Engleesh Winters + slack days

Had another slack day yesterday, naughty me. Still, shall endeavour to run 5km tonight, 10km tomorrow, have saturday as a rest day before doing the 16km at the West end on sunday (10 miles?) Am aiming to do 40km this week total. Have been reading the free fitness mag I got at B2B which has made me feel all motivated again :)

Reading everyone's blogs makes me want to be doing the C2S but alas, my finances won't permit it. Besides, I'm doing Noosa on the 21st. I'm also going back to my native UK for three weeks at xmas, which will be fascinating since it's going to be freezing, freezing cold and a bit of a shock to the system no doubt! I'll take my running gear and everything - maybe I can angle this as another excuse as to why I actually really need to spend $100 on beautiful, beautiful full length skins. They'll keep the cold out you know *cough-cough* hmmm ;) I think I'll have to lose about a million kilograms too, to cope with english xmas food. (no cold meat and salad in sight!) It will of course be lovely to see my english family though :)

10km

Ran 10km tonight and enjoyed it... felt stacks easier than the B2B on sunday and I ran quicker too I think... the first 5km were harder than the second but once I settled into it, I felt like I could've carried on. Soooo good to feel good while running again.

Thankyou all for your comments about being a proper runner and walking breaks and all :) I think the frustration just got the better of me. I've decided just to embrace my walking breaks and adopt an attitude where I'll walk when I need to in training and then aim not to in races (but won't beat myself up if I do have to). All of which is really what I was doing prior to this whole foot debacle and it was working for me then so I'll carry on carrying on and just try not to stress about it all.

The good news is that the podiatrist gave me the all clear yesterday. To celebrate I bought myself a two bottle fuel belt - it's so much more comfortable than one of those water bottle belts - it doesnt bounce and I can also carry my MP3 player, keys, money and my phone if I want. Now I just have to master putting the bottles back without having to stop dead and twist it around!

71:37 B2B

Beautiful, perfect crisp blue sky running day today. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in sight and everything had that golden sheen on it as the sun came up. I love the way that sunrises have two very distinct colours - the liquid silver of first light on water, then a honey gold as the sun comes up over the landscape.

Woke up at 4.15am and forced myself out of bed, got dressed and headed to the shuttle bus pick up point at the RBH. Hopped onto the bus and scored one of the last seats. Was greatly amused to hear the couple standing in the aisle beside me start complaining mightily to each other about the pool the husband worked at, oblivious to the fact that the woman sitting infront of me was actually wearing a shirt with the pool name emblazoned across the back, who on hearing the conversation, turned around and stared very pointedly at the two of them. They still didn't see her and progressed to poking fun at other staff members. The look on the woman's face was classic and I think the guy will have an interesting day at work tomorrow!

Arrived at the start line and had to jog through thousands of people to get my bad in the luggage truck before it left. Thankfully, opting for the sub 70 category paid off because there weren't quite as many people to squeeze past and I started seeing a few familiar faces - luckily I managed to squish through right next to where Sam was lined up which was good because we were running together!

Before long we were off and I was amazed at the view from the top of the gateway bridge - it's so high up and when you drive over it, you just don't get to spend any time looking out at the scenery. It was gorgeous. The 1.1km incline seemed to pass by quite quickly and looked a whole lot scarier to run than it actually was. I know I'm going to take complete satisfaction in driving past it from now on and thinking about having run over it - it looks so huge!

Soon enough we were on the downwards side and off to the relative flatness of the rest of the race. Which is where things started to get interesting for me. I got to about the 5km mark and found myself having to walk for 30 seconds. Then, off we went again and then the same thing happened. I can't work out if it's the fact I'm not doing long runs on a wednesday night at the moment, having had a couple of weeks off with my foot or if it was just purely psychological because a month ago I did 14k at the West End without really stopping. Poor old Sam was very patient with me and I felt bad about the stop-starting. I felt really frustrated, then I got a stitch through my shoulder which I know is a result of running with tense shoulders but was trying to relax them. Once we got to about 7km, I started to get into a bit more of a rhythym and didn't need to stop as much but I felt about three times as tired as I did after running the Gold Coast Half. I started thinking about what Noosa is going to be like if I'm struggling with 12km now and then (sooky girl that I am!) I nearly started crying. Or at least, I would've if I'd had enough oxygen to spare. *L*

My foot held up well, although I started getting a mild cramp along the underneath of my toes in the second half of the run. All will be revealed tomorrow morning I suspect, as to whether my PF really is fixed or not. I have that follow up with the Podiatrist tomorrow as well! *guilty look* so I could well get sprung for running against advice!

Anyway, I really thought I'd just trashed my whole run with the stop starting this morning, but we came in at 1:11:37, only 1:37 over the cut off for the category that I was aiming for. So now I have to wait and see if the chip time might just push me into 70:something. I ran the 14km a month ago at 5:51 pace, and I did the 12km this morning works out as 5:58 pace. The thing I'm still trying to work out though is that I didn't really walk during the 14km. So does that mean my pace this morning (sans walking parts) might actually have generally been quicker and that's why it felt harder?

As we crossed the finish line, I had a brief moment of dizziness and then I thought I might throw up but somehow managed not to ;) Had the usual scuffle for water and sample bags. Caught up with a few people post-race and chatted. Great to see everyone and although I don't know what'll happen at Noosa, I think the only thing I can do is just aim to do it in however long it takes me and just enjoy it. If I'm doing an average of 5:something pace (which is quite good for me) then perhaps whether I have to take occasional walk breaks is irrelevant. I know it probably doesnt make me a 'proper' runner but at the same time, it's my overall times I'm looking at.

I guess my goal for the next few weeks is to sort out a better training schedule for myself and really stick to it. Number one priority I think is to find a long run to do. Sam was saying the running buddies hardly stop, so I might check out the wednesday morning run with InTraining first... I think that the pressure of knowing people are waiting for me to catch up is probably a bad thing for me at the moment. I also think that I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself at the moment - it's so dangerous to compare myself to the other runners I know, but I have to try and remember they've been running for years and I've been running for months. I've got years to improve and hopefully improve my times.

Anyway, bit of a mammoth race report, so I'll finish it here. It was a nice day though and it was lovely to be out running again!

6km + new running stuff!

To celebrate my running-again-ness, I bought some new running gear today - a pair of aasics three quarter length shorts. Ran in them tonight and am sold! I felt like I was naked from the waist down, they're so light and comfy! And, they have a pocket on the back which is really useful. I think I even prefer them to my beloved nike bike pants! Tomorrow I may even go mad and buy a water bottle belt too. I want one that's diagonal, since the straight ones seem to bounce up and down too much.

Went out tonight for an easy run of 6km - slow as slow, with heaps of walking breaks (usually because I run along a main road with about a thousand traffic lights, but it was getting too dark to run on the bike paths. There I was, daydreaming at the next set of lights when who should I see but Run67, riding his bike! Nice to be able to hello and wave though by the time I realised who it was, the lights had changed and he had to take off! The southside seems so empty of runners compared to north brissie and the city. I hardly ever see any around my area and when I do, they never say hi or acknowledge a smile.

Looking forward to the B2B on sunday. Sam is going to run it with me. We're not going for particular times, since there'll be soooo many people on the bridge, it'll no doubt be virtually impossible to move for the first km or so. My back is a bit sore tonight, though I think that's because I did a photoshoot today and it involved a lot of bending and crouching down and hefting of gear. Meh. She'll be right!

I've got my review with the podiatrist on monday which I'm feeling slightly guilty about considering he told me not to run the B2B, and I was only supposed to run the once between appointments, but I think my mental health warranted additional running and it's only been gentle running. I'll finish the week with 31kms which is less than what I was doing before the problems began anyway. Naughty me. It all feels fine though, no pain since, so I'm sure it's all fine :)

8km

I haven't been sticking to my plan for the week at all - this morning I went running by myself because I slept through the alarm. Ran for 45 minutes. Guessing that was about 8km. I had quite a few walk breaks ;)

Really missing running group on a wednesday night. Hopefully when the ekka is on, I'll be able to go (though I don't know if they'll run on a public holiday). I miss having company when I run.

The good news is that I entered the B2B yesterday. I even ticked 70 mins or less for my grouping *L* hopefully I should come in within that timeframe! I'm looking forward to doing a longer run unbroken by walk breaks and water stops, so I can see if I've got work to do to get back to where I was pre-foot trouble. Should also get a wriggle on and enter Noosa, though it looks as if there'll be a change in our acommodation plans. I think Noosa will now be more of a case of aim-to-finish rather than getting sub 2. We shall see!

Yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, YES! :)

5kms

It was so unbelievably good to run today. I ended up staying at a friends last night, so I got home after lunch and headed out... it was lovely to have the wind in my hair again, feet pounding along. I'm trying really hard to think about my form lately, since the podiatrist said I run with my feet going in circles (hence why I sometimes kick my own ankles!) I couldn't stop focussing on my foot either, trying to see if there was any pain. I think perhaps there was a tiny, tiny twinge but it's hard to know if that was just psychological or not!

FINGERS CROSSED that my foot is fine in the morning. If it doesnt hurt, I'm going to go to track, just to touch base with people and run gentle and non-speedily for a couple of loops (it's on grass too which is good) Then I might run (gently!) on wednesday too. I'm so impatient! If it hurts at any point I'll stop of course.

I've also decided to amuse myself in the mean time by doing floor and weights exercises every day for the next couple of weeks and writing down my number of reps to chart the improvement. I think PT on friday inspired me, with the evil ingenuity of the things Tony got me to do - ie. doing push ups on my toes with one hand on the floor and one hand on a medicine ball to work my core muscles as well. *L* I wish they had a chin up bar at the gym!

Tentatitve Week plan:

M -
am: Weights/Floor Exercises
pm: Spin 5.30pm, Yoga 6.30pm

T -
am: Weights/Floor Exercises
pm: Non speedy track session (dep. on foot!)

W -
am: morning run group with In Training? (dep. on foot!)
pm: Weights/Floor exercises

T -
am: Spin 6am
pm: Pilates 6.30pm

F -
am:
pm: Body Balance 6.30pm

S -
am: Yoga 10.30am (not risking BRB til next week!)
pm:

S -
am: B2B (dep. on foot)
pm: Pilates 3.30pm

Like I say, am hoping this is how the week turns out. Might throw a few swims in there, too!

