Tuesday:
My dad is here visiting. He listens to the radio before he gets out of bed so when he came to breakfast he asked if I had heard about the Boston marathon bombing. (I think it happened about 5am our time.) I turned on the news but had to turn it off again because of the kids, so I read about it on online newspaper reports. Just crazy, and senseless.
Bad stuff seems to happen in the US all the time (and lots of other countries that we don't hear about so much) and I always feel bad for them but it doesn't really touch me; this one did I think because I just ran a race myself three days ago. I have a very recent memory of running, approaching a finish line, with my husband and son cheering me on from the sidelines. That makes this bombing much more personal for me. It's so sad for everyone there who was affected in some way, losing their life, or a leg, or a loved one.
We took dad out to Cotter Dam, Jasmine had been there for a school excursion but I'd never seen it. The actual dam itself is of course a big ugly blot on the landscape -- but impressive -- but the surroundings are really nice. There is a lovely park and playground beside the river at the base of the dam, and a long gentle path up the opposite hill so you can get a good view of the dam. We spent a little while at the top looking and reading the info about it all but had to hurry down again to take the children to the toilets. Then they got to play on the extensive playground equipment. There was no internet connection there which was probably a good thing, I had a swing and chatted to family instead of checking news feeds every few minutes.
Then we went to lunch, dad always insists on a shopping centre food court which is beyond my comprehension, but wants to go to a different food court each time (as if they aren't all identical, and equally bad). Last visit I insisted on a decent restaurant so I gave in this time. The kids always get a McDonald's Happy Meals. I've tried and hated just about everything there but went with fish & chips. Horrible. I should have just got McD or KFC, at least that has some flavour. Salt and fat flavour, of course, but better than nothing.
A few days after my bathroom scales broke I bought a cheap version from Kmart. They aren't even digital so it's hard to get a reading more accurate than half a kilo. But that is what I want at the moment. To know that I am not gaining weight but without obsessing about it. I am only weighing myself a couple of times a week, when I think of it, and I'm not tracking food or counting calories or anything. Trying to eat more "real" food. Still having treats. Just relaxing a bit about the whole thing. And exercising more.
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Showing posts with label race. Show all posts
Monday, April 15, 2013
Saturday, April 13, 2013
My first 5k -- done!
Saturday:
We had so much to do today I didn't think we would be able to fit it all in, but somehow we did. First was Jasmine's violin performance in a String Festival (she was in non-competitive under 10yo). Luckily for us they split her category into two groups so by 10:30 she had her medal and Tim could rush the kids off to their swimming lesson and then Jas to a party while I made my way to the race area. Luckily it was literally a block away. The 10K or maybe the half marathon was in progress, tomorrow is the marathon and ultra-marathon.
I changed and put on sunscreen, had my banana and string cheese and half my bottle of water, and sat down to play with my iPhone for half an hour. Then I checked in my backpack and got in the long line for the porta-loos. I was feeling a bit discouraged as I looked around me. In front of me in the queue was a woman with two young children (maybe 5 and 7) and also a toddler in a stroller, and I knew they were going to beat me in the race. Everyone was going to beat me. I could run a whole 15 seconds at a time, who was I kidding?
But I made my way to the starting line anyway and placed myself near the back of the large pack -- apparently there were 705 finishers today. We couldn't hear any of the announcements from back there so the starting gun came as a bit of a surprise but we all started shuffling forwards. We couldn't run yet, it was too crowded. After 100 metres or so I passed the starting line and the pack started to thin out.
I decided to put on my Zombie app, week 2 day 1, during the race. As I anticipated, I couldn't hear all of the voice-over at first due to the crowd but later it helped me get going. I was up to 30 second intervals today. For the first 10 minutes I watched a pink-haired lady in front of me, she stayed at a walk. Because I have short legs (I'm only 5 foot tall, 152 cm) I walk slower than most other people (I'm probably also just a slow walker). So this lady strode ahead and I would jog a little to keep up, then walk to recover and she would get ahead again, then jog to catch up again. At some point I passed her and then I never saw her again and had to use other people as markers.
Those first 10 minutes were the worst of the whole race. Whether it was because I wasn't warmed up properly (I did a little stretching and walking, but not much) or just the hard surface of the road when I usually run on grass, my legs were killing me. Quite bad pains up my shins. In particular, every step on my left foot sent pain shooting the front of my leg. And this was only the first 10 minutes! I still had 4 kilometers to go! But actually after that the pain eased up and it wasn't too bad at all.
