Gods of Centennial Park

Those of you that run Centennial Park will no doubt be familiar with Movie Studios taking over sections of the park for months to create, build and shoot on sets that usually see 10-20secs of air time in these so called 'blockbusters'.

Right now, you may catch a glimpse of Margot Robbie and Rose Byrne over near the off leash dog section near the Rotunda not far from the main cafe. I unfortunately haven't as yet but I'm told they have been filming Peter Rabbit there. After seeing Margot Robbie in the Wolf of Wall Street, I'm not quite sure where the rabbit will fit in but interestingly, her on screen husband in that movie - The Wolf himself filmed The Great Gatsby in the same location plus just outside the Robertson St Gates. This was the scene where they drove out of his estate gates and it lasted all of 10secs in that movie.

A week or so ago I spotted The Gods of Egypt on Foxtel so I taped it and have since watched it. Now these guys took over a grassed area not far from the Hotdog trailer kiosk down the middle road of the park and they were there for 4-5mths. A massive timber set build saw a small Egyptian market place township spring up where they would film. Gerard Butler the main character so it sounded like it had hype, budget and who knows perhaps some hope!

Unfortunately not, I am sad to say. Wow what a disaster from go to wo. Not sure where to start. Brian Brown as the Greek God father, Geoffrey Rush as Grandada - Ra, the guy from Game of Thrones who is bonking his sister (Jaime Lanister) and a host of others looking for a ticket to Hollywood glory. Ouch!

So it got me wondering, they would have made more money filming 'The Gods of Centennial Park'. The heroics I have seen take place over the years inside that fence is nothing short of epic Greek status. We have Olympians, City to Surf winners, CEO's and captains of industry. We have nurses and doctors, surgeons & lawyers. We have retirees who refuse to slow down. There are former champions who still run the white fence with today's demographic oblivious as to who they are nor what they achieved in their day.

I would have enjoyed watching that more than Aussies trying to speak with an American accent and failing. I wonder what these new age Centennial Park running Gods would be called?

- The God/dess of the coaching squad switch.
- The God/dess of the 364 day training schedule (the 365th being a Park Run)
- The God/dess of the 2hr stand around warm up and 3hr cool down
- The God/dess of the training PB. Their best work is done around that white fence

And so on.

My week was far from God like. In fact I struggled most of it with a virus and still carrying a niggle/injury in my TFL (around the hip). I still have some good fitness but it's hurting more than it should.

Mon: 12km at 4:30 pace
Tue: AM: 5km  PM: 12km with 4 x Busby lakes (1450m) in 4:45's.
Wed: 7km (feeling off to run again)
Thur: 14km Hurts with Pyramid - 400/800/1200/1600/1200/800/400m - not bad but my pubic bone and TFL / adductors were hurting at the end which JFen chatted to me about (Osteitis Pubis)
Fri: Rest day
Sat: Decided to try a marathon pace run on the footpath in the park. 21.1km half marathon in 3:45's for 79:20 which IF I was feeling comfortable at the end, would have been a confidence boost but I was struggling a bit so glad to finish. 24km in total.
Sun: Slightly hungover after a concert in the Vines at the Hunter Valley. Not really amongst the vines, Crammed into a grassed ampitheatre around a bunch of drunken yobbos. Oh yeah ok I was soon one of those. Not as bad as my mate Errol who somehow forgot to eat - rookie.

Total for the week: 74km


Dragon, James Reyne, Psuedo Echo, Icehouse (and every stripclub's mate - Knollsy)

 5yrs old already.


Greta ventured over to Lake Wanaka in NZ over the weekend to take out their Run Swim event with her swimming mate Kate. This event sees teams running in the gear they swim in and swimming in the gear they run in. Continuous alternation of swimming (4km) and running (15km) taking 2hr 49mins.


Finally - annoying people of the week:

* The person who clearly sees me push the pedestrian light walk button but somehow feels they will have a better shot at it and proceeds to start pushing it again - and again - and again!

* Further to this, why is it that when we all get the green man go ahead to cross a busy city street, do we feel the need to charge off at awkward haphazard angles that immediately put us on a collision course with pretty much everyone coming toward us? Surely there should be white dotted lines where we stay left and get it done alot smoother.

* The dog owner who's dog has never chased or bitten them ever so s/he's not sure why suddenly they have latched onto a complete stranger's leg.

* People who reverse park as though they're driving a 747

* Grown men on skateboards.

Naked in Queensland

It's been two weeks since my last post. Time really does fly past and I struggle to get to post more often. But in reality, time moves at the same pace as every other week. It's more a matter of how I move to the beat it emits and as such it's a prioritising issue. I'm sure the few of you that indulge won't mind.

Naked in Queensland. A bold title but for a runner, being naked is not all about the drunken nudie run. I went away for a work trip from Mon-Thur and left my Garmin and running sunnies at home. Doesn't sound to serious but for someone who lives and breathes by the garmin, this was a big deal when I opened my suitcase and the revelation exposed. On the sunglass front, Qld was experiencing similar weather to Sydney (just 10deg and 90% humidity higher) so the sunnies weren't always needed anyway.

So what to do. Click onto Strava. Did I have an account? Do I just press go? and so on I considered my options. Back in the 80's and 90's and some of the naughties, it was all about best possible pace guessing, getting in the car and measuring courses and then simply doing the time. No second by second analysis of what the elevation was like, pollution levels, calories lost and so on.

And this was how I ran for 4 days (7 runs). And it was surprisingly refreshing. I surged when I liked, for as long as I wished and I cruised for the rest. The humidity hurt anyway so I did what I could. Not a high quality training week but it was my second at 120km.

The previous week was my first of the new block: 120km as follows:

Mon 6th Mar: 12km at 4:45 pace
Tue 7th: AM: 4km  PM: 15.5km incl 6 x 1km (3:08, 07, 09, 06,06,01) off 5:30min cycles so pretty generous there.
Wed 8th: 16km steady
Thur 9th: My regular CP Monna F. One of the least furthest distances of the last few years. 5.9km overall for the 20mins. 13.5km total
Fri 10th: 7km easy
Sat 11th: 12km tempo in the park incl 2 long climbs of Loch Ave. 42:30 at 3:32 pace so pretty happy with that. 16km in total. PM: slow 4km.
Sun 12th: 32km in the park easy. Legs tired as usual.

Total 120km:


Mon 13th: 12km jog at Maroochydore in the heat. Roughly 4:50 pace
Tue 14th: AM: 5km around the Novotel Twin Waters lake. Very sticky. PM: 14km along the river in Brisbane with some 5min surges. Total 60mins
Wed 15th: AM: 6km Botanic Gardens / PM: 13km at Surfers just jogging.
Thur 16th: 9km easy to Burleigh heads and back
Fri 17th: 7km easy in Cent Park
Sat 18th: 16km tempo with Barts around his hilly loop. Same time as 2 weeks ago 58:40. 19km then 5km jog later in the day
Sun 19th: 30km Striders StAR - Edgecliff to Watson's Bay and along the coast. Very hilly and after yesterday hurt like hell.

Total 120km

Hoping to consolidate with a few more weeks like these but including some quality fast stuff.

The Penske File

I have just finished a role and am about to start another. The frustrating situation is that for the past 4 weeks, I have been taken off the road (I am a BDM) and given desk duties that has seen my hips tighten up, my brain overworked (not that hard some would say) from staring at a computer and has basically forced me to be stuck while I await the transition. My running training has also suffered .

