Running (not so) Free

Today like all Saturday's I attend my local parkrun. Unlike most other Saturday morning recently the sky's around Brisbane were looking just a tad wet. It had been raining most of Friday and when I woke up I was surprised to see that there was a break in the weather. I was actually hoping that there would still be some rain falling. Call me crazy if you like but I love to run in the rain. My thoughts then turned to my friend Helen who would be running while pushing her twins in the pram and then I changed my mind on the idea of rain as she then wouldn't be able to run.

Even though I was up earlier than required today and I had attempted to gather most of my gear together in a neat pile on the floor the night before disorganisation was going to get the best of me.  It had all started with my leaving my phone behind at work on Friday afternoon. This meant that I had to cancel my carpooling plans with Helen in case she was unable to make it as I wouldn't get her text to say grab your own car today.

After I managed to get my youngest back to sleep there was no point going back to bed myself. I got dresssed, grabbed my gear and headed out the door. The plan was to go via work and pick up my phone, more to stop me worrying that maybe, just maybe it had fallen out of my bag at the gym on Friday night.

Just around the corner from work it dawned on me that I hadn't packed my cap. How does one run without something on their head?  I came accustomed to wearing a cap last winter as I found that it stopped my ears aching painful in our (not so cold) winter mornings. As I pulled into the driveway at work I looked over into the back of the ute and low and behold in all of the miscellaneous stuff my husband keeps back there, there was a cap at the top of it all. Problem solved. Into work I hopped and grabbed my phone before heading towards to the city.

I managed to arrive rather early and strolled on down to the gathering spot to get ready. For some unknown reason I hadn't put my HR strap and watch on before leaving home and this was the real start to my undoing. I fumbled with my strap, and flashed my pregnant belly while talking to Roba and her daughter. I carefully threaded my ear piece down my back and under my arm and into my cleavage as I try and avoid having my iPod in my spibelt now as since I no longer have a waist it has a tendency to end up under my boobs. Next its time for the watch. I look for it and can't find it. I empty my bag and still no luck. I check the time on my phone and its about 10 minutes to we start so I head back to the car to find my watch.

I pass Helen on the way to the car as she walks down with her girls and say I'll make it back while handing her a belated birthday present.  Back at the ute I scramble looking for the watch - no luck. Oh well I'll be running without knowing my pace or heart rate. This is brand new territory for me. Back to the starting line now as everyone finishes their warm up.

I meet up with Helen again who has decided to start from the back of the pack due to her "handicap" today. As the other 122 runners (a far cry from 226 a couple of weeks ago) come and join us at the start area I feel strangely naked. I know people run without a GPS watch or even a HR monitor all the time but this feels worse to me than not having my music playing! Its not like I continuely check it, its just having that extra bit of back up to know how I'm travelling, that I'm not pushing too hard, how far I've come and more importantly how far is left to go.  The starter does their duties and we're all off and I'm running "free".

I won't bore you with the details of the whole 5km but what I can say is I found it so hard. I'm guessing most of it was a mental mind set thing due to not having my watch on but there was the other part of watching my footing due to the slippery pavements and the humidity. No kidding, it must have be 98% out there today - how I wanted it to rain just to cool me down but I know those two little girls sitting in Helen's pram would not have been impressed if it did rain. My official time was 36:18, 2:22 slower than last week.  Next week I will have my watch with me as I'm not a fan of this free running stuff!

The biggest hat's off today has to go to Helen who ran a unbelievable 38:23 while pushing the girls in a non-running pram into a head wind for about 2km. Now that's a Super Mum!

Read more...

Running for Two

I've been really quiet on here and I can't believe its been nearly 3 months since I've done a blog post. Time really flies when you're juggling numerous balls.

25+ weeks

I'm now over 26 weeks pregnant and approaching the final trimester of my pregnancy. My belly has started to look pregnant instead of fat. What seems to amaze people is that I'm still doing weight training 2 - 3 days a week and I'm running between 15 and 19km on top of that. I've had so many people urge me to stop training and even more that are concerned about my running. I've got the full support of my doctor to keep going and his advice is that I will just know when enough is enough.