After the 10 min warm up the zombie intervals began so I did those. 30 seconds of running each time, which I found managable. I found that I did 40 steps (on each foot, I always counted each right foot-fall) in 30 seconds. I was also listening to the soundtrack to Jekyll and Hyde, but couldn't hear it all that well.
When I was a couple of blocks away from the finish line on the first of two laps, the real runners started passing me on their second lap. After six or eight men had zoomed past me, a group of spectators started cheering me and yelling "go girl!" and "doing great" and similar and I smiled and sped up and then realised that they were cheering the first girl to lap me on her way to the finish line. She looked about 14.
I did my last zombie interval just before I finished lap one, and then I was on my own with the timing but I kept trying to do the same thing ... running 40 steps (about 30 seconds) and then walking to recover. The only water station was at this point so I had a few mouthfulls and set off on lap two. I felt in pretty good shape. I started trying to pass people. My stats show that although I was slightly faster on my first lap (not by much), I was comparatively faster on my second lap in relation to others -- so I slowed down a little bit but not as much as other people. We were all either walking a bit and running a bit, or just walking. I would set my sights on someone ahead of me, run to catch up, walk and fall back, run and pass then, walk and drop behind again, run and pass them for good.
The middle three kilometres were all pretty managable; the leg pain was much reduced and I was pacing myself well. But that last kilometre was a real struggle. I was out of energy. My legs were tired. Each running interval was harder than the one before. I was dehydrated and overheated. I saw a woman point out the corner to the finish line sprint up ahead so I sailed past them ... only to find she was wrong and I had another block before the correct corner. Finally the finish line was ahead. I walked until I thought it was close enough for a final sprint and ran. Saw my husband and little son cheering me on. Crossed the line and slowed to a walk. My husband yelled at me to go on and I realised the actual finish line was about a metre further on. Lurched over it. Yay!
After collecting my backpack and having a drink of freshly-squeezed juice (man that was good!) we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for a quick lunch -- I was still all hot and sweaty but we didn't have time for anything else -- then went to pick up Jasmine from her party. Got home at about 2.15 pm after a day that felt like it went for about a week, scoffed some birthday cake, had a hot bath and collapsed into bed for an hour. Killer headache and aching legs.
But I did it. My first 5K. My dream time would have been 45 mins, the only thing I had to go by was walking/jogging around the lake about a year ago in 52 mins. I hadn't done very much training.
My official time was 49:38, and I am happy with that. I got under 50 minutes, at least.
The winner took 15:58, the first female 18:53.
I was 682nd of 705 finishers (not last! yay! but as I tell the kids, even the person who came last did really well for finishing at all. The slowest walker is lapping the person sitting on the couch), 89th of 92 in my gender/age group.
So will I do it again? Dunno. I guess so. Not anytime real soon. I am still keen on running away from zombies, and I like doing races. I don't consider myself a runner. Some people say you are a runner if you do any running whatsoever, I disagree. I'm not a chef just because I cook my family dinner, I'm not a writer because I scribble a shopping list (or even this blog). I think it can make words almost meaningless if you broaden the application so far. But I guess I am in training.
We had so much to do today I didn't think we would be able to fit it all in, but somehow we did. First was Jasmine's violin performance in a String Festival (she was in non-competitive under 10yo). Luckily for us they split her category into two groups so by 10:30 she had her medal and Tim could rush the kids off to their swimming lesson and then Jas to a party while I made my way to the race area. Luckily it was literally a block away. The 10K or maybe the half marathon was in progress, tomorrow is the marathon and ultra-marathon.
I changed and put on sunscreen, had my banana and string cheese and half my bottle of water, and sat down to play with my iPhone for half an hour. Then I checked in my backpack and got in the long line for the porta-loos. I was feeling a bit discouraged as I looked around me. In front of me in the queue was a woman with two young children (maybe 5 and 7) and also a toddler in a stroller, and I knew they were going to beat me in the race. Everyone was going to beat me. I could run a whole 15 seconds at a time, who was I kidding?
But I made my way to the starting line anyway and placed myself near the back of the large pack -- apparently there were 705 finishers today. We couldn't hear any of the announcements from back there so the starting gun came as a bit of a surprise but we all started shuffling forwards. We couldn't run yet, it was too crowded. After 100 metres or so I passed the starting line and the pack started to thin out.
I decided to put on my Zombie app, week 2 day 1, during the race. As I anticipated, I couldn't hear all of the voice-over at first due to the crowd but later it helped me get going. I was up to 30 second intervals today. For the first 10 minutes I watched a pink-haired lady in front of me, she stayed at a walk. Because I have short legs (I'm only 5 foot tall, 152 cm) I walk slower than most other people (I'm probably also just a slow walker). So this lady strode ahead and I would jog a little to keep up, then walk to recover and she would get ahead again, then jog to catch up again. At some point I passed her and then I never saw her again and had to use other people as markers.
