Friday 5th February

Exercise: 6km Run – Croydon Track (Sequences)

Well was I in for a shock when I walked out the door to meet Michelle at the track for some speedwork this morning.

It was still raining

I knew that we’d had some rain last night but when I got up this morning I checked the weather radar and it showed nothing. So when I walked out the door to get to my car, I was surprised to feel rain.

And of course I had not dressed for rain

I didn’t want to go back inside to change as I was already running a little bit late. Luckily by the time I got to the track it was just a light drizzle

We did a 2km warm up followed by 6 sets of 200 metres fast (okay not fast, fast, but as fast as my little legs would go) followed by 400 metres recovery. The last sprint was tough, really tough. My legs just didn’t want to go fast

I had a small ache in the front of hip/groin area, but I think that was just from striding out, so I’m not going to worry about it too much.

I see on Facebook that everyone is doing the Doppelganger week thing where you change your picture to someone famous who you look like. I have no idea who I look like. Any ideas anyone??

Thursday 4th February

Exercise: 7km – MMCT (8’s)

Geez how hot was it this morning

Michelle and I met up at 5.15am this morning as we wanted to do a little bit further distance. It was still 26 degrees at that time

It was great to be able to run just that little bit further, but I have to admit that I was so hot and sweaty by the end that I just crumpled into a heap. Even my legs were sweating

Michelle had brought her dog Steffi with her and we stopped just near the end so that she could have a cool off in the creek. I considered joining her too for a paddle

I didn’t take any lunch into work today so headed down to the cafe at lunchtime to see what they had to offer.

This is what I came back with

Honestly it was so big that I couldn’t eat all of it. And for $5.90, that’s what I call a bargain

Monday 1st February

Exercise: 6km Run – MMCT (Trigons)

I only realised when I got out of bed at 5am that Michelle and I could have met up a little bit later as I wasn’t going to work today, and Michelle was doing night shift tonight

A nice comfortable 6km run. We are now going to increase it by a km this week, and gradually up more so that we are running 10km. It’s been so long since I’ve done a 10km run.

Hubby and I drove up to Smith Street this morning. I almost bought another pair of Hurricanes as the 11’s are now reduced to $130, although I haven’t seen the 12’s out anywhere, so I’m not sure why the huge discount on them. I still have 2 pairs of new ones (one pair of 9’s and one pair of 10’s) in the cupboard so I just couldn’t justify another pair, even though every bone in my body wanted to buy them

We then headed over to St Kilda for some lunch. It was great to sit and people watch for a while. The place certainly has changed over the years. I remember it as being a very seedy part of town, and driving around the back streets looking for all the red lights……those were the days

We both just stood and stared in the windows of the cake shops along Acland Street. OMG, how fantastic did all those cakes look. Jumped back in the car and drove down Beach Road for a while. Ended up at Mordialloc where we stopped and had an ice cream near the beach.

Hands up who didn’t put sunscreen on previously unexposed cleavage today

Sunday 31st January

Exercise: 22.5km Walk – Grants to Mt Evelyn (Excursions)

Like Shells, I think this is one of my favourite sections of the trail, even though it is probably the hardest part.

I absolutely love the steep decline down the Melba Track. Not sure I’m going to feel the same way on the actual day as we’ll probably be navigating it in the dark, have already walked about 55km

It was a hot day, but luckily this part of the trail is mostly shaded, so we were rarely out in the blazing sun (and it sure felt like the 37 degrees it was when we were in the sun!!).

We met at Mt Evleyn early to avoid some of heat, then headed up to Grants. There were already lots of Trailwalkers and runners around, probably because it was going to be a hot day.

Cilla had on her new Hiking Boots that she’d bought while in Europe earlier this month and Shells was sporting her sexy new Gaiters from Dirty Girl Gaiters in the US. Michelle bought me a pair for Xmas but I’ve just been too slack to put the velcro on my trainers

We had to stop just as we got out of Sherbrooke Forest as Cilla started to get a blister on her foot. Luckily some Trailwalkers who were going past had some Bandaids that they gave to Cilla.

I’ve learnt how to get up Hacketts Road without too much pain. Just put your head down, start walking, and whatever you do, don’t look up until you hit the flat section near the top

Found out that the incline for Hacketts Road is 30%.

