Round Ringwood Lake

We have managed to continue our running program for the past two months. Although I have contracted a nasty rash (just part and parcel of running I assume) under my arms, that started as chaffing, it’s just a minor hinderance. Fortunately there haven’t been any other major hurdles to progressing through our program. Except the hills of course. They haven’t gone away.

Immediately leaving our house we encounter a couple of minutes of downhill slope which we use to walk down to warm up. As soon as we hit the bottom it angles up significantly becoming what I have dubbed in my head as K2 – which is where we start running. Down the other side of K2 we encounter another sharp upturn into the Matterhorn. Last week we managed to crest K2 without slowing down which was a fairly major achievement, particularly mentally. We are also down to about 3 short walks now in the half hour it takes us to do the run. As a treat I bought myself a present of a new pair of running pants, investing a small fortune but I can only assume they will last me until I retire. And they’re very comfy. AND they wick away the sweat. Sounds gross. But I love the word ‘wicking’ and am encouraged to use it as often as possible.

Anyway, we headed over to Ringwood Lake on Sunday to run the circuit we will be running in the fun run next Sunday. Things I discovered in a public place – even toddlers can run faster than me. Oh well, maybe by the time I’ve worn in my sweat wicking pants and retired I’ll be able to beat her.

You’re On Your Own Foolish Humans

Today started well, the cat decided to join us on our jog (run, walk, run averaged out becomes a jog surely). And it seemed like a wise decision since his ‘winter coat’ has him a good kilogram heavier than he should be. On the word from JP (jogging partner) we set off up the drive. The cat jogged alongside us for five full steps before veering off into the shrubbery and hiding for the duration… “you’re on your own foolish humans!”

Again we decided to go before eating breakfast. I’m still undecided if this is a good thing or not. We’re not full of food making us feel sick, but we’ve not fuelled our bodies with anything either. Except a lot of water to start out with. So for the first two run periods my legs felt like dead weight. We also took a different path this time. Through Hodgkins Ridge. There are two ways to tackle Hodgkins – you can do the entire nature reserve around the base and up the hill, or you can simply skirt the base along the west side. JP assured me that there would be less hills than our normal running route. So it took 18.5mins, and heart rate 182, as I was facing the steep incline along the east side, before I exclaimed with my first expletive. Making it down the other side, in a barely controlled goat-like run down the hill, saw me performing myfirst ever ‘spit’ into the bush. I detest spitting, it’s unnecessary… except I just discovered that sometimes it actually is necessary. JP assures me that it means I’m a real athlete now.

This route though really was nice. It’s the route we do our walking excercise on so today we simply saw it all go past us faster. So fast that I only had a few seconds to enjoy the ducks at the stream and not notice that we were coming up on the Beagle house that backs onto the hidden path. So when said long-legged Beagle leapt at the fence and let out a bellowing bark right at my head I think my heart skipped a beat. And I let out a startled and extremely loud expletive number 2.

I found a rhythm on this run though. JP actually jogged beside me (often hard to do on the paths around here being as narrow as they are) and matching him stride for stride I found my breathing relax as I fell into a rhythm. Then he overtook me and it was back to gasping again where, on our return, the cat appeared out of the shrubbery, jogged down the drive with us, then sat staring up at us until JP grabbed his tummy fur to show me how fat he was. The cat mistook that for a tummy rub, fell over on his side and smiled slyly at us in tummy rubbing heaven.

Oh, it’s good to be a cat.

Day Four

Not feeling confident to increase the jog phase this morning we stuck with the week 1 program of 3 mins walk, 2 mins jogging, for 30 minutes. Unfortunately the timer on the iTouch wasn’t keeping up with my stop watch so we were getting alerts at strange times. I think we walked for four minutes about half way through but got back on track after that.

I’m finding it very interesting the way my body responds to the different inclines. We have to do this program over very hilly terrain simply because of where we live. So there are long uphill stretches followed by long downhill stretches with only a couple of flat sections. The valleys and peaks though are very distinct as it swaps from incline to decline and I can actually feel my body adjust over a matter of about 10 seconds at each change. And it’s not just my body shifting it’s weight backwards and forwards but different muscles and groups taking over… and allowing the other strained and groaning muscles to ease off! Of course my acute awareness of them is more to do with protesting body parts than anatomical or scientific knowledge.

My jogging partner also advised that he would let me know, according to the downloaded program on his iTouch, when to start and stop jogging. Unless of course, I suggested, my stopping involved passing out. Does that count? We decided it did.

Today we had breakfast before we headed out but I found it didn’t make a whole lot of difference to last week. I still felt dizzy about half way through, and again felt like throwing up during the last jogging phase. Interestingly though the last really steep uphill section had my heart rate up as high as when I’m jogging. And all those open fireplaces that are in the area because it is about 3 degrees colder out here than in the city and it’s a nice warm snuggly thing to curl up in front of (I’ve nearly convinced myself here)… so I’m speaking on behalf of joggers everywhere – we really, really hate them. Or is it just me because a lungful of smoke as I’m struggling uphill is enough to just about do me in.

Heart rate average today was 151 with a max of 190. And the pedometer says I took 4069 steps.

Run, walk, run

A week ago we decided to start the C25K program – couch to 5km. Except that I read another similar program around the same time and got them mixed up. So instead of starting with 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes, we started with 3 minutes of walking and 2 minutes of jogging for 30 minutes, in the first week. I’m not sure if it’s for better or worse but we’re sticking with the latter plan – in 7 more weeks we should be able to jog for 30 minutes total.

Not having jogged for fitness before there were a few things we didn’t count on though…

Exactly how cold it is at night in the hills – earache sets in about halfway due to the numbing cold
That at least half of the track we run would be over gravel path terrain complete with tree roots and mud puddles
Exactly how dark it is at night in the hills
How hard it is to run uphill trying to propel my entire body weight
How offputting the smoke from people’s fireplaces would be as I’m gasping for breath
How big my rear end would feel wobbling behind me

On Sunday, our second session, we were interrupted by a very cute and fluffy pet rabbit that had escaped it’s yard, and the old people who wanted to chat. I think I would still be there exchanging pleasantries if not for the sudden great escape of Bugsy which distracted them.

I did find that on our third run last night I was able to stretch my legs out in an improved running style… down hill. And nanna could probably walk faster on her walking frame uphill than I can jog uphill.

But I did it easier last night, only setting up a wheezing gasp in the very last jog stage, and the head lights we now have attached to our heads, like spurlunkers… without a cave, vastly improved our ability to see where we’re going.

I’m assuming it gets easier than this.