Wednesdays are always my busiest day. I start the day with gym and end the daylight with running.
6.15am - 45mins RPM/Spin class
7am - 15mins abs class
6pm - Run from Parliament House with Jen, Chris and Andy
Yes, only 4 of us ran today as neither Ewen nor Richard could be there and Chris ran a short run as he had a meeting to attend. There was cloud cover which was good and we ran at a very gentle pace. We ran the same direction as last week on through the wetlands, Molonglo and back to PH without losing each other! We stopped for a few of nature's calls on the way. It was a pleasant social run on sore legs!
Total distance: 13kmCalories burned: 766
This morning, Thursday, I again went to the gym at 6am. This time I worked on upper body strength and abs. Then it was off to brekkie with CJ - always fun. Tonight it's track at the AIS and I feel sleepy already - oh dear!
After work today I went out to the Boathouse to run the first of the Cross Country summer series. There were 146 finishers in the 5km run and 28 in the 2km run. It was fantastic to catch up with heaps of people I haven't seen for some time. It was a good course and a pleasant day if a little windy, especially on the first leg when there was a head wind. CJ ran well and passed me just after the half way mark looking strong. It's so good that she's starting back so well. Mel, very new to our speedygeese, ran the whole distance which was also a great achievement, especially after yesterday's drills.
I ran a 2km warm up with speedygeoff, Nadine, Brett and Margaret and after the race a 2km cool down with speedygeoff, Margaret and Maria.
We ran past the hospice where Milton, one of our veterans, sat outside and watched us run. Several people stopped briefly to say hi as we ran past.
Distance of race: 5kmTime taken: 15:53
Average pace per km: 5:10
Finishing place: 107th (out of 146)
Total distance with warm up and cool down: 9km
This morning I went to the gym to work on upper body strength and abs. Then off to speedygeoff's early running at 4.30pm for a 7km warm up with Ewen. Helen, speedycoach, Craig and Gary started just before us. It was hot and sunny.
We joined the rest of the group at 5.30pm (27 of us - quite a turn-out) and ran a warm-up loop before heading off to the flat grass near Questacon where Ewen (with my back-up) took the group through our Peter Magill drills. It made a great change and meant that we didn't miss out on our drills this week so it worked out really well. We ran three strides x 60m followed by 2 x 50-60m schoolyard skipping, high skips, skip kicks, flat foot marching, high knees, butt kicks and carioca (or grapevine) with 60m strides between each set. We then ran to the grassy Parliament House roof where we ran 8 x 10sec 'Brad Hudson' hill sprints with full recovery between each sprint.
Total distance: 14.5km
In the last run for 2009 in November I won a bronze medal at the Vets' Handicap. As a result of this the handicapper made me suffer accordingly and put me back NINE groups from Group 18 to Group 27. Now that's a pretty tough call. We ran the Campbell Park course at 8.30am in warm to hot conditions - an undulating out and back course, a bit rough in parts but at least I knew what to expect and where I was going having incorporated it in our long run yesterday. I enjoy catching up with everyone at the monthly handicaps - people we only see once a month and others returning to running like CJ - so good to see her out there again.
I ran a short warm-up with the usual suspects round the flat carpark then headed for the portaloo and from there to the start.
Total distance of run: 6km (plus 1km warm-up)Time taken: 33:37
Average pace per km: 5:36
Handicap group: 27 (in the same start group as Jen; Ewen and Chris ran off Group 25 - how does that work??)
Finish place: 112 (a little different from last handicap - wonder if that qualifies for a new group next month?)
Number of finishers in Thomas course: 132
The really great part of the results is that our speedygeese won the first three places in the Thomas series. Andy won Gold, Craig Silver and Brett Bronze. What a fantastic result!
After the run I joined Jen, Andy, Ewen, Heidi, Janene, Ken, Noeline and Garry for a very civilized coffee and brunch at Carlo's - if fact I indulged in two coffees, they were so good!!
Total distance for week: 71km
Oh dear, this has been another fly-by week without any posts since Sunday so here goes with the catch-up!
Monday - run training with speedygeese at Weston Park
4.30pm - early warm-up of 5.33km with Jen, Ewen, Andy and speedycoach - a run around the jogalong course - some shady bits which was important in the intense heat!
5.30pm - main session with 18 speedygeese attendees
It was fun and a pleasant change training at Weston Park tonight. There was a big concert in the grounds of Parliament House celebrating Australia Day which made parking there at a premium.
It was a very hot evening and after a warm-up again on the jogalong course we headed for a hill which was not as steep as last week's hill but still a challenge in the heat.
We ran 20 x 80m hill repeats in 30minutes before our cool down.
Total distance including early warm-up: 13km
Calories burned: 745
Tuesday - Run
Today was a holiday being Australia Day and I had a sleep in! It was another scorcher and I left my run until 7.20pm when the intense heat had lessened. I ran from home towards Gungahlin along the cycle track and back again listening to my music.
