Happy Half a Century to CJ!

Today is CJ's 50th birthday. She has been my inspiration since we started running together 15 years ago. She boggles my mind with her achievements and her dedication and is a wonderful friend.

I am writing this post in haste as tonight we celebrate CJ's birthday at her favourite restaurant and tomorrow morning we fly to NZ for a niece's wedding in Auckland and a ten day holiday driving down to Wellington to visit friends and relatives. I still have heaps to do before flying out in the morning. A good friend will be staying in our house and looking after Teddy.

This morning I rose at 4.30am to have a couple of pieces of toast before running out the door just afer 6am to fit in my long run before meeting CJ and Liz for coffee before Liz had to dash off for an International Women's Day lunch. They too were running 34km this morning. CJ and I stayed on to enjoy brunch. We were starving!

It was freezing cold at 6am and I regretted not wearing gloves as my hands positively ached for the first 5km. However, after that I thawed out and it really was a perfect morning for running. I ran from home along the cycle track in Lyneham to the ferry teminal and from there round the West Basin of the lake then a couple of extra kms before heading home. I ran home a slightly different way and consequently ended up with an extra km. I felt good and comfortable almost all the way. There were lots of people cycling to work and balloons floating over the still lake. It truly was a stunning morning to be out there running. I felt so lucky and happy to be fit, alive and running.

Total distance: 35km
Time taken: 3:42:16
Average pace per km: 6:21
Calories burned: 2049

Catch up on week's runs:
Tuesday - summer series at Weston Park

I ran a km before Ewen joined me for a further 4km warm up before the race. It was rough ground and parts of it were through long grass on a narrow trail so it was a case of watching ones footing. As a consequence I didn't manage to run it at the same pace as last week. However I still came in ahead of Ian and just two places behind Ewen.

Total distance: 5.08 (according to gandalf)

Time taken: 28:32

Average pace per km: 5:37
After the race Ewen, speedygeoff and I ran another 5km warm down.
Total distance for day: 15km

Wednesday 2 March

I went to the gym in the morning for my abs class and upper body strength work and in the evening met up with Emma P, Ewen, Andy, speedygeoff and Chris for a middle distance run. On the way we were joined by Tom, a NZer who saw us running and asked to join us as he was only here for a couple of days on business. It's always fun to run with someone. Chris and Emma were running well ahead and the others weren't far behind but speedygeoff and I stayed at the back running more gently after a couple of tough runs on the previous days. We all ran together for the last few kms when both Chris and Emma had to leave a bit early.

Total distance: 16km

Time taken: 1:45:53
Average pace per km: 6:36

Yes, it was very slow, in fact much slower than my long run today! I think my legs were tired and today they felt so much better.

Thursday

There was no track yesterday as the championships are on over the next couple of days. Instead I ran from home in the morning at a comfortable pace. I ran a 15mins warm up heading out towards Gungahlin then ran a tempo run for 15mins before heading for the hills where I ran 4 x 1min hills with a jog between. Then I ran gently home again.

Total distance: 12km

Time taken: 1:14:59

Average pace per km: 6:14

I have a feeling this marathon is going to be run at a very slow pace judging by my lack of speed!