Running Away

With the SMC Half coming up this Sunday I opted for a shorter mid-weed run this morning. Any excuse :-) Clairie, Toasty and Shane started at 5.30am and put in a solid half hour before collecting the rest of us at The Regatta at 6am.

Toasty took off like a man possessed, running with Stefan. Within 1km or so they were out of sight. Clairie, Shane and I stuck together averaging a more sedate 5 minute pace for 10k. I found this fast enough, and if it wasn't for my comrades I would've been much slower. We upped it in the last 500m but there's no way I could up with those two. The legs just didn't want to move that fast, hope they don't object so much on Sunday or it could be sad.

I was hoping to squeeze in a quick gym session before heading to work at lunchtime but had to pack for my trip, the first part of the journey starts tonight. Friends are staying at my place while I'm away so I also had to make sure it was spick and span for them. It looks so good I almost changed my mind and stayed ;-)

So it might be a couple of days before I visit Bloggsville again. It might even be a couple of days before I visit Runsville again. Anyone want to throw in a few kms for me?

I'm doing alright, getting good grades ....

This morning at Pat's was 1 minute efforts, with a Pat type 30 second standing recovery. Compared to last weeks 2 minute efforts these seemed almost easy. Well, not easy, but easier.

After the final one he asked if we wanted to run up 'Gold Coast Hill'. Surprisingly there was a resounding "yes" and so we finished off with the 500 meter fast run to the start of it and then up the hill. This one is a real test for me, and I reckon I am only just starting to not look like I'm going backwards up it. As soon as I got to the top I headed back down until I got to a couple of the girls still making their way up so turned around there and tried to encourage them "just 10 more seconds and we'll be at the top". I lied, it was more like 30 :-)

We got back to The Ship Inn after the warm down and I invited those around me to join me on a run up the short steep hill to Vulture St. This time there was a resounding "no"! Except for Clairie of course, as if she'd miss out on any extra hard work if it was on offer.

It was great to have blogger Shane along again today. We introduced him to blogger Ally. They've only ever met in Bloggsville. He sussed out the guys aiming to run just under 40 mins at the BRRC 10k race on Sunday, hopefully he can hang in with them.

****

Later on at work was the assessment part of the Health Futures program. The guy doing it is a runner so we had a great old chat. He's done loads of stuff including Cradle Mountain, Trailwalker and Three Peaks. He knew all about Lucklylegs and her amazing feats. And about Mr G and all the crazy stuff he does.

Anyhow I couldn't be happier with the results, everything was as good if not better than last time (2004), especially my flexibility. And the improvement since my first assessment in 2000 is great. There was no mention of cutting back on chocolate. Or red wine. In fact he told me to drink more ...... water :-)

Wheel & Walk 8k

I like the idea of supporting the smaller fun runs, and really don't make enough of an effort to. There were a couple on in Brssie this weekend just gone, so I targeted the Sunday one - The Wheel & Walk 8k Fun Run. It was raising funds and awareness for spina bifida.

CR Plu was in town so I picked him up on my way there. I'd thought about running with him, he was going to take photos along the way enjoy the ride. There weren't many people there at all, though the first person we ran into was Schultzy. The only girl I recognised was Parmy.

I decided then with a chance of a podium finish I should give this one a go. Not that Parmy isn't a threat, she and I are always neck and neck at BRRC events and in fact over shorter distances she has the edge. It wasn't going to be a walk in the park by any stretch. With a 'fast' run my goal was sub 36 mins.

Parmy was right behind me or beside me all the way to the 4k turnaround. After that I wasn't sure, I didn't want to look behind. With about 1km to go I sensed she may have dropped back a bit but didn't want to risk it so kept the pace going.

I managed to get to the finish as first lady in a time of 35:30 - yay! The woman who took my details told me what the prize was. I wasn't really expecting much, if anything at all. But for my effort I scored two nights at Tree Tops Resort and a three month membership to the gym that is right across the road from where I live - woohoo!

This race is a little unique, its the first one I've ever done where bikies were marshalling. And to indicate which event you'd entered (there was a 2k, 4k and 8k) at the turnaround somebody marked your arm with a felt pen :-) There were probably as many, if not more, walkers than runners. And a number of wheelies too, kids and adults. It was well organised with lots of great random prizes (eg restaurant vouchers, zoo passes) and even a terrific local band (blues, funk, soul) called Chocolate Strings to entertain us. And Alf from Home and Away was there - I think he walked the 2k.

Its just a shame there weren't more from the running community out there running it .... guys that is ;-)

The Bizarro Owen

It was great to have Owen along for his first run with us yesterday. He, Clairie and I wanted to run 20-something and Charlotte said she'd come along for the ride. I'd been telling him about his evil twin I see around, or maybe Owen is the evil one ;-) This guy is around the same age, same build, same brown curly hair, same blue Brissie Marathon finishers shirt, just, er, with a darker complexion. Running along the Coro Dve bikepath who should be heading towards us but this guy ... and they both had their Brissie finisher's shirts on! We were waiting for the lightning bolt as they passed eachother.

