Well this is going to be a very quick wrap-up. It was a quieter week last week. Lower on the kilometres to help me get over the stresses of Run Melbourne. I actually had pulled up pretty well. Felt a little sore when I ran on Tuesday morning - a tad stiff on my first run after the race but otherwise it was fairly smooth sailing. My body seems to be coping quite well with the training so far. Which is not something I had expected going into this whole experience. I fully expected my body to start developing injury after injury. I've been really good about stretching after runs and looking after myself so perhaps that's paid off.
On Tuesday evening I had a visit to the physio. I'll be going there every second week now for a general sports massage now that my ITB is basically all good. I thought this would be an easy session where I get a bit of a rub-down and then walk away with freshly spruced up legs. Not so! The physio started massaging my calves. I've never had my calves properly massaged before. There was a spot near the outside back of the calf on both legs which is incredibly painful. I learnt this when he first brushed over it and then decided the site was worth a little further inspection. His usual trick is to apply pressure to a spot and hold it for a while. Usually the pain subsides after a little while. In this case, it wasn't going away at all. It was tight and sore and angry. At one point he eased off on the pressure and then went straight back in for more pressure! I yelped in pain, swore loudly and almost jumped off the table! I remember thinking that it must sound like a torture session to anyone out in the waiting room. They had to have heard me. Anyway, both legs were sore in the same spots and he wasn't helping to make them any less sore, (and in fact if anything he caused them to be noticeably sore for all of the next day) so eventually he decided to leave them alone since they hadn't been giving me any trouble before I went along.
That's about all really. I'm actually a bit concerned at the moment because I'm feeling a bit achy and tired today. Hopefully a good nights sleep tonight can banish whatever I've got. That's the plan anyway. It's a big training week this week and I don't want to be missing anything due to illness.
Week 9 distance covered: 52 km
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Week 8 Wrap-up
Week 8 was a good one because it finished with Run Melbourne on the Sunday. I wasn't sure how I'd go before the race. My lower right calf was feeling a bit sore the previous day when I went running so I was wondering if that was going to play up and it certainly felt like it would when I did a short jog as a warm-up. Yet once I got going, I didn't think about it again until the end and that was only as a memory, not as any actual pain. Adrenalin perhaps blocked it out but I haven't felt it since so I'm not sure what the go was there.
The run went really well. While not planning to get a PB or anything, I wanted to run steadily and see how I went. I looked at my watch now and again to see how my pace was looking but after the half way mark I barely looked at all. I could see km markers so I new how far I had run and since I wasn't really aiming for a particular time, it seemed a bit pointless to be checking my speed. I recall that by about the 7km mark, it seemed like some people were definitely dropping off a bit. Must have started too fast. I was able to maintain a good speed without too much variation it felt like. As I neared the finish line I was quite pleased that while my legs were getting more and more tired, I wasn't needing to slow down. What I remember of the finish line is that there was a nice downhill and then at the bottom of that, a flat stretch leading to the finish. I flew along that last stretch. Just wanted it done! I didn't really know what my time might be but felt like it should be a little better than my previous PB for 10km which was 45:58. My final time was 43:28! So exactly 2.5mins quicker than around Albert Park! Nice! I gotta admit I'm really happy with my time. It's encouraging to see all of my training paying off. I'm getting stronger and faster and it feels good. I wish I could remember things about the run that could make this more entertaining but it was a few days ago now and I guess I was fairly focussed on the race at the time.
Here's a photo of me with a great MCG backdrop.
This coming week is another slower week to let my body rest up after Run Melbourne.
Week 8 distance covered: 46 km
The run went really well. While not planning to get a PB or anything, I wanted to run steadily and see how I went. I looked at my watch now and again to see how my pace was looking but after the half way mark I barely looked at all. I could see km markers so I new how far I had run and since I wasn't really aiming for a particular time, it seemed a bit pointless to be checking my speed. I recall that by about the 7km mark, it seemed like some people were definitely dropping off a bit. Must have started too fast. I was able to maintain a good speed without too much variation it felt like. As I neared the finish line I was quite pleased that while my legs were getting more and more tired, I wasn't needing to slow down. What I remember of the finish line is that there was a nice downhill and then at the bottom of that, a flat stretch leading to the finish. I flew along that last stretch. Just wanted it done! I didn't really know what my time might be but felt like it should be a little better than my previous PB for 10km which was 45:58. My final time was 43:28! So exactly 2.5mins quicker than around Albert Park! Nice! I gotta admit I'm really happy with my time. It's encouraging to see all of my training paying off. I'm getting stronger and faster and it feels good. I wish I could remember things about the run that could make this more entertaining but it was a few days ago now and I guess I was fairly focussed on the race at the time.
