I do seem to enjoy playing catch up with this blog - must have too much life to keep it up :)

Anyway, Saturday we did the Park Road loop again. I must say, I felt a lot more tired this week - probably down to the tough Thursday session on top of going back to intervals on the Tuesday. Park Road nearly finished me off and even the climb from Midland to Pechey Road was a tough one. But I got through it okay. I felt pretty tired the rest of the day, which meant my body was crying out for a rest, but tough luck!

Sunday, as I had promised, I turned up for the Women's Classic. Turns out it wasn't necessary as none of the people I was supposed to run with were there, but I felt I might as well head out since the weather had turned out glorious. No chance of racing today, but I pushed a little harder than I planned and finished in around 55 minutes - nothing earth-shattering but a decent tempo given my long break from tempo runs (track aside). The rest of Sunday was taken up with a fabulous afternoon/evening at Trish's, including massage and BBQ - makes the pain well worth it :)

Monday I took my much needed break and enjoyed a session at the steam room, and then this morning (Tuesday) I met Kate for our Mona's session. I felt pretty good on this today, so the day off did some good. We kept all our intervals faster than 5 min KM - not earth-shattering, but good and steady, and we did it all without any stops, which is even better. I had hoped to head to the gym for a pilates later, but work was a bit busy so it will have to keep for another time.

Wednesday I decided not to run as I knew Thursday was going to be a tough day; instead I went to the gym and spend half an hour on the bike, did a few light weights and lots of stretching. Thursday morning I woke to the sound of rain. I kept an ear out for my mobile, half hoping Shannon would text to call off so I could go back to bed and avoid the rain. But I turned up as did Shannon and many others, despite the awful weather, and we ran the bridges loop. I kept my pace really slow to save myself for track in the evening - 6.26min pace - not sure if I've run that slow in a long time, but it did feel rather nice. Shannon is coming back nicely with her running and pushed on, which was great to see.

Later in the day (helped out by a recovery session at the gym involving a steam room and cold showers) I headed to the track with Sugar. The plan was for a 3km and a 1km. After last week's 14.57 I was looking to take my 3km a little faster. The conditions again were perfect; clear, cool and very little wind. I set out at my goal pace, slipped a little in the second lap, but managed to pull it back a bit and hold on reasonably well. I finished in 14.42, which I'm very pleased with - a 15 second improvement over last week. I was well out of breath when I was done and couldn't imagine doing the 1km, but there was a good gap, so I decided to front up. Having never done a 1km race before I had no idea how to pace it. It really showed as I realized too late that I was feeling way too good for a 1km - with just 400m to go I had a lot in the tank. I pushed much harder, but too late and ended up with a time of 4.39. I know I could have gone under 4.30, so I guess next time I'll have to hurt from the start! Still it's a learning curve and I'm very pleased with what I did tonight

Back to JK's intervals session today. I felt pretty relaxed going into this, forgetting how hard it is. Got there early and did a 10 minute warm up, then a bit of stretching with Jo as we waited for the session to begin. JK had a fun one in store for us - 1200m with 1 minute rest, then 400m at a tougher pace, then a 3 minute rest, then do it all again another two times. That was a total of 4.8km and an incredibly tough session, but great to be back in the groove. I was pleased that my 1200s got a bit faster each time, though the 400m seemed to slip a bit, which is disappointing. I guess it means I'm better over distance, which is hardly surprising.

Okay, I'm finally up to date again! I ran today in King's Park - the first time since mid-June. I do love that run and it's so nice to see the sun getting up a bit earlier again. We had a lovely little group this morning - Damien, Jo, Shannon, Gina and me. I felt quite good so managed to keep up with Jo and Gina (having said that, Jo was doing her go slow run for me - if she had wanted to do her pace I wouldn't have been able to keep up in a million years!) We finished with a coffee at the Next Generation gym, which I joined recently. It's such a great gym - I've been using it for recovery a lot, which I think has really helped my running.

Saturday 1st August was an auspicious day - my birthday and the long run in the hills. What a perfect way to spend a birthday (that and the perfect evening later with friends and great food). A large group of us - 10 in all, including Shannon and Kate and myself - headed out on the Midland to John Forest National Park run. I wasn't sure how I would go, given that the previous week I'd done 17km on my own in Denmark and struggled a lot with the last 5km of that. But I felt fantastic. Though Park Road was tough as always, I managed to get up it without too much difficulty and certainly without stopping. What helped the run was not stopping in Midland. I find that stop really kills my momentum as you've just finished the downhill and are starting to climb. I find continuing the climb is so hard after a stop. But the run was fantastic, the company great and the scenery splendid. We spotted 4 kangaroos on the run through the forest - they stared at us before taking off. I guess they're thinking "crazy humans"! We finished as always with a coffee/tea in the bakery. It's freezing there, but somehow it always seems worth it as the conversation is so good.

Rather than do one long, long catch up saga, I felt it best to break into bite size pieces, so onto Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th. Wednesday was a morning recovery run on my own. Felt fine but was glad to finish. Despite starting later it was still incredibly cold. Thursday morning I met Shannon, Kate and Wendy and co. for the 6am run. Did a lovely gentle trot, which was so enjoyable and social. I didn't want to push it as the evening I planned on doing track. Of course, this is days later so Thursday has passed and we're onto the evening for the track session. I was unsure how I would cope given track has been a problem for me and the marathon was just over 3 weeks ago, but I was very happy with the outcome. I stuck with the 3km, not wanting to overdo it at this stage. I managed to keep it more or less on 5min KM. At the last lap I was 13.02, so pushed it a bit harder and finished in 14.57. I'm so pleased with that and hopeful I can start to build on it

It's been so long since I updated, I don't quite know where to begin. Let me see, last entry July 16 ... since then, running got a lot tougher and now it's starting to feel really good again. I had a holiday in between - Margaret River and Denmark - with some good running and some not so good running and plenty of fabulous food and some good wine. All resulting in a very relaxing time. Got back on Monday 27th and on the Tuesday I joined Kate for our regular Mona's session. It was a bitterly cold morning and the warm up felt tough because of the cold, but I began to feel good by the time the session started and really enjoyed the session. We had a great time catching up as it was really our first run together since the marathon. It's good to see Kate running so strong - she is incredible preparing for 2 marathons in the next couple of months!