Gregsons 3.31 AUST RECORD 1500M.

Ryan Gregson blogs re his 3.31 1500m in Monaco on the Running Tribe...also video of the race...he finished 5th...
It broke a long standing 19 year old Australian Record by Simon Doyle from 1991, and is a major!!! moment in Australian athletics history...Although one gets the feeling he could smash it by a whole lot more...
Putting it in perspective he would have beaten me by more than 2 minutes on what I did at Masters this year, and most people I know by at least 30seconds to a minute(i.e. 200-500m thrashing, maybe 800m in my case...in a 1500m race)...2.20 per K pace...for Gregsons 3.31 1500m...

I like the fact his Mum gave him $2 for every PB he got as a kid. I remember getting $1 for ever goal I kicked playing AFL as a kid, and 5cents for every fly I killed, pretty soon will be doing similiar with my kids...
Gregsons record... from Aths. Aust. Mottrams 7.50 3000m is 2.36 per K pace (about 13.00 5000m pace), so there is going to be some good battles between birmingham, mottram, gregson, roff, riseley, and people like the two australian college athletes Robert Curtis 27.33 and Shawn Forrest 28.12 ) in Solinskys sub 27min 10k in May this year, in the years ahead hopefully.....
Solinsky ran 12.56 in Oslo June 4th which was a 16 second PB for him, and Collis Birmingham ran a 13.10 PB at the PREfontaine classic on July 3rd 2010. At the PRE meet 5000m race Solinsky "only" managed a 13.08...So its clear that Solinsky and a number of Australian runners are on the charge this year...Of course when Mottram was at his peak he went sub 13 minutes. Can Mottram go back in the sub 13 minute realm, judging on the 7.50 3000m this week, you'd be a game man to bet against him, although he is yet to get back to that yet, he is starting to look like he is very close...

Speaking of runners on the charge and looking a bit closer to home...nice to see CC has made the move over from WA and is racing some of these guys, which has coincided with Roberto Busi winning a lot of races in WA this year...

Will Sarah Jamieson come back and improve on her australian womens 1500m record of 4.00, or run the 5000m or another distance instead?...what will happen in New Delhi, with MONAs team at the commonwealth Games next month...exciting times ahead...
with presumably Gregson and Birmingham in action at New Delhi amongst others...

RHR 40 results in 22.06 5k track SB

Some good resting heart rates this week, including an equal all time best of 40. So headed to Masters on Thursday night;
ran a 5000m in 22min 06 HR 186 at end.
1k splits; 3.44/4.24/5.02/4.22/4.34.
ran with Bjorn for first 800m (2.57), then backed off a bit but still went through 1k in 3.44, had a bad patch from 2k to 3k, after splitting 2k in 8.08, but held it together in the last 2k, with a last 200m of 41 secs to finish off. Its a 23 second improvement on what I did a few months ago in April a few weeks after the Mona camp, and only 17 seconds off my 2004 track PB of 21.49, but well outside my road best of 19.32 in 1998, en route to my 10k PB of 41.01.

So some pleasing improvement, and if I had started a little more conservatively and/or ran the 2-3k section a bit harder then probably would have knocked off the soft 21.49, so nice to see the momentum confirmed...I like track racing cos you can monitor your time every 400m, my slowest lap was 2.03 (400m), but was holding onto about 1.52's most of the way...Going into the race I was hoping for sub 23, and with a vague race plan of trying to hold onto 1.35-1.50's...
Mildly disappointed I didn't crack 22, but at 3k (13.10) I was thinking maybe 22.30, so glad I finished off the last 2k reasonably well.
short on time again this week, so keen to get home...
had plans for other sessions, but just couldnt get to them, traffic controlled for a WAMC race on Sunday first time ever so another non-racing milestone which I really enjoyed, hope to do that again sometime...planned a long run on sunday arvo, but ran out of time again...

So trainingwise I'd say that was a D- week (basically a no training week), but the 5k run very pleasing and that and the RHR's suggests I should be able to attack the Perth half well, if I can just string together some decent sessions, and hopefully see some sub 1.50 action, maybe even threaten my 1.41 PB...
Maybe this time...
been listening to total classic pop/glam/melodic metal Whitecross love on the line from 1987,Grave Forsakens new thrash album Fight to the death, Royal anguish :Mysterion which is unblack metal..., and two old classics from 1990 pop metal Final Axe with the axe of the apostles (Stryper drummer Robert Sweet carving it up), and one of the greatest speed metal albums of all time from 1990; Deliverance: Weapons of our warfare (was in the top 3 MTV tunes for 12 weeks in a row of airplay when it came out in 1990, and in top 10 video tunes of all time for one of the Metallica blokes.)...WOOW is awesome...also picked up a Mortification Scrolls of the Megilloth t-shirt, and basically despite losing hot water for 5 days, and a busy week, have a lot to build on here, feeling a whole lot more positive about a lot of things...

