Lulu Runs

The Sydney Sightseer

After yet another evening of wine (Riesling, Don Juan) and partying ( will I never learn) I woke up at 6.30, drank some juice and water and went back to bed for another hour or so. The plan today was to run into the City to retrieve the car and then head to North Sydney pool to meet up with some friends for Brunch. Being the organised being I am, the car had been pre-loaded with swimmers, clothes, drink etc before being abandoned in the City.

I wanted to do at least 1hr 45 today and so I decided to do a loop of Centennial before heading into the City. I went around the outside for about 3/4 of the way and then looped back to Paddington Gates and headed down Oxford St, dodging the drunks and being clapped by the bouncers from the night clubs. The sight seeing tour continued up to Mrs Maquarie's chair where I dodged copious amounts of tourists and the along Farm Cove to the Opera House. Down to Circular Quay and up the other side to the hotel and then back down George St to Mr Lulu's office and the car. A very scenic route and such a beautiful day to be alive and running through sparkling Sydney. Whenever I get homesick for Europe experiencing Sydney at it's best always makes me feel better.

I was so excited about trying out my new Target Coolmax socks and Skins running tights (bought for running but also to stop me getting a DVT when we go to Europe in 3 weeks) that I forgot to put Vaseline on. All I can say is I certainly felt the chafed bits when I plunged into the salt water of North Sydney pool for a couple of cool down laps..ouch!

It took me a while to warm up this morning but after about 50 mins I was chugging along very nicely and managed to keep up a good pace for the second half of the run. Garth tells me we did 16.08 km in 1 hr 46 mins with an average pace of 6.38/km which is not too bad over that distance and a lovely 985 cals.

I enjoy doing these long runs but must remember the Vaseline next time!
Because Garth starts the week on a Sunday I'm counting my km's per week from Sunday to Saturday so I'm off to a good start this week with 16km in the bank already. Last week was a little on the low side and I did a total of 36.5 km. This week will pick that back up a bit.

As I've only got three weeks until the 3 of us (me, Mr Lulu and Garth!) go to Europe I'm on a mission to be fit and fantastic for the trip. So this week will also see me return to the Pilates studio at least 3 times and I'd like to shift another couple of kilos so I'm going to keep track of that over the next few weeks as well.

Recovery jog and Pilates tomorrow.

posted by Lulu @ 5:53 PM 2 comments

Hooray!

There's life in the old girl yet! Feeling a lot more like my normal self today and so I decided to do my own hill surging circuit along my 2 beaches run.

I did a gentle jog for a warm-up of 1km and then picked up the pace and tried to maintain it over the hills. Bronte Hill was hard work and I was glad to be back on the flat. I did my loop around Evans St to add some extra time and then did it again as a cool down loop.

Garth tells me we did 6.51km in 41.27 with an average pace of 6.21/km. That's quite a bit better than the last time Garth and I did the 2 beaches where the average pace was 6.35/km so the hill training must be paying off.

I've now set up an account with Motionbased to get some mapping information, which is very cool. Below is the map of the 2 beaches run!

posted by Lulu @ 10:33 AM 3 comments

And so the the Doctor said..

"So Dr B says here that you had some breathing difficulties whilst exercising after a couple of nights on the turps.. running eh.. barbaric.." well glad we've got that all sorted out then! Quite a mad Dr with a mad wife running reception but I assume he knows what he's doing. The upshot being he thinks I have have sensitive airways which cope most of the time but that the combination of cold morning air, some white wine and pollen were too much for them to cope with .. However, just in case there is anything more sinister I'm off to be irradiated with a Chest X ray and have to go back for some breathing , lung function tests and then given the all clear. This is only a precaution due to previous lung disease ( pleurisy, pneumonia and tuberculosis.. lovely) and unlikely that any of them have come back!

