first half and a great second half.

Running Boston was a highlight - I've never been in better shape in my life. Too bad about the niggles that grew into a medium scale injury that scuppered race day. Brilliant event though, and I'm looking forward to going back some day, maybe 2012. The endurance base also set up a great second half of the year which saw me get PB's in every distance up to and including 12k.

The second half of the year saw me spending a lot of time at the track - lots of speedwork and lots of short distance racing. I'd never have thought that I'd be running 3k in 10 and 5k in 17 minutes and it feeling comfortable. It's also been a great learning experience for me, and I'm starting to see that 1500m/3000m/5000m are my optimum distances ; marathons, not so much. However, you can't beat the endurance base you get from marathon training, so I'll still be trying to do one a year.

The year ahead sees the first target being the Australian Masters Championships held at the new Perth stadium over the Easter weekend in which I'm looking to compete in the 800, 1500 and 5000m events. past results indicate I should be competitive ; I don't care about medals - I just want to compete to the best of my ability ; I will need to tailor my training to make sure I peak for this and not get burnt out too early, as happened toward the end of the 2009.

The other highlight promises to be the New York marathon in November ; I'm not aiming to race this one hard - a time around 3 hours will do me fine, and if I get it right I shouldn't be wasted for 10 weeks afterwards. I am determined to learn the lessons from Boston - lower mileage in the training more speedwork and do actual recovery runs instead of junk miles, - most of all I want to get to the start line uninjured and enjoy the experience.

Vale 2009

2010-01-01T11:47:00.002+08:00

Very light week so far - on Tuesday I used the 'rest' day to go for 26km cycle ride. I quite enjoy cycling but don't often have the time for it. Conditions were horrible though, very hot, airless and oppressive. It wasn't sunny but still around 36 degrees but there seemed no respite from the heat because it seemed to radiate from every surface, and there was no wind to move the air around.

Wednesday just the usual 6km at 4:31 HR 144 651bpk. A bit cooler so much more pleasant for running.

Thursday, I did the New Years Eve 4km at the club ; a record turnout apparently. It was relatively cool but very windy (SSW35/46) which made the section from the bridge south to the club a bit of a challenge (map). The first 2k north to the Windan and over the railway bridge was fairly comfortable at 6:40 (and very graciously, all the people ahead of me turned left at the junction because they were doing the 8k), but the fun started on the way back. The first obstacle was running back into the stream of seemingly oblivious runners on a narrow path. It was like driving the wrong way up a busy one way street ; so many people with heads down not expecting traffic coming the other way. On occasion I had to pass oncoming people to the right and had to slam the brakes on quite a few times to avoid collisions, all the while shouting 'runner' . Not the best way to run the 3rd k of a race.... then came the last k into the teeth of a 35km/h wind. The quads were screaming and I knew that the guy coming second wasn't that far back - I knew the conditions were just as hard for him and I think I actually pulled away even though I thought I had slowed a lot. Pretty happy with the finish time of 13:50 in those conditions ; and a gold medal which I felt I earned for once.

Sas had a good run, also picking up some bruises from oncoming runners and finishing 3rd. Biscuitman was out there doing the 8k and had a good solid run - no leg pain which is the most important thing.

Managed to stay after until about 9:15 to see in the New Year (Sydney time!) - no appetite at all so just nibbled on fruit and carrot cake....

New Year's day hooked up with Sandgroper, Sas and Kim's gang to do 30 minutes from Trigg followed by a leg soak in the sea and brekkie at Wild Fig. A nice way to start the year ...

Long time, no blog ....

2009-12-28T10:11:00.001+08:00

It's been a while since my last post...

Tuesday I did a fairly half-hearted intervals session ; just rolled through the 1200/1000/800/600 session in 4:04/3:20/2:36/1:57 ; it was pretty warm and humid but I actually felt much better when finished - it seemed to flush some my bad mojo out of the system.

