Very, Very Easy! ~~~

I didn't run at all today which is down for 'easy' running on my program. Instead, I walked from home to the Highlands School and back.  We have three new cows at the school, miniature Dexta heifers, one of whom is in calve and possibly another one but no one seems sure!  They're lovely, black, fluffy things and it took just one loaf of fresh bread to tame them!  Now, as they see me arrive in the paddock, they trot up for their special treat, slobbering all over my hands and arms to see who gets the last slice!  I've called the-mum-to-be 'Daisy-May' and the other two will be named as inspiration comes!  I spent quite some time talking to the staff and kids before setting off for home.

2km from home to school
2km from school to home. 

Today....4km

Tempo Run ~~

Big struggle! Not nearly enough energy!  Really tired again!  Did not enjoy!

Program  :  Tempo Run
1.5km easy
3.5km @ MT pace (6:44/k)
1.5km easy
3.5km @ MT pace
1.5km easy.


I started at the school, through Renwick and surrounding streets; back to the school.

1.5k easy
3.5km in 23:45 (6:46 m/k)
6:46;   6:44;   6:53;   (3:19)
 
1.5km easy

3.5km

3.5km in 24:40 (7:01 m/k)
6:41;  7:13;   7:05;   (3:40)

3.5km

1.5k easy.

11.5km Today

Easy ~~

 Surprised by just how tired I felt this morning!

'Easy' days have to be super easy for me, otherwise I pay the price on what should be a 'good' day...like tomorrow's tempo run.  It would have been a miserable failure if I'd had to do it today!

Forgot the Garmin, but that didn't matter since there was no particular session today.  I did an easy jog including walking, about 50/50, from the Highlands School to Renwick, Inkerman Road and back to the school.  Warm, sunny day of 17 degrees.

5km today.

Twelve Weeks to Go ~~~

~~~ till ACTVAC Half Marathon and time to get serious about training!

Program : Track
10-20 min warm-up
2x1200m (7:40)
2:00 RI
3x400m (2:29)
2:00 RI
10 min cool down.

A miserable sort of day : cold, sunless and light rain.  No lanes marked at Chev; grass wet and muddy at northern end.  Without any lanes - football markings in place - I ran inside the oval fence for 1200m reps and for 400m, I ran along the white lines marking the football field...a rectangle instead of an oval shape!

1200m and 400m 'lanes'.

2km warm-up
4 drills with strides

2x1200m  :  7:42 AHR 87%;    7:40 AHR 81%
3x400m    :  2:25 AHR 85%;    2:24 AHR 92%;    2:22 AHR 101% ??

1km cool-down + stretches.

Today 4:2km

Easy Run ~~

Rather than make up for the lost day Tuesday, I'm letting it go.  Instead of tempo run and because of heavy rain today, I managed an easy 5km in one of the few fine breaks.  Weather permitting, back to my program tomorrow, if not...will continue with 5km easy runs until Saturday by which time we've been promised fine days for the weekend.

Usual 5km route through Renwick.


Today   ~~ 5km  ~~

 

Even the animals enjoy a good laugh!

I Didn't Make It Today ~~

That means, I missed today's hill training session!  A couple of 'things' I had to attend to took up the entire morning  - had to be done 'things' - and now at 1:00pm, it's too darned cold, windy and horrible to even contemplate going out and besides that, there are already large drops of rain on the window pane and masses of lumpy black clouds above waiting to dump their load.

"I Agree!"

I think I've just convinced myself it would be madness to venture out in such conditions!

Easy ~~~

Brisk walk today and strength exercises from F.I.R.S.T. training programs....
...and that's it!  Cold and windy, hoping for less wind tomorrow for some hill work.

~Strength Exercising~

Today....5km

Long Run ~~~

What a freezing, cold day it's been...still is now at 4:30p.m. and an even colder night ahead...but I won't be out in that!  Plenty of sunshine about but the wind must be straight off the snow fields.  I waited until 11:00a.m before setting off in the hope of it warming up, but not so!

Program :  90min or 15km

 

From Highlands School/Diamond Fields Road and back.

Higdon's program uses 'time on feet' for long runs but being a slow runner, I prefer 'distance' and so I returned to the F.I.R.S.T. training program I'd been using prior to switching to Hal Higdon's.  I just wouldn't get far enough in 90 minutes as Higdon imagines!

15km 
2 hours 2 minutes
5km splits  ~~  41:10;    41:58;    38:55 ....
Walk breaks
Stretches 

I ran the first and last kilometres around the school.  I chose Diamond Fields Road for a change to the lovely bush scenery as well as for its hills...of which there are plenty!  Going out was fine but when I turned around at the end of DF Road, I was hit by a blast of cold wind that stayed with me all the way back to the school...nasty!  But DF Road is such a pretty bush setting with open fields all around, it was worth the unpleasant conditions.

I have to admit to being all tuckered out at the finish; felt dreadfully tired, so in quick succession I did the following :  drove home, showered, cup of tea and an Anzac biscuit, flopped on the bed and slept for 2 hours!  I always feel worse after sleeping during the day, so I moaned and groaned about that until I had a cup of hot pumpkin soup which I drank greedily and now, sitting down to bring my blog up to date, I feel almost human, but not quite!

Today....15km

For the Week....39km

At "Pace" Run ~~~

Higdon's "Pace" runs are meant to be run at the pace you wish to run the half marathon; in other words 'race pace'.  To finish in 2:20 - and I'd like to do better than that  - I'd need to run 6:36m/k.  Easy?  Not today!!
Big improvement in the weather : strong winds lessened to cold but not so strong as for the past few days this week.

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus

