The mercury was due to top 40 degrees today, not unlike the last three St Bernards pro meets. Something about this time of year. Better make sure I drink plenty of water! An odd diatance today with the race to be 2000 metres. I was running off 220 metres
For the second night running, got woken by various children at 1:00 am and 6:00 am. My flu-ridden partner was none too happy to be asked to settle the baby at 6:30 am!
Got up to give the children their breakfast, put some washing in the machine and then settled in for some quality Star Trek viewing. Had the children wake up Kylie at 10:00 am. Watched a little more television then put middle child down for a sleep and went to hang out washing which took me an hour in the lovely hot sun. Kylie wasn't going to drive me on account of the heat, which was cool as I had scoped out the bus-train-bus combination I would need use to get to St Bernard's College
Was in a bit of a rush to get ready to leave and forgot to pack my Tancredi stable t-shirt. For some reason my four year old son Hamish wanted me to wear a red t-shirt today. Got on the bus at 3:00 pm, arrived at Glenroy station to find my train to Essendon had been cancelled. That meant I would miss the 4:00 pm bus and would have to catch a later bus. Luckily there are two that service the area around St Bernards. Finally got there around 4:20 pm after a nervous bus trip trying to remember the streets on the map so I would know where to get off - and had only 45 minutes to race time
Did a 12 minute warm up and was ready for my 2,000 metre race. Lined up before going out to my mark and the starter says there will be no penalty for Stawell if we wanted to pull out. Wish I had known that before making the trek out there
There are a heap of scratchings so that by the time the field goes out to their marks, there are only about a dozen in the race. Wasn't sure this was good or bad? I kept looking out over the field to see where the frontmarkers were and I how much ground I had to make up to catch them. Rather surprisingly, I was one of the frontmarkers. Only about four runners in front of me
Started off well and with four laps to go, I had moved into third. Managed to catch all but one of the front markers on the second full lap and positioned myself behind the leader. I didn't want to push hard too early, particularly with a howling hot northerly on one of the long sides of the course (the finish line was on one of the bends).
I kind of felt sorry for the leader as I was using him pretty well and conserving a lot of energy. At the same time it was pretty exciting listening to the commentator say how easy running I was looking. At the bell lap things sarted to go up a notch and you could feel the change in the vibe and the tempo of the race. At this point we had been joined by one of the backmarkers. I let him go with about 300 metres to go, not prepared to time my run too early.
I kicked with 200 metres to go and held strong all the way through to notch up my second runner up placing in a row! Awesome!! The guy who won I was never likely to catch. A far superior runner who had started off 75 metres! Yikes!! I don't think I would have been able to sustain a 300 metre kick in that heat. I picked up $130 for my effort and managed to make it into a photo this time where they properly rewarded the placegetters with a photo, unlike Bendigo
The effort was soured a little bit when I worked out that it would only haave been good enough for 4:39 as an equivalent 1500 metre time. Given that I ran 1780 metres, it might be fairer to equate the time to what I have done for 2000 (6:13) and 3000 metres (9:19) - both quicker than what I have ever run for those distances. And I guess it was also 38.6 degrees when I ran
Had a really sore throat when I finished and could barely talk for the raspy sound coming out of my mouth. The sore throat did not go away and I think maybe the hot wind or hot air might have burned the back of my throat
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres including warm up and down
Monday, March 17, 2008
Saturday, 15 March 2008
Rest day today ahead of Pro Meet tomorrow
Most exciting thing to happen today was shopping. After having my Asics Gel for well over a year, it was time to go get some new ones, particularly as the old pair did not have much cushion left and there wasn't much protection between the bottom of my feet and the ground
Went to the cash only Leo Russells on Gilbert Road in Preston - conveniently located around the corner from where we live. Didn't want to spend more than $120, but found a similar model to what has served me well in the past for $130, so took those
Went food shopping in the afternoon and managed to pick up a big box of apples for $4. Excellent, considering it's my afternoon tea staple
Early to bed tonight ahead of Pro Meet at St Bernards tomorrow
Most exciting thing to happen today was shopping. After having my Asics Gel for well over a year, it was time to go get some new ones, particularly as the old pair did not have much cushion left and there wasn't much protection between the bottom of my feet and the ground
