Sick as a dog

Don't know when I'll be running again. Have not been this sick since late 2004.

Tempo Run 10ks

A pretty flat run around Centennial Park, Moore Park, Aussie Stadium and the SCG. Felt colder than usual. Must have been the cloud missing for the first time in a week.

Ran 10.11 ks in 42:13. Average pace of 4:10 per klm.

Almost getting to the point I want to be at for Sydney Marathon. Did a 2k warm up and a 2k cool down after the session.

Looks like Woodford to Glenbrook is off on Sunday. Now just have the State Long course at Nowra on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately W2G has been moved to the day that I was keen on running the Kembla Joggers half. Looks like W2G wins.

ES Marks Track 6x1k Reps

Off to the track for the first time tonight to run these. Only $4 to use the track which is only 1k from the house.
Did a 1.2k warmup. 3 laps what else?

The reps were 3:32, 3:30, 3:28, 3:34, 3:31, 3:32. All done with a 400m Jog Recovery between each rep. Which was about 2 mins.

Finished off with a 2k cool down, or 5 laps.

Felt a bit strange running around the track after not being on it since January.

Stormy Weather 11ks

Apparently cyclonic type conditions are due to hit the Sydney area at midnight. It was really windy and cold and the rain was pretty hard on my face tonight.
Heaps of puddles, lots of splashes by the cars passing me as well. Not a good look after the run, cold, wet and dirty. And I didn't even fall over.

Ran 11.8ks in 53:04. Average pace of 4:29. Not really quick. A bit hard with how strong the wind was tonight.

Recovery Run 8ks

A short run around Centennial Park and a bit extra around Moore Park. Didn't really need it after only doing a 10k race yesterday.
Legs felt fine and no niggles anywhere.

Ran 8ks in 42:12. Average pace of 5:16 per klm.

Mini-MosMarathon 10ks

Very windy, a little shower before the start and no rain during the race. Lots of water on the course today. The start was delayed by 10 mins apparently because a tree was down on the course somewhere.
Lined up next to Strider Paul Jack and after waiting for the 20 prefferred to line up in front of us we were off. Pretty quick even after an uphill start. Missed the k markers if they had any up early.
The only ones I noticed were the 4k which I reached in 14:42, 6k in 22:19, 8k in 30:30.
It is a tough course in the 2nd half so really all your gains need to be made in the first half, hence the 14:42 at 4k. Just tried to keep it steady after that and pass a few people and not to be passed by anyone.
I came up to the last k and you pass within 30 metres of the finish as you finish running around on the road outside of an oval. I got past what turned out to be the 6th female in the last uphill.
There was a little hairpin turn just before we had the 300m finishing straight. I had 4 males ahead of me about 10m after the turn. With about 200m to go I went and managed to blow the four of them off just as I only beat one by 1 second.

Finished in 38:10.

The wrap up:
3rd in my age group 40-49. A very nice engraved medal.
A course/race PB by 3:47. Last year was 41:57.
Second fastest 10k ever just missing my 38:05 from last month which was on a flat course.

Bring on Striders Homebush next month.

Cold, Dark and Raining 11ks

Lovely conditions to run in. It was 11 degrees and raining. I'm sure all the commuters returning home from work in their buses and cars were thinking, nutter! Especially since I ran in shorts and singlet again.

It was 11.1ks in 55:47. Average pace of 5:01 per klm. Very easy pace.

Flake Fartlek

Thunder, Lightning, Rain and Wind. And that was all in 28 minutes of this session.

Ran 6.8ks in 28 minutes. Average pace of 4:07 per klm.

A bit hard to run in the wind and rain, so pace not as quick as I wanted.

Did a 2k warmup before the session and a 2k cool down after.

Tempo Run 12ks

A flat run around Centennial Park, Moore Park, the SCG and Aussie Stadium.

Ran 12.6ks in 53:34. Average pace of 4:15 per klm.

Not as fast as I wanted, but getting close.

Did a 1k warmup and a 2k cool down after the session.

8x500m Reps

Ran along the busway along Centennial Park to do these. Nights are pretty cool at the moment after all the Southerly winds over the last week. Almost lead to me wearing something more than shorts and singlet. I said almost!

The reps were 1:37, 1:32, 1:36, 1:35, 1:33, 1:35, 1:33, 1:34. All done with a 60 second jog recovery between each rep.

Did a 2k warmup and a 2k cool down after the session.

"How close you can come to your ultimate racing potential depends on how much discomfort you're willing to put up with in racing and in training". Alberto Salazar.

Recovery Run 7ks

Centennial Park around the dirt trail. Pretty muddy in places. Lot's of people about as I did this about 11am.
Ran 7 ks in 39:00. Average pace of 5:34 per klm.
Legs had no hope of going any faster after the slogs in the rain over the weekend.

Willoughby Winder STaR 25ks

I thought it might be fine this morning when I left home on the drive to the Striders STaR at Willoughby. The moon was out so I figured I might be lucky.
No so luck. We had heavy showers on and off during the whole run this morning.
The course was changed a bit yesterday as the bush section was taken out for being too dangerous. I.E- Trees down over the track and a lot of it under water.

I left with the 6:20am group. Meaning you are supposed to run at 5min/ks. The course is an H4 meaning very hilly. The area is like that for most of it so we didn't get much respite from the hills. Intermittent showers, trees down across fences and a house roof at one point. Plenty of water on the road. So another soaking from head to toe ensued. A lot less mud than yesterday as it was all on the road.

