practice makes perfect

firstly... no. i didn't do the 5k challenge yesterday as planned. I was hungover. but it was alright because so was Lorna :)

Today though was a whole new day and after an early night I felt spritely :) but nowhere near as spritely as on Wednesday... We went down to the city to have a run over the SMH course. I was surprised that I didn't think it was quite as bad as everyone makes out. Although I reckon that Hunter St will be painful on lap 2... We started at the Art Gallery and ran the Mrs Macquaries chair part before heading into the city. We did the loop around Argyle and Hickson Rd twice for good measure then headed back to the Gardens. All up I did 2hrs and we don't really know how far because the garmins kept losing reception. I forgot mine altogether. It was a nice easy pace, i reckon 18k? bit less maybe.

On the plus side I felt (and still feel) great after. I drank High5 the whole way round and didn't have any food for after but didnt get that awful feeling of suddenly having nothing left. Good news! And the knees had their moments during the run but the hip was fine and I feel better now than I have after a long run in ages!!!

PS - for the sydneysiders out there - how stunning is the weather today? my perfect running weather - cool, bright and sunny and a nice crisp breeze...

phwoar...

we had big bertha on the program at sweat this morning, and looking back last night while the lovely lulu and wtr fed me :) I couldn't recall actually ever completing a full session which is 10 laps. I maybe have done but it has been well and truly erased from the memory banks.

But there was no escaping it today - I even pledged to myself not to amplify some minor niggle into a lap-stopping injury :) In the words of a friend - today I just had to 'suck it up princess'.

I started pretty gently but this course is a killer and of course I was hurting straight away. I was really surprised when at the end of Lap 2 or 3 Sean told me that he had never seen me running this well and that I had stepped up a level. That definitely perked me up, but unfortunately didn't make the hill any flatter. He told me again a couple of laps later that I was going to smash my pb (hmmm what pb I thought... he was just psychologising me i suspect...). Anyway - I did finish. 10 laps in 25.31. That can be my benchmark from now on!

The laps were 2.24, 2.29, 2.29, 2.29, 2.35, 2.36, 2.40, 2.38 (end in sight!!), 2.36, 2.30. I wasn't watching the splits during the run as it is a continuous no recovery one, but now looking at them I am quite happy that I dropped off a bit in the middle but I did pick it up again at the end. (I think Sean was a bit optmistic with his call to do a sub 2 min lap for my last one though!!!)

6.8k all up for the morning.

i feel good

Lorna, Lulu and I met up this morning for a public holiday run this morning and can I just say - I felt unreal. It was one of those runs where everything seems to work together nicely. Even on the hills I felt spritely and energetic. And yes - you can slap me for using the word 'spritely' - but still - that is how I felt. Weird... but good!

We stuck around the park, stopped to stretch a few times and finished with 9.4ish km in 1hr with an avg pace of 6.24.

Then we went back to my place and got stuck in to the main event... breakfast. I maintain that I have a pathological inability to cater for less than 7 - which makes it extra funny that I choose to live alone. Toast is a beautiful thing :)

It feels like Saturday :) but I am sure it won't tomorrow!!

sunshine on a rainy day

it was pouring when I went to sleep and pouring when I got up this morning - but for some reason the idea of staying in bed didn't really compute. this is a good thing!

My program this morning had me down for 3 x 1k loops. I was looking forward to it as 1k is that nice point where it is long, but not so long that you want to die but realise you aren't even half way yet.

But the rain (grumble grumble) put paid to that plan as the ground on the usual 1k loop was too boggy. So instead we had to run around the paved inside loop of the Park. Now there were plenty of flooded sections, but it was probably better. The fast people did the whole loop (3.7k) and the rest of us did an abridged version that was 2.5k. We had to do it twice with a good length recovery in between (about 6 and a half minutes it ended up being).

So after I moved past my indignation at having another 2k added willy nilly to the program (ok not so much indignation as shock and fear...) I stepped up to the plate. So to speak.

