Where the Milanesi run
Edit: Just adding some requested pictures. This is the google image of the long run we did in the park in Milan. The large structure at the bottom of the picture is the castle and you can see where we ran across the drawbridge and through the centre courtyard and out of the back door. You can also see on the right the arena and at the top of the picture the grand archway.
After about 27 hours travelling we finally arrived in Milan on Friday lunchtime. We headed into town to see some sights as well as to scout out some potential running places.We found the Giardinni Publicci about 1km from our hotel so on Sat morning this is where we headed. A very pleasant park in the centre of town but only about a 1.8km path around the outside. It was pretty warm and humid and we were feeling the effects of the long flight but still managed a creditable 7.5km in 49 mins.This was followed with lots of walking around town on Saturday visiting the archeological museum and browsing along some very elegant streets and of course a number of visits to big churches with impressive art works and frescoes. Saturday night we caught up with my friend who lives in Milan and he took us a to a local restaurant followed by the streets of the Brera district where the young and trendy Milanesi go to promenade. Sunday, I had 1 hour 40 on my programme and we decided a slightly bigger park was needed rather than going round and round Giardinni Publicci. We headed to Parc Sempione which was a slightly larger park and had the spectacular Castello Sforza at one end and a huge Arche di Pace at the other. The castle is a magnificent massive castle complete with a moat. Mr lulu led the way and we did several laps of the park, around the arch, through the middle of the castle and around the outside of the park before heading back to our hotel. It will be interesting to see what Google earth makes of us cutting through the middle of the castle, when I get a chance to upload from Garth.In total we did approx 15km in 1 hour 40 and my niggles seemed to cope OK. My hammie is complaining but doesn't seem to mind long slow runs.We left Milan today and we are now in the beautiful village of Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre. Our apartment is on the side of the cliffs so it could make running interesting in the next few days. I feel some hill work coming on!
It's official
The results from the Bridge Run are now posted on the website and my official net time is 53.37 which is one second quicker than I recorded on my watch.
My legs were quite stiff and sore on Monday but felt a lot better after Easy Tiger had given them a work out. Yesterday I intended to run whilst I was in Brisbane but I woke with a headache and felt like I'd been run over with a truck so I took some painkillers and went back to sleep for an hour before tackling a day of meetings and workshops.
Back at home this morning and I headed out to Centennial Park, did an inside loop and ran back up Clovelly Road to home. I felt good this morning, no fatigue and enjoyed a nice easy run. 8kms and 52 mins.
I am a bit concerned about a few niggles but hopefully they're not going to develop into anything worse. My right hammie is a bit tight and sore and my left foot and tib post is niggling. Lots of massage and stretching whilst I'm away as it will be three weeks in between massages.
I'm going to try and stick to my programme while I'm away although I probably won't do much speed work. I'm more concerned about keeping to the long runs so that I have some chance of finishing the central coast half in December.
The CR community is even looking after our house for us whilst we are away as we have Royworlds moving in as the house sitter. What a service!
Having fun and not breaking anything
With the bridge run on the agenda today we left home at 6.15 and picked up Beki and then got the train to Milson's Point.
The place was packed with runners of all shapes and sizes. It was great to see so many people but I'm not sure they've got the organisation right as the 4km family fun run took off before us and even we ran into the back of them so it must have been havoc when the front of our pack tried to get through.
Jen_runs, Beki and I did a warm up km or so up and down the hill, did some stretching and then lined up. We left it a bit late to line up and so ended up a long way down the hill. The gun went off and we set off, well we took one step forward. It took us 8 mins to cross the line so it's a good thing they had timing chips for start times as well as finish times.
We set off a relatively nice pace and the first km passed in 6.17 which was below what we wanted to do but as we were hemmed in on all sides it was the best we could do with all the weaving in and out. Once on the bridge we had a bit more space but it was still a bit crowded. We lost Beki on the bridge somewhere although I don't think she was far behind us. I'm sure she'll soon be zooming past me when she's back to full fitness though. As we came onto Maquarie Street we saw Easy Tiger flying down the hill to the finish and gave him a cheer. Through 5km in 30.35 so still behind our pace.
Into Art Gallery Road and things slowed down again as we were forced into half the road as the front of the pack were coming the other way. At this point Jen needed a toilet stop and I decided to keep going and told her to catch up with me:) I like to give her a challenge and I was fairly sure she'd manage it. I walked through the drinks stop at Mrs Macquarie's chair and then struggled a bit up the little hill just before the art gallery, knowing that once I passed that it was pretty much flat and downhill to the finish.
Once on Macquarie St again I started aiming for people ahead of me and trying to pass them. I was enjoying myself doing this when Jen appeared at my side just past the 8km mark and we tried to keep on pushing to the finish. Mr lulu appeared just at the end of Macquarie St and ran up the finishing straight with us.