As to today's run.. nothing doing.. feel shite.. stayed in bed, working from home and hoping that tomorrow will bring a fresh, fully revived and energetic Lulu..

posted by Lulu @ 12:10 PM 1 comments

Plodding along

I awoke with a headache and so demanded tea and pain killers from Mr Lulu before having an bit more sleep. Sadly headache was still there but I was determined not to lose another run this week having already had to walk on Monday. I'm not sure if it was a good idea or not as all I could manage was an hour of slow plodding.. I wouldn't call it running! I called it quits after an hour and walked back up the hill to home from Centennial Park. This run should have taken me an hour tops but I was still 1km from home at an hour. This was how I used to run when I first started so it's a bit depressing to have another day like this. At least it's another 8.5km in the bank, and another 648 cals burnt. If I don't feel any better tomorrow I'll do my own run again rather than try and keep up with the SWEAT session.

posted by Lulu @ 11:06 AM 2 comments

How many?

That was my response when Sean said we were doing 10 x 400m intervals this morning... he then adjusted that for me to say you can do 300's rather than 400's.. well that's a relief.

As it was we were only having 50 secs recovery and after 5 I didn't quite make it back to my starting point in time as I was totally stuffed and so I ended up only doing 9 reps. I' m definitely getting better at pacing as my reps were not too uneven and psychologically I can push through the pain a bit better.. all I need now is for my body to learn how to run a bit faster!

Reps were : 1.34, 1.39, 1.37, 1.34, 1.40 ---, 1.35, 1.43, 1.40, 1.36.

No problems with breathing this morning and I'm off to see the respiratory guru tomorrow so we'll see what he has to say about things.

posted by Lulu @ 8:37 AM 3 comments

A little Pilates

I managed to slip into a Pilates Class at 11.30 in between meetings which is good as I only managed to do 2 classes last week and the abs were beginning to shrink!

I tried to run yesterday and felt absolutely terrible despite it being a beautiful spring-like day. My legs felt OK I just felt so tired that I gave up about 15 mins in and just walked for the rest of the way. I then spent most of the day asleep.. not good for the income levels.. sorry Mr Lulu! I thought that the good Dr and I had resolved this problem as I've had 6 weeks of feeling normal but apparently not. Feeling a bit better today but have had to take a coffee, a real one with real caffeine in it, before I could face my first meeting.

Rest of the week should be:
Weds SWEAT and Pilates
Thurs 1 hr 20 Pilates
Fri Hill surging circuit ( my fav!) with SWEAT
Sat Pilates
Sunday 1hr 45mins

posted by Lulu @ 1:31 PM 1 comments

C2S trial

This morning we were up and out and down to Rushcutters Bay to meet up with the trial runners! Mr Lulu ran down for his run and I took the car down. We all met at the corner of New Beach Rd to start our C2S trial run. The runners were me, The Owl, Tiger Angel, SfGnome and Go Girl. We took off at an easy pace warming up on the first hill out of Rushcutters Bay. We hit the bottom of Heartbreak Hill after about 28 mins and started the trek up. We kept together and then close to the top we saw our aid station set up by Mr Lulu so most of us stopped for a quick drink apart from Gnome who wanted to make sure he ran all the way to the top.

After this we spread out a little with TA and Go Girl leading the way. Mr Lulu acted as marshall and stopped the car wherever there was a turn on the route to make sure that we didn't get lost and to hand out drinks if anyone needed one.

There were lots of runners out and about and we passed MPHaz and then a few minutes later Amjan running the other way. The hills through Dover Heights are not too bad but the course is definately not all flat or downhill after HBH. The last hill down into Bondi is great and then it's just the last bit along Campbell Parade. We did the full experience by turning down from Campbell Pde for the finish line.

As well as being marshall and drinks monitor Mr Lulu was also official photographer and took plenty of snaps along the way, including one of Amjan.

Good fun to run with everyone and of course the run was followed by a lovely brekkie at Mocean overlooking the beach. Jen_runs joined us for the most important part of the day and then I ran everyone back to Rushcutters in the car.

Garth tells me did 12.28 km in 1.18.38. Average pace over the whole distance was 6.24/km but more pleasingly the last 42 mins or 7.1 km my average pace was 6mins/km so after HBH was out of the way I picked up the pace. This was probably because I was chasing TA and Go Girl.. and not catching them as they shook me off on the hills.
Total cals 800..I always like seeing that sort of number.

Below is the elevation of the route, courtesy of Garth I'm not sure about the last section as it didn't feel like we were going up a hill along Campbell Pde. The hills are certainly not over once you have done HBH though!

