The David Heath phenomenon

David Heath is another of the  Loughborough Uni production line of top runners in their youth to Masters Greats (Andrew Green  Mike Trees Dave Buzza)

David however is phenomenal, he's retained his sub 4 minute mile speed and is going to knock the M50 World Records for six this northern summer.

He's one of the lucky eight runners who have been selected to run in Bejing at the IAAF World Championships in a Masters Showcase 800m - expect him to win sub 2;00 !

Can you believe the guy had heart issues at age 37! 

Noosa 10km 4th 34;02

20/8/06 Noosa 34;02 5th 1st
19/8/07 Noosa 33;59 10th 1st
22/5/11 Noosa 33;45 8th 1st
24/5/15 Noosa 34;02 4th 1st

When I look at my record for racing at Noosa I should be pretty happy to be running times I ran in 2006 and 2007 but actually I think I'm a minute off pace from earlier this year. Aerobic fitness is fine but something else is limiting my running at the moment and wont speculate (like I have been doing!) until I get a consultant opinion.
Noosa is one of the big race festivals here in SE Queensland. I arrived just in time to see Jacko majestically finish the Half Mara by himself 5 mins ahead of the field in 67mins on a windy course worth at least 66mins.
Cassie Fien was equally impressive in the ladies running 73mins! about 3 mins in front of Clare - a huge margin.

So with Jacko out of the 10k field who was going to be favorite?
Johnny Peters is about on a par with Jacko so we did have a sub 30 capable leader to follow for 100m of so before he disappeared. I felt OK and ran to my maximum eventually hauling in a few guys ahead to finish 4th but having Mick O'Shea 20 secs up the road in 3rd place made me feel things weren't quite on song (Mick was 2nd in my Queensland 10,000 Champs triumph).
Forgot to mention Ronnie ran superbly for 36;33 ! a cracking performance.

Noosa

Sundays XC smashed my calves! I did get back out for 10km in the afternoon but pain was still too great for me to contemplate track on Tuesday night. In the end I decided to just run easy all week with a double on Wednesday (10.6+11km). I'm going to race 10km at Noosa on Sunday, I actually thought it was going to be Saturday but found out today its Sunday. Its a good fast course, pretty flat (couple of humps - bridges over the canals), out and back. Jacko is running so he'll be taking it out at 3 minute pace. As for me, I'll be interested to see where I am at. Had 4 weeks averaging 100km a week. Had two poor parkruns, got a niggle I'm hoping isn't affecting performance. We'll see. 

SSCXC Mooloola 12km 1st 45;07

A tough hilly twisting course beside the reservoir. It took me a while getting into my stride and on the first of three laps I settled in behind Satoshi Ashioa who at times dropped me!
I was poor on the tough uphills which came at us four in a row and I was also poor on the downhill as I tried to prevent the momentum from crucifying my knees and hips! I have been suffering some sciatic pain (self diagnosis) through my right leg for the last 6 weeks but running has not been affected until today where for the first time I could feel the issue at the top of the hills or on the tight twisting forest sections.
I sensed Satoshi was struggling after the hills section the second time around so I passed and kicked along the dam causeway section gapping him after about 500m.
It is a single track through the woods with a number of metal pole chicanes designed to stop trail bike riders from using the paths but these do a very good job of stemming your stride and rhythm. I wished I had worn my heart rate monitor as my heart rate felt like it had gone through the roof as I went over the hills.
A comfortable victory in the end to add to my two runners up and one third place in the series. Johnny Peters was away this morning at an engagement party.
I think I'm a crap cross country runner but 12km of running through the woods beats 20km on the road, and is excellent conditioning. Will try and run this arvo to see if I can loosen up any knots.

