Anyone Can Do It

Pwhhwwt

2010-10-11T18:10:00.000-07:00

My good idea on Sunday was to incorporate (the infamous) French Pass into my 90km ride, on the basis that I have to do it as part of the Hamilton Charity Chopper ride 100km on labour weekend so wanted to have a go at it first. My second good idea was to plan the route so that I'd already done Tahuroa and Scotsman's Valley before getting anywhere near French Pass. Are you beginning to hear the sound of a good idea unravelling..... So apart from the fact that I was already tired by the time I got to FP it was also the most evil thing ever encountered. By the time we got to the last stretch of the climb I was at the back of the group (and my 2 cycling buddies were barely speaking to me due to me being in charge of the route!) and all I could hear from the front as I creaked up one more bit of hill was "I'm round the corner, there's more hill". Eventually with the end in sight I piked, managing to unclip both feet (see I do learn some lessons) I ground to a halt and got off intending to walk up the last bit. Only it was just too much, I was too tired, and the grass verge looked so much more inviting so I sat down. Ok I might actually have lain down, just to check I wasn't actually having a heart attack and that neither of my lungs was poking out of my chest or exploding or anything. Eventually I thought I'd better get up in case someone wondered where I was and I dragged myself to the top, where one of my group was indeed waiting (the other is a total slow-mo going downhill so had gone on assuming we'd pass him as usual - ha!) I decided to have another sit down. I wish I could say the ride got better after that, unfortunately whoever designed the Waikato does seem awfully fond of hills. The best thing about finishing the ride was that it was done, the worst thing was thinking about having to do FP again in 2 weeks time. Turns out the route goes the other way through, apparently that is easier. Hmph.

Versatile Blogger Award

2010-10-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

The lovely Selina of the Pretty Clever blog has tagged me for the Versatile Blogger Award, and as I currently have nothing to do other than lie on the sofa groaning (see my next cycling blog for more details when I can summon up the energy to write it) I thought I'd get on to it.
The Rules: Tell us seven things about you then tag 12 other blogs for this award.
I will totally fail at the 12 tags as there are only 3 blogs on comment on regularly (and on of them is Pretty Clever....), but in the spirit of things here goes:
1: I'm Welsh, and very happy to be so, although having lived in NZ for over 10 years I'm also a little bit kiwi.
2: I have a habit of setting myself ludicrous sporting challenges which seem quite reasonable at the time but increasingly less so as the actual event gets closer and closer - having said that I have completed and survived 3 half marathons so I usually get there in the end.
3: At one time I made my living as a professional singer and actress, and have performed at the Belfast Opera house. This sounds posher than it actually was, it was a touring children's production of the Owl and the Pussycat. I played the cat's mother....
4: I completed my Computer Science PhD 2 years ago and am still unnecessarily excited when I receive mail addressed to Dr Bowen. The day my name plate went up on my office door I took a photo of it!
5: My household is run by two small white dogs and 2 unnecessarily large cats, this often leads to vermin-related incidents.
6: I think beetroot and honey are both the work of the devil
7: 7 is a great number because it reminds me of Blake's 7 which was my favourite tv show when I was growing up. Of course I'm grown up now, so that has been replaced by something far more sensible. Dr Who.

And I now hereby tag my lovely sister at Jans cards crafts and musings and the cranky one at Feed Me I"m Cranky

Doh!!!

2010-10-06T16:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of icing sessions on my ankle, and it seems to be improving, most importantly it's not giving me any grief on the bike and so I successfully completed my interval sprints on Tues with my ankle only complaining as much as the rest of me (which was quite a lot to be honest!). Today I had a strength interval session to complete, normally I do this by cycling up Tahuroa, coming back down (the same side) and then going up again. Going up Tahuroa from this side (ie from home) is the less hard way as the climbs are longer and more gradual, coming back the other way is, well, it's just evil! So today I decided to bite the bullet and go up and over and then come back up the evil way (not because I'm a total fool but because the spectre of the infamous French Pass is looming in a few weeks time so I have to stop being such a wuss about big hills!). Anyway got up and over without too much trouble, had a great "wheeeeeee" down the other side before turning round to head back. I hadn't gone all the way to the bottom, just far enough to give myself about 15 mins of climbing. I managed the loooong first climb and despite having to stand a few times was in fairly good shape before I hit the final short sharp climb which I have given a very rude name to on more than one occasion. There is a bit of downhill before you hit it but then it's a (short) merciless climb to the top. As I hit the first part of the hill I knew I was in trouble, the bike was creaking and I was going nowhere slowly, I stood up to get some momentum, it didn't help.... then I stalled, bugger! Managed to unclip my left foot only to topple over to the right (!) ending up in a big heap of grumpiness and bike. I was sooo p'd off, apart from a nice graze on my leg I had a huge dent in my ego that I'd failed so miserably. As I got up and started wheeling my bike up the hill I looked down at my front rings and realised I was still on the big ring -- w.t.f. ! No wonder I couldn't move - grrrr. I'm not sure if I felt better that it was a gear fail rather than my legs fail or worse because it was my own stupidity. Nothing for it, turned round and headed back down so that I could give it another go (using the right gears this time). It seemed so much easier this time around and I reached the top without incident. Hmph. Now sporting some lovely red gravel stripes down my leg and a large bump on my knee.

At Last!

2010-10-03T19:06:00.000-07:00

Some decent cycling weather, long ride on Sunday was a joy in the sun - very little wind and no rain! Managed my 81.5km and it definitely felt easier than last weekend, alhthough how much of that was down to the weather and how much to improved fitness I don't know. I have paid my entry for both Pukekohe and the Hamilton charity ride so that's 2 100km events coming up in a couple of weeks time - eeep! Mind you, I could have done 85 (and probably even 90) this weekend if I'd made myself, so I shouldn't be too far off getting through them (I hope). Taking advantage of another lovely day I did a recovery cycle in to work today, I have a few odd sort bits including a niggling tendon in my right ankle, but nothing major. Had a gym session with PT which wasn't too bad although I had to bail early on the final set of a couple of things. Hoping the ride home this afternoon is not too much like hard work.

A Few Hints of Spring

2010-09-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

Finally the weather has improved a little (although forecast to be rubbish again soon!). Saturday was still windy and wet in parts, but nowhere near as bad as last weekend. I managed my 80km without too much pain and although I was pretty stiff and sore for the rest of the day had more or less recovered by Sunday. Am getting set to enter a couple of 100km events in the next month to get me used to big group riding and also longer distances. One of them is local and includes the infamous French Pass - the hill that makes my personal nemesis (Tahuroa) look like a mere incline -gulp! Out today for a training ride with PT which was hard work and left me looking like a tomato (luckily I'm just banned from eating them not looking like them!), will have a nice slow recovery cycle home from work which I hope will help ease everything off again.

Just Do It

2010-09-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

After rain (and gales) stopped play last Saturday I couldn't face the thought of trying to do 70km on the indoor trainer (an hour is about my limit) and so persuading myself that the wind had dropped on Sunday I went out then instead. Hmm, note to self, when you're zipping along at more than 40kph on the flat having a great time don't forget you have to turn around.... The slog home was very painful, very slow and very wet. The cross winds were almost as bad as the head winds as I was getting blown off the road. Actually no, the head winds were worse, uphill, then it started raining. Are you getting the picture yet - miserable! Piked at 64km but given the weather it felt like I'd done 90. Seriously sore legs all this week, not helped by a hard gym session with PT on Monday. Tuesday evening I was supposed to do sprint intervals on the way home (wind assisted -yay!) but my legs weren't having a bar of it so I had to settle for a harder base ride instead (50 mins at 85rpm). Last night was wet and windy for a change so I got the trainer indoors and did an hour of sprint intervals in front of the tv. And today is Friday, day off to recover, which I am seriously in need of! Hoping for a little less wind this weekend as I have an 80km target to meet. GERD meds seem to be working well and most of my symptoms have reduced significantly or gone, back to the docs today for a review. Two weeks without coffee, alcohol, chocolate and a whole heap of other things, and I've managed not to go completely mad :#

Seriously? No Way!

2010-09-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

It is Saturday and I owe my training schedule a 70km ride. The wind is gusting at 45kph with intermittent very heavy rain showers. Ummm, sorry, no. Even the supermarket shopping is looking appealing right now.

Dodging the Rain

2010-09-15T18:58:00.000-07:00

A 60km ride out with the boys last Saturday saw me getting a bit more used to the new bike, still a bit slow on the downhills as I get used to a bit less stability but apart from that all is good. We managed to stay dry for most of the ride, but foolishly I left my extra 10km until the end (instead of doing it before we all met up) which was the point the weather turned to rubbish and I had to battle it out alone in the wind and rain - hmph. On Monday I went out for a training ride with my PT, it was absolutely chucking it down until just before I headed out, and then miraculously stayed dry for the whole ride - we had a seriously hidous headwind coming back though which just about exhuasted me. The only plus was that it meant I had the same wind as a tail wind when I went home after work so had a very fast very low effort recovery ride. Tuesday I hit the gym for a core workout (which I'm still feeling two days later) and yesterday back on the bike for a hill strength endurance ride. I headed up Tahuroa, than back down, then back up again -- madness! Needless to say today's gym session I was taking it fairly easy. On the medical front one of my worst symptoms has just about gone and the other really annoying one has shown some improvement (although is still around) so hopefully this means that I am sloooowly getting better. It also turned out that my iron levels are very low (thanks so much to the nurse from the medical centre who rang to tell me and gave me the news as if she was about to tell me I had only days to live!!) so I'm now also taking iron pills which will supposedly make me feel full of energy - mmm, not noticing it yet.

Still a Bit Wobbly

2010-09-12T14:31:00.000-07:00

A horrendously wet evening on Thursday saw me confined indoors on the trainer for my sprint session - by the time BIP got home the house was steamed up like a sauna! Friday morning I had a quick trip out on new bike as I wanted to get a feel for some hills before Saturday's ride. The biggest problem I have is on the downhills as I can't work out a good hand position for hovering over the brakes which means I worry too much and end up over braking. Saturday's 60km ride went well and didn't feel too hard (mind you I was out with the group so it did include a coffee break at the hour mark - or rather a chamomile tea break in my case, but more of that later) although I'm still a little wobbly on the bike at times and haven't solved the braking problem yet. I have a supervised ride with my PT today so hopefully we can iron out those issues. On the positive side I am still getting better speeds on the flat, and probably would be on the uphills too if I could work the gears out a bit quicker!
Meanwhile, back to the doctor again last Friday for some blood tests and finally perhaps a diagnosis. As my symptom list increased (and got even more odd!) I'd been doing what all good patients do and googling them (!) until finally about the only thing (apart from really freaky odd stuff) that pretty much fitted all of my symptoms was GERD (gastroesophegeal-reflux-disorder). Like most people I assumed this meant indigestion and heartburn (symptoms I actually don't have!) but apparently they are not always present. The doctor agreed and I am now trialling some drugs which surpress the creation of stomach acid and a diet which excludes all of the major food groups such as alcohol, coffee, citrus, tomatoes, peppermint(!?) and chocolate. Seriously, what is left?? Expecting miracles I am very surprised not to be better 3 days later, but apparently I won't start to show improvement until after a week...... tum te tum.... still waiting.

New Wheels

2010-09-07T18:02:00.000-07:00

Been busy busy busy since getting back from Skiing. A long ride last Saturday followed by a recovery ride indoors using the wind trainer that a friend has kindly loaned to me (it was too windy outdoors for an easy recovery ride so setting up the indoor trainer and watching tv as I rode was a good idea, plus the big pocket in my cycle shirt is the perfect size for the MySky remote!). Sunday night I was really sick again - I've been having ongoing respiratory problems since my last bout of Bronchitis which range from mildly annoying to frankly scary, so on Monday it was back to the Docs for a range of tests including exciting things such as chest xrays and ECG monitors which eliminated a whole load of possible nasty reasons but didn't get us much further in establishing a cause or solution - ho hum, I suspect this might be ongoing for a while so watch this space.
Yesterday was very exciting as I picked up the new bike I'd bought just before we went off on our hols. As you can see from the picture it is a thing of great beauty and as promised it goes faster than my old bike with the same effort - how cool is that, I never had that sort of success with a new pair of running shoes. I got it at 50% so saved a HUGE amount of money, which is a much better thing to think about than how much I spent :-)
Today was back to the gym for a PT session which was hard but not murder - although I suspect I'll be sore later in the week. Looking forward to getting back on the bike again tomorrow and hoping for some dry weather - especially this weekend when I need to start getting out for 60+ km.

