weigh in and running

weighed in this morning - down .5kg from last Friday ... so that's good. Although I expect that will all come back on over the weekend with Max's party and he wanted to go to Hungry Jacks last night for his birthday dinner - I felt positively ill after.

Went ouot for a run this morning - my usual route around my neighbourhood. Mapped it out on Google Earth and worked out to just a smidge over 5km. here's what it looks like

From my place, that straight line is up a rather steep hill - which I walk up for a warm up, the rest of it is downhill or fairly flat to the halfway point just past the freeway. All the way back is uphill, until I get to the reverse side of the warm up hill and the little dog leg around the park. It's a tough run on the way back - 5k this morning in 36min - a fair bit of walking up hills on the way back!

I'll have a rest day tomorrow and will head out for the 6k run I did last week with Lisa, on Sunday morning. I'm going to add 10% to the distance, which shouldn't be too hard, with a view to running 7k next week with Lisa.

I'm in love with my new running skirt! Took it out this morning and I just love it! Who would run in shorts when you can wear a skirt that doesn't bunch up?! Best part was, the size 14 skirt I tried on in the shop, was too big, so I bought the size 12!!!! YAY! Stretchy material though, don't get too excited!

really really have to seriously look at new shoes. My shins and knees are both sore after today's run. Could it be the downhill running? I think I really pound the pavement on the downhills...

I was passing through the neighbourhood of InTraining this morning, and would have stopped and gone in, except I couldn't find a park within 2 blocks of the place and had a shopping list a mile long for the party. So I rang them and they have a free podiatry clinic this Saturday - one appointment was left - at 9:30am, so I'll squeeze that in inbetween party preparations. Lucky we don't live far from there.

Reading on Celeste's blog about her 10k race this weekend (good luck) is getting me all excited about the 10k at the GCM. I bought a CR cap this week, so I'll have a cheersquad!!! And now that I'm running 5k on a regular basis and I've gone beyond the 5k mark, I can see that this is actually going to be possible, and possibly enjoyable!! The logistics of it are already creeping into my everyday thoughts 'how will I get there, what time, where to park, what to wear' ... silly really, but it just feels like such a huge goal for me, and I'm excited about the prespect of accomplishing it. The date of the race is also our 8th wedding anniversary! I've told all my family they have to come and support me.

I have a PT on Monday and Drew is going to weigh me at the gym again. I'm really going to have to watch myself at the party to make sure I don't eat too much junk. I want to be at least a kilo less than last time.

A is going to Melbourne on Sunday night until Wednesday night (for work) - which means I won't get to run on again after Sunday until Thursday at the earliest, but more likely not until Saturday or Sunday. Might have to do some running on the treadmill at the gym during the week.

I'm tossing up the idea of gatecrashing the CR brissy get together for Miners' visit in April. The only one of them I have met is Lisa, and I'm quite shy by nature. I want to go, I'm hope I would be welcome, but the idea is quite nerve wracking for me!

Does running make you tired? Sorry to kind of throw this in at the end - it didn't really fit anywhere else. I find I'm really exhausted on days where I run in the morning. I thought regular exercise was supposed to give you more energy? Do you think it could be because I only wake up before 6am to go running 3 days out of 7, so it's not a regular habit? My diet (which could do with some improvement)? I don't know, I just know that at 2pm I can barely keep my eyes open and I've been yawining all day - and I often feel like this.

Well, jelly cups, cake icing, mini quiches, and housecleaning are beckoning ...

Lazy Wednesday

Just a little warning ... **this post is totally not running or fitness related** :)

I went and had my hair cut today. Bliss!!! Max was at kindy and Mum took Maeve shopping while I was in the hairdressers. I'm pretty happy with the result and the hairdresser didn't make me talk to her the whole time and even showed me a few tricks on how to style my hair.

No exercise today ... zip. Normally I have spin, but I'm kinda taking this week off to concentrate on party preparations etc etc ...

Max is so excited about tomorrow and Saturday. I hope he's not dissapointed. He said today, talking to my sister: "I'm going to give my mum a big hug and say thank you for a beautiful party"!!! awwww!

