mixed bag...(ntr)

Mixed bag of running today - all of it really enjoyable and just for fun - not training, not going for PB's, just for fun and to enjoy to the weather and company!

Today i left at about 7:15am, and ran to BOP for Blacktown fun run. Met up with a few other CR's ( distanceline70, blues buffet, and mango) and did the 4km run. Mouse then arrived on her aqua angel ( :-) ) for the 10km run. We ran together and finished in 58mins - i said to mouse at about 300mtr into it that this was the first organised run we have done together in a very long time, and it felt great! We then kept a fairly steady pace of just under 6:00 pace for the entire event. Mouse has been doing so much training ( riding, aerobics, boxercise, tri-club) that I knew she could definitely do sub 1hour. I am very proud of her, and to have been there for her today ;-) (i am still blushing at all the sweet, yet true, things she has said about me! Can you tell we adore each other??? )

After a bacon and egg sandwich, i saddled back up, and ran home. So, all in all, 30km in 4 runs today - comprised of 8km to the fun runs at BOP, 4km race, 10km race, and 8km home. My legs feel tired now, but gee whiz it was a swell day for running.

google musing: there are bout 23,700 hits for "mixed bag...(ntr)."....wonder what they all are??

47km in 2 days

Well I am tired, as my title says it has been a BIG weekend!! Yesterday saw us taking Basil the Beagle for a run in the morning to get the papers, then in the afternoon we did 18km together on our bikes. Then this morning I rode up the Blacktown Olympic Park (about 8-9km) for the 10km fun run. Ian was already there having run up to the park, run in the 4km and was waiting for me for the 10! We saw Mango, Blues Buffet and John (sorry mate, cannot remember your CR name!).

Ian paced me and did a wonderful job. I have been trying to get back under 1hr for 10km for about 12 months now. I went from 105, to 104, to 102 and now to 58.20!!!!!! Thanks babe, you are the sweetest, most inspiring man in my life!! I felt like I was going to vomit there for a while though, he really paced me well, kept at my limit for most of the race. Then I cycled on the M7 back home. My legs are soooo tired right now!! Think I am off to have a nap soon.

NTR has gone to the shop to buy me some M&Ms - he is taking NTR Jr to IMAX to see Spiderman 3 so I think he is trying to help me relax and enjoy the quiet house for a change!! I was craving chocolate and as always, he stepped up and offered to go buy it. I am in a mushy mood, that's right but I don't care - this is my blog and I can be mushy if I want! ;-)

A BIG thankyou to my best friend, my favourite runner, and my alround favourite person, for pushing me when I need it and taking the time to pace me and help me achieve a goal I have been chasing for the last 12 months. I better go before I make other people vomit....

P.S. I have found a name for my little girl - she is my aqua angel and from here on in, will be called Angel

parra park - back at last ( and bike photos) (ntr)

I had a very nice run at parra park yesterday with the group at 1pm. Last time i was there was before Canberra marathon - ages ago! Nice to run with Terry and Andre, and share a small glass (OK - plastic cup ) of champagne to celebrate a runners 88th birthday. Think about that one...88 and still doing 5km in under 50mins - i can only hope to have the facilities to do that in 50 odd years time! His birthday speech the group was " My time flies when your having fun...and it flies faster then i can run!! ".

Mouse and i got back not long ago from a really nice 5km run with Basil the beagle, via the newsagent to get a few kg's of newspapers!! Great start to the day for all 3 of us! Both of us looking forward to doubling up the 4km and 10km Blacktown fun runs tomorrow! I plan on running out there on the M7 to make up the distance i need to do for marathon training - so in all i will do 25Km, 11km on my own, and the next 14 in the two events. I will try and do the 4km hard and fast, and the 10km at 6min pace with mouse.

Also, i am looking forward to seeing spiderman at the imax afterwards too with Jnr Son.!! I won 2 tickets by calling into a radio station late last friday night - funny thing is i was just flicking stations when the DJ said "call this number for tickets", so i did and i won, but i have NO idea which station it was!! They should have atleast sent the tickets out with a letter with their logo!!


As promised....mouses bike in all its shiny glory...(more photos via the Flickr link on right hand side of blog page..)




google musing: there are 30 hits for " parra park - back at last ( and bike photos) (ntr) " - i nearly have enough time to see what they all are!

