Wednesday 28th June
Exercise: 8km Run - Treadmill, Situps
I was determined to get to the gym tonight and I'd also told people that I was going too, so it was a bit hard to back out of it without feeling really pathetic and lazy!!
As soon as I got in the front door I changed into my gym gear, then had to wait for hubby to get home. Had to keep giving myself little pep talks so that I didn't change my mind aboug going. As soon as hubby walked in the door I raced out - okay not exactly as soon as he walked in the door. I didn't want to get to the gym too early as it's normally pretty busy before 7.30pm, so I managed to catch a bit of Big Brother before I left.
It was nice and quiet at the gym thank goodness and I jumped on a treadmill straight away. Unfortunately it took about 25 minutes before I felt that I was actually in a comfortable running rythmn. I found it really hard to breathe properly and I was literally gasping for air. It was almost like I had bad indigestion and needed to do a really big burp!! Anyway the airways finally cleared and the last 3km felt good!
I always find that I sweat so much at the gym. They have the heating up way too high and it's because of that more than actually running that makes me drip so badly!! People always look at me funny when I get off the treadmill as it looks like I've just run a marathon!
I've got a day off from work tomorrow....yippee!! Will head out for a run at a decent hour of the day. Biggest decision is going to be where to run - so many choices!!
Alana's Quote: "Daddy let me show you how to do that!"
Tuesday 27th June
Exercise: 10km Run - Mullum Mullum Creek Trail
I swear it's getting colder and colder every time I get up early. It took me till about 7km before I warmed up enough to take my jacket off. Gloves and beanie stayed firmly in place!!
The new Grid 7's had their inaugural (sp?) run this morning. And was I p*#*ed off when I ran through a puddle within about 10 minutes of running...aaaghhh, my lovely new trainers are dirty already! They felt great to run in though. For some reason my legs felt really strong right from the word GO! Compared to the 6's they are much more comfortable with alot more cushioning (well it feels like it anyway!!).
So my big decision now is do I buy another pair of 7's or go for the 8's?? My girlfriend in the UK has been flying over to the US on a regular basis lately and has volunteered to buy me a pair of Grids while she's over there. I just need to let her know shoe size. Does anyone know if you can buy trainers Duty Free at New York Airport?
Forgot to mention that I bruised my thumb playing Netball last night, but because it doesn't affect my running at all, I'm happy to live with the pain!!
Alana's Quote: "Don't worry Dad, you're going to die well before me!"
Monday 26th June
Exercise: Netball Game
Wasn't sure if I was going to have to play Netball tonight as we now have 9 players, but one was sick and another had to work, so we were down to 7...which meant me playing! The funniest sight was me in as Goalkeeper and my opponent who was about 6ft 6!! I don't think I deflected the ball once when it was passed to her...she was just so tall!!
Tonight's game was a semi final, and at the end of the game we got told that it was a draw so we had to do another 5 minutes each end....we ended up losing by 1 goal, which was a bit of a shame, but also good because it meant we didn't have to worry about going up to the next league.
I made some Sweet Potato Scones on the weekend. Alana loved them, so I decided not to tell her what was in them, otherwise she would not have loved them!!
Here's the recipe for anyone who's interested.
Makes about 24
5oz (150g) plain flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspooon salt
1 tablespoon soft light brown sugar
2fl oz (50ml) mashed cooked sweet potatoes
1/4 pint (150ml) milk
2oz (50g) butter or margerine, melted
Preheat oven to 230 deg C/450 deg F/Gas 8
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add the sugar and stir to mix.
In a separate bowl, combine sweet potatoes with milk and melted butter or margerine. Mix well until evenly blended
Stir dry ingredients into sweet potato mixture to make a dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly, just to mix, for 1-2 minutes
Roll or pat out the dough to 1/2 inch (1cm) thickness. Stamp out rounds with a 1 1/2 inch (4cm) biscuit cutter
Arrange on a greased baking sheet. Bake until puffed and lightly golden, about 15 minutes.
