Thursday May 31 |
 | Run 2:08:00 [3] 27 km (4:44 / km) | |
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| A little bit longer than I'd planned on - was aiming for about 2 hours. First two-thirds were a struggle with the same weakness on hills that was apparent yesterday, but picked up considerably in the last 40 minutes. The tail wind didn't hurt (on a morning which was a reminder that winter does still exist). |
Wednesday May 30 |
| Run 1:09:00 [3] 15 km (4:36 / km) | |
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| For much of the first half felt like it was about to turn into a brilliant run without ever quite doing it, then fell away somewhat later on, in particular feeling rather weak on the hills (of which there were plenty, it being a North Balwyn/Bulleen circuit).
Someone described as a 'Swedish socialite and model' was arrested in Sydney yesterday on charges of conspiracy to murder. Naturally the papers (especially the tabloids) have not been shy about showing us pictures of the alleged conspirator. Strangely they don't seem too interested in showing any pictures of the other arrestees. |
| Run race 13:26 [5] 3.83 km (3:30 / km) vdot: 56.8 | |
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| The Tan. At the top end of expectations after a lousy warm-up - in a way similar to yesterday's intervals session. Ended up 4 seconds outside my best time for the season. Started faster than I often have this season, then ran the Anderson Street hill quite poorly. Finished OK, with help from having someone to chase over the last kilometre.
Km splits: 3.29, 3.41 (uphill), 3.31, 3.27. |
| Run 31:00 [2] 6.5 km (4:46 / km) | |
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| Warm-up/warm-down from the above. |
Tuesday May 29 |
| Run intervals 25:00 [4] 6.2 km (4:02 / km) | |
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| 4x1030m, 620 jog recovery (aiming for the 4 min on-3 min off - the odd distances are because I was running on the Clifton Hill track in lane 3).
Didn't expect much from the warm-up but settled quite well into something a bit under 10k race pace, happy with the second and third reps. A bit disappointed to fade out a little on the last rep although I didn't feel any worse - perhaps the wind was stronger then? Certainly didn't fade out as badly as in Darwin last week, but there was a reason for that (although it was almost as warm in Melbourne at 6 this morning as it was in Darwin at the same time last Wednesday and Thursday).
Times: 3.50, 3.44, 3.41, 3.46.
It was windy, sometimes very windy, although this didn't have as much impact as it might have done as it was blowing across the track, and it's a lot easier to face a varying wind on a bend than it is to run into the teeth of it all the way up a straight. Caused more trouble riding to work later on - it was hard to hold a straight line through some of the Docklands wind tunnels and I was worried about being blown into traffic.
Another indicator of the extremely warm autumn: my gas bill came yesterday and was 55% lower than it was at the same time last year. I've only turned my heating on a couple of times all season. |
| Run 19:00 [3] 4 km (4:45 / km) | |
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| Warm-up/warm-down from the above. |
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| C • Global Warming - conclusive evidence 9 |
Monday May 28 |
| Swimming 30:00 [2] 1 km (30:00 / km) | |
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| Early morning at Fitzroy. Definitely cooler than it was at Casuarina last Friday (although by no means cold). Went OK. |
| Run 50:00 [2] 10 km (5:00 / km) | |
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| MFR Monday night from Jasmine and Ilka's, through Princes and Royal Park (with another loop back around the zoo for good measure). Felt awful for the first half , for no obvious reason, but a bit better later on. Good turnout tonight - and still dominated by the women as Monday nights have tended to be this year (9-3 this time). Kirsten (and Keith)'s last appearance before they head for far-flung parts this time next week. Almost as warm as it was for the early-morning runs in Darwin last week. |
Sunday May 27 |
| Run race 38:45 [4] 10 km (3:52 / km) vdot: 53.9 | |
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| Sri Chinmoy 10k at Williamstown. Probably wasn't the optimal day for a good time anyway - late night last night and a minor stomach upset - but any chance of a decent time was blown away by the strengthening northerly wind, which was a straight headwind for most of the last 3k. Started poorly - back stiff for first few hundred metres - then settled down OK from 1-5k, but that was it. Dropped my bundle a bit once I realised I had no prospect of getting a decent time (I was hoping for a sub-37 and would have settled for a mid-37), and a stitch in the last km. Even on a calm day I don't think I would have gone much under 38 today. First half/second half 18.46/19.59, but I don't think I was exactly alone in having a large positive split here. |
