I felt the "buzz"!!

10km this morning. I'm pretty pleased with that. It was a run/walk and it took me an hour and 35 minutes but at least I covered the distance. Percy tells me I walked 6.3km of it. LOL!! My running is so slow it registers as walking speed!!! I thought about changing the configuration of the speeds but it might be nice to gradually see the change from walking to jogging. I have not ever registered a "run" so that will be nice too.

I'm feeling a lot more confident. I just need to be patient, and I will begin to see changes. I just need to think about where I was in terms of running and I realise I have come a long way.

Today at about 5-6km I was feeling really strong. I looked down at Percy and noticed I was running at 8.6km/h. Now I realise that is very slow for most, but I am used to seeing 6.7km/h or SOMETIMES 7.5km/h. Certainly nothing with an 8 in front of it!! And I felt good. My running felt easy and it was wonderful! It didn't last long. After about 6minutes I had slowed down but man, during that 6 minutes I wanted to take on the world! I want THAT feeling all the time!!!

I have to keep an eye on the weather for my runs in the next week because we are getting a cyclone. We expect to be put on cyclone watch tomorrow and then cyclone alert on Tuesday. One thing about cyclones is that you generally get plenty of warning. Not like earthquakes or something. Hubby went around the house yesterday and secured all the cyclone shutters over our windows. We've moved the outdoor furniture either inside the house or into the shed. All we need to do is put the pot plants into the shed just before we get hit. Last year we were a bit more organised and had cyclone stores in the cupboard (emergency food and water) but this year I think we have been a little complacent. We went to the supermarket and stocked up, like a lot of other locals. There are no baked beans left and little bottled water!! I'm not sure what the deal is with baked beans, but it seems to be staple food during a cyclone. If the cyclone brings rain we will probably be cut off from the world so there will be no food for about four days, so we need to make sure we've got stuff especially if we lose power. All we can do is sit back and hope like hell we don't get a direct hit. It's a big state, plenty of coastline for the cyclone to cross - we'll be right.

Per popular request....

This is where I run:

The blue squares at the top left are the salt flats. It looks very green in the photo, but I can assure you there is no green here at the moment!! The little red square in the middle is my run, but I thought it might be interesting to show you the neighbourhood.

This is my run in more detail. Again, I don't know when these photos were taken but I am guessing they are years old. The area in the bottom right which looks kind of brown is all rocky outcrop. You can hike there but it is not an easy hike. It is called the Jaburara Trail if anyone is motivated enough to look it up! There is ancient aboriginal rock art on the Jaburara Trail but the best stuff is located on the Burrup Peninsula (top picture, just above the salt). We've been in the news recently because the Environment Minister Ian Campbell has just approved the destruction of the 20,000 year old rock art to build industry. Unbelievable. Money certainly talks up this neck of the woods. His reasoning - there are no native tribes left who "belong" to the art. (This is because white man massacred the Jaburara people to extinction in the 1800's.) And also because there is a lot of art in the area, so destroying some won't make much difference. (Despite the fact that it is because there is a lot of art that makes it a sacred site!!)

I'm a bit of a rock art advocate but I'm a minority. Industry runs the area up here - and rightly so, they contribute more than 30% of Australia's GDP just from the North West! Still, wanton destruction is wanton destruction. Don't get me started....

Another beautiful day

Another beautiful day in the Pilbara. No wind, cloudless and hot! I did 5km this morning. Makes up for my false start yesterday. I went out yesterday evening for a 3km walk but it was more of a slow stroll because I went with my husband. So it doesn't really count.

I had just started out this morning when I saw a man, clearly drunk, staggering along the path. I was on my warm-up where I walk for 5 minutes. I said "good morning" and went to go around him. He responded by swearing at me. So I jogged to get past him as quickly as possible. He started CHASING ME!! He was swearing and shouting, fairly incoherently. I started sprinting and he sprinted too. He was barefoot, and drunk, so I was never frightened. I knew he was in no condition to last very long, and in the space of about 50m he had fallen over. I kept running as fast as I could to get some distance between us and then I slowed to a walk. The thing is, it upset my warm-up and that put out my whole run! I am NOT a sprinter!! I was puffed for ages!

I don't scare easily and I know how to defend myself, but I would much rather avoid a confrontation in the first place. Still, a bit of excitement for the start of my run.

