I’ve been looking forward to this race for a year now. I was supposed to run it last year with three guys from work, but a surprise business trip to L.A. made me miss it. No way was I going to miss out this time. So Stef, Tim, Shane, and I signed up early and gave ourselves a silly name: “Barry and the Apples.” The race is 7km (about 4.5mi) around Iron Cove, and it’s been getting more popular every year. They have separate events for runners, walkers, kids, and even dogs. Race Day dawned beautiful and clear and sunny, and Snookums came along for moral support. The guys took off first, and then the girls left 15 minutes later. I was apprehensive. I told the Snook that in an ideal scenario, I’d average 7:00/km and finish in less than 50 minutes… but realistically I figured I’d do closer to 55. I started out slow. The first half of the race had the only hills, as we climbed up to Iron Cove Bridge and ran along Victoria Road. Once we got back to the water’s edge and the course flattened, I deliberately started to push myself. I’d lost Stef in the initial crush, but at the halfway point I spotted her 100m ahead. I tried my best to catch her, but she was setting a good pace. Soon the first of the dog runners was passing us. I skipped the sole water stop. Lots of people were taking walk breaks, but I told myself that at the very least I’d meet my secondary goal of running the whole thing without stopping. At the 6km sign, RunKeeper told me that 40min had elapsed. I suddenly realised that I was going to do it. Even if I had to walk that last kilometer, I knew I could do it in ten minutes. My back was starting to hurt bad at this point, and I had a stitch in my side. But I kept going. I could still see Stef, tantalizingly close. I pushed. Suddenly the finish line was looming and then we were done. I barely had time to hit Stop on RunKeeper and notice that my time was under 49min before a nice woman was hauling me out of the crowd to remove my timing chip. I turned around to see the Snook taking my picture. “I did it!” Turns out we all did it. My final time was 48:38; Stef finished about a minute ahead of me; and the boys were each more than ten minutes ahead of that. We posed for one last group shot and then headed off for breakfasts and showers.

Of course, the really funny bit is that I just logged on to check the results… and there’s “Barry and the Apples” as the #1 Team in the competition! I nearly fell over laughing. If you look at the results spreadsheet it’s clear that they’ve mistakenly given our team name to the actual winners. But still, now, for the moment, Barry and the Apples are the big winners of the Bay Run 2009.

Running/Walking Challenge
Since I know some of you have been inspired to hit the roads and get healthy lately, I’ve just created a “NSW Knitters Challenge” over at Runner+. The challenge is to get in as many miles in August as you can. There’s no prize for winning; just the encouragement of the group to keep going! I chose Runner+ because it doesn’t require any special equipment to record your runs. You can enter the distances by hand (as I do), or you can sync it up to the Nike+ system. I’ve made the challenge private, so please let me know if you’d like an invite. (And non-knitters are welcome too!)

What a difference a week makes!

This week: 28.8km (18mi)
Last week: 12.5km (7.8mi)

I know that’s a ridiculously large jump, more than double. But 18 miles is what I should be up to on my plan, and the only reason the past few weeks were less was because of my stupid cold. The big difference was my long run, which I finally managed to get in yesterday. I did nearly 14km at a very slow pace (4:00 jogging, 1:00 walking) around Centennial Park. My legs, back, and lungs all felt better than I expected. Afterwards I chugged a chocolate milk while sitting in a cold bath. Bliss…

I’m slowly working back into it. I managed three short runs last week, and the good news is that my shins feel great. The bad news is that this chesty cough still isn’t budging. I’m going to the doctor for my allergy shot tomorrow night, and I’ll take the opportunity to see if he thinks this bronchitis is worth some antibiotics.

This week: 12.5km (7.8mi)

Bay Run (7km) in two weeks, and then the City2Surf (14km) the following week!

Nothing to report. I mean it. Nothing. Stupid cold kept me from any and all running last week. My sinuses cleared up by the weekend, but I’ve still got a wet cough that limits my breathing somewhat. I had to get out there yesterday, though, or go crazy. So I had short runs both yesterday and today. Mentally, I feel great. Physically, I’m still a hacking snot monster.