Yes I could have walked but I wanted to end on good terms given the details around the new company and their competition with the old one. So I have sucked it up and turned up every day to make calls, answer queries and manage the handover. But for the time allocated at that desk vs what I needed to do, it was by far tipped in the favour of having a lot of spare time.

How to best get through this I wondered. Hang on, I know. The new guys are paying for me to do an online course necessary for a successful career progression with them. Why wait I pondered as I logged on, and started the course at around the 3rd day of my final 4 week tenure. And as I sit here on my last day and quite obviously very busy, I am reflecting on the fact that I have been able to get through all 10 reading topics, end of section review tests and have started the assignment. I have turned a 26week course into potentially a 6-8 week one and this has made the time go a lot quicker than it would have otherwise.

The secret - and this was conveyed by George off Seinfeld – always look busy, hold a pen in your hand and let out the occasional exasperation so that everyone immediately feels confident you are head down working hard.

George did an amazing job of this in the episode “The Barber” during the 5th season. He wasn’t sure if he had landed a job and as such decided to just turn up on the Monday. He was quickly given the Penske file with instructions that he would know what to do with it. Suffice to say he didn’t and by the time his new boss returned from a 2week leave, he had achieved nothing. My example is not exactly like George’s but it highlights the office mentality that enforced my decision years ago to find roles that suited me more. Out meeting people, relationship building etc. If you’re in an office, try it one day. Just walk around quickly, shaking your head, pen and paper in hand and see if you can go a whole day of this and not actually do achieve anything. You will definitely reach 10 000 steps if nothing else.

And if you’re a manager, director etc. your job is to now try and spot the George in your office and catch them out. I dare you.

This leads me to what other nuances / personalities exist in the office. You all may be able to provide some interesting ones but to kick start things:

• The water cooler dude: This is the preferred meeting place for all runners, triathletes, adventure racers and part time astronauts to take 30mins to fill a small cup of ice water and convey to all that visit the cooler just how hard their latest weekend sporting feat was and just how much better they could have gone if that one piece of equipment hadn’t let them down or that hurricane appeared suddenly.
•  The sick puppy: They will call in sick when they’re not so that they can go do something fun, but when they are actually sick they decide to just come in anyway and fester all day achieving nothing anyway. (think Enda)
• The fundraiser: They will hit you up for $1000 so that they can take 6 weeks off and run to Dubbo and back to raise money for a dog that is trying to get an ear transplant.
• The kitchen loiterer: Do they actually have a desk or office? Because you wouldn’t know with the copious time they spend in the kitchen chatting, making coffee, eating cake – probably baking a cake for that matter.

Please add to this as I’m sure there are many many more that I have forgotten about over the years and hope to forget more so now that I am back outside with the new role.

As mentioned, my running has suffered somewhat since joining the ranks of the rest of the workforce and working a full office day (plus 1hr drive either way mind you). The state 10 000m (remember if it’s on a track, you use metres not kms), was not a great result and the 14km equaliser 2 days later sealed the fate of my legs for the next week. Absolutely stuffed.

This week I have managed a few decent runs
Mon: 10km easy around Lane Cove
Tue: 12km with 4 x broken miles thrown in. 1km hard (3:11-18), 300m easy then 300m hard. Total reps were 2km as I used the extra 400m to round out the 7min rolling cycles. This kept me quite honest in my pace as I tried to run hard but still recover with the 2 easier stretches. In all, I faded a few secs the 4th one finishing 8km in 28:05 which I was pretty happy with considering how my legs felt.
Wed: 10km easy again around Lane Cove
Thur: AM: 9.5km CP. Too tired to do a session. PM: 4.5km jog as that was all I had time for.
Fri: 6km in Cent Park coaching
Sat: Start of a solid weekend and hopefully a resurgence. Took Jaden over to Bart's place and left him to watch TV with the kids. Then after 1km warmup, Barts and I too off on his infamous 16km hilly loop of Willoughby and Castle Cove. There are the downhills but some of the ups hurt this time but we managed to finish in a tick over 58mins which was very pleasing for me. Barts looked tired enough so I don't think he was laying up for me. 1km cool down - 18km
Sun: 30km with Ray, Barts and an online athlete David H. Started conservatively which was fine with me given the hills around Balmain then Barts asked us how many hours we wanted to be out there for and proceeded to speed up. It was Ray who had the freshest legs so when he left us at 22km, we struggled home to average 4:30 for the 30km - 2hr 15min. Stuffed the rest of the day.

Total 100km for the week. The aim is now 120km for the next 4-6 weeks.

Until next time.
CT

ANSW State 10 000m

If you think running 12.5 laps around a track is intense, try it twice in a row with tired legs, lack of track conditioning and very muggy conditions. This is what I faced last Friday night out at Homebush as a few of us backed up 6 days post 5000m to race the state 10k track. My pre race goal was sub 33mins.

Start time was scheduled for 9pm so it does make for a late night. Rejoov Runners had myself, Andy Heydon, Eoin Reville and John Bartlett lining up. We accounted for a 1/4 of the men's field for both Open and Masters combined. That's the non-attraction of this event compared to the 5000m with a bunch of different grades.

Also in attendance and clearly looking extremely disappointed with being a spectator was Tom Highnam who is still out with an Achilles injury and quite comfortable taking on the role of chief Coopers tester / lap counter. Thx Tommy.

The race almost didn't happen. Barts and I were halfway through our 1km warm up when every single light, scoreboard and timing clock in the stadium went black. And I mean pitch black. And just before the start of the 3km steeple chase which was lucky. Barts and I trotted back to the stands and as the jokes started flowing and we all reached for our iPhone torches, order was restored and the show went on.

Barts and I launched from our respective different starting positions. Great reflexes shown by both of us right there but Matt Cox quickly scooped us up and went on to lap us multiple times.

Through 1km in 3:10, 2km in 6:20 and feeling ok but uncomfortable. It was too quick for my current form but hey what the heck. Then Sean Bowes came past and took Barts and 2 others with him as I faded immediately. 3km in 9:38, 5km in 16:20 (which was already a fade) and things were looking grim already. Thoughts of stepping off were front and centre. I could blame the blister that has been killing me all week but which for the first time I couldn't actually feel anymore. I could do a Jeet and step on the inside rail OR I could just battle through and run whatever I could. Barts was already 18-20secs ahead and well on his way to claiming the 37sec handicap bet we had on. Eoin was struggling a bit but Andy was running quite well 200m behind me. this gap was created in the first 3km and I reckon if we looked closely at the splits from then on, he may have run a quicker 7km by a few secs. Watching him cross past me on the other side of the track gave me something to do each lap as I tried to hold his progression off. The new goal was now sub 34mins but also just to get this done and go home.

Although we didn't really comment on it beforehand, the weather was a factor. Nearly everyone in the field faded from what they should have run. Guys who almost broke 15mins the previous week both pulling out or running over 33mins. The conditions were very muggy as we narrowly avoided the storm that chase us all the way home in the car. Sweat pouring off us all and the legs suffering as a result of both the 5000m 6 days earlier and the humidity.

I crossed in 33:41 a minute behind Barts and 30secs ahead of Andy who finished strong. Eoin a lap after that.

 

 

The week that was:

Mon: 12km easy
Tue: 10km with 5 x 800m reps in 2:36 - 2:45 off 200m recovery jog
Wed: 8km slow
Thur: no run (blister put me out)
Fri: State 10 000m - total 12km
Sat: Easy 5km non motivational jog
Sun: Equaliser 14km run with the Striders. Started with the front guys then eased back to jog it in for 4th place and a touch over 59mins. Rough and wet down in the bush. Total 24km

Total for the week: 71km. This needs to come up big time but just waiting to finish up in my current role so I can get back into a better training schedule.

