Long run

I never knew the double pond loop with Aki's Hill both ways measured to be 20k from my front door. I ran a very slow long run today, and the blisters, despite the bodyglide, gave me hell. Admitedly I'm down on a few layers of skin, but really!

I lied about Aki's Hill, it's elevation starts at 612 and ends up at 671, that's nearly 60 meters in elevation gain, phew, however I do agree with the altitude 666, by the time I get that high, and still have some to go, I'm feeling it pretty bad.

The hills were okay, but my jog around Yerabbi was decidedly sluggish. My butt still hurt from the hill repeats yesterday and it really kicked in around 1:40.

This course, with Aki's Hill, would have to be a good indication of the effort required for a half marathon. Today I did it in 2:00:42. Not very fast at all. Head up though, at least I could do it!

and I didn't need the ventolin!

I was doing the right thing

Sitting down to a nice healthy meal full of carbohydrates, then the next minute I was grabbing any object in sight, thankfully it was my water bottle, grabbing the table, heaving myself up, and for some unbeknowst reason threw myself outside into the rain where I stood gasping for a good 5 minutes and getting water down to ease the airways open a bit more.

I hate getting these, sometimes they're only minor, but the ones that I've been getting for last 4 or so months have been pretty severe, to the point where I believe, for around thirty seconds or so, that I really have drawn in my last breath. This of course makes it all the more worse, because panicing just intesifies it. I calmed down when the cold of the rain hit me for some reason, and I was then able to get to the ventolin, which was a whopping 10 meters or so away down the hall in my bedroom.

I don't know if it was the meal that set it off. Therefore I got to throw it out. I have wasted so much food lately that I feel really guilty. I'm also really upset with myself. Hard to explain.

I'm going for a long run tomorrow, if the rain isn't around in the morning. Guess what I'll be carrying?

Aki's Hill at 6am

Bugger that, I had a full post, then deleted it!

So I ran up Aki's Hill (elevation 40 meters, distance 450 meters) 8 times, 6 times with patchwork (twice). I got through it easier, except the final two times, phew!

I didn't bother to get a time with my Garmin.

I got a fleet of bicycles passing me down near the road, there were about 40 of them.

I used bodyglide for the first time, it seemed to work. My feet are still ruined, but the Tarsal Tunnel thing doesn't seem to be a worry anymore.

And I'm really annoyed with the music used at the end of the Ashes - It was stolen from a section of Debussy's Claire De Lune - the arpeggio section if anyone is familiar with it. The composer -probably of a temp track - has got money for ripping Debussy off and putting some drums and airy midi instruments with it, thereby destroying the emotional quality of the music and making it 5th rate.

And I'm really pissed off with myself for deleting that post.

A 5k time trial and pacing training for Luckylegs

This morning was beautiful, cool, and grey. I went for a run. I ran against the Virtual Partner on the Garmin. I know I said I wouldn't get sucked in to naming my Garmin, as that's only what really strange runner type people do. However by the end of the training run the Virtual Partner had taken on some very male characteristics and I began to see similar qualities between it and my ex-boyfriend.

I set out to run a sub 24 5k after my haphazard 5k last week in 25:50, or 25:21 if you don't count the time for the break I took. I gained so much distance on the thing that I decided I was going to have to maintain it, then continually glanced at my wrist to see where he was lurking!

Augh! It was like a horror movie. I could see nothing behind me but trees and a dark cloudy sky, and beside me a seemingly tranquil dark grey lake that lapped gently at the shore. Yet I knew he was there behind me, trailing me all the darn way, and gaining! Noooo! This can't be, I need to run faster!!!

And so I did, covering the distance in 23:08. Almost sub 23! I think I can get back there again too, just you watch and see. Darn break from injury has made me so slow.

A concerned jogger told me later that I need to breathe slower when I'm running. That may be the case.

Later Flashduck and I met up and went to the AIS for a pacing trial for Luckylegs' 800 meter national record attempt. The first time wasn't so bad, I think it was 3:59. Then I did a 4:02 or something that wasn't so well paced, and the final one *sulks* I ran with a 2:05 first lap and a 1:49 second lap, making it 3:54. Umm, not good.

Lots of famous sprinters were there too, and Flashduck seemed to enjoy watching the difference in the way they train. I tried desparately to stay out of their way, since they would have bulldozed me over otherwise. PJ looks in good form to break 10 seconds for the 100.

And me? I'll concentrate on getting my 4 minute 800s to a steady pace.

"Oh no. Not HER again!"

This was the last comment I'd ever have expected to hear from any kid describing me - well, with running anyway! Can't say the same for teaching! However I got it today. And even better, I never would have believed I'd get it on Mount Ainslie. And so I did.

I left on the bus quite early this morning with the intention to run up the blasted thing, only to find out half way along that Mount Ainslie is a blasted hard monster to run up. I forgot about that! By the stairs I felt like being sick yet again, but kept pushing through. 'I can make it, just don't look at the Garmin...'

Almost near the top, just with the road and the final staircase to go, some walkers yelled out to me "How many times have you been up?" And that made me realise I probably looked worse than I should. However I made it up the last set of stairs, a few of them I took two stairs at a time, but my legs began to protest, so I went back to one. I made the top in an all time personal worst: 19:50! :( Admittedly this was the first time I've done the exact Ainslie run up course alone.

But those walkers had given me an idea. I ran down Mount Ainslie (woot! 12 minutes!) running past heaps of walkers, including a mother with 3 tired looking kids.

Then I got to the bottom, took a drink, and rather reluctantly went over to the base of the stairs for the Rugby players' version of the run up...

I've never done the Rugby players' version of the run up before. It's shorter, it's one minute quicker, and it's steeper, or maybe it just seemed that way. It also contained more stairs, yay! I fought hard with my mind 'don't walk, don't walk, don't look at the Garmin, just run, smaller strides, c'mon, c'mon.'

The stairs at the end were the same as the other run up, and I found these this time to be impossible. Yet I did it, inwardly cursing all the way. I got some great comments from everyone who I had just previously passed on the way down. Some come to mind 'Jeepers you're fit' 'Wow, what do you eat?' 'Girlpower! You go girl!' etc, which helped me smile, bite out words of appreciation from between my clenched teeth, and forget the pain.

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect cheer squad.

When I finally ascended the top staircase, this time a very relaxed 1 stair at a time, I grabbed on to the guard rail and just stood there leaning over the spectacular view of Canberra for a good 5 minutes. (I made it in 18:20). Then I took a drink, and ran down again, very aware, but not unbearably, of the blisters on my feet. I ran past the lady with the 3 children, and that's where I got that great comment: "Oh no. Not HER again!"

Brilliant stuff.

I then became very aware of the time, and when the next bus left for home. I ran to Civic, ran straight through the middle of the ground floor of Canberra Centre (for some reason the sale crowds decided to give me room to get through), down the middle of Canberra mall, and to the bus stop. I relaxed for a second, only the airliner bus was there...then my bus went past me.

Heh, then I was running again. Try sprinting after that! Weird thing is I actually could.

I caught the bus, the left foot is fine, both feet are blistered, the adductor is happy, my ITB is happy, and my room is messy. I must go clean it up more. (This is a never ending task of course!)

December 26: The session from hell

Yesterday I ran. I went by JT's ideas again, and found myself cursing her throughout. All I could think of was of how cruel she was. Indeed I did stop the session for a bit when I passed a teacher from the old school, and I walked with her, that gave me the time I needed to catch my breath.

The results were quite evident though. My warm up slow jog was 6:33 pace, my warm down slow jog was at 5:33 pace. Not that that was an aim, it just happened that way.

The Garmin was very useful for this, continually beeping at me when I got lost in my thoughts, bringing me to stop each time, then giving me very little chance to recover by beeping again.

It sounds like speedwork. In a sense it it is, although it doesn't allow for great speed. This was a mean session, and I was aware of the blisters at the end of it.

The left foot can still be felt, and doesn't feel like a rubber band. There is nothing wrong with the ITB. My legs won't move as fast as I like, I keep feeling sick in my stomach after 10 minutes of running, and my lungs are too small for me to do what I want to do.

1. The greatest thing to do is to help another person.

Especially when they are experiencing a great time of need.

So that is the end of the five most important things that I've learnt this year, and this one is just as it is, short, simple, and to the point.

2. You are not your marathon time

This is a great line out of a book that I'm reading and it means soooo much. (Bob Glover again). You might notice I don't list my pbs on my blog, if you're really that interested, you can ask me, and I am proud of them, however, I am not defined by them. And no, I actually don't have a marathon time.

There are far greater people than me out there who are slower, or don't run. There are also people who really are two carrots short of a vegetable patch who are faster and more capable than me. There's also the fact that my times vary according to my level of fitness, health, diet, workload, and therefore while my pbs still stand, I currently can't run those sorts of times.

I was amused with my relay team members comments for the Brindabella Classic. 'You might not want to run with us, we're going to be so slow.' Sure, they ran at a slower speed than me, but that was by far the most fun I had in a race all year! And no, I didn't care anything about their times, because of the start I got I managed to catch up to the eventual female race winner, and over 5k we had a great conversation.

I do not plan to run a marathon in 2007. I don't mind if that means other runners don't think I've got the guts. I already determined in my 10 posts why I shouldn't run a marathon last year, that at this stage in running and plagued with the injuries I have been, I certainly don't have the guts to run a marathon, I also don't have the stupidity either. That will come in time. I'm not ready yet.

