Loving running

Really enjoying running lately (apart from one funny day on Wednesday).  Great to see some more mates on Strands - it's a good way to keep in touch and see training and races appear on a daily basis.  I have some brochures to share around at Moneghetti training camp and a few t-shirts to give away.  I might try to set up a local group on Strands if others are interested.  

Friday 26 Feb - just an easy recovery run,  8.6km in 46 mins with average HR 132.

Saturday 27 Feb - Set out in the dark at 5.30am with Sandgroper and ran along the river, across the Narrows, followed the river through Nedlands and then up onto the road through Dalkeith, Claremont etc before we hit the beach at Scarborough. Followed the coast along to Port Beach. Grabbed some drinks and then into the ocean for a soak of the legs before finishing up with a coffee.

It's bloody hard to run when you are laughing ... Sandgroper cracked me up as we were running through Dalkeith as the swarms of weekend cyclists streamed past.  We agreed that expensive bikes are the Harley Davidsons for late middle aged men these days which is healthy but as Sandgroper said, while lycra is functional for cycling it's not great down at the cafe "I don't want to see their fat guts, saggy arses and splodgy legs while I'm trying to eat my scrambled eggs".

Pace this week was steady, slowish start then 4.20ish pace for the middle part of the run and possibly slowed a little toward the end.

I felt strong and ran well up the hills that we came to. This was a good solid run and a great way to start a long weekend.

Sunday-Saturday weekly total - 107.6km  First week over 100km for the year.

Sunday 28 Feb - I had my first full rest day (ie no running or cycling) for the year.  While it was hard to have day off, I was due having run for the previous 20 days and with a race scheduled for Monday.

We took the kids to the Hyde Park Festival and had a decent walk around without spending too much money - which was a bonus.

Monday 1 March -  Pretty warm, course was short according to the winner’s Garmin and Map My Run. Went out pretty hard into a strong easterly wind and led for approx 1km. The 2nd placed runner sat on me briefly but then went past and didn’t hang around. I briefly entertained ideas of maintaining some sort of contact and then making a move in the second half (it was an out and back course) when we had the wind behind us, No km markers.

The guy in front ran on strongly and gave me no chance, finishing approx 1 min in front of me. I finished in 2nd well in front of the 3rd placed runner.

No prizes for 2nd and although the winner was in his early 30s, the age group was 30-45 so no age group award for me either.

The winner received $250 + a $100 dinner voucher so it would have been a nice one to pull off.

This was a reasonably hard hit out, particularly into the wind. Average pace 3.45/km.

I’ve trained through this one, with a 6 mile tempo run on Thursday and 25.2km long run on Saturday for a total of 107km for that week – so a reasonable effort when looked at from that angle.

The run was for a pretty worthwhile charity - the Esther Foundation and was part of the South Perth Fiesta.  There aren't many races in Perth that offer prize money of this size so I expect this may be a bit bigger and more fiercely contested as word gets around.  There was probably about 150 people in the race but it was pretty low key.

Like a Liberal Party convention with 3 Federal members and 2 State members there.  Graham Jacobs, the Minister for Water Resources and Mental Health won the Male over 45 category (I think he is actually over 60) and his wife won the Female over 45 category.  I often see them both out running around the Bridges in the morning.  Jacobs was the Shadow Minister when my previous boss Margaret Quirk was Minister for Disability Services.  I've always found him to be a very decent, genuine and friendly guy.

On the other side of the coin, Julie Bishop was there as well ... (Mum taught me though that if you can't say anything nice about someone ... )

With a 2km warm up and a 2km warm down (should have done more but the race didn't start until 9am so it was over 30 by the time it was finished so 2km was more than enough) total was 8.8km for the day.

Tuesday 2 March - Easy bridges loop from home.  12.8km in 57 mins.  Although I normally do an interval workout on Tuesday, I took advice from Matt Downin and treated yesterday's race as my tempo effort for the week and moved my interval workout to Thursday (when I normally do my tempo run).

Wednesday 3 March - another easy bridges loop. 12.8km in 58.30.  Bridges loop – ran in the opposite direction that I normally do – ran clockwise this morning. This will be the direction that the Bridges 10km is run at the end of the month.

Felt a bit flat this morning and lacking motivation. This was a chore rather than being enjoyable which is a bit of a downer. Perhaps because this was bit of a purposeless run = junk miles.  Nearly every run that I do is aimed at stimulating some sort of physiological improvement either through stress or recovery and I think just going out and running because that's what I do was missing that focus.

Thursday 4 March - this became my key workout for the week.  7 × 3min hard/2min easy after a 4.1km warm up and with a 4.1km cool down.  All up 16.2km in 1.13.30.

I ran the intervals along the usual 8km tempo route and hit the 8km mark at 32.45 (ie with 15 secs to go on my last hard rep). 32.45 for 8km is 4.05/km pace so considering 12 mins was easy running (progressively a bit slower) – I’d estimate that I was running between 3.35-3.40/km pace for the hard reps, maybe even slightly quicker.

This was pretty encouraging but in a way also a bit frustrating.  If I can run 32.45 for 8km with 12 mins of that being easy recovery running, I should be able to run my temp runs at quicker than 4min/km pace. 

Weather was bit cooler this morning and even though there was a bit of a breeze, running was much better than the recent heat and humidity.

Friday 5 March (today) - easy recovery run 8.6km in 44.59 with an average HR 126 which was lower than last week despite running a minute faster – I think the cooler temperature had a lot to do with it. This was a very easy and enjoyable run.

Long run with Sandgroper tomorrow with a 6am start.  I think this will end up being 27km on the Garrett Road loop but taking in East Perth on the return leg.

Mileage for the week will be slightly down with no running on last Sunday and only 8.8km on Monday.

I'm planning on doing the Darlington Half Marathon as next weekend's long run but haven't decided exactly how I will run it.