The short road to rotterdam

With work commitments, I failed to get out for a run on Monday. On Tuesday, I squeezed in an 800 session with Tim. After a quick warm-up run to rushcutters we got straight into the session. The reps went as follows

2.37
2.37 (2 min recovery)
2.37 (1.55 recovery)
2.37 (1.50 recovery)
2.38 (1.45 recovery)
2.37 (1.40 recovery)
2.36 (1.35 recovery)
2.28 (1.30 recovery)

We changed the session slightly to reduced the recovery time. Given the marathon was 10 days ago I was happy to get through the session unscathed.

On Wednesday, got out for an easy 9.3k run with Durante. We met Springer in the domain and we chatted lots - who will win the sixfoot?, 10k race on Saturday, Durante's bro's performance in the league final and the feasibility of Kanser running Rotterdam on the 14th of April. We'll see...

Equaliser

Got out for a few 40 min recovery runs during the week and was pleased that the legs were recovering well. Got out the door at 5.30am on Sunday and hooked up with Tim and the Tancred's for the Striders 14k equaliser on the North Shore. Opted to take it easy over the hilly terrain and finished the run in 1.12. The ankle didn't like the downhill portion as it was difficult to maintain control. I suppose the orthotics inserts since the surgery don't really help on that terrain. Might make a trip to the podiatrist to see if I can run without them. Some great runs out there today, Tim Lindop, Ray Wareham and the winner Uncle Dave. The Unc will be pretty confident going into the sixfoot after pipping Fats today.
Watched the football final and it was great to see Durante's bro win the man of the match award.
Will pick up the training this week and hopefully I will be able to give the striders 10k in north head a good auld crack next week. Still no name change to the blog, current titles i'm considering 'second coming', 'bringing it all back home' and the 'the road to rotterdam'....watch this space!

Recovering well

On Mon & Tues, the quads were a little stiff but other than that the legs seem to be fine. Did plenty of walking (well shopping) through Tokyo. Instead of drinking the copious amounts japanese beer we downed lots of pints of the black stuff, yeah they seemed to have guinness in every bar we entered. As an Irishman I didn't complain.
Got out for an easy 7k today and the legs felt pretty good. Need to sit down and target some races. Looking forward to catching up with the Tues/Thurs crew again. Will do my best to get out for every session, I'm sure keeping up with the like of Tom, Mike Conway, Tucks, Serg, Durante, Springer, Anthony and Tim will keep me honest.
The goal now will be to target a 10k pb but might venture up to the blue mountains and run the 6 foot track again as a long training run. Check out the site. www.sixfoot.com.
Here is a link to the Tokyo marathon website with a video of Dave Kane crossing the finish line. You can see (NOT) that I am really pushing it towards the finish.

http://www.ntv.co.jp/tokyomarathon/goalmovie/

Number 24091 is my "bib number." Enter this number into the box that says "search." Then hit play on the right side of the screen. I'm in a black top, blackshorts and white compression socks. You might laugh but I purchased the compression socks after a calf niggle i picked up a while back. Of note, I'd no calf stiffness at all after the race. Enter in bib number 2 and you'll see Rothlin storming to a 2.07 finish. He might go all the way in Beijing..mmmm need to change the title of blog!

2.52

Stoked with the result today. It took a while to get going as I was seeded in the b group so didn't get to 10k until well over 40 mins (40.40 approx), I suppose the leak at 8k didn't help. Focussed on maintaining 4k/m until around 34k and then started to slow. At 40k I knew I was on course for around 2.52 so just held steady until the end without pushing the pace.
Big bear stormed home in 3.13 for a massive pb(25 mins quicker than Canberra last yr). Super effort by the Bear and deserves it with all his hard work. Great support out on the course (my wife Liv, sis in law Gillo and Jen and Katlyn). The Japanese really love the marathon, the crowds lined the course from start to finish (approx 1.7m cheering 25,000 marathon runners throu' the streets of Tokyo.
I will use the Tokyo marathon as a springboard to my racing exploits in 2008. Delighted with my effort when you consider I only started running again in Oct (weighing a chunky 87kg - lost 9kg in the process). Already looking forward to the next one but for now I will head out on the town with Big Bear and the crew tonight....

Tuning in Tokyo...

