We've got a bleeder!

I think I have the world's weakest nipples for running. Take this morning for example - it was a beautiful morning (i.e. no rain) and I ran hard for an hour. Walking into the apartment building after my run I was feeling quite good about myself, until I looked down and saw this:

Pathetic!!! Short of buying a whole lot of new singlets (as opposed to the half price Aussiebum ones Annabel got for me), or running shirtless, I'm not quite sure what to do. Putting Pawpaw ointment on beforehand seems to help, but it's easy to forget at 5:45am!

This morning's run was pretty good. I aimed to do an hour tempo run - building into it for 30mins, then turning around and trying to get back home under 60mins. I ended up getting back in 58:57, so a full minute under. Not a bad negative split, although given that I built into it from the start, I would've been disappointed if I'd gone any slower for the second half.

I actually ran further along the river this morning than I ever have before. Total of 14.66km according to the GPS (MapMyRun says more like 15km so not too far off). That is an average of 4:01min/km (by the GPS distance) or 3:56min/km (by MapMyRun). Neither is a blistering pace, but my legs were still feeling a bit sluggish from the sand running on the weekend. Hopefully Friday will be better!

On another note, right at the point where I turned there were about 6 guys with surfskis who had obviously just finished a session. Surfski is apparently alive and kicking in Brisvegas, despite the lack of surf! The guys were all on Think skis, and at least one looked like a pretty beginner model, so I don't know if these guys will be tackling the 20 Beaches anytime soon, but good on them for getting out there.

Fraser Island

Despite the miserable weather, Annabel and I headed off for Fraser Island on Friday evening. Without giving a blow-by-blow of the weekend, we had a great time hooning around in the hired Landcruiser, got some sunshine on Sunday, saw some beautiful rainforests/lakes/beaches and even managed to stay dry Saturday night.

I also managed to use the opportunity to practice my sand running in preparation for the Coastal Classic. I went for a 12.3km (approx 57 minute) run on Saturday - mostly along the beach but some on sandy tracks that were actually quite hilly. I aimed to go out for 30mins then back, but got pretty deep into some forest and turned at a logical point at about 29mins instead. I was pretty happy with my ability to retain speed on the sand, and it felt great to be on trails again.

Sunday morning I went for another run - this time going inland almost straight away to try and explore some trails. I found some great little tracks that seemed not to have been walked on for some time. I was a little worried about getting lost though as I took a few forked turns and was just following my nose a bit. I ended up popping out right near our car after less than 30mins on the track! Very disappointing given that I was hoping to go for longer - I thought about heading back into the forest but opted to go along the beach to find Annabel instead. I found her 2.5km up the beach, and had a very nice easy jog with her back to the camp. All up about 9km in 50min or so.

Here are a few pics of the beach we were running along:

We had to share the beach with these guys:

Monday morning I had to be up super early to drop Annabel at the airport, and was pretty wrecked from a LOT of driving over the weekend. I did a quick gym sesh before work though. I started with 5 rounds of:
20 pullups
20 pushups
20 deep dips
20 squats

THEN, 3 rounds of:
Clean 50kg x 6 reps
GHD situps x 15 reps

A bit of a random add-on at the end, but I wanted to do the clean/burpee mainsite WOD but ran out of time!

Slept in this morning (Tuesday) - probably necessary after a long weekend. I'll hit the road again tomorrow morning for a hard run.

Sleep in again

I picked Annabel up from the airport last night and we only ate dinner late so it was difficult to get out bed this morning! I slept in til 6:15 so only had time for a quick workout. After a warm up of pushups/pullups/dips/squats, I did a mainsite WOD from earlier this week.

Five rounds for time of:
85kg deadlift x 15 reps
Toes to bar x 15 reps

The mainsite benchmarks suggested this could be as quick as 6mins30s. What a joke - it took me more like 20minutes! The hardest thing was grip strength. I can usually do 15 reps of toes to bar in a row without too much trouble. By the 4th set I was struggling to do 5 in a row. It was a tough workout and I was glad when it was over. On the positive side - my deadlifts have improved a lot in the last month and felt really strong and controlled (when I could actually grip the bar). No lower back pain at all during or after the workout, suggesting that my form has improved.

