unexpected cross training

had planned to have a rest (sorry... taper) day today and just walked into work. but i got a bit jealous when all my work buddies were heading off to their kickboxing class in the domain. so i decided to go along! $15 for a casual class and it was great!!! i had forgotten how good it is to kick and punch to crap out of something. even though I have absolutely no upper body or much core strength I felt strong and fit - although it wasn't such a hard session. lots of kicking and punching and ab exercises. unreal! have to get back into the boxing I think - just because its so fun!

just made a great dinner too - chopped raw carrot, zucchini, capsicum with feta, some beans and a little bit of pasta with natural yoghurt and moroccan seasoning dressing!

EDIT - i noticed when we were doing particular sorts of kicks (mostly the push kicks which use the foot whereas the roundhouse ones use the shin a bit more) that i have a sore toe :) sounds ridiculous but strangely painful. So leaving it alone today and not putting it in my running shoes which sort of felt like they might be the problem (i actually felt like my shoes are getting too big. weird).

and miners - I don't know what you are referring to? :P

going round in circles...

track session today - on the program was 6 x 400's. our little group is getting faster i reckon... (although despite sean's assurance that he rolled out the 400m, the garmin said 380 and the times seemed a bit fast to me!!).

2.7k warm up, my 400's were very consistent (and not too slow!):
- 1.41
- 1.41
- 1.40
- 1.38
- 1.41
- 1.39

short cool down for just over 6k all up. felt ok - not fabulous and after each rep i felt nasty. but it has been a long time since i've been able to push myself to nausea each rep. so i'm happy (in a masochistic kinda way...)

the opposite of dracula

whatever you call that - its me! more blood tests today - hopefully will shed a bit more light on things. i think i will call off the swim tonight. no good reason except for tapering, my arm is a bit sore (well not really - only a teeny bit but its seems like a good excuse) and its technically a rest day anyway.

not long till CC now! i have a few contingency plans:

A goal: sub 2 hours
B goal: sub 2 hr 10
C goal: finish (and run mostly)
D goal: see how i feel and if i wanna turn back or stop - just do it. no pressure mate :)

really looking forward to catching up with everyone!

faaaark

because its central coast half marathon next weekend i am tapering (ludicrous as it sounds in light of my month's training...) and only had an hour on today. but i have to say it was one of the hardest hours i have ever done. I covered 9k in the hour (avg pace 6.38) but that doesn't convey the excessive amounts of will power that I had to muster up to keep going. it was literally one step at a time. i felt terrible right from the start. it wasn't my cold - it was dead legs and feeling so sluggish and heavy. ugghhhh.

but i did it and i like to think that perhaps it was my obligatory crap run pre half marathon...

maybe it was delayed onset hangover from friday night? or continuing anyway...

i have changed my email address because some people had told me they tried to email me from my blog and got a bounce back. i have now linked a gmail account - but turns out I had typed in the old one wrong :) sorry!!

my course is on all this weekend - so better get going.

x

bricks

decided it was about time I got on the bike this morning, so decided i would have a go at one of those brick sessions i know I should be doing.

didn't want to push too hard as I'm still not quite right but think i'm well on the way! started out with a ride, 4 laps of the park so about 15k. Then i jumped off, loaded the bike into car, change shoes and hit the road. My legs were cactus!!! i felt like i was running on someone elses legs! it was probably about 700m before they came good. I was extremely surprised therefore to look down and see that my pace was about 5.50!

given that I was only running one lap of the park (3.5k) i though I should try and keep that pace up - and I did - finishing quite puffed at 5.46 avg pace. noice. all up a bit under an hour i think.

i'm actually really happy with that even though I am pretty slow on the bike and find that it hurts my quads!! even the flat bits. i'm not bike conditioned!! might add some lunch time spin classes just to build up some muscles. but prob best not to do too much just yet... :)

coolrunning drinks tonight - should be great! and at lunch time i have a lunch with one of my agencies at Aria - apparently a very fancy restaurant. good day all round i hope - and i'm hardly coughing at all.

fi-nally!!!

