RHR 44 Hold onto the fire

Firstly a huge Congratulations to Biscuitman on his outstanding 2.55 in the Gold Coast Marathon! Looks like Steve Monaghetti did a good job pacing the 3 hour pace group and finishing with a 2.58, and Biscuitman ran with his group early before breaking away....Have to say I'd like to run a 10k, Half or a Marathon at Gold Coast one year, sounds like an awesome event, perhaps next year...

A resting heart rate of 44 mid-week confirms to me that I am still holding onto some of the momentum, since my Melbourne Marathon in October last year, and the Monaghetti camp earlier this year.

Trying to hold onto the fire. I guess thats where I am at now (see hold onto the fire lyrics) post a disappointing 4.30 Perth Marathon. Trying to recover, and "hold onto the fire" (1986 Greg X. Volz (early PETRA lead singer who had some ups and downs, before recovering, a bit like marathoner Troopys demise and then incredible recovery to the highest level...) song from the River is Rising album I got from an unbelievably talented left handed drummer schoolmate of mine Richard R. in about 1990...who I lost contact with, and I fear lost his way socially, but I hope he got back on track, cos he had the drumming ability to be one of the best in the world, plus had some incredible spiritual and social insights, although I disagreed with some of his pentecostal beliefs which were typically Jesus Movement...) This song sums up where I am at mentally, had a quick listen to some of these old songs on a cassette tape the other night, along with some other Greg X Volz tunes so the main ones; Barrier,Joyous Grave, Livin for the bell, hold onto the fire, and Still Waters. Also a bit of a 1984 titletrack from Petra.: Beat the system album, which I got from Lucy O. about 1990...

Alright fit of depression off the chest, demons exorcised. Training. Well not very motivated at the moment, and still in the throes of an almighty struggle to survive financially, although I think we are winning, and God Willing, looks like I may beat the internet/phone bill challenge on the last possible day, which is today, turns out I have a day longer to play with than I thought, which is just as well, or I might have been blogging at the library or my parents today...Hoping that this week we will catch up a little, and maybe by the end of July we will be going well on the bills again.

Training;
Did two medium sized runs this week, a 90minute run on Tuesday, and a 103min run on Sunday.
Both were slowish exploring trails type runs, with some walking and a few stops along the way.
I think I was pushing the pace a bit more on Sunday, with some maybe sub 5-5.30 K's...but hard to tell as I wasnt too interested in the time, and due to the stops and walking too hard to guess my fastest pace...

Spent 5-6 hours meter reading on Thursday, although it was a bit Drive-book ish, but still walked between most of the meters just had to move my car about 4 times, instead of the normal 1-2 times. Added bonus was my metering was in the hills near Mundaring Weir, so the steep hills and beautiful bush scenery was probably good for me...
This is where the Bibbulumun track starts, the hiking trail from Perth to Albany, and its also near the beginning of the Munda Biddi mountainbiking equivalent, the trail running options in this area are awesome,(its also near where the saturday hills group that trains for Comrades annually runs, which reminds me its time I paid the C-team a visit some time...) and if I get more work in this area, and more time!!! (had no time on thursday) I may try and do some trail runs here after work one day...Things very busy domestically with out new baby girlk starting to look around, kick her legs, wave her arms, and generally checking out her surroundings a bit instead of just feeding and sleeping heaps. Does some big burps too. Most of my available time consists of helping my wife with the incredible new girl, and helping my almost 3 year old who this weekend added the word train to his vocabulary, and is now not saying choo-choo as much as a result.

The sunday 103min run I finished with a heart rate of 138 which suggests my overall intensity was a bit higher than on Tuesday...Physically I felt a bit more bouncy and moving well, so guessing come August I will be primed to get serious about this years Melbourne Marathon attack!!! Have had some ankle soreness the last day or so, which I might have done at work, probably just bruising...Also my upper thigh/hip/groin soreness was playing up again on the steeper uphill sections of the 103min run, so I perhaps need to get my hammy exercises ticking over a bit and/or make a slight alteration to my running style uphill... found an awesome new trail not far from Adventure World, it was getting dark and I ran out of time to explore all of it, but I reckon this trail I found goes for about a 2-4km loop, and very good surface, so next time I have a spare 2-3 hours I will be running over to check this one out in full...its about a 20-40min run from my house to get to it...Found some interesting info about Nyoongar history out on it too...

Also I played a little basketball on my own for 20 minutes in the AM on Sunday shot a few three pointers and layups, even did a slam dunk on a lowered ring after church, which we finally made it to for a change, reckon I could count on my fingers the number of times we have been to church in the last year or two. Was moving well there, which also involved looking after almost 3 year old Jacob and lifting him up high so he could try and shoot a basket, although he is still working on his throwing/shooting skills...

Got on Cool Running and did some research on jogging prams this week too...keen to get a good one...

So not much to write about, just easing back into the swing of things...Wimbledon is over, Hewitt only got to the 4th round, but he is still one of the best players in the world by far, and we could still see some massive wins from him I reckon...