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.