Go Girl

Australia Day Fun!

2007-01-26T19:45:00.000-08:00

I had a pretty slack week running wise due to a stomach virus that hit me during the week. After last Sundays 25k at Quarry Rd I swam for an hour on Monday for recovery but suspect I was starting to get the virus because I felt very average indeed.

Tuesday I was starting to feel really crappy and I had a constant nauseous feeling, which I thought was dehydration. I didn't run because of all the smoke from the bush fires so I rode on the trainer instead for an hour and a half. This left me totally wasted but I managed to drag my sorry self out for an 18k in the rain on Wednesday afternoon. This was made easier after a phone call from a friend who's enthusiasm towards his training for 6ft totally inspired me - easy!

Thursday was an easy 6k but the legs complained after running the night before. Friday was the 10k at Penrith for Australia Day. I caught up with the girls (Owly, Jen_runs and Ellie80) before hand and set off with the 10k slog around the lake x 2. Ended up with 2 sec PB of 45:56. Still that sub 45min 10km eludes me. One day!

Hot, Hot, Hot!!

2007-01-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

Another week of training done.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 10km recovery run / 1hr swim

Wednesday: 19km Kellyville Ridge - M7 - return

Thursday: 10km including 10mins 100m sprints with 50m floats

Friday - Cycle - 1hr

Saturday: 8km Hilly run with Joggers group

83km for the week

Sunday: Quarry Rd with 11km Hornsby extension. 25km all up and totally, ridiculously hot!! Had a very cool runner join us this morning too : )

Weekend Review

2007-01-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

"The Team" Don, Me, Peter, Martin, Graham and Rob after our 6ft training run on Sunday.

Sunday was my first trip to the 6ft track. I absolutely looooved it! We ran approx 36km from Megalong down to Cox's River then up to the Pluviometer and return. An encounter with a red belly black snake made things a little interesting. Saw Kit and BernieG on the track and later on ran into Blue Dog, Razor, Deanne, Sarge and a few others.

Great training run and I have recovered really well. I'm pretty happy with how the build up has been going so far and look forward to the 10th March.

Pumped out an easy 10k recovery run this morning. Felt great! Cycle to the pool for a swim this afternoon.

Still here..sort of!

2007-01-12T20:49:00.000-08:00

Yes I am still alive. What has been happening?

Well I have been really busy and haven't had time to Blog or to read Blogs but here's a brief summary of where I am up to and what I have planned for 2007.

Lots of training for 6ft track and going out running most Sundays with a lovely group of guys that I have become very good friends with. All of the runners are from the Hills District Joggers and we have so much fun, you could hardly call it training.

Did the Black Stump run on New Years Day - That was a tough one but a great run.

Lots of training ahead still for 6ft and I am looking at doing my first Triathlon early in February. I have been swimming and cycling a fair bit but mostly concentrating on running and lots of hills.

Some target events for this year are: (Subject to change)

6ft Track
Warwick
PMC !!
C2S
Rottnest Is. Marathon
W2B
FFFTM

Phew!

A solid week of training...

2006-11-25T21:28:00.000-08:00

Monday - Swim for 35mins

Tuesday - Run 5km (Doms had me slow down a bit)

Wednesday - Swim and cycle 1.5hrs (not km's miners!!)

Thursday - Run - 12km Quarry RD

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Cycle - Hills 1.5hrs

Sunday - Run 16 -18km? The garmin dropped out for a bit in the bush. Ran with the HDJ's. A great run through Baulko and into the Cumberland State Forrest trail then back out again. Silly me tries to keep up with Grahame, who has ran 35 sub 3hr Marathons, on the downhill back to the finish. Won't do that again!

Next week won't be anything too flash in preparation for the CC Half.

Missing In Action...

2006-11-18T16:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know I did say that I was going to go to SMC today but basically I had a better offer. Sorry to those that I said I would catch up with but I really need to concentrate on trails and longer distances right now. After a late night phone call I managed to get out to Quarry Rd this morning for a 6am start with some of the guys from Joggers. There was about 8 of us all up who are planning on doing the 6ft track and these regular training runs will now become part of my training regime.