Wednesday did a short recovery 6km @4:34 HR143 652bpk. Thursday, did the standard Mends St Perth bridges 9.59km @ 4:36 HR145 667 bpk. Christmas day we went down to City Beach to do a group ru but ended up going really short because Sas had a mystery eye problem which meant she spent the first 4 hours of Christmas Day at Fremantle Hospital. Thankfully it seems OK now....

Boxing day, Parlouf time... really didn't feel like doing this, but I loved it once I got running. This year I managed to pace myself better and did nearly 5 873m circuits all around 2:48, and I felt really strong at the end. My runner really pushed herself, but I think suffered from having quite short breaks ; it's a bit tough when you're killing yourself for nearly four and a half minutes and your bastard relay partner reappears in less than 3....

On Sunday we went up to Darlinton and ran a touch over 22km on a slightly different route ; up the trail then up to Glen Forrest and along Park Rd to the trail on the Hovea Falls side, up to Brooking Rd, up there to the Shiraz and down the trail (map). 22.1km at 4:38 HR 152 704bpk. Felt pretty good on this for the first 15k but the quads and hip flexors were a little sore by the end, probably from the Parlouf the day before.

Monday did a much shorter 6.66km up at King's Park @4:38 HR145 673bpk. I definitely felt a bit stiff and sore today - from the hard running on the weekend but also from the frolicking through the surf at Leighton Beach with Zoe the dog yesterday afternoon. Felt Ok by the end of the run though.

I've been feeling a bit more sprightly this week, and haven't felt the crushing need for afternoon naps every day - go the Vitamin D!!

Massage today and a rest day tomorrow, followed by a shorty on Wednesday and a nice 4k at the club on New Years Eve.

More on Vitamin D

2009-12-21T11:36:00.000+08:00

More research implies that my vitamin D levels are about half what they should be for an 'active' adult. More info at the links below from seemingly credible sources.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=16940

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=16994

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/phys-ed-can-vitamin-d-improve-your-athletic-performance/

Oh, and I had a tough run in KP today - short but quite warm ; 7.74km @ 4:29 HR 148, 664bpk. Didn't feel as fresh as I thought I should after the rest day yesterday. I do feel that I'm starting to perk up a little bit ; maybe the D supplements are starting to help.

Long run

2009-12-20T14:59:00.001+08:00

On Friday did the usual 6km easy/recovery run @4:36 pace HR140 giving a decent 645bpk to follow Thursday's freaky 635. Felt fairly good although the lungs still seem to be recovering from the smoke in the city earlier in the week.

Saturday I was joined by Sas and Sandgroper for a nice 21.55km in Darlington ; a toughish hilly run up Darlington road, through JF park up Oxley/Hedges to Brooking to the Shiraz and down the trail (map).

We ran a fairly consistent healthy pace around 4:36 and we all definitely started to feel the effect of the heat/hills towards the end. Overall though I'm very happy with the outcome, I felt a lot stronger and the lungs felt much better and my HR was 150 at 690bpk which is a vast improvement on the last few hot long runs. Rest day on Sunday to try to consolidate this recovery phase.

Not much to report

2009-12-17T15:19:00.001+08:00

Nothing dramatic in my bloodwork - thyroid, blood counts, B12, Folic, Liver electrlytes all normal. Vit D is a little low at 71 nmol/L (25 ng/ml) - which on further research is maybe half of what it should be) and Ferritin is low at 35 (serum 22, tferrin 36, sat 31%). My current malaise is probably a confluence of too much racing, lack of heat acclimatisation, nutrition and sleep deprivation. I missed intervals yesterday and won't race Coker tonight - did a 9.6km loop at Mends St this morning with a nice low HR of 136 but my lungs didn't feel great ; that I put down to the smoke that has shrouded the city for the last three days. Hopefully Saturdays run in the hills will be good and I can put this all behind me. I feel better now...

A bit flat...

