Lulu Runs

Coach Kit pushes me to a training PB!

I decided not to run yesterday.. I slept really badly again and just felt blah.. no motivation, tired and grumpy! Good thing I didn't have any clients yesterday otherwise my empathy levels might have been a bit low!

Today was another story though and Mr Lulu bounced out of bed at 5.45 and I followed suit as today was to be Mr Lulu's debut at SWEAT. He's officially back! We parked at the Randwick gates and did our little warm up jog (not with the yearlings Miners.. ) and met up with the others. It was a relatively small group this morning and neither the Don or RoyWorlds were there.. probably scared that Mr Lulu was going to blow them away..hehehe... ;)

We set off at a nice easy jog (for them!) and then into the surges. I had my own personal coach today as Kit is racing tomorrow and so was taking it easy; so she decided to coach me round the course. It certainly made a difference as you can lose the plot a bit when you're at the back on your own and sometimes it's tempting to give up! Not today though she was egging me on up the nasty York Road hill and through the final surges. Well it paid off as we did 8.88km in 52.45 mins and my average time was 5.56/km...yay.. it's a PB for the outside of the park Fartlek... thanks Kit :) I think I also paced myself a little better and didn't go out too hard at the start and tried to keep up the pace a bit more on the floats. I ate a lot more yesterday which probably helped...

Mr Lulu was, of course, at the front with Sean who was very enthusiastic about him joining us and was trying to sign him up for the Randwick Athletics Club to do some Masters races. At least Mr Lulu said he worked hard and the cobwebs have been blown away; and no twinges from the calf either. He even looked like he had worked quite hard for a change. Anyway it was very nice to have him there and he did come back once or twice to make sure his plodding wife was still alive.. it was touch and go at one point when I thought I was going to explode....

posted by Lulu @ 10:10 AM 6 comments

Intervals of pain!

After Sunday's run I was feeling a bit tired and stiff on Monday, not to mention having had a really bad night's sleep and it was pouring with rain; so I had a rest day. Tuesday I went to help the Owl move some stuff into storage; now that's a good workout; 3 hours or so of heaving boxes around and my arms are quite sore today. After that I went off to the gym later on in the afternoon to do a Pilates class.. no running but not a total rest day!

I had parked the car down at the Randwick gate and so did 1km warm up down to the Oval. Then it was into the drills and strides before hitting the track.

Today I had 600's on my programme and so did everyone else. They did 7 and I had a few more rests and did 5. My times for these are minutely faster than when I did them back in July when my times ranged between 3.12-3.16. Today my times were: 3.11; 3.10; 3.14; 3.14 and 3.26. The last one was a bit of a disaster as at about the 400m mark my lace came undone and I spent the next 100 metres wondering if I was going to break a leg or should I stop and tie it, and then tried to make up time in the last 100.

A quick jog back to the car for a total of 6.88km. Tomorrow I'll do an hour of easy running so I'm nice and ready for Friday Fartlek!

posted by Lulu @ 9:21 AM 4 comments

On the road with Mr Lulu

I had told Mr Lulu that I was a bit bored with my normal running routes around Centennial but didn't want to do the coast path because of the hills and the crowds, so he said he would take me on one of his routes that wasn't hilly. Well, I should know by now that Mr Lulu's definition of a flat run and mine are quite different. We set off towards Randwick (mostly downhill with a couple of small rises), down Avoca St ("this is really the only hill you have to worry about on the way back"; only a couple of km's!), then down Anzac Parade ( flat according to Mr Lulu; lots of ups and downs according to me! When I mentioned this Mr Lulu said " well I forgot about this one" and later " well that's not really a hill!). Actually it was good fun running with Mr Lulu and he pulled me along and we were running under 6 min km's for the most part. I think I actually did a PB for 5km!

I turned around after 45 mins and Mr Lulu carried on down to Malabar and said he would catch up with me . I tried to keep the pace up which was hard work as it was definitely mostly uphill on the way back and Avoca Street is a long hill. I was also feeling dehydrated and so I stopped off at a couple of blocks of flats and used their taps to have a quick drink along the way.

I was pleased that it took Mr Lulu all the way back to our street to catch me and then I was walking to cool down and because he had the house keys!

