Track at Chev.

Couple of photos from across the field at Chev this morning. Not very exciting, I know, but neither was the training, nevertheless I always enjoy a track session....probably a favourite.

2km warm-up.
Few drills & strides.

10 x 400m @ 5:43min/km (2:17 lap)

2:18; 2:20; 2:15; 2:15; 2:16;
2:18; 2:13; 2:16; 2:15; 2:11

400m easy jog recoveries between each repeat.

2km warm-down jog.

All OK except my legs were getting very tired during the last 3 repeats. Light rain. My car in the background and my gear hanging on the fence!

Two Days Cross Training

It took me 15 seconds to run hard to the top of this grassy slope and that's why I only did four of them today!

Monday : 30 minutes stationary bike.

Today : 10 minutes jog warm-up;
35 minutes drills & strides;
4 x 15 seconds hill sprints.

I did today's cross training at Iron Mines Oval; quite cool, overcast and lots of lovely green grass after 2 days of rain, which should also be good for a track session tomorrow.

Long Run..

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I stopped to take a couple of photos of the "Renwick" housing development whilst on my long run this morning. ...fabulous valley location surrounded by mountain ranges. The clearing seems to be going ahead at quite a pace....which brings me to the morning's long run.

I intended doing 24km, but was all done at 22km! Pace to be 7:06 min/km.

2 x 5km ( 35:31/37:27) on Old South Road.

2 x 5km (36:41/36:22) in Inkerman Road area.

2km in 15:08

Avg. Pace 7:25 min/km.

AHR 112 (70%); MHR 127 (80%)


First 10km : flattish; overcast & cool; started at 7:45 before the day trippers were out and about on Old South Road; saw no more than six cars. Final 12km : to Inkerman Road & back : hilly, sunny & hot.

I was feeling very tired at 22km & I was back at the school where I'd parked the car & decided without any hesitation that 22km in 2 hours 40 minutes was sufficient for the day!

Virtual Partner's Victory!

A massive win for VP this morning!

I started late around 11:30a.m and it was already very hot. Road works were happening on the flattish loop on Bong Bong Road where I usually do a tempo run, so the only alternative was to do the run on a very hilly Diamond Fields Road.

As soon as we hit the first steep hill, VP just kept on going while I died to a plod. He was 30m ahead, then 60, 100m, 200m, until he finished back at the start, more than 600m ahead of me. What a thrashing! He had made good all his previous defeats in one fell swoop and was reading, relaxed and rested, in the shade of a tree when I finally made it to the end walking up the last hill!

1.6km jog warm-up and two drills.

6.8km in 49:53
Avg. Pace 7:20....VP kept slogging away at a 6:36min/km!
AHR 125 (79%); MHR 137 (86%)

1.6km walking warm-down.

I might use the same course on another tempo run and see if I can manage the hills any better than I did today. I don't much like being beaten at all, let alone so convincingly, so another attempt needs to be done...... some other time!

Chev. Track

A fairly easy session today:

2km warm-up; Few drills & strides.

3 x 1600m @ 5:53 to 5:55min/km.

1.6km warm-down.

1st repeat : in 9:25. Avg. Pace 5:53; AHR 128 (81%); MHR 133 (84%).

2nd repeat in 9:05. Avg. Pace 5:40; AHR 132 (83%); MHR 142(89%).

3rd repeat in 9:15. Avg. Pace 5:46; AHR 133 (84%); MHR 140 (88%).

No problem with this session and I was well ahead of Virtual Partner in each of the 1600m repeats!

Cross Training

Monday and Tuesday :

Combination of stationary bike, light jog before drills & strides, couple of 30 second hill sprints & a few strength exercises.

SMC 10km

Six down and three to go! Another 10k this morning and second best time so far, which means I'd very much like to get below January's 62 minutes.

I left home at 5:30 a.m and drove in pitch darkness all the way to Smithfield. If it hadn't been for "TomTom" I'd still be going around roundabouts! I took a wrong exit from one of many and immediately told to "turn around when you can"! A couple of lefts and rights and I was back on track and, without much loss of time, at Rossford Reserve.

