Pros and Cons

Cons Shin Splints, Achilles Tendonitis, Plantar Fascitis, ITBS, Muscle Tears, Iron Defincency, Calluses and Blisters, Muscle Strains, Runners Knee, Stress Fractures, Black Toenails, Sore Muscles, buggered joints, Overtraining Syndrome, injury induced depression, performance anxiety and probably a 1000 more I can't think of right now Pros Vastly reduce your risk of Type 2 Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity, some Cancers, Depression (other than the injury induced version), Osteoporosis, Stroke. You have more energy, you are a nicer person to be around, you have a sense of achievement and something to be proud of when you run a great race, there is a sense of belonging and community as you exchange knowing nods and hello's with fellow runners out there on the trail. Let's face it, the Cons are extreme and generally with sensible training practices and the right footware can mostly be avoided. If you are unlucky enough to succumb you will probably be back on your feet again before you know it. Frankly, the Pros far outweigh the Cons. I love to run, but as an added benefit I should be looking down the barrel of my 50s in about 18 years time confident that this path I have set myself on will see me avoiding many of the lifestyle diseases and complaints that have struck many people I know who are my parents age, including members of my own family. Both my maternal grandparents died from lifestyle diseases, I don't want the same fate. Mercifully my grandfather went quickly in his sleep, though not before spending years taking a vast array of drugs every day, which as a child I thought were lollies. Seriously he used to take about 15 pills a day. Less mercifully my grandmother died from breast cancer (linked to a lifetime of smoking) which progressed to her liver, spine and brain before she died, she was ill with this thing for 18 months. She was so brave but it was so bloody awful. Sorry to bring the mood down, but I just want to be fit and healthy for as long as I can be. So, to that end, I started the week with a gentle 8.5Km run at about 5:20 pace after my long run yesterday. The weather gods smiled on me and gave me a nice window of clear skies and no rain.

I HATE Gardening but good 18 Km Run

Met up with a BIG group at Jells Park this morning for a long run. There were a few girls that I have met on Tuesday nights who I knew would be about my pace, Jaqui, Lou and Lisa. The bigger group headed out first, but Lou was trying to figure out what to do with her keys. I couldn't let her leave them on the wheel of her car so I grabbed them and locked them in my car, I have a little zip pocket in my running tights just the right size for my car key. It was a beautiful morning and the main group was just in sight as we headed off, we could see them well enough to know that we were heading in the right direction. I am used to running up to Jells from Koomba Park, so it was cool to start at Jells and head in the opposite direction towards Dandenong. It was fairly flat and the weather just perfect for a morning run, stacks of other runners out so lot's of "good mornings". At one stage we ran across the constuction zone for the new east link freeway, my god what an eyesore, it cuts a giant scar though the landscape, ughhhh, I feel for all the people who will now have it in their backyards. We stopped breifly at our turn around for water and a loo break then headed back to Jells. As this was my first proper long run since the half marathon I was just looking for 90 minutes so was running for time not distance. I came back up the hill to the Tea House with Jacqui and we had run 100 minutes, Lou went on for a little longer as she was looking for 120 minutes. When I checked the Polar I realised we were 200 metres off 18Km, so we jogged back to the car park to make up the distance. Jaqui told me that she was glad I was running with her as there were a few points where she just wanted to stop and walk, but having a parter stopped her from giving in to it. This is exactly why I love doing the long runs with company, it keeps you honest :-) Back home I desperately had to do some gardening, YUCK. But it is hard rubbish and green waste time so I had to do some weeding and pruning. 3 hours later I had filled 7 bags, I have prickles from a giant thistle in my hands, my back hurts, I have blister on my thumb and I reek of lavander and rosemary. I hate creepy crawlies as well, if something has more than 4 legs it freaks me out. I spent most of the time dancing around convinced that things were crawling on me or were in my hair, ughhhh. After all that my "garden" is still a disaster, but I can't be stuffed doing any more. One of these days I will pay someone to cover as much of it as possible with decking and paving, I am not kidding, my garden is only small anyway, more like 3 separate courtyards really. OK, enough whingeing, time for a long hot shower. Oh and last night I dreamed all my teeth fell out, again, I am always having this damn dream and I hate it. I'll have to look it up in one of those dream books.

Rest Day Today

I have rearranged my training week so I can have Saturday's off so I can get more stuff done. So an ultra thrilling day of house work and chores, but it's gotta be done. Some lovely words of encouragement came my way today on the forum. A tad over whelming being that I have never been a particularly confident person, generally preferring to blend into the background, I have certainly been dragging kicking and screaming from my shell this year :-) Another case of post and delete here, I was rambling on a bit and getting no where. Anyway, I don't have any weird dark issues from my past, suffice to say that some people are just late bloomers in life and I am one of them. I am just having a ball running, training, meeting new people and finding out what I am capable of. Oh, found a great site today where you can get the HTML for song lyrics and pop them in your blog, I have Jeff Buckleys version of hallelujah streaming away in the sidebar at the moment, that song gets me every time.

Floyd, Floyd, Floyd, don't let it be true

A nice 11Kms at 5:10 in reasonably good conditions today, a tad windy but nothing to complain about. Up to Mac Robertsons bridge then back up to Fed Square along the Yarra. I love the section on the way back where the path floats just above the river, almost feels like running on water. Now, Floyd Landis has supposedly tested positive to high levels of testosterone in a sample taken after his amazing "come back" ride in the 17th stage. I am not going to condem the man until all the facts are out, but needless to say I will be deeply disappointed if he turns out to be guilty. I really like the guy, I admire his determiniation and work ethic, after riding in Armstrongs shadow as a domestique for US Postal I was so pleased to see him come thru and win the tour. I know sports people are mere mortals like the rest of us, however I'll admit to having a few sporting heroes. I don't really care what they get up to in their personal lives (unless they commit a crime), but it breaks my heart when they turn to performance enhancing drugs, it is such a betrayal. Anyway, I am reserving my judgement, I am not one to jump on the bandwagon of hysteria, I just hope he is innocent. On a brighter note I read today that On The Road (Jack Kerouac) is going to be republished in it's orginal unedited format. Obviously not in a big rol of paper, which was apparenty 36 feet long, but apart from that just as it came out of Jack's head. For those not familiar with the book JK originally wrote the book on one continuos roll of paper, kind of an unbroken stream of conscious thing. Anyway, hope it's true, I'd like to read it as it was meant to be.

