Bar Italia - Carbo Loading

No running for the past two days and instead of an easy lunchtime run I decided to go over to Norton St Leichardt and pay the Italian Stallion Durante’s  family a visit and go to popular ‘Bar Italia’ for a good old carbo load pasta lunch.

So, no running and hopefully I have freshened up for Sundays biggee of the year – City to Surf. Always a big event and even more this year for the HurTS squad  with the added incentive of the teams competition that has been brought into play. I posted the teams yesterday and even 24 hours later I’s still tossing up what team will win it? Personally I couldn’t be happier, drawn in the same team as #1 Tucks who never lets us down, add in the impressive Mullaney & Lambert boys not to mention a big of glamour in the shape of Erika Ekland and we should go close.  I honestly think though that to take it out you will need ALL 5 members to run sub 54 minutes, and this is where I’m hoping C.Ts, Barts and Quentin’s mob will fall down? Muzza’s team could be the dark horse with even the slowest (Anto Yule pretty strong) can knock out a sub 53.

I’ve not been in good shape myself, although I have been doing all the sessions asked and I was happy with the 1k reps last week and got through the 20 min hill repeats ok the previous week.  Not expecting much time wise and if I can break 54 mins then I’ll be a happy boy. Don’t’ normally predict a time going into this race but I’ll make an exception this year – 53.51

The rest of the team as in great shape and really looking forward to see what they can run this year, and more importantly who will be FIRST home?

For what it’s worth (not much), here’s my predictions

Tucks   46.22

C.T        46.27

Clarkey46.33

Tom      46.48

Barts     46.51

Muzza  47.30

Enda      48.21

Angus    49.57

Super Kev 49.58

Taffy      52.57

Timmy  53.51

Birchy   53.52

Renee  57.31

Whatever happens it’s a guaranteed great fun day out, and with the Chairman Tommy Highnam offering us a place in his post race tent with drinks, it can’t get any better,

Will have a full wrap up with all the photos on Mondays blog.

Until then, have a great weekend,

Race well and look forward to having a frothy with you on Bondi Beach, Let’s just hope I get to Enda’s in time and he serves up something better then the burnt Rissole I got last year

cheers

HuRTS City to Surf Teams

Rolled into town today for the much awaited draw for the HuRTS City to Surf.
Some very strong teams were drawn and will be tough to predict a winner from these listed below.

	Chairman’s Selection	The Triathletes	The Old Timers	Yule be Right Mate	The Wild Cards	League of Nations	Models Inc. and Charlie	Beauty and the Beasts
Pool A	Tom Highnam	Dave Clarke	Chris Truscott	Anthony Murrell	Andy Cross	John Bartlett	Quentin Reeve	Andrew Tuckey
Pool B	Jamie Stewart	Paul McClarnon	Tony Fattorini	Andy Heyden	Steve T	Enda Stankard	Phil Dove	Richard Mullaney
Pool C	Angus Boyd	Pete Walker	Adrian McGarva	Kevin Branagan	George Pagotelis	Dom	Renaud Herington	Bruce Lambert
Pool D	Paul Birch	Brendan Krone	Champ	Steve Perry	Sam Johnson	James Matthews	Renee	Timmy Lindop
	Adam Murray	Greta Truscott	Sonya	Anton Yule	Steve Jackson	Craig Wiseman	Charlie Dalziell	Erika Ekland
	Caroline Sweeney	Andy Pettica	Michael Yacoub

Easy Midweek with Enda and Quiff Man

Final touches to the week and just did a few really easy ks before meeting Enda for one 6k Woollahra Hill loop, Picked up Mr. New Hairdo himself Paul ‘Birchy’ Birch along the way although he only run with us for about 4 minutes before his Quiff started to drop and had to make a mercy dash back up to Oxford Street to fix it up.

Despite a solid session yesterday, felt I recovered OK and was running pretty easy this morning. Didn’t have the Garmin on and it certainly wasn’t a fast pace but was happy to get another 10ks under the belt.

Talk continued this morning on the City to Surf and we are having the draw for the teams taking place in the city tomorrow – Martin Place has been booked and the camera’s are ready to roll to reveal all . There will be 8 teams with all the BIG guns(fastest 8) coming out from Pot ‘A’ , then ‘B’, ‘C and finally ‘D’ ….sad state of affairs when my name will be coming out of Pot ‘D’ although I will also be joined by Pete Walker, Taffy James, Renee,  Krone, Greta and the Sweaty Sock from the Sunday long run group.

Pommy Paul showing off his new hairdo, all ready to go for Sunday. I'm sure the ladies will love it.

Cheers

Final Prep, and Preening for Others?

Down to Rushcutters Oval for the final preparation and yet again another massive turnout on show for the alternative 5 x 1k session that I had suggested Mikey to do.

The big guns were out with C.T today staking his claim putting in a big performance, with Clarkey, Barts, and Crossy also present, The session was 5 x 1k reps of a rolling 5 minutes although the front group were rolling every 4 minutes.