(Today I went for my first long run in a while. I ran for 2:06 over the old 4 taps course and Yerabbi Pond extended loop. I stopped and drank where I needed to, I also stopped more often than I really should have, but I got to see a guy catch a fish! I haven't seen that in a long run before around the ponds. I also got to see lots of other runners, most of them guys with their tops off. I slept in so it was getting warm while I was running, and I wanted to take my top off too. :( :( :( Blasted guys, that's an unfair advantage! I forgot how hard the long runs were, I've been tired since, however I'm happy with myself for doing it. The foot is fine, I can feel it! And it doesn't hurt! Still feels a bit like a rubber band though. But I can feel it, I can feel it, I can feel it!:) :) :) )

Finally, I wish a happy and safe Christmas to all my blog readers. :)

3. Some of the greatest people in the world are under the age of 18.

Teenagers and children get a pretty bad wrap. They are often labeled as lazy, lethargic and uncaring. This is only true for a portion of them. My experiences over the last year have taught me that the students that I have taught care more about the conditions of the environment, the disadvantaged people, and are more willing to help others than most older adults.

They have expressed frustration to me about how they are unable to help others in more direct ways, and how annoyed they are at the stupidity of some groups of people who are unwilling to compromise.

They also have probably given me some of the nicest comments this year too, they still notice small things and are happy to mention them, they still believe they can achieve everything, they believe that they were individually placed on the world because only they can change it for the better, and they are very passionate about many things that they do, or situations that concern them.

Quite a few of them have lifted my mood and made me approach my work with more enthusiasm because of their high energy levels. I hope that I can learn from their postive approaches to what they do.

(I went to Customs today, I stopped running at 3k for a drink because I got really hot (31 degrees) and just managed to complete the course, coming in second last with a time of 25:50 (25:21 without the stop). I'm not upset with the run, but I don't feel fit at the moment so I am going to have to do something about this. I gave PRB and Flashduck their Christmas presents and we had a good afternoon together).

Missing a goal by 3 seconds

Thankyou to everyone who posted a comment. I was tempted to delete that post, but now you guys have made it impossible for me to do so. Congratulations, you have made my humiliation, and happiness, permanent.

Today I went to the premises of the new job - I should have been at the old one, but they gave me leave to do this. I got a huge box of stuff to look through, and the unit outlines have already been done! How cool is that! Normally I just come up with something eventually, but this will make my job a trifle easier.

Talking about trifle, I had a healthy lunch, then later went for a run. I did my own run of course, I ended up running a rather disjointed 4k full of pit stops, but it added to the time of 17:28. Not bad! For a few minutes there I was actually running 3:10 pace, I was wondering why I was so puffed and I couldn't get my legs to go any faster. (And no, this was not at the beginning of the run!)

Then I did an 800 meter time trial in preparation to pace Luckylegs in her attempt to break the Australian record that stands at 4 minutes. I was consistent for me, I only got 4 meters ahead, and 3 meters behind, according to the virtual partner. I missed out though at the end due to the one of the very few uphill sections at Yerabbi Pond. I ended up running 4:03.

I will have to one day put this to test on the track. Luckylegs - it may be wise to sprint past me at the end.

Return to Aki's Hill...with a vengeance!

It was at Fitzroy Falls where I got very bad blisters from trying out vaseline. I moved aside to peel my shoes off, and JT came over to me, and asked me how I was. I didn't even know that JT realised I existed since she usually is half way home by the time I finish races. She was impressed by the blisters then she asked me what I was aiming for next.

I told her some silly goal that I'd like to get, but isn't going to be my main focus.

She in turn told me about all of her training methods.

It sounded so good. I could see myself adopting all these different things and then have pbs occur as quickly as they did at the beginning, instead of 3 times a year. I saw myself suddenly becoming faster and stronger and being able to do more and run faster than I thought possible.

There is a great gulf of ocean between talk and reality, and that gulf of ocean is sometimes referred to as training. Unpredictable and huge. And so today I began part of what JT recommended.

I ran to Aki's Hill, ran up it 6 times, then ran home. 1-3 was at stage 1 patchwork, 4-6 was at stage 2. This is meant to improve strength, and endurance.

And I found it, combined with a strong headwind while going up, to be excrutiating. The foot held up well. The rest of me? Heh, mmm, I have a blasted long way to go!

The four minute 800s have not started yet: I'm not on 'holidays' until Thursday, and it looks like some of my holidays are going to be spent working, at a totally different job. Tomorrow, I miss out on wellness day (noooo!) where I was going to walk up Mount Ainslie, go swimming, and do yoga and get paid for it. Instead I am going to my new school for next year and working out some curriculum reading for the holidays. I'm excited about the job still though!

3. Do not blog while drunk

This is not actually an official number of the things I have learned this year, however it is the most recent! Whoa, that's shocking! (And how did Flashduck know I had a couple of cans of raspberry vodka???)

Red and alcohol is a severe no-no for me. Umm, what was I doing blogging when I got home anyway? The previous night I wasn't able to do that...

Anyway, today I reformed myself a little, and managed a late afternoon run after some Christmas shopping. It was the perfect run! I had to drop off a video so that motivated me to 'run' it down to Gungahlin, then as I turned back I decided to check out what is over a far hill in Ngunnawal that's been bothering me for a bit. I wasn't surprised to find that massive hill was there that has been bothering me a lot for the last year: I still have not navigated a way up that thing!

However I was amazed at the extensive paddocks that lay between me and...Sydney. Amaroo is at the end of Canberra, and I really have underestimated what is out here. The only thing is it is so isolated, and very few of the runners who live out here (All-rounder, UltraPhil, Daisy6, and the couple from Geoff's group) actually bother to go looking around. However I did stumble over a stray ironman (according to his shirt) who enthusiastically greeted me as you do in places people don't normally go. Wow this place rocks!

I jogged most of it, but went hard on the uphills, and there were a few! I had good fun doing this, then I got a bit dehydrated and had to return home :( Where I grabbed some water, then ran to the local shop around the corner and finished off my perfect run with an icy pole - an orange one, like I always threaten to do.

62 minutes of good running. Now I just have to complete this register for tomorrow, pass the testing, then prepare for a presentation to other schools for Tuesday...

Now I have to be sober. :(

I got the job!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My computergot annotyed at all theose exclamation markss. However I found this out on Friday , ut was os awesome!!!!! I was scared at tirst cause they rang me up and I thoguht I would be rejected. However it wasn't, And I get to be involved in a whole heap of stuf and I'm aaaareally loking forward to it!!!

I have been able to enjoy all the parties at the mometns cecasuse of this, and I just got back from another one. wWe got to dress up as pirates, I am wearing a black and white striped shirt with a black and silener scaref on my head while my hair is otu - looks cool, and I have a toy gun and a toyu dagger. I've also tride to do my make up -eyes and stuff p- likef Johnny Depps', except I don't look like mhim. Unfortuantley he didn't turn utp at the party but I was hoping. Robnbie didn't either, and he didn't come fo canberra, so ihe's not tso cool after all. IO love Johnny Depp.

Ewww, have headache from yuptypng, must go.

Another interview

Today I went to another interview, it seemed to go generally well, and I wait with held breath for the response. I still seemed not to be as confident as I liked, and I tended to stumble over my words as I spoke on occasion, as well as blanking, augh! However I seemed to make an impression by taking an opera in with me - the second one as I can't find anything other than the original of the first - I think I sent that to the Australian Youth Orchestra and they lost it something like 2 years ago.

Moral of the story is always keep the original, I hope all of the pages are still there, I couldn't be bothered to count them all tonight.

4. The best way to get ahead is to be proactive.

In January this year I was really upest - I didn't have a job. Then in February no relief work came through so I went on the dole. Then I individually applied to every school in the ACT - well, almost every. I made 56 applications in the time frame of a month to get relief work. And I got relief work.

In term 2 one of the schools was faced with a shortage of teaching staff. The pay wasn't good enough to attract anyone: it was less than the dole. I recieved a phone call during a one week relief contract at another school, and was asked to work in this position. I accepted, although hoping I would get another job. I didn't.

Then term 3 and 4 they gave me full time work. I wouldn't have got any work at this school if I hadn't presented an individual application to them.

Running is the same way, if I want to get ahead with my times, I have to initiate different training techniques. This year I shortened my long runs and sped them up.

I hope to continue to be proactive in 2007.

5. Winning is not actually the point of it all

In 2005 I got a bit annoyed by the fact I finished 5th in the Sri Chinmoy Half, after running so well with a 1:49:30 time. Because of separate starts I thought I had finished second, then realised as the prizes were announced that a bunch of people had been too modest about themselves. This I now realise is really very childish and has shown me the reason why I can't run at Vets athletics yet.

This year was another story. I became obsessed with the half marathon distance about this time last year, and with my impossible goal of improving by 9 minutes to break 1:40. I tried so hard at the Western Creek Half and ended up getting a far slower time due to running past water stations and getting dehydrated. That was not a pretty run.

Then came Canberra Half, and I set my sights on 1:40 again, writing split times up my arm, although not really believing I could get it, or a pb. Finishing in 1:41 made the day brilliant - I ran hard, I kept going when the blisters hit, and I ran through a cramp, and set a pb of 8 minutes. Suddenly my impossible goal I was obsessed with didn't seem so unrealistic.

The morning of the 2006 Sri Chinmoy half was interesting. I slept in and had to rush to get to the start, I almost went to sleep through it instead of waking up! The start was cold, it was sub zero and I began in gloves and a jumper. The big difference to last year was that I didn't care about the trophies, I was here for my final half marathon assault for 2006, and my main aim was to get that blasted sub 1:40.

That I did, and because of my will to stay ahead of an older, but very good runner, as well as to hang on the time, I managed to not only go sub 1:40, but run 98:02. I was really elated to make that time, and yeah, that was a great day. This time, unlike the previous year, I ate the pancakes instead of drinking the pancake mixture.

I had seen a really fast runner fly past me towards the end of the run, I had assumed she had overlapped me and so had a few others. When they announced the trophies I was ready to go up when the announced third. The thing is, those faster runners were running a race while the half marathon was on, and she belonged to them. And so I got first place.

Winning was very strange. It's only a small local event and doesn't count for much, and I suddenly realised that it wasn't what made the day so good. Indeed, it did help the day be good, but I was too caught up in breaking that 1:40 barrier. I also realised that winning depends on the luck of the draw, MW, the previous year's winner, ran 8 minutes faster than me, and she didn't show up on the day.