This is Cilla powering up it

The last couple of km’s were a bit of a trudge as we were out in the sun and it really seemed to sap my energy. Didn’t take too long though to reach the cars, drive back up to Grants to pick up my car, and get home.

My legs felt good after my shower, and not really sore at all. I didn’t even feel the need to wear my compression pants.

We’ve decided that we need to do this section again, but this time in the dark so that we know what it will be like when doing this section on Trailwalker day

Wednesday 27th January

Exercise: 6km Run – MMCT (Trigons)

Haven’t seen Michelle for a couple of weeks so it was great to catch up with her this morning. Of course we both got out of our cars to discover that we were wearing exactly the same skirt and top

Have noticed that it’s getting lighter later. It didn’t start getting light until nearly 6am

My calves are still very sore. It took a while for me to find any kind of rythm to my running this morning and it was only really close to the end of the run that they actually felt like they had loosened up a bit.

Not much else happening at the moment. Am feeling alot more comfortable in my job now, and I can get my days work done by 5pm. Am still trying to make time for that lunchtime run though

Happy Birthday Bro

Tuesday 26th January

Exercise: 18.5km Walk – Home – Montrose – Home (Sequences)

Met up with TW Michelle early this morning for a pleasant walk around the local streets.

The calves started off very stiff and sore, due mainly to running around Croydon Hills on Sunday, and also because Corrie pummelled them last night

Didn’t take too long for them to warm up, although they still weren’t happy when walking down any kind of decline

The weather was perfect. There was a blanket of cloud that covered the sun for most of the walk, and although it felt a bit muggy, we didn’t have the sun beating down on us

Now I’d like to explain about what happened yesterday, but I won’t bother you with the details apart from saying that work ruled my day

I hate it when things don’t go to plan

Sunday 24th January

Exercise: 9.9km Run/Walk/Shuffle/Crawl – Croydon Hills (9’s)

OMG

Today’s run was a bit of an eye opener. My running fitness is a thing of the past. I just can’t believe I’ve let it slip this much. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!

As you can probably tell from the last time I posted, I have done nothing for nearly 2 weeks. This lack of motivation and laziness is just doing my head in but I’m just not sure how I can get past it.

I have had so many opportunities to do exercise, yet I choose to sit on my arse playing with Facebook, or reading forums or other peoples blogs (yes I am reading everyone, just not commenting much). Even the house can attest to my laziness

I’m hoping that by signing up for R4TK it might motivate me a little bit more than I have been lately. And of course today’s run has made me realise that it’s not going to be easy to get back to a level of fitness where 14.6km is just a walk in the park

On a good note (there has to be one somewhere right!!) I have been eating much better, and hold on to your seats, but I haven’t had any alcohol since New Years Eve

Now if only I can marry up the better eating with some exercise, I may actually see a shift in this extra 7kg of lard I’m carrying around with me!

Back to today’s run, I stuffed around until lunch time, by which time it had warmed up. I could have gone out for my run at 8.30am when I got out of bed and may have actually had a better run because running at 12.30pm may have added to the crappiness of it all!!

Well onwards and upwards I say. I will be taking my running gear with me tomorrow and going for a nice 6km lunchtime run. To any of my friends who read this before lunchtime tomorrow and have my mobile number, can you please text me either before lunch or after lunch to kick my butt into gear, or enquire as to how my run went

MOTIVATION – I can hear it coming

Did you notice that I’ve pulled some new runners out of my collection. Because I’ve been so slack I haven’t updated my km usage spreadsheet for my runners so am not sure of how many km’s my current Hurricanes have done, but thought as today is the start of my new exercise regime, I’d start it off with a new pair of Hurricanes

I’d like to ask a big favour to all my Australian friends and readers. I’ve been given a whole heap of “stuff” from the Buyers at work so that I can make up a couple of raffle baskets and I’d love for you all to buy a ticket or 2. Stay tuned. Will upload photos shortly (well once I buy the baskets and put all the stuff in them ). Some pretty good stuff has been donated too

I’ve also been doing more baking for my Oxfam fundraising. So far I’ve raised nearly $200 just with my baking.
This is what I’m taking into work with me tomorrow.

