2009 goals.
Hard to know what to expect study and workwise as I don't know what I'll be studying this year.

Running wise.
Aim for an average of 40-50km per week. Which makes about 200k a month. So perhaps 2500k for the year. Try to get to 60k weeks, 80k at the most. Try and do at least 15k long run every week.
Time goals:
800m - 2.30 (2.25)
1500m - 5.15 (5.05)
3km - 11.00 (10.45)
4km - 15.20 (15.00)
5km - 19.30* (19.00)
6km - 24.00 (23.00)
8km - 32.00 (31.30)
10km - 40.00* (39.30)
12km - 50.00 (49.00)
15km - 62.00 (60.00)
21.1km - 90.00* (89.00)
*Run Victorian and Australian Mountain Running Championships
*Run a consistent winter season - try and get podium finishes in U20, remain in top 3 runners for Richmond
* Go under 20, 40, 90 respectively for 5k, 10k, half
** Make Victorian Cross Country team for nationals
Regular stretching and massages and rest weeks.

Cross training:
Keep up some regular swimming and cycling if possible. Also pilates and weight training.
Try to swim at least 4 or 5k per month. Try to cycle at least 100k per month.

Two milestones in a big week

I love annual mid year exam week! I had Monday and Tuesday off (which I spent working pretty hard), Biology exam Wednesday morning, Chemistry exam Thursday afternoon and the GAT exam yesterday morning. This leaves plenty of time for relaxing, running and cycling.

So: milestone 1 a 50km week! Previous best: 44km
Sunday - 18km long run at 5.30 pace
Tuesday - 10 x Airlie St with a couple of laps of the Tan 14km
Thursday - Fartlek 1 min on, 4 min off 11km
Saturday - Intervals 1000m, 750m, 500m, 500m, 500m, 500m with 250m recoveries 10km
Total: 53km!

Milestone 2: my 18th birthday on Wednesday
I didn't celebrate till yesterday when I had a lunch at Chi Wa Wa which lots of my friends came to. It was very nice.
Afterwards, I went to the pub with my 2 friends who I have known the longest, Tessa and Groundsie. We got our first cocktails and played pool. We got a lot of value out of our $2 pool game as we were total retards and kept missing. Then we went on the pokies. We played one game with $1 and were very unsuccessful and couldn't understand how to play. Then we got asked for ID and joked around with the owner. We tried another pokie machine and were a little more successful, winning 20 cents a couple of times and even $2.20 once. Then suddenly the screen flashed and told us we had won $233.34!!!!!!! We turned around and the owner was grinning at us - we thought he must have rigged it.
So we received $77.75 each, not bad at all for our first night 'out' as 18 year olds.

The money will help pay for my trip to the Gold Coast for the half marathon on July 6. I'm going up on the Friday afternoon, staying with Tim and Kate for 2 days, then staying with my cousins for another 2 days and coming back on the Tuesday. CAN'T WAIT!

Latrobe 15km

I wasn't sure about this race. Should I have a real crack at it? What time should I aim for? Should I treat it as a long run and add a few k's on at the end? Should I just take it easy?
When I decided to go for a 45km bike ride yesterday I confirmed that I would not being having a real crack at this race. I don't know why I felt like taking it easy, possibly because it's not a distance I race very often so I didn't know what to aim for and so didn't have any goals.

This morning I woke up and felt like I had already done the run. I just felt generally tired. I would see how it went.

I arrived at Latrobe and just wanted to get started. My dad took me so I couldn't wander around talking to people because I didn't want to make him too bored because he had to wait through a 15km race. After catching up with a few people on the start line we got started. I wanted to run at 4.10 pace (was feeling comfortable) but I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain it for 15km. The hills at the start of each lap were hard but it was entertaining seeing everyone in the dog leg. The rest of the race was really boring, just pounding the asphalt. I felt like I was coming last because there were so few people around.

My splits were:
4.26, 4.10, 4.28, 4.22, 4.06, 4.32, 4.30, 4.31, 4.22, 4.15, 4.35, 4.25, 4.34, 4.26, 4.09.
Not very consistent.

