Getting fitter

I'm feeling very confident this morning. I've discovered a new way to assess my fitness. And it's painless. I wanted to do another interval session this morning, using Week 1 of the C25K. I had such fun last week. Well I managed to convince hubby to come with me. I told him it was one minute running and I said we could do 90 seconds walking. To make it a little more tempting for him, I told him he could have the iPod and control the speed. Now, as a bloke he naturally walks and runs faster than me. I thought it would be cool that I would (for once) probably be able to keep up with him. Now he is not fit by any stretch of the imagination, but he's also not quite as, ummm, well-built as I am. Anyway, I could more than keep up with him, I was running the pants off him!! (Well, not literally of course.)

It was a great revelation for me.

I AM getting fitter. I mean, I know I am because I can now run 30 minutes. But sometimes it's nice to have confirmation, you know? Hubby struggled. The running was much faster than I usually do it, at about 10 km/h. But I managed fairly easily. It wasn't easy but it was comfortable.

You'll see from the picture that the distance was much shorter than usual. About 3.5km. Another revelation! I've been covering a pretty decent distance in my runs lately - well for me. We didn't even make it as far as the old boat shed, let alone to the Eliza statue!!

And, Em, I haven't used the "O'" word once!!!!


Unfortunately, on the back of all this confidence is another trip away for study. Not unfortunate for the study, but unfortunate for the running. Seven days this time instead of four days like last time. Very intensive. But I will try my best to find time for a run or two. I leave tomorrow. You probably won't hear from me for a week - I tend to get quite one-minded and extremelly focussed in my own little bubble of study. Bear with me until I catch up with you all.

Great Court

I decided to finish my run a little differently this morning. I've been doing the same route so I can see how I feel at certain points and be pleased when I notice the difference. For example there is a little hut on the water that must have once been a boat shed. I can remember trying very hard to make it as far as the hut. Now I power past it! But anyway, this morning I decided I'd take the scenic route through UWA to come home. UWA is a beautiful old sandstone university - one of the top "8" in Australia. The green dot in the picture is me running across the Great Court! Hee hee!! Makes one feel all edjamacated just being in that environment. Now I don't know if I got all excited going through the uni or what it was but my last half was a full minute and a bit faster than my first half. That's one heck of a negative split!

Still really enjoying my running. I think because I can just run and not worry about lasting the distance. I know I'm only going 30 minutes so I don't even think about it. Great fun.

Week 1 C25K

I ran along the beautiful East Perth precinct this morning. I dropped hubby off to work and decided to take the opportunity to run somewhere just a little different. So instead of heading down to the foreshore, as I usually would, I headed up the other direction. Lots of trees, parks and shade, and many, many schmicko houses.

I decided to run my own little version of intervals. I downloaded Week 1 of the C25K which is 60 seconds run followed by 90 seconds of walking. I thought I'd do the 60 seconds as a run and the 90 seconds as a slow jog. It was only for 20 minutes. How hard could that be?? Well in my enthusiasm I took off too quick and pushed a little harder than I had anticipated. I managed 4 of the 8 sets before I started walking in the walk breaks instead of jogging! I still pushed hard in the runs but it was not an all out sprint. I have a new challenge. To complete this training run as running and jogging! Man it was hard work!! Meanwhile ol' mate on the iPod is telling me to relax and run slow enough to have a conversation with the person beside me! If there had been anyone beside me, they would have only heard me puffing and panting and hacking and swearing. I think it's just as well I don't wear a heart rate monitor! But at the end of the run I had managed 4km in 33 minutes which includes the 5 minute warm up walk and the 5 minute cool down walk. Not too shabby!!!

And, man, it felt good to be striding out even if it was only for 60 seconds! 60 seconds is short enough that I could still concentrate on form and breathing without blowing up and falling into my comfortable shuffle. It was incredibly hard work, but it has given me the confidence that I CAN run faster - maybe even 6 minute k's. But I have to run a sub 7 minute km first!!

Lil' ol' plod!

I have to say I am really enjoying my running at the moment. I am comfortable in my decision to stick with 30 minutes running and no more. It allows me to go for a run with no pressure on myself to "do better". I'm still not at 5km so I guess that is another magical barrier. I'm going to start to incorporate some interval training now - with a maximum of 30 minutes. I want to increase my speed but I don't have that need to be fast. Physically, I can't because of my arthritis - but I can go a bit faster than I do. I know that because I can still "sprint" when I need to. My sprint is not that quick of course, but it does say to me that I can speed up a little in my "normal" pace. So I'm thinking of doing Week 1 of the C25K as an interval run. I haven't done that yet, and I'm thinking once a week would be pretty good. Week 1 is only 20 minutes which sounds about perfect for me.

I can't believe how excited I am about my lil' ol' plodding!!! Another 30 minutes yesterday - all joy. I convinced hubby to get out on the bike while I was running and our paths crossed on the river. He high fived me as I went past and I had a big stupid grin on my face. I'm sure the other runners/cyclists and cars were wondering what the heck was going on. I hope they saw a fat woman trying hard and really enjoying her exercise!!!

30 minutes - DANCE JIG!!!!

30 minutes!!!
30 minutes!!!
30 minutes!!!
30 minutes!!!
30 minutes!!!

Hee hee!! I am a LEGEND!!

