Sparkie's rundiary

Thursday 29th December
With the quad giving me almost no grief for three days, I decided it was time to test it out a little. Headed down to Pennant Hills park to do some interval work (the exact nature of which would be determined when I got there). Did some solid stretching on the quads and hammies, and then did an easy 2km warm-up in about 8:40. Not a peep from the quad, which was good. Started some laps of surge the straights/walk the bends, but once I started to work things, the protests began (albeit mild). Ended up doing 4 laps of this - eight 100m intervals in all. Put the clock on the last few - 18 seconds, so roughly 3 min/km pace.

Deciding that the feedback was only tightness, I upped the interval distance to 200m, kept the pace the same, and did eight more. Held together fine, although protests continuted, and decided that nothing good was going to come from pushing it further, so warmed down and went home.

I missed my scheduled gym session, as I spent the afternoon rifling through an 85 year-old woman's underwear draw, which unfortunately isn't as humourous as it sounds, as I was helping my dad clean out my mother's, aunt's house, as she has recently been put into permanent care with dementia. Went to visit her later - a very heart-breaking thing to see such a vital healthy person deteriorate so quickly. I have a photo of her with Louis 12 months ago, but now she doesn't know who I am, let alone that I have a son. However, she was very pleased to have guests, and I will take Louis and his cousin up to see her next week, as she talked about how nice it was to see children running around. She was once matron at the school Queen Elizabeth was attending, which despite my dislike of royalty, is still a cool story.

Friday 30th December
This morning's run was a good one. Because yesterday was such a relatively easy session, I was jumping out of my skin this morning, and decided to do a modified multi-pace session. Warmed up for a km in 4:15, then ran 4km in 14:17 (3:39/3:50/3:18/3:30 - the varied pace having more to do with terrain than dodgy pacing). Recovered for 1km in 4:55, then did a 1km uphill in 3:32, before doing 2 easy km (5:04/4:22) to finish. Even with quite a few uphills, I never felt I had gone lactic in this session, which was very encouraging. Even more encouraging was that I didn't hear a peep out of my quad, indicating that yesterday's session didn't do any harm. Tomorrow I plan to do some longer work at the pace I ran yesterday - probably some ladders (200/400/600/800/600/400/200) at 72 seconds a lap. Then again - the CoolRunning 5km challenge is also on...

Louis and I are off to the pool today, along with another 2 year-old I somehow agreed to take with me.

No, not a protest against noctural birds-of-prey, or those enjoying far better ciders than me on the other side of the world. However, when I got back from my run last Friday, I noticed a couple of contrasts to the Owl's bunny run.

Temperature: A chilly 6 degrees on the bunny run versus a balmy 38 degrees in Dubbo!

Clothing: Layer upon layer in Potters Bar vs running shorts, socks and shoes (and a heart-rate strap - to maintain my modesty)

Landscape: Green English countryside vs brown Australian country

Under-foot: Clay sticking to your feet vs sandy trails that made upills quite challenging

Wildlife: No bunnies, but a lot of kangaroos (in various states of aliveness)

We had driven to my sister's place at Dubbo that day with the mercury sitting on about 41 when we arrived. After giving up trying to explain to my family why I can't "just have a day off", I headed out at 6:30pm, thinking it had cooled down a bit. My sister's house backs onto a National Park (actually, it's about a 2km from the entrance, but it's dirt roads most of the way), which is ideal for running in. Took the first km easy, and was starting to think that my fitness had dropped a bit, until the second km came up in 3:49. The third rolled around in 3:56, and I was feeling good, and decided to try and hold the pace for as long as I could. That turned out to be about 200m, and despite maintaining the intensity, the heat was taking its toll, and I droppped back to 4:15 for the fourth km, where I turned around. Realising that pushing it would be stupid (I had left my drink bottle at the 1km mark), I dropped back to aboutt 4:30 a km before finishing with a 4:15 once I had a drink.

I actually thought it was a bit cooler than it was, and only afterwards realised that it was so hot during the run, that my body would have difficulty radiating heat, hence the drop off in pace. Not the cleverest run I've done, but came through unscathed.


The day before (Thursday) was my first proper run back with my quad - but just an easy 8.2km in 35 mintues. The quad was tight, but running was pretty easy, and the muscle soreness from lunges the previous day was a greater discomfort.

