Monday 18th April 2011 - Did my long run this morning - got up early to fit it in, felt tired and slow and flat.  I think sitting in the car for 5 hours yesterday probably didn't help.  On the topic of sitting however, I have found a really good article talking about the ill effects of sitting.  It is something I have been very aware of through my membership of Sports Medicine Australia as there are some researchers around Australia and the rest of the world who are not exercise physiologists so much as they are 'inactivity physiologists'.  Inactivity is much worse for you than simply not exercising much.  Whenever I read articles like this one from the NY Times, I get all excited about spreading the word - you must move, you must move.  It is not a choice.  You are not too busy.  You can't be.  Take the stairs, walk down the street, pop up and down at work.  Do not be chained like a bunny to your desk.  Move.

After my 65 min run, I had breakfast and then went to yoga.  I was still feeling very stiff, and had a bit of a reaction to some of the standing thoracic extension poses - a little light headed.  I felt fine afterwards, and got through the rest of my busy work day well.  In between my chiro appointment with the lovely Adrienne and my first massage with Hartmut - he lives up to his reputation!  I have some bruises, but he found some awesome spots in my calf.

Tuesday - my sore knee didn't wake me up last night.  Doesn't happen much in the last 3 months.  Maybe those calf trigger points are a big part of the problem.  It's a shame my next massage appointment is 5 weeks away.

200 days to go!!!!!!!!!!

I had planned to go to the complimentary yoga class tonight, but I still felt tired and flat.  I realise I would probably have felt better for doing it, but there you go.  Did my BAS instead.

Here is a video about Grete Waitz who won the NY marathon 9 times in 10 years and died today of cancer at 57.  NY Road runners put together the video which shows some great footage of the race.  I'll be 90 mins slower than she was.  But that's cool.

Also in the news today, Clarence Hartley ran the Boston Marathon on the weekend.  He started running at 68.  When he had prostate cancer and non - Hodgkins Lymphoma, he decided he'd like to run Boston, the oldest race in the world.  So he qualified, and did the race on sunday at the age of 81 in 4.26!!  Very inspirational, but I sure hope I can run faster than him

Wednesday - sprint session.  4x 200 m at 9.5 / 10 effort and then 3 x 1000m at 8.5/10 effort.  With 2 mins between each set.  This time, I was able to do my run first thing, so avoided the nasty afternoon version.  I started off feeling still pretty tired and flat (I fell asleep on the couch last night by 9pm), but I was able to do my 200's in a reasonable pace (I forgot to check the times properly this time) of 3.30 pace (some people can run marathons at that pace - it's as fast as my legs will go!!).  The 1000m pieces were also not too bad, holding a pace of 4.20 per km, putting me squarely at the right mark for a 45 min 10k.  I didn't enjoy any part of the session except the end, because it was over.  I spent most of my laps of the old OSF wondering why I am really doing it.  But I did them, and I did them at the right pace.  Well done me!!!

After heading home, shower, breakfast, housework then yoga.  More headstands, handstands, elbow stands and shoulder stands as well as standing balance.  This is my cross training instread of weights.  I don't need to lift metal weights - just my weight.  I was then also considering going to Pilates tonight, but my day ran away with me, and when I got home at 5.45 pm, I figured 2 sessions in a day is enough - I don't need to do three today.

Work and kids tomorrow, then heading to Kangaroo Island on Friday for the very long weekend, so I will do my next training session on saturday (week 3 of the program), and need to plan week 3 and 4 to account for the half marathon the following weekend.  Closer examination of the program reveals week 4 to be a recovery week, so I am not sure how my biggest run to date fits with that, but we'll be fine.

Thursday - no training

Friday - no training.  Travelling to Kangaroo Island and setting up camp.  Busy enough.

Saturday - Cruise intervals session.  I downloaded the PDF of the training program to Stanza on my iPhone, so I am able to look up the whole thing as i need to - I will also check the marathon program to see if that was PDF rather than just a web page.  Certainly makes it easier.  Anyway, while Charlie was off fishing with Luca, one of our camp neighbours popped back and offered to take the girls to the jetty so I could do my run - a 90 minute fishing trip turned into a 4 hour jaunt!  So - 3x6 mins at what was meant to be just slower than race pace, so around 4.40 mins / km.  PRE of  7/10.  The course I chose was hillier than I anticipated, so my speed was slower - I was around 5.0 pace instead, but kept the PRE to 7- 7.5, HR near 170.  Then a 20 min jog home again.