Those first 10 minutes were the worst of the whole race. Whether it was because I wasn't warmed up properly (I did a little stretching and walking, but not much) or just the hard surface of the road when I usually run on grass, my legs were killing me. Quite bad pains up my shins. In particular, every step on my left foot sent pain shooting the front of my leg. And this was only the first 10 minutes! I still had 4 kilometers to go! But actually after that the pain eased up and it wasn't too bad at all.
After the 10 min warm up the zombie intervals began so I did those. 30 seconds of running each time, which I found managable. I found that I did 40 steps (on each foot, I always counted each right foot-fall) in 30 seconds. I was also listening to the soundtrack to Jekyll and Hyde, but couldn't hear it all that well.
When I was a couple of blocks away from the finish line on the first of two laps, the real runners started passing me on their second lap. After six or eight men had zoomed past me, a group of spectators started cheering me and yelling "go girl!" and "doing great" and similar and I smiled and sped up and then realised that they were cheering the first girl to lap me on her way to the finish line. She looked about 14.
I did my last zombie interval just before I finished lap one, and then I was on my own with the timing but I kept trying to do the same thing ... running 40 steps (about 30 seconds) and then walking to recover. The only water station was at this point so I had a few mouthfulls and set off on lap two. I felt in pretty good shape. I started trying to pass people. My stats show that although I was slightly faster on my first lap (not by much), I was comparatively faster on my second lap in relation to others -- so I slowed down a little bit but not as much as other people. We were all either walking a bit and running a bit, or just walking. I would set my sights on someone ahead of me, run to catch up, walk and fall back, run and pass then, walk and drop behind again, run and pass them for good.
The middle three kilometres were all pretty managable; the leg pain was much reduced and I was pacing myself well. But that last kilometre was a real struggle. I was out of energy. My legs were tired. Each running interval was harder than the one before. I was dehydrated and overheated. I saw a woman point out the corner to the finish line sprint up ahead so I sailed past them ... only to find she was wrong and I had another block before the correct corner. Finally the finish line was ahead. I walked until I thought it was close enough for a final sprint and ran. Saw my husband and little son cheering me on. Crossed the line and slowed to a walk. My husband yelled at me to go on and I realised the actual finish line was about a metre further on. Lurched over it. Yay!
After collecting my backpack and having a drink of freshly-squeezed juice (man that was good!) we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for a quick lunch -- I was still all hot and sweaty but we didn't have time for anything else -- then went to pick up Jasmine from her party. Got home at about 2.15 pm after a day that felt like it went for about a week, scoffed some birthday cake, had a hot bath and collapsed into bed for an hour. Killer headache and aching legs.
But I did it. My first 5K. My dream time would have been 45 mins, the only thing I had to go by was walking/jogging around the lake about a year ago in 52 mins. I hadn't done very much training.
My official time was 49:38, and I am happy with that. I got under 50 minutes, at least.
The winner took 15:58, the first female 18:53.
I was 682nd of 705 finishers (not last! yay! but as I tell the kids, even the person who came last did really well for finishing at all. The slowest walker is lapping the person sitting on the couch), 89th of 92 in my gender/age group.
So will I do it again? Dunno. I guess so. Not anytime real soon. I am still keen on running away from zombies, and I like doing races. I don't consider myself a runner. Some people say you are a runner if you do any running whatsoever, I disagree. I'm not a chef just because I cook my family dinner, I'm not a writer because I scribble a shopping list (or even this blog). I think it can make words almost meaningless if you broaden the application so far. But I guess I am in training.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Ultra fit
Friday:
I borrowed a couple of "Ultra Fitness" magazines from the library yesterday. I enjoy reading all sorts of Health and Fitness literature, from the very basic stuff to the more complex, and these ones are at the higher end without being boring or only for super-elite athletes who want to improve their race time by 0.3 seconds by doing 2 hours of pylometric exercises every day. Anyway, there was lots to inspire me.
It is just over 12 weeks to my next birthday (I will turn 43). I haven't been to the gym for ages but I rang them to check when my membership runs out and coincidentally it will end the day before my birthday. So I have 12 weeks of neglected gym to use. It's a good time to return to the gym as the weather is starting its slide towards winter here in chilly Canberra.
One article suggested that my best time for exercise would be 12-2 (to do with cortisol levels of an unfit person) so I am going to try lunchtime exercise classes for a while. A mix of Pump and Step, plus some dance at home and climbing mountains on the weekend. This gives me my alert morning period for getting brain work done.
