Slacko

I didn’t run today

I tackled the grocery shopping early today, the shops are a million times more bearable at 9am when all the people that annoy me are sleeping in, going to church or whatever people who annoy me do at 9am on a Sunday. Then I had to go to Bunnings to get a few more plants for my garden and yet another pair of hedge trimmers to replace yet another pair that to my great shame I had left out in the rain to go rusty. In my defence they were cheap and nasty, so this time around I spent a bit more money on a decent pair with wizzo telescopic handles and I promise they are now clean and gleaming and nestled in a nice dry place in the shed.

Prior to cleaning, drying and putting away said hedge trimmers I had to tackle the Potato Vine from hell that serves as a bit of a privacy screen between my house and next doors unit. I hate the damn thing and I take my life in my hands every time I prune it but it is a necessary evil. To prune it I have to climb the fence and then balance on top of it and if I have been really slack I have to drag wayward vines from next doors roof. It is rather precarious and definitely not for the faint hearted, at least this time around I didn’t almost tumble backwards from the ladder as a particularly stubborn vine finally pulled loose as I yanked on it.

Then I planted my plants, had some lunch and my step dad popped around to finish the steps coming down from my deck, bless him, he is a good ‘un that man. During a brief window of sunshine today I flopped in my new outdoor bean bag to direct operations while occasionally holding a piece of wood in place as it was screwed in, very useful I am.

Soooooo, I started to feel that I really should do some exercise so I left him to it and jumped on the exercise bike for an hour. It was not too bad, I had my music playing and was watching Aliens and when I felt like cracking it I thought of Sara slogging it out for over 100km though the hills of Whittlesea yesterday. I managed to keep my heart rate pretty high, averaging 81%.

Not running today though means that I can fit in 4 whole days of running next week

Well, the excitement never ends for me does it!

Trust me

Is what Dr K said to me this afternoon.

The return to running has been going fine but I have been feeling a bit nervy this week. Dr K had a good dig around in my shins today and said that she is really happy with how they feel and I need to stop stressing out about it. This, however, did not stop her from getting the dreaded accupunture needles out. Fortunately Corrie really loosened my shins up on Thursday so the dry needling was merely uncomfortable rather than excruciating.

I have been given the run/walk plan for the next 4 weeks, essentially 30 minute sessions every 2nd day with increasing amounts of time spent running. I’ve been told to stop worrying about my shins and just do as I am told, I should know by now that Dr K wouldn’t steer me wrong.

A lovely dinner out last night to help celebrate Jo’s birthday with her and her friends and family. Happy Birthday chicky, hope you had a great night

Damn tired today (and I only had one glass of wine last night!), I was going to see Hellboy 2 tonight but I am just too weary, this is terribly sad isn’t it?!

46 minutes on the stationary bike this morning, totally brattish and grumpy about it today but it’s gotta be done (especially after stopping at the servo for a Magnum ice-cream on the way home from dinner last night).

This just in
So US Republican Presidential candidate John McCain has announced his Vice Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, don’t know much about her yet but apparently she is Pro-Life and supports the gun lobby.

I hate her already.

This little piggy

went to market and went nom nom nom nom all the way home (or back to her office anyway).

With my weekly massage scheduled for tonight I didn’t have time to run today so it was a rest day, of course though, I am me and get restless so I went for a walk at lunch time. I wanted to buy some apples (Fuji’s are mighty good right now) but I’m sick of paying over $1.50 for one lousy apple from the Supermarket or Greengrocer so I decided to stroll up to Victoria Market.

Being the little glutton that I am I almost go into sensory overload when I get to Vic Market, I want to buy something from every store, would I like to sample some cheese, hell yes I would!

The fruit and veg at the market always looks plumper, juicier and more colourful than the sad examples you get at the Supermarket and I forgot how much cheaper. I was able to buy 3 apples for $1.70, I was paying just a little less than that for one! I am going to bring my shopping jeep in next week (yes, I own a shopping jeep) and grab my fruit and veg from the market. I don’t know why I haven’t thought about doing this before, it is only a 10 minute walk from work.

Somehow I was able to resist the siren song of the hot donut van, it wasn’t easy though, it smells so good.