Went to the cash only Leo Russells on Gilbert Road in Preston - conveniently located around the corner from where we live. Didn't want to spend more than $120, but found a similar model to what has served me well in the past for $130, so took those
Went food shopping in the afternoon and managed to pick up a big box of apples for $4. Excellent, considering it's my afternoon tea staple
Early to bed tonight ahead of Pro Meet at St Bernards tomorrow
Friday, 14 March 2008
Was going to be abhorrently hot again today, so ran into work. Was 26 degrees when I started at 9:00 am and 28 degrees when I finished
Was nice to run down St Georges Rd for a change as it was mostly downhill. Started to do things a bit harder when coming off St G's rd and heading west along Park Street with not much protection from the sun and a bit of a headwind
Stopped at Princes Park for a quick drink and splash the face with cold water. Some 25 minutes had elapsed on the watch. Managed to struggle through along Royal Parade but started to feel a bit stronger and was starting to surge a little bit
Getting to the big roundabout was awesome as it was mostly downhill into the CBD grid from there. Got stopped at a few red lights and one block out from work i decided to walk the rest of the way. Even without the walk, I would have completed about 18 minutes from the corner of Park and Royal Pde to work which was a few minutes quicker than anything I have accomplished running the other way. Some food for thought there
So all up 42 minutes, which was also a bit quicker than going in the opposite direction
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 9 kilometres
Was nice to run down St Georges Rd for a change as it was mostly downhill. Started to do things a bit harder when coming off St G's rd and heading west along Park Street with not much protection from the sun and a bit of a headwind
Stopped at Princes Park for a quick drink and splash the face with cold water. Some 25 minutes had elapsed on the watch. Managed to struggle through along Royal Parade but started to feel a bit stronger and was starting to surge a little bit
Getting to the big roundabout was awesome as it was mostly downhill into the CBD grid from there. Got stopped at a few red lights and one block out from work i decided to walk the rest of the way. Even without the walk, I would have completed about 18 minutes from the corner of Park and Royal Pde to work which was a few minutes quicker than anything I have accomplished running the other way. Some food for thought there
So all up 42 minutes, which was also a bit quicker than going in the opposite direction
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 9 kilometres
Thursday, 13 March 2008
Training with Brian today. With the Coburg 6 Hour Track Race on in two weeks time, today's program was to be a 5000 metre time trial to enable testing of the timing system for the ultra event
It was around 36 degrees when we began training, so Brian had us do a modified program where we run the back straight (which was in shade) and double back on the outside of the track back to the beginning of the back straight
Initially Brian was going to have us do 25 minutes, but when Di rather indignantly pointed out that that would be 5 kilometres for some people, Brian relented and had us do 20 minutes. While Bernie cheekily asked Di would that be 5 kilometres of running for her, the shortened 20 minute session actually went eerily close to that distance for me
It was hard to know how far the distance was, so Brian kindly had Bernie get the wheel out. I was surpsrised that Bernie measured it at 320 metres. I thought it would be closer to Brian's guestimate of 260-270 metres
In the end I did 16 circuits, which according to Bernie's wheel was 5.76 kilometres
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 7 kilometres including warm up and down
It was around 36 degrees when we began training, so Brian had us do a modified program where we run the back straight (which was in shade) and double back on the outside of the track back to the beginning of the back straight
Initially Brian was going to have us do 25 minutes, but when Di rather indignantly pointed out that that would be 5 kilometres for some people, Brian relented and had us do 20 minutes. While Bernie cheekily asked Di would that be 5 kilometres of running for her, the shortened 20 minute session actually went eerily close to that distance for me
It was hard to know how far the distance was, so Brian kindly had Bernie get the wheel out. I was surpsrised that Bernie measured it at 320 metres. I thought it would be closer to Brian's guestimate of 260-270 metres
In the end I did 16 circuits, which according to Bernie's wheel was 5.76 kilometres
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 7 kilometres including warm up and down
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
Run home from work today
Wasn't quite as warm as I expected, which was good. Tried to run comfortable without pushing but noticed that I was getting this surg going every now and then that I would have to try to peg back