Alana's Quote: "Mum that's disgusting!"
Me: "Oops, I didn't think it was going to smell!"
Sunday 25th June
Exercise: 20km Run - Warby Trail
I was absolutely gobsmacked when Michelle arrived to pick me up this morning at 7am....Marty was with her!!! For anyone who doesn't know Marty, he is not a morning person, so it was a shock to see him sitting there!! He brought his bike so that he could ride with us.
A nice turnout this morning...EJM, Beki, TigerBoy, Eat Em & Stormbikes, along with Michelle and Marty. We must have looked like a formiddable little group taking over the Warby Trail at that time of the day!
I wasn't sure how I was going to go this morning as I pushed myself quite hard yesterday at the gym. That may have been because I took a couple of AMP tablets and a couple of Heat Stack tablets too. They gave me so much energy it was fantastic. If I'd had more time I would have done a spin class on top of my run and my cross training!
I got to about the 15km mark and realised that I was probably going to struggle over the last 5km. Luckily most of it was downhill, but the last km was an uphill incline. I did have to walk a couple of times, which I was a bit disappointed about, especially after the great long run I had last week.
I've discovered that the problem I've been having with my 4th toe on my left foot is in fact Morton's Neuroma. I might have to book an appointment with my sports doctor to discuss it and see what can be done. It now starts to play up after about 7km of running. When I'm not running I don't even feel it or notice it at all. I also have "Morton's Foot Deformity" which is where the second toe is longer than the big toe!!
On a better note, I'm going to bring out my new Hurricane Grid 7's. Their first outing will be on Tuesday morning's run....exciting!!
Alana's Quote: "What a knob!" (she must have got that one from her father!!)
Saturday 24th June
Exercise: 10km Run - Treadmill, 30 Mins Crosstrainer, Situps
I was determined to get to the gym this morning as I've been pretty slack this week. Got there before the doors had been unlocked so had to wait for 5 mins or so. Luckily it wasn't very busy so I got a treadmill straight away.
For some reason this morning 10km went fairly quickly. Didn't do any real pace as I wanted to keep it fairly easy due to my long run tomorrow. I enjoyed the cross trainer too and was dripping wet when I walked out of the gym. My stomach is certainly feeling the ab workout that I did. Can't remember the last time that I did any abs, that's how slack I've been.
It was great to have a bit more time in the gym this morning. Normally I only get an hour and have to cram as much as I can into it, so to have 2 hours this morning was bliss!!
We went to the Drive In tonight, even though it was a bit wet. Nick and Alana have never been so it was a real buzz for them. I used to love going to the drive in when I was a kid, and even in my late teens with my boyfriend, used to love reversing the "wagon" and laying in the back watching the movies. Bit sad that there are hardly any around now!
Alana's Quote: "Oh crap!"
Wednesday 21st June
I'm on a bit of a downer today.
Have sat and thought about what other exercise I should be doing when I'm not running and I just can't get motivated to get off my arse and do any of it.
Take tonight for instance. Hubby will be at home so there is no excuse for me not to go to the gym for an hour or so, but because Big Brother is on and there's more intruders going in tonight, I would rather sit on my fat bum and watch that, than do something much better for me like going to the gym, or going for an hour long walk! I should be making the most of these times, but instead I choose the lazy option.
Yes I could always grab the weights and do something in front of the TV, but even that seems like too much hard work right now.
My food intake is also taking a big downhill turn. Bad food, and more bad food just seems to make it's way inside my mouth without me giving it too much thought or worry! My brain just says "yeah don't worry about it, you'll run it off tomorrow", which is not how I want to be thinking at all.
I have lots of good food surrounding me at work. I take fruit to work, I have cup-a soups in my drawer as well as water biscuits to go with my cream cheese, but instead I choose to eat Charity Chocolate, which costs me money too!!
