Friday-Tuesday

Friday - regular recovery run.  Wore my HRM as have been feeling so good I wanted to make sure I’m not overcooking things. No problems though – average HR was 129.

Saturday - Ran with Sandgroper. We added 2.5km onto what we did last week and ran a bit quicker. pretty even pace/effort thoughout although we pushed on for the last 2km which were our fastest – 4.24/4.23.  Overall pace was 4.32/km.  It was pretty humid and we had a couple of drink breaks.  Sandgroper hid a couple of cold Powerades in East Perth for us which was good planning and came at just the right time.

The last 2km came about because of an effort to not drop our pace which we pushed on with harder than we intended.  Great way to finish a hard run.

Sunday - Ben had the Weetbix Tryathlon in the morning.  Got pretty warm when the sun came out from behind the clouds.  Ben did really well.  I think he was pretty conservative and surprised himself with how easily he did it, especially the 1km run at the end.  Got some good photos so will get a couple of them up in the next few days.

Managed to organise a ride with Neil later in the afternoon and got in 41.8km.  We went out around the Ascot, Garrett Road, Maylands loop then around the river and out to UWA before we went our separate ways.  Our pace fluctuated due to my poor selection of route but we were able to pick it up from Burswood on and I hammered it along Mounts Bay Road on the way back at 40-42km/hr which was fun (and got the blood pumping).

Monday -  Ran my regular Bridges loop at a moderate effort and averaged 4.19/km.  This is a bit of an in-between pace.  I think I could just hold a conversation at this pace/effort so hopefully its not too quick to be getting full aerobic benefit from this run ie energy being provided from the breakdown of glycogen and fat stored in our muscles by utilising oxygen.

Tuesday (this morning) - did an interval workout. 10 min warm up, 4 × 20 secs strides then 5 sets of 1 min hard; 2 mins jog recovery; 2mins hard; 2mins jog recovery. 18 mins cool down. Hard going on the last reps but glad I got through it. Last hard workout for the week with 5km race on Sunday. 

I'll take it easy for the rest of the week with a recovery run tomorrow, 16km easy with Clown on Thursday, recovery run Friday and then 6 or so km with some strides on Saturday.

I'll race the 5km at Point Walter on Sunday and may do a long cooldown to get my kms up a bit for the week as I'll be down a bit without a long run this week.

I may have some exciting news in the near future in the lead up to the Bridges so stay tuned ...

Today's video - I can't embed this one but if you follow the link, you will find an entertaining video (after a bit of a slow start) and incredible workout:

http://running.competitor.com/2010/01/training/a-training-day-with-american-record-holder-josh-cox_8076

More mojo

Tuesday I did 5.6km warm up then 8 x hill repeats (52-57 secs) up the hill on our street with a jog recovery back down. Last time I did this workout I did 10 repeats in 52 secs so this workout should be another good marker for improvement. 2-2.5km warm down.

Wednesday did the standard recovery run. Was feeling so good that I considered doing a 12.8km bridges loop instead but erred on the side of caution and also didn't want to detract from what has become a regular tempo workout with Clown on Thursday mornings.

This morning I had a great tempo run with Clown. I think we both really noticed the improvementover last week. 8km in 32.34 (compared with last week 33.24).

2km Splits as follows 8.06; 8.21 (4.09/4.12); 8.08; 7.57. Last week we did the last 2km in 8.08, this week 7.57 into a bit of a wind too. Negative split again but both halves were much quicker than last week.

All up 16.2km for me. This tempo workout was only 4 seconds slower than I raced the 8km on New Years Eve but with a really controlled effort including some chat on the first 4kms

I've signed up for the Moneghetti training camp in March too and there is a really good group heading down so it should be great company as well as fantastic training. I'm pretty excited about this opportunity. As Trailblazer said in the comments, there will be plenty more Freeway Bike Hikes ...