~~~ Lovely old maple in school grounds ~~~

I started at the Highlands School, to Bong Bong Road and Renwick streets where I chose to run back and forth on all the hilly streets just to make it more difficult!  Running in one direction down hills I had the wind behind me; returning uphill not so good into the cold wind and this gave V.P. the lead which he never lost, returning to the school more than 100m ahead of me!  Still....there's time for me to improve!

......through the branches ~~

Program:
5km at 'Pace'

 

5km @ Pace

Few drills
5km in 34:10
6:38;  7:00;  6:43;  6:59;  6:49
Stretches
Avg. pace 6:50
AHR 82%

Today ~~~ 5km

The Day Off ~~~

Friday is the one rest day during the week on the Higdon program I'm following, and pleased I am not to be out on another horribly windy day!  Tomorrow, no matter what the weather, I have to be out for a 5km run @ Pace and Sunday, a long run... hopefully with fewer gales blowing across the Southern Highlands than there have been lately.





 

Tempo Run ~~~

I hope this is true!!

Shocker of a day here :  not just windy, gales blowing; not just cold, but freezing!  I was no match for the force of the wind this morning and hated just about every minute of the session!  I took some walk breaks when it was too hard to run and stopped altogether when it was too difficult to walk.

Program  :
45 min Tempo Run

5 freezing kilometres

2km warm-up
5km in 36:21
Avg. Pace 7:16
AHR 77%;  MHR 96%?
7:07;  7:07;  6:55;  7:30;  7:41
1km walk to school.

Easy Day ~~

Just a 5km brisk walk today; legs a bit stiff from yesterday's track, so decided on a brisk walk instead of an easy run.  Weather very cold and very windy....very unpleasant.  I didn't bother with Garmin, just walked the same route I usually run for 5km.

Tomorrow tempo run.   Less cold and wind I hope!

Not such a bad idea!!

Chev. Track ~~~

Ages since I've done a track session, so I was more than a little chuffed this morning that I ran faster than the pace my program had set!  Since the Higdon program I'm following doesn't have a specific pace for track sessions, I'm using paces from the F.I.R.S.T. program for this and tempo runs, both based on my recent 5km time (MDC, Canberra) of 33 minutes.

Program :
10-20 min warm-up 
7 x 400m in 2:29
90 sec. RI
10 min cool-down

 

~My 400m reps at Chevalier College~

2km warm-up
Drills + Strides + 7x400m
2:20;  2:21;  2:21;  2:22;  2:22;  2:18;  2:22
1km cool-down
Usual stretching.

A cold, windy morning in Bowral; 206m lane just barely visible so I used it. I ran fairly hard for each repeat but pleased it was still possible to do so especially in the wind and cold! Like I said above.....I was quite chuffed with myself this morning!

