Post Kurrawa report

I walked into the kitchen at work on Monday morning after Kurrawa chortling at how well I had pulled up from a hard 25k only to reach down into the fridge to get some milk and pull a back muscle resulting in intesnse spasms. I left the office an hour later to go home and lie on a heat pack. Fortunately, Bruno saw me at the end of this day for an emergency rub and was able to relieve the problem. This is about the fourth or fifth time I have had exactly the same problem which was originally sustained trying to bowl a cricket ball at 140kmh three years ago. I seem to relapse every six months.

Fortunately, I pulled up better on Tuesday morning and was able to do an easy 45minutes running with the group at PCRG. The rest of the week was a recovery week with no fast running - which I had planned anyway. 65k's all up.

Tues 18 - 1min and 30 sec efforts with 30SR
Spent the annual PCRG Christmas session dressed in festive gear and duking it out with Andy for a solid session.

Wed 19 - 90mins, 18k's @ 5:03 mins/km
Late run on empty stomach starting 9:10am. Finished at 10:45 with no real hunger pangs to speak off. Really happy with how my body is taking to this fat burning caper.

Thurs 20 - 2 x 3 min with 30SR, 6 min, 4 x half GC Hills, 2 x full GC Hills
Went out hard and really asked some questions of myself, trying not to save energy for the 6 mins back. On the run back, I managed to run down the immediate runners in front of me and arrive back in a pleasing 6:03. Didn't have much left for the hill reps but did them all.

Fri - 50 mins, 10k's @ 5:15 mins/km
Easy session on tready.

Happy hunting ground

PHOTO - The chase pack at Kurrawa around the 7-8k mark - Myself, Beth, Pete in white singlet and Natasha Keim(rear)

Wed - 19k's @ 5:00mins/km
Did Green Bridge loop by myself

Thurs - 10k's @ 5:10mins/km - treadmill

Fri - 2/1/30 secs with 30JR x 2, 2min, 3 min
Worked strongly in Gardens with Andy C and i driving each other hard the whole way.

Sun - Kurrawa - 25k's in about 1:41:55 avg 4:05 mins/km - 5k splits- 20:28, 20:40, 20:00, 20:00, 20:50
The alarm went off at 2:40am after 5 hours sleep and before I knew it, I had picked up Slash and we were at Kurrawa at 4:40am. I went for an easy 1k warmup and was ready to go come gun time. Despite a lack of endurance training lately and a few missed long runs, I was quietly confident I could better last years time given a well judged run. I settled into 6th place running alongside my Wednesday running group partner, Beth with Pete and a few others in close attendance. I was feeling strong and relaxed but taking care to keep plenty of energy in reserve. I made a little surge at the steps leading to the 5k mark and broke up the chase pack for the first time, but I didn't push home the advantage, letting the others work a bit catching up to me. As the 10k approached, Beth and I upped the pace clearing out from the pack and we worked strongly together until I moved ahead going over the Currumbin Bridge to move into fourth place overall. Coming off the bridge I was overtaken by leading Australian ultra runner, David Eadie who was doing the 50k solo and looking in great shape. I decided to go with him and moved out of my comfort zone to do so - I only had 10k's to go and I'll be damned if I let a solo runner beat me!! David and I worked well together over the next 5k's keeping the pace ticking over and overtaking one of the Bayliss boys who had gone out with Jason Geraghty and blown up in the process. Just after the 20k I accepted my last drink from Slash who had done a great job of crewing me and told him to go to Duranbah and get ready. No sooner than I had said this, I started to feel the pinch. It felt like I was slowing down to 5:00 pace but I kept telling myself that it was getting hot and everyone else would be hurting also and just to keep pushing for one more k and see how I felt at the end of it. This continued till Burleigh where I got hampered by pedestrian traffic in the markets and was outsmarted by Eadie, who pinched a 20 metre break on me by running on the grass. I tried hard to bridge the gap but he was too strong and before I knew it I had reached the big hill at Duranbah. I worked up the hill strongly and then hammered it down the other side making up some ground to Eadie before tagging Slash to end my run in about 1:41:55, maybe a tad over 1:42. I had the wobbles for about 10 minutes afterwards with the last five k's taking a lot out of me but I was very happy to run a controlled but hard 25k on a light endurance base in a time that would have given me a half marathon PB and on a tough course too!!! I was fourth overall to Duranbah and the first team runner to arrive.

