The 500s were 500!!!

I met up with Clairie and Toasty at 5.30am for a planned 17k or so. We headed via Riverside to the stretch underneath the Story Bridge. With conjecture about the accuracy of our 500m rep course we did yesterday here was the perfect opportunity to test it, Clairie and I were both wearing Garmins.

She decided to stop there for a stretch so Toasty and I ran the strip up and back, and it measured a few meters over 1k. So yep, we can safely call it 500 meters! Then with Clairie it tow this time we did it again (and it measured the same) and then continued on to the end of the floating walkway.

On the return journey Toasty and I threw in a loop around the Riverside shops while our companion had a pit stop. By the time we got back to The Regatta we'd done 18k in 1h32m, an average pace of 5:07s.

Today was great, I felt like I was moving along pretty effortlessly. After being reminded about the benefits of fueling up before a run (thanks to Ellie's blog!) I'd set the alarm for a little earlier than necessary so I could have a bit of my Usana protein drink before we ran. It helped for sure, my energy levels remained constant right until the end.

So feeling very chuffed now. My 500m reps yesterday were better than I thought and then this morning's run was one of the best longish training runs I've had in ages. Its all good!

500m Reps

With a 7am start I parked the car at work and ran over to South Bank for Pat's. It was raining ever so slightly along the way but wasn't at all cold so couldn't complain. We had 500m reps at the stretch under the Story Bridge. Pat told us we could choose our own recovery time ... hmmm, 5 minutes sounded good ;-)

I'm calling what we did 500 meter reps but according to the fasties the 500 may not be quite 500, but 'about four seconds short'. Last year I was averaging around 1:55s on what we know was accurate.

But back to today. The others I was running near set off for the second rep 50 seconds after I finished my first and I went with them, so to be consistent 50 seconds became my recovery. Pity my reps weren't so consistent ...

1:51
1:51
1:59
1:57
2:02 :-(
1:54

The first, third and fifth one finish on a slight uphill, but still it was no excuse for that 2:02 blow-out. A couple of months ago I'm sure I managed only a couple of sub 2mins for these (on this course) and the rest were just over 2 mins so progress is being made.

After the last one there were still runners out there so Pat got some us to do a couple of 30 second efforts rather than just standing around puffing. Then it was a steady run back up to and up Gold Coast Hill to finish off. As I have of late I found this such a struggle. I'm really gonna have to get back into some serious hill work.

From there it was straight into work for me, so it was a shorter than normal warmdown. And I didn't get to enjoy any of the usual post run treats.

BRRC 14k Champs

With the 14k champs the following day on Saturday I just did an easy run. I was ready early so did 2k before joining in with the rest of the crew at 6am and doing another 10k. I stuck with Jan, Tori and Little Tara until The Gardens where I turned for home making it 12k.

*****

Sunday morn birthday girl Clairie and I met at the rego table about 25 mins before the start of the race. It was great to see somebody so excited about a day most others dread! We'd decided to wear our matching outfits (the new Noosa tops and CR caps) to make ourselves look fast :-) I've been trying to post a pic but blogger isn't co-operating.

After signing in we set off on a 2k warmup and then did some strides before lining up to start. Just before the gun went the race director called Clairie out and got the entire crowd to sing 'Happy Birthday' and she had everybody laughing by doing a little jig :-)

The plan was to try to run around 4:30 pace and therefore finish in 63 minutes. The other more important goal was to finish in a good position as championship points were up for grabs.

It was 2 x 7k loops, the course slightly altered from the last 14k. My splits for the first few kms were fine - 4:24, 4:24, 4:33 (stopped and grabbed a drink). But then they were all over the shop ranging from 4:09 to 5:17 - a few misplaced markers I think! Went through halfway in 31:56 which was a little behind schedule.

At about 8 1/2k Shane sidled up beside me. I wasn't sure where he came from as he was way in front before that, must've had a pit stop. It was great as I knew I was the third member with the fourth about a minute behind me and was thinking of easing off a little. But he kept me honest and got me moving along steadily until we caught up to Clairie a couple of kms later.

