Another 28 Minutes.

MONDAY 28/11/05, 1PM, 6K, 7 HOURS SLEEP

Work->Waterloo Park->return in 27.49 (4.34min/km). Humid day, had rained all morning. Got to the turnaround in 14.02 (when I did 27.40 for this course I got there in 14.04) but I felt pretty ordinary most of the way back- surprised I negative split it at all.

Wore the Nike Frees.

Mt Canobolas.

SUNDAY 27/11/05, 10AM, 8K, WEEKLY TOTAL 33K, 7 HOURS SLEEP

After a drive out to Temora for the airshow on Saturday, Mel and I camped at Federal Falls Camping Ground in the Mt Canobolas SRA on Saturday evening. At 1397m ASL, this is the highest peak between Sydney and the Indian Ocean, and our tent was perched in a stand of snowgums and alpine grass at around 1280m elevation. Saturday night had featured some spectacular lightning and hailstorms (not while were were setting up luckily) and Sunday dawned pretty damned cold, given it was only a week out from summer- 9 degrees in Orange, so probably only 6 degrees on the mountain. Cloudy skies but not threatening.

I did an hour's run up the Federal Falls walking track to the summit, down the Canobolas Rd (half sealed, half dirt) to the Spring Glade trail which I took back to the summit, then back to the campground with a detour out to the summit of the subsidiary peak Young Man Canobolas en route. Took just over an hour for 8K. Not fast, and I didn't feel too sharp, but a lot of fun.

28 Minutes.

FRIDAY 25/11/05, 4PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 25K, 7 HOURS SLEEP

Work->Waterloo Park and back, 6.1K in 28.39, or 4.42min/km. Wore the Frees, legs felt a bit beat up from yesterday. Humid, but not too warm- it had poured all morning.

8 x 400s.

THURSDAY 24/11/05, 3.30PM, 9K, WEEK TO DATE 19K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

Ran up to Dunbar Field in the Frees for my old session, 8 x 400 barefoot with 50 seconds jog recovery. Cool, cloudy afternoon, about 19 degrees.

Ran the 2.7K up there at just under 5min/km (13.14), then into it.

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About 10 seconds off the old times, but surprisingly consistent.

Back to work in 13.31.

Encouraging signs.

Hills.

TUESDAY 22/11/05, 6AM, 10K, 6.5 HOURS SLEEP

Ran out to the Bay for only my second session of Lilyfield Rd hill reps since February or March. Bit of a crowd in attendance- JD, Prof, KT, Klas, Dave, the Langsworths and one or two others.

In the good old days I could run 10 reps of this 300m hill in the mid 70s. In my current virus-afflicted state, I banged out six reps.

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and then ran back- felt a bit buggered, but the run back was less than a minute slower than the trek out there...

Weekend Summary.

SATURDAY 19/11/05, 5.30PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 36K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

Wearing the Frees again, more or less followed the railway line through Croydon, Ashfield, Summer Hill and back. Lergs felt beaten up from the previous day's efforts.

SUNDAY 20/11/05, 4PM, 15K, WEEKLY TOTAL 51K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

Mel and I were in the mountains and did a run along the Six Foot Track- running from Meagalong Valley Rd to Coxs River, then walking back. Lovely cool misty afternoon with a little drizzle, the sort of day the mountains sometimes turn on in summer. Seeing the clouds roll across Narrowneck and Shipley Plateau was special. I felt a bit tired. Mel ran quite well to the river and we took it easy on the way back, walking and seeing the sights one misses when racing the course.

27 Minutes.

FRIDAY 18/11/05, 3PM, 6K (27.40, 4.32min/km), WEEK TO DATE 30K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

Warm day, 25 degrees. Repeated the 6.1K course to Waterloo Park and back, this time wearing the Nike Frees. I reached the turnaround in 14.02 and negative split it for a final time of 27.40, which is my best time for this course- having run 27.54 in July and 28.02 on Wednesday. Granted, I did push it at a pretty solid pace, but not a bad sign.....

Lower legs (calves, soleus, achilles, balls of feet) got pounded a bit, but not too bad.

Lane Cove Bush.

THURSDAY 17/11/05, 4PM, 7K, WEEK TO DATE 24K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

For some variation I did the trail that parallels the road in Lane Cove National Park. Lots of rock hopping, in and out of trees... slow going but good fun. Ran down to Halfway Point and return in 45 minutes. About 20 degrees and reasonably sunny. Felt okay.

28 Minutes.

WEDNESDAY 16/11/05, 12.30PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 17K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

I was so buggered after Monday's run I went home early (felt dizzy and had trouble with co ordination) and on Tuesday just slept right in and took a sick day from work.

So I had no expectations when I set out on a cool rainy day to run my usual 6.1K out and back to Waterloo Park. However, I found myself moving strongly and reached the turnaround in 14.12, so pushed on the way back to negative split and finish in 28.02, or 4.35min/km. Looking back through my blog, this seems to be the second quickest time I've done on this course, behind a 27.54 in early July. Legs felt fine, quite strong actually, but my cardio wasn't too sharp.

Funny old sport.....

More Bad.

