Dive, Rock 'n Run

Six Foot Track Marathon 2008

2008-03-10T22:21:00.003+11:00

I drove from Port to Sydney on Friday, then up to the mountains with my parents where we stayed at my Aunt and Uncles place at Blackheath. The storm during the night was unexpected, as was waking up to low cloud, light rain and cold temperatures.

After getting to the start shortly after 7am I had well over an hour until my wave. Was interesting to catch up with a few people and watch the first three waves charge off over the edge before it was our turn.

I was near the front of wave 4, and had a nice relaxed run to the top of the stairs. I was pretty happy with the descent, as it was a comfortable slowish pace, which meant a safe trip down without being stopped or slowed too much other than at a couple of the trickier spots.

From the bottom of the stairs (15-20 mins) I settled into a nice easy pace mindful of not going too quick in the early stages. It’s nice open trail to Megalong Road, which I hit in 55 minutes, before crossing the fields followed by the more technical descent to Cox’s River. I was in a small spread out group for some of this section, so I had good sighting ahead of me (unlike the much tighter conga line during Megalong Mega), and easily cruised down to the river in 1:45. The river was under waist height. I made a quick stop at the aid station to refill the bottles, grab a gel and a quick snack.

The next hour and a half was the climb up to Mini-Mini and Pluvi, punctuated by the descent to Alum Creek. I walked pretty much all the uphill other than the short flatish parts. As I was approaching the top of Pluvi I could feel the lower inside part of my left quad tightening up a bit, but nothing too serious.

Top of Pluvi was 3:26, where I stopped for a quick change of socks and various drinks, some food and a salt tablet. I was thinking as I approached the station that my feet actually felt fine, but putting a new pair of soft dry socks on just felt great. I think I had a bit too much to drink there, as I could feel it all sloshing around for the next 20 minutes or so. I’d been having a gel every hour, an endura drink, as well as regularly sipping water and sports drink, and the odd piece of power bar. The aid stations were amazing well stocked and well manned.

The rest of the race was a bit of a nightmare thanks to the quad cramps. I’m very grateful to BernieG, who happened to come along just as I’d been stretching and gave me some salt tablets, which was a lifesaver as the previous aid station had run out of them. Part of my problem was that I’d never had cramps anything like this before, and in particular never had any issue with my quads whatsoever in the past. I didn’t really know what to do, or in fact whether I’d make it past the next hill or not.

A fair way up Black Range I worked out what was happening. Mostly the cramps were coming on when I slowed to walk up a few of the steeper hills and when pausing at an aid station. I found that if I kept running the cramp tended to fade away, as though the extra motion was shaking it out and loosening the muscles, particularly after the salt tablets. So seeing as I was actually feeling fairly strong apart from the cramps I ran as much as I could, but of course there are a few sections that I just couldn’t – most notably the climbs just before the Caves Road crossing. I had a fair bit of trouble there, and lost a lot of time stopping to stretch the legs on the way up. Once I was over the road I had a final stretch of the quads just after the Binda Cabins aid station and ran the rest of the way. My legs were fine from there as it’s pretty much all downhill, and that was the last of the cramps. It’s certainly treacherous going down the narrow path with the drop on your right.

It felt great flying down the walkway into the valley, seeing and hearing the crowd, with the announcer calling everyone in. That final descent is incredible, just the best finish to a race that I could imagine and made it all worthwhile. Down the bottom I turned the corner, high fived Owly and crossed the finished line in 6 hours 7 minutes, where TA was waiting with a hug and to steady me while they removed the timing chip. Mum and Dad were waiting just past the finish, as was Hamburgler who was long finished. I was a bit shattered and emotional at that stage. It was just such a relief to get to the finish after the last 2 and a half hours of pain (on top of the other 3 and a half “good” hours!) and uncertainty as to whether I’d make it all the way, plus the fact that 2 years ago I’d planned to run Six Foot this year and it had finally come to fruition. I can really appreciate now what a tough race it is.

So many people I spoke to had really fantastic runs and posted some great times.

I guess what happened to me seems to be a fairly classic Six Foot case of too quick to the river and then Pluvi for the training I did in the lead up. Perhaps, as I did feel like I’d done a bit less than I should have. Even though I was very comfortable to those points in the race, perhaps even more conservatively would have seen me in better shape for the back half. Even so, I’m fairly happy to have given sub 6 hours a shot as I did, crashed a bit but still finish close enough to my goal time. At least now I’m in a much better position for a more serious crack at it next year, hopefully carrying a few less kilos and giving it the full respect it deserves. That gives me a year to prepare a better training program and race day plan for the 14^th March 2009. How exciting!

5 days to go...

2008-03-03T14:45:00.003+11:00

Since the Megalong Mega I’ve had a couple of good solid runs. The week after it was a bit of a recovery week due to work and being a groomsman at a friend’s wedding the following weekend. I felt pretty good after the MM, but thought it best to keep my long run to 2 hours on the day of the wedding.

Two weeks ago I parked off Bago Road and made my way up to Bago Bluff/The Rollover and Bago Lookout. That was a three and a half hour run, and I chose that area as the hills were bigger than around the usual area I’ve been running. A lot of it was just the standard rolling hills before the first climb starting from an altitude of about 50 metres up to 400 metres at The Rollover (in about 3-4km), then back down to 70 metres before climbing back up to 350 metres at Bago Lookout. The views were pretty spectacular at the top, and I took a few photos on the phone but they’re a bit average as it was an overcast day. There was some light rain along the way but nothing too serious. It was almost back at the car a bit earlier than expected so I did a few hill reps up from Blue Creek which wasn’t quite as blue as advertised, but was a good strong effort to finish.

Last weekend was back out to Queens Lake State Forest for two and a half hours around Jolly Nose Hill. It was another pleasant run, and I’m really enjoying running in that area. I noticed that there was much more wildlife to see and hear in the area that there was the previous week out Bago way. I went up to the top of the hill again, and found some interesting stats for the climb (to me!).

For 2km it rises from 30m to 100m (mix of falling, level and mostly rising terrain), which took me 13 minutes up and 10 minutes down. The final 750m section rises from 100m to 250m (1 in 5) and took 12 minutes up and 5 minutes down.

The weekend just past I had an easy 15km run down Queens Lake way again. Was a cool, clear morning and I felt good throughout.

I’m in the middle of a couple of week’s holiday at the moment. I’m looking after the kids full time as Jodie has a 3 week block of intensive lectures for uni and also has casual work at the hospital in the gaps. She’s actually worked 5 shifts in the last 7 days, and after a 2 hour lecture last Thursday went straight to a double shift from 5pm to 7am. Amusing and looking after the kids and house chores are keeping me busy enough during the taper.

All that’s left for me to do before the weekend is a couple of easy 40 minute runs, a massage and to get myself to the mountains on Friday.

I'm in wave 4 on Saturday, so get to watch the earlier waves take off before it's my turn. I probably haven't put as much training in as I should have, but I guess that's reflected in my rough goal time of +/- 6 hours. Being otherwise occupied over the last week or so has kept my mind off the race, but by the middle of the week I need to think about what's ahead and start mentally preparing myself for Saturday. At least for now I'm really looking forward to it.

Megalong Mega 2008

2008-02-11T18:04:00.000+11:00

Thanks Ellie for the photo of Ben and myself taken just before we headed off.

This was my one and only look at the Six Foot Track before race day. It was quite a good day for it, with cloud cover for the whole morning keeping the temps down. There was a good turn up too, with around 140 people running/walking.

The run down to Coxs River took around 45-50 minutes of mostly single file track. Being stuck behind others was a good thing to avoid going too quick from the start. The river was waist deep and refreshing. The climbs up to Mini Mini saddle and Pluviometer were certainly steep and long, as expected. Most of the uphills were at as fast a walk as I could manage, other than the odd flat bit that I ran, and the downhill to Alum River.

I made it to the top of Pluvi 2:30 from the start, and had a short break before rolling my way back down.

After the river crossing on the way back I took my shoes and socks off to empty out quite a bit of sand and stones, which felt good. I also took my pack off and had a quick splash to cool down.

Gruelling describes the climb back up to Megalong Road from the river quite well. It was really hard work, but I was trying to run as much as possible on the flat to slight uphills, but some of the steps were a real struggle after 4+ hours. There was some light rain through this section that was very welcome. I made it back to the start in a few minutes over 5 hours, which included about 20 minutes of stops at the top of Pluvi, at the river, and the odd stone stop here and there.

There were a few other streams to cross between Cox's and Alum, and after 4 hours of being wet my feet were suitably shriveled at the end, but thankfully no problems with blisters.

It was great to get out there and see the course. The scenery was certainly beautiful although I didn't get to take it all in during some of the tougher sections.

I was interested to see how the steeper sections compare to the local climb I've been doing up to the top of Jolly Nose Hill, and was pleased to find that it was certainly no steeper than what I'm used to, just longer. So I can see myself heading back to that hill for some more local hill sessions once my legs get a week or so to recover (that would be about now!). Some acclimatisation is in order as well, so I think I need to throw in a long run or two later in the day and in some more open sections. I'm used to a bit more of a closed canopy than there was on the course, and I usually head out in the pre dawn cool, so I'm not used to the heat so much.

I actually thought my legs would be a lot worse than they were afterwards. They are a bit sore and stiff for a couple of days, but not too bad really.
I'm glad that I have the Salomon shoes, as it felt like the rockiness of some of the sections would have left my feet bruised and knocked around a bit otherwise.

I decided that my plan on race day would be to carry a spare pair of socks to change into at the top of Pluvi once I've crossed (hopefully) all the water. I think I'll take my fuel belt with just two bottles for convenience, which is nothing compared to the hydration pack and 4 fuel belt bottles used in training.

I was trying to work out a time based on the two and a half hours from Megalong to the top of Pluvi, and figured that anywhere around the 6 hour mark would be just fine by me.

Under Six Weeks to Six Foot

2008-01-30T21:45:00.000+11:00

Seems I'm not even managing quarterly posting. I’ll summarise and try to keep it brief.

The last few months of 2007 were very busy. Jodie had exams and full time prac for uni, we were both doing additional night/weekend work, and any spare time was spent with the kids.

I had a month and a half break from any form of exercise that began when we were all struck down with the flu and was extended by general tiredness and being so busy.

I made a return to the road in time to get a couple of weeks lead up to the Summer Twilight Series run at Earlwood in December hosted by Silverfox, which was enjoyable. I found it quite difficult breaking back into the running routine again for the first week or two. I just felt sluggish and it was a real struggle getting out of bed.

I finished 2007 with a total of 1631km which is 400km up on last year. Most of it was in the first half of the year, with the second six months contributing just 440km. I guess the lack of any real goals after the Macleay River Half could have contributed to that, as well as just generally wanting to sort out the hamstring and calf issues that had been hassling me.

Skipping forward to the present and I’m now in Week 9 of 14 of my Six Foot training program. Definitely not at the level I’d like to be at this stage in terms of the number of sessions per week and length of the longer runs.

I’ve been on a few long trail runs around the Queens Lake / Jolly Nose area just out of Bonny Hills, which is south of Port that I’ve really enjoyed. I did 3 hours 20 minute trail run just over a week and a half ago, after a 3 hours 10 minutes road run the weekend before that.

The long weekend just passed included a couple of trail runs. The first was two and a half hours on Saturday, and was quite possibly the best run I’ve ever had. I circumnavigated Jolly Nose Hill, including a climb to the top. There was pouring rain, a steep climb and descent battling a raging torrent of water, not a car or other person to cross paths with, and on the flatter sections was running comfortably at a good pace. It just felt really enjoyable. The other run was on Monday in an adjoining section of state forest for an hour and a half before heading up to Telegraph Point for some water skiing to give the arms, shoulders and hamstrings something to think about.

I’ll be heading to the Blue Mountains this weekend for the Megalong Mega. I’m looking forward to having a look at the track. Should be interesting, and it may give me an idea of a rough time goal to aim for come March.

Memorial for Dave Wheatley

2007-10-03T11:55:00.000+10:00

25/11/1969 to 3/10/1997

On the long weekend I went on a road trip down to Merimbula with a couple of long time friends for a dive to commemorate the passing of our friend Dave 10 years ago.

I’ve known Steve and Rob, who I drove down with, and Dave since primary school and earlier. That was around 25 to 30 years ago. With us living in different parts of the country (and world at times), it’s been well over 10 years since the three of us have been on a road trip together that hasn’t involved wives or girlfriends, so that was a momentous occasion on its own.

After a leisurely 7 hour drive from Sydney to Merimbula on Saturday morning we met up with some of Dave’s family and other friends that were down there for the weekend, and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon and evening before an early start on Sunday.

Sunday morning saw us loading up the boats for the short trip out to the wreck of the Tasman Hauler off the coast of Eden, which plays host to a memorial in Dave’s honour (see below) and is the site at which his ashes were scattered all those years ago.

The Tasman Hauler is a tug that was scuttled in 1988, is still more or less intact and in good condition. The top of the mast is at a depth of 14 metres, the bridge at around 20 metres, it lies in about 30 metres of water at the base and is over 40 metres in length.

Conditions weren’t too bad, although it was a little murky down there. For the first part of the dive everyone gathered around Dave’s memorial in remembrance of our friend. As well as many of Dave’s friends, his brother Mark and sister Meredith were on the dive.

Dave was instrumental in my taking up diving in the first place, and over the years we shared many good times, both under the water and on the surface, and it was a terrible loss for him to pass away at just 27 years of age.

Mark then took Rob and myself on a tour of the wreck, starting with the prop. Steve doesn’t dive, and stayed up on the boat with Dave’s Mum. The prop is intact and enclosed in a shroud. I was able to stand upright on the bottom of the shroud and couldn’t touch the top with my hands. After swimming through the prop we ascended a little and swam through the engine room. The rest of the dive involved a look around the bridge and the bow before heading back to the plaque and up the mooring line. All up the dive was around 31 minutes, maximum depth 29 metres and a water temperature of 13 degrees C (a bit chilly!).

Once everyone was rounded up back on the boat it was time for the second purpose of the trip. Dave’s Dad Bill recently passed away, and his ashes were also being scattered at the site. Sadly Mark had the task of doing for his father what he did for his brother 10 years ago. After that the boats were on their way back to Eden to complete a very moving morning at sea.

We then had the rest of the day to relax, eat and drink at various locations throughout Merimbula.

Monday was a full day of travel. We headed off at 8am and got back to Sydney around 3pm. After a break I then had the rest of the trip to complete solo, making it back to Port around 9pm. So the journey home incorporated breakfast, lunch and dinner, around 13 hours and over 800km. There was a bit of traffic along the way, but nothing too severe.

It was a memorable weekend and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. I did take my running gear, but didn’t get the chance to use it. I can run any time!

Taken at Merimbula in June 1996. Dave on the far left, Steve and Rob are there, and I even had some hair back then ;)

This is a video capture from the original video taken 10 years ago so it’s a little hard to read:

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick is over.

- John Masefield.

Long weekend ahead...

2007-09-28T09:10:00.000+10:00

As usual it’s been a while.

City to Surf

It was so long ago now but I did make a couple of notes. Whilst I felt ok over the first half of the run, the heat combined with my lack of fitness/preparation saw me feeling very average over the back end. I made it to half way in 35 minutes and felt pretty good on my way up Heartbreak Hill, but I really faded through the ups and downs of 9-11km and ended up finishing in 72:50 for the 14km.

That’s a pretty shocking back half given that most people negative split on this course. Still, that was to be expected and I’m happy to have met my goal of retaining a red bib for next year, when I hope to be better prepared. Great day though.

In the fortnight immediately following C2S I only did one run and ended up covering just 67km in August. That’s my lowest monthly total since the August to October period last year when my calf was playing up. At least back then I made up for the lack of running by substituting cycling and swimming. I don’t feel too bad though...it’s a good break to freshen up before I get back into it all. I’m happy to relax and get out for 3-4 easy runs a week with nothing over 15km until the middle of October before picking things up a bit prior to the Central Coast Half, which should then lead into training for Six Foot Track.

Whilst on the subject, I have started my preparation for the track. I picked up a pair of (yellow!) Salomon XA Pro’s a few weeks ago, and have taken them out for the last couple of weekends.

First up I ventured from Bonny Hills along a 4WD track / fire trail to a local creek. All up it was a 10km return trip. Last weekend I followed some fire trails down to the Queens Lake Picnic Area for a 14km round trip.

Both runs were very enjoyable, and a nice change to the normal road scene that I run closer to home. At one stage I may have had to jump a gate to get where I was headed...sshhh, don’t tell.
I’m planning on getting out for a trail run once a week, starting off by exploring some more of the trails around the Queens Lake area before moving further afield.

Apart from that, life is very busy. Jodie had her mid semester exams the other week and starts some casual work from next weekend. I’m in the middle of an additional project I’ve taken on as overtime that should last a couple of months. It’s using new development tools that we’re using more for future projects so it’s a good learning experience. The extra money is coming at a useful time, but all I have time for at the moment is work, spending some time with the kids, a few chores and sleep. There should be some respite come December when my overtime is finished and Jodie has completed her end of year exams followed by her couple of weeks placement at a nursing home.

Hi

2007-08-07T15:29:00.000+10:00

Well, it’s been a while and I don’t know where to start other than saying things haven’t quite gone to plan lately. Much of this is old news as I’ve sat on this post for way too long.

I was quite busy for most of June with some end of financial year related work. Still plenty of work to do since then as well.

At the end of June I picked up a bit of a right glute strain that appeared after some 1km intervals. My training had gone well since the Half until that point.

The week after that happened I was in Sydney and had planned to run the Striders 10km at Homebush. A test run a couple of days prior made me realise that wasn’t going to happen. I could run ok at an easy pace, but as soon as I pushed any harder the leg felt like it wanted to collapse under me. So instead we took Isabel to Lollypop Land at Moore Park on the Saturday morning as it was her 2nd birthday on the Sunday.

Since then I’ve given it some rest with just some easy runs, and ended up getting a couple of physio sessions. After talking with the physio and reading a post by Speedy Geoff about 180 steps per minute (SPM) being optimal I’m considering that my recent hamstring and glute issues could stem from introducing more speed sessions this year combined with a longer than ideal stride. This could be putting more strain on the hamstring, glutes and lower back when I push harder as I probably over extend my stride rather than increasing the tempo. I counted on the weekend and found that I am generally doing around 130 SPM. I concentrated on reducing stride length and upping the tempo and could get to around 150-160 SPM, but even that seemed like a quick turnover. I’m sure with a bit of practice it will feel a bit more natural so I’ve started working on that along with a few strengthening exercises prescribed by the physio.

Around the end of June Jodie’s Mum had a horse accident that really messed up her right hand. It has resulted in six operations so far with at the very least another one to come. There are bone grafts, skin grafts and a prosthesis involved in trying to fix up her hand and in particular one of her fingers. Most of the operations have been at John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle and as a result there was some to-ing and fro-ing for Jodie and the kids between Port, Newcastle and Sydney at the time.

Jodie, Isabel and myself suffered from some sort of nasty little stomach virus a couple of weeks ago so no running for a week there. Tyler seemed to escape it somehow.

To complicate things further I picked up a new hamstring strain in a completely new place (non running related this time) a few days ago and have yet to run on it, so it will be interesting tomorrow morning when I test it out.

With the City to Surf on the coming weekend I’m certainly not where I was hoping to be, and expect I’ll be going easy on the right glute and possibly the hamstring (again). Hopefully I’ll be ok to push through and maintain a red bib qualifying time for next year, but even that's not a certainty. I put a request for a red bib (SH1 start group) this year with my recent Half time and received it in the mail last week, but it would be good to earn it during the event itself.

With the limited spare time I’ve had lately my blogging has been restricted to reading only. My commenting and posting have gone out the window, hopefully to return soon :)

I have been running regularly with everything that's happened, but they've just tended to be short, easy runs.

June’s distance was down a bit at 165km, mostly due to taper and recovery from the Half. I gave myself a week’s break afterwards as kind of a reward and to break the routine up a bit.
July was even lower with the recent disruptions, with just 100km for the month. It would have been 99km but I extended my last run for the month to get it over the line.

2007 Macleay River Half Marathon

2007-06-11T14:43:00.000+10:00

Well there’s my third Half Marathon completed, and my second shot at the Macleay River event. For another year, just when it seemed that the weather could have been terrible it turned out that conditions were pretty favourable other than a bit of a headwind on the way out. A sunny cool day is always nice, and afterwards I found it quite warm sitting in the sun in the relatively sheltered finish area.
We were down at the start/finish area to watch the Marathon start (30 minutes before the Half). There was a one minute silence at the start of the Marathon for Ian Green (Green Machine). After the Marathon was underway I got ready, did a warm up and lined up with roughly 120-130 (I think they said?) other starters.

Last year I ran 1:45:12 and with my recent Marathon training I was hoping to make a considerable improvement on that. I was feeling good at the start, and once we were underway I was cruising comfortably along for the first few km. Part of the display section of my watch had started playing up a couple of days before, so I couldn’t record any splits otherwise I wouldn’t be able to read the total time (all I could read was the split time, so as soon as I hit a split I would only be able to read the lastest split and wouldn’t know my total time). I did have the 5km splits for a 1:35 and a 1:39 finish written down, but didn’t pay much attention to them.

So after a few km I just went on feel and didn’t really know how I was going apart from at the half way mark, which I think I went through in about 49 minutes. I was aiming for 4:30 minutes per km so I knew I was a bit slower, but hoping the tailwind on the way back would help, although it never seems to!

I wasn’t really running along with anyone although there were always a few people nearby. Everyone seemed fairly consistent with their pace without much surging. I felt good on the hills particularly on the way back into town, and pushed strongly up them all.

I paid a bit of attention to the time in the final 3km, and realised I had some work to do if I were to go under 1:40 (100 minutes). On the final climb to up Trial Bay Gaol I looked at my watch with 1km to go and realised I needed about a 4:15 final km to beat 100 minutes. I didn’t check the time again until after the finish. I was surprised that a few people were really struggling up the last hill, but I was on a mission and pushing as hard as I could. It’s great when you get to the top though because for the final few hundred metres it’s a flying downhill run to the finish.

On checking my watch I saw it was 1:39:55. The official results were up the same day and they have me recorded as 1:39:59 for 30th position out of 111 finishers and 9th in my age group.

I was really happy to have beaten the 100 minute mark (just), and last year’s time by 5-6 minutes.

As with all three halves that I’ve done I was running reasonably hard, but never really beyond myself at any time apart from the final sprint. Looking back I know I should have challenged myself more rather than cruising along, especially during the middle 10km. I probably don’t run enough of them to really get a good feel for it, but I’m sure with some more experience that will improve. Both times I’ve run here I think I’ve been a bit too laid back going into it, whereas you know with a 10km you just
have to run as hard as you can, and with a Marathon there’s such a long lead up to it and you’re prepared for it to hurt near the end no matter what.

Still I can’t complain about a 5-6 minute pb, a sub 100 and a couple more lessons learnt!!

Jodie was great support at the start, finish and out on the course. Her family had the kids for the morning, and they were all at the finish as well for a while, but just Jodie and myself hung around for the presentations.

Nice to chat with Kazz, Eagle, Silverfox, Miners and Pam (Green Machine’s wife).

I’ve pulled up great today, but I’ll give myself a few more days running break. I’ll just take the kids for a few walks to loosen up and keep things moving, as well as a massage during the week before I get back into it.

It looks like I’ll be able to make it to the Sydney Striders 10km race at Homebush in July. I’m looking forward to that now and hopefully knock some time off the 10km PB that I ran on the same course last year, which was also a few weeks after last years Macleay River Half.

Now...where was I

2007-06-08T09:03:00.000+10:00

It’s been so long since I posted that I don’t know where to start. Whilst I’ve been on an extended blog absence, the training continues. I recovered to be in good shape after Canberra and feel I’ve prepared well for the Macleay River Half next weekend.

My Aerobic long runs used to be around the 6 minute/km mark, but I’ve noticed over the last couple of months that I can comfortably trot along closer to 5 minutes/km for what feels like a similar effort. It'll be interesting to see how I go on Sunday.

After weeks of no real improvement I finally saw a physio about my hamstring in May. A day or two of the exercises he prescribed and I no longer felt any pain. I’ve got some ongoing exercises to help the area recovery fully but was just amazed how after going through the pain in the hamstring for a fair while it took so little to actually fix it. Ewen was right with his comment ages ago about light strengthening being the key.

April saw me cover 147km. It included my taper and recovery as well as the Marathon itself. Helped freshen the legs up and provided a nice recovery period.

In May I ran a total of 208km. It saw me hit 1000km for the year during my long run on the 27th.

For the record, below are some further details if you’re game…after a couple of weeks I stopped make any notes other than the basic details of my training that I throw into a spreadsheet.

Tuesday 24/4: 7km Run
Another recovery type run around Lighthouse Beach and Emerald Downs. Threw in a couple of 30 second efforts and a strong run to finish up Pacific Drive from Jonas Absalom.

