Another solid week

Last week was a pretty solid week for training.

On Tuesday I had an easy 9.2K run at about 6 minute pace - it was a pretty good flat run along the Parramatta River.

On Wednesday I went on a 5K loop out in the mangroves between Newington and Homebush Bay. This is a really peaceful, beautiful little loop, and when doing it at recovery pace, as I was, it is a lovely little run.

With the nasty hills of the Blackmore's half approaching, I decided hillwork was the shot on Friday, and set out for 5 650m climbs. I didn't time them - I was still without Garmin and I couldn't be bothered with watch splits, so I just ran hard up it five times, jogged back down and jogged back home. It was a fantastic workout - I felt well and truly stuffed by the end, but it didn't wipe me out for the day.

On Saturday I went out and did the five K loop again, this time in the pissing down rain, so I didn't quite take in the beauty that I did on Wednesday.

Sunday was a pretty uneventful, stock standard long run.

It was an undulating course around Bicentennial Park, the Olympic precinct and then through Newington, around the jail and back home. I felt OK, and probably ran it a little harder than I should, so I was again stuffed by the end, but not overly. 16K in 1:39.

My new Garmin finally arrived on Monday (a rest day) and I took it out for it's first run this morning. The run turned into a de facto tempo run as I slowly realised the "about 9K" course I mapped out was actually 10.3K, and I was running late for my beloved family breakfast. so while the early Ks were about 5:50s, the last 4 were:

5:27
5:33
5:25
5:11

I ended up on 10.2 in 57:40, and this time I did stuff myself for the day - I was pretty listless for most of it. Luckily I had a few good things happen at work to get the adrenalin pumping, otherwise I might've fallen asleep at the desk.

As you can see, I'm not really tapering for the Blackmore's Half. It's not a target race, and I won't be too upset if I don't hit my goal of 2 hours. That said, I do have a score to settle with that course (it made a chundering mess of me last year) and I'm relishing the opportunity of running for two hours with sfGnome, who I haven't seen for ages and Nite_Time_Runner, who I met at the Gold Coast this year.