7 by 800s (off 90 secs)

It wasn't that I couldn't handle 8 reps, we just weren't allowed as a cricket match was kicking off at 1.15pm and we were required to vacate rushcutters oval. In saying that it was bloody hot out there today and I was happy to finish with 7 reps.
Reps went as follows
2.29, 2.28, 2.27, 2.26, 2.25, 2.27, 2.21
Large crowd in attendance again, Durante lead most of the reps and he was 1-2 secs ahead of me for all the reps apart from the last one. Tucks, Ray, Terence and Clarky (who probably cycle 100k this morning) were approx 5-10 secs behind for each rep. I think the heat got to a number of people as it was noticeable the majority got slower as the session progressed. Durante was shattered after the 6th rep and I half expected him to follow me for the last rep but he decide he had enough ;). Timmy was a surprise today, he ran pretty consistent for the first 5 and then took a break for the 6th rep and then pushed the last rep. I actually had to put in a little kick to finish in front on him....sub 35 mins is on the cards as early as March for the kid...

And all that jazz......

Went to the Opera House last night and saw the lead characters from ‘Once’ Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová strut their stuff on stage. Glen who is no stranger to sell out gigs was delighted to have the opportunity to play at the Opera House. Well that’s what he told the audience, he’s a bit of a talker alright but he’s one heck of a musician and demonstrated his talent by belting out a beautiful rendition of ‘On Raglan Road’. If you haven’t seen the movie Once, get yourself to a DVD shop and get a copy.
Once I started you can’t stop me…I never got the opportunity to tell my favorite albums of 2008….in no particular order
- Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
- Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
- Goldfrapp – Seventh Sign
- Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
- Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

The legend ‘Leonard Cohen’ is hitting Sydney this week. His concerts are getting rave reviews…can’t wait for Thursday night…..

On the running front, I was out with Thurston and Durante this morning for a 90 min jaunt around centennial. We were joined by a young kid (16 going on 17) for the last 30-40 mins. He’s run 8.17 for 3k…..makes you think…

HuRT squad (45 min progressive tempo)

After a few easy days over the weekend, got out with the HuRT squad at lunch (quite a large group that included Enda, Durante, Rich High, Tucks, Springer, Mike, Terence aka Drago and many more...Serg even made a brief appearance)
I just planned to run with Conway and see how I felt on the run. Mike's planned pace was as follows

10 mins easy (4.15 km/m)
10 mins at marathon pace (4.05 km/m)
10mins at 1/2 marathon pace (3.50 km/m)
10 mins at 10 km pace (3.35 km/m)
5 mins at 5 km pace (3.30 km/m)

So how did session go...., Clarky went off from the start obviously thinking the 4.15pace was too slow. I was keen to chat to the boys so pretty happy with the pace. I didn't have a garmin so I was relying on the guys to keep the pace for each rep. Tucks seems to be have it under control. It wasn't until the move down to the 1/2 marathon pace when the group started to split up. When we got down to the 10km pace, I was with Tucks, High, Durante, Clyde and one or two others and Ray was a 100m head of us of all. At the hill approaching Farm Cove, Durante broke away and created a gap which I attempted to close but I didn't have any strength on the hill. Still and all, I create a gap between myself and the rest of the guys apart from Clyde who sat on my shoulder until we entered the domain. Finished off pretty strong and I suspect the paces was pretty quick for the last 20 mins.
Pretty happy to get to the stone gates, glad to have a tough session under my belt after the marathon...Tucks is looking strong and I was a little surprised with Durante today...

Speedplay

On Wednesday, out for a 45 min run, pushed the last 10 mins. This morning got out for 5 by 1.2k around Balheary, didn't bring the garmin but the reps were approx half marathon pace. Well done to Tom on his 15.39 and Thurston on his 14.20 run at the state 5k in Sydney.

Cruising

62 min easy, still can't believe how cold it is. During the run I was thinking about the 5k state championship. I think Thurston will run well and run very close to sub 14...if i had to put money on it - 14.04. Tom needs to be careful, he should let Truscott go and run for a time of 15.28. This can only be achieved if he runs and fast opening km 3.01 and a fast closing km of around 3.05. It's the splits between 1k and 4k than Tom needs to focus on...and there is no better man...best of luck guys..!

Running in the cold

Another freezing cold day, out with the younger bro for a 50 min run. We took it relatively easy for the first 40 mins. Derek started to increase the pace and I just sat right behind him. He started to create a gap of about 20m with about a km to the house.
Lucky for me he had to stop before crossing the main road which gave me the opportunity close the gap and edge into the lead which I held until we got back to the house.....he wasn't happy at all.

The change in the weather tends to be extreme...

