Sunday 'avo 7th November 2010

Training is progressing well at the moment.  This morning the team ran in the Rebel Sport 10km which finished inside the Olympic Stadium at Homebush.  It was warm and an 8.30am start which is a little late for an event like this. The men's race was won by Ben St Lawrence in 29mins 46 seconds (a pace of 2mins 58sces/km!!) & the women's was won by Lara Tamsett in 33mins 16 seconds (a pace of 3min 19secs/km); both pretty impressive times.

Gene ran it in 56mins 33secs coming in the top 11% for her age group & hitting a PB for the 10km. Brilliant effort. Angela crossed the finish line in 51mins 27secs coming in the top 9% for her age group which again is an impressive effort. I managed to do the same time as Ange but only managed the top 25% for my age group.  So for the three of us I'll need to improve my time the most for the 10km race we've entered in Ireland on St Stephens Day (26th January & known here as Boxing Day).

For the others POD came home in an impressive 36mins 5secs, averaging a flying 3min 36sec/km over 10kms & coming in the top 1% for his age group.  He was followed closely by Enda who clicked a 36min 26sec for the distance averaging a 3min 38sec/km pace & again hitting the top 2% for his age group. Conor managed to finish in 40mins 46secs; Louise in 44mins 30secs (an impressive finish in the top 1.4% for her age group); Marc did it in 53mins 59secs & Louise crossed the line 1 second ahead of her man Marc in 53mins 58secs; Elaine did it in 1hr 2mins which is a great effort for someone who hasn't done a lot of running. All in all it was a good day's running, rewarded by a big feed at Andy's Cafe on Glenayre back in Bondi.

My training will be changing a touch from hereon in: from tomorrow I'll be riding to work at every opportunity & getting more swimming in as part of the preparation for Husskie in March 2011. it'll be fun seeing how the training fits in with work & everything else. My guess is that it'll be OK as wherever I travel I only really need to take my running gear. The entries for the full Ironman in December 2011 will follow & the Long Course in Husskie will give a bit of an indication of how I'm going.

As you know Gene & I are traveling to England and Ireland in December. We'll be there for work and a bit of 'leisure'. I'm taking a detour on the way (to Vancouver) for a Director's meeting which is always fun & stimulating.  And I'm looking forward to catching up with my Canadian mates in the time I'm there.

As this has been all about the latest race today, between now & late January 2011 as part of my little sports blog, I'm be diverting a touch to chronicle the experience leading up to and at Angela & Enda's wedding on 1st January 2011 in County Mayo.  It'll be Mullingar meets Mayo smack in the middle of the Irish winter. So stay tuned as the trip starts on the 10th December.

In the meantime anyone who can get out of bed early enough should start hitting the beach as summer is on the way.  The water is creeping up to 20C; the prevailing wind is turning round to a nor' easter, making the waves as smooth as silk; the rain is heading to NZ and Xmas is coming! Time to get moving . . .