Football Fartlek

A good week for me, a little less so for tiger angel. She's booked in to see a specialist about the Thyroid and Adrenal things (in about a month) and on the advice of her doctor she's gone off all her current medication until then. Thus, the pickup that she was starting to feel is no longer so apparent. In addition, the displaced ribs are still causing problems, though we don't know whether that's because the ribs have moved again or just because her back and arm are not yet over the problem. :-( Everything is going to get better; we just don't know when yet.

Last year (incidentally, we discovered tonight this blog is now just over 1 year old; how time flies when you're having fun) tiger angel asked our kids to not give her a mother's day prezzie, but to run with her in the Mother's Day classic instead. This year Micro obliged again (said it saved him buying a present :-) ), but Macro and Angel both figured that presents were much easier than running... Anyhow, TA really didn't think that she had a 4k run in her, but with her normal indomitable will coming into play, she decided that she'd do it anyhow and see how she went.

We got there early so that we could cheer on Caro in the 8k, and she gave us plenty to cheer about with a rock solid run; about the same pace as the 10k in Canberra, but much more comfortable, she said. For our race, Micro decided to run at his own pace, so I strapped my Garmin on him and sent him off with strict instructions to keep to a 4:30 pace. In the long run, very heavy traffic at the beginning and a sore calf kept him behind that, but he still finished in 19:57, so he was quite satisfied.

(As another aside, he backed up to play footy this afternoon - a very hard fought match which his team won 5-8-38 to 1-14-20. Yes folks. That was 1 goal, 14 behinds. My personal and slightly biased view was that the number of behinds was an indication of how well our team defended, but as he is the fullback, I would say that, wouldn't I? :-) Anyhow, back to tiger angel...)

I was really impressed by how TA handled the race. We expected to be running about a 6 minute pace, and whilst I could hear that aerobically she was fine, I could also tell from her face that she was hurting pretty badly. In spite of that, she held a really steady pace, running just under 5:30's (after the 7 minute first k due to congestion) to finish in 22:43. It's nothing like the pace she would run if well, but it is absolute proof of her mental strength. I'm so proud of her (but gee, I hope she quits now for a while. I really don't want her to break!).

We had the wonderful pleasure of meeting Ellie about half way up the hill from Mrs Macquarie's Chair, and then again after the finish when we could talk a little more easily :-) We met a number of CRs for the first time at the MD Classic last year, and it was really nice to do it again. Having watched her hightail it up the hill in front of us in her first-ever race, I can confidently predict many more races in her future (roll on September, Ellie :-))

After a draining morning's effort, what better therapy than a little visit to TA's favourite snow board emporium, where she came away with a brand new board and bindings. Now she just has to wait the couple of months till she can christen them. Happy Mother's Day, sweetheart!

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On my side of things, it's been a pleasing week. Nothing spectacular, but nice steady progress that says I'm pretty much back to where I was before Canberra. I did 9k on Tuesday, 14 on Wednesday at 5:10 pace, another 5 on Thursday at Run Club (mini-6ft. Most enjoyable) and 17.5k on Saturday. That, plus the 4 k this morning gives me my biggest post-Canberra week of 50k.

Finally, this afternoon I got to do the boundary umpiring at Micro's footy match. I really wanted to wear my Garmin just so I could see how far I run on the boundary, but I thought that it might look a bit wanky to all the (non-running) other parents. :-) It's so unlike the normal steady running that I do - it's all about walking the boundary when the play is on the other side, and then sprinting like the blazes when the play comes your way. I found myself running alongside the play at one stage and I realised that I was keeping up with some of the fastest young men in the team. This was simultaneously pleasing and very suprising! The best part is that, apart from this morning when I didn't stretch properly, I haven't had any problems with the knee at all, which gives me lots more confidence for SMH next week.

(sleepy) Gnome