Secret Blog for Killing Track and Parkrun PBs

Cloudy, windy morning at full tide. I split the day into two sessions. First 100 minutes run along the coast, lots of single track. Second set at noon on dead low tide a set of 4 x 600m intervals on the beach. Some drizzle and no sun made the sand not dry out as much as it often does. Slow going. Splits: 3:19/km,3:11,3:10,3:11. If I wait until the sand hardens up more I can shave another 10 seconds/km off. I'm happy running at this level now. It took one week to get here. 124km this week. The long run took me to the east again plus an additional section I'd never been to. More beaches. I popped out onto the road between Cancale and Saint Malo at Le Rotheneuf. It's one of those towns I drove through in 2013 without stopping and thought 'WOW'. I had a picture in my head all these years, now I have some pictures to save for when my memory fades.

In July 2007, after the finish of Tour de France, on SBS TV in Australia, there was an interview or '5 second grab' with a teenager on following Tour de France...'I saw every stage on a budget' she said. I was not a runner, a cyclist/runner back then. Inspired, in 2008 I saw 19 stages of Tour de France. It was on a budget. It could have been 20 stages if Cadel Evans was in contention for the title following the penultimate Time Trial stage between Cerilly and Saint-Amand Montrond. I was at the finish to see Cadel win the 2011 Tour de France. One of the places I missed was Saint Malo which was the start of the 3rd stage to Nantes where I was watching the finish. Logistics to travel to the north west of France when the race was moving south didn't make sense. An opportunity lost, maybe! I've been in France every European summer since. I've seen 120+ stages of Tour de France along with stages of Giro d'Italia, Tour de Suisse, Tour de Romandie, Criterium du...

Almost deja vu of yesterday except the foghorns sounding from ships in a sea I couldn't see...pea souper. Up early again, similar circuit to yesterday except pushed the end finding new trails, views, things! It would have been even more impressive if I could see them. The set: 10km warm up, 4 x 100m strides, 4 x 800m beach intervals with 1:30 jog recovery, warm down. All up 18km for the day and another set done. Splits: 2:47,2:47,2:46,2:46. Again running a set with wet shoes on soft wet sand. I was working very hard. High tide will come later by an hour again tmoz. I'll have to shift my routine about. My friends from ACT Masters Athletics had their 8km XC championships at Stromlo this morning. Weather was ideal around 15 degrees which is warm for late June. Steve M50, Leanne W45, Gabe W55 all won their age. Fastest was Ken Gibson M35.

Very early morning run, just on dawn. Tide was still going out, as a warm up I ran 10km to the east on bike path and off road to Point de la Varde (littered with WWII relics). It was somewhere I didn't quite explore in 2013 but did spend lots of time at the beach. On my loop back the tide still wasn't out enough to provide a firm surface, I started the set anyway with saturated shoes and uncertain foot plants in boggy sand. From my hotel window as I type this it looks perfect...too late now :-) The set: 10km warm up, 4 x 100m strides, 4 x 800m efforts with 1:30 jog recovery, long warm down. Splits: 2:49,2:28,2:43,2:45. All up 20km for the morning. A very tough set.

Morning run on beach a couple of hours away from low tide. Softer sand and water in sections affected final 300m of all intervals. Sunny and warm. The set: Warm up, 6 x 100m strides, 2000m 6:57 (3:24,3:32), 1500m 5:07, 1000m 3:19, 1000m 3:22, warm down. All up 13km for morning set. Warm down extra was a long walk and an easy 5km recovery run around midday. Next set I will work on strides and 600m efforts .

Morning run of 18km all on beach at near low tide. Session included 6 x 100m strides and stretching. Splits: 3:33,3:26,3:19,3:16. I felt much better running today. I'm not sure what speeds I can get to on the beach. Around 3:10/km looks possible. I am running in old trainers which will get thrown when I leave Saint Malo. Next step is structure some training up for the next 5 weeks. I will have access to a synthetic track in the final two weeks to get some quality sessions in plus the three Parkruns I will take part in when I get to Paris.