I've been tracking the Coolrunning forums about the Coastal Classic. People are pulling out and selling their tickets left, right and centre!! I sincerely hope it's still on as I'm flying back to do it, and missing out on the Bridge to Brisbane which looks like fun. The speculation is that the trail is very muddy still and even if it doesn't rain in the next few weeks (not likely), it'll still be wet. They were pretty quick to cancel the event in June so I'm not too confident, but trying to look on the bright side! I'll try to get some long sand runs in this weekend at Fraser Island anyway.

Get out of bed!

For some reason I found it very hard to get out of bed this morning. Dave texted just before 6am to say he was feeling unwell and wouldn't be training. It was cold, I was comfy in bed, but there was a little voice telling me "get out of bed!!!". So I did, and I'm very happy for it.

I decided to go for a straight run - out for 25mins and back (I was a bit late out of bed so only had time for 50mins). I took the usual route along the river, through Southbank, past the rowing club and back. The GPS was taking ages to acquire satellites and was messing up a bit. It only acquired about a kilometre into the run, but said that I did 11.1km. I subsequently checked the distance on MapMyRun and it said 13.1km. So, something is up with the GPS! The run took 51:12, implying a pace of either 4:15min/km or 3:55min/km whichever distance source you believe. It certainly felt faster than 4:15, so I'm inclined to go with MapMyRun (but then I would say that, wouldn't I?). The MapMyRun link showing the route is here:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/47492296

I know I said I aimed to go out for 25mins and back. I ended up going out for 25:30, so I obviously missed getting back by 12 seconds. Not ideal when you'd like to train to negative split. So what happened? Well, I made a schoolboy error at the start. Right at the beginning of the run, when I was meant to be jogging for a warm-up, some girl runs past me like she's racing an 800m. I figured I'd catch her up when I started running, but I accelerated a little anyway. She must have slowed down or something, because I overtook her after right away, which obviously annoyed her because she started sprinting again to get ahead of me. I thought it was hilarious that she was racing, but felt I couldn't let the challenge go unanswered. So, I started going hard a LOT earlier than I should have. Stupid stupid stupid. A proper athlete would never have done that. It meant I was throwing out 3:30s in the first few kilometres! I know it's not the "Kenyan" way either (see this great article), and I'm sure that if I had started slow and allowed more build-up, I would have had a much better overall run.

Oh well, not to worry, I still had a great morning and wasn't unhappy with the session. My legs are still stiff, possibly from the snatches on Sunday or squats yesterday, but they still felt strong at the end.

Gator

Exercise is seriously keeping me sane at the moment. My routine is:
5:45am Wake-up and have a protein shake or electrolyte drink
6:00am Gym or run
7:15am Make breakfast (this doesn't change: smoothie with chia, oats, banana, mixed berries, yoghurt, tahini and milk and 2 eggs, either poached or hard boiled, this week with rocket/spinach and avo but sometimes with salmon and coffee)
8:00am Walk to work
12:15pm Lunch (today was leftover homemade curry, but usually a chicken wrap, beef and salad sandwich or sushi)
7:15pm Leave work, go home and cook dinner (some sort of meat with some sort of veges)

Without the exercise, my day would literally only consist of sitting at my desk and eating! The food is not strictly Paleo, but I try to restrict the amount of processed sugars/grains, and eat lots of veges with every meal. I very seldom feel a "sugar low" and am happy that I'm not eating too little. If anything, I could cut the intake a bit, but then I really like food!

With that in mind, despite having very stiff legs from the long run and the snatch WOD, I went for an easy 40minute run on Monday morning. I'm guessing the distance was 7-8km but the GPS wasn't working properly so I can't be sure. I felt OK but definitely not fast. It was good to get out and run though - I really enjoy running along the river, although I do miss running with Bo.

