Another week!

I need to do better than updating once a week really, don't I?

Thursday 24/9/09 - Rest Day

Friday 25/9/09 - 10km - 1:03:50

Ahhhh back to my normal pace, it took a while to recover from running faster on the Sunday! It was raining on Friday, it NEVER rains when I run, David and I kid about it - it can be raining and it will virtually stop as I head out the door, but not Friday, Friday it rained, the way around and actually it wasn't so bad. The day before I had spent four hours on my bike delivering and it was wet, freezing cold and rained the whole time - nothing could have been worse than that!

Also went to the physio Friday morning (after my run), he did quite a few exercises with me to test my muscles, hips etc to see how strong/supple/stable they are and everything was really good! He also gave me a couple of other exercises to stretch some of the muscles that are a bit tight, especially the ones working to my back ... AND gave me the all clear - no need to see him again unless it all flares up again - yay!

Saturday 26/9/09 - 18km - 1:55:10

Yay! I did it - the big scary 18km. I'd worked hard the few days before to drink lots of water, made sure I ate pasta the night before and had a good breakfast before I set off, I really think those little things helped. It was a really really good run, I ran a 11km block, stopped at our letterbox and grabbed my gel and drink bottle and walked while I drank and had the gel and then set off and did a 7km block. Everything just seemed to be right, I never felt like stopping, it never felt like I couldn't do it - just a nice steady pace the whole way around, if the half marathon can be like that, well it would be perfect!

We then drove to New Plymouth, David left earlier with Cameron and a couple of his team mates (we were going up to watch Cameron's soccer rep tournament), I left a bit later with the two girls so I could make sure I had time to walk around a bit and get my muscles moving before I sat and drove for four hours - it all worked well, I was stiff Sunday evening and Monday, but not too bad at all - definitely not as sore as I was two weeks before that when I ran 16km.

Sunday/Monday - Rest Days

I did rest, but I also made sure we went for a couple of walks - also went swimming at the pools on the Tuesday - so I could keep my stiff body moving!

Tuesday - 8km - 50min

The nice thing about New Plymouth is they have an amazing waterfront walkway that covers 7km of beach front, all concreted and nice and wide - a proper walk/run/bike way, I was really looking forward to running along it and wasn't disappointed! I started from the main part which is sort of in the middle, ran to the end one direction which was 3km, back to the main part and 1km the other way and back to make my 8km - I did it on time, I know it takes about 50min for me to run 8km, plus my Nike+ is still not set up properly, because I just haven't got around to doing it! So I knew about 8.3km according to that is about 8km.

Oh, and it rained, and rained, and rained on Tuesday - but not while I was running, when I left our motel it was bucketing down, I sat in the car for a while until it stopped - ran, got back to the motel, by the time we went and watched Cam's soccer it was bucketing down again - we sat in the car and watched him, amongst the thunder and lightening!

Wednesday 30/9/09 - 8km - 50min

I did the same as Tuesday, except I actually parked the 1km up the other way so I ran in one direction and back again.

And the rain? except for about a 1min downpour that soaked one side of me because it was coming in sideways, and the huge wave that managed to crash into the rocks and give me a soaking, um, it didn't really rain while I was running, again! LOL IT certainly poured down all the drive home!

Totally off topic, on the way home we stopped to visit my niece who has just had a baby - she is so cute and little! 4 weeks early and only weighing 4.5lb - she is now about 5.5lb ... but soooo tiny :)

Thursday (today) - 12km - 1:16:15

My car was booked in to get wheel bearings (or something) fixed, and its school holidays, so instead of waking early (after working last night), I slept in a bit, had breakfast and dropped the car off and then ran from there. It was nice to run a somewhat different route and not to do a "block". But, being later, it was hot - it is probably good to do a few runs later and when its hotter I think, most races (including the half marathon!) start off a bit later and you just can't pick the weather!

It seemed hard this morning, whether it was because I had cereal for breakfast rather than my usual pre-run breakfast of toast, or because it was hot, or because I've eaten crap while we've been on holiday ... I don't know - it wasn't really bad, just seemed to be long and hard work!

Rest day tomorrow, then a little 5km on Saturday before another 12km on Sunday - all manageable :)