Here's a photo of me with a great MCG backdrop.
Week 8 distance covered: 46 km
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Week 7 Wrap-up
It's taken me a little way into week 8 to write about last week. Been busy. Three things to write about this time.
On Thursday night last week I had to do a 15km run after work. It's a long way to run on a cold day after working when you just want to veg out at home. Not running isn't an option sadly. So I drove to Brighton Beach and ran along the bike track there up to the St Kilda Pier and back again. It made all the difference! It was dark so I had my headlamp going strong in order for bike not to hit me and so that I could see the way. For a while at the start the track wasn't actually too close to the ocean and I had my earphones in and was listening to music. Then as the track took me to running along near the water's edge, I suddenly became aware of the craziness of listening to loud music when the sound of waves breaking was so close to me! So I turned off the music, and just ran with my thoughts and the sound of the waves and the smell of briny seaweed. Very peaceful. Really enjoyed it. One of those runs where for the most part I was just high on the fact that I was running near the beach. Being quite dark in places made it all the more enjoyable I think. Perhaps it was that with less to stimulate me visually, all I had was sounds and grey coloured images. At times it really felt like there was no-one else around, which is sometimes a very hard thing to achieve. So yeah, I'll definitely get back down to the beach again for an evening run.
My Sunday run was my longest yet. 26kms. It was a bit of a bastard of a run to be honest. I should have taken off earlier than I did because it was almost lunchtime when I left home and there was a very fine drizzle/mizzle coming down. Once I got onto the bike path that would take me from Gardiners Creek Trail into the Yarra Trail, I realised that the wind was going to be a right pain. It made listening to podcasts on my earphones difficult and it meant I had to push harder to get anywhere. The course I took was my usual one into the city along the Yarra. Big fan of it. From there I ran to near Crown Casino to get my distance to 13kms before turning around and heading back. While on the way back it started pouring down. Not pleasant. But I guess at least I had the wind on my side for once so that was nice. Then I lost one of my running gloves. The other one then fell out of my pocket and I accidentally stood on it which soaked it. Yeah, stuff wasn't going well. Oh yeah, my watch seemed to stop at one point for some reason. I wasn't sure how far I had been running without it counting off my distance so that was a bit annoying. So my 26kms wasn't the most accurate measure. I suspect I actually ran a bit further than 26kms just so that I could feel sure I had run the distance. I finally finished running in a bit over 2.5hours. Tired but feeling happy to have achieved my new best distance. And very pleased knowing that I could now go inside a nice warm house.
One more thing. I've been eating heaps more lately. Trying to stop losing weight. It seems to be working which is great. I'm chowing down on all sorts of snacks at work now - mostly healthy which is good. I think my intake of food just wasn't meeting my output so now there are peanut butter rice crackers, more fruit, more nuts and nut bars...etc. The challenge now is just fitting it all in! I do seem to have put on a small amount of weight (based on a check last week) so I guess it's working. Just gotta maintain those eating habits now.
Week 7 distance covered: 59.3 km
On Thursday night last week I had to do a 15km run after work. It's a long way to run on a cold day after working when you just want to veg out at home. Not running isn't an option sadly. So I drove to Brighton Beach and ran along the bike track there up to the St Kilda Pier and back again. It made all the difference! It was dark so I had my headlamp going strong in order for bike not to hit me and so that I could see the way. For a while at the start the track wasn't actually too close to the ocean and I had my earphones in and was listening to music. Then as the track took me to running along near the water's edge, I suddenly became aware of the craziness of listening to loud music when the sound of waves breaking was so close to me! So I turned off the music, and just ran with my thoughts and the sound of the waves and the smell of briny seaweed. Very peaceful. Really enjoyed it. One of those runs where for the most part I was just high on the fact that I was running near the beach. Being quite dark in places made it all the more enjoyable I think. Perhaps it was that with less to stimulate me visually, all I had was sounds and grey coloured images. At times it really felt like there was no-one else around, which is sometimes a very hard thing to achieve. So yeah, I'll definitely get back down to the beach again for an evening run.
