Week 3: Friday

After a day off on Wednesday, I spent 50mins on the treadmill on Thursday. Not bad going but running in a gym can make you pretty sweaty as there is no wind to cool you down. Got some speed runs to do tonight.

Week 3: Tuesday

Finished my speed runs moments before the thunder struck and Sydney City was drenched. 8x500m at 85% effort. All up, about 23 mins but dripping in more sweating than usual, the speed runs are nice change and are real work out.

Tim and I did about 50mins group workout on Monday with the trainer which included plenty of 'core' work. Not to mention hills and stairs... Finished up at the Opera House in time to watch the QE2 leave Sydney's port for the last time as she retires to Dubai.

Week 2: Sunday

After struggling through an 8k run on Thursday, I didn't run Friday or Saturday. Played some tennis though and today I went for a 14k run in the afternoon sun.

Ended up dodging through crowds as most of the city came out to look at the Queen Victoria and QE2 in Sydney Harbour, meaning I couldn't run around the opera house and just did two loops of the Millers Point wharves, including some random runs up different streets until the Garmin told me it was 14k. Total of 73 mins.

Not that I should trust the Garmin totally. If you check out the satellite pics, it thinks I went for a swim also. The tall buildings and tunnels make it tough for the Garmin to get a perfect reading.

Week 2: Tuesday

To make up for missing the long run on Sunday, Tim and I went for a 12k run after work, coming in at just under 64mins. The speed doesn't matter at this point, just getting the Ks in on the road. It is a nice scenic run through the Sydney Botanical Gardens and passed Mrs McQ's Chair.

Was hungry afterwards so ate two steaks and two eggs on toast. And some salad of course...

Week 2: Monday

After a big weekend away, I managed a 20 min jog on Sunday night but my quads were killing me anyway from the beach cricket on Saturday. So I am an one hour run behind schedule at this point.

Tonight we did a group session with a trainer - plenty of hills and stairs and sprints so felt like a great workout for speed.

Week 1: Friday

Did some "speed" work today. Wasn't very fast though yet.

6 x 1mins at 80% (how ever you judge that) with 45 sec standing rest between each. Its a great little workout really, especially if you really try to stick to that 80% effort. Took 10 mins all up at lunch time so I can hardly complain about running taking up all my time. Tim didn't do his - he said he hasn't looked at his plan. Bad Tim. Good John.

Week 1: Thursday

Got up early for 40 min run this morning. Did around 8k. Not ultra fast but you gotta start somewhere. Right?!

Still Week 1

Wednesday, a day off. Gotta have those rests days you know... also feeling a bit under the weather so best to take it easy when I can. Just counted back from when I will be doing my first attempt sub-90 21.1km and its 11 weeks. Yikes. I put together my 11 week plan today and am looking forward to training at this point. Have to run in the morning tomorrow because its Valentine's Day :)

Week 1

Ok, first day of training was cross training with a group which included running, push-ups, crunches and that kind of thing. Total of about an hour. I felt pretty sick at one point.

Second day I did a slow pace for about 3.5km with a workmate and then another 3.5km by myself a little faster. Wasn't great but at least I was out there running with raining threatening.

My Running Goals

So this is a blog about training to be able to run a half-marathon in under 90 mins.

Tim and John (that's me!) are going to do a sub-90m half-marathon this year (2008)!

Having done a bit of running for the last couple of years, I figured it was time to achieve a goal I've had in mind for a while - sub-90. Before this year is out, I will have beaten all of current personal bests: half-marathon 96.45, marathon 4.21.51, city2surf 69.59

Firstly, a checklist of my running gear:

* New Brooks Trance shoes
* Three pairs of Nike shorts (the 4 inch ones - not too short, not too long)
* A few Adidas t-shirts (and other assorted singlets/t-shirts that will give me nipple rash)
* Three pairs of Thorlos
* Garmin Forerunner 205
* iPod shuffle with new playlist and loopy-round-the-ears headphones
* Camelbak for any extra long runs
* Micropore tape for when I have run out of Adidas t-shirts :\
* Tim

No excuses then...

My goals for 2008:
5k sub-20, 10k sub-40, c2s sub-60, half sub-90, marathon sub-4hrs