The last night meet of AV Shield tonight. My knee was a bit sore from yesterday and I am a bit worried that my knee injury is starting to come back. It never really went away, but it has been okay enough for me to run on it
Was a little bit sore from yesterday's racing, but still felt in reasonable shape this morning. I was pretty hungry and pigged on my usual morning tea of lollies
Couldn't get away from work until after 5:15 pm and with the program starting early, I wasn't able to get a good warm up in before the 1500 metres. Wanted to really push this one to see if I could break Luong's club best season time of 4:30 after getting pretty close last time around. Thankfully no Shane Jansen this time to spoil the party
Went out through 300 in 51 seconds, and then 700 metres in 2:03 for a 72 second lap, so up to that point exactly the same as the week before. Third lap was reasonably strong and at the bell it was 3:16 for another 72 second lap. Really started to hurt with 200 metres to go and didn't feel like I had any drive in the legs. Still a 73 second last lap had me at 4:29.77 at the finish and mission accomplished! One very happy Jegster afterwards - until I realised they would probably round up the time and have me at 4:30.0 when official results come out. Not to worry
WAs pretty stuffed afterwards, but still not back at peak fitness. It is a little frustrating that I feel like I am putting in maximum effort but getting not the same results
Anyhoo after that there was a good break to the relay's where I was in the Division 3 team. I was taking the baton from Mohammed Reese and had almost run out of sector before getting the baton, whereupon Mohammed pushed me squarely in the back. He said later that I had stopped running, but that was only because we were about to get disqualified! Anyway, it was a funny incident and in the end I only run the relays because we need the points
So we line up for the 3000 metres and they have combined the race, so you have like sixty runners on the staggered start lines. It was pretty ridiculous given you had 8 minute 3 km runners lining up with 15 minute 3 km runners. And we were even on schedule if only slightly behind to still finish in plenty of time for the last event at 9:00 pm. So wrong
Anyway, from the outset I kind of decided that I wanted to hurt in this one. I started off fairly quickly and just kinda made a concious decision from there to hare around the 7 laps that were left. It paid off big time in the end. Can't remember the 1 km split, but 2 km was 6:36. The last two laps were a bit of a struggle - at least itfelt that way. I remembered something that Stu Mac had said about my 5 km in that my stride shortened as the fatigue set in, so I tried to stay relaxed and keep a nice even stride going. Not sure what the final time was, but I think I did around 3:16 for the last kilometre for maybe 9:52. So about ten seconds off the pb and 8 seconds quicker than last time around. I was very, very rapt with that effort
Not so rapt with Carmel Taylor who - like Daniella Modesti the week before and Joshua Traine in the 5,000 metres a couple of weeks ago - ran a lap short. So it meant Carmel had to do another individual event to qualify for the final. She did the 400 metres and ran a great first 300 metres, before dark horse Heather Stewart stormed home to win the heat only .2 or so quicker than Jo Francken's season best. It shunted Jo down to number 3 in the 400 metre rankings, but none of us thought Heather had that kind of speed, least of all Heather
Did two laps warm down before getting a lift home with Rey, via McDonalds for him, and had my now customary egg and cheese on toast and peanut butter toast for dinner
May or not run tomorrow. The knee is a bit sore and probably should freshen up ahead of the Region Final on Saturday
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 6 kilometres
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Monday, January 28, 2008
Monday, 28 January 2008
Got to bed early last night but still couldn't drag myself out of bed until after 9:00 am. Luckily the littlest one slept late too
Pro meet at Sandringham today and got there nice and early. Did a 15 minute warm up along the beach where I was lucky enough to cop a perve at a topless sunbather as she was leaning over to chat to her boyfriend. Awesome!
Got back and was doing my strtching when I realised I had only minutes until my race. I was in the backmarkers 1600, probably for the last time. So it was nice to be the absolute frontmarker with five other guys on the 140 mark. If I get a lift that will probably push me into the frontmarkers mile at my next event, from where I will start from the back
Got a good start and through 800 was still sitting third. Wasn't able to maintain my cracking pace and finished mid-field in the end. Still, I was pretty happy with my performance and I think the un-scheduled rest day yesterday really helped
Then I had twenty minutes before my heat of the 400 metres, where I unsurprisingly finished a long way last. The distance handicapper - so funny in pro's that they consider 400 upwards a "distance" event - laughed right after I finished and said I really should have had an eight metre lift in that event. Yeah, no shit sherlock. Don't really enjoy that event anyway
Went for a twenty minute warm down run, before retiring to the bar for a couple of light ones updstairs at the footy ground. And then scored a lift home with the Marsh family
All in all, not a bad day's work. AV Shield tomorrow, then tossing up whether to go for a run on Wednesday. Really feel like I ought to be fresh for the Region Final on Saturday. Better discuss it with the super coach Brian Delaney
TOTAL DISTANCE = about eight kilometres including warm up and down (not including the kilometre walk from the bottle shop run I did after i got home ;O)
Pro meet at Sandringham today and got there nice and early. Did a 15 minute warm up along the beach where I was lucky enough to cop a perve at a topless sunbather as she was leaning over to chat to her boyfriend. Awesome!
Got back and was doing my strtching when I realised I had only minutes until my race. I was in the backmarkers 1600, probably for the last time. So it was nice to be the absolute frontmarker with five other guys on the 140 mark. If I get a lift that will probably push me into the frontmarkers mile at my next event, from where I will start from the back
Got a good start and through 800 was still sitting third. Wasn't able to maintain my cracking pace and finished mid-field in the end. Still, I was pretty happy with my performance and I think the un-scheduled rest day yesterday really helped
Then I had twenty minutes before my heat of the 400 metres, where I unsurprisingly finished a long way last. The distance handicapper - so funny in pro's that they consider 400 upwards a "distance" event - laughed right after I finished and said I really should have had an eight metre lift in that event. Yeah, no shit sherlock. Don't really enjoy that event anyway
Went for a twenty minute warm down run, before retiring to the bar for a couple of light ones updstairs at the footy ground. And then scored a lift home with the Marsh family
All in all, not a bad day's work. AV Shield tomorrow, then tossing up whether to go for a run on Wednesday. Really feel like I ought to be fresh for the Region Final on Saturday. Better discuss it with the super coach Brian Delaney
TOTAL DISTANCE = about eight kilometres including warm up and down (not including the kilometre walk from the bottle shop run I did after i got home ;O)
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, 27 January 2008
Woke up with a shocking hangover today and absolutely no memory of getting home, other than snoring in the car on the way
Goodness only knows how long Amelia was up, but Kylie was similarly tired and so she didn't have her breakfast until 9:00 am - I had only gotten up ten minutes before. Gave Madeleine her bottle and lay on the couch feeling sorry for myself. Felt slightly better for seeing that yesterday session had resulted in some weight loss - a loss that was at great risk given the party food and drink I consumed last night
At 10:30 am, I finally gave in and woke Kylie up so she could take over with the girls. I then fell asleep in bed for three hours. I still can't believe how long I slept. I must have been very, very tired plus it has been a big week
I was supposed to go for a 70 minute run today, but my head was way too sore and I woosed out. It does create somewhat of a problem as it means I miss out on my long run this week with a pro meet tomorrow and AV on Tuesday night. Not to worry, as I do need to freshen up ahead of the AV North West Region Final next Saturday
Goodness only knows how long Amelia was up, but Kylie was similarly tired and so she didn't have her breakfast until 9:00 am - I had only gotten up ten minutes before. Gave Madeleine her bottle and lay on the couch feeling sorry for myself. Felt slightly better for seeing that yesterday session had resulted in some weight loss - a loss that was at great risk given the party food and drink I consumed last night
At 10:30 am, I finally gave in and woke Kylie up so she could take over with the girls. I then fell asleep in bed for three hours. I still can't believe how long I slept. I must have been very, very tired plus it has been a big week
I was supposed to go for a 70 minute run today, but my head was way too sore and I woosed out. It does create somewhat of a problem as it means I miss out on my long run this week with a pro meet tomorrow and AV on Tuesday night. Not to worry, as I do need to freshen up ahead of the AV North West Region Final next Saturday
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Brian set a tough session for us today, which I took to the track with me. The idea was to get the session out of the way early so that Kylie could take Hamish to my mothers
Well any hope of that was dashed when I forgot to take keys to the track. Then a silly mis-communication between Diane Brimacombe and myself meant we ddin't get into the track until 9:20 am. My bad
It was getting kinda warm - already well on the way to 35 degrees. After doing warms up in the shade, session called for a 1200, 1000 and 800 with five mins walk recovery between each. With 6 x 150's with walk back recovery to finish off
With such a big difference in fitness in the group, I figured that a 600 walk recovery after the 1200 and a 400 walk recovery after the 1000 would approximate the time required
For the 1200, did my first lap in 76 but finished up with 4 minutes all up for 80 secs per lap on average. A bit disapppointing as I was hoping to go quicker. I was almost ready to go again after just 400 metres of the recovery. But still went the full 600 - that made it a bit more than five minutes recovery. About six minutes all up
The 1000 metre effort wasn't too bad with 3:13 on the watch for 77 seconds per lap average.
The 800 metre effort however was a tad slow at 2:34 for another 77 seconds per lap average
The 150's were pretty tough as it was really steaming up. I was also running in the outside lane to everyone else. Josh ran very well and his last one was awesome. I was pretty stuffed and managed to keep up with everyone until the last one
Got home and put Amelia down to sleep before having some peanut butter toast - breakfast at lunchtime!
We got to the cocktail party, it still being 33 degrees. Rocked up to find that it wasn't so formal after all. Pity no-one had told us. The cocktails were very nice - Harvey Wallbanger was my favourite. Went out for some vodka orange UDL's with some other party guests. Was tossing up between those and beer but thought my beer belly doesn't need to get any bigger
Got back and popped Amelia in the pram and got her to go to sleep. I am told that we left around 12:30 am with me barely able to walk
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres including warm up and warm down (does not include 1 kilometre walk recovery)
Well any hope of that was dashed when I forgot to take keys to the track. Then a silly mis-communication between Diane Brimacombe and myself meant we ddin't get into the track until 9:20 am. My bad
It was getting kinda warm - already well on the way to 35 degrees. After doing warms up in the shade, session called for a 1200, 1000 and 800 with five mins walk recovery between each. With 6 x 150's with walk back recovery to finish off
With such a big difference in fitness in the group, I figured that a 600 walk recovery after the 1200 and a 400 walk recovery after the 1000 would approximate the time required
For the 1200, did my first lap in 76 but finished up with 4 minutes all up for 80 secs per lap on average. A bit disapppointing as I was hoping to go quicker. I was almost ready to go again after just 400 metres of the recovery. But still went the full 600 - that made it a bit more than five minutes recovery. About six minutes all up
The 1000 metre effort wasn't too bad with 3:13 on the watch for 77 seconds per lap average.
