Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Bad Hair Day!

Last Wednesday (22 October) Ewen and I battled the elements to run from my office to the Lake and past Molonglo Reach and back. The headwind was in full force and required hat holding – forget the hair! It was indeed a powerful force but on the way out we felt reassured by the fact that on the return the wind would be behind us! Ha, ha, no such luck – we turned, so did the wind and all the way back we were fighting the wind again – not fair! I think Ewen jinxed us with his blog comment! We did however run 14km before I rushed home to prepare for a dinner date.
Total distance: 14km
Time taken: 1:30:52
Average pace per km: 6:27

I returned to the gym last Tuesday and have attended an upper body strength session and three RPM classes since then. Sunday was the Masters’ Handicap Run at O’Connor Ridge. Going out the night before for a farewell party was probably a mistake, at least the wine and food consumed was a mistake! I really struggled on the hills (lots of them). I could make several excuses – consuming too much Italian food, carrying extra weight (as a result of this), too many celebrations, a late night, lack of sleep. I could keep making excuses but the real reason is lack of training – let’s face it! I have some serious work to do!!
Total distance: 8km
Time taken: 52:52
Handicap: 22
Place: 82 (out of 100 finishers)

Monday – speedygeoff’s training at Parliament House
This is my first full week of gym (RPM classes, abs class and weights) and my legs felt like lead as I ran the warm-up loop of PH. The main session involved:

10 x 410m undulating loops from the rose gardens up the steps to the road including a 200m sprint on the flat sandy surface beside the road before jogging round the bends through the shady trees and back to the start in 30minutes. It was hard work but after about the 4th loop I felt much better and really pushed for the second half of the session. It felt good – I actually enjoyed it – woo hoo. I will improve!

Total distance: 8.5km

Today I went to the gym to work on my upper body strength session and abs. This is my last Tuesday without afternoon running. Next week will be the start of more serious training – the only possible way to improve. Perhaps soon I will return to swimming – perhaps - I know it’s good for me!

10 comments:

  1. I just wanted to see how bad my new profile photo looked on a comment and whether I'd have to replace it again! I think it will have been seriously truncated! Or maybe not!

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  2. No. it's OK after all. Mumble mumble...

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  3. that ewen, i tell you, he can't be trusted.
    when that upper-body strength is back to brute level, you can pick up ewen and fold him over your head like a little girly bonnet.

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  4. Great idea Katy! She can piggy-back me when I get tired.

    So are you impressed I didn't mention how wide your backside was in that photo on Geoff's blog?

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  5. Ewen, you are a champion - tell everyone reading my blog instead - at least there's far fewer fans here! And you just watch this backside shrink after all the long running I'm going do with you!

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  6. I am so green seeing the number of comments Ewen gets on his blog that I am thinking of starting a Facebook group called "Comment on Strewth's Blog instead". Will I ever experience what it is like being in the in crowd like Ewen? Strewth tries Ewen's trick of less regular psoting and still never ever accumulates as many as six comments (to pick a random number) on a post. Whereas Ewen accumulates oodles.

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  7. Not sure I like that idea Spody. I come to Strewth's blog for the peace and quiet.

    It's far from the maddening crowd - were all sized bottoms can hang out in perfect harmony.

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  8. Hey, this time I acquired SEVEN comments although 3 of them were speedy's!! Mine just aren't as interesting as Ewen's - I don't run 14 times a week!!

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  9. 1 November. Only 54 days to Christmas.

    My maths is im-goose-peckable.

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