Cycling and Skiing

2010-08-30T17:58:00.001-07:00

This blog update brought to you from Turangi. Have had some amazing skiing so far, yesterday’s weather was amazing and fresh powdery snow meant we skied all day. When we arrived here last Friday I discovered something quite amazing – cycling has improved my skiing! Apart from the obvious benefit of stronger quads and calves (meaning I don’t get tired so quickly) the downhill cycling on Tahuroa has meant that my skiing speed has increased as I’m not so nervous at heading downhill at speed. Lack of speed was the major problem with my skiing so it’s improved hugely thanks to the power of the bike! Having said that speed is not always a good thing, had a major wipeout yesterday during my ski lesson – stopped paying attention to the terrain (too busy thinking about all the things I had to remember) and found myself out of control at high speed – took off over an edge – wheeeee, landed on my feet which duly flew out from under me (never a good thing to see your skis in front of my face!) and landed with a nice bump on my butt followed by my head bouncing off the snow – and that dear readers is why we wear a ski helmet. No damage apart from a large snowball down my pants. As we were leaving at the end of the day the wind whipped up and it started snowing again, unfortunately the wind has increased and the mountain was closed today. BIP gone off to play golf and I went out for a strength interval cycle on the bottom part of the mountain road. Must lie down now.

Going Bananas

2010-08-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

One of the things my PT has advised me to do is work out what sort of food I can eat while cycling so I know what to take along on the big day to sustain me over 6 hours + of cycling. So my homework this week was to take a banana out on my ride and try and eat it without slowing down or hampering my cycling. So off I set this morning with my (already partially opened) banana tucked in the back pocket of my cycling shirt. After about 30 mins of cycling I decided now was the time and encountered my first problem - how to get the banana out of my pocket. The knobby bit at the top was caught in the elastic top of the pocket and I ended up nearly removing my shirt in order to get it out - hmm, definite loss of speed there not to mention the dangers of flashing if I wasn't wearing my thermals. The next problem was that the nice flat bit of road I had been admiring when I first attempted to get the banana out had now disappeared and as I took my second bite I found myself at the bottom of a hill - phttttwt, spit out lump of banana in order to get up hill without choking or throwing up. Then I had to go downhill on a windy bit of road trying to manage steering, braking and banana holding, nothing like getting mashed banana all over your cycling gloves and handlebars to brighten up your day. At this point I admitted defeat and biffed the remains of the banana into the nearest bush. I think it's safe to say that bananas will not be on my list of approved cycling foods.

Supervised Training Ride

2010-08-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

So it turns out one of the reasons I was so pathetic during my PT session last Monday was I was coming down with flu! Yes flu!! Unbelievable, I haven't had the flu since I was about 8, I guess my immune system was still down in the dumps from all the chest and sinus infections of last month and the flu bug saw an opportunity and swooped in. I also got another dose of bronchitis along with it for good measure, just what I needed. So a week of no training spent mostly in bed or sleeping. Yesterday I had a game of hockey so decided to use that as an indication of whether I was well enough to train again, and having survived it reasonably well had my PT session today which consisted of going out for a 50 min cycle with my trainer. Apparently what we did was what I should be doing for my base rides - definitely worked harder than I would have if I'd been doing a base ride by myself which is a useful indicator. Got some handy hints on a few bits and pieces which should help on group rides and also some homework which consists of things like eating a banana while cycling ! Pretty worn out when I got back but seem to be reasonably ok and haven't had to resort to a lie down yet this afternoon - maybe I am actually getting over this bug?!

Week 2, Here I Come

2010-08-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Torrential rain all day Saturday and the absence of the rest of my cycling group (off doing some extreme cross-country running event in Rotorua) meant that with all the will in the world I could not get myself out on the bike. Instead I set my alarm for early on Sunday with the plan of getting out first thing as I had a late hockey game so figured it should just about work out ok. Unfortunately having got out of bed I got as far as making a cup of tea and then got back into bed again! I finally managed to get myself out on the bike at about 2pm for a hard hilly ride - actually harder than anticipated due to poor route planning! Needless to say I was exhausted when I got back, and then had to go out and play a game of hockey - my poor legs were not impressed. Still very tired this morning so I was totally rubbish during my PT session. I had to do a kettle bell swing warm up interspersed with bungees on the swiss ball and by the time I'd done 3 sets each of those I was seriously ready to lie down. After the dreaded ITB roller sets and some half-hearted attempts at plank and side holds even my trainer had to concede that he wasn't going to get much out of me today! "Listen to your body" is good advice - mine is telling me to go and lie down somewhere warm and have a nice snooze.

TGIF

2010-08-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

Isn't Friday a great day, it is of course the official day of rest in my training schedule and hence my new favourite day. Having recovered from the mad exertions of Tuesday's speed intervals I was relieved to find that yesterday's strength endurance session was a little more manageable. I cycled into work in the morning at recovery pace (i.e. really slowly with minimal exertion) which was, quite frankly odd. Just before I arrived at work I got overtaken by some cyclists and had to use all of my will power to not take off after them and remain at my sendentary pace, hmph. Used the ride home for the strength endurance which is about ramping up the gears to hard and maintaining a constant cadence, the aim is that you can "feel the burn" in your legs at all times. Well that and the puffing and panting, and coughing, and spitting up bits of lung (still!), but all in all still easier than speed. Took my bike in for a service today as I thought it could do with a little tlc given all the work it is and will be doing, think I could do with the same myself!

Remind Me Again Whose Stupid Idea This Was?

2010-08-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

Having coped with day 1 of my PT schedule (core workout) fairly easily I breezed into yesterday's challenge of a 1 hour interval ride without seriously absorbing quite how impossible it was when I read through the brief. One hour on the bike consisting of 15 min warm up then 5 x intervals of 3 mins at a cadence (pedal revolutions) of between 95-110 interspersed with 5 mins at 85. Then cool down to finish. Ok, firstly, fast cadence and me are not friends, if I need to go fast I tend to rely on power rather than leg speed so this was always going to be a challenge. Secondly, 3 minutes....! Are you frikken kidding me!!! After 2 I was just about ready to stop breathing, and then maintaining 85 as a 'recovery' ... well let's just say 85 is already fast. So after an on bike readjustment to 5 x 2 min intervals with recovery aiming at 80+ I just about made it home. The worst part was I reached the end of my road after 50 mins and had to keep on going as I still had 10 mins of cycling to go. Ugh, everything hurt when I got off the bike, I was like a quivering jelly. Clearly somewhere along the line my PT got the impression that rather than just wanting to complete the Lake Taupo Challenge I'm aiming for some sort of course record.
Thankfully today was off bike and another core workout - I never thought I'd be so happy to get back on that foam roller.

Discovering My ITBs

2010-08-08T18:26:00.000-07:00

I had a session with my PT today (can I be the 1 billionth person to point out that personal trainer and personal torturer have the same initials?!) to go over my 16 week training schedule to get me ready to complete the Lake Taupo Challenge (eep). Actually it's quite good to have it all down on paper laid out week by week as I know from half-marathon training that you can just work through the training week by week and know that as long as you get it done you're heading towards a successful outcome. Anyway today being Monday it was my core and stretch session, the core workout didn't look too challenging on paper (although I discovered that there's a good reason the set of Catapults is only 12 as they're only easy for about the first 3). The stretching included instructions to roll my ITB with a foam roller. Apparenly the ITB does a lot of work when cycling and is prone to injury later on if not looked after early. Now personally I couldn't pick my ITB out of a line up - I had a vague idea of where it sort of was (which turned out to be wrong), but hey, that's ok, how hard can it be to roll anything on a foam roller.... famous last words. PT demonstrated by lying on aforementioned roller and gracefully gliding up and down so that it rolls from hip to knee and back in a fluid movement. I attempted the same - hmmm, firstly owwwww! Ok now I know where my ITB is, and also that it hurts like f**k to roll up and down on a foam roller on top of it. Apparently this is an indication that they are already showing signs of stress (and not, as the more sane of us might think that rolling up and down on them is a crazy thing to do). Apart from the pain the whole gracefully gliding up and down the roller thing totally eluded me, I think I looked like a large injured duck that lies miserably on the side of a road flapping various bits of wing and leg forlornly. Yup, go the ITBs !

Rev'in Up

2010-08-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Bit the bullet today and went to a lunchtime rev class (spin cycle for you overseas bods). I'd been a bit apprehensive as it's been well over a year since I last did one and they are always damn hard - but I'm pleased to report I survived it, although I do have a bad case of jelly legs this afternoon. It's the next best thing to actually being out on the bike and with a crazy schedule this week which is preventing me from cycling to work I feel that at least I'm getting some hard kms under my belt.

Taupo Here I Come..?

2010-08-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

A month or so ago in a post-half marathon mood of being totally over running I half-heartedly declared that I would quite like to do the lake Taupo challenge (160km bike ride) this year. Since then I have been variously overseas and then laid low with bronchitis, a sinus infection and a chest infection so haven't been doing much of anything (other than moaning about how sick I am). Last week as I finally realised I really was getting better and could actually get back to the gym and start doing something my thoughts returned to Taupo and I started wondering if I'd left it too late given how little I've been cycling in the past 12 months (i.e. about twice!). In one of those casual conversations that turn out to be pivotol a friend of mine directed me to a weekend cycling group which led to me taking on a 2 hour cycle to Morrinsville and back over Tahuroa (which, to give you some indication of its immense hilliness I generally refer to as the Tahuroa mountain). Against all odds I survived, and almost enjoyed myself (at least on the downhills!) and so I scheduled a meeting with a personal trainer this morning and now have a plan (or will have once he's drawn it up!) and lots of motivation for Taupo. So for the next 16 weeks I will be blogging about cycling with n'er a run in sight, which will at least give me something different to moan about. All I have to look forward to know is my first puncture.... watch this space!

All in working order

2010-06-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

After a few days off nursing my bruises and generally feeling sorry for myself I have managed to get myself up and at it again. Started with a fairly gentle weights session and then did a bit of interval training on the treadmill yesterday. Haven't ventured back out onto the road again yet, but the aim at the moment is to get out for a short(ish) run this afternoon after my physio appointment. Physio is for the ongoing saga of my shoulder which hadn't really got any better, but after the road acrobatics had actually got worse. This is not all bad news, I at least now have an official (ACC worthy) cause which means if this bout of physio doesn't work then I can at least get it progressed to a scan etc. to find out what will actually fix it.

National Running Day

2010-06-02T17:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was National Running Day in the US, to celebrate I went out for a run at lunch time today and did something I've never done before, tripped over and splatted myself all over the road. Ow. Luckily as I was airborne some subconscious instinct to not fracture my wrists kicked in and as my hands hit asphalt I managed to roll taking the brunt of the fall on my right hand side - hand, elbow, shoulder, knee. ow. That'll be my right shoulder, the one that's already trashed - ho hum no loss there then. Do you know how difficult it is to get up off the middle of the road when you're winded, a little bit shocked and not quite sure yet which bits hurt and which don't and how seriously? I had to settle for a crawl/shuffle to the kerb and then a sit down on the pavement for a bit while bewildered school children on their lunch break scuttled past nervously. Oh, and to the car drivers who slowed down enough to have a gawk, yes thanks, I'm fine, nothing broken. Did I mention, ow?

Cycle and Slump

2010-06-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

The post half-marathon slump has arrived as expected and I haven't felt very inclined to do much of anything. Saturday I took advantage of the fact that I didn't have to go for a long run and went out on the bike instead. Did just under an hour with nothing challenging hillwise, and apart from the fact it kept raining on me (and was cold!) it was all good. Was a bit unsure if hockey on Sunday was going to aggrevate my muscle strain but had no problems so it must be pretty much fixed. I avoided marathon clinic last night on the basis that we'd had torrential rains and gales all day and even though it cleared up late afternoon I'd already talked myself into going home and sitting in front of the fire by then. Took a look at the hill profile map for Taupo yesterday - eek! Leg 1 is the worst (the course is split into 4 legs for the sensible people who do it as a relay) with the first 10km being a pretty much constant climb. The good news is if you survive that each leg gets progressively easier. If. I need to get in touch with the people I know who've done it and find out what sort of training they did. Still not 100% committed to doing it but very keen.

A Bit of Blog and Doing the Robot

2010-05-27T17:40:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me? Did you? Did you? At the risk of alienating my loyal crowd of readers (last count, 2) I took a break from blogging, partly due to being very busy and realising that I could run or blog but not both! And partly because whining about running was starting to bore me let alone my faithful reader(s).

Anyhoo, here I am again. Last Sunday was the Huntly half marathon and my plan to run it quicker than last year didn't quite eventuate when I strained a groin muscle at 15km, on the upside I did still finish (albeit painfully) and only 10 minutes slower than last year, and the video footage of my crossing the finish line (a lop-sided lope a la quasimodo) is hilarious, although not quite as funny as one of the on-course photos in which I appear to be doing the robot, oh go on then as you asked so nicely here is aforementioned picture along with one where I do at least appear to be running! Post-huntly I've managed a couple of 20 minute jogs before twinged muscles begin to re-twinge so I'm just hoping it all feels ok for hockey on Sunday. In other news I have moved from seriously considering doing the round Taupo cycle (160km) to checking out the date of this year's event and downloading a training schedule...eeek! Watch this space, can't be harder than running... can it?!

