30k with the C team and a 38min 8k. Base is in place.

Sunday no run but helped WAMC with a little course setup and traffic controlling at the Deepwater point run. Some good chats with others there. Congratulations to Raf who lead Nathan Doig all the way I am guessng in typical frontrunning style in the 7.5km. Rafs brother Ryan had a good result too with 4th place, and congratulations to Clown 7th, Dr Epi 8th and Biscuitman 9th...So Moneghetti campers got 1st, 7th, 8th and 9th in this one...Another Moneghetti camper Rachel Smith was on the podium for Women as well I think...
Gerry Hill from the Running Centre destroyed the field in the 15km, and Stephen Stockwell was well ahead of 3rd place too...Well done to Jodie too. (good effort backing up after the 30k the day before with the C-team to race the 15k really well here)...Nice place to run...20th Century Boy wore his Cool Running top and continued his good form this year...

Saturday 27th November;
30km 3hr 42min 11 secs.

Darlington run with C-team. The huggy huggy trail, then Hills Discovery Centre, pipeline trail, Llama Loop, and back to start. felt fairly shattered afterwards. The hills on the pipeline trail and especially on Llama Loop were very solid.. Excellent long run. My first time on the Llama Loop, and I got to see a brown Llama. Unsure of course really, bit of a guess, but one of the runners with a Garmin said it was right on 30km…nice long run to finish off my long runs for 6 inch in 3 weeks time. Really glad to get that one done, and as usual the C-team are always up for a good chat, so the Km’s slipped by very quickly. Also got to meet two of the contenders for placings at 6 inch in the Womens race. A wonderful mornings running with good company. Wasn’t game for Eagle View trail and a longer faster run with some other 6 inch aspirants, plus I like to take it easy on my long runs, so am confident running with the C-team even with all the breaks along the way was the best option for me at the moment… Thoroughly enjoyed the run, and the last 40 minutes or so, put me to the test, so I know it was a very worthwhile run.

Friday planned to race 3000m at WA athletics, but just wasn't up for it, especially with money problems, and metering giving me a nice surprise by telling me Friday morning midday they had run out of work south of the river so no work to do Friday arvo, Saturday, Monday or Tuesday now = big pay drop next week...DUH!!! have plans to cope with it, including starting a new job...but the next 3 weeks is going to be very tricky financially, after that maybe a much better setup financially, and hopefully this will flow into better quality (and qauntity of) training and racing...so a bit nervous hope the gamble pays off for me and my family...a lot! riding on this but massive rewards if it works...God willing I may not need to go back to the night job at all...see how it pans out in the next few weeks...



Thursday 25th November
AM; 8km 38min 51 secs HR 183
HR 183 at end. 4k splits; 19.27/19.24
Weight before: 79.4kg Weight after: 78.6kg. (sweated out a lot of fluids I’d say)
1k splits;
First 4k; 4.28(downhill)/ 2x about 5.22 (mostly uphill )/4.14!! (dead flat)
Last 4k; 4.10!! (dead flat) 2x about 5.15 (mostly downhill)/ 4.44 (uphill)
Meant to be a tempo run, but really felt the heat in the second half of the run even though only about 24 degrees celsius, and 30% humidity. Turned into a war of attrition in the last 3k.
Hit 5k in 23.37, and probably pushed it a bit too hard from 3k to 5k (4.14 and 4.10), so was really struggling to avoid slowing to a jog from about 6.5k to 8k. Managed to hold it together with a 4.44 last 1km uphill, but didn’t have the same spark at the end, was paying the price for hammering it a bit on the nice flat section from 3k to 5k.
HR of 183 tells the story, and not really a full-blooded kick for home on this one.
That all said, its still a 75 second improvement on 2 weeks ago, and some promising signs at various points along the way, so if anything I think I’ve maybe gained a little bit of momentum.

Resting heart rate 38 and 39 the last 2 days, and weight dipped under 80kg again today, so seem to be holding onto almost the same level I had for Melbourne on 10th October. Just need to get more regular short sessions done, and get some track racing going, plus keep the long runs ticking over, and the rewards should start to come. My wife Kathryn surprised me this morning too by deciding to go for a 40minute walk too with the kids to check out the new fitness equipment at our local oval, (so hopefully that becomes a more regular occurrence) before we all settled down to watch the first day of The Ashes while having breakfast. The Poms are 2 for 71 now. Hilfenhaus got Strauss with the 3rd ball of the day.

