Countdown to the Twilight Half

Sat PM - 4000m Cross Country - 2nd out of 20 in 13:30 (6:30, 7:00)

Made my comeback to XC after a 17 year break!! This event was held just down the road from my place at the 7th Brigade Park, Chermside. I entered the 4000m instead of the main 5000m race so I could get home in time to watch the Broncos take on the Warriors! Conditions were breezy, with a couple of hills thrown into the mix and the course was fast and bare in patches and thick and slow with soft grass in other areas. I had come into this race untapered and was treating it as a hard training session not unlike a PCRG 3KTT. A couple of John Paul College runners took off at the start but after 400m I had settled into third. After reaching the top of the first hill I surged past a JPC runner to move into second - I was running solidly without really threatening to set the course alight. At this stage, I was about 20m behind the leader who I later found out was Matt Smith, who has some low 70min Half Marathons to his credit. He was bowling along comfortably in his spikes and I was doing the hard yakka in my heavy Brooks Glycerin 7's. Smith flagged a little late in the race as I was kicking for home but it was too little, too late and he finished in 13:25 whilst I was second in 13:30. It was a solid enough run but hard to guage exactly how well I ran due to the lack of comparable times from those runners I race regularly. Had some good support from Matt L who was in the neightbourhood and dropped in to cheer me on - thanks Mate.

Sun - PM - 90 mins @ 4:51mins/km

Easy PM run, tapering for the Twilight Half.

Mon AM - 30 mins easy

Ran Mon AM in lieu of Sun PM.

Tues - PCRG 3KTT - 9:45 - 3:14, 3:18, 3:13

Felt tired after completing a block of hard training last week but as always, once I got underway and the adrenalin rush kicked in, I was ok. Settled in 4th behind Matt L and then moved into 3rd at the 500m. Worked solidly in the second k and went past Andy on the hill just after 2k and hit the afterburners, trying to run down Jase in front but he was too good, running a 9:39 course PB with your truly trailing home in second. Pretty happy to run my third fastest 3k ever coming off that hard training block

Tues PM - No run - taper

Wed - 50 mins 10k's @ 4:51 mins/km

Wed PM - No run - taper

Thurs PM - 12 mins of 30 secs on/off

Did this session by myself in the afternoon at Kedron Brook in some gorgeous rain. Jogged the recoveries slower than I would have done at PCRG and felt sharp.

Fri - 40mins, 8k's @ 5:00mins/km