I have also come to realise that winning an event doesn't mean that much as runners peak at different times, and get injured at different times too. Such a great emphasis is placed on winning in sport and now that seems rather silly to me. Achieving a better performance than you thought was possible is so much more fulfilling.

(Today I did not run as I've been starting to get sick, I fell asleep after work instead. Flashduck had a better day today, and Speedygeoff's dinner last night was great!)

The 5 Greatest Things I Have Learnt This Year...

Starts tomorrow! If you're interested that is.

What have I been doing?

-Thursday - a 4 hour choir rehearsal after work
-Friday - I went for a run after work and climbed up Aki's Hill! I mixed walking with running and was out for an hour and a half. The feeling in my foot returned, and has been with me ever since!!!
-Saturday - a 4 and a half hour rehearsal for the choir, a smaller run, and a visit to the Ducky - one of my balloons I'd prepared for her burst meters away from the hospital. I chose green and gold and white balloons for some reason.
-Sunday - Lesson prep and a 2 hour rehearsal with the choir, followed by the performance - which lasted for 3 hours! I was exhausted but filled up on rumballs afterwards.

(For the musically interested, we performed works by Palestrina, Mendlessohn, as well as the German version of Silent Night and a Gregorian Chant as well as a recitative and chorus - I wasn't told who that was by. There was also a more recent work that was difficult but cool, we had a downward leap of a tritone that had us swearing in rehearsal.)

I was asked to sing alto 2 weeks ago because they had 16 or so sopranos and 3 altos. They needed me because I can sight sing. One of the tenors decided to become an alto too. The sopranos were reluctant to give up their beautiful descants to fight to get that F below middle C. I got it!!! And my voice has got lower in the last few days.

Monday - I went to a small department work party, and got many tips from another teacher there for interviews.
Today - I took a tray of mangos home :) and also got a call for an interview for Thursday - say a few prayers for me if you are religiously inclined please as I will need them - then PRB took me to Speedygeoff's Christmas party!

This upcoming week:
Wed: Prep for interview as well as work.
Thurs: Work then interview.
Fri: Friend's 24th birthday party, including a sleepover.
Sat: Friend's 25th birthday party, Pirate themed. I have a toy dagger and a gun to take, do not come near me, I'm dangerous!

Quack

I thought I'd give a quick update: The Duck has survived the operation, she looks bright, she did when we saw her, and she's still telling us off so that's a good sign. She looked like she was in a bit of pain. There's a possibility of her being released today, or she could've been last night. We are yet to find out the truth.

Mixing it up

At Fitzroy Falls JT, an elite endurance athlete in Flashduck's age group, or close to, gave me a whole heap of tips about how to train. I've been itching to try it out for ages. Today I got to do that, but I was no where as grand as I had hoped to be in my visions. Nevermind. It's a beginning.

General rule from ERF's doctor: You can not do speedwork. No intervals whatsoever, no sprinting.

I followed this. To a degree. It depends what you call speed work. I jogged slowly (7mink pace) for 10 minutes to warm up, stretched heaps, then did the JT workout number 1. This turned out to be more difficult than I imagined.

There I was, running into a hot and strong headwind, trying to maintain a good pace with the feeling my lungs were about to burst, I was going to throw up, and a million knves in my right hand side were stabbing me continuously. The original intention was to run at 5mink for 20 mins as a beginning, the reality is I barely made 3k before needing to stop to get my air back, then continue with another sub 5 minute 5k (When I say sub 5 I mean 4:59, I actually did 4k in 19:52, but I'm happy with that).

Then I race walked for 20 minutes, then I jogged slowly for 10 minutes for a warmdown.

Ultimately 20 slow, 20 fast, 20 walk.

Racewalking is the key. Last time I returned from injury I racewalked then, sure my style is not good, but it did me well then and it is doing me well now. I must not underestimate the power of walking, it's pleasant, you attract weird looks from people, and you stretch different muscle groups that don't get enough focus.

ERF's Doc's rule no 2: STRETCH!

...and stregthen. I spent 1/2 an hour doing supplementary exercises and another half hour on stretching. Tonight, just before bed, I will stretch that left foot more, voltarin it, you get the picture...

Good News: No, I haven't got a job yet, however I had constant feeling in my left foot today, although now it really feels like a rubber band is in it. I couldn't feel it before this week so I'm really excited!

Flashduck went into surgery today, I will post what I know of how she is tomorrow.

Harrison Ford...

e.

I live on the border of the suburbs of Harrison and Forde, they are just being built on Mulligan's Flat, which seems to worry me a little, I'd just found out where the entrance to Mulligan's Flat was when they closed it off! Today I went for an exploring run.

I didn't run fast, nor slowly, nor with the Garmin, so I have no idea how far I went. I did discover a bike path I never knew about from Gungahlin to Harrison. It was hot, dusty and windy out there, although flat, I did seem to need water quite quickly though, so next time I do it I need to take water with me.

Black Stump Hill and Old Joe Hill don't look like hills from the car, not really anyway, however on foot they are 4 times the size of Aki's Hill, and from Harrison it's easy to see how they're part of the Majura range that winds around to Black Mountain.

I ran for 1hr and a minute - a bit stupid, however I was never in any pain. The ankle still has a rubber band feeling in it which I don't like, however I can presently feel my foot when I touch it, woohoo, progress!

Noone wants me

It's damn hard to keep on applying for jobs when all you face is rejection after rejection. Everyone else around me seems to always find it an alright experience, they don't try as hard as me, and luck seems to fall their way. I HATE THIS SOOOO MUCH!

I put in another application this afternoon, but I've lost hope now.

swim: 2.3k

Today I swam a bit haphazardly. I did 2 strange laps of warmup, having lots of fun jumping in, then 4 laps of freestyle where I had to stop because my goggles filled with water. My goggles fell apart 700 meters later which saw me stop for a bit to rethread them, then I stopped again at 1700 meters as I needed to, um, get out of the pool, go to the ladies room, and return, although jumping in was fun again. Then I completed it with 400 meters. Hang on. That's 2.4k. But it's not like I did it straight.

Most disturbing of all was a constant feeling of a rubber band in my left foot. It's not fair! I want so desparately to be running!

Gotta remain focused on the 3k straight goal for 2006. C'mon! I can do it!

For my credit I kept going at it anyway.

I met up with Flashduck later, it was good to see her, although she is unwell. She will go into surgery on Wednesday. I'm hoping this all works out for the best.

Stay tuned to the blog, I'm about to do one of those count down things again.

The Luckylegsless

Last night Speedyjenny, Speedygeoff, PRB, Wombatface, Luckylegs and I met up for dinner at an Italian restaurant. There were a few bottles of wine brought along, I myself stayed sober (I'm not a wine drinker), however the same cannot be said for the coolrunning queen herself.

Since we walked to the restaurant from where Luckylegs was staying, we had to walk back, and she made all sorts of cheerful and loud sounds for no apparent reason on our way back. With Wombatface holding one side of her and PRB the other, they somehow got her across the road in one piece. I grabbed her handbag, because she looked like she was going to lose it.

We made our way back after much discussion about the high mileage of Wombatface and Speedygeoff, and Luckylegs' next attempt at the Australian record.

Yeah, lol, Luckylegless is a bit of a cheap drunk, it only took her '2' drinks, or so she says... It may just be that fast metabolism runners build up. ;)

Luckylegs rocks the AIS

We had a great night last night. PRB took me from school to Vets where we went to cheer LL on in her 1500 meter event. I went a tad hyperactive, and was cheering everyone I knew with great enthusiasm - I knew every second person and that's where the trouble was.

Instead of staying in the stands I went to watch the high jump, mostly competed by 30 - 40 year old guys, which ended up being a great place to hang out. Everytime LL ran past, I would yell at her to keep ahead of NB from Customs. He's a real danger and kept threatening to pass her.

I don't know all the gory details, I just know she looked strong and would have beat NB if she could have just held on a few more meters... it was close! She ended up running 8.12 or 8.06 or something over 8, and broke her track pb, and set an ACT record.

I decided to do the walk - the only event I'm allowed to do. I'll go into more detail about that later.

Go Luckylegs, I'm so happy that I know her, she is such a great inspiration!

Mission: Impossible

My mission impossible anyway.

A bunch of us are still really upset over the death of a runner in the Triple Tri on the weekend. We do not know the identity, we only know it was in the run leg later in the day - the weather was warm - and that it was a male.

We're still waiting until everyone who needs to be has been notified before the rest of us are.

My Mission Impossible today paled somewhat in comparison to all that, but it was still daunting to me when I woke up this morning.

My mission: Borrow a car - Achieved.
Get to school before 7 - Achieved.
Do as many report corrections as possible - sort of achieved.
Teach for 3 lessons straight- Achieved.
Handle a lunch time detention - Achieved.
Organise the transport and first aid kit - Achieved.
Organise the paperwork - Achieved.
Eat lunch - Failed. What lunch?
Take students on excursion - Achieved.
Have students perform - Achieved with good success, although there was a double booking with a primary school. We joined forces and sung together.
Return students - Achieved.
Orgnaise future report rewrites - Heh, sort of achieved.
Get to interview 1 in Woden at 4:15 - Achieved but not by much. I had 30 seconds spare.
Get to interview 2 in Belconnen at 5:30pm - Achieved but not by full intention, peak hour traffic saw me arrive at 5:40...whoops!
Get home without crashing car - Achieved, despite those darn P plate drivers. I tell you, those P platers should be banned...

All of them except me of course. :)

Overall result: I don't really know if all this stress has had a positive outcome, now I have to sit and wait. Ooh, and adjust reports too, that gives me something to pass the time with!


Start to run again: Yesterday 5.45k or so in 33:40 or so - the stitches were bad, I've forgotten how to run.
Job for next year: Mission still in progress and in full swing.

I ended up not swimming after having another asthmatic thing this afternoon and passing out for a few seconds. I think a combination of sleep deprivation, heat, and the dust from the new subrubs they're building hit me all at once.

