Veterans Monthly Handicap at North Curtin

The monthly handicap was held yesterday on a pleasant Sunday morning at 8.30am. It was a similar course to the YCRC summer series run a couple of weeks ago with an uphill start of about 2.5km before we ran on cycle tracks mainly on the flat. I found there was a bit too much concrete for my liking and I actually preferred the other course but I always enjoy the handicap runs because it is a great opportunity to catch up with everyone.

I didn't get off to a very good start as we cut the timing a bit fine and I had very little time for a warm up before the race. I felt ok in spite of the lack of warm up and managed to come in ahead of Caroline and Ewen - woo hoo!

Handicap: 25

Total distance: 6.2km

Time taken: 34:43

Average pace per km: 5:36

Finish place: 69th (out of 104)

Calories burned: 366

After the run some of us headed for Manuka where we finally found a table big enough for 12 of us to have coffee and in same cases brunch together. It was great company but a very long wait for service!

Total distance for easy week: 72.5km

Monday - Start of a New Week - Six Weeks to Marathon!

Focus for next three weeks - Anaerobic Threshold and Race Preparation

This morning I tried a new class at the gym which included drills - high knees, butt kicks, lunges etc and a few jogs back and forth across the gym floor. This was followed by a boxing session. I have never done a boxing class before and it was great fun, a really good upper body workout. We worked in pairs learning about sparring, undercuts etc and later in the session had to do push ups and lunges inbetween bouts. It was tough, challenging but a really good workout.

At 5.15pm I arrived at Parliament House for the speedygeese session. I just had time for an extra lap round PH before the start of the session at 5.30pm. We ran our usual warm up loop before heading for the oval where we were divided into teams of three with a fast, medium fast and slower runner in each team. We then ran 360m undulating loops with the fastest runner leaving first while the slowest runner did a gentle loop on the same course. The first runner tagged the second runner who on their return tagged the third runner who than ran the course fast. We ran solidly for 30minutes - another good workout. We finished with a warm up loop of PH running in and out of the trails.

Total distance including warm up: 10.5km

A Good Day to be Alive and Running!

Today, Saturday, it was a pleasant surprise when Maryann and Chris joined Emma, Ewen, Andy and me for about 4km for the start of our run from the War Memorial down to the ferry terminal. It was a stunning morning. There were hot air balloons floating above us and indeed one of them had landed very near us and they were gradually pulling it up in the air again. It was huge close up! It was the kind of day when it is frustrating not carrying a camera! The temperature wasn't too hot and the sun was out in a blue sky - a gorgeous Autumn day in the nation's capital.

We joined speeygeoff and his metro runners at the ferry terminal and proceeded to run round the West Basin of Lake Burley Griffin before returning to the ferry terminal. Ewen and I were a bit behind the others although Emma ran with Chelsea (a new starter) and after starting out fast Chelsea found that she had to walk some of the way as she had not been training for long distances. They did set a cracking pace when they were running though. Ewen stopped to walk after exactly 20km and Andy and speedygeoff ran with me for another km before Geoff turned back. Andy and I walked the last little bit back up to the War Memorial where Ewen joined us soon afterwards.

Total distance: 21.3km

Time taken: 2hr 19mins

Average pace per km: 6:30

We walked from the War Memorial carpark to Gorman House Markets to meet up with Liz and try somewhere different for coffee. The actual restaurant wasn't open so we had coffee out of paper cups and the cake was nothing to write home about! However, it was very pleasant sitting outside with good friends amongst the pretty shady trees watching the sights of the second hand market place - fun!

Wednesday 23 Feb

Gym and abs class in the morning and a run with Ewen, Emma and Andy just before 6pm. We ran from Parliament House to the ferry terminal and on round the museum and through the university grounds. I felt sluggish and the run was difficult for me. I think after a couple of hard running sessions on Monday and Tuesday my body was suffering a bit.

