Running With Dogs

I’ve got a program from Pat Carroll to get me through the Brisbane Half Marathon in under two hours. I guess it’s a bit obsolete because, having done the Dusk to Dawn at Caboolture Historical Village earlier this month, and done 20km in 2 hours, I’m pretty confident of going under 2 hours for the half. Having said that, it’s a good program and I’m doing my best to stick with it (notwithstanding calf and ankle and whatever injuries….). Since my ankle is now feeling fine, I went out today for a short slow run to see how things went, Master 5 was up and about and wanted to come with me. Between Guinness and his multiple poos, and Master 5 picking his nose while riding and falling off his bike, and stopping to pat dogs, I think I have an even newer record of 5.8km in 44 minutes. Mind you, not a bad idea to travel slowly to see how the ankle holds up - was great after the run today.

 One of the tutors from the weekend photography workshop dropped in this afternoon to lend me his 18-200mm lens. It’d be a perfect lens to add to my digital body in the bumbag for trail running. He’s considering selling it, and if he does, I’m considering buying it. But, how trusting - I only met him on the weekend and now I have his $1500 lens for a little while to play with, and he delivered it to my home. Poor Roseanne, she’s now convinced to get a digital SLR, and we’ll probably end up doing a few workshops together. I’m a bad influence - first she gets a Garmin, now a digital SLR!! We should keep away from each other. 

The schedule for the Sunshine Coast Cross Country series has been released. I’m seriously considering taking the kidlets along. Master 5 would only be running 500m, and Miss 8 would run 1km, and I think they’d enjoy it. Sunday mornings fit pretty well, and the venues aren’t too far away. They love to run - we had an excursion to the Caboolture Historical Village today, and all they wanted to do was run around the track where they ran for the Dusk to Dawn.

Having another early night tonight. I’m still getting really tired in the late afternoon. I’ve got a business card from a local GP, so might go there and get some blood tests done, check my iron for a start. My regular GP is at Caloundra, she’s brilliant, but it’s a long way to go for just some blood tests.

My keyboard is again dying, and is refusing to do a “d”.

Last weekend was our photography weekend at O’Reilly’s Guesthouse in Lamington National Park. It was run by Mark and Michael from  Trekabout Photography Workshops and it went from Friday evening through Sunday lunchtime.

We dropped the kidlets off at Mum’s on Friday afternoon, she was going to take them over to Kylie’s place when her children came home from school. Headed down to O’Reilly’s, up that steep winding road with the precarious edges, and arrived shortly after 5pm. We checked into our room and went to the bar to meet with the other course participants. There were only 16 in the course, and a mix of people from those with the most amazingly spectacular camera gear, to those with a neat little compact camera. A really nice group, and we enjoyed their company all weekend.

Hubby and I got up at 4am on Saturday morning and headed out for a run, hoping to catch the sunrise at a lookout around 6km along the Border Track. Unfortunately we were only a few minutes late, but it was nice to be out there anyway. On the way back I stumbled on a rock and twisted my ankle a little. It was pretty minor and it was fine very quickly, so we headed back for breakfast. The day was spent walking along a track to a waterfall, practicing landscapes and macro photography, then some waterfall shots before we walked back. A couple of hours rest then we drove to another lookout to photograph the sunset. I had a play with a lovely lens which was lent to me by Mark, one of the tutors. It was a Sigma 10-20mm - really wide angle, and really fun to play with, although the sunset wasn’t too spectacular.

Next morning we got up at 3am, determined not to miss the sunrise this time, and ran again along the Albert River Circuit about 8km to Echo Point Lookout - highly recommended by the Guesthouse staff. That was a really nice trail, obviously not many people venture out that way as the path was in many places hard to follow due to overgrown vegetation. I had my Nikon DSLR and Mark’s wide angle lens safely packed in a bumbag at my back, hoping to get a nice sunrise landscape. We got to the lookout in time, but alas, there was such a heavy mist that we couldn’t see anything at all. I guess we were just not destined to photograph a sunrise this weekend. However, I managed to take a couple of okay shots of the trail we were on, it was very atmospheric in the dawn light with mist through the trees. I’ve put one of the pictures below.

