Friday, 31 July 2009
July's Running Stats
YTD - 1397km
Injuries - nothing to report
Excuses - A busy month that I happily put the running concerns of others ahead of my own.
Races - XCR'09 Rd 5 Coliban Ekiden 5.1km road & Rd 6 State XC, neither well ran, but better than last year.
Upcoming - XCR Series, Geelong 16km XC & Sandown 6.2km Road Relay
Goals - Continue on with regular running because I enjoy it, not for any real goal or purpose.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Ouch...
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The past few weeks I have allowed a tooth get sorer and sorer until now its basically impossible to eat on the left hand side or drink anything really cold or hot, you get the idea... A trip to the dentist to help him pay for his kids school fees.... minutes after leaving I knew that was a well spent $200.... thank goodness the ouch has gone!
No running today, a good evening to have dental work, it rained a lot, but I still spent 75 minutes wandering around the track, chatting with Squad members in between reps, it was good to watch form.
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Gym, soccer & a bit of easy track running
Indoor football at lunch, we had one reserve, 1 all at half time, but then a 'white-wash', we won 9-2 (I scored twice).
A lot of my Little Aths juniors are resting up for a few weeks, but six are continuing on helping out as a small squad to work with Lexie in her preparations for the National XC on the 29th of Aug. A few of the kids are comfortably faster with a superior endurance fitness and then a couple are of similar pace, everyone is older. Lexie arrived with the sniffles, so a small change to the session, the majority would run 400m reps with floats while Lexie & 2 others followed and pulled out at 300m and walked, we (yep I cruised in lane 2/3) continued to the 400m marker and turned and floated back , picked up Lexie and crew and then jogged to the line and off we went again, 8 reps all in 98-100 sec.
Warm up, cool down & the session of cruisy running, with 10 minutes of leg stretching.
Tuesday, 28 July 2009
5x4 min efforts at the track
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Due to popular demand I moved my Tuesday session to the track for the next couple of weeks, away from Skeleton Creek, the girls ran 5x3 min with a 2 min float and I ran (by myself) 5x4 min efforts, with a desire to hit 1k, but it was windy and cold and I wasn't able to.
Most of my reps were approx 960-70m, but I felt the floats were a lot better than other weeks, they actually were close to floats and not shuffles, especially the last 1 minute. For the final rep I decided I would run through until hitting the 1km mark (4.12), not so good, but it was very windy.
I finished off with 3 slow laps chatting with others for my cool down, run in reverse.
Monday, 27 July 2009
An easy one along Werribee River
So an easy run along the river starting & finishing at Wyndham Park, just over 6.5km in 31 minutes, then 20 minutes of easy running with my Little Aths Squad and then 25 minutes of stretching.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Vic Little Aths XC Champs
Friday was a BIG day and so was today, whilst not the same overall standard, but still the very best Little Aths kids were here today. The first race of the day involved Lexie and I knew she would do very well as the girls who beat her on Fri were in an older age group, she started the race and sat exactly where I asked her too, for the first 1km she sat in 5th immediately behind the leaders and 50m from the top of Mt Cooper she made her move and no-one could go with her and she won by 25m, in 48 hours I now coach a State rep and a Little Aths State Champ, a great way to start the day. The final race of the day was a silver medal for Brooklyn and in between there were lots of other great runs! A couple of others managed top 10's and many in the teens, a very succesful day for the group!
A big :-) , very proud of the kids and very happy that it appears that the winter program worked quite well!
Friday, 24 July 2009
Victorian Primary & State Secondary XC Champs
Big crowds today, really big crowds...doesn't anyone work? Every race for U15 down had over 100 runners and the 16, 17 & 18-20 races all had about 70, so really big fields. My day started with L, C & C, we all jogged the 2k & 3k course working on the strategies for each runner.
To shorten my 'post', a very long day at Bundoora in cool windy weather ended up being a VERY exciting day. First race, the 10 year old girls, Lexie & Chantelle which was a great race, watching both girls respectively passing many runners in the final km as a result of their superior fitness which resulted in Lexie finishing 4th and qualifying for the National XC Champs at the end of Aug in Nowra and Chantelle finishing 13th!!!
Wow, I coach an athlete who has qualified via four qualifications races and has finished the 4th fastest 10 year old in Victoria, WOW. :-)
Not taking anything from the other girls but today will be the day I remember as the very first athlete who I have coached to a National Championships.