Excited little mouse

I have been very quiet but at least I have been active since getting over my cold. Lots of spin, pump, riding and yes - running!! It feels good not just to run (I run quite often) but it feels good to FEEL GOOD runing, it has bene a while. Too much food, too many late nights have seen me lose a lot of fitness. It has turned a bit too cold to brave a swim now, I hate cold water with a passion. I wonder if I could swim in a pool with a wet suit on?

Bike porn to come soon, NTR and I took some photos of my baby yesterday. I went for a ride at lunch, took 7mins off my previous best time for the 20km course I do on the M7. My little girl is coming through with the goods! I keep pulling her out of the shed, not always to ride her, sometimes just to look and make her nice and shiny. I am thinking of naming her but nothing has come to mind yet, will wait and see what kind of personality she develops.

I have brick tomorrow and NTR is coming too - yippee! off to work now, busy busy busy.

Oh, I am definitely heading to Chicago in July for 3-4 months to work, only 2 months away - eek!!!!!! The trip will include the Chicago Half Marathon and when NTR and I make our travel plans for Europe after my work trip, we may try for one in Italy or France also. So exciting!

hillbilly half...(ntr)

after a week of no running due to a cold and general absolute exhaustion, todays long run was blerk. I knew 1km in that this would be ugly and it was. I just felt so flat, and not into it - all i could hear in my head was "am i bovvered?".

That aside, this was a good new route for me - basically from quakers hill out to riverstone and back, via the big rural blocks, where it seemed everyone had something for sale, something rusting, and a sheep,goat and cow. A much needed change of scenery from the M7. The general direction suggested by CR enjay - cheers. This is a course that will no doubt become a regular long run for me. The gmap of it is here: hillbilly half

This coming week is the week of proper eating, sleeping and training!!! Yah, bring it on!

Google musing... about 13,600 hits for hillbilly half...(ntr) before posting. Wonder what they all are.

gotta love that fog...(ntr)

feeling energised today from a interval session this morning in the fog at 5:20am! It was tough getting up, but i did mine so rach had time for her ride on her new shiny UFO-like bike!
20 mins warm up, stretches, and then 5 X 2min cruise intervals ( just under 5:00 pace) with 1 min jogging rests between each, with a 10 min cool down jog.

The fog was mystic and beautiful, with the street lamps only just radiated through it. I loved it. ( 5am is still night time right? )

A good thing about getting up early for this...i have read the newspaper, cleared a few emails, cleaned up and am ready to go to work organised!

Google Muse: gotta love that fog...(ntr) has only 496 hits in google...wonder what they all are.

Sick Mouse

I have a cold and have not done much the last few days. Have still done my usual spin and pump classes this week but not much outdoor riding or running. Pity too, I bought a new bike last week - she is beautiful and I have been itching to ride but coughing a lot too so exercise is hard.

I did manage brick yesterday, Ian came too which was great. My new bike is a dream to ride and I had a really great morning all in all.

Off to bed, spin tomorrow morning and hopefully chest will be cleared up enough to get out and ride - yah!!!!

...but i was 3 hours late.. (ntr)

Past week has been hectic!! I was at a conference in Darling Harbour Tuesday and Wednesday, which is right pain to get to from Quakers Hill, and means organising babysitters for the kids after school, but it did mean mouse and I got to travel in by train together, which was nice - even amongst thousands of people crammed in the train, it was good to spend time together!

Work commitments meant i missed seeing Jnr No.2 do her u9 cross country run at zone this week. Well, she came 6th and is now going to the "area" carnival! I learnt a few things from this:

1. she enjoys running and is good at it!
2. my tactic of "jog at the start, sprint at the end" works for her, and she remembered it
3. she knows how to work the crowd...when i asked how she went, she frowns, and says "it was hard", (frown some more) "it was really hot, and i only finished 6th" ( still frowning, milking sympathetic sounds from everyone she tells...) "SO I AM GOING TO AREA!" ( no longer frowning, but jumping up and down!)

I am hoping i can get to see her at this event in June!

As for my training, it is feeling good:
Monday - very light bike ride (not feeling well, but needed to test the new bike i have)
Tuesday - 2.5km warm up, with 4x80m at full speed, with walk back recovery, and a 1km jog home to cool down
Wednesday - i did 10km, as hard as i could. No sure if this was effective or not, as my speed was either 4.30=>5.00 or 10:00 ( walking, exhausted..) Not exactly as planned, but felt good to do a few kms at a fast pace! I did walk about 4 times though.
Thursday - day off
Friday - having missed parra park runners at 1pm due to work commitments, i stopped by after work (4pm) and run the exact same 8.33km course - start, finish, laps - all the same. And I ran a personal course PB of 38:49!! The closest i have come prior was 40.54 November 06, and 40.57 in march 07. Shame i did not run it 3 hours earlier, so i could share some post race,exhausted excitement with the parra park runners - instead i walked back to the car with a big smile on my face, and still have not reset my watch!
Saturday - 19km ride, 4km run... back to parra park for a training session with the Hill Tri Club. I have never gone before ( i dont do tri...i sink after 50mtrs in water!) but Rach does, and she has a new bike to show off! I tried to keep up with her on the bike legs, and we ran together on the run legs. A really good session - if the moons align and I can go again, i will for sure! The people there are really friendly and supportive - low key and hospitable like SMC.