And my first lap was a blinder! Sean had said to go hard first off because we had a really good recovery. I did the 2.5k in 12.25 which was 4.55 pace. That is PB pace for sure! (not that I have a 2.5k pb - but I sure do now!). Gave me some hope also that I might be in 5k PB shape on the weekend. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself because lap 2 was somewhat less stellar, namely 13.07 and 5.10 pace. Still nothing to sniff at I think.

I was pretty shattered after the first lap, and I lost the mental edge for the second one. In the first lap I stuck onto a couple of the fast girls for a good bit of it, but the second lap I didn't/couldn't.

All up 7.3k and extra brownie points for running in the rain. 3 and a half stars Margaret.

long run sunday

it has been over 3 and a half months since I did my last 2 hour long run, but if ever there was a time to get back into it, it is now! I was a bit wary because I wasn't sure how I'd feel and my knee is still giving me some grief. I even had a dream about my knee hurting and deciding not to train. Now do you see how resistant my subconscious is??? :)

I wanted to stick close to Centennial Park in case it played up so I was close to home, also cause there are lots of water fountains there.

I ended up feeling ok and doing my 2 hours. I tried to keep up a reasonable pace (for me!) and finished in 2hrs with 18.5x km and average pace of 6.29. I took quite a few breaks to stretch everything out and drink, but I'm still happy with that pace.

Until the last 5 minutes I also felt reasonably fresh which is great. The problem is that I finished running and started to walk home and I felt like I hit a brick wall. I suspect it was lack of water and lack of breakfast and lack of sports drink or anything. I started to feel like I did after the central coast half, nauseous and dizzy and shivery. horrid. Got some water in when I got home and just lay down for a few minutes. I have managed to eat some toast now and I feel heaps better already. Guess its just a blood sugar thing. I suppose it could be a delayed toxin release from Friday night too. Next time I will go back to the fuel belt/camelbak option and take some powerade (well - actually orange flavour High5 these days because I won a tin of it at the last tri I did!).

anyway - must be shower time. then maybe a nap

ouch

can i just say that I don't like the word niggle? i don't know why. it just sounds funny.

Anyway... yesterday at lunch I hit the gym again for my strength session. I realised soon that my knee hurt. It hurt when I lunged, so I changed it and did lunges where you just stay in the same position rather than stepping out into each lunge which is when it would hurt. It hurt when I did full squats so I paralysed myself by just doing deep pulses with the ball against the wall. It hurt when I did knee raises on a step but I just did them anyway cause it was quick.

So I didn't run this morning out of an abundance of caution. I will try and get in to see Gary the massage man but I am not holding my breath! I did do 100 push ups and 100 sit ups/ crunches etc. My arms are going to kill tomorrow. Not sure why I did that - just felt like it!

third gear

i discovered an extra little something in me this morning. not sure whether it was cause of the hills or whatever - but it was very welcome!

3k warm up and then we were into the main event. hills. Wild Wally's to be precise which is a 600ish metre loop with a large part of uphill but also a fair bit of flat and down. its a killer! I was scheduled to do 2, rest one, 2, rest one and then a final one. Sean changed his mind then and it was 2, rest one, 3.

Times were: 3.29, 3.28, REST, 3.27, 3.30 and (wait for it) 3.20!! I was so proud of how I busted that last one. I thought I was going to break my lungs at the end - but I felt good! I'm very proud of that given that I almost always die a slow faltering death in my last rep of anything!!

All up about 7.5k for the day.

wednesday runs

have always been my favourites.

I made the decision a few days ago that running was going to be my main focus again and I have asked Sean to bump me back up to 6 days a week as of my next program. I feel good about that decision! I am going to try and ride and swim each once a week at least because I enjoy doing the shorter distance tris. Plus I have a bike that cost me a fortune :)

I have also decided to voluntarily seek out hills in all of my runs so as not to lose all the hill fitness I developed on camp.

I had a funny run this morning. I felt pretty good, and strong on the hills. The problem was, objectively I was running slowly. Slower possibly than before the camp! Now I know my legs are killing me cause of my strength session yesterday and there were a lot of hills in this run and the garmin didn't kick in for a few hundred metres... but still! i wanna go fast!

but other than that it felt ace :) 1hr and 8.6k.