I felt great this morning. Using the walk the big hills strategy and run the flat and downhills seemed to work really well. There was a group that started at Hornsby Heights and there was us who entered the track from Quarry Rd. Gee it felt great to back running trails again and pain free was even better.

The guys are all a lovely bunch and we chatted and laughed most of the way around. The run was a mixed bag of trail, steep climbs including alot of rock jumping, downhill, roadrunning and some walking : ) I loaded up my fuel belt for the trip and had 2 gels and 2 glucodin tablets along the way. It was great having the opportunity to refill the water bottles before the long steep 6k back to the car.

I had decided that this run will be a great base builder for the upcoming 6ft training and will give me something solid to work on. I was totally shattered at the end but recovered surprisingly well especially after 2 bowls of porridge and a strong coffee. I was ok up until the 25km point where we bid farewell to the Hornsby Heights guys then the last 6k just stripped me of anything that I had left. I was absolutely fried.

All up we completed about 30km in approx 3hrs 40mins. I am really glad I went along and I'm looking forward to the next one in two weeks time. Apparantly the guys mix things up a bit so it's not always that distance or the same track that we took today. I joined them on the hard day.

The rest and recovery plan is now in progress and I will venture out for a few slow run this week along with a couple of swims and maybe jump on the bike. I forgot to mention - I did 1.5hrs on the bike yesterday - HILLS!

Edit: I have just realised that I was in the company of an absolute running legend today - Awesome!

The Week

2006-11-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

The week so far....

Monday - Run 45mins - slowly
I felt ok after the Sunday 18k run and I have noticed that the legs feel much better when you run slower : )

Tuesday - Run 20mins warm up then 4 hill reps at a slow pace and a sort of tempo run on the way home. Nothing too flash to report here. Swimming for 35mins in the evening.

Wednesday - Run 1hr, slow pace.

Thursday - Rest

Friday - Cycle - 1hr and swim 35mins and a visit to the Chiro.

The plan is to run some hills tomorrow and to do the SMC Half at a slow pace on Sunday.

Breakfast Buffett

2006-11-11T17:33:00.000-08:00

Another update...

My training went really well last week. I had 4 runs in total and 3 swims but backed off on the cycling and only managed to get out for 2 rides this week.

Up until this morning I had only built up to running 10k and was rather pleased with my progress so far. A few things that I have noticed since returning to running:

1. How nice it is to run pain free : )
2. How much my cardio fitness is lacking
3. How much my hill fitness is lacking
4. How much longer my piggy tails have grown

So after a call from Blues Buffett yesterday we had arranged to meet up at 7am for the Quakers Hill loop. All up about 18k and not much to complain about at all really. I was pretty surprised that I didn't need to stop at all. However, I suspect that I was running a tad slower than BB would have if he was out on his own. Still going for his all time PB for the month, I don't think he needed much encouragement or excuses to get out for a longish run today.

It was great to have some company and the time just flew by without really realising just how far we had run. It's great to have someone to chat to as well rather than just listening to the sound of myself trying to breathe.

Feel ok now and will do some more stretches later on today. Looking forward to next week and getting into some more training.

What is going on???

2006-11-08T23:45:00.000-08:00

I hear you all say......

Well if you still have me on your Bloglines, then thanks for hanging in there.

Here is a brief run down of what has happened since injury.

What started out as knee and Itb pain and after many visits to physio, podiatrists, gait analysist, back to sports physician and then finally a visit to the chiro. I was diagnosed with a blocked right S1 joint. Basically my right hip was locked into a forward position causing all of the issues.

So now I have 3 sessions with the Chiro and I have been running again for 2 weeks. I am slowly building up the mileage and I am currently up to 10k. I plan on doing a longish run this Sunday and have tenative plans to run the Central Coast Half, if not the 9k. Either way I will not be racing, just socialising more than anything : )

I have been cycling as well on the odd occasion and have really taken to swimming. So I am back in the game and ready for the long hot Summer of 6ft training. But the sweetest thing of all is I am running pain free and it feels great.

I promise I will get around to all of the Blogs very soon.

Luv ya's! x x

Getting there slowly...

