Tesso's Training Tales

44 Days

2008-09-25T07:34:00.002+10:00

That's how long its been since my last run. 'Luckily' half of that I didn't even feel like running, a bout of bronchitis that had me coughing just about all night every night for 3 weeks and waking up feeling like absolute crap.

Even though the sports doc said I can run a slow 10 to 20k a week I'm not, and the physio thinks that's a good idea. My pgm of strengthening exercises he gave me takes about an hour. Of course I've built up to more reps and added my own stuff in and find I can easily spend 90 minutes at the gym most days doing it all (add an extra half hour or so when I do upper body weights). The iPod also gets a good workout.

I've been hitting the pool at another Fitness First centre - its free with my membership, indoor (no sunburn), clean, warm, and always virtually empty ... of people, not water :) Not as much fun as running but not as boring as I thought it would be - the waterproof mp3 player helps. Yesterday I managed 1500m and will try to do that or more at least 3 times a week.

As for cycling I'm not too sure. I did a couple of spin classes, the first I took very easy as I hadn't done it in years. The next one I worked hard and the hammy was sore afterwards :( I think when the doc said I can cycle he meant just sitting on the bike peddling.

Not sure how much longer I'll be out. There has been a slight improvement. I'm supposed to see the sports doc again in a few weeks but I might delay the appointment until that improvement feels more than slight. The goal is to be back in action in time to do some training for Kurrawa (25k) in December.

At least I'm getting my money's worth from Fitness First, and catching up on all the gym goss. And I'm listening to lots more music. And I don't have to wash my hair so often. And my car smells less like a runner's car than it usually does.

Its not all bad.

Prognosis Negative

2008-08-13T17:11:00.016+10:00

Since the Gold Coast Marathon ....

The PCRG post GC cocktail party was so much fun. Its always a great night and gets better every year. Highlight of the night was being given the first ever Life Member award. What an honour, it totally blew me away. I was speechless .... I was without speech.

Pat & Tesso ... & trophy :)

Clairie, Pat, Tesso

No post GC party is complete without doing serviette head

At the end of July the Brisbane Running Buddies did the inaugural "Full Glenno Half Mary" - 10 pubs and 21.1k - to celebrate Glenno's birthday. Dressed in Jackie Howe blue singlets with home made race bibs we started at Dicey Rileys (Irish pub) at Garden City and ran back to The Regatta, via The Mt Gravatt, The Holland Park, the Stones Corner, The Norman, The Pineapple (giant steakburgers for lunch here), The Story Bridge, The Ship Inn and The Fox. I only downed three drinks, pretty wussy compared to some of the guys who had a beer at every pub.

Dicey Rileys - first stop

The Stone's Corner ... obviously a wee bit later

Since then I've been doing maybe 60 or 70k per week made up of the usual sessions, but with the hammy still making itself known haven't been pushing it 100%. I wasn't expecting much at all at C2S, just hoped to get under 75mins to stay in the A group, so was more than happy to cross the line in 66:30.

Re the hammy, the good news is it hasn't got any worse. The bad news is it hasn't got any better so the physio recommended I see a sports doc, which I did. He sent me for an MRI. The sports doc was away for a couple of weeks and I only just got to see him yesterday to get the results. Not good, there is actually a 2.5cm tear in a hamstring tendon.

He says I need to limit my running to 20k per week (no speed or hills) and get stuck into cross training to stay fit ie swimming and cycling. Water running is out as it will put too much pressure on the hammy. I think I'll actually take three or four (or more) weeks off running altogether and see if I notice the difference. I see the doc again mid October. He says if its not better in six months surgery may be necessary :(

Oh well, could be worse. Could be both legs. And if the doc hadn't have spent 10 days in China I would have got the result sooner and missed all the fun of C2S.

Mat & Tesso - how's the running style, no wonder I'm injured

Gold Coast Marathon 2008

2008-07-08T12:09:00.004+10:00

Mission accomplished. I took it easy, had a bit of fun, and got to the end in one piece. Hammy is fine, and hardly any DOMS to speak of. Though I do have a sort spot from the belly punch Ewen gave me at the 27k mark ;)

My only real problem was a blister threatening to form in the same spot that got me in Canberra. Stopping and adjusting my shoe and sock five or six times did the trick there. And it gave me a bit of a rest :) Better get that sorted before Melbourne Marathon.

I thought I'd finish somewhere between 4:00 and 4:15, and I did - a net time of 4:06.13. Its a PW, and over half an hour slower than Canberra, but I'm more than happy.

Quite a few highlights but the best part was running the last couple of kms with Blair, especially when we hit the CR cheersquad and then the PCRG cheersquad. Awesome does not begin to describe how great they were!

And that last km was my fastest of the day but I had to keep up with Blair ... he's claiming that he was just trying to keep up with me. Too funny!

At some point along the way

Blair forcing me to run faster .... he was trying to steal a koala kebab

Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown

2008-07-01T14:05:00.003+10:00

News from the physio is the hammy tear is all but healed, though the muscles are still tight and the glutes need strengthening and the back muscles need loosening and and and ....

Anyway, he's basically given me open slather runningwise (not hills or short sprints though). Still, I'm erring on the side of caution and not going much faster than 4:45s for the time being.

Its been good to pick up the mileage again, with averages over 70k the past two weeks.

Friday morn was an 18k-er at the GC. Followed it up with 22k on Saturday back here in Brissie. Gotta say the Saturday run is the best I've felt since even before the hammy went. According to Blair's trusty Garmin we were averaging 5:20s - seemed slower which is a good sign. I felt like I could have kept going though was having a bit of a sock issue due to my shoelaces being too loose, and also I'd forgotten my sunnies. Amazing how quickly you get out of practice with the basics that are usually just routine.

Sooooo, after much procrastination I've decided to do the full, it will be my 19th standard marathon. Now to start worrying ....

Back in Business (almost)

2008-06-18T08:12:00.005+10:00

After over two weeks of no running and several physio visits I got the go-ahead to hit the road again last Wednesday, just 30mins or so every second day, which didn't feel too bad. It was only slow, but the hammy was still tight enough to make me want to run conservatively anyway.

On Monday Adam (physio) said it would be okay to increase the distance and to run on consecutive days. He's been doing lots of work on my back and glutes, seems that's where the problem lies. Monday arvo following my visit was probably the most free I've felt running in a while, including the couple of weeks before the hammy tore. Yesterday's massage seemed to improve things even more, I've got another one booked for next week.

The Gold Coast marathon is still a possibility. I go to physio again on Friday and hope to get the all clear to do maybe 2 hours or so on the weekend. Go the reverse taper!

I wasn't the only one happy to be back at PCRG :) How's the fog!!!

Even Pat was pleased to see us!

Hamstrung at Warwick

2008-05-30T08:19:00.007+10:00

Well, knowing the hammy was gammy I started out gingerly in the half marathon just trying to find the pace that hurt the least. Around the 14k mark the hammy got more and painful and then just 'went'. I was reduced to a slow jog and soon couldn't even do that so walked to the finish line.

But the weekend wasn't over for me. Being one of just five people (and the only female) to have completed all five races at all pentath-runs there was no way I was pulling out and so walked the rest of the events, finishing dead last in a couple of them. I did beat some 3 year olds in the 1500m though :-)

Half Mara - still running at this stage ... & there are actual runners behind me!

5k road race - looks like I have an entourage :-)

10k mountain ascent - okay, joke's over :-(

************

Saw Adam the physio first thing Monday morn and the hammy is torn. He gave me a few simple exercises and basically said do nothing (no walking, no water running etc). Went back again yesterday and there's a big improvement. The massaging didn't hurt nearly anywhere near as much. I was given the ok to hop on the stationary bike and do some swimming (just using the arms).

Adam asked me what events I had coming up and I was doing the GC marathon in less than 6 weeks. He didn't bat an eyelid. Well, I didn't see him bat an eyelid, I was face down on the physio table at the time ...

Up The Junction

2008-05-22T17:24:00.009+10:00

A couple of weeks after Canberra Marathon last year I was hit with a bit of a hamstring problem. Funny (well, not really) a couple of weeks after this years Canberra its happened again, different leg though.

Last year I was able to run through it to a degree and so have been doing the same this time. Then on Monday I thought I'd take the smart option - have a few days off running and do some strengthening exercises etc. Went to PCRG this morn to give it a test drive and it hurt a little during the warmup, so rather than run fast for the 1k reps I just sat on a 'steady' pace. By the end of the second one I was almost limping and had to pull the pin.

Not the best considering its Warwick this weekend.

And I have a cold.

And we lost the State of Origin.

And my blog isn't imbedding what I want it to imbed.

And and and ...

World Harmony Run

2008-04-29T20:07:00.004+10:00

Not a lot of running action in that first week after Canberra.

Sat 19/4 - 10k easy

Sun 20/4 - cheering at Brissie Marathon Festival. Walked in to South Bank from home and left a number of motivational signs on the bikeway for the runners including this one just opposite the Regatta Hotel for Radar.

Total for week 10k

Did a bit more the following week, most of it at a pretty relaxed pace though.

Mon 21/4 - 10k easy

Tue 22/4 - PCRG. Rather than a speed session took the option to do a recovery run with those who'd raced in the Brissie half on the Sunday.

Wed 23/4 - rest

Thu 24/4 - PCRG. 1 x 2k, 4 x 500m (with 45sec SR). Times weren't too shabby - 8:18, 1:58, 2:01, 2:03, 1:56.

Fri 25/4 - traditional Anzac Day run from St Lucia Golf Club to Lone Pine. A nice but hilly 15k.

Sat 26/4 - 15k flat averaging about 5:30 pace.

Sun 27/4 - ran from home to Gardens to join in the start of the
World Harmony Run. What a great morning. After running a lap of the Gardens with them (where I had the privelege of being the torch bearer for a while) I stuck with them until Stones Corner before peeling off and heading home. We were getting lots of waves and beeps and shouts of encouragement, I'm sure some people thought it was the Olympic Torch Relay :-) Did about 18k all up.

Total for week 78k

Getting (almost) back to normal this week.

Mon 28/4 - rest (well, an hour long hilly walk to retrieve my car which had a sleepover after a barby at Red Hill)

Tue 29/4 - PCRG 3k TT. Still not wanting to push myself too much I scouted around at the start line looking for someone to pace and found a willing victim in Andrew. His PB was 13:11 and he said he just wanted to break 13. We didn't have a lot in the bank at halfway (6:28 I think it was), I got a little worried. Now there was no way I could let him ease off, and found him a couple of targets to chase. With 1k to go I think he must have got sick of my nagging and he really put the foot down and with a fantastic sprint finish crossed the line in a very impressive 12:40!

2008 Canberra Marathon

2008-04-17T15:14:00.004+10:00

Arrived safely in Canberra mid morning Saturday, alas my suitcase did not. Along with about a dozen others including Rob the Runner my bag was missing in action. I wasn't too concerned, I had my running clothes in my carry on bag and was wearing running shoes (albeit an old worn pair). I only started panicking Saturday evening when I thought about having no Blistershield or anti-chafing stuff.

Mat had two pairs of socks already filled with Blistershield so gave me one pair to shake the stuff out of into mine - that's a true running buddy! And I went to the 'adulty' part of Coles and got some lube ... in a tube that glows in the dark :-)

Qantas said they would call about delivering the bags (when they located them) but by 8pm we hadn't heard from them, so it was a relief to get home from dinner and find them in our rooms. Whew!

Now, on to the race ....

Hoping for a 3:25 I took off and wanted to stick around 4:55 pace for the first 8k or so before ramping things up a little. Some kms were a bit faster, some a bit slower. It seemed pretty easy though. That is, on the breathing. For some reason my quads were heavy from the word go.

The rain (which continued for a couple of hours) started maybe 20mins in to the race, didn't really bother me though. I had my iPod in a plactic bag :)

Got to halfway in just under 1:44, a tad behind schedule (I was planning on 1:42). I doubted I could do a negative split though thought I may be able to salvage a sub 3:30. But the quads were still bothering me, and from about 32k onwards were threatening to cramp. I refused to let them!

My pace slowed somewhat, and then a blister I could feel forming started to hurt a little. It felt like a doozey, and it was ... about the size of a 20c piece. Anyway, the way my legs and the blister felt there was no way I was going on to complete the 50k.

Turning that final bend and approaching the the finish line I could see 3:33.xx on the clock and put the foot down, I wanted a 3:33, its such an easy time to remember. And I got one, gun time of 3:33.59 (net 3:33.48).

Oh well, not quite the 3:25 I hoped for. Perhaps if I started out more conservatively I could have done a 3:29. I'd rather my 'gave it a red hot go' 3:33 thank you.

Thanks so much to all out there who gave me encouragement and advice via my blog. Keep it coming though, I will need it for the Gold Coast :-)

The Body Works Better With Bergen

2008-04-11T20:00:00.006+10:00

Well, the bags are packed and weigh a ton. So do I after eating more than my usual amount of carbs today. And I didn't enjoy switching from my favourite rye bread to the stodgey white stuff.

Training since Tuesday -

Wed 9/4 - 6k easy.

Thu 10/4 - PCRG. While everyone else was busting a gut Mat, Glenda & I did our own thing (ie 4k at race pace). Hooked up with them all after we finished and watched them on their final rep going flat out up a hill.

Margy going flat out

Fri 11/4 - rest.

Sunday's race plan (subject to change) is to run the first 10k at 5min pace and then if I feel good speed up to 4:50s. That would give me a finish time for the mara of just under 3:25. Even if I lose a minute or so I might still snare a PB.

If the 4:50s seem to fast I'll try to keep the 5:00s going for as long as possible.
Whether I go on to 50 will be decided on the day though I have an inkling I will bail at the marathon mark.

Gulp!

Man Of The Match ....

2008-04-08T18:14:00.006+10:00

... that's what Helen was calling us after Pat published his April TT report :-) Pretty cool, eh!

Since then the training has gone like this -

Wed 2/4 - 7.5k easyish

Thu 3/4 - rest

Fri 4/4 - PCRG. 2 x 4mins, 2 x 1mins, 2 x 1m20s (all with short recoveries). For some reason the session seemed really hard.

Sat 5/4 - 12k incl 6k av 4:51 pace. The way it felt I don't think I could keep that pace up for 42k.

Sun 6/4 - 12k incl 10k av just under 5:00s. Felt way more comfy than the day before.

Total for week 50k.

Mon 7/4 - rest

Tue 8/4 - PCRG. Mix of 1min, 30sec, 15sec efforts, plus 1 GC hill. Didn't want to break anything so held back a bit going about 80 to 90%.

Sam & I doing a Matty (Matty reckons the last attempt at this wasn't good enough because we weren't flashing the pearly whites)

So, five more sleeps. I'm still not 100% sure whether to go for a PB in the marathon, which would be such a challenge, or just pace myself to a 50k PB, which is doable.

Current best is 3:26:46 for the marathon. My 3k TT leading up to it was 12:10. Last week I did 11:50. Using those race pace calculators that converts to a 3h21m marathon. To do 3h25m I'd have to run 4:52 pace. Not sure if I can do that.

My second biggest worry is falling in a heap at 35k. Been there, done that, its not much fun.

My biggest worry? Freezing to death at the start line.

April 3k TT

2008-04-01T09:01:00.006+10:00

Tapering is good. Should be more of it :-)

Mon 24/3 - Easy 6k.

Tue 25/3 - PCRG. Mostly 30 sec efforts with some surprise longer ones thrown in. And of course the 'no immunity' zone where no matter what you have to run hard.

Wed 26/3 - 1k warmup, 10k at 4:47 pace, 1k warmdown.

Thu 27/3 - PCRG. 1k, 500m, 1k, 500m, 1k. 30sec SR. Didn't want to go flat out so aimed to run 4:20 pace and was just a second or so under each time.

Fri 28/3 - PCRG. 1k, 500m, 1k, 500m, 1k. 45sec SR. Times - 3:59, 1:59, 34:00, 1:55, 4:13 (only had 16sec SR before the last one). With the time trail just days away I was really hoping to do a bit better than that.

