today

Right no training of note today - but wish me luck for striders 10k tomorrow - argh!!!!! send me loads of sub-60 thoughts... :)

and i have been feeling guilty for ignoring tags so here it is...

Four Jobs I have had:
Chicken & Chip van at the WACA
Test marker
Lawyer
Recruiter

Four movies I watch over and over again:
The Sweetest Thing
Zoolander
Girls Just Wanna have Fun
Legally Blonde
(i know! i like escapism)

Four Places I have lived:
Halls Creek
Christmas Island
Yogyakarta
Sydney

Four T.V. Shows I love to watch:
Grey's Anatomy
there are others i watch - but i don't love them
(big brother adults only was pretty interesting though)

Four Places I have been on Vacation:
The Dieng Plateau
Kununurru
Madrid
Capri

Four Websites I visit daily:
Cool Running
Bloglines
www.pageup.com
www.smh.com.au

Four of my Favorite Foods:
Hot Chips
Nectarines
Chocolate dipped strawberrys
Nasi Uduk

Four Places I would Rather Be Right Now:
The pub
In bed
The Himalayas (never been - but i'd like to!)
Cambodia (ditto)

Four Favorite Bands/Singers:
can't think of just 4

ten (10)

it was touch and go whether i would get up and out for training this morning (thanks to a delicious meal and lovely wines with sparkie and the gorgeous amelia :) ). in the end i did and it was an icy cold morning in the park (and in my flat). was good to see the usuals again and there were some new girls there which is always nice.

now i am crap at hills. i also dislike them with an unprecedented venom. so when i saw that i was down for 10 big berthas (previously the most i have done is 6!!) i was (just quietly) sh*tting myself! i was actually pretty nervous about it all. but i got there and i finished them in 27.41 which is not too bad for a course that is apparently just short of 5km. now that i have a borrowed stop watch (thanks marty!) i have splits for my laps (it ain't pretty...):2.31,2.40,2.43,2.47, 2.47, 2.53, 2.50, 2.48 (and then i can't find the other 2 - but i definitely did 10!!)

so i did it! not in spectacular fashion (back to the back of the pack for me...) but up and down 10 times. phew.

36 mins

i had the nice round (not!) run of 36 minutes on the program today. sean had written that as 5km - but i am sure i did at least 6. i am concentrating on making my shorter runs faster now, especially as this month is a bit lighter (consolidating...) in terms of overall mileage.

struggled to get up this morning after a draining session at the head doctor last night but did it and made it to my desk by 8.30. right. now work. or maybe finish my coffee and psych myself up.

(ps - the new job is tops! so busy but that is such a relief from the last couple of jobs - bring it on!)

EDIT - i totally forgot a heap of stuff that i meant to say - must have been on auto pilot. i joined the striders during the week so am heading along for my 1st 10km! i am bloody hoping that i can get under 60 mins because that is kind of the limit i think. would be happy with anything under 60 this time as i have no clue how i'll go. also i have actually entered the city to surf and the 1/2 in september now. mostly because i actually had some money (space on the credit card...) and i thought that it would be a good motivator to train! so here i go.... eek.... sean has programmed me to do the sutherland to surf too - but i dunno... any one else doing that one?

long loop

today i was extremely fortunate to have company for my long run in the form of sweat-mate kerry. she even kindly agreed to come with me at 5.45 as i have my course on (again). kerry set a cracking pace (for me) right from the start and threw in some monster hills. luckily she was navigating as i had not a huge clue of where we were most of the time - especially as it was dark. all i know is that it included a bit of centennial park, past queens park, the back of randwick, bronte, tamaramamama, bondi, north bondi, rose bay, double bay, bondi junction and back to the park. i reckon it was definitely longer than i would normally do as i felt like we were going a fair bit quicker. which is great - but i was worried about holding kerry back! we slowed a bit on the big hills though... and walked part of one that is between double bay and bondi junction. it was a killer!!

but i feel great now - thanks kerry! (if you are a blog reader!)

at my course we are learning about unconscious processes this weekend. incredibly interesting theory. but man do i need a break!

e

new 5k pb!!

hurray!

