Saturday - 6km easy Kotara (Newcastle) 25:41 (4:16s)
Sunday - 14km of hilly trails Blackbutt and Richley Reserves (Newcastle) 62:10 (4:26s)
Up in Newcastle for the weekend, combination of a family birthday and Knights home game. First time I've seen the new grandstand at the ground - pretty impressive, a far cry from about 10 years ago when there was one dilapidated stand for members and then hill on 3 sides, meaning that anyone with a general admission ticket needed to arrive at 10am for a 3pm kickoff, or be standing right up the back.
Blackbutt Reserve is right across the road from where I stayed at my inlaws. And what a place to run. Will put the Garmin link up when I'm home tomorrow, but in summary firetrail with a LOT of rolling hills. Nothing too huge, but almost no flat, just endless up and down, all very runnable. A great workout and I was happy with overall pace as wasnt killing myself today, a combination of too many rum and cokes here last night (it is Newcastle after all...kidding, I love the place), and not wanting to smash my legs on the downhills. Finished it off with a 900m race around the (very hilly) block with my 8 year old nephew - he beat me and ran a PB, I struggled home in second :)
Better go to my nephew's birthday party now - will hit the junkfood with a vengeance after those hills and 900m race...
Hope the Knights win this afternoon, but I'm not confident, they always play poorly against the Roosters
71km for the week
Blackbutt Reserve run
Kotara streets easy run
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Friday, 24 June 2011
Campbell Athletics Field
12km 48:14 (4:01s) incl 5km tempo 18:31 (3:42s)
Sydney put on a great day for running - perfect weather. Wanted to run on some nice flat grass today, so headed out to Campbell Athletics Field in Canterbury/Hurlestone Park. Bit of a hidden gem this track, its marked all year around, gate is always open, hardly anyone ever there (except Brendan and his Woodstock Runners on Thursday nights) and only 10 mins drive from where I live. Note to anyone running it - one lap is 400m only if running in the very outside lane, actually from memory its 397m or so. Close enough, the longer bits of grass make up for it :)
Ran nice and comfy for almost 5km around the track, picking it up slightly towards the end. Only one other person the whole time I was there - but she close to walk in the outside lane in the opposite direction to which I was running, walking a big boxer dog for a number of laps. I nearly stopped mid run and asked her if she could move in a lane - it wasn't like she had a watch and was timing her/her dog's laps - but I was in a good mood so just dodged her and the dog each lap, which kept me on my toes.
Changed shoes quickly after the tempo (felt like a tri-hard-triathlete) then headed off for 7km around Canterbury racecourse and the Cooks River. Not on the racecourse, just around the fences, although I was looking for any gates to squeeze under for next time.
Heading up to Newcastle tomorrow for the weekend for a family thing, hopefully run on a trail I found there last time. Good luck to those running State Cross Country down at Nowra.
5km tempo
7km Cooks River incl w'down
Sydney put on a great day for running - perfect weather. Wanted to run on some nice flat grass today, so headed out to Campbell Athletics Field in Canterbury/Hurlestone Park. Bit of a hidden gem this track, its marked all year around, gate is always open, hardly anyone ever there (except Brendan and his Woodstock Runners on Thursday nights) and only 10 mins drive from where I live. Note to anyone running it - one lap is 400m only if running in the very outside lane, actually from memory its 397m or so. Close enough, the longer bits of grass make up for it :)
Ran nice and comfy for almost 5km around the track, picking it up slightly towards the end. Only one other person the whole time I was there - but she close to walk in the outside lane in the opposite direction to which I was running, walking a big boxer dog for a number of laps. I nearly stopped mid run and asked her if she could move in a lane - it wasn't like she had a watch and was timing her/her dog's laps - but I was in a good mood so just dodged her and the dog each lap, which kept me on my toes.
Changed shoes quickly after the tempo (felt like a tri-hard-triathlete) then headed off for 7km around Canterbury racecourse and the Cooks River. Not on the racecourse, just around the fences, although I was looking for any gates to squeeze under for next time.
Heading up to Newcastle tomorrow for the weekend for a family thing, hopefully run on a trail I found there last time. Good luck to those running State Cross Country down at Nowra.
5km tempo
7km Cooks River incl w'down
Wednesday, 22 June 2011
Wrong question
14km 57:48 (4:07s)
Another visit to the trusty old Bay Run. Early afternoon, so not a lot of traffic on the track, but a lot of wind, especially running across the runners' bridge (ie new Iron Cove Bridge). Plan was to run 60 mins for the 14km today, but was feeling good so ran the last 7kms a bit faster in 4:00s.
Got home and after commenting to my wife that training was going well this week, she added "perhaps you could run for fitness rather than racing and competition?". I wont mention my exact reply, but suffice to say it wasn't in the affirmative.
