Mud, SWEAT and Wally
This morning's session at SWEAT was Wild Wally. A variation on Big Bertha with a circuit starting half way up the hill, along the road at the top, and then a nice downhill stretch before doing a sharp turn around a tree and back up the hill.Sean decided to make the session extra fun this morning but laying out the markers right through the middle of a nice mud patch which got increasingly boggy as we all ploughed through it. I almost lost a shoe on one of the reps which would have been interesting.The circuit according to Garth is approx 750m with probably slightly more downhill and flat than uphill.Fasties were doing 7 reps with a 2 min rest interval and I ended up doing 5 with some extra rest breaks as I missed reps 3 and 6 before I blew a gasket.I had Belinda to chase which was fun. She out gunned my on the up hill but I was able to pass her on the flat and downhill but only once did I get far enough ahead of her that she didn't catch me on the up hill. I truly suck at up hill running!Rep times were all around the 3.40 - 3.49 mark and Garth suggests the average pace was under 5min kms. I'm not sure how accurate he is on this route though as there's quite a lot of trees around. I'm quite pleased with this as this is actually faster than I managed to do last year even after I'd beeen training with Sean for 3 months. Probably due to carrying a few less kilos these days. This has given me some motivation to really focus on my diet again especially as my thyroid drugs seem to be kicking in which will make losing weight a bit easier I hope.My August mileage was 117km, a record for this year. You'll notice I've been sticking to the 300% rule rigidly in this comeback up from 39 kms last month. Seems to be working though ;)
The wilds of Wagga
Good lulu has been in charge this week and things are back on track. I went to Pilates on Monday before spending most of the day in a meeting, before grabbing my training materials and jumping on the plane to Wagga. Thank goodness I don't have to drive otherwise I'd never fit everything in.Tuesday morning I was up and on the streets of Wagga at 6. I headed through the town first, sticking to the main roads until it was light and then I headed back along the river bank for a total of 7.3km. I started off feeling a bit sluggish but once I'd warmed up I didn't feel too bad and put in four surges of 4-5 mins to make sure my legs remembered how to move slightly more quickly than snail pace.This morning I thought I would head in a different direction and saw on the map of Wagga in the hotel that there is a nice big park so I headed in that direction. What the map didn't show was that this green space is a big hill with trees on rather than something like Centennial Park. Instead of going in the park area I ended up running up the road next to the big hill, which was still all up hill going out and all down hill on the way back. 30 mins and 4.5 km.I'm feeling pretty good now and am happy with how my running is going. No niggles to report apart from the odd twinge now and then but nothing that I think I need to worry about. Even the troublesome itb/lat quad seem to be happier even though I've spent the last two days standing up, training which normally upsets it. Let's hope a session at SWEAT with Wild Wally in the morning doesn't upset things!
Hectic!
I'm becoming very familiar with airports at the moment having flown up to Brissie twice this week and setting off to Wagga Wagga tomorrow. In between that there have been numerous things to do for the Evil Twin Sister's wedding in a few weeks so I'm feeling like I need a holiday.
On the running front, I must confess I have been a bit slack this week. I have done two short runs around the streets of Brisbane on Weds and Saturday mornings. Just a quick 30 minute trot on both occasions to keep the legs moving.
Today though I set off down to Centennial Park and did a good long run of 12.3km in 1hour 20 mins. Two laps of the inside path and back home up Clovelly Road. Took it relatively easy and enjoyed myself. Didn't see a soul I knew today, probably because I was a bit later than usual.
I have to get myself a bit more organised and motivated this week as my training has been a bit inconsistent. I didn't even make it to a Pilates class this week and next week is also going to be a challenge.
