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...