Ada Lovelace Day

2010-03-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Today's blog is something different, I'm writing it to honour the pledge I made on http://findingada.com/ to blog about an inspirational women in technology to help celebrate Ada Lovelace day. There are so many to choose from - this is a marvellous thing, there are so few most people will have heard of - this is a less marvellous thing. Tempted as I am to blog about all the unfamous women in technology you will never have heard of (I'm talking about people I've worked with, people who have inspired me personally, technicians and support staff who've been there when I needed, the list goes on) I decided to give my blog space to someone I think has made a positive contribution by setting up a community to support and encourage female Linux users and OSS/FOSS fans. So Deb Richardson take a bow, the LinuxChix is a great example of the positive power of supporting newbies and lending a helping hand to those who want to know more, but don't want to step out of the shadows and ask for fear of being shot down in flames. The best way to encourage more women to be part of the OSS community is by providing forums like this where 'not knowing' something is not a barrier to taking part. We were all newbies once, I wish I'd had somewhere like LinuxChix to go when I took my first steps into the world of Linux, long may they prosper. You can find LinuxChix at http://www.linuxchix.org/ go take a look, even if you think it will be full of stuff you'll never need to know. I leave you with proof that Ada Lovelace is truly an icon, a picture of her immortalised in lego. Happy Ada Lovelace Day.

Lovely Lovely Run

2010-03-02T13:18:00.000-08:00

Why so lovely, I hear you ask, well having not done a road run for about a week (Kakepuku didn't happen for me at the weekend due to not being able to get out of bed early enough, and also a great circuit workout on Friday had left me barely able to walk, let alone run as I got a bit carried away with my lunges!) and having missed mc last Tuesday I really had to force myself out to mc this week. I had to go home first as BIP is away so I needed to feed the dogs etc., and of course once home it's always harder to drag myself out again, also my stomach had been playing up a fair bit this week (self-inflicted, I have a great mental list of foods I must not eat - but still, I eat them - go figure!) and I wasn't convinced I had the wherewithal to get out there and run. But I persuaded myself to go, and once we set off I felt fine. We were out for an hour 20 (although some of that was dicking around while JB2 went to the money machine) with only a couple of walking breaks so I felt really positive about it (tho' a bit sore in places this morning). With only a couple of weeks to go before I start training for Huntly it was just what I needed to rev up my motivation. So hurray for group running, and hooray for me.

Bits and Pieces

2010-02-23T12:00:00.000-08:00

Yoo Hoo! Yes I'm still here, haven't disappeared off on holiday again (if only!) just been busy busy busy at work and barely getting enough time to exercise let alone blog about it. Hmm, so since last I blogged I planned a lovely 13km run for last weekend which was going to be a trial to see if I could do the 14km this Sunday at Kakepuku - but totally failed to get out and do it (combination of the usual factors - couldn't go out early due to stomach problems and the day just got hotter and hotter so by the time I could go out it was about 3pm and insane weather for running). Sunday I planned to get out running early as I had to be at the hockey turf for 11 for our first muster of the season - well, I got to the muster.... although as it turned out that had started at 10 and we were an hour late. How was I to know, I'm only the club secretary for heaven's sake, and just because I'd sent round the email to everyone else with the date and time doesn't mean I actually read it....... Hmph. So I had a 15 min run around on the hockey pitch, unsurprisingly my shoulder didn't take too kindly to it but it was really only sweep hitting that was painful so I carried on with my current plan of ignoring it.
Monday I had half an hour on the lovely precor machine at the gym again - I really am loving this machine, followed by some weights and abs, and yesterday I should've been running with mc but was too bleah. Rather than beating myself up at my lack of running at the moment I've decided to chill and enjoy the rest, I'll be starting my half-marathon training for Huntly again in a week or so, so until then I'll just mix up what I do and enjoy the break.

The Hills are Alive ....

2010-02-17T18:17:00.000-08:00

I'm still undecided about doing the second run in the summer series which is the Kakepuku run in Te Awamutu on Sunday 28th. Chest thing is pretty much gone now thankfully (just a little bit of wheezing today), but it's 14km and I haven't run that far for aaaaages and also it's a really really hilly course. I suspect I won't make up my mind until the day and enter on the day if I feel like it. To help make up my mind, and also just in case I do enter, I replaced my Thursday stair intervals with hill intervals! So while BIP ran up and down the stairs I ran up and down the hill - I think she had to work harder in all honesty but hill practice is more useful to me right now than fitness.

Wheeeeeeeeze

2010-02-16T18:22:00.000-08:00

Ok so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, my chestiness is in fact clearing up (humidy induced??) and I managed Tuesday night's run with the mc crew without requiring resuscitation. I did find that steep hills were to be avoided though as once I started breathing too heavily it felt like someone was stomping on my chest while at the same time trying to squeeze my lungs out through my throat (aah asthma how I miss you!), but as long as I kept to a steady pace and reasonably flat all was well. This morning I did a circuit and have a new approach to my shoulder which is that I'll do anything that doesn't hurt - including the things that my (ex) physio told me to avoid. Will see what effect this has on things, the osteopath treatment does seem to be having an effect and it's better than it has been for a couple of month - maybe it's actually getting better!!

Something Different

2010-02-14T21:20:00.000-08:00

After my non blog about my non run yesterday I headed to the gym today to see if I could find something to do that would cheer me up a bit. They have a new piece of equipment, the Precor AMT 100i which is a combined stair climber and cross trainer. Basically you determine which sort of action you perform depending on how you step and use your arms. I started off with stair climbing which is an up and down leg movement with no arms, and then alternated 5 minute intervals between stair climbing and cross training (which uses forward striding motions and arms). I went for 30 mins and it was a pretty good workout, I was certainly sweating plenty (mmmm, nice image). My heartrate sat between 135 and 150 so not at fast running level but above jogging. Once I'd finished that I did some free weights and abs. There aren't too many free weights I can do with my (still dodgy) shoulder but enough to get by. I seem to be coming down with some sort of cough/chesty thing which is very odd as I don't feel at all unwell, just have this intermittant and very annoying cough which causes a really tight feeling in my chest. I suspect this was partly the problem yesterday. Hopefully it will amount to nothing as I generally fight most bugs off before they settle in.

A Full Set of Stairs

2010-02-11T12:05:00.000-08:00

Thursday morning = stair intervals with BIP again. This week we reintroduced the mini hill sprints between sets of stairs and finished with the full long hill, so back up to doing the full thing. Also managed to do the lap round the playing fields at a reasonable speed, so all in all a successful workout. A busy weekend ahead - Dog show at the Highland tattoo in Paeroa on Saturday and marshalling for the blueberry run on Sunday - means I probably won't have time for a run so I'm planning to try and fit one in this evening after work, I'd like to get out for at least an hour and see if I can start getting my longer distance fitness working again. Also means more wear and tear on 'those' shoes too ....

Tuesday Night's MC Run

2010-02-09T13:53:00.000-08:00

To be honest I wasn't expecting great things on my Tuesday night run with marathon clinic after Sunday's hard and long (er than expected) run. However it wasn't too bad all in all. We set out as a fairly large group, me, JB2, LJ, Moro, Lego, USAP and a newbie who's name I didn't catch (saving me the trouble of anonymising him!). We headed off towards the Uni (great, just what I need after a hard day of work, running back to work!) and then after heading round the playing fields split up. Lego & newbie headed off one way (Lego had done the Pukekohe half on Sunday so was taking it easy). LJ, Moro and JB2 decided they wanted to head out via Ruakura for a longer run but I wasn't in the mood to make what was turning into an ok run into anything harder, so headed back to the club by myself. Took it fairly easy and had to walk a couple of blocks here and there but in general pretty good. Not sure how/when I'm going to fit in a run this weekend as we're off to Paeroa with the dogs on Saturday and on Sunday I'm on refreshment duty at the blueberry run. Oh, and the really good news of the week is that WHT are starting to wear at the heel and at this rate will need replacing sooner rather than later :-)

Too Hot, Too Far

2010-02-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

Next weekend sees the start of the summer series, 3 set of runs organised by running groups in the area at different locations. The first, which is next Sunday, is the Blueberry Run in Ohaupo which is organised by the marathon clinic. So as we have to be on duty for the run, marshalling, running water stands etc. the tradition is to go out a week earlier and do the run ourselves. The really keen (aka crazy) runners go out at about 6am to avoid the heat of the day, which would be a sensible idea except it's 6am!!! On a Sunday!!! The slightly less deranged (me and JB2) headed out at 10am which was a much more civilised hour, but boy oh boy did it get hot! I was planning on doing 10km and JB2 was doing the full 17km. Wonky B had come out in his car to do water stops for us so I decided to run the 17km route with JB2 and then hop into WB's car after 10km. As it happened I got talked into staying after the 10km water stop for another 3km so ended up doing 13km - ugh! I can honestly say that it was a struggle - even the 10km was a struggle. This time last year I did the 17km with ease - well, maybe not with ease, but a darn sight easier than this year's efforts! Maybe by the third run in the series I'll just about manage to drag myself round the 12km! I spent the rest of Sunday seriously overheated and discovered this morning that I still had a face like a tomato despite copious amounts of sunscreen!
For those of you following the 'shoulder saga' I was back at the physio this morning (ker-ching!) and she is now referring me to a sports physician to arrange a cortisone injection. I will in the meantime be booking in to see a hypnotherapist, witch-doctor and podiatrist (just in case it's a referred pain).

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

2010-02-03T16:06:00.000-08:00

Stairs intervals this morning. Despite the fact that I really really didn't want to get out of bed this morning when the alarm went off at 6am (lack of sleep due to humidity and shoulder) I managed to drag myself up and out and along with BIP managed an interval session on the management stairs. It was definitely the best time of day to do it as was relatively cool. Haven't done stairs since the really hard session just before we went on holiday and I'm pleased to report it was a lot easier today. Poor BIP was struggling though as she'd done a serious interval session yesterday morning and had hockey training last night so was too worn out to give it too much oomph. Did 5 sets of stairs (one block at double stride, one block at single) but didn't do the mini hill sprints in between. Finished with the full big hill though, and then a lap of the playing fields to 'cool down'. By the time we'd finished and showered it was already one of those days where the combination of being overheated along with the ambient temperature meant it was virtually impossible to get dry after my shower - damp and red-faced, mmmmm nice start to the working day.

2 In a Row Don't Go

2010-02-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

Monday was a mad venture, a speed interval run on the road. It had been a fairly cool (by recent standards) day - and not raining either, so seemed like a good opportunity for some hard work. Needless to say the minute I stepped outside in my running gear the humidity ramped up by about 90% and I was damp and exhausted before I even made it to the end of the drive! Living in a rural area means we have white road edge markers at 50m intervals all along our road which is a useful training aid for intervals. Workout consisted of a 5 min warm up jog, then 5 x intervals of fast running for 100m followed by recovery jog of 100m, then a couple of minutes recovery jogging before a second set of shorter intervals 5 x 50m fast running with 50 m recovery. Then finally another 5 mins of slow jogging to cool down (ha! not much cooling down occurred).
I definitely did some work as my quads were feeling it by Tuesday -- not a good start to mc running day. Tues evening was again very hot and humid, luckily JB2's madness saved me a little as she'd done a mountain race at the weekend and then spent Monday doing a 14 km run followed by a 90 min climb of Mt Te Aroha!! (and people think I'm crazy ...) - needless to say she wasn't in the mood for much of a hard run Tues night so the two of us stuck together and did an hour's easy run (with plenty of walking breaks) which still felt ridiculously hard. Day off training today (yay!) just trying to decide if I'm up to stairs intervals tomorrow - guess I'll see if I can get out of bed early enough first.

Return to the Road

2010-01-30T15:26:00.000-08:00

After being confined to a treadmill for the past 10 days whilst on our holidays it was time to bite the bullet and get back out on the road. I had planned to get up and out early on Friday to avoid the hot weather, but my body had other ideas about sleeping in so that went out the window. Instead I had to go out after work when it was still HOT! I wasn't looking forward to getting back into WHT (world's heaviest trainers) - I'd been running in my Nike free runners while overseas (as they're a nice light option to pack and good for walking around in) which was ok on the treadmill but not enough support for longer road runs so it was back to my proper running shoes. Just did a short (30 min) easy run which was ok and I was glad I had been doing some training while away! Yesterday (Saturday) I went out for a long run (1 hour) which was hard work in the heat (even at 9am) and not only did I have the extra weight of WHT to contend with but also had my water belt on (no way I could go an hour in this weather without water). It was ok- ish, definately got easier as my water bottle got emptier! I had a couple of walking breaks on the second half back and it was a slooooow run, but that's ok, glad to have got out and done it before MC next Tuesday. Pouring with rain today, hope it clears up before tomorrow's public holiday when I have a short fast interval run planned - could do with it being a bit cooler though.

