Running: good one day, *%^&$ the next!
As I'm in Queensland I thought I'd adapt their little tagline to suit my purposes.After another not so great night’s sleep I got up to find a slightly stiff right achilles and left itb. A sensible person would probably have decided to give today’s run a miss but who said I was sensible. I had arranged to meet one of the guys I do some work with for a run so thought I had better turn up. When I went down to the lobby he was there saying he had a sore knee and being more sensible than me, was not going to run.
I headed out down to the river and started out. Nothing felt very good, my right knee started to niggle, but settled down. The run went a bit like this: run a bit.. oh that feels a bit strange, stop and stretch, get going again, god this is hard work today…now my achilles is aching, stop and stretch, get going again, maybe I should turn around and go back now, no I’ll go a bit further, stop and stretch the itb, make it to the Story Bridge, turn around, now the left knee is hurting, stop and walk for a while, god this is taking too long, start running again, everything feels OK, run for a bit, walk for a bit, make it back to the city, walk back to the hotel.. my poor old dodgy right knee is not feeling so hot now….bugger.
With all the stuffing about I was out for about 1hr to do about 38 mins running. Not sure what to make of all the niggles, except I pushed my luck doing two runs on harder surfaces plus yesterday’s hills. I’ll be back to Easy Tiger fairly soon. Hope I haven’t set myself back too much.
The day’s highlight was meeting Clairie and Tesso for coffee and lots of running chat. As ever, lovely to catch up with them and share injury woes with Tesso and hear all about Clairie’s Canberra plans. Can’t wait to cheer her on to a glorious triumph! I hope we can cheer Tesso on too; I’ve got everything crossed for all of you who are battling stooopid injuiries.
Back to the beaches
I had a bad night's sleep and so it was 8am by the time I headed out the door, luxury! Working for yourself definitely has advantages.I decided for a change of scene to do my two beaches run which is down to Clovelly and then back to Bronte. I was hoping I wasn't pushing my luck running a few hills and a hard surface but it doesn't seem to have done me any harm. A slight twinge in the right achilles which went when I stopped and stretched; a little bit of stiffness above the left knee is the result. I had a msasage with Easy Tiger again yesterday so it seems to have done the trick again *waves* thanks Tiger; only a few paw prints on the left quad and left calf to show for it!When I got to Bronte beach I took the easier option of running up the gully and then walking up the stairs and the top of Bronte hill before running again up to Lugar Street, and then back around Evans for an extra .5km. In total 5.5km in 32 mins. A bit shorter than on the programme but I'll do a longer flat run tomorrow when I'm in Brisvegas.Food
B: Banana PS
L: Protein bar and apple on plane
AT: Banana cake oops, only a tiny piece
D: Conference dinner, ceasar salad, roast chicken and veg, couple of glasses of wine a spoonful of strawberry souffle.As you can see, not a great day on the food front. Where is my stoopid discipline when I need it?
Misty Tuesday
My programme for today was to 30 mins with the second 15 mins at 15km race pace. I had no idea what 15km race pace should but according to Mcmillan running calculator it is 6.07/km. Seems reasonable I thought so I headed down to my regular haunt of Queen's Park. It was a bit spooky this morning as it was very misty down in the park and I couldn't see more than 20 metres ahead or me at times. It was lovely and cool though. I'm enjoying running on these nice cool mornings.I did 15 mins at an easy pace and then set Garth to pace me for 15 mins at 6.07 pace. We set off around the oval at the top of Queen's park doing about 3 1/2 laps of the area. It's not totally flat so it was good practice to keep the pace up even on the incline up section and then recover a bit on the way back. Garth kept telling me I was ahead and the first km went by in 6.02, a bit quick so I eased back a little bit. At the end of the workout I had done 15 mins at 6.08 so pretty good pacing. I enjoyed this workout as I felt like I was working reasonably hard but not flogging myself. A slight niggle in the right achilles that went away again and a slight twinge in the bad knee but that went away again too. It's all good :)Food:B:Vanilla berry PS
MT: Protien barL: Black forest PSAt: Sculpt barPost pilates snack: 1 corn cake with cottage cheese and a plumDinner: 2 lamb cutlets, roast pumpkin, zucchini and a glass of semillon, yoghurt.
