Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Wednesday, 8 October 2008

Had to run at lunchtime today and planned to do about 45 minutes easy recovery

Ran to Brian's work on Spring Street (7 minutes). Then we ran down to the Yarra and were averaging around 5:05 to the kilometre. Brian was pacesetting someone for their marathon

Pretty comfortable pace and got back to work feeling nice and fresh

TOTAL DISTANCE : about nine kilometres

Tuesday, 7 October 2008

Training at the track tonight but had to get session out of the way as Kylie had meeting to go to

Got to the track and by the time the regular group was ready to begin, I was finished. Session was four laps of surge bends, medium float the straights. Four minutes break. Then repeat but with three laps. Then four minute break. Then repeat again with three laps

I was pretty tired from being up late doing club stuff on the computer so the session for me was a bit harder than would probably have felt. Plus there was a bit of headwind on the Kodak side of the track, which made things tricky

Off home to put the children to bed

TOTAL DISTANCE : about five kilometres including warm up and down

Monday, 6 October 2008

Rest day today. Plan to run Tuesday through Thursday, Saturday and if I can manage it, a run on Sunday

Had a meeting at North West Region tonight to attend. Very interesting meeting a lot of unhappy campers about some of the new rules and rulings for the new season. Far too tedious to go into

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Sunday, 5 October 2008

Supposed to help at club fun run this morning but too tired (and hungover) to drag myself out of bed

Did a hill set just after lunch with 8 x longer runs, five minute break, then 8 x shorter ones

TOTAL DISTANCE : about four kilometres including warm up and down

Saturday, 4 October 2008

No run today as waaaay too much to do

Little Aths in the morning to scout for potential new athletes (and got six new ones, which was good)

Then off home to get ready to go out for a kid's birthday party. Get through that then ...

Then off to Harvey Norman to spend 2K on a 1K computer (we got all the bells and whistles), and ...

Then off home to get changed for Winter Presentation Night, stuff Red Rooster into the kids gobs and get driven to the tram

Get through Winter Presentation night and spend a couple of hours until 3 am doing club emails

Friday, 3 October 2008

Ran into work today. A bit weary in the legs after last night's session

Got to the office door with 48 minutes on the clock

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 10 kilometres

Thursday, 2 October 2008

Training at Coburg tonight was different. We had to do three sets of 600's. Each set was to consist of a slow, medium, hard 200 and then repeat the process. It sounded a lot easier than it was to actually run it

Liam and I ran together for the first set which was good. Josh seemed to be miles behind and I wondered if he was saving himself. On the second set though, through the last easy, medium, hard, he took the medium pretty hard and I just let him go. In the end, there was not much difference between his medium and hard and I was a bit surprised that he did that

The last one was tough and my legs were feeling pretty weary after the first two sets. Liam and I worked together with Josh for the first 600 in the set, but after Josh pushed the pace too much for himself, he could not stay with us for the second 600. Liam and I had a little sprint finish to the line which I let him because he was wearing spikes and I wasn't

Consumed three too many beers in the clubrooms afterwards

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 5 kilometres including warm up and down

Wednesday, 1 October 2008

Rest day today. Not wanting to rush things first week back, even though only had the week off, its going to be a long summer and want to ease myself into things

Tuesday, 30 September 2008

First training session of the summer tonight. First set was five laps of surge every second barrier with float in between. Not my favourite of exercises and glad to get it over and done with

Second set was a steady one kilometre effort. Went through the first lap in 72 seconds and finished up with 3:05

Third set was another one kilometre effort, to be faster than the previous. Had young Josh breathing down my neck for most of it. Went through the first lap same as the first so had to work really hard over the last 600 metres to get the time down. Crossed in 2:55 and thought afterwards that while I was still working pretty hard, I probably wasn't at maximum pace, so that was pleasing

Josh crossed in 3:05 and I am going to have to watch that young whippersnapper. Through the five lapper, he was way behind Liam and myself and he was obviously saving himself for the end