Holiday Work Outs

2010-01-27T14:16:00.000-08:00

I'm back! Home from the holiday, back at work and trying to hold on to that sunny lying around by the pool or sea feeling. Suffice it to say we had a fab time, the resort in Phuket, was, well, mad! It deserves a blog all to itself really, the funniest part is that we got it on a timeshare exchange and the week we own is in a small motel in Turangi which is great for us for skiing, but I can only imagine the shock and horror of someone who owned a week at the Phuket resort if they swapped a week and ended up in Turangi ... they probably wouldn't quite believe it! Just to summarise briefly about the resort (and then I'll shut up about it and get on with the real subject of this blog!)
- Our appartment was roughly the same size as our house (I'm not kidding...)
- The daily room service included the creation of small animals made out of towels (Thai take on origami ?) - I decided to return the favour but not sure mine were quite of the same standard....
- There were 3 swimming pools just in case you couldn't manage the 100 metre walk to the sea
- When you arrived at aforementioned pool(s) the pool staff would bring you towels and iced water, which they topped up regularly, and occasionally bowls of fruit
- The onsite gym was better equipped than the one I'm a member of here in NZ

So on that note (the gym) you'll be delighted to know that the holiday wasn't all about lying on the sun and cooling off in the sea or pool, we did actually get some workouts done too. BIP couldn't afford time off training for hockey masters and I thought it would be rude to make her train alone so we got to the gym 5 days out of our 7 in Phuket and I did a variety of treadmill runs and a few weights. They also had hot/cold plunge pools in the changing rooms which I took advantage of on the last day, but should have checked there was no one else around before jumping into the ice pool the first time as I realised halfway through some rather choice language that I was not alone....!
We also had a gym in the hotel in Bangkok so even got a workout there too. I therefore feel somewhat virtous and it's nice to get back from a holiday not totally fearful about having to get back into running from scratch. Having said that I'm sure next Tuesday's marathon clinic will still be a killer.

Hay hay hay!

2010-01-12T18:21:00.000-08:00

There's nothing like throwing a few hay bales around to get a total body workout, cardio and all sorts of muscles, some of which you may never know you had. I got home at 4 yesterday to the joyous sight of our hay being baled (weather had been up and down all week so it had been a bit nerve-wracking). BIP was due home at 5.30 and her older brother was also coming over with the car trailer to help out, so I was prepared to do nothing until they all arrived. Until I looked out of the window. Enormous black clouds were brewing and all heading straight for our paddock, uh oh! So I raced out and at 4.30 began loading up our little farm trailer and dumping bails into the hay barn. The small trailer can carry about 7 bales comfortably and our mini four wheeler can manage to tow that quite well. I was on load number 7 when BIP got home and took up position in the hay barn as stacker so I could just dump each load and head back to the paddock. By now the sky was seriously black and loud thunder was rumbling all around. After 10 load BIP's elder brother arrived with the other trailer and between us we got in the last 50 bales in record time, there were 9 left in the paddock when the heavens opened and between us BIP and I managed to balance all of these onto the small trailer and persuade the bike to tow it up to the barn - phew!! It was a realy downpour and I was drenched - as were the dogs who'd been running round their pen barking like fools at all the activity rather than staying dry in their kennel. So all gathered in in record time, and I'm surprisingly not that sore or stiff today, I suspect it will hit me tomorrow. The good (and somewhat amazing) news is the spa pool is finally in, delivered, installed, filled and (as I'm sitting at my desk typing this) heating up. I don't care if it's not hot enough when I get home, if necessary I will put my wetsuit on to use the darn thing as I'm determined to get at least one use of it before we head off on holiday tomorrow morning! Oh yes, btw I'm off on holiday, so blog posts will be few and far between and mainly along the lines of - spent the day lying on the beach..... you have been warned.

Weekend Activities

2010-01-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

Another beautiful sunny weekend, hard to drag myself off the sun lounger, but got a little too much sun Saturday lunch time so thought I'd better get into the shade for the rest of the weekend. Saturday arvo I wasn't feeling too energetic but managed a few free weights in the garden (the shady part!) - although there's not too much I can do with the dodgy shoulder there are still a few things I can work on, and I also gave my abs a bit of a work out too. On Sunday BIP decided she should try a longer run for her stamina training (she's usually doing shorter faster runs) so we went out together for an hour. I'd forgotton how annoying I find it running with BIP, despite not doing anything longer than 40 mins generally, it doesn't matter how much training I've been doing she always pootles alongside me without a care in the world and can generally finish faster - putting me in a really really bad mood! Hmph. I got over it. The amazing news is that the spa pool is finally being delivered this afternoon!!! So then just got to get the electrician to do the wiring and the handover person to come and show us how to do the chemicals and it will be all go. We might actually get to use it before heading off on holiday on Thursday (watch this space....) The only dilemma I have now is weather to leave it up and running for the house-sitter while we're away, which would be the nice thing to do, but only if we get to use it first!

To Round off the Week, DBT

2010-01-07T16:46:00.000-08:00

I've had one of those really frustrating weeks. You know the kind where everyone and everything seems out to thwart you... well that was my week. I decided to vent my frustrations on the treadmill with a lunchtime treat of death by treadmill.It did the trick, I no longer have the energy to vent or rant at anyone and have been reduced to a zen-like state of phlllrrrr-ness (if that's how you spell it). I even had to take the lift back to my office once I'd dragged myself up the hill!! Yes, the lift!! Not just any old lift, the lift of doom which is forever trapping people for hours on end in it's evil clutches. Given the week I've had I'm amazed I made it out so effortlessly. Now I just need to summon up enough energy to get over to the library and bookshop this afternoon .... this could be a long trip.

It's Rude to Stair

2010-01-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

At some point this week I had the great idea of resurrecting Thursday morning stair runs. BIP is on a major fitness drive prior to the start of Master's hockey next week so was keen and hence this morning I had to drag myself out of bed (and it was a drag as I'd already been up once at 4.30 to move a bellowing calf back to the right side of an electric tape - which wasn't even on!) for 40 minutes of evilness. The route is a 5 min easy jog from the gym up the hill to management buildings then 5 repetitions of jog down the hill round the corner up the slope and then up the stairs - first set big strides 2 at a time second set small fast steps, then try and recover along the flat bit and go again. Stairs are uncompromising and quick to pinpoint lack of fitness and particularly lack of strength in the legs. By the second set I was convinced my legs were made of jelly - or more probably mince pies, xmas cake and alcohol! I will leave you to imagine the state of loveliness we were both in by the end, needless to say the 10 min cool down around the playing fields involved several bouts of walking.

Taking it Easy Ain't Easy!

2010-01-05T18:19:00.000-08:00

Lynny was back at running last night as was Stumpy, which took our running group number up to 5 which was better than last week's pitiful 3! Lynny was complaining about how little running she'd done over the xmas break and how unfit she was feeling, which in all honesty was music to my ears. However I failed to take into account that when Lynny is feeling unfit she doesn't slow down at all, just takes occasional walking breaks. I realised this after 10 minutes as Stumpy and USA Pete got further and further behind and I was in iminent danger of collapse. A new game plan was needed so I dropped back and ran mainly with Stumpy (USA Pete was still struggling this week) and after each walk break would do a few minutes with L and M. We finished the run with a killer hill, short but nasty, and with just 10 mins to go I forced myself to up the pace and finish in the front group. Ugh, the words 'tomato face' and 'dripping wet' spring to mind - isn't it lovely to run on hot sunny nights?!
Today I opted for a lunch time circuit. Actually it wasn't really a circuit as with my shoulder the way it is (don't get me started on that!) I can only use about 20% of the circuit machines, so I just alternated between seta of weights and 2 mins of cardio (5 on the spin bike, 5 on stepper and 5 on the mini-trampoline) which was quite enough for a lunch time thank you very much. Then I went to the bank and had to restrain myself from slapping the really really annoying clerk who gave me totally incorrect information yesterday and blatently lied about it today - hrmph.

Sea Air & Walking = Tired!

2010-01-04T12:22:00.001-08:00

We spent the weekend at the beach and had a great time walking, swimming (well, getting into the sea screeching at how cold it was and getting out again), lazing in the sun and generally enjoying ourselves. It was the first time our youngest dog had been to the beach and he was quite bewildered by the sea which kept creeping up on him unexpectedly and getting his feet wet! By the time we got home on Sunday night we were all exhausted, and I didn't get out of bed until gone 9 on Monday morning which is very unusual. I still felt quite wiped out and it was a major effort getting out for a run - not helped by the strong winds that were whipping around the place. At least it wasn't another scorching hot day (I had planned to run at the beach but it was really just too hot) but it was still a struggle. After about 25 mins I had to slow to a walk for the turn around before bucking myself up for the run home. Definitely no speed or distance barriers getting broken, but at least I got out and got it done.Hopefully I'll have a bit more energy this evening for marathon clinic, and hopefully a few more people will show up this week!

Finally Back to Marathon Clinic

2009-12-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

Hope you all had a good Xmas and that my fellow Kiwis enjoyed the unusually fantastic weather - what a scorcher eh?! For those who had been hanging out to find out what was in the garage it turned out to be a rather fabulous sun lounger - looks great on the new deck and is a great alternative to running :-)
Monday I finally managed to drag myself out of mincepie induced apathy for a 40 min run, which was fine but I had sore legs yesterday as a result, I think because I added a bit of speedwork, it was certainly not hill induced as it was a very flat run. Yesterday, being Tuesday I thought I'd better get myself down to marathon clinic before they sent out a search party. As it turned out there was hardly anyone there - all off at the beach most likely. There were about 10 walkers but only 2 other runners, so it was just me Maurie and USA Peter. I knew I wasn't up to anything major so we went off towards the lake in case the boys were feeling adventurous as they could head off into Frankton from there. As it happened USA Peter was struggling more than me so we all just did a lap of the lake and then headed back, so a not overly rapid 50 mins in all, one hill and a couple of gentle inclines, which suited me fine! Got home to find JB2 had finally responded to my text to let me know she wasn't going to running....! Today my quads are still complaining a little, so I think a few weights this afternoon will do me fine, although BIP is heading out for a run as she needs to start training for master's hockey tournament.

A Quick Trot

2009-12-22T19:23:00.000-08:00

My great plan to use my extra free time to do plenty of running has so far amounted to nothing - due to a combination of heaps of jobs to do and not really being bothered. Anyway despite having lots on today I reckoned I could fit in a quick run. I had to drop BIP's car into the garage first thing for a service, it was due to be done by 1 and I had a haircut in Ham East at 12.30 so took my bike in with me so that I could get around while the car was in the garage. I really dislike cycling in town - too many cars, people and glass all over the road - ugh, give me country roads and milk tankers any day, at least they usually give me a wide birth. Anyway BIP's car needed new breakpads which of course didn't arrive when they said they should, so when I went back to the garage at 2 it was going to be at least another couple of hours. Luckily they had a courtesy car I could take home so I left BIP's car (and my bike which wouldn't fit into the back of the Suzuki Swift they loaned me) at the garage and came home - will pick them up in the morning after physio. It was 3pm by now, and I have some baking to do before the choir drinks here tonight, but reckoned I had a couple of hours to play with so popped out for a 40 min trot. It was very humid out there, but managed to get round without any major grumbles. So if you're reading this Santa I have been very good and done at least one run this week so hopefully see you soon (and then I can find out what the mystery in the garage is ...!). Happy Xmas readers, I'll be back with more attempts at getting and staying fit once I've sobered up :-)

I Got Tagged

2009-12-18T16:31:00.000-08:00

So a break from the norm, this blog is in response to my tag from Pretty Clever's Selina , so those of you who always wanted to know some random facts (in one word, supposedly... hmm one word, seriously when did I ever use one word when ten would do?) about me, here goes!