Speaking of which, I am finding my current editing job really hard going. It is an intense traumatic true life story which is giving me flashbacks to some bad periods of my own life so I am working in fairly short bursts with lots of breaks.
My son is home sick from school today with a barking cough; he's sick enough to stay home but not sick enough to need to be in bed. Bad combination for me getting anything done today, but I'm trying. Shopping and going to the gym are out, but I can get him interested in his Lego or whatever and squeeze in some work and later dance a bit at home.
I've been lurching up and down with my diet plans. Every Monday or so I try again with a new variation of lower carb: cutting out just sugar and flour, or all starchy carbs including potato and quinoa, or all processed foods... then I have a binge and fall snout-first back into junk food. My fitness mag is all about clean eating -- ie no processed food -- so that is the current focus.
Oh, I haven't trained for running for more than a week, only one week to go until the race. My current feeling is I won't be doing it at all, but my husband suggested I have made a committment to do and paid my money... I don't know! Arg! If I do, it will mainly be a walk.
I borrowed a couple of "Ultra Fitness" magazines from the library yesterday. I enjoy reading all sorts of Health and Fitness literature, from the very basic stuff to the more complex, and these ones are at the higher end without being boring or only for super-elite athletes who want to improve their race time by 0.3 seconds by doing 2 hours of pylometric exercises every day. Anyway, there was lots to inspire me.
It is just over 12 weeks to my next birthday (I will turn 43). I haven't been to the gym for ages but I rang them to check when my membership runs out and coincidentally it will end the day before my birthday. So I have 12 weeks of neglected gym to use. It's a good time to return to the gym as the weather is starting its slide towards winter here in chilly Canberra.
One article suggested that my best time for exercise would be 12-2 (to do with cortisol levels of an unfit person) so I am going to try lunchtime exercise classes for a while. A mix of Pump and Step, plus some dance at home and climbing mountains on the weekend. This gives me my alert morning period for getting brain work done.
Speaking of which, I am finding my current editing job really hard going. It is an intense traumatic true life story which is giving me flashbacks to some bad periods of my own life so I am working in fairly short bursts with lots of breaks.
My son is home sick from school today with a barking cough; he's sick enough to stay home but not sick enough to need to be in bed. Bad combination for me getting anything done today, but I'm trying. Shopping and going to the gym are out, but I can get him interested in his Lego or whatever and squeeze in some work and later dance a bit at home.
I've been lurching up and down with my diet plans. Every Monday or so I try again with a new variation of lower carb: cutting out just sugar and flour, or all starchy carbs including potato and quinoa, or all processed foods... then I have a binge and fall snout-first back into junk food. My fitness mag is all about clean eating -- ie no processed food -- so that is the current focus.
Oh, I haven't trained for running for more than a week, only one week to go until the race. My current feeling is I won't be doing it at all, but my husband suggested I have made a committment to do and paid my money... I don't know! Arg! If I do, it will mainly be a walk.
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Sleepless in Canberra
Wednesday:
Tiny quick rant. I woke at about 5.00am and started stressing about all the stuff I have to do: the new medium-sized work project has turned into a major one, trying to fit in exercise including training for this stupid race, overflowing baskets of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, all these people I have to call because the dryer has broken and the garage door is broken and we need a new fence etc etc.
Anyway I wasn't really particularly unhappy, just wakeful and wishing I could get back to sleep, and then I suddenly realised that the expansion of the work project means I have now committed to work all through the upcoming school holidays! Arg! I try to avoid that, so hard to work with the kids home all day and not fair to them either. There is a deadline so I can't really do anything about it, other than work really hard for the next week and a half so I can take it a bit easier over the school holidays -- like do a couple of hours each morning then take the kids out every afternoon. And work a bit more in the evening.
So now I am really stressed. And I have no idea how I am now going to fit in exercise. But it is super important that I do. And will even make me more efficient at work, too, because my brain will be working better. And it will stop my RSI taking over.
Yesterday Jasmine brought home an invitation to a birthday party at the same time as the race. It would still be possible to do both, plus the String (music) Festival in the morning where Jas is performing, but very difficult. I felt like the universe was telling me I really didn't have to do this race, no one was making me do this hated thing except my own stubbornness. Then that night I learned that both a friend and a different friend's eight-year-old son had just (independently) managed to run 3K without stopping. And I was so jealous. I can barely run for 60 seconds! And frustrated with myself. Not knowing whether to quit running or stick with it.
I shouldn't be using my break from work to do more typing, so will go and stride around the house a bit. But my head is all over the place today, I need to settle somehow. Blogging helps me sort out my thinking.