PM; A few hours metering on some steep hills of the Darling Scarp at Mt Richon (between Armadale and Byford)...awesome views of the city and the entire coastal plain below. One street is called treecrest!. Death Adder habitat so had to be careful...lots of Kangaroos including 2 joeys...tried to take photo with the new phone I got last month, but couldn't work out how to capture image with it maybe I need an app or something...new fangled gadgets, cant work em out, still getting used to the new car too...

After that started another round and then headed for Coker Park to race the 5000m, but missed the start by 3 minutes, so went shopping with my wife instead...Saw results the next day, and the winner was Garry Vogler in about 19min (racing for VIS (victorian institute sport?))
who I am sure was a racewalker for ACT at Nationals around 1989-1992 when I was doing U/16's u/18's etc at Nationals...Good to see my old coach in the results again, still going strong in his 80's...Also see that one of the guys who used to chase me at training in the Armadale days in 1989-1992 (he was younger and I was heaps faster in those days) has just one a seat in the Victorian election, in 2004 he completed 100 miles of racewalking in under 24 hours at Coburg, and he has a 1hr 41 20km walk time to his credit, (better than my 1.46 PB...)...

So thats 4 consecutive weeks I have got the long run done.
1. 4 hours Recon on the Munda Biddi with Dave and Belinda
2. 2 hours (and 4 laps of the 3k course at about 14-17min 3k pace plus a lot of jogging around this area) Night run at Lark Hill, tried to stay with Dave K. as he got from 60k to 66k after midnight...
3. 3 hours on my local trail/roads with a lot of hills, and a very slow pace...very ODish (overdistance: heart rate 123 at end)
4. 3 hours 42min on the Darlington trail with the C team including about 5 major breaks where we just relaxed, chatted, drank sports drink, and exchanged lollies in some cases for 5-10minutes, so about 25 minutes at least of break times in that 3hr 42min, plus some walk breaks...Some fairly significant hills towards the end which will help with 6 inch a lot, plus some of the runners (especially Jodie and Liz) there were pushing the pace a bit, so I used that to throw in some faster surges by chasing them a bit, between chatting with Kate and Jane (starting to get going well again after their sub 4 hour efforts in New York!!! Marathon) and another 6 inch first-timer this year in Thomas...I think Jane was holding back a lot though...as she pulled away a lot once the messiah turned up...
Hopefully Jane and Kate will get on Strands.com soon too...but they might need a bit of help...

Done the 8k tempo runs twice in the last 3 weeks. 40.06 and 38.51.
So thats a reasonable base to launch the 6 inch PB plans from. However my shorter high intensity stuff and hill reps needs a lot of work. Plenty of time to do that in the last 3 weeks, but need to get serious in the next 2 weeks if am to make gains there. Long runs I think we have done enough, could have done longer ones, and higher intensity ones, but more important to look after the calf, which hasn't bothered me in the last 2 weeks , so hopefully its fully healed, and no need to see a physio...we shall see...need to replace socks, and 6 inch will be my last race in the Sauconys Ive had all year long...Don't want to use the Reeboks as they will get too damaged by the trails of 6 inch, want to save them for track racing and fast road running, trackwork...Which I hope to get going in the next few weeks in a big way if the new job works...

Its time to spend some quality time at the track, start racing Friday nights (and maybe Thursday nights) get used to being lapped by the big guns, hopefully settle into the new job, and hopefully smash the 6 inch 46km PB on December 19th. Also organising my 20 year school reunion for December 12th in Bedfordale so as usual a busy time at the moment...
Also need to sort out my old car with the insurance company as the signs I am getting are that noone will repair it as the repairs would be more than the car is worth...My 6 month old daughter is starting on solid foods this week, and my 3 year old son is getting to some important times in life too...