The route I took was up the hill from home to the oxford st side of Centennial park. around the park and down York Rd till I hit Birrell St. Then I just followed Birrell st which has a big hill. So I went up it, and then down and down and down... which meant up and up and up... then down again and then up the last half of the York Rd hill then home. (hehe - that doesn't really add a lot to 'it was a hilly run' :)

Camp Summary

(just for my records...)

Friday 6 April:

Run 1: Jindabyne Trails: 32.21, 4.7k
Strength
Run 2: Smiggin Holes: 43.21, 5.81k

Daily total: 1hr 15m 42s, 10.5k

Saturday 7 April:

Run 1: Track session: 56ish, 7.9k
(w/u – 2.5k, 4 x 800m intervals – 4.03, 3.54, 3.52, 4.06, c/d – 2.2k)
Swim – 1k
Run 2: Rennix trail: 30min, 3.72k

Daily total: 1hr 26 min, 10.6k
Total for week: 2hr41m, 21.1k

Sunday 8 April

Run 1: Charlottes Pass to Mt Koscuisko (not to the top, turn back at Seamans Hut, 1hr 31, 12k
Stretch
Run 2: Jindabyne trails: 29 mins, 4.2k

Daily total: 2 hrs, 16.2k
Total for week: 4hr41m, 37.3k

Monday 9 April

Run 1: Tigers Hill: 27 min, 4.17k
Strength
Run 2: Guthega/Smiggins: 40 mins, 5.9k

Daily total: 1 hr 7 mins, 10.07k
Total for week: 5hr48m, 47.3k

Tuesday 10 April

Run 1: Mt Blue Cow Hill reps (after we got lost!) 50 mins, 3.5k (seriously!)
Stretch
Run 2: Jindabyne trails, 37m, 5.36k

Daily total: 1hr27m, 8.8k
Total for week: 7hr15m, 56.1k

Wednesday 11 April

Run 1: Tigers Hill: 1 hr, 8.36k
Swim: 1k
Run 2: Easy oval run, 30 min, 4k

Daily total: 1hr30m, 12.3k
Total for week: 8hr45m, 68.1k

Thursday 12 April:

Run 1: Track session – 43m, 6.2k
(w/u – 2.2k, 5 x 400’s: 1.38, 1.43, 1.46, 1.47, 1.47 c/d – 2k)
Strength
Run 2: 28 min, 4k

Daily total: 1hr 11m, 10.2k

TOTAL FOR WEEK: 9hr 56m, 78.3k

ummm...

back at Sweat this morning and had no idea what to expect. Would I be slower because of the unprecedented miles in the legs, or would I discover new found strength and fitness to propel me effortlessly around the lake?

Becky O seemed to be of the latter persuasion - she was on fire! Go girl!

As it turned out, I was somewhere in the middle.

I had been programmed 2 laps, long recovery, the 1 lap. After the first set Sean bumped the second set up to 2 laps too. grumble grumble... but actually i didn't really mind!

My first 2 laps of the lake started really well. I felt light and my legs felt strong, and I noticed that I was sitting on 4.56 pace. So then I slowed down. Good job too! I ended up doing the 2 laps in 14.52 which was an average pace of 5.14. Not too bad given that we were supposed to be targeting our 10k race pace. Mine is something over 5.30...

I did slow down considerably in the second set of 2 laps - mostly cause I wanted to survive! I was sitting on around 5.26 pace for the first lap and then decided to pick it up a bit. I saw ewen running his cool down lap (!) and decided that he was my target. This was good as he remained just tantalisingly out of reach for most of the lap. But then my super mate Horrie ran by and turned around to push me all the way home. I needed it! Thanks Horrie! So we caught Ewen and then ended up crossing in 15.15 for avg pace of 5.22.

So no super new speed but I am pretty happy with that. I should have a look at what times I've done before - but I probably won't.

All up around 8k.

EDIT - Lunch time strength session.