Not sure yet if I'll run a speed session tomorrow or Friday now, as a weekend away (Newcastle) has just come up, so I've had to shuffle around weekend running/racing plans.
14km Bay Run
Another visit to the trusty old Bay Run. Early afternoon, so not a lot of traffic on the track, but a lot of wind, especially running across the runners' bridge (ie new Iron Cove Bridge). Plan was to run 60 mins for the 14km today, but was feeling good so ran the last 7kms a bit faster in 4:00s.
Got home and after commenting to my wife that training was going well this week, she added "perhaps you could run for fitness rather than racing and competition?". I wont mention my exact reply, but suffice to say it wasn't in the affirmative.
Not sure yet if I'll run a speed session tomorrow or Friday now, as a weekend away (Newcastle) has just come up, so I've had to shuffle around weekend running/racing plans.
14km Bay Run
Monday, 20 June 2011
Pain in the Domain
5.9km fartlek 25:07 (4:15s) plus 8km w'up/down for 14km all up
A long overdue Pain in the Domain session of fartlek - man I love the sound of that word. Decent sized Group 1 today of approx 15 runners, with about 10 finishing. Felt strong the whole way today, and with two other guys (Shaun and ?) we pushed the long rep from near the Opera House gates around to the "other" gate, to run it in 2:03 (its around 710m I think, so 2:53 pace). My quickest long rep in years, plus we finished into a massive headwind, happy enough with that. Overall time for the session was decent, especially given that a couple of recoveries for me and one or two others were slightly longer than usual as we looped around to regroup.
Saw the HuRTS squad a few times while out there (including a near head on collision as we did our gate to gate, but its all good), they were doing long reps of some sort, with a big group and flying as usual. I hear they smash themselves in training, but it seems to be working when you look at their race results. Something I need to start doing in my own training, might jump into one of their sessions one day as lunchtimes suits me at the moment.
Pain in the Domain fartlek
A long overdue Pain in the Domain session of fartlek - man I love the sound of that word. Decent sized Group 1 today of approx 15 runners, with about 10 finishing. Felt strong the whole way today, and with two other guys (Shaun and ?) we pushed the long rep from near the Opera House gates around to the "other" gate, to run it in 2:03 (its around 710m I think, so 2:53 pace). My quickest long rep in years, plus we finished into a massive headwind, happy enough with that. Overall time for the session was decent, especially given that a couple of recoveries for me and one or two others were slightly longer than usual as we looped around to regroup.
Saw the HuRTS squad a few times while out there (including a near head on collision as we did our gate to gate, but its all good), they were doing long reps of some sort, with a big group and flying as usual. I hear they smash themselves in training, but it seems to be working when you look at their race results. Something I need to start doing in my own training, might jump into one of their sessions one day as lunchtimes suits me at the moment.
Pain in the Domain fartlek
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Easy Monday
Just 10km easy today - 42:18 (4:14s)
Both baby cows were a bit sore this morning after yesterday's hilly race, but Monday is usually an easy day anyway so that was fine. They were okay after a couple of kms, and surprisingly my troublesome ankle isnt as troublesome as I thought it might be. Watching the footy on the couch yesterday with it iced up must have done the trick. Shame about Benji Marshall's knee injury though - Tigers will struggle while he's out.
Nothing else to report for today, so a short one. Will start a decent week of hard training tomorrow, working on including more speed and speed sessions, after yesterday's race was done on base and some hill training, I need to get comfortable again running fast
Easy 10km (link only shows 8km, didnt upload final 2km)
Both baby cows were a bit sore this morning after yesterday's hilly race, but Monday is usually an easy day anyway so that was fine. They were okay after a couple of kms, and surprisingly my troublesome ankle isnt as troublesome as I thought it might be. Watching the footy on the couch yesterday with it iced up must have done the trick. Shame about Benji Marshall's knee injury though - Tigers will struggle while he's out.
Nothing else to report for today, so a short one. Will start a decent week of hard training tomorrow, working on including more speed and speed sessions, after yesterday's race was done on base and some hill training, I need to get comfortable again running fast
Easy 10km (link only shows 8km, didnt upload final 2km)
Saturday, 18 June 2011
Mini-Mos 5km
3rd overall in 18:44 (5km). also 10km warmup/down for 15km all up. Course PB of almost 30 seconds (last run was 2008). Almost 2 mins slower than my flat course PB, I still reckon this 5km course is not just hilly, but long...
First road race in 4 weeks, following 4.5km Manly scenic fun run back in May (came 2nd), prior to that hadn't raced in 10 months. Per previous post, went into Mini-Mos just wanting to put in a decent well paced effort, perhaps run up near the front, but also to enjoy it - as much as you can enjoy a bl**dy hilly course at 8am in the morning...
