quay side stroll

I didn't do anything this morning because of a 7.30am work breakfast (it was at the Young Lawyers Golden Gavel function which is where young lawyers talk on a range of - hopefully humorous - topics so i didn't mind that so much).

but this lunch i went for a 20 minute run with Geoff. it was very very fast for me. i had no idea how far we went but he thought about 3.5km (felt like 5... hehe) so if that was right it was under 6 min kms which for me (as you will know) is DAMN FAST. but i was scared cause he threatened to kick my ass. turns out i respond well to threats :) i was fine once we stopped although i was getting puffed and petulant towards the end (oops).

anyway i am so looking forward to the weekend. i am doing volunteering things tomorrow but otherwise i am free as a bird and am so excited!!!! a whole day off on sunday! i will hopefully do a longish run sunday (long for me anyway) but as it will be the first chance to sleep in in forEVER i might not...

i watched a show on tv last night (when I also met the lovely wildthing who bought my ipod!) that was called amazing medical stories or something. the first story was about a man with no arms and legs and his prostheses etc - very amazing. the next one was about a bed-bound morbidly obese man who was hospitalised. i was so excited thinking that he was going to have a miracle recovery and then suddenly he died and that was the end of the story. what kind of amazing medical story is that?? i thought it was really sad and i was quite depressed after that. that sort of thing always scares me because i could imagine myself there. it would be so easy for me to just eat crap and not exercise.

but no - crackers and tuna and a run for lunch it is!

hills-n-stuff

well no stuff but hills there was!

i decided last night that i wasn't going to go to bootcamp. at least i didn't delude myself and so i made other plans. this morning i got up super early again and at about 5.30 headed out to the park to commence an assault on what lulu has told me is called "big bertha".

i didn't do much warming up except for jogging from my place (about 7 mins) because i didn't want to be exhausted before i started. for some reason i had 10 reps of the hill in my head so 10 i did. it was hard and i was reallll slow in some bits (especially jogging down i took my sweet time!!). but i didn't rest at the bottom for more than 30 seconds and all up i think it took me about 30 mins(?) but i don't really know because i don't have a watch anymore!

i am pretty pleased with that and i think that i could have done some more or could have gone a bit harder on some of them. however, it was pitch black, even when I finished, and i was a bit concerned about falling over in a rogue grass indentation.

planning to do some weights at lunch but we shall see...

EDIT - i found this funny comic and thought this was appropriately running related - (if it works!)


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

wet t-shirt comp

i did it! (no - not the wet t-shirt comp - that was a joke and i swore after uni i was never doing that again...) I ran in the rain!

and it wasn't just a light sprinkle - it pissed down!

anyway the morning went something like this:

- get up at 5am - check
- have internal debate about whether or not to do anything at all (ie remind myself of the value of rest and notice that unfortunately although it is dark it is not actually raining)
- finally get in the car and drive to bondi
- notice light sprinkling rain and feel the seed of dread being planted inside
- figure that light rain is fine and get out of the car
- enjoy the run to bronte with light rain (it was a little bit scary because it was really dark on some of the path, but i loved the stormy ocean). i walked the up and down stairs cause they were slippery and if there is something to slip on I'm your girl
- the start the run back and still having a grand old time
- rain getting a little heavier around tamarama but still not enough to worry about
- then i hit the last 1km on bondi stretch and it BUCKETS down. i was splashing in puddles. i had a pink t-shirt on (luckily!) but nonetheless it was very evident that i had a black sports bra on .

then i threw myself into the car with some cursing and no stretching and drove home with water still dripping off my hat into my eyes (till i remembered that hats are for taking off.. :) )

so on the one hand i actually went for a run and also experienced running in the full rain without getting grumpy (no fun with no one to notice). on the other hand although i have done it i haven't got a sudden love of running in the water.

good times :)

now - any more suggestions of good things to do to put off work?

E

too sweet to be sour, too nice to be mean

sorry - irrelevant title i just have the beasties in my head.

anyway so i got up this morning, ready for bootcamp, out the door, on the bus, into the office ready to dump my bag and then a little conversation took place in my brain:

"hmm my foot seems to be a little sore"
"no it doesn't you are just looking for an excuse not to go to bootcamp"**
"no really it is much more sensible if i have a sore foot to rest it do it doesn't get better"
"you lazy girl - toughen up"
"nah - i'll just go to the gym and do some weights"
"okay then"

so i went to the gym and did some weights which was great and i haven't done it in a while, but this little episode has caused me to take a(nother) long hard look at myself (young lady...). firstly - the lazy voice in my head seems to win most of the time. this is not good and something i need to think about. secondly - i seem to have become a bit resistant to bootcamp. now one thing that my course has taught me is that we learn a lot from looking at/overcoming our resistances so i need to think about it. i think i am a bit scared of it. which is odd because i always feel great afterwards and did the whole last course but there you go.