I feel so unfit and stuff at the moment, but I don't really feel like I could do that much anyway.

Triple Tri

I woke up at 4:30 am, and complained to myself 'I don't want to go to work!!!'

Then I realised I wasn't going to work. Wow, I was up pretty quick then. (ie, only 5 minutes of dozing).

I drove down to the start of the Triple Tri, or so I thought. I went to the bike transition instead, and so did PRB! We met up, then headed over to the swim start where they were about to swim. I saw a couple of good runner/triathlets there that I know, before PRB left to go on a tour of the whole entire event. (Something like 1.5k swim, 20k bike, 20k run, 3.5k swim, 40k bike, 12k run, 2k swim, 30k bike, 9k run - and it's really hilly, and yes - people do the whole thing themselves, as one of my kayaking friends is. Heh, phew).

I was going to do the 20k run. N/m.

I watched all of the swimmers come out of the lake afterwards, it was all very exciting.

And now I am contemplating going for a swim, before coming home to fill out more job applications and doing more report checking. The swim at least should be fun.

Over it

Well, almost. Today, and most of last night I worked without much break, and luckily they opened the school for us this morning and gave us a pizza lunch that was much appreciated, lol, I can see Flashduck squriming now.

I completed the worst part: the initial writing, now for the rest of the weekend I'll complete comments on the assignments that were handed in late, and revise the reports for things like mispellings. There are many names that I am not familiar with - I know the student but I have never seen the name written before, and now I have to make sure that they are all correct.

I really feel a little bit like Santa Clause.

Throughout this week we will be given back our reports by the co-ordinators and will have to make changes.

Ths week will not be easy due to my first ever excursion that I have organised and the fact that most of the students on it have gone into hyper mode since they are year 10s and have just realised that they get to leave school before everyone else.

I am starting to get some goals for next year as well, not much at all really, but something.

My goal for this year still remains. To swim 3k by Christmas. I like having it there.

I am really hyperactive at the moment, this week I have got 4 hours of sleep a night - 2 hours less than usual, and last night I managed to fit 2 and half hours in. I tried to sleep before but it just wouldn't work, I've got too much energy. I am hoping to get a good 6 hour sleep tonight before meeting PRB at 5.30 am tomorrow for the start of the Triple Tri - even though I'm not competing.

Yang and Yin

Heaps of full on stress today, complete with more stress, and 80 or so happy students who managed to keep me sane while I marked some assessments v-e-r-y slowly.

Then one teacher came to my aide! The absolute gem takes year 12, which means she's no longer having to teach them now, and so she volunteered to assess 10 of the year 10 essay exams - about 2 and a half hours work. This doesn't make my work disappear, but it relieves some of the pressure! Another teacher did the year 10 spreadsheet for me for that class.

Another year 9/10 composite spread sheet needs to be done by me, another again for the 7s, and the 8s, and year 9s. Ummm, yeah, it's going.

I completed the 8s assessment today, and unfortunatley I still have to complete the year 9s as well. Plus the outstanding assessment items from students who have been away or lazy. Augh! And no, I can't begin the reports until I've done that and the spreadsheets.

And on top of it I've got job applications.

Today was bad, I had a window of 20 minutes to get my job application from work to the mail due to the ridiculous closing hours. I don't have a car, and I had a 15 minute walk with a 5 minute bus trip to get there. The fact that I'm carrying half my body weight in assessment also does not speed things up. I managed to make it 8 minutes + 5 + 3 minutes, making the post office by 4 minutes before closing time.

As I wrote the address I became aware of a weird sensation on my head. I reached up and grabbed a weird feeling object and threw it on the table near where my jumper was. I saw nothing there and I had to keep writing. I got it in! Phew! That's worse than my first sub 50 10k! Then I went to pick up my jumper...

And noticed a long black leg sticking out from under it.

I shook it free of the jumper, and I seemed rather calm about having moments before had a big, black, bulbous spider in my hair.

I walked to the bus stop, accutely aware this time of the weight I was carrying, and I got a face full of dirt from a semi trailer. I couldn't see my bus number and missed it since my eyes refused to open in time. I managed to catch the next one, and after that I got a call from ERF offering to give me a lift to the AIS since she saw me on the way there from work and was near by.

I wasn't going that way, but it was nice of her. :) Thanks ERF.

I got home to see a big gathering up the driveway of some uni students partying. Grr, why is it that that's the last thing you want to see. I had mail. I went home, opened it, throwing the bags down. And then that finally did it. The mail was one of those rejection letters.

I sat down and cried. I am having to put so much effort in to applying for jobs at the moment and I have no idea of where or if I will be working next year. If you've been there, you know how it is. I'm a good teacher, I teach year 7s in a way that they can't forget because I get them involved, I make them feel important and part of the classroom and I get them also to remember things through humour etc.

I always feel like I'm rotten at what I do when I get rejected. And I always get rejected. The job I have now I landed as a fluke after a really hard slog of applying to every school in the district separately - even when they weren't advertising. I only got this job because I had no competition for it.

The phone rang, and with the way my afternoon was going I didn't want to answer it. I was slow to get up yet answered bravely. I could handle another rejection, I could handle it without showing my feelings anyway.

It wasn't a rejection. It was the PRB. Suddenly everything became good again. It's weird how the smallest things can make you feel so much better sometimes. He had found me a replacement for the Triple Tri 20k 2 peak leg. I was very happy about this, since Emma had already found a team (strange about that, lol)and this means I can concentrate more on what I need to.

Now instead of waffling anymore I must finish the year 9 assessments and do what I can with the spreadsheets, and dare I say it... *puts head in hands for a moment and sighs* start on the next job application.

I don't want any pbs anymore, I just want a job for next year.

The mole, the foot, and the triple triathlon.

What a day! Thankyou for your well wishes, they helped me leave my wimpy side alone and get on with it.

The Mole

I entered the Professor's office very early, and felt like running very fast in the opposite direction. He spent a few minutes of careful examination, then put all my nervous build up for a local anaesthetic aside. "Nah - It doesn't need exicision.' He explained I have a non-malignant blue dermus nevus, that the discolouring was normal with ageing (I'm not as young as I used to be) and then gave me a card to tell if it was growing. If it goes beyond 4mm it will be taken out, but he believed that wouldn't be necessary, provided I didn't get it burnt.

He then did a full body scan - there appears to be little to worry about.

So I left the surgery with my hand in tact for report writing, and breathing a sigh of relief.

The Foot

Calvary Clinic is for lots of different people with lots of different problems. I was happy to only be using the Sports Doctor - I never knew so many things could happen to people!

The sports doctor had been told about me by ERF, and examined my feet. When she grabbed a firm hold of an area to the side of the inside ankle bone, I, ummm, yelped. (Noooo, girly girl!) She got confused and told me that shouldn't have hurt. I told her her grip was too strong. She then grabbed my other ankle in the same spot with the same pressure. I waited to yelp again...and didn't. She gave me a 'I told you so' look as she continued to examine foot movement and the area that was numb.

I have tarsal tunnel syndrome with bruising along the nerves from trauma (ie, trying to stop a bike while it's going too fast with a foot). Treatment for this involves regular icing, lots and lots of voltarin, including around the part where I yelped (which I ignored before) and wearing orthotics ALL the time - that means for work as well.

The good news is I am allowed to run. The bad news is I can't do speedwork until it's better. Even more bad news is I won't run until I get the marking and reports complete. How am I going to get it all done??? :(

If my foot is still numb mid December I have to go back for ultrasound.

The Triple Triathlon

I am currently on the list to run the first leg of the Triple Tri on Sunday, which includes climbing Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie. This may not be the smartest thing in the world since the foot is not 100%, I'm not meant to do anything 'too weird' on it, and I've had a lousy preparation with no running and very little swimming. The team will go on, if I have to run it I will, but currently a certain female mountain runner is desparately looking to run the first leg of the Triple Tri, so I have offered my position to her.

If she declines, I will run.

Play as if you'll never play again...

I have a million things to do, work is really really heavy at the moment. And so I spent the last hour playing piano.

The pieces I played:
Some of my favourites from movies
Ravel's piano concerto in G including the trill cadenza
Chopin's Polonaise in E flat
Debussy's Sails prelude
and I completed it with one of my favouites - a Christopher Norton song called Island Song that I played in my grade 3 piano exam.

Why?

Becuase tomorrow chances are pretty high I am going to have a mole removed from my right hand, and I have no idea when I will be able to play the piano again.

Then after that I'm going to have the foot looked at.

This has not been my week, and I know it isn't meant to be. On Saturday I had three fillings done - each of them were old fillings that were around 15 years old (I had really bad teeth when I was young). One of them was a root canal - I still have bruising around the gum now from that.

Nevermind, get it done.

Flashduck is going to New Zealand tomorrow, I just found out from Flashdrake a moment ago.

Today I did my first assist (World Long Tri Champs)

There is something about kayaking.

I've seen sweeping camera shots of swimmers before. The cameras are behind the swimmers, then on the swimmers, then past the swimmers. It's really weird when you've got a similar view. The swimmers are in front, beside, then behind you. In front of you is a glassy lake that a sun is glinting off, making it a little hard to see.

The silence from the lake is astounding. When you go nearer the shore you can hear music being pumped through loud speakers, and the colour on the shore suddenly becomes people. In a sense, you want to turn around and go back to the small bay you left, with its solitude and weeping willows. In another sense you're aware that lots of eyes are on you, because the swimmers haven't started yet. For a few seconds, you're the centre of attention.

Then the swimmers are off and you have to navigate around where you think they're going to go, at the same time you're scanning, particularly the group behind the fast ones, the group that have lots of arms above the surface but nothing below who suddenly decide to breastroke. As they pass, they go near the sun, and now if they're in trouble, there's nothing you can do because you can't see.

Quite early on I saw an arm go up. I immediately looked around for the more experienced kayakers, but as it turns out, I was it. I sped towards the swimmers, used my paddle to brake as I drew near, then turned and my kayak suddenly lurched badly to one side as the swimmer grabbed on.

