Farewell 2005!

2005 has been a huge year for me - let's see I:

* turned 30 !

* spent 5 weeks travelling in South America;

* graduated from UTS with a Masters in Law;

* ran my first of what will be many City to Surfs;

* met an amazing and inspiring group of people, some of whom have quickly become my nearest and dearest friends; and

* become engaged !

So far as my running is concerned, I think the year can best be described as one of 'untapped potential' or maybe 'potential only glimpsed'. The first half of the year was dominated by shin splints; the second half by ITB problems - but in the middle was one magic day; the 2005 City to Surf - by far the highlight of my running year. Running - and finishing - it with my good friends Lulu, the Owl & Wobbly Man so comfortably after my lack of preparation and shin splint problems will stay with me always.

As for the year ahead, my primary goal is to become - and remain - injury free. I had planned to put my list of races for the year on my blog tomorrow but given that I'm still carrying an injury I've decided not to. Instead I will say that my main (running) goals for the year are:

* sub-85mins at the City to Surf

* to finish Willy to Billy smiling.

I would like to thank everyone for their encouragement, support & advice throughout the year. I can't say how much I truly appreciate it.

Wishing everyone a wonderful evening and all the best for 2006 !

Day 12 - a long cool dip

How hot is it in Sydney at the moment - the only place to be in weather like this is in the pool!

Activity: swim
Time: 9am
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: pretty good
ITB: fine

Why do I torture myself this way ? My upper back burned for the first 500m after yesterday's weights session. I can only hope that with another 24 hours to recover, tomorrow's LSD swim won't be half as painful. The first 500m were v. bloody slow but I was able to pick up the pace for the rest of the swim.

Summary: 29.46mins; 1,250m
WTD: 4.35kms

Last session of 2005. Bring on 2006 - and a return (at some stage) to running - I say !

Day 11 - hot bloody hot

A day off work so a bit of a sleep-in before heading to the gym for a(nother) upper body weights session:

Activity: weights
Time: 9am
Duration: 45mins
Mood/energy: a bit flat & tired
ITB: pretty good

The same upper body weights circuit that I did on Wednesday consisting of:
* reverse flyes, bench
* single arm cable row, standing
* dumbbell bicep curls
* single arm tricep extensions, lying
* lat pulldowns; and
* internal/external rotations, cable,
repeated twice followed by 25mins stretching. I increased the weights on both the reverse flyes and the single arm cable row so it was a really tough, but good session.

A swim tomorrow morning to finish off the year - and to burn off a few calories in preparation for tomorrow nights festivities !

Christmas 2005

Opening the champagne for our ritual champagne breakfast*.....


...in a rather dramatic fashion (drama queen - who me ???)

* note: another our of rituals is to wear - at breakfast - all and any jewellery that you were lucky enough to receive from Santa. So here I am wearing all my new jewellery (bracelet, necklace & earrings), all of which clashed. None of it even remotely went together. Noice ;-)

Playing Santa at lunch time...




Santa flexing her muscle ;-)

Days 9 & 10 - burn baby burn...

Wednesday 28 December - back to work..

Back to work today and it was crazy. Blah !

My usual chiro/osteo is on annual leave at the moment so he asked me to see one of the other chiro/osteo's in his clinic to continue my treatment. It looks like my right hip has been the cause of my ITB problems and I'm feeling confident that we are slowly getting to the bottom of my ITB problems *phew*. My poor hip took a pounding today. At the moment, it's pretty sore but hopefully with lots of stretching over the next few days it will loosen up some more. My usual chiro/osteo is not back until the week of 9 Jan - looking forward to having a talk with him about when I can return to running. Right now I'd love to go for a run to test it out - but I'm finding it hard to find a balance between listening to what my body is telling me and perhaps a false sense of security that the lack of niggles recently has given me as to how much it has improved.

Activity: weights
Time: 6pm
Duration: 50mins
Mood/energy: unsettled; work was crazy
ITB: pretty good

Did my new upper body weights circuit today consisting of:
* something I can't remember now...
* single arm cable rows
* dumbbell reverse flyes
* barbell bicep curl
* lat pulldown
* single arm tricep extension
* rotator cuff - internal & external,
repeated twice followed by 15mins of stretching. A great session; really tough - my arms felt like jelly afterwards. Happy days :-)

Thursday 29 December - burn baby burn !

Remind me never to swim the morning after doing an evening upper body weights session. While I didn't feel heavy in the water, my upper back burned the whole way - I even had to stop and quickly stretch my shoulders, arms and back after every 500m. Really tough session physically and mentally.

Activity: swimming
Time: 6.15am
Duration: 40mins
Mood/energy: tired & sore
ITB: good

I had planned to do an interval session but in an effort to avoid aggravating my ITB, I've decided not to do any kicking for another week or so - so a pullbuoy (as I have since discovered the between-the-legs floatation thingy is called) was the order of the day again.

Summary: 40.36mins - 1,650m
Weekly total: 3.1kms

ITB has been good today. I have had a slight niggle in my knee today (unlike my usual one) but I'm not too worried - hopefully it's just my body settling down after yesterday.

Mid morning I headed off to meet Lulu, Mr Lulu & Don Juan who selflessly sacrificed their time to catch up with me (as the only one out of us who had to work) - mind you, we were meeting at the Lindt cafe so between you and me, the degree of sacrifice is somewhat questionable ;-) Lulu & I have made plans to meet for a swim at the very scenic ;-) ABC pool sometime soon.

After reading Aki's blog last night, I decided that I couldn't be the only CoolSwimmer without any floatation aids so I battled the crowds during the post-Xmas sales tonight and am now the proud owner of a pullbuoy :-)

Day 8 - catch up !

Had a lovely Christmas Day with my family. I was very spoilt - much to my surprise, I got a new snazzy digital camera from Santa so there are no excuses for not having more photos on my blog from now on! (Christmas Day photos to follow)

Boxing Day was spent on the couch - where else? - watching the cricket so I didn't make it to the pool for a swim. Saw Good Night and Good Luck with Mr Jen_Swims last night - very good.

My ITB has been pretty good - a bit tight on Christmas morning but otherwise it's been niggle free. I'm seeing my usual chiro/osteo next week so I'll speak to him then about when I'm likely to be able to return to running (*she says with fingers crossed trying not to jinx herself)

Today has been a busy day - up early for a swim, followed by breakfast and seeing Pride and Prejudice with one of my closest girlfriends, T *waves*. Loved P & P - it's one of my favourite books and I was pretty scared that the movie would butcher the story but I'm v. pleased to say that it didn't.

Activity: swim
Time: 8am
Duration: 35mins
Mood/energy: pretty tired
ITB: not bad.

Was out the front of the pool waiting for it to open today so I that I could squeeze my swim in before meeting T for breakfast at 9.15am. I felt heavy in the pool today - no doubt a result of doing nothing more strenuous than lifting a fork or wine glass to my mouth over the last few days. I also went out a bit hard in the first 500m and paid for it during the rest of the session. However ultimately I did 50m more than I normally do in my 35mins session so I left feeling v. happy and looking forward to a relaxing day.

Summary: 35.05mins; 1,450m

Tomorrow - it's back to work, to the gym and to the chiro/osteo

Day 5 - LSD...

Rolled out of bed at about 8am after a rather late night...my first thought was with the people running Quarry Road this morning. What a hot morning (but god I wish I had been there with them...)

Activity: swimming
Time: 8.45am
Duration: 45.21mins
Mood/energy: good
ITB: ok

Greeted again by an empty pool this morning. Nice. Decided to apply the same principles to swimming as I do to running - so today it was the LSD swim. Strangely I felt better and seemed to get stronger as the session went on. I actually wanted to keep going at the end of my 45mins session which is always a great way to finish any session. In an effort to avoid aggravating my ITB, I used one of those "between the legs" flotation aids which worked well. ITB/knee didn't niggle on the walk home like it sometimes does. Happy days.

Total: 45.21mins; 1,850m

Off to the 'Riff this afternoon for Christmas at my folk's place

This week has been interesting - while I've managed to do all the sessions that I planned to, the fact that my knee isn't showing signs of improving is disturbing, confusing, annoying and frustrating:

3 x weight sessions with Satan

3 x swims (total of 4.65kms)

The week ahead....
Sunday: rest
Monday: swim (35mins)
Tuesday: swim (40mins)
Wednesday: weights
Thursday: swim (intervals)
Friday: weights
Saturday: rest
Sunday: swim (50mins)

Day 4 - & one very unhappy knee :-(

Yesterday afternoon my knee began to niggle and then it got sore - very bloody sore actually. It hasn't been this bad in weeks. I can hardly bend it, let alone walk properly. I've been off the road 6 weeks today and it hasn't improved at all during that time. Happy days.

Activity: swimming
Time: 5.30am
Duration: 35.29mins
Mood/energy: tired but good
ITB report: crap

No tri squad to admire this morning - instead I was faced with an empty pool. Nice. Another CJ special interval session :
* 300m warm up
* 5 x 50m @ L2 with 15sec interval
* 10 x 50m sprint (sprint 25m/easy 25m) with 15 sec interval
* 200m @ L2
* 150m cool down
Total: 1,400m

1/2 day at work (assuming my clients don't come up with anything urgent/disastrous) before CR drinks tonight.

Day 3 - more Satan...

Serious case of DOMS today, particularly in my abs - hehe, I love it!

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2.30pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: unsettled thanks to craziness at work
ITB report: alright

Circuit consisting of:
* squats
* supine single leg extensions
* bicep curls while kneeling on swiss ball
* single arm reverse flyes
* side leg lifts,
repeated twice. Right now, my legs feel like jelly and my arms like lead. Even stretching my shoulders proved to be a struggle. Lots of water and protein for me today in the hope that my arms/shoulders/back will function again in time for me to go for a swim in the morning...

Must confess that I skipped my post-Satan lower leg stretches in favour of getting back to the office quickly for cake...