Sat 29/3 - 20.5k av 4:50s and then slow 20mins.

Sun 30/3 - BRRC 5k. Had no intention of racing, just wanted to treat it as a recovery run though couldn't help pushing in the last km (a 4:15). Time - 24:37.

Tuesday's signs (for some sessions Pat puts little motivational messages out there on the course for us).

Total for week 79k

Mon 31/3 - No run, just a gym session. Did a 'plank' PB of 3 1/2 mins :-)

Tue 1/4 - 3k TT at PCRG. In Feb I ran 12:16 and March was 12:05. I at least wanted to do somewhere in between the two of those. Sub 12 was a dream as was a PB (11:53 in Feb 2005).
Hit the 1k mark in 3:53 (6 seconds faster than last time) and the 1500m in about 5:52. I can't recall my 2k time, I just remember thinking if I do a sub 4 I can crack 12 minutes so it was a matter of hanging on and not letting the people in front get away from me.
Pushed it all the way to the end and crossed the line in a PB of 11:50!!!!!

Needless to say I'm one happy camper right now :-)

Taper Time :-)

2008-03-25T08:58:00.007+10:00

Where was I ....

Fri 7/3 - PCRG. 2 x 4mins, 3 x 2mins, 30sec efforts.
Sat 8/3 - 35k av 5:12 pace.
Sun 9/3 - easy 10k then International Women's Day 5k Fun Run (didn't race it).

Total for week - 108k

******

Mon 10/3 - Easy 10k
Tue 11/3 - PCRG. Hill session on path in Gardens.
Wed 12/3 - 21k incl 18.5k averaging 4:45 pace.
Thu 13/3 - PCRG. 2 x 4mins, 1 x 8mins. Went about 80% effort.
Fri 14/3 - PCRG. Same sess as Thurs but went all out.
Sat 15/3 - 35k river loop. Averaged 5:03 pace. That was such hard work!
Sun 16/3 - Ran 5k to BRRC then did 5k race at steady pace (just under 25mins).

Total for week - 111k

*****

Mon 17/3 - Rest.
Tue 18/3 - PCRG. Mix of 2min, 1min, & 30sec efforts.
Wed 19/3 - 22k incl 18.5k averaging 4:37 pace. Killer!
Thu 20/3 - PCRG. 4 x 3mins, 4 x full GC hills. 80% effort, tired from Wed.
Fri 21/3 - PCRG. Same as Thurs but at 100% - legs burning on the hills!
Sat 22/3 - 35k solo run at the coast. Av 5:15s.
Sun 23/3 - Main Beach SLSC to The Spit & back, plus a bit. Easy 11k.

Total for week 108k

*****

Anne and I doing a 'Matty'

Matty doing a 'Matty'

*****

Less than 3 weeks to go now, it sure was good to get that last long run done. I was down the coast so had to run it on my own which was kind of good as I wanted to go a bit slower, the previous Saturday really took it out of me. As it turned out it wasn't as pedestrian as it felt, suppose that's a good sign.

I still haven't come up with a race plan for Canberra, I might wait another week or so and see how the speed sessions and monthly TT go before deciding on a goal.

Still Here, Still Running ....

2008-03-06T15:18:00.012+10:00

Thu 21/2 - 6 x 2min efforts at PCRG. Groin just a little niggly.

Fri 22/2 - easy 8k in the morning.
Fri evening (and a very hot evening) was the Brisbane Running Group 3k Challenge. Course was a little long (3.13k I believe). Had a good tussle with Karisma (River City Runners) and Lizzle (Gale Force), managed to get away from them with about 200m to go. Running for a team sure makes you dig a little deeper! Time - 12:52.

Celebrating with 'the opposition' Karisma and Tanky

Some of the victorious PCRG team - we won every category!

Sat 23/2 - 18k av 5:14 pace. Glad we all decided on a shortish one, temp got up to 40 degrees that day. Summer was finally here.

Sun 24/2 - 35k av 5:23 pace. Happy to finish that one, it was a bit warm out there.

Weekly total - 100k

Mon 25/2 - rest (between night shifts, too tired to run).

Tue 26/2 - 1 and 2 minute efforts at PCRG.

Wed 27/2 - 1k warmup then 19k av 4:44 pace with Toasty, Mat & Robbie. Tough but not too tough.

Thu 28/2 - 4 x 1k reps + 1 x 2mins at PCRG. After Wed session held back and ran each 1k just under 4:20 pace (30sec SR).

Fri 29/2 - 3 x 1k, 2 x 500m, 1 x 2mins at PCRG (45sec SR). Went 100% this time. 1ks - 3:57, 3:59, 3:57. 500s - 2:03, 1:57 (purposely eased off on first one). My best 1ks in a long while. Thought it looked promising for the next TT.

In a world of pain at Friday's session!

Sat 1/3 - 36k av 5:21. Felt strong in last 8k or so :)

Sun 2/3 - BRRC 10k. Treated it as a training run aiming to stay under 5min pace. Finished just under 48 mins. Not too stressful at all.

Weekly total - 110k

Mon 3/3 - easy 5k before work.

Tue 4/3 - 3k TT at PCRG. Started right at the back (we had over 100 runners!) which was probably a good thing, I had a controlled first km (3:59). Hit the 1500m mark in 6:01. Finished in 12:05. My best TT since March 2005.

Wed 5/3 - 18k including 16k at 4:42 pace. That was hard work. Got to run a km or more with Peterhorse. I'm sure he made us speed up :)

Thu 6/3 - steady run at PCRG.

The Wednesday runs are doing me lots of good, though at the time it doesn't feel it. Toasty is a tough taskmaster and so has earned yet another nickname - The Commando. And its great to get my TT closer to 12 minutes again. Gotta have a crack at a sub 12 next month - gulp!

Only two and a half more weeks of hard yakka - yay!

Dusk To Dawn, Winning A Watch, Nursing A Niggle

2008-02-20T13:23:00.006+10:00

Picking up from where I left off two weeks ago ...

Thu 7/2 - 4k w-u then abt 10k at av 5:04 pace at PCRG steady run.

Fri 8/2 - PCRG. 3 x 2 mins and lots of 1 mins.

Sat 9/2 - 17k at easy to steady pace.

Sun 10/2 - ran in Gale Force relay team at Caboolture Dusk to Dawn. 3 hrs from 3am until 6am. This was going to be my long run and so wasn't going to race it. Due to severe sleep deprivation (maybe 30 minutes all night) was doing it tough for the first two hours, running at about 5:40 pace. Once the sun came up I was able to lift my game and the last half hour or so was around 4:40s. Did 33k in the 3hrs (total of 34.5k including w-u and w-d).

Weekly total - 114k

Mon 11/2 - easy 8k recovery run.

Tue 12/2 - 13k incl PRCG which was a mix of shorter efforts (1min, 30sec, 15sec). This was the third last session where Pat was giving away a watch (started mid December) and I finally had my name drawn out of the box - thanks Celeste :-) And Pat!

Wed 13/2 - a very lazy 10k in the arvo. Afterwards I had a slight niggle in the adductor/groin.

Thu 14/2 - tired from work so took it easy at PCRG. Sess was 2 x 3min then turn around and do 1 x 4min, 1 x however long it takes to get back to the start. Plus 4 x full GC hills. Niggle still just a niggle.

Fri 15/2 - same PCRG format as Thurs but went 100%. Did 4 1/2 hills :-) New push up PB post run - 45. Niggle still a niggle, though as the day wore on it got worse.

Getting cheered (or maybe jeered) up the hill by Matty

Sat 16/2 - the groin/adductor thing wasn't too good, it hurt a little to walk. Thought I'd front for the long run and see what happened. Running faster there was no pain, slower running there was a bit. Called it a day after 20k.

Sun 17/2 - pain still there so rested.

Weekly total - 77k

Mon 18/2 & 19/2 - rest. By Monday night I was virtually pain free but took Tuesday off just to be sure.

Wed 20/2 - all better ... if not I'd soon find out. Ran a bit over 18k averaging just under 5 min pace. Lots of PCRG-ers out and about on what was a great morning for it.

So feeling okay again after that little scare. Today's run, although at a solid pace, wasn't too stressful at all. Suppose three days off helped in that regard :)

Plugging Away

2008-02-06T08:28:00.000+10:00

The momentum continued with another solid week, though I was a bit tired on a couple of days.

Still in Sydney on Monday. Did an easy run from Annandale to the bay, a lap, then back. 12k all up.

Tuesday at PCRG I think Sunday's 38k finally caught up with me and so wasn't firing on all cylinders for the sess. Still, did my best for what was a mix of 1min and 30sec efforts plus a hill rep.

Wednesday was back to Coot-tha - took it easy this time.

Thursday at PCRG was 1k, 500m, 1k, 500m, 1k with a 45sec SR. Times were 3:55, 1:56, 4:00, 1:55, 4:09. Died on that last one but was rapt with the rest. My best session of the type in months.

Friday at PCRG was the same as Thursday, though I held back and just ran at 4:10 pace. Felt easy :-)

Saturday was 30k at around 5:30 pace.

Sunday I did 18k at a sendoff run for Stevie, who's been a PCRG member for a few years. He left to go home to NZ on Monday. Clairie and I can remember his very first session, we both said to eachother "this guy's gonna be so much fun!". We were right. He really is such a special guy, always so positive, and encouraging, and good for a laugh etc etc. We're gonna miss him :-(

Weekly total - 112k

Sneaking a drink from the BRRC water table during Stevie's run

So far so good this week ....

Monday - easy 5k. Unfortunately I managed to miss the rain which meant it was warmish out there.

Tuesday - 3k TT at PCRG. Goal was 12:20 but wondered if I could do it considering the rain, those massive puddles we had to run through make for very heavy shoes. Ran the 1st km in 4:07, the second in 4:06, and put the foot down to run 4:03 for the last one. Total time - 12:16. That was my equal best in 14 months :-) Finished off with a push-up PB of 40 (previous best was 36).

Wednesday did 20k with 5k easy then 15k averaging 5:03 pace. It was a bit humid out, I lost 1.5kg in sweat!

I've decided to skip this weekend's Caboolture 6hrs. I'm worried about how long it would take to recover from properly and thus resume normal training. And if things continue on the way they are going now, I reckon I can do a 50k PB in Canberra. Hope so anyway.

Hottest 100

2008-01-30T12:37:00.000+10:00

Well, after a shocker last year I did better in my guessing this time in the little comp with Mat and Toasty. We get to pick 5 songs that we think will make the top ten. My predictions (in no particular order), and where they rated were ...

(2) Silverchair - Straight Lines
(9) Soko - I'll Kill Her
(27) Operator Please - Just A Song About Ping Pong
(1) Muse - Knights of Cydonia
(39) Cut Copy - Hearts On Fire

I would've bet anything that Silverchair would end up number 1. They were close with just 13 votes out of the 700,000 odd recieved separating them from Muse. I also thought Operator Please would rate much higher. Cut Copy was my 'dark horse', I was way off!

Anyway, I ended up with 3. Mat also scored 3 but I picked the number 1 so that put me in front :-) Toasty scored 2.

So, they were my predictions but these were my ten official votes ...

Bonde Do Role - Solta O Frango
Camera Obscura - If Looks Could Kill
(21) Chemical Brothers - The Salmon Dance
(59) Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
Jamie T - Sheila
Jens Lekman - The Opposite Of Hallelujah
Kenneth Bager (Feat. Julee Cruise) - Les Fleurs
Mark Ronson (Feat. Amy Winehouse) - Valerie
Matt Costa - Mr. Pitiful
(9) Soko - I'll Kill Her

Good to see a few of them made the top 100.

Anyone else out there vote?

Steak & Kidney

2008-01-29T17:53:00.000+10:00

Very easy run Monday.

Tuesday at PCRG was hills - probably my fave session.

Late night Tuesday at The Police (concert, not station!) so skipped the early start at Mt Coot-tha and ran a cruisey 15k later. Also didn't want hills 2 days in a row.

Thurs and Fri at PCRG was 1 x 4mins, 2 x 3mins, 2 x 2 mins. Went 100% on Thurs and about 80% on Fri.

Spent the long weekend in Sydney and did the CR 5k Challenge on Saturday. Started with JD and Rags in the 22min group and fear of them running me over kept me honest. Splits were roughly 4:20, 4:20, 4:20, 4:16, 4:16. Nice and consitent with a strong finish - can't complain about that. Total time was 21:32, my best 5k in a couple of years. Can't complain about that either :-)

Long run Sunday - ran from Annandale to Five Dock to Drummoyne and hooked up with a bunch of Striders and set off on the Western Wanderers course. Hung in with them and their sub 5:10 pace for about 18k then took the shortcut back to the bay (and slowed down) before running back to Annandale. About 38k all up in 3hrs 25mins.

Total for the week - 110k

Heading back from Friday's PCRG sess at West End Ironman Scott.

All is still going well. In the past I've usually done 80 to 90k per week in the lead up to marathons. The extra kms are coming from doing a slow recovery run rather than having a rest day (though I will rest if I feel I need to), and doing a warmup before the warmup at PCRG. Anyway, it didn't seem to hurt my 5k on Saturday.

I think I'll max out at 110k though. I'm not tired or too niggly but don't want to take any chances.

So Far So Good

2008-01-21T11:06:00.000+10:00

Week 1
Started with the traditional NYE morn lap of Mt Coot-tha (at cruise pace - 52mins) and barby brekky.

Easy runs on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Went to PCRG Thursday and Friday (took it easy Fri) but on Thurs ran hard and had a very slight improvement from last month in my 1k reps (4:01 to 4:05).

Saturday - 25k in around 2h10m.

10k 'no watch' run at BRRC on Sunday. My plan was to run at 5min pace and allowing for a couple of drink stops I nominated a time of 50:10. Thought I was going a bit too fast so slowed it down at the 9k mark. Finished in 50:40 - I really needed to speed it up in that last km!

Total for the week - 92k

Week 2
Very easy run Monday.

Tuesday was the monthly 3k TT but my calf had been bugging me since Monday arvo, the sort of dull pain you get after a cramp. So at the last minute decided not to race it. Celeste, Tom and I surrounded new recruit Sonja who said she wanted a sub 16. We told her she could do 15 and actually dragged her (and nagged her) to a 14:27!

Had a good Mt Coot-tha on Wednesday (48:55), and it seemed to sort the calf out.

Solid session Thursday at the PCRG steady run (incl 10k at 4:50 pace).

Was feeling good Friday at PCRG and so really worked hard (various timed efforts).

28k on Saturday averaging 5:30 pace.

Short Green Bridge loop with Dan on Sunday at around 6min pace. Cooled off in the South Bank pool afterwards - noice :-)

Total for the week - 100k

Sonja, Tess & Celeste at finish of the TT

Week 3
Very easy run Monday.

Tuesday was mostly 30/30s at PCRG. Rather than risk hurting myself (as I seem to do on the short stuff) did the fast ones at about 90% and the slow ones a little faster than a jog.

Wednesday did one of my best Coot-tha laps ever - 47:16 :-) Got to the ABC in 19:16. Now to work on going under 19.

Thurs and Fri at PCRG was 2 x 3mins and 1 x 6mins plus some GC hills. Went 100% on Thurs and about 80% on Fri.

Did 30k on Saturday (av 5:25 pace). It was a struggle, I wasn't so much tired but the legs could sure feel all the hard work from the previous four days.

14k at BRRC on Sunday. Though it had been a big week thought I'd go and just do a steady run as it was part of the championship series and points were up for grabs. Sat on 4:50s for most of the way but actually felt stronger in the second half and was able to pass a few people. Final km was 4:32. Did a 30 second negative split and finished 4th (lady) in 66:52.

Total for the week - 108k

Tess & Sal - almost at the top of GC Hill

Pretty happy with the way things are progessing so far. The extra milage doesn't seem to be doing any harm, no more niggles than usual and I'm starting to 'feel' fit.