Hope you all had a great weekend :)

PT

Went and did a PT session today. I appear to have trapped a nerve in my armpit somehow, since I woke up not being able to lift my right arm above my head. Not nice. But I refused to let it stop me training and went anyway. It was great to do some grunt work on the weights and start sweating. We did push ups on toes, with one hand on a medicine ball, with sets of five reps on each hand. Just to you know, make me suffer. I nearly died *L* still, I'm up to 45kgs on the lateral pull down now too. I can almost hang off the bar *L* I really wish that my gym had a chin up bar, but if there is one, I've yet to find it.

I'm looking forward to running on sunday immensely, thinking I might not go to the west end and run since most people will be at Ipswich anyway. I could go out there and perhaps do the 10km but it's a long drive and I'll feel tempted to go too fast. Plus, I'm not supposed to be doing more than 30-40 minutes anyway... I dunno. I could run half I guess. Blah, waste of money. Mount Cootha is looking good, since it's off road, no concrete and therefore may be a little better for my foot. Though it is hills, LOL!

I've eaten so badly this week as well. I feel all stodgy and lethargic. Starting sunday, I'm going back to eating healthily. Everything seems to sit on your stomach without training every day and I know I'm up a few kgs again, dammit. Anyway, next week is the B2B, which I wasn't going to do, but if my foot is okay, I would really like to do the 12km. I chickened out of it last year, so I've sort of got unfinished business there ;)

Can't really plan next week's training yet, since depends on sunday's run, but lets hope it's better than my slacko week this week!

Not Running

Well, I've done no running for over a week now - sunday is R day and I can't wait. I'm feeling a bit frustrated by my lack of activity - all I've done this week is go swimming once. Mind you, work has suddenly become so busy that I wouldn't have had time to go exercise if I could have! Definitely not complaining though, it's sooooo nice to be busy again!

I have been keeping up my CR quota, squishing in dinner with Tesso, Clairie, Skizzik and Karisma last night. I was a bit dead, having pulled an allnighter to hit a rush job deadline - 17 houra straight on a computer is not good for ones sanity LOL! Then I taught at uni all day! Again with the nice-to-be-busy thing though! *nods* Anyway, it was lovely to see the gals, although sad at the same time, now a certain person is moving down to Sydney :( Who am I going to paddle inflatable kayakes down rivers with now? LOL!

Tomorrow I have PT - It'll be so good to do some work. I'm totally craving cardio! (and sleep!)

Roll on sunday and running, I say!

Bugger

Went to see the podiatrist at InTraining today. Apparently I've managed to get not just one injury but two - "Plantar Fasciitis" and "Petroneus Brevis Tendonitis" which both sound very exotic (they should be cocktails or geraniums or something) but aren't too bad in comparison to some of the things I read about with similar symptoms! I've got a follow up in two weeks, have to take anti-inflammatories for ten days, ice and stretch every day and (the bit I wasn't too impressed with) I can't run for another five days. Waaaaa. After that however, I can have one run of 30-40 minutes max. Therefore, I'm thinking the west end 5km on the 31st might be the go, although more as a chance to stretch my legs than get a decent time.

I'm thinking postively about this, in that it could be worse - I could have had to take months off. Five days isn't a great deal in the scheme of things and if all goes to plan, I'll be back on track in time for Noosa. For the time being, I don't need orthotics, either! (Huzzah! I don't think my mastercard could take the strain!) Also, the Podiatrist was beautiful (Kent, his name is ;) and having tasty men play with my feet always lifts a girls spirits :)

So, I'm hereby dedicating this week to copious amounts of stretching, pilates, yoga, spin and swimming instead... I'll worry about my kms next week :)

No running for me today. Again.

Oh dear, this blog is starting to get repetitive, isnt it? My foot is shot again today after last night's run :( *bangs head against keyboard* this time, the pain is right underneath my heel and along the side under the ankle bone - feels like a stone bruise, only worse... limping again quite spectacularly. I think it's a sprain.

I think it may be time to go and see someone about it :(

Bugger.

12km Run Group + a few resolutions!

Got up this morning feeling a bit sore from track last night - Just goes to show it's good for you! *L*

Ran 12km or so, but felt like more (again, probably from having done track) - Told Sam and Tracey the news re my teaching work, but hopefully I'll get to see a bit of them anyway, with Noosa coming up and the odd social run, track session and BRB!

Even better though - after the run, I won the bottle of red! Yay me :)

rest of week and next, now having had a bit of a shuffle, looking like:

Thurs - 5 - 10km, gentle effort
Fri - REST
Sat - BRB (10km? more? Depends how long I can keep up with them LOL!)
Sun - J2J (10km)

WEEKLY TOTAL: 47km? (erm... looking at that increased mileage, might scrap that 10km tomorrow and do 5km instead!)

Mon - Social Run (8km?)
Tues - track 5km
Weds - easy 5km
Thurs - PT (must arrange this)
Fri - REST
Sat - BRB (?km)
Sun - 15km at West End (sure I read there was a 21k happening? If there is, I'll do that!)

WEEKLY TOTAL: not sure yet - minimum 43km?)

So, looks like I'm finally increasing my mileage, doesnt it ;) I just noticed that there's a 25km on at the West End on September 4th - I think that once Noosa is done, I'll make that my next goal! I'm sort of feeling a bit zen about my running at the moment... On some level, I feel that if I listen to my body, allow myself to slowly increase distances with the aim to just finish them, then eventually, the times will follow. I know this stuff doesnt happen over night, so I'm trying to look at it as a plan unfolding over the next few years.

Before the end of the year, I want to be able to run 35km, even if it takes me hours :)

5km Track

Did track tonight. I think I did about 5 x 500m - took it easy because of my foot (which felt fine, but I figure it pays to be cautious!) my times were 2:22, 2:21, 2:35, 2:45, 2:35. Not too bad, though I certainly felt it. Much prefer 500m's to 800m. Felt good to be back at track, although I definitely felt it (ah, how I missed that familiar sort of I-might-throw-up sensation! NOT! LOL!)

Some good and bad news this week - I've scored a bit of teaching work which is very good. However, the tutorial times include (wait for it) Wednesday Nights. Which is long run night. Waaaa. I can't swap with another tutor, can't not do it, so looks like I shall be having to find alternative long runs for the next 12 weeks. Might be able to do one or two (Ekka holiday is a wednesday I think, don't know if there'll be a group run if it's a public holiday?)

Seems like there's no way around it unfortunately, so I think I may just have to deal with my own saturday morning reluctance and get my butt out of bed and down to the Running Buddies after all! *grins* I don't think I can make myself run more than about 10km on my own and I'm determined not to slip backwards - worked too hard to get here!

Anyway, will run tomorrow night and let Tracey and Sam know if they haven't read this entry first! Still going to be doing Noosa Half and everything, just means I'll have to rework my training times a bit.

Weights

Went and took my frustration out on the weights this morning. Feel so annoyed I couldn't do the fun run - the weather looked perfected for it. Oh well, it's only one run out of many more to come, hopefully :) Foot feels a bit better today, feeling better much more quickly than last time round which has to be a good sign. Based on how frustrated I've been just from this, I think I'd be really unbearable to be around if I ever did anything more serious to myself! *touch wood!*

Anyways, carrying on with the positive vibe, am planning the week to look like this:

M - Gym Session (no foot stressing stuff! might even go swimming!)
T - Track: 5km?
W - Group Run: 15km?
T - Weights Session
F - 10km
S - Rest Day (gentle mt cootha run/walk on hills, maybe!)
S - Jetty to Jetty 10km

This is based on a 40km week again, with the understanding that I'm just going to concentrate on running as I feel for the week. Or feeling how I run *L* Or something. But you get my drift. I'm not going to be pushing things hard anyway... the emphasis will be on having fun and not stressing.

I think I'm also going to ban the treadmill for the time being, which I'm thinking may also be part of the problem - the repetitive movement or something (and the fact I can actually feel the belt slipping slightly under my feet) plus, it's so mind numbingly BORING... same, same, same..... I can hardly bear it anymore! *L*

Foot - AGAIN!

Nooooo !!!!!

My measly, half hearted 5km at the gym last night seems to have aggravated my foot again, because this morning I woke up to beautiful blue skies and honey coloured sunshine, all set to go running at Mt.Cootha again, hopped eagerly out of bed - only to find I am limping again and my foot is really sore. Can hardly walk on it.

This also means that I probably won't be able to do the Rail Trail fun run tomorrow because although I could possibly grit my teeth and run on it, it'll only make it worse. So, I'm thinking the sensible thing to do would be to rest it for a good few days, until perhaps tuesday track session at least. I'm so frustrated :(

If this is what happens every time I try and increase my mileage, I might have to stay on my 30km for a while, I think!

current weight: 77.4kgs (HURRAH! Back to non gluttonous pig out weight!)

Feeling a bit uninspired tonight and almost want to declare today a rest day but I've already had two this week (one of those was actually PT but still counts as rest cos it wasnt running!) but despite my lack of enthusiasm shall now disengage from the internet and go and do 5-10km, then camp in the sauna and steam for a while :)

A Brief Entry (for a change!)

Ended up doing 5kms and a bit of a weights session at the gym tonight instead of my planned 10km - my inner thighs are still sore from PT on monday and after running last night, I felt a bit creeky. No biggy though, just means I'll do a longer run on saturday, probably.

Good news:
- feel fine today (maybe I won't come down with a cold!)
- current weight: 78.2kgs - the scales are moving in the right direction again! hurrah!

New Shoes + 12km

Finally got some new shoes before running tonight. They feel so different to the old ones - which, on inspection from Phil, were past there use by date. Amusingly, they're the same ones that Sam (and apparently, Tesso) have, so now we all match! *grins*

Did about 12km I'm guessing. Foot started to hurt towards the end, but bearable. Think I might be coming down with a cold (can you believe it? Mind you, what where this blog be, without me having something to whinge about? LOL) On a positive note, the rest of the week is looking like this:

Thurs: 10km
Fri: Weights/Cardio of some sort
Sat: 5km Mount Cootha Summit Trail (might try and make this 10km)
Sun: 8.2km Rail Trail Fun Run

Want to try and get this week's mileage up to 40km, so I should probably aim to do 10km options where possible. (Had Mon + Tues as Rest Days, did 12km tonight, so that leaves 28km to spread over the next four days)

Fun Run Addiction

I'm sure you'll all be glad to know my foot is much better today (I must stop blog-whinging about it!) and so I'm going running tonight, dammit :) Am also firmly back on the eat-properly wagon, after excelling myself at eating-badly in the last few weeks and going up to 81kgs (now 80kgs) which at least had the side effect of shocking me into a stronger resolution to get rid of it once and for all! I will get there. I will.

