Monday 15th August - my routine is all messed up this week with Milla's cut finger!!  She can't do gymnastics tomorrow, so I don't get my time to run while the girls are both there.  Likewise on Thursday - she is meant to be doing her trampolining session and she may or may not be able to do that - we'll have another Dr visit between now and then to check how it is healing.  So, some thinking was required.  First step was to do my long run on Saturday instead of rolling it over into Sunday - done.

Today, after getting the kids to school, 4.5 hours at work, a quick change at home then I drove over to the Uni loop to do my sprint session given the local ovals were all so waterlogged last week.  Rain this morning meant that I wasn't convinced they'd be any dryer this week.  5x 1000m sprints with 400m recovery each time.  It turns out that trying to do a sprint session the hour after your period starts (sorry if that's too much information, but I'm afraid that that is how it is, and most of the women around you suffer the same) is not conducive to that sprint session being much faster than 10k pace.  But my HR did get up where it was meant to, which is the real point of the session.

Tuesday - Milla decided she could go to gymnastics afterall and was practising cartwheels at school to prove her point.  So, I did a cross training session!  30 minutes on the rowing ergo, 15 mins on the cross trainer thingy - goodness that is tricky to get into the rhythm of!! - and 15 mins on the bike.  Followed by a little bit of yoga and a really good foam roller session while I was still warm.  Fantastic.

Wednesday - might as well stick with the plan for the week so so off for my tempo run (1 mile warm up, 4 miles at 10k pace and 1 mile cool down).  After a morning at work in the driving rain (well, at  least I was indoors, but it bucketed down all morning) and a whip around the supermarket it was off for the run before the school pickup run.  It was cold and blustery but the sun came out.  No records set today, slightly heavy legs after the session yesterday (just not used to cardio three days in a row, I suppose).  Now to see if I can come up with an exercise plan for tomorrow...

Thursday - that didn't happen, but I did get to walk quite a bit locally :)

Friday - foam roller session and much moving of furniture at home

Saturday - I couldn't sleep thinking of all the things I had to do today, so I got up just after 4 am and headed out for my run.  Just to remind myslef - mornings are the best.  The very best.  Today was a bit balmy and still and spring was in the air - blossom fragrance everywhere I went, even though that included through town, past men urinating along buildings at the end of the night.  Oh well.  Seriously, tho, it was a fantastic run.  I listened to a couple of great podcasts - one was a physio lecture / interview that had me so engrossed I actually thought my GPS Nike app on my phone was on the fritz again (it's done it a few times now - it has even had me running at 2 minute km's when it has been well off.  So I prefer MapMyRun and I now use my garmin watch as well).  It wasn't- it was just that the time was flying by.  I then listened to a couple of podcasts I downloaded the other day - Phedippidations - a running 'food for thought' type.  A good talk on the morality of quitting, then most of another on the pursuit of happiness and what motivates us.  Definitely passes the time - so much so that my 19.5 km was done in 1 hr 41, ave pace of 5.15 / km - not bad for the long slow conversational type effort.

Next weekend is the Adelaide marathon - just the half for me, but Beck will be doing the 12 km, so I may see her en route!!

After my run, some furniture moving, then to work - Strong Core class today, then a few more hours working, then more furniture moving - now moved to mum's for the next week or so while the floor boards get polished at home - and then to yoga!!  My first yoga session in 3 weeks, and I realised as I struggled to get up into the hand stand and the bent arm stand (my worst one) that I haven't done the hand stands in 6 weeks or so (holiday in queensland then last 2 weeks missed as well).  Great to be back - only 9 more class opportunites before the marathon now.

Sunday -  A glorious Adelaide late winter / spring type of morning, and a short jog to the Torrens to do some more guest coaching for the master's women at Pembroke.  They even asked me to do a lap in the quad at the end which was awesome.  Except that I am not much of a sculler, and we had to do a race piece.  I am sporting a fairly significant bruise on my left ribs from a poorly timed and coordinated finish.  It was fun.  And I raised another $120 towards the total - only $1300 to go, now :)

Monday 8th August - no training.  Amazing to realise that it is now less than 3 months away - 90 days to race day.

Tuesday - a scary session.  3x1600m sprints.  Tryig to work out where to run.  My schedule this week is crazy, so my only option timewise was directly after work and before my 2 evening meetings.  The weather has been very wet, so although I wasn't rained on this time, the ground is very boggy.  I was going to do most of it running many many laps at Kensington Oval, but the gravel track was flooded on the western side, and the ground around it completely boggy and waterlogged.  And there were school footballers training and I dodged a couple of wayward footballs, but did get hit by one.  So 2/3 lap there was enough.  I thought I'd use the primary school oval, and my 2nd sprint was there.  But again, the eastern (and lower) end of the oval was very muddy, so it was impossible to keep running as fast as I should have in that part of the oval.  I headed back out onto the streets for the 3rd piece, and was able to run more comfortably doing a big block around Kensington Park without needing to dodge traffic.   So my times were 6.50, 7.29 and 7.10  That first one was on pace - 4.0 min/km but the second one was too slow at almost 4.30 pace.  My HR was not as high as I would have liked, but I think the cold weather and my busy work schedule will keep that down a little.

Wednesday - massage - thank you, thank you, thank you Hartmutt.  So needed - those right glutes are a little testy right now.

Thursday - 11.2 km with 5km at tempo.  It felt quite hard today.

