After Tuesday's little sprints I felt a bit wonky in the knees, and on Tuesday night I had some actual pain in the right one. I frequently smugly congratulate myself on the excellence of my knees, sandwiched as they are between weak and wobbly ankles and splayed and swaying hips. 

But on I soldiered. There was no pain when I ran, and Monday's tendon soreness of the ankles had settled. I still had the point of soreness on th einside mid-point of my claf which has been around for a while, but nothing crippling. 

So here was my 30 minutes (hold on to your hats, fans and friends!)

Minute           Speed(km/hr)         Incline

0-10                7.7                          0.5%

10-20              8                             0

20-29              8.5                          0

29-30              9                             0

430 calories. Average speed 8km/hr. Average incline 0.1% (ha!). Average HR 159bpm. Max HR 192bpm. 3.99km  - so 4km.

• Yes, it's the fastest average speed. 
• Yes, it's the highest lowest speed.
• Yes, it's the furthest (I totally reject 3.99km. 30 minutes at an average speed of 8km/hr is 4 km. even that doesn't seem to work with the minutes I ran at each speed, so I say it's 4km). 
• Yes, the 20 minutes at 8-9km is the longest I've run above 8km/hr, having done 20 minutes at 8km/hr before but struggling a bit at the end.
• Yes, it's highest number of calories I've burnt in 30 minutes. 
• Yes, I am happy. And awesome.

    

Two runs to discuss with you, slavering adoring fans!

Last night I did a 30 minute run to break the back of the fat laziness that kept me from exercising all weekend. 

Friday morning, I did a great session (770 calories) because I knew that a rich dinner and red wine was in my evening. Me and Buzz: "We can't wait to exercise tomorrow! We're addicted to it! We feel great!". 

Saturday, we intended to go but to be fair had a very heavy day including a long drive, a nap and a concert (the nap was in preparation for the the concert, ok? It wasn't just an scheduled nanna nap). I was also convinced by the argument that my calves and knees felt a little tender so a day off would be a responsible kinda thing. Me and Buzz: "We've had a busy day! We're a bit hungover so we'd have a much better session tomorrow, yeeeha!". 

So Sunday would be cool bananas. We decided to go in the arvo so that we could have a good breakfast out (it wasn't). I was so grumbly and eeeeerrrrrrrrunk after the disappointing breakfast (say the sound out loud. You'll recognise it) that I ended up sooking all afternoon. Me and Buzz: "Do you want a 3pm beer? Shall we get a bag of chips?".*

* to our credit, the bag still isn't finished and won't be even tonight. In the past it wouldn't have lasted 20 minutes.

So Monday morning. Two days off ain't so bad. At 4:10am the puppy was telling me that he had a tummy ache and needed to go outside to eat grass. The 6am wake up just did not happen. 

So by Monday night, I'd spent all day bitching at myself and feeling less and less sparky.  My dad changed our Tuesday morning gym date to Wednesday, so I had even more reason to fear that Monday night wouldn't happen. I realised I just had to go to work out the irks and kick my own arse. 

I went for 30 minutes, despite having planned to do a 40 minute long run over the weekend, just to cut myself some Monday slack. I also hate the gym after work - it's so busy you can't barely get a tready and everyone is loud and bouncy. I much prefer mornings when everyone is a bit more chillaxed and cruisy (in a very 7am hardcore kinda way). 

What I did decide to push myself on though was incline.I f you've taken my absolute silence to date as an indication that I set the tready to 0%, you'd be right. But seeing some road runs and maybe even the Mothers' Day Classic in the next few months, I wanted to give it a shot. 

I decided to keep my pace steady at 7.5km/hr, knowing that I 've found the last two 20 minutes at 8 km/hr pace tough at the end. I only want to tackle one challenge at a time!

This is what I did:

Minutes          Incline

0-10                   1%

10-15                 0%

15-20                 1%

20-30                 0%

Max HR 182bpm, average 169bpm. Average speed was 7.5 cos that's all I had it on. Average incline turned out to be 0.4%. That sounds so sad and lame.

