Shiny New Shoes

Over the last couple of weeks Gnome has borrowed some cycling shoes from a guy at work and has being riding my bike to work. He is now hooked on my bike so off we went to buy his early chrissy present of cycling shoes. So, of course, it seemed a good idea to replace my old ones at the same time. So, 40mins later we walked out a fair bit poorer but the proud owners of new shoes and new pedals for 'my' bike. We both ended up with shimano but Gnome's are road shoes while mine are tri shoes.

So after work and studying, at 10pm tonight I still hadn't done my active rest session. Seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out the new gear, so I pedalled away gently on the windtrainer in the garage for 30mins.

Of course the problem we now have is having to change settings on the bike each time the other wants to use it. Me thinks it would be easier to just buy me a new one :-). Gnome doesn't :-(.

TA

...and it was indeed...

As in, "...and it was indeed a nice setup for Saturday". I've already written a report on Cool Running for Saturday morning's run. Suffice to say that I managed a 10 sec pb (very happy) and that Papa Luigi blew me away in the last k (still annoyed that I couldn't hang in there with him - actually, I think that I'm annoyed that I didn't try harder to hang in there with him. Things seem so much easier when you're not actually racing :-)

The thing that was really strange about the run was the dizzyness & general lethargy afterwards. I got a bit of that on Thursday night too, but this knocked me around for pretty much the whole day. Strangely, I was affected almost as soon as the run was over, but it went away for the jog back, returning when I stopped.

It is possible that I wasn't hydrated enough, but I'm generally pretty good with that so I don't think that it was a dominant factor. The other alternative that we're working with is that my carb intake is just way too low, and the old body is just making it's displeasure known. Corrective action?? Well, start eating more carbs for a start and see what happens (whilst watching weight for first signs of returning to old station :-). Tuesday morning is a easy 10k with Angela (back from her month in Sth America & all that altitude training :-), so I'll have to wait till Thursday to push it and see if the problem is still there.

TA's story on Saturday was similarly pleasing and dissappointing. Right up to the 4k mark she was close to her pb time, and only had to run a 4.50 last k to be in the record books (well, in her's, anyway :-). Unfortunately, she got massive stomach pains and was unable to continue. This too has been a feature of her recent races. I want her to go and see a doc, but the physician is insisting on healing herself, so we'll just have to see if the next potential solution makes a difference. As next Saturday is the last of the Strider's 10k series for this year, I hope it works, because the form that she showed on Saturday for the first 4k gives me the hint that something special is on the way. Let's wait and see.

Unfortunately, Tim wasn't well Saturday, so TA's PT was cancelled. Mind you he emailed her weekly program and suggested she may like to do the PT bike session he had planned. 45 minutes later and TA was sweating.

sfG

Oh, I guess I should also note the 60 minutes in the pouring rain this morning before church. Quite plesant really. Just easy up and down hills, chatting and running, and no after effects from yesterday for either of us. Can't lose 'em all :-)

Nice set-up for Saturday

At run club tonight, we had a session that I've never done before (though TA has done it a couple of times). 3 x 2k repeats, with a decent break between. It's a hard session, and I'm still feeling tired now as I type - normally I recover quickly and don't feel any after effects, but the last few hard runs have left me worn out. Is that because I'm working better and using all the available energy more effectively, or is it because I don't have as much energy as I used to? I don't know, but the times are coming down, so I'll be happy to feel tired :-)

We were both really pleased with our times and our consistency tonight. I did 7:45, 7:47 and 7:50, which bodes well for a sub 12:00 at the next 3k TT (that's been the goal for quite a while - current pb is 12:01!). TA (and microTA who ran the whole time with his mum) did 9:15, 9:13 and 9:15 which is right back in the zone.

I can't speak for TA, but I know that though the times were consistent, the effort expended was exponentially increasing from one run to the next.