The 10km went well and I know I can go out a bit harder in the first 5km next month; I did that today and finished 2 minutes ahead of last month's time of 65 minutes. After a 2km warm-up, a few drills and strides........

10km in 1:03:15

Average pace 6:18 ( which was exactly what I had the Garmin set at!)
Best pace 5:01

AHR 134 (84%); MHR 148 (93%)

5km splits : 32:24 (wanted to run 31:30); and 30:41.

All runners as they cross the timing mat get to pull a number from a hat. Last month I drew #1 which means I have new Nike VomeroIV trainers; today I won a box of 6 Easter Eggs with flavours such as "Toffee Crunch, Pure White, Abstract Heaven, Pure Dark, Strawberries & Cream and Abstract Orange"!

I always believed heaven was real but now I know it's only 'abstract'!

I wore the Nike Lunar Glide Racers for the run this morning and they were so light I felt I might become airborne by just a puff of wind! I very much like these shoes for short, fast runs....might even use them for the CRRF Half Marathon in May.

I have only three more chances to get under that 62 minutes for 10km!

A Change of Pace....

Friday is normally tempo run training but just for today, it became another track session. Nothing hard before SMC 10km race on Sunday for which, I hear, we can expect 33 degrees! So over to Chev. College again for an easy session:

2km warm-up; a few drills and strides.

6 x 300m (in 1:30) @ 5:00m/per km pace. 2 minute recoveries between each.

1:29; avg. pace 4:59 AHR 75%
1:30; avg. pace 5:00 AHR 72%
1:30; avg. pace 5:00 AHR 77%
1:29; avg. pace 4:57 AHR 75%
1:29; avg. pace 4:58 AHR 75%
1:32; avg. pace 5:05 AHR 76%

And that's it till Sunday!

Track Today...at Chevalier College

What I had to do was :

2km warm-up + a few drills & strides.
3 x (2x1200m) @ 5:52 to 5:55 pace (Time 7:04); 2 minutes recovery;
4 minutes recovery between Sets.
Warm-down.

I did all of the above except for changing to 1.6km warm-up and warm-down.

Set 1. (a) 7:02 (5:52 pace); AHR 122 (77%); MHR 134 (84%).
(b) 7:04 (5:52 Pace); AHR 126 (79%); MHR 134 (84%).

Set 2. (a) 7:02 (5:51 Pace); AHR 126 (79%); MHR 137 (86%).
(b) 7:01 (5:51 Pace); AHR 126 (79%); MHR 142 (89%).

Set 3: (a) 7:02 (5:50 Pace); AHR 125 (79%); MHR 137 (86%).
(b) 6:56 ( 5:46 Pace); AHR 128 (81%); MHR 144 (91%).

This session got harder at it went on, I think due to shorter recovery times than I've been used to, but I still managed to finish each repeat in front of Virtual Partner!

Cross-Training Again...Monday & Tuesday

Monday : brisk walk 30 minutes with the dogs.

Tuesday : 2km warm-up; 25 minutes drills; 5 hill sprints of 10 seconds each....flat out.

Two easy days before a hard track session tomorrow.

Long Run..25km

7:30a.m start and it was raining heavily, but by the time I'd run 3km it had stopped and the rest of the morning remained fine and cool. I ran the first 10km loop on Bong Bong and Inkerman Roads; second 10km loop on Old South and Diamond Fields Roads and the last 5km on Radio and Bong Bong Roads.

The plan was 25km at 7:19 min/km.

I ran 25km at exactly 7:19 min/km!

Time 3 hours 3 minutes.

2 x 10km loop
1 x 5km loop.

Avg. Pace 7:19; Best 5:28
AHR 111 (70%); MHR 123 (78%).

5km splits ...37:35; 35:46; 37:35; 36:15; 35:50.

Another long run.....done; felt good and enjoyed!

Tempo Run ..... 10km

1.5km warm-up.

