week 2 of 12 (ending 11/3/07)

Monday 7pm - very easy run around the usual 10k loop from home in just under 50 mins. Nice cooler night unlike the previous weekends humidity.

Tuesday 7.15pm - met Nick at Stanmore and we had an easy warm-up down to Marion st where the canal crosses under the road, had an extended warm-up as I had to go via the shops at Enmore first. Did a session I call '10k pace specific session'. 5 mins at 10k pace, then 30 secs recovery and another 5 mins at 10k pace then 1 min recovery and 10 mins back - aim is to get back to the start before 10 mins elapses - Nick and I got back with 15 secs to spare which was pretty good considering we had the wind in our face the whole way back. Covered 5.4 k's in 19.45 (3.40 average pace) so slightly quicker than I imagined but I was feeling good and the weather was kind. I've said it before but I wouldn't push myself this hard by myself. A very easy jog home for a total of 15k all up.

Wednesday 5.30pm - Ran a completely new route home from work tonight - mainly because I was getting sick of the same wednesday run and the pressure to keep up to pace along the way. You know how it goes, must be at Longueville rd by 18 mins, Hunters hill by 32 mins, Drummoyne shops by 44 mins etc etc etc.
Ran from St.Leonards thru Crows Nest and Nth Sydney oval (home of MPH) over the freeway and down thru Kiribilli shops and onto the Harbour Bridge. Over the bridge and thru the park at observatory hill and along Kent st, over sussex st and into Darling Harbour east. Did a lap around the waterfront and along the western side of darling harbour and into Pirama rd Pyrmont - following the shoreline around to the old Glebe Island Bridge, past the fish markets and Wentworth park and taking the first right past Blackwattle Bay High school. This leads into the waterfront path along the Glebe foreshore and Bicentennial park. Here I connected up with my usual route home along the canal to Booth st Annandale and home thru Camperdown and Newtown for 17k of very easy running in 80 mins flat. (4.45 pace).

Thursday 7.15pm - met Nick at Sydney Park a.k.a Alan Davidson oval for a 'deek fartlek' 8 x 400 with 200 float . The oval is a little larger than 400m (more like 420) Averaged 64 secs for the floats and 87 for the reps - Nick wasn't feeling the best so he was cutting across the oval during the floats but he came good after 5 or 6 reps. Saw Barry Hall doing a warm-up just as we were leaving. Did an extended warm-up and cool-down to get in some extra k's - all up 14k.

Friday 6pm - more grass running at Camperdown oval for 7k in 31.30 (4.30 pace). a bit boring but nice on the legs.

Saturday 6.30am - 14k run with Nick from Sth Coogee to Nth Bondi - 68 mins total with a 30 sec negative split. Harder effort than the time suggests with a heap of stairs and some quite steep hills. Run was probably equal to 2 laps of the Bay in 60 flat. Finished with a swim. Nice cooler morning with a lot less people about - must have been some other major event on somewhere???

Sunday 6.15am - Met Nick at Stanmore and then Gerry at Leichhardt for a long run via the Striders Ten Bridges course but with a few variations. Heaps of hills and a little bit of bush running with that noted trail runner Surefoot Springer taking a nosedive 2m into the first track but he recovered to finish strongly. I felt good for the first 100 mins or so but I had a bit of pain in the groin/hip area which slowed me on the uphills. I'm sure I was holding Nick and Gerry up a bit but we still got thru 32k in 2.35 (about 4.50 pace) which was a good effort on that course.
Another top morning in cooler conditions - I definitely am a cool weather runner.

Total for the week 109k