I did a bit of yoga on the beach in the evening, with a walk to loosen up.  Picture perfect Adelaide autumn weather this weekend, even down here on KI.  Absolutely perfect.

Sunday - no training.  I could have done a proper beach yoga session.  I didn't.  I'm on a family camping trip and we are having fun spending time together and exploring.  And I am the mum.  I still have jobs to do.

Half marathon in a week, long run for this week in the morning, sprints mid week.  I will have to fit some yoga in at home with the kids to feel ok for the longest run on sunday.

Monday 11th April 2011  - My daughter had a specialist appointment at the hospital, right in the middle of my yoga class time.  So between classroom help, supermarket shopping and Dr's appointments, my day went.  No training.

Tuesday - My longer aerobic session, only the second session of the first week of my 10k program.  I did my normal gymnastics run, although Luca elected to hang out at the YMCA rather than come on his bike with me today.  I was faster.  11.56 km, 1hr and 40 secs, average speed of 11.4 km/hr, pace of 5.15 mins/ km.  Feeling much better, especially when I consider I usually hate the afternoon runs.  Perhaps being almost 17 kg lighter than 3 months ago makes a difference....

Wednesday - the  Morrison VIP day raising funds for the Jodi Lee Foundation!  It was great to go in there this evening and meet more of the gorgeous girls at Morrison, and try on more of the gorgeous clothes and walk out with some more of those gorgeous clothes in a carry bag.  They created a wonderful atmosphere in there with Champagne, Perrier and petit fours (macaroons - yum!) and the wonderful staff.  A fun evening, and Mum came out with some gorgeous clothes as well!  It seemed to me to be a great fundraiser for the Foundation - yippee!

Other than that - work, kids.  Charlie took the kids out to tea as a treat while I went shopping with mum - Thanks Charlie!!!  No training for me.

Thursday - sprint session.  After getting the kids organised for their school sports day, I took the opportunity to do my sprint session whilst they had their faces painted and did their classroom duties.  I was able to be back in time for the start of festivities!  And then got to hang out at sports day all day long.  My legs are tired!!

The program today called for 4x200m and 3x600m with 2 minutes between each effort.  Each of the 200's were run in just under 50 secs (which is just slightly faster than a 50 min target, but well outside the 40 min pace of 42 secs) and the 600's were run in a little under 3 mins each (a bit slow even for 50 min pace, which asks for 2.45 per 600m).  Having said that, the track I used was the old Kensington oval, and I think it is a little longer than 400m, but not really enough to fuss over.  And I was only glancing at my watch for times.  And I was trying to keep to the right RPE (that perceived exertion thing again), rather than running as fast as I possibly can.  The 200's were flat out, but the 600's were meant to be at 8- 8.5 out of 10, which they certainly were.  It will be interesting to see how I improve as I get to the tail end of this program in 7 weeks time.  I have now completed week 1 of the program, and I have enjoyed these shorter more intense sessions.  Today was only a 50 minute session of 8 km.

Friday - kids, work, then off to see 'Wicked'.  It was fun.  I didn't train :)

Saturday - start of week 2 of the 10k program, Cruise intervals session of 2x7mins @ just slower than race pace with 4 mins recovery in between.  I guess the race pace I am using is around the 45 min mark, so 4.30 per km, although I am not yet any good at keeping that pace really consistent.  I can't run fast enough for the 40 min pace.  This was a late afternoon session for me as I had an early start at work, but enjoyed the stretch out in the Strong Core class at 8.15.  After work I chose to have lunch and an afternoon rest rather than to run straight away, so even though I went out at 5 pm for the run, I still felt pretty uncomfortable.  Each piece felt hard, and I struggled to keep lunch down in the middle of each run, but was better in the last couple of minutes of each one.  I do feel better now having done it, but gee, I don't like these afternoon sessions.  Maybe next time I need to get out of bed at 5.30am on these work days.  That's a level of commitment I wasn't really planning on yet.

This week I also signed myself up for the Greenbelt half marathon in 2 weeks.  21.1 km downhill from Athelstone to the city along the linear park.  It will be the first running event I have ever done, my first experience of running in a crowd (although I am not sure how many will be doing it - probably only a couple of hundred people), my first attempt at being organised for a starting line as a runner, rather than a rider.  It will also be my longest run for a couple of months in this phase of my program as well a my longest run ever to date.  Just as well it is practically all downhill

Sunday - The first stage of the Heysen trail.  Charlie has signed up to walk the whole of the historic Heysen trail over the next 2-3 years or so with the Friends of the Heysen Trail Group.  This is the start of 'End to End 6', and the group # 3 will finish later this year.  So down to Cape Jervis we head in the pre dawn to do the first section of 15 km from Cape Jervis to Cobblers Hill.  It is an effecient service wherre we meet at the finish point and catch a bus to the start of the section.  The group moved very slowly as a whole, so I gather they will look at splitting us into two groups.  There were times when we were only walking for 10 mins when we had to stop and wait for 10 mins for the last of them to catch up.  It was an absolutely glorious day, however, walking along the bottom of the penisula with Kangaroo Island just over the calm blue water, under a flawless blue sky with millions of Monarch butterflies doing their thing.  The 3 hour hike took over 4 hours as a result, however.