Thanks for the company everyone and Mr Lulu for support crew duties.

posted by Lulu @ 11:18 AM 2 comments

Back in action

Feeling a lot more energetic after a quiet night in and no booze! Strapped on Garth and headed down to the park for the hills Fartlek session. I parked outside the gate and ran down to the oval to give myself a bit more of a warm up: 1km at an easy pace. Very cold and misty but feeling OK. We headed off and Don Juan ran with me on the first section to keep me company which was very nice of him. We tackled Big Bertha and then went outside to the streets of Bondi and Bellevue hill in search on nice long hills. Running down Victoria and Berriga(sp?) was cruisy but not so much fun on the way up. I measured it as 1km and I didn't start at the bottom. At least I only had to do it once. The poor others were taken back down again as Sean didn't see me on the way up and thought something had happened to me, so he took everyone back down again in search of me. In the meantime I'm standing at the top of the hill thinking where's everyone gone? Apparently the boys were trying to tell Sean they'd passed me but he didn't hear.. next time I'll make sure I call out to Sean if I'm on the path and he is on the road or vice versa so as not to inflict additional hills on the rest of the group!

My breathing seemed OK especially after I'd warmed up on the first few hills and testing my peak flow it was fine when I first got back home but then dropped off by about 10% after about 30 mins. I'm not sure that's significant but am keeping a record for when I see the specialist next week. My chest does feel a little bit tight but I could be imagining things.

Garth tells me that we ran 11.39km in 1.18 hrs with an average pace of 6.53/km.. yes that slow.. all the hills. The good news is that we did burn up 768 cals.. Yippee!

So far this week we've covered 21.46 km so my mileage is going to be a bit low this week due to missing yesterday's run. That's Ok though as I'll ramp it up again next week and it hasn't done me any harm as my hips seem to be fine this week, the best for ages. Looking forward to the trial run of C2S on Sun with The Owl and Caro and I hope Jen will come along for a while as well.

posted by Lulu @ 9:12 AM 3 comments

Rest day

Decided that we'd have a rest day today. Dr. has referred me to respiratory specialist to get checked over and she has also asked me to get a peak flow meter and some Ventilin to keep track of my breathing myself. I'll go to SWEAT tomorrow but will do a longer warm up as some internet research shows that that can prevent an attack if it is exercise induced asthma. Back to healthy living again now so I'm sure it will all be fine.

posted by Lulu @ 10:53 AM 2 comments

Intervals cut short

Having had a couple of late nights and too much food due to the birthday festival I wasn't too enthusiastic about heading out in the cold this morning. However, the thought of Garth the Garmin awaiting his second trip out provided the extra incentive needed to get moving!

I did a couple of laps of the oval to warm up and felt somewhat sluggish. We did our drills and then got into the intervals. I was doing 4 x800 and the others 4 x1200. I went out relatively cautiously and did the first in 4.36 and then the second in 4.34. However, half way through the next lap I started to feel really tight in the chest as if I couldn't take in enough air so when I got back to Sean I told him and stopped. I walked for a bit and then jogged around the oval for three laps to see how I felt. Sean's view is that either I overdid it, but looking at the last time we did 800s I was going a little slower than that, or that the cold, dry winter air had triggered a mild asthma attack. I've never had asthma before but it's possible I suppose. Alternatively, it could just be the effects of a couple of late nights and too much yummy wine and food!

Anyway off to see the doc this afternoon to see what she thinks. I have to say even now my breathing doesn't seem to be 100% so we'll see what happens. Tomorrow I'll just take Garth for a gentle jog and see how we feel..

posted by Lulu @ 11:08 AM 3 comments

Birthday Girl Garmin

Further proof that Mr Lulu is in fact the best husband in the world was provided today. My birthday cup of tea was provided in bed along with my birthday present.. the Garmin Forerunner 201. This was a great surprise as earlier hints at this being a good present had gained the response "sorry I've already bought your present." So after lazing in bed reading the manual and getting it all set up I headed out for a test run.

I decided to do the two beaches run again so I could run up Bronte Hill. Great to have instant feedback on your pace as you're going along and it definately stops me slacking off too much! It also shows the depressing truth that I run very slowly up hills!

