Sunday, December 16, 2007

Almost a runner again

I feel like I'm almost a runner again now as I've done my four runs again this week, plus been to CR drinks and helped out at the SMC race this morning.

Good lulu has been in charge again this week and the only session I missed was Tuesday pm intervals in the pool.

The visit to Brad was interesting. He hasn't watched me run for a few weeks so I was interested to see what happened when I hopped on the treadmill. Apart from huffing and puffing a couple of other interesting things were obvious. I'm still dropping my hip mid stride on both sides, so my glutes are not firing at the right time. They're nice and strong thanks to the glute torturer but need to work on timing. I concentrated on that Friday and today and think I'm getting there but need to see it on the video to know if what I think is working, actually is. I'm also not using my right hamstring much and so my kick up on the right is much lower than the left. I probably learned to run like that when I had problems with my hamstring last year. Something else to think about....who would have thought running could be so complicated!

I (wo-)manned a drink station out at SMC today and it was really great to catch up with everyone. Mr lulu did his first race since August and was tad slow at 40.25 but he will soon get his race fitness back. It was great to see Go Girl run her first 10km under 45 mins, Sara go close to a PB and Ellie return to racing.

I did my own little 5km run once I got home and it was hard work. It took me 33 mins to do 5km and I had a couple of walk breaks in the middle as I unintentionally started out a bit fast... turns out if you use your hamstrings and glutes you actually go faster!

Another busy week of travelling and Christmas events this week but I intend to keep up the good work.

So, the plan is:

Mon: Gym with the glute torturer
Tues: 30 min run and a massage
Weds: run (warm up, drills and some strides)
Thurs: Crazy ab lady homework (have to go to Brissie)
Fri: 30 min run and gym workout
Sat: Crazy ab lady
Sun: 35 min run, 25 min walk

posted by Lulu @ 2:30 PM 11 comments

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Signs of progress

The crazy abs lady definitely did something to me yesterday as my back and stomach muscles are feeling the effects this morning! A hour with the crazy abs lady is pilates on steroids.

I headed out in Alfie to the park this morning and did an inside loop and around the lake for another 30 mins, well 31 actually :) It felt a lot easier today and I wasn't constantly looking at my watch waiting for 30 mins to come, so there's some progress being made. It was nice to be back on home turf and back in the park. I'm also looking forward to Ms Ellie return to the Eastern suburbs next week, so I will even soon have a running buddy back. We just need Lorna back on her feet now, and to drag Jen away from her fiance and we can have a reunion run.

Looking at my little km chart on my blog it's really June since I did anything like a reasonable training load so it's really no wonder my fitness has gone out the back door. So, it's time to really focus and start building my base fitness again. The programme for this week is:

Mon: Gym am
Tues: 30 mins run am Hydro pool interval training pm
Weds: 30 mins run and a visit to Tiger
Thurs: Glute Torturer @ gym and a visit to Brad the physio
Fri: 30 mins run
Sat: Crazy abs lady
Sun: 30 mins run, 30 mins walk

posted by Lulu @ 10:58 AM 6 comments

Saturday, December 08, 2007

The new Lulu is a good Lulu

I may not have been blogging but I have been pretty much sticking to the plan. Whilst big Kev has been out signing Kyoto I've been undoing all his good work by traversing the country. Since I last visited I have been in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth, staggering through the door at 11pm last night.

The only time naughty Lulu came out to play was in Melbourne when the naughty boys in our Melbourne office took me out drinking, or to be more precise we sat in the office drinking and I didn't make it out of bed to go running on the Friday. I made up for it in the evening though when I arrived in Adelaide, by going out for my 30 mins. My sense of direction let me down though and if it weren't for running into some orienteering types with maps I would still be wandering the park lands of Adelaide looking for my hotel.

A river theme ran through the rest of my runs which included a couple of runs along the Torrens in Adelaide and then along the Swan river in Perth, not to mention a couple of gym visits and this morning's visit to the crazy ab lady. This must all pay off eventually????

The best news is that I have now done about 6 or 7 30 mins runs, including a back to back effort on Thurs/Fri this week so I'm now up to 4 x 30 mins per week and nothing hurts, except the lungs although it's beginning to get a bit better. I'm amazed at how unfit I got on this lay off, mainly because of doing nothing much for a month in Europe. Anyway, it's all good and I'm looking forward to being told by the lovely Brad (physio) this week that I can start building up the mileage gradually. I'm aiming to be back for my traditional comeback 10km at Canberra in April. That seems very achievable at this stage and I'm hoping it's the last year that it's the 'comeback' race!

posted by Lulu @ 12:55 PM 5 comments