PowerBar

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.

It sounds a bit like Pump, but has a lot more aerobic stuff in it. I sweated bucketloads, but used a really light weight and everything (including abs) held out well. Tomorrow will tell though. It was a fun class, and one I'd like to make a regular.

The class was all women - yummy mummies with kids in the creche or at school, and the instructor was part of a team which came 7th overall (of complete teams) in last weekend's Trailwalker. One fit lady!

Thursday gym

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!

Street-O @ Tunstall Juntion

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.)

Walk 'n' Weights

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).

Gym Junkie

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!

Park-O @ Darebin Parklands

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

Flat Ball

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'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a lot harder work than I thought it would be. I also thought that I had pretty good coordination - but it turns out that my hand-feet coordination could do with some work! I had trouble bouncing the ball in time to raising my legs in time to the music, lol. I sweated bucketloads, and about half-way through my right quad started hurting just above the knee. Luckily I had a convenient ball to sit on to rest.

It was an interesting class though, and a good one for a Saturday morning when there's no Street-O to follow.

Just Do It

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...

Street-O @ Darebin Parklands Extension

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

Street-O @ Maroondah Triangle

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. :-)

Street-O @ Napier Park

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.

Sunday

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

The Porcupine Pursuit Rogaine

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

Street-O @ Warralong

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)

Street-O @ Heyington Heights

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

Alien Invasion

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.

Street-O @ Camelot Rise

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

SS#1 @ Bunjil Spirit

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

Street-O @ Research

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. :-)

Street-O @ Jells Park

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.

Street-O @ Tirhatuan Park

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%)

Christchurch – Week 2

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

covers the 2-week period in Christchurch

Christchurch – Week 1

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.

I'm back...

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.