Bush Capital Taper.

FRIDAY 28/7/06, 8AM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 21.5K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Doing Bush Capital 60K tomorrow, so SW had me doing 30 minutes only today.

1K run from home to Leura Oval, 9 laps of the grass, run home, a touch under 6.5K in 33 minutes. About 9 degrees and fairly clear.

Moving decently well, but quads felt tired.

Catch Up.

Haven't been well since the last update....

FRIDAY 21/7/06, 9PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 34K, 7 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS KAYANOS

Same route as Friday. Went out quite hard and faded a bit on the way back- left shin stiffened up quite a bit. Got in in 29.31.

SATURDAY 22/7/06, 4PM, 23K, WEEK TO DATE 57K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Double out and back from home to Sublime Point and back, and back again. Moved pretty well on this run, although I had a rough few km after halfway, I picked it up again in the last few kilometres. Total time 2.06.

SUNDAY 23/7/06, 6.30AM, 26K, WEEKLY TOTAL 83K, 3 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Hideously bad run after shitty night's sleep. Felt acidic in the guts from the start and walked a lot of hills. Mix of road and trails with Yurtie and Poider around Katoomba and Medlow Bath. Was aiming to do 42K but pulled the plug early.

The next three days I only ran 2Ks- not feeling too good. Very stressful time at the moment- for a few different reasons- and it's getting to me.

THURSDAY 27/7/06, 3PM, 13.5K, WEEK TO DATE 15.5K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES NIKE TRAIL FREE

Felt a bit better (still acidic in the stomach though) but had a go at SW's proscribed 7 x 800m session (1 minute recoveries) on the track at Glenbrook Oval.

5K warmup, feeling a bit rough, then 5 x 100 strides, then the 800s.

Went through 3 800s in good times- 3.08, 3.07, 3.08- but working bloody hard, and decided to stop halfway through the fourth 800 as I didn't see the point in smashing myself to complete the session with Bush Capital 60K in two days.

5K warmdown in good time, a bit over 24 minutes.

Made It Count...

WEDNESDAY 19/7/06, 9PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 28K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Was meant to do two runs today, but was busy from when I got up to after dinner- so only the one short run. Bah.

Ran my 6K out and back to the Korowal School and corner of the GWH, and pushed to break the half hour-5min/K mark tonight.

Cold and windy, about four degrees with drizzle, I was wearing a fleece longsleeve, beanie and shorts. Felt pretty good from the start tonight and pushed on the return (uphill on the way back) to come in in 29.41.

Given last year I made a point of doing pretty much all my weekly running at sub 5min/kms, I was pleased I at least pulled something out of the truncated amount of running I got to do today by getting back under that mark.

12 x 400.

TUESDAY 18/7/06, 8.15AM, 16K, WEEK TO DATE 22K, 8 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Had a 4 hour run scheduled today, but had a bunch of things to do so swapped with the interval session from later in the week- 12 x 400m with 30 second recoveries- not much recovery at all! Decided to treat this a bit like a tempo session and just focus on keeping the reps under 96 seconds- 4 min/km pace.

Cold and windy morning- had rained overnight. Ran 5K to the track at Pitt Park, legs still felt pretty stiff from Sunday's KOM race. 5 x 100m strides, then into the session.

Reps went as follows....

94
92
95
93
94
93
94
93
92
91
93
89

And a very slow 5K jog home with a walk on one of the hills to give the achilles a bit of relief.

The 400s were tough work on tired legs, kept wondering if I'd blow up but kept things in control and picked it up a bit in the last few reps.

Not a bad session.

Shoalhaven King of the Mountain.

SUNDAY 16/7/06, 9AM, 32K, WEEKLY TOTAL 84.5K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Down to Cambewarra for the KOM, a race on hilly sealed and dirt roads with a climb over Mt Skanzi at around 25K, followed by a 6K road bash into Kanagaroo Valley which allows you to peel off some Ks if still fresh.

Managed to get to the start just after the runners had left and started 6 minutes late, which meant that the first few Ks were mid 4min/kms as I tried to get back into the field- too fast, and I felt the stupidly fast early pace after the half marathon point. Walked up the hill to give my legs a break, then ran a couple of sub 5 min/Ks coming into town. Passed a few people in these last few kilometres on the road, which was good. Finished in 2.55 by my watch, 3.00 or 3.01 by the race clock. I wanted to run sub 3 as my goal and did that by 5 minutes, so pretty happy with the race.

MONDAY 17/7/06, 2PM, 6K, 7 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS KAYANOS

Recovery run testing new shoes. Ran from home down Govett St, 9 laps of the park, and back, in 33 minutes. Legs felt like planks of wood.

A New Toy in Brigadoon.

