3000m Back to Life, Back to Reality by brizzygooner at Garmin Connect - Details

3000m Back to Life, Back to Reality by brizzygooner at Garmin Connect - Details

Back to the Track, Back to Life, Back to Reality!

Sat 7.00am State Athletics Facility Nathan Queensland Masters
3000m 1st 9m33.55


It was back to life, back to reality, today with my first track race in two years!
Up at 4.45am (no need to adjust the alarm!), packed my bag; money,phone, change of clothes,drinks for after, spikes, Garmin, heart rate monitor, visor, towel, Sunnies.
Cup of tea, a few stretches, another cup of tea for the road and then off to Nathan - 
it took 40mins, with the 'new' motorway and bridge. 
3KM warm- up, Register, a few strides, large field of runners and walkers.
Sunny 22 O C (70 O F), humid, and no breeze! I quite like I those conditions but it is warm.
The nerves are really doing my stomach in, the left knee feels OK but slightly worried about right hamstring pain.
Gun goes and I fly off, 33/34s 200m and 70s at 400m. 
Way too fast and I drop it down. 
Had decided to see what the heart rate looked like in a race and wore the monitor. 
Could feel my heart going 10 to the Dozen (what does that mean!!?)
2m28 at 800m and was well into lapping the walkers and some runners! 
Went through 1000m in about 3m08 and 2000m in 6m18, I felt comfortable enough, 
not flat at by any means and was enjoying the feel of racing track again. 
It does take some getting used to and typically for me about 3 or 4 races to get up to speed. 
I ran it in flats, and was happy enough with  my time - I want to run this pace (3m10's  for 5K) in a years time.
It was sobering running through with 200m to go in 8m55.
My Garmin was way off the mark giving me 


3m02, 3m07, 3m07, 18sec   for 3.1 KM 


but the heart rate data should look good,; 


1KM 157bpm, 2KM 169bpm, 3KM 175bpm, 107M 178bpm


I warmed down with Peter Reeves and Phil Davies along the tracks through the bush. Peter is father of Chris, Michael, Andrew, and Mathew - all runners or former runners. 
Chris was a real talent but has sadly given up running , joined the police and weighs 100kg (muscle as someone told me he was into weights). Michael (won the Noosa Half two years ago) has been suffering a number of injuries. Andrew finished just ahead of me in this years Bridge to Brisbane.
I am by no means a Soul Boy (that was my buddy Phillipe Browne - now in Luxembourg), however I always loved this one, enjoy the rest of the weekend;

Dennis Bergkamp

Fri 5.00am 10.6KM Roo+Lake    41m40   (3m57 K's)

Splits were;

4m44, 4m07, 3m53, 3m55, 3m48, 3m52, 3m51, 3m50, 3m52, 3m48, 1m59 (3m33pace)

Newcastle Utd 0 Arsenal 4

Thurs 5.00am 10.6KM Roo+Lake


Didn't get a time as the Garmin buggered up with sweat! but was running around 4m10's. = Sore hammy!
Cut the run short to watch the Gooners demolish the Geordie's ; )

Liam Brady

Weds 5;09am 16.34KM Roo+Lake+Roo 66m22  (4m04 K's)


Splits;
4m43, 4m16, 4m04, 4m11, 
4m07, 4m04, 4m02, 3m59, 
4m03, 3m39, 3m53, 4m04, 
3m54, 3m54, 4m01, 3m54, 1m16 (3m44pace)

10km 38m24

Sun 11km Beach Run; Red Beach to Woorim and back 55m09 - Barefoot & blistered
Mon Recovery
Tues 5.08am 16.34km Roo+Lake+Roo  65m00 (3m59 K's)

This mornings K's went

4m47, 4m19, 4m05, 4m12,
4m01, 3m59, 3m56, 3m59,
3m56, 3m52, 3m49, 3m51,
3m44, 4m01, 3m44, 3m46,
3m51, 3m50, 1m12 (3m31pace)
- Adding up the last 10 full K's the time was 38m24.

Brisbane has become its customary high humidity sweat capital of the tropics.
My weight following today's session (Bob!) was 64kg, getting close to racing weight (62kg) but I'm doing my best at the weekends to quaff more than my fare share of beer! and thus remain a tad to heavy!
In consideration of a weekend beer, however ,I no longer have a Magnum (Chocolate covered Ice Cream) every night, I no longer have my daily lunchtime can of lemonade/Coke. I resist the temptation to join the biscuit club at work. Other than that, I eat like a horse, but mainly good stuff!