Just Brilliant!

Oh my GOD! I had the best run today, it felt like someone had flicked a switch and suddenly this week the recovery period is over and I am reaping the benefits of all the hard work prior to the half marathon. I had a tempo run (or should that be called a threshold run?) planned for today. I was going to do about 12 or 13Km with about 10Km worth or temp pace. Now prior to the HM I was doing these at about 5:00 pace, today I found I was easily able to push the pace harder. So here are my splits for today. Warm Up 1km 5:19 (1) 2km 5:05 (10:25) The guts of the run 3km 4:54 (15:19) 4km 4:52 (20:12) 5km 4:45 (24:57) 6km 4:54 (29:52) 7km 4:45 (34:38) 8km 5:02 (39:40 let my foot of the gas a bit there) 9km 4:48 (44:28) 10km 4:40 (49:08) Supposed "cool down" 11km 4:50 (53:58) 12km 5:00 (58:58) So most of the tempo section was either a tad over or under 10Km race pace. Is this correct, is this the sort of pace I should be aiming at for this type of run?? I stopped at the 12 Km mark and spent about 5 minutes doing my stretches properly (CV if you read this you will be very pleased with me, I did all the stretches you showed me). I did this on the benches next to my much loved Angel sculptre, and the chimes were also ringing, it was a very peaceful and relaxing end to my run. Then I walked back to the car and headed home, stereo up singing very loudly (and badly) along to the radio, JJJ, feeling on top of the world. Now to races.....there is not much on in August race wise, so I have decided to dedicate the month to getting in some quality long runs and really concentrating on giving 100% to my Tuesday night speed sessions, I really believe they are going to give me a good kick up the bum pace wise. So August is the month where I lay the foundations for a great half marathon in October and hopefully a good 10Km PB at a race in September, I think there may be a Sri Chinmoy one on.

Today's Run in Pictures

Borrowing from some other bloggers I decided to take some pictures today with my mobile (hence the less than stellar quality). Today's run was not particularly exciting, just a functional recovery run after a speedy session last night, 8Kms at about 5:20 pace. I tried to get all the pictures in order with commentary but stupid blogger has just stuck them in any old way, anyway readers, you will figure it out :-) About 2 Km in at Exhibition St - if the picture were better you would see how much we love our sport with the MCG, Tennis Centre and Vodafone arena in shot, what you can't see is Olympic Park. We love our sport in Melbourne! This is the bridge that leads down into Birrarung Marr, a lovely park that used to be Batman Ave, so much nicer now it has been taken over by walkers, runners and cyclists. The bottom of the "notorious" Anderson Street, a nasty 750 metres for some, a mere incline for others. Up Anderson St, around the corner and you run past the Shrine of remembrance, some days at the right time you can hear The Last Post being played On of the KM markers on The Tan, the track is 3.8 Km long. On the way home along the Yarra River A gorgeous sculpture called Angel by Deborah Halpern, it used to live in the moat outside the Gallery, I think it looks much better here. 8Km in 42 minutes (told you it was an easy run) Finished, back at the office, pick up the bag, change into the trackie and head home.

Speed Work

Another action shot, this one was from the Sri Chinmoy 5Km I did last Sunday. I am always a little surprised when I see these photo's as I have an incredibly warped view of myself. It is not until I see a photo like this that I gain a more balanced perception of what I look like these days, anyway, just a little insight into my strange insecure mind. If I feel thus inclined I will go into more detail one day. I had speed work tonight, so as is my habit I did an easy run this morning of about 5.8 Km, then onto the session tonight. It was a "mystery session" today, so I was hoping for something relatively easy. The first session was pretty cool, we divided into groups of 3, a fast, medium and slow runner (I was the slow runner). Fast and medium did 2 laps, I did 1, fast then did another 1 and then we finished the last lap as a group. My team WON!!! Yay, no help from me though, I was lucky to be in a team with 2 speedy boys :-) Then we did 5 x 300 meters where each 100 metre increment was slightly faster than the next. Phew, was pretty stuffed by the end of all that. Amazing what a good run does for me. I was not in a particularly good way today, but by the time I finished my session I felt on top of things again.

My new Toy!

Oh joy, oh bliss, my beautiful shiny white smooth curvy and generally fabulous new Macbook lap top was delivered today, so naturally I have spent all evening exploring all the new features and converting my brain from PC to Mac. Funny thing though blogger does not have all the features available. Mac host their own free blog site and it looks pretty feature packed so I may convert when I have had a chance to have a proper look. It has bluetooth so I have finally been able to get the photo's out of my mobile phone. For example here is a very dodgy pic I took at the Commonwealth Games, if you look closely you will see Craig Mottram in there somewhere ;-) Now, I have decided to change my training week around so I can have Saturday's off to get more time out of my weekend so I headed out for a run afterwork today. The plan was for an easy 8Km recovery run, well the pace was easy, about 5:20, but I underestimated the "mental map" and ended up with close to 10Kms (9.8 Km to be exact), oh well. I have also decided to be less "slavish" about a training plan, I have learned alot from the first half of the year and have a fair idea of what I should be doing, so I will just map it out at the start of each week. So for anyone who is interested here is this weeks plan. Mon - 8Km recovery Tue - AM 6Km easy PM Speed work Wed - 10 Km easy Thurs - 13 Km with warm up/cool down and 9Km tempo Fri - 13 Km easy Sat - Rest Sun - Long Run about 20Km (plan to run for 2 hours)

