City to Surf HALF M week 6

Sunday 31st August 2008 AD AM;
Ran City to Surf Half Marathon in gun time 1.55.30 (net time 1.54.48),

HR 174 at end. Average pace was 5min 26 per km...

895th? of about 1400.
7km; 36.03
14km 73.13 (37.10 7km split)
21.1km 1.55.30 (42.18 7.1km split)

2008; 6km 31.01? 12km 63.25 18km; 98min 18
(2007; 6km 30.03, 12km 63.05 18km 97.15 )
...1.54.48 in 2008, 1.54.20 in 2007...

Official champion chip results @ HERE

PHOTOS coming soon via FUSE PHOTOGRAPHY...

My webpage about my City to Surf running (and racewalking) since 1997 is HERE, includes lots of photos, and shows my 12k PB of 52min has stood for way too long.

My messy 1k splits as best as I can remember from my wristwatch;

5.30 (4.48 actually, because it took 42 seconds to cross start line,and includes Malcolm st hill)

4.51, 5.15 x2 (didnt see 3k marker),5.32,=26.23 first 5km.

4.38?(downhill in kings park with John,Mike?...),5.02,5.13,6.32,(talking to Jane and others,dropping GU,drinking my powerade,trying to digest it)5.52
=53.40 first 10km.
4.50,4.55,4.54 x2 (missed 13k marker)=14k 73.13...

then missed 15k,17k,19k,20k,21k markers, so;

roughly 6.11's,6.30s (stopped to have GU, caught by 12k runners),
5.30's-5.00's partly with Hunna in the last 3km to finish...
So I was comfortably able to hold around 4.50-5.30 pace for some of the race, but had some 5.30-6.30 rubbish after a slow start for a bout at least a third of the race...

Cranked up Grave Forsaken on the way to the race, but forgot bodyglide, although it didn't seem to matter...
Got there early and decided to run around to stay warm, but got too far away from the start with a minute to go...

First 10km was 53.40 which is very slow..., I was just too lacking in sleep and not up for a good time today, turned out to be quite hard to organise things so Kathryn could come too, but I felt it was more important today that we all got to enjoy the City to Surf experience as a family than I did a really good time, but still got in a great long run for my Melbourne plans so a successful run in the grand plan scheme of things...

Ran slowly for 30min before start to stay warm and jogged back to Perry Lakes (35min) afterwards so I could walk the 4km with Kathryn and Jacob. So did about 3 hours of pretty much continous running, so a good long run in the end...

Lost interest/motivation in attacking my time once I knew I wasn't up for a PB today, from about 15km onwards, but ran well with a friend in the last 1-2km, and I think we enjoyed pushing each other a bit through that section, which allowed me to get well! under 2 hours and finish just 28 seconds adrift of last years 1.54.20 which was nice. Always good when you can run with a legendary runner of similiar pace.

Official time of 1.54.48 quite a bit quicker than the 1.55.30 on my wristwatch which shows I wasted 42 seconds stuck in the crowd at the start trying to get across the startline after the gun went... I didn't finish all that stroungly and just cruised in tried to keep heart rate from ballooning today, so probably ran most of race at heart rates of about 160-170's which is a bit slack on my part...Saw a few cool running hats, including a guy with a nick of "Vurt"...

Was great to catch up with many people I know briefly especially from the Hills group, and my wife Kathryn with 1 year old Jacob in pram did their first ever City to Surf, plus caught up with uncle and aunty after the race, so a successful (and challenging day logistically) day! Coming off about 4 hours sleep, but really had a lot of fun, and enjoyed the day even though the time is pretty pathetic, a worthwhile training run for Melbourne. Very proud of Kathryn for making the effort to get to the start line which was a challenge for her and Jacob...So nice to have her there on the day, plus the time with Uncle and Aunty after the race was really wonderful too...Jacob got to walk some of the City to Surf on oceanic Drive, and he was very good the whole way...:-)

More than 37,000 in it today am very glad I did the Half Marathon! Heard Cathy Freeman talking before the race. Saw Phil B, Macca,Terry,John,Mike,Jane,Gary, Hunna,Pete and Anna?,Dave,the Swiss bloke and others so good to catch up with a few legends of running like that! A good days running at about 180 minutes, plus more than an hours walking with Kathryn.

