Happy Christmas (somewhat belatedly)

First and foremost, I want to wish all of you who regularly dip into this blog our best wishes for this season and for the coming year. God bless you in everything that you're aiming to achieve, and God bless you in everything that happens regardless :-)

TA & I had a wonderful Christmas, with Macro & his wife staying over on Saturday night for TA's birthday (ably catered for by Angel and yours truly - Ginger & Lemon Prawn Won-tons, pepper Kangaroo on a bed of garlic mash with side greens, Sorbet for dessert and finishing with a fruit and cheese platter - and all of this before Christmas!! Lucky I've learned to eat a bit more carefully this year! :-) Anyhow, we had a really nice Christmas day with TA's family at lunch and mine at tea, and then we get to see mine all again (plus a few more interstaters) at my Nephew's wedding next weekend. It never rains, but it pours :-)

Now, as this is supposed to be a running blog, it's time to head down Quarry Rd. I've never run the Quarry Rd track before, and knowing that I wanted to do a longish run on Saturday, when I saw Horrie's invitation to CRs for a Christmas Eve run, I took the plunge. Though TA had to work, she really wanted to come up and say g'day to the 30+ starters, but alas, real life (ie shopping for Christmas fruit) intervened. I started out with Mr WT and the Professor, and for the first k I was wondering whether I'd be able to stay with them. However, I hung in there and before too long the pace came back to my kind of level. That was a good thing, because it would have been a bummer to try and run on your own. It was already thirty-something degrees at 7am, and those hills have to be seen to be believed. However, with a bit (a lot?) of judicious walking up the hills, we finished the first lap (12.5k) in 1:26. After about 10 minutes recovery fluids kindly provided by Horrie & Belinda (I'm a convert to the benefits of coke :-), we headed back out to met WildThing. We found her 3km in, bade farewell to the Prof who was continuing on for a complete lap, and turned back to finsh with her. All up, 18.6k, 2.5 hours and about 1000 degrees :-). For all the heat and hills, I really enjoyed the run and can't wait to take TA back there when the time is right.

Alas, at the moment the time is not right for TA. This niggle in her archilles is just not shifting, so she's put herself on to a diet of zero running until she comes back from Cambodia in three weeks, and booked in to see Dr Pain the day after she gets back. Till she goes, it's swimming, cycling and dog-walking only.

Yesterday morning, we headed out with a friend to ride from Pennant Hills along the M2 and as far down the M7 as we felt like at the time. As it turned out, 'as far as we felt like' turned out to be a fairly leisurely 36km in 1:30, which is entirely adequate as a post-Christmas-stuffing settler. The major discovery of the day was that there is no obvious way from the M2 onto the M7's famed new bike/running track, so we did the whole outward journey on the road, and only found ourselves on the track by taking one of the exit ramps when we went to turn around.

In the evening, TA had a training session with WildThing, so Mr WT & I had a pleasant chat around the bay (trying out his new pod, so we had three distance measurements we could choose from - my Garmin, his pod, or Action's infinitely more accurate markers!). Averaged around 4:40s except for the last 2k when the headwind brought us back to 4:50s.

Total for last week was only 36k - aiming for 45 at the moment (46, 45 & 45 in previous weeks), so smack hand and get on with it this week.

sfG

This is the best I can do, Wobbly...

This rather 'ordinary' view of our christmas tree was actually just the edge of a photo of our daughter handing out prezzies, but I'd be worse than dead if I published a photo of her in her PJs :-)

Maybe one of my goals for the new year can be to take a better one next Christmas...

the Year of the Gnome :-)

Exercise-wise, I've really struggled this week. I don't recall ever being as beaten up after a race before. I slept most of Sunday afternoon, and I didn't lose the DOMS until yesterday. We took a well-deserved rest day on Monday, and scheduled a recovery run on Tuesday morning with Angela (Angela had slipped off a fit ball at her PT and bruised her tail bone, so we were all in recovery mode). 10 minutes walk, 20 minutes very slow jog, 10 minutes walk (5.5k).