5Km with the Pancake People

First of all, yesterday. I headed down to Jells Park to watch the AV X-C, women's 8km and men's 12Km. It was a lovely day and I really enjoyed the atmosphere, I'd forgotten how much I missed the team camaraderie since leaving baseball. How many sports can you participate in alongside elite athletes, I mean, I got to see Mona run!!!! It pretty much sold me on club running, so I'll be signing up next year. Today's schedule was for a 5Km race at Princess Park with the Sri Chinmoy race team, as usual a fantastic well run event from the Pancake People. I discovered that my footpod had a flat battery, well, I had been meaning to start getting a feel for pacing myself without it so now was a good a time as any :-) Off I went with the gun, with pretty even splits of 4:33, 4:33, 4:40, then missed the 4Km mark so the last 2Kms were 9:08. I am pretty sure the last 1km was a quick one, I flew to the finish line. All up I think it was 22:36, but will wait for official results. It was a PB by over 1 minute (last one taken from last half of the willi 10km, 23:41). Imagine my surprise when I finished and was told I was the second female in :!: . Not getting too excited as I am sure it was a very small field, hey if there were only 3 chicks then I came 2nd last. Still, happy to get my first medal that is not an "everyone gets a prize" medal. Even happier to have a new PB and to have run such even splits. Then I waited for Beki to come through and ran her last 5Km with her. She was struggling with a bung leg and I wasn't there to push her, just to make sure she did not DNF because I knew she would be angry with herself later if she did. I was very impressed with her kick at the end, despite how she was feeling. We then proceeded to eat pancakes and cheer all the others through as they were all doing the longer events. Special mention to the always unstoppable Michelle putting on 31.1 km today, I really wanted to join her for her last lap but I was pushing my luck with time and had to get home and get on with things. So I finally feel like I have my legs back and will look forward to some proper Kms in the coming week and solid long run next Sunday.

Cross Country

I went to Jells Park to watch the AV Cross Country today and cheer on some ausrunners, a very enjoyable afternoon. I'll go into more detail tomorrow after Sri Chinmoy, right now I have a pounding headache.

Last nights speed work

The schedule for last night’s session was as follows – 1000 metre time trail 10 minutes recovery 4 by 400 metres with 2 minutes recovery Before the time trial I was thinking that 4:20 would be a good time for me to aim for. I went through the first 500 metres in 2:00 flat, lost a bit on the 2nd 500 but still came in at 4:05. I was very happy with that, I didn’t think I could go that fast over 1000 metres. One of the other girls ran 4:13 which was a massive PB for her; its great seeing people exceed their own expectations, especially as just prior to the trial she told me she was aiming for 4:25. My 400 metre splits were as follows – 96, 94, 95, 90 (!) For the first 3 we were asked to try and keep the pace consistent and hit the same time, then for the 4th we were asked to try and drop 1 or 2 seconds. My legs were pretty much cactus by that stage and I was thinking, “yeah right”. But I don’t give up, a quick bit of advice to the group on form which I took on board and off we went. I found myself keeping up with the group that had pulled away from me for the 1st 3 reps, then about 70 metres to go I managed to find some kick and finished in 90 seconds. I tried to run more on the balls of my feet (which felt so very wrong for me) and for the last rep tried to keep my stride longer. Amazing the difference it makes doing this with a group, I doubt I would have been able to run these times on my own. I certainly would not have been able to pull out that fast final 400 metres that’s for sure. Had a quick chat with Tim who advised that I should stick to the 5Km on Sunday so 5Km it is. Just means I’ll get to the pancakes quicker and I am curious to see what sort of time I can manage, I am thinking something in the order of 23 to 24 minutes but we’ll see. There will be another Sri Chinmoy event in September, I should be better positioned for a good 10Km by then, unless I can find a race I like the look of in August sometime. I have a massage tonight and need to be home by 6ish to shower and change, this will give me an hour to run tonight beforehand so I’ll just head out along the Yarra and see how far I can get with the time I have. Like an Alcoholic getting the DTs I am starting to get very edgy not sticking to a plan, now that my form is returning I will be getting back to more structure next week (In some cases my desire for order is almost pathological, in others, pure chaos, that is I NEED a training plan and have panic attacks when something gets in the way and I am obsessively punctual, however my desk, ironing pile and book shelves are out of control and I can never remember to pay my bills on time and don’t even get me started on the state of my “garden”)

I got my old legs back today :-)