I was in a nice group today, leading from the front with the likes of Adrian Mc, Mikey, Jonathan, James Lambert and Dom, rolled around the first rep in 3.12, knew it was too fast but felt good and was looking for a real solid hit out today so was keen to see how long I could hold for. Pretty much the same for the 2^nd & 3^rd reps and wasn’t  losing any time although Mikey was coming past at the 900m mark finishing the stronger of the two of us.. Managed to tag on to the faster front group for a lap on the 4^th (they were on the 2^nd loop of the 1k)  that helped and was still moving OK at this point of the session and knew I could hold for the remainder.

Times for the day were; 3.12, 3.13, 3.13, 3.15, 3.14

Very happy with that to be honest and will take some confidence out of the session.

Still a long way off any good form but I think that’s probably the best times I’ve knocked out for at least 12 months?

As I say the front lads were flying, think they were going sub 3 min/ks for the 5 reps, No sign of #1 Tucks or Tommy H mind you – think they saw enough not to worry on Saturday and rumor was they were sat in the office with their feet up resting.

That’s pretty much it now, want to try to freshen up and get life back in the legs before Sunday, although will have an easy trot around the park tomorrow sometime.

Took a photo of the team from today, minus Clarkey who decided to do another 10 x 400s once the 1k reps were done… The mans a machine.

So whilst some of us were putting in the hard yards, and some with the feet up resting, there was one notable absence from training this week? No sign of one Pommy Paulie ‘Birchy’ Birch, that got me slightly worried, Well fear not ….  Birchy’s just been getting his ‘preening’ done and making sure he’s looking his ‘Sunday Best’ in time for the race. I went past him in the local hair salon on the way home today, I did call out to him but he was deep in conversation with his stylist Rupert.

I managed to pick up the last part of his conversation and heard him say (in his dull Mancunion tone), “Well Rupert, I may not get the time I’m after but I’ll knock the ladies dead with this NEW hairdo and those nice boys Taffy Lad, Clarkey, and Champagne won’t have a chance when I fire up, C’mon get more gel in there for me”

Spotted, Birchy getting his final preening done before Sunday, Texting his mother to tell her to watch the telly coverage to witness his new hairdo.

Cheers

Bank Holiday Monday Run.

Went into town today to catch up with the Monday crew, unfortunately it just happened to fall on a Bank holiday for all those that work in the banking industry. Still a good team turned out with the likes of Muzza, Enda, Mickey, Razor, Super Kev, Warrior Charlie and a few others.

Just the normal Monday route around Mrs. Macs, Opera House, Passenger terminal and up Hickson Rd  and back. A good chat with all the talk central to  this week’s City to Surf and it seems as if everyone has their own opinions on who will be first home and who is #1

Unlike Fridays run on tired legs I felt pretty good today – covered 14.2ks in 63 minutes with the boys average pace 4.27s

One final hit out tomorrow down at Rushcutters and the 1k reps that I think is a perfect session leading in, so will be keen to give that a nudge tomorrow.

So City to Surf week yet again and in all my time with the HuRTS team I’ve never known everyone to be in such good form (at the same time).  Everyone is flying at the moment and its possible that at least no fewer than 12 of the top guys can all go sub 48 minutes on Sunday.

A great weekend just past with current #4 Tucks showing C.T, and Tom a clean pair of heels on Saturday to take the age win in the short course x/country, Fats is peaking well coming 2^nd, meanwhile even the Taffy Lad ventured north and took out the ‘Dunny’ Half Marathon ( the trophy is an outside toilet – seriously), and Muzza continued his fine training with a  fast 23ks in the National Park. Most impressive though has to be Tucks (yet again) who then backed up on the Sunday and WON a 25k off road race – and has in the process sent Barts into breakdown mode and wasn’t even seen today .

I will predict all the times and how I think it will prevail later in the week, but if I was a betting man then my dosh would now be on Tucks to be 1^st HuRTS guy home. He probably won’t like me saying this but here are my reasons.

Tucks is in some fine building form at the moment, he let me look at his GPS data from last week’s Farm Cove time trial

-          The 5k effort was closer to 15.50 than 16.23

-          The last km was 3 mins flat

-          I reckon he lost 15 seconds in the traffic with all the ‘Tammy Tourists’

-          Not to mention the tight hairpin bends

ADD in

-          He run Tom down in the last k on the Tuesday session last week

-          He eats Hills for fun

AND FINALLY

-          Tucks NEVER forgets, he passed me a little note I wrote from the blog  that stated. Barts comment following last year’s C2S… “ You can tell that Welsh Buoy Andrew ‘Tucks’ Tuckey that we have raised the bar to another level and that he will struggle to handle both Tommy H and I when he returns from his Valley holidays’

……Mmmmmmmm, this is going to be one hell of a good event J

Tomorrow I will be giving other tips for the big day

Cheers

Taffy Lad with his winnings from the Dungog Half Marathon, A Dunny trophy and he even gets an upgrade for the night from his sheep with new lady friend.

Cheers

20ks - City to Surf Prep Training.

Take about running on tired legs.