Distance: 12km

Thursday 24 Feb

I decided against going to track tonight as my legs were still slow and my body tired. It is supposed to be my easy week after all. Instead I ran from home in the early evening incorporating a Fartlek session of 2 x 60secs fast/60secs float followed by 2 x 30secs fast/30secs float repeated.

Total distance: 13km

Canberra Marathon Number Ten - Entered!

Today I officially entered the marathon and with seven weeks to go, there's not much time left! This morning I went to the pool and swam 1200m. My legs were a bit sore after last night's session and I thought this might help loosen them up. I followed this with a long walk/run with Teddy.

This evening I headed for Barrenjoey Drive for the next race in the summer series. I met Ewen for an early warm up run of 3.2km. The sun felt quite hot. The race started at 6.15pm and was a 3 loop course on a rough dirt track, partly in the shade and partly exposed. It was undulating and required leaping over tree routes and stones but it was fun and I enjoyed it as there was variety. During the warm up I felt sore and slow but during the race I felt strong and happy. To me this just proves how important it is to have a warm up before races!

After the race Ewen and I ran a cool down of 2.8km on the road.

Distance of race: 5km

Time taken: 27:29

Average pace per km: 5:23

Finishing place: 73rd (about 96 finishers to be confirmed)

Total distance with warm up and cool down: 11km

Speedygeese on Fire!

....Not literally of course but the first day of my "easy" week turned out to be a tough session! I only ran the 5.30pm session as my training schedule is for less kms this week. We started with a couple of warm-up loops before heading for the grassy bank at the front of PH, for a similar session to last week. We were divided into teams of three but this time we had a fast, medium fast and slow person in each team to try to equalise the abilities of each team, a bit like the sprint marathon relay teams. I was in a team with Craig and Abi but half way through the 30minutes main speed session, speedygeoff took over from Abi who was very sore.

We each in turn had to run down the diagonals on the grass and up the long straight hills to the poles to tag the next team member. It was tough and during the short break as we were waiting to be tagged we jogged across the short straight at the top. The downhills were great and fast but the steep uphills were tough. It was an excellent workout however.

We finished with a long warm-down loop in and out of the trails of PH.

Total distance: 8.5km

Good times, good friends, great weekend!

Here are a few photos taken on my iphone at Stromlo on Saturday at the age handicap 7.5km race.

• speedycoach - an inspiration to all of us
• Rad - oldest finisher at 82 years young
• Maria, Michelle and Liz after a brilliant race
  
  

Yesterday, Sunday, I walked and ran with Teddy later in the day after a busy weekend. My beautiful grandchildren stayed over and my eldest daughter came from Sydney for the night too. In the morning I had fun at Jen's baby shower at breakfast in Pialligo and met up with Mr B and the children at the park afterwards.

At 4.20pm Teddy and I ran for 3.5km and had fun seeking out undiscovered tracks and running in and out of the drains (Teddy that is, not me - I just leapt over them). We walked another couple of kms home before I left for my 5km run plus 6 x 100m strides before hurrying home to shower and meet friends at a local restaurant for dinner. It was a lovely weekend - friends, family, good food and plenty of exercise!

Distance of run with Teddy: 3.5km

Distance of run on own: 6.4km (incl strides)

Average pace per km of 5km run: 5:53 (29mins)

Total distance for week: 103.4km (yay!)

I am now up to an easy week and have less kms to run before picking up again next week.

This morning, Monday, I spent a couple of hours at the gym doing some strength work on my upper body, abs and legs. I also enjoyed a pleasant breakfast. A new week has begun! Seven weeks to the marathon - not that I'm counting!!

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. :)

Summer Series Race at North Curtin

Early this morning I went to the pool and swum for 1200m. It was great cross training for the sore legs. Later Teddy and I walked for an hour to loosen up the legs a bit more before heading out to North Curtin for the YCRC Summer Series 5km race. I arrived in plenty of time for a 4km warm up but I did make the mistake of following the cones up, up the hill for a couple of km - not an easy warm up. However, the weather was perfect - cloud cover and slightly cool to start.