Tiny quick rant. I woke at about 5.00am and started stressing about all the stuff I have to do: the new medium-sized work project has turned into a major one, trying to fit in exercise including training for this stupid race, overflowing baskets of laundry waiting to be folded and put away, all these people I have to call because the dryer has broken and the garage door is broken and we need a new fence etc etc.
Anyway I wasn't really particularly unhappy, just wakeful and wishing I could get back to sleep, and then I suddenly realised that the expansion of the work project means I have now committed to work all through the upcoming school holidays! Arg! I try to avoid that, so hard to work with the kids home all day and not fair to them either. There is a deadline so I can't really do anything about it, other than work really hard for the next week and a half so I can take it a bit easier over the school holidays -- like do a couple of hours each morning then take the kids out every afternoon. And work a bit more in the evening.
So now I am really stressed. And I have no idea how I am now going to fit in exercise. But it is super important that I do. And will even make me more efficient at work, too, because my brain will be working better. And it will stop my RSI taking over.
Yesterday Jasmine brought home an invitation to a birthday party at the same time as the race. It would still be possible to do both, plus the String (music) Festival in the morning where Jas is performing, but very difficult. I felt like the universe was telling me I really didn't have to do this race, no one was making me do this hated thing except my own stubbornness. Then that night I learned that both a friend and a different friend's eight-year-old son had just (independently) managed to run 3K without stopping. And I was so jealous. I can barely run for 60 seconds! And frustrated with myself. Not knowing whether to quit running or stick with it.
I shouldn't be using my break from work to do more typing, so will go and stride around the house a bit. But my head is all over the place today, I need to settle somehow. Blogging helps me sort out my thinking.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Verti-cool results
Monday:
Race results just came in. My time was 10:36 (so my guess of 11 min was pretty close). This was not a particularly good time. I came 230th of 236 people who finished the race; 140th of 145 women. When you take out the serious runners, I came 124th out of 129 walk/joggers. The average time was 6:11.
I didn't come last!
Interestingly, the winning time was 3:16 this year (4:15 for fastest female), but last year it was 2:47 (3:26 female). I am assuming that they added the run at the start this year, that would account for the longer time. I certainly wasn't expecting that run. For me, at my fitness level, I know it added way more to my time than the actual run itself which probably took me a bit over a minute.
Time to start working towards the 5K.
Race results just came in. My time was 10:36 (so my guess of 11 min was pretty close). This was not a particularly good time. I came 230th of 236 people who finished the race; 140th of 145 women. When you take out the serious runners, I came 124th out of 129 walk/joggers. The average time was 6:11.
I didn't come last!
Interestingly, the winning time was 3:16 this year (4:15 for fastest female), but last year it was 2:47 (3:26 female). I am assuming that they added the run at the start this year, that would account for the longer time. I certainly wasn't expecting that run. For me, at my fitness level, I know it added way more to my time than the actual run itself which probably took me a bit over a minute.
Time to start working towards the 5K.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Verti-cool challenge completed
Sunday:
This morning I did the race up Telstra Tower, 403 stairs. I was pretty confident, even though I had hardly trained at all, that I could run up quite a few of them and get a decent time (I was hoping for something like 6 minutes, my primary goal being that no-one from the following group overtook me). But then we got there and found that they get you to run a few hundred metres to the Tower first.
For any runner, those few hundred metres would seem like nothing. But I would say (going by my body's response) that it was probably further than I've ever run before. They sent small groups off every three minutes, I was in group 26 with three young fit-looking men and two slender young women dressed in cute leopard costumes. We started, and I was instantly lagging behind the group. Up a short hill, then around a marker and back down the hill past the onlookers (it's the only place they could see us as the rest of the race was inside the Tower), looping round behind the building and into the basement. The others in my group were well ahead and out of sight by the time I got halfway down the hill.
I got to the bottom of the stairs completely exhausted. I'd run at a good pace (for me) because everyone was watching, but I had already depleted most of my energy and hadn't even climbed a stair yet! Gone were my dreams of sprinting up. I started to walk up. And up. And up. They had a steward every 100 stairs or so to urge you on. It was a narrow stairwell with metal steps, no windows or anything. My legs were ok, but my breathing was horrible. I was gasping, my lungs burning, the whole way. At the halfway point, people from the next group started to pass me. They were strung out, but by the end I think six people had passed me so that would be the whole next group that left three minutes after me.
At about 250 stairs I was starting to wonder if I could even do it. I had to stop and crouch for a moment, trying not to vomit or pass out, and got my panting under control a bit. Very short break, then off I went again. Finally made it to the top, and out into the fresh air of the viewing balcony.