TA hit the Gym for 1/2 an hour's weights & 1/2 and hour's abs class on Wednesday, while I went off for a wandering 55 minute run (10k). I decided to go exploring, and managed to find a bunch of new hills. Not a particularly memorable run.

Last night Run Club was high on the celebrations scale, but not exactly tough from the exercise point of view :-) We did an Elf relay (6x200m relay with elf hats as the baton), Reindeer races (the tyre pull, with Santa in the tyres and antlers on the runners) and Santa pyramids ("presents" distributed around the track - 1st & 2nd runners have to run with a sack and pick up the presents (200m each), then the next two have to redistribute the presents around the track and the final 2 have to pick them all up again). Cool down, stretches and Party! For a bunch of health-conscious running nuts, we managed to have enough sugar and fat spread out on the picnic rugs to feed an army. Marvelous! :-)

I have to say that I'm really chuffed about this next bit. End-of-year awards were presented, and TA picked up a well-deserved Service award, and yours truly scooped the Runner of the Year! To say I'm pleased is an understatement. I haven't managed to wipe the smile off my face yet. I didn't set out at the beginning of the year to make any drastic changes, but it has turned out to be a good year, hasn't it? :-)

TA's gone for a swim before work this morning, and tomorrow morning I make my debut Quarry Rd run with a bunch of CRs. They're doing anything from 1 to 3 laps (or possibly more), but I think that 1 will probably suffice for me.

Lastly (but definitely not leastly), it's TA's birthday tomorrow (yes, her middle name is Eve :-), so...
Happy, Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday dear tigerangel
Happy birthday to you!

sfG

The Garmin gets a workout

As usual, I didn't get a lot of good-quality sleep last night. Dreamed of running and Garmins, and found myself looking at the clock too many times through the night. I eventually could stand it no longer and got up at about 5am for a leisurely preparation instead of the normal rushed one.

Not knowing the SMC setup, I registered and then went for a warm up jog, followed by a pit stop. When I emerged from the toilets, there was no one around, and a whole bunch of people were streaming off into the distance. Hey, I didn't know that the start was half a k away from registration! A rather too quick second warm-up got me to the start with a few seconds to spare.

I was hopeful, on the basis of previous 5k results, of keeping Johnny Dark in sight for most of the race. A few k in when he shot past the professor and FPT, I realised that that wasn't going to happen so I switched my sights onto the professor instead. I ran a fair bit of the first 10k with Seagull, and we just about caught the Prof and FPT at that point. Unfortunately, that point coincided with the hill (and an ugly hill it is too) of the Smithfield layout. I thought that I was OK on hills, but they all just left me for dead.

This is where I really not sure if I'm cut out to handle long distance. I don't think that I gave up, or anything as obvious as that, but the next 5 ks were a real struggle, and my pace dropped fairly clearly. Some jelly babies at the 15k turnaround helped, and although the pace didn't pick up much, at least I stopped feeling so lousy. At that turnaround, I noticed a couple of Woodstock runners who were catching me. Sure enough, I copped a red light at the transit way, and so we started the last couple of k together. Having run into that wind for so long by myself, I just tucked in behind them and let them drag me home.

So, what did I learn from today?

1. I finished in 100:45 (pb), 45 seconds slower than I was aiming for, and about 5 minutes slower than I had hoped. Ah, well....
2. I got a new 10k pb in the process (46:16), but seeing that I've never run either 10k or the half at my own pace, that's not surprising.
3. I averaged (!) a heart rate of 188 through the run. I know from previous experiments with TA's polar monitor that my maximum heart rate is much higher than the simple formula says it should be, but that was still surprising. I never got to a point where I was breathing too hard, so I don't think that it's a problem.
   
4. First half - good, second half - pretty ordinary. Was it mental, nutritional or physical? On the basis of training results, I'm guessing that it was the first and second rather than the third, but that's only a guess.

