The Horrie and Belinda Show

I've stolen a quote from Brendan on an earlier post as a title today because it explains my weekend's running. After neglecting the family a bit lately due to a few races that have required a bit of travelling, I decided against an another all day sojourn with Blue Dog and O Runner running over a part of the GNW walk course yesterday and the Cool Running Sydney 10/20 event today, which involved running 20km and drinking 10 beers along the way. I thought it was safer to put a bit of time and effort into maintaining the DTI. Especially as I may be away from home all weekend in a couple of week's time now that I have agreed to crew for Bandanna in his possible 100 mile debut at GNW.

28/10/06

As Belinda and I both had an hour on the program, we thought it would be a good idea to run together. We decided to drive to Maroubra Beach and run around the coastline to Coogee Beach and back. As Belinda was not feeling that well, we turned around in the middle of Coogee and head back, which gave us an 8km journey. While the pace was slow, it was a good run as there were a few hills to negotiate on the out and back course.

Then it was off to Little Athletics with Tim, who had his lapathon to run. His plan was to improve on last year's effort of 15 laps totalling 6km. We started off okay and had 4 laps down after 15 minutes, which had us on track for 16 laps. Unfortunately Tim who had a stomach bug during the week was now starting to feel the pinch and was working hard to maintain 4 minute laps. I decided to include extra walk breaks for him so he would keep his fluid levels up. This helped him continue to knock out the laps between 4 and 4 and a half minutes. It was becoming more evident the longer we went that he wasn't going to run 16 laps so I told him to keep working and he could still aim for the same as last year. We had 13 laps down with a bit over 7 minutes to go. I told him he could still run 15 if he put in his customary big finish. We ran the 14th lap in just under 4 minutes, leaving us around 3 and a half minutes to run the last lap. Despite feeling the pinch, he pushed as hard as he could and finished the last 150m strongly to hit the 6km mark with just about 7 seconds left on the clock. It was a brave effort from him as he was feeling below par but ran his heart out. I was so proud of him and told him what a great run it was. Even though he wanted to do better, I told him that he did his best on the day and he will have better runs in the future. 16 or 17 laps will have to wait for another year.

29/10/06

After daylight saving robbed us of an hour, it was an early rise for today's run. Belinda had 90 minutes on the program so the plan today was for me to run a bit over 10km to Centennial Park to meet her there and then run for 90 minutes with her before running back home to give me a 3 and a half hour hitout covering 33kms+.

I set out running at a comfortable 6 minute/km pace and arrived to meet Belinda in 62 minutes. We then headed around the trails just inside the perimeter fence of Centennial Park. We ran the lap in 47 minutes which is approximately 7km. Then it was Belinda's turn to choose our path so we ran along some different trails before crossing to the inside fence of the main path. Then it was around the lake we train with SWEAT before heading up and doing a Wild Wally and a Big Bertha and then back to the inside fence. We arrived at our starting point about 5 minutes short of the 90 minute target so we agreed that she would run a part of my journey home and turn around in a couple of minutes. She soon bid me farewell and I headed home. I wanted to get back home in the same time I took to get to the park earlier to finish around the 3 and a half hour mark. The goal was achieved as I arrived home 7 seconds over the target.

This was a great way to run at a relaxed pace and share some precious family time so a very enjoyable weekend which has done the DTI no harm at all.