JON'S MILE; MAILMAN'S MUSINGS AND THE TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS OF STAYING HEALTHY FOR COMRADES.

April 24 to 30:  This week started out okay.  Felt a bit sluggish and I made it worse with a run up Hillbrook. I was stashing water so it was not my usual Jinker run.  I still had a reasonable session on Tuesday over Jon's Mile.  Jon is my son and he liked to just go up there and do cruisy laps- 800m out and 800m back.  The profile is based on  a session that Jon did with Pat Clohessy's group.   Hard up for 450; slight down for 100m or so; turn and slight up; then back down for 450m; then sharp up then slight down for about 80;  then back to hill top.    I stop and walk down the hill for recovery but when Jon ran the session hard he would cruise the sharp down hill.  His cruise laps are about as quick as my all out efforts.  He's a sub 30 minute 10k runner and a 2:20 marathoner (and a lot younger). 

The pay-off from solid training (including Jon's mile session).  Jon is 669.

Wednesday I opted for a hilly run.  This included Mailman's which I seldom run.  I can only manage about six minutes up there these days but I recall when I ran over this course with Andy every Wednesday we used to shoot up it in near five minutes - week in, week out.  He often had to get back for parade at Enoggera barracks  and, if he was late, there would be no dilly-dallying, and even a hint of pootling on my part would see his mood change from the usual cheery, amicable Andy to hard-nosed military man on the move.  I am not a strong hill runner and Andy reminded me of this every Wednesday on Mailman's.  As Andy disapprovingly circled and waited for me at the top of Mailman's my strained utterances, "Going hard as I can mate!!!", would echo across the hills of Ferny Grove.  Training partners?

Saturday morning I intended to have a short sharp run so as to be fresher for an extra long 60km run on Sunday.  This was meant to be my final long run.  However, that scratchy throat I had during my 10k road run at estimated marathon pace (40 minutes) on Saturday turned out to be a pretty bad cold.  So I ended the week with a 16km run with my back still sore and the cold having me feeling crap physically, but feeling good mentally because I knew that I could well sit on my bum for four weeks and still finish Comrades.  And besides, I was up for an easy week.  So ended the week with fingers crossed that my sickness was just a cold and not a flu, and considering how to best manage the coming week.  There are about 200 cold viruses floating around and usually about four influenza viruses, so one has to pretty well keep your immune system in top order to deal with colds but the more serious flu can be prevented easily and safely with a flu vaccination.    https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/colds-and-flu

View from Jon's Mile