Secret Blog for Killing Track and Parkrun PBs

Only me and Emma this morning on the grass. The set 4x100m, 2000m, 1000m, 5x200m, all with longish recoveries. Think I've done enough now to start 2013 were I left off in 2012. It's been a good mental break. Depending on the weather it will be either 800m or 3000m/5000m on Thursday. Will start 2013 with a long run tmoz. Happy New Year to you all.

An early morning trundle at the track. Warm up, 4 x 100m, 1600m @ 5000m pace (5:04 or 15:50), 200m, warm down. Second run later in the afternoon keeps the 120+km per week chugging along.

The Pennington Series Race 3 final race in 3 weeks, all to be decided then...Kathy (2nd after two races), Emma and myself on the track for the first session post-Xmas binge. As expected not great but consistently good from all three. The set: 4 x 200m with 200m jog recovery, 2 laps walk, 600m chasing start. 200s: Kathy 3:04, Emma 2:24, Me 2:12. 600m: Kathy off zero (2:24), Emma off 42 (1:54), Me: off 54 (1:42). Start positions were finish placings, we all chased hard. Felt awful yesterday, another insect bite, this time a redback on the finger. Only 7km for the day but 120km+ for the week. A much better health today, still 120km + for the week and 17km in two runs. Will try to stay out of the garden tmoz.

Back from a wonderful Christmas break and lots of running. Ran twice every day but no speed work, accumulating over 120km in the last 7 days...my first big week for a while and a few more to come. This morning a session with the Tuesday girls +Geoff +Emma, post session KT and SK showed up. The set varied, three of us did 6,5,4,3,2,1 minutes on, 1 minute jog off. Helen ran very fast and Emma also on a hot 1km effort. Will keep the high volume going until the last week in January with as many 10km specific sessions as possible.

Started the holiday journey at 4:30am with a 20 minute run from home, water the plants, then away by 5:45. 40 minutes into the drive some bad things started to happen with my health, went straight to the nearest hospital. It took 5 hours for the problem to go away and underwent an ECG and blood test. They wanted to keep me in for another 8 hours, mostly because the didn't understand how a 50yo can have a resting pulse of 37!! My best guess was an insect bite as I watered the garden in thongs. Not a trouble since. On top of the 20 minute morning run another 40 yesterday afternoon. This morning 20km along the river with Bella, punctuated by a coffee and assorted bakery product in Bright. (did Beechworth Bakery yesterday on the drive down). On Saturday morning only 5 turned up for running: Roger, Tori, Emma, Keith, me. We did 1000m (3:01), 300m (51), 200m (31) with 1 minute recovery. Courtesy of the hospital...my updated blood values Date........Haemoglobin....Haematocrit....Retic...

No more work for 11 days:-) The three of us head down to Bedaki Cottage in Wandiligong (near Bright if that helps) to be lost and lonesome for Christmas...really looking forward to it. We spent time there in 2008, 2010 and now 2012. Poor Bella has to sleep in the big room at the bottom of the ladder as she can't climb (or can she?, I remember she cries at night poor thing). Minnie will have to remember to pack the mtb as we have a new toy to capture our memories. Here are some memories from the 2008 toy. Merry Christmas to you all xxxooo

Last night the traditional end of year ACTVAC track event, full of novelty races and festive spirit. The weather perfect for the occasion, very warm in the sun, no cloud, a nice breeze and loads of happy people out there. Of me: I took part in one novelty event and one 3000m effort. The novelty guess your time 2000m with no watch I won. Guessed 8:00, ran 8:00.76. Not too hard to do when I pace my friends all year at that pace. Thanx for the bottle of McLaren Vale Shiraz, it was delicious. The 3000m I had an all out effort, only an 9:32 run. A few too many on the track making life a little slower in lane 2 and four parties this week putting on 2kg making it a little heavier as well:-) Keith worked hard in the 5000m 18*, KT a return to form in the 3000m 11:47 After having an easy few weeks without volume it's time to gear up again for 2013. Will return to racing on January 10 with hopefully an ACT M50 mile record. January 31 is the ACT 10000m championships soon followed by th...

Final session before going back to basics. Hot and still conditions...ideal for running quick. I paced Emma (21s), Helen (24s) and Maria (23s)for as long as they could suffer before doing myself (18s). The minimum was 1000m, maximum 1600m. Emma and Helen spot on, Maria way under, me quicker by 2 seconds. Later Yelena 1000m, 300m, 200m with 1min recovery. We did a few lazy 200s in a short set (2-5 efforts each). Not sure of the weather on Thursday. I have options of 2000m, 3000m or 5000m. Whatever I choose it will be 100% effort. See what comes of it.

Lined up for what was to be a crack at a 5000m time with 4 others, all of whom were doing 3000m. 30 seconds before the start the rain began again. Sat on the slowest runner from the start, aged 14 and running consistent 73s for the first 3 laps, me hanging on for dear life. As each lap went by the shoes got heavier. By 5 laps there was a 40m gap between the leading 3 and us two...then one by one they all slowed then stopped leaving us two to finish it off. With two laps to go I committed to only 3000m and tried to lift the pace. End result was Joel 9:24, me 9:27...not bad in the conditions but 5 laps short of 5000m.