Now I'm no expert, I'm not medically trained so don't take anything here as gospel and definitely do your own research and tall to your own doctors if you want to run while pregnant. For most women that have been running before falling pregnant there are no reason why you should stop once you conceive. Obviously if you weren't a runner before hand its not the time to take it up but if you have a low-risk pregnancy you shouldn't have to dramatically change your exercise routine.

If found that during my first trimester that going for a run (and to a lesser extent doing my strength training) helped to keep my morning sickness at bay. Looking back now I think it was more that the running gave me something else to think about and took my mind off that awful "I think I'm going to hurt" feeling in my stomach.  Fatigue also rears its head during the stage but once again the endorphins from the exercise helped to rise above it.  During this first 13 weeks my training barely changed. I was more conscience about my heart rate and over heating but my mileage and pace stayed fairly constant.

Almost 22 weeks

Almost 24 weeks

From 14 to 22 weeks I started to slow things down a bit. Both my mileage and pace dropped off. Some of this was due to my belly starting to swell but the main reason was due to the heat of summer. My weights during my strength sessions have basically been the same from this point forward too.  I'm actually not wanting to increase any of them even if I'm feeling ready to as the increase in relaxin can make your muscles, joints and ligaments more unstable.

Almost 26 weeks

About 3 weeks ago I thought that my running days were about to be replaced by shuffles. My Saturday 5km run times were increasing in time, which is to be expected. Well I'm still not sure what has happened but just over 2 weeks ago I record a PB at parkrun and then 1 week ago I equalled it. Now this is not a true 5km PB as I have gone faster but its the fastest I've done since starting this course on New Year's Eve.

I'm no where near the fastest that runs each Saturday but I'm having a giggle at the pseudo celebrity that my belly has become. It also gives me a little bit of a lift when the volunteers on the day call out things like "your stowaway is the fastest runner in her age group".

I'm hoping that I can keep running up until the weekend before baby number three arrives, but with my past history if I'm still running at 30 weeks I'll be happy. Any activity after that will be a bonus, be it a shuffle a run or a session at the gym. To date I've put on a total of 5kg since falling pregnant. I'm not trying to not put on weight and to be honest my diet has be far from perfect recently but when I compare it to my previous pregnancies there is no comparison to be made.  If you tried to tell me that I'd be running at 26 weeks pregnant this time last year I would have laughed in your face and today if you told me to stop I would not so politely tell you where to go.

Read more...

The Mousdash

What could be seen as being any crazier that doing your first triathlon when about 9 weeks pregnant? I've got a great answer - doing The Mousdash when you're almost 12 weeks pregnant!

So what's Mousdash I hear you ask.  The Mousdash is a run held by Nova in Brisbane during Movember to help in the fight against men's health issues, with the main targets being prostate cancer and depression. Two events are held. The 5.5km stroll or walk and the 10.5km stride or run. The 5.5km event is a walk from the planetarium to the Mt Coot-Tha Summit restaurant roundabout and return. While the 10.5km event is a run up and around the whole summit road of Mt Coot-Tha.

My DH and I signed up for this race before becoming pregnant and even at that time I knew it was going to be a very hard run.  All you have to do is look at the long section of the run by clicking on the view elevation button in the picture below to get an idea of the hell it puts you though.



I set my HR monitor to beep at me on this one each time I hit 165. The plan, which I did stick to, was to walk until my heart rate dropped below 155 before starting running again so as you could imagine there was A LOT of walking involved during the run.  I actually found this run physically tougher than the half marathon. Maybe its because I have a great distaste for hills.

The first couple of kilometers from the planetarium to the Summit Restaurant Roundabout were just plain nasty.  There may have been a short section that was relatively gradient free but in all honest I can't remember where it was as things just seemed to keep going up and up and up. I've driven up that road numerous times before but I've never realised just how steep it is. According to my map there was an average grade of 5% for 4km. All I can say is that the first kilometre was a lot harder and steeper than the gateway bridge!

After passing the roundabout there were a few undulating sections of road but they were never enough to really suck in some decent air before the climb started again. Then you were also taunted by the distance markers with their little comments on then. I could have yelled at the 5km one telling me I was half way there, if only I had enough lung capacity left!  Not long after passing the 5km marker I spotted the St John's ambulance and thought what a mind game play by setting up and halfway. Unfortunately it wasn't set up for that reason - it was treating some poor guy that had been beaten by the mountain outside of the gates to Channel 9.