Ok, so slightly running realted - went into Athl. Foot today and enquired about new shoes. According to the fancy pressure machine thingo they have I have a rolling in foot with a high arch. The guy gave me 3 pairs of shoes to try on and the most comfy and supportive by far was a Mizuno Nirvana ... $249.50 : 0 ... but they felt great. The guy was a runner and seemed to know what he was talking about. I'm going to go into Amart All Sports on Friday and see what else there is. I'm just so scared of getting the wrong shoe, spending so much money on it and getting screwed over.

Also bought a new running skirt today - hope to give it a bit of a run on saturday morning - am going to try the 6km bridge run I did with Lisa last Sunday again. My sister wants to come with me.

Thanks for the letter H suggestions, I'm going to get around to it sometime!!

Morning run

I re-ran my '5k' route this morning - only took me 27:41 - Last time I ran it and timed it properly my time was 31:23 !!!!

I've had a sneaking suspicion the last week or so that the 5k might have been a bit short - so I mapped it out in Google Earth - and sure enough, it's only 4.6 ... oops! But I'm not too dissapointed as I ran a full 6k on sunday. I think if I'd found out it was only 4.6 before sunday it would have been a real mental blow - does that make sense?

anyway, here's the route - you can't see it that well, but it's a there and back kind of path:



Seems my iPod was just having battery issues ... I must've left it on or something, because this morning, after charging it all night, it was fine!

My shins were sore during the run this morning. Definately going to start looking for new shoes this week.

I'm still thinking about the letter 'h'!!

RIP

my little iPod shuffle has died .... mwaaaaaahhhhhhhhh ... I can't live without it at the gym. Running I can probably get over it, but it's essential to get me through all the boring cardio crap at the gym ... what am I gonna do????

guess I'll just have to go shopping!!!!! :)

Kathy - the letter 'H'??? Man, what are you trying to do to me??? I'm still thinking about it.

PT this morning + 30 min cardio after - all good.

Sunday run - 6km

this morning was great. Lisa met me at the goodwill bridge at southbank and we ran the 6k city loop from there. Lisa was lovely, and so nice of her to run with me - I'm sure if I wasn't there she would have gone further and faster! We chatted the whole way - mostly about running!!! Well, I should probably say Lisa did most of the chatting while I did most of the panting!! I found it quite hard to talk and run at the same time!!

I ran most of the way. Had to stop and walk at the top of the story bridge because I got a stitch ... again. Seems to always come at about the same time into a run - around the 20 minute mark - always in exactly the same spot. Probably because I was too busy trying to talk than concentrate on my breathing! Managed to get it to go away enough to continue running. It popped up again on the home stretch, but I didn't worry about it as we were close to the end.

Lovely morning for a run - no rain though :(!!! Looks like we might get some this afternoon though, which would be nice.

The 6km took us 44 minutes. I'd love to be able to say it wasn't as long, but I know speed isn't everything.

Frustratingly this morning was still a real mental battle for me. Even running along side someone, I was talking to myself in my head at about the 5k mark - trying to convince myself I didn't need to or want to walk, that I could keep going blah blah blah ... the old lazy sarah is still in there and sometimes it's a real fight to convince myself that I can run that far/that long. I know that physically I am capable, but mentally I'm suck a sook! We're going again in a fortnight, so that's something to work towards.

I'm going to sign myself up for the 5k fun run at Sanctuary Cove on the 15th of April. I want to do a few little races like that before the GC event so I'm not lining up on the start line for the first time for the 10k race. I can imagine I'd be quite nervous, so want to get used to the atmosphere, even though I'm sure Sanctuary cove will bo nowhere near as big or exciting as the GCM. Lisa said I'd have to buy myself a CR top so I have a cheersquad!!

My knees have been quite sore since the run this morning. Last week I asked my trainer at the gym for some low impact exercises to strengthen my knees - he showed me a couple focussing on the VMO and ankle stability, I'll have to get into those this week. If anyone else has any other suggestions (aside from not run) then I'd love to hear them.

I think it's time for new shoes. My shins have been pulling up a bit tender the last few runs - I've been trying to ignore it, but don't want to make the problem worse. I'm putting off getting new shoes because 'A' will have a complete meltdown if I tell him I want to spend significant money on new shoes when my current pair are in his eyes perfectly capable of doing the job (they're a pair of asics gels and are about 6 mths old ... so time for an upgrade I think). This week I floated the idea of joining a running club by him and his response was that running should be free and I wan't allowed to spend money on running!!! har har!!!!