Half Zatopek

Sat Nudgee 3.49pm  20 X 400m 75 sec jog recovery


67.12, 68.28, 72.93, 72.37, 70.36, 
73.09, 72.18, 70.10, 74.45, 72.15,
73.15, 71.34, 69.96, 72.12, 73.43, 
74.70, 74.61, 75.13, 73.06, 67.94


Conditions were warm and slightly windy. I used the Garmin to do the timing via the 'interval session' feature.
I don't think I'll use that in future as I prefer to get the instant feedback and accuracy of the old style.
Off to the beach for a beach run ; )

Straight to Hell - The Clash

Fri 5.09am  10.59KM Roo+Lake 42m23  (4m00 K's)


4m45, 4m24, 4m07, 4m03,
3m58, 3m56, 3m48, 3m42,
3m50, 3m42, 2m08= 3m38pace


I always loved this song, the rhythm more than anything, I've never really looked to understand  the lyrics though I can sing them all! 
Decided to shorten my run today in an attempt to up the pace. After my first two K at Showroom Dummy pace I slipped into an acceptable pace.

Showroom Dummies - Kraftwerk

5.09am  16.24km Roo+Lake+Roo 70m19 (4m20 K's)

Slow and sore again today!
I was thinking as I was listening to Kraftwerk that I'm running like a Showroom Dummy for the first 3KM of my run!

Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

Wed  5.13am  16.29KM  66m54   (4m06 K's)

4m40, 4m27, 4m09, 4m12, 4m03, 4m05, 4m09,
4m01, 3m51, 4m02, 3m55, 4m08, 3m59, 3m57,
4m05, 4m00, 1m10 for 293m (4m00 pace)

Once I got moving after about 3K, I held a fair pace for the rest of the run.

Incident at Deception Bay

Tues 5.00am 16.KM Roo+Lake +Roo 68m31  4m12 K's


I felt a lot better than yesterday! More loose, less sore and felt able to lift the effort. No extraordinary sitings on the run today though I am reminded of one other freak incident running KM intervals at Deception Bay about 3 years ago (before I blogged). Running with Ian Kent and Geoff and Errol Holmes, it was dark and we'd just set off on our last interval. Up above and to the front over the Bay , spraying a trail of blue green sparks, a meteorite crossed above us! At the time, and considering our close proximity to Kippa Ring Air strip and maybe the delirium of the last interval, I'd thought it was a plane - crash landing!! Of course being runners we all just kept running!!

Running with Koala's

Mon 5.00am  Roo+Lake+Roo 16.3KM  75m09

I was really stiff and sore this morning! It was very slow going but I ploughed on in the hope that getting the miles in will show some benefit one day! I was trying to workout what my righ groin thing might be and suspect it might just be a tight hamstring. It is not getting any worse and I was able to do speedwork on Sat so I will keep going for the moment. Today it was really cold 12 O C when I started my run so the long sleeved top was back on. Highlight of the run was well into Roo for the second time, coming down a pathway when I see what I thought was a cat running towards me! No wrong shape for a cat It looks more like a puppy it even crossed my mind that it was a lion cub! and then as I got right up close I realised it was a Koala!
It was like seeing a Teddy Bear running!
A young Koala bounding along the footpath  right in front of me! Of course I didn't stop (runners mentality!) but I did call out "Hello Fella!" - well what do you say when you meet a Koala? I could run for another 10 years and not see a Koala running along the pathway again. They are nearly always asleep in the trees though I have once seen a Koala (when I was out walking the dog) scurrying between trees. They are becoming very rare as their habitat is being encroached upon.

Photos from Google images;

Casey Stoner

Sun  12.53pm  2 X Roo+Lake  21.06KM  90m55  (4m19 K's) 139bpm


Quite sore from yesterdays session, took an awful long while to get going (like 10K's), took things nice and easy.
Wind is subsiding and it has been unseasonaly cool, it only got to about 22 O C today which is lovely running temperature. 
Enjoyed seeing Casey take his 4th in a row Australian Moto GP this arvo!

