Getting festive all up in here

It’s been a great week. Ran at lunchtime on Monday, Thursday, and actually managed a long run yesterday.

When I woke up on Saturday morning (late, I might add, although that’s not entirely surprising) I was telling myself that I was only going out there for a ten kilometre stagger. I had a race coming up, so why should I murder myself with a long one? That idea didn’t even last me out the door. If I was really planning on only doing ten kilometres, then why did I take water and nutrition with me?

It was a warm morning, but not too warm heading out at 7:00am. My legs were feeling fine, and the jog out to Lake Ginninderra was fairly uneventful. If I’d have been ten minutes earlier to the lake I would have considered joining the Parkrun crowd, but I didn’t have my barcode with me so I wouldn’t have gotten a time. As it was, I kept pace with the pack up around the lake and when they turned back, I just kept on going. When I got to the skate park at the other end of the lake, I turned back. Fifteen kilometres down, and just another fifteen kilometres back home.

Out and back routes are great for motivation, especially if there aren’t any buses nearby, because you pretty much have to run the whole way back. You don’t realise how hard it’s going to be and chicken out, because you’re not actually going to get tired until at least the halfway point.

Well, things were really starting to fall apart at the halfway point, but I pushed through. It was getting steadily hotter as I went. I was really hating it, and my feet felt weird (probably due to the epic blisters, but I didn’t find those until later). I got my second wind, but it never got fun again. Took a quick bathroom break at the twenty kilometre mark, and caught up with an old work friend who was there to do some fishing. That little respite helped me get back on the road with a little more pep, but like I said, I wasn’t having a super duper time.

I made it home in 3:20:49 for the thirty kilometres. Not a world record or anything, but the fact I managed it at all was a big relief. I’m keenly aware of how close I am to the marathon in January, and how few long long runs I’ve done.

I did make a pretty good discovery, though. I brought these gel chewy energy things along, I think Powerbar makes them, and they’re quite a tasty alternative to gels. One pack lasted me the whole thirty kms. Only thing is that it’s hard to chew when I’m running, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a walk break or two.

Oh, and I even stretched. Just to make sure I could actually walk, let alone run, for the fun run this morning.

So… The Santa fun run. Freaking hilarious. I didn’t know how hard it was to try to crack 30 minutes on a 5 km race while wearing a synthetic material santa suit complete with furry beard. Now I do. It’s pretty hard. We managed it, according to my GPS which tells me the race was actually closer to 5.5 km. Me and my pal Dina ran together, and although I thought I was trying to motivate her to keep running I realise that she was mostly excellent at motivating me to keep running. If I’d have done this run alone, I don’t know if I could have kept the pace up so long. After yesterday’s run, and given the costume, and my screaming headache… Yeah. Definitely an experience, but probably an experience better suited to the northern hemisphere Christmas.

The total menu:

Custard flavoured slime for breakfast.

Kilometres for lunch.

Bruised kidneys for dinner.

Delicious.

I bought this custard-style yoghurt mix, and I had some this morning. Yep. Slime. Tasty. Anyways…

Today I decided I wanted to go for a run at lunchtime. I’ve never actually done that while I’ve been at this job. Gym, maybe. But outdoor running? Nope. I put on my gear and got out on the road, turned around at about 20 minutes and went back the other way. Ended up doing 7 kilometres, which is a pretty good deal for a lunch break. Only issue I had was that I started sweating as soon as I walked back in the building and thanks to my rank running hat (which seriously needs a wash if I ever remember to wash it) I absolutely reeked of sweat. Realised I’d forgotten my towel, so showering was out of the question. I ended up spraying myself with copious amounts of deodorant and went back to work, somewhat more frizzy and afro-fabulous than I had been prior to the break. But it’s all good. I didn’t have anyone to impress, and nowhere important to be.