The 800 metre effort however was a tad slow at 2:34 for another 77 seconds per lap average
The 150's were pretty tough as it was really steaming up. I was also running in the outside lane to everyone else. Josh ran very well and his last one was awesome. I was pretty stuffed and managed to keep up with everyone until the last one
Got home and put Amelia down to sleep before having some peanut butter toast - breakfast at lunchtime!
We got to the cocktail party, it still being 33 degrees. Rocked up to find that it wasn't so formal after all. Pity no-one had told us. The cocktails were very nice - Harvey Wallbanger was my favourite. Went out for some vodka orange UDL's with some other party guests. Was tossing up between those and beer but thought my beer belly doesn't need to get any bigger
Got back and popped Amelia in the pram and got her to go to sleep. I am told that we left around 12:30 am with me barely able to walk
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres including warm up and warm down (does not include 1 kilometre walk recovery)
Friday, 25 January 2008
Rest day today and boy do I need it. Felt old and feeble on my slow crawl to the tram stop this morning
Back under 66 kgs today, despite the beers and late dinner last night, so that was a bonus
Got home to have sausages for dinner with the children before giving them a bath
Training tomorrow morning at the track. Then Kylie is taking Hamish to my mother's house. We then are taking the girls with us to a formal cocktail party in Kensington
Back under 66 kgs today, despite the beers and late dinner last night, so that was a bonus
Got home to have sausages for dinner with the children before giving them a bath
Training tomorrow morning at the track. Then Kylie is taking Hamish to my mother's house. We then are taking the girls with us to a formal cocktail party in Kensington
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Continuing the theme for the week, woke up sore and sorry for myself today. And cranky after stepping off the scales
Work was pretty hectic again, so caught a later train to the track. Got there and they had only just started their warm up. Brian was chatting to the group when I trotted over
The first part of the session was 5 x 300's with 100 metre jog recovery. Did each of these at a pretty steady pace, around my 1500 metre pace. Surprised I couldn't pump these out at a faster pace, but still all of them in the 49 - 51 second range was alright
The second part of the session - after a decent break and did 3 x 400's at pretty close to race pace - for me it was around 95%. The first one was 64. Then on the second one, I had young Josh Persson get me on the line. He went from 72 for the first one to 64 for the second one. I went 65 seconds this time. I got all pride hurt and said to him that he would need to do that time again on the third one
And he looked like he was on track to do it too. On the third one, he got about 15 metres in front of me through 200 metres, but he was really hurting from the previous effort and by 300 metres I was in front of him and kept getting further away from him. My last one was 65. Not sure what Josh got.
We were all pretty wrecked afterwards and when I got home for dinner, my body was very sore. I knew I had done some kind of session! Had two beers at the track and dinner was peanut butter toast and eggs on toast
Rest day tomorrow ahead of a session at the track on Saturday morning. Brian said I could take it, so he must be busy that day
TOTAL DISTANCE = about four kilometres including warm down
Work was pretty hectic again, so caught a later train to the track. Got there and they had only just started their warm up. Brian was chatting to the group when I trotted over
The first part of the session was 5 x 300's with 100 metre jog recovery. Did each of these at a pretty steady pace, around my 1500 metre pace. Surprised I couldn't pump these out at a faster pace, but still all of them in the 49 - 51 second range was alright
The second part of the session - after a decent break and did 3 x 400's at pretty close to race pace - for me it was around 95%. The first one was 64. Then on the second one, I had young Josh Persson get me on the line. He went from 72 for the first one to 64 for the second one. I went 65 seconds this time. I got all pride hurt and said to him that he would need to do that time again on the third one
And he looked like he was on track to do it too. On the third one, he got about 15 metres in front of me through 200 metres, but he was really hurting from the previous effort and by 300 metres I was in front of him and kept getting further away from him. My last one was 65. Not sure what Josh got.
We were all pretty wrecked afterwards and when I got home for dinner, my body was very sore. I knew I had done some kind of session! Had two beers at the track and dinner was peanut butter toast and eggs on toast
Rest day tomorrow ahead of a session at the track on Saturday morning. Brian said I could take it, so he must be busy that day
TOTAL DISTANCE = about four kilometres including warm down
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
Woke up pretty sore this morning, but happy that the scales showed I had lost a kilogram or so
Plan was to go for a run at work, but a 2 hour meeting put paid to that as I had quite a bit of work to do
As usual left work a half hour later than intended. It was warmer than I expected outside and was working up quite a sweat. Not sure the speed I was running at could be called slow. To me it seemed like a steady pace for an LSD.
Got to Princes Park and saw the AFL boundaries doing their time trial. I think it might have been Scotty Hutton that put out his hand for a high five as he went past. Saw Gerard Large as I turned the corner into Park Street
Plan was to run through to St George's Rd and head for home, but end run at 40 mins. Little did I know that St George's Rd runs uphill for about two kilometres. Yikes! At about 38 mins I heard a tram coming up on my left behind me and woosed out to hop on the tram at the next tram stop
Bathed with the children and then had yummy risotto for dinner.
Training tomorrow is the first back with Brian since his holidays. Should be interesting
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 8 kilometres
Plan was to go for a run at work, but a 2 hour meeting put paid to that as I had quite a bit of work to do
As usual left work a half hour later than intended. It was warmer than I expected outside and was working up quite a sweat. Not sure the speed I was running at could be called slow. To me it seemed like a steady pace for an LSD.
Got to Princes Park and saw the AFL boundaries doing their time trial. I think it might have been Scotty Hutton that put out his hand for a high five as he went past. Saw Gerard Large as I turned the corner into Park Street
Plan was to run through to St George's Rd and head for home, but end run at 40 mins. Little did I know that St George's Rd runs uphill for about two kilometres. Yikes! At about 38 mins I heard a tram coming up on my left behind me and woosed out to hop on the tram at the next tram stop
Bathed with the children and then had yummy risotto for dinner.
Training tomorrow is the first back with Brian since his holidays. Should be interesting
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 8 kilometres
Tuesday, 22 January 2008 - AV Shield
Heavy legs from last night's LSD run did not bode well for tonight's racing. Still, I figured I was always going to have a lot of days like this where my training load with clash with race dates - particularly with the number of pro races on a Sunday (which is my preferred long run day)
Arranged to meet Joel Legg at Flinders St station at 5:30 PM. Got there just after, and waited until it was time to catch the train. Sent him a quick text message. Got to Aberfeldie to find him already there - he thought I meant catch the 5:30 pm train. Doh!
Mucked around where we usually sit and didn't really do a fair dinkum warm up. Put my name down for Shot Put and Discus before going over to the 1500 metres. Really wanted to do a good time - break 4:30 and be the quickest at the club for the season - and decided to change where I would set my own pace from the start. A promising 300 m split of 51 seconds (68 sec/lap pace) was followed up by a 72 second lap to go through 800 metres in 2:03. This was five seconds quicker at this point than the previous time I ran this distance so I was pretty hopeful of breaking through the goal time.
A shocker of a third lap where I was running out on my own into the breeeze and could manage a pedestrian 76 seconds. For f**k's sake I was doing that sort of lap rating through stages of my 3,000 metre races last year. grrr, bugger, drat!!! After hearing 3:19 into the last lap I managed a 73. While my time would have been good enough for second quikest this season, I got pipped on the line by Shane Jansen. He ripped out a 69 second last lap. Bloody great effort. So my time got shunted back down to the club's third best for the year
I really pushed this race and am getting a bit disappointed that I haven't yet broken 4:30. If I am feeling like I am almost racing at my maximum and still can't do a good time I obviously am either doing the wrong training or I have shitloads of work ahead of me (only been back in regular training for about four weeks). Perhaps fatigue from the long run the day before played a part, but I have been able to run well in the past under those circumstances
A lighter moment was provided in the 4 x 100 metres. I was shunted down to our third team, which didn't improve my sprits much. We had an awesome team that included Shane and Luong Dao with Philip to finish. In our heat we were against another Division 4 side and two U14 girls teams. When handed the baton we were level with one of those girls teams and to uphold the honour of the men I put in one of my best sprints for the year. Gave the baton over clumsily which costs us some time but we still had a ten metre lead. Because Philip figured we only need finish in front of our Div 4 oppoenents - and we were at least one full leg in front - Philip didn't go out hard and we got beaten by an U14 girls team. Oh, the embarrassment!!
I went over to the Shot Put to find my name was not on any of the sheets. I thought I had written my name down so put it on another sheet. Then it was time for the 5000 metres. I really wanted to do 17:30. Started off well enough - first km in 3:24 - but struggled through the middle stages despite being cheered by my teammates on every individual 12.5 laps. Thought that I ran the last kilometre pretty hard but had left my watch at home so no idea what time. Still waiting for the results on the AV website but about 17:45
Finshed off the night with the 400 metres and did a pretty slow time there too - 63.98, but I did kinda cruise through the first 200 metres. That's how it felt anyway
Home at 10:30 pm with egg and cheese on toast and Star Trek Next Generation to let my dinner settle before bed-time
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 8 kilometres including warm up
Arranged to meet Joel Legg at Flinders St station at 5:30 PM. Got there just after, and waited until it was time to catch the train. Sent him a quick text message. Got to Aberfeldie to find him already there - he thought I meant catch the 5:30 pm train. Doh!
Mucked around where we usually sit and didn't really do a fair dinkum warm up. Put my name down for Shot Put and Discus before going over to the 1500 metres. Really wanted to do a good time - break 4:30 and be the quickest at the club for the season - and decided to change where I would set my own pace from the start. A promising 300 m split of 51 seconds (68 sec/lap pace) was followed up by a 72 second lap to go through 800 metres in 2:03. This was five seconds quicker at this point than the previous time I ran this distance so I was pretty hopeful of breaking through the goal time.