Not much, I know. But I had no idea how I'd feel so I'm happy I kept it low-key. The first ten minutes felt great - I felt all springy and full of energy, like I was a machine just working properly. I didn't do a warmup first because of the tooth-and-nail fights for treadmills around 6pm, so I began from a cold start. I had a nice pace and a good tight feel to the run.

Although I didn't notice the incline when it was on, I did when I turned it down. And it did make it noticeably easier. 

Afterwards I did a hard 15 minutes on the swingy elliptical, so I still had gas in the tank.

This morning my legs were sore and heavy. My knees felt like they'd worked hard, something I've been noticing lately. My hip however was hip hip hooray. 

I did my fartlek (after a fashion) because I felt too leg-tired for a longer run. Here's what I did (my concession was a fast walk instead of a slow jog in the rest periods. Shut up):

Minutes       Speed (km/hr)

0-5                 7.5 (warm up)

90 secs           9

90 secs           6.5

90 secs           9

90 secs           6.5 

60 secs           10

60 secs           6

60 secs           10

60 secs           6 

30 secs           11

30 secs           6

30 secs           11

30 secs           6 

30 secs           12

30 secs           5.5

60 secs           12

60 secs           5.5

230 cals. Max HR: 189bpm. Av HR: 154bpm.

I found the 12km/hr really hard to sustain for 60 secs. Even though sometimes my HR goes up to around 190bpm on a slower run, it's more a slow escalation. This was a fast rise accompanied with hard breathing, which I don't usually get. 

I was pretty pleased with myself until I hopped on the elliptical and could see an athletic type girl doing her sprints - which started at 14km/hr and went up to 18km/hr. I reminded myself that a) she was only sprinting for less than 30 seconds at a time, and b) I must have had 30 kilos on her so if I strapped that to her back she'd stagger, fall, break a kneecap and then I'd be the best.

Yeah cop that! Now I can win!

Things I now need to look out for include: leg tiredness, sore knees, and homicidal tendencies against better (ie all) runners.

My run this morning was a bit of a mixed bag. I went to the gym yesterday and the balhest session of balh. Today I just wanted to run (actually, yesterday morning the only thing that made me get out of bed was thinking about a run. Maybe I just should have done that).

Today's run had good points:

• It was 30 minutes of which the first 10 minutes was at 7.5km/hr and then the last 20 minutes at 8km/hr. 
• My lowest speed was 7.5km/hr, whereas on Tuesday it was 7.2km/hr in my warm up adn cool down. 
• So my average speed was 7.8km/hr, which is .1 faster than Tuesday's tempo run. 
• I ran 3.89km which is about 40 metres more than Tuesday. 
• My hip felt great, my calves had softened up, I got into the swing of things, and my Marathoners - which I re-laced - weren't doing the mega-pronation thing they were last time. 
• Also I burned 398 calories which is excellent in light if tonight's dinner plans which are all very cashewy and winey.

And it had 'hmmm' points:

• the HRM says my max HR was 199. I don't believe that; I was working hard and as on Tuesday foudn the last five minutes at 8km/hr tough, but I didn't see my HRM go above 192.
• I did find the last 5 minutes tough. I'd hoped it would have become a little easier.  

Somehow, even with all those good points, I feel a little confused about today and feel like it wasn't as good as Tuesday's run.

After the 30 minutes I did 10 minutes on the x-rainer - the swingy one - and then another 10 minute run. I did 5 minutes at 8km/hr, 3 minutes at 8.5km/hr, 1 minute at 9km/hr, adn then 1 minute at 9.5km/hr. i totalled 1.37 km, with a max HR of 192 (hich also makes me questionthe 199 recoding above). The average HR doesn't count cos I was recording it when I was on the x-trainer.  Average speed was 8.3km/hr.

I liked running faster; it was harder and I couldn't have kept up 9.5km/hr for long, but it was gutbusting like when I first started again.  Baby steps!

What I'm insisting on calling a tempo run this morning. Insisting!

EDIT: I must have done two sets of 5 minutes as warm up and cool down, not ten. I know I only ran 30 minutes and 3.85km in 40 minutes would be snail-like even for me!

