3hrs 11min in my 5th Brooking Rd run

New house to rent next week, hopefully some goodnew beginnings in this new year, and new month, for Kathryn, Jacob and I...
Some of the events lately have reminded me of the fact that there is a continual spiritual battle going on, and some things I have heard people say this week suggest they have fallen for lies not far off necromanicide, so this reminds me of the need to put my trust in the Creator Triune God alone, and nothing else, although of course we are all part of this insidious problem of our rotten sin, and need to choose the correct way to live, which is absolute reliance on the forgiveness and guidance of the Christ! if we are to find the way home back...
Before I get onto the 3 sessions from this week here is some more music;
Nitro Praise version of Psalm 51, Its a Fine Day Tonight...oldschool dance onslaught part 1,part 2, part 3...Maybe setup some of the music in another window while you wait for my blog to load, or in my case try and pack boxes to move house...haha *LOL*...

Saturday 31st January 2009 AD;
Ran about 30km in 3hrs 11min Heart rate 132 at end 6minutes 22 per km.

Heart rate probably a lot higher during most of this run as I struggled a bit in the last 6km, which took me about 46minutes, so a bit grind planetariumish at the end...

Was terribly late, even more than usual this time, so when I finally got organised everyone had, gone, but I knew they only had a few minutes lead on me, so i ran hard until I caught the groups of runners, and the fast momentum felt good, so instead of tucking in behind a group I decided to just maintain pace. One or two people said hello, but I trucked on. After about 15 minutes of glorious running my pathetic out of conditionness, lack of sleep (3.5 hrs sleep coming into this run as has often been per usual with my long runs in recent times, and this week I have had a work schedule of 57 hours+, including some difficult high presuure 12-14 hour+ days, where you drive flat out between jobs, and try to fit sleep and food around things, plus the pressure of moving house in a few days time), the high humidity %, and the distance started to get to me and I started to get reeled in by groups of runners.

When BBC and the posse caught me in Midland, I was starting to try and settle into a more sustainable pace, but wanted to stay ahead of them until the bitumen section was over at least. Initially my plan for today was to run 13km out and then go back to give me a 26km, but I also had in the back of my mind that it would be good to step up to Brooking Rd again, and do better than the extremely slow 3hrs 48minutes that I did on the longer (a left turn at Strettle Rd) Brooking Rd course in the first week of January this year... Figured I'd see if I could stay with BBC and Robs group for a bit, or maybe drop back to Janes group...Got talking to BBC and company a bit, and got dragged along a bit. Then I thought they'd dropped me, but they stopped at the 9.5km? Pechey Rd carpark which I splitted in 49min 50 again! for the third time now...This allowed me to catch up, and then I got a longer rest cos the bladder in Robs hydration pack split, and we all stopped while he tried to fix that.

Then BBC decided to bring in some more fun and adventure to the morning by leading us all astray through the railway tunnel, which was fun. There was some photos from the paparazzi (as one guy put it) don't know how they managed to find us famous legends out on the trail but they did...Will try and get some copies of the photos from the paparazzi *haha *LOL* if we can... Been awhile since I have been through that tunnel. That may have affected the distance (by reducing/shortcutting the distance, or making the course tougher, and I think maybe it stopped their GPS signals from working properly, but thats a huge guess by me so maybe very wrong...dont know really...

Anyway they all started to skip away from me, and while the conversation and company was nice, I have to say I enjoyed the long periods running alone today, although if I hadn't been running with this group I would not have been as motivated to do Brooking Rd, so I guess they inspired me a fair bit!...as does the whole Hills group too...Which is one reason I go there as its hard to get motivated to do long runs on your own all the time...Thanks everyone!...