FRIDAY 14/7/06, 9PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 52.5K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

A new toy- Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS. Woot.

Tried it out on the foggiest night I've encountered so far in the mountains- my usual half hour route along Scott Ave to the Korowal School and the corner of the highway, and return. So foggy that several times I had to stop and look to make sure I was still on the footpath and hadn't wandered onto the verge. And this was with a headlamp.

Still, I couldn't help myself and had four data displays operating at once on the 305- elapsed time, average pace, distance and elevation. Too much info is barely enough.

Time was 31.15, 5.14min/km.

Intervals- 5 x 1200.

THURSDAY 13/7/06, 3PM, 13.5K, WEEK TO DATE 46.5K, 8 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Some more focus on sleep worked well for this session.

SW wanted me to do 5 x 1200m with 90 second recoveries. I drove from Gympie to Brisbane Thursday morning and did the session on the artificial track at University of Queensland, St Lucia.

4K warmup in 19 minutes, then 5 x 100m strides with jog back recoveries. Then into the session. I aimed to run each rep in under 4.48 (4min/km pace).

4.45 (1K split 3.57)
4.47 (1K split 3.59)
4.44 (1K split 3.54)
4.43 (1K split 3.55)
4.42 (1K split 3.55)

2K warmdown on the grass verge of the track.

Really good session, great for the confidence after an ordinary few days. Was starting to wonder if the Glandular Fever was coming back, but I suppose not. This session was pretty hard work- alternated between expecting to blow up, and feeling aggressive.

Back home now!

Gympie Days....

In Gympie, QLD, from Monday evening to Thursday morning. Still not feeling flash- getting up at 4.30 Monday to get to the airport, after hitting the sack at 1.30, really knocked me around.

MONDAY 10/7/06, 9.30PM, 6K, 3 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES NIKE TRAIL FREE

Half an hour circling a park in Gympie, wearing a headlamp. No doubt the locals were wondering what the hell was going on.

TUESDAY 11/7/06, 9AM, 21K, 7 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Was meant to be a 3 hour run. I set off through farm and state forest roads on the north side of town, but was feeling pretty crappy early on and slowed from there. Eventually cut short at half marathon distance.

WEDNESDAY 12/7/06, 9AM, 6K, 8 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Made an effort to get more sleep. Half an hour on gravel farm roads.

Narrowneck.

Been in QLD for a good chunk of the last week, also been dealing with some deep seated fatigue (crappy sleep and not enough of it lately) and ongoing achilles tendonitis.....

SUNDAY 9/7/06, 10AM, 14K, WEEK TO DATE 59K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Like today, which was meant to be a 4 hour run. Planned a double out and back on Narrowneck but didn't get too far before I had to walk hills and the achilles was really complaining. A definite "not having fun" scenario so I turned around after 7K and went back to the car.

12 x 200.

SATURDAY 8/7/06, 6PM, 14.5K, WEEK TO DATE 45K, 7 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

12 x 200m intervals with a minute active recovery.

Again, busy all day and ended up doing the intervals on the grass track at Glenbrook Oval, which is well enough illuminated by streetlights to run on it in the dark (full moon helped too).

About 8 degrees and clear.

4K warmup, then 5 100m strides.

For the 200s, I alternated directions and the times reflected the fact that one direction was slightly uphill and the other slightly downhill...

41
38
39
38
39
37
38
36
38
36
37
34

Nicely paced, as you can see by the times (not fast though!)- wasn't really smashed at the end.

6k warmdown.

Long run tomorrow.

Cold But Good.

FRIDAY 7/7/06, 9PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 30.5K, 4 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Up very early and was busy all day, so only got out for the my scheduled half hour quite late. Thankfully this is the last recovery run from last Saturday's big run- there's a fairly solid weekend in store and a few hairy chested looking weeks coming up.

Only 1 degree when I slipped out the door. I was wearing shorts, beanie, and a longsleeve polypro shirt under a longsleeve fleece, and was toasty warm, except for the tips of my fingers.

Ran down to the corner of Scott Ave and the highway, following the railway line, and back. Achilles still a bit sore on downhills. Moved reasonably well, but, pleasingly, about a mile from the end I was feeling pretty good and picked it up to push home solidly, finishing in 30.41. Turnaround was 14.59- same as Monday- but the finish was about 45 seconds quicker (uphill run on the way back) and I felt quite good pushing up the hills.

Intervals tomorrow.

Sockless.

THURSDAY 6/7/06, 4PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 24K, 7 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES NIKE TRAIL FREES

Cold windchill today.

Another half hour recovery run was on the books, so I ran from home down to Gordon Falls reserve (2K from home), circled the grass oval there 5 times, and home. Today I tested out a new neoprene skullcap/beanie from Netti, and also did like The Colin and tried the Frees without socks.

