Saturday 10th March; Ran about 22km in 2hr 47.33 HR 147.


Came home strongly after tackling the dreaded "Phils Hill"...ended up walking a bit of this hill, it turned out to be a very long one in true six inch style, or perhaps I should say 6 foot style since I know 6 FOOT Track was on in Katoomba NSW today...wish I was there, not to be this year, but hopefully we can be there for 6 Foot 2008 with all guns blazing! Ran with the WAMC C Team which are mainly people preparing for the Comrades run in South Africa in June. Also caught up briefly with TS & TF who was running with the A-Team on a 32km+ effort in prep for the Canberra Marathon in April? The pipeline run was very beautiful scenery and had some good chats with some of the legends of the C Team...Found it easy for the first 1 hour, but once we got stuck into Phil's Hill it was very tough...No Boya Quarry visit due to the bushfire still being extinguished by firefighters...Really enjoyed the run and as my first decent long run for 2007, I came through quite well apart from walking a lot of "Phils Hill", so great to blow away the cobwebs with some good WAMC company during and afterwards at the Carbo Inn in Darlington. Hopefully its onwards and upwards for 2007 from here.

29 hours at work this week in just 4 days, including two very hard 42 degree days one on the hills of Mt Claremont area...which also had a few Tigers snakes (one of em hissed at me a few metres away from where I was reading),SAS zones to avoid...A lot of drinks offered to me which was very nice of the people, used about 5-6 litres or more of fluids that day, and a few hatfulls of water to keep body core temperature from overheating...

Just had a look at the 2007 results for Six Foot 10th March...and the 2nd placed Six Incher in Victor Lendzionowski---see http://www.oocities.org/Colosseum/7549/run2006sixinchphotos.html
did 4hrs 40min 48 for 110th of 763 starters in 6 foot see http://www.sixfoot.com/docs/results2007.pdf
Victor is just 59 seconds short of the 2005 effort by Colin Francis one of a handful of WAMC runners who have done 6 foot since its inception in 1984...

Monday March 5th; Cycled 47km on "the Red Baron" on 2hrs 21.08 HR 144...23.5km splits; 57min 51 (tailwind)/83min 17 (headwind)...Beechboro to Narrows Bridge and back course.

Really struggled on the way back, temperature was heating up heading towards the predicted 40 degrees,a bit saddle sore and worn out by headwind and lack of cycling in recent times...
Got it up to 42km/h with a bit of a burst near one of the railway stations on the way there, and the bike was running really well, having the seat down at the right height was great, so the only issue with this bike now is occasional skipping on the highest two gears...

RHR was 49 this morning weighed 77kg last night.....felt soooo good to finalluy be out there again, maybe this week I can make a serious change and put in some short sessions, instead of just work. Its going to be a stinker of a week weatherwise; 40 degrees (for most of the working week)is forecast, so my first priority will be to survive work..then see what happens...
Freeway Bikehike, Bridges 10k are the races I am thinking about hopefully making a charge at, and also getting to the Saturday morning long runs in the hills...As always; relationship with God is first priority..(Thanks to a deal with my sister for her to pay for petrol in return for a lift...we made it to Cornerstone last night (1 Peter 4; being the elect in exile...)and I managed to dig out my daily reading bible notes and get into 1 Corinthians today (for the first time in a long while)), wife,work, and bills are my second priorities...then see what happens...

33 hours at work this week, so average, but a lot of driving back and forth!!! Hillarys,Floreat,...Cottesloe was an interesting one...Did 578 meters Thursday which made for a tough day...Bunbury race I have had to miss...just out of money and too much tasks to do around house,trying to recover from a tough week...Wife had an ultrasound to check on our baby...So want to race but not sure when and I need to sharpen up with some training anyway, HRs sitting around 51...legs very strong would have liked to have seen how they went in 6 hour race but not to be...weight has gone back up to 78kg...maybe sometime in coming weeks/months we will get ahead on finances and get some training and racing going again...Freeway bike hike not far off on 18th March...http://www.freewaybikehike.com.au/
Also Bridges 10k 1st April....

First an ad for a real fun weekend where one can learn some very useful stuff...
Check out;
CORNERSTONE WEEKEND

Question; What was the name of Melbourne metal mission musicicians MORTIFICATION's followup album to the much acclaimed deathmetal fest Scrolls of the Megilloth, which marked a change in direction for the band, the exit of Jayson Sherlock, and significant success for Mortification in the European market with their groundbreaking unique style change....?
ANSWER: Post Momentary AFFLICTION...the first Mortification album that I heard all the songs to back around 1993 that was....later followed by my first Mort CD; Live Planetarium (which I listened to on the Uni computers while working on all night assignments in 1996-1999...as I did not own a CD player at the time)....now I also have the must have Scrolls of the Megilloth and a signed copy of Erasing the Goblin the most recent MORTIFICATION album which I saw performed live here in Perth in August 2006 with my fav Perth band Grave Forsaken opening for them.....
so what does this have to do with my training...well I'm trying to distract myself (and any readers?) from my lack of focused training in January....momentary afflictions that have beset me in this month include; 1. very low finances...(due to only getting paid for half what I normally get due mainly to public holidays rearing their heads...) which hopefully should start to sort itself out again from here (but its a constant battle especially now with the responsibility I have for keeping our little family ticking over financially when my wife is pregnant...I can just here various people saying "i told you so")....
2. heel soreness...seems to have cleared up lately...
3. cut my hand and knee badly at work last week (seemed to have finally healed in the last day or two).
4. My tooth broke and I had to have the remaining 75% of it removed (molar extraction) at Dentist on Saturday so been battling recovery from having my tooth removed so far this week!
5. finding it hard to be motivated as unable to do the races I planned to do the last 2 weeks...
6. juggling various responsibilities trying to adjust to them....
7. not yet really thought through goals for 2007 in detail yet...

