Week of 8/12 ; City Beach 8k

Our lives are all the poorer for the loss of Kerryn McCann to breast cancer on Monday. A truly great Australian marathon runner and an inspiration to many. A sad day. So spend a little less on useless crap this Christmas and make a donation to the MCGrath Foundation or the Breast Cancer Network Australia.

Monday: 2k warmup, 8k (steady state) tempo 3:57 pace, HR 173 Ca 86, on the Attadale foreshore. Headwind on the way out. It was a tough effort to get moving today - the legs felt really heavy, probably from the big endurance weekend. Slightly sore left hamstring, feels like a bit of tendonitis around the big tendon at the back of the knee on the left. I've had this before, don't think it's running related. May have been the 'frolicking' in the surf yesterday with Zoe the puppy, or the bike ride. Will take it easy at intervals tomorrow if not feeling 100%. Went for an 9k loop around the river this afternoon on the bike to get some blood thru the legs.

Tuesday am: 10.53km easy, 4:34 pace HR 146 Ca83. Glorious conditions this morning (until the easterly kicked in just as we headed back!). Took a while for the legs (esp. the hamstring) to warm up, but started feeling looser towards the end. Encouraging signs for this evening.

Tuesday pm: 4x300m; 60sec recovery; 4x500; 90sec; 4x300; 2k warmup, 1.5k cooldown. Felt tired and not really mentally up for it - didn't really fancy flogging myself as I do usually! Also had bad stomach 'issues' - I think I salvaged something from the session, but it wasn't ideal - ended up doing the second half by myself. 58, 56, 55, 54, 96, 99, 96, 97, 56, 55, 55, 53.

Wednesday: 30km bike ride in 80 minutes, HR 93. Does that count as exercise? Pleasant, restful way to spend an hour or so!

Thursday am: 9.85km easy, 4:28 pace HR 147 Ca 85. Lovely morning, felt pretty good today. Had a bit of a tailwind along Riverside Dr. for a change. Hamstring felt good (didn't feel it at all actually). Finally lost the fatigued feeling that's been haunting me all week. May actually go out this afternoon for another dose...

Thursday pm: 12.15km "easy" 4:17 pace HR 158. Very windy (SSW39/50) and warm (23°) like last week but a good effort in McMillan's 'easy' range. Felt fairly strong and comfortable except for the couple of k's down to Attadale amongst the kite surfers, when I felt I was being blown backwards going out, and lifted off my feet coming back!

Saturday: 20.7km long run/easy 4:38 pace HR 148 King's Park down Matilda Bay and back around the perimeter path past the DNA tower back to Zamia (map). Really enjoyed this run ; conditions were fantastic and the company was excellent. Probably a little quick for a 'long' run but I suppose it was relatively short and the brain got into 'easy run' mode rather than 'long run' mode. It was also a good test of the running on empty theory ; only had half a cup of green tea before setting out and no gels during the run. Felt much better than expected. Any longer though and I think I would have crashed.... now looking forward to the 8k at City Beach. Hope conditions are like they were this morning....

Sunday: WAMC City Beach 8km 29:27 3rd place - HR 180 Ca 90 (Results). Temp 24° and E24/35 winds. A little disappointed with the time, although conditions were really tough (especially the wind) on a fairly exposed course (map), and I claimed some decent scalps so I guess everybody found it hard going..  I think I may have gone a little hard - hit the turnaround at about 14:15 and found the second lap really difficult, esp the outward 2k (splits 3:44 and 3:56 !) when I felt weary and was trying to recover a little for the push home. Last 2k in 7:21 which was OK. HR graph ( only started a couple of minutes into race -  'Start' didn't take at the start ) shows I was maxxing out so I can't be too unhappy - although I felt my commitment was lacking. I have done a few races in the last month or so, so perhaps getting a little race-tired.