Day 2 - double dose of Satan

My good and v. wise friend 2P reminded me yesterday to listen to my body as much as I do to the chiro/osteo with regard to my return to running. My knee is (still) sore. My body is telling me that I am a v. long way off running again. Something I've known for a while but didn't want to admit (either to myself or openly here).

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 1.30pm
Duration: 60mins!
Mood/energy: a little flat/tired
ITB report: sore

To answer 2 questions raised by Runner Susan *waves* - Satan is actually a girl, not a bloke and yes, I normally have a session with Satan on Monday but I had a client lunch this Monday.

Sessions with Satan are normally 30mins but today I booked in for a 60mins session to make up for a session I missed last week. Yikes. Scary stuff. Session today consisted of:
* dumbbell shoulder press standing on disks
* assisted chin up off a smith machine
* prone hold with shoelaces on swiss ball
* reverse flyes
* crunches,
repeated 3 times followed by another circuit of:
* hamstring curls on swiss ball
* push ups
* floor bridge hip raises
* supine single leg extensions,
repeated 3 times.

Was exhausted by the end of the session. Wanted to go back to the office and curl up under my desk and sleep. I didn't drink enough water which probably didn't help.

Back to see Satan again tomorrow.

Day 1 - the great snowball building exercise

Monday 19 December - glutes of steel!

Activity: weights
Time: 6.30pm
Duration: 60mins
Mood/energy: tired but good
ITB report: no complaints

Started with 9mins on the bike at L3 (aver. 83RPMs) with no complaints from my knee. Then onto a predominately lower body weights circuit consisting of:
* incline leg press
* hamstring curls on swiss ball
* 3 x glute exercises (clams, side leg lifts + double jump thingy)
* 2 x rotator cuff exercises (internal/external)
* 2 x VMO exercises (single leg extension/squats),
repeated twice followed by 20mins of lower body stretching and another 15mins of glute stretching when I got home. A good session - my legs were pretty stuffed by the end :-)

Tuesday 20 December - back to the scenic pool ;-)

Activity: swimming
Time: 5.30am
Duration: 35mins
Distance: 1,400m
Mood/energy: pretty good
ITB report: no complaints

Glutes & quads are sore today after last nights exercises (but not as sore as Saturday, thankfully!)

Up at 5am and in the pool by 5.31am this morning. Only girl in the pool that time of day - lucky there was a spare lane next to the (male) tri squad. Nice way to start the day ;-)

Was a tough session - although I covered the same distance as normal, I concentrated more on my stroke after reading Dave Byrnes post on CR last week and towards the end of the session, increased the pace and took slightly longer recovery intervals between laps. My somewhat dodgy shoulder held up ok but there were a couple of small complaints from it which worry me a little so I need to focus on lots of rotator cuff work and not doing stupid things like throwing clothes across the bedroom (into the washing basket, minds out of the gutter please people!) with a strange backhand flick/pass action which my shoulder doesn't, and has never, liked.

My knee was niggling a bit on the walk home as it often does. I wonder if I'm kicking too much at the knee rather than the hip. Need to focus on this next time

Summary: 35mins; 1,400m

Off to the chiro/osteo this afternoon.

Edit: saw the chiro/osteo again today. Confirmed his view that my *ahem* groin/adductors may be the reason that my ITB has not/is not improving. One thing that I've noticed recently is that my ITB starts misbehaving after I've done a glute workout. Given that it could in fact be that the exercises themselves are aggrevating the problem - so in order to try and settle my ITB, I'm not to do my glute exercises for a while. He also doesn't want me to start my 'return to running' program on 1 January either. Bugger, bugger, bugger.

Building the snowball....

Ouch! My glutes were v. v. sore & tight after doing my new glute exercises on Friday and (I think as a result) my knee has been a bit niggly all weekend. Did 30mins of glute and lower leg stretching twice on Saturday and once on Sunday. Lulu & Kit asked me yesterday if my ITB was improving - in all honesty, I'm not convinced that it is. I hesitate to say that because I'm really busting to go for a walk this weekend (maybe I still will) with a view to kicking off my "return to running" program on NYD. But as I sit here at my desk, I can feel my ITB beside my right knee - and it feels a bit like rope :-( But hopefully with lots of stretching and work on getting my glutes to 'fire' over the next few weeks, things will start to improve soon..

But c'est la vie. Cleaning out my diary last night, I discovered the copy of Susie Power's article from R4YL recently on snowball building. Having found my mojo, it's time to crank up my snowball building & get my (albeit limited) training back on track:

Monday: weights (lower body); glute & rotator cuff exercises; stretching
Tuesday: swim - 35mins (laps) + appointment with chiro/osteo
Wednesday: Satan (1 hour) + glute exercises
Thursday: Satan (30mins)
Friday: swim (intervals) + CR drinks!
Saturday: 20mins flat/brisk walk, glute exercises + 40mins swim (laps)
Sunday: rest (Christmas!)

Also I have to make sure I drink enough water. I hate water and my consumption of it slips off when I'm not running. My right shoulder (the slightly dodgy one) has also shown a couple of signs over the weekend that it's getting a bit unhappy again. I was expecting that at some stage it would given that my upper body has been doing a lot of work over recent weeks so regular rotator cuff exercises are part of the 'snowball' as well. As Bernie G reminded me last week (thank you!), my persistence will be rewarded.

I'm back :-)

Thursday 15 December 2005 - a bit less blah-ish

Ok, so I didn't go for a swim but I did get up early to do my stretches and to head into work to get some CR stuff done early.

Had an appointment to see the chiro/osteo that my Satanic Massage Therapist (SMT) referred me to at 2.45pm. After a short massage to warm up the surrounding areas by one of the massage therapists in the clinic Mr C came in to talk, poke, prode, crack and massage me. I'm pretty impressed with him - very thorough and ended up only doing 2 small adjustments and lots of massage/stretching work instead. Briefly he is of the view that:

* my mobility/flexibility in my lower back is a little limited (which isn't a particular surprise given the bulging disks I had last year);

* because I've had some sort of lower body problem ever since I started running (shin splints, ITB etc), I've got - and probably have always had - a hip/lower back and, ahem, groin biomechanical issue which hasn't been addressed yet, which view was confirmed by his examination of my dodgy hip/*ahem* groin; and

* glute medius and minimus aren't as strong as they should be & aren't firing.

He also gave me a somewhat unusual (but tough) ITB massage - an "active" massage I guess where he moved and stretched my ITB in all sorts of directions while massaging it. My ITB felt tight but it wasn't painful - though I have a high pain threshold so I need to learn not to judge stuff by 'pain'.

So for the next few days, it's back to the glute exercises (including a new one that sort of resembles doing a triple jump but without the final jump designed to strengthen my core and get my lazy glutes firing) and then I'm due to see him again on Tuesday. Once he is satisfied that it's settling down, he is going to speak with and hand me back to the SMT to continue the treatment. Actually turns out that the SMT saw him on Tuesday for her own treatment and was asking him questions relating to my problems/issues. Don't you love it when medical practitioners work together :-)

Friday 16 December 2005 - the mojo returns :-)

It's alright; you can all stop looking - I found my mojo, interestingly at the bus stop this morning at 5.50am. I was waiting for the bus to take me to the gym, "Dancing Queen" came on the iPod (anyone who knows me will know that I find it hard to stand still when this song is on) and I suddenly realised that (a) my knee was feeling more "free" if that makes sense this morning and (b) I was actually looking forward to a tough session in the gym. I'm back baby :-)

Activity: weights
Time: 6.15am
Duration: 55 mins + 15mins stretches
Mood/energy: great !
ITB report: good

Unfortunately Satan has my program at the moment so I had to make today's session up as I went along - circuit (repeated twice) of:
* single arm lat pulldowns
* single arm reverse flyes (cable)
* seated row
* bicep curls
* single arm tricep pushdowns
* leg press
* hamstring curls on swiss ball
* 3 x glute exercises (clam, side leg lifts & triple jump thingy)

15mins of stretching to finish. Feel great now :-)

Off to the Office of Fair Trading with KT this afternoon to register CR as an incorporated association. I've spent a few hours each night this week working on it so I will be v. happy to get this first step completed.

Rest day tomorrow (except for glute exercises and stretches) to be followed by a swim Sunday morning before a BBQ lunch at Bronte with Mr & Mrs Lulu, Mr & Mrs Kit, DJ and Mr Jen_runs. Looking forward to it !

Wedding update: I now have my ring and we are off to check out a reception venue tomorrow :-)

Edit: during my walk back from Central to the office this afternoon with KT, a bit of a niggle developed in my knee. Slightly annoyed but not too stressed about it given that I did my glute exercises this morning. 20mins stretching & ice treatment tonight.

**************

The courage to begin separates dreamers from achievers.

Your difficulty and the difficulty of every individual who ever desired to achieve anything worthwhile comes in the movement.

Don't always be intending to live a new life, but never find the time to begin living it.

Most people fail because they never get started.

Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have.

You can start achieving right now - it begins with the dream.

Who stole my motivation ?

I've been seriously lacking in motivation lately. Combined (or perhaps due to) the fact that I've been running on adrenaline at work for weeks now, I seem to have hit a bit of flat/blahish patch. Yesterday (Tuesday) morning I got up early to go for a swim, put my cozzie* and clothes on and then sat on the couch and decided that I didn't want to swim. Rather than go back to bed, I ended up doing some stretching and my calf strengthening exercises so it wasn't a complete write off.

