Deek Dinner

Last night was the 'Dinner With Deek' that Pat had organised for the group. We started with drinks and nibblies on the deck of The Ship Inn before moving inside for dinner, an auction (raising funds for the Qld Cancer Fund), and a video of the final 10k of the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games Marathon. During this Pat and Peter Meares provided 'live commentary' which was an absolute hoot. Peter was actually involved in the commentary back in 1982.

Following this Deek spoke. He made marathon running sound almost easy. Well, not quite easy but certainly achievable for anyone willing to give it a go.

It was a fantastic night. When Deek first came in and settled down Clairie and I wandered over for a chat and of course a photo shoot. I was standing and cheering in Sir Fred Schonnell Dve as they ran up to UQ and back that day in 1982, and thought he might remember me :-) Actually I was somewhere around where the pic above was taken.

Auction items and raffle prizes were kindly donated by PCRG members. Things up for grabs included a basket of very special wines (Dan) and a home cooked Burmese meal for four including all the cleaning up (Elaine and Kerryn). Clairie, Tara, Ciaran and I decided to pool resources for both of these but they ended up way out of our price range.

Not to be totally defeated for a mere $61 I 'won' some of Dan's running clothes that he'd left behind after various sessions. Clairie told me I would have had a fight on my hands if it was his Phantom costume :-)

All Over Bar The Shouting

Well, the PCRG 16 week Countdown To Gold Coast is just about over. For me I missed at least half of it due to the ITB injury, but certainly enjoyed being there for the latter part. Thursday was my last session, and it was 30 second efforts.

There was quite a big turnout, and the atmosphere was terrific. Its especially exciting knowing some of the group are venturing out for their first marathon or half marathon.

The session itself wasn't too stressful at all. Pat warned us all to back off a little, now is not the time to be going flat out and doing damage. And being the 30 second thing we were treated to one of his bad jokes. Unfortunately it was the same bad joke he hit the Friday group with when I was there a couple of weeks ago, the one about a grain of rice called Bevan.

Just for a laugh just about everybody nominated Bevan for the group award at the end of the session :-)

So that's it now, the work has been done. Personally I would have liked at least another month or more of training. And I wish I was lining up for the full. But thinking back to where I was six weeks ago I'm happy just to be able to get out there.

Good luck to all competing!!!!

Tagged!

4 jobs I have had
- Glass picker-upper (at RSL club)
- Prawn peeler
- Governess
- Software Tester

4 movies I could watch over and over
- Groundhog Day
- The Birds (scares the crap out of me every time tho)
- Edward Scissorhands
- The Big Chill

4 places I have lived
- Normanton
- Canberra
- New Farm (Brisbane)
- Hawthorne (Brisbane)

4 TV shows I love to watch
- Six Feet Under
- Shameless
- Queer As Folk
- Seinfeld

4 places I have been on vacation
- Bali
- Russia
- Turkey
- USA

4 websites I visit each day
- Cool Running
- DIG Internet Radio
- Bloglines
- Pat Carroll Online

4 favorite foods
- dark chocolate
- big salad
- rye bread
- Pink Lady apples

4 places I would rather be right now
- Noosa
- New York
- Bali
- Whitsunday Islands

4 favorite bands/singers
- Magnetic Fields
- Mountain Goats
- Meat Purveyors
- Me First And The Gimme Gimmes
I couldn't narrow it down to 4 so I just listed my 4 of my faves that start with 'M' :-)

4 Bloggers I am tagging
- Ally-Lou
- Shane
- Robert Song
- Steve (in Japan)

3k at GC Race Pace

Its just 5 days to go until the Gold Coast and this morning at Pat's we had to run 3 or 4k at our GC race pace. I've listed my A goal as 1:38 and my B goal as 1:42 - nice big window there :-)

Without calculating beforehand (obviously) my aim was to do 3 x 4:35s. Doing the maths afterwards I realised that would bring my in at 1:36.42. I should've been going for 4:40s. D'oh!

