Most People I Know ...

... are a bit sad today after hearing about Billy Thorpe. I'd just finished a great (but tough) run and was feeling pretty chuffed. Until I found out. He grew up in the same suburb as me (Moorooka), about a mile from my place. I remember as a kid as we went along Beaudesert Rd we used to point up in the direction of his house and say "Billy Thorpe lived there".


*****


On the pgm at Pat's yesterday was 1k, 500m, 1k, 500m and 1k with 40 - 45 sec standing recovery. I was knackered before I even started, a combo of a big weekend of running and coming straight to training off night shift.

My times were -
4:00
1:58
4:08
1:57
4:01

As others were still doing reps those around me had to finish off the session with 1 minute out and 1 minute back, just what I felt like doing ... not!

Considering how tired I was I was pretty happy with those times, and wasn't even too disappointed with that shocker in the middle. To be honest I was ready to pull the pin after the first rep, if not for the enthusiastiasm and encouragement from the little pack I was running with I probably would have.


*****


This morning the idea was to run 21k at 5:15 pace. We thought we'd do the Boarder's Half Marathon course in reverse (ie Regatta/Orleigh Park Ferry Terminal/Regatta). Running with Clairie, Toasty, Robbie and new guy Brett (for the first 6k) I really was struggling to keep up. We got to halfway smack on 5 minute pace, a little faster than planned.

As they all stopped for water (I was carrying mine) I switched on my iPod and started running back, wanting to get a bit of a head start. With the music going I got into a 'zone' and even managed to increase the pace very slightly for the return trip.

It really was hard work, and took all my concentration. The humidity didn't help. But I managed to finish in 1h44m, so averaged 4:57 pace. I was totally spent but very happy.

Banjo Players' Tour De Sydney

Spent the weekend in Sydney as it was my OLDER sister's 50th birthday. Co-incidentally Clairie had to spend the weekend there too for work reasons. It was kind of like a training camp, with a bit of partying thrown in :-)


*****


FRIDAY - CELEBRITY SPOTTING

I thought I'd take Clairie on a running tour including Darling Harbour, the Opera House, and the little hill up past the Observatory (well, it seemed little compared to when I ran up it last time at the 40k mark of the marathon 2 years ago). The plan was an easy 8k, though it ended up being over 12k.

During the run we stumbled upon a small crowd gathered in Martin Place and just had to stop to see what was going on. 'Sunrise' was being recorded so we stopped for a squiz. Sports reporter Mark Baretta looked over and gave us a big wave as if he knew us. We wandered around to the part where people stand to get themselves on tele, Kevin Rudd was being interviewed and had to share the spotlight with us :-)


****


SATURDAY - CR 5K CHALLENGE

I was hopeful but wasn't expecting to go under last month's time of 22:20. Still, I headed out with the 22min group of JD, Kit, The Professor and a guy pushing a kid in stoller, with the goal of running 22 flat (4:24 per km). JD mentioned at the 2k mark we had a few seconds in the bank and so that made me determined to hang on. I lost the plot a bit in the 4th km but put the foot down in the last.

Splits -
4:20
4:22
4:24
4:26
4:19
Total (adding in the fractions) was 21:50 :-)

Eagle decided Clairie needed to see, and run, the Lilyfield Rd hill. JD, Rags and I went along with them and then ran back to the start line via the other side of the bay. It was about a 12k morning including the warm-up. It concluded with a great brekky at The Cove catching up with lots of our Sydney CR counterparts.


Somewhere during the race when I was still feeling good (must be early on!)



Post race - Razor, Clairie, Ray, JD, Tesso and Kit

Thanks so much to Gnomey for the pics :-)


*****


SUNDAY - LONG RUN

Clairie, JD, Eagle and I headed out on the Strider's Western Wanderers course. We were averaging around 5:05s and so I thought I'd try to hand in with my speedier counterparts for at least the first 10k. I managed to stick with them until 18k where I decided to skip a little 4k loop they were doing and run back to the start to give me 30k all up.

I challenged myself to keep the pace going until the half mara mark, and then the 22k mark where I stopped to put my iPod on. Strangely with my music maintaining the pace was easy. After 28k I was still on 5:05s. I walked up the stairs and on to Iron Cove Bridge and was planning two easy kms to wind down .... after flying over the bridge .... and zooming down the hill from the bridge. Now with just over 1500m to go I didn't see the sense in backing off and in fact the last 2kms were sub 5s.