Today hasn't been much better but I have upped my stretching regime and printed out a "return to running" program (thanks 'Flake) so hopefully I will find my mojo soon. The goal is to go for a 20min "brisk" walk next Saturday (Xmas Eve) with a view to starting the R2R program on or about 1 January.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: pretty flat
ITB: no niggles at the moment (touch wood)

An upper body circuit consisting of:
* assisted chin-ups (changing grips 1/2 way through each set)
* dumbbell shoulder press standing on disks
* prone hold with shoelaces resting on swiss ball - v. tough
* reverse flyes
* crunches,
repeated 3 times

After my session I did 7mins on the exercise bike at L3. I normally have it on L8 so I have a bloody long way to go but it's a start I suppose. My knee felt a little tight afterwards but nothing too drastic.

Planning to go for a swim in the morning (note I said "planning") then off to the chiropractor recommended by my satanic massage therapist at lunch.

* a swimming costume for the benefit of any North American readers unfamiliar with Aussie lingo, sorry I meant language ;-)

Move along people

My good friend 2P reminded me today that sport is as much mental as physical (if not moreso). So in an effort to remain positive, I'm not going to comment on my ITB today - instead I will say that I had a fabulous, relaxing & fun weekend and that I had a killer massage today (which I've been rescheduling for about 4 weeks now thanks to work). My satanic massage therapist has referred me to a chiropractor to check my alignment - she is concerned by the lack of improvement in the body part that I'm not talking about & suspects my back/pelvis might be a bit out of whack.

Off for a swim tomorrow morning.

Congratulations to my fellow CR playgroup members, Minersrun & Wobbly Man, after their SENSATIONAL races over the weekend :-)

4 weeks & counting

I've been off the road for 4 weeks today and really my knee has not improved at all in that time. Given that I had a niggle in my knee from the second I got out of bed this morning, I imagine it's going to be another 4 weeks (at least) before I can start running again. Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger.

I had planned to go to the gym this morning but instead I've been sitting at my desk since 6.30am in an effort to get a stack of urgent things done in the hope I will make it to my firm's Xmas party at 1pm. I've worked through a Xmas party before (and slept through last year's thanks to a migraine) so nothing at all would surprise me right now.

The talent pool...

Gee, the view at the pool was rather nice this morning. Must get up that early more often ;-)

Activity: swimming
Time: 5.30am
Duration: 35mins
Distance: 1,400m
Mood/energy: not bad
ITB: still sore

Decided to get up a bit earlier this morning due to amount of urgent 'stuff' sitting on my desk at work. Of course I was immediately regretting that decision when the alarm went off at 5am.

Today's session was intended to be another relatively easy lap session but at a slightly higher intensity than Tuesday's session to test out the lungs. The lungs were fine although my fitness is seriously lacking and my shoulders were feeling the effects of all of those chin-ups from yesterday's session with Satan. My mind was strong today; the body not so.

Off for a massage this afternoon. With my ITB claiming all the attention lately, it's been a long time since the rest of my body got some attention - my back in particular has been feeling very tight the last few days. It's not going to be pleasant...

Edit: no massage for me today. I was unable to escape from the office and had to cancel my appointment. Unfortunately I can't get in to see her until next Wednesday - yikes. That's really going to hurt...

Achievement takes time...

This was sent to me - a very timely reminder in the circumstances...

**************

"Just keep going" is the rule that must be followed if you want to be successful at anything.

Your success will always be connected with your actions. Just keep moving towards your goal.

You'll make mistakes along the way but don't ever quit. You will notice that you will have to hang on after others around you have let go.

Persistence means hanging in there and overcoming every obstacle and doing all that is required to reach your goal.

In the end, the only people who do decide to not make it are those that do not "keep going".

All great achievements in your life take time.

Boring...

Move on people. Nothing to see here. Even I’m bored with the lack of variety in my program at – but if you can’t walk without pain, I suppose there isn’t too much choice in the matter.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: blahish
ITB report: it hurts to walk. 'Nuff said

A really tough upper body circuit consisting of:
* (assisted) chin ups (changing grips ½ way through each set)
* dumbbell shoulder press standing on disks
* reverse flyes
* bicep curls
* straight arm prone hold,
repeated 3 times. Must have done almost 20 chin-ups during the second time around. Damn near killed me.

ITB stretches, rolling pin & golf ball action & calf raises tonight.

On a positive note, I discovered last night that my uncle came 2nd in his age group at the Nepean Tri recently (claps loudly). Unfortunately he is only related to me by marriage, not blood, so I can't claim to have any genetic talent for triathlons..

Back to the pool

Activity: swimming
Time: 6am
Duration: 30mins
Distance: approx. 1km (I lost count a few times)
Mood/energy: blahish
ITB: sore

The plan was to do an easy 30mins session in the pool this morning to test out the lungs given my recent illness. I felt pretty flat and heavy in the water initially and could feel yesterday's session with Satan in my shoulders and chest. In the first 15mins I took it pretty easy, stopping at the end of the lanes on occasion to let swimmers past because I found myself pushing the pace a bit. Upped the pace in the last 10mins to test out my lungs and felt pretty good. However I noticed that my heartrate was elevated when I got home - ie 15mins after the session which was a bit strange. Another easy session on Thursday.

My knee was very sore on the walk home from the pool. Ho hum. Maybe I should just resign myself to the fact it will probably be 2006 before I start running again :-(

Wedding update: we have a tentative date :-)

A return to Satan

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: felt flat, tired and sore today
ITB report: sore

A really tough session today which left my arms and quads feeling like jelly. My strength levels seem to be returning very quickly. A circuit consisting of:
* full push ups on the Smith machine (almost horizontally)
* reverse dumbbell flyes
* a new circus trick - kneeling on a swiss ball whilst doing lat raises with dumbbells (yikes)
* crunches (both normal and obliques)
* squats focusing on VMO,
repeated 4 times.

More ITB stretches and rolling pin and golf/tennis ball rolling exercises tonight.

Will go for an easy swim tomorrow to see how I'm recovering from my little (!) cough. Hopefully I'll be able to do a tougher session on Thursday. The lack of cardio exercise is starting to get on my nerves..

CC Half

Saturday 3 December (continued) – The Entrance here we come!

Go Girl picked me up from Parramatta station in the Go-mobile just after 4pm. After collecting Go Husband from his cricket match at Winston Hills, we arrived at the Entrance - after making a short detour (ie we missed the turnoff) - at about 7.30pm. Checked into my lovely B&B and after tucking into a delicious slice of homemade carrot cake (being well fed proved to be the theme of my stay), I was collected by the Go couple for dinner at an Italian restaurant. Crawled into bed exhausted at about midnight.

Sunday 4 December – CC Half

I have to confess that when I woke up this morning (in my very comfy bed) my first thought was – why am I here? Did I really want to go and cheer today? In all honesty, the answer was no. The Owl & I have often said that there have been times when we wanted to cheer instead of run – it is loads of fun and a very rewarding experience. However today I really did not want to cheer. But there I was - so I dragged my butt out of bed and got ready to head down to the start. As I was leaving, my hosts asked me if I wanted coffee or cereal. I said no, keeping my eye on the time. After saying that I couldn’t go so long on an empty stomach (I’d asked to have breakfast at 9.30am), my hosts sent me on my way with a bag of 5 homemade cookies!

Before the start I finally met the lovely Twopennys. Blue Dog kindly told me he would “take care” of Mr Jen_runs if he ever causes me problems ;-) LOL. Thanks Doggie. I was also handed a huge bag of water sachets by Truckie and told to get on the course and hand them out(!). After seeing Satan yesterday, my arms/upper body were bloody tired – thankfully Go Husband was on hand to carry them for me!!

Once we cheered the runners off, Go Husband and I set off to walk down the course to cheer and to hand the water out. The 9kms runners came past us while we walked down the course. At about the 4kms mark, we pulled up stumps on a park bench, just after the last drinks stop, and cheered the Half runners through. Once the skaminer-mobile past, Go Husband and I set out to walk back to the finish. On the walk back, Plu caught up to us and stopped running long enough to give me a cuddle and then set off on his run again! Bennyr decided to join us on the long walk back after having a bad day at the office. Very shortly after getting back to the finish, I had to walk back to my B&B for breakfast so I missed out on the chance to catch up with Silverfox which is a real shame. After breakfast (fruit salad, cereal, english muffins with avocado and cheese, toast & honey, coffee & juice – unfortunately my appetite hasn’t yet come to terms with the fact that I’m not running!), I checked out and headed down to the Entrance Hotel – carrying, amongst other things, a paper bag containing a muffin that I hadn’t been able to eat at breakfast!. It was great to catch up with Miners, Twopennys, Royworlds, Omni (briefly), Gronk, TA and Gnome, Go Girl, Go Husband and Bennyr over a drink. After lunch, we finally piled into the Go-mobile for the trip home.

As for my knee, it seems that I always speak too soon. Despite walking 8kms during the race, my knee was fine. That is until I walked up the hill to my B&B for breakfast. A sharp stabbing pain in my knee very quickly reminded me that my ITB isn’t as happy as I thought it was. Unfortunately it continued to tighten through the course of the afternoon. I even resorted to some drugs which is pretty unusual for me (thanks TA). So my plan to return to running in 2 weeks is now looking extremely unlikely. Not particularly happy Jan.

Huge thanks to Go Girl and Go Husband for the lift and their wonderful company over the weekend :-)

I'm back..sorta..kind of :-)

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 10.30am
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: a little low
ITB report: fine

Satan had a relatively speaking easy upper body session planned for me today. T'was a circuit consisting of:
* assisted chin ups (with a variety of grips)
* dumbbell shoulder press standing on disks
* reverse flyes
* bicep curls,
repeated 4 times. I felt good during the session, though I did tire a little towards the end (to be expected I suppose). My knee has been good for the last week or so we will get back to working on my lower body next week.

My RHS TLF is tight and a bit tender today after I tried a new ITB strengthening exercise that a CR pointed me in the direction of. I had planned to spend 20mins on the exercise bike after the session but my (easy) 5min warm-up left my breathing feeling constricted/limited so I don't think it's time to return to cardio just yet. However the upside was that it was my first time on the bike in close to 2 months without any complaint from my knee. Yes, it was only 6mins but that was more than enough to upset my knee not so long ago!

