Tuesday 6km with 4x200m sprints

Ok so it’s a step back from the last sprint session, but I only realise that now and it’s because I was supposed to do 150 metre sprints last week.

I considered not getting up early after the run on Sunday followed by a late night and then a 4.30am start for the drive to Sydney but that’s what a schedule is for and I feel much better now for having done it. I don’t think I’ve ever regretted getting up and exercising, but the same is not true for having slept through a session! I’m not saying that sleeping in doesn’t feel good at the time and it certainly has its place when you’re not feeling too hot, but later in the day I tend to wish that I had actually got out of bed.

I ran around a walking/training path down the end of the street…a warm up combined with measuring duties (fairly rough – just working out a couple of lengths using an easy 6 min/km pace over about 70 seconds). Knocked out the sprints with 3 minutes recovery to get to one of the measured starting points and then back for breakfast and a shower.

There’s no lighting down there so I was surprised how many people (with and without dogs ) were walking around there in the pre dawn darkness…plus a couple of runners of course.

Sunday 13km Aerobic Run

A long (for me) aerobic run. Straight down Pacific Drive along the beaches to Town Beach then followed the river past the Town Green to Westport Park and back via Kennedy Drive.

I like running along Pacific Drive while it’s still dark before the dawn. I’ve occasionally come across people stumbling along trying to make it home before the dawn. It’s good knowing that it won’t be me waking up in the middle of the afternoon with a sore head! It used to be me, but not these days. And it’s a great feeling to finish a long run with the sun shining after starting in darkness.

During the later part of the run I came across 4 taps in front yards that had been knocked out of the ground and were spraying water…some fool was up to no good last night. I found a council guy fixing the 4th I one...he wasn’t too impressed when I told him about the other 3 down the road.

Finished the run feeling really good as though I could have gone longer and/or faster, which is great as it was all run to plan including the pace. The long runs start to get longer in coming weeks so I’m confident about stepping up the distances.

Friday 6km Tempo Run

This session was 4 x 3 min intervals with 2 min recovery between an easy warm up and cool down. I headed south towards Flynn’s Beach along Kennedy Drive then back via an undulating Pacific Drive and a quick detour into Harry’s Lookout for a quick drink and to admire the view!

This is part of the view from Harry's Lookout

Rest Day

Nothing but work today, so I'll take the opportunity to break up all the text and to test adding photos to a post with a recent shot of Isabel.

Wednesday 5km Recovery

It was a very relaxed run this morning. Isabel failed to wake me up any earlier so a 6.45 start it was! A cool overcast morning with some drizzle through the middle of the run. I wanted to keep it relatively flat, so did a couple of loops around the the Tasman St area.

For the most part when I run I don’t cover the same ground twice on the same day. I rarely run multiple loops, but with some of the specifics of this training program I’m following (hereafter known as “The Guide”) I think I’ll need to in order to provide my legs with the required terrain called for in some of the sessions.

Tuesday 6km with 5x200m sprints

The rain was bucketing down at 5.45am and it was dark and fairly cool so I drifted back to sleep for an hour…after which there was a break in the rain so off I went.

Easy 10 minute warm up run down to Lighthouse Beach, then 5 x 200 metre sprints along the flat sections of MFD with 2-3 minute jog recoveries. Much slower jog back home with the steep MFD hill to climb back up followed by the steady rise along Lighthouse Road.

Seeing as it’s now the 12 week mark out from the Macleay River Half Marathon I’ve decided to follow a 12 week half marathon training program leading up to it. This was my very first session on the schedule. I haven’t really had any structured program before now so I want to see if I can come out of it at the other end with some noticeable improvements.

The program I’m going with is one that suits me at the moment, calling for 2-3 days off per week in between the typical mix of sessions found in most programs. I chose it as there shouldn’t be any significant jumps in distance to what I’m currently doing, thus reducing any overuse injury risk.

Sunday 9km Run

After a restless night for Isabel I was up a bit later this morning (7am). So rather than my planned long run along the beaches into town I did a loop down to the Tacking Point Tavern and along Lighthouse Beach, then up to Pacific Drive down to Shelly Beach and wove my way home to find the girls waiting on the front verandah for me. Felt fairly good and able to keep a decent pace, even climbing up out of Shelly Beach. I was surprised that I saw almost no cyclists along MFD at all given that the Ironman is only 2 weeks away...I thought there'd be a steady stream. But then it was a bit quiet in general this morning...everyone must have slept in given the overcast conditions (did turn into a nice day in the end though).

Saturday 6km Run

Went around the sheltered backstreets this morning as there was a bit of wind and some drops of rain about and it was still dark and too early in the morning to deal with some of the more open areas! Did a 6km loop around the backstreets near home. Everything’s hilly around here (Transit Hill area), so if I want a flat run I have to drive into town (about 5-10 min), but I prefer to run from home most of the time. Got a few refreshing drops of rain, but the slightly heavier showers didn’t hit until I was home.

Running

As for running, well I’d never really run on an ongoing regular basis until I moved to Port Macquarie. Since moving I pretty much went for a jog or a cycle fairly regularly. It wasn’t until I came across http://www.coolrunning.com.au/ that I took a much greater interest in turning jogging into running and added some purpose to the whole thing.