1. Where is your phone? Kitchen
2. Your hair? Short
3. Your Mom? Dead
4. Your Dad? Wales
5. Your favorite meal? Anything I didn't cook
6. Your last dream? Annoying
7. What do you like to drink? Tea
8. Your dream? Financial security
9. In what room are you? Lounge
10. Your hobby? Running
11. What are you afraid of? Too many things to even contemplate a single word answer
12. Last travel? Europe
13. Where were you last night? Party
14. Something you are not? Astronaut
15. Muffins? Oh go on then
16. Wishlist? Long
17. Where did you grow up? Wales
18. Last thing you did? Buy Xmas tree
19. What are you wearing? casual
20. Your television? On
21. Your pet(s)? Dogs(2) Cats(2)
22. Your friends? Varied
23. Your life? Full
24. Your temper? Infrequent
25. Do you miss someone? Yes
26. Your car? Impreza
27. Something you don’t bring with you? A handbag (don't even own one!)
28. Your favorite shop? Favourite shop?? You're kidding right -- people have favourite shops?!
29. Your favorite color? Blue
30. Last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Can't remember - wow!
32. Your best friend? Stephen H
33. A place where you can go again and again? Thailand
34. Facebook? Frequently
35. Favorite place to eat? Domaine, Hamilton

So there you have it, I think I'm supposed to pass this on via blog tag so will get around to that at some point. Enjoy and merry Xmas :-)

Running on a Sunny Afternoon

2009-12-18T12:18:00.000-08:00

While I am a little jealous of the fact that it looks like parts of the UK will get snow for Xmas I'm also enjoying our sunny days. After our dept Xmas lunch yesterday I managed to get away from work at 3pm giving me time for a run of about 40 mins. The cold breeze that has been lurking for the past couple of days had kicked in again which stopped me overheating and I had a pleasant 40 min gentle trot and hardly whinged about my shoes at all :-) In the evening we had our choir xmas carol parties where we went along to a couple of people's houses and sang for their party guests in return for a bit of food and wine. We had all been a bit iffy about the second place but it turned out fine and was lots of fun.

A Road Run at Last - Hurray!

2009-12-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

What with bad reactions to anti-flams, long summer cycles and late meetings at work (meaning I missed Tueday at mc) I seem to have been doing all of my running on the treadmill lately, so lunchtime today I took advantage of another lovely day and decided to hit the pavements instead. Yesterday was a death by treadmill day, although I have had to up the speed and hill incline as it was no longer living up to its name (in fact it should really be extreme hardship by treadmill at the moment as even with the new speed etc it's not as much of a killer as in ye olde days) but I was feeling fine today so just went out for a short (30 mins) run to see if I could still hack it on the road. Not too shabby actually, I even threw in some speed work on the way back (although slowed down too much on the recovery bits so it took me just as long to get back as it had to go out - doh!). It definitely felt like the first road run for a while - it really is quite different from the treadmill, but was fine (although I did managed to grumble about my shoes on more than once occasion...!). Even managed a few weights when I got back to the gym before my shower. Back to the physio tomorrow to report that since my first visit my shoulder has got noticably worse - not sure this was the intended result.

Lots of Cycling & Even More Ham

2009-12-13T13:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day (sandwiched by rainy mornings on Saturday and today), perfect for BIP's Xmas golf tournament at Te Awamutu. I was planning on going in for the prize-giving and bbq so rather than take two cars, BIP drove in and I set off a few hours later on my bike. It's a fairly challenging 42(ish) km trip, first half is fairly flat and on reasonably quite country roads but the second half out through Ohaupo is quite undulating and on a busier road. I decided to just take it slowly, and gave myself 2 and a half hours to pootle out there; There was a fair breeze around, but despite a couple of hard bits when it was a head wind I was greatful for it as it stopped it being too hot. I stopped after an hour for an apple break (and to reapply sunscreen) but still made it to the centre of TA in two hours. Earlier than planned, so I stopped in town for a coffee before heading to the golf club for a shower and change of clothes. It was a thoroughly pleasant cycle, no mad drivers threatening my life and apart from the final set of hills before TA not too tiring. I'm suprisingly unstiff today, which may mean that it will take until tomorrow for me to feel the effects, or maybe taking it reasonably slowly means I won't get sore at all.
BIP had good golf and came 2nd, winning a whole ham!! This is on top of the half ham she won last weekend at the Pirongia golf tourny. Hmmm, perhaps they need to consider a vegetarian alternative, there is only so much ham BIP can eat and I suspect we were already well over that quota last weekend! I think the half ham may end up as someone's Xmas present and the whole ham will be portioned out between MAL, the aunt and H. The dogs will, of course, be hoping for a share too!

Artificial Hills

2009-12-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

Have been feeling fine since Weds (no more anti-inlams for me!) but didn't want to risk a road run today just in case so it was back to the treadmill for an interval hill run. I wonder how similar treadmill hills are to real hills? I guess it's similar to the general road/treadmill running relationship, i.e. they both work in different ways so whenever you switch from one to the other it always seems hard!! Acting on some insane impulse that I cannot begin to explain when I was doing some abs and weights after my run I put in a couple of sets of lunges. I can't remember the last time I did lunges, needless to say by the time I got back up the hill to my office I could barely make it up the stairs!! What was I thinking?

KO'd by Anti-Inflammatories

2009-12-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

Along with the lecture on not leaving things so long before getting treatment, the physio I saw last week also recommended taking anti-inflammatories for a few days to see if that would also help settle my shoulder down a bit. Now we have a houseful of anti-inflams, voltarin (aka diclofenac) has seen both BIP and I through a variety of broken bones, torn muscles, strains, sprains and migraines over the years and was once described by a friend of mine as the morning after pill for hockey players of a certain age. Anyway, suffice to say I have never had any problems taking it and it's always contributed admirably to the healing/pain relief process. Until now. On Friday I took a tablet with lunch (because of course I also have some in my work drawer) and then another later at home with dinner. Saturday morning I was sick as a dog. Without going into the sorts of details unwelcome in a cheery little sports blog let's just say that the 'possible side effects may include an upset stomach' was putting it a little mildly. It took most of the day to recover but by Sunday I was fine again, apart from some odd bruises that had appeared on the top of my feet apropos of nothing I could recall. By Monday I was beginning to wonder if it was indeed the voltarin (which seemed so unlikely) and maybe I'd just picked up a 24 hour bug from somewhere. Only one way to find out right? Pop another pill. Tuesday morning I woke up feeling a little odd, and within half an hour the verdict was conclusive - I have developed an inability to stomach (literally!) voltarin. Blast, damn and bugger!! Apart from feeling wretched all of Tuesday right through until I went to bed, it's just so annoying - sometimes anti-inflammatories are the only things that keep me functioning. I need advice, what do other people with sensitive stomachs take instead of voltarin? Needless to say I did not get out on Tuesday night for a run with mc, which I might add I'd been looking forward to this week. By yesterday (Weds) I was fine again, so hit the treadmill for some speed work and hope to get out for a proper road run after work today. Hmph.

Two Runs and a Physio Appointment

2009-12-06T16:42:00.001-08:00

So I finally got around to seeing the physio about my shoulder. It seems I have an inflamed rotator cuff, the good news is there don't appear to be any tears, just inflammation, the bad news is that rotator cuffs are notoriously slow to heal. Oh, I also learned that even if something doesn't hurt very much it's not a good idea to wait 3 months before seeing a physio, apparently. Meanwhile back in the world of running I did a 30 min speed interval run on the road yesterday which wasn't as hideous as you might imagine, and then it was back to death by treadmill at the gym lunchtime today. DBT definitely felt easier today than last week which is a good sign and means that perhaps the interval training is paying off as planned, will see how tomorrow evening's mc run is I guess. I still hate my shoes, but they don't rub and there's nothing actually wrong with them so I guess I just have to put up with them and hope they wear out really quickly!

Lovely Lovely Running, Tra la la la

2009-12-02T17:08:00.000-08:00

Another treadmill run today. Thirty minutes with the aim of keeping the speed above my comfort zone for most of the run, so the aim was to get used to running while being more out of breath than usual to help fitness, stamina and getting out of that mental panic mode of 'oh my god I can't breath I'm going to die' - there may be some cases where this is true but generally it's not the case. A few weights again afterwards, interestingly although I can't do shoulder press exercises with my dodgy shoulder I can do lat pull downs, which in terms of the movement is just the opposite - mind you I have no idea if that has any significance! I do now have the number of the physio who (mostly) fixed BIP's rotator cuff problem with her shoulder so will give her a call later and see if she can mend me too.

Return of Death By Treadmill

2009-12-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

Hot on the heels of my last post (which was of course the last moan before Xmas) here is the new ultra-positive happy me full of joy and bounce! So my experience last night made it clear I have two options, give up running and embrace life as a couch potato (tempting......) or up my fitness levels, and quickly, so I don't have to undergo such horrid running conditions again next week. Of course the best way to up fitness levels quickly is doing interval training, so lunchtime today meant a trip to the gym and a return to my fave. interval treadmill routine (aka death by treadmill) which consists of:
5 min warm up
5 x intervals of 1 min fast, 1 min recovery, 1 min med. pace hill, 1 min recovery
5 min cool down
So a 30 minute power interval run guaranteed to leave me in a heap of red-faced sweatiness (there's an image you'll want to carry round with you for the rest of the day) and instantly boost my fitness by, oooh I don't know, lots of whatever you measure fitness in - ooomphitudes?
I finished up with a few weights and confirmed that my dodgy shoulder is well and truly poked and I should probably take it to a physio at some point soon. But I'm not complaining about, on no sireee.

Last Moan and Whinge Before Xmas

2009-12-01T17:16:00.001-08:00

Since I got back from overseas I have spent most of my blogging moaning about how hard it is to get back into running. I realise this probably doesn't make for particularly interesting reading and so hereby decree to cut out the whinging and find something positive to write, at least until Christmas! I had to give myself one last moany blog so I could report on last night's total fail. Went out with the marathon clinic and our group consisted of me, JB2, Lynny and Maury. Unfortunately JB2 was no longer recovering from a run of epic proportions (see last week's mc blog) and so I was well and truly running (or should that be crawling) anchor. I can honestly admit that had I been on my own I'd have given up after about 15 minutes, as I wasn't I had to drag myself round the lake (one lap was torture, this is the lake I was doing four laps of for training only a few months ago!!) I tried to persuade the others to head off once we were halfway round as they were planning a longer run than I could manage, but bless them they stayed with me all the way back to the top of the hill (2 minutes from HQ) and then went their own way. I was less than grateful for this at the time but now send a bit THANK YOU to them as it meant I ran for 50 minutes, considerably longer than I would have had they left me to it. Ugh, it was horrible, miserable and all things bleargh. And I hate my new running shoes. So there.

Cycling and Xmas Running Do

2009-11-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

I had quite a few things to do on Saturday and wanted to get out for a bike ride for an hour too so worked out I had to be up and out by 8.30 in order to get everything else done and then get to the dog groomer by 1 with Mabel and Teddy. BIP was out for golf by 8.15 so I was awake and ready to go but rushed out without checking the weather which meant a gloomy cycle in windy weather that I probably would have avoided otherwise - the wind does play havoc with my ears! Apart from that a nice bit of biking not too strenuous but enough of a challenge to be worth getting up for. Sunday was the marathon clinic xmas do which firstly entailed getting out of bed at 6.15am - on a Sunday!! Seriously this is why I don't normally do the Sunday morning mc runs, both BIP and I very unimpressed at losing our 1 lie in of the week! Weather was grey and drizzly which didn't bode well, but by the time JB2 arrived at ours at 7.15 and we'd driven into town it was looking a little better. All aboard the coach for our mystery trip. First stop was at the Arapuni dam where we got out to have a walk across the swing bridge (picture left), which was actually pretty cool as the gully is very pretty and the power station perched on the edge below the cliffs in a fairly impressive manner. Then back onto the coach to the next stop down the road which was near part of the Waikato river trails. Morning tea consisted of orange juice and mince pies and then we set off for the run/walk along the Arapuni Dam to Jones Landing part of the trail. In the end I opted to walk as the trail was very uneven with lots of tree roots etc and I didn't fancy tripping and breaking an ankle or ending up in the river!! Still BIP and I kept up a healthy pace and there were some challenging climbs along the way, not least the 5 mins up to the lookout point and so it was a good workout anyway. The trail took about 50 mins before rejoining the road and finding where the coach was parked next to the river at Jones landing (picture on right). Some of the braver (madder?) members of the group took the opportunity for a swim in the river, but a brief paddle was enough to reassure me that it was far to cold to swim in! Billy had brought a bottle of wine with him (good thinking!) so 6 of us indulged in that while the more sedate members of the group had tea and coffee and played a bit of boule. Then secret santa dispensed a variety of 'interesting' gifts before we settled down to lunch. On the way back to Hamilton we had a brief stop at the Maungatautari reserve, not enough time to go in but had a brief look at the pest-proof fence and were lucky enough to see one of the pairs of Takahe wandering around (see top picture). I will definitely be coming back out this way again for a proper visit as it's worth a day trip in its own right. Back home by 3pm and lots of snoozing on the sofa to recover from the early start.

