That’s Hot Is It?

I came across a couple of articles last weekend that stopped me in my tracks and made me raise my eyebrows.

I was scouring the pages of the UK’s Sun newspaper for the soccer reports (honest Guv). The Sun newspaper is unbelievable, not in the sense that it’s awesome but because it’s well, unbelievable. You couldn’t trust a word it says and has some crazy headlines and stories.

The two stories in Question:

That’s hot is it? 19C heat? Scorcher, rocket to 23C? They’re a funny lot those Poms!

Translation: flip flops are thongs in Australia.

Running wise I’m still sticking to the plan although last Thursday’s 4 x 30 second sprint intervals (2k warm up and down) were a bit weak – felt like I cheated.

Today I headed out for a 6K run in the middle of the day and I decided to wear skins as it was very cold this morning. However lunch time the temperature had risen to near on 20C. Needless to say I felt very uncomfortable and I even contemplated stopping and taking the skins off, but where was I going keep them? hold them in my hands, in my pocket, down my shorts? So I did nothing and suffered the whole way.

On the soccer front, West Ham are safe for another season in the premier league; a top 10 finish is likely and is commendable. Kept that quiet for at least 8 months!

I’m Back

Not that I’ve really been away, it’s that for the past two months I really couldn’t be bothered.

So what’s been happening I hear you ask, well I’m hoping someone asked as I’m about to answer the question.

I ran the 15K Run For The Kids in March and PB’d and also beat my goal time by nearly 5 minutes – goal time was 1 hour 30 minutes. The best I’ve ever felt in a race, comfortable pace and well within myself.

Bought a new Garmin watch and stopped running for 7 weeks. Why, I have no idea.

So I decided to sign up for the “Run Melbourne” half marathon in July

First run was yesterday and I have a new plan, less running and more strength work:

Yesterdays first run (6K) for a while was quite easy although most of it was in descent. Another tick off my bucket list occurred on Friday  – Chelle and I did the 1000 steps, Kokoda Memorial Track at the base of the Dandenongs. It’s about 2.5K long and rises to about 600m although that’s only a guess as the GPS wasn’t picking up a satellite.

This was challenging even for us and whilst we weren’t out of breath it got the heart rate up. It’s supposed to give one (the royal one!) an appreciation of what the diggers went through during the 2nd world war but they treked 90km in bogs, scrub, rivers with 40kgs on their back and the enemy shooting at them. We walked 1000 steps on a mild sunny Melbourne morning.

That said it’s a great walk and well worth a visit if only to read the plaques on the way or the memorials.

Strength work today and 4 by 30 second intervals tomorrow around Princes Park.

 

Communication Breakdown..

..It’s always the same,
I’m having a nervous breakdown, Drive me insane!

So the watch is cactus and now Runkeeper is doing its best to piss me off. Aside from 2 uneventful slow runs of 7 & 8K on Wednesday and Thursday, now I have Runkeeper playing all sorts of games with me. Probably a conspiracy with Garmin to get me to buy a new watch.

Mapped out my long for the week on Mapmyrun this morning and home to around the cemetery and back again is a shade over 13K.  Was the fastest run in awhile and that was without consulting the phone. In the home straight I retrieve the phone from my armband and it shows this:

I can’t run anywhere near that pace and the distances are way out of whack. The 1.11.22 is right as I recorded it on my wrist watch so very happy with the time.

Searching for a new GPS watch as I write.

Whilst on my run, just after the 13K on the map I encountered a police cordon with TV cameras, about 6 police cars and half way down the street an armoured police van. At the time I didn’t know what it was about but it was the serial rapist (mad dog) holed up in a house.

I’ll go out on a limb here. If he’s a serial rapist what the fuck is he doing on the streets on parole. He’s known as “Mad Dog” for Christ sake – wouldn’t that give you a clue? Seriously, the court system (or lack of) needs redressing quick smart.

BTW – Lyrics are from Led Zep – communication breakdown

No Luck, Keep Dreaming

I’m due a bit of luck I reckon, so last night I’m at the pokies and some lady has just won $2,000 on the machine I was just playing, so i thought it must be on a winning streak, so I put my card in that had $8,000 on it and preceding to play and within minutes the machine is going ballistic, 10 minutes later it’s still going and I’m up to $150,000 credit.

