Lulu Runs

Wild Wally!

After Mr Lulu's birthday drinks yesterday afternoon I wasn't sure if we'd be too energetic this morning but we hopped out of bed and down to the park for a Monday SWEAT session. I haven't done a Monday SWEAT before and it's always hills. Today was circuits of a course that Sean calls Wild Wally. It's a fairly steep climb, then levels off and a nice downhill.

We did a few strides to warm up and then we were off. Mr L and DJ were doing 5 reps and I was doing 3. The first one I didn't take off too quickly up the hill but was still puffing away by the time I reached the top and then tried to pick it up down the hill. I jogged around while the others did another one and then Sean said for me to try and chase one of the others (Greg) up the hill. I gave it a good shot and was totally stuffed at the top and thought I was going to heave but I recovered on the flat and downhill. I didn't catch him but I improved this time by 15 seconds on the first circuit. It's that competitive gene again!

Then Sean said to try and do one with a short recovery.. I did but again was feeling a bit sick by the time I reached the top of the hill and this repeat was a lot slower.

3 reps: 3.53, 3.38 and 3.59.

A good way to start the week!

This week is another full on training week:
Monday: Wild Wally; done . Pilates GRC
Tues: easy 30mins run; Swim
Weds: Intervals 400m GRC advanced
Thursday: A rest day at last..won't know what to do with myself, maybe a swim.
Friday: Fartlek and a Pilates mat class
Sat: easy 25 mins and Swim
Sunday: 1hr 10 mins

I feel tired just thinking about it! There's also some talk of a trip to the Lindt cafe this week.. yum:)

posted by Lulu @ 10:08 AM 4 comments

The CR Girls do Centennial Park

I was a little late getting up to meet the CR girls Jen_runs and the Owl at Centennial and so jumped in the lulumobile to get down to the park... and then $%&^% I managed to scrape a wheel arch on the way out of the garage.. how can you do that when you get in and out of the garage a million times without doing it! Anyway that was the low point of the morning as we had a great run.. one of those days when things seem to come together.

We started off at a comfortable pace and did one lap of the inside track of the park.. had a quick break so Jen could put some more band-aids on her blister caused by her orthotics ( and to say hi to Queen Bee who pulled in next to us) and then headed off for a further lap plus a loop through the middle of the park. We were running well and at one point Garth said we had done a 5.30min km so we said .. better slow down a bit.. we thought we had and then Garth said.. another 5.30 km.. what's going on... Jen must be making me go fast... but I felt great and not like I was really working that hard. .. very strange but I'm very happy with the result :) More like that please running gods!

Final stats were 10.18km in 60 mins.. 511 cals with an average pace of 5.53/km.
Km splits were : 6.07, 5.36, 5.36, 7.00??, 5.37, 5.40, 6.16, 5.26, 5.31, 6.07. I'm not sure what happened in the 7min one.. lost signal or when we stopped.. or was it when we were discussing the best way to tell Mr Lulu about the wheel arch :(

I'm looking forward to running with the girls again soon if that's the result and I have no doubt Ms Jen will storm home in her half marathon effort, and the Owl is quickly getting back to form after her recent ills.

Special congrats to Don Juan who came over this afternoon for some birthday drinks with Mr Lulu and was showing off his latest medal.. to go with last weekend's trophy.. this time first in his age group for an 8km race with a fantastic 28.5x mins.. very impressive DJ!

posted by Lulu @ 8:37 PM 4 comments

Easy Sydney Biathlon

I had a terrible night's sleep where I woke up at 1.30 feeling wide awake and after about an hour of tossing and turning went downstairs to the spare room and read for a while before falling back into a fitful sleep. Consquently I woke up a bit later than planned and it was about 7am before we arrived in the City at the domain. We did a nice easy 4kms around Farm Cove , out to the Opera House and through the botanic gardens which was lovely. I really like running around there as you certainly can't beat the scenery. Garth seems to think we were running on water again though if you look at the picture :)

For the first km I was saying " er.. hello legs.. you know that running thing you do.. could you try and pick it up a bit..." as they were feeling very sluggish and a bit fatigued from yesterday's effort. After the first ten mins they warmed up and we managed to keep a reasonable pace. In fact Mr Lulu told me to slow down at one stage as this was supposed to be an easy run.

