It’s all relative…

..compared to a snail with a sprained foot then yes I did well, side by side with a cheetah not so great but to be fair never would be and compared to my old self was not fab but not hanging my head in shame either.

I’ve managed to run through June without incident, steadily rebuilding, so today it was time to try some speedwork again, I settled on 3 by 4 minutes with a generous 2 minute recovery. I plugged the workout into my Garmin and took myself down to the nice flat path on the Dandy Creek Trail, just outside of Jells Park.

As with the last couple of days the weather is still oddly warm for this time of year, it was already 17 degrees when I got to the tan at about 5:45am for coaching. There was also a pretty strong wind, down at Jells this always seems a little stronger than everywhere else.

I thought I would try to maintain 4:30 during my intervals, to my surprise I ended up a little better, it was bloody tough into the headwind though.

860 metres @ 4:38 (wicked headwind and trying to find my rhythm again)
941 metres @ 4:14 (ahhhh, a tail wind)
910 metres @ 4:23 (gahhhhh, headwind again, running on he spot, couldn’t hack it so did a 180 at 2 minutes and finished with the tailwind)

With warm up and cool down just over 7km today.

I checked over my diary and funnily enough the last time I did this session (early March), in the same place, there was also a pretty bad wind, these were the results that time, so not too far off today

870 metres (head wind) 980 metres (tail wind) 860 metres (really bad head wind) 980 metres (tail wind).

Now, as a complete aside, is there anything at the moment that Delta Goodrum (I don’t bloody know how she spells her name, can’t be stuffed looking it up) isn’t selling? At last count it was Skincare, Shampoo, Soy Milk and a games console, still, who cares, as long as it keeps her from making any more saccharine coated music.

Having dinner out with some mates tonight, lovely

40km for 10km

Granted it seems stupidly indulgent to make a 40km round trip for a 10km run, but given then choice of running around the block or running around Lysterfield lake indulgence won out.

Especially on such a beautiful day, sun was shining, when the wind stopped it almost felt warm and I was on my own little running in the bush high

Being the first day of my two week break I didn’t do a heck of alot else, I like to start with a lazy do nothing day before I get stuck into all the chores and stuff I have planned. On Thursday I am heading up to Queensland to visit my sister and brother in law and meet my 2 week old nephew Riley, then it’s down to the Gold Coast to spend some time with my brother, sister in law and niece. This includes running the Gold Coast Marathon 10km with my brother, he was originally planning on the HM but stuff came up and he couldn’t get the training in. I am not bothered, just between you and me folks I wasn’t looking forward to a two hour plus 21km run. My brother has set 55 minutes as his goal for the 10km, given his 57:59 of last year I am sure we can get close, though I am expecting to be sworn at for about 8km then given some peace over the last 2

This is my sister and her new bub

Back to School

I’ve spent the last two days completing the Australian Track and Field Coaches Association Level 2 coaching course. At the second level you pick you discipline, obviously I chose to focus on distance running (this also included Race Walking and Steeplechase).

I still have to do the exam but it’s open book and I have three weeks to get it in so I don’t expect any problems there, so I can pretty much call myself a Level 2 Distance Coach now

However, I don’t think levels count for anything without experience, I was on this course with people who have lived and breathed running and athletics all their life, I am most definitely the Johnny Come Lately, I just kept my mouth shut and listened mostly. Right now I am content with the work I do as a Run Leader and with the small group of fun runners I train twice a week as a contract coach to a third party, they are not my own squad though I very much think of them as my runners. For the time being I am content to keep using myself as a guinea pig. Though I wonder if it could be argued that just as the lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, maybe the coach who coaches them self has an idiot for an athlete, especially when I have to give myself a telling off. I’d rather just sit back for a while and keep observing more experienced coaches at work and learning from them, at the moment I don’t feel comfortable representing myself as a coach.