This below was posted a few weeks back by one of the Hurts guys - Charlie Diezell and it makes for a great read. Quite clever and most will relate:


https://www.adventure-journal.com/2017/01/i-hate-running/

ANSW State 5000m

Exciting debut for Rejoov Runners as we took our club up a notch and affiliated with Athletics NSW for the 2017 summer and winter seasons. This enables members to race on the track and around the cross country and road circuit under an athletic club banner for points, medals and just some good ole club camaraderie.

Last Friday night, 10 of us hit the track out at Homebush for the state 5000m with several others coming out to cheer us on. Comparing stadiums out there would have been quite funny as an observer would be looking down on Stadium Australia and watching around 30 - 40 000 people cheer the wanderers and Sydney FC on then casually tilt their head a bit to view perhaps 100 people watching 6 grades of mens and 2 of womens racing 12.5 laps around a track.

We have seen on TV recently what the Nitro athletics is capable of. The idea is to excite the public more to get involved, get interested and get registered with an athletic club. ANSW has wisely opened up registrations to recreational clubs recently and as such Rejoov has jumped on board, currently boasting 18 registered athletes inside the last 3weeks. Not bad. The likes of Tom Highnam, Barts, Nick Roberts, Jerome, Eoin, Jeet, Matt Wacher, Scott O'Connor, Erika, Maya and a few others have joined Greta and I in the bright Orange (men) and pink (girls) tops.

Now ANSW need to go to up another level and try and work out how to make these events more exciting. We saw with Nitro how everyone was on the track cheering their runners on and it looked great. The other night, I was told to get off the track after my race. I explained that we are a new club and that we need to ensure our brand new runners who have never seen a track before were ok and felt supported. Nope "get off" I mean really. These officials have not changed for 20yrs so it is up to ANSW to now manage through some further changes with an outcome directed towards bums on seats.

Outside all of that the night was a success from a Rejoov perspective. It kick started with Matt Wacher running an old man PB (over 40) of 18:42. Matt looked at times uncomfortable but very determined. That is Homebush for you. If we are going to battle Parramatta Rd, soccer matches, parking etc, then it better bloody well count.

Next up were Eoin and Jeet who took off together and were seemingly in comfortable form when suddenly Jeet stumbled off the inside track rail, remained upright but looked like he had sustained a rolled ankle. Jeet battled on and finished in 17:29 (down on his latest form) but sure enough after a trip to the medic, he was told it was a grade 2 sprain. Many travel deep into the mountains and bush to get those. Jeet managed it on a beautifully manicured tartan track. Rest up mate. Eoin continued on to record a respectable 17:01.

The Men's C grade was next with myself and Nick Roberts lining up to crack the 16min barrier by as much as we could. The times for the previous races were quite respectable (winner of D grade: 15:40) so the pressure was on. The gun went and we were off. I started from the forward position wide start line and we all met up after 100m where I immediately found myself in last place. "Uh oh here we go" I thought as we ran through the first 200m in 33sec.

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But as usual all the bunnies started slowing and the pace settled somewhat. Nick was way upfront having a crack which was good to see. I concentrated on trying to feel comfortable through to at least 3km but whilst trying to maintain pace. 3:06 through 1km, 6:12 at 2km and 9:22 through 3km still battling with a few guys around me and slowly winding Nick back in.

Around this point recently in park runs, the wheels have fallen off but here on the track, you find a rhythm of sorts that only comes from the monotony of lapping repeatedly. This rhythm helps to sustain pace luckily - to a certain degree. I caught Nick by around 4km (12:36) and with 1 lap to go, I made my move and passed him for the race home. I still had energy but the legs were hurting. I just kept surging until I crossed with 15:52. Although no where near a PB, it was good to be back under 16mins and a solid stepping stone for what's to come this year. Nick crossed 1sec behind after a late surge to try and recapture his position. He has a lot of good PBs to come the way he is tracking.

The girls B grade were up next with Greta aiming fro sub 19mins and two brand newbies to the track - Silpa and Wendy (from our morning Centennial Park squad) debuting. Seeing these girls running around embodied the whole purpose of involving more recreational runners in this format. At times they both looked like they were hurting but then they would find some energy and surge. Both stayed within arms distance most of the way and finished well under their PBs - well done girls. Greta a few minutes further up also ran strongly for her current form (ankle injury) to record a solid 18:46 which although is a minute or so off her PB, is a great indication that she is not ready to hang up the track shoes quite yet. 


Then the big gun himself John (Barts) Bartlett was up for the B grade (we don't have anyone fast enough for A grade mens YET). Barts took off and immediately went to the............
back......... but the pace was on and he did well to keep in touch amongst a fast moving younger field. 3mins even at 1km was already 6secs up on my time. I had tried to get 18secs out of him for a $20 bet (me to get within 18secs) but he wanted 15secs the shark so the best was off. He bowled along and even picked up a place and finished strongly. I was thinking at the 4km mark that I might be within 10secs of him but he kept pace and ended up with 15:35 which is pretty solid also for where he has been at lately. The 18sec bet was a perfect prediction BTW.

And finally our only A grade representative took off. Erika Jordan fresh off her Sun Run win recently was geared up to try and break her 18:30 PB and boy did she work hard at it (see pics below). She smashed it running just shy of sub 18mins with 18:01 - well done champ.

All in all it was a fantastic night apart from Jeet's injury which he is currently recovering from and should be out running again within the next 2 weeks hopefully.

















Next up the state 10 000m tomorrow night (was supposed to write this days ago so it has crept up fast).

Interestingly I wonder why as soon as we all step onto a track, the distances cease to be known as 5km or 10km. They're now 5000m and 10 000m. I suppose it just sounds sexier.

My week that was:

Mon 13th: 12km easy
Tue 14th: 10.3km tempo /fartlek in CP with Rejoov. 4 lap course along the white fence from the café, left across the road and up the hill to the Woollahra gates, left across the top to Paddo gates and then back down the hill to the café. Averaged just under 9mins per lap. 10km in 34:48 (35:50 finish). Felt strong for a change and hopeful of a sub 16min if not 15:50 this Friday. Over 50 people there this morning and all running really well. Total 13km
Wed 15th: 8km easy
Thur 16th: 8km easy
Fri 17th: 7km easy
Sat 18th: State 5000m - total 11km
Sun 19th: 22.5km in the park with the hurts guys - easy pace. Big blister as a result for some strange reason. Ouch.

81.5km total for the week. Not a lot of mileage at the moment but that's the way it is with finishing up at my current role and being sidelined to the office in Lane Cove West.

Happy running
CT

  



Much better week - still HOT though!

I won't go on about it. It's still hot and us runners are all suffering through our sessions and long runs. Hopefully the temps can decrease for upcoming events such as the Orange running festival and Six foot track.

Last week was at least consistent which is a change. 3 good speed sessions, a long run and the other massage runs s a mate called them once.

Mon 6th Feb: 15km at 4:25 pace feeling okay. Calf 100%

Tue 7th: 12km with Rejoov - 1 x 2km effort in 6:20 on a wet sluggish white fence with a float recovery (12:05 for the lap), few mins rest then 2 x 1km hill loops off 2mins rest. 3:10 and 3:17. Finally 6 x 200m hill repeats / jog back down. All in all a great session with variety and almost 50 of us going all over the place. Looked great.