Keith Bateman M55 3000m 9m14.27 Australian Record

On a very very windy day in Sydney today Keith smashed the M55 3000m record (held by legendary multi record holder John Gilmour)  by 6secs!!
Today he said "very very windy - Sean told me to tuck in behind Liam Ridings (easier said than done) - stayed with his pack for a lap or so but very hard going as wasn't much cover from the wind - lost touch on 2nd lap but caught them again - then couldn't hang on and got the wind for 4 laps and died in last 2 laps. But finished in 9:14.27 which is 5.5 seconds quicker than the Australian Record so VERY happy with that :-)"
Keith has started rewriting the record books with an Australian Mile record earlier this year hopes to run World Records from 1500m to Half Mara.

Roo+Lake+Roo by brizzygooner at Garmin Connect - Details

Roo+Lake+Roo by brizzygooner at Garmin Connect - Details

Claudia Esme Highnam

Fri  5.11am  16.34KM (Roo+Lake+Roo) 68m55  (4m13 K's) - 137bpm
Sat 4.06pm Nudgee 20 X 300m  60sec jog recovery 
50.73, 53.45, 52.09, 52.96, 54.66, 
51.55, 51.78, 51.53, 53.05, 52.53, 
53.07, 51.67, 52.25, 53.11, 53.37, 
53.11, 53.08, 51.85, 52.58, 51.75.


I had considered running a 5K this morning at Masters or a 10K this evening at QA (Open) but the forecast was for strong winds so I decided to delay my return to the track for at least another week!
Today at Nudgee it was real windy and quite cool (about 20 O C - 70 O F). I tried to escape the wind by running 300's though from about halfway through the session the wind was swirling around and I seemed to be running into it along the straight. Regardless I was happy with the session, no reaction yet from the right groin and left knee coped OK. I ran it in flats.
It was far easier just running 300's rather than 400's but hopefully doing 3's added a touch of speed. The heart rate was only getting into the 150's bpm compared with those 5mins intervals where I hit 179 bpm . 
I ran this session purely on the Garmin using the interval mode which takes some getting used to. That is I need to practice going off a flying start on the long beep - it doesn't really matter if you hit the line early or late as it is measuring distance. I wasn't looking at the watch on the finish line so didn't know what splits I was running. Sometimes I find the split feedback can assist motivation to keep pushing hard. Had to concentrate on keeping it relaxed, specially when the wind picked up!
My congratulations go out to my blogging buddy, Tom Highnam and his wife Kirst on the birth of his 5th child Claudia Esme Highnam

Keeping Up Appearance

Thurs 5.22am  10.63km (Roo+Lake)  44m14  (4m10s K's)


Was up early (4.45am) but had stuff to do so ended up cutting the run down to the basic old run.
KM's went;
4m43, 4m25, 4m07, 4m18, 4m11, 4m11, 4m00, 4m00, 3m56, 3m52, + 2m30 - 627m


I have finally found the answer to why my blogs appearance wasn't being published in the format that I was attempting = I was using the 'old editor' format.
Go to Settings, Select 'Basic', scroll down to Global Settings and select the 'new editor', this should then provide you with many new options when deciding on style and format for posts.Hence the beautiful colours of this post and the trebuchet font!

Here is a video clip from the B2B, Denis Fitzgerald (Sunnies) seen standing at the finish, the first runner you see is the Defence guy who ran behind me the whole way bar last 400m and next guy is Andrew Reeves (red vest) who I caught up with about 2K to go.I'm in the Shaftesbury vest (black&white) with sunnies.

Zombie Land Again!

Tues 5.10am 16.34km (Roo+Lake+Roo) 71m11 4m21 K's

Wed 5.07am 16.37km (Roo+Lake+Roo) 70m27 4m18 K's

Last night I tried to stay awake to watch the Com. Games 1500m.

I was really interested to see how the Aussies would go and Nick Willis, the Kiwi who won last time at Melbourne.

I remember thinking I've made it (stayed awake) as they lined up!

The inane commentary introduced the second string Kiwi, the Aussie - Jeremy Roff 'with the headband', Andrew Badderley from England "who had the fastest time in the World for the Mile in 2008" - surely not I thought , I'll have to check up that stat and then that's where I must have drifted off!

I fell asleep even before the line up panned to Willis! I woke up and watched some Javelin and Pole Vault (or was that before?) and was thinking to myself there was something I wanted to see but forgot what it was. I've been watching the Fox coverage rather than Channel 10.Surely they could get someone on to commentate who knows what they are talking about? They must have forked out a fortune to get Daley Thompson on, who is good for the sprints and field events but 'come on' Raylene Boyle commentating on the middle/long distances!!