Saturday saw things cool down a bit, but the temperature was probably still in the high-20's when I headed out at 7:00am. Took it much easier, and did 16km of fire trails in 1:14 - just below my target pace of 4:30/km, but given the terrain and my notoriously fickle ankles, it was pretty much the run I was looking for. Felt great, particularly on the firmer stretches (the fire trails changed constant from sandy to ankle-threateningly rocky), but I started to tire towards the end (once again muscle soreness from the gym appeared to by the culprit).

Sunday I headed out in the evening to do an easy 8km (mainly to tick the Xmas day box), but as I had left my Garmin on and run the battery flat, and experienced a few other mechanical mishaps on-route, I didn't have much of a run, and came back feeling a bit disillusioned (Xmas Day lunch had been a bit of a let down, and my day wasn't getting any better). My quad was still bugging me, and it looked like I wasn't going to train my way through this one. So I gave myself three days off, which with return journeys to Sydney and overnight stays with the in-laws fitted my schedule well. Back into training tomorrow, with a gym session and a 7.5km mixed pace run on the schedule.


One sad aspect of the brief Dubbo trip was having to leave Bronte, one of our two labradors, behind. Having made the decision to sell-up in Wahroonga, and rent in the Eastern Suburbs for a while, to be closer to Amelia's family (and Centennial Park and Sydney Athletics Centre), we realised that rental accomodation that would allow two large dogs was going to be scarce. However, as Bronte is now allowed to sleep on beds, and has a Jack Russell cross playmate, we think she will cope just fine. And Sally now has all the scraps Louis throws over the side of his high-chair to herself.

Oh, and on the subject of Owls, according to a guest on "Speaking in Tongues" (SBS, Monday, 9:00pm), fear of Owls is often a sign of alien abduction!

The optomistic comment about only missing one day with my quad was a bit short of the mark, but managed an easy 3km jog today, so things are headed back on track. The quad was actually sorer at the start than at the end, and post-jog felt better than it has been all week. However, the 5 min/km pace was a bit disconcerting, mainly because the quad is sorest at full extension, so shuffling is the prefered method of locomotion. Will try a proper run tomorrow (9km at about 4:30/km) to test things out.

Made it to the gym as promised on Monday, but only did upper body as the quad was still sore. Back tomorrow for a full-program. Much happier with my new weights routine, which for those curious is:
Alternate dumbbell curl
Dumbbell isolation curl
Dumbbell press
Dumbbell fly
Behind the neck press
Upright Rows
Lat pulldowns
Seated cable row
Deep squat
Forward lunge
Hamstring curl
Triceps pullover

All 3 sets of 10-12, except hamstring curls, which are 4 sets of 12-15.

Also received some good feedback on my blog about discus. Apparantly, spinning adds only 15% to a throw, so perfecting the release is far more important than perfecting the spin. As I dropped 3.5 metres when I focused in spinning, this makes sense, so I will be working on the basics for the three throws over the next month.

Which is now much easier as Santa dropped off a javelin, discus and shot put on Monday (along with 3 training hurdles). Speaking of hurdles - after my shocking reacquaintence with the event on Saturday, I have decided to make January "hurdle month", as this is the event(s) where I am not weakest (the throws have that honour) but am falling shortest of my potential. Plan to do two sessions a week, along with hurdling-specific stretching so my next attempt is less embarassing.

Christmas this year is at my sister's house at Dubbo. Although it gets hot, it is a dry heat, so if your stay out of the hot parts of the day, running is still great. Her property backs on to a State Forest, with lots of lovely running trails, so I am hoping to get 2-3 longer runs in while I am up there (not ideal sprint training, but a chance to relax and enjoy my running a bit - not that I don't enjoy the fast stuff).

Louis moment: Those of you between 35-45 will remember hand-held games in the early 80s called "Game and Watch". Simple but addictive, they revolved around what are (in hindsight) fairly gruesome themes - people jumping out of buildings or planes, or walking over man holes. Anyway, you had to react quickly to deal with an endless stream of objects coming your way. Now, Louis has decided that it would be helpful if he unpacked the dishwasher. You guessed it, every 2 seconds you are passed a plate and have to find somewhere to put it before the next one comes along! Finally put up the wading pool today, and spent an hour with Louis and 2 dogs in and out of it this afternoon. It's a hard life!