7km in 44:14
Avg. Pace 6:19; Best 5:06.
AHR 123 (78%); MHR 131 (83%)
5k split 31:30; 2km in 12:35

1.5km warm-down.

Virtual Partner was set for 6:20 pace and we were going along comfortably, almost hand in hand until I was stopped for a chat by one of the volunteer hosts who just happened to be leaving the local radio station in Radio Road. In the meantime VP, who stops for no one, raced ahead and by the time I got going again he was 50m in front of me, so the race was on to catch and pass him. I did that by running harder than I'd intended and finished about 15m ahead of him. A good run!

A Different Track Session

I've changed a few things in this track session so as not to repeat the same distances as I've been doing over the past 8 weeks.

2km warm-up + a few drills & strides.

1600m in 9:27
Avg. Pace 5:54
AHR 127 (80%); MHR 135 (85%).
400m walk/jog recovery.

3200m in 18:57
Avg. Pace 5:54
AHR 131 (80%); MHR 151 (95%)
800m walk/jog recovery.

800m in 4:39
Avg. Pace 5:39
AHR 124 (78%); MHR 138 (87%)
400m walk/jog recovery.

800m in 4:31
Avg. Pace 5:38
AHR 126 (79%); MHR 138 (87%)
400m jog/walk recovery.

These were harder repeats than I've done previously, especially the new 3200m where I finished about 1m ahead of VP with a mighty burst of energy! For the others, he was just behind me! It adds more interest to try new distances.

Cross-Training

Two Days: : Monday....30 brisk walk including a steep hill to get HR up.

Tuesday: 1.5km easy jog warm-up then 25 minutes drills.

Long Run 25km

At 7:15am the whole of Mittagong was covered by a thick fog; it was cool & ideal for a long run. I did the first 5km as a warm-up. The pace for this long run was 6:57 to 7:06. I aimed for the latter.

1 x 5km on Radio & Bong Bong Roads
42:12
Avg. pace 8:15; best 6:15
AHR 106 (67%); MHR 121 (76%).

1 x 10km on Bong Bong & Old South Roads
1:10:32
Avg. pace 7:03; best 5:41
AHR 114 (72%); MHR 123 (78%).

1 x 10km on Bong Bong & Inkerman Roads
1:09:33
Avg. pace 6:57; best 5:10
AHR 122 (77%); MHR 135 (85%)

All three loops had their fair share of hills but the cool conditions made the 25km (in 3 hours) easier than last Sunday's 3 hours and 5 minutes!.

A Long Tempo Run

16km! For me, that's a long way to try to run at 6:42m/k.

I didn't quite manage that pace at all! It was a very hilly course but I wanted to see all the work going on over Inkerman Road side of Mittagong and sure enough, clearing has begun for a site where there will eventually be 250 new houses built and gone is my short cut through the bush. That's called progress I suppose!

16km
Time 2 hours exactly!
Avg. Pace 7:32m/k
5k splits 38:50: 38:33; 36:21 (7:04)

A cool morning; overcast and light rain for the last 3km. I'm glad that one is over!

Going Backwards.....

.....with my program!

Having finished the 16 weeks of my program, I returned to Week 8 today so as to line up a taper with the Canberra Running Festival Half Marathon on May 2nd. That took me to Chevalier College track where I ran happily forwards!

2km warm-up
Drills & Strides.

3 x 1600m @ 5:55m/k (9:28)

1st 1600m in 9:28
Avg. pace 5:55
AHR 129 (81%); MHR 138 (87%)

2nd 1600m in 9:21
Avg. pace 5:50
AHR 130 (82%); MHR 142 (89%)

3rd 1600m in 9:27
Avg. pace 5:55
AHR 128 (81%); MHR 139 (87%)

I was surprised that I felt today's three so hard having done six of the same distance two weeks ago. VP was running at 5:55 pace so he had a better day & we're both underway for CRF half marathon!

Cross Training

15 minutes warm-up; 25 minutes drills; a few hill sprints on Monday.