speaking of the gym - can i just say that I hate Fitness First Bond St. I am not a huge weight trainer. when i do weights they are pathetic girly ones (but hard for me!). It is entirely possible that when triceps were given out i was bypassed. So going down into that pit of muscle bound grunting men is extremely intimidating!! (its all contextual...) i hate it!! but anyway i did it. it is also not a good gym for boosting the ego - so many good looking girls!

anyway i better get back to killing time at work. 13 work days and 23 days total until the end....

parking

did a quick post work 30 mins as per lulu's suggestions for the week. it was to be 'medium' but with me there is only 'hard' and 'easy' so it was what i count as 'hard'. i felt like i was going quite fast but who knows. did one lap of the park plus the jog from my place. was lots of eye candy ;) which always makes me faster. feeling good now - but lacking inspiration to cook. looks like it will be the usual vegie & tofu stir fry. i am sooo unimaginative.

bootcamp tomorrow.... which will be interesting cause i've been a bit slack in that regards and have run 3 days in a row. but i'm feeling good and getting loads of sleep so an early rise will do me good!

the lulu-nator

well I went for a run with our speedy friend lulu this morning. she put me through my paces again but i really enjoyed it - not least because of the excellent company. i was pleased that i made it to the end with my heart rate reasonable especially with a little hill to finish off. Lulu's friend Garth the Garmin told us that the average page was 6.30 and we went 6.5km so i was very pleased with that. i think i need to get one of those gadgets to monitor my pace a little - otherwise i can quite happily go forever at a really slow pace. which has its place but not every day. (hehe never mind that it was lulu's long slow run and my really fast one!).

this weekend i have seen heaps of CR people in and around centennial park so that was funny - especially as i've met some of them now. i'm not quite game for the CR branding yet but maybe soon...

anyway i have just come home from a(nother) intense day of psychotherapy. today was group process, theory and some supervision which was great but is bringing home the reality of what I am doing! i have a lot of fear associated with making this career change (see I'm talking about my feelings...) but thankfully i am really enjoying it at this point and think it will all come together when it should.

ok enough rubbish from me - i've gotta go for a walk or a run (probably not...) or do something to stop my brain again!!! (maybe i'll watch little britain again - that always distracts me).

rainy days

well following yesterdays hang over i intended to go for a run this morning before my course.

but i didn't.

and not cause it was raining - because i was lazy.

however, after the whole day of psychotherapy (v intense! theory and practice and some actual pieces of work) i was jumping out of my skin so i went and did a quick lap of the park and a run up the hill home. i didn't take a watch but i felt like i was going really fast (relatively...) - i was surprised that the lap seemed to take next to no time at all. but that could have been more due to the stuff going round in my head.

either way i did finally drag myself out. AND it started raining so technically i have been running in the rain... it wasn't so bad but i was glad when it eased off. baby steps :)

running tomorrow morning with the lovely lulu so no choice about getting up! looking forward to it.

oh dear my head

no running this morning but it was definitely not my fault. Went to the CR drinks last night and despite intentions of having one or two i had many many many glasses of wine. it was a very late night.

But- it was fantastic to meet everyone! Lulu looked after me again and I was fortunate to meet bloggers Jen and Kit (both very lovely!) and plu (mister photography!) I also met a lot of non-blogging coolrunners which was fantastic! unfortunately plu's photos have hit the website already! fortunately that was before beverages 10 to 20 (ish).

lucky i've already quit because i am not going to be very productive today...

:)

Oh - and Go Girl asked if I have a new job lined up - I sure do!! Which is why I am hating this lengthy notice period even more. On the plus side it doesn't matter that i am sitting at my computer with a headache and a coffee and playing on the internet!!

lunch time running

well having had a few lazy days and being put off by the rain this morning decided i would have to bite the bullet and go at lunch.

i didn't have much time so i ran down the quay, around past the opera house stairs, around to mrs macquaries chair, up and down those stairs once, around the the corner (about 200m) and back and then up and down the stairs another 4 times (5 in total!). Following which my legs were jelly!!! ran/walked back to the gates at the opera house but have run too fast at the start (because everyone else was so fast i felt like a dork going so slow!!! damn peer pressure...) i was stuffed. walked back to the office.

now i think my lessons from today were:

- don't run too fast too early (ok so its an obvious one...)
- if i am running at lunch i should have a midmorning snack or else i get a bit lightheaded.

anyway - at least i got out there and did something. good to get some sun - and it wasn't too hot.