Tom31 was in the group with me. We only had about 8 of us this morning. Pace was still pretty solid for a hilly course.
Total ended up being 24.7ks in 2:02:06. Average pace of 4:56 per klm.
Always good to get through a hilly course under 5 min pace.
Saw O Runner(Dave) at the end of the run during post race fruit, coffee and drinks after the STaR.

Next week Mini-Mosmarathon 10k. Another hilly run around the streets of Mosman on Sydney's lower North Shore.

East Met Cross Country 7.5ks

A very wild and woolly race around Sydney Park in downtown St Peters setup by Randwick-Botany Harriers. The race started and we were hit by stinging rain, blustery winds and water pouring down every available hill. The planes overhead landing at Sydney Airport were making noises like they wanted to land on top of us. And that was just the first lap.

The course was 3 laps of 3 hills of 2.5k's each. Mud from head to toe. It was a lot of fun. No dry parts were left after the race. I had to drive home with the towel on the seat as I was that wet.

My splits were 9:58, 20:02 and then the finish in 30:13. Not bad in really shocking conditions.

Gave Horrie best wishes for a good race at Western States, with Belinda and Tim braving the conditions today as well.

Easy 7ks

Excellent running conditions. Driving rain, howling wind, branches on the ground, rivers running down the paths. Beautiful! Wasn't too bad except when the rain blew into my face, it stung a bit.

Ran around Centennial Park in the dark. It was fantastic.

Ran 7.2ks in 37:27. Average pace of 5:12 per klm.

Flake Fartlek

Really windy tonight. Didn't help trying to run in 30 knot winds. At least I had a tail wind for part of the run.
Ran down to Aussie Stadium and back. No showers unlike most of the day.

Ran 7.05ks in the 28 minutes. Average pace of 3:58 per klm. Still got under 4 mins a k. Cool.

Did a 2k warmup and a 2k cool down after the session.

Hill Reps 20x200m

Hill reps what a thrill.

All done between 45-55 seconds with about equal recovery back down again. If you can call wheezing back down a hill a recovery.

Did a 2k warmup and a 2k cool down as well.

Tesso breakfast is still on for C2S as I'm not a prefferred starter. Looking to go sub 55 as always.

Tempo Run 10ks

A mainly flat run around Centennial Park, Moore Park, Aussie Stadium and the SCG.
I did a 2k warmup before starting the session.

Ran 10.11ks in 42:32. Average pace of 4:12 per klm.

Did a 2k cool down after the session.

Legs felt pretty sluggish tonight.
Realised that on Saturday the Lane Cove course PB streak is still going strong. 46:21(Jun04), 42:30(Jul04), 39:54(Feb05), 39:48(Jun05), 39:20(Nov06), 38:27(Jun07). Helped by injury and work to keep the streak going. Next Lane Cove race is August before City 2 Surf with no holding back on that one.

Recovery Run 12.3ks

A light run around Centennial Park tonight. It felt cold out running in a singlet and shorts. I think it was around about 15 degrees. Not really cold I guess.
Just stayed on the grass mostly for the duration of the run.

Ran 12.3ks in 1:08:46. Average pace of 5:35 per klm.

Striders Open Male B team of Fats, Craig Dunn, Blue Dog and myself were third in the relays on Saturday. Helped by Sydney Uni DQ for doubling up runners in the same team. You can do one leg as an open and then one as a 35+, but not the same age group. Striders women got DQ last year at the Road Relays for the same thing.

Anyway we take the third. Not sure if we get sent medals or not.

Cutler Dam Fun Run 8k

A win! An age group win. Yeehah! My first age group win in anything. First in the 40-49 age group, 5th male and 6th overall.

Cutler Dam 8k which included 2 loops of the Manly Dam Reserve Rd plus some local streets as well. The start was at the top of the hill at a school so we ran downhill to start doing the two loops.

I passed the 4k mark in 14:15, but we had a 500m uphill to the finish at the end of the 2nd loop. The hill was a killer.

Finished in 30:40 for the 8k.

Striders Tim Ashby and Jenny Wickham won the 8k respectively.

State Cross Country Relays 4x4k

Gave Sportsman a lift from my office down to Miranda for our run around the park in the State Relays. 4x4k's for us males.
My team, the Open B team was Fats, Blue Dog, myself and Craig D. In that order.

Fats ran 13:29, Blue Dog 15:02, me 14:54, Craig 13:35. Pretty good times considering a grass course with a few up and down hills on it.

Guzzo ran 12:05 on the 1st leg to run 5th. The A team was 5th overall. No mention if the B team came anywhere during the afternoon.

Happy with that run after the 10k race this morning.

Overall for the day 14ks in 53:21. Blue Dog was 53:23. I take the win!
Cutler Dam Fun Run tomorrow.

Striders Lane Cove 10k

A bit chilly this morning before the start necessitated me actually doing a wamup. So I ran a couple of k's on the course which didn't really get me any warmer.
The finish of the course had been changed due to some work being done on the weir.

I had decided before the start to take it easy as I have the Cross Country Relays this afternoon.
I was pretty steady off the start with the 1st k coming up in 3:40. Just kept running it easy in my opinion and we had to run up Scribbly's further than usual due to the weir works. Came up to the 5k in 19:28. My fastest at Lane Cove for the 5k.

Blue Dog said before the start he was doing a steady under 39mins which was what I was trying as well.
Ran back to the finish dicing up and down the hills with a few runners. Just playing games actually. Let them pass me then take them on the next uphill or downhill. Just felt like I was cruising on the way back.
The finish came up and I did the return split in 18:58 for a finish of 38:26.

A course PB by 54 seconds and my 2nd fastest 10k ever.
Seriously I wasn't pushing really hard. I know you don't believe me. But I had plenty in the tank at the finish. Now I'm off to the relays.