I was able to stay just behind them most of the way home, and even passed them for a very very very brief moment 200m from the end. I knew it wouldn't last but it was fun for the bat of an eyelid that it did :-) I came in a few seconds behind them with a time of 63:53.

So nice even splits but a little off target. Though rumour from a club official had it that each loop was actually 120 meters long. And Garmin wearers confirmed that. Whatever, it felt good out there and it was over a minute faster than my last attempt at that distance at BRRC in July.

Friday Recovery Run

I had a 7am start at work today so parked the car there just before 5.30am and ran back to The Regatta to meet up with the normal Friday morning crew. The plan was to do a steady 4k run with Clairie before she turned around and flew back with the quick guys. Meanwhile I'd keep on going in to work.

We were leading the way and got to the 4k mark right on 20 mins. The others were nowhere to be seen though, they must've cut their run short. Probably scared of Clairie beating them.

I would have liked to accompany her back but didn't have the time so left her and cruised on through The Gardens where I was almost run over by Ally and the rest of Pat's Friday morning crew hurtling down the pathway. Good to see they work almost as hard as the Thursday gang ;-)

All up it was a not too stressful 10k or so.

Shame About The Boat Race

Ran the warm-up at Pat's today with Toasty and he was setting a cracking pace. Not sure if it was to impress the passer by who told him he had nice legs or to get away from him.

The session itself was a combo of four and two minute efforts, with 30 seconds standing and/or jog recovery. This is one of my favourites as we go through the back pathways in the Botanical Gardens, very pleasant. Also its fun chasing people or trying to keep them at bay. I felt like I was moving okay today, and was able to keep the guy with the nice legs and Robbie kind of in my sights.

Matty had a go at me for shortcutting the warmdown even though I, like several others, was just following our leader. He said for penance I must run another 2k today (we only cut off 400 meters at most!). I was knackered but rather than risk going to hell hit the gym and as well as some stretching and abs stuff did 2k on the tready.

Whatever happened to the old 10 x Hail Marys and 1 x Our Father?

Noosa Piccies

Lizzle, Kerryn McCann, Tesso



Lizzle, Clairie, Monas, Tesso, Glenda (CR Casper, 4th lady)



Clairie, Tesso, Claire Geraghty (1st lady), Lizzle

Women In Uniform

IronPete asked about the Usana protein drink. Its low GI (23) with 15 grams of protein per serve. It also has enough other good stuff that it can be used as a meal replacement.

*****

Clairie and I decided yesterday we'd do an easy 10-12km this morn, starting at 6am with the rest of the Regatta crew. We both wanted to give our new (matching) Scody running tops we bought at Noosa a test run and for a laugh both wore short black pants and R4YL caps :-)

We started out just over 5 minute pace but were gradually getting quicker. I timed the final three at around the 4:45 mark. All up 11k in just under 54 minutes.

Huge thumbs up to the Scody top - luv it! Not just a nice design but very cool and comfy to run in. Maybe it will make me run faster :-) I'll find out Sunday at the BRRC 14k Champs.

Noosa Half Marathon

After travelling up to Noosa on Thursday arvo a Friday morning run was too hard to resist. Scotty, Little Tara and I set out just after 8am on a overcast morning. The National Park sounded tempting but instead we headed out along the river and did most of one lap of the official Half Marathon course (a 2 lapper). It was a very pleasant run at a nice leisurely pace.

*****

Sunday morning the sky was clear and the weather perfect. Well, perfect for standing around pre race, it wasn't at all cold. Clairie and I must've looked serious as along with lots of fasties we did some strides at the front of the pack :-)

We squeezed back into the crowd and stood near Owen, Lizzle and Scotty. A number of us had hatched a plan - stick to 4.30 pace for the first 5k and then see what happens. My goal was around the 95 to 96 minute mark and I was quietly confident.

