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 :-)