I saw Kym, Caroline and Susan at the race and ran ahead of Caroline and Susan for the first half but Susan caught me at the top of the long, long hill and stayed ahead on the downhill coming in two places in front of me at the end. However, I did pass Ian on the downhill and came in just ahead of him - speedygeoff would be happy with me!

The first half of the run was a steady uphill climb for 2.5km mainly on a cycle track but the second half was nearly all downhill on a rough dirt track which was great except I had to watch my footing which slowed me down a little. It started and ended on the freshly mowed oval. I ran one second slower than last week's race which pleased me as it was a lot tougher. After the race Susan and I ran a 3km cool down.

Distance of race: 5km

Time taken: 26:19

Average pace per km: 5:15

Place: 61st (78 finishers)

Total distance including warm up and cool down: 12km

Training on Valentine's Day

6.15am - Cross training class at gym. This is a new class for me and included some boxing, running, drills and today an assessment of our fitness. I was by far the oldest in the class and am proud to say that after 5 minutes doing the plank (core strength) the trainer told me to stop as the next best was 3 minutes and in the wall squats (leg strength) I held mine for 3mins - a minute ahead of the others. I managed 48 push ups on my toes in 1 minute, however my flexibility (eg sit and reach and abs sit ups) is terrible! My bodyfat was 18.9% (again the lowest in the all-female class) so I was happy with that. It was quite interesting and an assessment like this is given every few months.

After the hour's class I spent 30mins doing some more upper body strength work and stretches.

4.35pm - I was a little late for the early warm-up but met Kat and Ewen in the Parliament House carpark and we ran together down to the lake where, after 3km, we met up with Geoff and Craig on their return and we turned around and returned to PH with them.

5.30pm - We met up with the other speedygeese back at the carpark and after our warm up loops we ran to the grassy bank in the front of PH and divided into teams of three to run up and down the diagonals and straights like a relay team. We basically had to run hard for 30mins with a short break while waiting for our next team member. I was in a team with Caroline and Mike. It was hard work and my legs felt a bit tight after all the running over the past few days but I completed the session and after this we had a long warm down running down to the lake to touch the water and run back again. Andy and I ran 200m more just to round up my distance!

Total distance: 15km

Calories burned: 894

Weeks to go to Marathon = 8

Sprint Marathon Relay at Yarralumla

The conditions today were perfect for Jimmy's annual sprint marathon relay from the grounds of Government House. Each team had six runners who were theoretically seeded to try to ensure that each team was equal in ability. I was number 5 runner in my team and speedygeoff was number 3. The fastest team member runs as number 1 and passes the baton to number 2 etc. Our team members were Peter, Nick, Chris, Geoff, Nadine and me.

Each person runs approximately 7km. My first leg was 2km, then I had 3 x1km legs and finished with a 2km leg when all the team members need to finish together holding hands.

There was cloud cover but no rain and it was lots of fun. I struggled out of bed very early again not fully recovered from yesterday. My warm-up was a tad difficult and my legs felt sluggish and sore. However, once the relay started it was just a case of running my fastest and having fun. There's always a lot of waiting inbetween runs but that's a great opportunity to get to know the other team members and it's very social and pleasant.

Our team finished 5th out of 7 teams but we all ran our hearts out. It was certainly good training! My average pace ranged from 4:51 per km to 5:14 per km. My fastest leg was the second one.

Total distance for day including warm-up and warm-down: 9.5km

Our total team time for sprint marathon: 2:35:37

Total team time of winning team: 2:29:04

Total distance for week: 97.5km

Later Ewen, Andy, Nadine, Brett, Michelle, Kym, Cathy, Graeme and I enjoyed coffee and date scones at Yarralumla Nursery. Later still Mr B and I headed off to the Multicultural Festival in the city but I was a walking zombie by then!