After a very heavy weeks training I was back out this morning and continued with the Prep work for  City to Surf that saw me out on the course to cover 20ks.

Headed out from the park down Ocean street onto New South Head Rd. Wanted to start to push the pace at the 5k mark at O’Sullivan up the hills and around Military Road to the 10k mark at Dover Heights but the workload from the Tuesday and Thursday sessions prevented that as I seemed to labour my way over ‘Heartbreak’ and beyond. Think I saw a few ks around 4.05, and 4.12 and they were the better ones as the clock ticked over 21 minutes for the tough 5k section to the top.

Was shattered at this stage and was worried about  getting back even allowing for the easier downhill’s to come, somehow got to Double Bay by the ‘Sheaf’ and then have the final stretch and killer of a hill that brings me back to Edgecliff, Never been so happy to have missed the lights that then forced me waiting curbside for a good 2 minutes before crossing and running back up Ocean St and into the familiar grounds of the park.

20ks all up in 91.14 average pace 4.34s –

One of the toughest 90 minutes I’ve done in a long time, only made slightly easier in the fact I had my tunes to listen to for the morning.

Will take the much needed rest day tomorrow and even go easier on the Sunday. One more tough session next Tuesday with the boys before tapering for 5 days till race day.

Well it would be funny if it wasn’t so serious – but I must admit to having a little chuckle when I read this story this morning. Someone won’t be ‘aving a Giraffe when they have to explain this.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/blindfolded-giraffe-killed-after-hitting-head-on-bridge-20140801-zz8kl.html?utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=nc&eid=socialn%3Afac-13omn1676-edtrl-other%3Annn-17%2F02%2F2014-edtrs_socialshare-all-nnn-nnn-vars-o

Have a great weekend,

Train well & Stay Safe

Cheers

Timmy's Farm Cove Five.

With all the NEW alternative sessions going on within the group these past two weeks and with others organizing their own 5k time trial, I thought I’d jump on the Endalike bandwagon and came up with my own….. The ‘Farm Cove 5’  Yep, I planned a 5k time trial around the popular Farm Cove starting at the Opera House gates around to Mrs. Macs Chair and back twice to give you the 5ks.

To my surprise I got a massive turnout that included big guns Tucks and Muzza and perhaps HuRTS fastest ever in Steve ‘Wildman ‘D ‘Cup, Norman Cook’ Thurston. Great to see him back and hear that he is in for this year’s City to Surf. Others included Mikey, Renaud,  J.W, Erika Ekland, Sweaty Sock Craig,  a host of others and even some geezer who doesn’t know if I’m Tim or Tom? (told him I’m the better looking one – who can dance)

Went out pretty hard and saw a 3.24 pass for the first 1k, then Mikey and Renaud flew past as I battled against the strong headwind on the return, as I saw Muzza looking very strong leading coming back the opposite direction. Completed the first lap but already I could feel the pace dropping as I struggled to hold 3.45 pace as one or two of the others came by. Noticed that Tucks had overtaken Muzza on the final stretch back home and Stevie T running well in 3^rd spot.

Coming around the final bend for home I run into a big crowd of a thousand ‘Tokyo Tourists’ all wanting photos and with Jonno Worsick yelling out we cleared the first lot but got baulked by the 2^nd as I saw the watch clock 5.10 I thought that was the time to call it quits anyway.

18.48 all up and as the inquest started by everyone it was decided that the course was nearly 200m long – the Garmin’s always measure long and I’m thinking maybe 100m and 20 seconds, although Mikey wanted an adjustment of 40 seconds ?

I did receive this from one of the members to confirm that it was long;

https://maps.google.com.au/maps?saddr=-33.8585,151.215603&daddr=Unknown+road&hl=en&ll=-33.860277,151.219157&spn=0.005657,0.009259&sll=-33.862937,151.218181&sspn=0.002829,0.004629&geocode=FTxc-_0d810DCQ%3BFTlZ-_0d6XUDCQ&t=h&dirflg=w&mra=mru&z=17

A bloody tough run overall I thought, and disappointing to fade badly over the second half once more, Good solid runs from Tucks and Muz, as well as Mikey with his 18.08

Must have had 25 starters for the run and the inaugural winner of the Farm Cove Five was HuRTs favorite son – Andrew ‘Tucks’ Tuckey

Times for the 5.19k Run (adjust minus 20 seconds for a proper 5k time)

Tucks        16.23

Muzza     16.42

Stevie T   16.55

Mikey     18.08

Renaud   18.20

J.W          18.47

Timmy    18.48

Erika        19.47

Sweaty   19.52 (Craig Wiseman)

Like the Tuesday double combo hill and tempo session I will try to get this added to the program, either monthly or every 6 weeks ?

Managed to find a few more pics from Sunday evenings party, non better than Tommy H showing his moves on the dance floor. Not sure about the first one if he’s dancing or thinking he’s coming around the final straight in the City to Surf with his arms pumping away?

And whats a party these days without the famous 'Selfie'?

Although i've lost the photo now , so thought i'd post one of Fats with hair instead  :)

Cheers