26/3/2007: Dear Blogliners (all 15 of you!), please change your subscription to http://mahinui.wordpress.com/. I won't be posting here for much longer...
2/4/07: still 14 subscribers (okay, one of 'em's me) who aren't going to get any more feeds from this blog. Adieu mes amis... xoxox
Tried out the PowerBar class at the gym:
PowerBar: PowerBar is a workout that appeals to everybody. Adjust the bar to work at your own level and feel every muscle work. Never done aerobics? Join in these simple, strong, strength training exercises.
Fine and sunny on the Trail this morning, although it was foggy when I first stepped outside. 4.7 km. A few hours later I headed into the gym to do my weights program. I did everything, including lots of crunches, and the body didn't complain. I upped the weights on the leg press and bicep curls too (they were a bit light).
Now, on an unrelated topic - remember the guy that broke my heart late last year? Well, I saw him in the supermarket a few weeks ago. The only surprising thing about that is that it hadn't happened sooner - after all, Lilydale only has 3 of them. Anyway, I saw him in the gym this morning. He came in, grunted his way through some bicep curls, then grabbed his cycle helmet and walked out.
So, did he see me and not want to see me? Did he really only come in for a 5 minute workout? What the hell goes on inside a guy's head???? And here I was figuring out how to say a nice breezy no-blame no-committment "hello". Ugh, men!
That was fun: cool, dark, with a light drizzle. Perfect running conditions for the first night event of the year. It would have been even better if I'd remembered to put new batteries in my torch! I don't run with a light anyway, but it meant that I had to stop under a streetlamp to read the map. It also meant some good "map memory" training, as I didn't want to stop between controls.
7.1 km in 6:16/km
My right knee felt a bit unstable walking around the carpark before we started, but didn't bother me on the run and it feels okay now.
My abs have settled down, and I can now suck in my gut without it hurting.
The Huntsman spider who lives in my shower caught himself a large fluffy moth for dinner. Yum. (I had stale toast, jam, cheese and ½ banana.)
Those of you who are keeping count will realise that I haven't been out for a morning walk for a while. Well, I did this morning - 9 degrees, foggy breath, and sunny. 5.8 km
My abs are still sore. I can't believe it! I hope I haven't damaged anything. And no, I didn't go to Pilates. After my shower last night I rubbed some deep heat into the muscle area, took some ibuprofen, and stretched out over the ball during the ad breaks. I took another couple of ibuprofen this morning, and they're not as sore now.
Went to the gym and did my complete program - except for the ab crunches. They've got me doing 20 reps of each exercise, then repeat the circuit, so I do 40 of everything. Low weight, no resting. Went well. I finished off with a 1 km jog on the treadmill (8-11 km/hr).
Got my programme sorted at the gym. My abs still hurt from Saturday, and I took it easy on all the weights so I didn’t kill anything else. Rounded it off with 1 km on the treadmill (at 8 km/hr).
Thinking about doing a Beginners Pilates class tonight, as it’s the only Monday night I have off running for a while, and it’s the only Beginners class the gym offers. But if my abs aren’t behaving, then perhaps I shouldn’t…
Besides, then I can go home and watch the Biggest Loser elimination!
The first Sunday Series event for the year. The course setter had devised a devious plan: combine Street-O with Macro and make everyone work harder!
I like to do Course A at weekend events over winter, so the Street-O section had us doing a Scatter course, collecting 17 controls (out of 20) around the streets of Darebin; then come in for a map changeover to do a Macro (1:3500) line course around the park. The park section was shortened because recent rain had made the creek (river!) too unsafe to cross, so we went from control #23 straight to #27 - all the way around the riverbank.
Street: 8.1 km in 6:24/km
Park: 2.2 km in 7:50/km
Total: 10.3 km
I've decided to do each gym class at least once, so I know what they're like. Today's was Fitball.
Fitball: A mixture of aerobic moves using the ball, seated cardiovascular moves & weight workout incorporating core stability.
I Just Did It. I joined the gym.
I called in yesterday and cheekily asked the Hunky Young Thing at the counter if they had any membership specials going. Once HYT got over his shock, he said there was a 5-month special starting next month. I told him that if I could have it now, then I'd join up now. :-)
So I got signed up this morning, and pinched and weighed and measured. They seemed to be a bit unorganised. The 11am appointment turned up 15 minutes late, and then spent 10 minutes getting her kid settled in the creche, so I jumped ahead of her (being booked in for 11:30, and a few minutes early). But that meant there was no time to run through a weights programme, so I'll be doing that on Monday.
I forgot to ask what my bodyfat was; but I passed the exercise thingie on the bike with flying colours. I was meant to get my heartrate up to 141 bpm, on a resistance of 70, but it didn't get much above 115 bpm. So she cranked the resistance up to 90 and then 100, and I still only got to 129 bpm before my 6 minutes was up. Apparently this translates to a "93" of something, which is "above average". I still think the whole thing sucks because I wasn't working at 141 bpm, or even close to it. Never mind, if I get to ride as a higher resistance so my HR actually goes up, then I'll be said to have "improved" under my new programme.
Whatever.
Then I drove over to Active Feet to buy shoelaces and Bodyglide. They'd run out of Bodyglide (like everyone else on the planet), so I bought a new pair of Nimbus VIIIs instead.
My thoughts are with the Oxfam Trailwalkers doing it tough today in 34°C heat...
Slow one tonight - still very hot at 7pm: 31.6°C.
As I set off down the road, a group of young girls asked me what I was doing. As I wasn't exactly hurrying, I stopped to explain. I then headed off to my first control, and came back the same way. They came up to me as I approached them and asked whether I'd found it. So I showed them the map and the punch mark on my control card, and suggested that they walk with me to the next control, just up the road. No, that was a bit scary, so I left them there. Several other young children in the area were also interested/curious in what we were all doing.
I actually quite enjoy interacting with kids in that way. They're likeable, and comfortable talking to adults. It gives me hope for the future... especially as I won't be adding to the population myself.
Walked steadily around most of the rest of the course until I hit #16 and the rough track along the river. It was rapidly getting darker, and when I came to where #19 was marked, I couldn't see it anywhere. The clue was "tree"... like that narrowed it down. Not. It was too dark to spend more than a few minutes looking for it, so I missed out on 5 points. I then had to scramble up a steep bank to get to the road before I lost the light completely!