Back in the market hall I visited the stand that sells Turkish Boreks fresh from the oven, not the most diet friendly food going around but so tasty it defines description, my favourite is filled with spicy chickpeas, Mmmmmmmmmm. Being warm from the oven I of course had to eat it all on my walk back to the office.

So no exercise and a naughty lunch, at least I had an apple and resisted the donut van.

more animals

Overreaction?

Plot

—Synonyms 1. intrigue, cabal, conspiracy, brew, hatch, frame. PLOT, CONSPIRE, SCHEME imply secret, cunning, and often unscrupulous planning to gain one’s own ends. To PLOT is to contrive a secret plan of a selfish and often treasonable kind: to plot against someone’s life. To CONSPIRE is to unite with others in an illicit or illegal machination: to conspire to seize a government. To SCHEME is to plan ingeniously, subtly, and often craftily for one’s own advantage: to scheme how to gain power.

It was reported yesterday that 3 arrests were made in the US after police stopped a Ute driving erratically in Colorado; upon searching the vehicle they found two rifles, walkie talkies, drugs, a hunting scope and one dumb ass red neck. I suppose it is true what they say, guns don’t kill people, inbred poorly educated ignorant racist red neck junkies with guns kill people.

This lead to a further two arrests and for conclusions of an assassination plot against Barack Obama to be leapt to at a height that would make Steven Hooker look like a hack. Though to be fair I concede that any threat to the life of anyone involved in the presidential election is going to be taken seriously.

However upon reading further and gazing on the images of the conspirators, Tharin Gartell, Nathan Johnson and Shawn Robert Adolf (how unfortunate) I suspect that plot might be a bit of a stretch. As per the list of synonyms above to me plot suggests at least a year 12 high school certificate level of intelligence. Have a look at these guys; do the words Ingenious, subtle, cunning or even crafty immediately spring to mind?

My immediate impression is that they are the reason laws exist to prevent first cousins and siblings from marrying.

Reading the papers this morning in the cold light of day the “plot” has been down graded to 3 meth head racists getting all het up around the crack pipe and deciding that the reason their lives were in the toilet was because a black man is running for president and not because they lacked the motivation and functioning brain cells to strive for a better life for themselves and dang it they were gonna do something about it.

I suppose just registering to vote was too much for them.

Then again, look at some of Obama’s supporters.

I can honestly tell you I have never cared enough about politics to wear a silly hat.

No running today, 46 minutes on the bike, average HR 77%. Weigh in this morning, another half a Kg down, yay!

Not much

Work is giving me the shits at the moment, it’s sapping my will to live

Lovely afternoon for a run though and run I did, it was the closest to the real thing that I have done in ages. 5 minutes run/1 minute walk, combine that with walking to the tan and back and I did 9.6 km this afternoon.

I pretty much ran spot on 5km, each five minute block was damn near perfectly paced, I haven’t lost my touch

2 more of these and I get to go for a whole 30 minutes.

I like to press the buttons on all the noisy toys in the toy aisle at Target, does that make me a Classhole I wonder or just obnoxious?

Random Ramblings

51 minutes on the bike this afternoon, average HR 80%, phew, what gives? I got distracted, for some reason I thought that cycling to the end of the news would be 45 minutes but I hadn’t checked the clock properly and had jumped on the bike earlier than I thought.

Someone left a Fashion Rag on the table where I eat my lunch, so having read the paper over breakfast I resorted to flicking though it while I ate my lunch. I can honestly say that I don’t think I have read a bigger pile of poo in my life, I find it difficult to believe that the people who put it together were able to do so with a straight face.

One gem was getting six women to interpret a “must have” piece for next season (must have or what I ask! Will I be sent to the salt mines if I don’t skip down to the shops for the latest piece of over priced garbage?). My favourite was the jumpsuit (WTF, who the hell is buying jump suits, sometimes I think fashion designers are just taking the piss “hey, lets churn out a jump suit this season, surely no one is going to buy that”). Just in case you are all wondering how to wear the jump suit apparently you can dress it down by day with a nice pair of flats but you can also take it up a notch at night with a pair of heels and a (you’ll love this) “Statement Clutch”.

