Running Strong...

Fri: Easy 7k in the domain, bumped into Ray Wareham and Anthony Murrell. We chatted about the Striders race in Lane Cove. I told the boys I felt Durante would cruise to early 33s and maybe even dip under 33. The boys were surprised and I was disappointed that Tom decided to run the relays - so no showdown.

Sat: I had promised Mike Conway and Tim Lindop that I would pace them to a sub 35. Mike called me on Fri and told me that he was sick and would be unable to run. Tim had a slight calf issue but was keen to give it a go.
Durante called over early and told me he felt ready for a good run. In the 6 wks leading up to the race, he had pushed the hills in his long runs, he'd ran several longer tempo sessions and he also ran the 5k to 10k section of the C2S pretty hard on a number of occasions. This gave him the confidence to tackle the hilly Lane cove course.
Started out with Tim, as I pacer I went throu' the 1st km at little too quick (3.22), I slowed up and went throu' 2k in 6.52, we ran steady up Scribbly and as we came down I told Tim to push from 3k to 5k. I kept a few yards ahead of Tim and we were ran comfortable to 4k on schedule, at 4.5k I turned around on the hill and Tim was at least 50m back, he waved me on and pulled out with calf issues. I slowed up and ran with Ray and Pete Walker for the rest of the race. At the 5.3 turnaround, I took it relatively easy to the finish apart form a 3.16 last km.
I was delighted to hear Durante had run a stellar 33.01 to finish 4th overall. We ran back to get Gerso who ran a very quick km to come home in 46.23 a pb by over a minute. Gerso recent training is definitely paying off. Luc my friend from Holland ran a super 42.4x, he commented at the end of the race how well the event was organised. It was a beautiful day for running..

In the arvo, I went to the gym and ran for 35 mins on the treadmill and finished off with some light weights and stretching.

Sun: Out for a long run this morning with Terence. I ran for 35 min before meeting up with Terence in centennial, I'd been averaging 4.45 k/m and we continued that pace for another lap of centennial. We left the park and decided to run the C2S course so we left via wollahra gates down Ocean road and into Double Bay. Terence was keen to push the hills. The pace dropped to 4.35 average as we hit military road. We ran into Bondi and ran steady up Bondi rd. The avg pace dropped to 4.29 and I was happy to get back to surry hills. All up 2 hrs 32 with a avg pace of 4.29 and just short of 34k. Pretty tried at the end, I'm glad I've finished this endurance cycle of my marathon pgm. Hopefully with a bit of rest this week I will have a good crack at the C2S next Sunday.