Sunday May 27th; ran the Challenge fun run 10km in 48min 35, Heart rate at end only 174...so pretty relaxed and cruisy. 5km splits; 24.15/24.20. First 2km in 9.16 (4.38's on average per km), 1km splits after that were; 5.14,4.46,4.59, and for second 5k; 5.15,4.31,5.02,4.54,4.38.

Decided to run with my fremantle dockers hat on as my normal black "tyr" race hat is a bit salty and sandy from beach runs in recent weeks I think...Plus I was feeling rather celebratory still after the lovely thrashing of st kilda that was dished out on Friday night to get the Dockers season back on track for now...Although 9 wins from 13 games is still a tough assignment...

Great to get a race pace sort of run on the board. Pretty happy with the run even though its nothing much timewise....although it is quicker than my very slow Bridges effort this year, on what I rate as a significantly tougher course hillswise, although I did find a pretty good rhythm most of the way on this run...

Saw Epi out there and one or two others I know...Although initially I was planning a 44-46min attempt, I decided to back off a bit especially with the 27k I had done the day before...warmed up very well before (for a change!), as I arrived 30-40 min early for once (another unusual experience for me in recent times). Got a good jump early on the pack of faster runners, and 3k speedsters, to get a fairly good position in the field, and after a quick chat with Epi saw him zoom off into sub 41minute land...After the 3k runners had turned off I decided to adopt a cautious recon approach as I had heard the course was a little hilly, which proved to be true. Ran with pretty much the same runners until about the 6km mark and decided to use the downhill to accelerate hard, and hit Brockway Rd with a significantly faster rhythm. This spurt/change of pace worked well, and I splitted 4.31 which was my fastest 1km split of the entire race, which proves I could have gone faster for
that 46min sort of zone...(4.30 is 45min pace). Had my second mouthful or three of gatorade then and settled in to ensure some sub 5min per km stuff was delivered in the final few km to make sure I beat my Bridges effort of 49.16 earlier this year.
Decided to ditch my gatorade bottle which I had carried with me up until then, so I could concentrate on running the last couple of km better...

Finished reasonably strongly to beat most of the runners which I had been running with, but did not throw in the warp 9/pedal to the metal/sprint finish at all, as I wanted to get a heart rate reading that was indicative of what I had been running at for most of the way. As a result my last 1km was only 4.38, when I am sure I could have found a at least a 4.10 or 4.20 for sure... Heart rate of 174 suggests I ran most of the race with heart rates of 160's and 170's....Reckon I can crank that up to high 170's and low 180s, since most of my reps are done at heart rates approaching 180's and 190's...

Overall a very enjoyable race, which gets my body used to running at the speed I need to for the entire Marathon in July...48.35's would be about 3.20ish marathon pace. I guess the real litmus test of whether I am on track for a big Marathon PB (well under my 3.55 from 2004) will be the Fremantle half marathon in a few weeks time, but it was great to get another race under my belt, and to do the Challenge course as I had only done the 3km in previous years.

It was a good run rhythm wise with lots of bitumen but no concrete of any significance, and a good flat surface, big enough field to keep you motivated, but sparse enough to give you room to run without going up and down a neverending "peloton" like you do all! the way now in the city to surf, and the Bridges to a much lesser extent. I think putting a half marathon in the city to surf is a good thing, cos it might be too far for the recreational runners, and means someone like me who is semi-competitive may have more space to run in. That will only be the case if the Half marathon is run at a different time, or different course to the 12km main race....

So after the race I went for a fast walk warmdown, tried jogging a few times but I had some minor blisters, my shoes are getting a bit worn out, been using the same orange new balances since about late 2006 so thats at least 6-9 months, so replacing my shoes after Perth Marathon on the agenda for sure! Its a big cost for me though at the moment...So the rain started to show up a bit then, so decided to head for Triggs and get my feet into some saltwater as it helps with blisters and my continual battle with athletes foot...Stood on the edge of where the waves were hitting the sure in saltwater for about 10 minutes straight, which hopefully will help, feet feel a bit better now...Surf was like a washing machine today very stormy, would not be much fun and quite dangerous getting out in that today. Was going to go to mailbox next but decided to head for home and see how my pregnant wife was going...

