Tue 11 Apr 06, a quick track session

6km today and 33km for the week so far. 10/11 runs this month & 79/101 runs for the year

This evenings track session was a planned short, sharp and to the point, the last track session before my trip to Canberra for the Nat Masters T&F Champs. I arrived about 4:45pm, said hello to the one or 2 who were already there and straight into my warm up, tonight I ran around the exterior of the track on the grass/dirt and allowed that to get bigger each of 4 laps, incorporating the rugby pitch as well. The final lap I returned to lane 8 and did some heel to butt, high knees, sideways & criss cross, with a few surges to break it all up.

Stretched and chatted and then did 3 strides with my DS Trainers, a few more stretches and then 3 more strides with my red DS Racers, when Burkie asked me to concentrate on my arm action, wanting more movement... Tonight's session under Burkie's guidance was a 600 & 500 @ 1500 pace and then a 400 & 300 @ 800m pace with a 2 min walking standing/walking recovery. So the lap pace were to be 76ish for the first 2 and the for the final 2 aim for 67 per lap. The wind was quite strong, but there would be no adjusting for that, "just stick to the plan, short and sweet and get it over and done with and with a smile", they were Burkie's parting words...

The first bend was slightly into a head wind, but its easy at the start, I tried on all of my reps to simulate the start of a race, standing back a few metres and moving onto the line in race position and ensuring my first steps were like a race but then get into rhythm asap, all of the reps coming into the main straight were hard due to the wind and I really concentrated on my arm action in the back straight were the work was easier. Burkie mentioned afterwards that he thought my complete action looked improved with the better arm movement.

Splits (recovery):
1:56.03 (1:59)
1:34.95 (1:59)
1:10.09 (2:01)
0:54.87 (walked 400m, changed shoes, jogged 3 slow laps)

Looking at the splits it didn't fully go to plan, maybe because of the wind and a little bit of miscalculations early on, the 600m I was approx 2 sec slow, the 500m I was right on, the 400m @ 800m pace was over 3 sec to slow and the 300m again I was 3-4 slow. I did find the 4 & 3 quite hard, with the wind and also feeling worked. But I felt great after my cool down and I am confident of hitting the 2:16 area if the conditions are right on Friday.

Healthy dinner, a couple of euro beers, play on the net and then in bed before 10:30pm, which is good for me. Wednesday, I am acting as a Run Leader for the Run to the G with S2F, Asics are providing some apparel support, I am looking after the medium paced 5km group. Thursday drive to Canberra and go for a walk after settling in the hotel and then race on Friday at 5pm, looking forward to it. The 1500m is on Sat 12:30pm, I am also entered in the 5000m on Sunday, but this is not a priority and I more than likely will not do, I think my comp in the 5k is Sparkie.....I'll have to read his blog.