The Horrie and Belinda Show

26/2/07

As I had another hour on the program I ran my 12km figure 8 course. I was happy with how I was moving and ended up finishing the 12km in 58 and a half minutes.

27/2/07

We had 2x2 laps of the lake with a 4 minute jog recovery between each rep. After the drills and warmup I felt good and was ready for a good session. On the first rep I tucked myself in behind Blue Dog and let him set the pace. Usually when I do this he starts to open a big gap on me from the beginning of the second lap but I was able to keep not too far behind him to finish the first rep in 11:01 for a 9 second PB. So after a quick drink and a nice jog recovery to stay loose, we were off again. I don't know what happened but I found myself in front of Blue Dog, WTR and Peter who I am usually trailing on the first lap. The balance was restored when the dog went past in the second half of the first lap and then Peter and WTR went past at the same point on the second lap. I wasn't sure if I was slowing or they were upping the pace so probably a bit of both as I finished the second rep in my previous PB of 11:10 so I did fade a fraction.

28/2/07

As it is a lighter week this week, I only had 45 minutes on the program. It felt good that I wasn't going to be running for at least an hour and a half like I usually do on a Wednesday. I upped the pace a little bit today to try and get a feel for the pace I will attempt to run Canberra Marathon in and was happy to finish 9.5km in the 45 minutes at an average of 4:44/km.

1/3/07

With the Striders 10km on Saturday, everybody had a lighter session today. Most of us were running 4km of fartlek. Sean wanted us to stay relaxed and run the floats at slower than 10km pace and the efforts a bit quicker than 10km pace. I settled in with Blue Dog and Danielle and we seemed to be running both the floats and efforts at a comfortable pace, going through the first km in 4:16. Then things got even more comfortable on the second km and we slowed slightly to go through the second km in 4:21. We realised we were bludging so put in a little more effort on the 3rd km and went through that in 4:14. After going through the 3rd km, I checked with the dog if he was sticking to the 4km Sean had set and when he answered in the affirmitave, I decided to open the stride on the efforts without ever feeling as though I was hitting top pace. Blue Dog and I gradually eased away from Danielle and when we noticed Liz Miller not too far ahead taking it very easy, I thought it would be good to catch her, which I did with about a half a km to go. I kept the stride firm and felt very relaxed on the efforts and really switched off during the floats and was amazed that I finished the last km in 3:59. This was the first time ever that I ran a 4 minute km so effortlessly. Both Blue Dog and Sean have now set me a goal for Saturday given my strong form of late. More will be revealed after the 10km on Saturday.

Belinda has been given the all clear from her doctor and the physio to start running again so she ventured out for a 5km at a very comfortable pace. She was so happy, you would have thought she ran 50km. That runner's high is amazing!

2/3/07

The usual half hour on the program for Friday. I was very comfortable running 6.3km in the half hour at an average pace of 4:46/km. This pace is beginning to feel very comfortable for Canberra.