Final time by my watch was 53.38. We managed the last km in under 5 min pace to slip in under the 6 min/km average pace. I'm calling it a PB as I haven't done a 9km race before and I haven't done any race where the average pace has started with a 5 rather than a 6 so that's a bonus!
I felt pretty good most of the way although I'm missing some stamina as the 7-8 km was hard work. I'm feeling fairly content with that considering it's the first race I've done all year and only on 8 weeks training. I didn't run with the Garmin and this worked well for me as I just ran on how I felt rather than stressing about the speed.
In the end Jen and I agreed that we had achieved our goal for the day of having fun and not breaking anything. Fingers crossed I won't wake up with any sore bits anyway.
Big thanks to Jen_runs for accompanying me, and for her big effort in catching me again after her stop, and of course to Mr lulu for shepherding us across the line.
Also a big thanks to Easy Tiger for getting me back on the road, and making me persist when I felt like giving up running earlier in the year :) Now he just has to keep me on the road until the Central Coast Half. Good thing he's a man who enjoys a challenge.
And the winner is......
Iron Pete! Not only did he get the country right but he was quite close with the actual location. Although we're not going to Tuscany we are going to Cinque Terre which is on the coast in Liguria which is right next door! It's a whirlwind of Milan, Cinque Terre and Roma. I'm not sure what you're prize is yet IP but I'm in Brisbane on Tuesday so I could deliver it personally!
Talking of Brisbane that's where I went yesterday afternoon and I've just arrived back. I had lots of CR encounters; a drink with Cirque last night, an encounter with Clairie, Tesso and Owen on the river run this morning and then lunch with all of them, without Owen, but the added bonus of meeting Vegie-girl.
I did a short run as instructed on my programme this morning, heading out from my hotel and through the Botanic gardens and then along the river. About 39 mins and 6km. The first half was a real battle but then I suddenly felt a lot better and started to enjoy it. Hopefully, that will be the case tomorrow too. No expectations except to have a bit of fun and work out what sort of shape I'm in.
Good luck to everyone running tomorrow.
Grumpie old woman
That's me today. I felt like a very tired lump of lard as I plodded around the park this morning. I tried a couple of kms at 6 min pace to see what it felt like and decided I wouldn't be able to keep that up for 9kms if I feel like this. Hopefully having Jen_runs pacing me will make all the difference. 4.5km in 28 mins.
All my niggles were out in force this morning, one minute it was the ankle, the next, the quad which I haven't had any problems with for weeks was complaining... now it's me!!
Add to that the fact that I still feel tired from the wedding weekend, my thyroid, hormones or whatever don't seem to be very co-operative and I feel like staying in bed for the next week.
I don't feel as bad as my poor laptop though which somehow managed to get infected with some nasty trojan horse spyware thing. That ruined my plans for yesterday as I was trying to get a proposal finished for a client but ended up spending half the day messing about with that. Consequently, my pilates and dinner plans with Jen were cancelled.. sorry J!!
Whinge mode off.
Thank goodness the lovely Mr lulu has decided to whisk me away for 2 week holiday starting next Thursday! Prizes will be awarded to anyone guessing the location of our romantic trip for two!
Short and sweet
Sean had 28 mins and 4km on my programme this morning so I set off around Queen's Park for a gentle jog. I found it hard to get going and was glad I was only supposed to be running at an easy pace. I warmed up after about 20 mins and felt good on the homeward path. Ended up doing about 4.2km in 28 mins... close enough! Here are a couple of pics from the wedding. You can just make out the fantastic view through the rain splattered marquee.
I think the bride and matron of honour do look rather fabulous though ;)
Wet and wild wedding weekend
I arrived back from Tamworth on Thursday night and was heading back out of Sydney on Friday morning to the wedding of the Evil Twin Sister in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. Not much running took place as you probably couldn't imagine worse weather for a wedding; especially one being held outside/in a marquee on the edge of the escarpment in the mountains. After a bit of a restless night on the Friday night thinking about all the things that needed to happen and worrying about the weather I got up at 7 and headed out for a run. I knew from previous visits to the ETS' house in Mount Victoria that there is a path that runs alongside the railway from Mt Vic to Blackheath and so I headed up there. I ran out for about 20 mins in the cold rain before turning around when the path started getting very rough and a bit slippery and I thought that probably the last thing the bride needed was for her matron of honour to break a leg on the morning of the wedding. I probably would have died of hypothermia before any found me as well as I didn't tell anyone where I was off to! Mr lulu would have known but he was staying at the wedding venue.The wedding was fantastic despite the usual few little glitches, such as one of the wedding cars not turning up in time, missing bridal jewellery, and the flower boy's flowers not to mention the gale force wind, horizontal rain and 3 degrees C weather!Mr lulu was very disciplined and headed out on Sunday morning and did his two hours whilst I had more Matron of Honour duties in organising a breakfast barbie for the guests who were still staying either at the venue or in the area.We finally arrived back in Sydney yesterday mid morning and I struggled through the day, had a massage as well as coffee with Easy Tiger and Go Girl before collapsing into bed at 5.30pm and sleeping through until 5.30 this morning.I was not expecting too much from myself at SWEAT this morning for the track session. I had 1.8km , 2x400 and 1 x 600 reps. The strides and drills seemed hard work this morning as did the first few laps. I seemed to get back into a rhythm finally with the second 400 which was quicker than the first and felt easier.Times were 9.51, 2.00, 1.58 and 3.02. Lots of room for improvement and I watched Ellie disappearing into the distance this morning, looking very strong for her first half at the weekend. Go Ellie!
