Too much to do too little time

Not much time tonight, trying to pack, blog, ice my shin and cook dinner all at the same time

Wow, what happened this afternoon, seems all of a sudden my fitness decided to return with a vengeance and I had to battle with myself to keep the pace down. Same plan as the last 2 sessions, walk 1 minute and run 15 minutes 3 times.

Total running time 45 minutes, 8.6Km at average pace of 5:14.

It all just came together tonight, I would check on my pace and realise I was starting to settle into sub 5 minute Kms and was constantly trying to peg back the speed. It just felt great to feel the effort and know that I could get to that pace without dying. Today I even had a touch of the old out of body zen running experience I used to get when everything was just falling into place.

For the first time today I can really feel the benefit of that pool running, there is no way in hell I would be cruising through these sessions now if I had done nothing over those 8 weeks off running. My upper body strength in particular is out of this world, I feel a power and drive through my back and shoulders that was definitely not there before, I think all over this pool running has done wonders for my form

OK, the buzzer has gone, that’s my lot for tonight I have to go blend the soup for dinner, then put my feet up with the ice pack.

Weekly Wrap Up

Perhaps I should have done a long session in the pool today, but I didn’t wanna

Still got pretty physical though as I spent more time trying to clear out my spare room as its transformation from junk central to my study/library continues. Seriously, were did I get all this garbage from????? There is now a moratorium on me bringing anything new into this house until all the stuff I don’t need is gone. I have even found a box full of old LPs from goodness sake, I don’t even have anything to play them on and I have long since digitalised all the music.

Part of me thinks I should just toss it, but part of me is still attached to, among others –

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Tender Prey

Siouxsie and the Banshees – Peep Show and Through the Looking Glass

The Birthday Party – Mutiny

From Babylon to Brunswick – this was a compilation of Melbourne “garage” bands and a friends band appeared on it, heaps of bands I used to see in my yoof, Meanies, Bored, Rootbeer, Nursery Crimes, Bastard Squad, it’s a miracle I still have my hearing really. Oh, and my mates band was the rather tastefully named Suiciety with their song Saddam Hussein (this was 1991, so GW take 1)

The Rocky Horror show Australian cast recording, pressed on red vinyl

The Damned – Live at the Lyceum

I guess I will keep them, whichever niece, nephew or government official responsible for cleaning my house out after I die can have them.

Anyway, I think the point I was making was I spend a good part of the day hauling things around, cleaning and trekking out to the rubbish bin, not to mention doing all the vacuuming and a few loads of washing and folding. God, I particularly hate doing the laundry, life would be much easier if we all wore jump suits like they do on Star Trek, or if I could live in my running gear.

Here is the week that was
Mon – Pool Session
Tue – W1 R10 by 4 = 7.3Km running
Wed – Pool Session
Thurs – W1 R15 by 3 = 8.3Km running
Fri – Bikram Yoga (AKA sweaty Yoga)
Sat – W1 R15 by 3 = 8.3Km running
Sun – Bikram Yoga

Total running = 23.9Km and legs still holding up on me.

I wish my dreams would stop tormenting me though, Tuesday night I dreamt I was at the Doctor (I am seeing her again this Saturday) and she told me my Stress Fractures were back and they were worse

Then last night I dreamt that I was finally able to do my first race and I couldn’t find the start line and I missed it, my coach then found me afterwards wondering around crying actually this one was a bit of a crack up and I woke up feeling like a total idiot and a little peeved at my psyche for thinking I was such a wuss, seriously, crying??

Ho Hum, have to head up to Brisbane for work, because I have to come home for the weekend to make my Doc appointment I won’t be staying on the Gold Coast afterall, too much mucking about with the hire car. Instead I fly up Tuesday night (because I have to start early on Wednesday), stay in Brissie and fly home Friday night, then I have to fly up again on Monday for an overnight stay. Ughhh, not happy about that, way too much time spent on a plane for Little Miss Claustrophobia.

Not holding out much hope that I will be able to find a non-paved area to run on though, it should be compulsory that every capital city have their version of The Tan. There is a park near my hotel so I may be able to find some grass.

Have a great week, I booked a Hotel with an internet cafe so I will be able to stay in touch.

Sneaky Speedie

As I predicted I sleep like a log last night after the yoga session, I can definitely see myself doing it once a week on either a Saturday or Sunday, but it is too time consuming to do any more than that in a week. I am not sure about the theory behind the heat but it did seem to make me feel more comfortable getting into some of the poses, though when you were required to hold onto your feet or something it did get a bit slippery

And at this time of year I quite enjoyed spending time in a very hot room (I hate the cold), also heading out into the cool air afterwards was really invigorating.

