trixta's running

Blog has moved

2006-12-16T17:28:00.000+11:00

Howdy readers - I have moved my blog

Got fed up with this Beta version so I have moved to the more Mac friendly word press.

I won't import my old posts so I'll hang onto blogger.com for the history

You can find me at www.emruns.wordpress.com

hope you like my new site! It is still under construction and will evolve over the coming weeks.

1 more sleep to go.....

2006-12-15T19:19:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Bowling and Drinkin'
Phew, it's been a big week, I feel like I have eaten and drunk more in the last 3 days than I have in the last 11 months! Today was a blast, we had a couple of hours bowling at St Kilda Bowls club, obviously as I was holding the mobile phone this is not me in the photo, it is a colleague (who was a much better bowler than me), as you can see it was a fantastic day for it. It started off as a "friendly" but pretty soon became very competitive, especially with me in the side ;-) Despite proving to be an appalling bowler I at least proved to be an A1 sledger which I like to think had a pivitol role in my side ending up taking the day by 1 point. As some school kids had turned up we graciously allowed the losers to buy a round rather than take a topless lap of the green.

After our 2 hours on the green we were supposed to have a BBQ, however the caterer we had booked kindly decided to NOT turn up. Was supposed to be there at 2pm, we gave him until 2:30 but considering many jugs had been consumed by that stage it was time to get to the pub for some nourishment before things got very messy (as opposed to just messy), not sure if the BBQ dude ever did turn up but he did have a mobile number to contact us on.

The remainder of the afternoon was passed very pleasantly at a pub looking over Fitzroy Street. The last time I was at Fitzroy St I seem to recall a great big fecking brickwall greeting me at the very top, I then had to spend the next 4Km attempting to climb over the top of it and finish my half marathon with a PB. The view today was much more agreeable, LOL

Only one more sleep until I can have a run, I don't care how short and slow it is I am gonna love every step of it. Speaking of running, it is not even '07 yet and I have already been mailed a flyer for the Gold Coast Airport Mathaon due to be held 1st July next year. As long as it fits in with the AV season I will be doing this one again, it will be a good course to have a crack at sub 100 minutes and of course my brother and sister live up there too. I'd like to get another 2 half marathons done next year and if all goes well I may be well positioned to give the Melbourne Marathon a go in October '07. A totally terrifying thought because I want to have a proper go at a good time, not just do it for the hell of it. Not 100% committed yet, let's see how the body copes with a winter season first. Then again maybe I am just being too damn cautious and I should just stop analysing things and go for it.

Almost ready to run

2006-12-14T17:42:00.000+11:00

After forgetting myself and running to catch a green light I realised that there was no complaining from my foot (ever tried walking up Martin Place in Sydney, so many damn lights of you don't catch the greens it takes FOREVER!) Guess who's looking forward to a gentle run on Saturday??!! And not before time too, I feel like a fat cow. Alrighty, got a cab to catch, can't wait to get home, way to humid up here.

2006-12-12T19:27:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding
Another 60 minutes on the bike, rolling hills today. Not such a bad one this evening, managed to get into a "zone" and the hour passed pretty quickly. With the trip to Sydney and some Christmas functions taking up most of the week looks like that will be it for the working week. Still keeping my fingers crossed for a gentle run on Saturday.

Goodbye
I don't have the ticker for much chat tonight. A blogger who I have followed closely since he came by and visited my blog at the start of the year has decided to finish up posting to his blog today after going through some tough times in his personal life. I feel a bit like I have said goodbye to an old friend. I am not posting a link because I have left some pretty personal comments there over the months. Isn't it funny how this brave new cyber world has changed the way we relate to people. How someone who you'll never meet who lives on the other side of the world can still feel like a mate. That you can find yourself feeling empathy and compassion towards them and you can only wish them well and hope for the best for them. This is a bit jumbled because I am not much chop at expressing myself in this way, but I mean well. So anyway, if you stop by again, I can only say take care and I'll miss your posts.

Back to the Pool

2006-12-11T19:23:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Deep Water Running
Back to the pool today on my way home from work. Spent about 40 minutes in the water, 30 minutes of solid "running" with 30 and 60 second intervals. I could really feel that I was doing something today, checking my pulse I was certainly working which is a positive. After that I just did some attempted swimming as a cool down, problem is I do have a tendency to sink :-)

Life
Gotta go to Sydney overnight on Wednesday, shame I am not running because I would have enjoyed running through the gardens in daylight, unlike the terrifying pitch black bolt I experienced back in May. However, as a result of winning a quarterly team award a few months back myself and my 2 team mates have $100 each to spend on dinner, so I am expecing a pretty good feed on Wednesday night. Then Thursday we are having our bigger team's Xmas thingy at Toronga Zoo, God knows what they have planned. No team building/bonding crap I hope, just point me to the bar and leave me the hell alone, LoL! And Then, on Friday I have my Xmas lunch with my Melbourne work mates, lawn bowls followed by a gourmet BBQ (Veggie Burgers on special order for me), now that one I am looking forward to! So a pretty big week coming up hey!

The new blog is coming on, it's just quite a bit more detailed, more like a web page with links to different sections, I probably won't have it ready for another week.

That's me for tonight, dinner is almost ready.

In a forum discussion on Christmas Carols I was reminded of one of my favourite "Christmas" Songs, not that conventional but I am not really into Christmas anyway, the gross orgy of commercialism makes me slightly ill. Anyway, the song in Fairytale in New York, a duet with Shane McGowan of The Pougues and Kristy MacColl

It was Christmas Eve babe
In the drunk tank
An old man said to me, won't see another one
And then he sang a song
The Rare Old Mountain Dew
I turned my face away
And dreamed about you

Got on a lucky one
Came in eighteen to one
I've got a feeling
This year's for me and you
So happy Christmas
I love you baby
I can see a better time
When all our dreams come true

They've got cars big as bars
They've got rivers of gold
But the wind goes right through you
It's no place for the old
When you first took my hand
On a cold Christmas Eve
You promised me
Broadway was waiting for me

You were handsome
You were pretty
Queen of New York City
When the band finished playing
They howled out for more
Sinatra was swinging,
All the drunks they were singing
We kissed on a corner
Then danced through the night

The boys of the NYPD choir Were singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas day

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

I could have been someone
Well so could anyone
You took my dreams from me
When I first found you
I kept them with me babe
I put them with my own
Can't make it all alone
I've built my dreams around you

Phew, hot!

2006-12-10T20:11:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding
Hit the Warby Trail today for a 40km bike ride, in lieu of a long run. My plan was to go early, around 7am and I was up and ready well before then. Of course it's not just all about me is it! So the reality was we didn't get going until about 9:45. Just as we headed off a mate (Mark) ran by finishing his long run, can I say I was jealous, yep, I was jealous :-( but riding it was and I was off to make the most of it.

HOWEVER, it ended up hitting about 42 degrees in Melbourne today, which made for some very hot riding, thank god for my Camelback, 3 litres of Gatorade at the start, none by the end! I was motoring along really nicely, the heat has never really bothered me, but my other half being A) a boy and B) about 20 Kgs heavier was not doing as well. Normally he power's along really well and we push the pace taking turns leading but the heat was too much for him today so we erred on the side of caution and took it easy. Me, being a total clutz fell off my bike trying to get through one of the special gates they set up to stop motor bikes and stray cows, as a result I now have a pretty impressive bruise on my thigh from the handle bar.

New Blog, maybe
I may be switching blogs, Mac have a fantastic set up that has more features and is sooooo easy to use, no more mucking about with HTML for starters and to insert a pic you just drag and drop. The only thing that has put me off so far is you have to pay for the service. Being stinking hot outside I was happy to sit under the fan this afternoon so I signed up for the 60 day free trial and started building my web page, which includes a blog, this is why I am so late blogging here today. I'll still need to fine tune some of it then I'll publish it here and start posting to it in a couple of days. I'll give it a month or so and see how I feel about it. Though I will keep this blog as an archive and so I can still comment on other blogger.com blogs.

Almost forgot to mention the injury, Hmmm, what injury? Today I feel almost like my old self, I was able to walk around barefoot with NO discomfort at all, but not too much, don't want to tempt fate now. One annoying side affect that I haven't mentioned........incidental running! You know, to catch a green light or a train. I must have wasted hours over the last 3 weeks waiting for the lights to change, not to mention all the missed trains!

Deep Water Running

2006-12-09T17:32:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Pool Running
Finally got myself to the pool this morning, I got there nice and early figuring it would get pretty busy on a day like today. Got the water running belt on, cinched in nice and tight, jumped in the pool, completely forget that your body kinda changes shape under water and the belt promptly popped up right under my armpits. Flailed around, got out of the pool and tightened the belt, I had it as tight as it would go, would probably be no good for a tiny wee person. Back in the pool and off I went, it would be fair to say that drowning dogs swim with more grace than me. Anyway, took a few minutes but I finally found my rhythm and I managed to stick to it for 30 minutes. Once I got the hang of it I pretty much did intervals. Then I took the belt off and spent about 5 minutes "swimming", unfortunately breast stroke is about all I can manage. God knows how I managed to come first in a 50 metres freestyle in the school swimming carnival one year. I probably could have managed a few laps freestyle but I had my contacts in so was keeping the head above water.

The life guard seemed to be hanging around alot too, perhaps he thought I was likely to need rescuing at any moment, the way I was looking, I am sure the look of determination on my face was pretty funny. Still, not a totally horrific experience and I'll head back there. I think I'll get some goggles though and cool down with a couple of laps in the slow lane next time. And you know what, my legs are sore, so even though it didn't feel like I was doing much at the time I obviously was.

Fun with the kids
My best mate has recently bought a block of land so best mate, her 2 kids (3 1/2 and 2) another friend and I had a bit of a road trip today. First stop the block of land, in a lovely estate at the foot of the Dandenongs with the National Park as a backdrop, then off to Roweville to look at the house she is chosen half built in another estate, then over the Cranbourne to look at the display home, Phew. Kid duty was being shared, our other friend had the back seat for the out journey and I got it on the way home. I figured it would be after lunch and the kids would be asleep. Hmmmm, well, I was partly right, they did go to sleep but not before they both finished cleaning their faces with wet ones and then shoved them in my face and said "look Aunty Em, SNOT!!!". Aunty Em's reaction, Aghhhhhhhhhhhhh, get those things away from me now, in the meantime their mum is nearly wetting herself laughing!

Here are the wee little snot faces, sorry, darlings, playing at the new block, it was so bright I didn't realise I hadn't turned the camera lens on my phone around properly, that is why there is a shadow at the top.

Another Breakthrough

2006-12-08T18:15:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding
60 Minutes tempo session today, warm up for 20 minutes then last 40 minutes of steady pace at increased effort. Frankly, the sooner I get off that thing the better really, tonight was a real drag. But I have good news, today I decided I could manage a walk home from the station. Under normal circumstances I always walk home from the station, the bus is never on time and it's only 2km anyway. For the last 2 weeks I have been confined to the bus, but today I had a very pleasant and very comfortable walk home, bliss! And I was able to walk around barefoot for a short while, though I am not risking too much of that, I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel now. Of course this brings me to the next and perhaps most frustrating phase. The "almost better but it could all go to hell again if I try to return to early" phase. So now I must be super patient and stick with the bike and the pool for AT LEAST another week, possibly 10 days. On that note my floatation belt arrived yesterday so I am going to the pool first thing tomorrow for an hour. I'll be well and truly throwing vanity out the window, it looks like some sort of weird bustle sort of arrangement

I bought some more Sofsoles today and at the risk of sounding like a a paid spokesperson, I love these things. In my totally uninformed opinion shoe companies let themselves down with the quality of the insole they put in the shoes. All this wonder technology goes into wizz bang jiggery pokery that does everything but go on the run for you, then they put these crappy tatty useless insoles into the shoe. Now if you have freakishly high arches like me you need something extra. So when ever I get a new pair of runners I buy the Arch Support insole, yes at $50 a throw they are insanely expensive, but as I am generally getting my runners on the cheap from the US these days it's not so bad. And for the sake of my feet it's worth it. Anyway, this is a long way around to getting to the point. Nike came through this time around and my Air Equalons had great arch support so I didn't need the inserts. But I picked up a pair to put inside my street shoes and they made a huge difference so I'll just rotate this pair around all my work shoes and street shoes, keep up with the stretching, look after my calves and hopefully this PF will not become a monkey on my back

Other Stuff
No other stuff today. I was of a mind to have a little whine and a moan (thanks Lilly Allen) about feeling like a fat cow as I am sure I have put on weight (refuse to get on the scales), but you know what! Who gives a rats!!! Let's call December my month off, I need to rehab the injury, I am still cross training and after a year of building a base and losing more weight I reckon I can kick back for a few weeks, have a few drinks and chill, I 'aint gonna feel bad about it. Next year will be huge and any extra weight will surely be gone by the end of January anyway. And let's face it, my definition of indulgence is most peoples Normal.

Been out for a while now, but has anyone heard the latest from the John Butler Trio, Funky Tonight? JJJ listeners surely would have. Man I love that song, I am a big JBT fan anyway but this one is something else. Just makes me want to get up and dance around and sing every time it comes on, really puts a smile on my dial.

A break through!

2006-12-07T19:44:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding and Injury Update
Nothing today, very long and stressful day at work then decided to go out for dinner on the way home, a few relaxing wines later and I just decided to pack it in for a change. Guess I am human after all ;-)

Good News, walked all day today with no discernable discomfort, even forgot all about the injury and was power walking a bit at one stage. I can walk up hills with no pain now as well, where previously I was doing this weird side step shuffle. This afternoon when I got home I even tried walking bare foot. Happy to report almost (almost but not quite) no discomfort there as well. Things are looking up!!!!

Ranting
I am well and truly on one of those moods tonight. Quite a stressful day at work, in fact close to one of the worst, I nearly had my first "run to the toilets and cry" moments, not because I was upset but out of frustration. I won't bore blogland with the details because it would just unleash a tsunami of bile and vitriol and that does no one any good at all. Made 100% worse by the fact that I would usually head of for a long relaxing run after work and forget all about it, instead I resort to stuffing my face and drinking.

To add to my aggravation this was the insane scene that met me not long after leaving the office, on my walk to the station. WHY, I ask you WHY, do people insist on entering an intersection, especially during peak hour in the city, when there is clearly no room on the other side, thus blocking said intersection when the lights change? In this case this evening two dumb asses in a ute with the back end blocking the pedestrian walkway and another dumb ass P plater blocking the intersection proper. In a split second lights change, pedestrians start crossing, P Plater gets honked and abused, panics and surges forward, pedestrians (me included) collectively jump out of our skins. In the meantime a poor blind guy with a cane walks straight into the back of the ute and dumb asses start yelling at him, until another guy helps the blind man and gives the dumb asses a well deserved spray. All of this pretty much happens in the blink of an eye. A few weeks ago when crossing the same road I had to jump out of the way as another idiot P Plater who does not know how to do a hook turn also panicked and ploughed through the pedestrians, it is a miracle no one was hurt or killed.

Now I have lost someone very dear to me as a result of speeding motor cyclist meets pedestrian, so perhaps I am a little sensitive. But seriously why can't people just relax and not carry on like total fuckwits, everyone wants to get home sooner rather than later, but just chill and take it easy, for pity's sake.

Hey Pilbara, thanks for the comment about Trixta, he is a He though and while looking fairly cute and innocent in the photo he is in fact a right little bastard most of the time, of course I still love the little rug rat and did name my blog after him.

Something 'aint right with my new toy, Yellbox. In the mac browser Safari I can see it properly, but in other browsers it is cut off along the side. Anyway, too annoyed to work it out tonight, I'll play with the HTML on the weekend. Also not too happy now that I have changed to Beta Blogger, something weird is up with the comments.

2 weeks since I last ran

2006-12-06T19:44:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding & Injury Update
I suppose I should be saying what I am doing on the bike because I am not just peddling away aimlessly. Yesterday it was intervals, total ride time was 60 minutes with about 30 minutes of intervals. Alternating between 30 second "sprints" with 30 second recovery and 60 second "sprints" with 60 second recovery. Today was rolling hills while keeping the RPM above 100 to work on strength, this was also a 60 minute session. Tomorrow will be a tempo session, 60 minutes with 40 minutes at tempo pace.

The foot is improving every day. Today was the first day in over a week without being taped up and I am happy to report I felt pretty comfortable. Lot's of stretching before getting out of bed, then on with the Birkenstocks, I could feel the first couple of steps but was fine by the time I got t the end of the hallway. Most notably there is very little discomfort when I get up after sitting for a while, also I am becoming less conscious of the injury.

So it's been 2 weeks exactly since I last ran, I remain positive but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't frustrating. I have noticed that my mood is decidedly downbeat at work, I really struggle to get through the day, and it’s fair to say I am not my usual cheery self. I have read that exercise has a positive effect on Serotonin levels, so maybe that explains things. Sure I am riding but as I have already mentioned it doesn't cut it for me. I am also worried about putting on weight and confess the comfort food has got a bit of a look in lately, still, at least I am remaining active. Hopefully I'll be able to have a trot next week, I plan to ease in Run/Walk style.

Stuff
Found a new toy today, it's called Yellbox, you can get it free from Yellbox.com it's over there in the sidebar, not sure if it will be of much use but I'll give it a go, thought it might be a nifty way of responding to comments left here.

I hooked my digital camera up to my Mac for the first time today, amazing, it immediately started downloading photo's into iPhoto, no hassles. On my old lap top I used to have to stuff around for ages to get the Kodak software to work properly, used to drive me mad. I took a picture of the dreaded exercise bike last night after my workout, though I shouldn't call it that it is serving me well. It's also a rowing machine but I don't bother with that, my puny little girls arms and runners upper body are too weak and I am stuffed after 5 minutes. For some strange reason Trixta (AKA Asterix) loves sleeping on the seat.

2006-12-05T19:50:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding & Injury update
Another 60 minutes on the bike this afternoon. At least I had the test match for company, amazingly we turned this one around and got up for a win after the Poms choked and were bowled out easily this afternoon, leaving us chasing only 168.

I took the tape off my foot tonight, damn it was nice to be able to shower without a plastic bag taped to my foot! This also means instead of wearing my runners around the house I can switch to my Birkenstocks, much easier to slip into. Now I can start the regime of stretching and massage, out comes the old baseball to roll under my foot, also The Stick is quite good too, just need to prop one end up on some books. I have a floatation belt on order that should arive by Thursday. My Aunt and Uncle live close by and they have a pool, as Satuday is going to be a stinker I'll pop over there and do my "long run" in their pool, hopefully one of my cousins will keep me company. Will have to remember to slip, slop, slap though.

Perspective and Dim Sims
I was reading Kelly Holmes' autobiography on the train this morning and was a bit embarassed as I started to get quite teary. She had to endure quite a bit of injury during her career, not to mention ongoing abdominal troubles that would cause her great pain after training. I was reading about how low she felt after tearing her Achilles Tendon and rupturing her calf muscle. She went through many periods were she couldn't run for months, it really put my own injury into perspective that's for sure. She has been pretty honest about her feelings during these times of injury. It makes you realise that elite athletes are simply ordinary people with an extraordinary talent, but with the same fears, doubts and insecurities as the rest of us, and with a hell of alot more pressure to deal with.

Please, when are they going to ban Dim Sims on the trains. Nothing makes me retch more than sitting next to someone chowing down on a bag of steamed Dim Sims, I feel like saying, "I don't mind you eating those if you don't mind me vomitting all over you". And YES I could move, but by the time you get to Museum, sorry showing my age, Melbourne Central station there is no where to move.

Zatopek Classic

2006-12-04T21:15:00.000+11:00

Riding & Injury Update
After a big weekend on the bike today was a rest day.

I'll have to take the tape off my foot tomorrow morning. It was to stay on for at least 5 days (it was been 5 days) or 7 if it was still doing the job, unfortunately it has loosened up now so is pretty useless. But I have some good news, this afternoon as I was walking back to where my car was parked something dawned on me, I felt almost no discomfort AND I was not walking with a limp! I was getting used to walking funny because of the taped foot so it was great to feel I was walking with a normal gait again.

Taking the tape off also means I can get in the pool, I dug out an old Runners World with a story on water running so I may even bypass the whole class thing and just head to my local. Assuming that is they have a section in the deep end I can splash around in that is not reserved just for swimming. I guess this means I also have to get a floaty belt as well, it'll be like being a kid again.

I have to be able to walk barefoot without discomfort for a couple of days before I can try running again. The rest of the year is pretty much a write off now, I will not race and no speed work. When I can run I'll leave the watch off and just run for the hell of it. It's more important to me now to get fit for next winter than to race over summer, though I am sure by February I'll be racing again. Right now I am just thrilled to be walking with no limp and minimal discomfort for the first time in 2 weeks.

Running

I went to Box Hill this afternoon to watch some of the Zatopek 10,000 metres races. I caught most of the girls B grade where there was a good battle for first between Glenhuntly and Essendon with Glenhuntly just pulling away on the last few laps.

Then the men's E grade race where I was lap counting for an Ausrunner. Sadly I found the whole thing quite exciting but was nervous I would stuff up the lap counting, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4 LOL. Fortunately I managed to keep tabs and had a ball cheering my runner on and standing trackside to call the last lap. Sam, my runner, was battling for 3rd with another mate, Tony when the poor bugger got a stitch. He bravely pushed on and still finished with a pretty respectable 39:55, not too far off a PB.

Of course every fibre of my being wanted to take a spin around the track myself, oh well, maybe I'll give it a go next year, should be looking at running 10km in 45 minutes by then. In fact it is like my muscles remember, my legs felt a bit funny and twitchy, patience, not long now.

Guess what! Went for a ride

2006-12-03T15:48:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding
Into the great outdoors today. While my long run buddies hit the Warby Trail at 7am this morning, sadly I was already up, I think I am just used to rising early on a Sunday. Instead I took the bike to Warby and rode about 40kms instead, started in Mt Evelyn, turned around at about 20km and headed back. Gotta tell you I do not have a body built for biking, my bum gets soooooooo sore, I even have one of those gel seat covers, let me tell you, TOTALLY FECKING USELESS. And I can't stand up to pedal because of my foot (being very cautious), anyway whinge over, it was a lovely day for a ride and the trail is gorgous.

