Intervals

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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 ;-)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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..

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

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...

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!