I just threw a ball and made Teddy chase it heaps for his exercise today. It will need to be a long walk with him tomorrow after my early morning gym session! He's just happy to have company.

Photos:

• Our team just coming in to finish -where's Nadine?
• Our team members after the finish -Nadine, strewth, Nick, Peter, Chris, Geoff
• A few of us gathering at the start
  

The best of both worlds!

Happy birthday today to Liz. Have a wonderful day amazing friend!

I enjoyed the best of both worlds today as I ran some of my run on my own and the majority with company. I left home at 6.30am and ran with my ipod in my ear listening to lovely music and enjoying the solitude as I took in a few interesting sights such as a youngish man wending a very crooked path in his dress pants, black shoes and no shirt - late night maybe, kicked out by girlfriend, threw up on shirt? All sorts of scenarios were going through my head especially as he couldn't walk in a straight line!

I ran along the cycle track through Lyneham and O'Connor, past the ANU and on to the Marcus Clark Street end of the city and over the bridge to the ferry terminal. This was just under 8km so I extended my 'pre' main run by running past the museum, where I spotted a very friendly bunny and many timid ones, and along that track for just over 2km before turning back to meet Andy, Ewen, speedygeoff and the Metro runners at the ferry terminal. I ran with them for their 10km Sri Chinmoy course before Emma, Zainab, Geoff, Ewen, Andy and I ran back through the ANU grounds and returned to the ferry terminal across Commonwealth Park to make their distance 20km.

Surprisingly I felt fine throughout the run. The temp was pleasant in the low 20s and there was cloud cover for the majority of the way with threatening rain clouds, although the humidity was so high that Ewen could wring out his t-shirt afterwards - eeew!

After the run we walked over the bridge for coffee at Urban Foods. The coffee was lovely but only luke warm and much more exe than the War Memorial cafe. It was also crowded and noisy with loud music - not as conducive to good conversation. CJ joined us there after her long run and Mr B came in later to drive me home.

Total distance: 32km

Time taken: 3:27

Average pace per km: 6:28

Calories burned: 1,860

Going for Gold!

Last night was the 10,000m ACT VETS track championship event. I decided I would have to run 12km for my training and the 10,000m would certainly help me achieve that. Thus it was, even after that hilly run last night, I decided to enter the championships at the AIS track. It was the last event of the evening and Margaret lap scored for Caroline and me. The majority of the field was men but there were six women entrants, each in a different age group. Ewen, Andy and speedygeoff also entered, Andy already having run a PB in the 1500m.

25 laps of a 400m track seems a long way to run in circles but it wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be. I managed to squeeze in a 2.3km warm-up before the event and watch a few friends achieve great results in earlier events before lining up at the start line.

I stuck close to Caroline for most of the way but she pulled ahead of me later in the run. Although I shortened the gap quite a bit she managed to finish 10 secs ahead of me but I felt good and was happy with my result which turned out to be a PB for 10,000m on the track - woo hoo!

Distance of race: 10,000m

Time taken: 52:25

Average pace per km: 5:15

Calories burned: 575

Total distance for night: 12.3km
It also meant I had a chance to stand on the stadium and be presented with a gold medal as did my wonderful running friends shown in the photo!

Photo taken by Ewen on my iphone - from left:
Caroline W65 - 52:15; Annie W75 - 67:58; CJ W45 - 49:01; strewth W60 - 52:25

First Summer Series event with our new club!

YCRC Summer Series

Last night was the first event of the summer series this year run by our new YMCA Canberra Running Club. It was held at the Boathouse and the temperature was pleasantly mild. There wasn't a huge turnout with only 79 finishers in the 5km course. I ran a warm-up of 3km with Ewen and speedygeoff and after the race finished we ran a warm down of another couple of kms. Speedygeoff ran with me for the first 4km of the race which kept me honest. It was great. In the last km he took off and finished one minute ahead of me. However, I was happy with my time and my splits indicate that I got faster with each km. I wish that could happen in the marathon!

