Training Log Archive: Mounty

Wedding morning run with a group that became a selection of Andy, Grant and the groom. Great to go for a run with Grant for the first time since about 1992. Had a good session of "whatever happened to....".

Ran out to the Mt St Gwinear car park and back with Prong, Andy and some Glenn. Struggled up the first hill big time, but improved slightly as the run went.

Race with Andy to the Mt Baw Baw summit at the end - I went straight thru' the Alpine Heath and he went a (long) way round. I got there first condemning Andy to a 2 beer scull, but realised looking at photos in the borochure over dinner that the 'summit' I went to wasn't the one in the picture. Delivered the good news to a relieved Andy.

Took advantage of the visiting Belgians to join Katrin's paddle group for the Wednesday morning spin.

Not used to getting up that early, but launching straight in to a 20 kt southerly certainly helped to fast-track the waking up process. A few long intervals between Middle Head and Grotto. Quite the washing machine off Middle Head - great fun.

Favorite session of the year, and this time I'm logging it because it was hard work.

The annual xmas sandhill session. Did a heap of sandhill reps this year, running a shuttle service to get the boards up the hill for the kids. Just to add to the atmosphere, a pod of 30-odd Dolphins turned up and lazed around below us just behind the breakers.

Finished with half a dozen straight efforts, towing boogie board with strap tucked in to shorts then surfed down. Running training doesn't get more fun.

Then back down to Soldiers for another surf. Nice waves.

Up at Norah Head for the annual rellie bash. Evening run on the back of backyard lunch with 31(!) peeps, and great surf at Soldiers Beach.

The Xmas surf is always an interesting checkpoint in the kid's development. Not long ago that Katrin and I would juggle minding the kids in the shallows with having a body-surf ourselves. This year found myself out the back with Annika discussing the finer points of wave selection while Tom was happily zipping in and out standing on his surfboard.

Ran south along the beach at dusk feeling good. Turned after half an hour to realise I had only felt good due to a strong tailwind. Plodded home in to the Nor' Easter.

Love it when the logistical juggles come off. The Belgies wanted to go to Warringah Mall to get some Aussie stuff - a bold plan on the 24th December. Instead of trying to park I dropped them off, then parked over at the softball field. Ran up the beaches - Curly, coast track, dee why to the top of the golf course then back on the bitumen. Jumped in the car, picked up the happy belgians and home for coffee. Nice.

Left hammie tight from squeezing on to annikas boat yesterday meant paddle today instead of a run. Slow and easy down to castle cove, aiming to loosen the hammie with the easy cycling action of legs in the boat.

Awful lot of fish about. Suprised not to see Ezy.

Used the day's activity window to go sailing with Annika down at Manly rather than running (yes - this did mean stretching said window). Spectacular day with 15kts of breeze. My cunning plan to develop little sailors who can sail with me when the running knees give out is going well.

Went to super-physio Gav in the evening. Not suprised to see right spiral line tightness had left right leg rather short, having not been there for a while. Copped a bashing, left taller. So good. Interesting to note that kick-boxing has added a new tightness to the usual asymmetry (right adductors).

Slow easy trot around Killarney, with an extension on the end out the middle spur. Discovered a track off the end of the firetrail down to the water which would make a ripper Bantry Bay loop shortcut at low tide. Stopped next to the water for 10 minutes purely because it was a very pleasant place to sit at a very pleasant time of day.

Bit of a pant soiling moment on the Killarney single track when I met a brown snake. It was just as suprised as me and tried to get away, but I had to jump over it. urgh.

Last session of the year. My kick has improved a lot since the Thailand trip. Reckon I could confidently face up to a 9 year old now.

Leg loosener in to North Sydney. With 5 Belgians arrived for Xmas, working from home ain't gonna work this week.

Glutes tired. Not sure if from running up hills, or squeezing myself on to a Manly Junior yesterday morning. Probably a bit of both.

Did the Manly Dam running loop. Starting to like this run - has almost qualified as a 'regular' loop, in which case it will need a name.

Working on developing a slightly higher ave speed on the cruisy runs - HR around 150, rather than a 140 plod. NIce to feel a bit of 'flytt'.