Stopped about 1km from the finish at a cafe called Cogs for a coffee and a muffin. I have run past this cafe heaps of times but never had a chance to stop there. My advice, don't stop if you are in a hurry, the guy making the coffee was so laid back he was almost comatose, I am standing there resisting the urge to vault the counter and make the coffee myself. Then again maybe I need to learn some patience and stop wanting everything yesterday. It was worth the wait though, damn fine coffee and a delicious banana and dark chocolate muffin fresh from the oven, pretty satisfying after a long ride. So I did quite a bit of riding this weekend, about 100kms!

Random Thoughts
Back on track with the positive thoughts, I did give in to a bit of self pity yesterday. I guess I was grumpy because I knew I was going to miss a group long run today and I miss my speed sessions. Having an injury does isolate you, the running world goes on around you and there is nothing you can do about it. I am really looking forward to heading down to the Zatopek Classic at Box Hill tomorrow, if I can't run I can live vicarously through others, I'll be on lap counting duty for a fellow Ausrunner, Sam.

Not really sure where I can get some endorphins from, maybe I need to give this a go.......

Or maybe a spot of extreme ironing will give me what I crave......

Well, it was contentious with the panel but I was very pleased to see Jeff Buckley's Grace just came in at number 2 on "My Favourite Album" on channel 2. I won't get poetic about it, I just love it. But Pink Floyd at number 1, hmmmm, not real sure about that.

Need a hug :-( missing endorphins

2006-12-02T20:24:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding
Did my long run equivalent today. 60km on the exercise bike, took 2:20:26 and by God I don't want to do that too many times. I had to have a break for a few minutes at the 60 minute mark to restore feeling to my bum and feet and again at 90 minutes. Tomorrow I think I'll take the mountain bike to Warby trail and do 40km or so in the great outdoors.

Good news is that the foot is continuing to improve, hopefully by December 10 I'll be able to have another run. Remaining positive but will admit to being a grump today, I miss my endorphins, riding just doesn't cut it :-(

Every day just a little bit better :-)

2006-12-01T20:02:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~ Riding
60 minute intervals, 27.7km. Passed relatively quickly this afternoon as I had the last hour of the 2nd test for company. Some pretty solid batting from the Poms, this one is shaping up to be a closer run thing.

Injury Report and a delightful if not slightly disturbing hybrid
I am pleased to report that every day the foot gets noticeably better. Particularly this morning those first few steps after getting out of bed were much more comfortable, also after sitting for a while I can get up and walk around with no noticeable increase in pain. In fact I am loathe to use the word pain now, it has stepped down a notch to mere discomfort, YAY! All good signs. The next challenge will be to beat that psychological demon being the fear of re-injury when I start back. I have been sensible thus far so as long as I continue with caution I'll be right. Yes, as I am sure you all know by now I am a very cautious person (apart from when using pocket knives to open parcels), I think it comes from being the oldest child. However I am here to assure you I am more than capable of reckless stupidity and wild abandon, but I am not telling tales ;-)

What? I hear you ask is this delightful hybrid to which she refers? Well, the resourceful John has neatly solved my Craig Mottram Vs Daniel Craig (here after to be knows as The Craigs) battle for the honorary position of wallpaper on my laptop at work. I very proudly present to you all The Craigs

A perfect combination of baby faced sweetness and pure brawn, solving another dilemma of mine, finding myself irredeemably attracted to Buster, inspite of my previous rejection of guys with skinner legs than mine, which for years, until I lost weight pretty much ruled out anyone bar Front Rowers and WWE Wrestlers.

Best I move onto other topics now, lest I be a branded boy mad nutter with a one track mind (well, I'm not dead, a girl can still look). I picked up another couple of books today, Black, White and Gold, Kelly Holmes' autobiography, she is an English Athlete who won 800 and 1500 mtre Gold at the Athens Olympics. I saw her interviewed on Parkinson recently and she seemed like a total sweetheart, and I do remember watching her win her medals. The other book caught my eye because it had Lance Armstrong on the cover, it's called How Lance Does It, a bit of a motivational book, and what I read as I flicked though it I liked alot. I admire Lance because although we are clearly at very different athletic levels I certainly recognise some of his personaility traits in myself. I think I was looking for stuff to help me get my head right as I rehab myself from this injury. I have been thinking on things alot the last week, most notably how I am dealing with injury far better than I thought I would. In particular it has given me some time to get my thoughts and goals in order, I am very positve and motivated at the moment, just watch out when I get back!!!

Slowly getting better

2006-11-30T17:51:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding

None yet, going to a friends house for an early dinner (they have kids) so the ride will happen when I get home.

Injury Update
The taping came off my foot last night and I was very nervous taking those first steps this morning. I did my prescribed stretches before getting out of bed, put the sneakers on and tentatively started walking. Happy to report that although there was pain there was far less than there was last week. The taping had stopped me walking funny so the whole foot pain was gone and I could really localise it to one spot. Also the walk to the office from the station was far more comfortable as well.

So back to the Pod this morning for more Chinese foot binding style taping (see pic). The Pod kept telling me that the best thing I did was stop running and come and see her early. She said that she spends too much time trying to fix athletes after they have persisted with an injury rather than getting on it straight away, in fact I got the feeling I was the exception to the rule. As she was taping my foot this morning she laughed at my feet and said "Yep, defintely runners feet"

The taping is to stay on for at least 4 days, but 7 if I can stand it and it stays tight enough. Then I have to just continue with the stretching and I have the all clear to try running gently once I can walk without pain for a couple of days. I don't need to go back unless I am still experiencing the pain after another 3 weeks or so.

My bound foot

*EDIT* never did go for the ride tonight, decided to let it all go for a change and have a few wines with my mate instead, naughty me, I guess that makes today a rest day :-)

Bikini Babe

2006-11-29T20:44:00.000+11:00

~~Running~~Riding
2 rides today, 19Kms along the Dandy Creek Trail after work, then back home and another 12.5Km on the exercise bike, so about 31kms all up.

Rambling
Got me some togs today so I can hit the pool for some deep water running. Speedo have come out with some rather funky numbers in heaps of colours, I got these ones -

I can do deep water running classes at either Richmond Rec Centre or the Melb Sports and Aquatic Centre. Though at about $10 a go this rehab business will get costly so I'll go to a couple of classes for technique then just go to my local pool. I'll have to wait until next week because I go back to the Pod to get the foot restrapped tomorrow.

I have a confession to make, I kept visiting my blog today so I could cop another perve at Daniel Craig :-)

Bond, James Bond

2006-11-28T18:51:00.000+11:00

Riding
60 minutes of rolling hills on the exercise bike, 28.4 Km. I have settled into a nightly ritual of getting home and jumping on the bike while I watch the evening news. I could just as easily get the pushbike out for a ride but at least on the stationary bike I can get a consistent workout and there is no coasting. Of course a part of me was thinking what a great night it was for speed work, patience my friend, you'll be back. The bright side is that if there is a "good" time for me to get an injury this is it. A few reassuring words of advice from the coach via e-mail brought home to me the value of training with a group under the supervision of a coach. Taking on board the advice and keeping a level head will keep me sane. Now if I am going to give the pool running a go next week I better get me some speedos, thanks goodness they are more flattering than they used to be.

Any Excuse!
I will admit it, with no shame, I LOVE a Bond film, I get goosebumps sitting in the theatre when the theme music starts. The over the top stunts, mad baddies and completely implausible story lines are just pure escapism. The new one is out next week and I can't wait, especially as there is a new Bond, and what can I say, I approve, check this out, how could I not??? Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but I guess I just like a dude with a rough head and to be totally frank I was just looking for an excuse to post this picture ;-)

2 weeks off but coping well

2006-11-27T18:42:00.000+11:00

Running
This won't be doom and gloom "poor me", a positive mental attitude is called for here. I honest to goodness felt 90% fine for yesterday's race, but you guessed it have pulled up sore again. Deciding to nip this thing in the bud I took myself off to a Podiatrist this afternoon at The Melbourne Sports Medicine Clinic, thoughtfully located right near my office. I saw an excellent Pod who was very sympathetic to my plight and is keen to get me back out running. Time to stand up and take a bow Ewen, PF it is, albeit a MILD case (can I just stress that again please M I L D). But, believe it or not this is not a running injury, it is an injury that will briefly stop me from running. I have, according to the Pod "extremely" high arches which predisposes me to PF, but the correct running shoes have kept me free of the affliction. Turns out it is my damn normal shoes that have done it. I thought I was doing the right thing by not wearing high heels and going with the flats instead, nope, they are the worst thing for my type of foot because there is not arch support. It all makes sense now, the boots I wore through most of winter were fine, but come the arrival of warmer weather I get into the flat ballet shoes and PF here I come.

Right now the foot is all strapped up to keep the tendon stretched, which believe it or not feels great. This has to stay on until Wednesday night (bag on foot for the shower), then has to come off for some stretching. Then back on Thursday morning for more stretches and strapping for another 3 days, then more stretching and icing and all going well Monday 10th December back out for a run.

And before I get yelled at for running yesterday the Pod said that would not have set me back because for the rest of the week I was doing all the right things with the stretching, icing and massage. The strapping I have now will keep the tendon streched so it can heel, apparently it is the steps first thing in the morning that do most of the damage so this will help prevent that.

The upshot of this was that it was back on the exercise bike this evening, 60 minutes and 28.6 km of intervals. I'll be doing this for the next 2 weeks so I had better get used to it, though next week when the strapping comes off I may give this water running lark a go. So there you go, a common running injury but in my case not caused by running. Needless to say I'll be off to some shops recommended by the Pod for some new shoes to wear to work. I was fearful of having to get into some granny shoes but surprisingly you can get some rather cool looking Hush Puppies these days, the Pod had a great looking pair of lofa's on.

The first person to say I told you so gets popped in the nose :-)

PS - Rather amusing sight trying to shower after my ride, thumb covered in a finger cut from a rubber glove because I still need to keep it dry and foot wrapped in plastic to get the tape dry, ya gotta laugh really.

18:38

2006-11-26T13:31:00.000+11:00

Running
Managed to front up for the 4km Spring into Shape run today. I'll get the facts out of the way first, 18:39, average pace 4:40, not happy, should've done better, I expected 18 minutes, maybe a bit under. So I guess I have officially had my first crap race. That's it, no more moaning, I like every run to be a positive experience, in this case it was my first 4km race so I guess that makes it a PB.

So what went wrong? I wasn't focused, my mind was all over the shop and there was too much negative chatter, I just couldn't get my rhythm, didn't help that I couldn't find the 2km marker. Still, I was running without the foot pod so was relying on "feel" for the pace so it was a learning experience. I guess I felt a bit lost without the pacing feedback, but I am not racing with it anymore so this Summer is about learning to live without it. Then about 700 metres from the finish my damn shoe lace came undone, can you believe it?! I always tuck the ends in, but today I forgot, see my mind was not on the game. As I ran my shoe got looser and looser, at one point I seriously considered kicking it off and going back for it, there was no way I was stopping to tie the damn thing. As a result I ended up crossing the finish line looking like a total unco idiot. Though no one said they noticed, which I guess means I normally look like an unco idiot!

Alright, enough of that, looking forward I have a 5km in 2 weeks in Williamstown, looking to go about 22:30 there so time to refocus. I am planning on heading out for an easy 5km or so this afternoon as well, hopefully blow away the cobwebs and start back on a more positive note.

Update
Well, you know I love my stats. The results are up and in the light of things I don't have much to moan about, Category position 8th, Gender position 28th and Overall 106th (out of 720, but there were walkers in there as well). So not bad results for what I decided was a shit race.

Coincidence!
Caught up with one of the guys from my Tuesday night group. There are quite a few people there I haven't spoken to much yet, I said to someone the other night that they should all have their names on the back of their shirts because that is the only bit I see :-) Anyway, had a good chat, turns out he not only lives in my suburb but in the next street over AND he is a contractor who has also been working in the same building I work in, weird hey!

My thumb is much better these days, problem is I now have almost 2 weeks of proper housework to catch up on, just getting this done while I wait for the floors to dry after being mopped, YAWN, I HATE house work, why can't the magic cleaning fairy get it done while I am asleep???

Enough of the bike already

2006-11-25T15:35:00.000+11:00

No post yesterday, I had a BBQ last night and after another bout on the bike ran out of time. Then 2 cans of Scotch and Coke and I was too tired to be bothered posting. Yep, sad but true, I am a cheap cheap date people!

Running
Still nothing yesterday. I was going to run yesterday morning, felt OK, yesterday morning, not 100% but pretty good. However a few steps in the pain was still there, very far from unbearable but I still decided to be cautious. I can tell you it was a pretty dejected walk back to the office and I gave in to the negativity for a couple of hours yesterday morning.

By the time I got home I decided to keep trying to make the best of the situation and jumped on the bike (again!), just for 45 minutes of intervals. I worked it pretty hard to make it count and clocked up 21km. Pretty pleased with myself actually, I could have easily come home and sulked on the couch this week. Instead I have ridden for 2 hours 45 minutes and covered almost 74kms in 3 days, just a pity I can't add it to my weekly running mileage ;-)

So, the foot, what's up? It has been stretched, massaged, taped and iced to within and inch of it's life. In fact I have never stretched so much in my life. Also I have not walked barefoot since Wednesday, the shoes go on as soon as I get up, and I wore jeans all week to work so I could wear my runners as they are the most supportive shoes I own. On a scale of 1 to 10 I'd say I am at about 8 right now, so it's looking good for tomorrow, but I won't really know until I get up. I am sure some people have probably suspected Plantar Fasciitis, God knows I have, but I don't think it is that extreme, it is more like an annoying niggle. Anyway, Y A W N, enough analysis, the old shoes have been shelved and I have learned my lesson. I think I need some new flats as well but I am hanging out for the new Zoom Elites, OK not strictly a flat but they are perfect for me because they have just that little bit extra support.

Not the most fascinating post today, I have been pre-occupied with this damn foot, it has made me realise how much I enjoy my running and as much as I have tried to remain positive everynow and then I'd think, Oh No, what if I am off for weeks or months. Another lesson learned STAY OF GOOGLE, nothing fans the flames of paranoia more than a Google search, you'd think I'd have learned me lesson after my "stress fracture" freak out. You know, before I ran I was never over reacted like this, really, someone slap me!

On yer bike

2006-11-23T19:07:00.000+11:00

Running
Decided on one more rest day. The foot felt about 90% better today but I decided to err on the side of caution and not run today. By God this level headed mature approach to my running health is just a little bit scary folks. Yes it pisses me off that I have had to miss two days, but better two days rest than two days of shit runs and I have a 4km race on Sunday that I really don't want to miss.

So today's exercise consisted of another 60 minutes on the exercise bike with the News to distract me. I did rolling hills today, 26km again but worked a bit harder. It's funny on the bike, I still work up a sweat and the heart rate was sitting at about 75% to 85% but no huffing and puffing like with running.

Some more ice massage on the foot tonight and it's looking good for a run first thing tomorrow morning because I have a BBQ tomorrow night. Nothing fancy planned for the run, just an easy 10km ahead of Sunday's race.

Rambling
I cracked up last night watching the news as "Our Mary" arrived back home in Hobart to visit family. Fellow passengers were interviewed and one woman said "I can't believe she was one the plane, just sitting there!" Seriously lady, did you expect her to Teleport from Melbourne to Hobart? Does she have some sort of Royal secret powers the rest of us don't? A few years ago she was late paying her bills, running around the supermarket trying to finish the shopping and getting pissed with her mates just like the rest of us, get over it.

Day 1 of the first Test today, Australia finished the day on 3/346, couldn't have asked for a better start. I love this time of year, never short for a Cricket score around my office, at any given time someone will be shouting out an update, and of course there is the great big TV in the lunch room. Now if I only I can get a LAN port patched in there........

Ughh, minor injury alert

2006-11-22T18:55:00.000+11:00

Running
Session last night was in Fawker Park, 8 by 300 mtre with 300 mtre float. I don't mind the continuous session because it keeps the momentum going. The track was probably about 300 mtres and my splits were pretty good. I also popped off the track at fast rep 5 for some water because it was a hot dry night and I was parched. I muffed up taking the splits a bit but the fast sets started around 61, held at about 58 and finished with a 55.

Now, no running today, SHOCK! HORROR!, why? You all know by now how I hate to admit a weakness......but I pulled up sore in the arch/heel of my right foot last night. That is part of the reason I didn't blog last night, after shuffling back to Fed Square and driving home I was in a foul mood. It took me 25 minutes to get from Fawkner to my car, was not happy. Anyway, it's my own fault, I think I should have retired my current pair of Brooks about 50Km ago. Trying them on tonight and comparing the feel to a new pair the support is well and truly shot. So Monday night was their last run, IF I ever do any gardening they will be gardening shoes.

So attempting to be sensible I didn't even think of doing my 14Km run tonight, didn't even bring the gear so I wouldn't be tempted. Instead opted for 60 minutes on the exercise bike, B O R I N G and very hard on my bum. Still, 26.5 Kms and I used the interval program to help keep the heart rate up and was better than doing nothing. I have been icing and applying the anti inflammatory cream all day, hopefully it will come good by tomorrow. I won't whinge, just found out today one of the Ausrunners has a stressie and is taking it remarkably well, I would feel guilty if I started sooking about maybe missing a couple of runs.

My real Mo Bro
I have obtained a couple of default Mo Bro's this month who have all gotten the lip fuzz going in the name of charity. But I would like to take the opportunity to unleash my real Mo Bro on blogland. Looking very much like a dodgy 70s vacuum cleaner salesman this is my baby bro in his mustachioed glory, as he said to me, I can't run a Marathon, but I can grow a Mo for charity. People are always commenting how much we look alike, I have to agree, though I don't have a Mo and I am a wee bit prettier :-)

With plenty of time to think while peddling away this afternoon I realised something, I am hungry, really hungry. And not for a meal (well, that goes without saying really), but for my running goals. I can't wait to run for AV next year and I am so excited about getting stuck in and trying to get some good times on the road in the coming 12 months. I WILL run a sub 21 minute 5km, I WILL run a sub 45 minute 10km and I WILL run a sub 100 minute half marathon, I WILL do what it takes. Woo Hoo, Fire in the Belly :-)

Hot enough fer ya?

2006-11-20T19:59:00.000+11:00

Running
10km in 55:54, average pace 5:34. Cut me some slack though, it was 34 degrees this afternoon. No real point commenting further, it was a slog, it was hot, there was much sweat, I did not look good, but that's another 10kms ticked off.

NAPCAN
You may remember a few months ago I posted about a day I spent with the kiddies as part of napcan's Child Protection Week. As a reminder NAPCAN stands for the National Association for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. We support a lot of charities at work, helped by the fact that my company matches every dollar we raise. But the charity that tops out list is NAPCAN because they receive so little government money and run their operations on a shoe string. The Executive Officer, Adam was interviewed on 60 minutes last night and dropped into our office today. What was supposed to be a quick visit ended up being an hour and a half because Adam was so engaging and enthusiastic. Even more interesting was the fact that those of us who made the time to talk with Adam and hear what he had to say do not have any kids. It is amazing how much NAPCAN manage to do with so little, can you believe this, for every $1 that is spent on the prevention of child abuse and neglect the government spends $300 on caring for Kids after the fact. That's right, shutting the gate after the horse has bolted!

There is a pretty powerful add on at the moment, but it is hard to catch because they are relying on donated add time. The add itself was put together by DDB at no charge to NAPCAN. Here is the add if you are interested in seeing it. More importantly if you want to donate any money to NAPCAN you can go to www.childfriendly.org.au all donations are tax deductible. So that is my community service announcement for the day, having met several of their staff and volunteers over the years I can say these guys do a fantastic job and they truly believe in what they do.

Running, Bush Walking, tired....

2006-11-19T18:11:00.000+11:00

Running
Long Run day and ran for 1:50:00, ended up being 20.2km with average pace 5:27. I could have met up with my Tuesday night group but I needed to be done by 9am so it was up at the crack of a sparrow's and off to the Koonung Creek Trail. After the wind and the rain during the week, this mornings sunshine was most welcome. Though I found myself drinking heaps at the water fountains and ended up with a couple of stitches to work though, ouch.

This weeks running represented a pretty ideal week with 71Kms and a good mix of speed work, tempo, long and recovery runs. I reckon I'll continue this way until around the start of March when I'll start building the mileage. I am not sure about long run strategy but it seems that I should probably keep them at the 20km mark until next year where again I'll start building. Being that Summer is going to be shorter racing, probably nothing over 5km, unless a 10 ker takes my fancy, there is probably no need to be doing any weekly mileage higher than the 70s and long runs higher than 20Km

The Mountains
After this mornings long run the BF and I headed up to Mount Dandenong for a Bushwalk, it was a valley walk, so a lovely down hill followed by a punishing uphill. It was in a gorgeous spot called the RJ Hamer Arboretum, after one of the many bushfires that have hit the Dandenongs they re-planted one area with lot's of European trees. It is a great spot, one minute you are walking through Conifers, Oaks and Maples, then into the valley and it is back to Aussie bush. Here are some pics

Now, as you can imagine I am pretty tired, and dinner aint gonna cook itself.

More stuff about me

2006-11-18T17:44:00.000+11:00

Running
Rest day

Your time starts now
I pinched this idea from the Good Weekend, the magazine that comes with the Saturday Age. One of my favorite sections is called "Your time starts now" and is a list of questions to someone noteworthy. Well I may not be that noteworthy but I have answered the questions anyway :-)

My earliest memory is…Making a plaster plaque in Kinder with my handprint in it and making a big mess painting it

At school I…Loved my grade 2 teacher who played guitar and let us watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in class

My first relationship was…with the library card my mum got me when I was young because I loved reading so much she couldn’t afford to keep me in books

I wish I’d never worn…pale blue bubble gum jeans and RaRa skirts (not together)

My mother always told me…to treat others how I would like to be treated myself

I wish I had…have taken a year to travel before I started Uni, 18 is too young, you need some living behind you to make the most of tertiary education

I wish I hadn’t…have waited until I was 32 to get serious about running

My most humiliating moment was…I can’t honestly say I have had one, perhaps and example of a life lived with too much caution

My happiest moment was…participating in my first half marathon, the sense of achieving something special was amazing, probably so trivial for so many others but I felt like I had conquered the world and no one can take that away from me

My last meal would be…depends on the circumstances but to avoid the tedium of taking the questions too literally I’ll say either a Vegetable Tagine or Wild Mushroom Risotto with my brother’s Sticky Date Pudding for desert

I’m very bad at…singing, yet I still insist on doing it also being told “No, you can’t do that”

When I was a child I wanted to…be an Archaeologist

The book that changed my life is…Alice in Wonderland. I still re-read it every couple of years

It’s not fashionable but I love…when Flame Trees or Eye of the Tiger come on my iPod when I am running, but only when I am running AND to make matters worse I sing out loud. Bang goes my Indie Music cred!

