Monday 8 August 2016

CP Ultra builds confidence

Increased the mileage this week as I ponder what Melbourne may look like if I don't. It may also be Olympic fever - who knows.

Mon Aug 1st: AM: 9km with Rejoov client Melissa who is running very well.
PM: 12km easy CP - 4:30 pace.  Total for the day 21km

Tue 2nd: AM: 6km Coastal jog PM: Met up with Deano and Reidy(sort of) for a session in the park. 2 continuous laps of 3.2km featuring the long hill from the middle Charles Dickens statue right to the top of the Woollahra gates. First time around the hill felt easy and I smacked out a 4min climb on the dot and a 11:30min lap after starting easy. The 2nd lap I started the lap a lot harder so I could try and simulate running heartbreak hill on lactic tired legs and yep, it hurt. 4mins 20 for the hill but 11mins for the lap. Great session and even better to be able to run it with long time mate Dean Degan who is still rolling around very well. Total for the day 21km

Wed 3rd: Drive to Port Macquarie for work and the weather is absolutely atrocious. Cyclonic winds and heavy rain showers made for an ordinary 15km run along the coast. This would normally be an awesome run I imagine. 1hr and who knows how many minutes in the end. Can't remember.

Thur 4th: AM: Very sluggish 5km around Port Mac fisherman's wharf reminiscing about visiting a particular resort as a 6-7yr old. My younger sister and I were on a paddle boat when suddenly I thought I saw a shark near us. It was actually a dolphin but the damage had been done. I remember those few minutes paddling my arse off to get Jenny back to shore where she bolted to mum and dad in tears quite quickly. Anyway, that was my morning memory today.
PM: Landed in Newcastle for the night and decided to do the Newy park run course which was only 2km away. This is the first ever Aussie park run and normally I could imagine it would be fast. But to try and pump myself up on a very very windy wet day was hard. The middle 2km is also run on that sparse pebbly type footpath surface and as such a bit slippery under foot. Excuses aside and a 3:01 first km (wind assisted) aside, I ended up with 16:29. The headwind just nailed me. Total 12km

Fri 5th: PM: Coastal run back in Coogee 7km easy. Feeling pretty good.

Sat 6th: PM: 10km loop around Randwick / Maroubra. Legs feeling fresh and my sickness seems like it has all but gone. Kitchen / Laundry reno is almost finished. Looking good but 3 weeks is along time to cook out of the sunroom.

Sun 7th: Centennial Park (CP) Ultra day and although it consistently ends up being staged a week before city to surf, it does look like it is growing. I think the teams aspect is the attractive option as people save themselves for the C2S. That's what Neil Pearson and I did as we lined up for the 50km pairs team event. Upon arrival we were told that we had some pretty serious competition which was actually really good to hear. Brendan Davies and his assistant coach who had easily won the Aust Day Knapsack relay were back to defend their 3:10 from 2015. Andy Heyden and Gary Mullins also lined up in the event but Neil and I had our plan and were pumped to break the 3hr mark.

All 3 teams had a different approach at first. We decided to run the event 2 laps at a time changeover and finish with a single lap making for 14laps total (7 each). Brendan's team ran the whole event as one lap on, one lap off and the Heyden/Mullins team split the load as I had done last year with Laura and ran 25km straight up one after the other. This approach would always be too hard for those boys to be in the mix for the win but they are both running really well and would end up not that far back in the end.

Neil started us off with 2 laps and the additional 440m at the start (needed to get the full 50km). He came in at a solid 26mins for the 7.5km but he was toe to toe with Brendan who had caught the deficit Neil had created over their first runner. So immediately I fired up and took off as though 2 laps was all I would run that day. I ran a 11:50 first lap followed by a 12:20 to do 24:10 total and provide us with just on a minute lead. Not comfortable enough though.

We then completed another 2 lap effort each (my time was 24:55 for this one) before changing tact and switching to the one lap on, one lap off strategy as per Brendan's race plan. This proved successful as I dropped a 12min flat single lap followed by 12:30 and 12:35 with Neil running his between 12:30 and 13mins. This enabled us to open the lead right up and finish well in 2hr 56mins with 2nd coming in 4mins back. I ran 86:10 for my 24.8km of the 50km.

 

The 50km solo winner - Dion ran a very solid 3:07 just 11mins back with Andy and Gary following him in for their 3rd place teams place. HuRTs regular Luca Turrini took out the 100km solo in a very credible time of 7hr 55mins. Well done to him for a top solo job from the start.

Greta also lined up with fellow Rejoov Runner Steve Bell to fill in for a sick Stu and injured Juny with them also splitting duties 22km to 28km. They ended up with just on 4hrs and we are still to ascertain whether they came in the top 3 mixed teams.

    

So a great confidence booster for next Sunday so long as I can recover ok. Looking forward to my 31st City to Surf and hopefully anywhere under 46:30 as an A target.

Goodluck if you're doing it.

CT





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