When Courage Pays Dividends!

Tuesday

6.15am - Upper body strength/weights/abs

6.15pm - Cross Country Spring series at Black Mountain Peninsula

It was a very hot afternoon and the course was three repeats of cross country on rough grassy surface. I found it hot and not at all easy. The best part was catching up with lots of running buddies AND, wait for it, racing Aki to the finish line. She was obviously unwell and I found out later was suffering from intense pain from wisdom teeth. This is the only time I will ever catch her so that little last minute burst of energy probably did me good! Aki was pleased she ventured out bravely through her pain as she won the Running Shop barrel draw which was fantastic! Congratulations on your courage my friend!

Total distance: 5km
Time taken: 28:29
Average pace per km: 5:43
Calories burned: 293

Wednesday
6.15am - RPM class 45mins/Abs class 15mins
5.15pm - Run

I found a substitute for Ewen today and persuaded a work colleague to roller blade for the first time in months while I ran to Molonglo. It was another very hot afternoon and I really did struggle with the heat. My friend only made it as far as the carillon where he had to rest a while and I ran on to Molonglo where I found lots of water to throw over me and drank heaps before returning to meet him near the Boathouse. He rollerbladed alongside me back to the overbridge and I ran back to the office. I found it very hot and tiring and was surprised that in fact it was faster than last week. The temperature was still 26deg when we were running.

Total distance: 13.31km
Time taken: 1:21:04
Average pace per km: 6:05
Calories burned: 777

Thursday

The temperature reached 30degrees today. We are experiencing sudden hot weather which is due to become much cooler by the time the weekend arrives - hmmmm! I didn't venture to track this afternoon as I felt sore and definitely not up to racing. I have also felt decidedly ho hum all day. It was probably a good decision as I did go for a run with Mr B after work and it was very slow and painful. We ran from home and down towards Gungahlin turning at the 4km mark and returning home as I knew I couldn't run any further. I kept Mr B in sight but I shouldn't say I was actually running with him.

Distance: 8km
Time taken: 49:49
Average pace per km: 6:13
Calories burned: 470

A Gaggle of Geese and Goslings

Firstly I must amend my Wednesday's blog entry which stated that Ewen and I spotted goslings on our run. I have speedygeese and goslings on my brain. And our speedycoach is correct in assuming I meant cygnets in fact! No doubt they will be full-grown swans by the time we run past there again as this week Ewen is easing off for the 10,000m on the track on Thursday, next Wed I have a work function and the following Wed I will be in NZ. Rats - it's getting to be THAT time of year again!

Today
6.15am - RPM
5.30pm - Run with speedygeese at Parliament House
We ran a similar session to last week on a much hotter day. After our warm-up loop of PH we headed for the rose garden and our main session was as follows:

3 sets of 5 x 410m loops with 200m sprints on the flat sandy strip by the road.
Each set of 5 was off 3 minutes so we had a little rest before the next set of 5.

We finished with a warm-down loop of PH.
Total distance: 10.1km
Calories burned: 570

Weekends Go Too Fast!

Golly gosh tomorrow it's Monday again already. Where do the weekends go? This was a good weekend, very relaxing and very productive. We met up with friends for dinner on Friday night, I baked my Christmas cake (woo hoo), bought my Christmas cards and even got on my bike and more to the point, rode it!! We also visited Kingston Markets and bought our Christmas pudding! And yesterday, we saw a fantastic movie which I highly recommend - "Burn after Reading" - really funny!

Back to Thursday's track at the AIS - a bit of a disastrous result in the 3000m but before that I ran in the 6 lap spiral and thoroughly enjoyed it, then entered the 1500m walk with Miranda and Marg and it was loads of fun. In fact in the last 100m I wiggled my butt and picked up the speed to pass Miranda and Peter who had been in front of me all the way - loved the feeling!

However, the 3000m run was dreadful. I felt sluggish and it showed. No matter what, I couldn't get any more speed out of my legs and the end result was even slower than last week which I didn't think was possible! Oh dear me, I just have to improve!!

Fridays are currently my rest day. I go to the gym before work but there I do a Body Balance class which is very good for me as there's loads of stretching involved. It's a mix of yoga, tai chi, balance, pilates, abs and stretching. After the class we have about 5mins total relaxation and it's just lovely and a great way to start a Friday.

Saturday - Run

I ran down to Lake G and met Marg there and together we ran for another 30mins before turning and returning to Black Pepper for coffee. The first 3km from home were really slow and everything hurt but then I slowly found my rhythm and it was certainly easier once I met up with Marg at about the 5km point - company is always good!

