Friday, August 31, 2012

Easy Friday

Out with the squad for an easy 40 mins today. Plenty of chat and Mike was even doing some strides in prep for North Head. Hopefully he will run well tomorrow and show Timmy what he's made of. I'm looking forward to the Coastal Track tomorrow. Apparently it's a beautiful run. Already looking forward to the beers afterwards in the RSL.
Here's a pic of me in the Half in Clew Bay...

Thursday, August 30, 2012

MLR & 400s

Wed: MLR

Ran into work (40 mins)

Missed the start of the squad's MLR, ran into Sam on edgecliff and then joined up with Mike Race and the rest of the crew in centennial. All up 75 mins. Pretty tired at the end of the run.

Thurs: 400s
Struggled out of bed this morning, so decided not to run in. I went over to Rushcutters earlier that the squad as I had a meeting at 1pm. I was planning on taking them a little easier say 75 secs. I ended up doing 8 reps off 45 secs
72, 70, 70, 68, 67, 67, 67, 66
Felt relatively comfortable, just focused on form. The rest of the squad arrived as I was just finishing up. Think I will take a rest day tomororw.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

GO THE ROOSTERS

Sunday: I got a window before the Roosters v Tigers game and took it. Ventured out for a 75 min easy run through centennial. Great win by the Roosters, must admit it was difficult to watch with 3 kids in toe but I converted Big Bears little girl into a Roosters fan :). The Roosters looked good at the weekend. It's crazy but I don't understand why they can't play like that every week. I also got a perfect round in tipping this week :)

Monday: Out with HuRT squad for 60 mins easy. Ran with Berger from Shelley Street and we were averaging close to 5 km/m. Once we ran into the squad the pace picked up and I ended up averaging 4.32 pace.

The plan was to cycle home, the tires were flat so ran home instead (40 mins approx)

Tuesday:
I had a meeting in my diary for 1pm that I couldn't move so I was planning on doing the 45 mins tempo after work. At 12.10 the meeting was pushed out until 5pm so I raced over and joined the squad at the art gallery. Fenton and High were off in the distance and I tucked in with Tom, Macca and another guy. At the turn around we were averaging 3.38 pace. It lifted slightly on the way back as we picked up a few guys who went out too hard. After the Opera House Tom put in a little surge and then 50m later pulled up. I thought he decided to pull the pin at 10k but found out afterwards that his hammie is playing up. I finished strongly passing most people on the way back and averaged 3.34 km/m. Macca came in behind me about 20 secs behind.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Long Saturday

Out early with Chalks and Col. Given we are all running the coastal classic next weekend we opted to run a few laps of the inner fence of centennial which has some technical aspects. After about 1 hr 45 mins, I cut inside the the middle of the park and pushed 5k averaging 3.55 km/m. All up in 2.24 min. It was pretty slow overall as I am ran a tad over 30k but happy with the time on my feet.
I'm surprised by all the Lance's fans out there at the moment, as far as I'm concerned he cheated and profited from it. I don't disagree it was a witch hunt but they got the guy who some felt would never get caught. He did, so maybe up and coming cyclist will think twice before they take performance enhancing drugs. My comment on facebook  about Mo Farah was quite flippant and I don't want to drag Master Sweeney into the debate but he did make a very good point. Sure Mo was very talented but he never had the ability to control races. Some would argue that his times havent significantly improved. True but it's takes significant improvement to control races the way he does. Let's hope it's the last we hear of it. I'm out tonight so I may take a rest day tomorrow...enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Brisbane Running

Wed: 90 mins around the Brizzy waterfront. It's actually quite nice running around waterfront. Pace was relatively easy avg'ing 4.30 pace.

Thurs: Caught up with Master Sweeney for a coffee and then got out for a fartlek session (8 by 90 sec with a 45 sec float), Avg 3.10 on the 90 secs efforts and 4.20 on the 45 sec efforts

Fri: Ran into work (40 mins) and at lunch met up with Sam and Mikey C for a 50 min run around Sydney harbour. Another beautiful day for running.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

11 by 3 mins off 1 mins

Glorious day in Sydney for running as the HuRT squad went down to Barangaroo for an interval session. Large crew in attendance with even Tom making an appearance. I was aiming on doing 10 reps but ended on doing 11 as I need to run in that direction to get back to work. Legs felt good today with an average of 3.16km/m per rep. Poor Timmy pulled the plug after another twinge in his hammie.