Wed 8th: Easy 10km (all the time I had)

Thur 9th: Hot day so I got out with Robin at midday and ran a descending pyramid on Tantallon oval Lane Cove. Barefoot on half smooth, half rough surface. Robin bolted and ran a more outside line to me (my garmin was showing 400m per lap) so his first 2 reps were pretty impressive in that heat.

2km: 6:24  (Robin probably at least 8 secs quicker with distance adjustment)
1.6km: 5mins even

Then I started evening things up as he slightly faded and I managed to hold pace for the remaining efforts.

1.2km: 4:45
800m 2:30
400m: 67secs.

All with reducing recoveries as we went. It was a solid workout considering the heat.
Total 13km

Fri 10th: 5km Coogee beach with swim

Sat 11th: Met up with Enda at 6am to get our session done before I needed to coach the Rejoov set and before the hottest day of summer launched well and truly.
4km warm up, then 3 x half Monna Fartlek 10min efforts (surge at 5-10km race pace and float at half-marathon pace). 2.92, 2.95 and 2.95km for the 3 of these with Enda not far behind after learning quickly that the floats were to be quick not just a jog. Total 16km

Sun 12th: Striders StAR from Balmoral Beach. Just Charlie Low and myself to start with Ray Wareham appearing early on at the Spit bridge. We ran the very steep hills and staircases conservatively cautious of the heat and distance. I had 2 gels which proved to be advantageous as I didn't suffer as I did the week before. My left toe did however give me some grief which worried me so one to watch there.

Ended up with 29km and 100km for the week.

Some pics from the week's sessions:

HOT in the city

Hottest summer since 1896. No that's not it. The most number of 35deg plus days? I can't keep track of the nightly weather record reporting but I do know that it has been pretty damn warm this summer. The real hot days also seem to fall on the exact day that you have been planning an extra hard speed session, or an extra long, long run or even a race. Luckily my recent Knapsack 41km was an exception. If I ran that in conditions similar to last Sunday - 6 laps at best!

So I'm trying to reflect whether I am currently fit, slow or somewhere in between. I have shown a few glimpses of speed of late but a lot of my runs are done pretty slowly it seems lately as I struggle around in the 30+ deg sunshine. Everything feels lethargic, requiring more energy than normal. "Dad can you get me a drink?" "Sorry mate, too far to the fridge and it will just affect my run later."

Maybe not quite that extreme but close. Yesterday morning we had some relief where the rain drizzled on us in the park first thing and the temp hovered around a cooler 24-25deg. And the legs responded well (for a short while anyway). We also had almost 50 people show up to our Rejoov Tues set which on a rainy day is unheard of. The relief it seems is very welcome. Short lived I see as the mercury is expected to shoot over 40deg from Fri to Sun this week.

So here are a few benefits of running in the heat from what I have gleaned from my experience and the net.

1. It can make you more fit. There have been studies that show that training in hot weather increases your fitness level. It’s been compared to altitude training… Your body learns how to work out at a more intense level, so when you are in “normal” conditions, it feels easier. (Note: some research says this only happens if you work out for at least an hour in hot conditions so stay out there folks).

2. It can help make your body more efficient. For runners (long distance in particular), efficiency is what makes us faster. Running in the heat helps make our bodies more efficient, which is always a bonus. Basically, the hot weather requires the body to increase its blood flow. Since it expands its volume, it can pump more blood out to vital organs… this helps make our hearts more efficient (which is why runners have such low heart rates usually).

3. It helps you build your mental fitness. Running in the heat can be really challenging. But one of added benefits is that it can make you mentally tougher. If I can make it through a tough workout when it’s really hot, then you can surely draw on this feeling as you start to feel it during a cool weather race.

4. Heat helps you vary your runs. Instead of running your normal route (under the sun), find a new way to go that may incorporate a swim, some shade, regular bubbler stops and the like. Whatever it is, heat will help you get creative so you can still get your run done without getting sick.

5. You learn how to sweat better. The point of sweating is to regulate your body temperature better. The better you sweat, the cooler you are. So definitely an added bonus that your body becomes more efficient at handling hot weather after training in it.

6. A really good excuse to stand around the water cooler all day telling your workmates how good you are. Ok perhaps you don't necessarily need the heat for this one.


Last week was a bit of a write off. My right calf knot refused to budge early on so I backed off, massaged it and over the course of a few days it disappeared. No need to race off to a physio for an expensive diagnosis. No needles required nor special ointment or a trip to a psychic to ask them about it. Simple rest and active recovery. (I'm certainly not recommending you do not see a health care professional but in the first instance of a niggle, rest is the main ingredient).

Mon Jan 30th: No run day off - limping around after possibly over exerting in yesterday's CP run.
Tue 31st: 10km very easy with the Rejoov squad. Tried to run a 3/4 pace tempo but pulled up short and took up the role assistant coach for the 400m reps.
Wed 1st Feb: 7km very very gingerly
Thur 2nd: 8km at 4:40 pace. Knot starting to shift
Fri 3rd: Morning Rejoov squad cycle which involved some fast half laps. Legs always feel heavy afterwards. PM: 8km again at 4:40 pace. No more pain. Left one slightly flared up. Wow that Knapsack really knocked them around.
Sat 4th: Had already decided not to race Sun Run or Striders 10km so I joined the Rejoov Sat session which was 2 x white fence laps at tempo/threshold pace. First one wasn't too shabby with a 12:08 (average 3:23) lap / 3mins rest / then a good first 1km with new recruit (50yr old Ben) who kept me honest through in 3:19 before we both slowed incrementally in the heat and I ended up with 12:38 for the 2nd lap with Ben 20secs behind. He has enthusiasm and strength that is really paying dividends.'
Total 11km
Sun 5th: Met Renee, Jeet and Eoin at the Striders Rose Bay long run StAR and yep - it was hot yet again. But we headed off on what was supposed to have been 29km. Unfortunately at the time I again steered the crew the wrong way thinking I knew the way and we chopped off a 2-3km Bronte section. It was getting hot already and I remarked that I think they would be thanking me later for that.

We made our way via Bondi Beach, along the coast to Watson's Bay, chopped off another 1-2km section and crawled our way along the inner harbour foreshore (great boardwalk) stopping practically every 200m at a bubbler, tap or fishpond for a drink.  Then arriving back at Lynne Park for 25km hard done. The good part was that we were all in the same boat and were okay with just cruising along as best we could. The splash into the harbour afterwards was well worth it - including the look on Jeet's face just before he made the perilous 1m leap (AKA Tom Highnam style).

Total for the week: 69km which was not too bad considering.

Events coming up / entered already:

* State track 5000m on Feb 18th. Goal time - 15:40. Expected time sub 16
* Striders March 10km - hoping for low to mid 33's at least weather dependent
* Canberra in early April
* UTA 22km Friday 18th May

Rejoov is well a truly gearing up for a great winter ANSW season with our men's team including:

Tom H, Barts, Jeet, Scotty O, Eoin, myself, Matt Wacher and Jesse (our new Rejoov young gun)

The women need some more recruits with Greta, Erika, Jenny Doak and Maya the four so far.

Let us know if keen. I'm also planning a NOOSA run camp during winter so stay tuned for this one.

cheers
CT

Gone Loopy

It's quite amazing how quick a week goes by. I was planning to write this last Sunday and suddenly it's Wed. Time flies if you load yourself up. Jaden even starts school today which should be interesting. He won't tell us how is best start assessment went yesterday outside of "it was hard" and I doubt it involved him running around headbutting stuff, catching balls, booting them at windows and sword fighting anyone within range with anything he could pickup that resembled a sword.