10 5 minute warm up at 7.2 km/hr, followed by a tough but doable 20 minutes at 8 km/hr, followed by an alleged cooldown (during which my HR didn't drop below 182) for ten ten minutes. I ran 3.85km over the 30 minutes, averaging 7.7km/hr, which I'm really pleased with. Also good work with the HR - average 152, max 187, which I think is an improvement for 20 solid minutes at 8 km/hr.

I found the 20 minutes of the proper tempo run tough-ish. My right calf still creaked a bit, but thankfully numbed up when I was warm. Although I had a bit more zone-time and a few more endorphins than on Saturday's long run, it still wasn't at euphoric levels. I did do a bit of a minute countdown in the last five minutes of the 20 minutes at 8 km/hr, and was puffed, but I tried to judge my exertion level on moderately hard - able to say a few words but not hold a conversation. I think I got that down pat - anything more than "Screw you stop chatting you manky cow!" would have been impossible! Still, I got into the groove a bit and concentrated on trying to move with a smooth gait and I even tried to move more to a forefoot strike. 

I've read Born to Run - incredible. I'll give some thoughts soon-ish, but for the moment I'm lusting after some Nike 3.0s. 

On my long run I wore my Nike Marathoners, which I bought last year for a lightweight running shoe after I felt that my faithful Mizuno Creation 10s were too heavy and clunky for the tready.  For a long time I ran exclusively in the Marathoners (listen to me sound like I was clocking 100 ks a week!), and in fact even a couple of latest 'achievements' have been doing runs in the Mizunos - I counted this as an obstacle. 

Cute litte Marathoners

But on Saturday, I really noticed that my low arches were rolling in a lot in the Marathoners,  even being rolled in extra, and I wonder if this is part of the reason that my lower legs have felt sore, like they've been pounded, since then. Even my knees have felt compressed, and I often congratulate myself smugly on my excellent knees sitting in between my torn ankles and floppy hips. 

Today I ran in the Mizunos and tried to notice how they felt. And it was great! They really rolled my ankles out, to the point that I couldn't really even roll my feet in. 

 I love the heavy plastic plates on the Mizuno Wave Creations (apparently these shoes are great for Clydesdales and Athenas. Bugger).

So I'm left with this conundrum: my lightweight, low support Marathoners aren't feeling so flash, and my heavy, clunkariffic Mizunos are feeling corrective. But ... I want Nike Free 3.0s. I believe that running more au naturale will help me strengthen my feet and prevent injuries. I want to get my feet working and stop being such a thumping heel striker. I have also been a pronator and very duck-footed my whole life, from high arches to low, but have never developed the typical pronation injuries of bad knees (they're wonky, but healthy!). I had thought for a while that perhaps my duck feet had made my glutes roll out and atrophy, perhaps causing some weakness and contraction, but James the Physio has suggested that it's more likely that my glutes have worked overtime to compensate.

So has pronation really messed me up? Not really. Should I strengthen my feet and work on my gait? Yes. Should I buy Frees? I love shopping.

 

Yes I want them, yes I do. The closest you can get to barefoot running without tempting a squishy foot full of puppy poopy.

I'm a huge fan of Friday exercise; it just sets you up for the weekend (and for Friday night drinks and pizza). So it was poopy that on Friday night this week I packed my gym plans in on the back of a nagging tummy ache which had been with me since about 11am. I was even pleased that I felt worse in the evening, because it meant my brain wasn't psychosomatically finding excuses not to run. 

But come Saturday afternoon, there I was on the tready for my planned long run. I had had a big breakfast and waited a few hours, and even gone and brought a new sports bra and gym towel in the meantime.

I set the timer for forty minutes - my longest run to date (I did do a forty minute jog a few weeks ago, but my most fervent fans will remember that I had about a two minute break after thirty minutes, at which point I had intended to stop, before I hopped back on again to keep Buzz company on his cooldown). 

So this was to be my longest uninterrupted run in perhaps almost a year. Given that I've been running 30 minutes strongly and picking up the pace, I had expected this run to be achievable with not too much cursing the day I was born. 