PT and cardio at the gym on Monday - next run, Tuesday morning.

I have a busy week this week. My little guy turns 4 on Thursday and we're doing a party at our place on Saturday - we have about 15 kids coming, plus parents, so it's going to be pretty full on. I'm in the process of making a pinata, 3 more layers of paper to go on that, I have to make cupcakes for him to take to kindy on Thursday, then the party on Saturday. A Lightning McQueen cake has been requested ... so no doubt my week will be consumed by shopping for b'day presents, party food, preparing games etc etc ... Not sure how much gym I'll squeeze in, but will aim for 3 runs ... wish me luck!!!!

food accountability

So, inspired by Simlin, I'm blogging my food intake in an attempt to make myself a little more honest with the amount of calories I'm eating and weight I'm losing.

So feel free to check it out and chastise me for my poor food choices!!

Gym didn't run my box class this morning due to lack of numbers, so I did my weights workout that I missed yesterday due to sooky legs. Managed to increase the weight on just about all of my exercises and make my regular number of reps. So happy about that.

My iPod battery died when I went to do some cardio at the end of the workout, so I whimped out of cardio - man, what a slacker huh? I just find it so hard to power away on those machines without sommething to take my mind off the monotony of it all. I'd been there for an hour already anyway.

I'm going to start weighing myself weekly again - I'd stopped doing it because I was getting frustrated with the lack of results. But I need to start again because I fear going backwards. I'll track weight and girth measurements on the gobble gobble blog here: http://sarah-gobblegobble.blogspot.com/ (for anyone who's interested!). My mini goal is to be under 70kg for the 10k at the GCM. 12 weeks away. 7kg in 12 weeks is totally do-able... if I can cut out the crap! Then I might have more energy for running too!

I learnt a lesson

this morning that I really should listen to my body when my glutes and quads are screaming at me!!!

I'd kinda decided last night that I would go and re-do my 5k course I did for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Well, nothing went right and it was a bad run. (is there such a thing?!)

I knew I was going to be sore this morning from doing PT back to back with spin class on tues and wed ... but I didn't want to give myself any excuses, and knew if I didn't run this morning I'd only fit in 2 runs this week.

So I set the alarm for 5:45am. Got up, was about to get dressed when Maeve woke up (first thing to go wrong), so then I had to wait for A to get out of bed before I could get out the door. So by the time I got out the door I was already 15 min behind schedule. Got to the startign point of my run and for the first few km I was fine. Then I stopped at a drink fountain and 2 things happened. The first was I paused my watch (this is probably cheating - you're probably supposed to include drink stops!) and when I set off again I pressed the wrong button and had to start the time all over again - no worries I thought, I'll just add the times together at the end. So that was ok, so I thought.

The 2nd thing to happen was that once I stopped I realised how much my quads were hurting. I kept running though and just short of the 4km mark I looked down at my watch to see if I was going to beat my time from the last run ... I wasn't timing. &%$#%.

Anyway, I told myself that I wasn't running today for time and to just keep going. I had to wait for a team of cyclists so I could cross the road for my last km, and when I set off again my quads were yelling at me!! Man, they were sore and really tight, so I stopped for a bit of a stretch and said to myself "suck it up Sarah, just keep going"

Pfffft. Anyway, shuffled about half of the last km and then walked back to my car - told myself I needed a bit of a cool down anyway! So I have no idea how long it took me, but that's ok. And I walked a bit towards the end - and that's ok too.

I was a bit peeved about it all and feeling a bit negative, but figured at least I got out there. Could have been worse - I could have stacked in and fallen over - and I didn't, so I should ne happy.

Could harldy get out of the car though, I felt like a cripple.

So I've decided to give my weights program a miss at the gym today as it's alot of leg work and I think I need to give them a break. Feel like I'm whimping out a bit, but what can you do?

Something else I realised this morning - where I ran this morning there are a lot of people out and about - walkers, runners, cyclists - most people don't even look at you to smile and say goodmorning! Shame really. And the other thing I noticed is that people really suck at picking up their dog crap. Man this ticks me off.