Now for running……

I am up to walk 1 minute and run 15 minutes by 3 at the moment so it is getting tricky to find a long enough stretch of trail or gravel surface to run on near home. I ended up on the section of Dandenong Creek Trail between High Street Road and Burwood Road, it was almost enough. The run today ended up the same as Thursday, 8.3 Km with an average pace of 5:25. Though today I had someone running with me so the first 15 minutes were slower than I wanted to run, we then agreed to split off and do our own paces. I “raced” off to complete my session keeping it steady for most of the way but then, feeling good treating myself to a couple of faster Kms to close out the run, there was a 4:59 and a 5:02, it felt so damn good to cruise along at that pace and feel reasonably comfortable. OK, I am not really ready to sustain that pace but it was nice to know I could get close to my old tempo run pace without keeling over.

Guess what? I let the craving win, it’s apple pie and ice-cream for desert tonight

I’ll be going back to yoga tomorrow afternoon too, may as well get one more session out of my 7 day trial.

I don’t sweat, I glow

Fuck it, I sweat, bucket loads, but spending 90 minutes in a room heated to 40 degrees C trying to bend my body into positions it doesn’t want to certainly beat the hell out of 60 minutes in a pool full of toxic chemicals.

Hmmm, my Bikram Yoga experience, it was interesting

I turned up about 30 minutes before the class and found I had to take my shoes off before entering the studio, call me paranoid but I did take my orthoeses out, no way was I leaving them out the front. The previous class let out and I was confronted by a dude in board shorts and nothing else to sign us in okey dokey, I am down with this

For $17 I get an introductory offer where I can go as much as I like for a week, not very well timed as I am going to be heading off to Brisbane for work next Tuesday. So I change into my shorts, crop top and running singlet. I had bought my own yoga mat because I didn’t want to hire one that was sweated all over by someone else.

I was a about 10 minutes early so I head into the room to lay down and have some quiet time, damn it was hot, they weren’t kidding, within about 1 minute the singlet is off, I am getting way over my body issues and it was shorts and a crop top from then on. Unfortunately I am not very good at “quiet time” and spent the next 10 minutes fidgeting and checking my watch “come on, let’s get this show on the road!”

90 minutes! The longest yoga class I had ever done was 45 minutes, I wasn’t sure I would cope. But once we got started it al flowed along and the time flew by. Unlike other forms of yoga I had done in the past this one suited me more, the poses were less extreme and you could still get the benefit even if you couldn’t fully extend the pose. For me it was as I expected and an excuse to have a good stretch and try something different.

Going to an evening class does make for a long day though and I couldn’t see myself doing it more than once a week, especially when I am back running regularly again. I can see it fitting in nicely on a Saturday afternoon, something to help unwind from a long week of training and to set up for a Sunday long run.

Some people in the class were pretty amazing and extremely flexible. For me there were some poses I was very strong with, other’s not a chance, for example I won’t be bending forward from the hips and touching my forehead to my knees in a big hurry. But other poses required good core strength and I was pretty good at holding those.

I know I am going to sleep well tonight.

Also I should say I pulled up well today after yesterday afternoons run, much better than I did on Wednesday, I didn’t feel like I had been beaten up and my legs still feel fine.

Did anyone else have a short but very violent thunderstorm last night? Out my way, at about 11pm there was a massive clap of thunder, so close that the windows shook. Then a big dump of hail, followed by lightening that felt like it was right outside my bedroom window, another massive clap of thunder and then it was all over, when I woke with the next day I thought I had dreamed it.

5 Minutes More

Back on The Tan again, wearing myself a track between the bottom of Anderson Street and Government House Drive as I am still banned from running hills.

Though as regulars would know on the way up to Government House Dve there is a bit of an incline and these days I am feeling it

OK, so stepping up again today, this was the session, Walk 1 minute Run 15 minutes 3 times, total running time 45 minutes and covering about 8.3Km running at a pace of 5:25 per Km. See still behaving and keeping close to those 5:30Kms I said I would maintain during these sessions.

Two new milestones today, the longest consecutive time spent running and the greatest distance covered

Tonight I am taking better care of the recovery, I have my Skins on and I had pasta for dinner. Now here’s a tip with the Skins folks, if you put your PJ pants on over the top make sure you do up the drawstring, why? Because I walked out of my PJs without even noticing, they slipped right off and I tripped over them.

