Holidays :-))))
I couldn't stand being at work doing bugger all for the remainder of the week, so yesterday I decided to put in for some more leave to begin my Xmas break today, instead of Friday. Yippee! I am not due back to work until the 10 jan 07 :-)
This morning Sam didn't care that his Dad was now on holidays, he was up at 5am all bright and chirpy. I should use this time more wisely and go for a run with the pram, but I find it hard to become motivated that early.
Instead I just let him crawl all over me for about an hour before he decided to have another sleep.
It was all steam ahead at the household today in preparation for the family & friends coming for the Xmas period. The day was chewed up with cleaning and last minute Xmas shopping. At about 5pm when Cass was leaving for work Sam and I headed out for a casual run.
Nothing special about this run, just around the local area. I ran a different route which was a bad decision especially having the pram. The terrain was a little rough at times however Sam didn't seem to mind. I did slow to a walk on some sections where the footpath seemed to disappear.
I also noticed that every second car seems to stare at me when I run with the pram. It makes me paranoid like I am doing something wrong.
Anyway all up we ran 7km at a nice casual pace finishing in 37 mins.
Week - 17k
Month - 75.5k
YTD - 1150k
I have just realsied that I have only 50k to crack 1200 for the year. I guess this is my last goal for 2006, I have 10 days left, shouldn't be too hard if I get to next weeks Fatass event.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Sunday, December 17, 2006
3 x 3000m Track session
I am the type of person who prefers training in the afternoons, especially if it is a solo run. Yesterday was no different, I didn't end up getting the running buddies Regatta session as Cass had a late one at work the night before. It wouldn't have been fair if I up and left at 5am in the morning for her to look after Samuel.
I waited until around 4.30pm before I began to get ready for a run. Just as I was getting my gear together a huge crack of thunder sounded. I looked outside for one of the few times I did that day and noticed the sky was black as and the wind was picking up. Great! I wasn't going out running during a storm, I had already been caught in one a few weeks ago at Mt Coot-tha which wasn't too pleasant.
So there went another day without a training session.
This morning I woke up with all intentions of doing a tough session. My legs had gotten over the shock of the PT sessions a few days ago and I was keen to get out there. The day was overcast however it didn't look as though it was going to storm so I decided to do my session at the preferred time.
4.30pm I left on the pushy and rode to the local 400m grass track. The plan was to run 3 x 3k runs with 10mins recovery between each. I wanted to punish myself for being slack and thought this would be a perfect session to do it.
I had 2 goals in mind, one tough one which I had talked myself out of before I got there and one that wouldn't be to bad. The 1st goal was to run all 3 under 12mins and the 2nd goal was to run under 12, 12.15, 12.30.
When I arrived at the track, I done a thorough warm up with heaps of stretching and even done some strides. I felt good and thought bugger it I am going for the the A goal of all sub 12mins.
The weather was a bit cool to begin with but throughout the session it was almost perfect. A minor headwind on the corners of the track but nothing major.
I set off for the 1st set and realised after the 1st lap that I began at the 400m mark instead of the 200m mark. Not a major problem just that I will finish the 3000m at the 200m mark. I felt good for the majority of the set however towards the end I was pushing a little harder than I would have liked to maintain the same splits. By the end I was puffing pretty hard and knew I was in for a tough day.
The 10 mins went suprisingly slow and I had caught my breath and had time for some stretching and a quick jog. I was a bit sceptical as to how hard I would be able to go. I set off for the 2nd set and felt a little heavy in the legs at first. This eased up quite quickly and was very happy with the way I was feeling. I began in the right spot this time and was under 12 min pace at the first km, the 2nd km I was right on 8mins however I wasn't too concerned and picked the pace up for the next. I finished quite strong and actually felt better at the end of this one.
10 mins later.....
The last set, again the legs felt a little heavy and the mouth was a bit dry. I didn't want to drink too much water in case I got a stitch. I was really concentrating on pacing myself for this one, I was just waiting for my body to say that's it I have had enough and fade but it never happened. I felt great and was easily remaining under pace running very consistant splits. My legs felt better and better, just turning over quite nicely. The last lap I felt like I was pushing a bit harder however my split doesn't really show that. I was glad to finish in what was a tough yet very satisfying session.