It was tough. It was. I was full of food, and my right calf cramped up all the way. I felt like I was over-pronating like a flat-footed chimp. I didn't hit the sweet spot when the endorphins kick in. I couldn't tune out and lose minutes at a time. I went slow: 5 minutes at 7.2 km/hr, 15 minutes at 7.5 km/hr, 10 minutes at 8 km/hr, 5 minutes at 7.2 km/hr, then the 2 or 3 minutes at 7.5km/hr and the last 2 or 3 at 9 km/hr. It was slower and harder than I expected. 

But I got through, and I'm really glad I did because had I quit at 30 minutes, then this would have become just a crappy 30 minute run after a series of much better ones. As it is, it is now my longest non-stop run, my furthest distance, and an example that I can slog through even without the running rush and the zone out time. 

And just on distance. 4.99km. Yes, it's 1.01km further than I've ever run before. But for heaven's sake! Just 1 metre to hit the excellence of 5km! Blergh.

So my calf hurt and was crampy all day yesterday and bit today, and today I feel like my joints have taken a pounding (actually I had that feeling after Wednesday's run too). I still have a small pain in the inner edge of my right calf. Today I just had a quiet walk and could feel my knees grumbling. But I did it and I'm proud. 

That's Eloise Wellings. She won the Zatopek 10km in 32:19:08. That's right; she ran twice as far as I did in just over 2/3 of the time. Shut up.

clapclapclapclapclapclapclap

That's me clapping for my excellent run this morning. Woke up tired, burpy (you get that?), with major galumphitis. And yet ...

30 mins, 3.98km, 373 calories, average HR 168 (88%), max HR 192 (101%).

On the off chance that someone amongst you doesn't follow the minutiae of my stats, that's the 0.02km further than I've ever run in 30 minutes (I found an old spreadsheet and checked). Not only was it a little further, I think it was a better run that when I ran 3.96. 

Tah Dah! A comparison.

28 Aug 09                                                        10 March 10

Minute                   Speed km/hr                       Minute                   Speed km/hr

1-10                       8                                           1-?7.5                     7.2                

10-11                     5.5                                         7.5-12                     7.5

11-21                     8                                            12-23                      8

21-22                     5.5                                         23-28                      8.5

22-26.5                  8                                            28-29                      9

26.50-30                9                                            29-30                      10

Max HR: 197 (at 9km/hr)                                     Max HR: 192 (at 10km/hr)
Distance: 3.96km                                                Distance: 3.98km

So my achievements, for those who may have missed it, are:

• 30 minutes running without stopping (had two walk breaks in the August session);
• Although I started slower, I increased speed throughout the whole session;
• My max HR was 5 bmp lower even though I had no breaks;
• In August I ran for a total of 3.5 minutes at a speed faster than 8km/hr. This morning it was twice that - 7 minutes; and
• I think my average speed was faster but I just googled the formula and it involves peeing on a wart by the crossroads at midnight by the full moon so I'm not going to do it.

And yes I did celebrate with a vegan chocolate cupcake conveniently sold at Dymocks on Collins Street. 

Group baby fistpump!

A couple to catch up on, and I will strain my brain to recall anything vaguely interesting. 

I reshuffled Thursday's run because of a sniffle and a day of inexplicable nausea, but charged through Friday morning with a non-running gym session. I think I may have run a km to finish it off.  

On Saturday Melbourne was subjected to hail and a supercell thunderstorm - which hit just as Buzz were driving to the gym. We pulled over to shelter, hoping the windscreen wasn't going to shatter into a kazillion sharp pieces. It didn't, and snaps to us - we continued on. 

I had a great 30 minute run, with all the things I love: spacing out, sweat running down my back and drenching my neck. Sounds gross! Feels great! The best was realising that I'd run 3.66km at the end, when the most I've ever run in 30 minutes is about 3.96, so I'm catching up to where I was. 