Saturday May 26 |
| Run 1:32:00 [3] 20 km (4:36 / km) | |
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| A surprisingly listless run, given the lovely conditions (cool sunny morning), a proper night's sleep for the first time in ages, and the easy day yesterday. Better in the second half but never really that comfortable. |
Friday May 25 |
| Swimming 31:00 [2] 1 km (31:00 / km) | |
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| Gentle session at Casuarina pool. Nice setting but sunglare was annoying. Back in Melbourne tonight. |
Thursday May 24 |
| Run 1:12:00 [3] 16 km (4:30 / km) | |
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| A swap of my usual Wednesday and Thursday sessions. Not surprisingly, felt pretty tired after yesterday's epic, although picked up in the middle out around East Point (where the event was a couple of years ago). |
| Run 40:00 [3] 9 km (4:27 / km) | |
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| Went out at lunchtime, about as good as could be expected in the heat. Went to Casuarina Beach, which was the venue of a crocodile sighting on Tuesday (needless to say this ended up on the front page of the local paper). Ended up turning around at the nudist part of the beach, but didn't see any nudists or any crocodiles or any nudists being eaten by crocodiles (now that really would be a story for the NT News). Did see someone playing the bagpipes in the car park, as well as the premises of the local surf club, which seemed a bit incongruous in a place where (a) there isn't any surf and (b) you can't go into the water for eight months a year (and are taking your chances in the other four) because of box jellyfish. |
Wednesday May 23 |
| Run 2:16:00 [3] 30 km (4:32 / km) | |
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| I expected this to be a struggle given the tropical location, but the conditions were as nice as one can expect in this part of the world (21 degrees, dewpoint 11) and I took full advantage in one of my best training runs this year. It was obvious within the first 15 minutes that it was going to be good, and it was, flowing nicely - didn't really feel like much of an effort at all until the last 30 minutes. Going along Nightcliff beach at sunrise around halfway was a particular highlight (even if being there at sunrise meant starting the run at 5.40 and getting up at 5).
I think this is the longest midweek run I've done for about 10 years. |
Tuesday May 22 |
| Run intervals 35:00 [4] 8 km (4:22 / km) | |
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| Arrived in Darwin and immediately set up for a run to take advantage of the one decent time window I had for it all day. The plan was to do the (Wingstedt?) session mentioned on AP a few days back (4x4 min, 3 min jog in between), but I ended up only doing 3 reps - adjusting to the heat was a bit much plus I was running out of time. Felt surprisingly good for the first 25 minutes, but faded quite quickly after that. |
Monday May 21 |
| Swimming 31:00 [2] 1 km (31:00 / km) | |
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| Fairly relaxed session at MSAC after a very late return last night (nearly midnight).
Those who've known me for a while will know that I have had some run-ins in the past with various Cloncurry local government identities, so I was interested to see the following in Saturday's 'Australian':
"Keith Douglas is onto Peter Beattie and his real agenda. The Cloncurry councillor has accused the Premier of running a dictatorship and a fascist state, and he suggested the next step would be gas chambers brought to Cloncurry to wipe out the locals"
In case you're wondering, the issue in dispute is local council amalgamations.
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| Run 47:00 [2] 9 km (5:13 / km) | |
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| Back to the old home ground tonight - Luise was hosting, and she's currently living with my aunt and uncle in Albert Park, where I lived myself from 1994 to 1998. A surprisingly nice run after the weekend (and the limited sleep last night), flowing nicely as we went out along the waterfront and came back through Albert Park along the lake (spectacular night view of the city from there). We were joined for a few hundred metres in Fitzroy Street by a tall African man who decided to run alongside us (in thongs).