Tomorrow's a rest day for me, and a morning bike session for TA (8x30s hard, 15s spin plus warm up and down) and Saturday's the CR 5k (have I ever mention that I love that race... :-)

TA gym'd it yesterday. She did an Herculean (may I suggest 'insane' as a better description :-)) glutes session, and was left pretty sore today. Her study is getting a little bit behind with all the other living that has been piling up. Maybe *next* week will be quieter...

sfG

Will I Ever Learn?

Monday was our rest day and after work I attempted some study but by 9.30pm I had such a bad headache I loaded up with drugs and went to bed, still setting the alarm for an early morning run as I hoped the headache would be gone. Wasn't the case but in my stubborness I got up, took some more headache tabs and Gnome and I headed out the door.

The plan was 1.5k warmup, 5k tempo and 1.5k cooldown. We don't have an 8k route so chose the 9k one and tried to workout how to make it shorter. Warmup and the first 3k of the tempo were going well but then my brain and body reused to co-op on the third hill and I stopped. Gnome made me keep walking for about 30m and then I told myself off and we started running again. 1.5k later I stopped again and we walked the 500m up the steady climb. We then ran home the long way as I said I had to make up for the walk. Gnome said that was dumb as no punishment was involved. He also asked if we were running too fast on the way home to which I replied "it hurts at any speed, so we might as well keep a good pace". Upon checking the watch when we got home we'd actually kept good time over the tempo :-).

Maybe one day I'll listen to my own advice but I doubt it somehow.

TA

Catch Up (again)

It seems that we're always just catching up lately, so why should the blog be any different? :-)

Thursday
It was too wet for Run Club on Thursday night, so the intrepid half dozen who turned up ran the bay. As it turned out, it was by all accounts really nice with the rain holding off for most of it. (I say 'by all accounts' because I got called away at the last moment to assist my daughter-in-law after a minor bingle. She's fine and we straightened as much of the car as necessary on Saturday). Of note was that it was the first time around the bay (and the longest distance ever) for both MicroTA and another runclubber (Siobhan). Very cool.

Friday
TA got up early to do a bike session at the gym, and took the opportunity to do an abs class as well. I went out for a short run to make up for missing out the night before, and decided shortly after starting that I wanted to leave for work early to miss the traffic, which meant getting back from the run asap. Hence, what was going to be a fartlek session turned into a tempo run :-) 5.5km at a smidgin under 4:30 pace.

Saturday
Rest day for me. After work, TA trained two clients and then got in her hour with her own trainer. Pretty solid day.

Sunday
Up at 6 for the 1.5 hour run. TA was not the most comfortable after yesterday's training, but she finally got into rhythm after about an hour. No idea what distance we covered as that's not the point. She spent the the afternoon sleeping and studying (at one stage unsuccessfully attempting both at the same time :-)

sfG

Good Kids Done Good

Well we were good kids yesterday morning and didn't sleep in. The plan was a comfortable 10k with a negative split. So that meant two laps around the Franklin Rd course. I felt a bit body tired when we started but put that down to doing a weights session less than 10 hours earlier. Dumb huh! Gnome decided to distract me by talking about possible relocation of his work and he yakked while I listened. We finished with splits of 29.44 and 28.34. Gotta be happy with that. We could have been home in 200m but took the long way and did a 1k cooldown.

Gnome went off to work and I went to court to support a friend through property settlement with the ex. Now that was hard work and I thank God Gnome's hooked on me. Let me encourage you to be there for friends dealing with this - it's a very tough road for them.

Hope it's not too wet to cancel Runclub tonight.

TA

TagTime

We've been tagged in the blog game going around.

Here are the rules:
1. Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (or the closest one to it)
4. Post the text of your sentence in your blog along with these rules.


sfGnome and I have been discussing our Half times. This relates to running our first ever Half - the SMH one. We had an estatic time, an expected time and a damn time. The surprise was we beat our estatic time!!

Gnome actually liked the 4th sentence better "I'm hoping the 100 (girlie) pushups don't come back to haunt me tomorrow." What kind of Personal Trainer makes someone do 100 pushups the day before a half ??? A good one (grovel, grovel).