On the way back, I managed to twist my ankle again, and I ended up doing a face plant in the dirt. Fortunately the camera was fine! A morning spent photographing birds, and learning more about photoshop, and it was the end of a great weekend. We were exhausted by nighttime though - the drive home, picking up the kids, getting the dogs from the kennels - my bed had never looked so good.

I’m going to do some more Trekabout workshops; Mark and Michael are great tutors. The kidlets had a wonderful time at their sleepovers at Kylie’s and Grandmas, and can’t wait til the next one, the dogs weren’t really thrilled at the kennels, but they survived. My ankle is a little swollen but not at all painful, so a very successful weekend in all regards. I’m going to have another early night tonight, I’ve got a fair bit of catching up on sleep to do!!

Found this article by following links… you know how it is… anyway, it amused me. When I’m running it takes all my effort to put one foot in front of the other, but these guys like to juggle when they run!!

 The Joy of Joggling
by Lenny Ferman

Last month I introduced the club to the sport of joggling, which is running while juggling 3 balls. This month I’m going to explain how you can become a joggler and enjoy the many benefits of this incredible running activity. 

 You can read the rest of the article here: 

I took the car up to our mechanic, Kev, this morning for a service and brake check. Don’t want to be driving up to Lamington National Park with dodgy brakes. I put Guinness in the back seat with Miss 8, and Master 5 sat in his booster seat in the front. Their bikes were in the back of the wagon, and we were going to ride/run home. It took such a long time!! Miss 8 fell off her bike twice, they wanted to stop for a drink, they argued about who was going first, we stopped to check the map yada yada yada …. so, probably not the most productive run for me, but Guinness was comfortably weary when we got home. I think I’ll get a lift when it’s time to pick the car up, not sure if I fancy spending another hour and a half getting up there.

Found this on another blog I read - The Shave Your 5k Challenge I haven’t done a properly timed 5k race yet, and I believe the Internation Women’s Day run on the 8th March won’t be chip timed. If I get a race done by the end of March, I may participate, but I think it’s a bit of a long shot.

I’m thinking of going and getting my iron levels checked. I’m knackered by mid afternoon and ready for a nanna nap. There is an iron supplement in the fridge, and some multivitamins on the bench in the kitchen, but it’s all a matter of remembering to take them.

I’m wearing a singlet top today, and I was looking in the mirror while I was brushing my teeth, and I saw a little muscle sticking out at the back of my shoulder! Yep, there’s one on the other side too. They’re not big, but they’re there. I was on the digital scales at work last weekend and since I started running back in May, I’ve lost around 9kg. Can’t complain about that.

Not much blogging been happening of late, but life has been fairly uneventful. I did a slow 6 1/2 km with Guinness yesterday morning and decided to be conservative and skip my speed session today. Still saving myself for the weekend.

I had a session with Anja today and we were doing some kicks. She had this big round padded thing and she held it against her body, and I had to kick it. Well, of course I missed, and got her on the leg. We spend so much time chatting and laughing, I thought I’d end up boxing her, but nope, it was a kick. Fortunately she was okay, and we finished the session. Lots of fitball work today. She has a bad habit - she gives me a loose weight to do some reps, and then takes it off me to let me rest my arm. “Another set”, she says, and gives me the weight, and off I go. It’s not until the second or third rep that I notice she’s swapped the weight for a heavier one! It’s like that television cooking show, “Here’s one I prepared earlier”. Hehe. But, I did 15 fairly pathetic push ups from my toes today, which is a lot better than I’ve been able to do before. I must be getting stronger. Poor girl, her ears must burn.

I’ve had my hair cut, curled and coloured. I’m  not particularly thrilled with it this time, so I figure I’ll be having a bad hair day for a few days yet.

I was up again early to go into Redcliffe to run with MBRR, but my leg was still a bit niggly, so I just walked. Breakfast at the Coffee Club, then off to work for the morning. Hubby is off for a 3 hour run and the kidlets and I walked the dogs. Tomorrow CRR has a 4km run, but I think I’ll skip that too. I’d rather take it easy for a few more days and be fine for our trail running/photography weekend at O’Reilly’s next weekend.

Had a busy couple of shifts at work. Sick of dogs that try to bite me. We have the most stunning Birman cat in there looking for a home. He’s getting over a bad case of flu, but he’s so fluffy and loving. I hope he gets the right family.

