Rushcutters Combo - 400s & Tempo Set

Headed to Rushcutters for the Combo set that has proved pretty popular over the 2^nd half of the year and included  7 x 400s and a 3k tempo set.

Decent crowd with the likes of Tucks, Barts, Jono, Crossy Lad, Clarkey (all in the front group), with Mikey, Sammy J, J.C, ‘Sweaty’ Craig, and the #1 girls Erika and Renee leading the females . Good to see Enda back for his first session since the new arrival of baby Mia last week (although he was still carrying on about his lack of sleep and only getting a mere 8 hours now instead of his regular 10 a night )

Marked out 400s, but basically with the fencing moved in I just made it one complete lap (most had about 430m, but Mikey had his regular 625m on his $2 Garmin)

Worked with the front runners today and was happy to hold 74-75 for the whole 7 reps – talk was it was adding about 3-4 seconds to each rep that I felt was close to the mark.  The good thing about the 400s is that it’s all done pretty quickly especially when you roll out every 2 mins.

We then had a breakaway when the front guys asked if we could do the normal 1k loops outside the oval that we used to do instead of the 7.5 laps (400m) ON the oval.

So whilst Mikey wasn’t budging we ventured outside for our tempo set,  It’s supposed to be run at tempo pace, but everyone shoots out (including me) despite having run the 400s hard.  I was working well feeling pretty strong as I was holding 3.30 pace for the first lap or so, and was happy to cross it out in 10.23 (average 3.31s ) although it was coming in about 50 metres short on 2.95ks

Said it before, but there must be something about that oval that I like as I seemed to run well again today despite feeling tired beforehand. The front guys were making it look easy and even Tucks seemed to be putting in some kind of effort for once. Mikey wanted to show that his ‘Under Achiever Award’ last week was well earned by ‘Taking it Easy ‘ once more , and had Enda keeping him company for the whole set, and there was NO sign of the Chairman today, who I heard was doing his own ‘pussy’ session on the North Shore early morning ?

Came home only to hear the terribly sad news about the death of young cricketer Phillip Hughes who never recovered after being hit by a bouncer on Tuesday, Absolute shocking news and hard to comprehend that anyone can go out and be playing a sport they love one minute and something like this can happen.

Warrior Charlie gave us a talk last week at the HuRTS presentation and although this is a different set of circumstances it really does make you value the life we have – Very Sad day

Will be back out tomorrow for the monthly Swim 1k time trial, I best put the effort in as the Sweaty Sock – Craig Wiseman has challenged me next week at the Boy Charlton Biathlon and I have been forced to concede 65 seconds to him on handicap for a $20 wager. I know I’ve been shafted when a Scotsman accepts the first offer of 65 seconds and is willing to part cash on the outcome ……… he must be confident J

Cheers