I haven't done a crazy session like this for sometime so it was good to see where I am at for the shorter stuff. My calves were a little tight after the run however the slow ride back home was a good cool down and I feel sweet now. I also achieved my goal of 3 sub 12 min 3000m :-)
****3km SPLITS****
(1)............ (2)............ (3)............
1.30........... 42............. 42.............
1.32........... 1.35........... 1.32...........
1.33........... 1.37........... 1.34...........
1.32........... 1.38........... 1.35...........
1.32........... 1.37........... 1.36...........
1.33........... 1.34........... 1.35...........
1.34........... 1.34........... 1.36...........
47............. 1.31........... 1.35...........
11.38.......... 11.52.......... 11.48...........
I waited until around 4.30pm before I began to get ready for a run. Just as I was getting my gear together a huge crack of thunder sounded. I looked outside for one of the few times I did that day and noticed the sky was black as and the wind was picking up. Great! I wasn't going out running during a storm, I had already been caught in one a few weeks ago at Mt Coot-tha which wasn't too pleasant.
So there went another day without a training session.
This morning I woke up with all intentions of doing a tough session. My legs had gotten over the shock of the PT sessions a few days ago and I was keen to get out there. The day was overcast however it didn't look as though it was going to storm so I decided to do my session at the preferred time.
4.30pm I left on the pushy and rode to the local 400m grass track. The plan was to run 3 x 3k runs with 10mins recovery between each. I wanted to punish myself for being slack and thought this would be a perfect session to do it.
I had 2 goals in mind, one tough one which I had talked myself out of before I got there and one that wouldn't be to bad. The 1st goal was to run all 3 under 12mins and the 2nd goal was to run under 12, 12.15, 12.30.
When I arrived at the track, I done a thorough warm up with heaps of stretching and even done some strides. I felt good and thought bugger it I am going for the the A goal of all sub 12mins.
The weather was a bit cool to begin with but throughout the session it was almost perfect. A minor headwind on the corners of the track but nothing major.
I set off for the 1st set and realised after the 1st lap that I began at the 400m mark instead of the 200m mark. Not a major problem just that I will finish the 3000m at the 200m mark. I felt good for the majority of the set however towards the end I was pushing a little harder than I would have liked to maintain the same splits. By the end I was puffing pretty hard and knew I was in for a tough day.
The 10 mins went suprisingly slow and I had caught my breath and had time for some stretching and a quick jog. I was a bit sceptical as to how hard I would be able to go. I set off for the 2nd set and felt a little heavy in the legs at first. This eased up quite quickly and was very happy with the way I was feeling. I began in the right spot this time and was under 12 min pace at the first km, the 2nd km I was right on 8mins however I wasn't too concerned and picked the pace up for the next. I finished quite strong and actually felt better at the end of this one.
10 mins later.....
The last set, again the legs felt a little heavy and the mouth was a bit dry. I didn't want to drink too much water in case I got a stitch. I was really concentrating on pacing myself for this one, I was just waiting for my body to say that's it I have had enough and fade but it never happened. I felt great and was easily remaining under pace running very consistant splits. My legs felt better and better, just turning over quite nicely. The last lap I felt like I was pushing a bit harder however my split doesn't really show that. I was glad to finish in what was a tough yet very satisfying session.
I haven't done a crazy session like this for sometime so it was good to see where I am at for the shorter stuff. My calves were a little tight after the run however the slow ride back home was a good cool down and I feel sweet now. I also achieved my goal of 3 sub 12 min 3000m :-)
****3km SPLITS****
(1)............ (2)............ (3)............
1.30........... 42............. 42.............
1.32........... 1.35........... 1.32...........
1.33........... 1.37........... 1.34...........
1.32........... 1.38........... 1.35...........
1.32........... 1.37........... 1.36...........
1.33........... 1.34........... 1.35...........
1.34........... 1.34........... 1.36...........
47............. 1.31........... 1.35...........
11.38.......... 11.52.......... 11.48...........
Friday, December 15, 2006
Back on the Treadly!
I had another run free day today. I am still a little sore and thought that one more day would do me good. This morning I played a few games of doubles squash with some fairly unco blokes from work, it was quite amusing and not too taxing on the body.
After another quiet day at work, we were knocked off at lunch time. Cass was hosting her mothers group Xmas party/lunch which mean't that I couldn't disrupt her to pick me up from work. I had my bike there so I decided to jump on that and ride home.