In total 14.72km in 1hr 32mins at 6.18/km pace and a lovely 1113 cals burnt.

posted by Lulu @ 6:17 PM 4 comments

Week's wrap-up

CR drinks on Friday night were excellent. It's great to be in a room full of people and be able to go up to any of them and know that you have something in common to discuss. Perhaps one less glass of red wine might have been advisable but all in all a good night, meeting lots of CRs.

Consequently I was feeling a bit tired on Saturday so my plans for a Spin and Pilates class at the gym were shelved in preference for a quiet day.. very nice too.

So the week's activities: 5 runs; 34.55km average pace of 6.23/km; 2514 cals
Pilates classes 2 (bit slack this week!) Spin 0.

posted by Lulu @ 6:12 PM 0 comments

A tough one!

I parked outside gates and ran down to the SWEAT meeting point to give myself an extra warm-up this morning. Then we did a quick one lap of the oval and we were off on our outside park fartlek. I kept up with the pack on the warm up section before the first surge and so consequently was already buggered by the time they took off. Things didn't get much better and this was a bit of an effort this morning. Not quite sure what happened but I certainly wasn't too spritely and was very pleased when it was all over. Then I had to run back to the car.. a slow jog was all I could manage!

I'm wondering if I didn't eat enough yesterday as I had the following:
Banana, kiwi and yoghurt for breakfast
2 pieces of toast and some cheese for lunch
a small piece of chicken and some sweet potato and zucchini, 2 glasses of lovely rose and a couple of squares of chocolate ( lindt of course!) for my dinner.

Is this enough when I ran in the morning and did Pilates in the evening? Any ideas anyone.? Either that or I wasn't well enough hydrated or maybe I was just tired. Anyway it's a tricky balancing act between eating enough to be able to train well and little enough that I can still try and lose weight. Might have to consult a professional in the field at some point. In the meantime I think I'll try a food diary and see if there are any patterns.

Made up for it this morning though when I met Jen_runs and Don Juan for coffee and indulgence at the Lindt cafe. There were nearly tears (Don Juan's) when we were told that there was only one chocolate croissant available and I'm eternally grateful to the Don and Jen for sacrificing their croissant so I could have what I'd been looking forward to all week. Thanks very much! Looking forward to CR drinks tonight and more CR socialising on Monday evening when CJ is in town..what a social whirl.. not sure I have time to do any work!

posted by Lulu @ 1:49 PM 5 comments

The Iceberg!

Mr Lulu was up and out for his run before me this morning and when he got back I was just getting ready to go. He had been to Bondi and back and I thought that sounded good so I decided to head off in that direction myself. I'm getting a bit bored with my normal trotting around Centennial so I felt like a change of scene. Of course the only problem with doing anything other than Centennial is that I am surrounded by rolling hills and cliffs, which is why I head towards the park so often!

I headed to Bondi around the back streets and cut down to the Icebergs club and then along the coastal path through Tamarama and to Bronte. I remember now why I don't do this course very often; it's a bit crowded and the hills and stairs are a bit of a killer.

Sean had me down for 45 mins today but in the end I did about 35, and then walked back from the stairs at Bronte gully. I'll run up there one day.. not today though as my legs had had enough and I want some energy left for tomorrow's fartlek session. Hopefully Mr Lulu will be coming as well as he is pretty much back to full training mode now and we're both going to do the 8km fun run in Maroubra at the end of October.

Total for the day 5.5km, 36 mins with an average pace of 6.32/km.


I laughed when I saw the Google earth track of my run as it appears I was running on water for some of it!

posted by Lulu @ 9:20 AM 2 comments

400s with the SWEAT crew

I haven't done any interval training for weeks as I haven't been to a Weds SWEAT session for a while so I was a bit anxious about what was in store for me today! I had 8 x400s on my programme but Sean said I was only doing 6 and sitting a couple out. I did 2 reps then sat one out did 2 reps again and then a final 2. I found it pretty hard to pace myself as I'm out of practice at these and my times reflect that. 1.55, 2.08, --, 2.04, 2.04, --, 2.12, 2.08. At least I managed to pull the last one back a little bit.