90 mins - 13.5k - pace was about 6.40.

yayayayy!!!!! got up and felt reasonably ok - little bit of coughing and spluttering but not too much. first 5k were rough. i was struggling with my breathing and thought I was going to have to abort mission. but then I started to come good. The last 3 or so were a bit rough too but i think that is lack of match fitness now :)

anyway i am very relieved that I am back into it. very.

hurray!

i'm rubbish

didn't do my long run this morning. didn't even do a short one. i stayed in bed till 7.10 which is unheard of!! and i felt like crap when I did get up. walking in to work has sort of woken me up but not really.

ok whinge done - now my strategy is to get back to my program starting tomorrow (presuming i have stopped coughing) and not worry about the missing long run. it doesn't really matter how i go at central coast - i'm mostly going to catch up with lots of buddies and have a weekend away. 20 minutes extra on the road won't have too much impact on that :)

hmm

went to sweat training this morning but was probably a little over optimistic about my healing speed and the effectiveness of my new 'pretend its not there' method of cold curing.

felt pretty bad the whole way. 3k warm up, had 5 x 600m reps, did 4 of these, first one was 3.00mins then i decided to jog them... 3.11, 2.47 (but this was on a 500m course because we got kicked off the oval), 3.09. my chest was really tight and i was coughing a lot. i know i shouldn't really run with a chest cold but i just want to get back into it. I am however rethinking the long run tomorrow... it looks like central coast is just going to be a cruisy long run anyway so no point breaking myself in training just to have a long run under my belt...

i love muesli right - and have made some of my own - but whereas 2 pieces of toast will fill me up, even the biggest bowl of muesli doesn't. and you are only supposed to have about half a cup. its a mystery.

back on the wagon (again...)

i have had a bloody excellent weekend - capped this morning by my first run in almost a week.

Saturday night was a friend's 30th and his theme was 'ho's and gigolos'... lets just say i had a very good time and felt suitably dreadful on sunday. the naughty librarian costume went down well and i now have a good set of photos for when I put together my 'adult entertainment' portfolio :)

I had a friend (from Perth, but lives in Melbourne and about to move to Brisbane but who was in Sydney on her way to vancouver...) over for the party which was lovely and we even had high tea at the victoria room on sunday - but without the chandon that would usually be part of the afternoon.

I have been debating when to do my long run and have decided on wednesday. i felt ok today but i still have a bit of a cough and i struggled on the hills a bit. still I managed 7k and averaged 6.45's which for an easy jog is ok by me. I felt like a normal person after my run thank god. i have had all this excess energy which i really need to channel into exercise or it turns into misbehaving like on saturday night...

hehe. all is right with the world again...

and i've got an easy tiger appt this afternoon so that will be 'nice' too :)

a fine line

got up at 5.30 this morning to go for my long run (2hr15) but realised that I am still croaking, and still coughing. so i decided not to do my run. i was worried about getting worse again or about not breathing well.

so - lazy or sensible? i don't know anymore.

i'm going to go INSANE. i've been walking between 4 - 8k each day this week but its not the same :(

ho hum

same old. driving me nuts!!! did i mention that i can be impatient on occasion????

back at work today and i managed to restrain myself from a run this morning (the pressure in my chest assisted the decision) but a walk into work and I felt pretty good. so glad its friday...

("30 seconds?? but i want it nowwww...")

i admit defeat :)

home sick today - no ride this morning. nuthin' actually. bit of sleeping. have now set up camp with an arsenal of vitamins and some OJ and will potter between bed and the computer I think.

the JP Morgan run got cancelled yesterday and rescheduled for tonight so I won't be starting after all. was very disappointed but there were some pretty strong winds apparently. Not too flash today either.

hopefully a day resting will make me better so I can do my long run saturday (has to be saturday because of a large 30th saturday night - i won't be feeling the love on sunday...). I t will be my last long run before the CC half so its important!!!! not feeling too confident about that one actually. ah well.

bike help please!!

bugger. so i got up early this morning to go for a little gentle ride (race on tonight so no big hills or anything).