I caught up again at the big bridge where everyone stopped again, and then led them all up past Hovea, trying to step up my pace, as I was now past the point of no return distancewise for me today, and it was now Brooking Rd all the way for me, so with that turn not far away I tried to attack. But eventually they wore me down and got ahead again although I kept them in sight. When I got to Falls Rd turn I couldnt see anyone so I figured they must have stayed on the railway heritage trail and missed the turn as only Rob had run this course before, and he had probably only a hazy memory of it, plus I remembered missing this turn the second time I ran it. I got to Brooking Rd in 1hr 46min 41 which is a pretty good split.

Then eventually I spied them about a 100m up the road. Yelled out and got them back on track, and as they headed up the hill, I yelled some directional instructions at Rob for the Strettle Rd bit. Let them go then as I had no desire to attack Brooking Rd too hard just now.
tried to minimise walking this time, and stay away from the walk/run fest that I was reduced to on 3rd January this year (see post here)..when it took me almost 4 hours on this course, although I did divert a bit onto Eagle view trail that day.
Was great to catch up with BBC and Rob a bit though.

Took it slowly but surely jogging up Brooking Rd, (main goal being to not walk too much) and saw Sugar, Saskia and Warren? cruising along pretty fast past me. Got to top of hill in 2hrs 14min which is a good split, and headed left on Strettle Rd to the Mahogany Creek turn back onto the Railway Heritage Trail , and finished the last of my Gatorade. With 6km of easy downhill trail to go the time was 2 hrs 24 minutes. Struggled a bit especially in the last 2km as the heat and my fatigue increased, and my km splits slipped out to about 7-8 minutes per km, heart rate dropped as fatigue in nthe legs became the main issue, and was very! glad to get too Darlington, plus it was nice to finish 37 minutes quicker than what I did on 3/1/09 on a mostly same course....

Injuries; some occasional twinges from ankle this week, but no problems while running this week. some minor knee soreness a bit more than usual which I attribute to doing my long run on too much concrete and bitumen last weekend...Some sternum bone soreness at times (leaning to hard on fences/walls stretching for meters I think...So overall a few things to manage/keep an eye on (icepacked ankle once this week), but overall nothing major, just minor niggles mostly at the moment...

A lovely morning long run mostly, and good old Brooking Rd should do the job, of being a big part of helping me stay on track to "turn up the power" for hopefully a big 2009!

Tuesday 27th January 2009 AD;
Ran a 500m/1km/1km/500m reps ladder at Inglewood track.
Times; 1.46/4.10/4.11/1.55
Heart rates; 165/186/195!!!/189
Total time for 3km 12.04 (4.01 per km average pace)
Woke up looking for a boost, and decided to head to the track before work while I was fresh enough to do a half-decent session. It did the trick and I had a great day as a result.
Fairly good session, wasn't expecting anything incredible, my PB for this session is from 16/01/03 when I averaged 3min 26 per km and did 10.26 total time, so a long way to go to get back to my best, but hopefully I can improve heaps on this in future weeks.

I also planned out some good training ideas for the next few weeks, and also managed to get my training exercise book yearly plan all set-up for 2009 this week, which will hopefully help me to stay focused, and balanced in the time I spend, and the goals I target for things like weekly sleep time, number of sessions, training time, work time, and resting heart rates. If I achieve my weekly targets most of the time with these then the PB's will start to flow...
Looking at the last 2 years, I have had some good streaks for 4-8 weeks a few times, but mostly my good weeks in majority of measures/indicators have only lasted 1-2 weeks at a time, before I lose the plot for too long. to get the PB's I need to stay focused, and hit some of my targets (I have Grade A,B, and C targets) in most measures/indicators for 12-16 consecutive weeks I reckon...or something similiar...

Monday 26th January 2009 AD;
Ran 6km in 33minutes, HR 180
Surprisingly just 1 second over my best for this course.
In 28-29 degree heat with 50%+ humidity...sweating heaps!
(Splits; 13.26 at Benara Rd. 18.35 Altone Rd, 24.40 Maguire park.)
Good solid run to get the week off on the right foot, although I was severely struggling by Thursday/Friday, it helped give me impetus to get long run done this Saturday.

