Another 400min+ (60km+) week banked...

About half a dozen of the West Australians doing 6 foot in 2011 in this bunch of runners. Most of this group did 6 inch 2010 in December also. I am the third runner to the left of the lady with the orange shirt.

I am building some momentum, my 6 foot base is starting to take shape, and the zig zag rd 28km run last Saturday 22nd January(see photo above thanks to Jane and Paddy.) with the C-team was one of the key runs, as was the 35km on Australia Day.
Only just nudging the 200km mark for January, so hoping to get to 300km+ in February, but at least now I have 2 weeks of half-decent base K's to work with in 2011. Just need to keep ramping things up, and now that the domestic issues of bills, transition into new job, new car, etc etc..., hopefully I can get back into some high intensity short stuff, and do some track racing, but first there is the Busselton Half marathon next weekend. Either way, I feel like I've come through the worst of a dark tunnel in recent months, and hopefully in February I can start hitting my targets again...

Sunday 30th January 2011 A.D.
Ran 17.5km in 2hrs 01min 41secs HR 153 at end Splits 62.26 / 59.15.
1st downhill 1k 5.38! last uphill (hot and humid!!) 1k 5.31!!!
Effectively a slowish LFD run with a lot of speedplay/fartlek type flavour to it…tried to minimise the walk breaks today to only the designated walk break sections (the bluemetal), and run hard the rest of the trails…saw 5 rabbits…..
About 80% humidity and 24 degrees at the start was ok, but 65% humidity and 30 degrees in the last 30-40minutes was a bit hard to cope with, especially in a longsleeve top…When it gets over 27 degrees humidity inflates the effect of temperature on the body, in a similiar way to the way wind chill works…According to a heat index converter @ http://www.easysurf.cc/cnver16.htm thats equivalent to running in 34 degrees dry heat…which explains why I was sweating bucketloads…plus because its humid your sweat doesn’t work properly…if I’d been out there much longer cramps would have occurred…

Managed a 3 minute negative split which is very pleasing…bucketloads of sweat, only carried 2L drinks and that was only just adequate. Extra keen to run when I could see from the weather advice cyclone not going to arrive this morning, and is downgraded to a tropical low now anyhow…wasted a bit of time replying to a text message from my dad…Overall a pretty satisfying run, and nice to dip under 7min per K which was one of my goals for the morning… That gets me to 488minutes for this week compared to 444min for last week, and takes me to 65k compared to 66k last week, so starting to hit the sort of base maintenance I want for 6 foot. I’m running every second day (only 3 non running days this week, and although disappointed not to do planned sessions on Thursday and Saturday, its another very good week. Not where I want to be yet, but thats a solid 2 week slab of base done…just need to keep the momentum going and bring in some high intensity stuff soon…

Friday
Ran 9.5km in 58min 12 in 33 degree heat...HR 138.


Wednesday January 26th (Australia Day)
Celebrated Australia day with a solo 35km trail run overdistance (OD) style session. HR 126
splits (not that it matters much with this type of run); 2.08.50 / 2.37.33
Adventure/explore type run.

Carried 4 litres of drinks (hydration pack AND handhelds), as I knew I’d be out there for 4 hours or more, and in the end probably could have done with another 600ml. The weight of all the drinks was slowing me down a bit for the first 30-60minutes, but still managed to get to 12.75k in 1hr 32min which is just over the 7 min per K pace. On these fairly tough terrain trails (with blue metal walk break sections), and a few hills and gates, soft sand in a few places, thats a fairly good pace. Wasn’t in the mood to go fast anyhow. Main goal was to do an overdistance long run (OD is my lowest intensity long run, aim is to keep heart rates below 140 throughout and preferably around the 110-130 mark, so its like a slow LSD session, except the other goal for this session is to be out there for longer time than I would generally race much, in my case I needed to be putting more than 4 hours of time on my feet))
with 4 hours+ of time out there. Aimed to be under 7min 30 per K for the first 17.5km which is 2.11.15. Did that with 2 minutes to spare with the 2.08.50. That was mainly to stay motivated, and ensure I got to the halfway mark quick enough to still have enough drinks to survive the trip back. Main aim is to spend maximum time on feet with low intensity, as 6 foot is likely to take me 5-7 hours so I need the body to be ready for that sort of duration…

Then I took it easy as fat burning kicked in in a big way, I ran out of carbs, got mildly dehydrated, the temperature headed for 28degrees+, the UV started tanning my legs, and the rabbits,kangarroos, sheep, and reptiles in the bushes refused to respond to my shouts of Aussie,Aussie,Aussie, as I celebrated Australia Day mostly with no humans in earshot or sight…

Took some big breaks to send some long text messages to my mum and wife, regarding a few matters for today, and walk-breaked through the blue metal and dune sand type sections, before getting running again on the limestone trail. A couple of big hills, and I was noticing the heat, and thinking about when to have my last powerade, which I decided to drink at about the 26km mark. The 80-90min gaps between sports drinks was perhaps a bit too long (I like to keep it to 45-60min), but I was sipping water from another bottle along most of the way, and I had to ration my drinks a bit to survive the run back. Tried to aim some of the water I had left at my carotid artery as thats a key area to keeping core temperature low.

