Marathons and stuff

So it's been about two weeks now that I have been really happy with the achilles.  So last week I tested it out on a "longer" run.  And mentioned I thought I could do a half marathon.  And some eejit commented that I could do a full marathon.  Which got me thinking.  And then Kendra and Blake sent an email to say they had entered and had accommodation and did we want to stay with them, and so it all came to pass without too much grief.  So I am now entered in a marathon in just over two months and can I just say, the very IDEA of a marathon scares the absolute bejesus out of me. But I have hummmmed and hawwwwed over life decisions for the past six months, maybe physical strength will lead to mental strength?  Every time I complete another training session I feel good and at the moment, I need all the feel good moments I can get.  So - 42.2km here I come.

This week was interesting.  According to my new fangled Garmin, I did 63km, which isn't a bad start.  Although 27km of that was a hike with no running at all.  The summary of this week:

Monday 4km which was all I could fit in before work
Wednesday 8.5km with hills.
Thursday  10km at a faster than normal training pace
Saturday 13.5km "long" (and flat) run
Sunday 27km hike in the national park, not many hills.

Which is not exactly brilliant marathon training, but hey it is week one.

So next week I will do a 25km flat run and then a long hike on Sunday (planning to see Jerusalem Bay, sounds like a really nice hike).  The following week will keep it lower key as the week after we are doing a training run on Six Foot Track.  We did this last year and I wouldn't say it was easy, but I was running more then.  I don't know if I would say I was fitter, I have been doing a lot of longer, slower stuff of late, so I can hold my own over distance - I think!!!

In the meantime, I need to get out on that bike - it is finding the time or rather making the time for all this.  In between sitting on a train for three hours a day four days a week.  It CAN be done!!!  It WILL be done!!!

Untitled by sonialiddell at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by sonialiddell at Garmin Connect - Details

Freaky

Freaky day.  Half an interview, a tyre blow out , a free dress, nice hair,  half a nanna nap and a goodbye.  Lunch with old friends, run tonight, PT after, half a free Garmin, that old feeling of HELP!!! And HOPE!!!  And a little bit of excitement.....

Happy

Work from home day = another mid week run, which is just as well, because I have an invitation to an exciting event which will be a HUGE big massive stretch and is very soon and I AM SOOOOO EXCITED I AM HOPPING FROM FOOT TO FOOT!!!  I basically have three weeks.  Fark!!!  Lots of training between then and now required.  46kms of FUN (and pain and funny breathing and stomping uphill) coming up!!!

Reality

Conversation with someone in work today....


Him:  So - it's great we've got XXXXX to do this for us
Me:  Is it?
Him:  Why?
Me:  She just told us she couldnt do what we wanted because it was too expensive, too hard and would take too long - so she wasn't going to try and fit it into our project.
Him:  Hmmmm

Welcome to Government.

Long run and the benefits of pineapple juice.

So - Ferris Mewler is the Fabio of Cats.  Now that we have that sorted out....TRAINING!!!


Felt ho hum most of the week - I now know why and I AM NOT AMUSED!!!  I AM TOO FREAKING YOUNG FOR THIS SHIT!!!

Anyway - had a good early night and an even better lie in (all up about 13 hours of blissful dreaming and involuntary leg movement) but woke up feeling like a human being again.
Which is good, because it kinda helps fit in with the rest of the human beings mulling around our house.  You never know who you are going to walk into in your jammies.  Yesterday it was the carpet measuring up man and this morning it as Curts girlfriend.  So much for the mystique of "before I put my face on"....

Anyway - loaded up on berries and porridge and a whole VAT of coffee, I set off in search of a flat run.  The idea was to test out a long road run.  All my long runs for the last seven hundred years have been on the trails, so I wanted to see how a road run would make my body feel, both whilst it was happening, and afterwards.  Surprisingly good, is how I would answer.  I actually really enjoyed it.  I did have plenty of guff to occupy my mind and I left the Control Freak in me behind and allowed the iPod to shuffle, which was good.  I did three laps of the river run, which gave me just a smidgen under 20km and whilst the time was not earth shattering, a wee bit of focussed training should help that.  Of note though, the achilles behaved.  I took the time to stretch out afterwards and included a recovery lap of Woolworths afterwards to get the weekly shopping, rather than going home to sit with my foot in a bucket.  I think it worked well, feeling really good right now.  I got Monicas roller thing out and rolled any surface that felt in any way dodgy - including the fronts of my thighs, back of my calves, inside thighs - much like a mini massage.  So there is no reason I cannot start entering races again - been a long time and maybe I am getting ahead of myself but I am EXCITED!!!

And it is nice to have something to train for!

