Officially Exhausted...

I was due for my long run today (well, actually its tomorrow but I knew I had less chance of fitting it in). I was due to do 20km in 2hrs. After my great mid-week long run effort I was keen to stick to the scheduled pace today. I drove over to Centennial Park as I have been trying to stick to some flatter courses, knowing the Central Coast half is fairly flat. I done 2 laps of the outside and then done another lap on the inside of the park. I was generally feeling OK most of the way. I was definately noticing that it was a lot harder not having the company today, where did some of those hills come from, I didnt even notice them on Wednesday !! After the second lap, which took me to almost 16km, I started to feel a bit dehydrated. I took a stop near my car to get some Powerade but when I set off for the last few k's I noticed that I started to fade a little. Up until the 18km mark I was heading for an average of 6.00 min/km but the last 2 slowed up a little to take me to 2.01 hrs. Not bad considering I have been training pretty hard this week. I have also been super busy at work as the rest of my team is on annual leave at the moment.

I got home and done some much needed stretching and a little bit of weights (not much, I was too buggered). I have to do a bit of house cleaning now as my parents are coming up tomorrow as we are looking after their bird for them while they go on holiday.

Funny story from yesterday afternoon. After Dean and I went for out little walk on Thurdsay afternoon I forgot to put my house keys back in my handbag. I realised this as I got off the bus on Friday afternoon. I also couldnt use my mobile as I got it back from getting fixed yesterday and it is still broken as the power went dead in a day AGAIN!(damn 3). So I had to borrow a phone at the hairdressers. Dean couldnt help me as he wasnt allowed to leave work so I was stuffed. The guy at the hairdresser noticed a "Hire a Hubby" parked outside and suggested I speak to them. They were nice and come to check out if they could get on balcony with a ladder. Lucky they could and he got me in. I sent him on his way with $20 and 3 cans of Guiness. Never a dull moment with me.

Looking forward to today's AFL grand final.

GO THE SWANIES !!!!!

Bargain Buying

Its a rest day today, I only have strength work on the program but thought I might write up about the great bargain I just got at lunch time. I thought I would head outside for a bit as my eyes were getting a little sore from looking at the computer screen all morning, and took my usual trip to browse around Rebel. I saw that they stock the Salomon trail shoe for guys so asked to see the girls selection. They didnt have any ladies Salomons but I saw that they had Brooks Cascadia Pivot on sale for $49 !!! I was praying that they had them in my size. Well, there was 2 pairs left and one was half a size bigger than I normally take. I had made this mistake before where I bought half a size too big and they gave me blisters but now that I have orthodics its not causing so much hassle and I need a little extra room. So, I bought them.....dont know how good they are, but I thought for $220 shoes at $49 its worth a try to find out.

Wild Wally

My program had me doing 7 laps of wild wally this morning. I wore my skins to bed last night after yesterday's nice long run effort. I wasnt sore this morning when I woke up, but after doing a bit of a warm up, the legs felt a fair bit tired. By the time I finished the drills and was on to the session, my legs started to feel a little better. I think the wild wally loop is around 700m. We started a little further up the hill this time so that there was more of a hill for us to climb at the end, which suited me fine as I got to gather a bit of momentum. My splits were 3.35, 3.33, 3.33, 3.30, 3.24, 3.14 (WOW!) and 3.22. The first few were a little slower than the last time I done this session, but I had 7 this time and it took my legs a while to warm up. After the 5th rep, Sean said to me that I am a bit behind the others going down the hill and then catch them on the flat and going up. He told me this time to try and hammer it down the hill and stick with them, which explains the 3.14 on the 6th rep. All up today with warm up, warm down, drills and session I done just under 11km.

Looking forward to tomorrow's rest day :)

Quick Catch Up

Yesteday I had 4 x 1km reps on my program, but since we're not allowed on the oval at the moment Sean bumped us 1km repers into the 1200m group. I made sure I got to the oval earlier than usual as I have been pretty slack with warming up lately. My reps for the day were 5.39 (1200), 5.47 (1200), 3.38 (800) and 5.49 (1200). I was near the back of the pack for each of the 1200m reps, but I kept all the fast girls in my sights so I was very pleased with that.