Bird spotting
Part of the reason for the title of my last post was because I bumped into Wildthing and her lovely new turtle tattoo at the hairdresser yesterday and then I forget to mention it! If you were having trouble working out what I was referring too the mystery has been solved.This morning I set off along the river in Tamworth. My hotel is pretty close to the river and I found a good cycle path has been built that runs along the river and through the town. I had 45 mins on the programme but was feeling quite tired in the legs this morning and the calf was niggling a bit so I did 40 at an easy pace. I saw some lovely birds out this morning including some sort of rosella, not a crimson one but a green and yellow one and then some lovely red browed finches or something similar. I'll have to look them up in my bird book when I get home.Some stretching and massaging on the calf and things seem to be OK this evening. I think I'll take a rest day tomorrow though as my legs are feeling the increase in the kms over the last few weeks and then I'll try and get some runs in whilst I'm in the Blue Mountains for the wedding.My impressions of Tamworth so far have been pretty good although I'm having a bit of trouble understanding what people are saying. Am I going deaf or do they speak differently up here?
Wildlife spotting
Yesterday I intended to run, and even set out, but after 10 mins I made a strategic withdrawal as my left tibialis posterior was giving me grief. This is a deep calf muscle on the inside of the calf and apparently it's got tight and is causing pain around the ankle. I felt this on Sunday but paid it not attention but it wasn't happy yesterday. Fortunately I already had an appointment with Easy Tiger and he worked his usual magic although not without leaving some paw prints on my calf.Today I headed down to the oval for the SWEAT session with the intention of doing the warm up and drills and seeing how it all felt. Left side felt good but the right tib post was making grumbling noises but not enough to really cause concern so I did the session. 3 x 1200m were on the programme for me. Times were 6.38, 6.37 and 6.46. I really should have pushed harder on the last one but I'm a bit out of practice and lost a bit of confidence that I'd be able to keep going. There's always a next time. I couldn't believe it when Blue Dog went past me at the start of the second rep. Now that's embarrasing being overtaken by someone who's just run 100 miles. What an inspiration he is.
Spring has sprung!
The last two days have been so warm and spring has definitely arrived in Sydney which makes getting up early and hitting the road so much easier.
Friday, Mr lulu took me on a modified version of the 2 beaches course for a 30 min easy run. Note to self; what's easy for Mr lulu is definitely not easy for Lulu! Having tackled Wild Wally on Thursday my legs were already feeling tired of hills and now this course was all ups and downs and it was hard work. I just plodded on trying to keep Mr lulu at least in sight for most of the way. In the end I only did about 4km in 28 mins.
Saturday I had a much needed sleep in and today I headed down to the park to keep Ellie company for the second half of her last long run before the half marathon. We set off on an outside loop of the park and then headed around the golf course which gave us about an hour for me and about 1hr 50 for Ellie. Poor Ellie was feeling the effects of the heat as well as having started off a bit faster than usual and I tried to keep her mind off her tired legs. I'm sure she was probably shouting in her head 'just shut up will you, Ms bloody perky" or words to that effect! Although she slowed down she was absolutely determined not to stop and showed how tough she can be, as she made it to her 20km distance. I ended up doing about 1 hr 24 mins and 12.2km amd felt annoyingly perky at the end :)
Then it was back to Ellie's pad for a delicious breakfast and a recovery gossip where we were joined by Mr lulu.
This week I've managed 5 rusn and about 35km plus a couple of Pilates sessions. Ellie has lent me her Pilates for runners DVD so I'll be able to do some Pilates while I'm on the road this week which will be good.
Week 7 of 8 Plan
Monday: 40 mins easy, pilates and massage
Tues: SWEAT track session, fly to Tamworth
Weds: 40 mins easy Pilates DVD
Thurs: Rest day and back from Tamworth
Fri: 50 mins easy and up to the Blue Mountains
Sat: The big wedding day for the Evil Twin Sister
Sun: Recovery run! Hopefully I'll manage an hour or so at some point in the day!