30k averaging 5:05s - noice :-)


*****


Apologies to all the locals for the traffic chaos we caused with our three day visit, roads were blocked and even the Harbour Bridge was closed for a while. I just hope all the fuss didn't bother visiting US Vice Pres Dick Cheney too much either.

When Efforts Seem An Effort

Once again it was a bit of a struggle starting off at Pat's this morning. I really felt like sleeping or doing nothing rather than running.

After a long warmup we regrouped at the River Stage and did 2 lots of '4 mins fast, 30 sec jog, 2 mins fast, 30 sec standing recovery'. Judging by who was around me I wasn't doing too badly, so that made me feel a little better.

To finish off it was one last longer effort all the way over the Goodwill Bridge and up to Vulture St. I did just the final bit of hill a second time, and then as others were going back right to the end of the bridge to do the long haul to the top again I joined them.

I filled out my Canberra entry yesterday. And ticked the 50k box. So I'd better find that lost motivation .... its gotta be around here somewhere.

Do You Come Here Often?

Surprisingly there was a big group at Pat's this morning. I expected with the completion the 12 week summer series numbers might drop until the Gold Coast campain starts in a month. I was wrong! And once again we had four or five new starters.

On the pgm was 8 x 1 minute efforts. I'm not sure how long the recovery was in between each, somewhere between not much and stuff all ;-) Being shorter reps Pat always seemed to be within earshot, encouraging us to work harder and yelling out things like "try to pick up the person in front".

The session was done at New Farm and so a couple of runs up 'Gold Coast Hill' finished it off. They finished me off too!

I think still feeling the effects of Caboolture, both physically and mentally. Its not often I don't feel like going to a PCRG session, it was a little bit of a struggle to get there today. Of course afterwards I was so glad I went.

Hopefully I'll snap back into normal action next week.


Tesso, Flashandy & Claire at BRRC 'Bring A Friend Day' (Feb 4th)

BRRC 10 Mile Champs

Saturday morning set out with the usual gang and ended up running in a little pack with Clairie, Lizzle and Kate E (as opposed to Katy), all of us planning to do the 24k river loop. After a few kms Clairie and I changed our minds and said we were taking the Go-Betweens Bridge to cut it back to 18k. Got to the bit where you turn for West End but went straight ahead to bring it back to 13k. Then we didn't even run back to The Ship Inn, went straight to Poppy's instead so that was a lazy 12.5k. Meanwhile the other two girls stuck to the original plan. It was great to have Kate E joining in for not just her first ever Buddies run, but her longest ever run to date. And she did it easy, a future marathoner for sure.


*****


Sunday morning was the 10 Mile (16.1k?) Champs at BRRC. I thought 5 minute pace might be a struggle after last weekend ... and after the odd red on Saturday night.

Surprisingly I travelling very comfortably, knocking over the kms around 4:45 to 4:50 pace. I felt I could have picked it up another 10 seconds a km if was serious about the race. I even stopped for a while to fiddle with my iPod after the headphones came out. There were only two girls in front of me, Clairie had been cruising and was behind. However she started revving things up and at about 9k passed me ... but not before I was able to punch her in the belly :-)

With 1k to go Matty had stopped and was waiting for me. He had been running with Clairie for a while but must've got sick of nagging her to run faster, it was my turn to cop it now. It worked, my last km was my fastest even with the shenanigans that were to follow. 100m from the end there was Clairie leaning on a railing pretending she had a stitch so I could catch up. It was an Academy Award winning performance. The three of us ran to the finish together but Clairie and I stopped dead a metre or two short and much to the amusement of onlookers some argy bargy broke out as we tried to push eachother over the line first. Clairie won (the fight).

So I was more than happy with a 1:17 (av 4:46) for that one. And to finish 3rd which was worth 98 points which is likely to be the best I do all season. I won't come close to that at the next championship race in four weeks time as its a half marathon and there'll be loads more people. And then the rest are 'short' - 5k, 7k, 10k and 14k. Unfortunately they've dropped the 25k. It was the one where those of us who prefer the longer stuff did relatively well.