I wanted to do the race today to confirm my decision to do Canberra in April (a decision I took a few months ago). I changed my mind a thousand times during the run, but before the end I had settled on "Yes, I will do it; I will finish, and I will finish in under 3:50. Anything else is a bonus, and I will not carry any greater expectations than that". Seem reasonable?

sfG

A new toy from my beloved

It is our 25th wedding anniversary on Tuesday, and tonight TA handed me my present early, saying "you might want to use this tomorrow". Folks, I've joined the Garmin party :-) Caution: non-running bit follows. Feel free to skip to the end if you only read this blog for our advanced training secrets... :-)

25 years is a long time, but it's not nearly long enough to be with TA. There's been a number of times in my life when everything has got a bit too much for me to handle, and I've tended to disappear down a black hole of my own making. I can say without any embarrassment that in those times, it's her strength and faith (both in God and in me) that has pulled us all through. Sometimes I'm a really wonderful husband, and sometimes I'm pretty ordinary; a lot of the time we laugh together, occasionally we get annoyed; sometimes we disagree but we always sort it out; sometimes it's been tough, but it's never been boring.

Susie, thank you, not just for the Garmin, but for 25 years of understanding and fun and growth. I wonder what we'll be doing in another 25 years time? Who knows, but as long as it's together, it doesn't really matter.

Bru (sfG)

Lessons learned, soon forgotten.

Tuesday - As promised, TA took her dodgy ankle to the gym, while Angela & I set off for an undefined run (sorry to all those who consider every run should be for a defined purpose - I don't think that I'm that organised :-). We headed off into the bush, popped out again about half an hour later and wandered the streets for another half an hour. Because of the bush part, I have no idea of the distance, so we'll call it a conservative 10k for the sake of the weekly adding up.

I always like the bush running, but I have found in the past that my archilles gets a bit sore. Remembering something that TA said about landing on the forefoot stressing the archilles more, I purposely switched from mid foot to heel landing (having spent the last year learning to do the opposite) and it definitely made it easier. Gives me a bit more confidence about my debut Quarry Rd run on Christmas Eve. With the high-powered guest list for that run, it'd be most embarrassing to turn around and walk back out...

Wednesday was another of TA's group classes, but this time I was needed to make up a pair, so no running that night. I found most of it to be easy (these are not fit people) but I'm still sore from the overhead tricep extensions and pushups, 'cause I don't do any upper body work at all. Just goes to prove that being reasonably fit doesn't mean that you can do everything :-)

Thursday was lesson-learning day; day of the work Christmas party; evening of the run club (join the dots :-). It was a very nice party, with loads of food. I don't like alcohol, so I stuck to soft drinks and coffee, but by 6pm I was very, very full (and very, very well hydrated). In hindsight, I guess that doing Run Club was not one of my better ideas. I sloshed my way through the warmup, but as always, I came alive when the track session started. We did drills, 1 x 800, drills, 2 x 400, drills, 2 x 200 (including one where Tim held Micro and me back and then paced us through pretty fast), drills (starting to feel a bit off at this stage) and 2 x 400 (definitely not going well by now). The last run part was a series of stride-outs, of which I finished only one. My first DNF at run club, but if I'd taken another step, I think that I would have revisited lunch in a most lurid manner. Core strength and stretches finished the night.

Felt better today, so I'll try to squeeze in a 10k tomorrow morning, and then make an appearance at SMC on Sunday. I'm pretty sure that I'll do the 1/2, but I'm keeping the 10k in the background as a fall back. It's interesting, but as I've never run either of these distances by myself, I have no idea what it feels like to push hard(ish) for that length of time. I'm hoping it will give me a bit of a picture of how I might go with some plans I have for the new year.

sfG

100 minutes of 10 metre intervals

What a strange session! I had already decided to do my Sunday long run in the evening (rather than the more normal early morning), when they asked at church for people to do a Christmas Card letterbox drop. I'm normally in the habit of doing these along with TA, so this time I took two areas. It wasn't until I got home that I remembered that TA's ankle had flared up again, and hence she is only cross training this week. Two zones, umpteen christmas cards, and only me to deliver them. Ah, well...