Saturday 30th August 2008 AD AM;
Ran 2km in 8min 19.66 on Hull Park Course Heart rate; only 171!
(4min 09secs per km)
Vistula St splits 1.13/1.32 (6.47)
Small St splits 2.31/2.47 (5.32)
Hull Park bit; 3.01...
Its a PB again on that course YAY! :-) and I think if I keep improving the fitness,
I should be getting into the 7min zone for 2km again, which is something I havent done for a few years...

The most pleasing indicator though was my heart rate at the end of this short wake-up in the morning run, which at 171 was quite low, and is a sure sign I am ready to go for a good run in my second City to Surf Half Marathon (21.1km) tomorrow. Might even give the 1.41 PB a bit of a battering maybe, although the 3 hills and my lack of speedwork (reps etc), plus a lingering flu sickness I have almost shaken out of my system now, might just stop me but we shall see, looking forward to it. Its more a training run for Melbourne in October, so don't really care what the time is as long as its under 2 hours, but the faster the better ! My wife Kathryn and I got our racepacks last night, she is doing the 4km walk with Jacob in the pram, which wil be her and Jacobs first City to Surf! Ive been car reading again this week, so body should be pretty fresh and ready to go this weekend, back to walk reading next week...

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 6 (25/08/08-31/08/08);

Volume; 188min + NIL MR work (car reading) Sessions;2
Best RHR; 52bpm Sleep; 39.5hrs (5.64hrs per night) *37

OD/LSD; Yes 3 hour long run by adding an extra hour (warmup and warm down) of slow running to City2Surf Half.
Races/Time trials/LFD; Yes 2km-8.19 (4min.09secs perKm),
21.1km (C2S)-1hr 55 (5min.28secs perKm)
Reps sessions;NIL

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-Yes achieved
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-Yes, just.
3-Abs done?- Nope...
4-cycling done-Nope...
5-swim done?-Nope...
Comments;Well I am keeping "my hat in the ring","foot in the door" of a good Melbourne Marathon, with two good key sessions this week. While I am pretty disappointed with my pathetic City to Surf half marathon time of 1.55, I just wasn't dealing with the hills, and wasnt able to go anywhere near the PB...If I had worked harder a 1.48 or 1.49 might have been possible but I just couldn't be bothered busting my gut for that this time round. If I had been able to get through 10km in under 48 minutes like in the Perth Marathon this year I would have had a go at the PB, and gone for broke, hopefully can have a serious go in the Freo Half or perhaps even the Sydney Half...we shall see. Enjoyed my running though, and thats " one small step" again for my Melbourne Marathon plans. Still feel the need to ramp things up a lot, maybe next week??? Although the state election is going to make things busy...Need to get more sleep this week, the last two weeks have not got enough...Looking forward to trying to step things up as September Spring is sprung tomorrow...

Here we go here we go here we go wk 5

So once again I feel like the blokes in that old Mitsubishi Canter advert trying to get to a footy game in a car that starts to rev, and then doesnt start...like my training plans false starting as usual the familiar feeling of starting to rev up, "here we go!!! , here we go!!,here we go!!,herrre we goooo", maybe starting to get somewhere?????? So will my training plans "engine" accelerate from here or will it stutter along and cut out, fail to really get going, we shall see, but as I said to one of my mates the other week, "a runless day is a bad day", so if I can eliminate as many of them as possible (a swim,ride, etc is good though), I will improve...