Not sure if i will get to the 18km planned run today..mothers day events are planned, all of which involve lots of eating....maybe a late run tonight is on the cards...

Whilst running this week, listened to a good podcast by Jimmy Wales, founder of wikipedia...very interesting if your into online communities ...( like blogs, Coolrunning, etc etc!!! )

Google Musing: there were 92,000 Google hits on "...but i was 3 hours late.. (ntr)" before posting.

long run and a new bike (ntr)

a good weekend - shame its nearly over...

yesterday, mouse and I went to pick a road bike she bought for me off ebay (thanks babe! ) - i don't know too much about bikes/brands/specs, but it looks good, handles well, and the gears just click into where they are supposed to - perfect for me. I am dreading and excited about doing a BRICK session with mouse and the hills tri club on saturday - i think its going to hurt!

As we picked the bike up from Brighton le-sands at about 6pm, the girls and I had a small night time picnic on the waters edge counting planes and staring at the massive fullmoon last night! A really cool night for all of us, very different to what we would normally consider for dinner!

As for running, i did a 28km run today, in 2:41 mins, which is 5:45 pace - exactly what i wanted. Spot on. So far, my new training regime is going OK - i like the variety in it. A lot of cyclists out today - most ignored my greetings, some flew past within cm's of my elbow...very different to what i normally see. Maybe they should run instead, seems that riding makes them grumpy. ( mental note: when riding on m7, acknowledge all runners! )

Mouse got a great recipe today for healthy scones from rellies visiting from QLD......cant wait for her to try it out!!

Dumb musing: Before posting this, a google on the title "long run and a new bike (ntr)" results in 22,900 results...wonder what they all are?

A boxing mouse

I went to a Boxing class today at Norwest, it was great! Lots of punching, running around and situps and pushups galore. We had an American instructor who was very "military" and I "dropped and gave him twenty" quite a few times throughout the class. It was pretty hilarious actually, very typically American - almost a Dr Phil on steroids "if you can't feel the pain, you're not getting the gain honey".

I also did Pump on Tuesday and spin yesterday - I am still sore from Pump, man those Pump classes better work as they are damn painful! Going for a run tomorrow night and have Brick on Saturday plus long run on Sunday so a very active weekend ahead. We also have to re-roof our pergola so busy, busy, busy.

NTR was tru to his name last night, coming home from his run close to 11pm. Would be fine if I did not have to get up at 5! Hmmmm, we need to work on our bed times a bit me thinks.

nite_time_runner by name...

I hit the M7 for a 1:30min run last night from 9:10pm. The cruise intervals, plus half marathon etc, must doing something to me - the run felt hard, the legs sore! Average pace was 6:02km/min, which includes a few mins stretching. I mad sure i had all new songs on the ipod and enjoyed the cool air and solitude.

Today is a day off -yeah! Fingers and toes crossed i can get to parra park runners tomorrow lunchtime!

always start a program on the scheduled "Day Off" - NTR

thanks Paul for the training program from endurance training - i have started the novice program for the marathon. I can say i started at the end of week 6 ( lucky for me it was called "day off"!! ), but have now done:
Day Off
Long Aerobic 20km ( bathurst half )
Cross Training - 40 mins on my rusty mountain bike last night.
Run Cruise Intervals - did this today, looking like a sponsor board for Aldi, wearing the brand new long pants and jacket!

Funny thing i noticed...my 8km bike ride last night was only a few mins faster then my 8km fast run....to which i told Mouse "gee i must a really really fast runner to go as fast as a bike" The fact my bike and I squeaks, clicks and sings with amusement as i ride, it did not occur to me that this explains my cruisy ride speed!

I am feeling really good lately - energy levels way up, i think i am more relaxed, and the whole family are just eating better and enjoying each others time a lot more in the last month or so. Mouses kick start program, the trip to canberra and some time off work have done us all wonders!!