2009-12-14T12:48:00.001+08:00

I've had a sense for a few weeks now that I'm starting to struggle a bit, and it really manifests itself when the temperature rises. There are a few weeks over Christmas when there is no Thursday evening meet at Coker and it will be a good opportunity to take some time out - I've definitely started to feel a bit flat at these. My mileage has crept up over the last few months to the mid 80's which shouldn't really be an issue but feelings of fatigue when not running have been on the rise, as has the pattern of sleep interruption. Things aren't right, and I have blood work in the system to see what's up - it may just be a passing phase. I have been doing a bit of racing so may just be a bit overdone.

Thursday evening did the 800m which as a horror run, but a PB ; 64.7sec for lap 1 and 71.7 for the second! Really died, but I learnt a few things ; I need a better warmup and a slower 1st lap. For the 3k I just wanted to run a decent, solid 10 minutes so mission accomplished. Tailed the whole way by Trevor Scott who will be coming out a bit more often. He has massive cred as a track and road runner and is a past winner of the Bridges run. Good to see him out there.... Sandgroper too had a solid 3k and pretty warm and windy conditions, although a bit less wind than the last few weeks.

Saturday's Llama loop run was a real struggle ; it's only 17k and was pretty cool when we did it, but I really struggled to get up the hills. Economy was another appalling 745bpk, and this after a rest day on Friday, admittedly a 10hr driving day with not so great nutrition.

Sunday at City Beach was a strange run ; I felt fine for the first lap but really hit a wall at about 5k ; the 4k split was 14:30, and I should have listened to my body and just ducked into the finish then. Second lap (Most stupid racing decision. Ever. More stupid in fact than my previous best which was turning left for a 2nd lap at the Bold Park cross country ) was about survival - I was feeling really nauseous and for the first time ever I was seriously considering a DNF. The 5k split18:15 and struggled thru the 6k mark and thankfully had a bit of a tailwind to blow me home. I expected half the field to overtake me as I crawled to the finish but only lost one place - second 4k was about 15:44 with k 6 being 4:20! Yes it was hot - 30 degrees by the finish - but shouldn't have been that bad. Physical and mental snap...

Good to see Epi back and Biscuitman had good solid comeback run. Sas takes the gold star (and medal!) with a great run and victory in the 4k.

This week I'll be taking it easy - no intervals tomorrow and no racing Thursday evening ; I'll just go along and help out with the timing ..... unless there is a dramatic turnaround in which case I'll race the mile. I doubt it though....

3kTT Alderbury Park

2009-12-09T15:14:00.003+08:00

JK's intervals group had the Christmas 'party' today which took the form of a 3k time trial followed by a sausage sizzle.. it was run in two groups, the sub 13 and over-13 minute races. After a decent warmup in which I felt decidedly average and the usual Tuesday afternoon stomach issues, race 2 started at about 6:20 in cool but blustery winds (21° S32/50). Jack di took the early lead and I was 2nd for 5 laps, and then he ran out of juice/commitment and I just kept the pace going finishing first in a relatively comfortable 9:57. Not sure what happened to all the young guns.... definitely harder on soft grass/sand - and it's not flat either - but I was very happy with how it went.

37.3/79.1/78.4/79.7/81.8/81.7/81.9/77.6 = 9:57.5 ( 3:14.8/3:22.3/3:20.3 )

Wednesday morning did an easy run from Zamia to Nedlands & back, followed by coffee at Zamia. Very nice conditions for running (and hanging around in the park). 8.12km @4:35 HR142 653bpk.

Thursday am did the usual easy around the Perth bridges in sunny conditions but the wind was quite cool ( 14° ESE19.26) followed by drills and Atomic coffee (9.59km @ 4:49 HR136 656bpk ).

Coker Park this evening, I'll race the 800m, do the 3k @5k race pace and then have a go at the 200m. Seeing as this week has been a little easier I hope the legs are a bit fresher tonight.