Felt great for the first 2K down to the reserve, then after that felt tired and slowed a bit. Enjoyed the sockless feeling but picked up a hot spot in the arch of each foot. Got around and home in 32 minutes.

Pitt Park.

WEDNESDAY 5/7/06, 3PM, 6.5K, WEEK TO DATE 18.5K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES NIKE TRAIL FREE/BAREFOOT

Was meant to be water running today, but had a bunch of stuff on after a late night watching Le Tour and never got organised, so stopped off at Pitt Park whilst driving down to Sydney and ran around the grass for 30 minutes.

Ran shoeless for the first 15 minutes- haven't done that for a while and enjoyed the sensation, then put shoes on and finished it off. Felt reasonably good, achilles just a mild ache.

More Half Hour Stuff...

TUESDAY 4/7/06, 4.30PM, 6K, WEEK TO DATE 12K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

Cold, drizzly, foggy day. Another half hour run on the schedule.

In the late afternoon I ran down Govett St to Leura Oval, 9 laps of the grass, and back home. Felt choppy and not enthusiastic. Achilles felt sorer than it had the last couple of days- suspect it was because of the uneven surface of the oval.

Martin Horne again tomorrow.

Half Hour Stuff.

SW's scheduled recovery runs for most of this week- just 30 minute type stuff. oh, and there was the water running session I was meant to do yesterday, but ddin't end up running till 9.30pm, so a road run it became...

Sunday's 6K run took the weekly total to 130K. Just under 33 minutes, felt reasonably good, no serious stiffness or soreness.

Monday's run over the same course was two minutes quicker, felt really good. Achilles improving quite a bit.

Freeze Yer Nuts Off....

SATURDAY 1/7/06, 7.30AM, 70K, WEEK TO DATE 124K, 6 HOURS SLEEP, SHOES ASICS 1100

I put on a little Fat Ass run of my own to help me do a 100K training run, which SW agreed with. I devised a winding route from Wentworth Falls which dropped into the Kedumba Valley, around Mt Solitary, up Taros Ladder to Narrowneck, service trails to Medlow Bath, Katoomba Airstrip, Neates Glen, into Blackheath via Evans Lookout and Govetts Leap, Hat Hill Rd, Perrys Lookdown, Grose Valley, Victoria Falls, Mt Victoria (One Tree Hill, highest point in the Blue Mts) Mt York, Hartley Vale...

Martin Horne had another go at the achilles on Friday and advised that I might want to limit myself to 80K. I was prepared to go with this, but if I felt great at 80K I'd keep going.

After sleeping through the alarm, we had four starters at 7.30. Myself, Virtual (Brendan), Sleepy (Steve) and Herrmannator (Jan) with Steve's partner Lois doing support, as was crew supremo Mel.

Really cold windchill at the start- I wore a longsleeve polypro, tritop over that, waterproof jacket over that, beanie, gloves, shorts.

We dropped down into Kedumba Valley via the long downhill of Kedumba Walls, through the farm, got my feet wet crossing the Kedumba River, then climbed to Solitary Pass, descended to Cedar Creek to refill, then a long climb out of there to Cedar Pass, which was a steep pitch to the foot of Taros Ladder. Steve and Brendan had not used Taros Ladder before- think they found it an education.

Up on the ridge we were back in the biting windchill again and jackets were donned again. I rolled along Narrowneck feeling pretty good to the first aid station at 41K. Threw down some hot chocolate and fried rice, then left my pack behind and set off with just a handbottle. Jan elected to stop here due to knee soreness.

Pretty uneventful mix of sealed and dirt road running to the airstrip, where Mel treated us to a feast of hot chips etc, I changed into a fleece shirt and we left for Neates Glen and Evans Lookout before it got dark.

Neates was fun. A technical descent into a narrow canyon with excellent echoes and repeated crossings of a creek on stones, before a long climb out via wooden steps to Evans Lookout.

The steps woke up the achilles and it was quite sore as we strolled into Evans Lookout. I took a small headlight as dusk descended and we ran out to Govetts Leap where Mel would meet us again- the last aid stop before negotiating the Grose Valley.

I was feeling good, energy levels were great, but the clifftop track to Govetts had plenty more steps and I was limping a bit when I got there, deciding to proceed no further. The others set off and I ran out to the highway to give myself 70K in just over 10 and a half hours. Mel picked me up, we went home, I had a shower and a pizza, then we drove out to Victoria Falls to meet the boys with some food.

Alas, bad trail conditions meant they didn't turn up till 4.15am...

Achilles aside, I felt this was a pretty good run personally. No energy fluctuations during the day at all, I felt pretty good all the way, was running uphills at the end. Making progress.