2 runs and a physio visit

Thursday, 16th
This morning I planned to do an easy hour but the heat and humidty was too much, both puppy and I were feeling it after 20mins and so rather than extending my usual route I just stuck to it and made it the usual 40mins.

Friday 17th,
Trip to the physio today and really good positive news. My physio couldnt give me enough praise and postive feedback for the improvement she could see both in my actual running and with the stretches and exercises. She also used electrodes to test that I was activating my leg muscles in the correct order when my foot went down, and that they all held enough strength to not negatively affect another. The physio has recommended I concentrate on longer runs for the time being and stay away from hills. Next visit, 10 days.

Saturday 18th,
Small group at the Regatta this morning, I later found out that one of the groups had the week off training. Cheryl and I headed out to the gardens, contray to last week my legs were moving quite well and I got to the 15min struggle point a good minute or so quicker than last week. Following on with the 10% rule I just wanted to do an extra 10mins today and headed out threw the gardens towards the Riparian, the sun was getting pretty hot at this point so we came off the river walk and headed back towards the gardens and back to the Regatta. I stopped for 30seconds on the way back to the Regatta to stretch and walked the final 500meters for the same reason, other than that all was good. Total run time, 1hour 15mins.

Catch-up blog

Saturday 11th,
I woke up on Saturday morning and couldnt believe how dark it was for 5am. Two minutes later it was bucketing down with rain, so that explained a lot. Last time I didnt go running due to heavy rain I was told there wasnt a drop in the city, so I decided to continue with my plan of meeting at the Regatta.

Numbers were down slightly, probably to do with the weather. Two of my usual running buddies werent there and my original plan of a slow 15km went out the window as I didnt think I would be able to go that far by myself. I hooked up with another girl there and suggested I was going to do about 12km. After the first couple of km's though I was struggling, I was only wanting to run at a (too) slow pace. I promised myself I'd keep up for 15minutes and then let them go. I chatted to Tesso for a while which helped, but my legs just wouldnt turn and I slowed right down as I didnt want to stuggle. Luckily I'd brought my mp3-player with me and so turned that on and got lost in my music.

The group started stretching out ahead of me, Tesso was still in the gardens when I got there (I hope you werent waiting for me, sorry if you were!) and then she continued on down the river while I opted for a loop of the gardens. When I got to the Goodwill bridge I toyed with the idea of going over to Southbank, but then decided to do a few bridge reps a la Pat style before heading back along to Regatta. Knee gave me a bit of pain on the way back, hopefully just a blip. Due to see the physio on Friday again for a progress report.


Tuesday, 14th
No running today, will make up for it on Thursday and try and head out for a cruisey hour, rather than my usual 35-40mins.

Just a small one

Thursday morning and back out on the road after three mornings of just walking the dog. Just a small run, it was meant to be 5km but I wasnt thinking and turned too early to come home so it would have been more like 4km. Nevermind, I've promised myself I'm not going to overdo it this year and I'm sure one less K won't hurt.

On other news I'm considering being a pacer for the Brissie Half. I'd have to do a really slow group and would treat it just as a long training run.. thought it might be fun to do though and have a bit of confidence after Caboolture, as if I can run 19km in two hours with only 3 weeks proper training, then I should be able to run a half in, say, 2.10/2.20 with 3months training.... thats the theory anyway, hope I dont let anyone down!! eeek!

Caboolture Dusk to Dawn

partly posted on CR!!

What a great, if not hot and tiring night.

I opted for 6-hour relay event and was more than a bit nervous about letting down the team, having only run more than 10km twice since Noosa. It was actually strangely calming though to know all I had to do was run for two hours, there was no need to get to an end as such, when the two hours were up I was gonna stop regardless of how far I'd gone!! :)

I had a ball out there, the first twenty minutes were a bit hard, this just to show how important those run throughs are and why I should have done them! With fresh legs I was able to pick up on some of the 6/12hour runners and it was great to be able to see how they were getting along and hopefully spur them on a bit. My goal had been to run 6min/K, so 3mins a lap, my first couple of laps were about 3.15's, as I got warmed up a bit I didnt get any faster, but they did feel easier. The 50mins went by without a problem, I grabbed one of my fuel belt bottles off a table just before the first hour was up and took two laps to drink that. I couldnt believe how hot it was, I was almost praying for it to rain! I had a couple of dark moments at the beginning of the second hour and started playing every running mind game I'd ever heard of to get me through it, it seemed to work. Other than once for about 30meters while taking my second drink I didnt walk for the full two hours and although I didnt quite get to the 20.5km I'd hoped to (with secret ambitions of then going off for an extra lap and a bit to make a proper half marathon!) my lap time never varied more than about 5 seconds faster/slower, so for the 19km I did manage (I think) I am feeling quite pleased at how consistent I was.

There was SO much support it was unbelievable, I dont think the guys at the pub missed a single lap, not to mention my own two co-members of "Lap Dancers" (did I mention we won our category... go girls!! :D). Clairie, Tesso, Nick and random people I got the runners '10 second conversation' in with on the way around, all great support. Liz N went fantastically and my hat is off to anyone who can run 6 or 12hours at any time, but especially when its so humid.

My only regret of the night was not being able to see Tesso finish; after my run I took a couple of anti-inflam's, at the time it was a good idea (and still probably better than my knee not being able to move) but they actually made me physically sick, and at 1am I had to give up and go home... next year I'll know better though... and there will definitely be a next year :D