167min long run done.

Best heart rate and weight vital stats for this week;
RHR 44 Weight 78.4kg. Might be an idea to get some skinfold calipers one day as a friend from work mentioned the other week, as a way of monitoring body fat (versus muscle) percentage...

Sunday 17th July;
Ran for 167minutes 55 secs (HR 135 near the end) exploring new options for my "3 lakes" course.

A lot of exploring, detouring, stops and some walks along the way. Stopped to read some interesting information about some of the animals (fauna) that inhabit the lakes there. Came across one interesting one about a Whistling Kite that has an M shape on the underbelly of its wings, a good photo of this hawk type bird of prey here Also ran through the preferred habitats of the White Striped Freetail bats, which have an audible echolocation sound if you are nearby at night, and of course the Western Tiger snake and Dugite. Turned around at Adventure World and could hear and see the guns in the paintball skirmish place at one point. Now know the trails and paths around 3 lakes a whole lot better, and have some better options for long runs, although given the snakes, I think it might have to be mainly a winter course option. Also saw about 50-100 black swans all in one spot together in a secret lake location...

My wife is a bit happier after Le-Cras 12 goal haul for the eagles, which means that they now have some hope of avoiding the wooden spoon perhaps, and it should be a competitive derby in the next couple of weeks. ]
Freo managed to avoid snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, thanks to the goal from Ballantyne in the last quarter. Some nice marks from Hill and MCPharlap. Now that Barlow is gone, we need McPharlap and Tarrant (back next week) for sure firing for us, and people like Mundy, Hill and Ballantine will need to step up. We are hanging on to top 4 spot, but beating the Bulldogs next weekend is a massive challenge the way we are playing at the moment. Even playing finals we need at least 1-2 wins to be sure, so its not a done deal yet, and not much point in finals if we are not ready to attack them hard...

Runningwise so glad I managed to escape for my long run, really needed it. Originally I planned to run Lake Joondalup 5k or 10k race, but just wasn't up for it given the last few weeks we have had, and petrol money is pretty low anyhow.
Our hot water system blew up on Friday, so its all good fun with wife, 6 week old baby, 3 year old, and 2 jobs, struggling to pay rent, cold nights and no hot water for the weekend.
anyhow have to face the facts thats life sometimes.
However some big positives, and little Jordan is a beautiful little baby, and between, her, my little son and my wife, I should never forget how much I have been blessed, through them, and in some of the incredible experiences Ive had, there has to be some valley experiences as well as mountaintops.

Speaking of mountaintops, came across some incredible lookout points at work this week. One near Coogee, has amazing sweeping views of the new multi-million dollar Coogee Marina, Fremantle, to the north, and Kwinana to the south, any photographers out there you have to visit this lookout on King st...it is awesome!!!

Now that we have caught up on some of the bills, and hopefully our finances continue to get back on track, I can turn my attention to finding some training and racing attack again hopefully in the coming weeks and months. Have to say though that my knee soreness (and the ankle pains last week that seem to have cleared up) after my long run today was very bad, and I sometimes wonder how much longer I can keep doing this, without surgery (which I wont be able to afford time or moneywise for awhile, (havent been able to in the last 9 years since I injured my knees in 2000.)), but I push on, as long as God allows me to.

So its game on for the federal election, (just for the record I will be voting for the Ironman mad monk for sure!, and not for the union puppet/NSW right mafia pawn/eastern states robber of WA money (for the 100 million a day debt) backstabbing hair products facade ranga, I hope her team gets smashed by Freo next week.) and while looking after the world God gave us, and possibly even some climate change (although I am still skeptical as to whether climate change exists yet even with some of the bizarre weather we have had.), and sustainability of resources are massive issues for the next few decades without a doubt I think, there are more important issues like the ageing population in Australia, drugs (the scourge of methylampetamine, cocaine, and cannabis combined with violent alcoholism (brought on by this drinking game maybe...hahahaha not really...) are major, major problems, which thanks to God and my parents I have always avoided and always will) and crime, the youth of our nation, too many cars/trucks for our roads, rural issues, Aboriginal issues and most of all for me, exorbitant land and rent prices. Some comic relief here from 2007; Tony and Julia...Krudd...Crikey....some kruddisms and obamaisms; In due seasonsong...full of fear..Detailed programmatic specificity....
Stairway to Kevin....
kRudd gets it right on Pursuit Trivia...
Monk on pursuit trivia wishes he had a phone a friend...
BrownGreen learns something new on pursuit trivia...
Repeater Julia...
A serious appeal for a fair contest...and mention of the completely outrageous way an australian prime minister was removed...
and of how we can expect more losing the way???
or maybe we stand up for some real action for a change...