No yoga at all this week, so although next week is a very busy week at work and a short week because of Easter, I have been very strict on not scheduling out my Yoga sessions, despite opening up more hours at work.  I will get to 2 sessions at Kensington, plus the one at Lululemon.  The following week has 2 public holidays and is school holidays, so none will happen in that week either, unless I manage to do a sesison at home without the kids jumping on me (not likely).

Monday – April 4^th 2011 – no training.  Busy morning at school – reading, supervising than going on an excursion.  Then work in the afternoon.  I am very tired from the weekend conference.  I’ll get back to yoga this week, and plan on a couple of good runs, including a time trial.  Really.

Tuesday - I jogged the 4.2 km to the Lululemon store in the city, did the complimentary Ashtanga yoga class and jogger home.  It was interesting how slow it felt running in to town - those evening runs after a busy day at work, compared to the run home again, despite it being ore uphill.  Pace 5.28 mins/km.  The yoga stretch out was lovely.

Wednesday - Another yoga class, this one the proper level 2 Iyengar session.  I managed the bent arm stand today!

Another day, another article about bowel cancer screening - bowel cancer is the second most common cancer after lung cancer in Australia.  Then prostate, then breast.  Get tested!!

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/australians-unaware-of-bowel-cancer-toll-20110406-1d33a.html

My Pilates class at Lululemon was cancelled this evening, which was a shame - I turned up bright and eager to locked doors.

Thursday - my 10 km timetrial!!  It represented the hardest, longest session I have had to do in isolation in a very long time.  This game is soooo mental.  Trying to work out how hard to go, how early - I was just sitting on my usual 160 HR to start with and it took ages for me to feel comfortable to get it up higher.  I guess I was at 165 from the 5km mark or so, and then 170 from the 6 km mark, 175 from 7 km and finished on 182 (I thought my max was 178 - shows I don't normally work hard enough!).  So I did my 10 km in 50 mins, 46 secs, for a pace of 5.04 mins/ km.  Pretty happy with that as a starting point :)

I calculated via a website (so reliable, I know!), and it says my VO2 max is 39.31 ml/kg/min.  For a 37 year old female (me), that rates as the very top of 'excellent'.  Another 0.7 and I get rated as 'superior'.  Ha!!  In my heyday my VO2 max got to 4.2 L, so I am only a little shy of that on this sort of testing.  The testing I had previously was very proper testing in exercise physiology labs with masks that collected all the air in and out and analysed it and lovely(!) sports scientists who pricked our fingers or ears for blood every 5 minutes.  Thank you to  SASI (Pitre Bourdon and Sarah Woolford) and the AIS (Allan Hahn and Beck Tanner) for that!  But now I can't actually find any good stuff to do with this information.  I thought I would be able to derive more training zone information and pacing information, but I can't find that anywhere.   In my trawling on the web, I did find a good looking 10k training program, over 8 weeks.  Ben Wisbey wrote it, and he points out that getting speed established first will help the distance work and how that will help your endurance.  Also, it is a bit boring training at the moment, so this program is still a 3 times per week program.  It just gives me a bit more workload and purpose.  I'll start it now, get some speed up and that will help me in the second half of the year and when I start my actual marathon training program.

Friday - A physiotherapy association breakfast at 7, followed by work, kids, cooking, cleaning, ironing.  All good.  But no training.  I did some planning for the 10k program, though.

Saturday - My first 10k training session. A 'cruise intervals' session, meant to be at 6-7/10 PRE (perceived rate of exertion).  The guide says if you are aiming for a 50 min 10k, you need to do this session at  5.05 - 5.15 mins / km, and if you are aiming for a 40 min 10k, you need to work at 4.05 - 4.12 mins/km.  I'm not sure my legs go that fast.  The idea is that you are going just a little slower than your 10k pace, to improve anaerobic threshold, strength and runnign economy.  The session was 2x5 mins at this pace with 4 mins rest in between.   I did it at around 4.30 mins / km, which meant I was working quite hard by the end.  Possibly not still at only 7/10 effort, but I need to be aiming faster than what I did on Thursday, surely?