2006-09-29T21:49:00.000-07:00

Well this week was a little better. Just about all of the swelling has gone down in the knee. I have been applying voltaren before bed and wrapping it in glad wrap.

Continuing with the VMO strengthening exercises and I have been taping the knee over but I had a reaction to the tape which left redness and itchy lumps all over my knee. I have changed my work shoes to something flatter and more supportive which is good considering all of the walking that I am doing now with the new job.

I think one more week should do it. I will see how I go in a weeks time and possibly go for a run next Sunday. I'm starting to really miss it now. Off to Owly and Tesso's party tonight! Yay!

Going nowhere fast..

2006-09-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

Injury Report:

I thought it was time to check in with a report on how my injury is going after 2 weeks now of no running. I haven't really had much improvement at all and I know this injury can take along time to get better so I'm trying to remain positive.

I did all of the stretches etc... in the first week and didn't do much at all in the second week . The outcome was the same.

New Job Report:

Great, I love it. Extremely busy though. Sorry for not checking on Blogs, will try to this week.

I'm out!

2006-09-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

Wednesday 13th

I have decided not to run the Half this Sunday. After some advice and suggestions from several runners including: Easy Tiger, Eagle, Tesso, Clairie, Ellie, Ewen and my Physio. I had to face the fact that It would be best for me not to run at all.

The hardest thing was telling Ellie because I was so looking forward to running with her and I know how excited she was. At least I know she will have others around her during the race and Gnomey doing the pacing. So I will be cheering instead!

I went to the Physio and had some intense treatment along with a video of me running on the treadmill to try to diagnose the problem and see if there was anything that really stood out. The exercise therapist took footage of me walking firstly and then running (even that hurt) The most obvious thing was I flick my right leg out when I run and somehow twist it back in again but land on the outside of my right foot. This constant flicking has aggrevated the itb, adductors, sartorius and hamstrings and has created a tightness in the entire right side. I also have a lot of movement in my hips suggesting more core strengthening is required.

So I walked away with 20 million exercises and stretches to do and was told by the Physio not to run until all of the pain has gone. I didn't realise just how long I had been running with the pain until I really thought about it - a long time. I think I even got used to running with the pain (as Clairie suggested) but I know my training has really suffered and with much bigger things on the horizon (6ft - main goal) I need to get rid of these injuries so that I can do some serious training over Summer.

So I have basically wiped my calendar clean for the next few months. FF Marathon is definately out : ( I can't complain though, I have had a pretty good year and I'm really happy with what I have achieved so far. I would like to be fit enough to do the Central Coast Half in December but I will keep it there as a "maybe" at this stage.

The Blog may become a little boring and with starting my new job next week, I may not have much time to Blog for the first few weeks until things settle down anyway. Looking forward to cheering and repaying all of those that have cheered for me! : )

Nothing....

2006-09-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

That's what I have done running wise since Saturday...Nothing! A bit frustrating but I know that my leg will be better off for the rest. (Hopefully)

Sunday 10th

Nothing

Monday 11th

ET Massage and coffee with ET and Lulu : )

Tuesday 12th

I took myself off to the Doctor because I woke up in so much pain. My leg felt so so so sore. I could hardly walk and I was nearly in tears because of the pain. He prescribed me some sort of strong pain killer that made me feel very relaxed and it numbed the pain.

Swim for 45mins - I can still swim : ) Yay! I actually felt pretty good once I got into it. Not sure how far I went, I really should take more notice of that instead of just going up and back happily not even thinking about how far I'm going. 4 laps of water running - geez that's frustrating!

The plan for the rest of the week is to rest the leg and get rid of the pain, keep stretching heaps and hopefully I can keep up with Ellie on Sunday. That will be a full weeks rest on the leg - no running. I would like to do some more swimming just to stay active.

When I was eating dinner last night (9pm!) I was thinking about Clairies new regime and perhaps need to take a leaf out of her book with trying not to eat dinner so late.

Raindrops keep falling on my head..

2006-09-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday 9th

I ventured out to Joggers for the 7am run. I picked a nice rainy day to make a comeback. It was actually not that bad during the run and I felt really good out there. The E course was rather hilly but I felt reasonably strong on the hills. Pity I didn't take much notice of the map because I had to stop and make sure I was going the correct way a few times which made the run a little slower.