Anyway, am currently in fun run heaven, almost overwhelmed with the amount of races I could do in the next few weeks. In fact, looking at my calendar, there is something on every sunday for the next 10 weeks! Admittedly one or two of those are BRRC events, but it still counts! This is becoming an addiction!

I'm actually thinking that I may not do the Ipswich Half - mostly to conserve the contents of my wallet for as long as possible, but also because it's so close to Noosa - I'm thinking perhaps it might pay me to just work on my endurance and speed more between now and then and then do Noosa at full throttle. Or maybe I should do the Ipswich half, but purposely do it really slowly. Decisions, decisions!

PT session and knotted moans

Foot still sore and am now limping like a pirate. For some reason I can't help but poke the sore parts from time to time to see if they're any better, which probably isnt helping matters! Did a good solid core weights session... had shakey legs from it so it must've been good.

Had a long chat with my PT about my foot and he pointed out that I turn my knees in when I'm training (he's forever correcting me) so I probably do it running as well. Makes sense actually, because I quite frequently clip my ankles with my feet when I run and am starting to suspect that my bad habits may be why my foot is sore. That said, I've been running six months without a problem (shhh! fatal last words, I know!) so maybe its just time I got new shoes. Which I will.

Had a brief talk about podiatrists and orthotics, but after a bit of discussion, decided to try and work on my core muscle strength more, so that I don't turn my knees in so much and hopefully that will go some way to improving my running technique. I really don't want to have to resort to orthotics unless absolutely necessary.... have some highly unattractive exercises to do every day so I'll give them a whirl.

I've also got some serious knots under my shoulder blades from tensing my shoulders as I run too - so all in all, I feel like I'm kinked up and off kilter! I always thought most runners adopt their technique from the way they naturally run, but I think I need to stop running 'naturally' and start really looking at my form before I end up inside out and back to front!

Tomorrow I was going to do track, depends on my foot I guess! *fingers crossed!*

14km in 82mins + Marshalling

West End this morning - hurray for me, I survived the 14k due in no small part to the lovely Adrian and Schultzy pacing me through at various parts of the run. Really nice of them to do that for me considering how much slower I am than them. Felt like stopping several times, but somehow didn't and came in in 82 minutes, so just under six minute pace :) Soooo happy.

Seem to have cracked the problem I had the last few months with running just before 'that' time of the month and being crippled with violent stomach cramps - the secret is taking two ibuprofen, ten minutes before the run.... stops the cramps and meant I could feel it but instead of doubling over, I could just run through it. So very pleased with that little discovery!

Unfortunately, my foot is worse after this mornings run - having a rest day tomorrow (doing PT instead) so hopefully that'll fix whatever it is that is wrong - feels a bit like I've sprained it or something. Not happy Jan. Might also have something to do with the fact that I've just worked out that in the last 15 days, I've run 78kms (18kms more than usual). Oops. Broken that 10% rule there somewhere, although spread out on my calendar it doesnt seem too excessive!

After the run, Skizzik and I headed off to volunteer at the Adventure Race we were planning to do today - very glad we did volunteer before actually doing it because we came away with a list of tips and tricks for making it all run just a little bit smoother. Had excellent chats with Skiz and we gossiped our way through the afternoon and watched all the most stunningly beautiful male competitors fly through the bush. Even the other marshalls were gorgeous! There were some huge bike stacks, one occurring right infront of us, where a guy on a bike breaked hard and came to a full stop without warning and his team mate barrelled straight into him from behind... blood and expletives were free flowing, but they hopped back up and kept going. Another guy had a major stack and cut his chin down to the bone - he kept going too! The Kayaking looked hugely amusing with one or two newbies paddling themselves round in circles down the river :) I can't wait to find out how we go at it *LOL*

The whole thing was pretty well organised and is becoming really, really popular - there were over 100 competitors today. Looks like heaps of fun and Skiz and I thought it would be fantastic to get a CR adventure race going! Might be a goer when it's a bit warmer though - this morning was just absolutely freezing and I didn't take my four layers off all day! All in all, it was heaps of fun :)

The Upside of Hills is their Downside!

Yesterday I did a bit of a weights session at the gym, did a couple of short sprints and floor exercises. I love doing stomach crunches with a medicine ball. I think all this running has finally shaken my brain into madness!

Had a very late night last night and so yet again managed not to make it to the saturday morning BRB run. I think that I will have to admit defeat at attempting to attend any regular runs on a saturday morning - try as I might, I am just not able to make myself get out of bed after three hours sleep, on a saturday!

I am sort of unrepetentant however, because instead, I spent a lovely afternoon running up and then down the JC Slaughter falls track to the summit of Mount Cootha and back. No idea how long it took me as I decided just to enjoy it and not worry about how fast/slow I went or how many walk breaks I took (and there were quite a few!)

Not very far (2km ish up, 2km ish down, plus about another k back to where I parked the car. It felt really good to do a few hills and I enjoyed the change of scenery and surface. Speaking of which, my left foot is now sore again and the right one is fine. No idea what is going on there - must remember to get my shoes checked!

The best part of the run was by far, getting right to the top, looking at the view for a few minutes, then running down the track - felt like I was flying, no effort involved and had lots of fun jumping over the steps along the way. Lovely. I do like the bush (not that Mt Cootha is out in the wilds!) the smells, quietness and the calmness of it. It's good for the soul, I think :) Definitely left me feeling at one with everything :) (Endorphins: don't you just love 'em?)

As I was running down the track, I remembered the very first time I walked that trail, early last year, puffing and panting and thinking the occasional runner I saw bolt past me must be insane. Now I'm one of the *insane* people. It sort of put a few things into perspective for me and made me realise how stupid it is for me to moan about my times etc - even if I never get any faster at running, at least I'm lucky enough to now be able to run and to love it - this time last year, I couldn't do that :) I did have to giggle when I saw a guy actually carrying his dog up the trail!

Tomorrow morning, as long as my foot is okay, I'm going to do the 14km at the West End :)

London

Just as I finished my run at the gym tonight, I saw the breaking news on the television about the bomb blasts in London. Being both a Pommie and a UK Child of the 80s, I grew up with bomb scares and terrorist threats from the IRA, but what has just happened is a whole new breed of awfulness.

My sister rang from the UK to tell me our family are all fine, although my father was less than a mile from the site of the first explosion. I haven't been able to talk to him yet because all the phone lines are down, but I know he's okay and that's the main thing. I had to tear myself away from the television tonight because it all started to get a little too much.

My heart goes out to everyone who was affected by the blasts, and their family and friends.

Inside Out Shorts + 40 mins (8km? no idea!)

Went to run group tonight - feeling pretty much back to normal. Thankfully, my foot seems to have sorted itself out and doesnt hurt any more which is definitely a good thing :) Was having paranoid nightmares about stress fractures. But all is well :)

When I arrived tonight, everyone was adding their times from the weekend to a white board on the floor. I didn't particularly want to add mine, but after some prodding, I squatted down and started writing. It was then that John whispered in Sam's ear, and Sam whispered in mine that in my rush to get out of the door at home, I'd accidently put my shorts on inside out and the labels were poking out from under the bottom of my shirt and were on display to everyone in the shop. Oops. *laughs* Oh well! It wasn't til later that I realised that John must've been looking at my arse in order to notice - which I find far more amusing anyway! *L*

We ran as one big group tonight because everyone was supposed to be recovering from the weekend, only, as usual, their 'slow' is my 'fast' and I found myself struggling slightly towards the end of the run and it was only 40 minutes or so! *pouts* I'm thinking maybe I'm still tired from the weekend and that's why it felt hard, but I generally feel fine and my muscle soreness is gone, so I don't know. I got the worst stitch right at the end too - went from my right shoulder, right the way across my back and down my right side which left me feeling slightly nauseous. Sam was lovely and massaged my sweaty shoulder, bless her! Anyway, If I can stop moaning for a minute and look on the positive side of things, it was probably better to feel challenged by the run than not. If you don't challenge yourself, you don't have any reason to improve afterall. Onwards and Upwards and all that! :)

Spoke to Skizzik tonight about the adventure race - which may still go ahead, depending on Skizzik's cunning plan re the logistics of getting bikes - and even if we don't do the race, we might volunteer at it, or alternatively, do the west end runs (7/14kms) and then volunteer (which would be cool, because I feel like I need all the kms I can get at the moment!)

Tomorrow, I think I'll aim for 10kms, weights friday, running buddies saturday and then sunday will be west end 14kms or the adventure race. Should be a full week!

Footloose?

Yesterday I was sooo sore, I could hardly walk. Not surprising I guess! I'm almost back to normal today. Yesterday it was all I could do to go to the gym, stretch a lot and then camp in the steam room to massage my aches! I've been sore from training many a time - PT always has me groaning 24-48 hours after a solid weights session, but I think this was actually the sorest my legs have ever been from running alone. Strangely proud of that too for some reason *L* must be the runner in me finally coming out - I knew it was in there, somewhere!

Can't believe how obscene the caffiene withdrawals have been from giving up Diet Coke. Mostly in the form of intense headaches and major cravings - but then, caffiene is addictive, so I don't know quite what I expected to happen! While I was finishing my MA, I pratically lived on it to get me through the day - it was just so exhausting trying to juggle full time work and full time study, all at once. Anyway, I'm now trying to flush my system out a bit by drinking lots of water, so hopefully things will soon calm down and I can have the occasional one as a treat without any probs.

I really want to go to track tonight, but my foot is still painful - though it was my left one that hurt during the half, it's the right one that's now causing problems- only hurts when I pick my foot up off the ground which freaks me out because I don't want to think about what that may mean. So, I'm being cautious and will have today as a rest day too. Fingers crossed tomorrow it will be fine. Will definitely be asking Phil to check my shoes for me on wednesday, too.