Tire Kicking again (trying to get)

Sunday 25th January 2009 0930hrs (AM); Ran approx. 18km in 2hr 14 min 39 secs HR 156! (hot conditions the main reason for the high heart rate, plus I was pretty keen to get out of the heat and probably ran a bit harder at the end in anticipation of finally getting home and out of the heat.) 7min 26 per km average, which included some short walk breaks, (the soft sand before I crossed Reid Hwy), and down the ramp from the Tonkin Hwy overpass... and two drinks breaks, including one at Lightning park where I just lay on my back in the shade and sculled my gatorade, plus felt like it was not enough....

Ads break:
Inspired by Epis post today I feel led to post my lawyer brothers (Astley) favourite? song allegedly Stayin Alive but don't quote me on that...Have to say I prefer the N-Trance version of stayin alive, which reminds of me a cool mix of N-trance TURN UP THE POWER, I used to crank myself up for intervals with in the late 90's think I got it from my brother Seth...problem is there is so many mixes out there, hard to find the right one...
Here are some good ones;
Mix 1111...MIX 2222...MIXX 222bbb...Mix 333...

I think maybe thisdark Mix from 12 globe 125 dj is the one...its hard to remember when the last time I heard it on cassette was about 1997-2000, havent looked at my cassettes much in the last decade, been mostly CD's...but I am glad I found this dark mix its a pretty cool one...and is probably the one I have on cassette tape...its exactly the sort of motivation I need now at a difficult time...

Started with a 6km lap of my "local parks" course, felt very easy pace, and came in at 37min 47 which is about 6min 19 per km, was planning to do a few more 6km laps but started to get bored with that idea, so I headed for my favourite limestone trail alongside Reid Hwy on Victoria Rd instead, with the idea of heading towards Lightning Park area.... At Beechboro Rd I headed southish and then diverted through some quiet streets near the Timberlane shops, and followed my sense of direction until I hit Acacia St and the Tonkin Hwy overpass, was cool running over the top of the Hwy, then I decided to run into Lightning Park, and proceeded to run 4 1km laps there...Heat was starting to bite a lot by the time I got to Lightning Park. temperature had climbed from 26 degrees when I started, to 29 degrees Celsius, and by the time I left Lightning Park it was probably over 30 degrees and climbing, reaching 31-32 degrees by the time I got home...Based on my guestimates of corresponding time lining up with info from BOM Ankle was very good, its certainly healing again, the pathetic shambles of almost no running in January, has probably allowed the ankle to heal up a lot which is a big positive...Only felt the slightest twinge in it when doing a quads stretch afterwards....I think its coming good again...My gluteal/hip area which gave me trouble before the Melbourne Marathon however was not so good...it was fine on the flat stuff. Which there is a lot of on this course, but on the small hills, it wasn't good, so tried to drive with the other leg instead, which seemed to work, but clearly there is an unknown unfixed problem there which may be related to me being back at meter reading again, noi time or money for massage at the moment, but thats an injury issue I will need to watch...Hopefully can use this as a springboard towards a better February, as I hope to up the training intensity and volume...Nice to finally get a well overdue long run on the board, even if it is only barely adequate if that...

Just found another exquisite Tourniquet track (one of the many) its one I didnt recognise, probably because its from the "microscopic" album, which I should get, but dont know very well its called; Besprinkled in scarlet horror, some very tasty music especially about 5 minutes into this 7min 42 secs track...has some very classical bits too with flute stuff, my parents could enjoy at the end...
Also some live Pathogenic Occular Dissonance, and "this is why I am the way that I am"... also from Tourniquet...

