France Easy 6km

Today in France for the first full day. Good 11 hour sleep last night, but still feeling tired. Got out to go running at about 10 in the morning. Easy 6km, but the body wasn't liking it. Bones were sore, muscles dead, just felt exhausted. Really hilly around here also which didn't help. Time was 27:11, hope to be feeling a bit better tomorrow.

Easy 8.5km

Yesterday, easy 8.5 in about 37mins. Left for France immediately after so pretty stoked. Arrived in France after a long haul on the plane, but no worries.

1kers

Today went up to running club for my last session before going to France on French Exchange. I'll be staying in France for 6 weeks with a host family, going to school with a another guy my age. He came to stay with us for 6 weeks in July so I already know him. It should be a fantastic experience. I will continue to write my blog and train although I know it might be difficult to get some of the bigger sessions in. I hope to maintain my fitness as I have worked hard to get here. Anyway the session tonight was 1km reps. Started off solid in 3:09, but we then had quite a long recovery of 5 minutes. Next rep was 3:11.  The rep was slowed as near the end A dog jumped in front of us and we nearly fell. 3rd and 4th were great with 3:07 each, we then shortened the recovery to 3 minutes and I ran 3:09 which again I was happy with. Finished on a high with 3:04 so very happy with the session, about 9.7km all up. Wanted to say good luck to Haftu who is running in the National 3km event on the 6th of December, Good luck to Ryan and Nick also for breaking 2 minutes over 800m. Chris who has been out with injury, just started training again, good luck on getting back to full fitness. Good luck also to Tom and Julian in their triathlon ventures and I hope training goes well for everyone else in the group.

Easy 10km

Another easy 10 yesterday in about 47 minutes. Ran with flats to get used to racing in them so calves a bit sore, but no problem.

4km out and back

Today did a 4km out and back. This is where you run 4km really easy then turn around and run 4km back hard. The easy 4k came in at 21:01 no worries there. Turned around and upped the pace, but the first km was slow in 3:57 then pushed harder with the next 2 in 3:30. On the last pushed hard and did 3:15 which was good. Time was 14:12 which I felt was slow and I think it was because the slow first km. Next time try and push harder from the start, but it still wasn't a bad run.

Gurshler Fartlek Again

Today had my last exam which was English and by the end I well and truly had had enough of Romeo and Juliet. Think I went alright though so no worries there. Went to running club after school and did the same session I did on Saturday. 2.5km warm up before starting the session. I was training with Haftu, Tom and Xavier. Just to recap we were doing 30s hard, 45s, 60s, 90s, 2 mins, 3mins then back down again. At the start I stuck with the others until Xavier started dropping off at the third rep. I going alright keeping with Haftu although I was hungry. On the second 3 min I started dropping, but still pushed hard. By this time, I was hurting and needed a shit so that was a struggle. I slowly dropped off the others finishing about 30m behind when the session ended. About 11km in all, pretty happy after the disappointing training on Tuesday.

10km easy

Today had 2 exams, science and maths and went for an easy tenner after they were finished. Nice weather for running today a bit chilly but not too bad. Time was around 47 minutes, but I still felt tired from studying and doing exams all day. I expect it will be the same tomorrow as I have an essay to write. Doing a fartlek tomorrow so hopefully won't be too bad.

Spud Session

Bit of a terrible session tonight, I have exams at the moment so I pretty tired from studying. I didn't sleep well either last night which didn't help. Really hot also and probably a bit dehydrated. We did 3km, 2km, 1km tonight, but I only did 3km, 2km. 3km in 10:34, then 2km in 7:08. Threw up a bit after that and decided not to do the last rep. Exams end in 2 days so looking forward to that. I then go to France on French Exchange for 6 weeks. I will still train in France and try not to loose much fitness...

City to Sea

Today I did the city to sea with mum. Massive race this one with over 13 thousand people running. Dad is injured at the moment and he was enrolled in the race. I needed to do a long run so I took his place, but ran with mum, not racing myself. Perfect weather for running and mum started off well going through the first km in around 4:20. We then picked up the pace a bit and did a couple of 4:12's and 4:15's. We then slowed a bit at the 9km mark going back down to 4:28's. We kept this pace for a until the 11th km where mum was struggling a bit. Couple of people went past us with 1500m to go, but when we hit 1km to go mum upped the pace again gaining back all the positions and more. Finished with a time of 1:01:24 so big Pb for mum. 430th overall and 48th woman. She seemed pretty happy so that's good. 16km all up including warm up then I went on to play a futsal game so plenty of exercise today.

Gurshler fartlek

Today did a fartlek session, the reps went 30s hard, 45 hard, 1 min hard, 90s hard, 2 min hard, 3 min hard then back down again with a 1 minute break in between each. Felt pretty good and ran well doing about 11km in all including warm up and cool down.