A long day on my feet and lots of running, but lots of smiles. :-)
Thursday, 23 July 2009
Track pyramid session
Chatting via email David and I agree we would copy a set we did late last month, 600/800/1000/1200/1000/800/600 with 90 sec recovery, we both hoped we would maintain our pace a little better and also run a touch faster. After some chatting with my squad members myself & David warmed up, Loren & Blair (Burkie's squad) joined us, which was good for both of us as Loren is more my pace and Blair is faster than David but is under strict instructions to slow down.
Even with the wind tonight I was confident I could run the first half faster, but of course I needed more consistent times and also faster and that is what I achieved (last months times):
My reps were:
- 600m - 2.20 (2.22)
- 800m - 3.11 (3.12)
- 1000m - 3.59 (4.02)
- 1200m - 4.50 (4.56)
- 1000m - 4.02 (4.10)
- 800m - 3.13 (3.18)
- 600m - 2.19 (2.23)
Finishing with 3 laps to cool down, both David and I were very happy as we knew the wind was tougher than last time and we both smacked our last month's set (he was ahead of me) and I thanked Loren as she was sitting a step behind me and keeping me honest, as I was of her.
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Gym, soccer, running
Lunchtime soccer, easy win and I even scored (its been awhile).
I managed a 30 minute run along the Fed Trail prior to my coaching session, easy pace. I also jogged three laps with the kids prior to their final track session prior to the Vic Primary (Fri) & VLAA (Sun) XC Champs.
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Ballan Holden/Skeleton Creek
Tonight a light session for the girls (Jo ran from home), they have a big weekend of racing so we started with a 8 min easy run along a dirt trail that follows the normal path in amongst the tree line (we should have used this for all of our w/ups along here). Then 3x3 minute efforts with 2 min of shuffling, 2 of the reps into the wind and then turning around and enjoying the final effort with a tail wind, then a longer than normal easy jog back to our starting point.
Finishing off with 10 minutes of stretching on the grass. Probably the last visit to Ballan for awhile.
Monday, 20 July 2009
Gym and Wyndham Park
This arvo I ran for 25 minutes along the Werribee River before joining with my junior group and running with them for another 15 minutes before moving into a coaching role and finishing off with a 1.5k cool down.
My run this arvo it took about 15 minutes before the legs started to work.
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Subtle changes starting to happen with Jo's program now, she has been invited to compete at the World Masters in a <160 years (must be over 30) 4x400m relay Victorian team. Some slightly shorter endurance reps (but faster) and 2 gym sessions per week is the start, but once you read her blog I'm sure it will not sound as nice or enough... :-) I also have a few other girls who are starting to return to consistant training who are looking forward to some 400m training.
Sunday, 19 July 2009
A long run at the YY
The four of us cross GCD and move onto Greyhound Track and make our way back to Toynes Rd for a drink stop and then we go along GCD and up the first of many hills. We ventured into the Stockyards area and with a bit too much talking I take us in the wrong direction and we end up running a trail that was out of the way, slightly hillier than I really wanted and it also took us over the 90 minutes planned.
According to David's Garmin we ran just over 18k with some good hills, my time was 1h 45m 46s, an enjoyable run, but the hills did work me and the final 10 min or so I was ready to be in my car... ;-)
Saturday, 18 July 2009
XCR'09 Series, Round Six, State XC Champs
Arriving at 9am, I jogged a lap with both girls, chatting about the race and just other stuff too to help deviate their minds. Both girls ran very well, finishing 28th & 29th respectively.
My run involved a 2k warm up and then a plan of survival and patience, as I knew I am no where near my form of 49:30 from a few years ago, but hopefully I would beat the 58:30 from 2008.
With the wind still hitting Mt Cooper it was going to be a tough day, the gun goes and I try my best to settle into a comfortable pace, nearly a km into the race I noticed I was the last member for my Club??? Why so...hmmm...sticking to the pace I think is correct for me I went through the first km 13.48 but I was catching Ian and eventually did about 500m later.
I am fairly happy with how I approached this race, whilst not being a fan of XC really, especially whilst as unfit as I am and noting I had walked a little in the other two XC races, I managed to work the hills and coast the downhills and mentally worked the course.
My splits: 13.48, 14.11, 14.16 & 14.12 = 56.28. Not the best, but 2 minutes better than last year.
Just over 17km of running today.