This morning some of the girls invited me to their regular mid week long run. I had 15km in 90 min on my program so I decided it would be great to go along and have some company as I have been finding it hard to fit in my mid-week long run on my own. We ended up doing 2 laps around the outside of Centennial Park and then a lap of the lake on the inside, taking us to between 16 and 16.3 km. I keep forgetting to make sure I have a link to the satelites with my garmin before I start running so I had to rely on everyone else's distances. We completed the course in just over 90 min so I done more than what the program said averaging out at around 5.4? / km pace but I felt really good and I could handle the pace better considering I could have a chat on the way.

I really enjoyed today's session, it was good hearing Belinda's story of cracking the 2 hour mark for the half recently and also Deanne's story of recovering from a virus to go really well at GC marathon. As I was chatting to Belinda, I talked about how happy I was that I decided to join the group, everyone is so friendly. Most of the people that I have met in Sydney my age would much prefer going out and getting trashed all nights of the week, whereas I cant think of anything better than getting up at 10 to 5 in the morning to start the day with a nice long run :) I have been on such a buzz today that Dean had to shut me up about my run this morning !!!

It hasnt all been great for me the last couple of days though. As I reported last week, my beagle Kaos had to go in to get a lump removed from her leg. We have had the bad news that it is a secondary cancer so there is another cancer in her body that is spreading. The vet told us that it is better off if we leave her and only have other operations if there is more lumps that occur. They could do more tests and give her chemo, but they said that dogs get very sick from this and they dont respond well to it. I just really hate the fact that there is not much I can do.

Gyming it today

It was off to the gym for me today. Spent 30 min on the cross trainer and then another 30 min doing some strength exercises. I have a very big decision to make. I have been thinking lately that since Sean taught me some beut stuff for strength exercises that I dont need in a gym, that maybe I dont need to pay all that money each month for my membership. I'm thinking of giving my membership up but I am a little aprehensive since I have a passport membership to Fitness First for relatively cheap. I am just getting really sick of the whole FF scene though. Today there was absolutley no space for people to set up in the stretch/weights area because there were 2 trainers that decided to take up ALL the space and take EVERY piece of equipment they will need for the entire session. Also, after getting the shock of my life today: boys, if you plan on wearing baggy shorts to the gym, please wear underpants.

I think I should also mention that Dean and I have started a 12 week body blitz. I have been saying since I done the Marathon that I was going to do this and it only took me 5 months to pull my finger out. It makes a difference if your partner is doing it also because now I dont have to cook 2 separate meals. I also convinced Dean to come to Sean's training camp next weekend with me. I am really looking forward to it, training like an elite athlete for 4 days in Hawks Nest... YAAAYYYY

Hoping to lose 10 kegs before Central Coast Half Marathon.

KJ's Don's Farm Relay

What can I say other than I am a little disappointed with my performance today. After my session on Thursday I was confident that I would go close to the 30 min mark and ended up at 33.xx (forgot to press stop) for the 6.2 km (I got 6.3km on my garmin). I turned up to the farm at Dapto at 7.30 am and it was already starting to get warm by then. Our team handicap was 25 min off scratch, wowee, I definately have never been that far back in the field before. The 3 guys on my team ran really well and were able to catch a fair few people, actually I dont thing any of them were overtaken at all. I had the last leg and by the time I was off and running it was 10.15 and the temerature would have definately been at 33 degrees by then. I was going OK at first overtaking 3 people out on the course which put us into first place. I managed to hold first place until the 4km mark when I was overtaken by one of the teams. I was really struggling with the race. My head felt like it was going to explode and my feet felt like they were on fire and my calves were seizing up even on the smallest hills. To add to all the heat I also had the strong warm winds blowing into my face as well. I was struggling not to get really disheartened, I really just wanted to pull the plug. So, I used a technique that Sean used with me in training when I wanted to give up he said "its only 10 min of your life" so I just had to keep reminding myself that no matter how painful it was, it really only was 6.2 km. Two more people ended up overtaking me in the last 700m. One of them I would have no way of catching but the other was a guy that I had overtaken. Near the end I knew there was no more hills so I decided to just give it all I had and strode out and ended up catching him, but as soon as he realised I was on him he flew off and I was stuffed.

So, we ended up coming 4th. I felt really bad for the guys as we put in so much work to get ourselves into first place. But, I suppose thats what handicaped races are all about they are designed so that everyone is on a level playing field and so that people are coming in at around the same time.

I had to keep being reminded that it was a really really hot day and everyone was feeling it. I also had to keep being reminded that it was meant to be a fun day that isnt taken too seriously.

I have to admit it was fun catching up with a lot of the KJ's that I havent seen in a while. Everyone seems to be running so well, I really miss that club atmosphere......