After a quick stretch we went to the ABC pool and did a few cooling laps. This has to be the best pool in Sydney as it's perched on the edge of the harbour and is a salt water pool. I did about 300 metres to see how I was progressing and I definitely feel that I've made some improvements in the last couple of weeks. I swam one lap behind Mr Lulu and normally he would be a long way ahead of me by the end but today I wasn't that far behind him.

I've kept pretty much to my exercise plan this week apart from missing one swim as I couldn't squeeze it in as I had to do some work.. I've gone from not having much on to having lots of new opportunities popping up which is exciting and I should be quite busy over the summer. Good for the bank account but means that I'll have to be really disciplined about scheduling my exercise.

This week:
6 runs :) 35kms and at an average pace of 6.16/km
Pilates: 1 GRC, 1 Advanced GRC and 1 mat class
Swims 2.

Next week will be a similar programme but I hope to squeeze in my extra swim this week.
I'm meeting Jen and Lorna at Centennial Park cafe in the morning for an hour around the park which I'm really looking forward to.. just hope I can keep up with them.

posted by Lulu @ 11:31 AM 8 comments

Friday fun in the park

Back to the park for some friday fartlek. There was actually more women that men this week which makes a change. We headed off at an easy pace and then into the surges. I think that race has made me a bit stronger as I felt pretty good for most of the way. I developed a bit of a sore hip in the last couple of kms but it feels alright now.

I concentrated on form rather than speed in the surges, trying to keep my knees up and using my core to stabilise. In the end I ran the course at an average of 6.07/km which is pretty good.. and I didn't feel totally stuffed at the end for a change..

Nice short one tomorrow and I think we're going to go down to the domain and do a short run and then have a swim at the Andrew Boy Charlton pool as I've only done one swim this week.

That's four days running in a row which is a record for me. No serious niggles as long as my hip doesn't do anything strange tomorrow.

posted by Lulu @ 7:28 PM 2 comments

Easy 30 mins

Thanks for all the great words of wisdom and support :) and Mr Lulu says thanks for the birthday wishes too. We had a very nice dinner at Becasse, which is one of our favourite restaurants , and a bit of a late night, but we were still up and out by 6 this morning.

I had a 30 mins easy run on my programme so I headed off towards Queens Park and did a loop of the park and then back up the hill. I added on my extra loop around Evans St to get to 30 mins and about 4.25Kms. Another one in the bank!

posted by Lulu @ 7:46 AM 1 comments

Birthday 600s

It's Mr Lulu's birthday today and so after the card opening ceremony we headed down to the park for the SWEAT session. Today I had 5 x 600s with 2mins jog recovery and the others were doing 7 reps.

We did the normal drills and strides and then we were off. I felt strong for the first two and Sean was a bit worried I'd gone out too fast ( a relative term in my case!) and so was I after the first one :)

Reps were 3.07, 3.07, --, 3.13, 3.12, --3.11 Again these are a few seconds quicker than the last time I did them a month ago so I'm gradually whittling away at it.. At this rate by the time I'm 50 I should be able to run at a decent pace :) Mr Lulu is getting back into serious training and his times were very consistent and around 2.05 per rep I think.

I've decided a new mental attitude is needed to this running business. I'm someone who likes instant gratification and results and running is not really like that, well certainly not for me. Mr Lulu keeps telling me it takes years :( So, I'm making a concerted effort to be more relaxed about times, improving etc and just keep on putting the work in and eventually the results will show.. well they better had! I put too much pressure on myself to constantly show improvements and compare myself to everyone else and think they're all doing so much better than I am. Consequently I'm not enjoying the process very much. It's the same with the races I do. I don't do many and then expect to do a PB everytime and am disapointed if it doesn't happen. More races are now being put into my programme, just for the fun of it. Mr Lulu needs to do a couple of half's so he's thinking of doing the SMC races in December and Jan and so I'll go along and do the 10km races as well I think. I've already got the Sussan's Women's Classic in Melbourne on the 4th of December to work towards.

