Catch up time!

Oh dear, this has been another fly-by week without any posts since Sunday so here goes with the catch-up!

Monday - run training with speedygeese at Weston Park

4.30pm - early warm-up of 5.33km with Jen, Ewen, Andy and speedycoach - a run around the jogalong course - some shady bits which was important in the intense heat!

5.30pm - main session with 18 speedygeese attendees

It was fun and a pleasant change training at Weston Park tonight. There was a big concert in the grounds of Parliament House celebrating Australia Day which made parking there at a premium.

It was a very hot evening and after a warm-up again on the jogalong course we headed for a hill which was not as steep as last week's hill but still a challenge in the heat.

We ran 20 x 80m hill repeats in 30minutes before our cool down.

Total distance including early warm-up: 13km

Calories burned: 745

Tuesday - Run

Today was a holiday being Australia Day and I had a sleep in! It was another scorcher and I left my run until 7.20pm when the intense heat had lessened. I ran from home towards Gungahlin along the cycle track and back again listening to my music.

Total distance: 8km

Time taken: 48mins

Average pace per km: 6mins

Calories burned: 470

Wednesday

6.15am - RPM/spin class at gym

7am - Abs class

6pm - Run with Jen, Andy and started with Ewen and Chris

On another hot night we ran from Parliament House to the lake and as we were running over the bridge somehow Jen, Andy and I were separated from Ewen and Chris. We did pass them going in the opposite direction as we neared the wetlands but that was the last time we saw each other. There was a bit of confusion about directions but at least we all had a good run!

Total distance: 12.3km

Calories: 722

Thursday

6.15am - Strength training at the gym

5.30pm - Track

Tonight at the AIS it was "come and try it" night which attracted quite a few extra people. In fact 89 people took part in various distances tonight. I didn't feel 100% but I did want to enter a few events. I ran in the 1500m at 6pm and it was dreadfully hot and dry at that time. At the end of the run I had a coughing fit just like after the 800m.

Distance: 1500m

Time taken: 7:21:21

I was still struggling with the cough and sucking on peppermints when I started the next event of the 2000m walk. I enjoy the fitness walking. This time it was a Turkey race and we had to guess the time we thought we would do. We were not allowed to wear watches and they covered the clocks. Margaret won the event as she estimated her time within 3secs - pretty good estimate!

On the other hand I was miles out with my estimate.

Distance for walk: 2000m

Time taken: 14:11

Estimate: 15:50

The last event I competed in at track was the 3000m handicap race. This was handicapped according to age.

Distance: 3000m

Time taken: 15:16

Average pace per km: 5:05 (almost there!)

Margaret and I ran a few laps to warm up at the start and ran out of the AIS for a short cool down after our 3000m.

Total distance for evening: 8.07km

Friday - Rest Day

6.15am - Gym - Body balance class (including stretching and abs)

Saturday - long run

This morning I met up with the Molonglo group at 7am and ran with Chris, Ewen and Andy along the Campbell Park course which we will be running in tomorrow's handicap run. We ran round the undulating base of Mt Ainslie in an anti-clockwise direction and turned off towards the War Memorial where we ran down to the lake over Commonwealth Bridge and along to and through the wetlands and back to Molonglo Reach where we met up with the rest of the group for a short catch up before Ewen, Andy and I headed for the Portrait Gallery for coffee and cake - defnitely a good way to finish a good morning's run.

Total distance: 23km

Time taken: 2hrs 32mins

Average pace per km: 6:36

Calories burned: 1350

The temperature was pleasantly cool to start this morning and it just started to warm up as we neared the finish - perfect timing!