A few hours in the office now (including printing off a stack of stuff for the 'new' CR structure), then I'm off to Parramatta to meet Go Girl for the trip up to The Entrance this afternoon. How do I feel about heading up to The Entrance ? Dunno. Numb. Sad. Driven to overcome this injury and get back to 100%.

One day to go...

After 16 days without exercise, I am climbing the walls and really looking forward to getting back in the gym tomorrow. So excited in fact that I've lined up a session with Satan. Still not feeling 100% but a huge improvement over the last few weeks.

My knee has been good this week. Doing absolutely nothing except sitting on my butt, drinking red wine, eating copious amounts of food and drinking chocolate cocktails at Cafe Sydney at 11pm on a school night might have something to do with it ;-) I confess however that I probably haven't been doing as much ITB stretching as I should (and absolutely no other stretching) over the last 2 weeks. Opps. Will start to rectify that little oversight (read: laziness) tonight.

For a few days this week it looked like I wasn't going to be able to make it up to The Entrance on Sunday but the Go-mobile has come to my rescue. It's going to be fun :-)

Farewell November...

What a funny month. Lots of lows (pulling out of the Half, lots of time spent at the dentist, feral workloads & developing whooping cough for starters) and one rather large high which I am still on.

So my totals for the month are:

Running - 35kms
Swimming - a couple of kms

That's actually not a bad tally given that I've had almost 3 weeks off running and 2 weeks with no exercise at all. Of course there is another tally that I've been adding to this month - my weight - but a girl's got to keep some secrets ;-)

Hoping to be back in the gym by the weekend. Fingers crossed. Bloody hope so. My butt and thighs feel like they are growing in size by the day!

An inspiration...

I was watching Oprah today (I had a lazy day at home - what else do you do?) and was introduced to Dick & Rick Hoyt - otherwise known as "Team Hoyt". Once I wiped my tears away, I tracked down their website - http://www.teamhoyt.com/

If you aren't moved and inspired by these two people, then nothing will.

Wow !

Thank you to everyone for your wonderful warm wishes and messages. To answer a few questions - no ring and no date yet (though it will be probably be during October/November next year). It has been an exciting and head-spinning kind of week. I had absolutely no idea that he was planning on proposing so I am still getting used to it!

So back to reality for just a little while. The reason that I haven't blogged recently is that I've been sick :-( Last weekend I developed a head cold. Then a cough developed. By Wednesday the doctor was telling me that I have whooping cough. Don't I feel like a leper. It's alright - I'm not contagious (anymore). I've done absolutely no exercise in 10 days now. The fact that I haven't really thought about it or missed it (even with lots of eating, drinking & celebrating over the last week) has been a pretty good indication of just how crap I've been feeling recently. Clearly the running gods never planned for me to do the CC Half.

I've been off the road now for 2 weeks & my knee still isn't happy. I've probably only had one or two days without any niggles in it so far. My right hip is still tender and tight so I imagine that it will be another 3 weeks before I can start running again. Hopefully by the end of this week I can get back in the pool and the gym and start to work off some of my 'celebrating'. Speaking of which, I'm off to dinner tonight with friends and family for a bit more celebrating ;-)

Another announcement....

Ok, I’m going to break my ‘no personal stuff in my blog’ rule one more time…

Very happy to announce that I’m engaged. Mr Jen_runs proposed on Saturday night. No date has been set yet.

:-)

Happy anniversary to me...

Today’s post was going to be about the fact that:

* I feel like shite – work is feral and I was supposed to be out of the office at a conference all day yesterday and today and so far I have made it to one 50mins presentation;

* I am losing/have lost my voice (again);

* I am still losing weight, probably due to atrophy of my leg muscles;

* there has been very little improvement in my knee – though I was able to bend it very slow last night in order to do a few stretches, I still can’t walk properly, let alone walk down stairs without taking them one at a time like my 85yo grandmother; and

* it is the end of week 1 off the road and I’m even further away from getting back to running than I was this time last week,

but then I realised that 2 years ago yesterday, I was 12kgs heavier and walked into a gym for the first time in 6 years. I was a very active, skinny kid – always riding my bike, swimming in the pool, playing backyard cricket games in summer & participating in organised sports throughout my school years. I also always managed to represent the school at regional cross-country events (although this reflects more on the lack of athletic talent at my school than on my talent/fitness levels). At uni I was a gym junkie with an eating disorder (I remember being able to put my thumb and middle finger around my upper arm so that they would touch*) but when I started working I fell into the ‘usual’ pattern of working long hours, eating crap food & collapsing onto the couch at night so the kilos started to pile on. A particularly crappy relationship didn’t help either.

Then 2 years ago yesterday, I joined my gym, met Satan and the rest, as they say, is history. 12kgs lighter and I am stronger & fitter now than at any other time in my life. I’m so glad that I kept a training diary throughout this journey. I first went for a run on 16 February 2004, although it wasn’t until this year that I started to train consistently and with some structure. I guess when I started running, I did it solely with a weight-loss purpose in mind. I certainly remember thinking to myself at times that I couldn’t imagine doing this (ie running) for the rest of my life.

But that was then, and this is now. The last 2 years – and the last year in particular – have been an amazing rollercoaster. If you had told me on 1 January this year, that I would be getting up at 4.30am in the morning to drive 2 hours to watch a race (let alone jump up & down with pom-poms at one), I would not have believed it. I have also been blessed this year to meet an amazing group of people (some of whom have become my nearest and dearest friends) who inspire me on a daily basis.

Running is no longer about weight loss (or even weight control). It is about challenging myself both physically and mentally, pushing my (mental) boundaries, surprising myself by achieving things that I never thought I was capable of and realising that my physical boundaries are actually much further out there than I had ever imagined. I agree with Vat-Man when he said in a post on his blog recently that: "I’m reminded of the great JFK quote about the moon project: "we do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard"." It has been bloody hard work but god, I love it and it has been worth it. Between my ITB and shin splints, it has been a bloody hard road this year (no pun intended), but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The "high" that I felt after finishing the C2S this year with my dear friends Lulu, Wobbly Man and the Owl will stay with me for the rest of my life.

This (crappy) week I’ve been thinking a lot about my favourite run along the trail near my home, how much I’m looking forward to getting out there again and that I will never again take for granted the fact that I can run. I will think of this week whenever my motivation lapses or I think to myself ‘I can’t be bothered’.
I can’t imagine not running, or not being involved in some way in running, for the rest of my life - so for the next few weeks I will live the CR cheersquad motto (if you can’t run, cheer!), read my R4YL (which thankfully arrived yesterday), dream big goals for the year(s) to come and spend time with my new friends who inspire me so much – speaking of which, I’m off to catch up with Lulu, Don Juan, the Owl & Tesso at the Lindt café this afternoon.

And by the way, a rest day today :-)

* can't do this anymore - too much muscle, thank you Satan. LOL :-)

This too shall pass...

Thank you for reminding me Cirque.

Well last nights win by the Socceroo's has resolved the Jen_runs' households dilemma of holiday destinations for next year. Mr Jen_runs and his mates are off to Germany for the World Cup (he rolled in at 2am this morning declaring it the greatest day ever in Australian sporting history...). Me, I'm off to Nepal to trek to Everest Base Camp followed by a quick trip to Chile later next year for a dig. Now I just have to look at my racing program to see when I can squeeze these trips in !

Activity: swim
Time: 6am
Duration: 40mins
Mood/energy: alright

I really must find a more scenic pool ;-)

Felt like I was swimming this morning with Satan sitting on my back after doing 60 (assisted) chin ups yesterday. I used one of those between-the-legs flotation device thingys (can't remember the name..) to take my legs out of the picture and make sure I didn't aggravate my ITB any further (which I doubt is even possible) which was interesting and insightful. I now know where my stroke falls apart when I get tired (the follow-through). I have to say that I'm really looking forward to being to kick again so I can get back to doing programs rather than just swimming laps - I always lose count.

By the way Miners, my pool doesn't have a black line. It has 2 lines of dark blue tiles instead. Funny, I've only just noticed that..

Summary: 40.35mins; 1,550m

Knee report: well it doesn't ache anymore (thank you Nurofen Plus) but I still can't bend it without feeling like someone is trying to relocate my knee cap onto my other leg. I have to walk down steps one at a time, which really sucks when you live in a 3rd floor apartment building...

1 step forward, 8 steps back

If you don't test yourself, how are you ever going to know your limits ?

I feel like I'm at my limits right now and not in a positive way. The only positive thing I have to say today is that I'm glad that I didn't decide to have the cortisone injection in an effort to get to the start line of the CC Half. Let's just say, my ITB and cortisone don't like each other. I was warned that there was a 1 in 5 chance that the cortisone would in fact flare-up my ITB, rather than settle it down. Yes, you guessed it. It's flared up. Badly. It has never hurt as much as it does right now. My knee aches and I can barely bend it. Someone pass the red wine. Clearly I was never meant to do the CC Half...

I miss running already. I miss my morning runs around the Bay. The pool isn't particularly scenic ;-) Hopefully I'll be out walking soon...

Off to see Satan for an upper body session at lunch...

Edit:
2 x Nurofen Plus with lunch and a trip to the gym at lunch left me feeling slightly more sane.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: stressed, pretty distressed actually

Satan had her work cut out for her today when I told her that I couldn't really bend my knee so it was back to basics - circuit of:
* (assisted) chin ups
* reverse flyes
* roll up things-Pilates style
* bicep curls,
repeated 3 times. Between work and feeling further away from my goals than at any other point on my ITB-journey over the last 3 months, today's session was a much needed stress relief if anything.

Went off to the physio this afternoon for an ITB massage (which had been suggested by Tom the Doc) in a hope to release my ITB somewhat. Ice and more drugs tonight. Hopefully it will be feeling better tomorrow because, quite simply, this really sucks.