I'm also finding it hard to get out of bed in the mornings. The only times I don't struggle is when I'm meeting Michelle (or anyone else that I'm running with) for a 6am run. I'm tending to go to bed a bit later, which then gives me the excuse that I'm too tired to get up early to go to the gym.
My gym membership runs out at the end of July and I have to make a decision whether to renew it or not. As it stands currently, I would be wasting my money!!
I so want to lose these last 5kg, and I so need to tone up my flabby bits, but I'm just way too slack to put in the hard work to get there......sigh!
Alana's Quote: "You look pregnant Mummy!" (just what I wanted to hear...NOT!)
Tuesday 20th June
Exercise: 10km Run - Mullum Mullum Creek Trail
My god, how cold was it this morning!! I had ice on my windscreen. Luckily I'd put a jug of water on the front porch last night so it was easy just to chuck it over the windscreen. It cleared easily with the wipers going!! In the UK I always had a can of De-Icer next to the front door. Haven't seen it sold over here though (not that it's really needed, mind you). It's literally a spray can filled with stuff that instantly dissolves the ice as you spray it on the windows.....great stuff!!
Anyway back to the run. Had 4 layers on this morning. I didn't even get warm enough to take my jacket off. The beanie kept my ears warm and my gloves kept my fingees warm too. I did take the gloves off about 40 minutes into the run as my hands had warmed up by then.
The run was a very slow, easy one!!
Alana's Quote: "Ooh Yeah Baby!" (she was playing her PSP!)
Monday 19th July
Exercise: Netball Game
I got a call from Michelle saying that the team only had 6 players. What to do? I didn't really want to play as I was quite apprehensive about my calf, but I also didn't want to let the team down.
So of course I ended up playing!! At least I was in as Goalkeeper (yes I know you're supposed to be tall to play this position!!). We played a team that were not very good so it wasn't much of a run around for me as the ball was constantly up the other end (thank goodness). We won the game 40 to 9!!
And I'm very happy to report that my calf feels fine. I was in two minds about saying yes when asked if I wanted to play next season, but being the sucker that I am, I was cajouled into it. Just hope that the calf holds up!!
My upper quads are a little bit sore from yesterday's run, but nothing like the soreness that I normally get after a long run....very happy!!
Alana's Quote: "Mum can we drive to the end of the rainbow?" (it was very close by)
Sunday 18th June
Exercise: 20km Run - Warby Trail
It was so nice to meet up with Michelle at a decent time of the day (11.30am), rather than the early morning starts we usually have. And we were blessed with the weather today. Clear blue skies and wonderful sunshine!
I drove up to Wandin and waited for Michelle, who was running up from Lilydale. She had great pleasure in scaring the bejesus out of me when she tapped on the car window while I was reading my book!!
We set off down the hill from Wandin, acknowledging with joy that I wouldn't have to run back up that hill as we were being picked up by Marty at Yarra Junction. It was apparent to me about 5km into the run that my legs were feeling fantastic. I normally start off quite slow so that my legs can warm up and unwind, but today they were loose almost immediately.
We had to stop at Woori Yallock for a quick toilet break, so we walked up the hill to the public toilets. Can't understand why they don't put toilets closer to the trail as so many people use it. Anyway once back out on the trail again the km's seemed to pass by really quickly. It was only when we got close to Launching Place that I started to feel a little weary, but nothing like I normally feel.
We got to Launching Place and realised that we were nearly 1km in front of Gav (we'd used the Virtual Partner again), so we slowed right down, which was what we both needed.
As we neared Yarra Junction I still felt like I had a bit more in my legs so upped the pace again. Stupidly I'd forgotten that Michelle had run 10km more than me and although her legs were trying real hard, they wouldn't go any faster, as she was pretty tired. So we just cruised into Yarra Junction, but still about 6 minutes faster than what Gav had estimated.
I take my hat off to Michelle. She ran nearly 30km today, which is just amazing. I know she's going to do great at the Melbourne Marathon.
