Robert Song's Running

I'm over 50 and been running off and on since 1968. I have run everything from 800m to 10k on the track, to half marathons (PB 1:21 Brisbane 1993) and marathons (PB 2:53 Gold Coast 1985).

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

A strong head wind slows me down

10th November - 16th November

Mon 9.5k 45:09 (HR 140 4:45)
Tue 18k 1:31:50 (HR 133 5:06)
Wed 13k 1:01:17 (HR 144 4:42)
Thu 18k 1:33:58 (HR 132 5:13)
Fri 18k 1:30:41 (HR 137 5:02)
Sat Rest
Sun Abandoned.

Week 76.5k

Because I was going to be on roster at the BRRC on Sunday morning, I reshuffled my runs this week to get a few more Ks in during the week as I thought 25k would all I would want to do Sunday afternoon.

It was a good week and I was glad to see some progression in my training.

I fronted up on Sunday and landed the job of timing the runners in the 5/10K events. There was a good turn out and lots of Coolrunners there as well. Even won a random draw prize of some socks.

It was a stinking hot day on Sunday and I wasn't looking forward to going out at 4:00pm but I knew a second consecutive 100+K week was there for the taking and that was motivation enough for me. What I didn't take into consideration was the enormous storm that developed in the afternoon. Following it on the BOM site, it was headed directly for home, so I delayed taking off till it passed.

Here is what it looked like as it approached.



When it hit at first it was just incredibly heavy rain. The gutters on the house could not cope and the water started running down the walls inside. My Wife and Dory were not home, so Ducky and Delta had the task of trying to sweep the water out the laundry faster than it was coming in. Kewell and I were in my bedroom trying to minimise the amount of water getting on to the carpets soaking it up with towels. After 15 minutes of this, things turned nasty. It started hailing and the wind picked right up. The rain and hail was crashing into the bedroom window and you couldn't even see out and the noise was deafening. At this stage I was worried the window was going to blow in so sent Kewell downstairs and retreated to the hall. It blew like this for about ten minutes and I honestly would not have been surprised if the roof had blown off at any point.

It finally stopped and I took a look outside. A drift of hail had built up by our front door and the garden had just been shredded. There was many branches all over the place and a tree in our backyard had blown over into the neighbour's garden.

We were lucky. Nothing major had hit our house. Many others weren't so lucky. At the bottom of our street three houses in a row all had large trees on their roofs. A few doors up a tree laned on their new car and the house.

Just round the corner, this house had its roof blown off onto the road.


Power lines were down in two place in the street. The creek was flooded and the road blocked. So no run tonight!

It wasn't really until the next day that the full extent of the damage all over The Gap became apparent. I walked with Kewell the 800m up to the school and every street was worse than ours. Tbe school was a complete mess with large trees on building everywhere. A friend of Dory's had their house completed destroyed. At last count 85 houses in The Gap are so badly damaged they will need to be demolished.



So for the next three days we had no power and it wasn't safe to drink the water. I had a lot of cleaning up to do Monday. A full day of physical labour and it was like my upper body had run two marathons. I was stiff and sore for the next couple of days.

On Wednesday night just after midnight, another storm came through. The wind wasn't as bad but it rained heavily for about eighty minutes which resulted in flooding our downstairs area. What the heck the carpet was already damp from Sunday now it was just sodden. So more cleaning up an Thursday.

On Thursday night, I felt recovered to go for a run but yet another storm came along 6:30pm. Again lots of lightning,rain and hail. We had "sand banked" the garage doors in preparation for this one so escaped any further damage.

And no more storms since that.

10th November - 16th November

Mon Cleaning up.
Tue Recovering
Wed Recovering
Thu Storm
Fri 9.5k 45:13 (HR 145 4:45)
Sat Rest
Sun 20k 1:34:39 (HR 143 5:14).

Week 29.5k

On Sunday's run I had to turn back at Ashgrove as the creek was still too high and was over the crossing. I returned back and thought I would go along The Gap bike path but the path was still impassable because of trees down. So I ended just running around the streets before heading home.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

I've seen Fire and Rain

3rd - 9th November
Mon 9.5k 48:33 (HR 132 5:06)
Tue 13k 1:03:23 (HR 141 4:52)
Wed 18k 1:31:11 (HR 135 5:03)
Thu 13k 1:03:57 (HR 140 4:55)
Fri 18k 1:30:45 (HR 141 5:02)
Sat Rest
Sun 31.5k 2:51:55 (HR 138 5:27)

Week 103k

Year 2926k

Two very contrasting 18k runs on Wednesday and Friday night this week. The Wednesday run was done in steady drizzle the whole way which left me with soaked including socks and shoes by the end. In contrast Friday was done under the hottest and most humid conditions so far since last summer. At 27C and 70% humidity , I was soaked in my own sweat by the end. The conditions certainly have a dramatic impact on my Heart Rate. For virtually the same pace, my Heart Rate was 6BPM higher on Friday.

The over night rain made things a little cooler for my long run this morning but the cloud cover still meant it was humid. I made sure I just plodded along to stop getting too overheated.

Got my weekly Ks up to 103k. I will be just trying to maintain things at that level over the next few weeks and wait till December before trying to go higher.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Passing Milestones and Legends

20th Oct - 26th October
Mon 9.5k 46:22 (HR 144 4:52)
Tue 13k 1:10:00 (HR 128 ) Treadmill
Wed 18k 1:29:21 (HR 140 4:57)
Thu 13k 1:05:39 (HR 132 5:03)
Fri 18k 1:33:01 (HR 132 5:10)
Sat Rest
Sun 25k 2:11:41 (HR 140 5:16)

Week 96.5k

On Tuesday, was forced on to the treadmill in the gym because of a thunderstorm with lots of lightning and even some hail. After twenty minutes, I couldn't see how I was going to last past half an hour but stuck with it and did 70 minutes all up. Lets hope it is a long time before I have to do that again.





27th Oct - 2nd November


Mon 9.5k 48:10 (HR 134 5:04)
Tue 18k 1:30:54 (HR 136 5:03 )
Wed 13k 1:03:38 (HR 143 4:53)
Thu 13k 1:05:53 (HR 134 5:04)
Fri 18k 1:30:19 (HR 143 5:01)
Sat Rest
Sun 25k 2:13:39 (HR 139 5:20)



Week 96.5k

Oct 412k
Year 2823k

It has been a much better two weeks of training and I am at last seeing some improvement in performances. I have been very consistent and that always pays off in the end. October has turned out to be my highest volume month ever at 412k. Below is a bar graph of Monthly Totals since 2005. The previous week had been rather mild but Friday evening it was quite hot and this morning's long run was done in humid conditions. So it could get tougher over the next few months to keep putting in the big Ks but I have set a goal of doing 400+ in November and December.

The other big highlight was that I not only passed Steve Monaghetti once on last Thursday's training run but I passed him twice. Now before you get too excited, let me say again that was pass and not overtake.