Dave K. 223K! Me; RHR 45 181min run PERTH wk1

Firstly I think I should mention the awesome feat of David Kennedy in making it past 223km in the Coburg 24 hour race yesterday. Which from what I can see is the 3rd best effort by a West Australian behind Mick Francis 231km in Coburg 2008 and Joe Record 230km at Crystal Palace UK in 1979. It also puts him in the top 25-30 or so all time best Australians on the AURA list..., and stakes a serious claim for his selection in an Australian Ultra Runners team. They are known as the EMU's, so David Kennedy has to be a very good chance of being a new EMU after that effort...More on cool running thread

All the best to Craig and Robert in the Boston Marathon tomorrow too, while on the subject of WA runners going places...

Nice to see Sugar and Charis have decided to target New York, and Biscuitman Gold Coast. Looks like Sling Runner, maybe Clown and I will be going after Melbourne if we can...

now onto my sorry running story...the scene; a Runners Anonymous meeting;
My name is Jonathon and I havent had a run for 13 days, is what I could have been saying this morning...hahaha...

Seriously though I decided to take a week or two off after the 40 miler attempt, as I felt my body needed a rest, and I wanted to focus on getting ready for the new baby (wife is up to 35 weeks tomorrow!), and trying to crank up my hours at work a little...after taking a lot of time off for the Monaghetti camp, and to a lesser extent trying to get ready for the Masters Championships.

It was nice to have a break from the pressure of those events, and to work on some of these other important things, get my car serviced, and pay some urgent big bills.
Need to continue on that path for a few weeks, but also I want to start week 1 of my 10 week program to try and get to the start line of my 7th consecutive (hopefully!????) Perth Marathon, although I suspect it may be more about doing enough to finish under 4.30-5 hours than about getting a PB this time, but then again with the momentum I have had in recent weeks, perhaps some sub 4 hour action and maybe even a solid PB may still be possible, although I am not that fussed about it this time...

Also, although I won't be racing anything big for a few weeks probably, although I hope to make it to Masters on Thursdays, as I need to put aside time for the new baby coming hopefully in May, I intend working on trying to start my races a little slower, and trying to reduce my falling apart in the second half of races...Sure heaps of people will be saying "Ï told you so", but I think many of them don't understand where I am coming from on this...However if this doesnt improve my performance I won't persist with it, maybe I work best with a quick start...anyway I hope to be exploring some slight adjustments in race tactics...

This week I managed to hit a resting heart rate of 45, so I feel I have not lost too much ground since thats still my 3rd best weeks reading this year, behind the 43 and 44 from previous weeks. Considering I have not run for 13 days, that suggests my meter reading work is helping in maintenance a lot. A tough hilly round in Roleystone, in wet weather certainly would have helped I think...

So only 1 run this week, and it was a bit of a rubbish run or junky jog...
181 minutes (3hours and 1 minute) on the rail trail...a bit fartlekish, with running,jogging, walking and so on...had a lot of trouble with a weird pain under my right knee, which has got me worried...initially I thought it was just a pinmched nerve, but it keeps coming back and going away, so a strange one...hopefully will disappear of its own accord...
also got that pesky pins and needles loss of feeling thing around the groion area which i have had a few times over the years since 1996, although that went away after about 15 minutes...
Herat rate was 141 at the end and it was starting to warm up...after feeling really yuck with a sore throat after a yucky night at work last night, I felt a million doallars better after that 3 hour run, and a good hot shower... spent the afternoon playing one of the best table tennis games I have ever played to finally beat my dad (not an easy task), and thrash my brother (although he beat me in the first game), then watched a thrilling top of the table tussle between Fremantle and St Kilda, where it was all tied up for 3 quarters, until the last quarter, when the saints finally got a 2goal break, which Freo was unable to bridge...brave effort Freo!!! close but no cigar this time...but as Dockerland put it, we now have a 2 week holiday, i.e easy wins over Richmond and the eagles coming up so that should see us move firmly back into the top 4 after our slide down to 5th spot on the ladder after the 15 point loss today, brought an end to the unbeaten run...

Tried to convince my parents and brothers, sisters that we should make the trek down to Mt Claremont to watch the Australian championships (and Commonwealth Games trials) at the track,
as I couldnt afford it myself, but they were not convinced, so I had to miss out on it this time, maybe sometime again in the next few decades, (then again I have been to watch plenty of things like that in the past. The 400m, 1500m and 5000m races in particular, plus the pole vault and long jump sound like they all would have been worth seeing.

Its pathetic that they don't have the marathon and the walks on the same weekend, but I guess the T& F mob dont like those events.

After throwing nearly all my available spare non-rent money $400 in this case to clear my over expensive phone/Internet and electricity bills, to avoid disconnection/suspension, I was at the beg my parents for petrol/food and mobile phone credit money stage...Basically the bills are mounting up a lot, and with 70% of my income going on rent, fortnight after fortnight, despite the two jobs, there are times when it gets a bit wearing, plus I am conscious of the need for my wife to get her final prep done for the new baby. trying to find a balance between doing more hours at work to increase money, and still find more time for Kathryn, toddler Jacob and the new little one due in the next few weeks. Its going well, but I'll be happier come tax refund and baby bonus time. Also figure I didnt work enough in March /early April. Of course a better day job would be great, but I think maybe I should wait til after the new baby? or should I...? The Air race to promote red bull would have been cool to see too, my lawyer brother watched it but I couldnt.

So hopefully will get past the injury and illness niggles, and although work and the new baby is going to be a major focus from here, I hope to still mount some sort of attack on Perth again for the 7th time.. Guess the next 9 weeks will tell the story of what occurs....