(did i mention that i have quit my job and am boooored out of my brain serving my 6 WEEKS notice????)

speedin

Well I went out this morning with the lovely Lulu which was fantastic - she is just lovely! I was tagging along with her for her 35min session. We did one lap of the park at a pace that is a little faster than I would generally go - but I managed to basically keep up (although I think Lulu would have gone much faster without me!). Then she suggested a quick hill run so we did 2 reps up what she referred to as Big Bertha. that was great - but tiring. After a little bit further running on the grass out 35 minutes were up. Thank god!

Actually it was interesting to me to realise that probably I can push myself a lot more than I do. I think that I need to learn to operate at a slightly higher discomfort level. Unless I am doing a hill or sprints or something I generally don't work to a point where I am really breathing very hard - I think that I need to do a bit more of that.

And I definitely need to get myself one of those garmin gadgets to tell me how fast I am going!

Anyway - thanks Lulu - I had a great time, felt like I worked really hard and really appreciate your help (and patience!)!

I have my old housemate in town and I think we are going for dinner to a fancy restaurant with his mate (Guillaume at Bennelong - I don't know it but it sounds lovely from what I have heard!). There is also talk of some post-dinner casino action which will be interesting :) bad timing actually because i would have been interested in the SMC event tomorrow for sure! And the CR one is next weekend and I have my course on... how inconvenient!!

thanks for all the suggestions about programs - I have printed a few out and will have a play with my calendar and see if I can come up with a concrete (but flexible...) plan!

E

no boot camp

enough said. back on the wagon tomorrow and this weekend. will be a good chance to test my resolve not to drink too much - tonight we have a candidate drinks function which last year turned into a HUGE night. Saturday I have an old housemate coming to stay and I promised that I would show him a good sydney time so that means it could be messy. i'll see if i can just get him drunk and not myself... hmm...

i am trying to put together some kind of a plan to build up to running a half marathon over the next 6ish months - but everything seems to be in miles - which means nothing to me. of course i could just convert it but then i don't really even know how far i run in kilometres unless i go around the park - and i am getting a little bored of that... will keep looking.

Also - before the mothers day fun run in may i would like to do a 4 or 5km fun run to get a feel for it - but can't seem to find one. Anyone have any ideas? The only "fun" run i have ever done was a WA Law Society fun run and it was supposed to be 3km each. which would have been fine at the time (but that was about my limit). i was the second of 3 runners each doing the 3km but the guy who was meant to tell you to turn around thought there was only one runner, so the second runners all just kept. on. going. for what seemed really really far!! (prob about 5km total...). i'm a bit scarred by that because i was totally not ready for it and it was actually quite a competitive run... eek.

am going to try and really focus in the next few days/ weeks/ months to take my mind off the fact that (a) i still have 5 weeks in a job i don't like, and (b) said goodbye (again) to the navy boy this morning and have no real idea of where it stands... :( wish i wasn't such a chicken and could just ask! oh well - time will tell...

at least the weather is warm :)

hmm

was distracted today by the presence of the lovely navy boy but will (probably...) be back at bootcamp tomorrow. he goes v early tomorrow morning so i will not have an ongoing excuse for distraction... aw. much funner being distracted :)

boot camp

back on the bootcamp wagon after wagging last week. It was a (relatively) easy one with a range of resistance exercises and sprints and then some running at the end. i still find the "warm up" run to be the hardest bit because i would usually start slower and build up. but i am noticeably improved from my very first bootcamp!

on a brighter note i just got a call from the navy boy who is flying into sydney today for a couple of days for a basketball competition so will be spending some time with him - all good and very out of the blue! :)

crap

again. went out for what i was hoping would be a long one but stopped after about 3km. weird. i had a bad stitch (don't know why - it isn't usually a big problem) and I also was not in a good brain-space I don't think so i stopped and walked home. think i'll leave it there and try and start again tomorrow...

walking

So I have activated word verifier (I think!) so hopefully less links to porn in my comments...

today i was not planning on doing anything as I've had my mum over from Perth for the week and she heads back tomorrow. However, she had a little nap this afternoon (after having a couple of wines at lunch...) and I decided to go out for a walk - which I haven't done in AGES! And I really enjoyed it. It was a brisk-ish walk around the park and it was really more for enjoyment than exercise and it was almost relaxing. Which was great. And I felt a little better about the "birthday" cupcake that I had just eaten. Did i mention that cupcakes are my favourite food? I could live off cupcakes alone.

So that's it for the day - hoping to go out for a longish run tomorrow after i drop mum at the airport in the wee hours of the morning. In the meantime will try to distract myself from wondering whether the navy boy will call again...

E

new shoes and hills

ok first the running then the venting (god this is cathartic).

