Got up yesterday morning and hit the road early, starting my long run at 6:20am. I’ve been reshuffling my program this week, so while I did my long run in Centennial Park the last time, it was just too much hassle to stop off there on the way in to work, so I stayed local. The route comprised a lap of Christisson Park, then down Old South Head Rd. to The Gap and back, then repeat the whole thing for a total distance of 6.9km in 36:58. I ignored the 145bpm HR limit and just cruised along, allowing my to hit 155 on the uphill bits. Felt pretty good throughout, apart from the last kilometre when my left knee was giving me shit. It was just a bit tight and a short stretch after finishing sorted that out. The middle of my calves is bloody sore now though. I’ll have to figure out if this is due to the run itself, or possibly me overstretching the calf/achilles after the run.

Went in to work and then to the gym yesterday evening with the intention of doing a 5000m row for time, then some weights. Myself, Marc, Tom & Dave all do a little bit of rowing on the Concept IIs as part of our various fitness things, so Dave suggested having a mini-competition within Fat Club where we’d all post our best rowing times for 500m, 2000m, 5000m and 10000m. I hadn’t done an effort for time since late-2002 at which point my bests were:

500m: 1:39.6
2000m: 7:35.0
5000m: 21:01.0
10000m: n/a

I had planned to start rowing at 2:00/500m pace and then see how long I could hold on for, but things went better than planned and I soon found myself averaging 1:57/500 and getting faster. I eased off a fraction at 4000m knowing I’d go for the sprint finish, then dropped down to sun-1:50 pace for the last 500m or so to record 19:14.2 and an average page of 1:55.4. I was bloody delighted with that as it was almost 10secs/500m faster than my previous best, and shows I’ve got a lot stronger/fitter over the last two years. My next target is more than 7500m in 30mins. I was bloody knackered after that, so I skipped the weights session.

S: 2600m – R: 10.25km – Row: 5000m