Mondayitis
I was going to run today but woke feeling tired and decided a rest day from running is fine today. I'll do Pilates later.Next thing I know the phone is ringing and Mr lulu is telling me that he and the lulumobile have been hit by a truck going the wrong way up the one way lane at the back of our apartments... fortunately it was a soft impact crash and although the car looks like it might be a write-off Mr lulu emerged unscathed.Monday weigh inNo good news here eitherWeight lost + .3kg (total lost 2kgs)I'm not too worried about this as it's just fluid but it's a bit frustrating... time to focus again now though.Have a good week all!Food:B: Tropical PS
MT: bounce protein ballL: Jaffa PS
AT: AlmondsD: chargrilled Ocean Trout with roast kumera, beans and snowpeasI did sneak in a cup of coffee earlier as well: I needed the extra energy in order to give my client the normal level of service:) Plus it gave me the energy to do Pilates.
Rain and pain free day!
Whilst Mr lulu headed off to the domain to do the BRW triatholon (that's not a a triathlon as they've cancelled the swim leg), I pottered down to the park to meet Ellie for our Sunday morning 40 mins. No rain and no pain today. We did one lap of the inside and then a half lap cutting back through the middle to the cafe where we started. We were joined momentarily by Easy Tiger who was about to start running with the SWEAT squad. Nice of my massage therapist to make on the spot checks :)I felt quite sprightly today and we motored around the park at a nice cruisy pace doing just under 6.5kms in 42 mins. Very pleasant and I felt like I could have gone a lot longer at that pace. Soon I'll be able to extend my long runs to actually be long runs I hope. The achilles were a little bit sore when I stopped but are fine now after a bath, some ice and a massage, by me.. and I'm a lot less brutal than the Tiger.Yesterday I did nothing, which was actually very nice.. well nothing exercise wise. We did our Italian classes and then various other chores before meeting a friend for dinner who was up from Melbourne. Food wise I was pretty good although I did have a bite or two of Mr lulu's banana bread during Italian! That and a 2 glasses of Riesling with dinner was my only indulgence. 2 glasses made me feel quite tipsy..lol. I've lost my drinking ability!Sunday Food:B: Vanilla orange PS
MT: 3 corn cakes, cottage cheese and an apple.L: one piece of bread and ocean trout carppaccio, lamb pieces, rocket salad and roasted eggplant and tomato. 2 glasses of Riesling and a flat white. Lovely lunch at North Bondi ItalianAT: Bounce protein ball
Pain in the rain
When the alarm went off at 5.15 I turned over and listened to the rain hammering on our old tin roof! Ummm maybe I'll just forget about trying to squeeze in my 30 mins this morning. Mr lulu had other plans and finally prodded me verbally and I arose from under my cosy doona. Out into the dark and wet morning I dodged puddles and garbage bins (Friday is bin day) and plodded up the road. I had absolutely no problems running slowly this morning... nothing seemed to be working very well! I felt terrible and then my achilles started aching, first one then the other and so when I got to the top of Carrington and Bronte Road I could either carry on or turn for home.. this is only 8 mins into my run at this stage and now the rain started to absolutely hammer down... I argued with myself for a few mins and then started to head for home, thinking 20 mins is better than nothing! By the time I got home though I started to feel a lot better and so I did a couple of loops around Evans Street and managed 25 mins.A quick shower, brekkie and on the bus for the City for an hour of pain with Easy Tiger. Attention was paid to the calves again and he felt that the 100m strides had caused them to tighten up a bit. I was pleased when he said I should do then again next week though as it's good to start conditioning them for a bit of speed work, bit by bit. Better to do that than think they're OK, do an interval session and then really upset them! Sounds like a sensible plan to me!45 mins on one calf was a bit much though.. I can still feel his paw prints on my right calf and foot now. Very pleased to have a rest day tomorrow!Now onto food: I have to confess I have slipped a little in the last couple of days... not off the wagon but definitely lurched to one side. I had a coffee today and it was lovely! Not much I realise but I did have a few of Mr lulu's chips last night and I know from experience it's easy how all these little things can add up. I did manage to resist the food at CR drinks last night at least! Oh and I didn't actually drink anything but water either so it's not all bad. Anyway back on the programme today, despite the coffee, and having a lunch to attend.Food:B: Tropical PSMT: Sculpt barL: Linguine with pesto, and a coffeeAT: YoghurtD:choc mint PS
Almost a return to SWEAT
I went down to Centennial Park with Mr lulu this morning as he went to tackle Big Bertha with the SWEAT crew. I headed off for a lap of the inside of the park. I decided to try out my knee on a harder surface and so ran on the path rather than the grass. Result: good, no knee pain so I will gradually increase the amount of running I do on harder surfaces over the next few weeks.Then the next part of the experiment was to try out some 100m strides and see what happened. Result: good no niggles and it all felt fine.The only niggle I felt was a twinge which seemed to swap from achilles to achilles.I managed to have a quick chat with Sean about my stride length as well. His verdict was to give it a try, pick up the cadence and then as I get stronger to increase the stride length again. He said it would definitely help with less injuires particularly the knee and achilles as it puts less pressure on. So I'll stick to trying to do quicker, shorter strides for the time being.Now my next question is about pace of my runs. Having a look at the Macmillan pace guide, based on my 5km time from the end of last year my easy runs should be done at between 6.55 and 7.14 pace and long runs at 6.55-7.32 pace. I tried today to run at a slower pace but I'm so used to pushing myself all the time I found it quite hard. My run today was at 6.22 before I did the strides. Should I try to do the long and easy runs a bit slower or should I not worry about it for someone at my level?Food:B: Jaffa PS
MT: Cottage cheese and appleL: Jaffa, another job lot!AT: Sculpt barPre-CR drinks snack; Protein ball, a strategy to stop me eating the stuff at the pub which workedDinner: Roast chicken with couscous and salad, and a few of Mr lulu's chips.. naughty but nice!
