Running 2010

I realised this morning that I'd run four times this week for a total of 24 km. I'm starting to feel like I've got my "running mojo" back. For a while I've only been managing to get out there once or twice a week and I've been struggling. This week it seemed really easy. I was looking forward to Tuesday's run with Krissi, which has been the session that's kept me feeling that I have running credentials even though I haven't been out there much. Over the Christmas break I only did one PT session a week - that run. On Thursday I met up with Lola for bridge to bridge. It had seemed ages since we'd managed to run together, so it was good to catch up on the news. Lola has been doing the same run with Krissi, who has been amused that each week we manage to run within seconds of each other's time. No wonder we're such good running partners.

On Saturday, we met up with Fontessa for a run at the base of Mt Ainslie. There were so many cars there when I arrived. It seems quite a few people have made exercise one of their New Year's resolutions. It was lovely to be out there with all the walkers, runners, cyclists, etc, although it did mean that we didn't see the usual kangaroos and possums. It also meant that we didn't have to worry about snakes. They were all in hiding! We had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery as we didn't try to go fast. Fontessa hasn't been running much lately, my legs were tired from an intense workout at PT on Friday morning and Lola's right Achilles tendon was playing up towards the end of the run. I had just read the stretching article in Runner's World, so I pointed her to it and she's trying it out. Hopefully it helps.

This morning Lola and I met up for a fairly flat short run. We're going to use this session as our "cough cough" speed session. As neither of us has ever really worked on building up our speed I'm not sure what that will end up involving. Whatever eventuates, it's sure to be amusing. We're planning to get into proper training for the Canberra Half Marathon in February, so I guess we'll have it sorted out by then. At the moment we're focussing on getting back into a routine and making sure we spend time on our feet.

My main goal at the moment is to get serious about my "The Last Twenty" challenge. I collected all those sponsors to help motivate me to lose weight and I managed to put weight on! It wasn't meant to work that way. A key reason for losing the weight by Mother's Day is that I'll handle the Canberra Half Marathon so much better if I'm lighter. I think that I'm much less likely to get injured if I'm carrying less weight around with me.

One thing for sure - at least I'm not trying to run in the pressure cooker temperatures that Adelaide and Melbourne are experiencing at the moment.