With a couple of km to go and getting pretty dehydrated (not desperate, but starting to notice it a fair bit),
I came across a couple of young teens/early 20’s blokes playing cricket in the park. I did a streaker run (without removing any clothes) through their pitch which pleased them greatly, and they offered me a beer (beers seemed to be the primary activity, while cricket was the secondary activity) which I didn’t take of course partly because I’m a lifelong non-drinker, but I yelled Aussie,Aussie, Aussie, which pleased them greatly again, and they responded Oi,Oi,OI, which pleased me greatly as finally I had found someone to share Australia Day with, after the sheep ignored me, the rabbits did a runner, and the kangaroos and reptiles hid in the bush.
This buoyed my somewhat tired spirits, but I couldn’t stay as I had a 4 lane road to navigate in and out of the traffic (with hydration pack on and very tired legs not keen on stepping up onto a kerb, let alone sprinting across to beat the traffic) , and 1.5km to get back home before my parents visit to see their grandkids was over.

So an enjoyable low intensity run that became pretty grind-planetariumish/slow plod/jog by the end, but mission accomplished a good overdistance run done just over 6 weeks out from 6 foot 45km in the blue mountains race.
I’m aiming at higher km for this week. I’ve decided to get on the mileage bandwagon a bit in 2011 and use km as a secondary measure so I can compare what I am doing with others who use that measure, although I still think its an inferior, flawed, limited way to measure training. Anyhow first big run for this week done. Did a slow 3.5km on Monday, so up to 38.5km for this week so far. Its time to get serious about 6 foot training, and todays run along with the 28km on the zig zag on last saturday will help a lot. Need to get back to hill reps, and start getting consistent with daily or at least every 2nd day sessions, before I start bringing in the track work to sharpen up, and go after some track PB’s hopefully from late February onwards…maybe earlier if I finally get my act together.

Monday 24th January 2011 A.D. Ran a slow 3.5km on the local oval in 21min 41...HR 123.

28k zig zag run and 6k in 29.39=a better week

In brief; 444min or 66km in 4 runs this week.

Sunday 21.5km in 2.56 heart rate 120

Saturday 28k in 3.03 heart rate 159. Lots of elevation on the ascent of the zig zag rd took me 23min to do the "up" part of the 7th painathlon challenge

Some relevant links;
Zig Zag road
Zig Zag run
Embers resturant cnr Lenori rd.
Friday 6k in 29.39 heart rate 183

Tuesday 10.5k in 54.28 heart rate 162


Its been a good solid weeks training I'd say a B minus for this week.
Lack of intervals was the big negative from this week, but I feel primed to fix that...
Overall I feel my 6 foot plans are one track, but my short stuff needs reinvigoration, and in addition will be trying to ramp up everything in the next few weeks...

Flat out with new job (12 hour shift on Friday, and a pretty big day on Wednesday), but its all looking good as can be expected at the moment...

In detail;
Sunday 23rd January Ran 21.5km in 2hrs 56min 07 secs heart rate 120
10.25km splits 1.34/1.17 plus about 5-6 minutes for the last 1km extra bit...
Started out with heavy weary tired sore legs which hadn't recovered too well from the 28k Zig zag tough run the day before. I knew it would be hard to get going today and it sure was!!!
I also guessed that back to back long runs would simulate a 6 foot race a bit, and take me into that running on tired lkegs world, which could be handy training, plus keep my slim hopes of getting the 3000km in the January leg of the 100 day challenge alive, and help build my base for 6 foot...plus hopefully set me up for a much better week. Very humid but otherwise cool afternoon conditions. Phonecalss to my Dad, sister and wife ensured my early slow jog was very slow indeed. After a slow grind to the 10.25km turnaround in 1.34 on my local trails I resolved to bring it home a lot stronger and did so as the splits show (about 17 minutes quicker), a pretty big negative split...An extremely relaxed OD/LSD long run at very low intensity but mission accomplished in that I simulated running 49km or similiar...
Saturday 22nd January Ran 28km in 3hrs 3min 41 seconds @ 6.33 perK HR 159 at end!
Splits 1.34/1.29.
Now thats more of an LFD type effort for me. The hills of the zig zag road took a lot out of me on this one. I struggled up in 23min, so much so that the C-team had finished their “hug break” by the time I got up there, and then we continued onto Embers cafe I think near Lenori Rd. I’m guessing a lot on the distance and course, but the mapmyrun route I found with a google search seems to confirm it. Hills towards the end climbing out of the Helena Vally ensured the heart rate stayed high for a long run. Not far off the intensity I used at 6 inch last year. A hard run, had some fun on the steep downhill trails after the quarry hammering it downhill. It appears my downhill running skills are superior to the others, but on the uphill I am walk-breaking it too much, although I did run all the way up most of the zig Zag, and I am way slower than everyone else.
I will gain some significant hill climbing and general conditioning gains from that run, so very worthwhile session, I’d say possibly my best run so far this year. The views from the top of the zig zag down the scarp to the city and the airport are totally awesome, Ive finally done something Ive wanted to do for at least a year, and thats run up the zig zag. Also got educated about the Raison d’être for Comrades, so a wonderful mornings run for sure…A few more like that and my 6 foot prep is looking a lot better.