It was a fairly leisurely ride, there was no requirement for me to rush things, I had 16 mothers and 17 babies in my house at the time ;-) I still however managed to get home in pretty good time of around 50minutes for 23-24km. I hadn't rode my bike for a while and it actually felt good to get the legs working without the impact.
The weather was quite warm however which was probably the only downside to the ride. I will get out tomorrow for my first training run since Sunday. I would like to get over to the Regatta, however Cass is working till Midnight tonight, so I am unsure if she would to tired to do the morning routine for Sam or not. We will see, if not I will cruise around the area for a boring solo effort :-)
After another quiet day at work, we were knocked off at lunch time. Cass was hosting her mothers group Xmas party/lunch which mean't that I couldn't disrupt her to pick me up from work. I had my bike there so I decided to jump on that and ride home.
It was a fairly leisurely ride, there was no requirement for me to rush things, I had 16 mothers and 17 babies in my house at the time ;-) I still however managed to get home in pretty good time of around 50minutes for 23-24km. I hadn't rode my bike for a while and it actually felt good to get the legs working without the impact.
The weather was quite warm however which was probably the only downside to the ride. I will get out tomorrow for my first training run since Sunday. I would like to get over to the Regatta, however Cass is working till Midnight tonight, so I am unsure if she would to tired to do the morning routine for Sam or not. We will see, if not I will cruise around the area for a boring solo effort :-)
Thursday, December 14, 2006
Please Sir no more....
After a few days off work I returned yesterday only to be smashed in probably the hardest PT session of the year. It was a circuit that trashed the whole body. Squats, Lunges push ups, situps, along with heaps of activities involving weights. What tha! we are mean't to be winding down for the festive season.
Well anyway I woke up this morning very sore to say the least. My legs were soooo tender around the groin and quad region that I found it hard to walk without looking like a cowboy from a John Wayne movie.
Arriving at work today I knew the next 1.5 hrs was going to be a struggle. As 90% of the people at work are currently on Xmas leave there is not a great deal of work to be done. So to fill in time we tend to do alot of PT and sporting activities. A tough life I know but this morning I wasn't really feeling like doing much at all.
The PT session ended up being alot easier than yesterday and was helped by the fact that I actually conducted one of the sessions. The soreness did subside a little after the activites and throughout the day but I am still pretty tender.
This afternoon the boss allowed us to go to the pool, just to laze about and cool down. I completed a few laps in hope of feeling a little better, which seemed to work. We spent about an hour there before moving on for the afternoon PT session of volleyball. A nice easy casual game was a perfect way to end the day.
Arriving home, Cass had the whip out and made me mow and whipper snip the lawns, she is a mean nasty women, no sympathy at all :-)
So the last few days have been fairly hectic. Although I haven't done too much running Im hoping that the pain I have inflicted on my body has had a postive effect. I hope to get out for a jog on the weekend.
Well anyway I woke up this morning very sore to say the least. My legs were soooo tender around the groin and quad region that I found it hard to walk without looking like a cowboy from a John Wayne movie.
Arriving at work today I knew the next 1.5 hrs was going to be a struggle. As 90% of the people at work are currently on Xmas leave there is not a great deal of work to be done. So to fill in time we tend to do alot of PT and sporting activities. A tough life I know but this morning I wasn't really feeling like doing much at all.
The PT session ended up being alot easier than yesterday and was helped by the fact that I actually conducted one of the sessions. The soreness did subside a little after the activites and throughout the day but I am still pretty tender.
This afternoon the boss allowed us to go to the pool, just to laze about and cool down. I completed a few laps in hope of feeling a little better, which seemed to work. We spent about an hour there before moving on for the afternoon PT session of volleyball. A nice easy casual game was a perfect way to end the day.
Arriving home, Cass had the whip out and made me mow and whipper snip the lawns, she is a mean nasty women, no sympathy at all :-)
So the last few days have been fairly hectic. Although I haven't done too much running Im hoping that the pain I have inflicted on my body has had a postive effect. I hope to get out for a jog on the weekend.
Monday, December 11, 2006
K2D 2006
Week - 25k
Month - 58.5k
YTD - 1133k
***Warning, quite a long one***
My Kurrawa weekend didn't go exactly to plan and it started to fall to pieces before when even headed down the coast.