Hopefully onwards and upwards this time for real...

new car Gregson and 3 hour long run

23.75km (approx.) in 3hrs 00min 10 secs. HR 126 at end.
10.87km splits 1.17/1.27. + about 16min going up and down my 1km hill reps course.
Started with temperature of about 27 degrees and 49% humidity, by the end the temperature had dropped to 22 degrees but the humidity had steadily risen to 84%!= a lot of sweating and fluid loss. Was a bit low on fluids by the end, but a good solid OD style session.
Keeps my 6 inch plans ticking along, although need to work on my shorter runs in the next few weeks. I think 2 more long runs should see me well prepared for 6 inch in the long run department.
Saw 4 rabbits and a tortoise! on my run tonight. Thunder and lightning kicking in by the end of it. Fairly hilly run with a mix of bitumen, a little bit of grass, but predominately limestone/sand trail…

Its been a tough week. work has been flat out, and in some ways that offered some benefits and I think slogging it out in Salter Point in the 36 degree heat on Thursday, and again on Friday in 39 degree heat, were pretty good crosstraining, and I lost 1kg to dip back down to 79.0kg just from the metering on Thursday and Friday. I was also sick with the flu all week (but couldnt afford to take time off work) , combined with settling on the new car, meant I had many good reasons not to run. 1. Too busy with work. 2. too sick with the flu. 3. Too busy getting new car sale finalised. The weekend was very busy with family oriented stuff and I knew I was in no condition to race the Pen run. However by Sunday I was determined to try and get my long run done to consolidate the strength gains I made in the last 2 weeks with the 2 hours at Lark Hill last weekend and the 4 hours on the Munda Biddi 2 weekends ago.

This week I bought a new car, its a 2006 model with only about 34,000km on the odometer. My old 1994 model has about 346,000km on the odometer and I've had it for 10 years. It recently suffered someone running into the back of it, and I'm worried it won't be up for the new job I plan on exploring in an attempt to hold onto the lifestyle advantages I had during my Melbourne preparations, and also which hopefully would raise our family income significantly. Its a big risk, but you have to take risks to make progress in life, and I have not burnt my bridges at my other jobs just yet. December is the ideal time to explore what may be a better option.

left too late for the Ryan Gregson breakfast put on by the Running Centre on the Friday, and the traffic was horrendous, I was about to turn off at Canning Hwy and head off to work, but couldn't get to the left lane so decided what the heck I'll just drive right in and see how late I am. Sure enough I was about 35 minutes late and only caught the tailend of Ryan answering questions from Raf. But it was cool all the same and once again as I have for Mottram and Bideau talks in the last 2 years I took some notes. Was nice to see Ryan and Dave there. Different sort of group, mostly schoolkids this time, which is fair enough given Ryan is only 20 himself, but still a bit surprised not to see more older runners. Good to get a feel for where Ryan was coming from, and he was saying 160km weeks was his staple when he ran the Australian Record 1500m in 3.31. It was also obvious too how much the incredible running culture in Sydney and Melbourne is what we miss here in Perth. Falls creek of course got a mention as usual...Glad I got there, although it didn't have the same buzz as Mottram being there, you still felt like here is a bloke who could medal at Olympics or something like that if he gets it right in future years. His training is not that incredible, its just obvious he has 1. a driving desire/single-minded focus over many years to be the best he can be, and he is consitent about getting the good sessions done again and again. Runs 130-160km a week, but only races 800m-1500m with a few 5,000m and 10,000m races occasionally. Hasnt run a marathon yet. Clearly closely directed by Bideau. says he always wanted to be a professional athlete from a young age. I'm reminded of Sarah Jamieson talk a few years ago. Its maybe too late for me now, but its been obvious for me since about 1990 that if you want to compete for Australia you need to either move to Sydney/Melbourne etc or travel there a lot each year, or we need to construct a similiar racing/training culture here in Perth. The Monaghetti camp this year was a step in that direction, and the Running Centre and the BT Running Club, 6 inch race, Comrades training groups in Darlington all have potential too, as does the runners in Perth that Blog or use Strands, you need that running community, driving each other on to greater heights if we are to have sustained success. Once again this talk highlighted that again.