Much better! I felt like I probably could’ve done a fourth day this week, but I didn’t want to push it too hard given that I need to make up some distance on my long runs. I did a 4:1 run/walk ratio on my long one Saturday to force myself to hold back. I started to feel a bit crampy in my calves at the end, but I think I need to up the salts in my diet. (I’m eating fairly low-carb at the moment.) I had an ice bath afterwards, which helped a bit.

This week: 16.2km (10mi)
Last week: 9.5km (6mi)

See, this is where the 10% rule bites me in the butt. Because I wouldn’t have such a big jump if I hadn’t taken days off for injury/illness. If you’re forced to skip a long run, that doesn’t mean you have to drop all the way back to 10% + your previous milage, does it? I’m guessing not, since most training programs incorporate recovery weeks and then resume where they left off afterwards. So I’ve been thinking of the past couple weeks as “recovery time” and trusting that I can get back on schedule.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but if you have an iPhone and you run/walk/cycle/ski/hike outdoors, you should get RunKeeper NOW. It’s so good. It uses GPS to track your distance and speed, and it’s a lot more accurate than Nike+. (You also don’t need special shoes or attachment hacks.) I downloaded the free version in February, but not long after I paid the $10 to get the Pro version. Every release has brought welcome new features, including voice prompts during the run and the ability to edit your run data afterwards. Yesterday the highly-anticipated interval workout functionality finally dropped. Nike+ can’t do this at all! I’ve been so frustrated with all the training plans that suggest running intervals laps at a track, because running tracks are very, very rare in Sydney. I’ve done them by looking at the RunKeeper distance as I go, but I’d much prefer to keep my eyes on the road. So I was really waiting for this one!

When you open the app, there’s a new button at the bottom of the main screen labelled “Training.” Clicking it brings up a menu of your saved training workouts. (They give you a couple of them as a examples.) You can edit an existing workout or add a new one. Each interval consists of “slow,” “steady,” or “fast” and an appropriate duration (which can be time OR distance!). You can set the intervals to repeat, and you can also tack on a 5:00 warmup and cooldown if you want. This morning I was meant to do an easy 30 minutes with 6 x 100m “strides.” Since the shortest distance interval you can set is 250m, I instead changed it to 45 seconds (which is way longer than it takes me to run 100m, but it seemed like a good compromise.) So I started off with the 5:00 warmup, then did 10 minutes “steady.” Each time period is announced with a chime and a voice prompt telling you what to do next. I did my 6 intervals of 45 seconds “fast” interspersed with 1:30 “slow,” then finished with another 8:00 of “steady” and a 5:00 cooldown. The system worked PERFECTLY, not a single glitch. Something like this could make a huge difference to amateurs’ training.

I’m also happy to report that I had ZERO leg/shin pain this morning. Yay! New shoes and rest seems to have done the trick. I’m really looking forward to my long run this weekend to see if my fitness has held up.

Another light week thanks to the virus that laid me low on Friday.

This week: 9.5km (6mi)
Last week: 8.4km (5.25mi)

I’m happy to report though that I finally made it out for a run this morning, and I felt pretty good. My shin didn’t bother me at all. I had some tightness in my calves and hamstrings, but I guess that could partially be attributed to me basically lying prone for 72 hours straight on the weekend and not stretching or exercising in any way. I’m eager to get back into my training plan if I can. This was meant to be a recovery week anyway, so I’ve got some breathing room. I’m just annoyed at missing three long runs due to the double-whammy of shin splints and sickness!

Another light week as I recover from my shin splints. I didn’t log many miles (only did two short runs), but I did manage two circuit training sessions at Spudds that kicked my butt. So hopefully my fitness level isn’t taking too big of a hit.

This week: 8.4km (5.25mi)
Last week: 10.11km (6.3mi)

After having an extremely light week last week, I headed out in my new shoes this morning to test my shins. I went very slow, and I took a short walk break every five minutes. I felt great! No pain at all while running. I massaged in some Voltaren after the run, and I could feel some residual pain (especially on my left leg) then. I’ll take it easy until I’m fully recovered.

This week: 10.11km (6.3mi)
Last week: 25.83km (16mi)

Yeah, big drop there. I swear I’m going to take it slow.