After my good effort at lunch time, I went to get a massage after work. Made the mistake of telling the girl that I was after ‘pretty hard’ pressure. Ow. I swear, one of these days I’ll stop being such a masochist. It was good fun, but there were eyes-rolling-back, teeth-clenching moments of pure back agony mixed in with the therapeutic stuff. Sitting on my back, going apeshit with her entire arms all at once… We’re talking a direct assault on my kidneys with her bony-ass elbows. Dear god, maybe I should take up wrestling, if this is the kind of shit I do for fun.

She really loosened up my shoulders, so I guess it’s mission achieved.

I didn’t do a long run on the weekend, because I was still feeling shit. Thursday, Friday and to a certain extent Saturday morning. Bad cramps. I guess it happens occasionally. I don’t know how I’m going to swing a long run on Saturday given that I have the Santa fun run on Sunday, but I’ll find a way. Maybe just an easy 20km. That won’t knock me back too far.

Pity party

Wah. I feel like crap. Think I need to curl up in bed and sob. Bad stomach cramps. I get those sometimes. When I stop feeling sorry for myself, I can start feeling proud that I actually managed to get out there this evening and run about seven and a half kilometres (or thereabouts) whilst in horrible pain and feeling like I wanted to stab someone so they could feel my pain too.

I got my santa suit for the Variety Santa Fun Run on Tuesday. Took a bus ride out to Fyshwick to pick it up even though I know I could just get it on the day of the race. I wanted to try it on beforehand, though. Forewarned is forearmed. Forearmed? Like, with forearms. Or with four arms. That’d be useful. I could paint myself gold and run around pretending to be a vengeful god. Then I could stab people.

Uh, what was I saying? I’m really not a psychopath, usually. I’m just distracted.

Anyway, yeah. Santa suit. It’s hard to describe. It’s a thin sort of fabric, so it probably won’t get too hot. It is however immensely huge. The pants (or should I say shorts) have a drawstring so that’s not really a problem, but the jacket is enormous and even with the belt it looks ridiculous. I love it. It’s overwhelmingly tacky and magnificent. If I was in the mood (and I’m definitely not) I would dress up in the suit and dance around until my pants fell down. I did that once, as soon as I got the suit home. It’s a definite mood-lifter. Running in the suit is going to be a real experience. Not this Sunday, but the Sunday after it. I anticipate potent awesomeness.

Run this evening was good. It felt a little slow even though it definitely wasn’t. I’m starting to get a little concerned about my knees, as they’re not recovering from each run as well as they used to. This may be down to the greatly increased weekly mileage. Not sure. I’ll keep my eye on the situation. Maybe I should be considering new shoes after all.

Hi Ho

My week and a bit of holidays is up as of tomorrow morning. I guess it’s back to the rat race with me.

But I don’t want to race rats.

They smell, and they bite, and they carry the bubonic plague. Well, some of them did.

I’m going to be all petty and pouty about this. I know my holiday wasn’t nearly as full-on or hardcore as I intended it to be. I’m fairly sure I’m no more ripped than I was going in. I blame all the cheese. But I did do some cool things.

I ran more kilometres during my holidays than I had done in the entire last month. That’s gotta be worth something. At the very least, surely I’m on track for the marathon in January.

On Friday I did my long run, as I didn’t expect to be able to run on Saturday or Sunday. I was reminded once again that at this level of training, the battle is mostly mental. The physical aspect only kicks in at the end.

I got out of bed with great difficulty, as I was full into holiday mode. But I got up at around 6:15 or thereabouts, the sun shining insistently through my window. I did all the usual pre-run things like dressing (as running naked down the road doesn’t appeal to anyone, let alone myself) and bathroom stuff (my digestive system takes it personally when I wake up early to run, and it isn’t into peaceful protests). By the time I stepped out the door, the sky was grey and full of clouds, and rain was bucketing down. Ever so slightly let down and miserable at the prospect of running in the freezing cold rain - and it was freezing, I checked - in my tank top and stretchy shorts, I turned tail and went back up the stairs.