After rounding Channel 9 the next kilometre wasn't too bad and then I got to hit my stride on the downhill chaser! 3km of downhill running and I loved every step. I actually felt like my form was good. I wasn't over striding but I wasn't breaking too much either.  To top it all off I was running averaging about 12kph for that section and flying past a whole heap of people. The at 9km someone decided to add it a section of up hill again - where the hell did that come from? It was absolute torture for about 500m before the downhill decent started again. Then some sadist of a person decided that the finishing shoot had to be uphill too - bastards! At least it wasn't too long.

All in all I conquered the mountain in 1:18:24.4  I was aiming at under 1:20:00 so I was rather happy with the effort. I was even happier to see that the fastest female took 42:16.5 which going by my previous results in relation to the fastest female made my day.  What was even more surprising is there was over a 10 percent DNF rate!

To top it all off I finally had a look at some of the pictures that were taken on the day and I can say that I think I finally look like a runner!

Read more...

What's on the horizon?

I've been asked by a couple of people what my next event or challenge is going to be. Between now and Christmas I've got a few things planned and hopefully along the way I might fit in a couple more.

The next 12wbt related challenge is the first Mini Milestone for the round. I've set up a walk/run through Toohey Forest Park for next Sunday. At the moment it looks like the majority of those coming will be walking but I'm hoping to get someone to come who wants to run with me. The route of mapped out is around 8km return but if I can find someone else crazy enough to join me I've got about another 2.5 - 3km I can add onto it.  I have also decided on a back up plan if I can't get someone else to run with me.

The plan is that I run for about 500m or so and then either back track until I find the walkers and turn around and repeat until the end.  Alternatively I do a similar thing by running a distance or for a set time and then do some strength exercises on the side of the path until the walkers catch up to me and then take off again. Whatever happens it will be something different from my usually weekend long runs.

After I've recovered from the Mini Milestone challenge I'll then be competing in my very first triathlon on the 23 October.  The Triathlon Pink helps raise funds for The National Breast Cancer Foundation and is a female only event.  I'll be doing the long course which is a 300m swim, 9km ride and 3km run.  The swim and run don't worry me at all.  The bike has me a little bit concerned but I know I'll make it, I just may be a little slow on the old rusty bike.  That reminds me, I should take it out for a spin soon and make sure its road worthy still!




What I believe will be my biggest challenge since the half marathon will be The Mousdash. The Mousdash is a 10km run on the road up and around Mt Coo-tha. Definitely not for the faint hearted - feel free to have a look at the elevation profile if you clink on the route! This event will be run on the 13th of November as part of fundraising for "Movember". For those that don't already know Movember's aim is to raise funds and awareness for Men's Health and in particular prostate cancer and depression.  On the first of November men are clean shaven and throughout the month groom themselves' to form the perfect moustache.

At the end of November come another event that I may partake in. At the moment this one is still up in the air as it looks like we will have our work Christmas party the afternoon/evening before. The Variety Santa Fun Run is a 5km run which will be done just for fun.  What could be better than running along first thing in the morning in a Santa suit while raising funds for Variety and then spending the rest of the morning with the kids in the park enjoying Christmas activities?

Guess what - I'm not finished yet! The 10th December will mark the official end of Round 3 party for the 12WBT. I'm planning on heading down to Sydney to celebrate with some of the other participant but more importantly I'll be going to do the end of season work out to show myself how far I've come in such a short period of time.  I've also got my fingers crossed that I'll be able to partake in an unofficial 12WBT fun run down there too.

So as you can see I've got a fairly busy couple of months ahead of me and I'm sure there will be a couple of other 12WBT events to pop up in the very near future.

Read more...

My First Half Marathon

On Sunday the 7th of August on ran my first half marathon in a time of 2 hours 33 minutes and 25 seconds.  Up until this day I had never run past 17km and that was also a first.  Three days after the event and I'm still happy that I was given the extra push by a fellow virgin half marathon runner.