I certainly felt better doing this morning's session having adopted that frame of mind... I need some lessons from Zen Jen :)

Off to do an Int/Advanced Pilates at lunchtime to work out those abs. I haven't done an intermediate one for a few weeks so it should be fun.

posted by Lulu @ 11:58 AM 9 comments

Running to the gym

I had 25 mins easy on my programme today so I decided to run to the gym for the 6.30 Pilates class. I headed down to Queens Park and then up to Bondi Junction. I had to add in a loop around Bondi Junction as I still had 5 mins to do when I got there. Legs were very stiff and took 10 mins to warm up. Didn't worry about any speed, well probably couldn't have run any faster any way.

Then it was into the gym and 45 min Pilates class. Lots of stretching followed and then I hopped on the bus and came home.. felt a bit strange on the bus in my running gear :)

posted by Lulu @ 8:31 AM 2 comments

A trophy dinner and some splashing

We had dinner at our local Italian last night with Don Juan and he brought along the Cool Running team trophy that he picked up for us at the awards presentation, along with his own personal trophy. It proudly sat on our table as we celebrated with a nice bottle of rose and a bottle of red :) I felt a bit of a fraud as the only contribution I made was turning up and finishing, I'm good at the celebrating bit though. The first time I've ever been associated with anything like a prize for a sporting event so I enjoyed the novelty.

It's a rest day for me this today so I went down to the pool and did some more drills. About 600m plus a few laps to finish off. I think I'm improving so will have to do the 15min time trial again this week and see what it says.

Tomorrow I'm back to running and have on my programme 9 days in a row of short runs.. that will be interesting and any sign of any niggles and I'll be throwing in a few extra rest days.

posted by Lulu @ 12:39 PM 3 comments

Hot and hard 8km

What a nasty little race that was! Very hot on the course and that hill which didn't seem to bad on my recce of the course turned into a mountain, particularly on the second lap. The good news is that thanks to some absolute scorchers from the CR boys the team managed to win the team event. Good thing they weren't relying on the me though!

I started off fairly well and thought I'd paced the first lap OK but realised at the end of the first lap that the PB wasn't on the cards. Mr Lulu had the same thoughts as he said he just went into survival mode on the second lap too. I had coach Kit standing on the downhill stretch giving me encouragement but sadly it wasn't enough.

The second lap I had the inner wimp saying that I should stop or walk or something but I told her to shut up and just kept plodding away. I was very relieved to reach the top of the hill and tried to pick up the pace again for the downhill stretch. Mr lulu was there at the last turn and ran with me for 5oom or so before pointing me towards the finish. I managed my customary sprint to the end.. just a shame I can't do it from a bit further back rather than the last 100m!

The stats
1 km Splits:5.35, 6.49, 5.19, 6.05, 6.03, 7.28, 5.47, 6.12, for a total of 48.50 , which is well outside my current PB of 47.08 so that will have to wait for another day.

Mr Lulu managed to run 36.32 and he's a bit disappointed too as he realises how much form he's lost having been off for so long with the torn calf. I'm sure he'll be back now he's training with Sean as well... not to mention having Don Juan to chase.

We've just walked over to Bondi and back for a massage and I feel pretty good now, and certainly don't feel as if I ran a race this morning. My legs didn't get fatigued but I certainly was puffing and panting.. and as Uncle Dave said, I didn't look too crash hot when I crossed the finish.. can't fault me for effort at least!

It was good to see everyone this morning and thanks for the encouragement Kit :)

posted by Lulu @ 3:53 PM 5 comments

Ready, Steady...

