Monday, July 30, 2007

Recovery Run 7ks

A lap of Centennial Park by the full moon. A cool to run in but really it was excellent conditions tonight. Legs and lungs felt a bit sore. Just stuck mostly to the grass.

Total was 7.3ks in 41:40. Average pace of 5:42 per klm.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Long Run with Bay Run Race in the middle

Left from home at 6am and ran up the road to meet Fake Plastic Trees along the way to the Bay Run race at Leichhardt. We ran basically along Anzac Pde, Down Cleveland St and then crossed and ran down Glebe Pt Rd to the water at Lilyfield. Then crossed the City West Link and down Lilyfield Rd to the start of the race near La Montage. All up it was 10.57ks for me in 1:00.08. Average pace of 5:41 per klm. A bit slow but I was running with a back pack and still have my cold in my lungs.

I wasn't expecting much from the race as it was my first run in 9 days. Just kept the pace consistent and tried to run around the bay easy without upsetting the lungs. Managed to keep all the k's under 4mins and then had the long last k to finish in 28:29. The race has never been 7k's despite advertising it as that. It always has been around 7.2 for the race. Actually measured as 7.17ks, so average pace of 3:58 per klm. Happy to just scrape under 4min ks. The lungs felt ok but the legs were another matter. Very heavy.

Ran back to Randwick with FPT after the race via the city this time across Anzac Bridge, Market St, Hyde Park and Oxford St. I'm sure that was uphill all the way from Leichhardt.
Total back was 11.38ks in 1:06.13. Average pace of 5:49 per klm. Legs were really hurting on the way back. I'm sure I was holding Rob up. Sorry.

Total for the day 29.12 klms. Time of 2:34.50. Average pace of 5:19 per klm.
Glad that day is over. Legs have been hurting all afternoon.
Thanks to Rob for the company on the runs down and back.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Easy 12ks

Ran around the outside of Centennial Park and down to Anzac Pde and back. Didn't push it too hard as really I couldn't be bothered. Felt pretty cold in the wind. Maybe it was the shorts and singlet. You think?

It was 12.3 ks in 63:02. Average pace of 5:07 per klm. Now I'm off to watch the British Open Golf.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Run to the Hills 10k

Decided there was no way I could run fast tonight after driving up to Newcastle and back today to see a client. Four hours in the car doesn't help.
Ran some hills instead by running in Randwick, Coogee, Clovelly, Bronte, Bondi and back via Bondi Junction and Queens Park. Plenty of hills in the area to keep me breathing hard.

Total was 10.15ks in 45:02. Average pace of 4:26 per klm. Pretty good with the hills around. Did a 2k cool down after the session.

Now for Sutho to Surf on Sunday morning. Goal is to get under 40 mins for the 11k. I ran 41:48 two years ago just before the stress fracture. In fact maybe this race did it. Lots of downhills.

Yes Spud, edited to 4:26 per klm. But I feel I'm faster! haha

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Mona Fartlek

Pretty windy tonight. 30k NW breeze blowing. Snow on the Mountains. 10 degrees on the Coast.
Ran out in shorts and singlet after doing a 2k warmup. Ok the warmup was while I was in the clothes.

Did the 20 min version of the Mona Fartlek. All up 5.15 ks in the 20:00. Average pace of 3:53 per klm. Surprising pace given how bad my calves feel from the race on Sunday.

Did a 2k cool down after the session.

Monday, July 16, 2007

Recovery Run 7ks

Pretty cold tonight. Well I was putting out a fair bit of steam and that was before I had even started running. Did a lap of Centennial Park around the outside. A fair bit on the grass.
Calves felt a bit sore after the race yesterday, but the Quads were fine.

Ran 7.3ks in 41:42. Average pace of 5:42 per klm. Nice and easy.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

King of the Mountain 32ks

A run starting from the little village of Cambewarra just inland from Nowra. Quite close to the State Longcourse Cross Country Course at Nowra.
Drove down with Horrie getting a full run down of his epic race at Western States in the 4 hours. Showed how special it was to him to get through the race with the buckle. Good job!

Quite cold at the start but I didn't care and started in shorts and t shirt as per always. The first part is around the local streets and we run about 5ks on the tar before we turn back inland towards a mean looking escarpment. Had Blue Dog and the femal winner come up behind me at the 5k mark. That was the last I saw or heard of the Dog until the finish. I stayed with Vanessa for about the next three ks which were flat still. Upon the hills starting I lasted the third hill before I couldn't stay with her. I know I'm soft.
But hey she is in the Australian Mountain Running team for the Swiss world titles in Sept. Strong legs that woman!