Got the "sugar shakes" at the top of the bank, and was relieved to get back to the car for my gatorade, and end-of-season supper of fruit cake, Lynn's chocolate brownie slice, and a few grapes. Home via McDonalds because I was still feeling a bit shakey. Nothing like grease, salt, and a Coke to sort things out, hah hah.
6.1 km
I know this map well, having set a course on it twice last year. For tonight, Barry had set a very tight course using only half the map to give us slightly shorter courses, so we could be back before it got dark.
I started off pretty poorly, and struggled for the first 10 minutes or so. Then things started to come together and I picked up the pace a bit. Pete (unknown to me) was following me and trying to hang on. And he said to me afterwards that he noticed when I got my breath because I suddenly put some distance between us!
5.4 km in 6:15/km
Supper provided by the kids at the Scout Hall, followed by end-of-season presentations for the Monday and Wednesday night series. I picked up a first place in Division C4 (ie, towards the bottom) for the Wednesday series. I seem to be going backwards...
I was inspired by the new guy on The Biggest Loser (I was channel surfing, honest!) cranking up the speed on the treadmill to 20 km/hr intervals. It reminded me that I use to like running intervals. Fast. Because I could.
I'm waiting for the Lilydale gym to have another Special, and then I'll join. :-)
Peter G had set a tricky end-of-season run for us - the map was standard, but he'd made some blank bits and stuck a control in the middle. Without knowing exactly where the roads went, there was a bit of guesswork involved in deciding which way to get to it.
And if you didn't read the clue ("very large oak tree"), it was easy to run past the control and end up at a t-intersection you weren't expecting... at which point I ran back through the park and found the oak tree. *sigh* Extra mileage.
After getting messed up by #10, I completely missed #14 (blank spot on brain, not on map). Which all meant that I didn't think I had time for a few others nearby, and ended up coming in nearly 5 minutes early.
But I was actually running okay. I was a bit sluggish to start - still stiff from Saturday's effort - but I warmed up fairly quickly and was running with a high cadence and generally having a good time. Missing controls notwithstanding!
6.9 km in 6:14/km.
Quiet day doing not very much. My hip is a bit sore after yesterday - sort of at the front of the hip joint. I took a Voltarin and tried to stretch it out.
Weekly wrap
| Weight | 71.4 kg |
| Walk | 25.8 kms |
| Run | 13.9 kms |
| Cycle | 0 kms |
Six-hour rogaine with Margi - great course, great weather, great partner, great time!
Neither of us wanted to go out hard: I still had blisters and Margi twisted her ankle last Sunday, so the brief was to "take it easy". We did, and had a really nice wander through the bush, getting all our controls right on target.
My blisters from Thursday were generally well behaved, although the blister patch thing slid off; and Margi's ankle held out, although downhills were painful for her towards the end. No other broken bits or bodily injuries.
Finished off the day with Hash House food: beef pattie, vege pattie, cheese toastie, sweet cordial and several pieces of cake. :-)
19.6 km in 5:27. We got 4th Open Female - not bad for a cruisy day.
Look very closely at control #51!
Terrain:
Link to MB activity:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2258239
Nearly had a disaster tonight. I decided to wear my orthotics in an older pair of Nimbus VIIs, because I tend to land on the inside of my heel when I'm walking (running is okay). As soon as I put them on, though, I knew I'd made a mistake. As I started walking, I could feel the back of the shoe rubbing a hole in my foot - the orthotics raise my heel just enough to get into the rub-zone. I stopped after 20 minutes and took them out, and carried on walking without any liner in the shoe. Much roomier and no rubbing, but the soles of my feet were pretty hot and sore by the time I got back.
I checked the damage when I took the orthotics out. I got them just in time - the blisters on each heel were nearly cooked. Another few minutes and they would have torn, I reckon. I actually thought they had; the skin of the blister was all scrunched up. Now, 2 hours later, they're tender but intact. Hopefully the fluid will have reabsorbed before a planned 6-hour walk on Saturday.
I'm sure the VIIs didn't used to rub with the orthotics. The VIs don't, because I just spent 2 weeks in them in NZ, walking everywhere with the orthotics in. I've never tried them in the VIIIs, because they're still my "good" running shoes. But I won't be trying that again any time soon.
6.2 km in 9:31/km (including 3-min stop)
Always a tricky little map in the area around Scotch College and the Yarra; tonight's was no exception. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to collect 11 controls... and I still didn't get it right, after finding myself on a track alongside the rail line with no way out except forward. I ended up with 12 controls (because I couldn't run past the last one without punching!).
I felt like I was running okay - certainly not setting the world alight, but something better than a trudge. I passed Pete and Margi (they skipped one of my early controls - much better idea than what I did), but was a bit disconcerted to see that Debbie was in ahead of me and looking very fresh and relaxed. Turned out she had only collected 10 controls - whoops, a DNF - and she only realised when no one else from Course C was back yet.
6.3 km in 6:38/km
Had a scheduled appointment with the Myotherapist last night. My legs (and hip) are fine, but my shoulders were a bit achy all day yesterday, and on the 30-minute drive to his clinic my lower back started to ache too. So I got the "office worker's" workover, which included a very painful neck massage, and cupping on my back. I now look like a Spotted Creature from Outer Space.
I'M BACK! Now *that* is the way a run is supposed to feel. woot!
The weather was cool - almost cold - and the map was generally flat with a few gentle rises to mix things up. Every time I checked the Gizmo, my pace was below 5:30, and it felt like I was running well.
7.6 km in 5:54/km
The first State Series Bush Orienteering event was held today, out near Mt Egerton. They've changed all the course allocations around this year, so even though I've gone up (down?) a grade to W40A, I was doing course 2! Only 11 controls, but spaced well apart.
I started well, trotting through the forest easily, until I really stuffed it up at control #6. To get to it meant going down and up a massive gully, so I decided to go around. Well, in hindsight, I didn't go "around" enough, and even though the road and the second gully appeared where they should, I was far too far north of where I should have been. I wasn't "lost", I knew all I had to do was follow the gully south, but man it was a long way!