That was the middle of last year…since then I’ve been for a run with Sydney Striders on their Homebush Bay course and, thanks to CRs MinersRun, a few runs with a group of runners that heads out for a run of a Wednesday after work. I had a fairly slow December/January/February as far as running goes, which included posting on Cool Running, although I’d have a read through on a regular basis…it was not assisted by the humid weather, a bit of a bug, and other matters that got in the way. Getting along for an afternoon run was just way out of the question so I’ve pretty much stuck to early morning runs, and am now finally building back up to a more regular schedule and want to get back into the Wednesday arvo runs.

I’m currently running about 100km a month, and I’m aiming to slowly build that up with some more longer runs rather than the 6km runs that I tend to do now.

Ran 48.30 for 10km at Homebush last year and as posted on CR, I’m aiming for 45min this year. Have to see which Striders runs I can coincide with my trips to Sydney over the next few months. I was actually due to see U2 on the 1st April this year, which would have suited doing their Domain run that morning, but since the concert was postponed I’ll be heading straight back to Port as the Ironman is on up here that weekend. I’m still in Sydney that week (apart from flying up to Maroochydore for a couple of days to get a new customer set up).
I fly back to Sydney late Friday night, then back to Port Saturday morning. There should be plenty of CRs up here that weekend!

I won’t be making the City to Surf this year as it’s being held this year on my second child’s exact due date…and they probably won’t reconsider a date change of either event so that’s that.

I have a few goals that I'd like to aim for.

The first one now being less than 3 months away, which is to complete the Macleay River Half Marathon on the June long weekend, and another Half later in the year in which I can then set a time that I'd like to beat based on my initial result in June. For the first one I’m not sure on the time to aim for yet – probably 1hr 40min to 1hr 50min. I’ll reassess that a bit further into the training once I’ve done a few longer runs.

Then in 2007 I'm aiming to complete the Marathon distance, and 2008 could then be something like Six Foot Track, or a Half Ironman if I happened to venture down the triathlon path, which is unlikely at this stage due to the cost of gearing up for that when there's a mortgage to pay and nappies to buy! So running with it's very low equipment cost looks like the go for now. These goals are not that taxing in terms of time frames as I'm not going to be breaking any records so there's no rush and I don't feel the need to launch into an all out training regime.

My main goal is to be able to exercise long into the future without attracting overuse injuries so I'm happy to ease in the pace and distance steadily. Not to mention lose a few kilos along the way. Additionally with an 8 month old daughter, another baby (70% percent probability of a boy this time) due in August, work, Jodie studying nursing at uni and work, there is plenty to fill my time without a huge training commitment. So a run on average 4 mornings a week while the rest of the household is still in bed suits me just fine for now.

35 years in 500 words or less

After more than 10 years in freight forwarding (primarily export airfreight), which is a very interesting and challenging industry, I eventually felt it was time to move on. So I took some time off and did some study to get into the IT industry. Currently doing software development (and some network support as needed) for a Sydney based company that I've been working for since mid 2000.

Got into Scuba Diving in the early 90's...did the PADI Advanced Open Water course, including Night Diving, Search & Recovery. I’ve mostly dived around Sydney plus up and down the coast as well as in Indonesia. Now I dive locally out of Laurieton with Scuba Haven...they run some great dives out at Cod Grounds with the Grey Nurse sharks, as well as the Titan (a crane sunk in about 40m of water) and the usual array of other sites. Most recent dive trip away was out at Julian Rocks off the coast of Byron Bay.

Messed around with various sports such as squash, tennis, basketball, surfing, going to the gym/weights, and did a bit of training in the martial art of Ninjutsu which was quite an interesting experience. I did some cycling at one stage, including 2 Sydney to the Gong bikes rides in 1999 and 2000. Nothing too serious.

Got my Private Pilot Licence out of Bankstown Airport...qualified to fly Night VFR (Visual Flight Rules) in twin engine aircraft...gave it away just before the Commercial Licence stage.

Been snow skiing for more than a couple of decades, the highlight being a couple of months over at Blackcomb, Canada where I did an instructors course with Mike Dempsey. Apart from that, I’ve mostly skied in Australia, and also NZ.

As far as travelling…apart from the ski trips, been up through a few Asian countries, including Indonesia where my parents lived for quite a few years, and around some of Europe. Not to mention some exploration of Australia.

After living in various parts of Sydney over the years I’ve now been living in beautiful Port Macquarie on the Mid North Coast of NSW for the last 2 ½ years with my two gorgeous girls - Jodie and Isabel, with another on the way…this one to (probably!) even up the gender balance in the household! With Jodie studying, my travel to Sydney every few weeks for work and an 8 month old daughter, most recreational pursuits have taken a back seat (more like in the boot), at least for now. In a fit of responsibility I even sold my motorbike!
As such, running is my main recreational focus at the moment due to financial and time constraints.

Hi

My introduction to blogger.com comes from viewing many Cool Running members blogs and it seeming to be a good way of keeping track of training beyond the basic time/distance/route in a spreadsheet method that I'm currently using.

The timing comes because I've got a few running related goals over the next couple of years that I want to reach and this seems like a good way to document it all for whatever reason.