A shocker of a third lap where I was running out on my own into the breeeze and could manage a pedestrian 76 seconds. For f**k's sake I was doing that sort of lap rating through stages of my 3,000 metre races last year. grrr, bugger, drat!!! After hearing 3:19 into the last lap I managed a 73. While my time would have been good enough for second quikest this season, I got pipped on the line by Shane Jansen. He ripped out a 69 second last lap. Bloody great effort. So my time got shunted back down to the club's third best for the year
I really pushed this race and am getting a bit disappointed that I haven't yet broken 4:30. If I am feeling like I am almost racing at my maximum and still can't do a good time I obviously am either doing the wrong training or I have shitloads of work ahead of me (only been back in regular training for about four weeks). Perhaps fatigue from the long run the day before played a part, but I have been able to run well in the past under those circumstances
A lighter moment was provided in the 4 x 100 metres. I was shunted down to our third team, which didn't improve my sprits much. We had an awesome team that included Shane and Luong Dao with Philip to finish. In our heat we were against another Division 4 side and two U14 girls teams. When handed the baton we were level with one of those girls teams and to uphold the honour of the men I put in one of my best sprints for the year. Gave the baton over clumsily which costs us some time but we still had a ten metre lead. Because Philip figured we only need finish in front of our Div 4 oppoenents - and we were at least one full leg in front - Philip didn't go out hard and we got beaten by an U14 girls team. Oh, the embarrassment!!
I went over to the Shot Put to find my name was not on any of the sheets. I thought I had written my name down so put it on another sheet. Then it was time for the 5000 metres. I really wanted to do 17:30. Started off well enough - first km in 3:24 - but struggled through the middle stages despite being cheered by my teammates on every individual 12.5 laps. Thought that I ran the last kilometre pretty hard but had left my watch at home so no idea what time. Still waiting for the results on the AV website but about 17:45
Finshed off the night with the 400 metres and did a pretty slow time there too - 63.98, but I did kinda cruise through the first 200 metres. That's how it felt anyway
Home at 10:30 pm with egg and cheese on toast and Star Trek Next Generation to let my dinner settle before bed-time
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 8 kilometres including warm up
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Monday, 21 January 2008
Woke up very sore and sorry today after yesterday's hard racing. The plan was to go for an hour run at lunchtime out along the Yarra and back from work. Alas, work has got very busy so decided to run home instead
Left work about a half later than intended, but with enough time to get home within the 7ish I told Kylie I would get there
Felt really good considering, and the weather was perfect. Not to warm with a fresh breeze every now and again. Was running into it along Park Street to St George's Rd, but once I got onto the Merri Creek bike path, it was fine
Had to extend the run a bit to make sure I got the hour in, so had to run to Harding Street before cutting across to Preston. Very pleased with the effort
Got home, had dinner with the children which was nice. Yummy chow mein. My problem middle child Amelia wouldn't eat so we put her down to bed. And she was up and down out of bed until Hamish was put down at about 8:00 pm. Amelia is just gorgeous but she doesn't like going to bed
AV Shield tomorrow at Aberfeldie and looking forward to seeing whether all the work I have been doing will pay off in the 1500 metres. Then the 5000 metres to follow. Race plan for the 1500 m is to go out hard and try to maintain it
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 12 kilometres. probably a tad more
Left work about a half later than intended, but with enough time to get home within the 7ish I told Kylie I would get there
Felt really good considering, and the weather was perfect. Not to warm with a fresh breeze every now and again. Was running into it along Park Street to St George's Rd, but once I got onto the Merri Creek bike path, it was fine
Had to extend the run a bit to make sure I got the hour in, so had to run to Harding Street before cutting across to Preston. Very pleased with the effort
Got home, had dinner with the children which was nice. Yummy chow mein. My problem middle child Amelia wouldn't eat so we put her down to bed. And she was up and down out of bed until Hamish was put down at about 8:00 pm. Amelia is just gorgeous but she doesn't like going to bed
AV Shield tomorrow at Aberfeldie and looking forward to seeing whether all the work I have been doing will pay off in the 1500 metres. Then the 5000 metres to follow. Race plan for the 1500 m is to go out hard and try to maintain it
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 12 kilometres. probably a tad more
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Sunday, 20 January 2008
Woke up - or rather, got up - at around 8:30 am to soothe Madeleine who was hungry. Go into the loungerooom where Hamish is lying on the couch and says that Amelia is outside. Call Amelia in and her teddy is soaked, and her hands and feet along with it. Had been raining all night so can only imagine where she'd been in the backyard after getting up (i think just after 8:00 am). We really must close that hallway door at night-time. Luckily, there is no way she can escape onto the street and the backyard is very child safety friendly. Just wet.
Get ourselves over to my mothers and it is apparent that my lift to Ringwood will be right in the middle of everyone's lunch. Shane has been at me about upping my k's so I figure what the heck I will run to the venue, it being only 3.5 kilometres from where my mother lives.
So I run there and arrive at 2:15 pm for my first race at 2:45 pm to find my first 1600 metre race has been printed in the program as being at 4:25 pm. I wonder if this is a mis-print becuase my second 1600 metre race is scheduled to begin 10 minutes later at 4:35 pm. I check this with the stewards and unfortunately it is correct. The race moved between me receiving my mark during the week (and a 2:45 pm start), to this later start. A pretty poor effort from the VAL as on top of their high registration fee's, you have to pay to enter each race. So not great value for money this week
I am left with the decision to scratch from one or race both. I opt for the latter as at the end of the day, this pro thing is just good training for the real stuff at AV. So closer to my race, I go for another warm up, this time ten minutes and do some stretching until race time. I am off 150 metres for the Novice event, in a pretty small field. I start off well, before sitting behind a couple of guys through the second lap. I move off them and all of a sudden through the latter third and most of the fourth laps I am hearing my name in the race call. In the end, I did not have the kick that was required and I finished up in sixth place. Promising beginning
Afterwards, the legs are really heavy and I have literally eight minutes to my next race. I change tops and wander over to the start. Passed a few of the AFL boundaries on the way, including Adam C and Robbie H. who I lined up with at the start. We go to our marks and for some reason I am a better Open than Novice runner, as I have a tougher mark of 140 metres in the Open Mile Race.
I started off alright, but then the pace of the earlier race started to hit and it was a pretty tough progression through the next two laps. The third lap in particular I really dropped away and was coming (as I discovered later) second last for the last half of the event. Tried to pick up a bit through the last lap and was pretty much spent at the end. I found out later that some poor slow bastard was behind even me. A very slow ten minute warm down afterwards before Kylie picked me up
Anyway, it was pretty useful training. I must say the track wasn't quite up to scratch, nor the way it was marked out. At the 60 metre mark (or so), the ground was chopped up so badly that for 10 metres it felt like you were running through a sand pit. And at the 300 metre mark the flags suddenly do almost a right angle. When finishing a lap, crossing the start/finish line the track kinda veers off at a 45 degree angle
Apparently the president of Ringwood Cricket Club does not like these meets for what they do to the surface of the ground. In my opinion, the pro league should take the RCC president to task over the condition of the ground he presented to the VAL and their athletes. Shocker!
Anyhoo, that's enough griping. Long slow run tomorrow. I think I am up to an hour for the LSD and will probably do this one on my own before hooking up with Shane and the boys on Wednesday. AV Shield on Tuesday (second last round)
TOTAL DISTANCE = about eleven kilometres, including two warms ups and a warm down
Get ourselves over to my mothers and it is apparent that my lift to Ringwood will be right in the middle of everyone's lunch. Shane has been at me about upping my k's so I figure what the heck I will run to the venue, it being only 3.5 kilometres from where my mother lives.
So I run there and arrive at 2:15 pm for my first race at 2:45 pm to find my first 1600 metre race has been printed in the program as being at 4:25 pm. I wonder if this is a mis-print becuase my second 1600 metre race is scheduled to begin 10 minutes later at 4:35 pm. I check this with the stewards and unfortunately it is correct. The race moved between me receiving my mark during the week (and a 2:45 pm start), to this later start. A pretty poor effort from the VAL as on top of their high registration fee's, you have to pay to enter each race. So not great value for money this week
I am left with the decision to scratch from one or race both. I opt for the latter as at the end of the day, this pro thing is just good training for the real stuff at AV. So closer to my race, I go for another warm up, this time ten minutes and do some stretching until race time. I am off 150 metres for the Novice event, in a pretty small field. I start off well, before sitting behind a couple of guys through the second lap. I move off them and all of a sudden through the latter third and most of the fourth laps I am hearing my name in the race call. In the end, I did not have the kick that was required and I finished up in sixth place. Promising beginning
Afterwards, the legs are really heavy and I have literally eight minutes to my next race. I change tops and wander over to the start. Passed a few of the AFL boundaries on the way, including Adam C and Robbie H. who I lined up with at the start. We go to our marks and for some reason I am a better Open than Novice runner, as I have a tougher mark of 140 metres in the Open Mile Race.
I started off alright, but then the pace of the earlier race started to hit and it was a pretty tough progression through the next two laps. The third lap in particular I really dropped away and was coming (as I discovered later) second last for the last half of the event. Tried to pick up a bit through the last lap and was pretty much spent at the end. I found out later that some poor slow bastard was behind even me. A very slow ten minute warm down afterwards before Kylie picked me up
Anyway, it was pretty useful training. I must say the track wasn't quite up to scratch, nor the way it was marked out. At the 60 metre mark (or so), the ground was chopped up so badly that for 10 metres it felt like you were running through a sand pit. And at the 300 metre mark the flags suddenly do almost a right angle. When finishing a lap, crossing the start/finish line the track kinda veers off at a 45 degree angle
Apparently the president of Ringwood Cricket Club does not like these meets for what they do to the surface of the ground. In my opinion, the pro league should take the RCC president to task over the condition of the ground he presented to the VAL and their athletes. Shocker!