Thanks again everyone for being so sweet to me yesterday, I feel so bad after having my little hissy fits, like a spoilt little brat really. Special thanks the Marilyn, my sister in stressies from across the ocean, for being so cool to me when you are suffering as well.

I think the main issue yesterday was that I only had fish and salad for dinner and woke up feeling totally beat up the next morning. I need to adjust my mindset, pre injury I would laugh in the face of 7.3Km, in fact I generally wouldn’t even lace up for anything less than 10Km. The return to more “real” running has kind of crept up on me and I am not respecting the recovery process or the distances I am running. Essentially it is down to packing up the ego for another couple of months and realising that I need to treat these runs as a big deal and do the right things afterwards.

To invigorate myself I am going to skip the pool tomorrow and try a spot of Bikram Yoga instead. I am the first to admit that I have a major Yoga prejudice, I have half heartedly tried it before and gotten over it very quickly. So I am going along with an open mind and giving it another go, I am sure even just the gentle stretching will do me the world of good. With BY there is the added fun of the fact that they heat the room to 39 degrees C, OK at this time of the year, not sure about Summer though. They reckon you can burn up to 2000Kj a session which isn’t too shabby at all. Will let you know tomorrow evening how I fared, they say on the website to come along prepared to laugh, I dig that philosophy.

Now I didn’t have that Apple Pie and Ice Cream last night, just couldn’t bring myself to. I know you will all yell at me for this but I have gained about 1.5Kg over the course of this injury, not much I know but more than I want and I can feel it. My core has become so strong with all this pool running and I know there are glimpses of a nice toned middle in there somewhere, unfortunately it is a little squishy at the moment. Now that I have started running again it should melt off pretty quickly, give me a few weeks. Problem is I know if I buy a tub of ice cream I will pretty much go at it over the course of a couple of nights until it is all gone, I can’t resist once it is in the house

24 Hours Later

I dragged my sorry butt to the pool today, really, really, really (is there a theme here?), didn’t want to go. In fact even as I was standing on the steps half in half out I was seriously flirting with the idea of getting out and just heading home.

The kids were particularly annoying today with their little races on the giant floaty things, seemingly oblivious to my head bobbing up and down and the fact that I was not highly maneuverable, I copped a kick to the head, a kid copped an elbow in the side (unintentional, come on, I am not pure evil) and frankly half way though I was gonna take my bat and ball and head home.

By the time I had reached snapping point there were only 2 reps to go so I just got on with it.

So this was the session -
5 minute warm up
2 sets of 6 by 2:30 hard with 30 second recovery and 2 minutes between sets.
5 minute cool down

I am extremely conscious of the fact that this is a danger period as I could easily just scrap the pool running altogether. Even though I am running every second day it is barely enough to maintain fitness, let alone improve it, therefore I have figured that until I am running at least 5 days a week that the pool sessions are here to stay.

And bloody hell, the way my body feels today you’d think I’d have run a half marathon, for pity sake it was only 7.3Km, even if I were allowed to run today I wouldn’t have. It’s time I started paying attention to proper recovery again. Last night I had fish and salad for dinner, in reality I should have gone for pasta, I woke up today feeling as flat as a tack and feel like I have been playing catch up all day. It is good to feel the running tiredness again though, it’s just a shame with this damn trip to Brisbane for work that I will have to wait about a fortnight for my next massage.

But despite the general weariness my legs still feel fine and at this stage I think I’ll be doing my session as planned tomorrow, this will be Walk 1 minute Run 15 minutes 3 times, so that is another 5 minute jump to take it to 45 minutes.

I didn’t sleep well last night, I kept dreaming that I was at the doctor and she was telling me my stress fractures were back

Bloody hell, I have this over whelming craving for apple pie with ice-cream, fortunately I am already in my PJs and can’t be bothered schlepping down to Safeway to buy some. That’s right, saved from an unnecessary pig out by my own laziness

And no, I am pretty sure that guy last night was not trying to pick me up, the way I look when I am running, especially now, is not exactly a particularly alluring sight

40 whole minutes!

Real Running today, stepping up 10 minutes on the previous session –

Walk 1 minute and Run 10 minutes 4 times!

This resulted in 7.3Km, I have fallen into a nice steady rhythm of about 5:30Kms, I want to try and run faster but I am behaving myself So a bit of a milestone today, the longest run since my injury and still my legs feel fine, well my calves are a little tight but I’ll get stuck into them with some massage when I am done here.

