In Geek Girl Runner Episode #5 I talked about changing my run-walk ratio on my long runs to 3 minutes running/1 minute walking. Now here comes Jeff Galloway saying that even shorter periods of running can be used to go faster! One of the people he trains has done a 4:38 marathon using 30 seconds running/30 seconds walking. Crazy! Maybe I’ll keep cut my ratio down even further for this weekend’s 10-miler and see what it does…
Month: March 2010 (page 2 of 5)
The Godless Streets of Chippendale. I had no idea that our little postcode was home to double the national percentage of atheists. Is it because we have so many uni students, I wonder? At any rate, I feel very at home in my little enclave of progressive pumpkin-sex-enablers.
Geek Girl Runner Episode 005
The long-awaited fifth episode of the Geek Girl Runner podcast is now available! Sorry about taking so long. (I explain what I’ve been up to in the meantime in the show.) This one is particularly interesting in that I recorded the whole thing in a single take! Extemporaneous speaking FTW. Thanks again to everyone who’s been sending in feedback. This episode features: my training update; emails, comments, and shoutouts; and a small rant about whether podcasts are, in fact, a vanity project. (Spoiler: OF COURSE THEY ARE.)
Show links:
Sydney Royal Easter Show
Sydney Half-Marathon
Mother’s Day Classic – join the Geek Girl Runner team!
My 13K long run
Triathlon Mind Training – podcast and blog by Ironmanjay
Scrubbles – blog of Matt Hinrichs, who drew my masthead
Crazy Floridian – blog of Adam Culp
CORSO LA META – podcast and blog by Jimbo_W
You Don’t Have to Run Alone – podcast by Ted Beveridge
Phedippidations – podcast by Steve Runner
Thanks as usual to Nick Arthur for the use of his song “Little Donut Party”. Please give me some feedback and let me know what you think!
We’re on a landing page!
A couple weeks ago a co-worker asked if I had any pictures from our trip to Uluru. I sent her the link and asked why. She said that we were doing a promotion with Flight Centre, and they wanted a vacation picture to use in it. Snookums and I said we didn’t mind, and so… here we are!
Hahahaha, for some reason it just makes me laugh and laugh. Now I need to get into one of the TV commercials…
For my sister: John Cusack… in the rain. HA! He really is always in the rain.
Stop Motion Knitting
This beautiful advertisement for natural gas shows a home being covered with knitting as a metaphor for it warming up in the morning.
I also recommend watching the “making of” video. It looks like they started with everything covered and then slowly unraveled it all, bit by bit. Lovely!
Week 12
Apologies for missing last week’s entry. I’ve just been a bit stressed and down lately. My running is going really well though, and I think it’s helping me to cope. I have managed long runs of 11km (7mi) and 13km (8mi) in the last two weeks without too much trouble. I’m also doing two morning runs each week and a cross-training session at Spudds. I’ve been gratified to see the pace on my morning runs has slowly been improving after the two weeks I took off for my cold and injury. My foot is feeling much better, and I’d say it feels 95% recovered. I’m still running in my New Balance though; I haven’t returned to the Newtons since the injury. (I’m still doing a midfoot strike though even though it’s more difficult in these shoes.) On to the numbers…
Mar. 20: 5.23km
Mar. 21: 13.14km
Mar. 24: 5.41km
Total this week: 23.78km (14.8mi)
Total in 2010: 236.91km (148mi)
To meet my 1000km goal, I should be at 230.7km. So I’m about 6km ahead of pace right now!
Michael is exhorting us all to help the sex life of Chippo’s pumpkin vines. Heh. Both vines that I’ve grown haven’t had a single female flower, so I’ve yet to do any pumpkin fertilisation myself. I’ll be on the lookout though.
Easter Show Knitting
The other big thing that happened last week was that I finally finished my Easter Show knitting. I had two entries this year: “St. Brigid” in the aran category and “Albert the Magic Pudding” in the knitted toys. I think they turned out pretty well!
St. Brigid is from Alice Starmore’s Aran Knitting, a book which is sadly out-of-print. (Used copies go for $300! No joke!) Luckily I know someone with a copy who was generous enough to share. This is my second Starmore after last year’s Na Craga. The wool is Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed in colour 127 Posie. It’s a very pretty pinky red with little flecks through it. Starmore’s patterns are famously huge with lots of ease, so I had to play to get the right size. I actually used 4mm needles to get gauge and lengthened the body by an extra repeat. I also lengthened the arms quite a bit. The original version had fringe around the bottom (ew) and a mock turtleneck (ew ew), so I left both of those off. This is a very warm jumper, and I’ll probably only get to wear it a few times a year. But it’s beautiful and I made it and I love it. (More pictures on Flickr and more details on Ravelry.)
And then there’s the Magic Pudding. (No, Mom, he’s not an octopus!) He’s from a famous Australian children’s book by Norman Lindsay. The Snook read me this book, and I absolutely loved it. It’s a shame that kids in America don’t know it! I based my original design off a postcard with a watercolour of the Pudding by Lindsay himself. I was really tickled when the RAS volunteer who was taking my entries recognised him immediately. Maybe next year I’ll have to do Bunyip Bluegum? (More details on Ravelry.)
Pre-existing conditions
Dooce has written a post about what health care reform means for her family. In short, she, her husband, and her daughter Leta have been been denied coverage by private insurance companies for “pre-existing conditions.” They have had to buy expensive state-run high-risk cover. This bill means that they will actually be able to get OFF the public option and into the private system. Excellent. (Also note: John’s pre-existing condition is HAYFEVER. You’ve gotta be kidding me, right? If I lived in the U.S., that’d be me. WTF?!)