Surely I’m dreaming, I even question whether this was real, I pinch myself and look around – I can’t believe my luck, then the bloody alarm goes off at 5:00am! How could I question a dream whilst dreaming and even confirm that I wasn’t dreaming? Why I’d dream of playing the pokies is anyone’s guess, I never play them or even gamble.

Thoroughly pissed off now and to make matters worse it’s raining heavily. Too heavy to go for a run even though it’s a cool 18C.

The rain slows to a spit around 1:00pm so I get my gear on and head out the door. By now the temperature’s climbed to 20C but the humidity has risen to 100%.

 

 

 

 

 

Last week was a 40K all up and with two days left of the month, I’m going to exceed 140K. I can’t say that it’s been the pleasant month of running I’ve had but I’m quite proud of myself for sticking at it.

It Ain’t Half Hot

Another 5 days flash by with no blogging and no let up in the weather. It’s been 30C+ for the past week with the lows being around 20C, although the lows tend to also come with some high humidity – 80%+ most mornings at 6:00am. I hate the heat and the humidity.

Completed 3 runs since my last blog; Fridays tempo 7K run was a long way off what it should have been as it was so humid and Sundays recovery run was another slog. I’ve hardly enjoyed my runs of late but only an injury will force me to stop –  I need to plough on and get through this lethargy and hope for cooler climes. A few cooler days coming up but still in the high 20’s with lows of about 15/16.

In between those two runs I decided to do my long run (12k) for the week around Maribyrnong River – 2 circuits of the red bridge. So I get there nice and early, do a few stretches open the “Runkeeper” app and the phone tells me the battery is low; 8%!!. I haven’t bought a new GPS watch yet so I have no back up – although the phone would normally be the back up. 8% is not gonna last me an hour plus so I jump back in the car for 20 minutes waiting for up to charge up to 20%+.

Not sure where it gets 133 metre climb from, the track is flat as a pancake.

And here’s the Red Bridge and the Maribyrnong River – not sure of the bridges’ actual name but it is red!

 

Now There’s No Excuse To Run or Exercise

Scientists have found that beer after exercise is better than water or Gatorade – eureka, there is a god!

You may have noticed “beer” isn’t singular as I cannot have only one ( can anyone?), but what’s the limit after a 6:30am workout. Is it the time or the number of beers? Is red wine in the same category? So many questions and the ambiguity leaves all sorts of possible answers and permutations. Think I’ll use comatose as the extremity and anything in between is fine.

Maybe the scientists are commissioned by Lion Nathan or CUB much like our very CSIRO, you get the result you pay for, but let’s not go there.

At least today I had a little respite from the heat and had an easy 7K in 17C temperatures this morning. I have to say that this was the most pleasurable run I’ve had in the last two weeks or more.

Can’t Take A Trick

With a maximum forecast of 22C today, you’d think that I would at least have some respite from the heat, but no.

Met Mike for a brisk 5K walk around Princes Park and then onto my run. 6K, 22C and 90% humidity. So the coldest day of the month, I manage to run in the hottest part of the day in very humid conditions. Someone’s having a lend of me surely, I can’t be this unlucky and stupid all in the same week can I? It’s a rhetorical question.

If you need some running gear, Rebel have some great bargains at the moment. We picked up a pair of Asics 2170 for Michelle for $55 (normally around $150), a new balance singlet for $12 and a pair of Motivate shorts for $2. That’s a saving of about $140.

I

It was Sam’s 7th birthday on Saturday and he wanted an Ipad mini with the money received for xmas and his birthday, so after some searching we picked it up today. We now have:

Mac computer
Macbook
Ipod shuffle
Ipod
Ipod Touch
3x Iphones
Ipad
Ipad Mini

The reason for this grey stuff is that it allows me condense the list.
Can't work how do it otherwise. Comments appreciated.