Prizes were up for grabs and so we weren't allowed to check our watches in the final km. I teamed up with Ally and Steve G and we were a few seconds over in the first and second kms. With 100m or so to go Steve bolted ahead, he looked as if he was gonna crash tackle Clairie :-) Ally and I cruised on and finished the final km in 4:36 - close!

It was such a fun session. Everyone was running along asking eachother what pace they were doing, wondering if they were too fast or too slow. And as it was out and back there was lots of cheering going on.

I finished with the feeling that all going well I might just, maybe, possibly, hopefully, be able to maintain that pace for 21ks. I'm gonna give it a go anyway.

BRRC 10k CHAMPS

NOTE: my 14 minutes from South Bank to my desk in the city on Friday did not include a shower and change. I did that in work time :-)


SATURDAY

The plan for Saturday morning had been for something a little longer but the legs were a bit tired from the previous two days so opted for an easy 11k. With so many regulars missing it was just Mark, Nick and I in our little pack. Nick turned back after 4k and Mark wanted to do 16k so at 5 1/2 I let him go on and headed home.


SUNDAY

Going by my recent form the absolute best I could hope for in the 10k champs at BRRC was 46 1/2 minutes. I figured if my 3k time was 1 minute off my best my 10 time should be at least 3 minutes off. Still, I set myself a more realistic goal of sub 48 mins, and if I got under 47 mins I was going to be very happy. The plan was to stick with Clairie for the first 5k and run 4:25 pace, but from the outset this seemed just a tad too fast for me so I let her go her merry way.

As expected after a couple of kms Karisma passed me and then Parmy. We are usually all around the same pace so I was pleased to be keeping them in my sights. It looked for a while a battle would be looming for the top three spots between those two and Clairie and it was fun to watch them try to catch up to her.

After 4 kms I worked out even if I slowed to 5 minute kms I'd still go under 48 mins. I shouldn't have thought that way as the next 2kms were my slowest - idiot! I had been having a bit of a cat and mouse game with Cathy G, and after this she got in front of me again. But at about 8k she started to feel the effects of her tough cross country race on Saturday afternoon and I was able to move away from her.

Rounding the Pauls Factory my favourite running song Plastic Bertrand's "Ca Plane Pour Moi" came on and that got me fired up. Then with about 300m my other favourite running song "Mundian To Bach" by Punjabi MC played. Great timing! I was able to fly home and cross the line in 45:34, only 2 minutes off my PB (June 2005) - woohoo!!!!

My splits ....
4:30
4:32
4:30
4:31
4:38
4:42
4:34
4:33
4:30
4:29

Big congrats to Clairie for holding on to win and score a handy 100 points, and to Karisma for making it an exciting finish. Being the champs there was lots of bling once again. And this time my gold meant more than usual as there were actually others in my in my category :-)

Robin Hood

Backed up for another Pat session this morning. It was 2 minute efforts and after pushing it a bit yesterday I thought I run this one at about 80-90%.

Flying along in one of the efforts 'T' mentioned to me how good a certain guy up ahead looked in his long Skins. Ha ha, no wonder she was running so fast! Hmmm, come to think of it all the girls were :-)

I needed to be at work by 7am and no later and so had to keep a close eye on the time. It was after 6.30 when we started the last effort, and following it we were to keep on going and do a couple of reps of "Gold Coast Hill", the killer climb next to All Hallows. Running along I was trying to decide ... will I go up the hill and risk being late for work or just keep on running back to South Bank?

I was just about to head up the hill and I saw Anita was going back so gave it a miss (I'm sure my knee appreciated it) and seized the opportunity for some company on the warmdown. There was a girl right behind us for a while so we started chatting, turns out she was Customs Jogger from Canberra. I rattled off a few names to her but she didn't know them and then before I could find out hers she was off in another direction.

I was back at the car at 6:45 and at the desk about a minute before 7am - whew!

The World Really Is Wonderful

Thanks to everyone for all the comments after my "tell it like it is Tuesday" post. They were all very much appreciated and taken on board. And special thanks to Robert Song for his football comment, I can't wait to surprise everyone when I slip that into the conversation at work today :-)

Back to the TT, in hindsight its not so much the time I ran that disappointed me but how I ran, I really didn't put enough effort into it. I guess I was pretty knackered from two straight night shifts. Anyway, next month I intend to finish and feel like Steve FS did after his massive PB (24 secs) on Tuesday ...