So today's run was:
37.mins 48 secs
Distance: 5.74kms
Av pace: 6.35/km
Cals 435 ( at least one slice of birthday cake)
Best pace 3.45/km ( must have been for one nano second going downhill as it seems unlikely I can move that fast!)

I'm sure in the little Garmin is some more very interesting information but I haven't time to explore all the options but we can expect to see some interesting maps and the like appearing in the blog in the near future.

posted by Lulu @ 9:29 AM 6 comments

A change of scene

We stayed with Mr Lulu's mum last night and so this morning's long run was done in and around the south western suburbs of Revesby and Panania, revisiting scenes from Mr Lulu's youth!

We set off and headed out from Revesby towards the Georges River, down Henry Lawson Dr. and then followed the river around either on the path or the road. I had no idea where I was for most of the run which was actually quite refreshing. I just had to keep an eye on Mr Lulu in the distance and concentrate on running. Apparently we went through Picnic Point and then back through Panania to Revesby, in a long loop. I was concentrating on my form for this run making sure my glutes were both working and keeping my core strong. This definately seemed to stop my hip niggles from appearing too soon in the run. In all we did 90mins and I have no idea on distance but probably 13-14 km or there abouts.

I did start feeling really tired after 60 mins so I actually tried to pick up the pace and run through it and that definately helped for the next 15 mins or so and then we just had one final hill up Horsley Rd to finish.

Feeling a lot better today, thanks for all the encouraging comments, it certainly helped and I'm back on track again now and looking forward to another week of training. I'm planning on doing a 5 day training week this week so I'll be out to tackle the beaches again in the morning.. let's hope it's a nice day as it will be my birthday!

posted by Lulu @ 3:24 PM 3 comments

More hills!

Sean is getting us all ready for the City to Surf now and so introduced a new devilish session this morning. I was expecting the usual park Fartlek session which I was beginning to enjoy, but Sean had other plans.. evil plans I call them. This time he decided we would do a hill fartlek session. Consequently we went off in search of all the hills in Centennial Park plus one hill outside in BJ. We joggged in between hills and then surged up them. I don't know how many hills we did but it seemed like quite a few. I knew I was in trouble on the hill outside the park when I saw it had a warning sign "Steep Grade" on it.. oh goodie I thought. Needless to say I gave the rest of the group a good workout this time as they had to run back down the hills to find me in the distance and then back up them again. I'm sure they loved me this morning! There was a really big group this morning and they all seemed to be fast.. I can't even keep up with them when they are "jogging". Needed all my positive thoughts this morning to stop myself calling it quits and going home with my tail between my legs. It appears that this is going to be the new session for Friday mornings so i had better get used to it.. onwards and upwards.

posted by Lulu @ 9:37 AM 5 comments

The two beaches

Today the sun was shining again in beautiful Bronte. Probably something to do with the fact that I was actually out running after the sun rose rather than in what feels like the middle of the night!

I decided I needed to do some hills so I did my two beaches run which is down to Clovelly and up to Bronte beach through the cemetery. I took the first 20 mins easy as I was feeling a bit stiff from the last few days running and Pilates. Once I'd warmed up I started attacking the hills a bit more and crusied down to Bronte beach and up Bronte hill. My left hip started niggling towards the top so I stopped and walked for a few minutes before heading off again up to Lugar Street. I did my extra loop around Evans St to take me up to 40 mins. Home for a big stretch and feeling pretty good afterwards.

My muscles have been a bit sore for the last couple of days from Pilates and interval training yesterday and it seems more than would be normal for me. The only thing I can think is that I ran out of Endura at the weekend and so haven't been using it. I've bought some more now and so we'll see if that improves things. If so then it will be proof to me that it works well and does make a difference.

posted by Lulu @ 2:00 PM 3 comments

Signs of improvement

It was very tempting to stay in bed this morning, especially when I heard the rain on the roof but I managed to drag myself out of bed and head to Centennial Park for a SWEAT track session. My programme had me on 5 x600 with 1.45 rests this morning.