At Riverside we bumped into the lovely Lulu out for a run before our girlies lunch later on. And then we saw Min and ran and talked to her for a while.

We decided to head home after a lap of New Farm Park, that would rack up about 20.5 to 21k. Clairie suggested we do the last few kms progressively faster. Until now we had been at socialising pace, chatting the whole way. The chatting got less and less until the final km when it was non-existent. I only timed the last 2 kms and they were 4:35 and 4:18. All up the run took just under 1:45.

Clairie and I had a quick coffee with the rest of the crew before heading to the gym where we did another 3k on the tready. After that she took me through a series of weights designed specifically for runners. It was great, like having my own personal trainer.

Then a few of we Brisse CR girls met up with Lulu for lunch. No prizes for guessing what the main topic of conversation was :-)

I had to work for a while in the afternoon and was about to leave the office when I got a phone call from Plu. I asked him where he was and he was wandering down the other side of the street my building is on! So more CR socialising was added to the day's agenda, we wandered down to the mall for a coffee.

What a great day. And what a perfect ending to it, seeing the Broncos give the Knights a lesson in how to play rugby league.

An Inconvenient Truth

Seems a bit strange for mid September but it was another coolish start this morning - so much for global warming ;-) I was a bit reluctant to take off my long sleever even after the warm-up to West End. When we got there Pat announced we'd be doing 6 x 2 minute efforts with a 30 second fast jog recovery.

It didn't sound too hard but it sure was. In hindsight for me it was like 500m reps with a shorter than usual recovery. No wonder it hurt! Everyone busted a gut for the final one only to discover there was more in store for us - about six short sprints. Talking to others they all agreed it was a tough session. It sure felt good to finish.

It wasn't so good afterwards however. By the time I got home my left ITB (what used to be the good one) made its presence known. Very annoying, just as things seemed to be back to normal. Though truth be told its been niggly for a while and I've been trying to manage it by stretching and rolling etc. So I did a bit more of that and then got out the massage stick and attacked it. I also took an anti-inflam with lunch ... Celebrex not Voltarin :-)

I'll put it though the same treatment this evening, substituting a glass of red for the Celebrex.

Wednesday Longish Run

I met up with Clairie and Toasty at The Regatta at 5.30am for our mid-week longish run. I must admit I wasn't quite in the mood for it this morning and so stashed the iPod in my fuelbelt in case I couldn't keep up with them.

We did the Story Bridge loop, and for a change headed over the Goodwill first and came back through the city. Toasty had started at The Ship Inn and so bade us farewell at the Vic Bridge.

At the end Clairie's Garmin told us we'd done 16.3km averaging 4:59 pace. I was pretty happy with that as I thought it felt slower, like 5 minute pace ;-)

A Cast Of Thousands

Talk about panic stations getting to Pat's this morning. I got held up for close to five minutes at roadworks in Adelaide St. Gees, rather than 5.30am why don't they do these at peak hour when I'm not on the road! Then at South Bank I had to park miles (oh well, a hundred meters or so) away from the usual spot as most of our parking was blocked off. More road works ... I thought the election was over :-)

Luckily squillions of people were there today and getting them all signed on etc took longer than usual. I'm wondering if it was record numbers (time trial days aside). I made it just before the first group took off for the warmup. Whew! For a while there I thought I was going to be heading out with the second group for another Langy type hotup!

Working my way through the crowd I finally caught up with Clairie. She was being a 'buddy' this morning, looking after a newbie called Daughter to the group. With people joining all the time its hard to remember everybody's names, but I reckon we won't forget hers.

The pgm was the same as Friday, 30 second efforts. Pat apologised to those who had to double up but I didn't mind at all. Its such a great session, and we do it around a square rather than back and forth so there's no problems at all with dodging people. And really you can't get a much better location for speed work in Brissie than The Botanic Gardens. With just a little DOMS from Sunday's 25k I was able to work hard, though didn't quite go 100% just in case.

Afterwards a couple of reps from the Qld Cancer Fund turned up to thank us for our fundraising efforts (well over $5000) leading up to the GC Marathon and they brought along these two huuuuge trays of fruit and pastries etc. But I could only look. I was on a water only diet until after a blood test I was having later on for the Health Futures pgm I'm going through at work. Bugger!

BRRC 25k Champs

There was a great roll up of CRs and PCRGers at BRRC this morning. It sure helps on a run like this where you have to do 5 x 5k loops to be in such good company. Though it didn't seem quite the same without Clairie who was away for the weekend enjoying a much deserved recovery from all her racing of late.

My PB for an accurate 25k was 2:01.43 and I set myself an A goal of sub 2 hrs for this one. I didn't set a B goal. But I did have an A+ goal of beating JD's PB of 1:57:56 :-) My 3k time trial indicated that I could go sub 1:57 but I haven't done many long runs lately. In fact 25k would be my longest in over six months.