I had a 10k split of 42:30 which I thought might have been correct as the 5k of 18:40 certainly wasn't. At about the 12k mark we finished with the bitumen and got onto the graded council dirt roads which still had some patches of hard stuff.
The 15k was reached in 1:07 and the half way 16k in 1:12. The hills kept coming through some spectacular country. Beautiful open bush and farmlands with peaks of the brutal escarpment getting ever closer. Ran through a couple of creeks during the race.
The bottom of Mt Scanzi was about the 23k mark and had an aid station. From here to the top was about 2ks and I had 10 people pass me while my legs decided running was too slow and I had to walk some patches. Didn't care actually about walking as I thought I was moving faster than my shuffle uphill.
The peak of Mt Scanzi gave itself away by a crest sign just near the top. Great aid station with fruit, jelly beans, gatorade and water bags. Also apparently rum but I missed that.

The downhill wasn't as long as I thought, only really 1k steep down and then 6ks of flat with a few more uphills thrown in. This included an uphill from the Kangaroo Valley shops to the finish at the showground. Evil! Plenty of CR's at the race and Striders as the race was part of our Super Series events this year. 160 finishers apparently.

Finished in 2:30.03. Average pace of 4:41 per klm. Very happy with that considering the hills. Came 31st overall.
Some splits: 10k-42:30, 15k-1:07, 16k-1:12, 25k-2:00.
Had the free coffee plus scones with jam and cream after the race. Excellent.
Chris Truscott and Vanessa Harverd won their events respectively.
Finished a 20 miler as the sign said. Now Ewen had a bet that his 1988 time was 2:30. He might have to check the seconds on that one to see who won.

Also Blue Dog was put to the sword today. Unsure of his time, but I did beat his 2:37 from last year. He was wearing arm warmers during the run. He must have gone soft up on the Western States trail.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

State Short Course Cross Country 8.5k's

We ran this afternoon out at the State Equestrian Centre at Abbotsbury. Basically the horse cross country course complete with jumps. We didn't use the jumps.

The course was well mown grass but because of the recent rain was really, really muddy in plenty of places. Glue pot muddy in a couple. A few people were running barefoot because of it.

I didn't have a good run at all. Felt tired for most of the two laps. Must be that Tour de France watching doesn't help. At least it is over for another year. Quite hot out there in the sun without any water during the race.

First lap was 17:42 and 2nd lap 18:54. Finished with 36:36. Average of 4:18 per klm. The winner did 26:xx I think.

Striders male A team was 4th and the Striders female team came third. King of the Mountain down at Cambewarra tomorrow morning. 32ks up over Mt Scanzi to Kangaroo Valley.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Long Reps 3x2.5k

A very ugly session. Felt really tired and didn't want to run tonight.
Ran on a pretty flat course down to Fox Studios and back again.

The reps were 9:21, 9:26, 9:32. All done with a 5 minute walk recovery between reps.
I guess they should have been faster but the legs just wouldn't do it. Pity they got slower as I went along.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Marathon Pace Run 15ks

Legs felt very heavy. Really didn't want to run fast at all actually. A pretty flat run around the usual area of Centennial Park, Moore Park, the SFS and SCG.
Ran in shorts and a singlet. Who said it was winter?

Total was 15.32ks in 1:03:58. Average pace of 4:10 per klm. Spot on the pace I wanted.
Can I call it an MP run now? Want to get this run up to 20ks at this pace. Hopefully will help me run Sydney Marathon the same.

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

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Mona Fartlek

Did the real version of the Mona Fartlek tonight. Beforehand I did a 2k warmup. Pretty cold tonight and there were a heap of lights out around Centennial Park. Made it a bit hard to see the watch, especially when I was finishing with the 15 sec efforts.

So it was 2x90secs, 4x60secs, 4x30secs, 4x15secs. With equal float recoveries. I try to go flat out on the efforts and then keep the floats fast as well.

Finished with 5.18ks in the 20 minutes. Average pace of 3:51 per klm. Very hard work tonight. Don't know how I managed that much in the time.

Did a 2k cool down after the session.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Recovery Run 11ks

Not sure how I got that figure yesterday. Maybe the polar needs a bit of an update. Just worked it out with Google maps as about 31ks. Something weird there. Could depend on how the Striders measure the STaR course as well. If it is measured as racing line of 29.9ks then if you don't run like that in training which you can't really,as you have to cross roads at different points. I guess it could make it longer.
Maybe it is time I bought a Garmin and used some satellites to measure for me.