Morning 14km run on beach including 6 x 100m strides, stretching and 3 x 1000m efforts. Splits: 3:39,3:32,3:23. It will take up to a week before I get some 'flow' back. Tight everything from plane journey. I changed hotels at midday to be on beach. I wasn't sure I would make the TGV connection in Paris, kept my options open for being here yesterday or not. Glad I made it here. This evening an easy recovery run and stretching. I have to wait until evening until the tide is low again.

A couple of flights and a TGV train journey took me to the beachside town of Saint Malo. I'm here for almost 2 weeks. Most of my runs will be done on the beach at low tide. I was last here in 2013 (2 nights, day after Gold Coast Half marathon, for Tour de France stage) and 2015 (6 nights, a week after World Masters Athletics Championships in Lyon). The run today a mix of beach and bike path, a steady 18km for the day. I had some foot swelling from the flights. I was cautious with that and felt good during the run and some hours later the swelling had gone. Tomorrow my first set on the beach including strides, stretching and some shorter intervals to get things moving again.

First step taken today towards committing to the World Masters Athletics Championships in Toronto Canada 2020. I've booked accommodation for the race period. I've also committed to running Marathon de Paris in 2020 (for fun). It will be a different build up and mean I will be skipping Australian Masters Athletics Championships in 2020 (clash with Marathon de Paris). I'll prepare a rough outline of training over the next few weeks. The training with be built around races 800m (not racing this at WMA) to 5000m and my best event the 8000m cross country. I'll need to see entries open and a rough schedule from the organisers before I go too far. Plenty of detail up on their website for a year now. Since I have five weeks off with access to some great training locations and weather I'll make the most of it and guinea pig my body, tweak the sessions if necessary. At the end of this stay in France I'll have three Parkruns in Paris then one XC race in Canberra and 14km...

Final session in Australia for five weeks. Weather sunny, cold, wind picking up throughout the morning, very heavy frost. I banged my heel in the dark as I took Milli the Border Collie for a pee walk last night. Ran the session in training shoes. In attendance Steve (early set), Jen, Gabe, Roget and myself. Chris and Helen joined us for coffee. Had chats with Leanne during the strides. The set: Warm up, 5 x 100m strides, 3 x 2500m efforts, warm down, 2nd warm down with Milli. All up 17km for the morning, 125km for the week. Splits: Steve 9:07,9:08,9:09. Me: 9:30,9:04,8:53. Jen 5:04/km ave. Gabe 4:56/km ave. Next set on the beach in Saint Malo, France at low tide.

Steve has kept the good training form going on these short, cold days. It was the coldest morning of the year today with minus 4. We will get a minus 6-8 before this winter is finished. This week Steve ran a 12.5km tempo with 9km at 4:08/km. Very solid form at this time of year. I've had another week of running over Black Mountain and back, to and from work. Volume has lifted to 130km+ and loads of long strength climbs. As of this evening I'm done with that. An easy day tmoz, 2.5km session on Saturday and flying out to France that evening.

Cold, still and foggy morning at Ginninderra Parkrun. I have only run this course once previously due to a thunderstorm related asthma attack during my first attempt a few years ago. A recent course change tempted me back there. Also running were many friends including Jen and Minnie who both ran well. My run was solid, nothing special. It rarely is during high volume base training and no mid-week sessions. On Friday Steve ran 3 x 2500m efforts at Stromlo. Splits: 9:25,9:13,9:09. Another strong session from Steve. All up 17km (128km/wk) for me including 10km with Milli the border collie. We celebrated her first birthday last evening. I will be away for her birthday and the anniversary of Bella's death on same day of 25th June.

One week to go until I head for France. With the weather here still an obstacle I've taken to running to and from work to keep things ticking along. This week it's been through forest trails and over Black Mountain before dropping into work. I've really enjoyed it, having found my up tempo running legs again. It normally takes around six weeks from starting base training at 120km/week. Right on schedule. I'm still only doing the one structured session a week, on Saturday with 2500m efforts. I'll find form again very quickly in the warmer weather OS when I start doing sessions on the beach in Saint Malo.