As I mentioned, an uneventful day. I’m going to hang out and see what I can do about building up my (soon to be) income generating websites (well, so I hope!) I’m having fun anyway.

I took Sinner to dog agility classes last night, and he did very well again. It’s interesting to see how the two clubs I go to teach agility. One club sets out small sequences of 3-4 obstacles and you repeat them over and over to practice handling skills; last night’s club had a whole course out and you just went out and ran the course. Sinner and I skipped the weave poles because he’s not very reliable on them, need to do a bit more practice. Guinness’s pre agility course has been postponed til March due to weather, but I’m planning on taking him to dog obedience this evening after work. I only have 3 more Friday nights to work, then I’m stopping. Looking forward to that. I’ll stick with the Saturdays because they’re not so disruptive and hard to manage, and because I like where I work.

While I was jogging around the agility course with Sinner last night, my calf wasn’t sore but it was twingy, so I’m not doing any running today. I’ll see how it feels later and I might jump on the elliptical trainer if it’s comfortable. I’ve heard horror stories about calves; a runner I know in the US tore her calf and had surgery and was wearing a cast for ages. That’d be extreme, but I still think I’ll take it easy. I had a great calf massage last night with Deep Heat, and my legs burned all night, LOL.

I did my speed session yesterday afternoon with Anja - 15 minute warmup jog, then 6 repeats of 1 min at 80% effort, and 45 seconds recovery, then a 15 minute cooldown jog. However, the 5th fast bit saw my right calf quite sore, so I stopped and didn’t do the 6th rep, and had a 15 minute cooldown walk. Some ice and compression when I got home, and it’s right as rain today. I think it’s just a bit of overuse - Saturday was a big run, 100kg leg presses with Anja then the trail run on Tuesday night - probably was a bit of an ask to back up with a speed session the next afternoon. I’ve got a rest day today and I’ll see how the leg goes, may have another one tomorrow if needed.

 The book I got for Hubby was Extreme Running, it lists a lot of ultras around the world, and has some pretty amazing pictures. He liked it very much, but my nice dinner was a bit less successful, hehe. The carrots were a bit overdone, the asparagus was just okay, and the mashed potatoes were a bit lumpy, but the herbed red emperor fillets were dee-licious!! One out of four. Cooking has never been my forte, and I guess not much has changed there.

The kidlets will be doing some schoolwork this morning then I’m hoping to head over to Roseanne’s to use her washing machine. Ours has just died, and there’s lots of sweaty running gear to wash.

The Narangba Running Group had a run planned last night for Sheepstation Creek Environmental Park, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the threat of rain, strong winds and squalls. Hubby and I decided we might go out for a run anyway, providing the weather wasn’t dangerous, as in likely to blow trees down on us. We decided to go to Bunyaville State Forest - Roseanne was looking after the kidlets, and that was much closer to her place. The other good thing about that area is that it’s dog friendly, so we packed up two dogs, two kidlets and off we went. It was a really nice night for a run, cool and not too humid, with a shower of rain towards the end. The trails had a few good hills, and it was really precarious going down hills with Guinness, he was full of exuberant enthusiasm and wanted to go down the hills at a speed that would have had me going down face first. As it was, I only fell once, and it wasn’t the dog’s fault, and I didn’t do much damage, just a few little scratches. We did just over 12km, the dogs loved it, and my legs were tired but fine (in spite of Anja’s best efforts - “If you can run for two hours, you can leg press 100kg”, she says!!).

I’ve just come back from the podiatrist, and he says I have metatarsalgia, basically my high arches mean that there’s a lot more force than usual put on my metatarsal heads and they’re getting inflamed, possibly affecting the nerves between them. I’ve got a dome on my orthotics to lift the foot just behind the metatarsal heads and distribute the force a bit more evenly, so hopefully that will do the job. He mentioned that depending on whether or not one or two metatarsal heads are copping more than the others, there’s a risk of a stress fracture, so I’m glad I got it sorted sooner rather than later.

I popped into Mary Ryan Bookshop while in Milton, I love that shop! I found a book for Hubby. Can’t post what it is, because he occasionally reads this blog and it’s meant to be a surprise, but I think he’ll like it. We don’t really do Valentine’s Day, instead having the odd little surprise if something appropriate comes up, but I have planned on making a nice dinner for him tonight, and I couldn’t walk past this book. Nice dinner’s are not my strong point, but we’ll see how it goes.

