Thursday 5 April 2007

Holiday fun

You have to love holidays, don't you? Everyone seemed quite cheerful at work today. Holidays that involve chocolate have to be the best kind.

This morning I was starting work a little later than usual. It seemed to take me forever to get myself to the gym. When I finally arrived at 6:30 am, I was told that the first person to get there hadn't shown up until 6:15 am. I didn't feel quite so bad about my late start.

I did the interval run I'd planned last night, but I was very tempted to give it a miss. Fortunately, I am able to ignore "lazy" Kathy more and more. I ran intervals for 15 mins at 6/10.6 km/h, then ran for 5 mins at 9 km/h and finished off with 5 mins at 6 km/h before doing my stretches. I'm trying to make sure I stretch properly. It's awfully easy to skip the stretching. I'm trying to think of it as part of my run. If I only have 30 mins to exercise, then I only have 20 mins to run, 5 mins to cool down, and the rest is stretching. My warm up is my 10 minute walk to the gym.

I felt really good while I was running. I was concentrating on my cadence, and on the fifth fast interval I was astounded to find that I hardly noticed the effort involved. In fact, I thought that maybe the treadmill hadn't actually changed speeds. I think maybe I'm ready to move up a level on the interval training. I might give it a week or two though. I quite like this idea of running without it being a tremendous effort!

I didn't get to the gym tonight, as I had packing to do and a plane to catch. My packing for Melbourne is quite amusing now. The running gear goes in first. I'm planning to run around the creek tomorrow. The rest of the day I'm just going to potter. I have been staying up too late at night, and I could do with catching up on some rest and relaxation.

My dad picked me up at the airport. The lucky man got to hear a blow by blow description of last weekend, along with the details of each and every run. I'm sure if he had a hearing aid he would have turned it off! Mum got it all on the phone the other day, as did two of my sisters. I keep waiting for them to say "Kathy, go blog it and I'll catch up later" but they patiently listened to me. As I'll be catching up with most of the family on Sunday, I'll have plenty more victims (I mean interested listeners) to dazzle with stories of my running prowess.

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Thank you so much for your comments on my blog. I think it was exactly what I needed to hear. I too fall into that depressing cycle and sometimes you just can't see your way out of it ... Your comments really really helped me :)

I'm glad to hear your running is getting easier - it's great when you have those days when everything just flows! Seems you and I are on opposites at the moment!

I love stretching, although I'm guilty of skipping it after runs from home - it's much easier to do at the gym, but I really enjoy it mostly.

I'm sure your family are really happy for you and excited about your running, they're probably really proud of you!

MorseyRuns said...

I am so worried that I am turning into a running bore- it is all I seem to talk about too! I am glad your family is tolerant about your running stories.
Hope you get out for a run in Melbourne- the weather today is glorious!