Anyhoo, that's enough griping. Long slow run tomorrow. I think I am up to an hour for the LSD and will probably do this one on my own before hooking up with Shane and the boys on Wednesday. AV Shield on Tuesday (second last round)
TOTAL DISTANCE = about eleven kilometres, including two warms ups and a warm down
Saturday, 19 January 2008
Went to bed quite late last night and didn't fall asleep until 1:00 am
Stayed in bed this morning for as long as I could but had to get up at 8:00 am to help Kylie with the children. As today was a hill session some distance from the track, alas I could not take Hamish
Ran to the track in a pleasant 12 minutes or so and waited for people to arrive, the car park where we were supposed to meet conspicuous by its absence of people wanting to train. Eventually six people showed - including a rare Saturday cameo from Brazza - and off we went
We went across to the lake. On the opposite bank from the Murray Road side, there is a long slow rising hill that runs for about 150 metres. This is where we went. We did two sets of four hill efforts (jog back down) with a half effort recovery between the two sets. Really impressed with the way Michael J went today and his fitness is coming along nicely
After that it was a jog back to the car park whereupon Saint Diane drove me home. Afternoon was taken up with shopping in Northland and a supermarket bought cooked chicken for dinner with mash and peas
A visit to my mother's house tomorrow with the children then off to my first pro meet of the summer at Ringwood. Should be an interesting day!
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 6 kilometres (including running to the track)
Stayed in bed this morning for as long as I could but had to get up at 8:00 am to help Kylie with the children. As today was a hill session some distance from the track, alas I could not take Hamish
Ran to the track in a pleasant 12 minutes or so and waited for people to arrive, the car park where we were supposed to meet conspicuous by its absence of people wanting to train. Eventually six people showed - including a rare Saturday cameo from Brazza - and off we went
We went across to the lake. On the opposite bank from the Murray Road side, there is a long slow rising hill that runs for about 150 metres. This is where we went. We did two sets of four hill efforts (jog back down) with a half effort recovery between the two sets. Really impressed with the way Michael J went today and his fitness is coming along nicely
After that it was a jog back to the car park whereupon Saint Diane drove me home. Afternoon was taken up with shopping in Northland and a supermarket bought cooked chicken for dinner with mash and peas
A visit to my mother's house tomorrow with the children then off to my first pro meet of the summer at Ringwood. Should be an interesting day!
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 6 kilometres (including running to the track)
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Friday, 18 January 2008
Rest day today. Have got four, potentially six, days straight of running ahead, so will need to be fresh for that
After last night's shenanigans put on almost a kilo. Not good. Added to that Madeleine my youngest daughter woke me up at 3:30 am and 4:30 am. Luckily she just wanted re-settling in her cot. Also had to get out of bed at 12:40 am to settle middle child Amelia back to sleep, but I had only just gone to bed at that stage
Walking to the tram stop legs felt very tired and heavy so must have got a bit out of last night's session Work is getting really busy which is not good when this is supposed to be a quiet month. Might actually have to put in some long hours next week and beyond. Didn't get home until 7:30 pm so helped to bathe them and put them to bed. Dinner was peanut butter sandwich, egg and cheese on toast and an apple. Scales should be an interesting read tomorrow
Had re-scheduled a lunch with two mates without telling one of the mates. Oops my bad. He was waiting 90 minutes texting my mobile phone which was turned off. My bad again. Must give him my work number
Found out today that my mother is going home today so that is good news. We will be popping in to see her over the weekend
I am taking my last training tomorrow at the track, as Brian will be back taking training next week. Haven't decided whether to do hills tomorrow or put the group through something else on the bike track. Little Aths have got the athletics track, so we've been booted off
After last night's shenanigans put on almost a kilo. Not good. Added to that Madeleine my youngest daughter woke me up at 3:30 am and 4:30 am. Luckily she just wanted re-settling in her cot. Also had to get out of bed at 12:40 am to settle middle child Amelia back to sleep, but I had only just gone to bed at that stage
Walking to the tram stop legs felt very tired and heavy so must have got a bit out of last night's session Work is getting really busy which is not good when this is supposed to be a quiet month. Might actually have to put in some long hours next week and beyond. Didn't get home until 7:30 pm so helped to bathe them and put them to bed. Dinner was peanut butter sandwich, egg and cheese on toast and an apple. Scales should be an interesting read tomorrow
Had re-scheduled a lunch with two mates without telling one of the mates. Oops my bad. He was waiting 90 minutes texting my mobile phone which was turned off. My bad again. Must give him my work number
Found out today that my mother is going home today so that is good news. We will be popping in to see her over the weekend
I am taking my last training tomorrow at the track, as Brian will be back taking training next week. Haven't decided whether to do hills tomorrow or put the group through something else on the bike track. Little Aths have got the athletics track, so we've been booted off
Thursday, 17 January 2008
About to go to bed last night around 11:30 pm and Amelia wakes up bawling. Takes a half hour to get her back down and settled so that she can sleep. So was after midnight before we got to bed. Woke up this morning and could feel slight heaviness in the legs. Not surprised after taking out that "slow" run a bit hard through the second lap yesterday lunchtime
Took half day off work today to go see my mother in hospital. She is much better but still no word on when she is going home. Kylie popped in and we drove to child care to pick up the children. The whole family went to the track where the children had fish and chips for dinner while I took the session
Session was a reasonably tough one, although it didn't sound like it in my head. We did 4 x 800's consisting of 100 jog, 300 steady, 50 jog, 150 steady, 100 jog, 100 steady. Repeat for 4 sets continuously. We then had a 5 - 6 minute break and did 4 laps of jog 50, stride 150
We had a new guy Glen there tonight and he was a 10 km PB of 37 minutes to his name. A very likely prospect and he not only did the whole session but ran with the front group for the majority of it. Hopefully he'll run the winter season for us
Kylie walked six laps in Lane 8 tonight. What an awesome effort! She has set the bar pretty high for next week. Be great if she could make this a regular thing
Afterwards I had three beers which was very naughty. Got home and had a little lasagne. And then even though I was very tired and should have gone to bed, I watched Star Trek until after midnight - at which point I had some dip and some peanut butter toast. So very wrong. I am gonna pay for that tomorrow
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5.5 kilometres including warm up/warm down
Took half day off work today to go see my mother in hospital. She is much better but still no word on when she is going home. Kylie popped in and we drove to child care to pick up the children. The whole family went to the track where the children had fish and chips for dinner while I took the session
Session was a reasonably tough one, although it didn't sound like it in my head. We did 4 x 800's consisting of 100 jog, 300 steady, 50 jog, 150 steady, 100 jog, 100 steady. Repeat for 4 sets continuously. We then had a 5 - 6 minute break and did 4 laps of jog 50, stride 150
We had a new guy Glen there tonight and he was a 10 km PB of 37 minutes to his name. A very likely prospect and he not only did the whole session but ran with the front group for the majority of it. Hopefully he'll run the winter season for us
Kylie walked six laps in Lane 8 tonight. What an awesome effort! She has set the bar pretty high for next week. Be great if she could make this a regular thing
Afterwards I had three beers which was very naughty. Got home and had a little lasagne. And then even though I was very tired and should have gone to bed, I watched Star Trek until after midnight - at which point I had some dip and some peanut butter toast. So very wrong. I am gonna pay for that tomorrow
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5.5 kilometres including warm up/warm down
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Wednesday 16 January
Well last night was certainly interesting! Everything went according to plan. Had my dinner, was settling nicely, almost to the other end of Star Trek Next Gen and I start getting a little droopy. Fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 12:45 am, turned off the television and went to bed. But had left the computer on, in which time Jo F and Danny Hawksworth had both left me MSN chat messages. Oops, sorry guys!
So you'd think I had a restful night after that. Nope! Madeleine woke up at 2:20 am and wouldn't be put back down until she had a feed. Kylie was up and down about three times before she gave up. And in the half hour it took to feed Madeleine, Amelia got out of bed thinking it was time to be up. She went back down surprisingly well. Then at 6:00 am, Madeleine again woke up but she could thankfully be settled back to asleep - again by Kylie. Then at 7:00 am this morning Kylie's alarm went off. Not a great night's sleep
The plan was to go for a nice easy recovery run with Shane and Scotty today at lunchtime. Met up with the boys outside the Town Hall. Shane's mate Dave joined us. Nice easy run to the Tan where the plan was to do two laps. After the cracking pace of Monday a week ago we did a very pleasant 5 mins per kilometre for the first lap. Poor Dave who hadn't run for a month quit after the first lap. His best around the Tan is a none too shabby 16:16 off only five months of running two nights a week. A bit of talent there
So after a nice easy first lap in 18:30 or so, we stop do some stretches, grab a drink and start off again. Evidently the plan was to go through the second lap quicker than the first. From the get go I am feeling realy good and we maintain a little over 4 mins per kilometre for the first two kilometres. Then we all speed up over the last two kilometres (well, 1.83), so that by the last kilometre we have done 3:24. I was in front for most of that 3.83 km lap and I am hoping the boys - who had a tough training session last night at Vic Park - didn't wreck themselves for training tomorrow. Its not like I had a hard night last night, nor going to have to train half as hard as those guys tomorrow. Pretty solid 14:40 or so and it was a very slow warm down run back to work with thoughts turning towards the cricket with the Third Test in Perth - Australia versus India
May be taking training tomorrow but with Brian back from London this morning it wouldn't surprise me if he turned up to training severely jet lagged!
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 11 kilometres
So you'd think I had a restful night after that. Nope! Madeleine woke up at 2:20 am and wouldn't be put back down until she had a feed. Kylie was up and down about three times before she gave up. And in the half hour it took to feed Madeleine, Amelia got out of bed thinking it was time to be up. She went back down surprisingly well. Then at 6:00 am, Madeleine again woke up but she could thankfully be settled back to asleep - again by Kylie. Then at 7:00 am this morning Kylie's alarm went off. Not a great night's sleep
The plan was to go for a nice easy recovery run with Shane and Scotty today at lunchtime. Met up with the boys outside the Town Hall. Shane's mate Dave joined us. Nice easy run to the Tan where the plan was to do two laps. After the cracking pace of Monday a week ago we did a very pleasant 5 mins per kilometre for the first lap. Poor Dave who hadn't run for a month quit after the first lap. His best around the Tan is a none too shabby 16:16 off only five months of running two nights a week. A bit of talent there
So after a nice easy first lap in 18:30 or so, we stop do some stretches, grab a drink and start off again. Evidently the plan was to go through the second lap quicker than the first. From the get go I am feeling realy good and we maintain a little over 4 mins per kilometre for the first two kilometres. Then we all speed up over the last two kilometres (well, 1.83), so that by the last kilometre we have done 3:24. I was in front for most of that 3.83 km lap and I am hoping the boys - who had a tough training session last night at Vic Park - didn't wreck themselves for training tomorrow. Its not like I had a hard night last night, nor going to have to train half as hard as those guys tomorrow. Pretty solid 14:40 or so and it was a very slow warm down run back to work with thoughts turning towards the cricket with the Third Test in Perth - Australia versus India
May be taking training tomorrow but with Brian back from London this morning it wouldn't surprise me if he turned up to training severely jet lagged!