2007 Brisbane Running Groups 3k Challenge

It was pretty buzzy at The Ship Inn late yesterday arvo with well over 200 runners hanging around signing up for the Brisbane Running Groups 3k Challenge. To add to the atmosphere there was even a little bit of sledging going on :-) Re the major players there were an incredible 92 in the PCRG team, 72 in the combined Gale Force/Intraining/Regatta Runners, 30+ in The Run Inn, and 11 in River City Runners. I'm not sure of others.

We had to do three 1k loops in The Gardens, on pathways we at PCRG usually train on. Which was good in one way, because we were used to them, but bad in another because they included a couple of nasty little hills. I didn't get off to a great start as I was pretty close to the back of the pack, and it took at least 500m before the way was clear to start running without doing some artful dodging. I wasn't concerned, after last weekend this was just going to be a steadyish run, around 14 minutes I guessed.

After spotting him and chasing him for a while I finally got within a few metres of workmate Tom who was running for The Run Inn. The plan was to hide behind him for a while but the bugger looked around as he was waiting for me to pounce. So pounce I did. But that meant pushing it until the finish so he couldn't catch me ... there was a beer on the line.

I managed to hold him out, but only just, crossing in around 13:15 I think (not sure, I lent my watch to Clairie). So he 'won' his beer. Yep, winner had to buy loser the beer. As he is reasonably new to running, especially speed work, the tables will be turned next year for sure.

At the conclusion of the race the PCRG team gathered and hit the ground for 20 push-ups to show the opposition how tough we are :-)

For the big trophy categories went as such ...
First team of 10 ( team who's first 10 runners have the least aggregate placings)
First team of 20 (as above - 20 runners)
First team of 30 (as above - 30 runners)
First team of 40 (as above - 40 runners) and so on up to 70.

PCRG triumphed picking up the first five, and Gale Force/Intraining/Regatta Runners the next two. Out of their little team of 11 I'm sure River City Runners had 3 in the top 10, including 1st and 3rd.

The post race celebrations were fun, with raffles, auctions etc and lots of socialising over a drink back at The Ship Inn. And there was the premier of the PCRG Summer Series DVD.

We presented Pat with a small gift of some home made CDs to play at training - a collection of 63 songs, different PCRG members had contributed one each. It was so much fun putting them together, and interesting finding out people's taste in music. Clairie and I are going to make a stack of copies for PCRG members to have, once they make a $10 donation to Camp Quality. All legal of course :-)

The Sunnies Ain't Gonna Shine Any More

Yesterday was the last session of the Adidas Sunglasses Summer Series at PCRG. There was another great turnout, with four or five newbies attending. Its great, we seem to be getting that many each time. Not sure where they're all coming from though!

I completed the whole session (it was 1 minute efforts) holding back and running a steady pace. And I did a shorter warmdown, so it was about 6k all up. The legs aren't 100% yet, I'll give them another week or two before trying to do anything silly like running fast or up mountains.

The last pair of Adidas sunglasses were up for grabs. Unfortunately for me somebody else (one of the Jameseseses) managed to grab them. Not to worry, it was made up for by my getting the Group Award - a $50 Ship Inn voucher. Tonight's Brisbane Running Groups 3k Challenge just happens to start and finish at The Ship Inn. Wonder how long my voucher will last :-)

Recovery Report

The Caboolture recovery is going well, almost too well. To be honest my legs always feel worse after half marathons, even after hard shorter races. Still trying to figure that one out. However, I'm erring on the side of caution.

Went to PCRG yesterday for a jog .... and to try to win the second last pair of sunnies up for grabs. It was raining and I figured most others would pike and I'd have a better chance. Numbers were maybe half the usual, or more likey the usual minus 30 (ie the number of sunnies already won).

Clairie and I just hung at the back of the pack during the warm-up, and jogged around the loop of The Gardens a few times while the others did 30/30s. Then we stopped and 'marshalled' for a while. It was about 6k all up. Alas, the sunglasses weren't to be mine, but I was glad I made the effort as my legs certainly felt better for it.

Although I felt I could've got out on the road again this morning I thought it best to have the day off. Not going seemed harder than going!