Headed out to Homebush for the All-Comers meet this afternoon. A comedy of dramas (including 2 runaway dogs) made me 30 minutes late, but my first event started 30 minutes later than I thought, and the ARDUOUS registration process ended up taking 30 seconds.

Decided to do the BIG program, entering the 110m hurdles, 100m, 400m, triple jump, high jump, javelin and 3000m steeplechase. I picked up some sprinting spikes at the Sydney Running Centre on the way through - a nice discrete gold pair - think Michal Johnson without the speed. Is the running market so full of exhibitionists that a simple black pair are deemed not financially viable?

The first event, the 110m hurdles saw me tackling the tall timber for the first time in 10 years (a phrase you'll hear often over the next couple of weeks), and despite winning the over 35s, and running within 3 tenths of my best, it was still an appalling display of technique (agricultural as Colin would say), and has probably surpassed javelin as my worst event (actually, I think hammer throw still retains that honour). 20.40 for the record - 318 points. On the plus side, there is really no scope to go backwards from here, and working on my technique should be able to reign in a couple of seconds, putting it into the league of the respectable. However, there is a LOT of work to be done here.

Things picked up in the 100m, which I also won, in a lacklustre 12.80 seconds, but once again into a headwind. The people I beat all said it was a great run - but they would say that, wouldn't they. Definitely feel I've lost a bit in the speed department, although looking back I have run worse times in the past, and gone on to run low 12s weeks later, so once again, technique and strength are the focus here.

Unfortunately, the triple jump was on at the same time as the 100m, and by the time I got there, they were into the fourth round, and indicated "better luck next time". As I would have had to do a couple of jumps before the 100m, and I only won by 0.06 seconds, and I got a benchmark for the triple last week, it was probably best that I missed it.

Next up was the 400m, where I drew the inside lane (my preference - I like to see who's in front of me). In the first 50m or so, my left quad started to twinge, and I debated whether to drop out, but decided to see if I could run through it. By the 200m I had made up the stagger, and was feeling comfortable and ready to kick down. However, the quad had got progressively crampier, and with great reluctance, I pulled out. The winner (who I was already ahead of) ran 56.6 - so I think a 54 was on the cards today - however, obviously it wasn't to be.

Was preparing to head home, when another runner recommended I see the on-duty physio. Not knowing they existed, I thought it was a great idea. Some mild prodding indicated nothing more than a slight spasm, so 20 minutes of ice while I watched the 1500m races was the order of the day. Obviously the other events were out the window, but a day's rest and a few easier days training should make things right.

Although disappointed, this is not really a major setback (prepare for contradictory post in a couple of days) - just one of those things that happens when you do fast races. However, I have taken a few things away from today:
1. I am probably capable of running faster than my body is capable of handling. No more racing for a few weeks while I give the body a chance to catch up. Admittedly, the 100m was faster than I have run for years, so it was bound to stress the body. However, I can't keep doing this on a weekly basis, so I will have to slowly get the body used to running at this speed on a regular basis.

2. New shoes - probably should have broken them in during a sprint drill session, so the body was able to get used to the different muscular stresses in a more controlled manner. Likewise, doing the hurdles event without any previous hurdling practice was always going to test the body.

3. More strength training. This needs to become as rigid in my schedule as running, and for the next two weeks, if I can only fit in one session a day, weights will take precedence over running. I have been running really well the last three weeks, but it is middle-distance training, and today was sprinting, so the preparation wasn't directly translatable to the event.

4. When the body rebels, stop then and there. Had I pulled up at 50m, things would have been even less worrying. Results at this time of year are meaningless, and I need to stop worrying about them.

5. Ration sprint events - yes the double decathlon requires you to be able to do ten events a day for two days - but my body is not at this point yet, and will not by bullied on this subject. A maximum of four events per meet till the end of January - 1 sprint, 1 jump, 1 middle-distance and 1 throw.

A good win in the 1500m division 2 by Strider Ray Wareham (4:18). Would like to think I could have mixed it up with him - but there is plenty of time for that this summer.

Felt heaps better after yesterday's rest day, and decided to have a crack at the scheduled 8x300m session. Hamstrings were still a bit tight during the warm-up (2km in 8:15 and 4x100m run throughs), and it wasn't till the last run-through that I decided to attempt the session. I had received a lot of CoolRunning feedback after not making it through last week's session. Because most of it was contradictary, I decided to just tough it out, and run the session as scheduled (with 300m jog recoveries).