I'm also reading John Gilmours Lasting the Distance book at the moment, and its interesting that this one bloke was a major driving force in 1. WA Marathon Club getting started, 2. Canning Districts Athletics Club with its rich running history getting started. 3. Masters Athletics WA, 4. Coker park where the annual John Gilmour 10k is run. This bloke was either a state champs medallist or a world Masters medallist (mostly the winner in both cases) over distances from 800m to the Marathon for 67 years, not many people can eveen claim to have run for 67 years, let alone run under 40 minutes for a 10k for about 60-67 years...Utterly amazing bloke. He is 1. a non-drinker, 2. almost a vegetarian (eats chicken and fish) but other than that eats whatever he wants, 3. avoids illegal drugs, 4. doesnt smoke. Its not hard to see why he was so good for so long, and it confirms something Ive thought for a long time which is that the main reasons people dont play sport as they get older is because they get too busy, too lazy, and too slack with their lifestyle choices. You are as old as you want to be, and the single most important thing people can do is not retire until they get to 85 or older.
It truly is a run for your life situation. My old coach is about 82 now and he still is competing still has Australian Masters records, and he ran in the 1948 London Olympics, and although he is about 9 years younger than John Gilmour, there are a lot of similarities.
I'm also reminded of the Book of DANIEL in the Bible where Gods chosen ones chose to not drink alcohol and be vegetarian in obedience to what God commanded them to do, and they were stronger and healthier than those who did the opposite much to the Kings surprise.
So some lessons and inspiration there for us all, to keep trying to head in the right directions as much as we can. The rewards are great.

I only ran once this week, but I hit the main key session target well which was a 3 hour long run, which keeps my 6 inch plans well and truly intact. In many ways I lost a bit of momentum again this week, but still a lot to work with, if I can get things ticking over again. I think thats about 15 weeks with a resting heart rate of 40 or better, although the latter part of the week I was slipping out to 43, 48 or even higher with being sick and busy.
I think the next 2 weeks are my best chances to get long runs done for 6 inch 46km race, but I have a bit more confidence now I have the 3hr and 4hr ones on the board from the last 3 weeks, plus the 2 hours at Lark Hill last week. Need to get after the short stuff again like crazy, and maybe this week, it will happen...No point in racing 5k or 3k or 1500m on track until I get my short stuff happening again.

2009 Season Bests; 5k-22.52 10k-48.39 Half-1.47 Marathon-4.11 6 inch 46km-6.16 (PB)
2010 Season Bests; 5k-22.06 10k-46.53 Half-1.46 (calf injury) Marathon 4.05 (calf injury)
Ive done slightly better in 4 out of 5 of the above distances so far this year. No PB's yet but if I can PB in the 6 inch, it will have been a better year in all 5 of my main distances this year.

In addition Ive raced an 800m in 2.46 a 1500m in 5.34 and a 2k in 7.55 this year, so while I have not been able to land the big breakthrough yet, the signs are its not far away if I can maintain the momentum. In particular Melbourne was immensely disappointing in that regard, as I think the calf injury scuttled a likely big PB.

So hopefully I can get something happening in the next few weeks for a big 6 inch, and now the difficult task of getting a new car has been negotiated, thanks God!! and my Dad!, there is a very good chance we may be able to put in place big plans that hopefully will net some big PB's in 2011. Keeping injuries at bay, and some higher level track racing and training will be important, but also doing lots more high quality runs more often too. I guess an attempt to pursue the higher mileage is something I've been wanting to do for awhile. Maybe in 2011 things will go better in that regard, or maybe I'll get busy with something else...we shall see...

Page 21 Aust Masters Handbook (2010-2011)

Looks like I am (im)famous again, following on from my page 3 photo in the Melbourne Marathon info booklet this year, this time somehow a photo of the start of the 10,000m from the Australian Masters championships this year made it into the Australian Masters 2010-2011 Handbook I got in the mail today. Its in the first 30m where I am trailblazing looking to see where Paul Mitchell is, as in deference to a far better runner, I am looking toavoid blocking his run on the inside. Paul and I cruised the first 400m in 72 secs, before I retreated back to my rightful place and let him and the legendary Bruce get on with the real business. a forgettable race that one for me apart from the first 400m really, but I'll take it a cool photo of an exciting start. They combined my age-group (35-40, with the 40-45 I think. I can see CR Tiger Boy there too.

In all seriousness though if I am to race these championships again (which I'd like to but 6 foot is more important), it will be tough to find the $ to go to Brisbane in April, but most of all I hope my old coach Stan gets there. He still has a couple of Australian Masters records from recent years, and I think I spotted him in one of the other photos in the book. Kim Thomas my nemesis in most age-group events also makes the photos in the steeplechase.

So a nice surprise that one...

