Week 31 - 6 weeks to go |
Tuesday, 27 September 2011 22:21 |
Monday 26th September - ha, I thought I was tired yesterday. I did my sprint session at lunchtime today, a 25 or so degree day, so beautiful and warm (not acclimatised to warm yet). 3 x 1600m pieces. I did them at Kensington Gardens, around the big park there. Turns out, it is 1600m around. But 2 sides are uphill and 2 sides are downhill. My first sprint I was heading uphill for the first 800m, but when I got to the top and was ready to run down, my legs were sooo heavy from the weights (I didn't even look at my pace, it was so slow) and then from running uphill that I couldn't even move them fast enough on the downhill to keep my HR up properly (well, I did, but it was very hard work). I plannned the next two pieces so I started downhill, which meant I had a little downhill at the end of each piece, but my HR was well established high by then, so it didn't matter. And my legs were less tight. Still heavy and slow, but less tight. Tuesday - Weights session, plus foam roller. In bed by 8 pm Wednesday - found a post to give me hope. I was meant to do my run at lunchtime today, but I was too, too tired. I am in bed at 8pm most nights and am sleeping really well, but I am very tired. I had a nap instead. And then went to bed at 9pm!! Thursday - up early (5.30) for my run - 10km with 6.4 km at 10km race pace. Given the 'slow heavy legs uphill and the slow heavy legs trying to move faster downhill' situation, I figured 10km race pace meant a HR over 160 bpm. So that's what I did. I was rained on a little - cold, wet, squally weather this week - but I got it done. Weights again this evening, not so sore afterwards as earlier in the week. Friday - “A marathon is called a marathon for a reason. This is a long, steady race. Make sure to try and keep your highs and lows in check, don't go out too fast, try to keep it slow and steady. When the hard parts come, and they will, make sure to tell yourself to gently push onwards, the next mile will be better. This race is as much about your head as your body, so just keep it moving!” – Dr. Jordan Metzl, Sports Medicine Physician at Hospital for Special Surgery A stretching session Saturday - Weights session. Still very tired. Sunday - The big run. 35 km from home to the beach and back along the linear path. The long serssion is meant to give me a chance to check on my pre race preparation, check on my race day management from before, during and after, as well as just to get the miles in the legs and the brain used to the idea of just keeping on going. Thank goodness for entertaining podcasts!! But my preparation for this one was far from ideal. We'll start with my diet. Been pretty good on the whole, until this weekend. Indian takeout on friday night. Yummy, but heavy, salty, oily. We went to the markets yesterday morning and I bought lots of great looking veggies and seeds to try some sprouting. I was bewitched however, by the cake shop, and we had cake for breakfast (I did have strawberries first, but they kinda pale in comparison. Maybe I had cake for an early morning tea?) We also bought some fantastic looking cheese that we decided to share with Vern whilst watching the footy grand final - our token part of a footy match for the year. So after the market, we watched the end of True Blood, then I had a short snooze, then I went and did my weights session, coming home to a lunch of cheese, pate and a little salt and pepper squid with champagne. Championship prep, this. We then had the most awful dinner ever at a chinese restaurant at Hahndorf. One of those voucher deals. Awful, glutinous sauce poured over fatty fatty bits. Foul. We left after the first couple of courses as we couldn't face the rest of it. I felt very ill, and as dayloght saving started last night, it was bed time at 11pm before I knew it. Charlie has flown to Alice Springs this morning for a friends funeral tomorrow, so we had a bit of an alarm error (at 4am) as well as the real alarm at 5 am, closely followed by the snooze at 5.10 am. I drove him to the airport (business class form here for him, lucky guy!), then drank some water and headed off. No breakfast, no good nights sleep, no fancy protein shake. I did take a packet of Clif's shot blocks with me, and at 25 - 27 km I had 3 of those. They were good, they gave me something to look forward to, and between them and the 4 water stops, I made it home. Tired, but not having struggled with the session at any point, although the pace was slightly slower than target (target was 5.30, I did 5.40). Then somehow, my Garmin has done something funny and won't show me what I did. So no link, and no other details on splits, HR etc. Grr. None of my runs are going to be so big from here - all under 2 hours, so I will be trying to do them a bit faster - at 5.00 - 5.10 pace or so which is meant to be my target marathon pace. But, I am feeling really good and ready. I did the session today with far less suffering than I anticipated. The Slate Culture Gabfest worked wonders for 2 hours, then a bit of 'History of the World in 100 objects' (now in the mid 60's for that) and a bit of running music at the end with Beastie Boys to finish. Worked a treat! |
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This weeks links
The Cancer Council came out this week and announced that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption, and that alcohol should be considered to be as carcinogenic as smoking and asbestos are. As well as being highly associated with throat and mouth cancers, it is now found to correlate highly with breast and bowel cancers. Perhaps it should not be so surprising that a substance that can so alter mood and ability, even at very mild levels should turn out to be in fact, not good for us.
This story, an editorial from the British Journal of Sports Medicine earlier this year has some amazing targets - it ties in with our look at sitting and health, and is about developing healthcare systems that support exercise - recognise it as being as vital a measure of our health as is blood sugar levels or blood pressure. It recommends 150 minutes of physical activity per week for adults as a minimum. 30 mins on 5 days. For children, it is 420 mins / week - 60 minutes every day. How close are you?
This is another article on inactivity / obesity and health from Sports Medicine Australia, highlighting the link between an inactive childhood and a lifetime of battling depression. It is food for thought (!) these days where there seems to be much paranoia about safety of children away from their parents watchful eyes, and therefore a tendency to want to keep them closely under watch instead of encouraging more activity and indeed risk taking behaviours. The ability to judge situations for risk and to be able to take appropriate risks builds self esteem and resilience. Not much to do with bowel cancer awareness, but close to my heart as well.
Another article on sitting
This one is in really simple terms - if you walk 30 mins (as recommended) and sleep 8 hours, most of us still have 15.5 hours per day not moving. You cannot sit all day behind a screen, then drive your car and sit and watch tv with out it being bad for you. A good read.