Clickety Click

Week 1 of the Melbourne Marathon taper went like this .....

Monday - Rest

Tuesday - 12k with middle 5k in 22:13. Was trying to run that 5k at 4:30 pace for a total of 22:30. Thought it felt a bit hard!

Wednesday - 18k, most of it with JD, Karin & Eagle. Wasn't planning to run that far but it was such a beautiful morning. Glad I did it when I saw how Thursday turned out.

Thursday - Rest (rainy).

Friday - Efforts around the bay. 4mins, 2mins, 4mins, 2mins, 4mins, 2mins, 4mins, 3mins with 45sec jog rec. 12k all up incl warmup and warmdown.

Saturday - 24k. 1k warmup then three (7k) laps of the bay then a 2k warmdown. Tried to do the laps progressively faster. 1st - 37mins, 2nd - 36mins plus a couple of seconds, 3rd - 33:34. The goal for the third was 5min pace. I was doing 4:50s for the first few kms but started worrying I'd drop off the pace and so sped up :) 2k warmdown.

Sunday - Rest (cheersquad duty at Sydney Marathon)


66k for the week, a little less than planned but that's what happens when you are too wussy to run in the rain.

Number 96

Managed to get through another week in one piece .....

Monday - Rest.

Tuesday - Efforts around the bay. 6mins, 4mins, 2mins, 6mins, 3mins, 3mins, 3.5mins, with 45 sec jog rec in between. 15k including warmup and warmdown.

Wednesday - The guys weren't running so it was just Karin and I for the usual LKL which was nice, we could go a tad slower and talk girl talk all the way :-) 15k av 5:36 pace.

Thursday - Not sure why but I seem to be tired Thursday mornings. I've been going to African drumming classes on Wednesday nights, it doesn't feel that strenuous but maybe it wears me out! Wasn't up for any sort of speed session so instead just ran 11k easy.

Friday - 14k (two laps of the bay) including a solid 5k in the middle. Was aiming for 4:30s for that 5k but averaged 4:35s - close.

Saturday - I'd been feeling just slightly off colour since the day before so wasn't looking forward to the long run. I was ready to bail after about an hour, even running slower didn't seem to help. I had JD for company, he was doing 21k or so. So stuck with him for that and pushed on for another 5k to make it just over 26k averaging 4:59s.

Sunday - Planned to do about an hour recovery run, a lap of the bay and then a little more. But it was such a beautiful morning I ended up doing two laps and then a little more - just over 15k.


I was a bit disappointed with Saturday's run, I was hoping to do 30-35k. Oh well, still a decent week mileage wise - 96k.

Melbourne Marathon is just three weeks away now. And that means its TAPER TIME!!!!

Apec Action & Anna

Monday - Rest.

Tuesday - Lap of the bay (7k) doing fartlek. 14k all up incl run there and back.

Wednesday - LKL with JD and Eagle - good steady pace, a bit over 5mins I'd guess. 14k or so.

Thursday - Too tired for speed session. Too tired to run really. But I wanted to see something Apec-ish so ran and ran and ran until finally, 56 minutes later, I saw a fence and security dudes around the Convention Centre. 14k.

Friday - 15k with JD including 2 laps of the bay. Av pace around 5:20s.
After struggling through my run on Thurs to see a little bit of Apec Fri arvo I stood on my balcony to see suits, news cameras, loads of cops on bikes etc right outside. No snipers though. The PM of Thailand was popping in to see my next door neighbours (Buddist monks).

Saturday - Long run. Ran to bay and did three laps including one 9k version. Spotted Action & buddy, both sporting 6ft Track shirts, flying in the other direction. Lots of other runners out, but didn't know any of them. Headed back to Annandale and went up and down and all around the local streets until I'd clocked up 3h20m. Not exactly sure how far but by the pace I was going around the bay where I could time my kms I'd say it was at least 35k.

Sunday - SMC races at Smithfield. I'd originally planned to run the half but thought it wise to drop down to the 10k after Saturday's effort. Hooked up with Blues Buffett early in the piece. He was after a sub 50 and that sounded good to me, so we cruised the course chatting for 49 minutes and 37 seconds. It sure was fun out there, so glad I didn't choose to plod around the 21k. To top off a great morning out I won a random prize of a pair of Nike shoes. That's the second pair I've won this year after picking up the major random prize at Warwick in May. Happy for me? ;-)

So another big week with around 102k . Feeling good, a bit niggly but nothing serious. Think that might be due to more running on concrete than I usually do.

One more long run next weekend and then its taper time - yeeha!

Heard on the news a little while ago that Peter Beattie is resigning on Thursday and fellow PCRG-er Anna Bligh is a dead set cert to take over. How exciting!!!! With a runner at the helm, and a female one at that, Queensland couldn't be in better hands :-)

The week that was ... incl Striders 10k race

Monday - rest .... if you call spending the day with niece and nephew who were sick and had the day off school 'rest' :-)

Tuesday - 8 x Lillyfield Rd hill reps. Alternated between straight up and down (times 3:00 to 3:04) and longer loop via Mary St. 14k all up including warmup and warmdown.

Wednesday - Ran the LKL with JD, Karin and Eagle. Another great mid-weeker, the time sure goes quick with such terrific company. Guessing it was somewhere between 14 & 15k, so I'll call it 14 1/2.

Thursday - Did 10 x 2 min efforts with 30 sec JR. Though the last effort was actually 2 1/2 mins as that's the sort of thing that Pat makes us do :-) 14k all up including warmup and warmdown.

Friday - Easy paced recovery run. Was tempted to head back after about 10 mins until I met a fellow runner, Paul. He ran marathons in the 1960s with a best time of 3:05. No gels or special drinks in those days, just water. He was great company, and running my pace, so stuck with him and ended up doing 8k.

Saturday - Striders 10k race at North Head (Manly). Was honestly expecting to run around 46 mins, with fingers crossed to just sneak under 46. But managed to stick to 45 min pace for most of it and then up the ante towards the end, the downhill finish helped. Crossed in 44:16, 39 seconds faster than my last 10k the week before the GC Marathon and my fastest 10k time in 2 years. But best of all though I got to see my Brissie/PCRG buddy Andrew who was leaving the country that afternoon to work in the UK. 12k for the day incl warmup.

Sunday - Joined the weekly STaR run. Went with the 6.10am group who supposedly run 5:30 pace but as it turned out it was closer to 5:00s and seemed to get faster the further we went. It was hard work, but how often does one get to run with the likes of CRs Action and Granpa, and Chelle who was 2nd lady at Willy to Billy last weekend. Hung on until about 18k and a few kms later caught up with the 6am start group. Jim M left them and joined me for several kms including a slight detour that took us off the map. By the time we got got back to the start finish I'd done 25 to 26k (in 2hr 8min) so ran and out and back and around a bit for 32mins to make it 2h40m and around 31.5k.

94k for the week - happy with that.

I hope to extend this week's long run out to 35k but not sure how to fit that in with the SMC Half Marathon on Sunday. Maybe do the long run Thursday? Or do it Friday and not push too hard on Sunday? Or do it Saturday and just run the 10k at SMC on Sunday? Hmmmm ....