And now for the best news - I managed to top the points table for the BRRC Champs for 2007! That's what happens when those faster than you (and trust me, there are more than a few) don't compete in the minimum 4 races. Or they are injured. Or pregnant.

Just call me Steven Bradbury :-)

Another Year Over (Almost)

2007-12-31T11:25:00.000+10:00

The last three weeks have looked like this ....

10/12 - easy 8k
11/12 - ran to PCRG, hills, ran to NQ ferry - 16k
12/12 - Mt Coot-tha in 47:58 - 9.5k
13/12 - 4 & 2 & 3 min efforts at PCRG - 9.5k
14/12 - ran to PCRG (same sess as Thur) - 14.5k
16/12 - 18k at 5:20 pace - everyone in cruise mode post Kurrawa
17/12 - BRRC 15k in 69:50. Worked hard but not totally flat out, just enough to snaffle first spot ... all the fast girls were doing the 5k race :-)

Weekly total - 90.5k

17/12 - in between night shifts, too tired to run
18/12 - Christmas run at PCRG, mix of 1 min and 30 sec efforts while dodging kids with water pistols. Lots of fun! 9k.
19/12 - easyish lap of Coot-tha in 49:55. Ran there and back from home for 16k all up.
20/12 - ran to PCRG. 2 x 3 min, 1 x 6 min plus lots of GC hills. 15k in total.
21/12 - ran from work to PCRG (same sess as Thur) - 12k.
22/12 - easy 18k
23/12 - 10k at around 5min pace

Weekly total - 80k

24/12 - PCRG - lots of 30/30s plus one longer effort. 9.5k
25/12 - 3k warmup then traditional Xmas Day UQ track (took it easy though). 5k
26/12 - untimed short Green Bridge loop from home - 13k
27/12 - PCRG - 3 x 2 min efforts plus lots of 30/30s - 9k
28/12 - Fats Festive Fatass run. 5k up hill then turned around. Trip back over 6k due to navigational issues :-) Then 8k around The Gap for hilly 19k total.
29/12 - 17k at around 5:30 pace
30/12 - cruised around BRRC 10k at 5:10s with Lizzle. 15k all up incl warmup and warmdown.

Weekly total - 87.5k

Not quite getting those 100k weeks I was hoping for but at least nothing is hurting :-)

A few pics from the PCRG Xmas run ....

The 'boys'

Tesso, Billy, Clairie, Anna

The action (Matty & Andy) up the front .... I've gotta learn to run faster :-)

Some of the gang

Superheroes (Pat, Dan, Peter T)

PCRG babies - Hugo and Billy

Finally I'd like to say ....

See you all in 2008!

Kurrawa to Duranbah Relay

2007-12-13T15:44:00.000+10:00

The three weeks up until last Sunday have really been just getting ready for the annual Kurrawa to Duranbah Relay (25k each way).

Mon 19/11 - easy 10k
Tue 20/11 - ran to and from PCRG - 20k
Wed 21/11 - lap of Mt Coot-tha in 53.xx - 9.5k
Thu 22/11 - PCRG (mix of 4 and 2min efforts) - 9k
Fri 23/11 - ran to PCRG (same sess as Thurs, took it easier) - 14k
Sat 24/11 - easy run (New Farm Park loop) - 14.5k
Sun 25/11 - Boarders Half Marathon - aimed for 5 min pace and finished in 1:45.30 (happy to achieve goal though not happy it felt as hard as it did!).
3k warmdown for a daily total of 24k

101k for the week

Mon 26/11 - easy 5k
Tue 27/11 - PCRG (mix of 2min, 1min and 30sec efforts) - 9k)
Wed 28/11 - 2k w-u then 9.5k lap of Mt Coot-tha in 51.xx - 11.5k
Thu 29/11 - ran to South Bank for PCRG - 14k
Fri 30/11 - ran long way from work to South Bank for PCRG - 15k
Sat 1/12 - easy 5k then 18k at 5:15 pace - 23k
Sun 2/12 - ran to UQ via South Bank (10k) for BRRC Dash & Splash (5k) .... just dashed, couldn't be bothered splashing :-) - 15k

92.5k for the week

Mon 3/12 - easy 5k
Tue 4/12 - ran from work to PCRG for 3k TT.
Hoped for sub 13, ran 12:26 :-) - 11k
Wed 5/12 - Mt Coot-tha in 49:32. Happy with sub 50 for Coot-tha but didn't break 20 mins for 'the big hill' up to the ABC (a goal).
With a 4k warmup - 13.5k
Thu 6/12 - ran from home to PCRG for the monthly post TT steady run - 16k
Fri 7/12 - PCRG (mix of 3min, 2min, 1min and 30sec efforts) - 9.5kSat 8/12 - easy run as Kurrawa the next day .... and legs still a bit sore from Coot-tha - 5k
Sun 9/12 - Kurrawa to Duranbah - 25k

85k for the week

For Kurrawa I had an ultimate goal of 2:05 but knew it was a tough ask and expected to be closer to 2:10. I ran 2:08 last year, though that was the second leg and its a tad warmer by then. Then again I was fitter, my TTs were faster.

The first few kms of the race there was a bit of a mad dash, but I held myself back and sat on 5 minute pace. I'd say from about 4k onwards I started passing people, and nobody passed me for the rest of the run .... well nobody that I didn't get again shortly afterwards :-) I managed to sit on 5 minute pace the whole way and finished in 2:05.39. If not for my shoelaces coming undone (twice!!!), and for taking a wrong turn that was actually not a wrong turn and being called back by the guys behind me, I reckon I would have snuck under 2:05.

I felt really strong the whole way, so much better than in the Boarder's Half two weeks prior. Very happy with that considering I didn't taper. And best of all I had no DOMS to speak of in the days that followed.

I think something is working :-)

Back In The Swing

2007-11-20T11:42:00.000+10:00

Being back home means being back at work unfortunately. But at least it means being back at PCRG.

Mon 5/11 - Easy 10k.
Tue 6/11 - 6k, first half firm, next half easy.
Wed 7/11 - 15k incl 4 GC hill reps.
Thu 8/11 - 10k at PCRG (4 & 2 min efforts I think, I forget already).
Fri 9/11 - 12k at PCRG (same as Thu but took it easy, ran there from work).
Sat 10/11 - 23k incl long green bridge loop.
Sun 11/11 - Hilly Lone Pine run - 14k.
90k for the week

Mon 12/11 - Feeling crook. Managed 4k on the tready but that was it.
Tue 13/11 - 13k. Ran to PCRG from work. Lots of 1min and 30sec efforts.
Wed 14/11 - Feeling crook again so rested.
Thu 15/11 - 16.5k. Ran to PCRG - 2x3min, 1x6min, 1 half GC hill, 3 full GC hills.
Fri 16/11 - 8k - ran home from work and then some.
Sat 17/11 - 19.5k in the rain (lovely!) at av 5:10 pace.
Sun 18/11 - 8k incl 5k Champs at BRRC. Ran 22:10, a 34 second improvement on 2 weeks before :-)
69k for the week

Five or six weeks of 'just running' after Melbourne Marathon and I've lost so much speed. I can't keep up with the usual mob at Pat's ... unless of course they're all getting faster :-) Still, happy with the improvement in my 5k. There's another one in two weeks time, hopefully I can run under 22 again by then.

Touching Base

2007-11-04T18:20:00.000+10:00

Melbourne Marathon is now four weeks behind me. I'm finally started to feel recovered. No speed work for me still, rather just building/maintaining the base.

Mon - no watch 10k
Tue - rest
Wed - 14k
Thu - 17k
Fri - 14k
Sat - 19k
Sun - 11k

85k all up. Most of the runs were at Noosa so not exactly sure of the distances, so they are rough guesstimates. I forget the pace etc of each, it was a bit of a mix. Nothing too fast or stressful though.

***********

Ramped it up a bit more this week just gone ....

Mon - 17k easy
Tue - 12k firm
Wed - just over 15k @ 5:25s in the morning. Cool Night Classic in the evening - 1k warmup then ran 'steady' for the 5.75k race (time 28:30). 22k for the day.
Thu - Ran the 5k to PCRG where the session was a 50min run plus the 1k no watch. 16k all up.
Fri - 10k jog
Sat - 18k Green Bridge loop (av 5:15 pace)
Sun - 5k at BRRC as part of 3 x 5k relay. 22:44 which was a bit slower than I hoped for. I felt good but not good enough to go faster if that makes sense. Followed it with a 4k warmdown. A very easy 7k jog later in the afternoon to bring up 16k for the day.

All up 110k for the week and not feeling too fatigued at all. Gotta be happy with that :-)

Recovery Running

2007-10-22T19:40:00.000+10:00

Been taking it pretty easy since Melbourne ...

Week 1

Mon - rest
Tues, Wed and Thurs - walked a lap of the bay
Fri - easy 5k
Sat - rest
Sun - 11k at Lane Cove while Striders Internal Half was going on.

16k for the week.

Week 2

Mon - 2 easy laps of the bay (14k). Was ready to pull up after the first but bumped into Linda and so ran a couple more kms with her then kept on going.
Tues - rest
Wed - my final LKL before heading home :( Shame that neither Karin nor Eagle could make it, so it was just JD and I. 15k averaging slightly under 5min kms.
Thurs - rest
Fri - rest
Sat - 17k av 5:09 pace with the usual Brissie suspects.

46k for the week.

Off to Noosa in the morn for a holiday to get over my holiday so the bludging will likely continue for another week or so :)

Melbourne Marathon 2007

2007-10-09T15:07:00.000+10:00

Sunday I woke up still feeling crappy from my cold, the Sudafeds had dried up the runny nose but I had a headache. A couple of Nurofens fixed that ... temporarily.

I decided to stick to the original plan and try to go out at 3:30 pace. Got to halfway in just over 1:45. Even though I didn't feel great health wise that pace was quite comfortable and in fact I had to hold myself back a little.

I started to slow to 5:10s at around 25k, I think the drugs were wearing off as I was beginning to feel worse - a little headachy and the muscles in the back of my neck were sore. Also I was a bit nauseous. I had a Gu at around 20k and thought I should take another sometime, but only managed to force half of another one down at around 32k, that was all I could stomach. So annoying when the legs are fine!

Anyway, to cut a long story short I just kept on going as best I could. The final couple of kms were close to 6 minute pace, though by the sounds of my breathing you'd think I'd been doing 400m reps. The only reason I didn't walk at all was because I just wanted to get the race over and done with. Crossed in 3:38.13 (net time).

All things considered I'm happy with my time. I'd say the cold cost me maybe 4 or 5 minutes, but probably no more.

On a good note I had no muscle cramping, or blisters, or chafing. And I got to chat to fellow PCRG-ers and other Brissos, CRs, and bloggers at various stages along the way. And it was a fantastic course (definitely PB material) and so well organised. Its already on the cards for next year :-)

Who Nose

2007-10-05T20:45:00.000+10:00

The final week of tapering went like this ....

Monday - 8k easyish (around 5:15 pace).

Tuesday - 8k including 6k at (best that can be expected) marathon pace ie 5mins.

Wednesday - Cruisey 8k with JD and Eagle.

Thursday - Rest.

Friday - 6k including 10mins of 30/30s.

All seemed to be going well for the marathon on Sunday, not on target for a PB (3:26) but I felt I could get within 10mins of that. Yesterday I had a bit of a runny nose. Now I have a headcold, been blowing my nose and sneezing all day. I feel like crap :-(

Running this morning I could certainly notice the effects. Hopefully today was the worst of it. If not the flight to Melbourne in the morning won't be much fun. Neither will the marathon. I wasn't going to use my fuelbelt but might need to now to carry tissues.

Why do these things happen when you are taking it easy and not stressing yourself!

One Week To Go

2007-10-01T21:40:00.000+10:00

The second week of the taper went like this ...

Monday - Easyish 14k or so (1hr 15min)

Tuesday - 12k in total including efforts - 2 lots of '4 mins, 3 mins, 2 mins, 1 min' though I made the final 1 minute a 2 minute effort (cos that's what Pat would make us do). Finished off with 2 Lilyfield Rd reps.

Wednesday - 12k with JD, Ray and Karin. Pace felt easier than the 5:20s we were doing.

Thursday - 15 minutes of 30/30s. 10k incl warmup and warmdown.

Friday - Rest.

Saturday - CR 5k Challenge. I thought about pushing it on this one but decided on the morning just to aim for 22:30. Ended up with 22:28. It was sooooo windy, I doubt if I could have done much faster anyway. 10k all up.

Sunday - Rest.

Weekly total - 58k. The legs are starting to feel better with the reduced mileage.

I still haven't come up with a definite goal for the marathon. I'm thinking something in the 3:30s is doable. But which end of the 3:30s is the question.

Clickety Click

2007-09-25T09:40:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-17T10:09:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-10T14:34:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-03T09:20:00.000+10:00

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 ....

Running 101

2007-08-27T10:13:00.000+10:00

The past seven days looked something like this ...

Monday - 90 minute gym session (weights, core work etc).

Tuesday - 8 x 500m reps but with a reduced recovery (20 seconds). Aimed for 2:10s and was close, most were just a few seconds too quick. 12k all up including warmup and warmdown.

Wednesday - too wussy to run in the wind and rain so did 14k on the tready at the gym averaging 5min pace.

Thursday - the famous LKL run with JD, Eagle and Aunty K. A very pleasant run with some very pleasant company! All up around 18k. Not sure of the pace, a bit under 5:30s I guess.

Friday - 14k all up, some of it a bit under 5:30s, and some a bit over.

Saturday - CR 5k Challenge. Thought I'd do 22:30 or thereabouts and really couldn't see myself cracking 22 minutes. But I had Gnomey by my side the whole way and he was pacing perfectly, the km split times were only seconds apart. Crossed the line in 21:44. I'm sure he could have gone faster, especially when Rags caught us and then passed us, but he hung in there with me ... such a gentleman :-)
12k for the day including a 2k warmup and the run back to the start line.

Sunday - Started out with JD, ran 1k to the bay and did a lap (7k) with the goal of running 5min pace. Came in with a few seconds to spare. We tried to slow on the next lap but still it was 5:03s. Then he left me to my own devices and I managed another 16k without dropping too much speed. All up 31k in just over 2h37 (av 5:05s). Happy with that, but I was totally knackered!
Along the way bumped into Caro, Kit and Razor, and Marty, and stopped for a chat with all of them. So a very social outing.

Lots of kms for the week, 101 in fact :-) Still, is just six weeks until Melbourne I'm not feeling even close to ready.

Post C2S Post

2007-08-20T20:07:00.000+10:00

Since C2S .....

Mon - East recovery run, about 9k. Ventured out to Fitness First at North Strathfield. Ok, but nowhere near as nice as my local at Toowong.

Tue - 8 x Lillyfield Rd hill reps. Got faster on each one. First seven 3:17 to 3:04, then hammered the downhill on the 8th to do 2:53. 13k all up.

Wed - 1h40m (18k or so). Got a funny knee pain all of a sudden during the run, not sure what it was. Seemed to disappear almost as quickly as it came on.

Thu - If I tapped my kneecap I could feel a little pain :-( Wierd. Rather than risk anything by running I did 90min gym sess at FF in Park St in the city. This FF was more like what I was used to, though the girl at reception wanted to hit me for $15 for a card so I could put my gear in a locker! When I said "forget it" she mentioned I could use some others that were basically free (put in $2 but you get it back when you get your gear out).

Fri - Knee felt okay so did 90 min run at lunchtime around the bay and surrounds. Holy hell it was windy, I was almost hoping my knee would give me trouble so I'd have an excuse to bail!

Sat - Met up with CR Blues Buffett (as in Jimmy Buffett) at Woolies at Kings Langley. We ran on the track beside the M7 and soon hooked up with Ian (CR nite-time-runner) and his boy Lachy (on his bike). Not sure where we were but it was a great run! They took me over part of the Cities Marathon course. The time flew. We were planning just 90 minutes but by the time we got back to the cars it was 1h 55m. It was a bit of a hike from Annandale but sure worth the effort. Can't wait to do it again!

