Mid-week update

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.

Street-O @ Upway South

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!

Weekend

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

"Two Petes" bike ride

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.

Street-O @ Park Orchards

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.

Street-O @ Smith's Dell

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.

Master Cleanse

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.

Street-O @ Clarinda Circuit

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.

MTB Navigator @ Mirboo North

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

It's Raining Again... la la la

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

Street-O @ St Helena

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.
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walk in the morning around Seville 4.9 km

Street-O @ Bellbird Dell

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.

Myo

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

Street-O @ Endeavour Greens

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...

Sunday wrap

A very lazy day spent doing nothing!

Weight	72.2 kg
Walk	21.8 kms
Run	20.8 kms
Cycle	15.2 kms

MTB-O @ Lysterfield Lake

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)

Friday

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!)

Street-O @ Ruffey Lake

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.
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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.

Street-O @ Studley Park

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).

Tuesday

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.

Street-O @ Notting Hill

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 Cycle

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

the horse trail follows the powerlines, coming through the gap at the top of the picture...

Diet Log

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.

Portsea Twilight

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).

Street-O @ Mt Eagle

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.

Street-O @ Lillydale Lake

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.

Street-O @ Beaumaris Bay

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

Hello 2007

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