Managed to churn our 48.0/49.0/48.5/48.9/49.5/49.1/49.6/47.8 maintaining the 300m jog recoveries. Although shuffle was a better description of some of the later recoveries, I resisted the temptation to walk, and kept all the recoveries under 2:30. Given the session was on grass, I was happy with the times, and even gave myself a 'well done' as I crossed the line on the 8th interval. 800m cool down, which was a bit short but the hamstrings indicated they had seen enough fun for one day.

Very happy to have gotten through the session, and felt that it was a stronger session than last week. Paradoxically, even though this is a challenging session, I don't think I am working at full intensity, with the intervals still feeling managable. This is probably a good sign, as the next block calls for this session in 45-46 seconds, so a bit breathing space is helpful.

I am in two minds about racing in Saturday night. Part of me wants to have a hard workout over 1500m - ideally shooting for sub-4:20. However, it is probably too early in the season to worry about absolute times, and the alternative is to attempt another busy program, including:
* 110m hurdles
* high jump
* triple jump
* 100m
* 400m
* javelin
* 3000m steeple chase

The latter would give me a further five benchmarks for the season (110h, HJ, 100m, 400m, 3000mSC), and give me some more feedback on my general performance level. I am leaning towards this at the moment, but will keep an open mind (I still love to race).

Santa got his Xmas list today (well, Kings Track and Field did - although the guy on the phone was very jolly), with a javelin, a shot put, two discus and three hurdles on their way to a spot under the tree. Unfortunately, annual check-ups and shots for the blondes (plus an emergency after-hours trip to doggie ER after Sally had a reaction to her shots) has eaten into out running shoe budget, and the new shoes will have to wait until the new year (OK maybe one pair before Xmas).

Finished yesterday's post with the notion that I might skip my track workout and have a nice swim instead. And yet, 4pm yesterday afternoon and I'm at Narabeen warming up on the track. I should have known things weren't right as I hobbled through 5 laps of warm-up, my hamstrings aching and my form totally shot. However, the sheer bloody-mindedness that kept me on my program for the previous two days prevailed, and after 4 run-throughs, I set off to do 5x600m in 1:50 with 1 minute recovery.

The first one felt OK, and came out in 1:52, the second a pleasing 1:50. However, I was already struggling, and dropped back to 1:54 for the third, before limping home in 1:55 for the fourth and deciding to call it quits. Pushing myself through runs the last two days had left me a bit tired, but the main problem was that the tight hamstrings were altering my form, making my running less efficient, and therefore pushing the pace into lactic territory. Compared to previous sessions, this wasn't a total disaster, but on tartan I should have been running 1:48s, and much more comfortably than I was.

So today became the rest day that I should have taken on Sunday. Took advantage of this to take Louis into the city (lest anyone should wonder whether I actually do anything besides running and parental duties, I was working 'til 11:00 last night, and was back at my desk at 5:00 this morning).

Didn't actually have anything to do in the city, but Louis is fascinated by trains, and loves the ride into the city (and it kills a few hours). Went into the ABC Shop to check out the BoohBah dolls (9:00am ABC if you are keen - think TellyTubbies on (more) LSD) - a minor incident when they were returned to the shelf. Then off to DJs food hall to almost buy some Roquefort cheese ($90/kilo - there are much cheaper ways to get botulism) - instead got some coffee as an Xmas present for the brother-in-law who has everything (to go with his goat). Then off to Hyde Park for lunch. Sat in the ampitheatre (my favourite part of the park - although a bit warmer than last time I was there) where Louis was kind enough to feed me some grapes (including a few pre-chewed ones), in-between attempting to pat the pigeons.

A more challenging trip home as approaching nap-time and the need to explore the entire carriage kept me busy kid-wrangling - but he was still an angel in the scheme of things.

Hopefully I will be able to do my speed session tomorrow, but will see how the legs are doing in the morning. Planning to race on Saturday night, although which events is still a bit uncertain, which I will prattle on about tomorrow.

Having gone to close to a couple of 10-year old PBs on Saturday, I was beginning to think that nothing had been lost with age. That was until I got out of bed Sunday morning! Muscles I had forgotten existed were aching.