I got up early this morning to try out my new shoes. I bought them yesterday from the Runners shop in Clovelly and they were very nice. Turns out I had the right type of shoe and I just got the next update of the Asics 2210, which unfortunately is orange and doesn't match my running clothes at all!!!! But other than that they are great and I am trying some different lacing to relieve a sore spot on the top of my foot. So far so good. Today I did two laps of the park (7.4km) but to take it up a notch but not go stupid with the distance I added a return trip up the hill at the Paddington gate which I find pretty tough. I did that after one lap and surprised myself by being able to then keep going for another lap. AND then at the end of my two laps and a hill I went up the hill AGAIN on my way home. So by the end I was absolutely buggered. But i think it is good for me to add some hills or else I get too used to flat running.

All in all it was probably 8 and a little bit kms.... (i have no idea how long that hill is - i think it is at least 300m but it feels like foreeeeever).

Now to the vent - i have officially resigned and everything and was hoping to negotiate the notice period but no - they are being really hard and sticking to 6 weeks to the day which is really really annoying. It means my start date is not for 2 months and it means that I can't take a real holiday as the time that I will have off I will need to stay in sydney because of my course and the volunteering that I do on the weekends. CRAP!!!! I was getting quite upset about this yesterday as I haven't had a holiday in over a year and now it looks like i won't get another one for a really long time. I am trying to be calm about it but feeling reaalllly stressed out.

I know that there is a lot of work on but who wants someone to stay and work who really doesn't want to be there? on the plus side i won't feel guilty any more for being late if i've gone for a long run...... or if i go to the gym and take longer than an hour at lunch...

sigh. but a good run nonetheless!

quick one

got up this morning and got to the park and despite intending to do 2 laps I just did one. I did speed up when I realised that I was only going to do one but it was kind of a token effort. At least I got out there I suppose. I am keen to see whether new shoes make a difference because my feet seem to be having trouble all of a sudden. Well my foot really - just my left foot.

hmm. odd. we shall see.

on another note I am waiting for my boss to come in because I am about to resign. just quietly I am having a bit of a nervy turn (to quote my grandmother). aargh!

am thinking about doing another lap (3.7km) tonight after work but will see how everything goes at work - I might need a stiff drink...

E

back to work...

After having an annual leave day yesterday I am back at work today and also back to bootcamp for series 2. Well that was the plan. I got to work and couldn't get up to my floor in the lift for some reason. Which was a problem cause I needed to dump my bag. In the end I decided to just go to the gym and skip bootcamp. I did 60 mins on the cross trainer which was pretty good I think.

On the injury front my knees recovered fine and my quads were a little achey (not surprisingly!!). The pain thta i had in my quad muscle is still there a bit but seems to be improving and doesn't effect running or walking which is good.

However, I have a new mystery injury. On the top of my left foot about an inch down from my big toe joint it hurts when I put pressue on it (ie like a shoe!!!). I am not sure if it is because of my running shoes or something else but it is getting quite painful and doesn't seem to be improving (even with the week I had off last week). It only hurts in running shoes but maybe it is caused by wearing thongs too much?? hehe. I am going to get some new shoes so will raise it there, otherwise might head back to the podiatrist. i was thwarted in the shoe buying endeavour yesterday because I was going to the shop on Clovelly Rd but it is shut mondays! i have thursday off too so i'll be there then.

In other news I am about to accept the job offer I got on friday night - so excited. unfortunately I can't resign today because the boss is away... bugger!

what not to do...

so after over a week out from running (because of previously mentioned gorgeous navy boy and sore leg) I got up super early for a saturday (5.30am!!!) and hit the park at 6ish. Was feeling great, really refreshed and i had forgotten my watch so no idea of timing which is very relaxing. I decided to see if i could increase my distance a little and i really did. For the first time EVER i did 3 laps of the park. which is 11.1km. Which is more than 10km - which was my first goal!!!!

So hurray for me!!!

However, this is 3.5ish km more than i have EVER run before. and believe me when I tell you that i am feeling it my knees today. i did the last lap on the grass because i could feel my knees, hips and foot starting to ache a bit. Stupidly i didn't stop (and yes - i am very aware of the 10% rule). But for some reason i just thought - stuff it - i am going to see if i can. and i did. but now i am paying for it.

I think that I was in a super good mood which translated to my running because yesterday not only did I get a job offer (thank god), i also got a dozen long stemmed red roses from the gorgeous navy boy. sigh.

but back to running - i have no idea what my time was but my last lap was faster i think cause i was hurting and wanted to finish quick. (doh!).

i am taking tomorrow off running because its my birthday (hmmm....) and also cause i think my knees would kill me. It is also probably time to invest in some new shoes just in case that is adding to the prob.

E