During first hour at Caboolture - that's Mat and Toasty relaxing on the side of the track

Caboolture Dusk To Dawn - 6 Hours

I hardly had the perfect prep leading into this year's D2D - since November long run wise I'd done one 30k and one 35k, nothing further. And there was the little lapse in running in early January after my confrontation with some concrete steps. So my 'A' goal of 60k for the 6 hour race was a tad ambitious, though I was confident of getting my 'B' goal of 55k.

Clairie and I arrived nice and early to set up. After we got there a guy pulled up beside us in the car park to asked us something. He then pointed to the girl in the passenger seat and said she was doing the 50k (in other words the 6 hours). I didn't really see what she looked like.

About 10 mins before race start RD Geoff Williams wanted competitors to stand around in groups depending on what event they were entering but not all did. I knew all the ones in my little pack, no sign of the girl in the car.

Before we knew it we were off and running. I settled into a good steady pace, a little faster than my plan (I went through 10k in 53:20) but it felt comfortable so I saw no reason to slow down. After a bit more time I wondered where this 'strange' girl was. At around the 2 hour mark I knew I was ahead of all the other 6 hour ladies but what about her??? Not that I'm competitive ;-)

There had been one girl who was within meters of me most of the time and I wondered if she was the one. Just after 9pm she was still out there (all relay runners would have changed over by then) so must've been a solo runner - but 6 or 12 hours??? I'd lapped her a couple of times by that stage but still really wanted to know. So I sidled up beside her and asked how she was going and introduced myself ... and innocently asked if she was there for the 6 or the 12 :-) She was doing the 6. In hindsight it was good she was out there, I would've slacked off otherwise.

Rewinding a couple of hours now. Around 7.30pm a huuuuuuge storm rolled in - lightning, thunder, the works. It absolutely poured down. Thanks so much to Clairie & co who rescued all my gear and put it under cover before the storm hit. I would have been totally stuffed otherwise.

The track became really muddy in parts, there were big puddles everywhere, and one bit was like a river crossing. That sort of thing you can put up with, what was awful was all the dirt and stones etc that end up in your shoes. With every step I could feel pebbles and crap inside my socks, masses of blisters just waiting to happen. Not to mention the aftereffects of changing my gait as I was trying to move the stuff around in my shoes while running (as you do).

I persevered until the rain stopped but there was no way I could or would continue running like this. More big thanks go to Mat for getting my other set of running gear from the car for me. I only changed socks (I figured new shoes would just get muddy and wet anyway) and lost 3 minutes or so but after that felt a million bucks. That honestly was the difference between finishing and a DNF.

So three hours to go now ... kept on running ... yada yada yada. Hit the 50k mark in 4h51m and was pretty sure I was the first female to do it so stopped for a quick celebratory chat with my running buddies on the balcony of the pub :-) Another few minutes down the drain but what the heck, they're my mates!

At 55k (5h25m) I was totally knackered and decided 58k would be 'good enough'. But after a very brief walk (about 100m) I changed my mind and told myself to go for the 60k. Those next few kms were so incredibly tough, but I thought of a friend whose wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and what they are about to go through. Compared to them my battle was easy, all I had to do was run, simple as that. Those final kms were dedicated to them.

I got to 60k in 5h55m and kept on running. I was rounding the final bend to the finish line when the hooter blew, so by my guesstimate it was about 60.7km.

Congrats go to Clairie for racking up a faaaaantasic run - read about it in hear blog! Although she didn't have to run in the rain (she started at 9pm) she had a wet muddy track to contend with. I am in awe of you :-)

Congrats and thanks to other Brissie bloggers ....
Toasty - who along with teammate Geoff scored a podium finish
Shane - who surprised everyone, including himself I think, but being a last minute entrant and doing his longest run to date
Matty - who reminded me of a little kid out there running in the rain, he was having a ball while most others where whinging
Hannah - who did so well and was so so so wise in what she did (lookout Glasshouse!)
Tanky - who battled through 12 hours with a very dodgy ankle, but came out the other end smiling
Cirque - who would take the trophy for most cheering done in 12 hours if they had one
Mat - who should've been resting after a super loooong training run in the morning came out and helped and took photos and cheered us on

It was such a great night. As a bonus I picked up some bling (50k champ and 1st lady in the 6 hours), and a great prize pack of Sports Shield and Blister Shield. I was just about to buy some of both! Best thing is my legs aren't too sore, not even as bad as after half marathons. I'm not even hobbling!