Got to Princes Park and for the second run home in a row noticed that I had either not re-started or knocked my stopwatch so had no idea how far along I was
Didn't feel completely comfortable and got stopped at almost every red light on the way. Got to St Georges Rd and the tough uphill to home was ahead of me. About twelve minutes of running up this long slow incline
Considering how I was feeling, I was suprised to find that I got this really good rhythm going and before I knew it, I was almost at Oakover Road, which is only a couple of minutes from home. No idea how long the run was but I started at 5:47 and finished at 6:37 so somewhere in there I ran the required 45 minutes that Brian set for me
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 9 kilometres
Wasn't quite as warm as I expected, which was good. Tried to run comfortable without pushing but noticed that I was getting this surg going every now and then that I would have to try to peg back
Got to Princes Park and for the second run home in a row noticed that I had either not re-started or knocked my stopwatch so had no idea how far along I was
Didn't feel completely comfortable and got stopped at almost every red light on the way. Got to St Georges Rd and the tough uphill to home was ahead of me. About twelve minutes of running up this long slow incline
Considering how I was feeling, I was suprised to find that I got this really good rhythm going and before I knew it, I was almost at Oakover Road, which is only a couple of minutes from home. No idea how long the run was but I started at 5:47 and finished at 6:37 so somewhere in there I ran the required 45 minutes that Brian set for me
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 9 kilometres
Tuesday, 11 March 2008
Training with Brian
A couple of the Little Aths guys have got their State Champs this weekend in Bendigo, and as I still have two more pro meets, we did a different session to everyone else
A tough one if we had done the full session. For the regulars it was to be four sets of steady 400 metres, 100 metre jog recovery, 300 metres steady, 200 metre job recovery, then 200 metres hard. A 5 min break then repeat
For myself and the Little A's, we only gad to do two sets of that. We had a slightly longer break, then we did another set but with walk recovery. Brian then had us two four easy 150's
I got through all that pretty well. Still, I was working pretty hard and not sure how I would have gone doing the session like the other guys, ie the full four sets
We then had two cool down laps
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 5.5 kilometres
A couple of the Little Aths guys have got their State Champs this weekend in Bendigo, and as I still have two more pro meets, we did a different session to everyone else
A tough one if we had done the full session. For the regulars it was to be four sets of steady 400 metres, 100 metre jog recovery, 300 metres steady, 200 metre job recovery, then 200 metres hard. A 5 min break then repeat
For myself and the Little A's, we only gad to do two sets of that. We had a slightly longer break, then we did another set but with walk recovery. Brian then had us two four easy 150's
I got through all that pretty well. Still, I was working pretty hard and not sure how I would have gone doing the session like the other guys, ie the full four sets
We then had two cool down laps
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 5.5 kilometres
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, 10 March 2008
Slow run today. Going to be 37 degrees so want to get it out of the way early. Start off at 10:30 am with the termperature around 26 degrees and its not too bad outside. A fresh wind was keeping things relatively comfortable
Started the run not sure who long to go for. Brian said 50 mins, but I was feeling good and wanted to get up around 80 mins or under. I have this pet theory thaty goes my LSD run should be around double the mid-week recovery run. That’s generally around 40 mins
Went north on the bike path once I’d got there as I figured there was more shade along the creek towards the Northern Ring Road, rather than south towards the city
Had a drink at the 20 minute mark by the Coburg Lake. Forced myself to run slow and got out to where St Basils Homes are on the bike path before deciding to turn around. I think from memory this was around 37 minutes. I guess at this point I decided a 70 – 75 min run was the go
Headed back and had another drink at the tap. A longer one this time and about 55 minutes was on the watch. Could feel that I was pushing a little bit harder on the return journey which always seems to happen with me
Got back home with 72 minutes on the watch so 37 and 35 minutes (roughly). Absolutely drenched when I got back. Even took the singlet off about 10 minutes out from home and I never take my top off
Went over to see Kylie’s grandmother with my two girls before picking Hamish up. Red Rooster for dinner as it was too late to cook when we got home
