Pool and Pilates
I haven't been swimming for a nearly two weeks so as this was a running rest day I headed down to the gym pool. I decided just to swim today with no drills and hence sans fins! After doing 100ms warm up I set off on my 15 mins time trial. Looking back in my blog last time I did this it took me 16.25 mins to swim 500ms. Today it took me 15 mins exactly, so since I've been doing my drills and swim practice I've dropped my 500 m time by 85 secs which is not too bad, and has given me some encouragement to keep on with the drills. After doing a couple of laps with the kickboard (hard work) and then another couple of 100 metres I headed to the steam room, a quick shower and into a pilates mat class. This was hard work this morning as she did lots of strength work for the shoulders and I think my shoulders were already a bit fatigued from swimming, either that or I've lost my upper body strength in the week I didn't do pilates. Felt pretty good after all that although I'm still feeling a bit tired generally. I can't remember the last time I woke up feeling enthusiastic about getting out of bed and not wanting to just roll over and go back to sleep. Sometime before I caught the lurgy I suspect. Fortunately, Mr lulu is good at getting me up and I also know that I won't feel any better for staying in bed so I'm plodding on. Back to SWEAT fartlek in the morning for my last hit out before Sunday's race.
Lots of 200s
I woke up feeling tired again, probably due to the travelling yesterday and had to drag myself to the park for the SWEAT session. We had 5 sets of 3x200s on the programme today. I managed to do 5 sets of 2x200s. Sean is away in Melbourne with his athletes at the Pacific Schools Games and so his wife took the programme today. We all started together and set off on the first repeat. We only had a minute to get back to the start again and that was a minute from when the fast one's reached the end. Consequently I ended up doing most of the session on my own and only being able to fit in two reps in each set. That was probably enough for me today anyway and I did feel a bit better after the session.My times were 56, 61 --, 57, 62, --, 58,61--, 61, 64--, 59, 59. At least the last two were even! Mr lulu had a good session with no niggles from his achilles this week and his times between 38 and 40 seconds.
A soggy Coolrunner on the road
Well, two soggy coolrunners actually. Mr lulu and I got up and dressed in our matching CR singlets and got ready to go out. By the time we were ready the rain was absolutely tipping down so we thought we'd wait for a break in the rain. This didn't happen for a couple of hours so we both did some work and then headed out once the rain stopped.It was about 7 minutes into my run when the rain started again. First it was a slight drizzle and then it got heavier and heavier until Garth and I were soaked. No point going back now though as we were already wet! At least it was nice and cool.My route today went around the outside of the park and down to the Golf Course at Anzac Parade. I ran around the block of the golf course and then back around Moore Park, up Moore Park Rd and then back into Centennial Park to finish off the loop and back home. In total 91 mins and 13.8km at an average pace of 6.38/km (a bit pedestrian) and 1063 cals ( I do like those sort of numbers for cals burned!)Mr lulu arrived back about 20 mins later also looking somewhat drowned and he had done his 2hrs. Status of niggles: right knee a bit sore for some of the run; vergin' on shin splints, much better and not bothering me when running; Stiff right hip - still stiff but not sore when running. I do have a very sore left calf today and I'm not sure what caused that so I'll see what it's like tomorrow. Rest day tomorrow as I have to be on a 7am plane to Brisvegas and won't be getting up in the dark for a run. I know, where's my commitment :)
Three day update
Blogging absence due to having to do more work than usual; bit of a shock to the system! However, I have been plodding along in the meantime, although Thursday became a second rest day. We had a CR dinner gathering to celebrate Jen_runs engagement and to wish Owly 'bon voyage' for her trup to England and with Mr Lulu demonstrating his cooking expertise and doing man talk with Don Juan there wasn't much for me to do except drink french champagne and put my feet up. Consequently when Thursday morning came along and Wild Wally and the Don were waiting for me I stayed under the doona. Instead I had coffee with Owly who was still passed out on the sofa ;) Only joking, she was under the doona in the spare room.Friday, I was a bit better behaved and I managed a quick 4kms on a hilly course to make up for missing Wild Wally yesterday.Saturday I was a very well behaved and although feeling decidly unmotivated and a bit tired I eventually got up at 7am and headed towards the park. This session on my programme was an hour with 20mins hard in the middle. I headed down to Centennial Park and did the outside loop. I was at the top of the York Road hill after 20 mins so I had a quick stretch and then set out on my hard 20 mins. This was cunning planning as I knew some of my hard section would be down hill! I started off relatively easily and tried to build into the 20 mins splits here were 5.45, 5.15 and 5.20 and I nearly made it to 4km before running out of puff and the 2o mins was up. Then I did a relaxed 20 mins back to the house, getting around the park and back in under an hour. That is the quickest I have ever done that route as I'm normally just over an hour and when I'm feeling very slow it can take an hour and 10 mins.This has made me feel a lot better about my race next weekend, as I was beginning to think I would be struggling to run under my current 10km time of 60 mins and a few seconds. I think that was why I was feeling so demotivated this week, that I was doing quite a lot of work and not getting anywhere but now I feel that I am getting back to where I was before I was sick.Tomorrow is a long run of 2hrs on the programme and I'll try and do about 90-100 mins at least.