Thursday 26/4: 10km Tempo Run
After sitting down a couple of days ago and constructing a training plan to get me to the half marathon I decided I was motivated and felt fresh enough to start with a decent run today.
So I ran down Kennedy Drive to Gordon Street and back via Granite Street with a couple of diversions. I had planned 2 x 12 minute efforts with a 5 minute jog recovery but if I felt flat I was willing to cut back to 6/8/10 minutes each. As it turned out I felt great during the first effort so I stuck to the plan.
I later measured the sections, and it turns out my pace was around 4:30 minute kms which is about right for 10km race pace. I actually thought I was going a bit quicker than that at the time, but there were some hills involved and the first effort was a net uphill, so not a bad result for my first quicker run back.

Saturday 28/4: 12km Run
I’d planned a 16km run today, but woke up and to a cold and rainy morning. So I lay in bed for an hour before deciding I’d better get up and at it. It was still raining as I stepped out, but wasn’t as cold as I expected. I spent the first couple of km thinking about how nice it would be to have a hot shower and relax after I finished.

I ran along Pacific Drive into town and back via Kennedy Drive. The rain eased off during the second half of the run but I still opted to cut it short as it wasn’t much fun and I felt there was little to be gained by being out there any longer. The first couple of weeks back were just recovery runs anyway.

Monday 30/4: 10km VO2 Intervals
After a 20 minute warm up I ran 5 x 800m intervals with 2 minute jog recovery at Wayne Richards Park.
I eased into the first one before a couple of more solidly paced intervals. I decided to give the 4th one a bit more effort and was quite pleased with the 3:02. But ideally (according to McMillan) I’m looking to do them in around 3:20, so that was a one off to see how my speed was. The intervals (in time not pace!) were: 3:39, 3:20, 3:25, 3:02 and 3:21.
I felt really good afterwards and keener than ever for some half marathon training!

Wednesday 2/5: 13km Aerobic Run
It was a spectacular morning to be out…the sunrise threw up all sorts of shades of orange and crimson. I started off through the back of Port and finished up travelling along the river and beaches.

Friday 4/5: 8km Tempo and Hill Reps
Ran through Lighthouse Beach and Emerald Downs before knocking out some solid 4 x 90 second hill reps up Pacific Drive near Jonas Absalom.

Sunday 6/5: 26km Long Run
Seeing as I left my fuel belt bottles in Sydney I split this run into a couple of loops so that I could pick up some refreshments at the half way mark. First it was into town along the river and beaches, and then around Lighthouse, Marbuk, Emerald Downs and along Ocean Drive to Koala Street and the Waniora area.
I’ve decided to put a bit more effort into my long runs, but not so far as to take it beyond an aerobic effort. Not too easy, not too hard…but not a plod. I was extremely pleased with how it went too. There were plenty of hills throughout the run, yet I ran it all fairly strongly and had a comfortable breathing pattern throughout.
So sub 5:30 minutes/km is my new 6 minutes/km…it was actually around 5:20 pace. I felt much better during the rest of the day than I used to after a 2 hour plus run.

Tuesday 8/5: 9km VO2 Intervals
Just down to the park for 4 x 1km intervals with 2 minute jog recoveries this morning. The goal pace was around 4:10 although I ended doing them all a bit quicker than that, but not by too much.
In the middle of the last one I felt something odd that could have either been my shoe kicking something up and hitting the back of my leg, or could have been a mini seizure in the hamstring. I still can’t decide which one it was, as there are no after effects and it was in a higher position than my previous hamstring issues. I really can’t work out whether I felt it on the skin or muscle In any case the hamstring still gives me some minor aches so I’ve booked in to get a bit of physio to fix it up rather than let it drag on. Carrying the kids around definitely strains it more than running and it’s difficult to cut that right out as Tyler is still only crawling. Although I can coax him to follow me places around the house, I still need to carry him on a regular basis!

Thursday 10/5: 8km Tempo and Hill Reps
I was no worse for wear from Tuesday so I trotted out in the light rain this morning. After a warm up I put in a 12 minute tempo effort before heading straight into 3 x 90 second hill reps.

Sunday 13/5: 17km Long Run

Tuesday 15/5: 9km with 6x600m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 16/5: 13km Aerobic Run

Friday 18/5: 9.5km with 9 minute Tempo effort then 4 x 90 second hill reps

Sunday 20/5: 27km Long Run – Lake Cathie return

Tuesday 22/5: 8km with 4 x 800m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 23/5: 10.5km Aerobic Run

Friday 25/5: 10km with 12 minute Tempo effort then 5 x 90 second hill reps

Sunday 27/5: 18km Aerobic Run

Tuesday 29/5: 10km with 5 x 1000m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 30/5: 12km Aerobic Run

Friday 1/6: 9km with 2 x 12 minute Tempo efforts

Sunday 3/6: 15km Aerobic Run

Tuesday 5/6: 7km with 4 x 600m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 6/6: 5km Recovery Run

And that just about gets me up to date. I’ve just got a relatively easy tempo run to do today (2 x 5min efforts with 5 minute recovery) and that’s it (apart from 500 or so blog posts to read) until the race on Sunday.

Still on holidays

2007-04-23T20:41:00.000+10:00

In being away during the week before the Marathon I missed recording the details of my final week of training. I’ll keep it as brief as it gets. For the record it went…

Week 18 of 18:
Tuesday 5km Recovery Run
Wednesday 8km Tempo Run with 1x10 minute effort
Friday 6km Easy Flat Low Intensity Preparation Run

So my Marathon Splits were:

1st 10km 52:38
2nd 10km 52:22
3rd 10km 53:58 (30 second walk through 25km drink station)
4th 10km 56:59 (2 minute walk through 35km drink station)

1st Half 1:51:xx
2nd Half 1:57:xx

There was some ups and downs in the 1km splits throughout each 10km, but for the most part they were pretty consistent. The quickest 1km was the 8th km in 4:59, which I’m guessing included the downhill section from Parliament House.

There were only 4 separate kilometres that were slower than 4 hour pace (5:41min/km). The 1st due to the delay in crossing the start line, 26th and 36th due to walks, and the 38th for no reason I can recall although it may have involved the rise up to the Commonwealth Avenue bridge.

In the first three days since the marathon I did a fair amount of walking each day, including a big day on Wednesday at Taronga Zoo. The massage on Tuesday worked wonders on the soreness in my quads and stairs were my friend again by Wednesday.

After not running at all for about a week after Canberra I’m happy to only do a handful of easy recovery runs for a week or two after that. I’m hoping that by easing back into it I’ll minimise the reported flatness that many people find after running a Marathon and can slip back into some training for my next goal.

My first run afterwards was a week later – just an easy 6km on Sunday morning. Didn’t feel too bad, but just plodded down to Flynns Beach and back. Was happy to put in a strong effort up the hill from the Shelly Beach shop to Lighthouse Road.

And now…

Rather than push straight back into preparing for another marathon I’d really like to do some shorter stuff for the rest of the year which I think would be a bit easier on the legs as I could ease off the distance a bit before the next big one. I’d like to get a bit quicker, throw in some extra hill work and gradually increase the k’s spent on some trails.

First up I’m planning on running the Macleay River Half Marathon at South West Rocks on the June long weekend. I’m really looking forward to having a good crack at a half now that this distance doesn’t seem as far as it used to.

Then I’d like to run the City to Surf in August.

Ideally I’d manage to fit in a couple of Sydney Striders 10km races over the next few months if it fits in with my trips to Sydney.

Then pencil in the Central Coast Half Marathon to finish off the year.

This would then lead into a summer of training for my first goal for 2008: the Six Foot Track Marathon in March…now that I’ve qualified!

And in the meantime I'll be thinking about another Marathon to do next year. I’d love to run Canberra again, but it may be a bit close for me to back up for and run well. Maybe the Gold Coast Marathon in July based on the positive reports I’ve heard of it.

I’d updated the sidebar with my Marathon time and future plans.

2007 Canberra Marathon

2007-04-17T17:30:00.000+10:00

Yeah, this is going to be very long and rambling…probably twice as much as my first Half Marathon post, but I want some notes that I wrote while it’s all fresh to be able to refer back to for next time!

It was an odd feeling lining up for this, my first Marathon. I wasn’t really nervous about anything apart from my hamstring, which really had me worried and everybody I saw heard about it…sorry! I knew that I’d done some tough training runs, all the main sessions I needed to do almost to the letter, had a great taper, carbo load, was reasonably well rested, had my hydration/nutrition plan in hand, some duct tape for running repairs in case the hammy fell apart (joking) and there was nothing more I could do apart from dig in and run the thing.

It was a nice cool morning with a little bit of cloud cover around and conditions seemed just right. I did an easy 5 minute jog through Telopea Park and back before lining up about half way through the thousand odd other starters.

The gun went off and about 20 seconds later I was across the line at an easy pace for the first 10km loop around Parliament House. It turned out that my easy pace was around 5:15 minute k’s and I hit 10km in 52:38. This saw me hanging about 20 seconds behind the 3hr 45min pace group, and I stayed at that position until after 30km when they started pulling away a bit. I was fairly happy with that because I’d spoken to Horrie earlier (the 3:45 pacer) and he was planning a slightly quicker than even first half. I was careful to make sure it really was a comfortable pace as it was a little quicker than my originally planned 5:30 minute k’s and I didn’t want to blow up later.

The second lap heads over the lake and out to the base of Black Mountain. I was enjoying the scenery and keeping an eye on the splits through this lap. I stayed roughly a minute ahead of the 3:45 splits along the way. There are a few undulations through the course but nothing too serious. Apart from the climb up from the bridge to the south of the lake the worst seemed to be the little climb back up from the turnaround at the Black Mountain end of the course. I really enjoyed that section of the course though as you get a long stretch of out and back where you get to see everyone ahead and behind you which is lots of fun. I found that there wasn’t anyone really running around my pace for most of the race. There were a few people I was passing and being passed by a few times, but apart from a brief chat I just ran my own race. This made it easy through the drink stations as I didn’t have to dodge anyone and rarely even slowed down.

There was lots of support from spectators along the entire course which was just fantastic. During the second lap I hit half way in 1:51. Then it’s over the bridge and along the lake back near the start after 25km before heading out on the third lap. The CR cheer squad was doing a great job here, as were Jodie and the kids, all of which was wonderful and such a great boost. It was also great to see Ewen and Gnome out and about at various places on the course – always a surprise to see where they’d pop up next! Just before this turnaround a guy on a bike came past to say that the leaders were approaching from behind on their final lap and to just maintain my line on the bend and they’d pass on the outside. I actually avoided being lapped, but only by about 30 seconds!

On heading back over the lake again, the climb up from the bridge was a bit more noticeable this time, and I pushed out to Black Mountain again. On the way out I realised that my hamstring was well under control and although I could feel it as a mild dull pain, it actually improved as the race went on. In fact apart from the general fatigue my only real pain was in my neck when I turned my head to the side. It must have been a bit tight so I concentrated on loosening that up as well as keeping my arms and hands relaxed, all of which was a good distraction as the race wore on.

After 34km, the climb out of the turnaround was a little tough, but at that point I was thinking about all the training I’d done, particularly in the hills, and that this one wasn’t as bad as I was used to. At the 35km station I walked for a couple of minutes and loosened the legs a bit before getting back up to pace. From that point it was tough, but I never felt like I really needed to stop for a walk again, although I felt that I was going as hard as I possibly could and simply couldn’t (or shouldn’t?) run any faster. I was really working on the mind games over the final 6km to make sure my legs just kept going and counting down how close the finish was. I was thinking about the months of training I’d done, with all the time, effort and expense involved in getting to this point, determined not to let a tough half an hour bring it all undone. It helped to know for certain that my body had the fuel and training it needed to make it to the end. I knew I’d make 4 hours easy, but 3:45 slipped away with my walk break so I refocussed on beating 3:50. There were heaps of people walking in those final few kilometres, and I was gaining on quite a few runners as well. A handful of people passed me, but not even close to as many as I passed.

It felt great to turn up along Telopea Park for the final stretch before the finishing straight. I pulled in more runners along here before turning into the finishing straight to the cheers of my family and the CR cheersquad which really spurred me along for the last couple of hundred metres. The crowd lining the finish was a blur and whilst I took it all in, I was mostly focussed on that finish line and the timer above that said 3:48:xx.

It was the most amazing feeling and I was a little overwhelmed to finally be crossing the line. During the run I’d been thinking about how it was over a year ago (before I’d even run my first Half) that I had the idea to run my first Marathon at Canberra on this day. To realise that after all that time and all the steps along the way I’d achieved that goal of finishing the Marathon, finishing it well and coming in under the time that I wanted was very satisfying. I think I was a bit dazed for a fair while after finishing.

Thinking back now I believe that the training I did and the race I put in on the day was very well balanced. For my first one I wouldn’t have wanted to push harder for the first 30km, and for the final 12km I couldn’t have pushed much harder. All my nutrition and hydration went perfectly to plan and I had no troubles at all with any of that side of things, which I’d carefully planned in the preceding days.

I’d read a compelling article during the week about not eating anything for at least 3 hours before the race, and considering my experiences with early morning runs on nothing but water this made sense for me, and in fact I could recall the negative effect that even a small meal had before a few runs. So I decided not to eat anything as although it’s good to top up liver glycogen stores 3-4 hours beforehand, it’s probably better to just get a bit extra sleep and focus on getting what you need once the race is underway. When Isabel stirred and I was awake at 3am anyway I figured that I may as well get the 300-400 calories in anyway as there was still 4 hours to the start time, then go back to bed for another couple of hours sleep. So after getting up at 5:30am I just had water beforehand and a dose of Endura Magnesium formula at the start line.

I had my own sports drinks at 15km (Gatorade), 25km (Endura)and 35km (Endura) and had 4 gels at the 1, 2 and 3 hour marks, give or take…the final gel being around the 3 and a half hour mark for a bit of a boost to get me home! I just had a few mouthfuls of the provided sports drink in the cups – just what I could have quickly on the go. The water sachets were just great, being really easy to use and at most times I had a spare on hand as they were easy to carry in hand or pocket, and very useful for when there was a gel due. I didn’t need a pit stop at all, although I could feel the need coming on a couple of times so I just eased up on the water a bit and it was all fine. It wasn’t a humid day and I didn’t have sweat dripping off me at any stage so I didn’t feel the need to rinse off with water.

My legs (quads in particular) have felt pretty smashed up since Sunday and walking down stairs is the least of my favourite activities at the moment. We went for an hour walk on Monday and I had a massage today, so they should be back to normal shortly. After walking around the zoo tomorrow and an easy cycle in a couple of days I’m not going to run until the weekend, and even then it will be just easy recovery runs for another week or two. I do want to run and feel the motivation to do so, but don’t feel the need to rush back into it too soon.

There are some photos, maybe splits and future plans to come, but until I get home in a couple of days I have limited internet access so that will all have to wait. So too will catching up on everyone’s blogs, particularly reading all the other Canberra reports. Can’t wait!
Apart from a couple of isolated mentions I’ve been neglectful in not naming so many of the people that were involved in the weekend, before, during and after the race. It’s been tough just getting this massive report done and as there were so many people that provided inspiration, encouragement, advice, support and congratulations that I’m scared of missing out on anyone!! The safest thing to say is that I appreciate the support I’ve had from so many people before hand and from pretty much everyone I spoke to over the course of the weekend…I know it’s a cop out, but thank you all so much :)

Week 17 of 18

2007-04-09T14:26:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 5km Recovery Run
Just plodded along feeling really flat today. It was reassuring to find out from Eagle’s blog that this is not unusual in the taper, and I guess it wasn’t helped by long days incorporating long periods of standing and walking around during the Ironman weekend.

Wednesday 13km Tempo Run
I was a bit wary of how I’d go after yesterday’s effort. Most of the run felt like a plod, and the efforts just felt like a slightly faster plod! Today I did 3 x 10 minute tempo efforts with 4 minute jog recoveries. It felt like I was lucky to get close to 5 minute kms at any stage, so I was surprised when I got home and found that the average pace of each interval was 4:45, 5:10 and 5:00 minutes/km. I think I faded in the middle one more so because I was resigned to a slow pace at that stage, but was feeling better by the last effort.

Came away from the run feeling pretty good though, and I felt sure that I’d pick up over the next few days seeing that as well as the rest of this day, 3 out of the next 5 days were rest days.

At this point my hamstring was fairly good, but I could still feel it now and then. Given that I’d neglected it over the past few days I decided I should give it some more therapy in an effort to get it back to 100% over the next week or so. No issues with the hip or achilles at all over the past few days.

Friday 9km with 8x400m VO2 Intervals
In a recurring theme my hamstring was still a little sore. I drove down to Wayne Richards Park and headed out on a couple of local streets as a warm up. By the time I got back to the park there was no discomfort and I started off on the intervals. I was scheduled to do 10 but figured beforehand that 6 would be more sensible, but felt pretty good after 5 so I compromised on 8.
The grass was very slick after some rain, which probably assisted in reducing the strain on my legs as I seemed to be sliding around a little. Due to a miscalculation I thought at the time that I was doing the 400’s at roughly 4:00 min/km pace which I guessed was a sensible pace and about right, but later realised that they were actually around 3:30 – 3:40 min/km, so I was pretty pleased with that. Not quite sure how I’d manage to sustain that sort of pace for an entire marathon (or even a half or 10km), but perhaps if I were 20 or 30kg lighter it wouldn’t seem so tough!

Sunday 14km Run
I was mindful to keep this run “nice and easy, even if you feel good”. That wasn’t an issue for most of the run, as it often takes me the better part of an hour to warm into the long runs by the time I do an easy warm up and make it through the half hour hump. But for the later part of the run I was feeling fine yet still taking it nice and easy. Still, rather than ease up I opted to maintain my pace up a few short hills with seemingly little effort.
I ran into town and back on as flat a route as I could manage. All was quiet on the roads seeing as it was early on Easter Sunday.

My legs are responding well to the reduced distances of the last couple of weeks. With only three light runs this week I hope to have them fully tamed and ready to go for next Sunday - gah, only six days to go. The massage I had this morning should assist with that as well. Plus, it’s always good to be on holidays for three weeks!

Still haven't got around to putting up anything on the Ironman last weekend, and it might have to wait some more as I need to get around to some blog reading rather than writing tonight. Just writing this up quickly before the kids wake up from their afternoon nap.

Week 16 of 18

2007-04-03T09:20:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 11km Tempo Run
I skipped my recovery run this week and after three and a half days rest plus a massage I still had a sore hamstring, but at least the hip was improving. By Tuesday night I decided it was time for a test run to see how it would hold up.
After a thorough go at loosening and warming the area up I headed out. After a really easy 20 minutes through Mortdale and Oatley I start the first of 2 x 15 minute efforts (reduced from 20 minute efforts). Everything felt great. The pain disappeared once I was warm, and I felt like I was running fast with relatively little effort. I finished the first effort comfortably in under 5 minute/km pace, then had a 6 minute easy jog recovery. The second effort was similar.
I got home, stretched and waited for the pain to return. It wasn’t really bad at all, and not until the next day that I did feel it a bit, but not as bad as before the run. Looks like active recovery worked well in this case.

Thursday 10km VO2 Intervals
I headed over to Renown Park for 6 x 800m intervals with 2 minute jog recoveries. Again the leg was a little sore still, but once warm it was mostly fine. I could feel it during the 4th interval so I decided that I’d only do 5 today instead of 6 as there was no point risking any harm.
Went to Sydney CR drinks on the Thursday night in at the James Squire Brewhouse. Was great to see lots of people again and meet more for the first time, including some who will be heading down to Canberra in a couple of weeks. Many thanks to Plu for the lift back to Milsons Point.

Saturday 21km Long Run
This was going to be a 28km run, but after considering much advice and the state of my leg I reduced the distance.
It was quite a cool morning and I didn’t have a specific distance mapped out, just an idea of a roughly 20km route to follow to see me through for 2 hours.
I went through the Lighthouse Beach area, Emerald Downs, Greenmeadows, Lake Road, a lap of Kooloonbung Creek the back home via Granite Street with a couple of diversions.
I felt really good the whole run and there was little effort involved. I didn’t drink as much as I expected as I wasn’t sweating much, mostly due to the cool weather. This distance training run was marginal for having a gel but it stayed in my pocket for today.
After I got home and cooled down I felt fine. No problems with the legs and very little fatigue. Just as well with the Ironman taking place and lots of standing and walking to do, but that’s a story for another post.

I’m putting off my nutrition and hydration thoughts again until I have more time. After a busy weekend and with three days to go until I’m on holidays things are a bit busy at the moment. As for a full test of all the race gear, pretty much all my long runs of 30km or more have been done with that in mind and it all seems to work fine for the 3 hour plus runs.

Edit: That brings my March total to 261km, which is by far my biggest ever month. The taper and recovery from Canberra should bring April right back down to Earth.

Week 15 of 18

2007-03-26T23:01:00.001+10:00

Monday 7km Recovery Run
Made my way along Pacific Drive to Flynns Beach then home via some of the back streets.

Tuesday 13.5km Tempo Run
Followed the same route last last week. This time I did 3 x 12 minute efforts with 4 minute recoveries. They were a bit quicker than last week, which is encouraging, but was consequently a bit tougher. Made it home around dawn, had a bite to eat and a shower before ducking into town to catch up with Miners for a coffee before work…was good to have a chat – last chance before Ironman weekend.

I was a little sore at the base of my left hamstring, and had a dull ache in the left heel signalling some Achilles tightness. I’ve been stretching fairly well, but gave the trouble spots 2 solid days of rest, ice and elevation before my Thursday run.

Thursday 10km VO2 Intervals
Back down to Wayne Richards Park for some more intervals. This time it was to be 4 x 1km with 2 minute jog recoveries.
Given that I could still feel the hamstring and Achilles when I got up I was prepared to pull the plug on this session at any stage rather than risk aggravating anything. Both spots were a bit tender at the start, but I warmed up really slowly, had a stretch when I got to the park and got stuck into the intervals.
The first 1km interval was just over 5 minutes, as I wanted to test things out and didn’t want to go too hard from the start. With everything working fine I then did 4:20 to 4:30 for the next couple, and the final km was just over 4 minutes.
There was some very minor pain by the time I cooled down, but much better than after Tuesday’s run, so I’ll just keep up the treatment and hope to keep them under control.

Saturday 36km Long Run
I wanted a mostly flat run today so I drove in and parked by the Fish Co-op and planned 3 out and back loops from the car.
The first 13km loop was over to Windmill Hill, Town Beach then out to Settlement Point and back. There was a big tent city set up by Bicycle NSW at Oxley Oval.
The second loop was out to the Airport. Saw a RAAF jet takeoff as I went past, almost copping its jet wash as I ran behind it just before take off. Nice rate of climb.
The final loop was around Gordon Street, Westport High and a final run out to Settlement Point and back.
I finished in 3:35 which is a bit quicker than my previous 36km run, but also using one less gel and feeling better at the end. I did have a couple of minor concerns with my hamstring and hip. The hip was sore after my last 36km run but responded well to massage and hadn’t troubled me again until this run. I noticed that it only really got sore when running when the road was sloping to the right so I spent as much time as possible on the left side of the road.
I was struggling at a couple of stages over the last 10km so it was a good chance to practice some mental toughness, assisted by remembering some encouraging comments from the blog that helped push me along. I also focussed on keeping my head up and looking around, as opposed to last time where my head went down and my focus shifted inwards. I think by looking around it helped take my mind off the effort. I did succumb to a moment of weakness when I walked for a hundred metres or so, but I got over that and for good measure threw in a sub 5:30 minute kilometre to finish up.
I wandered to the Town Green to stretch by the river in the shade before heading over to Flynns Beach for a brisk ocean swim to sooth the legs.

For some reason I felt a bit lethargic last Monday after the run…tired and lacking motivation. It was mildly better by Tuesday, although the onset of the couple of leg pains made me a little concerned through Wednesday. By the end of the run on Thursday I was feeling good again, confident that I could manage the legs and looking forward to the long run on the weekend.
The last couple of days since the long run were a bit sore in the hip, hamstring and just a very mild ache in the heel on getting up in the morning. I had a massage tonight (Monday) focussing on those spots and I hope it improves the situation. I think the hamstring is my main concern as it’s a new occurance, although it’s only sore when I’ve been sitting or lying down, and the pain goes away after moving around for a few minutes. I’m sure the reduced distances during the taper will help them heal up.

After the “Volume Overload” of last week described above, this week is supposed to be “Intensity Focussed” with a couple of quick, longish type interval sessions. I’m modifying things slightly so I have some more recovery time, and reducing my planned 28km run on the coming weekend down closer to the 20km mark as the last thing I want to do now is aggravate anything in the last 3 weeks. From what I’ve read 28km with 2 weeks to go might be a little bit of overkill anyway.

It’s funny that Don was asking about my carbo load/nutrition/hydration plans as I was in the process of finalising them at the time, and will put them in writing next week.

I actually did a mini carbo load in the lead up to the long run. By mini I mean I didn’t eat quite as much as I expect to for the marathon, and only did it from lunchtime Wednesday to mid afternoon Friday. So a bit shorter and a bit less just to see how it goes. I think it worked fairly well and I’m comfortable with increasing the load for the real thing.

