Week ending 3/6

The penultimate week. To be perfectly honest I am not sure how I will approach, apart from having 1 solid longish run of around 15kms and an interval session during the week. Then on the weekend I will volunteer to pace 40 minutes (or just run 40 minutes) and a 21km effort on sunday with maybe 7 km at race pace to finish. Looking at around 85-90kms. I have pushed the envelope with a hard 10kms the week before a marathon but I reckon it is flirting with danger now. I honestly feel that there is nothing to be gained from this apart from between the ears and I reckon I got my confidence boost yesterday. I literally want to be having bitumen withdrawals by the time I front the start. Lets see how we go.

Mon 28/5 - 9.5kms recovery Earlwood Oval. Legs felt okay just cruising but when I went to pick it up they werent too thrilled. Took it pretty easy.

Tue 29/5 - 11kms 47 mins with a few solid hills, same route as last wednesday. Still a bit of sunday in me but once I got going I was alright. Basically ran steady and had a couple of sections where I picked it up. To be honest I dont think my legs would have appreciated a harder effort.

Wed 30/5 - 9.5kms. Ran 10 minutes easy around the uni to Victoria Park and then 20 mins of mona fartlek around the park. 10 minutes back through the uni. Nothing spectacular with the effort section, legs still telling me to not push too hard now. Should be good to go tommorow where the aim is to get through 15 or so ks in 60-65 minutes.

Thu 31/5 - 14.5kms. New loop from home to Earlwood shops, down to Tempe, Marrickville, back along Addison Rd Dulwich Hill to home 61mins. Love running down that hill from Undercliffe into Tempe at night seeing the airport abuzz, quite spectacular and one of the best views in Sydney for mine. Downside is that the legs still feel a bit shabby. No dramas still 9 days to come good.

Fri 1/6 - 8.5kms. Home to work 37 mins. Ran in this morning, took it pretty easy, not a massive fan of the peak hour run commute, dealing with people in their cars in survival of the fittest mode requires 100% concentration.

Sat 2/6 - 13kms. Out to Lane Cove for the striders 10ker. Had decided after last week at Smithfield that there was to be no more race efforts. I had decided on a 40 minute effort which I knew was going to be beneficial but not smash me about. Headed out with 26 for a 3km warm up and back to the finish for a last chinwag and catch up.

The scheduled 40 minute pacer Stuart with more lofty aspirations was more than happy to hand over the flag when I enquired about who was pacing so off we went. Without sounding like a tosser 4 minute pace felt really really comfortable. I had a shocker on km 4 when we ran 3.50 but apart from that everything went to plan and I ran 40 minutes neat.

Sun 3/6 - 21kms - 90mins Organised to meet Steve at Montage at 6.30. We ran one lap together before he headed home for family commitments. As we finished the lap(32 minutes) we saw Ray 'flying' around past UTS rowers so I ran back with Steve towards Lilyfield Rd Bridge from the bubbler to try and hook up with the flying marathon man. I managed to stay with Ray for about 15 metres before he gapped me as he finished off his run very strong.

He finished his effort at KGV and we then ran togther over the Ironcove Bridge. We havent run together for a while so it was nice just to catch up. Picked it up from here and ran 2nd lap in 29.30.

The idea was to finish with a solid last lap and ran the last one in just over 28 minutes, including a quick chat with El Presidente Dave Bray just before the iron cove bridge out with the striders on the 10 bridges star. Havent run down at the bay for a few weeks so it was a nice change of scenery. A really pleasant run catching up with a few good mates and a solid finish, very enjoyable run.


87 kms for the week. Looking forward to next week, lets see how the training holds up on race day.