Weekend in the park
As per the plan, I didn't do the CR challenge on Sat morning but headed off to do 50 mins around Centennial Park. I thought I'd made the wrong decision as I felt really strong and my hammie felt fine. It didn't last though as I lost my energy after 3 kms and the hammie felt a bit sore at the end. Managed to do about 7.5km.Back to the park today and around the outside. I decided to run up York Road as we ran down it on Wednesday morning and it didn't seem as hard as usual. My legs did feel a bit fatigued after a pilates class I did yesterday evening but they warmed up as the run progressed. Once around the golf course and then back up Clovelly Road to home for a total of 13kms. The last 20 mins were hard and mainly uphill but it felt good when it stopped! I've done about 38 km this week so the mileage is creeping up and apart from the hammie niggle my legs feel pretty good. Next week I'll be leaving on Tuesday morning for 3 nights camping in Kangaroo Valley. I'm taking the meaty men off for a leadership programme in the bush. Fortunately, I don't need to do much as someone else is facilitating but it sounds like they'll be keeping us busy with bushwalking, mountain biking and abseiling. Given I don't like heights much, that should be interesting!
Back with the girl pack
I met up with the Owl and Ellie on Anzac day morning for a trot around the park. It was more of a canter as Ellie was showing her camp fitness and I was feeling a little under par so it felt a lot quicker than it was. It was a lovely run and chat though... can't beat it :) A nice 9.5km to add to the monthly total. I did get a few twinges in my right hammie, which gave me some grief last year so I'm currently nursing that back to health. Typical, just when my achilles feels like it has turned a corner another little niggle appears, but I don't think this one will take much to fix.Mr lulu joined us for breakfast at Ellie's which included the long lost European toast mountain, which we did a pretty good job on. I had a hard day's girly activities on Thursday, with one of my trusty girlfriends appearing to make over my wardrobe. There wasn't much left of my current clothing by the time she had finished but it was fun doing the shopping in the afternoon. Can't wait to see Mr lulu's face when the credit card bill appears :) Maybe I'll post a photo! It was a much needed re-vamp and I've been putting it off for years it seems, as some of my clothes migrated with me from England in the late 90s. I think shoulder pads are out now aren't they?This morning I headed out to do a short run and test out my hammie so I could decide on doing the CR challenge or not. Not, seems to be the verdict. It didn't really give me any trouble but it feels stiff and a bit sore to prod, so I'll just keep the pace easy tomorrow. I'm not really training for anything major right now so it seems silly to risk an injury for a time trial I can do anytime.
Quickie in the rain
I
had to get the lulumobile to the garage for a recall issue by 8am this morning so that, and the unattractiveness of the weather, meant no SWEAT this morning. So depressing seeing all this lovely rain flowing into the ocean, not being recycled or captured in rainwater tanks and not falling anywhere near the damn dam!Once I'd got back from the garage and stood looking at the rain for a while I decided that it wasn't going to get any better so I may as well go. I only wanted to do a short one so I decided to make it a hilly one. Two beaches CB (Clovelly Bronte) was the chosen route and boy did I feel the hills this morning. I couldn't wait for 4kms to tick over so I could stop, about 3/4 of the way back up Bronte Rd. My legs are feeling the effects of my longer run on Sunday and ETs massage yesterday.Still, it's another one in the bank:)
Old Bar
Strange name for a town: Old Bar. It's on the North NSW Coast, near Taree. Mr lulu had some property to inspect in Taree and so I decided to go with him, and we booked into a B and B at Old Bar. It's not a gourmet town and the only place open for dinner was the local Italian. You know that when the restaurant sells itself on it's generous serving size that they probably don't have much else to offer! They certainly aren't lying about the serving sizes as our steaks were big enough for a family of four but I'm not sure anyone in the kitchen had been to Italy recently.The B and B was good though and after an early night I was ready for my long run. Having no idea where to go a I followed a road along the beach which ran out after about 10 mins. I dropped my sports drink here so that I could get it later and carried on back up the way I came. Various twists and turns, a nice dirt road along and through a forest, and then down the main road back to town. I passed the guest house and if I hadn't have left my drink sitting in a tree outside somone's house I might have been tempted to stop at 70 mins. However, I carried on, retrieved my drink and ran back to the B and B for a total of 13.5km and 87 mins.That's the longest I've done this year and I felt pretty good. My legs were tired at the end but I don't think I broke anything! The delicious breakfast served by the B and B was very welcome too!
Round we go again
Round Centennial Park that is. My legs felt a bit tired after all those hills yesterday so I thought some relative flat would be good. I had a flat spot about 4km in but that soon passed and by the time I had made it back up Macpherson and home I decided to do an extra loop around Evans St to take it to 8km.
Achilles was a bit cross with me yesterday evening so I think I may have overdone the hills so I'm going to have to build them up a bit carefully. Feels better today and I'm due to email the achilles guru today for further instructions so we'll see what she says.
Testing some hills
No SWEAT today for me as it was a hill session and I'm not supposed to do those but I am allowed to potter around some hills so that's what I decided to do today.