So 37km in two good runs this weekend plus that messy 16km ride on Thursday means this week is now starting to look alright, and I am well positioned for a decent charge foward in the next 6-7 weeks or so....

WEEK 10 (21/05/07-27/05/07);

Volume; 275min + 20hrs MR. Sessions; 3 +MR Best RHR;48 bpm Sleep; 44hrs *


OD/LSD/LFD sessions; 27km trails run in Darlington in 2hrs 55

Races/Time trials;Challenge 10km race; 48min.35

Reps sessions; NIL

Comments; Good consolidation week. A 10km race, a 27km long run, and a 16km cycle.
The most important pieces are in place for this week, which means we took another significant step forward in my Perth Marathon preparations. All indications are that a sub 4 hours, PB effort, is looking good at the moment. The long run was a bit on the short side given I did 42km two weeks before, but good to periodize a bit with a bit of a recovery week, as long as I follow up with some hardcore weeks in June...Reps I am still a fair way behind in that and the related general fitness zone. However the signs are that another breakthrough week (like the 42km effort) is close...Very satifying to keep things on track after a stressful week at work where i got the usual 5-6 hours night sleep, drove over 100km a per day, got some much needed car repairs done (Cv joint was seized!), did two train trips to Gosnells on tuesday, went to antenatal class 1 with my wife Kathryn on wednesday in subiaco, safety meeting for work at Forrestfield on thursday (had to stop work on my round in Merriwa and go to Forrestfield!) and generally just felt under pressure all week. Onward!

Saturday 26th May; Ran about 27.3km in 2hours 55min 34. Heart rate 132 at end, splits; 1.22/1.33. (Average speed 6.30 per km) Darlington to Sawyers Rd and back.

Started off with a group from Hills training group, who mostly wanted a good paced 19km. Decided that the C-team was moving a bit too slow for me today, with my plans for a shorter long run, given my hopes to race the Challenge 10k tomorrow.
Was kind of in two minds but figured it would be good to try and stay with the faster group. The pace was just under 6 minutes per km, not race pace, but demanding enough to make me work a bit to stay with it. We ran in a tight group of 6 runners for 9.5km all the way to Mundaring, with one drinks/toilet stop, and still arrived in 56 minutes, which suggests we were running around 5.40-5.50 per km.
It was a good group with some interesting conversations, one guy plans a 80km ultra run in Canada, another is a veteran of several six foot 45km ultras in the Blue Mountains of NSW...

At Mundaring 4 of the group headed back to Darlington, while myself and one of the regulars, "sm" who is also planning a good Perth Marathon under 3.30 this year continued on for a bit more distance. Sm was planning to do 32km, while I was tossing up between 22km and 27km. The rain started to get a bit heavier then, and this pattern of light and slightly heavier rain continued for the next 2 hours. By the end it was getting a little muddy on the gravel trail...
Body core heat was being maintained though as we continued at around 6minutes per km. Beautiful bush the occasional good view of the hills, invigorating rain, birdlife, the occasional local walking their dog, or mountainbiker. It was just so nice out there on the trail. Thanked God a few times for the opportunity to be out there in this beautiful place a few times. ahhhh the excellence of trail running...

Talked about perth marathon prep with sm until at Sawyers Rd, I decided to head back towards Darlington. Hit this point in 1hour 22minutes 27seconds which is about 6min 04 per km average speed, despite two stops...so I reckon I ran consistently under 6 minutes per km for the first 13.5km. One the way back I slowed up a bit, as I was now on my own, so not being "pulled along" by other runners, plus mindful of the plans to race tomorrow I did not want to keep cranking out the sub 6 min km's, just wanted to take it relatively easy and enjoy the run back. Seemed to be running through the middle of low altitude clouds around Mundaring, which was quite surreal and very cool! Saw 4 survivors (the usual suspects of JE,SB,and JS) plus C? in a tight group of 4 heading towards their planned 32km not long after I started heading back....Looked like they had settled into a faster rhythm than they started with...looked like they were going well.