MONDAY 14/11/05, 12.30PM, 10.5K, 8 HOURS SLEEP

Ran into Lane Cove National Park on a day that was cooler than last weeks efforts- about 23, 24. Felt okay on the way down to the weir, met the Herrmannator (a day after he'd finished the 100 miler at GNW) but, in a carbon copy of last week, on the return leg my energy dropped to zero and I had to walk pretty much all the way back to the office.

Could have bloody wept. Wasn't even a hot day.

Brisbane.

FRIDAY 11/11/05, 5.45AM, 8K, WEEK TO DATE 20K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

I was in Brisbane, so ran through the CBD up Albert St, into the Botanic Gardens, across the River and around to Kangaroo Point, then return. Typical humid Brisbane day and I was drenched in sweat within 10 minutes. Felt fairly ordinary but just plugged through it.

SATURDAY 12/11/05, 6AM, 15K, WEEKLY TOTAL 35K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

Joined Tesso and others for a lap of Mt Coot-tha, starting from the Regatta. Cooler day than yesterday but still humid. I was near the back of the pack the whole way but managed to get round without walking any of the climbs. 81 minutes total running time.

Bad.

WEDNESDAY 9/11/05, 12.45PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 12K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

Hot day, about 32 degrees. Ran down into LCNP to meet the Herrmannator and hand over some stuff for his GNW 100 miler this weekend.

Within a mile of the start I was battling- no energy and the heat was really bothering me. I actually wanted to walk the downhill before the Porter's Creek Bridge! I battled on and met the Herrmannator at Scribbly Gum as arranged, had a few minutes chat, then turned around and headed back to work, much of which I walked.

After last week's encouragement, I found this run (walk) horribly frustrating, and I am a long way from beating this disease. I just want to be able to run as much as I can enjoy. And I can't. So unfair.

Hills.

TUESDAY 8/11/05, 12.30PM, 6K, 8 HOURS SLEEP

Was going to get up this morning and do hill reps over at Lilyfield Rd, but the impressive storm that was blasting away at 5am sent me back under the sheets for another couple of hours.

So it was that I headed out at lunch to run half a dozen reps of "Speed bump hill" in Lane Cove National Park- from the speedbump to the GATES CLOSING sign. The last time I did reps here was in July, and this was what I ran then...

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Today, it was sunny, 25 degrees and humid (having rained less than an hour before) and I was really affected by the humidity- felt ratshit less than 2K after starting. I've mentioned before that, since contracting glandular fever, I've had real trouble handling hot or humid conditions.

Anyway, I then banged out six reps of the hill...

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And was buggered. Walked for a bit, then slowly jogged back to the office. I was still sweating half an hour later, having finished my shower...

Melbourne.

I was in Melbourne over the weekend...

SATURDAY 5/11/05, 11AM, 26K, WEEK TO DATE 49K, 4 HOURS SLEEP

Kevin Cassidy and Virtual lured me into a run over the Two Bays Trail from Dromana to Cape Schank. A real mixture, starting with the climb up Arthur's Seat, the back streets of Rosebud, bridle trails, open grasslands, then the last few km overlooking Bushranger's Bay. Excellent stuff. We took it very easy, lots of stops for photos. I felt okay, but found it hard to keep up with Virtual on some of the uphills and was starting to run out of petrol in the last few kms. Also picked up a wonderful sunburn on a warm, sunny day.

SUNDAY 6/11/05, 8AM, 7K, WEEKLY TOTAL 56K, 6 HOURS SLEEP

Ran from my hotel in Swanston Street south across the Yarra to the fabled Tan track. I'd been directed by a certain Victorian running legend to run the lap anti clockwise in order to fully enjoy the Anderson St hill. I found myself confronting wave after wave of runners heading clockwise, but my faith in my guide persisted right up until I started running down the famous hill... so I turned around and ran back up it just so I could say that I'd done it. Then I continued anti clockwise, finished my lap (channelling the memories of Cerutty, Landy etc) and headed back across the Yarra to my digs.

Felt tired, legs were stiff and telling me that I hadn't done too much running in recent weeks and therefore the Two Bays was a rude shock.

GF Update, Timbrell and the Bay.

THURSDAY 3/11/05, 5.45AM, 13K, WEEK TO DATE 23K, 5 HOURS SLEEP

Some good news from my last blood test- the quack has given me a green light to gradually start bumping training up again, in terms of distance and intensity. I'm not going to go overboard (and I still can't drink for another three months), I'll still have at least a couple of off days per week.

But I got up this morning with the idea of doing a lap of the Bay and a few 1K reps in Timbrell Park, the latter just to see where I am. I was running through Timbrell just before 6am when I encountered Queen Bee- doing 1K reps of her own- and Monty the hound, so I elected to bang out some with her, with a 200m, 2 minute recovery. I did the first 1K rep in 3.57, the second in 4.02, the third I was fading badly and stopped at 500m. Then ran a tired lap of the Bay (during which I passed my GP doing his own run- how cool is that?) and went home.

It's a long way from the low 3.40s I averaged a few months ago, but it's a start. High end cardio non existent and will need some work, although given I'm not entirely healthy it will have to be quite gradual work.