On the Friday the day before we were mean't to leave we had a message on our phone saying that the accommodation that we had placed a reservation on was not available over that weekend. The only thing that was available was something that was way too expensive as it was really only to save us from getting up early and driving to the coast from Brisbane on the Sunday.
So Saturday arrived and because we were expecting to be on the coast for the day we had no plans. Basically we hung around the house and veged out. No training took place, as I wanted to feel fresh for the next day.
For some reason we didn't get to bed early at all on Saturday night. There was fire works somewhere close by that were scaring the dogs and Sam was a little grumpy. At around midnight the dogs decided that they would scratch at the door, for what reason I had no idea but I wasn't impressed. I went back to sleep after telling the hounds to shut up (polite version)and within the hour Sam decided he wanted to wake up. When Sam doesn't want to sleep he thinks no-one does either. Cass and I settled him back down and finally got back to bed somewhere around 1-130am. Not too bad really until you know that your alarm is set for 245am
Waking up was a struggle and lucky for me Cass woke up because I didn't even hear the alarm go off. She said she even woke me up twice and I had answered her but I don't even remember that. Anyway 310am I crawled out of bed got dressed and realised that I was going to be pushing it to get to the Gold Coast before the race start.
Lucky for me I was running the second leg and that my partner was more prepared than I. We in fact got there at 450am and when we pulled up there was still a huge number of people registering. In saying that the race was delayed by 35 minutes.
Once the race had started I really had no idea of the course and basically just followed the stream of runners stopping every few k's and helping my partner out with drinks and food. For a person who has never run anywhere near this distance before he was going great. He made the turn around in around 2 hrs 2 to 2 hrs 5mins unsure of the offficial time.
I then set out from Duranbah at approx 7.40am. The run was going great and I was consistantly clocking between 4.30 - 4.50/k. The weather was warm however I really never felt like it was really bothering me that much. I made sure that I was taking enough water and powerade along with my gu and other food.
I passed the 13k mark spot on an hour, I continued to maintain the same pace until about the 16k mark. It was a steady hill that went beside the national park, fairly shady and should have not really been that difficult. This was were the wheels really fell off. I just lost all energy in my legs, I could feel all the liquid and food that I had consumed over the past 1hr 20 or so swishing about in my stomach.
I began to get stomach cramps and was reduced to a walk for a short time. I reached the point a couple of k's before Miami Hill where we had to run up another hill and get our number checked off. By this stage I was hurting pretty bad, my wife and running partner had met me there and gave me another drink and my last bite to eat. I felt better after a short break and began running again. I came good around the 18k mark clocking again around 4.45/k before having another bad episode.
The next 4k saw my splits increase dramatically with two in the high fives and two around 6.30, which included Miami Hill and the stairs. I had told Cass whilst my partner was running that at the bottom of the stairs I would take Sam for the remainder of the race in his pram.
Although I had nothing in the tank, I still took the pram with Sam and ploddered along, I had multiple walk breaks and some uplanned breaks when Sam lost his hat. It was pretty tough, I wanted to go quicker so Sam wasn't in the sun for to long but I just couldn't. He didn't really seem to care though and went to sleep about 5 minutes into the run.
I came up to a marking on the footpath that said 1km, I was hoping that this was for the race I was doing. I continued to follow the path and saw the finish line way up ahead. I then realised that I was not going to get there following the path so it was off the beaten track we went. It was a little on the bumpy side for Sam over the grass however he didn't really wake up until the finish line when those who had finished were cheering everyone in.
I am again unsure of the official time however the Garmin showed 25.2km in 2.06.57 with rest breaks of over two minutes bringing it up to 2.09.05.
Although I was not really interested in what time I did, I was fairly disappointed with how I ran the last 8k. I guess I can't blame anything other than my lack of training which has got me thinking about my plans for next year. I will share this at a later stage.
After the race I felt fairly sick in the stomach, I didn't enjoy the nice food on offer at the BBQ which was a shame. Cass was tired, she had very little to eat as she was helping both myself and my partner out on the course along with looking after Sam who was being a grump, he was starting to get the flu. In saying that we left not long after and headed home, it was unfortunate that we had to but we all felt pretty ordinary by the end of it.
Congrats to everyone out there yesterday, I had a tough one but hopefully everyone else came through it with great results.
Month - 58.5k
YTD - 1133k
***Warning, quite a long one***
My Kurrawa weekend didn't go exactly to plan and it started to fall to pieces before when even headed down the coast.