Training
I finished another 40km week yesterday, I’ve had a cold all week so all my running was just slow and steady just to keep the Kms ticking over. I ran 9km after the course wrapped up last night, which amounted to 2 and bit laps of the tan, I nearly screamed with boredom at the start of the second lap but I got it done

I now have the next two weeks off work so I am looking forward to the chance to increase the load and have some lovely runs on my favourite trails, I’d like to run 45km both weeks and start back with some speedwork. Though I am extremely frustrated about my current lack of speed and don’t think my delicate ego can take the knocks of going back to the group and slogging it out at the back, I think I’ll do a couple of sessions on my own before rejoining the group.

Hmm, where to tomorrow? Lysterfield? The Dandenongs? How nice to do whatever I please whenever I please

There was not much money when I was growing up, not that I really felt it, we weren’t living on the streets but my parents ran their own business and I know things were always tight, but Mum and Dad would go without so us kids didn’t feel like we did.

Treats outside of birthdays and Christmas were so rare that I pretty much remember every one.

In particular I remember a late night shopping Friday at Forest Hill shopping centre where my parents had a display from their shop set up. My father must have taken pity on me standing outside Brash’s (remember them?) staring longingly at Michael Jackson’s Thriller album because he gave me the $8 I needed to buy it, oh happy day!!!

A decision I am sure he lived to regret as my brother and I played it over and over and over, I am surprised the thing didn’t wear out.

I never understood why he had to mess with himself the way he did, he looked just fine the way he was, he needed a good sit down and talk, not a plastic surgeon.

s’not a happy chicky

I’ve spent the week making the most awful noises, gurgling and snorting like one of Lovecraft’s nastier beasties. However being that it was the week before I go on leave for a fortnight there were of course a million things to get done at the office so I popped a codral or ten and like the ad says, soldiered on……….

Getting soaking wet during the last Run Melbourne training run on Tuesday night did not really help.

Today I finally managed to wrap everything up so I rang my boss and declared that I was done and would be taking a sick day tomorrow. Normally I would NEVER take a sick day right before going on leave but screw it, being little miss goody two shoes diligent prissy pants certainly ‘aint doing me any favours and with over 600 hours sick leave up my sleeve I think I can swing it.

So woo hoo, on leave for 2 weeks and one day, starting now!

I did run tonight, a really really really slow 11km in 61 minutes, feeling as crappy as I do there is no point doing anything fancy.

The other 5

Ahh Stu, you always say the right thing.

The running gods were curbing my enthusiasm yesterday anyhow, I forgot to pack my crop top (I may not have much but it’s still not comfortable to run in a normal bra) and I felt like poo by the time I finished work yesterday so I went home and curled up on the couch. I just can’t seem to shake a cold I got about 7 weeks ago, I feel good for a while and then I’ll wake up with a sore throat and a stuffed up head and spend the next couple of days wishing I was dead.

Last run leading session before Run Melbourne tonight, phew, I love run leading but it’s nice to have a breather for a couple of weeks before we start up again for the Melbourne Marathon, we’ve been going solid since February.

Here are my last 5 top 10 songs, no, not resoundingly original, they just speak to my age and the style of music I have always been attracted to.

The Smiths – How Soon is now?
As much as a love The Smiths there are times when you just want to give Morrisey a good slap and tell him to cheer the hell up.

When you say it’s gonna happen “now”
well, when exactly do you mean?
see I’ve already waited too long
and all my hope is gone

Special Mentions – This Charming Man, Girlfriend in a Coma

Jane’s Addiction – Been Caught Stealing
Umm, a pretty simple song, Perry wants something and, ahh, he doesn’t want to pay for it. This is just a fun song, great intro, I love the barking dog and the video is fantastic, the song is close to 20 years old now (I know, yikes!) and it still puts a big grin on my face when I hear it.

I’ve been caught stealing;
once when I was 5.
I enjoy stealing.
It’s just as simple as that.
Well, it’s just a simple fact.
When I want something,
I don’t want to pay for it.