Friends say I am…off my tree

The music I’d like played at my funeral is…not something I have put any thought into, Jeff Buckley’s version of Hallelujah perhaps or to be more clichéd Last Goodbye, ultimately I don’t really care, I’ll be dead after all

If only I could…run a sub 20 minute 5Km

The hardest thing I’ve ever done was…accept a role in the school play when I was in year 7, especially as it involved kissing a boy, I was painfully shy (YES ME)

The last big belly laugh I had was…yesterday, when I suggested embedding my cat In the fresh concrete of my newly repaired driveway to deter local kids from writing their names In it. OK, you had to be there and I have a sick sense of humour

What I don’t find amusing is… Ignorance

I’m always being asked…you ran how far today?

Cat or Dog? Cat, Dogs are too needy

If I wasn’t me I’d like to be…someone who can sing. I wouldn’t want to be another person though, who I am is just fine thanks

If I were a car I’d be…my old 1976 Volvo (my first car), sturdy, not too fast but gets there in the end and doesn’t give up

I often wonder…what the hell is going on

Here comes the Sun

2006-11-17T19:34:00.000+11:00

Running
9km in 43:42, average pace 4:51

Today's was a tempo session, being that I am running with only a rough plan at the moment I tend to make the session up after I lace up my shoes. I drove in today and was parked at Fed Square so I decided to warm up as far as The Tan, pick it up to 5km race pace around The Tan and then cool down back to the car via Punt Road just to bring the distance up to 9km. So that is what I did, I was going to do a timed lap of The Tan but I was a bit headstrong and went up Anderson Street waaaaay to fast and was stuffed at the top so I has to take a breather for 30 seconds. Also I didn't take a hard right at the top of the hill, rather I do an extra bit before heading back along the track, so there, I am not posting my lap time because it was not done proper like. All up a great session, pretty high intensity and alot of sweat :-) AND I'll be back to 6 days a week this week.

Rambling
The Make Poverty History concert is on at the Myer Music bowl tonight and concert goers were turning up already while I was doing my run. Given the reason behind the concert I was feeling a bit self conscious in head to toe Nike, I was waiting for someone to tackle me to the ground and beat me for supporting Sweatshop labour, damn my middle class guilt!

Driving home after my run I managed to catch HACK on JJJ. There was a story on girls as young as 17 getting Breast implants!!!! Hello, why are their parents letting this happen?? I find this absolutely outrageous, fair enough if a woman has had a mastectomy, but there would be very little reason for a 17 year old girl to do something like that to herself. I couldn't think of anything more ghastly myself, my cup may not runneth over but I have no complaints, why would I want to stick a couple of silicon sacks on the front, they never look natural? Maybe I am just lucky that my body is in proportion, everything is as it should be and most importantly it let's me run, I guess I would prefer to be streamlined than bumpy. 17 year old girls getting boob jobs! Never would have happened in my day!

Weather marginally better, just

2006-11-16T20:00:00.000+11:00

Running
14km in 1:13:00, average pace 5:12.

Isn't it funny that some days you start out thinking that if you manage a run it's going to be shit, but then you end up having a great run. Yep, it's that T.O.M again (sorry boys) and for most of the day I struggled with pretty bad cramps in my back (no nurofen because it makes me sleepy, bit tricky when at work), yet somehow I always manage to keep the idea of doing my run in my mind, even though the couch and a hottie (water bottle) seems like a far more enticing option.

By the time 4pm rolled around I was feeling OKish and just decided to head out, see how I felt at the magic 3km mark and decide on the plan from there. Well, as you will see from the first line things were looking good at 3km. At this point I seemed convinced that it wasn't going to rain, even though it was only about 11 degrees and windy, despite this I was feeling good so I continued on my loop up the Yarra, over Mac Robertson's bridge then back along the Yarra and up to the office.

It was pretty satisfying to get a good run done today, especially after yesterday's cold miserable 8km slog. It also helped lift the general malaise, I know that if I had have come straight home I would have been sorry.

Rambling
Today I read a review of "Born on a Blue Day", the book written by the guy with Asberger's. The reviewer described the style as "Infantile and Alienating" which frankly is ignorant and uninformed. Daniel could certainly have taken the option of having his book ghostwritten, however he took the honest and brave approach of writing it himself. To someone who is not sympathetic to Asbergers the style may seem very unemotional and lacking in depth, I'll concede that. But to me it was very indicative of someone with Asbergers and I could feel myself relating very easily to his experiences and it helped me understand my brother a little better. The reviewers comments are just a perfect example of why people who do not fit the mould in our society end up feeling marginalised.

I had a bit of a comfort food freak out today, after my Weet-Bix I had some fat slices of raisin toast with butter, and I also had a Kit Kat for afternoon tea, but dinner was just a couple of pieces of corn from Nando's because I wasn't feeling hungry tonight. I am not admonishing myself though, especially considering what I call a "freak out" is probably a normal day for most people. And guess what, I really enjoyed that Kit Kat :-)

FAAAAARKING COLD

2006-11-15T19:09:00.000+11:00

Running
Shivered though 8.3Km in 43:07, average pace 5:10.

It was touch and go as I stared out the window all day today hoping for a break in the rain so I could get my run in. A big squally rain storm rolled in at about 3pm and by about 3:45 it was clear again, however as my desk faces the bay I could see the next round approaching. Anyway I bunked of at about 4pm, changed quickly, into the winter gear for the first time in ages and got into it. I was planning on 14Km but quickly modified this to a quick lap of the tan as I really didn't want to get caught out half way in if it started to rain knowing I still had to get back. As it was my last 2kms today were very cold, windy and wet. For those who don't live in Melbourne we have been hit by an unseasonable cold snap today, it even snowed in the Dandenongs near my mum's house

Scandinavia, pocket knives and junk mail
For some reason I have a burning desire to visit the Scandinavian Countries, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland, have I missed any? I don't even know that much about the region other than, Denmark has "our Mary", managed to piss of the Muslims big time and make a mean Feta, Norway gave us A-Ha (whom I loved) and the Nazi's built a heavy water plant there during WW2 so they could build Nuclear Weapons but it was blown up by a courageous group of Norwegians who then spent months on the run from the Nazis in winter living in incredibly difficult conditions, I believe they all survived, it is one of those great adventure stories, Sweden bought IKEA, the Swedish Chef and gravlax to the world (And ABBA of course), Iceland is responsible for the amazing Bjork and they have a 100% literacy rate and last but not least Finland, well I don't know much about Finland other than the capital is Helsinki and there is a cool Aussie band called for some reason, architecture in Helsinki and that they have been trodden on over the years by the Russians and the Germans and that a blogger mate's parents are from there (hiya Rice). And of course there is Greenland as well which despite its name is probably white alot of the time, ha ha . Also I definitely want to see the Northern Lights at least once before I die. I obviously have alot of planning to do and it is an expensive part of the world to visit, I'll have to save my pennies and hopefully head over there before I turn 40.

It's been a week since my stupid accident, the thumb is still bound up and is smarting after getting a knock this afternoon and well, stands out like a sore thumb. This is the offending article, it's OK I cleaned the blood off LOL.........

Now to a bit of a rant. I am one of those people with a no junk mail sign on my letter box, I hate the stuff. So why is it that 99% of the time my desire not to have pointless advertising crammed in my letter box is respected, but when election time comes around, forget about it. I have been inundated by all the parties flyers, if they are so stupid that they can't read what makes them think I am going to vote for them. I can't stand the bitching back biting adds and sound bites on the news, I certainly don't want to read about it. The day either party comes up with a policy or argument that is not simply "why the other lot are crap" will be when I start paying attention. Alright rant over. PS - a friend just pointed out to me that these leaflets are exempt from the No Junk Mail directive, so my sincere apologies to the leaflet droppers, didn't mean to call you stupid but if the mail is not adressed to me I don't want it in my letter box.

Round and Round we go

2006-11-14T20:50:00.000+11:00

Running
Tonights session was 4 by 800 mtres, which as one of the girls pointed out beats 8 by 400 mtres! Initially a less enjoyable session for me, but not so now that I use them as an opportunity to work on form and pacing. As usual I was making a bit of noise out there with my feet, particularly as I was thinking about pacing and forgot about form (and us chicks are supposed to be able to multi task). I used my last rep to try and pull it all together and get my feet up off the ground. I think I pulled it off, the girl who was running behind me said I looked better and the girl in front couldn't hear me. Best thing was although it was the last rep it was the fastest, here are the splits
1 - 3:31
2 - 3:34 (head wind)
3 - 3:31
4 - 3:26 (Yes!!)

Anyway, I know I keep banging on about trying to improve my form and run lighter on my feet but I'll get there, just have to keep persisting, *sigh*.

Mad, Bad and Tattooed
Yep, that is a tattoo on my arm, a little celtic knotwork triangle. Mum told me I would regret it, but it's been 11 years and I haven't yet. For those who don't have one, to answer your question, it hurts a little bit but not too much. The noise of the needle is far and away worse than how it feels, bit like the sound of the dentists drill. Lately I have been thinking about getting one on my shoulder, another celtic design but in blue, like Woad, providing they can get the colour right. Celtic wariors would often go into battle naked, hair spiked with lime and covered in Woad, those dudes were hardcore, could you imagine the sight!!

The best picture I can post to represent this is The Dying Gaul, I love it because it represents the beauty and strength of a Celtic Warrior, I hate it because it was commisioned to represent a victory over the Gauls who invaded Asia Minor in 239BC.

Wet and Wild

2006-11-13T19:48:00.000+11:00

Running
10km in 53:39, average pace 5:21

Pretty vile afternoon, about 12 degrees and during the course of my run I has gusty wind, rain, sunshine, clouds and yet more wind. I was having such a strong run up Anderson Street today then my reward about 20 metres from the end was a full on headwind that nearly blew me backwards. Needless to say was pretty glad when it was all over but proud of myself for still getting out there.

I entered the 4km Spring into Shape race today, to be run on the last Sunday this month. My goals? To start out at 4:30 pace and see how I feel at the 2km mark, if I feel strong I'll pick it up and have a go at coming in at under 18 minutes.

Dodgy Thumb, Nasi Goreng and Oaks Day
I had to change the outer dressing on my thumb today, not nearly as yuck as I thought it would be. For all the pain, blood and general grossness it really didn't look that bad at all and that special sticky tape they used is holding it all together nicely, definitely needs the dressing still though as it hurts if I bump it. And yes Mosey, I can feel it when I run, no need for a HRM at the moment, I can feel my pulse in my thumb :-)

A wee bit sick of takeaway and tinned soup so I managed to throw together my no fat Nasi Goreng tonight (great comfort food), took twice as long to cook but still worked out fine. Anyone interested in making it, it is a total no brainer, just buy the Nasi Goreng spice pasted from the Asian Food section at the supermarket (brand name Indofood, comes in a little packet for about $1.20), this makes enough for 2 people, I cook it in 2 batches because the BF likes oil and I don't. You need to cook the rice the day before and leave it in the fridge, if you use fresh cooked rice it will be gluggy. If you a super lazy like me I buy the pre cut stir fry vegetables from the supermarket, but I also add frozen corn and fresh mushrooms. Cook the Veg first in a wok, if it is well seasoned it should be pretty non-stick so no oil is needed. When the veg is cooked add a cup of rice (this is for one) and half the spice paste and stir fry for another couple of minutes. Push the rice and veg aside and then add a beaten egg and swirl until it is half set then mix in with rice and veg for another minute. Add some chopped fresh tomato and dinner is ready. This is all pretty imprecise but a half decent cook can figure it out as they go along, my BF can cook it so that means anyone can really.

Here is a piccie of me on Oaks Day last week, owing to the dodgy thumb I couldn't do my hair or makeup so I refused to take my sunnies off. Also I am not a fan of having my photo taken, one of these days I'll get my crooked front tooth fixed so I can start smiling in photo's again, I am the one in black for those who don't know me. I am on my first of many glasses of Champers.

2006-11-12T14:42:00.000+11:00

Running
18 Km in 1:40:00, average pace 5:33 (a better long run pace than last weeks 5:16). Great to catch up with the ESRG for a long run again. Thank goodness Michelle was there to keep me company because I didn't want to keep up with the boys today. I think my poor body is still trying to repair itself as a result of my recent stupidity (did I mention too much Champagne on Thursday aswell, I don't think I did) so the hoped for 19km ended up as 18km. As last week I only ran to time with the understanding that I would accept what the distance was when I stopped. There was a temptation to push on to 20km but it was a wet morning and the combination of a wet top against sunburned skin was not comfortable. Besides that it was a great morning for a run, sure it was wet and windy in parts but it was so warm. Next week I will push it out to 1:50:00.

I managed to clock up 62km this week, as I only ran 5 days. Barring and unforeseen circumstances or stupid accidents I should be back to 6 days again next week, then a 4km race the following Sunday.

Grinderman
Nick Cave is back doing his thing, now he has hooked up with 3 others and they are calling themselves Grinderman . They are Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos, just one song so far and in my totally biased opinion brilliant! Heaps rawer than Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds of the last couple of years, but I won't draw comparisons to The Birthday Party because not the same level of insane chaos. I am not one of those music freaks who can write with total authority, I just know what I love. You'll see from the My Space page (if you are interested) that they describe themselves as "Foul-mouthed, noisy, hairy, and damn well old enough to know better", LOL, going by the one song that is out Yep. Anyway, check it out if you are a Nick Cave fan, the whole song can be played on the site.

Here is a pic, Cave has been sporting this Mo for a while now, I reckon only he could truly get away with it ;-)

Remberence Day

2006-11-11T13:20:00.000+11:00

For The Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children
England mourns for her dead across the sea,
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow,
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again,
They sit no more at familiar tables of home,
They have no lot in our labour of the daytime,
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires and hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the night.

As the stars shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are stary in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Laurence Binyon

Written and published during the early days of WW1, supposedly The Great War, why haven't we stopped?

Still an Idiot

2006-11-10T19:56:00.000+11:00

Running
11 km in 58:14, average pace 5:18.

No running yesterday owing to the fact that I went to Oaks day, didn't get home until after 8 and after a day in high heels, running, I think not!

I was going to do 12 Km with some Fartlek today, Yes, there is a but coming. BUT, frankly my poor body is putting a bit of energy into healing itself at the moment, I have a wrecked thumb causing a bit of pain, a tender right arm caused by the tetanus injection and sunburn from yesterday. Yep, that's right, I am just a litany of self inflicted injury at the moment, with no one to blame but myself. The upshot being the 11Km I eked out today was enough without adding tempo work to the mix. You try pulling a tighter than tight crop top on over bad sunburn while trying to protect your right thumb and not shed a tear. I was close to not bothering but I wasn't skipping a run because of my own stupidity (I won't repeat what I said before when I took the crop top off again, not very ladylike).

Life
Obviously feeling a bit sorry for myself right now. Got a bit wobbly today, I have never fainted in my life but today I was not too steady. Perhaps just a case of delayed shock from Wednesday night, everytime I think back on it I feel a bit sick.

Ughh, enough moaning I am starting to bore myself.

I got my Trance 5's in the mail today from the States, I only ordered them on Saturday, pretty impressive. The company was www.sierratradingpost.com not a specialist running supplier, more of a skiing and hiking gear supplier. I was just lucky that they had a very small range of running shoes that happened to include the Brooks.

There are some things that have happened lately that I really want to comment on but I can't type very well at the moment so I'll save them up for a less self pitying post in a couple of days.

IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT

2006-11-08T22:04:00.000+11:00

Running
13 Km in 1:08:03, average pace 5:13. Was aiming for 5:25 pace but ended up a tad faster.

My trip to the Emergency Room
Well the good news is some of my parcels arrived today, one pair of Brooks Trance 5 from Joggers World in SA and my massage stick. Also received confirmation e-mail that my other pair of Trace 5's have been shipped from the US. Now, in my stupid not thinking enthusiasm to open one of my parcels, The Stick, which was in a tube and the ends were held on with big staples I ended up cutting open the top of my thumb.

HOW, well, rather than using the nice blunt screw driver instrument on my Swiss Army Knife I instead choose the big fuck off knife bit, what else would you use to prise out a staple I ask you? So of course (and this all happened in slow motion) I am chatting away not watching what I am doing, BF is saying "ahh, I don't think that is a good idea" and yep, knife snaps shut, stopped only by the top of my thumb.

Well an idiot I may be, but at least I have grace under pressure. Run to the bathroom, dress the gash with a wound pad and bandage up tightly, then off to Emergency. Fortunately not too busy when I get there, just some nuff nuffs who had been in a fight and had swollen knuckles (BF just laughing and saying only people who don't know how to throw a punch break their knuckles, yes dear). The triage nurse put me ahead of the young brawlers, which pissed their mother off, but hey, I was bleeding, ALOT.

It was still a 2 hour wait as there were some ambulance arrivals in the meantime. Anyway, long story short, a nasty mess of my thumb because I cut clean through the nail on an angle, but no stitches, just patched up with surgical sticky tape and sent home with more to redress in a week (Ughhh, I am not going to enjoy that, maybe I will go visit the GP). I was given the choice of having the nail totally removed and then getting all stiched up, but gross, no thanks. I am used to wrecked toenails, I can handle a wrecked thumb nail, apparently it will grow back reasonably well. And I had to have a tetanus injection, I hate them, my arm always aches for days afterwards. There was a little girl who went in after me who had put her tooth through her bottom lip, poor munchkin, I did the same thing at about her age, I still have the scar.

Biggest bummer really is that it is Oaks Day tomorrow and it is my right thumb, how the hell am I going to wash, dry and straighten my hair???????

The Proof

Stuff on my mind

2006-11-07T13:47:00.000+11:00

Running
The usual Tuesday evening session was swapped to the AM today as it is a Public Holiday on Melb Metro due to the Melbourne Cup. The agenda for today was as follows:
500 mtre 800 mtre 1K 1K 800 mtre 500 mtre. I have said it before, I find these sessions the most challenging but also the most enjoyable, perhaps I am a masochist.

Because the govt in their infinite wisdom have decided that the Melbourne Park area needs yet another sporting venue (because The Tennis Centre, Vodafone Arena, the MCG and Olympic Park are not enough) our 2 lane track has been torn up to make way for a soccer pitch or rugby ground or some such. By the way I have no issues with the aforementioned venues, they are what make Melbourne the sporting capital of Australia, but really with the exception of Olympic Park (which also gets used for Rugby) they are all about the ball sports. A meager 2 lane track for public use should not be too big an ask should it??

OK, didn't mean to get side tracked with a rant. But due to the loss of our track we were on the grass in Fawkner Park this morning. I didn't take my splits myself because the conditions were not ideal, cold, windy, on grass etc. However I do remember the splits that were called out and I managed to run both 800s and 1000s within about a second of each other, and my last 500 was 5 seconds quicker than the first. It was a tough session but I was helped immensely by the presence of the indefatigable Eddie on my shoulder keeping me honest, this is probably why I ran such nice even splits.

Checking the race calendars looks like my next will be the 4Km Spring into Shape at the end of the month and I have decided on the Sri Chinmoy in Williamstown on the 10th of Dec for a crack at a 5Km PB. This is currently 22:56, I'd like to get this down to around 22:30.

Rambling
I lost 900grms last week, and yes it was a deliberate effort, very pleased with myself. In a fit of post half marathon indulgence I managed to gain about 1kg, I blame it on Rocky Road, butter on my bread, red wine, cheesels, apricot danish, Guiness and Spanikopita (not all at once mind you), basically getting stuck into the things that I love but generally avoid.

Now I changed my mindset drastically last week and this made all the difference as I wasn't "on a diet" as such. We are extremely lucky in the West in that we have an embarrassing abundance of food available to us. Therefore we have the rare luxury of being able to eat for pleasure, not just for fuel. Couple that with all our cars and desk jobs and there is a pretty simple explanation for the woeful levels of obesity and lifestyle diseases that dog us.

So where am I going with this?? Last week, instead of thinking "I am on a diet" which automatically dooms me to failure I decided that I was going to re-connect with what it was like to feel hungry. No I was not on some mad starvation plan, rather instead of just eating because I felt I had to, I waited until I was truly hungry. That is, that tummy rumbling really gotta eat now feeling AND stopping when I am full. Worked a treat really, also I kept a food diary and looking back on it I found that I was snacking heaps less last week, also I was eating much less in the evenings too. So that is my simple interpretation of the problems we have here in the West, we have forgotten what it is like to be hungry.

A hill shared is a hill halved

2006-11-06T23:01:00.000+11:00

Running
Just a quick one tonight, just got back from dinner with my little brother who is in town for a couple of days, I am stuffed. Bless him and his no bullshit attitude, the first thing he said was "you look like a f#$king stick". Incidently he has gotten into the spirit of Movember as well was sporting a rather fetching Muskateer style.

Today's run was a recovery run, 10Km in 55:45, average pace 5:34. Really easy, I wore my HRM to keep me honest.

Saw Steve (to lazy to add the hyperlink tonite) at the bottom of Anderson Street, turns out that when you are having a good chat that it aint so bad afterall, I got up that damn hill much more easily than usual because I just wasn't giving it a second thought. And I noticed that my heart rate settled back down really quickly as well.

2006-11-05T15:01:00.000+11:00

Running
17.2 Km in 1:30:00 average pace 5:14

As I posted a week or so ago I have decided to ease back into the long runs. So today I planned to run for 90 minutes, and although I laced in the footpod I set my watch so I could only see my pace and stopwatch, not distance covered. This would save me from any obsessive "just do an extra 700 metres to round up the distance" behavior. I was going to head to my favorite spot along the Yarra from Templestowe, however I was on my own and it is a bit isolated so I ended up closer to home along the Koonung Creek Trail instead.