I compensated by leaning the other direction and putting the paddle in that side, while grabbing her with one arm under her arm pit to support her hold while she gasped for air.

I could see all the mix of emotions in her face as she desparately tried to breathe while holding back sobs - I have been there myself during runs, and it's not easy. The others have left her well behind and she is probably fully aware of this. Still, I'm not going to let go of her until she's breathing normally.

I asked her if she needed to be pulled into shore, but after some thinking she asked me to help her take off her wetsuit. That is not an easy thing to do, and she did most of it, except the zip, the shoulders, the lower legs etc, then suddenly she was off again, and I had gained a wet suit.

I paddled to the shore, and found the spectators were much higher up than I anticipated. They helped me by catching the wetsuit as I threw it up, to return it to the transition area, then I was turning around and heading out again.

I stopped a couple of people from swimming too far down the Molonglo but not much else.

I ended up kayaking around 6k on a beautiful morning before the sun was too high with a great bunch of people. There was no competing, no trying for best times or anything, yet my new friends congratulated me on my first assist and we all shared stories of vomiting, cramping and wayward swimmers as we moved the boats back. I've not had so much fun for a long time.

Afterwards I went home to mark over 60 assessment items. And I'm still not done. Reports have not been started yet.

But I would not have missed out on today for the world.

Climbing mountains

Today the two and one peaks were on, my sense of humour. However I am not running until I get the all clear, and I still can't feel my foot.

Instead I am climbing a mountain of marking, and doing a pretty slow slog at that, don't think I'm above the base slope yet! Oh my goodness, the stress in on now!

(I'm no longer floating, I'm in that really tough sprint part now).

And finally, I have been confirmed to be a helper tomorrow in the world long distance triathlon championships. As a cup holder? No. As a trasition area person? No. As a support boat. I will be out there at a really far too early hour on Lake Burleigh Griffin to make sure that any swimmers cramping don't drown, and that they stay on course. How cool is that?

I haven't kayaked since last summer, and it is another thing I really love doing that I can do at the moment. Well. Sort of.

We're meeting at the Carillion well before the race starts, we're carrying the boats over to enter the lake there - we can't where the triathlon starts because it's rocky and we could damage our rudders. We get a full race breifing then paddle our way over around to either side of the swimmers, then we stay there until they start, and we then travel along side them.

Then we come in before it gets too warm. It's going to be 30 degrees tomorrow, however we shall be back and washing the boats (yay, the best bit...) at around 9.

All-rounder sighting?

I'm not 100% sure, but I think she was on my bus this morning, it certainly looked like her, although when I told her to have a nice day, I think she might have thought I was talking to the bus driver, or not have heard me at all. She seemed to be reading something.

Ah the plot thickens. All-rounder has not been on my bus before so this was all a very exciting change to routine.

I thought I had lost a student's assignment today, and had to put up with her, ummmm, reaction to that. Then I found hers later that afternoon stapled to another student's assignment who had had a remarkable improvement all of a sudden. I thought it strange for a B student to become a D student and a D student to become an A student - too weird. Huh! At last the problem is unravelled, however not without me congratulating the A student for a remarkable improvement the other day, just to find out....oh dear.

I was rejected from the job interview the other day that I had to get cover for to attend. The thing that annoys me the most is that they gave it to someone inside the school again, this is not the first time they've done it. They're now again advertising for a similar position which has just made me pretty upset.

I'm now going for a pretty strange teaching job with limited hours on the other side of Canberra. Got to remain hopeful right?

Got to keep marking this mess too. Just keep swimming...

Float

Float is an interesting term. I have only ever heard it mentioned by Speedygeoff and ERF when its meaning is linked to running. 'Float' is what you do somewhere in an interval set, it's like a recovery, you're not really going hard but you have just gone hard and you are about to go hard again, and it's not slow, it doesn't quite allow your breath to return to normal or your heart rate to drop. There is no aim in the float but to make best of your recovery time while floating so you can increase your speed when that next blasted marker comes up.

It has been a VERY long time since I have done one of those sessions.

Ironically enough, I would use the term 'float' to describe where I am at the moment. Everyone around me is doing that intense run 100 meters ahead or so, they are very experienced and much quicker and more alert at what they do than I am, but I'm not panicked, I'm accepting where I am and am sort of content, even though I know that darn marker is approaching to when I have to sprint again.

Like a cold dark evening on Dickson oval where the runners in the group are well ahead and well behind, and I feel I belong to neither, I am also there in reality. At the moment I feel strangely disconnected to situations and people, like they are over the other side of the oval perhaps even playing soccer, I'm not really feeling much connection to anyone.

I know that where I am no one can do what I am doing but me, and no one can do it for me. It's a strange sense of responsibility tinged with urgency, but I'm not feeling it.

Perhaps this is a sense of being burned out, and turning to automatic pilot.

Somewhere in my mind I curiously heard another work colleague speak about me today. She said to another that my optimism drives her crazy sometimes, and that I still have that new tinge where I still care about the work that I do. I don't remember being optimistic, so I am still wondering where this came from.

However my response to someone giving me a new pile of work to do on top of everything else was 'yeah, I'll get through it.' I'm not quite sure where this came from. Surely accepting more work is on par with doing something stupid like smoking at the moment. But hey, someone's got to do it. Might as well be me.

I'm not running anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. It'll be over soon.

Slacker

20 assignments shouldn't take 8 hours to mark. But that's what they've done. I had another pile to get through this weekend, but it's not going to happen. I got through a lot yesterday. I've just got to keep my head above the water to keep from drowning at the moment.

Foot acted up bad this morning. I've just realised I've had this since early October now. I can't get to ERF's doctor quick enough.

The Belco fun run, and a swim...

Nah, I didn't run, I went to meet Flashduck however. And as it turns out, Flashduck wasn't there, so I minded GB's road bike (hah! I know the difference now, funny handle bars and thin tires) while he entered, cheered ERF on in her warm-up and she seemed to be in a bright mood, (she won it last year when I didn't know her, but I remember that), talked for a bit to All-rounder and Nicewhenistop, another teacher from school, and Frier in my search for Flashduck, then headed down to cheer them all off.

As far as I've been told ERF won it again for the women, reclaiming the course record in 21 minutes something. That's for 6k, not 5.

Last year I got to be in this run when there were many less runners in it, more walkers, that was the first year they held it and it was my come-back joggy run after that ITB. This time I sat it out completely. What is it with this time of year and injuries with me?

I swam instead, did 500 meters of drills where I'm trying to reduce drag, then had to learn how to breathe again in the next 250 or swimming.

Then I casually swam 1k right on my pb, I believe, although this time I wasn't aiming for it. I'm suspecting the drills may have worked a bit.

Things are interesting when you get some muscle bound guy who has heaps more upper body strength than you catch up, and then as you remember to correct your technique he suddenly slows, that must be the case since I caught up with him. Everytime I swam with not so good technique he sped up and was ahead for some reason, and each time I corrected it he'd slow down, and I'd be ahead.

I'm sure it was him who was speeding up and slowing down, right?

500 drills
250 learning how to breathe again
1k in 27:54 (a bit slower than my pb)
250 slow to round it up to 2k.

I got a bonus too. Today was the first time in a while I wore JTI's flippers for the drills. I kicked my foot hard and lost a flipper - and I can't dive very well so I couldn't get it. A cute life guard got it for me. :)

I LOVE SWIMMING!

The interview went good

I'd still like to stay where I am - right at the foot of Mount Ainslie, plus the kids are really great in general. However I'm not permanent and I'd like to have a job next year. *Sighs* I hate this whole up in the air thing, it is quite disturbing.

Not this Monday coming up (week 5) not next Monday (week 6) but the Monday after that reports are due. All co-oridnators are begging us to get their departments reps done first. Apart from that it's coming up to exam week, and this weekend I have to set several exams.

I am hoping to go to the Belco Community fun run and walk tomorrow, just to catch up with people (All-rounder and Flashduck etc) and then swim while those happy people get to run. The bus lands 15 minutes before the race, so I'll have to move it to get to see them before they run off, they should start at the bus interchange!

Although were they are is pretty close.

stresssssed out

Today: a 14 hour day of juggling teaching, marking, organising, setting some of next week's assessment tasks, booking rooms such as for the yoga session I do each week with the kids, create an easy 'how to' guide for a class that's way behind in Shakespeare, collect a whole stack of assignments, and organise 100 piles of copies with my own staples due to a melt down in the photocopy room today. (Whoa, I had to staple it myself). Ah yeah, did I mention the meeting after school followed by a concert put on by the expressive arts department where I moderated the year 12's major piece of assessment - did I mention I worked for 14 hours straight.

Tomorrow: Get up, get to work, work out marking, practise for p2. teach p1, take kids over to hall, accompany the school choir with hopefully the right notes and rhythm - I haven't had time to practise and the whole teaching staff will be there, skip recess and go straight to p3, teach, then do yard duty while supervising kids making up time on an exam in the first part of lunch, then make it to another school in 20 minutes a bit of the way away in order to attend an interview which may not go well due to lack of preparation, in order to return back to work and pick up the marking from period 5 - did I mention I had to fill out a green slip since I'm missing p5 first thing in the morning?

And of course all the other stuff that happens, but that doesn't count. Unfortunately I will not be eating anything after breakfast tomorrow. Plan: Skip morning tea, skip lunch, save room for a heck of a lot of chocolate when I get home. I will break my record, look, I already have a mass of pimples and my year 7s today said I look like a 14 year old.

I did manage to get an appointment today with ERF's doctor. Yay! And even better, it's on the scheduled day off (they're not easy to come by, I got it through having the possibility of a minor surgical procedure, we'll see) in the afternoon. This will upset me for the report writing so I'll have to start soon, I don't see myself typing very good after the 21st for a couple of weeks for some reason.

Yeah, I know, I'm such a drama queen.

Too long of a downtime

It's starting to feel that way now. I am going to attempt to schedule an appointment with a doctor ERF has suggested I go to. I just want to feel my foot...