Marty picked us up from Yarra Junction and dropped me back off at my car on the way back. My thanks to him for the Powerade and the much needed Snickers bar (yum!).
My legs are still feeling good, no real niggles from the knee, which is even better!! I still can't believe that one massage has made all the difference to my legs, but I am definitely going back in 2 weeks for another one!!
Alana's Quote: "Don't worry Mum, it wasn't your fault!"
Saturday 17th June
I had my first real massage this morning (not including hubbies lovely attempts of course)and it was absolutely fantastic.....and quite painful too!
I didn't realise how tight my muscles were until CV started to work on them. It felt like I had all these little nodules in my legs and as soon as CV pushed her thumbs into it, it just eased straight away. It was only when she had worked on one leg that I could feel how tight my muscles really were as the other leg was stiff as a board.
I can tense my calf muscle and not feel any tightening or pulling at all....and that's a first. Can't remember when my legs have felt this good.
Footnote: Hubby is now demanding $$ for his 'professional' massages!
Alana's Quote: Me: "It's going to be a lovely sunny day today"
Alana: "Is it going to rain?"
Friday 16th June
Exercise: 9km Run - Treadmill
The lure of the treadmill called to me again. I charged up my mp3 player last night so at least I had something to run to. I love the music that is currently on it and could just run and run and run to it, as long as it's not on a treadmill. Got to 9km this morning before boredom kicked in!
Eating has been really bad this week, and I mean REALLY bad! Too much charity chocolate (yes more charity chocolate has arrived in the staff kitchen!), the staff morning tea yesterday had a vast array of lovely lemon cake, custard scrolls and macaroons, and people seem to be having birthdays at work so there's loads of birthday cake being handed out too. This morning's being a gorgeous Mud Cake!
And I'm going to the party tonight of the person who's birthday it is today and they've told me that they're having a Vanilla Slice birthday cake. Now this is not just any Vanilla Slice cake, this is from the shop that keeps winning the Vanilla Slice Competition so I'm just going to have to have a piece of this cake.
Michelle is picking me up and we're going over to her place to have a few glasses of bubbly while we get ready.
And I'd forgotten the above when I booked a massage with CV tomorrow morning for 10am!! Hope she doesn't mind the smell of champagne coming out of my pores! Looking forward to the massage as my legs are feeling quite fatigued at the moment. Just hope that Beki & EJM's comments about how she always seems to find the niggly sore spots are not true!!
My one concession is that I'm trying to drink 2 litres of water per day, so if nothing else at least the body is hydrated!!
Alana's Quote: "Mum am I eating a dead chicken?"
Thursday 15th June
Exercise: 5km Run - Treadmill, 30 Mins Cross Trainer
I knew that I was going to be way too busy today to get my lunchtime run in with Michelle (in fact I missed lunch totally!!) so decided to head down to the gym this morning for a change.
I only managed 5km on the treadmill before I had to get off as it was just way too boring. To make matters worse, my mp3 was flat when I turned it on, so I didn't even have any music to distract me. I did enjoy using the cross trainer though. Haven't used it for ages.
I was in bed early last night and getting out of bed this morning was so much easier with 8 hours sleep under my belt. I think I actually bounded out of bed! Must do that more often...get more sleep that is!!
I've now done over 800km in my older pair of Hurricane Grid 6's, so will be looking to start using my new Hurricane 7's soon. The 6's still feel good but I know that lifespan is probably not much more than 800km. Also gives me a reason to start shopping around for a pair of Grid 8's. Will probably have to look to the US or the UK for a better price. Just too expensive over here.
Alana's Quote: "I fell on my buttocks!"
Tuesday 13th June
Exercise: 10km Run - Mullum Mullum Creek Trail
Went to bed at a decent time last night, so I felt quite good getting up at 5.30am this morning. And it didn't seem as cold as it has been lately, although that may be because I was wearing my beanie, which kept me all nice and toasty!!
Not much else to say really so I'll leave it at that!