For some serious sustained attack the classic Scrolls of the Megilloth or Terminate damnation from Melbourne metal mission masters Mortification is always the standard by which most should be measured...Turn it up!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course Steve Rowe is also known for his cool sense of humour which the Grave Forsaken & Scourged Flesh boys from Perth found out first hand a few years ago, and now one of the Scourged Flesh/Grave Forsaken drummers is doing the drumming duties for Mortification...This sense of humour shows up in cranking tunes like Noah was a knower After more than 20 years (like Tourniquet?), death threats from the satanic community, and often a very tight budget, amazingly MORTification and Steve (despite a near death experience, that only miracles from God brought him out of!), are still going strong to this day...and more world tours should be on the horizon...Steve Rowes Mortification has to be one of the best things Australia has ever exported and imported...The track Standing at the door of death shows some of the many places MORT has been around the world...Smiley Steve's sizzling sounds of Symbiosis sinking sonically into the skull, note that Steve wears the same Tourniquet shirt which has been my favourite metal shirt for many years...

Saturday 24th January 2009 2100hrs (PM);
Cycled for 30minutes on exercise bike, 21.57km done, Heart Rate 147 at end, 359 calories used.
weighed myself after on the electronic scales Dave K. gave us for wedding presents and got 78.2kg which is a lot better, than the 80kg stuff I was getting in December. Now nthat I am meter reading again the weight is coming down, and if I can get back under 77kg, head towards under 75kg, like I did last year when I was running well, I will be getting somewhere. worked hard all the way on this one, it paid off with a km reading of more than 5km more mthan last time I did this and much higher heart rates, so very worthwhile ride...
Did this ride while watching Sam Stosur trying to beat Elena dementia in the tennis on TV, with a massive collection of barriers to stop young Jacob from getting to the exercise bike...
I am thinking I will try and join one of the excellent gyms near our new house...Have a very full on week of work lined up next week, and then its the big move, so keen to try and jam in some sessions in the next few days, while the opportunity is there, and maybe I can get into a better routine, although everything is still on hold until we move house...
Trying to avoid losing too much fitness while focused on getting the work/life (food/sleep, time with Jacob and Kathryn, and the Lord!) balance stuff right and deal with this moving house hassle...Plan is to crank it up (the training and racing) again hard from mid February onwards...

Thursday 22nd January 2009 5.45PM;
Ran 2km on Hull Park course 9min 00.81 secs HR 183.
Warmish conditions, a belly full of garlic bread, and having just come home from a day of meter reading may have been some of the factors slowing me down, but APPROX. 4min 30 per km is not too bad...Testing out ankle to see how its going and it was fine today, so thats good news. Now that I know where Kathryn, Jacob and I are moving house to, and I am starting to adjust to the two jobs juggling act as well as the moving house thing, I am hoping I can find some time to get the running going again, although at the moment its just a general health/stress release thing, I know I will handle the juggling jobs and moving house thing better if I at least get some running going, although its not going to be very focused on specific races or anything until we settle into our new place in the first week of February...Have the adventure of designing some new training run courses around our new place to look forward to...now I gotta go rush off to my night job...

This post is brought to you by Tourniquets Tire Kicking song...and
thisdark Mix of N-Trance TURN UP THE POWER from 12 globe 125 dj...

Wandering Spirit

Wandering Spirit is my theme song for this post not sure why but maybe because Kathryn, Jacob and I are moving house, so we are wandering a bit although Kerry Livgren's lyrics are actually about stopping the wandering of ones spirit...

Anyhow Have had A Win in the Field of finding a new place and we signed up the other day to move in February, so now we can stop the wandering around house hunting and get on with the big move, plus get my meter reading back on track, and maybe soon (although it maybe a few weeks away now) I can get my running going again, before I lose too much, although I do have the meter reading advantage again...

Sunday 18th January 2009 AD; Cycled 60min on exercise bike, allegedly covered 31.65km HR only 114 and 528 calories used.

