Rushcutters 450s with the Angry Man

Yet another busy morning work wise in the park, doing a sharpish 40ks on the bike and a cruisy 8ks of running (very slow). It was then over to Rushcutters Oval for the full single laps we do now that is about 450 metres rolling every 2 mins:10 seconds.
No sign of all the favorites for tonight's presentation, as Tucks, Tom, Laura, Richie High, Elvis, Pete Walker and Enda were all in make up and getting there nails done for the evening (although not sure WHY Tom wasn't there though in truth)
Still a good crowd out with Bartles (leading from the front), Kanser, Macca, Heyden, Mikey, J.W, Christian and a good few others as we split into two groups. Rolled around the first rep in 82 (ave 3mins/ks) and pretty much held the pace sitting behind Kanser and Bartles, coming home alongside Macca and Heyden for the first 5 all around the same pace. Anyway it was around the half way mark that 'Mr Angry' was to make his mark for the day ....And NO Clyde wasn't there, BUT Mikey fires up about runners going out to hard and then blocking his lane (what?), Well in fairness i realise i am not in career best form at the moment but 3 minute ks is hardly pedestrian and there isn't exactly a million people out there on the back stretch to get around - still he wasn't happy :(
So took it on the chin and dropped back as Kanser then rolled his eyes i was happy to roll around at the back of the pack for reps 7,8,and 9 before trying to put a final burst in for the 10th rep.i was perhaps fading in truth so even without Mikey's blast I'm not sure i could have held 82/83s for the rest of the set.
Bloody Hot out there today didn't help matters,
Reps times were;
82,82,83,83,83,83,86,86,87,80

Not sure whats happening to Mikey, and I'm secretly hoping that he does NOT win his usual award this evening as it may just send him over the edge, and if that's the case there is NO WAY I'm training with him next Tuesday he'd be unbearable :)


Well that's about it - i best go dig out my best shirt for the evening and say a final farewell to the trophy that i collected 12 months back and prepare for a night on the tiles with the boys. Will be sure to have a full report with photos on the blog sometime Friday.

Mikey with Benny St collecting his award last year................Will we see more of the same this evening ????

Cheers

HuRTS Award Nominations and Latest Odds

With the big HuRTS awards night and presentations a little over 24 hours away and with all the votes in i thought now would be a good time to give my views and the latest odds for the likely lucky Candidates.
I have NO inside knowledge or information on the awards so PLEASE don't go preparing your victory speech or sending me hate mail via anonymous twitter accounts on what is written below :)

For a bit of light hearted look as how things will pan out this is what the 'Timmy Crystal Ball' has come up with and some of the nominations.
BTW - these are not necessary my submitted tips either.

Performer of the Year:
Chairman Tom  6/1, Barely ever runs a bad race and his performance at the Gold Coast will surely put him in the running as well as his JP run. Despite running well has NEVER won as much as a bean over the past 5 years at an awards night.
Tip - can see him walking away empty handed once again.

Andrew Tucks  8/1. Former #1 and past winner although had a pretty quiet year by his high standards, still represented his country once again so may go close to taking out the top award.
Tip - not this year and may be forced to relocate to Wales to get back to winning ways.

Fats, 4/5, A late entry with his superb Melb Marathon that has seen a flood of money for the one time Mountain Goat Climber of the team, A previous 6ft winner and sure to go close here. Lets hope he brings his Home Brew with him and bakes a few cakes for the team to celebrate should he win.
Tip. Start writing the speech.

Razor Wareham 5/2 . Another late entry from the guy who never shuts up whilst the rest of us can barely talk in training with his unorthodox training schedule. Great Melbourne run and still showing those young guns how to run over 42ks (Kane take note)
Tip, Could well surprise.

Macca McClarnon.12/1 Irishman who is as tough as old boots, like Tom never runs a bad race and has the runs on the board with some good races over the past 12 months
Tip, don't write him off

Timmy's Tip - Should Win ........Fats
                     Will Win .............Fats

Female of the Year, Nominations , Young Laura 1/3, Sonya 5/2, Mermaid 10/1, Olivia12/1, L.L write your own ticket
Tip is - Laura for her comeback JP race and her Half earlier in the year.