A new addition to the program. Tues and Thurs lunch strength training. Maybe once on the weekend too if I feel like it. A bit hotch potch at this stage but includes: push ups, tricep dips, lunges, squats, hamstring curls, one leg side step ups, and one leg dip/squat things, regular bridge hold, bridge hold raising each leg, backwards bridge hold, backwards bridge hold with one leg up in the air, funny ab crunch things that i can't describe, leg raises (a few sorts), superman back exercises, and medicine ball oblique crunches where you keep your feet of the ground and twist the ball from side to side (sean called them 'gutbusters' - i like it!).

5 mins on the cross trainer to warm up and afterwards a bit of a stretch. noice.

BRW triathlon

I have had a bit of a patchy lead up to this one. The running training was perhaps a little too much and the cycling and swimming practically non existent. But its just a short one so I wasn't too fussed.

Started on a bit of an anxious note. You all know I am not the most confident rider so I was planning to walk the bike to transition. The problem was meeting all my teammates in the work car park and we very nearly missed the bike check in. Now I have a bit of a problem in the punctuality department (ie - I am tooo punctual) and would have preferred to get there about half an hour earlier - but had to go with the team as they had all my numbers and stuff. Once bike was checked in the anxiety subsided - especially cause we had 1hr55 from the first wave until it was our turn!! Luckily they firm had a little marquee so we hung out there and eventually we jumped in the water.

Now I was a bit suss about swimming in the harbour and was visualising oil spills and turds, but actually it was ok. The temperature was fine too! It was a slow swim but I just plugged along and was pleased to beat some people, although I was a bit dismayed by how close some of the breastrokers were... As I was running up to the transition area I heard a shout and realised I had a little cheer squad of Owly, Caro and Sparkie - aw - made my day - especially seeing them along the ride and run course.

Speaking of the ride, I was pretty nervy - lots of people, a really really tight corner - but all went well. It was pretty confusing and there was no way I could really get up any pace on most of it. I am fairly sure it wasn't 8k! Lets just say it went realllll quick. The run was great. I always love getting off the bike (hmmm does this say something) and although my legs were tired I felt pretty good and started picking people off. My favourite overtake was on the last hill up to the finishing chute and my mind went 'i'll be damned if I'm not going to get some benefit out of the gazillion hills I ran last week' and cruised past a couple of guys who were in front of me. Noice.

I am not sure of my time but the clock said 2.38.17. Now by my calculations, if I left at 1.55, that makes my time 43.17. However I am sure it must be more than that. Either way I am happy cause my goal was under the hour!

I am feeling remarkably unscathed by the training camp so I guess that means I'm back into it! yay!

EDIT: times through:

Person 3
Swim Time 0:08:37
Bike Time 0:20:45
Run Time 0:14:05

Anyone reckon the run was more like 2k than 4k?????

home-sweet-home :)

I woke up this morning for the first time not feeling like bounding out of bed and actually not feeling like getting out of bed at all. Rather than push it, (the funny almost-dizziness of last years 'iron-wars' was starting to come back) I thought I would walk this mornings session. This was a teeny bit disappointing because it was the flattest course we had run on (we tried it out last night). Nonetheless I had a really enjoyable 50 min walk in the sunshine with some tunes and a general feeling of well being and satisfaction with my efforts over the last 7 days.

I decided after that that it would be a good time to call it quits and have some down time (2 days) before the BRW triathlon. So after a long drive (including getting lost in Canberra... that place is a maze!!). I am quite happy with that decision. 7 days and 21 sessions is more than I could ever have hoped. And those hills!

I got a huge amount out of the camp.

- The obvious ones - I feel fitter and better equipped for hills! and more hills! (for now anyways...)

- I met some lovely lovely people and got to know some that I knew a little a whole lot better. For those of you that read this, it was great :)

- One thing that was really confronting was the whole - being significantly slower than the bulk of the group - thing. It is hard to put yourself completely out of your comfort zone like that, but I am incredibly glad that I did, and triumph through adversity and all that, blah blah :)

- Lots of time to think about goals and things. I am still not 100% - at this stage I am torn between wanting to set a big scary triathlon goal, but not being sure whether it is really what I love and whether perhaps I should just run and run and run with some cycling and swimming as cross training. Or hedge my bets over winter, keep my hand in the bike and swim and decide later on... (this one is currently winning!).