I’m meeting Anja shortly to do a speed session at the club oval, then tomorrow is a well earned rest day! I’m looking forward to that.

My plans for the weekend were to have a run with MBRR on Saturday morning, then go up to the Dusk To Dawn at Caboolture with the kidlets to cheer on Hubby who was doing a 2 hour relay leg. I would take the kidlets home  at a sensible time, and I’d go out with Anja for a run on Sunday while Hubby caught up on some sleep. Didn’t quite go to plan, but as it turned out, that wasn’t such a bad thing.

I got up at 4am to get into Redcliffe on Saturday, did a comfortable 8km with Catherine, and enjoyed a vanilla latte and croissant afterwards. The sun is rising later and later and when we start running at 5.30am, it’s just starting to rise over the ocean. Gorgeous.When I got home, I received a call from one of the MBRR members to say that one of their relay team members had to pull out and could I fill in for them. Okay, I said, as long as they realised I’d never run for 2 hours in my life, and they were okay with me doing what I could. 

We got to Caboolture around 5pm, and set up a tarp and small shelter for the kidlets. I figured they would crash at some time during the night. I met up with Sharon and Mary (my other team mates) and Hubby sorted things out with Will (his team mate, who also had a son there) so there would be someone to be with the kids while the others were either running or lap scoring. Hubby ran second, and I did the 10pm to midnight leg for my team. That lap scoring takes a lot of focus - Mallani, you did great to do it for 12 hours for Nic, I only did 2 1/2 hours and was looking forward to being replaced. It was a nice night, Hubby did his run and looked great - nice legs! He’s really strong, and did 48 laps of the 500m course.  The kidlets did a lot of running!!! They ran with Hubby several times, got his water bottle, and generally were really good. They were still awake at midnight; I think they’ll be paying for it for a few days. So will I.

I started my run at 10pm, I was a bit tired but had knocked back a V which I think kept me going. I planned on having a play with some gels to see if they helped; I’d also read they could upset your guts. I had one just before I started - it was foul. I think they’d taste a bit better cold. I had another at 11pm, and I do think they gave me a bit of a lift. No sign of any gastro upset either, which was good. I’d said to Will that the longest I’d run was 15km in 1 1/2 hours, so I hoped to do a bit more, maybe 18km. I was really comfortable while running, no pain, wasn’t puffed, and just kept going at what seemed like a fairly constant pace. The first hour passed quickly, the scenery was getting a bit familiar - 500m track around some old buildings over and over again, so for the next hour, I grabbed my ipod and listened to more Andrew Denton.  Still felt comfortable, but the balls of my feet were starting to really hurt. I kept running cos I figured they’d hurt whether I walked or ran, but by the end of the two hours they were burning and I could barely walk on them. When I asked how many laps I’d managed, Roy told me I’d done 40. I had to ask him again, I thought I’d misheard. That’s 20k, the longest I’ve run without stopping. I was blown away, and the icing on the cake was that our relay team came second in the women’s category. We got to bed at 2.30am, 22 1/2 hours after I got up.

It was a worthwhile exercise, even though my legs are knackered and I needed a nanny nap in the afternoon. I’ve got the half marathon distance wrapped up for April, so that was confidence building. My legs are weary and a bit achy, but not sore. And, I know I can function for almost 24 hours on my feet, so I should be able to go a little longer and stay awake for the Kokoda Challenge. I just need to figure out what to do about the balls of my feet - that really needs to be fixed.

I think there’s been a bit of a mindset shift too. I’ve sort of felt that I was just going through the motions of running but I really wasn’t a runner. Yeah, I’ll do the Brisbane half marathon, I thought, but it wasn’t really real. I could do the Kokoda Challenge, but that’s because I can walk for ages, but I don’t think I really believed I could do a whole lot more than what I was already doing. Having surprised myself so much on Saturday, I’m starting to think that maybe I could do this running thing, and maybe I really could do a half marathon. Heck, maybe I could even do a bit more sometime. That probably makes absolutely no sense at all, but it does to me.

I’ve got Guinness booked into a sheep herding weekend in March. He’s eaten a toy dinosaur this morning. He’s 10 months old now and if he keeps that up, he won’t see 11 months!!