Pulled up ok

I thought yesterday I would be sore today, but surprisingly have pulled up quite well. Just a tiny touch of soreness in the shins, and a little niggle in the knee, both of which are pretty normal for me. The blisters are still there, but I think they will be gone in a few days.

Upon further reflection on yesterday, I think it may have been the best run I’ve ever had. The R4TK is very special, due to the great cause, the huge numbers of people, and the unique route that you certainly cannot run every day. But for me, the most special part for me was running it with others (Jojo and Em) – something I have never done before. The fact that we managed to run to the goal pace that Jojo and I have been talking about for the past few weeks was icing on the cake.

Meeting up for a drink afterwards was also something I haven’t managed to do in prior runs, but will be making a special effort to do in the future. Here is a picture of the crew at the Transport yesterday. I have unashamedly pinched the photo from JayKay from her Ausrun forum post – hope you don’t mind Jaykay.

Work was far from fun today. Like so many other IT shops we had a few DST change issues to deal with.

After work I got out for a slow recovery run. Just the usual 6km loop at just under 6 minute pace.

Monthly Summary

Yes, another month has gone, one quarter of the year down – god, that’s depressing.

Running: 76km @ 5:09 min/km average pace, YTD 256 @ 5:16 min/km average pace
Cycling: 443km @ 27.1 km/hr average speed, YTD 1114 @ 26.4 km/hr average speed

Another light running month, I really must pull the finger out and at least try and get the monthly average into 3 figures. A fairly big month (and the fastest to date) on the bike though. Really slack as far as strength training goes (none whatsoever) and only one swim.

Run For The Kids 2008

I had packed my bags and laid out my clothes last night and had a well defined plan for getting to the start on time this morning. Everything went like clockwork and I arrived at the Janet Clarke Rotunda (the arranged meeting place) before everyone else. I didn’t have to wait long for Jojo and Em, and shortly after they arrived we went for a short warm-up jog. We met a lovely fellow on the warm-up run who wanted to know where the “f-ing” toilets were, and thought it was “f-ing” ridiculous that there were no “f-ing” signs. I pointed out the sign that was a few yards away, thought about asking if he was “f-ing” blind, but managed to restrain myself. We also ran into (not literally) John on the warm-up and then found him again at the rotunda.

We moved into the starting area, getting quite close to the start of the blue zone. There were quite a few yellows in the blue zone, and during the first few kms it was obvious that there are still a lot of people who don’t understand the self-seeding concept (or as that other nice fellow we met earlier may have said, “Get out of the way you f-ing idiots”).

The race started on time, but there didn’t appear to be any actual start gun or anything, everyone just started moving. Right after the start, there was a reasonable amount of room, and we managed to get a reasonable pace going pretty early on, although it clogged up a bit as you rounded the hairpin corner into the tunnel.

Jojo and I had arranged ages ago to run together, and Em decided to “try and keep up with us” too. Hah, I say to that, she set the pace for a fair portion of the race. It was wonderful having some running buddies today, and especially two such lovely young ladies! There was a reasonable amount of dodging and weaving going on, for the majority of the race actually, but I let Jojo carve the swathe through the crowd and just had to keep catching up.

I managed the climb up out of the tunnel okay, but really struggled up the Bolte Bridge climb. I walked part of that rise last year, and would of stopped and done the same today if not for the fact that we were running together.

Jo and Em shared the lead of our little pace group for most of the race, I don’t think there was much of it where I was ahead. 

We saw Sara, who was on marshalling duties, on the corner of Harbour Esp and LaTrobe St, but she ignored us, despite all three of us shouting her name to try and get her attention

It got really hard for me in the last 5 or 6 kms, I was secretly hoping the girls would relax the pace a bit, but they didn’t, and I managed to stay in touch. The hill up Collins St nearly killed me, from there it is a bit of a blur until the finish line. Em and Jo sprinted at the line and I managed to raise the pace a bit and finish within a few seconds of them.

Our goal pace was 4:45 min/km, and I think we went damn close to acheiving that – by our watches we did, but I’ll wait for the official times to be sure. My watch time for the race was 1:07:28.

