Edit: Photo link here
http://www.coolrunning.com.au/gallery/SHPub2Pub2006/Image00010?full=1


I have just come back from a really satisfying Fartlek session.
Being sore from the Fatass pub run (more on this later) I wasn’t expecting much from myself and gave myself permission to take it easy if I was feeling it in my quads too much.

We started at the surf club today and we had a good turnout of abilities and numbers. This icluded Jared who’s cousin Eloise was featured in R4YL this month and Steven Brown who had a fantastic short season in the European mountain running circuit and finished 24th in the world champs in Turkey recently (a really humble guy and a top bloke to boot running 5:30min/km to train with our friend the effervescent Suzy for not the first or last time) As for people of my level I had one to choose from, the evergreen Mark Everton.

Todays session was a warmup from North Gong SLSC to the lighthouse and then into 10 short loops around the gun placement and actual lighthouse without break. I remembered last time I was doing these in around 60secs so why not try that again as the warmup didn’t go too bad.

Splits for the not so easy sloping 200m loops were as follows
57,59,60,59,59,58,60,59,61,58
For a 59 second average, I was tiring towards the end and pleased I could keep my form and pace consistent. Kept the normally quicker Mark just behind me and extended the gap until the finish.

Next up we jogged a couple of hundred metres over to 2 sets of stairs (approx 30 each way?) leading down to the beach and separated by about 50metres of sand at the bottom and about 40metres of grass at the top forming a nice circuit of approximately 180m. I was a little hesitant about the down steps part due to quads so I ran only one step down at a time and headed off after most of the others had begun. When I got to the bottom I trotted across the soft sand without undue effort while some complained about the softness of it. Came up to the stairs and used good form to stride up them two at a time I felt strong every step of the way and my fitness had noticeably improved over the last time I had performed this exercise late last year!
I took splits and think I may have blogged these previously(last years). I want to record on paper as well in future like I used to so I can compare at a glance.
Anyway the splits were
1:22,1:20,1:19,1:15,1:17,1:15,1:15,1:17,1:20,1:13 I am pleased with those though I am noticing a habit in training and racing to have a slower second last lap before a quick last one, I will have to work on this because it is almost surely mental.

We then walked over to a nearby park and were instructed by Eric (our unofficial coach) to run reps with good form for about 120m before jogging back to the start and repeating 5 times I didn’t time this part I only put my beeper on at 90bpm and lengthened my stride to increase the pace, it felt good and after being the last to start I was catching others before taking a good walk then jog back to the start to do it again. On the last one I wanted to catch some people that were well ahead and Eric told me I tensed up and ran way too fast for the purpose of this part of the workout.
After this we jogged back to the Surf club for a total of 9.2km for the session. Feeling very good now,time for a short sleep and back to work at 1:30am for some extra work on a shutdown.

Oh Oh FATASS!!

Had a very enjoyable and tiring run of 26km from Meryla pass near Moss Vale to Kangaroo valley.This run was something I thought I would train especially for but didn’t running only 4.2km in the preceding week. I convinced myself that I was able to run the distance if I just took my time this was a bit of a stretch of the imagination as I have only run a maximum of 15km for a long run this year and my top 3 distance runs in my life consist of
1)26km on Saturday
2)21km at the SMH half marathon in May 2005
And
3 )17km as my longest training run for the above ½

So I am pleased with myself no end!
The scenery was great as was the company I ran with CR Amigo (Lindsay) and Doug I was going to wait for MC and Tracy at the pass but I thought they were going to be at least an hour and probably quicker over the distance even after having already run approximately 20km!
I set of with Lindsay (the organiser) and Doug who had given me a lift to the pass so that I could finish in Kangaroo Valley with the others. We set off at a nice steady pace and I attached the Forerunner to the back of my hat so that it would record but I didn’t want to see it and let it distract me from the run.
I was concerned about going too fast down the pass and getting sore Quads as I had when I barnstormed down the mountain near my house the other week and was sore for a few days! I know I am capable of running pretty quick downhill as I am passionate and just love this type of scrambling running despite the high inherent risks. Anyway we got to the bottom and had to negotiate a fair amount of undulation similar to 6’ foot track I am told by previous finishers Doug and Lindsay and then we crossed a creek I didn’t realize this was the creek that I had planned to stop at and take a swim in!! Anyhow I missed that until we had run well past it and hit a big hill which I was able to trot up. It was a fair hill but it didn’t tax me too much after my recent hill training. Got to the top and continued on decided to try one of the gels I had bought before I had lost energy and to test them out for the first time. It was the most sugary thing I had tasted in a long long time but it must have worked?

Kept going to the thoughtfully placed water drop and took my fill and topped up my camelback had a muesli bar too. This was at Jacks corner road where a motorcyclist was killed the next day by a falling tree branch! On Saturday this road was swarming with private school kids doing a six hour “rogaine” (didn’t seem to leave the roads though!)

I was alone shortly after the Waterdrop as Lindsay dropped off with a bung leg and Doug had set off a few minutes earlier at a good clip. I didn’t know where he had gotten to and imagined he might have taken a wrong turn! I was running 10 minutes and walking a few by that point as I was a little tired and getting hot though fortunately I stayed pretty well hydrated. I eventually caught up to Doug after about 6 or 7 km and we stayed together for a while before I left him going just a fraction faster than he wanted to go. Kept on going knowing that I was going to arrive at KV before anyone else and so I could take my time, so of course I didn’t!!
Ran through the village and kept going not sure where to stop to get the full 25km as Garmin had lost track (silly me forgot the was the Pub 2 Pub and by rights that where I should have stopped!) Kept going and Spud reckons I must have run at least 26km which I agree with.

We all had drinks at the pub afterwards and unwound for a couple of hours before heading home tired but satisfied!

When I got home I was locked out of the house and as I was already late for dinner at our friends house I had to get creative running to my parents house having a shower there and borrowing my brothers clothes and my parents car to arrive just before dinner was served!(at a destination 20km away that i hadn't driven to before)

All in all a memorable day! My first Fatass event and certainly not my last as I train up for the Sixfoot track trail ultra marathon in March next year!

Cheers R2B