We did a couple of warm up laps of the oval and then did some drills and then I headed off to the 200m mark to start off, as the others were doing 800's. .. lucky them!

Although my intervals were still slow they were at least more consistent and there was a big improvement over the last time I did these, 2 weeks ago. My times were : 3.14, 3.12, 3.15, 3.16, 3.16. Last time my times varied wildly from 3.09 to 3.45 so in comparison things are looking up! Sean told me to go for under 3 mins in the last one and was encouraging me all the way around and the first 200 were quicker than before but I lost the plot in the middle 200 when I started feeling sick! At least I picked it up again towards the end and didn't end up going any slower. Definately good to see times going down and hopefully this trend will continue.

Got home and did lots of stretching and will go to Pilates again this evening. My plan to do cross training and pilates was disrupted by work but at least I did a Pilates class but no cross training, oh well 1 out of 2 ain't bad and I'll be running again tomorrow.

posted by Lulu @ 9:32 AM 4 comments

Resting, stretching

Slept in really late this morning.. won't say how late in case Mr Lulu is reading! I've pulled up quite well from yesterday's adventure but have decided on a four session week this week as I was getting a few niggles. Consequently I've spent the day working at home and doing some stretching on and off. Tried out the rolling pin on my ITBs and that seems to have eased the sore hip on the left so I think that will be part of my routine for a while. Icing of foot and achilles appears to have paid off as they are feeling fine today.

So the plan this week will be:
Cross training and pilates tomorrow
Weds Track 5 x 600m Pilates
Thursday easy 50 mins
Fri Fartlek Pilates
Sat Walk
Sunday 90 mins

posted by Lulu @ 4:36 PM 2 comments

Howling gales on Heartbreak Hill

The weather this morning did not look very inviting at all for a long run. The wind was howling around our building and rattling the bedroom balcony doors as storm clouds chased across the ocean. Eventually we managed to get going and headed out, me kitted out in my wet weather gear of a cap and rain jacket.. Mr Lulu just in his shorts and T shirt.

The plan was to head down towards Rose Bay and do a reckie of Heartbreak Hill so we headed up to Bondi Junction with Mr lulu leading the way and doubling back to get me on occasion. He nearly lost me when I was sure I saw him turn left off Carrington and so I started off down there but then realised that he would have waited if he was making a turn so I went back to Carrington and there he was. After about 35 mins we were on the C2S course heading through Rose Bay and then at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill. We didn't run all the way up it but probably did 2 thirds before turning around and heading for home. It's not as bad as I thought it was and we did the steeper section, as it flattens off towards the top, so I'm confident that I'll make it up there OK on the day.

Heading back we went along the Rose Bay Golf Course and then up Old South Head Road. Now that is a much worse hill than Heartbreak and not made any easier by the fact that it was tipping down by now and we were running into the wind. I was glad to reach the top of the hill and cruise back down to Bronte. I arrived back home looking very bedraggled and soaking but feeling good about keeping a good pace throughout. Mr Lulu wasn't that far in front of me for most of the way.

A good 90 mins with a few niggles but feeling pretty good. I'm supposed to do 55 mins tomorrow so I'll see how I recover. I did ice my foot and achilles when I got back as a preventative measure so I'll see how they feel in the morning before deciding what to do.

posted by Lulu @ 8:04 PM 2 comments

CR drinks and hangover!

I arrived at about 6.30 and after asking a few groups of people if they were Coolrunners and getting some very strange looks, I spotted Mr T and then the Owl. Chatted to Owl, Omni and Scottie for a while before Mr Lulu aka Wine Trail Runner arrived. After that we mixed and mingled with Amjan, Orunner,Jenruns, Colin and Don Juan.... I was dazzled by Mr G's buckle and Mr Lulu was accosted by the Blue Dog.. turns out they know each from when Mr Lulu was in the fire service 20 years ago.

As I type this Mr Lulu has given me a page from that exciting international journal "FIRE NEWS" Jan 1983. This document records Blue Dog's performance at the 1982 Fire Brigade NSW Athletic Carnival..1st in the 100m in 12.21... 2nd in the 110 hurdles, 1st in the 200m.. but hang on what's this... 2nd in the 400 metres.. pipped at the post by... Mr Lulu Perhaps the old rivalry can be re-ignited if we can persuade Mr Lulu to join Striders.

