Training Log Archive: SusC

Mostly walking 6 hr around town with Plaxy and Cathy, HH at Stuart Park primary. Map reached to bottom of northern suburbs but greatest checkpoint density was in the city/Cullen Bay with a cluster also in Bayview, a scattering through Fannie Bay/Ludmilla and a cluster at East Point. Went for Bayview first as not so familiar with area there and thought it best to get done in daytime, then headed to city, and finished from Cullen Bay/Mindil area. Rather hot, humid and sunny to start off with but it cooled down around 5.30pm due to big storms in the harbour that just missed us in town:). Felt a bit slow to keep up in beginning but it kind of swapped towards the end as others' feet got more sore than mine. Also was feeling guilty in case we couldn't complete the full checkpoint loop to get back, as I had said we should try to complete that particular section, so was walking fast to make sure! It turned out fine, although we did also have some nice flat & downhill bits in the last hour that we could shuffle. Plaxy is a good leader I think, she was always checking up that Cathy/I were ok (we were).

Glad it wasn't any longer, but it was good to prove to myself that I could last 6 hours on my feet. Really felt the heat when we began, but I think it might have been an exceptionally dew pointy afternoon - had had a massive storm earlier in the morning before dawn that smashed our side of town and flooded lots of places, including our basement, taking out the lifts. Wasn't looking forward to climbing stairs up to 7th floor after rogaine but luckily one was working again by then.

C • Good effort! 6

On the treadmill in the gym. The view out the window was nice, with billowy clouds out over the sea.

Warm down - a mix of backwards, forwards, side to side, grapevine etc. Didn't manage much of a warm up before hand apart from walking a lap holding Eleanor on her belly as she was having a squawky night. Couldn't both leave her so Lach ran with the group and then when he finished the int I did mine alone, while everyone else was on their recovery. But at least we are going, as a family. And the kids are fascinated by Eleanor, hovering around the pram, trying to get smiles out of her, and holding/tickling her hands and feet. She was incredibly obliging, Sophie got at least three good smiles that I saw and Josh got a good one too.

2 x 800 (7 mins standing recov btwn), in an on, off, on, off, on pattern, with focus on fastest through the middle 250m. Not sure of time for the first one. 3.35 for the 2nd.

Made it to the mums & babies stretch class in Nightcliff....semi on time. Missed about half an hour while E grizzled but enjoyed the bit that I did do, it was quite active and there was music. The instructor was a woman who was my partner in my 1st aid refresher course a couple of years ago...and at the time I thought, if I was ever pregnant and wanting a personal trainer, she'd be a good one to have.

Laps of Klaus's Jingili water garden loop. Tried to do the red bucket bits hard...especially hard up one end of the loop where one of the buckets somehow made its way into a nearby rubbish bin, making a longer than usual section of fast, up to the next red bucket. Not sure who did that.

Breezy, which was nice. Really felt the hills today, even though they are just baby ones and they weren't even red-bucketed all the way to the top this week.

Breezy morning after wet weather yesterday. Nice conditions for running, though actually a smaller turnout this week. Started out slowly at the back - quite tired from a work do of Lachlan's Fri night, - but got warmed up after about a km and decided I could go a bit quicker and still get to the end without dying. Overtook lots of people in the second half.

Around the block with Lach/E, trying to get her to nod off....didn't work.

Couldn't figure out reverse in the Tida (which I'd only driven once before) so had to walk home from E's doctor's app in Fannie Bay, via Parap. Weather so sticky today!

Time trial night at Klaus's. Did the 1k but E was too grizzly to leave alone to do the 300m. As usual, felt that I was running soooo hard!

Rather skimpy w/up & down.

Running while mum pushed E in the pram. 1 x 10 mins past the Botanic Gardens/oval and then 1 x 13 mins a little later past the casino, including pushing the pram up the hill to the Myilly Pt roundabout and then a little loop around the Burnett houses while mum took a break on a seat.

Walk with mum and E in pram - the non-running bits. A long skinny loop out along Gilruth Ave to the roundabout and back via Little Mindil, the back of the casino, the cliff top behind the school and finally the museum. Bumped into Keith coming up the hill from the museum, he was killing time while Oscar was at tennis clinic.

yay for Infacol (nobody paid me to write that), recommended by clinic nurse today at E's 8 wk check....a (somewhat) easier day after purchasing it

C • 8 weeks! 7

A bit of weeding at Armidale St.

Lach got home too late to go to running and E a bit temperamental anyway so an excursion outside to the pool was a good compromise...

E dozy all day which is very unusual. Eventually thought we should get out for some air so went just down to level 3. Tested out the pool while mum watched E.

Orienteering at East Point, Easy course with mum and E in pram. Very bumpy on monsoon forest tracks!

Darwin parkrun. 222 people, compared to about 150 last week! JuliAnn and I both were 1 min quicker. Nice morning.

Across to the museum/Ski club with Lach and E in the pram. Stopped to talk to friends having dinner there but the mozzies got us moving again soon.