Friday 22nd August 2008AD AM;
Ran 6km in 28min 06secs on Hull Park course. (4min 41 per K)
Heart Rate at end-177 Splits; 8.53/9.37/9.36

Did a PB for Hull Park course by exactly 1 minute.
Previous best of 29min 06 on Thursday 7th August see HERE, splits then were;
9.35/9.33/9.58, so compared to;
8.53/9.37/9.36 (todays splits)
I started a lot faster, held on much better in the last 2km (probably not having tracksuit pants on helped, although I did sweat lots as I persisted with beanie and jumper today), and the most pleasing aspect is that my heart rate was marginally better, so I think I am slowly improving, despite still being unwell this week, I am maybe almost back to 100% health now...

Injury report; I badly lacerated and bruised my left ankle earlier this week (tripped over my 1 year old Jacobs playpen trying to hurdle it quite fast, on Tuesday night in a similiar way to that Swedish runner Susanna Kallur did in the 100m hurdles heat at the Olympics this week), so this run was also a bit of a test to see how that would go running at a decent speed, (after doing a test jog while walking to the shops with my wife Kathryn Wednesday night) and although my ankle is still a bit sore, it wasn't a problem really although left knee was doing its usual occasional ache thing at times today but thats always hanging around...

Work asked me to be a "car reader" for two weeks, cos someone was going on leave for two weeks (turns out he ran Melbourne Marathon last year also, which I found out while he was training me on Tuesday) so been adjusting to that new temporary role this week, and zipping around in company car all week instead of my normal walk reader role, its been fun trying to get the reads that walk readers cant get due to dogs, buried,hidden meters etc,...nice to do something different...but I'll be happy to get back to walk reading again...

So a good run to kick off my week 5 campaign...

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 3 (18/08/08-24/08/08);

Volume; 28min + 5hrs MR work. Sessions;1 +MR
Best RHR; 47bpm Sleep; 37.5hrs (5.35hrs per night) *26

OD/LSD; NIL (too busy worked all 7 days this week (all day shifts, just couldnt find a long slot of time and lacking in sleep, but organised flights for Melbourne Marathon trip)
Races/Time trials/LFD; maybe 6km 28min 06.
Reps sessions;NIL

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-NO failed...
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-well halfway there did one solid run.
3-Abs done?- Nope...
4-cycling done-Nope...
5-swim done?-Nope...
Comments;Looks like the motor didnt start this week, maybe next week, although the 6k was a good run, and am primed to go, if I can just get out there...Been learning new car reader work (short term 2 week fill in for someone on leave) and that has been a hassle...plus day shift at callcentre saturday and sunday, and organised flights for Melbourne Marathon trip...

Plus watching a lot of the Olympics on tv!!! One of the many highlights for me was seeing Jarad Tallent take the silver medal in 3hrs 39 in the 50km walk! Wonder if he will racewalk the Melbourne Marathon in sub 3.30 this year???? Inspiring stuff!, Then there was sally McLellan,Steve Hooker, Tallents bronze medal in the 20km walk, the Mens and Womens Marathons, and Jane Saville, Claire Woods in the 20km walk, the mens 10,000m was a great race, the steeples also interesting, with an Australian in the 3k steeple final! Emma Snowsill winning the womens triathlon, and the other Emma also medalling, the list goes on and on...I love watching the Olympics!

An old friend: Brooking Rd 27km week 4

Saturday 16th August 2008 AD;
Ran 27.5km in 2 hours 46min 29 seconds (6min 03 per km) HR 144.
15 minutes faster than what I did in January this year!!!, and at similiar intensity...so effectively a PB on that course...


Early on I was thinking of going on the ZigZag course with the terrific trio Terry,Graham, young Phil, + others, and almost did, but then decided the Brooking rd course might be of more use to my Melbourne plans...

Ran with some A-teamish runners for the first 80 minutes or so, they stopped twice to let me catch up which was nice of them. Found the pace a bit hot at around 5min per km or maybe a bit faster, but hung in as best as I could had a good chat with Mike the Mechanic early on (3 hr 24 in Perth a few weeks ago) and then DJC (sub 3 hr marathoner doing Boston Marathon next year). Got to Pechey rd in 49min despite taking a toilet break, so I reckon we must have been doing about 4.30-4.45's per km...

