Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Last Run

I did my last run for 2009 this morning - a nice 11.5k run down to a golf course then all along the river, through the Uni. of Queensland and then back home. It was drizzly and hot and really humid and the humidity got to me by about 7k but I ran it and I'm patting myself on the back.

I ran past a man that Iven and I and the dogs had walked past on Monday. I remembered him because he stopped to let us pass twice - before and after Nelson took his toilet break. Well, he obviously remembered me too. I got a big smile, a wave and a loud "Happy New Year" Made me smile too.

The other thing that made me smile was the rainbow. It went from horizon to horizon - beautiful! Finished off the year wonderfully.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 2010 and all your dreams and goals are fulfilled.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Running towards 2010


Being that it's only a day and a half till New Years it's time to talk resolutions. 2010 is going to be the year of the marathon. I've got my marathon picked out and I now have a partner to run it with. Just yesterday Jenny (my very fit 56 yo triathlon friend) asked if it'd be ok to run Melbourne Marathon with me. Silly question - of course it's ok.

2010 will also be my very last year of High School. (big cheer from the crowd) That will be my 11th year at Brisbane State High - preceded by 13 years at Indooroopilly Primary School. The finish line is in sight. (I'm not counting tertiary education here - I'm just counting my responsibility to get kids onto buses/ferries, ironing uniforms and other parental duties)

Apart from that I'm just aiming to get back to full strength with my running and enjoy my life leaving all the emotional crap of 2009 behind.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Doh!!!


I've been feeling really good about my progress lately. I've had lots of runs where I've achieved my goals for that run (ie. not feel exhausted for the rest of the day) Well today was speed session again and we were set 400m reps with 100m recovery. The aim was to get between 6 and 10 done. The first felt comfortable at 1:46 but the first always feels comfortable. The next was slightly slower 1:48 then they fovered around the 1:50 mark until I got to rep no 8 where it blew out to 1:55. I really wanted to finish the session so I started on the 9th rep - back down to 1:48 and I'd intended to take it slower and rep no 10 was 1:44 (with a little dry-reaching at the end. Yuk!)

Not too bad, I thought ... until I got home and saw my last lot of times for 400 reps. Most were around the 1:47 mark. Admittedly I'd only done 8 reps that time but today I was feeling so good and it felt sort-of fast. I know it shouldn't worry me and I should be pleased to complete it as well as I did but it's such a long way off the high 1:30's/ low 1:40's of July

Patience, Grasshopper!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Sydney


Sydney was fast and frenetic and fun. It was three days of walking, shopping and coffee and I loved it. My sister Julie is a great travel companion. Her ideas of what would be good to do melded with mine so we never argued over activities.

We left early Friday and had arrived in Sydney before 9. Caught the train to Central and walked less than 500m to our hotel. Our room was ready so we could take up our luggage, dump it and be off to explore.

Our first port of call was Paddy's Market. Julie and I both seem to have an issue with map-reading so it took us at least 15 mins to walk there despite it just being over the road. Maybe if we'd looked away from the map and at our surroundings..? We needed to eat so we ended up with all the workers in a local cafe having the $5 special - fruit toast and coffee. Then we hit the markets.

From the markets we walked over to Darling Harbour, wandered around and had a late lunch. Then it was back to the room for a pre-show nap. Vietnamese for dinner and we were at the Capitol Theatre by 7:30.

Wicked was fantastic. The costumes were amazing (I wanted to see how they were put together)
The sets were seamless and the music was flawless. I really enjoyed the whole performance and couldn't get "Defying Gravity" out of my head for the rest of the trip.

Saturday we set out early for a walk down to Bondi. It took about one and a half hours and we felt like we'd pre-paid breakfast. Can I say that the view from our table at the cafe was beautiful?! We caught the bus back to Paddington to the Saturday Craft Markets then walked back into the city, around Circular Quay and the Rocks. We walked from 7 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon with just a couple of breaks. Back to the room for a nap and some reading (or was it reading then a nap?) then Darling Harbour for dinner and to watch the Christmas fireworks.

Sunday we were up early again to walk to Rushcutter's Bay for our sailing experience. I was a little anxious about getting sea-sick but I shouldn't have worried. I was fine and I loved it! It was so peaceful on the water. I felt like I'd left all the baggage from this year out there. I got off the water feeling so light and free. We filled in the rest of the day wandering around then back to the airport and a warm welcome home.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Burying My Head in the Sand


It's only eight days till Christmas. Only seven more shopping days! I still have to buy for Iven, Mum, Dad and Natalie (my walking friend). I still have no idea what to get for any of them so what do you think I'm going to do ? That's right, I'm going to head right away from Brisbane and fly down to Sydney for a long weekend of self-indulgence. I think it's the ultimate in putting my head in the sand but it may actually provide inspiration. I'm hoping to get in a few hours at Paddy's Markets possibly tomorrow when the weather man has predicted rain. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that just the right thing jumps out at me.

On the running front I've done two sessions this week. Speed on Tuesday was good. Coach Chris made me sit out one of the reps after last week's poor recovery. I felt pretty good for the session and afterwards. Today's run was nearly 11k and I managed the hill that I walked up last week. I did run a little too hard on some of the middle k's but once I have a nap in a little while I'll be feeling fine.