I don't know my time yet, I didn't check my iPhone at any significant moments but I am guessing around 11 minutes. A bit over my goal!
Oh well, I did it.
As usual, I was too tired to feel a real sense of achievement (I don't think I've ever had any kind of high from exercise). Also a bit disappointed that I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, the run at the start completely undid me. The whole thing was a lot harder that I had expected, and I let myself down with my lack of fitness. I am not feeling at all keen to do this 5K in three weeks, that I also haven't trained for (yet). But I'll keep trudging on.
This morning I did the race up Telstra Tower, 403 stairs. I was pretty confident, even though I had hardly trained at all, that I could run up quite a few of them and get a decent time (I was hoping for something like 6 minutes, my primary goal being that no-one from the following group overtook me). But then we got there and found that they get you to run a few hundred metres to the Tower first.
For any runner, those few hundred metres would seem like nothing. But I would say (going by my body's response) that it was probably further than I've ever run before. They sent small groups off every three minutes, I was in group 26 with three young fit-looking men and two slender young women dressed in cute leopard costumes. We started, and I was instantly lagging behind the group. Up a short hill, then around a marker and back down the hill past the onlookers (it's the only place they could see us as the rest of the race was inside the Tower), looping round behind the building and into the basement. The others in my group were well ahead and out of sight by the time I got halfway down the hill.
I got to the bottom of the stairs completely exhausted. I'd run at a good pace (for me) because everyone was watching, but I had already depleted most of my energy and hadn't even climbed a stair yet! Gone were my dreams of sprinting up. I started to walk up. And up. And up. They had a steward every 100 stairs or so to urge you on. It was a narrow stairwell with metal steps, no windows or anything. My legs were ok, but my breathing was horrible. I was gasping, my lungs burning, the whole way. At the halfway point, people from the next group started to pass me. They were strung out, but by the end I think six people had passed me so that would be the whole next group that left three minutes after me.
At about 250 stairs I was starting to wonder if I could even do it. I had to stop and crouch for a moment, trying not to vomit or pass out, and got my panting under control a bit. Very short break, then off I went again. Finally made it to the top, and out into the fresh air of the viewing balcony.
I don't know my time yet, I didn't check my iPhone at any significant moments but I am guessing around 11 minutes. A bit over my goal!
Oh well, I did it.
As usual, I was too tired to feel a real sense of achievement (I don't think I've ever had any kind of high from exercise). Also a bit disappointed that I didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped, the run at the start completely undid me. The whole thing was a lot harder that I had expected, and I let myself down with my lack of fitness. I am not feeling at all keen to do this 5K in three weeks, that I also haven't trained for (yet). But I'll keep trudging on.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Verti-cool challenge
Monday:
I was feeling a lot better yesterday evening and woke up today completely back to normal. Shopping with the kids in the morning and some JD4 in the afternoon when I found out I maybe wasn't 100%. I had to push myself to do a lucklustre half an hour, but at least I did it.
I'm quite excited about an event coming up in March, the Verti-Cool Tower Race. It is a charity race (Camp Quality for kids with cancer) up the 403 step of the Telstra Tower here in Canberra. The ultimate Challenge participants run up Black Mountain first (the tower is on top of the mountain, Telsta is a telecommunication provider) but I am not ready for that this year!
Going up stairs is one of the exercises I quite like. I've always liked Body Step ("like" being a relative term, of course) and just going up stairs is good too. I've thought about incorporating it before but my problem is I don't have any steps to climb. I work from home so I don't have access to an office building. I know of a couple of outdoor places that have stairs but not so great for training in the middle of a heatwave and also it they are only about one flight high so not ideal for training for a 403 step continuous climb. Better than nothing for cooler days, and the kids could play in the park at the bottom while I go up and down. The gym has one flight of stairs indoors which I plan to use if I can't find anywhere else, but I can't use that during school holidays unless I can get someone to mind the kids (they don't do Club Gecko anymore). I would really love somewhere indoors and at least three or four flights high.
I've already called Telstra Tower and been told their stairwell is not available for practice runs.
I have a bit over two months to get ready -- ten weeks actually. I'll need to get my cardio fitness up quite a bit.
I'm a bit frustrated that I no longer seem to be able to upload pictures to my blog, I have no idea why or what has changed. Telstra Tower is pretty iconic, it looks like a giant spike, and I would love to show a picture.
So, anyway, I'm going to ask around and see if anyone has any ideas about where I can find some stairs to climb. I wanna do this one!