Friday 21st;
Ran 6km in 29min 39secs HR 183 at end.
3k splits; 15.23/14.16
1k splits; 4.26 (down) 5.28 x2 (up) 4.56 x2 (down) 4.23 (up)
Course PB! (yeah it was a pretty soft one and Ive only done this course 3 times, but still nice to raise some sort of bar) Felt pretty yucky this morning, and with a resting heart rate of 45 (compared to 39 on Tuesday), didn’t have high expectations. Didn’t have much time available before work, so instead of getting on the trails, or braving the sprinklers and dogs, I decided to do a quick 6k on my hilly mostly bitumen street circuit as it would be done in about 30 minutes, plus I could chase the soft course PB, which would motivate me to attack a bit more. Put bodyglide on just in case, as I still have all the scabs from the chafing on Tuesday where I drew blood in about 10-30 little pinprick spots. No chafing issue this time, so thats good. The weather was awesome for fast running, cool temperature, and a little light rain. Perfect.
Tried to take it out at a solid pace, without going for broke. Was a bit surprised to get through the first 1k in under 4.30 even on downhill. Backed off a bit for the next 2k, but tried not to slow up too much even though its a climb to the summit of the course. Stayed under 5.30’s which is perfect, and I knew I had the chance to not only knock off the 31.13 from 2009, but that I was an outside chance of cracking 30 minutes if I could negative split enough…tried to work the mostly downhill K’s hard and as a result was able to dip under 5min per K. Was hurting a fair bit by here, and when I hit 5k in 25.16, I was thinking its going to be tough to go sub 5 min for the last uphill climb to the finish, I was thinking 30.30 at this stage….Went hard at it, and checked my wristwatch again at 27.29 and 29.07, and both times I am thinking, hey I have a sub 30 here if I can hold it together…Hurting a fair bit as I climbed the steep road to the finish, but tried to kick pretty hard to the line, and was very,very pleased to land a 29.39 and a big negative split of 1min 07 secs, on a day I could so easily have just gone straight to work, instead of bothering as I really didn’t feel like running much…4.56 per K is not that crash hot, but, I know it was a good run for where I was at. So thats 2 out of 5 ok days this week, and still the weekend to come….Thanks God.

Tuesday 18th January 2011 A.D.;
Ran 10.5km in 54min 28 secs @ 5.11 per K HR 162 at end.
3.5 k splits; 17.39/18.27/18.22
700m splits;
3.18/ 3.27/ 3.31/ 3.44/ 3.39/
3.53/ 3.52/ 3.38/ 3.37/ 3.33/
3.45/ 3.37/ 3.44/ 3.38/ 3.38
After 7 days of not running, I knew today would not be easy, but woke up before 5am today, so decided to finally do what I have been meaning to do for weeks, but most days have failed to so far, partly due to domestic worries/hassles dominating things in recent weeks. Still have unresolved matters to deal with in a big way, but have a little more hope today that things might finally get back onto an even keel financially after the difficult last 2 months, although I still see a lot of yet to be resolved issues. Wasn’t expecting much, but decided to give the tough trails a miss, and take the easy option of getting on the grass of the local oval and try for a solid 15 laps worth.

As expected my conditioning was not very good after 7 days of not running, although I did wake up with a RHR of 39 this morning, which is the first time under 40 beats per minute this year, maybe thats a result of the extra sleep I got last week, cos I sure havent done any training in the last 7 days to get it down although the 25k long run and the 6×500m earlier this month may have helped, plus some of the long walks I did while getting my car worked on last week…. Was happy my first lap dipped under 3.20 but wasn’t really feeling motivated to do much more than “plod” today anyhow, main aim was to try and stay under 4 min per 700m, and hopefully put a few laps on the board around about the 3.30 per 700m (5.00 per K) pace. I did as planned. Didn’t really surge much, except for a little after 6km when I drank my 600ml of water.

