Update

Thursday night was running club. It was Haftu, Jasper, Chris and I training, we did 2 x 2400m, followed by 5 x 400m with 60s recovery between each. We dogged Chris on the warm up so after we went through the first lap of the 1200m loop in 4:00, he kicked hard to make us struggle. I started reeling him back in though with 800m to go and got within 4s of him at the end of that rep. Finished in 7:59 so the negative split which was nice. Then 4 minutes off which seemed like too much and onto the next one. Split through the first lap in 4:03, followed by a 4:06 so pretty consistent in 8:09. Then onto the fours on the track, changed shoes and we were off. First one in 72s and felt easy. It's amazing how much easier running on the track is rather than the outside. The rest of the times went, 70s, 67s, 67s, 63s. Absolutely done in by the end but stoked with the results. 11.6km all up.

This morning pretty tired but got out for a session. 4km threshold by myself in 14:21. Felt really good and I had loads left by the end. Focused on my arm movement and tried not to think about the rest. Then did 1km cool down before doing the 10 by 6 x 50m sprints. Bit of speed and lactic which was tough but the last one was in 51s so no worries after the slower stuff. Ran home for 13.5km all together.

Skeptical

Did 12km last night, but my watch was playing up the whole time. Apparently I split 2 3:55 km's in a row but I wasn't hammering only a steady jog at about 4:30's. Bit of a pain but I made sure the distance was correct.

Ethi Fartlek

Haftu, Chris, Jasper, Dean and I training tonight. Ethi is 30s, 45s, 60s, 90s, 2 mins, 3 mins all hard with one minute jog recovery in between each, times 3. Didn't feel amazing so just tried to get it done.  Ran solid is all there is really. I lead most of it with Haffie right on my shoulder the whole way. On the second set Chris wasn't ready so we went without him. On the last set Chris dropped out and Haffie wasn't doing it which left Dean, Jasp and I. Managed to pull ahead on the last 3 minutes, happy with that one considering Jasper ran 9:35 the other week. 14.7km in all, not bad.

Late

Haven't updated since Saturday so not so good. Did a long run on Sunday evening. First 12km were with Nick and we threw in a 4:01 last km to keep it interesting. Then I did an extra 5 and a bit and ended up with 17.5km in 1:23:14. Lots of stops and slower than usual but not a bad run. Didn't run yesterday as the homework was piling up and it was raining, but training tonight with the squad. Big week last week with 73.8km on the board, pretty happy with that. Won't be as much this week though as I didn't run yesterday. My next race is the good old school cross country but it isn't for a couple of months. Enough time to get very aerobic.

Jells

Hill reps this morning up at Jells. Training with Will who's a couple years below me and at the same school but a serious gun. 4th or 5th in Victoria for his age and he's around the same as me. I started fairly quick and I was ran 1:07, 1:09, 1:08 for my first 3. I was around 10m ahead of Will at the top of each hill, but then he'd absolutely murder the recovery and I'd be starting behind him at the bottom. It go to a point where I had to choose between racing him and doing the session properly ie. slowing the recovery and running stronger up the hills like Trevor suggests. I slowed my recovery but was getting increasingly frustrated as my hills were quicker and his recovery wasn't a recovery. Anyway my watch messed up so I didn't get the times for the rest of my 8 hills. Will was 30m ahead at the top of the 7th and Ben who ran 15:20 5km on the weekend was so far ahead I couldn't see him. Will stopped thinking he was done, I caught him and started down for 1 more. Then trev told him to do one more with me so the race was on. He came by and I really didn't want to lose this last one. I hung on feeling okay considering I was in serious trouble on the 7th. Down the twisty bit at at least 75km/h around the corner and we're back to the start of the hill, I gun it and drop him luckily and manage to egg out the lead to 20m or so. Not going to lie, fairly relieved to have done that.  Long cool down for 12.1km all up. Starting to feel the effects of a pretty big week.

No shoes son

Training last night was lots of Kenyan fartlek. Haffie, Jasper, Ciara and I getting the session done. We ran on the grass oval of DMK and Haftu with no worries of Achilles injuries took off his shoes and ended up running over 13km barefoot. The session was 8 x 2 minutes easy, 2 minutes hard then 6 x 1 minute easy, 1 minute hard. Started off fairly well for the 2's. Each grass loop was around 650m long and we were hitting from 2:50- 3:10 pace for each of them. Felt really strong and fit on the grass so a bit of a confidence booster. It was hot as well so rigs out was on the cards. The 1's went pretty quick but I was knackered by the end. Then Nick showed up for a cool down so I went barefoot as well which was really nice actually. I don't think I could do a whole session like my Ethiopian training partner but it definitely massaged the feet. 15.7km all up. Great training, Cheyne was stoked. I'm off to hills tomorrow so should be fun.