Recovery run tomorrow and then a long run with Sandgroper on Saturday. Not sure of the course yet, but I think we are both keen to add a couple of km on what we did last week.

Sunday - Ben has the Weetbix Tryathlon so if I get out for ride it will have to be later in the day.

I have added a badge to the sidebar of this blog. It's also a link to my page on the Strands.com site. Strands is a bit like Facebook for athletes. I find it a really good and quick and easy way to monitor and record my training. It has some great features and you can use as many or as few of them as you want. You can import your workouts from Garmin,Polar Nike+ and Map My Run as well.

Another aspect of it that I really like is that members of Team Strands will sign on as followers of you and are really generous with advice and encouragement. Team Strands is a sponsored team of elite athletes and I think it's really helpful to be able to be able to follow their training and see that they go through many of the same struggles that us lesser mortals go through.

I'd recommend it - especially if you don't have an electronic record or log of your training.

Here is a great video - hope you enjoy it.

Getting my mojo back

Finally feel like I am starting to get somewhere and my enthusiasm is on the same upward slope.  I have been perservering rather than enjoying a lot of my running since my knee has started coming good.  I think this was due partly to still feeling a bit low after a disappointing race which wasn't the the result I was looking for after a few months of pretty hard work and some equally high expectations (even after the knee) - I guess a positive attitude isn't always enough.

Another contributing factor has been that I have been finding running really hard work a lot of the time until this past week.  I did put on 3-4 kilos which didn't help but I think they are gone now (although I haven't jumped on the scales but you sort of know ... ).

This week has been a totally different story.  I think running on Sunday helped - starting the week on Monday with 12km already in the bank (10km race + 2km warm up) helped build a positive attitude and even though Tuesday's intervals were only solid (as per my last post), a really good tempo session with Clown on Thursday set up a good second half of the week.  Even though I ran only slightly slower than last week, I felt it was an easier and far more even effort than the previous week.  We had a bit of a chat along the way and cranked it up a bit on the last km.  I was taking 2km splits from WAMC markers off my wathc while Clown took 1km splits on his Garmin.

I think I could have run faster than I did last time (33:04) with a harder effort over the first 6km but what we did felt good and was also very enjoyable. Total 33:24 – 2km splits as follows – 8:20/8:30/8:25/8:08 so a negative split as well which is good going.  Clown got the 1km splits as 4:06, 4:18, 4:09, 4:11, 4:08, 4:14, 4:12, 3:56.  Map My Run has this total run for me as 16.2km so it is serving a dual purpose as medium long run as well as a tempo run. 

Clown is doing the Steve Moneghetti training camp in Dwellingup in March.  It lools fantastic - Moneghetti is one of my all time running heroes and I'm really tempted although it is a weekend away (probably home early Sunday afternoon) and I had tentatively planned to do the 60km Freeway Bike Hike on the Sunday morning.  The camp is limited to 60 people so I will need to make a fairly quick decision (and seek a leave pass if going the camp).

Recovery run Friday followed by long run Saturday.  Ran with Sandgroper and we set out from my place at 6am.  1 hour 47 mins was total time which included a few drink stops at water fountains and one pit stop for me. . Longest run for a while would have been a real slog by myself but was very enjoyable with company.  I'd estimated the run at 22.4km whereas Sangroper got it at 22.2km. so approx 4km further than the long run I have been doing.  Lots of chatting kept us at a very comfortable and pretty much perfect long run pace. Not sure what the actual running time was but I'll be looking to bump this out by around 10 mins a week over the next few weeks (may be every second week) and I think that this will suit Sandgroper too.  He is doing a few track workouts as well, which are logisitically a bit difficult for me without a car which is pity although I'm a bit nervous about going hard on the track as it was after my hard Yasso 800 session that my knee injury first appeared.

Just over 90km for the week Sunday - Saturday which is probably more than I will average over the next few weeks so it was pleasing to get through without feeling overly fatigued.