Week 14 of 18 – Recovery Week

2007-03-20T20:50:00.000+11:00

Monday 5km Run
Easy recovery run not far from home.

Tuesday 13km Tempo Run
I hadn’t been along Lighthouse Beach for a while so that’s where I went this morning. Then I made my way through Marbuk and Emerald Downs, along Ocean Drive, Koala Street and home.
I had 2 x 15 metre tempo efforts today (at about 1 hour race pace) with a 5 minute jog recovery, although I realised during the cool down that I was still a fair way from home so I threw in a further 10 minute effort on the way back!

Thursday 10km VO2 Intervals
I set my alarm for the wrong day so it didn’t go off this morning at 5 but I woke up at 5.30am anyway, so I only lost half an hour of the yard work I was going to do between the run and starting work…still trimmed a few hedges though!
I made my way down to Wayne Richards Park on Koala Street for 6 x 600m intervals (at 5km race pace) with 90 second jog recoveries.
As with last weeks session I put in some relaxed but solid efforts, dodging some uneven ground here and there. I did them all fairly consistently at about 2:20 to 2:30 minutes each.

Saturday 18km Long Run
It’s interesting that I hit a sluggish phase through the 30-40 minute mark, which was the same point as occurred during a long run quite a few weeks ago.
So today I ran along Pacific Drive to Town Beach, along the river to Settlement City, through Clifton and back home via Gordon and Lord Streets.
I was a bit behind schedule with about 4km to go so I picked up the pace a bit to the finish. The last 3km was uphill for a fair part of the way, but it didn’t seem too tough even at the quicker pace, and still felt like an aerobic effort. I think that I’d just been plodding along for most of the run when I really could/should have been going a bit quicker.

Week 13 of 18

2007-03-14T10:26:00.000+11:00

Monday 6km Run
This was a very easy recovery run to get the legs moving. It was very slow too at 7min/km, with some tightness and soreness in a couple of spots. Better for the run though.

Tuesday 13km Run
Mostly aerobic, but had 2 x 8 minute efforts thrown in with a 3 minute jog recovery. Went over to Peakhurst, Oatley, etc.. Felt much better than yesterday’s effort - no doubt helped by the massage I got last night to work out some of those tight spots. Felt like a million bucks after the massage and the run.

Thursday 10.5km with 4x800m intervals
With the hill session part of the program now complete, the Thursday/Friday sessions now change to “VO2” intervals, which are intended to be run at 3-5km race pace on a soft surface.
After a 20 minute warmup I arrived at Renown Park for the intervals. Using Google Earth I measured that a lap and a bit was 800m, but part of the park was a bit slushy after the overnight rain so I reworked the laps so they were still pretty close to 800m.
I didn’t run the intervals too hard, but they were solid efforts in around 3:20-3:30 minutes each, with 2 minute jog recoveries.
Another easy 20 minutes or so afterwards was a good cool down.

Saturday 30km Run
I did exactly the same run down to Lake Cathie as my 30km run a month ago, mainly because I didn’t get around to working out another 30km route.
I think I ran a better plan this time, taking it very easy for the first 10km, then building the intensity a little over the next 20km. I felt really good for the whole run, finding it very comfortable to keep the pace up through the first 25km, and handling the hills for the last 5km really well – all the way up to Astronomers Terrace. It wasn’t as humid this time, but in comparison I did this one so much easier and felt great all round at the end and for the day or two afterwards.
I finished in around 2 hours 50 min, which was a few minutes ahead of last time, so I’m pleased to have a quicker finish and come through in much better shape.

I was surprised by how few cyclists were out on the IM course this morning, but figured that most would be looking to be training during race conditions, which would mean they’d be looking to train through the middle of the day rather than at dawn.

Week 12 of 18

2007-03-04T16:51:00.000+11:00

This week saw the end of February arrive, during which I covered 208km. Not bad for me over a short month!

Monday 6km Run – 4 x 3 minute Intervals
Short run around the Waniora area incorporating a few intervals with 1 minute jog recoveries.

Tuesday 14km Aerobic Run
An easy paced run through the Dahlsford and Greenmeadows Estates, in to Gordon Street and back home via Pacific Drive.

Thursday 11km - 10 minute effort + 5 x 2 minute Hill Reps
After a foggy drive to Sydney in the morning I had to do this session in the evening.
After a warm up through Oatley I put in a 10 minute effort through Mortdale that took me to the bottom of the hill starting in Grove Ave and going around the corner into Princes St at Penshurst. It was the only suitable hill I could think of in the area that could sustain 2 minute reps, and turned out to be an interesting one as it started off moderately, eased slightly through the mid section before rising more sharply for the last hundred metres or so.
The first 3 reps were pretty solid, and I was pushing hard mostly at the top. For the last 2 reps I started pushing harder from the beginning, and ended up around 15 metres further up the hill for these than I did on the earlier reps. They were hard work though and at the end of the final rep I was really struggling. Somehow I made the 1km cool down in about 6 minutes despite feeling like I was doing a tough 9 minute/km shuffle.

Saturday 36km Long Run
In looking for somewhere reasonably flat and not involving too much traffic in Sydney I decided to borrow from the Sydney Striders Airport Adventure route. I did the 19km option plus the 12km option plus an extra 5km along the foreshore. I did them in the reverse direction and starting from near the corner of Bestic St and The Grand Parade so that I’d deal with the road sections early in the run and not have to worry about crossing roads later on when I started to get tired. There was a decent mix of terrain involved, covering cycle/walk ways, road and grass at various stages. It also got me back to the car after 19km so I could refill the bottles with cold drinks out of the esky and pick up a hat and sunnies which were not required in the darkness at the start of the run!

In the darkness of the early stages I became what we used to refer to back in my flying days as “temporarily uncertain of position” at a couple of the off the beaten track turning points, but managed to stay on course by stopping and checking the map. There were some hills and stairs to climb during the road sections, but once on the Botany Bay cycleway it was pretty much flat cycle paths. I had started off conservatively so I made it back to the car in good shape and only a few minutes behind schedule. It was getting close to 8am at this stage and the day was warming up considerably already.

The second lap was a similar route, with the mid section cut out, and once I got back to the foreshore I headed away from the start/finish along the cycle path to add in the extra 5km.

At close to 3 hours I felt a bit of a cramp behind the 2nd/3rd toes of my left foot, but changing their position and flexing the toes dealt with that and it didn’t trouble me again. What did trouble me was the fatigue over the last half hour. It was getting hot, and it turns out to be true what they say about beyond the 32km point being a challenge all of its own. My focus was really narrowing and I could see the Novotel in the distance, but it looked so far away and I was parked another kilometre past it!! At 3 hr 20 min I succumbed, and had to walk for a few minutes. My legs didn’t want to start running again, but I forced myself to pick a point to get going again. After that the last 2 or 3 kilometres were easier because of the short break and I knew the end was so close. I finally got back to the car in 3 hours 40 minutes, which was 10 minutes over what I planned. I was pretty happy with that because it was hot and humid, and I knew my legs were still tired from one of my toughest hill sessions to date on just a day and a half recovery (rather than the usual 2 full days).

During the run I had my 4 bottle fuel belt plus 2 x 250ml handheld bottles to be used first and binned.
The bottles were filled with 50 / 50 water and PB electrolyte plus a couple of serves of Endura electrolyte and I used 3 Endura gels. I had a banana, piece of toast and a Sustagen, a serve of Endura electrolyte and plenty of water before leaving home.

I didn’t have any troubles with any of the nutritional/hydration arrangements, and didn’t need a pit stop until after the run - no doubt due to the amount I was sweating out.

I used my new Asics GT 2120’s for the 2nd time today. I wasn’t sure about using them for a long run so soon, so I took another pair just in case I wanted to change at half way. That wasn’t required though and they felt great through the entire run. This is the pair I’ll use at Canberra, and they’ll see a few more long runs in the meantime.

I had some food while I walked to a shady section to stretch for half an hour before heading to Taren Point to pick up some more Bodyglide. I then ducked over to Cronulla for a swim to find that the NSW surf titles were being held along the entire length of the beach. The place was packed so I faced the long walk to the beach and had a nice soak in the ocean despite the beach being closed due to “dangerous surf conditions”. Yeah, right. My legs felt so much better after that.
I had an afternoon nap before making my legs endure several hours standing up at a BBQ/party before they got some real rest.

Sunday was a big sleep in, before loosening the legs up in the pool for about 40 minutes. There are a couple of spots with some minor aches and a bit of tightness, but nothing some stretching won’t fix. Overall I’ve come through better than I could expect for the day after.

Week 11 of 18

2007-02-28T20:04:00.000+11:00

This was a recovery / adaptation week, with relatively low km and only 3 running sessions. There were supposed to be a couple of cross training sessions, but I missed out on them again.

Tuesday 13km Aerobic Run
Easy run into town and back via the industrial area. Nothing to see here.

Thursday 8.5km Hill Reps
After a quick warm up through Dahlsford Estate and part of Crestwood Estate I put in a 10 minute effort. Only problem was I foolishly chose Celestial Way for the start of this “flat” part of the run…the street name describes where this street heads. Just lucky I didn’t divert up Heavenly Ridge or I really would have been in trouble. Oh well, so the hill reps started early. Anyway, I finished the 10 minute effort at the bottom of today’s official hill and did 3 x 90 second reps. Felt good throughout, although I kicked a bit too hard into the 2nd rep and faded a little near the top.

Saturday 23km Long Run
I ran via town on the way out and back from a loop to the airport. I took this run a bit too lightly and suffered mildly as a result. Apart from mentally taking it lightly I think I started a bit too quick, and by about 30 minutes was struggling. I just kept reminding myself to slog through it and I’d come good, which of course came true within about 10 minutes. I also had a tough time with the hills along Pacific Drive at the end of the run. A good lesson in respecting any distance, good practice for hanging in there, and learnt at a good time.
The 36km coming up this weekend certainly won’t be taken lightly!

Week 10 of 18

2007-02-22T14:37:00.000+11:00

I’m a bit late with this post…almost time for the current week’s update. Anyway, this was a Moderate week.

Monday 5km Recovery Run
Just a super easy run around the Waniora area. About 1km into things it really started bucketing down with rain which was quite refreshing for a change, but it would have been better if I had a cap on me to keep the rain out of my eyes.

Tuesday 13.5km Aerobic Run
I actually kicked off in the rain this morning, which wasn’t so bad even though it was well before sunrise (at least I had a cap this time). The rain eased off in the middle of the run before picking up again for the last couple of kilometres. I went through the industrial area then along Gordon Street this morning. I was struggling after 4 km for some reason, but came good after about 10 minutes. However by that time I’d already cut a couple of sections so I didn’t end up with the 15km originally planned.

Thursday 12km Tempo and Hill Reps
Forty minutes into this run I upped the pace for a 10 minute interval, which led straight into 3 x 2 minute hill reps. I was back at the Pacific Drive hill up from the Jonas Absolom roundabout. Felt good after this session, and after a shower I headed into town for coffee with Miners and Hamburglar, who had been out for a ride. Hamburglar was up here on a family holiday and also running and riding most of the Ironman course in preparation for a (probable) shot at the Half Ironman later in the year.

Saturday 25km Long Run
I ducked over to Lake Innes this morning, then headed back through Clifton, Westport Park and Pacific Drive. Mostly I plan my long runs at about 6 minute pace. I felt really good through pretty much all of this run, and even though I felt like I was running conservatively I still managed to finish about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I had to double check later to make sure that I hadn’t taken any shortcuts, but it was all legit! Not bad at the end of a couple of big weeks. The real test will be my 36km run on the first weekend in March. I’m looking forward to that now.

Sydney Big Day Out 2007

2007-02-15T13:08:00.000+11:00

I wrote up this over the long weekend, but never got around to reviewing and posting it.

It was great to return to the BDO after missing the last couple of years. This year’s line up appealed to me more than any over the last few years, and overall is the best that I’ve attended. My schedule was full to the point where there were plenty of bands that I wanted to see but was unable to due to scheduling conflicts and I was unwilling to sacrifice seeing those I did for those that I didn’t.

So after arriving just before midday and getting straight through the entrance it was a case of joining the masses in the queue for the wristband required to purchase alcoholic beverages. As it turns out, the subsequent bar queues combined with the tight schedule meant it was a pretty dry event anyway. And seeing as you could only buy 2 drinks per person there was little point in taking turns in the queue! By the time you get out to the toilets, then to the bar, queue for 20 minutes then get back to the stage it’s been 30-40 minutes and you’ve missed a full set or close to it. After a food and drink break at 5.30 all I had from then until the end of the night were a coke and water.

So the first band on the schedule was The Butterfly Effect on one of the main stages. And a fantastic start to the day they were…in my opinion worthy of a later time, but that’s a tough call with the quality of most of the bands to come. They put on a great show and I really enjoyed their set. I was fairly close to the stage inside the D Barrier.

Immediately following them was Evermore on the adjoining stage. It was a fairly tough stretch to make to go from TBE’s heavier sound. By the second song they had got the crowd right into their set though. The enthusiasm of the drummer and keyboard player in particular was impressive, and they finished on a high with Running.

It was then time to catch up with some friends who’d opted for Trivium over TBE. It’s tough arranging to meet up with the volume of the music, the fact that you had to try many times to get a phone connection, and that SMS’ were taking ages to get through. We lay up on the grass at the back while My Chemical Romance did their thing for the emo kiddies.

We then headed back into the D for Eskimo Joe. They were great, although I was a bit surprised that in such a short set they’d throw in a U2 song (New Years Day) given that they’ve got plenty of their own good material…it went down well though. Solid.

John Butler Trio came on next. We caught a couple of their songs before ducking over for a quick pit stop, drink and food. They were off to a good start, but unfortunately a band had to be sacrificed, and seeing as it was dinner time they were it.

We made it back just before The Killers kicked off. Unfortunately we wasted some of their set trying to get back into the D, which was full and had been closed off, but you don’t know when it will open up again so we hung around there (they had a red/green light system to get in). After a while I headed back to watch the rest of The Killers while the others stayed in “line” (read disorganised crush) for the D. So the stage was unsighted for part of the show, but what I caught was as good as I had hoped/expected. Personally I have a preference for some of their music that didn't get released as singles but that's ok, I like their pop stuff too! The only thing was that the sound seemed a little light on. They came good though, played all the crowd favourites and everyone responded enthusiastically. Good stuff.

Jet was next. I’d seen their first BDO appearance 3 years ago shortly after Get Born was released and was very impressed. With another album out since then they had more to offer this time. I did miss part of this show though, but what I saw was fairly good. Still think I enjoyed their show last time a bit more.

By the time Muse came on we were in position on the Tool side of the arena just a few people back from the D – a great spot. I was particularly impressed with Muse, who turned in the “punching above their weight” performance of the day for mine. They played a fair bit off Black Holes and Revelations, and it came across harder and edgier than on the album. They had a spectacular light / video show, and a really big sound. Much better than I anticipated, and I really enjoyed their set.

So it was then time for the headliners, Tool to come on stage. As expected, they put on a fantastic show of great depth. Being near the front behind the D, there were of course heaps of their fans all around, and this enthusiasm really lifted the vibe. There was plenty from 10,000 Days, as well a good mix of older stuff, much of which I know even though I haven’t necessarily followed them all that closely. Towards the end of their show I moved to the back half of the arena as I was interested in catching the Violent Femmes, who were playing on one of the outside stages immediately after Tool. After being a lot closer for most of their show I really noticed how washed out the sound was even just halfway back. It must have been terrible for the people in the seats at the far end of the arena.

I made it to the Violent Femmes by the time they started, and found another really tough stretch to make from the intensity of Tool to VF’s acoustic sound on a much smaller set up. They looked like they’d seem better days, but came good a couple of songs in. I was a bit tired by that stage, but a fair proportion of the crowd were right into it. I think playing Blister in the Sun, Kiss Off, etc. early in the set helped, as it really lifted the show from there.

One aspect that I missed out on this year was the entertainment provided by the crowd. Usually when you’re waiting around there’s heaps of amusement provided just watching what various people in the crowd are up to, which is a big part of the fun on the day. Without much of a break later in the day I only got a small opportunity to catch this side of things, although I did catch part of the ground tile skating championships taking place in one section of the crowd! Sadly nothing to match the award winning performance by SlothyBoy in the “eating dirt whilst perform an air kick” category a few years ago…priceless ;)

Overall I’d say that Muse, The Killers and The Butterfly Effect were the highlights for me.

I got back on the train almost exactly 12 hours after I arrived, and in that time would have spent a maximum of 45 minutes sitting down. There was plenty of push and shove involved in trying to get into the D during The Killers, as well as being near the front (just behind the D) during Tool. The legs were shot, as they’d also be put through hill reps earlier in the day to go with more than their fair share of cross training. I’ve never been so glad to get to bed and had a big sleep in the next morning before driving back to Port later in the day.

Half way there

2007-02-14T16:59:00.000+11:00

Week 9 of 18

Monday 7km Run – Intervals
Started the week with a few intervals – 5 x 2 minutes with 1 minute jog recovery. I did a loop over to Flynns Beach but didn’t really plan it well as most of the intervals coincided with the uphill sections, and it wasn’t supposed to be hill reps today! Also spent one of the reps dodging a dog…he was friendly enough, but he threw me right off by crossing my path for a while before he turned around to head back home.

Tuesday 14km Aerobic Run
Out along the beaches and the river to Westport Park before heading home via a more inland route.

Thursday 11km Tempo / Hill Reps
After a 40 minute warm up to take the freshness out of the legs I upped the pace for a 6 minute interval which ended at the bottom of today’s hill – Mimosa for 3 x 90 second hill reps. This is a tough hill and the incline builds near the top and you don’t get any more than 90 seconds out of it. Perhaps a bit too steep for what I wanted to achieve.

Saturday 30km Long Run
In an effort to avoid cross streets and the associated hassles of running in a suburban environment I ran down Ocean Drive to Lake Cathie and back this morning.

Like a couple of weeks ago, much of this run was done in fog, particularly down at Lake Cathie. It’s a popular cycling route and there was a steady stream of cyclists heading south with a few familiar faces passing by, including a local Ironwoman in training that was out for a ride on her wedding day! Because of the fog I couldn’t actually see the lake until I got to the bridge and at the bridge you could just make out the silhouettes of the trees surrounding the lake but certainly no view to the ocean.
I ran to the far end of Lake Cathie before turning back. On my way back past the lake I had a quick refuel and washed some sweat off using the outdoor shower. I quite liked the long stretch between Port and LC, but the shoulders were a bit narrow for a few kilometres at the Port end, leaving only about 5km of nice wide shoulder to run on. I didn’t particularly enjoy the rotten stench of decaying road kill in a couple of spots though.
The last 3km was a climb right to the finish, which seemed like a good idea when I was comfortably sitting at the computer planning the route, but it was really tough at the end of a long run when it was getting steamy with the sun now out.

During the run I used a couple of Hammer Gels and some Endura Electrolyte on top of the usual water and Gatorade.

I got to soak my legs in a tub of ice water for half an hour or so, and grabbed a quick nap at lunchtime, but that was about it for rest as it was Jodie’s Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary in the evening. There was much organisation going on around the place and a few of Jodie’s family crashing on mattresses and lounges throughout the house.

I've been really slack in skipping all of my recent cross training sessions. I really need to do something about that.

Hmmm, looks like I can't hold out any longer...Blogger is going to force me to upgrade next time I log on.

Week 8 of 18

2007-02-06T14:21:00.000+11:00

Much less to report for last week, which was a Recovery / Adaptation week. I was carrying some mild flu symptoms, although really only at night and they cleared up during the days. Wanting to keep it that way I skipped a couple of non critical sessions to have every chance of fighting it off before it took hold. I only missed a recovery run and a cross training session anyway.

Last Sunday was just a walk to loosen up, so I took the kids for a walk in the pram.

Tuesday 10km Aerobic Run
Along Lighthouse Beach then through Emerald Downs and Waniora. It was a bit of a struggle to get up this morning, but I was rewarded with a nice sunrise over the beach for my efforts. The run was followed up with a lunchtime massage.

Thursday 8km with 4 x 2 min Hill Reps
I was a bit wary this morning and I didn’t want to drain myself too much. I warmed up through the Dahlsford and Crestwood Estates before launching up Pacific Drive from Jonas Absalom.
I hit the 2nd and 4th reps hard, and hit a new mark further up the hill than the other week. I’m starting to feel much stronger on these hill reps now, and I’m remembering why I liked them so much last year! It just took a couple of sessions to build into them again.

Saturday 18km Long Run
It still seems slightly odd that anything under 2 hours is a “short long” run, but so it is.
I trotted around the local area a bit before heading in to town, along the river and back via the beaches before finishing with a loop around Bangalay Drive.
I was still a little apprehensive as I still wasn’t 100%, but I made it through ok and the minor symptoms I experienced have since disappeared. Lucky, as the coming week is “High Volume”.

I'm on YouTube

2007-01-28T13:28:00.000+11:00

After that long running post here's some alternative entertainment. I mentioned about doing some waterskiing at Xmas time for the first time since last summer, with a potential guest appearance on OzCoastAction.
Well the lads have finally put the video up. I missed the motorbike session as we had to go home that day…not that I would have produced anything worth showing. My section starts around the 3 minute mark until the end. I was a bit rusty, but started to pick up after a couple of runs. Apart from the skiing itself, there were a couple of big falls that they couldn’t resist putting in and slowing down!!

The video should be embedded below, otherwise the link to Episode 3 is here.

Extra Long Weekend

2007-01-28T13:13:00.000+11:00

Week 7 of 18

Tuesday 8km Run - Intervals
Included 5 x 3 minute intervals with 1 minute jog recovery around a hilly part of the Connells Point area of Sydney.

Wednesday 12km Medium Aerobic Run
On this run I trotted over to Peakhurst through the industrial area and past the golf course. To start the sky was clear and colourful, but as I was reaching the farthest point from home I could see a single storm cell developing in front of my eyes. There was some thunder, lighting and the threat of rain. I was a bit concerned, but as I headed back the storm died out to just a grey sky and spread rain throughout the area. It’s been a long time since I ran in the rain, and it was very refreshing.
In the evening it was nice to catch up with some CRs over a lovely Indian dinner in at Darlinghurst. :)

Thursday 9km Hill Reps
This was supposed to be Friday’s run, but I doubted my enthusiasm for hill reps on the day after the Big Day Out so decided to run it early and sleep in on Friday!
Today was 5 x 90 second efforts. It’s actually tough to find a 90 second plus hill of suitable grade, and today’s hill was only about 60 seconds, so I just kept the intensity up after the hill flattened out. By the third climb I hit my initial 60 second point in 45 seconds, so it seems a couple of weeks of hill training is starting to pay off.
Thursday then turned into a combined running and “Cross Training” day (Big Day Out), but more on that soon!

Friday was a well deserved and thoroughly enjoyed sleep in, followed by a drive back to Port from Sydney. Traffic was bad getting out of Sydney, so it took an extra half hour of so on expected travel time. Was good to be sitting down the whole time though!

Saturday 28km Long Run
After getting ahead of schedule with the double up Thursday I’m keeping it that way for the moment. This was my longest run ever, although that will be further stretched a few times over the coming months.

I ran along the Oxley Highway to the donut, up the highway to Cassegrain Winery, then Fernbank Creek Road to Hastings River Drive, Gordon St, Lord St and Kennedy Drive to home.

The Oxley Highway doesn’t exactly provide great running conditions with narrow, uneven shoulders and plenty of bends, but the quiet country road back road from Cassegrain more than made up for it. I’d ridden Fernbank Creek Rd on the motorbike before but it was a particularly nice section to run, apart from the dog “guarding” one of the properties. There was thick fog out and back from the highway, which kept things cool for the first couple of hours.

Once back in town the fog broke, making conditions hot and humid, so the last 40 minutes or so was a tough effort, especially the climb up Lord and Kennedy. I had my head down on the hill climbs and was beyond the point of caring that I could barely see out of my sunnies with the sweat dripping on the inside of them… there was no dry patch of clothing to wipe them off with anyway!

Had a gel at 1:35 and 2:20…didn’t feel much from the first one, but the second one seemed to give me a lift to finish off the run. Carried a 600ml sports drink plus water in the fuel belt, which I refilled on the way back.
The 28km actually came up over a kilometre from home, so I’d walk for a couple of minutes, then break into an easy jog for half a minute. Partly it was to get back home quicker, and partly as an exercise in getting myself moving again when my legs were tired and didn’t want to keep going. Unusually my quads were a little sore after this run, but I believe that’s the result of nearly 12 hours on my feet on Thursday.

Sunday is just supposed to include an easy 20-30 minute walk to loosen up, and so it shall be.

Back to some Running now

2007-01-23T13:07:00.000+11:00

Week 6 of 18

Tuesday 7km Intervals
After a day off and a massage on Monday I was up for some intervals today – specifically 3 x 4 minutes firm with 2 minute jog recovery. I cruised along Matthew Flinders Drive and through Emerald Downs keeping the efforts to the flat sections as much as possible. Hot and sweaty.

