Training Log Archive: theway

Including knee strengthening. Had Ruth's show on weekend (played piano and cello) so not much focus on running. Really missed it on sunday morning but was at street theatre.
Oo I am good and fat again (and feel better and my clothes fit me). Sure I would be faster at 58 but I can always go there if I desperately need to be faster sometime. I've just reached christmas size early.

I've never run on a real athletics track before so with a lot of encouragement from Flan I braved the storms and rain to join the act vets at AIS. The crowd was relaxed and welcoming and Flan was delighted that I'd made it. I did get an accusation of "Are you old enough to be here?" Hahaha!! Put your glasses on mate.

Having never run 800m before it's great to get a time to improve on. I hope I remembered my handicap correctly, so I can't be certain of my time. Lining up for my first race I thought we'd go clockwise (along the straight first) and was quickly corrected; "Don't go in front of the camera!" But after my start I didn't get lost once. It hurt a bit and with wet shoes and socks I felt like I was running heavy, squelchy and slow, so to get a k rate under 5 mins/k was a boost to confidence.

Handicap spiral race. You start in lane 1 (the inside lane) then move out a lane for each of 7 laps. Makes the handicap thing more workable. 2.9k is an approximation. I ran solidly but didn't race it doing 2:05 or very near for first 3 laps, then I slowed down. I'm still supposed to be looking after L knee. But I did sprint the finish straight :)

Did a very small warm up then ran some cool down laps with Flan and Cortina. The other part of cool down was tea and cake at end of night. The scone I chose tasted unaccountably of bacon...!? I ate it all as I didn't want to appear rude. Maybe they use acejase's bacon diet plan?

Got a nice compliment from a runner who said "You run very well." See, if you're not fast you can always aim to run nice. Then he told me that he'd watched a lot of runners and used to coach juniors. "You've obviously had coaching." By this stage I was too embarrassed to say anything. I'm secretly rather pleased and will continue my running drills.

Trevor Jacobs Christmas Handicap and I had a very good run!

I started with 2 women who were new; Jane (7 marathons in 7 days) pulled away and the other one dropped back. It's hot and it's my second Mt Ainslie in 20 hours so I'm not going to kill myself. But then I ran past 7 in 7 on the flat firetrail and decide to race. Luckily I'd thoroughly soaked my top under the tap before starting. It helped.

Once we rejoined the concrete track quite a few runners passed me and more gathered behind. Somewhere here it occurred to me that there may not be any females ahead of me. I was wishing I had paid attention. I didn't even know who was in it to be honest.

I kept to a careful line between very hard and not cooking; very focused! On every slightly steeper part and all the stairs I brought out the Moldavian grandma technique, so I re-passed a few of the males. Now and then I'd peek over my shoulder to hunt for females... none in sight... oh wait! Soon after the big staircase I spy the purple shorts of a possible Lou sighting. Another peek, yes it's Lou alright. Game over.

But maybe I have just enough lead? So I pushed and focused and pushed (all in the hilarious slow-motion of an uphill race with lots of walking), and when it was flatter I absolutely forced myself to run. At the "gate" she was between 5 and 10m behind I think. Then the stairs, stay right and sprint them and... Hurray I did it!! A quick hunt of the crowd to confirm lack of females already at top and I began to grin. Lou was 3 or 5 seconds behind. It was really close.

I was pretty luckily that other speedsters didn't run today. Winning is awefully fun, especially when such a rarity. Wine looks very nice, thanks Gramps :)))

C • awesome 4

To and from yoga/run up on MTB.

Last class of the year. Some great stuff including Rowing and reverse rowing, Boat, Half locust, Warrior (where torso not turned), the spinal twist in a sitting position (great for glute med/ piriformis). Best of all a sort of half headstand with no weight on head - do this!
Had cake (x2), real coffee and white mulberries afterwards to get me pumped for Mt Ainslie :)))

The walk down after the race, and back to bike in campbell.

Up Mt Ainslie for christmas cheer and to give a good send off to BecO and Steve H for their Kepler run in NZ. They were both very excited about running 60k. I had a cherry pit spitting comp with 7 yo Harry (I won). I have a knack for attracting the children, they recognise one of their kind. I tried not to go fast and ran only a little bit to save legs for the Mt A handicap tomorrow.