Sun - I was planning a long run but didn't want to go in the rain (very wussy) so instead hit the gym (Park St again) for 90 mins.

*****

A few happy snaps from C2S ....

Superflake, Tesso & Duffman at the startline

Passing the cheersquad (just before the 13k mark)

Approaching the finish line

Post race celebrations

And speaking of C2S, my teammate Andrew and I came second in the Interstate and/or Overseas Mixed Team division - woohoo!

City To Surf

2007-08-13T19:32:00.000+10:00

Friday - Annandale to King's Wharf and around Darling Harbour then back via the waterfront and Anzac Bridge then around the streets until I clocked up 90 mins.

Saturday - 2 laps of the bay from Timbrell. Ran anti-clockwise then clockwise wondering if I'd bump into anyone I knew - nope! Then did a bit of an out and back and lap of Timbrell until I'd done 90 minutes.

****

Sunday - City To Surf

After the previous couple of days I figured I was likely to come in around 68 minutes, so set the goal as sub 70. Got to the start line around 7am for the traditional CR gathering. I so look forward to this, its such a big part of the event. I also look forward to the chocolate flakes provided by Superflake :-) Its amazing just how quickly that two hours go when you are in such good company!

Run wise I found it hard to get too enthused to bust a gut, I didn't see the point in thrashing myself and not being able to run for a couple of days. Its not that easy to go flat out in the crowd anyway. Still, I didn't totally bludge. Heartbreak Hill was hard, I swear there were an extra couple of hills thrown in at the end of it! Got to halfway in a couple of seconds over 35 minutes and started to worry a little that I might not break 70 minutes.

It was getting pretty hot out there, definitely the warmest of all four C2S's I've done. But I'd forgotten how much easier the second half of the race is, especially from about 10k onwards. And there's always the anticipation of running past the cheersquad at 13k, just thinking about that gives you such a lift.

Running the home straight I could hear Pat on the mike and so turned off the iPod and ran over to the side of the road the stage is on so he could see me and screamed out "hey Pat!!!" It was so cool, he must've announced my name at least three times.

I ran under the finish clock just as it was clicking over to 67 minutes, but forgot to sprint on to the time card people, my official finish time was 67:05. A three minute negative split and under target - gotta be happy with that :-)

Everybody wants to work ...

2007-08-09T18:52:00.000+10:00

..... no no not me!

So, why is this song stuck in my head? Might have something to do with having three months long service leave :-)

Which explains my absence from Blogsville. First up I was busy cleaning up my unit for my house sitter. Place looked so good I almost stayed. Then I had to pack. Then drive. Then settle in to my new temporary digs. And I had no internet access until now. But its just dial up which runs slower than I do.

*****

The last couple of weeks have looked like this ....

Thu - 4 x 1k. Times were 3:58 to 4:10. Not looking so good for the TT.

Sat - 32k (av 5:28 pace) with Mat & Sal. A great run, and Sal's first river loop :-)

Sun - 50mins or so with Toasty

Tue - 3k TT in 12:37. I think I talked myself into a shocker! At least it was 4 seconds faster than the last one.

Wed - lap of Mt Coot-tha with Mat, Celeste, Tom & Andrew. Tom & Andrew's first Mt Coot-tha :-)

Thu - my last PCRG session for a while :-( For some strange reason Pat thought I was leaving for good. I wonder what crazy (pregnant) person gave him that idea. It was sooooo much fun! I even got a giant card signed by everyone and a lovely pressie. I think I'll have to pretend to go away forever more often.

Fri - a lovely 50 minute run around Forster. What a beautiful place, I was tempted to set up house there until November ;-)

Sat - 8 x 500m efforts at Timbrell Park. Ran these a bit slower than I normally would (around 2:10 to 2:15 pace) but with a reduced recovery (20 to 25 seconds).

Hmmm, that 500m marker must be here somewhere ...

Sun - Annandale, Glebe, Pyrmont, Anzac Bridge loop. Kept on going until I'd notched up 70mins.

Mon - too lazy to do my long run on the weekend so 30k in and around the bay (av 5:27 pace). Very tough on my own - as much as I can't survive without my iPod give me my usual running buddies for company any day!

Tue - easy lap of the bay

Wed - weights and stuff at the little gym downstairs

Thu - 3k warmup followed by efforts at Timbrell - 4min, 2min, 4min, 2min, 4min, 2min, 4min (30sec JR). 2k warmdown.

*****

It certainly doesn't take long to get used to this holiday caper. Hopefully I'll catch up with some Sydneysiders soon. Perhaps if I could haul myself outside to run before 9am I might even bump in a few of them around the bay. I guess there'll be one or two C2S on Sunday :-)

Back On Track

2007-07-25T14:02:00.000+10:00

Its our TT next Tuesday so that meant 500m reps yesterday. I was rapt to record my best ones in months - 1:55, 1:52, 1:57, 1:55, 1:58, 1:52. The first, third and fifth are slightly uphill ... which means the others are slightly downhill :-) I couldn't have done it if it wasn't for the little pack of 8 or so of us that I ran in, we dragged eachother along each time.

Did another lunchtime run today, 15k in 1:13.30 (av 4:54s). Though I pushed harder in the second half to negative split it by 1m30s. Feels like a good start to the Melbourne Marathon training.

A more few pics from the GC (thanks Pat!). Let's hope I feel this good in the final kilometre in October .... or at any stage of the race for that matter :-)

Zoom Zoom Zoom

2007-07-23T12:33:00.000+10:00

Friday morn went back to PCRG for another session of 4 x 4 mins, though this time I held back a bit. I wanted to try out my new shoes, Nike Air Zoom Elite, which I won at Warwick. They were a random prize kindly donated by fellow five time Warwick-er Peter Hall who owns and operates Victory Sports at the Gold Coast. They felt great, though I think I'll save them for shorter stuff like speed work for the time being. I like the green :-)

*****

Saturday morning met up with Mat and Sal early and we put in about 4.5k before hooking up with the 6am crew. Not sure how far we ran altogether as Mat's Garmin exploded along the way, I'm guessing 25k.

That evening was the PCRG annual dinner. What a top night! So much seemed to happen and it was all over way too fast. I'll post some pics tomorrow. There were so many great moments but one of the highlights of the night was the announcement that in our Gold Coast campaign we raised well over $17000 for Childhood Cancer Support!

*****

Took the Nike's for another run at lunchtime today. I'm not used to running on my own so was happy to bump into Little Claire (who thankfully was walking so at least I could keep up!) and then later on Annie. A very leisurely 11k all up.

Nikki is Cold

2007-07-19T13:58:00.001+10:00

Tuesday morn at PCRG was 1 minute efforts. Though I couldn't really call mine 'efforts' as I spent most of the time running with Tara and chatting. The last couple I ramped it up from half-hearted to about three-quarter-hearted.

Wednesday was supposed to be a lap of Mt Coot-tha with Mat. But it was also supposed to be 5 degress so I was a Neville No-Show.

This morning at PCRG we had 4 min efforts with a 30 sec SR. I figured it was about time I pulled my finger out and got stuck into it. Trouble is I thought Pat said we were doing three of them so gave it my all on the third only to find we had to do another. That hurt. Felt good but.

Speaking of all things 4 according to the Met Bureau when we set off the temp was sub 4, and the apparent temp was under 1. Even my eyes were cold! I can't recall ever rugging up so much to run, layer upon layer. Just call me Sarah Lee. Or Nikki.

Was It Something I Said

2007-07-16T14:47:00.000+10:00

Did another PCRG session Friday (same as Thursday) and then the 18k green bridge loop Saturday. Though this time we went in reverse, which is a bit harder hill wise. Still, I like the fact that we do West End bit first rather than making an optional 5k extra at the end.

It was a good run, averaging 5:10 pace for the 18k, though Mat tells me there were a few sub 5s in there, and one km was a 4:38. With a few km to go some of the guys were several hundred metres in front so I put the foot down and finally caught them 1k from the finish. Toasty took one look at me (I was huffing and puffing from the effort) and with an evil grin said something like "let's go guys" and they all bolted :-)

Haven't run since Saturday - still milking the old marathon recovery for all its worth. But really its this cold weather, it makes it so difficult to get motivated and get out there. Last month was our coldest June since 1950, I wouldn't be surprised if its a similar thing for July.

Easing Back Into It

2007-07-12T12:32:00.000+10:00

Made the return to PCRG on Tuesday. I can't even say exactly what the session was, some 1 minute reps and some 30 second ones. Pat suggested that those of us who did the marathon take it easy so I did, and just ran the circuit around the Gardens chatting with a few of the girls. Fun :-)

*****

This morning at PCRG we all wore pink to show support for annual Think Pink Week and the Kim Walters Choices Program. Terry from 97.3 FM joined us for the warm-up and crossed live to air a couple of times. We made a stop at Riverside where the rest of the morning crew were broadcasting from.

The session itself was a mix of 4 and 2 minute efforts. The first couple I held back a bit and then ramped it up to about 75% in the second couple. Felt good.

Pity Pat didn't have his camera on hand, the boys all looked so pretty.

*****

I've more or less decided Melbourne Marathon (Oct 7th) will be the next one. I was going to do Sydney but this will give me an extra two weeks to train. And how good would it be finishing with a lap of the MCG. It seems stacks of Brissos are going, could be a good little party happening Sunday night :-)

Gold Coast Post Mortem

2007-07-09T13:32:00.000+10:00

Not just did I feel great during the marathon, I seemed to have pulled up really well from it. The legs weren't too bad at all, a little bit of DOMS but nothing like I normally have even after half marathons. Go figure!

But as for why the race went so well I'm still trying to work it out. Considering my lack of long runs my strength in that final 10k had to come from somewhere and I can only think its all the physio and core stability exercises (minimum of 1 hour a day, 5 or 6 days a week). Not to mention the 22 push-ups after each PCRG session and some other runs :-)

As for my race day strategy I used the McMillan calcualtor to work out what I was capable of in the race, recent results said 3:30 to 3:34 so went out at a pace that would bring me home around 3:35. I really didn't expect to be able to maintain it but had enough left in the tank to kick it in the guts in the final stages, with the two kms being just under 5 minute pace.

A finish time of 3:34.14 came as a surprise (especially considering I lost half a minute or so sitting at a bus stop attending to a sock malfunction). Makes me kind of excited thinking about what I can do if I can string a three months of injury free training together before the next one.

*****

Post race I had a whole five days with lots of eating, a little wine drinking, and no running.

Saturday was an easy 8k.

Yesterday was the 14k at BRRC - finish time 66:03 (av 4:43s). Huge congrats to fellow PCRG-er Michelle for winning the novice race, with Margy a close second - see girls, those push-ups do pay off!

*****

A couple of pics from the big day ....

With CR Tuttle just before kick-off (thanks to Hannah)

At 41k (thanks to Mike R from PCRG)

Gold Coast Marathon 2007

2007-07-03T09:18:00.000+10:00

Just a quick post as I'm about to head off for a couple of days R & R. I might write a longer one when I return.

'A' goal was 3:45, 'B' goal was 3:55, secret goal 3:38, super secret goal was 3:36.

In short, I had the perfect run. Set out to run 5:05 to 5:10 pace the whole way, and lo and behold I managed it. A few kms were a little faster, and a couple a few seconds slower but basically I was able to hold it together for the whole 42.195k.

Finish time - 3:34.14.

No wall, no cramping, no heavy legs, no flat spots, no nothing :-) I have never ever felt so good in a marathon.

More later. Gotta go sit in a spa, eat chocolate and drink champagne.

All Over Bar The Shouting

2007-06-29T21:59:00.000+10:00

First up here are a couple of pics from our pre-GC dinner on Tuesday night. What a great night. How lucky were we to get words of wisdom from two of Australia's best marathoners.

Kerryn McCann & Pat

Liz, Tess, Kerryn, Tara

*****

It was a fun session at PCRG yesterday. We did some 30/30s, but not flat out. There was no pressure, which was great as I got to hang out with Clairie a lot. Everybody was in top moods, there was such a buzz amongst the group. I guess it was a mix of nerves and excitement.

On Sunday my plan is to go out around 5:05 to 5:10 pace and see what happens. Its unlikely but if I can maintain that I'll come home under 3h40m. Think I'll load at least 4 hours of music on the iPod just in case :-)

So that's it. I'd like to say all the work has been done but for me it hasn't. However, I've done as much as I possibly could have given the circumstances, can't ask much more than that.

Good luck to all, especially my fellow PCRG-ers who are running their very first half or full marathon. I am just so excited for you.

See you on the other side of the finish line :-)

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

2007-06-27T14:24:00.000+10:00

Yesterday at PCRG after our warm up we had to do 3 or 4k at Sunday's race pace. I'm hoping to finish the marathon around the 3h45m to 3h50m mark so Tammy, Fi & I aimed to do around 5.17 pace. We were kind of close, a bit slow at times, a bit fast at others.

This morning I met up with more of the PCRG crew for a very easy 50mins. We did a bit of running in and around South Bank, mainly because we were trying to get our mugs on TV - the Today show was being broadcast live from there.

Mission accomplished, though if you blinked you would have missed it. Fellow PCRG-er Phil H recently took part in a big bike ride (GC to Rocky) and they raised $21000 for the charity. As he was being interviewed by Cam we ran past in the background :-)

*****

As I said I'm hoping to finish in around 3h50m at the GC but as I've only managed one 30k+ run since Canberra that time was factoring in slowing down and/or walking towards the end.

Putting my recent half mara, 3k and last Sunday's 10k times into a race time calculator it comes up with just over 3h30m. So now I'm wondering, should I go out at that pace (say 5:05ish) and see what happens? Or should I go out at a slower pace?

Either way the lack of long runs is going to get me and I'll be feeling the pinch well before the finish line is in sight.

Decisions ... decisions ...

BRRC 10 Champs

2007-06-25T09:29:00.000+10:00

Saturday morn Mat and I started out early and put in about 5k before hooking up with the 6am gang for an 18k green bridge loop. I had no idea what pace we were going and was pleasantly surprised to find out we averaged 5:07s for the 23k as it felt very comfy.

It was great to have a couple of 'special guests' along - Michael from PCRG, and Sharon, who was 2nd lady in the Great Wall Marathon last month.

*****

Sunday morning was the 10k Champs at BRRC where I expected to come in around the 46 minute mark. Not that I was going to hold back, that's what I thought I was capable of at the moment.

Right from the outset Karen, Linda, Parmy and I formed a little pack. The four of us are around the same standard so it was game on! There were just two girls ahead of us and after a few kms we reeled one of them in. The other is a 40 minute 10k runner, there was no chance of getting her.

Man, it was such hard working hanging in there. Half of me was saying 96 points for 5th would be good and I'd win my category anyway, but the other half said "toughen up" and go for 2nd and 99 points. Unfortunately for her around the 6k mark Parmy dropped backed a little (also suffering the dreaded gammy hammy syndrome) so that left three of us battling it out. With 3k to go I got a tiny bit ahead of them but knowing Karen has such a strong finish expected her to come back at me any time, and just after the 9k mark she did just that.

I tried my darnedest but couldn't catch Karen, but was glad she gave me a reason to push hard right to the end to finish 3 seconds behind her in 44:55. And Linda was just 3 seconds behind me to notch up her second best time over the distance. I can't remember the last time I raced like that. It was really tough and trying to stay focused was such a challenge. But it was kind of fun. And how good is it to run in a pack and push eachother like that!

There were lots of happy people out there including fellow bloggers Shane, Eddie, Blair (who I will hunt down next time!), and Robert Song. What a run in the 5k by Robert's Song's boy Kewell who's looking very good for the junior event at the GC next week.

Also I noticed several other PCRG-ers stepping up to collect bling for age category wins or places - great stuff guys!

Congrats also to Clairie who did the 10k Running4Research that started down the road after we wrapped up. Just a pity there wasn't a prize for "first pregnant lady who had to run part of the course with a 2k sign that BRRC inadvertently left out because she didn't want anyone in the Running4Research race to get confused".