After a crappy 4.5 hours sleep (stressing over a situation I really couldn't have altered, but feeling bad for letting a friend down), I dutifully went through the motions at 5:30am, and headed out the door for an easy 16km. My current training defines easy as 4:30/km, but this doesn't account for yesterday's workout or the roller-coaster landscape, and I was happy just to scrape in under 5 min/km, doing the 16km in 1:19.04. Felt flat as a tack the whole way - any spring in my step had been left at the triple jump take-off board. On the plus side, my heart-rate averaged 137 for the whole workout, so it was exactly the long run I needed - it just didn't feel like it at the time.

If Sunday was bad, Monday was worse, and DOMS had well and truly kicked in (although it felt more like riga-mortis), and my hamstrings and groin were aching. However, with Amelia staying in Bondi for the night (having been to a Hafla (belly dancing performance) in the city), Louis was my only source of compassion - and not a very good one. Walked him to swimming lessons (about 2km) and back, and had a great time during the lesson (as did Louis), which helped the tightness a little. Headed out for my sheduled 9km run at lunch, which I got through in 39:40 - some quick kms, but mostly just getting by.

I have started to process the wealth of data from Saturday's various events, and have drawn a few conclusions.
* my triple jump was a huge confidence booster - indicating that speed and strength are at about the same level as 10 years ago (my technique has certainly not improved), if not higher. So hopefully nearly all my PBs from that era are reachable, and given a more focused training plan, beatable (the 800m probably being the exception here)

* although my 200m was the slowest I've ever run, the head-wind and potentially dodgy timing puts it on about par with my first runs of the season back in 1993 and 1994. In those seasons I was running sub-24 seconds a couple of months later, so there is no reason to think differently this time.

* I really need to start working on my sprinting technique and strength. After some good feedback from EasyTiger from CoolRunning, I will be making a few adjustments to my weight training regime (primarily to start doing it regularly - I have been quite slack of late, although this is mainly due to injuries). Will be heading away from the basic strength routine and towards a more event oriented plan - using Dan OBrien's (decathlon world record holder and Olympic gold medalist) book as a base.

* shoes! Triple jumping in distance spikes can't be good for my legs. Likewise, discus throwing in running shoes (so as your body spins, your feet stay put, so eventually you screw your legs off) isn't helpful. And 200m in shoes designed to run 10,000m in is hardly optimal. So it is off to Running Science for three pairs of shoes (sprinting, jumping and throwing) - and another test of my financial commitment to the event.

* aerobic stength. This needs to receive a boost to help with the four long events (3000m, 3000m SC, 5000m, 10000m). From yesterday's run, I don't think I would be capable of running sub-35 minutes for 10km at the moment, which I think is a benchmark I need to get back to and maintain. The 600m intervals at 5km pace are good, but probably too short. After this week, I will extend them out to 1000m, making this a tougher session, but delivering in an area that has suffered over the past couple of months.

* the physical effects of Saturday are probably the major difference over the intervening 10 years - ie. my body can still produce the same physical output, but it will take a greater toll and take longer to recover. This puts the emphasis back on recovery activities like stretching and massage.

Track session scheduled for this afternoon - still tight, so may revert back to the 5x600m session in place of the 8x300s. Actually, I think I might just go for a swim, and give my legs another day to recover.

Headed out to Lane Cove this afternoon to continue my quest for benchmarks in the double decathlon. The main aim was to get a 200m time, to test where my speed is currently at, but had a go at a few other events to start to familiarise myself with them, test my current form, and get my body used to doing multiple events. Did six events in all:

Discus
Two craps throws, and one half-decent one, coming in at 23.06. Back to the drawing board on this one. I was trying two spins, but need to get my release much better before worrying about the extra momentum of the spins.