Friday, 17 July 2009
Gym only
Tmrw I have two girls running in the Secondary All Schools State XC Champs, both Elyse & Claire are running in the first race at 10am, then Jo in the AV State Champs at 1:45 and then my race is at 2.30pm, it will be a long day.
Thursday, 16 July 2009
200's
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I arrived at the track at 4.30pm, I then drilled Claire for 15 minutes and finished off with some single leg squats; watching her strides today, I think I am starting to see some improvements in her leg stride.
Then 3 laps to warm up, 4x100m strides and then into 3 sets of 7x200m with a 100m float. A beautiful still night with minimal cloud cover but I could feel the cool night approaching. 21x200m...who comes with these sessions....shite its me... :)
- 41.4 / 43.7 / 41.6 / 42.1 / 43.1 / 43.1 / 42.7
- 42.2 / 42.9 / 42.5 / 43.4 / 42.5 / 42.7 / 43.1
- 43.1 / 42.7 / 42.8 / 43.1 / 43.2 / 41.9 / 42.4
The shuffles (still not a real float) were generally between 45-50 sec and 2 min between sets, the third set all of the shuffles were between 42-44, the difference was the third set was only myself & David (with Jo for 2).
Only 2 lap cool down, I was cold and ready to go home.. Just short of 8k for the night.
Gym & indoor football x 2
A game of indoor football, with the finals nearing and we need to be in the top 5, currently we are 5th but we played 6th today, but thankfully we had a win, 3-1. Phewww
Prior to training my junior group (16 tonight) I managed to get 30 minutes of easy running along the Fed Trail towards Werribee.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Gym & Ballan Holden set
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Ballan Holden tonight with eight others, 1/2 the group were only doing three efforts and the rest four, but they changed on the road. For me, I did my four with a walk & float whilst regrouping the squad, overall they felt fairly quick but controlled and consistent.
Tonight was good having David there too, it meant I had someone to pace off and keep me honest, thanks mate..
Monday, 13 July 2009
Wyndham Park
One of the advantages of getting to work earlyish and really not giving a shit about the world and or the first day back, I was out the door at 3.30pm and running at 3.55pm, in the god damn pouring rain, it was bloody sunny at 2.30pm???? grrr & :-(
I fastish pace to try and keep me warmer than I really was...it rained the entire time I ran, 33 minutes. Once back at my car the rain changed to light drizzle and then as the kids were hoping out of the car it stopped...why now, why not before?
Tonight's set for the kids was running, running with more running along the paths along the river in the direction of the freeway, after 3k's we stopped and did some gentle stretching and then we went further on and increased the pace on each rise, then a few hill repeats before turning back. Very minimal recoveries and lots of running, funnily some of the kids who normally do very well during the WP sessions found this quite hard but the kids who run the harder and longer Tue sets were fine.
With the shorter Sunday run I found this quite nice to get in 13-14k on a Monday.
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Triple J's Hottest 100 of All Time, http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hottest100_alltime/countdown/cd_01.htm was announced on the weekend, with more than 1/2 million votes it does give a true indication. I voted, http://stumac.blogspot.com/2009/06/rip-mj.html and a few of my votes made it into the top 100 and like many others I voted number one for Nirvana's ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
Whilst I didn't vote for many of the top 10, unlike many I can see and understand how a demographic system works...one of comments that has really created a lot of discussion; NO women singing originals in the top 100??? I look in my CD collection, I have stacks of ladies, Bjork, Missy Higgins, Kylie, Sarah Blasko, Madonna and some ladies singing Neil & Tim Finn to name a few and many of these ladies have sang some of my favourites, but obviously not my top 10 it seems!
So why is this so??? To be honest I have no idea, what about you?
Sunday, 12 July 2009
Riverbend run
So a 45 minute easy run along the dirt paths following the Werribee River upto Wyndham Park and then back on the other side. A nice solid paced run.
Thursday, 9 July 2009
A few 800m reps
6x800m with some of the girls joining on the final 300m (but faster), I was happy with my times:
- 3.09, 3.07, 3.08, 3.08, 3.07 & 2.59
The last rep I ran the first lap approx 1.5 sec faster, I then concentrated on holding that pace instead of dropping off, when the girls went past me near the 200m mark I decided I would follow them, then with 100m to go I pulled wide and went past them and finished strongly, with a smile.
I then finished with four laps to cool down with David & Adrian. A nice set, 2 months ago I would not have achieved those times with that intensity. :)