Another early start on Sunday when I set out from my house at 6.15am to ride to Neil's for a 7am meet.  We then rode through Floreat, Claremont, Dalkeith and then down into Nedlands.  The ride through Dalkeith was sensational, heaps of other cyclists out and it seems to be a very popular route.  We then rode back past the Brewery (thought I might have spotted Epi as we rode past - not sure) and around the Bridges before heading back towards Leederville where we stopped for a coffee.  Went our separate ways from there and by the time I was home I had clocked up 61km which was a good steady bit of cross training for a non running day.  Unfortunately, when I got home, Rox reminded me that I had promised the kids a bike ride so it was onto the mountain bike with Sammies bike hooked up on to mine on the TrailGator so 61km + a heavy bike + towing Sammie + 12km made for hard going.  Luckily the rest of the day was very easy going as I went to the cricket with my Dad.  Turned out to be a great day and a very close finish.  Only low point was the pitch invader who tackled one of the Pakistanis.  Hopeless security - the guy was going so slow and I think he only laid the tackle because he didn't know what else to do having expected to be tackled himself way before then.  Chubby Checker and the other security guards were obviously distracted by confiscating beach balls and stopping beer cup snakes.  Hope the coppers gave him a couple to go on with. 

So the most enjoyable runs/ride I did this week were when I was running/riding with someone else.   They also seemed much easier than they would have if I had done them on my own.  The following video is interesting in that context:



This morning I went out for my 12.8km bridges loop and ran at a moderate effort/pace. 56 mins so around 4.22km. Felt good and another sign that I am on the improve. Saw Simon out there - going along at a good pace. I'm still a bit off that pace but hopefully I'll be back close to hitting similar paces.

Interval session tomorrow. I'm going to do something different tomorrow but am still tossing up between doing a 1 and 2 minute interval workout (with equivalent jog recoveries) or a hill repeat workout.

I'm looking towards doing the 5km at Point Walter on 14 Feb. Sandgroper and Clown have both said that they will probably be doing it so that will make things interesting. My WAMC number arrived the other day - I am now the proud owner of WAMC #9102.

So I definitely feel like I have turned the corner - a few more hard and solid weeks with decent mileage and I'll start to feel like I might be able to go close to PB by the time the Bridges comes around at the end of March.

A work in progress

I have pretty much stuck to what I said I was going to do over the past week.  Intervals last Tuesday (and again this morning); 16km on Thursday (no tempo); short run 6km with strides on Saturday and then Matilda Bay on Sunday.

Last week's interval session was a solid without being spectacular effort.  I didn't feel the improvement I had the previous week but equally didn't go backwards either.  Saw Sandgroper twice on this run, once while warming up and then again when heading back on my last repeat.  It was very warm that morning and I was certainly sweating it out.

After a recovery run on Wednesday, I ran down to Burswood and met up with Clown on Thursday morning as we headed out on the Peninsula/NYE 8km WAMC course.  This run gives me 16-16.2km which we did at a nice easy conversational pace, probably around 4:35/km pace or thereabouts.  Great conditions fro running, especially compared to the previous two days and very pleasant all round.

Recovery run Friday and then a short 5.8km run on Saturday morning incorporating some 10km race pace strides and 1km @ 10km race pace effort which I timed at 3.53.

Sunday morning was warm.  I think it must have been close to 30 degrees when we started at 7am.  Not sure the km markers were in the correct spots.  I think an average of my first 2kms is probably closer to what I was actually running.

Managed to achieve my C goal (A – under 39 mins; B – faster than last year’s 39:12; C – under 40 mins) and actually felt like I ran better this year than last year. Last year I really struggled over last 3km whereas this year I think I ran a lot more even race. Passed someone in last 500m which was satisfying.  Still, it is very frustrating to be running 2 and half minutes outside my 10km PB.