Pool sprinting
I walked up to the pool for a session with Aqua Satan this morning. My legs felt a bit tired.. yay, I must have actually worked them quite hard yesterday. They were all right once I warmed up walking up the hills to the pool.Pool session was stretch, strengthen, and then running:5 mins warm upBuild up/down intervalsintervals interspersed with jumps and arm exercises2 mins sprint 15 secs, 15 easy Total of 20 mins running which was hard work.More stretching and then back down the hills to home.PM: Pilates GRC classFood:B: Tropical banana smoothieMT: Sculpt barL: As breakfast, as I made a job lot!AT: Bounce Protein ballD:Japanese with the Evil Twin Sister; a few different entrees, very modest and neither of us drank; what's the world coming too! There was lots of discussion about the wedding though and looking at bridal mags for ideas for her wedding dress.
Soggy Tuesday
It was tempting to stay in bed when I woke up and it was dark and raining. But no I hopped out and headed out into the damp Sydney morning. Actually it was quite refreshing and only a light rain. 35 mins on the programme this morning and my legs were feeling fresh despite the battering they received yesterday from Easy Tiger.Today I decided to concentrate on cadence. I have a very long stride and slow cadence and in some discussions and reading I've done this could be part of the issue with my string of injuries as I over stride and land ahead of my body and my cadence is very slow. So today I concentrated on smaller but quicker strides. Consequently I zipped up the road to Queen's Park and did the first km in 5.45 which considering it's mostly uphill is pretty speedy for me; no wonder I was out of breath by the time I hit the park.I did one lap of the whole park, a lap of the oval and then headed back down the road and finished with a lap of Evans street and then home. In total 35 mins 5.75km at an average pace of 6.06/km which is fast by my standards. I was probably working a bit outside my easy run pace there but it didn't feel too bad. The quicker shorter strides made me feel much lighter on my feet so I'll continue focussing on this for a while. Any comments from you experienced runners on whether this is a good plan or not ?Niggles: Slight grumble in the left itb. this is a weird one; it's not the dodgy knee, the VMO is quite strong on this leg and according to Easy Tiger, it's not particularly tight. Will have to keep a close eye on it though.Food:B:Black forest PSMT:Bounce protein ball
L: Jaffa PS
AT: 4 oatcakes, cott. cheese and a yummy nashi pear
D: Chicken maryland with sage and proscuitto, with roasted parsnip and pumpkin, a yoghurt.
Monday's moment of truth
No running today; itb was a tiny bit tight this morning so I thought rather than aggravate it I'd postpone until tomorrow after I'd seen Easy Tiger today. He's pretty happy with the progress. He was concerned that with running more I'd be undoing all his good work in between but I'm still improving each time he sees me which is good news. It still hurts though and he decided to go for a record number of bruises today :)Apart from that it was the monday weigh in:Weight lost this week 1.2kgs (total 2.3kgs); this is good news although I suspect some is fluid rather than fat as the other measures haven't changed. Still I'll take it! I'm finding it easy to keep to my progamme at the moment and am not feeling hungry in between meals which is good. I've even stopped craving wine and chocolate... still dying for a decent coffee but I'll think I'll wait until I'm cheering at Canberra in three weeks and have celebratory coffee and some chocolate with CJ.To answer some questions some of you have asked recently:Q: What is a Bounce protein ball A: a tasty snack, in the shape of a ball made of nuts and things. No sugar but a good energy hit and very tasty. Jen_runs sampled one when we were at 6ft and was quite impressed. I buy mine in the health food shop.Q: What's the VMO? A: It's not what DJ said, but is the vastus medialis obliquus muscle. I need stronger ones as they are the cause of my knee problems. It stabilises the knee cap and helps it track properly. Weak VMOs can also be a cause of itb and or adductor issues as they are doing more stablising to compensate. That's why I'm doing all my VMO strengthening exercises and I do believe they are beginning to come alive!