Wanted to get around 7 minutes per km, and my downhill split of 1hr 34 (with one rather long 8 minute drink stop where I got small gravel pebbles out of my shoes (very important when its persistently raining to avoid blisters and reduce annoying pain)) has an average speed of 6min 53 per km, which is in the guilt-producingly easy zone...IE OD (Overdistance) intensity zone of long run training...My end heart rate of 132 is just low enough to not really be a faster long run, and nowhere near race pace intensity. I was also mindful of my run on this identical course last year in September(see here), where I did 3 hours 4min, so was keen to try and dip under 3 hours which I did. Enjoyable run which consolidates the 42km I did 2 weeks ago, and just need a couple more good long runs and I will be quite well prepared on the endurance side of things for the Perth Marathon. Then its just finetuning fitness and intensity/speed through lots of reps, and a few races...

Thursday 24th May; Cycled approx. 16km in 49min 50secs on Red Baron with two very flat tyres! Heart rate 120 , average speed 20km/h, splits 25.39/24.11.

Felt really yuck after a work meeting today so decided to try and sweat it out on the red baron. As soon as I grabbed the bike, I could see the tyres were pretty soft, had no idea where my pump had gone, and no other options, did not want to run due to bad cut on shin from yesterday (caught on the door while leaving the house in a hurry). So decided to try and ride it with very soft tyres (my mountain bike also still has a flat), and see how far I got...Made up a new course turning at roundabout on Thorburn Ave, and did two laps of just over 8km. Felt better for having done it...Pretty cruisy and I must fix my bikes on payday next week or at least one of them...!!!!!

Sunday 20th May AM; Went to Triggs again with brother-in-law Steve. Pretty mushy surf, strong left to right rip, and not very good waves mostly. Cold south westerly winds, not too bad warmth once i got into the water ("no wetsuit Jon" strikes again), but the wind-chill really hits you as soon as you get out of the water. Spent about 10 minutes trying to get out far enough to get a bodysurfing ride, and had a few shots at it, but in the end not really getting anywhere, so enjoyed my quick dip, but left steve to keep trying with his surfboard and boogieboard, and decided to do the beach run I had done this Wednesday again.

So ran 4km in 31 min.07 ...Heart rate 150...splits; 15.53/15.14
Possibly negative splitted due to running the last few hundred metres on cyclepath instead of beach sand. Slightly shorter course this time than on wednesday, but I think it was still significantly quicker. This time I ran in vehicle wheeltracks nearly all the way. A great run to strengthen the legs pushing off the sand (ran in shoes instead of barefoot this time also), and set the tone for the day.
Then went for a latte with Steve and more talk about the joys of married life, and babies, various plans we have etc...

Headed for home to touch base with my wife Kathryn, and then after doing a few minor chores heading out to Noranda to do the reps session from hell, the "10k reps session" probably one of the toughest reps sessions I have in my training arsenal of experience. Its one mostly my old racewalking coach and my dad know about, its a bit of a "secret" session, so not going to go into a lot of detail about it. I will say though that when I do this one I need to be in the right fram of mind cos as I was reminded again today; the last 3-4km of this 10k reps session is very! demanding phsically and mentally, with very sustained! high! levels of lactic acid to cope with for a long period of time. Big gains from this session to be had, but I think the sustained continual pain involved is too much for a lot of people (serious athletes included) to cope with. Yes I am saying that this is a reasonably hardcore session not for the slightly soft/fainthearted. Its a bit like running 6-inch or 6-foot 45km, you have to be reasonably mentally tough, and you need to be physically ready.

Resting heart rate was 47 for me this morning so I was always going to try and get the 10k reps session done today, especially with the Challenge 10km race on next week, which I hope to do, and for me to have any chance of getting near my initial target time of 44-46minutes, this session is crucial for me getting prepared I think.

Ran 10km reps session @ Noranda in 44minutes 17secs.54 Heart rates; 180-192. 4min.25 per km average. Fastest 1km split during the session; 4min.12.
Last couple of reps felt tough, was an intensity level I have not experience often in the last 12 months or so. I knew that the second 5km would be quite hard and it was!....Overall very happy to finally get this session done, hope to finetune with a few more easier sessions in the week, and hopefully have a good race on the weekend in the Challenge 10km. Was trying to get under 44minutes, but just couldn't nail that one today. I think this reps session and the 42km run last weekend, have significantly opened the window of opportunity for me to have some good racing this year, if I can build on this in the coming weeks. We shall see.

