A good(ish) weekend

I couldn't get a car on Tuesday morning to get to the pool, so I swapped with Wednesday and did my mid week (14k) run. Ran at 5:15 pace, and it felt good the whole way.

I think that I'm starting to get the hang of the water running. I did another Mona fartlek on Wednesday, and for the first time I really felt pushed at the end of it. I upped the cadence a bit, but I also extended the leg stroke as well. Let's see if I can keep it going tomorrow.

Thursday night at Run Club was supposed to be 5x 800 (theoretically Yasso 800s, but it was really about 770m). I was ridiculously even for the first 4 - 2:56, 2:56, 2:56, 2:54, then on the last one I went all out and tried to keep with Rob (Mr WT). The idea was to see whether I was limiting myself in the pace I was running, and to see whether I'd do things differently at a higher pace (but being careful to not force myself, ie being careful to keep the stride reasonably relaxed). Anyhow, I couldn't keep with Rob in the last 1/3, but I pulled out a 2:32 which I was very happy with. No way that I could have done 5 reps at that pace though!

The CR5k on Saturday was great - perfect morning, lots of people, and after Thursday night I figured that I might be able to do a decent run. Evie was there, and we debated (very briefly) running off 20 minutes (our dream goal), but quickly decided to stay with 21 for the moment. We headed off full of hope at 3:58 and 4:05 for the first 2k, but couldn't hold it and did 4:08, 4:08 & 4:07 to bring it home at 20:26 (7 seconds behind pb). I was really happy with the time, as it's a while since I've been anywhere near there, but I was surprised at how dead-legged I felt towards the end. I didn't have any kick at all in the last k, and I don't remember ever having a run like that.

If I felt that I needed a bit more endurance on Saturday, I was absolutely certain of it on Sunday. The Strider's Star was my local, so it would have pretty poor form to miss it. Tim (Redback), JD, Tesso and I ended up doing about 25k together. It may not have been the toughest course in the world, but it sure felt like it on the day! By half way around, I was questioning whether a pb at Central Coast was even a remote possibility, but provided my body holds together and my training stays consistent, all that endurance will come back (and of course, CC is only a stepping stone...)

Gnome

p.s. wasn't it a grand game on Saturday? OK, the result was sad, but I reckon all the players in both teams can be immensely proud of the series of games that they've fought out over the last 2 years. Bring on 2007! :-)