Looks like Skiz and I may have to raincheck the adventure race for a while - it's still a bit too soon to organise everything in time. If we don't do it, I think I'll have a go at the 14km Novice race at the West End. If my foot isnt right, I may not even do that *pouts* Positive thoughts - lots and lots of positive thoughts.

Oh, and thankyou all for all the supportive comments, emails and text messages re the half :) It's so lovely to feel so supported :) you're all stars!

The Gold Coast Half Marathon

The Night Before

So much happened this weekend, it's difficult to know what to blog and what not to! I arrived on the coast on saturday morning and found my hotel. Very swanky place and made a nice change from the type of place I'm used to staying in (ie. grotty backpackers or camping LOL) Met up with my running and room buddies, Tracey and Sam, found our room and then went out to do a bit of shopping in Cavill Mall. Mostly because the hotel had a spa which was very appealing but neither Sam nor I had remembered our swimmers!

In the evening, we had dinner with CR people. Tracey and Sam were a bit fascinated by all the online names and hugging that was going on! (They don't read the message boards - yet!) Got to meet some of my fellow bloggers, including The Owl, Jen and Plu. It was soooo nice to put faces to names. Funny how familiar people seem and how you feel as if you really do know people, all from online contact. Anyway, lots of interesting conversations going on, including the possibility of changing my CR name (currently with no imagination) to 'Dammit' - particularly relevant considering I wasn't very happy with my half time, but we'll get to that ;)


(Me and the Owl)


(dinner table)

We decided to have an early night and were in bed by about 9.30pm - a record for me, being a bit of a night owl. Of course, none of us could sleep properly... woke up every half an hour to see if it was time yet.

Crunch Time

We got up at 5am, got dressed, got on the shuttle bus and were at the race by about 5.30 - wandered around, faced the toilet queues, put our bags in and before we knew it, we were at the start line. It was a huge crowd and took about two minutes to cross the actual start line. The atmosphere was just electric; there was such a buzz!

Soon enough we spread out enough to be able to start running and off we went. Tracey, Sam and I had thought we'd try and follow the two hour pacer, but because of the number of people around us, those balloons disappeared off into the distance pretty quickly. The next pacer after that was 2.10, so we kept up with him for the first 5km. I found it really hard to get into my stride with the run and felt, after the first 3km that I wasn't going to be able to go quick enough to break 2.10, let alone 2.00 - I started to walk through the drink stops (admittedly, so that I could have a drink without it going up my nose, but also to conserve energy) and Tracey and Sam went ahead.

It was a bit strange running alone, particularly since I'd forgotten my watch (*slaps head*) and couldn't see how I was going in terms of splits, which I think would have made a difference. I also think I may need new shoes as my left foot started to hurt, below the ankle bone on the side and it felt like the shock was greater in that foot or something. Will get them checked. Anyway, by 7km I finally started to get into a rhythym and kept a slow but steady pace until about 15km when I started to feel tired.

My breathing was really comfortable the whole way through, but the thing that got me was heavy legs... psychologically when I run alone, I think I always feel more tired, so I'd started adding a couple of walk breaks every ten minutes or so. The last couple of kms seemed to go on forever, but I amused myself by passing a huge, 6ft4 muscle bound famous footballer who I'd been playing tag with during the entire race. Then I saw the CR cheer squad and felt a burst of energy - they were sooo fantastic, I can't express how much of a difference it made having people cheering you on so enthusiastically right when you feel your worst... almost made me teary! Anyway, I took my new found juice and adopted my usual 'glory dash' for the last 500m, passing a few people on the way *grins*

I came in at 2:18 (clock time) which I was not very happy with - during my last half, I felt like we were going so incredibly slow and we had so many long walk breaks, toilet stops and the like, that I thought I would take at least 20 minutes off, just in the fact that we werent doing those things. I know it's still a ten minute PB, but it doesnt really feel like it because I feel that I could've done so much better.

On a positive note, Tracey went on to do a huge PB from memory, coming in at 2:09, and Sam did sub 2 which was just fantastic.


Me looking unamused ;)


Me, Tracey and Sam :)

The Afterparty

After the presentations and some horrific children's entertainers, I bumped into Clairie and Mr Clairie and they gave me a lift to the afterparty (thanks, C! Was so good not to have to walk it!), arrived, collapsed onto a bar stool with a drink and before long the entire place was absolutely full of CR people *grins* It was like a CR convention and a sea of blue and yellow!

Tess arrived after lunch, after having a nasty fall on her PB marathon effort! She couldn't stop grinning though which was lovely. After a couple of hours I needed to have a sleep and recover, so the lovely Cirque dropped me back to my hotel (again, big thanks for the lift and not having to walk, cirque! xxx) and I got my car and drove back to Brisbane.

What Did I Learn?

I learnt that I need to increase my distances so I have better endurance for longer runs and that just because I'm getting better at 10 and 5km, those sorts of times don't necessarily translate accross to a half marathon. I don't think my long runs have been long enough, so I'm going to start increasing distances again. At the moment, I'm doing about 30km a week which just isnt enough.

It's probably good that I feel I buggered up, because it's definitely fired me up for the next one - which I'm planning to do at the end of the month (31 July - Ipswich Half Marathon). I am now a woman on a sub 2 mission (dammit!). The good thing is that there's quite a few races coming up in the next couple of months (want to do the Noosa Half as well) so I've got some goals to work towards. General Resolutions to achieve this include:

a. Drop 5kgs (without obsessing about it!)
b. Give up diet coke (which I drink far too much of and it is bad, bad, bad for me)
c. Go back to Track sessions and speedwork once a week
d. Finally Make it to the Brisbane Running Buddies Saturday Runs and do so regularly!
e. Check if I need new shoes
f. Increase my mileage sensibly

Big Thankyou to everyone who made the weekend so enjoyable!

Pouring!

So last night I went to running and it absolutely poured down. I was feeling a bit uninspired given the weather, but we all gee-d each other up and out we went. Ended up doing laps of Brookside undercover carpark and then headed back along the bike path. My shoes gradually filled with water and I stepped in a few ankle deep puddles, so by the end, each foot felt like weighed 5 kilos!

Everyone there has been egging me on to try for 2 hours on sunday and telling me I'll do it easily (!) but I'm thinking more in the vicinity of 2.10 - I may write 2 hour pacing up my arm and try for it though. Just to see. You're all a bad, bad influence on me! LOL! Any time better than 2.30 is fine with me though!

Tonight I'm going to go and do 5kms or so on the tready at the gym... mostly just to keep my legs moving and so that I feel virtuous! My arms are still sore from PT on tuesday! Worked out my monthly kms today as well - nice to see them increasing again. Next month, I'm aiming for more.

To that end, I hereby do solemnly swear that after the Gold Coast, I am going to do the Brisbane Running Buddies Saturday Runs and go back to tuesday night track. The only variable will be whether I have to work - back to 24/7 shiftwork in a few weeks time so may prove interesting combining running with it.

Out on the Town

Had a lovely night out last night with Tesso, Clairie, Cirque and Skizzik.... so nice to have a get together and unwind a bit! It's been ages since I last did anything like that :) Must admit, catching up on all the CR gossip is so much fun in person ;) Time was also spent egging each other on into various events and races around the place, the crazier the better!

Tonight I've got running group out at Enoggera - a fun one where everyone is tapering so we all get to run together. Only, their tapering speed is sort of my fast anyway, so there's not much difference in it for me!

Four more sleeps to go!

PB - 10km in 55:59!

Huzzah!!!!

55:59 for 10km at the West End this morning! Lucky for me, Schultzy paced me for the last 4kms or so - I don't know if I'd have been able to do it without having someone to hang on to for grim death the last few kms! By the end, my legs and lungs were screaming stopppp! but somehow my little mantra of 56-56-56-56-56 got me through!

I think this morning was possibly the hardest run I've done so far and now feel absolutely exhausted... but so worth it... feeling really, really happy! Skizzik finally made it to the West End too, which was great! Looking forward to the Gold Coast even more now :)

mnnn

Argh, I seem to be doing battle with the blues again lately! I hate feeling like this. I'm no fun to be around either like this, so rather than inflict myself on the running buddies, I piked out again (!) and trained solo in an effort to clear my head and sort some stuff out. I did a bit of a circuit, with 5 mins rowing, 5 min elliptical trainer, 5 min fast run and then 5 minutes on the bike (which turned into 40). Then I went and had a sauna and steam. Came away feeling a bit less disgusting.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to the West End and I'm going to cheer myself up by running a new 10km time. Aiming for 56-something. *fingers crossed!* Am now back in the land of 77kgs, too :)

Adventure Racing ;)

At the moment, I'm reading a book called 'Appetite' which is the memoir of a woman who had anorexia. It also talks alot about the relationship between food, desire and femininity in western culture (which is why I bought it originally). All of which has also been a key part of the research I did during my MA - I wrote a lot about it in my thesis and in turn, through my art work.

The author fell in love with rowing and talks about how she beat her eating disorder through striving to have a fit body, rather than a thin one (that's a vast simplification of the book of course, but that's the part that I'm interested in currently) and it strikes me that that's how I view my relationship with exercising. I think it's where I might have been going wrong with the whole lose-weight thing lately. I want to lose weight to run faster and get fitter, but to do that, I've been obsessing a little over the numbers on the scale and *getting thinner*. What I should really be looking at is whether I am faster and fitter, regardless. I'll still measure progress by my weight of course (one day I'll hit 75kgs, I swear it) but when it becomes not about the joy of running and exercise, it becomes not-fun, non-rewarding and that's not really sustainable in the long term.

Anyway, that's enough of Hannah's-mental-non-running-ramblings for now!

The good news is that the lovely Skizzik and I may well be doing our first adventure race next month (running-riding-kayaking) and I'm feeling really excited about it! The goal is not really to be uber quick or anything, but just to have fun, to challenge ourselves and complete the course. So strange to be doing things like that - two years ago, I'd have hated it. Now I can't wait! Am soooo excited about the Gold Coast - have accommodation sorted for the saturday night, still pondering what to do about sunday... could drive back to Brisbane after the afterparty, but I'm sooo going to need a shower somewhere in there. Maybe I'll book another night at the hotel on my own or something. Who knows!