400s and 300s
SWEAT session this morning was hard work! I was feeling a bit tired but Mr Lulu dragged me down to the park.The programme was up to 7 x400s and 4x300s. I did 5x400s and 3x300s and considering I was feeling a bit flat and unmotivated they weren't too bad.Times were 2.03; 2.03; 2.03; 2.04; 2,02; 300s 1.36; 1.34; 1.30. At least they were going in the right direction and I wasn't really pushing myself too hard this morning.One of the reasons I wasn't pushing myself was because I went to the physio yesterday. I've had a few niggles which, although aren't stopping me running, are becoming a bit of a concern. After a few quick assessments and a comment along the lines of "you're a biomechanical wonder, It's a wonder you get out of bed in the morning let alone run" his diagnosis of my niggles was:Patella tendinitis in the right knee, caused by weak muscles above the knee , vmo etcVerging on splin shints; left tibiaTight right glutes/hip , causing issues with itb and knee.Sounds worse than it is as I hadn't even realised about the potential shin splints until he started poking around just above my ankle. I can now see that it is a bit swollen in that area but it doesn't bother me when I run. The knee has been an issue for a while and I've been pretending it's not really there. Again it doesn't hurt when I run, only afterwards. I now have a heap of things to do to try and fix them and still keep running, although it looks like I'll be taking a little time off after my race in December.Lots of strenthening of VMO and stretching of right glutes and hip. Lots of icing and stretching for left calf. Hopefully they're not going to get any worse in the next week or so.
Running, not coughing
An easy recovery run for me today. I had a massage yesterday afternoon and so was feeling pretty good this morning. Out of the house at 6.15 and off down to the park for my 40 min route. Legs are a little fatigued from yesterday but no stiffness. Fortunately no coughing and wheezing like there was yesterday morning either so I think this lurgy is nearly totally gone. Definitely feeling more like I was before being ill now and running on consecutive days is helping too. Will be interval training tomorrow.Today, just a gentle trot around the park and back: 6kms, 38 mins, av pace 6.29/km, cals 460. I just love seeing all those cals I'm burning!
Bronte to North Sydney
After a very enjoyable and slightly boozy evening with the ETS we managed to get up at 6.30, rehydrate, have half a banana and head out towards North Sydney.
I thought I was in for a very hard day when I couldn't stop coughing for the first couple of kms but eventually my breathing started to feel better. I cut through the middle of Centennial Park and up to Oxford St where I bumped into Don Juan who was heading to the park to chase the young whippets from Sean's squad around the park.
I love running down Oxford St because it's a nice cruisy downhill and flat section and apart from dodging the nightclubbers it's an easy section (km split here was 5.10). Continued on through the city where I was stopped by a tourist wanting her photo taken. I felt like saying "Can't you see I'm running" and carrying on but decided that would not be very hospitable!
Then it was onto the Cahill and the long hill onto the bridge. At about 55 mins to this point I started to actually feel better at last, my chest seemed much clearer and I was feeling quite strong still; hopefully signs of my returning edurance.
The final section up the Pacific Highway was pretty tough but I plodded on and was relieved to find the lulumobile where I'd left it on Bay St. I've asked the ETS and her partner if they would consider moving closer to the bridge so I don't have to run up the hill in future! Actually they're buying a house in Mount Victoria so I don't think I'll be running up there to pick up the car!