TA

Too tired, too harried, too hurried, too worried... (but the good bits just get better)

Not much from us for the last few days. Between my work (I'm tending to the 12 hour days at the moment) and TA's study, we're not doing much else. Hence, no blogging, no reading blogs, and worst of all, not much exercise either :-(

After Saturday's lovely run, we squeezed in a 1.5 hour (15k) slow run on Sunday morning before church/work. I had intended to go for a ride on Monday, but rain put a stop to that. This morning was supposed to be an easy 10k, but exhaustion put a stop that that one too. TA and I looked at each other when the alarm went off at 6am and we just rolled over and went back to sleep. TA's doing her penance down at the gym now - I've just written today off and we'll start again tomorrow (every day's a fresh start!).

Maybe tonight we'll go to bed at a reasonable time (anything this side of midnight would be good) and we'll be raring to go tomorrow morning (haven't asked TA what's on the program yet - any kind of run would be good :-)

On the up side though, Sunday night was cool. MicroTA got baptised, so as many of the extended family as could make it (including both sets of grandparents - all in their very late 70s or early 80s) came along to night church. Now this service is essentially run by the kids themselves, so it's pretty lively (think, band - loud, video clips - loud, moshing - frenetic - looking for all the world like some kind of Maasai warrior dance). Still, the oldies survived it all, and it was really good to sit and listen to him declare his faith and describe his life (thankfully no suprises there! :-) It's a good feeling to know that all my children are my brothers and sisters too.

sfG

Fitting it all In

I can't believe it's a week since posting. Last week was crammed with finishing an assignment and making sure the run club singlets arrived. There was panic when they didn't come on Wednesday but the owner of Hot designs personally delivered them Thursday lunch time and I breathed again. It was an absolute delight to see Tim's face upon opening it. Mind you he was still wearing it when I had PT 2 days later!! but then again I had my on too. I think we'll be putting another order in soon - everyone now wants long sleeves ones as well.

As for training, it's still going on somewhere in there. At runclub we did the "6ft track" again but slightly shortened (maybe 100-150m). I know I was feeling better than the last time we did it but this time I av. 7.10 a lap compared to 8.30 the time before. MicroTA ran with me this time and as we flew towards the finish I absolutely pushed it but urged him to beat me and he did by 1m. An obedient son :-). We ended the night by celebrating runclub's first birthday with dinner out.

Saturday was PT with Tim. Despite soccor on the oval and the Terry Fox run being set up we did track work. One lap warmup followed by 8x200m with drills and short rest in between each. This was followed by upperbody supersets which were tough and of course some ab work to finish. Abs was combination of side and regular bridges just constantly moving from one to the other. All good.

TA

Run Club 1st Aniversary

Here's a couple of photos from the other night.

Prior to the "singlet handover" ceremony...

A few of us showing off the new singlets/shirts at the celebrations afterwards - Tim (freespirit), Steve (26 miles), Rob (micro TA), Sue (tiger angel), Julia (tippy toes), Bruce (sfGnome), Kathy & Lorna (Owl).

Now that was fun!

What a gorgeous day! TA is working all day, MicroTA is off elsewhere pursuing his hobby and Angel is sleeping at a friends place, so I got to just mosey around and do my own thing. In this instance, my own thing included pulling on some running gear and just heading out with no particular plan in mind.

I ended up heading into the bush for about half an hour, just following trails without having a great idea exactly where I was. Ended up popping back out in Cherrybrook, and took about a 5k run home. Out for 55 minutes, lovely relaxing run, and zero niggles. Can't beat it :-)

sfG

Tiger training

The howling wind Saturday morning convinced me to stay in bed a bit longer so didn't head out on the new 10kAT route till after 8am. It's funny because we seem to have different running routes according to the type of run. The only thing we can't manage around here is a flat run!

In the arvo I headed into Rozelle to train with Wildthing and Caro and although it was sunny we nearly got blown away. I was so glad I wasn't doing track work with Tim.