In further adventures of juicing - I experimented today with carrots, celery and pineapple.  TO DIE FOR!!  Yum yum yum.  And juiced pineapple goes all frothy.  If it wasn't the middle of the day I would have been tempted to add a bit of Malibu.   Then I was making a Korma and so added all the spat out bits of carrot and celery and pineapple to the Korma.  It tastes - different.  Curtis commented that it would taste better tomorrow.  I just don't like wasting stuff.  Especially good healthy stuff.  I suppose it has a sweetness that is unusual but once all the spices infuse, it will be yummy and much much healthier than bog standard Korma.  I am tellling myself this.  My drive to get more veggies into my gob than ever before has been going really well and I am wondering if the almost fake tan effect is actually from excess beetroot and carrot and tomatoes......

And here is a very interesting article.  I think, if I understood it all.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14258601

200g nightie

So, developments this week.  Where do I start?  There have been so many.....

Firstly - my nightie weighs 200g.  I know this because I hopped on the scales this morning, didn't like the result, and whipped off the nightie to get a better reading.  Result.

Choices - feast or famine!  This week I have choices coming out of my ears.  Last week I only had prospects.  It is a funny old world.  And of course, what do I do when faced with a choice?  I shudder and retreat into a corner and hope life sorts it out for me.  I go after the change and the challenge and then I totally shit myself and have no idea what to do when presented with the opportunities.

Anyway, I am onto that.

Training.  Oh boy.  I thought at one stage I might enter Nepean Triathlon.  So I took myself out on the bike on Saturday, ostensibly to do 30km to "see" how long it took me.  The plan was to then compare with average race results and see how the lie of the land was.

I am very very crap on the bike.  Actually, I am very very SLOW on the bike.  I took myself around the Regatta Centre and rode as fast as I could (whilst dodging a lot of children, dogs and scooters).  I stopped at 25km after a five year old on a pink bike with streamers coming out of the handles appeared to be coming from the other direction in a straight line and then turned and rode into my thigh.  I wish I had my heart rate monitor on to see the spike, because it scared the absolute crap out of me.  Little girl was fine, I was fine, but it could have been very very ugly.

Anyway, I had put the bike in the big gears and pushed as hard as I could....only to average 20km an hour.  I need at least 25 km per hour to be anywhere near "normal" in the Nepean Tri.  So I have to find some way to add 5km per hour to my speed between now and November -so if anyone knows how to do this (if in fact, anyone actually reads this blog) could you please let me know.

However, the running is going ok, and this week I did the Cool Running 5km challenge - ran it with friends, chatting and giggling and did it within 20 secs of my pb.  Happy days.  I think it was because it was so cold I couldnt feel my legs.  Then Sunday did a walk / run thing for 25km in the National Park which was beautiful and we sat out at the Nepean Lookout and chatted and laughed and enjoyed the view.  Lovely lovely lovely day.

So - what to do about this little life of mine?  As usual, I am going to sit back, watch, wait and see what transpires.  I hope it is good.

frocks

Computers are great and all but why oh why have I managed to find Saks Fifth Avenue Online Store, which just happens to ship to Australia and has the most FABULARSE dresses in the whole wide world?  Last Saturday I was meeting friends, I had stuff to do but could I drag myself away from image after image of Dior, Armani and Diane Von Furstenburg?  No.  And I couldn't resist a couple of frocks either and now I am hoping they arrive safely and clear customs and are nice decent dresses, able to be worn on all occasions, and I haven't gone and bought some outrageous outfit that would only look good on a tall willowy blonde with a size two figure.  Please, please please let them fit.  And please let me quickly forget about how much I spent on them.  If only Saks online would stop sending me emails, causing me to participate further in this new online addiction, because now, from my desk at the foot of the Blue Mountains, and at the click of my credit card number, I can purchase Louboutin heels, Jimmy Choos and Coach handbags, where previously I wouldn't even have the courage to front up into a store that sold this kind of merchandise.  Advertising.  It is a wonderful, powerful thing.

Meanwhile training continues - this weekend went out on bike and tried to get in as many hills as I could (hard) around my local area, including half of Mitchells Pass.  Went for a trail run with Monica and a couple of the girls from Sparta PT - was good fun and nice to find new paths to take, and meet a million new dogs including a rather excitable doggy who accompanied us for about ten minutes and looked as if he was saying - "c'mon, I know this great track!" (say it in a Scooby Doo voice though).  Sunday went for a 1.4km swim (yes, me, I swam YIPPEE and then a bike ride with us doing silly sprints in high gears at the end.  Really felt like I wore myself out physically this weekend which was just brilliant, because it knocked me right off to sleep and stopped me thinking about the absolute mess my life is in.