Today 5.8km

Week 2 ~~ Easy Running

I think I felt better running today than I did yesterday at the MDC in Canberra!  Slower, but then it 's supposed to be an easy day.  I thought I'd be slower than I was and that I might be tired after putting heart, soul and body into yesterday's 5km!  Big change in weather  ....grey skies, cool to cold and rain on the way.  Anyhow, a good start to the second week of twelve leading up to the ACTVAC Half Marathon.

Program : Easy 5km

5.5km

I started in Renwick, ran easily for 5km and then walked 0.5 to the car...and I'm counting that in the day's total. Forgot HR monitor, remembered Garmin; tomorrow, should have it all together!

5km in 35:03 

For Today 5.5km

Mothers' Day Classic....Canberra ~~~

I drove to Canberra this morning to run the MDC 5km Run.  Leaving Mittagong at 6:00am, I drove almost the entire 2 hours in heavy fog and darkness!  The Lake was completely hidden on arrival and didn't show itself until well after the sun broke through.  From thereon it was a brilliant day with over 7,000 runners and walkers taking part in the various events and hundreds more cheering spectators.

5k Around the Lake

I met Ewen before the run and Ruth and Margaret after.  I could hear these two shouting my name and cheering as I approached the finish!  A brief chat and they were off to Mothers' Day at home, while Ewen and I headed to the War Memorial cafe for brunch.....scrambled eggs, toast and bacon, plus two mugs of coffee for me.  The second coffee was 'on the house' because my meal took a while to be served. That's what I call service!  We sat and talked till around 1:00pm before I set off for the drive back to Mittagong.  A most pleasant day!

The Run:  1 lap around the Basin crossing 2 bridges.
About 2km warm-up + strides
5km in 33:43...official time.

 I forgot to bring my Garmin!!  A hundred curses!!!  I didn't even have a watch, so I had no idea of how I was running.  I had set VP to run 6:36/k to finish in 33 minutes and I ran 33:45 without his or any other help!  I think that's the first time I've run with nothing other than my own two legs!  I was quite satisfied with that time, which was 3 minutes faster than Ginninderra Park Run a couple of months back and with only 1 full week of training after several weeks off.

The MDC is a wonderful event.... lots of fun, music and fancy costume on what turned out to be a fabulous day!

For today.....7km    

An Easy Day ~~~

Today  ~~~
1 Set Magill Drills + Strides

Cattle dam

 Easy run downhill and back through paddock.
Stretches on grass at school.

Soon, Renwick houses will fill in all this land and more!

Run down and back uphill to trees!

Today 5km

Warm-up, drills and strides on road outside school.  I then set off downhill through one of the Renwick paddocks....about 1km each way on very rough ground; it's cattle country after all, but it was fun on a day when I wanted to do just an easy jog.  Coming back uphill for 1km wasn't so much fun but it was different!  Could be useful for a long hill workout.

Today's 5km

 

Off ~~~

I took today off as my program suggests and also because I wanted to do some work in the garden.  Another perfectly beautiful day to be outdoors doing anything or just simply sitting in the sun as I am now!


I visited one of the local nurseries and returned with lawn seed for patching the grass, three bags of potting mix, the essential snail bait and six punnets of blue and yellow pansies, which are now sitting up proudly in three large containers and will make a pretty display later in the year.

Tempo Run ~~~

What a perfect day!  Even now at 2:30pm, when normally cloud would have come in, not one to be seen; just clear blue skies and a very warm sun which right now I'm basking in while typing this update.

Today's Program :
8km Tempo Run.
(6:56/k based on 33 min 5km time) 

5km of 8 total

1.5km warm-up including few drills to start with.
5km in 34:07
Avg. Pace 6:49
1km splits ~~  6:53;  6:47;  6:53;  6:47;  6:46
AHR 89%?;  MHR 130%!!  ?? 
1.5km cool-down back to school
Stretches on the grass.

This was OK I think; felt like I was running satisfactorily; could get faster with more practice!  No stops, some puffing...  always a smile when finishing ahead of VP!!