I headed off on a slightly different course which I'l have to call 3 beaches TBC (Tamarama, Bronte and Clovelly). It was a lovely morning for running along the coast path and if only there weren't so many hills it would even be quite pleasant!
Having said that I only really started to feel the hills after 4 kms and the Bronte cutting steps. Coming back up Clovelly road seemed harder than it should and don't even talk about Arden Street. I nearly made it all the way to the top and I'll have to make that my goal for the next few weeks. After walking to the top of Arden I ran a loop up our back lane and around to the front to make it a nice round 7kms. The hip and achilles only complained occasionally so I'll take that as confirmation that a little bit of hill running is acceptable.
Mission accomplished
We drove down to Canberra on Saturday morning and arrived in time for me to get ready for the 10km race. We headed down to the start and found Jen and Go Girl and I headed off to do a lap around the school to warm up.
I lined up with Running Angel and Mouse and the gun went off. RA shot off like a startled rabbit while Mouse and I took a more conservative approach. It's a funny course with two short laps around the school and then 3 bigger laps. There is a small hill at the back of the school which you have the pleasure of running up 5 times. Mouse and I did the two laps around the school and then Mouse dropped off the pace a little and I was flying solo. The first two kms were around 5.40 pace which was quicker than I had intended but I didn't feel too bad. As it turns out Garth was measuring the course a bit long so I probably wasn't going too fast. I started to ignore his 1km reps and just go by the course markings. The first 5kms went by in 30 mins and 3o secs so I was behind the hour mark.
I tried picking up the pace for the second big lap and then I spotted Running Angel up ahead so I set myself the goal of halving the gap on this lap and catching her in the next. As it happens she started to walk and I caught and passed her half way though this lap. It will probably be the last time that happens as she'll soon be back to full fitness.
The last lap seemed a lot longer but I was still overtaking people, which was a good feeling. I crossed the line in 61.01 according to Garth so at least the 5km splits were even and I didn't slow too much in the second half. In fact, I felt pretty comfortable the whole way around. I was pretty happy with that considering I hadn't done that much training and it's the first 10km I've run for about 18 months and my PB is 60 mins. Even better, the niggle stayed pretty much away apart from a short burst of complaining from the achilles at about 9km.
The support out on the course was great with people cheering for me at various points. I looked forward to passing the finish area each time as I had first Clairie, then CJ, Strewth, Aki, and Ewen, and then Jen, GG and Mr lulu. I'm sure Tesso was in there somewhere as well. Nice to be the cheered rather than the cheerer for a change.
Back to our apartment for a shower and stretch and then a good dose of TV watching and I cooked Mr lulu his big pasta dinner. He was incredibly relaxed and had a good night's sleep whilst I was tossing and turning but trying not to disturb him.
Off to the start where I caught up with Jen and Go Girl again. Back to cheering duties today. Mr lulu went for a quick warm up and then lined up. We waved them off at the start and then haeded down to Cowbell Corner with a take-away coffee and muffin as sustenance and CR Mango for company.
Mr lulu went zooming past on his first pass (around 10km) in about 42 mins and I told him he was going too fast. I then spent the next hour or so driving Mango and Jen mad, saying "oooh I think he's gone out too fast" . Next time he came past was at the 26km point which was about 1.47, so he was still keeping up the faster pace.
After waiting for Go Girl and the rest of the CRs and Sean's squad to pass I decided it was time to head to the finish line. I'd just hung up from Easy Tiger, giving him an update and going "oooh I think he's gone out too fast" when a few minutes later Mr lulu appeared to turn into the finishing stretch. I couldn't quite believe my eyes. He gave us a cheery smile as he passed us and finished in 3.03.12. What a fantastic run and I was so proud of him. A 25 minute PB no less! So mission accomplished for Mr lulu, of course now he will have to run at least one more as the three hour mark is sooo close.
I went to give him his towel and drink and then went back to cheering the rest of our friends home. Go Girl came cruising by looking very comfortable in achieving her new PB too.
Once we'd seen most of the CRs home we headed back for a quick shower before having brunch with the gang and then heading back for a nana nap.
We had a lovely lunch with CJ and Strewth on Monday before driving back to Sydney in the afternoon.
I couldn't quite believe that Mr lulu got up and did a 20 min run on Monday and he is surprisingly unscathed. We went out again this morning and I still had to ask him to slow down so I could keep up! I was a bit stiff as well from the 10km but felt pretty good on my 40 mins this morning so it's back to training for me and a few weeks of taking it easy for Mr lulu whilst he consults Sean and works out what to do next.
LSD on LCD
Saturday
A pilates mat class and a 30 min session on the bike at the gym. Pilates was hard as I've been missing a lot of classes recently but it certainly woke my abs up and made me determined to get back to 2-3 classes a week.
Sunday
I woke up and could hardly lift my upper body off the bed as my abs were sore, a good feeling if you're some kind of masochist :)
We decided to do our long run in the National Park again today and we drove through black clouds and heavy showers down to the weir at Audley. I felt tired but my legs seemed to know what they were doing and felt pretty strong, so off we went. Had a 'go coolrunner' shout, which I now know was from Moh. Nice to get the encouragement at that stage when I was feeling a bit blah about the whole running concept! The track was muddy but we didn't get any heavy showers while we were out.