WEEK 9 (14/05/07-20/05/07);

Volume; 199min + 30hrs MR. Sessions; 6 +MR Best RHR;47 bpm Sleep; 42.5hrs! *60


OD/LSD/LFD sessions; NIL.

Races/Time trials;NIL

Reps sessions; 10km rep session 44min 17secs HR's 180-192.

Comments;
Good to get some shorter beach runs on the board during the week which really helped me to cope with what was another very stressful week, tough rounds at work, especially the one alongside Jacobs ladder on the "scarp" of Kings park. Started that work round with an ascent of jacobs ladder, climbed 15 floors of stairs in one apartment building went up and down Mount St, and basically it was a tough day where I was on my feet for about 10-11 hours...Still not getting enough sleep, and a lot of driving around the metro, makes me one tired man. Excellent to nail my first 10k reps session for well over 12 months, and to do it well under 4.30 per km, so a very good session to get under the belt, was hoping for a long ride or run, but I think after what I did at work recovery was more important this weekend, and the reps was priority numero uno, plus with a 42km run banked from last week, as long as I do something the following week it won't matter much. So overall another step forward this week, and hope to consolidate and go even further forward next week, its the business end of my prep for the perth Marathon now for sure...!

Wednesday 16th May; Ran about 4km on beach sand from Triggs to Scarborough and back in 32min 24 (15.32/16.56). then 10min bodysurf. finished early at work so took opportunity to de-stress a bit...

Saturday 12th May 2007 Ran 42km in 4 hours 52 minutes and 26 seconds Heart rate at end was 144. (Average speed 6min 57 per km (despite lots! of 5-10minute drink stops, still averaged under 7 minutes per km which is very pleasing! and equates to a 3hrs 42 minute 32km, so take out the stops and I went a bit quicker this time, in a run 10km further than the 32km I ran last month in 3 hrs 41. ))

Ran on Darlington loop course with Hills Training Group C-Team (mostly Comrades entrants aka local WA legends) The course follows the Railway Heritage gravel trail; Darlington -> Midland -> Pechey Rd -> Helena Valley -> Darlington. Along the way we took lots of 5 minute drink stops and visited a general store to fuel up on coca cola for the last 12-14km or so. These stops means it probably equates to about a 4.30 marathon...I'm ecstatic about this one. Very happy to get this done, as it give me at least one good May long run, and I am now starting to approach potential PB form (for the Marathon in July) if I can get my reps done, and get a few more long runs banked.

It was always a pretty ambitious ask to run 42km after only two long runs this year. (a 32km (April) and a 22km (March))...However I was confident I could go for more than 35km, and that the C-Team pace would be challenging but very achievable for me, after comparing my 3.41 with the 3.30's they did for the first 20 miles of the 40 miler. Then it would come down to guts in the the last 5-10km to see if I could hold onto, them to the end, as they clearly have a much superior endurance base to me with their weekly Comrades training (e.g. 49km last week they did). Although I do have my meter reading work, which just about equalises things, and may even give me an advantage even though its mostly brisk walking not running.
Which is why I needed this long run a lot to keep my running muscles strong and build on what I did in March and April.

Right now I am in a world of pain to a small extent and its probably going to get worse before it gets better for a day or two. If I can get in a recovery ride/run tomorrow or even tonight that will reduce the pain a bit, and speed up recovery, from what will probably be my toughest long run pre-Perth Marathon 2007.