Food:B: Banana smoothieMT: Sculpt bar and some almondsL: Banana smoothieAT: Walnut and Almond barD: Blue eye cod, bok choy and rice.
Pilates and VMO envy
No running today but I headed off the gym for a GRC class. This was taken by a guy I haven't seen before but he had some very nice clearly defined VMOs. I want some a bit like that.. not exactly like that as I don't think they'd look that good on me, but better than the no VMO I have now! I'll have to go back to Spin as soon as I think the itb's are behaving themselves!A great GRC class and I felt really strong. I really noticed the weight I'd lost when I was doing the push-ups and supporting myself through my upper body which was good. Food:I stuck to the plan last night and had a good light meal with a couple of glasses of wine.B: Vanilla blueberry PS
MT: new strawberry protein bar; interesting!L: Black Forest PS
AT: apple and 2 corn cakes with a thin coating of French Brie.D: Prawns with fennel and roasted eggplant and a glass of Riesling :)Weigh in tomorrow.. and another run :)
Running with company.
I had 35 minutes on my programme this morning and for a change of seen I drove down to Centennial Park. There I had arranged to meet fellow blogger Ellie who lives near the park. How nice to have company, especially when they are as lovely as Ellie. We set off for one lap of the inside of the park which we did at a comfortable pace, and no Ellie, I wouldn't have gone much faster on my own.That was only 23.5 mins of our run so I decided to induct Ellie into the Big Bertha cult. I also wanted to try out how my niggles would stand up to a couple of hills. How I ever did 10 laps of Big Bertha I don't know, as 2 were quite enough for today. Ellie did extremely well on Big Bertha and I was reminded how truly appalling I am at running up hills! This will have to be my mission for this year. A quick loop of the park opposite Big Bertha and we were back to our starting point. My other mission is to drag Ellie along to SWEAT when I go back.. beware Ellie.This week I have done about 18km I think which is the most I've done for a while and the niggles seem to not mind! Next week the programme introduces some speed in the shape of 100m strides plus a 40 min run. I'm slowly getting there.Food:B: Jaffa PSMT: Bounce protein ball and a decaf skinny flat white, plus a few tiny tastes of cheese in the Simon Johnson cheese room where Mr lulu went mad. Sadly I won't be joining him in his fig and gorgonzola lunch tomorrow!L: Tropical fruit protein shakeAT: Walnut and orange barD: We're going out but I have my plan which is to stick to what we did last week when we went out which seemed to work. Just a light main course and a glass or two or wine.
Moonlit Queen's Park
Even though I waited for it to start getting light this morning there was a massive full moon hanging in the sky over Queen's Park.It took me a while to warm up this morning, probably not until I'd been going about 23 mins and my run was only 25, plus a bit extra to get to 4km. So another short one done.Niggle status: both achilles twinged around Queen's Park but I stopped and stretched and that helped. Everything else was fine. I'm confident that a few more panel beating sessions with Easy Tiger should see my achilles getting better and better.Tomorrow I'll do my fourth run of the week. It's been a while since I did 4 runs so it will be interesting to see how I feel; and it's 35 mins too. You never know I might be a runner again soon.Edit: PM went to a Pilates GRC class.Food: B: Trop fruit/orange shakeMT: Thermojetics bar. Interesting, made me feel hot, must have been the caffeine in it.L: Jaffa shakeAT: plum and some nuts, then some more nuts after pilates.. probably a few too many there!D: Veal Saltimbocca with pureed cauli and steamed beans, a sip of Mr lulu's Cab Sav which, for the benefit of DJ, was a 1998 from Red Hill . V. nice.
