HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Best wishes to everybody for a wonderful 2007. May all your dreams come true! My New Year Resolution is to blog more regularly and remain positive about my health and fitness. Best of luck to everyone out there on fulfilling their goals in the year ahead.
Outside this window I hear thunder rolling - a storm is brewing! Over the past few days Canberra has experienced some rain and storms I believe. Mr B and I have just spent a few days by Cronulla Beach in NSW and it started to rain heavily on our trip home. In Canberra the ground was damp, our new deck was wet and the smell of that beautiful rain heralded our arrival. It's going to be a good year! Have a wonderful night if you are seeing in the New Year and stay safe!
Perhaps tomorrow I will update my blog!

I'm Here - I'm Alive and I'm a Week Behind AGAIN!

Hi everyone. Thank you for your nice comments. I'm on nasty medication now which means I can't have any alcohol for 10 days - rats - I have all these Christmas parties happening too! However, by Christmas Day I'll be free to enjoy a glass or two of wine!! Yippee!

I'm going to have to recap very briefly on the last week. I'll go backwards!!

Tonight - Thursday - Track
I opted for the Spiral Handicap tonight as it didn't start until 8.15pm so that gave me a bit more time to continue writing Christmas cards! It was rather fun as three of us were very close together all the way through. Marg and Rosemary were running in the group ahead of me and I managed to catch them at about the halfway point. I really tried hard and after passing them continued to hear Rosemary breathing very loudly behind me. I was therefore very surprised when I finished and saw it was Marg finishing very closely behind me and Rosemary behind her. It was quite exciting being so close together - all three of us are in the same age group!

Distance: 3.5km
Time taken: 17:16
Average pace per km: 4:54
Calories burned: 200
Handicap: 29
Place: 4th!!! (that will stuff up the handicap group!)

Wednesday 13 Dec
Morning - Gym - 6.15am
RPM class - (spin)
This was one tough class - talk about a good workout. It was really hot in the room with all those bikes in spite of the fans working overtime. We had a different instructor and she was very good and make us work so hard. It felt good afterwards!!

Evening - Yoga
I have decided our yoga instructor thinks we are contortionists. We had a whole lot of new "asanas" tonight and they were so complicated. We had to do strange things with chairs upside down and backwards and shoulder bends and legs up the wall. I kept hearing my name as I was being corrected for just about every pose I attempted - "wider stance needed" "hips to the left" "arm further round" - aaaah - I'm sure this must be doing some good. Still, the last ten minutes of the class makes up for all the nasty stretches in the middle (I think!)

Tuesday - Parliament Relays
This was all I did today. I drove to the relays starting at Questacon and was put in a Vets' team. I elected to be the first runner as I knew I was going out to speedygeoff's dinner afterwards. Big mistake!! I was running against very fast runners and it is very demoralising to be beaten by everyone else especially one little sprinter who came up to about my knees!!!

Distance (according to Gandalf): 1.78km
Time taken: 8:40
Pace per km: 4:52 (but I was still last against number one runners)

Later after a shower I joined speedygeoff's training group and our Vets' sub-committee for a lovely dinner at Della Rocca - a delightful little restaurant in Kaleen. I indulged in a few glasses of wine - the last for a while - and it was most pleasant!

Monday 6.15am - gym
I worked on the machines this morning - mainly upper body as I wanted to save my legs for training after work. I didn't feel as strong as usual and couldn't manage to increase my weights - probably a bit weak at the moment cos I'm not 100% healthy but I guess I will improve.

5.30pm - speedygeoff's training group
Welcome back to speedygeoff who has returned after a couple of weeks away from us. We ran our usual warm-up lap of Parliament House then into the rose gardens where we ran shorter loops than last week with short recoveries between each loop. We ran 8 loops then ran a warm down round PH and back to the start. It was a fairly short session which suited me just fine!

Distance: 8km
Calories burned: 590

Saturday 9 Dec - medium run with Graeme's group
I met the Molonglo group at 7am for our usual run and it was lovely to find all the longer distance runners (including CJ) starting with us too. I ran a little while to start with Ewen, then with CJ just chatting before they turned off to run steeper hills up Mt Ainslie as we continued round the base. I started off feeling a bit ordinary and being a little wary but I really felt comfortable today and almost wished I had continued to run with Ewen for his 24km. Next time he runs that distance I will endeavour to join him. Today I just ran the loop. I ran keeping Cathy and Maryanne in sight but couldn't catch them.

Distance: 16.40km
Time taken: 1hr 41mins
Average pace per km: 6:13
Calories burned: 1024
Fastest km: 5:34

Twenty Days to Christmas!!

Okay, I have been unwell. It's gone on for nearly two weeks now but as it is affecting my energy and running speed I have finally succumbed and visited the doctor. As a consequence I've been on fluids only and been off work for a couple of days. Hopefully I'll gain some energy when I can start eating again tomorrow. I am currently starving and have very little energy. However I will now recap my week to the best of my memory! I couldn't even manage yoga tonight which is a shame as I know it was a restorative session.

Monday 4 December (the last time I trained)
6.15am - Gym - Weights and Machines
Working on Back, shoulders, chest, biceps, triceps, abs and the leg press

5.30pm - Parliament House Group
As speedygeoff has another appointment Trevor took the session tonight. We ran our warm up loop of Parliament House then did the main session as follows:

Run fast for 350m (undulating)
Slow run for the same distance

The aim was to repeat the above ten times. However Maureen, Ewen and I managed eight times (ie 16 x 350m loops) which was quite enough.

Warm down loop back to start.

Total Distance: 11:41km
Calories burned: 680

I found the session long and hard and I even felt quite sick. This made me realise I am not performing as I should and ensured I made that doctor's appointment at last. I am not supposed to run for about a week but I'm hoping I'll be able to run the hills on Saturday once I start eating again.

Saturday 2 December - Hill Run - 7am
We start our run at 7am now that Summer is here, the idea being to finish before it becomes too hot. Today there were about 8 of us to start but most turned at the 6km mark. I ran on for another 1.5km with Debbie and there we decided to turn and run back the same way for a change. It was still an undulating course but I was happy to run parts of it downhill for a change. Debbie is another interesting lady who had back surgery a few years ago and was told she should never run again. She has returned to running and is as fast as ever. She has run marathons in just over 3 hours and is an amazing lady. Some runners do have such inspirational lives. I enjoyed the off-road run, the surface, the hills and the interesting company.

Total distance: 15km
Time taken: 1hour 32mins
Average pace per km: 6:09
Fastest km: 5:11
Calories burned: 942

Thursday 30 November - short run
As I was unable to run at the track tonight because of a work function (dammit) I decided to run in the morning instead. The intention was to run really early and a decent distance but unfortunately my stomach did not allow me out the door until just after 6am and as a consequence I only had time to run the Kaleen block.

Distance: 6km
Time taken: 34:53
Calories burned: 340
Average pace per km: 5:55