So Box calss tomorrow and then a rest on Saturday before my run on Sunday morning. Forcast is for showers on Sunday - I hope so, it's been pretty warm here, it would be nice to run in the rain - note to self - don't wear a white top on sunday!!!!

bike sqauts

2 posts in a day!!!
Sara asked how you do squats on the bike!! LOL! Umm, everyone probably calls them something different, and it's hard to describe, but it's when you crouch low on the bike, kind between the seat and the bar that the handlebars come off, and you pedal there, kind of placing all your weight on your quads - does that make sense? ... MAN, it HURTS!!!

spinning around

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments about running with someone. I'm looking forward to it!

Spin class today. The guy who took our class today is SUPER fit, there is not an ounce of fat on the guy, he used to be the main dancer guy (real technical terms here) for the QLD ballet, he does karate, he cycles, he still dances with the ballet, just not in a major role, and he has a wife who is jsut as fit and 2 kids. So anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the class was HARD. lots and lots of jumps and squats and hills. Man, my legs are jelly. Normally after a spin class I think I could go again ... not today!! :) Hard class is a good class ... so they say.

Did 20 minutes of running, just on the treadmill, before my class - overall burnt 712 calories! yay! I've been tracking my food since monday - one day someone is going to create a magic pill that will give you all your days calorie and nutritional needs all at once - it would make things a lot easier!! yeah, yeah, I know ...

Got through the grocery shopping yesterday - Max threw a massive tantrum just as we were walking out the front door (because I wouldn't let him take his leggo) and Maeve was disgusting the entire shopping trip - poor thing, she was tired - so it was a very pleasant experience as always ... not.

Thinking I might get up early tomorrow morning and go out for a run before my weights workout at the gym. These days I am finding I would much rather go out for a run than work the cardio equipment at the gym ... I reckon I get a better constant cardio workout running too. It's amazing how much running consumes my thoughts these days!! Makes me laugh!

new batteries please ...

Well, I didn't get to run yesterday. Got the all clear from the ENT doc ... "thanks for your hundreds of dollars, we don't want to see you again". I swear that child has cost us a small fortune in medical bills. I shouldn't complain, there are many people who are far worse off than us. I'm reading "My sisters keeper" by Jody Picoult - boy it's depressing, but somehow I can not put it down. What has that to do with anything? The girl in the story has lukemia, medical bills, ENT ... see?!

Anyway, this is meant to be about running and stuff...

Was planning to go out in the evening - Celeste, I don't like running at night either. The times I have gone out in the pm, it's been about 6:30 and I'm not out for long - hardly worth it really. Anyway, I had good intentions, but A came home with a migrane ... so there went those plans, I wasn't too devestated, so mustn't have been too committed to the idea in the first place.

Changed my PT time and went in this morning. I knew that was a mistake when that-time-of-the-month showed up yesterday arvo (sorry if that's a bit TMI for some of you!). Question for the LADIES ... do you just feel absolutely wasted at that time? Do you still run and do your normal program or do you give yourself a bit of a rest? Today I felt totally and utterly smashed. I made it through my PT ok, with a few weight and rep increases, but at the end of it I just wanted to curl up in the corner and go to sleep. Normally I stay and do a high intensity cardio for 30 min after the PT ... I managed 10 minutes on the bike before I staggered out of there. I didn't sleep well last night, so I'm sure that has something to do with it too.

I'm just feeling totally buggered and have no energy.

Planning a 6km run on Sunday morning. Vege-girl from CR asked me if I wanted to meet her at southbank for a run ... I said yes!!! ARGHHH!! I'm a bit freaking out!!! a) I've never run 6km, b) I've never run with anyone before, c) she's probably faster and fitter than me and d) I normally run with my iPod and have never tried running without - the music really gets me through the hard parts, so I wonder what it'll be like running without it ...

Anyway, I'm going to clean up my pig sty of a house so when I have visitors tomorrow it's not embarrassing.

Spin tomorrow - hopefully I'll be feeling better than I am today.

We need bread, milk and other basic foodgroups, wondering how I can make it to woolworths with my 2 terrors feeling the way I do today???????

rest day

no running, no gym today. And I just realised Max has his ENT appointment at 9am tomorrow morning ... So no PT or gym tomorrow :(

Had a rare nap this afternoon - not too long, but long enough to keep me awake through dinner at mum and dad's.