This morning, after a warmup of 5 sets of max pullups, Dave and I did Gator. We did 8 rounds for time of:
- Ring pushups 26 reps (feet on a bench, rings suspended from the pullup bar)
- Front squats 5 reps at 50kg (on the Smith press, Dave did back squats same weight)

Doing 208 ring pushups is HARD. I only got 3 sets out in one hit (i.e. 26 reps in a row), the rest were partitioned into two or three sets. Given that the pushups took a lot longer than the squats, I did either swiss ball situps or an extra 5 squats whilst waiting for Dave. The whole workout took us 30mins, with the 7 minute ab set after.

Ring pushups make your whole body work - there is so much stabilisation involved that your abs, lats, shoulders, everything is working. It's only 8 hours after the workout ended and my chest is already starting to ache. I'm not looking forward to the pain I'm in for tomorrow!

Dave is keen for another 2 crossfit days before he goes overseas, and Annabel is keen for a session on Friday morning, so it looks like I've got 3 more days of Crossfit to go this week! Hopefully the rain clears up and we can do some of it outside. At least I've got a weekend in Fraser Island to look forward to, and to provide some relaxation!

Snatch

Snatch: Nope, not the movie, the exercise!

After watching Muzza win a silver medal at the world champs last night, I had a sleep in and a VERY lazy morning. Yep you read correctly - my little brother's K4 crew is not only going to the Olympics, they're going as medal contenders!

I hit the gym late this arvo for a quick workout. It was quite funny - when I arrived there were these two guys doing horrific-technique back squats on the Smith. They spent more time chatting than anything else and I got my entire workout done whilst they were still mucking around at the same station! My workout was similar to Isabel (mainsite WOD from last week) as follows:

40 x 40kg snatch

That's it. It was hard. I am now hurting.

I also did a few sets of shins, pushups, dips, squats and 30 x 30kg overhead squats at the end. I'm stoked because I can actually do an overhead squat with load now! My snatch technique needs work - my shoulders still aren't flexible enough - but I felt like I've improved a lot so am happy.

Muzza and Mt Coot tha

My brother qualified Australia for the Olympics last night!!! Woo hoo!!!! His K4 crew son both their heat and semi final of the K4 1000m at the World Champs in Szeged, Hungary. They were the fastest crew to qualify for the final so are favourites to be the world champions! The final is tonight, but it doesn't really matter where they place - making the final means they're in the top 9, and therefore have qualified! He still has to jump through some hoops and actually make the Australian team next year, but it's a big start. Good work Muzz.

With the Coastal Classic coming up in less than a month, and with Annabel in Sydney, I took the opportunity to do a long run to Mt Coot tha to play with some trails. The weather couldnt have been better and, except for the GPS not working, I felt fantastic. I had one of those runs where you feel incredibly happy with the world and lucky to be alive. I felt light on my feet, and every new song that came on the iPod brought a huge smile to my face. I was even shirts-off for the last half and felt incredibly free.

I ran for 2hrs5mins, and covered around 22-25km (I think), about 5km of which was on trails. I ran to Mt Coot tha, then up the Simpsons Falls track to the Channel Seven HQ, along Samuel Griffith Drive, then down the JC Slaughter Falls Summit Track and back home. The trails after Simpsons Falls felt like they have been used in a while and were quite overgrown. They were pretty technical and good fun. The JC Slaughter track was a lot busier and wasn't technical at all. Just lots of steps.

It felt seriously good to be back on the trails again. By the end of the run I was getting pretty tired, but was overall very happy that my legs managed the time and felt strong up the hills (despite doing 50 lunges yesterday!). I'm confident that with some consistent training I'll be in top shape for the CC.

Filthy fifty

Today Dave was keen for another Crossfit session so we did a modified Filthy Fifty. Our version went as follows:
50 burpees
50 thrusters, 10kg plate
50 floor wipers
50 push press, 30kg
50 knees to elbows
50 kettlbell swings
50 walking lunges
50 pullups
50 box jumps

Any workout that starts with 50 burpees is always going to be tough. Dave was churning through them so I felt I had to keep up. We didn't keep time, but it would have been fairly quick I think. We were both spent after.