Heard from Sammy in London today. It's snowing!!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Another Good One


I wasn't looking forward to yesterday's 10k run after Wednesday's aborted debacle. Silly me got chatting to Fiona (who is FAST) just as we started off and this meant that I was running a little quicker than I'd intended (Note to self - stay at the back of the pack) At about 3k in I told Fi I needed to back off the pace a little and I did. Peter G was just a little behind me and it had worked so well pace-wise running with him last week that we just fell into step again. Chris caught us at the Goodwill Bridge and trotted home with us. A very pleasant run despite my misgivings.

I backed up in the afternoon with a 12k walk with my long-time, walking-partner-in-crime Natalie. It was hot and sticky but the company made the time go so quickly. I love Saturdays!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Sam Graduated


My first-born graduated today. The ceremony was full of all the pomp and circumstance that you'd expect. People in silly gown in 35 degree heat. People wearing silly hats. Lots of parents wearing proud, silly little grins. I was one of those silly grinners - so proud of my boy that I felt like crying through most of the ceremony and I hate crying! I especially hate public crying but today it didn't matter. No matter how much I tried to distract myself I let a few wet ones spill.

I've been trying to work out why I was such a wuss and I've decided that today has marked the day that my boy is all grown up. He's ready to launch into the world and establish himself as a professional and a man. He's someone that I nurtured and encouraged and loved and he's become someone that any mother would be proud of. Congratulations Sammy!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Getting Ahead of Myself


Remember how not just five days ago I had a good run? Well on the strength of that run I set myself a goal for speed session this week. The goal - to run the entire session. And I achieved that goal. And I felt pretty good afterwards but I didn't have my high GI carbs straight afterwards. By 9:30 I was feeling pretty average but a hot chocolate and a rest picked me up.

Wednesday was rest day but I got woken up early by my early-departing workers and didn't get a rest later.

Today I dragged myself out of bed after resetting my alarm a couple of times. In hindsight I should have turned it off. I was out the door by 5:30 and was attempting to emulate last Wednesday's 11k run (okay it was 10.77 but 11 sounds better) My legs felt heavy going up Stanley Tce but it's all uphill so I just took it easy. My heart rate wasn't too bad. I hit the crest of the hill and from there it was all down for a while and I started to feel a bit better. Crossed Moggill Rd and up the hill to Indro shops, down through the train station and then up Harts Rd. I think that's where I became unstuck. One of my friends lives on the street and her husband was standing out the front. I said hello to him and then headed up the hill (another hill!!!) but ran it a little faster than I should have just in case he was watching. (Silly, vain woman!) Boy was I tired when I got to the top. My legs felt weak but my silly head kept pushing me. I got to the bottom of the next hill and realised that this was ridiculous so I walked. Then I reassessed the rest of my run and cut out the last loop. I got back to Oakman Park, saw that I'd run 8k, which was what Chris had set, and walked the last little bit home.

We learn more from our mistakes than from our successes and today's lesson was - Pride cometh before a fall. I need to stick to my run plan and hold back. I am feeling fine now. Will rest again tomorrow and then a LSD run on Saturday.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Happy Runs and Christmas Rats


It's been a while since I mentioned running and there's been a good reason for that. It's not that I haven't been running. I've done my pathetic, slow speed, my Thursday 8-10k and my Saturday 10k but there's been little to write home about. I run, I come home feel crap and need a sleep by midday. That is until last Saturday. (drum roll please) I did my 10k and I felt good and continued to feel good for the rest of the day. (Little happy dance) It's been 8 weeks of very minimal progress and equally minimal running. The running's felt fairly unpleasant compared to how I normally feel.
Saturday's run felt good! I enjoyed it! Yay!

And on a totally different topic, we finally put our Christmas tree up yesterday. I've been putting it off because I am basically lazy but I really couldn't put it off any longer or we'd have nowhere to put our presents. I pulled out the tree from it's storage area and noticed that the cardboard box it lives in was looking a bit worse for wear. Then I smelt it - the unmistakable odour of rat! Some dirty rat had decided to re-enact the nativity scene in MY christmas tree. Luckily they'd departed but they hadn't taken the smell with them. A good spray with Glen 20 (pine scent) had it smelling like a pine forest.


Thursday, December 3, 2009

I'd Like to Thank...


You guessed it - I got an award at the squad Christmas dinner last night. Actually it was two awards, a merit award ( for meritorious behaviour?) and (drum roll please) "Cook of the Year" award. Only I could join a running club and end up with a cooking trophy! I've been chuckling all day about it.

The thing is, I love to bake. I love to share my baking and I love when people tell me that they love my baking. I'm going to share two secrets here - the secrets to why my baking's so good.
#1. I have only a couple of recipes that are fool-proof and I recycle them over and over again.
#2. I play my favourite music when I bake. And I sing along. Loudly! It adds a special touch of joy to any recipe and I swear you can taste it.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Xmas Shopping


It's finally happened! The moment of realisation that sticking my head in the sand was not going to make Christmas go away. So this morning I put on that slightly frantic expression that accompanies Christmas shopping and headed to Indro Shopping Centre. I can't say it was the most productive excursion but that's my fault for allowing Iven (husband) to come with me.

At this point I'd like to say that Iven is reluctant to make a decision at the best of times. He follows me around, gets in my way and asks questions that the details on the box have already answered. We managed to buy Luke's gift but it was such an ordeal that enough was enough and it was time to come home.

From this moment forward I solemnly vow to complete the shopping by myself!