The Horrie and Belinda Show

1/4/07

To remind myself that I am still training for Western States (thanks Plu), I decided to head out to Lindfield for the Davidson Recreation STaR, which is just short of 30km with lots of hills. It is classified as a H4, meaning they don't get much tougher. I started out with the 6.10 group of about 20. We stayed together for the first 5km but then the hills started to bite and the group started to thin out. We ended up in a group of 8 when the 6.10 group went past us just before we headed into the last 5km of trail. Whilst running through here I misjudged a low branch and almost knocked myself out. A quick shake of the head and we were off to finish in 2:40 at an average of 5:20/km.

2/4/07

Half hour recovery run on the program today and covered 6.25km in the allocated time.

3/4/07

Headed off to SWEAT for a 4 lap of the lake time trial for a distance of 5.7km. PB for this TT was 23:03, which was set a couple of weeks before 6 Foot. After I finished that day, I vowed to myself I would go sub 23 the next time I tackled it. The only problem was the next time it was programmed was 3 days after 6 Foot. So this was my opportunity to have a crack. Tucked in behind Blue Dog and Danielle on the first lap, which we went through in around 5 and a half minutes, which I realised was a bit quick. I then gradually fell behind them and continued to do so each lap afterwards. I was happy to keep the average below 4 min/km for the first time in this TT and stop the clock in 22:45 for an 18 second PB. I was happy to manage a PB as the legs were feeling very heavy by the end and had lost their zip from Saturday.

4/4/07

As it is taper time with Striders 10km on Saturday and the Canberra 50km on the week after, the midweek long run was only another 30 minutes. The legs appreciated the drop in distance and I felt relaxed knocking out 6.36km at an average of 4:42/km.

5/4/07

We had 5x1km reps on the menu at SWEAT and the plan was not to attack them as the Striders 10km is on Saturday. The legs felt a bit lighter than the Tuesday and the zip had returned to them. I didn't go flat out and was happy to run them with Danielle who was also backing off as she is tapering for Canberra as well. Pleasantly, the pace was still there with nowhere near the intensity that we usually do them in. It was probably the effect of the taper as well as the cooler conditions. Splits were 3:47, 3:44, 3:42, 3:45 and 3:45.

6/4/07

Another half hour on the program and almost an identical run to Wednesday. This time I covered an extra 20m which didn't change the average pace of 4:42/km.