Triple jump
The last time I triple jumped was over 10 years ago, jumping a PB of 11.28. So I guess I can't complain about two jumps of 11.24. This easily won the competition (and would have won the National Masters last year), and my jumps were the three longest of the day by over a metre. Although this was encouraging, this is a demanding event on your legs, and they were a bit worse for wear at the end of it. Jim, my pole vault/throws coach is also a horizontal jumps coach, so hopefully some technical session will add some distance. I think 12 metres is achievable

200m
Like all Sydney athletics tracks, Lane Cove is nicely situated in a wind tunnel, and a nice headwind was waiting for us. Raced the first heat with two other runners - both looked like serious sprinters, what with their sprinting spikes and large muscular legs, whereas I needed help getting my blocks set up (damn hardware). Was worried about my hamstrings going in, but everything held together fine, and the headwind was much more of a challenge. Closed in on second place, but not quite, and finished with 25.6 - not as quick as I was hoping. However, two factors hopefully offset this. Firstly the strong headwind, which both the other runners thought was worth about a second. And the comment from the starter that second place only beat me be a metre or so, but the time difference was 0.7 seconds (4-5 metres). Either way, I think sub-25 on tartan is possible at the moment.

However, my form was all over the place, and the run was tougher than I remember 200m runs being, so there is a lot of work to do. Next week I will be adding sprint drills to a couple of workouts to start working on my form.

Javelin
Break-through! Rather than a fancy runup, I focused on the actual throwing, and pulled off a 5.5m PB of 26.20 (it even drew some applause from the other competitors). Like discus, I need to focus on nailing my release before worrying about building up speed on my run-up, but after my initial efforts a few weeks ago, this is encouraging. Santa is apparently going to slip a javelin in my stocking (requiring a 2.5 metre stocking), so there will be lots more practice with this.

60m
Jumped into this on a whin, and ran an easy 8 seconds dead. With no blocks, and no real attempt at rapid acceleration, there was no real point to this, but won my heat anyway, and ran the third fastest time of the day (no surprises that the two 200m guys beat me). My only other attempt at 60m was 7.7 seconds back in 1995, so once again, no discernable loss of speed.

3000m
Entered this more as mental workout (running when I was tired and not in the mood), and to ensure that I had more than 260m in the training diary for today (this replaced a 7.5km fartlek session). Lapped all the competitors at least once, and most twice, so it wouldn't really call it a race (note to The Owl - you would have finised in the top half of the field). Had wanted to run the distance in 10:00 dead, but after nailing 3:20 for the first km, the heat, other events and a general 'I don't feel like pushing myself' attitude kicked in, and I finished in 10:23. Took about 30 seconds to recover, so I was running within myself, but still a bit frustrated to drop off the pace so easily.

This was a very low-key meet, mostly of veterans older than me (apart from the guys in the 200m), so I am not drawing any false excitement from the results. The triple jump was a pleasent surprise, as was the javelin PB, but the 200m and 3000m were both below expectations. I think part of this is due to the heavy training I am currently doing - the old adage that you can't train well and race well at the same time. Also, I think my body is in limbo a bit as I move from aerobic training to anaerobic training, with neither being a particular strength at the moment. A lot of work to do, but I really enjoyed getting back into events like this, and will definitely be heading back again.

After Wednesdy's heat wave, Thursday was a bit cooler, and by the time I hit the track at Narabeen, a coastal breeze was coming in, making it rather comfortable. The aim of the session was the same as last week - 8x300m in 48 seconds, but rather than last week's walking recoveries, I wanted to do jog recoveries (meaning that the 300m intervals were run in a more lactic state).

The shorter recoveries certainly fixed last week's tendancy to run them too quickly, but by the third rep, I knew that keeping the recoveries under 2 minutes was not qoing to happen. Held out till the fifth rep (48.9/48.1/47.8/47.8/48.8 splits), and then dropped back to a walk recovery. During the 6th interval, I pulled up after 200m (32.6) which I was really angry about as I wasn't hurting, and vowed to complete the last two properly. The 2nd last one was 47.4, and then to make amends, I kicked down the last 200m of the last one, to finish in 43.8 (about 27 seconds for the last 200m).

Although I felt better for pushing myself over the last one, it marked the return of that lovely feeling that accompanies speed work - the desire to chuck. Walked 500m and managed to resist, then jogged 1.2km to cool down.

I am probably being a bit too harsh on myself, but I really wanted to get right through this session. However, as this is only the second lactic session this season (and really only the second since 2002), I'll concede that I still have a while to go before I can get right through sessions like this. I may extend the current 3 week block out another week, to give me two more sessions of this, as the next block features this session run in 45-46 seconds/300m, as well as a session of 3x600m at this pace!

I am planning to run the 1500m at the all-comers meet on the17th, so I will do this session Tuesday next week to allow for a greater recovery.