100km plus per week club

With some Half's coming up over the last few weeks I have raised the mileage by doubling on Tuesday and also either Sat or Sun depending on XC /parkrun running. It has just pushed me over the 100km a week mark for about the first time in my masters career. I feel the need to recover from my Tuesday track session and my weekend long run so nothing much in-between though ideally if I could I'd like to be able to put in a second session on Thurs/Fri but the risk of injury may increase exponentially so I'm unlikely to add further quality.
Following my average run at Wynnum parkrun on; 

Sunday 3rd May 24km 4;24 K's

Tuesday 5th May a.m 10.6km Roo+Lake 4;04 K's
p.m. Nudgee 4 x 1500 with 94/80/82 secs jog recovery in 4;54, 4;51, 4;52, 4;46

Saturday 9th May 20km 4;18 K's
Sunday 10th May a.m. 10.6km 4;18 K's  p.m. 8.4km 4;14km

Tuesday 12th May a.m. 10.6km 4;17 K's 
p.m. 400/4x800/400 73 secs recovery 69, 2;27, 2;28, 2;27, 2;26, 67

Was happy with that last set, it only put me a few seconds behind Andrew Green (running in the UK in windy conditions the night before [same Phil Hicken session]) who is currently blitzing world age bests for M52 , he has just run 15;30 5km road, 31;32 10km road and 71;11 Half !! 

Barely imaginable times. 
He's running a 5000m tonight in Manchester UK, could run something very special!

Wynnum parkrun 1st 16;27

On Friday our neighboring suburb Caboolture received 333 mm of rain (277 mm fell in 3 hours alone on Friday afternoon).
At work in the arvo  I had a call from my son at home saying the water was backing up on our patio lapping at the door! the water was a combination of just heavy rain not getting away (through the drains) and overland flows coming in from neighbours at side and rear over timber retaining walls.

I explained how to conduct a 'backwash' and this thankfully brought the level back down to just an infinity pool once again! 
Not that you'd swim in the brown green goo that was left!
I left work straight away but got stranded on a train unable to move due to flood water over the tracks. 3 hours later we eventually got to Petrie but were told we'd not get any further north. My car was at the next station Dakabin 5km up the road so I tried to get Natalie to come pick me up. No luck there as the roads were all closed, nothing else to do but run it in my civvies! It was dark and running along a flooded country road (Narangba Rd) with cars high beams blinding me , bag under my arm, black shoes black trousers black jacket it would have made a fantastic photo/video. The rain had stopped me from doing my morning run so this was a belated run not recorded on the Garmin (thought about putting it on the phone Strava app - but battery was low and might have needed it once I got to the car).I thought the parkrun would be cancelled we'd arranged at Minnippi due to it being very low lying ground and indeed it was cancelled - when I drove past half the course was under flood water. We transferred our Masters event to Wynnum which fared remarkably well other than tonnes of seaweed quite thick and slippery in places washed up onto the esplanade pathway. This course is a bit like Sandgate except you run south  1.6km 180 O turn run back past the start finish and run another 900m and do another 180 O turnaround and back to the finish.
Like at Sandgate I went 'all out' but again suffered a similar form reversal finishing in 16;27. Somehow I  have dropped 30secs and cant fathom where. Aerobically I feel fine and physically OK other than the standard niggles and aches. The latest is a sciatic type pain Im experiencing in the right leg for the last 4 weeks. Maybe that is impacting my pace will get some iron down me just in case its anemia.  
Bazza put on breakfast back at his place hosted by the lovely Olga. They did a magnificent job once again coping without electricity (due to the storms). 
Anne Ryan once again smashed it on the age grading and The Robot, Peter J. Reeves finally managed to wallop his beloved Garmin Lama (me!). Special guest at breakfast Pat Clohessey - coach to Deek and many many Australian Running Royalty gave a talk on the influence of John Landy.
Special mention to Paul Shard (Shardy) who following on from a major back operation last year is managing to continue to chip away at his time.
Here are some photos (thanks Barry and Olga) I'm hoping google will turn them into a GIF for me so you get more of an animated clip than a zillion photos.

Olga and Pat Clohessy

I was so weak Pat had to hold my arm up whilst Olga held me upright!

10x800with 60secs recovery ave 2;37.1

Nudgee again for another 10 x 800m. Managed to average 2;37.1 compared to 2;33 last time out a few weeks back don't know if a 7 second less (ave) recovery had an effect or the 10.6km roo+lake in the morning contributed to the 4 second per 800 deficit.