Countdown

2007-06-22T17:06:00.000+10:00

Wednesday morn I'd planned to meet some PCRG-ers at The Ship Inn. It was blowing a gale outside, and a bit on the chilly side, so it was like a dream come true when I turned my my mobile on 5am and there was a msg from Tammy to say everybody was piking - whew! Hit the gym later. I was hoping to do 10-12k but ran out of time and only did 2k before getting in to my other usual exercises.

The decline continued later when, at the Dendy Portside, the 3 week pre-marathon wagon made a brief pit stop I needed a red wine to warm myself up. Went and saw new Aussie flick Lucky Miles. Its great, though not being a Hollywood blockbuster (far from it!) it probably won't get too much pubicity. When I told people I was going the first question most asked was "Is it about running?" :-) Anyway, as Molly would say, do yourself a favour.

*****

Thursday morn at PCRG was our steady run and no-watch 1k. Funny, even though it was cold nobody was whinging too much, we were just glad that it was better than Wednesday.

Once again I was totally off with my 1k - I tried for 4:35 but did 4:16.

*****

This morning at PCRG was 6 x 2 min efforts on a loop in the Gardens that must be around 500m or so. As Pat said it was our last real hit out before GC, and being a shorter session I thought I'd push myself. It felt good. And I managed not to get lapped. But only just, one more rep and Matty would have blasted past me ... and of course he let me know :-)

*****

Gold Coast .... 9 more sleeps .... we're excited!

PCRG - 3k TT

2007-06-19T20:39:00.000+10:00

Went out for a 10k no-watch run late Sunday morning, so late that by the time I got home it was afternoon. Anyway, after a pretty painful 32k the previous day this run was close to pain free. That's what happens when I don't have a rest day :-)

Bumped into Pat and Sue who were enjoying a lovely winter's day at South Bank.

*****

It wasn't cold but it sure was windy for this morning's 3k TT. I was hoping to go under 12:25 but that goal was out the window when, after battling a shocking headwind, I hit halfway in 6:26. The run back certainly felt easier, I did it in 6:15. So not a good total time (12:41) but I wasn't too disappointed when I found out most people were 10 to 20 seconds off what they hoped for. And its not often I do a negative split.

There was no hammy pain. Well, not while running. I have it now sitting here.

Conditions and times aside it was such a great morning as we were getting filmed for Pat's latest DVD and that's always a laugh. Needless to say there were quite a few shenanigans that Clairie and I thought were funny at the time that could prove to be embarrassing later. At least we weren't the only ones in the congo line :-)

Too Cool For School

2007-06-16T17:20:00.000+10:00

PCRG on Thursday was 2 x 1500m (1min SR) and then something when we finished that, depending how long it took. My times were a little sad, though consistent, both 6:15s. Then with barely 25 seconds rest it was off on an out to 'the white van' and back. The van was parked past the 500m mark, so that turned into a 1.x rep. Not sure exactly how far but it took me 4:28.

Not the best session time wise, I just can't seem to get moving in the cold ... though the actual temp was around 9, the apparent temp was just over 6. I had the long sleever on for the whole time. On a good note, however, the hammy seemed happy :-)

I was thinking of backing up for the same session Friday, with the idea of taking it slower, but told myself I was due a rest day. To be honest though I just couldn't face the thought of being out there in the cold again. Should've gone, it was perfect - around 14 degrees.

*****

Hit the road about 5.15am this morning and put in a couple of kms on my own before joining in other early starters Mat, Sal and Andrew for half an hour. We then met up with the 6am people and headed out to New Farm and beyond.

I ended up running for just over 2h50m and doing about 32k. It was a real struggle. Unlike Thursday the hammy was annoying most of the way and it wasn't until the 28k mark that it started to feel alright.

Funny, its always much worse after a rest day. The best its felt in months was immediately after the Warwick Pentathrun. Hmmmm, and its supposed to be an overuse injury.

QUEENSLANDER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-06-13T17:35:00.000+10:00

Yesterday on the pgm at PCRG it was -

1k - 3:59
500m - 1:58
1k - 4:07
500m - 1:57
1k - 4:06

For those around me we followed this up with a 2 min effort. Then a handful of us finished up with a run up Gold Coast Hill before heading back to base.

My times for the reps weren't that great, I wasn't expecting them to be, but a slight improvement on last month. So I might be heading in the right direction once more. Tuesday's 3k TT will tell all.

*****

With an RDO today I didn't see the point in braving the cold for a 5.30am start. By 8am when I left for my run (a 12.5k green bridge loop from home) it had warmed up a fraction but but the wind had picked up. It made for slightly unpleasant conditions in parts, especially along the river.

That makes five days running in a row, the most I've done in a couple of months.

Saw Al the Pod later in the afternoon for a pre GC check up. He made some adjustments with things which will make me run way faster :-)

Saw Mark the Massage Man even later in the afternoon for a pre GC check up. He made some adjustments with things too - yowser!

*****

State of Origin :-)

My nephew about an hour before kickoff.

PCRG Gold Coast Rehearsal

2007-06-12T12:59:00.001+10:00

On Saturday morn I just wanted a shortish run. After setting off with the entire gang on the green bridge loop once we hit Highgate Hill I took the 'soft option' and ran straight back to South Bank with Andrew and Brett. All up 12.5k or thereabouts.

*****

Headed down to Runaway Bay later in the arvo for the PCRG GC Rehearsal weekend. It was great, and so relaxing just hanging out and chatting over drinkies and dinner.

Sunday morning we all set out at 6am and ran on the course to the marathon turnaround point and then back south. For this section Andrew and I stuck together and were constantly pushing out 4:50kms, though it didn't feel that 'fast'. He turned back at Southport and I ran most of the stretch down to Surfers and back with Fi, the pace dropped back to around 5:30s I think. I did the last few kms on my own as I needed to speed up a little in order to minimise the hammy/glute pain.

At around 27k all up that's my longest run since Canberra, the legs sure knew about it though :-( Makes me wonder how I'm going to do another 15k on top of that in a few weeks time.

*****

Stayed overnight at Mermaid Beach Sunday night and Monday morning though it would be good to do the remaining 15k so it was down to the Miami turnaround and up to Surfers and back.

Talk about absolutely perfect running conditions at the coast both days, you honestly couldn't ask for anything better. If its like that on marathon day I'll almost be happy that I'll be out there for a long time :-)

Green Light Go

2007-06-08T11:04:00.000+10:00

Yesterday at PCRG it was efforts (5mins, 4mins, 5mins, 3mins, a hill), and it was an effort. I was struggling, both physically and mentally. I think I was just really tired from working the night before. I was happy to push through and get it done.

Saw physio Adam later in the afternoon after spending 80 mins at the gym. Not sure if that was the best idea, then again he got to see the effects of both a hard PCRG session and all my strengthening exercises. Anyway, the good news is he's give me the okay to totally resume my normal program - yay!

So by my calculations that gives me three days training before its taper time for the Gold Coast .... I started with a rest day today :-)

PCRG - Hills

2007-06-06T12:22:00.000+10:00

Yesterday at PCRG it was a hill session in The Gardens. I had a bit of DOMS from Sunday's race (especially in my calf muscles) so started out steady. Nothing much hurt so just gradually increased the effort with each hill. And to make up for not going 100% on the ups I didn't back off on the downs.

After the final rep we all gathered at the top of the hill and Pat selected four people, including Julie, to do one last shorter rep. As they headed down he sneakily informed us it was Julie's birthday as so as she powered up the hill we formed a guard of honour and sang "Happy Birthday". Cute :-)

Its A Fine Line ...

2007-06-05T11:12:00.001+10:00

between pleasure ...

and pain ....

I think at Doomben on Sunday I crossed that fine line around the 18k mark :-)

Scott asked if there was any reason I did it so hard. I'm putting it down to a combination of no long runs, the fatigue from 90 mins of physio exercises, core work, stretching etc at the gym Saturday, and lack of iron in the diet of late (thanks for the reminder Clairie, I ate half a cow on Sunday night). But I reckon its mainly not doing those long runs.

Perhaps what I need is some performance enhancing drugs. Then again ....

Qld Half Marathon

2007-06-03T17:34:00.000+10:00

The 'A' goal today was to run sub 1h40m, the 'B' goal sub 1h45m. I did a three km warmup before the start, not really to warm up but because the physio has said I can start doing longer runs :-)

The first 14 or 15k were going okay, I was just slightly under target. But after that things started getting tough and it was a real effort. At around 18k the 1h40m pack caught up to me, and Steve L (the pacer) gave me a tap on the arm and some words of encouragement. It was just what I needed, and I hung in with them.

At 20k I was shot. Thank goodness Langy was out on the course warming down and saw how much I was suffering ... so made me suffer more and dragged me that final stretch before turning into the grounds of the racecourse. From there it was just a 'sprint' to the finish and I crossed the line in 1:39.20 or 21.

So I was more than happy with my time, but certainly not happy with how I felt, especially in the closing stages. It was almost akin to that feeling you get at the 35k mark in a marathon. Without the encouragement of fellow PCRG-ers Celeste (who finished about 10 seconds in front of me), Steve L and Langy I doubt if I would have achieved my goal, so am very grateful to all of them.

On the bright side I came 2nd in my category.

And it was a course PB.

And once again rather than a finisher's t-shirt we got a towel, way more useful.

And I got to listen to lots of great music - started with The Saints "Swing For The Crime", finished with The Strokes "Hawaii Aloha".

And my new in-ear earphones worked a treat - no more elastoplast holding the bud types in!

But best of all I got to give both Speedygeoff and Robert Song a post race punch in the belly :-)

Do This Don't Do That

2007-06-01T11:35:00.000+10:00

With many of the crew competing at Doomben on Sunday (half marathon or 10k - I've entered the half) Thursday morning's session was 30/30s followed with the monthly no-watch 1k. I nominated 4:35 for that.

The 30/33s were good, not too strenuous. As we were lining up for the 1k Toasty hunted me down and informed my he'd put down the same time as me, he wanted the opportunity to stir me for 4 minutes and 35 seconds. Luckily for me we were a tad ahead of pace and finished in 4:09.

Saw Adam the physio later in the afternoon and he says I can/should ...
increase the length of my runs - yay!
not to do slow runs as they seem to hurt more - makes sense
run every second day for now to allow for recovery - dang!
eat chocolate every day - I think I made that one up :-)

PCRG - 3k TT

2007-05-30T11:49:00.000+10:00

My 3k TTs of late have been like a game of Snakes and Ladders and this month I went along knowing I'd land on a snake. After running 12:16 two months ago I figured with my lack of speed work since I was in about 12:30 shape.

I hit the 1k mark in about 4:02, a bit too fast. And it showed in the next km (4:16). At the 2k mark I knew I had to really hit the straps. Thankfully Clairie was marshalling just past that spot and gave me just the encouragement I needed. I crossed the line in 12:28.

Pretty happy with that. Isn't it amazing how you get to know what you are capable of on any given day.

Oh, and not much hammy pain.

Big congrats to my regular Wednesday and Saturday running buddies Toasty, Andrew and (little) Tara on achieving PBs - great stuff. Though now Andrew is now within a smidgen my PB. Bugger! I've gotta stop telling him he's soft ;-)

*****

Met up with Wednesday regulars Brett and Andrew at The Regatta this morn. It was a pleasant surprise it was to have PCRG-er Sal join us.

We rolled along at a cruisey pace for the first 2ks and then kicked it in the guts all the way to the end of The Gardens, running around 4:35s. The three of them then turned for home as I continued on ... and slowed it down to probably just under 5s.

There were heaps of PCRG-ers out there, including Celeste who was doing reps of Gold Coast Hill as punishment for sleeping through the alarm and missing the TT yesterday :)

All up 15k in just under 1hr 12 mins. Hammy was feeling a bit tight towards the end but not enough to make me want to stop running.

Monday Music - 28th May 2007

2007-05-28T21:15:00.001+10:00

Bonde Do Role - Solta O Frango

Probably not the best thing to come out of Brazil but its so catchy. And a good running song. Apologies to anyone who gets the song stuck in their head (like I did). You've gotta love the film clip though.

I have no idea what its all supposed to mean but one web site translates "solta o frango" as "it loosens the chicken" :-)

Don't Just Sit There

2007-05-28T08:00:00.000+10:00

After recovering so well from Warwick and a great week of running I was looking forward to my 15k on Saturday. But from the first step, in fact even before the first step, the hammy/glute pain was apparent.

I ran with the pack out to NF Park and then turned and ran back from there with Mat & Josef. They were after a shorter run and peeled off over the Goodwill while I threw in extra - I was determined to run the maximum allowed by the physio!

I wanted to see how it all felt running faster, and with the increase in pace there was a slight decrease in pain.

I'd had a rest day Friday and spent 12 hours sitting at work followed by another couple of hours sitting at the desk at home trying to resolve a problem with my internet access. Funny that it flares up after that but two days of running at Warwick seemed to improve it.

*****

Sunday was the 7k Champs at BRRC, a race I really didn't want to miss. Still, after the previous day's experience I was prepared to not run if the pain was as bad. The goal was 31m30s ie av 4:30s ... and to get as many championship points as I could :-)

Did a 3k warmup and all was better than Saturday so figured I'd line up and race. There wasn't a big crowd as there were a couple of other running events on elsewhere. Two of my usual 'rivals', Karen and Linda, were at BRRC but on duty. That was disappointing in a way, we often work off eachother in races.

We were off and I was cruising along nicely, all my splits bar one under the 4:30 mark. After the first four km it was tempting to take the foot off the gas as there was just one girl a fair way in front of me, I had no chance of catching her, and the next ones were at least 30 seconds behind. But I hung in there, and in fact the last km at 4:21 was my fastest. Crossed the line in 31:16.

Sweet - 99 points :-) But even sweeter, not much pain :-)

PCRG - 1k reps

2007-05-25T20:00:00.000+10:00

First up a big HELLO to Emil who has abandoned us to return home to Seth Afrika. Well, I guess he was just here on hols after all, but he sure felt like a permanent fixture.

Emil with Pat (and the rest of the gang)

Anyway, he reckons he reads my blog so that means he'll know what sort of session he needs to do next :-) And yesterday it was 4 x 1k reps (60 sec SR), plus a 2 minute effort.

Considering the lack of real speed training for the last month or so I was expecting to average around 4:10s to 4:15s so was happy to record 4:03, 4:04, 4:09 & 4:04.

Back at the Ship Inn a few of us hit the deck for 21 pushups - the standard 20 plus 1 for Pat :-)

The King And I

2007-05-23T19:35:00.000+10:00

On Monday arvo the physio gave me the go-ahead to resume normal training ... except for one thing, my 'long' runs are still capped at 15k until I see him again (end of next week). Oh well, at least the improvement is continuing and the hammies are getting stronger. In fact I reckon if it wasn't for all the strengthening stuff I've been doing over the past five weeks I doubt if I would have gotten through the Warwick weekend in one piece. So I am determined to continue it and make it part of my daily routine. Just wish it all didn't take so long!

*****

Tuesday morning at PCRG was 6 x 500m reps, 1 x 2 min effort, and 2 x Gold Coast Hill. With recovery from Warwick in mind I ran conservatively with the rep times ranging from 2:03 to 2:13, and rather than 45 sec standing recs I cut them down to 20 to 30 secs.

*****

It was the usual Wednesday Regatta run this morning. I started out with Andrew, Brett and Geoff and we took it easy on the first couple of kms. Then we picked up the pace ... and at Hale St we picked up Rent Boy too :-)

Andrew and Brett were too good for me today, I was running 4:45s but they just surged ahead. Both are looking good for huge runs at the GC Half. They turned back at the end of The Gardens and I continued on to do a cut down Storey Bridge loop sticking around 4:45s to 4:50s. For the final km I allowed myself to slow down a little.

15k all up.

*****

Its kickoff time.

A special pic for this special night ...

Queenslander!!!!

