Compare and Contrast... 2011 Vs 1997 and a World Champs qualifier

My morning run was greeted with a strong warm easterly as I headed out from home and along Beacon Road and down to Drucker's store. Managed an 8 miler this morning and the climb back up Richardson to get home was not pleasant. Still the run was done and the mileage goes in the book. That's the important part. each days builds onto the next and I have a lot of building to do.

Looking through my old training diaries, as I often do, I like to reflect on what sort of training and mileage I punched out when I was a tad younger. My 1997 training diary for Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th of January reads. ( I was up in Falls Creek preparing for the Tokyo Marathon where I hoped to qualify for the Athens World Champs. This task made a little more difficult as I had gone up there unfit. I had already been there for 4 weeks)

Saturday 18th Reads.

9.30am: Ran easy with Brendan Hayes and Troopy to the aqua duct and picked up Mona. Continued up to Mount McKay Road (10m12s) Stretched. Starting at the rock we ran hard for 6km to the top. Mona Troop and Hayes got away fast with me never in the picture. A gutless run by me in Elite company. (6km climbed from 1620 to 1820: Mona 18m23s record, Troop 19m1s, Hayes 20m10s, Me 20m40s) Cool down 35m35s Distance 10miles. (sit ups x100) ( massage on right Hammy)

4.46pm: Ran 4 laps of the lake at Mt Bogong village. 3 with Mona and troop and 1 alone. Distance 8miles time 54m9s... Days total 18miles (week 126miles)

Sunday 19th Reads

9am: Ran from the front of High Plains with Troopy and Hayes. Picked up Mona on the aqua duct. Brendan and Mona worked the Mount McKay Hill and we eventually regrouped going into Pretty Valley. I'm still not running comfortably on the hills and have to work hard to stay in touch. Generally a little leg heavy. Ran Marm Point then back along Pretty Valley Road. Mona put the accelerator on for a small section and I swear I could hear my nuts dragging along the trails, chased Troopy's back to stay in touch was determined not to be dropped. Time 2hr32m58sec distance 22miles

6pm: Roper's Lookout: An easy run from High Plains with Mona, Troop and Hayes. Feeling a touch weary but pleased with my progress. (Time 18m25out 17m8s back ) 35min33sec Distance 5 miles Total for the day 27 miles.

For anyone interested I raced in Tokyo on Sunday the 9th February: I qualified by running a PB of 2rs 14mins 26sec (3m18.85s/km average)

My diary entry on this day reads.

Woke 7.15am and dozed until 7.45am. Toast 4pieces /coffee with 2 sugars Feeling good, relaxed. A light warm up at 11am, easy stretching and still feeling good. A few run throughs prior to the gun. went out fast and eventually settled into the second pack consisting of 9 guys. Even though it was new territory I felt it was the right decision to stay with this pack. At the turn , half way,(1hr5m32.61sec) the group was down to 4 with me off the back. I relaxed and over the next 1500m got back onto the group. Moved to the front amd started to try and keep the tempo up. At 25km (1hr17min 47.54sec) we threw in a 3m8s km. Pat Carrol and another dropped leaving myself and Vladimir Kotov. We ran aggressively. At 27km I dropped off Kotov but continued to chase. We continued passing runners however Kotov continued to pull away from me. Scrambled up the final hill dropping 15sec for the km over 3km before kicking down again. Finished in a world qualifier.My only bad patch was at 28km when I though " Gee it would be nice to stop" and my body just about did. Placed 12th. Winner Koji Shimizu of Japan 2hr10min 9sec. Kotov finished 8th in 2hr13min41sec. Still need to work on hardening up and really working through the uncomfortable sections and until I can embrace this I wont be able to make the jump to the next level.... Here we come Athens.... (5km 15m14.3s/10km 15m30.02s/15km 15m42.5s/20km 15m40s/2

Barrel on wombats5km 15m39s/ 30km 15m57s/ 35km 16m17s /40km 17min/ final 2.195km 7m24sec)

Barrel on wombats...