Tiny triumphs

This week has been a good one. I've managed two runs and two cross training sessions so far, and yesterday did a hilly run home. This was a minor victory - I was tired but most importantly had forgotten my contacts. This meant running home in my glasses, which slipped down my nose once I got sweaty. So from about 5 minutes into the run, I was either pushing my glasses back up my nose or running with my head titled right back and my mouth slightly open... people made room for me on the footpath. Not that long ago having to run bespec'd would have been enough to make me bludge a ride home, so yes, it's a tiny triumph to have gone anyway.

I did a bike session tonight, which felt so wrong. A beautiful summer evening, and me inside at the gym going nowhere fast. I'm following (in very general terms), the FIRST programme which has worked well for me as an injury-prone plodder. It does mean I spend a bit of time inside on a stationary bike catching up on podcasts (I like Endurance Planet in particular), but it's working for me.

Do you follow specific programmes? Or do your own thing? Mix it up? And how do you find out what works for you?

My diary never lies

My training diary is not my friend - not today at least. It never lies to me. On good week this means I did all my planned sessions and, as a bonus, enjoyed them all, too. These last couple of weeks there is a theme emerging though, and it looks like this:
"L achilles niggle." Then "L achilles tight" and a few days later "L achilles tight ON THE BIKE :(

Hmmm. I can't lie to my diary, but I really want to get lots of running done over the Christmas break. So here is the eternal dilemma of the injury prone runner - do the exercises that worked last time, hope it sorts itself and not write anything down for a few weeks. Or start contributing to my physio's Christmas shopping fund. Which would be sensible and would be the better long term option with Kepler in mind. I think I've just talked myself into some treatment, and hoping not to hear the words "OK, you just need to take a couple of weeks off."

I am still working on just when to take something seriously and when to feel confident that its a niggle and it will go away, especially when just starting to slowly up the mileage. Experience, or is it different every time?

Other things that, like my diary, just don't lie?
- my barometer jeans (Brig ate all the pies)
- yesterday's socks (not rank enough for the 25km you said you did...)
- how much of the cake is left.

So, anyone out there - what or who doesn't let you get away with your running fibs? When is it good to be forced to be honest, and when do you just want to put your head right in the sand?



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"rest" days

It's been a busy week, and a good illustration of how best intentions for blogging and running go out the window when real life intervenes. It's also been a good reminder to me that I'm going to need to prioritise certain things once training gets a bit more serious. This means that other things can't or won't get done - some hard choices to be made.

I think the first thing that'll have to go is brain-dead late night TV. The number of times I've plonked out on the sofa thinking "Oh, I really, really should go to bed," but gone past the point of being able to shift my sorry carcass. And in the morning regretting it all over again. OK it's hardly the same as a half-remembered night on the tiles but in my quiet world, it's the pretty much the height of badness.

That comes down to self discipline, like trying to eat half-decently and, yes, even committing to speedwork and the sort of tempo runs that come into the RTYP (run 'till you puke) category for a plodder like me.

The more difficult things are in the realm of not volunteering so much, as in my experience agreeing to do anything more than a very few things on top of family, work and running leads to doing none of them as well as I'd like. This is tough when I have to decide not to do things I really want to, in order to make time for the aforementioned RTYPs.

Is a long day running around a big hill worth it? I've been at the Kepler finish line three times, welcoming my partner home and while it's not a rational decision I have decided I want to be part of that. What drivers make certain sacrifices worthwhile?
This year will tell!

Day 1 - going up?

Got a local hill test piece?

I've been running for about five years now. A good proportion of that time's been spent on and around a hill that sits about 5 minutes from our house. Mt Kaukau has a radio tower and a beacon on top and dominates the local landscape. It's a beautiful backdrop for the house, and a really challenging run, at least for most mere mortals!

There are a variety of trails leading up to the mast at the summit, none of them easy. There's short and steep and rocky; nice lead trail followed by steep steps, or longer and more varied. Hmmm, what's a girl to do?

Tonight I went for the first option - light was fading! And it seemed like a good way to start my year-long training journey. To replace a flat tempo run: a nice hard climb through bush and then out onto open farmland to look across the city and south toward the South Island while I suck back lots and lots of oxygen and try to get rid of the wobbles before heading back down.

Uphill technique? Any hints welcome! At this stage, my fitness allows me to tiptoe up, tiny bit by tiny bit. Steps? Well, it depends on how high the step is. Too high, I walk. I'm not tall enough or young enough to go bounding over anything anymore.

It felt good. A good start. Here's hoping!

The first steps

A few days ago, I blurted it out, in the presence of a reliable health professional: I'm planning to do a 60km mountain run in December 2010. I made this rash promise in the presence of my osteopath, ironically treating me for a running injury at the time. She was kind enough to make encouraging noises while I started contemplating setting up a direct credit to her bank account.

I'm a very average person and a very average runner, a plodder happier over long distances. An 'adult onset' runner, I started about five years ago, after spending most of my life pointing at runners and laughing about how miserable they all looked. Now I'm one of them. I'm still not sure why, but three times a week I hit the pavement, trail or treadmill, and do some cross training sessions when I'm being good. I do more than slightly less than that when I'm not being good.

So why the 60km challenge? Well, 40 is looming, my knees still work, and with any luck, 2010 is a year in which I will have time to train.

Can I do it? Well, I think I'll be OK for the distance if I pull finger and actually train, but how well can I do it? In ascending order of preference for condition at the finish line:

1. Getting there
2. Getting there upright
3. Not puking on the line (before the line is OK)
4. Not grimacing
5. Smiling
6. Running and smiling

I'm sure that the training runs will add variations on the above. Will keep you posted.

My other aims are to not get (too badly) injured during the year, and to maintain some sort of consistency with my running in balance with family, work, friends and keeping my house at least habitable.

Tomorrow is Monday, and I'm marking it the first formal day of my year-long build up to my event in December 2010. But before then, a big slice of chocolate cake. Plenty of time to work that off later on.

Happy trails folks!