Bewdiful evening for a run. Starting to like the shoes too.

First Saturday morning ride since forever. Good to catch up with Cam, Nick, Guenter, Dave & Simon who showed up in xmas garb - Cameron complete with tinsel. Akuna loop, then back to Snives bakery for coffee. Riding legs held up reasonably well - couple of quicker climbs without exploding.

Off the bike, then ran over to the Nosh track to begin the slow, painful process of developing hill running legs again. Started on the Carlyle st hill with 5 reps (a km up from Roseville bridge) - not ready to face the wrath of the Belrose pipeline hill yet. At least the pacing metronome is calibrated -
2:24, 2:25, 2:23, 2:23,2:25.

Afternoon involved dropping and collecting Katrin at each end of the 20 Beaches. There was a significant break at Palmie right on the finish line, made for some spectacular viewing with regular wipeouts the order of the day. Bloody dangerous to be honest with skis flying in the air in traffic.

River loop - first run ever in shoes made by Nike. Exciting. Last saturday I had an hour to kill waiting for the boy at Warringah mall (birthday party). Used it by trying on a load of shoes, and decided to give the Nike lunarflys a try. Went home and bought them online - sorry Harvey.

Got around the loop OK - disappointed not to have been automatically 5 minutes faster. On the plus side, Tom was hugely impressed by my fluorescent yellow shoe laces.

C • Lunarflys 6

From home around the old Castle Cove loop - aka the nostalgia run (the staple run when I lived with the folks). Funny how your feet remember all the step combinations through the rocks on that trail from so long ago.

Aimed to keep cruising speed more at the 150 mark than 140 bpm.

Embarrassing anecdote of the day - stopped to answer my phone which I was using for music at the time. Confused to find no number showing until I realised it was just playing the song I had set as ring tone.

C • What was the song? 2

Tonight included a session of belting each other with fake swords. Fake in the sense that they don't cut your head off, but sword in the sense of they hurt. Bit of 'pain management' training according to Ric (trainer).

Shagged after only 3 ours of sleep last night,

Funny old afternoon run. Headed over to the NOSH track for a splash in the puddles towards Lindfield. Never really found a rhythm on the way out, or broke out of slouched office worker form. After half an hour something started to hurt in my foot - not injured hurt, more 'sitting wrong' hurt. Pulled over and gave it a rest, and a wobble then tried again slowly. Pleasingly it was all good, so ramped up again but towards home.

Experience has shown that a couple of efforts is the best way to find some kind of decent running posture, so I did 2 * 1km reps from under Roseville bridge. 3:35 and 3:20. Last one felt quite good.

Then home to juggle getting Tom to bed, and a sh*tload of work that needs to be done by tomorrow. 11pm now, and about to grab a Red Bull.

C • Hong Kong 4

Multi-tasking. Paddle while Tom was sailing. Dropped him at the skiff club, then drove around to North Harbour and paddled out of there. Watched the start and first leg, then nicked off 'cause conditions were too nice to stay in north harbour.

I paddled out along the wall of North Head and back, for some great technique training - the rebounds were all over the place. Caught the beginning of the sea breeze back in to the harbour to catch the end of the race.

Finished up back at the club for an enormous plate of chips with the lad - just as a big southerly change and rain came thru'. Timing.

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Just entered the Vibram 100k run in Hong Kong for February. Time to get fit again.

Ran around Narrabeen lake while Tom rode his MTB. The new track that's been built to complete the loop is great. Luverly evening, good company.

Katrin & Annika headed to Fiji with Katrin's mum this morning, leaving me in charge on the home front. Tom, while riding: "Do we have enough leftovers to get thru' the week?".

Once back from the lake, ran up to the bus stop to collect the car I'd left behind last night.

Evening paddle down to Northbridge, with Katrin's boat because it happened to be on the car. English lacks a suitable word to describe the melancholy dullness of paddling a stable boat on flat water. Finished with some gun work - 15 * 15sec/on off.

Morning consisted of school presentation day, which was entertaining on 2 counts:-
- Annika landed the school vice captain gig for next year.
- School band played the national anthem to which parent's were singing along proudly - until the band launched in to the 2nd verse, whence the vocals went deafeningly silent.