Total distance: 15km

Sunday - Cycle

Today after the cake was in the oven Mr B and I went for a bike ride (woo hoo, I really did) down to Lake Burley Griffin and round the bridge to bridge ride and home. We spotted Roger walking with a lady friend a couple of times. It was a great day for being out and about.

Total distance: 24km Cycle - yay!

Running with Tired Legs!

Now these tired legs could be caused by a few hard runs this week or a hard workout at RPM or just plain late nights but they were certainly objecting this afternoon when Ewen and I ran our usual route to Molonglo Reach bridge and back. Naturally there was a head-wind on the way back but it was quite hot on the way out, far hotter than it had been earlier in the day when it was positively winter-like! I had to stop twice for water which makes me realise that it's time I took a drink bottle on these runs. We saw some new baby goslings and last week's babies had grown bigger! They were all eager to come to the water's edge and follow us in the hope of some crumbs. They are so cute.

Total distance: 14:08
Time taken: 1:27:48
Average pace per km: 6:14
Calories burned: 822

I was surprised that this was less than a minute slower than last week as it felt like hard work tonight but at least we ran all the way and Ewen did most of the talking!

Spring Lambs on the Loose!

I selected quite the wrong horses today for the Melbourne Cup (so did Ewen in his sweep selections) but the sun shone and it was great to have a holiday. We had a very pleasant lunch at Federation Square and spent some time with our family. Later Mr B and I drove to Weston Park to enter the first of the Cross Country Club Spring Series runs. It had clouded over and the conditions were ideal. My legs however decided to go on strike so my time was pretty slow!

Distance: 5km plus 2.3km warm-down = 7.3km
Time taken: 27:34
Average pace per km: 5:40
Calories burned: 285

Hopefully next week my time will improve although the course is at Black Mountain Peninsula which is hillier so it probably won't! After the barrel draws were over I ran a short warm down with speedygeoff and aki. We ran up hill and down dale and up and over little bridges and had fun being children or was that Spring Lambs? We spotted kangaroos including one little joey - very spring-like and fun!

Round and Round and Round We Go!

RPM this morning was hard work - it always is, of course, but this morning was extra hard. Maybe it was because a large number of people had taken today as an extra holiday and it felt like we should stay home in bed too! Tomorrow is a public holiday in Canberra to celebrate Melbourne Cup Day but it is officially called Family and Community Day because not all states in Australia have the benefit of having this day declared a holiday. It's an experiment for 3 years in the ACT and this is our 2nd year. In some ways it's a bit of a shame because we miss out on the office sweeps and lunches which always used to last all afternoon anyway! It does however mean we have a lovely sleep-in tomorrow - no complaints about that!

This evening speedygeoff's training was long and hard. We ran our usual warm-up loop of Parliament House then headed for the rose garden to do similar training to last week. However, tonight we ran as many undulating 410m loops as possible in 45mins speeding up for the flat 200m at the top of the steps. It was a tough session. I did have to stop for one call of nature but I managed 16 laps which wasn't too bad. Some fast runners ran 20 and some people only ran every second loop in order to have a short break between each repeat which meant they ran up to 10laps. We then jogged another loop of PH and back to the start to warm down.

Total distance: 10.4km
Calories burned: 620

Running for Fun and a Good Cause!

Ben Donohue was a 9year old boy who died in 2005 from a brain tumour. His mother works at Hawker College and since he died the school have annually organised a Fun Run to raise money for brain tumour research, the ACT Eden Monaro Cancer Support Group and Make-A-Wish Australia. This is the fourth year of the event which is a 6km fun run and walk round most of Lake Ginninderra. Today the conditions were ideal with cloud cover to start and a very mild temperature in the early 20s. Rachelle and I decided to put in a late entry and arrived in plenty of time to find quite a number of familiar faces. It was a pleasant run with a very large crowd of entrants of all ages and levels of fitness from the very serious runners setting PBs to those who participated for the fun. Every entrant helped raise money for a very worthy cause. We had fun and later enjoyed a lovely lunch by the lake, yummy food, good coffee but slow service. However there was plenty of good conversation- it was very pleasant indeed!

Total distance: 6km
Time taken: 33:20
Average pace per km: 5:32
Calories burned: 353

Too Much Halloween!

After a Halloween party last night and a bit of a sleep-in this morning I could only fit in a short run before an appointment late morning. However, my legs were leaden and I ran very slowly and I doubt if I could have managed to continue on with a longer run this morning anyway. I just ran from home past the lake with my music encouraging me to keep plodding along - ouch!

Total distance: 10km
Time taken: 1:02:46
Average pace per km: 6:16
Calories burned: 595
Hmmm, too much partying methinks!!