TA and the Gnome: February 2008

Sunday, February 24, 2008

2 weeks to go

Taper week(s) started in a slightly confused fashion. Various events out of my control meant that I couldn't run on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday and our Angel was coming home from Africa on Thursday so Run Club was out too. I ended up riding to work on Wed, running home, running in Thursday, getting picked up to go to the airport, running in Friday and riding home Friday night. Told you it was confusing. I ended up with 3 sets of work clothes, 2 breakfasts, running gear, riding gear and various types of shoes in my locker at work...

Pushed Thursday's run a bit just to increase the intensity, and then added the CR5k and the Strider's 'Equaliser' (a 14k bush run on "undulating" terrain) on Sat and Sun respectively. Confirmed last month's 5k pb by managing another sub 20 in windy conditions and then had a good run at the equaliser too. Things seem to be setting up well, though my ankles and knees will be happy to get a bit of rest after 6ft. :-) Week total - 56k

Tiger angel is recovering finally, so she should be at North Head next week for her long steady run (aka striders 10k).

Gnome

Saturday, February 16, 2008

3 weeks to 6 foot

As of today, I've run my last 70km week (well, for at least 4 weeks anyhow). The long slow taper starts tomorrow (of course for many of you, a 70km week is a taper :-) ). From now on it's a case of slowly drop back the distance and up the intensity (and most of all, don't trip over! :-) ).

Today's little jog was a 34k around the wilds of Bobbin Head. The part of the run from the end of Grosvenor Rd down to Bobbin Head is just gorgeous. Even though we were in the 23 to 30 km stage, I felt really refreshed by that section. I'd heartily recommend it to anyone. It's quite easy because it is all either flat or downhill and it's mostly easy underfoot. Unfortunately, the run back up is a little less refreshing...

Things haven't run quite as according to plan for tiger angel. She's been nursing a cough for the last 3 weeks, and after the tri last week it was getting beyond a joke. One quick visit to the friendly GP later, she found herself in possession of Bronchitis and a lecture from aforementioned GP that any more training would see her in hospital with Pneumonia. He said that she was lucky to not have collapsed in the tri (she's made of tougher stuff than that, she is!).

Whilst she's still coughing intermittently, she's also starting to go stir-crazy which is a sure sign that she's on the mend. We took the dog for a 20 minute walk this evening with no apparent evil side effects. The Striders 'Equaliser' race next Sunday may be out of reach, but we've got a whole week to find out. :-)

Gnome

p.s. I just noticed a funny thing. I remember that back in 2006, I missed running 2000k for the year by less than 10k. Well, this January I had my biggest month ever, missing 300k for the month by just 2k. I really must start paying attention to these things before the month or year is finished! :-)

Sunday, February 10, 2008

To Pluvio and below...

I met the famous Pluviometer yesterday, and I understand why people treat her with such respect (but I can't understand how fats ran all the way up, and *then* put a burst on along Black Range because he was feeling good! Wow. But I digress. Anyhow...)

A group of us (CRs OverTheHill, Eveready Bunny, Strider Danielle and RunClubber Michael) went up to the Caves Rd crossing - leaving Sydney at 4am(??!!??) and arriving at just after 6am when the temperature was 11 degrees - and ran along the deviation, Black Range and down Pluvio and then back again. It rained a little but in general it was kind, better than the bucketing that we got for most of the drive up. By the time we got back to the cars, it was 10 degrees and there was hail on the ground, so somehow we had missed the edge of a hail storm. Lucky!!

I know that I hadn't run over Mini-Mini prior to Pluvio so it's only half the test, but I have to say that it has given me a fair bit of encouragement about our next date in 4 weeks' time. It's all good :-)

On to other good things, and tiger angel competed (along with CR Mango) at the Kurnell sprint tri this morning. The swim leg was interesting to say the least. The current was heading one direction and the waves in another, so it was reasonably washing-machine-like for a 'protected' bay swim. She was very happy with how it went (losing her chain during the cycle leg notwithstanding), so it's all onwards and upwards now :-)

As always I had my camera there. I've put up a few of the better shots up here, but here's a taste.

Who knew that synchronised swimming was part of a tri?

Here comes the Mango Man

Gnome

Sunday, February 03, 2008

A long time coming...

It's been a very long time since we have blogged - forgive us, you brave souls who may still read this - but it's not this posting that's been A Long Time Coming.

Last week, I (Gnome) set a new 5k pb - something I've been trying to do for 18 months and my first time ever below 20 minutes - but it's not that pb that been A Long Time Coming.

In November 2002, after a year of preparation, tiger angel competed in her first triathlon. For someone of her athletic (lack of) history, this was a really major event. A photo from that race still has pride of place on my desk at work. For the next few years, TA kept doing enticer-length tri's. Lots of them (there seemed to be about one a month back then). Somehow, the step up to longer events just didn't seem to be necessary nor interesting. Then, just as they started to appear on the horizon of her imagination, so did the various illnesses that have plagued her body over these last couple of years.

Today, over six years after she first contemplated triathlon, tiger angel competed in her first sprint-length tri (500m/20k/5k). That's what has been a long time coming! :-)

The major fear of the week was not "is it too much for me?", "is it too long?" or "will I fail miserably?", but "will it be too hot?". Today, in the company of CR buddies Jen_Runs, Wildthing & Mouse, she proved the resounding answer to those questions to be NO! NO! NO! and "well, yes, pretty much!" :-) Despite the heat, each leg was better than expected with her best ever swim time, backed up by really pleasing bike and run legs.

There's a bunch of photos here, but these ones are my favourites...