the bus that couldn't slow down

Great run this morning; feeling fantastic, and for the first time in a long while for this blog, I don't have to tag the word 'achilles', because it didn't cause any problems at all during the run today. (or do i have to tag it now that i have mentioned it?)


Today was the fastest run I have done since I began training, which I think reflects the faster pace I have been running recently. I jumped in the car and headed down to 'The Tan', a running track encircling the Botanic Gardens here in Melbourne. It is the place to go if you are a runner in Melbourne - the track record has been held by some amazing runners, including my two running heros, Steve Monaghetti and Craig Mottram. 


It was great if no other reason than to run with others surrounding me. I was able to focus on a couple of runners ahead and pace based on them, catching some and losing others. It was great just to be in a group running without the relative pain.


And today was just a medium paced 6km to set me up for tomorrow's 20km long run. I would usually use that as an opportunity to run down to Mrs S's parents place (also known as E's parents place), but since E is jet setting her way to New York as I write, I haven't yet worked out where I am going to head tomorrow.

country town running

So, the problem with running in a country town is that, well, there's not much of it. I ran up and down the main strip of a town in New South Wales called Cooma this morning, and still had a few kilometres to make up, so I had to zig and zag through side streets in order to make up the distance. It was tricky, I gotta say.

Not a bad run, my achilles is still a bit sore, but not really too bad. I've reached a stage where I think I'll have to go and see a sports physio or something. 10km this morning though, and I really wanted to run it slow in order to preserve my energy for my first back-to-back 6km/20km coming up this weekend. I had also read on Cool Runnings, a spectacular Australian running messageboard about the benefits of running below goal pace. So I ran it at about 1:00/km slower than my goal pace, which felt comfortable pretty much all of the way, except when I encountered a few hills that made life a bit tricky.

All in all, a pretty comfortable run, though I really need to get this achilles sorted, because I am starting to sound like a broken record.

speed, speed, cepat!

First speed session this morning of the program, and I'm feeling pretty good. It took a bit to get going this morning (tying up your shoe laces with your eyes half open - always comedy gold), but once I did I felt pretty good. Pain was relocating all over my body though, moving from my chest (felt like woodpeckers were going to work on my breastplate) to my calves, to (surprise, surprise) my achilles, and even a recurrance of my old compartment syndrome symptoms. Fun and games.

I did four sets of 1500m at 80% intensity with a 500m jog in between this morning, and felt good to know at the end that I had run that intensity at above my 10km pace. I had meant to run at around the 5:10/km pace, and ended up running what looks like on average to be around low 4:50/km pace - a quicker pace than I have clocked through any of my running so far.

I was also silly enough (as you can see below) to include a slight inclining hill into my intervals, which made it tough finishing - but rewarding.

So, a day of stretching and resting, then another day off tomorrow, before my medium run 10km on Thursday. I'm travelling with work tomorrow, so I'll get to go-a-running in new surroundings on Thursday. Very exciting.