Easy 5.6

Today did an easy 5.6 after school in the heat. Felt alright, much better than yesterday which I'm stoked about. Time was 28:59. No worries.

Getting Back into it

Today was the first time running after being sick, still have a bit of a cold so didn't train great. Just didn't have the legs for it tonight, really frustrated. Just Chris and I tonight, he is racing again on Thursday to try and break 9 minutes. We did 3.6km then 2.4km. Just felt bad leading the first lap then Chris came around me on the second. I stuck with him for a bit before dropping off. Was pretty rough running by myself for the second half of the rep. Ended up running 13:11 which was ok for being sick. Chris wasn't feeling it either and only pulled 12:44. Recovery, then the 2.4km. Again, led for the first lap while Chris practiced sitting, he went by on the second lap and again I kept him not too far away. Ended up running 8:31 so not too bad. Reckon I'll not be feeling it again on Thursday's session especially since I'll be training by myself. All the national runners have been given 10 days off so will be a tough week. 7.5km + 5km bike ride.

Sickness

Came down with a cold yesterday which is such a pain, hopefully I will be back running in a few days.

Stoke

Today everyone was up in Sydney racing at national so Nick and I got a few guys down to train for cross country. Last year we won state cross country as a team and we want to try go 2 in row. Jonno and Bryan came down, but more will come as the season properly gets underway. We did some 1200's. Started off well with Nick sitting on me the first one we came in at 3:59 (3:18 pace). Felt like had done nothing after this which I was really stoked about. Stepped it up to 3:52(3:12 pace) next rep and still felt solid after this. 4 mins recovery after each rep per usual with 1200's. Then 3:49(3:10 pace), Nick stopped after this one, hasn't been doing a much training recently as his involvement in other thing, but we are all hoping he gets back in shape soon. 4th rep was just Jonno and I, I managed another 3:49 so keeping it consistent which I'm happy with. Jonno stopped after this rep so I decided to just do a 1km as I was hurting more at this point. 3:03 later I finished. Good that I could put in a bit more speed at the end of session. 9.4km all up.

Also today got the results for our squads national races. Jasper ran 9:44 a 7 second pb and 4th in Australia. Haftu ran 9:40 and 12th in Australia and Chris managed a 5 second Pb and ran 9:04, 12th in the national. That's all the results from our squad now, Ciara is racing tomorrow

More Distance

Coming into the cross country season now so starting to up the distance on all the sessions so did a faster 10km today. I stopped my watch accidently at one point so I missed a fair chunk of the time and distance. By the time I finished the normal route the watch said I had only done 8.85km. The time was 32.52 so I'm pretty happy. Started off slow going through the first km in 4:00. Then slowly started speeding up and ended up doing some km's in around 3:20. Good from me especially as I was running by myself. Felt pretty good after as well, but today playing soccer at school, knocked my toe so it is pretty seriously bruised now. I skilfully managed to kick the back of  mates foot trying to tackle him. Hoping its okay by tomorrow as I want to do another bigger session.

In the Rain

Off to running club today and just after the warm up started raining pretty hard which was a pain. I was the only one not tapering. Ciara was tapering for her races and Chris for his so I just did some 600's. 1st rep was tough in the full hail and wind of the storm. Also towards the end of the 600m the is a hill which makes the 1st, 3rd and 5th reps much more difficult. So first one was in 1:50. Second was in 1:40, but I was cut off by a car coming out of a carpark which must of cut 3 seconds off the time. 3rd was tougher going up the hill in 1:51. Still wet so mud all up my back and all over my arms and head. 4th in 1:42 then 5th in 1:51 again. 6th just felt bad, didn't kick and I regretted it ran 1:46. 6.6km all up + 2.5km bike ride there and back. What do you think of the session, I really don't know whether it is good as I have never done it before.

Struggletown

So yesterdays plan went out the window, went for an easy 5 with Chris. Really hungry while I ran which was a pain. Didn't die though so no worries. Time was 27:07. So I made a goal this afternoon, I heard that to get to nationals next year for 5km, you must run 16:00 on the track. I think this will be a major challenge, but if I work hard I might just make it. Nationals 2015 is almost exactly a year away from now so I have 12 months to try and run the time. Really looking forward to this cross country season as well. Also on a bit of a side note saw Lone Survivor with a few mates last night, pretty incredible film to be honest. Wasn't like a normal war film, really full on and showed you what it was really like. Intense stuff. Anyway, recommend it.