Saw Simon there.  He is deep into his Boston training now so said that he felt he was lacking speed although running strong.  I think he said he ran 37:40 something (I could see him off ahead in the distance).

Also saw Epi out on the course a couple of times and he called out some welcome words of encouragement - thanks!!

Splits were as follows:

1km - 3:36
2km - 3:51
3-4km - 7:27 (3:44/km avg)
5km - 4:24 (19:19 @ halfway)
6-8km - 12:05 (4:02/km avg)
9km - 4:16
10km - 3:59 (39:41 / 20:22 second half)

On Monday I ran a 12.8km bridges loop at an easy pace and then in the afternoon, I went for an easy bike ride 29km out to Lake Monger and back.  Plans to ride with my mate Neil fell through but I thought I would take the opportunity to suss out the route to his place along the bike path as it is a bit tricky though Northbridge.  Hopefully we will get a chance to go out next weekend.

This morning I did the 4 x 4min interval session that I have been doing for the past few Tuesdays.  Again, another solid but unspectacular effort.  I was going to add on 2-3 280m hill repeats at the end but a combination of residual fatigue, a warm morning and a late night the night before meant that I was too knackered after the intervals to feel like I would be able to do them with any real quality.

So, I think this leaves me in a situation where I am waiting for a break through race or workout so that I can feel like I am really back on track.  Very encouragingly, I have had no knee issues or twinges and didn't even think of my knee once during Sunday's race.

My long run simply isn't long enough at the moment.  This doesn't mean that I am going to go out and run 27km this Saturday but I want to have at least a couple of runs of that distance under my belt by the end of February.  I feel like I need to have a moderate effort run as well which will mostly be my Monday morning loop (12.8km at the moment but I would like to get this out to 18.4km once my long run is longer) except when I have raced on the weekend.

In other news, Reading have knocked another Premier League team (Burnley) out of the FA Cup and are through to the last 16.  West Bromwich Albion next which is a good draw so quarter finals are a distinct possibility.

Feeling a bit smashed

Finished off a good week with 18.4km long run yesterday and a 90.2km bike ride today. The long run took my total for the week to just over 74kms which I achieved without feeling like I had over extended myself.

Today I got out early for what I had tentatively planned as an 80km bike ride out along the Freeway (South). A strong easterly was more of a cross wind than a tail wind and I picked a couple of blokes who drafted off me for about 20km. I averaged about 35km/hr although I did get up to 45-46km/hr for 2-3km when I made a concerted but unsuccessful effort to drop them. They eventually dropped off at Mundijong Road and I continued on for a bit to get myself up to 45km for a 90km round trip. (They were still stopped at Mundijong Road when I headed back).

The cross wind felt like a headwind on the way back which combined with some fatigue meant that I averaged between 25-30km/hr for a lot of the way back. All up I was out there for 3hrs 12 mins (approx an hour longer than my previous longest ride). While I didn't feel exhausted while I was riding, I felt pretty smashed when I stopped, especially after having something to eat and a shower. As a result, I had a little bit of a nanna nap this afternoon.

This coming week will be a bit of a recovery week after 3 solid weeks of building up. I will still do my intervals on Tuesday but will probably not do my tempo run on Thursday although I will most likely still do the 16km. I am planning on doing the 10km at Matilda Bay on Sunday and running hard so Saturday will only be a light run as well. Not sure what I will do about riding next weekend - I may have to give it a miss if I don't get out at all during the week. I amy try to get out for an early morning ride mid week as I am sure I will feel inspired/motivated from watching the Tour Down Under.

Happy Days!!

I've had a good week so far.  I did the extra kms on Monday at a slightly harder effort level (12.8km in 56 mins).  If I had to categorise this, I'd say "moderate".

On Tuesday, I did 4 x 4min hard with 4 mins jog recovery between.  Felt stronger on my last rep this week as I ran down a "target" in front of me.

Wednesday - easy recovery run, mostly on grass (8.4/km).