Under Performer of the Year - The one trophy dominated in recent years by one Mikey Conway (evens), sure to be a front runner once again but faces strong competition this year from Irishmen Enda 6/4, and Kane 7/4. Throw in the mix Champagne Charlie3/1 , and Marshmallow Man Clyde 7/2 and this shapes up as a close call.  Loads of late money for Kanser i hear , whilst Mikey has promised to sack any UBS worker who votes for him this year in order to avoid taking it out for a 4th straight year
Tip is - Should Win..... Mikey
            Will Win .........Kanser
            Who i pray will win ....Enda

Spirit Award - A great award this one BUT is there anyone in the group that can halt all round good guy Richie High? Always got a smile on his dial and makes sure the group is well catered for at ANY social event. Never misses a session (in the pub) and forever spreading the word and love ( mainly Enda's way)
Unbeatable odds 1/4 - Get your house on him
Outsiders worth a few bob each way, MrAce 2/1 for his work on fitting us out with caps and even managing to run with a smile, Greg and Charlie 4/1 for there ongoing work behind the scenes with the emails and website,  Chairman Tom 7/1, coordinating the sessions, Mikey 7/1 like Tom ( and i best not forget him or he will be upset)  :)
Tip.........the House is on Richie High

A few extra awards this year as well, Triathlon of the Year,  not many in the group to be honest as most us can't swim, but in the mix would have to be Pete Walker, Richie Palmer, Charlie, Eoin, High ?
Tip is ............Pete Walker

Ultra Walker of the Year............Who Cares :)
Tip.........Tucks, on the bases he walked further then anyone else, others of note, Elvis, Skippy Heyden, and John Worsick?

All will be known throughout the course of the evening down at the Harbour View Hotel tomorrow in the Rocks, A full report and round up will be done with photos on Friday

Hope to see you all there,
Cheers

HuRTS 45 minute Tempo

Tough old morning out on the bike in Centennial that saw me do a few laps with Irish pair Eoin 'the Leech' and Cork boy Paul Hanley (strong accent and no clue what he says whenever he talks to me), Bike felt good fresh after another service even if the rider didn't, 35ks done then promised to ride another 35k time trial with a client who is also handy on the bike and by the time i returned home i had ticked off 86k for the morning.
Saw L.L ( Lisa) out in the park running at one stage putting in a final burst for perhaps some awards come Thursday, told her that i think she has left her run a little late she did reply that maybe 'Underacheiver' was possible but i quickly told her that was already sewn up :)

With a quick break it was then into town for the 45 minute tempo session, massive crowd again despite the busy time of the year with all the regulars out for a trot. Started off very easy and was running with Billy Batt, Todd, and Champ working at 4.09 pace reaching the theatre company by half way. Quickened it up and was running just a tad under 4 min/ks coming by the Passenger Terminal and C.Q before the battery gave up the ghost on the GPS coming around Farm Cove, Saw Tucks and Pete Walker taking a short cut through the gardens coming out near the A.B.C Pool so just tucked in with them for the final 5 minutes home. Bloody tough again with the hills not to mention the swirling wind around but ended up making it back in plenty of time. Not very often i managed to run with Tucks on the final 5 minutes of ANY set over the years so was happy enough to hit the Stone Gates with him on this occasion (don't need to mention the fact he run a 60k Kepler Race about a week ago in N.Z).

Did say that i would put the nominations up for the HuRTS awards but think i will hold them over till tomorrow as Mikey was getting a little worried that i may be having a strong influence on the voters in his quest for Under Achiever trophy. I think all votes are now in and counted so it wont matter but just to be sure.....

Received yet more material from readers,(you'll have to stop sending all this Flakey, the boys are getting upset), this time its a 'Guess Who' again. This photo was taking many years ago and can you guess who the HuRTS member is from years gone by. We are looking for the person in the 'Bonny Hat at the front, A big clue is the gender of the person is MALE  ( I know i struggled to tell at first)  :)
First person with the correct answer will get a free beer on Thursday evening.