I timed my run today to catch the start of my groups usual Tuesday evening session, it was really cool to run past them as they did their warm up lap “hey, look at me, I am running too”

Then I headed over to Olympic Park to watch them finishing their set and then joined in with the stretches. I am a bit giggly and happy tonight because I almost feel normal again. We did The Plank after the stretching, holding it for 90 seconds, normally I used to struggle to hold for 60 seconds, but guess what! Today, 90 seconds, not a hassle, I wasn’t even wobbling, big ups to all that pool running for building some core strength.

Had a bit of a weird experience on The Tan this afternoon, as I started my first rep a guy smiled and waved at me. I didn’t recognise him and figured there must have been someone behind me he knew, but to cover myself I gave a nod and a smile just in case. But then he passed me again, same thing, then one more time when I had finished and I was walking back to my car, I am racking my brain but I just didn’t recognise him, odd. He probably thought I was someone he knew and now he is on the phone to my doppelganger saying “hey, saw you on The Tan tonight, why didn’t you say Hi you rude cow?”

Hmmm, home late tonight after having a spot of dinner with the group after training, lovely piece of Barramundi and Salad for me.

Have any Melbournites noticed the Black Hawk helicopters doing maneuvers around the city this week? Damn those things are loud, makes me so grateful that seeing them in the sky is pure novelty for us, not the norm.

Is this my fitness returning?

Itchy skin, sore nose and red eyes, must mean I was back in the pool today.

5 minutes warm up
3 sets of 8 by 90 seconds hard with 20 second recovery and 90 seconds between sets
5 minutes cool down

I have noticed over the last couple of pool sessions that it is getting harder to get my heart rate up this is why I reduced the recovery time between reps and sets today. I am hoping that this is signaling a return of my CV fitness now that I am getting back into real running.

Perhaps out of a desire not to jinx myself I haven’t mentioned how my legs have been feeling. I am have been proceeding cautiously and have been prepared to pull the pin on a session as soon as I feel pain or to skip a session if I don’t feel ready. I have been surprised that so far everything is going along nicely, though I know I have to continue to be patient and that there is still a long road to travel along. I have only done 3 runs of 5.5Km in the orthoses but they have been treating me well. I have been putting on the ice packs after every run and every night I am spending about 15 minutes massaging my shins. This has been great as I was told to start this after my first appointment, it has given me a great feel for what is right and wrong. When I was first injured my shins felt like corrugated iron they were so messed up, now they are nice and smooth and there is just a little lump on my left shin where the injury was the worst and this is getting smaller every day.

I just checked the results for the Mens 12Km Cross Country on Saturday, Steve Monaghetti came 4th only 24 seconds behind the winner, as well as blitzing the O40 field, incredible!

Hmmm, allow me to be just a wee bit pervy for a moment will you I started reading the Steve Ovett and Seb Coe book today, in the middle there are heaps of great photos, you have to agree that there are very few forms more perfect than this (apart from the great Buster of course)

Hey, haven’t had a rant for a while
Ohh, I got a good rant going on Sunday when I was driving out to my Mum’s, and over something so trivial too

I hate, with a burning passion those stupid petrol powered garden blower thingies. Why spend a quiet relaxed afternoon in the garden enjoying the peace and fresh air when you can foul it up with an obnoxious noise and toxic fumes, hey why not back the car up and turn that on as well, while you’re at it light a cigar and chuck some tires on the fire. BUY A FECKING RAKE AND A BROOM YOU LAZY PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!

Seriously if you have gotten to the point where you can’t even rake some leaves it is time to re-asses your fitness levels.

And on the topic of useless household appliances, can you believe you can buy a mini Fairy Floss maker, save yourself the $59.95 and eat a bag of sugar.

What is the world coming to?

Weekly Wrap Up

Today was a running day, Walk 1 minute and Run 10 minutes 3 times, again this came to 5.5Km.

I didn’t do as much exercise as I usually like to this week because I took a rest day on Tuesday to get a massage and then an unscheduled rest day on Thursday as I was stuck back at work.