My watch was reading a bit “long”, and I can’t be bothered trying to adjust the split times, but they show that we really did do a great job of setting a reasonably even pace for the race; 4:50, 4:40, 4:35, 4:50, 4:40, 4:35, 4:40, 5:00, 4:25, 4:35, 4:40, 4:55, 4:45, 4:45, 1:33. The last partial split should probably be shorter, and all the preceeding ones correspondingly longer, but you get the idea.

As part of her Trailwalker training Em went off and ran another 9km, and I found out later that Michelle and Jaykay had done 12.5km this morning before the race. Respect, girls! 

After the finish we grabbed a drink, some sponsors products and our bags and walked over to Fed Square and waited for the Transport to open. There ended up being quite a nice little gathering of Ausrunners and Coolrunners (many of whom I didn’t know) there (apologies to anyone I miss – Em, Jojo, Michelle (Duckgirl), Jaykay, TigerBoy, Eat’em, RunningRupert, Frankie, Lee (Running Sweetlee), RJ, PJ, Wobblyman, WombatOutOfHell, Kathryn and Joey)  and a nice chat and a few drinks was had by all.

I am going to be a little sore tomorrow I think. I was just thinking I may actually benefit from a ride to stop the muscles seizing up, but I think I’ll stay on the couch. I also have a couple of blisters on the inside of my right foot, but nothing too serious. 

In closing, thanks so much to Jojo and Em again – your company was great and I appreciate your help in helping me achieve a R4TK PB!

Now spending a quiet afternoon on the couch watching the Cats cream the Bombers.

Web site building

Started off today at the Vic Market as usual, except it was much colder!

After that we went over to the local shopping centre for a little shopping. My only purchase was more DVDs – I think I watch too much TV! I bought season one of CSI:NY as it was cheap, and is my favourite of the CSIs (the original is okay too, but I cannot watch Miami).

Spent most of the afternoon throwing together a quick website for Adrienne’s sister’s business. As it is free, and I know how to use it, I just decided to use WordPress. Check it out if you like – Tanybryn Gallery.

No run today, but I did head out for an easy 20km on the bike just after 4pm.

The Bill and an early night are in order for tonight! Bring on R4TK.

Thanks! I’m legitimate again.

Well, it looks like I am legitimate again, my comments no longer appear to be getting rejected by the Akismet spam filter. John, said on his blog that he thought he might have un-spammed me, and I think he is probably right. I think, by examining our Akismet filters, and choosing to display the “legitimate” comments that have been rejected by Akismet we in effect “teach” Akismet what is “good” and what is “bad”. So, thanks to any, or all of you who did this for me, you appear to have taught Akismet that I am not so bad after all. I will from now on review my Akismet spam from time to time, I never have before.

Just an easy 6km loop tonight, I ran 900m and walked 100m of each kilometre (tapering you see). Overall pace 5:42 min/km including the walked bits. After that I went for two laps of the same loop on my bike, 12km at just over 27 km/hr.

Getting pumped for Sunday – I think R4TK is my favourite run, probably because it was my first ever fun run 2 years ago! Looking forward to seeing all of you there!

A run with a platinum blonde

Back to work today, and as is usually the case after a few days work, returned to mountains of emails, and plenty of meetings.

I’m not sure why, but for some reason I can’t seem to comment on any WordPress blog, so to you fellow WordPress users, I am not ignoring you, it is WordPress not letting me comment. I type in the comment (and the required fields) and press Submit, the page refreshes but my comment is not there. It also doesn’t work if I log in to WordPress first then comment. I’m pretty sure it is a WordPress issue because it is doing the same thing on my work laptop and home PC. Anyone got any ideas?

John, I tried to comment a few times on your blog, can you check your Akismet Spam queue and see if my comments are getting rejected by it please – that seems to be a common theory in the WordPress forum.

Tonight I planned an 8km run, but a slower one – wanted about 5:30 min/km pace. I ended up doing 8.75km @ 5:21 min/km. Foot feels good by the way. Oh, and the platinum blonde mentioned above was Debbie Harry (Blondie playlist on the iPod).

An early wake up call … and a late meeting

I was woken up this morning by an early call from our network control center in the US, and will have a late meeting tonight until after midnight, not bad considering I’m on leave today … I think they get their moneys worth from me!