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 11 kilometres
Tuesday, 15 January - AV Shield
Went and saw my mother today in Ringwood and she seemed much better than yesterday, which is encouraging. She even managed to nag me a little so she must be feeling better. Could possibly be the weekend before she is home so will take another half day off and pop in on Thursday afternoon before training to see her
Got a lift back home with Kylie and organised for Rey to pick me up after he'd picked up Joel. Got to Aberfeldie and did a warm up lap. Legs feeling a little heavy despite the rest day yesterday. Flirted with the idea of doing a 100 metres to try to get my time down from a pedestrian 14.50 at the last meet, but that would have been a distraction from my goal of running a fast 1500 metres
As it was, we needed runners in the 800 metres so went in that as my first track event for the night. Went through the first lap feeling really comfortable and the split time of 67 seconds tells the story. Really tried to push - too early as usual - and was "content" to slip behind the leader with 200 metres to go rather than try to mount a serious challenge. The scent of blood in the water was strong as I slipped from 1st with 250 to go, to getting overtaken in the home straight for 4th place and 2:16. Just can't get any quicker than this over 800 at the moment which is frustrating
The 200 metres looked to be pretty light on for Coburg Harriers and on another night I might have entered it to make up the numbers but the 1500 was my focus. Lined up for the 1500 after putting my name down at the Discus, Javelin and Long Jump. Very nervous beforehand. Once again I went through the first 300 metres too slow - this time 53 seconds. I need to start a bit faster and get this to 51 seconds through 300. Felt get through the second and third laps, but way too slow at 75 seconds for each before finishing strongly with 71 seconds in the last. Finished in 9th place for 4:34. I need to be no slower than 72 seconds per lap, so again frustrating to be a bit off that. Not a great time but nevertheless my quickest for the season. And come to think of it my last for the season until the Vic Champs. That's a bit of a worry and I might now re-assess on whether that's what I should target for the Champs.
We had one guy do the 1500 metres after attending the first night of AFL boundary umpire training for the year. He did a great time considering. Also Joel did his first 1500 for a few months and he really trailed off in the last lap. Was looking good for most of it
Did my field events - 12 metres or so for both the Jav and Discus before 3.83 in the Long Jump. Small numbers but at the end of the day its valuable points for our lower division teams. Then went over for the 4 x 400 relay's. With all our gun sprinters available, I thought I could ease my way through my third leg. No such luck with two rabbits in Luong and Matty Mifsud in front of me. Luong handed over in third place so I had to put in a fair dinkum effort to at least maintain our placing. Thought I had the Western A's kid in front of me with 250 to go, but obviously he had saved a bit for the last half whereas I was pumped full of adrenalin at how well we were going and had gone out hard not saving enough for the end. Still, very happy with the time and I think we ended up third overall at the end of it, thanks to Brazza
Two warm down laps and I was done for the night. Home at 10:45 pm to relax, or so I thought ...
While I was off enjoying myself, my problem middle child Amelia - who with her brother had been put to bed from the car at 6:00 pm, both exhausted and already asleep - had woken up at 6:30 pm hungry. She proceeded to grizzle and tantrum through dinner before being put down again at 8:00 pm. She screamed and cried for an hour before falling asleep. Then at 9:30 pm, she woke up screaming and Kylie got her up. This went on for another hour before in desperation she lay down in our bed with Amelia at 10:30 pm. She was instantly asleep, which is surprising because we have never brought Amelia into our bed before. So when I got home, I found all the lights on, the television on and the computer on but no-one around. Eerie, let me tell you. I woke Kylie up, put Amelia in her own bed, then had some dinner. Going to watch Star Trek Next Gen for an hour to let my dinner settle then go to bed. Long slow run tomorrow maybe with Shane Jansen and Scotty Hutton
TOTAL DISTANCE = including warm up/warm down = 4 kilometres
Got a lift back home with Kylie and organised for Rey to pick me up after he'd picked up Joel. Got to Aberfeldie and did a warm up lap. Legs feeling a little heavy despite the rest day yesterday. Flirted with the idea of doing a 100 metres to try to get my time down from a pedestrian 14.50 at the last meet, but that would have been a distraction from my goal of running a fast 1500 metres
As it was, we needed runners in the 800 metres so went in that as my first track event for the night. Went through the first lap feeling really comfortable and the split time of 67 seconds tells the story. Really tried to push - too early as usual - and was "content" to slip behind the leader with 200 metres to go rather than try to mount a serious challenge. The scent of blood in the water was strong as I slipped from 1st with 250 to go, to getting overtaken in the home straight for 4th place and 2:16. Just can't get any quicker than this over 800 at the moment which is frustrating
The 200 metres looked to be pretty light on for Coburg Harriers and on another night I might have entered it to make up the numbers but the 1500 was my focus. Lined up for the 1500 after putting my name down at the Discus, Javelin and Long Jump. Very nervous beforehand. Once again I went through the first 300 metres too slow - this time 53 seconds. I need to start a bit faster and get this to 51 seconds through 300. Felt get through the second and third laps, but way too slow at 75 seconds for each before finishing strongly with 71 seconds in the last. Finished in 9th place for 4:34. I need to be no slower than 72 seconds per lap, so again frustrating to be a bit off that. Not a great time but nevertheless my quickest for the season. And come to think of it my last for the season until the Vic Champs. That's a bit of a worry and I might now re-assess on whether that's what I should target for the Champs.
We had one guy do the 1500 metres after attending the first night of AFL boundary umpire training for the year. He did a great time considering. Also Joel did his first 1500 for a few months and he really trailed off in the last lap. Was looking good for most of it
Did my field events - 12 metres or so for both the Jav and Discus before 3.83 in the Long Jump. Small numbers but at the end of the day its valuable points for our lower division teams. Then went over for the 4 x 400 relay's. With all our gun sprinters available, I thought I could ease my way through my third leg. No such luck with two rabbits in Luong and Matty Mifsud in front of me. Luong handed over in third place so I had to put in a fair dinkum effort to at least maintain our placing. Thought I had the Western A's kid in front of me with 250 to go, but obviously he had saved a bit for the last half whereas I was pumped full of adrenalin at how well we were going and had gone out hard not saving enough for the end. Still, very happy with the time and I think we ended up third overall at the end of it, thanks to Brazza
Two warm down laps and I was done for the night. Home at 10:45 pm to relax, or so I thought ...
While I was off enjoying myself, my problem middle child Amelia - who with her brother had been put to bed from the car at 6:00 pm, both exhausted and already asleep - had woken up at 6:30 pm hungry. She proceeded to grizzle and tantrum through dinner before being put down again at 8:00 pm. She screamed and cried for an hour before falling asleep. Then at 9:30 pm, she woke up screaming and Kylie got her up. This went on for another hour before in desperation she lay down in our bed with Amelia at 10:30 pm. She was instantly asleep, which is surprising because we have never brought Amelia into our bed before. So when I got home, I found all the lights on, the television on and the computer on but no-one around. Eerie, let me tell you. I woke Kylie up, put Amelia in her own bed, then had some dinner. Going to watch Star Trek Next Gen for an hour to let my dinner settle then go to bed. Long slow run tomorrow maybe with Shane Jansen and Scotty Hutton
TOTAL DISTANCE = including warm up/warm down = 4 kilometres
Monday, January 14, 2008
Monday, 14 January
Rest day today - although may not be once AV Tuesday night meets are done and dusted
Realised with sinking feeling that I was going out for lunch today with a friend from when I was in the VFL. The conversation was going to be awesome but the lunch itself usually involves a pub meal. So was pretty happy when we found a little downstairs restaurant where they were doing a pasta/pizza with drink for $15. Had a lovely gnocchi with lamb ragu and a half decent glass of red. Hopefully not to many grams of fat in that. Smallish serving which was good too
Left work early today to go see my mother in hospital. She is feeling stronger today but still needs to take a hit of oxygen every now and again. She is also a chronic asthmatic so that doesn't really help. Picked up the children from child care in Coburg just before 5:00 pm and once we'd taken the train into town and then out to Ringwood it was 6:40 pm before we got to the hospital
So we had to give the children their dinner there which consisted of a takeway fried rice, of which I had half the box. Neither of the older children were much interested on account of their being so tired
Going to have a half day off tomorrow, then go on the train to see my mother in Ringwood, before heading across to Aberfeldie on the train for athletics. Will do whatever events are available from whatever time I get there
Realised with sinking feeling that I was going out for lunch today with a friend from when I was in the VFL. The conversation was going to be awesome but the lunch itself usually involves a pub meal. So was pretty happy when we found a little downstairs restaurant where they were doing a pasta/pizza with drink for $15. Had a lovely gnocchi with lamb ragu and a half decent glass of red. Hopefully not to many grams of fat in that. Smallish serving which was good too
Left work early today to go see my mother in hospital. She is feeling stronger today but still needs to take a hit of oxygen every now and again. She is also a chronic asthmatic so that doesn't really help. Picked up the children from child care in Coburg just before 5:00 pm and once we'd taken the train into town and then out to Ringwood it was 6:40 pm before we got to the hospital
So we had to give the children their dinner there which consisted of a takeway fried rice, of which I had half the box. Neither of the older children were much interested on account of their being so tired
Going to have a half day off tomorrow, then go on the train to see my mother in Ringwood, before heading across to Aberfeldie on the train for athletics. Will do whatever events are available from whatever time I get there
Sunday, 13 January
The children "slept in" today but finally had to get up just before 8:00 am to feed the baby. Got Kylie up at 9:30 am as we had a busy morning ahead of us
Received text from my mother to say she is in hospital with pneumonia. With my daughter having her afternoon sleep we couldn't get out to see her. Rang and let her know we would be over there tomorrow to see her
Did not get to go for a run until 4:15 pm and from the get go was having to tell myself to slow down a bit. Decided to apply the 10% rule and add this amount from my last long run, as I am trying to build up my LSD session. So 55 minutes was the goal
Out to the bike path from my house (which is only a few minutes away), then south towards the city. Went over St Georges Rd then continued on before the turnaround point had me where the bike path ends at those side streets you have to traverse before resuming your way on the bike path near that train station. Back home again and was pretty glad it was over
Lasagne for dinner tonight so made sure to have small portion. Part of the new weight loss effort is to make sure I get to bed early, have smaller portions and to eat early - like before 8:00 pm! Have certainly found that no snacks after dinner, and getting to bed before midnight is much more conducive to maintaining my weight, even when I haven't run that day
TOTAL KILOMETRES = about 12 kilometres
Received text from my mother to say she is in hospital with pneumonia. With my daughter having her afternoon sleep we couldn't get out to see her. Rang and let her know we would be over there tomorrow to see her
Did not get to go for a run until 4:15 pm and from the get go was having to tell myself to slow down a bit. Decided to apply the 10% rule and add this amount from my last long run, as I am trying to build up my LSD session. So 55 minutes was the goal
Out to the bike path from my house (which is only a few minutes away), then south towards the city. Went over St Georges Rd then continued on before the turnaround point had me where the bike path ends at those side streets you have to traverse before resuming your way on the bike path near that train station. Back home again and was pretty glad it was over
