'Golden Duck 1k Time Trial - 4th in 16.48

Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Phil The Power’ Taylor, yes…. Now I know what it feels like to have everyone trying to take you down.  And so it was I ventured down to the ABC Pool at lunch in defence of my ‘Golden Duck win from last December. It meant all the big guns were in attendance with Champaign, Super Kev, Crossy, Angus, as well as the inform Leech were on the starters block looking to win the first award of 2015.

Also there was ‘Dick Turpin’ otherwise known as Paulie Hannell who sneaked in with a +1.40 handicap meaning he would swim around the 18.20 mark, and was in fact first to away followed by Champ and me another 4 seconds later. The Champ went out like a rocket and within 200m had me already behind by a good 10 seconds and resigning myself that the Duck was gone and I wouldn’t be beating him today.  The gun swimmers came past around the 450 – 500m but was happy as I knew they till had to do an extra 100m to beat us.

Was then surprised at the 700m when Super Kev came flying past …… and you guessed it The Leech was stuck on his feet and Eoin was more than living up to his nickname. I then decided that was my opportunity and I jumped to get a lift with the Two Irishmen to help me with the final 300m. With a 100m to go I reeled in the Champ and on the turn kicked it down to touch the tiles some 2 seconds before him, and thinking Super Kev still had another 100m to go but was surprised when he was already done. Not as big as surprise when I looked up to see Paulie ‘Dick’ Hannell already out of the pool leaping around, parading with the prize duck finishing in a blistering 17.12

I ended up 4^th with a pleasant 16.48 for the day, and although the duck was gone I can at least claim an ‘Honest’ race, with Paulie rorting the handicapper, Super Kev didn’t even have a handicap and the Leech’s working ethics needing a complete overhaul J

Some great times across the board and when Durante is the slowest in the pool coming in on 17.50 it shows how quick some of the others are.

Times were:

Pete Walker 14.27 fastest of the day

Super Kev     15.46

Champaign   15.46

Crossy  Lad    15.48

Leech              15.49

Angus             16.24

Timmy            16.48

Champ           16.54

Paul Hannell  17.12  Duck Winner

Stallion Durante 17.50

Sugar Ray      18.12

Big weekend and the Potters are back in action at home to Skippy Heyden’s QPR , we should get the home win but in the past this season Stoke have dropped silly points against the $h!te teams , but we won’t slip up here

Timmy’s Tip

Stoke 2  v QPR 0

Have a good weekend

Train well and stay safe

Cheers

HuRTS 3 x 2k Reps - Passenger Terminal.

Pretty easy week so far but with the two races on last weekend in hot conditions and then the ‘Big Wet’ over the past 3 days I wasn’t too concerned, and was back feeling good and happy to return for the HuRTS 3 x 2k reps starting down near the Passenger Terminal.

Good break in the weather meant a decent crew and nice to see the return of The Leech and (once again) the Italian Stallion Durante back out, With some the fast boys out front I found myself in group two for today but still had strong company throughout.

Front runners were way ahead but found myself sitting on Crossy Lads shoulder (he was taking it easier) , alongside Macca and Bruce stopping the clock on 6.38 (3.24 pace) – I was measuring about 30 metres short  in truth but a few of the others were saying it was close?

Was then keen to stick with Macca and Crossy again on the 2^nd but they decided to run in the first group so I was forced to lead the 2^nd out and Andy (?) came with me but I felt the pace was never as fast without having to chase the quicker runners.

Was knackered all the same after the 2^nd and even contemplated not doing the 3^rd but refused to take the easy option and pretty much just tucked in behind Angus, Razor and swimmer Dave to come home in 6.46

Times for the 3 were; 6.38, 6.41, 6.46 ( I reckon it were 30m or about 8 seconds short ?)

Still happy with that, and I used to say if I were knocking ALL 3 out in under 7 mins then I knew I was getting fitter and on the right road.

Decent warm down with Paulie Hannell, the Stallion, Jono and a few others around the gardens of the Domain ‘Smelling the Roses’ whilst Tommy H was getting withdrawal symptoms from the fumes so headed back up Hickson Road to get his fix.

Time Trial time again tomorrow at the ABC Pool – and as current holder (December) I have the pressure to retain the Duck, Let’s just hope handicapper Pete Walker hasn’t been to tough on me?

Sight of the Day, when I had finished and walking past the Art Gallery, I see Taffy James and Champaign Charlie come hop, skip and jumping past me holding hands on the way to Woolloomooloo wharf for a nice picnic on the water …… pair of soft lads.

Cheers

BRAT Sprint Tri 65.48 - 2nd Place.

With a start time of 10.30am for the first(slower) wave  it meant we weren’t entering the pool much before 11am on the 2^nd wave for the start of the BRAT club tri and with temps up in the mid 30s once again it was going to be a battle.