I swim like a brick

Yesterday had running club. Haftu, Jasper, Ciara and I doing some cross country work. The idea was 1200m hard, 600m easy x 5 for me. Started off strong and my times were as follows, 4:05, 4:03, 3:54, 3:57, 3:52. Haftu and Jasp stopped after 3 did a jog cool down then jumped in on the last which really helped. Haffie pulled me through the line with a bit of a fast finish. Enjoyed the distance stuff. Today had the school swimming sports which is the equivalent of aths day but for swimming. The theme was superheroes so dressing up was a laugh. Also had a dance off against the teachers which got way too competitive but it was a good time. Dancing to the John Cena theme song so more than a few people were thrown in the pool. I swam 50m free and came dead last no surprises there. Pretty good day to be honest. Ran after school 10km in 44:50. Tired at the start but go into it. As you can see below, found a classic year 7 who looked fairly similar to me, was way too keen for the relay but was probably faster than me. I picked up this fantastic captain America onesie from big w last night for $11:49. I'll genuinely wear this for the rest of my life.

Easy as

Sore all day today after yesterday's wander so real easy 8km this evening in 39:39 just to keep the legs ticking over. Training with the squad tomorrow.

The wander

Got out for a long run last night, 18.2km in 1:20:29 averaging 4:25's. Felt good, legs pretty sore now though. Pretty humid so sweated buckets.

Big night

Yesterday morning ran up to DMK for a threshold. Cross country is back baby so gotta put more of this type of work in. Did 4km threshold, splits were 3:39, 3:40, 3:50, 3:49. Pretty tough but hadn't run for 3 days before that because of the cancelled race. Then did a km cool down before meeting up with some of the boys from school and pumping out a 6 x 50m times 10 session. It was ridiculously humid and rain threatened the whole time. Made the grass slippery as well which made for some pretty athletic endeavours at the turn around points on the grass. 2.5km cool down for 12.3km all up. Then a pretty big night last night so woke up this morning not feeling the long run. Will get it done this afternoon.

Sorry Son

Race got rained off today so looks like cross country training has come early. We start preparing for the longer distances tomorrow.

Forgetting

Haven't updated in a while so poor form from me. Took a rest day Monday after the long run, then trained Tuesday and took yesterday and today off. Having a really easy week because of Vic Junior Champs tomorrow. I'm running 1500m. Training Tuesday was okay. We did 4 x 1km with only 200m jog recovery in between. First really hot session as well so that didn't combined with a bit of wind make life difficult. Times were 3:18, 3:17, 3:09, 3:20 so not great. Haftu sped me up on the third as he kicked home. Then did some 400's on the track off 90s. Times were 73s, 72s, 70s, 65s. Chris and I rotated the lead then he went out really quick on the last. I focused on holding the distance but he eased ahead with 250m to go. He ended up 2 seconds ahead in 63s.  Finished with a bang but still the reps were nothing special. I'm just trying to go for a PB tomorrow night. There is heats tomorrow but I am running in U/20's since the new year so there's one guy who's run 3:44 for that distance and 2 more who've run 3:48 so its pretty mental competition. But the goal for me is focusing on cross country after this and doing well in the school competition. We want to try and win the state title for our school team so I'll try and build up for that.

Not too shabby

Did a long run this morning to try and save the weekly kilometres. 17k in 1:19:48. Pretty tired towards the end, I need more sleep. Good run though.

Awful

School yesterday and run this morning. Struggled badly through 8km, I was exhausted. Reckon I was dehydrated.

MB RD Hills

Got back from camp on Wednesday and was up at training last night on Thursday. I was still pretty tired so I wasn't expecting anything special. I trained with Jasper, we did the 360m hill at DMK. This is a different hill to the 360m hill at Jells Park Saturday morning. This is a bit less steep. We did 10 360m reps in all, the odd number times were going up and the even number times were coming down. 1:10, 1:01, 1:08, 1:04, 1:04, 1:01, 1:05, 1:01, 1:08, 56s. We had 30s recovery at the bottom of the hill and 90s at the top. Solid session, I trained better than I thought I would. Only 7km though all up.

Camp

Been on year 12 camp the last 2 nights. We left Monday morning so didn't run Monday. Got up at 6 to run with Matt and a teacher who runs. Did 10km but got like 4 hours sleep the night before so I was exhausted. We only did 52 minutes as well. This morning I got up at 5:30 to run but it started raining so I was like "ahh no" and went back to bed. Not much sleep again. Early night tonight and school starts properly tomorrow.

Mother Nature

Long run this morning, 17km in 1:17:12. Felt pretty good, but the weather wasn't in my favour. Windy and pouring with rain along the seafront, I might as well have swum home.