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 14 kilometres
Started the run not sure who long to go for. Brian said 50 mins, but I was feeling good and wanted to get up around 80 mins or under. I have this pet theory thaty goes my LSD run should be around double the mid-week recovery run. That’s generally around 40 mins
Went north on the bike path once I’d got there as I figured there was more shade along the creek towards the Northern Ring Road, rather than south towards the city
Had a drink at the 20 minute mark by the Coburg Lake. Forced myself to run slow and got out to where St Basils Homes are on the bike path before deciding to turn around. I think from memory this was around 37 minutes. I guess at this point I decided a 70 – 75 min run was the go
Headed back and had another drink at the tap. A longer one this time and about 55 minutes was on the watch. Could feel that I was pushing a little bit harder on the return journey which always seems to happen with me
Got back home with 72 minutes on the watch so 37 and 35 minutes (roughly). Absolutely drenched when I got back. Even took the singlet off about 10 minutes out from home and I never take my top off
Went over to see Kylie’s grandmother with my two girls before picking Hamish up. Red Rooster for dinner as it was too late to cook when we got home
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 14 kilometres
Sunday, 9 March – Pro Meet (Bendigo)
Going to be 37 degrees today in Bendigo and very pleased for the air conditioning in the car. My race is at 4:24 pm. We didn’t get to Bendigo until about 40 minutes before my race which is a little bit later than I would have liked. Once we got the children settled, I barely had enough time for a warm up run. As I only had one race today I extended the warm up a little. Wanted to do 15 but only did 12
The track was perfect. Firm underfoot and in really good condition. Best I have seen this year. The event was part of a three day Madison event for the long weekend, so racing was on the infield of a velodrome. And it was only 360 metres around
This was my first foray into frontmarkers running. Evidently, my mark is improving to the point that I am now in the frontmarker category rather than backmarkers. Fair enough, as most backmarkers should run around 4:00 – 4:15 for a 1500 and I am not in that class. Yet.
For some reason, perhaps the smaller track the front of the frontmarkers were “pulled back” from their usual mark to 150 metres which would be the maximum today. Normally the front guys are spread out up to a max of 400 metres, so it was quite a way back for some of these guys
My mark for this was 30 metres and second most at the back. So I had 1570 to travel. Had no real plan other than to try to maintain good pace. I have barely got into my first lap and the commentators are saying the leader has 3 laps (1080 metres) to go and I still have 1620!
No real movement for the first two laps, although I can hear the commentator say that I am the best placed of the backmarkers. With two laps to go, the leaders are about 200 metres ahead of me and I am thinking that perhaps another 5th or 6th are on the cards.
I get around with about 500 to go and I can see the leaders are only about 100 metres head of me. Getting a little excited now as I know that money is paid out to fifth place in this race.
Get the bell and I am making up some really good ground on the leaders which number about a dozen. No colours there which meant they were all out at the very front when we started
Catch them in the back straight and suddenly with 150 metres to go I am in the lead! Can’t believe it!! I can hear the commentator say that I have put a big break on the field and then barely 125 metres later I can hear someone finishing stronger behind me. I try to put in a burst but kinda think to myself that second isn’t so bad and still wins some money so I settle for that. Costly decision!
So I have finally placed in a pro meet and discover later that it was the richest pro race of the day. I won $200, but $600 went to first! Still, a victory would have cost me a run in the Restricted Mile at Stawell and realistically the guy who beat me was an 800 metre runner generally so was always likely to have a better finishing kick
Warm down run and dinner in Bendigo putting some of those winnings back into the local community before we get home at 9:30 pm
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 6.5 kilometres
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Rest day today. Have run Tuesday through Friday anyway and have a pro meet tomorrow
Would have gone to train at Princes Park this morning with Brian's group, and they were going out for breakfast afterwards, but Hamish had a kids party in Maribyrnong to attend
Plus we have the Club Presentation Night tonight which I am MC'ing - I am not terribly averse to getting up and talking
It was a pretty warm day and after the party Hamish was deposited at my mothers house for the remainder of the long weekend. He really likes visiting his Ma.
