Eye of the tiger

Session: early morning run (5.43am)

Distance: 14km
Time: 1hr 23.14min
Av pace: 5.52min/km
Cals: 872
Weather: 9*c, wind – N, 6kph so a cool but pleasant morning.

I was channelling Rocky on this morning’s run. Don’t ask me why. I didn’t wake up and think “It’s the eye of the tiger, its the thrill of the fight, risin’ up to the challenge of our rival…”, and punch the air before getting out of bed. I wasn’t even thinking Rocky when I started running.

But about halfway into the run, an image of Rocky running the streets in his trackies and hoodie popped up. Goodness knows why, it’s been years since I’ve seen the movie and its all a bit vague. Maybe I was feeling tired and it was feeling all a bit same old same old. But I remember when Rocky was running the streets as part of his training and of course the scene when he runs up the steps to the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to “Gonna Fly Now”. Which by the way makes a great running mantra – “trying hard now, it’s so hard now, trying hard now. Getting strong now, won’t be long now, getting strong now. Gonna fly now, flying high now, gonna fly, fly, fly.”

Well there was no running up steps this morning but the image of Rocky running the streets inspired me to hang in there and keep going. Gosh, I might’ve even done a couple of fist pumps just because…

Maybe I should download Eye of the Tiger or Gonna Fly Now to my iPod for inspiration.

“The world ain’t all sunshine & rainbows. It’s a very mean & nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees & keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it’s about how hard you can get hit & keep moving forward. How much you can take & keep moving forward. ‘Thats how winning is done’.” – Rocky

Streaker extraordinaire

1 Dec 2012_Praiano, Amalfi Coast

This morning a group of us celebrated an awesome milestone – Ewen has run every day for 365 days without a break. Streaker extraordinaire! It all began a little over 12 months ago when I was just starting to get back into running after having a long time off with a torn hamstring. The US Runners World had started a running streak challenge between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I decided that it sounded like a fun thing to do. And then I decided I would keep on running into the new year. Ewen had decided to join in given that he can’t resist a challenge and for a while so did Speedy Geoff and Janene. However, for various reasons (injury, illness) our respective running streaks came to an end – except for Ewen! And he’s still going! Today he ran 15km and then we celebrated the achievement with bubbly, cheesecake and strawberries. Followed by coffee and perusing Avon catalogues! It was a great morning.

Well done Ewen…..but we are still waiting for the actual..ahem…”running streak”!

Meanwhile I did a hills session on the bike this morning – 7 x 2 min hill repeats. I’m starting with a modest hill and will progress from there! Even so, the first repeat had me wondering whether I’d even get to 5 repeats, let alone 7! Fortunately I did improve with each one.

Tomorrow: the plan is to swim in the morning (2km) and then run later in the day. Lets hope it’s not too hot.

“Challenges make life interesting, however, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” ~ Mark Twain

Celebrate ALL achievements

Warning! A rant ahead……..

I believe we should be cheering on, supporting, celebrating everyone’s achievements when it comes to all things fitness. Whether it be running 5, 10, 21, 42 or 100km, achieving a PB at crossfit, doing week 3 of Couch to 5km, doing a triathlon (whether it be a sprint distance, HIM or IM and everything in between), Pilates, whatever. Lately I’ve been reading or hearing of mean spiritness and a misguided sense of  athletic superiority eg only an ultra is considered ‘real’ running etc and this saddens me. It saddens me because why can’t we just celebrate any type of athletic endeavour, acknowledge and applaud the effort that each individual puts into their chosen activity. Given the troubling statistics showing rates of  increasing obesity, with more and more people being sedentary and suffering lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, various cancers, etc, I think we should be applauding anyone who gets out there and makes a difference in their own lives, regardless of what the activity is. Not everyone can be an elite athlete, or even a good athlete (whatever that means) but, in all honesty, it’s the effort that counts.

