City to Casino

Enjoyable weekend in Hobart last week.

Finished 6th in the Opens Mens 7km event, and 7th overall. Donna MacFarlane made an appearance and finished in 4th spot.

Happy with my run. Very strong last 2km where I made up a heap of ground on Patty Smith whom I train with in Launceston. Patty, who is only 17, had about 150m on me with just over 2km to go and only beat my by a couple of seconds in the end. Another 500m or so and I had him.

Given that my training is mainly strength based, the race showed that it is all working pretty well. Throw in some speed work later on and look out.

Poor old Patty learnt a valuable lesson on the way to Hobart last Saturday. Never fall asleep in the car when I am driving. The little bloke got the shock of his life when in the middle of his slumber I jumped on the brakes and screamed NOOOOOOOOOO at the top of my lungs waking him up. Poor guy thought we were about to get acquainted with a truck or something. I nearly had to pull over I was laughing so hard. Needless to say that was the last he slept in the car!!!

I think Pat set a new World Record for number of SMS sent during our trip. On the 2 hour drive home on Sunday he sent 62 of them. Thats one every 2 minutes. Add to that the replies he got and its one every 60sec. The young lady he was chatting to must be OK. Ahhhhhh young love.

Back into training again for a while now. No races planned until the Launceston 10 in July. I may run the odd club race but it will only be as a training effort.

Cheers

Meeting the man!!

Last Friday I finally met the man who spent my teenage years plastered all over my bedroom wall.


Steve Moneghetti was in Launceston for the launch of this years Launceston 10 Race on July 20. He was joined by Lee Troop and Kerryn Mc Cann. Check out www.launcestonten.com.au

Not only did I meet him, but I also trained with him. We started at Kim Gillards place and headed up thru Trevallyn State Forest. Incidently, Kim is married to Kerryns sister Jenny. The last km or so of our run was up a nice steep hill and watching Mona and Troopy run away from us up this hill was awesome. Scary part was that I doubt they were even trying.

Afterwards we all had our photo taken with Mona and the obligatory autographs. Mona sign my copy of his book and wrote "enjoy the Marathon read". I didnt have the heart to tell him I already had..... about 4 times!!!!

Troopy signed a pair of his custom made Racing Flats that will be given to some lucky Junior runner as an "Encouragement Award". See Pic.

Clocked 110kms last week. This was helped by the fact that I ran 70 minutes on Friday instead of the normal 40. I wasnt about to say to Mona and Troopy, "sorry guys I have to stop now" was I????

Heading to Hobart this weekend for the City to Casino. Have decided to run the 7km event as opposed to the 11km as I feel that I would be more aggressive over the shorter distance. Im not too confident in attacking an 11km race from the gun just yet.

A solid week.

The week thus far:

Mon: 70 minutes
Tues: 10 x 1min w/ 1min float (Covered 5.8km in the 20 minutes)
Wed: 60 minutes
Thurs: 10 x 1min w/ 60s rec (walk/jog)
Fri: 45 minutes
Sat: 5km Race (80 minutes total for the day)
Sun: 90 minutes

Happy with the week. Felt strong during yesterdays race but lacking speed in the legs. That will come. Missed my target time by 8 seconds so my expectations were pretty close. It was tough in the middle stages trying to run solo but I guess thats whats happens in handicap races, its not until the end that you start to pass people and if you're lucky, get a second wind.

My time showed that I am in pretty good shape. Of course there is still a heap of work to do but its on track.

My 90 minute Sunday runs are a bit of a struggle. 6 - 8 weeks ago I was running 2 hours and doing relatively easy. Now its a battle to get out for 90. Go figure!

Next weeks Launceston Athletic Club event is over 12km which I will use as a tempo run. The course is known as the "Gutbuster". Why am I not looking forward to this one???? Target time 45 minutes with a HR of around 165 - 170. See how we go.

Backing off a bit

Training has been scaled back a little in the last week or so. Due to a week feeling absolutely knackered with nothing in the legs, including one aborted session, Kim suggested I cut my long run back from 2 hours to 90 minutes. In fact this week I have cut all my easy runs back. The k's for this week are around 80 instead of the usual 100.