Updating the blog from work so part of today’s running hasn’t finished yet. I have speed work tonight so I decided to do a 6Km run this morning as well. AM A quick 6km at just over 5:00 pace, down the straight section of The Tan, over Morrell Bridge then back up along the Yarra and to the office. I was kitted out in long tights, long sleeved top and gloves, but it turned out to be quite a mild morning which was a lovely surprise. Today was the first run since the half marathon that I truly 100% enjoyed, it was quick, my legs finally felt like the belonged to me and it was not a struggle to hold the pace. The section back up along the Yarra was particularly gorgeous, great morning, feeling good and just enjoying being out there, I do miss running in the mornings and it may be time to make the switch back. If the week continues this way I may be a starter for the 10Km on Sunday after all. PM I am doing speed work with the training squad tonight. I think the schedule is for a 1000 metre time trial, 10 minute recovery then 4 by 400 metres with 2 minute recovery. So if we stick to this plan I am going to aim for 4:20 for the time trial, I ran a 4:24 1000 metre last week so it should be doable. I’ll post an update on this tomorrow. I Received confirmation that HR have processed my salary sacrifice for my new lap top, so the “10 to 15 working days for delivery” count down in now on, I HATE waiting, I am a I want everything now person, very impatient. I have to head to Sydney for work on Thursday and Friday which means another enforced rest day on Friday, very annoying. I am in training in North Sydney so I won’t be back to my hotel until after 6pm which pretty much rules out a long outdoor ran damnit. So a few choices – Thursday night, do some Hill Repeats up Martin Place after 7 when the roads are less busy or I jump on the treadmill at the hotel (Ughhh, you know I don’t want to do that). As tonight’s speed session won’t be as heavy as last week I may be able to get away with the Hill repeats OR Rest Thursday and get up at the crack of a sparrows on Friday and get a good 10Km run in outside. OR Do the hill repeats on Thursday night and back up for another shorter run Friday morning. Yes I could get changed and run from North Sydney to my Hotel, but I can’t carry my bag with me. Funnily enough though quite a few of my lead ups to a race have involved this sort of disruption and I always do well, so maybe I should just go with the flow and stop stressing out about an enforced rest on Friday.

I am a guinea pig!

Think these posts will be short and sweet until I get my own computer, it is too hard to get a go on the one at home.

Today is my rest day, I am feeling fresher this week so hopefully it will be a good one.

I volunteered for a Study today. I have never done anything like that before and I thought it would be interesting, it will be cool to contribute to the research but I may also learn something about myself as well. The details are in the latest Runners World or on www.ausrun.com.au, I tried posting the proper link but it won't work.

One of the screening questions was "are you afraid of having blood samples taken?", NO, one of the other questions should have been "Do you hate running on treadmills?", but I only have to do that for 6 minutes so I should cope :-)

It is sponsored by Asics and they will be using some of the results to assist them with shoe design for women.

I'll keep you posted, I have to track my "cycles" for 2 months before the testing is done as they want to look at the effects of hormonal fluctuations on training and performance (and boy do I ever fluctuate!!)

Got a "long" Run in today

*Edit* I posted 15Km for yesterday, it was actually 14Km (sorry Beki) Just a quick post, a bit tired tonite. Finally got some decent distance into the legs today, 14 Km. Ok, not the lofty heights but I am climbing back to my old form. Great run on my new fave trail with Beki, Corrie and Mark, good to see Corrie in a social setting rather than when she is torturing the knots out of my muscles :-) I have decided to do a 5Km race next Sunday, don't feel like I can give my all to a 10Km yet and I won't enter a race I can't give 100% to. Anyway I have not done a 5Km since August last year and that was off the back of 35 kms a week of treadmill running, so it will be interesting to see how I do this time. Anyway, sharing a 'puter at the moment and don't like being stuck in the back room so see ya. Can't wait to get my new Mac lap top.

Just not myself yet

10 km today at about 5:40. Ran up along the Yarra to Mac Robertsons Bridge, crossed over then back to Fed Square along the opposite bike path. I was absolutely determined to run 10 Km today, it is really frustrating me that I am not ticking over as smoothly as I am used to. Someone said to me this week that I needed to respect the distance of the half marathon and take it easy. Very wise words as it is taking me longer to recover than I had hoped. So, plans to jump back into 6 day weeks have been shelved, I will have to take a rest day tomorrow. I was hoping for a 20 Km long run on Sunday, but I may try for 15 and see how I go. Also I am not sure if I can give my all to a 10 Km race on Sunday week, I will see how I am feeling through next week and may just make up my mind on the day. It could turn out that a quick 5Km is a better option. The terribly grey and cold weather isn't helping either. I actually ran with music today, I needed the extra motivation so I made do with the radio in an old mobile phone. Ughhh, hope the legs get back to normal soon. On a brighter note I bought myself a new toy today. A got a Macbook, for the uninitiated that is a Mac Lap Top, the new one with the duo core processor. Very excited, just have to wait out the "up to 14 days" it may take to be delivered, got it thu a discount scheme at work which is an added bonus. This means I can say good by to Mr Gates and the crappy virus ridden lap top I am using now. And it's all MINE, my first computer all to myself.