Long Hot Run

2009-12-05T16:16:00.005+08:00

Started our 21.75km long run just after 7am from Zamia in King's Park (map) and the temp was already 24° - by the time we were finished it was close to 30°. This was on bikepaths and sand path in Bold Park so there wasn't a lot of shade. It definitely had the timbre of the Rottnest run we did a few weeks ago. Really hot and sapping. We stopped for a Gu at the skate Park at Perry lakes and then headed on up the hill. By the time we came out the other side of Bold Park (chewed up and spat out!) I think we were looking for the shortest way back.... very tough run, pace was 4:48, avg HR 155, definitely cooked by the finish. Had a nice brekky at Zamia afterwards - I think I must have drunk at least 3 litres of fluid afterwards. Didn't feel too bad by the time we left.... I really need to get used to the heat.

On Sunday just did a recovery 5.4km at Trigg and then entertained myself for half an hour watching the abelone 'harvesters' on the reef.... then went to Yelo with Kim & the gang for 2 x (muffin + coffee).

Monday morning did a nice up-tempo 9.36km @ 4:28 (HR146 Ca83 656bpk) in King's Park, the same course as last week. Much cooler conditions today made it quite pleasant - of course, the 5:45am start helps with this. Followed as usual by coffee with the crew at NextG.

Looking forward to the 3km time-trial at JK's intervals session tomorrow afternoon, followed by BBQ - unfortunately the coach won't be running this year. Runners are definitely a weird lot - this is our idea of a Christmas party!

Coker Workout - 1500m PB

2009-12-04T10:27:00.003+08:00

Started off the day with an early morning easy around the Perth Bridges, 9.59km @4:47 HR139. These have turned into a pacing session for a couple of women from Kim's group who are keen to improve, and I'm only too happy to oblige.

In the evening I got to Coker early enough for a decent warmup before the 'points' event, the 1500m. It was warm and windy - 25°41% SSW28/33 - so again, not ideal - I'd better get used to it! Michael was there and we had another good race, although he had the wood on me this time. My legs are still a little heavy from the weekend past and I didn't have any zip in them on home straight. Michael led pretty much from the start, pulling away and me dragging myself back into contention - he ran well to finish a couple of seconds ahead 4:28.x and I racked a good PB of 4:30.2. Disappointed in the finish but happy with the overall level of commitment to the race.

52.3/1:11.3/1:13.4/1:13.4 = 4:30.4

I do have a sense that my leg speed is slipping a bit, so I decided to do the 100m (I think I ran one of these last when I was 12) and 300m races in addition to the 3000m and make a night of it! 3 PB's no less. Did the 100m in 14.3 and again got the sensation of my legs not quite being connected to the ground, my prioreception being all off. A few more of these should help with that.

The 300m was nasty - esp. the last 100m into the decent headwind. My diaphragm actually hurt after that one - 45.6s. There was only one 300m heat so we went straight over to the 3000m start....

I took the first k easy and then tried to pick up the speed - 3:35/3:28/3:19. Happy with that, I was definitely tired at the start but managed get some quality in at the end which should serve me well at some point. Not happy about the return of the Coker Cough though... that dry niggly cough you get from breathing hard at Coker Park track when it's a bit warm and dry. Tends to be gone in a day or so, but it's annoying, and makes you wonder about what you're breathing in.

Tough night, but good. Kim's was a bit crook with her sinus thingy so was disappointed not to run, but was happy helping out with the timing and organisation.I think she enjoyed it a bit too much....

Friday morning did a 6km dead leg shuffle @4:45 HR141 669bpk, and I was definitely glad to be done. Enjoyed the coffee afterwards though.

Intervals

2009-12-02T10:25:00.003+08:00

Did a nice run in King's Park on Monday morning, still feeling a little fatigued but HR was very good - 9.36 @4:35 HR 140 640bpk. It was a very nice morning for running, the thick smoke haze producing visibility down to about 2k notwithstanding. The air was surprisingly good. We took the easy option of going up Forrest Dr, rather than the Law walk today.