Saturday 17th January 2009 AD; Cycled 30min on exercise bike, allegedly covered 16.17km HR only 114.
Disappointed I didnt make it to the run at wungong gorge! but after driving 167km flat out in the heat and working 12 hours (4 hours meter reading in Merriwa in the heat & callcentre 1700-0100)plus signing lease just off Canning Hwy, I was totally asleep when I got home at 0200, getting to armadale by 0600 wasnt going to happen given I have had way too many 3hrs sleep nights this week...keen to run in the gorge sometime though...

Just found a youtube music clip of Magdallan: Love to the rescue, good chorus line for a runner "keep on running"...pretty shreddin 80's/90's style pop metal effort from Tamplin (ex-Shout) and co...more pop metal early 90's classics like Ransom lasting love...(lead vocalist is female in this one)...

Run to the water

Mastedon: Lofcaudio album; "Run to the water" 1990
A song I liked in the early 1990's, especially after a bad day, very relaxing, encouraging, but infused with a determination of a hope for better things, which sums up where I am at in some ways right now as I try and get back to the improvement curve I was starting to hit in 2008 until my tragic ankle injury in Melbourne Marathon, which seems to have healed significantly (have not strapped it since December 21st) but is still hanging around at this stage.

Sunday 11th January 2009 AD; Cycled for 60min on exercise bike at low intensity (HR 115 after), and allegedly (according to dodgy ex bike computer) covered 30.68km, and burnt 511.5 calories...been a stressful tricky week...but neg0oiated it fairly well I think...and some major life hassles to deal with in next few weeks. Have to move house by February 2009...!!!

Monday 5th January 2009 8AM;
Ran 2km in 8min 55, HR 171. (4min 27 per km)
Jammed in a quick run on Hull park course, before going to Hopman Cup tennis tournament with my wife Kathryn to watch Australia v Germany. (Kathryn and I have been to this 4 years in a row now, love it!)... Pushed the pace, and pretty happy with this run. No problems injurywise, and got out there before the heat kicked in.

One of my favourite, favourite players, Leighton Hewitt won his match in impressive fashion against the dangerous and talented Nicholas Kiefer. Thrilling match going for about 3 hours. Hewitt on comeback trail in his first game for 5 months (following hip surgery after Beijing Olympics), was brilliant, and although he lost the first set in a tiebreaker and played a few games which had about 5-10 deuce points! looked back to his best, dominating the 2nd and 3rd sets despite some incredible serving and all court play by Kiefer. Unfortunately casey Dellacqua despite looking the goods was unable to deliver on the crunch points at the end against a higher ranked opponent in Sabine Lisicki, but hopefully will be better for the experience, and will nail the big points in future. Thought she should have beaten Lisicki, and should do so if she is mentally tougher next time. I played doubles against Caseys sister Brooke in social tennis at the Kingsley club a few years ago once...


While I am on the subject of pop-metal/mellow soft rock from 1990 that I liked at school, came across Mastedon label mate "Guardian" (which is one of my top 5 favourite pop metal bands), so here is links to a few of their tracks from the Fire and Love album of 1990; Time and time again Time stands stillForever and a day
the Rain,