My Sunday run was my longest yet. 26kms. It was a bit of a bastard of a run to be honest. I should have taken off earlier than I did because it was almost lunchtime when I left home and there was a very fine drizzle/mizzle coming down. Once I got onto the bike path that would take me from Gardiners Creek Trail into the Yarra Trail, I realised that the wind was going to be a right pain. It made listening to podcasts on my earphones difficult and it meant I had to push harder to get anywhere. The course I took was my usual one into the city along the Yarra. Big fan of it. From there I ran to near Crown Casino to get my distance to 13kms before turning around and heading back. While on the way back it started pouring down. Not pleasant. But I guess at least I had the wind on my side for once so that was nice. Then I lost one of my running gloves. The other one then fell out of my pocket and I accidentally stood on it which soaked it. Yeah, stuff wasn't going well. Oh yeah, my watch seemed to stop at one point for some reason. I wasn't sure how far I had been running without it counting off my distance so that was a bit annoying. So my 26kms wasn't the most accurate measure. I suspect I actually ran a bit further than 26kms just so that I could feel sure I had run the distance. I finally finished running in a bit over 2.5hours. Tired but feeling happy to have achieved my new best distance. And very pleased knowing that I could now go inside a nice warm house.
One more thing. I've been eating heaps more lately. Trying to stop losing weight. It seems to be working which is great. I'm chowing down on all sorts of snacks at work now - mostly healthy which is good. I think my intake of food just wasn't meeting my output so now there are peanut butter rice crackers, more fruit, more nuts and nut bars...etc. The challenge now is just fitting it all in! I do seem to have put on a small amount of weight (based on a check last week) so I guess it's working. Just gotta maintain those eating habits now.
Week 7 distance covered: 59.3 km
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Week 6 Wrap-up
This week was a lighter week. The kms were lower and there was no speed session on Tuesday - just a normal 10kms. It was an opportunity to let the body adapt and recover a little. I don't feel like I was needing too much recovery actually. Today my long run was "only" 15km which does actually seem kinda easy now. Weird how the perspective changes on what constitutes a long run.
I've been getting to know the Gardiners Creek Trail a bit lately which I've only recently discovered. Following it west from my place it runs into the Yarra. Following it east which I did today and it ended up in East Malvern somewhere. Not sure if i was following the correct trail because at one point while I was running along the trail, I found myself on the edge of a golf course with no fencing between me and any errant ball that might go flying by. I was due to turn around and head back so I never figured out where it was going to end up. At some point I'll have to run further along there and see where it takes me.
Oh yeah, I saw something weird along the edge of the trail today. It was some kind of small animal that was dead. It kind of looked almost mummified. Couldn't work out what the hell it was. Possibly a possum or maybe some kind of lizard. And yes, I know that possums and lizards look quite different! Anyway, i didn't stop to really inspect it but it was bizarre looking.
Week 6 distance covered: 46.6 km
I've been getting to know the Gardiners Creek Trail a bit lately which I've only recently discovered. Following it west from my place it runs into the Yarra. Following it east which I did today and it ended up in East Malvern somewhere. Not sure if i was following the correct trail because at one point while I was running along the trail, I found myself on the edge of a golf course with no fencing between me and any errant ball that might go flying by. I was due to turn around and head back so I never figured out where it was going to end up. At some point I'll have to run further along there and see where it takes me.
Oh yeah, I saw something weird along the edge of the trail today. It was some kind of small animal that was dead. It kind of looked almost mummified. Couldn't work out what the hell it was. Possibly a possum or maybe some kind of lizard. And yes, I know that possums and lizards look quite different! Anyway, i didn't stop to really inspect it but it was bizarre looking.
Week 6 distance covered: 46.6 km
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