Distance of race: 5km

Time taken: 26:18

Average pace per km: 5:15

Finish place: 56th (out of 79)

Splits: 5:19; 5:23; 5:16; 5:08; 5:06

Oh, and the best thing was I came in ahead of Caroline and Ewen:)

Total distance for day: 10km

Wednesday

7am - Gym - 15mins abs class followed by an hour's upper body strength work.

5.10pm - I ran from Parliament House down to the lake for 2.5km before turning back to run to meet the others at the carpark. Andy, Emma P, Ewen and I then followed Chris on an interesting hilly but pretty run to Red Hill, past the Embassies, Yarralumla along dirt trails through the Westbourne Woods and back to Parliament House on an undulating route.

Total distance with my warm-up: 17.53km

Calories burned: 1005

I'm not sure how my recovery will be for the 10km track event tomorrow evening! I will treat it as another training run.

Only Nine Weeks to Go!

Sunday 6 February - Waitangi Day in New Zealand

I met up with Ewen at The Deck in Commonwealth Park just after 4.30pm for a lovely run in cooler, slightly windy weather. We ran to the Australian National University (ANU) and along the dirt paths which were in a really pretty setting among bushland. The wind was a bit strong at times but the time went fast as I was entertained the whole way by Ewen telling me in amazing detail about the movie he had watched that weekend. It was better than a storyteller on my ipod! Thanks Ewen.

After we had finished 8km I ran 6 x downhill strides while Ewen rested on a nearby park bench!
Distance of training run: 8km
Time taken: 51mins
Average pace per km: 6:20
Calories burned: 469
Total distance including strides: 9.15km
Total distance for week: 92km plus daily Teddy walks!

Monday -9 weeks until marathon

In the morning I spent over an hour at the gym working on upper body strength, abs, stretches etc with a warm up on the cross trainer and finishing with 1000m on the rower.

4.30pm Run - I was two minutes late for the early warm up but fortunately Ewen and speedygeoff saw me coming and waited for me. Amazingly enough I managed the whole early session and enjoyed it because the temperature had dropped by about 10deg. It was wonderful. It makes such a difference to how I feel when it is cooler.

We met up with the others back at Parliament House at 5.30pm for our main session. We ran our warm up before heading for the rose garden. There was lots of work going on with barriers and ropes everywhere and we had three attempts at navigating a course before finding a suitable unblocked way to run. We were divided into five teams of three and speedycoach just ran the loops. Chris turned up when we had 8 minutes of the 24min main session left as he had been held up at work. We ran a short relay loop with the first person running fast, one jogging the loop while the other team member waited to be tagged on the first person's return. The loop included a number of steep steps which ran into a short steep incline and then a run through the sprinklers back to the start. Half way through the session the sprinklers changed direction to run on the grassy slope as we ran downhill instead. It was fun and refreshing. Although the temperature was much cooler than it has been lately the sun still felt hot and the sprinklers kept us cooled down. We were all very wet by the end of our 24mins! To finish up we ran in and out of the trails and back to the start at PH. Ewen, speedygeoff, Chris and I ran a little further to round up our distances.

Total distance for night: 16km

As soon as I arrived home I had a shower and took Teddy out for his walk before dinner and by the time I arrived home I was absolutely starving! Thank goodness I had already prepared mushroom and basil risotto before training and only had to heat it up!

This morning Jen rode her bike beside me as I ran down to the lake from the War Memorial heading for the ferry terminal to meet up with the Metro Runners. Andy met us there and we met up with Ewen a little later. Jen rode with us all the way as we ran, in very humid sticky conditions, towards Molonglo Reach for 5km before turning and running back to the ferry terminal where the majority of Metro Runners left us as they had run their 10km. The lovely Emma P joined us as we ran to and round the museum and on for another 4km before turning again and heading back to the War Memorial, leaving Emma and Andy there to join us later for coffee.