Beautiful views as usual, kangaroos, birds, and the waterfalls flowing, reminded me of the times my wife Kathryn and I used to hike along this section a few years ago...
Hovea falls was going well, and as I saw the Eagle view trail markers, I was reminded of the group going there today...Hung in there with the other 6-7 runners until not long before the Falls rd turn off...

Then I had good old Brooking Rd hill to myself (hills are your friend), I reached the bottom in 1 hr 39min. I got to the top of Brooking Rd in 2hrs 2 minutes, so it took me 23 minutes to get up (and partly down to cross Great Eastern Hwy) the thing!
Just like old days, but I didnt walk any of it. Then I was a bit confused which way to go and had my 4th and last 5 minute break for the day (so I actually ran walked for 2hrs 26min if you take out the breaks which I leave my stopwatch running for, in 3which case my average running speed would be 5min 19 per km despite the tough long Brooking Rd hill) and drank most of my second powerade, before deciding to take a guess on Strelitza Rd and followed that all the way to a road I later found out was Bailey Rd, just heading in the general direction of where I thought the Darlington bound trail was, when I got there in 2hrs 23 min and the sign said 3.9km to go I was pleasantly surprised, and got going stronger again, especially when one of the other runners getting an extra 4km in passed me, my last 4km taking 23 minutes, so hitting sub 6min per km again...

Excellent run very happy with it, and hopefully it will help me shake the flu I have been plagued with this week, I had a lot of mucous still in my system this morning...
Finally got one of the big guns out of the Training arsenal, and put it to use... YAY!

MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 4 (11/08/08-17/08/08);

Volume; 166min + 23hrs MR work. Sessions;1 +MR
Best RHR; 49bpm Sleep; 40.5hrs (5.75hrs per night) *13

OD/LSD; 27.5km 2hrs 46min (LFDish in the first 90 minutes)
Races/Time trials/LFD;NIL
Reps sessions;Nil.

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-YES,
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-No
3-Abs done?-Yes.
4-cycling done-No
5-swim done?-No
Comments;Still trying to get over the flu, get rid of the congestion in my nose, until that happens I cant attack training properly. Just have to wait it out, hopefully be able to go hard at it in a few days time...Great to nail a tough! and very important long run, the tough Brooking hill course combined with fastish early pace, my first decent long run since Perth Marathon on the back of that mediocre 18k last week, means thats one crucial Melbourne Marathon prep session done, just need about 10-20 more if I am to seriously give that sub 3.25 goal a shake. In a good position to attack if I can just avoid anymore illness and develop some good daily routines in the next few weeks...

Olympics is inspiring, the usual Australian swimmers, Hackett just failing to get his 3rd gold in 3 olympics in the 1500m freestyle, despite holding the world record from the heats, same as Eamon Sullivan did, Opals beating Russia in the Womens basketball, as did the Boomers,

but Especially enjoyed seeing the surprise bronze medal from Jarrad Tallent (who I had a chat with in last years melbourne marathon which he was racewalking in about 3 hours something...) in the 20km walk yesterday, and the 38 year old Romanian woman winning the womens marathon today, with Kenyan Catherine Ndereba getting the silver from a chinese woman....With 3 victorian women from australia Benita,Kate and Lisa all doing really well for Australia, but no top ten finish, although not expected...Moneghetti's commentary was great, and some interesting info about the origin of the blue line on the road, it was made by an old president of the victorian racewalkers club for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics...

Gotta Step on it Week 3

My blog title inspired by an old Jet Circus song from a cassette tape I found a few weeks ago which was a favourite Swedish band I liked about 1991/1992 ish...Just found out they are on myspace by googling them, and have done a few more albums how cool is that! :-)...
Step on it, you gotta step on it...Oh Yeah I'm pretty stoked with the Freo demolition of the eagles on the weekend too, very appropriate that Macca (Sean McManus), could finish his incredible career with an excellent derby win!!!