Huh! what the hell is a statement clutch? Would it like to hold forth on the proposed changes to the abortion laws in Victoria?

Yes, I know what it means, but it is still a stupid freakin’ thing to say and I laugh at how these vacuous airheads take it all so seriously.

Then again I tend to slob around in jeans, T-Shirts and old sneakers most of the time, it probably wouldn’t hurt me to polish up my act a little bit, but it really is all so tedious and I would rather spend my money on running shoes. The few times a year I am required to dress up are generally a rather traumatic time for me and I tend to stamp my feet, pout a bit and then buy something at the last minute that I hate and never wear again

Oh, and bangles are in this summer and good news, you can wear as many as you like!

Thank goodness a new week has started, the feature album on JJJ last week was atrocious. The Black Kids sound like The Cure after Robert Smith discovered Prozac and went all Friday I’m in Love on us (a dark dark period indeed), I wanted to jam a knitting needle in my ear everytime a new song came on.

So now that I have finished bagging out Fashion whores and the latest Indy music release I am off to serve up dinner.

Is that Spring I feel?

Despite being a relatively cool 14 degrees today when the sun came out this afternoon it was beautiful outside.

I did 50 minutes on the bike this morning, average HR 80%. Then I settled in to watch the men’s Olympic marathon on TV, unfortunately Lee Troop had an absolute dog of a day and I have no doubt he finished feeling pretty crappy. It is a shame after getting clear of injury and then working so hard over the last year, not to mention running a great marathon at Berlin last year to qualify. That is racing though and some times, no matter how well prepared you are it just goes to poo on the day, I hope he isn’t being too hard on himself.

This afternoon I headed to the tan for my run 4/walk 1 session, Jay and Michelle were taking part in a 52km ultra marathon, which was 14 laps now I really enjoy running there but 3 laps is my limit so fair play to them both. I ran about 3.3km during my alloted 16 minutes, after the second rep I did walk for longer than a minute as I accompanied Jay on the walk up Anderson Street. In total I ran and walked 9.6km today, I didn’t intend to walk that much but I detoured though the Botanical Gardens to look at the Camellias’ in flower, pretty.

I have decided that Sunday is a Calorie King free day, not necessarily a free for all (though my Mum did pop around today and she gave me some Rocky Road) but just because mentally I need a day free from considering and recording every morsel of food that passes my lips.

4:1 is done now, Tuesday starts the last block of run/walk where I step up to run 5 minutes/walk 1 minute by 5 so a whole 25 minutes of running Then the week after next I can start with a continuos run of 30 minutes, double

Tired, but worth it

I did not get to bed until after 1am this morning and unlike the old days it was not because I was out tying one on (truth me told in the bad good ole days the night didn’t even start until 1am, pretty sure that would probably kill me now).

But I digress, I was up watching the dying days of the Olympic games, women’s 5000 mtre final, the men’s and women’s 4 by 100 relays, the men’s 10 mtre platform diving prelims and finally the men’s Pole Vault final.

The women’s 5000 was OK and although I truly admire the ability of little Tirunesh, especially as she managed the 10,000/5000 double, but to be honest it was a little meh, it pretty much felt like a fore gone conclusion. It’s a shame we just don’t have any Aussie girls who are competitive at that level.

The relay’s were exciting as usual and I was sorry for the Jamaican girls when they stuffed up the last baton change, but that is the nature of the event.

The men’s, WOW, they smashed the world record, but with Bolt and Powell running 3rd and 4th it was always a chance. Damn that was an exciting race, I reckon I held my breath for the whole 37.10 seconds and my pulse was racing almost as fast as they were. Stoked that Asafa will be going home with a medal too, he is a real sweetie and he ran his guts out last night. Bolt was just phenomenal as usual and I swear if it ever turns out that he is on the juice I will cry bitter tears and take to my bed for a week.

The Jamaicans also have my pick for the best uniforms too.