400's + Tabata

Today at running club started off with 3 400's training with Haftu, Nick and Ryan. First one was really slow coming in at 83 seconds. We then sped up to 73s on the second and 72s on the third. We then did 2 Tabata laps with a 4 minute break in between. Pushed these Tabatas a bit more than we did on Tuesday, but I am still not keen. Then 3 more 400's coming in at 69s, 65s and 67s. Then 2 last 400's on the track in 64s and 65s. Pretty happy with that session as the last time I did 400m reps they were much slower then that. About 9.5km in all.

Beep Test

Yesterday was the beep test challenge at school so I did this instead of my run. We were 2 lives which meant we were allowed to miss the beep twice. If we missed it a third time we were out. Easy until about 12:5 when it started to hurt a bit. It was Matt Mahoney (24/7 teammate), Harry Amner (24/7 Teammate), Nic Chapman (24/7 Team manager) and Will Ockendon and I all still going strong at this point. Matt then dropped out after a huge PB of 13:4, Will then dropped out at 13:10 and then Harry, Nic and I carried on until 14:1. We missed 14:2 then missed 14:3 then I don't really know what happened, but I think I hit 14:4 then turned around to go back then the teachers said stop. Harry  dropped out then, but they said it was a 3 way tie because the end of lunch bell had gone so we had to go back to class. Ah well it was a good race so I'm happy with the end result.

Tabata and 1200's

Today went up to running club and after a warm up we did a different type of training. It's called Tabata and its 10s easy 20s hard. We did 3600m of this but after every 1200m we had a 5 minute break. I didn't think it was that difficult because of the such long rest after only 1200m. We then did 2 hard 1200m reps. Felt great on the first one, but didn't kick as I wanted to save some for the second. Did the first in 3:49 so that was good. On the second, stuck with Tom for the first 600m before slowing down a bit. Kept trying to push on and ended up doing the exact same time. 2.5km cool down for about 11km all up.

15km Long Run

Today weather was great not too hot or windy. Did 15km easy. Its been a big weekend so muscles felt really sore on the last 3km. Time was 1 hour 11 minutes. Happy with that but feeling pretty sore at the moment. 62km for the week.

Double Session

Today did an easy 5km in the morning and an easy 10km in the afternoon. This morning the weather was terrible pouring with rain and windy. Did the 5km in 23:13 and felt good after. The weather then brightened considerably and I did the 10km in 46:47 which was good also. Felt amazing after the 2 runs like I hadn't even stepped outside. Went for a drive with my Dad for the first time in a carpark and that was pretty fun. Learning in a manual so its difficult to get started but I feel I'm improving a bit.

Kenyan Fartlek

Today cycled up to running club for a tougher session. Kenyan Fartlek I quite enjoy, but the speed and distance does take its toll. Kenyan is 2 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy which equals 1 rep. We did 8 reps then 8 reps of 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy. Started off strong and felt ok. It was Ryan, Haftu, Tom, Nick and I training. Kept the pace strong on our hard 2 minutes before picking it up a bit on the 5th and 6th reps. We slowed a touch on the final reps of the 2 minutes, but still feeling tired on our break between the 2's and the 1's. The 1's started off slowly but we slowly picked up the pace going quick on the 5th and 6th reps again. We kept a solid pace for the 7th and really gunned it on the last. I went out quick, but Ryan and Nick came flying past me. I managed to stay ahead of Haftu which was great. About 14km in all and a 5km bike ride.

Easy 10km

Easy run after school today. Felt awful all day, I think I have a bit of hay fever as the warm weather is coming. Going to try and drink more water as I felt dehydrated on the run. Ended up doing 43:34 so happy with that as I felt I was cruising.

Tough 1kers

Today was Melbourne Cup day so we all had the day off school which was a bonus. Cycled to running club before doing a warm up. Felt fatigued during the warm up and I wasn't looking forward to the hard work. Quite hot today and as usual Haftu, Tom and Ryan were flying. My times were these: 3:10, 3:07, 3:10, 3:12. Felt awful really tired, I didn't sleep well last night. Got exams in 2 weeks so getting into studying. Easy run tomorrow and Fartlek on Thursday, looking forward to doing some quality training.

Easy 13k

Long run yesterday about 13.5km. Felt really good and picked up the pace a bit at halfway and finished in 58:05. Listened to music while I ran and that was pretty good. Really enjoyed it and looking forward to training tomorrow.

Easy 6.5km

Yesterday was rest day and today an easy run. Really hot and windy today though, Summer is coming. Did 26:59 so no worries there. Long run tomorrow so hope it's not too hot.