Friday, June 30, 2006

A flying week!

This week has flown by in a whirl of activity, mainly work related but I have managed to slip in a few doses of exercise to keep me sane!

Weds
pm: 40 mins cardio in the gym

Thurs: 25 mins run in the cold and dark of 5.45am

Fri pm: 45 mins run and 15 mins walk around Centennial Park.
It started off being hard work and I ran around the outside of the park. That York Road hill seems to be getting harder; shows my lack of running recently. One I'd done a loop I did a bit extra into the middle of the park and then did 15 mins walking so I did an hour in total; at least it's time on the feet.

Not sure my niggles are going to behave, as they were showing a few signs of rearing their ugly head again; particularly the left lateral quad. Lots of stretching, Easy Tiger, and back to the physio strengthening exercises with avengence and let's hope they can be tamed!

Good luck to everyone running at the Gold Coast this weekend. I'll be doing virtual cheering even though we can't be there in person.

Minersrun wanted to know what my goals for the rest of the year were. Firstly, to be able to train consistently without breaking anything. I'm going to get my orthtics checked out and stick to the physio exercises as part of the plan to achieve that. Assuming all is well then I'm aiming to do the 9km race in the Sydney marathon clinic and a half towards the end of the year which will probably be the Central Coast half. I'll be doing some other bits and pieces in between as well I'm sure and I'm intending to the do the July CR 5km challenge as I haven't made it to one of those yet. Finally, I'm continuing with my weight loss efforts and am down 4.5kgs to date since starting seriously in March. I'm happy to say no weight was regained on the hols and the serious programme will start again on Monday. I'd like to lose at least another 5kgs. So that's what's in store for me until the end of the year.

posted by Lulu @ 6:38 PM 6 comments

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Post holiday blues

Yesterday I was definately suffering from post-holiday blues. I didn't want to get out of bed and felt tired and de-motivated and everything seemed to be sore. After trying to catch up with some work at home I finally dragged myself into the city, did a Pilates class and 45 mins cardio before going to see Easy Tiger. He worked the usual miracles, gave me a stern talking to (nearly as good as DJ!) and sent me on my way with some new goals for the year.

So feeling a bit more like my usual self and a bit more cheerful (despite the poor old Socceroos loss) I headed out this morning for a easy 40 mins. It took a bit of negotiating with Mr lulu to get out of the door with an agreed plan of walking as soon as anything started hurting before I had his blessing to do 40 mins. Thanks goodness I was more awake than him as his negotiation skills are better than mine normally!

Off I trotted kitted out in in my new CR cap and a pair of gloves to keep me warm and headed down to Centennial for my normal 40 min route. Everything felt great, probably the best for ages so obviously some rest topped off by an Easy Tiger massage has paid off. 40 mins included walking up part of the hill from the park; don't want to push my luck at this stage.

Now I just have to not break anything for at least 6 months and get some solid training in so I can achieve some goals. Fingers crossed!

posted by Lulu @ 9:17 AM 14 comments

Thursday, June 15, 2006

To the castle

Where my parents live in England is on the South Coast on the Eastern side of the county of Dorset. They live in a great spot about 5 mins walk from the local harbour (complete with local fisherman) and a few minutes drive from the very picturesque New Forest (think white thatched cottages in little tree lined lanes). Even though it's called the New Forest it's not new as is was planted as a place to go hunting by Henry the VIII so is probably 500 years old now. It was a great place to live as a teenager; my Dad taught me how to sail in on the harbour and I spent a lot of time falling of horses in the New Forest.

I also used to spend quite a bit of time on the beach in the summer at Highcliffe Castle which is not really a castle but it a big country house on the top of the cliffs overlooking the beach. It's still pretty impressive and is used for events these days. Below the castle used to be a nice sandy beach which is still slightly sandy but has deteriorated to an English pebbly beach in most places.

For my run yesterday I decided to re-visit the castle beach. I headed out from Mum and Dad's and down to the harbour. I ran along the promenade and past all the beach huts until the path runs out and you're on the beach. I laboured through some thick sand before finding a slightly more stable bit of beach to run on. Fortunately I didn't have to run too far before I came to the zig zag path that goes up to Highcliffe Castle. I'd done about 4km now so although I considered continuing on I decided to turn back as I haven't done any long runs since I've been away and didn't want to overdo it and upset my pathetically fragile legs.

Up at the castle I followed the cliff path back towards Mudeford where my parents live. This passes through some woods before dropping back down to the beach at the end. A quick trot back along the roads and arrived at home in about 47 mins for 7.2km. I've tried to upload the Garmin image but it's not being very co-operative today.

Pleased to report that the niggles were very marginal. The troublesome left quad/itb only complained briefly towards the end but it was probably a good thing I didn't try and do too much more and my only concern is the left adductor/hammie which was a bit sore most of the way. Fortunately I'll be back in Sydney next week so can go back to Easy Tiger for post holiday repair work!