All cats are grey, and so is the sky

A quick 8Km today managed at about 5:10 pace. Not sure where I pulled that from, I just ran with out thinking and that is the pace my legs settled into. Still not 100%, my biggest issue at the moment is my calves, they are giving me some grief so I am keeping away from hills. I have a massage booked for next week, I know I should have done it earlier but time kept getting away from me. Last week was a 45 km week, I am hoping to put together 55 to 60 this week. Now, I have promised to post a few recipe's so here they are. Flukey Dahl So named because for years I have tried to perfect this and I never quite got it right, mine always came out too bland. So last night I was making red lentil soup, but was missing a few ingredients and just had to make do, the result, a fantastic flukey Dahl. It takes a while to cook, but only 10 minutes to prepare so you can relax until it's ready. 1 cup of red lentils 1 small brown onion 4 whole cloves 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds 1/2 tsp coriander seeds 1/2 tsp ground garam masala 2 cloves of garlic Dried chilli flakes to taste 2 table spoons of tomato paste (that is one of those little packets) 1 Litre Vegetable stock 1 carrot chopped fairly roughly or 1 cup of chopped sweet potato (or a bit of both) Rinse the lentils until the water runs clear Roast the seeds and whole spices in a dry frypan until the seeds start to pop, then grind them with a mortar and pestle and add the chilli and garam masala. If you don't have a mortar and pestle go to the shop and buy one, Kidding, you can use ground spices and the mustard seeds are fine whole, just add them to the onion and garlic. Saute the onion and garlic with a little olive oil until the onion is soft, add the spices and cook for another 2 minutes, add tomato paste and cook for another minute. Add the lentils, vegetable stock and carrots/sweet potato. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and simmer covered for about an hour and a half, or until the lentils are completely broken down and the consistency is thicker than soup. Serving suggestions - Pour over toast (trust me, this is actually very good) With rice With Naan or Roti bread Brown Rice Salad I pinched this one from the back of a packet of Sunrice pre-cooked brown rice, but it is not total plagiarism because I have modified the preparation method and added some extra stuff. This will make enough for 2 lunches, or 1 side dish for dinner and then another serve for lunch. 1 packet of sunrice pre-cooked brown rice (or 2 cups of cooked brown rice) 1/3 cup semi sun dried tomatoes (get the low fat ones from the deli) 1/4 cup sliced kalamatta olives (in brine not oil) 2 tablespoons of pine nuts 1 tablespoon of sunflower seeds 1 tablespoon of currants Juice and rind of one lemon In a little olive oil gently warm though the tomatoes, olives and seeds/nuts, the idea is to get a bit of colour on the pine nuts, when the pine nuts are golden add the currants and cook for another minute, then add the rice. Keep cooking this for another minute stirring constantly, then add the lemon juice and rind. That's it, season to taste but go easy on the salt because of the olives and serve at room temp as a side dish. For lunch I re-heat in the microwave on low for about 60 seconds just to take the chill of the fridge off and stir in a tin of tuna. Personally I love the Safcol grilled tuna (in springwater). Now I thought this would be really bland and yuck, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was delicious. Hope you try these and they work out for you, they are both very filling and extremely nutritious, but most importantly very very yummy. Post a comment if you have any questions.

Hope no one saw that last post

Scrapped my last post 10 minutes after I put it up. I am in a mood but no need to inflict it the world at large. Just a slow 6Kms today. Was overtaken on Princess Bridge this afternoon by Steve in a comforting cloud of deep heat, the way he looked the knee problem is obviously behind him :-) I would have given him a shout but he had the headphones on and was obviously immersed in, what is, Gold 104??? Still recovering from the half, about 95% then, but last nights session and Pilates during the day took the wind out of my sails today, hence the easy 6Kms. Will post some recipe's tomorrow when I am less tired, including the amazing Dahl I made for dinner tonite, for all you lentil lovers out there.

Well, not quite the slowest :-)

About 10Kms today to start the week. I joined a group today for some intervals, meeting on The Tan, a quick warm up then over the Lexus Track next to Olympic Park. The session was to be run as follows: 1200, 1000, 800, 600 and 400 metres. I joined in with a group of girls who were close to my level (well, slightly above my level actually but they were very welcoming). I just wanted to concentrate on the session so I didn't take my splits, now that I have a feel for it I will do that next time. Someone was calling out splits as we finished however and I think I have managed to remember most of them - 1200 - 5:34 1000 - 4:24 (wow!) 800 - 3:50 (maybe, not sure) 600 - 2:30 perhaps 400 - 99 (Cathy Freeman is halfway thru her victory lap by the time I finish a 400) I was pretty happy with these times considering I am still not back to my best yet. I love these kinds of sessions though, they are tough but satisfying. And for a change I got some encouragement as I hauled my butt around, rather than my own self motivating talk in my head, a definite plus!! So with a warm up and cool down, the session and the run to and from the meeting place from my office I managed to clock up 10Kms today. It was great to finally be able to do a proper session like this and I look forward to making this a regular part of the training schedule. I was a bit awe struck by how fast some of them could run, just emphasized how "green" I am, still it is not about other people is it, just doing the best I can. Bring on daylights savings though, it was fecking freezing out there tonight, I could barely use my hands by the time we finished. I am pretty reserved in a new group and they may not have thought I was that into it, but I was, it just takes me a while to get over the shyness and get to know new people, I have had to do a alot of that this year. I started back at Pilates today as well so I am sure I will be a walking a bit tenderly tomorrow. Day 2 of the healthier eating is going well, I made a fantastic brown rice salad for lunch. I thought it would be bland and unpalatable, but it turned out to be divine. I will post it tomorrow, it is getting late now and I just want to chill out for a bit before bed.

13 Weeks and counting

First of all, buggery stupid computer, it froze on me and I lost my post, now I have to type the damn thing again. So, training for my second half marathon starts tomorrow, I have adapted the plan I used last time now that I have a better idea of what I am doing. What I will do differently?

• 13 week lead up instead of 11 (started last plan right after the Run for the Kids)
• Structured speed work with a running group, rather than on my own
• Hill Intervals (when I figure out what this entails, Anderson St here I come)
• Pay more attention to my nutrition, try to reduce Body Fat and lose 2.5 Kgs (got off on the right foot today at least)
• The last plan steadily built up the mileage. But now I have a good base so the weeks will be more consistent, about 65 to 80 Kms a week.
• Last time I included 2 races, I may allow 3 races this time. My next one will be a 10km on the 23rd of this month.
• I WILL stretch properly after each run, I promise.

What will stay the same?

• Plenty of "easy" pace runs of 13Km to 14Km, the workhorse of the training week
• Threshold runs, one of my favorite sessions, these are a real confidence booster
• Long runs of no more than 25Kms

I am sure I had some fantastic pearl of wisdom for myself in my "lost" post, but I can't remember what it was.

So my first half served it's purpose, it gave me a feel for racing that distance and helped me decide whether or not I wanted to keep training for the distance and try for better times (YES!!!). My goal for Melbourne will be to knock off 4 minutes and finish in 104 minutes.