Then there was the really, really, SOFT rock stuff with deep lyrics from Kerry Livgren/AD 1988 album; Prime Mover (which I also have on cassette tape somewhere); Portrait II, children of the shadows(we will stand against the night), Wandering Spirit, I'll follow youand his band AD (eg the 1986 reconstructions album; One golden thread), which a mate from school Rick Rowe (should have become a studio drummer, Rick should have, he was that good, love to know if he got himself back on track these days), got me into a bit...
Rick also introduced me to the music of secular muso legends like Steve Morse, and Dave Weckyl, and some cool Christian bands like X-Sinner, Barren Cross, and through his friend Chris Rae; the incredible brilliance of extreme hardcore death metal (but classical music infused) band Believer and extreme thrash metal band (also very classical music influenced) Tourniquet (still going now thanks to another of one of the worlds best drummers (and a Christian) in Ted Kirkpatrick)...Tourniquet(here is "tire kicking" and "ark of suffering" tracks) (and Believer to a lesser extent) is still one of my all-time favourite metal bands by a long way!, and also the cool melodic metal tunes of Canadian legends Angelica. About that time I also came across one of my top 5 extreme metal bands in speed metal legends Deliverance e.g. Flesh and blood from WOOW!!!!!!!, or their cover of Silent night...One local Perth band inspired by legendary bands like Mortification(e.g grind planetarium, a fav tune in my head when struggling in a long run or walk for at least 15 years now for me)), Tourniquet, and Deliverance, in the last few years is now doing their third album, this band is Grave Forsaken 1, 2,TV 3, episode 4, epi 5...the 3rd album..this day forth... imo one of the best things ever to come out of Perth, Western Australia; some of the many good older tracks include; Perish the thought (outro of TV episodes), North Wind, Warriors of light (intro of TV episodes),Harder to hate, Road to Damascus, horror and sadness, and Destined for ascension.

Livgren and John Elefante were both ex-members of a popular secular 70's band called Kansas before they became Christians and started to move in different directions lyrically...Kerry Livgren liquidity...not heard that before, just discovered it now...
then there was the whole Petra obsession that heaps of people were into in the 1980s...some of the last good hard rock tracks from Petra was "beyond belief"...and Creed, which thinking back to my anglican days, I think is pretty much based on the Nicene Creed lyrically...although possibly a bit PETRA-afied hahaha...or "I am on the Rock", then tracks like Counsel of the holy (based totally on one of the Psalms), or one of their most aggressive tracks; Minefield. One of their last songs called destiny I remember listening to on the plane on the way to Australian Championships as a teenager...Petra came just before Stryper of course, early 80's. Stryper was my favourite pop/glam metal band as a 14 year old in 1988, and along with Petra were the first cassettes I bought, although SHOUT and Whitecross (Rex Carroll total guitar legend) were also right up there and Rockin Rabbis from here in Perth. Some Stryper songs include; Free, To hell with the devil, In God we trust, Allright enough going off on my music tangent, but found some pretty cool links there, brought back a stack of good past memories from 20 years ago or so for me...

Start meter reading this week, so need to adjust to that, but try and up the volume and intensity of my training at the same time.

3hr 48min to kick off long runs for 2009

Sunday 4th January 2009 A.D. 1800;
Ran WAMC 5km race in 24min 15 at Burswood. Heart rate 189 at end. 4min 51 per km. Very hot conditions, BOM says about 30-31 degrees celsius.
Official results are HERE...

Felt a bit stiff from yesterdays long run but warmed up a bit, and got a great start, got to top of turn at Windan Bridge in 7min 06, feeling fairly good, where BB promptly passed me, and then she built up a 50m-250m lead, which stayed pretty much the same to the finish. No 1k markers at all which was very annoying. No problems whatsoever with ankle in this run, although its still not 100%. Could feel the heat through my shoes. Felt like a blister on left foot, but I didn't want to stop in a 5k race, so tryed to ignore that annoying pain. After the race I discovered a grass seed had somehow got into my sock, maybe from yesterdays long run, as I wore the same socks. Yuck I know, but they are my favourite thorlo socks and didnt get around to washing them.

Got back to top of Windan bridge again (burswood side) in 17min 08, so a reasonably solid finish to do the last bit (which is slightly shorter than on the way out but within a 100m or so I estimate of the other) in 7min 06 again.

Overall a great faster run, just what I needed to finish off a solid week where I ran about 45km, and cycled about 32km. So a reasonable start to training in the first week of 2009!

The time (24min 14 by my stopwatch) is pretty pathetic one, but its under 5 min per km, and even though its slower than the 23.26 I did last year in 28 degree heat that time, I am confident that if I can get the ankle totally right, and train more consistently and harder this year, and take the lifestyle to another level after the improvements in 2008, the PB's will hopefully start to flow in 2009... The heat slowed me down a bit, and I was a little leg weary from yesterdays long run, plus the grass seed probably didnt help, but I think my lack of recent trackwork is the main reason for the slow time tonight, so there is one way to sort that out, hit the track! So thats what I will try and do in the next few weeks...