Tonight the calves were crying after all those concrete streets from yesterday. And probably the lack of long runs as well. Quite slow on the grass around Centennial Park.
Total was 11.9ks in 1:08:15. Average pace of 5:44 per klm.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Balmain Bungle STaR-32ks

A very small 6:20am group this morning. Comprising of Springer, Silver Fox, Tom31 and we picked up 26miles on the way around.
The course goes through all the streets of Balmain with some great water views of the harbour with the sun coming up. Then it gets all boring with us running through Canterbury and Ashfield and around the back of Canterbury Racecourse and along the Cooks River. Springer peeled off short in Ashfield so the four of us ran the full course.

When we got back down to the Bay Run we decided to do the longer loop back around the bay to the finish.
I ended up with 32.42 klms in 2:29:14. Average pace of 4:36 per klm. The pace wasn't too bad considering the hilly nature of the first 10ks of the course with plenty of stairs in it. Keeps me fit for Sydney Marathon.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Striders Homebush 10k

With 10 days off training with the flu I didn't think I had a chance this morning at getting close to any PB's.
The course at Homebush is not a favourite of mine as it involves doing tight turns in the carpark at the start and then the 5k point. Also having to do a tight turn up onto the busway and the two laps of the Wentworth Common sandpit. Enough excuses!

Arrived early and did a warmup. The hands were really cold at the start. Started out pretty well going through the 1st k in 3:35. Backed off after that and managed to cruise around the next 4k to come through the half way at 18:45. Looking good at that stage. I then proceeded to run 8mins for the next 2k blowing any chance of a 37:xx.

Pulled myself together to be 34:40 at the 9k mark. Unfortunately needing a 3:19 to run 37:xx. Well I did manage a 3:30 last k which was good.

Finished in 38:10. Just missed the PB by 5 seconds and the chance for a 37 something.
It was a course PB by 20 seconds from the race in March.
Wasn't feeling too good after the race, with TigerAngel saying my face was a bit white. Probably from the lack of air in my lungs. Damn flu has a lot to answer for.

Next week is the Aths NSW Short Course Cross Country at Horsley Park around a Horse paddock. I might do King of the Mountain on Sunday at Nowra. Not sure yet.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Flake Fartlek

The cake was organised by my mother. Plus we also had a foot high stack of profiteroles. Excellent lunch.
After much eating at lunch the run was a bit slow tonight. Must have been the cake, sandwiches, pies and profiteroles. It was worth it.

Ran 6.8ks in the 28 minutes. Average pace of 4:07 per klm. Did a 1k warmup and a 2k cool down after the session.

I'll be at Striders on Saturday hoping to beat the PB. Manly supporter since the age of 10, so I'm not changing now.

Happy Birthday to me!




Another year of my misspent youth gone! More photo's of cake. This time the all conquering Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.


Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Tempo Run 15ks

Very windy tonight. Almost impossible to run whenever I had to go into the wind. Didn't help trying to stay on the pace that I wanted.
A relatively flat run around the SCG, SFS, Centennial Park and Moore Park.

Total of 15.35 ks in 1:05:56. Average pace of 4:17 per klm. Wanted to run it faster, but the wind was a shocker. Felt like I was running in water.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Faster 10k

Still getting back into it. Pushed the lungs a bit harder tonight to see if they were ready to run faster. Felt pretty good!
Ran a mainly flat course and Centennial and Moore Park. Didn't see any bats. They really must be sitting above Gronks car like Hitchcock's "The Birds", just waiting for a clean shot.

Ran 10.16ks in 44:48. Average pace of 4:24 per klm. Didn't seem too quick.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Easy 12ks

Same feel as yesterday. Just looking to do a few runs without upsetting my lungs too much.
Ran around Centennial Park with the bats noticeably absent. Maybe they have eaten all the fruit out and gone elsewhere for awhile?

Ran 12ks in 1:05:46. Average pace of 5:28 per klm.

Very slow tonight. Just didn't feel like running any faster.

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Very Easy 11ks

It was wheezy joe this afternoon. My flu seems to be getting better slowly. Most of my body is up to scratch, but as you know once it gets in your lungs it takes a long time to get them clear again.
So I didn't expect to push too hard at all today. Due to being very tired I didn't get out for a run until after midday. Very windy from the West and cold as well. So I ran in singlet and shorts. Yeehah!

Ran around Centennial Park, Moore Park, the SCG and Aussie Stadium. A very comfotable 11ks in 57:29. Average pace of 5:13 per klm.