Yes, missed the Sunday long run and chose to do the BRAT triathlon instead, although with the heat I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, The Swim leg was nice and I just sat on this guy who had managed 4^th in his age group last week at Kurnell in 68 minutes and said he swum around the 13 minute mark. Felt pretty easy and touched the tiles bang on the 13 min marker, stuffed around in transition and saw ‘Sparks Elite’ Man ‘Sugar Ray get on the bike the same time as me and Biathlon Champ Mike (who can keep Tom company on the run  at the ABC) also leaving transition about the same time.

10 x 2k laps on the bike and managed to drop Sugar but Mike was always close by for the duration, Saw sometimes Hurts man Jason Heyden some way ahead courtesy of his swim leg but was reducing the gap on each lap. Off the bike in around 33 minutes, coming in with Mike not far behind and Jas about 50m ahead on the run. The run leg is 3 laps of about 1650m each time and we soon caught Jas , and basically for the first time for me it was race on between the 3 of us. I knew Jason didn’t really have the run leg, Mike does but wasn’t sure how much the bike had taken out of him, and for me? …… Well I was hurting and just hanging on.  Dropped Jas on the 2^nd lap, and was tucked in but always felt Mike had plenty left in the tank and could find another gear if needed, think he put about 10m into me and that was pretty much it.

Despite the heat I hung in though and was more than happy to finish 2^nd with an overall time of 65.48

Will post up the official results when they are up , but I think I was running about 3.45 pace on the run, that I will take and hopefully I can repeat in 3 weeks when I give the Kurnell Sprint a go?

Wrecked now, that heat just smashes you, but very pleased with how the 2 days have gone over the weekend. Will probably go and undo all the hard work now as I have a massive Aussie Day BBQ to attend – and this is the biggest of the year J

Rest Day tomorrow.

Yesterday I had the privilege to head to the Shire (or God’s Country – as they keep telling us) and met up with HuRTS fastest lady over the years, but has been on the sidelines injured for much of 2014. On the comeback trail once again is Lady Laura James after a horror past 12 months. Had a good chat about where she is at and some of her goals for the year as we went all healthy on the fruit juice before saying ‘bugger it’ and headed to the Cronulla RSL for a beer that is more our style. Tried to get Eloise to join us but she was away altitude training but was left devastated when she found out I was ‘in the hood’ and missed out, as for the Shire’s #32 Damo Bray, ….. well we just didn’t call him J

Keep an eye out for her, as she will be back before long and no doubt kicking our @r$e$ along the way.

Only saying late last year that the HuRTS girls had a stellar year running, unfortunately they didn’t finish the year off as well or even start this year in style with Laura injured, Erika stepping on all sorts on those dirty North Shore beaches, Sonya struggling to stand after a night on the turps breaking her collarbone and Elle pregnant its left only Corky O’Conner and HuRTS #1 Renee to carry the female flag.

Cheers

St Peter's Sweat Box - Park Run.

Managed to get the morning off work today due to the Aussie Day long weekend so took the opportunity to do not only Sydney’s but perhaps Australia’s toughest 5k Park Run at St Peters.

Stinking hot and humid once more and knew it was going to be tough when I was sweating buckets and that was just in the 2k warm up.  A few quick hellos before the start to Mrs. Fats (Amanda) , ‘Blue Dog’ (Wayne Gregory), Taffy Lad who was out for a hit out, and father of HuRTS Under Achiever himself ‘Serge’ – Jose Carvelho who still runs strong at the age of 58.

Gun goes off and boy they go out hard and I find myself in about 10^th position after about 500m, Reel a few in before the 1k mark as I see a 3.31 pass by at which point old man Carvelho is about 5 seconds ahead. Pass a couple around the 2k mark and can see the winner who breaks away from a pack of 6 about 50m ahead. The hill is a killer and make no ground but try to at least come down stronger, There is a hairpin turn about 2.6ks and work out I am about 20 seconds ahead of Taffy Lad, Then bridge the gap on Jose and go past at 3ks – he’s a wily old fox (like Sergio) so I expect him to come with me……. Thank God he didn’t though and I gap him. Feel my pace drop even more coming around the 4^th mark but actually close in on 5^th & 6^th guys and run with them for the undulating last 1000m. Felt the pace pick up especially with about 400m to go and the two boys decide to ‘Race On’ but I was gonseki and more than happy to see the run out as they beat me by about 4-5 seconds.

A good hit out for me, and happy with that. The heat and humidity were a killer and I reckon on a good flat course it was perhaps worth 30 seconds ?

I think everyone was in the same boat though , and Taffy was perhaps 60 seconds behind me on finishing time?,  so he lost even more than I did over the final 2ks or so.  The big test will be in two weeks mind when we venture out to Homebush for the first of the Striders 10k series – let’s hope I can at least put a marker down in the sand for the opening event?

Cheers

Struggling in the Pool.

This Hot weather brings just about everyone out – and more so  for a swim , big crowd with all the guns flying, the good swimmers left miles behind whilst the rest of us plodders weren’t even in the same suburb today.