Food Stuff.

Long run last night was really good. I was panicking slightly about not having been for a couple of weeks, but after I warmed up, I felt really good and could've kept going afterwards. Cheered me up immensely. Have dropped about half a kg since my recent record gain, so things are moving back the way they should. Who would've thought that a tube of pringles equated to about 2kgs of extra weight. I think my body is just uber sensitive to bad food these days. Works in reverse too, because when I set my mind to it, I lose weight fairly quickly for the first little while.

To answer the pringles question, I never usually buy junk food because if it's there, eventually I'll eat it. This time round though, my well meaning mother bought them. Logically, you would think, after dropping 50kgs, I would have enough will power to be able to dance around dressed in bloody pringles and not eat them, but it seems not! I believe that my problems with food completely stem from the relationships my family had with food as a child, but I won't bore you with the details of that! It's a familiar story.

The biggest part of losing the weight was changing my comfort eating tendencies and these days I know that while I might lose a battle or two, I'm winning the war. I hate how irrational binge eating seems, how lazy and weak to not be able to just stop eating when full. To someone who has never had any sort of eating disorder, it must seem strange. I know exactly why I over eat - it's a reaction to factors like stress, emotion and boredom... I've been analysed enough, had enough therapy over this very issue to know exactly why I do it and what I should do to stop myself, but from time to time, it still happens. If anything, when I try and lose a bit more weight like recently, I'm more vunerable to those moments. It's not that I feel particularly guilty once I've over eaten - more annoyed with myself. I think half the battle is just forgiving yourself and starting again. Which I do quite easily these days *L*

It's just such a horrible place to go back to, even fleetingly. Sometimes I daydream about what it would be like to not have to be so incredibly strict about food. Not to have to weigh myself almost daily to keep my weight under control. But at the same time, that's a very small price to pay. I'll do it gladly, if it means I'll never weigh 126kgs again. Blah.

And to end on a good running related note, I'm going to the gym tonight and aim to do 10km. I'll write about the adventure race the lovely Skizzik and I may be doing in the next entry!

Blah....

*sighs* back on the wagon *again* :( Last night I ate a whole tube of pringles. Salt and Vinegar too - and I don't even like Salt and Bloody Vinegar. Consequently, my weight is exactly back where I started. 79kgs. Oh well... have a few intense running days coming up, so if I can get back to my usual 77kgs, I'll be happy enough.

Yesterday I had a rest day because my little toe (well, the bone) was a bit sore. It happened a couple of times when I first started running and I imeediately think the worst, so I decided to give it a rest for a day. Long Run tonight though... hopefully that will improve my mood!

Combat + 10km

So, I went and did BodyCombat this morning. Haven't done it in months so thought it'd be interesting for a comparison. The good news was that it barely made me raise a sweat, though my arms will be a little bit achy tomorrow I think. It's nice to know my cardio fitness is so much better than it was - used to leave me huffing and puffing like a trouper - but at the same time, I want something that makes me feel like that so I get a good workout. I actually got a bit frustrated that they had a break between every single track. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that I think I'll try swapping the Combat classes for 'Body Attack' which is supposed to be high impact.

I went back to the gym tonight too and did 10km on the treadmill because the weather outside was sooo revolting. I amused myself by listening to the music channels that play other people's CD's. It sort of satisfies the nosey part of me - It's fascinating to hear what types of music makes people tick! My favourite game is guessing who owns which CD. Anything to make the km tick by a bit quicker.

Didn't get on the scales this morning - too scared after the weekend of too much yummy food, but I will tomorrow morning! Tomorrow I'd planned to do a combat class but I think I may switch to RPM. Reading all the blogs of people who do spin classes, it should do the trick!

I have a cunning plan.

All right. Time to stop being a complete wuss and get down to business.

Much to my shame, I didn't go to Running Buddies yesterday... mostly due to aforementioned psychological wobble which I shall endeavour to beat into submission this week! I think track didn't help matters because it emphasises to me just how slow I am in comparison to everyone else. Hard to watch a 9 year old lap you repeatedly! *snorks*

At the same time, one of the other women who was running was apparently pretty high up in the scheme of things, so I know it'd be completely unrealistic to even attempt to compare me to her. Or, infact, me to any of the other track runners really, since they've all been doing it for a whole lot longer than me. I'm going to try and stick with track though I think. It's all part of the long term process.

So, here's my countdown to the GC Half plan for next week:

Mon 20/6:
morning: 9.15am BodyCombat, Stretch, Sauna
evening: 10km Run

Tues 21/6:
morning: REST
evening: 6:30pm BodyCombat

Weds 22/6:
morning: 9.15am Latin Fiesta
evening: 6pm Long Run, Run Inn Runners - 15kms?

Thurs 23/6:
morning: REST
evening: 6pm Trackwork (5km?) Stretch

Fri 24/6:
morning: 6:00am Body Combat
evening: 6:30pm Body Balance

Sat 25/6:
morning: 6:00am Brisbane Running Buddies, 10:30am Yoga?
evening: REST

Sun 26/6:
morning: 6:30am 10km BRRC, Stretch, Sauna/Steam
evening: REST

There :) If that doesnt shake things up, nothing will. I haven't yet gotten into the classes since I rejoined the gym with Fitness First. I've done combat before though and always loved it. Definitely gets the blood pumping. Is definitely going to be a running week too, with running on monday, wednesday, thursday, saturday and sunday! I'm trying to make this week quite big, because the next week will be my version of a taper for the half.

This is also going to be *the* week for getting to 75kgs. I'm suspecting it's going to be hard work too, since I may have innocently allowed some pork and crackling and cheesecake and alchoholic beverages to accidentally fall into my trap last night. Whoops! Scales'll show it tommorrow, but 75kgs, here I come!

Chaaarrrgggeeeee !!!

Wobble

I did track last night. I've decided I really like sprinting and I feel like I'm faster at it (which, logically would make sense LOL). I like the freeness of just cutting loose and going hell for leather down the straight. Of course, it doesnt feel so good after a 2km warm up, 1 x 800m, 3 x 500m and another 1 x 800m. I shouldn't have stopped going because I think my times were worse, but at least I went the whole session and didn't have to sit one out like I used to.

My brain has started playing annoying little psychological tricks on me again with the Gold Coast Half. Even though I now know I can physically cover the distance through a run/walk combo, I still feel like I can't or haven't done enough training or something. I really need to shake myself out of it because it got in the way of the lose-5kgs plan yesterday and today :( consequently:

current weight: 76.4kgs

Bah! So close. Self sabotage is soooo UNBELIEVABLY frustrating. Dammit, Dammit, Dammit! It's not irreversable, but tomorrow night I've got dinner at a friends and I know that eating up there is always difficult because I have to navigate my way through the delicious fresh crusty bread, real butter, pork with crackling, chocolate bavarian and patisserie cheesecake :( Far Out. I guess it'll be the ultimate test of my (currently faltering!) will power.

Went to the gym tonight and did virtually nothing. Bad Hannah. My legs are tired from track and I thought I'd rest them for tomorrow with the Running Buddies, but I'm having a bout of last minute wobbles about that too... debating whether or not to go :( Argh.

Happy!

Current Weight: 76.2kgs
Weight left to lose: 1.2kgs

yesterday: 10km cycle, floor exercises, stretch

I'm back into thinnest-I've-ever-been territory! When I hit 75.9, there is going to be a lot of jumping up and down, I can tell you!

75kgs has been initial target weight since I started to lose weight, but until now I just kept hovering about two kgs away. As I said before, I'm thinking I might see if I can peel away a couple more in addition but I don't care if I can maintain my weight at 75kgs... I feel fine and I like the changes I'm just starting to see.

I've been eating porridge for breakfast, sushi rolls/chicken salad/protein bar for lunch and meat and veggies for dinner. I've had a handful of almonds here and there as a snack, or a bit of fruit. Once or twice I've had a yoghurt for dessert. If you haven't tried them yet, I thoroughly recommend the French Cheesecake Flavoured Lite Yoghurt by Yoplait (I think that's who makes it) It's gorgeous!

I spoke to my friend Em last night (who I think may be reading my blog now, *waves*) who has just hit the 20 minute mark with her running. I'm so happy for her and I'm doing my best to cajole her into coming to do the 5km at the West End! I'm probably biased too, because I can't wait to get another person to run with!

Speaking of which, I'm doing the Running Buddies on Saturday. Looking forward to it! I've missed Run club for two weeks because my latest exhibition opened and then last night I had to give a talk about it. but it's all back on track now! Bring on the Gold Coast - I'm feeling really optimistic about everything today!

Tonight: aiming for 10km again :)

Woo!

Owwww. Had PT last night and we did dynamic exercises with weights. I didn't previously know I had muscles beside my ribcage, but now I do and they're really sore! Still, it was really good to get into some good, honest meaty training where I could work hard. Consequently, I got on the scales today and:

current weight: 76.4kgs

Huzzah! 1.4kgs to go :) At this rate, I might even try to drop a few more - considering the healthy average for my height is supposed to be 65kgs (75kgs being the top end of healthy). We shall see, I suppose.

Think I'll go to the gym today and do some cardio... too sore for weights!

Yay for 10k!

Huzzah! I can run properly again! After yesterday's shamozzle of a run, I decided to try again tonight. I took my ventolin as a precaution and then set out on my usual route around the 'burb - thinking I'd take it easy and just do 5km if it was still as uncomfortable as yesterday morning.

The first 3km werent too much fun, but once I got through those, I started to feel heaps better and just ran and ran and ran. So I ended up doing 10km (60 minutes) and by the end I felt great and could've kept going. My legs were turning over well and it all just flowed. How bizarre that 24 hours can make so much difference. I feel so much better mentally now too, knowing that I'm back to where I was and not going to have to start all over again!

Current Weight: 77.4kgs (I feel so Bridget Jones, LOL - in fact, I think they could've written that book about me!)

5kms, gunk and 2.8kgs to go!

I can't believe how much having one tiny little cold can affect your running. I'm pretty much better now, but yesterday afternoon I went out and hit the bike path, meaning to try and run from my place to the city. Big mistake! I had nooo energy and the gunk from the cold made it hard to breath properly as I ran. I ended up admitting defeat and walked most of it instead. I think I did about 10km all up. Must've done something, since this morning my glutes ached from the effort. They're probably atrophied after a week of sitting on my arse!