Alana's Quote: "Mum, why did you just drive through that red light?" (in my defence, it wasn't red!!)
Sunday 11th June
Exercise: 19km Run - Croydon/Bayswater/Heathmont/Ringwood/Croydon
Remind me again why I wanted to get up at 6am to go out into the freezing cold morning??
I made sure that I had plenty of warm clothing on this morning.....5 layers to be precise, not including my skins and another pair of long running pants. My gloves and hat were also firmly ensconced on my hands and head!!
All the early birds were at the Croydon Aths track already and it wasn't even 7am yet!! Eat Em, Tigerboy, Petaljuice, Clarkey, Stormbikes and Michelle were ready and raring to go!.....well they were standing around shivering anyway!
It was great to run a different path for a change. I'd programmed Gav as per our last long run, to do 6.15km pace, which kept it nice and easy!
Didn't take long to warm up and the gloves came off pretty quickly, followed by my jacket. That was about as warm as I got though. No thoughts of taking anything else off!!
Clarkey led the way, which was in familiar territory, but which I'd never run before, so it was really weird to suddenly approach a main road and think "hey, I know where I am now".
I felt okay with the running but having done Step yesterday the calves were telling me that they really didn't think running up the hills was very fair!! We did tend to slow the pace down a little bit on these hills!!
All up it was a good run. The weather was good to us, even if it was really cold. The company was good and the route we took was really pleasant.
Oh yeah, Ice Skating was heaps of fun and I didn't even fall over once.....thinking about it, this might also have added to my sore calves!!
Saturday 10th June
Exercise: Step Class, 10 Mins Treadmill
I deliberately didn't put any risers under my step this morning but I can still feel that the calves got a good workout. Just hope that they don't hurt too much tomorrow as I'm doing a 20km run!! The woman who was teaching the class normally does some low impact work and then does some step work but she's hurt her back so it was a whole class of step. Took me a while to get back into the groove of remembering all the moves but after about 20 minutes I found that I didn't have to think too hard, just watch when the instructor did new stuff that I hadn't done before. Not sure if I'll go back next week or not!!
I then hopped onto the treadmill for 10 minutes and ran fast....well fast for me anyway. I had it on 12.5km. The first 3 or 4 minutes felt great, the next couple of minutes I started to labour a little bit, the last 3 or 4 minutes I had to really concentrate on my breathing and my feet!! Short but hard!
I wasn't going to do a long run this weekend, but I just couldn't resist. Most of the Ausrun crew will be doing 28-30km but I'm only going to do 20km. It's a 7am start so it's going to be cold and probably foggy too. Will be well rugged up for that!
We're going Ice Skating this afternoon. Meeting Michelle and her lot down there so that should be a bit of fun. Can't remember the last time I did Ice Skating....I just hope I don't break anything as I'm sure there'll be some spills!!
Alana's Quote: "I reckon this little fella's going to come out today!!" (talking about her loose tooth!)
Thursday 8th June
Exercise: 10km Run - Lunchtime (North Croydon)
How lucky are we with the weather at the moment. It was lovely to run at lunchtime today. We did the same course as last week and managed to knock a couple of minutes off our time this week. It felt good running!!
My body seems to like this distanace. Not sure if it's a mental thing, but running 10km just feels like the perfect distance to run at a good consistent pace!! I do still enjoy those long slow runs though (apart from the bit when my body doesn't want to run any more!!).
My food intake is going well. I've resisted the temptation of the charity box that's appeared in the staff kitchen and am happy to say that it's almost empty already. I think there's been a bit of a lull in people bringing the chocolate in to work, so it tends to go a bit quicker when one appears after a dry spell!!
I've agreed to meet one of my friends from work at the gym on Saturday morning for a 'high energy' class. I know this consists of doing some step plus other stuff and I haven't done step for at least a year so I'll need to take it easy as I know how much pain I'll be in after the class. Unfortunately I already know what I'm like when I get into a class that gives a good workout.....I tend to go flat out!!