Lasagne for dinner tonight so made sure to have small portion. Part of the new weight loss effort is to make sure I get to bed early, have smaller portions and to eat early - like before 8:00 pm! Have certainly found that no snacks after dinner, and getting to bed before midnight is much more conducive to maintaining my weight, even when I haven't run that day
TOTAL KILOMETRES = about 12 kilometres
Saturday, 12 January
Took Hamish down to the track this morning. Not many people there early, but luckily Michael, Jackie and Hannah turned up to double the training group size
Decided to rip off a session Jo had told me about that her coach gave her and had the guys do 4 x 200 metres (across infield recovery), 4 x 400's (200 m recovery), then another set of 4 x 200's (across infield recovery) to finish off. Everyone did pretty well - even the new guy did most of it
I was a bit disappointed with my 200's (around 35 secs for each), but happy with the 400's at around 73 seconds for each. By the time we got ourselves warmed down and organised to leave it was 11:30 am by the time we got home
Kylie took Hamish shopping for new shoes soon after we got home. Couldn't believe my luck when she said she would take the baby too, but just as she was about to leave we decided the baby was too tired and we put her down. With the middle child already in bed as well, in the end I had about an hour's blissful quiet at home "me" time - as opposed to every other day running "me" time. But I think you know what I mean
Long slow run tomorrow and will try to get to it in the morning
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres
Decided to rip off a session Jo had told me about that her coach gave her and had the guys do 4 x 200 metres (across infield recovery), 4 x 400's (200 m recovery), then another set of 4 x 200's (across infield recovery) to finish off. Everyone did pretty well - even the new guy did most of it
I was a bit disappointed with my 200's (around 35 secs for each), but happy with the 400's at around 73 seconds for each. By the time we got ourselves warmed down and organised to leave it was 11:30 am by the time we got home
Kylie took Hamish shopping for new shoes soon after we got home. Couldn't believe my luck when she said she would take the baby too, but just as she was about to leave we decided the baby was too tired and we put her down. With the middle child already in bed as well, in the end I had about an hour's blissful quiet at home "me" time - as opposed to every other day running "me" time. But I think you know what I mean
Long slow run tomorrow and will try to get to it in the morning
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres
Friday, 11 January
Rest day today
With Kylie getting her car fixed at her uncle's garage and having all three children with her, she decided to take the children to my mother's for dinner, so I met up with mum at her work and we took the train together out to Mitcham
At her place, pigged out on take-away Indian before getting away "early" just before 9:00 pm heading for home. Keen to get home ahead of tough little session I was taking at the track tomorrow
With Kylie getting her car fixed at her uncle's garage and having all three children with her, she decided to take the children to my mother's for dinner, so I met up with mum at her work and we took the train together out to Mitcham
At her place, pigged out on take-away Indian before getting away "early" just before 9:00 pm heading for home. Keen to get home ahead of tough little session I was taking at the track tomorrow
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Thursday 10 January
Woke up pleasantly surprised that the children had slept past 7:15 am. But then Kylie had slept in the loungeroom last night and she was the one who got up with the baby at 5:00 am. Checked the old scales to find I had indeed put on weight from my big bolognaise meal the night before. Oopsies
A stinking hot day, not that you would have known it in my nice air-conditioned office. We had people in my office whinging that our air-conditioning was too cool and they were cold. Idiots! Better than being outside!!
Left work a little late and had to run for the train with the temperature gauge in excess of 40 degree's. Got to the station to find my train five minutes late. The delay gave me plenty of time to decide what to do for the main session tonight, which I again would be taking
After seeking some advice from Tim Crosbie - AV Development Manager and a coach of elite track athletes from Sandringham and elsewhere - it confirmed what I was thinking in that only a short, sharp session would be the go. I downloaded some stuff from the net about heat exhasution so I could let people know the warning signs
So get to training ten minutes late and once I had handed out the paperwork to the people who didn't get it on Tuesday it was 6:30 pm already. I had the guys do a shortened warm up and then it was into the main set. This was to be two sets of 4 laps run the bends jog the straights, or effectively 16 x 120's all up across the two sets (Coburg has wide bends, short straights). Recovery between both sets was the time it took the to do the first set, so they got a full recovery
I made sure everyone had a water bottle and said if they felt dizzy, nauseous, headache, etc they were to stop immediately. One athlete did have to do this in the second set but she was okay. I also gave them the option of a walk recovery for the last lap of each set. Most took this option. Everyone got through pretty well and i think the full effort recovery really helped. I also cheekily let everyone run on lane 1 given the lane gates were open and Brian never lets us run there even when they are
On a personal level, I could probably have got away with slightly less recovery between both sets although i did do jog recovery throughout. Then again, it was pretty hot and in the second set i did struggle a little but still felt strong. Finshed off well and though I thought could go round again for another set thought i would quit while i was ahead. Had a couple of medium to solid sessions this week and a "light" night where I have come off feeling good might do me some benefit with the rest day tomorrow
Waited around afterwards having a good old chinwag to everyone, did my usual Coburg Harriers speech thing at the Masters meeting then Rey gave me a lift home. As mentioned rest day tomorrow and then training at the track on Saturday morning
TOTAL DISTANCE = 3.5 kilometres including warm up
A stinking hot day, not that you would have known it in my nice air-conditioned office. We had people in my office whinging that our air-conditioning was too cool and they were cold. Idiots! Better than being outside!!
Left work a little late and had to run for the train with the temperature gauge in excess of 40 degree's. Got to the station to find my train five minutes late. The delay gave me plenty of time to decide what to do for the main session tonight, which I again would be taking
After seeking some advice from Tim Crosbie - AV Development Manager and a coach of elite track athletes from Sandringham and elsewhere - it confirmed what I was thinking in that only a short, sharp session would be the go. I downloaded some stuff from the net about heat exhasution so I could let people know the warning signs
So get to training ten minutes late and once I had handed out the paperwork to the people who didn't get it on Tuesday it was 6:30 pm already. I had the guys do a shortened warm up and then it was into the main set. This was to be two sets of 4 laps run the bends jog the straights, or effectively 16 x 120's all up across the two sets (Coburg has wide bends, short straights). Recovery between both sets was the time it took the to do the first set, so they got a full recovery
I made sure everyone had a water bottle and said if they felt dizzy, nauseous, headache, etc they were to stop immediately. One athlete did have to do this in the second set but she was okay. I also gave them the option of a walk recovery for the last lap of each set. Most took this option. Everyone got through pretty well and i think the full effort recovery really helped. I also cheekily let everyone run on lane 1 given the lane gates were open and Brian never lets us run there even when they are
On a personal level, I could probably have got away with slightly less recovery between both sets although i did do jog recovery throughout. Then again, it was pretty hot and in the second set i did struggle a little but still felt strong. Finshed off well and though I thought could go round again for another set thought i would quit while i was ahead. Had a couple of medium to solid sessions this week and a "light" night where I have come off feeling good might do me some benefit with the rest day tomorrow
Waited around afterwards having a good old chinwag to everyone, did my usual Coburg Harriers speech thing at the Masters meeting then Rey gave me a lift home. As mentioned rest day tomorrow and then training at the track on Saturday morning
TOTAL DISTANCE = 3.5 kilometres including warm up
Wednesday 9 January
Again woke up with heavy legs today and the prospect of a run home from work looming on the horizon. Work went pretty much like yesterday with various club matters to attend to between bursts of actual work, although I think I got a lot more work done today
Left the office a bit later than I was intending at 6:15 pm. From here its about 50 minutes home. Left corner of William and Collins, ran up William St to the Vic Market then up Peel Street to the big roundabout. From the roundabout ran up Royal Parade to Park Street and got there with bang on 20 minutes on the watch. The pace was a little quicker than it should have been for a slow run at about 4:15 per km
It was here that I decided to run to St Georges Rd and catch the tram the rest of the way home. I figured that as I already had a 50 min medium run on Monday, what I need to be doing is having a one long and one shorter run each week. Ideally my longer runs are building up to 1.5 hours and my shorter runs I really want to be only half that
Anyhoo, having sorted that stuff out in my head, got to St Georges Rd in a nice even 30 minute run. Would work out later that it amounted to 6.8 kilometres all up
Walked in the door to find the children in the bath so hopped in with them. Got them dried, dressed and ready for bed then had a very large bowl of spaghetti bolognaise. Ended up having too much. In order to get the training weight down, I really need to stop eating once I am full. It will be interesting to see what the scales say tomorrow. Didn't help that Kylie bought some dip and yummy breads and around a half hour after I finished eating we got stuck into those
On the computer doing club stuff until 1:00 am then crashed into bed
TOTAL DISTANCE = 6.8 kilometres
Left the office a bit later than I was intending at 6:15 pm. From here its about 50 minutes home. Left corner of William and Collins, ran up William St to the Vic Market then up Peel Street to the big roundabout. From the roundabout ran up Royal Parade to Park Street and got there with bang on 20 minutes on the watch. The pace was a little quicker than it should have been for a slow run at about 4:15 per km
It was here that I decided to run to St Georges Rd and catch the tram the rest of the way home. I figured that as I already had a 50 min medium run on Monday, what I need to be doing is having a one long and one shorter run each week. Ideally my longer runs are building up to 1.5 hours and my shorter runs I really want to be only half that
Anyhoo, having sorted that stuff out in my head, got to St Georges Rd in a nice even 30 minute run. Would work out later that it amounted to 6.8 kilometres all up
Walked in the door to find the children in the bath so hopped in with them. Got them dried, dressed and ready for bed then had a very large bowl of spaghetti bolognaise. Ended up having too much. In order to get the training weight down, I really need to stop eating once I am full. It will be interesting to see what the scales say tomorrow. Didn't help that Kylie bought some dip and yummy breads and around a half hour after I finished eating we got stuck into those
On the computer doing club stuff until 1:00 am then crashed into bed
TOTAL DISTANCE = 6.8 kilometres
Tuesday, 8 January - AV Shield
Woke up feeling really heavy in the legs from the day before, which was not a good sign. Nevertheless I am going to have days like this in the coming weeks where I am going to be training heavily and not be completely fresh. Going to bed late didn't help either. Very pleased though to see that I had lost a kilo in weight, so only 5 more to go before I am back to where I was for the Vic Champs in 2006
Anyhoo, off to work for a bludge. AV finals coming up, plus a lot of club stuff in preparation for the election of Winter officials and as usual I am driving most of the organising. Not sure how much actual work got done today in between getting club things together
Running today was Athletics Victoria track & field at Aberfeldie. Never actually heard of this place until I moved to the Northern suburbs. I guess its just a fancy pocket of Essendon, like Glenferrie is a fancy part of Hawthorn. To add to the confusion the track is called the Moonee Valley Athletics Track!