I had Percy with me, and we were planning on running the same course as Boxing Day. I had the Virtual Partner set and by the time I got to my "starting" point (after my warm-up) I was already 3 minutes in front of the time! But I was puffed, so I elected to do a run/walk along the same route. I kept in front of the time the whole way round, but I was run/walking. I ended up finishing about 5 seconds quicker than when I last ran the course - so Percy gave me a little beep and told me I won.

I'm not sure what the better training is - to run a route without stopping, or to do it in the same time but as a run/walk.

False start

I was due to have a 5km run this morning but I had a bit of a false start. I set out, lasted 6 minutes and needed to go to the toilet, badly. No choice but to turn around and go home. Percy was NOT impressed. I thought about going out again, but it was already late when I left and the sun was up, and hot. I spent the afternoon outside yesterday and I'm feeling a little over-sunned. I didn't want to sun myself any more. Tomorrow is a rest day, so I might run tomorrow instead and have a rest day today. Depending on the heat, I may even go out this evening.

I think my body just wants to remind me about how badly I treated it over Christmas!!!

If I can still do four runs in the week I'll be happy.

Woo Hoo!! Christmas!!

What a great Christmas!!!

I got a Garmin 205! I was not expecting it at all! I had asked for it, and written down all the details but with one thing or another, I just didn't think I would get it. I was so surprised and pleased that I burst into tears!! My husband was concerned he had bought the wrong one! I also got a running hat from my mother (again under instruction) and it is very schmick. A grey and white Nike dri fit cap. I also asked for a running shirt but I was not specific in my details. My husband bought me a Puma t-shirt, bless him. That's a sports shirt isn't it??? It's bright yellow so people will certainly see me coming. Add onto that the running shoes I bought myself and I had a VERY good Christmas!!!

My Garmin is called Percy. When I was in high school I was in a play and my character was Percy. Then I got an award for perserverence so I became Perservering Percy. Now, anytime I think of perserverence I think of Percy, so Percy has become my new training partner.

Percy and I went for a walk yesterday to get to know each other, but I took him for our first run this morning. He is wonderful!!!

This is our run from this morning. I haven't worked out the map thing yet (or maybe there are no maps this far away from civilisation), but I am amazed at the variety of my pace. It feels like I just plod along, but really I am going up and down in speed all the time. I pushed it hard at the end and surprised myself by getting up to 10km/h!!! There's hope for me yet. All up 5km in 42 minutes which includes a 5min/500m walk to warm up. I have set this run as a course so I can use it as a virtual training partner. Very exciting.

I'm still not too worried about time, but I like to know the distance and my pace. So now I know that for me 7.5km/h is OK. Clearly I AM getting better - because I just did 5km (well 4.5km) without stopping. That's pretty cool.

I ate too much food, but I had a wonderful time doing it! Christmas is pretty much the only time of the year where you can get away with it. Back on the straight and narrow for me! Now just to get through the leftovers....

Overcast and windy

Did a slow 7km today. It was great! At one point I felt like I could keep going forever! But then I realised I was probably going slower than walking pace. Ah well. Speed will come. Got to be able to make the distance first, before I can get faster!

It was overcast and windy this morning. Still a lot of flies except they didn't just land on me, they slammed into me! It was unusual enough weather for me to jump onto the BOM website when I got home to check for cyclones! None in the next three days, thankfully. So it's just overcast and windy. Weird. It's still hot but I don't think it will be a scorcher today.

Food, food, food today! I'll try and be good but it's Christmas! We celebrate a Danish Christmas so we eat our Christmas dinner today instead of tomorrow. Long day in the kitchen ahead!

Pleasant run today!

I had a wonderful run this morning. Lots of flies buzzing around but they all seemed to miss my mouth and eyes. 5km in an unknown (and don't care) time. I had one brief walk break about 3.5km when a Micheal Jackson song came onto my MP3. (How did HE get on there????) It coincided with the sun breaking over the hills and the full heat hitting me. Stopped me dead until I flicked onto the next song - aahhhh Dire Straits, give me Mark Knopfler any day.

I really enjoyed my run. I wanted to keep going but it was too hot - had I left half an hour earlier I might have tagged on an extra 2km. I'm motivated to get out there over the next couple of days!

Message to Em - the Pilbara is absolutely beautiful! The harshness of the climate means the landscape is ruggedly spectacular. I don't think you can truly experience it unless you live here. I whinge and complain about the heat, but I genuinely love living here. I wish it was cooler (and perhaps a few less cyclones) but there are not many places where you can see the desert meet the ocean. It's been amazing here and I'm glad to have had the opportunity. I don't know that I would recommend a move here to runners though.....