Today at Pat's was the usual easyish run followed by the '1k no watch'. Clairie and I decided yesterday that we'd go a bit hard for this one and aim to get to the New Farm Bowls Club in the 27 minutes before we turned around. Neither of us had got that far before. We got there in 26:15 :-) Clairie stopped to do a shoelace up and feeling the pinch I turned for home and told her to catch me, which she soon did and then she continued to catch just about everyone else.

I was more than happy just to try to maintain the pace all the way back to The Gardens and finished the 9.6k in just under 45 mins.

To salvage a bit of self respect after Tuesday I'd nominated 4:10 for the 1k, though was happy with what how I'd run already so wasn't gonna be too down on myself it I couldn't do it. Within a few hundred meters Mark (iliketoast) was beside me, he had nominated 4:16. When I told him my time he stuck with me until the end, blowing his own chance of winning, and encouraging me and talking to me the whole way. It was great - thanks Toasty. Then when we finished he apologised because we were 5 seconds out ... we did 4:05 not 4:10 - woohoo! I'm not sure if its spot on 1k, but its close.

So a good morning .... but wait, there's more.

We had another yummy pancake and fresh fruit salad brekky after the session. Aaaaand I won a $50 Ship Inn voucher :-)

Do I really have to ruin such a great day by going to work this arvo ....

3k Time Trial

Today was to be the last really hard hit out before the GC Half. In my previous TT three weeks ago I ran 13:06 and was happy with that as it was just days after my first speed session since the end of February.

I've put in a solid three weeks of training so today there wasn't going to be any excuses. I set myself a goal of 12:45 but was quietly confident of going a little under that.

I didn't :-( 12:49. Almost a minute off my PB and my third slowest TT in almost three years. I can't even say I did my best because in hindsight I don't think I did, my heart just wasn't in it today. It only really hurt for the last 100 meters or so, it should hurt the whole way.

My run aside it was a great morning, the highlight being Jonesy's comeback after almost six months off with injury. And sooooo many people ran PBs or came with seconds of their best and so are on fire for the Gold Coast. Hugh and Sacha were back playing the bongos at the start/finish. And there was a guy there videoing everything so there was lots of playing up for the camera. Pity about that pathetic 12 minutes and 49 seconds putting a damper on things.

The Gangs All Here

With the Gold Coast just two weeks away there was no need for the marathoners to start early for a long run. So this morning everybody who was running fronted for a 6am start.

It seems like forever since the usual group had run together, what with me being injured, Glenno and his glandular fever, Clairie being away lots of weekends, Toasty, Lizzle and Scotty doing long runs etc etc. Heading out along the floating walkway to New Farm somebody commented it was like the family was back together, though a few of the rellies had done a shorter run and a couple of them were just turning up for brekky afterwards :-) With such great company my pace and distance was decided for me, I just wanted to hang in with the rest of them and have fun like the old days.

We cruised on out to New Farm Park and because we are all tapering (and we were all feeling lazy) skipped the usual lap before heading back. All up just over 20k. The trusty Garmin told me we averaged 5:10 pace but it didn't feel that fast.

Both knees were feeling a little sore afterwards, not so much the ITB, just general soreness. Not sure what that's all about. I hit the gym in the afternoon and did about half an hour of stretching and will do the same tomorrow. I'll skip the morning run I'd been half thinking about and take Monday off as well. Which means I'll be well rested for Tuesday's time trial. So there'll be no excuses ... except I have to work all night Monday. Whew, I think I just snuck one in :-)

The Same But Different

This morning rather than have a bit of a sleep in (my day off) before my run I went to the Friday Pat session. There was no intention to go flat out again, but just go along at a nice steady pace. Standing at South Bank at 5:40am in the cold (not quite 10 degrees - brrrrr) I questioned my decision.

