Huh. It’s been pretty much all running, all the time around here lately. Sorry about that! It’s just that I had two races in a row, so I haven’t had time/willpower for much else. Getting back to normal now. Six weeks til the half-marathon!

This week: 24.9km (15.5mi)
Last week: 17.8km (11mi)

Today was the day of my fourth running of the 14km City2Surf… and my first without the Snook! He said that our run last year “nearly killed him,” and he hadn’t done any training this year. So I was on my own. (Technically there were three guys from my company running, including my buddy Paul here that I met up with afterwards.) I headed over to the Blue start on College Street this morning at 9am, knowing that it would take ages to get started. The crowd was a record 75,000 runners, and the weather was gorgeous and sunny. I told myself over and over that this was just a training run, that I wasn’t going for any specific time. I set RunKeeper to intervals of 5:00 running and 1:00 walking. Our group finally crossed the starting line at 9:28am. We were off!

My enforced walk-breaks worked well for the first half, and I tried to take a photo during most of them. (Unfortunately they didn’t all sync to the map, but you can see them above. Optus’s network failed bigtime.) My pace for the first half was fantastic, even with the walking. Oddly enough, I actually ran into my teammate Venks around the 5km mark! I can’t believe out of 75,000 people, I ran into one of the few I knew. Venks was taking a break himself, so I left him behind when RunKeeper told me to speed up again. Soon we were at the hill… and that’s when it started sucking. I got a stitch/cramp in my side that just would not budge. I took an extra walk break, taking exaggerated breaths to try to stretch it out. I ended up walking most of the hill, and my pace just wasn’t the same after that. No matter, I told myself. It was just a training run! I tried to enjoy it. At 11.5km I stopped for a second to send the Snook an SMS telling him I was getting close. I ended up crossing the finish line (hunched over, fighting the stitch) at 111 minutes, which is about 5 minutes slower than we did last year. It’s okay. It was good just to be out there with everybody else.

I was thinking about why I love this event. I think it’s because it reminds me that you can’t judge a person’s athletic ability by their shape, and you’re really only out there competing against yourself. I was passed by people that I wouldn’t think could run 2km, much less 14km. And because of how many people there are and how staggered the starts are, there’s no point in comparing yourself to anybody else on the road. We’re all running our own races. It’s the great equalizer.

Anyway, the end of the race was madness. I couldn’t find the meeting point where my teammates were supposed to congregate, and I nearly couldn’t find the Snook. (Optus and Vodafone SUCKED.) Eventually we met up with Paul, who’d already had a shower and change of clothes! Then the three of us joined a queue for the buses and made our way back to the city. I had a long hot shower and a hot lunch before heading over to Broadway for a much-needed full body massage. Ahhh, *bliss*.

The new highly-anticipated (by me, anyway) release of RunKeeper finally got approved yesterday. It’s got some nice improvements with real-time mapping and iPod playlist integration, but the killer feature for me is the ability to take photos and have them geotagged along the route. I thought it would be super cool to do it on Sunday during each of my walk breaks along the City2Surf. So I went out for a run this morning just to test it out.

I did notice some weirdness at first, mostly regarding the pace calculation and voice feedback. (My pace showed up as 0 for the first 10 minutes or so.) The time and distance were correct though, so I wasn’t too worried about the pace (which eventually came good). Posting a “status” message is pretty easy, akin to sending a tweet really. There’s a word balloon that you type in, and you can click the little photo icon to take a picture. I only had two problems with it. First, as you might expect it’s not easy to type a message on a touchscreen keyboard while you’re running down the street (or god forbid, riding a bike). You can hit the photo button relatively easily, but to actually add a caption you have to be walking (or stopped completely). The second problem (which compounds the first) is the iPhone’s spell correction doesn’t seem to work on the status updates. So while I think it’s really neat functionality, it’s hard to actually use it when you want to be using it.

That said, it’s still super cool to see your photos along the route. Did you see that last one of me? I’d just done six speed intervals and I was pretty wrecked. I’m really looking forward to Sunday…

After the success of the Bay Run yesterday, I’m feeling back on track for the Half-Marathon in seven weeks. The next hurdle will be this weekend’s City 2 Surf, 14km from the city out to Bondi. I’m not planning on setting any specific time goals for this one; I’m going to treat it just as a normal long slow run. (In fact, I’m thinking of doing an enforced run-walk to keep my pace down.) My distance this week was a big step down, mostly because I didn’t want to wear myself out before the Bay Run. I think I’m probably due for another visit to the physio though… My back was hurting quite a bit at the end of yesterday’s run. Need to get it sorted before the Half.

This week: 17.8km (11mi)
Last week: 28.8km (18mi)

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.