Almost from the outset my quads were a little sore, maybe it was C2S coming back to haunt me. But it wasn't slowing me down, the 4.30s felt very comfy and I was consciously holding myself back from going faster.

I was looking forward to a quick drink at the first aid station, unfortunately it tasted like chlorine. Others agreed. It didn't bother me for too long though. And the ones after that were normal. What didn't sit well in my stomach was the can of creamed rice I'd had before the race (used it lots of times before), it just didn't settle and I felt slightly nauseous the entire way.

I finished the first loop running beside Clairie. This was great as Pat was on the microphone and called us by name and made some funny comment. After that my pace started dropping, soon it was more like 4.35s then 4.37s. At the final turn (about 15.5k) it was even worse, and there was a 4.51 in there. It was weird, as hard as I tried my legs just couldn't move any faster. Others who expected to do around the same time or better than me were also struggling, it was some sort of comfort to see that it wasn't just me.

Crossed the line with 97:55 on my watch, though the official clock said 98:06. Why do they having timing chips with no mat at the start??? It was a pretty disappointing result considering it was slower than my GC Half that I did after just a month back at training.

Thinking about it there was nothing major that contributed to my crap run, but probably just the combination of a few little things (C2S the prev week, the warm weather, the creamed rice threatening to reappear). I should have hydrated more on Saturday and skipped the rice and used my trusty Usana protein drink instead (I was too lazy to pack it to take up there).

The disappointment with the morning was shortlived. We headed down to Cafe Le Monde soon afterwards and got to meet the lovely Kerryn McCann. And then back at presentations we met and chatted to Monas. When he asked us (Clairie, Lizzle and I) how we went we just told him we were out there so long we got maximum value for our entry fee :-)

Birthday Boy/Girl

Numbers were down at training this morning. Pat reckons maybe too many dagwood dogs were consumed yesterday at the Ekka. Shame, they missed out on wishing him a happy birthday. And on seeing him wearing the famous melon sundress. It got a number of comments from passers by, especially when he asked them "does my bum look big in this?" :-)

Anyway, he must've been having a happy day, he took it a little easier on us. Then again, Noosa Half Marathon is on Sunday so a light workout was in order. We did about 18 minutes of sprints in The Gardens. Toasty was flying, just like the old Microsoft screensaver :-)

What can I expect on Sunday. My Half Marathon PB is 94:03 (Mar 2005). In March this year I ran 96:30 during which the ITB reared its ugly head. GC Half this year was 97:29 after just a month back at training. I've put in solid six weeks since then.

Hmmm, I don't think 95 - 96 mins would be too ambitious.

Post C2S

Suprisingly the legs felt fine Monday which had me thinking maybe I didn't run hard enough at the C2S. So there was no excuse for not doing at least an easy run.

Set out around 5pm and headed down Glebe Pt Rd to Bi-Centennial Park and made my way to Annandale. It was a very easy pace. I was out there for 50 minutes, though stopped and looked at a few things along the way, so probably didn't do much more that 7km or so.

*****

Tuesday was my last morning in Sydney and I didn't want to miss out on one final run. Just taking it easy I headed down to Pyrmont. The plan was to run around Darling Harbour, but having such a great sense of direction I totally missed it and ended up at a little waterfront stretch I'd never seen before. It was at the end of Pirrama Rd, maybe Jones Bay???

Anyway, it was pretty quiet, though there was like a mini boot camp thing going on. Seeing this mob working hard in a little park made me feel guilty so I stopped there and did 20 x 30 second efforts (with 30 sec standing recovery).

With a couple of water bubblers there and hardly anyone else using the path it was a great location to do some speed work, I'll keep it in mind for next time .... if I can find it again.

C2S 2006

After meeting up with Bernie, Blue Dog and Superflake outside the baggage dropoff at the Water Board before they even opened up we all headed to the start line and were there shortly after 7am. With the race not kicking off until 9.30am that ensured a pretty good spot.