So lucky to live where I do :-)

No long run planned for today, this is my recovery week after all, and frankly I am not sure if the legs would have let me do 25 Km anyhow. So I ran 6Kms out and then back again to round out 12Kms, this week has just seen a gentle increase in the distance over the course of the week. Beki was having a shorter one too being it was her 4th week in her training plan so it was great to have some company on the way back. I met up with the ESRG crew in Templestowe at about 730, those looking to do 30Km had already done about 5 by the time the rest of us met up. Finally got to put some faces to some Ausrunners I hadn't met yet, always a pleasure. We headed out down the Yarra trail and it was absolutely stunning, I am constantly amazed by the variety of great places I have to run, mostly within about 30 minutes drive from home. Today's route felt like we were immersed in the bush and it was barely 10 minutes from my front door!!! And to think I had to take up running to discover all this. This week I have been to, Dandy Creek Trail, Koonung Track, Lysterfield Lake Park and the Yarra Trail, how lucky am I! There were stacks of people on the track, other runners and bike riders, everyone was really friendly this morning, lots of smiles and hellos, all acknowledging a shared passion. A particularly lovely group of boys on bikes whizzed past us with a big "Hello Girls", LOL, "Hiya Boys", hmmm, how fast do we need to run to catch up with them, Beki, fancy a bit of speedwork this morning :-) Looking forward to getting back into training again next week, exactly 3 months to go until my next half marathon, looking for something around 104 minutes this time, I don't think a 4 minute reduction is an unreasonable expectation. I need to book in for a massage next week, I really should have done it this week, that is a lesson learned for my next half, massage very soon afterwards.

Nothing Exciting

I would normally run on a Saturday, but this is no ordinary week. Yucky grey weather still seriously affecting my mood so I pretty much moped around the house for most of the day. One of those "I don't know what I want to do but can't be stuffed doing anything" moods. Housework, read for a while, more moping.........by 3:30 a serious case of cabin fever had set in and I was in a murderous mood. Resisted the urge to run so I went for a nice long walk instead which helped blow out the cobwebs somewhat. I thought it would be refreshing to run without a plan this week, and in a way it was. However I really need to get back into a structured training plan so that will kick off again next week. To give me something to look forward to I sketched up a tentative race schedule for the rest of the year.

Opps, please don't yell at me

I made tentative plans to run with Clarkey this morning and was woken by a 6:30 SMS followed by a phone call. He was heading out a bit earlier than my 8am but might see me out there. I was quite happy to receive the early wake up because it got my bum into gear for the day. Anyway the rendevouz did not quite happen but not a problem and just I did an easy 5:25 paced 8Km this morning. Finally I got in a run this week of more than 6Kms, today it was starting to feel easier again. Honestly, I will never moan about tapering again, recovery is much more frustrating. At least with taper you have the benefit of anticipation, recovery, ughhh, no joy there. Well, got home, did not intend to get onto the net until late afternoon, but.............I am looking to buy a new car so I jumped on to ogle the beastie that I have my eye on. Anyway, I couldn't logoff without having a quick check of the forum and I wanted to send a PM to a mate about something (food related of course). As is happened, said mate had the day off work and was wanting to have a run at Lysterfield, and gee, would I like to go along. Ok, you know where this is heading, I had been wanting to try a run there for ages, was bored at home etc etc, so yes, out I went to meet Beki at Lysterfield for my second run for the day. In my defence it was a nice slow paced 9.5 Km, proven by the fact that we did not shut up the whole way around and chose to walk up a couple of small hills. I haven't really redeemed myself have I? In fact I wasn't going to post it but I am an honest girl. So 17.5 kms today, 8 in the am and 9.5 in the pm. Let's just call it my long run for the week. I'll still hook up with the ESRG long run on Sunday but will probably just go out for 6Kms and turn around to bring it up to 12 kms, and yes, I will rest tomorrow. Hanging my head in shame and slapping myself on the wrist. Good luck to all the AV racers competing at Sandown tomorrow.

Post race blues

Still easing back into it today I just did 6Kms on the Dandy Creek Trail at about 5:25 pace. I thought I would try for 8Kms but it had started to rain and I couldn't be bothered crossing the road just to get an extra 2Kms. I have been a bit moody and tired the last couple of days, guess it must be a case of post race blues and coming back to the cold weather probably doesn't help. I need to pay more attention to my nutrition so most of today has been spent up to my ears in back issues of Runner's World, Run for your Life, my current favorite running book "Run Strong", some nutrition books and a note book. The key to making sure I eat right is going to be good planning. There are a few things that I need to pay attention to - * not overeating during the day at work, this is due mainly to my restlessness and inability to sit still for more than 30 minutes at a time * not eating too much takeaway at night, this is due to not getting home until after 7 each night due to training. I have written down some quick and healthy dinner ideas that should help. * getting enough protein. The only animal protein I eat is fish and I am not going to change that. * getting enough iron. This can be an issue for women, add to the that my near vegetarianism and high level of physical activity and there is a recipe of disaster! Current weight is - 58.4 Kgs (172cm) Current BF % is - 22.5% Goal Weight - 56 Kg Goal BF % - 16% With about 9500 Kjs a day at my level of activity I'll be able to slowly get rid of those pesky 2.5 Kgs so I have written up some balanced meal plans that should get me there and also include the iron, protein and carbs that I need each day. Special thanks for the support re my decision to not run a Marathon this year, it was a difficult decision to make but one I am very comfortable with. There is another Sri Chinmoy event at the end of this month, I'll be entering the 10Km which will give me something to look forward to, hopefully I will be right for a decent hit out by then.