Throughout the race I didn't eat a lot - maybe a couple of dozen jellybeans and a few salt and vinegar chips. I had 300ml of protein drink, about 1/3 bottle of Powerade, and water. Maybe some V, can't remember. I think that was it. I'm wondering if taking the protein drink throughout the race was the secret to the lack of serious DOMS. Its gotta be that or the bacteria in the lukewarm burger I had at 1am.

Thanks very much to all for the advice and messages of support, they sure mean a lot. Being out there for six hours one has lots of time to think, and thoughts like that helped get me through.

And thanks and credit must go Pat for being the best coach. He makes us work out gizbets out in training and come race time you can't help but reflect on all that hard work and why you did it. That last half hour I had visions of him standing at the side of the track saying "dig deep".

Needless to say I'm a very happy camper right now. Its not so much achieving my dream goal, or picking up a couple of trophies, but because I felt so strong for most of the race. I really don't know why, guess I just had one of those nights :-)

Easy Like Thursday Morning

With Caboolture just a couple of days away yesterday at CBRG* Clairie and I decided we should take it a bit easy. On the pgm was 4 mins fast, 30 secs standing rec, 4 mins fast, 30 secs standing rec, then turn around and try to get back to the start in 8 minutes.

I really enjoy this one, it presents a challenge on the return leg trying to run others down at the same time trying to avoid being run down. So it was a bit of a shame not to be going full bore. Having said that we still ran around 4:30 pace I guess, and we jogged rather than stand for the recoveries.

It was great to have Owen along, he was just one of five newbies. When the evil triathletes found out he was one of their kind they were right on to him.

Its just fantastic, though not at all surprising, that the numbers continue to grow. We have a bit of a collection of Brisbane bloggers there now. Might have to get Robert Song along one day, even if it is just for a guest appearance :-)


* CBRG = Claire Bellenger Running Group (as Pat was calling it yesterday)

Where's Wally

It was a nice easy 10k this morn with Clairie and Lizzle, we averaged just under 5:30 pace. The perfect session as all of us are doing Caboolture on Saturday night. Not to mention we were running slow enough to squeeze in just a bit of a chat. We finished with the now standard 20 push-ups.

I wore my HRM for the first time in yonks but have no idea what the reading meant - I averaged 130 bpms. I might do a bit of research to see what heart rate I should be running at for the 6 hours ... unless of course somebody out there already knows :-)

I said yesterday there must've been around 100 runners at PCRG. In fact there were 102 - a record crowd!

On the hill yesterday

Just some of the record 102 runners

And The Oscar Goes To ....

This morning at Pat's was the filming of the PCRG Summer Series video and what a huge turnout, close to 100 of us I'd say. There was a real buzz in the air, everybody was ready for some fun. Dan and Peter even fronted in their trusty super-hero costumes - The Phantom and The Flash :-)

The frivolity was short lived as we were sent off on our 3k warmup, followed by continual hill reps on the grass in The Gardens. Pat organised for bongo drummers Hugh and Sacha to come along, they stood halfway up the hill and did their stuff. They are so good, and such cool dudes.

With the Caboolture 6hr run coming up this weekend rather than bust a gut on the ups and recover on the downs I went at about 90% on the ups and tried to keep a steady to semi-fast pace on the downs. Don't want to go breaking anything now.

It was the best morning! I can't wait to see the vid, it premiers it at the 3k Brisbane Running Group Challenge on Feb 16th. Needless to say amongst all the hard yakka there was just a bit of playing up for the camera, especially during and after the warmdown ... hey Clairie :-)

Monday Music - 5th February 2007

The Rapture - Wooh Yeah Alright Uh Huh (2006)

After finally getting rid of "Good Thing" from my head this song is the latest stuck in there. Not that I'm complaining - I love it!

It was on the selection list for voting for the triplej Hottest 100 but didn't make the grade on the day. Not sure why, then again I came dead last by a mile in the Frappe Five comp. It was in my 10 votes .... but I missed the cut off and never got them in.

Classed as dance-punk its great to run to, especially if you are in 'the zone'.