I managed to escape without being signed up to any long and tiring races with just an agreement to do a C2S training run with the Owl and Jen, which I'm looking forward to.

Don Juan accused me of being a chardonnay socialist which I find particularly offensive as I never drink Chardy.. dreadful stuff most of it.. but he redeemed himself by buying me my preferred tipple.. Riesling... we owe you one at the next drinks.Mr Lulu decided it was time to take me home when I confessed to only having eaten 2 bits of toast all day and by 10pm 3 glasses of wine were having their effect.Felt a bit shabby this morning and I can't believe that I have a hangover on 3 glasses of wine....3 bottles I could understand, and that would be a good effort, but three glasses.. obviously more training and more attention to nutrition is required to improve performance.

posted by Lulu @ 10:53 AM 0 comments

SWEATing around the park

When the alarm went off this morning I really didn't want to get up, but forced myself out of bed as I knew I'd feel worse if I stayed in bed. Headed down to the park for the Fartlek session and it took me a while to get warmed up this morning and I felt a bit nauseous after a couple of the surges. By half way around though I was feeling pretty good and this session definately doesn't seem as hard as it did the first time. I had some company at the back this week as the newest member of SWEAT was running with me for most of the time. She found that extra couple of surges through the middle of the park a bit tough and this is where I have an advantage as I do have pretty good endurance, just not much speed!

Hips held up but I am a bit worried that my PF and Achilles niggles are re-surfacing. Ill keep doing lots of stretching and tomorrow is a rest day so we'll see how they recover for Sunday. If they don't appear to be getting better I'll have to head off to the physio and see what he says. They're not bad, just annoying and I don't want them to get any worse.

Very shocked about the news of the bombings in London, especially after the good news the day before. Having lived there during the IRA attacks I know that everyone will be relatively calm but this is much worse than the IRA attacks as they didn't deliberately target large numbers of civilians. I wasn't able to get in touch with anyone last night so had to settle for sending everyone emails and I hope to get news back later on tonight. At the moment I'm working on the principle that no news is good news.

posted by Lulu @ 9:58 AM 3 comments

30 mins and a splash

Alarm went off at 5.45 and I didn't really want to get up but did.. dark cold mornings are just not nice, that's why I live in Sydney not London! Very pleased to hear good old London had won the Olympics.. probably the only thing us poms will win!

Did 30 mins just around the streets as it was still pretty dark. Nothing very exciting but felt OK until the last hill going up Murray Street and then my other hip( left) started hurting.. don't tell me that ones going to play up now..

Went for a splash at Cook and Phillip Pool. Can't call it a swim as I was looking after Mr Lulu's niece for the day and we met up with a girlfriend and her 2 little girls. Sat in the spa and let the water work on my hips.. feel OK now but we'll see how they hold up to fartlek in the park tomorrow.

Took the niece to see Bewitched after swimming.. not bad but not as good as the original of course.. or maybe it's because I'm not 12 anymore!

posted by Lulu @ 5:47 PM 1 comments

800m Intervals

Headed off to Centennial for track work today. Today's session for me was 4 x800m whilst most of the others were doing 1200m. There was also a new girl, Alex who ran with me for a couple of intervals and so I think I'll have a bit of company on Friday as well which will be good.

Sean told me to go out slower this time so I didn't drop off as dramatically as last week. So my times were 4.22, 4.23, 4.35, 4.35. At least they were a bit more consistent. Lots of room to make them faster though!

No real niggles today which is good. I thought I was getting a recurrence of Achilles and PF problems yesterday but I went to Pilates and did lots of calf stretching all through the day and they seem to be OK today. Fingers crossed they are not going to flare up again. I'll do a mat class later today.

posted by Lulu @ 9:21 AM 1 comments

Hill Repeats with Henry Lawson

Another beautiful day in Sydney this morning. I had some work that needed to be passed to a work associate so I did that first thing and then headed out at about 10. Sean has hill repeats on my programme for Monday's session which is what I would do if I were training with him 3 days a week. As I only do Weds and Fri at the moment I decided to do my own version.