I wore my new Nike Air Equalon's even though I was starting to suspect them to be the much feared amongst runners, Evil Pair of Sneakers. When I ran in them on Wednesday the pain I had in my left foot about a month ago recurred with avengence, so bad that even when I walked the last Km back to the office it nearly had me in tears. Determined to persevere (they cost $220 afterall) I relaced them as shown by the coach last time I complained about the pain. This seemed to make the world of difference because today's run was totally pain free, this lacing method still keeps the shoes snug but relieves the pressure over the top of my foot as I have high arches. As an aside, can you believe there is a whole website dedicated to lacing shoes, that dude has alot of time on his hands :-)

I've decided that my preferred training shoes are the Brooks Trance 5's (6's no good remember, real shame) so have been hunting high and low for a pair. I haven't been able to track the 5's down in Australia in my size (US 9.5 very popular) and after some time on the net yesterday managed to find a pair AND in my size from the states. Better yet, with postage it comes to about $140 because they are a superseded model and the AUD is pretty strong against the USD at the moment. In hindsight I should have ordered 2 pairs. Now the caveat is I am not getting too excited yet. An e-mail to another supplier delivered me the news that he can not ship Brooks or Asics to Oz because these companies won't let him, so I am half expecting an e-mail on Monday canceling my order, fingers crossed they don't. That kinds pisses me off too, they gouge us on the price here and take away our right to get them shipped more cheaply from the US. And in this case it is not a case of bargain hunting specifically, I wanted a superseded model because the nuff nuffs in their infinite wisdom upgraded the model but changed the stability, talk about alienating your customer base.

The Week That Was
Mon - 10Km Recovery (56:20)
Tues - Speed Work (1x800, 5x400) 10Km all up with warm up and cool down
Wed - 13 km Rec (1:09:40)
Thurs - Unscheduled Rest, left half my gear at home
Fri - 10Km tempo session, 6 Km at 10Km race pace (49:37)
Sat - Scheduled Rest
Sun - Long Run, 90 minutes and set the watch so I couldn't see distance covered, came in at 17.2 Km

Total - 60Km
Obviously slightly peeved at missing Thursday but in hindsight I did say I was going to drop to 5 days a week for a couple of weeks. Very pleased otherwise, it was a strong week and apart from today's long race pace being about 15 seconds per Km to fast I trained to plan. I think I'll be back on 6 days a week next week and it will probably look something like this

Mon - 10Km Rec pace
Tues - Speed Work
Wed - Mini Long Run 14Km
Thurs - 10Km Tempo session, 6 Km at 10Km race pace
Fri - 8 to 12 Km Rec (go by feel)
Sat - Rest
Sun - Run 100 minutes, distance ?? Km
Total 70 to 75Km

Other Stuff
This is unashameably a running post today and it has gone on looooooong enough really :-)

Confidence is back!

2006-11-03T18:39:00.000+11:00

Running

10Km in 49:37, average pace 4:58

And what a brilliant morning for a run, I drove to work, parked at Fed Square and was running by 6:30 (well, 6:28 to be precise). I could not have asked for more perfect conditions for running, 16 degrees (Nylex clock), not a breath of wind, plenty of sunshine and just a couple of lads staggering around after a night on the turps.

Now to the run, the plan was for 2Km warm up, 6Km at 10Km race pace and 2Km cool down. Started off perfectly with 5:23 and 5:24, then moved into 8Km of sub 5min Kms varying from 5 to 10Km race pace. I got carried away because I was just thrilled to be feeling good at that pace again. The fact is as well that my 10Km race pace has probably improved since I last raced that distance in May this year.

So here's the thing, I was experiencing a bit of a confidence crisis about racing after the HM because I was feeling so up and down. But this week has been the turn around and today's run was just magic, it left me feeling great all day. Obviously it was not easy, but I was comfortable with the pace and more important was just the pure enjoyment of the run. So I am ready to get back into some events again and have a few to choose from between now and Xmas. I am going to keep it pretty low key though, just train well, race well and hopefully get another 5Km PB.

Rambling
Did you see the greenies on the news who hijacked the logging truck this morning? I saw some of the action on my drive in this morning as I turn up Punt Rd from Swan St to get to the Fed Sq carpark. Obviously something that is going to cause a fair bit of emotional reaction from both right and left. My stand, well no one was hurt and it got people to take notice. You know, we live in a country that affords us freedom of expression and the right to protest, a rare and precious gift that must be protected. To turn around and accuse them of being terrorists (that's what the logging company was saying) disgusts me. To draw comparisons between terrorists and protesters is reactionary and a contradiction. Logging of old growth forests is criminal and I will never be persuaded otherwise, especially as most of it ends up pulped. Come on, just think about it, a precious irreplaceable piece of our unique natural history GONE, just like that, water catchments devastated, species wiped out, all so people can have ultra soft 3 ply loo roll to wipe their precious behinds (yes, I buy recycled loo paper). I was in SE Tasmania a few years ago and driving around the Huon Valley watching endless logging trucks trundle out of the forest was to depressing for words. Some of the recently logged areas resembled scared wastelands with all these stumps of what were once massive, centuries old trees jutting out all over the place, it made me sick. Alright, enough of my rant I am not making much sense now. I am sure plenty of people will disagree with me but again, I don't have to agree with your opinion but I'll bloody well defend your right to have it and anyway this is my blog so there.

Premature senility

2006-11-02T20:03:00.000+11:00

Running
A classic case of I would forget my head if it wasn't screwed on today! I spent most of today really looking forward to my run this afternoon, finally that old feeling of anticipation was back. Then I get to the change room at work and realise that I forgot to pack my contact lenses and sports bra. Now the contacts I could have got by without, you don't need 20/20 to run and I am not THAT blind. But the sports bra is kind of necessary and the normal one I was wearing would be no good for running in. So a few unladylike utterances, back on with the street clothes and off to catch the train home.

I wanted 10Kms today with about 25 minutes at 10Km race pace and that just isn't possible near home, I can't face trekking around the streets around here just too tedious, so an unscheduled rest day it is then. I will still probably finish the week with about 60Km which is fine after last weeks 38K and the new me does not stress out about what can't be helped. Chances are I may need to head back to Melb Uni tomorrow arvo for my last round of testing so I'll get my run in tomorrow morning. This is for the study for the Physio Dept, it has been interesting but I am looking forward to not having to pee in a cup 6 days out of the month to conduct the ovulation test. A word of warning, if you are ever at my place and I make you a cup of tea in a Tim Tam mug............don't worry, I fully intend to chuck the mug out.

Rambling
I ordered one of these nifty devices today

What is it? I hear you cry, a walking stick, a light saber, some sort of exotic sex toy, a mutant abacus? None of the above folks, it is The Stick, I searched high and low and finally found and Aussie distributor on the aptly named www.seemerun.com.au it is used to provide deep tissue massage to poor tortured runners muscles and I am hoping it will help keep the niggles at bay between my massages once every 3 weeks, I'll keep you posted.

Now a big apology to JH for being so terribly anal and pulling him up on a misquote, I can be such a pain in the arse sometimes, still, he took it well ;-)

I was shitty when I started posting and was going to let fly, but have thought better of it, I am a loyal soul and this is not a forum for my bitching and moaning about home life. Needless to say there was something I wanted to do tonight, domestic unbalance ensued and I ended up staying home. Shame because I was looking forward to watching some quality middle distance running, next time for sure, an agreement was reached and a state of detente prevails.

Feeling charitable, well this month is Movember, a great cause to raise money for men's health charities, which frankly probably don't get the attention they deserve. So if you haven't visited him already get over to Spark Drivers Blog and check it out, you can also find a link to make a donation of you want to. Come on, you never know, science may only need an extra $2 to come up with a test for prostate cancer than does not involve, rubber glove, squirt squirt, try to imagine a happy place.......

2006-11-01T20:11:00.000+11:00

Running
13 Km in 1:09:04, average pace 5:18. Beautiful sunny afternoon today, perfect running weather

For a recovery run about 15 seconds per Km faster than I would have liked, but still more disciplined than usual. After yesterday's session I was definitely in need of a recovery session today, I slept like a corpse last night, out like a light the second my head hit the pillow. This is my plan for the remainder of the week
Thur - 10 Km including 25 minutes at 10Km race pace (tempo session)
Fri - 12 Km recovery pace
Sat - Rest
Sun - Long run 90 minutes (probably about 17Km)
This will give a weekly total of about 70Km

Now here is the thing I noticed today as I was trying to keep the pace to 5:30. It is really quite difficult for me to run at that pace on my own. If I do my long runs with company I have no problem keeping the pace down, but when I am on my own it feels unco and weird. Please don't mistake this as "oh I can't run slow" arrogance, that isn't the case. People who know how I run know that I am not the lightest thing on 2 feet, I am a heel striker and therefore a bit of a clunker. Slowing the pace right down has a tendency to emphasise my clunkiness and make me feel awkward.

Rambling
As I was running along the Yarra this afternoon someone honked their horn and gave me a wave, I have no idea who it was!

I have myself all set for Oaks Day, a week out for a change instead of running around the day before in a mad panic. Dress, shoes, handbag, headwear all sorted, now just have to pray for a nice sunny day because my dress is sleeveless and I don't want to be trying to find a jacket to go with it. Now if only I could put make up on without ending up looking like a drag queen, just have to make do with mascara and lip gloss, that is as glam as it gets for me.

I noticed yesterday that I have now done over 2500Km so far this year, I wonder if I will make 3000Km for the year?? Or will NYE see me running around the streets while fireworks go off trying to get an extra 5km in before the clock strikes midnight?

Comfort Zone here, Me, waaaaaay over there!

2006-10-31T20:51:00.000+11:00

Running
Tonights session was as follows, 1x800 mtre, 5x400 mtre with 2 minute recovery (5 minute recovery before last set). Splits as follows:
800 mtre - 3:22 (better than last weeks 3:29)
Now before the 400 mtre sets started I was asked to try and stick to the back of the leaders of our particular group and challenge myself, gulp, OK
1st - 90
2nd - 91
3rd - 91
4th - 98 (alright, it was taking it's toll)
5th - 93
Someone asked me how I felt after the first 3 sets, well, am I supposed to feel like throwing up?? I will get better at this, just another bridge to cross that's all, damn hard though, sprinting (yes, those times are sprinting for me, don't mock) is not my forte, but hey, I love a challenge :-) I really concentrated on how it felt and what my body was doing tonight, I start off well, but the form drops as I fatigue and I become quite tense. So the goal for next week is to try to relax into it and hold my form throughout. In summary, it hurt, I was challenged and I am pretty pleased with the set.

Samhain
For my northern hemisphere bretheren today is Samhain (pronounced sowen). For the Celts it was not even a remotely sinister affair, it marked the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn, in essence it is the Harvest Festival. There would be 3 days of celebrations and feasting, a place would be set for the dead and tales about the ancestors would be told and animals would be slaughtered for the winter. Halloween on the otherhand is the secular derivation of the Christian celebration of All Hallows Eve and All Souls Day.

Thus ends the incredibly brief history lesson for today.

Time to start running smarter

2006-10-30T20:10:00.000+11:00

Running
Recovery Run
10Km in 56:02, average pace 5:35. Felt very comfortable and was breathing easy and relaxed, I may start wearing the HRM again for these runs.

Well, after last weeks mini melt down I have had a good think about things. I believe one of my issues is that I have been undisciplined in my training, instead of doing my recovery runs at the appropriate pace I have become stupidly competitive within myself, that is, I ran this course in X time last week, so this week I have to do better. As a result I have pretty much been doing speedwork on Tuesday nights, tempo runs the rest of the time and a long run on Sundays. So the new schedule starting from today is as follows:
Monday - Recovery Run between 8 and 12 Km at 5:30
Tuesday - Speed work (thanks ewen!)
Wednesday - Midweek long run between 12 and 16 Km between 5:15 and 5:30
Thursday - Temp session, 10Km including 30 minutes at 10Km pace
Friday - Recovery Run betwen 8 and 12 Km at 5:30
Saturday - Rest Day
Sunday - Long run, at this stage no more than 90 minutes, will start building these again next year

This will give me weekly totals between 65 and 80 Km, generally about 3 weeks on and 1 week slighty easier. This is pretty much thrown together from some books I have been reading lately and seems reasonable to me, happy to take any advice to the contrary. So my new mantra is to run the run that is scheduled for the day, pay heed to recovery runs which will allow be to give more to the faster sessions and to not let stooopid pride get in the way of running "slowly" when it is best to.

BIG Congrats to Vicky for her fantastic run in the Auckland (Half) Marathon on the weeked, top time of 94:50 and 9th in her category, I am incredibly impressed, well done chicky!

Rambling
Today I saw a guy today wearing a brown suit with a yellow shirt, I guess he got dressed in the dark because the dude looked like a Crunchie!!

As I type this my cat, Asterix is tearing around the place, skidding all over the floor boards and messing up the rug because he is chasing a plastic ring thingie from a milk bottle, very easily amused :-)

Ready to run again

2006-10-29T16:47:00.000+11:00

Running and Riding
None today either. In fact this is the first Sunday I have not run since 22 January this year and it will be the first weekend since before I started keeping a training log in January with no running. So really, there is no need for excuses here, I deserved a break! I did get up at 06:30 today with every intention of heading out to Coburg, but once I was up I just didn't have the heart and headed straight back to bed. This would be the first Sunday in a very long time when I have slept in until 8am. So as a result of 3 days off running now (again can't remember the last time I went 3 days without a run) I am feeling pretty refreshed, it has done me a world on good.

We went for a bike ride at Lysterfield Lake this afternoon, I don't rate it as exercise though there was alot of stopping and starting finding tracks and stuff and I was never particularly taxed. I am keen to get back and explore some more though, the tracks are pretty well marked and they include the grade, from 1 to 10, we kept to under 6. I loved working the hills, putting the bike in a low gear and going hard until the legs give way. Not so hot on the down hills though, trees kept jumping out in my path :-)

Unfortunately alot of the really great looking running tracks were marked for Bikes Only, I was definitely a runner on a bike because I know what I would have preferred to have been doing. Not having a whinge though, it was a gorgeous afternoon and an amazing place to ride, not one metre of sealed bike path to be seen. The Comm Games mountain bike course is there as well, but as it is a grade 10 and there were lot's of serious looking lycra clad types with obscenely expensive looking bikes lurking around we definitely gave that one a miss.

Then as we were packing up the bikes to leave I saw a couple running out onto the path and I got a pang, I wanna be doing that............I take that as a very good sign that the rest has been good but I am ready to go again tomorrow, no doubt about it. Though tomorrow I'll check out some different routes, I am thinking I'll head along the tan along the river then head over the bridge, past the MCG and work my way up and around Fitzroy Gardens, just for a change.

Wrong Planet

2006-10-28T17:18:00.000+10:00

Running
None, rest day. Exercise consisted of shopping and housework, YAWN.

So what is Asberger's Syndrome
Beakus mentioned a book on her blog the other day called Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. Daniel is a savant but he also suffers from Asberger's Syndrome, he is unique in that most savants are severely autistic and can not lead independent lives, his gift is believed to have been acquired when he had a serious epileptic fit as a child.

So, what is Asberger's Syndrome and why am I writing a post on it? I went out and bought Daniels book and it has got me thinking over the last couple of days. My younger brother, Rhys, who turned 16 this year was diagnosed with Asberger's about 7 years ago. Asberger's has been known about for a while, but was only categorised as a form of high functioning autism in 1994. I won't go into all the details, the link above takes you to the Wikipedia entry which is pretty informative.

Unlike most autistics Asberger's suffers generally can lead independent lives. Aspies have some very quirky personality traits and when my brother was first diagnosed and we learned more about it we all started thinking Aha, yes, that explains alot. For example, AS is often categorised by
Limited interests or preoccupation with a subject to the exclusion of other activities
Repetitive behaviors or rituals
Peculiarities in speech and language
Socially and emotionally inappropriate behavior and interpersonal interaction
Problems with nonverbal communication
Clumsy and uncoordinated motor movements.

So you can see from this list that sufferers often find themselves isolated and on the fringes of social groups. Have a think back to school, maybe the "weird" kid that you all teased was an Aspie. Then think about the torment of a young boy, only about 8 or 9 who feels so confused and isolated by what he feels that he attempts suicide. This happened to my gorgeous little brother and not just once either, he was constantly teased and bullied at school and he simply did not understand what made him feel so different. No one should ever feel like suicide is the only option, but especially not a child.

Now to the positives, Aspies tend to be high achievers within their particular field of interest, perhaps partly due to the preoccupation described above. It has been suggested that Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Stanley Kubrick were sufferers. My brothers area of preoccupation is music, he has played guitar for years and is very good, he learns mostly by ear. He has also been playing double bass for 18 months, both classical and jazz. His tutor is a bassist for the MSO and his biggest challenge is getting Rhys to learn to sight read music because he has been learning by ear for so long. A few weeks ago Rhys successfully audtioned for the Percy Grainger junior orchestra, obviously I am pretty damn proud!

Now, we have never thought of Rhys as being in anyway disadvantaged, in fact many aspects of his Asbergers make for a very unique and likeable personality. One particularly quickly trait is his tendency to take things literally. Last Xmas I was putting together a cheese plate and I gave him a box of mixed crackers and asked him to arrange them on a plate for me, when I checked on his progress he had taken them out of the box and put them on the plate exactly as they were in the box. When he had his first bass tutorial his tutor told him to "toss his bow over there", poor Rhys was mortified, bows to a bass player are like sneakers to a runner, very personal and very expensive and this guy was telling him to toss it!!! Lucky mum was there to reassure him that the tutor just wanted him to put it down. Now he has a habit when meeting new people to say "I have Asbergers, sometimes I take things literally", a little disarming I know but it helps him to set expectations.

Finally, many AS sufferers often say that life for them is like landing on another planet and not knowing the language, customers or social rights and wrongs, the support website is www.wrongplanet.com

So if you got to the end of this post just remember, it takes many different personalities to make up the human race, next time you encounter someone you think is a bit left of the middle, cut them some slack, they might think you are just as weird, perhaps even from another planet.

Attack of the soy sauce fish

2006-10-27T18:58:00.000+10:00

Running
Well first up, thanks for all the suportive comments guys, very much appreciated. It was a hard post to write, I am an expert at lying to myself in the belief that if I don't admit my weakness it's not really there!

Today I didn't even bother bringing my gear to work, that way I wouldn't even be tempted. But let's face it, the weather sucked this afternoon so probably for the best. Though of course by the time I got home I was restless as anything so I jumped on our recumbent exercise bike, which thus far I had refused to go any where near! I managed half an hour before I was bored out of my skull, it just does not work you as hard. Rode for 13Km in 30 minutes, I did a hill seat, climbed a hill and rode down the otherside, heart rate barely nudged 60% for most of it, still, it took the edge off.

Now here is the rub, mojo very much present and making itself known, like a hyper kid on too much red cordial it is constantly jumping up and down in the back of my mind "come on, let's go, get into it, get moving come on come on!!!!". Unfortunately the legs not quite so willing to come to the party and this is the root of my frustration, I have not lost my drive, just can't get the damn body to co-operate. Therefore I stubbornly kept plugging away in the hope that the body will just comply. This resulted in me just cracking it with myself yesterday and wallowing in a mire of self pity. Anyway, will cut back to 5 days a week for the next 3 weeks, keep long runs under 90 minutes and probably keep weekly mileage around 55 to 60 Km a week and most importantly without freaking out about not "doing enough". Also will try not to stress about gaining weight which means no jumping on the scales and adjusting the eating to accomodate lower mileage for a few weeks.

I'll still do the 6Km run in Coburg on Sunday, today's extra rest should see me feeling pretty fresh by then, not pinning too much on it though, but would like to finish in around 27:30.

Rambling
For the last couple of months I keep noticing these little red plastic things on the ground in the city. I'll forget about them, then looking down there they are again. Mostly I don't give them a second thought, then I get obesesed, what the hell are these things, they are everywhere, I am laying awake in bed trying to figure it out. Then a few days ago I am enjoying some salmon sushi for lunch and there you have it, the little red screw cap in the soy sauce fish!!! Mystery solved. Now come on people, do the right thing, throw your little red plastic cap in the bin with the other stuff, not on the ground.

Warning, sook alert.....

2006-10-26T18:59:00.000+10:00

Running
Only 7.5Km today, 38:00, average pace 5:03

Well, I confess, I've been a tad disingenuous this week. I realised today that there is no point putting brave face on things and continuing to push though. This is essentially a training log and I need to be more honest in what I am documenting in order to asses my progress.

I have been feeling pretty ordinary this week, for example, I have been very tired, even though I sleep well, I have been anxious and overly emotional, I have had annoying mild headaches all week (I rarely get headaches) and my head has been really fuzzy and I have been light headed. In fact this afternoon as I was finishing my run I was waiting to cross Flinders St on the corner of Swanston when the lights went green for the traffic and I nearly bloody ran out onto the road thinking I had the green light!! This is difficult for me to document because I am generally pretty stoic, I hate to appear to not be "coping". I once played a whole game of baseball with a dislocated thumb because I didn't want to be a bother, pigheaded I know!

So what's up I wonder? Well, please don't suggest I am pregnant, that is certainly not the case. Overtraining perhaps, I don't know, the 2 weeks since the half marathon were 44km and 56km, that does not seem excessive. Perhaps I am putting too much pressure on myself to return to pre HM mileage and more as quickly as possible. I am nervous that if I back off I will gain weight and lose fitness, this fear causes me to push through when mind and body perhaps need a rest. I am also a bit lost as to what I should be doing, since the start of the year I have had key runs to train for, Run 4 the Kids, Gold Coast Half Marathon and Melbourne Marathon. Now all of a sudden NOTHING, I don't know what I am supposed to be doing every day. Should I be having an "off season" for a month? Or is this just silly because it is not like I run high elite level mileage. I want to position myself for continual improvement but rationally I know that I can't/shouldn't train at the same level all the time.

So what's a girl to do? Stop over analysing for a start. Stop being so tough on myself. Perhaps cut back to 5 days a week for the next couple of weeks, I have only had 3 rest days since the HM. Through Dec/Jan concentrate on racing shorter distances and keep the long runs under 90 minutes. Did I mention stop being so tough on myself?

Oh, sorry for the belly aching, just feeling a bit sorry for myself today I suppose. I guess I just need a pat on the shoulder and a "there there, it will be OK, every runner goes though this at some stage". Now best I hit publish before I delete the lot and replace it with an everything is OK post.

Pictures from the sky

2006-10-25T19:45:00.000+10:00

Running
11Km in 57:56, average pace 5:15. Quite comfortable today, certainly much better than this time last week, should have run more of a 5:25 pace for a recovery run though. Work got really frustrating today, thank goodness all that was forgotten about 2Km into the run.