I ran a 10k tempo yesterday and felt very strong. HR was spot on where I wanted it to be, and the time for a very tough course was about 39:40. I ran my tempo as part of a race and most people were about 3 minutes off their PB times. Allowing for the toughness of the course and the fact I was cruising, I think I am in pretty good shape at the moment. A few little things to sort out but otherwise all is good.

Finally received the new Saucony Grid Type A2 racers during the week. Very light, and in my opinion, not suitable for much more than a 10k. They remind me a lot of the Nike Air Streak racers. Looking forward to a hit out over 5km next week to get a feel for them.

Training so far this week has looked something like this:
Mon: Easy 50min
Tues: 10 x 400 w/200rec ave 70s
Wed: Easy 35min
Thur: 4 x 5min w/ 2:30 rec
Fri: Easy 40min
Sat: 10km Tempo
Sun Easy 90min

Will kick it back to about 100k next week, but still keep the Sunday run at 90min and see how things pan out.

Helping those less fortunate.

Friday night I headed out with the Minister (Ric) from Robbie's Church to hunt down some of the Homeless people who call Launceston home.

When I say "hunt down" I don't mean literally. Armed with flashlights and backpacks each containing a Thermos, some food and blankets, we hit the streets just before midnight to offer some support to those less fortunate.

We decided to check out the old Hospital building. This building has been unused for years and is due to be turned into a high rise apartment building.

For legal reasons we were not allowed to enter the building itself, but instead checked out the surrounding area.

Unfortunately we found no one at "home", but we did find plenty of evidence that many people do in fact "live" here. Mattresses, blankets, alcohol bottles (empty) syringes and other bits and pieces all pointed to the fact someone has slept here.

I have no doubt that people were in the building whilst we were hanging around. If I put myself in their shoes I wouldn't exactly be coming out to say hi to some complete strangers wandering around in the rain after midnight with flashlights either. Next week we will leave flyer's around so that they know we are only there to help and that they have nothing to fear.

Getting to bed at 2am didn't exactly make the best preparation for the race I ran yesterday. Lets just say I crashed and burned. 8km in just under 30 minutes was a long way from what I was expecting. Still, it was all for a good cause and yes, I would do it again. Maybe not before a race but will definitely go out again soon. At least I get to sleep in a warm bed each night.

6 x 3min w/ 2min float

Another good session tonight. 6 x 3min w/ 2min float recovery.

As always I went out and back and missed the start point by 7 seconds on the return. Close but no cigar!

Tuesday night was also a good session. 10 by 400 with 1min rec. Finished running very strong. Actually felt stronger as the session went on.

Daylight savings throws a spanner in the works running wise. Its now dark by 6pm and will only get dark earlier from now on. Makes it hard to do some of the sessions that we do given that we try to do most of them off road and away from what traffic there is here. Very few bike paths have lights and we aren't blessed with a "Tan" track like those who live in Melbourne.

Still there are some benefits of Launceston. Very little traffic for a start. It doesn't take me an hour to get to work here!!!!! Did I mention the cafes? A good coffee is the best way to finish a long run.

Running another LAC race on Saturday at Evandale. 8km out and back course. It will be interesting to see what the handicapper gives me. Cant wait for that!

Was hoping to have the new Saucony Grid Type A2's for Evandale but they have been delayed and wont be available until late next week. Still, better late than never I guess. As long as I have them before the City to Casino that's all that matters.

Keen to Race

Training is going well now that things are settling down a little. New job is going well and the new house is starting to feel like home.

The only bad thing happening is little Jack having Pneumonia. Poor little fella is in a bad way. He's tough so no doubt he'll be back to him self soon.

Got out a 2 hour run on Sunday and threw in a nice little climb about 1hr 45m in to it just for fun!!!! Must say that I didnt enjoy it all that much. Might have been quicker to walk up it!!!

Heading to Hobart on May 18 for the City to Casino. Hoping to cover the 11km in around 35 minutes, or at the very least secure a top 5 spot. Kim Gillard (won last year)is planning to run as is Grant Page (2nd last year)and Mark Jackson (2:24 Marathon). Should be a good day out.

Received some new clothing from Saucony late last week and must say I am impressed. Red is the go for 2008. I also ordered some new Racing Flats (see pic) today and cant wait to test them out in Hobart.


Check out www.saucony.com for all the new gear.