Secret Blog for Killing Track and Parkrun PBs

Weather sunny, warm and less wind than previous days. We were out to watch and cheer the women in the early 10000m races before attempting to watch Kathy finish 9th in a very quick W65 800m final at the main venue (we failed). Helen managed silver W55, her third medal for the championships, one of each colour. Minnie finished strongly in the same race. In the W50 10000m Kiwi Sally ran an incredible race in 36:35, Belinda Martin topped that with 36:32. All the Aussies had great runs.

Steve at Tuggeranong Park Run 5km ran 18:11 in his return to racing. Splits: 3:45,3:36,3:39,3:39,3:29 with last 400m in 77. That's another step forward and not so far from his first goal at Noosa Park Run. This morning was beautiful even if still on the windy side. I did a run around the 2 Bridges of the Swan River plus a little extra, almost all on the grass. 12km all up and at a nice tempo, no niggles from yesterday's 5000m. I was happy to be out there with my own thoughts.

The weather very windy (20kph gusting to 35kph), light drizzle at times otherwise fine, partly cloudy. The wind was a factor but there were some great times set out there. Laps were two paced, quick with the wind, slow against the wind in the home straight (almost to a stand still at times). In M60 the field was well split up from what I saw. In M55 David Sweeney ran solo after a couple of laps and won easily. In M50 Ben Reynolds backed up his win from the Lyon World Masters Athletics Championships. He attacked with 3 laps remaining and never looked back. Anders Dahl was 5th in Lyon, did almost all of the pace work and was very strong for 2nd. I felt great for 9 laps, nothing left when the paced lifted in response to Ben's move.

We had Kathy W65 and Helen W55 competing in the 5000m today. Weather was warm and windy. Times were good despite conditions not being ideal. Both Kathy and Helen competed in separate races. All were standout events, truly world class. Both Helen and Kathy went through 3000m in 13:00, Helen 21:53 6th W55 and Kathy 22:08 4th W65. Both ran really well with Helen backing up from 2 days ago in the cross country, Kathy first race of the championships. At another track Scott finished a close 5th in M55 800m final, top result in a rough race. I had a lazy day, a short warm up with Helen including 5 x 100m strides. Tomorrow is my 5000m day.

Steve at Stromlo a set of short lactate intervals. It was windy, course varies from usual circuit due to magpie. The set: 600m 1:57, 500m 1:33, 400m 74, 300m 54, 200m 32. That's a big improvement on last week. It looks like Steve is back to being very good after only a few sessions. It will be interesting to see how the form is when he starts racing soon. Of me: 45 minutes along the Swan with Daniel, bumped into him just as I started. I did a couple of strides on the grass post-session. Didn't feel fluent enough to push on with more. Tomorrow will be a short run with a few strides. We will be watching Helen and Kathy in the 5000m

What a day. There was so much good racing out there in all ages at the cross country and some races I didn't get to see. The weather was very warm, sunny and a bit of wind in places, nothing to complain about. It was a bit of a juggle warming up, cheering and taking video of Minnie and Helen in the W55-59 XC but I got it done. Helen was 3rd in the W55-59 and her team Australia took 1st. That's a good start. In M50-54 Anders and I were both on the podium last year in Lyon. We both tried to go away solo in the first half but neither of us could get the job done. Paul M50 and David M55 caught us mid-race, I took a breather at the back of the four for the remainder and set myself up for one big roll of the dice with 200-300m to go...I pulled it off! David M55 won his age. Only a few seconds between the top four finishers in what was an epic battle. Photo and video (M50-59 short and long versions, W50-59 XC, W55-59 Team Medal Ceremony).

One day before competition begins for us in the World Masters Athletics 8000m XC. Good luck to all. This morning an easy 25 minute run mostly on grass by the Swan River. Included were 5 x 100 metre strides up to 85% pace. Nothing to do now but enjoy the day.