- Lots of time to think about myself and what I want, and don't want in my life. Don't get to do that too often. I really loved the space to just be and not be stressing about work or anyone or anything. And there is nothing like hitting the crest of a massive hill before coasting down the other side to give you a beautiful sense of perspective and contentment (and sheer bloody relief!!!)

Of course, life starts crashing back in and I felt the stress coming last night when I spoke with my dad and found out that my baby brother had an accident and hurt his arm quite badly (looks like a few surgeries will be involved) in a bull riding accident and that my grandfather is in hospital again. But in a current status check I'm feeling good and I'm energised and excited about training again. I found myself running up the stairs to my apartment tonight - things must be good!! (but I'll confirm when I notice myself singing loudly in the shower - that is a sure sign that all is right with the world)

x

ah sweet flat running...

after that little whinge about all the hills (der yeah I know...) yesterday afternoon we had a really nice flat session running circles around the oval for 20 minutes. Sounds mind numbing but with some tunes on the ipod I was quite happy plodding along getting lapped by all and sundry. running with this mob certainly helps you work on your humility and humble-ness :)

this morning was a killer for me. It was a track session - 400's which I normally love. The speedsters had 10-12 reps, we got to just do every second one. Stupidly (but this is hardly a revelation...) I flogged myself on the first one and did it in 1.38 - which I was quite proud of on these tired legs! Then it went downhill and the last one was 1.48. Still all faster than I used to do - but I would have preferred to peak later and have some consistency. I know better than that now!!!

10.30am we had a strength session which was a bit of a killer. Now a rest until the afternoon session which was allegedly going to be a nice flat run - but now I hear its going to be ...hills...

actually - and i hate to say this - i think hills are becoming my friends...

x

would you believe more hills?

the hills are all starting to blur into one another... i get confused with all the tracks. There has been Smiggin Holes, Guthega, Charlottes Pass, Mt Crackenback, Rennix Trail and the good old fashioned local trails (all of which come complete with bigger hills than I've ever run in my life!).

When I get back I will go through the garmin and update!

This morning was a longish run on Crackenback. I only had an hour because we don't do too much long stuff when we are doubling up. Was hard - but I reckon I am getting stronger still. 1k swim at lunch and some tries at going underwater as long as poss. not very...

anyway bout to run out of credit! :)

still alive!

So Saturday afternoon was a 30 min run on the Rennix trail. Some people hated it because it was very uneven and ankles were twisting left right and centre. Amazingly I wasn't one of those people and I loved it cause there were no hills!!

Sunday - first thing this morning was a run up Mt Kosciusko!! Literally! From Charlotte's pass to the top is 9k. Sean told me to run to the Seaman's Hut which is only 6k - so I didn't make the top. Disappointing but I made the decision in the interests of longevity and wellbeing for the rest of the camp! It was pretty tough - 6k up, and up and up and up... but the downwards trip was joy! Serious negative split!

Then we had a glorious stretching session. Another run late this arvo - but now - lunch!!

HAPPY EASTER!

super quick update!!

i will post some photos of the magnificent ironman weekend that we spent up in Port Macquaries supporting our very lovely friend Andrew and camping with out other super mate Portrunr!!

But in the meantime I want to record this so I don't forget!!

Tuesday I did 10k - didn't go to sweat... Spent thursday night down in huskisson, friday AM drove to Jindabyne for running camp!!

Friday entailed:

1. 30 min out and back run on trails near the unit. Begins with a big uphill battle... but then it was gorgeous!
2. Strength session at the oval. various torments.
3. Trip up to Smiggin Holes (alt 1780) for 40 mins out and back. unfortunately the 'out' is down a big hill rendering the 'back' very unpleasant... no negative splits...

Saturday thus far:

1. Track session - 5k warm aup and cool down, some drills. Main set was 4 x 800's. Really felt slow and the first rep was 4.03. Was determined to improve and did, next two 3.53 and 3.53, last one was a shambles - 4.05...
2. Swim recovery session - just 1k.

phew. really feeling the cold and the thinner air when at the higher spots. locally its fine its just that everything has a bloody hill or 10!!

ok - more later!