The sprinklers and dogs were there as usual, but mostly didn’t really matter today. I think I am getting better at coping with the sprinklers, and maybe even the dogs I had to stop for today which were off the lead and tried to attack…Gave one owner a bit of an earful today, but overall probably didnt cost me more than a few seconds today, and they were just your average dog today, nothing really bad.

Pleased that (as shown by the 3.5k splits) my last 3.5k was actually faster than my middle 3.5k, so I was finding some rhythm as the run went on, and the nice soft grassy surface is really nice to run on. Perfect time of the day to be running, especially as I got out the door, before my wonderful 3 year old woke up. Did not kick for home, and the finishing heart rate of 162 is pretty low, so certainly not a time trial run, more of a mongrel cross-breed of a tempo/easy run. Had elements of both but wasn’t either really. More of a “try and get back on track” run really…hahaha I got really bad chafing on one leg for some reason after this one so might have to take a day off tomorrow to settle that…

Gives me a C pass mark in the 100 day challenge for at least 1 day this week anyhow, although I am way off the target pace now after my shocker/dud total F week last week, and my first week being a D grade standard effort with 41km… I am at 74.5km for January and target mileage for today is 180km, so only about 105.5km off the pace…

I looked back through my old training diaries and turns out I’ve only done this 15 lapper at the local oval once before in mid 2009. That day I did 57min with a finishing heart rate of 177, so I guess I can claim almost a 3 min course PB on a day my finishing heart rate was 15 beats lower, and I wasn’t really that interested in attacking, so its obvious how much better a level I am at 2 years later, which is encouraging, but still like Hewitt getting 2 matchpoints in the 5th set against Nalbandian (and LLeyton should have won in the 4th set actually), I am not pushing home the advantage and progressing to the next level like I want to. I know what I want to do, I just need to do it, at least 4-5 days per week, and I should hit a new level. Hoping I can crank up to the next level, raise the bar, find the next gear etc before this summer is over…Today was a step in the right direction, but its a long road. Onwards…

329min or 41km then inundated with the rat race.

I began the 2011 attack better than in the first week of 2010 with 329 minutes of running (41.5km), and had a solid 6 x500m intervals session and a solid 25.5km long run. Didn't get to my blogging that week, and disappeared into the bermuda triangle of work, worry, bills and the rat race. I started week 2 with a slow 3.5km on the monday and had high hopes of getting back on track, but it never eventuated. Really need a big turnaround to get things back on track, as I don't want too many dud weeks like this in 2011...A lot of walking around streets and plenty of sleep this week, means the resting heart rate is still around the 41-45 mark on my better days, but if i want to get back into the sub 40 domain I was in for about the last 21 weeks of 2010, I need to arrest this slide in motivation, and deal with the obstacles in my path quick smart. Hopefully the remaining 2 weeks of January will see me back on track and by mid February will be building some momentum again...

Monday 10/01/11;
Ran 3.5km in 17min 41 HR 162 Temperature about 24 degrees.
3.33/ 3.13/ 3.45/ 3.42/ 3.28 for 700m splits (laps of local park).
Easy run to get me in the right frame of mind for stage 2 of the big challenges we are facing as a family at the moment. We negotiated the insurance payout one last week after more than 2 months of trying, and so everything in January is sorted. But there is still another critically important matter to negotiate in the next few weeks, and until its sorted, its hard for me to just trust God, and I will be on edge and distracted mentally and logistically until its sorted out. Anyhow back to the run; bit slow and sluggish, plus conditioning has slipped a lot in the last 7 days, also a bit chafed from yesterdays 9km with Jacob in the pram…as it took more than 1 hour, and I didnt wear body glide or proper running shorts…so am paying for that a bit today…
Pleased I could push the pace a little on the second lap, but was just cruising along today, had no zip at all…
Usual collection of dogs off the lead, but no major dramas with them this time thankfully, not that I really cared that much this morning, the main thing was just to get the legs turning over at somewhere around 5min per K, wasn’t really in condition mentally or physically to attack any time goals…
However that should get my week off to a better than nothing start, and after a fairly solid start to the year last week, (heaps better than the 2010 effort), if I can survive this week, hopefully will be getting back on track by the weekend…

WEEK 1 2011;
41.5km of running, 329 minutes covered in 3 sessions, best RHR for week 42.

Sunday 9/01/11;
9km run with Jacob in the pram...

