Sharla's Log

[Sharla]

Um ok training for the last week and a bit:

Monday 23rd March - off

Tues - 20 min walk warm up, 15 min jog - began to feel a slight twinge in the knee so walked to make the time up to an hour.

Wednesday - First run with the Athelstone running group - part of the SA Road Runners I've never trained with because they train Wednesday nights and I've always had other trainings then. They're awesome!

They have a set up where they hire a school staff room and for 50 c (BARGAIN) members get toast, orange juice and watermelon on returning from the run and can use the staff room before and after to gather and stretch etc.

Overall costs would be far greater than 50 c per person but they have an easter fun bun run with a raffle and hot cross buns which makes up the rest and a bit more for a pizza night and a pub night once a year plus some for charity. VERY clever set up!

Thing which is good (or extremely cruel) is they do more hilly runs. The first one I did with them was a run they call the cork screw. I could have joined the 22 km course runners but I didn't bring water for a run that long and probably wouldn't have managed too well anyway.

I got a lift with a bunch of others to the start of the hilly bit and di 12.5 km.

Thursday - off

Friday - cycled to meet the road runners. Fidgeted for ages to get my stuff in the new bag rack bag my mum gave me (she upgraded) and ran rate again! Ran anyway but took it easy - 8.9 km with 12.5 mins walk warm up. Finished strong though so felt good.

Yoga plus class at night - this is half pilates and half yoga from the pilates instructor - she's an awesome instructor - always find I feel good afterwards.

Saturday - no running, pilates class though 1.5 hrs.

Sunday - Went with the long run group and did 20.1 km, They did 28 but I knew that would be a bit too much for me just yet and turned back early. Reasonably happy with the pace although it was pretty flat so naturally the terrain for the Yurebilla trail will be much harder!

Monday - off

Tuesday - Cycled to uni and back before work to grab something i'd left there. Since it's 40 mins each way I'm going to ocunt it although it made for an easy recovery day. Probably needed it though to be honest!

Wednesday - 11.2 PAINFUL kms with the Athelstone group. The worst hill I've ever been up - would love to say i ran it my 98 % of people there walked a good proportion of it. One freak ran all the way but you have to admit the elite dude's hill endurance is going to be better than mine so I'll give myself some time to build up to that.

I think mentally I wasn't prepared for it either. most hilly roads have some undulation and flat bits but every time we reached a prt of the path we couldn't see before it was - more hill! No rest from incline at all really!

Coming down called for some walking too because it was steep and too easy to slip. We had one fall - my mum - who fell on a flat bit apparently (i was further ahead) just due to the gravelly surface so it would have been suicidal to run it. When mum fell she slid for a reasonable distance and has the wounds to prove it so I don't really need any more convincing than that!

Still when it was safe to run i had some people around to push me a felt like I finished strong again - even if it is just being really eager to get to the damn finish!

Thursday - nothing - ouch sums it up!

Friday (this morning) - ran with the road runners. An uphill run on streets - gentle compared to Wednesday but hard because my loegs were still sore. I had to concentrate to not let my form go which meant I ran maybe a little slower than my max but the alternative would have hurt within a short distance. Felt like work trying to hold good form but I am feeling reasonably happy with the pace.

Will have tomorrow off running because I'm completely stuffed now though. Still not up to the stage where I recover fast enough to do more frequent runs. That's ok though since I'm happier to feel the recovery working and to be seeing some progress than to push more often right now and have inevitable decline and knee pain!

I'm coming back to the Sa Road Runners and keeping up with some runners who never miss a day. They look stiff with a restricted, jerky running gait and i wonder if they took it a little easier and got into some stretching etc they'd actually be much better than me right now since they've been training consistently. Sometimes I think being too 'tough' is counter productive.

Didn't have yoga plus class tonight - the 8 week block for this class is finished and doesn't start again until early May! Still have pilates tomorrow though.

[Howlin Mad Missy]

I feel so lazy reading your logs +rep when I can