Superfish

Well, not quite. Woke up this morning feeling exhausted despite having 7.5 hours of pretty solid sleep.

Activity: swimming
Time: 6am
Duration: 40mins

During my first lap I thought to myself 'ouch, this is going to hurt'. I could feel the DOMS in my back and tris after yesterday's session with Satan, but once I warmed up I felt great.

Summary: 40.18mins; 1,650m

Edit:
I decided that having lunch with my girlfriend would be just as therapeutic as a pilates class so again, no pilates today.

In an effort to do all that I can to overcome my ITB problem, I took myself off to see Tom the Doc this afternoon for a cortisone injection. I have been reading up on it over the last week and after speaking to a few people, I decided to try it in the hope it would reduce at least some of the inflammation in my knee and ITB. So for the rest of the week, I'm allowed to swim (though I have to take it easy when pushing off the wall) and do upper body & abs/core weights. No leg or glute work until Sunday.

Tom the Doc did however suggest that I could be off the road for closer to 6 weeks (rather than 4). Bummer. Right now, my knee is actually bloody sore. Whatever it takes I suppose...

Satan but no pilates...

Work is simply crazy right now. While I did manage to escape from the office in order to get to the gym at lunch, I didn't actually eat my lunch until 4pm. Argh.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: pretty low

I felt pretty weak today - no doubt due to a lack of food during the course of the day. Circuit consisting of:
* floor bridge pullovers
* straight arm prone hold with single leg lifts
* (assisted) tricep dips
* crunches
* external rotator cuff move,
repeated 3 times.

I was hoping to get back to the gym tonight for a pilates class in order to restore some degree of sanity but wasn't able to escape from the office. Argh.

Nectar of the gods...

I have been completely overwhelmed & humbled by the responses to my last post. Some made me laugh; others reduced me to tears but I can't begin to say how much I appreciated them. I can't thank you all enough.

And Clairie, I have accepted the 'great abs challenge', However I won't be posting 'progress' photos. You'll have to take my word for it ;-)

I have two words to describe my weekend so far - Bundaberg Rum. Nectar of the gods if you ask me. Not particularly conducive to the 'great abs challenge' but c'est la vie. The silver lining on my dark cloud of injury has been that I've been able to stay up late drinking rum and/or dancing on both Friday and Saturday nights without having to worry about dragging my tired butt out of bed to go for a run :-) I'm a bit shattered this morning, though for different reasons from Friday ;-)

Saturday 12 November - abs by Satan

Activity: weights with Satan + 30mins stretching
Time: 11am
Mood/energy: high (might have been thanks to all that sugar...)

Satan had a really tough largely abs/core session lined up today - a circuit of:
* lat pulldowns
* single leg hamstring curls using the swiss ball
* crunches
* jack knives (L3),
repeated 4 times. The jack knives are a killer. Clairie, I've also told Satan about the 'great abs challenge' - a glint suddenly appeared in her eyes and she started rubbing her hands together with glee....Yikes. Now I'm scared ;-)

Sunday 13 November - maybe a swim, then again maybe not..

A sleep-in this morning. 30mins of stretching later this afternoon and maybe a swim....we'll see.

The week ahead -
Not much variety in the program this week thanks to my hips (both) and knee (RH) being sore but hopefully they will settle down soon so I can start walking and spinning....
Monday: Satan + pilates
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: Satan + pilates
Thursday: swim
Friday: weights
Saturday: swim
Sunday: rest day
+ (needless to say) lots of stretching!

The verdict...

I have thought long and hard about the CC Half over the last few days and a number of my nearest and dearest have listened to me rant, talk, complain and weigh up the options time and time again (thanks guys!).

My major concern is that doing the Half will further aggravate my ITB (which is likely to happen) and will put me off the road even longer. I was expecting that I would have to take 2-3 weeks off running after the Half but 4-6 weeks was surprising, shocking and far beyond what I had contemplated. Right now, I can’t really walk properly thanks to my knee and the simple act of standing up causes considerable discomfort in my hip. Mr Jen_runs & I walked (well, he walked; I hobbled) from Bronte to Bondi on Tuesday night to see the Sculptures by the Sea. I had difficulty walking up and down the steps. It was simply ridiculous. I’ve had the problem now for 3 months and quite simply, I'm over it. Ultimately I have had to weigh up whether this race or my longer term goals (particularly for next year) are more important. While this has been a fantastic year, it has also been injury plagued and I would like to start the new year off on the right foot – so there will be no CC Half for me. I had thought about packing up the pom-poms and heading up there for the day to cheer – but right now I’m leaning towards escaping to the South Coast instead that weekend; getting as far away from the race as I can.

I decided to go for a final easy and relaxed lap of the Bay this morning (sans watch) before packing up my Brooks for 4 weeks. However that run (and I use the term "run" loosely) has simply removed any doubts I had about my decision. I parked at the Drummoyne Rowers just before 6am and then proceeded to run/hobble to the 2km CR mark and then turned around and walked back to the car.

So my "run" this morning was my last for a minimum of 4 weeks. I am feeling pretty shattered right now but my chin is still up (thanks 2P!) and focusing on my plans and goals for 2006 has helped to ease the pain. I was going to hold off setting out my goals for 2006 until NYD but in order to stay focused over the next few weeks, I’m setting them out now:

Times:
5kms: sub-25mins
10kms: sub-50min
21.1kms: sub-1.55mins

Racing program:
Canberra - 10kms (April)
Warwick Pentath-Run - the Half (& any races that Cirque is doing!) (May)
Woodford to Glenbrook (June)
City to Surf (Aug)
Willy to Billy (goal A: to finish intact & smiling: goal B sub-4hr 30mins) (Aug)
Sydney Marathon Festival – the Half (though I may be o/s at the time) (Sept)
Fitzroy Falls 10kms (Oct)
+ as many 5km CR challenges as possible & a few 10km thrown in for good measure.

After speaking with my physio and Satan, the plan is to have at least 4 weeks off running, to do more walking (avoiding hills as much as possible at least for the next week or so whilst trying not to get bored), to increase my swimming sessions to 4 x p/wk and to continue my weights, pilates and stretching sessions. Spin classes (which I’ve really missed) will be back in a couple of weeks.

How do I feel right now? Shattered (this post sounds slightly more positive/upbeat than I am feeling right now) but at the same time I'm feeling excited by the goals I’ve set for myself and looking forward to 2006.

Roll with the punches

Work is feral at the moment - we are 2 team members down (out of a team of 5). Argh.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: not particularly high; feeling unsettled & emotional

An 'easy' session with Satan - well, as easy as they come. A quick run through of my new weights program (ie the one I use when I work out by myself):
* 45 degree leg press;
* lunges with back foot on a bench;
* nasty glute exercise with a swiss ball;
* leg curls on swiss ball;
* nasty ab exercise with a swiss ball (push up position with shoelaces resting on the ball) followed by prone hold on knees;
* reverse flyes (dumbbell);
* standing single arm rows (cable);
* lat pulldowns;
* bicep curls (barbell);
* single arm tricep extensions;
* internal/external rotator cuff exercises.

There was at least one more upper body exercise but I've forgotten.

Cross country running at the Bay...

Thank you everyone :-)

Monday 7 November - weights

Decided not to go for a swim this morning for no reason other than I couldn't be bothered - so I slept in instead. Also decided to ditch the pilates class to give my knee a break and instead headed to the gym after work for a weights session.

Activity: weights
Time: 7pm
Duration: 45mins
Mood/energy: surprisingly good

Upper body session consisting of:
* single arm lat pulldowns
* single arm reverse flyes (cable)
* seated row
* bicep curls
* tri pushdowns
* internal & external rotator cuff stuff,
each repeated twice.

Spoke to my physio this afternoon. She thinks the unusual knee pain on Sunday was due to the most recent adjustment made to my orthotics. She also recommended that I see Tom the Sports Doc (who works with Andy the Pod) just to make sure that there isn't something else causing/contributing to my probs.

Tuesday 8 November - cross country at the Bay

Activity: run
Time: 6am
Duration: 40mins
Mood/energy: not bad
ITB report: good

I woke at 5am this morning to the sound of heavy rain and thunder. Yikes. I love it if the heavens open during a run but I really hate starting a run in the rain. As I had agreed to meet the Owl for a lap of the Bay, I resisted the temptation to turn the alarm off and go back to sleep. Instead I got out of bed, in the car and headed to the Bay on the assumption that the thunderstorm would have passed by the time we were due to start running. The Owl however pulled the pin as I was driving over the Bridge - thankfully I had remembered to pick up my iPod as I left the house. I needed the motivation this morning. Fortunately the rain was reduced to a light drizzle as I arrived at the Drummoyne Rowers at 6am - though it did get heavier during the course of the run.

I almost didn't recognise the Bay this morning. There was no-one around. Sensational. In the first 15mins of my run, I only saw 2 other people and probably no more than 10 people in total during my lap (including Fats who I saw twice).

The program called for 40mins today. After Sunday's 'adventure', I was pretty nervous about running but my RH knee/ITB were fine today. Temperamental things. My left leg however doesn't like the most recent adjustment to my orthotics - my shin and foot were a bit unhappy early in the run but seemed to settle down.

Summary: 7kms; 40. 34sec.

Off to see Tom the Doc this afternoon...

Edit:
Tom the Doc confirmed it is ITBS. My hip pain is thanks to my TFL (tensor fascia lata) which is also tight and inflamed (which connects the iliac chest on the hip bone with the ITB at the top of the leg). The causes are probably both biomechanical (which has/is being addressed through glute strengthening and orthotics) and overtraining.

Tom the Doc confirmed that I can do the Half without causing long term damage and has offered me a cortisone injection to reduce some of the inflammation and pain in the meantime. I would however have to take 5 days off after the injection.