Saturday 8/01/11;
Ran about 25.5km in 3 hrs 9 min 35 seconds. HR 144 at end. 12.75km splits; 1.31 / 1.38
Regular walk breaks on the bluemetal sections, while not running the tricky hilly terrain of my local limestone trails.
Temperature 19 degrees when I started, and about 27 when I finished.Took 2.55L of drinks in hydration pak. That was adequate drinks, but would not have liked to have run with any less drinks. Saw about 3 rabbits this time, and had the trails to myself. Used my local parks and Ulak course to access the trails. Worked hard from 8.75K to 16.75k, hitting the 4km sections there in 26minutes and 29 minutes. Still an LSD (long slow distance) style run, with a lot of walk breaks, but the surges in pace from 8k to 16k especially, the hills, terrain and warm temperatures, combined with carrying a lot of much needed drinks, took it into the higher echelon of heart rates for an LSD workout. On the boundary of becoming more of an LFD style run. (Long fast distance), which is good, because I need to start doing some LFD long runs as well as the LSD and OD (overdistance) style long runs, if I am to improve quickly, although I don’t want to make the mistake that a lot of runners seem to make which is to do all long runs at LFD intensity. That said, what is LFD pace for me, maybe LSD pace for someone else, and also if I improve a lot, then what used to be LFD pace will become LSD pace and so forth, just one of the many reasons why measuring training by minutes instead of km is a superior way to measure training volume, although if used well, both can be useful. Heart rate is the primary determinant of intensity and therefore style of run, not pace, although obviously an LFD run tends to have a faster pace generally.

A good solid long run, my first really good one from distance and duration points of view since 6 inch a few weeks ago, so its serious game on for 6 foot now I hope. So a good way to kick off my long runs for 2011. Hopefully some big improvements in the coming weeks.

I signed up for the Moneghetti camp today also… That bumps up my January total to 51.5km in the 100 day 6 foot challenge (mileage target of 300km per month), and gets me back to being almost on track again. Hope to get to 70km-90km -ish before the weekend is over. To use a more powerful and superior measure of training volume that gets me to 252minutes of training volume for this week, after the good 62minutes (and 7km) in Mondays intervals/easy warm down run (6×500m @ 3.57 per K HR’s 171-186 and 4km easy run) combo session.
The 252 minutes so far this week, puts me above my “satisfactory” weekly target of 240minutes, which I have had for many years, and a chance of getting to the “good” target zone for this week maybe. The “sensational” target of 10 hours (600minutes) won’t happen this week, but maybe in the next few weeks…Cleared up a major insurance matter in the last few days which has been dogging my family for more than 2 months, so big thanks to God for that, and if we can get our other big issue sorted soon, I can hopefully focus more on training and less on major domestic issues…Game on maybe this time…I hope…

Ran 6 x500m @ 3.57 per Km Heart rates 171-186.Temperature 34 degrees 40% humidity.
500m times; 1.55/ 1.58/ 2.00/ 1.55/ 1.58/ 2.02…Strong north winds to push into made it tough.
Hard to be motivated in these conditions on a grass track which was so faded it was very hard to tell where to run, but I got used to it. Almost gave up and went home, (council needs to come and remark the track!) but got inspired by a young triathlete by the name of Jenelle who was doing a few laps there, and decided to give it a go.
Pleased to average under 4 minutes a Km for the reps, although I took very long 4 minute rests, which I would want to get down to 2-3 minute rests in future sessions I think maybe.

Afterwards did a few laps of the entire park for about 4km with a bloke I saw running there by the name of Matt. I nice easy run to do to consolidate the intervals, and we chatted about cricket, soccer and other stuff, which made the 30 minutes rush by very quickly. A good solid session to kick off the week.

C'MON! 8k PB and 2010 review

Celebrated the first day of 2011 with my wife and 7 month old daughter Jordan watching Leighton Hewitt win last night at the Hopman Cup, and then seeing him and Alicia Molik get across the line for a win in the mixed doubles, which gave Australia a 2-1 win. Inspiring!!! Aussie Aussie Aussie! In the womens singles an Australian Open past winner in Justine Henin was too consistent for former world no 8 Alicia Molik who showed some of the form that got her into the top 10 at her peak, and found it again when it was needed in the doubles, but wasn't consistent enough to take a set off Henin or challenge for a win in her singles match.
Kathryn and I enjoyed our annual tradition (our 5th year in a row together at Hopman Cup, and about my 7th year in a row.), at the Hopman. I ran out of time to run on Saturday, and again on Sunday slept in after 6am after the big night out, so had limited time to run. So after promising sessions on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday this week, the weekend was a bit of an anti-climax.

This week in summary;
M-8km in 42.25 Tu-17.5km on trails. W-2.7km in 15.16 (first 1400m in 6.38) F-8km course PB in 38.40 Su-AM; 11.25km run/walk fest... 10min shooting around...PM; 4.25Km warmup/700m t.t./3x1km hill reps.