After a very nice total rest day yesterday I headed out for the 30 mins easy run that was on my programme. Felt very strong and bounded up the road towards Queens Park, doing the first km in 5.35.. whoa there Lulu, better save that for tomorrow! This is probably one of the first times when I've actually been telling myself to slow down rather than speed up when I've been running.. what a novelty! Did about 4.4km in 28 mins with an average pace of 6.21/km in the end. I did lots of stretching and the only real niggle is that my itbs are still tight so I've stepped up the rolling pin action!

It's a bit humid out there and it could be quite hot tomorrow as the race doesn't start until 9.30.
Having lunch with the CR girls today, so I'll walk down to Clovelly for our 1pm date.. should be fun!

posted by Lulu @ 9:30 AM 2 comments

More splashing around!

I realised yesterday that I have actually missed two runs off my programme this week. I was supposed to do 20 mins on Tuesday but I'm so used to Tuesday being a rest day and I go to early pilates that I forgot.. oh well I think that was just to get the legs moving and I did go swimming instead.

My running programme after this race changes a bit. Sean is moving me up to running 6 days a week. I'm not sure how the legs will cope with this, but the programme has gone from doing 5 longer runs to 6 shorter runs with my long runs going back down to an hour. I'll see how I go.

For today though it was back to the pool for some more drills. I ended up doing about 600 metres of drills and then did some swimming with the fins at the end for a total of about 950m. It is definitely helping doing the drills as I am becoming much more relaxed in the water and more on top of the water as plu describes it.

posted by Lulu @ 10:14 AM 4 comments

300's with the crew

Woke up feeling very tired and with the beginnings of a sore throat. I'm trying to pretend it's not there and that it's not going to interfere with my race plans for Sunday. Actually it felt better after my interval training so maybe I've found a new cure for sore throats! Or maybe it's because everything else was hurting more than the throat!

The speedy ones were doing 10x300 and I managed 8, not bad for me.

Times were relatively consistent although I lost it on number 6, but managed to pull it back a bit for the last two.

Times were 1.29, 1.30, 1.29 -- 1.30, 1.30, 1.37--1.34, 1.34 The good news is that looking back over my blog I've improved a bit on this distance. Last time I did them my times ranged from 1.34 up to 1.43.. that's progress and very satisfying to see. Still a long way from the times of Mr Lulu who's intervals were nice and even at around 57 secs. He has been running for 30 years so you'd expect him to be good at it by now :) He was very happy with his pacing this morning and no doubt in a few months he'll be giving Don Juan a real run for his money.

posted by Lulu @ 11:18 AM 5 comments

Like a duckling!

Yesterday was supposed to be a hills session according to my programme but I was feeling very sore from Sunday's long run, and it was pouring with rain. Consequently I wimped out and then spent the rest of the day feeling guilty :)

Today though I was up and at the gym by 6.30 and did a Pilates class.. then it was off to the pool.

Having bought some short training fins I felt like a little duckling as I started doing the drills. Hopefully I'll turn into a swan one day. I like the fins.. I go much faster :) Could be addictive!

I did two workouts from my swim book which were focused on being balanced in the water. I found it quite good as I was able to relax a bit more in the water rather than my usual thrashing about. In total I did 50 mins of drills, with a few laps thrown in, about 1.5km I think. Then I headed to the steam room for a quick steam. Now I can relax for the rest of the day.. that's a good feeling:)

posted by Lulu @ 9:18 AM 2 comments

Moore Parks!

Yesterday was definitely a wallowing in bed day.. felt very tired all day.. even had a nana nap after we'd been out to do the shopping!

Today I was a bit concerned I would struggle so I decided to stick to Centennial Park so that if I felt like pulling the pin I wouldn't have far to go to get home again.

As it happens I needn't have worried as I felt pretty good for most of the run, once I'd warmed up. I did a couple of loops around the park, going outside and around Fox Studio and the SCG and up Moore Park Road on the first one. On the second one I came back through Bondi Junction and back to home for a bit more variety.