We did the walking lunges near the pool and the box jumps on the fountain out the front of the building. Some lady came up to us and commented that doing box jumps on a fountain really provides an incentive not to go too far over! Thank you Captain Obvious.

Linda

Dave and I took advantage of the public holiday yesterday and went surfing at Snapper. You've never seen anyone more stoked to be surfing on a miserable day - Dave is like a little grommet! I must admit though, it was a lot of fun. The first clean-up set that came through, I'm scratching to get over the wave and there's Dave, flying down the face, weaving in and out among the crowd with a massive grin from ear to ear! I only lasted one surf though. A consequence of all this running is that I've lost my layer of insulation that used to prevent me getting cold in the water. Now I freeze like a little girl! I'm glad I don't live in Cape Town anymore.

Thursday morning I introduced Dave to Linda. I love this WOD - it typifies Crossfit for me. You hurt so much during that you never want to do it again, but you have this massive sense of accomplishment when you finish so you know you'll be back for more. The workout is 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps of:

Deadlight 1.5 times bodyweight (for me that's 105kg)

Bench press 1 time bodyweight (70kg)

Clean three quarters bodyweight (50kg)

I've never done it as RX'd before and today I did!! I'm absolutely stoked. Yesterday's rest from work must have helped to clear up the cough as well - it's not totally gone, but nearly there. The time for Linda was approx. 21:40. Unfortunately Dave didn't do the deadlifts - after the first round his back wa too sore so he subbed pullups instead. He still had a hard session. 

At the end of my first set of deadlifts (which were not easy  - 105kg is still heavy), some lady came up and had a go at me for dropping the weights. I wasn't even dropping them from a big height - just letting them hit the ground - but she reckons there are apartments below the gym that will be affected. So, I had to complete the last 9 rounds of deadlifts, and all the cleans, without letting the bar touch make a sound when it touched the ground! It certainly adds another layer of control to the exercise!

Five rounds for time

I should have known that racing on an ill body is not the best idea in the world. After Sunday's race, I felt rubbish on Monday - as though I was on the verge of getting very ill. I developed a nasty cough, and just didn't feel right. I knew that I had to get back on the wagon though, so decided to hit the Crossfit sessions this week.

Tuesday morning I was on my own and did a five rounds for time, 20 reps of each of:
40kg thruster
Ring pushups
Pullups

It should have been an easy workout but it hurt a lot! It took about 35mins. The thrusters were very painful but I made sure to do full range of motion.

It's Ekka Day in Brisbane tomorrow so were having a few beers after work tonight then a day off tomorrow!

51:04 - PB!!

The final days of my City2Surf prep couldn't have been worse. Somewhere between the Qantas Club and airplane food (Thursday night) and fancy work lunch (Friday), I managed to get the worst bout of food poisoning I've ever had! Friday night was horrific - I was waking up throughout the night to be sick and woke up Saturday feeling weak and drained. I concentrated on drinking as much water as I could, eating throughout the day as I felt better, and getting as much sleep as possible. At about 5pm, I decided I'd give the race a crack.

Maybe it was Rochey's amazing spag bol Saturday night, but I woke up Sunday actually feeling half decent! Unfortunately the weather was shite, but at least I felt I could run. Annabel, not convinced I'd actually make it, kindly drove us in and offered to meet us at Bondi.

I went through the motions in the warmup, seeing a lot of familiar faces huddling for shelter before the marshals pushed as back behind the line. All the HuRTs guys were there, Cyril was announcing, and I had a good chat to Lewis before the start. It's always an amazing experience being right up the front and knowing that there are over 80,000 people lining up behind you to run in your footsteps.