I did the next control easily enough (by going down and up, following the red line), but screwed up again at control #8. I was heading (so I thought) towards a dirt road, but it never appeared. After blundering around for a while and following a gully (which, in hindsight, was actually another gully), I found a dirt road, but didn't know which one it was or how far along I was. As I wandered slowly trying to relocate, one of the M75s appeared and asked me if I needed help. Yes please! But he thought we were on an east-west track, when the compass clearly said north-south. But his error helped me narrow down mine, so I turned around and trotted off down the road towards the correct gully, and found the control easily.
By this stage I was buggered, and my legs had run out of steam. Plotted and gasped my way around the rest of the course without incident, to finally stagger home.
Course: 2 (which is really a 4)
Course length: 6.8 km
Distance taken: 9.7 km
Time taken: 2:01
Time lost in mis-navigation: ~30 minutes
The first part of the course was nice and runnable like this:
with steep erosion gullies like this:
and killer hills like this:
Just in case you thought this was all a walk in the park.
Weekly wrap
| Weight | 71.5 kg |
| Walk | 11.4 kms |
| Run | 25.6 kms |
| Cycle | 0 kms |
Quiet little walk up and down the hills. 5.5 km in 9:59/km.
Had a 15-minute massage today at work, and nothing hurt too badly. I didn't get him to poke around in my groin though. :-)
God, I am so crap at this. Took the scenic route again, stupidly heading across to control #18 which was UP a hill, when it would have been much easier and shorter to pick off a control closer to the finish.
Came in behind Allan, Debbie, Margi, Pete, and everyone else I should be capable of beating. Ugh.
6.5 km in 6:32/km
Legs are sore from Monday: the groin area hurts big time, almost too sore to stretch out. I stretched the hip flexors before driving home, and they seem a lot better than they were on Monday. I really must get back into yoga, seeing as I'm too undisciplined to stretch out at home.
Quick Hi to Dave, on a flying visit from Sydney. Finally told Mr X that I'm not interested in going out again (one down, one to go... sigh). Big crowd tonight, and caught up with a few more people I haven't seen for weeks.
Got home and actually cooked a proper meal (at 9pm) - defrosted a chicken lump, threw some veges into the wok, and added a handfull of singapore noodles. Not bad for 5 minutes work.
It's really nice to have everyone say, "Hello, Welcome back", when you've been away for a few weeks. Ilse gave me a bill for our Easter accommodation instead! Margi asked me if I wanted to do a rogaine with her, and Mr X said we should have a "chat" again sometime soon (aka, dinner, awkward conversation).
Tonight's run was a long one. I'd intended to just run slowly and consistently to ease back into it. Course B was meant to be 7.5 km, but young Stan obviously used a different piece of string, because I did over 9km, although I *did* manage to stay consistently slow.
| Distance | Avg pace | Avg HR |
| 9.3 km | 6:38 /km | 165 bpm (87%) |
Monday
A day to myself. I love my parents, but I need time out every now and again! Jumped on the bike and pedalled into the city. Parked in Cathedral Square and walked around town. Checked my emails, browsed the secondhand book shops, bought a chicken kebab from a stall in the Square (I look forward to this every visit!), and took the tourist bus on its loop around the CBD.
Back to the bike, with my pack full of food from the supermarket, and rode through Hagley Park again – stopping for food under a tree. Hot for Chch – 32°C. Rode home via the shopping mall (kinda out of the way) to buy Mum a knife that can actually cut tomatoes (she’s been using the stab’n’squish technique for far too long!).
Cycle: 6.7 + 8.0 km
Walk: probably around 8 km – my feet were pretty hot and sore by the time I’d finished
Tuesday
Shopping with Mum, visit to my sister and 2 nieces. Short walk to Briscoes in the afternoon, approx 2.5 km return.
Wednesday
Cycle with Mum and Dad along the river towards Travis Wetland Nature Heritage Park. Parked the bikes (not allowed in the park area) and walked through the wetlands. Had lunch in the bird hide before completing the circuit back to our bikes. Rode home via Horseshoe Lake, also a wetlands area and also out of bounds for bikes, but there was no sign at the entry we used. The boardwalk was definitely not suitable for road bikes, and even my hybrid had trouble!
Cycle: 11.4 + 9.4 km
Walk: 3.9 km
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162919
Thursday
Tramp with Dad to Mt Richardson in the Foot Hills. Long climb up the Mt Richardson track to the trig. The guide book said 3-4 hours, we got to the top in less than 2! After a well-earned breather and photo stop, we headed east along the Blowhard Track (and yes it was blowing hard) where we had lunch under a tree. Then back down via the Loop track where my knees really started complaining.
The area is Beech forest, and in recent years they have become infested with a german wasp – very aggressive, territorial creatures. While I was waiting for Dad to finish getting ready, they were checking me out – hovering around my shoes, and following me when I backed away. It was still too cold for them to be much of a nuisance though. When we got back to the car in mid-afternoon, it was a different story. They were *swarming* around the car and the air was thick with them. We made a mad dash for it, jumped in the car still in our tramping gear, and took off down the road. Dad kept driving all the way into Oxford where we stopped for an ice cream and a comfort stop.
12.9 km (1344m elevation)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162734
My last evening in Christchurch, so I took my parents to dinner. They chose a culinary delight called Denny's! Which actually wasn’t that bad – even the cheap red plonk was drinkable, and we got a free travel mug for spending more than $50.
Friday
Last day – went for a walk to the local supermarket with Mum, and spent the rest of the morning lounging around. Flew home in the afternoon, and missed a meal again – this time dinner.
Melbourne traffic really sucks. And the long term airport parking had all changed around since I left – I was no longer in area B6 (now A-something), so had to find my car from memory. It was only 20m or so when I popped out between a row of cars to where I thought it was! I stopped at McDonalds on the way home to go to the loo, and thought about a burger. But after eating healthily for two weeks, I decided not to tarnish my halo.
Stayed up late – too bloody hot – even though I was 2 hours ahead.
| Weight | 71.5 kg |
| Walk | 35.4 kms |
| Tramp | 26.1 kms |
| Cycle | 59.4 kms |
Monday
Got up at some ungodly hour to drive to the airport, then got hungry enough to eat a stodgy over-priced airport sandwich. Had “breakfast” on the plane, then somehow missed lunch as it was mid-afternoon by the time I got through customs. Ready for bed early even though I had an extra 2 hours up my sleeve.