But as usual once we got moving it wasn't too bad. Tara and Ciaran also backed up from yesterday so the three of us just hung in towards the back of the pack. It was great, though we weren't really pushing it we weren't plodding either. After the 2 x 5 mins the hill reps started so we headed out on our own (not to be left out Ciaran also has a dodgey knee) and did 1 x 4 mins and 1 x 3 mins up towards the Edward St entrance of The Gardens. We ran back to The Ship Inn with the group and threw in the hill up to Vulture St with them before warming down.

It felt good to be there even if it wasn't a 100% effort. And Jan thanked us for the cheering :-) Might have to do the Friday thing more often.

Now its mid afternoon and I can't drag myself away from the Comrades site. Its so much fun tracking people's progress and sending and reading messages. One of the Regatta gang, Matt, is over there racing (#30606). I'm also keeping watch over CR Tuttle (#32077) and of course Magnus (#30751). I really should go to the gym. Considering they haven't even been on the road 2 hours I suppose they'll still be going when I get back.

Newton's 3rd Law

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction ...

After two night shifts I felt a bit like a walking zombie when I turned up at Pat's this morning. You know when you're really tired that even talking (well, grumbling in today's case) hurts, well that's how I felt. Though the voice thing may have had something to do with woohoo-ing for 80 mins last night watching the Mighty Maroons do their stuff :-)

Today was 2 x 5 minute sprints followed by hill reps (though for me no hills and more sprints to look after my knee). A tough workout, or any at all, was the last thing I felt doing so before we started our strides I contemplated just having an easy run and coming back tomorrow for another go at this. Toasty suggested I work hard but run slow ... still trying to figure that one out!

After the strides we were off through the back paths of The Gardens I totally forgot about being tired and just got into it and ran as flat out as I could.

With the two lots of 5 mins done we moved around to the River Stage for the rest of the class to do 'the hill'. Tara, also of dodgey knee fame, is avoiding hills as well so she said she'd join me in whatever I was doing. Damn, no chance of bludging! We set off on a sprint, 2 mins out and 2 mins back. On our return the group were still running up and down the hill so we set off again did 1 1/2 mins out and 1 1/2 mins back. This time we arrived to find they'd all gone and so we had to bolt to catch up.

I ran the warmdown with Karen M, who is also just coming back from injury. We agreed that the thing we missed the most about not being able to run was the PCRG - the sessions, the people, and even Pat :-)

Its sooooooo good to be back!

Not So Distant Drums

Hearing what all the southerners are putting up with I'm starting to feel guilty about the great running conditions we Brissos have been having of late ... well, almost ;-) This morning was no exception, even at 5:40am. It was a little cool but certainly not cold. After the 3k warm-up at Pat's almost everybody was ditching their long sleevers.

Today was 'sprints', and as Pat always says "15 or 20 minutes of them, whatever comes first". He seems to think the 20 does. We do this in a square around paths in The Gardens, and instead of breaking it down into four parts, fast/recovery/fast/recovery, this time it was recovery for the first half then fast for the second half. This suits me way better, I love the longer reps. Ok, I don't love them, but I do prefer them to shorter ones.

The ghetto blaster was just at the point where we had to start sprinting and then a little further on were a couple of guys on bongos or congos (not sure of the difference) that Pat organised just for us. They were fantastic! Too bad we couldn't stop and listen a little longer ;-)

I was hanging in with Andy S. It was great, there wasn't a lot of talk but we were silently encouraging eachother and pushing eachother to get the most out of the session. The recovery bit was more like a steady pace, and seemed to get faster with every lap, but that kinda made it all the more challenging.

Towards the end of the warmdown afterwards I was running with Clairie and Jodie. Jodie asked about my knee and I mentioned it was hurting a little now we had slowed down. I'm sure they did it purposely, suddenly we were moving more quickly and the pain disappeared. Thanks girls!

I reckon I've notched up another one where I've put in 100%. Feels goooood :-)

And once, at PCRG camp ...

There were around 20 of us all up at the PCRG training camp. Some are doing the full in three weeks, others doing the half or 10k. Our accom was great, we had an entire lodge to ourselves aside from one room that was taken by a guy crewing at the 100k champs the next day. This meant we had our own kitchen and lounge area, complete with a TV that seemed to be stuck on football channels.

