Ending the week well

Thursday - A big night at Track

On Thursday at track I decided to enter a few events. First I ran the 3000m at 6pm. It was hot and dry and I only managed a very short warm-up first.

Distance: 3000m
Time taken: 15:27:20
Average pace: 5:12

Next I entered the 2000m walk - an event I really enjoy and it's a great way of warming up for the next event.

Distance: 2000m fitness walk
Time taken: 13:44:42

And for some strange reason I felt the urge to enter the Higgins Handicap 800m event which attracted a huge field.

Distance: 800m

Time taken: 3:44

800m is not a distance which I find easy. I did my best and picked up in the last 200m but I am still very slow. After the run I coughed and coughed and coughed. I know a lot of people suffer from the 800m cough but this was ridiculous as I wasn't even fast. I sucked on a mint, drank water but the dry air didn't help. My throat was still dry and tickly when I lined up at the start of the Parlouf Relays, a new event for me.

We were divided into mixed ability groups of five and each team member had to run 400m, 300m, 200m and 100m making a total of 5000m It was lots of fun. Our team did end up coming last but it was a really good fun event and nobody minded about the end result!

Distance: 1km

Total distance for night including warm-up: 8km

Saturday Run

The majority of the Molonglo group started their run at 7am but Ewen, Andy and I started at 7.30am giving us an extra half hour to rest! Ewen led us over 13 bridges, the extra 2 bridges being in Telopea Park where we ran through the "finish" of the Canberra Marathon which sadly probably won't even happen next year due to dispute about ownership.

We ran and talked and didn't worry about the pace.

Total distance: 20km
Time taken: 2:16:49
Average pace per km: 6:50
Calories burned: 1174

Later we joined the rest of the group for a picnic morning tea by the lake enjoying Carol's yummy Christmas cake.

Sunday - Drills

On Sat night I went with a friend to see Glen Campbell in concert. It was fantastic and scarily enough I knew nearly all the songs! On Sunday as I had a load of things to do in the morning we decided to do our drills session in the late afternoon. I met up with Jen, Janene and Ewen at Parliament House and off we ran for our warm-up run and drills session on the flat grass by the road near the portrait gallery. Lots of cars drove past but we just kept going probably providing plenty of entertainment!

Unfortunately I had to run off soon after the session started, back to PH carpark where the nearest toilets were situated and ended up missing part of the session but was still able to complete some strides, schoolyard skipping, tricky high knees, butt kicks and carioca - I think I might be improving just a little. Janene was a star at carioca. After a few wines I think we might be quite an act, just need to call LL to join us! We also ran a little session of forwards/backwards with Ewen clapping behind us to indicate a change of direction. It was all quite fun. Then off we ran to a steep hill on the west side PH where we ran 6 x 10 sec 'Brad Hudson' hill sprints with a full recovery between each sprint. After that we ran gently back to the start. It was a fun session and great company.

Total distance: 8km

Total distance for week: 77km