I covered 17.75km in 1hr. 57 mins and burnt a fabulous 1567 cals.. give me some more chocolate :)

Knees are a bit sore after all that but will see how I feel in the morning before I decide what I will do. I've got a relatively easy week as I have hills tomorrow, track on Weds and then nothing until a short run on Saturday and the 8km race on Sunday.

I've been tagged by CJ in the getting to know your fellow bloggers game! The instructions are as follows:
Here are the rules:
1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or the closest one to it)
4. Post the text of your sentence in your blog along with these rules.
5. Tag five other people.

My 23rd post was on Saturday 25th of June which is a running rest day. At the time I had a problem with some sore hips and my 5th sentance is "Let's hope the run will be on for tomorrow". Fortunately it was :) Seems to sum up my experience with running: managing little niggles so they don't become big niggles and trying to keep on the road!

Now I tag: Kit, the lovely Minersruns, the wise Owl, TA and the Gnome and our Melbourne based Wobbly Man

posted by Lulu @ 12:57 PM 3 comments

Really SWEATing!

I almost didn't manage to drag myself up and out this morning to get to SWEAT fartlek, but my will power won the day! Mr Lulu had an early meeting at work and so he didn't come this morning. However, there was a good turn-out. I did a quick lap of the oval to see if my legs were back or whether I still had the lead ones and found they were not too bad but still feeling a bit flat. As I expected then I found the first 30 mins hard work.. such a lot of effort to run so slowly.. just doesn't seem right somehow! The hill was a killer and no racing up it this week. Second half of the session after the hill was over I perked up a bit and felt a lot better. Average pace was pretty slow though 6.25/km and I'll have a look at the km splits later as I suspect the last few will be the quickest. I'm sure the session still did me good even if slower than I know I can do this course.. funny how you can vary so much. My usual companions were there to encourage me along though which always helps. thanks guys:)

I'll see how I feel tomorrow and decide whether to do a Spin class, swim or wallow in bed! Off to pilates mat later on this afternoon.

posted by Lulu @ 9:50 AM 4 comments

Busy, busy, busy

Last night's big night out with the ETS was not as bad as feared. Started with a glass of bubbly at the Zeta bar in the Hilton before going for a very nice dinner.. ate too much.. drank too much.. but not too much to feel too bad this morning.

Managed to get out of bed at 6.30, a bit later than I'd planned and drove up to Bondi Junction, parked the car and headed out to do 30 mins easy. Well I did 30 mins but it wasn't easy.. someone had stolen my legs in the night and replaced them with lumps of lead, and it was very humid. Refused to listen to the voice in my head telling me to stop and plodded on and eventually the legs felt marginally better. Stopped after 15 mins to stretch out a calf as it was complaining for some reason, have to keep an eye on that. Returned to the car and picked up my gym bag and headed into the gym for a quick swim. I decided to practice the drills as per instructed in my training book and see if I could do them without fins, most of which I could, but it takes me a long time to do each lap, so I might get some. It was alright this morning as the gym was deserted and I had a lane to myself, but I wouldn't have been popular had there been many people in the pool. Did about 1o mins of drill practice then swam 200ms before retreating to the steam room for 10 mins. Dashed about getting changed and headed in to the City.

Had a very nice brekkie with Don Juan, Jen and the Owl at the famous Lindt cafe and returned to the office refreshed and ready for action.

Finally lunch time saw me go to the gym and do a Pilates class. I chose an intermediate/advanced class because I'm finding some of the classes a bit easy and was very happy that I managed this pretty easily. I even knocked out 20 press-up with no problem (only girls version!) ..very surprised at that as I have always struggled with press ups, even with the girls version. My upper body has obviously been working out in secret!

posted by Lulu @ 1:22 PM 2 comments

Rainy intervals

A grey and overcast morning greeted us today. Mr Lulu asked what was on the agenda for the SWEAT training this morning.. 800's I said. This Mr Lulu's favourite distance and the one where he was most successful in his glory days and so he decided to come with me. Once we got to the park it started to rain and and we ended up very soggy by the end of the session. Up to 5 800s was the instruction from Sean.. not you me though, I only had to do 3 :)

We did the normal drills and then we took off for our first 800. Mr Lulu thought he was in a race and went out fast, leading the fast boys.. sadly after this first burst of glory though he was shown the benefits of pacing by Don Juan and Byron. It's a long time since he's done any track work and so his pacing was worse than mine! Ok he was a lot quicker than me and he did 5 intervals but at least mine were even..ish: 4.17, 4.20, 4.14. I had coaches Kit and Deanne talking me round the last 400 of the last one, which accounts for the faster time. Legs felt very stiff at the start but felt strong on the last one which is good.