On Monday - a public holiday, thanks very much - I was feeling a little shaky in the hip so decided just to do a - and get this running talk - Mona Fartlek. Oh hey, that is so a real thing!  Steve Moneghetti, beloved son of Ballarat, where my grandma is from - we are so practically almost kinda related. And really, I did a half Mona Fartlek, for the following reasons:

1. I want to live
2. My fastest speed is not so much faster than my base pace that I can surge and then run steady
3. I want to live
4. 30 minutes is my long/tempo run, let alone speed 
5. I want to live
6. I want to live

So, here's what I did:

• 90 seconds at 9km/hr, 90 seconds at 7km/hr           x2
• 60 seconds at 9.5km/hr, 90 seconds at 7km/hr        x2
• 30 seconds at 10 km/hr, 30 seconds at 10km/hr      x2
• 30 seconds at 10.5km/hr, 30 seconds at 11 km/hr   x2

Why yes, EagleEyes, the last reps should have been 15 seconds each. But a treadmill takes 10 seconds to speed up and slow down, meaning that 15 seconds is raspberries.

This is not Steve Moneghetti. It's just awesome. 

I've read that some people (ie: fast people) have even broken their 5km PBs doing Mona Fartlek. I can believe it: I ran 2.33km in 15 mins, which would have been 4.66km in 30 minutes had I had the balls to keep it up - way higher than the 3.96km which is my slowly, slowly bestest. 

I felt a bit hippy-sore afterwards, and even conked out on the couch for a few hours, which is very unusual. Tomorrow I think I'll do at least a 30 minute rund and aim for nothing slower than 7.2km/hr and 7.5km/hr as the average. Maybe 40 if I feel good, but James the physio has spoken strict words about how I pulled up last time I ran 40 minutes. I have an appointment with him tomorrow an am not game to turn up limping.  

When I run well I feel like this (little dog and all):

 ... but some days this is probably more accurate.

I stumbled up the blog No Meat Athlete today, and was really taken by its tagline: Runs on Plants. So I copied! Matt, I hope you take it as a sign of respeck' yo. And a short google revealed that the only other blog called Runs On Plants belongs to the also-vegan Lauren over here,  which is pretty darn good if you've ever googled "Run X Run" (as this blog also used to go by). Hello!

I've also linked to a couple of other vegan and veg running blogs. It's not that I particularly want to discuss my veganism here - I do that over here! You can listen to me twice as much!  - but I guess to those blogs are more relevant to me and it's a bit of a community thing too. There's also some blogs that I've just enjoyed lurking at. Hello to you too!

And to the run...

Having done what I'm now terming 'my long run' on Sunday (wooha 40 minutes!) I went for my tempo (god I'm so up with the lingo) this morning. 

I chose 20 minutes, mostly because most training programs assume that you actually have a slow and a medium and fast past pace to run at. When your slow pace is 7km/hr and your fast pace is 8km/hr, it's a little squishy so I'm trying to differentiate with time. 

Over my last few runs my base pace has been 7.2 km/hr, or 7km/hr when I'm tiring. 8km/hr has been more than I could sustain for a couple of minutes, and 9km/hr fairly side-bursting. 

And so today, my lowest speed was 7.5km/hr. Nice work for a tempo! I ran 5 minutes at 7.5km/hr, then ten minutes at 8km/hr, two at 7.5km/hr, two at 8km/hr and then a minute at 9km/hr to round it off. I felt great in the ten minute 8km/hr section - like I was running! I maybe could have lasted for fifteen minutes at 8, but wasn't prepared to push too much. 

My hip raised its hand to remind me it was there, but it didn't chuck a tantie. I did ten minutes on the weird ski-like cross-trainer, and then ran out a final kilometre at 8km/hr (so 7:30/km) to round it off. It might sound slow - and it is. But it felt strong to me.

Oh welcome back Rach! 01 March 2010

Oh ten months! Such a time. But apologise I won't; give you dot points of the runnings and doings of Rach between the end of April 2009 and the beginning of March 2010 I will. 