I was a bit nervous this morning heading to the coolrunning 5km challenge because i feel like i have had a bit of a slack month. thought i'd head out at 28mins so that i was not putting much pressure on myself. AndrewFF53 again helped me out and ferried me from the finish to start so that i could get home in time to get to my course (currently scoffing toast and blowdrying my hair while i type this - no wonder my fuse box just gave up and tripped out).

at the start i had a chat to my lovely speedy Sweat-co-teammate bernie who very kindly offered to pace me to a new pb - we thought that sub 27 mins was a good aim as the previous pb was 27m15s - so we were going for 26m58s. it felt fast right from the start and i wasn't sure i would keep going. i had felt a little sick all morning (nerves? maybe the drinks i had last night...) and was worried about collapsing half way!! but i gritted my teeth and held on to bernie who was very encouraging - particularly when i was obviously struggling in the last 2kms! in the end we crossed the line in (drum roll....) 26m29s!! so a 46 second pb.

i am very happy with that! no way i could have done it without bernie though - so a hhuuuugggee thanks to her.

lovely to see loads of coolrunners as well - and i had my new hat on so i felt officially like part of the crew :)

now off to my course

maybe a bit more toast...

100

Was just going to post something making an excuse for why i didn't run this morning (which incidentally because, as predicted, it was a late night... i even only got to watch the last 30 mins of the soccer) but then i saw that this is my 100th post.

feels like a milestone.

no matter how much i whinge about being slow and unmotivated, the fact remains that compared to 100 posts ago i am practically a speed demon. i am also consistently running between 4 and 6 times a week and have sustained that for quite a while now. i can run for nearly 2 hours, i am discovering that i have different speeds, have done a couple of fun runs now and am at the point where i can actually enjoy a run instead of the whole thing being an awful struggle.

how cool is that?

1km fartlek loops

we were down on the schedule to do an outside loop of the park for our fartlek today but sean changed that and mapped out a 1km loop that we surged down the straights and 'floated' the bends. it is great to watch the fast people do it because at least there is a difference in their 'float' and 'surge'. i battled through though. Sean suggested 5 or 6 or 7 laps. I did 6 in 33 something. i felt pretty strong though and was glad i went to the session. There are still people in the group that i don't know but everyone is really nice. Perhaps if i think of it as an opportunity to socialise rather than run it will be easier to get up ;) (and there was a new cute boy there this morning! eye candy is always worth a bit of extra motivation... hehe)

My program for next month is an easier month where my long runs drop right back and build up again. i think that is good as i am starting to feel a few aches and pains. But this sunday is still down for 1hr50mins and luckily Kerry is doing the same so we are going to team up for an early one. i do like having company on those long runs.

There is potential for a big night tonight backed up with a viewing of "the" game tomorrow at 5am at my friends house who has a tv projector thing. not sure whether both of those can happen... unless i stay out until then... which i guess is always an option. a stupid option, but a real one nonetheless...

my stupid emails at work are over 12 hours delayed now - driving me nuts!

repentant run

well i missed sweat this morning. just being belligerent (this is the word of the day) i think.

so i had a session this evening at 7pm (course related personal therapy) and ran there and then home afterwards for all up about 40 mins running. went pretty darn fast. especially afterwards as i had a bit of a breakthrough as i found some anger. this might not sound like a huge deal but for someone who doesn't really get angry it was fantastic. i feel pretty freakin good now. running and anger (ok so it was pretty mild anger but it was there!) goes really well together. i will have to try it more often.