Easy pool session
I
was intending to go the gym this morning but fell at the first hurdle...getting out of bed. Never mind I went to see Aqua Satan this afternoon and he was keen to make me work hard. I'm feeling a bit tired today so took it relatively easy despite AS being in the pool and running along with me at the start.A fairly standard session of stretching and strengthening and then some intervals. About an hour in total. A few grumbles from the left itb but nothing serious. I'll be working on it later so I can be sure I can run again in the morning.Food:B: Tropical and 1/2 banana protein shakeMT: apple, 2 corn cakes and cottage cheese.L: Banana (other half) protein shakeAT: Sculpt bar, + some nuts after pool sessionD: Fish and veggies
Happy 30 mins
Up and on the road by 6.30 this morning. I would have gone earlier if it was light. Mr lulu was up and doing his 1hr run at 5.30 but I'm reluctant to go in the Park in the dark unless I really have to.
Did my 30 mins just cruising around that lovely Queen's Park, up the hill and then a loop up Evans St to make it to 30 mins. I pushed the last 5 mins a bit to see how I felt and was running 5.15/km pace which is not bad. Couldn't have kept it up for long though!
Niggle status: I might be helping Easy Tiger buy a porsche, pay off his mortgage and have a holiday in Hawaii but I don't care; he's a miracle worker and I ran niggle free. Maybe I should cut out the middle man and just pay his mortgage myself :) Yesterday's session included a lot of work on the adductors; now that hurt and I've got the bruises to prove it. Food:B: Vanilla and blood orange PSMT: almond bar and a few almondsL: Jaffa PS
AT: Cranberry and yog Sculpt bar ( not as nice as the choc apricot)D: Pasta with tom sauce and lamb sausage with rocket salad, yoghurt.
More Queen's Park
I'm getting quite bored of doing laps of Queen's Park but until I'm running at least 40 mins I can't make it to Centennial Park and back and I'm reluctant to run on hard surfaces, so Queen's Park it is. The programme said 25 mins today so that's what I did, plus an extra couple of hundred metres to make it up to 4km. I threw in the hill alongside the park as well for a bit of variety.Niggles: Left achilles, no problem, right achilles a bit stiff, right knee grumbled at the start again but then got over it. Only issue now is the left itb. Seems I fix one thing and it pops up somewhere else. I'm seeing Easy Tiger again this afternoon so I'm sure they'll be some elbow in the itb action..ouch!Food:B: Tropical protein shakeMT: apple, cottage cheese and 2 corn cakesL: Tropical protein shake
AT: Choc apricot Sculpt bar
D: Grilled fish with roast tom and avocado salad, a low fat yoghurt
Monday weigh in and the week's plan
A rest day for me today although I'll go to Pilates at some stage during the day.Week 2 Weigh-inWeight lost .5kg (1.1 total) Yay!Body fat has also gone down another 2% and muscle up 1% so steady progress is being made.Week 3 plan: It's a busy week work wise but at least I'm not travelling anywhere so hopefully I'll be able to fit all this in.Mon: pilatesTues: run 25 mins and massageWeds: run 30 mins and pilatesThurs: Gym and aqua satanFri: Run 25 mins + pilatesSat: Run 35 minsSun: Cardio in gym and pilatesFood:B:Black forest protein shakeMT: choc crunch protein barL:Black forest protein shakeAT:choc apricot sculpt bar
D:Roast chicken breast with sweet pot, corn and beans
6 foot track et al
Weekend update
Friday night I drove up to the Evil Twin Sister's house in the Blue Mountains for the night. She wasn't there when I got there so a night of drinking was averted :) She did poke her head round my door when she arrived after midnight but I shooed her away and managed to get up and out the door at 6.30am and make my way to the start of the 6ft track.
I met up with Jen_runs, Owl and Go Girl at the start and we chatted to runners and absorbed the atmosphere. The first and second waves were sent off in a blaze of glory for about 100 ms before they all ground to a halt as they started the climb down the stairs. After the third wave had left we headed off for cheersquad refueling at a cafe in Blackheath and then wound our way down to the finish. At least I can say I've been on the track now as we had to park up in the top carpark and walk down to the finish.
Here we found the rest of the cheersquad; Kit, Deanne and Kerrie, and awaited the first runner. Who would it be? We didn't have to wait long before he came charging down the steps and through the finish line; it was Kasper Solberger from Switzerland; that stunned everyone as no-one had ever heard of him. It was a great run though at 3.27, although outside the race record but well infront of Dan Green and Jo Blake who were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Then it was the amazing Emma Murray. She looked like she had just been for a quick jog rather than running 45kms.. truly incredible.