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 5 kilometres including warm up and down

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Monday, 29 September 2008

Well, well, well. A very long week of debauchery and sloth. It is fair to say that that it was like a week long footy trip! Plenty of booze, bad eating and a fuzzy head. So many highlights - the chicken schnitzel, cheese and coleslaw sandwich I had for lunch on Monday, the fried food bonanza at the Show on Friday and the dozen stubbies put away on Saturday from bounce down of the Grand Final to collapsing into bed about nine hours later. But the highlight was last night - I went out with the boys from the VFL goal umpiring squad and downed quite a few ales too many. Must have been a good place to go, because the AFL fieldies gatecrashed - including one of the Grand Final field umpires: very much worse for wear

Anyway, feeling terrible today, which is fitting for my first day back running, a story in itself. Was planning to have a gentle half hour run most of the way home. But in the fun and games, I left my credit card behind the bar of this hotel last night and it only being in Richmond, I ran to the pub to get my card and then back to work

So all up around 40 minutes

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 8 kilometres

Saturday, 20 September - XCR R10 Tan Relays

Last race of the winter season, although the Burnley Half Marathon for me will always be the nominal end of the season

Got there relatively on time and lined up thinking it would be awesome to go quicker than last year, when I ran 12:30. Felt like I was in just as good shape as 2007

The whistle sounded and suddenly everyone was off running, with the gun firing about three seconds later. Absolute schemozzle and the field should have been called back in my opinion

Got through the first kilometre pretty swiftly and then hit the hill. It seemed a little harder to climb than other years. Started to pass a few people along the back side of the course and really tried to finish off strong

About 400 metres out, I looked at my watch and saw 11:24 on there. In the end, the official time had me at 12:40, but according to my watch 11:37. Either way, I was a bit disappointed with my time. Amazingly, my team finished up in fourth place, which was far better than we had done at this race ever, and the best result for a relay for our division three team also perhaps ever

Afterwards, we all headed over to Brian's house for our now traditional end of winter season bbq. as Kylie was off to the football, I put the children into different beds in Brian's house and we both settled in to watch the football

TOTAL DISTANCE : 4 kilometres

Am having a complete break from running now and next post will be when I return to the training track. I plan to enjoy the next eight days!

Friday, 19 September 2008

Rest day today ahead of the Tan Relay's tomorrow

Thursday, 18 September 2008

Training at Coburg tonight with Brian. First off we had to do five laps of the track surging every second barrier

A break and then we finished off with two x 1 km efforts, without the watch. Ran the first one in around 3:10, and the second one in 2:59. Not too displeased with that considering lack of speed at this time of year

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 5 kilometres

Wednesday, 17 September 2008

Rest day today. Don't want to overdo things as I wind down towards the off season!

Tuesday, 16 September 2008

Training was up at the track tonight. We had to run two sets with 4 mins, 2 mins slow jog, 3 mins, 2 mins slow jog, then 2 mins to finish off

In the first set, went out at around my 5 km race pace for the first effort, then struggled to push that pace for the 3 minute effort. The last effort was considerably faster

On the second time around, Liam Magee kindly agreed to act as the pacemaker and even though we ran the same distance, the effort seemed easier this time. He dropped off the last two efforts. Like in the first set the 3 mins seemed to be only at the same pace as the first effort. And again the last effort was considerably faster

TOTAL DISTANCE : about six kilometres

Monday, 15 September 2008

Ran home from work tonight. All up around 47 minutes

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 11 kilometres

Monday, September 15, 2008

Sunday, 14 September 2008

Rest day today. If I had run on Friday this would have been a fair dinkum rest day. Not to worry

Had to spend three hours at Little Aths this morning for their registration day. Coburg Harriers set up a table and we gave away snakes and jelly beans. One parent was MOST displeased that her daughter had won 300 jelly beans, but the other parents took it in the right spirit