:)

loooong one

creative heading hey? i used all my brain power this morning making porridge so there is nothing left for a good post title...

anyway - today i had 1hr 45 on the program but thought i would take that anywhere up to 2 hours because i did a bit extra last week. i ended up stopping to walk at 1hr 53ish minutes because my knees were killing me anytime i was going down hill and i thought i should just stop rather that battle through the pain. was pretty close to home.

it was a really great run actually. i headed around the outside of the park and then diverted down Birrell Rd all the way down to bondi beach. once at the beach i went up to north bondi (all the way dreading the fact that i had literally been going downhill for 20 minutes!) back up bondi rd all the way through bondi juction and past the park on oxford st and home. a good solid run i thought and i got some serious hill action in the form of birrell's long slow climb through waverley to the edge of tamarama and then from north bondi up campbell parade and bondi rd really all the way to bondi junction. i actually enjoyed it though and got into the groove where a gentle upward slope started to feel easy like the flat relative the the steep bits. hurrah!

when i was about half way around the park it was still pretty dark (around 6am?) and i saw a CR cap in the distance and thought i'd just missed a spotting, when suddenly around the corner came about one hundred sydney striders with a few coolrunners and sweat-ers in there amongst it. i identified katie (leading the charge!) and amjan and kerry and am sure there were more - but it was dark... and i was still a bit asleep... guess that was the sunday training run?!

fun stuff. i survived yesterday's therapy session but suspect it was a gentle intro... today could be scary!! (but jeezus - if i can run for nearly 2 hours surely i can survive anything???)

easy saturday morning run

just 35 mins today and i didn't have the energy to really think about where to go so i just ran down oxford st a bit then through paddington a bit, then around my house a bit. i made myself go down every hill i saw just so that i would have to come back up. so that was good.

i'm realising that now i actually do have more than one speed so i can go a bit faster on these short runs than on my big long sunday run.

ok - off to therapy weekend... if i don't blog for a few days someone come and save me - i'll be the one rocking back and forth in the corner :)

some free therapy for myself

right. so i've been thinking for a long time that it is entirely possible that i have a fear of hills. particularly running up them. and as we always say in TA psychotherapy - they greatest learning comes from understanding and examining your resistances... so this fear of hills is something that i need to understand.

this weekend i have a 'therapy weekend' on with my course. which is where we don't do theory but have a 'guest lecturer/therapist' in (he is from NZ and is one of the most charismatic people i've met in my life!). essentially it is 2 days of him doing pieces of therapy on each of us, and obviously we get the unique opportunity to watch the therapy. just quietly i am really scared about doing some real therapy in front of a group as it is quite an emotional thing and you are frequently very vulnerable.

so maybe i'll take my fear of hills in. which isn't really a fear of hills. its a fear of failure. and its a scenario where i have to really be outside my comfort zone which is interesting as my whole life has been about getting outside my comfort zone. but not in a physical sense so it is a whole new ball game where i am confronted with the certainty that i am not very good at it and where i can't bluff it. so every single time i go for a run or in particular a hill run i am fighting that part of me that says - you're crap at this and you'll always be crap at it so you just shouldn't bother. which is exhausting and is why the "doona monster" (as I have heard it so quaintly put!) is successful on a number of occasions... plus there are a range of self sabotaging strategies that i see in lots of areas of my life and i reckon this could be one of those too.

anyway - so there is my therapy for the week until Saturday morning when it all begins... most likely i will take one of my bazillion other issues in with me - but hills are a darn good back stop :)

(oh - and no - i didn't get up for my sweat hills session this morning...)

did it

5 days straight sticking to the program exactly (or doing more than required!). I am submitting my application for an Order of Australia now. If that isn't good enough then i bloody don't know what is. hehe. ok you know i'm kidding...

anyway got up early and despite the bitter cold and the shroud of darkness over the park i picked my way through all the obstacles (including tree roots, uneven ground and my reluctant legs) and got there. once i was there it was fine and i felt like i had a really good session. we had 4.8km (12 laps) of windsprints which is where you "sprint" the straights and slow down a bit on the bends. i finished in 26.20 which i was pretty happy with as i felt pretty strong still and had a bit left in the legs. i should have gone slower though because Sean told the 2 behind me to stop after 11 laps!!!! But all in all I am really pleased i went along and felt good.

the run home felt like a massive slog though... :)

and back to work after a long weekend - and i'm glad!!! hallelujah. i was pretty good this weekend - only drank on thursday and friday nights.