Total distance: 8km
Time taken: 48mins
Average pace per km: 6mins
Calories burned: 470
Wednesday
6.15am - RPM/spin class at gym
7am - Abs class
6pm - Run with Jen, Andy and started with Ewen and Chris
On another hot night we ran from Parliament House to the lake and as we were running over the bridge somehow Jen, Andy and I were separated from Ewen and Chris. We did pass them going in the opposite direction as we neared the wetlands but that was the last time we saw each other. There was a bit of confusion about directions but at least we all had a good run!
Total distance: 12.3km
Calories: 722
Thursday
6.15am - Strength training at the gym
5.30pm - Track
Tonight at the AIS it was "come and try it" night which attracted quite a few extra people. In fact 89 people took part in various distances tonight. I didn't feel 100% but I did want to enter a few events. I ran in the 1500m at 6pm and it was dreadfully hot and dry at that time. At the end of the run I had a coughing fit just like after the 800m.
Distance: 1500m
Time taken: 7:21:21
I was still struggling with the cough and sucking on peppermints when I started the next event of the 2000m walk. I enjoy the fitness walking. This time it was a Turkey race and we had to guess the time we thought we would do. We were not allowed to wear watches and they covered the clocks. Margaret won the event as she estimated her time within 3secs - pretty good estimate!
On the other hand I was miles out with my estimate.
Distance for walk: 2000m
Time taken: 14:11
Estimate: 15:50
The last event I competed in at track was the 3000m handicap race. This was handicapped according to age.
Distance: 3000m
Time taken: 15:16
Average pace per km: 5:05 (almost there!)
Margaret and I ran a few laps to warm up at the start and ran out of the AIS for a short cool down after our 3000m.
Total distance for evening: 8.07km
Friday - Rest Day
6.15am - Gym - Body balance class (including stretching and abs)
Saturday - long run
This morning I met up with the Molonglo group at 7am and ran with Chris, Ewen and Andy along the Campbell Park course which we will be running in tomorrow's handicap run. We ran round the undulating base of Mt Ainslie in an anti-clockwise direction and turned off towards the War Memorial where we ran down to the lake over Commonwealth Bridge and along to and through the wetlands and back to Molonglo Reach where we met up with the rest of the group for a short catch up before Ewen, Andy and I headed for the Portrait Gallery for coffee and cake - defnitely a good way to finish a good morning's run.
Total distance: 23km
Time taken: 2hrs 32mins
Average pace per km: 6:36
Calories burned: 1350
The temperature was pleasantly cool to start this morning and it just started to warm up as we neared the finish - perfect timing!
Overnight the temperature dropped considerably and this morning it was only 13deg when I drove to Parliament House to meet Ewen at 7.30am. Wow, it felt positively chilly! Great weather for a warm-up followed by drills and hill sprints. We headed for the shady grass opposite the portrait gallery where we ran 3 x 60m strides before our drills as follows:
3 x 50m schoolyard skipping
2 x 50m of high skips, flat foot marching, high knees, butt kicks and carioca
50-60m strides between each set.
We then ran to a grassy bank on the roof of PH and ran 8 x 10sec hill sprints with a good recovery between each run.
Total distance: 8km
Total distance for week: 70km
After all this we drove over to the triathlon site and joined the cheer squad for Jen_Runs and Mango who were racing the Olympic distance as a team. It was exciting to watch and of course we incorporated coffee while Mango was out on his run. We saw lots of familiar faces and caught up with friends - some from many moons ago - another good day. Mr B was a technical official on the back of a motorbike pinging those who were drafting on their bikes and sending them off to the penalty box where they had to wait 3 minutes - quite a number of culprits as it happened! There were six motorbikes with technical officials on the bike course!
Later in the afternoon the temperature warmed up to another hot sunny day of 32degrees but fortunately the triathletes experienced perfect cool calm conditions early in the morning.
To top off a lovely weekend Mr B and I went to the movies tonight to see 'It's Complicated' starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin. We really enjoyed it - good fun. About 3/4 of the way through the movie suddenly died and we sat in silence. We had to wait about ten minutes before the movie was brought back to life and because of the inconvenience every person in the theatre was given a free ticket for a movie another night. Considering we saw the rest of the movie AND enjoyed it thoroughly, we thought that was a pretty good deal! We now get to see another movie free - woo hoo!
This meant that at 6.44am when I finally managed to run out the door it was already 27deg. At 1am it was still 31deg - that is so hot for the middle of the night!
Anyway, my run was less than ordinary. I left from home because I was on a time frame and ran to Lake Ginninderra, round the lake and back via the road to Gungahlin before turning and running home via the cycle tracks. I definitely prefer the trails to all that concrete and grassy verges. After a quick shower it was time to take the children to swimming lessons on their final day with us. It's been fun having the grandchildren stay and we will miss all those daily cuddles!
Total distance: 21.8km
Time taken: 2:18:18
Average pace per km: 6:20
Calories burned: 1283
Later in the afternoon I collected CJ and we drove into town where we met Ewen for coffee before heading to the triathlon site to meet up with Jen_Runs here from Sydney with Mango and Mini Mango for a triathlon weekend. We joined the cheersquad for Mini Mango in the enticer tri. She had an awesome sprint to the finish - great to watch and fantastic to catch up with Jen_Runs and family - a hot, but good day.