• I think I stopped running not long after my last post. The pain in my right hip escalated to being a constant 7/10 and it made me limp almost all of the time. I would subconsciously rub my hand over the sorest point, favour that side and feel it lying on my side in bed. My trainer, David, and another highly-trained PT at the gym gave me some stretches but not a cause.
• I stopped running. It hurt. And then as I didn't run, it didn't hurt. 
• In the rest of the life of Rach, I renovated my flat - including having to move back to my folks' house for 6 weeks and doubling the budget, moved Buzz into my place which became ours, and changed jobs. Exercise of any variety was not top of my to do list.
• I ran again in about September/October. I would run for abut 30 minutes., but I can't remember the run:walk ratios. My hip began to hurt - but on the left. Exactly the same pain in exactly the same place, but la sinistra.
• I can't remember what the running was like then. I knew I got a little better, but as I did, the hip pain got worse. I began to suspect it was something to do with my gait.
• Christmas. New Years. I ate, drank, and slobbed. No exercise for some time, lots of beer. Blub blub blubber. 
• A couple of weeks ago I had a little trot. I thought that after my period of sloth that a 20 minute run with a minute of rest after each five minute period of running would be a good place to pick up again. 
• Two minutes running was freakin' tough. Five minutes was embarassingly hard. I was also back to 7km/hr, which was a big bruise on the ego.
• I did a couple of these 5:1 runs. Then I did an 8:1 because I felt lke it. That was exciting. Then I did a 10:1. that was also exciting. I even managed to have a little trot outside one early morning in Perth, and despite my faithfulness to the tready, the bright sunny morning and the wide avenues made me feel strong and joyful. And in a lot of bloody pain. Buzz agreed I should see a physio because he was sick of my piss'n'moaning.
• I did a 20:1, at 7/7.2km/hr. That was little-bit-of-wee exciting. I was so pumped and thrilled.
• I did a 30:1 at 7 to 7/5km/hr, easily. Yesterday: 40:1, at an average of about 7.2.  8km/hr is still a leedle fast for me. It was a bit tough at the end, because I'd increased speed at the end of 30 minutes thinking to end there, but Buzz wanted to have a quick run to round off his gym session, so like the outstanding girlfriend I am, I joined him. 
• And I have seen a physio, who was recommnended to me by a runner mate who is doing horrendously long 17 km runs. 
• James, the physio, lost no time in diagnosing tendinopathy of the gluteus medius. This is essentially teeny tiny tears in the tendon of the glute med. James explained it to me as: the glute med is too weak to carry the load that I've been asking it too (must be pretty damn weak not to handle the meagre amount I stir myself to). The weakness of the muscle places undue pressure on the tendon. The tendon is made up of collagen, which is laid out like a series of logs. Each log is a different kind of collagen. When the body is trying to heal itself too fast because it is under pressure, it just lays out collagen willy nilly, which weakens the tendon further. To heal it, you have to both let the tendon heal in its own sweet time, and strenghten the muscle so it doesn't strain the tendon again. I now have a nifty set of five exercises to do daily, as well as strict instructions not too exercise beyond a point where the pain later that day or the next day is more than a 4/10. 
• But here's the good news. I am increasing my time - by a lot - almost every time I run. From 5 to 8 to 20 to 30 to 40 is giving me an internal big up, even if I am as slow as slow can be. Endurance! 
• I am enjoying it. I crave the feeling of sweat on my back and the nape of my neck. I am reading running blogs and cruising message boards and trying not to buy too much new gear (except for really good bras. I bought two before Xmas and they are just so much friggin' better that the crappo Target ones I wore before which meant I also had to wear a crop top over the top to keep the girls in line. I bought these ones and they are worth every cent. I also got two pairs of the best Adidas leggings ever which I adore and wish I had ten more of. I don't mind running in cotton tops as long as the seams aren't meanies, but I will never go back to cheap bras or cotton leggings).
• So there we go. I quite like jogging around at the moment. My aims are to speed up a little - at least to 8/5.5 km/hr for now, and to be able to trot along for 60 minutes. Eventually I'd like to be able to enjoy running in the wild - or just on the streets - but at the moment I find it difficult and I like to tune out a bit on the tready. I'd like to be fit enough to join a couple of friends who do weekly runs from work to the Tan, do a lap and come back, which is about 7km in 40 minutes or so. That's about 10.5km/hr, which at the moment feels like an all out sprint to me. 

 
So aren't you lucky to get to listen to me ramble on some more?




 PS: here is a diagram of the glute med and its puny cousin the glute min. Fascinating!