C25K! ~~~~~

I'm doing the C25K program.....as well as my own!

.....just for the next 2 weeks during school holidays while there's no Fitness Class to go to!

This came about in a come-by-chance sort of way :  One of the teachers at the Highlands School
 has been wanting to start running, so I agreed to go with her and get her started by doing the C25K program during the holidays and then she'll be confident to go it alone, I hope.  Whilst making arrangements for this, the School Principal happened to be in the office listening and then asked if he could also join in!

So, this morning at 10:00 the 3 of us met at the school and set off into a fierce wind and very happily  completed Day 1, Week 1!  Downloaded a great little C25k app that told us when to change from walking to running!  We meet again on Wednesday and Friday.  Both seemed to enjoy it, I had company for a change and I was absolutely thrilled to see two more people start moving!  The female teacher has already entered for The Southern Highlands Challenge (6km) which we'll run together on August 31.

I'm hoping the word will spread!

A happy day!

Windy Weather ~~~~

Not as bad as earlier in the week, but nasty enough to make it a tough morning run. 

Long Run :  10km with a fair bit of walking!

What a Day!

Just when you think the wind can't get any worse.....it does!  I could only run when I had the wind behind me; into the head wind, I could barely walk and even then, several times I was blown off course. A bit scary really and I don't enjoy being out in such weather at all.  Needless to say VP finished the Tempo section nearly 700m ahead of me, so doubt that I accomplished anything good at all today in the way of running. 

The program was :  Tempo Run...9.5km
1.5km warm-up
6.5km @ 8:20m/k
1.5km cool-down

6.5km

Less said about the 6.5km, the better!  It took me 1 hour, mostly walking, occasionally jogging.

Six Degrees!

....and blowing a gale!  I think this has been the worst day at Chev track that I can remember!  It had everything nasty : freezing cold, gale-force wind gusting in every direction and no lanes marked so I ran, or tried to run, just inside the boundary fence.  Truly awful day!  So glad to return home for hot milk coffee, banana muffin and hot shower...in that order!

My Program was:
10-20 min warm-up...did 1.5km + 4 strides



This was 800m

200m, 400m, 600m, 800m, 800m, 600m 400m, 200m
200/400m RI

Cool-down......which I didn't do!




My times were:
1:22;  2:42; 4:16;  5:57;  5:59;  4:20;  2:46;  1:20

Cross-Training ~~~

Fitness Class   ~~~~~  'Cross-Fit'   ~~~   10's, i.e. 10 times each exercise on the circuit.  30 mins.  The kids and I are all going to a local gym on Wednesday for our cross-fitness workout with an instructor from the gym!!  More about this later.....!!!!  Have to say...I'm really looking forward to it!

A Shorter Long Run!

Was to have been 20km.  I did 10km because I'm making some changes this week.  Beautiful day, sunny and warm, no wind. 

10km

Promotion to Judge!!

Today at the school I was promoted!  I was given a team of 3 students to judge as they performed as many of 6 exercises they could do correctly in 5 minutes! Have to admit my team didn't win in spite of yelling amidst all the noise and loud music to do "just one more!"

It was all good fun; teachers and kids enjoyed it, but glad I was judging and didn't have to be part of a team especially after yesterday's long run,  Last night I could hardly walk!

Long Run

Long and cold!  I didn't run long on Saturday because it was wet so, rather than miss the most important run of the week, I let track go for this week and did the long run instead.  It was so cold and windy!  Even now, after a hot shower, coffee and banana muffin, I'm still cold!  I haven't run as far as 16km in ages...no surprises, it was a huge struggle. Diamond Fields Road was all stones and rocks, much in need of grading and a deathly trap for the unwary jog/walker.  I walked the first 2 km and the last 2km and some hills in between.

I'm not enjoying runs of this distance anymore  (I'm too old!) and after the Wingello half marathon in August, I will not do any more half marathons...that's it!  5 to 10km distances will be my limit unless I decide to quit altogether.  Time will tell!

16 cold kilometres!

 

I don"t think yesterday's Fitness Class at the school helped today!  One of the exercises was to climb onto the stadium stage  (like Everest for me!), run across the stage, run down about 20 steps and repeat 5 times!  After several futile attempts to get just one leg up before falling back on the floor, a watchful teacher put a milk bottle crate below the stage for me to step onto before trying to get up any further!  This made it slightly easier but I still had to cling desperately to the side of the stage to get a foot or hand hold!  The students, to embarrass me further, simply took one flying leap and they were up and gone while I'm still straddling the edge of the stage with arms and legs in all directions like some crazy octopus!

After that, I took extra time with the skipping rope just to show them how good I was at skipping!

Today : 16kms Diamond Fields Road....2 hours 45 minutes and 3 seconds!!!!

...Diamond Fields Road as pretty as ever!

Fitness Class ~~~~~

...at the school :  "Twenties", meaning 20 times everything on the circuit!  I do a warm-up outside the stadium first and stretches after.  35 minutes.

Tempo Run ~~~~~

Program :
1.5km easy
3.5m Mid Tempo Pace (8:20 using a 40 min 5k time)
1.5km easy
3.5km MT
1.5km easy.

2x3.5km

This was OK I suppose; bit of a struggle after long break.

3.5km in 28:48 Avg. pace 8:14
3.5km in 28:28 Avg. pace 8:08

Finished both ahead of VP even though he got ahead on a couple of hills!


For today : 11.5km

Fitness Class ~~~~~

....at the School involved :  lunges, skipping, step-ups, chin-ups!!, knee raises, hopping in and out of tyres and a few others better off forgotten, but I thoroughly enjoyed the half hour!

Two Weeks Later ~~~~~

I made yet another start this morning!  Two weeks with a whopper of a cold and what a morning to make a comeback : track session, light rain, long wet grass and no marked lanes!  Again, I used the mowed sections of the football field.

Program:
10-20 min warm-up
2x1200m (9:21))
4x800m (6:10)
10 min cool-down.

I did half of the program so as to ease back and not be out too long in the wet.  VP was set to run 9:21 for 1200m and 6:10 for 800m.

10 min warm-up + 4 strides
1x1200m in 9:14
2x 800m in 6:06 and 5:49.
5 min cool-down walk.

So, here I go again!