Memorable Monaghetti camp and 1500m/10k races

The Monaghetti camp was awesome for many reasons, the catching up with people, the training, the location, the chance to meet a world class, but very humble, top bloke and total legend in Steve Monaghetti, and also the freakish legend in worldclass dualathlete and Physiotherapist Raf Baugh from the Running Centre being there also made for an incredible weekend. Then there was Justin Barich from Physiotherapy Solutions...So some incredible people gathering there...Getting 30 hours or so away from the 2 year old was probably good for my sanity too, even though I love the kid, and really enjoy being a part of his growing up.. nice to get away from work too, although paying the bills in the next week or so is going to be tight as a result.
Massive thanks to my wife, the good DR (you know who you are), Raf Baugh, MONA!!! everyone there, and everyone who helped make this weekend at Nanga so special.

Got a free STRANDS.com (a bit like facebook for athletes, I'm on it...) shirt from Biscuitman....just another of the cool things that happened on this camp... Biscuitman has a detailed description of the weekend from his perspective, and a few more photos @ HERE...still more photos to come...

Memorable happy times. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the photos, especially the one at the Fartlek session. There is also a photo at Sugars blog already! Thanks Sugar for getting that up on a Sunday! we got home. Monaghetti has a red shirt on in the middle, Ive got my gray 2004 Perth Marathon jumper on and my blue and gold Cool Running hat on...

Seriously I got back on track in the two days of runfest, that left me weary but very happy. The thursday night track racing at Masters looks like a winning formula. Ecstatic with the way this week finished, have a long way to go to get where I want to, but some promising signs. Just got to try and make sure the momentum is sustained next week, and Bridges should be reasonable, although not expecting a PB or anything.

Sunday AM;
2hrs 56min 56 secs trail run. HR 135 at end.
Ran with Bernadette,Rob D., and Rolf on the Bibbulumun trail into Dwellingup, and then alongside a railway track for another 20 minutes or so, and then headed back. Got to Dwellingup in about 60 minutes after some pretty technical trail running mostly, rocks, tree roots, overhead branches, palms that cut me several times, and logs to jump over. Constantly descending or ascending, very hilly, narrow single file trail through densely wooded bush mostly. No snakes seen, but heard some on return, surface mostly gravel or leaves covering dirt.

The last hill BBC really flew over, and that one took a lot of energy from me, and I struggled to stay in touch. Got back as we headed north of Dwellingup along Bibbulumun near railway line. saw old station platform and wine tree sign. Soon I had to throw in a walk break, and i lost sight of the other 3. Waited at the "station" until the others returned. Then tried hard to stay in touch. Rolf had injury problems and ended up walking home along Nanga Rd. I tried hard to keep BBC and Rob D. in sight, and succeeded until about 1hr 55minutes, when we had left Dwellingup and headed back towards Nanga RD. Just couldnt sustain, things and for the second time today took a big walk break. Had 1 or two more short ones, but was able to run at slow pace (7-8 minutes per K Im guessing), to finish about 22km (+ the 20minute wait at the "station") back at the Woodhouse. Saw Raf in car on the way back. As usual he was very encouraging.

My strands post about this run reads as follows;
Very unsure of distance, wild guess based on what BBC measured it to be on garmin. Munda Biddi bit at the start was uphill but nice gravel/compacted clay surface... From then on it was; Very tough terrain, pretty technical part of the Bibbulmun Track mostly. Narrow single file, large rocks, tree roots, logs, overhanging branches, got cut by palms dozens of times, hurdled a lot of logs, heaps of ascent and descent, pretty much a meandering hilly kangaroo track almost for much of the way. Got to Dwellingup in 60 minutes, but worked too hard trying to stay with BBC and Knoddie. Also spent about 20 minutes resting at old station and chatting with Rolf, while waiting for the trail legends to come back, as I was spent, and didnt have enough in the tank to chase them any longer. On the return I had to throw in some long walk breaks from about 1 hour 55 minutes onwards, (about three 2- 10 minute walk breaks) to get my energy back. Route was Woodshed at Nanga Bush camp off nanga Rd near Murray River, up namga Rd via trail alongside road (MundaBiddi), then left turn into Bibbuulumun all the way into Dwellingup on the Bibbulumun track, and then onto Bibbulumun a bit more via the Dwellingup Oval, heading north east of the town alongside railway line, to old station and then back the same way. Knoddie said pace was about 6.45 per km about 40-50 minutes into it...Pretty happy to get well over 2 hours on the board...accumulated fatigue from the 2 hours the day before, and my 10k race on Thursday night was always going to make it tough...so pretty happy to get this one done, dont really care about the pace...

Saturday
late PM;
Played 3 on 3 basketball against Raf, with Mona on my team for about 20 minutes, we got into it, and raised a pretty big sweat by the end.

PM;
58 minute trails run. HR 147 at end.
Saw 3 big black wild pigs, in pine forests along Murray River, very hilly hard compact clay, gravel and bitumen surfaces. Very weary from AM session, but gutsed it out.

Made a pretty rough attempt to map this 58minute run on MAPMYRUN (I'm on there as trailblazer777), its in the right general area, start point and turnaround point very approximate, tough to pick from an aerial view, with so much trees around...See
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/australia/-near-dwellingup,-western-australia/478126919001699338
or HERE for my attempt at mapping this course...not confident the turnaround point is accurate...think it may have been further...