Mon – W1 R7.5 by 4 = 5.5Km
Tue – Massage
Wed – W1 R6.5 by 4 = 5.5Km
Thurs – Unscheduled Rest
Fri – W1 R10 by 3 = 5.5Km
Sat – Pool, 8 by 5 minutes hard (1 min recovery) and 10 by 45 hard 15 easy
Sun – W1 R10 by 3 = 5.5Km

Total Running = 22Km

Wow, running more than 20Km in a week, haven’t done that for a while. Sheesh, that is usually just what I would do on a Sunday, it really is a long road back

Hopefully work will be more chilled this week and I won’t miss the pool, this is the plan for the coming week -
Mon – Pool, 3 sets of 8 by 90 seconds hard with 30 second recoveries and 2 minutes between sets
Tue – W1 R10 minutes 4 times
Wed – Pool, will decide on the day
Thurs – W1 R15 minutes 3 times
Fri – Will probably be flying to the Gold Coast PM so will have to take a rest day
Sat – W1 R15 minutes 3 times
Sun – Probably nothing unless I can find a pool near my sisters house

I have to spend about 2 weeks in Brisbane for work, trust me I would rather not, but I could choose between Perth, Adelaide or Brisbane and I chose Brissie so I could be near family. Rather than staying in a lonely little hotel room for 2 weeks I have decided to stay with my brother on the Gold Coast and drive in to Brisbane each day (work is hiring me a car). Perth was tempting but I just didn’t want to spend that much time on a plane, especially as I have to come home the weekend in the middle for an appt with the sports doc. Some people may think a couple of weeks in a hotel with room service laid on is their idea of heaven, but I am here to tell you that it isn’t. The food is as fattening as it gets and you are stuck staring at the same four walls in a little box with no one to talk too I would much rather drive and hour or so each way and come home to a warm house and hang out with my family.

Running will be a challenge though as there are no gravel or earth tracks near my brothers so I will have to resort to running around the football oval at 5am, for 15 minutes at a stretch! Yikes, that is going to be tough, can’t wait until I can run on the footpath again.

I was out visiting mum this afternoon and she gave me some old photo albums from when I was a wee lass, she used to make separate albums for all of us. I am going to scan them all for posterity so I will be able to post some in the coming weeks. But I am here to tell you right now, there will be NO, I repeat NO, posting of photo’s from what I like to call the Awkward Years, that is anything between the age of 12 and pretty much 2 years ago I was a pretty cute little freckly faced kid, but it all went a bit pear shaped when I insisted on getting my hair cut short at 12 and to make a bad situation even worse the spiral perm when I was 13 (with the fringe left straight *shudder*). From then on it was one disaster after another until I retreated into the world of goth, unfortunately not many photo’s from that era, this was pre digital camera era and we were too busy lurking in dark corners and working on our affectations to pose for photos. I do have one great one from when I was kitted out for a costume ball by my BF at the time who was pretty creative, but frankly I’d hate to destroy the squeaky clean image I am sure you all have of me

Another beautiful day for a race

We are blessed here in Melbourne, despite some dire winter days over the last couple of weeks it was a prefect day for cross country today.

It as Round 6 today and the women were running 8Km, the men 12Km.

Georgie Clarke took out the women’s even by a long shot, but to be fair to Lisa Weightman she did win a half marathon 3 weeks ago Still, Georgie ran a fantastic race and it is great to see her running strong these days. All this despite nearly being taken out as she was finishing the first lap. One of the officials nearly, correction, did drive a car right onto the course I couldn’t believe what I was seeing it seemed to be happening in slow motion, to Georgie’s credit she just smiled, ran around the car and kept going. Thank god there was not a big lead pack otherwise it would have been pretty ugly.

As always I was in awe of Steve Monaghetti, he really is something else and is pretty much always up there in the lead pack showing guys half his age how it’s done.

*sigh*, I am trying, but it is still a lonely affair, I want so much to be out there, it was such a perfect afternoon for XC.

I am also harbouring a terrible fear that I am going to get too comfortable on the sidelines and be too afraid to get back into it again

Probably stupid, I am sure once I toe the start line it will all come back to me. I have entered the Spring Into Shape series, the 4Km event. This will give me something to look forward to and will also allow me to improve over the same course. Hopefully I’ll be fit enough by then to start knocking out some good times.

Oops, so busy moaning and feeling sorry that I almost forgot to mention today’s workout. It was back to the pool today for a fairly hard one -
5 minutes warm up
8 by 5 minutes hard with 1 minute recovery
2 minutes recovery
10 by 45 seconds hard 15 seconds easy (worked bloody hard, went limp for a minute afterwards, I try to visualise running for a finish line when I do these)
5 minute cool down (running in shallow water)