Discovering that this is also turning into a bit of a Louis blog, which I like as it will be good to look back on all the things he has done in this amazing time. Yesterday's highlights included feeding himself with a fork for the first time and his first experience of The Wiggles. The scary thing was watching all the mums (and the occassional dad) in the audience, singing all the songs word perfect. I have seen my future. Reminds me of a line from "The Panel", about The Wiggles going to Moscow and singing "Wake up Lenin"!

When the alarm went off at 5:30 this morning, I was in two minds about whether to go running then, or save it for later in the day. Fortunately Louis had a coughing fit at exactly that moment, and by the time I'd finished checking on him, I was in auto-pilot, and headed out the door. Why 'fortunately'? Well, for the benefit of those in London/Dublin right now, the mercury hit 39 in Wahroonga this afternoon!

A repeat of last week's 4.5km half marathon pace/1.5km easy/1.5km 10km pace session, with 1.5km either side for warm-up/cool-down. The first 4.5km was a bit quicker than last week (16.20 vs 16.47), with a lower average HR (162 vs 166), and at 3:37/km was heading into 10km pace. The 1.5km 'faster' leg was a bit slower than last week (5:33 vs 5:24), but this was due to a little lapse in concentration, rather than any real difficulty with the pace (169 vs 173 ave HR). Disappointed to have dropped off the pace on the second hard section (3:42/km), but felt pretty strong the whole way. Apologies for all the numbers, but it's how my mind works...

Fairly hard training on most days is starting to leave my legs feeling a bit niggly, so some extra emphasis on stretching and supplemental training at the moment. Tough session tomorrow, and as it is on the track, I can't knock it over at 5:30 before it heats up.

Took Louis to the pool this afternoon - the child has no fear, jumping from the side of the 50m pool (one of those old ones where the edge is about 50cm above the water) into the water repeatedly, and then complaining when you didn't get him back on the edge quickly enough to do it again!

Second week of the 13-week program, and it all gets a bit repetitive. Not for me - having spent most of April to June running laps of the one oval, doing the same workout only once a week is variety personified - but for those of you kind enough to be reading this. I will try and make it interesting (or brief).

Monday 5th December - 6:30 am
9km easy - 39:41 (4:24/km)
The schedule probably called for something a bit quicker (perhap 4:05-4:10/km), but after yesterday's theatrics (and some residual stiffness thereafter) I decided an easy recovery run was in order. Very comfortable - 147 average HR.

Tuesday 6th December - 7:00 am
10km - w/5x600m @ 5km pace (1 min recoveries) - 45:12
Felt sluggish heading out the door, but after a 3km warm-up I jumped straight-in, and
churned out a pretty good session - 1:56/1:53/1:54/1:53/1:48, a bit quicker than last week's 1:57/1:58/1:57/1:56/1:53, but the heart-rate was quite a bit lower (about 7 bpm). 3km cool-down.

Tempted to push this session out to 1000m reps, but an interval session that can be knocked over in 45 minutes does hold some appeal. Will repeat next week, and then review for the next three week block.

Saturday I am hoping to head to the UTS North club meet, and have a hit-out over 200m and either 800m or 3000m (depending on how hot it is). Triple jump and discus are also on the program - so I may give them a whirl as well.

And whilst I am feeling quick at the moment, my title as fastest person in the household is under threat. Louis has got his time from sitting on the lounge next to you, to standing on top of the outdoor setting table down to a interval that would make Donovan Bailey proud - certainly quicker than daddy's reaction time (which is not fast enough to prevent the aforementioned table scaling). I have come to realise that there is no better noise in this world than your son squealing with delight (even if it is from the top of a table he shouldn't be standing on).

The first week of the new the schedule has gone as well as could have been hoped for, particularly competing with a ramped-up pre-Christmas social schedule.

Yesterday saw the mother's group Christmas party - featuring six runny nosed boys, and not a single word of conversation not related to the minitae of the lives of six runny nosed boys.

From there we headed to Amjan's bon voyage BBQ, where running replaced toddler's ins-and-outs as the topic of choice (and saw the departure of all non-runners shortly thereafter). The highlight was Amjan's brother giving Louis a balsa wood plane - and being handed back four pieces of balsa wood plan 10 seconds later. The bar for how badly I could behave was raised

However, despite this uncouth behaviour, Louis managed to win himself a heart, with MPHaz's daughter Isobel throwing herself at him - literally. Dowry discussions have already been entered into.