Managed to leave early enough that I did not need to run for my train and got to the station to find the previous train was running late so caught that when it arrived. The train then decided to stop in the loop for a bit so that by the time it go to North Melbourne, it WAS the next train!
Nice and early to the venue and managed to dispense all the paperwork I had prepared during the day. As it turned out I ran out of paperwork - hadn't anticipated our best turn up for the season
My first event was the 100 metres. With all our best sprinters out of the AV Shield Final (should we make it), due to a Pro Meetc clash, I figured I better do one just in case. Thought I got a good start but time was a disappointing 14.47. I figured I had the 800 metres to come and could redeem myself there. Not so! My best time this season has been 2:16 and when they called my heat, guess who was the last guy to be called! Yep, so everyone in my heat had run quicker than me over the season. Still, it was only a matter of a few seconds so it couldn't be that bad, right?
From the gun I didn't feel good and was really pushing to stay in touch with the second last guy. Wasn't too happy that they didn't call out first lap time like they usually do. It was why I did not set my watch. Going through the bell lap I was feeling horrible, really heavy in the legs and it was an effort to keep going. Finish time was 2:19 and I have not run that slow for three years. Not happy, Jan!
Some antics by Adam Larsson and the boys put me into better spirits and I then had the 4 x 200 m Relay. The girls had a bit of a hiccup with poor Bec Collyer collapsing on her third leg, which means the girls were a DNF. They have been dominating this season so it was not that costly a miss. I ran the first leg for our Division 3 team (the "seconds") and felt pretty good, better than I had all night. Think I passed the baton with us in fourth, so a pretty good result. Not sure where we finished there
The 3000 metres was up next but beforehand I went and put my name down for the Shot Put and Javelin. Saw Coburg Little Aths president Steve Wright who had come down to support his daugghter competing for Keilor St Bernards (we DON'T want to do there, grrr!!) and we had a brief chat before I saw everyone lined up for the 3000
The race plan was to do 80 second laps. That's usually my 5000 metre race plan but I figured that as I was still building up my fitness I could at least do 80's for 7.5 laps for a 10:00 finish time. Lining up I thought maybe that was a bit ambitious and decided 82's would be okay. As it turned out I did the first km in 3:24 and feeling comfortable, the second km also in 3:24 but starting to feel the hurt before finishing strongly with a 3:17 for 10:05. That made the whole night worth it and I was pretty rapt with that performance given the PB is only 25 seconds or so off that. Kind of made a concious effort to do that last km quicker and was pleased with the finish
Did my obligatory embarrassing shot put (4.7 metres) and Javelin (11 metres), but you only need a legal throw to earn important points for the club in the lower divisions. Next up was the 400 metres and only managed to scrape into a heat that they put together with the dregs of who was left after the main ones had raced. Up against arch-nemesis Danny Hawksworth and thought I had him in the front straight only to be overtaken in the last ten metres. Thought we ran a quick time but 62 seconds was the result, so not as quick as I thought
Pretty shocking start to the night but last half was much better. Got home at 10:30 pm, had a little bit of dinner, chatted to Jo on MSN for a while and didn't get to bed until 1:00 am. Sure am going to be sore tomorrow
TOTAL DISTANCE = 4.5 kilometres including warm down
Anyhoo, off to work for a bludge. AV finals coming up, plus a lot of club stuff in preparation for the election of Winter officials and as usual I am driving most of the organising. Not sure how much actual work got done today in between getting club things together
Running today was Athletics Victoria track & field at Aberfeldie. Never actually heard of this place until I moved to the Northern suburbs. I guess its just a fancy pocket of Essendon, like Glenferrie is a fancy part of Hawthorn. To add to the confusion the track is called the Moonee Valley Athletics Track!
Managed to leave early enough that I did not need to run for my train and got to the station to find the previous train was running late so caught that when it arrived. The train then decided to stop in the loop for a bit so that by the time it go to North Melbourne, it WAS the next train!
Nice and early to the venue and managed to dispense all the paperwork I had prepared during the day. As it turned out I ran out of paperwork - hadn't anticipated our best turn up for the season
My first event was the 100 metres. With all our best sprinters out of the AV Shield Final (should we make it), due to a Pro Meetc clash, I figured I better do one just in case. Thought I got a good start but time was a disappointing 14.47. I figured I had the 800 metres to come and could redeem myself there. Not so! My best time this season has been 2:16 and when they called my heat, guess who was the last guy to be called! Yep, so everyone in my heat had run quicker than me over the season. Still, it was only a matter of a few seconds so it couldn't be that bad, right?
From the gun I didn't feel good and was really pushing to stay in touch with the second last guy. Wasn't too happy that they didn't call out first lap time like they usually do. It was why I did not set my watch. Going through the bell lap I was feeling horrible, really heavy in the legs and it was an effort to keep going. Finish time was 2:19 and I have not run that slow for three years. Not happy, Jan!
Some antics by Adam Larsson and the boys put me into better spirits and I then had the 4 x 200 m Relay. The girls had a bit of a hiccup with poor Bec Collyer collapsing on her third leg, which means the girls were a DNF. They have been dominating this season so it was not that costly a miss. I ran the first leg for our Division 3 team (the "seconds") and felt pretty good, better than I had all night. Think I passed the baton with us in fourth, so a pretty good result. Not sure where we finished there
The 3000 metres was up next but beforehand I went and put my name down for the Shot Put and Javelin. Saw Coburg Little Aths president Steve Wright who had come down to support his daugghter competing for Keilor St Bernards (we DON'T want to do there, grrr!!) and we had a brief chat before I saw everyone lined up for the 3000
The race plan was to do 80 second laps. That's usually my 5000 metre race plan but I figured that as I was still building up my fitness I could at least do 80's for 7.5 laps for a 10:00 finish time. Lining up I thought maybe that was a bit ambitious and decided 82's would be okay. As it turned out I did the first km in 3:24 and feeling comfortable, the second km also in 3:24 but starting to feel the hurt before finishing strongly with a 3:17 for 10:05. That made the whole night worth it and I was pretty rapt with that performance given the PB is only 25 seconds or so off that. Kind of made a concious effort to do that last km quicker and was pleased with the finish
Did my obligatory embarrassing shot put (4.7 metres) and Javelin (11 metres), but you only need a legal throw to earn important points for the club in the lower divisions. Next up was the 400 metres and only managed to scrape into a heat that they put together with the dregs of who was left after the main ones had raced. Up against arch-nemesis Danny Hawksworth and thought I had him in the front straight only to be overtaken in the last ten metres. Thought we ran a quick time but 62 seconds was the result, so not as quick as I thought
Pretty shocking start to the night but last half was much better. Got home at 10:30 pm, had a little bit of dinner, chatted to Jo on MSN for a while and didn't get to bed until 1:00 am. Sure am going to be sore tomorrow
TOTAL DISTANCE = 4.5 kilometres including warm down
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Monday, 7 January
After ysterday's weak cop out, I was keen to make up for it with a 50 minute LSD run at lunchtime on the first day back at work for the year
I foolishly emailed Shane Jansen, AFL Boundary Umpire, to find out what he was up to and he said he was just going for a slow run ahead of AV Shield tomorrow night at Aberfeldie. So I made arrangements to meet him and his mate Scotty Hutton - also an AFL B/U - at 12:15
We started off at a nice pace through the throng of city foot traffic until we got clear on St Kilda Road. This is where the pace picked up a bit and I was darting a few glances at my watch. We ran down to Fawkner Park (Toorak Road end), back to the Tan for a 3/4 lap of that, then back off towards the city
As it was only about 40 mins by my watch, I let the boys go at Princes Bridge and headed east along the river for five minutes on the Birrarung Marr side to the Swan St bridge before doubling back for the office. All up exactly 50 minutes
It was a pretty solid run, certainly more solid than I would usually do for an LSD. I guestimated the pace to be around the 4:15 - 4:30 mark. Last year when I was fit I would have got through this pretty well but now that I don't have any miles in the legs I can see that solid sessions like these are going to be tough to get through. Can remember one two hour session last year where I did 4:15's the whole way and this felt harder than that
It was however a very good hit out and will definitely hook up with the boys again soon. Have to try get to work early enough that I can spend that 90 mins away from the office. Instead of trailing the two guys and letting them do all the hard work, I am pretty keen to share the load a bit more next time
I felt really good afterwards and am looking forward to athletics tomorrow night. Its the 800 and 3000 metres on the program, although no doubt I will fit in the 100 metres, Relay and 400 metres too. Looking for a 2:15 from my 800 and around 80 second laps for my 3 k for 10:00
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 11 kilometres
I foolishly emailed Shane Jansen, AFL Boundary Umpire, to find out what he was up to and he said he was just going for a slow run ahead of AV Shield tomorrow night at Aberfeldie. So I made arrangements to meet him and his mate Scotty Hutton - also an AFL B/U - at 12:15
We started off at a nice pace through the throng of city foot traffic until we got clear on St Kilda Road. This is where the pace picked up a bit and I was darting a few glances at my watch. We ran down to Fawkner Park (Toorak Road end), back to the Tan for a 3/4 lap of that, then back off towards the city
As it was only about 40 mins by my watch, I let the boys go at Princes Bridge and headed east along the river for five minutes on the Birrarung Marr side to the Swan St bridge before doubling back for the office. All up exactly 50 minutes
It was a pretty solid run, certainly more solid than I would usually do for an LSD. I guestimated the pace to be around the 4:15 - 4:30 mark. Last year when I was fit I would have got through this pretty well but now that I don't have any miles in the legs I can see that solid sessions like these are going to be tough to get through. Can remember one two hour session last year where I did 4:15's the whole way and this felt harder than that
It was however a very good hit out and will definitely hook up with the boys again soon. Have to try get to work early enough that I can spend that 90 mins away from the office. Instead of trailing the two guys and letting them do all the hard work, I am pretty keen to share the load a bit more next time
I felt really good afterwards and am looking forward to athletics tomorrow night. Its the 800 and 3000 metres on the program, although no doubt I will fit in the 100 metres, Relay and 400 metres too. Looking for a 2:15 from my 800 and around 80 second laps for my 3 k for 10:00
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 11 kilometres
Sunday, 6 January
Supposed to go for 50 minute LSD today, but woke up with a bit of a hangover from Rey's rum he left here from NYE and three noisy children around 7:00 am. A bit hard to take given 30 degree temperatures during the night (eventually dropped to 24 at 6 am!) and that problem middle child woke up screaming at 11:00 pm and could not be consoled. Had to give her a lukewarm shower and she eventually settled down and we all got to bed around 12:45 am
Anyhoo at 7:00 am there was nothing for it except to give them breakfast and littlest one her bottle and lay comatose on couch until 8:30 am whereupon I decided I could do that better in bed. Made Kylie get up and she let me sleep until 9:30 am. Bless her!