But i was trying to pump my tyres and the pump connector keeps shooting off after a couple of pumps. What am I doing wrong?? I am doing what the instructions say - removing the plastic cover, unscrewing the metal valve bit, putting the pump head on all the way and then locking the lever. then i would pump once or twice and it would shoot off. grrrr. silly bikes. i am sure it is something completely basic but I can't get it! this happened on both tyres... one still attached to the bike and one laying on the floor.

pleassssee?

anyway - i am not going for a ride now (that'll learn it :) and so will walk in to work and 'taper' for this evenings 5.6k JP Morgan cup.

WAIT!! I tried again just before I went to work and tried not pushing the pump head all the way down and that seems to have worked... crisis averted :) but i still didn't do my ride :(

Sweat-in' up a storm

i walked home after work yesterday and felt absolutely hideous. i just wanted to go home and sleep. nearly had to sit down because i was going to fall over.

but i made it and once i was at home and sitting down i felt better. went to bed around 8 - 8.30 and again had an interupted sleep but today I feel a million times better. i still have all the cold-y stuff going on but without the headache-y pressure in my head!

so i got up and went to Sweat training - but wasn't too optimistic about how i'd go. warm up 3k including drills etc, then I had 10 x 300's which were dropped to 8 x 300's because I am doing the JP Morgan Corporate run thing tomorrow night. I was definitely off my fastest and was being a little cautious but was actually pretty happy with how i went - 1.26, 1.25, 1.23, 1.22, 1.22, 1.27, 1.20, 1.20. The 1k cooldown for 6.59k all up. Then a nice walk into work in the beautiful sunshine!

i noticed when i was running home from training today that the hill on the way home seemed like a hill - but not like the monumental challenge it had felt like for a few months - so that could be the iron starting to kick in. or else i just didn't push so hard this session :)

noice.

is my immune system trying to tell me something?

if so what?

so after my long run yesterday i was tired but feeling ok. then within an hour i developed a sore throat which quicly turned into a full blown head cold with blocked ears, runny nose and headache. fortunately the sore throat has gone but the rest is all still there. and the pseudoephedrine isn't really doing the job I must say. and it kept me up all night (weirdly i was having half awake dreams about ultra events - must have been reading the GNW thread on coolrunning too close to bedtime :)

anyway - i'm sick of it so i've decided to ignore it. it was a rest day today and i walked in to work. going to go to the gym and do some gentle cross-trainer-ing and some ab work at lunch. i figure some low impact stuff like walking and the cross trainer will aid the 'lose 10kg ASAP' effort!!

anyway - at least the weather is superb! it was supposed to be raining though so not sure how long it will last.

phwoar

that was a tough one.

2hr, 17.8k, 6.43 pace. ran down oxford st, around hyde park, back up oxford st (many strange looks from the multitude of revellers still out, still smashed). then diverted down flinders, around the moore park golf club, around the outside of the park and through the middle of the park and did a lake loop. actually felt totally fine until the last 10 mins which were a real struggle. still made myself hold and even pick up the pace so I'm quite pleased with that. ran into rob and brightshoes and glimpsed sean's squad as i walked home afterwards.

more phantom sweat blisters - on my shoulders this time. its definitely related to sweating - but the other ones disappeared and the skin is starting to peel. who knows - maybe that is just what happens when you get burnt? i never do so its all very new and icky to me.

last night the owl and I went to watch the state 3k championships - particular to cheer on sparkie and superflake and gary and quite a few striders actually. very exciting! (despite the parking dramas caused by the inconsiderate timing of the U2 concert :). some fantastic runs and we had a little picnic up in the stands. we also hardly perved at all because we were quite far up and it was difficult to see clearly (except for the dude in the white lycra bike pants...).

i bought a set of scales yesterday. it is a bit of an experiment to try and desensitise myself to weighing myself. having always had an issue with weight/appearance stepping on the scales is never pleasant and is often enough to ruin my day/week. we shall see. like lorna says - its just a number.......

just had a bowl of watermelon - how good is it???

yeah... but no... but yeah...

well i have managed to get tickets to the 4th Sydney Little Britain show (hurray!) but it also describes today's run.