Not being sure how my body would react, I decided to stick to m 'original' race plan - i.e. go out at about 3:30 to the Hill and see how I held up! Amazingly, it worked. I wouldn't describe it as "comfortable"; I felt on the edge of falling apart the entire race. I guess that's the hard part about shorter races - you cant afford to just feel comfortable, you've got to hurt yourself. Down to Double Bay, I was doing around 3:25min/km and holding the pace OK. That slowed down up the Hill, but not as much as expected, and certainly not as much as last year. Somewhere in Dover Heights I passed Fast Charlie (who must have been having a very bad race) and caught up to Luke B, with Lewis not far ahead. Seeing those two made me realise I must be running well - Luke has beaten me convincingly in every race we've had over the last year. We went through 10km in 37minutes, which I knew was the right pace for a PB, and it was game on.

I ran the last 4kms in a little group with two girls (who ended up being 6th and 7th) and a few guys, with Luke just ahead. I've been conscious of my downhill running in training, and I ran down the hill faster than I've ever done. Coming into Bondi I realised that sub-52 was definitely on the cards. I actually felt really strong for the last kilometre, overtaking a number of people and not losing pace. 

In the end, one of the girls got ahead of me, as did Luke and Lewis, but not Laurens' time! I finished in amongst a whole lot of HuRTs guy - with Luke just in front and Pete just behind. My official net time was 51:04 and place 158 (one ahead of my bid number!). Im absolutely stoked with that time and place. It's certainly better than I could have hoped for under the circumstances. 

The tent afterwards was awesome, as usual. All the boys were there and we had a really enjoyable morning. Annabel was also a super-supporter, cheering at the finish, taking my stuff, and driving us home! The results wrap-up: Shauny ran sub-56, Rochey ran 57:22, Dave ran 60:32, Big Al ran a 62:11, Min (the sprinter!) ran 67:02 and Mitch did sub-80. From what started as a miserable day, some great runs! Poor DJ missed the memo saying that Batman is meant to fly, not run, and ended up limping home. Hopefully he recovers quickly.

In retrospect its easy to wonder whether I could have just run 4 seconds faster to be under 51. The answer I keep coming back to is that I gave it everything I had on Sunday and I think that i as fast as I could have run on the day. Do I think I can go a lot faster next year? Absolutely.

Easy jog

I had a bit of a late one at work last night, and only got to bed at midnight as I had to sort stuff out to go back to Sydney tonight. Fortunately, I had arranged to meet Dave for a jog at 6am, so his call forced me to get out of bed! We did a really nice, easy jog from my place, across the Story Bridge, to Southbank, across the bridge after the art gallery then home. All up 6.9km in 34mins. Nice and slow, just loosening the legs up.

Chatting to Dave, it sounds like the Sydney office has been getting hammered with work!

The Bear

I did the "Bear Complex" this morning. Each rep is a combination of Olympic lifting movements as follows:
- Clean
- Front squat
- Push press
- Back squat
- Push press
The idea is that you do 5 rounds of 7 reps each. You can have as much rest as you want between rounds, but during each round, you cannot rest or drop the bar at all. If you do, you start the 7 reps again.

You're meant to try for max weight (i.e. increase throughout the WOD). I started on 40kg* (bar + 20kg in plates) and found that tough so just stuck with that throughout. The workout was hard - I found myself having to sit down between rounds and took a good few minutes between each. I am happy that my squats were deep and solid, but I'm still concerned that I'm being inefficient in my cleans and that I need to engage my core more throughout. Things to work on! Very busy workday today.

* I'm starting to have doubts on whether the bar is actually 20kg as previously thought. I may be artificially inflating my recorded weights!!!! The bar feels the same as a 20kg dumbell, but it's hard to say.

6 x 800m

Given the City2Surf this weekend, I wanted to do a short, sharp session today so decided on 6 x 800m. I did it on my normal "800m course", with the standard 1.6km warm up and warm down. I was really happy with my splits (for what it is worth, compare to the last 8 x 800m I did in July):
2:34 - avg 3:13min/km
2:29 - avg 3:06
2:29 - avg 3:06
2:30 - avg 3:08
2:27 - avg 3:04
2:27 - avg 3:04
The Timex watch doesn't give me heart rate and when I download the data to the PC, I can't see the distances per lap unfortunately so have just assumed each lap was 800m.