Given there's no gym tomorrow I'm contemplating a run tomorrow ... part of me is saying no, just sleep ... I'm not sure there will be time for running and getting kids and husband ready to be in the city for the specialist appointment by 9am ... perhaps I could run in the evening ... decisions decisions .........

New Farm Park

This morning I got out of bed at 5:30am (!!!!!!) and left home at 6am to get to New Farm park a little early to have a run before meeting friends for breakfast. You know, getting out of bed that early wasn't even hard. I was even looking forward to getting out there and running. On the way I took a wrong turn in the car and was mad at myself that I'd cost myself running time!!! I had to have a little chuckle to myself ... what's happened to me???

How accurate is googlemaps/mapmyrun.com??? I checked out the park on their maps and they reckon a touch over 1km around the park ... according to my trip computer in the car (which I know isn't the best measure) it was only 900m ... I know most serious runners will use a Garmin to measure a course, but in the absence of a runner's best friend, would you trust the google maps or the car? Not that I'm obsessing over it, but I did 4 laps of the park - so either 3.6 or 4km, depending on which way you want to look at it.

Didn't time my run this morning. The first 5 minutes were a struggle, couldn't find my rhythm and the legs felt really heavy, but that passed and by the time I had to stop because my friends were there with breakfast, I felt as if I could go another 4 laps. Just got out there and had fun. Lots of other runners out there who I grinned st (just for you Gnome - your advice was running through my mind!!).

I have to say, I really enjoyed being out there this morning, which makes me really happy - I've got to a point in my life where I really enjoy exercising. I can see what it does for me mentally and emotionally as well as physically. My entire life I've been the one who felt too self concious and too afraid to get out there and try these kind of things. I never never never thought I would be someone who enjoyed going to the gym and someone who ran, let alone ran on a regular basis and enjoying it. To this day I have a memory burned into my brain ofthe boys at primary school calling me "duck waddle". I don't know why - I wasn't particularly overweight as a child until I reached the latter part of high school, and even then I wasn't obese, just a bit chubby. But I never thought I would be able to run, ever. And everytime I did run that memory of being called that name would creep into my thoughts and I'd feel so uncomfortable. Normally I think people are looking at me, laughing at me, mocking me. Slowly I'm getting to realise that's not the case. Slowly I'm starting to not worry about what the cars passing are thinking, what the other runners are thinking. Slowly I'm starting to realise that I can do this and it's making a difference to my life and the life of my family.

Wow - I don't know where that tumbled out from!!!!

So back to this morning ... I turned up for breakfast in my running gear, all sweaty, and they were all most impressed and I got lost of "oh, I can't run" comments followed by a multitude of excuses "I'm too unco-ordinated" "I'm too unfit" blah blah blah ... I've heard it all before ... that was me a few months ago!! So I just laughed and said "Yeah, that's what I used to say"

I was very good at breakfast, skipping the cupcakes and pastries people had brought along and only had fruit and yoghurt.

While I was running a running club was converging in the car park and they started their run. I stopped on one of my laps and spoke to the guy in charge. Gnome - I liked your advice of just going out and having fun, and I'm going to do that ... on 2 of my runs per week!!! The other one I think I'm going to join this group - they meet at locations near me - the furtherst being new farm park, the others being the city botanicalgardens, UQ, southbank and KP. And the times are good for me too - early Saturday mornings. I've checked out a few other clubs but the times seemed a little off for me. I'm going to start that in April because I have a few things coming up over the next few weekends.

Foodwise, I've promised myself I'm going to start tracking on Monday. I'm doing so well in the exercise department and I'm just letting myself down when it comes to food. In fact, A today made a comment that what I had achieved was "amazing". So that was nice.

Friday I went to my Box class at the gym. After I got Drew to show me some exercises to strengthen my knees as I'm still getting a bit of soreness there. He also suggested I investigate new shoes ... this fitness business is not cheap, I tell you! The old knees weren't feeling too bad after the run today and the ankle feels pretty good.

better go put the kiddies to bed, A's gone to his brother's to watch the AFL.

Thursday morning run

Thursday's I normally go to the gym and do a weights and cardio program, but I'm feeling a bit blah about the gym lately. It's just a phase - I'll get over it! But I woke up this morning to the sound of a crying 18 mth old and had a 5 minute debate with the 2 Sarah's in my head. One just wanted to stay in bed and stay home, not go to the gym, not do anything. The other one said, get up, go for a run and then you'll feel energised and ready to face the day...

which one did I listen to?????