Can't believe how cold it is in Ireland at the moment. Out for a 60 min run this morning and had to kept the pace honest as it was freezing. I was only planning a 30 min run but didn't want to turnaround and run into the wind so kept going until i hit Malahide and looped back around to Swords. Don't fancy running with the Bro in the morning as he turns every training run into a race.

Dubai Marathon 2.41:54

After having the mother of all rows last night with my central governor (sub conscious that is), I finally put my head down on the pillow happy to have finally defeated the the little fu****! Now read on...
Couldn't sleep on the long haul flight from Sydney but Timmy will like this..got to see plenty of new movies. WALL-E is class, Ed Harris's Appaloosa is a super western and Ricky Gervias is very funny in Ghost-town.
After the debacle in Berlin, I opted not to carry any gels and just rely on the sports drink available. Got to the start early and had the pleasure of warming up with the elite boys. Haile was looking very serious and i even got chatting to the eventual 2nd place guy who in broken english told me to 'run strong'. He was quite big for an elite guys...the rest of them were tiny.
The elite guys took off 4 mins before the rest of us (strange I doubt Haile needed a 4 min start on me). Settled into it straight away and the plan from the off was to run very comfortable until 10k and increase the tempo if I was feeling good. About 20 runners settled in front of me, got to 5k on the slow side 19.16 (which projected me out to 2.42.20) but I wasn't concerned as there was a slight headwind. I was thinking this will be great on the return leg. From 5k to 15k I picked up quite a few runners who had gone out a little fast. At around 16k (which was around 1.02 if i recall correctly) I chatted to a Turkish runner and told him I was Irish living in Australia. He never commented on Australia but mentioned Roy Keane was a great player in his day. I told him Sukar was decent but not a great striker. He didn't talk to me after that! Got to half way in a tick over 80 mins and I was pretty excited at the prospect of getting a tailwind. I recall reading Criniti's article about neg splits from the Striders blister mag and felt confident of having a crack. It went well until 26k where i got a bloody stitch (not sure why but there was no orange sports drink at the 25k only lime...)Anyhow, this slowed me down and for the first time in the race a runner flew by me...i wouldn't mind it was the Turkish guy who i dropped at 23k!)It took me 4k to get rid of the stitch (plenty of heavy breathing in combo with pushing my foot down on the right side). The Turkish guy was about 120m ahead of me and from 30k I decided to chase him. For the first time in a marathon I was looking forward to the challenge of the last 12k.
The weather decided to put a spanner in the works..just as I hit 32k hoping for a Tucks sort of finish the rain started to fall and the bloody wind changed direction. Frank Shorter blamed the rain on his 2nd place finish in '76, I actually like the rain but am not very fond of a headwind. Just put the head down and battled, got plenty of comments from crowd 'your looking strong and all that jazz...the little f*** of a central governor kept questioning that...but i wouldn't give in. I used every Jedi mind trick in the book and Gallaway the US coach often got his runners to used their imagination in weird and wonderful ways to get throu the last 10k(my head was all over the shop - my friend Eamon was the Taoiseach (prime minister)of Ireland I was asked to become the minster of education...weird or what!
Just kept going until the finish, had another stitch at 39k (not sure why) but it was a little higher on the left side so I stopped at 40k to make sure I was ok. The last 400m felt pretty long as I tried to run 70 sec...i did manage 82 which isn't bad.
Plan to rest now as I have a huge week of drinking ahead of me. Will hit the after party and endeavour to get Geb drunk as I am interested in the sort training he does. I checked the results and I was the 24th male home which isn't bad considering there were 21 elite boys ahead of me. It's been a great month for me with 3 pbs and would love to race against the boys in the Gold Coast in July - Tom, Richard High, Muz and Terence ...obviously I would like the opportunity to have another crack at the little f*** of a central governor.
Thanks to everyone for all the email and texts....looking forward to catching up with friends and family in Ireland. I'm glad I've got a fair few pbs out of the way in Jan as from March I reckon Livo and I will be busy :) Can't wait for the big day!

See you on the road - Kanser

Some articles on Geb's world record attempt in Dubai
Associated Press You can see how big Chimsa is compared to Haile and I had a feeling in the warm-up Sertsu would run well.

Sporting Life...interesting to see Dave Bedford the London race director comment on the change of the wind in the 2nd half...

IAAF Great photo on Haile coming to the line...

Time for Dubai

I am not sure when I decided to run Dubai but after a poor run in the JP Morgan I didn't really have the stomach for another marathon. I think it was towards the end of Nov. or just after my health check I decided to train as hard as I could and then possibly have a crack at Dubai.
The last 6 weeks have gone to plan, the hard work has paid off. I can't complain with my form. It's not often you run 2 pbs in a week.
It will be interesting to see how I go in Dubai. With Berlin I focused too much on the end result, this time I am really looking forward to the experience. Can't believe i'm getting another chance to line up against the big man 'Haile' as he goes chasing another world record. Tune in on Friday evening and I'll have that 'time' you are looking for!