Managed to get to sleep last night at midnight, set alarm for 0430, sorted out cats, stuffed 3 powerades and 2 GU's (think Carboshotz) into my hydration pack, and filled up the bladder with 2 litres of H2O shaved around nipples put bandaids on to stop chafe cuts there, toilet number twos twice, checked the radaron the net to see how the rain was going, wrote a note for my long-suffering wife who was still asleep of course, and drove off into the darkness; Destination Darlington. Soon as I hit Reid Highway cranked up a bit of my Bond CD. Yes I know they are a bit risque with their album covers, but the music is awesome instrumental music.
At Darlington I was pleasantly greeted by the sight of dozens of equally slightly insane running maniacs, stretching and chatting about the 89km Comrades race which most of them are training for.
This race is in South Africa and has thousands of runners, and hundreds of thousands of spectators. It is on in 35 days from today, and these hardy souls have been preparing for it since January 2007 (I did a 22km with them in March), so they are getting excited, as its very close now, just over a month away.

Met a bloke who has moved to WA from Sydney a few months ago, and has done about 5 Six Foot races there (45km through the Blue Mountains near Sydney.) It was raining lightly as we ran downhill towards Midland in a massive bunch a few people with headlamps, but most of us just felt our way through the darkness. There was the A-team, the grumpy old men group, and a few smaller groups of runners all doing different distances. The B-team had headed in a different direction towards Mundaring for an easy ("safe" and sensible) 19km.
But the rest of us ran together for awhile. The A-team disappeared quickly at a fast pace, they like to run well under 5 minutes a km, heading towards an appointment with the zig-zag and some serious climbing of tough hills for about 34km or so?, (or more). Then there was a small group doing about 28km or so or similiar distances, and I ran with them for awile as they kind of merged with the C-team for about 2 hours. As usual it felt slow and easy to start with, and I had to keep slowing down reminding myself that I would pay for it later otherwise.

By the time we had made it to Pechey Rd for our first major drinks break after 53? minutes of running. Some of the 28km runners had gone, on way to their turn off through Mahogany Creek. I downed my first powerade, and decided to drop back with the C-team as we went past the Railway tunnel in John Forrest National Park, (where my wife and I used to walk and run together when we first met) enjoying more beautiful scenic views of the city, kangaroos etc. Felt good at this stage.

Another break (toilet break)at the big bridge before Hovea Falls, and then it was onto Helena Valley which was our next major drinks stop at 26km. During this time,as my stopwatch went well past 2 hours, I started to find the going hard, and staying with the C-team was becoming more of a challenge. I still had more than 3kg of drinks in my hydration pack and probably the weight in that was affecting me a bit, plus lower glycogen levels.Dropped back with one of the runners to chat for a bit while they made use of a drinks fountain and got caught well behind the main group, had to work hard for awhile to get back to them. By Helena Valley 26km turnoff, I was pretty tired and a little stiff and sore as the stopwatch made it to 2 hrs 54 minutes, still well under 7 minutes per km which was what I wanted. Had my lemon-lime GU, and it gave me a boost of much needed energy. More powerade too.
Hydration pack a bit lighter as I was sipping water about every 20-50 minutes at least.

The last 16km was mostly a gentle downhill, although I knew the last 10km would be the major challenge for me. The bandaids on my nipples, plus the bodyglide on upperthighs and under arms was giving me chafe free run, and the light rain had disappeared after the first hour. Finding it hard to hold onto the C-team, and the tight bunch was now a more chaotic changing of places and people spurting to front and mini-leads (think breakaway) for awhile, just like the peloton in a tour de france cycling race. It was starting to get tough for me, but the C-team were pulling me along, and I was determined to try and stay with them as long as possible. Set mini goals like "just make it to 4 hours" "or the next drinks stop", or "to the top of these little rises" and stuff like that. Basically just hung in there and enjoyed the good chats with the runners along the way. At this stage breathing not an issue, just very sore legs. Then we diverted a little to a general store on Great Eastern Highway and shared a couple of cans of coca cola, which tasted like heaven!, after well over 3 hours of running. Our group was now down to only "5 survivors", a Comrades legend (He has done more than 10 of those 89km races), the only female remaining (who is doing her second Comrades this year), an Ironman triathlete, who has done Busselton and Port Macquarie Ironman triathlons (3.8km swim/180km cycle/42km run), a senior citizen who has done a few Comrades, (he is from the "old-school" of running, where he is not that keen on drinking water, and wont touch energy gels or sportdrinks.), and me (done two 45km six inches, 4 marathons, and 50km walk at Australian Championships).