Wednesday 14.5km Medium Aerobic
I ran through Dahlsford and Greenmeadows Estates then up Lake Rd, Gordon St and back via Pacific Drive at around 5:40 pace.

Thursday 45 minutes Cross Training – Cycle
I rode along a similar route to my run yesterday. Afterwards I caught up with Miners at a shiny new café in town over coffee and breakfast. For those who read The Miner Monologues it will be clear whose influence is involved in going for coffee after a ride but I’d like to point out that I’d been home, showered and changed beforehand so it was really a separate event. Still, I know it’s a slippery slope ;)

Friday 8.5km Strength / Endurance Run
More hill repeats. This time it was 3 x 2 minute efforts up the same hill after a 6km warm up. I was hitting the same mark after 90 seconds as I was last week but was only 3/4 of the way through at that point. I thought this was supposed to be an easy week…lucky there were only 3 reps! A tough one.

Sunday 20km Long Run
I mapped myself out an estate run today. Not quite 8 beaches in 8km, but I really needed 20km so too bad!
Made my way through: the estate south of Emerald Downs (?), Emerald Downs, Dahlsford, Crestwood, Greenmeadows, the Industrial Estate, Flynns, Waniora. Ok, I know the last couple are a bit dodgy…they’re really more areas rather than estates, but it’s my run and I’ll call it what I like :P
It was a very warm morning, and the route turned out to be a little hillier than I expected, so it was tough. Carried but didn’t use a gel.

Tesso, as far as a goal for the marathon. I’m thinking that apart from finishing, I’d like to beat 4 hours. Some days that seems like a tough ask whilst on others it seems more probable. It’s still early, with the serious part of the training to come. I think once I knock over one of the 36km runs I’ll have a better idea as I’ve yet to run more than 30km in my life!

This week is a “Hard” week. Running should be on track but my cross training sessions are thrown out. On Monday it was replaced with a long drive through the fire affected areas to the north of Sydney. Thursday’s is being replaced by the Big Day Out, which is more than worthy of cross training status seeing as there are bands I’d like to see almost continuously from 1pm to 11.30pm. Anyone else gonna be there on Thursday? Oh, and a little dinner on Wednesday night also :)

Some more diving pics

2007-01-21T13:40:00.000+11:00

An eel poking it's head out.

A couple more sharks cruising the gutter.

Clown Fish.

A starfish.
Slothy Boy checking out the shark.

A Leafy Scorpion fish - very easy to miss this one.

A dive wouldn't be complete without a friendly blue groper hanging around.

Double Boat Dive at Fish Rock (South West Rocks, NSW)

2007-01-16T14:55:00.000+11:00

After 9 months and more than 100 posts it’s finally happened…I have a couple of dives to post about, so you know it’s not gonna be a brief post!! Given that my financial and time priorities lie elsewhere for the time being, it’ll probably be as long again before the next dive even though I’m psyched up for some more!

Jodie’s brother, Ben (aka Slothy Boy) and I were booked in with South West Rocks Dive Centre for 7am Saturday morning. After the usual formalities (fairly straightforward as I have all my own gear beside tanks) the boat was loaded up and we were off for the 25 minute trip to Fish Rock. Surface conditions were good, with very little swell and clear skies. There was a bit of a breeze making the surface of the water a bit choppy, but we moored on the sheltered side of the rock.

Dive 1 was to be all the way through Fish Rock Cave, which is a cave that runs over 100 metres through the middle of Fish Rock. The cave profile is here.

After a briefing from the dive master I promptly geared up, did a giant stride off the back of the boat and floated around waiting for most of the 6 others to get their act together. The water was quite cool at first, although my dive computer registered 19 degrees C which isn’t too bad really and with a 2 piece dive suit you warm up soon enough.

Once everyone was ready we descended to 23 metres where the “deep entrance” of the cave lies and after a quick torch check we started filing into the cave. It’s quite narrow to start off with, before widening once you rise up one of the chimneys to the upper section of the cave.

Being in a group doesn’t give much opportunity to do your own exploration of the cave, but I did take the opportunity to shine the torch around and it’s pretty impressive looking around and seeing the fissures extending above you. For me, the most amazing part was approaching the shallow entrance when the light starts penetrating through, throwing up the spectacular silhouette of fish teeming through the shallow entrance to the cave, which is around 12 metres deep.

The shallow entrance to the cave holds an incredible amount of life. I still had about 150 bar of air by the time we made it there, and we hung around for a while. There were up to a dozen grey nurse sharks of varying sizes slowly cruising along the gutter and into the cave. A couple of huge bull rays and wobbegong sharks were relaxing on the bottom, as well as a couple of moray eels poking their heads out of their lairs.

After a while we made our way back around the outside of the rock to the mooring line and ascended to the surface with a standard safety stop at 5 metres for 3 minutes.

We relaxed on the boat for a surface interval of about an hour before it was time to get the second dive underway.

Dive 2 was to be a more relaxed dive back around the outside of the rock to the cave’s shallow entrance. Whilst it was a great experience to go through the cave on the first dive, I really enjoyed the second one because there was more opportunity to do our own thing and I found the most enjoyable section to be in and around the shallow cave entrance. When the rest of the group went elsewhere Slothy Boy and myself ventured back into the cave to take some more photos, do some exploration and hang around the side of the gutter while the sharks cruised past. The critically endangered Grey Nurse Sharks are beautiful, amazing creatures to watch as well as being extremely placid and virtually harmless to humans. Even so, it’s certainly awe inspiring when you’re sitting there and a shark larger than yourself is eyeing you off as it’s heading towards you before gliding past just half a metre away!

Aside from the sharks there’s quite an amazing diversity of marine life in the area. We saw angel fish, a couple of rare leafy scorpion fish, quite a few moray eels, plenty of friendly blue gropers, some clown fish, heaps of snapper, lobster, bull rays, lionfish, bullseyes, starfish, wobbegong sharks plus just far too many other miscellaneous fish to name including many large schools all around.

I hadn’t dived Fish Rock before but had heard so much about it, so I’m glad to have finally taken the opportunity to dive there. It definitely lived up to the hype as far as I’m concerned and is right up there with the best dives I’ve ever done. I’m looking forward to getting back out there again in the future. Thanks to Slothy Boy for organising it and bringing along the camera with underwater housing. Between the 2 of us we took heaps of photos, of which most were pretty dodgy but there were still a few good shots. There are a couple below and I’ll follow up with some more once I sort them out a bit.

The stats from my dive computer were:

Dive 1
Max Depth: 23 metres
Average Temp: 19 Deg C
Bottom time: 44 min

Surface Interval: 1hr 5 min

Dive 2
Max Depth: 19 metres
Average Temp: 19 Deg C
Bottom time: 55min

We had about 10-15 metres visibility and there was just a minimal amount of both surge and current. I travelled through quite a few thermoclines (rapid change of temperature) and it’s always nice going from cold to warm but terrible the other way. You can see them coming up because the water shimmers in the same way that you see the heat rising up off a hot road. The most severe one was actually in the cave, and the warm change actually made my eyes water!

Nitrogen absorption remained in the “green zone” throughout both dives according to the computer, so they were both fairly conservative profiles.

I'm at the shallow entrance here and in case you missed it I'm pointing out the Grey Nurse in the background

A morey eel poking his head out to see what's going on

Grey Nurse with entourage

The view from inside the shallow entrance to the cave. It was more impressive before the fish made room for the divers!

A Lionfish with it's venomous spines

Week 5 of 18...done

2007-01-14T13:29:00.000+11:00

Week 4 (cont)

Saturday (6/1/07) Cycling
The program includes a day or two a week of cross training, and seeing as I’m struggling to get to the pool later in the day at the moment, I decided I may as well cover it with some time on the bike. I took just under an hour out through the industrial area before heading back into town and home along the beaches.

Sunday 17km Long Run
I made my way through the Lighthouse Beach area, along the coast to Town Beach, and wound my way home through some of the back streets. As it was a shorter long run I wanted to keep it at roughly at my expected marathon pace, and finished in roughly an hour and a half. The pace itself was fairly comfortable over what I’d say is a hillier course than Canberra. Now I need to work on my endurance so I can keep it up for two and a half times that distance!

Week 5 of 18

Tuesday 5km Recovery Run
Nice easy run finishing with 5x60m strides.

Wednesday 13km Aerobic Run
I covered a similar route to the long run…just without the Lighthouse Beach section at the start.

Thursday 1 hour Cycle
Out around the Innes Lake area for this early morning ride.

Friday 10km Strength/Endurance Run
I skipped the hill workout last week, so this was my first session with hill reps for at least 6 months. After running along Bangalay Drive, Matthew Flinders Drive and through Emerald Downs I hit the hill where Pacific Drive climbs up from Ocean Drive and knocked out 4 x 90 second efforts with jog back recoveries. This was tough as I was trying to drive strongly up the hill, but each rep fell a few metres short of the previous effort. At least I’ve got the mark to aim for now, and it’ll be interesting in a few weeks time to see if I can improve on that after a few more hill sessions.

Sunday 25km Long Run
I was in a really good frame of mind for this run, and it seemed to fly by in a flash. I went out along the Oxley Highway past the golf driving range before working my way to Town Beach and home via the beaches. After a half hour period when the sun was blazing even though it was early, the clouds came in and cooled things right down to perfect running weather.
I ended up with a couple of short breaks, the first one whilst refilling the fuel belt on Gordon Street. I had a bit of a chat with a few local runners that I hadn’t seen for a while down at Town Beach. They’d just finished their run, and after standing around for a few minutes my legs thought it was a bit cruel of me to start going again when they thought we were also done for the day! I lost a bit of rhythm after that unexpected stop, but made it home the last few k’s without too much trouble.

I had a good preparation for this run. Apart from drinking lots of water the day before and in the morning, I have a few Endura Magnesium formula samples, and tried one of them before I left, as well as an Up and Go and a banana. I certainly felt good for most of the run so something worked well.

Week 5 was classified as a Moderate week, and next week is an Easy one before the program starts to build from there. Everything feels fine at the moment. I have a massage booked for tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that. I have another post to write up in the next day or so that I’m very excited about!!

Week 3 of 18 (and parts of 2/4)

2007-01-04T13:24:00.000+11:00

Christmas Eve 20km Run
I chose a semi hilly route for this one, and that combined with a warm, humid morning made it a challenging run. I didn’t seem to be able to get into a rhythm for any period of time.

Week 3 of 18

Christmas and Boxing Days were scheduled as cross training and recovery run days on the program. Although I didn’t do anything structured, the activities involved over the two days should cover it. There was plenty of chasing of kids, backyard cricket, chasing footballs, volleyball, plus some waterskiing. Plenty of overindulgence was involved, but that’s to be expected.
Wiggum had the video camera on the boat when we were skiing so I might even score a guest appearance in the third episode of OzCoastAction when the lads get their act together. I pulled off a couple of spectacular falls that will no doubt feature, but there may be some actual skiing included as well!! I’ll post the link when it’s up.
We were at Jodie’s parents for Christmas this year, and ended up staying a couple of days longer than planned. As there were a couple of dozen people around, and the kids were getting up far too early for the late night crew, a few of us pitched our tents down the back (it’s a bush property on acreage, so there’s plenty of room to spread out). It was nice to bed down with the crickets, spiders and wallabies for a while.

Wednesday 12km Run
After gearing up in my tent I headed out for a run on mostly unsealed roads and country scenery. The excesses of the previous couple of days meant this was a sluggish run, and I struggled to finish the planned distance. My shoes were fairly dusty at the end of it all. I was glad to get out and start the day with a run, but needed a bit of a snooze in front of the cricket later in the day.

Friday 7km Run
A quick hike the Waniora area saw me slowly getting back up to speed!

New Years Eve 23km Run
This run felt better than last weeks’ long run. I had to hang in there at times, but I didn’t feel like I was being sapped of my energy like last week. With so many visitors in town at the moment there were plenty of people out and about this morning.

I followed a similar route to last week, heading down Granite St, Hill Rd, Lake Rd, then over to Lake Innes before heading across to Town Beach via Oxley/Gordon and back home via the coastal road - Pacific Drive.

This run saw me finish December with 144km for the month and 1282km for the year.

Week 4 of 18

Tuesday 6km Run
This was just a recovery run with 4 x 100m strides to finish.

Wednesday 9km Run
I weaved my way in and around some hilly sections of the Lighthouse Beach area and over to Emerald Downs this morning. As it was just an aerobic run today I took it easy up the hills, but I’m actually looking forward to the upcoming hill sessions to build up some additional strength in the legs.

The last few days have seen some rearrangement of the furniture around the house and how the rooms are being used. We’d been putting it off for a bit, but finally Tyler slept in his own room for the first time the other night and seems to be sleeping better than usual as a result. Yay for us all!

What happened to December?

2006-12-22T13:33:00.000+11:00

I had myself wrapped in cotton wool since my little ankle scare the day after the Half. Whilst there wasn’t any actual pain, it did swell up a bit so I gave it plenty of RICE all week (and beyond as a precaution). Later in the week I picked up a head cold, so that set me up for doing even less. I ended up doing no exercise at all for a week, and no doubt the enforced break did me some good. Since my return to running the ankle has been fine.

In the meantime I worked out what I was going to do for my Canberra Marathon campaign and sorted out an 18 week program, which was supposed to start on Monday the 11th, but actually kicked off on Wednesday instead due to the lingering cold. In the down time, with all the planning I became extremely keen to get back out for a run, but there wasn’t much I could do about it…I’d rather make sure the ankle and head were fixed properly rather than prolonging either issue.

Part of my plan is to include some sports massage in the program as a preventative measure, so I went for my first session on the 7th. I’ll probably limit my visits until a bit later in the program when the distances start to build up and I’m doing some of the longer runs.

December’s such a busy month. Lucky I do most of my training before the “normal day” begins or it wouldn’t get done at the moment. Hence I’m nearly 3 weeks behind in posting (and commenting – sorry) so here’s a quick rundown to get up to date.

6th Dec: 1km Swim

Week 1 of 18

Wed 13th 6km Easy Run
First run for a week and a half, so just nice and easy. The first run of the program and the first couple of weeks are just “build” weeks.

Fri 15th 8km Medium Aerobic Run
In Sydney this week, and tried a completely new route over to Connell’s Point.

Sun 17th 16km Long Aerobic Run
So I finished the first week with a run along the beaches and the river. Nothing too serious in the program yet. My long run pace at the moment seems to be sitting at about 5:30 to 5:40 per km.

Week 2 of 18

Tue 19th 5km Recovery Run
Around Bangalay Drive and up Shelly Beach Rd.

Wed 20th 11km Medium Aerobic Run
Down to Lighthouse Beach, through Emerald Downs and a few local streets.

Thu 21st 1.2km Swim
I went 100m beyond the point where I wanted to stop for the day – I need to get down to the pool on a more regular basis!

Fri 22nd 8km Aerobic Run (with some strides to finish off)
Bit of a loop down to Flynns Beach and around Waniora this morning. I can’t believe how loud the cicadas are at 5am – they all seem to congregate on one of our gum trees (which also has a Koala in residence at the moment).

I’m really pleased that I’ve lost a few kg over the last couple of months, so I’m not carrying too much excess weight for my training. With a 20km long run planned for Christmas Eve I’ll be happy to eat as much as I like on Christmas Day!

I just realised this is my 100th post, but I’ve written enough already! Lucky I caught this little milestone, because at the time I missed when I hit 1000km for the year (for the first time in my life) back in October.

Thanks to everyone for their support (that means you!) through comments and other means. Blogging and CR has been a great way for me to keep on track, and to regain the sense that training/exercise/being healthy is just a normal everyday part of life. I think that’s made a big difference for me, particularly on the many mornings when the easiest and most appealing option would be to turn the alarm off and go back to sleep. Even though I feel half dead when getting my gear on at 5am, I know that it was more than worth it when I’m walking back through the door afterwards and for the rest of the day.
I’ve met a lot of wonderful people in person as a result (and equally in an online sense as well), and I look forward to converting more from “online” to “in person” throughout 2007.

I’d like to wish everyone a wonderful, Merry Christmas, a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2007.

Central Coast Half Marathon

2006-12-04T20:49:00.000+11:00

We arrived at the Central Coast on Saturday afternoon and met up with Jen, Ellie and Lorna at Memorial Park along with some of Jodie’s family to check out the festival for an hour or two. Tyler was enjoying all the attention from the girls whilst Isabel was running amok around the park and required some tag team chasing.

On Sunday I delayed arriving at the start due to the rain and cool wind first thing in the morning. The registration area was overflowing with Cool Runners (of whom there were far to many to remember and name), and the registration queue was long and wet as the rain fell down.

So many people showed up that they ran out of numbers, and the start was delayed by more than 20 minutes as everyone was processed. It was tough judging when they’d start would be so you could plan your warmup!

We started from under the bridge where everyone was sheltering and I was planning on running with nite_time_runner (NTR), Chunderbolt, and Becky O with a 1:50 time in mind. It was nice to run and chat with Becky and Benny for the first part of the race before they let NTR and myself go.

Neither of us had GPS or the like and only spotted a couple of distance markers so we didn’t have much idea of our pace, but on the way back we had an idea that we were closer to 1:45 pace. It was hard to get into a real rhythm for the first 2/3 of the race with all the puddle dodging (some looked fairly deep!) and runners coming the other way, although that was a boost in itself, with some good support along the way.

I carried a couple of gels, and had them at the 45 minute and 80 minute marks and had my fuel belt on with 2 x Gatorade and 2 x water which I refilled along the way from cups at the water stations.

It was great to run and chat with NTR for most of the race. We passed heaps of people on the way back and I don’t think we were passed at all after the turnaround. The time seemed to pass fairly quickly and we both seemed to be well on top of things as the words weren’t a struggle to get out. With about 4 or 5km to go the chat dropped off and we started to focus a bit more on running through the fatigue of the final few km. I found I was feeling good, and knowing the finish was close I got into a good rhythm and picked up the pace without going too far overboard (it was just a training run (race) after all). I was focussed on catching plu up ahead for at least a couple of km (which I was surprised at as he predicted a 2 hour run!) and was reeling him in slowly but surely. I passed him in the last km and felt I was running fairly strongly through to the finish in 1:45:17 by my watch.

That’s just 5 seconds slower than my Macleay River Half in June, which I’m very happy with given my recent injury, lack of preparation and 1:50 plan. Given how good I felt in the final few km, like at the Macleay River Half I think I could have pushed harder through the earlier stages of the race. I wish I had my splits now, as I’m sure the final few km would have been good, and must have made up for the early km that were closer to 5:20-5:30 minute kms (when we were Garmin assisted by Benny and Becky!). I’m happy that at the end I upped the intensity and was a bit more mentally focused for that last quarter. As I mentioned in my last post, the fastest time wasn’t my goal for this one – it was more for a little more race experience and to enjoy the run. So that was a success!

Nice to see that everyone else on the original 1:50 bus ended up with PB’s (along with so many others on the day)…well done :)

Because we started under the bridge the course was apparently a little bit short, but I figure that was offset by the disruption of queuing to cross one of the bridges near the start, some general congestion and all the puddle dodging!

By the time I got back for a shower, sat down for a moment then helped put the kids down for a sleep I was a bit late for the late CR breakfast. We didn’t end up getting home until 8.30 last night, and we all slept very well.

It’s now a day and a half later and I’m feeling good with nothing to complain about from the race at all. But that doesn’t mean I can’t complain about the swollen ankle I copped this morning after giving it a bit of a twist on a certain young lady’s toy this morning. At least it gives me a excuse to put my feet up for a couple of days (with an ice pack strapped on).

And here's the traditional post Half photo with Isabel...Tyler was in a nice warm place so he couldn't make it but sends his apologies. It's fitting that we're posing in front of a puddle!

Hello Summer

2006-12-01T10:21:00.000+11:00

Wednesday Run 6km
Today was just an easy recovery run. I made my way to Flynns Beach via Pacific Drive then back via Kennedy Drive. Came upon Gwyneth from Peloton along the way who was out for a run so I had someone to chat to for a km or so before we took our different ways home.

There were an unusually high number of cyclists out this morning for some reason. Must be a Wednesday thing and I just haven’t been out much on a Wednesday morning lately!

Thursday Swim 1km
It had been nearly three weeks since my last swim so I wasn’t expecting much, which was a shame since the last swim I did was my longest yet and felt great. I just haven’t had a chance to get to the pool with the recent travelling and disarray around here since returning home, so it was back to square one.

So I just went for an easy half hour. Did 700m freestyle and 300m breaststroke with plenty of breaks.

Friday Run 6km
Today I did a typical taper session consisting of 2 x 5 min tempo efforts with a 5 minute jog recovery.
Tyler was fussing pretty much all night so I didn’t get more than an hour of straight sleep as I vividly recall seeing every hour appear on the clock throughout the night. He was still going at 5am so I figured I may as well head out. It was a nice sunrise too. The other pain from the night is in my neck…I must have worked myself into an odd position at some stage during my fitful sleep, as my neck and shoulder blades are quite sore, which inhibited my run and made it difficult to turn my head to check for traffic. In fact there’s generally very little vehicular traffic in the morning but I’m more concerned about cyclists sneaking up on me!

So I finished November with a total of 122km, which is a considerable increase on each of the last three months, but felt more like getting back to a standard level than an increase.

Last night I was reading the report I wrote on my last (first) Half, and was thinking about it today on the run. The main thing I wanted to focus on was my mental attitude to the race. I don’t want to fall too much into the “done all the hard work, now enjoy the day” frame of mind (even though I haven’t really done that much hard work this time!). Whilst I will enjoy it, I need to keep in mind that there will be times when I just need to put my head down and slog it out in the final third of the race at times when I might feel like easing off. Having said that, I think I’ll need to keep reminding myself that “it’s just a training run (race)”…” it’s just a training run (race)”…” it’s just a training run (race)”. I’ll really just be happy to hit 110 minutes at the Central Coast Half, ease up for a week or two and then set my gaze on the Canberra Marathon.

Monday Run 6.5km

2006-11-27T11:03:00.000+11:00

After consulting the program that I was going to follow for the Half I headed out this morning for 4 x 600m intervals with 2 minute jog recoveries. Oh well, at least I'm getting in a couple of weeks of structured training!

It was hard work, but I was actually feeling good when the pace was up, which was very satisfying. Later measurement shows the intervals varied between 600m and 700m, and the pace was between 4:15 and 4:30 min/km, which I'm fairly happy with as there were the usual unavoidable hills involved!

Blogger is being agreeable today, so here is the view from our bedroom window last week at the Sunshine Coast. It’s the same from the office as well (yes, I actually did some work while we were there). You'd need a seriously wide angle lens to properly capture it as it's pretty much a 180 degree view, but you get the idea. This is the sort of view I could get used to!!

Off to the Sunshine Coast

2006-11-26T21:18:00.000+11:00

After arriving back from Sydney a week and a half ago I didn’t even have time to unpack before reloading the car with the rest of the family for the drive up to the Sunshine Coast on the Thursday. We broke up the drive each way with an overnight stay in Ballina with Jodie’s brother and uncle, which is about half way. We were staying at my boss’ “home away from home” at Maroochy River (near Bli Bli) for our work Christmas party that was on last weekend.
I was going to post a photo of the view, but blogger is being a pain, so maybe later.

Last Saturday Run 14km
I thought I’d better get my long run out of the way early on the weekend so I took off at 5am (4am Qld time) and returned before anyone else was up. It turned out to be only 14km, but it was much, much tougher than my previous 14km efforts. There were some serious hills involved, over a variety of terrain and along a route that I made up as I went along.
I made my way to Dunethin Rock, to the river, past the scout camp, and down a long straight stretch to Ninderry Nursery before turning back.

Saturday night’s dinner was followed by some Texas Hold ‘em (where I cleaned up) until the small hours of the morning, so I wasn’t up for any sort of recovery run on Sunday.
Monday morning I took the option to head down the beach for some bodysurfing.

Tuesday Run 6km
I ventured over to the relatively new Parklakes estate and worked my way through most of the streets therein. I included about 6x200m intervals to mix things up a bit, although they weren’t really all that intense.

I was a bit wary because my “good calf” was fairly tight, although it became that way only the day before and I suspect because of so much carrying kids up and down stairs. So it turns out that running was not a problem for it, and in fact seemed to cure the stiffness as the “good calf” was no longer tight or sore after the run.

Thursday Run 9.5km
I made my way through the Lighthouse and Emerald Downs areas, working in 3x8minute tempo efforts along the way. I had about 3 minute jog recoveries, although one of them turned into a standing recovery as Miners pulled over for a chat whilst on his way to the pool.
We’d only arrived back home late Wednesday after the drive from the Sunshine Coast via Ballina, which was an adventure in itself. I was very happy to have been able to drag myself out of bed for this run.