Tuesday
Hired a decrepit hybrid MTB from Dad’s local bike shop (a one-man outfit on a street corner in the middle of a suburb). Took it home in the back of the car, pumped up the tyres, adjusted the seat height, and took it for a spin along the river. My parents live close to the Avon River, so followed the river upstream as it wound through the city and through Hagley Park, until I found myself in the middle of some school grounds. Whoops! Backtracked, took a shortcut back through the park, and followed the river back home again.
13.0 km
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162735
Sore arse. Swapped the unpadded seat for Dad’s old one – a lovely big wide squishy number.
Wednesday
Walked into town with Mum and went Shopping! I love the tramping/outdoors shops in NZ – they have so much cool stuff. Restrained myself though, and bought a couple of merino tee-shirts from Kathmandu and a leather wallet from Ballantynes. Mum outdid me and bought a pair of Asics trail shoes.
Probably about 6 km.
Cycled up to the local shopping mall to get some personal stuff, and came home along the river. Big squishy old-man bike seat is lovely!
10.9 km
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=747218
Thursday
Tramping with Dad. We’d planned to walk through Montgomery Park Reserve in the Port Hills, and through to Mt Sinclair, but we hadn’t planned on pea-soup FOG!
Walking up through the Reserve was okay, albeit steep and slippery. But when we got to the top of the Reserve, we could barely see the trail markers in the low cloud. We’d left the map in the car (clever) so relied on Dad’s memory of where to go. Turn right at the top and walk up to a boulder knoll.
Visibility was down to about 5m, but eventually we found a trail of yellow markers leading down through some farmland. At one point, it was so foggy that Dad followed a fenceline and I followed an old farm track (keeping in sight of each other – with difficulty), looking for more yellow markers. A few minutes later, we gave up and headed back to the bounder knoll. After a quick stop on a ridge for sustenance, we walked back down through the Reserve.
6.7 km (518m elevation)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162916
We then drove around the road to the end of the trail where we’d hoped to come out, had lunch, then headed back in. By this time the cloud had lifted, and we followed farm trails to the lower edge of Mt Sinclair where we stopped for a breather and some photos.
On the way back, Dad wanted to check out where we’d gone wrong in the morning. I had the GPS in tow, and took waypoints at various locations. About halfway back, we were heading towards a 4-way fence intersection and a low stile, when I suddenly recognised the fence corner – it was where Dad had stopped in the fog in the morning. In the clearer light, we could see the yellow markers heading back up through the farmland to the bounder knoll. We’d been *that* close! But with no yellow markers and no visibility, there was no way we would have known to cross 3 fences and head off in a different direction.
6.5 km (296m elevation)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162917
Friday
Drive to Geraldine to spend the day with my favourite cousin – who is currently living in a caravan on her property while she waits for the local council to get their act together and stamp her building approval. She’s building a rammed-earth house, which should be interesting to watch.
Saturday
Walk into town with Mum and Dad to the Arts Centre craft market. Then walked to the muesum to see two portraits of my great great somethings which have recently been donated to the city. These massive paintings were given to the couple as a wedding gift in 18?? – imagine having a 2x3m painting of yourself hanging in the living room, lol.
Then walked through the Botanic Gardens to a new seat on the family lawn, where we all posed for photos.
Yep, my family is quite famous in Christchurch! Great great grandad was Mayor of Chch (twice), and Premier of NZ. No one else has shown any interest in politics since.
Approx 10 kms
Sunday
Walk to the local shopping mall with Mum, approx 5 kms return. Family commitments in the afternoon – got hot, bored, and ate too much.
Refreshed, revitalised, and a kilo lighter. I've been pretty active over the last 2 weeks, and I'll post an update when I get a chance to write it all up.
Skipped 2 orienteering events over the weekend - a MTB event on Saturday because it was too hot, and the bush Season Opener yesterday because I spent Saturday hibernating instead of in the garden. So yesterday I planted out lots of vege seeds, built a pea frame, threw pea straw everywhere, planted lots of herb seedlings, and installed soak hoses to water them all.
Walk this morning, 5.8 km.
The only good thing about a 40-degree day is that washing dries almost instantly.
I hibernated inside once the temperature got to 30°C, and re-read a couple of "diet" books: "Fat or Fiction" by Donna Aston, and "Fattitude" by Craig Harper. I think perhaps that my currently lethargy is caused by not enough protein in my diet. I'm a pseudo-vegetarian - I don't cook meat at home, so I only have it in takeaways. Yeah - good quality stuff, haha. And I'm not dedicated enough to make sure I get enough non-animal proteins. Anyway, between the 2 books, I've roughed out a menu plan that has 5-6 small meals each day, with no processed crap. Now I just have to be ORGANISED and STICK TO IT. As Harper says, Finish what you start.
I also bought an iron supplement ("Floravital") which I took over the weekend, and will finish off when I get home again.
| Weight | 72.5 kg |
| Walk | 22.9 kms |
| Run | 5.4 kms |
| Cycle | 0 kms |
What's a Gang-Gang?, I hear you ask. One of these... 
(photo from last year)
I walked up to the shops this morning (for bananas), and heard familiar crunching sounds coming from the side of the road. Sure enough, a family of gang-gangs were eating berries on a tree low down by the road - completely unconcerned about me or the traffic that sped by.
Warm, muggy night with thunderclouds overhead and lightning flashes in the distance. But the rain held off during the event, thankfully. I dithered badly at the start, heading up to #16, then changing my mind and heading back down again to #9. It made sense at the time.
Walking well through the rest of the hilly course, but lost a control at #2 - several of us were looking for it under a light pole, when Tina waltzes past and punches it. Oh, that light pole. Onwards and upwards with a last-minute gamble to #18 (a 5-pointer), but didn't make it back in time and lost 3 points for being 41 seconds late.