The leg felt ok but I could feel the hamstrings working on the downhills and I had some PF pain afterwards resulting in having to ice most of Saturday afternoon.

Sunday 10th

No run - Leg too sore. (I ate way too much junk food)

Plenty of stretching and icing.

Downhill girl returns...

2006-09-08T02:06:00.000-07:00

Thursday 7th

Rest Day - Weights and core abs

Not allowed to cycle : (

Friday 8th

Well after much procastinating I made it out to the local trail for an 8km run. I hadn't done this one before but I had always wondered what it was like. Still trying to be nice to my legs, the ground was slightly damp and I found the trail to be nice and spongey.

In fact in some parts it was a bit slippery and I had a bit of a tumble as I was negotiating a corner. I fell on my sore knee but it didn't hurt. I landed in some nice soft mud : ) All up the run took about an hour. I crossed the same river 4 times and made 3 wrong turns but it was fun. I will know where to go next time. Really nice way to end the working week.

Approx 8km with a few deviations (I forgot to turn the Garmin on)

One step closer.

2006-09-06T04:14:00.000-07:00

Firstly, thank you all so much for your advice. I really appreciate it and I have taken on board the comments that you all have left for me here. Thanks!

Wednesday 6th

In my attempt to start on option 1, I continued with my training program and did 15km but all on grass. I ran at the Bernie Mullane Sports complex and each lap was approx 1km. So 16 boring laps later I was finished.

My leg was not any better at all in fact the pain became quite intense at one point and I was pulling one of those "Granny" faces as ET calls it. Aerobically I felt great and I was running easy with not much effort at all really.

Later in the day I went to the Physio. We have pinpointed the Sartorius muscle as one of the major causes for concern. I recieved some treatment, exercises, icing and will follow up with some more ET massages over the next couple of weeks. As most of you suggested, the bike is out for now.

I have made the decision not to race the Half in just over a weeks time. Even if I do get the leg sorted out before then i haven't done enough speedwork and I would only end up being disappointed with my run. I had a chat to Gnomey last night who is going to be the 2hr pacer at the Half. So I asked Ellie if I could run with her instead : ) I am really excited to able to share in her first Half Marathon experience. Another reason is I will be starting my new job the very next day and I don't want to turn up cranky and tired for my first day.

I have set the Central Coast Half in December as my target Half Marathon before the end of the year. Besides, I will be doing all of the long runs at SMC this Summer to build up for 6ft so plenty of opportunities to record some decent 21km times.

Time: 1hr 19mins
Distance: 15.13km
Avg Pace: 5:15/km

Decisions??

2006-09-04T04:01:00.000-07:00

Monday 4th

After missing out on one of my crucial long runs yesterday I was really lacking in motivation today despite feeling a whole lot better as far as the cold was concerned. With a "Rest" day scheduled on the program I decided to stick to my usual Monday routine and did some weights and cycling.

We all know that you can never catch up on lost or missed training so I wasn't even going to try to make up for that and I was hoping the rest would help my leg to settle down a bit.

Cycle - 1hr - fluid trainer

Weights and core abs - 25mins

Tuesday 5th

Today was one of the most horrible runs ever! I had 3ktt down on the program and I thought it would be a good gauge for me to see exactly where I am at for upcoming events like the Half in a few weeks time and the FFM in October.

At the start and for the entire warmup my leg felt ok..but, just ok though. I did heaps of stretching yesterday and plenty of poking and proding on the sore spots to try to loosen them up a bit. It then came to the time for me to do the 3ktt and it all went down hill from there. I was running fine for the first 600m then the crippling pain started in my leg/knee and I abandoned the time trial all together opting to slow jog home - even that hurt!

So I have come to the realisation that I need to make a decision on how to fix up this pesky leg injury. I haven't been able to really do any quality training since the GCM. I have only done two painfree speedwork sessions since the GCM and the rest has just been going from day to day trying to get my leg to a point where it doesn't ache. This usually only lasts for a short period of time then it's sore again. I have a few options but I'm not entirely sure what I will do just yet. So here's what I have been thinking:

1. Continue to train but with less intensity (not fast, no speedwork). Keep up the ET massages and heaps of stretching. Do some faster sessions on the bike (not sure if this is contributing to my problems?)