All in all not a bad run and my pace was better than yesterday when I was supposed to be running fast! 12.71kms in 1 hr 21mins, 850 cals and an av pace of 6.25/km.
Km splits were: 6.55 (coughing a lot!), 6.04; 6.04; 6.09; 6.01; 6.22;5.10; 6.37; 5.51; 6.31; 6.46; 6.59; 6.11.
Hills and tiring at the end put paid to my roughly 6 min kms towards the end.
Thanks to some Google earth coaching from Minersrun I now have my runs showing up much more effectively and in a nice CR blue. Thanks Miners!
Back into it with a solid 55 mins
Still not feeling 1005% but managed a reasonable session this morning. The programme said 60 mins with 15 mins hard in the middle. I headed out at about 7.30 and headed down to the park.I did one loop of the inside of the park, trying to keep a reasonable pace for the "hard" section. However, still running pretty slowly with the three kms in the middle section around the 6m/km pace or slightly under. I was hoping to be able to do close to 5.30 but again didn't seem to have any stamina once I started speeding up. Took it pretty easy on the way back and ended up doing about 8.5km in 55 mins. On the positive side - feeling better than I did last weekend, but still not back to how I was running before I was ill. 2 hrs on the programme tomorrow but I'm going to do about 90 mins I think. It's been a few weeks since I did 2 hrs and considering my current lack of stamina I'll struggle with 2 hours I think. We're going out to the Evil Twin Sister's for dinner so I'll abandon the car and run to North Sydney to collect it in the morning. That will at least make for an interesting run!
The accidental yogi
No run today. Woke up feeling tired, which is not a good start to the day and decided to miss what is a recovery run day anyway. Tomorrow and Sunday are both going to be quite tough so an extra day's rest. Mr lulu didn't run either, achilles nearly better but he's not taking any chances. I went to the gym fully intending to do a pilates mat class only to find that the class was finishing when I arrived. Clearly I have lost the ability to read a timetable! The choices were either a GRC class or hatha yoga. I've done 3 GRC classes already this week and so I decided to give yoga a try. My previous experience with yoga wasn't really successful. I ended up with a bad back and lots of sore and stiff bits after two years with the Yoga Dictator that was the instructor. This class was not bad. I'm truly so stiff that it's almost laughable but this was a good easyish class and quite dynamic. The instructor said I could have some rest periods as well, something the YD would never allow. I do feel like my hips and legs have had a good stretch and workout so maybe I'll go to this class again. If only there were more hours in the day I could do everything!Next appointment Lindt cafe with the Jen, Owlie and Tesso with Don Juan hoping to make an appearance to visit the tarts; the chocolate ones!
I should have stayed in bed!
This morning was a SWEAT fartlek session. I was feeling a bit tired when I got up but dragged myself down to the park. I did a quick warm up and stretched and then we set off. I started off OK and running a reasonable pace but after a couple of kms just felt tired and tight in the chest.Sean was giving me some extra rest periods but it didn't really help and when we reached the start point again I called it quits while the others did the extra loop through the middle of the park. I'm hoping this is just the effects of the cold I had last week, which is still hanging around and nothing more than that. I'm disappointed that mentally I didn't have the strength to fight back this morning. Ended up feeling sorry for myself, and then annoyed at myself for giving up. I just don't seem to have any stamina to maintain any sort of pace at the moment, which is a bit of a worry.I've only got just over two weeks to go before my race and I was feeling really good two weeks ago so I just hope I can regain some semblance of what passes for speed for me before then. I've got 6 days consecutive running on the programme and I often feel better when I'm running everyday so I hope it does the trick this time. An easy 30 mins on the programme tomorrow.
I just don't know..