My journey to run a half marathon didn't start with 12 or more weeks of preparation like most normal people would do.  It all started from a training session that I did with Helen in which we both ran our very first 15km.  At the end of the run she announced that she was going to do the half and I basically said she was nuts.  How the hell do you go and do a half marathon with only 3 weeks of preparation?

Three days after that run, with a couple of backward and forward messages and I had been swayed into taking part too.  Time to start looking at training.  I found a few 3 day a week plans, Helen found another one and between all of them I was surpised to see that we weren't too far off the distance for preparation.  I attempted some sprint sessions but wasn't the best at them.

Two weeks out from the event I did my biggest run to date 17km.  It included a few hills, I tried out some GU chomps for the first time and finished in about 2:10.  I wanted to run further that day but I couldn't really afford the time to get out to 19km.  In hindsight it was just as well.

That evening my body decided that enough was enough and it was time for a break.  I'd been fighting a pesky head cold for about a month but it decided to turn into a nasty fever ridden, dry unrelenting coughing fit cold.  Just what I didn't need.  By the Friday things were improving so I took myself back of to the gym for a little run on the dreadmill and a Pump session.  The exercise felt so dam good, even if I did hack up a lung a couple of times.

On Sunday I ventured out for a longer run - 8.8km of hell to be more precise.  I couldn't believe the drop in performance that one week could have.  The rest of the week was spent doing small runs (nothing over 6km) and a bit of resistance.  On Friday I also did a stretch and core session before having a well earned rest on Saturday.

Saturday night's treat meal ended up being at an Italian restaurant.  While I had always had in the back of my mind having a pasta meal the night before I have now learnt that not to eat out the night before a race.  The change in my diet over the last 12 weeks meant that the extra greasiness and saltiness didn't agree with me at all and most of the meal left my system a little too quickly.

Sunday I was up at 4am to start getting ready.  My microwave did the impossible and made an entire egg disappear in one bang.  Thankfully I had a spare egg in the fridge.  I downed the last glasses of water and my husband and I were out the door on the way to town before 5.

After bumping into Helen we dropped off our gear in the baggage tent and headed off to the start line for a bit of stretching and nervous waiting while the sun slowly started to rise. 

The start to this was an absolute nightmare.  The Brisbane City Council in the infinite wisdom have decided that closing the streets, all be it before anyone is even awake, to hold a premier running even just isn't good practice.  So to combat this the organiser's of the event are force to using walking paths for the majority of the even. 

The full and half marathon runner's were all started at the same time.  I feel sorry for the elite runners as to make the distances required we had to do two laps of the Botanical Gardens.  While they were beautiful a 3m wide path with 3000 competitors isn't appropriate.  Add in the elite runners having to run through the pack of slower runners and it just wasn't good form




The course then headed over the Goodwill Bridge.  By this stage it was "easy" running.  Everyone had found their place in the pack and there was no dodging and weaving like in previous events I've been in.  At the end of the bridge we turned right, were cheered on by on lookers and headed off down through Southbank.  I hit the 4km mark before the 30minute mark and had found my stride, I think I even managed to smile for one of the many cameras.

Around the 8km mark I coasted up the hill towards Orleigh Park.  Only 3 months ago that hill seemed to be so long and so steep, this time around it was only a litte blip. Just after the 8.5km mark I chewed on my first chomp thinking the water station wasn't too far away.  Unfortunately the water station was on the opposite side of the road and I wasn't changing direction for that.  I then spotted my DH and not far behind him was Helen.  They had both already turned around at Orleigh Park and were at around the 10km mark, it was about one hour in to the run.

I had a giggle watching the line up for the porta-loos on my way to the turn around point.  By the time I was passing them again I'd run about another kilometer and the line had only just disappeared.  I'd saved myself about 7:30 for not have a pit stop.  I grabbed my first drink of water at the drink station and managed to get more over me than in my mouth as I wasn't going to slow down or stop - nothing was going to break my stride, I was listening to "Eye of the Tiger". 

Back down the hill and along Riverside Drive and I started passing people that were now walking.  I still hadn't walked a step since I started running after the awful start and that's the way I wanted to finish it.  12km in and a "recovery" type of track was on my iPod.  I had meant to take that one off so I used it to focus on my breathing.  Next thing you know I've hit the 12.5km and the song is talking about miracles, which is kind of appropriate. 