5k - 15.54 PB

Out to Homebush for a 5k track race. The goal was sub 16. The temps were cool (22c) and it was a little windy. I ran my own race, went through the 1st km in 3.06 and ran steady from there. I think I went throu' 3k in around 9.28 (Timmy was there and mentioned afterwards that the 400 splits were pretty even). My last km was nice and quick in 3.04. I hit the bell in 14.48 so the last 400m was 66 sec which i'm pretty happy with..I reckon I can go a little quicker with more company as i was more or less on my own for the whole way.

45 mins easy

Out early for an easy 45 mins run in and around centennial park with Timmy...throat was a little sore and I was thinking this is a sign - I'm peaking. Then Timmy tells his throat is 'killing him' and he's only starting to build a base...maybe i'm not peaking...

400s

Ran in this morning and got out with the HuRT squad (far too many to mention them all) for a 400s session. Serg made a surprise appearance and with his lower leg issues decided to take it easy and jog around the oval. I ran 10 reps and took it very easy (maybe averaging 78-80 and ran 2 quick one 66, 64. Durante was on fire and probably averaged 66-67...! Some of the guys opted for a different session (need to talk to Tom about this as it's too difficult to manage 2 grps). Terence and Richard High were looking strong and Timmy is on the long road to a sub 35...Tom was missing in action today...

MLR

Out with Thursten for a MLR in and around Centennial. Ran for 1 hr 16 mins with an average pace of 4.18 km/m. Spotted Terence, Adam and Enda running in the park.
Ran into Keith Bateman coming out of centennial and we chatted about up and coming races. He's targeting the State 5k and looks like he's peaking nicely. He ran his quickest 8k tempo session recently and also ran a very quick 3 by 2k (avg'ing 6.10). He should have no bother breaking 16 mins for 5k and I reckon he will break the National 5k record of 15.49 for his age group. Tom will be keen to stay ahead of him on the 22nd Jan. Pity I am away as it's going to be a great race.....

Hot hot hot...

Mon:
am: Ran into work and did some ab work in the gym
pm: Ran with the boys - Ray, Tom, Steve, Durante, Clarky, Andy, Charlie, Mike down to Hickson road and cut back via circular key with Steve. It was pretty hot around 28c

Tues:
am: Ran into work and did some stretching in the gym
pm: 800 session with Tom, Durante, Clarky and Andy. There were 3 grps. I ran with grp 1 and given I was planning on completing 6 (with the 5k track run on Sat) aimed to run them in 2.20. Reps went as follows:
2.19, 2.18, 2.18, 2.20, 2.19, 2.20.
The boys were running 8 so they were a little behind me for most of the reps. Tom was definitely closer and I think ran over the top of me on rep 5. I ran the first 4 relatively comfortable and had to work to maintain the pace for reps 5 and 6. Good session in very hot conditions.

I've added some photos from the Twilight run.

Coming to the turnaround

Powering on...

Timmy in full flight ;)

Long run and tales from Tassie

Met up with Durante today for a long run, both of us were pretty tired. Calves were a little tight this morning as a result of wearing the Adizero breeze for the 10k on Friday. We settled into a 4.40 pace and continued on for 90 mins or so. When Durante left I ran 2k through the center of the park at marathon pace. All up just shy of two hours. Plan to rest now....
Congrats to Uncle Dave's 1st place in 2.29 in Hobart and Terence Bell 4th in 2.44. Great running guys!

Thoughts turn to Tassie

Out for an easy 10k with Big Bear. Both of us were struggling as we had a big night wetting Chalkies baby Alannah's head.
Best of luck to my mates Terence Bell and Uncle Dave in Tassie tomorrow.

Summer Twilight 10k - 32.59

Headed with Tim Lindop and planned to run it as a tempo run. Basically it's the 5k coolrunning course out and back. Did the warm up with Tim and the legs felt great. Took off pretty quickly and went through the 1st km in 3.06. Tim went throu' in 3.22 and mentioned after the race I was at least 100m ahead after the 1st km. I had a tail wind and went throu' 2k in 6.20 and 3k in 9.35 and that stage I was thinking I will break my 5k pb. Hit the 5k in 16.13 (11 sec pb) and ran around the lady at the marker. I saw the 2nd runner and then Tim just passing the tennis courts. I was feeling ok and decided to just try and push the 2nd half. Lost a little time from 7.5to 9.5 running into the wind. Got the finish line and most of the 5k runners had finished. I asked Eagle my time and he told me i ran sub 33. I was very surprised, he told me the course has been measured by Steve Jackson so it's certified. Obviously the big weeks in December has definitely helped me. Tim came home in just over 38 mins and commented that I don't know how to run a tempo...