E had immunisations and was of variable temperament so skipped running.

Lots of weeding at the house in the morning, with mum, while E slept under the house with the floor fan blowing on her - that seemed to keep biteys away.

Took E out of the house in the pram...in my sleep I think...did some laps of the bus turn around outside St Johns and went over to get a load of washing from the house as our machine had been not working...fixed now:)

To the Cool Spot and back with mum and E in pram, for a meeting with Susi to prepare a proposal of our desired orienteering pathway for School Sport NT. Neither of us are holding our breathes on it!

A few grass laps with surges on the straight, and a few up and down the beach, relaxed out, harder back. Mmmm calves....Eleanor behaved well, the session style means we were coming back to check on her and say hi every minute or two.

Loop out around East Pt with mum and with E in pram. Really quite dark when we left as a still and overcast morning after a big storm yesty evening. Had a halfway nappy change & refreshment break on the same seat as last time overlooking the water. A bit of breeze on the way home, plus a grizzly girl for part of it.

Skipped Klaus's and had a 'sleep in', then went to TEO meeting.

Darwin parkrun, 2 laps of esplanade bike path, starting from parliament house end. Thought it might be useful to do it to gauge fitness. The 5 ks felt like a long way and it was a pretty sweaty morning but still glad to do it. Juli and Phil took me, leaving E at home with Lach. We got drinks from the new downstairs café when they brought me home...always interesting watching the teething of a new place opening for business:) For the record, flat white with almond milk is VERY nice (especially after a parkrun on 4 hours of sleep).

C • Well done 4

Over to the museum and back with mum and E in the pram. After a shower of rain so a bit muggy. Had hoped E would sleep but she just did a token 20 mins and then was back to being wide awake.

Walked with E in the pram towards town along Gardens Rd as it was late but that was still a fairly shady walk. Turned around after half an hour and back the same way. Very sunny today, saw lots of different butterflies about, all different sizes and markings. They like the tridax daisy (weed) flowers at the footpath edge.

To the museum and back and up and down the drive at the museum 8 times pushing E in the pram. She didn't complain:) The grizzling, wriggling, general upset-ness and smelly farts have reduced a lot since I stopped having milk and yogurt...interesting.

1 lap w/up, 2 laps w/down

Klaus's, at Marrara. 3 laps, then 2 laps then 1 lap hard with 3-4 mins break between. In a group (the slow one), changing lead every 200m or so, with the person taking over supposed to go a bit harder each time. Felt ok, but only had one speed and couldn't do the sprint home on the last lap at all. And calves will be sore tomorrow...well they already are actually!

Is quite a fascinating business, 'returning' to running. Brain can remember what the legs etc are supposed to be doing. So it feels like I am running really hard. But then I look at who is in my group, that I almost can't keep up with, and I know what km rate they do, and I am not going fast at all really...but it feels hard!

Is also really tricky to know what over doing it could look like, because of course it's going to feel hard, and I'm going to be sore. I don't really feel fat & unfit though, which is nice.... a nice change compared to what a return to training normally feels like!

Walked E to her 6 week check up at Fannie Bay. On the way Freya (mw student who tracked our pregnancy) texted to ask when the appointment was which was convenient as I had forgotten to tell her. So she hurried there and came in with me. E behaved well. Had iced chocolates after at the Cool Spot with Freya and answered some of her wrap up student questions before walking home...hot by then.

At Klaus's. Got there late so just one grass lap warm up, then 9 mins of laps doing short sprints after every red bucket to the next immediate cone (20m max). Then running down the bike path and on to/off/onto/off the beach, to do two moose calls, one on each dune path, and then heading home on the path behind the uni fence...until the bottom of the slope where we were supposed to push hard all the way back. Managed to push hard using just little fast steps as have no quad strength really.2 grass laps with Zoe as cool down.

Lach minded Eleanor in the pram and didn't run as his knee stiff puffy. Heaps of people at running, only knew about 50% of them. So good to be back, and really pleased that I could do the 5mins hard bit at the end of the session. Still a bit sore from Sunday, but not the scar at all, just other bits of me:)

Pizza Capers after with Em & Dunc & Zoe & Andrew. Yum!!

The pushing hard bit up the slope.

Over to the museum and back, and nine times up and down the drive that goes up from the museum car park to the school. Thought of Klaus and stuck my arms straight up in the air for three of them...can't remember exactly why he makes us do that...but obviously it is supposed to be good for us.

A real run! At Klaus's water gardens session, running 3 laps of the bucket loop, without stopping once! Really pleased that I could do this. Lachlan minded E and the pram, as he has a funny sore knee from last Monday. It felt so good to run, although the hills were a struggle and I really had to take little steps and try to think about form. Calves and quads will be sore I think tomorrow, but worth it.

Headed to breakfast at the markets after with Zoe & Andrew. Banana in sticky rice really hit the spot.

C • Impressive! 4