Fortunately my physio was available so I had a chat with both of them afterwards. In response to my question "if I didn't have a race, what would you recommend?", Tom the Doc responded (without blinking) 4-6 weeks off running. I blinked.

I guess the only question left is whether I start my 4-6 weeks off now or in early December after the Half - which I suppose must come down to whether the Half or next year's goal races (which are in the first half of next year) are more important to me. Current thinking: no idea but I have given myself until the weekend to decide.

Houston, we have a problem...

Activity: run – Centennial Park
Time: 7am
Duration: next question..
Mood/energy: energy - good; mood - not so good
ITB report: unhappy

Another one of those days. Between finding at 6.30am that someone had attempted to park my car in (a 20 point turn later - and somehow managing to avoid 3 brick walls and the said car – I was on my way) and my eTag not beeping as I went through the tunnel, I wasn’t in the best mood when I arrived at Centennial this morning.

The plan was for me to do 30mins and then for Lulu to join me for 70mins (giving me a total of 1hr 40mins). I aborted my run after 56mins after getting some nasty (and unusual pain) under my patella in my right knee.

I was pretty shattered when we got back to the car but the wonderful Lulu aborted her own long run to have a coffee/counselling session with me (thank you!).

My current thinking is to decide on the Half by the end of this week – but right now I am leaning towards abandoning the Half, getting a cortisone injection, taking 2 weeks off and then slowly building up the distances that I can run without tape and without pain. One thing I haven't mentioned in my blog is that while I've had very few problems while actually running, for the last few weeks my right hip hurts when I stand up. My whole right leg is a bit of a mess. I will be extremely disappointed if that is the course of action I settle on but I need to keep my eye on the bigger picture. I've had this injury now for 3 months and it is not improving. Bearing in mind my goals for 2006 and 2007, I don't want to carry this injury into the new year…

Summary: 56mins; 8.8kms

Total for the week: 26.8kms

The week ahead...
Well this is the plan:
Monday: swim + pilates
Tuesday: run (40mins) around the Bay with the Owl
Wednesday: Satan + Pilates
Thursday: run (5km @ race pace)
Friday: swim
Saturday: Satan + 40mins run
Sunday: run (2hrs) - 3 weeks to the HM

Plodding along....

Quote for the day: no one said it would be easy, they only said it would be worth it.

I bloody hope so.

Activity: run
Time: 7.50am
Mood/energy: not so great thanks to personal 'stuff'
ITB: good

Met a girlfriend, T, (*waves) at King George's Park at 7.50am this morning for a leisurely lap of the Bay. T, who hasn't done much running, warned me that she "plodded" rather than "ran" which sounded fine to me given my sore hips and ITB. We walked approx. 2 kms to Lilyfield Road then ran (at 'plodding' pace) around the Bay and back to the car. As we were approaching Rodd Point, I was thinking to myself "I haven't seen any CRs this morning" and 2 mins later there was Johnny Dark on a warm up walk before heading off to yoga (*waves).

Summary: 5kms run (33mins) + 2kms walk

I will (finally) play with my Polar today..

Shattered...

Even after 7.5hours sleep (which is unusually high for me), I woke up this morning feel shattered. I had planned to go for a swim - even put my cozzie & clothes on and picked up my bag, and then sat back down on the couch and didn't move for 20mins. In the end, I did 40mins of stretching and pilates instead. Off to see the physio at lunch; otherwise its a rest day :-) :-)

V. happy to report that the ITB is fine today :-) (though left hip is a bit of a worry...)

Big weekend ahead - easy lap of the Bay tomorrow morning with a friend, a hen's night tomorrow night and then 1hr 40mins around the Eastern Suburbs, most of which with Lulu, on Sunday morning.

Edit: oh, ITBs - don't you just love them? It looks like the tenderness in my left hip is at the ITB insertion point and has probably been caused by the adjustment made to my orthotics. Off to get the ice pack..

Should have stayed in (or gone back to) bed....

Pretty much sums up my day so far. Some days you just have to laugh. I arrived at work at 6.30am this morning (in order to get a couple of hours done before heading off to the gym to see Satan) and discovered that my access to the network had "time restrictions" and I wasn't allowed into the system. WTF! Then after I'd done my session with Satan, I discovered that I had left my suit skirt at home. Arrrggghhh. While I think my gym gear is much more comfortable than a suit, I didn't think my co-workers would appreciate the sight - so I climbed in a taxi and headed home. I was very tempted to curl up in bed when I got there - but the prospect of visiting the Lindt cafe this afternoon was just too hard to resist ;-) so I headed back to work. All this before 10.30am and (perhaps most importantly) any coffee!!!!

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 8.30am
Duration: 30mins

I was going to describe it as another Satan special but then I realised, every session could be called that. Both upper and lower body copped it today - circuit consisting of:
* floor bridge with single leg extension
* side leg lifts
* something without a name that could be described as a prone hold on toes with side arm extension (probably the hardest exercise I've ever done - so far),
repeated 3 times followed by:
* squats standing on disks;
* biceps curls,
repeated 3 times followed by glute stretches. Another 15mins of ITB/glute stretches to finish.

Later this afternoon, a run (sans tape). Fingers crossed & hopefully the Polar will make it out of the box. Now what to call it...

Edit: apologies for what has become the world's longest blog post...

Activity: CR excursion to the Lindt Cafe
Time: 2pm
Duration: 1 hour

Joined Lulu, the Owl and Don Juan at the Lindt Cafe for Lindt Excellence 70% chocolate tarts (served with double cream) all round. And people ask me why I run. It's not for the 'scenery'; it's so I can eat truly decadent stuff like this. After all, life is too short not to eat good chocolate (or drink bad red!)

Activity: run
Time: 7pm
Mood/energy: high (all that sugar no doubt!)
ITB report: sensational!

I had an interval session on the program but given that my orthotics have been adjusted again (to prevent them from removing all the skin on the arch of my left foot), I decided to do my usual flat 40min run near home and to push a bit harder than normal. Well either I was fueled by chocolate tart today or I ran really slowly the last time I did the course (probably a bit of both), I blitzed my PB for the route.

I reached my usual turnaround point in 17.59 (as opposed to 19.30 on my last run). After a quick pit stop to stretch my calves & ITB (let's call it a 2min SR), I came home in 16.28 (as opposed to 19min on my last run) - a total of 34.28, a PB of 4mins! (distance approximately 6.5kms)

The best news however was the fact that I ran without tape on my knee and my ITB was fine - didn't niggle during the run nor after I had cooled down. Woohoo (*she does a happy dance). Right hip is a bit tight and I have a slight (new) niggle in my left hip which may be orthotics related (!) but I'll keep an eye on that. However between the PB and the ITB, I am a very happy gal right now !

On a high...

Yes, I'm still on a high after yesterday's discovery.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 2pm
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: good.

Another Satan's special. An upper body circuit that left my arms and shoulders shaking for hours afterwards. Actually wanted to have a nap when I got back to the office afterwards. Circuit of:
* lowering phase of full push-ups (ie on toes) – those "men’s pushups" are getting closer & closer
* straight arm lat pulldowns
* one ardumbbellll shoulder press whilst standing on a disk
* standing row,
repeated 3 times followed by glute & pec stretching with Satan and 15mins of ITB, glute & calf stretching.

Activity: Pilates
Time: 5.10pm
Duration: 45mins
Classed focused on lateral moves and lots of core and hammie strengthening and stretching. Once again, I left the class feeling composed, relaxed, strong, lean & ready to conquer the world - then I had to go back to work ;-)

A big day tomorrow - another weights session with Satan, a run (without taping my patella, fingers crossed) & (the best part) a visit to the Lindt cafe. Great food and great company. Yep, it's going to be a tough day ;-)

Polar report: still in the box :-(

An announcement...

Ok so an announcement is pretty dramatic but it's good to be a Diva today :-)

The 'CR Logbook - October & YTD mileage' thread appeared on CR today. Looking back through my posts over the last month, it occurred to me that October was probably my first consistent month of training and the first in which I have added up the mileage.

Much to my surprise and delight, I discovered that I ran 100kms in the month of October!

I really can't believe it. I confess that part of my brain immediately thought "that can't be right; I couldn't possibly achieve that" (I even did the calculation again just to make sure) but I refuse to listen to that part of my brain. I'm a v. happy girl - if I weren't in a suit and in my office right now, I'd probably cartwheel :-)

And people wonder why I run...

Gee, the Bay is a lovely place to run on an overcast Tuesday morning. The scenery isn't too bad either ;-)

Activity: run
Time: 6am
Duration: 40mins - 7kms
Mood/energy: strangely good
ITB report: next question

On the program today was a 40min run with 15mins @ 5km pace. Let's just say that pacing isn't one of my strengths (yet!). Given that I haven't done a 5km race yet, I wasn't too sure about what pace to aim at so after consulting Wobbly Man (**waves), I decided to go with 5.15min/km pace.

I had a crap nights sleep. Must have woken up 10 times during the course of the night & each time this mornings run seemed to be in my thoughts. I kept thinking to myself "I don't want to run today" and then falling back to sleep. When the alarm did go off, after hitting the snooze button once I finally got out of bed, pulled on some clothes and headed off to the Bay arriving at about 5.50am. Once reapplying the tape on my knee about 8 times (as has become my habit - "just in case I haven't done it properly") I finally set off, passing Truckie & Karin within the first minute. My first 2 kms in my warm-up were over in 11.35mins (woo, slow down Jen!)

Once my 15min warm up was over, I went through my first km in 5.15min/km (how is that for pacing!) and the second one in 5.00min/km which of course came back to bite me on the butt, legs, lungs etc in the last 5mins - however I think the last km would have been close to the 5min mark again. I hung on (just) and don't think my form went too far out the window. However I think my 5km pace is definitely closer to 5.15min/km - I'm not sure that I could have gone 5kms at 5min/km pace (yet!). Another lesson to be learned.