Saturday Run 17km
Seeing as I hadn’t run further than 15km since July I figured I really should do so before the CC Half next weekend. It’s no longer a goal race for me as I’m just not prepared enough, so I’m not too concerned about the fact that my longest run shouldn’t be the week before the race!
I headed down Pacific Drive to Town Beach, along the river to Westport Park, through Clifton and back via Gordon Street and Kennedy Drive.
At Flynns Beach I bumped into Blues Buffet and Miners starting out their run. After a brief chat we headed our separate ways.
The run was fairly uneventful otherwise. At about the 1 hour mark I stopped to refill the bottles in my fuel belt, popped a GU and washed the sweat off my face. It was amazing how refreshed I felt after just that short break, and I can see how a break of a minute or so during a marathon or longer could be very useful.
The run was followed by breakfast, then a couple of hours work in the yard including mowing the lawns. I’m happy to report that apart from being a little tired, I pulled up extremely well from the morning’s exertions. I did manage a snooze in the afternoon, but that didn't stop me nodding off during the Tri Nations rugby league final.

The 17km was taken at a pace for a 1:50 half marathon. It was a bit of a hilly route and I finished strongly during the final uphill sections. I'm reasonably confident of a decent run next weekend on the flat CC course but I'll just have to see how I go on the day!

Now back from Sydney

2006-11-16T10:46:00.000+11:00

Monday Run 6km including 8x200m Intervals
After dismissing my alarm and dropping back to sleep I finally got up after 6am and headed out into a very warm and sunny morning in Sydney.

Given my recent comfortable runs I decided to include some speed intervals today. After a couple of km warm up I ended up doing 8 x 200m (roughly because they were time based) intervals. I later measured and they were more like 220’s. I had between 1 and 2 minute jog recoveries, which varied so as to avoid crossing intersections during the intervals themselves.

It was a tough session in the conditions and I was drenched with sweat even more than usual by the end so it must have been a good one!

Wednesday Run 8km including 2x12min Tempo
It was much cooler this morning and I was out much earlier. Today I wanted to throw in a couple of longer efforts, so after a 2km warm up I upped the pace to “60 minute race pace”. At the time I thought it wasn’t all that uncomfortable or strenuous apart from a couple of the hills. On later measurement it turns out that both efforts were exactly the same distance and at 5 min/km pace. I should have pushed it a bit more but I’ll rate it satisfactory under the circumstances.

U2 Follow up
The set lists for all the Australian shows so far are available on u2.com ;)

We were a little apprehensive about entry queues after hearing reports, but seeing as the gates opened at 5.30pm and we arrived at the stadium at 8pm, any line ups were well and truly cleared by then and we went straight in.
I know all about the food and drink queues in and around Telstra Stadium from past experience. We’ve got it all worked out with a place close by with free, easy parking, we can relax, grab a few cheap drinks and a feed before heading across to the stadium. It’s certainly not the Novotel right next door, because that’s just as bad as the stadium! And it’s fairly easy to make a (relatively) quick getaway after the show.

U2

2006-11-12T17:44:00.000+11:00

After waiting 11 months since buying the tickets I was definitely looking forward to this show.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that U2 are the band that I would most identify with, and whilst I’ve always had an awareness of their music it’s not that I’ve followed them all that closely or that I own all their CDs. That’s not to take away from the fact that I think they have created so many brilliant songs, many of which are real anthems, and that their ability to produce quality music over so many years is quite amazing and, in my opinion anyway, unmatched. Whilst you can always pick a U2 song and they have their own sound, I think they have a great variety in their songs, and they’ve been very effective in changing/evolving to a degree over the years. The thing is that you know they’re going to miss playing more songs that you really want to hear than they actually get to play.

The only other time I’d seen them play was when they toured with B.B. King, back in 1989 I believe. Over the last 15 years or so I have seen plenty of U2 cover bands (sometimes unintentionally because they just happened to be playing at the pub we were at) which included some memorable nights.

When you’re going to a stadium concert there are certain things that aren’t quite the same as at a smaller or enclosed venue, so as long as you realise this you’ll walk away happy. It’s unrealistic to expect a band that can sell out 2 x 70,000 odd tickets in a matter of hours to play a venue other than a stadium. You know the sound isn’t going to be perfect as a sports stadium is simply not designed for concerts and you just can’t feel the bass quite as you like to. You’re not going to see the band members in great detail unless you’re really, really close. You’re at the mercy of the weather. But all those factors can be resolved by watching the DVD anyway!

We didn’t get around to seeing Kayne West who was the support act. We turned up at the stadium around 8pm and got inside with little fuss other than a swipe with the metal detector. We had general admission tickets so we made our way down to the field which was a good experience in itself. I’ve been to Telstra Stadium plenty of times, but not on the playing surface. It’s nice to walk through the tunnel and out onto the field imagining how it would feel running out to a packed stadium as you’re about to play for your country!

We made our way to a good position that was about 20 metres from the ellipse, which is a walkway they have setup that extends into the audience. From what I could judge the stage was about at the goal line (for a rugby league match), and we were a bit closer than the halfway line…we were a short way in front of the line of lights/speaker towers, next to the mixing tent and just off centre. We were really happy with the spot, as we could see the band fairly well, had a great view of the stage and light effects, along with the sense of being right in the middle of the energy generated by the crowd. It doesn’t hurt to be 185cm tall in these situations. We were grateful for a pleasant night and no hint of rain!

The massive lighting rig behind the stage is certainly set up well for a stadium show. It was put to great use with plenty of spectacular effects, and most of the time they had close ups of each of the band members on separate screens at the top corners to the sides of the stage.

What I really wanted from being at the show was just to take it all in. It’s the experience of being amongst the tens of thousands of fans getting right into it and singing in unison about a red guitar on fire, about a place where the streets have no name and that they still haven’t found what they’re looking for. It was hard to tell how it was in the seated sections, but on the “floor” there was plenty of enthusiasm, and that’s where I wanted to be!! I finally learnt my lesson on rock concert reserved seating at the Foo Fighters show last year.

I was awed by the scene when Bono did his make poverty history routine where he got everyone to hold up their mobile phones. I’ve seen it done plenty of times before but not on this scale. Looking back and into the stands was just amazing.

It was easy to get caught up in the excitement for the main part of the show, taking in what the band was doing, what was going on around and just enjoy being amongst it all. A couple of the slower songs later on, including Miss Sarajevo (during which Bono did his best to fill in for Pavarotti) gave me the opportunity to reflect for a moment on the fact that the 4 guys on stage were the people actually responsible for creating all this music that has been heard by hundreds of millions of people around the world, and they were right there in front of me. It’s easy to take for granted what they’ve achieved, but interesting to be standing there with them performing in front of me appreciating what they’ve done. But only for a moment, because then they launched into Pride and Where the Streets Have No Name, and there was no time for reflection any more!!

From my point of view, and that of those around me, it was a great night that was more than worth the price of admission and the wait. I can’t imagine them doing another show of this scale again any time soon if at all, so I’ll look back very satisfied to have experienced it.

This was the set list:

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
Until the End of the World
New Year’s Day
Beautiful Day
I Still Haven’t found What I’m Looking For
Sometimes
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (in the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
----
Zoo Station
The Fly
With or Without You
---
The Saints are Coming
Desire
Kite

With a bit of luck I’ll get some photos from the night emailed to me in the next day or two so I’ll post a couple if they’re decent.

Next stop: Big Day Out. With 2 out of 3 line up announcements already made there are more bands that I want to see than I could physically fit into the 12 or so hours, which is a shame, but in reality it’s a very, very good thing :)

Now if only I’d been on a dive since I started this thing my blog would be complete! ;)

A Few Lazy Days

2006-11-12T17:42:00.000+11:00

Thursday Swim 1km
The goal was to cover 1.2 to 1.4km today, but by the time I got to the pool I simply ran out of time and had to bail at the 1km mark. It was a shame really, because I was feeling comfortable in the water today. The other consequence of being later than usual is that by the time I was on my final lap I was sharing the entire Olympic pool with just 1 other person! I could cruise as slow as I liked in the fast lane although I just opted to hog the medium lane, recklessly charging straight through the middle of the lane without fear of collision ;)
So it ended up being 600m freestyle and 400m breaststroke.

Friday Run 14km
It was such a nice morning for a run. I ran a similar route to last weeks 14km with a few variations, but basically along Pacific Drive to Town Beach, then along the river to Westport Park before working my way back home.
I finished at closer to 5:15 pace, which I was happy with for a longer run seeing as I felt quicker and more comfortable than my last 14km run.

Saturday
Drove to Sydney and went up the road to see some band play a few songs.

Sunday Swim 1.8km
My longest swim by a couple of hundred metres…yay!
After having a most enjoyable sleep in to 9am (which I never, ever get to do any more), I had some fruit and headed to the pool.
I was originally planning on doing 1.4km, but I had a lane to myself the whole time and was feeling nice and relaxed so I kept going. On the whole it was a great swim for me. Once warmed up I felt I had a good rhythm going and was enjoying cruising through the water. Where I usually start of with up to 500m freestyle I managed 750m before changing. My breaks were shorter than usual as well.
In the end it was 1100m freestyle and 700m breaststroke as:
750m: F, 400m: B, 100m: F/B/F/B, 50m: F/B/F/B/F

Steady as she goes

2006-11-08T19:57:00.000+11:00

Yet again I’m only getting around to a once a week post!

This coming Saturday I’m going to see U2 at Telstra Stadium. I can’t wait now, especially having bought the tickets a year ago and after the postponement of the tour earlier in the year. I already know of another CR blogger heading in there on Saturday :) I’m interested to hear who’s going to be any of their shows, and at Saturday night in particular!

Friday Run 6km
This was a week ago and apart from running through the Waniora area I don’t recall much of this run so it must have been nice and easy!
Briefly caught up with Miners, Rooster, Aunty K, Truckie and (I think) Rock Doctor at the tail end of their dinner at TG’s in the evening.

Saturday Run 14km
This was the longest one I’ve done in 6 weeks, and it’s about time I started back with a few longer runs.
The weather wasn’t too good and it was the day before the Half Ironman so it wasn’t surprising that it was fairly quiet out and about. I made my way along Pacific Drive past most of the beaches, along the river into town and then back home via Granite Street with a couple of diversions along the way. It was a steady run at my familiar 5:30 pace.

Sunday Half Ironman
I looked out the window at 5.30am and it wasn’t pretty. I was looking after Isabel this morning and I decided against dragging her out at dawn with all the rain about. Instead we both headed out a little later to watch some of the action around the transition area towards the end of the bike leg and early parts of the run. We spotted a few locals, including Miners and Riggo well into their run leg along with a couple of other unidentified CRs.
I wasn’t game to juggle a camera along with Isabel and the umbrella so unfortunately I have no photos this time.

Monday Swim 1km
Today wasn’t too bad in the pool. I was very relaxed throughout the session and found that I was cruising along fairly happily back in the slow lane. For most of the time there was no one in the medium lane and only one other in the slow lane. It was warmer in than out with some decent rain showers falling during the swim.
I ended up doing 700m freestyle and 300m breaststroke.

Tuesday Run 6km
As I was heading out for my run today I reminded myself that the CC Half is less than 4 weeks away now so I should start with some varied sessions in an effort to boost my fitness and kick myself out of my 5:30 pace comfort zone in the short time I have left.
It was only going to be a short run so there wasn’t time to do too much so I just threw in 2 x 5 minute tempo efforts while I made my way around my regular Lighthouse loop.

Big Catch Up

2006-11-01T20:22:00.000+11:00

Wow, there’s a lot to catch up on in terms of posting and reading. Better get to it…

Last Wednesday Run 7.5km and CR Dinner
Did the early Tuesday morning drive to Sydney entirely in daylight which was a novelty. There was nothing too remarkable about this run – not too hard, not too easy. I did a few splits along the way and was surprised by how consistent my pace was over the entire run at about 5:20 per km.
As a few people have picked up I’ve made no mention of my recent “lower leg” injury and I hope to keep it that way!

Met up with Jen, The Owl, Don Juan, blkbox, Beki and Ellie at The Rocks for dinner. It was great to see everyone again :)

Friday Run 9.5km
In the morning I ran a similar course to Wednesday at a virtually identical pace with an extra couple of km at the end.
Friday evening was the drive back to Port.

Saturday Swim 1.0km
The pool was packed today when I went at lunchtime. I managed to get through a mix of 600m freestyle and 400m breaststroke before I pulled the plug.

Monday Run 9km
The fact that daylight savings started the day before, that it was a bit cool and that it was drizzling outside didn’t make it easy to get up, but I did it anyway.
I zigzagged my way through the Lighthouse Beach and Emerald Downs areas before returning home for a nice warm shower.

Tuesday Swim 0.7km
Met Miners down at the pool for some laps at lunchtime. We spent more time floating around the shallow end than actually swimming which was fine by me as I was enjoying the chatting more than the laps and wasn’t feeling that strong in the water. And yes, what little swimming we did was in fact in the fast lane :P Not sure what I was doing there though as Miners actually covered about 250-300m for each of my 200m!
The lesson here is that if you want someone to swim with that will push you and cover a great distances along the black line don’t look in my direction…I could easily derail the training of the most committed triathlete!! ;)

Wednesday Run 9km
I’m amazed how consistent my pace has been for all of my recent runs. Just kicking along at just under 5:20 pace. Might be time to pick it up a bit!
Today I made my way around the Waniora and Flynns Beach areas. I had a lot on my mind (good stuff, not bad!), so the journey seemed to be at an end in no time. I think that’s the mindset I need for the long runs when I get back to them.

Monday brought up 50km for October, which is pretty poor in terms of where I would have liked to be for the month, but not so bad considering I didn’t run at all for the first third of the month for unmentionable reasons!

Better for the run

2006-10-23T19:40:00.000+10:00

Friday Swim 0.8km
Met Miners at the pool at lunchtime, which was great after not catching up for ages. Just for a chat though (with good reason) and DVD drop off.
By the time I eventually got into the pool I didn’t have a great deal of time, which actually wasn’t a problem in the end. I realised after a couple of hundreds that my swim fitness had dropped off after a 10 days break that included little exercise and not feeling well. So I only ended up doing 800m (500m free and 300m breaststroke), which was plenty seeing as I was doing more drowning than swimming towards the end of it. Glad I got in there though.

Sunday Run 6km
It wasn’t much of a day today – a bit cold and wet. I managed to make it home before the rain arrived though, but only just. It was a trouble free run down to Flynns Beach and back home in just over half an hour.
I’ll aim for a couple more runs less than 10km this week then look at building up to some longer runs and incorporating some variety into the runs from there.

Monday Swim 1.2km
I was better today being one swim back from a spell. It was a much nicer day today than it has been for the last week or two and there were quite a few school groups coming and going while I was there. Happily I was insulated from them in a middle lane with a couple of others before the others left and I had the lane to myself. I was still resting between each 100 a bit more than usual, finishing with a mixed session totalling 700m freestyle and 500m breaststroke.

Couple of runs

2006-10-19T20:30:00.000+10:00

Today’s run brings up just my third run for the month. The whole family including myself were a bit unwell towards the end of last week. I thought it was cleared up on the weekend, but after a big day on Sunday I was pretty tired and drained, which renewed some lingering symptoms. I tried to get out over the last few days, but it just hasn’t worked. The worst part is I feel like I’m wasting all this easy to get up for, early morning daylight.

All I managed since the last post were:

Sunday Run 6km
Still just a shuffle around the back of Waniora, which despite not being entirely flat, is about the flattest terrain I can get unless I want to drive somewhere.
The run was followed up with doing the lawns and running around with the kids. Later in the day we went to the supermarket with them and they both started carrying on like pork chops so I “took it outside” with them. I ended up power walking them in the pram for about half an hour while Jodie finished the shopping.

Today Run 6km
Ran a Lighthouse loop today. It had been warm all morning and I headed out at midday, but at least there was some cloud cover while I was out there. It felt tough for much of the run, although the pace was quicker than the shuffle that I should have been doing. I dangled the carrot that I would walk up the Matthew Flinders Drive hill to keep me going, whilst trying to make myself forget that walking up that hill was pretty much the same as running on the flat anyway. Still, it’s a change of pace for the legs. The final km home was really good after that. I felt strong, and was travelling at a good pace even though it’s a bit of a climb up Lighthouse Road. That was promising.

Baby Racer

2006-10-11T20:00:00.000+10:00

So as not to stress the legs too much, Friday and Saturday were both walks of about 50 minutes each, with a small degree of difficulty added. On Friday I included the stairs from Shelly Beach up to Harry’s Lookout. On Saturday Isabel woke up before me around 5am and wouldn’t go back to sleep. So I strapped her onto my chest and she came along for a walk with my Dad down to and along Miners and Shelly Beaches. She really enjoyed it, but of course was tired and crabby later in the day!

Monday Swim 1.2km
Very average sort of a day, but I made it to the pool anyway. Mixed this one up quite a bit, and covered 800m freestyle plus 400m breaststroke.

Tuesday Run 6km
I hadn’t run for a week and a half, and on the physio’s recommendation this one was more of a shuffle. Took it really easy which made for a relaxing run to start the day. No complaints from the calf during or after the run. Now all I need to do is not trip on any of the toys sprawled all over the house and I should be right.

Wednesday Cycle 18km
I haven’t been pushing all that hard on my last few rides, and today was no exception. I went along Lighthouse Beach before heading slightly inland to make my way into town before the home run along Pacific Drive.

What a great time of year…nice moderate temperature, it’s getting light around 5am so it’s easy to get up, heaps of people are out well before 6am and daylight savings is just a couple of weeks away.

As Wobbly Man rightly pointed out I have neglected a photo of the cycle leg of the baby triathlon in my previous post. In the interests of fair and equitable coverage I give you…the baby cycle leg:

Yes, I know we didn’t get her the performance model, but the early years are more about just having fun...aren’t they? ;)

Thursday double up

2006-10-05T22:43:00.000+10:00

Cycle 20km
I was out for an hour and I didn’t feel like I worked hard at all. It was a bit cool, especially before the sun made its presence felt but I was barely sweating at all, which is unusual for me. I just worked my way indirectly around the industrial area, through Clifton, past Settlement City and back along the beaches.

Swim 1.4km
Turned up for a lunchtime swim today, which was a good chance to work on some of the points that I picked up yesterday. It was much quieter today and it was good to have a lane to myself most of the session. A total of 800m freestyle and 600m breastroke.

Looks like the photos are working for me today :)

D'oh

2006-10-04T20:29:00.000+10:00

Well that was a short start to the program…I have another niggle, but I can’t blame running for it. It’s the result of being a little careless whilst playing with Isabel straight after icing the calf on the weekend. It’s responding very well to stretching, massage and another physio session so I’ll give it a week off and see how it goes. Looks like another week in the pool and on the bike which isn’t so bad, but will result in more hacking and slashing of the half marathon program!

The weekend got in the way of much serious exercise anyway. Too many grand finals, plus the boat we usually ski behind has a shiny new motor so a few of us went out for a cruise around the waterways to see how it performs when full of passengers. It goes beautifully now and I’m looking forward to jumping behind it for a proper test soon.

The 1st Big Day Out announcement today is enough to get me through the gates with the guarantee of an enjoyable one. I had the possibility of heading to the Gold Coast for it but the pull of Sydney is too strong, particularly given that it’ll produce a 4 day Australia Day weekend! ;)

Sunday 1.5km swim
My plan for some laps on Saturday fell by the wayside, although I did get down there early for Isabel’s swimming. Sunday was 900m freestyle and 600m breaststroke. I mixed this one up a bit more than the usual straight free/breast/free. Threw in some alternating 100’s and a few 75m frees with 25m breaststroke finishes. This gets me through a few more laps towards the end when my freestyle gets a bit ragged.

Wednesday Stroke Correction
After a good physio session yesterday I showed up for some stroke correction today. The pool was packed, which is not surprising for school holidays.
Turns out my stroke is fairly good thanks to some of the tips I’ve picked up over the last few weeks that are moving me in the right direction. It’s my kicking that needs some work as I tend to kick more from the knee, which is dragging me back, particularly when taking a breath. Nothing that a few drills won’t fix.

I promised this way back, and finally here are a few more photos. The ones of Tyler were taken a couple of days ago, and there are a couple of Isabel for balance :)
Edit: The photos don't seem to want to upload so I'll have another shot at it tomorrow!

Back to the Program

2006-09-29T21:27:00.000+10:00

I won't be running tomorrow, which leaves me at 63km for September. Not bad considering I had a mini comback on the 11th and only ran for 2/3 of the month. Sensible stuff that!

I realised at the start of the week that it was now less than 10 weeks to the CC Half, so I figured it was time to get some proper training underway. I’m going to follow a similar program to the one I used for my previous half, except that it’s slightly more involved. The main difference is an additional Medium Long run per week, and the Speed and Tempo sessions are a little more demanding. It’s a 12 week program though, so I’m cutting in on week 3.

Wednesday: 7km with 5x200m Speed Intervals
The intervals didn’t feel particularly fast, but that’s not surprising on the back of a month off and a few weeks of plodding along. Gotta start somewhere!

Thursday: 1.2km Swim
A standard session of 800m freestyle and 400m breaststroke. Not feeling fast in the pool today, but I think that’s just my expectations increasing. I can tell that I’m far ahead of where I was a few weeks ago. I booked myself in for some stroke correction next Wednesday and I’m hoping for some improvements to come of it.

Friday: 9km with 6x4 minute Tempo Intervals
I weaved my way through the Waniora and Flynns Beach areas this morning. Again I didn’t feel particularly quick at the start, but towards the end I could feel the legs speeding up a little more. I feels good to have a plan to the training again rather than just kicking along. I can feel my motivation increasing as I look through the program and the upcoming sessions.

Friday Physio
I’ve been feeling a little tightness in the calf so I thought I’d get a professional to have a look at it. There was some scarring in a couple of places as a result of my recent injury. I was hooked up to a couple of crazy machines, given some massage therapy and received some homework to do before my visit next week.

Boo...Swim...Wedding...Driving

2006-09-25T17:09:00.000+10:00

Oh well, a win for the Dragons was obviously a little too much to ask for…go the Swans! ;)

So I woke up Sunday morning and thought I’d drown my sorrows…at the pool. All up I did 800 metres freestyle, 600 metres breaststroke and 10-15 minutes of water running.

Shane recently asked if I thought that the swimming in public pools has contributed to any congestion/runny nose symptoms, which I don’t think has been the case for me so far. The pool at Port doesn't seem to be offensively chlorinated like some I've been in, and mostly when I go I've either had a lane to myself or shared with just a couple of others. I found a couple of times that if I am a little blocked beforehand that I’m all cleared up after the session. When I used to live in Sydney I always had sinus issues, but since moving to Port I don’t seem to have any troubles at all (including an absence of hayfever through the last couple of springs, which was always a nightmare in the past).
Shane and Dante made comments about technique which I was also talking about with Ellie, and I decided that I should get a swimming coach to look over my stroke to prevent too many bad habits becoming ingrained and hopefully lead to some improvements.

Anyway, the wedding was wonderful. We managed to avoid getting blown off the terrace at a restaurant high up over Cockle Bay. It was great to catch up with some of the family that I don’t get to see very often. I was in bed at midnight and up at 4.30am to drive back for a relatively normal day of work from home. It was awesome to see the girls and my little guy again…it’s amazing how much you notice babies develop even in just a week!

Centennial Park to Opera House

2006-09-23T14:18:00.000+10:00

I met up with Blkbox and Gronk shortly after sunrise at Centennial Park this morning for a run. We headed around to the other side of the Park, down Oxford and Macquarie Streets to the Opera House for a Rocky moment and a short break. The return trip was along the foreshore to Woolloomooloo then cutting up through Darlinghurst and Moore Park for the remaining half lap of Centennial Park. All up it was around 1 hour 40 minutes, and perhaps 15-16km…TBC. The weather was just perfect and it certainly wasn’t cool this morning. A most enjoyable run, although I was feeling some fatigue for the final 20 minutes or so which is not surprising seeing as it’s been ages since I did anything over 10km. Thanks for the run guys. After farewelling Gronk we headed back to BB’s for a quick shower, met up with Beki and headed up the road for some much needed breakfast. Afterwards they were heading into the city for a late morning massage, so I dropped them at the station and went on a successful shopping mission. It was great to meet Beki for the first time (with her brand new haircut!) and thanks for the breakfast BB and B – hope the massages weren’t too painful :) I’m now going to have a short afternoon snooze to revitalise myself before heading in to the footy and hopefully will be cheering the Dragons to a spot in the Grand Final. Go you Dragons!! Edit: I think this a reasonably accurate plot of the run. So given it was about 16km, overall the pace was a touch over 6 minute k’s, but that included plenty of stops and pauses for traffic.

Hayfever under control

2006-09-22T13:18:00.000+10:00

After an irritating couple of days my head is back to normal.

Thursday 1.6km Swim
Caught up with Ellie for some laps at Cook + Phillip Park. It was fun to swim with someone else, which helped the session go by in a flash. Ellie was talking about picking my brains for some swimming advice but it turned out that she’d been doing some reading on the subject and I got a heap of tips from her instead!! In fact I tried out one of the techniques she mentioned and it seemed to really help me glide through the water a lot smoother. Imagine how much faster I can go once I get a few tips off Miners as well!!