At about 4.12 we looked up and saw a CR cap and there before us was Don Juan, the Cheersquad went wild with excitement at one of our bloggers coming home in such a great time of 4.13! He was swamped with screaming women; hopefully made his effort worth while :) It was a great performance and well deserved after all the training and hard effort following Sean Williams gruelling, but obviously effective, programme. Next in the SWEAT morning squad to arrive was Royworlds who also got a rapturous reception from the Cheersquad; and so it continued. We gave a big cheer for Amjan as she came home looking very comfortable and pleased with her run.. go Amjan! My reporting is highly biased I'm afraid to bloggers and SWEATers!
It was starting to get very warm down at Caves House and I wouldn't have wanted to be out on the track (acutally I wouldn't have wanted to be on the track if it was cool either). We were awaiting the arrival of the valiant 2P who had started despite an itb injury having flared up. We weren''t too worried as we knew he was planning 5.45 or thereabouts and DJ had said he had seen him and he was going OK. Fortunately at around the 6 hour mark he appeared on the stairs to much Cheersquad excitement and he was home safely.
One the final runners had arrived I climbed back up the track to the car park and picked up DJ, Bandanna and the Owl for an entertaining drive from the Caves to Sydney, where I collapsed on the sofa and demanded food!
Thanks to the company of all the cheerers and friends down at the finish; I thoroughly enjoyed.. did it make me want to do it; not on your life but I challenge Kit, she'll do it for me :)
Sunday
After all the excitment of yesterday I taoed my knee and headed out for my paltry 30mins! I headed to my usual Queen's Park location. Mr lulu caught up with me and ran for a few minutes with me before heading to the park and picking up a group of women to run with.. the SWEAT girls were apparently in very good form and looking very strong.
Whilst the girls were doing their amazing 35 kms I was doing my tiny 30 mins but at least I managed it this time. A few loops of the oval in Queen's Park and then I walked home.
Niggle update: knee grumbled when I first set off but was fine once I was on the grass. Left achilles very good (thanks Easy Tiger), now we just have to fix the right one:)
Food update:
Saturday
B:Tropical protein shake
MT:Banana bread, 1 rice cake
L:Tropical protein shakeAT:choc apricot sculpt bar
D:Small portion of Mr lulu's delicious prawn and dill risotto.
Sun.
B: Banana smoothie
MT:Bounce protein ball
L: Balckforest protein smoothie
AT:Almond bar
D: Rainbow trout with rocket salad, 2 glasses of red wine plus a taste of Mr lulu's entree.
Back in the pool and an experiment!
ThursdayI had a session with Aqua Satan in the afternoon. He was pleased to hear that I had done two runs back to back with no problems. I did the usual stretching, strengthening and run warm up before doing some intervals. Build intervals8 x 15 secs medium, 15 secs sprint4 x 30 secs easy, 30 secs hard and a plyometric jumpArm exercisesStretchQuite a tough session; sprinting in water is hard work!AS suggested that I try a run on Friday with no tape on my knee.. the experiment of the title.. mor of this later.Food: I was hungry today and so had a few extra nibblesB: Banana smoothieMT: almond barL: Vanilla protein shakeAT: Peach and some almondsPre-dinner: two oat cakes with pesto dipD: 2 lamb cutlets with roasted sweet pot and zucchini. I was very tempted to have a glass of wine this evening but managed to resist and just have one sip of Mr lulu's!FridaySadly, the experiment wasn't very successful. I made it to 1.5 km but my knee started hurting almost immediately. Not severe but I stopped and walked the rest of the route as I don't want to undo the work I've done. Bit disappointing but I'm hoping that it is simply that my knee needs the tape to help stablise the knee cap and nothing more than that. I'll run again on Sunday with the tape on. I will be heading up to the Blue Mountains this evening in order to joing the CR cheersquad on the 6ft track tomorrow. Good luck to everyone who's running!Edit: PM pilates class before a quick dinner with Mr lulu and then heading for the hills!Food:B: Tropical Fruit protein shakeMT: almond bar
L: Chocolate protein shakeAT:Sculpt barD: 6 peices of sushi and 1 tempura prawn, 1 tempura scallop
The Wagga wanderer
I survived my first trip to Wagga and quite enjoyed it; seems like a nice place. It was a lovely morning for a run, so cool and dry I hardly broke into a sweat! Must have been slacking off or something.
I was a bit late getting out as I stayed up late watching Pirates of the Carribean; I love that film. It must be something to do with Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp! They made up for the absence of Mr lulu. About 7am I headed out from the hotel with no idea where I was going which is why the map below is all over the place. I finally stumbled across the river and there is a great running track along the side of the river. Next time I go I'll know where to go. Google must be using an old picture because the fields look very brown and dry at the moment not green as they look here.