I think Mr Lulu's times went from 2.40 to 3.00mins or something like that. I'll get them off him later and add them in.

Tonight is the long awaited night out with the evil twin sister (ETS) postponed from a few weeks ago.. note to self.. pacing is everything! We're going out to a good restaurant in the city and so it should be a relatively civilised night.. until she drags me off to the casino or a club or something ridiculous. Good thing I only have 30 mins run, Pilates and a swim on the agenda for tomorrow :0

posted by Lulu @ 9:18 AM 5 comments

Swimming like my goldfish.. not!

I managed to get myself up and out of bed to go to a 6.30 Pilates class.. no wallowing today!
Followed this with a swim in the pool at the gym, that I hadn't tried yet. Very nice 25m pool, not crowded, (I had a lane to myself for some of my swim), and not too chlorinated.

Now I have to confess to being a truly terrible swimmer, even worse than my running :) When I arrived to live in Sydney I could manage a few laps of pommy tourist breast stroke ( that's where you keep you head out of the water.. very stylish!) . I had some swimming lessons a few years ago, so at least I can do freestyle now, but I have to be the slowest swimmer in Australia, surely. In an effort to improve my swimming I bought a recommended book, " Fitness Swimming" by Emmett Hines. Having bought the book and browsed through it, it sat on my bedside table for some months.. strange how that didn't seem to improve my swimming at all.

So today I decided to start a bit of work on the swimming, with the goal that I can swim 1km non-stop in under 30 mins by the end of summer (lets call that the end of Feb). Emmett the swim coach instructed me to do a time trial of 15 mins to establish a current cruise pace over 100metres. So I did 200 to warm up then started the watch to see how many laps I could swim in 15 mins. Not many is the answer managing 500 m's in 16.25. This gives me a 100 metre cruise pace of 3.17. According to coach Emmett this puts me in the "low" category for combined fitness and ability level.. how nice of you to say so coach! I think I'd already established that for myself :) Well at least I have something to measure my improvements against from here! The next session I will start working on some of the drills and see if I can improve my technique somewhat.

posted by Lulu @ 9:44 AM 8 comments

Two beaches..sort of!

A very naughty Lulu went 2 days without doing a run... Saturday was a rest day anyway but Sunday was supposed to be long run.. in the end it was a long hangover...oops! I haven't been drinking very much recently and so my drinking performance is very poor. Consequently, a some friend's house on Sat night too much champers was consumed. We left the car in Birchgrove, near Balmain fully intending to run and get it in the morning. Instead I wallowed in bed and Mr Lulu went on his own.

In the afternoon we walked over to Bondi for a massage which was excellent and she focused on all my niggles and stiff bits.

I thought that after a relatively restful weekend I would be ready for a good run this morning but my body had other ideas. I felt very tired when I woke up which I think is the effects of a late boozy night.. don't recover like I used to. My legs felt very heavy and set off down to Clovelly and the hills back up to Bronte. Struggled up the first one and thought that would sort my legs out but it didn't. Kept on plodding but when I faced the long haul up Bronte hill my legs were feeling like lead and where normally I can keep going this morning the little voice in my head telling me to stop won, probably because I feel tired rathe than just heavy legs, and I ended up walking up the hill. At least I enjoyed the view and the lovely sunny morning!

I feel a bit slack having another rest day tomorrow so I'll go the gym and do Pilates and perhaps try out the swimming pool there that I haven't used yet.

posted by Lulu @ 9:03 AM 9 comments

Hitting the red line!