6.6 km in 9:24/km
As this is my last Street-O for a couple of weeks (I'm going on holiday), I said goodbye to a few people. Geoff asked if I'd been ill - yeah, sorta, I guess. He's a subtle/polite chap, so I put him out of his misery and admitted that yes, my running has been crap. He suggested that it might be low iron levels; apparently one of the A-Course girls had a similar slump in energy a few years ago, and it was traced to a low iron count. An interesting idea, and one that I might follow up when I get back. Along with eating better, and going to the gym, and... what was the other thing?
Also walked this morning, 5.2 km.
Score course tonight so I had 45 minutes to get as many controls as I could. I started off plodding like a lead brick and never really got out of plod mode. After 20 minutes (when I've usually warmed up and running well) I was starting to flag. Plotted a short route back to the finish, on the theory that if I went for #18 near the edge of the map, I was going to die in the arse and be late back. As it was, I came in 5 minutes early, so I probably could have got it.
5.4 km in 6:36/km
My RSVP date last night was okay - the guy is nearly 50yo, but he's an "old 50" rather than a "young 50". He's interesting, but he's an old man already (unlike some very cute 50yo's on CR!). Fit and active (he says), but about 30kg overweight. We went to the same secondary school FFS! Lived within walking distance of each other - twice. Sheesh... I know New Zealand is a small place, but.
See, that's the problem when Kiwis get together - all we talk about is where we lived and who we know!
Spent a couple of hours this morning shovelling the mulch that was delivered yesterday. One of my neighbours came over to see what progress I'd made, and offered his services as a renovation jack-of-all-trades for $20/hr. Hell, yes! Got a sledgehammer?! He's also a building inspector and a qualified carpenter, so I can make good use of him. :-)
There are dozens of dead ants all over my table... charming. But hey, they're dead!
No playing in the garden today - I have some mulch being delivered (for the herb and drystone gardens) but I have an RSVP date tonight, so won't be shovelling anything until tomorrow.
Walk this morning, 5.3 km
There are ants in my study again. But they're all swarming around the ant bait that I put on the desk last time, and they appear to have left the laptop alone. So I'm resisting the urge to squash them while the bait does its work. Die, little bastards, die...
Walk this morning, 5.8 km.
I skipped Street-O again tonight, and spent a couple of hours shovelling a cube of newly-delivered topsoil into the vege garden, topping up the drystone garden, and sculpting the herb patch.
I didn't run or cycle this weekend; instead I read a lot (Snare, by Katherine Kerr) , finished the drystone wall, and prepped the walkway and a herb garden for mulch.
The backs of my legs are really stiff - I guess from all the digging and lifting I've done. I really need to get back into yoga. And weights. And more cardio. And to stop eating takeaways in front of The Biggest Loser. :-)
| Weight | 72.0 kg |
| Walk | 22.9 kms |
| Run | 9.47 kms |
| Cycle | 0 kms |
Power Walk: good energy (see, pizza works!), striding up the hills with no problems; even had time for a last-minute dash to #4.
6.8 km in 8:56/km
I'm tempted to go for a run tomorrow morning "just to see"... but that wouldn't be giving myself a week off now, would it.
I didn't go to Street-O last night; instead I curled up in front of The Biggest Loser with pizza and FOUR chocolate easter eggs.
Walk this morning, 5.1 km. Feeling slightly more energetic.
Scheduled appointment with the Myo last night. The body is looking good (his words!). We discussed my meltdown on Monday, and decided it was either diet or a virus. I'm going with the virus theory as I certainly consume enough calories!
We decided that I should take a week off running, and then to design a program which included weights and yoga (I told him about my gym idea too). "Program?" Hah... yeah, I've heard of those. Anyway, I'm going to leave it until I get back from my holiday later this month.
Walk this morning - 5.8 km. I wasn't working very fast but I felt weary once I got back home. Not sure what to do about tonight's Street-O yet.
Complete crap. I made it though maybe the first 5 km, then suffered a meltdown. No energy; sweating buckets; and couldn't run for more than 500m before gasping to a halt. WeatherZone tells me it was 27 degrees in Mulgrave, but still...
9.5 km in 6:53/km
I'm wondering if I need a break from running, or whether I need to do more other stuff. I was flicking through my running log recently (the exercise book, not the blog) adding up previous year's mileages, and couldn't help but notice that I used to do Pump and Yoga classes, and I was running well. Coincidence?
The 2-month Special at the local Lilydale gym has long since expired, but it's still a cheap gym. I picked up a class timetable today, and there are classes I could do at 10:45 every morning. Hmmm, work from home until then, take a class, then head into the office. Do-able, I think. I'd be there with all the yummy mummies, judging by the hoard of 4WD monsters in the carpark.
My house has been overrun by ants. They appear in the kitchen whenever I'm a bit slack in keeping the bench clear. Fair enough, I suppose. I have laid out more ant baits than I can count, and I squash the little bastards whenever I see one.
The other day, there was a trail of them marching across the bathroom window sill. So I drowned them.
And now, they're in the office - INSIDE my laptop! As I start to type, they come scurrying out from somewhere beneath the keyboard. I've squashed about a hundred in just a few minutes. I watched one run round and round the serial port at the back, and I can see them running around under the keys. It's not like it's cold or anything, so what's the interest in my computer FFS?! (and no, I've never spilt Coke on the keyboard)
Apart from the Ant Wars, I had a quiet weekend. I had one of my headaches on Friday which I kept at bay with drugs. It was no better on Saturday, and without the drugs I felt quite nauseous and dizzy just moving around. After attempting to sweat it out by shovelling mulch for an hour, I retired inside, and alternated between snoozing on the bed and the beanbag.
I assumed it might have been dehydration from Thursday's hot run, especially as my throat was constantly dry and whatever I drank just passed straight through, barely touching the sides. (skip to the next paragraph if you don't want to read about bodily functions...) But late Saturday evening, I passed a particularly vile bowel motion. Really black and smelling acrid and poisonous. About 10 minutes later the headache was gone.
So I don't know if it was something I ate recently, or something detoxing itself from my body. Either way, better out than in, and I'm just relieved to get my head back.