Thursday (today), I ran the same 8km tempo run as I did last week.  Met Clown down at Burswood and we set out together.  Despite the fact that we were doing a tempo run, we had a bit of a chat as we headed out over the first 4km.  Clown said that he was finding the pace a bit quick for him and encouraged me to run on ahead on the return 4km.  Managed to negative split slightly, even though I felt like I was running at quite a bit of a higher effort level than over the first 4km.  A good indicator I think of the benefit of running with someone else and the relaxation of having a chat as you run.

Splits as follows:
2km - 8.23 (was slightly late so more likely around 8.20)
4km - 16.44 (8.21-8.24 for second 2km)
5km - 20.52 (4.07)
6km - 25.09 (4.16 = 8.23 for third 2km)
8km - 33.25 (8.16 for last 2km).

33.25 was 42 secs faster then the same 8km I ran last week which is a pleasing improvement.  Clown and I ran on to the Causeway before Clown headed back to Burswood.  A very enjoyable run and one which we are both keen to repeat in the future.  Clown is running Boston this year and is recovering from an injury so we have plenty to talk about.

We took the kids to movies this afternoon.  Rox took Sammie to see Alvin and the Chipmunks while Ben and I saw Avatar in 3D.  Loved it - really immersed myself in it for the two and bit hours and even though  some of the plot was telegraphed it was a sensational experience.  The 3D wasn't intrusive or obvious as in movies like Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

Best of all, Reading beat Liverpool in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. We have had a dismal season thus far, sitting just above the relegation spots in the Championship and have already sacked our manager. This was a replay after we drew earlier and if the highlights are anything to go on, this game was similar in that we dominated and deserved to win. Enjoy these highlights - I know I did!!

[Video highlights of Liverpool v Reading now deleted. Can be found @ www.thefa.com]

Rest of the week for me is a recovery run tomorrow, long run Saturday and a long ride on Sunday. Think I will be going a bit further this Sunday out along the Freeway so my average pace should be a bit higher. I will need to get out early as it is forecast to be 41 on Sunday. Tour Down Under starts Sunday - looking forward to that especially as the cricket is looking like a bit of a one sided contest already.

For some reason, my blog hasn't been showing updates of the blogs I follow so I was bit late reading Epi's post about his knee surgery. Hopefully all will go well and he will revoer quickly enough to get his base up and do a solid blocck of training so that he can have en enjoyable run at Boston.

Another solid week in the bank

Just over 69kms this week plus 60km bike ride today.  My 18.4km "long run" yesterday took me 1 hour 27 mins so a couple of minutes faster then last week.  I got out a little bit later than I wanted to and as a result it was a bit was warmer than would have been ideal.

I am going to stick with the program/pattern that I have settled into again this week ie intervals Tuesday and tempo run Thursday before long run Saturday.  Forecast is for a very hot weekend so I can't afford to get out late on either day.

I may add a few kms this week by running a 12.8km bridges loop rather than just an 8.4km tomorrow morning.  I'm on leave this week so if it's not too oppressive weatherwise in the afternoons, I may try to get an extra bike ride in as well.  My time for my (what has turned out to be 60km) ride today was 2hrs 12mins which was the same as the week before last (but 4 mns faster than last week) and also included walking across the bridge across the Claisebrook inlet ( supposed to dismount there, I never do as it seems pointeless but it was crowded today).  The last two weeks I have been flying down Guildford Road but today there was a headwind so although I put in the effort, I think my pace was down.  Didn't have the same fun along the Freeway as I did last week but still worked hard.  Pleasingly my average heart rate was down so I must be getting some sort of cycling conditioning.  Now I just need to increase the pace, I think I need to do a bit less riding on winding bike paths and a bit more on either the roads or long straight bike paths such as along the Freeway.

All going well, I will try for a good hard run at Matilda Bay at the end of the month.  There is no way I will be in PB shape but it would be good to run faster than I did there last year (39.13).