Today the West End run was on, so I headed down there to do the 10km. Optimistically, I thought once I got into my stride, I'd be able to just push through the end of the cold and do it if I went slow. By 4km I was struggling, so I called it a day at 5km. Yuck. My time was awful too - 29:?? ish, the slowest I've been in ages. Mind you, it probably wasnt helped by the two minutes I spent halfway round, having to take my shoe and sock off to get the bloody cockroach out of it. I can honestly say there is nothing quite as disgusting as having a small cold creepy crawly working its way down to your toes. Gross!

After the run, caught up with Tesso and Clairie and heard amusing drinking stories. Am thinking of joining the Brisbane Running Buddies for their saturday morning runs - could do with another long run during the week to increase my mileage a bit. Probably won't be until after the Gold Coast now (three weeks today, argh!) but I am vowing to go back to doing track then too. I want to maximise my chances of improving my times.

My drop-5kg-before-the-goldcoast campaign is going reasonably well although on revision, 5kgs might be a little too ambitious in three weeks! Have taken off 2kgs of carbo loading over-enthusiasm from the Doomben Half though I knew that first bit would come off easily. Target weight for GC is currently set at 75kgs. To motivate myself, I'm going to include my current weight on my entries. Might just keep me honest and be the little bit of motivation I need to get me there!

start weight: 79kgs
current weight: 77.8kgs
amount left to lose: 2.8kgs

I am having a not very good week. I'm still sick and feel like poo. Yesterday I went and baked myself in the steam room at the gym in an effort to free my sinus up a bit. Because I was there and was sort of in gym gear, I couldnt help but try and do a bit of running. 3km and I felt disgusting - dizzy - so I stopped.

Then, today, I got a rejection letter for a job I could do standing on my head, that I'm way more than qualified for and that I know I did a good interview for. I'm so annoyed and more than a bit upset over it. No doubt that'll pass, but it's so FRUSTRATING.

On the plus side, I did have my first radio interview today, for Planet Radio. Went quite well I think and I got a card and an invitation to go back for my next exhibition.

If I can't do some proper exercise tomorrow, I'm going to go stark stir crazy. Nearly a whole week off for a cold. It's ridiculous.

***This blog entry was brought to you by an overly emotional, grumpy, stressed out and thoroughly annoyed Hannah. Normal viewing will resume shortly***

Pho-toes :)

Have just purchased this:



*grins* It does however make me think that I definitely do want to shift another 5kgs. Preferably before Gold Coast, but we'll see how I go :)

Sick

Well, the cold that I felt coming on before the half has finally arrived and I feel yuck. My throat is sore and swollen. When I was little the doctor who took my tonsils out botched it and left some of them in there - consequently, when I get a sore throat, It's quite spectacular. Lucky for me, I rarely ever get sick!

So, I'm now dying to get back out there, get running and doing gym things. I'm a bit hot-and-cold too though, so I'm thinking it's probably not a good idea. I was supposed to have dinner with Tess, Claire and Skiz tonight, but I don't want to give them whatever I've got *sulks* so I'm not going.

At least this happened after sunday and not before it! *L* I'll stop whinge-blogging now :)

At first I was afraid, I was petrified...

Kept thinking I could never live without chips on the side...
Then I spent so many nights thinking how I'd done me wrong
And I grew strong - I learnt how to run quite long...

*Ahem* Do excuse my pathetic attempt at rewriting those lyrics. Gloria Gaynor would die *L*

Anyway, the point of that was to say, I DID IT! Pretty much exactly six months to the day since I started running, here I am having completed my first half marathon. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. It still feels quite surreal - like it didn't happen.

I went to bed early last night and woke up at about 5am, although true to form I couldn't sleep very well. A million doubts flying warp speed through my brain and I kept imagining running bits of the course. I got up and got dressed, but felt so nervous by that point that I couldn't eat anything, so I just hopped in the car and drove to the race. Once I got there and parked, it didn't take long to find all the people from the club and Tracey (my partner-opps I mean pacer-in crime) and Sam (who was all geared up to do a PB) Before I knew it, we'd handed our bags in, got our pacing balloons and stickers and were at the start line. There were heaps and heaps of people and I've got to say, it's the perfect venue for a marathon - the whole thing was just organised sooo well.

We lined up and a couple of people came and lined up with us. A guy who I'd been chatting to thought I couldn't hear him when he laughed to his mates about how crap and inept I was going to be as a pacer when I'd *scoffscoffchucklechuckle* never run more than 18kms. Arsehole. Anyway, in the end I should've probably thanked him really, since I absolutely hate people like that (endured too many years of fat jokes I think) and consequently, I saw red, got really fired up - my nerves vanished and I vowed and declared that failure was not an option. Infact, If I hadn't been pacing, I would've taken great delight in beating the pants off the evil little gnome (he wasnt that far ahead at the end). Oh well. I'll get you next time, Gadget!

I'd written the pace times down my arm and it basically worked out that we were supposed to do 7 minute kms. Tracey and I both naturally run at about 6 minute kms, so it was actually really hard to reign it back, especially at the start. Infact, there were points along the way where we were as much as five minutes ahead... so we walked through pretty much all of the drink stops, walked for a few minutes towards the end, just so we wouldn't come in vastly before the 2:30. I think walking through the drink stops was a good idea really - it broke up the run a fair bit and took the pressure off. Having the pacings written up my arm really helped too - checking our progress every km sort of distracted me from the actual distance. Going slow also meant that we (well, okay, *I*) got to perve on the cute police officers. We even had a toilet stop and one of the ladies from BRRC gave us a tim tam on the way round!

All in all, I think having to go really slow in this half was good for me because it gave me a feel for the distance and made me realise that I'll be able to go a fair bit quicker at the gold coast. I might still walk through some of the drink stops, but even if I do, I couldn't go slower than 2:30 if I tried so it's a nice foundation to have. It was good to do what was a bit of a cruisy run, chatting all the way and really enjoying it. Definitely went a long way in removing the fear factor for next month which is bound to help.

So, to summarise what is probably my hugest blog post ever, I really enjoyed this morning. It sort of represents what my first six months of running has meant to me. When I first started, I had no idea just how much running would make me grow and develop - not just in the distances/speed that I happen to run at, but on every level. Emotionally, spiritually, physically. It's been hard work, but so incredibly rewarding. I've met some lovely, lovely people - both on CR and off it - who've helped me in so many ways. Thanks Guys!

Here's to the next six months of running! 2006 - MARATHON YEAR!

Will do nothing today. Ditto yesterday. I've opted for the lots-of-rest option while I try and shake this cold. Today I feel about the same, which I'm taking as good, because at least I'm not all snotty. If I'm like this tomorrow, it'll all be okay...mostly I just feel tired, but a slight caffiene bomb before the race should fix that :)

Still grinning about that dream yesterday - running has permeated my subconcious through and through it seems, if I'm now dreaming about doing it! To answer your question Tesso, no, I didn't see myself cross the finish line - interesting that most runners don't!

On the positive side of things, I'm liking these pace times. They look doable, even for me!

1 km 0:7 11 km 1:17
2 km 0:14 12 km 1:24
3 km 0:21 13 km 1:31
4 km 0:28 14 km 1:38
5 km 0:35 15 km 1:45
6 km 0:42 16 km 1:52
7 km 0:49 17 km 1:59
8 km 0:56 18 km 2:06
9 km 1:03 19 km 2:13
10 km 1:10 20 km 2:20
21 km 2:27

(hope that formats properly, can't be arsed to make a table for them!

Righto. This'll be my last entry before the big day! So long and thanks for all the fish! *grins*

dreaming about it...

I dreamt last night about the half - that I couldn't find the start time, was late and missed it - I think I joined in half way and had to chase everyone. The amusing thing was though, that in the dream, heaps of people had CR caps on - and Eddie was in the lead!

Oh Nose!

Last night at club my nose started running a bit... tonight I feel a bit blah, achy and tired and like a cold is coming on... my throat is a bit sore too. I refuse to get ill before sunday. I do! I picked up my race kit tonight and dammit I'm going to do that half, if I have to walk the entire thing feeling like poo. Which I may. But, I've started taking massive doses of vitamin C and so hopefully, all shall be fine on sunday *nods to self*

Last night we did an easy hour run as a large group which was really nice. Good to run with the faster (and slower) people, gossip and catch up. Poor Sam fell over quite spectacularly - she did a better job on her knee than I did on my chin. Hope she's feeling better! Today I went to the gym and was a bit slack - did half an hour easy rowing. I quite miss actual rowing... when I've got more money I'll have to join another club and take some more lessons.

Right. Healthy thoughts. Healthy. Maybe if I dose up on sudafed, I'll run quicker! (sends me round the bend as it is!) LOL!

Pumping Iron + Radio shows!

Thanks so much for all the bling bling comments! *L* Damn right, Clairie, I did wear it to coffee - what can I say? It matched my shirt! LOL...

On monday I had training and we worked my arms so hard I almost threw up. I hate the sensation of doing weights when you reach your limit and get tired, because you feel like you're pushing/pulling like buggery and yet you just can't make the relevant bit move more than half an inch. Really frustrating and not pleasant. Still, I guess it's good mentally in a way, to have that mind-over-matter challenge. Can use it as a metaphor in other parts of my training, like running :)

We decided on monday not to work my legs so they'll be strong for sunday. Every time I hear the word 'half', my stomach flips over. But all will be well (she says nodding and trying to push that bar half an inch). My trainer also worked out a bit of a taper for me this week. I don't think I'm going to be very good at tapering... I had a rest day yesterday and I'm already dying to go out and run. I'm running tonight with the club but I don't think we'll be going too long because of sunday. Then sometime between thursday and sunday I think I'll do an easy 5km, though Tony (trainer) thinks I should hold off til sunday *pout* apparently I'm supposed to be itching to run by sunday but I am already! Meh.

Oh, and you know, if you happened to be listening to 4ZZZ on the 12 June at 12.30pm, you never know... you might just hear a certain artist-runner talking about her artwork on air :)

10km PB and Bling Bling!

