Short and Long Runs - Humidity High!

Wednesday 16 February

7am - 15mins abs class followed by 40mins strength work at gym

10am - Jen and I took Teddy for a long walk over O'Connor and were caught in the pouring rain as we tried to find our way back down. It turned into a very long, very wet walk but lots of fun.

Total distance of walk (I don't count walking in my weekly distances): 12.5km

Because it was raining Teddy was very bouncy even at the end of the walk as he stayed hydrated having fun drinking out of the puddles.

5pm - The rain continued as I ran from the War Memorial and met up with Ewen after a few kms and we continued with our wet run before heading back to the WM to meet Emma and Chris at 5.45pm. We then ran another 13km together. At about the halfway point the rain eased off and the conditions were ideal.

Total distance: 20km

Average pace: 6:20

After the run Chris, Ewen and I headed off to Kingston where we met up with Jen for pizza and dessert!

Thursday - Track

The only event I entered tonight was the 5 lap spiral handicap. I arrived early however and ran outside the AIS on different tracks to increase my distance. Before the race I ran 9.1km and I ran a 1.3km warm down afterwards.

The exciting event of the night was when the W50 women (the two Kathys, Maria and Helen) set a new record for the 1500m race. They have been working hard training for this and beat the record by about 12secs - amazing!

My handicap in the spiral was Group 28 and I finished in 15th place out of 32.

Distance for spiral according to Gandalf: 2:05

Time taken: 10:13

Average pace per km: 4:58

Total distance for day: 12.5km

Saturday - long run

It was still dark when I left the house at 5.45am and I clipped a little headlight to my running drink bottle belt to help me feel safe and plugged in my music for company. Apart from the cycle track at the start I chose to run along the main roads which were better lit. I ran down to the ferry terminal, turned right and ran down and round the museum before heading back to meet Emma P at the ferry terminal at 7am. By this time I had run over 11km so that was a good start. We then headed off in the direction of the carillon but turned at the appropriate time to run back to the base of Anzac Pde to meet Ewen at 7.45am. We next ran back round the museum and headed for the University grounds, on to Belconnen Way, back past the ferry terminal and on to the turnoff for Anzac Parade. I had to run an extra couple of kms here to make up my distance before returning to the War Memorial. Conditions today were overcast and humid with a tiny drizzle of rain at one stage. However it is so much easier to run when the sun isn't streaming down and I enjoyed my long run today.

Total distance: 34km

Time taken: 3hrs 33mins

Average pace per km: 6:15

Calories burned: 1,981

Ewen gave me a ride to Stromlo in time to watch our speedycoach and many speedygeese compete in the age adjusted 7.5km handicap race. It was a very exciting event. The conditions were difficult with high humidity and some wind. That is a tough course at the best of times. Well done speedy friends. Photos will be posted soon. :)