lesmurdie busso half and 500s

Photos from an epic, tough, steep, glorious Lesmurdie run. Massive thanks and respect to A and BBC for this one. Me very happy, although the freaky fall was a painful one...
In brief;
our internet is down again my calf is very sore (and with icepack on right now) after busselton half (BUSSELTON RESULT HEREmy wounds from my scary fall on 13k lesmurdie 460m elevation trail run are healing our bills r stacking up and i am blogging with my mobile phone which is very! Slow and laborious. Monday 5.6k run 34min
tuesday-small 16second improvement to 11.35 for 6x500m 1.49 my best one
wednesday 13k 1hr45min 460m elevation steep!scarp hills! Glorious views
Photos above...

saturday 1min better than last year 1hr 51min 41secs (Busselton Half) so
first 1k 4.11 5k 23.53
sunday 8.4km 46min hr 153 strong winds icepacked calf 3 times today first 500m sore every step then pain gone sore again after the run but then calf felt better during 90min walk with some jogging with my wife and two young kids
so some high intensity this week but no big long run but if the calf heals quick im making progress the bills getting veryery! Hard to deal with desperate times again but high hopes we can get past it all god willing thats 3 weeks of solid ttraining banked but no big result in my first race of the year need to be patient and try to persist.

In Detail;
Internet connection back so have added photos and no longer have to try and type using tiny phone keypad...


feeling a whole lot more positive now that I have moved up the waitlist for 6 foot again AND my entry for BBC's summer training comp has been accepted. wuhoo!


Sunday 6th feb;
Ran 8.4km in 46min 26 (5.31 per K) HR 153…
Last of 12 laps was my quickest. Basically a test run to see if my sore calf could survive a few laps. i icepacked it 3 times during the day, and wasn’t very confident to start with…It weas sore with every step for the first 500m and at that stage I figured maybe a km or so and then I would call it a night and take a few days off…Then the pain disappeared which suggests to me that once the muscles warmed up the injury was no longer sore…no major problems for the next 7-8k…, although I took it a little easy…strong easterly wind to push into…found some good rhythm and I am pleased to get a solid run on the board that gets me over 50km and 300min for the week, and takes me to 47km for my February total in the 100 day challenge…
After the run the calf got sore again as my muscles cooled down…a 90 minute walk with my wife and kids plus some jogging with my 3 year old (he is getting quite quick now…) and it started to feel good again so hopefully just a painful niggle that will heal itself in the next few days…


Saturday 5th February
Ran Busselton Half Marathon in 1hr 51min 41 secs. HR 171 at end.
10.55km splits 54min 18secs / 57 min 23 secs
-Its a minor miracle I made it to the start line for this one, a 3hr solo drive starting at 0330 to get there an average of 2hrs sleep the last 2 nights, a massive struggle to get the petrol money to go there.
-Its also a minor miracle I managed to beat last years time by 69 seconds (therefore a small course record for me), after battling sore left calf for most of the race, strong winds, weariness from the wednesday trail run, no targeted training, and an unscheduled toilet stop in the first 10k…Finished strongly and my drinks strategy seemed to work well. Was blessed with some people to battle with in the last few km. Disappointing not to get closer to the 1.41 Half PB, but that can wait for another day, although it will be a long wait as Darlington clashes with 6 foot, and Freo Half is probably too close to Melbourne, my main race since 2007. I think Perth needs a few more Half races., I guess there is Bunbury, Albany and City to Surf.
Nice to finally get a race on the board for 2011. Really like this course. A good solid hitout. Will be very beneficial and hopefully I can do a few more like this in training.


Wednesday 2nd February
Ran 13km in 1hr 45min 27 secs Elevation gain about 460m maybe.
Followed BBC and A up some tough terrain trails, with some long very steep uphills and downhills.
At times I struggled to keep them in sight, and at other times I ran ahead of them, but mostly I was struggling more than them I think. Took one gatorade and one 750ml water. Just enough. A lot of bullants, one crawled up my leg.
Towards the end my shoelace caught on a treestump as it was getting dark, which shredded my shoelace, and cause me to fall resulting in big cuts to the arms, and a cramping right calf muscle. Minor cut to left knee. Hopefully no major injury issues, and just a war wound from the run. Fantastic run prep for 6 foot I think. Scintillating views of the city,coastal plain, waterfall, perth airport. One of the toughest, and most enjoyable runs I have done in a long time. Really happy to get the opportunity to do this one. One tough hill in the second half the run was just so steep and went on and on for ages…Towards the end me and A had a bit of a sprint off in the dark…what a fun night of trail running…!!!

Tuesday 1st February 2011;
Ran 3km of Intervals on grass track in 11min 35secs. 3.5min rests Heart rates 168-186, but mostly around the 174 mark… 16 second improvement on total time for identical session in first week of January, although in perfect conditions this time (other than the strong southwesterly wind which made it hard work up the front straight, but a nice tail wind in the backstraight.), and also this time the track was well marked so I could concentrate on the session a bit more instead of searching for the track all the time, or trying to cope with excessive heat/humidity mixes… Very pleasing to improve significantly. I think if I can ramp up the fitness enough, eventually 3.40 per K should be possible for this session. Will probably have to do some speed drills and improve my running technigue If I am to go much into the 3-3.30 per Km realm…First 100m was 18 seconds, and with the tailwind I was hitting 20 seconds for first 100m and last 200m, but my 300m-400m sections were very slow about 27 seconds for the 100m, and I think my front straights (200m-300m) were slow also due to the headwind…
Overall lots to work on but a good session this one.


Monday 31st; Ran 5.6km in 34min 6secs HR 129 at end…Pathetic….mostly ran to get my January total above 200km, and to try and get my day off to a better start…oval was a mess of temporary fencing and portaloos leftover from the concert that got cancellled due to the TC that didnt show up…what a shambles…a bit like my training at the moment…although my mileage the last 2 weeks has been very solid…