I ran out for 40 mins and then turned around. I started to feel better and better as the run progressed and had to hold myself back from pushing too hard... very unusual feeling for me! Mr lulu had passed me on the way back and so he came back and ran the last 500 metres with me and I decided to put in a finishing push to the car. Felt good and could have kept going. All up about 12.5kms I think; Garth hit a few black spots so haven't got an accurate measure.
Wet Friday
I call it a good Friday when I can lie in bed until 9.30 and then go for a run in the rain! I must admit notting getting out of bed at all did cross my mind but watching Mr lulu do pilates and then head out for a run was enough to guilt me into getting up.
I just wanted to do a nice easy 30 mins so I headed down to the park and back up Clovelly rd for just over 5kms of relatively easy running.
Niggle status is good considering I've done two SWEAT sessions this week, My achilles is slightly tight but I think that's because I've stepped up the eccentrics and am now doing them with 4kgs in a backpack. Nothing a bit of stretching and massage won't fix. The achilles guru gave me the sign off to start building my kms back up as long as I don't do anything stoopid and hill sessions are still out for a while... shame;)
more SWEATing
After a long day yesterday driving down to Canberra, doing some coaching, having some meetings and then driving back again I could have done with a sleep in. No sleeping in allowed in the lulu household though, so it was off to the park for a SWEAT session.
I had 3 x 600 on the programme but Sean told me to do 5 as I wasn't doing any races this weekend. I protested but to no avail! Off we went and I sat behind my pack for the first two and they were both 3.01.
3rd rep I decided to push a bit harder and stuck with the group and then overtook them on the back straight. 2.49 Woohoo.. first time ever under 3 mins for 600. It hurt though and there was nearly a dry heave happening at the end of that one. Next one was 2.54 so still under 3 mins and the final one with Mr lulu trying to get me to breath more deeply... again... was 3.01. I've had enough of 3.01 so I'm determined never to run over 3 mins again!
Off to Pilates now to give my much neglected core a good work out.
Lake time trial #1
Four laps of the lake as a time trial was on the programme today, about 5.7km. I haven't done one of these before and having discussed my plan with assistant coach Easy Tiger we agreed that I'd do it at just quicker than 10km pace, as a practice for Canberra.
After the warm up and drills we headed up to the lake and I lined up with Billy Idol and we headed off. I quickly dropped Billy and tried to settle into the right pace, but felt really sluggish and my legs didn't feel like working. After the first lap I started catching up with some of the other girls in my group who had gone out faster and I suddenly started feeling a lot better; amazing what some overtaking will do for you! On the third lap I caught and overtook a couple of other girls and then I was on my own. On the second half of the fourth and final lap I saw mr lulu jogging back to me, having finished his own TT. He kept me going on the final section, trying to get me to take deeper breaths as by now I was beginning to suffer a bit... and then it was over for a total time of 33.35. I was really pleased with how I ran the last 3.5kms as the pace was getting a bit quicker which is encouraging. 1km splits were 6.05, 6.18 (oops),6.03, 5.45, 5.35, 5.45(pace) and an average speed of 5.55 which was pretty much spot on for what I was attempting, although my pacing left a bit to be desired!
Even better is I have no niggles, not a thing for the first time in ages.. yippee! Now I just need to keep it like that. I'm off to see the achilles guru now and hopefully she'll give me the nod to start gradually increasing my kms... it will be very gradual.. so gradual my body won't even notice!
A day in the country
Mr lulu and I decided a day out in the country would be nice today, so at 6.30 we headed down to the National Park for a run along Lady Carrington Drive. I haven't run along here before and it is just beautiful. A nice undulating trail with a fairly firm surface, surrounded by fantastic trees with masses of bird life. Mr lulu and I both spotted a lyre bird in the bush at one point. It's a wide track, which is useful as at points it was like Pitt St mall with large groups of runners passing by! So much for the solitude of the bush, but it kept things interesting as I was running on my own. Mr lulu quickly disappeared into the distance.
I wasn't sure how my legs would feel today after yesterday, but after the first km or so they warmed up and we were off. I ran for 6km and then turned around and ran back. There are lots of little ups and downs and I thought it would seem all up hill on the way out, and back, but I was pleasantly surprised to be running strongly on the way back and thought going back was a lot easier. I was still quite pleased to see the lulumobile parked at the end of the trail. I wandered back up the track a bit to see if I could see Mr lulu and he soon arrived. As a good support crewI offered him some refreshments before he disappeared again to finish his 2.5 hours. Meanwhile, I did some stretching and then relaxed in the car, reading the paper, until he finished.
We headed further down the coast to Austinmer for breakfast in a great cafe we know down there. It's a spectacular drive down the coast and along the new cliff way bridge. We were thinking about doing a swim but I had got a bit cold sitting in the car so it was straight on to breakfast, a short walk around the town and then back home. Time for a nana nap now methinks!