I was feeling a bit iffy again for intervals and it sort of came home to roost in the session, which was 1k ; 2 min SR ; 1k; 4min SR ; 6x400 w/75sec SR the last three being a bit quicker than the first. I don't know if it was just fatigue or something I ate, but I had to take a 'comfort' stop after the second 1k and the third 400, and didn't actually finish the session for the first time ever - I bailed on the last 400m, seeing as by then I'd lost my group and the times were slowing, and I was feeling worse and worse! This was sort of a repeat of last week, but a bit worse. Ah well, I don't think my running will come to a shuddering halt if I have a bad session....

Wednesday morning for a change we ran from Zamia Cafe in King's Park, a nice little 8k loop down to Nedlands thru UWA and back (map). Lovely weather - 17° 50% SSE24/32 - 8.17km at 4:32 HR141 639bpk. Probably a fluke of the terrain/wind combination but I seem to get some excellent running economies the day after a hard session (see Monday, after the biggest weekend since Boston ). It was sunny and pleasantly warm, and I always love the coffee and chinwag on the grass lawns of Zamia cafe. We are so lucky to have this! It seems a well kept secret because it's never that crowded, which is strange seeing as it's in Perth's best known tourist attraction!

Blog-wise, I loved this story .... Kid's Stuff

Deepwater Point 15k

2009-11-29T20:00:00.007+08:00

Interesting, it certainly was. A fairly warm morning, although the stiff wind kept things cool (21° 58% S24/32) - map. As I jogged down to the start with a noted heaviness in my legs, I was feeling as the morning was going to have a nice easy run in store. It was certainly hard work on the southbound side of the course pushing into the wind. At one point the wind was really pulling at my waterlogged singlet, so it wasn't insignificant. I have to say I felt very good for the first 9k or so but the big southward push on the second lap sucked a lot of strength from my legs. Not sure what my halfway split was, but I would have been second in the 7.5k. The second lap was certainly tough with the warming sun on the northbound side along the freeway and I felt that the guy behind me wasn't too far away. I just dug in and held on to a reasonable pace finishing 5th in 57:12 odd - averaging around 3:48 ... slower than last year but tougher conditions and a much tougher leadup. Another solid run and I'm pretty happy.

3k 11:22 (3:47)
4k 15:02 (3:41 )
5k 18:49 (3:46 ) (cumulative: 3:46) 5k split: 18:49
6k 22:38 ( 3:49 )
7k 26:28 ( 3:50 )
8k 30:12( 3:45 )
9k 34:03 ( 3:51 )
10k 37:58 (3:55 ) (cumulative: 3:48 ) 5k split: 19:09
12k 45:56 (3:59 )
14k 53:29 (3:48 )
15k 57:12 (3:43 ) (cumulative: 3:49 ) 5k split :19:15

*10k split is a guess, the marker was in the wrong spot ; it is clear that I was suffering in k's 9 thru 12! Somehow the overall splits didn't drop too much, rescued by some soul searching (and a good self-talking to ) in the last 3 km.

Now that's what I call a hill...

2009-11-28T15:09:00.001+08:00

On Friday did a recovery 6km in preparation for a big weekend...

Saturday did the infamous Phil's Hill run (map) in Darlington with Sandgroper and Sas - about 22km @4:45 HR146 420m ascent, 692 bpk. This run is the classic pipeline then turning off the trail after about 12km and heading up a gravel 'road' - Phil's hill - to the huggy trail just west of Charles Rd. It's about 3km from bottom to top and it's got some fairly steep sections, with average footing (apparantly though it's better than it was due to recent grading). It's a real relief when you get to the top after about 16 minutes of quad killing climbing - about 220m straight up at an average grade of just over 7%. I have to say it was longer and steeper than I expected.

Tomorrow's 15k at Deepwater Point is going to be interesting....

Coker Park 5000m - Small PB

2009-11-26T20:46:00.006+08:00

Thursday morning ran the standard Perth Bridges 9.59km @ 4:36 HR 142 Ca84 653 bpk. Nice morning for it being cool, sunny and relatively wind free.