The time passed amazingly quickly. It was great to catch up again with so many fellow bloggers, CRs and Brissie runners as well as meet a few that had been on my 'list' including Blkbox. It was like a little party - there was lots of food passed around, goals discussed, plus the odd bit of sledging :-)

As for the race the hills hurt. And then they hurt some more. Due to the ITB injury I'd done stuff all hill work in six months, maybe three sessions, so I guess it was always going to be my weakness.

I'd set a goal of sub 66. I knew I wasn't up to bettering my previous two C2S times - 65:05 (2004) and 63:30 (2005). I was a bit panicky when I saw the big clock at the 7k mark and it read 35 mins flat and so reassessed the goal to a sub 70. I got to 10k in 48:xx (ha ha, that's usually where I'm at in marathons!) and thought sub 68 was a possibility.

From about 11k onwards I stuck to the left hand side knowing the cheersquad was coming up soon ... well, in 2ks time is sort of soon :-) It was around here that R2B ran by so I tried to keep up with him. We stuck together for a little while, which was great as he was absolutely flying down the hills. I really was moving a lot faster than I would have if I was on my own - thanks mate!

Finally there they were - JD, Jen, Rags and Sparkie - woohoo! Running up Campbell Pde I spotted CJ just in front and tried hard to catch her but she was finishing so strongly and just getting further and further away.

A glance at the clock in the finishing straight and I knew if I put the foot down that original sub 66 goal was in the bag. Yay - 65:48!!! How's that for a negative split - 35:00 and 30:48 :-)

The post run celebrations are all part of the fun of this event. It was great to hear about fantastic runs by so many people - Tuggeranong Don and his sub 60, Gronk, fellow Team J bloggers Kit and Bernie, Spud backing up from 12ft the day before. The list goes on. Aki's asthma attack mid race, and then stopping to help a woman who collapsed in front of her was the story of the day, especially considering she still ran 67:xx!

The Gronk/GoGirl/Tesso bus didn't quite eventuate this year, the Gronk was a little too fast for we girls. But we've already started our secret training for 2007 so he'd better watch out.

Pre C2S

Ended up being too lazy to run Thursday arvo so caught up on Bold & The Beautiful instead .... oooh that Stephanie ;-)

Friday morning JD and I had a run around 'the bay'. Spotted The Professor driving by at one stage, must've been on his way home from a night shift. We started of at a pretty cruisey pace but towards the end we stepped it up a bit to close to 5 minute pace. Then the second last km was a 4:30. The final one was going the same way, maybe a tad faster until we had another Professor sighting. This time he pulled over to the side of the road for a chat. Whew! That meant I could not just slow down but stop for a while :-)

All up we did around 12k on a sunny Sydney morn.

Wednesday longish run, Thursday who knows ....

Yesterday made it two days in a row of great running for me. I met up with Clairie and Toasty at The Regatta at 5.30am and we took off on the Story Bridge loop. Conditions were perfect, cool but not cold, and no wind. I slipped my iPod into my fuelbelt just in case they were a bit too fast for me but to my surprise I found the pace very comfortable.

It was going to be an untimed run for me but both of them were wearing their Garmins and of course I couldn't resist checking out how we were going every step of the way :-)

With a few kms to go we bumped into Stefan (not of the hairdressing variety) and Toasty and he bolted for home. Clairie and I finished the 16.3km circuit in 1h23m which I think she said averaged out to 5:07 pace. I felt like I could have kept on going for a few more kms. It wouldn't have been as easy or as much fun though without my two running buddies to keep me amused.

*****

Now I'm in Sydney and am at the mercies of internet cafes. Blog reading and updating might fall a bit behind. All the locals are probably tapering so there mightn't be a lot of action anyway ;-)

I couldn't run this morn as I was on a 6.20 flight to Sydney. I was thinking of going this arvo but due to the weather (cold and windy) I might just watch Bold and the Beautiful instead. Just trying to work out which would be the more painful.