So, yesterday I did 5km on a tready and then did some weights, stretched. This morning I went to the BRRC meet at the West End and did the 10km.... and somehow took 2:10 off my previous time, to come in at a PB of 57:20 - felt all bouncy from that alone - and then, bugger me backwards - turns out it was the 10km championships and I came second in my age group! So I got a medal!

I'm having this sneaky suspicion there may only have been two of us *in* our age group, but still - I scored my first official bling bling. I couldnt get the grin off my face. Ha! I can't wait to tell my trainer tomorrow ;) I think this little confidence boost was exactly what I needed in preparation for the half on sunday. Can't believe it's a week away. Argh!

Anyway, went and had coffee with Tesso, Clairie and other lovely CRs and caught up on the latest goss... it is a lovely little running community here in Bris :) After that, I went and had a sauna and steam and chilled out at the gym.

*bounce bounce bounce* Still grinning.

Happy Me :)

5km on the Bikeway

Thanks for the support you lovely bloggers Tesso and Miners :) I'm still terrified about pacing but I shall do my best :)

Did 5km on the road tonight, with a few walks because I'm feeling a bit tired after last nights effort. Add to which, my knees are feeling a bit sore - nothing serious; I think it's just from the continuous pounding of feet on road. Might have a non running day tomorrow and give them a rest.

I did however, find where the south brisbane suburbs running community has been hiding - I finally got round to running the start of the bikeway from my suburb, which leads to the city and there were *loads* of runners out. It was getting dark, so I only did a small section of it. That said, it's now my new ambition and purpose in life to run from my house to the city along the entire bikeway. I've got a map of it but there's no scale on it - will have to go through the UBD and do a guestimate. I think it's doable though. Maybe after I get this half out of the way.

Right, shall see some of you on sunday at the West End no doubt!

Oh...My.... God......

Yesterday I ran 5km at the gym on a treadmill, which said I was going slower than my usual 6:00 minute k plod. I think treadmills must be calibrated differently because the ones at the new gym are really hard and I was doing speed intervals in that too. It took me about 34 minutes! I did the west end 5km on sunday in 27:33 so 34 minutes is so not right. I was sweating like hell too. Bah!

Long run tonight was 15km because people wanted to watch the football... it was a nice run - beautiful clear cool night - not too cold and the moon was just stunning - heavy and low and gold. I don't know if I've ever mentioned this before, but I'm Pagan and so the moon has a sort of religious significance to me, so to have her right there as I ran was pretty special. I found a bit of a rhythym tonight in my footfalls and tuned into the repeat of five beats, over and over. Worked really well and kept me going, so I think I'll try and utilise that at Doomben. The Jasmin was out in full force too and made for a lovely waft of scent as we passed by houses. I also lost count of the number of times I jumped sideways as people's dogs threw themselves at the fence.... I just can't help myself but scream expletives at the same time!

Speaking of the Queensland Half... now, don't fall off your seats laughing here....

you know how I said I was going to take it really slow and walk where I need, not put any pressure on myself? Well, muggins here has been roped into being a BLOODY PACER *snorks* for the 2:30 group. Thankfully not on my own but with Tracey who runs at the same speed as me and has been running for a longer time, but still... here's me not even knowing if I can do the whole thing, now pacing other people... LOL. The gods have an interesting sense of humour, that's for sure! At least 2:30 is a little bit slower than I thought I'd do, so maybe it's good to have that sense of structure there. Did I mention I'm terrified?

Anyway, tonight re-motivated me to sort myself out a bit. I think I'll go back to track next week... start anew, work on my speed, build up my distances and endurance for the long term... may even attempt to run mount cootha at some point - if only I knew where the best track for running up it is - should ask around (and will, no doubt)

5km PB + tales from the sauna...

Thursday: Went out for a run, got half an hour in or so and it started to hale, so I decided to abort my run and went to the gym instead to do weights. Turned out to be a wise decision because the hale stones got quite scary by all accounts!

Friday: Felt down about job-prospects (still havent heard!) and ate too much. I hate it when I do that! Anyway, to go some way towards counteracting my moment of weakness, I hit the gym again but felt sick trying to run with a full stomach, so I got on the bike for a hour. My rear end is soooo never going to forgive me *winces* must go get one of those gel bike seats that Luckylegs uses, once I have spare funds again!

Saturday: Rest Day

Sunday (Today): Went to the West End, eventually decided to just do the 5km and see if I could beat my time. Which, according to my watch, I did, getting another PB by at least 10 seconds but have to wait for official times to be sure. It definitely felt faster, considering the fact that I thought I was going to combust by the time I crossed the line. I felt like I was holding my breath while breathing! And, for some reason, my calves are really crampy lately.

I'm playing some serious mind games with myself at the moment on whether I can actually physically run a half. I know I said I wasn't going to put any pressure on myself to expect to run the entire thing, but I still desparately want to surprise myself and find I can do it. I keep asking myself if I've worked hard enough, done enough training behind me to succeed. I was thinking about doing the 20km this morning instead of the 5km but I piked out on the longer run because I didn't want to find I couldn't do it, before I got to the Half. Twisted kind of a logic there, somewhere. Bah! I keep thinking maybe I can only do 19km on a wednesday long run because we stop to cross lights/get a drink every five km or so. I dunno. Half the battle in all this running lark seems to be psychological!

I also missed catching up with Clairie, Tesso and co this morning, who I think were all down doing the Warwick Pent. Hope they went well. No doubt they'll all be upset to hear they missed the beautiful policemen out in force on the 10km this morning (unfortunately not in uniform! sighs!) It was freezing by the river, that's for sure. So much so, after the run I decamped to the sauna at the gym and got chatted up by a very sweet japanese boy. Can't think of a time that I've looked less attractive really, than bleary eyed, sweaty, red in the face and hair plastered to my head whilst wearing daggy old swimmers *L* He definitely got points for effort though - nothing like being told you're more beautiful than all the stick thin gym junkies to make a girl feel good on a sunday morning! *L*

17km

17km last night. It was only supposed to be 15km, but somehow we went a bit long. Found it a bit easier than last week's 18k - maybe because I didn't fall over and bleed everywhere LOL! Felt pretty comfortable and had to work a bit to get up the hills which was good. My legs were sore from PT when I started, but today they feel pretty good. Still tired, but not painful.

I've not managed to do any of the classes I was going to do this week. I'm going to try very hard to do yoga on saturday. Am already stretching a lot more now I'm back at the gym. They got some fabulous contraption that you strap your hands into and lean back into various positions to stretch your hammys, glutes, back etc. Lovely thing, it is!

Gym for me tonight/today. Time to do some weights and then have a run.

5/10/15/20...

Sunday I did 5km on the treadmill in an effort to offset my disgusting weekend of eating *L* Yesterday, I had PT and my trainer decided that it would be lots of fun to get me replacing my rest periods between sets with high intensity cardio intervals. So I would basically do a set of exercises and then have to sprint the length of the building as fast as I could, eight times. By the third or fourth time I'd done it, I was definitely huffing and puffing but for some reason, I'd barely broken a sweat (though I felt tired!) I showed my 'cellular analysis' sheet thing to him too and he thought that the whole 13kg weight loss thing was a little extreme... we're going to do skin folds testing next time for a comparison. I guess if that comes up with similar results then I'll admit defeat and start trying to lose it *wails* if I don't like what I look like along the way, I can stop.

After my training, I went to the gym for a bit of a double whammy. Was going to run but was too tired from intervals and weights so instead I walked up an incline (5%, not very much) for half an hour and watched Big Brother. Then I got into the sauna and steam again. I'm hoping it will clear my skin a bit and it feels soooo good when it's cold outside.

Today my muscles are sore but not crippled (but takes 24 hours for that to happen!) and I've got a massage this afternoon, so I might try and make it to the gym again this morning - or alternatively, go for a run on the street (much nicer and hopefully not too hot!)

Contemplating whether to run the 5km, 10km or even try to do 20km at the West End on sunday. I'm a little tempted towards the 5km because it's been a while since I've done it and I'd love to see if I've gotten any quicker. I might try and get out there during the week and run it for practice. I guess the 10km would be just as good for checking progress. 20km would be interesting to see how long it takes me and to get a feel for where I stand with endurance but I think I'd be holding everyone up because I'm predicting it would currently take me 2 hours something.

Still waiting to hear about the job!

Plan for the Week

I had the biggest food blow out yesterday in ages. But I'm unrepentant! The super supreme was entirely worth it ;) My chin has finally closed over so I took the dressing off this morning, hurrah! So I can go back to the gym/running today! Working out a plan for next week. So far:

Monday:
am: treadmill/run 10km
pm: Personal Training (Weights) 4.30pm

Tuesday:
am: treadmill/run easy 5km
pm: Massage 4.45pm

Wednesday:
am: latin fiesta dance class?
pm: Long Slow Run @ Run Group - 15km

Thursday:
am: 5km
pm: weights session

Friday:
am:
pm: speedwork (total 5km)

Saturday:
am: Yoga 10.30am
pm: weights

Sunday:
am: West End Run - 10km?
pm: nothing

This may change as I've just realised this gets me up to doing 50km a week, when I've been averaging 30km a week til now. Oops. May have to rework it a bit!

Having another massage on tuesday because turns out the knot that feels like a 'stitch' in my shoulder is pretty huge and needs fixing or it'll just get worse. Oh well, I'm not complaining... at least it gives me a somewhat valid excuse for having regular massage! (she predicts 5-7 treatments to fix it) It's not my most favourite sort of massage - deep tissue and hurts like hell, but feels better for it later.

Right - I'm going to the gym! Yaaaaahoooo !!!!

No Run and a bit grumpy!

I want to run... go to the gym...*humph*

Got the dressing changed on my chin this morning. The nurse gave me a mirror to have a look at it while the dressing was off. No bruising as yet (which is good) but it looks quite revolting - basically I appear to have taken a slight chunk out of it. As long as I take the antibiotics they gave me, it should stop bleeding, dry up and start to heal soon.... then I can take these bloody steri strips and gauze off it and go for a run/to the gym. It's so annoying! argh!

I suppose it is nearly the weekend and everything, so I'm planning to be back running on monday, maybe even sunday. Hopefully should hear whether I got the job or not by then, too!

Taking it on the Chun!