So, an average of 2:29 across all the reps (or 3:07min/km). That is 2 seconds faster than the last 8 x 800m I did, and 4 seconds faster than the first one. Can't complain about that! The body felt pretty good too. No more hard runs now until Sunday.

If I can get out of work in time tonight, I'll try to do "The Bear Complex" Crossfit WOD. Stay tuned!

The Timex

As I was unpacking ym bag last night, I realised that I'd left my training shoes in Sydney. D'oh! Looks like I'll be training in the racing flats this week. Not that that is a terrible thing - it's probably good to get my legs used to the lower support shoes for Sunday. As I went out for my run this morning, I also realised that my iPod shuffle had been left on and the battery was dead. Another D'oh! I'm not pointing any fingers, but Annabel was the last to use my shuffle!!!

Brisbane has definitely warmed up since last week - I hardly need any shirt at all this morning, let alone my thermal top. It was a beautiful morning out along the river. I went for a bit longer than usual (with a pit stop) as I doubled back around Southbank to the rowing club. Ended up doing a firm 14km in 57mins (including warm up / warm down). I felt comfortable but will have to go a fair bit faster on Sunday!

The Timex that Luke lent me is really easy to use and seems pretty good. I have to admit, I still prefer the footpod system of the Suunto to the GPS for three key reasons:
1. With the Suunto you can just start running, you don't have to wait for satellites to acquire
2. The GPS pacing is very volatile - one second it'll say you're going at 3:40, the next at 4:30! I think I need to fiddle with the pace smoothing settings
3. Battery life. Enough said.

Anyway, it's really good to still have a watch, and I think the Timex will be fine for Sunday. SO all the gear is ready, what about me??

Catchup and debauchery

I'm sitting in the Qantas Club lounge on the way back to Brisbane after a fantastic weekend in Sydney. I figure this is as good a time as any to do a bit of catchup blogging!

Friday's WOD was 30-25-20-15-10 reps of:
- Burpees
- Toes to bar
- 60kg deadlift
It took 25:40 and was pretty damn tough! Annabel skipped it as she was feeling sick. I didn't have a lot of time so only did a quick warmup, but my legs have been stiff for the last 2 days so I figure it was a tough enough workout.

Saturday morning I went for a great run with Bobo - the ultimate running partner. We did the standard 10km along the Manly beachfront, to Fairlight along the harbour path and back. It took about 40 mins, and was a firm, not hard, pace. Bo was really good - he started to tire near the end but was very exciteable at the start. It's hilarious how grateful he is after a good run; he couldn't have given me more attention if he'd tried!

Sunday I was meant to take Bo for the pet+owner race on the Bay Run. Unfortunately I drank for 12 hours straight at Donut's bucks yesterday and was in no state to walk this morning, let alone run! I'll have to sweat out the booze tomorrow. I must stop this binge drinking - it cannot be good for the body.

In other news, my brilliant Suunto watch died yesterday. I had the battery replaced a few weeks ago and the guy obviously didn't seal it properly. I was very upset, but Luke at Northside (who may be the best customer-service shop owner in the world) took the watch back to send to Suunto, and has leant me another GPS watch to tide me over. What a champ! He also introduced me to a possible new-favourite website - DC Rainmaker. The site combines two of my favourite things - running and gadgets! It may well lead me to invest in a new gadget for my iPhone - the ANT+ attachment from Wahoo Fitness. Wahoo seems to be a great little company specialising in ANT+ attachments for iPhone. I want to investigate the applicability of Wahoo's cases to surf ski paddling. Could the iPhone be the best new surf ski training partner??