My last week of running revolved around the Knapsack 3hr solo race I competed in on Australia Day. Run over 5.1km technical and mostly single file trail in Glenbrook, this event is simple. Run the furthest distance and you'll win it.

The idea is that if you hit the finish line in any time under 3hrs, you can head off for another lap. My pre-race goal was to try and get to an 8th lap so 7laps by 2:59:59. On the line was Mike Litchwark but no Tony Fattorini. Apparently he missed the entry deadline I hear. Good news for me but Mike was always going to be a tough opponent. I casually asked him at the start whether he had done the HuRTs very hot session 2days previous and he said he had and too hard. I empathised a little before the gun went and I took off, immediately racing with all the team and pairs runners.

Yep out hard yet again but this time in an event I had not trained for and had decided to enter reasonably late in the piece. But I felt great. Rested and with a voltaren or two working their magic, my legs felt fresh and I went with it.

The course loops around the bush and offers everything. Rocky drops that need to be carefully negotiated, short sharp climbs involving careful foot manoeuvres, a ridge line that provides a vista of stunning Penrith (and beyond), and then some really fun single tracks that drop and ascend by the minute until you pop back out onto Knapsack Oval again and start your next lap.

First lap was just under 22mins, 2nd lap roughly the same. Feeling great and with the goal of getting through 4 laps strongly, open up a decent lead and then simply hang on. Not a technical plan but I went with it.


 

Joining me at the race was Craig (sweaty) Wiseman, Jac (Corky) O'Connor, James (Taffy) Matthews and Neil (insert many options) Pearson. Jac and Taffy also doing the 3hr solo with Craig and Neil the 3hrs pairs. With the Rejoov Marquee and food station setup on the course transition area, we were all set for a great event. But wow did it go by really quickly.

And this is where I do enjoy the loop courses. Despite the concentration needed, I could all but switch off, get into a lap course trance and as such, they became shorter mentally. Before I knew it, the 4km signage came into view each time and I was almost done with another lap.

By the 6th lap, I was starting to feel it and by the 7th lap, I started to fade. The first 4laps were done in 88mins so I was on for a shot at getting a 9th lap done if I could get through the next 4laps in 91mins ish. But as the next few laps evolved, I quickly realised that the pace was dropping and I would miss the cutoff. I needed to be through 7 laps in 2:38 at the very latest but my time was 2:43 so 5mins outside. I wasn't too upset to be honest. The decision was made for me and I enjoyed the final 8th lap and crossed in 3:07 / 41km to win the event.

We were quite lucky with some cooler weather and the event really is well organised. I doubt I'll be up for the 6hr version next year but we'll see if things pan out, I may return for another shot at 9laps.

So the week that was before and after didn't really consist of much substance outside of casual easy paced runs.

Mon 23rd Jan: Easy 10km (4:40 pace)
Tue 24th: 10km as per above
Wed 25th: 8km as per above
Thur 26th: 41km
Fri 27th: No run
Sat 28th: 11km with the group
Sun 29th: 15.5km in the morning with the Hurts guys. Absolutely stuffed so stopped short of my 20km. But being the obsessed runner I am, I ran the 4.5km on the local oval later in the day.

100km for the week.

Nothing much on the observations and opinions front this week. I'll leave you with this from a stubby holder I used at my brother's place whilst watching that great 5 set match up between Fed and Rafa.

Yes we are most definitely racing!

This off the back of my recent blog where I posted a few funny running related pics, one of which advised that if you are running next to me on the treadmill, "oh yes we are racing each other". Well a similar situation occasionally happens in Centennial Park and it happened to me again yesterday. I'm jogging along enjoying an easy run before this Thursday's Knapsack 3hr trail race, averaging approx. 4:40 pace when BAM - there he was out of no where.

I'm not sure where this bloke came from exactly but before I knew it he was running parallel to me approx. 5metres away and man did it get pretty awkward quickly. Or perhaps he didn't care but I was thinking, "c'mon someone has to give. We're not a pair of frickin synchronised joggers here". So I lifted the pace to 4:30 and he slotted in behind but the sound of his foot strikes were still close as I heard him lifting as well. "Shit, damn this white fence. It's too bloody popular these days" so up went the pace again and his panting also grew. This mind you is happening over the space of 500m so far. "seriously? I'm tapering here mate. Just let me win" and there in all it's glory was the underlying problem. I just wanted to beat him.

Many of my mates over the years have commented quite strongly at times that all they want to do is beat CT. I could never understand it. Sure its demoralising for Barts to lose every game of ping pong he plays me at but it's just a game. I know I am competitive in nature having come from a family of 5 older brothers (one younger sister) so the drive to keep up and excel was always there. Back yard cricket, tennis you name it. My very first City to Surf at age 9 started with me holding my 16yr old brother Rob's hand for 200m before running off and beating him (he was sick I should say).

So to turn the spotlight on myself, I should have just made way, supported his running journey and wished him all the best for a solid year's training.

Yeah right! See you at the next Striders 10km mate.

Then there's the cycling culture in the park. Everyone is barking orders at everyone else inside and outside their group. Someone comes past a pack by themselves, and the murmur throughout the group can be heard as everyone realises that they are not actually riding that fast after all. I blame the lycra. it gives a false sense of ability with some people. It's even harder to have an easy solo ride in the park than an easy run. As soon as you ride past anyone. Well anyone without a basket and spokey dokeys, the race is on whether you are a willing participant or not.

Funny though. It seems to also happen a bit in general day to day life. When you're walking along the footpath and someone steps off a bus or out from a shop and you find yourself matched perfectly in stride length, cadence and focus. Each wondering who will prevail as oncoming pedestrians get closer....... Then there's the whole driving on Sydney roads example. Enough said.

And so it goes. A daily race with complete strangers and sometimes just one sided because I have alone built it up as such. Sometimes this mindset overtakes me. When I'm filling the car up, and I see the cash register queue is empty, I watch the others around me filling up, and I prepare to quickly holster the pump and race them to pay first just so I don't have to stand in line listening to the guy offering them 2for1 chocolates and asking for that complete waste of time fly buys program card!!

Soooooo anyhoo, I'm off to do the Knapsack 3hr solo race this Thurs and I will be up against Mikey Litchwark and Tony "fats" Fattorini amongst others no doubt. These two are shaping up well for 6ft track and Mike is in good form over the short stuff as well. It will come down to who wants to put it on the line in this 'training' race and who can limit the downtime after each 5km lap. I am hoping to get to the 8th lap before the 3hr cutoff. This will enable me to roll around an 8th lap at whatever pace if I'm way behind the others or else fight it out for a close finish. We shall see. Weather looks good.

Last week looked like this:

Mon 16th Jan: Easy 15km in the park
Tue 17th: 12km Rejoov Runners session with 3 x 2.6km hill laps at 3:35 pace
Wed 18th: 18km easy to steady (4:20-30)
Thur 19th: AM 13km Rejoov Runners session 4 x 1km efforts through the middle "dickens drive" road from the stone bridge to the top of the small hill at the white fence. Off 5min cycles with a return effort. My two outs (up at the end) were 3:08 with the two return 1km reps were 3:01. Felt pretty strong. Stuffed but strong. Then 4 x 600m reps but these were on very tired legs by now so 1:50 was all that could be managed. Great session from everyone especially the new guys Gidon and Jesse. PM: 5km easy
Fri 20th: 7km slow
Sat 21st: Curl Curl Park run. Legs a bit fatigued, some nice white wine the night before but I drove down trying to wake up. Got there early-ish (6:20am) and not a trace of anyone or anything. 4-5km warm up, run throughs then saw Mike L again (we seem to be following one another around the traps), Toby H (who beat me at JP Morgan in the dying moments) and a few others. So with the starting signal, I decided to try something completely not new to me - go out hard and try and hang on. The plan was to try for sub 16mins so through 1km in 3:04, 2km in 6:15 I was going ok. Then I slowed a bit for 3km - 9:32 before a slight fade but not enough for Mike to catch me. Ended with 16:10 and Mike 16:28. Total 12km
Sun 22nd: 18km easy around the park before racing out to Homebush to complete my Level 2 running accreditation with Athletics Aust. Greta and I are now even more qualified to tell you all to get out there and run very hard when we say to, and rest when we advise to. Simple really.

