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.