So I ended up with 1600 metres. The sequence was a bit mixed, but roughly 800m Freestyle, 500m Breaststroke and 300m Freestyle.

Friday 6km Easy Run
Backed up last night's swim with an easy run to start the day. All clear on the calf front.

Coming up
The plan for the weekend is to meet up with BlkBox and Gronk at Centennial Park tomorrow morning for a run, during which we’ll make plans for brekky with Beki before their massage later in the morning. Tomorrow night I’m heading in to see the Dragons play the Storm for a spot in the Grand Final. Sunday will most likely be some more laps at the local pool before heading into the City for a wedding in the afternoon. Somewhere in there I’ll have to do some shopping for Jodie’s birthday next week!!

Hi from Sydney

2006-09-20T13:55:00.000+10:00

Monday

9km Run
A beautiful morning for a run, and it’s getting light outside nice and early now. I ran through the middle of the Lighthouse area along Bangalay Drive before heading over to Matthew Flinders Drive by the beach, across to the golf course and through Emerald Downs.

I comfortably made it through in five and a half minute pace. If anything I was a bit tentative and slowed up on some of the downhills as the calf felt a bit tender pounding down the steeper hills at speed. On the gentler downhills I just concentrated on smoothing out the footfalls to remove the main feeling of impact. It could have been my mind playing tricks on me, as it certainly wasn’t sore either during or after the run.

1.4km Swim
I’m feeling better with the swimming. For the first few hundred metres I feel like I’m cruising along (relatively) wonderfully…(relatively) efficient…(relatively) fast…(relatively) effortless! Then the fatigue creeps in, things get ugly and I start needing some longer breaks after each 100m.
I added an extra 100m to my initial freestyle block, bringing it to 500m, then 500m breaststroke non stop followed by a 400m block comprising 300m freestyle with 100m breaststroke in the middle which helps reduce my rest period after each lap. It’s still not pretty, but at least there’s progress!

Tuesday
I drove to Sydney on Tuesday morning. A highlight was the view as I passed an open field just outside of Moorland. The newly risen orange sun was hovering over a sea of fog that was punctuated with a few trees rising out of the mist. That would have been worth stopping for if I actually had my camera on me.

Not feeling the best so I’m tossing up whether to swim tonight. My head feels a bit scratchy, but it might just be a bit of hayfever.

Ah yes, that’s what running feels like…

2006-09-17T22:42:00.000+10:00

…just like walking only faster…and harder.

There just doesn’t seem to be enough time to get everything done at the moment, so now it turns out to be two weeks since I last posted. A few days in Sydney will no doubt give me a chance to get a few things up to date, and Jodie should get some help around here while I’m away so hopefully it won’t be too stressful for her while I’m away.

I ended up waiting a few extra days than planned before going for a run, eventually getting out last Monday night. It was a see how it goes run, and it went good! I started off tentatively, and made it through just over 5km in just under half an hour. The only complaint was some abdominal discomfort due to dinner even though I gave it an hour and a half. I don’t think running at that late hour agreed with me, as I had a weird night’s sleep. The previous run longer than 1km was exactly one month earlier – no doubt the legs appreciated the break. I was expecting the first few runs to be tough, but was pleased to be getting along a bit quicker than anticipated.

I followed up on Wednesday and Friday mornings with easy 6km runs. Felt good to start a couple of days with early morning runs again.

Apart from that I managed three 1.2km swims and four rides of an hour each.

My swimming is coming along ok. I’m just happy to be able to do 100m without struggling for breath at the end, and on Friday I did the 400m breaststroke section of my swim without a break. It’s nice to be at a point where I can reliably count my laps and actually be aware of how poor my technique is!

The recent Thursday cycle was great. I headed out before sunrise, and the chill in the air brought a tear to the eye when the speed picked up on the downhills with just bike shorts and a t-shirt on. I saw the sun rise over Oxley and Town beaches - it was a great morning after all the recent wind and rain. I rode past Settlement City and through Clifton before heading back down Gordon St for the home stretch along the beaches.

This was the sequence since my last post. Hopefully I’ll keep my posts a bit more up to date from now.

Tuesday Swim
Thursday Cycle
Friday Swim
Saturday Cycle
Monday Run
Wednesday Run
Thursday Cycle
Friday Run and Swim
Saturday Cycle

Swim, swim, swim

2006-09-03T20:45:00.000+10:00

I didn’t get out for a run over the last week, but still managed some alternative exercise.

I swam Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The last one was unplanned, but I took Isabel for her first swimming lesson on Saturday (which she absolutely loved) and took the opportunity for an easy 700 metres. Later I went for an hour long ride along the beaches. That’d almost be my first brick session if not for the 2 hours in between the swim and cycle. So that makes 4 swim sessions in a week…gotta do something while I’m not running!

My running break means I only reached 40km in August, which is my leanest month by far this year. Not surprising seeing as I’ve only run 1km since the 11th of the month.

I’m feeling good about the break, which would be 3 weeks on Thursday (4 weeks if I don’t count the 1km effort) , but it feels time to get out for a run. I’m thinking of easing into a run on Tuesday or Wednesday morning and see what happens.

Another good week's holiday

2006-08-28T21:51:00.000+10:00

It’s now Monday night and I’m back at work again tomorrow. The week since my last post has been just great and has flown by. I only turned the computer on a couple of times the whole of the last week for quick email checks, and at one stage I even went 4 days without turning it on at all - miraculous, and actually quite refreshing! There is much reading and catching up to do though, which I hope to get through over the course of the week.

Apart from the last couple of days the weather has been spectacular and I’ve been making the most of it. Every day I’ve been out and about either with the family or just with Isabel while Jodie and Tyler have been resting. Isabel loves the playground equipment at the parks now, as well as splashing around down at the beach (just wet feet for now until it warms up)...not to mention being strapped to my chest to help me out on trips to the shops!

I think I’ve made a breakthrough with my weight. Previously I’d steadily lost about 10kg over a year or so, but more recently I’ve been stuck on 95kg for well over a year now. Today I found that I’ve dropped a couple of kg over the last couple of weeks. Being out of my normal routine and running around all over the place means that I’ve skipped a lot of my usual between meal snacks. I think that switching the training around and getting into the cycling and swimming has contributed to it as well. I’m going to try to stick to a better eating plan and keep the exercise mixed up.

All my exercise over the last week has been during Isabel’s afternoon sleeps which are usually around midday.

Cycling
I went for 2 rides, both for over an hour. Thursday’s ride was up along the beaches and out to Settlement Point, before heading back via Clifton and the Industrial Estate with a couple of diversions. The 2nd one was yesterday, where I did a Lake Cathie return trip via Lighthouse Beach. I thought I was going so well until I started heading home and realise how much wind assistance I’d received on the way down, and what a grind I was faced with to get back. Took me an extra 15 minutes into the wind!

Swimming
Whilst Friday was a great day for a swim and I did about 45 minutes swimming and 10 minutes water running, today was not quite as pleasant outside. It was windy and cloudy with a few drops of rain, but nice and cosy in the heated pool! Today was 50 minutes swimming and 10 minutes water running. I’m feeling more comfortable each session, and the breaks are getting shorter after each lap, with a couple more continuous 100m each time. I did 500m breaststroke in the middle of the session today, and after that I found my freestyle was really relaxed and I was breathing well on both sides.

Running
With my alternate training I haven’t felt as bad about not running for the last week and a half. My calf hasn’t complained at all while on the bike or during the water running. I’m thinking of holding off for another week before giving the calf a test run. There’s nothing immediately pressing as far as events or goals, so I’d rather take the extra time to give it a good chance to heal. The kids, cycling and swimming are keeping me occupied for the moment anyway! If all goes well then that gives me 3 months to do some training for a decent tilt at the Central Coast Half which in turn will help me build some fitness to kick off the Canberra Marathon training.

Once I’m back into running I would like to continue to cycle at least once a week, and swim for 2-3 sessions a week.

Here are the photos

2006-08-22T14:08:00.000+10:00

A 1km Run...and the rest

2006-08-22T13:20:00.000+10:00

Well life is certainly busy at home at the moment and the weather is just great to be on holidays. I didn’t quite get around to the photos until now! Thanks to everyone for the kind comments.

Jodie and Tyler came home last Thursday afternoon. Everyone is well, although I think that everything happening as well as some more teeth coming through disrupted Isabel a bit. Happily she is better now that Mum is back and a degree of routine is restored. She has not been lacking attention, is fascinated by the new baby in her house and is happy to give him lots of kisses.

I neglected to mention that Tyler arrived weighing 4.17kg and was 53cm long. He’s sleeping fairly well and doesn’t complain too much at all – just the usual cries for food, a clean nappy and a cuddle.

I’ve finally got some photos together from the weekend. There's Tyler sleeping, awake, and one of Isabel heading in for a sloppy kiss!!

Running is on hold
Running is a bit of a problem at the moment, although not due to the obvious reasons. Another item I left out of my last post was that on my run to Flynn’s the other Friday I had some tightness in my right calf at around 2km, which gradually escalated to be fairly painful with each footfall by the end of the run.

I completely forgot about it until I ducked out Thursday morning for a run. I made it a total of 1km, at which point I felt a sudden pain in the same spot and ended up walking home as the pain continued with each step. It feels like a muscular strain (certainly can’t be an overuse injury!) so I’m giving it a chance for some rest and see how it pulls up after another week or two. So in the meantime cycling and swimming might be the go to maintain some fitness, then I’ll test it out next week. I'm not too concerned for now as the Central Coast Half is still over 3 months away.

Sunday Cycle
It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so while Jodie and Tyler were resting I took Isabel for a picnic down at Flynns Beach. Later while Isabel was sleeping I went for a cycle. It was 50 minutes around the beaches and Lighthouse area, causing no problem for the calf. I’m aiming a couple more rides over the next week while I’m on holidays.

Monday Swim
It’s been over 10 years since I’ve taken on an Olympic Pool. I decided it was time to change that and headed down for some late morning laps. All up I did 40 minutes of laps followed by 10 minutes of water running. Each lap was a bit tough at first, but later in the session the end of the pool seemed to be approaching a bit quicker and with less of a struggle! I’ve no idea how many laps I did and mixed in a few breaststroke laps. It was a good time of day to get back into it, as I shared the slow lane with no more than 2 others at any time.
I enjoyed it, and I’m looking forward to soon being at the stage where I don’t have to stop after every lap, so I plan on getting down there once or twice a week from now on.

We have a Son!!

2006-08-15T21:03:00.000+10:00

After an incredibly intense night I’m overjoyed to say that our son came into the world at 6.58am today, Tuesday the 15th of August. His name is Tyler and he is a beautiful and healthy baby.

Jodie started getting pains 3pm Monday, we arrived at the hospital around midnight, they nearly sent us home at 1am following irregular contractions, before they really kicked in and instead we headed for the birthing room around 2am. The labour did not go entirely to plan and for a while it took a turn for the worse before getting back on track. I can’t adequately describe it, other than to say it was quite an overwhelming experience.

Tyler had a great temperament on his birthday, sleeping peacefully for much of the time after a traumatic start to the day. There’s simply nothing like the feeling of your contented baby sleeping in your arms, looking into his eyes for the first time and giving him his first bath and seeing him peacefully floating in the warm water.

Now that he’s been cleaned up I hope to get a nice photo of him tomorrow to post. It’s been 39 hours since I had any sleep, so that is what I need now. I doubt I’ve done justice to the experience, but what an amazing day!!

Getting closer

2006-08-14T21:22:00.000+10:00

Well the due date came and went yesterday. We had a false start on Friday night that lasted about 12 hours resulting in little sleep and a visit to the hospital but little else. However it seems things may be progressing as I write, so there may be a new arrival soon!!

I watched the TV coverage of the City to Surf wishing I was there, but knowing there’s always next year! Depending on how things go tonight I may or may not get to read some reports of the day.

I had to miss a couple of planned runs over the last week. What I did get around to were a couple of quick runs. Last Wednesday was 6km through the middle of the Lighthouse area, over to Harry’s Lookout then back home. Friday was another 6km return trip over to Flynns Beach.

No news means more work for me

2006-08-08T14:09:00.000+10:00

No baby news at the moment and no further indications over the last couple of weeks, so we’re just playing the waiting game. Jodie’s in a fair amount of discomfort so I’m trying to take care of as much as I can around the place outside of work which doesn’t leave any spare time. It’ll be a relief to have a couple of weeks’ holiday when the baby does arrive - I think I’ll need it, although I’m sure I won’t get much rest!

In the running department:

Funny how I skip a day here, then a couple there and all of a sudden I’ve only done two runs since this time last week. Probably not surprising though, as there’s been plenty of rain over the last week and I’m not in the mood for cold, wet runs at the moment! Over the last week there have been some very heavy downpours, a few isolated thunderstorms, and even a brief hailstorm that came out of nowhere! I managed to find breaks in the downpours for both of these runs.

Friday 7km

Tackled a few hills with this run that took me down around Flynns Beach.

Sunday 14km

This was a couple of loops with a pit stop back home in the middle. The first was a standard route around the back of Waniora to Hamlyn Drive, followed by an Emerald Downs / Lighthouse Beach loop.

Hot and Cold

2006-08-02T20:02:00.000+10:00

Saturday Afternoon 5km

This was a quick half hour at my first opportunity: 4pm. The only word to describe the first couple of km is sluggish, but after that I was ok. It was an hour and a half after largish, late lunch and I could really feel I was carrying some extra weight compared to first thing in the morning!!
So I trotted along Bangalay Rd through the middle of the Lighthouse area, down to Shelly Beach and home.

Sunday Midday 11km

Again I couldn’t do a morning run, but this time I was mentally prepared for a slow start so it didn’t bother me. In fact it was a spectacular spring like afternoon, and it was just enjoyable to be outside.

Whilst this wasn’t really a long run, I boiled down some of the long run advice from dinner the other night and stopped back home after 40 minutes to check that everything was ok and to grab a much needed drink. After that I didn’t really feel like going too much further, so I just went out for another 20 minutes or so.

Then seeing as it was such a nice day we all ventured out after I had some lunch and a quick shower.

Tuesday Intervals - 6km

After the weekend it was so refreshing to be out again before the sun was up. It’s been a couple of weeks since I did anything quick(ish), so I decided to do some 1 minute efforts. All up I did 8 intervals, each with around a minute jog recovery.

I miss these faster sessions given that at the moment I’m mostly plodding along. I’m planning to start another program in September to prepare for the Central Coast Half, so I’m sure by then I’ll be really keen for some of the more intense sessions.

I definitely feel fresher when running at dawn. There seems to be less resistance, it’s cooler, there are fewer cars about and it’s great to see the start of a new day. Sometimes at the start of the runs in the middle of the day I feel a bit more like I would be approaching the 10km mark of a dawn run in terms of fatigue. They seem to be becoming a little more convenient at times though, so it might just be a matter of acclimatising to them as it’s not much good to write off training for the whole day just because I can’t get out first thing in the morning. Besides, it has to be good mental conditioning to be pushing through that extra fatigue, and should prepare me better for when summer arrives, so there are advantages.

No hint of any early arrivals yet. Any spare time I have at the moment is being used to get the place organised for an extra person around the house. I was washing some of Isabel's newborn clothes and it was just amazing how small they seem now and how much she's grown in the year. She’s walking everywhere now so the time has also come to seriously baby proof the house!

Wednesday 11km and CR Dinner

2006-07-27T14:08:00.000+10:00

Another morning where I was fortunate to avoid getting rained on despite the heavy clouds nearby, which only started emptying their contents as I was having a stretch at the end. It was an easy run spent exploring some of the back streets between the Oatley train station and Oatley Park. I originally thought it was 10km, but Google Earth tells me I actually covered 11km!

This was followed up with a lovely dinner in the city with Lulu, Jen_runs, The Owl, Trivia Dave, Ellie80, WTR and Don Juan. It was such an enjoyable night, and I’m so glad to have had the chance to catch up during my short trip to Sydney. Thanks so much to Jen for organising it :) :)

3 x Run, 1 x Cancelled Run

2006-07-25T12:45:00.000+10:00

The time is drawing close with “our” due date now less than 3 weeks away and I’m starting to get excited after the long wait. Jodie is a little less excited about some aspects of what is coming up, but is more than ready to have her body back to herself! I’ll be happy if she can hold off for at least a few more days otherwise I’ll have a mad 4-5 hour dash back home! That's a bit scary given that the labour was officially less than 4 hours for Isabel.

I drove to Sydney yesterday, which will be my last visit before the baby is born. Jodie’s Dad is on holidays this week so he’s helping Jodie and keeping the girls company while I’m away.

I’ve been so slack with blog reading and writing. I think that rather than catching up all at once I’m better off chipping away at it.

Thursday 20th - 6km

We were dog sitting for the week, and the weather was kind on Thursday morning so I took them out for a run before work. My plan was to give each of them a 2.5km loop around the block.

They’re a handful together, so I took turns with them. Jade, the husky was up first. The other dog (Snoopy) was howling as I left him behind…he thought he was being neglected and protested accordingly. Jade was enthusiastic for the first km, then settled in for a more relaxed trot beside me, before turning into something of an anchor for the final 500 metres. I think she was happy to be home at the end of it.

By the time I got back for the changeover Snoopy was in a frenzy. He was a bit out of control, weaving all over the place, which was a contrast to Jade who had maintained a steady relative position to me even at the start. But he certainly had more stamina. After 2km he was still charging along, so I took a couple of detours to give him an extra km. At the end he was still keen, but seemed just as satisfied to head back into the yard for a drink of water and a break.

So the dogs were happy and I got a 6km run done with a bit of weaving and a couple of sudden stops when Snoopy decided he preferred to travel on the other side of a couple of trees and poles at the last minute!

Saturday 22nd - 10km

With some inspiration from one of Miners recent runs I decided to head out for 8 to 10km and take a few new pathways in the Lighthouse area. I wasn’t quite sure where I might find myself with a couple of them so I was fairly flexible about how far I was going to run.
I actually started off through a couple of the surrounding estates to notch up about 6km before heading into the maze. There were a couple of interesting sections in there, and the rainforest section at the bottom of the MFD hill was fun dodging the bush turkeys!

Sunday 23rd – Run Cancelled

Isabel had her vaccinations on Friday, and ended up having a rough sleep on Saturday night. I had planned to do a long run on Sunday morning but seeing as I’m not 38 weeks pregnant I thought it better for Jodie to sleep in so I looked after Isabel instead!

Tuesday 25th – 6km

After hearing the rain pour down overnight I was pleased to be faced with just the lightest of drizzle first thing this morning. It was fairly mild, and despite finding a few puddles in the dark it was a pleasant run over to a regular Penshurst, Mortdale and Oatley loop.

I have another run planned for tomorrow morning and a mini CR dinner for tomorrow night which makes missing the Hunter Valley run (despite its reported teething problems) a little more bearable...yay!! :)

Some cool 200m Reps

2006-07-18T14:20:00.000+10:00

What a refreshing change to get out at 6.30 this morning. It was just perfect at that time - cool, but not too cold, and just as the sun was rising.

I even had a real plan for this morning! I was going to do as many 200 metre reps as I could fit along Matthew Flinders Drive from the Lighthouse Beach Surf Club to Ocean Drive and back (about 4km). Turns out it was 10, with anywhere from 45 to 90 seconds jog recovery between each. I really enjoyed the 200’s and they were just what I needed…they felt like enough of a workout without the “hang in there” aspect of some of the longer efforts.

Half way through one of them a guy pulled alongside on a bike and commented that I was keeping a good pace. I told him it was only for about 50 seconds at a time, but he said it was better than he could do. That made me consider how some people can keep up that pace (and quicker) for a full Marathon to go under 3 hours…now that’s amazing!

On the way home I mumbled a quick greeting to Miners as he glided downhill past me whilst I was making a futile attempt to cool down on the uphill climb out of Lighthouse! All told it was a good way to start the day.

A hot 17km in the middle of Winter

2006-07-16T20:28:00.000+10:00

I was looking after Isabel until mid morning, so I didn’t get out for my long run until 10.30am. After a wet, windy night the weather was fairly decent today.

I cut through the middle of the Lighthouse Beach area, then straight up to Town Beach, through town and back via Granite Street. I had a plan to run about 15km, but towards the end there were a couple of extensions. As I approached each of them I contemplated whether to do the extensions or not, and found myself automatically taking the longer routes.

I pulled up stumps at 17km and ended up walking another km home. The sun felt like it was blazing down and I’d had it at that point. I was really hit by the difference between running in the cool/cold mornings and in the middle of the day…even in winter.

As much as possible of the rest of the day was spent sprawled flat out on the lounge room floor playing with Isabel and her toys!

8km and other stuff

2006-07-15T18:13:00.000+10:00

I headed out for a 6km loop down through Flynns Beach and back past Shelly Beach this morning. There was a steady light drizzle falling for much of the run so I decided that if I’m gonna be out in the rain I may as well make it worthwhile. So I tacked on a couple of extra km around to the Waniora shops.

In other matters…

I’ve been struggling with a decision I’ve had to make about doing the Hunter Valley Half next weekend.. It’s not a fitness issue, but there are a number of other factors that have conspired to the point that I really can’t make it. I’m so disappointed about this. It sounds like it would be fun event and every time I turn around there’s someone else going that it would have been great to see.
I’ll have to comfort myself with the Central Coast Half in another FIVE months and the slimmest of possibilities of getting to the Lake Macquarie Half in six weeks. In the meantime I’ll just work on some aerobic fitness and build up a bit more distance so I’ll be ready to start some full on Marathon training in December.

Recent runs have felt like a huge change of pace since I ran the Half. I know I’m working on some aerobic fitness at the moment, but after following a reasonably intense, structured program in preparation for the Half the pace feels a bit flat now and the runs lacking direction. It’s not that I’m not enjoying it…far from it. I think it’s just the contrast against three months of intervals and other harder sessions. Although I’m taking it a bit easier for a while I still might throw in a tougher session every 10 days or so.

Couple of midweek runs...

2006-07-13T20:25:00.000+10:00

Tuesday 6km

It was great to get a good night’s sleep. As I got dressed I felt a false sense of warmth thanks to the dying embers in the fire providing some heat to the house. It was a shocking difference as I headed out for what was quite a nice run this morning.

I did my Lighthouse loop by starting towards the recently opened Lighthouse Plaza which I used to refer to as the Tacking Point Tavern. I had a great view of a huge and brightly shining full moon setting as the first km is downhill heading west. As I made my way to the coast and along the beach the sun was rising behind the lighthouse. Nice.

Wednesday 9km Group Run

After a long absence I finally found myself lining up for the 5:45pm group run. Not too bad a turnout with 15-20 people showing up despite the cool, dark winter evenings and the fact that a few people were away.

The first half was an easyish 4km out to Settlement Point with the chance for a chat before heading back for a minute or two quicker on the return 4km. I ran the 8km in just under 37 minutes, which is the quickest I’ve run that route, given I’ve mostly gone through around the 42-43 minute mark. Not really a race though as the trip out is taken fairly casually. I followed it up with a 1km cool down and hung around for a quick ale before heading home.

Quickly up to date

2006-07-10T20:21:00.000+10:00

The last week or so has gone by in a flash. So for the moment I’ll just make do with a quick update as I’m sure there’s plenty of reading to catch up on while I have an hour or so!

Work is very busy, and we were away for much of the weekend at Jodie’s parents. Isabel had her 1st Birthday on Saturday and combined with Jodie’s sister’s 21st Birthday party it made for a big weekend.

Wednesday 8km
This was just an easy run around the back of Waniora.

Friday 17km
For this run I made my way at a comfortable pace across to and through the industrial area, over to the river, Town Beach then back via the beaches.

Saturday
It was quite a warm afternoon so I worked up a sweat kicking a soccer ball around with the kids for an hour or two…before settling in for a less strenuous evening around the bonfire.

Sydney Striders 10km – Homebush

2006-07-01T21:06:00.000+10:00

Official time: 44:59…I did it, but only just!!

Met a few more CR’s this morning, although not as much overload as last time at North Head so I’m game to name a few, and it was particularly great to meet some more bloggers for the first time. There was Ellie80, Blkbox, Gronk, Will, Uncle Dave, Horrie, Gnome, FakePlasticTrees, Superflake, and a few others. It’s funny how just about everyone identified Will as “the Frenchman” when they (we) met him.

I enjoyed the conditions and the company today, and in spite of the sharp turns, gravel loop and corkscrew I really like this course.

My 10km goal for the year on Go Girl’s Challenge thread on CR was sub 45 minutes. Last year I ran this Homebush course in 48:30, North Head two months ago was 45:53. In the blur as I went past the clock I thought I crossed the line spot on 45 minutes. The official time is in and it’s 44 minutes and 59 seconds!! A new PB and my goal time for the year achieved with exactly no time to spare :) :) :) It’s fortunate that it came off today, as I can’t guarantee I’ll get another shot at a 10km race this year.