Do me a favour!

I put the tablet into the dishwasher but failed to switch it on!

I saw the 1500m final repeated this morning and realised I had missed it and must have fallen into Zombie land again!

It was tough getting up when the alarm went off at 4.45am! but I do enjoy the feeling through the day of thinking I've done it and can relax and mooch about to my hearts content (or at least until Natalie see's me!)

The slow down in pace is due to the early morning effect on my body! On the positive side it means I'm running for an extra 5 mins a day!

St. Swithin's Day?

Sat Rest

Sun 3.34pm 21.24KM (2 X Roo+Lake) 90;05 (4m14 K's)

Mon 6.04pm 10.82km (Roo+Lake) Aprox 47min (4m30 K's)

It has not stopped raining!

Sat it rained all day, my left knee tendinitis and my right side groin(? I'd thought it was a hammy) have been playing up so I was happy to rest again specially as the weather was so shitehouse. We have emptied the rain gauge 3 or 4 times (that's 90mm[3.5inches] X 3 or 4 over the last three days!)

Sunday I managed to find a break in the rain long enough to get out for 90mins and not get rained on!

This morning when the alarm went off at 4.45am it was chucking it down, no way I could get out and run in that! so I rolled over!

Felt really guilty but at least I'd have the opportunity to run lunchtime or when I got home. Lunchtime it was still raining. So I got out this evening. The left knee and the right groin still playing up, so very steady pace along flooded footpaths in the dark (not my favourite!). And of course it totally chucked it down! I was saturated, the Garmin started blipping and spluttering (hence no proper time for todays run).

It was really abysmal out there, horrid, like the worst days running in the UK! Where is the Sub Tropical Sun and weather? The forecast is for about a month more rain!

It took me two and a half hours to get to work - normally takes about an hour.

These photo's shows my rail station at Petrie this morning! News storey here

For more on what St. Swithin's Day see this

Photo: brisbanetimes.com.au reader Kim Henry

Rain and Heart Rate

Thurs 2.37pm 16.30km(Roo+Lake+Roo) 1h07m40 4m09 K's 146bpm

Fri 12.40pm 16.34km (Roo+Lake+Roo) 1h07m40 4m09 K's 140bpm

Remarkably similar runs, same time but bpm on Fri 140 compared to 146 on Thurs.

The difference?

Probably the temperature!

All week it has been really hot and humid but early Fri morning (2.00am thunder clap that woke us!) a storm came through cooling things down and dropping 89mm of rain over night!

We had another 60mm Fri arvo/night and it is still raining!! - That is 6.2 inches in 24hours.

Just over two years ago our dams were running critically dry at about 18% Capacity, we were in real danger.

We (Queenslanders) had all sorts of water saving devices fitted,water restrictions and Government grants for water tanks etc.

Now we are very comfortable having reached 100% dam capacity.

Jamie Harrison also recently got a Garmin and sent me details of a similar training session he did Tues to mine on Wednesday.

On Tuesday (midday, warm) did 22k on the M7 bike track, with 12 x 1k,
500 jog between:

2k warmup, 10.06, 5.03/k
1k, 3.34, 3.35/k HR 125
499m, 2.21, 4.43/k, HR 120
1k, 3.17, 3.18/k, HR 129
498m, 2.23, 4.49/k, HR 120
999m, 3.20, 3.21/k, HR 132
503m, 2.22, 4.43/k, HR 119
1k, 3.19, 3.19/k, HR 137
496m, 2.23, 4.50/k, HR 129
1k, 3.37, 3.36/k, HR 143
499m, 2.26, 4.55/k, HR 130
1k, 3.27, 3.27/k, HR 142
498m, 2.32, 5.05/k, HR 131
998m, 3.27, 3.28/k, HR 143
501m, 2.28, 4.56/k, HR 133
1k, 3.24, 3.24/k, HR 142
499m, 2.24, 4.51/k, HR 130
1k, 3.31, 3.31/k, HR 141
498m, 2.27, 4.55/k, HR 133
997m, 3.50, 3.51/k, HR 142
501m, 2.40, 5.21/k, HR 132
1k, 3.44, 3.44/k, HR 141
499m, 2.36, 5.13/k, HR 137
1k, 3.29, 3.28/k, HR 142
Warmdown 2.42k, 10.08, 4.12/k, HR 137.
Total 21.92k, 1.29.26, 4.05/k, HR 133.