I'm off to Darwin for work for the rest of the week - updates may be a little sporadic. Security agencies should be on high alert as my two previous visits to Darwin (September 2001 and July 2005) have both coincided with major terrorist attacks - which if nothing else proved that it is possible for the 'Northern Territory News' to go an entire week without any front-page crocodile stories. |
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| C • yes but if I remember right th... 1 |
Sunday May 20 |
| Run race ((orienteering)) 1:15:15 [4]**** 8.6 km (8:45 / km) +360m 7:14 / km | |
| spiked:16/21c |
| A slightly scrappy race on an area where it's difficult to pinpoint things with precision. One significant mistake early on, losing 2-3 minutes at the scary number 5 (downhill into an area of heavy rock on a slope with little contour definition), misreading the boulder field the control was on as the bare rock/cliff above it. Caught up to Bruce (who lost more time there) at that stage and we were together the rest of the way, apart from a couple of route choices (most notably 12-13). Only other significant time loss was 30 seconds or so overshooting 12 after we'd got Julian on the route choice. Julian caught us at 9 but only got clear at 13 thanks to a small miss on 10 and his route to 12. We also joined Shep at 12 (he'd gone through at 5 but lost time later on), and I was surprised when he seemed content to sit on me going to 13 rather than going after Julian, so it wasn't a shock to see him pull the pin there.
A better run physically than yesterday, on a physically tough area - it's rare to be able to get into much of a rhythm here. A little disappointed with the 9th placing; 4th might have been in range without the time loss at 5.
The women's course was the same as ours until 6 (except that they went direct start-2, something which cut very little distance off). I started with Vanessa and was very impressed with her strength in tough terrain; we were essentially together for the first 15 minutes of the course.
Of course, the challenge of the course was only the second most challenging thing I had to do today... |
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| C • second? 1 |
Saturday May 19 |
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| Event: Aust. JWOC Trials
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| Run race 33:30 [4]**** 6 km (5:35 / km) +200m 4:47 / km | |
| spiked:20/22c |
| NOL race at Gumble. Technically sound but still feeling some of the effects of my illness during the week; lacking energy on the uphill sections, especially early. Result respectable but a bit disappointing to be towards the end of a close bunch. |
Friday May 18 |
| Swimming 31:00 [2] 1 km (31:00 / km) | |
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| Reasonably routine session at Richmond. Almost as wet outside the pool as it was in it.
Looks like I missed out on some drama on yesterday's run on the mean streets of Heidelberg Heights - went along Bamfield Road about 90 minutes before this happened:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/fears-for-a... |
Thursday May 17 |
| Run 2:00:00 [3] 26 km (4:37 / km) | |
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| Not stellar but definitely on the upswing - asteady effort where the time seemed to go quite quickly. My one concession to being not 100% well was to pick a pretty flat course (W/SW from my place as far as the Merri Creek and then back across Preston).
Some very noisy bats have taken up residence in the trees outside the Austin Hospital - noticed them on my way past. The bats have been a bit of an ongoing saga in Melbourne. They originally set up in the Botanic Gardens and the State Government decided, at consdierable expense, to relocate them to an area near the Ivanhoe golf course, but they ended up stopping halfway at Yarra Bend (or at least I thought they did until today). Along the way they've provided fertile material for local political opportunists of all colours (most of whom clearly think their constituents have watched too many vampire films).
One of our models is predicting 150 millimetres of rain in the Molong area in the next 36 hours. I'll believe that when I see it but 20-50 is quite likely. Should be dry by Saturday but anyone who's planning to camp on Friday night is taking their chances. |
Wednesday May 16 |
| Run 13:56 [4] 3.83 km (3:38 / km) | |
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| The Tan. Didn't expect a lot - went down with the view of playing it by ear and backing off if things weren't happening. Definitely didn't have the zip of a couple of weeks ago, but able to function reasonably comfortably at a slightly slower pace and got under 14 which was the objective for today. Got in a nice bunch later on. Quite a few deviations because of various roadworks, probably worth about 8 seconds in total (6 on the first km, 2 on the 3rd). Definitely felt better afterwards for having done this, which is a good sign for my recovery.