1km - 4.26
2km - 8.36
3km - 13:05 (this time last year that was a new PB)
4km - 17.27
5km - 21.34 (my PB is 21.07)
6km - 26.07 (my PB is 25.40)
7km - 30.37
8km - 35.08 (only 5 seconds off my PB!)
9km - 39.31
10km - 43.46
11km - 48.22
12km - 52.48
13km - 57.22
14km - 61.48
15km - 66.00

I reached the halfway point after 33 minutes so I actually ran 2 even halves, VERY unusual for me! Very surprising considering I was dying from the start.

I once again made the division 1 team which I thought is a bad thing for the health of the club but we actually came 4th!
I kinda wish I'd done the 5km as I reckon I would have been good for 3rd place in the U20s.

The next race is the Coliban relays and I can't believe I have to wait a whole month. We are going to have a great Div 1 team - probably me, Marissa, Penny, Fiona and Karen.

GSV Champ Carnival today

We left school at 9.30 to get to the Championship carnival at Bundoora park. I had to hang out with the year 10's because there are no year 12's and the year 11's were coming later after exams. I thought I would be really bored because my race wasn't till 1pm but it was pretty fun.
The juniors had their race at 11am and did ok. We only had one placegetter in our division. We had a bit of excitement when our tent blew over and snapped. We had to fold it back down which was hard with broken pieces of metal sticking out.
The intermediates had their race at 12pm and I didn't want to hang out with the juniors so I went and cheered for the inters up the back. I could cheer for them twice on each lap. Penny was winning by a massive margin which is fantastic because there were some extremely amazing girls out there.
The year 11's arrived and it was finally time for our race. I decided I really wanted to come in the top 10 because the top 10 got medals! But when we started I realised how hard that would be. I was probably in about 50th place after 200m but then I overtook dozens of girls going up the hill on the first lap. I counted at the top of the hill (about 1km mark) and I was in about 14th-15th place. I didn't think I would be able to overtake anyone to get into the top 10. However, I just concentrated on picking off the next girl, something which I don't often do. It was really hard going. I hate running on grass and it is grass almost the whole way. I just feel really unco. At the end of the first lap my time was 7.35 so I realised why I was feeling so tired. On the hill on the second lap I picked off another girl, who beat me in the preliminary carnival. I thought she'd chase me down but she didn't. I managed to get in front of another couple of girls and I thought I was probably in 11th or 12th place. However, when I rounded the final bend everyone was yelling "you're coming 10th" so I sprinted to the finish, not wanting to be overtaken.

I came in with a time of 15.44. I was kinda hoping to get closer to 15.30 but there's always next time. I really hoped I did come 10th. I pretty much died at the finish, I don't think I could have gone any harder. I have to say this was one of the hardest races I've ever done. Everyone else seemed to be feeling that too, many girls were collapsed on the grass afterwards.

We packed up everything and headed over to the presentations. Firstly they presented the top 10 girls in each division (we were in division 2). Mandy came in about 24th place overall so we were really hoping she got in the top 10 for division 2. My hopes were fading when she didn't come 10th, 9th, 8th or 7th but then her name was announced for 6th place! I wasn't sure what I came in division 2, possibly 2nd because I thought a Tintern girl came in front of me. My name was announced as first place though! We had to have our photo taken individually with our ribbons and then as a group - the top 10 for division 2 while the division 1 winners were announced. Then the overall winners were announced. As expected I came in 10th place! So I got a lovely medal. We each had more photos taken with our medals, then as a group of the overall top 10, then as a big group with the top 10 from each division. Finally we were able to go and sit back down with our schools.
Unfortunately my school came 7th in division 2, but we think that might be incorrect.
I'm very sad that this was my last ever school cross country but I had a really great day.

