It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Mostly because I don’t really have anything good to report. As you may have noticed from my “training” history down there on the right, I haven’t been doing much running lately. My stomach still hurts. Yeah, it’s been nearly two months now. The antibiotics have seemingly cleared up the e.coli infection, but I’m still not 100% well. I’m trying to give the Nexium more time to work but it’s depressing not being able to have spicy food, alcohol, or caffeine. (Okay, yeah, I’m cheating on the caffeine a little bit. But I did cut back.) My doctor is quite frankly puzzled by my lack of improvement, and if things don’t get better soon, we move onto the next phase: investigating a possible ulcer. Unfortunately the only way to get an initial diagnosis is to have an endoscopy, where they stick a camera stuck down my throat. (I wonder if they’ll give me the pictures? Talk about naval gazing!) Then if it is the dreaded H. pylori, I go on another antibiotics regiment that is “90% successful.” Yay!

So what’s the upshot of all this? I’ve gained three kilos, which sucks. And we’re committed to running the City 2 Surf this weekend, though I’m not sure if “speed” will be a priority. We’re just hoping to finish sometime ’round about two hours. So all in all, a rather depressing DietBlog. I’m just looking forward to Spring and sunshine and being well.

The Mother’s Day Classic Official Race Photographs are now online! (They’ve disabled direct-linking but such strategems are no match for the Snook.) They got a funny one of me running, a nice one of Snookums charging towards the finish line, and this lovely one of the two of us immediately after finishing. (I’m still not used to how I look.) Now we need to set our next challenge. I’m thinking we definitely need to do the City 2 Surf in August, which is 14km through the city out to Bondi Beach. A month after that is the Blackmores Half-Marathon, which is 21km. What do you runners think? Is four months enough time to train for a half-marathon? Or should we just make the City 2 Surf our big event for this year and do the shorter (9K) Bridge Run the month after?

Happy Mothers Day!
Yes, today was the day of our big race. It really crept up on us! The Snook and I got up at the butt-crack of dawn so we could be down in the Domain in time for the 7:30am start of the 8K run event. It was cold but the sun was shining and I felt cautiously optimistic for our performance. I haven’t been able to do much training in the past few weeks – what with my Mom’s visit and my hamstring injury – so I told the Snook my only goal was to finish in under an hour. We strapped on our ankle timers and, after a fair amount of warming up and stretching, we joined a thousand or so other people at the starting line. Soon we were off. To my delight, my legs felt great. People were passing us, of course, but I think we did a pretty good job of running at our own pace. (The only person to lap us was the race leader, who was clearly a running cyborg from the future.) The clock was ticking past 25:00 as we started our second and final lap. We actually made it to the 5K mark before needing a walk break. That’s when I started to hurt. It wasn’t my leg; it was my lungs. I was gasping for breath and I had a stitch threatening the whole time. We shuffled onwards and with every step my body felt heavier and heavier. My brain was saying “I can’t do this” and I had to fight to keep from walking. I can honestly say that it was only Snookums that got me through the last two kilometers. If I’d been on my own, I’d have walked that whole way. As it was, I just tried to ignore all the pain and focus on keeping up with him for a few more feet. Soon the Finish Line was in sight and getting over that mat and STOPPING became the one and only objective in my life. And then it was over. The final times are yet to be released, but it was roughly around the 53:00 mark. Success! I was never so glad to be done with a run in my life. Here are a few pics:

The first three are us before the race. Yeah, I’m rockin’ the terry wristband again. Good grief, I look skinny. Compare with me four years ago. I can’t get over that. Snookums still can’t get over the fact that I talked him into running a race. And he hadn’t had any coffee, which is why he looks cranky in all the pictures. The last one is us after the race, which is why I look so dazed and vacant. My only thought was to force down a Powerbar before I yuked. Fun times! Hopefully the official race photographs will be up in a few days. I think they got at least a few good ones of us.

The aftermath: Yeah, we’re both wicked sore. The hamstring’s good though. I guess the time off really helped with the injury, but at the same time I took a real hit in terms of overall fitness. I’m looking forward to getting back into shape. Only a few months til the City 2 Surf!

Yesterday I had my first substantial run since hurting my hamstring last Tuesday. I feel pretty good! The Snook and I kept the pace slow-ish and I stopped every so often to have a stretch. It felt a little sore, but I didn’t have real pain at any time. So that’s good. In other race preparation news, the Snook has been to the podiatrist and his new orthotics are on order. Now we just need to get him some real running shoes. I can’t wait to get our Race T-shirts and numbers!