Friday - my daughters seventh birthday - Happy Birthday Milla Mouse.    And a foam roller session.

Saturday - woken early by a child with ear pain (at 4.30!!!) so when I wasn't asleep again by 5:30 I got up and ran.  It was really the best option for this busy, busy weekend.  Milla's birthday party today, Luca's soccer, Charlie's SALA exhibition opening, a neice to stay last night, an airport run this afternoon, a mother in law to stay tonight, a birthday surprise session with the panda's early tomorrow (at the zoo at 8am!!) and some family time in between.  Phew.  This is the first time I have had to miss yoga because the family commitments, so I have done pretty well, and I will try to get some more stretching in (hey - I did when I took Milla to the Dr this morning to get her finger dressing changed - she cut it badly last weekend so needs to spend 2 weeks keeping the finger dry and redressed every few days).

So, the run itself was 16 km from home, up to Collinswood, along Portrush Rd to Toorak Gardens and back through to Rose Park, Norwood and home.  Dead on 16km.  Maintained the required pace very comfortably (which is the aim) - 5.25 per km with a HR below 150 all the way.  Easy peasy, and back home by 7.15, ready for my brother in law to come for breakfast at 7.30 ;)

Sunday - A walk around the zoo, a family hike up at Morialta and a walk to work in the afternoon to take the cupcakes in for sale.  We call it 'recovery'!

Monday 1st August - wow, August already!!  3 months to go.  A power plate session again today - one more from this trial program to see if I plan to stick with it.

Tuesday - sprint session.  Sort of.  6 x 800m as fast as I can, which in the afternoon and with only 90 seconds recovery, gets not so very fast despite the amount of effort.  I had thought that last weeks 12 x 400m was a tough session.  It was.  But this one was tougher.  And it makes me very nervous about next weeks' 3 x 1600m session.  It turns out that the longer you are meant to sprint before a breather, the harder it is.  Yikes!

Wednesday - another power plate session, where I actually worked pretty hard!!  My legs were a bit shaky for a few hours afterwards, and the massage I get on the machine is not bad.  Not as effective as yoga or foam roller, but not do I do it as long.

Thursday - 8km at 10km race pace, in which I ran a little further from home than I intended (or rather, I took a longer route home than expectedto avoid needing to stop to cross roads), so I did 12 km in total.  I was a bit wirrued about this session beforehand, thinking it would hurt a fair bit, but it was ok.  I was glad to start jogging again at 8km, and am still getting used to the new gps watch, but it was a good sesion.  The hot shower after all that running in the rain was very good afterwards as well :)

Friday - as usual, my main foam roller session.  Not as bad as it has been, especially given how tight I was at yoga last sunday!

Saturday - 19km run with half on the trail (Pioneer Women's trail) and half on the pavement.   Which meant I did 10 km of uphill.  Some of that got pretty slow - I was meant to be doing planned marathon pace plus 30 - 40 seconds, which gives me 5.30  -5.40 pace.  I think I averaged 6.15 -ish on the way up, but 5.14 on the way down, so the overall average was pretty close (5.45, total time of 1 hour 48 for the 19 km).  My HR averaged 152 - right on the mark, with a max of 167 in some uphill sections, so I wasn't pushing too hard.  I was feeling much less sluggish than last week, despite a late night last night and a busy morning at work - I was almost reluctant to head out, but lunchtime today was always going to be the best time for this this weekend. I was saddened to hear today that one of my dear patients husbands was diagnosed with bowel cancer this week.  More tests are scheduled for next week, with surgery booked for the following week.  Ted and Thea, you are in my thoughts xx

Sunday - sadly, regretfully and most ashamedly too hungover and sick to do yoga :(   Time to do the last 3 months dry, I think.

Monday 25th July 2011 - back at work, back into routine.  A 30 minute 'Power Plate' session.  Good to loosen up especially across the chest and shoulders which are sore from the back bends at yoga yesterday.

Tuesday - 12 x 400m sprints.  90 seconds on, 90 seconds off is how it worked out.  A very solid session and some stiff muscles afterwards.

Wednesday - much running around.  no running :(

Thursday - 6.4 km at tempo (4.40 pace) in an 11 km run.  And a big angry blister in my left instep with my new shoes.  It doesn't seem right when I bought the exact same model shoe.  Maybe I am internally that left hip more than I am willing to acknowledge.  Thankfully, the knee has been great for the last month - no problems at all.  Must do my stretching more regularly, however.  100 days to go today!!!!!!!

Friday - foam roller stretching, power plate session, then a special guest appearance doing some rowing coaching for a group of masters women at Pembroke.  One of the ladies had to head home quickly, so I was asked if I wanted to row - absolutely yes!!!!  Only a lap of the Torrens, but my first ever session in a quad scull.  I'm going to try really hard to get back again in a few weeks.  A lovely thing was that they all donated some money to the Jodi Lee Foundation, so that target is getting closer - $7095 raised so far!

Saturday - 18 km run.  Very slow, long, tight muscles.  Not sure why it was so hard to day, and why I am so stiff, but it was hard all the way through, not just the last couple of km.  I still did it, though!!

Sunday - Yoga, a great stretch out, very very stiff to start and not exactly floating out, but I could get my hands to the floor again afterwards!!  Then a 40 km bike ride with Charlie, enjoying the amazing winter sunshine - I was wearing a singlet!!!!  Hooray - only 1 more month of winter :)