Week 6 of 8
Mon: 30 mins run and GRC
Tues: Wagga river run 40 mins
Weds: Rest day
Thurs: SWEAT and GRC
Fri: 40 mins run GRC
Sat: Spin and Pilates
Sun: 1hr 20 mins
Back to SWEAT
It was a shock to the system to be out of bed at 5.45 and heading down to the park in the dark after a few weeks of being able to have later starts. I parked outside the gates and then ran down to the oval as part of my warm up and then did a lap of the oval for a total of 1.2km warm-up.I was under instructions from Sean to take it easy and not push too hard and to only do a couple of reps. Sounds good I thought as we all lined up.I ran with Belinda for the first rep which was 1.8km: 10.15Second rep was supposed to be 1.2 but Mr lulu and I weren't paying attention and thought we were starting over at the 200 mark and then realised everyone else had started. So I ended up doing 800m: 4.27A few more laps to cool down, a chat to everyone and then a jog back to the car with Mr lulu for a cool down of about 1.2km.Average pace for the reps was 5.28 and a approx total of 5km plus drills and strides. It felt good to be back and to see everyone and not to be at the back of the pack either!
Brighton Bash
The weekend has been full of running type activities again now that Mr lulu and I are both getting back into our running. Yesterday, we headed to Tempe for a 3.2km race that Mr lulu was taking part in as part of the Randwick Botany Harriers. He was given a dodgy handicap as he started with DJ and probably should have been 30secs behind as they were about 30 secs apart in the end with Mr lulu finishing in 11.54 which he's quite happy with for this stage in comeback II.Today, Ellie, The Owl, Caro and Mr lulu and I headed down to Brighton to try a different route to our normal Centennial Park routes.We parked the cars in Bicenntennial Park and then roughly followed the Striders Airport Adventure route. Caro and I are both building up for the bridge run and then the Central Coast half and so only wanted to do about 70 mins. The others were on 2 hours. So we all set off together with Mr lulu blazing trail and then coming back to check on our progress and make sure we didn't miss any turns. Once we were on the bike path is was a great run along the bay and then back through Scarborough Park where we were a bit concerned to be running alongside an archery range and hoped one of the archers wouldn't misfire and either Caro or I would find an arrow in our backs.Garth lost our signal but we think we did about 11km based on the Striders map and about 72mins. This is probably about the furthest I've run all year and didn't feel that tired at the end so I'm pretty happy with that. As to the niggles I had a few twinges and the dodgy left quad was a bit niggly but after some tennis ball massage and serious stretching it all feels pretty good. No doubt it will be even better after it's session with Easy Tiger tomorrow.After the run Caro and I headed back home to start get breakfast ready for the long runners who were feeling quite tired after achieving about 18.5kms. A very nice end to a great morning's running.This week I've managed 5 runs, 4 pilates classes plus one Cycle class, and have run approx 33km which I'm really happy with and the niggles are all manageable! Yay!Week 5 of 8Mon: 30 mins easy, pilates and massageTues: The return to SWEAT (fingers crossed), pilatesWeds: RestThurs: 45 mins easy, pilatesFri: Early flight to Brissie, so will end up being a rest daySat: 30 mins easySun: 75-80 mins
Picking up
No, not men, but my energy seems to be. Neither Garth or I were very enthusiastic this morning as he refused to pick up a signal and I was feeling tired. Garth finally started behaving after about 1km. I felt very sluggish in the beginning of the run and thought I'd have a battle on my hands to keep going. But I started feeling stronger as the run went on and I hit the bottom of the hill on Clovelly road feeling quite good so pushed up the hill and was very surprised to see that I was running 6 min pace, which for me going up hill is very unusual. Perhaps Dr Ludka's drugs kicked in at that point and launched me up the hill!Some idiot in Queen's Park decided it would be funny to send his radio controlled car hurtling towards me as I was running and stopped it inches from my feet. Needless to say a few choice words were hurled in his direction which only added to his amusement. I should have just ignored him and carried on running rather than give him the satisfaction of reacting.About 6km in 39 mins.