The only flaw with my plan was that the whole three hours I was surrounded by kids, so only got to speak to one parent! What a monumental waste of time I could have spent with my own children. I am not even sure most people knew I was from Harriers as I did not have adequate signage up

Next year, I will be doing things a bit differently. Plenty of good signage and no more gimmicks for kids

Saturday, 13 September 2008

Club run today at Albert Park. After the shocking realisation that my current pair of running shoes had done over 1000 k's, I went down to Leo Russell's this morning and picked up a pair of 1130's for $130

Got to Albert Park just before the first runner was off. I gave Len Hallett a yellow t-shirt befitting our club winter best athlete award winner and proclaimed that just like the Tour de France on the last day, no-one is allowed to pass Lenny. Lenny had won a handicap race this season and I am told he was leading so its a safe bet he is going to double up on his success from last year

The best athlete award goes to the person who performs best in all our seven handicap runs over the season. Oh, and to win you pretty much have to do all 20 races of the winter season (club and av runs)

I had a 50 second gap to make up on the second last backmarker in Liam Magee. I started off like a rocket and had bridged that gap by the four kilometre mark. I would have caught Liam sooner but for the FIERCE head wind on the St Kilda Rd side of the course as you come back toward the city

I was feeling pretty good once on the tailwind side and thought I might catch Lenny just before the end. I had no idea where anyone else was in the race. Then at the six kilometre mark I caught sight of Lenny further down the path. Took me another kilometre to catch up with him and I figured I better stay true to my word

So the last three kilometres, I ran with Lenny all the way to the finish. We got joined by Liam Magee and we provided Lenny with cover acting as a couple of wind breaks so he wouldn't have to work so hard into it. He picked up a bit of speed toward the finish and we let Lenny cross the line in front of us. He hugged us afterwards and it was warm fuzzies all round

It turns out afterwards thatI could have placed in the event, perhaps even won it, with my having passed the eventual third placegetter at the three kilometre mark!!!

Off home to prepare dinner for the children before Kylie went to the football where St Kilda belted Collingwood

TOTAL DISTANCE : 10 km - 7 kilometres race pace, 3 kilometres at about 5.5 min/km pace

Friday, 12 September 2008

Kylie's borthday today and my bad for having to be reminded

Was going to go for a run but was having a washing malfunction in that I had no clean running gear to wear! Good excuse for a rest day and after very big winter workload, I am winding down to my off season anyway

Went down to Olympic Park where two of our athletes were trying out in the Pacific School Games selection trials. Got there about five minutes before the scheduled start of Adrianna Crea's 100 metre heat to find that in fact they were running 15 minutes ahead! That never happens at an AV meet!! So I missed Adrianna's race

Did see Matthew Mifsud run well in his 100 metre heat. He seemed to start well and be about mid field before fading late and finishing last. Nevertheless a new PB of 11.69 for him

Kylie was out for dinner tonight with her old mates so I had to be home by 6:30 pm. I am about to shut down the computer and I got given an urgent job to send out. So all Kylie's plans went out the window and she had to catch a cab to her dinner. Bugger

Thursday, 11 September 2008

Training was with Brian tonight. We had to do two 800's, then 3 x 600's, then 3 x 400's

Did the 800's in around 2:40 each. Just 200 metres slow jog recovery between the 2. We then had a short break

For the 600's, was doing those in around 1:55 with just jog across infield recovery for those. Then another very short break - only about three or four minutes

The 400's were reasonably solid. I know one of them was in 71. The last one was much quicker, especially when young John Persson jogged past me on the recovery to start in front. Passed him easily enough and while I didn't set my watch for the last one, it would have been mid to high 60's

We had the footy tipping presentation evening at the club tonight and Kylie won best dressed which was good, considering the same old bat wins it every other year

TOTAL DISTANCE : about 6 kilometres including warm down