Finally!

I couldn't run yesterday morn as I had an early morning meeting with my brother and sister at Ticketek. We're making the annual pilgrimage to Sydney for the NRL Grand Final and wanted to snaffle decent seats. Along with other the other Broncos supporters that were lined up we wondered who we'd be cheering for at the match.

Anyway, I headed out at around 4.30pm. The morning had been perfect but by then it was overcast and a huge wind had blown up. Not the most pleasant of conditions. Luckily I'd only planned on 6k at a cruisey pace. I did that, though hardly enjoyed it due to the wind. At least I felt as if the legs pulled up well from the B2B.

******

On Pat's pgm today was fartlek - lots of 1 min, 30 sec and 15 sec efforts. I usually struggle on this shorter stuff, but really gave it everything and was more than pleased with how 'fast' I was moving.

At the end of all of that we had one last 500 meter effort, followed by a run up the killer hill. Pat told us that the first ten to get to the top of the hill could run it a second time. I could see Clairie was thinking what I was thinking, we wanted to be in the top ten! I was around 9th until maybe the 400 meter mark but then was overtaken by several people. Climbing up the hill even more got me. But there was no way I was going to miss out on running up that hill twice!

So Clairie and I set off to do it again. I was behind her and hoped she'd just do half a hill .... or maybe three quarters .... er, seven eights .... Nah, she had to go right to the bottom. Going back up my lungs weren't too bad but my quads were screaming.

Then on the warmdown we decided to sprint up the hill on the Goodwill Bridge. And the one beside The Ship Inn up to Vulture St.

I've actually been struggling a bit with motivation lately, the road to recovery from the stupid ITB injury sure has been a long one. I'm still not 100%. And my hill work needs ... work :-)

But today, for the first time in a long time, I was really happy with the results of the session. As much as it hurt, gee it felt great.

Who said treadmills were boring :-)

OK Go - Here It Goes Again

Bridge To Brisbane

Reading other peoples tales of woe about B2B (12k) it seems we were lucky, our bus from New Farm dropped us pretty close to the start line and we had no difficulty making our way towards the front. I was with Clairie and Chelle and we soon hunted down Eddie and others and stood in line with them.

I barely noticed the climb to the top of the bridge, and as usual forgot to check out the view from up there - rats! Guess I was busy fussing with my iPod, I couldn't get it to go. I'd spent ages the night before, clearing the iPod and creating a great playlist for the morning ... but realised then I'd forgotten to actually load it on. Idiot!

I was running alongside Clairie, who had been crook with the flu for days, and thought I'd hang in with her for a while. She mentioned she'd love a pit stop, and I said I could use one too so at 3k we did just that. I timed it, it was a minute. Back on the road I decided I'd stick with Clairie the whole way and just enjoy myself. She's so fast these days its not often that I get a chance to race alongside her. Of course I was relying on her not to miraculously recover and start running away from me :-) It was fun, stirring people up, waving to the cameras etc.

At about 9k I told her I was going to forge on ahead for a bit but would wait for her towards the end, and caught up to Chelle and ran with her for a while before dropping back again.

Clairie and I crossed the line in 55:45 or thereabouts. I'm more than happy with that considering I wasn't going full tilt. Deducting a minute for the loo stop (would've held off it I was racing seriously) that brings it down to 54:45. I reckon if I'd gone at 100% I could've come close to my PB (52:51).

So after that I'm feeling just a little more confident about C2S next weekend. Best thing is I have a playlist all ready to load on to the iPod :-)

Biggest Week In Months

Go Girl asked what kind of chippies I had on me in the Glasshouse pics. It wasn't chips, it was half a packet of my favourite lollies ...



And Aki, I only did 1k at 4:18 pace, the rest were somewhat slower :-)

*****

Friday morning I planned to be at work by 5.30am and from there run back to The Regatta for the 6am start, and then run back into the work. All up it would've been close to 10k. But the doona sabotaged my plan and I didn't get up until 5.15am. So I just did an easy 6k on the bikepath before heading into work.