Happy with the effort and result, most happy with my pacing. Uphill start followed by a nice downhill with ocean views, I was sitting in 10th at 1km (roughly 3:15 I think based on someone else's Garmin beeping - I've recently decided to ditch mine for races, train religiously in the Garmin, but to quote a mate, I like a race being "catch the b*stard in front, catch the other b*stard in front. A normal watch will do fine for racing).
Caught a couple of guys on the next long uphill to 2km, and with the first 3 guys having cleared off by now, 2 to 3.5km was spent trading places in the "chase" pack of 4th-7th. Couple of young guys had me on the downhills, but I pushed the ups to get back on the pack and occasionally edge just in front, just to show em we can still run in our thirties...haha. Heading up the long final hill, which must start somewhere around 3.7km and winds and drags for probably 800m (and is a decent climb, especially at the end of a race), reeled in the young Sydney Strider in 3rd and despite some pressure, held him and the others off. Was also catching the guy in 2nd, who beat me by 9 secs, but I ran out of road :) Photo from around this point, courtesy of Abbeydigital:
Overall, a great day out and decent hitout for my first slightly bigger fun run back - even if it was just the easier 5km, rather than the full 10km...The relentless Mosman hills meant I never really relaxed, but was pleased with how I ran the ups, and finished strongly. Next race should be flatter, and I'll probably start faster.
64km for the week, pretty consistent with the last 3 or 4.
First road race in 4 weeks, following 4.5km Manly scenic fun run back in May (came 2nd), prior to that hadn't raced in 10 months. Per previous post, went into Mini-Mos just wanting to put in a decent well paced effort, perhaps run up near the front, but also to enjoy it - as much as you can enjoy a bl**dy hilly course at 8am in the morning...
Happy with the effort and result, most happy with my pacing. Uphill start followed by a nice downhill with ocean views, I was sitting in 10th at 1km (roughly 3:15 I think based on someone else's Garmin beeping - I've recently decided to ditch mine for races, train religiously in the Garmin, but to quote a mate, I like a race being "catch the b*stard in front, catch the other b*stard in front. A normal watch will do fine for racing).
Caught a couple of guys on the next long uphill to 2km, and with the first 3 guys having cleared off by now, 2 to 3.5km was spent trading places in the "chase" pack of 4th-7th. Couple of young guys had me on the downhills, but I pushed the ups to get back on the pack and occasionally edge just in front, just to show em we can still run in our thirties...haha. Heading up the long final hill, which must start somewhere around 3.7km and winds and drags for probably 800m (and is a decent climb, especially at the end of a race), reeled in the young Sydney Strider in 3rd and despite some pressure, held him and the others off. Was also catching the guy in 2nd, who beat me by 9 secs, but I ran out of road :) Photo from around this point, courtesy of Abbeydigital:
Overall, a great day out and decent hitout for my first slightly bigger fun run back - even if it was just the easier 5km, rather than the full 10km...The relentless Mosman hills meant I never really relaxed, but was pleased with how I ran the ups, and finished strongly. Next race should be flatter, and I'll probably start faster.
64km for the week, pretty consistent with the last 3 or 4.
Thursday, 16 June 2011
Small taste of speed
13km including 3 x 1km (2 mins recovery) 3:23, 3:18, 3:14. 13km all up 59:33 (4:34s incl recoveries)
Good to finally do something a bit faster, even if it was a short session. Ran the reps on a loop of streets which runs around Petersham Oval, just off Parramatta Road. Undulating loop, which includes a 300m long hill, so the times were okay, and going the right way. Had planned on doing 4, but legs were very heavy from a couple of days in the garden.
Have entered the 5km event as part of Minimos this Sunday - I've run the 10km there a couple of times, and its a bugger of a course, but will drop back to the 5km this year and get back to 10km events in July/August. Last time I ran the 5km there was 2008, and we all measured it around 5.2km, plus a couple of big hills (incl one in the last km...) so I'm not aiming for any time or average pace. Just want to run well, get back into races, and if I can finish towards the front, will be happy. I think I was about 8th or so when I last ran the 5km.
1km reps Petersham Oval
Good to finally do something a bit faster, even if it was a short session. Ran the reps on a loop of streets which runs around Petersham Oval, just off Parramatta Road. Undulating loop, which includes a 300m long hill, so the times were okay, and going the right way. Had planned on doing 4, but legs were very heavy from a couple of days in the garden.
Have entered the 5km event as part of Minimos this Sunday - I've run the 10km there a couple of times, and its a bugger of a course, but will drop back to the 5km this year and get back to 10km events in July/August. Last time I ran the 5km there was 2008, and we all measured it around 5.2km, plus a couple of big hills (incl one in the last km...) so I'm not aiming for any time or average pace. Just want to run well, get back into races, and if I can finish towards the front, will be happy. I think I was about 8th or so when I last ran the 5km.
1km reps Petersham Oval
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)