Part of me wanted to take this as a sign from the gods that I really should go running some other time. Part of me wanted to rip off my stretchy pants and fall back into bed. But I didn’t. I actually spoke to myself at this point. “Get your jacket, get your gloves and get back out there, you stupid bitch.”

And I did. I put on my hoodie and a pair of fingerless gloves (because I’m apparently Rocky Balboa), but no beanie (because I may be Rocky but it’s not the middle of winter). I went out the door and I started running.

About a kilometre later the rain stopped and the sun came out, and it proceeded to be quite warm and rather humid, which was a shame because I had to run for the next three hours or so with a hoodie tied around my waist. This just goes to show that I should have braved the weather to begin with and quit whinging about a little bit of rain.

I was going to aim for twelve and a half kilometres before turning around and going back the other way for a total of 25 kilometres. I got distracted at the halfway point by the prospect of water (as I didn’t bring any water or nutrition along for the run. Probably a bad idea, in hindsight) and I didn’t turn around until my GPS was reading 13 kilometres. Turns out that the GPS was buggy, because I only ended up with a run of 25.5 kilometres. Not that I’m complaining. That’s pretty awesome.

It got pretty hard in the last half because I hadn’t eaten and my muscles were starting to notice, but I kept getting little bursts of adrenaline which kept me going. All in all, I’m quite happy with that long run. It even had a few of those OMG THE WORLD IS AWESOME, I’M AWESOME AND I LOVE EVERYTHING moments, which are always welcome on a long run.

I did another run this morning. Just a simple 10 kilometres. Nothing too flash, but I’m glad I got out there. The real trial is going to be keeping my momentum now that I’m going to be back at work again. I just have to think about Tasmania, and January, and a great big purple floating block of chocolate.

What? That doesn’t even make sense.

Don’t care. PURPLE FLOATING BLOCK OF CHOCOLATE!

I think it’s probably time for bed now. I’m planning to do a little bit of hulking out in the morning before heading to work.

Operation Smoking Hot

I’m currently on a week and a half of leave, as I’ve just finished a major project at work and I’m soon going to start another job. You know what this means? Hooray! Let’s work out!

I don’t have any plans to travel, and I don’t want to waste my time being all lazy. This plan really appealed to me. I get to work out hard every day, and really push my limitations. I’m being full-on masochistic about this. Cardio until my heart rate crashes through the roof, resistance training to collapse. I got myself a copy of the Insanity workout DVDs, and boy are they a good workout. Plyometric stuff just kills me, but it’s gotta be doing me good. By next Tuesday I hope to have achieved some visible results, but I don’t expect anything dramatic. Especially since the original plan also involved a drastic diet, which I decided was a terrible idea. Then I bought cheese. I’m currently eating said cheese with crackers, and drinking a nice chilled Sauvignon Blanc. But my biceps look great, and my abs are pretty fantastic.

On the running front, I’m actually doing quite well at the moment. I had a bad couple of weeks, which got me down (and stopped me from writing sooner), but I did a nice 20km run on Saturday so I know I’m still in the game. The run was fast, easy and verging on fun. There’s a song I’ve been playing recently, guaranteed to deliver that endorphin rush I sorely need at the 18km mark.

Yesterday I ran a slightly slower but still fun 10km. It was a bit on the warm side because I couldn’t drag myself from sleep early enough. 8:00 or thereabouts, but the sweat started pouring almost as soon as I stepped out the door. Yep, definitely need to start waking up earlier. Tomorrow morning I'm going to get up at the crack of dawn and do 20km. Won't be fast and probably won't be easy but I feel the need.

In other news, I signed up for a charity Santa Fun Run at the end of November, the entry fee for which actually includes a santa suit to wear for the run. Awesomeness. I’m really looking forward to this one, if for the exciting new Facebook profile photo alone. I think it’s going to be a great day. Anyone who has a spare $25 and a hankering to do a dash as the jolly fat man should come along.