Hardman J.C (even with baggy shorts) led all day with Walker and Todd hanging on for dear life, I struggled big time today, not sure why? And battled just to hold on to Karim’s feet with Brendan sitting right behind me.  Real struggle, and was seen on many occasions standing at the end of the pool  BUT I wasn’t the only one as a good few either blowing up or needing the longer recovery including the ‘Salmon’ Karim, Wiseman, Brendan, Paulie Hannell and even Pete Walker had to get out at one point.

Still despite the poor effort it was still great to be in the water on such a hot day and happy to knock out around 1600m for the day.

The usual 2 x 100m team relay and I got paired with Sammy J, He swum a good first 100 in 1.17 but it won’t cut the mustard with the likes of J.C  and Walker, Last week Karim took the title when he was paired with Champ, today he was lucky to get the talented Crossy Lad and with a combination like that no one was going to beat them.

Big weekend coming up with the Aussie Day holiday on the Monday , need to try to keep the long runs going on the Sunday as starting to feel the benefits. Although I may head to the BRAT triathlon instead, but heard it’s going to be 36 degrees and with a 10.30am start it could be getting very warm by run time.

No Premier footy this week but the F.A Cup 4^th round is on with Stoke heading to Rochdale on Monday evening  - never easy games these but we should still be strong enough to progress

Timmy’s tip  - Rochdale  0  vs. Stoke 2

Have a great weekend, and throw an extra lamb cutlet on the BBQ to celebrate ‘Skippy Day’

Train well

Stay safe

Cheers

6 x 1k Reps and Big Bash

Big turnout at Rushcutters Oval on another scorcher of a day that saw the return of HuRTS Performer of the Year’ for 2014 – Quentin as well as  #2 in his household Kenny, and even Mikey was back from his 3 month holiday up in Byron Bay.

Marked out the course for the 6 x 1k reps rolling every 5 minutes and once Barts and Quentin had flown off we had a nice little 2^nd group that included Razor, Hayden, Jeet, Angus, Andy and a couple of others who I still don’t know.

Despite the heat the oval was in great shape and armed with the replaced GPS watch I was feeling good and set to go. Led the first rep out and stopped the watch in 3.23 measuring slightly longer  then 1k (1.05). Repeated for the 2^nd then decided to put out the call for someone else to do some work that Skippy Heyden stepped up to. Razor took the 3^rd before Kenny had a go for the 4^th rep, started to feel it on the 5^th but tucked in beside Heyden once again and was happy to finish the 6^th rep without losing much.

Rep times were, 3.23, 3.23, 3.25, 3.28, 3.29, 3.27

Happy with that especially seeing it was over 30 degrees.

Even happier with the watch – it’s the same model as before but somehow it tells me all my heart rate stats for each rep now including average and max heart rate, No idea how that’s come up but found it interesting all the same.

Rep 1. Average h/r 112, Max 156

         2.  Average h/r 156, Max 168

         3.                           159,           170

         4.                           165             172

          5.                          167             176

         6.                           149,            164

Buggered once all done and reckon I drunk about 5 litres of water straight after.

Had a good evening as well, ventured out to the SCG for the local Big Bash Cricket Twenty /20 with the Chairman Tommy H, wife Kirst and the kids, great entertainment for the best part of 4 hours over a few beers on a balmy summers night. The Sydney Sixers got up with a  win on the last ball that saw the crowd going berserk, and Tom getting out some of his dance moves not seen since the Launceston trip back in June.

Cheers

2 x 3ks & a PLOD with POD.

Miserable morning out but perfect running weather especially after all the hot and humid conditions of late. Thought old Renaud was going to join me this morning after he put a call out but I suspect once he saw the rain that was enough for him as he never fronted?

A flat 4k warm up then decided on 2 x 3k reps, still without the GPS so run to feel and tried to relax as much as possible doing them. Felt OK and loved the rain that helped as I came through the first rep in 11.11 (3.42s). A 700m float easy recovery before the 2^nd and pushed the pace slightly and focused more of the stronger finish coming in on 10.56 (3.39s). Thought about a possible 3^rd rep but then noticed ‘Top Man’ POD behind me on the recovery so ended up doing another flat lap (4ks) cool down with him. Always good to chat with PLOD, and will always offer some good advise along the way, probably shouldn’t say but he’s even give me a tip or two on how to take down Enda at Striders?

14ks all up for the morning – Loved it.

Talking Enda, at last we have a fair bet worked out in time for the coming 10k Striders race in Feb, It’s taken some time and a ‘Independent Adjudicator’ has been brought in but it’s been settled that I will receive a 1.45 start on handicap. Was looking for 2 but I’m getting stronger and happy enough with the 1.45 as I think Enda will run close to 35.15 then it’s up to me to break 37 ????

$20 on the table.

Just away now for a couple of days – for what Mikey would term ‘ A well earned rest’ up the Coast, but will be back in time for my favorite HuRTS Rushcutters session come Thursday lunch.

Cheers