After a breather, I ran back to the car via the Bridge, finishing the lap of the Bay in 37mins, a 3min PB for me.

My glute/hip/TFL (in particular) and my ITB are a bit tight now. 2 steps forward, 1 step back at the moment but at least I'm moving forward I suppose.

Polar report: it was removed from the box for 30 sec this morning while I was icing my knee and eating my breakfast... I wonder how many lawyers it's going to take to calibrate the thing. I don't know but we'll soon find out :-)

Pilates

One of those days from the moment I woke up this morning. I even had a Plan A (go to Edgecliffe and buy new running shoes) and a Plan B (go to the gym & do my ITB stretches) at lunch and I didn't manage to accomplish either :-( On the upside, my ITB (and legs generally) are feeling good after the weekend :-)

Activity: Pilates
Time: 6.15pm
Duration: 45mins
A tough class but I felt much more relaxed (not to mention flexible) afterwards.

Still haven't managed to take my Polar out of its box yet :-(

Off to the Bay in the morning for my 40mins run w/ 15min @ 5km pace. Given that pacing is not yet one of my strengths, it's going to be interesting...

HM minus 5 weeks...

Sunday 30 October - CR girls take over Centennial Park/a date with a Jedi master

Activity: run with Lulu and The Owl at Centennial Park
Time: 7am
Duration: 60mins
Mood/energy: pretty good
ITB report: tape rocks.

Today's run has given me a real confidence boost ahead of the CC Half.

Up early in the dark (thanks to daylight savings & the rain) to pick The Owl up from the city just after 6.30am and then headed to Centennial Park to meet Lulu at 7am at Centennial Cafe for an easy 60min run. Weather conditions today ranged from drizzle to heavy rain but I lurve running in those conditions, particularly around the Park.

After the first lap, I had to stop for emergency first aid on the lovely blister on the arch of my left foot that has formed thanks to my newly adjusted orthotics. Just as I was doing a patch-up job on my foot, Queen Bee pulled up just beside us. After a quick chat, we were off again. After her recent illness The Owl dropped off the pace a bit and left me to chase Lulu around the Park. Lulu's SWEATing is certainly paying off - I had to chase her around the Park as we churned out quite a few sub-6min/kms including a couple around 5.30min/km (which is a bit faster than my race pace for the Half!). Apart from the blister I felt really comfortable through out most of the run and feel more confident about the Half now - thanks Lulu! It was also the first time I have run on consecutive days and my body has pulled up well - my ITB/hip/glute are feeling good today. Happy gal!

Once we had finished and after a quick stretch, we headed off to a nearby cafe for breakfast. The Owl & I then headed to her place for a tea and a shower before heading over to Petersham to pick up Obi-Wan (**waves!). Obi & I have been exchanging emails now for about a year so it was lovely to finally meet him. The 3 of us headed over to Norton Street for breakfast no.2 for the Owl & I and lunch for Obi and a quick chat before we dropped him home. Obi also delivered to me my new toy - a Polar S625x!!!! Yippee!!

Summary: 60mins - 10kms

This week has included more rest days than I had originally anticipated but given it was a recovery week, it was a perfect time for it:
Runs - 3
Satan - 2
Pilates - 2
Swims - 0
Ice cream - too much!

The week ahead - edited: another busy week at work:
Monday - pilates + upper body weights (PM)
Tuesday - run (40mins run w/ 15mins @ 5km race pace)
Wednesday - Satan + pilates (PM)
Thursday - run (5x4min; 2min SR) + Satan
Friday - swim
Saturday - run (40mins)
Sunday - run (1hr 40mins)

Back to back part 1

Ok, you can all relax. The great ice cream binge of 2005 is now over (thankfully!).

Activity: run
Time: 8am
Duration: 40mins
Mood/energy: pretty high (fueled by the ice cream no doubt)
ITB report: tape is good.

The program today called for a 40min "very easy" run. I had thought about heading over to the Bay for this run but I decided that was just too hard so I crawled out of bed and hit my usual flat yet v. boring route near home. One of my earphones started crackling after about 15mins which was rather annoying. My first run in my adjusted orthotics and except for a small 'hot spot' on the arch of my left foot, they felt very good.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 12.30pm
Duration: 30mins

Off to the gym at lunch to see Satan (as I didn't have time to see her on Thursday). Another (largely) upper body circuit consisting of:
* leg extensions
* assisted chin-ups
* single arm reverse flyes w/ alternate leg
* floor bridge pullovers
* straight arm prone hold,
repeated twice with pec & back stretches to finish. I felt really strong today, particularly on the assisted chin-ups. Good session

More stretches and ice for my TFL and ITB tonight. Looking forward to my run with Lulu and The Owl in Centennial Park tomorrow morning - which will also be the first time I've run on consecutive days. Fingers crossed.

Tim Tam ice cream...

Sheer bliss.

Today became an unplanned rest day when I arrived at the pool at 6.30pm tonight to discover it was closed. Grrrr. I was really looking forward to a swim tonight. So I walked home and did what any sensible girl would do in the circumstances - curled up on the couch, picked up my autobio on Shelly Taylor-Smith which I bought yesterday and a bowl of ice cream!

No cardio exercise since Tuesday, combined with lots of Tim Tam ice cream, has me feeling like (a) a hefalump and (b) a wound up rubber band ready to snap. Bring on the weekend - but first, more ice cream :-)

A marathon queen...

Thanks to a breakfast function at Parramatta (had to be there at 7.15am, OMG!), dinner with a girlfriend tonight & my orthotics being adjusted, at about 3pm today I decided to make today a rest day. It was all too hard.

My glute hasn't responded particularly well to yesterday's phyio's treatment - ie it is still v. tight. Given that I have to get used to my new orthotics over the next few days, the plan is:

Friday: swim

Saturday: run (40mins very easy) + Satan

Sunday: run (60mins) around Centennial Park with Lulu and Owl (my first time running on consecutive days), followed by brunch with the Owl and a certain Jedi master who I am very much looking forward to meeting :-)

The speaker at the function this morning was Shelly Taylor-Smith who, I discovered this morning, is the only woman ever to hold both the mens and womens world records in an event. Incredible :-) It was a fantastic presentation and (for me) very timely. I need some time to get my thoughts together but what I took away from it was this: if you focus on what you want, you will create it. Focus on what you don't want, and you will create it. I must confess that my thoughts around the Half have, more often than not, been focused on what I don't want. Not anymore :-)

I light up when you call my name...

Spent an hour with my physio this morning having my glute & ITB pummelled. I wasn't due to see her again until Friday but my glute/hip has been feeling very tight over the last few days and hasn't been responding to stretching or ice :-( Hopefully my (adjusted) orthotics will be ready for me to pick up tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Activity: Pilates
Time: 5.10pm
Duration: 45mins

Another great/tough class. Focused on abs and hamstring & glute strength and length. Exactly what I need right now.

More ITB/glute stretches & ice tonight followed by an early night.

My friend DOMS

I have a serious date with my friend DOMS today. My shoulders, chest & tris are sore thanks to Satan, while my back & abs/core are sore thanks to Pilates last night. For once, the only part of me that isn't sore are my legs :-)

Activity: run
Time: 6am
Place: the Bay
Duration: 40mins
Mood/energy: pretty good.
ITB report: tape rocks.

An easy/recovery 40min run was on the program for today. Unfortunately I am bored to tears with the only flat piece of land near home so I made the decision to get up a bit earlier this morning (the alarm went off at 5am, OMG) to drive to Drummoyne to run a lap of the Bay. The first time that I've run the Bay on a weekday. I parked near the Drummoyne Rowers just before 6am and set out to run a lap of the Bay in a clockwise direction. A beautiful morning; relatively still despite the winds that seem to howl through the house during the course of the night. By 6.30am however it was getting very warm and humid - bring on daylight savings!

Now it was supposed to be an easy/recovery run but towards the end of the run I picked up the pace a bit in an effort to get back to the car within my allotted 40mins. I know, I know, it was supposed to be an easy/recovery run but when you've suddenly found that you have a second gear ('slow' as opposed to 'very slow') it's exciting and difficult to hold back ;-) Mind you, my "slow" gear isn't much faster than my "very slow" gear so I really wasn't pushing it that much ;-) I will certainly ease back during my run on Thursday, I promise. Once I got back to the car, walked up the Rowers for a drink and got back to my car for a stretch, the delightful Professor arrived on his run and stopped for a chat (*waves). Soon I was in the car and heading home for a quick stretch, to attack my ITB with the rolling pin and shower before heading to work. More stretches and ice tonight on the ITB. It is however much happier today than it was yesterday.

A lovely way to start the day; I'll definitely make a weekday pilgrimage to the Bay part of my routine from now on (but Professor, no Lilyfield St reps for me just yet...)

Summary: 40mins - 7kms.

English rose complexion vs Aussie sun...

Even at 9.30am in the morning, the sun (of course) is the winner. Unfortunately I managed to get really burnt yesterday during my run on my shoulders and back, even though I had finished and was out of the sun by 9.30am!! Damn ‘english rose’ complexion as my grandmother describes it. I’m normally very careful when it comes to the sun – so much so that Mr Jen_runs tells me that he has never seen me so burnt! Suffice to say the lesson has been learned and unless I’m running at night, the sunscreen will be on.

Apart from my ITB, I’ve pulled up very well after yesterdays run. No soreness or even fatigue in my legs at all. My ITB wasn’t particularly happy yesterday afternoon or this morning so needless to say, the icing and stretching regime continues.

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 12pm
Mood/energy: pretty high apart from the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think about the work sitting on my desk :-(

Another upper body session and a really tough one at that. My arms are still shaking 3 hours later. A circuit of:
* the lowering phase of full push-ups (ie on toes) – the closest I’ve come to "men’s pushups" since I damaged my shoulder last year, woohoo!
* straight arm lat pulldowns
* dumbell shoulder press whilst standing on a disk
* core/ab work,
repeated 3 times followed by glute & pec stretching with Satan and 15mins of ITB, glute & calf stretching.