Fight gone bad and hills

Tough one this morning. Annabel actually described it as the hardest Crossfit session I've made her do yet! After a warmup of skipping (in which I proved once again that I am the world's worst skipper), we did:

3 sets of pullups for reps (I got 25/20/13, Annabel used less resistance with the band and did 10/9/7)

THEN, a modified Fight Gone Bad. For those of you unfamiliar with FGB the workout involves a continuously running clock - every minute for 18 minutes you change stations and do max reps/calories at each station as follows:
- Thruster (J: 10kg plate, A: 5kg plate)
- Tuck jumps
- Sumo deadlift high pull (J: 35kg, A: 15kg ezy bar)
- Push press (J: 35kg, A: 15kg ezy bar)
- Concept2 erg row
- Rest

So, it's basically three time through a circuit of 5 exercises with a minute on each and a minute rest between rounds. It's also damn tough.

We then did 4 x hill sprints on the mean little hill near our building.

By the end of the session we were both stuffed. My average HR (including rest) for the FGB was 163bpm. The hill sprints were just an extra little killer. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pencil and paper down to record my FGB scores. They weren't great anyway - I started on SDHP so was getting decent reps (around 25-30) for those and around 30-35 for push press, but my thrusters and tuck jumps were horrific.

River Tempo

Tempo run along the river this morning. Having not run in a few days, my legs just wanted to go! It was another perfect morning in Brisbane and I took my usual route along the river down to the rowing club near Davies Park and back.

Vital stats: 12.3km in 46:37 (including an easy warm up), average pace of 3:47min/km (max of 2:30!), average heart rate of 165bpm. The pace fluctuated a bit as every now and then I did a section at 3:30 or faster, just to get some energy out. I also had to take a pretty serious pit stop just before 9km - unfortunately the stomach issues seem to be coming back. Overall, I'm happy that I managed to keep the pace up pretty consistently. Interestingly, 165bpm is my marathon heart rate average. I'm not sure if this means I'm fitter than I was then (because I was going faster at the same HR) or less fit (as I had the same HR despite it being a shorter run). Hopefully I'm fitter!

If the City2Surf website is to be believed, the course is 14km long (I think it's a bit less than that). To beat Laurens' time of 51:49 I will need to run an average pace of 3:42. That's not easy, particularly with the hills, but given how I felt this morning, I reckon I might get close. I'm worried I haven't done enough hill work (again!!!). I seem to do this every year - I am great at hills later in the year when I'm running lots of trails, but come July/August, I seem to leave hills out of my training. I might try to hit the little Marriott hill tonight for a last-ditch session!

Man makers

We had a very indulgent few days this weekend - with two fancy dinners out, a night in Byron Bay, a lot of red wine and a fantastic visit from Rochey and DJ. Not much exercise unfortunately, other than a surf on Saturday morning. Having lost a fair bit of weight in the last year, I didn't realise how much I had previously relied on body fat for warmth in the water. Usually I'd be fine in just boardies and a wettie top, unless it was seriously cold outside. However, without that extra 5-10kg of insulation that I've stripped back in the last year or so, after 10minutes in the surf, I was shivering and blue like I haven't been in years!

This morning I set us a workout designed to cleanse ourselves from the weekend. Five rounds for time of:
- 5 renegade man makers (I used 12.5kg dumbells, Annabel 2.5kg)
- 10 towel pullups (Annabel used her rubber band to assist)
- 15 thrusters (I used 40kg, Annabel 15kg)
- 20 floor wipers

THEN, 4 sets of 6 reps bench press (Annabel 25kg, Jamie 65kg-75kg on the last three sets).

We had to warm up for a while beforehand to wake up. I skipped and realised that I still have a lot of work to do - I was struggling to get 40 skips out before breaking! The actual WOD took me 18:11, and Annabel 17:51. I was ahead of her the whole way until the last set of thrusters, which almost killed me. My thrusters are definitely improving, but they're still hard.

Annabel was great this morning, despite a very slow start getting out of bed! Her thrusters are looking good and she's getting the hang of the assisted pullups. We're going to have to start dropping the assistance soon!

Less than 2 weeks to go before the City2Surf and I'm a little worried I haven't been doing enough running. Might try to do some hill sprints tonight/tomorrow.