Km splits: 3.44, 3.45 (uphill), 3.37, 3.32. |
| Run 32:00 [2] 6.5 km (4:55 / km) | |
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| Warm-up/warm-down from the above. |
Tuesday May 15 |
| Run 59:00 [3] 13 km (4:32 / km) | |
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| Felt a bit healthier this morning but still not 100%, not a bad run though. In light rain for most of it, and was wondering if we'd reach the magic 2.2 mm (as readers of today's 'Age' will know, if 2.0 mm or less fell by 9 this morning, Melbourne would set a new record for the lowest 1-year rainfall). I didn't think it was heavy enough for 2.2 and it wasn't - came in at 0.6.
There's been discussion from time to time here about annoying songs that get stuck in one's head on runs. Today's candidate - the British Eurovision entry (complete with front man who bears a more than passing resemblance to Shane Warne). |
| Run 48:00 [2] 9 km (5:20 / km) | |
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| The usual MFR Monday night except it was on a Tuesday. Felt more tired as the day went on and had to really get myself up for this - was a struggle despite the easy pace and good company. In need of a good sleep tonight. |
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| C • In need of a rest day 1 |
Monday May 14 |
| Swimming 31:00 [2] 1 km (31:00 / km) | |
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| A session at Fitzroy Pool, earlier than usual because I had an early interview (CNBC in Hong Kong this time) - starting in the dark at an outdoor pool was a bit unusual, not that it's actually cold yet. Left shoulder a bit stiff early but loosened well. Slept poorly, and the hint of a cold that I thought I'd got rid of has returned, which is annoying. |
| Run 44:00 [3] 9 km (4:53 / km) | |
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| Round the Tan at lunchtime. The Anderson Street path has been ripped up - hope it's fixed by Wednesday but have my doubts. Still feeling rather sniffly but run wasn't too bad. |
Sunday May 13 |
| Run 2:33:00 [3] 34 km (4:30 / km) | |
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| Longest run since February - always nice to be able to do a long one (a) when I've been awake for a reasonably long time and (b) in nice conditions (in summer these two are normally mutually exclusive, especially this year).
Had sore feet at the start and at times in the first hour; I think this was through standing around for too long at Kirsten and Keith's engagement party in non-optimal shoes. That cleared after a while. Had some very good sections in the middle, particularly the long, gradual descent through Blackburn North and Kerrimuir where I always seem to feel good, although hints of a stitch were a nuisance at times. Had to work pretty hard in the last 40 minutes but still had a bit left at the end. |
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| C • 100+ k week 2 |
Saturday May 12 |
| Run race 36:51 [4]*** 6.7 km (5:30 / km) vdot: 34.8 | |
| spiked:10/10c |
| Went up to the Bendigo event at Sedgwick - might not have bothered going up by myself, but my parents were in town and Dad was keen to do something (and tomorrow wasn't going to work).
Was treating this as training. A bit of an abbreviated warm-up compared to what I'd do for a proper race, and accordingly felt a bit ordinary early on, but settled down nicely by 3. Didn't miss anything, even in the vague areas early on, and pleasingly fast. Bryan was a couple of minutes behind me - left before Toph finished. |
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| C • Toph 3 |
Friday May 11 |
| Swimming 31:00 [2] 1 km (31:00 / km) | |
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| A reasonably nondescript session. Not too stiff after yesterday. |
Thursday May 10 |
| Run 2:12:00 [3] 28.3 km (4:40 / km) | |
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| One which definitely goes in the 'relentless accumulation of kilometres' department. Never felt brilliant but kept plugging away - one of those days when the way you feel at 25k is more or less the way you feel at 5k. Seemed to be tiring a bit at one point but finished off quite well.