As we headed towards Mundaring I felt very good for about 30 minutes and then started to enter "race zone" ("in the zone"), a bit. Realised then the only way I was going to stay with these guys for the last 10km or so, was to amp up the heart rate a bit and run in front of them a bit, cos if I stayed behind them, I would lose focus and eventually drop away from the rather spread out bunch of 4 runners.
So I lengthened my stride on the small downhills, clenched my fists and fought my way up the small inclines with small steps, put on my ryder glasses and focused on the gravel track ahead. No more admiring scenery, kangaroos, or chatting, it was time to go into semi-race mode if I was going to get to the finish in under 5 hours, without losing touch with the group. Heart rate by now was a bit high to chat so probably getting into the 150's-170's I suspect. Unfortunately I dont have a spare $300 to buy a Garmin GPS (global positioning system) unit, and my old Polar heart rate monitor seems to have died (too uncomfortable to wear I reckon anyway), so dont know what my heart rates were exactly, but I think my guesses are on the money. So it was head down and bum up from there onwards. Grabbed my last chocolate outrage GU at Mundaring with about 9.6km to go. This gave me another much needed burst of energy and enabled me to churn out two sub 6minute km's, before it started to get a little hard again, rallied and fought the pain for a few more km, and surged every time I heard the voices of the back two runners (who were still chatting, and presumably doing it a lot easier than me). With about 300m to go I let them past and settled down a bit to get a heart rate a little more commensurate with what I would have run at for the majority of this rather hybrid (had a bit of evry sort of pace) LSD/LFD/OD (long slow/fast distance/Over Distance) training run.

An awesome run with some awesome people. had a bit of a chat and a feed at the local cafe afterwards, while we waited for a multiple ironman woman from our group to finish, she unfortunately got dropped from the main group just before 26km.

Very happy to get a solid 42km on the board, which keeps my monthly long run pattern going and gives me a long run at race distance, something I have never done before in my prep for 4 other marathon races. A very satisfying and enjoyable morning!!! Huge thanks to the hills training group for another great training run, and in particular the C-team for helping me achieve my goal of a solid well paced 42km training run. Thanks God!

90 min helping KL with penny miller this week. 29.5 hrs meter reading work.

WEEK 8 (07/05/07-13/05/07);

Volume; 382min + 29.5hrs MR. Sessions; 2 +MR Best RHR;47 bpm Sleep; 42.5hrs *43


OD/LSD/LFD sessions;Ran 42km in 4hr 52

Races/Time trials;NIL

Reps sessions; NIL

Comments; My longest ever long run in training. A great session. Keeps me on track in a big way for long runs, even though Ive only done 3 this year, plus some long rides and my meter reading. Reps still urgently needs to be done, but window of opportunity still very much open for me to work towards a big PB (beating my 3.55 in 2004) in perth Marathon on July 7th if I can get the right sessions done consolidate long runs, and fine tune speed and fitness get Resting heart rate under 45 in the coming weeks. 8 weeks is the halfway point in my 16 week plan so entering the critical phase now. the foundation is there, despite my sparse and sporadic training, (although my meter reading does give me a weekly leg-up as well.), just need to step things up in a big way in the second 8 weeks of my training, especially the next 6 weeks or so will determine how well I go... onward!

Saturday 28th April 2007; Ran 5km Ladder @ Noranda in
19 minutes 52secs.99. Average speed per 1km; 3min 58.60 Heart rates; 162,174,180,195,192,186,186,195,180.
Times; 32.10/1.25/2.27/3.18/ 4.12 (1km rep) /3.22/2.27/1.28/37. Rests 5-6minutes RPE (rating of percieved exertion);9 out of 10.

Didnt feel like reps that much this morning, but my resting heart rates this week have been mostly in the 47-52 range (except for tuesday-54.), which means I am in pretty reasonable nick, and I have been meaning to do this 5K ladder for a couple of weeks now, so I knew it was important I did it today. So pushed myself out of the house, cranked up some of my favourite DemonHunter songs like Annihilate the Corrupt, Coffin Builder, Heartstrings, Not Ready to Die, & The Latest and the Last and headed down to Noranda again, to start my second 5k ladder for the year at about 1045am. Pretty late start I know, but better late than never.