The good Sarah!!! Yay!

Yeah, I got up and went for a run. Had to wait for the man of the house to get his butt out of bed and look after the kiddies before I could get out the door. Just thought I'd run my usual route around here. Got to my 1/2 way point and decided I could go a bit further, so did roughly about another 2 or 300 mtrs before turning around and heading back. The heading back is the hard part - it' ALL uphill apart from the last 300 mtrs to home, which is fairly steady downhill. So the going out I did in 12 minutes, coming back took me another 20/22 minutes. Not that anyone was counting of course!!!

I'm not sure of the distance. Without the extra bit in the middle it's about 4kms ... so somewhere between 4 & 5km. Knees are still a bit sore - ankle is fine today - so that's a plus.

Felt good to get out there and do it. Didn't go to the gym, I had an essay to finish and some shopping to do! Was nice to have my morning back from the gym.

I think that's what's hardest - All of my mornings, bar one, are spent at the gym, I get home, Maeve has a sleep and then by the time she wakes up it's too late to do anything significant.

But I suppose it's worth it.

I'm meeting up with some friends at New Farm Park on Saturday morning at 7am - I gave A the option of wither coming with me and playing with the kids in the palyground for an hour or 2; or me going early and getting a run around the park in before 7am ... we'll see which happens.

I think if I'm going to make my goal of 10k at the GCM, I need a more structured plan - don't you think? At the moment I'm just running what I feel like. Should I just keep doing that and gradually add a bit more distance (like I did today for example) or should I have a more structured plan and goals?

Missed my run

on Tuesday morning. Who saw that coming?!! :(

Max had a hearing test early on Tuesday morning in preparation for his appointment with the ENT specialist next tuesday (that child costs us more in medical bills than anything else ... $200 was the bill from the dentist on Monday - but I digress, I was talking about my excuses for not running on Tuesday ...) and Tuesday was the first morning we had our new blinds up and we all slept in thanks to the extra darkness in the morning! oops! Will have to set the alarm from now on.

Went and did my spin class today. I found it pretty hard going today. Just felt a bit tired - it's been so hot here, so maybe I can blame the weather.

On a brighter note, I went to the park this afternoon for our usual wednesday afternoon neighbourhood meet-up/play. I hadn't been for a couple of weeks due to other things being on and it being raining and one of the stay-at-home-dads who comes along I hadn't seen in about 3 weeks.

Anyway .... he says to me "sarah, you're looking well, your gym work is obviously paying off" and another of the mum's who I haven't seen in 6 weeks because she had a new baby - the first thing she said to me was "you look great, you've lost weight"

yay!!!

So I thought I'd post some pics of me pre christmas and me now. There's not a huge difference, but there is a difference ... I think anyway. Hopefully I don't really need to tell you which ones are before and which ones are after ... if you can'ttell, let me know and make sure and tell me where you live at the same time ... !!

Soooo now I'm off to finish writing my essay on Darwin & Lamarck's theories of evolution ... very exciting ... not. Tomorrow is weights and cardio - might do a bit of a run on the treadmill at the gym, test out the knees and the ankle again...

Do I have to have a title, I can't think of one ...

PT today - went well as usual.

Drew asked me how the whole eating plan was going ... :( hmmmm, I've been very naughty and haven't been tracking consistantly for the last few weeks. I really need to get back into counting my calories and being more balanced.

Today I ate terribly. Skipped lunch because I was busy with the kids and we had blinds being installed and then I had to take Max to the dentist, but the time we got out of the dentist I was starving, knew I had to go to woolworths to get stuff for dinner and I should NEVER go shopping when I'm hungry. Stupidly bought a kit kat (I know, it could have been worse) and ate that, then didn't bother making dinner because A was late home from work and now it's 10 to 10 and I'm hungry again ... *sigh*

I'm just going to go to bed and know that tomorrow is another day.

Supposed to get up for a run in the morning but it's been so hot and horrible, I'm feeling rather drained (yes, I know that's probably more to do with the fact I sisn't eat properly today.)

So Drew is encouraging me to do some speed training tomorrow (I think that might be the running term for it - basically intervals of jogging and sprinting). But I think I might just go out for my normal run around home, which is about 4k, and see if I can get through the hills with limited walking.