Kylie had to go shopping which negated my being able to go for a run then it was off to Southland for lunch with brother-in-law for his birthday. Dinner at his place - pretty awful takeway runny pasta and oily pizza - and off home again with all children falling asleep before we'd even left Cheltenham
Lunchtime long run tomorrow for first day back at work. Thank goodness for some peace and quiet!!
Anyhoo at 7:00 am there was nothing for it except to give them breakfast and littlest one her bottle and lay comatose on couch until 8:30 am whereupon I decided I could do that better in bed. Made Kylie get up and she let me sleep until 9:30 am. Bless her!
Kylie had to go shopping which negated my being able to go for a run then it was off to Southland for lunch with brother-in-law for his birthday. Dinner at his place - pretty awful takeway runny pasta and oily pizza - and off home again with all children falling asleep before we'd even left Cheltenham
Lunchtime long run tomorrow for first day back at work. Thank goodness for some peace and quiet!!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Saturday, 5 January
Hill session this morning at the back of the track. Took Hamish with me and he was pretty good for the majority of it. We took the bus to Bell Street and walked 15 minutes to the track
Did a shortened warm up as a couple of people had to leave early. Then through the back gate for six long reps (about 100 metres), five minute break, then six short reps (about 75 metres). Everyone got through this really well.
Was particularly impressed with new runner Marc who wants to run a marathon later in the year. Also challenged Michael Jordan to run in the first group for the second set and he was definitely up to the task
Carmel though the cone at the top for the first set wasn't up far enough. After running the first effort I thought perhaps it was actually further than it had been for previous sessions and I let her know about it! Anyway its all good training
Josh was having trouble with his breathing through the fourth effort of the second set and Diane wisely told him to take a break. I said he could do the last one, but after a bit I decided he could sit out the rest of the session. Hope he didn't mind too much
And just for "fun" after a decent break we all walked over to Kodak hill and did two of those with walk back down recovery. These were non-compulsory but everyone did them with the exception of Josh. Bit worried about that now on reflection. Was pretty stuffed getting up that long hill so knew we had just done a good session. Plus carrying my 4 year old son Hamish some of the way there took a bit out of the legs also
TOTAL DISTANCE = 2 kilometres including warm up and Kodak Hill
Did a shortened warm up as a couple of people had to leave early. Then through the back gate for six long reps (about 100 metres), five minute break, then six short reps (about 75 metres). Everyone got through this really well.
Was particularly impressed with new runner Marc who wants to run a marathon later in the year. Also challenged Michael Jordan to run in the first group for the second set and he was definitely up to the task
Carmel though the cone at the top for the first set wasn't up far enough. After running the first effort I thought perhaps it was actually further than it had been for previous sessions and I let her know about it! Anyway its all good training
Josh was having trouble with his breathing through the fourth effort of the second set and Diane wisely told him to take a break. I said he could do the last one, but after a bit I decided he could sit out the rest of the session. Hope he didn't mind too much
And just for "fun" after a decent break we all walked over to Kodak hill and did two of those with walk back down recovery. These were non-compulsory but everyone did them with the exception of Josh. Bit worried about that now on reflection. Was pretty stuffed getting up that long hill so knew we had just done a good session. Plus carrying my 4 year old son Hamish some of the way there took a bit out of the legs also
TOTAL DISTANCE = 2 kilometres including warm up and Kodak Hill
Thursday, 3 January
I had been contemplating this session for a couple of days. With the Super Coach Brian Delaney absent on an overseas holiday until mid-Jan, I was seemingly taking almost every session for the Coburg Harriers while he was away
It was a very hot day and the family and I went down to Seaford beach. Kylie had some business to take care of down there and we decided to make an outing of it. Children enjoyed the beach and the water and were both very promptly asleep on the hour trip back to Melbourne. We calculated that the new Eastlink will save us about 15 minutes on this journey
So after a pretty full day, I was still undecided about the session to give the guys even through the warm up. When it came to the clinch, I decided that 2 sets of 6 x 200's with 100 recovery between each effort and 3 mins recovery between the two sets. And this in 30 degree temperatures (according to the temperature guage we passed in Preston at 5:30 pm)
Well as usual I went out hard. The first 200 was 32 seconds, the last five consistent at 35 seconds each. After doing that I was pretty stuffed and I looked behind me to see Josh bent over double. This had me concerned that perhaps I needed to alter the session as perhaps it was too hard in the heat. So I made the next set 200 metre Walk or Jog recovery, with the option of four efforts for those who were struggling. I had the AV guys do the six with 200 jog recovey. Worringly for myself I could only get to 35 second efforts for each of the 200's I did, despite the full slow jog recovery
This was all pretty embarrassing for me and the next day after I had a good think about it, I think perhaps a longer recovery between the two sets would have been the better option and keeping the set as originally intended. Anyhoo, we learn for next time I guess
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres including warm up/down
It was a very hot day and the family and I went down to Seaford beach. Kylie had some business to take care of down there and we decided to make an outing of it. Children enjoyed the beach and the water and were both very promptly asleep on the hour trip back to Melbourne. We calculated that the new Eastlink will save us about 15 minutes on this journey
So after a pretty full day, I was still undecided about the session to give the guys even through the warm up. When it came to the clinch, I decided that 2 sets of 6 x 200's with 100 recovery between each effort and 3 mins recovery between the two sets. And this in 30 degree temperatures (according to the temperature guage we passed in Preston at 5:30 pm)
Well as usual I went out hard. The first 200 was 32 seconds, the last five consistent at 35 seconds each. After doing that I was pretty stuffed and I looked behind me to see Josh bent over double. This had me concerned that perhaps I needed to alter the session as perhaps it was too hard in the heat. So I made the next set 200 metre Walk or Jog recovery, with the option of four efforts for those who were struggling. I had the AV guys do the six with 200 jog recovey. Worringly for myself I could only get to 35 second efforts for each of the 200's I did, despite the full slow jog recovery
This was all pretty embarrassing for me and the next day after I had a good think about it, I think perhaps a longer recovery between the two sets would have been the better option and keeping the set as originally intended. Anyhoo, we learn for next time I guess
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres including warm up/down
Wednesday, 2 January
Did training with the All Powerful Tancredi Stable tonight as my first run of the New Year
Six sets of 100 metre run through's was followed by 4 x 150's with about five minutes recovery between each. Have a LONG way to go - the faster guys were two seconds quicker than our fastest - I ran with a couple of 15 year olds!
TOTAL DISTANCE = just over 1 whopping kilometre in training, but then 15 minute run home pushed this out to about four kilometres total
Six sets of 100 metre run through's was followed by 4 x 150's with about five minutes recovery between each. Have a LONG way to go - the faster guys were two seconds quicker than our fastest - I ran with a couple of 15 year olds!
TOTAL DISTANCE = just over 1 whopping kilometre in training, but then 15 minute run home pushed this out to about four kilometres total
New Year's Day
Cricket match down at the club today, so no running done other than to chase the large hits emanating from the pies I was throwing down the wicket
Great day as no hangover from quiet NYE party at our place the night before and not many people at the track becuase of the 40 degree heat. One wondered aloud if this could spell the end of the New Year's Day cricket match
Anyway, after two hours inside the stuffy clubrooms and the children getting more cricketing action with myself and Chris than all the other adults, a few hardy souls elected to pop their heads outside to find that the cool change had come through
Shane Jansen came down and he decided to come on to bowl only when I was batting. The end result being I got bowled about six times but did manage to score two lusty blows
Off home around 4:30 pm to nice air-conditioned lounge-room and pizza for dinner with the children. Two very tired older bubbies off to bed quite early
Great day as no hangover from quiet NYE party at our place the night before and not many people at the track becuase of the 40 degree heat. One wondered aloud if this could spell the end of the New Year's Day cricket match
Anyway, after two hours inside the stuffy clubrooms and the children getting more cricketing action with myself and Chris than all the other adults, a few hardy souls elected to pop their heads outside to find that the cool change had come through
Shane Jansen came down and he decided to come on to bowl only when I was batting. The end result being I got bowled about six times but did manage to score two lusty blows
Off home around 4:30 pm to nice air-conditioned lounge-room and pizza for dinner with the children. Two very tired older bubbies off to bed quite early
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