I had to deliver the car (and MicroTA) up to TA at church in the evening, so I donned my running gear, dropped it off and ran home. Grabbed a back pack with the cards and started running. Run 20m. Stop. Card in box. Run 30m. Stop. Card in etc, etc, etc. Ran out of cards at about the 100 minuted mark, so dropped the back pack off and finished with another 20min to bring it up to an even 2 hours. Once again, very comfortable, and no niggles, though my quads were a tiny bit stiff today - all the stopping, I guess.

Tonight, I went to our local oval to video TA taking a group training session (part of proof for her 'professional practice' subject). The girls all sounded like they thoroughly enjoyed it (who'd a thought that exercising could be so much fun :-). I, on the other hand, just got cold :-( You don't get warm just standing around for 1 1/2 hours. Off to bed now. Angela's coming at 6am for an easy 8 or 10k, whilst TA takes her ankle to the gym. We do lead a strange life...

sfG

Opportunites and Second Chances.

About year ago I asked Tim for some advice about tri training and before I knew it I'd dumped an interim trainer and started with Tim. What a difference a year makes. It's really nice to train again with someone who challenges me. Both Matt ( my original mentor) and Tim saw potential in me and encouraged me to extend my fitness but Tim took this further. He threw me in the deep end one night at Runclub and asked me to lead it. This was not something I thought I could do but from there his guidance has lead me to my present study as a Personal Trainer. So thankyou Tim for helping me to believe I can do it.

About 4 years ago, after our son survived all his cancer treatment I was once asked "What would I never give up?". My answer was "Opportunities and Second Chances" . This year I have grabbed those opportunities and second chances and have surprised myself quite a few times at what is possible even if it needs doing twice :-).

TA

Week summary

Monday - Rest after the CC half.

Tuesday - 2k warm up, 2 x 1k tempo, 2k warm down. Ran with Angela. TA thought that she was struggling until we discovered half way through the first 1k that she was about 30 sec under her 1k interval pace (as suggested by Mcmillan). Backed off, but still finished both intervals about 10s under the nominated time.

Wednesday - unscheduled rest day. Don't remember why? Oh, yes I do. I spend from 1:30 to 4am bowing down before the great white throne. Just something disagreed with me I guess :-(

Thursday - Ride to work, then Run Club. Warm up, stretches, drills. 500m firm, pushing harder in the last 100m. 20 min on the new time trial course (hills and grass - I think the pb days are over), followed by another 500m. I felt fine during the 20 minutes - ran with James and chatted but still did 4:25s - but the second 500 was murder. I just couldn't get moving. Maybe Wednesday morning was catching up with me. Luckily Tim took pity on my prostrate body and dropped the last 10 minutes he had planned. We finished with the tyre pull, lunges, core work and stretches.

Micro was feeling lazy and ran with TA in the 20 minute, so Tim made him do about 5 or 6 tyre runs against different opposition (including me). He looked so powerful, and he managed to beat every one of us. I tried to get a decent photo, but failed miserably. Still, I'll subject you to the best of the rejects :-)



Friday is normally my rest day, but TA's program included an 8k easy today and I'd missed Wednesday, so out we went tonight. It was a lovely comfortable run and we just chatted and enjoyed the time. The night air was just right, so I gave TA the key and kept going for another 4k, giving me a total for the week of 45k. That's about the volume that I want at this point in the program, so so-far, so-good.

Oh, the other bit of good news is that I realised tonight that my knee that I damaged snowboarding in August didn't give me any stick at the half (well, it only hurts down hills, and there weren't any hills there), and it hardly niggled tonight even on the worst hills. As Mr Burns would say, "Exxxcellent!"

sfG

A sack full of positives

I said the other day that the Central Coast half was going to be fun - it turned out to much more than that. As the title said, it was full of positives such as...