The total session was only about 45 mins, 7.5 km with my warm up and cool down, and I did most of it as laps at the local oval.  It felt like a good start, but the lower volume feels weird (slack, really).

Sunday - all kid orientated, and by sticking to my rule of not running 2 days in a row, meant no exercise.  Who can actually do yoga at home with 3 kids in the house?

Monday 28^th March– 1.5 hrs of yoga level 2 – Hand stands, head stands, lots of twists.  It is hard work, but I am getting there!

Tuesday – a work and kid day again, with gymnastics for the girls, so an opportunity to run with the boy on his bike.  My goodness, it felt like I was running through treacle today!  My legs were slow and heavy, and it didn’t improve until about the 8 km mark.  I started very slow (well, it felt very slow, but was not too bad), averaging 9.9 km/hr, but was pleased to see it improved by the end of the run, to average 10.3 km/ hr, 5.57 mins / km, 12.0 km in 1 hr 11.  I do not enjoy the afternoon runs, so I will keep battling away with them.  I figure it is good mental training, which I will need on my long runs as I go along.

iMapMyRun: 29/03/2011 5:45 PM Find more Runs in Walkerville, SO

Wednesday - no specific exercise.  But my knee doesn't hurt as much anymore, and I am not taking any anti inflammatories or panadol anymore.  Just fish oil and glucosamine each day.  The site went live today, and I am spreading the word!!!  Very exciting.

I did see another web page I liked.  It talks about chronic pain and management of that in pain clinics, which I am interested in professionally, but I like a lot of what he talks about here, about expectations and the need to work out what you can do, not just what you can do comfortably.  Food for thought.

http://healthskills.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/what-do-people-expect-when-they-get-referred-to-a-pain-management-centre/

Thursday - there is a pattern here.  No specific exercise. 

Friday - my business cards arrived!!  They look pretty sharp, designed by Charlie (again) and printed by Kwik Kopy Norwood at short notice.  Great job, team!!  Better than ahving me scribble down the web address on the back of a normal work business card.  Promotion has also started for the Morrison VIP night in a couple of weeks.  Looking forward to some new pants that fit there!  My old Morrison pants, my most flattering, most comfortable pants that I have had for 3 years and have had altered twice (lengthen the leg and then replace the zip) are back in to be taken in considerably.  They are so good though, they are worth it!  Can't wait to pick them up on Monday.

The Lululemon store opening party - 'Sweatacular Spectacular' is also on tonight, so I'll be down at James Pl for that from 7!

And no exercise.

Saturday – a very early start for the red eye flight to Melbourne for a conference.  After the full day conference, I hotfooted it to my hotel to freshen up before Ingrid picked me up for dinner at 5.30.  We spent 6 hours wandering around a couple of different neighbourhoods looking for somewhere, ending up in Southbank after going past endless full restaurants.  It was an awesome chance to catch up, and good to walk around after sitting all day.

Sunday – the end of daylight saving meant an extra hour sleep, so my 6:30 wake up was really 5:30 am new time.  Time for a run.  I did a loop around Royal Park, just over the road from my hotel, and past the house I lived in when I was 3!!  After my loop of Royal Park, I went across towards Carlton.  I knew I went to kindergarten at St Judes church on Lygon St, so I figured I’d see if that was still there.  I found it, and they still have a playgroup there, but not a full time kindy.  I saw the little tiny outdoor area that was our playground – I used to get extra outside playtime there because I was so poorly coordinated.  On my way back to the hotel, I started to wonder what Primary school I went to for 3 weeks before we headed to the UK – and I think I found it!  Errol St Primary School looks a bit familiar (from 1979!!!!) – all I remember of the place was playing chasey with some  kids in that first week, and trying to hurdle a bench seat.  Not surprisingly, I didn’t clear it, fell heavily and took the skin off my thigh.  The school secretary tried to cover it up with a scary cross hatched  pattern of bandaids that hurt so much when Mum tried to clean me up properly later!  So, my kindergarten of 1977 – 1979, my house and local playground and my first school.  Only place I didn’t see was the old swimming pool where I did swimming lessons – I remember that as an old Victorian  baths type building.

The run was 14 km, 1 hr 20, 5.52 mins per km.  Feeling good.   Well, a bit tight now.   I  have another full day of sitting ahead of me, then a late flight home tonight.  A big weekend, without much movement at all.  And no 10 km time trial.