2. Stop running until the injury is better. Keep up the ET massages and just cycle. (Which would mean no Half Marathon in two weeks time and possibly no FF Marathon)

3. Just do nothing at all and become a couch potato and work really hard on my Cadbury's Family Block PB.

No prizes for guessing that the number one option is the one that I want. The fact is, I really need to let this leg heal properly because I'm not getting to where I want to be right now and things won't improve if I don't take action, now! I want to run faster and I want to run another Marathon but I can't carry this injury any longer, it's starting to get me down.

So I guess I could start out with number one and if that doesn't work then review and move on down the list. Who knows, I could be the first female to represent Australia in eating chocolate ; )

Striders 10k-North Head

2006-09-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday 2nd

Woke up feeling very average and almost abandoned going to the Striders 10k. But I made the effort and drove over to North Head. I wasn't expecting too much from the run after backing up from W2B last week, a cold which has taken a turn for the worse and total lack of speedwork.

One of my goals for this year is to go sub 45min 10k and just before I ran the Gold Coast I think I was capable of doing it but never had the opportunity to run that distance. I have since been training for the longer stuff again and I have been very slack with the speed sessions which I intend to make sure I add more of these to the program.

Caught up with the usual Cr's and other runners before hand. Once we were off I managed to get into pace reasonably well but I always hate those first few km's they seem to really hurt. I sat just behind the 45min pacer which is more than I had done at Lane Cove last month. At the 3km mark I felt reasonably good and realised that if I could keep up the pace I could possibly duck under the 45min mark.

After the first loop around and coming back to the drink station I felt a sharp pain in my chest and started to have some problems breathing. This is where I backed it off a little bit and tried to breath as best I could. I had even tossed up on wether or not to pull out at the 5k mark but I pressed on hoping things would improve. I still managed to have the pacer in my sights but I knew they were pulling away from me as I slowed a bit more. Funnily enough my leg and knee wasn't too bad. I had spent several hours stretching the night before so that obviously helped.

At about the 8km stage I didn't feel much better and I found it hard to clear the "yuckies" in my chest so I could get some air in. Only 2 km to go I told myself and at this stage I knew that I was too far from the 45min pacer to even worry about that time. The last 2 km were pretty crappy and I managed to finish in a time of 45:58 - Which ended up being a 15sec PB for me anyway.

Breakky was great afterwards with TA and the Gnome (great to see him back running) Ellie, Will, Papa Luigi and Uncle Dave.

Sunday 3rd

Woke up for my long run and in short I had to go back home after 3km. My knee was unbearably sore and my adductors were aching and to top it off I couldn't breath : (

Time for a rest! Happy Fathers Day to all the Dad's out there.

The week so far

2006-08-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your lovely comments after W2B. It's great to have the support of my fellow Bloggers and CR's. You guys rock! I'm still on a high form the run so I filled in my FFFTM entry form today. I'm sooo looking forward to that one.

Tuesday 29th

I decided to go out for a slow 40min recovery run. The legs complained bitterly and my throat was burning the whole way. I woke up with a very sore throat so I knew that something was definately lurking as it is usually the first sign of a cold or flu. Popped a few Anticol and toughed it out which I'm glad I did because I felt great afterwards.

My legs definately needed the slow run just to loosen them up a bit. I'm not saying that they didn't hurt the entire way because they did.

Distance: 8.1km
Time: 45mins

Wednesday 30th

Something did eventuate - A cold : (

Rest - Massage with Easy Tiger was great. Just what my legs needed although I didn't think so at the time as I was in pain. I always leave there with my legs feeling nice and floppy! Yes, that can be a good thing. I had a lovely chat to Orunner who was lining up for a massage just after me. Now that I have the official "Presidential" invitation to join Striders, how could I say no to that?

I had planned to do some static cycling in the evening however, my legs just weren't up to it and I had really lost motivation by about 8:30pm. A heap of things that I had to catch up on at home were draining my energy levels and I just didn't feel like exercising at all.