And please when someone responds to what you may have written about your training or the doubts that you might be feeling in respect of an event you are training for, by telling you that you will be awesome, don’t shoot them down for saying that, in some misguided belief that its putting pressure on that person. You know what, I am awesome! 12 months ago I was just starting out running again having most of last year off due to a torn hamstring, and now fast forward to the present and I am just over 2 weeks away from competing in a half Ironman triathlon, yes I believe I am awesome. Awesome for giving it a shot, for training my butt off for the past 5 1/2 months, and at least giving it a go.  It won’t be a fast time, I won’t qualify for anything, but having a BHAG has got me off my butt and motivated to do something that not a lot of people will do. It doesn’t make me superior to others, it doesn’t make me a ‘real’ triathlete or athlete, but that’s not the point of doing something like this. I wanted to see if I could do this, for me, nobody else.

So please, applaud the achievements of everyone who is out there keeping fit, training for events, just starting out on the road to fitness, returning from injury. Everyone is a champion. Celebrate your awesomeness – no-one can take that away from you

Ok, rant over…….back to my training program and tonight I celebrated my awesomeness by doing the second of my bike interval sessions. As part of this session there were 4 big hills – well, virtual ones! I had 4 x 10min in a moderate-hard gear so I visualised cycling up long hills. This was hot sweaty work which was no mean feat given that my wind trainer is outdoors, in the carport. The rain was pouring down outside, at least I was under cover but it wasn’t exactly warm (well not until I warmed up on the bike and then I was hot!).

Tomorrow: the plan is a 2.4km swim session before work.

“Life is a journey, not a destination.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

ps WordPress is playing up at the moment and I can’t post a photo – will try again tomorrow

Counting down

Its nine weeks today to Port Macquarie 70.3 triathlon. 2 months, 1 week. 63 days. Whatever way you look at it, time is marching on. And between now and then there is still a lot of work to do. And I’m trying not to stress about it too much.

Which is why it was great to catch up with Jen, my wonderful coach this morning. To touch base, to talk about the course (ie the hilly bike course), and what is in store over the next 9 weeks (hmm, a lot more time on the bike and something about introducing intensity on those…ahem…runs off the bike). Besides it’s always nice to catch up with Jen, just because she is a lovely person

And of course we had to have a macaron with our coffee (as you know this is all part of my finely tuned, nutritionally balanced triathlete’s diet).

And later in the day, I did a 10km run which was not only highly enjoyable (did I really say that?!) but also invigorating. I really do love running the day after the long bike sessions. I always expect that I will be tired but I find that I run strong, that my legs feel really good. I can’t explain this phenomenon but enjoy it nonetheless. Now if can get the same effect from those runs straight off the bike I’d be a very happy woman

Last night’s dinner at The Hungry Buddha in Curtin was great and really tasty. For entrée, I had pakora, followed by Khasi Ko Masu (curry of tender boneless goat flavoured with fenugreek, cinnamon, tomatoes, coriander, bay, ginger and garlic) and pulao rice (saffron rice spiced with cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, bay, cashew nuts and peas), and Kheer for dessert (rice pudding flavored with cardamom, raisins, saffron, cashew nuts, pistachios and almonds). There were lots of gluten-free dishes to choose from.

Tomorrow: the plan is to swim in the morning and then run intervals on the treadmill after work. It’s the start of my recovery week which can’t come soon enough!

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can.” – John Wooden

 

Pump it

This Black Eyed Peas song was playing when I was doing weights in the gym this morning. So appropriate. Though when I got to the squat jumps/pushups/burpees/lunges circuit it was more like “cark it”! I take my hat off to anyone who can string together more than 10 burpees using good form because quite frankly, I suck at them!

After a really great coffee at Dead Man Espresso in South Melbourne (where you are well & truly spoilt for choice in cafes & great coffee), we met KT for lunch at World restaurant in Southbank. She is one truly inspiring woman who has had the goal of running marathons in every state/territory & will realize that goal in a month’s time in Alice Springs. And she’s doing Port Mac half ironman in October. And the best thing is it will be great doing this event with a friend!

Then it was back to the gym later this afternoon for my regular Tuesday bike intervals session for 45 mins. Those legs were pumping again! But it was a good workout. And I had worked up an appetite for dinner which was beef and red wine stew, followed by homemade apple crumble All part of my finely tuned, nutritionally balanced, elite athlete diet