Rambling

How cool is this, it was spotted on Google Earth, it is a rock formation about 255 meters across in Canada

On the topic of really cool things that can only be seen from high up, this gives me an excuse to post this, it is in Uffington in Wiltshire in the UK.

And this seemingly innocuous rocky outcrop is the site of Tintagel Castle in Cornwell, this is where King Arthur lived. Underneath is Merlins Cave, Merlin dreamed of a white dragon and a red dragon fighting, this was a premonition of the Saxon invasion of England. The red dragon will be familiar now as it appears on the Welsh flag. No prizes for guessing that I have Cornish ancestory.

Good days, bad days

2006-10-24T20:46:00.000+10:00

Running
Speed session tonight, 1000 mtre, 800 mtre, 600 mtre, 400 mtre and 200 mtre with 2 minute recover, splits as follows -

1000 - 4:26 (ughh, not happy with that, 4:10 to 4:15 would have been more reasonable)
800 - 3:29
600 - 2:30
400 - 92 (better)
200 - 43 (the short stuff 'aint my bag baby)

I rate this session about 85%, I should have had some better splits but just was not totally on top of it today. It was a warm night, but not oppressive, the air was really dry though which made breathing difficult, anyway just making excuses, just one of those days and regardless it still makes me stronger.

A few people have suggested I try some AV summer stuff as an invite, specifically 3000mtre on the track. Not real sure I have the confidence for that at the moment, I don't know the etiquette of track running, it intimidates me. I don't want to get out there and have people going off at me because I am doing the wrong thing, probably best to just go down and have a look.

I can't believe I didn't mention this yesterday, but I got caught up in my Xmas rant. We got a new Australian women's marathon record on the weekend, Benita Johnson came 3rd in the Chicago Marathon in 2:22:36. A fantastic run on what was supposed to be a crap day weather wise, I hear she is contemplating the marathon at the Beijing Olympics. After the Comm Games it looks like she is having a pretty good return to form which is great to see.

I feel the earth move under my feet

2006-10-23T19:53:00.000+10:00

Running
The sort of afternoon that would move me to stand on top of a hill somewhere and burst into song, not withstanding the fact that I have a worse singing voice than Jordan pre auto tune (alright, the link won't freakin work, type in Jordan whole new world into the You tube search engine and if you want your ears to bleed choose the pre auto tune version, if there are young kids in the room I suggest you make sure they leave). I had a perfect easy breazy run, just cruising around the tan and along the yarra, listening to my shuffle, concentrating on stride and form and just loving being out there.

The cold hard facts - 10Km, 51:48, average pace 5:10.

Ramblings
Still working on my mental fitness, today's tip Think about all the times in the past when you couldn't quite believe that your present level of fitness and running would eventually be possible. Use those instances as reference points to remind yourself that your present limited beliefs are no different than those you had in your past; those changed and so will these. Trust.....and believe it. Point in fact there is an old post from me on the Ausrun forum asking for advice on getting my long runs up over 12Km and lamenting whether or not I would be capabale of completing the Run for the Kids 14.7Km last April. Now I did finish the run in 75 minutes and will be back again next April hoping to finish in around 70 minutes.

Is anyone else desperate for a return to the traditional 12 days of Christmas, instead of the insane 85 bloody days of Christmas we now have to endure??? Can you believe that the Xmas tree has gone up in the City Square already!!!! MADNESS I tell you! And they have decorations and crap in David Jones already. I am afraid I am not one of those full of the joy of Xmas people, it is all I can handle in Decemeber, please don't inflict it on me in October. In my family we are all grown up now so we do Kris Kringle to save the buying a gift for everyone stupidity. For the last couple of years I have instructed my KK to buy something from the World Vision smiles catalog in my name. It's quite a cool idea, they have items varying from $25 to over $1000 that provide things like pens and rulers for school kids, a hen and rooster, goats, pigs, vaccinations, blankets, seed, emergency kits for natural disasters etc. You can get something similar from the Oxfam shop, you buy a "card" varying in price from about $25 upwards and the card will have a picture of the item and something like, "A bicycle has been purchased in your name for........". The way I see it I am an adult, I earn a good living and if I need something I'll buy it, I don't need a gift.

Sunshine!!!

2006-10-22T17:36:00.000+10:00

Running
An easy one today, 2Km warm up while waiting for friends then 10.5Km around The Tan and along the Yarra.

Vicki was visiting from NZ so I met her, Tony and Angel for an easy 60 minutes. After a slight mix up in the interpretation of what exactly constitutes a pillar ;-) we all eventually found each other and set off on a rather gorgeous Melbourne spring morning. We did a lap of the tan, I went strangly quiet up Anderson St, but found my voice again soon afterwards. After a lap of The Tan I took everyone along the Yarra over Morell Bridge and up through Birrarung Marr and past Federation Square. Back up along The Tan to the bridge again, then double back down to the Pillars to the cars to collect some cash and head off for breakfast with rumbling tummy's. A plate of pancakes and a flat white never tastes quite as good as it does after a run!

Once again always great to catch up with another Ausrunner and it is always funny after getting to know someone via the net that when you meet them in person it is more like catching up with a buddy you haven't seen in a while rather than meeting a stranger. Anyway, Vicki has a half marathon in Auckland next Sunday and won't have the benefit of the Ausrun army to cheer her on in person so at 04:30 ESST (if you put your clock forward before going to bed) try to dream good vibes and send them her way.

I managed more distance this week, clocking up 55.6 Km, the second week back last time was 48Km so ahead by a wee bit. Emotions a bit up and down, especially on Wednesday when I struggled with a less than comfortable 12Km. But after getting into my new book and as anyone who read yesterday's post will notice I have a handle on that now. I think the issue is just to get back to being comfortable running more than 10Kms. At the moment I am looking forward to tackling a shorter race next Sunday morning at Coburg.

Free your mind and the rest will follow

2006-10-21T10:15:00.000+10:00

A good run after work last night before heading out for dinner with some of the girls from my training group.

It was a bit cool yesterday and I must have looked weird standing out the front of my office waiting to cross the road clapping my hands and psyching myself up. In all though it was perfect running weather and I got a steady 8Km in, 41:32, average pace 5:11

I am about a quarter of the way into my new book at the moment and it is a great read, I am going to quote from it so had better credit the source:
Running Within - A guide to mastering the mind-body-spirit connection for ultimate training and racing by Jerry Lynch and Warren Scott

I marked one page in particular because I reckon it pretty much sums me up
Persistence
....deliberate, slow cultivation is the path to success and good fortune. Realising your goals and attaining success are the by products of persistence and perspiration. Talent accounts for a mere 5 percent of most achievements. Those runners who appear to have much talent were once struggling beginners. It was persistence and hard work that led them to achievement and excellence.

.....Becoming proficient as a runner requires years of training and persistence through setbacks. It usually takes about 5 years of consistent training before you come into your own as a runner. However ,know that you continue to improve for at least 10 years from the moment you initiate a running program, no matter how hold you are when you start (unless you are 80 LOL, my words here) Naturally this assumes you are committed to a seasonally and yearly progressive training program. Every dog has his day; you just need to keep at it. The problem with many good athletes is that they are willing to give up just as the palm trees of the oasis begin to appear on the horizon. Giving up is not part of the warrior's lexicon; persistence and consistency in training are.

Ok, the warrior stuff is a bit OTT, in fact the whole chapter is called Exhibiting the Warrior Within, a wee bit daggy, but some excellent advice in the whole chapter. Though I don't completely agree with the talent accounting for only 5%, there is no disputing that at the elite level talent is an enormous factor. Having said that there is also no doubting that to rely on talent alone is a fools errand and that those guys and gals work damn hard. Now back to me, who's to say that I can't have my own piece of personal glory if I work hard. I was going through a brief period where I was starting to feel like a bit of a doofus, maybe taking it all a bit too seriously, started telling myself "it's not like you will ever be any good". I checked myself pretty quickly though, why would I bother spending over 6 hours a week training if I was going to take that shit attitude, what a waste of time!

So I think the positive thinking is stating to take hold, I had one of those vivid dreams this morning that really stick, you know the ones you have in that semi awake state in the early morning before you are fully awake. I'll keep it brief, hearing about other people's dreams can be tedious - I was lined up for race, the gun went off and I was running very comfortably, next thing I knew we were working up a huge hill and I found myself lugging a big heavy bag, then the hill turned downwards and I felt free again, I rounded a corner and there were 2 girls waiting for me dressed in normal clothes who started running with me. We got to the finish line and they backed off. I said something about how they should kick on, they had been way ahead of me. I can't remember what was said but one the girls spoke and the intimation was that it was my race to run and I should take it, so I crossed the line and I had won.

Some pretty transparent and obvious symbolism there I think, my subconscious must have decided not to bother being subtle and just bash me about the head with it instead ;-)

Anyway, I think I have rambled on enough here, well done to anyone who saw it through to the end.

No running today, it is my rest day, will be catching up with some Ausrunners for a run tomorrow morning, we have a NZ visitor so looking forward to showing off one of my regular haunts around The Tan and along the Yarra.

2006-10-19T19:06:00.000+10:00

Running
I took my running gear to work today not really knowing if I would run this afternoon, I was feeling a bit wobbly this morning. I felt sick last night and didn't sleep well after a pretty stressful day at work and I am generally pretty robust so you can take that as a sign that it was a VERY stressful day at the office. Anyway, today turned out to be much better than yesterday and I did not have to strangle anyone.

Anyway, by the time 4pm rolled around I felt up to a run, not really sure of the plan so just headed out the door to see what the legs would give me. Turned out to be short and sweet but reasonably sharp -
6Km in 30:26, average pace 5:03.

It does feel a bit odd to be running without a plan, some would say that I should just relax and go with it, but you know what I am like, I love the structure! I'll be ready for a race next weekend so I'll probably turn up to the Coburg Harriers H.A.T run on Sunday 29th. I think they are offering 4, 6 and 12Km so I'll decide on the day, 4km or 6km looks likely, and it helps raise money for charity.

SLLLLOOOOOWWWWWW

2006-10-18T19:25:00.000+10:00

Running
12Km in 1:06:31, that's bloody slow for me. Perhaps the return to speedwork took more out of me than I expected. Quite warm this afternoon too, for some stupid reason this morning I packed 3/4 tights instead of shorts which didn't help matters.

Life
In a vile mood today, but that is nothing to do with the running. Work is just a bit frustrating at the moment and I am afraid that I am ruled my by emotions and perhaps are not as effective as I could be as a result. I can't help it, I wear my heart on my sleeve and I speak my mind, I'd love to be cool and calm but it just aint me. I won't bore you with the details but needless to say I get very frustrated when people needlessly turn a very simple task into something incredibly difficult, there is nothing that peeves me more than red tape. I am very much a "just get it done" personality and the blood pressure shoots way up when people start messing me around. Anyway, try to relax tonight and deal with it again tomorrow and resist the urge to put my hands around someone's neck and shake very hard :-)

Speed Work

2006-10-17T20:47:00.000+10:00

Running
Back to the fast stuff today, session as follows
1000mtre, 750mtre, 500mtre, 500mtre, 250mtre, 250mtre

I was a tad aprehensive in spite of the fact that I seem to be recovering well, anyway it turned out to be a fairly decent session for me, not my quickest but better than I expected, splits as follows

1000 - 4:08 (that was very good considering it felt like 5:08)
750 - 3:09
500 - 2:05
500 - 2:08
250 - 0:57
250 - 0:53 (pretty strong finish)

Very warm night and alot of dust being kicked up on The Tan, does not seem like that long ago when I would struggle to do up the zip on my tracksuit because my hands were so cold.

Contemplating the Marathon (thanks Steve!), Hmmmm, I am not afraid to admit that it is a pretty scary thought. I may try for the Melbourne Marathon next year but am not prepared to commit right now, I am more interested in getting my 5Km, 10Km and HM times down at the moment. I don't want to tackle 42.2 until I am confident I can do it well (and am less terrified by the thought of it!)

What half marathon?

2006-10-16T19:53:00.000+10:00

Running
Pressed for time this afternoon, I was in training all day and it didn't finish until after 5. I wanted to get home at a reasonable hour so I could cook a decent dinner so I only had about 40 minutes to run. Thought I'd just head out for about 20 minutes then turn around, just running on feel. 41:29 later I ran 8Km at an average pace of 5:10, there were even 3 sub 5 minute splits in there. I can safely say that I am just about recovered and certainly much quicker than last time. I do have speed work tomorrow night though and probably won't be as sharp as usual but that's to be expected.

Some books I ordered on Amazon turned up today, one is Running Within - A Guide to Mastering the Body-Mind-Spirit Connection for Ultimate Training and Racing. I am looking forward to getting into it, I spend enough time training my body but I think the mind definitely needs some attention.

Life
There has been a bit in the news lately about Muslim women and the veil in Britain, specifically about whether or not they should be wearing them. Personally I can't see what all the fuss is about, if they feel they want to wear the veil I could not be the least bit concerned. It certainly wouldn't bother me if I were talking to a woman with a full veil. But then again I was brought up to respect differences and appreciate all cultures, and when I am talking to someone I am far more interested than what they have to say than what they look like and what they are wearing. One of the arguments I have heard is that some people find it "confronting", what the? Isn't that the individuals issue, not that of the veiled woman? Personally I am not a big fan of beards, but I don't expect every man with a beard to be clean saven just because I am not a fan. Anyway, I know I am simplfing the issue and I could probably write an essay on the topic, but get over it people, veil, no veil, deal with the person underneath, not the covering. A few years ago I flew Emirates and on the flight home from the UK on the London to Dubai leg the plane was full of veiled woman, some had some pretty elaborate get ups with little gold eye masks and everything. Far from being bothered I was more curious, I am fascinated by other cultures and am deeply interested in the history and motivations behind certain practices. But like I said I was fortunate enough to be brought up pretty open minded and was encouraged to be curious about the world around me, not fearful.

PS - spell checker is playing up and frankly I am too lazy to proof read, dinner is ready. So please forgive any mistakes.

As a mountain bike rider........

2006-10-15T16:19:00.000+10:00

Running
........I make a fantastic runner :-) Quite a few Ausrunners were heading off for the second Spring int Shape series. I would have loved to have joined in but I was being Miss Goody Two Shoes and continuing my recovery runs. Today I was hoping to manage 15Km and that is what I ended up with, took me 1:20:06 with an average pace of 5:20. The week finished on 44.4Km (bugger, should I pop out now and run to the end of the street and back!!). I am pretty pleased with how the week has progressed, certainly contuning to recover better than last time. Oh yeah, my new shoes, fantastic, very comfy and they had heaps of room for my poor battered brusied toe.

Life
This afternoon we went for a bike ride, I took us to Westerfolds Park this time. Headed out of the park and down to the Yarra Trail, a spot that I have run on a few times over the last couple of months, however we mostly rode down all the off path sections, we even spotted a snake. By mountain biking standards it was not particularly challenging, but I am certianly a much beter runner than mountain biker. The problem stems primarily from the fact that I am now old enough to know that if I go wheel first into a pot hole at speed and fly over the handle bars it is going to fecking hurt, therefore I proceed with caution. While it was stacks of fun I couldn't help thinking, hmmm, gotta get back here soon and run these off path sections.

Shoes, then and now

2006-10-14T18:37:00.000+10:00

No Running today, off for a longish run tomorrow morning, hopefully about 15Km

I was doing a spot of spring cleaning today and I found a single lonely sneaker in the back of the cupboard. It was one half of my old pair of Reeboks from HIGH SCHOOL!!! God only knows how they managed to survive the 8 times I moved between leaving home and buying my house. Anyway, the lonely sneaker is now in the bin but before I chucked it I took a photo. They saw many a 3Km cross country run between year 9 and 12 when I graduated from Dunlop Volleys to "proper" running shoes. Not that these had much more support or cushioning than the old volleys and they were a size 8.5, I now wear a 9.5 to 10!!

So in contrast here are the new ones I picked up today. A brand spanking new pair of Nike Air Equalon, just out, so new that they were not even laced so no one else had tried them on. My Brooks Trance 5 have about 750Km on them so they will be good for another 300Km, I'll just rotate them with the Nike's. I did try the new Trance 6's, and there was a damn fine and comfortable pair of shoes right there, they felt amazing. Unfortunately for me though Brooks have tweeked the support and they are no longer the shoe for me, not enough mid foot support according to the Pod. Shame, I really wanted them to be right, great forefoot flexibility and they are supposed to wear well for longer as well. The Pod. wanted to sell me Saucony's Omni Grids again but I have had them before and I just wasn't that happy with them. They were quite stiff and I felt like they robbed me of my natural style a bit too much. To the credit of the chick fitting my shoes for me she accepted that and made a real effort to find something else that provided the right support that I was happy with. Anyway, that is an awfully long post about shoes!!

Water update - Some guys came today and tore up my driveway as the burst was under the pavement not the nature strip. So they tore up the driveway, filled the hole in again and nicked off. Presumably at some stage someone is going to turn up and actually fix the pipe. So in summary, 2 guys came and installed the sign, a few hours later 2 more guys came, looked at the water leaking, wiggled the sign and left, then today another 2 guys come and dug a hole and fill it in again. Apparently I now have to call Yarra Valley Water and say the pipe can be fixed now (because they can't do that, being that they work for YVW and all??) - if I didn't know any better I'd say I was caught in a Monty Python skit!

Free Water

2006-10-13T20:04:00.000+10:00

Running
I was pressed for time this morning, got the 06:08 train and hit the road at 06:50. 7Km in 38:37, a 5:30 pace so still keeping it very slow. Tomorrow I'll go for a bike ride then on Sunday I am hoping the legs will let me do 15Km. I have been reading a great book on running called Run Strong, contains some great advice on recovery runs and building our mileage sensibly.

Here is my certificate from Sunday's half marathon, how generous of them to use my age category placing rather than my gender placing (246/1515), I did a spot of editing because they printed my surname first and it looked daft.

Life
Well, the water main has been bust for 72 hours now and the fact is it was probably bust for at least a week before the water seeped to the surface as we have rather heavy clay here. More disturbingly there is a little bubble of water constantly flowing out of a crack in my driveway, so I am now worried about the damage it is doing as well as the waste. Not, I have to say, that Yarra Valley water seem all the fussed by it. They assure me they will be fixing it tomorrow morning, hmmm, we'll see. In the meantime, if you want some free water for your garden just pop by my place, BYO bucket!

Music Quiz
And the answer to yesterday's quiz, it was Hot! Hot! Hot! by The Cure from Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (I guess they were going through a "3" period).

More Summer than Spring

2006-10-12T19:12:00.000+10:00

Running
Another early start this morning, making the most of the very light mornings before daylight savings begins. I decided to drive to work today, mainly so I could get home in air conditioned comfort. I got to the office, dumped my bag and hit the road at 06:29. Again I was just going out without much of a plan, just to run what my body felt like. I got to Morrell Bridge and checked out the Nylex clock, it was already 22 degrees.

The run today was 9.3 km in 50:23, an average pace of 5:23. It tuned out to be 37 degrees this afternoon at the time I would normally run, thank god I went this morning and it will be another early one tomorrow.

I am starting to get back to normal, probably about 90% there. It is helping to keep these recovery runs at an easy pace.

Music Quiz

This one reflects the day, there is a big fat hint, could be a wee bit obscure though, if you are not a fan of the band you probably won't get it. The damn song has been in my head all day

"Yes I'm jumping like a jumping jack. Dancing Screaming Itching Squealing Fevered..........."

Other Stuff

With the weather heating up water conservation and drought is the hot topic. So it really pisses me off when running back past the City Square yesterday morning I am splashing through water, the run off from he sprinklers watering the little bit of lawn in the square. Melbourne City Council has alot to answer for right there. And this morning I notice the nature strip in front of my house is soggy, yep, a burst water main, again, I have now had one on either side of my driveway. In hindsight it had been going all night, I noticed some run off in the gutter when I put the bin out but thought it came from the neighbours sprinkler. So the burst water main reported at about 0730 this morning, has it been fixed yet? No, but Yarra Valley water, bless them, have popped up a sign saying "Burst Water Main Reported. Repair Prioritiesed". It is now 19:20, wonder how much more water is going down the drain before they take care of it?

At least this time it is just seeping. Last time I had a rather attractive water feature/fountain on the nature strip for about 8 hours. to make matter worse people kept knocking on my door "hey did you realise........",

Not "just", Not "only"

2006-10-11T18:24:00.000+10:00

I have decided that the best thing to do is to chuck out all notion of a training plan for this week and next week and just do what my body is capable of and more importantly, enjoy running for the sake of it. I decided to run this morning because it was such a lovely start to the day. I got into my gear and caught a super early train (06:08) and was off and running at 06:50. I ended up with 8Km in 43:34, so an nice easy 5:26 pace. The morning was stunning, about 16 degrees and a little bit of a wind. The legs felt reasonably good considering, just a little muscle tightness but still no dead leg feeling, thank goodness.

Mucking around with my watch this morning on the train trip in I discovered that I had set up a pacing zone for my half marathon (probably mucking around on another train trip). The zone was set at 4:44 to 5:00 minute Kms, however I had the sound turned off so didn't notice. In hindsight I do remember when glancing at the watch during the race that the display was flashing occasionally to indicate that I was out of zone, at the time I assume it was cross talk from another HRM (I don't wear my chest strap when racing, in fact I rarely wear it in training these days). So I have some extra stats from that to share.
Time In Zone - 60:33
Time Above Zone (greater than 5 minute Km) - 39:11
Time Below Zone (better than 4:44 Km) - 4:57
So from that I reckon I was reasonably disciplined, however perhaps should have remembered that I had set the zones and adjusted it to 4:50 to 5:00 minute Kms and paid attention. I wouldn't turn the beeper on though because it gives me the shits when racing. Maybe I should use it on some Tempo runs to help develop better pacing discipline.

I was back at work today and found my self saying this alot as colleagues asked me how my Marathon went on the weekend, "oh it was just a half marathon" or it was "oh it was only a half marathon". Hold on there Em, it is still bloody hard to race that distance and there is no only or just about it, stop apologising. Peoples reactions are funny though, lot's of Oh my god, you ran HOW far? :-)

The weather is looking the same for the rest of the working week so I'll be catching the super early train and running in the mornings again tomorrow and Friday. Hopefully the legs will give me 10Km tomorrow.

The race photo's came out today, as I suspected mine is fecking ordinary, ughhh, classic Run Yourself Ugly right there, still, PBs don't come easy. On a more positive note I compared it to my Gold Coast finishers photo and my legs look heaps better, really starting to look like a runner now!