After breakfast this morning I went for a ride on my bike. Managed to fall off my bike in the driveway again, was just resetting my Polar, had my foot clipped in and just leaned the bike the wrong way, fortunately landed on the lawn, so no damage done. No-one else looking so the pride wasn’t damaged too much either. I needed another couple of spare tubes for the bike, so decided to ride from home down to my local bike shop. All up a round trip of just over 25km, from Greenvale to Niddrie and back. I stuck to the roads all the way, and it was a little bit hairy in a couple of spots, roads I hadn’t ridden on before, one particularly (Matthews Ave, Airport West) which is narrow, busy with traffic and lined with parked cars.

A few other personal affairs handled this afternoon, including finally ordering an upgrade to broadband from our current dial-up link. Kate badly wants wireless connection for her new laptop, but the extra speed will be a good thing for all of us, there have been a few times recently where I have wished we had it. We decided to downgrade our Foxtel package to subsidise the additional cost of the broadband – basically just losing channels we don’t watch much. So, we should have wireless broadband in a couple of weeks.

I wanted to go for a run this afternoon, but I have woosed it because of the cold and rain. Still feeling a little snuffly, so get freezing cold and wet may not be a good thing with R4TK upcoming.

So it is a late basketball game for the girls tonight (against top team, so a tough game), then home for a work meeting.

A day trip to Apollo Bay

We took a little drive down to Apollo Bay for lunch today, and to call in and see Adrienne’s sister, who owns a little art gallery / tea house in the Otway ranges. We drove down via Anglesea / Lorne and the Great Ocean Road, and came back inland through Forrest and Barwon Downs.

One rant about the trip down was the drivers who ignore the “Slow Vehicle Turnouts” even though there are queues of cars behind them due to their slow speed. There was one driver today, driving a small mini-bus with trailer, who did use the Slow Vehicle Turnouts but did so in such a dangerous way that I couldn’t believe it. Most sensible drivers will turn in the turnout and slow to a stop, let all the cars behind them go past then pull out when it is safe to do so. This dip-stick pulled into the turn-out, slowed only slightly never stopping, letting one or two drivers past, then just forced her way back into the traffic flow – I am amazed she didn’t cause an accident.

We had lunch at the Apollo Bay Hotel, which has always been nice every time we’ve been there. I had decided even before I got there what I was going to have (because it was so nice last time), and fortunately it was still on the menu and still just as nice. It was a red fish curry and jasmine rice – yum.

Then we headed up into the Otways and spent a few hours with Adrienne’s sister, then headed home. Got some really heavy rain on the way home, which made driving a bit hazardous, but shouldn’t complain about the rain, should I.

The main reason for the drive today, as you could probably guess if you read my post the other day, was to do a few hundred kilometres in the car. I’ve just worked out now that we only need to do another 50km between now and the 31st March to meet the 25,000 requirement for the FBT year, so I think I can relax on that score now.

Once home I went for a run, keen to test out the foot, which had been feeling okay during the day, just a couple of little twinges while driving. I decided to just do my 6km loop, and to do it at a fairly slow pace, aiming for 5:30 min/km. However once I started, I realised I was doing around 5:00 min/km and feeling reasonably comfortable. I felt a couple of twinges in the foot in the first 2kms, but after that it settled, and when I was nearly home, I realised I had forgotten about it – so that is good. I’ve iced it again tonight as I still think I can feel a bit of swelling. Anyway, the run ended up being 6.15km @ 4:50 min/km pace.

Haircut

Having a hair cut was the highlight of the day today, and having a puncture was the low point.

I really don’t like having my hair cut, and consequently end up with my hair looking like I’m still living in the 70’s every six months. Actually there is one part of having my hair cut that I do like and that’s right near the end where the hairdresser tousles your hair with their fingers while blowdrying it.

I went shopping and bought my dad’s birthday present, two weeks early – I’m not usually that organized. I also bought us the complete set of Black Books DVDs. A very funny show, and a bargain too at $25 for series 1-3.

We did a little bit of gardening, removed a dead bush – I’m hopeless at growing stuff, but ripping out and cutting up I can do as well as the next man.