Total for the week: 100km (still not enough but enjoying it at least).



We signed up to a home delivery dinner service called Marley Spoon. They send the ingredients and the recipe and you simply make it. Ok so mine wasn't exactly the same but it tasted really really good. Average price per night's dinner for the 3 of us - $23 and without the whole shopping hassles.

Final thought of the week:

At which point exactly does a BUSHWALK become a HIKE and a hike become a TREK? Is it the gear involved? Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Tom Highnam prevails

It appears as though I have forgotten something. I woke up on Monday morning at 4am in a sweat trying to work out if I had run the previous Friday. I went to the little blackboard that technically displays my daily runs and nothing was showing. I dug deep into the memory banks and ran through the week that was.

Cycling cycling and more cycling on Friday morning - a full 30km worth with hills and I knew I would be stuffed for the Sat session. Then work, dropping a colleague at the airport and finally entering the house boldly announcing - NOOOOOOOOOOOOO that I would not be running as I needed a rest.

All I can say is thank god Tom & I didn't have an official bet on this year.

So there goes one of my new year's resolutions. Still got time to write a book I suppose. Probably more achievable these days than running everyday of the year. Well done Tom. Your first streak win!

Quick one today as I have nothing really to complain about besides people trying to upsell me on anything and everything I call them about. "what? You want to cancel your drama package on Foxtel? Ok so what else do you like watching because we have a special on the foreign porn channel right now." "no thanks just downgrade me." "How bout showcase?" How about I cancel the whole damn thing and keep watching Netflix which is much better value?" "ok sir no problem, I'll just go ahead and change that for you."

Then there's the whole shared data thing with Optus. We seem to be saving whilst spending oh so much more - where's the logic there. Bloody Jaden and his addiction to Netflix. Yep -  ironic considering my last point.

Ordering a pizza, getting your car washed and so it goes on.

Luckily there are some things they haven't decided to use this propensity to upsell on. A few examples such as:

"just an adult and child for the pool please" "oh ok, will you be using the 25m pool today because we have a special on the 50m pool and diving tower if you want to upgrade."

"I'd like to enter the half marathon please" "I tell you what, for an extra $10 I'll just go ahead and slot you into the 100km trail event. How's that sound? Bargain yeah?"

If only. Speaking of trails - I have entered the Knapsack 3hr solo run for Aust Day which sees us looping 5km trail laps for as many as we can over the course of 3hrs. Get to the finish at 2:59, you are allowed to head out for another lap. I have no chance of getting near Dave Byrne's record of 9 laps in 3:10 or there abouts but it should be fun with a crew of HuRTs up there competing also.

The end of last week looked like this:

Wed 11th: 13km easy (hot)
Thur 12th: 14km - 400m lap pyramid 1/2/3/4/3/2/1 lappers. Tough but averaged 75secs per lap on most.
Fri 13th: F#@K
Sat 14th: 13km Monna F. Very humid and steamy. Legs stuffed from the cycle. Rolled around as fast as I could but struggled the last 5mins to record 5.75km for the 20mins.
Sun 15th: Much better and stronger long run - 30km Striders ten bridges StAR with Timmy, Eoin, Renaud and a few others which made for a great pack. I counted at least 14-15 bridges so not sure what's going on there. Timmy fighting fatigue in the back half but managed to finish it off. Rendog and Eoin cutting short again but seemingly still happy with themselves despite this.

Total for the week - 100km on the knocker.

This week so far:

Mon 16th: 15km Manly and surrounds in the cool breeze (sort of)
Tue: 17th: 12km - 7.8km tempo including Loch Ave hill in the park (that long hill that goes up to the moonlight cinema). Hot and muggy again and having to slow / stop briefly to let the damn cyclists past. Managed an average still of just over 3:30 for this. Special mention to Enda who got his 4 x 4km mara tempo done in those conditions. Should keep him in good stead for the expected 5deg Tokyo weather ha!

Till next time:

CT



Fun afternoon on Sunday BBQíng and tasting the delights of Wayward brewery in Camperdown with my brother Rob and his wife Myf.

Functioning runner-holic

Yes that's right, this is my first meeting, my name is Chris and I am a functioning runnerholic. Ok just indulge me with this for just a minute.

Do any of these situations ring a bell?

1) You have meetings back to back all day long with people wanting to schedule more in but you flatly refuse as you need to get your run done at lunch.

2) You have a dinner to go to straight from work but somehow manage to cram a flat chat 8km run in followed by a 20sec shower just because you won't enjoy the dinner as much if you don't.

3) You are in Bora Bora in an over water bungalow watching the sunrise and sipping tea but somehow all you can think of is "I wonder where the hell I am going to run today" instead.

4) Kids are screaming, it's pouring down outside, the day is wearing on and you are starting to sweat with anxiety because you see your small window of running opportunity getting even smaller.

5) You have the whole day to yourself at home on the couch with absolutely nothing to do and no one to be there for. But wait - who am I going to run with, how far, what pace, is that a niggle, no it's fine I'll just start jogging, yep best get out there right now - and so it goes on.

To use star wars as an analogy, I see running as an example of THE FORCE. When the force is running strongly through me, I can hit all my weekly mileage targets, nail the sessions, eat well, drink less and generally feel great. The dark side of the force presents in the form of junk food, alcohol, holidays, Christmas functions, birthdays, weddings, work commitments, family commitments and basically everything else in life that doesn't involve running really. (well maybe except for one thing)

So as you sit here reading this and no doubt relating to some of it, spare a thought for those that are injured at the moment and can't run. You're lucky if you can physically get out there so if it dominates your daily thoughts right up until that moment you're actually out there running, I say that's a good thing - go with it.

See further down for some funny obsessed running pics.

My last week or so has been pretty good training wise. Even managed to knock 5secs off my Kamay park run record. Still a little slow for what I am after but that last km bites.

Last week finished off at 127km for the week.

Wed 4th: 16km
Thur 5th: AM: 14km with 6km of hilly tempo in Queens Park.    PM: 6km easy
Fri 6th: 13km in the park
Sat 7th: Kamay Park run - 16:26. Splits were 3.08, 6.20, 9.38, 13.02, 16.26. Gotta work on that strength to close it out from 3km. Total 13km. PM: 7km slow coast
Sun 8th: 27km with the Striders which was a good change. Timmy, Jac, Eoin, Charlie L, Rendog plus Chris Jackson and Keith Hong made for a great 6.30am group. We still got lost along the way but the pace was easy and we finished with a dip in the harbour.
127km total

This week I have been office bound so far so it has been hard to get out for the mileage needed. Yep I can hear you all laughing at me with this.