So the PB's in my sights this year are; 1500m--4min 52 (1990), 3000m--11min 11 (97), 5km--19.32 (98), 10km--41.01 (98), 21.1km--1.41, (2005) Marathon 3.55.02. (2004) 6 inch 45km 6.25 (2005) ...Plus a 40 miler finish, and various other goals.
I think with the marathon anything less than 3.29-3.39 will be a disappointment for me and really I'd dlike to get closer to a 3.20 this year if possible, and with the half I really want to finally get under 1.40 for starters, and start to move towards a sub 1.30. Whether I improve on a solid year in 2008; (5000m;22.35, 10km 47.45, Half 1.45, Marathon 3.55, 6 inch 7.00) or lose the plot remains to be seen, a lot of variables but I think I am as determined as last year to try and get the creaky wheels of progress turning as I hit my 35th birthday this year.

Saturday 3rd January 2009 AD 0600 ish;

Ran (and walked a very large % of) ***about 30km*** in 3hrs 48min 26 secs. HR 132 at end.
*** I think its 29km plus the detour at Hovea Falls, and Brooking Rd makes it like running about 33km or more (big guess on my part) if I had stayed on the heritage trail all the way...

Christened the new shoes I bought yesterday at Jim Kidds with Christmas vouchers from sister in law Shannon, and my wife Kathryn.

At Darlington with Hills group. Followed some blokes I dont know (one was called Brett) down Pine Terrace and onto the gravel trails at a good pace, and before I knew it Terry,Phil and Stormy were a fair way back so I backed off a bit and ran on my own between two groups of about 6 each, the front group was just in sight, and Terry, Phil and Stormy were catching me more and more. All the way to Midland, turned in 27min 33, and headed up to the Great Eastern Hwy underpass and on to Innamincka Rd where we picked up the Railway heritage trail again in 34min 15, and Terry, Phil and Stormy caught me. Working pretty strongly to stay with them but still conversational pace at 6min per km, covered the 1km from near Innamincka Rd to Amherst Rd in right on 6min to get there in 40min. Then got a gravel stone in my shoe but decided to battle on up to Pechey Rd inspired by Stormys tales about carrying bear spray on the trails in Canada, when he went over there to run the Stormy 50 miler...

Got to Pechey Rd carpark in 49min 50 which is as quick as I have done on this course. I've done this route a few times before with Hills group (although I took the shorter 27.5km "Ian Boddy bypass" option on both 16/8/08 and 26/1/08), about 49min on 16/8/08 and 52min on 26/1/08, were my splits at Pechey Rd the last times I did this Brooking Rd course. Decided to scull one of my Gatorades then after getting large gravel stone out of my shoe. Recognised Bernadette and Rob D's cars at the carpark. Felt very spent and we had only done about 10km! Decided to bring in a walk break and let the others go. Just to spice things up I ran a slightly different trail to the main trail for a bit, but same distance really.

Then started to feel very low on energy from here on (not surprising given I finished work last night at 0100 slept 2 hours before coming on this run, and Ive had Gastro the last 2 weeks, so have not eaten very much at all in the last 2 weeks...), (and probably the 60-70% humidity contributed too see BOM) so decided to just enjoy the incredible scenic views and peacefulness of the trail, and bring in some walk breaks (ultra style). Especially since I did not want to run too hard with my plans of racing the WAMC 5km tomorrow night maybe. Problem was once I started doing that, it became very hard to get running again...Starting thinking maybe this was a dum idea coming out here today, and maybe I should go back the way I came or try shortening the route by going up Park Rd. About this time I see a Kangaroo on side of trail about 5 metres ahead, and then its Joey..Was awesome seeing Mother and baby kangaroo hopping across the trail about 5 m in front of me. Anyway ignored the negative thoughts and pushed on.