Alana's Quote: "You're the best Mum I've ever had!!"
Tuesday 6th June
Exercise: 10km Run - Mullum Mullum Creek Trail
Another brisk early morning run in very cool temperatures. At least there wasn't any fog this morning! I carried my little flashing light so that other people could see us, due to a thread that I had read on the Ausrun forum. Thought I'd better do the right thing and be seen!!
Only 2 weeks to go until the shortest day...yippee!! Then the days start getting longer again. We're very lucky over here in Oz. In the UK when the clocks go back, it is pitch black by 4.30pm....At least over here there is daylight until 5.30pm!
I've embarked once again on the Shane Bilsborough Fat Stripping Diet. Today is Day 2. It's very basic and easy to follow, and the book is very informative. I've passed the book over to Michelle so she can jump on my bandwagon too and we can do it together!!
Didn't go to Netball last night but I'm still happy to report that the team won their match. I think we're a certainty to make the finals now. I still can't make up my mind wheter to continue playing next season or not. One minute I'm all for it and then I change my mind and shake my head at it!! Decisions, decisions!!
Alana's Quote: "Dad, you don't know what you're talking about!"
Sunday 4th June
Exercise: 28km Run - Dandy Creek Trail
A 10am start this morning meant that the sun was already out and shining when Michelle and I met up at Jells Park. Wasn't sure whether to wear my skins or not, but knowing how dodgy my knee can be sometimes I thought it best if I left them on.
We decided to use Gav as a pacing partner today. Set him for 6.15min k's and off we went. It's very hard to actually keep a consistent pace. Before I knew it we were about 200 metres in front of Gav, so we had to slow down a bit. This happened throughtout the whole run, so our natural pace is probably closer to 5.45. Just don't think we could keep it up for the whole 28k's though.
We got to the half way point and I had to stop the virtual partner bit as I wanted to check the distance so had to come out of that bit and go into another screen. Then I couldn't get the virtual partner bit back again!! So we started Gav again for the homeward journey.
We got to about the 25km mark and all of a sudden I got a real dizzy spell and had to stop and lay down....a bit embarassing and a bit scary too!
By the 26km mark my body was telling me that it didn't want to run anymore. I had to do some walking, which I didn't want but my body was adament about!! And I had to walk the majority of the way up the last hill to the car park. Michelle on the other hand was in great form and jogged all the way!!
On a good note, I had no trouble with my calf at all and my knee was just a little bit tender when we finished.
My eating on the other hand has been absolutely terrible!!
Beki, the reason for not posting is that I haven't done any exercise since Thursday....I did want to go to the gym yesterday but Mr Motivation didn't show up at all during the day!! However, Mr "lets go to KFC" was all over me, as was Mr "let's pig out on a family size block of chocolate"!
Alana's Quote: "Hey Mum here's a joke"
"Why did they build the Great Wall of China?"
"To keep the rabbits away 'cos there's too many rabbits!"
Thursday 1st June
Exercise: 10km Run - Lunchtime (North Croydon)
The sun was out and it was a perfect day for a run. I wore my new coolmax t-shirt that I'd bought at the Sri Chinmoy Willimastown 1/2 last week and it kept me nice and warm and was just right, clothing wise.
Everything seemed to flow really well today. My toe didn't hurt, my calf wasn't sore at all and I felt really good running. Poor Michelle on the other hand was having one of those bad run days! I know what she was feeling as I have plenty of these runs too!
Now that Michelle and I have put our cards on the table about what we both want from our running I feel so much happier. I feel like the pressure has been taken off me and I can enjoy my running again. I'm probably going to enter the Melbourne 1/2 Marathon rather than the full. Knowing the course gives me the added advantage of being prepared this year. And I can be at the finish line to cheer Michelle when she finishes the full marathon....and I can be ready with the camera too!
Alana's Quote: "I hate pears"
Me: "How do you know that as you've never eaten one"
Alana: "I just hate them!"