Over 30 degrees and low humidity for the start of race 2. Giving Kathy 2:35 head start is a little daunting. I had to un-lap myself first (took 1000m to do that) before chasing her down. Last season I only caught her in the home straight so couldn't leave anything to chance. This time around it was 600m to go (I started very fast), could afford to take the last 600m not so hard. 9:35 for me, 12:42? for Kathy and a season best. 3rd place to KT, 4th place to Phil. After 2 races Me:100pts, Kathy 98pts. Final race is an 800m in the New Year. Kathy would only need to beat me by two places to take the series on countback...it's not over yet. 800m: Maria 2:51, Helen 2:54

Most of us the same set 8 x 200m with 200m jog recovery. Was to be with the wind but the easterly came in just as the set began... too late to switch. For me 35,34,33,33,33,33,33,32.

Well you never can take life for granted but I am counting down the days of athleticism to the end of 2012. The plan: Tuesday 11 December...short intervals, no more than 1500m in effort Thursday 13 December...collect Pennington race 2 3000m handicap, maximum points, minimum effort Friday 14 December...5000m with Athletics ACT at the right time of night with the right weather? maximum effort Saturday 15 December...probably only 200s set Tuesday 18 December...short intervals, no more than 1500m in effort Thursday 20 December...5000m with ACTVAC at the right time of night with the right weather? maximum effort...that'll do me for 2012

Decided yesterday to do this run for social reasons. A few of us gathered in the National Museum (new start) and flogged ourselves up to Black Mountain tower. At the top was fruit salad and juice (buns and soft drink as well but I tried not to look at those). Most of us won a voucher or some lucky draw prize or both. Then we ran back down the mountain, looked for Helen's lost car key and finished up with coffee. Emma was 2nd overall females. I was 3rd overall male, a step behind 2nd. From the base of the ascent: Total Distance: 2.70km -- Starting Altitude: 570m -- Finishing Altitude: 810m -- Average Gradient: 8.9% -- Elevation Gain: 240m

Only three on track today, others on the bush tracks doing 5 x 3 minute intervals, 1 minute recovery or taking it easy. Black Mountain Challenge on tmoz. On track: Group 1: (Helen 2:43 and Maria 2:37) 4 x 200m, 200m jog recovery, add the times. Two laps walk, then 600m chasing start. Group 2: (Me) 1200m (3:46), 300m (47) with 100m walk recovery. Two laps walk, then 600m chasing start. 600m: Helen scratch, Maria +6sec, Me +26sec. I caught the girls with 100m to go who finished together. Me (1:43), Maria (2:08), Helen (2:13)

Paced Keith to a 10:34 equal PB today. Dropped him off with 800m to go, me running the last 800m in 2:16 to finish under 10 mins. Not bad conditions out there. Roger and Helen both showing some good form. I had to trot off to a dinner by 6:30 so didn't see the Higgins 800m. Phil 1st, Kathy 2nd

Almost everything went as I anticipated yesterday...cool and very windy with not even a grandstand for protection. Put on a positive head. Went with the leaders for 4400m, only taking twice into the wind. I survived an extra 2 laps than eventual 3rd place. Last 5km we all ran on our own braving the elements in solitude. 32:44 for the winner, 33:18 for me, similar gap to third. All up very happy, move into 2nd in the rankings provisionally.

Tomorrow another trip to Melbourne for the Zatopek 10 Lower Grades meet. C/D grades goes off first (630ish), around 20 starters and a cut-off of 37:30 including 6 females. My race following that with 13 starters. A quick check of the entrants shows one or more quicker than me, one or more around the same level. Most closer to the 37:30 cutoff. It's gonna be cool (15-18 degrees) and windy (20-25kph). I will get some help from the quickest runner if I am prepared to go out hard. The goal: It's all about world rankings for 2012. This is what it looks like at the moment. I have an unsubmitted 33:36.5 from 16th Feb which moves me up a spot. Anything better than 33:36 would be great. Sub-33 is the season goal and chasing the M50 Australian record of Ronnie Peters.

With the handicap Higgins 800m on this Thursday a chance to do a short session for those who might run. The set: 4 x 200m with 200m jog recovery add up the splits. Two lap walk. 600m time trial with chasing start based on 200s. Set 1: Me 2:08, Emma 2:22, Maria 2:37, Helen 2:47, Kathy 2:57. Based on that Kathy off scratch, Helen 7 seconds, Maria 14 seconds, Emma 25 seconds, Me 35 seconds. 600m chasing start: Kathy the winner and the others all showing the short speed is slowly coming. Of me: 2:08 & 1:39 means I would be flat out doing around 2:12-13 at the moment. Still some way to go to my season goal of 2:06 but I will have a crack at a quick effort in February.