If In Doubt, Blame the Shoes

2009-11-25T11:46:00.000-08:00

Really couldn't drag myself out on Tuesday night for marathon clinic, but as it turned out both JB2 and L bailed as well so glad I didn't bother! We're obviously all saving ourselves for the running club Xmas do on Sunday. For those of you wondering what a running club Xmas do consists of (oooh I bet you are) we all head off to a mystery location in a coach and when we get there, we run!! We also have a list of things to take with us, including togs, towels etc so I'm guessing we're either heading to the beach or a swimmable lake, and then we eat drink and be merry :-)
Feeling a teensy bit guilty about missing Tuesday I got myself out yesterday evening instead for a 40 min circuit, but boy oh boy did my feet feel heavy. I'm wondering if all this extra bounce and support in the heels of my new shoes comes at a cost? Are they really heavier than my last ones? Hmmm, we'll never know as I've already biffed the old ones, buy I may compare them with a previous incarnation which currently act as gardening shoes.

Breaking in New Shoes

2009-11-22T23:36:00.000-08:00

A busy week last week followed by a full on weekend and a pair of runners that were kaput all conspired to derail any attempts at running since last Tuesday. This highlights the power of goals, if I was training for something you can be sure that none of these factors would have stopped me getting out and doing it, but ho hum I shall refocus this week and start thinking seriously about the summer series runs which should strike enough fear into me to get me back into regular running. I went into Smiths sports shoes on Saturday and the good news was they had $100 off Mizuno runners (my runner of choice) so I could have got a pair the same as my current defunct ones for just $99 - what a bargain! Of course it also meant that I could spend $199 and get a really flash top of the range pair (still saving $100, so also a bargain) - which is what I did! They have an open style heel (see pic) which will apparently give me more support and spring in the heel which is where I need it most as I have a heavy heel strike. I'm certainly expecting them to last me more than 6 months though so will have to wait and see how well they wear. I took them out for a spin this evening, just a 30 min trot to make sure they weren't going to cause me any problems when I head out with MC tomorrow night. I suspect that once again the shoes will be the least of my worries.

Surviving My First Week Back at MC

2009-11-18T13:02:00.000-08:00

Thank heaven's for Toi's challenge at Whakatane last weekend. An off road 18.5 km run which has been known to bring experts to their knees (see picture for just one of the sets of steps/stairs that form part of the course). No of course I didn't do it! But luckily for me JB2 did which meant she was still stuffed on Tuesday evening and I was therefore able to keep up with her for our 60 min run with the marathon clinic :-) Other than that it was pretty much as I expected, damn hard - but as usual getting it done meant that in theory the next run will be easier and I can start thinking about what my next goal is and what sort of running I need to do to meet it. There's a half marathon in January which I am pretty definitely Not going to do - so maybe I'll just hold off until Rotorua in May and in the mean time concentrate on the Summer series which incorporates a 16km, 17km and 18km in various places. Perhaps I should just concentrate on getting back to a reasonable speed for 10km first .... Oh, and I need some new running shoes, I'd just about killed mine by the end of the great flood (aka Hamilton half) and have worn them to death on my travels over the past month, so I guess a Saturday visit to Smith's sport shoes is in order.

Struggling On

2009-11-15T17:45:00.000-08:00

Having decided that I needed to get out running at least twice before running group tomorrow, and having not managed to get out at all over the weekend (in my defence I was very busy with a loooooong list of jobs, that'll teach me to go away for 3 and a half weeks!!) I had to bite the bullet and head out for a lunchtime run today. It really is starting to get too hot for lunchtime running, but as the alternative was getting out of bed early this morning (I may still be waking up at 5.30 am but that doesn't mean I want to get out of bed before 7) I had only myself to blame. With no jetlag to distract me this time I got to experience the full horror of my depleted fitness, and look forward to sharing this with the mc crew tomorrow evening! On a positive note, however, I did the same circuit I ran last Thursday and got back 2 minutes quicker so I guess it's not all doom and gloom. I also didn't frighten anyone in the ladies toilet after my shower this time (honestly you'd think some people had never seen a woman with a face like a tomato drying her hair in a hand dryer before....).

Fly, Sleep, Run

2009-11-12T12:19:00.000-08:00

Hellooooo! Did you miss me? Did you worry that I had sunk into a holiday orgy of food, wine, beer and not given exercise a thought for weeks? Well, almost true, but here I am safely back home in NZ and ready to return to normality again. I got back at midday on Wednesday and was back to work yesterday (Thursday). Was feeling a bit shabby from tiredness and jet lag so went for a run at lunch time, partly to keep myself awake (even I have never managed to fall asleep running) and partly due to the impending fear that I have to go back to marathon clinic next Tuesday and wanted to have got at least a couple of runs done by then so that if I'm going to do anything embarassing like faint or throw up I can do it all by myself!! I also reasoned that as I was feeling grotty already a run wasn't going to make me any worse. 35 minutes later this proved to be true, as while I was hot and feeling the effects of doing very little for a few weeks, I didn't feel worse than when I'd started. Coming back to long days and Spring weather is helping me stay awake until a reasonable hour (I managed to keep my eyes open until 10pm last night) but unfortunately I was wide awake at 5 this morning. Ah well, the price we pay for the jetset lifestyle :-)

Good Vibrations

2009-10-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

Had been thinking about a run yesterday afternoon as I was on my way back from a pamper trip into Covent Garden (leg wax if that's not too much information!) but when I got in Mark was about to head to the Gym so I tagged along with him. Went to the Virgin Express gym in Wood Green, blimey it was hot in there! Honestly I think they had heating on it was like working out in a sauna. Had a short treadmill run (don't ask) and then a few weights. I was a bit pushed for time but while on the treadmill had been eyeing up the vibration training machines - I've always fancied trying one out but not enough to pay to go to one of the vibra-train places in Hamilton so took the opportunity while I could. I didn't do much, just a couple of the basic 'poses' - to be honest it just felt odd and I can't imagine it was doing me any good - other that the basic stretch I was getting anyway without the vibration. But at least now I've tried it so I can tick that off the list of things I wouldn't bother to do again and look forward to getting back to some normal training in a couple of weeks when I'm home.

Ally Pally

2009-10-29T09:42:00.001-07:00

One of the (many) nice things about staying at G&M's is the proximity to Alexandra Palace, one of the many lovely green spaces that London has tucked all over the place. This combined with the unexpectedly mild Autumn weather was more than enough to encourage me to get out for a run this week. I must admit the 7 mins of running through Bounds Green Streets to get to the Park are not the nicest, but once there it was most pleasant to slowly (and I do mean slowly!) jog around parts of the grounds enjoying the view and the lovely weather. The short slow run left me more than a little hot and bothered which is a good warning of the things to come once I get home and start running properly again. In the meantime I'm getting plenty of walking done round the mean streets of London too so it's not all partying and beers.

Electro-Surfing and Wii-ing

2009-10-24T03:39:00.000-07:00

My sister has an impressive collection of exercise equipment. Most of it, she would be the first to admit, is unused and buried somewhere in the house never to be seen again. However since my arrival in Dawley I have been eyeing up the Bodi-Tek machine which is still new enough to be out in the open in the lounge and available for use, and so in the name of blog-research I decided to give it a go. The machine aims to target core muscles and leg muscles by simulating surfing type motions which make you readjust your balance and work to keep upright and stay on the board. There are 3 levels of difficulty and each pre-programmed session lasts for 15 mins. I lasted less than 5 minutes on level 1 - and this included falling off once! I think my feet got more of a work out than anything else - clearly I was trying to grip on with these rather than relying on my core and balance and I got terrible cramp in my toes and feet which is what caused me to give up fairly quickly. As an exercise machine I give it a fail, although my sister has managed to get up to level 3 and says that she can feel the effects on core and leg muscles after using it. Oh, and my heart rate was 90 when I got off, which I guess is not bad for something you can do in front of the telly. Think I'll stick to sit ups and running! Later in the evening we had a session on the Wii balance board which included slalom skiing, ski jumping, heading footballs and a step aerobics session. I was consistently sucky at all of the things that involved shifting balance - I guess practice is required to work out how far to move etc. on a more positive note I was pretty successful at the step routine and it was so much more enjoyable than step classes at the gym as there was no one shouting at you.

Reactivated Legs

2009-10-22T12:02:00.000-07:00

After over a week off I finally got my running legs working again today. Nearly put off by the rain (ha! just like being at home) but thankfully it stopped so I managed to get myself out. Took it very easy, just a gentle 40 mins with my major goal being to not get lost - which I just about achieved with one minor hiccup at the last roundabout on my way home (but quickly reset myself back on the right path). My sore butt had finally just about recovered from being squished to death on the flight, but I could certainly feel it as I plodded along on my run - I assume it was doing it good. Now back at my sister's lowering the tone of the neighbourhood with my running gear hanging out of the window :-)

A Long Way From Home

2009-10-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

This latest blog is brought to you from the slightly chilly domain of South Wales. Have been in the UK for 2 days now and just about recovering from the trip over. I swear each time I fly planes get more uncomfortable. Is it just me or does everyone else get a really sore butt after 10 hours on a plane? I had to sit on a cushion from Singapore to London...!
My left knee also totally seized up and is still grizzly, I should really get out and have a run on it, kill or cure! I suspect not today although by tomorrow I'll probably be stir crazy enough to need to get out for at least a short run. Despite my moaning it's great to be back in blighty, albeit for a short visit, will make the most of my holiday week before I head to London and start thinking about work again (which reminds me I really should finish that presentation ....). The wonders of skype on an iPod touch means I've been able to chat to BIP for free despite the fact that I've got my laptop with me - that must count as cool technology in anyone's book :-)

Crash and Burn

2009-10-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

I was a bit iffy about going down to the marathon clinic for this evening's run, but as I'm going to be away for the next 4 weeks I thought I should really make the effort to catch up with everyone. Anyway it was one of 'those' runs - hideous from start to finish. I think my exertions in the garden yesterday had caught up with me and I pretty much had to drag myself around. L kindly said that we were going at a fair pace - but to be honest I was a human anchor all the way round and I don't think my pace was much to brag about! Ah well, it got done, now home to recover and who knows when I'll next get out for a run, I might even be looking forward to it by then.

Who Needs a Gym?

2009-10-11T23:16:00.001-07:00

Mindful of the fact that neither of us are getting any younger and that the various demands of hockey, running, cycling, touch rugby etc. leave both me and BIP in need of a bit of tlc every now and again we had a bit of a splurge at the home show last week and bought a spa pool. Yesterday Barry the builder came around to measure up the area where the new decking is going to house the spa, at which point the penny dropped and I realised that I had 5 days before I go away in which to clear the space where the deck is going. As luck would have it the deck is going in the one bit of the garden we've ever done anything with, in a fit of enthusiasm about 8 years ago we dug over a fairly large patch of the garden, levelled it, laid down weed mat, and then covered it with decorative stones and pebbles and paving flags. It was such a hideous amount of work it was enough to put us off doing anything else since - and now all those lovely stones and pavers have to be moved, all over again - ugh! So I spent 3 hours this evening shovelling stones into a trailer and dumping them over by the garage. This was after I'd moved 21 paving stones. I suspect more sore muscles tomorrow, and that's before I even start complaining about the blisters ... At least the worst of it is done, so if I can do a little bit before I go I won't be leaving too much work for BIP to do while I'm overseas.

Bicycle! Bicycle!

2009-10-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

Did I mention how sore my muscles were after doing weights last week for the first time in ages? Well on Friday I did a 30 min hill run on the treadmill and for the first 5 mins my pec muscles were squeak inducingly sore, hopefully anyone within earshot interpreted the "eep, eep" sounds as some sort of weird iPod sing along thing! Today is a beautifully sunny spring day - what a difference from the torrents of rain we got last Sunday, hmmph. Anyway I couldn't fight the urge to get on my bike any longer, so with a quick pump of the tires I was off and out to enjoy the sun. Just pootled out for a 50 min circuit which was undulating enough to be challenging but not so steep as to make me overly sorry in the morning. I feel this mad urge to get in as much exercise as possible over the next 5 days as 24 hours on a plane is looming - ugh!

Owww, Sore Muscles!

2009-10-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised at how well my legs recovered from Sunday. Monday and Tuesday they felt fine, then on Tuesday evening I went for a short slow run (50 mins) with the marathon clinic gang and by Wednesday I was dead! It wasn't so much that my legs were sore/tired, I just felt totally and utterly exhausted. I managed to drag myself to the gym at lunch time as I've been promising myself a weights work out for weeks (I don't have the time/inclination to do weights when I have to fit in so much running but I do miss doing them). By the afternoon I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open, I bailed out of work early and managed to naps on the sofa before I had to go out to choir later that evening.
Thankfully today I seem to have caught up with most of the excess sleep my body was demanding and I feel almost back to normal again. But did I mention, owwww, my bicep, shoulder and back muscles are complaining mightily about the weights workout! I've also been promising myself a nice long cycle ride this weekend (weather permitting) so watch this space for more complaining about how sore my butt is next week (bet you can hardly wait!)