I have wanted to make 30 minutes non-stop running for ages - and now I have. It was at this point last time that I got overly enthusiastic and ended up injured, so now I am going to stick with 30 minutes for a while before I start to push up the kms.

I thought I might just run the same route and see if I can make further distance in my 30 minutes. But for now I'm content to stick with a 5km loop, running 30 minutes and walking the rest.

Great run today. I knew I was set to make 30 minutes without stopping as soon as I started. I took it easy, and enjoyed the run. I even got that long forgotten but welcomingly familiar pain in my big toe at about 28 minutes. It was hot today and I wonder if that helped me in a funny sort of way. There were a heap of flies and apart from running along the water (and trees and traffic and grass), I could have been in Karratha.

NOW I feel like I'm back from injury.

"Eliza" dressed for the Cup

I'm happy with my run again today. 25minutes running without stopping. All up 4.6km in about 40minutes. I felt strong all the way through the run. Percy shows my pace as up and down but I felt consistent and very comfortable. I had enough in the tank to try for a negative split. I made it, but only just. Funnily enough, I felt my strongest at about 3km in. According to Percy I pushed out a 7minute 15second km!!! Wowwy Zowwy!! Although I still felt OK, I consciously made the effort to slow down again because I knew it wouldn't last.

At my turn around point is a statue in the water called "Eliza". It is a bronze statue of a woman about to dive into the water. It is in the location of the old Claremont baths. Today Eliza was decorated for the Melbourne Cup. Someone had put a dress, gloves and hat on her. Goodness knows how they managed to get it on her -I suppose someone swum out and climbed up. They would have to be dedicated. Speaking of the Melbourne Cup, I only just realised that Victorians get a public holiday for the Cup. I don't know where I've been all my life, but anyway today was the first time I realised that!!! Obviously I've never lived in Victoria. Of course life goes on for the rest of Australia.

Thanks for the comments about the Red Bull air race. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos! I didn't think of it. My bike was already packed for a BBQ, I had heaps of stuff, and a camera was the last thing on my mind. It was spectacular. You'll just have to trust me.

Red bull air race

Yesterday I had the choice of going for a 5km WAMC fun run or watching the Red Bull air race. I couldn't do both because of the difficulty with transport. All the roads in the CBD were closed yesterday for the air race, so I was going to ride. I ended up piking on the run and watching the planes. I rationaled it by telling myself that I can't yet run 5km, although I am getting closer. I also was going to get heaps of exercise riding everywhere. So the choice ended up being fairly easy. I had a wonderful day. The planes were spectacular!! The news said there were 300,000 people along the banks of the Swan River and I'd believe it! I've never seen so many people!! Everyone there to watch these little acrobatic planes fly just metres above the water looping through gates at 400km/h.

I started off on the river then I made my way up to Kings Park to meet Java and family for a BBQ. Just as packed with people at Kings Park!! Heck of a climb on the bicycle though. I've never ridden from that direction before and there is a dirty great steep hill from the city up to Kings Park Road. I had to stop and push my bike and it STILL almost gave me a heart attack! Obviously my cardio vascular fitness is not as good as I would like to believe it is.

We headed to Synergy parkland for our BBQ. We figured it wouldn't be as packed because you can't see the river from there, but we were wrong. People, people everywhere. We had to line up for the BBQ. But it was worth it. Great company, great weather, great day.

The weather nudged 30 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, beautiful and clear. Perfect weather for an air race. I got a bit too much sun though. My poor winter skin had no idea what hit it and I was exhausted last night. My legs are sore this morning, so I take that as a good sign. Clearly the bike ride was decent exercise for me even though it doesn't count to my monthly km run.

This morning I couldn't even drag myself out of bed for a run. An early night tonight for me. I hope I can go for a run this afternoon - otherwise definitely in the morning.

Kings Park run

This morning I rode to work early and then went for a 4km run through Kings Park. I took Percy with me but I'll have to upload the maps later. I'm looking forward to seeing the map from this morning! It was a beautiful morning - clear, crisp and utterly delightful. I ran past the reservoir in Kings Park, through the Botanic Gardens and onto the Law Walk which goes right along the edge of the cliff and has spectacular views of the river and CBD. There were two very nasty hills and I was tempted to walk up them but I persisted. Actually, I could have walked up them faster than I ran up them but I didn't want to stop. Ironic really that "stopping" would actually mean going faster. Meh. Apart from the two hills I felt pretty good during the run, so I kept going past my 25 minute cut off and made it to 29 minutes. I would have done 30 but I hit the main road and had to stop for traffic. Once stopped, that was it!!

I'm pretty pleased with the effort today. Now off to my Friday weekly massage!! Unfortunately this is my last one for a while. :( Very disappointing since I've enjoyed the luxury of an hour's massage at work once a week. I might actually have to go to a masseuse in my own time! Horror!!

My chiropractor is disappointed with the progress of my neck - which is surprising since I think it's amazing. He said that 80% of people respond well to chiropractic treatment but for 20% it takes much longer. I'm the 20%. I tell you what though, those 80% must feel INCREDIBLE! I think he's done a marvellous job. My hip is not improved either. Andrew, I'm taking glucosomine tablets now - like you said. Apparently they will be good for me but it will take 6 - 8 weeks to notice anything. We'll see.

I'm still running well, so clearly something is going right.

Edit. Here are Percy's pictures. This is my cycling commute and the next one was my beautiful run through Kings Park and botanic gardens.