Just to recap the last 5 days included:
- 30 mins (just short of 5kms i reckon)
- 1 hour (about 9kms)
- between 1hr45m and 2hr15 including walking and stuff - 15.88km
- 35 mins (5 and a bit kms)
- sweat - 3km to and from home + warm up 1km + strides + 4.8km windsprints (9.5ish)

for a grand total of just under 45kms. not bad i reckon - i'm officially "back on track" after the (scary) nosh.

4 down, 1 to go

in my 5 day mini challenge to make sure i stuck to my program. so far no one has to kick my ass but the main event may be the question of whether i get up and go to sweat tomorrow.

35 mins this morning. was a bit flat to start with after yesterdays effort but once i warmed up i felt alright and i think that i was going fastish. certainly my perceived exertion was high-ish!!

it is a stunning day but DAMN its still cold. i have this silly tendency to link sunshine with warmth. you'd think i'd learn... but no.

hmm what else. was enjoying the hilltop hoods on my ipod today. great to run with. off to breakfast now with my best mate from perth who i convinced last year to move to sydney as well. mmm... breakfast...

long run in the snow

well close enough - its bloody cold!!

i met the lovely jen_runs in centennial park as we both had around 14km on the program. my program was 1 hr 40 mins.

unfortunately jen was suffering troublesome calf muscles and shins so had to pull up after about 1 or 2 kms. we walked back to the car and i was having serious thoughts about just doing 35 mins and doing the long one tomorrow. so i did one inner circuit fast-ish but decided that i should toughen up and do the long one. so i ended up doing 2 inner laps and then was bored of that so i did a lap outside the fence. so all up 14 or so k's plus what jen and i did initially. i have no idea how long it took. yes. a watch would be a good idea. mandy i would love a garmin but am 'financially challenged' at the moment... but soon!

hope everyone is nice and warm. i'm about to have a ridiculously long hot shower.

chasing the clouds away

was nice to get out amongst it this morning. 60 mins and i reckon between 9 and 10ks. it was threatening rain but obviously i outran it :)

a good day for staying in and reflecting. i'm feeling very peaceful. sigh.

:) have a nice long weekend everyone!

Triple extra AAA rated run

well following last night's (mildy) drunken ramblings i did in fact get up and go for a run this morning. I get extra points for being a bit hungover and still going but more to the point i get lots of points for going out IN THE RAIN. especially because i knew it was raining and went anyway!!!

stepped in some pretty special puddles... that was ...interesting.

the way i convinced myself to do it was by wearing old shoes. so i wouldn't have to have my "new" (ok so they are muddy and 4 months old now) shoes get all damp and smelly and yucky. probably bad for my knees - but hey i got out the door.

booked in to see easy tiger next wednesday although i tell you what - my back is killing me the last few days. i think i need an 'ergonomic review'...

hurray for the long weekend!!!

commitment and promises

right - so i just got home after a night meeting some relatives i never knew existed (and how good is this - i started empty handed and ended up with baked goods and wine and rellos that are just as boozy as me!) and am officially requesting that you all kick my ass if i don't do the next 5 runs on my program:

- tomorrow 30 mins
- saturday 1 hour
- sunday 1 hour 45 mins
- monday 35 mins
- tuesday sweat intervals.

rain hail or shine if i look like i am slacking off (as i did this morning... i know-bad ellie - and not in a good way) please tell me that i am being a lazy girl and that i shouldn't throw away all of the last few months effort just cause i am feeling a bit blah about some stuff at the moment.

