Numb Bum

Well, I had a productive weekend.

FRIDAY: Pump class after work. First time back since before Christmas - 6 weeks!! Kept to the same weights and managed to survive the class, with only triceps and pecs complaining the next day.

SATURDAY: Run along the Warburton Rail Trail again, west to Mt Evelyn: 16.6 kms (found a shortcut near home). Knees survived! yay! I ran about the same time, allowing for the shorter distance, despite being pain free - I think because I was prepared for the continuous incline to Mt Evelyn, so didn't try and push it, and enjoyed guilt-free walking breaks. Temperature around 22-23 degrees and overcast (last week was 15-17 and sunny).

SUNDAY: woke with a dilemma. The MTB-O (mountainbike orienteering) season starts next weekend, and I haven't put arse to saddle for over 6 months. So I wanted to go for a ride before it got too hot. I also wanted to go to the gym for a pump/yoga combo. The logical solution would be to cycle to the gym, but I'd tried to work out a route earlier. I can get to Lilydale along the Warburton Trail, but from Lilydale to the gym is 5-6km along Maroondah Hwy, and I don't trust Sunday drivers enough to do that. And there's a really big hill in the way!

So I went for a ride. Warburton Trail again, but heading east towards Warburton. I turned around by Launching Place. I knew I'd be going downhill from Seville, and it felt like I was going slightly downhill all the way. Untill I turned around and got some speed up on the way back. I'd love to see a profile of the Trail, because it's really hard to tell in places. 25 kms, and I have sore sit-bones today.

Damn Flies

I really hate it when they try to crawl into your eyes. I really hate it when they try to fly into your ears. And I really really hate it when they fly into your mouth just as you're taking a breath.

I swallowed at least 2 of the buggers last night, and a third had a lucky escape when I coughed it back out onto my map. Charming. NOT.

It was bloody hot last night too. I took the new CamelBak for its first run, and apart from forgetting to suck the air out after I added 1/2 dozen ice cubes, it went well, and I was glad I had it. Wasn't much of a "run" though, more of a slow jog with lots of walking breaks. 7.35 kms.

Planning my year

I've just had a very productive day at work (hah!) creating a 2005 wall planner with all my orienteering events for the year - colour-coded and all. There are not many Sundays left blank, and a fair few Saturdays filled in as well. And (sob!) the Great Ocean Road (half) marathon clashes with the Blodslitet... hmmm, 23kms of torture along windy hilly sealed roads in a stiff sea breeze, or ~20kms of torture in the bush? That's a toughie...

Street-O @ Camelot Rise

It's amazing (silly? pathetic?) how something like having a blog changes your behaviour. I was running along last night mentally cataloging how my body was feeling (right knee still not 100%, slight stitch in left hand side) to report in today's update, when it occurred to me how sad and pathetic I was being - I sound like an old women moaning about all her aches and pains to her friends over a cup of tea and a biscuit.

So... I'd like to report that I had a good run, despite the heat... and my aches and pains. :-) 6.7kms.

EDIT: was chatting to BeanieBum yesterday (27/1) who said she'd seen a bunch of runners in the area, and wondered what it was about. So I've scanned the map we used for anyone who's interested.

Retail therapy

Knees were feeling particularly old and pathetic yesterday, so abandoned plans to dig stuff in the garden, and took them shopping instead. :-)

Bought a small CamelBak to wear on these long runs, because the waist belt I have was annoying me on Saturday by bouncing around and sliding to the left (does that mean my hips swivel in one direction when I run?). It'll also be good to use during the orienteering season when I move up to A-length courses - I could be lost in the bush for a good couple of hours.

Then called into Bunnings on the way home, and bought a deck lounger. Spent the afternoon lounging (resting knees!) with the Sunday paper. Bliss...

Warburton Rail Trail, finally...

After living in Seville for three months, it was about time I checked out the Warburton Rail Trail. It was also about time I did a weekend "long slow run", as I'd long since run out of excuses.

I'd planned to do an out-and-back run: out for 55 minutes, have a 5 minute break, then head back - allowing 60 minutes - for a 2 hour run. So out the gate, down to the trail, and head west towards Wandin.