8k tempo a Nocturnal Lark and metering

One secondary definition for the word LARK is "a carefree spirited adventure". The Lark hill run was certainly that. However the Lark Hill sports super mega-plex is named after birds maybe. The skylark is only listed as being found in eastern australia, so perhaps the area was named after the mudlark, but perhaps it is the skylark or meadowlark, since it is a coastal area of unique wildlife and plants, pretty close to some very big salt lakes, and would be an ideal area perhaps to introduce the bird. I did a quick recon of the area a few weeks back, and think I may have seen a brown/white bird singing as it flew with great acrobatics, so maybe someone has introduced some skylarks to this area, not sure...

Did my biggest metering week for the year so far and worked 6 days, so between that and trying to get my car dramas sorted its been an extremely busy week. Still managed a resting heart rate of 38 at the beginning of the week, so holding onto some fitness, but things are certainly slipping a bit, so need to get car dramas settled and start finding some training time again as I feel I lost momentum this week a little.

The 8km tempo run on Thursday was a very good run, but I had a diabolical day at work on Friday with nearly 8 hours of walking around dealing with very hard to get meters, a pitbull and a lot of electric fences part of the days challenges. By the end, I had a significant gluteal strain or some sort of hopefully minor injury that seemed to disappear after an hour or so, but was very painful at the time, but most of all I was just too worn out to race the 5000m on track on the Friday night that I had planned to. Besides I feel I need to train up to a higher level before I go down to AthsWA to get thrashed. But I have registered, and when the body is ready I will head down there for some white-hot intensity racing (will still get thrashed/lapped a lot, but at least I will hopefully be ready to start working on attacking my PB's in earnest. In particular the soft 21.49 5000m and soft 43.49 10,000m. The 11.11 3000m, 4.52 1500m, and 2.16 800m will take a lot of work to get even close to...

Saturday 2320-0120 Sunday;
Got there too late to really put in much time at Lark Hill, and the Nocturnal running in prime Tiger Snake territory, was mentally a bit hard to get psyched into, but I prayed a lot, and put in 4 laps to give Dave K a bit of company on the last 6km as he almost clocked up 70km for the night!
So 12km on the course, and probably another 3-5km of jogging around the general area= about 17km with a few stops along the way in 2hrs 4 min so that almost qualifies as a long run sorta/kinda...Habitat of the Western Ringtail Possum....predator is the red fox....A good nights running, excellent course setup from Dave K, and nice to see about half a dozen intrepid souls came out and supported Daves ultra quest, with a few hours on this awesome piece of trail. AP probably the best, and made Dave earn the win for at least 3-4 hours. Suzys effort to knock off 33k, along with Nathan, BBC, Talia, Bel, and Brett all deserve a mention. So all in all at least 9 of us had a run on the course. Rob D. was there too.

Thursday;
8km in 40min 06 secs (4k splits; 20.33/19.33) HR 171 at end. 5.00min per K.
1k splits;
First 4k; 4.33 (downhill)/ 2 x approximately 5.37 (big uphill climb taking it easy and unsure of 2k point)/4.46 (on flat rd)
Last 4k; 4.36 (on flat rd)/ 2 x approximately 5.12 (mostly downhill, trying to step it up a bit)/ 4.33 (uphill, working hard)
Whats going on, I negative splitted, it must be a full moon, I don’t do negative splits do I????! Guess it must be a tempo run then…hahaha.
Seriously a good solid run to try and keep the momentum ticking over and try and get me heading in the right direction to do some serious racing this summer, instead of the try and survive until next season sort of lethargy that I have settled for in the last 2 years…Also a good de-stress after some stressful, but exciting opportunities in the last week or so that I have explored especially after the damage to my car the other week… About 80% humidity = a lot of sweating going on...

Overall a reasonable maintenance week with the 2 sessions done, in a week I concentrated on work a lot, but hope to step things up a notch in the next 2-3 weeks, as I pursue twin goals of 1. getting ready for some track racing, and 2. putting in place a possible assault on my 6 inch PB of 6hrs 16min if the body is up for it.

47.35 John Gilmour and 4 hours on the Munda Biddi

Well the sub 40 resting heart rates are still hanging in there on my good days, and the 46km (weekend warrior effort) on Friday/Saturday including the 4 hours on the Munda Biddi keeps my 6 inch plans well and truly on track, but the 47.35 10k time was about 2 minutes slower than what I was hoping for.
Official results of John Gilmour 10k including Roberto Busis new event record...I was 23rd of 31 in the B race...