Running on empty

Sat:
Jogged over to the Park and ran with Chalks for 30 mins and then hit MacKay Oval for a 5k tempo effort. Aim was to keep the pace to 3.30 km/m and did just that running 17.28. 1hr 15 all up.

Sun:
Out with Timmy and J-Fen for an easy long run. Felt tired at the start but worked my way into the run. Timmy left after 16km and I continued on and ran 28km in 2hr 05 mins. That's my first long run in ages..

Mon:
Out with the HuRT squad for an easy 50 mins with Conway and Sam leading from the front. Again sluggish at the start but worked my way into the run. Lots of people were asking about Tom? He's probably doing some work for a change!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Bourne Legacy

Out with Mike Conway and Clyde for an easy 50 min run. Lots of chat about the drug cheats in the Olympics and Wiggins having a ciggie post Olympics. Went to the new Bourne movie with Chalks last night. Really enjoy it, less action but interesting plot. 7.5/10.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

800s/400s

Over to rushcutters at lunch. Perfect running conditions, glorious sunny day with a nice cool breeze. There were quite a few people out in the oval, Killer was just finishing up his session.

The session planned was 6 by 800s off 90 secs with 2 by 400s off 60 secs.

Reps went as follows
2.31, 2.29, 2.28, 2.29, 2.30, 2.29, 70, 68

For the 800s I felt fine for the first 400 and struggled somewhat to maintain rythmn in final the 200s. By the 6th I was shattered (lack of long runs not helping) but I actually felt fine finishing off with the 400s..

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The return from Ireland

Just back from Ireland, had a great time with family and friends and even ended up running a few races.
First up was the Fingal 10k (22nd July), which was run through my hometown Swords. The race was part of the Dublin marathon series so there were well over 3,000 runners in attendance. It was a very windy day which made conditions tough. There were lots of flat sections but Pinnock Hill in the 1st km made the 1st km slow (3.50). The wind was on back for the next 2 km and I covered them averaging 3.10 pace. With lots of twists and turns you basically made up time with the wind on your back but lost it in the next km. Unfortunately the stretch in the back half course made it very difficult as I was running into the wind up a hill for 2k. In the end I finished up with a time of 35.10 and 24th overall. I got a $50 sports voucher for coming 3rd in my age category.

Lusk 12k (29th July)

With about 200 people in attendance, this race was a 3 by 4k loop. Again conditions were far from ideal with a strong south westerly. Went to front early on and never looked back, there were 2 guys sitting on back for the first loop but gapped them on the second loop and ended up winning the race by about 30 secs in 42.10. It’s a different ball game when you are at the front as you are always wondering how far people are behind you. Ended up winning a nice food hamper with a few bottles of wine.

Clew Bay Half (4th August)

This course was advertised as ‘challenging and exhilarating, it’s winding roads and ever changing scenery making it a very enjoyable run’. About 180 people in attendance and not surprisingly it was a very windy day. Went to the front with group of 3 runners. We went through 5k in 18 flat and from about 6km we start to hit some challenging hillls. I put a gap into the guys around 7k. Went through 10k in 36.55. The wind was apparent but I was thinking it’s not too bad until we came off the back roads onto a main coast road around 13k. Well from there it’s felt like the hardest 8k I’ve ever run. I was running into a crazy head wind. My km splits shot out to 4.30 and it was a case of just hanging on. The lead car slowed down in front and the guy gave me a bottle of water. At that stage I felt like asking him to just sit on front of me to give me some wind cover. I had a look around a few times and kept thinking this is it but I ended up hanging on and getting the win in 82.15. Nice prizes in these small country race, I got a 100 euro plus a voucher for 100 euro, backpack and a few tee-shirts.
Opted not to run the C2S as I wasn’t feeling great with jetlag. The kids were fab on the flights but have struggled to adapt to the new time zone. The races in Ireland were the only real training I got in so I will start to build the kms slowly.

On Sunday arvo I got out for an easy 70 mins with Chalks. Never really felt comfortable. On Monday I venture out for an easy 10k with the HuRT squad.

By Tuesday I was feeling better so got out for the 4 by 10 min efforts. I ran in to work this morning and got out for a 70 min run with Sammy, MC, Enda and company for jog around centennial.