Woke up and tentatively got out of bed to see what was aching... ah the joys of being a runner! Surprisingly, nothing was sore.. itb treatment appears to be warding off the evil spirits.

Mr Lulu and headed off to the park for the fartlek session and I was feeling a bit anxious for some reason.. not wanting to go too hard but also wanting to see if I could do as well as last week.

Started off at a reasonable pace and then we headed into the surges. I had some company this week with the lovely A running with us.. she was just behind me for the first few km's. When we hit the York Road hill I focused on keeping the knees high and trying to maintain some pace. When we neared the top A overtook me and Sean came back. He then tried to encourage me to fight back and so I did.. never a good idea to get my competitive spirit engaged as I can't resist a challenge.. so I sprinted to the top of the road and managed to hold A off... perhaps a little foolish as I reached the red line of my lung capacity and consequently had to walk for 100m despite Sean telling me to keep jogging, I just couldn't catch my breath. Took me a while to recover and so the next few surges were slower and A was ahead of me now until the end of the run! I did manage to pick up the pace a bit in the last few.

In the end we did 8.55km in 52.31 mins with an av speed of 6.08 which is a bit slower than last week and probably caused by the sprinting and then dying section. Comparing the splits from last week with this week I definitely died in the 6th km which I think is after the hill. Apart from that I didn't feel as if I worked quite as hard as last week although my time on the hills section is a little better.

Last week This Week
6.03 6.10
4.49 5.36
5.43 5.47
6.27 5.58
6.40 5.53
6.25 7.04 (can't breathe!)
5.41 6.05
6.18 6.19
5.33 6.40

posted by Lulu @ 9:26 AM 5 comments

ITB OK.. the rest of me a bit flat!

Following Dr DJs advice seems to be paying off as the itb is still a bit sore but not getting any worse and is probably even a bit better today. I decided to see how it would handle 40 mins and it seems OK.. the rest of me was having a bad day though and it seemed like I was working very hard to run v e r y s l o w l y. Not to worry I'm sure it will pass.. it normally does but I'm not expecting too much from tomorrow's fartlek in the park.

I did about 5.75km in 38 mins and then did lots of stretching and rolling! Just been to pilates and now I can relax...my exercise for the day is complete.. oh apart from some more stretching and rolling later on!

posted by Lulu @ 1:01 PM 5 comments

No SWEAT but some beaches

I hate to even write these three little letters; so I'm going to whisper, itb. I noticed yesterday that my left itb just above the knee felt a bit tight and sore. I went to Pilates, did some stretching and rolled on my trusty rolling pin and things felt a bit better when I went to bed. I really don't want an injury to develop right now.. or ever!

This morning my leg wasn't stiff but a bit sore.. might have been from the rolling, as it almost feels bruised. I decided to give SWEAT a miss as doing intervals might have aggravated it more than just running. Instead I did my 2 beaches course. Legs didn't feel that fresh despite yesterday's rest day and the hills were tough. I ran up Bronte hill as well which is always tough and I found it hard to keep up any sort of pace towards the top.

In total 31.23; 4.73km @ 6.37/km. A bit slow and that's Bronte hill's affect as before I started up the hill my average pace had been 6.11/km.

I'll see how I feel later before deciding whether to do a run tomorrow or a rest and hope that I am able to go to SWEAT on Friday.

posted by Lulu @ 9:45 AM 4 comments

Maroubra recce!

After our long run yesterday we decided on a short one for this morning, so we decided to go and check out the course for the Maroubra fun run we're doing on 23rd of Oct.

We drove down to the start and then set off around the course. It starts with a short rise and then is flat until you start the Malabar road rise. This is a long rise of probably just over 1km.. not steep but a long drag up the hill and it continues around the corner. There is then a right turn; flat and downhill, and then you do a U turn and come back up and then head straight on for a long down hill stretch. There is quite a steep downhill section which is a bit steep to really bomb down, but the rest of it is a nice grade for downhill running. Then it's back down to the start which is a slight incline back to the line and then around the course again.