Left calf was the tightest it's been for some time - starting to be a bit sore around halfway which worried me a little, but eased up later on. Also had a short-lived burst of back tightness for no obvious reason - disappeared within a minute and didn't return.
I haven't checked but suspect that this is the longest I've done midweek for several years. Certainly getting to see a bit more of the early-morning darkness as winter approaches and the start times have a '5' in front of them. |
Wednesday May 9 |
| Run 1:03:00 [3] 14 km (4:30 / km) | |
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| Nothing startling, particularly on the hills, but felt a bit better than I did at times yesterday.
Haven't seen anything yet (either positive or negative) about sports funding in the Budget. Would be nice to get a slice of the $17.7 million that's been allocated to installing water tanks in scout halls.
This morning's traffic report featured a truck rollover that spilled 20 tonnes of kangaroo meat on the Western Highway at Rockbank, right outside the long-since defunct lion park. A caller rang in to suggest that if the lion park was still open the clean-up would be a good deal easier. |
| Run ((street-O)) 51:00 [3]* 12.1 km (4:13 / km) +120m 4:01 / km | |
| spiked:20/20c |
| Went to Wednesday night street-O without any plans to take things too seriously (particularly after the traffic meant it took 15 minutes to travel the last 500 metres to the event). Had a traffic problem of a different sort when a railway crossing just out of the start meant we all had a de facto restart a minute into the course. A pleasant night for running and felt good, only barrier a hint of a stitch around halfway. Gradually wound up the pace through the course but never close to flat out. A few awkward controls but I think I got the route more or less right. |
Tuesday May 8 |
| Run intervals ((fartlek)) 38:00 [4] 9 km (4:13 / km) | |
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| Felt ordinary again, particularly on the second loop where I lacked strength on the uphill sprints, but not as slow as I'd feared (9.15). Glad I'm not attempting to race on Wednesday this week.
The plan here is to go into a heavy training cycle for 4-5 weeks and then sharpen up again going into the Australian Championships week, but I don't think I'm 100% well at present so will need to watch this. |
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| C • 7 |
Monday May 7 |
| Swimming 31:00 [2] 1 km (31:00 / km) | |
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| A loosener of a session at MSAC after some hard work on the weekend. Seemed to have the desired effect, although a bit of a cough this morning. |
| Run 46:00 [2] 9 km (5:07 / km) | |
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| MFR Monday night from Susannah's new place, ending up at the Tan. Felt sluggish throughout after the weekend (something I had in common with most of the crowd) - strangely felt better on the Anderson Street hill than anywhere else on the course. |
Sunday May 6 |
| Run race 1:44:47 [4]*** 15.8 km (6:38 / km) +480m 5:45 / km | |
| spiked:21/26c |
| Didn't get off to a great start when I lost a minute on 3, just not seeing a knoll (or to be more precise not realising it was significant enough to be mappable) when within 20 metres of it. Settled technically after that although didn't make a great job of one creek crossing. Ran the first half conservatively - probably too conservatively as I finished with quite a bit left in me. Pretty good technically after the early miss, with nothing bigger than 20 seconds or so on fine navigation, although going around the track on 20 was a bad move and cost me the best part of a minute. Sixth (and fourth Australian) looks good at first glance, but too far behind to be happy with this. Can safely make alternative plans for the second half of August. |
Saturday May 5 |
| Run 16:00 [3]*** 3.5 km (4:34 / km) | |
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| Checking controls for the sprint race (for which I was controller). All present and correct. Barely qualifies as a session. |
| Run race 37:52 [4]**** 5.6 km (6:46 / km) +240m 5:34 / km | |
| spiked:16/21c |
| Never really got into this race technically - not comfortable at any stage with the way I was reading the mining. Very hesitant going into 2. Settled a bit through the easier middle section but did some silly things later on, particularly at 17 (first one after the spectator) where I went out at 45 degrees the wrong way on a short leg. Didn't lose more than 30 seconds at any control but still scrappy. Running was OK but not startling - certainly didn't seem to get much of an edge by not racing this morning. |
Friday May 4 |
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| Event: Aust. WOC Trials
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| Swimming 30:00 [2] 1 km (30:00 / km) | |
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| Reasonably comfortable swim, unusually coming straight off a massage (rather than before); didn't seem to make a huge difference to how things felt, probably because the bits of the body which had been massaged don't do much work in the pool.