Met a couple of young kids there at the track and one of 'em agreed to race me in the first 200m, which was great cos it pushed me to hammer it through in 32.1 seconds which is my quickest 200m this year I think. So thanks to the "pacemaker"... Heart rate was only 162 so an excellent start to the session. By the time I got to my first 600m I was struggling a bit. I knew I would have to work hard on the 800's and the 1km rep if I was going to improve on my last attempt at this session the 20.04 on 24th March 2007 See;
http://runmara2005blog.blogspot.com/2007/03/sarah-jamieson-brekkie-inspires-5km.html

Really pushed hard towards the end of all my reps from here on except for the 600m which I cruised a bit. Really felt like throwing up and struggling to recover at the end of the rest of the reps. Heart rates of 195,192, and 195 for my 800m,1km, and 400m reps tell the story. Gave it my all for those for sure. Just before the second 400m! rep (my second last rep of the session after doing the previous 7 reps), I was struggling to compose myself, and had this song pop into my head which I haven't listend to for years, it was from the 1988 Hammer and Nail album; "Whitecross: Top of the world",(which by the way is NOT an instrumental, was singing the words in my head and feeling the awesome riffs of Rex Carroll-metal guitar supremo- all the way)So had that song motivating me to attack the 400m, when I felt like falling in a heap on the ground instead I got out there and did a 1.28 which is 1 second faster than the corresponding 400m I did in March. Thought that was a good effort after pushing so hard in the 800's and 1km. The danger is that you blow out your time a lot in the last few reps when the lactic acid levels are high and one is hurting. How hard I pushed in this 400m is confirmed by the heart rate of 195!!

The last 200m I had little left, and 37.03 was a pretty slow time, but I was running on empty by that time. Overall a pretty good session. Nice to dip under 20minutes and beat what I did in March 2007. Also began to feel the warm sun a little towards the end. Still a long way off the 18.43 I did in March 2006, so I think I probably won't bother running the Lake Joondalup 5km or 10km tomorrow, as I have not improved enough as yet. Need to try and do this session at least weekly, and to do some other reps work as well if I am to improve the speed and conditioning department enough to attack PB's in short races like 5km,10km and half marathon.
However its great to get out on the track again, felt great for having done it.
Another small step in the right direction, hopefully can build on this, with the aim of beating that 18.43 I did last year in future weeks...

A 40minute walk to shops and back with my wife Kathryn in the afternoon probably helped to get rid of lactic acid a bit from the legs.
Had a relatively easy week at work this week, especially with the Anzac Day holiday on Wednesday, only did 22 hrs, although I worked hard to get very wet in the rain for 5 hours solid on Tuesday, and did 6 hours solid on a hilly route on Friday.

Was planning a long run on the MundaBiddi for Sunday, but got too busy with various stuff, and wisely took the soft option on this occasion. Still managed to get out to Jarrahdale and see Dave and Nathan towards the end of their 100km, plus was able to have a good chat with one of the runners, she did 55km,reminded me of an awesome cyclist/triathlete I knew at student village back in 1996...Watched last 5minutes of an exciting Dockers win on Big screen...

WEEK 6 (23/04/07-29/04/07);

Volume; 100min + 22hrs MR. Sessions; 2 +MR Best RHR;47 bpm Sleep; 48.5hrs 57*

OD/LSD; NIL

Races/Time trials/LFD; NIL

Reps sessions;5km Ladder 19.52 ((3.58 per km average)

Comments;
Some good resting heart rates this week in the 47-50 range, caught up on some much needed sleep almost averaged 7 hours per night this week, after not much last week, and great to nail a solid 5km Ladder, but failed to do long run which was disappointing, but not catastrophic, given the sessions I have done in recent weeks, but pretty important I train better next week, or I will lose the good momentum I have started to get lately a bit...So hanging in there, but still waiting for that breakthrough week, that will see me charging towards my 4th Perth Marathon. Need to do that soon (hopefully in the next 1-3 weeks) if I am to stay on track...