Still here?

I'm glad to report that exercise has proven to be an easier habit to get back into than Blogging.

Since my last post in January, I've been cycling fairly regularly - 2 to 3 days per week, at least up until the last few weeks.

A combination of rain, cold and rediscovering another form of exercise have been the reasons that the cycling has dropped off a bit lately.

Actually, the rain isn't too bad, and I have some winter gear to protect against the cold, so I can happily focus the story on the 'new' exercise.

The excitement surrounding City to Surf starts about this time of year and I figured I'd give it a go again. So recognising how precious my sleep is in the mornings, I realised I'd struggle to run before coming to work. I briefly considered running to work, but at 15km -it's just a bit out of my range!

So, the solution... run at lunchtimes!

I thought I'd better test my running legs closer to home first, so I headed out for a 5k run a couple of Sundays back.

What a disaster! It felt like my quads were being hammered (literally) with every step. I think I only ran for about 2k in total and walked the rest of the 5k route. I thought (hoped) it was just that I don't stretch very much, so I spent the next few days stretching at every opportunity.

I then tried the lunchtime run with a colleague - and thankfully managed a bit over 5k in a bit over 30 minutes. No pain. A great route - fairly flat and next to the water.

Now I've done 5 of those sessions in the last couple of weeks, with a 7k run at the weekend. So I'm hoping to build up from there. There's a couple of colleagues who make up the lunchtime training group, so that helps us all to stick at it.

I'm not prepared to commit to any target time just yet for C2S this year. But we'll see how the training goes...

New PB...

I had a day off (work) yesterday, so perhaps the extra days' rest paid dividends this morning with a new PB of 23.2km/h.

I seem to be settling around that 23km/h mark in both directions.

Or it could have been that I was lucky with the traffic lights. A minute makes more than 0.6km/h difference.

I'm just happy that I'm sticking at it and not suffering any injuries (touch wood).

The challenge will come as we get into winter here. Darker mornings and evenings and colder too! I can buy cold weather gear and I have lights, but will that be enough??

Benchmarks...

Happy New Year!

I've certainly had no problem feeling motivated to keep cycling to work after the Christmas and New Year break.

I came in by bike on Tuesday and Thursday of last week (the first week back).

I did have a small concern on the ride home on the Tuesday. I felt a twinge in my right knee. I got a bit worried about that, because I've never had that kind of problem before. That's why I missed Wednesday, but I couldn't contain my enthusiasm anymore than that, so I rode in on Thursday. The twinge re-occurred on both journeys to and from work.

But I did set a benchmark time for the homeward journey with an average speed of 20.8km/h. So quite pleased with that!

I had brief thoughts of a knee reconstruction - but more rationally I figured it was just a case of the strength of my body catching up with my enthusiasm. So I rested over the weekend.

I came in this morning and set another benchmark - 22.7km/h for the journey to work. And no twinges. So hopefully that's a good sign. Balancing the exercise with rest should enable me to improve my strength and fitness without incurring any injuries (touch wood).

Cycling Week Two...

So after cycling to work Monday and Tuesday of last week, my legs enjoyed the rest for the remainder of the week.

I cycled again on Monday this week. The journey home was the hardest leg so far. There was a hot wind blowing straight into my face virtually all the way home. So not only was I working against the resistance - I was also constantly thirsty.

Tuesday we had something on at Lian's school so I didn't cycle, but I did today. That days rest yesterday must have helped my legs to recover because I improved my time by a couple of minutes and I'm starting to feel like I can push the pace a bit more.

So now I'm kicking myself that I didn't start cycling to work much earlier, because I really enjoy it now.

Hopefully I can get back into it straight after the Christmas break and start to see some big improvement in strength and fitness.

An Annual Report...?

I didn't intend this to become an annual update, but apart from a few runs and related blog entries in January - it was September 2007 since I was keeping a regular update.

I don't know how easy it will be to get some momentum back with this, or even if blogging is still popular these days. Is Facebook the new blog, I ask???

So, since January... what has happened?

Well Robert Thomas Parkes was born on 14th March, so he's 8 months old now. He's starting to crawl (more of a drag really), but the big milestone we're waiting for is him sleeping through the night!

I bought a rowing machine around that time too. The intention was to make a form of exercise available which was even more convenient than running. However, shortly after buying that we started a bathroom renovation which used the 'rowing area' as a storage space. So that put a block on rowing, and even after the bathroom was finished in about August, it took a while to start to get back into that.