The Metro Runners are a delightful group of young university students who run with speedygeoff on Saturday mornings, gradually increasing their distance each week. We stopped at the carillon for some water and this is where a few of us took advantage of the photo opportunity on our iphones!

At just under the 9km mark my garmin decided to give up on me telling me my database was full and I had to delete some runs. Instead of stopping to do that I relied on Geoff's garmin to let me know the distance. He ran the rest of the way with me and my total distance was 28km as planned. However, I do not have the pace (which was slow) or the calories burned. Never mind, the distance is what really matters for those long runs.

Total distance: 28km
After the run Jen, CJ, Andy, Emma, Ewen and I enjoyed a lovely coffee break and some cold drinks while speedygeoff ran back to the ferry terminal. Phew, it was so hot. I really need to start much earlier to try to avoid some of that humidity.

Running between claps of thunder!

Wednesday

6am - I ran a very short run from home just to ensure I ran the appropriate distance for the day before heading off to the gym.

Total distance 4.3km

7am - 15mins abs class followed by a warm-up on the cross trainer before I spent 40mins doing strength work.

During the afternoon inbetween showers I took Teddy for a lovely long walk.

6.30pm - Expecting very hot weather we began our run from Parliament House a little later than usual. As it turned out a storm came through just before I left from home and immediately after our run the thunder roared and the rain just teemed down. In fact I had to pull the car over on the drive home and stop for the rain to subside just a little as I couldn't see in front of me.

I ran with Chris, Andy and Ewen initially. However, Chris had to turn back fairly early on as he had a prior engagement.

Total distance: 12km

Time taken: 1:20

Average pace per km: 6:40

Calories burned: 704

Total distance for day: 16.3km

Thursday

Thinking that I was on roster duty at the track in the evening I decided to go for a run early in the morning before meeting a friend for breakfast. It rained for the entire run but I enjoyed feeling the cooling rain on my skin. I was absolutely saturated and there was not a soul about being as crazy as me but it was great not being far too hot for a change. I did have to run a bit carefully though as there were lots of muddy slushy puddles to negotiate. I could have competed in a wet t-shirt or mud wrestling competition by the time I finished! My session was as follows:

2 x 60sec/60 float

4 x 30sec/30 float

2 x 60sec/60 float

4 x 30sec/30 float

2 x 60sec/60 float

Total distance: 10.22km

Time taken: 1:04:41

Average pace per km: 6:19

Calories burned: 596

During the afternoon I had a call from Gwen offering to go on roster at track in my place in the evening to allow me to take part in the postal walking relay. Hmmm, I hadn't counted on that happening and as I was there and able to run after all, at the last minute I decided to enter the 3000m event at 8pm too. It was probably a huge mistake as I was already tired but it did seem a bit of a waste not to make the most of the opportunity.

I went in the 4 x 800m walk relay and was the youngest member of the 60+ team. The others were 75, 70 and 65 so I was the baby at 60 - needless to say our team came last but it was heaps of fun!

Total time of team: 23:20

My individual time for 800m walk: 5:12 (which happened to be the fastest time in the team- what a hoot - that was an unexpected bonus)!

The night was hot and humid, even at 8.05pm when I ran in the 3000m event. I did NOT run well but at least it gave me some more kms for the day and I could enjoy the supper afterwards guilt-free!

Distance: 3000m

Time taken: 15:18 (no PBs tonight)!!

Average pace per km: 5:06

Total distance for day: 14.3km (including short warm-up)

Today, Friday, was my rest day. I went for a gentle 22km bike ride with Margaret and we rode out to Federation Square to visit Adore Tea for a creme brulee flavoured tea - most interesting experience. We rode and chatted and it was lovely. We were also lucky to avoid the raindrops as later in the day the thunder roared, the lightning flashed and the heavens opened. Fingers crossed that the weather will be kind early in the morning for my long run!