anyways - i'm a bit pissed still so if i want to get up at a reasonable hour for my 30 i should go to sleep. and drink a few litres of water :)

treadmills are for chumps

so i went to the gym today because i couldn't bare the thought of going to sweat training in the rain. i am aware that this is not acceptable practice. particularly as i decided this immediately after getting a 'training continues in the rain' email from sean. ah well.

but pretty much it sucked. 70 minutes on the treadmill, including 5 min walking at the start and finish. it was so boring. i hated it. plus i sweated heaps more than i ever have before because you don't notice it when the air is evaporating it!! i also noticed a lot of girls with the speed up so high they had to hang off the top of the display. surely that is cheating? i kept it at at a nice sedate pace...

anyway - LOVING my new job. more training and starting the meetings today. i have a HUGE office with a gorgeous view of the botanic gardens and woolloomooloo. very spoiled. can already tell i'll love it. happy days :)

off to training...

the great-and-really-really-ridiculously-hard-in-parts nosh

well first off I can categorically say that this mornings outing at the Nosh was the hardest run I have ever ever ever done. it may in fact be the hardest thing that i have ever ever ever done. but nonetheless I survived (relatively) unscathed with only a few bruises to the ego :)

it was great to catch up with loads of people and meet some that i feel like i've know forever. jen_runs, the owl, go girl, 2P, bristol something FC, don juan,mph, wildthing and crew, steve from japan, and many others that were too fast for me to remember...

the race started after the indecision about layering and weather resolved itself by ditching the long sleeve top. good decision as i was pretty warm pretty quickly... i started out with the owl and jen, quickly losing jen to the speed monster. the owl and i kept together until about half way when my substandard fitness levels really started to let me down. I had a girl tailing me for the first 6 or 7 k's - she was literally walking and running exactly when i was - but just stood behind me rather than chatting - v disconcerting!! she overtook me too eventually.

So the first 4 k's were fine and i felt alright - no doubt that is why i went too fast too soon and crashed early. at about the 4km mark i started to feel a bit sick (thanks 2p for talking me through that one!!) and started walk breaks. that turned to a quite painful stitch at about 5.5k's. dearie me what was i thinking pretending that i could run with the big kids????

anyway - a combination of walking up the hills (especially the ones that weren't so much hills as vertical piles of rocks as high as the eye could see (i'm not kidding!! possibly overexaggerating but that is how it felt)) and then running the flats and downhills (which were significantly lacking as i am sure the starting point was lower than the finish overall!!!) got me to the end essentially in one piece.

A massive thanks to 2P who came and picked me up for the last kilometre. it was massively appreciated even though i couldn't verbalise and still run at the same time ;)

once i finished i was fine, but man it was tough! it definitely highlighted just how unfit i am, particularly in relation to hills. almost makes me want to give it all up because i almost feel like i might as well have just walked it. but i won't. i will however have to add more hills into my regular training runs which i don't really get around the park. still on balance i am pretty sure that i am glad i did it.... but might need to process that one a little more... and i really enjoyed my two giant killer pythons. i figure that combined with a big bottle of water it was the same as having a sports drink!

phew. i need a nap. or something.

E

see wednesday's entry - only without the last bit...

but its my last day!! (again...) definitely won't be having celebrations as debaucherous as last time, but am fairly sure i'll have a dopey grin on my face for most of the day...

big bertha mark 2

well hills this morning. i was on the program for 6 big bertha's. these are run non stop. the fast people do 10... i do 6! (which is plenty!). this was only the second time i had done this course and i did it in 17.02 which is 44 seconds faster than the last time i did it. i thought that i would have improved more because it feels like ages since we did this course - but i just looked it up and it was on the 13th of april which is only a month and a half ago. so not too shabby.

i am consciously trying to make sure i increase the incidental km's on tuesday and thursday too just to get used to it, today my warm up and warm down including the trip to and from home was probably 5.5km plus the 3km of hills and a bit more in the strides so a good solid mornings work i think.

2 days left at career number 3...