getting buff

Okay, I am joining the exodus. You can find me at my new blog. This will remain here for my archives (at least until I can figure out how to transfer them over).

Well I haven't managed to get out there this week as much as I would like. A scratchy cough the other day has ballooned into a head cold with the help of a couple of very smoky days. So no running for me, particularly when there is still smoke around.

Otherwise feeling pretty good. Had my first session on the exercise bike the other day which was fun. Hub is right into it using the bike most days while he watches a DVD or some telly. Now just to make it through the Christmas period.

Happy Christmas to all - be safe this festive season and take some time amidst the demands of life to reflect on the peace, love and community that we share.

So this week I scored an invite to a special "friends" sale at the Nike store in the city with 40% off. It is actually the first time I have been in there as I find it all a bit too trendy and intimidating. I bought myself an arm pouch (so I can be like Em) and a hydration pack with an 800ml bottle that sits in the small of your back. Not as schmicky as the fuel belt ones, but at $14 with the discount, I am not complaining.

So today I took the hydration belt out for a spin. For one reason or another I haven't managed to get out for a long run for AGES, so I was really looking forward to it today. It was a bit hot, so I took it really slow along the meandering hills of the Merri Creek Trail. Managed 9.6km in 80 minutes which is my longest run yet since I have started. I was glad that I had the water bottle as I had drunk it all by about the 8K mark, so I don't know what I would have done without water.

Father Christmas came early to our house when we picked up an exercise bike this afternoon. Hub wanted to get one so he could do exercise while watching DVDs and we thought that I could also use it for cross-training. So it is pretty cool and hopefully will get a good workout on my non-running days.

Finally I think I have found my favourite running shirt. They had a bunch of pretty cheap technical shorts and shirts in Big W when I went the other day and one of the shirts I picked up from the mens' department is very comfy and quite cool, plus it has "SPORTS XLNCE" written on the front. How can I resist?

It is very frustrating that at a time when I was enthusiastically looking forward to my long run, I felt like it was too risky to actually go and do it. Very hot and very smoky all weekend. While I might have to put up with the heat, I couldn't see the health advantages in going for a run in pretty thick smoke from the fires in the Alpine region and Gippsland.

Normally I would be pretty annoyed at the inconvenience, but my sister and her family live not far from the fires and my brother in law is heading up Mt Buller today to relieve some of the crews. They are saying that the fires will probably join and make three or four mega fires today which is pretty scary for all involved.

Just the important bits. Good movie. Daniel Craig spends a lot of time with his shirt off. That is all.

I might be outing myself as being really odd, but sometimes during my run I do arithmetic to keep my mind occupied. This works really well as I am not actually that good at mental arithmetic so it takes me lots of attempts to work things out. Throw in that I am normally trying to calculate time which makes it even harder.

An example - if I am trying to maintain a certain pace for a run (for some reason during the run, nudge is all over the place in showing my current pace) then I will see how far I have gone and calculate when I should complete the next km for example. Anyway, it amuses me.

Last night doing a grotty recovery run of about 3.5km I was trying to figure out how much time I need to build up my long runs to be comfortably completing 16km by the R4TK. At my current long run pace, I will need to build up to running at least two hours!!!

Which is actually not that bad because I was kind of wanting to build my long runs up to that anyway. I am really looking forward to my long run on the weekend. I was building them up really well back in October but then I got out of the habit, and it is all too easy to find something to clash on the weekend. So I am switching my long run day to Saturday which has the added bonus of giving me back my Sunday mornings to finally do some study.

I have been noticing lately what the key is to having Hub be totally supportive of my running even when it cuts into time with him - World of Warcraft. Hub has been into this for a several months now and is perfectly capable of losing great slabs of time lost in his computer. There are downsides to this of course, but one of the upsides is that he doesn't mind me popping out for a run and doesn't seem to notice when I am gone for an hour or so.

So over the weekend I entered this race in the 15.2km. Which means I have to learn how to run 15.2km before the 1st of April next year.

This is of course pretty weird because it assumes that I will still be keeping up this running thing until at least April next year. Given my track record for maintining my enthusiasm for hobbies, this would be quite a feat. However stumping up some money for the entry form is likely to advance the prospects that I will keep it up because I am such a tightarse that I would hate to think that I was wasting my money.

15.2km does seem like a lot though - add another 6 and a bit ks and it would be a half marathon. Anyway, should be a great experience and lots of fun no matter how much of it I manage to actually run.

Headed down to the track today for the Coburg Lake Classic organised by the Coburg Harriers. It was an out and back course along the merri creek trail with a trot around the track to finish it off. The sun was pretty warm at times so it was a good workout.

The boys doing the 10k were thumping their chests and showing off at the start, but a quick head count of the women assured me I was in for a top ten finish no matter how I did. My goal was to try to keep to 7:30 pace or better, which I managed pretty well. Also managed a negative split which was a pleasant surprise.

Finished in 37:52 which is about 40 sec outside the PB but very happy with that as the PB was at Albert Park on a very flat course and today's run was.. not flat. Had a pleasant chat to the other women. One said that she had taken up running this year when she turned 50 and tries to run a race every weekend (!!). The winner only just broke 30mins so not too much improvement needed to be right in amongst it.