I was alert enough on Sunday to start a drystone wall along the east fence. The bottom of the fence is about 2 ft higher than my ground level where it runs along the house, and there's an ugly clay bank making up the difference. I want to put various mint plants in there, and it needs something to hold the dirt in. After pricing up various "professional" options, I decided to DIY it and recycle the rocks that have been accumulating in a pile at the bottom of the garden. I got about half done before the heat sent me inside.
| Weight | 71.7 kgs |
| Walk | 0 kms |
| Run | 12.9 kms |
| Cycle | 0 kms |
Another hilly run – seems to be the theme this week. I decided to run tonight, instead of walking, as I missed my run last night. I had many second thoughts on the way around, but managed to run a fair chunk of it – giving my quads another thrashing on the downhills. Uphills were walked/climbed, accompanied by gasping and silent cursing.
David had set an interesting course on this map with a tight cluster of controls in the park areas and making good use of the myriad of walkways in the area. The rough track from #8 to #14 was a real killer. Thanks David! *waves*
5.5 km
And if I’d read the map a bit better (twice) I could have saved myself some contours and got back earlier. Never mind – hopefully there’ll be some flat areas in the schedule next week.
edit: I got last!! oh dear...
I am SO SORE after Monday. At least, I'm assuming that it's from running downhills on Monday. It might be DOMS from digging on Saturday and Sunday, or VDOMS from Friday. But my quads really hurt. It hurts to get up from my chair, it hurts walking up the gentle hill from the carpark, and the muscle is really tight.
I'm not running tonight as I'm setting the Street-O course in Mooroolbark (Kevin, do you dare?!). Will see what they're like tomorrow - I might run instead of my usual powerwalk.
Hilly! I had no expectations for this run - it's a very hilly area, and my running seems to be pretty crap at the moment. Not to mention all the digging/shovelling that I've done over the weekend.
I ran all the downhills.
I even ran some of the uphills.
And it felt okay.
7.4 km in a horrendously low average pace. :p
And in girly news, I was so sore across my shoulders yesterday that it hurt to wear a bra! So I'm wearing a strapless number that leaves my shoulders free. And a very soft t-shirt. Ooowwowww!
Spent most of the weekend, starting Friday evening, reconfiguring part of my garden. Too sore and bruised (and clean, after a shower) to go mountainbiking on Saturday evening, but went down anyway to help out and get a free feed(!). Now even more sore and bruised and sunburnt - but the garden is done. Just need to buy some more soil to top up the beds.
| Weight | 72.1 kgs |
| Walk | 17.4 kms |
| Run | 15.5 kms |
| Cycle | 35.0 kms |
Debbie had organised a group of us from our orienteering club for a bike ride called "The Two Petes" - start at Peter D's place, ride along the Dandenong Creek Track to Peter Y's for elevenses, then back along Blind Creek Track to Peter D's for BBQ lunch and a swim.
With a big mix of bikes and abilities, it was a very quiet, sedate ride along the mostly flat trails. The weather was kind (warm and sunny), and the trails weren't too crowded.
35 km in 2:08 riding time.
This is great - because I have no idea where we were at the time!
Got home in the late afternoon and headed into the garden to dig a new vege patch - I'm expanding the current 4.8m2 garden to just over 17m2. I got a pile of VERY HEAVY red gum sleepers delivered yesterday, and I need to shove dirt and mulch out of the way before rearranging them into a different layout.
Nice cool evening, and I had a nice, moderately-paced walk through "The 100 Acres" park and a few of the surrounding streets. Didn't get lost, although there were lots who got "misplaced" in the park! Beat Debbie. Yay! Payback for her beating me yesterday. :-)
6.0 km in 10:06/km
BBQ afterwards to celebrate Australia Day - snags, vegemite sandwiches, anzac biscuits, and hamburgers which were meant to be in the shape of Australia but just looked like regular brown blobs.
Zero energy. After plodding to the first two controls, I WALKED almost the entire way (uphill) to control #3. I never really got comfortable until about 20 minutes in and found the whole thing rather hard going.
On the second-to-last leg home, I passed JM who was walking and looking at the map. No offence to J, but that meant I had run really slowly! He passed me after we had both punched the last control, and I let him go... until we got into the park with about 200m to go. I started sprinting, passed him, but then couldn't hang on as he started sprinting too. Dammit!. :-)
Totally buggered.
6.8 km in 6:58/km
And then I had Mr X and his friend K hovering around me afterwards. Peter sent Tina over to "rescue" me and we had a very giggly moment with "the girls" (including Pete!) as I explained what was going on with Mr X. Girls can be so cruel...
Anyway, I went to dinner with Mr X afterwards and shared a pizza at Michelangelos. It was... okay, I suppose, although it was a bit awkward. I'm not the least bit interested in him.
I've been lurking on Dirt Diva's blog (fascinating lady), and she mentioned going on The Master Cleanse. I'm a fan of detoxes, and I guess I've been looking for a kick in the arse to get my eating habits back into line. I Googled around and found this site which seems more informative than some of the other hyped-up sites that came up.
As I already had a small supply of ingredients (including a bottle of maple syrup in the pantry in case I felt like making pancakes!), I tried it out on Tuesday morning. It tastes okay. I'd already prepared breakfast (rolled oats soaking in water), but stuck it in the fridge and had it for "dinner". Noodle soup for lunch, so I'm not following the Cleanse strictly. Noodle soup again today, but nothing more solid than noodles so far. Unless Mr X invites me out to dinner tonight. :-)
I finally found a decent supply of lemons this morning (roadside stall outside Coldstream) - it seems ridiculous to pay 60c for an imported USA lemon when the neighbourhood trees are full of them. Time to plant my own, I think... except that I don't actually have long-term plans for my current house. And a small pile of cayenne pepper on the kitchen bench has finally put paid to the march of ants which have invaded my kitchen over the last week.
Still pretty wrecked from yesterday's effort, but plodded around a B Course, taking what seemed like a long time to get around. Long course too - although that was probably user error.
Lots of kids cheering us on at various points around the suburb. One pair of young girls took up the challenge and raced past me, only to run out of steam at the next corner. Heh.
8.7 km in 6:23/km
One of the regular runners who I've been chatting to recently asked me out on a date! *LOL* foolish, foolish man... I said Yes (of course). Now I just have to remember his name before I see him next. :p
Oh, and I killed a possum on the way home. In New Zealand this would be cause for celebration. In Australia, I'm not even allowed to wash the blood off the car.