A good turn out this morning with the return of one slower girl ( still faster than me) and a new slower girl ( still faster than me although I make a big effort to overtake her on the first interval.. shame on me!) I hope they stick with it as it is good to have some other girls there apart from Kit, Amjan and I at the moment. Kit was full of beans and running really well again this morning; getting lots of praise from Sean so I told her she was definitely teacher's pet today!

I'm really enjoying these SWEAT sessions at the moment as we have a good fun crew and lots of supportive cameraderie to keep us all bounding along!

posted by Lulu @ 10:50 AM 5 comments

A short, sharp one!

Another sunny but cool morning and some legs that were feeling a bit tired but not too bad. As I was also a bit late I decided to do an abridged version of the two beaches. I shortened the run by stopping at the bottom of the steps at the top of Bronte gully and walking the steep bit home.

The ocean looked very inviting down at Clovelly but I know it's pretty cold in there as Mr Lulu has been swimming all winter and says this is the coldest it's been.. roll on summer!

I tried to really attack the hills on the way up from Clovelly to Bronte and keep up the pace. I'm definitely getting better at this but I did have to stop and catch my breath between hills in the cemetery... don't want to end up there permanently just yet!

In total 24:57 mins, 4.06km with an average pace of 6.11/km which is not bad considering my legs weren't at their freshest!

Pilates later on this afternoon, and then tomorrow I rest...

posted by Lulu @ 11:20 AM 4 comments

A breezy Sunday morning

A bright sunny morning, but with a strong cold breeze were the weather conditions for this morning's run. I wasn't sure how my legs would feel after the Spin class yesterday and they were a little tired when I started out. However, after 30 mins they warmed up and felt pretty good. I headed down to Centennial Park and did an outside and inside loop and then headed back up the hill to home. I decided that although I was quite tired that I was going to attack the nasty hill on the way home and this definitely makes it easier. It might hurt but it's over quicker than plodding up it!

In all Garth tells me we did 13.5km in 1hr 28 @ 6.30/km and we burnt 974 cals. Not a bad start to the week. Hopefully we'll feel up to a short run in the morning. Depending on how I feel it will either be some hills or just a short trot around the block!

posted by Lulu @ 7:53 PM 1 comments

Saturday Spin!

Now I know how Jen managed to run the C2S without doing much running training.. she did it on Spin training.. ouch! After yesterday's SWEAT session my legs were a bit fatigued, but not too bad I thought, so I headed to the gym to try out my first Spin class. Set myself up and played around with the resistance to see what it was like and then the class started. My legs quickly let me know they were not impressed with this new addition to the programme and my quads were burning in the first track... I was a bit worried at this point as I thought how the hell I am going to get through another 40 mins of this torture. However, after a while my legs seemed to settle down and I started to quite enjoy the torture. 45 mins later I emerged sweaty but quite happy with my first session. Lots of standing up tracks plus a few'chase' tracks which worked us quite hard.

Summary of the week : 4 runs 34.33kms @ av 6.27/km 2358cals!
Pilates: 4 classes
Spin 1

Next week I will be back to 5 runs so the mileage will start to get back to pre C2S levels.

posted by Lulu @ 3:14 PM 1 comments

A good SWEAT

The format for today's SWEAT session was modified as Sean is still recovering from the marathon on Sunday and is having a week off running. So we did our fartlek session around the oval. We started with a quick 1km warm up and some drills and then did 15 mins in one direction around the oval and 15 mins in the other direction. The fence around the oval has breaks in it and so we alternated surging and floating between the breaks in the fence.

I thought it might be a bit boring but actually it was quite good fun and as Sean could see us all the time he could coach on form and technique as we went past him. He was telling me to work on putting more bounce into the surges and really spring off the back foot and use the glutes. This definitely helped me pick up the pace and I felt much lighter on my feet.It picked up my knees and put me more on the mid foot. Something I'll have to practice on my runs now. I felt pretty strong and tried to keep up the effort for the 30 mins but found my floats were getting slower and slower so I'll have to make an effort to keep up the pace more on the recoveries.

I tried to incorporate more of a bounce into my step on the cool down jog and found that it made me quicker without more effort and I could keep up the rest of the group.