...
about this swimming stuff. One day you think it's all going swimmingly.. haha.. the next you're thrashing around with the elegance of a brick with arms. Today was a brick with arms day. I started off with some of my drills which were OK and then I thought I'd just do some swimming. CJ did warn me that if you get too used to your fins then it feels hard to swim without them and that was the case today. I was going to do my 15 min time trial again to see if I had improved but decided against it when I realised I was more likely to drown myself than anything else. After a few hundered metres though things improved and so I did another couple of hundred where things seemed a lot better. Practice is the key of course! Compared to running, swimming seems like a lot of hassle really. By the time you've got to the pool, done your swim, showered, done your hair and eveything, it seems like half the day has gone. My long hair and swimming definitely don't mix but any suggestion of cutting it shorter is usually met with very stern looks from Mr Lulu! Running is a lot easier if you ask me! Not helped today by getting up late, being disorganised and leaving my jacket at home and just feeling blah.. why can't I stay in bed all day..
600s and 300s
I had a rest day yesterday and went to Pilates. I hadn't been to Pilates for a week and my abs knew they'd been given a good workout after the session. Felt great!Sean has changed our SWEAT days to Tuesday and Thursdays. Not many people were turning up for his Monday sessions and so he has decided to just do 2 SWEATs a week. Tuesdays are going to be intervals and Thursdays will vary between hill reps and fartlek. Today was intervals and I just wanted to get my legs moving after a few easy runs, rather than flogging myself, as I'm still not 100%. The session was 4 x600s and then 4x300s. I did 3 x600s and 3x300s which was interesting! Sean's instructions were to try and do each one quicker than the last. Well I managed it for two and then lost the plot. More mental than physical although having gunk in you chest probably doesn't help.. Got it all moving though; probably more information than you wanted there!600s were 3.09, 3.02, and then 3.14 300s were at least consistent but a little slower than last time I did them. 1.33, 1.33, --1.33. Mr Lulu had to pull the pin after 3 as he has a niggle in his achilles and didn't want to make it any worse. (Edited to correct the times. Thanks to SF for pointing that out. Even I don't run 300m that slowly!
All in all not a bad session and at least I feel as if some of the cobwebs have been blown away. Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day so I'll probably swim.
Some days it's just hard work!
I think I was a bit over confident that I am fully recovered from the lurgy as it was hard work this morning. I did an outside loop of Centennial and Moore Parks and up Moore Park Road. However, there were lots of stops for drinks, some walking and a lot of feeling very tired after about 40 mins.
I was very relieved to be at the top of Macpherson St and have the nice downhill section to cruise home in. 10kms seemed a very long way this morning. Total was about 10.75kms in 1 hr 12 mins.
I'm supposed to do 45 mins tomorrow but I'll see how I feel before deciding.
Another easy one.
Feeling a little bit better every day and so decided to try a bit longer this morning so I headed down to Centennial and did my loop through the middle which is about a 40 min run. Very humid and I was wearing too many clothes this morning. I must say I don't like getting hot and sweaty with a blocked up nose, makes me feel like I've got a fever. Fortunatley, I got over that by the time I had been going for 20 mins or so though.
Running back through Queen's Park I saw a semi-naked, bare-foot runner come flying down the park towards me and as they got closer I realised it was Sean. He was absolutely flying along, dressed in nothing but a pair of shorts!!! He still had breath to say hello to me as I plodded past in the other direction.
Will try for 70-80 mins tomorrow at a very easy pace.
A tentative 25 mins
I had to run today as Postman Pat delivered two new shiny pairs of Loco Xpressos for Mr Lulu and I. After yesterday's heat and storms this morning was a fantastic bright sparkly Sydney morning. I was a bit late leaving and so stuck to the coast path away from the traffic. Felt OK for a couple of Kms and then realised that in my excitement to hit the road I had left without having anything to drink. That might account for the slight headache developing. Fortunately I had reached Clovelly beach and so stopped at the drinks fountain and had a very long cool drink. Legs felt Ok but the cold has hit my chest and so my breathing was struggling on the hills going up to the cemetary so I walked for a bit and then ran again.Then I ran down to Bronte and up the gully before walking the steps and the last hill home. In total I ran for 25 mins with probably an extra 5-10 mins walking at the end. It's a start anyway and I'll do something similar tomorrow although I'll stick to flat so I don't stress my breathing quite as much. Hopefully I'll be up for something a bit longer on Sunday.
The difference a day makes
Yesterday I was feeling so good after my hard run and then at about 11am my nose started running and I started sneezing and now I feel like someone has run over my head with a large truck :( I hate colds, why hasn't someone invented a cure yet.. I even tried half a bar of chococlate last night to no avail! Yuk, yuk, yuk.. Am retreating back to bed with drugs, good thing today was a rest day anyway and I hope I can at least do something tomorrow, although interval training is probably not wise.