Spotted a historical artifact on the way in: a bumper sticker 'Vote yes for our republic'. |
Thursday May 3 |
| Run 2:02:00 [3] 26 km (4:42 / km) | |
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| A run which was chiefly memorable for its weather. I started out expecting it to be mild and windy (which it was). About 20 minutes in there was a flash on the western horizon - initially only one, but by the time there were a few more over the next 15 minutes it was apparent there was a thunderstorm on the western horizon. It was still dark at this stage so I couldn't really get a handle on how far away it was. It gradually moved closer and eventually unloaded about 75 minutes into the run (about 7.10). The rain was nice to run in, but there was a rather nervous 10 minutes or so when the lightning was within 3km, especially at the point where I was stuck for a minute or so waiting to cross Plenty Road, with no cover and poles and overhead wires everywhere (studying extreme weather for a living gives you a healthy respect for the ways in which it kills people). Not quite as scary as being on the Bogong High Plains above the treeline with an armful of metal stands when collecting controls from the 1999 High-O, but I was still glad when the lightning activity moved out to the east.
The run itself was one of four quarters - a nondescript first 30 minutes (after a very ordinary night's sleep), a hard-working second section into a stiff northerly, an increasingly strong third section and a terrific last 40 minutes, flowing well and full of running (the impetus for this seems to have been picking up speed to sprint across the very exposed Ring Road overpass). Pleased with the form I'm running into if that's an indication (particularly following up from yesterday), although I'll want to take a bit less than an hour to warm up on the weekend.
Cracked the front page of the Herald-Sun this morning (which had '29.9%' in 1000-point font as its headline - no prizes for guessing what they were referring to). Everything said in the piece appears to be factual, which is more than can be said for Andrew Bolt's latest contribution (online only as far as I can tell) - it would be silly enough to claim that one cold April proved that global warming didn't exist, but it's even sillier because he used a graph off our website that hasn't been updated yet - the cool April happened last year. |
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| C • So make sure someone sticks it up him 2 |
Wednesday May 2 |
| Run 1:03:00 [3] 14 km (4:30 / km) | |
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| A reasonably hilly circuit of the back streets of Eaglemont (a course determined by the locations of those members of the Ivanhoe ALP who don't get their meeting notices by e-mail). Was worried when I woke up with a bit of a sore throat but felt OK on the run, particularly later on. |
| Run race 13:22 [5] 3.83 km (3:29 / km) vdot: 57.2 | |
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| A good time when I wasn't really expecting one - best this season, although I'd still like to be near or under 13.10. Started slowly but hit a nice rhythm after about 800 metres. Quite windy but didn't seem to have much effect on the run. Was never quite able to get onto the back of the next pack 20 or so metres ahead (although I picked off the occasional runner who fell off its back) but it still made a good target to chase.
Km splits: 3.32, 3.38 (uphill), 3.28, 3.26. |
| Run 30:00 [3] 6.5 km (4:37 / km) | |
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| Warm-up/down from the above. |
Tuesday May 1 |
| Run intervals ((fartlek)) 38:00 [4] 9 km (4:13 / km) | |
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| Not too bad. A bit of back tightness again earlier on. Felt a bit faster than it actually was (9.12) - seemed to be attacking the uphill sprints quite strongly.
Having added things up, I think I've now spoken to just about every bit of the ABC in the last fortnight except the Chaser boys. |
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| C • Peter Cundall? 2 |