Hope you enjoy it ... I do :-)

BRRC - Bring A Friend Day

Re the "Mother And Child Reunion" title of my last entry Ewen asked if I was the mother and the child was the successful long run. I never thought of that. Actually it referred to my brekky and lunch - eggs and chicken :-)


****


Today at BRRC was "Bring A Friend Day" a concept devised by Clairie to boost club membership. I was lucky enough to have two friends - Toasty and Ally. On offer were 15k, 10k and 5k races.

This was never going to be a race, rather a recovery run after yesterday's 35k. I was planning to go around 5:30 pace, but did the first 5k loop with Toasty and we were just averaging just over 5 min kms. He took off after that while I just maintained roughly the same speed to get to 10k in 50:29. I was feeling pretty good and was tempted to run a third loop but thought better of it. I am supposed to be in taper mode for the Caboolture 6 hours next weekend, so what a good excuse to stop.

Big congrats to Ally who ran a PB and was second lady in the 10k. And thanks for Toasty for keeping me company and getting me to push myself just a little.

Clairie did a great job as race director, injecting a bit a humour into proceedings. To make things more difficult for her there was a shortage of volunteers. And the megaphone was broken .... not that anybody noticed :-)

Mother And Child Reunion

Clairie and I plus a few others set off just after 5am at The Ship Inn and ran an out and back before hooking up with the 'late starters' at 5.30am. The whole group headed out New Farm way with our little pack of four (Clairie, Mat, Celeste and I) forging on while the rest of them returned to base. At Brett's Wharf we found Toasty who had broken away from the group early on and run out there at lightning speed.

I tried to get through the run gu free but at about 28k was starting to suffer so threw one down. Within minutes I felt 100%.

As our cars were parked at opposite ends of South Bank at the Goodwill Bridge Clairie and I parted ways and arranged to hook up at the pool. I just ran around Kangaroo Pt a bit until the Garmin clocked up 36k (time 3h16m), but at one stage I'm sure it jumped 500m or more in a matter of seconds. The brain wasn't working too well by that stage so I ignored it. Very annoying - I'd put in a strong last two km (the fastest of the day) and I could've kept going. So I'll just count this as 35.2kms, average pace 5:33.

This was my longest run in 11 months and I felt fantastic afterwards. Not taking any chances on the legs recovering for tomorrow's BRRC run I quaffed some poached eggs (protein) at our post run brekky, and am having roast chicken (more protein) for lunch. And I'm wearing the Skins all afternoon. Not the chicken skins :-)

Waiting For The Sun(nies)

Numbers were down at PCRG today - rain overnight and this morning must've put a few people off. What didn't put most of the rest of us off was the fact that we only have about half a dozen chances left to win a pair of sunglasses!

Today was a shortish session, we headed for The Gardens and did 6 x 1 min, 4 x 30 secs, and then 1 x 2 min. As usual the final 30 sec run turned out to be way more than 30 secs as no matter where you started from you had to run right to the finish.

Pat got me to buddy new girl Annie who has been running for a few years but always on her own. Ha ha, I even made her do the long warmdown with me while others skipped it. Still, she enjoyed the session and is going to become a permanent fixture.

Oh, and I missed out on the sunnies but to see Glenda win was just as good as winning them myself .... almost ;-)

Doo Doo Doobie Doo

I was between overnight shifts Wednesday so I missed the usual morning mid week longish run, opting instead for sleep. Eventually I headed out just after 4.30pm for 8k. Call it a recovery run, a 'white' run, a low heartrate run, junk miles, whatever. All I know is it was hot ... the weather not my pace.


*****


As usual being the Thursday after our monthly 3k TT at PCRG today was a steady run followed by a no-watch 1k. Clairie and I planned to warm-up for a couple of kms, and then run around 4:40 pace. We managed that, in fact we were under 4:40s for most of it.

Not sure of the exact distance, but it was probably around 9.5k or so by the time we hit the entrance of The Gardens for the 1k. I do know that where I turned around today was the furthest I've reached in these runs :-)

I'd nominated 4:10 as my goal in the no-watch but was a bit worn out by the previous effort so didn't push it too much. I ended up with 4:17. Good thing is it felt slower.

And speaking of a 'good thing' guess what Fine Young Cannibals' number I had in my head all through the session after Peterhorse said it was a great running song. Over five hours later and its still stuck there .... arrrggghhhh!!!!