Given all of these moves also work my core/abs, tonight’s pilates class (assuming I escape from the office ) will be interesting ;-)

Edit:
Activity: Pilates
Time: 6.15pm
Duration: 45 mins

Oh boy, I needed that. I always walk out of a pilates class feeling strong, lean, supple, graceful, like I could conquer the world. Sensational :-)

Tomorrow – an easy lap of the Bay (5.30am)

HM minus 6 weeks

Sunday 23 October - my longest and toughest run so far...

Had a terrible nights sleep. Had my first Half marathon dream so far and it was really, really strange - I was running a Half in Lebanon (no idea why Lebanon) with a chest injury (I'd been stabbed or somethin'), I couldn't find my shoes and my parents had flown over to watch me. Yikes. I told you it was really strange. I woke up feeling very stressed & unrested.

After some toast and honey, I jumped in the car and headed to meet the Owl at King George Park at 7.30am for a lap (or two) of the Bay. We set out from King George Park and headed towards the canal. It was really warm already. After a lap of the canal, the Owl wasn't feeling very well so we headed back to our cars at King George Park. The Owl left, I collected my iPod and then set out for a lap of the Bay (including the canal) by myself. Probably my toughest run physically and mentally. I picked up the pace a bit after leaving the Owl and paid for it. I was reduced to a shuffle that Cliff Young would have been proud of during the last 20mins but at least I kept moving forward.

Summary: 90mins; 15kms!!! Woohoo

My ITB was good. A bit sore after I had driven home again but nothing that a bit of ice and rolling pin action won't fix. I do have some nasty bruising & blisters on 2 of my toes; very unattractive.

I was so stuffed when I finished the run, my first thought was "how on earth am I going to be able to run another 6kms during the Half". But then I decided not to think about that and instead to celebrate the fact that I had just run 15kms and it was on the back of my toughest training week ever. With an easy week leading into the Half, I will fly :-)

I finish reading Pat Farmer's book yesterday. Incredible. "...nothing is impossible if [you] have a dream - if [you] set [your] heart, mind and soul to making it come true and prepare to put one foot in front of the other."

This week - as I mentioned, probably my toughest training week ever. No wonder I'm tired right now and ready for a nana nap:
Satan - 2
Runs - 3
Swims - 2
Pilates - 1
Massage - 1

The week ahead is (thankfully) a recovery week...
Monday: AM: walk to work (1hr), PM: Satan + pilates
Tuesday: 40mins run (another lap of the Bay)
Wednesday: rest
Thursday: 40mins run
Friday: spin class OR swim (depending on ITB)
Saturday: Satan + 20mins run
Sunday: 50mins long run

A hot date...

I woke up this morning 2 hours before my alarm and couldn't go back to sleep, despite feeling physically and mentally exhausted :-( Not sure why. Eventually dragged my butt out of bed feeling less than human and after some food and coffee, I felt almost human again. Strange given that I had an early - and quiet - night last night... Maybe I haven't had enough chocolate and red win therapy lately ;-)

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 10am
Duration: 30mins
Mood/energy: almost human again

Another largely upper body circuit with a few lower body exercises thrown in for good measure:
* leg extension
* assisted chin-ups
* single arm reverse flyes
* squats involving a medicine ball and my adductors
* floor bridge pullover
* straight arm prone hold,
repeated twice. Surprisingly I didn't feel very tired after last night's swim - well, that was until I did the assisted chin-ups - yikes; I really noticed it...oh well, my shoulders can only get stronger I suppose. Followed by 25mins of stretches.

After the gym I headed to the office for an hour or so before heading down to Clovelly for lunch with Lulu, Kit, The Owl & her friend Mandy for a couple of hours of chatting, gossiping and laughing whilst overlooking the beautiful Clovelly Bay. A very lovely way to spend a gorgeous Saturday afternoon.

90mins and 2 laps of the Bay on the cards for tomorrow morning with the Owl.

Thank you :-)

Finally a much needed sleep-in this morning (funny how 6.30am is now considered a sleep-in) followed by 30mins of stretches.

Went to gym at lunch for my VMO/glute exercises (3 exercises; 3 sets; 20 reps) and glute/ITB stretches. After getting back to the office from the gym, I posted this comment on the CC Half thread late this afternoon:

"Here goes...

I'm in. The Half. My first"

Bring it on!

Activity: swim (1400m)
Time: 7pm
Duration: 35mins
Program: 300m warm-up; 5 x 50m L2.5 w 15sec recovery; 10 x 50m sprints (25m hard/25m easy) w 15sec recovery; 200m L2; 150m cool down

Thanks to CJ for the program. An enjoyable yet tough session - made even tougher by the DOMS in my shoulders, arms & back after my weights session with Satan on Wednesday. Feeling really stuffed now. It will be interesting to see how I back up during my weights session with Satan tomorrow. Now to sleep :-)

Singing in the rain...

Yep singing out loud this morning in the rain and (of course) I got sprung by a man walking his dog - much to his amusement. :-)

Activity: run (intervals)
Time: 6am
Duration: 40mins
Place: my favourite magpie-less oval
Mood/energy: good; good nights sleep; felt well rested
ITB report: blah...

On the program was 15mins warm-up; 10mins 30/30sec; 15mins run home. It was misty with a slight drizzle this morning when I left home. Probably my favourite conditions for running. I actually felt good during my 15mins warm-up which is a bit unusual for me. Calves are much happier after the massage on Tuesday afternoon.

Headed up to the oval for my 10mins of 30/30sec. After the first few I had to walk the 30sec recoveries but that will come with improved fitness I suppose. I enjoyed this session much more than the 2mins intervals I did on Tuesday. Once I had finished the 30/30sec I stopped to stretch my calves and then headed to the trail near Middle Head on the way home. The view was stunning this morning; the misty rain was rolling in through the Heads which were partially obscured. Simply breathtaking. About 5mins later, the skies opened and I got thoroughly drenched on the way home and had to strip off my singlet and shoes in the hallway so I didn't drip water through the house - but it was worth it. Really enjoyed it.

Shins are a bit tender (which is pretty usual for me after an intervals session) but nothing that some ice and a day or two of rest won't fix. The ITB however isn't very happy. I taped my knee and got through the intervals without a problem. Perhaps I shouldn't have run on the trail on the way home but (a) I've missed running on the trail and (b) it's relatively flat so I thought it would be ok. Even with the tape there was a definite niggle in my knee on the clawback as I was getting home and (even after icing this morning) I can feel it a little walking around the office hours later. A question for my wise fellow bloggers - at what point do you decide to pull the pin on a particular goal and focus on getting back to 100% first before again chasing your goals/dreams ??

Edit: almost forgot. Have now got my flights and tickets lined up for our trip to Melbourne for the Australian Open in January. Of course, being the runner that I am ;-) I had sent an email to my Melbourne friends Obi-Wan, Pepster and Wobbly Man to warn them that I'm on the way even before the flights were booked!

Saw my physio and Andy the Pod this afternoon and am feeling much more positive as a result. I'm going to drop my orthotics off to Andy on Tuesday for an adjustment. I should have them back next Thursday - perfect timing actually as next week is a recovery week so my next interval session is not for another 10 days. Under instructions from the physio to swap tomorrow's spin class for a swim, to keep up the stretching and & strengthening and to tape my knee during Sunday's long run (I actually think that I taped it a bit too low this morning which may be why I've had niggles today). Failing that, the next step will be cortisone but we will cross that bridge if we have to. Thank you wise bloggers!

By the way - it was "Dancing Queen"...

Tagged...

Alright, alright. Stop tagging me, I'll play ;-)

You know the rules:
1) Go into your archive
2) Find your 23rd post
3) Find the 5th sentence (or the closest one to it)
4) Post the text of your sentence in your blog along with these rules
5) Tag 5 other people.

I was a bit concerned when I checked my archive and discovered my 23rd post is titled "Offensive language warning". The sentence in question reads: "On leaving, he said you should be right for Sunday...." This was my physio talking about my plans to run what was to be my first fun run/race (Lindfield 10km) back in March. I had been seeing the physio in relation to my shin splints. While the physio gave me the ok to run, I was told a few days later by my specialist who I had been seeing (for "girl stuff") that I would need surgery and that she didn't recommend that I run the 10km. Oh hum.

I tag whoever hasn't yet been tagged and who wants to play.

Woohoo...

I'm a much more relaxed and happier camper tonight. At work today we settled a matter that I have spent most of the last few months (and quite a few weekends) working on. Happy days. Made happier by the fact that I ate my lunch at 3pm today (instead of 5pm). Tomorrow I have to start dealing with all the work that I should have done recently but at least I will eat my lunch at a decent hour! With Mr Jen_runs off to Melbourne on Friday afternoon for a bucks weekend, I'm really looking forward to a quiet and relaxing weekend with NO WORK!! Woohoo :-)

Activity: weights with Satan
Time: 4.30pm
Duration: 30mins
Place: the gym
Mood/energy: pretty good; felt alot more relaxed than I have in a while thanks to the result at work today.

Primarily an upper body session with a few glute/VMO exercises thrown in for good measure - a circuit of:
* push-ups
* single-leg squats
* lat pulldowns
* single-leg extensions
* tricep extensions,
* bicep curls,
repeated twice with chest/shoulder/back stretches to finish. Feeling very strong and I noticed I'm developing quite a bit of definition in my shoulders and arms. Happy days :-)

Activity: Pilates
Time: 5.10pm
Duration: 45mins
Place: my gym
Mood/energy: excellent; feeling very relaxed

A great class with a new instructor. Though I won't be able to make this particular class on a regular basis, I will definitely try and get to at least 1 class each week. Wow, this week I've managed to squeeze in both a swim and a pilates class so far this week. Happy days.