Here comes 14km and I having a laugh.  There is a song on my iPod that reminds me of David Bowy in Labyrinth surrounded by all his creatures, "He reminds me of the man, The man with the power, The power of Voodoo".  I get a few strange looks from people I'm passing - I've got no idea why.    Not long after this I start playing leap frog with another runner.  I spur him on for a kilometer but by the time get closer to the Goodwill Bridge I've left him behind.  By this stage I'm in the zone and I don't even know what is playing on the iPod.  I then spot a friend from High School on his second lap doing the Marathon, he flys by with good form.

I pass along the bottom of the Kangaroo Cliff watching a girl all of 8 or 9 scale them while thinking to myself what an awesome accomplishment for someone so young.  Onto the boardwalk, dodging people that are out for the Sunday walk and I'm passing the 16km mark.  The Storey Bridge is now in sight as I pass the 17km mark and spot my DH again.  I didn't realise at the time but he had or was just about to hit the wall.  A few seconds later I spot Helen again.  I'm now into unknown territory, I've never run this far before, I'm feeling really good.  I'm now approaching the 18km mark, time for another chomp and some water.  I manage to get even wetter this time!  Water goes up my nose, so I was rather thankful I had a hankerchief under my bra strap to clear it. 

Past the turn around point and back under the Storey Bridge, I'm now on the home straight.  I hit around the 19km mark and spot the first marathon runner complete with police escort.  He's probably got around 3km to catch up to me so I now have a challange - I'm going to finish before he does.  The next kilometer flys past in a daze, I grab some water at the last drinks stop, get wet again, and power on.  The Goodwill Bridge is in sight.  I round the bend to the spectators spuring me on. 

Time to tackle the bridge.  My stride shortens a little, I slow a little but it doesn't hurt that much.  I pass more runners, I reach the top and down the other side I go. 
 

I round the bend and spot Helen and her family.  She's finished and on her way to the car.  Her lovely husband Victor snaps off a few photos of me as Helen tells me the finish is just around the corner.  I wish I knew how close it was as I would have ramped it up even more.

 I'm running, I've nearly finished a half marathon and yet I still have a quick chin wag!

 

Better keep going.

I round the bend and spot the finishing line.  I pull out and pass the person you can see in the photo.  I cross the finish line and yet I could keep running!  How is that even possible?  I didn't actually want to stop - crazy hey?

I see my DH lying down on the grass knoll near the finish line, his shoes off and a huge blister on one foot and a bleeding toe on the other foot.  I sit down to rest.  That was a bad mistake that I'll never do again.  I found it nearly impossible to get off the ground and get moving again.  Sore from stopping yet elated in my achievement.  I had done it - I complete a half marathon with only 3 weeks of true preparation and only 217 days of running under my feet.

Read more...

It's All in the Mind

You've probably heard it before but today I proved to myself that running is all in the mind.  Today everything seemed to be conspiring against me getting up and doing my run.  My internal battles and mind games started at 5:15am when DD2 came toddling up the hallway.  Being a Sunday it was too early to expect DH to put her back to bed so I scooped her up into our bed and got her back to sleep at around 6.  I had been planning to get up then but everytime I moved she stirred and with an eventful morning planned I didn't want a grumpy bubby on my hands.

Event 2 - Its been raining and my gear is still wet at 7.  We need to leave by 9 and my long run takes 1.5hrs so I decided not to wait for the dryer and do it this afternoon.

Event 3 - DH has to stop by work on the way home from our morning activities so running while the girls sleep goes out the window.

Event 4 - I've lost my favourite running shirt.  I've turned the house inside out and upside down and I can't find it.  I'm hoping its in the lost property (if they even have one) at the gym and will find out tomorrow.  OK so this one is just another internal excuse - but I grabbed some other gear to wear.

Event 5 - I discover my iPod is flat.  Stick it on the computer for enough charge to get me through my session.

Event 6 - 5 minutes before DH gets home from work DD2 decides to pee all over me.  OK yes it was my fault for not watching for her cues a little more closely while she was in undies but now my favourite running pants are soaked.  I pull out a pair of all pants that are more suited to yoga than running but its all that I have left that's dry.