The reincarnation of Garth
A quick trip to Gladesville yesterday to see the Garmin men and after slipping them $100 they slipped me a replacement Garth. I couldn't persuade them to upgrade Garth to a x05 but I'm happy with the outcome.This morning we set off to see if we could run some hills and set off on the two beaches course. Well I started out OK but after about 15 mins we started to feel the lack of energy so I walked for a bit before running through the cemetery and down to Bronte beach. Then it was up to the gully and I walked up the stairs. I am beginning to feel a bit better but obviously not 100% and I hate that feeling of every step being a major effort. A lot of my running was like that last year and it's not much fun so hopefuly the drugs will kick in a few weeks and I'll be back to normal.Today - 3.8km @6.30 pace and hard work!
Making merry and cruising the park
I haven’t been blogging much but I’ve been pretty busy!
Runs
Saturday I headed down to the park to do my long run. This turned into a much shorter run when I found I just didn’t have any energy. I felt the same fatigue that I suffered from for half of last year which I hoped Dr Ludka had fixed but it seems it’s come back.
I dragged myself along for a total of 30 mins and about 4.5 km and then did about 30 mins walking back home.
Monday, same again, a short run to see how I felt, about 4.5 km in 30 mins.
After a very early night yesterday, today I headed out to do an outside loop of the park, plus a little extra to make it 55 mins and about 8km. I felt a lot better but deliberately kept the pace nice and easy so that I didn’t run out of steam. The little niggle I had in my lateral quad has gone thanks to the ET treatment.
Weekend making merry!
Saturday night was the Evil Twin Sister’s hen night which started at lunch time and I finally made it to bed at about 3.30am. Not the best way to reduce my fatigue and needless to say I was relieved I wasn’t running C2S. I made it back home by about 11am, dragged The Nephew out of bed and walked over to Bondi to catch up with the C2S runners. We wandered around catching up with CRs all over the place before heading to the Bondi Hotel and getting a couple of beers. It was great to see everyone, including interstaters Miners, Tesso, CJ and Strewth plus a whole host of Sydney based CRs. I did the social butterfly act and The Nephew tried to remember everyone’s name.
Tomorrow I’m back off to see Dr Ludka again and hope to get some answers to my reoccurrence of the symptoms I had last year. I suspect that having stopped the thyroid extract a few months ago that this is the main reason. I’m now having to really monitor my diet as I’ve put on a couple of kilos; not because of the amount I’ve been eating but simply as a result of these thyroid issues I guess. I’ve found a good site here that helps you track your calories in and out and so I’m taking a scientific approach to work out what I need to do to lose weight, even at the moment. I’ll also have a good record if I need it in the future. It’s quite scary how many calories you can eat if you’re not careful. It’s a bit of work but as my diet is back to lots of protein shakes it’s not too hard to do.
The lake run
I managed to get up at 6.30 this morning as at least it's starting to get light around 6 now. There was a chilly westerly breeze blowing as I headed down to Queen's and Centennial Park for my lake run which goes around one of the lakes and back up Macpherson St. Even the hill on the way back up didn't seem to bad. I was using the "I'm being pulled up this hill by helium balloons" mental trick that Ellie told me about. Seemed to help and looking back this run normally takes me over 42 mins whereas today I did it in 39, and approx 6.1 km.All feels good, apart from the slight left itb niggle but it always feels better after I run so I take that as a good sign that I should be doing more running:)Long run tomorrow so that I can enjoy the hangover from the evil twin sister's hen night. I do hope to make it to the finish of the C2S but it's by no means a certainty at this stage. Good luck to everyone running.
Centennial cruise
Another late start but I'm enjoying a week of not travelling and dashing around so I'm excused!
Took the lulumobile down to the park to do 2 laps of the inside track on the grass, which I haven't done for a while. Took it easy and just wanted to enjoy being out and running with no pain. Felt good and did 5 mins at a faster pace towards the end.
That's the first time I've run two days in a row for a while and everything seems to be good! Another week of pottering and then if all is well I'll be back to SWEAT. Now that will be exciting.
