Sad News

They say that only the good die young and today I found that out for myself.

TFM Mechanic extraordinaire, Mal Hill, lost his son over the Easter break in an accident. He fought on for a couple of days but lost his fight on Easter Monday. RIP Bro. Our hearts go out to Mal, Alex and family.

Didnt run today as I have been battling a throat infection all week. I am hoping that a day off will help it settle down a little.

Off to Brimbank Park tomorrow for another 5km hit out. I hope its a lot better than last weeks effort. Could it get much worse? Goal is sub 19 this time. 19 minutes is still not that crash hot but given the toughness of the course and my fitness at the moment its a start.

Tried to look up the Winter Calender for Athletics Tasmania yesterday and its still not posted so I dont know whats coming up and when. The only race I know of so far is the Tamar 10 on July 22 which is the day after the Vic 12km XC Champs which I was hoping to fly back for but wont be now.

See how things pan out.

Over and out.

Tan Run

Ran an east 2 laps of the Tan last night in around 31 minutes and felt very good. Picked it up over the last 2km and finished off in 6:37 feeling as though I had a bit left in the tank.

Meeting up with Chris Newman (aka Cuddles) from the Freedom Machine bike shop for brekky tomorrow. The big fella has looked after me quite well over the last 2 years or so with my bike gear. Cant say I repaid the faith all that well. Didnt exactly win any races wearing the Green & Black, and spent more time gobbing off at morons behind the wheel of cars who have a total disregard for cyclists!!

Cuddles is the dude on the left in the pic, I am on the right. You will have to excuse Rustys shoulder. Rusty took this picover his shoulder while we were climbing Falls Creek. He obviously had more energy than Cuddles and I.

Anyway, I'm bored now.

Cya

Operation Tasmania all go

Well its official. As of April 30th I will be a resident of Tasmania. Launceston to be exact.

Looking forward to a new start and new opportunities.

Not looking forward to the cold weather however!!

I officially resigned from Athlegen yesterday and now the unknown awaits.

Robbie is busy trying to organise removalists to get our stuff to Tassie and she has her sister Jo and best mate Karen on the job looking for somewhere to live.

Rent is just as expensive there as it is here, but you get more for your money in Melbourne.

Ran another easy 6km last night and again felt pretty good. Will try and increase distance and start mixing up the tempo from now on.

Looking forward to the Vic XC Relay Champs @ Jells Park on the 28th of April. Will be interesting to see how it goes.

Cheers

Easter Monday

Gotta say theres nothing like a long weekend.

Checked out the Stawell Gift on TV this arvo and saw some familiar faces in the Mens 800m. Corey Lawson who was and maybe still is a VFL Boundary Umpire took out a win, and AFL Boundary extraordinaire the "Big Chiz" Allan Cook finished 3rd. A good effort by the boys.

You gotta admire Cooky, in his early 40's and still mixing it with the young blokes.
I remember driving to Albury a few years back with the big man and between his place in Hoppers Crossing and our destination he managed to put a VERY big hole in a slab of VB!!!! Another awesome effort by Cooky. Luckily I was the designated driver at the time.

Did an easy 6km today with some strides thrown in for good measure. Felt pretty good considering that I woke up this morning with a sore throat and shocking head ache.

It was also the first time in a couple of weeks that I finished without getting a stitch. VERY happy about that!

Brimbank Park

I gotta say that Brimbank Park in Keilor is one of my favourite places to run. Theres a nice mix of soft trails and bike paths to cruise around on. The only down side, or up side if you're a sadist is the number of hills. You cant run more than a kilometre without having to go skyward.

We used to run our School Cross Country Zone Champs here and I always ran well. In 1993 (Year 12) I finished 3rd before going on to finish 5th at the State Champs.

I did a 5km Time Trial here this morning and STRUGGLED big time. I felt great for the first km then it was all over. The first hill was the begginning of the end.

19 minutes and 44 seconds later the pain had all but gone as finally I reached the finish. Even my arms had gone lactic!!!! Oh well, at least I can only improve!

I will make this a regular Saturday session in order to try and boost my strength endurance capabilities. It should help once the winter racing season starts.

My average HR for the run was 178 and my max was 188.

One positive to come out if this session was the non appearance of the dreaded stitch that I have been battling lately. It made an appearance during the warm up but I had no problems during the actual effort.

I pulled up sore in the right Soleous but I will put that down to the fact it was my first hit out for a few weeks and I wore flats for the first time in a while also.

Easy hour tomorrow to get some miles in the legs.

Operation Tasmania

I have recovered well from R4K.

Have run everyday since and the only problem so far is that I keep getting a stitch after 10 or 15 minutes of easy running. I have tried various breathing techniques and nothing seems to work.

I got out an easy 35 minutes at Brimbank Park last night and had to stop twice due to the stitch. Very frustrating.

I have been offered a job in Tasmania and once a few things are sorted out we will have a better idea as to whether or not it is a goer.

They want me to start in about 2 weeks so clock is ticking.

The down side is a pay cut but that was to be expected.

My next race was to be the Great Train Race on the 6th May but that wont happen if I'm in Tassie.

Cheers

Run for the Kids

Decided I would make the effort and cruise around the R4TK course with 25000+ other people who also sacrificed a sleep in.

Had hoped to jog around in between 65 and 70 minutes but finished in 61:30. Pretty good considering I never really felt as though I was running that fast.

Good to see Troopy have a win.

Was pretty knackered yesterday arvo and spent the day lounging around home.

Ran an easy 20 minutes this morning and apart from some soreness in my Hamstrings all seems to be OK.

Rest of the week will consist of easy stuff and then Saturday will see a return to some faster sessions.

Cheers