Warwick Pentath-Run 2007

2007-05-21T11:31:00.000+10:00

Race reports follow. Will post again with more happy snaps and non race stories. Then again, what happens on the trip ..... ;-)

Race 1 - Half Marathon (Sat 7am)
This has to be my all time favourite half marathon course. Its point to point, Warwick to Yangan along a quiet country road. It gets hilly around 16 to 17k though the last km is downhill, and makes for a flying finish. With so little mileage in the legs of late I struggled from about 16k onwards, and the hammy problem started to make itself known.
Time - 1:42.35
Cat place - 2nd

Race 2 - 4.6k Cross Country (Sat 12pm)
This is held at the local equestrian park. The only two things I like about it are the way horses lead the pack at the start and the finish line. It was dusty, and sandy and rocky. And we had five horse jumps to tackle this year. My right leg was hurting, and not just the hammy :( I didn't enjoy it one little bit.
Time - 21:14
Cat place - 2nd

Race 3 - 5k Road Run (Sat 3pm)
Starting and finishing at the Woolies warehouse this is a two looper. Its an easy course but my leg was still hurting. I just couldn't get moving too fast. I got through by telling myself at least it wasn't the stooooopid cross country.
Time - 23:35
Cat place - 3rd

Race 4 - Killarney Ascent 10k (Sun 8am)
I love this run, its my favourite of the five. The legs felt surprisingly good too, maybe I was more worried about the cold (3 degrees) than anything else. The road is a mix of flat and slightly uphill for the first 5k then the climb starts. I wasn't travelling too badly and figured I was on target to just squeeze under the 1hr. But at about 7k I thought of our PCRG hill sessions and imagined Pat running beside me encouraging me to run harder. I got stronger and even passed a couple of people. Lizzle was a few hundred metres in front so I used her as a target, I wanted to gain as much ground on her as possible before we hit the flat and the downhill as I knew she'd sprint away from me there (which she did) and got within about 20 metres.
Time - 56:40
Cat place - 2nd

Race 5 - 1500m Sprint (Sun 11:30am)
This is an out and back up the main drag in Warwick. I worked out I was going to miss my rather ambitious goal of sub 3:30 for the five races and decided I'd gotten to this point in one piece and so there was no point busting a gut and risking injuring myself. That was until I passed the bell wearing ironwoman who'd won the half and the hill in our category .... well, maybe I'll speed up just a little. Then with 500m to go I fell in behind pink top who'd won the x-c and the 5k in our category. I sat there for a few seconds contemplating when to make my move. I ran past her. Then she ran past me. Bugger! And I could hear the bell approaching.
As I was wearing a PCRG top (wore a different one each race) I thought it was time to show them what we PCRG-ers can do so put shoulders back and went for it. I passed pink top again and just hammered it. Neither of them got me - pink top was 1 sec behind, and ironwoman 3 secs. Whew!
Time - 6:27
Cat place - 1st :-)

Of the five run I am by far happiest with the 10k. I've run hills maybe three times since February and really thought it was going to be my downfall, but in fact it was the best I felt all weekend. The absolute highlight though had to be getting past my category rivals in the 1500m.

Overall total was 3:30.xx by my watch - missed it by that much. It was my second best Warwick time, so I'm not complaining. Well, not yet. I'm off to the physio shortly.

This was the fifth staging of the Warwick Pentath-Run. There are only 5 of us who have done all 5 races at all 5 Pentath-Runs. As Glenno pointed out that's 25 races in 10 days :-) At the post run presentations we were given special shirts.

The Famous Five - Peter, Tesso, Fat Bloke, Glenno, Ross

Wonder what we'll get for our ten years ....

Edit: the back of the shirt

You mightn't think so but I know, you're so strong

2007-05-17T20:39:00.000+10:00

I've been following the physio's advice (no running on consecutive days) and so that meant only two runs this week prior to hitting the straps at Warwick on the weekend. Once again quality won out over quantity and I went to PCRG on Tuesday and today.

Both sessions were in the Gardens and both were longer reps, which meant I didn't have to hold back too much. This morning's ended with hill reps so I darted out to the main walkway and did some more long efforts on the flat. Gotta say I'm pretty happy with both days, I seemed to be amongst the usual mob and so can't have lost any speed. Then again, they are all smack in the middle of marathon and half marathon training. I have the advantage of running on fresh legs :)

I saw the physio Tuesday arvo and he is very pleased with my progress and says the hamstrings are much stronger. They'd want to be, I've been very good and doing my exercises every day. And as a reward he added a few mor to the list.

Here's what he's got me doing (thank goodness Fitness First has most of the gear I need, I'm certainly getting my money's worth at the moment) ....

hamstring bridge on the fitball, holding for 10 secs

squats on a Bosu

lunges on a stability disc

theraband curls

step ups (pulling up with leg on step, not pushing off foot on floor)

plus ....
hamstring lifts on fitball, one foot off floor, lower down slowly
hamstring flicks using 1k ankle weight
hamstring wobbles using 1k ankle weight
deadlift type bends with one foot off the ground

and ....

flexing foot while stretching

Its all so time consuming, not sure how I'd fit it all in if I didn't do shift work. All up with other stretching and abs/core it takes about 1 1/2 hours. If I do my weights its over 2 hours. Add in walking to the gym and back that's 2 1/2 hrs. And then there's the coffee afterwards ...

Making The Most Of It

2007-05-14T11:43:00.000+10:00

Being limited to 15k for my long runs I decided on Saturday to make it worthwhile - a 2.5k warmup, 2 x BRRC 5k loops fastish, a 2.5k warmdown. Joseph was the only one of the usual Saturday gang I could convince to join in, the rest headed off to the green bridge and beyond.

We ran to the spot at West End where Pat gets us to start our TT and other sessions and from there ran the 5k loop 'in reverse', the first one averaging 4:47 pace. After a couple of minutes rest we headed off on the second one. About the 2k mark Jonesy called out from the river (he was rowing) and we had a race for about 500m ... I beat him :-) This forced me to pick up the pace and I kept the momentum going until the end. Second lap average was 4:37s.

Might have to try this sort of thing more often.

Enforced Taper

2007-05-10T16:54:00.000+10:00

Saw the physio yesterday arvo and he was so happy with how things are progressing and how strong the hammy is he gave me a couple more exercises, and made changes to existing ones to make them more difficult. But he wasn't happy enough to let me go back to my normal running program though and for the next week wants me to continue with no long runs, no short fast intervals and no hills ... whoops, did some Tuesday :-)

Oh well, the aim is to get to my fifth Warwick Pentath-Run and then the Gold Coast in one piece.

This morning's PCRG session was perfect as it was longer stuff - 2 x 4 mins out, then 1 x 8 mins (or however long it takes) back with 30 sec SR between effort. Not being able to do speed work full bore for a few weeks I was feeling like I was starting to lose the edge a bit and was rapt that for first 4 mins I was only a metre or so short of 1k mark without totally busting a gut. Not sure how far I got in the next 4 as it isn't marked. Slowed up a bit on the return journey, it took 8:11.

Its just 8 days until Warwick now, a bit more mileage and a few Mt Coot-tha runs would have been useful. I've set the goal to sub 3h30m which won't be a PB (3h19m in 2005) but a 2B.

Out Of Exile

2007-05-08T16:19:00.000+10:00

I didn't quite make it to an entire week off .... but I had no choice! The physio wanted me to have a run this morning before my next visit (tomorrow arvo). Who am I to argue :-)

Went along to PCRG where hills in The Gardens were on the pgm. The hammy was a bit tight during the warmup and I thought if it didn't loosen up I'd just do an easy run on the flat, or stop if need be. Luckily it was okay once we started doing strides so figured I should test it out on the hills. I was going about 80-90% on the ups and rather than recover on the downs kept a steady pace to compensate.

It felt good :-) I'm now pretty confident I'll be able to train through this one, though won't throw myself all out into speedwork just yet.

I was talking to a guy at BRRC on Sunday who had the same condition and he said by doing loads and loads of hamstring stretching he was actually slowing his recovery. I wondered why the physio only gave me one stretch to do. From now on I'll skip the others. Hopefully in time that combined with all the strengthening exercises will do the trick.

Self-Imposed Exile

2007-05-03T11:32:00.000+10:00

Set out yesterday morning to do 15k averaging under 5 minute pace. Had Brett and Thomas for company and though the first couple were a bit over 5:00 after that we picked it up to around 4:55s. They turned for home after 5 1/2k and am happy to report I was able to maintain the pace and even pick it up in parts to cover the 15k in just under 1h14m.

Its perfect weather right now, half of the PCRG squad seemed to be out there somewhere, running or cycling.

I spent time doing my hammy stretches and strengthening exercises before heading off to physio later in the arvo. Probably not a good move as it was still a bit fatigued when I got there. He says it has improved a little but advised me to cut down to just three runs for the next week.

The way I look at it what I need to work on for the Gold Coast is speed, I've got a decent endurance base. And I can't really get stuck into speedwork with 100% effort until this thing gets better. So rather than three steady runs I'm taking an entire week off. Well, maybe six days ...

PCRG - 3k TT

2007-05-01T18:40:00.000+10:00

With the physio instructing me to avoid speed work for two weeks I headed off to the monthly TT planning to help out if Pat needed me to, otherwise just to run around 5 minute pace.

There were plenty of volunteers to marshall so just before we took off on the 3k I checked around to see if anyone was after company for 15 minutes. Kerryn said she was. That was it, the poor girl got stuck with me nagging her all the way :-)

We got to the turnaround in 7:28 but the second 1500m took its toll. Still, Kerryn kicked it in the guts with a few hundred metres to go and we finished in 15:13, a massive 16 second PB for her! Anna was hot on our tails and also threw in a very fast finish to cross the line with us.

There were some great results. My usual playmates came in between 12:10 and 12:20, except for Emil who ran 11:35. I was only just seconds behind him in the 1k reps last week, obviously he was bludging ;-) Workmate Tom put in a huge effort in his first TT - goal was sub 13, he did 12:24!

Tesso, Tom, Clairie

When Bad Is Good

2007-04-29T17:50:00.000+10:00

My right hammy has been hovering between ok, niggly, and a little sore for 8 or 9 months. But its never really been bad enough to interrupt my training, just annoying at times.

Following Friday's speed session it wasn't great. Then after 10k on Saturday it was even unhappier. That made me happy. Because it meant when I saw the physio later in the morning it was possibly the worst its been and when he put me through a few tests I could accurately describe the pain.

He quickly diagnosed it as hamstring tendinopathy and gave me a series of strengthening exercises and a stretch to do. I can keep running but for the next two weeks there'll be no interval work, no hills and no long runs. Lucky for me his interpretation of long runs is anything over 15k :-)

Repeat Repeats

2007-04-27T13:45:00.000+10:00

Thursday at PCRG was 4 x 1k reps (60 sec SR) plus 1 min out and 1 min back (no rec). The legs still weren't feeling fresh so I ran them at maybe 80-90% effort hoping for around 4:20s, but with an aim of being consistent.

Times for the 1ks were - 4:07, 4:12, 4:12, 4:08.
Times for the 60 second recoveries were around 50 seconds.
Time for the 1 min out was 1 min :-)
Time for the 1 min back was 1:04.

*****

Today at PCRG was 4 x 1k reps (60 sec SR) plus 1 min out and 1 min back (no rec). The legs still weren't feeling fresh so I ran them at maybe 80-90% effort hoping for around 4:20s, but with an aim of being consistent.

Times for the 1ks were - 4:15, 4:16, 4:17, 4:12.
Times for the 60 second recoveries were around 50 seconds.
Time for the 1 min out was 1 min :-)
Time for the 1 min back was 1:06.

*****

Watching Watches

Its Like Riding A Bike

2007-04-25T17:56:00.000+10:00

Tuesday at PCRG was 1kms and 500s. Still wary of recovering properly from Canberra I opted to do a steady run with a smaller group. We were back just before the main lot did their final 1k rep so Mat and I joined it that. It sort of felt good to put the foot on the gas again.

*****

Being a public holiday today we took the opportunity for a slightly different mid-weeker and so met at St Lucia Golf Club for a run out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and back. The place was named after the real Lone Pine, so a fitting destination. I took the shortcut back which made it a very pleasant though hilly 14k.

*****

This arvo I took the deadly treadly out for a spin, first time since about 2002 I reckon. I'd lent it to Lizzle for a couple of years and she returned it recently looking like it was straight from the shop - clean, serviced, new tyres etc.

A scary 10k. Scary for anyone who was within metres of me, especially if a corner was involved. I thought I'd forget how to change gears. I didn't forget how to change them, but I did forget when and why and still haven't really figured it out.

Might have to take some lessons I think. Or find somebody else who wants to borrow it for a while.

The Contest

2007-04-23T13:03:00.000+10:00

On Friday I went back to PCRG and once again took it easy, though this time skipped the 5 minute rest mid session. Like Thursday getting the legs moving seemed to help.

Only five of us turned up for the usual Saturday run, and all of us had done Canberra the weekend before. No prizes for guessing what 99% of the conversation was about :-) Did about 11k but it didn't feel quite as easy as the previous day.

Most of the rest of the weekend I spent volunteering at the Brisbane Marathon Festival. My role compared to others such as Clairie was minor, not sure how she does it. It totally wiped me out, I was way more knackered than after running Canberra the previous weekend. Last night I didn't even have the energy to hit the button on the remote control so had to watch Big Brother.

Today is Day 1 of a healthy eating challenge thing we are having in our little section here at work - no chocolcate, lollies, cakes, biscuits, greasy food, softdrinks, potato chips. Basically no junk ... during working hours. Not as easy as it sounds when you do 12 hour shifts, that's a loooong time to go without chocolate. We all threw in $5 and whoever survives the longest gets the cash. Doubt if I'll win, but at least I won't come last. One of the guys had a Big Mac for morning tea.

Happy Snaps From Sunday

2007-04-19T20:59:00.000+10:00

Went along to PCRG this morning basically just to turn the legs over. And to see the gang :-)

Jogged the warmup and kept the easy pace going for a few laps of 'the square' in The Gardens with Mat while the rest of the group were doing some gut busting 30/30s. We stopped to chat to chief photographer Clairie for a while before heading back out for a few more rounds.

The quads are still a little bit tight but felt better for the workout.

Below are a couple of pics from Sunday courtesy of Gnomey - thanks mate!

Canberra Marathon/50k

2007-04-17T07:05:00.000+10:00

What a day! Briefly (well, not really briefly) it all went something like this ....

Ran the first few kms with Clairie, which was an absolute hoot. We just laughed and chatted to people etc etc while hanging with the 3:30 pace group. Then she sped up a little as she had lots more socialising to do before pulling the pin at Cowbell Corner as planned.

I hung with the pack for maybe 6 or 7k a while and then slowed down a little - it was nice to have a bit more room. From then on it was just a matter of keeping the legs moving for another 40 odd kms. I think I hit the half mara mark around 1:46 or 1:47.

I really had fun out there. I can't recall ever enjoying an marathon or ultra so much. There were only two low moments. First when I spotted JD who'd been attacked by the cramp bear :-( I caught up soon after and stopped very briefly for a chat. It made me so sad after all the hard work he'd put in. But it also made me realise they could get me too and so I was meticulous at all aid stations afterwards making sure I took in enough electorites. Then a little later I saw Rith struggling with a dodgey foot problem. He'd also busted a gut training for this one. I can see both of them well and truly seeking revenge at the Gold Coast.

The support from spectators this year was without a doubt the best ever not just for a Canberra marathon but any race I can recall - at different spots along the way there was the CR cheersquad (Jen, Lulu and others ... I'd name you all but I'd forget somebody for sure), Aki and Ewen, Gnomey, Kit & Razor, Bernie G, Wildthing. Loads more! My training buddies Lizzle and Robbie - they were everywhere!

Clairie was just fantastic - the girl has enough energy for two people ;-) She had all these different signs including one that said something like "stay focused". Those words stuck in my head for the rest of the race.

Then there was Katy. It really was worth being out there running just to see her. What a gem.