The ever thoughtful Langy (CR Runner In The Hills) had made up little pressies for everyone there. It was a Gu (mmmm, mine was tri-berry) and a Noel Coward quote. I'm blogging from work so don't have the quote on me now but will transcribe it in my next post. The Gu I'm saving for the GC Half :-)

Saturday night's buffet style dinner was at the cafe on the complex, and with a long run planned for the next morning it was good to see most people avoiding the curry. After dinner it was back to our lounge area to watch the footy, chat, and eat Tim Tams - thanks Liz and Dan :-)

On Sunday the marathoners did 40mins before running back and joining the rest of us at 6am. Pat led the way and took us down to that part of the GC course that goes past the Runaway Bay Marina and from there we headed north to the turnaround and then back south towards the start/finish area and beyond.

For the first few kms I was pretty much able to hang in with the faster guys but then dropped back a little but still managed to keep them in my sights. My trusty Garmin told me I was doing around 5 min pace but it sure seemed faster than that. I hit the 12k mark at 1 hour and then turned for home. Within about 10 mins my knee starting hurting a little and I could feel one sock rubbing enough to cause a blister so stopped and fixed that. From then on with each successive km I told myself just one more km at that pace, ok, now one more, and again .... it really was hard work. More than once I thought about that Noel Coward quote from Langy and that kept me going.

I maintained my pace until 21k (dead on 1:45) when I allowed myself the luxury of a 100 meter walk, and then ran a more relaxed km before kicking it in the guts for a last faster one. At 23k I hit the corner where the 100k champs runners turned and headed for the complex (they were doing 6.5k loops) so called it quits there. That was until Nat came along so I ran to the finish with her.

We had a group brekky at the centre. The cafe has full length glass doors along the entire length of it that overlooks the track so we were able to watch the 100k-ers as they ran in and did a lap before heading out onto the streets again.

Back to the run. Total time for the 23k was 1:55.19 - so I had averaged 5.01s. It made me realise just how fit I was ... not now but this time last year when I averaged under that for the GC Marathon. Maybe I should've eaten the curry.

Doing a Clairie

As part of the PCRG training camp I'm doing my long run down the coast tomorrow morn. So today's run was just going to be an easy 10k. Yet another perfect morning for it - overcast and there was the odd touch of light rain, but not at all cold or windy.

Tori, Jan, Flasher and I were leading the way for a couple of kms until Chris, Jen and co finally caught up and flew by. I started chatting with Julie and that meant hanging on the the back of that pack and running just a little faster than planned. After stopping for water at the Goodwill I spotted Glenno heading my way so waited for him. We were so busy talking I totally forgot to turn around at the 5k mark so figured I'd do so at 6k while he continued on. Time for the first 6k - 31:30.

I ran the 6k back on my own and upped the pace. Then with 3k to go I thought I'd try Clairie's trick from yesterday of going faster with each km. Ran the 6k home in 28:46.

Knee pain today - maybe 1.5 on the Richter Scale :-)

I Can See My House From Here

At training yesterday, after the warmup to West End and before we got stuck into the serious stuff, Pat reminded us just how close the Gold Coast Marathon/Half/10k were and exactly what we'd be doing between now and then. There's not a lot of hard sessions left and so he really encouraged us to give our all. The mood was set! The music started blaring and we were off.

We did 4 mins hard, 30 secs recovery, another 4 mins hard, 30 secs recovery, and the turned and ran flat out for 8 mins or whatever it took to get back to the start. I really enjoyed this one, probably because its longer reps. I feel so slow on the shorter ones. As Langy said, on those you need explosive speed, of which I have very little. None in fact.

Heading out on the two lots of four I had a goal to get as close to my place (on the opposite side of the river) as I could and was pretty happy to pull up right across from it. When we do this one again the goal will be to get over the top of the little hill just after that.

Scotty was the next person in front of me, maybe 30 or 40 meters ahead. On the run for home I was determined to get back to the start without him passing me. I did it ... just! I harboured thoughts of trying ot hold off Toasty as well, but he was on fire and screamed past like a man possessed.