After getting over the wobbles and taking forever to find the car, I caught up to Slash 35mins into his run and began crewing. Slash was soon overtaken by Jess Kirley who assumed the overall team lead and the mixed team lead but we were still the leading male team with no rivals in sight. Over the next 15k's the gutsy Slash defied a throat infection and a total lack of endurance training to stagger home in 28 degree heat with yours truly giving him and earful the whole way!! We were third to return to Kurrawa behind the amazing Eadie who put a lot of team runners to shame and Jess and Natasha Keim who took out the mixed team title. Despite being 12 minutes slower than last year, Slash and I improved on our third placing to take out the first placed male team from in a time that was 35 minutes slower than Christian Cobbold and Shane George did last year. Just goes to show anything can happen if you turn up on the day. I was expecting that we would come about fifth and was truly shocked to get the category 'W'.

Pulled up very well - Kurrawa again being a happy hunting ground for me.

PCRG 3KTT

Gees, time is going quickly as it doesn't seem that long since I updated. For the first time in four years, I skipped my Sunday long runs in the previous fortnight thanks to my good mate RooBoy's Buck's weekend followed by his wedding the following weekend at which I was a groomsman and MJ a bridesmaid. Those two weekends were the first weekends in four years when I have not done a long run or race for a reason other than injury, illness or recovery from surgery. Both events were sensational and it wasn't just the alcohol that did me in. A combination of go carting, the bungee bullet, tennis and ten pin bowling during the buck's weekend saw me throw my hips out. The resulting imbalance then lead to a tight left hamstring which fortunately was well treated by Bruno and then Shane. Fortunately, I was back on track this week.

Tues - 2/1/2 with 30JR. 30SR. Repeat. 30secs on/off for 3:30.
Was absolutely flying at this session in my first run after Bruno's massage and also fresh from two and a half days without a run.

Wed - 90mins, 18k's @ 5:02's
Easy run with the left hammy tight again.

Thurs - 4 x 1k with 60 SR. 3:19, 3:19, 3:33, 3:20.
Ran within myself whilst wearing the long skins as the left hammy is still tight.

Fri - 50mins, 10k's @ 5:02's

Sun - 120mins, 24k's @ about 5:10's

Tues - PCRG 3KTT 3:14, 3:17, 3:16 - 9:48 EQUAL PB
The left hammy finally came good over the last couple of days and there were not going to be any excuses at this mornings TT. I turned up wanting to run sub 10 - I am determined that I'm going to run sub 10 every time I step out for a TT now and establish a platform there so that when a good day comes along, I can run sub 9:40. After my usual conservative 400m opening, I ramped up the pace, Nic D joined me and we moved clear of the field. Went through 1k two seconds slower than the 3:12 I was hoping for and instead of continuing onto the footpath we rejoined Riverside Drive - it was nice to be running on the wide open bitumen here and Nic and I running side by side kept pushing each other, keeping the pace honest. The 1000-1500m section passed in about 95 seconds so the new course may have been a tad short there. Nic was running fantastically and starting to pull away from me but every time he got 2-3m ahead, i managed to bridge the gap back to him. Nic finally got away for good around the 2500m mark and my legs just weren't fresh enough to go with him. Still - after my fastest ever 2k split, I knew that I was going to run close to a PB so I concentrated hard on holding my form and managed to hammer it over the last 50m to equal my PB with a 9:48. Am very happy to clock that time given that I've missed two of my last three long runs and have drunk enough over the last fortnight to sink a battleship. My brother Adam who has joined the group for a hitout each Tuesday ran a sensational 10:17 debut - there could be some fun sibling rivalry down the track if he were to get serious and improve further.