Favorite Album
The ABC are polling "My Favorite Album" for a show later in the year. I have been mulling this over for a couple of weeks, so many to choose from. I finally made my decision, Jeff Buckley's Grace. Why?? Well I LOVE Nick Cave, but he has been prolific and is still around to keep recording. But Jeff Buckley put out one brilliant album that still moves me everytime I listen to it, then he drowned so that is all we get. Sure there was some stuff released posthumously, but Grace was well, perfect. Plenty won't agree with me, but this is my choice.

I guess I am an addict

2006-10-10T17:28:00.000+10:00

Running
The results came up today, my official half time was 1:44:38. I finished 246 out of 1515 females, that is an improvement on the Gold Coast where I was in the top 21% of female finishers, this time around top 16%. I don't have an overall placing as they have not really organised the results very well. For my category (F 30-34) I finished 63rd, also an improvement on the Gold Coast where I was 75th. Again I don't know how many were in my category as they results aren't organised that way.

I managed a 5Km run today, took it easy and finished in 27:24 with a nice easy pace. The legs felt reasonably good considering, only real issue was a protesting right quad. Calves, hips and hammy's all felt fine and I had a great massage this afternoon which will help loosen me up as well. After the last half I did not run until the Wednesday afterwards and it was damn painful, this time around I am pleased to be getting back into it a day earlier and without the leaden dead leg feeling I experienced previously. Perhaps this is a result of improved fitness?! My feet are a bit of a mess though, I have a bruised toe and some blisters (have been popped, ughhh), I think my next pair of race shoes may have to go up to a whopping size 10 because I could feel my toes bashing against the end.

I am giving my usual Tuesday night session a miss today though, an easy 5Km run yes, speedwork NO! I'll get back into that next week.

This week I'll continue with the recovery pace runs, probably 8Km tomorrow, 10Km on Thursday and Friday and then the "long" run this week of about 15Km. This week and next week will be lighter but I want to start getting the mileage up again, though there will be some lower mileage weeks with a bit of racing planned between now and Xmas. I guess January can be considered my down time before picking it up again in February in preparation for winter. This is all "seems logical" planning and may be completely off mark so will talk to those in the know.

Life
The title alludes to the fact that I am a bit restless at the moment, apart from the HM there has not been much running over the last 6 days so I am on edge. The other half tells me that I am hooked on endorphins, it could be true I suppose.

What Next?

2006-10-09T17:17:00.000+10:00

Running
I am happy to report that I have not suffered the same spiriling high and subsequent crash that I experienced after the Gold Coast Half Marathon, my emotions are on a much more even keel. Though I think the highs and lows last time were probably exaggerated by the bottle of Champagne and several glasses of white wine that were my "rehydration" strategy after the event! This time I was a bit more sensible and put away a bottle of gatorade, several cups of endura and water before moving onto the Guiness and that was one measly Pint as I had to drive home.

It has been a big year since starting the run seriously in January with lot's of fun runs and 2 half marathons, watching my times improve with each event. I am going to see out the year with some shorter events to see if my speed has improved and to just have some fun with it (which I am hoping will help with the "nerves" issue). I have spent some time on the internet looking for some events that look interesting and at this point the tentative plan to see out the year is as follows -
29 October - Run for Tanzania which is put on by the Coburg Harriers I'll do the 6Km event
12 November - Sri Chinmoy Yarra River, 7Km
26 November - Spring into Shape, either 4Km or 8Km, I'll decide closer to the date
14 December - Albert Park Xmas run, 5Km or 10Km, again, I'll decide closer to the date (maybe give 10Km a go and have a crack at a new PB)

January and February, not sure, I'll probably keep an eye on the race calendars and do the odd event if it looks interesting. Maybe go watch some of the AV summer track stuff and marvel at all the super quick sprinters

I'll also work on improving the mental side of things, in particular try to deal with those pesky nerves in the closing stages of an event. I reckon that will stem from developing some maturity as a "racer" and learning more about race strategy and being more calculated. That is, to go into the event knowing what I want to achieve and how to go about it and sticking to the plan. Also not building up an event so much will probably help. It's been a discovery year, it's been a hell of lot of fun but I guess what I am saying is I'd like to lose some of the hype. God, that sounds fecking boring doesn't it?? Don't get me wrong, this is in no way a detractor from my enthusiasm, in fact come winter next year most people will probably want to sick me in a box as I bounce around in the rain and mud with a grin on my face :-) Anyway, enough rambling thoughts, probably not making much sense but I have it straight in my mind.

This brings me to my next point, I am looking forward to 2007 and running for an Aths Club, I have missed being part of a team since I stopped playing baseball, and call me weird but I love wearing a sports uniform.

Life
My brother called today to let me know that he has already organised my birthday present, a few months in advance but he wanted to make sure I kept the day free. Now as a rule I avoid my birthday. However my brother will be in Melbourne for Christmas and has organised his MCC members tickets for the boxing day test, so he is going to take me along to day 3, so hoping it is a good match and still all on by day 3. A bit of history there, my brother is 2 years younger than me and was put on the MCC waiting list at birth by my paternal grandparents, as where all the male grandkids, meanwhile the girls didn't have that honour bestowed on them. So my brother who has lived in the UK for the best part of the last 9 years and now lives on the Gold Coast has an MCC membership and I have squat.

Last word, Peter Norman, who died last week, had his funeral today. I was pretty impressed to see John Carlos and Tommie Smith had flown over and were even pall bearers. I don't need to tell the story, everyone know this picture, even those of us who were not born then and that Peter supported John and Tommie's stand. Incidently I found out today that the Australian 200 mtre record Peter set that day in 1968 in Mexico still stands

Melbourne (half) Marathon - 1:44:41

2006-10-08T16:02:00.000+10:00

Running
Where to start? The vital information first, the time, by my watch was 1:44:41 which is a PB by 3:19 which is nothing to sniff at!

Here are my splits, though I missed the first Km marker because they only marked the course for the full marathon, obviously us halfers don't count, we only got 5, 10 and 15 Km markers.
9:38 (2km)
5:17(3Km)
4:47 (4Km)
4:42 (5Km in 24:25)
4:50 (6Km)
4:44 (7Km)
4:52 (8Km)
4:56 (9Km)
4:56 (10Km in 48:47)
4:56 (11km)
4:58 (12Km)
5:03 (13Km and starting to pay for the quick start)
5:13 (14Km)
4:57 (15Km in 1:13:56)
5:04 (16Km)
9:51 (17 and 18Km)
5:01 (19Km)
5:08 (20Km in 1:39:01)
5:40(21.1Km)
The average pace was 4:58, so pretty stoked to have finished a half marathon with a sub 5 minute pace (by a bees dick)

I had the following splits written on my arm 5km - 25:24, 10Km - 50:20, 15Km - 1:14:47 and 20Km 1:38:47, so I was pretty close to the mark, it was the last 4 Km really that let me down.

I am 98% happy, the 2% unhappy is because I was hoping to get closer to 1:44:00 and I reckon I could have if the usual panic attack didn't set in during the last kilometer, I had the legs for a strong quick finish over the last 500 metres, but it is pretty hard to do when your stomach is having a spasm. It's gotta be a mental thing and it is something I have to work on, I suspect it may be a fear of failure. Though god knows why, once you are under a Km from the finish what's to fear??

I felt pretty strong right from the off, despite the fecking wind, rain and general coldness, fortunately the rain lasted only a few minutes and as if by some miracle the wind was a tail wind, with some cross winds for most of the way. Fitzroy street was tough because the tail wind left and I rounded the top with pretty heavy legs, though my split times show I did not let off too much after the 17Km mark. Then St Kilda road seemed to go on FOREVER, despite it being only 4Km, to make matters worse this is when the head wind kicked in, and a nasty cross wind in parts too, one nearly blew me over. Also the total morons trying to DRIVE out of the service road didn't help, literally pulling out right in front of runners, seriously, I wish I was kidding!!

Anyway, I was just praying for the Domain Interchange because I knew it would be about 1300 mtres from there, but the damn thing was a mirage, to more I ran towards it the more it moved away :-) Finally the Arts Centre Spire came into view and I was into the finish chute and the last 400 mtres or so, which is when I was having stomach problems. I was pretty relieved to get over the finish line, and the first face I see is Tim as the marshall was registering my timing chip. A bit dazed and confused and for the first 20 seconds or so I was thinking, "who is this guy, he seems particularly interested in how I went, that's pretty friendly", Doh, it was fantastic to see a friendly face so soon after finishing, though I pretty sure I was babbling and making very little sense, and I may have looked like I was going to chuck, but I couldn't have, nothing in my stomach. And I certainly don't want to see my finishers photo, I can tell you now, it aint gunna be pretty.

I limped back to my car to get my skins and tracksuit then headed back to watch the marathoners finish, some really happy with their times, others not so. But to all the Marathoners you have my never ending respect and admiration. Michelle, you legend, I knew you could get under 4 hours and I had a tear in my eye seeing you finish looking so strong!!

Again I have learned so valuable lessons today, I think my pacing at the start was a bit off and I went out a touch to fast, a slightly more conservative start could have yielded a better result. Well, bored you all enough now, looking forward to fish and chips for dinner, a day or 2 recovery then back into it and on to the next challenge.

Tomorrow Melb HM

2006-10-07T15:32:00.000+10:00

Running
That's what it says on my Polar watch! 99 days ago, the day after I finished my first half marathon I set the count down feature on my watch, and here we are again. See, even the day after finishing the first one I was planning the next, and despite the umming and ahhing I had already decided in my heart that this October was going to be too soon for a full marathon, a decision I am very glad I took!

The race kit is all laid out, I am wearing the exact same thing I wore last time, rain hail or shine. I had made myself a pacing band with split times, but I don't think it will be very comfortable so I am just going to write the 5Km splits on my inner arm with permanent marker.

I didn't go for a full on run today, I did some gardening this morning, including taming a very over grown potato vine. So this afternoon I went for a brisk walk/run, pretty much just did some slow jogging and some strides just to remind myself what fast feels like.

Dinner tonite will be early and will be home made Nasi Goering, which will be lots of rice, some veg and egg, seasoning, an egg and the way I cook it, no oil (thanks mum for the non stick electric wok last christmas). Tomorrow night I am looking forward to my favorite indulgence, Fish and Chips, Mmmmmmm and there is a Darrel Lee Rocky Road out there with my name on it as well :-)

Here is a little sample of my diet staples over the last 3 days. Never thought I'd say it but I am a little carbed out right now, and I don't even like pasta that much at the best of times.

Best Wishes to everyone running tomorrow!

Aghh, restless

2006-10-06T18:16:00.000+10:00

Running
Rest day and getting restless, in fact I have sat down to blog because I have been pacing the house. I took a drive along the half marathon course this morning at about 930. It was a perfect morning for a run (no don't worry, I didn't) unfortunately it won't be so perfect on Sunday, but so be it, I have run in far nastier weather than what is being predicted.

Back to the course, not as hilly as I feared it would be, more gently undulating with some lovely downhill stretches to help make up some speed. Also Fitzroy Street was no where near as bad as I thought, I am familiar with this street but obviously had not looked at it from the point of view of a runner before. To put it in perspective I reckon the haul up Swanston Street during the Run for the Kids was more of a challenge.

So now I have had a good look and I have been able to build up a bit of a race strategy. Early on the road is a bit curvy so I'll stick to the inside/middle of the road for the first 6 Km or so. The critical 16Km mark (5Km to go) is around Lunar Park and then Vic Barracks is about 1Km (maybe slightly less) to go, it is about this point that I start trying to talk myself out of throwing up. Yep, you heard right, after over 10 fun runs now I still have not found a way of managing the over whelming anxiety that strikes me in the closing Km. I come over all panicky and the dry heaves start. Sorry, gross I know, if anyone knows any tricks to over come this I'd love to know, getting a bit tired of crossing the finish line the doubling over.

And don't stress about my hydration strategy (or lack there of) on race morning, it is tried and true. As most of my runs are done in the afternoons, after I have been drinking water all day, even if I go to the loo before hand about a Km in I always need to pee again. I have experimented with running though it but I end up with a stitch. However on morning long runs I only have some toast and jam and nothing to drink, subsequently I am not troubled, even though I do drink during the run. I certainly plan on drinking during the half, I'll do that same as last time, take 20 seconds to slow down around the half way aid station and have a proper drink of sport drink. Fortunately they are using Endura which I have been drinking since the start of the year.

Here is a pic I took on the course today at about the 15Km mark, I got some funny looks standing there on the nature strip taking the photo.

2006-10-05T16:21:00.000+10:00

Running
8Km easy, boring little trot 'round the streets near home. Well, I shouldn't say that, the route I took used to be my long run back in January when I'd take a deep breath on a Sunday morning and head out for 8Km which would take me about 50 minutes of slow running and a bit of walking.

Life
I took myself of to a chick flick this afternoon (my love of trashy chick flicks did appear on my 100 things about me list remember), I went to see The Devil Wears Prada. Not bad, Meryl Streep was fantastic, love her, oh to have such amazing bone structure, she still looks gorgeous. I did struggle to relate in parts though, the boyfriend and best friend got all snippy with the protagonist because she "changed". This gave me this irrites, sorry, but we can't stay the same forever, who'd want too, how boring!!

I popped into Dimmy's before the movie to buy myself a cheap top to wear on Sunday morning, something to keep me warm on the start line that can be chucked. So I found a top for $7 and was quite pleased with myself, then looked around at all the people who were shopping in there and buying clothes because for them it wasn't cheap it was what they could afford. Then I felt a bit ashamed of myself because the top I bought will be worn for an hour or so then discarded. Perhaps I dwell on things too much.

I have been following the AIS carb load program, starting from today. Unlike the bad old days there is no depletion phase, apart from a depletion of activity of course. I never, never thought I would say this, but it is quite difficult to get enough carbs in, so I am relying a bit on the endura and gatorade. For anyone who is interested check it out here. Also I am sticking to the refined carbohydrates so I don't get an upset stomach. Which is a change for me as I usually eat heaps of wholegrains, lentils, beans etc, typical vegetarian fare. I did this last time too, also I stop taking any fluids after about 6pm the night before and nothing but some toast and jam on the morning. Certainly made sure I had no unpleasant digestive issues on race morning, saves constant trips to the portaloo.

Ready and raring to go

2006-10-04T19:37:00.000+10:00

Running
An easy paced 10Km this afternoon. I forgot my watch (not something I do very often), fortunately I have some tried and true routes mapped out at 6Km, 10Km, 12Km, 13Km and 16Km so it wasn't a problem. To be honest during this taper period it is a nice change to just head out for a run without worrying about time, it probably helped keep my pace a bit slower.

It was a very warm afternoon at about 16:30 when I headed out, 28 degrees by the Nylex clock. I ran up to The Tan from the office, a lap and a bit then back along the Yarra to the office. Despite the weather it was quite a pleasent run, not too humid. Also the added advantage of the warm weather means lot's of lovely lads running around The Tan with their tops off, honestly, the hardships I must endure for my sport ;-)

Not so nervous today, I have managed to put things in perspective. I think the reason I get nervous is because I know I have worked hard to this point, I am pretty much 98% happy with my prep this time. So I get a bit edgy because I would be disappointed in myself if I did not perform to my expectations on the day and I think that is fair. But on the other hand, I have only been running seriously since January, it is only my second half marathon and let's face it I have many, many half marathons ahead of me. By the way this is not defeatist talk, I am merely gaining some perspective, trust me, I'll be running my heart out on Sunday.

Now the Ausrun Forum has been down for over 24 hours now, I am suffering withdrawals, hope it is back up soon. Think I saw one of the Ausrunners passing me just after Anderson St this afternoon, but I have only met him once so wasn't 100% and too shy to shout out in case I was wrong.

2006-10-03T20:51:00.000+10:00

Running
Last session before the half marathon. Just an easy 4 by 500 metres, not flat out, a good tempo session concentrating on form. I think that my actual performance was better than my perceived performance. My legs felt a touch jelly like and my heart rate more elevated than usual. I am putting it down to some nerves because I am physically well. I have my taper under control now, plan is as follows
Wed - 10Km
Thur - 8Km
Fri - Rest
Sat - 4 or 5 Km easy.

I have Thursday and Friday off work so I am looking forward to getting some rest in as well. I am also planning on driving the course, probably on Friday, it really helps me to identify the landmarks and know what is ahead of me.

Taper begins

2006-10-02T17:32:00.000+10:00

It's taper time. After an ill timed 7 days straight today is a rest day and it feels really weird to be home before dark I have to tell you. Heading out this morning without my kit I couldn't shake the feeling that I had forgotten something. It was such a lovely afternoon too, perfect for a run. I am also nervous as hell and fighting the urge to eat everything in sight. Oh well, of to make the most of my early return home and cook a nice healthy dinner, dahl and rice.

Dahl and rice turned out lovely. I bought myself a rice maker on the weekend because I can never get rice quite right, what a great little machine, only cost $30 and it made perfect rice.

Now why do I feel so damn nervous, it is not like anything is riding on this event, except my pride of course. I always have this terrible notion that my legs are going to seize up and refuse to work, weird hey. This is why I could never be a sprinter (apart from a woeful lack of talent in that area, I am sure I have no fast twitch muscles), I couldn't stand the pressure on the start line, if you blow it, it's all over. I feel sick with nerves just watching sprint events.

In fact elite athletes of all kinds amaze me, where on earth do they find the mental resolve to do what they do?? Imagine performing in front of those crowds, god, I'd freeze to the spot.

One week to go.....

2006-10-01T11:12:00.000+10:00

Running
Well, actually this time next week it will all be over and I'll be standing (hopefully) near the finish waiting for my marathon running mates to come across the line. Today was a shorter long run, just and easy(ish) 14 Km on the Warby trail with Tony and Peter. Despite my constant exclamations of "OK guys, I am going to slow it down a bit now", I never really did. 14Km took us 1:12:28, average pace 5:11, so really not much more than race pace, not to worry, it was only 14Km. The plan for next week will probably go like this
Mon - Rest
Tue - Session
Wed - 12 Km (pace ?)
Thu - 10Km (pace ?)
Friday and Saturday, not too sure, maybe rest Friday and an easy 5Km on Saturday just to work out the nerves, I'll play this by ear.

Keeping up the positive thoughts for next Sunday. Still aiming for 1:44, though I believe if all the conditions are right on the day I may manage 1:42. To go under 1:40 would mean stringing 2 10Km PBs together, might be too big an ask, that is not being negative, that is being realistic.

Afterwards I am looking forward to racing some shorter stuff through Nov/Dec just to see if I have gotten quicker and just for fun.

Life
Next weeks race will be special to me for another reason, other than it being a home town race. It will the day after someone very special to me died 4 years ago. My best friends father, Ahmed, was in his native South Africa settling on a retirement property he had bought in Cape Town. He was crossing the road and was knocked over my a speeding motor cyclist, he was in a coma for 10 days but his wife and daughter (my best friend) had to make the decision to turn of life support. It was a dreadful, painful time, made worse by the fact that I couldn't be there to support my friend. Ahmed was an amazing man who I first met as a very quiet insecure 13 year old when my parents were going though their divorce. He was warm, friendly, loving, very funny and along with Lorraine made me feel comfortable and safe in their home at a time in my life when I really needed that sort of support. His death left a big hole in his family's life, my best friend was pregnant with his first grandchild at the time, at least he got to see her married though. But his death also left a huge hole in my life because he was such a strong father figure and a great role model.

So when I am running down that road next Sunday and it's really hurting me and I get a second wind, guess when it is coming from :-)

Typical Obsessive

2006-09-30T16:56:00.000+10:00

Running
Couldn't leave well enough alone could I? Couldn't finish the month on 293Km could I?

Yep, headed out for a 7km run this morning, nothing taxing, just keeping the legs moving. I had a bad night sleep and it did help clear my head and set me up for the day, anyway, I am taking Monday as a rest day as part of my taper, so there! And this month should have been more like 335 Km, however there were 3 extra unscheduled rest days (mild quad strain and ASICS study testing and one run cut short when my foot hurt). Off for a nice easy shorter long run tomorrow, probably about 14 to 15Km.

As always, great therapy

2006-09-29T19:44:00.000+10:00

Running
I did say it was going to be 13Km today, but reviewing my diary I remembered I did 13Km on Monday instead of the scheduled 10Km, so I did 10Km today. Finished in 49:08, average pace of 4:54. Was in a total mood today, especially as the afternoon progressed. It is rare for me to be sitting there thinking "I don't wanna!!", it is usually a case of "can't wait to get outta here and go for my run". I was thinking, I need to find a new route to run, I wish I was meeting up with someone today, maybe I should just skip it and run on Saturday instead, Aghhhhhh. I was also sitting there stewing and focusing too much on negatives and just letting myself get into a slump. Anyway, no matter how shit I feel I don't bail on a run, a tiny little part of my mind knows that once I get going it will be alright.

Sure enough once I had got changed and walked back to my car to stash my stuff the mood was lifting, then by the time I hit the bottom of Anderson Street I was feeling like myself again. When I got back through Birrarung Marr (car was parked at Fed Square) the 10Km was up and I just lay on my back on one of the benches and stared up at the sky through the trees. As if it were psychic my MP3 player decided to play a nice chilled song to cool down to, Hearts a Mess by Gotye (great band by the way). Decided I wasn't in a hurry so I did some stretches, walked back to the car and chucked the tracksuit on then went back to look at all the photo's on display next to Fed Square. I had been running past them for the last week and a bit and I kept telling myself I should stop and have a proper look at them.

Looking at the positives
If I had have posted earlier today it would have been a miserable self pitying pile of garbage, thankfully the mood left me and you have all been spared.

While I was running today I was reflecting on some of the positive aspects of my training over the last 90 odd days since the last half marathon.

The mid week mini long run was introduced, where Wednesdays (sometimes a Thursday) I'd run 14Km, but soon bumped this up to 16Km.

I started doing proper speed work and have had 12 Tuesday night sessions, which at first was a real challenge for me but I have enjoyed this aspect of my training immensely.

A solid tempo session once a week.

My general easy run training speed has increased as has my long run pace.

Some good advice on form has helped me run faster will less perceived effort.