In total I did 8.44km with an average pace of 5.43/km which is great; breaking that 6min/km barrier for a change..Yippee! Some of the km's lap times seem a bit wild with one being 4.40/km which is a bit scary..no wonder I was out of breath! I'm not sure how accurate Garth is when you're running around in circles but I'm happy to believe him today!

posted by Lulu @ 9:53 AM 7 comments

Feeling good in the park

The ETS had to stand in for her boss at some work function in the end so I was let off a big night out; still had a rest day yesterday though so I was ready to hit the road again this morning.

Lovely warm spring morning and I headed down to Centennial Park again to do a couple of laps of the inside track. Tried to keep the pace up but without pushing it as I know I'll be working hard in tomorrow's SWEAT session. Felt pretty good most of the time except a couple of times I got stitch which is unusual for me. I don't normally suffer from stitch but have noticed since I got back from holiday that I have been getting it every run; possible something to do with stomach bug but who knows.

Tried to keep the pace up on the hill back from the park and consequently average pace was improved over Tuesday's run.

The Stats: 11.19km in 1.13.50 with an av pace of 6.35/km and 828cals.

I'll be off to the gym later for the 3rd Pilates class of the week. I can already feel my abs have come back after a few weeks off.

Edited to add: Forgot to mention the racing schedule up to the end of the year. There's an 8km race in Maroubra on the 23rd of Oct which I will do and then it's off to Melbourne for the Sussan's Women's Classic 10km on the 4th Dec. Flights are booked so there's no going back on that one.

posted by Lulu @ 9:40 AM 4 comments

A good solid hour

Went back to Pilates yesterday evening at thenew gym at BJ, and the classes are getting a bit more strenuous now the club's been open a few weeks. I will try out some of the Pump and Spin classes over the next few weeks to add an extra cardio session or two to my running.

Headed out for an hour's run this morning as I am going out with my evil twin sister this evening, which will end late at night (or early in the morning) and probably with me rolling home having had a few too many wines. I met the ETS when I first moved to Sydney and before Mr Lulu converted me to clean living and she is definitely complicit in giving me many a hangover... I'm trying to exercise some moderation but the ETS is normally unimpressed with excuses of having to go running training in the morning and so I'm not even going to attempt a SWEAT session tomorrow.

Instead I went down to Centennial Park and did an anti-clockwise outside loop. I'm definitely over the jet lag now and feeling quite energetic. I'm not convinced Garth measures this course accurately as he does drop out in a few places and I'm also not convinced that the overall pace is accurate as I felt like I was working harder. May be I'm just deluding myself that I'm running faster! Garth thinks we did 9.56km in 1.03.32 with an average pace of 6.38/km. I'll keep track of this course over the next few weeks and see if he is consistent. He's probably not far off because the course he plots on Google Earth is pretty much spot on. It's the nasty hill on the way back I think that really pulls my average pace down so need to try and pick up the pace up there.

Will do another Pilates class later this afternoon at the CBD gym.

posted by Lulu @ 9:57 AM 3 comments

Cheering and running

Not in the same day though like most of my fellow bloggers. I had decided not to enter any events this weekend and it was the right decision I think as I still am not fully recovered from the jet lag/stomach bug combo. Mr Lulu dropped me at the station at BJ and I headed into the city and was in position on the Cahill Expressway by 7.15; just in time to see the marathoners heading out on their long journey.

After that there was a bit of a break before the half marathoners and then the 9ker's came streaming past. I was the sole cheersquader at this stage and was doing my best to give everyone a boost with a wave of my pom pom. Good to see some of the halfers having a great day with my training buddies Roys World, Simon and the Don having great races. Not may pics taken at this stage as I had to decide between pics and cheering and thought the cheering more important.

Thankfully the rest of the cheersquad arrived in due course to boost my lone efforts and get those marathoners home. It was pretty hot and tiring just cheering and so I can't imagine how the marathoners were feeling on that final stretch. It was great being part of the day even though I wasn't running and it's really good to be able to give something back to the running community that has given me lots of support and encouragement recently. I can highly recommend a dose of cheering to give you and the runners a lift and I was thoroughly inspired to get moving again this week.