Thursday 31st

20mins warmup run
12 x 30sec on x 30secs off
20mins warm down - ended up being about 16mins.

The legs felt great when I woke up this morning and I was ready to give them some more pain : ) I decided that I needed to do just a little sharpener before Saturday because I have really been slack with the speedwork lately. Something I need to work on and become consistent again by adding more to my training program.

Did the whole session on grass : ) Legs felt great, energy levels were good. What more can you ask for?

Distance : 9.1km
Time: 47mins

Recovery

2006-08-28T04:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday 27th

Rest day and recovery. I spent most of the day just trying to keep the legs moving although it was little hard at times because they were sooo sore. I tried to do some stretches but simply found that just walking up/down the stairs was a challenge. I was certainly paying for my downhill exploits now!!

Monday 28th

30mins slow cycle - core abs and weights.

The quads were definately feeling the effects today so some stretching was in order after warming the legs up on the fluid trainer. Felt alright afterwards and I might even venture out tomorrow morning for jog around the Ridge.

Official Results from W2B : 3:15:05 14TH Female and 85th overall placing : ) Still smiling!

Mt Wilson to Mt Bilpin

2006-08-27T04:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday 26th

I woke up early and had some breakky before Martin turned up to pick me up. In true Go Girl style I left "Gabby" at home : ( but I wasn't too phased because I was just out for a nice fun trail run anyway. I was relly looking forward to it but was somewhat apprehensive because of my lack of consistent training lately and my recent knee/hip injury. So it was really just going to be a "let's see what happens" type run.

The trip up was great, not too far from home. We arrived in enough time to park and catch the first bus up to Mt Wilson and I had a lovely chat to Tuttle on the way. After collecting my race bib I had a nice scone and coffee and chatted to a heap of CR's including :Horrie, Blue Dog, Amjan, Fats, Orunner, Will, Valium, Martin, Sawdust and a few others. It was a real Strider fest out there and Blue Dog trying his hardest to recruit more ; ) Hasn't asked me yet!

The start was pretty cold and I found myself shivering before the gun went off. Once we were away I ran for a little while with Horrie but he soon left me on one of the hills. I really stuck to my stratedgy of "run as much as the hill as I can and walk as soon as I feel the burn" This worked really well for me as I never let my legs go lactic and I maintained a reasonable pace even when walking.

It soon became evident that I was stronger on the flat and the down hill and not so good on the up hill, even to those around me. One runner even calling me "downhill girl" as he passed me on just about every uphill and I then passed him on the downhills.

Another advantage was having my fuel belt. I had 4 bottles all with water and I only stopped at 2 drink stations. The advantage of having my own water meant that I could continue on when others had stopped. I also got to have water when I wanted to which was mostly on or just after some of the hills. I managed to run with Tuttle a lot of the way until we reached the bitumen just before the long down hill. This is where I started to really feel good and picked up the pace a bit. Soon I started over taking people and caught at least 8 - 10 other runners once the terrain levelled out.

The downhill just didn't stop and I loved every bit of it. I was running so well, I was almost laughing to myself.. I soon caught up to another group of runners and eventually over took them as well. I found that I was running very economically not expending too much energy at all and feeling very strong. Then, the fairytale was over.. I reached the bridge and soon realised that it was mostly all up hill from there.

Despite what I had previously been told, I didn't find this part too hard. What I did find hard was trying to forget about the pain in my hip/knee and just press on to make it to the finish. I ended up running with another female most of the way up the hill. Although I did maintain my run / walk stratedgy, I mostly ran this part and managed to catch back up to her even after taking short walk breaks. Once we made it to the flat she pulled away from me but I held on sitting about 20m behind her. Once I could see we were getting closer to the finish line and with about 400m to go I managed to over take her and another female just ahead of me. It hurt like hell but it was fun!

I looked at the clock when I ran over the finish line and I think it said 3:15 something. Close enough anyway. I was so, so happy with how everything went, I just had a great time. It has given me a huge confidence booster now for the FitzroyFalls Marathon even though I know I still have some "Hill" work to do.

Doing some quick calculations (thanks to Gabby) once I returned home. I averaged a pace of:5:34/km. I will be waiting for the Official results to come out before I record anything though.