A four-hour mountainbike orienteering event. The weather was perfect, the ground was VERY WET after heavy rain overnight, and the flies were out in their millions.
We had four hours (from 10am to 2pm) to get as many controls as we could. The map was divided into two halves, with the Finish in the middle between the two. I decided to try and get all the controls in one half of the map only, and to take it easy!
On "Go", everyone took off down the road. I followed more sedately, and as I came around a corner at the bottom of the first hill, I could see everyone else not that far ahead grinding up the other side towards the first control on that half of the map.
The second control offered 3 different route choices: road (boring and fast, but required doubling-back), singletrack (scenic and slow, but direct route to control), and track (somewhere in between, but not as direct). I took the scenic route, and found myself on lovely singletrack which would have been dry and enjoyable yesterday! The puddles were deep and scary, and I wasn't really confident of what I was doing. Slow going. Should have taken the road.
Finally got myself out of that mess and proceded without incident around the next ½ dozen controls. The flies were horrendous, and took away the enjoyment of the day. At any point, I would have about 100 of them swarming around my face, trying to crawl into my mouth and up my nose. Very distracting when you're trying to navigate deep puddles or a tricky path. Very unpleasant.
I had a rest break at the top of a hill about halfway through, and ate a Gel. Flies galore. I'd managed to scratch my leg on something, and the wound was black with flies. Gross. The second photo below is my rest break.
From there, I'd kinda run out of energy. The next few controls went okay, but the grind up to one saw me using "walking gear". The control after that saw me in "walking gear" again, up a forestry road with heavy blue chip gravel. Too hard. I decided at that point to head for home, coming in early. My knees were aching and my energy had evaporated.
I eventually climbed up to the next control, where I promptly headed down the wrong road - which I only realised when I found an "unmapped feature". Not unmapped, haha, just mapped on a different road to the one that I thought I was on. Pedalled wearily onwards towards the finish, missing one final control which was on the road I was meant to be on.
33.4 km in 2:51 cycling time (3:23 total time).
| Weight | 73.5 kg |
| Walk | 16.9 kms |
| Run | 22.8 kms |
| Cycle | 33.4 kms |
Headed out the door on time(!) and into light rain. Did the usual Seville-Killara loop, walking a km at each end and running almost continuously all the way up Victoria Rd and back along the trail.
8.4 km total; run lap: 6.4 km in 7:24/km
Very hilly. Still hot and humid, and glad that I only walk on Thursdays. Did a stupid route (following the crowd instead of reading the map), but did okay, I think. Very hard hot hilly climb from the last control to the finish, and only a few minutes left to do it in.
6.2 km in 9:35/km.
----
walk in the morning around Seville 4.9 km
Cooler weather - nice. Still pretty sweaty though. Started off in plod mode, and speeded up as I warmed up - passing lots of people on the first long uphill. But about halfway around, I got stomach cramps that forced me to a walk. After deciding that I didn't need to find a bush to hide behind, I started running again, but wasn't comfortable for about 10 minutes.
Don't know what that was about, and it's a shame because this is a lovely map to run on.
5.9 km in 6:33/km.
Massive power failure in Melbourne yesterday. I rescheduled to an earlier Myotherapy appointment and headed out the door expecting the worst. Luckily though, only one set of traffic lights was out between Chirnside Park and Tecoma - all of Dorset Road and Burwood Hwy was good. Made it to the clinic with half an hour to spare!
My hip twinge is probably just a muscle strain caused by sitting funny on my Ball at work - I've had hardware problems which means that I have to swivel around between machines, but often I don't swivel (because balls don't "swivel" too well), but leave my legs (and ball) where they and just swivel my top half. So I'll use an office chair for a few days. It's still a bit twingy this morning.
Didn't go for a walk - 27 degrees already, and apparently Melbourne still has power problems. Lucky I live in the sticks, eh?!
And in Blogger news, it appears that I can no longer login to my Google account using my work laptop dialed into the work VPN. Bugger! Net Nanny strikes again. No more "free" posting. :p
Slightly cooler weather which was nice. Running fairly well, or so I thought, although it seemed to take a long time to get around the course. A couple of walking breaks.
8.6 km in 6:17/km
I have a slight groin(?) strain at the top of my right leg. I noticed it this morning whenever I would start walking after sitting for a while, and after the run tonight it was decidedly weak. I've taken a Voltarin and I have a scheduled appointment with the Myotherapist tomorrow, and I REALLY REALLY hope this isn't going to turn into another 4-month hip saga. One was enough...
Awesome fun! The first MTB event of the season, and everything was perfect. I didn't do as badly on the hills as I thought I might after last week's effort - I didn't have to resort to "walking gear" once, but rode up (and down) everything in my path. And the weather was kind.
Lysterfield Lake has an awesome track network for mountainbikes - singletrack winding through the trees, sometimes so closely that you're in danger of clipping a pedal on a tree, or worse. And jumps built into the track, with the hairier ones having a side option for wimps. So cool! I'm still buzzing...
15.2 km (taken off the bike computer) in 1:05 riding time (1:13 total time)
Got out rather late this morning - after 9am - but not because of laziness or inertia! I had a conference call at 8am: too early to go out beforehand, and too late to get out before the day starts to heat up.
A sweaty run/plod to Killara and back along the trail. I passed a woman walking a small dog, and she called out, "hey, didn't I see you on Victoria Street?!". She must have been one of the cars that passed me - hopefully one that went slowly enough not to cover me in dust.
8.3 km in 7:54/km, but that included a walk at each end, a 2-min chat to a neighbour, and a few walking breaks along the trail (getting hot!)
Much cooler tonight, thankfully. A cool change came through during the afternoon, and the temperature had dropped to 23°C by 7pm. Went around for a steady walk, enjoying the cooler weather.
6.3 km in 9:21/km
And an "ah hah" moment. I often can't remember a map I've run on previously until I come around a particular corner or into a particular park, and I recognise something. Today's "ah hah" moment came as I left control #12 and looked uphill to where #20 was. Ah, I thought, I know this bloody hill! What is funny though, is that last time I did this map, exactly a year ago - on Thurs Jan 12th, I was wearing my new Nimbus VIIs. Tonight I was wearing my new Nimbus VIIIs.