Event 7 - The stupid blister block won't stay one my blisters properly.   They get reinforced with bandaids and I'm nearly ready to go.

So at 3:55 I finally get on my way and I just know that this isn't going to be easy.  I try to run through things to relax.  I try to focus on my breathing but nothing seems to work.  The first 700m passes relatively pain free and then the hill starts.  From somewhere I manage to run the entire length of Jackson Road without walking (even if my run was more of a waddle) and round the corner.

After a short respite on a down hill section the climb starts again.  I don't stop, I keep moving, I don't walk and sweat is running down my face.  Every muscle in my body wants to stop, my knees are starting to hurt (which is probably due to the 1km sprint yesterday) and I start remember a design of a T-shirt an online friend designed - "Sweat is fat cells crying" and I keep going.

Ming's Shirt - If you like it please vote for her here

I round the next corner and I want to stop but I keep going.  I can feel a blister on the un-taped up foot starting but now I'm about half way so I'll just finish what I started.  I'm feeling a little down about it all as by this stage last week I had hit "The Zone" and today I just can't get there.

I make it over the railway bridge without stopping even if I slow and round the next bend and start the next small climb.  I make it over the crest and pick up speed on the down hill run.  I pass the train station and the voice in my head is saying just stop, go over the train bridge and you'll be home in 3 minutes.  The other voice in my head (I can have a few going at anyone time!) is saying come on its ONLY another 2.5km.  Thankfully good prevails and I keep going.

I make it to the level crossing and the sun is starting to dip early today.  The sky has a slightly beautiful colour to it but I'm really not in the mood to admire it.  Everything is hurting, my breathing is rather laboured but I'm nearly home.  I round the second last bend, and I know my energy is nearly spent, I round the last bend and have 100m left and I can't pick up speed as usual but I make it to my driveway and hit the stop button and sigh with relief.

Now this is where it shows how much of running is mind set.  I found this run so frigging hard and I was sure it was really slow but it turns out it was only 10s slower than last week which over 10.29km is nothing.  My brain had set me up for it to be hard.  I then thought I'd look at my heart rate stats.

• Last week - Max HR 179, Avg 170
• This week - Max HR 174, Avg 164

So in the space of a week my fitness has improved a little and I've proven to myself that yes running IS all in the mind.

Read more...

The Zone

As part of the 12wbt I've decided that on either Saturday or Sunday my cardio workout is going to be a long run.  While the challenge hasn't kicked off yet I decided that since I wasn't sore from my first pump class on Friday night that I'd attempt 10km today.

I'm proud to say that I managed more than attempting it - I did it and I think I could have done more.  The route I decided to go started with a nice and easy 1km run from our house to the bottom of a large (in my books anyway) hill.  I have walked this hill a few times in the past and that used to be enough to have me out of breath.  The worst part of this hill was 1.2km section that rose almost 25m.  I wasn't able to run the whole thing but I gave it a bloody good attempt.   The incline then decreased, but rose about another 28m until the 4.2km mark.  Strangely enough by the time I'd reached the summit (OK a bit of poetic licence) I was felling rather good.

After another hundred meters or so I entered the much talked about "Zone".  Its hard to explain, put somehow running seemed to be almost effortless.  The background music on my iPod was almost non-existent, my pace was consistent and even when I started to hit the smaller inclines I was able to keep going without slowing.  My mind was almost blank, I didn't even have to concentrate on my breathing, everything just flowed.  It was like a perfect mind/body connection.

I did discover that traffic signal and other intersection did somewhat disrupt the flow but within a hundred meters of the hiccup I was back.  I only wish that running was always so easy.

I finished my 10.29km (and yes the 0.29 is important) in 1:26:07.  I'm am now ready to sign up for the Gold Coast Marathon 10km event.  I had be reluctant to do it due to the 1.5hr cut-off and automatic removal from the course but that's all in the past now.

As I sit here typing this my muscles are starting to feel rather tight and I'm starting to dread the stiffness that I know will come in the morning.  With that thought I bid you good night and good luck with finding "The Zone".

Read more...