GSV Championship Carnival

Tomorrow is the GSV Championship carnival. The 24 girls schools are divided into 3 divisions based on the results from the preliminary carnival. We are in division 2, as usual. I'm secretly hoping we could win division 2.
In my race I am up against 10 year 11s and 12s from each of the 24 schools - so 240 people. The results are counted as overall results and as a result from the division you are in. So you get an overall place, and a place in division 1, 2 or 3.
My goals/predictions for the race are:
Estimated time: 15.45 - 16.00
Ultimate time: 15.30
Macmillans says: 15.45
I'd love to come in the top 10 overall, hopefully the top 5 in division 2.

Cross country

Yesterday I had the GSV preliminary carnival and today I had house cross country at school.

GSV cross country was at Yarra Bend and the course is 4km. We compete against 7 other schools and each school is supposed to have 10 girls (from year 11 and 12) competing. We had only 6 and Lauriston surely had around 20. So it is hard to know how many girls I was up against in total. I was hoping for a time of around 16 minutes but had to factor in residual soreness from Saturday and Sunday's racing. We watched the juniors and inters run before us. We had a couple of good results but a couple of not so good results.

Straight after the inters finished their race we had to line up for ours. I hadn't even warmed up properly when we had to start. Surprisingly there was a lot of room on the start line. When the gun went everyone sprinted off and I found myself momentarily in about 30th place! I knew the upcoming hill would sort everyone out though. At the bottom of the hill I was probably in about 10th place but I picked lots of girls off. At about 500m I was behind 3 Genazzano girls (one of whom was about 50m ahead), Mandy and a couple of other girls. I passed Mandy and two Genazzano girls and ended up second, behind a girl I race a lot. I stayed in second for the rest of the first lap. At the start of the second lap I could hear a Firbank girl (wiuth really freaky muscles) was coming up behind me. She eventually overtook me and then the girl in front. In the last 500m I tried to overtake the Genazzano girl who was now second but I didn't have a sprint in me. I ended up in 3rd place in a time of 16.19. I wasn't so happy with the time but I can be very happy with 3rd place. I underestimated how much grass slows the pace. Mandy ended up in 5th place. I received my ribbon at the presentation. As a school we didn't do that well, coming in 5th.

Today the 6 of us who did GSV cross country had to back up with house cross country. House cross country was supposed to be on 3 weeks ago but got cancelled when it rained. So as part of senior house sport, 10 girls from each house had to compete in the 3km event. We eventually got down there and after waiting for ages we started. Once again I wasn't warmed up properly and once again I ended up quite far back as everyone sprinted off. Mandy was ahead of me again but I overtook her after about 400m. By the 1km mark I had opened up quite a big gap. My time at the halfway point was 5.29 so I knew I was up for a good time. I looked behind me a couple of times and couldn't see Mandy. I just had to hold on to win. I finished in a time of 11.32 which I'm very happy with. Mandy came in a minute after me but she had got a bit lost. I'm so happy to win the last ever house cross country, and I think I broke the record of 12.13.

My results in house cross country 2004-2008.
2004 31st unknown time
2005 16th 15.03
2006 9th 13.53
2007 2nd 13.03
2008 1st 11.32

So it's fantastic to see the improvement across the years.

Coburg Fun Run

After Sandown on Saturday I didn't think I would ever be able to run again. Nevertheless I got up early and headed to Coburg for the monthly fun run. I like the Coburg runs, mainly because Dad lets me drive all the way home (it takes at least 45 minutes). And the trophies are interesting.

We arrived at 8.55 because the Domain Tunnel was closed and we had to take the long way. It didn't matter, all I had to do was fill out an entry form a do a quick jog. I didn't feel too sore. I decided I would just try and run at a decent pace but not push it too much. It was wet underfoot but not raining luckily.
My splits were
4.15
4.21
4.26
4.20
4.26
4.12
for a time of 26.01. That's a Coburg PB (my presvious best being 26.30) so it wasn't a bad time but I couldn't help thinking it was 90 seconds slower than my 6km split at Sandown. Doesn't matter. I came first amongst the females again, for the 4th time this year (out of 4). I hope for a bit more competition in the second half of the year.

In Sandown results I came 51st in AV females (not bad!) AND OUR DIVISION ONE TEAM (which I was a part of for the second time in my career) CAME 5TH!!