Sunday 10/8/08 AM;
Ran (and walked for a couple of minutes in a couple of places) approximately 18km, in 2 hours 4min 33 secs...(about 6min 55 per km) Heart rate at end 132 beats per minute.

Since Saturday at least I have started to develop a cold/flu or something, so my horror run with illness is persisting for a bit longer. So I didn't feel like doing anything today, and reps was not an option they way I am feeling. Resting heart rate was sky high at 58 today, another indicator I am not well, but I know for sure anyway cos I feel weak,sick,and have a runny nose, big sneezing all happening...

Keen to get a long run on the board though, so I decided to do an OD (overdistance), or low intensity style long run and aim to keep going for 2 hours, and not worry about pace at all. Been wanting to explore my Victoria Rd (Reid Hwy) course as I havent run that way for a long time, so decided to head out that way, but now there is a little creek where I used to go, so had to detour a bit, as I wasn't into running through that today...

However I found a couple of new ways onto Victoria Rd, and soon I was running dow this limestone track with the beautiful views of Darling Range, on the way back. The solitude (serenity? :-) *LOL*) of this dead straight section was awesome.
Really enjoy running that track, even though its only about 1.5km you feel like you have left surburbia and are in the bush... I enjoyed it so much that once I got back home to the end of the first 6.5km in 41min flat,(6min 18 per km), I grabbed my powerade and gatorade, and decided to head up the hill to find a shortcut back onto Victoria Rd, to run the same section again instead of going on my "tour of local parks" course...

Then I decided to try and run to Lightning Park,(a new footy oval in the last few months) as I have never run that way before and I was keen to see what this fairly new recreational facility is like...Ended up trying to go along Reid Hwy and a ridge next to the Hwy, but that felt very Snake-ish/swampy, and wasn't really any great tracks to run on, ended up walking some of it. Crossed Tonkin Hwy and jumped the fence into Lightning Park, ran around the footy ovals (some kids were playing a game there), then decided to try going over Tonkin Hwy on the overpass, then had to find my way through residential streets back to Reid Hwy, and my last chance to run the glorious Victoria Rd section one more time, into gusty stiff easterly winds, but more than made up for by the awesome views of the Darling Range, and the "out there" feeling...Getting close to home I realised I was going to finish under 2 hours, so I went and did a lap of Ottawa Park to make sure I ran for over 2 hours...My first long run since the Perth Marathon in July....

So achieved my objective of a 2 hour long run this weekend, despite being a bit sick...Hopefully next weekend can nail a 3 hour run or something like that, i.e. 27km-35km will be the plan, as I can hopefully start to get serious about the charge towards Melbourne...

Friday 8/8/08 PM;
Ran 8km in 39min 47secs. Heart rate 177. 4min 58 per km.
Solid but a bit more relaxed than last night, although I pushed hard in the last few km to try and get under 5min per km.
Did "tour of local parks" course + 2 laps of Ottawa Park (to get extra 1250m to get it up to 8km)...
It was dark and this course is poorly lit compared to my Hull Park course so was taking it easy early on to avoid doing an ankle on honky nuts or anything else I might not see in the dark..might have to dig out my headlamp and get some batteries for it, if I keep doing these night runs...ditched the trackie pants this time, which worked well... So thats two good runs in 2 days, hopefully can go after something a bit more significant in the next 2 days...

Thursday 7th August PM;
Ran 6km in 29min 06 HR-183 at end. (4min 42 per km.)
3 laps of Hull Park course, 2km splits 9.35/9.33/9.58...