I did a good 20 min warm up jog down to Clovelly and up the coast path to the cemetery. My hammies and glutes were still a bit stiff from Saturday so I stretched everything out before tackling a hill in the middle of the cemetery. I haven't done this hill for ages and I didn't know how it was going to go so I decided to do at least 5 repeats and see how I felt. The hill is a nice incline, not too steep, and I stopped at the marker for Henry Lawson's grave, which would be a couple of hundred metres or thereabouts. The first one went surprisingly easily so I ended up doing 8 reps. I focused on staying tall and driving up the hill. I now have a couple of ways to build this session, more reps, faster reps (didn't time these ones, so will next time), shorter recoveries and going further up the hill.

Very inspired by the stories from the GC marathon festival and feel very energetic today. Taking it easy yesterday seems to have been the right strategy, not that I had much choice in the matter!

Plan this week as follows:
Tues Pilates
Weds SWEAT and Pilates mat
Thursday 30 mins easy and a swim
Friday SWEAT and Pilates
Saturday Rest/Walk
Sunday 90 mins easy

If I manage all that I'll be very happy!

posted by Lulu @ 11:58 AM 3 comments

A slow 80 mins

I had the pleasure of Mr Lulu's company for half of my run this morning. As he's recovering from his calf injury he's quite happy to run at my pace. He actually looks a little strange running that slowly.. it's obviously not natural!

My legs were a bit stiff from yesterday's circuit training class and I must have used some different muscles. Consequently, today's run was taken at a very easy pace, probably more so than usual, but I wasn't too worried and just went out and enjoyed running without worrying about speed or trying to keep up with anyone. It was a beautiful morning for it, sun shining and a cool westerly breeze blowing. There were plenty of runners out in Centennial Park and we were run down by Sean's training pack on a couple of occasions.

80 mins at that pace seems really quite easy these days, despite tired legs. I'm hoping my legs will feel OK tomorrow as I'm due to do another run as I am now stepping up to 5 runs a week.

posted by Lulu @ 7:09 PM 1 comments

Circuits

Went to do my girlfriend J's circuit training class this lunchtime. I haven't been near a weights machine for a couple of years but was pleased to see that Pilates has kept most of my strength. The one area I should do some more work on is my shoulders, they've always been a weakness and so it's probably not a bad idea to add some shoulder press weights in a couple of times a week when I am in the gym. Aerobically I managed this easily.. now that is a major change from when I used to do aerobics.. just goes to show that running is the best for getting your cardio fitness up.

Lots of stretching after the class as my hip is a little bit sore today, but nothing major and we should be fine for the long run tomorrow. Mr Lulu is going to join me for the first bit and go as far as his recovering calf allows.

posted by Lulu @ 3:34 PM 1 comments

The Park Chase

Given yesterday's lovely rainy weather I was rather pleased to be on a rest day. I went to Pilates after work and just went easy on the glute workout. I just want to gently strengthen without causing them to seize up again. My hip felt the best it had for weeks yesterday which was quite a surprise considering the intervals training from Weds.

Today was SWEAT fartlek around the Centennial Park. It was me and a group of grey hound like blokes this morning and I spent the session in hot pursuit.. I'm supposed to have given up chasing men at my age.. not to mention my married state!

There were times when they were no longer in sight and Sean had us doing lots of long surges of a km or more.. well that's what it felt like at the back, perhaps they were doing shorter ones and resting before coming back to round me up. At times like these it's always good to remind myself that a year ago just running around the outside of the park was considered an achievement!

Just when I thought it was all over Sean announced that we weren't stopping when we got back to the start but we went through the middle of the park and around the white fence back to the start.. just for that little extra!

Fortunately fellow CRs Don Juan and Royworlds kept me company during some of the jogging sections and I much appreciated their company.. thanks guys.

I'll be off to the gym later for some Pilates and some more stretching, nothing too strenuous as I'll be doing my girlfriend's circuit training class tomorrow and 80 mins on Sunday.

Sean wants me to try and stick to his programme next week which means running on five days so we'll see how that works. Should be OK now the hip seems to be recovering and my shins don't appear to be suffering..

posted by Lulu @ 10:54 AM 1 comments