See if you can guess who's singing!!  No cheating!!!

.. 

If he can, we all can.....smile!



Tomorrow, according to Hal Higdon I have a day off.  Might sneak in an easy 5km as I feel bright and smiley...for a change!


Today 8km

Easy 5km

I included a little more walking this morning than in Monday's easy 5km....a bit stiff from yesterday's hill session ....and thinking about tomorrow's tempo run.

Program :  5km easy running (65-75% of MHR) + Strength

5km

5km in 43 minutes
AHR 65%;  MHR 82%
Strength....same as Monday.

Nice morning for an easy run....intermittent sun and cloud breaks, quiet streets and didn't see another living soul!

Today.....5km

Hills ~~~

This was tough enough!  I had thought the hill I intended using might not be steep enough but I suspected I could be wrong after the first repeat and was definitely sure after the last one!  I chose a long uphill street in Renwick.  The morning was cold and like rain and my puffing could be heard for quite some distance I'm sure!

Program :

6 x 200-400m hill repeats

6 x 400m

 Warm-up 800m... incl couple drills.
8 x 400m uphill.
Jog down between each.
Cool-down &
 Usual Stretches.

AHR 70%;  MHR  88%


For today 5km

A New Day ~~~ Another Start!

I thought that I might not enjoy my first run in 10 days and that it would be hard going.  Well, I did and it wasn't!  I really felt good; admittedly, it was slow but the new Higdon program that I began today stipulates that these easy  runs are to be kept to a certain heart rate ... 65-75% of MHR.  I did that and only walked a few seconds a couple of times when HR went over 80%.  (Spell check suggested I change 'Higdon' to 'Ding-Dong'....funny one!)

Weather good for being out in  :  cool to cold with a very light mist.

Program : Easy 5km +Strength
5km @ 65-75% of MHR

Easy 5km

2 drills and strides
5km in 39 min.
AHR 70%;   MHR 81% 
Stretches.

Strength :  from FIRST program :will be the same each time.
Leg Squats, Single Leg Squats, Walking lunges, push-ups (!), calf raises.

I was a very happy snail this morning!   Hills tomorrow.

Tomorrow... ~~~

Tomorrow, as for the Seven Dwarfs, it's off to work I go or, as in my case, off to run I go!  I'm changing from F.I.R.S.T. programs to Hal Higdon's Advanced half Marathon Program.  F.I.R.S.T. has been very good indeed to me for some years, allowing me to set some PBs and a couple of Age-category Australian Records, so no complaints from me about Furman training.  However, I need a change, something new and different to restore motivation and get a life again, preferably one that involves running, jogging or whatever it is I do can be called!

Higdon's program, like many other good ones contains the most important workouts..e.g. Speed, Tempo and Long Runs.  He adds some specific hill running in the early stages, easy runs on three days and one day off.  The program is for 12 weeks and, since there are 15 weeks to the ACTVAC Half Marathon, I have a few weeks up my sleeve as well!

So that's where I'm going....for now and the near future...and there can be no more fiddling around with time off for silly things like x-ray, CT scan, MRI, ultra-sound, blood tests, all of which showed there is nothing serious causing 'wall of chest' pain, but still most likely the original diagnosis of inflammation in adjoining cartilage.  If nothing else, it all rules out there being anything at all wrong with me...nice to know I have a clean bill of health!

 

Child's drawing of a duck exercising found on a street, USA, 2012.....Would love to know the 'artist'!

Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's off to run I go! ~~

....
.Well, today is important for me because I have the results from the ultrasound earlier than expected....and they're all good!  All clear!  Seems I've nothing to worry about at all......now, that's a worry!

I'll resume my program next week and with 15 weeks still left to the ACTVAC half marathon, I should just about be ready!  Phew, Close call!
  
Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...Forget all about work and digging...it's off to run we go!

First of May ~~~

On the first of May, it is moving day,
Spring is here, so blow your job,
Throw your job away!
Now's the time to trust,
To your wanderlust,
In the city's dust you wait, must you wait
Just you wait!




 

Some words of advice from Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart!  ("Garrick Gaieties" 1926)

Meanwhile......No running while I wait for results of Ultra-sound,  Friday.