Consequently I headed out to tackle the three beaches circuit down to Coogee and back along the coast to Bronte beach. My legs had been a bit sore after my run on Sat which is a bit surprising but shows how much leg strength I lost in a few weeks of slacking off! However, they felt OK this morning and so I tried to keep up the pace on the hills and concentrate on keeping form; being upright and engaging the glutes on the uphill sections. Bronte hill was a bit of a killer, especially the steep section at the top, but it didn't defeat me today as I ran all the way.

Now I have a target to beat for this run; 6.66kms in 45mins with an average pace of 6.47/km.

posted by Lulu @ 9:43 AM 9 comments

Easy park run

Having taken it very easy yesterday and feeling a bit more normal today I headed down to Centennial Park to do an inside loop. Felt pretty good for the first 4 kms and then had to stop and walk. Not sure my stomach is totally over it's bug yet as it didn't feel too happy at that stage. Having recovered I took it pretty easy on the way back and up the hill to home.

Having a had a couple of easy weeks I haven't slowed down (thankfully, otherwise I'd be walking!) and even overtook 2 runners, which is very unusual for me. I do seem to have lost a bit of stamina though. This is possibly due to the jet lag so we'll see how things are in the next few days.

Distance 7.66km in 50 mins with an average pace of 6.32/km which is just slightly slower than the last time I did this run. So that's enough taking it easy and so it's back to some serious training next week.

I'm now in possession of the cheersquad pom-poms, thanks to having a coffee with Jen yesterady, and will be heading into the City and my position on the Cahill for about 7am tomorrow so I make sure I catch all the runners as they pass through.

posted by Lulu @ 10:06 AM 2 comments

Back to the beaches

The last few days of our holiday we didn't run at all as things were just too busy and we were feeling a bit tired with all the travelling and socialising! We arrived back in Sydney on Tuesday night, a day later than planned as we had to delay our flight as I managed to pick up a very nasty stomach bug and there was no way I was getting on a plane in that state. After a quick visit to one of Surrey's finest cottage hospitals and some drugs we managed to get away the following day.

Yesterday was our first day back and I headed to the gym for some Pilates. I'm very excited that my gym has opened a new club in Bondi Junction. It's much bigger than the ones in the City and has two Pilates Reformer studios, a pool, steam room, spin room, aerobics studio, cardio, weights and a mat class studio. Definitely no excuses now I have all that to chose from! I started back with a nice easy reformer class. As the club is new the instructors are doing easy classes to get new members broken in, rather than broken. I'll still do a few classes in the City clubs when I am there as the classes are more advanced.

Decided to try a run this morning and started off feeling quite good but lost the plot after 2km when I just felt really exhausted suddenly. So I decided to just walk and enjoy the beautiful Sydney weather and the lovely views on the 2 beaches route. Will try again tomorrow when hopefully I'll be slightly less jet lagged and any remaining effects from the stomach bug will have passed.

I've added some google earth shots and some photos to the earlier posts I made on holiday.

posted by Lulu @ 12:12 PM 6 comments

Running with the royal deer

We didn't manage any further runs on the Greek part of the holiday. Went out the on the Monday morning fully intending to tackle that hill again but just didn't have any energy; so we ended up doing a walk run instead.

The following day we waved goodbye to the bride and groom and headed back to England. I realise the last entry sounded as if we were the wedding couple but it's not us!

The weather in London is surprisingly hot; nearly 35 degrees on Weds so we had yet another rest day. That made four in a row and so we were determined to get a run in this morning. We are staying with some friends in Richmond and so we took the car up to Richmond Park for a gallop with the local deer. The park is a lovely spot and you can't believe you're in London as the park covers about 500 acres. We did an 8km circuit and the rest days obviously did me some good as I felt better than I did in Greece. This is also probably because it was a bit cooler this morning. Approx 52 mins and average pace of 6.20/min. We hope to do another run in the morning along the Thames which is also a good running spot. Meanwhile we are in a social whirl trying to catch up with my family and friends, check on my flat here and have a bit of a rest as well.

posted by Lulu @ 12:41 AM 4 comments