This morning was the Sydney Strider's Annual Awards brunch at Homebush Athletics Stadium, with my third straight sausage sandwich meal (oh for some Special K), preceeded by a typical Strider's STaR run beforehand.

Somewhere in the middle of this, I managed to fit in two runs, after taking a rest-day on Friday - having a delicious Indian lunch with my father instead.

Saturday 3rd December - 12:30 pm
10km fartlek - 45:06 (4:30/km)
It's been a long time since I've done a fartlek session. To be honest, I like them, moreso for the mental than physical challenge. Because you choose when to start the hard sections and when to finish, you have control over how easy or hard the session is. My standard approach to fartlek is to work the uphills and recover on the downhills. Wahroonga geography makes this approach easy as there are a lot hills to be found.

I used the Garmin to record the start and end of the surges and recoveries, but the subjective nature of fartlek made this information fairly useless. The aim is to go lactic, and then recover, so the body gets exposed to working hard, but doesn't get worn out. As long as you are working hard, you are going fast enough. Some short surges were close to 3 min/km, others in the realm of half-marathon pace. An extended recovery over some rough terrain was the only real soft spot, but with this workout on the schedule for the next nine weeks, it will be interesting to monitor the progress.

Sunday 4th December - 6:20pm
26km steady - 1:51:51 (4:17/km)
Strider's STaR at Homebush. After a discussion the night before about the poor-form of people who push the pace in group runs, I held back in the pack for the majority of the run, even ignoring the breakaway pack at 12km. The pace felt really easy (about 4:24/km) for the first 20km or so, and the heart rate stayed down in the 130's - so everything was right on track. However, as the course was pancake flat, the temptation to pick things up was too great, and I kicked down the last 6km in about 23:30, feeling great. The finish included a lap around the Athletics Track, so I finished with mental images of winning Olympic marathon golds to packed stadiums (despite there only being 2 people to witness it).

In all honesty, the fast finish was excessive, particularly as the scheduled run was supposed to be only 16km. The run felt great, and the fast pace was really comfortable, but the important sessions at the moment are the track sessions, and leaving myself flat with false heroics like this is bad training. However, as my aerobic base has been run-down a bit of late, a hard-long aerobic session like this shouldn't go astray.

With my last two speed sessions resulting in two torn hamstrings, I was hoping to see my batting average drop below 1000 today. With some trepidation I headed out to Narabeen, with a backdrop of very black clouds following me.

An easy 2km warm-up in about 8:52, then the big test - some run-throughs! The first one went fine, although I felt a bit sluggish. The 2nd and 3rd felt fantastic, and an easy 4th saw my warm-up complete without incident (yes - I had remembered to stretch this time).

The planned session was 8x300m in 48 seconds. Normally, the recoveries would be 300m jogs, but as this was my first session back on the track, I decided that walk recoveries would ease the transition.

The first one came and went in 48.1, which was spot on. The second as a bit quicker in 47.1. Eased back the third in 48.6, and started to feel a bit flat. Now here's the interesting thing. On the third I had concsiouly held back the pace. On the fourth and subsequent intervals I just ran how I felt. These were all much more comfortable, but at 47.1/46.9/47.1/46.7 and 46.1, also much quicker. Not 100% sure why (possibly I was running the first 200 quicker - they were coming up in about 30 seconds - and then easing back the last 100m). Needless to say, it was good to be running quickly and easily again.

The scheduled session called for 8x100m sprints after a 20 minute break, but as I had pushed my luck with both my hamstrings and Mrs Sparkie (Louis's dinner time was rapidly approaching), I wrapped things up with a 2km warm-down in about 9:30. Missed dinner-time, but managed to fit in half-an-hour of playing 'shops' - which essentially involves stacking tins on the slippery dip, and then pushing them down it.

All-in-all I was very happy with the session, although I know it will be much harder next week with the reduced recoveries. This was illustrated by the fact that the aim of the session was to get my heart-rate to around 180, but it never got over 168. Several of the first 100m efforts were sub-15 seconds, so the base speed for a good 800m (though not necessarily a good 400m) is still there. Most importantly, the legs held up well, with not the slightest niggle. I have the option of taking a rest-day tomorrow, which I think I will be exercising.