So I can run over 100k a week once I'm back.

That being said tonight I did some push ups, for, ummmmm, fun, and found that I could do 40. This is a huge increase in the last month, where I struggled to do 20.

My chocolate consumption is at an all time high, work is really tough at the moment, even without the hiccups I've encountered, and I am pretty stressed out.

And I want to feel my foot again.

Cataract George

My friends are great walkers, and decided to take me on an evening stroll of Cataract George. My sister used to come here on her training runs, and suddenly I realised why she could run as fast as she did, the uphills here were steep and full of steps.

We started our walk at Duck Reach, where I wasn't allowed very far because I was too little when I was a kid, and one of my sister's friends actually had died by attempting to kayak the rocky rapids. This is also not very far from the place where the other person I met earlier had lost the use of his legs. This seems to be a place for adventurous people to stay away from.

They have now built a new swinging bridge over to the old power station: yet another place that resembled death in this area as around 19 people had drowned there in that building in a flash flood in the early 1900s. The structure still stands as a ruined monument, although now has been made to suit tourists more.

It's more scary and more awe inspiring now going over the two swinging bridges as an adult, I used to rock the other swinging bridge hard on school excursions when I was a kid to upset all the other kids. This time I clutched both rails with my hands as I walked accross.

The trail extends further, and we walked to the first basin. The first basin used to mean a free swimming pool for me, but I wasn't allowed in the deeper pool because I couldn't swim. :( This time I actually looked away from the swimming pool and over at the george. It was pretty spectacular. Huge blue stone rocks reached high up in the air, dotted with gum trees, and there were three main hills with two rivers joining into the deep water of the basin. I never realised how symmetrical it was before, although it was actually designed by an earthquake.

(Launceston is still considered to be an earthquake zone, and no building is allowed to be over 6 stories high, Launceston itself used to be on higher ground but fell during the earthquake. I used to live near the Cataract George that is above the city).

It was strange looking out from different points, the huge rocks around us looked precariously balanced on a few major stones, somehow not spilling the boulders onto the path we were using. The boulders were in no way connected, although they have balanced there for thousands of years. The cliffs towered omniously over the small stream far below, and they seemed to capture an ancient aura.

Rounding one corner we could see the town clock of Launceston from between two massive hills. This provided quite a contrast from the George, although it seemed we were just looking at a picture of the city, as it didn't seem like it could belong there, so close to the nature reserve. The setting sun also added to the ethereal ambience, glinting off objects in the distance.

We reluctantly headed back, uphill this time, to Duck Reach, and onwards to dinner at the Mill again, which seems to be one of the few places to eat great food in Launceston.

And hence ends the posts about my Tasmanian trip, honest, except I have to mention I got pulled up by security at the airport twice and made to take off my shoes. Oh, and I got tested for bombs too. Seriously, it was only the hair pins! Augh!

Launceston

The morning after the wedding I woke surprisingly early to an empty house, the bride and groom had left, and the other two who stayed over were sound asleep. I still have very little knowledge of how I got there, however I appeared to have slept in my hair while I'd changed out of the dress.

I met 'Frodo' for our last run, which was a bit more sombre. We only ran 4k all up this time, with the weather being freezing, and after I stopped Frodo from eating ducks for breakfast and waited 10 minutes for him to find me again, I decided it was probably enough, and we ran home. I did scare a local farmer however when they passed me in their car - I had put my hair in a shower cap so my run wouldn't upset it.

I think my makeup looked much better the day after.

I met up with old friends who used to babysit me, they drove out to Selbourne to pick me up, and they dropped me off at Launceston for an hour. That was almost too long: Launceston itself seems like a very run down city, and nothing much had changed at all. It was strange looking up at the surrounding hills that were dotted with houses, it was like people living half way up Mount Ainslie. The whole city seemed to feel old, although young people around my age littered the streets and seriously needed their mouths to be washed out with soap.

When we got home it felt strange to be in the street where I grew up. Nothing had changed, although the sticks dad had planted in the front garden had grown into tall trees, and the happy trail I used to walk to school on every morning (around 2k uphill) has now been bitumened. And the old leafy gum tree had regrown since the previous occupants of our house had chopped it for firewood.

I needed to go back here to see why I didn't live here anymore, the experience was strange, it's like I felt a sense of belonging in the past, but none in the present, so I felt very cut off and distant from it all.

Dreaming of an impossible future.

Which is a bit of stupid thing to do with the foot in doubt.

While I was in Tasmania I got to see a new side of my friend's dad that I never really appreciated before. He is a bushwalker. A real one who does search and rescue for the Cradle Mountain Ultra run, which I had no idea about.

He was really happy to see my turn into bush running, and suddenly he had someone very interested in all of his stories. He then told me about how he did the Three Peaks challenge on foot a couple of weeks before it. He described the course in detail to me, which includes a mean ascent up Mt Strezlecki at Flinder's Island - complete with a ladder climb!

He then offered to take me either on a walk over the three peaks course, or the Southern Highlands walk - both take over a week to complete!

I later met a guy who used to be a good runner who went in the Sri Chinmoy runs when he lived here in Canberra. Due to a nasty rock climbing accident in the Cataract George he is now a paraplegic, although he is on a AWD rowing squad and competes in World Championships and all the rest. He has done the Three Peaks, and knew what the Brindabella Classic was when I said it.

This all reinforces this mad, stupid dream of me doing the 3 Peaks before I'm 40. Ummm, yeah, I know I've got heaps of time provided I make it, but I have heaps to do before I'm 30, so let's not rush things.

swim

Today after a 100 meter warm up I swam 2.4k straight. Splits were 28:11, 46+, 1hr+, 1:18:26, a bit slower than yesterday, but I went further. I got annoyed with people in my lane, that's why I like the AIS so much! Really, I was in the slowest of the medium lanes, however they obviously needed a lane today that was 'blasted fast for 50 and then stand exhausted in the water for 1/2 an hour before your next burst' lane.

I talked to Flashdrake on the phone about my foot, he gave me a number of a regular gp who majors in sports injuries. My injury sounds like a swelling in the tendon to Flashdrake, an injury he got 11 years ago, which required a cortisone injection and time off.

*Sobs* C'mon, as long as I'm doing something. There goes the sub 20 5k this year, lol.

An impossible present

Today I met up with Flashduck as she returned, we had coffee at our favourite haunt, Hansel and Grettel's. Then we went next door to look at the bike shop. That's where I saw it: the bike of my dreams! It was purple! Flashduck came around to where I was and confirmed it was a good bike. It was shiny and purple! It was also a bit more than I originally intended to pay for it, but Flashduck has now gone on a mission to find a place with the same bike at a cheaper price. Did I mention it was purple? Really pretty too. Ooh, I want that bike!

I then went swimming after. My aim was to swim 1500 meters. It felt weird to be swimming at CISAC instead of the AIS, the AIS is closed due to a huge swim meet, and so I had to put up with the dirtier pool and the need to use a locker. The pool is also not so deep which makes turning at the shallow end tempting to put your feet down.

I treaded water for a moment at 1k to glance at my watch, and I saw a great 28:17 - great since I haven't done much exercise for a week. I then changed my aim to 1500 meters in under 50 mintues, recalling a conversation with Flashduck earlier. I did it, I swam it in 44 minutes. But I had more in me.

So I kept going until I swam 2k. While doing this I thought it might be a good idea to swim 2k in under an hour before the end of the year, and decided to make this a good new goal for the end of the year, because of the injured foot. Now I'm going to think of a new goal. I swam 2k in 59 minutes.

Then I swam 4 x 50 meters quick for me after this, threw in a fun 100 meters, then 50 backstroke and 50 breast stroke to cool down. This added up with my 100 meter warm up to be 2.5k all up. I still wasn't tired or cramping!

What? I think CISAC may be warmer than the AIS or something. I really don't understand this.

New aim for the end of 2006: swim 3k straight.

The reception, and a blurry photo

We were made to stand outside for an hour while photos were taken, and my friend's father gave me a very much appreciated gift: a cold weather/ski jacket that used to belong to my friend when she was younger. I ducked in and out of it as I was not needed for every photo.

The good thing about not being the bride is that I have the ability to sneak off and stuff my face with food while my friend has to brave the freezing cold with bare arms.

The reception was held at a restaurant at a raspberry farm. Even the savoury dishes had things like raspberry sauce with them, and the wedding cake was a pavlova covered in raspberries and white chocolate. Anyone who knows me knows that red things can make me hyperactive. Combine this with raspberry champaign and you should get the gist.

And it was here that the weather did what it had been trying to do all day; it started to snow heavily. My other friend and I rushed out to play in the snow with a group of other crazy people, although it was too cold and so I returned quickly inside to the fireplace.

Two friends from my school days were there, one decided to try to set me and the other guy up, and in the process stole my chocolate raspberries (in a little gift basket) and began eating them without me noticing. When the groom pointed this out to me, that was it. I threw my chair back and stormed over to him, drawing everyone's attention in the process. I loudly demanded my chocolates back, and when seeing most of them were gone I returned to my seat, and much to the amusement of my friend I pretended I was sulking.

My other friend begged for my forgiveness, and promised to get the chocolates back, and paid for new chocolates for me! Then later, when I lined up for the pavlova, I heard someone mention that the waiters had cleared up the chocolate raspberries. I immediately looked to my seat to see if mine were gone.

There were just short of fifty baskets of chocolate raspberries lying on the table where my seat was. Ugh! Lol, then I had to go through the whole process of returning them to my friend's relatives, etc.

One of the big moments of the night was when my other friend got the bride's mother to dance, so I ventured to ask her father to dance as well. He has always been very quiet and doesn't dance. He still has some big issues after serving on the ground in the Vietnam War and he has to sleep in a separate room even now.

After much reluctance he was dragged out to join me, and he and his wife shared what seemed to be their first dance in a long time. My other friend and I were quite happy with our work, and went for more raspberry champaign.