AM; 60minute session
20minutes warm up , 20 minutes warm-down, partly on Munda Biddi Trail, the bit at the finish of the 6 inch race, and nearby. Fartlek was on gravel trail and the grass oval of Dwellingup oval. It was a MONA fartlek (speedplay) led by the man himself who invented the session the Olympian and past half-marathon world record holder Steve Monaghetti !!! It was similiar to the whistle intervals I did at the WAMC Tuesday night intervals session last year. Basically 90 seconds run hard, 90 seconds, float, repeat a few times, then 60 seconds, then 30 secs, then 15 secs. for a total of 20 minutes of interval running. In the first rep I was pretty much on heels of Mona and Raf Baugh for the first 30-60 seconds, and for the first 30 seconds it felt easy, felt like I could have challenged them, about 60 seconds into it, either they found another gear, or I ran out of puff, cos I had to back off from 60 secs to 90 secs. I struggled to float the rest times, and ended up walking or jogging most of them, but I tried to make sure I banged every rep to the max as much as possible. By the end my legs were very dead, and everyone had passed me, but my heart rate was only 177. Really struggled with the last 10 minutes of the warm down, even though it wasnt at a fast pace really.

Thursday @ Masters, Coker Park;

1500m 6.03 (4.02 per K) 47 seconds first 300m.
HR 186. Felt like I was going to die afterwards, didnt cope with that too well.
300m-47 secs. 400m 72 secs.
700m 2.34 (1.47 400m split)
1100m 4.22 (1.48 400m split, and still on 3.53 per K pace at this stage)
1500m 6.03 (1.41 400m split helped by my last 200m being 43 seconds)...
Overall time a bit slower than i was hoping, and my recovery afterwards was a bit disturbing, although I kind of expected that, as I knew I wasnt fit, and the totally PRE to the MAX start had to take its toll especially in my current state of unfitness.

Ecstatic! with the first 300m as its 4-8 seconds faster than I can remember running for many years. Saw Sugar or someone loom up on my inside in the first 20 m, so ran like a scared rabbit (trying to evade a shooter for the first 100m to get the lead, and could feel the legs shutting down with the lactic acid at about 250m, but dug deep and made sure I ran right through the line, to get a good 300m split. If I could hold that speed for 400m, I'd run a 63 second 400m, about on par with my best in little athletics in the 1980's.

Curious to see what I can do with spikes on for 100m, as it appears I havent lost as much as I thought, with spikes and a good track, good conditions, and psyched up enough all working for me. the 47 equates to at least 15 seconds for 100m, so I am guessing 13-14 seconds may still be possible. I remember doing 12 seconds as a teenager, and 13 seconds as an 11 year old in 1985.

then about an hour later;
10,000m 49min 35. (4min 57 per K) HR 183.

1k splits; 4.24/4.40/5.06/5.18/5.02/5.08/4.54/5.12/5.17/4.44

2k splits; 9.04/10.14/10.10/10.06/10.01

Decided to be a lot more conservative in this one as I couldnt face feeling like I did after the 1500m again, plus I just wanted a solid time around the 50minute mark on the board, not feeling ready to go after any big time improvements. Conditions perfect.
So took it out relaxed with a 1.40 to kick things off, sitting in 4th spot. Michael Mezzatesta dominated from the word go. Bjorn, Kim Thomas and one other bloke were just in front of me, but I knew they would pull away sooner rather than later. Concentrated on trying to settle into a fast but comfortable start. 1.48's (4.30 per K), seemed to feel about the right speed, so stuck with that for starters. By 2km was starting to find that a bit hard, so then set about trying to keep 2.00-2.10's ticking over with some faster laps thrown in when I felt up to it, or when a faster runner came by. That seemed to work well. Got passed and lapped by many people, but tried to stay focused on my task of getting to the finish around the 50minute mark. My lap scorer Neil was doing an excellent job, and the young girls on the drink station were doing a good job too, used that station a few times to keep my body skin temperature from overheating...Wound it up a bit towards the end, and did the last 400m in 1.45, to get well under the 50 minutes, so mission accomplished. Worked hard, but probably a had a little bit in reserve , especially in the first 2km where I took it a lot! easier than I normally do in a 10k.

So a reasonably successful racing hit out. Mission accomplished as far as getting a good hit-out on the board before the Australian Masters in a few weeks. Hope I can improve my 1500m time a lot, and hope to take a few minutes off the 10k time as well, although sub 50 is satisfactory. Just found the entry list for the Australian Masters, there is 13 entrants in the 1500m, at least two of which I ran against on Thursday (Kim Thomas (thrashed me in both races) and John Collier (just beat me in the 10,000m)), but the big news is I can expect to get totally annihilated by Ray Boyd and Paul Mitchell in the 10,000m, although some of the others might not be so good...My racewalking coach as a
junior (Stan) is racing so hope to catch up with him there...Some good motivation to try and sustain the momentum from this week...

The MONA Camp got me back on track in two days of runfest, that left me weary but very happy. The thursday night track racing at Masters looks like a winning formula. Ecstatic with the way this week finished, have a long way to go to get where I want to, but some promising signs. Just got to try and make sure the momentum is sustained next week, and Bridges should be reasonable, although not expecting a PB or anything.