I'm starting to get a bit stressed about coming back as I've recently found out I've got to go to Redcliffe and Maroochydore the day after I land back in Sydney so I'm already trying to do some work so I have a head start. I've a meeting in London tomorrow and then the weekend catching up with various friends before I head back to Sydney on Monday afternoon UK time, landing on Tuesday night Sydney time. See you all then!

posted by Lulu @ 6:20 PM 5 comments

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

A few pictures

Here are a few pictures of the trip. These two are of me outside our B and B in Kingsbridge in Devon


and out on a run with Mr lulu exploring the countryside.






These two are in the lovely Venice. In the second one you can see me standing on the balcony of our hotel overlooking the canal. I would stand here and watch all the gondalas and other traffic passing by on the canal underneath which could get quite busy at times.

posted by Lulu @ 6:11 PM 6 comments

Warm and sunny England

I’m finally in one place (and a place with an internet connection) so I have a chance to update the blog. It's a major task now so I’ll be brief and add some pics to give a flavour of the holiday so far.(Well I intended to add some pics but for some reason blogger is not letting me do it at the moment. I'll add them in later if I can)

We’ve been away for nearly 3 weeks. It’s flown by and Mr lulu has flown off back to Sydney already. I’m now back at my parent’s house down in sunny Dorset. It’s sunny now but when we arrived in England it was cold, grey and drizzling with rain.

On the running front we started off well with a run around the local marsh, attractively called Stanpit Marsh. It’s much prettier than it sounds with the wild ponies grazing and a lovely river and harbour as well as a great view of the local abbey which is 1000 years old in parts. I’ll try and get a good pic of the view before I leave.

Then it was off to Devon, which for those not familiar with UK geography is the South West of the UK, and is a very pretty part of England. Not that we could see much of it as it was blanketed in fog for the first two days we were there. Undeterred we did a couple of walks and runs and after a few days the weather did improve to be moderately cold with a few glimpses of sun. Picture proves that I have done some running and also that the English country side can be very pretty.

After 4 days in Devon it was back to Mum and Dad’s for one night before heading to Surry to stay with my friends Liz and Mark. I’ve known Liz since I first started work 20 years ago so we always have a lot to chat about! We did two runs from their house; one along a stream and through some woods along a path which is part of a walking track that goes all the way around London. That was about 8km. The second was just a short loop of 5.5km that Liz had shown us when we arrived.

Next stop was Venice which was fantastic and is where the running came to an abrupt stop. Mr lulu was still nursing his sore calf that stopped him doing the SMH half and I’m still not 100% happy with my left knee/itb/hamstring or something. As Venice is not really ideal for running it seemed like as good a place as any to have a holiday from getting up early too! Instead we did masses of walking around the canals and alleyways of Venice. We did lots of boat rides on the vaporettas (water buses) and generally enjoyed ourselves. Our hotel was excellent. It was positioned in the back streets on a small canal and it’s claimed that Marco Polo used to live there. Fortunately they’ve renovated since then though. Pic below of me on the balcony of our hotel. It was a great location close to the main market where we brought some fruit for breakfast and tucked away sufficiently that we could get away from the hordes of tourists.

Food and wine was fantastic as you’d expect; everything is so fresh and we had lots of fun trying out the local Italian wines as well as experimenting with our basic Italian. It’s safe to say we are very proficient at ordering food and wine and that’s about it. Still what else do you need? A number of years ago I worked for Pirelli and was still in contact with one of the guys I used to work with. He kindly made the 3 hour trip from Milan to buy us lunch and we are pictured below as well as a lovely pic of Mr lulu and I.

After that it was two days in London staying with some more friends and having a great night out at a French restaurant; more lovely food and wine and still no running from me although Stephen took our host out for a quick blast around the local streets of Richmond whilst I caught up with the gossip with the hostess. The weather had dramatically improved now we’re back in England with temperatures up to 27 degrees.

On Saturday I had to bid farewell to Mr lulu who is now safely arrived in Sydney and I returned to Mum and Dad.

So finally after 10 days off running I finally dragged myself out this morning for a trot around Stanpit Marsh again. I felt quite spritely and the time off has definitely been good for my niggles although the left quad/itb is still not feeling 100%. Consequently this morning I felt a short run was all it was up for and so I just did one Stanpit loop: 4km. I’m going to try a longer run tomorrow along the beach front and see what happens.

I’m quite amazed that despite all the eating I’ve been doing I haven’t put on any weight and now I’m back to Mum’s I’m back on the protein shakes for a few days. I’m hoping that I’ll still be the same as when I left when I get back so that I don’t have to start again.

posted by Lulu @ 2:25 AM 8 comments