Refreshing 22km trails run in the hills

Saturday 30th June Ran 22km in 2hr 18.23 HR-138. Splits; 67.45/70.38.

Darlington to Great Eastern Highway (past Mundaring) and back on Railway heritage trail. Which is my favourite place to do a long run these days, especially since I discovered the excellence of trail running in the last 3 years.

Had the usual 4-5 hours of sleep (which has been the norm this week, my obsession with watching Wimbledon on late night tv is partly to blame...), and woke at 5am just in time to see Safin and Federer battling out the third (tiebreaker) set. Very good to watch, and after about 3 toilet stops I finally got away...partly due to the encouragement of my wife who told me "I'd better get out there as she didn't want to hear me whinging about not doing a long run for the next few days..."..
Which is very true and fair enough...so I'm glad my wife, said the right thing...

Got to Darlington about 0730hrs, and of course the hills training group had started about 30-40minutes earlier, so it was a solo run for me...Which was fine, as I wanted to take it pretty easy this morning with TAPER time starting to come into effect (only 8 days now until the Perth Marathon)...Plus I wasn't sure how my dodgy toes would go, or whether my right thigh (the dog bitten one from Monday) would go, as I hadn't run on 'em all week really. Right thigh was a little tender in the first few km but once it got well warmed up it was fine. Also wasn't sure how I'd go running with all these antibiotics in my system...so lots of reason to take it very easy today in my last long run before the Perth Marathon on July 8th.

As I ran up the gravel trail with the beautiful refreshing sounds of a winter creek on one side and birds and frogs all around, I thanked God for the chance to share in some of his less spoiled creation...It doesn't get much better than this...

Saw a few of the regular runners (and some of the recent Comrades 89km finishers)just before Mundaring and exchanged waves and hellos....
Was hitting about 6min 30 per km in the first couple of km, but started to gradually get faster, going through the 9.5km in Mundaring in 57min 45, and then the next 1.5km in just 10 minutes to turn at 11km (great Eastern Highway) in 67min 45. Took a 4 minute break here to drink 500ml of powerade, and get gravel out of my shoe...Ran with heavy inserts again seemed ok...Then relished the downhill to split the next 1.5km in 8 minutes which is about 5.59 per km. SDecided that was faster than i wanted if I was going to keep the heart rate under 145 today, so backed off the pace a bit,and just enjoyed the run back to Darlington, qdrinking my last 100ml of powerade at about the 100min mark...

The rain stayed away for my entire run, although I didn't really care that much it was nice to not come home with wet shoes...A refreshing long run done, which ensures I am ready for next weekend. Hope to have a good 10k race tomorrow, and then its mostly logistical challenges to deal with if I am to smash the 3.55 PB, and hopefully have a shot at the sub 3.30.....

Resting heart rate was 43!!!!!! yesterday my equal second best ever, so looking good, despite a disaster week at work, dog bite and only 20 hours worth....due to various hassles, commitments. Although we did do a Resus course so get paid for about 26 hours...


WEEK 15 (25/06/07-01/07/07);

Volume; 138min + 20hrs MR. Sessions; 1 +MR Best RHR;43!! bpm Sleep; 38hrs (5.4 hrs per night!) *00


OD/LSD/LFD sessions; Ran 22km 2hr 18 HR 138 30/6/07.

Races/Time trials; NIL
Reps sessions; NIL

Comments; Cruisy long run, which was an enjoyable way to push aside some of the mental, financial, relationship and physiological frustrations of the week, plus it put in place the final long run I was keen to get done before the Perth Marathon next week as my taper is now fully operational. Physiologically I should be in top notch shape if I can maintain the good and extremely significant lifestyle adjustments made in the last 7-8 days, get a lot more sleep!, and get off the antibiotics, plus fully recover from dog bite. Spent most of the week, dealing with dog bite I received at work (still on antibiotics for it to avoid infection), doing resus course at work, getting a flat tyre at work, locking keys in car at work and basically having a pretty pathetic week in many respects. Enjoyed watching wimbledon on tv, but it cost me way too much sleep time, so by saturday night I was a total wreck, from less than 5.5 hours per night all week long. Then ate lots of exotic tasty (but very unhealthy high in fat) food at resturant for my mums birthday, along with way too much potato chips (while watching the Wiz (Jeff Farmer) and the Dockers destroy carlton on tv, and emerge as a finals chance once again!) ,plus too much chocolate and lollies in the last 24 hours, which resulted in a lengthy procession of diahorrea starting last night and continuing this morning...Between another 4-5 hour sleep night on the couch (4th night in a row), and the regular visits to the toilet, any chance of heading to lake Monger to race a 10k was killed off, so I stayed at home and tried to get my worn out body sorted out instead while the stormy winds and rain raged outside. So sunday a wasted day trainingwise, but I think we have enough stuff banked for a serious shot at PB next weekend if God allows me the opportunity, and helps me to fight off these satanic attacks that have struck at me all week long...must be doing somehing very right tt to cop so much attack from the evil one, maybe its the lifestyle adjustment, something I have been hoping to do for years...Anyhow have a win or two on the myriad of hassles I am dealing with right now, trust God, and hope Kathryns baby stuff goes relatively smoothly and the crucial things will be ok....Hopefully look back one day thank God, and be glad I persisted through the storms of life....