7.30pm start; beanie,trackies, longsleeve top over tshirt, cos it was a little chilly at start (About 12 degrees according to HERE+ a bit lower due to windchill...) but by the second lap I was sweating like a torrential downpour, had the beanie off, and the long sleeves rolled up, and wishing I hadnt put tracksuit pants on...Pretty good run, and a massive 4 min PB! under the 33min I did on 29th March 2006, the only other time I have done 3 laps of this course...
4min 42 per k equates to about 3.18 marathon pace, so I got a long way to go, but a still a pretty decent run, I am pretty happy with!

I went through the special Olympics TV guide today and found the times of all the Beijing Olympics Athletics events I want to watch and wrote them in my diary, they include, 20km walk (mens and womens)Luke Adams,Jarrad Tallent,Chris Erickson (I stayed at his place when I went over to do the Australian 50km walk world cup trial in 1998) 4-time Olympian! Jane Saville (who has a blog! I found out today, how cool is she!, when I was doing Australian championships for Racewalking 1989-1993,1998-2000, I would see her winning most of the Womens events, although a girl who went to my school Willetton SHS after moving over from England,(Chelsea Groves) almost beat Jane in the 1989 U/17 girls 5km road walk at Adelaide Grand Prix circuit, I raced in the Australian U/17 boys 5km road walk that day also...)

Oh yes I digress, other events; 50km walk Jarrad Tallent (I had a chat with him in the 2007 Melbourne Marathon),Adam Rutter and no Nathan Deakes DUH! Duh! DUH!!!!!
Jarrad should go pretty well, but Deakes was a definite gold medal favourite after breaking the world record in Geelong (at 4.19 per km his 50km walk record equates to about a 3.01 marathon!) a , bronze medalling (same as Jane Saville in Athens), and becoming the world champion in Osaka last year, but he has torn a hamstring tendon from his pelvis!, and is out for the season!

According to the Tv guide I got on the weekend the program for the racewalking events is as follows;

Saturday 16th August 9AM Mens 20km walk;
Luke Adams (medals chance),
Chris Erickson (top ten chance),
Jarrad Tallent (top ten chance).

Thursday 21st August 9AM Womens 20km walk;
Jane Saville --her 4th Olympics and the bronze medallist in Athens 2004, medals chance You can wish Jane all the best in Beijing from her website @ http://www.janesaville.com/
via jane@janesaville.com
also
Kellie Wapshott,
Claire Woods.

Friday 22nd August 3.30PM; Mens 50km walk;
Jarrad Tallent (medals chance),
Adam Rutter.

Sarah Jamieson Australian record holder in the 1500m (was on state teams with me in the early 1990's and I heard her speak plus I got her autograph at Kelly Exeters New York Marathon fundraising breakfast last year) is another medal hope, especially now some of the Russians are out for drug test switching... Lee Troop in Marathon should be interesting, Womens Marathon, Craig Mottram a medal chance in 5000m for sure!
Plus Kylie Wheeler in the Heptathlon (she was prominent in the University of Western Australia (UWA) Athletics Club when I was there...and is one of the nicest athletes I have ever met)...


MELBOURNE 42k (12/10/08) ASSAULT;
WEEK 3 (04/08/08-10/08/08);

Volume; 195min + 14hrs MR work. Sessions; 3 +MR
Best RHR; 51bpm Sleep; 40.75hrs (5.82hrs per night) *

OD/LSD; 18km run (2 hours 4min)
Races/Time trials/LFD; maybe 6km 29min 06.
Reps sessions;Nil.

5-point strategy measures;
1-long run/ride etc done?-YES, achieved just.
2-2x reps/race/timetrial sessions done?-No
3-Abs done?-
4-cycling done-No
5-swim done?-No
Comments;Not a great week at only 32km of running, or 195minutes for the week, but not a nothing week either, so am stuttering into gear, just have to stop getting sick, free up some time, and can hopefully build on the small training momentum I was able to put in place this week. Am moderately pleased with the 29min 6km run, and getting a 2 hour long run done. The 8km run in 39min 47 was satisfactory, but a bit on the slow side...Hopefully the Beijing Olympics will be inspiring!