I think it's about 8km including the section from Queen's park where I parked the car, in 51 mins.
Return to the beaches
I struggled with the doona this morning and consequently I was a bit late getting out and about so I thought I'd do a shorter harder run instead of the 45 mins I'd planned. I have been avoiding hills for months due to the knee issues but decided today to give them a good test out on the two beaches run. Down to Clovelly and up along the coast path to Bronte beach and up Bronte hill. I was totally stuffed by the time I got to the top of Bronte Road so I stopped and walked the final section home.I'm back to running with a watch again for a while as Garth has had a nasty accident. Stoopidly I had in my bag when we went to Melbourne and my bag is a soft leather one. Something hard and nasty must have been dropped on it as Garth now has a very strange looking screen where the display has been damaged. I'll take him off to shop where Mr lulu bought him and see what they can do. Needless to say I'm in the doghouse at home!Estimated distance: 4.5km and 27.50.
Trundling along
I hoped to run on Saturday morning but after sitting in Sydney airport for hours on Friday night after they closed the airport I had to delay my Friday pm meeting and ended up having to re-schedule for a breakfast catch-up prior to running my training session. Consequently, I couldn't face getting up at 5 in a strange town and not really knowing where I was.The day picked up though as after my workshop I was picked up by the lovely Wobbly Man and Wobblette #2 who gave me the total Melbourne experience. First it was a great lunch at a funky Japanese restaurant, followed by a trip to Victoria Markets and then a coffee somewhere nice. Then they kindly deposited a tired but happy Lulu at the airport. Thanks Wobbly for the great afternoon and I hope the Carbonara was good!Sunday I had arranged to meet Ellie at the Centennial Cafe for an hour. She was waiting when the lulu mobile screeched to a halt in front of her, running a few mins late and I knew Ellie would be there. We set off to do an outside lap of the park and then around the lake. Ellie was a tad tired after her PB at Striders the previous day but valiantly stuck it out. It was great to be running with someone else again and time flew by. We waved to Sean's pack as they cruised by as we were stretching and awaiting Mr lulu to arrive so he could take us to brekkie. A good day!Today, I'm having a rest day from work and running and have done a tough Pilates class and been tuned up by Easy Tiger. Might have a short nap now before tackling some neglected housework.Week 3 of 8Mon: PilatesTues: 45 mins and PilatesWeds: 40 mins easyThursday; Spin and pilatesFriday:50 minsSat: 60 mins plus 30 mins walkingSun: c2S cheering with a hangover from the Evil Twin Sisters hen-night!
Staying upright
Up again into the dark and cold. I was tempted to stay under the nice warm doona but managed to drag myself out. Garth has recovered from whatever was ailing him and he is back in action and I managed to stay on two feet this morning.
I did the same route, down to the bottom of Darley Road and returning via Clovelly and Frenchmans' Road. It's not a bad route in the dark but not as far as I thought as it's only 6km.
I've been feeling a bit tired this week so I think I need to return to Dr Ludka for a check as I feel things are not as good as they were a few months ago.
Off to Melbourne now to run some training on Saturday morning followed by a nice lunch with Wobbly Man. I'll do a short run around Albert Park in the morning it it's not too cold and miserable.
Leather saves the day!
Well my hands anyway. I think I should have stayed in bed this morning as the day didn't get off to a good start. Firstly, I had to get up at 5.30 for a start, then Garth decided to die on me (totally frozen, can't even turn him off!) and then within the first 15 mins I found myself on my hands and knees on the footpath on Clovelly Rd. Dark roads and uneven pavings don't mix as I discoverd. Good thing I was wearing my nice leather gloves as they protected my hands. My knees could have done with some protection though as I now have a nice swollen and bruised knee.
I picked myself up and dusted myself off and continued on and was rewarded with the company of the Kit train who caught up with me and I ran with them for a while until we all headed off in seperate directions. Don't know how far I went but probably somewhere around 6.5 - 7 km in 40 mins.