The evening at Coker Park was cold and blustery (17° 40% SSW30/39), not ideal for running but I had a great time. I warmed up with a 5:20 1500m and a few more laps. My 'arch-nemesis' Micheal Mezzatesta was there and we had a good race ; I was in the lead for a couple of laps, then he took over and built a 20m lead or so but then dropped off a bit and I caught him at about the 3k mark (after drafting for a lap and a bit) and won by about 5 seconds. We seem pretty closely matched and it seems to bring out the best. A PB for Michael too I believe.

Lap splits: 38/81.5/78.9/80.2/80.4/80.5/80.7/81.7/79.2/80.7/80.3/81.1/76.3 = 16:39.5

Km splits: 3:18.4/3:20.8/3:22.6/3:20.0/3:17.5 = 16:39.5 (3k : 10:01.9)

Very happy bunny.....

Intervals

2009-11-25T16:14:00.001+08:00

Nice and hot for intervals, although it felt cool in the westerly, I just overheated when I finished - I guess my radiator blew. Had a few 'tummy' issues today and felt quite nauseous on the last two reps so held back a little so as not to end up disgracing myself. Probably a good thing as I have the 5k at Coker Park on Thursday evening which I'd like to do well at. 5x800m tonight with 2:30 SR ; word was that the track was a little long ; some Garmin's reported 900m which I seriously doubt- more like 830m. Anyhow, the splits were nice and consistent : 2:40/2:37/2:37/2:37/2:38.

Nice recovery run with Sas on a cooler Wednesday morning, although the sun was quite warm. 6k @ 4:34 HR146 Ca83 668 bpk. Easy run, nice company, nice coffee. Life is good...

Looking forward to busting a nut on Thursday evening in the 5k at Coker Park. Its part of the MAWA patrons trophy so there'll be a few people there. Hopefully the wind will be less than it has been for the last few weeks. Haven't raced a 5k for a while, so it should be interesting ; 1500m for warmup.

Hills and Gallops

2009-11-23T12:06:00.001+08:00

Friday did a nice 6k recovery @4:49 pace HR 136 ; I find these really work for me - not too long but long enough to get the blood through the legs.

Saturday again we were up the the hills ; found another victim to come with us up Darlington Rd, through the Park, up Oxley/Hedges Rd to Brooking road, up to the Shiraz tap and then hammer down the trail for a healthy 21.6km @4:30 pace, HR 149 670bpk - theres 362m ascent on this one with some biggish hills so IMHO a better run than all up and then all down like the heritage trail. Felt good on this one, and did some drills afterwards on the oval, copping some strange looks from the cricketers...

Sunday I did the Masters 'Garvey Gallop' 10k run at tempo pace, 37:20, HR 171 Ca88 640bpk. Wasn't really able to get a decent warmup in due to timing, but went out easy and then cruised along. It started to warm up and the wind was more than a breeze, but I enjoyed this one. Mike Mezzatesta was racing this, and I let him go - he was flying though. I wasn't really tempted to race because of all the racing I've done recently, and just wanted the tempo effort. Not sure it was quite 10k either.

Monday did a nice little progression run in King's Park with Sas, 9.54km @ 4:27 HR 151, easy down the hill and pushed up the Law walk hills and then added a little extra. Felt fairly good on this one despite the rather odd pools of hot air we were running through. KP is always a beautiful place to run though...

Monday-Thursday

2009-11-19T21:06:00.007+08:00

Monday we did a slightly different run in King's Park - 9.28km @ 4:31 HR 149 673bpk. Tough run, not least because of the glute pounding from Vic not 12 hours previous. Things loosened up eventually and this ended up being quite pleasant, although I felt very fatigued - probably from the massage. Strange because I felt great after the race.