I hit the marathon mark in just over 3:36 according to the results. Funny, it wasn't tough at all running on to do the 50k. I did however pull up and check to see how a few people went. To see CJ and my PCRG training mate Kelly there and find out they'd both nailed a sub 3:30 gave me such a boost mentally. And I knew my other PCRG-er Celeste finished a minute or so in front of me after a fantastic race. Go the girls!!!

50 metres up the road I lost a little bit of time with a shoelace malfunction on both sides, wierd how they'd hung in there solidly until then.

The next few kms weren't too bad but at about 45k the legs became rather heavy and things got tough. The headwind wasn't exactly pleasant, but at least it became a tailwind after the turnaround.

It was something being out there with the other 50k-ers, especially Blue Dog, and Flakey, and Queen Bee, and Spagetti Legs, and Mr WT, and Bandana, Kato, and RB, and Aunty K and Dazza, and and and .... Its hard to describe the feeling. Each and every one commented or hand slapped or acknowledged the other in some way, whether we knew eachother or not. It was like we were all in our own special little club.

And we got to see Clairie again and Katy another two times :-)

I hit the 49k mark and saw from my watch I could walk and still go under 4:30. But why walk now when I hadn't walked before that (other than through a few drink stations). Coming up the home stretch before the final turn to the finish I spotted a very happy Gronk and his buddy on their way to becoming marathoners - yay!

Now it was finally time to switch off the music and soak up the atmosphere. Running up that stretch to the end is truly amazing. All the cheering etc, you'd think you were in an Olympic Games Marathon .... and winning it! And what a buzz to have coach Pat and his partner Susan there on the finish line.

My official time was 4:26.43. My goal was to run between 4:20 and 4:30. Best of all I didn't hit the wall, or cramp, or resort to walking, or any of those nightmarish things that make you say "never again". I'm a very happy chappy :-))))

Congrats to all who ran. There were some fantastic results. Well done all my fellow bloggers - Brissos Mat (woohoo!!!!), Toasty & Eddie, Canberrans CJ, Strewth & Speedgeoff, Sydneysiders Eagle, Superflake, Go Girl, Gronk, Horrie & Uncle Dave, Port's Portrunner. Once again I hope I haven't forgotten to mention anyone.

And also congrats to all my buddies at PCRG, and CoolRrunning, and the Brisbane Running Buddies, and BRRC, and Intraining. Have I forgotten any of my clubs? ;-)

Thanks to all for the support and advice in the last few months.

A great day, a great weekend. Can't wait to do it all again next year. I'll be lining up for the ultra for sure ....

50 is the new 42.2!

Only One Thing Left To Do

2007-04-13T12:01:00.000+10:00

Its with much sadness I write this. The father of a good friend of many of the Brissie running community passed away on Wednesday evening after a battle with cancer. Many of us here had the pleasure of meeting him and spending time with him just five or six weeks ago when he visited Brisbane to see his son.

My 50k will be dedicated to him and the wonderful family and friends he has left behind.

*****

Yesterday at PCRG was the final hit-out before Canberra. While the rest of the troops suffered with some long intervals and hills the six of us there who are doing the marathon/ultra just did 15 minutes of 30/30s.

Once again the Awesome Foursome (Mat, Kelly, Celeste & I) stuck together, with the Dynamic Duo (Wayne & Damien) flying out of sight before too long. It seemed to be the perfect session to round out our campaign. All that's left to do now is run the jolly thing.

Two more (non) sleeps :-)

Good luck to my fellow competitors. It sure won't seem the same without Robert Song though. And thanks to all who've sent good wishes my way.

Gulp!

Race Pace Run ( ... well almost)

2007-04-11T11:22:00.000+10:00

Well done JD, Robert Song and CJ who figured out the Broderick Crawford Day thing (see 'Tidbits').

Yesterday was 10/4 :-)

*****

For the Canberra 50k 5:10s will bring me home just under 4h20m, I think that's a reasonable goal. As tempted as I am to go for 5 min kms all the way I think it might be a bit ambitious.

This morning Clairie and I wanted to run 8k - a 2k warmup, 4k at my Canberra pace, and a 2k warmdown. However the splits were something like this -

2k - 5:27, 5:08
4k - 5:01, 4:56, 4:57, 5:02
2k - 4:59, 5:07

Rather than my bad pacing I'm blaming the weather, this cool change makes running so much easier. I could have sworn we were doing that last km at 5:30 pace or slower!

Broderick Crawford Day

2007-04-10T16:52:00.000+10:00

Today at PCRG it was a session in the Gardens where we had to run around a square, sprinting two sides and jogging the other two. For we folk doing Canberra Pat suggested we still participate but not go full bore.

Fellow marathoners Mat, Celeste, Kelly and I hung out together for the duration - hope we all have as much fun on Sunday as we did today. We tried desperately to feature in the photos Clairie was taking but must've been running too fast ;-) Maybe Thursday we can get a pic of 'The Awesome Foursome'.

This morning made me realise the importance of attending the PCRG during this final week of the taper, not so much for the running but more for the support and good luck wishes etc from the rest of the group. I came away feeling so confident about doing a good time .... and having a good time.

PS Gold star to the first person to guess the meaning of today's blog title :-)

Monday Music - 9th April 2007

2007-04-09T18:22:00.001+10:00

The Magnetic Fields - Luckiest Guy On The Lower East Side

I spent a fair bit of time yesterday selecting songs for my Canberra playlist and ended up with 136 songs spanning 7.9 hours. I hope I don't get to listen to all of them :-)

Better cull it rather than tempt fate I think.

This song will definitely make the cut. Its my favourite
Magnetic Fields song. This isn't the 'official' music vid, but it sure is cute.

6 Drops Of Essence Of Terror, 5 Drops Of Sinister Sauce

2007-04-08T14:29:00.000+10:00

SATURDAY

After racing Friday I thought best to make Saturday recovery run day and do a longer one Sunday. Met up with the gang at 5.30am and after going to Sydney St ferry via the Story Bridge left them all and ran back along the floating walkway and on to South Bank.

All up around 11k. Not far, but I used it to start practicing with my Canberra race day special potion - Berry Fierce Gatorade powder mixed to directions with a scoop of Ultra Muscleze and a good pinch of organic sea salt harvested from the salt fields of Brittany, France ...

Yikes, hope they wash it first.

*****

SUNDAY

A later start (6am) and change of venue (The Regatta) for those who wanted a run toay. Conditions were perfect, gotta love running this time of year. We headed out via UQ and over the Go-Between's Bridge, via West End, then back over the Victoria Bridge, around 16k or so.

I wanted to practice with my drink again and was hoping to run my next weekends pace but was a bit too fast overall. The first half was around 5:10s, and the second half around 4:50s, finishing the loop in 1h19m.

I got a few sarcastic grumblings from my running buddies who accused me of setting a mean pace all the way ... Celeste and Andrew, I know you were joking and loved every minute of it ;-)

Still, I couldn't resist hitting them with my favourite Glenda motivational quote "toughen up!" :-)

Good Friday Easter Egg 10k

2007-04-07T19:08:00.000+10:00

THURSDAY

On the pgm at PCRG it was a steady run followed by the no-watch 1k thing. For the steady run bit there was a little pack of us with Clairie at the helm for most of the way setting a good pace (around 5:15s I'd say).

At the start of the no-watch 1k I sidled up beside Mat to find out what time he'd nominated - it was 4:20. Me too! So we stuck together and managed to cross the line just 3 seconds too late. Close :-)

*****

FRIDAY

For the Easter Egg 10k I'd set myself a goal of 45 mins. Being just 9 days before Canberra I thought that would be a good hard hit out without going totally nutso. The course was a double out and back, and from the first turnaround at 2 1/2k I passed a stack of people, but don't recall being passed by anyone aside from one guy ... and he was pushing a kid in a stroller!

Got to halfway in 22:17 and heading out for the second loop tried to count how many girls were in front of me. It was around 14 or so, I wanted to hang on and try to finish in the top 15. I managed to get one of them at 8k. PCRG-er Keith caught up to me with about 200m to go and like all good training partners do we hit the straps together! I got past one more girl before crossing the line in 44:46 or thereabouts.

Very happy with that time, though it wasn't quite as 'easy' as I hoped it would be.

Not 100% sure if I did in fact manage a top 15 finish in the race, results will be out during the week. However, I know my team-mate Annie and I did make the top 15 in the egg tossing comp ... and this year I wasn't the one who got splatted :-)

PCRG - 3k TT

2007-04-04T11:26:00.000+10:00

I wasn't expecting anything too flash at yesterday's TT. I thought Sunday's 28k might still be in the legs and I didn't want to go totally flat strap and risk injury so close to Canberra. At our post run brekky on Saturday Andrew K and I made a bit of a pact to go for 12:15, but I thought that might be a big ask and settled on a goal of sub 12:30.

I hit the halfway mark in 6:10 and was lagging behind the usual suspects including Andrew, they were just out of reach. Approaching the 500m mark the legs were really starting to feel the effects of Sunday. But I was nearing Clairie's marshaling post and knowing she'd be there cheering really upped my motivation and drive.

I started to bridge the gap and eventually caught Andrew. There was a bit of the old cat and mouse going on all the way to the finish, it was great as we really pushed eachother home fast. The last hundred metres were a real gut buster.

We both crossed the line in 12:16. His previous best was 12:50 so what a fantastic result for him. And I was rapt, especially with that nice little negative split.

Might have to start making more pacts :-)

Just a couple of seconds from the line, sucking in the big ones

Clairie and I on the warmdown

BRRC 7k-35k Self Select

2007-04-02T13:07:00.000+10:00

Saturday

As I was doing my long run at BRRC on Sunday, Saturday was just an easy day, so just did the short green bridge loop (13k). The company was great, there was lots of chatting and everybody was in cruisey moods not worrying about pace, waiting for eachother at water stops, etc. All just seemed to be happy to be out there.

That's how it should be all the time :-)

*****

Sunday

Yesterday at BRRC it was 7k-35k Self Select. That means we ran the 7k loop and you could do anywhere between 1 and 5 of them, with no need to decide beforehand. To do my A goal of sub 4h20m for the 50k in Canberra I need to run 5:10s so wanted to run around 26k at that pace. That would mean pulling up stumps 2k from the end of my 4th lap and jogging or walking to the finish.

As it turned out I went on to run the whole 28k, I was just feeling so strong. With each lap my km splits were getting faster, seemingly without exerting any more effort. I do admit to pushing it hard in the last few hundred metres, only because I didn't want to get lapped by Ron Peters who was storming home to win the 35k. With a last km of 4:36 I managed to 'beat' him .... but only just :-)

My approx av km times -
1st lap - 5:08.5
2nd lap - 5:05.5
3rd lap - 5:00
4th lap - 4:48
Total time - 2h20m32s which averages out to 5:01s for the 28k.

Plugging that time into a race time predictor it gives me a sub 4h20m for 50k. Which is a little reassuring considering I didn't race the 28k flat out. At the 21k mark I even took time out to give Mat, who was on duty as waterboy, a pinch and a punch for the first of the month :-)

So all going well I should be able to do it, or at least go under 4 1/2 hrs. Just have to get the nutrition right. And stay in one piece.

Perfect Pacing

2007-03-30T18:01:00.000+10:00

Worked overnight last night and when Tom said he was keen for a PCRG session I thought I join him. We'd been really busy earlier on and though it was a bit of an effort it was good to get out and hit the road. We ran the 2 1/2k to The Ship Inn from work so we could run straight back there from West End.

The pgm was the same as yesterday (2 x 1500s, 2 x 500s with 45 sec recoveries). I held back a bit today, aiming for 4:20 pace. My times -

6:30 - 1500m
6:29 - 1500m
2:10 - 500m
2:00 - 500m

That last one was a little quicker than planned, I caught up to Cassie with about 150m to go and we upped the ante a tad :-)

Don't Pay The Ferryman

2007-03-29T10:14:00.000+10:00

In between a 6.30am trip to the airport and a 11am visit to the accountant yesterday I had time to fit my planned 15k run. But I didn't. I was feeling tired and just a little niggly so gave myself a rest day.

To sort of compensate I ran the 5k to Pat's this morning. To start we had 2 x 1500s with a 45 second standing recovery. He said after we'd finished he'd tell us what to do next. My times -
6:01
6:10
Not sure what happened on that last one, it felt faster!

For those around my speed we had to follow that up with 2 x 500ms. So with just 45 seconds rest we were off. My times -
2:08
1:58
I knew the first was a shocker, those short recoveries are killers. But the second 500m made up for it.

Once again today it was mainly Sal I was working in with. Gnome asked re the previous session who was pushing who. I think its a common thing in the group that we all draw off eachother's strength. I know when I feel like I'm fading I try to hang on to whoever is near me, and I hope that when I'm strong and start moving faster that they try to hang on to me.

Although I had money on me for the Citycat I decided to run back home. No ferries went past me until I was about 500m from where I'd hop off. I put the foot down, I wanted to get to the top of the ramp up from the terminal before any departing passengers did just so I could say I got home quicker than if I caught the Citycat. I got home quicker than if I caught the Citycat :-)

Teamwork

2007-03-27T19:48:00.000+10:00

As we were up at Mooloolaba on Sunday morning Clairie, Toasty and I put in an easy paced 8k before all the action started. We ran part of the 10k course and took in the hills that the poor competitors had to face later on in a much hotter part of day. And we only did each hill once, unlike them who had to contend with them a couple of times.

It made me very glad that Helen and I couldn't find a swimmer for our team. Might have helped if we looked :-)

*****

Today at PCRG was 6 x 500m reps with a 45 second SR. Feeling particularly leg heavy on the warm-up I seriously contemplated assisting Clairie in her marshalling, cheering and photography duties, and lining up to start was expecting my times to be in the vicinity of 2:05.

While running the first rep surrounded by a few people including Sal, I thought perhaps I should put in just one big effort to try to stay with her. I managed that and then told myself one more. This went on for the whole session with Carol joining in with the two of us. To my surprise and delight my times were way better than I hoped for -

1:57
1:51 <== Pat was with us in the last 50m saying "hammer yourself" ... and we did :-)
1:56
1:54
1:58
1:55

To finish it (and us) off Pat got us to do 1 minute and back.

I was rapt with how the session panned out, especially considering I didn't really want to do it in the first place. Thanks has to go to anyone who was around me, but particularly Sal and Carol. For what is considered an individual sport its amazing how much team work plays a part in your success. How lucky am I to be part of the fantastic team that is the PCRG :-)

Carol, Tesso & Sal in action

Carol, Sal & Tesso afterwards (my eyes are closed because I'm knackered!)

Last Long Run At Last

2007-03-24T17:58:00.000+10:00

Friday

I fronted up for for another PCRG session. It was the same as Thursday (ie 2 x 4 mins, 1 x 8 mins), though the effort I put in was less, maybe 70% - 80%.

I was running at about 4:25 pace and after the two lots of 4 mins was near a guy Tony. So for the return journey I stuck with and encouraged (ok, nagged) the poor bugger the entire way, getting him to target and pass others. I told him about the Eagle Quick Step - when you feel you are slowing do 6 steps fast on each side and you get your momentum back. He worked really hard, and that made me work harder than planned to stick with him. It was fun! We crossed the line in 7:58, a nice negative split and something that few and far between ever do in that session.

*****

Saturday

Not sure how but Toasty talked me into a 4.30am start for our last long run before Canberra. It sounded like a good idea on Friday afternoon, not so good when the alarm went before sparrow fart. I ran the first 5k with him, Mat and Glenno. Well, with Mat anyway, the other two were obviously on a mission. After that I headed back to the Ship Inn to hook up with the sleeper-inners who were starting at 5.30am.

I stuck with them until the end of the UQ ring road then did about 10 laps of a lovely grassy oval as they went on to do the hills that followed. Al the pod told me to avoid them for a little longer - the hills, not my running buddies ;-) Made my way back to the Ship Inn via Highgate Hill (so much for avoiding hills!) and West End.

I wanted to do a no fuel run (before and during) though carried gels and jelly beans just in case. I didn't use them and at no time was really zapped. I actually felt kinda strong towards the end and was able to chuck in a few sub 5 minute kms.