I was feeling a lot better yesterday evening and woke up today completely back to normal. Shopping with the kids in the morning and some JD4 in the afternoon when I found out I maybe wasn't 100%. I had to push myself to do a lucklustre half an hour, but at least I did it.
I'm quite excited about an event coming up in March, the Verti-Cool Tower Race. It is a charity race (Camp Quality for kids with cancer) up the 403 step of the Telstra Tower here in Canberra. The ultimate Challenge participants run up Black Mountain first (the tower is on top of the mountain, Telsta is a telecommunication provider) but I am not ready for that this year!
Going up stairs is one of the exercises I quite like. I've always liked Body Step ("like" being a relative term, of course) and just going up stairs is good too. I've thought about incorporating it before but my problem is I don't have any steps to climb. I work from home so I don't have access to an office building. I know of a couple of outdoor places that have stairs but not so great for training in the middle of a heatwave and also it they are only about one flight high so not ideal for training for a 403 step continuous climb. Better than nothing for cooler days, and the kids could play in the park at the bottom while I go up and down. The gym has one flight of stairs indoors which I plan to use if I can't find anywhere else, but I can't use that during school holidays unless I can get someone to mind the kids (they don't do Club Gecko anymore). I would really love somewhere indoors and at least three or four flights high.
I've already called Telstra Tower and been told their stairwell is not available for practice runs.
I have a bit over two months to get ready -- ten weeks actually. I'll need to get my cardio fitness up quite a bit.
I'm a bit frustrated that I no longer seem to be able to upload pictures to my blog, I have no idea why or what has changed. Telstra Tower is pretty iconic, it looks like a giant spike, and I would love to show a picture.
So, anyway, I'm going to ask around and see if anyone has any ideas about where I can find some stairs to climb. I wanna do this one!
Monday, November 5, 2012
Official results
I just thought to check the Fun Run website to see if there were any results, and indeed they were up.
My official time was 36:20. I was 249th out of the 673 people doing the 3.4 km race. In the first half of all the people doing that distance! I am pretty chuffed about that. In my category (female "masters" ie over 40) I came 20th out of 86. 20th!! After three weeks training! How can I possibly give up running now?
Ok, so a lot of the people behind me probably just walked it. And some of them might have been very old (I didn't notice see any particularly elderly people, but I didn't see much of the people behind me. Eating my dust!). I don't care. I did great!
I feel much prouder right now, after seeing those official results, than I did immediately after the race when I mainly felt tired and confused.
When I got home yesterday I ate a lot. Then a couple of hours later had lunch. Then had a nap. And felt exhausted all evening and went to bed early. I spent less than an hour exercising, but I guess there was a lot of tension and emotion involved as well.
I bought myself a new Pandora charm to celebrate.
Feeling a little bit like a champion.
photo by Rosa Say
Saturday, November 3, 2012
My first ever race
I was probably forced to run some races in primary school (grades 1-6), in fact I can remember a 400 metre race where I started out fast and was in the front group for a short time, then I burnt out and I don't think I even finished. In high school I don't think I even went to any of the athletics carnivals, which were nominally compulsory. So it's been a long time between races.
My goals were 1) To finish the race, 2) To not come last, 3) To get a decent time (for me), although I wasn't really sure what that would be. 30 mins would be a dream time, I though somewhere between 35 and 45 was likely. The race was 3.4 km.
The race was scheduled to start at 9.30 am so we got up at our usual time and were there by 8.30 which was the time I was supposed to pick up my bib by. I walked around and looked at my starting line and the finish, but then still had an hour to kill. The kids played on the nearby playground equipment and I went to the toilet three times, just in case. Yesterday had been cold and cloudy, but today was warming up nicely. I was feeling pretty terrified, full of nervous energy.
Shortly before 9.30 we walked down to the starting line. There were only a handful of people there, but going by the bib numbers we'd seen around there were at least 2000 participants doing the two races (the 6 km had a different starting point but the same finish line). People gradually trickled down from the oval where the finish line and all the tables were located, and joined the queue on the narrow bike path. I didn't want to be right up the front as I would be running slowly and then walking, but I didn't want to be too far back either, so I was in about the 5th row of people. There were several hundred people behind me, I guess. All ages including kids, and a few dogs. And we waited. There was one official there, keeping people behind the line but not doing much else. We waited some more. Ronald McDonald (spokesclown for the major sponsor) had some photos taken in the front row.
Finally a ute drove up and someone with a loudspeaker went over some race info and introduced the family of organisers. It became clear that they had started the 6 km at 9.30 then come to our starting line. Finally, 20 mins after the advertised start, the gun went and we were off.