Fartlek today

Well, it was fartlek sessions on the program this morning. I was down for 4 laps of the lake which comes out to be just under 6km. With warm-up, drills and warm-downs I done a total of just over 9km this morning.

I have never done a session around the lake before, but was advised that we would be having a few more sessions around here while they are preparing the ovals. This mornings session was every time we saw a yellow flag we had to speed up to 10km race pace and when we saw a red flag we had to slow down to marathon pace. I completed the almost 6km course in 29.50 which I am really pleased with as I was trying not to go out too hard because of the race on the weekend.

I have been really nervous about the race on the weekend. My leg of the relay is only 6.2km, but I havent done any short races less than half marathon distance for about 3 years now so I dont know what to expect or how to pace myself. After this morning's effort I am really excited about racing and am not so nervous anymore. Given the time that I done the distance in and considering there was slowing down and resting in there I think I am may have a chance at doing a PB over the distance.

Short and sweet

I am using last weeks training plan for this week considering I am racing this weekend and ditched the Sydney running festival last weekend, so this morning was scheduled for a slow 4km in 25min.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post I couldnt get in to see Easy Tiger so I went to Coby who he recommended. I have to say he done such a good job there was a lot more exploring and investigating going on rather than jumping straight in with the grabbing and pulling like at my last place. He said that I would feel like I was hit by a truck when I woke up in the morning and he wasnt wrong. I thought that it would be hard for me to go slow at that pace but I was actually almost a minute slower as it took me ages to get my legs to move properly.

Not too much else to add from me. Kaos is going well, she is able to walk around a little and it getting hungry, which is always a good sign.

I also had a farewell lunch for a colleague today and had a beer (naughty naughty. Dean and I are currently on a body blitz)

Boy its getting hot...

Gee Whiz, I'm off to a bad start. I've only just started a blog and I've been forgetting to blog already. Anyway, didnt do too much running on the weekend....well actually none at all to be precise. My legs have been feeling really tired lately, a bit like I'm carrying around tree stumps.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

On Saturday I just decided on some strength work and to do some of the exercises Sean gave me. I decided to take my medicine balls (picked up from Target at bargain price) next door to Christison Park. I stayed there for a little while, but discovered that the field was covered in bee's and you could hear them buzzing everywhere. Now, I should fill you in on a little sory of my fear of bee's. When I was in year 5 I remember being at an ANZAC ceremony and I got stuck near a bottle brush. It was absolutely swarming in bee's and I remember one landing on my leg while we were in the minute silence. It took everything I had in my not to get up and start screaming. The second really bad experience I had with bee's was while on holidays in Tassie a few years ago. If anyone has passed through Straun in summer they would be aware of the fact that it is swarming in bees the size of little birds. Believe it or not you can see lots of bee road kill, there were points where I dead set refused to get out of the car. Anyway, Dean still has giggles at the mental images of me when we were having breakfast near the water and a bee started swarming around me. I got up and moved away and it followed me, I started to run down the street and the bugger followed me all the way down the road....Yes, Dean got a good laugh, but I was petrified. Anyway, I have really digressed. I left the field quick smart and headed back inside to do my workout. I've also recently purchased a Pilates DVD and gave that a go. It was pretty fun but bloody hard.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

I was meant to do a long run today but decided to do it in the afternoon so I could go into the city and watch the marathon. I'm really glad I did. I was on the corner of King and Sussex St's so I got to watch people go through the 27km and 37km marks. It was a great day out there, so many people really giving it all they had. I watched people coming through until about the 4.25 mark and then rushed down to the finish line to watch everyone from 4.45 onwards. I swear there were so many moments where I had to hold back the tears. It was really great to see Mum's and Dad's running down the shute with their kids and giving them a high 5 and hug at the end. It was also really great to see couples coming in together holding hands (Dean are you reading this...). I took a quick trip to the Rocks markets but realised I really really hate crowds, so I took this as a cue to head home.

I had planned to do my long run once I got home, but after getting caught up in all the excitement, I forgot to eat or drink the entire day until 3pm so I thought an extra rest day wouldnt hurt.

BTW - a quote from Coolrunning re: the marathon

"Did anyone else see the transvestite on Oxford st with hot pink top and pink mini skirt with massive high heels. Anyway he, she or it lifted up the skirt to reveal nothing underneath This made me pick up the pace" - J, this wasnt your crowd was it ?????