Tuesday was intervals with JK - 1600; 3min SR ; 1200 ; 2:30min SR ; 800 ; 2 min SR; 400m ; 1 min SR ; 200m.I had planned to take this session quite easy because of lingering tiredness, but ended up hitting these fairly hard. Once again I was the rabbit, after the lead runner for the first interval was just travelling too slowly. Increased the pace pretty well (1200 was probably a bit soft) and finished with a flourish.

1600: 5:33.6 = 3:29 min/km

1200: 4:06.0 = 3:25 min/km

800: 2:37.0 = 3:16 min/km

400: 1:10.3 = 2:56 min/km

200: 0:31.4 = 2:37 min/km

Wednesday, Sas & I met up with JK for a 30 min run and some secret coaching ; focusing (for now) mainly on drills and core work. Got an invitation to join him and his other charges on Thursday evenings at the new stadium for intervals. I'll probably end up doing that on alternate Thursdays - I'll have to fit in with what Kim needs to do.

Thursday morning did a blustery loop (not sure of the wind-speed ; the Melville Water met station has been o/s for a while now ; but it was windy enough for decent waves on the river, just short of white cap stuff) of the Perth bridges from Mends street finishing with a set of drills (the aim is to do these 3 times a week) and a social coffee afterwards ; 9.59km @4:44 pace HR142 672bpk. Pleasantly surprised to bump into Biscuitman out for a quick run. Great to see him, hopefully he can nail the scar tissue in the knee area and get back to some pain-free running soon.

Thursday evening I went to Coker Park for a 3000m and an 800m. The idea was to roll through the 3k at 3:20 pace and attack the 800m. The roll through wasn't as easy as it could have been, mainly because of the 35/50km/h SSW winds that were blowing - strong enough to make holding the line difficult coming around the bend into the home straight. I dropped off too much in the first k and was nearly 4 seconds behind, and then pretty much maintained the 80s laps with relative ease (I reckon I could have kept them going, which bodes well for next week's 5k) until the last where I had to put in a bit of effort to finish in 10:00 flat. Had a good race in the 800, sat behind a couple of faster guys for the first (68s) and tailed Campbell Till for 300m for the second and then kicked for home and edged him out in about 2:18. Not too bad for the conditions, and it was nice to have someone else do the work up front for a change ; and it was fun!. Happy with the night's work - nothing spectacular but a good hitout again.Kim ran well in the 3000 and the 800m as well.

Peninsula 10k

2009-11-15T15:30:00.005+08:00

Pretty good conditions today, the sun was warm but the air was cool and there was a little wind just to keep things fresh.

I started out close to the front but fell behind the lead pack fairly quickly because the pace was a bit hot for me - Roberto Busi and Shane Scott were in the mix along with Ross Langford, David Lazarus and Craig Dufty who were doing the 5k (and finished 1/2/3) and Rachel West I think who won the 5k. The pace settled down though and I started reeling in some of the guys who'd gone off too fast including the guy who I did the same to at Rottnest and Sam May who was the last person I went past at about the 3k mark. From then it was a solo run with the 3rd placed Karel Burger a long way ahead and Sam dropping back. The only excitement was trying not to collide head-on with the 10k'ers crossing to the left side of the path to get water from the water station as I was heading back.

I pushed fairly hard but a decent finishing time was really the only incentive, and consequently I dropped the intensity a bit, not having the desire to bury myself in this one. There weren't any k markers out there so I had to trust my own feeling and it turned out OK ; the first 5k in 17:51, and the second in 18:17. I could be a little disappointed with the second split but I'm actually stoked because I felt pretty good afterwards and didn't really feel like I'd even raced. I really just wanted a good hitout today and to get another championship race in, so mission accomplished. I have been feeling a little fatigued of late so if i can put out a 36:08 without destroying myself I must be through that phase..... and it's a 10k road PB.

SG did the five, and had a good solid run ; Kim had a strong run and a few others I know ran well today...

Deep tissue massage from Vic in the afternoon ; very sore glutes and fairly tight left hamstrings but calves were very good. Ouch....