*****

With the B2B on tomorrow there was only a handful of starters for our regular Saturday run. Knowing my race time will be minutes off my PB I thought I wouldn't take too soft an option and do a longish run today.

I started out with the front pack, but by the 3k mark they were doing sub 5s and I knew if I wanted to do a decent distance it was a bit too fast let them go and ran on my own. Travelling past the Kangaroo Pt cliffs I glanced around and saw runners, walkers, cyclists, Boot Camp-ers and abseilers. Great to see them all out there enjoying a perfect winter's morning.

All up I did around 18k in 96mins. That brings me to 66k for the week so far. Throw in the 12k B2B tomorrow, and I'll have notched up 78k and my biggest week in almost six months. Almost back to normal :-)

Johnny Bravo

What's been missing from my pgm since the injury is the longish mid-week run and I figured it was about time to revive it. With the whole day off Wednesday it was a perfect opportunity. But after Tuesday night's speed session I really wasn't up to it in the morning. About 5pm I headed out and put in a pretty sound and slightly hilly 12k up past UQ to St Lucia Golf Club. I ran past home and back enough to get the distance up.

However it was hardly a longish run. So Plan B came into action - running to and from Pat's this morning (5k each way).

Today on the pgm was a steady run followed by the 'no watch 1k'. I set out with Toasty, and we weren't too far behind the lead pack when we got to the floating walkway - hmmm, thought it felt a bit fast. After a quick water stop we forged on and at 26 mins were almost at the Bowls Club. I turned around here, Toasty wanted to get to the Club.

I tried to keep the pace up all the way back, and caught up with one of the Michaels in the group. A quick chat revealed his Noosa goal was 95 mins, similar to mine. We hung in together and didn't slow until hitting The Gardens for the 1k thing.

I'd nominated 4:30 but felt like I was running maybe 4:40 pace. Zipping down the pathway we all gave a bit of a hoy and a wave to some short balding bespeckled dude wearing his trusty Australian tracksuit. He was power walking in the opposite direction surrounded by bodyguards.

Got to the finish and Pat called out 4:18. It sure didn't feel that fast, I'm still dubious about the accuracy. Congrats to Toasty who was spot on with his 3:50 prediction!

Back at The Ship Inn all we C2S-ers in the group regathered and did a bolt up the little steep hill to Vulture St. Nothing like last minute training.

The run back home was a killer. Starting up again after all the post session formalities was difficult. It was the old story, just one more km and I'll walk .... just one more km and I'll walk. I made it home without the walk, which meant it was 21k in total for the morning. I was completely knackered and after a little bit of stretching collapsed on the couch on my deck. What a great feeling!

1k Reps at Intraining

I wasn't able to leave work early to get to the monthly 3k TT yesterday, that had me feeling all day that I needed to do something more than just a run. So I went along to the Intraining speed session at UQ in the evening.

Its over three years since I've been to one of these and was happy to see some familiar faces from back then. With the Bridge to Brisbane race on Sunday the session was to be an easy one - 3 x 1k reps at B2B pace with a 1k jog recovery. For those not racing Sunday Coach Barry suggested the reps be done at 5k pace. He assured me that next week would be back to normal, ie hard yakka.

I've entered B2B (not 100% sure of attendance though) but wanted to work a bit harder than the pace I'd be running Sunday and even faster than 5k pace so opted for something close to, but not totally, flat out. My times were ....

4:02
4:07
4:02

I deliberately put the brakes on a little in the second one just to prevent the 'fade factor'. Thanks Superflake for that advice :-)

The warmup and warmdowns are shorter than at Pat's. All up the session was around 9k. I felt like I had plenty left in the tank at the end.

I'm pretty happy with the rep times. And I'm glad I made the effort to get there and reaquint myself with the group. As much as I prefer running in the morning its not always easy getting away from work to get to Pat's, and this is a good alternative.