I really need to thank the guy that I passed on the way up the corkscrew with just over 200 metres to go. He started sprinting over the bridge to the finish, pulled level with me, at which point I responded and it was on from there! I knew I had him well beaten near the end of the bridge (11 seconds on him in the end) so I eased a tiny bit until I saw the clock showing just 10 seconds to beat 45 so I floored it and obviously just made it! But without the challenge he put on I would have just missed out, so I’m really grateful about that :)

I was pleased with my fairly consistent pace. This was my third 10km race, and with this one I was more comfortable about keeping the intensity up at times that I would previously have eased off. This is the mental edge that was missing at the Half. I turned up relaxed yet prepared to tough out the difficult stages, confident that I could maintain the pace all the way to the end. Another strong finish for me which indicates I could have given a bit more earlier on, which might have saved the need for the desparate dash at the end.

After the formalities, some stretching (thanks to Ellie’s prompting, as I often forget to stretch in these situations) and a quick change I was well out of there by 8.30 and back home by lunchtime.

My splits were:

1: 4:23
2: 4:32
3: 4:28
4: 4:31
5: 4:35 (22:29)
6: 4:35
7: 4:38
8: 4:29
9: 4:37
10: 4:11 (22:30)

5km Easy Run

2006-06-30T12:34:00.000+10:00

Well the good news is the tooth pulled up fine this morning. Gave it a good warm up, a stretch afterwards, bit of Dencorub on the jaw and I’ll keep off it today by making the other side take the weight of the chewing so I think it’s a green light for tomorrow’s Striders… such a relief!! ;) lol

It was actually 5.6 km at a fairly comfortable average of 5 minutes / km. There’s a 1.4km loop down the end of the street that I hit about 20 minutes in. I ran at what I judged would be a sustainable 10km race pace and on checking it now it turns out it was just over 4:20 minute pace which I’m happy about. Whether I can keep it up for the full 10km tomorrow is an entirely different matter, but there’s only one way to find out!

Injury strikes when you least expect it

2006-06-29T13:08:00.000+10:00

Yep, the bad news is…I’ve pulled a tooth!! Part of my tooth has fallen away, which is entirely my fault as I had a sense that something wasn’t quite right there for many weeks but procrastination set in. Hopefully it won’t affect my running, but I’ll go for an easy run tomorrow morning to test it out before Saturday ;)

It’s a bit jagged but there’s no pain or discomfort and the rest of the tooth seems stable, so I’ll make a Monday appointment for when I’m back home and just eat on the other side in the meantime. I was going out for a steak with a mate after work tonight, but might choose a more suitable meal instead!!

Unenthusiastic 400m Intervals

2006-06-28T18:19:00.000+10:00

It was so cold and after 3 nights of minimal sleep I wasn’t feeling too crash hot this morning. I was doing 4 x 400m intervals with 90 second jog recovery, and I got through the session quickly by cheating on the warm up and cool down.

Suffice to say I wasn’t feeling very quick, and if it’s any indication I don’t see the 45 minute mark tumbling at the Striders 10km on Saturday. I think another couple of weeks after the Half would have been more suitable for a quick run. Maybe some good sleep over the next three nights will sort me out. In any case I might just relax, enjoy the morning and just say any mark under 50 minutes will be fine.

ps. I didn’t know exactly, so was guessing the distance this morning. I Google Earthed a couple of the legs just now and it seems I was actually doing about 450m intervals, so not as bad as I thought :)

There's been some tagging goin' on

2006-06-27T22:16:00.000+10:00

Thanks to blkbox...

4 jobs I have had
- Newspaper Distribution Officer ;)
- Customs House Clerk
- Export Manager
- Software Developer

4 movies I watch over and over
- Pulp Fiction
- Lord of the Rings
- The Matrix
- Top Gun :P

4 places I have lived
- Randwick
- Lane Cove
- Baulkham Hills
- Port Macquarie

4 TV shows I love to watch
- Arrested Development
- The Sopranos
- Seinfeld
- American Dad

4 places I have been on vacation
- Backpacking around Europe (more specific? Ok, let's say Munich)
- Whistler / Blackcomb, Canada
- Nusa Lembongan / Bali, Indonesia
- South Island, New Zealand

4 websites I visit each day
- Sydney Morning Herald
- Cool Running
- Bloglines
- Bureau of Meteorology

4 favorite foods
- Everything Jodie cooks :)
- Thai
- Seafood
- Carbohydrate gels...no wait…Steak!

4 places I would rather be right now
- Balcony of Andechs Monastry (outside Munich) with an Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel in hand
- Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
- Diving at Blue Corner Wall, Palau, Micronesia
- Top of the Vallee Blanche ski run in the French Alps (assuming it was European winter!)

4 favorite bands
- Third Eye Blind
- U2
- Foo Fighters
- Red Hot Chili Peppers

4 Bloggers I am tagging
- Miners
- Tuggeranong Don
- Jorex
- RoyalKangas

Running with Vlastik

2006-06-25T19:23:00.000+10:00

Today was originally to be cross training on the bike, but with Vlastik approaching I was up for another run. He’s actually due into Port Macquarie around lunchtime Monday before heading off again Tuesday morning, but because I won’t be here tomorrow I took the opportunity to meet up with him today.

Vlastik is an Ultra Marathoner who is running from the south of Tasmania to the north of Queensland. All up it’s around 5500km that he’s planning on completing in 100 days. That’s an ultra marathon every day for more than 3 months!!! It’s all to raise funds for Camp Quality, who are a non-profit charity organisation that supports children with cancer. There is a Cool Running thread here with updates on his journey, as well as his blog that he updates when he can. He also has a link on the main page of the Camp Quality site which contains links to his schedule and a donation form :)

I drove south with Jodie and Isabel until we came across Vlastik, Jo and Asta (their dog) by the side of the highway near Coopernook having a cup of tea. We spent some time having a chat with these lovely people before they set off again. Isabel always gets excited when she meets children and animals, and it was no exception with Asta, as she squealed with delight while we were trying to talk!! Sadly Asta had some stomach problems in Karuah so he wasn’t feeling too well still. We gave them a map of the local area and a donation, and it was soon time to head off. The girls all headed up the highway in the support vehicles while I set off for a run with Vlastik.

He’s a really nice guy, and it was so interesting talking to him about some of the things he’s done, and good for a chat in general. He elaborated on some of runs that are mentioned in his blog profile…just amazing! The girls were stopped a couple of times along the way for a quick drink and a couple of photos. The distance passed by very fast. All up I ran with him almost to Johns River - about 12km and well over an hour before we had to get Isabel back home for some food, a bottle and a sleep.

Driving back to Port made me appreciate what Vlastik is doing knowing that he was going to be running the whole way rather than cruising in a car, and the section I ran with him was such a small part of his journey. The day to day reality is that it’s just Vlastik, Jo and Asta out there on the road every day no matter what the conditions. They really appreciate any support they can get along the way. As far as I’m concerned they are the ones that deserve the appreciation. The world is a much better place thanks to these sort of people that are willing to get out there and do things that are so difficult in order to raise money for such a wonderful cause.

It was a real pleasure to meet Vlastik, Jo and Asta. I think his run so far has had a fairly low profile considering the scope of what he is doing, but I believe this is picking up and I truly hope they can get some increased support as they travel north. It would be hard enough completing a "simple" Marathon without support, let alone a huge undertaking like this over such a long period. It was a morning I won’t forget, and I hope that the small amount of support I could provide helps him on his journey.

Vlastik was saying things may be difficult as they move beyond Cairns as some 4WD support that was arranged can now unavoidably lend a hand, so I hope that situation resolves itself when they get to that point.

So now, just after the girls arrived back on Friday it’s me that’s heading away :( I’m out of here tomorrow, but Jodie’s brother is on a break from Uni, so is visiting to help them out while I’m away. He also dives, so with a bit of luck we'll get out for a dive when I get back, which is something I haven’t done since my pre blog days. It's really overdue seeing as it's in my blog title!

A couple of “action” photos and one with Isabel getting in on the act:

17km Aerobic Run

2006-06-23T13:17:00.000+10:00

I had it all planned…watch the first half of the Australia v Croatia World Cup match, record the second half while I’m out for a run and the watch it afterwards while I eat breakfast. It almost worked perfectly until some clown told me the 2-2 result and that we were through to the second round while I was on the way back. Oh well. It was an eventful second half, so was still interesting to watch the drama unfold.

Anyway, it was a good run straight down Kennedy Drive, out to Clifton, then Westport Park and back via the beaches. I enjoyed the flat middle section as I was cruising in a nice rhythm by that stage before the undulating climb home. All told it took just under 1hr 40min with an average HR of 145bpm. It’s odd that it seems like ages since the Half, but it was actually less than a fortnight ago.

In other news, I comfortably avoided starvation during my week alone. Not exactly earth shattering information, but it’s been a long time since I’ve fended for myself. I didn’t resort to my backups of Saos or Spaghetti on Toast once, although there was the Pizza thrown in there, but I made myself run in the cold, dark rain as punishment! I pulled out some of my old regulars with a selection of meals from around the world…even visiting Italy twice. The menu included Penang Curry Chicken, Spaghetti Bolognese, Pizza, Beef Goulash and Mongolian Lamb.

Wet 9km Tempo Run

2006-06-21T21:56:00.000+10:00

My plan was to join the group run after work this afternoon. The rain was set in by mid afternoon so I conducted a straw poll with miners. With the prospect of a very small group, not a single beer waiting at the end and having to drive home soaked I quickly pulled the pin on that plan.

Instead I finished work a little early and with the rain pouring from the sky I set off from home in the fading light. I was pretty much soaked through within the first five minutes, so I was glad I chose my lightest singlet…also that the shoes didn’t quite reach the squelching stage.

I repeated the Lighthouse loop from yesterday morning, extending it further north at the end for the extra 3km. I did 2 x 12 minute efforts with a 5 minute jog recovery and arrived back home after 46 minutes.

Despite the dark, the cold and the rain I actually enjoyed the run immensely. I was really thrilled to be out there and it was so invigorating. I was imagining all the people driving home past me shaking their heads at the lunatic out running in that sort of weather. Not something I'd want to do every day, but a novelty for the moment.

I had a hot shower waiting at home, followed by a hearty meal and a bit of housework along with the opportunity to blow the cobwebs out of the amp and speakers before the girls get back home on Friday. On the play list tonight is
U2: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Third Eye Blind: Out of the Vein
Tool: 10,000 Days (thanks blkbox)
RHCP: Stadium Arcadium.
So many cds and so little time!!

Easy 6km

2006-06-20T09:57:00.000+10:00

I got up at 7.30am this morning and can't even blame the Australia vs Brazil match yesterday for being tired as I recorded it to watch at the more civilised time of 6am!

So I trotted out 6km in 36 minutes at an average HR of 147bpm. I was a bit blah during the run, but feeling good afterwards.

It's a busy week for me and I can already feel bloglines straining under the weight of unread posts :(

btw today was a regular - Lighthouse loop via Tacking Point Tavern...here's a little something I prepared earlier:

Cross training and Intervals

2006-06-17T16:55:00.000+10:00

Saturday: 25km Cycle

After months of putting it off I finally pulled the bike out of the garage today while Isabel was down for her morning sleep. The bike isn’t fast…it’s not pretty…and it’s certainly not built for comfort. If it looked even half as good as the Miner Rocket or Jen’s new ride then I’d post a photo of it.

I went out past the golf driving range, before heading over to Town Beach and back along the coast. I took an unscheduled break at Town Beach as the swell was up, so I watched a fairly big pack chase the waves breaking out the back in good conditions.

All up the ride time was just over 70 minutes excluding the break, with an average HR of 136 bpm.

The afternoon’s exercise is an upper body workout: splitting firewood.

Sunday 7km with 5 x 400m Intervals

Not too sure of the merits of speed training just a week after the Half, but I wanted a bit of preparation with the 10km coming up in 2 weeks.

I've finally worked out an accurate 400m on one of the playing fields near town. The first 400m took 1:30 and felt good, as did the warm up. The other four intervals were all just under 1:45. Each interval had a 90 second jog recovery.

The legs felt a bit heavy from the second interval to the end of the run. Maybe a result of the first ride for about 8 months. They certainly feel good now after several hours and seem fully recovered from the Half.

Back into an easy 6km

2006-06-16T12:27:00.000+10:00

It was great to get back out for a run again today as planned. Only my nose and fingers complained about the chill in the air today as all my other senses were too busy enjoying the beautiful morning sunshine and the birds singing.

As part of my new regime I reacquainted myself with the heart rate monitor today. It helped me cruise through for an average of 143bpm in 36 minutes. I caught myself coasting on 122 and 131 bpm on a couple of slight downhills, but made up for it up the hills.

Now that I can Google Earth my runs properly I’m going to trace out a few of my regular ones until the novelty wears off! Today’s run is indeed a regular for me, which is my run “around the back of Waniora” - Granite, Hamlyn, McLaren, etc. GE reckons it’s 6.27km rather than the 6km I’ve always worked on - at least I’m under reporting rather than over reporting my distances…and what’s a couple of hundred metres give or take anyway!

Some R&R

2006-06-15T11:01:00.000+10:00

Thanks…
to everyone for your comments. They are very encouraging and a wonderful source of motivation. This is in relation to the race itself as well as during the training. I find it helps keep me on track during the days when I might otherwise just sleep in :o)

The Aftermath
I’ve taken a few days off for a mental and physical break this week.

After finishing on Sunday I was too busy talking and never got around to doing the stretching which I almost always do. I think that contributed to a degree of muscular stiffness afterwards, which is something I haven’t experienced for ages.

I experienced a mild case of shin splints in my left leg. I could feel it faintly about a week or two beforehand. I’d say it’s on the back of the big jump in km for May. The self treatment (in particular stretching) combined with a reduced load thanks to the taper and recovery has taken care of it though. I’m hoping that a more gradual increase in training load and following the preventative measures prescribed will keep it away.

The Future
A big goal for me now is to shift at least 5kg by the end of the year. I can achieve this by cutting some excess snacks out of my diet and including some more HRM assisted aerobic sessions in my training.

The plan is for a run on Friday and a ride on the weekend. There’ll be a couple of quicker sessions thrown in prior to the Striders 10km in two weeks. I’m looking forward to having a 2nd look at the Homebush course, although it may be a bit quiet there with the Gold Coast Marathon on that weekend.

I’ve updated the races I’d like to enter in the sidebar. There’s a big gap between July and December. Anything I enter during that time (including the Lake Macquarie Half) would be more of a last minute decision.

I think the reality of the situation is I’m not going to make the Lake Macquarie Half at the end of August so I want to try for the Hunter Valley Half in July. I’m likely to be heading to Sydney the day after anyway. Last year I offloaded a Queens of the Stone Age ticket which was a couple of weeks after Isabel was born because I didn’t want to leave home at the time. This year with a new baby plus Isabel to look after I think it’s going to be the same situation come August.

Blah
One thing I found from watching the video of the race is how slow 5min/km looks on camera!!

I can see a lot of time will be spent playing with the new features on the Cool Running site.

I found out yesterday that Google Earth now includes detailed coverage of Port Macquarie and surrounds. How exciting!!

Lucky I've only made two posts in the last week given how long they are ;)

Here’s a picture of Isabel and myself just after the race. Not the best shot of either of us, but the best I’ve got. Isabel really just wants me to have a shower and I hate facing the sun for photos!!

Macleay River Half Marathon

2006-06-13T00:12:00.000+10:00

Result

Official Time: 1hr 45min 12sec
Overall Position: 41 / 119
Category Position 10 / 20

Pre Race

I went to bed close to 11pm with the rain pouring down outside, with more of the same promised for the day along with gale force winds!! So what a surprise to arrive at South West Rocks for a truly beautiful morning with a bit of a breeze that was more refreshing that anything else.

One thing that caught my attention on the drive in was the hill climb approaching 1km to go. It threw me out as I was surprised by the length and degree of it…I had known it was there, but I thought it was shorter.

I arrived early enough to sort out the formalities and watch the roughly 60 runners take off for the start of the Marathon. I then wandered back to my car to gear up. I took my sweet time about it too, as I was also having a chat to a couple getting ready in the car next to me. This meant I only had time for a quick jog back to the start to line up with the other 118 runners a couple of minutes before the start.

Underway

So away we went, heading out of the caravan park past the old Trial Bay Gaol and off towards the town of South West Rocks. Much of the course is along pathways until you head out of town again in the direction of Kempsey. I felt fairly comfortable cruising along just under 5 min/km pace all the way out to the turnaround. I didn’t get the exact turnaround time, but I was 48:50 through 10km.

I had a couple of cars worth of “support crew” that arrived just in time to see us run past the gaol at the start before they headed out to one of the intersections around the 9km and 12km mark to provide a welcome boost, as well as catching a bit of video and some photos. They arrived separately to me as my daughter doesn’t do pre 6am too well!

I was around a small group of runners for much of the race. I kept swapping places with one woman in particular. I’d overtake her on the hills and the drink stations, then she’d draw me back in on the downhill and flatter sections.

I know why my pace dropped slightly on the return leg. I was too preoccupied with the hill just before the finish, which in reality was no worse than anything I’ve done in training, but for some reason it played on my mind, and I was too conscious of wanting to make sure I had enough left to not lose much pace on it.

I realise now that I needn’t have been too concerned about it, particularly given my recent habit of finishing my long runs with an uphill climb. With 5km left my main dueller had kicked away and she had half a minute on me at the finish. Part way up the hill I thought “this isn’t so bad”, and I could hear the announcer and crowd cheering at the finish line so I just powered into it from there. I was talking later to another woman that was behind me at the time, and she said that she tried to stay with me on the climb but I took off too fast. From the top of that hill it’s a great downhill run to the finish for the final several hundred meters and I was really charging all the way to the end. I had a 20 second gap either side of me in the end so I had the finish all to myself. It’s a fantastic feeling coming around the bend and hearing the announcer’s voice calling your name and the crowd cheering you in!!

So in the end I got the time that I was aiming for (give or take 12 seconds!) and gained some valuable experience so I am very happy :o)

After thoughts

A wonderful event, characterised by...
Plenty of parking…beautiful location…friendly, well organised event…drinks stations every 5km (more frequent in the first/last 5km)…special needs transported to drink stations…personal announcements for Half and Full Marathon runners…great place for a post race swim …20 cent hot showers…free massage…homemade cakes, and sandwiches…BBQ…plenty of room to lay about on the grass afterwards…heaps of prizes and giveaways…bargain at $30 for the Half.

We were able to spread out the blanket and have a family picnic as the finishers in the marathon came through prior to the presentation. I couldn’t believe how many awards and giveaways there were!! Mountain Man finished his 304th marathon during the course of the presentation and got a big reception.

It really is a well run event in a beautiful location. I’m looking forward to heading back next year, certainly for the Half again if not the Full. I’m still thinking Canberra would be good for a first Marathon though.

A few photos if you're into running photos!

On the way out...about 9km:

On the way back...about 12km:

For later reference…tune out now!

I was way too laid back on the morning and the day before. I was distracted with other things on Saturday, and even on the morning right up to the last minute was more focussed on the now rather than what was coming. Apart from making sure I had everything I needed I didn’t give any last minute thought to my mental attitude to the race. Often if I’ve got a tough training session I’ll run through it beforehand, preparing myself for when I'll have to push through the difficult sections. As such I feel like I coasted through most of the run, which was fine for the first half, but the second half (particularly the final 5km) could have been at a more solid pace if I was better prepared to tough it out. Relaxed is good, but some nerves and mental determination don’t hurt either.
I'm not down on myself for this at all - it's just something I wanted to note for future reference. I'm happier to have had an enjoyable time and finished as I did, knowing that I can improve and will be better for the experience in future efforts.

I was breathing very comfortably the entire run, perhaps with the exception of the last km when I was pushing harder.

I had two gels…probably overkill, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. Both High 5 Raspberry, at 45min and 1hr 20min. Used fuel belt, 2 x water, 2 x powerade…refilled the water on the run from the aid station cups.

1km markers to 5km, then 10km and turnaround at 10.55km, which is not far past the Jerseyville Bridge.

2 Days to go

2006-06-09T10:15:00.000+10:00

Wednesday 5km Recovery

It was wet on the ground with threatening clouds about as I was dressing, but I’m not precious about my new shoes any more so I strapped them on. The rain obediently held off until I was 10 minutes in and nicely warmed up (helps that the cold snap has passed, so the mornings are respectably over 10 degrees or so by 7am). So I enjoyed the light rain falling as well.

I was really conscious throughout of keeping this one very relaxed. I traced my old “inner Lighthouse loop” through Bangalay Drive which I rarely use anymore as it’s only 3km, then extended down to Shelly Beach before heading back home.

At half an hour it seemed to be over ridiculously quickly. I was thinking that not long ago most of my runs were only 5 minutes longer than this, and it’s satisfying to be reminded in odd ways like that about the progress I’ve made.

Friday 6km Recovery with Strides

I woke up to a beautiful morning today and enjoyed an easy run around my Waniora 6km loop. Did the required strides and threw in a few brief surges at race pace just to remember what it feels like! I had to resist the devil on my shoulder telling me “if you turn left here you can extend the run another couple of km”.

Fortunately work’s been so busy, so I don’t have too much time to dwell on how odd it feels to be running at such reduced distances and intensities when I know the half is only a couple of days away. I always feel a bit rusty on my first run back when I’ve had a few days off, and it’s got that feel about it even though I am doing some easy runs. Hopefully the 4 km planned tomorrow will keep it at bay.

The forecast is for rain on Sunday, so I’ve been mentally preparing for that possibility. Then again they forecast showers for yesterday and today but both days have been sunny (unless you were silly enough to get up early enough to catch the rain that fell very first thing in the morning yesterday ;o) ).

I think I did a decent job of loading up on some carbs yesterday, and trying to drink a bit more water. This will continue throughout today and there’s a hearty meal planned for tonight before easing back a bit tomorrow.

8km with 4 x 400m Intervals

2006-06-06T09:36:00.000+10:00

I took advantage of the flat terrain with a run out to Settlement Point this morning. So a couple of k’s into my warm up who should glide up, but Miners on his shiny red speed machine. We had a chat for a km or so about the upcoming weekend, but his trusty steed was bristling to shake off the dawdling pace and he was soon speeding on his way again.
At which point I got stuck into my VO2 intervals for another otherwise uneventful run.

This is actually the last specific training session on the program :o) So all that remains is an easy recovery run Wednesday, a “Recovery run with Strides” on Friday, then I’m thinking a very relaxed 3-4 km run followed by say a 15 minute brisk walk on Saturday just to keep the legs moving before the race on Sunday.

A weekend...where?

2006-06-05T09:24:00.000+10:00

Well that was one of those weekends that seem to be over before you can snap your fingers. Here's what I recall...

Saturday Easy 6km

After a red-eye drive back to Port on Friday night I wasn’t going to make the group run at Town Beach. So later in the morning I just headed out for an easy loop around the back of Waniora.

It hadn’t been an ideal week, with only 1 run in the previous 5 days, so an easy one was good just to get moving again. Lucky I planned to get ahead of schedule the week before!

I was considering using the heart rate monitor next weekend, but hadn’t used it for a few months so I threw it on for a test. As a result I’ve decided against it, even though I was only going to use it for analysis after the event. I just found it detracted from the feel of the run and my pacing, which I think has progressed well recently. Even if I covered the reading it would still be on my mind that I’m being “monitored”, and is an unnecessary distraction. So I’ll leave it to its intended use – as a training tool for lower HR sessions.

Sunday 16km Aerobic

I felt better for having done the easy Saturday run. This was an uneventful run into town following the coast and the river, then back home via Granite Drive. Threw in a few detours to extend the run to the target time and distance, and finished fairly strongly in a similar manner (just from a different direction) to last week's long run with a climb up Mimosa, Plantation and to the top of Astonomers Terrace again. All up it took 85 minutes.
The fuel belt was drained by the 70 minute mark. I think I’ll wear it next weekend as I find it so awkward drinking from a cup on the run. Most of it ends up spilt, and I don’t fancy stopping and breaking my rhythm to take in the fluids I need. It’s much easier to be able to work through the bottles at leisure whilst on the move!

An Abandoned Run and the next 12 Months

2006-06-01T14:55:00.000+10:00

Abandoned Run
I actually got myself out of bed at 5.30 this morning to go for a run, before jumping right back in and sleeping for another hour and a half! I just did not feel like it today and it was only going to be a quick recovery run anyway. I can guarantee that if it was any other session I would have been out the door rather than dreaming. Then again I overindulged at a work dinner last night so I really should have made the effort...too many courses…and I really know better than to choose the creamy sauces!

May Total
Luckily I pulled back on a few runs towards the end of the month as my total was looking like spiking a bit too quickly for my liking. Ended up with 176km, which is about 30% up on last month. This doubled my previous monthly increases and was a bit more than I expected.
I don't anticipate hitting this level in June as there are no real long runs before the half, and I'll probably ease back for a week or two afterwards which would result in a more modest total. May even pull out the bike as well...if I keep threatening it I'm sure it'll happen sooner or later!

