Chaotic

That's the only way to describe my work at the moment. A week off when I went to Adelaide meant a week of catch up last week. This week will be slightly better.

Mum is doing really well and building up her (very slow) walks each day. I was the dutiful daughter and left them with lots of meals in the freezer, a defrosted freezer, clean house, etc. I managed some good runs in Adelaide including a 16k run on much flatter ground than usual. It was faster than usual but felt hard. I think partly because I ran past the house at the 10k point and felt like giving up then. I bought new shoes whilst there, Nike ZoomVoomero - they are great. They feel so bouncy that you want to go running!

Back home again to some shorter runs - I even got Pip to come on one as nobody had walked him while I was away(slack). Then Saturday was long run day. I decided to go in the morning so as to best fit in with family activities. I wasn't sure if it would come off as I woke up at 4.00am with an excruciating cramp in my left calf. It was still tender when I got up but surprisingly felt fine once I ran at about 8.30. In fact the only time I noticed it was when I started walking for my cool down. It was a beautiful run: great weather, lots of bird calls, no traffic and the niggles were fine. The new shoes went well and I managed 18ks in about 2 hours and 5 minutes.

The half marathon is in two weeks and I need to work out my race plan. Last year I sat behind K who I work with until the last few ks when I went past, but missed my goal time. This year she is planning to beat her best time of about 1.57 so I guess I could do the same. The problem is if she is going too slow which is what happened last year. So I guess I should just run my own race and try for a negative split which I find hard. I know I haven't done the speedwork that I should have, but other than that I feel better prepared than last year when I was waiting for the thyroid medication to kick in and sort out the heart rate issues. Any suggestions?

In other news J came 5th in the district cross country and is in the zone this Friday.

Why won't blogger accept the real time (Australian date and time)?

Update

Just a quick update while I eat my brekky. Things have been going well running wise. 16ks last weekend at a slow but comfortable pace. This week has been quiet with only one run so far. I got up early to run this morning and my right ankle was sore. This is quite strange as it was fine yesterday, but after my run on Wednesday I had this prickly sensation right where it is sore today. It is not too bad but I decided that I would leave the run till this afternoon and see how it goes today. Walking around seems to help and it mainly hurts when I rotate it.

In other news my mum had to have a heart bypass (involving 5 arteries) last week. This was very sudden as she just went in for a test on the Monday and they did the operation on the Wednesday so it was a bit of a shock to her (and the family). Her family has a history of heart disease and she had a heart attack about 10 years ago so I guess it wasn't totally unexpected but just very sudden. So I am off to Adelaide for a week tomorrow. Not sure whether I will get a long run in but I will certainly get in a few shorter ones. No access to computer (but given my recent efforts that won't be obvious).