Found a Tap at the big bridge, filled my empty gatorade bottle, and tipped that over my head. Any thoughts of running at good pace pretty much gone now just thinking about surviving, getting time on feet gains, and consolidating on my 7 hrs from 2 weeks ago. Also about enjoying the beautiful creation of the forest which is so evident here, nice to be away from work, and hassles...

The section before Hovea Falls has a lot of large blue-metal type stones left over from the railway line in the past, and isn't as nice to run on, so fell into trap of walking too much again, decided to detour onto Eagle View Trail for a bit, and explore whether I could get to Hovea Falls bridge via that. Didnt like the look of Hovea falls trail track (looked too narrow and snakeyish) that appeared soon up there, so stayed on Eagle View climbing that hill some more. Surface very nice compacted white sand gravelish...Found a high point on some large rocky hillside, and spotted where I needed to go. A little further up found a small trail that led on to the rocky hillside and eventually down to the Hovea Falls bridge, so was able to confirm my theory that Eagle View Trail is a good detour route near Hovea Falls, but it probably added about 1km to my total distance...maybe...guessing a lot here might have to check map...

Then tried to get running going well again. No ankle issues at all. First long run I have done since 12th October 2008 without ankle being strapped. saw some jet airliners flying overhead to airport at various times. Saw a seat on side of trail, and sat on it cos it looked so inviting. Felt like lying down on it and going to sleep then and there, but resisted that temptation. Pushed on and it took ages for Falls Rd and Brooking Rd (which I was dreading now! heaps) to show up. Got to Brooking Rd in 2hrs 16min. Took me 33 minutes to slowly walk/jog up this neverending hill. Finally got to the top and stopwatch says 2hr 49minutes. Knocked off what was left of my second Gatorade here that I had been sipping, and promising myself I would finish all the way along Brooking Rd. Felt good to finally be done with Brooking Rd.

Turned left onto Strettle Rd and headed up to Mahogany Creek spot on the Railway Heritage Trail (off Jacoby Rd, near Thomas and Phillips rds)...Got the running going well again on the downhill of Strettle Rd. Was looking forward to finally being on the nice surface of the downward trail to Darlington. Saw sign that says its only 6.1km to Darlington. Huge motivation to try and get running properly again. Started to hit some 6min 50-8min 30 per km stuff, which is slow, but managed to pretty much eradicate walking from the last 6km. a lot of mountain bikers on the trail today. Saw the big black galah birds ("rainbirds")at one point. Ankle got a little sore with about 5km to go, but seemed to settle down again pretty quickly, so although I am still aware of it, the ankle mostly behaved itself throughout today which is very good news.

Finally got to Darlington doing the last 6km in 48minutes (which included a water stop for a few minutes at Glen Forrest), so probably averaging about 7min 50 per Km or something...The feeling of low energy seemed to disappear in the last 7-10km, although I am struggling to stay awake while typing this blog. Afterwards spent a bit of time hanging out with the blokes I ran with in the first 10km, talking about extremely important topics like "how much of a show pony Dean Karnazes is?", (reminds me of Beau Tylers Memphis Meltdown ads..big nuts, big nuts 2!!! big hokey etc...), Badwater, Western States, the Kep 100/75, dave and nathans 100k from Mundaring to Jarrahdale...see video here, Glasshouse 100mile race,and so on...Lucozade tasted like heaven on earth!... and Don and Christine dropped by to say hello which was nice.

Overall a messy walk/jog fest of a run between Pechey Rd and Brooking road "summit", but the first 10km was excellent, and the last 6-8km was half decent. But the main aim of maintaining endurnace from 6 inch 2 weeks ago is achieved, and hopefully is a promise of a good years running developing for me in 2009!