Sunday morning saw us helping at the Striders Internal Half. I wondered if it would get a bit boring waving a flag for 2 hours but it was alot of fun encouraging the runners and chatting to people who were doing their own thing. One fellow was very interested and wanted to know how he could join Striders, so of course I also gave CR a plug. I was intending to ride at Homebush in the afternoon but with the kids away I realised I could do some more study in peace and quiet, so did that instead while Gnome lay around watching Bathurst.

Monday morning I had an easy 12k on the plan but had forgotten I had to take my motorbike in for a service, so I could only fit in 10k. I started at the top of the street and ran 5k in a circuit then turned around and did it in reverse. It's been a while since I've just relaxed and enjoyed a run.

After getting to bed later than is good for me, I got up early and did a bike session today. Warmup and cooldown with 6x 45 hard, 30 spin in the middle. I thought this one might hurt so was ready to accept 3-4 lots but I enjoyed it. Definately didn't want to do 7 but like yesterday it was a good session and to top the day off I started my PT Cert IV course. It was good to catch up with some of the blokes I did Cert III with (none of the girls have come back). Good fun but can you believe I came home with 8 BOOKS!! Yep, one textbook and one assignment book for each of the 4 subjects and everything ( including exams ) due christmas week. Hope no one expects me to go shopping for pressies ;-).

TA

He's BACK!! (sorta, kinda)

Strictly following my physio's instructions, I walked 3k yesterday, and did it again tonight, this time jogging a few hundred metres at a time. No twinges. Not a sausage. None. Much relief. I'll do a gentle shortish jog tomorrow while TA is doing her 12k, and assuming that once again nothing happens, gradually build it up again.

Today's very early (5:30am) morning activities were fun. Given that I couldn't do the Striders' half and TA wasn't going to, we offered to be course marshalls. I ended up on the drink station at the top of the course. This went smoothly enough for most of the race but, given that it was a handicap, there was destined to be a very big block of runners arriving simultaneously at my table towards the race's end - and very thirsty runners at that! In the break prior to that I set out 50 cups (all the table would hold), and when they hit I was down to 3 before I could say "hang on, I'll fill some more". I yelled to TA for help (she was marshalling at the turn-around about 20m up the hill) and I filled while she handed out so we got through it, just. Still, while it was fun, I felt a few twinges of envy that I wasn't running... Ah well...

Apart from that, it's been a strange weekend. Footy season is over, but house fixing-up season hasn't started yet, so with the enforced lack of physical activity I've been at a pretty loose end. Mostly I've just sat and read - made a start on the big pile of reading matter that builds up through the year in preparation for the post Christmas lethargy - and watched most of the Bathurst races (after Church, which was after the half). Unfortunately, instead of feeling rested and relaxed, I just feel like I haven't achieved anything with my weekend. Maybe it takes more than a weekend to relax.

sfG

Last 2 Days

Thursday morning I was meant to do a 3kTT but on Wednesday night I knew it was not on. I was just to damn tired. I spent the day stuffing around with my assignment and did a 30 min session on the bike involving some interval stuff.

At night, we had Runclub. Tim is away so he asked Steve(26miles) and me to run it. It was 3kTT night and it was different to be on the timing side and not running it. Steve paced some of the runners towards the back of the group and that was really positive for them. A couple of the guys took about 20secs off their times having Mr Wildthing to chase down. Next week is Runclub's first anniversary and we are looking forward to celebrating it.

Today I was at the gym early to do a weights session and then join in the abs class and tomorrow I've got another 10k with AT run. I'm trying to work out a 'real' 10k route.

Gnome will probably do a walk tomorrow. The physio says he has a small tear in his left calf but shouldn't be lots of weeks in healing. He promises to be ready for the CC Half.

TA

Google maps tell the truth

Apparently our 10k route is only 9k and the 7k AT section is closer to 6k AT. Not that it really matters. As long as we stick to the same route we can compare times to see how we are going. Gnome sees the physio today about his calf so I headed out on my own. It was tough backing up from 2 days with 2 sessions on each but managed to be closer to our fastest time than our slowest so happy with that.

