Eight Weeks to Marathon

Something strange has happened to the print on my computer and I need my computer savvy son to rectify the situation. The trouble is with IT people they never have time to help their own family so I won't hold my breath! In the meantime I'll just put up with it but I have no idea how it turns out as all I can see is HUGE type and all the icons at the bottom have disappeared so I can't adjust my overall font!

Anyway back to the training.

Monday - I went to the gym for an upper body workout in the morning - shoulders, biceps, triceps and abs followed by a swim.

Later it was the speedygeese session at Parliament House. I took Yelena and we arrived a little early and managed just over 3km before joining the others for the warm up lap of PH. At this stage the rain had started and we began the session already wet. There were only 12 of us tonight - a drop in numbers because of the rain I imagine. We ran the warm up between shelters like an interval session but as the rain eased off we headed for the oval by the rose garden for the main session. This was a long undulating loop incorporating a 200m sprint on the flat by the road and a couple of slow/fast intervals by the tennis courts. We ran the last loop in the reverse direction as a handicap. I started first cos I'm the slowest and everyone else ran from their desired handicap behind me. It didn't take most of them long to overtake me - it was a hard session especially after my long run yesterday. It was quite good to have a little shower to keep us hydrated and Ewen and I had a big surprise when Mr Apples tooted and called out to hurry us up as he drove round Parliament House on his bus route.

At the end of the session Jen, speedycoach and I ran an extra loop round PH to give us a few more kms.

Total distance: 12km

Tuesday

Morning - Tuesday group Black Mountain peninsula

The run today was over Scrivener Dam. I ran 5km from the peninsula and over the bridge on to the 5km point and back the same way - lots of undulations, a good course. I passed lots of people walking and several runners on the way. It was quite warm but pleasant. We celebrated Marg's 65th birthday which was on Sat and the other Margaret who turned 80 yesterday but didn't look a day over 65! Celebrating included champagne and lots of cake. I whipped up a choc cake (found a quick easy recipe online)at 6am before leaving for the run and it was surprisingly delicious. There was also a choc marble cake for the 80th birthday and of course lots of other delicious goodies. Now this is not a good way to start the day or indeed a good way to run again in the afternoon! Oh dear!

I took my car in for two new tyres to be fitted this afternoon - it feels so good having nice new tyres - bit like wearing new shoes when running!

Total distance: 10km

Calories burned: 553

YCRC Summer Series Run

The run this evening started at Barrenjoey Drive. This was a bit tricky to find as I headed for the old start of Barrenjoey Drive and it was gated off. Someone else, a new runner, pulled up at the same time as me and we decided to head back to the main road and find the other end of the road. There we found plenty of parking spots and lots of runners, much more like it.

Today's run was a three looped course and a bit rough. I had to watch my footing all the time because of tree routes and rocks and stones. However I felt better the further I ran although I was running a little tired which was obvious by the time I took. I treated it like a tempo interval session and ran 7mins fast with 1min slow three times. Taking into account the degree of difficulty one would expect it to be slower than last time though. I ran back to the car afterwards with Janene and Cathy - lovely to catch up with them both.

Total distance for run: 5km plus 1.8km warm up and down

Time taken: 28mins

Average pace per km: 5:38

Calories burned: 272

Total distance for day: 16.8km