Jamie's resting heart rate is an incredible Mid30bpm !!

Imagine running a 3m17sec K and have an ave HR of just 129bpm!

"The M7 isn't completely flat, so the times varied a bit according to
whether it was up or down. I also did 5 mile that night, so it was a

tough day (I think I'm still recovering!)."

Cameron Meyer

Wed 12.30pm 11KM(Roo+Lake+ abit) 42m22 (3m52'ks)

I decided to run a Pete Magill 5KM Pace session yesterday and used the Garmin to great affect.

The Session is 5 X 5mins at 5KM pace with 2mins jog recovery. It is supposed to be off the track and I didn't have much time so just ran it over my Roo+Lake course running the grass nature strip beside the cycle path around here.

Just a brief comment on Brisbane Summer - it is very hot and midday (28 O C/ 82 O F - but with high humidity) , so when looking at heart rate [and the performance] that would be having an affect.

Warm Up; 2.23km 9m19 (4m11 K's) 132bpm

Rep 1; 5.00mins 1.39km (3m36 K's) 157bpm

Rest 1; 2.00mins 436m (4m35 K's) 146bpm

Rep 2; 5.00mins 1.38km (3m37 K's) 164bpm

Rest 2; 2.00mins 452m (4m26 K's) 154bpm

Rep 3; 5.00mins 1.37km (3m39 K's) 167bpm

Rest 3; 2.00mins 444m (4m39 K's) 157bpm

Rep 4; 5.00mins 1.40km (3m35 K's) 171bpm

Rest 4; 2.00mins 422m (4m45 K's) 160bpm

Rep 5; 5.00mins 1.42km (3m31 K's) 175bpm

Rest 5; 3secs = Stopped the watch 179bpm

I don't think Pete would approve of the 'in depth' analysis but I found it very interesting.

The heart rate shows I was working very hard. The results weren't great, on the track I would hope to be able to comfortably run at 3m10 pace but considering all the circumstances I pushed myself to the max and I was happy with that - a tough session!

Stayed up to watch the 5000m at the Commonwealth Games. The Ugandan winner KIPSIRO Moses Ndiema ran a fantastic 52sec last lap and wanted the Victory more than anyone, his commitment was incredible. The Aussie boys ran really well (6th 7th & 8th !!) specially Collis Birmingham who was still there with a lap to go!

Also I really enjoyed the Mens Points Race in the Velodrome, Cameron Meyer was head and shoulders above the rest.He has to be a fantastic future road talent for the Grand Tours and the Classics.

Blue Monday

Tues 5.00pm 16.14km (Roo+Lake+Roo) 1;06:01 - 4m05 K's

Mon 3.00pm 16.19km (Roo+Lake+Roo) 1;04:25 - 3m59 K's

Felt better on Monday for having rested Sunday and finished off the last 6K's fast.

Yesterday (Tues) was a little more easy going but after first 3K managed to hit consistent 4m00 K's though the Garmin registered a freak 4m40 K at around the 12K mark which is where I'm running through an avenue of trees so maybe that interfered.

Have been occasionally running with the heart rate monitor.

Steady state running (4m K's is about 140 to 150 bpm whilst 3m30' K's sends it rocketing to 170's,

If Max heart rate is 220 minus age then mine should be 171 my resting heart rate is about 50 bpm) . Still can't download Garmin data as Ant+ stick software is corrupting my computer (might see if I can do it at work when I get back).

New Order - Blue Monday (original 1983)
Uploaded by lelie. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

2010 USA Masters 5 km Championships

Fri 4.00pm 10.5KM Roo+Lake 42m05 (4m01 K's)

Sat 4.00pm 15.00KM Cadel+Roo 62m40 (4m10 K's)

Sun Rest

My right thigh/hammy was sore through Saturdays run so decided to rest it Sunday.

The US Masters 5KM Road Champs were this weekend and it was good to see Pete Magill M49 finish 3rd Overall in 15m20 behind Christian Cushing-Murray M42 and Chad Newton M40 who finished together in 15m08.

Pete took the overall Age Percentage title with a whopping 95% for his effort.

The Results are posted here

The Queensland Masters T & F program has commenced and results are posted here