I somehow got home and managed to feed my friend's cat before falling asleep with my hair still in tact.

This is a very obscurred photo but it is the only one I have so far of me as a bridesmaid, my friend and I are having a rare quiet moment where we are shovelling our faces with food, which is probably appropriate. In the background you can still see some light snow.

A truly white wedding

My friend and I arrived later than scheduled, and we had only a minute to stuff our faces with some sandwiches prepared by another old school friend of mine who is now a chef, before the frazzled mother of the bride grabbed us both by the elbows and dragged us into the room where we were going to get changed. Getting dressed was not an issue, however dealing with the anxious mother was.

She was rightly upset, the chairs in the garden had been blown over by gale force winds, and it was now beginning to rain. There was no question about it, the wedding was going to happen inside the lounge room. I consoled my friend's mother as she muttered disheartedly about how much effort she had put into manicuring all of the hedges and collecting all the leaves.

Her backyard is amusing, actually, a beautiful and well kept garden complete with pond and waterfall in the middle of sheep, cattle, and horse paddocks with generous piles of ferterliser.

The temperature had become quite amusing too, it was colder than it was in my morning run. A fire was lit outside as the bride and I got dressed, trying to not ruin our hair or make-up. Then the photographer arrived and all chaos erupted as the bride was made to sit through a huge photo shoot.

I saw the groom arrive at first, and even though I know him so well, I suddenly got nervous. My friend picked on me about that 'it's a wedding, of course the groom is going to arrive' was the answer to my exclaimation 'oh my gosh! He's here! He's here!'

Then I felt positively foolish as I walked down the hall way to the loungeroom, leading the bride and her father out, and standing for most of the ceremony in the background, except to give her the rings. I did not know quite what to do with myself up there in front of a small gathering of the immediate families who I know so well. However the bride and groom did their parts without a hitch, they had good wedding vows, nothing too elaborate, and by only having a few people there, they could actually focus on each other and what the ceremony was about.

I was one of the witnesses and as I signed, the heavens met the earth quite literally. The looming dark clouds over the distant mountains finally broke into a huge downpour which we would have to wait out before the pictures would be taken.

It didn't really hit me until that moment, but suddenly my friend had a different surname and a husband, and I found it all rather strange, but in a good way.

Preparation

After my second run with 'Frodo' I had to wait a while for the shower, so I had a great breakfast of home made musli and home cultivated yoghurt. My spirits were quite bright, but perhaps not as bright as the groom, and we joked about the upcoming day's events. Then we found a new target for our humour: The time the bride spent showering! Phew! And I always assumed I was far more girly girl than her.

Later we went down to first get our make-up done, and the make-up artist just happened to be an old school friend of my sister's, who still remembered her for being the fastest runner ever, etc. My friend looked stunning in her make-up, I was a little less than a full on mess in a dark purply pink lip stick, and wouldn't let the make-up artist do the eyeliner, there is just something I can't stand about people sticking things in my eyes! Then after that the suffering began: I wasn't allowed to drink because it would ruin the lipstick. *sigh*

We met up with the other bridesmaid, the groom's sister who also doubles as a cop with a collection of tattoos, at the hair dressers. They started with me, and spent longer on me than the other bridesmaid and bride combined. The hairdresser cut approximately 4-5 inches of my hair...

(According to Flashdrake's belief about cutting his hair to boost his performance, I can now run a world record...)

...and then was yanked and pulled into a spirally upstyle. They tried all sorts of things with the bride then settled for a plain up style with some porcelein roses inserted into her hair, and the other bridesmaid had half her hair out.

There is something about having hair cut. I'm not used to it. I realised I actually haven't been to a hairdresser since my year 12 leaver's dinner. I usually cut it myself or get a neighbour to do it. Therefore I was told off for my hair's condition, and given a serum that apparently stops the hair from breaking any further. I was told I shouldn't have hair bands in my hair when it was wet, and immediately I protested this by saying I have to for swimming.

My friend was highly entertained by the whole process and my protests.

We started to run out of time very quickly, so the bride and I, with makeup, nails and hair done complete with jeans, fleece jumpers and joggers, made our way to the ceremony, to be followed shortly by the other bridesmaid.

The morning's chill had not left us, and the sky was completely covered in cloud after a small drenching earlier. I couldn't help noticing how green everything seemed.

The new adventures of Aki and 'Frodo' (Friday early morning)

I had adapted to daylight savings so well that somehow I woke up on Friday at 5:45am - my usual time for waking up for work - without an alarm clock. The bride and groom were fast asleep and did not stir as I quietly got dressed in my cool running gear and stretched.

'Frodo' was this time well aware of what my approach meant. He was attempting to impress me with his high jumping skills, although he could not clear his pen. When I opened the gate he seemed to fly at me, yet avoided jumping on me as he has been trained.

The morning was not the type that welcomed running. A freezing cold wind whisked itself straight off the Western Tiers, and I was forced to wear a jumper, and wished desparately I took my pants with me too. Since 'Frodo' and I have the same mentality, we seemed to both immediately agree on what action to take:

Without any fear we were off at a speed, ummmmmm, close to light I guess. Neither of us paused for the road kill and we just kept running. My lungs were burning and I was starting to feel a little sick from all that, ummmm, good food? However, my hands had stopped feeling a minute a go, and the wind on my face stung too much for me to dilly dally. We were both happy to turn off into the sheltered trail in the forest.

From here we dropped the pace a little, and I concentrated on not throwing up and trying to get my breath back, and thinking of how much fun that bit of a run was, heh. We made the lake much quicker than expected, and then Frodo thought he would add in more adventure still.

He had found a rabbit. Heh, that was it. He bounded after it like a mad thing, yipping as each stride knocked the wind out of him, and I just stared after him, thinking 'you've got to be kidding.'

I was looking into the darker and scarier forest wondering where the black fluffball had gone, and was starting to dread entering the forest to look for him, there was a lot of low shrubbery, and I had already seen the size of the snake holes around these parts. I got to explore some interesting trails in the process, however. Reeds covered some sides close to the lake, and there were purple and pink flowery trees, don't ask me what, but they were pretty and sheilded each side of the trail.

In a bit of time it had hit me about what I had done; my stupid passion for running in the bush with a crazy animal had caused me to loose the bride and groom's dog on their wedding morning, eek! I started to turn back, sick of the sound of my voice from calling him constantly, and I was still warily eyeing off the darker depths of the forest.

And then Frodo appeared out of no where on the reedy side of the trail. How this was possible I still haven't the faintest clue, however, I was happy to have him back. I told him not to leave me again, which he seemed to understand, then we raced back home, with both of us still admiring the beautiful trails and with me fighting my burning lungs and numb finger tips.

And raced we did, some 16 minutes faster that last time, without the long bit in the middle, we did our run in 44 minutes. Frodo headed straight for the water when he got home, and I looked after him before going to shower myself.

Before I headed in I noticed the low dark clouds pressing in on the Western Tiers not far from where we were, and half smiled in irony while cringing at the same time.

The new adventures of 'Frodo'

This morning was a big contrast to yesterday, with lots of organising, and responding to work e-mails. (Leave - what leave?)

I am currently staying in Selbourne, which is near Westbury, west of Launceston. The area consists mostly of farms, such as the one I'm on, and bush land which is much different to Canberra's.

My friend has taken up bike riding with her fiance, and she has lost a stack of weight since I last saw her and seems much more happy. Neither were in the mood for cycling or anything, as they had even more to do than me, but they suggested a way for me to go, which involved running on the main road, and asked me to take Freddo the dog with me.

I called to the dog as I started off and Freddo completely ignored me, so I kept going. Then suddenly, as Freddo worked out I was going to the road, I could hear scampering of fast feet behind me and suddenly the black dog appeared out of no where and ran off in the opposite direction, as I turned to follow the road that quickly became gravel.

Absolute silence. I've lost the dog... No, what is that? More scampery galloping came from behind me and then Freddo had ran in from of me under an electric fence. Ah, dear, I'm running with an idiot. Should I be concerned that I'm actually keeping pace with the dog, speedy where he is and slowing where he is?

Suddenly the farm became bush, and I had to start watching out for snakes and, umm, Tasmanian Devils. Heh. Great. The disease has kept them down however, so I didn't encounter any. I did encounter some very scenic trails however that went on and on and on, and being this far out, there was no one, nothing. Except Freddo.

It took 20 minutes or so before Freddo realised I was calling him Frodo - off Lord of the Rings - by mistake, then he happily returned to me each time he went off to examine some road kill, etc. Not long after about that point we headed off on a trail into deep bush, and down an old trail called Park Road, and then took a sharp turn that led...straight into four springs lake.

Both 'Frodo' and I drew to an abrupt halt, then we synchronised our spin as we ran back. 'Frodo' gave me the most happiest doggy grin as I went the other way instead of home. We ran up a bit of a hill before coming to a bush hut, a tank water tap, and some toilets, and a stack of forrestry workers getting their water from the lake.

Four Springs Lake is huge, bigger than lake Ginnindera, with heaps of trails - the ultrarunner's dream, seriously, and the conditions were perfect, if a bit cold, for it. 'Frodo' was curious of the workers, so ran up to them, which in turn got them to notice me, which was although funny, not the best thing in the world, as they tried to convince 'Frodo' to stay with them instead of returning to me. After giving me a few, umm, comments, and laughing at the dog's name, we were back off the way we came, and after turning a corner it was like we had seen no one at all.

Frodo had slowed a little and was mostly keeping pace with me, although he got caught up in a wallaby trap along the way and managed to sneak out a rabbit hole after I called to him 'well, you're just going to have to get yourself out of there, cause I'm not going in!'

He went off in pursuit of something mysterious and rustling in the deep bush, and I had to go back for him after I noticed his absence. I was surprised about how loud my voice was - the bush here is very quiet, and the hills surrounding the lake caused my voice to echo many times over. When 'Frodo' rejoined me he disappeared yet again, and suddenly there were two frantic ducks ermerging from the bushes with the dog in tow. I had to call him several times before he decided not to kill them, and follow me instead.