That said, still a solid week of 55km of running, including a course PB by 11 seconds in my 8km run on Friday with 38.40, and the first 1400m on Wednesday in 6min 38secs was a return to high intensity running also, as was the 700m in 2.39 on Sunday night and the 1km hill reps on sunday night. Spent about 10 minutes chasing my 3 year old around a basketball court after church today, plus got in a few 3 pointers and layups myself, so that won't hurt the conditioning, especially as we now are in the process of outlasting the 38degree+ heat today...
Still time for another run session this Sunday evening, to see if I can find the last 80minutes I need to beat my 2009 training volume total (for training book purposes I am including January 1st and 2nd in my 52 weeks of training for 2010, so my 2011 total will kick off on the public holiday on January 3rd.)...

SUNDAY 1928hrs; 4.25km warmup easy run in 30 minutes exploring hilly roads, and waiting for some of the dog walkers to exit the oval, so I could try a fast rep. Last 1k around the oval. Then 700m time trial in 2min 39.36...Pretty good effort I thought, especially in semi darkness, hit the halfway mark in 1.14, (about 3.30 per Km pace) but struggling with breathing a bit before that, and couldnt sustain the pace. Still white hot intensity that one for me at the moment, so pleased with that especially as I have not done any speedwork for awhile...
Then first of 3 jogging recovery 12 minute recoveries, followed by 3x1km hill reps on my black swan course. Tough hill this one, and due to the fact that I dont want to increase risk of injury I purposely held back a lot on the first rep, went fairly hard at it in the second one and lobbed in somewhere in between for the 3rd rep. My aim with these is to develop the hills strength which I am severely lacking in, so as to run a better time at 6 foot, but need to be very careful with hammy and calves...
So the times; 6.15 HR 126. 5.06 HR 165 5.39 HR 150.
So for a reps session very low heart rates, but working hard enough to get some strength gains without "hitting the cover off the ball", to use a golfing analogy...
Mission accomplished in a very tough evening session I finished about 9pm. Wore my compress sports calf guards of course for this one, and calf muscles seemed to be ok. Left hammy (the dodgy one for the last 2 years) has been a bit tender afterwards, (it required a stretch during my slow longer run in the AM also today) but hopefully will settle down...Will beaiming to do the hill reps once a week or at least once every 2-3 weeks, as I try to harness some extreme hills strength for 12th March...

SUNDAY 1100 AM; 10 minutes of shooting 3 pointers,layups and chasing my 3 year old around basketball court at church...

SUNDAY 0740 AM;
90 minutes 34 secs to do 11.25km with some running and a lot of walk breaks. HR 126 at end.
Alternated between running and walking throughout. Mental and physical (proprioceptive too) practice for 6 foot, as I know I will be walking a lot of that course, but tried to attack a bit when I was running.
Started with the hilly bitumen roads section, and temperature a nice 23 degrees, by the time I finished it was up to about 28 degrees, and my drinks were becoming important. Some limestone trails for about 4-5km, good to do some trail running for first time since Tuesday this week. Short on time as I slept in past 6am this morning and as a result got tied up with getting cats and my 3 year old into good routines, instead of getting out early for a run. Also keen to try and make it to church today, so took a shorter route back home on the nice grassy parks route, which my knees appreciated, after a lot of bitumen running this week. Very relaxed run/walk, but very important to get out there today. Had an awesome evening the night before with my wife at the Hopman Cup watching Leighton Hewitt and Alicia Molik find a way to win against Belgians Justine Henin and Bemelmans. Inspiring stuff. This week has been better with almost 50km done, including some higher intensity 8km runs, but need to step things up, ramp up the training a lot if I am to have a good race at 6 foot. Pleased with what I did on Monday, Tuesday and Friday this week, and Sunday is halfway there, so thats about 3.5 out of 7 for this week, so thats a pass mark so far. If I can do a good evening session tonight its a 4 out of 7 for this week, which is better than the usual 1-3 out of 7, but still plenty of room for improvement…Time to step on it! in the new year hopefully!