Double Choc Chip Muffins and Banana Bread

Thursday 14th January

Exercise: 6km Run – MMCT (8’s Blue)

It’s been a while since I’ve run along MMCT so it was nice to run there with Michelle this morning. Was a bit chilly so I put a long sleeved top on. It came off within about 1/2 km as I warmed up very quickly.

Just a nice easy 6km. Will start to increase the distance as I want to build back up to running 10km. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get some fitness back.

We had a visitor in the house this week. He came down the chimney and was too fat to get back up

Sunday 10th January

Exercise: 37.5km Walk – Woori Yallock – Warburton – Woori Yallock (Supanovas)

Another Trailwalker training walk

As it was going to be warm today, we decided to make an early start and set off from Woori Yallock around 7am. It was already warm but cloudy, so was bearable.

Didn’t take long for the flies to find us though

This section of the TW route is new to me as they’ve changed it from last year. We veer off the trail onto Don Road, and then through Don Valley.

We had a quick look at the map just as we got into Don Road to get our bearings and a bloke in a 4WD stopped to see if we needed any help

Then 5 minutes later he was back again (going the other way this time) and wanted to know what we were doing and where we were going

After he’d driven off Shells made some mention of that movie where the backpackers got a lift in a 4WD and then went missing (can’t remember what it was called)

When we started out there hadn’t been anyone around, but we got down to the end of Don Road and turned around as we heard people laughing. There were at least 2 other teams following us. Have no idea where they came from though. We think they must have parked at Launching Place and started from there.

So we walked up a few small inclines until we got to this fantastic trail called The Aquaduct Trail. It was cool and shady the whole way, which was wonderful. It came out at the back of Warburton, and we walked down a couple of back streets to get back to the Highway.

There’s just one problem. There are absolutely NO toilets between Woori Yallock and Warburton. OMG

Luckily I’d gone at Woori Yallock otherwise I’d have been in trouble, especially as we had company for alot of the time we were walking along the trail.

Check out this HUGE Caterpillar that Michelle spotted. Honestly it must have been at least 10cm long.

We stopped at Warburton for some lunch and a loo break, then headed back along the Warby Trail to Woori Yallock.

It was hot. It was really hot. I sweated all my sunscreen off and I could feel my shoulders starting to burn. The water in my hydration pack had gotten warm so I wasn’t getting any kind of thirst quenching when I drank.

Luckily there is a small milk bar at Launching Place so we stopped there and grabbed a cold drink. It was so refreshing.

The last 5km was a real slog. I kept looking at the Garmin willing it to tick over faster. And when we came around that last bend and I could see the township, I just wanted to run, but my legs weren’t having any of that.

I actually felt a little bit sick when we got back to the car and had to stop at the closest shop so that I could get a Coke. Felt better as soon as I’d had a big drink

When I got home I had a cold bath. The legs felt heaps better afterwards

On a final note, I’d like to acknowledge my fly swatter. It did a magnificent job and stood the test of time as well

Friday 8th January

Exercise: 5km Speed work – (8’s Blue)

Met Michelle at the track this morning for some “speed” work

We did a warm up and then 5 sets of 200 metres fast with a 400 metre recovery.

Looking back, the last time I did any running was the last time I’d met Michelle at the track

So moving forward I do have some 2010 running goals. Thought I’d list them so that I don’t forget what they are when lack of motivation takes over again

Run for the Kids – 14km

This is one of my favourite runs and I’ve done it every year since it started.

Gold Coast Marathon/Half Marathon

Haven’t made up my mind about this one yet. Can I get off my fat a*se to actually do enough training for a marathon??? Either way, I will be on the Gold Coast

Ultra Round The Tan – 53km

Another event that I really enjoyed doing. If I can get in the training for the GC Marathon then I’ll have a good enough base to continue on and be fit enough to do this event too.

Traralgon 6 hour Track

Something I’ve never done before. Running around a track for 6 hours. I reckon if I can run around the Tan for 6 hours then I can run around a track for 6 hours

So that’s it. Laid out bare.

Oh yeah, there’s just that little Oxfam Trailwalker event to get through as well. I’m hoping that I can do all my running around the Oxfam walk training. Might mean that my long run will be on a different day to my walk training. Juggle, juggle, juggle