Mon 9th: AM: 10km slow  PM: 7km even slower
Tue 10th: 7km CP tempo - felt great and ran this multi loop (with 600m hill) course in 24mins (3.25 average). Total 13km
Wed 11th: AM: easy 7km (legs sore), PM: 6km (ran out of time)
Thur 12th: 14km with a pyramid on a grass 400m oval: 1 lap, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 lap = 16 laps in total. Averaged approx. 75 - 77secs per lap for all efforts with the last 400m in 71secs. Pretty stuffed afterwards.
Only 57km so far this week and it's a heatwave so perhaps 110km will be on the cards instead of 130.

In other news, Rejoov runners is starting to sign up some big names for the 2017 ANSW season. Stay tuned for more announcements but if you are interested in switching from another club or having a go at these type of events, let me know.

Here's a few pics / grabs relating to my above stated running affliction.

I wonder what's behind door number 2017

As quickly as 2016 left us, 2017 arrived in style. Greta, Jaden and I were lucky enough to be invited to a house party in Vaucluse with uninterrupted views of the 9pm and midnight fireworks. Jaden was last man standing as he bounced around the couches (Tom Cruise style) in the first few minutes of the new year. I wish I had his energy (we did pay for it the next day of course).

So my first post is to talk goals, resolutions, and the blog.

Here's a little list I just whipped up whilst out running a slow 6km along the coast.

* Run every day of the year until Tom takes a day off first
* Beat Barts in every single game of Table tennis I play him at
* Find something Quentin is no good at - then beat him at it
* Balance the scales a bit by introducing Hoey to the wonderful world of beer
* Take up Yoga (carry that one over from last year)
* Write a book on anything
* Run sub 3hrs in the Bordeaux marathon whilst stopping at all 23 "drink" stops
* Get my Bronze medallion (does this involve swimming?)
* Keep up my 22yr sub 50min streak and place top 30 again in the City to Surf
* Nail another Red Centre run camp at Easter
* Not get kicked off the HuRTs what's app chat more times than Craig Wiseman

Anyway that's enough to start. Yep a few tough ones in there. Who knows if Barts is already in training to quash that one. And based on historical posts, Craig really will make it easy for me to score a point with that last one. With regards to the whole yoga thing, I think I'll You Tube an intro yoga clip and that will get me going. I actually stretched yesterday and my legs felt pretty good today. Fancy that.

I know the plan last year was to drink less so let's address this one. So far this year the drinks days and run days are on even keel 5-5. BUT in my own defence the amount is coming down (drinks not mileage). A cheeky beer here, a glass of wine there. It helps me sit and contemplate the world around me, absorb Jaden's energy levels and think about what to write in my blog each week so on that, I am looking in part, to add in a regular CT'S OBSERVATIONS & OPINIONS segment.

Seinfeld nailed it. We know this. His observations are forever priceless and I could never hope to replicate but I do notice a lot with people, their behaviour and just general situations that pretty much amuse, fascinate or annoy the hell out of me.

Take for instance: Space Wars (angry emoji, frustrated emoji)

It happens on the footpath in Centennial Park, even now inside the white fence. It happens walking down the street in the CBD, the supermarket and so on. People as a collective are absolutely oblivious when it comes to their spacial surroundings. You may notice it when 2 people exit a shop or bus side by side and somehow manage to get the radius of area covered vs the speed of that slow moving mass just perfect enough to completely piss me off as I am blocked from passing. Or on an escalator when the whole stretch has moved left bar one bleep bleep bleep. Now it's probably at this point where you're saying to yourself, CT sounds like an angry man. Actually not really. Brought up on a mixture of courtesy, awareness and being polite, all I want really is for everyone to just get out of my way wherever possible. And let's not even start with driving. Another day.  

I have long noticed an assumed hierarchy of allowing space for oncoming people / obstacles in the park. It would seem that he or she that is moving the slowest does not need to give way at all. Take the local mafia brigades for example. Three to four  60+ yr old men lined up across the path walking along at 6am in the morning no doubt discussing how their fruit shop is outperforming the others. No inkling of moving over to the left unless you call them on it. My go to manoeuvre is to simply stop infront of the one farthest to my left and politely ask "so what do we do now?" This usually creates the right amount of awkwardness and they dutifully move to the left.

So the walker seems to think they have right of way to the jogger / the jogger thinks they have right of way to the speedy runner / and on the occasion the speedy runner thinks they have right of way to the cyclist and so on up to the cars / the event trucks and I suppose the rangers!

But then so enters the meandering, defecating horse. This strange creature refuses to be bound by any of the above mentioned made up rules. They will slowly cross whatever road they wish, crap anywhere Birchy or Enda have run over and simply take all the time in the world getting around in THEIR park. They do not yell out at the top of their voices "HORSES RIGHT" & "OVER" nor do they pull in for a latte after a few jumps in the equestrian field. These troopers don't change allegiances with each new season, complain about ITB issues or need $10k worth of gear to do their 4km lap of the park. They surely are the rightful owners of the Centennial Park Space Race.

So the moral of the story if you have in fact made it this far (thx Tom - knew I could count on you).

I am here to endorse but in no way enforce, a CP spacial code for all.
No matter your source, or your strong willed force,
Despite any remorse or impending divorce,
We all in due-course will give way to the horse.

Yes yes yes I know. It's a weird start to the 2017 blog campaign but what the hell. I'm on the Pinot Gris with a few days left of annual leave so having some fun.

I would be interested if I have missed the mark or you are keen to see this blog continue along these lines in the year to come.

Oh and for those actually interested in my week so far:

Mon 2nd Jan: 20km across 2 runs easy
Tue 3rd: 3 x 2km reps up in Woy Woy. Hard going myself and especially with 2 of them into the wind but as follows: 6:30 into the wind, 6:28 with the wind, 6:48 into the wind. Yep wheels on the bus fell off there. Total 11km.
Wed 4th: 16km steady in the park (hot and humid for a change)
Thur 5th: Rejoov 4pines fartlek. Yep I wish - sponsored session by a brewery but alas no - we simply ran around a loop in Queens Park that encompassed 4 pine trees. Took it a bit easier just bolting the hill each lap. Big race this Sat coming up. PM: 6km easy coast run

PS: Happy birthday Desi. Bounced back from her cancer defeat in spectacular style and looking as amazing as the first day I met her (circa 1992). Good running this morning matey.

Cheers
CT

Disclaimer: if you are at all offended by anything written above, please proceed directly to the nearest Dan Murphy's and buy whatever you can fit into one of those small trolleys they give you. Then wheel it down to the local park and use said items to take a serious look at yourself.

Sayonara 2016

And there it went. 2016 served up, thrashed out and sent packing as the bridge lit up, Jaden bolted around the house party we were at till after midnight and the traffic banked back up New South Head Rd as we inched our way home in the first hour of 2017.

I have achieved a full year of one of my 2016 New Year's resolutions - start a Blog. The other two were epic fails (less drinking and Yoga). Not one yoga class to speak of and as far as the drinking side of things - well I can only try again. I suggested to Jac and Craig at yesterday's long run that my goal was to go 2 to 1 running days to drinking days in 2017. Somewhat achievable perhaps.

2016 on the running front was on one hand - if comparing it to past times, performances and the other guys around me (Tom, Barts etc) then it wasn't that memorable. On the other hand I have aged a year, I am still running reasonably competitively and obviously still enjoying the bug - so notch that down as a win. The banter, friendly rivalry, running trips added to the growth of Rejoov Runners has kept the motivation alive.