What a weekend of football from the English Premier this week, the Manchester Derby game just doesn't get any better, with Utd coming away with a 2-3 win thanks to yet another injury time goal.  The game had everything and its no wonder its the best league in the world after watching matches like that. My team Stoke are still going strong, with 3 wins out the past 4, as is Slim Sammy Agnew's C.Palace unfortunately the same can't be said about Master Sweeneys Arsenal, Tom's Newcastle, Enda's Villa,  and we wont even bother with Skippy Heyden's Q.P.R :)
Did find these couple of photos funny though also from the weekend.

Utd Manager Alex Ferguson, celebrated 26 years as the boss at the club last week, but if you added all the injury time added over the years then it more like 30 years :)

The new Money Box on offer for Man City fans, after one idiot decided to throw coins at Rio that cut him open above the left eye.

cheers

IN and ON the Drink

The annual Thailand trip usually symbols the start of the silly season for me and at the completion of the race normally means no more training until around the 10th Jan in the New Year once I've spent a few days at the cricket and the Test Match is over. This is done because there is a feast of activities going on that sees many a party that includes the demon drink, This year i have vowed to train through it though even if it is at a less intensity. So today even after a big weekend i headed into town to the A.B.C Pool to meet Pete Walker, Todd, Champ, Brendan and Gun Swimmer Mike(?) for the usual Monday swim. No sign of Enda mind who i have on good authority was seen heading to the gym to pump up some Iron claiming it was to cold for him.

Session was 5 x 300s, 5 x 100m with 200 warm up and cool down, I arrived very early as i knew that i couldn't stay with the guys and knocked out 500 warm up first, and after doing the first 300 then went to doing 200s instead of the scheduled set. Tried to tuck in with Todd and was hanging in there although he does have some kick on him and when he fires up i thought a hailstorm was beating down on my head (got a bloody headache now)
Finished off with 4 of the 5 100 reps and was buggered again come the end, It's only been two weeks since the race and can't believe how hard i found today's session with doing nothing during that time. Just goes to show that i will need to continue to work at it if I'm to avoid losing it altogether.
2ks in total for the day.

Saw Kanser out running once i had finished, out with one of his Running clients so 'young Bronwyn' tells me, also mentioned that Davie Boy has been training her for a couple of years now for Marathons can you believe? Will have to find out a little more for the Trash readers, so stay tuned,  Although i think he needs it as rumour around the Centennial traps yesterday is that HuRTS #1 Lady Laura is again been poached and Kanser is not a happy bunny about the idea of losing his star recruit he gained last year from Mikey to some 'Young Cub' :)

Will be out for the dreaded Tempo set tomorrow although will be taking it easy and wont be killing myself especially at this time of the year.

Big week ahead starting on Thursday with the HuRTS night, and have another 3 nights after that full on with drinks and parties...............roll on New Year i say :)

Tomorrow i will be giving the Paddy Power Odds on who will take home the 'bling' at Thursday nights awards presentation. Loads of money already in for Mikey for one of the awards, wonder which one that will be for? :)

cheers

Sunday Long Run 24ks - Done

After a Saturday night out being entertained by English funnyman Steve Merchant (think The Office, Extras) i was up early for my first Sunday Long run in months as i arranged to meet Kanser at Centennial. Also had a late text from Rob Costello aka Elvis who was out to join us at the same time and in fact made for a nice change for an Irishman who doesn't talk trash for two hours (although he is a little strange as he was telling me that he plans to run some hundred miler in the states next July)
Had intended to run 24ks for the morning but really haven't done anything like that distance for months so thought I'd just see how i went. Beautiful morning first up with temps over 26 degrees (see Flakes blog for full weather pattern)
Knocked out the first 10 loop in 46.11 ( 4.36 pace) doing it pretty easy catching up on the gossip and chatting about the up coming HuRTS 'night of nights' Presentation **. Started the 2nd loop and Kanser was straight into picking the pace up (that i could have done without, and got me thinking WHY does he do that?) and went around in 44.07 (4.25s) although the talking dropped somewhat at this stage of the morning. A single 4k flat lap was all that was left to do and as Kanser drifted off by about 100m i managed to hold the 4.25 pace to finish with 24ks in a time of 1.47 all up averaging 4.30 for the morning.
Very happy with that to be honest and at least i have a solid base to work with and will try to pick it up every week now getting either up to 30ks or just working at a faster pace.
It was like old times at the end when it was back to the 'House of Kane's where the Good Wife had already lined up the best breaky that now includes 'Smoked Salmon' on the menu (Tommy H will have to lift his game to top that should we venture over the Dark Side early in the new year for one of his hostings )
A little tired now and will take tomorrow off, although got a big afternoon planned as got the special invite around Mr Stankards house at Bondi for a BBQ he has, lets just pray he doesn't try to kill us with more of that Irish Phish alcohol he dished up at the end of the City to Surf in August and i get more then a burnt Rissole this time around :)
I must add that i must have rocks in my head as the Charming and Classy Anna from the group is also hosting a BBQ (although it is North Shore) and has promised Wagyu Beef, Lobster and top line guests and chilled bubbly, whilst i will have to put up with Irish drivel all afternoon, PLOD slobbering away, and Angry /Marshmallow Man Clyde putting the World to rights, and that's before Enda has even gets started on his excuses for the afternoon.