So another idea came up... cycling to work!

I've had my road bike for 20 years and my mountain bike for 12 years - neither of which have been used much since leaving the UK in 1995 (the mountain bike was bought in Hong Kong, but rarely used there).

The obvious journey to work is via a very busy road (Victoria Road). So even though the journey is only about 15km, that had put me off the idea for so long. But having spoken to a few work colleagues who cycle around Sydney - they pointed out the cycle routes that criss-cross the city.

So I figured out a route, got my mountain bike serviced and fitted with new inner tubes and slick, Kevlar lined tyres (and new peddles since one peddle got lost in transit from Singapore) and was ready to go.

But the wife took a bit of convincing, then it was rainy on and off for a few weeks. So I just managed to start yesterday.

And what a success. Despite my lack of bike fitness, it is still a quicker journey from bed to office than the train. Bike takes 1:15 -which includes 10 mins getting up and ready, 45 mins cycling and 20 minutes showering & changing at work. Whereas the train takes 1:30!!

I cycled in today too. But I think I'll have to get into it slowly as I could feel that my legs were a bit more tired today. So perhaps start with a couple of days a week, a couple of days rest, a couple of days rowing and I'm sure that I'll get the strength and fitness back fairly quickly.

I think I'll stick to the mountain bike, because the route is a bit uneven and skinny tires may be a bit of a challenge. But it would be interesting to see how much quicker the road bike would be!

I'll see how the mood takes me to keep updating here...

7.??km (Approx) Easy...

I think my Imaginary Friend had trouble getting out of bed this morning. It logged my start point but then didn't record the next 2km or so.

I wonder whether it was the dense cloud cover? A good excuse to upgrade to the latest Forerunner. Actually I just saw they are about to release the 405. A GPS training device that looks like a watch (rather than a brick)!

So anyway, I guess it was just over 7km in 40:49.

I felt really good today. Perhaps the cooler temperature.

Little by little, I'm getting back on track.

6.20km Easy...

I had a late start at work this morning, so a good chance to get a run in today.

Another of my old routes. Flatter than the route I've taken in the few runs since New Year (i.e. not so down hill!) and I pushed the distance out to a whopping 6km too!!!

So 6.20km in 38:27 at 6:12/km.

Slowly, slowly!

5.58km Easy...

A bit of a battle to get out of bed this morning to go for a run. Proves that there's a fair way to go before the habit has re-formed.

It was still 20 deg C despite a hint of cooling rain. Nice to have a dip in the pool when I'd finished.

5.31km Easy...

I had intended to run yesterday as well as today, but I just felt too tired when I woke up. I could feel the run on Tuesday in my legs too - which was quite a good feeling!

Anyway, nothing special today - 5.31km in 31:12 at 5:52/km pace.

So far so good.

5.38km Easy...

Did anybody miss me?

It was 2nd September when I last had a run! So let's see how this New Year Resolution goes...

So far, so good - with an Easy 5.38km in 32:59 at 6:07/km pace.

Even at 7:45am it was 22 deg C, so the earlier starts when I start back to work next week should be a bit cooler.

I won't even attempt to note what's been happening since September!

10.78km LSD...

I've been too busy to post in the last few days, but now here's a mention of my run last Sunday.


I set out a bit later than usual and ended up running in unseasonably hot conditions (about 22 deg C).


I just wanted to get an hour's worth of running into my legs and managed to plod around 10.78km in 1:01:35 at a reasonable 5:42/km pace.


It was tough to finish. I was trying to run to finish as close to home as possible so that I could walk to cool down and get some fluids inside me. But finished with about 1.5km to walk.


No running since then as work's been a bit mad and I feel myself coming down with a cold!


Bugger!!

7.31km Easy...

It makes a huge difference getting out of bed for a run when the temperature is 5 deg C or so higher than it was a month ago.

So an Easy run today. 7.31km in 40:03 at 5:28/km pace.

Probably a bit too fast in places. I think my Imaginary Friend gets a bit confused running under cover of trees, so he speeds up and slows down a fair bit.

I noticed on the Half Marathon website that there'll be pacers to achieve a specific time. Now I just need to figure out what time I think I can achieve.

8.59km Medium...

I've been feeling increasingly guilty over the last few days about not running - even though I had a 'strength' session on Sunday (mixing 200kg of concrete)!