Bush and Beach and lots of hills
While Mr Lulu headed off to the park to be tortured by Sean I went off to torture myself over some interesting hills. 
The route goes down to the park and through the middle and then heads around Queens Park and down to Tamarama before heading back to Bronte beach and then up the hill to home. The first 5km has a few hills but nothing too serious and the first tough one goes around the side of Queens Park and up to Charing Cross. This is the first time I've ever run all the way up this hill so that's something at least. There's very little flat sections from that point on as it is up a hill, down some steps, up another hill, down a hill, up some steps and so on. Needless to say the average pace was somewhat slow but I wasn't worried about that as long as I kept on going. The only way I'm going to get better at hills is do it. The steps going up from Bronte beach finished me off and I had to have a quick 'standing recovery' before tackling the final ascent back home. I certainly felt as though I had done a good solid workout by the time I lurched along the final section. Summary: Time: 1.11.23 , 10.61kms with an average pace of 6.43/km. I've been avoiding hills because it brings my average pace down which is silly really as I it would be good to improve my hill running, particularly as most races have at least one or two hills! I actually really enjoyed this run even though it was hard work; no one is more surprised than I am.
Weekend activities
Saturday : 25 mins easy, Striders 10km and bridge climb!
Mr Lulu had decided to do the Striders race at Lane Cove this morning and so we were up at 5.30 and left to pick up Don Juan and head to Lane Cove. It was a drizzly grey morning and extremely humid. We milled around waiting for the race to start and then when DJ and Mr L (or Wine Trail Runner to give him his proper CR name) went off to check out the course and warm up I went off for an easy 25 mins. I headed up the path on the other side of the river to the race and then up into the woods on a track. I turmed around when I started to feel a bit uneasy about running in the woods on my own and quite a way from where everyone else was. I didn't want to disappear never to be seem again!
I was back to the finish line in time to chat with Gnome and Superflake and watch the finish of the race. The winner seemed a long way ahead of the rest of the pack. DJ came in at 39.14 and had lost WTR who came in at 42.41. Not bad for his first 10km since being injured and being on the come back trail. It was great catching up with so many CRs out at the race and to meet Silverfox in person.
Back home a quick brekkie and then back to the City to meet my sister in law and her husband to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A great experience and it's amazing to be up above Sydney; great views and quite an experience, especially for me as I don't like heights very much and so it was a good way to challenge myself. An extremely well-run organisation too.
After all that I had to have a nana nap in the afternoon to keep me going for the family dinner in the evening.
Sunday short long run
Met up with Jen-runs for our long run this morning. I set Garth to pace us at 6.15/km to stop us charging around like last week. My pacing is truly terrible though as we went from 5.46/km to 6.30 per km back to 5.47 per km and then finally 6.14 per km. Unfortunately poor Jen had to call it quits as her %$#$% itb started to cause knee pain. We headed back to the car and then went for a coffee to try and work out her options on whether to try and do the half in 4 weeks time. I really empathise with Jen as I have been through so many injuiries before being able to train consistently for over a year now, and that's only just, as I've been managing a few niggles the whole time. Hopefully she was a bit more positive after our coffee and chat!
I'm planning on doing a longer run tomorrow now which fits in with my programme as I can then have a rest day on Tuesday. I'm going to tackle some hills in my long run; this will test out whether my hip is better and also I need to do more hills generally.
Flying Fartleks
Mr Lulu has decided to do the striders 10km race tomorrow and so had an easy run this morning but I went down to the park for the Friday fartlek session.I did a quick lap of the oval to see if the hip was going to complain and it all seemed good and so we headed off. I trotted along chatting to the others for the warm up and then we were off.. Now according to Garth the first three kms were 6.36, 4.57, 4.44 and an average over the whole morning of 5.51/km. Woohhoo! I think. I just can't believe that I would do 2 kms under 5 mins, but Garth doesn't normally lie and I did think that I wasn't as far behind the main group as normal plus I had to do a couple of loop backs to pick up one or two other runners. Could it be true?? Well I'm going to celebrate anyway :)I felt a few twinges from the hip during the session but now it feels fine.. just going to do a short run and swim tomorrow before the planned run with Jen on Sunday and we're going to programme Garth for a nice steady run rather than galloping around the park like we did last week:)
Swimming with chocolate tart....