Without resorting to the tired puns that have been trotted out by the press this week let me just say, how good is Jared Tallent? The little fella won Bronze in the 20km walk and then backed up for Silver yesterday in the 50km walk. Sure I am in the “why walk when you can run and damn don’t that look a little bit silly” camp but have nothing but respect for the athleticism, I certainly couldn’t run 50km in 3 hours 37 minutes, let alone walk it.

Last but definitely not least congratulations to Steve Hooker, GOLD in the mens Pole Vault. He was always going to be in with a chance but was far from a certainty, but it seems that he has got his head right and it paid off for him. Again I was holding my breath as he ran up and lifted into the air, I even found myself unconsciously getting up off the couch as if I could help him get some extra lift after he was a cert for gold he went on a cleared 5.96 for the Olympic record.

No shots of the ceremony because they are not holding that until tonight.

Funnily the Olympics have been quite good for me while I have been injured, watching all the athletes has helped keep me motivated and focussed on my recovery and has definitely kept those competitive fires burning.

The men’s marathon is on tomorrow morning, I had a dream about it last night which is a bit sad really, aslo our men qualified for the 4 by 400 relay which is being run tonight. Go Troopy, go Boys!

This morning while they were showing replays from last night I jumped on the bike for 46 minutes and churned out a tempo session, average HR 82%. While I was watching the mens 4 by 100 replay my HR jumped to 90%

Afterwards I spent about 30 minutes doing some core and strength work, crunches, some Pilates stuff, planks and lunges with 3kg hand weights. If anyone (Jo) is looking for some good core stability exercises here are some that I use (just click on the core stability link)

core-stability - Upload a Document to Scribd

Read this document on Scribd: core-stability

Alright, meeting my recovery half way

4 minutes run/1 minute walk by 4 today.

Walked about 1.3km to the tan as a warm up and then did my penance, I covered about 3.2km during my alloted 16 minutes, yes folks that was a more conservative 5 minute Kms, so I met you half way Stu

The pace felt fine and again I was surprised because it did feel slower.

Then I walked back to Federation Sq along the Yarra, about 3.2km. Grudgingly I’ll admit that it was a lovely afternoon for walk with the sun shining, woulda been a nicer afternoon for a run though.

About 8.3km for the afternoon.

Because I was going to be out for almost an hour (56:55 to be precise) to make all the walking more bearable I took my iPod. So if anyone saw a scowling madwomen powerwalking along the Yarra singing Head Like a Hole under her breath, yep, that was me. Ahh Trent Reznor how my wee young velvet clad black eyeliner wearing gothic heart used to beat for thee, these silly little foppy emo boys of today are not fit to fill your combat boots.

Stu is right

I need to settle it down a little bit - how’s that Stu, you made it into the title

My doctor has given me my run/walk program and I have been instructed to jog/walk.

Aghhhhh, it is just so damn frustrating though and as I said to someone today being conservative just led to a great big fat nothing. In fact being conservative just led me to another stress fracture

I guess I was just desperate to have some sort of confirmation that I had not lost too much fitness so I just ran with my heart and not my head.

Today I was due to step up to 4 minutes run jog/1 minute walk, but it was pissing down at lunch time. I don’t mind running in the rain but I damn well wasn’t going to walk 2km to the tan in the rain and with a massage booked for this afternoon and running a PT session this morning lunch time was my only chance.

So I hereby promise that tomorrow afternoon when I do my 4:1 that I WILL stick to 5:30 pace.

Sometimes the goody two shoes just needs to bust out you know and if running 4:30 pace is the extent of my busting out then that is just pretty damn sad really

*sigh* how disappointed was I this morning when I checked online and saw that Buster hadn’t qualified for the 5000 mtre final, I must confess I did think this was a given. I am not going to analyse this one, everything that could possibly be said has been said.

Hopefully Channel 7 won’t screw us out of the women’s 1500 semi’s this evening, though based on their efforts so far I won’t be holding my breath.

After one tedious week of entering every morsel that passes my lips into Calorie King and being a slave to that little orange line and then not knocking back a wine or 3 because the little orange line says I can (Morsey knows what I mean!) I have managed to lose just over half a kilo to be precise it is 600gms but half a kilo just sounds more impressive. That takes me back to my pre-injury weight but I still want to lose another 1.5kg.

more cat pictures