Day in, day out...

The WA State 10km was a bit of a disappointment for me, I faded in the last 3km after making an attack uphill and blowing up. I finished 6th in 31:53 odd, only 10 seconds slower than last year.
As with all races it was a good learning experience. I learnt to just follow the race plan for championship races and sit when feeling comfortable, not to jump the gun and go early. It was a good finish and win from young gun Brandon Hargreaves, as well as a second placing from my man-machine of a training partner Scott Tamblin and all round nice guy Neil Berry came in for a hard worked bronze.

After the race there was nothing to do but pencil it into the diary and then move on to the next week of training - after a well earned avo of backyard cricket and bad food and drink.

To give you an idea of my winter training, here is a snapshot of my last 2 weeks:

Mon: 60 min,   30 min
Tues: 35 min,   7 x 1km
Wed: 23km
Thurs: 45 min,  30min, drills, plyos, 4 x 150m sprints
Fri: 50 min,  30 min
Sat: 80 min Progressive Tempo,  20 min
Sun: 60 min
Total = 146km

Mon: 50 min,
Tues: 35 min,  3 x 2km, 2 x 500m
Wed: 23km
Thurs: rest,  30 min, drills, plyos, 6 x 80m sprints
Fri: 60 min,  35 min
Sat: 25 min Threshold,  35 min
Sun: 27km Helena run
Total = 139km

Only 2 major sessions per week, with the Saturday session alternating between a "hard threshold" effort and a longer "tempo" which winds up to a hard last 10min. The Thursday session has more of a sprint bias to maintain the leg turnover for Summer Track season, during high mileage right now in Winter mode.
Throw in 3 gym sessions per week, 2 x 1 hour massages, stretching/core/self massage each night and 32 hours of work... and the week starts to get busy.
Racing for the rest of the winter is a mixed bag of local races I can do or skip to continue a solid training block. I am heading across to Adelaide as one of the managers for the WA State Cross Country School team and may compete in the Open Men's 12km there. I raced on the same course as a student 7 years ago so it will be an interesting return. It is on the same time as the Perth City to Surf and so sadly I will have to miss it, after last year finishing 6th I believed I could have improved well on my time and placing this year.

But for now its the steady routine of sleep, eat, run, work, eat, run, eat, sleep... Day in and day out.