week 10/16 - week ending 12.8.07

By Thursday of last week my legs were feeling the effects of some heavy training and with not enough sleep I knew Striders 10k would be a bit of struggle - funny though, I had no leg speed but aerobically I felt like I was bludging - by 3k I had switched off mentally and I just let the run unfold.
Backed up though on Sunday with a very solid run over the city to surf course with Springer. I have a good mental map of the course again - just got to get to 10k in reasonable shape and bring it home from there. Those last few k's are very fast and Springer & I were moving very quickly for a long run - even did the sprint finish to the imaginary finish line !

Having a bit of a taper/easy week before Sunday's race - main aim is to keep the preferred start/ do a p.b. / win the veterans team award with Action and Highwayman (the three Steve's !) - Looking forward to it.

Monday - 10k down to Glebe rowers club and return in 44.27 (22.13 out, 22.14 back).

Tuesday - 3k w/u down to Glebe Park. 5 x 800m with 80 secs recovery (half the rep time). Reps went 2.43, 2.42, 2.41, 2.38, 2.40 for a 2.41 average. The loop I run has a small hill at the 200m mark just to make things a little more difficult. That was about 5 secs on average faster than the last time I did these. 3k c.d jog home for 10k total.

Wednesday - 14k in 59.30 running from work to Rozelle (4.15 pace) running all the hills strongly.

Thursday - 3k w/u down to Glebe park. Did 12 x 30 secs on/off. Ran hard on the intervals but very easy floats with Sunday's race in mind. 3k c/d jog home. Total 9k.

Friday - 20 mins around Camperdown oval - very easy.

Saturday - 30 mins around Camperdown oval with a few drills & strides thrown in.

Sunday - City 2 surf 14.2k race. Got to the race in plenty of time and caught up with Tom, Lefty and Springer in the rego area. No need to wear a warm-up t-shirt today it was already hot at 7.30am. We walked over to the domain and then did a warm-up and toilet stop etc. Nice to have the preferred start and not have to queue for hours, then jogged back to the start area and straight to the frontline.
I was feeling the heat waiting for the start so knew it would be tough today - I was sweating standing still. Hooter went off and got a good start. A guy dodging in & out in front of me stumbled and fell almost bringing Action and myself down but manged to hurdle him. Got to the tunnel and the usual cheats were taking there t-shirts off and revealing red/green bibs - why do they do it ? Earn a preferred start the hard way - by running fast enough, A@#eholes !

Took some splits but I won't record them because the km markers are hopelessly incorrect except to say I got to the 10k marker in 39.24 feeling pretty tired but knowing the downhills were to come and the last 3 years I've managed to finish strongly - and so it was today finishing with the last 3ks in 10.55 for 54.34 and managing to keep my preferred runner status for another year !

I've got to say that today's race was probably the hardest race I've ever done - I was totally stuffed at about 10k and I had contemplated walking / stopping / quitting but Dennis(Granpa) went past me about then and I thought bugger that - i'm going to beat him today and just kept him in site until the last corner and then put about 15 seconds on him to the finish.

Lessons learnt today

- must get more sleep before races.
- must drink more before race - my mouth was dry before the race start.
- Don't give up - I do it all the time and then with about 2k to go I snap out of it and start
moving again - all my best races are those that I've kept concentration for the whole race.

I totally forgot to mention the CR cheersquad - the cheers really gave me a lift - thanks guys.

Caught up with Gerry, Tom and Marty after the race for a few beers courtesy of Deutsche Bank - thanks Gerry !

Met up with Fiona and friends and we walked back to Bondi Junction for lunch and then a taxi home - what luxury !

Yes Gerry,
I did go for a run this evening - a very easy 4k around the block.

Well, 74k for the week - back into next week.