Training Log Archive: Mounty

Gentle leg loosener

Botany Bay Champioships. Big lap of the Bay with Annika in the 13 with a lovely 12-15kt nor easter.

Found ourselves in front today, which was problematic because I hadn't bothered to check the course - it quite simply never occurred to me that we could possibly find ourselves in the lead. Whoops. Great fun otherwise and good trimming practice to sail some long legs.

Today's contribution to the speed block was a session of Monna fartlek. (2*90 / 4*60 / 4*30/ 4*15 with even float) around the wharves. Heavy legs but got around OK. Covered just over 5k in the 20min.

Interesting to compare running efficiency between sessions. I covered 5k in almost exactly the same time with the Monna's and yesterday's 40/20's. Monna is 50% tempo while the 40/20 is 2/3rds at pace. Felt equally fucked after both.

After reading Tyler Hamilton's book on holiday I decided to try his 40/20sec on-off session. Ran 5km with 20reps (19:44 for the 5k). I can see why it is a good session for building top end...and also why it is a session best done with EPO. Ouch.

C • Pace 3

Daylight savings creates options for the Tuesday beach run. Today I headed down the nice coast bush track from Dee Why to Curly, and then cut over to the Curl Curl parkrun course for some tempo. Did 2 * 2.5km at 3:30min/k. Felt OK, but tiring towards the end of each rep.

Stunning evening.

After heading straight to the office after a day of travelling, an evening spin around the streets of Pymble seemed like a good idea.

2 * 10reps of jungle moo stairs to round out an amazing week.

Not a lot of running, but pretty physical nonetheless - chopping bananas, sugar cane etc for elephant food, and the daily core workout of bathing elephants in the river with buckets.

Good times.

2 * 10reps of jungle moo stairs. Felt a bit sharper than yesterday.

Another morning trekking with the elephants. Very cool.

3 * 10 reps on a sharp little pinch hill at the elephant place. About a 1minute round trip - felt like moo stairs in the jungle. F'ing humid, but stunningly beautiful.

Not really training, but a memorable day in the jungle taking the elephants for a walk. Headed down the creek from the sanctuary, and then up in to the hills as the elephants wandered along looking for yummy food. Bamboo a favourite.

Impressive to see how agile the big buggers are - navigating very narrow trails on steep hillsides. etc. - and insanely strong. Amazing to see what they can break with their trunk.

Nifty bushman effort from sanctuary owner Burm for lunch. Made kettle, plate, cup and chopsticks from a big piece of bamboo with a machete.

Early morning city run thru chiang mai. I love the early morning run thru a waking city and this was no exception. Trotted down an empty street that was a few hours before a bustling night market with thousands of people now gone without a trace, then along the river to the flower markets. I ran weaving thru a series of narrow Asian style streets back to the hotel at tempo just for the fun of it.

Now breakfast then off to the jungle for the week.

Relaxed beer stairs with Andy. Six Strings Celtic Fusion to finish - really nice.

Abbreviated wharfies. 3 reps 1:56, 1:53, 1:53. Good splits but had to work for them.

5k wharf tempo in 18:40. Felt very comfortable, but sense I would have got uncomfortable pretty quick if I tried to go faster or further.

Short sharp gym play.

Cruise over to Redleaf pool with Bull. Tired legs....struggled up the hills and stairs.

Another wharfy 5k, but more relaxed today. On Barts advice I switched my misbehaving Suunto to 'GPS and Glonass' mode to see if it would improve accuracy....and was thrilled with the results when it reported that I covered 5km in 14:08. My phone gave me 20:00 but I'm going with the watch. (I think the watch ended up with 6.5km for the usual 5k circuit. God knows whats happening there).

C • Great improvement! 1

5k tempo on the wharves - with a short break after 3k as I don't want to push too hard having just recovered from being sick. 18:30'ish. Pretty happy with that.

Mixed session in the gym - row, bike, chins and a couple of k on the tready.

Run from North Avoca down to the bushy headlands to the south. Some sharp hills and stairs, and a fun downhill strava segment to play with. Glorious day for a run.

Morning beach jog with my nephew. Careful not to induce any sprinting when I found out he's down to 50sec for 400m.

7 * 2min soft sand intervals while Tom was surfing.