A fresh, new start

Okay, it's not like I haven't been running, I've just been very slack on the blog front. For someone who writes for a living, this regular writing stuff is not always tempting, but I'll give it a go.

I've hired a coach - I pay him with dinners and walks with the dog - and have a programme under way to get me to New York fit and raring to run.
With the Master's Nationals out of the way (a PB and last place in the 800m - what can I say, I'm a champ!) it's time to get the distance up. Things have begun in earnest this week. After a 17km struggle in the hills in Saturday, made lovely in the end because of a fabulous catch up with 40Miler legend Kate, I headed to the Gallipoli run on Sunday and struggled through a bit of a tempo (nothing left for racing). The time wasn't great, but I did a reasonable effort. I'm happy about that as I felt sick most of the weekend (I suspect side effects from the flu shot I got last Wednesday).

Monday was recovery run day with a nice, gentle 8.4km run around King's Park. I actually felt pretty good, though talking went out the window when I hit the long hill on Forest Drive - sorry for the 5-10 minutes of silence, Damien. Still, I never felt the need to stop or walk, so that's a good sign.

Coach Sugar has me doing twice daily runs twice a week, and the first of those was on Tuesday. The morning was a gentle recovery run of just 4km (25 minutes is his edict) and the plan had been to go to JK's session in the evening. But with the weather looking ominous, we both decided to head out for a Mona's session before the worst of the storms hit. It was pretty windy, but it didn't feel unpleasant, probably because it wasn't too cold. I started with a 2km warm up towards the Scout hut on the freeway, then turned around (with the wind behind me - yes!) and did my session. It's a fantastic session - 20 minutes of effort. I felt pretty good until I got to the Mount Henry bridge when a headwind (and lunch) reminded me of my fallibility. A short walk and then back into it for the last couple of minutes before a 20 minute cool down. The rain came down pretty heavily in the cool down, but it was kinda pleasant, even into that strong northerly wind. But by the time I'd got to Rookwood, I decided a short steep hill was preferable to going the longer way home and took a bit of a short cut. Still, it was close to 9km in total, which added to my 4km in the morning meant a good session.

Wednesday is currently cross-training day, so I head to my luxurious Next Gen gym in KP for a spin class. After Tuesday's effort the legs had gone into a full sit-in protest. When we hit the climbs, they just refused to go any faster. I tried to push them and though the lungs were fairly willing the legs weren't budging. I gave it all I could, but couldn't muster the sweat I normally get from that session. Oh well, there it is.

Thursday is the next double session day. This morning I headed to Mends Street where Sugar and I met up with Viv and Becks. Sugar does his recovery and Becks joins him in a bit of a tempo, so Viv and I set off together and a reasonable pace. The goal today was to sit on marathon pace and do a few sprints. It started off okay, but I think I struggle to really know what easy/marathon pace is and ended up doing the second half a bit fast. That's okay, but I don't want to burn out. Average was 5.38 pace, which is great if I can comfortably sustain that, but I suspect 5.45 might be a more comfortable marathon pace run for me. We'll see as the year progresses. Tonight I have a 4km recovery run in the offing. I'll aim for a break in the weather ...