I did a bit of a warmup with Langy. Hannah reckons our warmup was so fast it was more like a hotup :-)

Heading out on the first lap of the race little Clare was ahead (way ahead!) and there was just one other girl in front of me. I didn't recognise her and when I caught up checked her hands for the obligatory mark indicating she was a member competing in the champs. No, nothing there .... she can run as fast if she likes :-) And she did!

The first three 5k loops I felt pretty comfortable and was trying to hang in just behind Robbie. By the 4th he was moving faster and I had to really focus on maintaining my pace, especially going along Montague Rd where the headwind picked up as the morning wore on.

Doing the maths at 20k I figured sub 2hrs was a definite and the A+ goal was within reach. But from about the 21k mark onwards I really started to struggle to do 5 minute kms and was feeling the effects of lack of mileage. The splits for each 5k loop tell the story -

23:10
23:07
23:16
23:52
24:57 <- holy fade factor!
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1:58.22 <- yay, a PB!
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So, not happy with dying so badly in that last loop but have to be happy to go sub 2. And if I don't count the 100k at Caboolture in Feb, my one and only time over that distance, this was my first PB of the year.

I managed to hold my spot as third lady in the race (and second member). As usual Parmy was always threatening, she'll be a force to be reckoned with in 2007. I scored a nice 99 points in the championship race. That helps sew up another goal for the year, I was aiming to finish in the top five but after today have secured third .... or first, if you don't count the Cla(i)r(i)es :-)

Put Up A Parking Lot

Wednesday morn I was too tired after work to run so slept. Plodded around 10k that afternoon. I forgot to take my watch, probably a good thing.

*****

At the risk of sounding like a broken record Thursday morn I was too tired after work to run so slept. I considered another plod in the afternoon but was afraid of getting blown off the bike path, the wind was incredible. So instead I hit the gym with the thought of doing some 30 sec efforts on the tready.

Dumb idea, it takes so long to speed the thing up and slow it down. I only did a few then one longer one. I threw in some reps at high elevation and after that just ran steadily for a while. I find treadmill running so difficult, 5 minute pace felt like 4.30 pace or faster. After what seemed like forever 30 minutes had passed, I was drenched in sweat (so humid in there). I'd had enough.

*****

I thought Pat's this morning was going to be just a 50 minute run plus the no watch 1k. When I opened the garage door at 5.20am to leave home I discovered it was like a used car yard out the front and somebody had parked me. I thought maybe I should just go back to bed and do the session on my own later. Unfortunately for the young guy visiting the girls in the flat next to me I decided I'd rather go to Pat's :-)

I'm glad I did because we had 15 minutes or more of 30 second efforts, probably the perfect session for me with the 25k race on Sunday.

3k TT - Dreams Really Do Come True!

Being on crewing duties all weekend at Glasshouse (will try to post about this later when I have more time), and then working all day yesterday, I hadn't run since Thursday morning.

So I suppose the legs should've been fresh for this mornings 3k time trial. The body wasn't though, I'm still feeling the effects of being awake most of the weekend. I still have some sleep to catch up on, though the seven hours I got last night was pretty solid. I even had a dream about the 3k TT in which I forgot to turn my watch on and so had no idea of how fast I was running.

I scouted around at the start today to see if anyone else was planning on running around the 12:30 mark but nobody I spoke to was. After several strides we were lined up to start and Pat yelled 'go'. I went to click my watch on but had it on the wrong mode and so couldn't! I just tried to keep in touch with those who would be going not much over the 12 minute mark, or at least keep them in my sights.

I had no idea of the time of my first km, but messed around and got the watch set up and switched it on at the 1500m mark - at least I could time my second half and with Pat calling out finishing times would be able to work out if I'd faded coming home.

I finished in 12:20 but forgot to stop my watch - d'oh! So I don't know my splits. I suppose I should be happy with the time I ran considering felt so sluggish. Its my second fastest TT this year (not that I've done a lot) and 27 seconds slower than my PB. So much more work to be done ... *sigh*.

Good news is that sticking the time into a race pace calculator I'm told I can do 1:57:37 for the 25k Champs at BRRC on Sunday. That would be my first ever sub 2hr 25k. Fingers crossed!

Its Getting Better All The Time

I didn't have a good session at Pat's yesterday .... I had a great session :-) We had 2 x 5 minute surges through the back of The Gardens, and then hill reps up the steep grassy slope at the River Stage.

In the surges I gave it everything I had, and was rapt that the only girl in front of me was Glenda. Okay, so she was that far in front I needed binoculars if I actually wanted to see her. Still, just going by the people who were around me and just ahead of me I knew that I was doing well. The recovery was short and not too sweet. Turning at 2 1/2 minutes on the second surge I was almost at the same spot I got to within about 10 meters of where I did in the first one, so there was only a tiny bit of a fade factor.

Then it was on to the hill reps. After 5 minutes of them I thought I heard Pat say last one so I busted a gut. Next thing I hear "just a few more minutes" .... argh! Altogether it was about 10 minutes, I don't recall ever spending so long on that steep little hill.

I came away knowing I'd put in 100%, and was more than happy with the results.

Getting so much better all the time :-)