Special mentions – Jane Says, Ocean Size

Joy Division – Love will tear us apart
Predictable choice I know, I have been listening to these guys waaaaay to much lately; it must be the grey days of winter. I was too young to appreciate them the first time around being only about 3 when they first formed I suspect I was probably more into Playschool than post punk Manchester bands.

This was also the inaugural JJJ Hottest 100 winner, 20 years on I wonder whether or not the song has become irrelevant or unknown to the current JJJ demographic or will it still feature? Maybe The Wombats’ “Let’s dance to Joy Division” has found them some new fans.

I am sure there is no need to mention why they didn’t release much material…….

Why is the bedroom so cold
Turned away on your side?
Is my timing that flawed,
Our respect run so dry?
Yet theres still this appeal
That we’ve kept through our lives
Love, love will tear us apart again

Special mentions – Transmission, She’s Lost Control

Nine Inch Nails – Head Like a Hole
Gaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, my favourite angry song, never fails to rev me up and pull me out of a slump; if you ever see me towards the end of a race muttering like a mad woman I am probably singing this song to myself.

Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
Id rather die than give you control.
Head like a hole.
Black as your soul.
Id rather die than give you control.

Special mentions – The entire Downward Spiral album, I was heavily into my Goth phase by the mid ‘90s

Jeff Buckley – Last Goodbye
It’s just that classic break up song, lyrically not particularly strong, a bit naff and sappy really, but oh my goodness, the execution is something else. If you have a broken heart probably best to make sure the house is cleared of vodka and sharp objects before giving this one a spin.

this is our last goodbye
I hate to feel the love between us die
but it’s over
just hear this and then I’ll go
you gave me more to live for
more than you’ll ever know

Special Mention – The entire Grace album

Of course for every song that was in the top 10 there were another 5 that had to be left out, so it is by no means the be all and end all, give me 5 minutes and I’ll have changed my mind.

5 of 10

Although I ran Saturday and Sunday I am also going out for a short one tonight, an easy 5km at the most. I have decided to wear my lightweight trainers. I was looking down at my poor feet clad in giant motion control shoes yesterday, I have skinny little calves and ankles and they looked swamped by my shoes. I know I need them for most runs but I don’t think it will hurt to do a short run once a week in lightweights, it will give me a chance to work on my form because I’ll be able to feel the ground better.

I finally put in my votes for Hottest 100 of all time in today, my top 10 was by no means a definitive list but ultimately I had to stop thinking about it and go with the first songs the jumped into my head.

This is the first half

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
Of course Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds were going to feature and with such an accomplished body of work to choose from it was going to be a pretty difficult selection to make. It’s for that reason that I have gone for a recent release, I love the energy and it proves that there is plenty of life in the old dogs yet and besides, he calls Lazarus “Larry”, I love that.

But Larry grew increasingly neurotic and obscene
I mean he, he never asked to be raised up from the tomb
I mean no one ever actually asked him to forsake his dreams
He ended up like so many of them do, back on the streets of New York City
In a soup queue, a dopefiend, a slave, then prison, then the madhouse, then the grave
Ah poor Larry

If you have time read the transcript of a lecture he gave on Love Songs

Special mentions – Just about everything from The Birthday Party onwards

The Cure – A Forest
As with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds it was really a matter of eeny meeny miney mo, because there are so many songs I could have chosen. I ended up with A Forest because the one and only time I saw them play live this song was on the play list and it was magnificent.

suddenly I stop
but I know it’s too late
I’m lost in a forest
all alone
the girl was never there
it’s always the same
I’m running towards nothing
again and again and again

Special mentions – Pretty much everything up to and including Disintegration, everything that came after should be locked into a vault and never let out ever again, Friday I’m in Love, hang your head in shame……

Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah
I read an interview with Leonard Cohen recently where he said there have been up to 80 verses of this song, it has also been covered over 200 times.