FRIDAY 0815AM;
Ran 8km in 38min 40 secs HR 186 at end. 4k splits 19.08 / 19.32.
1k splits; 4.16! (down) 5.25 × 2 (up) / 4.02!! / 4.25 / 5.11 × 2 (down) / 4.44 (up)
A course PB by 11 seconds yay! Lost about 1.5-2 litres of fluids on this run due to heat, effort (HR 186 at end), and wearing a long sleeve top to avoid sunburn from the extreme UV sunlight. Temperature only about 24-26 degrees, with 45% humidity, according to the Jandakot weather data (although it may have been hotter in our nearby suburb) but by the end I was starting to overheat a bit. See http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDW60901/IDW60901.94609.shtm for Jandakot weather data
Started a bit faster than before on this course. Backed off a bit from 1k to 3k, but was still on PB pace by 7 seconds.
Tried to step it up a bit on the flat section from 3k to 4k, and succeeded in doing that for sure, with a 4.02! the fastest 1k split I have done on this course. Then I got a bit cautious when I spied a large dog loose and wandering all over my course. Was finding it hard anyhow, and was a bit disappointed with the 4.25 which got me to 5k in 23.33. In some ways probably paid for the 4.02 a bit from 4k onwards, as I worked a bit too hard maybe on that 1k split, although if you want to PB and progress you have to push the limits…The 23.33 5k was still just under Pb pace by 4 seconds. I worked hard on the mostly downhill next 2k to hold onto some 5.11’s which was enough to get me to 7k in 33.56, overheating, and struggling to hold it together, and keep my course PB hopes intact. Gave the last 1km a red-hot go, probably not a total sprint finish, but really worked hard on this last UPHILL 1km, and the 4.44 for the last K is my equal second best split for the last K, so a solid kick home. Heart rate of 186 and very big gulp down of staminade and water afterwards plus a drop of 600grams-1.5kg in weight (into the 78kg zone but not sustainable yet as it was due mainly to fluid loss) after the run tells the story of the way I felt after this tough hit out.
a good run and a course PB by 11 seconds. Resting heart rate was 36 this morning which is the best reading Ive had since 9th December, and its good to see the RHR dipping back to mid 30’s again after sitting around 40-45 in recent weeks. That would suggest the momentum is building again, and I am ready to start thinking seriously about attacking the track again hopefully, as well as stepping up the mileage in readiness for hopefully a 6 foot start in March with some assistance from the 100 day challenge on cool running (aiming for 300km per month, only managed 152km so far in December, although I did taper for 6 inch.)…So a good run that gives me some confidence, now need to start putting in some even more intense targeted sessions if I want the improvement to continue.

WEDNESDAY 0615AM;
Ran 2.75km in 15min 16. HR 120 by the end.
700m splits for first 2.1km; 3.18 / 3.20 / 4.02
Started with aim of running 5×700m laps of oval (3.5km) and hitting about 17min or better.
Felt really sluggish, and was finding it hard to find any speed, but first too laps were on about 4.44 per K pace, so not terrible, but not far off for this type of run. In the 3rd lap I was confronted with two very large dogs, one of which had a muzzle. Owner had about 5% control of them and both were off the lead running at great speed all over my course, and I stopped, walked, waited for them to move out of my area, and managed to complete the lap albeit in a slow 4.02. I was able to dodge the sprinklers on all 3 laps, but I knew I had just lost 40 seconds, and that trying to complete the last 2 laps was fraught with danger with these two dogs there, so gave up in disgust, and jogged back home about 600m up a nice steep hill. heart rate down to 120 by the end, Im guessing it was about 150’s/160’s while running on the oval…Not a great run for a lot of reasons, but no injury issues, and a good way to get the brain ticking over in the morning plus a reminder that I have a very big need to spend some time at a good track…..Im up to 28k and 202min for the first 3 days of the week, so just have to keep building, and this should be a very good week to finish off the year. I need to beat 420min this week, to beat last years training volume total of 149 hours, so thats giving me some extra motivation, plus I am doing the 100 day 6 foot challenge on cool running now, (try and hit 300km per month), so hoping some of these things will help push my training volume up a lot.

TUESDAY 0556AM;
ran 17.5km in 2hrs 24min 35 secs HR 126 at end.
8.75k splits; 73min/71min.
Exploring a new variation on an old course designed to reduce my time on bitumen, and eliminate the hills at the start and finish a bit. Started very slow, and had a lot of chafe problems early on, but got through it. A bit leg weary from the tempo run last night and the 18k on Sunday, so a bit of a recovery run early on…Saw about a dozen rabbits along the way, and I was struck by how fast they were running away from me. One time I saw this rabbit go scooting away from me down the trail, and then it did like a slideout burnout type of move on the soft limestone dirt, as it quickly changed direction…A few enforced stops due to spiderwebs and sand in my shoes, and some walk breaks, due to not wanting to wreck my shoes on the loose blue metal bits, plus there was a steep sandhill (deep sand) section to get through which is hard to run through in shoes…Picked up the pace on the way back as I finished off my last drinks, and as a result did a slight negative split on return journey, despite a big stop to get a lot! of sand out of my shoes. Starting before 0600 meant I avoided the heat and the UV sunburn issue I had on Sunday, although I wore a long sleeve shirt and a floppy quiksilver hat this time to protect me from the sun, as I got badly sunburnt on sunday. A really good run to consolidate the attempt on a bigger training volume this week, so my first 2 days this week have been excellent. Just have to make sure I follow up on the first 2 days, as I go back to work tomorrow, and the pressures of work and bills etc hots up again. Need to start building a big base with a much bigger training volume so I can be ready to give 6 foot my best shot in March, and hopefully start picking off the PB’s in 2011 in deadly earnest. A bit of a slow run, even for a trail run, but some bursts of speed, and I know I am running the best I have been since about 2004, so just need to keep building on the momentum, and not let things slide. A lot of positives to work, with, and hopefully can start to drive home the advantage a bit this week, and get out of just maintenance zone, which has been a bit the trend since Melbourne…:-)

