Windy City

14.14km @ 4:18 HR 166 Ca85 15°C 58% W30/50. After a rest day yesterday (I had slightly sore calves from wearing the spikes, and work got in the way as well), ran the 'big' bridges loop (Mends St to the Windan, back to the Narrows on the Perth side) in somewhat blustery conditions. Felt a slight niggle in the right quad on Tuesday (trying to catch SG in the last 200 as he disappeared into the distance) and it's still a little niggly today. Quads felt tired, stiff and unresponsive at first today... but as I got into the run they felt better and pushing back into the wind wasn't too bad - my HR went up but my legs felt pretty strong and I didn't drop the pace too much. Happy with the effort. Rest day again tomorrow and then off to the hills on Saturday.

Edit: Most hilarious 'news' story of the day from the Daily Mail :

Blobbie Fowler still hungry for goals

Fowler has battled hip and groin injuries since touching down in Australia but appears to have no problems in finding the fridge.

Wow, the British press don't pull their punches... looking forward to seeing Australia humiliating England at the home of cricket over the next few days. Edit: humiliation, yes, but the wrong side...

Intervals

Went to the new stadium with SG to try out the new track (and my spikes). Did an extended warmup ~ 25 minutes, did some drills and then hit the track for 6x600 on 3 minutes and then 6x200 on 1:15. Tough session - I think I was carrying a bit from the King's Park tempo, I just didn't feel as fresh as last week - a bit heavy in the legs. I did OK on the 600's but got blown away by SG on the 200's - the times aren't too bad, but I felt like I was jogging; fair turn of speed there, SG!

600m: 115, 116, 118, 117, 115, 111

200m: 35.2, 35.5, 34.6, 34.2, 34.5, 33.3

Spikes were good but the right foot (the one with the heel lift) never quite felt comfortable. I also think they hammer your feet a bit. I'll try again in the next session, but will do the 5k on the 30th in the baby blues I think.

The track was great - it's an excellent facility and it's $6 to use the track, showers (they promise there will be hot water by Friday) etc. and the lighting is excellent. Surprised there weren't more people out there.

With the cooldown the total was about 14k. Felt fairly shagged by the end. Come to mention it, still feel a little shagged now...

Boston Video

Video on YouTube.

Bike and tempo

Sunday it was a beaut day and I hadn't been on my bike for a while, so went down the freeway path and back for about 57km @ 31.5km/h, HR 140. Had some troubles with my contacts and a couple of sections where I got very uncomfortable on the seat, but apart from that it was a good ride.

Monday lunchtime I went up to KP with Kim who was meeting T for a gentle jog on the Wally Cairns course. I decided to do a loop of the park with a bit of tempo in there. Pushed pretty hard through the 29 minutes of tempo (7.37km @3:52, HR 179 Ca 86). The course from NextG carpark to the top of Fraser down the Law Walk to Poole Ave and up the Western Perimeter back up the hill to the NextG carpark. It was a tough run, especially after the glute killing weekend and I felt stuffed at the end but was happy with the pace. No hills for months and then two tough hills workouts in three days - tomorrow's intervals with SG at the new stadium is going to be interesting...

First long run

21.56km @4:39 HR 156 Ca83 362m ascent 9°C 84% S7/11. Beautiful morning up in Darlington - fresh, clear and no wind. This is my first 20k+ run since Boston. Ran from Darlington up to the western entrance John Forest NP (which is a 1.5km 6.7% climb) then through the park on the road back up to HardyRd (1.5km, 5.7% climb) to east on Strettle Rd (1.7km 4.4% climb), until I hit the trail and then back down to Darlington (map). There were some good hills on this one and I felt my recent lack of hill running today. I felt pretty stuffed by the end. In the park a came across a lot of roos and even a couple of the cutest wallabies. Sunrise was magificent through the mist and the trees and the views were spectacular. This is the first time in that I've run in the hills in years without Sas and it was hard not to feel that something was missing - somehow the perfection of the surroundings made that feeling worse. Hopefully she'll be running again before long...

Coker Park 1k (3:05) and 4k (14:06)

Met Sandgroper at Coker again for a double bill. It was very pleasant night temperature-wise but we did get a little soggy. Did a decent warmup beforehand, but wussed out on the spikes. I'll need to try them out on a few laps first before trying to race in them, as the last thing I need to do now is rip a calf muscle.....

Just as we lined up for the 1k, it started bucketing down, and the rain was cold. I think I went out too fast and couldn't get the speed up in the two remaining laps. I do have to admit the lashing rain was not ideal and the wind really whipped up as I was coming round the bend into the home straight. It certainly got the HR going, but I never quite got into the pace. The hard breathing left me with a pretty sore throat...

Splits were 34.7, 75.0, 75.7 = 3:05.5

15 minutes after the 1k we set off for the 4k. SG echoed what I was thinking just before we lined up - 'this is going to hurt', and he wasn't wrong, but it wasn't as bad as expected. Thankfully the rain had stopped so conditions were pretty nice, wet clothes and soggy shoes aside (next time I should leave the bag under cover and take a change of runing gear. Rolled through pretty comfortably with 85 second laps - I had to ramp up the effort a bit to maintain them and was pleased to find a kick in the last lap. Actually enjoyed this, pleased with how it went - felt like I could have comfortably maintained the pace for another K, so I'm in better shape than I was a couple of weeks ago, esp. given the hard running I've done this week.

Splits were 85.4, 85.9, 86.1, 85.7, 85.0, 84.2, 85.5, 85.3, 85.1, 77.8 = 14:06.0

As usual I ended up with an itrritated throat for an hour or two afterwards - not sure what that is, I only seem to get it at the track. Looking forward to the rest day tomorrow - next week I'll take it easy with just the intervals on Tuesday and an easy run on Thursday. Next Coker Park visit will be the 5k on July 30.