Today I'm spending time doing my assignment and making sure I'm prepared for RunClub Thursday and WT's PT on Saturday. I think I might use it with MicroTA tonight as his first session.

TA

A Run and a Walk

After a tempo session last night and an AT planned for tommorrow, I decided today's run was just time on the legs. So, for a change I ran it in reverse, kept the HR under 155 and covered the 12.3k in 1.18. It wasn't hot but more humid than I'd expected.

Just time to grab a shower, make some beds and hang out the washing and I was off again to meet EliseS for her lunchtime walk. We walked from Northmead, down thru the Childrens Hospital , into and around Parramatta Park before returning the same way back to her work. I'd taken North along with us and he is now lying quietly on his bed. Her garmin told us we'd walked 6.55k in 62 mins so we set a good pace and we enjoyed the chat along the way.

TA

Wine Gums Yum!

It was nice to have a 'rest' day on Sunday. Yesterday I went to the gym in the morning for a weights session and spent more time on the bike drawing the console (for an assignment) than actually warming up. The place was really crowded and I often had to find an alternative machine to do my programme.

At night I went to RunClub by myself. sfGnome wasn't able to go as he appears to have done something significant to his calf on Sunday's LSD (not good :-( -he'll try to see the physio today) and of course you'd be pushing it to get microTA there twice in a week.

It is always a smaller group on a long weekend but we really enjoyed it together. Tim had worked out a new course around the Shores area taking in grass, ramps and stairs as well as the 3k TT part. It was nicknamed 'mini 6ft' because of the ups and downs. The session was to run it at tempo pace and to do 4 laps (approx. 6k) unless you're Mr Wildthing who gets to do 5 because he's so fast. After we did lots of abs work and stretching and then Caro surprised us with some wine gum lollies. She had picked them up in England especially to share with us. Ahh we are a spoilt lot.

TA

Life's little surprises

Friday morning was supposed to be an easy 30 minutes, so I spent most of the run trying to put the brakes on whenever Tiger (speed machine) Angel tried to get going. Sometimes it's hard to run easy :-)

Saturday morning at Homebush for the Strider's 10k was a different matter, though. It wasn't a bad run. After all, it was a course PB, but it was also a minute over TA's real PB set at, of all places, Lane Cove! The first half went really well and we were right on time for a 51:00 (the current goal), but alas despite all efforts, we just faded in the last few k's. Still, you can't do a PB every time - unless your name is Papa Luigi, of course :-)

TA had to rush straight off to work, and then direct from there to her first PT session as apprentice rather than victim :-). By all accounts it went well - I can't think of many people who would make a better trainer than my TA - strength, knowledge and empathy - what a package! :-) Oh, I should take this moment to note that TA has been waiting all week for the results of her Cert III exams. By Friday morning, she was convinced that either she'd failed so badly that they didn't want to send out the results, or that she'd forgotten to put her name on the top of the paper. Of course, the reality was that she'd scored 90%, which is a High Distinction in any language. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I never fail to be so proud of her.

Anyhow, where was I? Oh, yes. Saturday. TA arrived home just in time for us to scrub up and head out again for Owl & Tesso's Birthday Bash. Fun night, lots of food, got to admit that I didn't know where to look when the belly dancer came in, but then I was sitting right at her feet. I felt much more comfortable when we all got up to have a go and I was able to escape to a less central position :-) Fell into bed exhausted at about 12:30am, so tired that neither of us heard Angel come home about an hour later.

So what's the little surprise that gave rise to today's blog title? Striders? The exam results? The belly dancer? Nup, none of the above. It's that I've just seen an email that TA sent to a friend where she remarks about training for the Central Coast Half in December. Now that was a surprise :-)

sfG

p.s. I should acknowledge the source of our new blog photo. Go Girl's brilliant husband was waiting at the end of Blackmore's for GG to arrive, and despite only having met us once a few months ago, recognised us and got that snap. Thanks Rob.