We only did one loop of the course but we didn't do quite enough down to the U turn point as I measured it a bit short at 3.9km and that was with me running past where we had started.

I did this in 23mins with an average pace of 5.53/km which I was pretty happy with considering my legs are a bit stiff and sore from yesterday's run and I wasn't really pushing it on the flat and downhills. My current PB for 8km is 47.08 and so I'm hoping to get 46.xx on this course if possible. I think this should be achievable based on today's run. Coach Kit has offered to run with me which will be great as I'm going to need some encouragement plodding up the Malabar Road hill.

A quick stretch and then Mr Lulu went for a swim at Maroubra beach.. .. he reported that the water temp was still too cold for me.

Course profile and route below:

posted by Lulu @ 11:14 AM 3 comments

Malabar Meander

A lovely Lebanese feast and an adequate, but not excessive, dose of wine at Tesso and the Owl's birthday party was the fuel for this morning's long run.

Garth, Mr Lulu and I set off on the route we did last weekend with the intention of going all the way to Malabar this time and a run of around 2 hours.

The first 30 mins was hard work but after that things improved and Mr Lulu headed off and I continued on my own along Anzac Parade. Mr Lulu came back to make sure I found the right turn off to find Malabar beach and then took off again. Once I arrived at Malabar I stopped and had a drink and 3 jelly beans for the return journey and set off. My new fuel belt is excellent and once I worked out what was the most comfortable position I hardly noticed I was wearing it. It's great to have the pocket at the back for keys, jelly beans and anything else I feel the need to take as well as two small drink bottles.

Once I'd turned around I noticed the wind... a nasty headwind was now in my face. It took me a few minutes to get back into my rhythm after the short stop but then I tried to keep up the pace on the way back, despite the wind and the uphill. Avoca Street didn't seem as hard this week and I ran all the way up without a break. Mr Lulu caught me at the top of the hill this time, but he didn't do that much more that me this week. I also passed Horrie who was looking very strong powering down Anzac Parade.

My legs were really tiring on the hills on the way back but I focused on keeping a good pace and lifting my knees more and this seemed to help a bit, but I was relieved to be back on our street and the final downhill to home. The profile from Garth shows a relatively consistent pace throughout the run which is good.

According to Garth I did 17.8km in 1hr 53mins, with an average pace of 6.21/km which is about the same as last week which is good considering I did an extra 25 mins. Once I uploaded the info to Motionbased though I got a different set of stats: 18.28kms in 1hr 54 mins and an av pace of 6.15/km. I'm not sure why there are two different sets of stats.. anyone else found this?

posted by Lulu @ 12:54 PM 3 comments

Walking with Dolphins

I thought about going to the gym and doing a Spin class this morning but it was such a lovely day that I didn't really want to be stuck inside. Instead we decided to go for a walk this afternoon.

Drove down to Coogee and then walked south from there towards Maroubra Beach. When we got to South Coogee we stopped and saw a large pod of dolphins just off the coast. They looked like they were chasing a shoal of fish down the coast as they were diving in and out of the water and moving quite fast. We carried on around the streets where the coast path ends but when we got back to the coast at Lurline Bay the dolphins were frolicking in the bay. I don't know what it is about dolphins but I always get a thrill when I see them.. quite unusual to see them so close to shore along the coast here...made my day!

We headed back to the car for a walk of about 90mins including dolphin watching! Legs were a little bit tired from yesterday but ready for a 2 hour adventure tomorrow.. I'll be trying out my new fuel belt I bought during the week...note to self.. don't drink too much (wine!) at Owl and Tesso's birthday bash tonight..

Had a bit of a light week this week and suffering from a bit of a lack of motivation so will sit down and work out some new goals and put some of my top coaching tricks to work on myself!
3 runs = 31.5km @ 6.21/km pace
2 pilates classes
1 walk
1 dolphin pod spotted :)

posted by Lulu @ 4:34 PM 3 comments