I headed off to the track again last night despite some misgivings about the warm, humid weather (it was, like, 85 yesterday!) and my level of congestion. I didn’t do too badly though. I remembered my pedometer/timer this time so I can state with confidence that I ran eight kilometers (twenty laps) in 53 minutes. That equates to a speed of about 9km/hr, and a 10K time of 66:15. Not bad! My 5K split was 32 minutes, so I did slow down a bit towards the end. (I don’t think my speed dropped; it’s just that I started taking walk breaks.) I’d say that this was actually a pretty comfortable pace for me. Is that a good thing though? I keep remembering The Biggest Loser a few nights ago when Bob kept telling the contestants that he wanted to push them OUT of their comfort zones. But without the trappings of race day (or a running partner with a faster pace), I find it difficult to push myself to that degree. As it was, I considered continuing on for the 10K, but my legs were dead and my left shin started feeling sore, so I decided not to kill myself racking up the miles. It’ll happen.

This Ask MetaFilter thread has given me lots of good ideas for additions to my running playlist.

Not to make this all “RunningBlog” or anything, but you will not believe what I did today. I ran two laps around Centennial Park – that’s 7.6km – WITH MY HUSBAND. Yes, the Snook actually ran. Those of you who don’t know him do not understand the magnitude of my surprise. I have known him for six years now, and I have never seen him run farther than half a block without complaining of heart palpitations. Turns out he’s been holding out on me this whole time! It all started a few weeks ago when I suggested he come to the park with me and walk a lap or two, and he said he thought he should get some actual running shoes. Being a tight-arse, though, he wanted to go to Kmart and get $20 trainers. Since I really didn’t see where this was going, I agreed. (He nearly chickened out at the last minute. “I’ll have three pairs of shoes! I’m becoming a metrosexual!”) That day at the park, I ran my lap while he walked behind me. Afterwards he confessed that he’d jogged about a fifth of a lap when no one was looking. So today he came along with me to ostensibly do some more walking. “Let’s have a bit of a jog,” I said, “and you tell me if you need to stop.” And we did two laps! We stopped probably about every kilometer or so to take a quick walk break, but our total time for the two laps was a decent 53 minutes. He even pushed me a bit since his natural pace is a little bit faster than mine. I just still can’t quite believe it. “You’re caught out now,” I said. “You’re going to have to do this all the time!” “I suppose,” he said. “We’re going to become those people.” I guess we are. I finally have a running buddy. SQUEEEEEE!

And yes, the first thing on the To Do list is to get him some better shoes.

Learning How to Run. Yeah, I need to go for a run tonight. Unfortunately my birthday dinner triggered a weeklong food depression in which I’m still mired. I’ve been really tired for days – like, sleepy tired – and I’m stuffing my face with carbs. I haven’t even bothered tracking my Points. This is BAD, y’all. I know in my brain that all the rich food I had last week was the culprit, yet I’m still having trouble snapping out of this. (Needless to say, I didn’t weigh in last night.) Anybody have any words of wisdom for nipping a shame spiral in the bud? (Running link courtesy of Brigita.)

Trail Note
The Dove is trying to get me to think about “cycles” in my workouts, such as cycling between easy days, medium days, and real tough grueling days. Then there are larger cycles, like easy weeks and hard weeks. I get the concept, but I’m having a little difficulty with the execution. Having an “easy” week feels too much like I’m slacking off. So I’ve settled for having “different” weeks. Last week was quite focussed on running, with two long runs to Centennial Park. This week I’m doing shorter runs but more kickboxing and strength work. I’m also working in more fartlek this week, doing sprints and generally just running faster when I can. It keeps me interested. I did my Pyrmont-to-Glebe run today in forty-five minutes, but since that includes the time I spent waiting at stoplights I figure I’ve definitely cut a few minutes off that route. I don’t feel like my pace is so glacial anymore. I think I’m finally seeing some real improvement!

I still have my mental setbacks though. Last night I ran up through Newtown to the top of Enmore Road, and on my way back I passed one of the guys from my WW group. We shared a wave and I sort of sheepishly said, “I’m being good tonight!” And he was all laughing, like “I’m not!” And so afterwards for like ten minutes, I was trying to think of excuses I could give him at the next meeting for why I was working out, stuff like “I’m saving up Points for my birthday” or “I’m trying to meet a weight deadline” or something. But then I realized that’s bullshit. Why am I making excuses for doing stuff that’s good for me? It’s like I morphed back into my high school self, trying to shrug off my good grades and going to pains to explain to the other kids that I hadn’t, like, studied or anything. Because it’s obviously not cool to TRY for anything. But how else are you supposed to lose weight? It’s not like it’s some magical process where it just melts away if you wish hard enough. So I decided that I’m through making apologies for trying to improve myself. That’s just stupid.

Oh, but get this – I was talking to my Dad on the phone today and he asked me what my weight was in pounds, so I worked it out for him. Later I had this nagging feeling that I had missed something big… and then it hit me. For the first time in, like, ten years, I actually weigh LESS than the amount listed on my driver’s license. For real! That number used to be my *wink wink, nudge nudge* “Oh, sure you weigh 180, riiiight…” and now I’m actually below it! I am very proud of that.

Wow. I just found a helpful script that will create an iTunes playlist for you with the songs truncated to specific times so when you’re doing your running workout, you know when your run/walk intervals end. How cool is that? Too bad it’s only for friggin’ Windows.