Preparations

2006-08-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

Friday 25th

30 mins slow cycle - Just to get the blood flowing in the legs. Not wanting to do too much before W2B so a nice relaxing cycle was all that I was attempting this morning. I have been trying to carb up and drink plenty of fluids in preparation for the run tomorrow. Still stretching heaps too.

I have arranged to get a lift up with Martin in the morning and the family will be cruising up to Bilpin later in the day and meeting me at the finish. Really looking forward to this run now : ) apparantly they have some yummy steak sandwiches at the end too.

I will be desperately waiting for word from fellow CR nando on Sunday to see how he went in the Adelaide Marathon. Good luck to all runners!

In other news - I went for a job interview on Tuesday and just found ou that I got the job! Really excited about this but it will require alot more dedication to actually getting out of bed early in the mornings to do my training. Very happy : )

Big catch up...

2006-08-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

Monday 21st

Rest day - Weights and core abs

Tuesday 22nd

am: 40mins easy run - 8.1km

pm: cycle 30mins slowly

Visited Easy Tiger in the afternoon. He worked his magic again. The leg, knee, itb, adductors etc...feel alot better - still not 100% though, so heaps of stretching to do.

Wednesday 23rd

Nothing?? Too scared to run because the legs feel really good. Had a lovely lunch with Jen_runs.

Thursday 24th

45mins easy run - 8.6km. A slight niggle in the adductors and some slight knee pain. Ordered some new shoes today. "Orange" Nimbus 8.

Soaking it up

2006-08-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday 19th

I ususally have a rest day on Saturdays but I felt like I needed a recovery run after the return to speedwork on Friday. So I ventured out for an easy 10k around the Ridge. It was really nice running in the fresh cool air, a great start to the weekend.

Time: 50mins
Distance: 10.1km

Sunday 20th

As hard as I tried I couldn't get anyone to run with me this Sunday : ( I had spoken to Blues Buffett just before I took off for my run and he suggested that I take the Parkway for a change and head out towards the M7 from home. So I did.

Although a little warmer at 1:00pm I found that I was running mostly in the shade along the Parkway and the weather was just georgeous. I also really liked the little grass strip that runs the entire length of the pathway which I ran on most of the way. Remembering the promise I have made to my legs to treat them with a little more respect, I think they were greatful that I ran on the grass and not the concrete.

Before long I had made it to the M7 cycleway and ran along there for 10mins or so then turned around and made my way back. Taking a slightly different route on the way back I finished up feeling great. The whole idea of the run was to not trash myself, but to get a decent long run in and to taper for W2B. Does that make sense??? I still have some knee, itb, hamstring issues and that was one of the other reasons why I took it easy. I have another appt with Easy Tiger this week to hopefully sort out the rest of my leg/hip issues.

Did a heap of stretches and put the skins on after a lovely loooong shower, nice!

Time: 2hrs 01min
Distance: 22.3km
Avg Pace: 5:26/km

A special day...

2006-08-17T04:55:00.000-07:00

Thursday 17th

Rest day - Finally made a mercy dash into the city for a much needed appt with Easy Tiger. He managed to iron out some crackley bits around my hips and helped to relieve some pain in the hamstrings, quads and itb. Felt 100 times better for it and I have another appt next week.

Friday 18th

20 mins warmup run
6 x 2min efforts with 1min sr
20mins warmdown run

Felt great this morning. (yes it was the morning!) Yay me, I made it out of bed for once. I have decided to be nice to my legs after the massage yesterday and I ran on grass (Yes grass Gary!) for the 6 x 2min efforts. I'm really trying to minimise the amount of stress that I put my legs through which is obviously no good for them given the recent injuries I have had.

Had some nice burning lungs at the end of the session, love it : )

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan. I have been watching the Vietnam stories all week on the History channel and in particular the doco on the Battle of Long Tan.

I have never seen such courage, determination and bravery like these young Aussies displayed in this battle. 108 soldiers from D Company 6RAR fought off approx 2,500 Viet Cong. A truely incredible story and sadly an almost unrecognised part of Australian history. "To the Diggers of Long Tan, I salute you"
18 Australian soldiers lost their lives in the Battle of Long Tan.