----
Didn't sleep very well last night (too hot), and dragged myself out of bed this morning for a plod shortly after 7am. 30 degrees already!! 4.4 km.
Very slow plod; walked about half. Too hot; no energy. 36°C at 7pm.
5.1 km
Started a new pair of shoes - purple Nimbus VIIIs that have been sitting in the cupboard for a few months. Not a very good initiation for them as I was too blah to actually "run".
Didn't go for a walk this morning. I was in a nice warm cocoon and I didn't want to leave it.
What about this mad weather we're having? I have both the oil heater and the evaporative cooler set up in my study - I use the heater in the mornings (6°C) and the cooler in the evenings (30°C).
Too cold to leave the duvet this morning. Eventually got out the door for 6.1 km.
Yesterday, I followed an unknown track down from English St and ended up at a track T-intersection. I took the right turn to head down to the Warburton Trail. Today, I followed it from the Trail end, past the T and down the left path which I hadn't done yesterday. After winding through some rough scrub, I ended up where I started from on English St. I noticed several other paths wandering through the same section of scrub, some leading to (what looks like) a derelict property at the end of the street. Quite fun, but I'd hoped it would go somewhere more substantial.
Course set in and around Monash Uni's Clayton campus on a 1:7500 scale map. Some careful navigation required! I avoided the worst of it by picking a route around the campus, ducking in to get controls, rather than trying to find my way through buildings.
Didn't run particularly well - felt really slow and heavy through the first half, with plenty of walking breaks. Came good on the second half, but it wasn't a very enjoyable 7km.
7.4 km in 6:31/km
Walk this morning: 5.0 km. I've had a very slack few weeks, choosing to sleep in usually until well after 8am. Bliss... especially on those hot hot nights when it doesn't cool off until 5am. I think I also thought that walking at a moderate pace wasn't doing anything for my fitness, so why bother. But it occurred to me over the last few days that I wasn't doing it for my fitness. I was doing it to kick start my body for the day - get my metabolism going, and get... er... other things moving along too.
I'm in detox mode again, but you'll have to read my food blog if you're interested in that. :-)
Vicki: the goal of the diet log is to admit to all the CRAP that I eat. I'm not too worried about quantity - I'll get the quality sorted first.
Short bike ride along my usual running route down Victoria Rd to Killara in the early evening, taking the horse trail to get some offroad practice in before next Saturday.
I discovered two things:
1. I am still a wimp on the downhills;
2. I have zero leg strength on the uphills.
Although I did get up to 52 km/hr on Sunnyside Road - tears streaming from my eyes, unable to see anything! Also pottered around the Killara picnic ground, taking the bike through the tea-tree and down to the creek.
10.0 km
(Next Saturday is the start of the MTB-O summer series. Details here. All welcome.)
Weekly stats:
| Weight | 73.0 kg |
| Walk | 6.7 kms |
| Run | 21.2 kms |
| Cycle | 10.0 kms |
I quite enjoyed (if "enjoyed" is the right word) the discipline of recording what I ate over the last month. But I don't want my food obsession filling up my running log, and I'm pretty sure that you don't want to read about it either.
So I'm starting a Diet Log over at WordPress. And now that the new Blogger allows RSS feeds on its pages, I've linked to it in the sidebar. It would be nice if it showed content, but post titles are good enough, I suppose.
This lets me ramble on about food without boring you, and lets me testdrive Wordpress to see if it's worth swapping over to.
Met up with various Cool Runners (Chilliman, Mr & Mrs Lost Boy, CourtlyLove, Eat'Em, Wendy) before the run. Got passed by all of them in the first few minutes, although I kept CL and the Lost Boys in sight for most of the race. I was carrying my little camera and stopped a few times to take a photo. Other than the photo stops, I ran fairly consistently with only one short walking break.
There was a breeze on top of the hill which cooled us off a bit, as well as blowing my cap off. Low tide was (I think) 8:30pm, so we were running on packed sand on the beach.
6.8 km in 42 minutes.
Same time as last year, but it felt easier. As I told someone after the run: I wasn't pushing it and I wasn't struggling.
Fish & Chips at Sorrento afterwards, followed by an ice cream on the way back to the cars. Home after midnight - a 10-hour trip for a 42-minute run... must be mad.
edit: official time 43:01; 907th overall (out of 1175); 119th in F30-39 (out of 174).
Powerwalking: another hot night, but I started my route along the river path which was in the shade and relatively flat. From there it got hotter and hillier! Nice area.
Saw a snake on the path around the river - ink blue with a green underbelly; making its way across the path in front of us.
6.7 km in 8:59/km
33°C at 7pm.
McDonalds for tea on the way home - a lovely habit that I seem to have gotten into on Thursday nights, as I always drive home along the Eastern Fwy and Maroondah Hwy. It's just there... on the corner.
Hot and Hilly. 28°C. Lots of walking breaks, and a big navigational indecision at control #18. A group of people headed directly across a white area towards #20, but I knew from the last time we did this map that there is a large unclimbable wooden fence along the edge of the white bit. After following the crowd (baa aaa) for a few minutes, I turned around and backtracked towards the lake to follow the path around. Discussions afterwards confirmed that the large wooden fence was still there, but kids had made a goat track through the jungle a little bit further around so they got through.
6.2 km in 6:53/km. Slow going.
This map would normally fall into the "too far" category (60 km away, 60+ min travel time), but for two things: firstly, it wasn't a work day, so I had plenty of time and energy; and secondly, I didn't know where I was going until I was sitting in the car looking at the Street-O schedule, dressed and ready to go. Too late then to decide not to!
Course setter Ian cheerfully told us that low tide was at 7:30, so we had plenty of time to get the ½ dozen controls that he had set along the beach. Hah. There were a lot of hilly bits for a map with no contour lines. The course itself was a bit of a struggle, with a few walking breaks for no reason other than I was stuffed.
8.2 km in 6:26/km
Start the year as you mean to carry on -- went for a run as the clock struck midnight. Seville to Wandin, along the Warby Trail. I got to see (and hear) several sets of fireworks as I jogged along in the moonlight. Pretty cool.
8.6 km