Back Running and swallowing my pride

This could only mean one thing! I went shoe shopping today, back to trusty Active Feet with a request for a good high mileage stability shoe that is not too chunky, I don't ask for much really do I? My Saucony's are on the way out and while they have served me well I always felt like I was running with a couple of bricks on my feet. The salesman remembered me from when I bought my Zoom Elites in there a few months back which impressed me. So I am now the proud owner of a pair of Brooks Trance 5 trainers, I won't say what they cost!

So it goes without saying that I had to take them for a spin today. After 2 days off I was champing at the bit for a run and drove to the Koonung Track with a sense of excitement. Though erring on the side of caution I decided at the start just to make it a slow easy 5Kms, well, stuck pretty close to plan it was a slow 6.2 Kms (5:45 pace). The legs felt a little heavy but all things considered I felt pretty comfortable and the new shoes, Fantastic, love them already.

Now, why am I swallowing my pride? This blog was originally started to track my progress to a Marathon in October. There as been alot of soul searching and will I won't I conversations with myself over the last 2 days. The decision, and it almost pains me to type this, I am not going to enter the Marathon in Melbourne in October, I will enter the half instead. I love distance running and I want to be able to do it for as long as I can, so I need to be good to my body. So far I have been able to avoid injury, it may be that I have a good physiological make up, or I may have just been lucky, or a bit of both, but I do not want to tempt fate.

Anyway, rambling, I don't want to sound like I am justifying myself because I am very comfortable with my decision. I want to join a club next year and I want to improve my 10Km and 21Km performance, therefore training needs to be geared for those distances, if I chuck marathon training on top of that something may well break. I believe that a wiser choice will be to work more on my endurance and speed and continue to build a good mileage base. After I have been running solidly for a year I will be in a better position to put my body through the rigors of a Marathon, possibly the Gold Coast Marathon next year, that seems to fit in OK with the AV winter schedule.

So, the journey continues, just on a slightly different path.

Back Home - One more rest day

Sigh, back in Melbourne. I love my city, I really do, there are just times of the year when I love it more. Up at 4:30 today, Taxi booked for 5:00, didn't walk though my front door until 11:00, long morning. It was lovely to visit brother and sister but I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight. I decided to take one more rest day today. The last 2 days have been filled with general gluttony and slothfulness so I am looking forward to a gentle run tomorrow morning. I am not back at work until next week so it will be great to run when ever I feel like it during the day, this week running is just for the hell of it. I'll also be off to Active Feet for a new pair of training sneakers as well, think that will be a job for tomorrow morning. An Ausrunner recently pointed me in the direction of a running group where I can do some structured training sessions. I am particularly interested in doing some speedwork with a group, I find it incredibly valuable, but also very lonely on my own :-( so I e-mailed the coach some questions today but hopefully should be ready to jump into it next week (being a bit shy it will be hard for me to get into another group but I am slowly getting over myself) Spent the day just mucking around on the net trying to find a marathon training plan, haven't found one that I am happy with yet but I will keep looking. The cut off for registering for the Melbourne Marathon at the cheaper price is 8 September, so that is my deadline for making up my mind. I think I feel that because I have come to running later in life that I have to make up for lost time and I need to fight the desire to try and do everything at once. My next immediate goal will be a 10Km Sri Chinmoy race at the end of this month, I will be looking for something between 47 and 48 minutes. *Edit* Bit naughty, just ripped this action shot of me finishing the half from one of the marathon photography sites.

New Challenges - Same Enthusiasm

Alright slightly less hyper post coming up today, yesterday's was fueled with a mixture of Endorphins and Champagne! First up, as I love my stats, here are my results from yesterday - Time - 1:48:00, bugger I hate round numbers (still thrilled with the time though) Placings: Overall - 1612/4269 Females - 424/1989 Age (F30-34) - 75/327 (quite chuffed with that, always good to get into the double figures at a big event) I had a great night sleep and woke up with pretty fresh legs, I put this down to the following -

• Jumping in and out of my sisters very very cold pool for about 15 minutes. Couldn't stay in, it really was very cold
• Getting straight into the Skins after my shower and keeping them on until this morning
• Taking a couple of Neurofen before bed

Mentally a bit so so, pretty tired and emotional all day, but I think that is to be expected after such a big race with a long lead up. It almost felt like the day after Xmas when I was a kid. But I have been able to rest and have a think about where I want to go next. The good news is that my enthusiasm has not waned at all, if anything I am more fired up and excited about where I can go next with this, I feel pretty lucky to have this joy for running. In fact I forgot to post yesterday, at about the 17 Km mark I started to feel quite out of myself, almost like I was out of my body watching myself run, it was very weird but very calming, maybe I had a Zen moment or had discovered the runners high??!! So, what now? I was approaching the half as a benchmark, to decide whether or not it was a distance I wanted to seriously persure or just leave for "fun". Well, I enjoyed the distance and it wasn't a hellish experience. Now that I have tackled a few distances I want to put my heart and soul into 10 Km and Halfs. I want to pursue these and become the best runner I can at these distances, I want to get a sub 42 min 10Km and a sub 100 minute Half Marathon. Now, what about the Melbourne Marathon? I have been thinking long on this one today and I am still in 2 minds. It is 97 days away and I am wondering if that leaves me enough time to train properly for the distance. I don't want to make a "specialty" out of this distance, it is more of a Becuase it's there pursuit. I have decided to get into the training regardless and then about a month out make the decision on whether or not I will enter the half or the full. Part of me feels that I should see out a full year of running before I go down the Marathon track and it takes a big person to re-asses a goal. Also if it is going to interfere with my 10Km and 21Km goals then I won't let it. I don't want to sacrfice a 10Km race because I am worried about losing weekly mileage in a Marathon training plan. I have also decided that I will definitely join an Aths club next year, I am starting to feel confident that I can make a contribution, again I don't want to be locked slavisly into a Marathon training schedule. I will use some of my spare time away from work this week to start looking at clubs, Box Hill seems likely as it is close to home. My only worry is that clubs often seem to be struggling to put together their women's teams, I don't want to pay those fees and then not be able to run. Personally I am a very committed person and will also give 100% once I have thrown my hat in, but having been in club sport before I know that is not the case with everyone involved. A friend has offered to help me put together a training plan, so will be having a chat with him in the coming weeks and will start going after those goals. In the meantime I will ease back into it this week with some easy runs. PS - my sister has quit smoking and has told me she wants to try running again, which makes me very happy. I have given her a link to the Couch to 5K program for her to get started on when she gets over her cold. She is 6 years younger than me and has a smaller, slimmer build, I told her that with a bit of training she will be kicking my butt in no time, she has the perfect runners physique. She enjoyed the atmosphere at the Marathon yesterday and has set herself the goal of entering the 10Km next year, I know I will be back for at least the half, no worries.