Then, of course, to end our perfect run, we raced each other down the driveway with new energy. I was surprised I actually beat him!

We ran for 1 hr and 30 seconds. Yeah, I'm cutting back. Lol.

Homecoming (Welcome to Antartica)

Yesterday morning I awoke to ominous grumbles from the north horizon that spoke volume about what my plane flight was going to be like. Getting to the airport at 6am there were already bits of wet stuff falling from the darkened sky.

Taking off was good fun, I always like planes, dad used to work for Ansett so I used to travel on them all the time, and can tell planes and some of their parts from the other, and explain to stressed out people why the wings are moving, or what that sound is, etc.

We were only 50 meters up or so when the turbulance began. There was more lightning in the sky when your in it, I've noticed, but it looked cool. We missed out on hot drinks as a result, and they could only offer 5 minutes of food service before they were ordered back to their seats. What happened to the days of free food on planes? I bought 2 cookies for a small fortune, and decided to buy no more after that.

So I got off one plane as the other one was boarding, but I needed to go to the toilet, so I used those running skills to get me there and back, not a problem, and I believe I was the last one on board again.

The flight to Tasmania was much smoother, and I went through daylight savings on this flight. I was surprised to not recognise much at all when we were landing, I thought I would be able to see more, but I couldn't even work out which house I used to live in, and I think that was the oval with the skateboard ramp that got burned down, I'm not sure.

Dad's old 'office' looked more like a deserted tool shed weathered with age, with a newly painted bright blue door and the big words 'Ansett' now removed with a strange sign saying 'Virgin Freight.' I swear the building has shrunk, it was much bigger than that, and the place where they used to leave the spare parts of planes - my old playground when Mum got sick with cancer and I refused to go to school, or dad couldn't get me there due to his shift work so he'd take me to work instead - was now looking more like a rubbish dump.

The cheesy Virgin Blue slogans probably made me most upset. Ansett was always going to be there, invulnerable, and now it's like it never happened before... I see now why Dad gets so depressed.

The pilot was pretty good, he commented about not trusting the Launceston Taxi service, and recommended us to get a hire car. He also welcomed us to Antartica, which I didn't quite get until I left the plane straight into a cold southerly unbroken by the expanse of the tarmac. Heh, not long before I got my jumper on!

My friend was waiting to get me, at last a sense of actually belonging to this place, but I still felt so much like a stranger, and again it doesn't seem real that this was the exact same place where I had cried so much into my friend's arms before I had to leave her, and this place, behind me.

An exhausting day

Other than working, I had to finalise the class lists and lessons during my absence, take the new yoga club's class, apply for two jobs, complete my folder for the curriculum review, and put those job applications into the Express mail box at Dickson before 5pm in order for them to reach their destination tomorrow. This would have been much easier by car, and carrying half my body weight in assessment items for 2k to Northbourne, and another k back to the post office made the task less than inviting.

I can't believe, after leaving work a bit after 4, that I actually made it.

I wore shoes today that do not cover the place I was told not to cover on my foot. The swelling has gone down a bit in the last 12 hours alone, the self massage I was shown to do has helped a lot, and I would now say that around 30 percent feeling has returned, at the moment parts of it are tingling, and I can definately feel cold now! Yay! Whoever knew that feeling cold would be such a good thing!

Tomorrow I go on my journey, and hence my blog shall remain typeless until next week. What am I doing up? My plane leaves at 6:45, and gets there at 10. I am going into the daylight saving time early, which means I get a period of adjustment. Huh! Yay!

The podiatrist's assessment.

After work I made my way to Woden (argh) to the podiatrist for my check up appointment. I did not have to wait for long, so I very reluctanty put down the most recent issue of Runner's World. *sigh*.

She (I didn't get the cute podiatrist this time, I got the triathlete, and this is fine, she knows her stuff very well) examined my foot for a minute before announcing it was swollen, and asked me exactly where it was numb. She explained that my tendon was inflamed due to continued forced pressure over a period of time, pointed out that the tendon ran up to my shin and therefore I need to voltarin, ice and glad wrap that area too, and showed me the restriction on my foot's flexibility that could lead to further injury.

The verdict: 2 weeks of no more than 50% of regular running mileage, keep voltarining, icing and gladwrapping it, a couple more exercises, and changing the shoelace pattern (which she did for me) so that all pressure is taken off both tendons in both feet, not just the left.

If it's still bad then, I am to go back.

She then took to my feet with a scalpal to get rid of some corns that were acting up (and also were in weird places due to my over pronation).

I'm drowning under work, particularly for the upcoming curriculum renewal, but assessment, assessment tasks, hey, we don't go here.

I go away to Tasmania on Wednesday, I will not blog then.

Brindabella Classic 54k

Heh, not quite.

However I did run the 17.8k relay leg, or 20.5 according to the Garmin. My time suggests the later.

Strewth organised the team with a couple of others who train with Speedygeoff. I was picked up at 5.30 to go to the run.

I think we all got scared when we looked out at the valley far below us with bush all around us, my fear of heights and my seat next to the embankment did not improve my sense of humour either. We did not see the bus on the way up, we were a bit late, and we all started commenting on it. At one turn Strewth remarked 'How can you get a bus around that?' To which I remarked 'Heh, that explains why we haven't seen the bus...' ooh, you so had to be there for that!

The top of Mount Ginini was cold and full of urine. We soon made our way down to drop me off (yay) and before I knew it I was off! I powered down the hills like I was on the bike and able to ride like Flashduck, and I caught the female race leader. We talked for a bit, then I moved on, and on, and on. There were lots of people to catch and they all wanted to talk to me too!

The views were fantastic, and the trees overhead were gorgeous. I ran past a waterfall at one stage, and at another past two kids playing music at an aid station. I stopped for a minute at each aid station, and ran the rest of the course.

I ran the uphills well, athough they are very apparent on my splits. The last 5k was all uphill, I passed some coolrunners there, and kept going. When the Garmin said 17k to go I put on my finishing spurt. When it read 17.8 I told myself the changeover was just around the corner. And again at 18k, and at 19k. At 20k I got a bit confused, I thought I was leading everyone off in the wrong direction and slowed up a bit. Then I saw some cars! I dug deep for the last uphill and became asthmatic, just slightly, when I stopped running. I should have taken the ventolin before.

4.37
4.24
4.14
4.11
4.37 (22:04)
5.02
5.33
6.29 (Drink station)
4.41
6.21 (50.13)
4.10
4.32 (Drink station)
4.52
4.33
5.29
5.02 (1.18.54 10 mile)
-
6.54
9.49 (?)
5.06
+1.54 for 300 meters.

1.44.26 (5.04k)

I was pretty content in the run and after having been given a bread roll while cheering everyone on - there was no pressure and I was happy with my run! Afterwards I met a stack of CRs who were sitting in the creek so I sort of joined them by dangling my feet in. PRB was helping out too. :)

The foot is not any worse or better than yesterday, I want to feel my foot again!

Mt Majura - Triple Tri Course

After work a friend picked me up and we made our way to the Triple Tri start of the first leg. We decided to cut the run a bit shorter today - we were both tired and I was unsure about the condition of the foot. So we didn't do Mt Ainslie.

We did however do Mt Majura.

The course begins as a gentle stroll uphill with frequent tree roots and concrete pipes. We continued over styles? are they styles? Step ladders gone wrong anyway, and I quickly became aware of the fact the day was warm. We continued up hill, turned onto a smooth wide track momentarily, then turned right again to run on a very narrow trail.

I became very friendly with bushes and had to watch my footing, loose big rocks got in the way of good footing, and the downhill beside us became progressively steeper. SB had to often wait for me as I walked over places where I was uncertain.

After a bridge and that it turned onto a bit of an incline - more like Mt Ainslie for a bit, and we 'powered' up these, crossed a road, and, in my case, climbed up the rocks to the top of the mountain.

We barely paused for the view, and we were off again, going down the other part of Mt Majura, this time on road before turning off into bush again, more kangaroos, rabbits, and bush encounters later we emerged at the opposite side of the Bush Capital 16k course, which leads another wider trail, then back home to SB's place for a much needed drink.

Distance 15.3k, time 1:55 with stops, 1:34 without. The time doesn't look good but it wasn't an easy run. I now know that I can do this part in the Triple Tri.

1.3k

It's nothing that brilliant, 1.3k rook me 42:27 to swim last night, but I was happy doing it. I didn't have breaks in between, and at 1.3 I felt my right foot begin to cramp so I got out, or I would have aimed to go to 2.

The foot is still not happy, touch is fuzzy or not apparent, although I still swear I sense cold now.

I am going for a run today, I know it's stupid but I did promise to do this with a friend. Besides that, I really want to run.

4 x 500 ...almost

The foot is still numb!:( I thought it was starting to return to me, but I still can't feel touch. I'm thinking of stabbing it just to see if I can feel anything in the place that its numb.

I had a bit of a tough day at work, it wasn't that tough, just some demands to be met from the 4 head of departments I have, and a new class in a subject I'm not so good at. I think the lesson flopped and I'm still trying desparately to come up with something to teach them today. One of the students there is very advanced and has an attitude to match as well, which although is good for them, it is going to make that class more difficult for me to take.

I headed down to the pool at 8:30 - when it opens, to let out my frustration in the pool. I calmed down instantly when arriving, swimming pools always make me happy for some reason, and I love the smell of chlorine.

I decided to do a 4 x 500 after a 100 meter warm up, just to see how I'd go.

500 - 14:40
500 - 13:49 - This made me pretty happy and I felt much stronger in technique, not faster.
500 - 14:46 - And this felt slow.
200 - 6.22 I got a stomache pain on the right side so I went to the toilet to see if that was the problem, it wasn't, but in there my foot cramped up so I decided that I'd had enough.

In that 2nd 500 I was actually catching up to someone, yay! I can swim faster than someone.

Come on foot, get better for tomorrow. :(