Somewhat spontaneous decision to run Summer Series, as it occurred to me during the day that it would be within a 10minute jog from the office, near Luna Park.

Trotted down the hill, completely under-dressed for what must have been one of the coldest December days for a while. The heavy rain and wind didn't help, but gee it was chilly.

Started together with Andy and had a great time, albeit somewhat irresponsible, dashing around Milson's Point and North Sydney in peak hour traffic - both car and human variety. Got gapped 30sec by Andy after a few km even though I was ahead, when he was able to use momentum to pick a break in traffic. Caught up again when he missed a laneway, and off we went again. Heaps of fun running in the heavy rain once you'd warmed up.

Pulled up with a k to go when the left calf started to complain. Was running in low heeled Innov8 ('casue that's all I had with me at work) - somewhat ambitious after lots of calf use at whacking the night before and havent run in them on the road before. Bit of a shame, as had felt very comfortable on the running front today.

Froze my butt off walking back to the office.

Afternoon paddle down to northbridge. 30min uphill in to southerly, then back down again. Cruisy.

Close visit from an enormous eagle. Very cool.

Hit lots of things. Not impressed when someone missed the pad I was holding and hit me in the quad with a roundhouse kick. Ow.

News of the day was being given an entry to the Kokoda trail run for next year. Very excited. Better get fit again.

C • Belgian Santa? 3

River loop at lunch time. 5 runs in a row! Will do something else tomorrow to avoid streak syndrome. Trotted along at an HR of about 150. Fast enough to feel some flow, but easy enough not to hurt. ie fun but no-mans land training wise. Calves not stiff after yesterday. Pleasing.

Woken at 5am by an excited 8 year old this morning, as Belgian Santa comes on the 5th December. 2 santas is one of the big benefits of dual citizenship.

I was uninspired by the drab weather, but felt compelled to head out for a run to get fit for intervals on Thursday. The thought of a plod didn't appeal, while ballet on the rocks in the hippie shoes carried a sufficient novelty value to get me out the door.

Went for the full Bantry Bay loop (favourite rough track), slightly unsure if my calves would last the whole way. Went OK. Will see how they feel tomorrow.

Interesting to note that the Vibram rubber on the soles sticks on sandstone like glue in the dry, but a tad skatier than the asics road shoes in the wet.

Finished the run with a couple of James Squire Summer Ales. Yum.

First hour was a tempo run from home along the river to the Cascades. Ticking along nicely for the first 45, then backed off a bit due to thirst and knackeredness. Early on ran past a BBQ in Davidson park that turned out to be a collection of Tom's friend's parents. Fortunately I just happened to be moving quite quick at the time, and wearing shiny new Big Foot o-top.

Ran home from the Cascades with 6 * 1k tempo runs, which steadily degraded in quality for each. Climb up from Cascades a killer.

Hill intervals for the first time in yonks. Ouch! Off the end of Durrow Ave, climb is a bit over 2 minutes - half of which on steep rough firetrail, then road.

Splits were...
2:15 (HR: 174)
2:15 (HR: 173)
2:13 (HR: 174)
2:13 (HR: 174)
Lactic, knackered and wondering if I could manage one more I went for the go-to interval song on the iPod (Plastique Bertand - long story). Result..
2:01 (HR: 179).
There's a lesson in there somewhere.

Finished with a 6min effort along the Killarney southern track.

Tough run.

Lacto-commute. Ride to North Sydney aiming for 2 or 3 gears higher than usual at any time. Plenty of standing climbs, and good to grind a bit.

Temperature at least 10 degrees cooler than last night. Glad I got in a paddle yesterday.

Rode home single-speed style, which as expected consisted of grinding up hills and spinning like a politician on the flat. Main takeaway was a fuller appreciation of why singlespeeds are popular for MTB, but you don't see many on the road.

Got off the bike to find no-one home, and being a nice evening tagged on a spontaneous Killarney loop in the hippie shoes. Got around quite quickly. Usually consider 36min for the loop as the cutoff between jog and run.

Was enjoying running the rocky bits with the grippy feet, but almost came a cropper inventing a new 'A' line down the Nosh descent.