All in working order

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.