All Over

2009-10-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

After all the training I did in the rain it was fitting that today was probably the most hideous weather I have ever run in! Prior to the race it was totally throwing it down so I was drenched before we even started and it pretty much kept it up all the way through. The funny thing was that just after the start there were some parts of the path totally flooded and people were trying to run round rather than through - as if they somehow thought they were going to keep their feet dry!!! The course was damn hard, very undulating all the way through so much more challenging than Huntly which was flat apart from the 1.2 km hilly section. The nice thing about it was that it was an out and back course, so as soon as you got past the turnaround at 10.5km you knew you were on your way home. Also apart from the top section between Fairfield bridge and Pukete the river path and river road are runs that I've done often enough to be able to just plod my through pretty much on autopilot. So despite the weather and the hills I ran all the way and finished in just about the same time as I did Huntly in - which is a result on this course. More importantly, I did it - yay for me. How happy I was to get home and get in the bath and then into dry and warm clothes. The picture is just before the finish line, so I am actually running even though my feet are barely off the ground! Well done to BIP for actually getting me in the photo this time! This is me signing off then, half-marathon and blog done.

Training - Done!

2009-09-30T14:46:00.000-07:00

Well there we have it, end of training. Didn't finish with a flourish as I had to cancel today's 30 min run due to tendonitis in my ankle and foot which kept me awake half the night! Thought about it this morning and decided that while missing my last 30 mins of training wasn't going to make much difference one way or another on Sunday aggravating an already inflamed tendon may well prove to be a bad move. So that's it until Sunday, iced my ankle and foot this morning then covered it in anti-flamme and have thrown a few anti-inflam pills down my neck for good measure, but I'm guessing that keeping off it pretty much from now until Sunday will also do the job and I'm sure it will be fine come 9am on Sunday -- although not sure what state it will be in after I finish! Ho hum, will report back on Saturday on half-marathon eve. Until then if you feel like having a run on my behalf, please go ahead :-)

So Close

2009-09-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

55 minute run at lunch time today and I don't mind admitting that it was a total slog. For the second half my left knee and right foot were complaining constantly and my legs were tired and felt like lumps of lead. This is all a good thing, it's a reminder of how hard the last part of the run on Sunday is going to be and practice for just pushing on through it and carrying on regardless. The weather gods were kind to me again and it failed to pour down on my head which made a nice change from last week's lunch time runs. So, just one more training run tomorrow and then I'm nearly done.

Hurray for Daylight Saving

2009-09-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

With the wild and stormy weather we had yesterday I wasn't at all convinced I was going to get out to the marathon clinic for my run last night. At around 3pm we had the most amazing thunder and lightning storm (accompanied by torrential rain) which culminated in a lightning strike on the lightning conductor on top of our building - if you haven't had the pleasure of that experience let me tell you it is LOUD! There was an almighty bang and flash (followed by several exclamations of "f**k" etc from various offices, then a general milling about in the corridor of nervous academics trying to regain their composure before heading back to their desk to back everything up on their computer!!
Anyway, amazingly the rain stopped, I got to the clinic and we had a 70 minute run in the dry in pleasant temperatures. The added bonus was that the clocks went forward last weekend so it was still light when we finished running - it just made it feel so much nicer! I have to confess to struggling through at least 45 mins of the run, but to be fair the route we took was mainly uphill until the last section so I can be forgiven for that.

One Week to Go

2009-09-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

Clocks went forward over night, and having had a late night and a little more wine than was strictly necessary (!) there was no danger of me getting out early for my run today. After all the rain we've been having it was a relief to have a dry day. By the time I got out this afternoon it was quite sunny, but there was some cloud and wind about so that kept the temperature reasonably bearable. I went out for an hour and 45 mins and had a fairly good run so feeling pretty much ready for next weekend. My feet are a little sore now, so I'm chilling out on the sofa with my compression tights on looking forward to a relaxing night.

One Week to Go

2009-09-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

The end of my penultimate training week. The weather yesterday was so hideous that I gambled on today being better - forecast was for showers - and saved my last run of the week until today. It had been quite clear and bright first thing so I was hopeful of a fairly dry run, however the 'showers' turned out to be short downpours rather than light sprinkles. Just after I set off there was a torrential downpour for about 3 minutes which was so ridiculously heavy I could barely run I was laughing so much, honestly it was insane! It more or less stayed dry for the rest of the run (in fact the sun was out so I was steaming nicely!) until the last 10 minutes when there was another downpour, just in time as I had more or less dried out! So, that's it for another week and just one week to go until the half-marathon. Current plan is a day off tomorrow, a long run (about 1 and a half hours) on Sunday, day off Monday, an hour with the mc on Tuesday, 50 mins on Weds and then maybe a short, slow jog on Thursday to finish off the week and give myself 2 days off before the event on the Sunday. I'm looking forward to the damn training being over, I can't wait to just be able to go out for a run when I want to rather than having my schedule looming over me -- I guess I'm at that point where I'm just a bit over it :-)

Wet, Wet, Wet

2009-09-22T18:21:00.000-07:00

After all my raving about the beautiful spring weather we've been having, normal service has now resumed and it's cold and wet! I'm playing catch up again having missed last night's mc run (ha - it wasn' raining then either, that will teach me!) so had to brave the weather for a 70 minute lunch time run. Actually I don't mind running in the rain, although when it gets very heavy (as it did several times) it gets a bit tedious. Also because of the cold wind I'd put my long sleeved running top on, which I was glad of for about 10 minutes and then spent the rest of the run too hot and bemoaning the fact that the amount of water the darn thing was absorbing (proof that it's good at it's job of pulling moisture away from my skin?!) was adding about 1kg of weight per 10 minutes of running! And when I got back I still had a face like a tomato, sigh.

What a Great Day

2009-09-19T18:15:00.000-07:00

Despite not getting out for any running yesterday I'm feeling on top of my training and raring to go with just two weeks left. Went out today for two hours and had a great run, could easily have kept going for longer and felt great. A beautifully sunny Spring day with just enough of a breeze to stop it getting too hot. My water belt is a complete god send on days like this, there's no way I could go so far without water and any initial problems I had getting used to wearing it while running are more than outweighed by its usefulness.

Last Run of the Week

2009-09-16T18:46:00.001-07:00

It's always a good feeling to reach the end of the training week (tomorrow being a rest day) with all targets hit. Just a short run at lunch time today, had planned to go out first thing but had a late night last night (LSG quiz which our team won - yay!) and so had a sleep in instead. Anyway today's plan was to do some speedwork so just did a no frills interval run with a faster warm up and then varying lengths of fast/slow until I was done. Over on one of the blogs I follow, feedmeimcranky, there has been a discussion about motivation and who or what motivates you. I've been thinking about this a lot (although not enough to get around to posting a comment on the subject - sorry!), I think generally my motivation is based around stubborness, once I've decided to do something I hate to fail so that's mostly what keeps me going. Plan for this weekend is a short hill run on Saturday and then another long run on Sunday, we'll see what eventuates.

The Long and the Short

2009-09-15T17:47:00.001-07:00

Last night was marathon clinic and I was hoping for an easy run of around an hour. Four of us went out together (the slow group) and although the first 20-30 were quite hard as my legs were still feeling the effects of Sunday we kept a nice easy pace and the second part of the run felt good. We ended up being out for an hour 20 with probably and hour 10 of running so longer than planned and a good effort. As this week is the last of my easier weeks I was only left with two short runs to do so hopped out at lunch time today for 30 mins which was actually really hard work - a combination of the heat and being tired. Nominally I only have to do 15 mins tomorrow so will do some speed work and stretch it out to 30 mins to make it worthwhile. Then another day off before I hit the weekend with an aim of doing one long run again (probably Sunday) and also a short hill session.

Big Run

2009-09-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

I figured I needed to get a long run in this weekend to start getting my stamina up for the big day. So I had the luxury of a Saturday off and then this morning went in to the lake with the aim of doing an hour and 50 minutes of running. This involved four laps of the lake (plus a bit) which is not the most exciting runs but has some advantages - not least that it's totally flat and there are water fountains at several points around so I didn't need to carry water. The downside is that on a sunny day like today it's busy, so the run does involve dodging out of control children on bicycles and dog owners trying to stop an array of varying sized pooches from eating the ducks and the pukekos. Anyway, back to the run, it got done, it was fine, and now my legs are tired. Pretty much as expected. I feel good having got one long one under my belt and will try for another next weekend, once I've done a couple of hour 50 runs then I know that I can do 2 hours, and I already know that if I can do two hours I can finish the half-marathon. Right, sorted then. Oh, and for those of you who are non-Hamiltonians here's a pic of the lake.

Over the Hump?

2009-09-10T19:30:00.001-07:00

Well against all odds I've reached the end of another training week and met my target - after last weekend being a wipeout and missing out on Tuesday night's mc run I didn't think I'd get there, but 4 lunch time runs of an hour got me back on track. Actually looking back it's been a good week as it shows that even when everything goes pear-shaped it's possible to get back on track and meet my targets. I think this was the week where I was ready to jack it in, I didn't think I'd done enough training so far and felt that with only 4 weeks to go I wasn't going to be prepared enough, but now I've got through the week and I'm on target hopefully the next 3 weeks will be mentally a bit easier and I can cruise towards the big day.

Tomato Face

2009-09-08T18:58:00.000-07:00

The nice thing about running at lunch time at the moment is that we are getting beautifully sunny spring days which aren't too hot, and it's lovely being out and about and getting a break from my desk. The downside is that I spend the afternoon with a face like a tomato! My schedule is still all over the place this week (due to my continuing dodgy tummy). I didn't make it out the marathon clinic for my group run last night, which means I will have to run Friday to meet this week's target, which is ok but does make the weekend much harder. Finished off today's run by heading out round the outside roads of the Uni and up the hill at Edinburgh Street, it's short but steep - a nice mini cardio workout to finish.

Running vs. Swine Flu

2009-09-06T18:30:00.000-07:00

My feeling of blearghness on Saturday didn't amount to much more than an attempt at a cold which I decided to pander to for 1 day so instead of trying to work out how to fit a run in on Sunday I went shopping instead. Good thing as it happens as 4 people didn't turn up for BIP's hockey game so I ended up playing a full game against fast young fit Varsity players! That will count as my speedwork training for the week. Today was another beautiful sunny day so went for a lunchtime run. Legs a bit tired from last night, but fine once I'd got into it. My stomach was still a bit dodgy though, so about half way round I dropped into a local medical centre for a 'comfort stop'. While I was availing myself of their facilities I was perusing some of the reading matter on the wall and was alarmed to discover I had 5 of the symptoms listed on their "Do you have Swine Flu?" poster (high temperature, aching limbs, tiredness, rapid heart-rate, clamminess or excessive sweating). At the bottom of the poster it said "If you were experiencing several of these symptoms please advise the receptionist that you may have swine flu" I was tempted to add "or you have just been running in the sun for 40 minutes".

Listen to Your Body

2009-09-04T19:33:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a rest day, but I actually turned into a bit of a crock one way and another. I had a really sore back which I think was the result of lifting a hay bale at a funny angle the day before, and also a mystery pain in my lower abdomen which was so non specific even Google couldn't tell me what it was. This morning I woke up feeling ok and took the dogs for a long walk first thing to try and access how everything was feeling and all seemed ok. My back was fine and the pain gone, although it did niggle a bit while walking. My planned run today was a 16km circuit as it's a good long run that I want to get done at least twice before the big day. I got ready but really wasn't feeling great - I assumed it was just my usual pre-run mind-sabotage attempt so headed out. I got about 20 mins before I realised that actually I was not going to make it any further, obviously I need to learn to tell the difference between general run -avoidance and genuine physical inability to do it some days! To make matters worse I then had to walk home which of course took much longer than the 20 mins it had taken me to run to the point where I stopped. So an unexpected rest day which will mean bigger runs later in the week but that's just how it goes I guess, will see how I get on tomorrow and just not worry too much about it.

Frozen Fingers

2009-09-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

Had an early (i.e. pre-work) outdoor run today for the first time in ages. BIP had taken the dogs out first thing and when she came back I though she said "it's really warm outside his morning", so I dressed accordingly. However when I went out to car to drive to the gym it was 2 degrees and there was ice on the windscreen -- turns out what she'd actually said was "it's really not warm outside this morning" ! The sun was up and the sky clear so it was a beautiful time to be outside but blimey my hands were cold. As I only had to do a short run I opted to do some speed work. It's so much harder not on a treadmill, firstly it's hard to guage how fast I'm actually running (slower than on the treadmill that's for sure!) and also much harder to keep going for as long, but I did a warm up lap of the Uni fields and then did the second lap a minute and a half faster so I did at least speed up a bit! I finished off with a faster lap of the small lake and then out onto the road and back into the gym via gate 2, again trying to go faster - my hr when I finished was 167 which is about the same as I get to on the treadmill after a fast section so even if I'm not going as fast I am at least working as hard! Day off tomorrow ready for some big runs at the weekend.