As I mentioned in an earlier post the first half of the year was building a base, this second half has been about adding some variety. Going into next year I want to concentrate on keeping the weekly mileage consistent at 80+ Kms a week. I know I will be a back of the pack AV runner, but my goal is to get the best out of myself and am committed to doing what it takes, so I am looking forward to the challenges of 2007

And by the way, I survived winter!!!!! I can sincerely and honestly say that I did not miss 1 run due to rotten weather, rain or shine I was out there working my little heart out :-)

10 days to go

2006-09-28T19:40:00.000+10:00

Running
12 Km in 1:01:57, and average pace of 5:09. A bit stiff to start off with but eased into it nicely after about 2 Km.

Life
I haven't mentioned it for a while but I still keeping up with the Pilates. I gotta confess I am not loving it, but I persist because it really is paying dividends. I have developed some killer abs, don't get too excited though, they are not visible and frankly the effort I would need to make to drop enough body fat to make them visible is just too great, I like my food waaaaay to much :-) Anyway, It's done wonders for my core strength and I can notice the positive impact it has had on my form.

I finished The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks) yesterday, it had a wicked little twist in the end, I have moved right on to another book by the same author. Unfortunately I am coming close to finishing everything he has written thus far which will be a bit sad. The amazing thing about him is that no two books are alike, it is very difficult to pigeon hole his style.

I am a bit teary eyed now. I just finished watching a show on ABC called Nerves of Steel, it was about the AIS's decision to take 4 girls and train them for the skeleton. This is an insane winter sport where you hurtle down an ice track FACE FORWARD on a tiny little sled at up to 130 KPH. I assume it is called skeleton because it is so basic, very little protection and a tiny sled. I think it is called skeleton because if you come off the sled that is all that will be left of you. Anyway, they took 2 sprinters, a surfer and a gymnast and had 5 months to get them to the world cup events, then had to qualify in the top 8 to get 1 team member to the 2006 winter Olympics. It was a very moving doco, just seeing the agonies of such amazing athletes as they try to do their best when only 1 person can get through. They managed to get Australia a 6th place ranking and the tiny little gymnast was our representative. I could barely watch the runs, it looks absolutely terrifying!!

2006-09-27T20:55:00.000+10:00

Running
Just a quick one today, it is a bit late and I want to relax. Owing to tapering my usual mid week 16Km is being knocked back to 12Km. But I had a massage booked tonight so I was only able to fit in a quick 10km, 50:24, average pace 5:02. Then on the train, race home, jump in the shower and out for my massage. A few tight spots to work out tonight but over all in pretty good shape.

I'll do 12Km tomorrow and a 13Km Fartlek session on Friday, then a shorter long run on Sunday.

Alrighty, off to relax now, not a very exciting post tonight I am afraid.

2006-09-26T21:42:00.000+10:00

Running
Session tonight - 250, 500, 750, 750, 500, 250 mtre Pyramid, Ladder, Ziggurat session, one of my favorites regardless what it is called. Splits as follows
56 (250 mtre)
2:03 (500 mtre)
3:12 (750 mtre)
3:11 (750 mtre)
2:02 (500 mtre)
52 (250 mtre)
I was quite happy with tonight's effort, and I am starting to hang on closer to the back of the pack now as well.

Life
Always a bit tired on Tuesday evenings so not really feeling very talkative and I always struggle to eat a proper dinner, just don't feel like it. Funny today, the nerves really started to set in for some reason, oh well, 2 weeks to go, better get used to it. Had a chat with TC about the taper over the next 2 weeks, all under control now.

One for the girls.....

2006-09-25T19:37:00.000+10:00

Running
13 Km today in 1:07:15 an average pace of 5:10. Cruised along and felt lovely and comfortable today.

I am happy to report that the body feels fine, no paranoid injury panic attacks in sight. I have a massage booked in for Wednesday night just to help keep me feeling loose and comfortable.

Life
I bought a new pair of jeans today, size 9! The last time my jeans were in single figures I am pretty sure my age was too :-) Funny thing is I have not been losing weight, but I have noticed a slight change in my body shape, must be a reduction in body fat, either way, I am not complaining.

God, has Mark Latham totally gone off his trolley or what!!! I mean the man is seriously off his rocker, here is his latest, the Aussie male has been replaced by a nation of "metrosexual knobs and toss bags", onya Mark, you certainly have a way with words. Honestly, it is not really my place to discuss what it means to be an Aussie male (being that I am a girl and all), but it takes all types. Some of us love the metrosexual type, some of us prefer a bit of rough. Personally I don't really have a type, as long as he isn't squatting in a ditch pushing berries up his nose I am not really all that fussed, though a good sense of humor and a sharp mind help. Alright, I'll also admit that the guy in the picture who accompanied the article isn't too shabby either and does closely resemble my "type". This post does not really seem to be going any where, guess I was just looking for an excuse to post that pic ;-)

2 weeks to go

2006-09-24T17:14:00.000+10:00

Running
20 Km on my own today, in 1:46:36 and at an average pace of 5:19 was too fast for a long run, this always happens when I do these runs on my own. God it was windy out there, at some points I think I was running sideways!

So, 2 weeks to go until my second half marathon hit out. Yes, the nerves are starting to set in now. Looking over the training plan I know I have done enough, but not quite as much as I wanted. Since 24 July there have been 2 weeks in the 70s, 2 weeks in the 80s and the rest in the high 60s. I feel that the prep has lacked a little consistency but overall I am pretty happy. The main difference from the last HM prep is that I have added the speed sessions and longer long runs and I have put in more Kms. It has to be noted as well that the "official" prep period has been shorter, I pretty much took 3 weeks to recover from the GC and did not start proper training until 24 July. Then again I had already done the hard yards building the mileage so this time it was about adding some variety.

I guess tapering starts next week, never quite 100% sure how to approach this. I think this week will be much of the same but I will probably cut the long run to 15Km next Sunday, then next week rest Monday, session Tuesday (maybe??), 10Km Wednesday, 8Km Thurs and Fri, rest Sat and Sunday, a lazy 21.1 Km up Beach Road :-)

Nerves, nerves, nerves!!! I know I have gotten faster, but how much? 1:44:00 is still the goal, anything quicker will be a bonus, and really, who knows what sort of day the Melbourne weather gods will grant us. I probably gave about 90% to the last one, mainly because I was unsure of the distance, this time it will be 100% and I am expecting a degree of pain, both mental and physical, it's all just part of the fun really.

Then it will be time to cast my mind forward to what comes next (yes, already thinking ahead)........

ME!

2006-09-23T17:27:00.000+10:00

No running to talk about today, Saturday's a rest day. Instead I am pinching an idea from another blog I read today, so here are 100 things about me -
1 - I have blue eyes
2 - I refuse to celebrate my birthday
3 - I tried to bleach my freckles off my face when I was 12, but now I love them
4 - I don't dye my hair
5 - I hate housework and gardening
6 - My favorite colour is green
7 - I have always wanted to learn French, but can't seem to find the time
8 - I love trashy chick flicks
9 - I keep buying clothes that are too big for me
10 - I may well be addicted to Whizz Fizz
11 - I can't sing, but I still do, in the privacy of my car
12 - I love potatoes, in all forms
13 - I love Dove chocolate with hazelnuts
14 - I love Darrell Lee Rocky Road
15 - I own jewelry, but I never wear it, unless my running watch counts
16 - I hate capsicum
17 - I won't ever have children, my choice
18 - People who tell me that it is sad I never want to have children piss me off
19 - I never finish hobbies that I start, so I have stopped starting them
20 - I think Nick Cave is a brilliant story teller
21 - I have tried every stoopid diet ever invented, they all sucked
22 - I am not religious
23 - I have never voted Liberal
24 - I have never voted Labor either
25 - I haven't seen my father for 11 years, it is as much my fault as it is his
26 - My sneakers are US size 9.5
27 - I have 3 cats, all rescues, they are called Tin Tin, Scully and Asterix
28 - I have 2 tattoos
29 - I played baseball for 3 years
30 - I stopped because I got hit in the mouth by a baseball and was too freaked out to play anymore
31 - My spare rooms are still full of junk from when I moved here, almost 4 years ago
32 - This is how old I am
33 - I am a Capricorn
34 - Banana's are my favorite fruit, so it's been a rough couple of months
35 - It's really hard to think of 100 facts about yourself
36 - My brother and sister live interstate, I miss them
37 - I get really bad PMT
38 - I really want to run 10Kms in 42 minutes one day, but worry I stated running too late to get that good
39 - I never had a boyfriend until I was 18, I was an awkward teenager
40 - I have not been to any of my high school reunions
41 - I am much happier at 32 than I was at 22
42 - I wish I knew at 22 what I know at 32, I am sure I will wish I knew now what I will know at 42
43 - I wear almost no make up, I just can't be bothered
44 - I love cricket
45 - I'd love a Nestle Crunch bar right now
46 - I am making mexican for dinner tonight
47 - I barrack for Carlton
48 - I decided when I was 13 that I would never get married, I haven't changed my mind
49 - Mmmm, Guinness, day no more
50 - Mmmmm, Jamisens
51 - I love the orange and poppy seed muffins they sell at a bakery on my way to work, but I rarely indulge
52 - I hate people telling me I can "eat what I want", I can't
53 - I am going to be an Aunty in February
54 - I have a red car
55 - I can't wear strapless dresses, I don't have the assets
56 - I don't mind about 55, it makes it easier to run :-)
57 - There will be some facts I won't put in here
58 - I love salmon and tuna sashimi with heaps of pickled ginger and wasabi
59 - I have very ticklish knees and I crack up when I get a massage when the MT touches my knees
60 - I am not allergic to anything
61 - I am claustrophobic
62 - I am TERRIFIED of spiders
63 - I have never had surgery
64 - I have had both my thumbs dislocated, baseball again
65 - I don't think I'll ever like my legs
66 - I was 16 when I first got drunk, I have not touched Southern Comfort since
67 - Fresias are my favorite flower
68 - People who drive at 60 in an 80 zone really piss me off
69 - I had my belly button pierced once
70 - I love the smell of frangipanis
71 - I wish my teeth were straight
72 - I am probably going to pay through the nose to get my teeth straight
73 - I bought my coach from Ikea
74 - I have had the same bed for 10 years, when I get bored with it I paint it another colour
75 - My coffee table came from Ikea as well
76 - Xmas is a stressful and horrible time of the year for me and I hate it
77 - I have an odd sense of humor
78 - I think this guy is absolutely gorgeous, even though he is 15 years older than me
79 - I am not too embarrassed to admit I love watching The Bill
80 - One day I want to visit Iceland
81 - I don't and never have collected anything
82 - I Love to run
83 - Baby animals make me go Awwwwwww
84 - I need to be less rigid and more spontaneous
85 - I am the oldest of 4 kids
86 - I never met a carbohydrate I didn't love
87 - The only meat I eat is fish
88 - I hold my breath when I walk past the butcher shop, I hate the smell
89 - I wish I had more time to cook healthy dinners
90 - I Love banana smoothies
91 - I want to run to th best of my abilities, I will give 100% to this goal
92 - I am a little bit neurotic
93 - I love the new Dr Who series
94 - I was scared of the Cybermen when I was a little girl
95 -I don't dwell on "what could have been", it is a waste of time
96 - I Love hot weather, despite being a freckly red head
97 - I last went to the doctor 6 years ago
98 - Blade Runner is one of my favorite films
99 - I am reading The Wasp Factory at the moment, Iain Banks is one of my favorite authors
100 - I saw fairies once when I was a little girl

Guinea Pig Take 2

2006-09-22T19:57:00.000+10:00

Running
I had grand ambitions of a 10Km run this morning. Then I woke up feeling like crap (day 1 of cycle, hence a return to Melb Uni for more testing this afternoon) and decided that 2 weeks prior to the half marathon a missed training session wouldn't kill me. So the only running was 1 lazy 6 minute Km on the treadmill in the lab.

Life
So I was back at Melbourne Uni (Dept of Physiotherapy) for my second round of testing, the first was around ovulation time and today was for day 1 of my cycle. When I finished running on the treadmill one of the physio's said that I had a "nice efficient running style". I NEVER thought I would hear my clumping unco style described as nice or efficient, but I really have been trying to improve so it was cool to get that sort of feedback. We got through the testing nice and quick today because I remembered everything from last time, just one more session to go, apparently we missed my ovulation by a couple of days last time so I need to go back. I got some cool ASICS stuff too, a sports bag, a tech T-shirt, socks and a drink bottle.

My latest copy of Run For Your Life turned up yesterday so I had a good read of that today. One of my favorite sections is Stories From the Vault, rather than a tale of victory this time around it was Lee Troop writing about his Marathon at the Sydney Olympics. I wasn't that aware of Lee back then, I remember watching it on TV as I knew it would be Mona's last major competition. Anyway, Troopy didn't have a good one and it was a great article because I find that the tales of woe can be just as inspiring (is that weird or do other people feel that way too?), I mean to hang on when you just want to sit down and give up really takes guts. I can't believe he had a torn rectus abdominous, I just wouldn't pick that as an injury a runner would get, but what would I know. It's experiences like that which I hold in the back of my mind to try and inspire me when I am racing and it's starting to hurt. Obviously at my level if I had an injury I would be likely to pull the pin, there is no point in me pulling out any heroics. The type of hurting I am talking about is just the lactic, chest burning effort of that final push, when you have to tell yourself, 1 more Km and it's over, just another 800 metres, come on the sooner you finish the sooner you rest, DON'T GIVE UP!!!

This turns my thoughts to the mental side of this next half marathon, 2 weeks out, the majority of the training has been done, now it's time to consolidate and I start spending more time thinking about the run. Last time I was just plain scared! This time, how do I feel?? More on that tomorrow.......

Nice and easy

2006-09-21T21:08:00.000+10:00

Running
Nice and easy tonite, as I had promised myself. 13Km in 1:07:38 an average pace of 5:12. I have to go in for testing again tomorrow afternoon for the study I volunteered for so I will back up for another easy 10km in the morning.

Life
It is my mum's birthday today, so with the brother and sister living on the Gold Coast it was just a small group of us for a lovely dinner at our favorite Vietnamese place (jeans for me tonight, not the trackie dacks like last week). Mum was thrilled because she wasn't expecting to see me until I took her out for lunch on Saturday. We had a bit of a moment during dessert when I felt like a five year old again. Mum was trying to make me eat some of her ice-cream with fudge sauce, but I was refusing. So here I am, aged 32 in a restaurant with my mouth clamped shut refusing to eat something my mum was trying to feed me. If I had have started eating it I would not have been able to stop! There will be enough time for ice-cream as a treat in 17 days time.

What The!!!

2006-09-20T19:21:00.000+10:00

Running
16Km in 1:19:23, an average pace of 4:57. Yes, you are reading that correctly! I eased in the first 3 Km then found myself running quite comfortably in spite of last nights session, so I decided to do as I did 3 weeks before the last half marathon and have a go at race pace over a longer run. From the 4th Km onwards 11kms worth were at sub 5:00 pace
(4) 4:59
(5) 5:10
(6) 4:58
(7) 4:55
(8) 4:48
(9) 4:50
(10) 4:58
(11) 4:52
(12) 4:44
(13) 5:04
(14) 4:44
(15) 4:43
(16) 4:44

I am still mulling over my plan of attack but I am hoping to hit between 4:50 and 5:00 minute Kms on the day.

7, or is it 8 weeks worth of Tuesday night sessions has paid dividends, particularly with the improvement in my form. I think my ability to get out there and run that little bit faster is down to the fact that my stride/form is starting to get better. You certainly do move along quicker with less perceived effort when your form is good (no shit! I hear some of you say, but it is not as simple as just saying, "oh I am going to run this way now", it takes time and the right advice to make the change). Don't get me wrong, today was not what I would call easy but it was not particularly difficult either.

Anyway, after a quick start to the week I will ease off the pace for the next few runs, also I have ASICS study testing again on Friday afternoon so will have to squeeze in a morning run.

Oh yeah, something odd happened around the 10Km mark, my right leg fell off, don't worry I stuck it back on and kept going, I am sure I'll be right as rain tomorrow :-)

6 by 500 meters

2006-09-19T20:11:00.000+10:00

Running
Speed work tonight, 6 by 500 metres with 2 minute recovery between sets. Why 500 meters you ask? Because the funny little 2 lane track we train on next to Olympic Park is about 500 meters long, just to make it interesting.

First really warm running night since the start of the year really, 27 degrees when we got started. But is soon "dropped" to about 19 degrees and came accompanied by a rather stiff wind. After a slow first rep and despite the wind I was pretty happy with my splits tonite (yes, finally managed to take some split times)
2:11
2:02
2:02
2:05
2:06
1:59 (thanks to a pacer who made it look all too easy but pushed me to a good quick rep despite the headwind)

It was great to have some of the boys who had finished their 6 by 1000 mtre session join us for our last set. I don't know how the others feel but that sort of thing always helps me find that little bit extra, even when my legs are burning and my lungs are bursting. Though at the time I want to kill the buggers for making it look easy when I am pushing 100%.

A bit of shoe lace trickery courtesy of TC made the world of difference to my right shoe, felt a bit odd at first but it took off the pressure I usually feel over the bridge of my foot, so I'll give it go on my Brooks as well. Now the less said about my "oh my god I have a stress fracture" episode the better really. Sheesh, since when did I become so hysterical, I am normally so level headed it is almost tedious! Obviously displaying my now typical, 3 weeks before a big race diva behavior.

The Queen of over reaction

2006-09-18T18:49:00.000+10:00

Running
Well, if over reaction were an olympic sport I'd be standing atop the podium, with my hand on my heart singing the national anthem. I hammered out the quickest 10Km training run I have ever done today, 49:35. I eased into the run for the first few Kms, just testing my foot, but by the time I got to Anderson Street I felt so fresh and just let my legs do what they wanted. Here are the splits
5:45 (easing into it)
5:02
5:10
5:18 (Anderson St leg, was pretty happy with that)
4:48
4:35
4:40
4:35
4:40
4:52 (dodging pedestrians)

You know some days you just feel totally on par, today was one of them, I reckon if I had have raced today I would have killed my 10Km PB. So what do you reckon the issue with my foot was? Thanks to several hours on Google I went to bed totally convinced I had managed to sustain a Metatarsal Stress Fracture, I was also a certified expert in all things foot related, Plantar Whatsit, Tendonitis, Metatarsalgia, Mortons Neuroma, Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome and Gout just to name a few. Curse the internet, it may have opened up the world but it also provides fertile breeding ground for the hypochondriac! Anyway, I am MORTIFIED to admit, after careful consideration that it may just have been a case of me having my shoe laces done up too tight, yep, you read correct! I have high arches, which does not help and I think that in securing my foot pod to my shoe I did the laces up too tight, add to that fact it was a warm morning which caused my feet to swell and there you have it, massive over reaction. Thanks for the support, and thanks to Michelle for the concerned SMS this morning, I promise never to cry wolf again - until the next time ;-)

Life
Very happy to read this morning that Craig Mottram defended his 3000mtre title at the world cup athletics at the weekend, and also ran a PB, broke his Australian Record and the event Record, what a champ!

Finally got to meet another Ausrunner today, I had a lovely lunch with Boston at Cookie in Swanston Street. The do a fantastic steamed salmon with lemongrass and ginger, just about my favorite way of eating fish, especially with lot's of steamed rice. Poor Boston discovered the hard way that I tend to babble alot and pretty much speak without thinking, I hope I made some degree of sense today!

Here is the gorgeous Craig Mottram after his win at the weekend

2006-09-17T14:02:00.000+10:00

Running
I was not sure how honest I wanted to be here, but denial won't make it better. A 22Km run was planned for today and I met Tony at the Koonung Trail at 730 this morning. The pace was quicker than my long run pace should be but I was still comfortable and I could easily talk. I told Tony that I was happy for a quick first half but would prefer a slower trip back.

All was going well until about 12Km in when I had a dull pain on the top of my foot. I pushed through because I often have mild pain in my right foot, since I was about 14 when I did some ligament damage as a result of having a heavy bench dropped on the top of my foot. This incident resulted in some bad swelling and bruising and time on crutches (resulting in the nickname hopalong carrot, I have red hair, very amusing) but no broken bones.

Anyway, we got to about the 16Km mark and I had to pull up because the pain suddenly became quite sharp and it takes alot to stop me! We walked close to another Km then I tried to run again, no good and I pulled up again at the 17Km mark.

Right now I am very unhappy and just wanna type a whole string of bad words to describe exactly how I feel right now. I have my feet up and have been icing every 20 minutes. Not sure if the icing is really going to be doing any good though because there is no swelling and there is no pain if I manipulate my foot with my hands. Anyway, there are two little words lurking in the back of my mind right now and I don't want to say them out loud, let alone type them. Right now I just don't know what to do, perhaps waiting until tomorrow before I start to panic is a good option.

The 17 Kms I did manage was pretty good though, 1:29:13, an average pace of 5:17.

Am I allowed to have a little cry??

Big thanks to Tony too who would not let me walk out the rest of the course, instead I waited at the bus shelter on Station Road while Tony ran back then collected me in the car to drive me back to my car, chivalry is not dead.

Post Script - it is about 21:05 and have taken it easy most of the day and iced the foot quite a bit. No pain when walking or weight bearing and no tender spots at all (trust me I have been doing a bit of prodding). Maybe I am starting to become a paranoid runner??!! I will see how things are tomorrow afternoon.

Just like riding a bike really!

2006-09-16T18:15:00.000+10:00

Running
None today, it is my rest day

Life
Now that I have a car that is big enough for more than me and a passenger the bikes finally got a look in after almost 3 years in the shed! I used to keep fit by riding to work every day when I lived in Kew, it was only about 12Km each way but it kept the podge off. But when I moved to Blackburn I became far less active and next thing I knew I was the not so proud owner of 16 unwanted extra kilo's.

So earlier this week the bikes were dragged out of the shed, a bike rack was purchased, tyres pumped up and bikes generally checked over, surprisingly there were no punctures. I decided to take us to the Warby Trail I have run it enough times but I really wanted to take the bike there and go out in the opposite direction to the normal running route and see more of the track.

The weather could not have been more perfect and we headed out from Wandin Station towards Warby, we kept going until about 4 Kms past Worri Station and stopped for a spot of lunch. Nothing fancy just some good fresh bread with cheese and tomato, simple but yum. Then it was back on the bikes to head back to Wandin. It was only about a 2 hour ride at a pretty leisurely pace, not even remotely taxing from a cardio point of view, in fact I would barely even call it active recovery, I doubt my heart rate went up more than 55%. I will have to buy one of those padded gel seat thingies to go over the normal bike seat, seems that I have far less padding in the bum region these days and was most grateful for the down hill sections so I could stand up on the pedals.