Presentation Night ran fairly well despite a technological hiccup, scant anount of set menu food placed on tables, a few no-shows and a large shortfall on the bill that got covered mainly by Brian. We had three people pull out at 5:00 pm, two people who didn't get back from a pro meet until it was all over, two people who showed up but left before dinner and two people who just didn't show at all!
Aside from that pretty happy with the awards part of it and the Life Members who spoke were great. And a few surprises among the awards made things interesting with several people evidently not expecting to pick up what they did
Afterwards, I prepared really well for my pro meet at Bendigo tomorrow by drinking schooners with Rey at Cramers Hotel until 3:00 am. I have come to not expect too much from these races anyway (at least until my mark improves), so it's not really going to matter
Would have gone to train at Princes Park this morning with Brian's group, and they were going out for breakfast afterwards, but Hamish had a kids party in Maribyrnong to attend
Plus we have the Club Presentation Night tonight which I am MC'ing - I am not terribly averse to getting up and talking
It was a pretty warm day and after the party Hamish was deposited at my mothers house for the remainder of the long weekend. He really likes visiting his Ma.
Presentation Night ran fairly well despite a technological hiccup, scant anount of set menu food placed on tables, a few no-shows and a large shortfall on the bill that got covered mainly by Brian. We had three people pull out at 5:00 pm, two people who didn't get back from a pro meet until it was all over, two people who showed up but left before dinner and two people who just didn't show at all!
Aside from that pretty happy with the awards part of it and the Life Members who spoke were great. And a few surprises among the awards made things interesting with several people evidently not expecting to pick up what they did
Afterwards, I prepared really well for my pro meet at Bendigo tomorrow by drinking schooners with Rey at Cramers Hotel until 3:00 am. I have come to not expect too much from these races anyway (at least until my mark improves), so it's not really going to matter
Friday, 7 March 2008
Tempo run today. Not my favourite kind. In fact, I did not set out on my lunchtime run planning to do a tempo session at all, just a 40 min slow run - very naughty considering it was set for me by Brian
But I get 15 minutes into my run, which was out along the Yarra, and I decide hey what the heck I have a rest day tomorrow. So I set off for a ten minute surge and pretty soon into it I am looking at my watch and dispairing over how little time has elapsed
Got to the turn around (the 20 minute mark) and I am starting to actually feel like I can finish this thing off. Lots of furtive glances at the watch at 7, 8 and 9 minutes and then finally the ten miutes comes up and I can slow back down. Glad that was over! Spend the next 8 minutes or so with the heart rate slowly returning to where it was before I started the run. And the last part of my run was actually the most enjoyable part. Almost a shame to finish
Yummy lasagne for lunch and then managed to sneak in a couple of pots at the pub before catching the tram home
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 9 kilometres
Friday, March 7, 2008
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Training tonight with Brian
Am in a much more positive frame of mind today. For one thing, after I posted a message on Facebook about how I was disillusioned about lack of support, I got an offer from Deb Canal to help me with an aspect of the Presentation Night, so that was awesome. What's more, Philip van Dueren - although not on FB - has got a contact to do some free printing for us. Thanks goodness for that
Training tonight was light for the Little Aths in our group as they have Centre Champs on the weekend. We did 3 x 300's, followed by 5 x 150's. And because I am not doing LA Centre Champs (duh!) Brian gave me a steady 5 lapper to finish off
Shaun was there tonight, but not Ben. We got through the 300's pretty well (100 walk recovery between), although pretty sure Shaun and Leah both started a bit too fast. On the last 300, Leah was running sub 5-min pace for a 1500. I did my first in 49, then was pleasantly surprised by a pair of 47's for the last two - mind you i was wearing spikes so probably nothing to get too excited about
I had the guys do really easy 150's - I set the pace by saying they couldn't run past me, they had to stay with or behind. That worked well. Then I had them do two warm down laps
My two kilometre effort was tough. I thought I was still feeling fresh but that proved not the case as the run went on. As usual I started way too fast and where Brian wanted me to pump out 85's, I went through in 76. Went through the first kilometre in 3:17 (79 second pace) and finished up with 6:34 so two even splits which was wierd. Pushed the last lap too.