I took it very easy on Monday, just a 20 min stroll in the domain. I ran the last 10 mins with Serg and Anthony Murrell. I noticed on Superflake's blog that Serg ran Sunday's 30k Star. He confirmed his attendance (you can't do much in Sydney with all the blogs floating around) and felt the going tough in the last few kms keeping up with Fats and Truscott. He's looking at running the Gold Coast marathon in July. He's got five months and with his half time 68.58 he should have no problem running 2.35 for his first one.
Went for a massage in Jackie's after work and spent the rest of the evening working on my core and doing some stretches after a hot bath.
The Tuesday session was 3 by 10 mins with 3 min recovery. I opted for a very easy session. One 3k rep at 3.45 pace, then 1 min on (3.30 pace) by 5, 1 min off (slow jog). Large crowd in attendance, Mike Harrison pushed the pace at the front (he was surprisingly caught in the last rep by a new guy who looked very comfortable pushing 3.15 pace). Tim Craddock, Springer & Anthony looked very strong for all the reps. Tucks as he does every week was close to front and ran at his own pace (bang on his lactate threshold pace of around 3.24). Ray who keeps his best running for key races held back again today. I wonder if Tom was surprised with Ray's sub 33 on Friday night?
Flying out in the morning and I'm planning on doing very little in the lead up to the race (5 - 8k easy). I've run six 6 marathons and 2 ultra's (sixfoot is classed as an ultra), each time I've ran a tad quicker (Gold Coast '04 - 3.20, Honolulu '05 - 3.19, Canberra - 3.18, Melbourne - 2.55, Canberra - 2.47 & Auckland - 2.46). I only got back running in October after surgery in August so I really didn't think I'd have any chance of running quicker than Auckland but with last week's 35.19 I'm in with a very slim chance. The plan is to ease into it in Tokyo, run 4m/k for 25k and see how I go. If I can the hold pace I'll finish in 2.48.48. If I run a tad quicker in the second half I might have a chance of a pb. Either way, I'm happy with the progress over the last few months and the base I've built will serve me well for the racing calendar of '08. My brother in law Chris (Big Bear) will definitely run a pb...

Easy Sunday run

Ran 2k to Centennial and met up with Durante 7.30am. We ran for about 1hr before we bumped into Tim Lindop. We ran for another 30 mins. Not sure of the distance as I forgot to switch the garmin on. Probably 20k all up. Chatted to Damien Tancred at the end of the run, he was heading out for a 16k tempo run. He is tossing up the idea of running the Ironman in WA in Nov. Less than a week left....

35.19

Had a little calf niggle so I took Thurs off and tested the calf out on Friday with an easy 3km in the domain with Tim Lindop. The calf was a little tight but fine to run so headed to the track in Homebush. I was pretty excited to be toeing the line with Lee Troop (who has run a 2.09 marathon and already qualified for the Olympics). Discussed times with my lap scorer Chris (Big Bear) and felt I should go for 35 mins flat.
I felt pretty comfortable at the start and focussed on trying to run even 400s but it was very difficult to keep track of my splits. I was running solo for most of the way as Tucks was looking at running close as possible to 32 mins and Ray was looking at running a sub 33 min. I went through 5k in 17.29 and then started to lose around 2secs per lap. Chris gave me plenty of encouragement from the sidelines as did Serg and his father which was great. Happy with 35.19 which is 50 secs quicker than Lane cove last week.
Fantastic run by Ray 32.54 and Tucks 31.54. Chris Truscott who also ran Lane cove last week ran 31.43 which was 50 odd secs quicker than last week. It's also his quickest run in 10 years. Troopy won in 29.19 and I had a great chat with him at the end. He's already qualifed for the Olympics and will run the Lake Biwa (Japan) marathon in 3 weeks time. It will also give him the opportunity to get over to Beijing to review the Olympic course. Fellow strider Guzzo is also looking very good (29.57) at the moment as he prepares for Lake Biwa.

http://www.nswathletics.org.au/answ/live_state/080208F160.htm

http://www.nswathletics.org.au/

Taper

Easy run with Durante and Tom. We ran the 6k Corporate Cup course in the domain. Very odd weather for Feb. It was hot and humid at lunch and raining when I ran home. Left calf was little tight, will need to monitor it prior to Friday night's race.