The knee hurt a little, but only in the warmdown. At least these days the pain doesn't last after I stop. Must be on the improve :-)

I'm wondering how hard I can work in the next three weeks and what a realistic target is for the GC Half. At the moment its sub 100 mins but just how 'sub' I'm undecided.

Beautiful One Day, (almost) Perfect The Next

Had the alarm set for 5.40am to join the Regatta Runners for a 6am start but being my day off couldn't be bothered getting out of bed so early. I hit the road just before 7.30 and instead of the usual Wednesday morning gang for company it was just my iPod. Today's playlist consisted purely of duets :-)

Ran down the bike path, over the Vic Bridge then headed towards West End. At the Modern Arts Museum construction site I was held up by a traffic controller - can't recall that ever happening on a pedestrian boardwalk before! There was a runner just in front who also had to stop so we had a quck chat. He was wearing a 2005 Melbourne Trailwalker singlet. His team came in 4th in around 15 hours.

Got stopped at the other end of the construction site on my way back too. I'd love to see the looks on these guys faces if they are still there when 75 of us from Pat's try to run through after the next TT :-)

I spotted Lizzle just as I was about to go back over the bridge towards home. She also had decided on the sleep in option.

All up around 12k on an another absolutely perfect morning for running - sunny, just a little cool, and the slightest hint of a breeze at times. The only way it could possibly get any better than that is if my knee didn't hurt with a couple of kms to go. After stopping and stretching and walking about 100 meters it was okay enough to run the rest of the way home.

A Bad Omen

There was another huge crowd at Pat's today for some 1 minute reps. The knee was a little sore yesterday but good this morning. But what got me in this session was the quads had a bit of DOMS from Sunday.

There were lots of speed demons out there and I found myself amongst the 'back of the packers', and what pleasant company it was :-) At least every time we turned around we were leading the charge!

I guess I wasn't going totally flat out. I really need to work extra hard if I'm to get fit again for the GC Half and C2S but in the back of my mind I'm worried about getting injured again. I'm also having trouble pacing myself properly, knowing how hard to push depending on the time or distance. Hopefully all that will come back to me soon.

It came time for the last rep. In this one we don't stop at 1 minute but rather run all the way to the end of the strip. I was pushing it a little and there were only 2 or 3 girls were in front of me. Tori was beside me and a guy asked her how far we had to run and she said to the end ... and then its a hill sprint up beside All Hallows. Arrgghh!!! Last time I did this session that hill wasn't part of it. My legs suddendly felt dead, and we hadn't even started the climb.

Oh well, it was a hill but not a sprint. Not even close. But it hurt like hell anyway. I made it to the top and there were still people coming. The idea is to go back down and keep running up until the last one finishes. I headed back down just so I could shuffle on up again. All I could think was its not looking good for a sub 61:48 C2S.

My knee hurt a little after the second downhill, so I might have to do the 'run up, walk down' thing until I can totaly exorcise the ITB pain.

QLD Half Marathon

You couldn't ask for much better racing conditions than yesterday morn. The sky was clear, the weather was cool, but not cold, and there wasn't a hint of a breeze.

It was great to catch up with so many CRs pre-race including Canberran Speedygeoff. I was soon to discover exactly why he is called that! In the race debrief they mentioned mp3 players were illegal and shouldn't be used. Robert Song said I should tell them mine played wav files *lol*. If questioned I was just gonna say I didn't hear the instructions cos my mp3 player was turned up too loud :-)

I had none of the usual nerves, one of the few joys of coming back from injury. I thought I'd try for just under 5 minutes per km and see how far I could maintain that, though just to get through the whole 21.1k without my knee forcing me to walk was going to make me happy so I wasn't too concerned about the pace. That was until the first out and back I spotted my brother about a minute behind - yikes! So a new goal was invented, not ease up and finish in front of him :-)

Its such a great course, dead flat with lots of out and back bits where you get to check out the race leaders and cheer eachother on. However my encouragement for Hannah fell on deaf ears, she was so focussed on her goal ... and it worked! And it was fantastic to run past the CR cheersquad (Cirque and Davo) so many times - thanks so much guys for being out there. I didn't recognise Ally though, she looked too glam in her civvies.