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 4 kilometres including warm up and down
Am in a much more positive frame of mind today. For one thing, after I posted a message on Facebook about how I was disillusioned about lack of support, I got an offer from Deb Canal to help me with an aspect of the Presentation Night, so that was awesome. What's more, Philip van Dueren - although not on FB - has got a contact to do some free printing for us. Thanks goodness for that
Training tonight was light for the Little Aths in our group as they have Centre Champs on the weekend. We did 3 x 300's, followed by 5 x 150's. And because I am not doing LA Centre Champs (duh!) Brian gave me a steady 5 lapper to finish off
Shaun was there tonight, but not Ben. We got through the 300's pretty well (100 walk recovery between), although pretty sure Shaun and Leah both started a bit too fast. On the last 300, Leah was running sub 5-min pace for a 1500. I did my first in 49, then was pleasantly surprised by a pair of 47's for the last two - mind you i was wearing spikes so probably nothing to get too excited about
I had the guys do really easy 150's - I set the pace by saying they couldn't run past me, they had to stay with or behind. That worked well. Then I had them do two warm down laps
My two kilometre effort was tough. I thought I was still feeling fresh but that proved not the case as the run went on. As usual I started way too fast and where Brian wanted me to pump out 85's, I went through in 76. Went through the first kilometre in 3:17 (79 second pace) and finished up with 6:34 so two even splits which was wierd. Pushed the last lap too.
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 4 kilometres including warm up and down
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Run home from work today. Got to be home by 6 as Kylie has a meeting
It was warm outside when I started and pretty soon in it was evident that I should have gone to the loo before I left. About 20 mins into the run there is a toilet (Princes Park) so had to wait until then
Started a bit late but hopefully had just enough time. And then got stopped at every single red light on the way. Very frustrating. More frustrating was that my stopwatch stopped at nine minutes for some reason - 14 minutes into my run. First time its done that. Must have knocked it or something
But most frustrating was that my heart rate was through the roof and I seemed to be surging rather than slow running. Maybe this was why my run was so crap on Sunday and why this run was not at all enjoyable
Got to the toilet at Princes Park and it was disgusting in there. You don't want to know why. Started up again on my run and felt good for a little while. Got to the Merri Parade roundabout and started the long trek up St Georges Rd
Looked at the watch and had to weigh up fact I had only run 35 minutes against the fact I only had 11 minutes to get home. So waited for tram to come - and it gets stopped at every red light on the way. On reflection I would probably have just made it home around the same time if I had just kept on running. Yet more frustration
Another all nighter tonight to try to finish Presentation Night stuff. It has been haunting me every night for the last fortnight some nights up until 2:00 am doing it, but the end result will be well worth it
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 7 kilometres
It was warm outside when I started and pretty soon in it was evident that I should have gone to the loo before I left. About 20 mins into the run there is a toilet (Princes Park) so had to wait until then
Started a bit late but hopefully had just enough time. And then got stopped at every single red light on the way. Very frustrating. More frustrating was that my stopwatch stopped at nine minutes for some reason - 14 minutes into my run. First time its done that. Must have knocked it or something
But most frustrating was that my heart rate was through the roof and I seemed to be surging rather than slow running. Maybe this was why my run was so crap on Sunday and why this run was not at all enjoyable
Got to the toilet at Princes Park and it was disgusting in there. You don't want to know why. Started up again on my run and felt good for a little while. Got to the Merri Parade roundabout and started the long trek up St Georges Rd
Looked at the watch and had to weigh up fact I had only run 35 minutes against the fact I only had 11 minutes to get home. So waited for tram to come - and it gets stopped at every red light on the way. On reflection I would probably have just made it home around the same time if I had just kept on running. Yet more frustration
Another all nighter tonight to try to finish Presentation Night stuff. It has been haunting me every night for the last fortnight some nights up until 2:00 am doing it, but the end result will be well worth it
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 7 kilometres
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Training with Brian tonight was interesting. Brian said it would be a short session and that sounded good. Especially as the main group were doing hill repeats
I am continuing to train with guys from Little Aths who like myself have major events coming up. It is really good and hopefully we can continue something like this next summer
Anyway, the session called for 2 x 600's, 2 x 500's, 2 x 400's
I managed to get through them fairly well, although with the spikes on I thought I would have gone a touch faster in all of them. We had a break between each but Brian said later we didn't give ourselves a long enough stretch. Still, I thought 4 mins between 500's and 400's was just enough. Guess I might have run them faster with longer break
Forget the 600's were at, but went very consistently with a pair of 89's for the 500's and a pair of 68's for the 400's. I guess we ran a little faster than these times as we were out in Lane 3. Nevertheless it seems to follow my general pattern at the moment of just running one paced without picking up much on speed. Only got three weeks to fix this!