10k in 1.02.56 - avg pace 6.17m/km.

looks good on paper - but that doesn't tell the whole story. At about 4k I felt a similar dizzy light headed might fall over sensation and starting cursing - and walking... walked for a about 5mins to get to a water fountain but one didn't come so i started running. 700m running and i found a water fountain. another k and i stopped to talk to the bondifit coach. then, hoping all would be well i started running again and did another 4.3k averaging 6.12's.

So other than the dizziness and the stops i was actually going a lot faster than I would have thought given that i didn't ever get to a puffed or breathless. all up the run was good...but bad... but good.

and a really weird thing happened where i am sunburned. The burnt bits that are under my sports bra have come up in what I presume are little sweat blisters. i guess the skin can't sweat normally through the burt skin or something. eek!!!! the racer back on my back is the worst!!! doesn't hurt at all but it is kind of freaky!

magic

i write it down then i do it. easy.

hit the park around 10 to 6 this morning after mucking around pumping up my tyres (never done that before) and realising i don't know what pressure to make it and then realising its written on the tyre... derr...

did 2 flat laps, hill lap, flat lap, hill lap, flat lap, flat lap. all up about 23.3k in 59.40. Still slow but average the same pace i was but with some hills.

walked in to work too - about 5k i think.
i struggle on hills. really bad. need to learn how to get up out of my seat. still too scared to indicate, drink or touch the garmin because of my death grip on handlebars... was much easier on the flat today though which is good.


might update later - i forgot everything this morning.

today's lesson

deciding that i will see how i feel when I wake up and then decide what i am going to do doesn't work. i have a sneaky suspicion that i am inherently lazy and so i will always choose the path of least resistance. can't give myself the option. having a program is v important for me.

is good to learn these things i guess.

tomorrow i will ride. in the park. 2 flat loops to warm up, then 2 x hill loop/flat loop combos. Then one flat loop to cool down.

done.

(ps - like the colour change? i wanted to lighten up a bit ;) )

chatter

a loooong day yesterday. started the festivities at 'cup in the park' around 1pm yesterday and go home around midnight. noice. needless to say I am suffering a little today but it completely serves me right! had an awesome day actually and met lots of lovely people. i have however come away with a nasty painful sunburn which i HATE!!!!

i had an ipod reality check yesterday on the bus. i was sitting there listening to some rage against the machine and had it pretty loud cause it was a good song and I was getting right into it. didn't think much of it until i saw a guy across the bus singing a little bit to himself. didn't think much of that either and then i realised he was singing along with my song... oops. now being very careful of volume control. although he liked it at least!

back on the track...

well the grass anyway.

back to training this more and i was apprehensive but looking forward to it. did about 2.6k warm up and then strides and drills took me up to 4k. then the program for today was 4 x 800m. in the end i did them in 4.07 (824m), 4.20 (813m), 4.06 (821m), 4.11 (829m). before the half, when I started to get a bit run down I was doing all my intervals at sub 5min pace. i was pretty close today but could definitely feel my lack of training fitness. still - onwards and upwards from here. all up 8.5k.

I am ravenous this morning - double muesli today. need to be a but stricter with breakfast!!!

this afternoon i am hitting the domain for melbourne cup - half a day off! hurray!!!

while i'm at it i wanted to record some other things i've learnt about iron:
- all sorts of things prevent its absorption - like tea and coffee and eggs and some say milk!
- its really hard to eat meat all the time - but last night i had a minted lamb thing on my new meat grill. was pretty good! you can also use the grill for vegies and i did giant mushrooms and sweet potato.

yahoo!

a good run! not just an ok one - an honest to god good run. of course everything is relative... but i feel great!

Met with lulu, mr lulu, beki, the owl and caro this morning for a jaunt over on the west side (aiii). we started at drummoyne, headed up and over the anzac bridge, through pyrmont, annandale, back of glebe i think and down the canal to the bay again. despite the dreary day it was probably good weather for running. didn't even get rained on (much).