Felt pretty good and the niggles are definately improving. I had a strange sensation in the right knee but after stopping and stretching it was fine. The programme for today was 20 mins 2 walking, and 10 running. Covered just over 5km so that's 10km in two days which is the most I've done for ages; Yay!
I've been doing my strenthening exercises and Go Girl has shown me the 3 phase VMO ones so I've been doing that too. I will try and remember to blog them.
Food has been going well despite being on the road which is always a dangerous time when I'm more likely to fall off the wagon.
Food:
B: Vanilla protein shake
MT missed as I was on the plant ( I could have attacked a piece of meat I suppose!)
L: As breakfast
T: choc and apricot bar (and soy crisps on plane 150 cals)
D: Poached OT (yes it's still going) and avo toasted sandwich, yog and peach
In the park, in the dark
I managed to get up early this morning and get organised to be out the door just before 6. It was just beginning to get light so I headed down to Queen's Park to do a few laps of the oval. once down on the oval it was still quite dark and a little bit spooky but there were a few other runners around at least. By the time I'd done a couple of laps I could see where I was going at least!My programme had me doing 15 mins, 2 mins walk, 15 mins run which is what I did with a little bit extra at the end to get me to 5 km. The massage I had yesterday has definitely helped as I ran with not a twinge out of the knee and just a slight twinge in my achilles when I got back home.. yippee! The test will be if I can run two days in a row. I'm off to Wagga this evening ( more meatworks!) and so I'll be running around the streets of Wagga in the morning. I've never been to Wagga so I'll be interested to have a look around. As I'll be stuck in the office most of tomorrow my run will be the only chance I get to have a look around.Did 3 phase VMO strenthening whilst watching TVEdited to add food:B: Black forest shakeMT: cherry and coconut protein barL: Black forest shakeAT: Choc and Apricot barD: Chicken salad
Monday rest day
It wasn't supposed to be a rest day but it is now as I woke up later than I planned and decided to leave my run until tomorrow. I will go to Pilates later on this afternoon though.I have been for a massage with Easy Tiger this morning which was very interesting and he found lots of issues to work on; my left achilles is feeling a lot better now though so I'll be interested to see how tomorrow's run goes. I've made another appointment for later in the week though as he only did half of what he wanted to do due to number of potential problems he encountered, but he said all runners are like that. I'll be interested to see how Mr lulu fared as he was in after me. I can highly recommend him to everyone though. He is a lovely guy and really knows what he is doing and you can pass the time discussing running with him too!The dreaded weigh inWeight loss .6kg (total .6kg) Not staggering but it's in the right direction. Body fat has gone down .8% and muscle up 1.2% so it's all good. Just have to stick to the plan to see if I can continue the downward trend. Hopefully as I step back up my running it will become easier and I can increase my food intake a little.PM: Pilates GRC class completed.Food:B: Banana protein shake and a decaf skinny flat white ( not really a coffee at all, so not breaking the rules, just stretching them a little!)MT: 3 corn cakes with cottage cheeseL: Black forest protein shakeAT: Bounce protein ball
D: Left over poached ocean trout, about 1/2 potato (roasted) and some green beans
Back for some deep water running
The water was really lovely down at Clovelly this morning; calm and very clear and a very nice temperature. I donned the floatie and set off. I did 10 mins warm up, then 12 reps of 1.30 hard 30 secs recovery, followed by 5-6 mins getting back to the steps. Quick change and then walked back up the hill to home to finish off the lunch preparation for the runners lunch Mr lulu and I were hosting today. We were joined by Go Girl, The Owl, Jen-runs, Don Juan, Wildthing and Mr Wildthing, Kit and Ray and Mr lulu's mothers as the ring-in!Very enjoyable time was had by all with a taste off being held between my raspberry cheesecake and Mr lulu's pear and almond cake.. not sure what the final score was but there's not much of either of them left!Despite the temptations of all this food I have been pretty good. I asked permission of the Don to have a glass of red wine but that was really my only indulgence; plus a insy, tinsy, tiny sliver of cheesecake when no-one was looking!Food:B: Black forest protein shake: chocolate with raspberry/cranberry juiceMT; Almond slice ( no sugar, no wheat)L: Poached ocean trout, rice salad and green salad. 1 glass red wineD: Protein shake ( haven't decided what flavour yet)That's all for now. It will be weigh in day in the morning so fingers crossed the hard work is paying off!