Very strange running without a map in my hand! What do I do with my arm??!

Felt okay, only after a short while I was struggling and the ticker was clocking up 165 bpm. Looked at the trail a bit closer and IT'S UPHILL! A gradual incidious slope that sucks your energy. I had trouble running slower to keep the HR under 160 (my goal for the run), so had walking breaks every km or so.

Arrived in Mt Evelyn in just over 60 minutes. Had a brief break, but the walking breaks meant that I didn't really need it. Downhill nearly all the way back (yipee!) but knees hurting almost the whole way. My pace was almost slower on the way back because of my knees - a bruising sort of pain at the base of the kneecap, and hard to "run through". Once or twice a knee threatened to give way, and I stopped for some gentle knee bends. Lots of walking breaks too, dammit. Hopefully nothing serious, but writing this now almost 12 hours later, they're still tender.

Home in just over 2 hours, for 17.6 kms.

Two minutes of (misplaced) fame

Street-O run last night - short for a B course at 7.35 km.

Only point of interest was that someone had misread the results from the NZ Carnival and listed me as 2nd in W21AS. A physical impossibility as I only finished 3 events in AS, and they counted the best 4 (of 5). I got 6th, for the record, but only the top four actually finished 4 events.

Stomach cramps

Did a 7 km Street-O run last night. I knew I'd either float or struggle after the orienteering last week, but what I didn't expect was STOMACH CRAMPS. What gives??? I'd had a couple of dry biscuits a couple of hours beforehand, and a large handful of strawberries, grapes, and a plum earlier in the afternoon... hmmm... perhaps that was it. Whatever it was made the run very unpleasant, sort of like a menstrual cramp (sorry guys) where you want to curl over to stop the pain. It lasted maybe 15-20 minutes in the first half of the run. Horrible - hope that never happens again.

Land of the Long White Cloud

I had a fantastic holiday - Christmas with the family, touring with a friend from Christchurch to Auckland, HUNDREDS of photos (thank god for digital), and only three (or was it four) days of sub-optimal weather.

But as this blog is about running, I'll stick to the running, and not bore you with the scenery.

Day 0: 60 min Score event, Woodhill. The course description read "open undulating farmland". Okay, I thought, I can do undulating. Forgetting, of course, the Kiwi art of the understatement...

Picture a hill. No, bigger than that. Bigger. Now add some thick manuka scrub over half of it, and a layer of sand to some of the slopes. "Undulating" my arse... bloody hard work more like! Came in late (63 minutes) after getting seriously snarled up in a very steep sandy slope trying to fight my way through the manuka.

Got a giggle out of some of the kids trying to "surf" the sandunes (these suckers are HUGE) after their event.

Day 1: course W21AS, Stillwater. Should have been warned after Day 0. Course notes read "relatively moderately angled slopes". HAH. Pine forest indispersed with inpenetrable native bush. I finished my course (eventually) in 2 hrs 41 min, completely shattered.

Day 2: course W21AS, Stillwater. DNF'd. F*** this for a joke. After two hours I was still only halfway around, and it still took half an hour to walk back to the finish.

Check out the Gallery in the official website here. The stuff in photo #5 is what killed me, and photo #6 is the "road" - soft squelchy clay up to mid calf. Not much fun.

Day 3: course W21AS, Woodhill. Finished in 2 hrs 4 min. No sand, not much bush, quite a nice run, even though the time wasn't great.

Day 4: course W35A, Waioneke. I don't know what possessed me to run an A course. Something about the Oceanic Championship not having AS courses? I dunno - but I was stuck with it. And I was absolutely NOT going to DNF again. The area is nice to run in: more of those sand dune things - fun to run down, a real killer to crawl back up again - with plenty of open(ish) pine forest. Finished in 3 hours 24 min, and still beat a teammate who took 3 hrs 40min on a shorter course. :-)

Day 5: course W21AS, Waioneke. Yay, 1 hr 22 mins. About bloody time I finished with a respectable time. Same map as Day 4. And if I'd bothered to check my map after the last control I would have come second! (damn those 40 seconds!)

Flew home last night, back at work today...