...in my tummy.. yum :)I had late night out on the town last night with the evil twin sister and so getting up at the crack of down to go the pool wasn't on the cards. After lunch I met up with the CR gals Owl and Jen_runs, and Don Juan, for a perfect pick-me-up at the Lindt cafe. So much lovely chocolate to choose from we were all at a loss. In the end 4 chocolate tarts were ordered.. oh my goodness... a rich dark chocolate filling with a crispy dark chocolate top...oh er.. straight to the thighs.. I headed to the gym feeling suitably revitalised by the chocolate and conversation and hit the pool. I did a few warm up laps and then did about 800m of drills. I went and sat in the steam room for a while afterwards and felt heaps better for the combined chocolate, swim, steam therapy.I did some glute strenthening and stretching and I'm going to give Friday Fartlek a go in the morning and see what happens.. hopefully the hip will be OK now I know how to look after it.For CJ and Tesso the glute strengthening exercises as prescribed by Gerry the physio are:1) Stand on on leg with the other leg raised to hip height, bent at the knee.. like high knees in running. Tighten glute and abs and hold this position for as long as possible - up to 5 mins. Repeat on other side. You'll quickly see which is the weaker glute by doing this.2) Same but with the bent knee against an exercise ball which you then roll up and down against a wall.. sort of simulates running action with the other leg. As many repeats as you can manage.3) Stand on step and with one leg hanging over the step do small dips with the other leg. Make sure the knee goes directly over the toes. Also strengthens the VMO I believe. Repeat on other side etc.Hope they make sense..enjoy :)
A sort of rest day!
Well I made 8 days in a row of running before needing a rest! That is well and truly a record for me as previously I have only ever done 3 in a row. Fortunately looking at my programme for the next few weeks that particular pattern doesn't appear again.. mainly 4 and 6 days. My hip is a lot better today after copious amounts of rolling pin and tennis ball action.. But taking the advice of the wise bloggers I am having a couple of days off to make sure it has recovered. Definitely a case of the tight glutes again I think. My self diagnosis is that the right side is a bit weaker and it gets fatigued and tightens up causing the pain in the hip. I must be a bit more devoted to the glute strengthening exercises.So this morning Mr Lulu went to SWEAT and did 10 x400m reps, chasing Don Juan around the track, and I stayed at home, had a nice cup of tea, did some stretching and strengthening and made an early start on work. Lunchtime exercise: Advanced Pilates Reformer class. Quite tough today and my weak right side glutes showed themselves in one particular exercise. That's all for today but tomorrow I'll swim and then hopefully I'll be able to SWEAT on Friday.Mr Lulu has been screen tested to appear in the latest New Balance advertisment. He was talent spotted when he was out for his run on the coast path on Sunday and was called back today for another screen test. It was quite funny last night when we were trying to decide which pair of runnign shorts and singlet he should wear. I recommended the New Balance singlet as being politically correct! Apparently they made him run around the tennis courts and then interviewed him, asking him about why he runs, when has it been really tough and has he ever felt like giving up...now he awaits the phone call to see if he's made the cut.. apparently the competition was pretty tough...
Easy 30
I had trouble getting out of bed this morning but eventually managed to get up at 6.30. I intended to 30 mins run and then a swim but ran out of time for the swim so will have to try and go later this afternoon.
I headed down to Centennial and did a lap of the insiderunning track. I was feeling pretty good except for a sore hip. This seems to be the same as the sore hip I had a few months ago. I'm trying to work out what's causing it and I think it's tight glutes. The tennis ball on the glutes seems to have loosened them up and it feels better but I think a trip to the physio might be in order.. just afraid he'll say I have to take a break, although he's normally pretty good at keeping you on the road while he fixes things. Considering I've done 8 days running in a row this is a minor issue and it fixed itself after a couple of days of stretching last time. I'll see how the hip is in the morning before deciding whether or not to do intervals. The good thing is that it doesn't hurt while I'm running only afterwards so I'm sure I'm not doing it any harm ;)