Q re sore knees - I might post on CR too - but I get sore knees (like when I sit or climb stairs) after a run. My knees have always been very creaky and they creak and crack when I sit on the ground, do squats, lunges etc ... should I be worried about this or will they get better and stronger as I run?

I also have an ankle question ... I broke my ankle quite badly about 10 years ago and have pins and plates on both sides of my Right ankle. After a run there is always some discomfort there, like a bruised feeling almost. I'm not sure if I should see anyone about it - can they remove those types of things this far down the track? I guess I need to ask a dr that??

gotta get to bed or I won't be able to get up in the morning.

31:23

My time for my first ever 5km run ... whooooo hooooo!!!!

My first km came in at 7:11 and the last at 6:36 ... go figure!! I didn't time the ones inbetween, but the first must have been one of the slowest ... The last km was HARD. I had enough left in the tank to put in a bit of a burst at the last 200m or so. I'm sure I was talking out loud to myself over that last km "you can do it" "come on, not far now" etc etc!!!

I was so happy at the end, I wanted to do the Rocky dance as I walked back to my car... I restrained myself!!! The dreaded stitch made an appearance at about the 4km mark :( I probably looked quite amusing running along with one hand digging into my RH side trying to get it to go away!

I'm going to try the same route again in a couple of weeks and see if I can take any time off today's run.

It made me happy because although at the moment I wouldn't be able to run a 10km distance, I know I have it in me if I stick with this running caper and build on my distances and speeds.

Been nagging at my husband about the running, and I think he's running out of excuses... he called his brother this afternoon and I think they're planning on starting the C25k program together this week sometime (Yes Lisa, you read right!!). So that'll be good.

Gnome - maybe I'll have a photo like that in about 18 mths time!! Wouldn't that be good (and that from the girl who said a couple of days ago that I'm never going to run a HM!! haha!! Ok, so maybe it won't be of us finishing a HM, perhaps a 10k race?!!)

I found I was quite hungry today. Stange in a way because I normally run a 3.5 to 4km run so today was only an extra km, and my HRM said a total of 444 cal, which is no more than I burn in a spin or box calss ... But by 11am I was starving and had a banana, and again at about 1am when I had a sandwich ... some days are just like that I suppose.

the plan is

to get up at 5:45am tomorrow morning, rain or shine, stumble out of the house, drive down to yeronga Park and run from Hyde Rd through Yeronga Park to the river and Brisbane Corso, turn right down the corso, run to Stimpson St, turn around, run back up to the other end of Brisbane Corso where the path ends, turn around and run back to where Yeronga park meets the Corso, run back through the park and back to Hyde Rd and to my car ... should be 5k according to mapmyrun.com ...

I can do it.

I don't know how long it will take me. I'm going to try really hard not to walk at all. I'm hoping to come in around 35min ... but that might be a bit optimistic. Time will tell...

There, now that I've written it down, made it public, I have to do it!

Lisa, nice try!!! Ummm, nope, no pic of the running skirt - if you wanna see me in the running skirt, you'll have to come running with me!!! hee hee!!!

Inspired by Gnome and TA's photo of them running together, I'm trying to get my husband to start running. He's been complaining he's so unfit, getting fat (yeah right!) and no energy etc all the time. I dared him today to start running, he's full of excuses "my knees" "no time" blah blah blah ... I told him I'd set up the ipod with the C25K podcasts and he could start fromm week 1 - lots of walking, little bit of running ... he said if I organised it he would do it!!! So we'll see - I think he's too lazy to get out of bed early enough to be able to do it before work ... I would love him to, I would love to be able to share this interest with him.

I'll keep you posted on that.

I need an early night tonight so I can drag myself out of bed for the run tomorrow.

Sommeone once told me the regret they feel at not getting out early for a run lasts all day, yet the regret they feel at getting out early for a run only lasts until they are out the door - so true.

On another matter I have been treating my body like absolute crap this week diet wise. I gotta get my act together. I promise mself I'm going to have a good week this week.

do you think

you can get better at running by reading about running??!!! Would be nice wouldn't it?! Oh, I don't mean a text book or anything ... I've just spent ages reading running blogs - amazing. Somme people amaze me - their level of dedication and fitness and fanaticism!!! I must try harder to leave comments - I just never know what to say - they're all so good and I'm so crap!