Young Tahlia really put in on the last 400 going from 1:50 for the first one to 1:30 for the last one. What a performance! And young Ben who has just joined the group is going great guns and I thought he was going to catch me on the 400's. he ran something like 72 for each. Hopefully he'll stick with the group over Winter. And Leah just continues to train very well. Good kids all of them
TOTAL DISTANCE = about four kilometres including warm up and down
I am continuing to train with guys from Little Aths who like myself have major events coming up. It is really good and hopefully we can continue something like this next summer
Anyway, the session called for 2 x 600's, 2 x 500's, 2 x 400's
I managed to get through them fairly well, although with the spikes on I thought I would have gone a touch faster in all of them. We had a break between each but Brian said later we didn't give ourselves a long enough stretch. Still, I thought 4 mins between 500's and 400's was just enough. Guess I might have run them faster with longer break
Forget the 600's were at, but went very consistently with a pair of 89's for the 500's and a pair of 68's for the 400's. I guess we ran a little faster than these times as we were out in Lane 3. Nevertheless it seems to follow my general pattern at the moment of just running one paced without picking up much on speed. Only got three weeks to fix this!
Young Tahlia really put in on the last 400 going from 1:50 for the first one to 1:30 for the last one. What a performance! And young Ben who has just joined the group is going great guns and I thought he was going to catch me on the 400's. he ran something like 72 for each. Hopefully he'll stick with the group over Winter. And Leah just continues to train very well. Good kids all of them
TOTAL DISTANCE = about four kilometres including warm up and down
Monday, 3 March 2008
Rest day today
Will be nice to hit training tomorrow nice and fresh rather than having to run a long run today. Better enjoy it, I have two weeks of Sunday pro meets before Stawell, so Monday long runs are back on next week I think
Will be nice to hit training tomorrow nice and fresh rather than having to run a long run today. Better enjoy it, I have two weeks of Sunday pro meets before Stawell, so Monday long runs are back on next week I think
Monday, March 3, 2008
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Long run day today
It was pretty warm when I headed out. Struggled badly for parts of the run, despite taking on water after 4 kilometres and 9 kilometres
Buggered up the return journey (came back a different way), so instead of being an 80 min, it ended up being 76. not to worry
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 15 kilometres
It was pretty warm when I headed out. Struggled badly for parts of the run, despite taking on water after 4 kilometres and 9 kilometres
Buggered up the return journey (came back a different way), so instead of being an 80 min, it ended up being 76. not to worry
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 15 kilometres
Saturday, 1 March 2008
Training this morning at 8:00 am with Brian and a few others from the club
Session was a bit "different" but I suppose in keeping the venue. We had a one lap - 3.183 km - steady effort, then a short recovery, then a harder 1500 metre effort
Was trying for even 3:30 min km's for the longer effort. The first one was a bit quick at 3:14 but I was still feeling okay. That didn't last for much longer and ended up the first effort at 3:27 k's
Short recovery made longer by my needing to visit the loo, then across to the start line for the 1500 metre effort. Splits of 95, 99 and 99 for 4:53. While consistent, probably not that great
Long run tomorrow. Was chatting to Brian about it who seemed alarmed that I was doing 90 minute runs. He said I should only be going for an hour. Interesting ...