I already had my music going (Tina Cousins) and had been poised for 20 mins to start RunKeeper. Despite the countdown I still managed to be startled by the bang, but I pressed start and I was away. I enjoyed running along with a big group, people started to spread out but we were still pretty clumped.
I walked a bit then ran again until I got to a sign that said 1 km, with an official beside it cheering us on. Surely that was too soon? It didn't feel like I had run that far -- if I had I was going to nail this race! I checked my RunKeeper shortly after and that said I had gone about 600 metres. I think the sign was for the 6 km race which joined the bike path at a different place and then did a lap of the whole lake whereas we went out and back. Anyway, it was a bit confusing.
At this point, after two quite long intervals of running (long for me, anyway), my body was feeling good except for my shins which really started to hurt. They were hurting a lot. My walking pace at this point fell below 5 km/h and I was trying to stretch as I walked -- going on tiptoe for a while. I continued walking for quite a while, I think, then up the steep ramp to the bridge. Just before going up, the first runner past me going the other way back towards the finish line.
About halfway across the bridge a little kid (maybe 7 or 8 years old) somehow walked straight into a metal street-light pole, face first. Maybe he had his eyes closed? There were tears. His mother was with him for cuddles and remonstrations ("remember at running school they told you to run with your head up?") so I just kept going and shortly afterwards they ran past me so he mustn't have been too hurt.
On the other side of the bridge there was a nice down slope, so I ran again until I got to the water station, had a few mouthfuls of water, ran a bit more. Looped under the bridge and back up the slope again onto the other side to cross back. I wasn't in quite as much pain now but for some reason I felt a little teary. I was about halfway now. I didn't see any distance markers except for that one erroneous 1 km one. As I was on the bridge on the way back, the last of the walkers in my race were crossing for the first time.
On the way back along the lake I kept bursting into brief spurts of speed, passing a few walkers each time. I wanted to do one big sprint across the oval to the finish line so I was saving a little bit for that. My running sements up until then were up around 8.5 km/h, I tried to keep the walking around 5 km/h.
Finally I got to the grass and ran for it (RunKeeper says I did 11.15 km/h which is excellent for me). The final stretch wasn't as far as I had thought, I definitely could have run further. There were a few people still cheering us on and I looked from side to side for my family but couldn't see them. I crossed the finish line, dodging Ronald McDonald (I realised afterwards he was probably trying to high-5 me) and there were my family, taking a picture.
I don't have an official time yet (not sure when I get that, if at all) but I remembered to stop RunKeeper after a short time and it said 36:48 at that point so I'll call it 36 minutes for now. An average of 5.74 km/h over the whole race.
I handed in my bib with its timing chip and got a certificate and scoffed down some watermelon. We didn't stay for the presentation, although they announced it as we were walking away, I felt my family had already been hanging around for a long time. Otherwise I would have applauded the winners, and had more fruit. I was starving when we got home and ate a lot of leftover chicken.
So in terms of my goals: 1) I finished! 2) I didn't come anywhere near last, although I might have been near the back of the run/walkers. Plenty of walkers behind me. 3) I got a time at the lower end of my guesstimate, so I am happy with that.
My shins hurt pretty badly during the race, probably worst during the second quarter but still painful after that. I feel I could have run much more if I didn't have that problem. As it is, I am still undecided whether to run again. I could run on grass to build up my endurance, but I hate the feeling that I am damaging my body every time I run on a hard surface. I'll take a week off running, and see how I feel after that. Really, aside from my shins, I could run/walk a 5 k race now and enjoy it.
I did a race! And didn't suck!
random photo of a fun run by phonakin
All is quiet
Saturday:
The rest day before the race. It's such a short race that I haven't worried about carb loading or anything. I'm thinking 35-45 mins, considering I expect to walk most of it. I'll have my husband and children cheering me on at the start/finish line.
I think the training schedule I've been using sucks. It is just a free thing they recently added to my RunKeeper app, and it is very poorly explained. You have to work out for yourself when to run and when to walk. Training every second day with one set of intervals per week and the rest just walking -- no wait I should have been running? What? If I decide to continue with running after tomorrow I will use the proper Couch to 5K nine week training schedule.
The rest day before the race. It's such a short race that I haven't worried about carb loading or anything. I'm thinking 35-45 mins, considering I expect to walk most of it. I'll have my husband and children cheering me on at the start/finish line.
I think the training schedule I've been using sucks. It is just a free thing they recently added to my RunKeeper app, and it is very poorly explained. You have to work out for yourself when to run and when to walk. Training every second day with one set of intervals per week and the rest just walking -- no wait I should have been running? What? If I decide to continue with running after tomorrow I will use the proper Couch to 5K nine week training schedule.
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