By Friday morning my weight had ballooned to 81kg on the back of a few more non-running days, and this probably contributed to my slowish John Gilmour 10k run. By Saturday I was back to 79kg, for the first time since before Melbourne Marathon (10th oOctober 2010)I think...
46km in just over 24hours on Friday and Saturday = a very hard 29 hours or so of running, which makes up this weeks episode of weekend warrior running sessions, yes I failed to get anything happening early in the week again. Maybe next week. Although I'm still metering and that to me is low intensity sub standard "mileage", but I want better than that...

So the Long run is a massive massive plus, and the 10k race was a good hitout, and so-far so good for the calf, thanks God!. Momentum building more like a freight train this week, just need to do a lot more of it, and get something going in the first 4 days of the week maybe...
feeling positive, although disappointed with the 10k result.

Saturday AM;
Ran for 4hours 03 minutes and 53 seconds (HR 126 at the end) with Dave and Bel on the Munda Biddi trail following part of the 6 inch trail race course. was absolutely shattered at the end, but very satisfied that this run will give me the required strength to finish 6 inch on December 19th, although I do plan to do a bit more than just that in the next few weeks...I will be a bit sore in the next few days I think.

Calf scare mini-drama..resolved by the Creator Triune healing...
I forgot to put my calf guards on for this run, and about 30-40min into it, I felt a few stabs of pain in the calf, nothing severe just pretty minor pain, but pain all the same, and I was worried it was going to end my run very early on, but dave prayed for me, and God chose to heal me on this occasion, and withing 10-20min I was totally pain-free, and have not had any trouble since either in the next 3hrs of running or afterwards.
My calf seems to have pulled up ok out of it, which is a very big blessing Thanks God!!!!
However, I think I will try to remember my calf guards for future runs...although maybe I should just pray more and trust God more, but, God helps those who help themselves..i.e. God has given us a brain and expects us to use it, plus although he can always heal, He doesnt always choose to and we can't demand healing. That said, it was very nice of Dave to do that, and lesson for me is probably I need to trust God more and worry less.

Friday PM;
Ran 10k in 47.35 HR 183 at end 4.45 per K average pace...weighed 81kg that morning.
1k splits; 3.53/4.37/4.47/4.47/4.48=22.52 and 4.59/5.00/5.00/5.08/4.36=24.43

47.35 for me in the B race first up, my best John Gilmour 10k time (so a personal "meet record" for me if you like after 3 efforts in the 48min zone in the last 3 years) so far, and it was a solid run with 5k splits of 22.52/24.43, so not much slower than the 46.53 I did at the Freo funrun in September, but all that said, I am a little disappointed with the time, was hoping for significantly better than that. Was probably expecting a bit too much with recovery from calf injury still in progress (no issue at all on the night but it has cost me training time and without the calf guards from The Running Centre I would not have been racing at all), and only one good session since Melbourne (the 5x1400m the other week), so the 43.49 Track PB and 41.01 Road PB are still there for me to chase, and hopefully its not too late.
The westerley winds were a problem throughout my race, and the high humidity (perhaps 72%) may also have been a factor...

Racing on the track is my world and has been for several decades, and I feel very at home churning out lap after lap, you could say its one of my natural habitats, its where Trailblazer defaults to Trackblazer instead of Roadblazer. hahaha I like the way you can monitor your progress so closely each 400m, and I always know how many laps I've done and how many to go, and I am working out 1k and 2k splits as I go, but concentrating more closely on 200m and 400m splits (so in a 10,000m the pace calculater in my brain gets a solid mental workout as well as my body) Ive never had a Garmin, only have a wristwatch, but I wrote down my 1k splits a couple of hours after the race, as i am used to remembering race splits from my races over the last 20 years+, and its just normal modus operandis for me, in this case it was 3.53/4.37/4.47/4.47/4.48=22.52 and 4.59/5.00/5.00/5.08/4.36=24.43 (if I have remembered correctly)...
I'm mentioning this partly to show how different runners come from very different racing perspectives, and this affects the way various people race...