 

Careful What You Wish For

When we were building our new house we contemplated not having a pool, but we thought it would be good for the kids on the summer holidays so we got one put in. As we have only just moved in we also decided not to have a summer holiday for the first time in years.

Well we couldn’t of wished for a better summer, I think it’s rained maybe twice since December 1st and the past week and next week are all high 20’s C and mid 30’s C. As I write it’s 9:30pm and it’s still a balmy 31C. The lows are 19-22C so there’s little relief even at night. The kids have been in the pool everyday and some days it’s an effort to get them out.

The downside to all this heat is the damage it’s doing to my running – I’ve run 4 times in the last 6 days:

Thursday tempo run was an out and out slog in 24C heat.

Friday was insane – I missed the am run due to time constraints so I thought I’d do an easy 7K at 2:00pm in 34C heat. For the first time I felt like giving up, I was over heating, tired, body ached and dripping wet from sweat. How on earth do those 100k runners do it through the desert?

Saturdays long around Princes Park and Carlton was at 8 am but was still 24C and littered with a few walk breaks.

Yesterday was supposed to be my recovery run at a very easy pace. 9:00am it was 28C and in 40 minutes I only covered 6.2K and it was far from easy.

Safe to say I hate the heat when running, give me 6C any day. As you can see I haven’t fixed my Garmin issue and still using Runkeeper which is a cause of frustration as I cannot monitor the distance or pace as easy as the watch. Still probably wouldn’t have mattered this week as it was so hot, slow and debilitating.

Been logging my stats on “Dailymile” week 1 is January 1st:

 

The End!

My last post had some serious questions about my GPS watch – it was playing up, not charging, wouldn’t turn off, wouldn’t download data etc.

I rang Garmin and after being on hold for 32 minutes ( thank God for a speaker phone) I finally got to speak to a real person!

Serial number checked, software checked -synopsis – we can supply you with a new 310XT for $159 as the watch is dead or at least on life support.

OK, it’s probably not a bad deal, but the actual watch is 3 years old and has been superseded a number of times – I’m thinking of getting a new watch with a smaller face and less of the bells and whistles that I don’t use.

Run wise, I struggled this morning as it was so hot- a slowish run yet I was sweating buckets. I really cant wait for the cooler weather for running but I love the warmer weather when I’m not. This week is 30’sC everyday, perfect for relaxing but uncomfortable for running. Had to use the Runkeeper app:

The deck ha s cost me another $80 as I needed a new chemical anchor to attach the bearers to the brick piers – apparently we have hollow bricks and dynabolts just don’t cut it.

Bearers are in and the joists are in place.

Is This The End?

The thing that keeps me honest and has been with me since my first ever run seems to be dying:

Garmin Forerunner 310XT – It’s now 2 and a half years old and has had a replacement charging clip in the last year. It’s starting to give me the shits:

• It wont turn off
• It wont charge
• It charges and then turns off
• The computer has stopped paring with it
• The computer does not recognise it

I’ve tried a hard and soft reset but to no avail.Surely a $500 watch should last more than 2.5 years? Anyone else these issues with their watches?

So today I had to resort to “Runkeeper” and although it’s not bad, it’s not on my wrist and not readily available to read as I keep it in my waist pouch.

Friday  was Wednesday’s run of 7.3K

Saturday was 9.6K

and today I had my easy/recovery run for the week of 40 mins:

35K for the week and this climbs to 38K for the upcoming week.

On the home front, I’m in the throes of building a deck by the side of the house. The last time I built a deck was about 15 years ago. I couldn’t have done it or as well if I didn’t have Michelle’s granddad’s assistance. He was 75 at the time and was from the old school – close enough was never good enough for Albert- he’d pull me up regularly and re measure or recut and he had every tool known to man – in fact if you couldn’t buy the tool, he’d make one for the job.

I wish I had him here now to help me but alas he passed away 4 years ago – I really miss him. He was a mate although he supported Nottingham Forest and Essendon ( I’m West Ham and Fitzroy), we’d often get up in the middle of the night to watch England play in the World Cup of the Euro championships.

If he disapproved of anything, he wouldn’t utter a word, the look on his face painted  the picture for you = RIP Albert