Around 15k Big Pig's 'Hungry Town' came on my mp3 ... whoops ... wav player, and it made me realise I was starving. I'd only eaten half a small can of rice for brekky, obviously it wasn't enough.

Aside from the hunger I made it the whole way without any real pain. I had a niggle in the knee around the 18k mark but it wasn't too much of a bother and didn't last too long.

My splits went like this ....

4:41
4:48
4:51
4:48
4:59 (5k - 23:59)
4:48
4:51
4:50
4:52
5:01 (10k - 48:24)
4:56
4:55
4:57
4:54
5:03 (15k - 1:13.11)
5:00
5:01
5:13
5:06
5:02 (20k - 1:38.35)
5:31 (21.1k)

Total was 1:44.07 on my watch and although I started it when the gun went my official time was 1:44.10. That was 11 minutes faster than Warwick two weeks ago, and 10 minutes slower than my PB from March last year. And a couple of minutes faster than my brother :-)

Even with that slowish (for me) time I managed to pick up a trophy for 2nd in my age group, the category winner being a mere 17 minutes faster.

Some of us backed up for a jog around the racetrack for the Doomben Cup (2.2k). I'd bet my 7 year old nephew 20 cents he couldn't beat me ... and I lost. Maybe I shouldn't have started running backwards 10 meters from the finish line just as he was sprinting home trying to beat some little girl. Boy, imagine being competitive like that ;-)

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Seeing though yesterday wasn't a speed session as such I thought I'd back up for Pat's today.

We did an extra long warm-up (via Story Bridge to the middle of The Gardens) then got stuck into some 30 second efforts. I'd forgotten how awful this session was, not the running part, but the terrible jokes we have to endure during our recovery. As if we aren't suffering enough! This time it was about a grain of rice called Bevan who eventually became a Rice Bubble.

All up the session was just over 11km, according to Flasher's GPS, though like just about everyone else he got further than me in those reps. My knee was playing up, I felt a little pain after the warm-up but nothing while I was running. It really only came back when I stopped. Maybe I should stop stopping :-)


FYI

When you pour milk into your breakfast bowl, the cereal absorbs the milk. As milk flows into the crispy kernel, the liquid puts pressure on the air inside and pushes it around. The air shoves against each pocket’s walls until they shatter, forcing out a snap, or a crackle, or, as you, know, sometimes a pop. You can also see tiny air bubbles escaping to the surface.

The race is now on. Because once the rice is wet enough, all the air pockets have burst, the sounds stop, and you're left in peace and quiet to eat soggy cereal.

Missed It By That Much

Being the Thursday after our 3k TT today at Pat's was 'a light enjoyable 50 minute run' followed up by the no watch 1k. After his first Pat session on Tuesday new kid on the block Mark (iliketoast) was back for more. Knowing that running a little faster hurts less (well, my knee anyway) I headed off with him. Chelle, who is looking super duper fit for her debut marathon at the GC, and Tara soon caught up. It was just like our Saturday morning runs, only a bit faster, and with a few people missing (hi Clairie!!!).

I was happy to get to the usual spot in the 27 minutes before we turned around, though was the breathing was heavy. Still, it was better than running slower and risking knee pain. Soon we were back at The Gardens for the start of the 'no watch 1k'.

For this everybody seems to nominate roundish numbers (eg 3:50, 4:05, 4:30, 4:45 etc). I was going to put down 4:35 but feeling a little radical this morning I wrote 4:36. Throughout the 1k I had now idea how fast or slow I was running, I've lost all my sense of pace. Or so I thought. I finished in 4:35 - argh!!!!

Our post run (free!) brekky was indoors at The Ship Inn (Brisso's are wusses when it comes to cold weather). Pat wandered around and handed out the random draw raffle tickets. There was a winner to the left of me (Toasty scored a t-shirt) and a winner to the right of me (Chelle scored some socks). I was stuck in the middle with my pancakes :-)