Centennial Park today
A lovely cool morning for a run again this morning; I didn't have to worry about getting up a bit later. I headed down through Queen's Park and did my loop of the lake in Centennial and then back through Queen's Park and home. My programme was 2 mins walking and 12 mins running x 3 which is what I did. I'm feeling quite energetic still and Mr lulu says I actually look a lot healthier at the moment; less tired and without the big dark circles under my eyes. I certainly feel better and this is reflected my running as today I did 6.5km with an average pace of 6.23/km and that includes me walking for 6 mins so I must have been speeding along for the running bits. I didn't have the heavy, dead legs that I get often when I'm running and my breathing seemed easier. Let's hope it continues.
Niggle status: Achilles a bit better, but I felt it later in the run. Knee; complained early on and then was fine. I also need to do more of my VMO/quad strengthening which I've neglected a bit this week so I'm going to have to add that to my blog each day so you can all nag me if I haven't done them Today I did about 50 squats and 20 one leg stair squats, plus 2 static squats against the wall. I'll think I'll time the static squats so I can see if I can do it for longer each day. I need to add in some glute strenthening as well now I'm only seeing Aqua Satan once a week.
Food
Pre-run 1/2 strength Endura
B: Banana protein smoothie
MT: 3 oatcakes and Cott. cheese
L: Jaffa protein Smoothis (choc powder with 1/2 OJ and half low fat soy)
Working hard in the pool
Back to the pool this morning and it was a girls only session. Not sure what happened to Bill and my other old chaps but it was just the old gals this morning bobbing about this morning.The usual warm up, stretch and strengthening, followed by 25 mins water running.Warm up 5 minsBuild intervals (8 mins)Intervals with plyometric jumps and then arm exercises for 12 minsFelt good afterwards and worked harder than I have for a few weeks.Food today:Before pool OJB: Orange Vanilla shakeMT: I've found these very nice Scuplt bars (Choc and apricot) which have low fat, some protein a some carbs, all for 180 cals. Very yummyL:Orange Vanilla shake AT: Peach and pot of yog.D: will be pasta in tom sauce with sausage (1 lean pork sausage), green beans; Mr lulu will cook.. must be his turn by now :)I was going to Pilates again today but was feeling bit tired this afternoon so am going home to catch up on some housework instead; I have guests coming this weekend;)
Park again!
I had a little trouble getting out of bed this morning; it's the darker mornings I believe. Thank goodness daylight saving will end in a few weeks. The programme called for 3 x 2 mins walk, 10 mins run. So with knee taped, achilles blessed with deep heat and the wind behind me I set off to Queen's Park. Did a loop and a loop of the oval and then back down Macpherson St and my extra loop up Evans and back down Macpherson for a stunning total of 5.15km. Once again I enjoyed the walk breaks but could have kept going at the end. I'm definitely feeling a little more energetic at the moment. Let's hope Dr Ludka's cocktail is working. Injury status: knee whinged at the beginning for about 10 secs and then was fine. Achilles was fine at the start and then ached on and off. Don't know what to do about this one. It's been a persistent problem and never seems to get much better or much worse. I'm thinking of a trip to the pod to see if the orthotics need adjusting. In the meantime, lots of icing and voltaren and some extra calf stretches will be applied to see if I can manage my way through it. Food:Pre run OJ and waterB: Orange Vanilla Protein smoothie (half low fat soy, half OJ)MT; chocolate crunch protein bar 170 calsL: As breakfastAT: Scuplt bar, yummy choc and apricot bar (180cals)D: lean lamb fillet (80g) with pumpkin and goats cheese green salad. Kiwi fruit
Resting and eating
I decided to take a rest day today. By the end of yesterday both my left achilles and right knee were giving me grief and so I decided on taking a total rest day to see what happens. Things feel a lot better this evening so hopefully I'll make it through my programmed run tomorrow.Food:B: Chocolate protein shake (with low fat soy milk, not ice cream DJ!)MT: 3 corn crispbreads with cottage cheeseL: Chocolate protein shake. I was in a chocolate kind of mood today.AT: peach with with low fat yog.Pre dinner snack: 8 almondsDinner: Sherry and tomato braised chicken (1 thigh fillet)I was feeling quite hungry today and it was an effort not to eat more (hence the almonds whilst I was cooking dinner) but I kept drinking herb tea instead. Seemed to do the trick, but I'd kill for a decent coffee!