Baby I have been here before
I know this room I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah

Special mentions – Everybody Knows (though I HATE that it is now being used in an anti smoking ad because I hear the song, go “Awww, I love this”, then look up just in time to see cholesterol being squeezed out of an artery), Bird on a Wire, I could go on…….

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
This takes me back to when I was an angry and confused, flannelette shirt wearing (hence, angry and confused) grunge queen, JFK was way before my time but I do remember where I was when I heard the news that Kurt Cobain has killed himself.

The song lives on as a reminder of a turning point in my life, finishing high school and starting uni.

Not to mention that eponymous stroke of sartorial genius, the long sleeved top UNDER the T-shirt, paired with a pair of black stussy pants (do they even still make those) cut off just below the knee and my black doc martens, man, how cool was I

With the lights out its less dangerous
Here we are now
Entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now
Entertain us

Special mention – Lithium, Come as you are

The Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs
More for John Cale’s spectacular work on the violin (oh, 6 degrees of separation, he has also covered Hallelujah, I think he might have been one of the first) than anything else, this lends a haunting atmosphere to the song.

There is a clip of him on You Tube singing and accompanying himself on violin that is incredible, watch it!

I am tired, I am weary
I could sleep for a thousand years
A thousand dreams that would awake me
Different colors made of tears

XCR09 Rnd 4 – 15km Road Race Ballarat

It was a road trip out to Ballarat, a pretty town about two hours north west of Melbourne, for round 4 of the competition which was a 15km road race. The last couple of years this race has been held at LaTrobe Uni on a very uninspiring 3 lap circuit, I am almost glad I was injured my first year of competition so I only ever had to endure the course once. This year we moved out to “Lake” Wendouree in Ballarat, unfortunately, due to drought the lake is more of a dried depression at the moment. I had offered a couple of guys from my club a lift, usually I don’t mind the solitude but two hours is a long time for me to sit still and concentrate so I was quite glad of the company for the trip there and back today. We got a wee bit mis directed trying to find the venue, thanks to a bent sign that sent us left instead of straight ahead, though I couldn’t have chosen two more mild mannered chaps to get lost with so there was no stress, my rarely used GPS was coaxed into action and we quickly got ourselves back on track.

The Ballarat circuit is much bigger than Latrobe Uni and after a little switchback to make up the distance we only had to face two laps. Obviously I am not yet in a fit enough state to race such a distance, in fact I haven’t even covered more than about 14km since April, so naturally I was a bit nervous, I was convinced I would crash headlong into a wall at about 11km.

I caught up with Jo at the start and was relieved that she was happy to run with me, woulda been a long lonely slog out the back there on my own. As predicted the weather was pretty cold (though I concede it could have been heaps worse) mostly it was the wind that made things difficult, it was capris, arms warmers, a hat and gloves all the way!

Jo and I set off chatting and looking to run around 5:15 per km, pretty soon though we were cruising along reasonably comfortably at something around the low 5 range. Every now and then I’d get a mini surge going, mostly because my body seemed to get a small glimpse of former fitness and try to take off before I reminded my legs that they still had a long way to go and better behave

Sure enough though 11km came and I was stuffed, we rounded into a headwind and after the first lap I knew there was going to be a tough section between 11 and 13km that would seem to go on forever and had the worst of the headwind. Added to that I am having a resurgence of the cold that refuses to die and like last week once I started getting phlegmy it got a bit harder to maintain pace.

As we didn’t have a women’s team today I wasn’t under any pressure to perform, Jo however did have a team and it was at this point that I insisted she not let me hold her back and encouraged her to get moving, she did and picked up a heap of places over the final 4km

I battled though those 2km and seemed to rebound a little at the 13km mark and somehow managed to get myself back on pace and finished in 1:17:11 (though AV generously gave me 1:17:04), not fantastic I know but considering where I am at with my fitness I am happy with that time. The most positive aspect is that I went though 10km in 51:06, at Sandown I struggled though 10km in 50:48 and staggered to a stop, there was no way I could have pushed on. 3 weeks later I run 10km in close to that but keep on for another 5km, so things are starting to look up.