• This is the real biggie. Those of you who have battled through the last few months of our blog will know that tiger angel has not been in the best health. It's not been anything serious, just a litany of this and that, combined with a mysterious nausea that joins in all the races early on and paces her to the finish (constantly attempting to trip her up on the way). It's not just the average 'gone-out-too-hard' problem, but we don't really know what it is. Anyhow, the big news is that, after two hours of hard running, she suddenly realised that she wasn't feeling crook! Tired, yes, but not crook. Let's hope that little episode has been put to bed for once and for all. Did it have anything to do with her being put under lock and key and not allowed to exercise last week? Very possibly, but whatever the cause, it's nice to have her back in one piece :-)
• At the beginning of this year, TA's goal was to be able to do a 10k race without worrying about it for weeks beforehand. In other words, 10k was something you just did (to the best of your ability), not something that consumed you. When we arrived home this afternoon, she said "Do you know what? We just did a half marathon! No special preparation, no fussing". That's a goal achieved way beyond expectations.
• The time, whilst 4 minutes outside our pb, was done on the back of about 6 weeks of very little effective training and yet was run in a very controlled, even manner with about 2 drops of petrol left in the tank at the end. The body may not have been in perfect tune, but the mind was in firm control :-)
• As for me, at the end of the run today I felt like I could have turned around and done it all again. Now I know that so many marathon race reports say "at the half way point, I felt fine" and then go on to say "at the 32k mark, I started to collapse", but at least I know that I can say the first (and I thoroughly expect in time to say the second too :-)
• In the last 3 or 4 km, I had cause to twice do a 400m sprint, and both times it felt just the same as intervals on the track and not at all like I'd just run 18km.
  

On top of all that, we got to spend some good time with lots of the CR crew. Jen_runs and Mr GoGirl did sterling service in the cheer squad (as did Plu, but he was also running :-). I got to meet Aim High, Kaz (super brave run for a new pb!) and MinersRun (finally) for the first time. Here's a picture of some of us before lunch.

From Left to Right, Gronk, Tiger Angel, Go Girl, BennyR, sfGnome, half of Jen_Runs, MinersRun, with Royworlds in the Front.

sfG

Quick sfG catch up

Just for the sake of the record;

• Sunday - going to run, but too wet (or something like that)
• Monday - Easy 8k with TA and Angela
• Tuesday - rest
• Wednesday - 12.5k in67min. Was only going for 1/2 hour, but just kept going :-)
• Thursday - Ride to work. Much better run than last week (5 minutes faster)
  Run Club - Felt worn out in the warm-up, but came to life when we got going. Session was 1km in long mown grass with an uneven base. Tough to keep it all efficient. Went out too hard, but managed to keep the pace. Then 4 long hills (fun) and another 2 k on the long grass. Much better paced this time. Very good.
  
  TA was not too happy with her run tonight. Just couldn't really get going. Still saying she'll do the CC half, but not expecting any kind of exciting time. I reckon it'll just be fun :-)

Rest day tomorrow :-)

sfG

Rest and Exercise

Survived my week of dog walking and thoroughly enjoyed being back and running with Angela at Runclub last Thursday.

On Friday, the Neuralgia I'd had all week got worse so I took a rest day (again!). Saturday morning my head couldn't face the CR5k so I just did PT in the arvo. It was a running session to revive my aerobic levels from their week of slumber!! (read aerobic threshold for 2 k, 2min on/1min off for 2k, and some hills all thrown in during a bay lap). I remember enjoying the hill part :-).

Sunday was a rest again and Monday we did 8k with Angela. Tuesday was a weights session at the gym and Wednesday was more rest.

It seems lately I'm having lots of rest days but I have to say I'm almost too busy to notice them. Between family, study and preparing for a mission trip to Cambodia in January, life is overwhelmingly hectic. I just know I'm lucky enough to be able to do all these things because of sfG's support - one very patient man.

TA