I think the 6k I did in the morning might have made me a bit leg weary in the last 5k and I have had a pretty tough week with a minor traffic accident last week. As usual I found myself at the front straightaway (I think I'd have to run backwards almost to avoid it), so thought I'd make sure I stayed there for at least the first 400m. Cruised through 400m in 77secs a bit slower than the 72secs running with Paul Mitchell at the Auistrailian Masters 10,000m in April, and then tried to settle into something even.
1k was 3.53 which felt easy, and then legs got heavy and my 2k split was 8.30 and I knew it was going to be a tough night as I needed to be at 8-8.20 or better and I found it heavy going for the last 3-4k, with 4.45-5min per K all I could find in tired legs. So clearly I still have some work to do to transfer the 4.30's I can average for 5-7k to the whole 10k, and then try and get even faster....Was finding that I was handling the fresh westerly wind in the home straight a lot better than others, and I'd pass people into the wind, and then theyd catch me again on the tailwind in the backstraight.
Could hear some crowd support from BK and others which was nice, and I was blessed with an excellent lapscorer...Big thanks to C for that...
Finished off with the obligatory last 200m in 40 secs or so, but just couldn't find what I needed to attack in the last 5k. Was hoping to hit about 1.40-1.45's (400m splits) but ended up struggling to get 1.50-1.55's-2.00's on my better laps as usual in the last 5k...No injury issues, calf guards did their job, and not really sure, maybe its the lack of training since Melbourne, partly due to my calf issues, that brought me undone, I guess realistically with the calf injury, I was always going to struggle to get up for this one, and I should be happy just to be able to enjoy racing, and time improvements will come later...


I had a fantastic night watching the A race from the grass banks and yelling abuse I mean cheering on various runners as always seems to be the case at Western Australias version of Zatopek the John Gilmour 10,000m!!! It was my 4th John Gilmour 10k, and I come from a track background going back to little athletics in 1984, and in fact the year I first won a state medal in little athletics (1987) I was competing for Southern Districts little athletics which is based at Coker Park, and my first Senior athletics club (before I went to UWA athletics) in 1989 was Canning Districts which is based at Coker Park, so Coker park is a very special place for me, especially now that Perry Lakes track is gone.

Roberto Busi won in 30.22, (which other than ray Boyd, there cant have been a lot of WA people that have beaten that time although I think that English bloke visiting WA who won John Gilmour 10k a few years back (Angus?) did a similiar time ) and is now destined to mix it with the best in Australia soon. We wish him well, and look forward to watching him mix it with the best hopefully on TV...
Fantastic Effort from Cody to get second in 32.46! Stephen Courtney and Gerry Hill were in the top 5 and David Kennedy PBed in 34.16? with spikes and an AURA top on. Excellent running from Jockster, and Kevin also, and congratulations to Epi on getting into the 37's well overdue. Nice to see Rochelle Thorpe back to win again in 40.04?. Good to see Paul Mitchell having a go especially early on again, he is a past stalwart who not that long ago was pushing Roberto.
In the B race, some of the usual suspects were back again, and Coops and Shaun (8min PB!!!!) had good races !

I even won some honey in the draw prizes afterwards! Big Kev and Jockster you just missed out on your prizes they called you out about 5-10min after you left.
Wonderful night, and one of my favourite races for sure...

Friday AM;
Ran 6km in 31min 13 HR 162 at end. 5min 12 per K on hilly road course.
Tempo style run HR 162 at end. 3km splits 16.01/15.12, so a big negative split, as I pushed the pace a bit on the way back…Just needed something to get me going for the weekend. Best of all no injury issues wore the calf guards as usual as has been my standard thing now for the last 2 weeks. Pretty sure without them I would not be running. Hoping that most of the healing is done, and I don’t get recurrence of the calf strain, but if I do, I just will work through it again…Took it very easy for the first 3km…nice run to kick off this weeks edition of weekend warrior…
Bit of a get back into the groove run, which in hindsight was probably too close to the 10k race that evening.

So after the dust from my 4 hours on the Munda Biddi has settled, and as I recover from the shattering experiences, I am much stronger than I have been for many months now. The calf seems to be holding together, and nursing my way to a possible 6 inch PB looks a very distinct possibility. I get one more chance to get it right in a 10k at the Peninsular run, and hoping to do a lot of track racing on Thursdays and Fridays over the summer. If I can get some good track sessions done, keep the long runs coming, keep the injuries uinder control, keep the domestic chaos of work and financial issues sussed, then God willing, some good racing ahead. Maybe even the Lark Hill 6 hour race next weekend...Its not easy, and a lot of improvements to be done, but possibly a good finish to my 2010 struggles, and maybe, just maybe a fantastic 2011 awaits, with a 6 foot finish being one of the first big challenges I'd like to nail in 2011.