All up 38k in 3:22.xx (av pace 5:19). And if it came down to it I reckon I could've handled another 4k to make it up to a marathon.

Happy :-)

Not Guilty

2007-03-22T21:25:00.000+10:00

I ran the 5k from home to The Ship Inn for Pat's today. On the pgm was 2 x 4 mins hard, with 30sec standing recovery, then turn and run back 8 mins, or to the start (whichever came first).

Those competing at the Mooloolaba Tri or Twilight 5k this weekend were told to take things easier, and to stop after the first 4 mins to do 30/30s before running back. Clairie hung around them and took it upon herself to make sure that they didn't think 'easier' meant 'easy' :-)

I worked hard for the 4min reps and felt strong. A good sign is I was surrounded by the usual suspects, and I don't recall getting any further in distance for the same session. So the extended warmup did me no harm.

Coming back was tough. Just as I was thinking about slowing down Steve FS started doing his best Pat impersonations to fire our little pack up - it worked. There was no way I could hold back now. Celeste and I pushed eachother all the way to the end, it was faaaantastic!

To top off a great session our PCRG Support Team (Team Dedication) got voted by other teams for today's award. Then the members within our had to vote for one of our own and Mat got the gong. Good on ya Mat, you so deserve it!

I had planned to run home but afterwards I was so knackered I couldn't even be bothered walking so jumped on a Citycat. No guilt feelings today though :-)

Mid Week Weakness

2007-03-21T17:28:00.000+10:00

I planned to do 20k or so this morning by running 4 kms solo and then joining the others for the 16.3k Story Bridge loop from The Regatta at 5.30am. I couldn't quite get my act together for an early start so figured I would do the extra mileage afterwards.

Different people dropped off at different points, Mat and I were the only ones doing the full loop. Around the 10k mark he was going to slip into 'plod' mode so I headed off upping the pace a bit from our 5:20 - 5:30s. With 5k to go I put the foot down a bit more, coming home around 4:40s to give me a time of 1:22.25.

It was a minute or two slower than the last couple times, but I liked the idea of a cruisey start and a fast finish. Mat came in not too far behind me, he needs to look up the meaning of 'plod' in the dictionary :-)

I was about to head on out for that other 4k but one glance across the road to The Regatta seeing the rest of the gang downing icy cold water put an end to that. Slacker!

Two For Tuesday

2007-03-20T16:59:00.000+10:00

Spud asked about my Canberra 50k goal.

'A' - sub 4h20m
'B' - sub 4h30m
'C' - sub 4h40m
'D' - finish smiling
'E' - finish not smiling

Back in 2001 I did the Kurrawa to Pt Danger Ultra (it was only 48k in those days) in 4h21m. That was on bugger all speed work but lots and lots of long slow runs. I'd like to think I could improve on that.

*****

This morning the legs felt just a little heavy after Sunday's half, but that was the extent of the DOMS. So there was no need to hold back at Pat's. He told us this morning's session was 5 x 1 min reps, with 30 sec jog recovery, then turn around and run back to the start doing 30/30s. It seemed short compared to the last few weeks and I was wondering what little surprise he'd throw in at the end.

The surprise was there was no surprise, after that we jogged back to the Ship Inn :-)

The shortish session actually fitted perfectly into my plan to make today a double up day, I wanted to do a second run in the afternoon. What didn't fit in perfectly was the weather, it was 29 degrees when I was about to set off. So rather than the great outdoors I hit the gym and did just over 8.5k on the tready.

I find treadmill running so much more difficult and I'm wondering if its because of my short stride. I messed around for a while lengthening my stride and was able to increase the speed with no added effort. Interesting ....

Monday Music - 19th March 2007

2007-03-19T17:56:00.001+10:00

Serena Ryder - Sing Sing (2004)

Woohoo! I just saw in the TV guide that Serena is a guest on Rockwiz this Saturday. Hope I didn't just ruin the "Who Can It Be Now" bit for anyone :-)

What a voice, and she's only 24 years old. She's just released an album called "If Your Memory Serves You Well", a compilation of Canadian songs from the past 100 years. It includes "Good Morning Starshine" from the musical Hair. I'm hoping that's what she'll sing when she's introduced on the show just so I can hear those classic lyrics ....

Gliddy glub gloopy
Nibby nabby noopy
La la la lo lo
Sabba sibby sabba
Nooby abba nabba
Le le lo lo
Tooby ooby walla
Nooby abba naba
Early morning singing song

BRRC Half Marathon Champs

2007-03-18T23:02:00.000+10:00

After such a big week of training there was no way I was going to go flat out in the Half Marathon today. I thought I'd aim for around 4:45 pace but if it proved too much then around 5:00 would be okay. If I got through the 21k that would bring up a weekly total of 106k, my second biggest ever (behind the one where I did the Caboolture 12 hours last year).

The course was an out and back 1.1k before 4 x 5k loops. I ran 5:17 for the 1.1 and then for the first loop managed to sit on 4:45s or less. In the next two laps the legs felt heavy and my pace dropped to around 4:50s, Friday's 35k was taking its toll. It didn't bother me too much, just as long as I could stick to sub 5s.

There must've been something in the water at the 16k mark because after I went through I started feeling great and was able to resume my earlier pace of 4:45s or less. I passed a couple of guys and then saw a girl and guy not too far in front, she became my next target as I started thinking about championship points. I got her at 18k.

About 1km from home I noticed I was gaining on one of my training buddies Celeste. I thought it would be quite an achievement to finish not too far behind her, but with 300m to go I'd caught up. My next thought was how cool it would be if I could hang in with her and we could cross the line together as we were wearing matching PCRG outfits :-) Unfortunately for her she was really fading but I was feeling really strong so forged on. That last km was the fastest, 4:30.

Total time was 1:40.56 - an average pace of 4:46. Not sure how I did in the points race as I don't know how many members finished in front of me. The time is way off my PB, but I'm happy considering I wasn't going flat out. Best of all I felt soooooo good in that final 5km!

The Canberra Confidence Meter just shot up a couple of notches :-)

The Old Switcheroonie

2007-03-17T19:15:00.000+10:00

I had the day off yesterday (Friday) so instead of the usual easy run I decided to do my long run then and the easy one today. That way I should be able to at least get through the distance at the BRRC Half Marathon Champs tomorrow.

Had plans to hit the road by 5am, but it was 6.30am before I was out the door. I paid the price for that extra sleep, within an hour it was so hot out there :-( Headed out to New Farm Park, then South Bank, Orleigh Park, back through South Bank and home. By chucking in a couple of laps of NF Park and a complete lap of The Gardens it brought the total to 35k or so.

Not much to report, other than almost getting run over by a black Mercedes that came hurtling out of a driveway in Moray St.

It was a slow one, but that was the plan. Finished in 3h16m, or around 5:40 pace. Happy to get that one done as on more than one occasion (NF Park, Sydney St, Riverside, South Bank, Orleigh Park, South Bank again, North Quay) I was sooooo close to bailing and jumping on the Citycat home.

*****

Clairie was planning a shortish run this morn (12k or so) and after yesterday's effort that sounded perfect to me. We had quite a few starters, and most had the same thought as they were either recovering from 6ft Track or tapering for the Half tomorrow.

Ended up in a nice little pack with Clairie, Rent Boy and Tomas and did a cruisey 13k. It was just enough to work out all the stiffness from the legs.

Still not sure how I'll approach the Half tomorrow. It won't be flat out, or even close to it, that's a certainty. This is going to be my biggest week km wise in over 12 months so I'm not going to worry about championship points. There's a couple of people aiming to go sub 1:45, might just hang in with them.

Won't Get Fooled Again

2007-03-15T11:36:00.000+10:00

Tom and I slipped out before the end of our shift to do a PCRG session. Yep, last time was so good he's going back for more! We worked out rather than drive it would be quicker to run to the Ship Inn and then run straight back to work from The Gardens. It meant a way longer warmup and a shorter warmdown but what the heck.

Today was 5 mins, 4 mins, 5 mins, 4 mins with 30secs standing recovery. I like these longer efforts, I feel the strength and endurance from the long runs really kick in, especially for the last couple of reps. That said I busted a gut coming home in the final 4 minute one only to find ... you guessed it, we didn't stop at 4 minutes. Pat made us continue on up the hill and around the corner, how could I forget that he always does that to us. It really hurt!

I've finished work for the week now and so have decided to do my long run (35k) tomorrow. Its going to be tough on my own, I'd better get some really good music happening on the iPod.

Virtual Visit

2007-03-14T05:13:00.000+10:00

Pat's today was in The Gardens and started off with 2 mins fast, 30 sec jog, 1 min fast, 20 sec jog, 2 mins fast, 30 sec SR. Then turn around and go back the other way doing the same thing.

Heading back on the second set I spotted this tall dude in brand spanking new 6ft Track top watching on. It was Brendan (CR Virtual)! He'd messaged yesterday to say he'd be in Bris so I let him know details of the session. He missed the start but found us after asking a passing cyclist up near the Story Bridge and he was able to tell him exactly where we were :-)

Anyway, he joined in for the rest of the sess. Which was great as I was ready to slack off a bit but pushed myself so I could hang in with him.

After the last two minute effort we had to run fast 2 1/2 minutes out and turn and run straight back for the same amount of time. Or so we were told. Of course Pat made us add a little extra on the end to finish at the cafe.

Brendan sure has recovered well from his 98k on Saturday, I'd love to know how he does it. If I wasn't struggling to breath I would've asked him :-)

I picked up my new orthotics later in the day. Al the Pod recommended alternating them with the old ones for a week or so until I get used to them, and to use the old ones for my long run this weekend. I couldn't wait to test drive them so hit the bike path this arvo for an easy 5k.

They feel a little different but comfy. And they are lighter than the old ones. After paying for them so is my wallet.

Monday Music - 12th March 2007

2007-03-12T22:01:00.001+10:00

Heywood Banks - Yeah Toast

I downloaded this song some time ago. It was on my playlist for my run this morning and I decided that it was so good I just had to share it. Funny, it reminds me of someone I know .... but I just can't think who it is ;-)

The song itself was recorded live on some comedy show, hence the (slightly annoying) laughing in the background. Seems like lots of people have made videos to go with it. It was a hard job choosing one.

One Uncrowded Hour

2007-03-12T10:51:00.000+10:00

On day shift today (7am start) and so was up and at 'em early to squeeze in a short recovery run before work.

It was still dark when I hit the bike path just after 5am to do the South Bank loop (10k). It was pretty deserted out there, just the odd runner and cyclist. And there wasn't a single car at the Ship Inn, the same time other days that's premium parking space. Wierd. Though I guess Monday is a rest day for many. It wasn't until I was about 3km from home that it seemed other Brissos were finally awake.

I was only travelling around 5:30 pace but after such a big weekend of running and with the humidity at 94% that was plenty fast enough for me.

A 50k Weekend

2007-03-11T13:39:00.000+10:00

It was straight from work to The Ship Inn again on Saturday morning. I was a tad tired so wasn't sure how far or how fast I'd be going, all I knew was I'd follow the podiatrist's advice and avoid hills.

We all headed out New Farm way, and Kate, Helen and I settled nicely into a decent pace, not slow but not so fast that we couldn't talk :-) Helen turned for home at NF Park while Kate and I continued on to Newstead before heading back. Around the 20k mark Kate decided to slow down a little. I was still feeling good so forged on along and just ran back doing a loop of the Gardens and other stuff to bring up a total of 30k averaging 5:16s.

Although I was totally knackered at the end I was rapt considering how tired I was before I started and that the run was done on no fuel before or during the run, just water.

*****

As yesterday wasn't quite as far as I wanted for my long run I thought I'd back it up with a longish one today. After getting to bed a bit late I slept in until 6am and after much stuffing around it was 7am before I was out the door.

At the end of The Gardens I bumped into Lizzle and some of the Gale Force mob so turned and ran back to Chalk Hotel with them. I stopped for about 15 minutes for a chat and lots of cold water before running back home, doing a Story Bridge loop in the process. All up around 20k. Not sure how long it took (no watch), it felt to be close to 6 minute pace.

I thought it was hot and humid yesterday, it was nothing in comparison to today - the mercury had hit 30 degrees by the time I finished.

It was a big weekend of running. Still, I'd like to have cranked out 35k+ in a single hit. Might have to do that next weekend, though that means sacrficing 'racing' the BRRC Half Marathon. Canberra is more important I guess.

We We're On A Break

2007-03-09T22:19:00.000+10:00

My workmate Tom is in training for the Gold Coast Half and has done a few evening speed sessions with the Run Inn. But mostly he has been running on his own. We were on night shift last night and things were pretty quiet at work around 5.15am. So I thought I take the opportunity to squeeze in another PCRG session for the week and dragged Tom along. It worked out perfectly, we were back in the office before 7am ready for our shift handover.

On the agenda at Pat's was 4 x 2 minute efforts and 4 x 30 second efforts, with 30 second jog recoveries. As always what's on the agenda isn't all that's on the agenda. Thinking it was the last one I busted a gut for the final 30 seconds only to discover that we had to do more - a 1 minute out and 1 minute back. He always does that to us, how could I forget!

Tom was rapt with the session. We would have been pretty much neck and neck except for the fact that my recovery jogs were quicker. Unfortunately he noticed this. I was hoping he would think I was just really fast :-)

Missed It By 'That' Much

2007-03-08T14:46:00.000+10:00

Being the Thursday after our monthly TT on the pgm at PCRG was a light 50 min run followed by the no-watch 1k. I was after something a bit tougher and so moved to the front of the pack straight away and hung in there with the fast guys. We turned around at the 27 minute mark and it was a PB of sorts for me, its the furthest I've got before turning around in one of these sessions :-)

Heading back Jonesy and I had a quick water stop while the others continued on, they picked up the pace as well and got away from us.

We hit The Gardens only to see the crowd already running down the pathway for the 1k thing. Seems today we were supposed to turn around after 25 minutes, not 27 - whoops! We kept the same pace as earlier going, bar speeding up in the last 50 metres. Did the last km in 4:29 and Pat called 5 minutes as we crossed the line, so we were only 31 seconds late.

I was more than happy with that run. Not counting the warm down it was a bit over 11k averaging around 4:35 pace.

Re the foot, it was a little achy before we started but not while running except on a couple of sharp turns. It hurt for a little while afterwards too but is okay now. I'm still banking on it just a tendon thing.

Podiatry 101

2007-03-07T08:12:00.000+10:00

Saw the podiatrist yesterday and he said the foot/ankle injury was hopefully just a flexor tendon or retinaculum strain. If not then was likely to be a stress fracture of the navicular or talus.

He gave me a stretch to do a couple of times a day and said I should resume normal training including speedwork - yay! But to totally avoid hills for at least the next week - double yay! The tell tale sign of a stressie would be pain when running and/or pain when inactive, and so I've got to take note of all that before seeing him again next Tuesday.

He's making me new orthotics, the existing ones are over 4 years old and may have contributed to the injury. They are the 3/4 length ones and as they are getting worn out, he wonders if the left one was slipping a bit. My new ones will be full length.

I went for a test drive this morning. Clairie was planning a steady 12k from The Regatta, that sounded perfect to me. If my foot did start hurting and I had to stop I wouldn't be too far from home. It was a great morning for a run, and was especially nice when the rain started.

A couple of kms from the finish I had a tiny bit of pain but nothing too drastic. Whew :-)

Canberra training will resume with a vengeance!

Monday Music - 5th March 2007

2007-03-05T13:49:00.001+10:00

Maia Hirasawa - And I Found This Boy

This is the debut single from Maia Hirasawa, a member of Swedish band Hello Saferide. I first heard it about a month ago when checking out one of my favourite music blogs. Its the story of a one-night stand love affair gone wrong between members of two Swedish bands.

Of this song the author said "Sometimes you get a special song that you want to scream about from the rooftops. But you can't. I wish there was some way to take a regular blog post and somehow broadcast it to the world, instead of just to one a little corner of it."

Maybe now its reached another little corner :-)