It's like a tangled web or something, one just leads to another and then another and another ...

speaking of text books, it's only 2nd week of semester and I'm behind already - better go do some of that reading.

No running or any exercise for that matter today - we had a small emergency at our house this morning when Max was running down the hallway (floorboards & bare feet) and slipped on a dress up he'd left lying around - feet went right up from under him and he hit the floor first with his face - mouth to be more precise. Lots of blood, lots of tears (from max & mummy!). Thankfully I was dressed (for the gym, but dressed nonetheless) and we raced out to the car and to the doctors. He has a massive fat lip (which he's a bit concerned about) and a trip to the dentist booked for Tuesday as I think he's knocked one of his front teeth back a bit, not as serious as I was first thinking. here's a pic:


Poor little fella! Anyway, so with the split lip went my plans for a weights and cardio workout at the gym ... tomorrow is another day...

oh, p.s - I just want to thank those who've left comments - means a lot to me and your advice is very welcomed and appreciated.

Goals

So I was lurking on coolrunnings and a few people's blogs from there and it got me thinking about what I want to achieve with my running and fitness.

I feel like I've got as much mileage out of the euphoria of "hey, I can actually RUN" feeling and need to think about where I want to take it all and how I'm going to get there.

I guess my main goals as far as running goes is the B2B (august) and 10k run at the GCM (july?). Aside from those, and before either of them I'd like to increase my speed over 5k and participate in some kind of race/fun run to test that in a race scenario - perhaps one of the Sanctuary cove series?

On a day to day basis I would like to be able to run between 6 and 8ks each time I run, with maybe one longer run a week.

Realistically, I don't think I'll ever be running a HM or anything like it. It's certainly not a goal I'm going to set myself at this stage.

I want to be able to say "yeah, I'm a runner" and not feel like I'm embellishing the truth at all!!! hee hee!

Fitness wise - I'm setting myself a goal to be able to do 10 push ups and 20 sit ups and a prone hold for 1.5 min by the middle of April . 17.4.07. I think that takes me to about the end of my paid PT sessions. Then I'll have to think about if I should buy another block of them.

ABC kids is about finished, which means so is my internet time!

bad bad bad sarah

I'm a bad bad person. I finally bought myself a polar F11 HRM today ... bought it online at $80 below RRP, but it was still $218 ... I'm going to be in big trouble. I dread to think. dearest husband, if you are reading this, please don't be too cross ... I can't wait until it arrives - should get here tomorrow - unfortunately not in time for my spin class though!

Went for a run this morning ... IN MY SKIRT!!!! I felt a bit funny at first, but boy was it good not to have to worry about shorts riding up my crotch and bunching up. it was great. And I felt great in it too!!!

I drove down to the Brisbane river at yeronga this morning for my run - wanted to try running on flats, instead of the hills around here, to see how far I could do - wanted to do 5k... I made the mistake of not measuring out my run and kept thinking to myself "I wonder how far I've come" "don't forget you have to run back too" so it was mentally very challenging and I didn't make 5k. I measured my run in the car after and turns out I ran about 3.4ks - took me about 20 min. So time and distance not great. Next time I'll measure the trip first and then I won't have to worry about where to turn around. Someone on the forum at Calorie King gave me a great idea of taking $5, running the distance in one direction and catching the ferry back after running along the river. Might have to try that sometime.

anyway, got to think about what we're having for dinner ...

a new week

Monday again. PT this morning.

I don't normally sweat at the gym much. I mean, I sweat, but never dripping off my face, shirt wet kind of sweat... until today. I don't know if it was just because it was humid today or maybe I'm just tired from the weekend, but everything seemed to take so much effort and I was dripping with sweat. By the time I finished my cardio after my PT, the front of my shirt was wet through and I could feel the back clinging to my skin ... noice.

It's pretty humid today, so maybe that's why ...

I want a heart rate monitor ... still.

One of these mornings I'm going to get up early enough to go running along the cliffs at KP. I really want to have a run on the flat and see how far I can get without hills being in the equation. They kill me. Around here, there's nothing flat. Might see if I can do it tomorrow morning. I need a stop watch though, I want to know how long it takes me... a HRM comes with a stopwatch function .... hmmmmm.