6*3 mins with 1 min recovery

A big crowd out there today, to be honest I don't know half of them. The guys that I do know were Serg, Tucks, Anthony, Mike Conway, Ray, Charlie, Mike Harrison, Tim C, Tim Lindop, Enda, Tom, Eoin and lots of other guys. I was a little late for the session I was planning on doing eight but when Ray stopped at six I took note. Tucks was also holding back. Given the three of us are racing on Friday it was probably a good idea to take it easy. The pace was pretty quick for the session averaging 3.15 per rep. It was very humid out there today, Tom looked very comfortable and Serg is beginning to look very strong at the front of the pack.
Will take it very easy for the next few days and rest up for the 10k race on Friday evening. Looking forward to now..

Run Fatboy run....

I haven't run to Balls head in a while and headed off with Serg, Mike and Ray today. It was bucketing down rain throughout the run so much so as we crossed the bridge Serg was complaining that he couldn't see. Ray gave us the low down on his 5k track run in Homebush (16.09 in humid conditions) and we discussed tactics for the race on Friday evening. We covered approx 14k in 64 mins.
I was suppose to go and see "Run Fatboy Run" in the Open Air Cinema tonight. Given the weather I don't think it's going to happen. Pity really as I was really looking forward to watching a comedy about running. Dylan Moran of "black books" and "shaun of the dead" also features in the movie.

http://www.runfatboyrunmovie.com/

The last long one before Tokyo

Headed out for a 26k run. Ran 2k to the park at 7am and hooked up with Mike Conway, Tim Lindop and Terance. Tim suggested we run the 3 * 6k loops around centennial. The loop is relatively flat but has one nasty 700m climb up to Woolahra gates. We kept the pace relatively steady at 4.45 for 18k. We increased pace for the final 6k, 5k at 4.25 pace and 1k at 3.57 pace. It was very humid out there this morning. So much so I lost 3 kilos on the run this morning (weighted myself before and after the run). We chatted about yesterday's striders race and we are all confident we will improve our times in the coming months.
Maybe it's the weather but I've been listening to Nick Drake again, I love the jazzy-pop sound on Bryter Layter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Drake

10K Lane Cove

After last week's 5km Bay run I wasn't sure how I'd run today. I was chatting to Tom earlier in the week and told him I'd like to run around 36.10. I plugged my Bay 5km time in Macmillian's calc and http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm out came 36.44. To be honest, I preferred the time I mentioned to Tom.
Anyhow got to Lane Cove early and got a decent warm-up in with Mike Conway and Durante. Bumped into Uncle Dave http://davidcriniti.blogspot.com/ and we chatted about his plans for the year. Got off to a decent start and after 1.5km realised I would not be able to keep with Durante and Mike (I was beginning to think Macmillian was bang on the money). After about 2k Tim Cradock came by and I decided to settle into my own pace. I actually felt good on the hills and pulled a few people back on scribbly and later on after the 5km mark. Got to 5km in 18.16 and hand a bit of a tussle with Peter Walker on hill climb up to the 5.36 turnaround. After the turn I don't think anyone passed me. I passed a few runners on the way back to finish. I was surprised to pass Mike at the 8km marker. I caught sight of Durante and tried to reel him in but to no avail. I put a decent last km of 3.18 but I think Durante ran a tad quicker. Finished up with 36.09. Happy with the time and with a little bit of a taper hopefully I will run a bit quicker at the state 10k in Homebush.
There were some great runs out there today, Tim Cradock and Durante both nudged under the 36 min mark. Uncle Dave ran a stellar sub 33 mins. Eoin Reville ran 37.3X which is a great effort considering his training for the Ironman in Port Macquarie. Big Bear just keeps getting better notching up another pb running 41.30. Fats also ran very well 35.2x which sets him up nicely for the sixfoot.
Got out for a 7km run afternoon and worked on some strength training. Looking forward to the last long run the morning. 2 week left to Tokyo...apparently it was snowing in Tokyo yesterday a far cry from the conditions we are experiencing in Sydney.

Easy Friday

I was suppose to run the state 5km on the track on thursday night but it was cancelled last minute because of the storms in Sydney. I was really looking forward to a track race so I was pretty disappointed when the officals called it off. I wouldn't mind I dragged Tom all the way to Homebush with me to lap score the race. Thanks Tom.
On Friday I got out for an easy 10k with Kate, Tucks, Springer and Ray and we debated which race to run on Saturday. The Striders 10k or the state 5k. I'm opting for the striders run....