Rejoov Runners has now affiliated with ANSW so that we can try and form teams for the summer and winter seasons. It will take a while to get to a stage where we are competing strongly but even now, we are starting to see a few faster guys joining the fun group we have built. The overwhelming feedback and observation everyone identifies with Rejoov is the camaraderie, the spirit and friendly banter void of ego and the personalised approach Greta displays to every single member. So if I am to be proud of any running achievement of 2016 - it's Greta's determination to provide a running group for everyone.

Personally, 2016 consisted of the following races amongst many other smaller ones.

* 6ft track - failed on Black range again and struggled to finish it off on a hot day, fading to 10th.
* State road 10km - 32:46 which was my fastest 10km of the year.
* Canberra Half - leading for 15km before slowing too much but scraped into 3rd place overall
* Phuket Half - probably my most fun and rewarding race this year. 2nd overall and some great prizes
* Gold Coast Half - not a bad performance 71:25. Just against Bart's time it seemed slow that's all
* City to Surf - After spending 8 weeks battling head colds and infections, a good result - 28th place
* Melbourne Marathon - Horrible horrible conditions and my legs buckled. Faded badly 2:47hr
* JP Morgan - Could actually be one of my better races this year. I ran it smarter, was in the mix for a lot of it and still finished strong (not strong enough for a fast finishing Toby H)

My last two weeks of 2016 looked like this:

Mon 19th Dec: AM: 9km easy PM: 7km (16km)
Tue 20th: 14km HuRTs session 3 x 10mins in the heat. managed 3km just each time.
Wed 21st: 19km very slow (2 clients)
Thur 22nd: 13km Monna Fartlek. Robin turned up and kept me honest. It's a session I feel very confident with having run it countless times. We took off with Tom taking it easy early on and keeping Enda company. Robin and I traded places several times as the energy and speed ebbed and flowed for us both. Running through 5km in 16:15 it was going to be a solid session in this heat again. Good to run a whole sesh with Robin who I have been coaching for a while now. Finished with 6.11km for the 20mins.
Fri: 23rd: 7km easy
Sat 24th: 21km long run with Hurts and Rejoov in the park
Sun 25th: No run. Santa was too giving today and the champagne flowed early.

90km total. Not bad considering it was Christmas week.


Mon 26th: 10km with a 19min 5km thrown in just to get it done quickly before a BBQ
Tue 27th: 13km Rejoov Session - 6km fartlek on grass around Willow Pond in CP. It's a 850m square loop and we alternated sides to surge. Ran quite strongly for a 3:19 / sub 20min result.
Wed 28th: No run - camping at Coolendel (Shoalhaven river) and it was too hot and too easy to sit around and do nothing. Swam 500m in the river though - can I count that?
Thur 29th: 10km slow after returning from camping.  Bit stiff and sore from the bed/tent setup.
Fri 30th: 12.5km - tried to run 5 x 1km in under 3:05's and managed just two. Well one really. 3:02 and 3:05. In the 3rd one, my legs immediately blew up and I ended up doing 2 x 500m and even then they were slower. Good to know exactly where I am at with regards to the raw speed aspect of my fitness. Or more to the point, where I am not.
Sat 31st: Last day of the year and my last run was with the Hurts/Rejoov guys and girls in the park. Nice and leisurely 20km.
Sun 1st Jan: 8km recovery run.

73.5km total which with the 500m swim I'll just go ahead and call 74km.

Not sure how many kms for the year in total but with the start of 2017 upon us, it's good to know I have run everyday this year so far. Tom - are we on again this year?

Here's some pics of what's been happening away from running lately. Happy new Year everyone. Thanks for reading. In 2017 I plan to up the quality of content on this blog. Not sure with what right at this minute. I'm sure it'll come to me on my next run.

See you out there.
CT

Silly season

It's been a tiring couple of weeks as we descend upon Christmas and my first decent break that doesn't involve a running camp. 2 weeks off work will be just the ticket I need to launch into a 2017 running campaign and hopefully some solid performances.

I do need to get back up to and hopefully over the top of Barts, Quentin and Tom who all joined me yesterday for our end of year drinks. A lot of backslapping and talk of holding back the age barrier for another few years started to motivate me once again after what has been a flat couple of months since Melbourne. Throw in the likes of Hoey (who mainly races marathons), Neil, Nick Roberts & Scotty O, it will be a great competitive year spurred along by them all.

Now that Rejoov Runners is officially affiliated with ANSW as an athletic club, I will wind it up again and line up for the State 5000m in mid Feb with hopefully the State 10 000m a month later (haven't checked dates yet). Very exciting for Rejoov to grow this side of the club and introduce our runners to the wonderful world of ANSW (and last minute starting time schedule changes).

The week starting Dec 5th was mostly in Melbourne under warm skies at first then miserable cold rain. 4 seasons in one day Melb at its best.

Mon 5th Dec: Still in Sydney: 2 runs totalling 22km which was a good start to the week.
Tue 6th: Met up with good mate Baz Proctor to run the TAN Track in Melb. 6 x 5mins along the base of the loop on slightly slippery surface but managed a tick over 1500m for the first rep and matched it for the remaining 5 efforts. Total 15km
Wed 7th: 13km around Albert Park, Southbank and the Tan. Perfect night for a run
Thur 8th: AM: 6km loop of the lake PM: 7km incl 8 x 200m reps barefoot in nearby Fawlkner Park. Christmas party at Left bank alongside the Casino with Dave Warner and the NZ cricket team strolling past (in opposite directions)
Fri 9th: No run. Morning after.
Sat 10th: KAMAY park run. This is a new park run at
La Perouse. They have called it Kamay after the local indigenous clan but I'm just not sure people will recognise this. Most are called after their location so people know exactly where to go. This new course is undulating as it snakes around the coast for 1.3km, back again only then to repeat. At no stage are you running on the flat but I wouldn't call it slow as there are some nice down sections. In typical fashion I took off with no idea how fast I was running. Maybe it was Mikey L being there and having beaten me more than I would have like of recent or maybe it was the allure of grabbing my first park run record. Probably a bit of both.
3.03 first Km, through 3km in 9:35 only to fade for a 6:56 2km and 16.31 result which was ok. I think I can break 16mins in full flight on this course which would out me at around 15:30-35 on the track.
Total 12km
Sun 11th: 25km with the CP guys - 4:25 average by the end.
Total 100km on the knocker which was quite pleasing. Some good sessions in there and the long run was very comfortable.

















Sammy Johnson's 40th bash at the local bowls club




Mon 12th: 8km with Jeff at 6min pace
Tue 13th: 15km - very hot day (36deg). HuRTs session - 45min continuous starting with 7x2mins off 1min down to the turnaround (5.7km). Felt pretty good to this point. 5min slow jog (still feeling good) then a tempo all the way back to the start. Managed 10mins at 3:40pace before blowing up and jogging it in. Still solid in the heat.
Cold Play concert mid week. Was actually really good. I found out I knew more songs than I realised.


Wed 14th: 17km in CP first up with Birchy, Elle and Sonya at just under 5min pace which was great. Then with client Mitch who was struggling a bit in the heat but holding on well.
Thur 15th: No run - wet, cold, unmotivated after having missed the HuRTs session.
Fri 16th: 5km jog along the coast after work xmas dinner last night.

 

Annual lads luncheon at Manly celebrating another year of paying for Tom's lunch.

Sat 17th: No run. Rest day (again)
Sun 18th: I'll stick my head out and say 30km as I type the night before.
(managed 34km actually feeling quite good) 79km for the week

Next week being Christmas week I am hoping for 100km as I don't have any dinners / late nights so all good. Time to get serious again and if I wait for Jan 1st I'll diminish my chances at the state 5000m.

Stay tuned.
CT