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres including warm up and down
Session was a bit "different" but I suppose in keeping the venue. We had a one lap - 3.183 km - steady effort, then a short recovery, then a harder 1500 metre effort
Was trying for even 3:30 min km's for the longer effort. The first one was a bit quick at 3:14 but I was still feeling okay. That didn't last for much longer and ended up the first effort at 3:27 k's
Short recovery made longer by my needing to visit the loo, then across to the start line for the 1500 metre effort. Splits of 95, 99 and 99 for 4:53. While consistent, probably not that great
Long run tomorrow. Was chatting to Brian about it who seemed alarmed that I was doing 90 minute runs. He said I should only be going for an hour. Interesting ...
TOTAL DISTANCE = 5 kilometres including warm up and down
Friday, 29 February 2008
Rest day today
And boy did I take advantage!! Nice long boozy lunch, followed by a few hours work, then three pots at the pub before rushing to catch my train
Needed to visit the loo, so before meeting the family at the supermarket popped into the pub to use their facilities. Then had a quick pint and a squiz of the cricket
Training tomorrow morning with Brian at Princes Park
And boy did I take advantage!! Nice long boozy lunch, followed by a few hours work, then three pots at the pub before rushing to catch my train
Needed to visit the loo, so before meeting the family at the supermarket popped into the pub to use their facilities. Then had a quick pint and a squiz of the cricket
Training tomorrow morning with Brian at Princes Park
Thursday, 28 February 2008
Training tonight with Brian. Just about to leave and got caught up on a phone call so had to sprint to the station
With Stawell about a month away, Brian decided to give me some middle distance specific training, which a couple of our younger athletes joined me in
The session was three x 1 kilometre steady efforts, although Brian wanted me to do mine with 72 second laps, or 3:00 min efforts
The wind was really strong in the back straight which made things pretty difficult. Ended up doing 3:06, 3:03 and 3:00
The frustrating thing about this is that each of the efforts was metronomic - for all three at the 400 metre mark I had 71 secondsa and at the 800 metre mark, I had 2:26 on the clock! So the only real time I made up on those last two efforts was in the last 200 metres. It was very windy, but still ...
Noticed in the last effort that my hip was a bit sore. Not good
TOTAL DISTANCE = 4 kilometres including warm up and down
With Stawell about a month away, Brian decided to give me some middle distance specific training, which a couple of our younger athletes joined me in
The session was three x 1 kilometre steady efforts, although Brian wanted me to do mine with 72 second laps, or 3:00 min efforts
The wind was really strong in the back straight which made things pretty difficult. Ended up doing 3:06, 3:03 and 3:00
The frustrating thing about this is that each of the efforts was metronomic - for all three at the 400 metre mark I had 71 secondsa and at the 800 metre mark, I had 2:26 on the clock! So the only real time I made up on those last two efforts was in the last 200 metres. It was very windy, but still ...
Noticed in the last effort that my hip was a bit sore. Not good
TOTAL DISTANCE = 4 kilometres including warm up and down
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
Easy run home tonight
the plan was to run across town the usual route to St Georges Road and then catch the tram the rest of the way. As it was, no bloody tram was in sight to I ended up running all the way home, which took 45 minutes
Thought it would take longer than that so fairly pleased. Unfortunately, as I yet again left work way later than I planned - got caught up doing a report - I only got home with about 40 mins to spare with the children before I had to tottle off again to attend a committee meeting
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 9 kilometres
the plan was to run across town the usual route to St Georges Road and then catch the tram the rest of the way. As it was, no bloody tram was in sight to I ended up running all the way home, which took 45 minutes
Thought it would take longer than that so fairly pleased. Unfortunately, as I yet again left work way later than I planned - got caught up doing a report - I only got home with about 40 mins to spare with the children before I had to tottle off again to attend a committee meeting
TOTAL DISTANCE = about 9 kilometres
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