My First Half Marathon - 1:48:05

Oh boy, what a day! Started at 04:01 when my alarm went off, for some reason I am weird about setting my alarm for rounded or even times, ie: 04:00 wound't do, but 04:01 is OK, just a quirk. I set both my phone alarm and my watch to be sure :-) Had me weet-bix and sustegen then read in bed until about 04:45 when I got dressed (gear layed out from the night before) and headed into Broadbeach with my lovely sister. Poor thing has gone cold turkey on the smokes this week and had a terrible sore throat. It was a beautiful clear morning, but she was cold so I bought her a coffee to keep her warm. We sat in the expo tent and chatted and watched the passing crowd until it was time for me to head to the start line. Waiting for the race to start I felt quite emotional and almost had a bit of a sook just thinking how far I had come in almost 6 months to the day since I started this serious running caper. I positioned myself between the 1:50 and 2:00 pace groups, I didn't want to run with a group but thought they would be a handy guide. My thought being I'll keep ahead of the 2:00:00 group but behind the 1:50:00 group and I'll get in under 1:55:00. Not a bad start and not as congested as I thought it would be, the 1:50:00 group shot off and I thought, well, "see ya guys", but the 2:00:00 group never got past me. We saw the wheelchair group leading in the opposite direction at about 30 minutes followed by the lead half running group at abot 40 minutes, all go a bit cheer and a clap from us mere mortals. There was also stacks of cheers and support from the locals along the road which was great. I planned to run nice even Kms and maybe pick up the speed towards the end. The first 5 Kms went by in about 26 minutes and the 10.5km turn around in about 55 minutes so I ended up running a slight negatvie split which pleased me. I was surprised by how damn comfortable I felt and keep waiting for the pain to start. By about the 13km mark I had caught the 1:50:00 pace group and I thought well, I'll just stick with these guys until the end. But no, I kept to my pace and ended up leaving them behind. 15, 16, 17 Km, certainly putting in the effort but no real pain, so glad I had run part of the course during the week as the familiar landmarks really helped my morale. Having lot's of chats with myself but no negative talk at all, at 16 km I told myself, "no prob, just an easy 5Ks", the time was 1:22:XX, so I knew I was crusing, sub 30 minute 5Kms, walk in the park. 19Kms, F&%K, this is starting to hurt just a little, the hips feeling a bit tight and the by now familar sick feeling that I get at the end of every race starting to hit me. Lot's more positive chat, pretty much me trying to talk myself out of chucking all over the place :-) Managed to hold it in, picked up the pace over the closing 2Kms. Hit the finish chute, this went for about 400 metres, ran over the carpet, BEEP, YESSSSS, it's over!!!!!!! Weird though, the Finish arch thingy was about 50 metres past the 21 Km mark???? and there was no carpet to run over to pick up the time, so the proper finish line was 50 mts back from the "ceremonial" finish line. This did not stop me from a sprint finish though, even though the clock was showing gun time (it took me about 90 seconds to cross the start line after the gun), I still wanted to run though that arch with sub 1:50:00 on the clock, so I bolted the last 50 metres and crossed with 1:49:XX showing on the clock, Brilliant. Raised my hands, hopefully I get a decent photo, moved quickly away from the offical cameras and then spent the next couple of minutes leaning over a baricade trying not to chuck (sister got a photo of this!), then some guy next to me did lose his wheeties, so I moved on. My sister had managed to get herself a seat in the grandstand and I have the vaguest recollections of her yelling out my name as I finished, she said she made a hell of a fuss and everyone started at her :-) Got my bling, got my T-Shirt and then went to meet Sis at out meeting spot. Found her madly calling mum to tell her I finished in one piece and gave her a big sweaty hug. Then I looked up and who should I see heading into the Expo? Rogo, so he had this mad woman rushing at him out of nowhere!!! He had arived on the coast the night before and was entered into the 10Km, was great to see another friendly face. Phew, long post hey? Well I'll summarise - 1:48:05 by my watch, official results not up yet, but damn happy with that for a first effort Works out to be an average pace of 5:08 (spot on Stu, well done) Will I do it again? Hell yes, can't wait for the next one, I mean 108 minutes, surely I now have to set about pursing a sub 100, I mean, why wouldn't I? What did I do for the rest of the day? Drank too much champers, ate too much cheese, baby brother served up the most divine Sticky Date pud I have ever had. Final word BIG, MASSIVE, ENORMOUS thankyou to everyone who has given me so much support, advice, motivation and pep talks over the last couple of months, you are all amazing and I am so happy to know such a great bunch of people, no off with me before I get all emotional again.

Raw Naked Terror

'Nuff said really Thanks so much for all the support and great advice over the last couple of months. Tune in tomorrow for the race report. :-)