Hopefully its game on for my 4th Melbourne Marathon attack kicking off in August only a few weeks away now. I think the classic 1990 album Fire and Love by Guardian sums up my mood at the moment. Tracks like Power of love and Turnaround.

Desperate times... reminds me of a newspaper headline I saw; message to JUU-LEE-AHHH we are hurting...(and weve had enough of government mismanagement, massive national debt, and taxing the heck out of us while we struggle to survive and our rulers take another overseas trip.)...
Krudd spent almost a million bucks on taxpayer funded trips in first class going overseas in his few short years in office. No wonder Australia in debt at 100 million a day with that sort of fiscal attitude. While they are putting our country into massive debt for an education revolution we have to have, which involves massive waste of money on projects many schools dont really need, we are working 2-3 jobs to pay for their pointless watse of money, just so we have a house to live in, and maybe some food. Have to say in the last 2 years Ive had too many times (in the bad months while waiting for a tax refund in June and not getting enough work in December) when its been like my last year at Uni when I lived on potatoes and nothing else, when cashflow has been diabolically sluggish...
Peter Costello put it well; the time has come to boot out the ALP pleease...

So rant done for this week. Long run done for this week, and hopefully game on for Melbourne starts soon.

RHR 43 weight 78.4kg the zig-zag Freo 3rd to 5th

On 11th July 2010 I recorded a resting heart rate of 43 and my weight was 78.4kg, so am holding onto some of the small physiology/training momentum I have developed especially since the Monaghetti camp. Thats pleasing. This week no running and Ive had some trouble with an ankle injury, my dads guess is that I have strained a medial ligament attachment point.

I think we are almost out of the worst of the tunnel of money worries, cleared some important bills in the last few days, thanks to a loan I got from a crew that has a better rate than cash converters, but still pretty exorbitant, but has sorted out some major issues.

Had an interesting time last week reading meters along the side of the Darling scarp in Gooseberry Hill near the zig- zag, thought about trying to run up it , but ran out of time. Awesome views from up here, beautiful spot, just across the valley from where the Darlington hills group runs, sometimes they even run the zig-zag in the Comrades training, I remember the terrible trio running it at least once...hope to join them one day, be excellent 6 inch or 6 foot training...

Had some running plans for this week, was hoping to join Daves group at serpentine, but work and family stuff dominated this week. But feel happy I have sorted out a few things, just need to get more settled with adjusting to the juggling 2 jobs thing again, and hopefully will get training again. Ivé had my scheduled 3 weeks break after Perth Marathon, so need to get serious about Melbourne in the next few weeks...the run less, run faster program from RunningM looks interesting, I might incorporate some ideas there...Its basically a 3 sessions per week program, which are long run, tempo run, and intervals, simple but effective, with minimal time commitment for a marathoner. Run less= run fast. Sounds good to me...

`Fremantle needs to win 2-3 more games, to secure finals spot, and about n3-4 of the last 6 games to hold onto a top 4 spot...loss to Richmond was very disappointing, but injuries take their toll...Apparently 5th and 6th = a home final. But top 4 = double chance in the finals...

and as dockerland says, it will help the eagles get their much deserved wooden spoon, although Port adelaide, essendon, Adelaide and Richmond are all still a chance for spoon, in fact I think port adelaide might be the team that helps the eagles avoid a spoon. My eagles member dad remarked that there was only 26,000 at Subiaco Oval to see the crows smash the eagles. considering they have a club membership of 40,000+ and in the past most of them would be at the game, thats a lot of eagles members not going to home games to see them get their wooden spoon.
So Im guessing that the Hawthorn (in Tasmania) and Bulldogs games will be the hardest ones to give em the old heave ho in...the rest should be all winnable, so Im predicting Fremantle finishes 3rd to 5th...Using the ladder predictor thing Im tipping the final top 8 for 2010looks like Geelong,St Kilda, Fremantle, Bulldogs,Collingwood,Hawthorn, Carlton and Sydney to me...

Wondering if Stephen Hill might have originated from Geraldton/Mullewa way...Legends like him will have to step up now that Barlow is done for the year.

not much else to blog about really...

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...