Monday, September 18, 2006

I was hoping to make up for missing my 20 km long run on Sunday by doing a semi-long run, approx 16km, but when the alarm went off at 5.30 I decided a nice lunch time run might be the better plan. I headed out around Mrs Macquarie Chair and around the opera house, through the rocks, up Hickson Rd and then back into the city. All up was 6.5km at 5.34 / km pace. Gee, the legs were really hurting, I thought I must have been going faster than that ! I usually always have trouble around spring/summer time when it starts warming up. It seems to take my body so long to adjust. It was really warm out there today, I felt like my head was going to explode...

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

I had SWEAT this morning with 8 x 400m reps on the program. When I saw 400m reps I thought yayy, they're short, but realised 30 sec breaks in between doesnt make it any easier than the long reps. An angry ranger come over and kicked us off the track on our 7th lap and made us go around the outside. Aparently they are looking after the grounds for cricket season, ohh cricket schmicket, who cares. Silly me kept up the pace as if I was still being timed when on the outside track, while a few others just jogged around to the finish. Sean made us go complete the 2 laps over near the lake on the sand, and after my outside lap burst I was buggered.

My laps were (yes, seriously, I was getting exactly 1 sec slower each rep):
1.47
1.48
1.49
1.50
1.51
1.50
? lap on the outside (I'm counting it!!)
1.54 (sand...I'm noting that too cause it was hard..)
1.51 (sand)

A bit of a warm down took me to 7km all up for the morning. It was great to see some of the runners who recently done the half and marathon on the weekend backing it up with a hard session today.

I'm off for a massage today. I couldnt get in to see Easy Tiger, who come highly recommeded by CR's and some training partners, but he recommended a guy called Coby over on York St. I have always had women before so I am a little nervous (J - are you jealous ??)

On another note, I thought I would mention my puppy Kaos (well, not quite a puppy, she's 9). She had to go in for surgery yesterday as she had a big lump on her leg which they think was a tumor. Because it was so high up she wont be able to walk for 10 days. I really hope she gets well soon, It annoys me that dogs dont live as long as humans... I will publish photo's of her as soon as I figure out how to do it.

Sydney sight seeing

As I didnt feel like tackling a lot of hills after yesterday's session, I decided to get a bus into the city early this morning and do my run before work.

I decided to merge 2 regular lunch time runs together that take in the best view of Sydney. From Martin Place I headed out through the Domain and out and around Mrs Macquarie Point. After heading around the Opera House and through Circular Quay, I went up over the Harbour Bridge onto the north side where I circled down under the bridge with great views looking back into the CBD and of the Opera House. On the way back I went through the Botanic Gardens and back around Mrs Macqurie Point. All up I covered 13km with an average pace of around 6.0 min / km, a little slower than on my program but I was still really tired from yesterday.

I have officially decided that I am not doing the Bridge run on Sunday. I only decided to do the run a couple of weeks ago because it was put in my program. But I thought, if I was really interested in doing it I would have entered already, I just cant seem to get excited about it. I have been training for the KJ's relay which is on 24th September, so I might just save myself for that. I also know that as runners we should be supporting local events, but I find it hard paying almost $50 to do a run that I do all the time, and when I can do a half marathon for that price !! I know its silly.

The evil Big Birtha

The alarm went off this morning for today's SWEAT session and I really didnt feel like getting up. I havent been sleeping very well the last few nights because some lady reversed into my car on Sunday and now I am dealing with insurance companies, and even though I know I am not at fault I am just a bit of a worry wart.

On my program for today was 10 laps of Big Birtha (hill repeats). I'm not quite used to having a program yet, dont ask me how I got it mixed up but I was looking at next weeks program which had me doing 7 laps of Wild Wally and thought I was only due for 7 this morning. So, I was a bit naughty and bowed out too early. I will have to make up for it next week.

I struggled a fair bit this morning. I pretty much felt like I had no energy at all. I have been feeling really great with my running lately so I suppose I was due for an off day sometime.

After having a one-on-one session with Sean last Friday I really tried to concentrate on my running form this morning, especially going up the hills. Its amazing how hard it is to keep your form when you are really tired even when you are mentally aware of how you are running. I suppose it may take a little while to undo many years of bad posture.

I'm off work early today, but not for fun. I have a dentist appointment this afternoon and I dont think theres going to be a happy ending. I'm hoping that I can get to the shops afterwards to buy myself a medicine ball to do some of the drills Sean taught me.