I'll have to psych the other half up for an assault on the Wandin to Warby and back again stretch, I might try and tackle that one Sunday in lieu of a long run during my "off" season (January), it will be about a 55Km return journey.

But for now running still reigns and I have 22km long run planned for tomorrow, hopefully with a running buddy.

It was either that or kill someone..........

2006-09-15T19:46:00.000+10:00

Running
Redemption!!!! I had the run today that I was supposed to have yesterday. 13Km in 1:06:11, average pace 5:05. I settled in for 6 Kms or so then I was feeling pretty good so thought I would try and up the pace somewhat, so from the 7th Km on it looked like this, 4:54, 4:41, 4:56, 5:08, 4:50, 4:48 and 4:46. What a relief and a confidence booster, it was like I had a different set of legs today. My half marathon race pack arrived today, 3137, I am coming up in the world, my GC number was 4342. I love getting the race pack, the countdown is really on now.

Life
The good run probably stemmed from a frustrating day at the office, a long and boring tale for those who are not in the line of work I am. Suffice it to say, I am very far from perfect myself but my biggest frustration is dealing with people who do not work to the same standard that I do. In fact I heard a great description of anger the other day, it was something like, the feeling of dissapointment when something does not live up to your expectations. I take pride in my job and I get a little crazy when other people that you reley on do not meet you half way, particlarly when people who are supposed to be on call can not be raised and when you do get ahold of them they say it was because the credit ran out on their phone. Let's just say a quiet sort of calm came over me at that point, probably the same calm a serial killer feels before they.........well, I was mad but it would have been pointless yelling at the guy!

Anyway, it was just one of those frustrating days and at about 2pm I caved in to emotional eating and ended up with a bag of Haigs choccie freckles, basically it was either the chocolate or kill someone! But I didn't eat them all, I only had a few, just enough to take the edge off.

Politics, so Johnny Boy wants to put in place some sort of charter of "Australian Values" for potential citizens to sign up to. Hmmmm, and just what will these values be and who is going to decide what they are?? More pressingly what will my position as a citizen be should I not agree with said values, will I be asked to leave the country? Where will I go?

Big fat blah

2006-09-14T19:08:00.000+10:00

Running
I had a tempo session planned for today, 1Km warm up and cool down and 8Km in the middle to test my hoped for half marathon race pace of 4:50 to 5:00. The less said about it the better really, just not one of those good runs. I just could not find my rhythm and my shoes, which have 530Kms on them now seem to have just gone flat all of a sudden. All the bounce has gone and I scored a couple of big flat blisters. Not too impressed really, I was told they were a high mileage trainer and I would expect more than 500Kms out of them. Maybe it was just a crap day, they felt fine over 16km yesterday. Anyway, finished up with 10.3Km in 52:59, an average pace of 5:07 with only 4Km at target pace, pretty shitty considering I did a 10Km tempo session 2 weeks ago in 49:18.

Whatever, it's done now and it was better than not running, it's just knocked my confidence somewhat.

Confession
Just watched a show in Biography Channel, Meatloaf: Bat out of Hell. Although it is before my time I totally love that album, Meatloaf has an amazing voice. My brother and I used to put Dad's Bat out of Hell album on when we were kids and jump around the living room, we new all the lyrics! And of course I do remember his turn as Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show and I thought he was great in Fight Club as well. He was on JJJ the other morning and was a pretty good sport.

Everything's going to be allllllright

2006-09-13T20:41:00.000+10:00

Running
Mini Long run day, 16Km in 1:24:31, an average pace of 5:17. Totally gorgeous afternoon a bit overcast but lovely and warm, this may sound weird but it was kinda cool to be able to work up a proper sweat for a change. Happy to report that the achilies stood up well up some of the mini hills and bumps I had to negotiate today, not a niggle to be had!

Life
Couldn't be bothered cooking tonight so when I got picked up from the station we headed to our fave Vietnamese place. Problem being I was in my trackie so I asked the BF to bring me a top to change into (it is a pretty casual place), however even with a polo top on and the trackie dacks I still felt pretty self conscious, I looked like a drug dealer! I am of the school of thought that tracksuits are sports wear, ie for before and after a work out, they are not an outfit, anyway, I am sure no one else noticed and dinner was fantasic as always.

Thanks for the kind comments yesterday, I only posted the pic to show off the new Skins, and you know, it is all about the pose! Have you ever noticed the before and after shots for weight loss commercials? The before photo is almost always a full frontal shot, the after shot is almost always that sideways, one leg pushed out in front pose, thus minimising the "frontage" presented to the camera. Only the Kate Moss's and Nicole Ritche's of this world get away with the front on pose, because let's face it, if they stood sideways we wouldn't be able to see them :-)

Just the running

2006-09-12T20:38:00.000+10:00

Speed session tonight, 6 by 400 mtre with 100 mtre floating recovery, so the momentum was moving forward the whole time. As I do most Tuesdays I spent the day psyching myself up for the session, though I am pleased to say I am feeling more comfortable with the quicker pace now and despite still finding them a little bit daunting I enjoy the challenge immensly. My worries were eased somewhat this evening when I discovered this was a tempo session, phew, because all day I was wondering how I could go all out for 6 reps with only a floating recovery! As per usual I did not take any splits, I am still concentrating on pace and stride and just doing it right, I promise I'll start taking splits from next session.

I wore my capri skins tonight and appreciated the extra support on the quads and hammys that they offer, in fact I am sitting here feeling reasonably fresh. Also very pleased to report no twinges from the achilles, seems the icing and extra day's rest has done the trick. Only 26 days until the next half marathon now, yikes, I am starting to have the odd nervous bout now, memories of how I felt before the Gold Coast are rushing back :-) still, it's all part of the fun isn't it!

Here is a piccie of my new skins, this was taken with my mobile in the change rooms at work so the quality is a bit crap, I am attempting a wave at the camera :-)

Guinea Pig Duties

2006-09-11T19:18:00.000+10:00

Running
None today, I had my first round of testing (see below) for the ASICS runners study, I am also resting a niggly right achilles

Life
So I fronted up for my first round of testing today, first time I have ever been a guinea pig. The 3 Physio's were lovely and made me feel very much at ease. Lot's of interesting things to do "running" on a tready for 6 minutes @ 6 min/km, very weird because I haven't been on one for so long and I felt very unco, especially with all the wires stuck to my legs. It took me a minute to hit my stride but even then I kept running into the barrier at the front as I tried to run off the treadmill :-) Then I had to hop up and down on one leg, they assure me there was a point to it other than for their own amusement, oh and I never want to see footage of myself from behind again, especially while hopping! Then they put pressure down on my knee and I had to push up against it while a ultrasound was taken of my poor achilles. Because it had been bothering me yesterday I was half expecting a gasp of horror as the ultrasound image came up, but nope they told me that Mr Achilles was looking pretty good and performing as he should. While this was going on I was chatting with one of the physio's about my running, I mentioned I ran 26km yesterday and I thnk he thought I said "last week" because a moment later he said, "what! in one go!" LOL

We also talked about the pressure running puts on the body, apparently when your foot strikes the groud you are putting about 6 times your body weight worth of force down!! I just laughed and said "well, us runners keep you guys in business"

Finally I had to give a little bit of blood, not really an issue for me as long as I don't look. The girl who took the blood said, "right I am telling your this for legal reasons, you shouldn't run for up to 48 hours after this, but I know you will so don't freak out if you get a bit of a bruise around where the needle went in, that's normal"

The only annoying bit was I had to get weighed :-( something I have been avoiding lately because of the mood it puts me in, so, naturally I am now in a grump! Why oh why am I so cursed? I really wish I could just be happy with myself the way I am, but no, I have to pick myself apart at the seams. Sorry I am totally neurotic, you know that by now, I simply can't be told.

Ice Ice Baby

2006-09-10T15:24:00.000+10:00

The alternative name for this post was simply going to be the one word I yelled out upon jumping into the icebath, I'll leave that one up to your imagination

Running
Long run today and finished the week on 81Km. 26Km in 2:27:46, an average pace of 5:40. This included some nice slow early Kms and a handful of speedy sub 5 minute Kms towards the end. I wore the new Skin Capri's toay and they were damn comfy, I may consider wearing them on raceday. I was feeling a bit spent at about the 22Km mark and stopped the watch to walk about 500 mtres. It was a gradual uphill and the achilles in my right leg was gicing me some gyp, I'll get the ice onto it tonight when I have time to put my feet up, also some nurofen. Also I think I hit the famous "wall" for the first time at about 22Km. Despite me telling my running companion that I can usually manage up to 26Km without a gel I think today I really needed some nutrition along the way. I think this will be my last long run over 25 Km between now at October, I'll probably knock the distance back to 20 to 22km.

I also think I am in need of a lighter week of around 65Km, so that will fit in nicely next week as I have testing for the ASICS study on Monday afternoon which will give me 2 rest days next week.

As the title suggests I did brave the icebath today, the legs really needed it. Well, to be honest I didn't quite cope with the full lower body imersion, for some strange reason putting my feet in was incredibly painful. Not just "wow this is really cold", rather "Dear God, this really hurts I can't keep my feet in here". I tried chucking on a pair of explorer socks (very amusing sight, undies, running top, socks, bath) but to no avail. I ended up soaking a towel in the water and wrapping it around my legs for 5 minutes, resoak, repeat 3 times. This worked well and I followed up with warm shower and Skins. All up I'll do this again, the legs feel considerably fresher than they usually do after a long week.

Life
Foxtel have been replaying all the Star Wars movies, never a massive fan but I will say that Empire Strikes Back was my favorite installment, Han Solo be still my beating heart :-) The first 3 (recent) installments really were a pile of poo that were no more the vehicles for merchandising. Seriously, did everyone else find Anakin to be the shittest character in movie history? I felt zero sympathy. He was a whiny sooky wussy little pain in the butt, go on you spineless little wimp join the freakin dark side, I really don't give a stuff, sheesh! And jar jar binks, What they hell were they thinking, was any movie character ever more pointess? All right, Sunday seems to be turning into Em's rant about movies that shit her.

Rest, Glorious Rest

2006-09-09T17:27:00.000+10:00

Running
Ahhh, no running today, rest day. Thank goodness because it is awful out there, cold and nasty.

Life
I found out this week that one of my fave food shops, Macro has a store in Glen Waverly so now I don't have to trek out to Richmond to stock up on goodies. Being a vego it can be hard to put together a quick healthy meal sometimes, you can get damn sick of pasta and I HATE tofu! During the week I don't get home until after 630pm at the earliest because I am running, and trust me the last thing I want to do is slave away in the kitchen making dinner. At Macro they sell these yummy frozen lentil and pumpkin patties that I can make a quick wrap out of with some humous (protein along with the lentils), salad and pita bread. The same company also makes these great brown rice and lentil burgers that also make a good quick dinner. I also picked up some brown rice and buckwheat noodles to make a ramen from with miso soup base and veggies. Very :-) because I will be eating well this week.

Right next door to Macro there was a sports store and I have finally been able to track down a pair of Capri Skins (at this point the girls are thinking, Capri Yep no problem, and the boys are thinking What The! Well just for the boys Capri pants finish just below the knee, so longer than bike shorts and shorter than full length tights) and they were selling them at 10% off. They came out a few months ago but no one seems to stock then, they are not even on the Skins website. This shop also had the new top for girls but I couldn't any advantage in a Skins top. I was pleasently surprised to find that I have gone down a size since I bought my full length pair in Feb, I am now an XS. Now I am not exactly petite so I am not sure how the really little girls fare, I can't see how a 155 cm 45 Kg pocket rocket would get much compression from the same size tights as I wear, I would have thought they would go down to XXS. Anyway, I am not complaining and it explains why I had to keep stopping during last weeks long run to hitch my full length Skins up, think I will have to relegate them to recovery wear only now.

Kids!! They're everywhere, help!!!!

2006-09-08T19:08:00.000+10:00

Running
12 Km today in 1:03:33 an average pace of 5:17. Bloody uninspiring though, cold and windy and still battling some general leg soreness, nothing serious just heavy and tired. In fact I felt as about as light and graceful as a 3 legged hippo today. My mind was playing funny buggers today too, telling me that it's all over and I'll never run a decent half marathon, kept trying to shut the nagging cow up, grrrr. Ughh, not to worry tomorrow is a rest day and I'll enjoy a sleep in and some general loafing about.

Life
My work gives us a day off every year for community service. A group of us have been supporting a charity for the last couple of years called NAPCAN which stands for National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. We chose to support them becuase the operate with little government funding, apart from ocassional special grants. Interestingly many of us who help fund raise for NAPCAN do not have children of our own. Personally I have consumed more than my fair share of charity choccies to do my bit ;-) every year on the Friday at the end of National Child Protection Week NAPCAN have a big morning tea/Kid's party at the Royal Childrens Hospital. They invite all the community groups that are being recognised with special awards for their work with kids and they also invite about 200 kids from surrounding schools. This is the second year we have volunteered to provide morning tea for the adults and kids, prior to that they were never able to provide refreshments because the Vic branch operates on a budget of a mere $12,000 a year. It's no drama for us to get together and bake some cakes and buy some chips and dips. We also put together about 200 lolly bags for the kids (kids don't mind Reject Shop lollies do they??).

There were also volunteers from another company providing the entertainment, games, face painting, coloured hairspray, so the whole vibe is kind of like a big kids party. It was further reinforced for me today why I won't ever have kids, we just don't relate. One little fella totally did his 'nana when he couldn't open his lolly bag (we used little zip lock bags) and when I tried to help him he clutched the bag to his chest, dropped to the floor and really let loose, I just stood there like and idiot "WTF am I supposed to do here?", I just backed away and let his teacher sort him out, I truly believe that like wild animals kids smell fear!

2006-09-07T20:08:00.000+10:00

Running
Mid week long run today (slightly delayed couldn't do it yesterday), 16Km at a very easy 5:30 pace, finished in 1:28:24. Not too bad today, a tad cold and windy but I have run in worse. Feeling a bit looser today after my massage. Funnily though my quads are really achey, I am wracking my brains to figure out what could have caused it, it feels like I have done a heap of squats. Then it struck me today, in Pilates on Tuesday I did these wicked hard toetaps to a box from the end of a raised platform. Veeeeery difficult to control properly and as a result my lower abdominals and quads have a case of DOMs.

Life
There was a comment left as a result of yesterday's post about me relaxing with a glass of water ;-) Come on now, I am not that much of a goody two shoes! I am extremely partial to a good red, a Jamiesons or a Guiness, but definitely not after a massage, hence the big glass of water. Though at the moment I am in my month before a major race mode which means no alcohol, no chocolate, basically no crap. By race day I will never want to see another salad sandwich or pot of yoghurt ever again. There is no particular logic or benefit to it, I think it just gives me a psychological egde, a feeling that I have done everything I possibly can. Not that my diet is particularly bad at any other time, it is just giving up those little vices for a couple of weeks, it helps me focus.

WTF happened to Spring

2006-09-06T21:29:00.000+10:00

Running
I had a massage booked tonight so not much time to squeeze in the run. 6Km in 31:40 so an easy pace of 5:17. A 10Km run was planned but not a big deal it will be easy to make up the extra 4km over the rest of the week. AND frankly the weather was even too much for me tonight, cold, wet, windy, bloody miserable. As usual a massage hit the spot and now I am relaxing with a big glass of water.

Life
Very disturbed to read on the front page of The Age this morning that 4 more of the Bali 9 have had their appeals against their jail terms over turned and the death penalty imposed instead. I guess that is Indon's slap on our wrist for granting asylum to the West Papuans. I know what they did was wrong blah blah blah, I have heard all those arguments, but I simply can not condone the death penalty under any circumstances. It will be a sad day for me if I find that my heart has become so hard that I can accept capital punishment.

Back to school

2006-09-05T20:56:00.000+10:00

Running
Speedwork tonight and a good fun session. Quite alot of the group were resting after half marathons on Sunday so those of us who were there just had a bit of fun. I won't describe it all but it reminded me of the games we used to play in PE at school. After all the serious training I have been doing of late it was great to just run around and have a laugh, in fact it was just what the doctor ordered. And I have a massage tomorrow so I will be right as rain. With warm up and cool down clocked up about 10Km today.

Life
I am terribly bad at admitting to being anything other than 100% on top of things, so here goes.......the last couple of weeks have been a battle for me, higher mileage, more stress on the body and no racing to break it up. I have certainly not been questioning why I do this, that is never in doubt, I have just been a bit strung out and tired. Last night as I was trying to get to sleep I had to tell myself "don't think about running!" then I dropped right off. I have my head around it now though and am just approaching it as yet another challenge. I should have used my resources and talked it through rather than keeping it to myself. Talked with other runners that is, non-runners would have just told me to stop running, how little they know. So thanks guys and gals, I know you would have all been good shoulders to lean on and full of great advice, but I run on, I am back in the game again :-)

2006-09-04T20:17:00.000+10:00

Running
Easy recovery run today. 11Km in 58:53 an average pace 5:21. My calves are really tight at the moment so I stopped to stretch halfway through the run. I have a massage booked for Wednesday evening which always sorts them out. No niggles from the quad thank goodness. It is a long slog to this next half marathon with no other racing to break up the schedule, I just try to keep my mind focussed on the main goal. The consistent higher mileage has been tough but I am starting to break through the barrier and I know that it will pay dividends. It still feels a bit surreal that little old me can manage to do what I am doing, I used to be the biggest excuse maker, I had not motivation, now look at me. I honestly couldn't find the words to describe what keeps me running and training, it has become automatic, like breathing. I never have a "will I or won't I" moment, 4pm rolls around and it's Running Time, no questions asked.

Life
A bit of a shock today, Steve Irwin died after a run in with a Sting Ray. My brothers fiance sent me an e-mail this afternoon with the title "Steve Irwin in Dead", after about 20 seconds looking for the punch line I realised it was serious.

Phew - Back on Track

2006-09-03T19:13:00.000+10:00

Running
The quad is fine! Friday night was spent with the leg up with ice pack strapped on for 20 minutes at a time. Saturday was a rest day anyway so I just took it easy. By this morning I felt right as rain and headed our for my long run with no worries at about 730 am. For the first time I was without company for the long run, Father's Day and some events put paid to that. So I was armed with my iPod and my own thoughts. It was not too bad, a bit of a struggle over the last 5Kms, usually the chat and the company helps ease the final grind. Pretty happy with my effort though, 22Kms in 1:58:56 with an average pace of 5:24. Thanks to Friday's unscheduled rest I finished the week on 67 km *EDIT - Thanks Steve, how could I forget, have racked up 2000km for the year. First 1000 took 138 days, second 1000 took 103 days!.

Life
Quite a bit of family stuff on this weekend. Visited the BFs Aunt and Uncle who had recently moved to Research which a beautiful area north east of Melbourne. They hadn't seen me since February and the old "You are so thin" drama's cropped up again, now I have only lost 3Kgs since March but I just had to grin and bear it. Then I had to repeatedly refuse extra helpings of dessert at dinner, "come on, you can afford it", well the reason I look like I can eat what I want is because, in fact, I don't eat what I want. I just resorted to saying "The less I have to carry the quicker I can run". I also pointed out that by distance running standards I am not really that thin, Anna Thompson who is a bit taller than me is 5 Kgs lighter. All fell on deaf ears of course but I just let it wash over me now, they don't understand.

I bought some books on Amazon today, one called "Satan - A Biography" which I have been waiting to come out. It takes the concept of Satan back to the original rather than the "Bogey man in the closet" (my words) character than was dreamt up by the early Christians, I'd just to point out that I am not religious but am extremely interested from a Philosophical view point. I also picked up a couple of running books, "running Within - A guide to mastering the mind, body, spirit connection for ultimate training and racing" and "Fast Track: Training and Nutrition Secrets from America's Top Female Runner" (Suzy Favor-Hamilton). Now I just have to wait a couple of weeks to take delivery, there were over 800 books on running at Amazon!!!

Well, that's it for tonight, there is a show about King Arthur on channel 2 that I have been looking forward to, a bit of a pet topic for me. Please don't even talk to me about the atrocious movie with keira knightly that came out a couple of years ago, what a F$%# travesty, aghhhhh. I couldn't believe 2 gorgeous Celtic men Clive Owen and Ioan Gruffudd where involved with such tripe.

Enforced Rest %#*&

2006-09-01T17:59:00.000+10:00

Running
No running today

Not happy. During my tempo session yesterday I noticed a twinge in my quad, just above the knee towards the inside. It does not hurt to walk or use stairs but at lunch time when I ran to catch a green light it certainly twinged. I am reluctently erring on the side of caution and will take two days (Saturday is rest day anyway) to R.I.C.E and then try my long run on Sunday. Bloody frustrating but one day now beats several weeks if a niggle becomes a tear. I also booked a massage quick smart for next week. I am awful aren't I? One minor niggle and I am having a big fat sook. Well, it is a wake up call I suppose, I was starting to feel a bit bullet proof.

Monthly Summary
Total - 338 Km
Year to Date - 1985 Km
Injuries - None. Towards the end of the month I was starting to battle mentally with higher mileage and some new aspects to my training. But that is all part of the challenge of the sport and I have taken it in my stride and I feel sronger for it
Excuses - None
Races - None. Training is the focus this month
Goals - To PB to the Melbourne Half Marathon (104 minutes is the goal) and to pay more attention to my nutrition

Some Stats
My training run pace has taken a noticeable dive since I started taking records in May
Easy Run Pace
May - 5:30
June - 5:30
July - 5:27
August - 5:17

Long Run Pace
May - 5:45
June - 5:58
July - 5:47
August - 5:29

Ramblings
I downloaded some articles on Stem Cell research today. I miss the news most nights and haven't had time to read the paper and I know there have been some developments this week. I spent 3 years studying philosophy at Uni as part of my BA degree, my main focus was Ethics and Existentialism. I was fortunate to have Peter Singer as a lecturer for Bioethics in 2nd year, a hell of an inspirational guy. Anyway, I think it is time for me to pull out of my funk and start exercising my brain again as well and making more time for myself to read. So my many and varied opinions and ideas may get an airing here in future. Be warned however, do not have a very ordered mind and I tend to "think aloud" and constantly evole my ideas so don't jump down my throat if I keep changing my mind, it's what I do.