So I said to myself last night - must run in the morning.

And I did! I'm not sure what I should call that run - it doesn't fit into any standard description. I suppose it was close to a Tempo run - fairly hard up hills with recovery patches in between.

So 8.59km in 44:37 at 5:11/km pace. It felt good... to finish!

I've got to try to keep it up now to have any chance of putting in a decent effort at the Half Marathon.

7.34km Easy...

I did think about having a Hard session this morning, but I felt a bit sore after yesterday - so I decided on a nice and easy run. 7.34km in 41:46 at 5:41/km pace.

And a good job I did. My left knee is feeling especially sore now. I don't intend to run again before Sunday, so hopefully that'll give it time to rest and recover.

I don't want to lose any momentum with the return to regular training. There are already too many obstacles - mainly the wet and cold weather!

So I'll hopefully be back here on Monday.

7.16km Medium...

It's been a struggle to get out of bed to go for a run lately. A struggle that I've been losing. But today, I made the effort - despite the miserable conditions (rain).

And I was pleasantly reminded of one of the benefits of running... It really did feel good out there! Not an especially fantastic performance - 7.16km in 35:51 at 5:00/km pace - but it seemed like a big achievement anyway.

Hopefully, I can get out regularly to get a bit of extra stamina for the Half Marathon on 23rd September.

7.4km Easy...

I was able to finish work a bit early yesterday and get in the fabled "Recovery Run".

Actually, I didn't feel any aches & pains at all after Sunday's City to Surf. Maybe I didn't try hard enough!

So 7.40km in 40:50 at 5:30/km at a constant pace, all the way to the end was very satisfying.

5 weeks to go until the Half Marathon. Maybe I need to focus on leg strength...

14.37km City to Surf 2007...

Lessons learnt for next year...

Enter into the sub-100 minute group, to avoid the 5-abreast walkers and pram pushers!

That is just getting dangerous. We also arrived a bit late too, so we started way back in the pack of the HSBC Group. I didn't even hear the gun for our start so I started my watch as we crossed the start line.

For the first time I was held up more by the people in front of me than I was by my own ability!

So line to line time was 1:16:54, card time was 1:31:20. Official time was 1:21:21.

A great day never-the-less. No major dramas up the hills. I felt strong still heading down into Bondi. And had a bit of a burst left to get over the line.

Next event is the Half Marathon on 23 September. So hopefully the weather gets warmer in the mornings so I can get back into training for that.

6.99km (7km TT)...

The last bash before Sunday.

An attempt at a Time Trial over 7km. I thought that if I could get down to about 33 minutes (I did the 7km Bay Run in 33:27, two weeks ago) then I'd be on target for below 75 minutes for City to Surf.

However, I started off too fast. First 2kms were 4:24 and 4:25 (each km should have been about 4:43). I paid for that after half way. Ended up with 34:45! The lesson is...

I find it difficult to pace myself for City to Surf. The terrain is so uneven and the crowds can have an affect for the first few km. I think I'll try to hit 5:00 - 5:20 per km to start with, then see how it goes.

Plenty of rest now, plenty of carbs and plenty of water.

See you on Monday for the conclusion!

9.05km 8 x 400m...

Another desperate attempt to get some last minute training in before Sunday. This time it was a huge success. Not necessarily from the physical side (though it certainly wouldn't be any harm) but definitely from the mental side.

I set out to do 8 x 400m after a bit of a warm-up and a stretch. My programme calls for each 400m to be run at 3:58/km pace, i.e. 1:35/400m with 3 to 4 minute recovery jogs in between.

I realise now that I'm only recovering for 2 to 3 minutes between each rep, hence I'm not pushing quite as hard as I should. Point to note for the future.

The actual reps were:

1. 1:32
2. 1:37
3. 1:36
4. 1:39
5. 1:42
6. 1:42
7. 1:34
8. 1:36

So a bit slow through 4, 5 & 6 but an average of 1:37 isn't too far off the mark.

Hence the positive mental result. I know I'm not where I could have been in preparation for Sunday, but I'm not doing too bad either.

4.54km 10 x Hills...

Another desperate attempt to get a bit of strength back before C2S.

I was able to finish the session this time, and my average times for the reps haven't dropped since I last did this workout: 0:31 up, 1:11 down. So that's a positive!

Now I'm thinking about my final couple of sessions... should I keep working on the strength or stick to the usual (though not lately) long run on Sunday?