Cheers

**, The outcome of the HuRTS presentation chat we had  was that we feel that the poor Chairman may go home empty handed next Thursday evening once again despite having a pretty good year............all will be revealed next Thursday.

Pyramid 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 Laps

Down to Rushcutters for the Pyramid Session that is 1,2,3,4,3,2,1 full laps of Rushcutters Oval for the first kind of any speed session for over 3 weeks and boy was it to hurt.
Good crowd if somewhat small with Tom, Enda, Mikey, Elvis, Young Laura, Christian, James and a few others and also nice to see Kanser return after his spell back home in Ireland
Knew this was going to be a tough return and wasn't even sure that I'd get through it in truth so was happy to let Enda and Mikey go slightly ahead on the first single lap as i still went around to quick with an 86 (3.19 pace), held pretty much the same for the double and was already starting to feel the pace come the triple set. didn't help when Kanser decided to drop back a division and run with the second group meaning i was pretty much running solo for the 4 timer. I wasn't able to hold the pace on the 2nd triple lap but knew once that was out the way i was pretty much on the home straight. Managed to keep the double lap under 3.30 pace that i was happy with and then just had enough petrol in the tank to finish the final lap of in 85.
Absolutely spent at the end to be honest, but more then happy to get through it as another bulk of training gets under way - Will be hard enough anyway this one with all the Christmas drinks and activities set over the next 4 weeks or so but i am determined this year to train over the festive period unlike previous years :)
Times for the Day were;
86, 2.58, 4.35, 6.20, 4.41, 3.05. 85
Mikey continues to run well as does Enda,(who also agreed once more to give me 2 minutes start on the next 10k we do), Tom led the field all day (Obviously Tucks was on leave), and Kanser just seem to be cruising around (although he was blowing pretty heavy)

Have lined up my first long run on the weekend with Kanser, haven't done one in ages now but need to get started sooner rather then later as i think i will try to do Six Foot again this year and don't want to start my run to late if i am to give myself half a chance in the race.

Don't know if you could see the photos from the Phuket race yesterday (or even cared for that matter) but the Chairman insisted that i not bother with such boring shots and was after the ones that included the possible NEW HuRTS massage team that he is thinking of bringing in for the squad in the New Year. So just to keep him happy here is what you can expect come the new year should you have any injuries or concerns...........Please take a ticket :)

Massage girl Nori, complete with HuRTS visor, MrAce might want to use the photo if he wants to promote how the new caps look when he puts the new order in:)

Meet Noi and Noy, sisters who now that Richie High has resigned from his day job and we may not have a tent at next years JP Morgan i have these two lined up to look after our hospitality tent for the night.

....and despite telling me that he wasn''t going to go this year, i did track Enda down and was forced to listen to his banter for the night once again, Actually i did have a half decent conversation with him . Just wish he'd get rid of that damn Irish jersey for once.