I was scheduled for 2 hours but was planning to see how I went, keep it slow and do as much as I could up to 90 mins. so we took off and I felt great, 1km ticked over, still good, up a hill, still good... i was almost holding my breath waiting to start feeling exhausted and heavy ...but I didn't! The legs wearied towards the end but I could have kept going. At some points I felt ...bouncy... it was quite surreal. I know we kept the pace nice and comfortable (avg pace 6.54) but i didn't struggle - at all. I suspect I was annoying everyone when I would tell them (in a low awestruck voice) 'i feel really good today'... poor lorna had an awful stitch but she still managed to tell me how glad she was that I was feeling ok. love your guts owly :)

I stopped at 94ish minutes, 13.4ish k with a big smile (and I'm told a bit more colour in my face!). a fabulous breakfast of thick wholemeal toast, avocado, mushrooms and scrambled eggs really topped it off (not to mention the company of course - Mr Lulu and his b*tches as he referred to us...)

Great morning!!!!!!!

Makes me realise that I have probably been struggling for longer than I realised and just thought it was lack of fitness. i know its partly that but maybe that wasn't the whole story after all. love my little red pills :)

testing the waters...

i think i'm feeling a bit better but to be honest i really can't tell anymore. i'm not jumping out of my skin with energy.

however, I was going a bit stir crazy and mental about missing the relaxing, energising, relieving nature of going for a run and was getting quite wound up so I decided it was time to get stuck back into it. I decided that I would only do 4k (home and around the inside of the park) and would not worry about my pace or what the watch said. I wouldn't go any faster than extremely relaxed. So that I did. Kept my perceived exertion low and never really breathed hard at all which is nice. Deliberately didn't go up any hills or go faster cause i knew that if i started huffing and puffing i would psych myself out :)

ended up with 4k in 26.36 which is 6.38 pace. very happy with that and was tempted to keep going but stopped as per the plan.

i feel loads better now :)

big plus

to not training is not feeling bad about going out for a fewwwww drinks... last night was a schmoozy dinner for our next intake of summer clerks and afterwards us HR chicks (the backbone of the firm obviously) knocked back a few bottles of champagne (or as Will would prefer i specify.. sparkling white :)

so i'm a little tired this morning but can't blame the iron.

I have decided not to pay for the you beaut squad program all sessions included thing this month because I am a bit broke and I don't know how much value I'll get out of it. I can still do it session by session. Do feel a bit like a quitter and that i've failed in that goal. But that is old stuff for me so trying not to fixate. I'll give myself November and see how I go. Might try to loosely follow the program I had but at my speed...

anyway back to my raisin toast and coffee...

EDIT: check out my star sign today! do you think that the new exercise program refers to doing nothing like now... or being able to get started again??

The planets brightens your relationships this month and if you recently met someone the chances are that a love affair will be a raging success especially but only if you keep it a secret for a while! A new exercise plan not only raises your physical vitality but creates a magnetic sexual appeal socially.

the iron journals part VI

didn't train today, but i am fairly sure that I do feel better today. Was in bed by nine and didn't get up until 6.30 so I am getting a lot of sleep. When I was laying in bed as I woke up I definitely felt better, but then I actually got up :)

still feel a bit light headed and weird and was glad for a seat on the bus but I think its getting better.

still feeling quite anxious about the lack of training. Its been so much part of my life that its almost like a withdrawal. I still worry a little bit - what if I never get back into it properly again? what if i've just lost it? i don't think I really believe that but it is good to say it out loud. what a whinger hey??? still if you can't wallow in a bit of self pity in your own blog then where can you?? :) i know i've got it pretty good really. My friend at work who ran the Sydney marathon looks like she has a stress fracture on her lower leg. Only an x-ray so far but it is a shadow on the bone and the doctor is pretty sure. On the plus side she hasn't been able to run since the marathon so hopefully it won't take too long to heal now.

anyways i've decided i'll be right for the weekend so all my karmic energy is focussing on healthy healing vibes :) i'm sick of people telling me how pale I look!

so tired...

ok - so I really am listening to everyone's advice. I went to bed at 8.30 last night and didn't go for my run this morning and I'm not going swimming tonight. I am taking the iron with the vitamin c and a C supplement as well. I am also keeping very well hydrated! Still feeling just so tired. But I know that will improve, I am hoping to be back to peak form for weekend at least!

:)