Splits (mostly for Jo’s sake as her garmin had a hissy fit yesterday)

1 – 5:00
2 – 5:09 – 10:09
3 – 5:05 – 15:14
4 – 5:13 – 20:19
5 – 5:06 – 25:32
6 – 5:12 – 30:38
7 – 5:01 – 35:50
8 – 5:05 – 40:51
9 – 5:10 – 45:56
10 – 5:11 – 51:06
11 – 5:20 – 56:17 (cough, splutter)
12 – 5:20 – 1:01:37 (more cough, splutter)
13 – 5:11 – 1:06:57
14 – 5:03 – 1:12:08
15 – 5:03 – 1:17:11

I hope they have the 15km race at the same venue next year, it was far more agreeable than the previous option.

Of course upon arriving home I celebrate my first 15km run in months by having a glass of red before falling asleep on the couch in a state a abject exhaustion, in my defence the nighttime cold and flu tablets I took may have contributed

A nice easy 9km this afternoon will round out another 40km week, I will sneak it up a bit more next week.

Riley Intervals

It’s a new session I made up today, it’s what happens when about 800 metres into your afternoon run the message alert tone goes off on your mobile phone.

Stop, read message, burst into tears on side of the Yarra, receive strange looks from passersby, return message and keep running.

Minutes later phone rings, have a chat with Mum and Brother in Law, start running again.

Another message alert tone, Sister in Law this time, start running again

A week and a half overdue and after a difficult labour my sister finally gave birth via Caesarian to her first child today, a 7lb 11 ounce boy, Riley William.

And hence todays workout, Riley Intervals

Desperately wish I was there now to give my sister a big hug and tell her I love her, poor thing has had a pretty rough couple of days, but she is a tough cookie and by all accounts was pretty brave.

Two weeks today I’ll be heading up to visit the new addition to the family.

Improving

I ran the MS Fun Run today, 10km around Albert Park Lake a couple of times, though I suspect fun and fund raising were of a greater priority than accuracy (as they should be in this case) with the course measuring around 9.5km.

Fortunately it was a lovely morning, the full brunt of winter would have made it a pretty miserable run, especially when the wind gets up around the lake. I met a few mates at the start, one had bought her hubby along and he very kindly offered to look after my bag and all our assorted jumpers, always a bonus when you can avoid the long line for the baggage tent, he was also our official photographer.

I decided aim for 5 minute Kms, I finished in 46:42 (47:08 officially because they went by gun time, the chip only registered at the finish), this would have been around 49:30 for 10km. In light of my struggle to make it to 50:48 at Sandown just two weeks ago I am pretty happy. Especially as I’ve been a bit under the weather this week, my chest is congested (ughh) and I spent the last 3kms trying not to vomit, not from effort, I was just nauseous, happens when I’ve got a cold and I start coughing up gunk (double ughh)

Despite not being 100% it’s been a good week.

Mon – easy 5km
Tues – easy 8km run leading
Weds – Rest and Massage
Thurs – 5.8km around 5:05 average
Fri – Rest
Sat – 12km very easy (around 6 min/km) run leading
Sun- 9.5km tempo, just under 5 min/km pace

Total – 40.3km

10km more than last week, 5 days including consecutive days and happy to say everything feels fine, next week I plan around 40km across 4 days (I’ve a 15km AV run on Saturday). Still no speedwork planned though, I’ll give it another 3 weeks.

see more Lol Celebs

No reason really, I just think that Harrison Ford was HOT in Star Wars

see more Lol Celebs

I think that should be extended to don’t trust Clowns, ever, under any circumstances, John Wayne Gacy used to dress as a Clown, ’nuff said really.