cheers

Laguna Phuket Triathlon 3.07:29

Back from the little holiday in the Land of Smiles, and had a good 9 days or so since the race to enjoy some sunshine and reflect on the race itself.
Left here on the Thursday before feeling in pretty good form and even went out on the bike course with others on the Friday to check out what was in store as the course was slightly different this time around, then went out for a bite to eat and a few drinks early evening with friends and was enjoying the night when all of a sudden.............BANG, A quick visit to the toilet, followed hot flushes and i was barely out of the main drag before bringing back up my best Thai Fish Snapper from an hour earlier. Stumbled back to the hotel and the next 12 hours or so were perhaps the worst i have ever felt. I thought it was all over for me at that stage and was getting set to write the blog for a final time as i couldn't get out the room at all.
Started to feel a little better about 9pm on the Saturday night, and knew that i should eat and get something into me but couldn't make myself leave the hotel which meant racing on absolute nothing inside me.
Race Day is an early start and up at 4am, all set up and watch the sun rise before the start of the swim leg that sees us swim 1.2ks in the ocean and then a further 600 metres across the Lagoon to transition. I settled nicely and was delighted to stand up out the water in only 32 minutes and was away out on the bike in under 35. Held back a little to begin with as there are 3 mammoth hills to contend with in the first 16ks of the 55, i seemed to labour up the hills but was very happy to be passing loads ( even people walking the bikes), Was working very hard and didn't think i was going that well but when i checked the time on every split i found was doing OK time wise and was going past people throughout which was also pleasing. Came in off the bike in 94 minutes for the 55ks and was delighted to be out on the run with the clock not yet reaching 2hr:10 min - meaning that i only really had to run 4 min/ks (48 minutes for the 12k) to break the 3 hour mark in 2.58 and give myself every chance of a top 20 overall and a possible A/G win?
This unfortunately was about as good as it was to get as the next 57 minutes were pure HELL, I shuffled out on the first k working no better then 4.30 pace and just had nothing. Made it to the 2ks mark before my first walk of the day (which was the first of many) and took drinks aboard and the Ice sponges that were on offer. Happy to see the first 6k lap done in 27 minutes (4.30 pace)  and just prayed i could hold that, put on a brave face for the "Thai Tims' around transition before yet another walk, as an overweight guy came running past me - Pride kicked in at this stage and thought 'No Way' is this geezer faster then me as i run past him only to stop again 50 metres further and him to fly by again.  This was getting embarrassing as it must have happened about 10 times over the course of 3ks, and with 1500 left to go i thought OK, lets just get this over and done with as i was now reduced to running 5 min/ks - But even then i had to stop ONCE more :(
Never been so happy to cross a finishing line as the run leg took me 57 minutes averaging 4.45,  in my overall time of 3.07:29, 55th overall and 6th in the A/G
Race results here;
http://results.championchip-thailand.com/lpt2012/show.asp?On

Its all 'If's and buts" but i felt had i run anything like i should have done i reckon a top 20 and 2nd spot was on the cards BUT Triathlon is like that and you need ALL 3 disciplines to get the required results. Was delighted with my swim leg of 32 minutes and all those swim sessions did pay off for me in the end, the bike leg was strong yet again but with nothing left inside me since the sickness i was then running on EMPTY from the very beginning
Although initially disappointed i wasn't as bad as i imagined i would be as i knew I'd done the training and everything was pretty much spot on this year and basically had no control of the sickness that was to take me out for 24 hours.

That's 4 on the spin now for this particular race, and as i sat pondering over a beer or two will i go back for number 5 ? Well... I'll always go back to Thailand ( i have to as i have 3 wife's, 8 kids and sponsor Enda's 7 children over there)  but not sure if I'll do the race in 2013 as Berlin is set for the end of September/October time and will be the main focus, and not sure if I'll have recovered from the Beer Festival that follows.

Had a great 9 days that followed the race just beaching, eating and drinking everyday as the Lindop Harem looked after my every need, with Saucy Sue on hospitality duty and new 'on the firm' Naughty Nori taking care of repairing the damaged body on massage duty all was good and with 'Bang' around as well.... with a name like that I'm not sure what she could bring to the party? but seeing i am a decent guy i thought I'd take a chance on what she had to offer to join Team Timmy :)

All photos will be up once i sort them out ( and edit them) , but here are a few from the race.
http://www.shopfinisherpix.com/photos/my-photos/pctrl/Photos/paction/search/pevent/laguna-phuket-triathlon-2012/pbib/563.html
I am not sure how to download them so if any techno geek out there knows how to - give us a call

Back to reality tomorrow , as back to work - lets just hope i can run faster then 5 minute ks

Korp Koon Krap
Chok Dee