A Little Lunch Run

2009-09-01T18:36:00.001-07:00

It was such a beautiful Spring day that I went out at lunch time for today's run and headed out on Ruakura Rd. Not a great road to run on actually - a typical kiwi rural road with a speed limit of 100km and virtually nothing at the side of the road to run on, but despite that it was a pleasant run and there wasn't too much traffic about, so that's another 45 mins ticked off this weeks list. My natural inclination is to worry about the fact that I've had 3 good runs in a row and wonder when the dreaded slump will hit, however I will ignore my inner eyore and just enjoy it for what it is at the moment. I will, however, take the opportunity to moan about my lunch which I picked up from momento on the way back to my office - a lovely vegetable panini totally ruined by the addition of pineapple. Pineapple!!! In a sandwich, tsk, what is the world coming to?

Tuuuuuuueeeeesday

2009-09-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

Marathon clinic running day, but first I had to endure the tension of the school hockey semi-final. My girls were playing the team they completely folded against two weeks ago so I was more than a little anxious. Amazingly we won 2-1, it really was amazing as apart from about 15 mins (when we scored the goals) we certainly didn't play any better than last time! Anyway the upshot is we are in the final and all are very excited. Went on to mc for a run afterwards and ended up doing two short runs with an intermission. We ran up to the hospital to visit one of our running mates who had a knee replacement op last week and then complications which landed him in the HDU, so the run included a couple of big hills and 6 flights of stairs. Spent 10 mins visiting and then ran back round the block to base. So did 45 mins in all but that's ok given that I did more than I needed to at the weekend. Still buzzing from the hockey result to be honest.

Rest Day Bonus

2009-08-30T18:23:00.001-07:00

Today is non-running day, this technically means I might go to the gym and do some weights, but in reality means I have a day of no exercise. Back at work after our holiday so updated my training graph and discovered that I have less running to do this week than I thought, so my long run on Saturday has earned me some shorter runs towards the end of the week - this is a good thing. Also my new watch arrived - see pic. It's a Bowflex the only brand I could find which had strapless heartrate monitoring which was one of the things I loved about my (now expired) Speedo watch. In fact it has pretty much all of the same functionality as the Speedo but is not quite as nice - the Speedo was red and had a more ergonomic design. I'm chuffed at how quickly it arrived as I had to order it from the US - good work Amazon! Oh, and just out of interest, my blogging hr is 53bpm, this may seem fairly low but is above average for me as I have non-symptomatic bracchycardia, a posh way of saying I have an unusually low heart rate (can be down to 45 when doing nothing) but it doesn't have any medical significance.

A Bit Extra

2009-08-30T00:10:00.000-07:00

Slightly re-arranged my training week as BIP's hockey team were short of 7 players for this evening's game and so she needed me to play. So had a shorter run (about 6km) than I would have otherwise and will go longer on Thursday. Felt fine even after yesterday's longer run, although my legs were quite heavy towards the end everything was working fine and I felt good, oooh two days running! Very humid while out running and the forecast rain finally hit in the afternoon, but luckily had stopped again by the time we went out for hockey. The oppo were even shorter of players than us, at least we had the bare 11 but they only had 10 and a couple of injuries meant they were down to 9 a couple of times. So I had very little to do and could take it easy most of the time and not overdo it on the running front, and more importantly stay free of injury myself. Sunday night with a glass of wine and the final series of The Wire on DVD should aid recovery.

Sunny Smiles

2009-08-28T16:40:00.000-07:00

Having spent large parts of this blog moaning about how hard my training is and generally whingeing I'm happy to report that today I had one of those great mornings where everything felt great and my hour and a half run was almost a pleasure. We got back from our skiing holiday last night, and the signs of Spring are everywhere - lambs and calves in all the paddocks and even our grape vine has its first bud. It was a warm morning to be running, but luckily enough cloud and a bit of a breeze stopped it being too hot, it's a good reminder that the conditions for the Hamilton half will be very different from Huntly which was a very cold day which ended with torrential rain. Bumped into G & J just before Scotsman's valley so had a 5 minute chat break which I'm sure helped. Both my hamstrings feeling a little tight so must remember to get some stretching done over the weekend, apart from that nothing to report in terms of sore bits. Last 5 minutes was hard work but all in all a darn good start to my running week.

Stormy Weather

2009-08-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

After being rained off the mountain on Tuesday and not even getting up there yesterday we woke to another wet and windy day and no surprise to find everything closed again. I couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer and retrieved my running gear from the bottom of my case and headed out into the wind and rain. The good news was that everything seems to be in working order, nothing hurting and despite a harsh head wind on the way out I had a fairly civilised hour of running (the tail wind coming home was most welcome!). Keeping my fingers crossed that the wind will drop off later today so we can get a final day of skiing in tomorrow before heading home.

No Business Like Snow Business

2009-08-21T23:36:00.000-07:00

A beautiful sunny start to the morning promised another glorious day like yesterday up the mountain, but by 10am the cloud had come over and it got progressively gloomier with intermittent patches of whiteout. Having had a full day of skiing yesterday my legs were tired so by lunch time I was in no mood to fight it out in rubbish conditions so by 1pm we called it a day and headed back down. Actually it was much clearer in the lower mountain – although trying to snow when we left. Faced with a free afternoon I looked at my running gear (the deal was that any day it was too bad to ski I would fit a run in ), but having skied half a day my calves and quads were in no mood for it. J fancied 9 holes of golf so I offered my services as caddy and had a good hour and a half of walking instead. Got back in time for our spa booking – although a call from C next door offering gin and tonics nearly swayed us, but we figured a spa first then a gin and tonic. Isn’t it nice to be on holiday?

Timing Woes

2009-08-18T18:20:00.000-07:00

Disaster has struck, my trusty Speedo watch has met with a watery end. This is no ordinary watch, it has a built in strap free heart rate monitor, dual time functionality, lap and split timer functionality and a rubberized strap which doesn't perish however much you sweat. I'm gutted. J bought it for me several years ago (she had to import it from the UK) and it has seen me through duathalons, more runs than I can imagine, cycle events and overly long meetings where I just wanted to keep an eye on my heart rate to make sure I wasn't being bored to death. A quick squizz on the internet seems to confirm my fear that Speedo aren't making them any more either. So now I need to find a replacement - if anyone out there can recommend a good, strapless hrm watch please let me know. On the running front last night's outing with the marathon clinic still seemed unnecessarily hard, but I got through an hour long run and although my achilles and knee were both still a bit grumbly neither seemed any the worse for it this morning. Today was speed training on the treadmill - yay!!! I actually eased it off a bit this week by not doing the fast bits at such a high pace as I have been, but kept everything else the same so it was still more than enough of a workout.

Full of Beans

2009-08-17T13:49:00.001-07:00

I don't know if it was having a rest day yesterday, or the fact that the sun is shining and Spring is in the air, but I'm full of beans this morning. Even having to try and motivate teenage hockey players at 7am didn't dampen my enthusiasm.
A quick stock take after my day off, left achilles a little sore and tight (must stretch calf muscles!), right hamstring tight (more stretching there too) and my right knee is just a bit niggly but nothing that can't be safely ignored. So, all ready for my run with the marathon clinic crew tonight then - hopefully my energy levels will still be as high then as they are now, although the SH girls have a hockey game right before again so I'll no doubt expend a fair bit as nervous energy - semi finals are looming!

Too Hard

2009-08-15T16:55:00.001-07:00

As I suspected I didn't make it up in time to get into town for the club's 15km run, instead I had a bit of breakfast, read the paper and then set out for my own local version instead. The first 40 mins was ok but then I hit a total wall, body and mind both giving up in perfect unison - pah! I dropped down to a walk and managed to at least keep heading out in the right direction rather than just turning round and heading for home. Through considerable determination (and a little voice in my head reminding me that this is a peak week and if I cut today short it's going to make the rest of the week really hard!) I slogged out the rest of the distance with a mixture of running and walking and finally got home. After a shower and a coffee I still feel like a wreck - I guess it's just a bit of cumulative fatigue hitting me, tomorrow is a day off though so I'm sure by Tuesday I'll be raring to go again (!). Proof, if it was needed, that half-marathon training is hard.

Saturday Hills

2009-08-14T16:19:00.001-07:00

With so much beautiful, hilly, scenery around us it's hard to find any excuse to avoid the perfect place for hill training. Even the weather forecast of high winds and heavy rain easing to showers later didn't put me off. As it happened the worst of the rain seems to have passed over last night and while there was plenty of evidence of it out and about (including whole paddocks under water - wish I'd had my camera) the rain held off. I drove up to Tauwhare school and ran from there so I could run through Scotsman's Valley for the whole run. It's a great place to train as even though the out leg is all heading uphill it's also very undulating so every time you go up you get a brief downhill or flat bit to recover. There was a pretty major headwind which hit me as I got higher up and at one point I seriously felt like I was running but standing still - the good news was this was just before I turned round so I had the benefit of a lovely tail wind all the way back down. I'm starting to get a better technique on the uphill which is definitely helping - higher knees and pumping arms. One word of advice, don't get so focussed on your technique that you forget to stay at the side of the road - windy roads, cars, runners - never a good combination. Ooops, if it's any consolation I probably got a bigger fright than the car driver.

Easy Does It

2009-08-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

After a couple of runs this week which were longer than planned, all I had left to do today, my last day of week 2 training, was a 3km easy run. Hardly seemed worth getting out of bed for to be honest! Given how tired my legs were after yesterday's exertions and having shifted 2 trailer loads of wood into the woodshed last night I probably couldn't have managed much more though.
The funny thing about short runs is that you just get the worst bit of the run as it normally takes me 3km to get into my stride and stop grumbling to myself. As always it was good to get it done though and with the weather forecast threatening lots of rain and high winds I'm glad I made myself get out of bed and do it first thing while it was still dry. Just as I was leaving for work I had to detour and move the cows into the next paddock as they were just being too much of a pain about eating everything they could reach in the garden. They'd broken the wire that keeps them a reasonable distance from the fence (again! I only fixed it last night) but the final straw was that one of them was leaning over the fence trying to eat Mac's rose, even J running across the garden yelling had no effect so I gave in and shifted them early.

Speed Work

2009-08-12T18:07:00.000-07:00

I really really really really hate doing speedwork, it sucks! If I try and do it out on the road I inevitably get slower and slower while convincing myself that I'm working hard, so for the first half of my current training schedule I have one day a week on the treadmill. No chance of skiving off, 40 minute run with 20 mins fast - yuck! In order to avoid completely killing myself I break the 20 mins up into 5 minute chunks, so warm up, 5 mins fast, 2 min recovery, repeat another 3 times, cool down and that's it. Still it always feels good when I've finished even though I will have a face like a tomato for most of the afternoon. Hopefully it will all pay off though, I'm following the same training schedule I had for Huntly but including the hills and speed work (which I didn't last time round) in the hope that it will help knock some time off. We will see......

Sooooo Tired

2009-08-11T13:10:00.001-07:00

Out running with the marathon clinic last night. Had a mad rush to get there on time as SH school hockey team were playing just before and I had to fight my way through traffic to get there. SH won by the way, 3-1, despite some dodgy officiating and some very unschool-like language coming from the opposition dugout!
Anyway, back to the run, four of us went out together and did a 70 minute run with a bit of a break midway for JB2 (not to be confused with JB!) to stock up on sugar. I actually found it harder than my 80 min run on Sunday but I think this was partly due to accumulated leg tiredness and partly more evidence that I run much slower when I'm by myself. Good news is that the evenings are getting longer too so we actually started in daylight, although once it got dark I still lived in fear of tripping and breaking something (some of the street lights in Hamilton are really feeble!) just prior to my skiing trip next week. Club 15km run is this Sunday but don't think I'll get in for it - why do they insist on starting at 8am on a Sunday, my one lie in for the week?

Training in my Sleep

2009-08-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

In case any more evidence was needed that running is at the forefront of my mind, last night I had not one, but two dreams in which I was running a half-marathon! Actually in the first one I was just coming up to the finish line (and managing a sprint finish so I knew I was dreaming!!) but had managed to knock 3 mins off my Huntly time so I was pretty pleased with myself and didn't feel remotely tired -- maybe this is my subconscious mind telling me that I can go faster :-) This morning I was up early for a training session with the school hockey team I coach, they were particularly low-key and apathetic this morning, I wish I knew how to convince them that at their age they can do anything they want and that with a bit of enthusiasm and hard work some of them could be really good hockey players. Ah, the wisdom of age!