Headed out for a bike ride at about 4:30pm, got about 9km into it and got a bloody puncture. Back wheel again too – the harder and greasier one to fix. Geez these tyres are hard to get back onto the rim – or I’m doing something wrong. Finally got it fixed but it took me about 20 minutes. Decided just to turn around and head home, rather than risk another puncture (I only carry one spare tube). So, just a little 18km jaunt, and at a slower than normal pace as I was taking it easy on the way home, making sure to avoid all the glass and potholes.

Pain

I have a weird pain in the top of my right foot – never had anything like it before – no idea what I have done – it also feels a little swollen. So, no Sri Chinmoy Yarra Blvd run for me tomorrow, I will get the ice pack out and hopefully get it right for R4TK. It may make my preparation even worse than it was going to be!

Mowed and edged the lawns this morning, and drove Chris and his friend into Olympic Park for the Melbourne Storm game, and degreased and re-lubed my bike chain then went for a 20km bike ride just before tea.

That’s it.

Kayano 14s and some random musical thoughts!

Victoria Market as normal first thing this morning for the weekly shop, then I headed out to Prahan on my own to go to Active Feet, shoe shopping. I ended up with a pretty spic looking pair of Asics Gel Kayano 14s, like this;

I also got the Bodyglide I have been searching for for a couple of weeks. I have to say, each time I have been to Active Feet I have been very impressed with their friendliness, knowledge and great service. You pay full price for the shoes, but I’ve always come away happy.

After I got home Adrienne I went out again, we needed to buy some bubble-wrap (for our eBay sales we are hoping to sell this week), and we also came home with a new phone for home. Our current one has been driving us nuts recently with the buttons playing up, it is especially annoying when you are trying to use it for telephone banking or something like that.

Of course, I had to give the Kayanos a try, so I went for a shortish run (I always think the first few runs in new shoes should be short ones), just over 6km @  4:46 min/km. The Kayanos felt ok, but I have a little niggle in the right knee tonight. Directly after the run, to make up the hour of exercise (“an hour a day keeps the doctor away” is my motto), I went for an ”easy” ride on my bike. Just under 15km @ 26.2 km/hr.

Some random musical thoughts

As I’ve been listening to music the last couple of days (mainly in the car), a few random thoughts have crossed my mind.

Random Thought No 1 : Certain music can invoke particularly strong emotional responses. Do you find this too? There are a few tracks that whenever I hear them, almost have the power to choke me up! There are a few that are just related to particular times of my life, but the one that made me think this random thought recently was when I heard the version of Candle In The Wind that Elton John sang at Princess Diana’s funeral. I am English, a supporter of the monarchy, but not a particularly staunch one. However I always had a soft spot for Diana, and this song always gets me.

Random Thought No 2: When listening to music in your car, it’s always more fun if you are on your own. I don’t know about you, but when I’m on my own in the car I sometimes really get into it. You can play the music as loud as you like, and you can sing along, as loud as you like. You do sometimes get strange looks from people in other cars, but I can live with that.

Random Thought No 3: Some cover versions are much better than the original. The two tracks that made me think this were the Divinyls version of Love Is The Drug, and the Guns ‘n Roses version of Live And Let Die. Any others you can think of? And a word of warning, if anyone suggests those dance/techno crap versions of Comfortably Numb or Another Brick In The Wall, I am going to forever have disdain for your musical taste

Random Thought No 4: Live music has much more energy than studio versions. If you looked into my 6-CD stacker in my car at any time, I’d hazard a guess that more than half of the CDs would be live albums, I think I prefer listening to live albums. Even though the music is sometimes not as clean and as high a quality, they just seem to have a certain energy about them. For example, at the moment I have live Deep Purple, Blondie and Queen+Paul Rodgers cued up.

Random Thought No 5: Isn’t is great to see so many “old fogies” still out there performing live. Recently I’ve seen Deep Purple, Blondie and Status Quo perform live and some of those guys are well into their fifties, in some cases 60+. Same goes for The Angels, Queen+Paul Rodgers and Pink Floyd who’s DVD’s I watch regularly. They still have so much energy and presence, and can still belt out a great rock ‘n roll concert. Isn’t that just wonderful!