MONDAY 1839hrs;
Ran 8km in 42min 25 secs HR 165 @ 5.18 per K.
4k splits; 21.40/20.45 About 27 degrees celsius 50% humidity.
1k splits 4.40 / 6.03 x2 / 4.53 / 4.24 / 5.34 x2 / 5.12
Started out not feeling very good. The large amounts of junk food and soft drinks I have been consuming in the last few days, probably contributed to the stomach pain I had for much of this run. Took it very easy in the first few km, although on the first downhill 1km I found a bit of rhythm to be under 5 min per K which is pleasing. On the flat section I did the 4k to 5k bit in 4.24 which was good. Held it together well in the second half, and a solid finish uphill, without really pushing that hard. A nice solid tempo run to kick off training for this week. Just over 1 min faster than what i did 10 days ago, so not my worst/slowest one, although would hope to be chopping several minutes off that one at least in the next week or two…

IN CONCLUSION;
A solid week heading in the right direction, just need a whole lot more of it in 2011.
This week very symbolic of my entire year of running in 2010. Promising signs, small PB's or season bests, slight improvement on my season bests in 2009, with my main target race in Melbourne Marathon a significant seasons best with 4.05 and a return to the sort of running I last did consistently in 2004/2005 when I first started marathoning, but due to calf injury no major PB breakthrough in road races. A lot of minor highlights this year.

The Moneghetti camp will be a lifelong memorable moment no matter what, and possibly I may consider going again in 2011, if I can find the money before the spots run out, although I am not as keen this time around. My 1500m in 5.34 at the Australian Masters for 4th place in my age group, was a good result, and a sensational experience. The 6 hour track race, the 46min 10k at Freo, John Gilmour 10k race, some Masters 5k races in 22min, a 2k in 7.55 and an 800m in 2.46, were all reminders that my PB's are still beatable, if I can consistently put in a higher training volume, and build the training and racing momentum combined with a healthier lifestyle. As a result I left my night job in early September searching for a better Melbourne result, and more time with my young children and wife. However the month of December has been extremely difficult financially due to the car accident I had in late October, and my attempts to adjust to a new day job. Hoping that in the next few weeks/months the dust will settle, I can get the insurance company to finally pay up!!!, and my running can hit a much higher level. The big PB at 6 inch this year of 26 minutes, (after a 9 minute PB last year) despite being unwell that week is arguably my biggest highlight for the year, and a strong definite indicator that if I can keep the improvement coming, keep my injuries collection under control, and overcome everything else with Gods help, maybe, just maybe 2011 will be the year I smash PB's left, right and centre. I feel I am very close. had a solid 5k race at WA Athletics Stadium the week before 6 inch, I'm pretty confident I will make my 6 foot debut in March, and with resting heart rates from 34-40 through most of the second half of the year (about 21 consecutive weeks), I feel the really big breakthrough races have to be just around the corner...
I know God blessed me with the 6 inch sub 6 hour run, and being able to hold on at Melbourne in spite of the calf problem was a big blessing too, would have been very easy to DNF in that one, and many others would have.

So results wise 2010 has been slightly but consistently better than 2009, training has been slightly better, I have learnt some useful things this year, I've made some major changes in my life jobswise to try and keep the momentum ticking over, and I am very hopeful that 2011 might be the year I hit the jackpot, as I feel still a little disappointed with 2010. Getting sub 6 hours at 6inch in 2010 was a significant goal achieved, and gives me great confidence as I attempt to make my 6 foot debut in March. Anyhow if I never raced again, I'd die happy after a wonderful year of running in 2010, and with a treasure trove of photos and true stories to share with my kids and grandkids after the last 12 months or so. So lots to thank God our Maker for, but as my racewalking coach in the 1990's once said; "if you are ever satisfied you will miss out on what could have been achieved." Its been a good year, but when you are on a good thing, why stop, so I plan to (God willing) try and step on it, try and push home the advantage a lot in 2011.