On the Friday the day before we were mean't to leave we had a message on our phone saying that the accommodation that we had placed a reservation on was not available over that weekend. The only thing that was available was something that was way too expensive as it was really only to save us from getting up early and driving to the coast from Brisbane on the Sunday.
So Saturday arrived and because we were expecting to be on the coast for the day we had no plans. Basically we hung around the house and veged out. No training took place, as I wanted to feel fresh for the next day.
For some reason we didn't get to bed early at all on Saturday night. There was fire works somewhere close by that were scaring the dogs and Sam was a little grumpy. At around midnight the dogs decided that they would scratch at the door, for what reason I had no idea but I wasn't impressed. I went back to sleep after telling the hounds to shut up (polite version)and within the hour Sam decided he wanted to wake up. When Sam doesn't want to sleep he thinks no-one does either. Cass and I settled him back down and finally got back to bed somewhere around 1-130am. Not too bad really until you know that your alarm is set for 245am
Waking up was a struggle and lucky for me Cass woke up because I didn't even hear the alarm go off. She said she even woke me up twice and I had answered her but I don't even remember that. Anyway 310am I crawled out of bed got dressed and realised that I was going to be pushing it to get to the Gold Coast before the race start.
Lucky for me I was running the second leg and that my partner was more prepared than I. We in fact got there at 450am and when we pulled up there was still a huge number of people registering. In saying that the race was delayed by 35 minutes.
Once the race had started I really had no idea of the course and basically just followed the stream of runners stopping every few k's and helping my partner out with drinks and food. For a person who has never run anywhere near this distance before he was going great. He made the turn around in around 2 hrs 2 to 2 hrs 5mins unsure of the offficial time.
I then set out from Duranbah at approx 7.40am. The run was going great and I was consistantly clocking between 4.30 - 4.50/k. The weather was warm however I really never felt like it was really bothering me that much. I made sure that I was taking enough water and powerade along with my gu and other food.
I passed the 13k mark spot on an hour, I continued to maintain the same pace until about the 16k mark. It was a steady hill that went beside the national park, fairly shady and should have not really been that difficult. This was were the wheels really fell off. I just lost all energy in my legs, I could feel all the liquid and food that I had consumed over the past 1hr 20 or so swishing about in my stomach.
I began to get stomach cramps and was reduced to a walk for a short time. I reached the point a couple of k's before Miami Hill where we had to run up another hill and get our number checked off. By this stage I was hurting pretty bad, my wife and running partner had met me there and gave me another drink and my last bite to eat. I felt better after a short break and began running again. I came good around the 18k mark clocking again around 4.45/k before having another bad episode.
The next 4k saw my splits increase dramatically with two in the high fives and two around 6.30, which included Miami Hill and the stairs. I had told Cass whilst my partner was running that at the bottom of the stairs I would take Sam for the remainder of the race in his pram.
Although I had nothing in the tank, I still took the pram with Sam and ploddered along, I had multiple walk breaks and some uplanned breaks when Sam lost his hat. It was pretty tough, I wanted to go quicker so Sam wasn't in the sun for to long but I just couldn't. He didn't really seem to care though and went to sleep about 5 minutes into the run.
I came up to a marking on the footpath that said 1km, I was hoping that this was for the race I was doing. I continued to follow the path and saw the finish line way up ahead. I then realised that I was not going to get there following the path so it was off the beaten track we went. It was a little on the bumpy side for Sam over the grass however he didn't really wake up until the finish line when those who had finished were cheering everyone in.
I am again unsure of the official time however the Garmin showed 25.2km in 2.06.57 with rest breaks of over two minutes bringing it up to 2.09.05.
Although I was not really interested in what time I did, I was fairly disappointed with how I ran the last 8k. I guess I can't blame anything other than my lack of training which has got me thinking about my plans for next year. I will share this at a later stage.
After the race I felt fairly sick in the stomach, I didn't enjoy the nice food on offer at the BBQ which was a shame. Cass was tired, she had very little to eat as she was helping both myself and my partner out on the course along with looking after Sam who was being a grump, he was starting to get the flu. In saying that we left not long after and headed home, it was unfortunate that we had to but we all felt pretty ordinary by the end of it.
Congrats to everyone out there yesterday, I had a tough one but hopefully everyone else came through it with great results.
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