Macleay River and Beyond
So in getting away from non running matters, some comments from go girl, jorex and blkbox have got me thinking…

Macleay River Half
My goal for a fair while has been plus or minus 1:45, so I’m going to stick with that. I reckon that if I was feeling good on the day and everything falls into place I can dream about getting closer to 1:40. Then again if I was feeling a bit out of sorts 1:50 would probably be closer to the mark.

and beyond...
I’d say it’ll be fairly full on at home in the second half of the year. Very generally I’d like to consolidate and build on the fitness I’ve very recently acquired. I’m thinking that I’d benefit from strapping the heart rate monitor back on and doing some more low HR aerobic running sessions. Over the rest of the year do at least a couple of 10km events and another Half Marathon or two. Basically set myself up to start a marathon training program for next year.

More specifically…
It would be nice to work on a bit more speed to have a crack at the 45 minute mark over 10km, which was one of my goals for the year. So a couple of Sydney Striders 10km are a certainty before the end of the year.

The Gold Coast Half Marathon is my backup event in case something unforseen caused me to miss the Macleay. It’s in the back of my mind to duck up there anyway for either the Half or the 10km. It sounds like a big turnout is on the cards, and of course there’s always Go Girl’s Marathon debut to cheer on! Depends a lot on how I pull up after the Macleay River Half, and also on whether it’s practical to actually get up there at the time.

So with Baby #2 due on 13th August the City to Surf is not an option. Although Jodie went a week over with Isabel, the fact that she was in labour for less than 4 hours means that I’m not going anywhere at all around that date!

Lake Macquarie Half Marathon at the end of August is a possible option.

At this stage I’m not really enthused about the Blackmores/Sydney Half in September for some reason, but it might be a chance if none of the others come off before that time.

Reading Jen’s blog has planted a seed about the Sydney to the Gong bike ride in November, which I’d really love to do again. The only problem I’ve realised is that it’s the same day as the Port Half Ironman. Not that I’d be racing in the HIM, but that’s not the point! :(

Central Coast Half Marathon early December: definitely maybe (actually more definitely than maybe).

Whilst I haven’t given too much consideration to which marathon I’d like to aim for, my first thought is that Canberra Marathon might be a good place to start. I heard some good reports about it this year, and it’s sooner than most others, so that would leave the rest of the year open to take advantage of my hopefully further improved fitness! Hey, I might even be able to build a family holiday to our nation’s capital around it!! ;)

There may be an event or two that I don’t know about yet that I may get the urge to enter. That’s a good consequence of all this blog and CR reading…lots of ideas for fun events pop up all over the place…I’m always open to suggestions!

Well there's a long answer to a short question(s)! It was a bit rambling, but I’m glad to have it all written out now so I can refer back to it. Obviously I won’t get to all of these and who knows what life will throw at me in the meantime, but they are just some options at this stage.

11km with 2 x 15min Tempo efforts

2006-05-31T12:29:00.000+10:00

After a couple of days off I was keen to get out into the crisp morning air today.

Following a 2km warm up I wound myself up for the first of two 15 minute efforts with a 6 minute recovery. There was one section that was just the perfect degree of downhill for the almost a kilometre. I felt like I was absolutely flying down it wondering how people maintain this speed for a half or full marathon even over the flat and uphill sections. It felt great, but later on I wasn’t so speedy as I made my way back up the slope!!

I worked my way over to Peakhurst, past Hurstville Golf Course (not actually located in Hurstville itself) and through Oatley today. It was an hour all up, and felt like I was coasting a bit more than I should have, particularly during the 2nd effort. The time seemed to pass fairly swiftly, and I was soon back home before the sun made its way into the sky.

As I walked the final few hundred metres to cool down I saw an older guy working his way from house to house taking everyone’s local paper from their front lawn and putting it on their front doorstep…how odd, but what a nice neighbour to have!!

Yes, I’m in Sydney again…just a quick trip this time, and it’s why I worked myself to being slightly ahead of schedule on my training program to allow for a few missed days this week due to travelling and other interruptions.

As if I don't have enough work to do I've just sat here precisely plotting my run in Google Earth...but like Jodie says, I'm a silly, silly man sometimes! :oD It’s just a novelty to have the finer detail on the Sydney maps when Port is relatively coarse and doesn't get down to street level detail. It’s not for nothing though as now I know the distance for an unfamiliar course and can post the image. I really rounded the distance nicely on the route too. Special!

9km with 4 x 1000m Intervals

2006-05-28T15:31:00.000+10:00

I ran the old Settlement Point return trip this morning after a bit of a later start. Threw in some doubling back during my 2:30min recoveries so that I’d start and finish on the km markers. I completed the 4km worth of Vo2 efforts with an average of 4:24 pace, which is pretty much spot on what I was aiming for based on the McMillan Running pace chart.

There were quite a few runners and cyclists out this morning…probably because I was running a bit later than usual. But I was feeling somewhat less than sociable for some reason, so just stuck to a few quick nods or a wave. It was just a little harder work this morning. I just kept my head down and slugged it out. Probably just a bit flat in recovering from Friday’s long run...I can feel an early night coming on!!

Miners was planning to head out for a long run down south along a trail that Go Girl and WTR pioneered towards Lake Cathie, but I thought better of backing up with another long run myself! It’s now only two weeks until the Half!

20km Aerobic

2006-05-26T14:37:00.000+10:00

Today was the last of the longer aerobic runs with 2 weeks to go until the Half.

Set off in the pre dawn darkness with the fuel belt loaded up. Today was run in a figure 8 pattern, passing home at about 70 minutes. I started down the length of Pacific Drive so I could take in the sunrise, heading all the way to the breakwall. As nice as a perfectly clear sky is, it’s more spectacular to have some cloud on the horizon to bring out the colours from the sun. Anyway, after a short trip along the river I headed back to the start mostly via Granite Street, which made a nice change as I don’t usually travel the full length of it.

I left some water and Gatorade on the front step, so after a quick refuel I headed out to the Lighthouse where I popped a Raspberry Hammer Gel. This had a similar consistency to the GU I tried, and tasted pretty good. But I think I prefer the likes of the PB and High 5 gels, which are easier to get down and require less water. Of course the trade off is obviously the thicker gels aren’t as running so they seem to reduce any mess/stickiness.

Then it was down along Lighthouse Beach and a loop out past the Tacking Point Tavern. I saved a solid climb for the final part of the run and felt that I ran it strongly. I didn’t need any persuasion to opt out of the gruelling climb to the top of Transit Hill, and settled instead for a solid finish up to the top of Astronomers Terrace, which brought up 1 hour and 52 minutes. Then it was just a short walk home followed by some relaxing stretches.

Overall I felt good at the end of it all. In fact the little niggles from last week seem to have cleared right up. I was happy with the variety on the run as well – certainly not a flat course for the most part today.

And just for a change, there was no weather whatsoever in Port Macquarie this morning :P

Bloglines feed

2006-05-25T11:12:00.000+10:00

I've noticed over the last week or so that when I publish a new post Bloglines seems to be picking up random posts that I haven't edited for weeks as though they have just been edited. No doubt it's an issue on the Blogger side of things. I haven't noticed it from anyone else's blog.

Has anyone else had this issue or know how I can stop it happening?

Sorry to anyone using bloglines or another aggregator that's getting blasted with old posts - I don't edit old posts so don't bother trying to find the edits! :(

(No doubt there are a couple more coming your way with this post!!) :P

Sub Zero Temperatures

2006-05-25T08:59:00.000+10:00

No running today, just an update on that overnight temperature from yesterday.

The forecast had been for 4 degrees, but it turns out that we got a sub zero low overnight! On the news I heard -2, but the Bureau of Meteorology quotes -1.

Either way that's damn cold for around here...cold for Miners on the bike and cold for me and my fingers running!!

10km with 2 x 12 min Tempo efforts

2006-05-24T10:25:00.000+10:00

On hearing the overnight low would be 4 degrees last night I knew it was going to be a tough start this morning with the sun just below the horizon! Thoughts of fellow bloggers in chillier climates saying “bah, you call that cold” got me through it though. Just took a while for the fingers to warm into it.

It was a spectacular morning, so well worth the effort. As the sun rose there was a nice orangey hue all along the horizon. I was at a high point along Kennedy Drive at the time and could see the rolling country hills on one side and the ocean on the other - a nice commanding view!

For the first effort I weaved my way through some of the hills around the back of Flynns Beach. After a 5 minute downhill recovery along Swift St I headed south on Pacific Drive and up Shelly Beach Rd, taking a couple of offroad diversions to add some extra rise and fall as I was feeling like a challenge today.

Overall I got what I was looking for from today’s run, which was a good mix of longer climbs and shorter sharper hills…very little flat at all.

8km with 5 x 600m Intervals

2006-05-22T20:04:00.000+10:00

In between a 2km warm up and 2km cool down I fitted today’s 5 x 600m VO2 intervals with 90 second jog recovery out along the Settlement Point return course.

Against the run of previous experience I didn’t spot any large groups of cyclists today - just the odd runner and cyclist here and there...today must have been a morning off for a lot of people!

I woke up on Sunday with no pain or discomfort anywhere at all. The legs felt good before and after today’s run, confirming for me that at least for the next few weeks I’ll avoid running on consecutive days. The day off seems to be beneficial and I think I’ll get the most out of the sessions that way. I’ve mapped out the next 3 weeks so that I don’t need to double up at all, with room for a ride here and there.

19km Aerobic Run

2006-05-20T15:34:00.000+10:00

Today was scheduled as a 1 hr 40 min easy run. I’d planned a 17km route down Koala St, through the industrial area to the Oxley Hwy, past the racecourse and through Clifton to Settlement City, Then along the river past Westport Park and Town Beach, before heading back home along the beaches on Pacific Drive. 6 minute k’s would have seen me through nicely. I passed through the 5km mark in 27 minutes, 10km in 51 minutes, and hit the 17km mark in around 90 minutes. So I threw in a couple of extra km to make up just over the 100 minutes planned.

Coming towards the 17km point I was climbing up Pacific Drive from Shelly Beach to Lighthouse Rd, and the hill takes a slightly sharper rise near the top. As I started to slow down I felt the urge to push through, and came out with a surprising burst of power on the steepest part of the hill for about 20 or 30 seconds. It actually felt really good and didn’t seem to drain me at all. Looks like those hill reps are paying off :) I’ll have to keep then in mind for the future, say when I get another crack at the City to Surf or something like that.

I was travelling fairly comfortably at today’s pace, with the feeling that I could have pushed harder for most of the way, and although I did ease back on a few of the hills I found that I made up for it with some strong efforts down the other side. Based purely on this run, I think that 1hr 45min is a realistic goal for the Half. I was only a couple of km short of the distance, and by the time I hit 19km I had a few minutes up my sleeve as I finished before 105min so that would leave me with not much more than a kilometre to make up on the day.

I had some calf tightness (actually on the inside of the leg and right behind the shin) over the last day or so, which I could feel as I started off this morning. By the time I’d warmed up it had gone, and now 6 hours after the run I still can’t “find” it. I was a bit concerned that it might turn into something, but it seems the long run must have done it some good!
The only pain that came out of today is a bit of soreness just back from the second toe on my left foot. Sort of like a callous on the fleshy part of the skin to the left of the ball of the foot. Maybe I pulled the sock on too tight and my toe was a bit cramped or something. I can't blame the new shoes as I was in the old ones today. It’s a bit awkward to walk on but is better now than a few hours ago so I hope it sorts itself out before my next run on Monday!

9km with Tempo + 4 x 90sec Hill Reps

2006-05-18T10:46:00.000+10:00

This is more like it!

Following a 3km warm up I launched into the 12 minute tempo effort that was hilly for most parts through McLaren Drv, Granite St, Braemar Drv and Waniora Pkwy to meet up with Mimosa Drive, which was today’s feature hill.

It was closer to 13 minutes by the bottom of the hill, at which point the first rep was really tough. Turns out this hill was spot on 90 seconds, and I turned back just short of the top on all but the last rep when I just made it to the very top. There are a couple of steeper hills around, but this one is a good length and sucks you in with a relatively gentle start. The incline seems to continually increase all the way to the top so you really have to step up the effort to keep the strides strong as you reach the top. It’s such a relief to pivot and let the slope drag you back down!!

Feeling great now after a really solid session. I think I'm addicted to my training program.
Hi, my name's Paul and I'm hooked on 12 week training programs...less than 48 hours to my next fix :o)

I was just calculating how many k’s I’ve covered this month and projecting what’s on the program for the rest of the May. Based on my build up so far this year I was hoping to cover about 150-160 km for May. With 99km in the bank already, at this point it’s looking to be around 170km, and that’s even with recovery runs converted to days off! So in a concerted effort to build up slowly and keep any overuse symptoms from popping up I’ll have to finally dust off the bike and do a couple of easy rides as recovery run substitutes.

Tuesday 5km

2006-05-16T10:17:00.000+10:00

Just a leisurely half hour recovery run around the Waniora area this morning.

Even though this was such a nice easy run, there was a slight mental difficulty to deal with. After the level of effort involved over the last couple of runs I felt like I was really slacking off today. As I was kicking along thoughts popped into my head about how I could get too used to this, and the temptation to lift the intensity increased. But the program said "Recovery" so recovery it was! Unfortunately I left it at home, but these are the sort of runs whether I’ve always found the heart rate monitor particularly useful to help make sure I keep it relaxed.

Monday 8km with 6x400m Intervals

2006-05-16T09:54:00.000+10:00

There was some light rain this morning, but in the time it took me to duck back inside for a cap the rain had stopped.

This is a lighter recovery week, and Monday was to be some more “VO2” intervals with 90 second jog recoveries. I headed down to the Lighthouse Beach stretch rather than the playing fields as they’d probably be a bit slushy. With 6 intervals to do I needed a bit of doubling back to make it all fit into the flat sections.

There was what looked like a 20-30 strong boot camp group jogging back to the surf club as I went past. I suspect they had just been forced into tackling the MFD hill for their punishment!!

The legs felt a little stiff at first from the long Saturday run. I really should have thought to do some stretching on Sunday.

Saturday 26 Km

2006-05-14T21:31:00.000+10:00

I met up with Miners, Riggo and Col at Town Beach car park and headed out on the first of the three legs that made up today’s run.

The first leg was just over 8km in just over 40 minutes, which was a little faster than I had planned over a hilly course. The again, what else would I expect when going for a run with 2 Ironmen and a speed demon!! We did a loop down to Shelly Beach, but by the climb up from Flynns Beach on the way back I hit the anchors and let them get away as I was a little concerned for the back end of the run!

The rest of the group was just about ready to go by then, so I belted up and headed off for the second 50 minute leg. This was a lap around Kooloonbung Creek then over for a lap of Westport Park and back to Town Beach. This time I ran with Leigh at a more relaxed conversational pace…actually it was still a bit quicker than planned, but the mostly flat terrain reduced the degree of difficulty considerably.

After dropping her back at Town Beach and a quick refuel I headed back out for my final 50 minute leg. On the way out I passed most of the others on their way back, and doubled back for a brief chat with Miners before he got sidetracked with his GPS treasure hunt! For some reason I thought I had 25 minutes to go at that stage but on recalculation it was pretty much double that. After having the conversational distractions for the first hour and a half combined with the earlier pace I really had to push myself through the last leg solo. I was surprised to note that I was still travelling at a decent pace on auto pilot. I headed back along the river to Westport Park before forcing myself to grind out some hills over to Flynns Beach and back to Town Beach. Cooled down with a 10 minute walk and 15 minutes of stretching…and I really needed it by then!!

Jorex was asking about the fuel belt, so here are some notes. I only wore it for the 2nd and 3rd legs. I’d used plenty of bodyglide in preparation for it on Tesso and Go Girl’s recommendation. I was very conscious of it for the first 5-10 minutes, but soon forgot about it. It was very convenient, and didn’t leave the area sore at all even after more than an hour and a half for a first try. It’s firmly elastic, so I set it with a little tension around the hips and it didn’t move at all. The pocket on the back is handy as well for keys, gels, etc.. The four bottles take roughly 750ml all up and I believe you can buy more to attach. I’m really glad I have it now and it will certainly add some flexibility to these longer runs.

At the end of the second leg I tried a pb sports lemon-lime gel, which went down well. I also refilled a couple of the fuel belt bottles at that point to get me through to the end.

By the time I got back, cooled down and stretched I was well behind everyone else so skipped breakfast…found out we had visitors coming anyway so headed straight back home with the whole weekend ahead to recover! Posting this Sunday night…It’s been a busy weekend…even missed the PM Ironman highlights amongst it all :’( I pulled up great today, and I’m looking forward to my run tomorrow so time to pack up for the day. Hope to catch up on some blog reading in the next couple of days!

7km with Tempo + 3 x 90sec Hill Reps

2006-05-11T09:51:00.000+10:00

Isabel is sleeping so well of late, but she had some trouble settling around 5am this morning so I sat in her room in the comfy chair beside her cot listening to rain and dozing as she drifted back off to sleep. By the time it was light and she woke up again the rain had eased off so I made up her bottle, handed her over and set out for a run.

The rain held off for a further 15 minutes until I’d finished my warm up before settling into a light drizzle. I then commenced a 6 minute effort before going straight into 3 x 90 second hill reps part way up Parsons Ridge Rd. This hill didn’t pull up short like the one last week, and the incline gradually increased the higher I went. With the reps out of the way I trundled around Timber Ridge and the back of Lighthouse in the drizzle for a bit before packing it in for a warm shower.

I picked up a fuel belt from http://www.trscyclecentre.com.au the other day. Now to test it out on the Saturday long run! After hearing so much about expensive bikes over the last year of so, the problem I have now is walking past all those shiny bikes and thinking “hmmm that one isn’t as expensive as I thought”. The temptation has passed for now, but it’s certainly in my mind for down the track. For now there’s enough to buy with the new baby coming along soon. And no, I’m going to be more responsible than spend the baby bonus on a new bike for me!!

6km Recovery

2006-05-09T09:17:00.000+10:00

A beautiful morning for an easy, relaxed run around to Tacking Point Tavern and along Lighthouse Beach in my new shoes.

After my last couple of posts in particular I feel the need to keep it short but sweet, so I will.

Nice.

9km incl 4x800m Intervals

2006-05-08T20:50:00.000+10:00

This was a similar V02 session to last Sunday, but an extra 200 metres each. I left the new shoes at home as their first run isn’t going to be on the wet grass down at the Mackillop playing fields.

I completed the first two about 10-15 seconds quicker than the second two, but again it was the final effort that I was most comfortable with. It’s probably because until I reach the last interval it plays on my mind that there are more to come so I don’t relax as much as I do right at the end. I think once I get used to the sessions I’ll be able to relax through them all a bit more.

I need to go down and measure the “track” sometime. I run around two playing fields, so whilst I’m fairly comfortable that their length is around 100m, I’m really only guessing about the width of the fields, including the gap between them. I suspect I may have run longer than 800m for each interval.

Well would you believe it, word has obviously spread. This morning I actually started off with an audience of 2…that’s double the attendance at last week’s session. They were a couple of workers who obviously hadn’t started work yet, so they were standing up on the hill watching me run!!! In reality they were probably watching the heavy machinery work going on behind me where it looks like they’re creating a couple more playing fields, but the illusion was that they were watching me. By the time I was into my second effort another ute turned up and the spectators doubled again to 4. ;o) And this time it was actually a sober audience (as far as I could tell).

As far as spectators go, they've got nothing on the CR cheersquad though!! :)

As I headed past them on the way home they commented that I’d have a much larger area to run around soon enough. Now that would completely stuff up my measurements!

10km Striders North Head

2006-05-07T20:03:00.000+10:00

45:53…a PB by just over two and a half minutes :)

Had a good night on Friday involving an Italian meal in The Rocks with a great bunch of CRs. Ended up home much later than expected, but well worth the lack of sleep for a fantastic night…My thanks to Lulu for the invite and for organising it :)

And so armed with 4 hours sleep I was surprisingly alert as I packed my bags to head straight back to Port after the race. I arrived nice and early, allowing plenty of time to meet up with some of the dinner crew from last night as well as a multitude of CRs, many of whom I was meeting for the first time. Only Lulu, Wine Trail Runner (who were out at Holsworthy instead), and The Owl (other plans for the day, ahem) weren’t backing up at North Head in some capacity!!

It really was a sensational morning for running…nothing but blue sky and a nice crisp morning. I did an easy 5 minute warm up with a couple of surges towards the end before getting back to the start with a couple of minutes to spare.

As the pace chart below shows, I started on 45 minute pace, which was not hard being pulled along by the crowd in the beginning. I think that I ran pretty much as I planned simply by pacing myself as unfortunately Horrie, the planned 45 minute pacer couldn’t make it at the last minute. So it was good experience to go it alone anyway. I was fairly comfortable for the first 6km. By that I mean that I was definitely working, but I had my breathing under control and was able to have the odd quick chat to other runners, so I was happy that I wasn’t going too hard and risking blowing out near the end.

The 7th, 8th and 9th kms were more of a struggle, and as the pace shows I was slowing down but felt like I was working harder. But I was still holding a little back, and by the final km I knew I was fine to finish so I really dug deep and lifted, throwing it all in for the final run. It didn’t hurt that the final section is downhill, and it showed in the 30 second difference between the 9th and 10th km, to finish with my fastest km of the run!!

I’d have to say that with all I’d heard about North Head being a fast course and mostly flat, it wasn’t as flat as I expected. Certainly no serious hills to contend with, but when I think flat I think about the 8km Settlement Point return here in Port. My memory is blurred by the effort and I’d have to run it again to reassess, but I thought that the Homebush course seemed to have more level sections. I know it’s hard to argue with a 2 and a half minute faster run, but I’d put most of that down to much more structured training in the last couple of months than anything else. The view out near the turnaround is absolutely stunning…lucky I had a good look the first time out there because I wasn’t in a state for sightseeing on the second (final) lap!

The support on the course was great, particularly Go Girl, Jen_Runs and Tesso cheering near the start/turnaround/finish area and Rooster at the roundabout, so there were those regular boosts along the way! Thanks so much to them for the support, and the other odd “Go Cool Runner” along the way.

I missed a couple of km markers, so averaged the 2/3 and 5/6 kms. I missed hitting both the start and the finish on time, so my watch time is slight off official time, but only by a few seconds.

In any case it blew my first 10km race on the Striders Homebush course last year out of the water, which for the record was 48:30.

1 - 4.31
2 - 4.25
3 - 4.25
4 - 4.32
5 - 4.37
6 - 4.37
7 - 4.50
8 - 4.38
9 - 4.49
10 - 4.24

After the race there were plenty more CRs to meet and quite a few PBs were to hear about. Then there was a quick hop to Manly for a leisurely breakfast. Mmmm, breakfast.

After breakfast I dropped into Northside Runners to have a look at some new shoes. I had in mind to get a pair of Asics Nimbus to see how they felt. After the guys in the store had a look at my stride and the wear on my current pair of shoes after about 600km they recommended that the Asics GT 2110’s that I have now are actually most suited to me. I tried a couple of similar shoes in other brands, but still preferred the feel of the 2110’s. So it turns out I stumbled on the best shoes for me by accident! It made me recall when I first got them and was surprised to note that I barely knew I was wearing them as they were so comfortable. So I grabbed another pair to start wearing in. I’d have to say that the guys at Northside were really knowledgeable and I had a good chat to them. Was really nice to see them selling me what suits me rather than just giving me the shoes that I asked about initially which was the more expensive model!! Also grabbed a few different gels to continue testing.

With that I headed off for a late afternoon arrival home. I really enjoyed the last couple of days. It was most enjoyable to chat with everyone, and hope to have further opportunities to do so when I’m in Sydney in the near future.

6km Recovery

2006-05-05T09:55:00.000+10:00

A nice easy 6km run today at just under 6min/km pace as a recovery and to keep the legs moving in preparation for the Striders run tomorrow.

I find it hard to judge how I’ll go on the day. I don’t think I’ll be breaking the 45min mark for the 10km and will be happy finishing somewhere between 45 and 50 minutes. I think I need to focus on losing a few more kilos combined with a little more speed work after the Half Marathon to lift my pace a bit. Then I can think about at having a serious crack at a couple of 10k’s!

It will just be good to do my first run on what sounds like a fantastic course, and will be great meet up with some CR’s both tonight and in the morning :)

7km with Hill Reps

2006-05-04T14:11:00.000+10:00

Today was an 8 minute tempo effort followed immediately with 4 x 90 second hill/strength intervals with a jog down as recovery. These should be run by not reducing stride length (by much) for the hill. This was my first specific hill/strength session.

My route worked out perfectly so I was at the bottom of the hill as the 8 minutes expired, but the only problem was that I’d only chosen an 80 second hill!! By the time I found this out it was too late to swap hills so I just pretended I was still going up hill and just pushed a bit harder as it flattened out. Of course upping the effort on the hill itself is useless as that only turns it into a 75 second hill!! It was still a good workout though.

Oh well, at least when I get back home to Port I’ve got plenty of two, three and four minute plus hills of varying slope just around the corner from home so I won’t be caught short again in the coming weeks :)

I didn’t have to rush off this morning either as I had a meeting with a customer closer to “home” than usual. But that has left me with a busy afternoon and precious little internet time today…still a brief window to blog, but I can feel the withdrawal symptoms already!!