Slight trip to the GP this morning for the chun (adopting NZ accent there, not quite sure why!) - woke up and it was all weepy and digusting. Have to take some antibiotics and go back tomorrow to have the dressing changed and get a tetanus shot (can't remember if I had one when I went travelling or not - if I did, I won't need one now!) It's all good though - no permanent damage - my teeth still hurt, but the GP checked my jaw and said it was fine - even if I did crack it, they can't do anything about it!

Having a rest day today. It's cold and rainy and I'd really like to go and do weights and then climb into the sauna at the gym, but I can't get this bloody dressing wet (argh! can you tell I'm not a good patient? frustrated! LOL) so instead, I've booked myself in for a half hour massage at Zenergy (where I do my PT). Yummm... definitely looking forward to that!

All I have to do is get through my interview this arvo and then I can relax. You never know, I might even be employed shortly as a result. That'd be really relaxing!

Oh, and I forgot to mention... talk of doing a trifecta of halfs.... Queensland Half, Gold Coast Half and the Noosa Half. My thought is - let's see how we go through number one, first! LOL

18kms (and eating gravel!)

Ladies and Gentlmen - first the good news. I ran 18kms tonight! Happy, happy me - especially considering what happened during the run!

The not-so-good news is that I took my first major swan dive tonight. I got to about 10kms and didn't lift my foot high enough to clear an uneven cement slab on the pavement... consequently, I fell flat on my face and was going too fast to get both hands out infront of me. Managed to get one hand out which I promptly skinned, before landing squarely on my chin and splitting it open. It was all quite spectacular there for a moment - chins must be like head wounds - they bleed spectacularly even when it's a minor wound because there was blood down my face, my chest and through my hand. Anyway, after a brief ten minute stop and much mopping up of chinny chin chin I was more annoyed at the fact that I thought I'd ruined our 18km effort than the fact that not only did I take a chunk out of my face, I have a job interview tomorrow and I'm now going to have to go to that with steri-strips on my face and no doubt some fantastic bruising that has yet to appear.

I'm okay now, but the jarring of it means that I can feel the roots of all my bottom teeth and the whole area is quietly throbbing to itself. Lucky for me, my mother is a nurse and so I got her to pick all the gravel out of it. Luckily it didnt need stitches, so she just pulled it closed and fixed it there.

I got back to the shop and after making sure I was okay, we had a nice round of amusing I-remember-when stories about falling arse over tit while running. Made me feel better anyway (and less like a giant klutz for not picking my feet up more!) I'm still no where near competing with Schultzy's 18 stitches at the Lest We Forget Run - and at least I was running at the time ;)

I went and had my 'cellular analysis' done today - interesting stuff - apparently, my muscle mass is the best she's seen in ages... 97.2% active or something.... the down side is that apparently, I still need to lose 13kgs! 13kgs! Quite where I'm going to lose 13 kgs from, I don't know... five or six, fair enough. But 13 seems a little excessive! I think I'll just carry on with the healthy eating and see where I end up. I'm sooo not going to starve myself just to hit a certain number. Bah!

Anyway, I'm going to bed. My chin is throbbing.

18kms! Woo!

Night.

5km, Sauna, Steam and sore shoulder

So I went and rejoined the gym this morning, went tonight for the first time and it was bloody lovely! I realised how basic my last gym was - this one has an aromatherapy chill out room heated to 35 degrees with relaxing music and amber lights, a sauna, solarium, steam room and a 'monsoon' shower thing which spits massaging jets of water all over your body, either hot or very-very-cold... and, it's got an ice machine for sore muscles too. Also has stretch cages (new one on me!) and a spin studio lit entirely by UV lights. They've got salsa funk dancing, yoga and pilates. Already thinking rejoining was a fantastic idea - feeling very, very relaxed...

Tomorrow I've got some strange sort of 'cellular analysis' thing where they measure fat, hydration etc etc... part of the joining package so that's all good. Did I mention they also have a free DVD rental service and a juice bar? *L*

I did run 5km on the tready while I was there tonight, inbetween playing with all the tv channels, music and the aromatherapy room. Can't believe the difference between treadmills - must be something to do with the calibration or something, because I set the incline to 1% and 6:00 pace as usual and it was really really hard... also realised I have a knot the size of a tennis ball under my left shoulder blade which has been cramping up to a scary degree while I run. Must get it fixed - feels just like a stitch!

All set to start cross training like a banshee now :) No excuses! Long run tomorrow. Aiming at 1:45 or at least 17km (whichever comes first!)

Inspired - NEW GOAL!

After much umming and ahhing, I have decided that I'm going to do the Doomben Half Marathon on 5th June. That's earlier than I'd planned to do a half (the GC was going to be my first) but I'm feeling a bit restless and needing a closer training target to aim for. I don't know if I'm up to being able to run the entire 21kms yet (closest I've gotten is the long runs I've done at about 15kms) but I'm approaching it without feeling stressed or pressured. I'm literally just going to attempt to get from A to B, start to finish. Bugger times and everything else and if I have to walk at points along the way, I will.

I think it will be good psychologically for me to know I can cover the distance before the GC half, anyway. I've also decided to rejoin the gym and start cross training every day. I miss the gym and the effects of doing regular weights sessions. I'm going back to track and I'm going to work my arse off to get better at running.

Not sure where this latest stream of motivation has come from - I think it was partly watching the lovely Skiz doing her 8km race and all the runners at the West End on sunday doing their races too. I didn't run on the weekend (swapped shifts and my glute was still killing me but is better now) and marshalled instead - fascinating watching how differently everyone runs... some are more bouncy, some have big steps, little steps, high arms, low arms, elbows out/in.... made me think more consciously about how I run, that's for sure :)

CR drinks and

Got the stats for the last week of my blog - 209 visits in a week! That's almost as scary as looking at the number of hits my website gets (scary in a good way, but still... scary!)

The night out with CR crew was great fun... I didn't get there until 7.30pm or so because I had to go to my exhibition opening first. Caught up with Tesso, Karisma, Clairie, Bellthorpe, Kato, Einstein, Lady Jove and many more... and, I got to meet my fellow kindergarten corner'ers which was lovely. So nice to put names to faces and there were talks about the possibility of dinner one day soon. Seems half of CR was also watching via the pub webcam. So you were all there in spirit, if not indulging in spirits! I also took my camera, but left it in the bloody car *smacks head with hand* How stupid am I? *L*

On mentioning my art exhibition at drinks, I also managed to 'out' myself to CR as an artist who makes (how shall we say?) fairly controversial artworks.... normally when I first meet people, I tell them I make artwork about people. Which I do, but that's a very basic way of putting it. I guess partly I say that because it takes ages to explain what I do and sometimes, it's nice just not to worry about whether people think you're psychotic or not. To be more specific, I make work about the imperfect or 'grotesque' female body. I use my own body for a lot of the images and they're generally quite sexually explicit or charged works. I guess it springs partly from my own history of obesity, but it's really about exploring and subverting the notion of the 'ideal' female body - making work that makes us think about why we think the things we do about issues of identity, sexuality, the body and difference. It's not the sort of artwork everyone is going to like and that's cool :) you can check out my website (www.hannahbroom.com) if you're curious, but either way, now you know!

Anyway, back to running type conversations!

3k run, 2k walk

Slept in today and decided at 11.30am to go for a run. Not a particularly intelligent thing to do because it's quite hot out - but after the very, very bad 8k at LWF, thought it'd do me good to try to run in different conditions.

Got about 3km down the road and got another dose of that stomach pain I had this time last month. At least now I know it's entirely related to my hormones etc, so I can work around that for future runs. I did make an effort to walk up my hill twice instead (pain goes off when I slow down) and I think I may have pulled a muscle in my butt-tock (as Forest Gump would say) so, Ow.

CR drinks training tonight. Hope I'm up to the task!

13k

The beautiful new boy at running didn't come back this week :( we must have scared him off! Oh well, perhaps he'll be back!

Did 13km tonight... we ran from Enoggera to the City which was interesting... really felt like we'd run a long way, although the run was a bit shorter because we were all a bit tired/achy and in my case stitch-ridden... ate too much for lunch, obviously. Went to Park Road and looked at running gear, then oggled the running gear at The Run Inn tonight... still no decision about shorts, but I'll get there eventually! Am half of a mind to go down to the Nike factory outlet on the coast and see if that's any good. I do love nike clothes (not too mad about their shoes, but the driweave is fab!)

5km, Running Undies and Talkback!

Decided not to do tuesday night track (may do thursday instead) and went for a run by myself. Again, it seems to have gotten a bit easier to run alone these days - as long as I take a watch and time my actual running time, I can do the distance I'd planned. Tonight I did 5km because I'm sort of saving myself up for tomorrow nights long run which will probably be 1:30, or perhaps even a bit longer (we shall see!) Listening to talk back on the radio rather than music also seems to be a good distraction from wanting to stop! Am actually enjoying the challenge of making myself run alone (though I still much prefer company). You certainly can't beat the convenience factor of starting a run from your front door! Also tried to put in a few short speed intervals in the run (how brilliant is Runners World for diet and training tips? loving the latest issue!)

Checked out running gear in Rebel today but gave up in disgust - will plan to go a bit early to run club tomorrow night and check out their gear instead which is probably heaps better and possibly cheaper. I may be a bit slow on the uptake but the one thing I did learn today was that running shorts have liners! I've been wearing normal cotton underwear under shorts for ages and it drives me nuts because like horrible cotton lycra shorts, they soak up moisture and that's soooo not a good thing on a longer run. Meh. I wonder if they actually make dri-weave (or similar!) pants! Am a bit loath to post that question on CR - might get a few raised eyebrows, what runners underpants are like! LOL!

Looking forward to friday CR drinks. Even dragging a friend along who has just started to learn to run and is up to ten minutes on a treadmill! We will corrupt her with the evil goodness of the moving-at-speed *muahahahaha* there is no escape!

8k

Well, I managed to do an exceptional job of not making it to running events this weekend *L* missed the 5k time trial on saturday morning, then missed the 7k race this morning with BRRC. Oh well! To compensate I went out for a run tonight, did about 8km I think and on my own too! I seem to be able to make myself go further on my own now, although I still walked more than I would've if I'd been running with people! Them there are the breaks, I guess!

Not much else to report except for the fact that I ate and drank wayyyy too much this weekend and feel a bit of a minimalist food week coming on to detox! *grins*