So my meter reading work has been the only thing keeping things ticking over the last 2 weeks....
(Note that when I say 39 hours it means I spent 39 hours reading meters and walking between meters, it doesnt include drinks/rest break times, travel times etc...)
So to summarise that briefly;
January;
Week 1 (Jan 1-5); 32 hours in just 4 days!
(Padbury, Cottesloe and North Perth the hardest ones)
Week 2(Jan 8-12) ; 34 hours in 5 days so cruisyish...apart from a tough 7hr+ day in the heat and HILLS of North Lake (near Adventure World) on Friday...
Week 3 (Jan 15-19); 39 hours in 5 days.
Broke my tooth and cut hand and knee in Spearwood...all south of the river stuff, fairly straightforward lots of deadwalks but nothing tougher than average really...

So some goals for 2007....at the moment its all a bit vague but I'd say initially some possibilities are;
ONE: run WAMC Hills run regularly on Saturday morning in Darlington.
TWO: 11th Feb; Matilda Bay 10k ?
THREE: 24th Feb; Meelup Triathlon in Dunsborough...
(1km swim/30km ride/8km run)
FOUR: 3rd March; BUNBURY 6 HOUR race
FIVE: 11th March; Darlington Half/10k. (or by some miracle maybe SIX FOOT in NSW...but looking very unlikely now)
SIX: 18th March; Freeway Bike Hike 30km
SEVEN: 25th March; Dunsborough HALF/10k.
EIGHT: 1st April; Bridges 10k.

other thoughts are;
4th March 5k at Burswood 6pm...
might try and juggle getting to some of CORNERSTONE WEEKEND
in Pinjarra with this race and the Bunbury 6 Hour race...
5th May; Busselton half ironman (probably watch)
27th May; Challenge 10k
3rd June; Albany Half
10th June; FREO half
1st July; Lake Monger 10k
8th July; Perth Marathon....

That will do for now....but I have diarised a lot more including of course the 45km off-road trails race from North Dandalup to Dwellingup up the Darling Scarp; SIX INCH 2007 on Sunday 16th December 2007....

Worked long and hard this week in a variety of locations including a tricky one about half commercial half residential in Cottesloe...Did about 32 hours in just 4 days...so cranking things up there a bit....Played tennis with my wife KL againt my parents on Saturday night for about 1 hour. Fun, but very relaxed. Also we got some very special late Christmas presents from my bro Tim,Jen,McK in USA...wonderful! I think KL was very impressed!, liked her present a lot as do I mine...

Some more r and r this sunday morning catching waves at Triggs for about 2 hours and trying out boogie board and my first ever attempt at trying to stand up on a real surfboard...(NOT very successful......but good to try) starting thinking about Jimeon movie where Jimeon trys to learn how to surf from a young backpaper woman he meets..."paddle,paddle,paddle then SNAP"....My brother-in-law who lent me his surfboard reckons you need very good strength,flexibility,balance to surf well...
Got some really good rides again bodysurfing while my wife KL went for a walk along the beach with her sister.

Heel bruising which was troubling me again early this week a little, seems to have cleared up so I am hoping (if I can afford it) to race Waikiki Triathlon (try out Red Baron in a race) this sunday morning (14th January) and run the WAMC Burswood 5km on the Sunday evening 14th January to open my 2007 racing...
Money is extremely tight as I have lost about $400-$600 or more in work days lost due to public holidays Christmas,New Years day,Boxing Day.

Should set some goals for 2007 soon...

Also want to setup a 2007 "command post for this blog"...and now I have my 6-inch 2006 photos on CD I can start writing my race report and get that sent off....life is so busy reminds me of a seventy sevens song; bottom line;.....(goes something like this from memory) "ive got no money and Ive got no time...but theres a hope inside....ive got a bottom line ohhh yeahhh...."

Monday 1st January 2007; Cycled 55km in 2hr 27.05 HR 132 on new bike given to me by a friend...Ive decided to call it the red baron cos its red and flys along the roads and bike paths very quickly...very light bike...got to 51km/h on the flat with a tailwind...
Went from Beechboro to UWA and back splits 78min/69min
headwind/tailwind......2.40 per km and probably the fastest bike I have ever ridden, need to put the seat down and the top gears are skipping on the cogs a little at times but other than that what anawesome ride experience and a great way to start the 2007 campaign! Thanks God and Thanks ED!!! This bike is so good its just begging for a triathlon or duathlon ride so I will have to to try enter a triathlon again (havent done one since I did three novice (300m swim/10k cycle/3km run) ones in 2002) and see how it shapes up in the whitehot pressure of racing...Maybe even try my hand at a half ironman sometime...we shall see...It reminds me of some of the bikes I saw in the Busselton ironman triathlon....So a very good maiden voyage for the Red Baron!

Finished final week of 2006 with 21 hrs meter reading and Sunday; 75min catching waves mostly bodysurfin but started with a little time on a borrowed boogieboard awesome fun except for the time I went headfirst into a sandbar and have a few grazes on my head/nose...